Saturday, September 29, 2012

Dodgy Travel - PhotoHunt

PhotoHunt theme : Dodgy/Travel

In a dodgy part of town in northern China.

A memorable trip to Shenyang (China) shortly after I first started working. I scrimped and saved so I could afford to travel. I was on a shoestring budget. To keep costs down, I accepted a friend's offer of accommodation but a few hours before my arrival, his mother fell ill and he had to rush back to his village to attend to her. -_-

a 3-wheel taxi

Arriving in a new place with no room reservation was a bad idea. I didn't know anyone and after some asking around, found a room no one else wanted at a price determined by how desperate I looked when I knocked on the door of the no-star hotel. lol

And I needed to make instant decision because the only room available was in a dodgy part of town. -_-

A palace to house the Imperial concubines

Fortunately, Shenyang's popular places of interest "compensated" me for the lousy room I paid for. I had a fantastic time learning about the ancient history of China.

I particularly love touring the Ancient Palace of Shenyang.  But not impressed with the palace that housed hundreds of concubines for the Emperor and .....

public toilets which one could smell a hundred metres away. eewwww....


With not much money to spend, I could only stay in a cheap hotel and eat dodgy food....sigh


30 comments:

  1. yeah i can't stand those public toilets in China either! lol @ dodgy food..poor thing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Monica,
    The state of public toilets in China are still as horrible. They don't think it is important to have clean toilets.

    Probably due to taste differences, the food in northern China is unpalatable to me. :P

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi East Coast Life --

    Though dodgy (Mainland) Chinese toilets... ugh. I still have nightmares of some of the ones I encountered when visiting Beijing. :(

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sarawak is just 1 hour plus by plane. I am thinking about going to China with my mum's siblings to visit our old kampong, the hakka round fortress.

    ReplyDelete
  5. wenn,
    Only enjoy visiting the ancient palace and historical site. :(

    ReplyDelete
  6. YTSL,
    yay.... me too. I have to avoid drinking too much water and also hold my bladder until I get back to the hotel. :P

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ann,
    I will definitely make time to visit Sarawak.

    I heard about the round fortress too and that is a must visit for me as well. Reading about the reasons for building it is so fascinating. Would love to live in it for a few days to experience it for myself.

    ReplyDelete
  8. what an experience. thanks for sharing this.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Kesian..left in an alien town. Any idea the 3 wheeler taxi is running on fuel or electric car? Actually cant expect much of a nicer toilet in smaller town. Heard those days the toilets in China got no doors and tourists especially the ladies have to buy umbrella to turn it into 'door'. The locals there got no problem can do bis or small biz even without door.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Bananaz,
    The 3 wheeler taxi runs on fuel.

    It's not only the public toilets in small towns that are horrible, even public toilets in busy cities like Shanghai and Beijing are as bad or worse due to higher population and traffic.

    I still bring an umbrella whenever I go to China. There are still public toilets without doors. I am embarrassed to do my biz in front of strangers. hahaha....

    ReplyDelete
  11. The 3-wheeled car looks dodgy to me. I hope the food tasted better than it looks.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The Indulged Furries,
    In a small city, such 3 wheelers local cars are common. It can't go fast and is safe.

    No luck, the food was awful.

    ReplyDelete
  13. That's called an adventure, lol ! The house of the concubines looks beautiful ! What a life, if you are lucky he will have no time to call you, because there are 999 women standing in line !
    I love the chinese history and have also read all books of Pearl S. Buck.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Budget travel can be like that. I'm at the point now where if I go on a trip I'll splurge - no more dodgy for me!

    Have a good weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Ewwwweee!
    I've stayed in a few dodgy places myself... be we always make the best of it!
    Happy Hunting ~

    ReplyDelete
  16. Dodgy or otherwise, I bet you look back and thought of it as an adventure! No? :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Great take on the theme. I've never seen a three wheel taxi.

    ReplyDelete
  18. oh, the accommodations would not have been thrilling. glad you survived to tell the tale. the history of the palace kind of makes you cringe, but it is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Looks like you done some traveling and at times one need to dodgy out quicky.

    Mine is up and the coffee is on.

    ReplyDelete
  20. What a colorful and upbeat blog you have!!!
    Thank you for stopping by.
    G-Man

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hi ECL, great post and I had to giggle about your budget travel adventures. I remember one trip I took with friends (poor starving student college days) and we all crammed into a "no" star motel room because we didn't have enough cash for something better and bigger. Travel memories. As for the dodgy public WC's. Yikes. I've seen some of those while traveling and they are not pleasant. On a good note, glad that there were some nice things for you there too. Wonderful photos.

    Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  22. You are brave and it sounds like quite an adventure. I hope your accommodations and food were okay. I guess if you're hungry almost anything looks good and from your picture it doesn't look too bad.

    ReplyDelete
  23. The ride would have been fun ..on that 3 wheeler taxi..Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Nice entry combining the two memes! Glad you survived the trip (and it made for some great memories after all!)

    ReplyDelete