Full Moon

Februar 21st, 2008

Today is the 14th day after Lunar New Year which is a full moon night. This is the end of the Chinese New Year festivities. Today Chinese people eat little glutinous rice balls in a sweet soup. And they also light almost as many fire crackers as on Chinese New Year’s Eve. A few years back fireworks and fire crackers were forbidden in Beijing. Since they allowed it again it seems like people are going crazy. Every day (since I came back) there were fire crackers in the evening. But today it started at about 3 pm and now it is almost midnight and there are still many and they are still really loud. Chinese prefer to have loud fire crackers to scare away the demons. Sure here and there somebody does actually light up the sky with some fire works.

Fire Works

But then those fireworks seem to generate more smoke than light.

I did not write anything last weekend, the weather was just great and we went climbing in our park on our artificial wall again. This time there was no wind and it was really nice in the sunshine. But most of our climbing friends still think it is too cold and prefer to go to an indoor stuffy, smoky and expensive bouldering place.

Ritan Rock Climbing Wall - Touchstone

Since a few months our wall now has the big red logo of a sponsor. They sponsored the prizes for the climbing competiton we had at mid autumn festival. But I think the wall looked nicer without it…

Posted in Beijing, Climbing | 1.821 Comments »

Back in Beijing

Februar 15th, 2008

It is great to be back in China. After a full day of work we decided to go to our favorite neighborhood Sichuan restaurant to finally enjoy Chinese food again. And even more: We did get the good service we had been missing in Thailand. From the time the lady that took our order had left our table it took:

  • 2:50 min till we had our drinks (fresh suan mei tang)
  • 4:40 min till the first dish was on the table (da bai cai)
  • 6:35 min till the Chinese style french fries arrived (xiang la tu dou si)
  • 13:10 min till the huge plate of dried red chillies with chicken bones filled up our table (chong qing  la zi ji)

It all tasted great! And the portions were huge. And we got more food than what we would have gotten for that price in Tonsai or Railay. And the waitresses were friendly, even when we said we do not want to use the expensive packaged chop sticks and requested her to give us the free chop sticks. I was really missing the Chinese cuisine so I am happy to be back in Beijing. Maybe we will go for some Xinjiang food tomorrow, or maybe first for some Dongbei food, or Shanxi, or Hunan, or Yunnan, or Taiwan, or Shanghai, or Hakka, or…

Posted in Beijing | 375 Comments »

Happy New Year

Februar 7th, 2008

The year of the Rat has just begun. I got the stiches in my heel taken out. It can only get better.

Yesterday we celebrated our Chinese New Year’s Eve with our now 38 friends (2 came later) from Beijing with a Chinese banquette dinner with mainly Thai style food and pizza. The Chinese had imported some Chinese high percentage alcohol (Maotai). I tried to argue that as I had been taking antibiotics I unfortunately cannot drink alcohol. But it did not work, especially because Julien told the Chinese that I took my last tablet 5 hours before. So I did have to drink, but just a bit. Not as much as our Chinese friends.

We did the countdown for midnight according to the Beijing time so that we all could go to bed earlier (Thailand is 1 hour behind China). Getting up early for climbing before it gets too hot and being outdoors all day does make us tired in the evenings.

Happy New Year to all of you!

Posted in Climbing, Thailand | 237 Comments »

Rock Climbing in Krabi

Februar 5th, 2008

Well the titel says what I would like to be doing. Yes I am in in the rock climbing paradise of Thailand: Krabi. I am staying with my boyfriend in a hut in the jungle on Tonsai Bay.

img_0093.JPG

All our 36 Chinese friends with families from Beijing are all staying in upclass resorts on the beautiful beaches of Railay Bay. But that is only a 30 minute hike or a 15 minute longtail boatride away. There are wonderful limestone cliffs everywhere.

Tonsai Bay with Longtail Boat in Krabi

Staligtites in Krabi

So on the first day I should not have jumped off the cliff like all the others. I did noty enter teh water with mt ass first like most of teh other people. I did come into the water really nice – that means I really went deep – … and there was some rock. So now my heel is healing.

Dangerous Cliff Diving

I was asking my Chinese friends if anybody brought some old climbing shoes that they could give me. But they did not. Yesterday morning I met the nice American from New Jersey who lives in Taiwan and he said he has an old bashed pair and I could have the left shoe. So now:

Hole in a Climbing Shoe

I can finally climb again! For rock climbing you only need to use the front of your foot, mainly the tips of your toes.

Rock Climbing with Heel Injury

So yesterday I climbed some easy routes. It was so much fun! I did not lead climb just some toprope. I am happy again. That is also why I suddenly started taking pictures. And it is really nice and quiet here on the rock climbing beach of Tonsai.

Rock Climbing on Tonsai Beach

Posted in Climbing, Thailand | 637 Comments »

Thailand

Februar 2nd, 2008

I am currently escaping the winter in warm Thailand. It is warm here with sunshine, ocean, white sand, palm trees and cliffs. This is perfect for a climbing holiday. I actually did climb the first day. Just some easy routes to get the feeling of leading and feeling of this wonderful rock. Then I hurt my heel (not during climbing – no it happened in the ocean) and now I have a lot of time to read books, drink tea, watch all the Chinese and other climbers. That is good too. And hopefully in a few days I can go climbing again.

Posted in Climbing, Thailand | 1.344 Comments »

No, we are not covered with snow in Beijing…

Januar 30th, 2008

Really, what are they showing on international TV??? It must be a catastrophe! And do they really say that it is happening in Beijing???

But there is no snow in Beijing. Really. Nothing. Not even a trace. Zero snow.

Today on my way to office I passed by the famous Forbidden City. I did not have my camera with me, just my mobile phone, but as the weather was so beautiful (it has been like this for 1 week) I still stopped to take pictures. Here is a picture of the north-east tower of the Forbidden City.

Forbidden City of China

Does that look like we have a snow disaster in Beijing? Does that look like it will continue to snow and we are cut off from the rest of the world without telephone or internet or any kind of transportation? If you are not yet convinced then have a look at this picture of the Beihai Park with the white Buddha Temple

Beihai Park in Peking

China is a big country. Really. If the news say there is some snow chaos that does not mean in whole China. I heard that something is going on in 6 provinces. And I am sure Beijing is not one of them.

I might not be able to post anything on this blog for the next two weeks as I will be going on New Years holiday 🙂 Therefore I will not even notice if it actually does start to snow in Beijing in the next 2 weeks…

Posted in Beijing | 1.259 Comments »

Winter Swimming

Januar 27th, 2008

Yesterday was again beautiful weather even though there was not much wind. We went to the Houhai lake again for some ice skating. The section for swimmers was slightly frozen so the swimmers had to first get all the ice out of the water. Here you see one of the guys with Beijing’s Drum and Bell Tower in the background.

Getting the ice out of the water

After the 1 hour the cleaning of the water was almost finished. Finally his friend started swimming. Good that he was wearing his swimming cap so that his hair does not dirty the water…

Winter Swimming

I have been doing some dragon boat racing on this lake in the summer time.  Each time I need to shower afterwards to get the itchy feeling off my skin from the water that splashed on me. I just find it amazing that Chinese people swim in this lake – winter and summer.

Posted in Beijing | 3.164 Comments »

Fixed Gear Art Exhibition Berlin & Los Angeles

Januar 25th, 2008

Fixie Art Exhibition Berlin & Los Angeles

There is an art exhibit all around fixed gear bikes. They will display bikes and spokes cards as well as photography. It will start on February 1st in Berlin and on February 2nd in Los Angeles. Also three of my photographs of my single speed bike will be displayed. Drop by if you are near Berlin or Los Angeles.

Vernissage in Berlin and Los Angeles - Photography and Exhibit of Single Speed Bikes
http://www.visual-research.com

Posted in Fixed Gear, Germany, USA | 3.787 Comments »

Construction in Beijing

Januar 25th, 2008

The wind is great! When wind comes into Beijing it just blows away the pollution. Yes, it feels slightly more chilly than it is, but I love these blue skies like yesterday:

Highest Building of Beijing

The World Trade Tower 3 is almost finished. It is (and will be for a while) the tallest building of Beijing. I should have taken more pictures of it during the whole construction phase. It was really fast. Not like other buldings which hardly got anywhere in the past year. Not even the Tower of Jiianwai SOHO is completely finished yet. And I am not sure if all of the ugly unfinished buildings will actually be completed before the Olympics…

Slow construction of ugly buildings

Posted in Beijing | 2.819 Comments »

Hindi Holiday

Januar 23rd, 2008

THAIPUSAM is an annual Hindu festival which draws the largest gathering in multi-racial Malaysia. In Kuala Lumpur, the festival is celebrated on a mammoth scale at the Batu Caves temple on the outskirts of the city. This year it falls on Januray 23rd.

Thaipusam falls on a full moon day in the auspicious 10th Tamil month of Thai when the constellation of Pusam, the star of well-being, rises over the eastern horizon. It commemorates the day Lord Siva’s consort, the powerful goddess Parvathi, gives her son, Murugan, the vel (lance) to vanquish three demons and their large army which were plaguing the world.

Posted in Malaysia | 148 Comments »

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