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Kidnapping the household and beelining north

September 3rd, 2008 by Pokin Posted in Road Trip | 1 Comment »

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It’s my birthday.

Correction, it was my birthday.

Major correction — It was my birthday like a month ago. I took my time to write this post.

Of all the options available to me, I decided that the most fun would be to crash somebody else’s bday.

So that’s what I did.

And this post is about those adventures. Warning, it’s long.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The day before my birthday, I kidnapped the gang, stuffed a cooler full of blueberries, and went from one moment of figuring out how to celebrate getting older and more wrinkley, the next we were all crammed in a car full of blankets driving up north.

Now. What gets packed on a road trip requires utmost consideration. For me, the food is very important critical. Road trip junk food binges are an integral part of this kind of experience. So I made sure I had plenty of food. Pokin’s needs? Met.

And Eric? Suspiciously, my proof went missing, but picture Eric in the back seat of the car with the following in hand:

Pillow? check.
Self? check
Deodorant? check.
Toothbrush in hand? double check.

Unlike the rest of us that trusted the backpack to hold all the necessary items, Eric deemed it most appropriate to hand-carry all said items within the car.

So here we are, in car. Now what? First thing to do?

Start heading in the wrong direction!

Since we haven’t been making any $$ for some time now because of GeckoGo, “cheap” was the operating term of the day. The cheapest car we could rent was over in the SJ airport. So down we went to pick up the car in record time so that we could then rectify the situation by sitting in construction traffic for the next two hours. Once we finally got to the I5, we settled in for some serious bonding time, knowing it was going to be us and the same strip of asphalt for about the next 14 hours.

Along the way, we agonize Eric by not-stopping at any of the Quiznos we see.

At about 9:00pm, we pull in to Eugene, Oregon, famished, ready for dinner. And we soon realize important lesson of the day #1

Important lesson of the day #1:

If you want real food, small-medium town cities in Oregon may not be the best place to look for it late in the night.

Fast food it was.

We ended up getting takeout from a Chinese buffet & BBQ place respectively.

Disappointed over the lack of a sit down restaurant option, we decide at some point in the evening to drown our sorrows over a nice thick milk shake. We hit up a Carls Jr.

Moments later, milkshakes are in hand.

Important lesson of the day #2:

Going for a sugar rush when you’re already tired means you’re in for a serious low after.

By this time it’s some time around 11:00 and we still haven’t hit Portland. The goal is technically Seattle and we’re all totally exhausted. Eyes start shutting as we’re driving.

Important lesson #3:

Rest stops are your best friend.

Rest stops were our best friends. A place to stretch…power nap…look out at the stars. They even have coffee! We took MAJOR advantage of those places.

Important Lesson #4:

The coffee isn’t very good.

Important Lesson #5:

You don’t really care at this point.

I think it was around 1:00am at this point that we realize we didn’t actually have a place to stay for the night. But it doesn’t take long before we find a place around the Sea-Tac airport. We have a target!

Some time around 2:30 or so we pull into the hotel, trudge up to the room, Eric brings his pillow with him and everyone passes out.

-Day 2- (my birthday! )

8:00am in the morning: phone rings. Our friend is outside the door. He’s to crash with us until 12:00pm when we’re to meet up with the rest of the birthday surprise squad. He comes in, curls up beside Eric and tries to go to sleep.

8:05am. He decides he’d rather go look for the new Apple iPhone. He recruits other iPhone hopefuls.

10:30am. Gang comes back. They managed to hit up almost every single AT&T / Apple store in the region but everyone is sold out.

Picture taken right outside the hotel - super sleepy gang and way perky me. :p

11:50am. We finally start checking out of the hotel. ETA? 10 minutes. Driving time remaining? 30 minutes. Phone calls are made.

# of people who are supposed to be there?
Something like 18.

# of people who will be on time?
0.

Way to go team work and coordination! :p

We get there more like 1:00pm, realize NO ONE is going to be there for still some time longer.

2:00pm, I decide I like my friend and all, but that I was going to ditch the joint and meet up with everyone else for dinner instead. I kidnap 3 more people, leave behind 1 and go looking for food.

2:40pm. I find myself on a ferry headed for Bainbridge Island. I just felt like it. Everyone in still starving as no one has eaten yet. Eric narrowly staves off a mutiny by sharing cookies.

3:00pm. Arrive at Bainbridge island. Begin to look for food.

3:15pm. Discover that most places had stopped serving lunch as they were gearing up for dinner. Blast! Finish sightseeing most of downtown Bainbridge in the process.

3:30pm. Start eating at a Thai restaurant. Could have done that in Seattle too.

View from our lunch spot

4:40pm. Realize that we are going to have to run like Forrest to make it back on the return ferry.

5:15pm. Get back to Seattle. Start coordinating dinner so we can surprise Laura (the co-birthday girl). Find out no one else is hungry, everyone is scattered, dinner is going to be late. Like 8:00pm.

We figure at this point we may as well sightsee Seattle so we blitz the Space Needle, the Museum of Music, some malls, Sephora, and this square full of pooping birds.

Finally it’s 8:00pm we make it to the dinner location, successfully surprise Laura and proceed to have an awesome dinner at the Crab Pot.

Birthday girls at the Crab Pot

- Day 3 -

Drive back. We decide at this point that we’d really like to come back a little more leisurely than we went up, so we decide to go along the Oregon Coast. It’s scenic, it’ll be different, and we planned enough time right?

Except that by the time we were finished brunch, dropped off friends back to the airport and said goodbyes our coastal ETA was sundown.

Important Lesson of the day #6:

There’s not much of the coast to sight see if you can’t see anything.

We seriously ended up driving the bulk of the coast in the dark.

Again, we arrive to a dinner spot around 8:00-9:00 at night. This time we end up in a place that was touristy enough that food options were still open. We ate at the Drift Inn. Big mistake. Don’t eat there.

Why not to eat at the Drift Inn in Yachats.

We start driving again at 10:00pm. We’re at Yachats. Destination: Port Oxford.

Important Lesson of the day #7:

Yes restaurants close early, and guess what, lodging does too!

We realize at about 11:00pm that we’d better call ahead to say we’ll be late. No answer. We leave a message.

We arrive to the lodge at 2:00am to see that all lights are out and that no one is at reception.

We debate for some time on what to do, notice that there is a sign with a phone number to call for emergencies, spend more time debating the definition of emergency before finally calling.

Thankfully the not too cranky manager wakes up, appears out of nowhere and let us in.

Only real shot of the Oregon coast

- Day 4 -

Head home. Stop at the Redwoods along the way. Take some pictures. See Elk. Climb some trees. Drive some more.

In the Redwoods

Finally roll back into the house at 2:00am in the morning again. Drop of stuff, return rental car only to accidentally also take regular car into the rental lot. Spend time trying to maneuver around the in ground anti-theft spikes. Return home to crash for real.

And that was that.

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P is for Puffin

August 22nd, 2008 by Pokin Posted in Places to See, What to do | 1 Comment »

I was tempted to make this post P is for Pokin, but thought that might be a bit much. :p So puffins it is. Specifically I’m going to yabber about Atlantic Puffins.

Puffin photo by mrpattersonsir’s

Aside from sea turtles, I’ve lately been obsessed with puffins. Why? Because I’ve been wanting to go to Iceland and Iceland is covered with puffins.

So puffins. What about them?

They’re the mascot for a children’s book division. They’re cute. Their colourful beaks and webbed feet make them highly photogenic. (Take that! Peru!) In fact, by some accounts, they are among the most photographed birds in the world.

Oh and we eat them.

But I don’t want to do that.

So puffins. These sea birds hang out 9 months of the year in oceans, and during this time, they float, dive, swim, and basically don’t come back to shore till they’re ready to breed. They live till they’re 20+ years old, and usually form life long pair bonds.

So where can you find Atlantic puffins then?

Iceland of course as a start. Some of the world’s largest colonies live here. Best places include: Látrabjarg out in the far western part of Iceland, Breiðafjörður and Lundey near to Reykjavik, the Westmann Islands, Hornbjarg and Hornstrandir in the north west.

What’s really cool about Iceland too is the “Night of the Pufflings.” Puffin pairs lay one egg a year, and the hatchling is then fed from birth till “long enough”, at which point the parents ditch the baby puffin and take off. This happens some time in August.

The young puffins are then left to make their way out to the ocean.

Thing is, this process forgot to take into account modern day human interference. The pufflings usually use the moonlight to guide them to the sea. And guess what? The street lights mess that up. So young puffins end up flying in all random directions, crash into light posts, and end up on the streets.

And this my friend, is when local children come to the rescue. They go out at night, gather these baby puffins, keep them overnight, and release them back into the ocean. Tagging along during these events is mucho-cool because it’s one of those opportunities where you’re actually allowed to touch them. No you’re still not allowed to man-handle them. You can touch them.

Over in the UK, the best bet for puffins is at the Isle of May off the coast of Scotland. Technically there are more puffins at the St Kilda archipelago and in Shetland, but of course the reason there are so many puffins is in no small part related to the fact that those places are a bit hard to access. Some 60 miles away by boat type of hard-to-access.

Close puffin access can be had on the west coast of Scotland near Lunga. In England, head to the Farne Islands, which are 2 miles off the coast of Northumberland.

Over in North America, the best puffin access is around the coastlines of Newfoundland. Witless Bay Ecological Reserve is your best bet. Some puffins can also be found in Maine. Maine puffins are scattered around a series of islands, creatively named: Eastern Egg Rock, Western Egg Rock, Large Green Island, SealIsland, Machias Seal Island and Matincius Rock. Love those names.

Puffin photo by Thomas O’neil

All this talk about puffins and I still have yet to go. Sadly I missed the timing this year, but I can’t wait to make up for this missed puffin time in a big way next year.

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Crazy Llama

August 15th, 2008 by Eric Posted in Random, Travel Photos | 2 Comments »

Now I didn’t think this picture belonged in a blog post with the word “photogenic” in the title, so didn’t include it in my last post on Peru. All the same, I think it’s a photo worth sharing, as I haven’t seen any other llama photos that looks this crazy. The poor guy must have had some kind of skin problem or infection, requiring his keepers to douse him in something purple (there was no one around to explain what was going on, so I never really learnt what the deal was with him). Sick or not, I thought he looked pretty cool, so I went ahead and took his picture.

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Air Canada doesn’t want my business

August 13th, 2008 by Pokin Posted in Rant | 2 Comments »

So I was surfing today, and I came across Darren Cronian’s Travel-Rants blog. Love the concept.

Now I mentioned in a previous post that I don’t have good luck with airports. Rather, I spent more quality time in them than I like. And the last time I was in one, I put in some serious bonding time.

Inspired by Darren’s blog, I’m going to rant about this last experience.

~~~~

Being Canadian and all, I like the idea of flying Air Canada. I mean, they’ve got me for the miles already, it’s a Canadian airline…I’m often GOING to Canada….so why not?

On this fine occasion, I’m on a visit up to Vancouver to see GeckoGo-Aaron & other friends. Being the organized person that I am, I booked my trip up up to Vancouver fine, but ahem, forgot to book my return ticket to San Francisco. So it was bad enough as a start when I realize this oversight and am in panic mode trying to book my return flight uber last minute.

In the middle of this self-induced heart-attack state, I luckily find a last minute deal with Air Canada for only $200 more than I would have paid if I was on top of things and had booked on time. Ok Pokin, you messed this one up. Suck it up, pay the fee, and go on your way. I note at the time of booking that this flight is VERY EMPTY.

So I book my flight on the Friday morning and I’m on my way to the airport later that afternoon. I figure I have plenty of time and I even stop for dinner with the fam before heading to the airport.

In all the times I’ve ever flown this route, I’ve always arrived at the airport 60 minutes in advance. I know that going to the US is technically international. But c’mon. It’s not like the US doesn’t consider Canada a mini rogue state and it’s not like all the US airports don’t dump the Canadian traffic in the domestic terminals anyway. :p

So I get to the airport 80 minutes in advance. I go to the airport check in and proceed to get my boarding pass.

“Itinerary not found”

Uh oh.

With no small amount of trepidation, I head up to the front of the line where there are 3 ladies at the check in counter and no other customers.

“Hi there,” I say to the lady on the far left “It seems to say that my booking number isn’t there.”

“One sec, let me look,” says lady-on-the-far-left. She types away furiously, stares intently at the screen, then tells me matter-of-factly “booking’s closed. You should have come earlier.”

“But there’s still a full hour,” I say. I can’t believe this is happening. “I don’t even have to check anything in. It’s all carry-on.”

At this point the lady on the far right interjects (as I said, there were no other customers). “You can always call the gate for her. They can open a spot.” You rock, I think.

“I don’t know the number,” says the person who’s helping me. YOU suck.

“I can get you the number” quips helpful lady on the right. TEN seconds later, she reads out a number, to which my person reluctantly dials. THREE seconds after that, she hangs up. “No answer.”

“Try this number instead”

“I think I’m just going to send her to ticketing,” says my very unhelpful person.

“You can just reopen the booking for her yourself” says helpful person.

“Nah I’m just going to send her to ticketing.”

I’m not kidding. She said that in front of me. Unfortunately for me by this time the middle lady and right helpful lady are occupied by clients. I turn to look at the unhelpful person.

“It sounds like you should be able to let me in. The flight is empty, I have my luggage, I’m over 60 minutes in advance and I’ve never had a problem,” I say.

“I don’t know how to do it,” she insists. Bitch!

I look at the time. I look at her. I weigh my options. Probability chance of success if I insist right here? And what if I head over to this “ticketing” place? Hmm. With just under an hour, I decide to take my chances elsewhere.

“Where is ticketing?” I ask.

“Oh just around the corner.” She points somewhere vaguely left.

I start heading in the direction of ticket booth — across the ENTIRE international terminal AND the domestic terminal. I get to the near-mythical Air Canada ticketing booth and I see one attendant and 2 people in line.

I walk up to the very front.

I mean, if there’s something I can do about this, it’s now or never.

“Excuse me,” I say. “I was told that my flight (which is now in 50 minutes) was closed for boarding and that you can open it up for me. I don’t have luggage.”

“Get back in line.” I am told very firmly.

I reluctantly get back in line.

And watch as my 50 minutes trickles down to 30 minutes and I’m still the 3rd person in line.

Some 25 minutes after I got to this area, about 30 other people show up in my line. Their flight has been cancelled and they need to be rescheduled for tomorrow. There are NO other possible flights for them tonight.

Suddenly, the one attendant multiplies to about 5.

But does that help me?

You’d think eh, but nope. I watch as an usher appears out of nowhere and start directing the people who arrived -behind- me to these new attendants.

“Excuse me,” I ask. I was in line before hand and I’m still magically hoping I can catch my flight. “My flight is departing soon and I’d reeeally like to catch it.”

“Sorry miss, these guys have priority. Their flight has been cancelled.” WTF! My flight could be sending me up in the air in 25 mins!

So I wait until my 25 minutes turns into -25 minutes and my flight officially departs. Along the way, I swap battle stories with my newfound line-up comrades about our worst Air Canada stories. And many a dirty tale surfaces. Well at least it passes time.

Finally I’m up at the front.

“I’ve missed my flight.” I tell the now pleasant attendant. At this point I am expecting more grief. Like she wants the place that I’m renting mortgaged for a rebooking fee or something.

“I have a flight that I can put you on tomorrow morning at 11:00am.” She tells me.

She messin’ with me?

“Suuure…I’ll take that.” I tell her.

She’s silent for the next minute typing away, prints out my itinerary and hands it to me. Total transaction time? Less than 2 minutes. Total extra charge? $0.00.

“Thanks.” I say

“Just get there early tomorrow.” She tells me. Yeah no kidding.

As I leave, I have the notion that I’d really like to file a complaint against that first girl. To my disappointment, she was no longer at the counter when I’m finally back to the original counter hours later. The remaining attendants play mum on her name. Sucks.

So I go home in a huff, crawl to bed, arrive at the airport at 7:00am the next morning for my 11:00am flight –only to listen to Christmas carol music from the Christmas store at the gate for the next 3 hours. Cut me some slack! It’s summer! Those stores should be banned.

Boo.

And that was that.

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Peru: Miss Photogenic Country?

August 10th, 2008 by Eric Posted in Travel Photos | 10 Comments »

Can countries be photogenic? Here’s why I ask: I love taking pictures, but certainly wouldn’t consider myself a good photographer by any means - I know nothing about lighting, shutter-speeds, or aperture settings and I usually just play with the buttons on my digital camera until the photos I take start looking nice on the display screen. Yet I was consistently able to take good photos during my trip to Peru. Subsequent trips revealed that it didn’t have anything to do with me, so the only way I can explain it is to point the finger at Peru itself. I’ve basically concluded that certain countries are just more photogenic than others - and that in the world of landscape and people photography Peru must be a reigning supermodel. Check out some of the amateur photos I took while visiting the country:

That poor chicken was this girl’s favourite toy - every time he tried to escape she’d go pick him right back up. The string tied to his right foot made escape impossible. This girl lives on the island of Amantanes - one of the larger Islands on Lake Titicaca.

…blue archway inside the Santa Catalina convent in Arequipa…

…a tree covered in jungle-moss taken mid-day on steep slopes that straddle the Inca Trail 3 days in from Ollantaytambo.

This massive glacier on Mount Ausangate would make low crackling rumbles about every 2-3 minutes.

These two young girls met us out in the middle of nowhere, 2 days walk out from Tinki.

The two girls were with an older man and a young boy (above), and they brought us some kind of a root vegetable resembling potatoes. We cooked everything up and shared the food. When I offered them vitamins and cough medicine in return, the old man started crying. I didn’t really know what to do to comfort him, but realized this kind of medicine probably meant far more to him than I could imagine, so I gave him everything I had with me. Made me wish I had taken more.

And here is the refuge we all ate in. In the background are semi-wild alpaca grazing on the plateau with Ausangate towering in the background (alpaca are like lamas but with cute bunny-rabbit faces)

Above the clouds in the early misty morning…

…some impressive stonework at the ruins of Saqsaywuaman located just above Cusco (which you can see a bit of in the background).

Ok- I know - you’ve seen it a million times already - it’s just that Machu Picchu is probably the most incredible place I’ve ever been to, and it doesn’t seem right not to include it (plus I really lucked out here - for a brief moment Huayna Picchu was under cloud cover while the ruins themselves were still in full sunshine). To make up for it, here’s a less-seen angle of Machu Picchu looking out from the ruins:

So I know you serious photographers will see all the little flaws, and that’s good - the point is that it didn’t take any real know-how to get these. Imagine what a little bit of talent would do in this glorious country! Photogenic Peru indeed!

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It’s Safari Time

August 8th, 2008 by Pokin Posted in Places to See, What to do | 2 Comments »

aka 4 alternative things to do on a safari

1) Buck the trend – photograph the tourists.

Coming back from a safari, it’s usually show and tell time. “And here’s the zebra, there’s the elephant, oh-and a sleeping lion. And that blur? It’s a rhino. Fer real.”

Branch out. Get creative! If you want real shots that are memorable, — shots that truly capture the moment of a modern safari, you want the people — in your pictures. Include the people. Show the people.

Note the aura of concentration around every tourist as they vie for top spot to photograph cheetah chases. Then capture it on film!

Bonus points: be sure to photograph the dude with a huge bazooka style-I mean telephoto lens.

Extra bonus points: take them using your own bazooka style telephoto lens.

2) Don’t feed the animals – feed your guide.

You see the signs. Don’t feed the animals. You read it in your guidebook (or on GeckoGo :p). Rules and regulations control all aspects of acceptable animal-human interactions. After all, this is a safari, not a zoo.

So what’s not regulated any more? No one said anything your guide! And I bet it drives him crazy when you’re snacking away all day in the 4-wheel vehicle while he smells the cupcakes. So share and share alike. Pass him some of your Cadbury chocolate bar. Make some friends.

3) The real bush experience

The lions do it.

No, no, don’t copulate all day and then get some sleep.

What I mean is, mark your territory!

In safari-country, you’re busy capturing pictures and storing memories — taking a bit of their world with you.

It’s only fair you give a lil’ something back too.

Note. Don’t do it where it’s blatantly against the rules. And especially take note of the next point.

4) Don’t get shot

In some controlled game parks, getting out of your vehicle is not permitted. You want proof? Write your will and then try it in the Ngorongoro Crater. Rangers take their roles very seriously, and may not bother to verify whether you’re trying to poach that rhino, or whether you have a bad case of the runs.

5) Learn what it means.

“Safari” is actually Swahili for “journey.”

And just what qualifies as a journey? You ask.

What doesn’t?!

“You heading to the bathroom?”

“No, I’m going on a safari.”

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Best foreign experiences that I could have just done at home…but why?

August 7th, 2008 by Pokin Posted in What to do | 6 Comments »

So I know going abroad is about new discoveries and maximizing your experiences. So why do abroad what you can easily do at home?

Actually I’ve got no good answer for you.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s begin, shall we?

Visiting a McDonalds

There is just nothing that signals comfort, reliability, and home like the expectation of a clean bathroom in the middle of China. And any McDonalds worldwide gives that to you.

Bliss.

Plus I find any foreign McDonalds kicks the butt over any local one over here. Honeydew milkshakes in HK?! What the?? Why isn’t that offered here?!!!!!

Buying a Cosmo

Ok so I admit I occasionally buy Cosmo magazine. I read it for the articles!

Seriously though, back to the comfort idea. It’s nice when abroad to see some English. It really is. Even better when it’s total drivel and chalk full of the latest drama that you never would have given a hoot about back home anyway.

Going to the grocery store

Those who know me well know that I’m fixated with food. Somewhere along the way it probably occupies 80% of my subconscious mind and 99% of the conscious one. So there’s nothing like going to a new country and bee-lining for their grocery store. I love looking to see the local interpretations of “western” food. I love looking at cool new packaging and wondering what’s inside. I LOVE buying foreign candy. Omg.

Taking a taxi

So usually when I’m taking a taxi at home, it’s not a good thing. I’ve lost my ride, the car’s been stolen, I’m late and I’ve got to get somewhere. Stat.

It’s just not been the same experience abroad. Some of the most entertaining conversations I’ve had, and the best insight I’ve witnessed of a city have been by driving around (stuck in traffic or no), listening to the cabbie talk about whatever he (usually he) feels like. Wow the stories that you get if you ever get a driver in Vegas. Your ears will blush.

Going for a walk

Since I moved from Montreal to Mountain View, I’ve sadly done very little walking. Almost anything involves hopping into a car. But the vast majority of travel spots abroad don’t end up with you + rental car. So what do you do? You walk!

There’s something pretty nice, relaxing, and eye opening about strolling down some random street, taking in the noise and activity at YOUR pace.

Word of advice: don’t be like me. DON’T break in a new pair of shoes on your first walk abroad. You might want to build street cred and all, but pick something a little less painful than blisters and a bloody foot. No magic wand makes it go away, and you know what? That sucks.

Getting lost

Usually, if you’re on home turf and you get lost, you’re pissed off. It means you’ll probably run late for something. Whatever the case, it’s annoying.

Abroad — make it an adventure! Think about it. You’re paying to be where you are. Would you rather know you paid to be pissed, or for the random discoveries that happen when you find yourself stumbling around in a new country in some obscure corner peering at signs written in some unrecognizable language?

C’mon.

You know you want to love it. All of it. =)

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How not to get into Pakistan

August 4th, 2008 by Eric Posted in Places to See | 1 Comment »

I just discovered a traveler that made history yesterday by getting into Pakistan without a required visa. If you want to find out more about how NOT to enter Pakistan, check out Chris Guillebeau’s entertaining post – he even shares some insight on what high-end hotels are like over there.  Pakistan may only get an average of about 560,000 tourists per year (a little more than the number that goes to Nepal) but all of those arrivals are supposed to come prepared with a visa, so I’d say Chris was pretty damn lucky to be let in. For those of you interested in getting into Pakistan the “right” way, you’d have to get a single, double or multi-entry visa, and to make things extra fun, the prices differ greatly depending on your nationality.

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Beijing Olympics - Feast your eyes out - Five architectural wonders to see when you go

August 3rd, 2008 by Pokin Posted in Cool sites, Places to See | 3 Comments »

Beijing’s Aug 2008 Olympics = lots of bragging rights and high visibility. China took this opportunity to go to town, and built some pretty insane buildings for the occasion.

Let’s take a tour -

“Bird’s Nest” – Beijing National Stadium

Photo says it all. This iconic stadium features an exterior of twisting and turning interlocking steel bars built like a – wait for it – birds nest bowl. It’s so unique in structure that the construction team had to invent a new kind of steel just for the job. Why’s that? Well Beijing has some pretty crazy geographical considerations. It gets pretty darn cold in the winter, brutally hot in the summer, is subject to crazy sandstorms, and is located in a seismically active region. That and given the fact that these bars are free-form in structure and need to support its own weight while it twists and turns and you’ve got what I dub “engineering fun times.”

Beijing’s goal is to make it a green Olympics (issues with air quality a separate debate), so the building ceilings are covered with a translucent material to let light in. It also features massive solar panels and rain collectors to irrigate the landscaping.

Some 91,000 spectators are expected to fill the stadium. While vast in size, Bird’s Nest is built to create as much of a sense of intimacy as is possible when you’re in a room with 90,999 other people. In an interview, an architect from the winning firm commented that no seat was more than a few hundred feet away from the action.  At that distance, it’s like I can touch the athletes.  Right.  Not quite.

“Water Cube” – National Aquatics Centre

Inspired by the geometric properties of water bubbles and its ability to take on angular forms, the National Aquatics Centre is giant cube-like structure made of steel pipes and bubblewrap. How giant and how much bubblewrap? At a 70,000 sq metres, it’s enough to lay claim to being the largest ETFE building in the world (a type of plasticky Teflon).

So why bubble wrap?

Well aside from looking all watery and cool, it helps the building keep with the green theme. This high tech building is able to harness 90% of the solar energy falling onto the building. It is funneled in to heat the pool and interior in the winter, but also strategically printed with differing patterns of printed dots to control the light penetration so you’re not put on broil in the summer. Here too, are built-in rain catchers to store water for the pools.

Watercube holds 17,000 spectators, and will be turned into a public aquatic centre after the Olympics.

“The Egg” – National Centre for Performing Arts

Though not technically for the Olympics, the National Centre for Performing Arts was part of a set of buildings that all came up around the same time. It’s crazy enough to be worth a mention. This egg shaped titanium and glass structure is surrounded by a massive artificial lake – made to look like an egg floating in water – or a sunny side up egg? You enter the theatre via a glass ceiling hallway that goes underneath the lake. Unfortunately though, with all that glass, this building isn’t so green. But then it’s not really part of the Olympics so maybe it’s ok.

Beijing Airport – Terminal 3

What would be the point of all these buildings if you didn’t have a way to cart in visitors to come and admire everything? Beijing’s new airport terminal 3 is built to accomplish just that. Not satisfied with any normal type of expansion, Terminal 3 is a whopping 986,000 square metres in size. To help you grasp what that means – know that it’s the largest terminal in the world. Heck, if this terminal were its own airport, it’d be the largest airport in the world. It’s bigger than all 5 terminals of London Heathrow combined.

In an attempt to make this airport more green, southeast oriented skylights let in lighting and also helps heat the terminal during the winter months.

The “Z” building – CCTV

I’m pretty sure the “Z” building – China Central Television Headquarters (CCTV) is one of those buildings that really helps bring out the fear of heights in a person. Comprising two slanted “L” shaped towers that are connected at the top and the bottom, the 54 storey structure is a gravity defying piece on track to “break every single building code in China.”  In order to withstand potential earthquakes in the region, the building is fitted with a diagrid system (diagnoal + grid) on the external faces.  This creates a tubular stucture that is able to withstand torsion and flexion of the whole building if the ground starts shaking.  This type of system usually also requires less steel = more environmental!  ;)  Cool stuff.

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So there you have it. Five new buildings to check out the next time you’re in Beijing.

p.s. If you’re interested in green stuff, check out our friends over at Huddler.

 

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How to get into North Korea

July 31st, 2008 by Aaron Posted in Places to See | 3 Comments »

Stevo from Asian Ramblings had a question that is quite practical in relation to the post on Six things to see in the Axis of Near Evil. He asked about how easy it was to get a visa for North Korea.

Great question! I’m going to take that question and expand that into an answer about how you’d go about traveling there. You’ve been inspired by the article and now want to go to North Korea. So how do you go about doing it?

The answer is that you need to sign up with a guided tour. There’s no way around it. No independent travel is allowed. You also need to get a North Korean visa. The tour agency can help you with getting the visa, and this route is probably the easiest way to get one.

Koryo Tours is a Beijing-based company (run by British expats) that specializes in North Korean tours. They have an excellent relationship with the North Korean government and claim that they have not had any visa applications refused (with the caveat that there is still a small possibility of this happening). You generally need to send the visa application to them at least 4 weeks before travel, along with a scan of a passport photo and a scan of your passport’s photo page. Since the flights to Pyongyang depart from Beijing, you will also need an appropriate Chinese visa (at least double entry if you’re not already in China).

There are actually separate tours for US citizens, as Americans are only allowed into North Korea sporadically. A number of tour opportunities for US citizens have been approved for 2008, but North Korea may be again closed off to Americans in 2009. Other years where Americans were allowed visas include 2002, 2005, and 2007. South Koreans are generally restricted to tourist areas in the Diamond Mountains and Kaesong. Citizen of other countries generally do not face any of these special restrictions. Other citizens: don’t you feel lucky?

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