User Comments - brendaninaus

Posted on: Foreign Father Loses His Cool

One custom I encountered, I think from Buddhist Daoism practices, and must say didn't really agree with, was that after my wife miscarried, she was not allowed to visit her sisters and parents home for a certain time. So I had to go there alone where I had dinner and bring her food when I went home.

It felt a bit awkward as their english was very little if at all, and my wife often acted as translator between us. Plus my wife was the connection between them and myself.

Posted on: Hottest and Coolest

Maybe they should do what they do in Thailand, where during the hottest time of the year they have a big festival (their new year, Songkran) which involves huge water fights.

Posted on: Doomsday

Well the Mayans got it wrong.

So when did the Incas predict the end of the world?

Posted on: Talking About Mistakes (Part 2)

same here, so it seems a system issue

Posted on: So Many Airport Fees

I can remember when I was in China with my wife looking at booking a hotel. We found that the prices she got from CTrip (in yuan) were much lower than my Australian dollar prices. But when we went through the buying process we found they yuan price added some taxes that don't appear until the last step of entering credit card details. The price came out to be exactly the same with the dollar price not adding the taxes.

I know the Australian government were looking to stop companies advertising a low price but then adding taxes later on.

Posted on: Terracotta Warriors

Xian is one place where knowledge of Mandarin can be of great help.

There are many tombs around the city and there are 2 main sorts of tours offered by the travel agencies. A Eastern tour (which includes the famous Terracotta warriors) and the Western tour, which has many tombs including many "mini terracotta warriors". The problem is the English tours have many "sites" such as "terracotta warrior factory" visits (basically a tourist trap), and are much more expensive than the tours offered to locals.

I decided to take a Mandarin tour which, despite not really having the Mandarin skills to fully understand what the tour guide was saying and also having difficulty getting on one (many travel agencies refused to let me buy tickets to one), I flet was much mor worthwhile as I did get to see much more of the tombs (there are many, and not all are visited by the tours), and no tourist traps. Plus everyone on the tour wanted to talk with this unexpected laowai on their tour, so I got to practise my Manadarin.

The eastern tour can be done more cheaply by using public transport, but again some mandarin skills are beneficial. As they are in some of the markets where some sellers write the price using Chinese numbers and try to give people they think can not read Chinese foreigner prices.

The tomb of Jingdi, where you walk on glass floors over the excavation isn't bad either, but a bit of a pain to get to, especially with bus conductors telling me to get off at the wrong stop.

Posted on: A Private Money Changer

I never used private money changers in China for fear of been handed fakes, but when I was in Vietnam, on advice of some Australian Vietnamese who were also visiting, I used the local money changing jewellers. The Vietnamese dong is similiar to the Australian money (in fact made by the same company) and is plastic and very hard to fake.

The exchange rates were much better than the banks, and I never had issues with fakes or short changing, but I am still not sure about trying the Chinese private money changers.

Posted on: Chinese Rock Music

The weirdest rock concert experience I had was in a bar in Hangzhou, where I saw a band that played heavy metal mixed in with a singing style from Beijing opera. To be able to switch from the two singing styles must take a lot of talent, although I can't say it sounded that great musically.

Posted on: Where Are the Seat Belts?

I did have a dnagerous experience with a taxi when we enetered a cab, only to notice the driver was quite drunk.

We immediately exited the vehicle, and when some locals heard us say that he was drunk, they forced the taxi to stop and they started dishing at some of their own punishment to the driver. A quite unpleasant experience.

Posted on: The Tea Scam

Actually in Yangshuo, I was approached by some ~11 & 12 year old girls to come for english corner. Having just experienced the scams in Beijing, I was cautious, but having also heard about english corner, and given they were so young I decided to go along.

When they started mentioning "porn" I got worried, but then I found out they were actually trying to ask me where I was BORN.

They took me to a high school, and suddenly 100s of students appeared, and I was asked to give an impromptu speach. I turned out a memeorable night