Adventure Travel Photography Blog
We arose bright and early at 4:45am for a 9:30am flight to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. We allowed an hour to get to the Beijing airport. Miraculously at this crazy hour there wasn’t much traffic so we arrived sooner. Arriving prior to the three hour check-in time at MIAT Mongolian Airlines, we waited in line for a while before finally receiving our boarding passes and heading to immigration.
EXPLORE!
While I’d rather be out in nature, I always feel obligated when I’m in a major city to at least go to a few of the famous sites. As such, we planned a day at the most famous sites in Beijing: the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, and the Forbidden City.
I think we spent more time in the car driving in the horrific traffic than actually touring the sites, but so be it. Today, those who owned cars with license plates ending in 2 and 6 were restricted from driving. I think they might need to add a few more to reduce the gridlock. Or provide more free bicycles.
There are free bicycles in about every color. The nice part about China’s program, is they don’t have to be taken back to the station. They can be left anywhere for the next person to use. I find this much more convenient than the program we have in the states. Then again, it likely works for China since Beijing is home to 23 million people.
Continue reading “Top Three Sites to Visit in Beijing in a Day”
I was surprised I could fall asleep at all for my first night in a new time zone across the dateline, but an early morning flight and little sleep on the plane earned me six hours or so before I awoke at 4:30am. I suppose I could have enjoyed a far less busy street at this forsaken hour, but instead I just had some coffee, eventually ordered room service since none of the coffee shops opened until 7am, and tried to entertain myself the best I could. I found a note in my hotel that “in accordance to regulations in China, the following websites are not accessible including, but not limited to: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Google, the New York Times, and Bloomberg.”
Fortunately, today I will be out of the city at the Great Wall. I am very excited to see the beautiful countryside, and my guide is taking me to a less touristy area, so climbing the wall should be incredible! I hope there will be less smog in the country too. After my shower last night, I used a face wipe on my make-up free face which turned brown! Continue reading “The Great Wall of China…A Must See!”
What a long yet mostly nice first day to China! On my last trip to the Philippines, the RTD A-line failed which put me into a bind and ended up costing me a lot of parking money at the airport, so this time, I left even earlier and figured I’d use a pass at the United Club. I was out of the house by 4:45am! It was smooth sailing with a fantastic sunrise with only one small glitch. The United Club doesn’t open until 6:30am…boo!
TAKE A WALK!
On our way back from the Philippines, we had a connection through Seoul. Of the few people I’ve known that have been to South Korea, they all loved the DMZ (or Demilitarized Zone), a strip of land on the 38th parallel between North and South Korea that offers a buffer zone which was created during a cease fire arrangement in 1953. Given we didn’t know if we’d be back anytime soon, we scheduled a weekend layover. Continue reading “Visiting the DMZ in Korea”
On our way home from the Philippines, we had to connect through Seoul, South Korea. Neither Rootie nor I had been, so we decided on a 2.5 day layover, mostly in order to go to the DMZ which we heard was a must see. Continue reading “Two and Half Days in Seoul, South Korea”
It would have been ashame to wake up before the sunrise and never snap a photo…I finally did…check!
Today marked our final day of diving. We only had two dives scheduled today as we had to comply with the 24 hour waiting period before we could fly. Our first dive was at Miyaru Kandu, another channel. Again we were looking for big stuff. I suppose those who really get excited over sharks and the like were disappointed as there was not much to see, so again we swam across the channel to the reef instead of dropping down to watch sharks circle. Continue reading “Visiting Male, Maldives”
We took our usual ten minute journey to our morning dive site, this time, Kuda Rah Thila in South Ari Atoll. The boats rarely travel at night, thus our morning dive is generally positioned near the afternoon site we dove the previous day. This Thila had other small pinnacles next to it, so it made for nice wide swim throughs and was quite different from our continuous reef circling. Continue reading “Sharks and Rays Swarmed in Epic Night Dive in the Maldives”
This morning we dove Dhiga Thila. It was a beautiful wall of soft corals, but before we explored the wall, we rested on the bottom and waited for sharks to come in. After a short time with no luck, we ascended to 60 feet or so and followed the reef along our left shoulder. Occasionally the sun shined down on the overhangs offering cool views. Continue reading “Searching for Whale Sharks in the Maldives”
This morning, we went back to the same dive site as yesterday afternoon, Moofushi Kandu, to try our luck with the mantas again. This time they were slightly more cooperative. One came in from the left and a little while later another came in from the right. They glided around elegantly for a few minutes before they decided that was enough. We were not in the best place for viewing. A huge school of blue striped snapper were right in front of us. Continue reading “Manta Rays in the Maldives!”