Results tagged “Cameras” from East Asia 2017

Some time overnight the phone moved forward an hour. Possibly late yesterday afternoon when we got in mobile range of Korea. Moved the Canon forward an hour. But turns out Stu's random camera had been an hour out for the Hong Kong and Shanghai part of the trip. Because it automatically changed itself in Busan to be another hour forward. Had to turn summertime off, but need to remember that the times on it may need adjusting.

We arrived in Busan at a container terminal out of town, and it was on our port side, so I was able to watch the arrival from our balcony.

Coaches lined up waiting to take tourists on their tours

ATM van at Gamman container terminal

Finally got eggs benedict for breakfast, but felt too stressed to enjoy it (we had to get ready for our tour shortly afterwards).

Due to arriving at a container terminal, there's nothing setup for customs and immigration, so officials came onto the ship and setup in the Queens Room. But after queuing for ages, all we did was walk from one side of the room to the other and get a port card on the way out. All very odd, don't know what that was about. Unless they had temperature sensors setup that I didn't notice (I was trying to catch up with our group, as we'd got from second last to last when another couple pushed in to go in front of us, and another group merged with us and also had people get in front of us. I really really didn't want the last seats in the coach as they're a lot harder to see out of). Then it was down to deck 1 and we walked straight off the ship onto the wharf. Pretty cool. They had a small welcoming troupe there which was also pretty cool. We managed to catch up with the group and even get ahead, as some others delayed in figuring out where to go to get to deck 1, and some then had to wander all the way up the wharf to go to the bathroom, so we actually got reasonable seats on the coach.

The coach ride for the morning was a one and a half hour drive to the Gyeongju area.

Trump World tower

Our first stop was the Bulguksa Temple complex which was quite a nice place. The structure on the 10 won coin is at this temple which is cool. I was worried leaving this place that we'd be last back to the bus but we were actually first back on the bus. (I had to find a bathroom - this one had toilet paper on a roll as you go in, but I had to use half of it to wipe down the seat :( Seriously, what is it with Asian women who feel the need to pee all over the seats?? If you're going to piss all over the seat, why don't you lift the damned lid and piss all over the rim, and not where I have to sit next?!?! It was like that in Shanghai the other day too. I did have an extra roll of toilet paper with me, but was able to make do, but was very unimpressed).

Map of Bulguksa Temple area

Lake and bridge at Bulguksa Temple

Gwangmok Cheonwang inside the gate

Cherry blossoms at Bulguksa - really the only cherry blossoms we saw the whole trip

Bulguksa Temple

Paper flowers in Bulguksa Temple

Decorated temple roof

Dabotap Pagoda as featured on the 10 won coin

Dabotap Pagoda

One of the lions at Dabotap Pagoda. Another is in the British Museum, the other two are missing

Daeungjeon Hall

Seokgatap (Sakyamuni Pagoda)

Museoljeon Hall at Bulguksa Temple

Paper flowers leading to Birojeon Hall at Bulguksa Temple

Vairocana Buddha in Birojeon Hall, National Treasure No.26

Magnolias at Bulguksa Temple

Gwaneumjeon Hall

Stone Garden at Bulguksa

Stone Garden at Bulguksa

Sakyamuni Buddha and his sixteen disciples in Nahanjeon Hall

Lanterns at beophwajeon - site of stone foundation

Wooden carved pig at Geuknakjeon

Good luck pig at Geuknakjeon

Large bell pavilion

Sadly we're a little too early for all the cherry blossoms in this part of the world, but the magnolias are in full bloom at the moment and they're very pretty.

We stopped for lunch at the nearby Commodore Hotel. Three coachfulls of people in one of their function rooms. So was a little chaotic. Meal was decent enough though. And it wasn't seated on the floor like it said it would be in the guide heh. After lunch there was a performance by local Korean girls - with fans, drums etc. That was quite nice. The table we sat at was pretty odd though. There was a single guy, a couple from possibly Germany, a single lady, and two Japanese ladies. And noone talked to each other. Very odd.

Gyeongju Tower

Joongdo Tower

Korean dancers who performed for us after lunch at the Commodore Hotel

Korean dancers who performed for us after lunch at the Commodore Hotel

Korean dancers who performed for us after lunch at the Commodore Hotel

Korean dancers who performed for us after lunch at the Commodore Hotel

It was around this point that I knew I was getting sick. That telltale throat feeling and start of a cough. This made me very grunty with all the hundreds of other sick people on this cruise.

After lunch we went to Cheonmachong tomb (the flying horse tomb), in a park containing many royal tombs from the Silla dynasty. That was quite cool (although the artifacts are all replicas as the originals are kept in storage). What's amazing is that they've found any in tact tombs in recent times at all. I'd have thought they'd have all long been raided over the last millennium.

Magnolias

Royal burial mounds

Inside Cheonmachong tomb

Cheonmachong tomb

Cheonmachong tomb exterior

Finally we went to the Gyeongju National Museum to see the Divine Bell of King Songdok and quite a few "national treasures" including some of the artifacts found in the royal tombs.

Bell of King Seongdeok

Crown ornament, one of Korea's National Treasures

Gold mounted dish, National treasure No. 626

Crown and belt, National treasures No. 188-190

Model of the Gyeongju area

And then the hour and a half long trip back to the container terminal.

Me and the Queen Mary 2

Queen Mary 2 at Gamman container terminal

Queen Mary 2 at Gamman container terminal

Looking aft along the Queen Mary 2

Overall quite a good tour, and we quite enjoyed the day. Except for getting sick of course.

I went up to the top deck for a bit, but then watched the departure from our balcony (18:44 pushback from the wharf). The lights of Busan were all on by this point and the Busan Harbor Bridge is lit up with multi-coloured LEDs which cycle through the rainbow which made the bridge look amazing.

Busan Harbour Bridge lit up

Before dinner we ordered a copy of one of the photos we'd had taken before the previous night's formal dinner. For dinner we both had deep fried brie for entree. Stu had a seafood spaghetti and rum cake, and I had chicken cordon bleu (a tad dry) and a white chocolate panna cotta (a repeat! gasp!).

Then collapsed into bed.

06:11 wakeup. They put the ships clocks forward an hour overnight, but not the internal mobile tower's time, so it was still on the old time. I changed my watch, but not the cameras.

Starboard side games corridor on the Queen Mary 2

Put some washing on just before 09:00, then went down to ConneXions to get tickets for the Planetarium show (got there right on nine and just walked up to the desk where a dude had just setup and got a ticket). Went and got some breakfast. Saved some space for eggs benedict but Stu took the last one of the batch - doh!

Went back to get the washing but I was a few minutes late (on account of being at breakfast). Someone had taken our washing out to put theirs in, but when I went through everything there was an unpaired sock. Great. So that meant we missed a talk on China because I had to wait around for *their* cycle to finish so I could retrieve the sock. But as he was taking stuff out there were *three* socks and a tshirt in with his load!! What a retard. One sock I could *maybe* understand but *three* ??? And a tshirt??? Buttplug.

At 11:00 we went and saw the third talk by Pamela Chen Moore - in the theatre for once heh.

Had a small plate of fries for lunch. As you do. Hrmm.

Dockwise Forte - semi-submersible heavy transport vessel

Went and worked on one of the jigsaws for a while before going to a Planetarium show - Cosmic Collisions, narrated by Robert Redford.

Then had some afternoon tea. Well Stu had afternoon tea, I had a late lunch of lamb (it was 15:00). My eating patterns are all over the place on this trip.

At 15:30 we went to the port talk on Hong Kong. Even though we'll be off the cruise it was interesting to see the sorts of tours they have and what sort of destinations they go to, versus what we've done ourselves.

Hong Kong port talk in the Illuminations Theatre

Afterwards spent a couple of hours with a jigsaw, finishing it a bit before 18:00.

Saw the sun for the second time this holiday, so got some photos of it setting.

Sunset over the Korea Strait from Queen Mary 2

Me at sunset on the Queen Mary 2 (one of only two sunsets seen aboard!)

Looking towards the five Queens Grill suites, and The Verandah restaurant on deck 8

Sunset over the Korea Strait from Queen Mary 2

In the evening we had the "meet the captain" welcome drinks party in the Queens Room all in our formal gear. I wore Chrissie's dress to this one. We didn't end up meeting the captain because half the ship was there and the line to meet him they reckoned was about half an hour long. So we didn't bother with that. Had a couple of glasses of bubbly though, but didn't end up talking to anyone else.

Reception with the Captain on Queen Mary 2

Me at the reception with the Captain on Queen Mary 2

Reception with the Captain on Queen Mary 2

For dinner Stu had chicken liver pate, lamb curry and ice cream. I had pumpkin soup which was very nice, a chicken dish which wasn't too bad, and a small creme brulee.

Pablo, our sommelier

Carmello, one of our waiters

Katerina from Riga, one of our waiters

Stu and Me at dinner

Got woken up at 05:54 by a ship's horn blasting. Then at 06:00 the next door neighbours had an alarm go off (we have a double room, and we can hear the neighbours talking through the door). So no hope of getting back to sleep. So got up and looked out, and we were still in the Yangtzee river (we were meant to have docked at 05:00). We didn't end up docking until around 07:00, so was able to watch the whole thing from our balcony, including seeing Quantum of the Seas docking just before us. The terminal is way out on the Yangtzee River, not on the smaller river in the city that for some reason I was expecting to go to.

Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal

Quantum of the Seas in Shanghai

We had breakfast delivered so we wouldn't have to fight the crowds in the buffet. It was a bit average, although it didn't help that I'd let it get a bit cold while watching us dock.

At 9:30 we disembarked. We had to go to the theatre to get allocated a coach group, and then we got off the ship. And walked into a hall of chaos. We were mixed up with people who were leaving the ship for good, so they were all trying to sort out baggage. And suddenly we lost everyone that had the coloured stickers. We did eventually go out the right exit and through a security check, but then outside there was one solitary sign saying where the Cunard tours were going, but after going that direction the signs stopped and everyone was going outside but there were no coaches out there and we had no idea where to go. Eventually I saw someone with a sticker and asked them and she said she was just following her guide, so asked the guide and she said she was looking for the coaches as well!! Gah!! She asked someone though and it turns out they were around the corner. We were almost the last to board our coach, so that was very stressful.

Also, random camera died. It's been a bit funny with the memory card since I dropped it in Hong Kong Disneyland a year ago - the memory card mechanism got a bit screwy, and the door for the memory card and battery always looked like it wasn't sitting flush. Well as I was getting off (after having downloaded the SD card before we got off), it decided it didn't want to work at all - couldn't read the card - reinsert. Fricken sigh.

And it was raining. And the coach windows were steaming up.

The tour we had was "Free time in three sites" which was described as they give you a map and you have time to explore three different parts of Shanghai. Except the map they gave us was a general tourist map of a huge area of Shanghai. No actual detail of any of the places we went to. So that map was completely useless.

Our first stop was in the financial district, and they gave us an hour and a quarter from 10:45 to 12:00. Which might have been enough to go up either the World Financial Centre, Jin Mao tower or the Shanghai Tower, as they are right next to each other, but Stu wanted to go see the Oriental Pearl Tower. But that's a fifteen minute walk away, twenty to twentyfive if you take a wrong turn or want to stop and take photos. So it was about 11:15 by the time we got there. Which isn't enough time to go up it. Well, it might have been, but only if there were no queues, but you can't tell that from the outside. So we didn't go up it. Instead we went to Starbucks. Yay. Did I mention it was raining? I wanted to go to the bathroom, so found one downstairs, but there were was no toilet paper. I knew this was a possibility, so had brought tissues. But they were in my bag upstairs at Starbucks where Stu was waiting, weren't they. Fricken sigh.

Looking across to the Bund from Mingzhu Roundabout

Disney Store

Mingzhu Roundabout

Oriental Pearl Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower

Walked back along the sky bridge thingie back to the coach.

Shanghai World Financial Centre, Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower and other Shanghai buildings

Our second stop was in the "Old Town" which is a mega tourist trap. Old buildings are all shops and tea houses and I would have enjoyed it except we hadn't had much for breakfast so I was starving and low blood sugar which meant even trying to find something to eat was too hard (no English subtitles pretty much anywhere so there's all this random food you have no idea what it is). Eventually we found a popular dumpling place and had some xiao long bao. Felt infinitely better after that, so we went to the Yu Gardens to have a wander around. Even though it's not very big it's like a little rabbit warren of passages and gates and completely disorienting with a new view through every turn. Would have enjoyed it more if we didn't need to be back at the meeting spot in time for our departure. We got toffee fruit on a stick on the way out which was a bit of fun.

Me and Stu having dumplings for lunch at Yu Garden

Bridge in Shanghai Old City

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Stu with fruit on a stick at Yu Garden

Fangbang Middle Road

Our third stop was at the Bund. In the rain. I didn't even get my big camera out for the last two stops (I took Stu's random camera which he's barely ever used since he uses his phone). Got some pics of the city from the Bund, then wandered most of the way down and back. Would have been sooo much nicer without the rain.

Me and Stu in the rain in Shanghai

Monument to the People's Heroes

The Bund

Shanghai skyscrapers

The Bund

The Bund

The Bund

The Bund Bull

The Bund

The Bund

The Bund

Then back to the coach by 16:20 (actually we left a bit early because everyone was tired and over the rain and just wanted to get back to the ship).

Scooter raincoats

Getting back onto the ship was a lot easier than getting off it. Just walked straight in and through security and had our passport photocopies scanned on the gangway and straight back onto the ship.

Quantum of the Seas departing Shanghai

Looking towards the five Queens Grill suites, and The Verandah restaurant on deck 8

View of deck 6 and 7 from deck 8 while berthed in Shanghai

Terrace pool in the evening

Chilled out in the room for a while then went to the pub and had a drink and played the trivia again. We got 17/20 this time, but again a table got 20/20.

For dinner Stu had Indonesian chicken salad, cod with oxtail sauce (weird right?) and rocky road (which was a chocolate mousse not rocky road). I had cream of chicken soup which was lovely, steak which was nice enough but a huge meal - much bigger than they normally serve, and creme brulee which sadly hadn't been blow torched so was just liquid on top.

Then crashed into bed.