12-03-10 - Siem Reap - Tonie Sap Floating Village

I had a bit of a later start today, as we decided to go out last night and hit the town with incredibly cheap booze on offer.

So, enjoyed a nice sleep in with no time pressures, as the our next scheduled group activity wasn't till 2.30pm.

I had a few hours to spare, so I decided to go back out to Angkor Wat and get myself a Balloon ride near the main temple site. It's not really a ride, more so a giant balloon with a round viewing ring that they release up into the sky for 10 minutes, then winch you back.

Caught a Tuk Tuk into town so I could change the rest of my Thailand money to US dollar. Exchange rate at the ANZ Royal bank wasn't great, but it got the job done. By the looks of the logo it's the ANZ bank of back home doing a joint venture.

The Tuk Tuk ride out to the balloon site was pretty good, as yesterday we took the same route, but in the comfort of an air conditioned bus. The road is almost dead straight and you eventually hit the moat of Angkor Wat on the right side. Went around to the main bridge and turned up the road, heading to the balloon site and time for some no doubt fantastic photo opportunities!

Unloaded myself to be greeted by a lady to tell me that the balloon was not open right now, as it was too windy. Gutted, I got back into the Tuk Tuk and headed back into town. The ride back was pretty interesting, as the driver picked a back road through the jungle that wasn't straight, or wide.

Lunch was good, roasted cashew with chicken and then I caught the Tuk Tuk back to the Hotel to meet up with the rest of the group.

At 2.30 we were ready to go, with all 8 of us piling into the two Tuk Tuks. The plan was to head to Tonie Sap, a giant freshwater lake that greatly increases in size during the wet season, in some places going from 3 metres deep to 14 metres deep. What happens is that during the wet season, the Mekong River has so much water put through the system, it actually backs up and flows backwards, into the Tonie Sap. Areas that are forests in the dry season are then flooded and this has created a system where fish absolutely thrive, generating massive fish catches that runs the local economy. The flip side is of course this system is under threat, as up stream China is creating more dams and climate change could seriously effect the system.

Foreign investment is easy to see on the way there, as there are wells, houses and other facilities that were established with foreign investment and/or aid and has signs up telling you who or what gave the money that built it. We traveled first through the edges of the town, a mix of houses, both very old and new, workshops and shops that had 2 litre bottles filled with fuel out the front for convenience. Slowly, this gave way to rice fields, some dry, some burnt out and some with rice growing. Houses on stilts lined the raised road, as this is all part of the lake system, and will flood when the lake does.

We eventually arrived at what would be the start of our boat journey to the lake proper. With foreign monetary assistance, a massive channel has been dug from the lake to create a place where the water is deep enough to have easy access for the boats all year round, with the earth from channel stacked up to make the road, so you have good access and facilities to the lake, no mater what the season is.

It took us some time to get out of the channel and I was starting to wonder if this was going to be it, in the dry season.

As we got closer to the lake, we were boarded by pirates! Well, not real pirates, but small boats with an adult driving it, and small children jumping aboard to sell drinks, food or souvenirs. Sometime they would just pull up aside the boat and hawk their wares, sometimes they would just beg for money, and one time a little girl demanded 1 dollar from us. When we told her no, so reached into a large sack and pulled out a massive snake and draped that around herself. Then it was 1 dollar for photograph…

Our guide assured us that none of these people were Cambodian, and they were all Vietnamese, whether that was true, or just his national pride speaking, I do not know.

Pirates aside, the channel finally opened up and we were able to see the true extend of the lake at last. It's huge, you can't see the other sides in any direction and it's very muddy and shallow. We were told it will go crystal clear in the wet season and many metres deep.

In front of us was a veritable flotilla of floating houses, floating community halls and even a floating basketball court. Dogs guarded their small house, children were in the water washing their hair and the pirates started to launch toddlers in large cooking pots to beg for money from us.

But, ah, enough of that.

We passed through the core of the 'village' and disembarked at one of the tourist 'fish farms'. It was floating tourist deck with souvenirs, cold drinks and a higher viewing deck. They had fish farm pens off to the side, one with catfish you could feed and the other with a few crocodiles. A small museum was also here, which had information about the lake and the fish they capture there.

This floating platform, as well as many of the houses, was kept afloat by packs of bamboo tied together and placed under the houses in large 'logs'. Houses that were not constructed this way used empty drums or purpose built tanks. Most of the houses were constructed of wood. If you needed to move your house, you would have to tow it out, as none of them had a motor, well, none that I could see.

The sun was getting low, so we boarded our boat and headed back to the channel and eventually met up with our Tuk Tuks for the ride to a 'guest house' where we watched the sun go down from our hammocks.

13/01/10 - Harbin - City and Religious Sights

Last day in Harbin! Last chance for a real chance of frostbite.

Though on occasions I may have come close.

Anyways, through the Hotel I booked a railway ticket for a 'soft sleeper' to Beijing that night. Checkout is at midday, but I took the hit and paid the half day late fee so I could stay in my room till 6pm. The train didn't leave till 9 or so at night, so I had time yet to explore.

On a similar theme of 'What have I not seen that's in the Lonely Planet book' from yesterday, I had a few landmarks near the city centre that needed looking at, so today was all about trying to find and view them. Mostly religious buildings of the Jewish and Islamic faith, now seemingly disused for worship today.

I managed to get off the bus in a different, but correct place and the first thing to draw my attention was the many interesting buildings in the area.

Well, no actually. The first scene that I was keen in looking more at (photographing) was the collection of man holes in the streets that were pouring out steam. Well, I hope it was steam.

Oh, that and what must have been a baby photography place, which instead of the usual pictures of babies with sunflowers, had pictures of babies holding guns and swords over movie poster backgrounds.

Getting my bearings, I explored the cityscape, finding the odd interesting piece of local city life, whether it be the corner food vendors or the lady who dumps her hot water on the sidewalk/street, which was developing into a very 'interesting' patch of solid ice.

The first of the sights I came to was an old Jewish Synagogue, now converted into a hostel and shops. After that I found a Islamic temple, but it was currently closed.

Not sure if I mentioned it, but Harbin used to have over 20,000 jewish people, who came during the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, most fleeing persecution in Russia, if I remember correctly. Now all that's left are their places or worship and the European flavour of a lot of the older buildings.

The last place I wanted to see proved to be trickier to find, as I now believe the location for it on the Lonely Planet map was incorrect. On the upside, by pure chance, I did find the 'Kangaroo Internet Hotel', a high rise that was painted in earthy tones and featured a Kangaroo in its logo.

The 'New Jewish Synagogue' was my last destination, and at last I had found it. This Synagogue as been converted into the Harbin Architecture Art Gallery on the ground floor, with the two floors above converted into a museum detailing the history of the Jewish people when they inhabited Harbin in numbers.

The art gallery featured photography of Harbin, most from the summer time, and had a few models of various buildings scattered through out. At the end of the room was four paintings, that were done in a style I have not seen before. Basically, the artist would carve out the design for the picture in the wood, then paint over that for an effect that would really pop out the edge details.

At first, I was disappointed that I could not access upstairs to view the museum, as I could see various exhibits from the main hall area that cut through the floors. I thought this, as all the lights where off, but as I was motioned up, it turns out they only turn on the lights if a visitor is present. As soon as I had left the first floor, all the lights there were turned off there.

The museum was well presented, with english captions throughout, and dealt with the jewish people who came to call Harbin home for a while. The first floor of the museum detailed the paths the people took to reach Harbin, mostly via the newly constructed railway. It then delved into the cultural and economic influences that they contributed to the city and the surround area, if not country.

There are rooms housing mock ups of how the jewish people lived back in the day, with the first room showing how a businessman's officer would look, another showing a mother teaching a child the piano, and the last one featured a bedroom scene, with children playing on the bed and their mother watching on, knitting. Each room had artworks, religious items and household items all on display, and all seemed to be preserved originals.

The stairs up to the next floor featured walls with photos and captions of world famous jewish people, or as the caption put it, 'The Jew of world famous.'

On the top floor, over half was devoted to famous jewish people who have their origins in Harbin, like ex Israel Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. Towards the end, there was photos from the local graveyard of people standing next to their ancestors and finally, an area that had a large jewish star on the roof and around that, photos with captions, of famous people to have visited the museum, jewish or not.

The stairs down to the exit was devoted to photos of Albert Einstein and eventually I made my way out, finding a taxi and headed back to the hotel to prepare to leave Harbin that night.

On a side note, the one thing I have yet to figure out is where did all the Jewish people go. The Museum made a strong case the bulk of them left for Israel over time, and other destination counties got a mention. But that doesn't seem to be the full story, as there was no reason given to why they left Harbin after establishing a sizeable community there. May have to look this up one day.

12/01/10 - Harbin - Japanese Germ Warfare Experimental Base

With only a day and a half to go in Harbin, I decided to cover the last remaining location listed in the Lonely Planet guidebook, the Japanese Germ Warfare Experimental Base.

Or what's left of it, as they torched most of it to try and destroy the evidence at the end of World War 2.

Had no idea how to get there, so the forever helpful concierge managed to relay to the driver where I wanted to go.

While I did get dropped off in the general area, it turns out the building I was dropped off in front was a office building, and quite a few office workers were puzzled about why some huge guy with a camera taking photos was coming through their building. Luckily I was saved via the chinese text in the Lonely Planet book and pointed in the correct way to go, quite a distance down the street.

The entry was at the last remaining sentry box at the south gate, which you needed to collect a ticket out of for entry. Passing through the gate, the last remaining building on site houses a museum about what happened on this site, as well as in the surrounding country.

Terrible things happened here. They basically experimented on people for biological warfare purposes, injecting germs, viruses and bacteria and then either seeing how long it would take for a person to die, or let the illness take effect, then cut a person open to and take out the organs while they were alive for study.

Tests were also conducted to find out the limits of how a human can cope with say, no oxygen or hypothermia.

Look up 'Unit 731' or just 731 on wikipedia or the like for a more detailed run down.

As for the exhibit itself, it's well presented, there are english captions throughout and there are guides there that speak multiple languages. Many relics of that era are on display, such as weapons, germ canisters and surgical equipment with dioramas depicting various horrors as well.

At the end of the museum is a room dedicated to showing how the truth has been uncovered in the intervening years, with interviews with repentant Japanese soldiers, archaeological digs as well as the many books and documentaries that have been produced to spread the word.

The exit was around the back of the building, which led you to the back lot, which was a bit featureless as it was covered in snow, but there were still holes here and there with brickwork foundations showing where buildings had been, before they had been blown up or levelled.

After some time of walking around the back, I eventually made my way to the exit and onto the street. I could just see down the street a lot of cars and activity so I made my way in that direction.

It was a multilevel grocery store, which was handy, as I wanted to get the hotel staff something for their help, but I'm still a bit uneasy about tips. I must have been the only foreigner in that store for a while, as I attracted a crowd of lookers, pointers and the odd 'hello' followed by giggles. Interesting!

In the end I settled on an expensive tin of chocolates and made my way out. I waited ages for an 'official' taxi to come by, before giving up and going for one of the unofficial ones. It was a little van that had iced up windows that were heavily tinted so I had no idea where I was, or where I was going. I think the drivers where a husband and wife team and they were nice enough, eventually dropping me off a block past the hotel, which was good enough for me!

11/01/10 - Harbin - Sun Island

Now, so far I've seen the buildings made out of ice and the park that has the 'Disneyland' and ice sculptures, but I had not found where the snow sculptures are, and I've seen news reports about the sculptures on the internet and via an email from Mum.

Today I finally found them. But, I am getting ahead of myself.

Feeling bolder after yesterday's success, I caught the bus like an old pro into town and got off near the park with the Disney stuff, much like yesterday. I made my way to the Flood Control Monument and once there, was rewarded with a expansive view of the frozen river, with ice skating, dog sledding, horse and buggies a better view of the ice slides from the night before. On the right you had the railway bridge in the distance and on the left you have the Cable Car that takes you over the river, and much further along you have the traffic bridge.

My main aim was to just enjoy the sights and make my way to the Cable Car, which got much bigger the closer I got. Close by, a man was digging a hole in the ice and pulling out a bucket of water to give to the horses. A little further along kids were pedalling some sort of reverse tricycle on the ice, with a couple of poor, bored looking dogs having a rest, still hooked up to a sled. In the distance on the river there was horse drawn buggies, cars and a few people just walking across the frozen expanse to the other side.

Eventually, I came to the main building of the cable car, climbed up, paid the ticket and boarded. Just me in the cabin, which was good, as I was being very careful moving about the cabin trying to put my camera through a few little open windows, while desperate not to rock it too much.

Rising, the first thing to catch my eye was the docks, with boats tied up along side and frozen in place by the ice. It looked like most of the boats there were either ferries or touristy ones, the more industrial ones must have been elsewhere, or headed south for the winter.

Still not even to the first tower, I could get a really good view of the ice festival activities on the river and the city itself behind me. People are being reduced to ants, or nothing at all and the sun makes it easier to pick out where the snow has been cleared off the ice to allow skating, or the like.

First tower, the dread sets in as you go click clack over the wheels holding the cable in place. It's bloody high and the next tower is barely in view.

Looking up river, I can barely make out the traffic bridge, but looking that way it's really quite pretty. The sun is directly that way, and the ever present ice haze diffuses the light everywhere, while reducing how far you can see. The river itself is covered with little tracks everywhere as people have recently walked across it and left fresh prints in the snow. My picture of this scene is one of my favourites so far.

I can make out the other side of the river now and I see it, a massive snow sculpture in the distance that tells me I am on the right track for the rest of the snow sculptures. I pass the second tower, and it's all down from here.

I don't know if it was being so high, the open windows or the fact it was just plain cold, but my brain was only half working, and the commentary for a video I shot up there came off sounding rather stupid. Ah well.

Safely getting off the cable car, I was on Sun Island, which seems to be the main recreational park for tourists and locals alike, especially in the summer time, looking at the various promotional posters.

It's pretty tourist friendly, with maps of the island and facilities with english titles to complement the chinese and russian ones.

On the way to where I hoped the snow sculptures would be, I passed a mock russian tourist village that also featured a sign out the front with pictures of people putting their heads in crocodiles, bikini mud wrestling, showgirls and a photo of a woman in 'typical' russian military uniform with gun drawn. It was open, and though all of the above looked interesting (you know, the folksy old russian village aspect) I was fast running out of light and continued past it.

I was a bit bummed this entrance to the park featured a massive Chip 'n' Dale (Disney Characters) snow sculpture that you walked through, impressive as it was, but just yeah, having corporate Disney stuff everywhere was wearing thin, though kids would have be going nuts with joy.

Like with the other two ice festival venues, you need to purchase a ticket to enter, and once paid, I was in.

The path in was lined with snow sculptures, which I'd assume are all for competitions, or at the very least, needed to share a theme for this area. I finally came across some snow sculpted buildings, which you could climb on and over, one was half a sphere with stairs up the side, another was a traditional chinese looking building, and one of the larger ones was rectangle shaped, with a bar in it, with snow bottles, stools, the bar itself and so on.

I saw my first food/drink shop too, and like all of the ones on the island, they are hidden under a whole lot of snow, with windows and door hole carved out, and the rest just stylised to how ever they see fit.

Walking further in, in the middle of a pedestrian round-a-bout was a massive hedge that was shaped to be a phoenix, with fake trees with LED lights as leaves around it, and a snow wall around those. The next round-a-bout featured a large snow sculpture of a dancing woman, with robes flowing from her.

I could have continued straight down the path as I had been, but something caught my eye at this round-a-bout. I had seen signs for the 'Naive Bear Paradise' and only now could I see what it was.

It's basically a amusement park with carousel, various other rides and a mini roller coaster. It was all shut and coated in snow, with some rides covered, and others just left to the elements. Spread through out where cartoon styled bear statues doing cartoony bear things. It was all cheerful and kid friendly, but felt a bit sinister to me. I got plenty of photos, plus it was here I noticed my beanie, face mask and hood were icing up for the first time from my breath.

It's cold here, not sure if I have mentioned that before.

As I made my way back to the last round-a-bout, I made a startling discovery. Some person in their wisdom thought it would be a good idea to mix nice rough stone slabs on the foot paths with shiny, SLIPPERY, edge ones. I almost went arse up a dozen times due to these polished edge stones.

Must look nice in summer.

Walking a bit more, I was finally in the centre of the Island park, as noted with the tourist information centre that is perched over the now frozen lake. This was quite a busy area, with trucks and loaders dumping off snow, very large snow sculptures where under construction on the lake itself and on land, the competition snow sculptures featured simple square blocks for the beginning, an area which had participants from various countries furiously carving their snow blocks and a little further on, completed competition snow sculptures, with small description and team nationality of those who carved it.

Watching the snow sculptors at work was interesting, for most of the work they just used a shovel like implement to hack off the snow to get the rough shape they required. Some had drawn basic outlines of the end creation as a guide, some just seemed to be doing it freehand, though I'd imagine a lot of pre-planning went into these creations.

It was about this time the lights came on, coloured lights for the various completed sculptures and portable lights for the works in progress. I left the sculptors to their carving and went to check out the finished works.

The coloured lights really added an extra 'zing' to the look of the sculptures, and it's a shame that this didn't carry across well to the photos I took. A lot of them were hollow, or snaked into themselves, and again, this doesn't come across well in my photos. Bummed out I am now, but ah well, next time!

I reckon my favourite one there was the large robot one, which I think was to represent the future and clean living.

That or the upcoming domination of our future robot overlords.

A little in the distance was the massive snow sculpture I spotted while in the cable car. I had first seen it in a internet news article, where it was the scene of a mass wedding, which I think is semi-traditional now for the area.

It indeed is massive. With lights on board and many large powerful spotlights shining on it from the front, at ground level. On the outside of it, were stylised people with their arms up, with flying Pegasus' surrounding a large round chinese temple with large flowers under that. Tough to describe, I've got close up shots of it, but unfortunately my full shot of it all got blurred out.

To the left of that was a long wall, that had posters built into it, describing Sun Island in all the seasons, the attractions as well as proclaiming that it's a AAAAA official rated tourist attraction. Sun Island looks pretty good in the summer, and they even have a squirrel park! Maybe even the bear amusement park is operating!

Backtracking, I went back through the snow sculptures, looking at the ones I missed the first time round and settled in for a while watching the snow sculptors at work. For the most part, the just fairly savagely hack at the snow blocks, it must be rather compacted and they even use their large 'shovel' tool for finer work. I couldn't say how big a team is, but I'd guess 4, with a few of the more adventurous ones on top of the snow hacking away from under them. Again, my photos tell a better story than I can tell.

It was good to spend time there, I could see the sculpts beginning to take shape, or refined further and, what the.

Turns out 6pm is closing time and all the lights go out. That was fun.

Still, it wasn't too bad, the ice haze just reflected plenty of light from the city over the river, so I had no trouble really seeing. I just had to work out what was the correct exit, which wasn't difficult, I just picked the one with the biggest car park.

Actually, now I think of it, just before lights out, taxis started to come on the paths in the park, I thought it was odd, but now it makes sense.

Anyways, turns out the way I picked for out, was the main grand entrance to the park. At the exit, before the bridge, there are two massive snow sculptures on either side of the road, that were basically murals depicting the history of China on one side, and the present accomplishments on the other. Very impressive, both in what was shown, and the scale of the sculpture itself.

Walking over the bridge, I caught up with a whole lot of police, which was nice and eventually I passed through the main gates could easily the Harbin Polar Land, as it was just on the other side of the car park. After a little while, a taxi came by and I made my way back to the hotel.

Thoughts. I really should have came earlier to the park, as the better photos of the snow sculptures I got in better light, or pure direct light from spotlights. The snow sculptures that had the coloured lights totally just didn't work out when I looked at the shots later. Unlike the ice sculptures, and the ice buildings, I think daytime is the best time to view the snow sculptures.

Though, it did bugger me up the 6pm lights off, meant I couldn't backtrack as I had planned and take more shots while fiddling with the camera settings.

I had a good day, regardless. Little frightened while on the cable car, but the views were completely worth it and I am sure it was the coldest day I've been through.

10/01/10 - Harbin - Flood Control Monument and Zhongyang Dajie

The cold weather finally caught up with me today as I had developed one nasty cold that had me spluttering, sneezing and hacking up interesting things all morning and afternoon.

After the second long hot shower of the day, and being unable to find a poor taxi driver to understand me, I worked out which bus to take into the city centre (via the ever helpful hotel staff). Pretty standard ride, though I did eventually pull my hood over my face to stop freaking people out when they got on the bus and caught sight of me. The windows of this bus were VERY thickly covered in ice on the inside, so I had no idea where I was, or when to get off, and only managed to get off in a good enough place when I saw the bright glow of the Disney ice sculptures through the front of the bus.

My destination was a park I saw when previously I passed it in a taxi heading back from the Zhaolin Park (where the ice sculptures and disney stuff was). So I knew how to get there from the park, where handily the bus had dropped me off near.

Turns out what I saw was not a park at all, but actually the Flood Control Monument, which you see as the logo on every single official taxi in the city. Oh, and on the some of the banners that are advertising what I think is a subway system that is under construction.

From the plaque 'It was constructed in 1958 in memory of the case that Harbin people defeated super flood and built permanent river bank in 1957. It is an important landmark of Harbin.'

Lonely Planet mentions it is also to honour the people who died in previous floods. But nothing official was on display to this end.

The monument is a large, tall pedestal with carvings depicting various scenes, topped with statues of heroic looking workers. The area at large is ringed with a columned semi circle that had a swishing colour changing light bar going back and forth, with spotlights on top trained at the pedestal.

Off to the side is the increasingly familiar blue 'thing' mascot for the Shanghai 2010 World Expo and behind it was huge ice slides that would go out and end on top of the ice covered river.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot. Okay, all over town I've seen vendors selling this fruit, or berry, on sticks covered in toffee that I have been meaning to try. On the way to the monument, I spotted a vendor with heaps of them and thought to try my luck.

First thing, since they're out in the cold, they're completely frozen solid. There was about six on my stick, and I ate four before I threw the rest away. Terrible! Like not ripe apples and bananas being not ripe and terrible. Or sour, as my chinese friend gave me a better way of describing it. She also informed me the snack is pronounced as Tang Hu Lu. The fruit is Hawkthorn.

But anyways, gotta try out the local flavours, I mean, we foist Vegemite on unsuspecting people.

Okay, back to the monument area. Off to the right there was a ice sculpture of sorts. By the looks there were some small trees in this little patch, and someone has poured a little water over the branches over time. So you have this effect of tree branches, coated in a thick layer of ice, and in the middle where the ice is the most thickest, someone has carved out some chinese styled buildings.

This is all on the river's edge and according the Lonely Planet, this area is known as Stalin Park and extends for quite some distance either way, along the riverbank. It's quite a nice area with a straight path covered over in trees for as far as I could see in either direction.

After exploring the ice slide areas a little, even had a old lady try to get me to ride a horse drawn sled to 'somewhere', I eventually made way for Zhongyang Dajie area, the cobblestone street that is off limits to cars and serves as the main shopping area, as well as having most of the older European style buildings, in the city. It's on the same street as the Flood Control Monument, so looking down from it you can see the crowd, the colours and the flood lights in various places, but you certainly can't see where it ends.

It is absolutely a shopping area, with boutiques, brand name stores and even a Walmart off to the side. There's colourfully lit ice sculptures all the way through it and the buildings themselves are lit up, whether it be soft lighting or neon signage.

Took me quite some time to work my way through it all, and eventually I came to the end where taxis show up every now and then, so after a little wait I got back to the Hotel.

I don't think I can mention it enough, but Harbin is cold. Like dangerously cold. Only go out at night if you are either well equipped for it, or in my case, have handy shops or shopping centres you can go into to warm up in.

Oh, today was when I found out about pit toilets. They are the pits. Imagine that!

09/01/10 - Harbin - Siberian Tiger Park

Want to see fear on a taxi driver's face? Be a foreigner with basic to no local language skills and want to go to a place well on the other side of a city, in a remote location. Via pointing at the handy map and concierge being helpful as ever, we were off!

After getting lost a few times, no, really, the poor driver had to get directions from various people and turn around a few times, we made it to the destination, Harbin's Siberian Tiger Park.

While purchasing a ticket for the bus ride through the park, I noticed that you could buy various live animals, from chickens to cows to be feed for your entertainment to the Tigers. A domestic duck was 100 yuan, or about $15 dollars and a cow was 1,500 yuan, or about $238.

I did not have 1,500 yuan on me. Bugger.

But I did get to see what happens when you release a bird to 30 tigers, via someone else's purchase, but more on that later.

Ticket in hand, I made way to the waiting building which had various tourist trinkets in one area, and a tiger 'exhibit' in the other, with skeleton and skeleton with bits of tendons etc still attached to it, preserved in fluid.

English use! Ah, Americans! They had worked out whom to pay to get your photo taken while holding a baby tiger on your lap. I was tempted, but the poor little bugger looked a bit shellshocked at being manhandled so much, plus I still couldn't work out where to pay for the experience.

Eventually, my ticket number came up and we were herded onto a bus to be taken through the park. Now, as I later found out, there were two types of buses on the park, one sort had metal mesh inside so you could have the windows open and stick your cameras out. The other sort had no mesh, and the windows remained shut.

So, the windows on the bus were completely covered in ice from the inside and we spent the first 5 minutes of the tour furiously trying to scrape off the ice, or use your hands to warm it up to water and wipe it off. This was a battle you had to fight for the entire tour, and given ice also started to form on the outside, it wasn't the best view.

Still, when the image of a tiger came through your blurry little view hole, it was just about worth it. The parklands themselves are fenced in, and compartmentalised quite a bit so while the tigers do get some space, you do see the bulk of the moving ones just pacing up and down the fences.

Oddly, no doubt to increase the appeal for what they have, there was even some who had their own field out in the snow. I wouldn't know if they can insulate themselves against the cold, but it just seemed wrong.

Near the end of the bus tour, we stopped and I think one of the cars that roam the enclosures must have released a live something. As the tigers started roaring and everyone ran to the front of the minibus to see what was going. If you were seated from the middle of the bus back, you'd have no chance of seeing what happened as some of the more 'pro gear' camera guys were very pushy. I was near the very back.

Still, bus tour ended we were directed to a series of elevated walkways, that wound around some pens housing tigers, as well as a lion, a cheetah, a jaguar and a panther. Needless to say, still bummed about the small spaces for these animals and the cold they had to be in.

The walkways were fully caged and you were given the opportunity to buy some meat to feed to the tigers that happened to be close. Fully stretched up a tiger could just touch the meat and so we all got shots of the tiger doing so, though through heavy fencing.

Most people continued on through the walkways as they wound around and to the exit. However I went up some stairs to the platforms where it wasn't caged and you could then way out to a platform over one of the larger fields full of tigers. I spent ages up there, got some really good shots and the tigers had much more space to play with. I saw other tour buses go through and eventually a bus came up with a armoured car behind it.

The tigers were suddenly interested and crowded the car, the guy opened his door to shoo them off and then released a duck into their midst. The duck must have had it's wings clipped but it made a good go of flying off, almost making it to the roof of the tour bus, with about 30 tigers just pawing at it and the bus. Now that would have been exciting to be inside!

Eventually it just could not make it and fell back into the pack of tigers and a tiger emerged victorious with a meal.

A little later another duck was released and this one had less time to live as the tigers got it much quicker, with again, a single one running off with a meal. On the other side of the platform was another field and a busload there got to see a bird released, this one made it all the way to the tree line, close to the platform, before it succumbed.

I must have been up there for a hour, it was the best way to see the tigers with out a doubt. The buses would probably be a better way during the summer time, as I imagine the park comes alive then too.

Plus you can see out of them then.

Back into the car park area, there was a globe of the earth showing where the park was, two themed parks where one had a 'fun' tiger kids theme, and the other was a more somber themed one, more educational I'd imagine.

A video screen was playing showing a documentary with subtitles about the park, and it was only as I was about to leave did the end credits show who produced it. It was a Foreign Correspondent from 2007 produced by our very own ABC.

It can be found here http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/video_archive_2007.htm I think.

All up the park was so-so, the animals are magnificent and were great to see, but like with most zoos, you're half thrilled to see them, half bummed out they're there. But as per the Lonely Planet book mentions, the park is doing a good job at breeding these rare tigers, so maybe it's for the best until things improve in the wild.

Worth a visit for sure.

09/01/10 - Harbin Polar Land

I left the tigers to their birds and caught a taxi to Harbin Polar Land, a building that houses all sorts of Arctic and Antarctic creatures, with a few in between. Outside there were snow and ice sculptures, plus a ice slide and ice houses with little tables and chairs made out of ice inside.

The first creatures you see after entering are fish, of all things, with the added bonus of being able to bottle feed the Koi, those large orange and white ornamental fish you typically see in Japanese movies and the like. There are also a whole pond of them at the Singapore Flyer too.

And yeah, as in use a baby bottle to feed them, instead of the more typical throw stuff at them.

Other tanks housed Elephant Sharks, various catfish, sturgeon, various stingrays and something you should look up, a 'Mandarin duck underwater' correctly called a Limulus, a sort of living fossil, like those hard shelled crab-like creatures you see from ocean fossils from the Jurassic era etc.

After that I walked down a corridor lined with portholes that had chinese descriptions of famous ocean explorers, the only one I managed to easily recognise was Captain Cook. At the end of this corridor was a large aquarium, suspended in it was a large love heart outline made out of fake flowers with fish swimming all around it. Quite a few couples had photos taken in front of it in the short time I was there.

More small aquariums with tropical fish and coral, one had a whole mess of Moray Eels curling around each other and yet another was a cylinder aquarium with a rotating 'chandelier' of shells that housed poisonious fish, such as the Lionfish, in it.

It was at this point I got the hurry on via a helpful employee, moving everyone through the rest of the building to where they had the last seal show of the day.

The show was pretty good, the seals where well trained and got fed well for their efforts. Did a good mix of humour and showmanship. Other than that, it was a seal show, with all that entails. The music was VERY recognisable from movies, even the podium was a character from a recent kid's CG movie. As with everything, it was indoors and the crowd was kept in the dark. But so people could see a little, they had painted icicles on the support columns. These then glowed via the nearby ultra violet lights (those purple ones that makes your white clothes glow) and looked like they really were made out of ice, it was a neat effect.

After the show finished and I battled the crowds some, I went back to where I left off at the fish aquariums. Standard aquarium fish were there with the most interesting being a few starfish affixed to a viewing window, next to sucker fish that were doing the same, so you can see how they affix themselves.

The next area had a shallow 'pond' you could watch seals just swimming in, with a helpful cartoon sign to remind you that seals will munch on your fingers should you give them the opportunity.

From there was the penguin room which. like the Singapore penguin exhibit, had a tank where you could watch the penguins on or below the water, or the ground behind that. Apparently they recently celebrated the first chick born there too.

Arctic foxes and their pups featured next, with the foxes in a small glass enclosure and the pups in a similar glass enclosure, that featured a large hamster wheel for one to run in. The foxes just circled their glass cage, it was depressing.

Going by the advertising, the polar bears are the headline act for the park, but their area was drained and under renovation when I was there. I could just see one at the back of the enclosure in a little cage. It looks like they do not get much room either.

The areas for the Arctic foxes and the polar bears were a bit depressing, but they had nothing on the tank allocated to the two Beluga's or White Whales. They had just enough room to circle over and over, not on top of the water, as there was not enough room, but like viewing a wheel of a car.

It made sense why this was so when the show started, as it gave the audience an easy close contained way to view the whales, as they performed graceful tricks with the trainer who was with them. You could choose to watch the show from above or below the water, with large LCD screens on either floor so you would not miss the action. To finish out the show they blew air rings from their blowhole, that expanded as they went up.

From there it was jellyfish of all sorts in large plastic tubes with various multicoloured lights on them, then through to the large aquarium featuring sharks, turtles, cod and various other large fish. Projected on the opposite wall was a fish screensaver that I don't think I've seen for like 10 years. A blank wall would have been preferable.

Running the gambit of souvenirs shops and eateries, I ended up outside where after a bit of worry, I managed to hail a cab and get back to the hotel.

All up, this place was depressing. While it's not run down, the animals look healthy and it's clean. It's just the lack of space for the animals. I can understand they want to give the audience the best possible view of the animals, or the lack of funds perhaps, but it was just so depressing that the animals should have had bigger enclosures. I know that's my opinion from what I've seen back home but I just came away from this place bummed out.

Kids would love it much more, as perhaps they won't be bothered by it.