Last week I ended my China visit in Chengdu. Much warmer there than Beijing, probably about 50. I worked most the time, but had one day to spend, so I went to the China National Panda Breeding Center. It's a gigantic park full of Pandas, maybe 100 or so, and they try to breed as many as they can. The cages are really nice and huge and there are dozens of them. The babies are sooooo cute! You can hold one and have a picture....for $300. Wasn't worth it to me. Here's two behind me. They sit upright while they eat. It's hilarious. 
Here's a funny one eating while sitting upright. You can get within about 10 feet of them. They sure do love their bamboo.
They were trying to get these two to mate, so one of their methods (I have no idea if it works...I highly doubt it) is to show them "panda porn." I don't know what else to call it. But they have screens in the pen for them to watch it on to encourage them to mate.
This is the airport of Pune India. There isn't much to see in Pune, the Taj Mahal is thousands of miles away. But this is my car/driver for the week. The cars in India are high-larious. The busses too. They are all about 50 years old. Pollution is even worse than Beijing (in Delhi, about the same in Pune). I had 2 hours to sleep in Delhi after a long flight from Chengdu to Beijing to Delhi. Got to Delhi at 4:30am, went to hotel for 2 hours, got up at 7 for 9am flight to Pune. Very nice weather though, it was in the 70s. Traffic was a lot like Cairo, no lights, no rules, thousands upon thousands of bikes and cows on the road.
Thousand of these little "taxis" too. I took a short drive!
Left Pune and flew to Sydney. Took about 18 hours. Had a stop in Mumbai, and a harrowing ride from the domestic terminal to the international terminal. They are 15 miles apart. I got a local cab, and he drove me thru a super-scary area. People EVERYWHERE on a narrow road, pushing right up against the car, trying to open the doors and begging. Kids squatting to go to the bathroom...naked people, just plain scary. I was thinking "is this really the way to the international airport?" But it was. Flight was supposed to be direct to Sydney, but we ran out of gas and had to stop in Adelaide. Beautiful city, you can see wild kanga's and roo's running around. I was exposed to walnuts on the Sydney flight, I was a mess (still am). Didn't eat one, but they passed out cookies with them. I had super asthma and allergy misery for about 10 hours. I had benadryl with me, but it can only do so much during constant exposure. Got to Sydney and stayed in a Marriott right on the Harbor. That's the Opera House there.
A little closer. I walked around the harbor and into the Opera House. It was beautious in there! Had a show, but it was like $250, not worth it.
This is the Sydney Harbor Bridge. I drove over it, and you can walk across it. You can even climb to the top of it (for $350, some other Altiris people did). I think Marlin swam under this to find Nemo! It's quite a site.
7 comments:
man, i'm poor and woulda paid the $300 to hold a baby panda! so cute! weird about the mating though and SO SAD about the india poverty.
did you see nigel?! (the bird from nemo)
What an adventure. Hope you're keeping a journal. Those looong plane rides sure are fun, right!!
Delos, was this trip for business or just for fun? If it was business, WHAT DO YOU DO AND HOW CAN I GET A JOB THERE!?
he's a patent lawyer, works in-house for symantec. too boring, man. i worked in his office in south jordan for a while. boring as DEATH.
australia looks awesome. I've always said after seeing the amazing race that I'll never go to India unless someone forces me there. Too bad you don't have an epi-pen eh
i should be there man! I'm wishing so bad I was in Australia. too bad Roddick is already out.
It isn't that boring anymore. Law firms are boring. Nice companies are heaven. Don't have to work too hard, send you all over the world, give you all kinds of perks, like free sporting event tickets, free gift cards to movies and Best Buy, loots of free food. But I'm sick of travelling now. I was super sick that today, after a 7 year drought in Melbourne, the day I bought a grounds pass to just go to watch all the outdoor matches it rains all day and I see zero tennis today. Waste of $29. I tried to buy tix for Rod Laver or Vodafone arenas (they have closable roofs), but they were sold out. I have some tix to both tomorrow though. I saw some older, heavy ladies outside Rod Laver arena smoking, so I thought I might as well approach them and see if they would let me use their tix for an hour or two. I sweet talked them for a 1/2 hour, but in the end they refused to let me borrow their tix for their smoking break (they love Federer, who was up next, they did offer me tix for tomorrow, but I already have some). Too bad, Federer is in a big match right now...it's in the 5th set...and right inside that arena! Sydney and Melbourne are just beautiful. I could definitely live here (not China or India though). Only 20 million people live in Australia, and the land area is almost as big as the U.S. Clean and clear...but I like the U.S. the best for sure. What a break to be born an American.
Post a Comment