:: zone3 ::

The last couple of days of my time in China were Kashgar. Took it pretty relaxing, made for time to catch up.

The Kashgar animal bazaar had an array of various animals being brought and sold. Although it wasn’t that much different than a New Zealand farmers market, just needed to swap the donkeys for some extra tractors & throw in some swandrys and would be pretty much the same.

Back in China. Nice to be back visiting again.

Was expecting some nice sunny weather but arrived yesterday morning to rain in Beijing. Was only light, much finer today.

All a very un-eventful series of flights over. I'm beginning to think it is better to have a few delays or missed flights, at least it makes it a bit more exciting.

So far having the fun just adjusting to the time zone and catching up on sleep.


Have decided when travelling it's not the major cultural differences you really notice. As John Travolta put it in Pulp Fiction "It's the little differences." The big ones you're sort of ready for and they don't creep up on you. However the little ones are the ones that sneak in and blind side you.

Well, off to China today and into Beijing. Better have a coffee and finish packing, check-in soon.

Only downside is about 25 hours of travelling to get there, but at least gets to sleep on the planes, then am in summer. About 30c and sunny there at the moment.

Looking forward to the nice break away. Get to see a few things and play in the desert. And of course duty free on the way home.

Well.. After 14 or so hour travelling, back to Wellington.

A fun trip... Need some sleep now after some long flights and time zone changes.

Well made it to St Petersburg...

Made for about the worst set of connecting flights have ever had. Wlg to
Akl was fine. Got fun from there.

The plane to Shanghai brunt up a lot of fuel due to the weather on the way
and with fog in Shanghai had to divert to Naha, Japan to re-fuel. That put
things a bit late getting to Shanghai, had 60min to until my plane to
Moscow took off. Shanghai customs etc was fast lucky (fastest I've had in
any coutry), check-ins for my next flight had just closed, but they let me
on...

Then that flight was delayed in Shanghai, so got to Moscow with again
60mins until my next flight, however there is no way can transit Moscow
that fast... Getting myself on to a later flight to St Petersburg was fun
considering I about 5 words of Russian and the airport staff don't speak a
lot of english. Had some Russians that were on the same flight me to
Moscow and also going to St Petersburg, they were pretty friendly and helpped
me get re-ticketed and on the right plane.