offpeakfang

Fanar Mosque, Doha Having returned from Tokyo to Hong Kong and having spent a day hiking around Hong Kong's Lantau Island with local friends, it was time to return to the UK. When I booked my plane tickets, I had a choice of either a 2 hour transfer or a full day in Doha, Qatar. Of course I chose to spend a full day in a new country.  HND-HKG: UO629, 0220-0600 HKG-DOH: QR815, 0025-0405 I spent almost the entire 8h40 flight from Hong Kong sleeping and so was reasonably rested when I arrived in Doha, albeit at a very early local time. Doha Hamad Airport is enormous but assumes that you only want to transit through, and there are only a relatively small number of people who were leaving the airport. By the time I went through immigration and customs control, it was still a bit too early to do anything or even get into the city and so I spent some more time in the nicely air-conditioned airport.  As I arrived on a Friday, everything was closed in the morning: after all, this is on...

Hamayuu of Kampu Ferry, docked in Busan Port next to the passenger terminal   There seem to be plenty of travelogues showing the Busan to Fukuoka fast ferry, but there's very little information on Kampu Ferry's overnight service from Busan to Shimonoseki. I do much prefer overnight journeys like this to save on a night of accommodation and arrive in the morning in a much more time-efficient way. So, here's my attempt to add some detail to what the journey is like. Check-in at Busan Port International Passenger Terminal   The Busan Port International Passenger Terminal is a short walk from Busan railway station along some enormous elevated walkways, just like lots of other ferry terminals. Check-in was from 1730-1850 for the 2100 departure, at the Pukwan Ferry window (seems like Kampu Ferry and Pukwan Ferry are different-language names for the same company). I was handed some forms to fill in, and was then given a boarding pass after I handed those in. This is also where pa...

Naengmyeon , Hamhung style: a classic north Korean noodle dish of iced buckwheat noodles Having spent a few days in South Korea, mostly looking at historic architecture and eating a lot of food and particularly containing gochujang and all the sides of pickles traditional to Korean meals, I had several observations.  Heungnyemun Gate, Gyeoungbokgung Palace, Seoul Gyeoungbokgung Palace , the old Korean royal palace, is one of the main tourist attractions of South Korea. I visited on the 3rd October 2023, which happened to be National Foundation Day , marking the legendary formation of the first Korean state of Gojoseon in 2333 BC. Hence my disappointment when the internet claimed that the palace closes on national holidays. Well, even if the inside were closed, I could still have a look at the outside. But instead, closed turned out to mean free entry for the day . Fantastic.  The entire complex took a few hours to finish visiting, with its many pavilions and gardens and mini...

The New Golden Bridge VII ferry at Weihai, China, before its crossing to Incheon, South Korea.  There is precious little English-language information online about how to get from China to South Korea by ferry: there are several ferry links, some of which have been mentioned on various English-language travel websites, but no information post-pandemic. For that matter, it seems there's only one company (Weidong Ferry) that has useable information even on the Chinese-language internet. So, here's my experience: I believe this will be the only English-language post-pandemic information on this ferry link on the internet as of publication.  First, the schedule: ferries run Qingdao-Incheon or Weihai-Incheon on alternate days: the ferry runs from Qingdao at 1900 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, arriving in Incheon at 1100 the following morning. They also run from Weihai at 2100 on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Sundays, arriving at 1000 the next morning. From Weihai, passenger check...

Arrival at Beijing West railway station In the space of 10 years, China went from having no high speed rail at all to then having more than the rest of the world combined. Like many things in the country, it's all at enormous scale: having a billion people in a country the size of Europe tends to do that.  KCR clock tower, next to the Kowloon waterfront One of Hong Kong's symbols is the clock tower of the former 1910-built Kowloon station of the Kowloon - Canton Railway, closed and demolished in 1975. It's a shame, especially given how it's right next to the Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island.  Star Ferry approaching from Hong Kong Island The Star Ferry is a HK institution in its own right and is such a scenic way of arriving at Hong Kong Island. It reminded me of the Mersey Ferry in Liverpool, a similar crossing on similar-era boats.  View from Victoria Peak One of the classic views of the city is from Victoria Peak, accessible from the Peak Tram. Circumnavigating the peak...

Flying over Iraq: possibly Najaf Out of all the London airports, Gatwick Airport is the most annoying airport to get to from East Anglia. I'd have much preferred going from Norwich or literally any of the other London ones, but leaving from Gatwick was considerably cheaper and my Ipswich - Gatwick Airport rail ticket was £11.90 - a similar price to the Ipswich - Stansted coach. At least Gatwick is an airport where one can turn up 1¾ hours before the scheduled flight departure for a long-haul flight without getting nervous.  LGW - DOH: BA2033, 1405-2350 There was a time - not that long ago - when I quite liked flying with British Airways. Long-haul economy class isn't that different between most airlines, but for a long time they'd even offer Worcestershire sauce with their tomato juice and had a doing-things-properly kind of vibe. Alas, not any more. The in-flight entertainment was quite good, with a strong British focus and I could even listen to BBC Proms on the way to Do...