I went here last night and have never worn so many clothes and only just felt comfortable. Two lots of thermals on the legs and thick trousers, on my body I had two thermals and three  jackets. Two pairs of gloves and two beanies.Fuck it was cold but it was also great. I haven’t experienced these kinds of temperatures before and it’s been great but I’m not sure I could live in such a place and if I did I’d be the size of a house.

Anyway I digress, I came to see the ice sculptures and they did not disappoint. There are massive structures here and then you get the delicate ice carvings themselves.

When I arrived there were hundreds of folk, but that’s to be expected. I was surprised at how quickly we got through to buy a ticket and then into the park.  It was very well organised and there were security on hand to keep an eye on those individuals that like to jump the queue. I saw a few try and fail. It’s 330 RMB to get in which is about $60.

There are many of the larger structures that double as a kind of bobsleigh, you can buy these tiny plastic bum cheek things that you sit on to slide down some  the buildings. Mind you they don’t make them big enough for the average western arse. There would be more cheek hanging off than on.  But don’t dispair western folk you can enjoy a few big slides and they vary in size from a small dinghy to a rubber ring that you can sit your arse on.

The colours are vibrant on these buildings and it’s hard to believe that it’s all ice. The contrast between the clear black sky and the ice is great. After a while you forget about the cold and just enjoy the wonder.

I had my Fuji camera and my Samsung S5 to take the pictures. I think the phone at times is better at night as the Fuji wants to use the flash. But what I was really surprised about was that my phone switched itself off. It couldn’t handle the cold.  I started around 70% of charge on the phone and I took a few snaps and then would put the phone back in my pocket and it was happy with this but when I kept it out for about 5 mins or more it switched itself off.  I restarted it and it was at 5%. I got my charger and plugged it in but my phone told me that the battery couldn’t charge because it was too cold.  I needed my phone to get me back home to my digs so I put it into my glove and then into my pocket.

You can get the number 29 double decker bus to the festival which is convenient, getting home however is always more difficult. Especially when a few thousand people decide they want to go at the same time as you. I walked past the number 47 bus that would get me over the the city again only because the queue was as long as the horizon. Instead I headed for the main road and managed to flag down a taxi. I took my wee Samsung out from its warm glove to see whether it would give the driver the address that I needed so desperately and I’m glad to say she did. The charge was already up to 12% so I guess she was happy in my glove.

Of course when you come to Harbin this is something that you just need to do and although a little expensive it’s a great experience.

I was surprised last night to see the map on the plane telling me Harbin was further north than Vladivostok. I always thought that it was one of the coldest places on the planet and here’s me going to Harbin. 

10 am 

Day one and the house was so hot and so you don’t really know what to expect till you walk outside.  I put on the thermals of course but only one more layer under my thick jacket and so far I’ve felt ok. Mind you my ears and fingers at times are a bit chilly. You need to take off your gloves to work the phone camera and so that’s when you notice.  The phone has been ok until I went inside and it was covered in condensation and of course my specs are also steaming up when I go inside. 

It’s cold but there is no wind and it’s dry but I think tomorrow I’ll be putting on one more layer. 

Some wee fishes going for a morning swim

Eh ma boat’s stuck 

I got invited to celebrate New Year at the Hanshan Temple in Suzhou this year. My friend Lincoln represents the Suzhou Tourist Bureau and he was kind enough to invite me along with other folk from the travel industry, there was even a TV crew from Taiwan. 

First we went for dinner at a very posh restaurant, unfortunately I don’t have any pictures to share but I can assure you it was very nice and the Suzhou Mango Fish was great. I got this picture from the net. 

This along with many other dishes and even red wine. 

We got on the bus and we were off to the temple. I believe it’s been here since the Tang Dynasty, which is around 700ad.

I was lucky enough to be with two lovely girls from Beijing tourism, Wendy and Jasmine, they took me around and looked after me explaining what was going on and translating for me. 

We headed to the Pagoda with the monks so that we could hear the prayers for the New Year. 

Although I couldn’t understand a word they were saying the singing had a hypnotic effect and even although the temple was crowded it was very calm.

After about an hour the monks finished and it was not long now until the New Year and the final act was to beat the drum 108 times to get rid of all your worries and then you can start the year afresh.

12 midnight came and there was a huge cheer and so many people had their mobile phones out recording the drum beats and the count down on the screen. It seemed that this was more important for many rather than being in the moment.

No fireworks just a cheer, I guess they will make up for it on Chinese New Year in a couple of weeks. 

We all got back in the bus and were taken back to the original meeting place and I jumped on a Boris bike and cycled home through the empty streets back to my apartment, mind you there were many different folk out at 2am. There was a whole new street food thing happening. Mini restaurant’s had popped up and they were full of folk  huddling from the cold. A very different scene appears after dark, one that I hadn’t seen before because I’m in bed too early. 

So 2017 is here and the first thing I need to do is secure new accommodation which I think is near to being finalised. I’ll hopefully stay here for the year and might even go back to the UK for one of my visa runs in December.

2017 might bring new opportunities. I’m involved with one group in the making of small documentaries about Suzhou, although we are only in the planning stage. My friend Lincoln works in the Suzhou Tourist Bureau as I mentioned before and I’m hoping to get involved with them also and of course I’ll do a little English teaching too.

So in this year, which is the year of the Chicken or Rooster, be brave and take a step outside your comfort zone because you never know what might develop from that first step. 

Just Get Oot There!!!

May the best ye hae ivver seen be the warst ye’ll ivver see.
May the moose ne’er lea’ yer girnal wi a tear-drap in its ee.
May ye aye keep hail an hertie till ye’r auld eneuch tae dee.
May ye aye juist be sae happie as A wuss ye aye tae be.

An well mae yer lum reek, Orrabest fur 2017

It’s always exciting when you fly with a plane full of Chinese.  There’s always a few that don’t listen to the flight crew and I often wonder if they do things deliberately to see if they can get away with it. Turning off the mobile is traumatic for many and so when they are told to do so they will wait until caught and even then they often don’t turn it off. It’s an addiction like heroin, they need a fix and they can’t go for very long without touching, feeling and checking for that all important message about their friends dog or meal they have just had.

Seats are reclined, some are not sitting or strapped in. As the plane  begins to taxi someone tries to go to the loo. And there have been so many stories over the years like this and also about the dramas and tantrums from passengers.

In Bangkok while waiting to check in a grandmother took her grandchild and let it do the toilet into a bin and just laughed when told off by security. What would make her think that this was acceptable behaviour.

So as you can see, never a dull moment. 

Back to China yesterday from a very hot Thailand and today I wake up and it’s raining and miserable and I’ve had to dig out the thermals and put away the thongs and shorts once more. To make matters worse I’m back in my shitty cold and unhealthy shared accommodation which I will have to leave very soon. I’ve stayed in cheap hotels in Asia before but this is the only place I’ve seen a cockroach trying to flee from. It really is a fuckin miserable apartment and it only gets worse the colder it becomes outside. Simon is the guy that I rent the room from and is basic hygiene is almost non existent. He has never been taught to wash his hands after he returns from the loo. If you were to do a fecal matter swab in this place you would be hard pushed to find a clean surface. I’ve tried to educate him on some simple measures in regards to washing dishes and simple ways of keeping things clean but to no avail. So if I’m to last until my next 3 month visa trip I’m going to have to find new digs.

The thing I also find intriguing is that he has had friends over and he does not seem to be phased in the least about the state of the place and his friends don’t seem to notice either. You can live in an old house and still embrace a clean environment, but this is not something he is liable to do in a hurry. 

I walked the length of Jomtien Beach just about and there seems to be strange folk here and strange goings on . I think most of them are eastern European and there are definitely a lot of Russians. I’ve never seen so many  fat people on a beach before being loud and proud of their considerable bulk.  I was quite fascinated by them and found myself staring, mesmerised really, watching the fat wobble about when they lumbered across the sand. The stomachs of some seemed to defy gravity and looked really solid. They didn’t sag like some I saw, you know when the knees get covered. These ones would over hang from the body a good foot or more and were completely unsupported. Mind you if it was a building it would be condemned.

They stood around in groups of around two or three and sometimes there would be one on its own. But the other odd behaviour I witnessed was the way they stood with fingers spread and arms about 25° from the side of the body, there legs were also apart and it looked like legs and arms are in perfect symmetry. Their palms would be facing back and of course their bodies were oriented towards the sun. I tried to get a picture of this but it was too difficult so I hope you can understand what I’m trying to describe. A few stood very close to the water but when a small wave would approach they ran up the beach a little to get away from it.

Further along the beach I saw a similar behaviour from skinny folk.There was one guy that looked anorexic with a bald head,  he looked scary. So let’s say over a kilometer on the beach there are people standing in unison all with the strange pose and angled towards the sun just like the flowers do. Some fat and some thin and I bet you not an SPF in sight.
I might have stumbled across a cult like society or maybe they’re just fuckin weird.I’ve had a thought, maybe I could develop a platform they can either lie or stand on and it can track the sun automatically. They would be left free to either read and of course think even less. The angle the sun would strike them at would always be optimised for the best coverage. Something like a spit roast might also be an option. Instead of deck chairs we could adapt a spit rotisserie to clamp them in place for either horizontal or vertical use.

I visited Crosby beach in Merseyside UK this year and you will see statues staring out to sea and some are even in it.

https://www.visitengland.com/experience/see-antony-gormleys-sculptures-crosby-beach

Maybe this is where they have taken their inspiration from.

In my youth it was quite normal to drink to oblivion. We would go to parties and buy a six pack of beer, or if we were trying to be really tough buy some cheap spirit. I never could drink white spirits and I’ve never liked cheap whisky, so for the most part it would be beer. If you could afford it you could buy Breaker Malt liquor,  it tasted like shit but you got pissed and got some Brownie points for being able to do so. As we got older we could go to the pub and drink legally and even before we were 18 we would go and spend £1 on 3 pints of beer and a cigar. We were sophisticated you know. 

The Cochrane House Hotel was our training ground and I could not begin to tell you how much I drank or how many times I staggered home from there and that was just one venue. I’ve never been able to drink in the afternoon or the morning for that matter.Mind you I have done a few times over the years but I was young and stupid then. Now I’m just a little older and a little more wiser.  My body will rebel quite violently if I consume too much booze and so I think there is a time in life also that you realise that there is more than just drinking and partying all night,  but this is not Pattaya.

From early in the morning you will see the old guys starting their day with a beer and settling in fur another hard day at the office. After only a few days here and seeing what takes place at the Condo I’m staying at,  it doesn’t seem to be unusual at all. The same folk each night dong the same thing. Mind you they might be just tourists like me but they also look very familiar with their surroundings which makes me think that they live here. 

So this seems to be the way of Pattaya. You will get the tourists coming and going and doing their thing but there are many expats that just seem to party like there’s no tomorrow. I sometimes wonder what it might be like to live on such a basic and simple existence and of course I’ll have a beer when I’m travelling but God I get bored so quickly. I enjoy having a drink with friends and having a laugh but soon the body will begin to tell you that enough is enough. 

Jomtien