Last year…I was in Beirut when it was my birthday (today). This year…I spent it in Beijing…went to the ‘Temple of Heaven’.
I wonder where am I going to be next year…although…next year…the 20th of September will be Ramadan Insha2Allah…so I probably won’t be travelling…:D
Cheers!
Akef
Dropped by another internet cafe so that I could upload some pictures…Enjoy 
The following picture was taken by one of the locals…I don’t know why the angle…
I had another picture with some locals:
Lhasa’s location is between the mountains..its really beautiful…take a look at the following…
Just like in the movies…the Potala…
The top of the Jokhang temple is golden:
There’re several Muslims in Lhasa, take a look at that:
My favourite way of transportation in Lhasa…
A lot of the alleys in Lhasa look like this:
Apart from the AMS, Lhasa’s a really great city to visit. If I just had a few extra days I could’ve gone to the Everest Base camp, there’re loads of groups that go there from here…
Cheers!
Akef
I didn’t post anything new in the past few days due to 2 things…I was pretty lazy and I was very tired. Day before yesterday I flew from Xi’an to Lhasa. Xi’an’s altitude is pretty close to sea level. Lhasa’s altitude is around 3700m above sea levels. The Oxygen level at 3700m above sea level is definitely less than at sea level. So the human body takes time to adjust. This effect is called Altitude Motion Sickness(AMS). It differs from person to person, but in first few days (could be 1 could be more) you get headaches…you feel very tired. Anyways…I have many photos that I’ve taken in Xi’an (some of them were pretty interesting), but I’ll post these and talk a little bit about it once I go home (in a couple of weeks Insha2Allah). As for now…I’ll talk about Lhasa…the roof of the world…
Compared to the other parts of China, Lhasa’s pretty isolated. From Xi’an the plane took 2 hours and 50 minutes to reach here. I’m not going to go into Tibet’s history and the Dalai Lama. Tibetans are very warm and friendly. Lhasa is one of the cities were it is very normal to see monks in these orange clothes going around, walking, chanting, shopping, etc. You smile at one of them and he just returns a very warm smile.
In Lhasa there’re 2 main attractions, the first is the Jokhang Temple which is around 1300 years old and is Tibet’s holiest shrine. The second is the Potala Palace which once seat to the Tibetan government and the winter residence of the Dalai Lamas.
Getting tickets for the Potala Palace isn’t as easy as one might think. I think it was recently that they decided to limit the total number of people visiting the Potala Palace to around 500 per day. So to get tickets, you’d have to go early in the morning, where they write a number on your arm and tell you to come back on the same day at a specific time. When you go back at that time you’d basically sit in a pretty long queue (I was number 191) until your turn comes. When your turn comes they take a look at your passport and take the passport number. They’d then give you a card that would allow you to buy the ticket and enter the next day at a certain time. I”ve to admit that several hours are wasted just to get a ticket.
On the first day in Lhasa, I just spent it at the hotel because I was pretty tired (because of AMS). Just by sitting there I met several people from different parts of the world. Each one with a different story.
Spent the first half of the second day getting a ticket for visiting the Potala Palace. Spent the rest of the day wandering around the streets of Lhasa and went to the Barkhor. According the the Lonely Planet book I’ve, the “barkhor is essentially a kora (pilgrim circuit) that proceeds clockwise around the periphery of the Jokhang Temple”. For lunch I had Yak Chowmin, which is basically mixed fried noodles with Yak meat. I found the Yak meat to be too fatty, but it was a nice dish. However next time I’ll have Chicken Chowmin though. I’ll have another post about my 3rd day which was basically the main day for visiting the sites. I have many pictures but I can’t upload it from the internet cafe I’m using right now, I’ll try to find another internet cafe to upload more photos.
Have a nice day!
Akef
Well if you see this
would you think you’re in China town in Portugal or Portugal city in China? Well its in a special administrative region (SAR) in China called Macau. Woke up in the morning, went to the ferry station near Central where I took a ferry to Macau. The ferry is actually pretty good. One thing to note about the ferry station though…I find it closer to an airport interms of cleanliness and organization…nothing like Egypt. There were ferries linking Hong Kong and Macau throughout the day (at least 2 every hour). The journey takes around 45-60 mins as far as I remember and it was a rather pleasant journey. Met Francois, a french reporter who works in Beijing who was in Hong Kong for some work and was going to Macau as a day trip (it was the weekend). When we arrived we went to the tourist office which was very helpful, they gave us a map of Macau and a list of suggested walks around the city. We then took a bus and had lunch then went to what seemed to be the main downtime square in Macau.
Macau was a Portugese(this the correct spelling) for a pretty long time. So as you could see from the picture above or the following two Macau had a lot of Portugese influence. In Hong Kong a lot of the things are written in Cantonese (Chinese) and English. However over here its in Cantonese (Chinese) and Portugees.
Walked around Macau (which is pretty small, but bigger than Bahrain I think), really impressive architecture.
And then took the ferry back to Hong Kong at 9 pm.
Since Macau is an SAR, when I went from Hong Kong to Macau I got an exit stamp on my passport.
When I entered Macau got a Macau entry stamp on my passport.
When I exited Macau got a Macau exit stamp on my passport.
When I entered Hong Kong, I got a Hong Kong entry stamp on my passport.
So that 4 stamps on my passport in less than 12 hours. They took around a whole page 
Anyways I need to go now…I’m in Xi’an right now and have a flight tommorrow morning to Lhasa (in Tibet), so I need to get some good sleep before.
Good night!
Akef
Well…a lot has been happening in the past few days. The flight from Dubai to here wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. It was onboard a Boeing 777-300 and the seat pitch was actually pretty good (for economy class that is). To my dissapointment the flight was completely full, I was really hoping that the chair next to me would be empty.
Arrived in Hong Kong on Friday evening. The airport in HKG is actually a very nice airport. Immigration was a breeze. Egyptians get to get a 90 day visa free stay which -I’ve to admit- is highly convenient. After immigration and luggage claim I went to the tourist office where I got some brochures about the main sights in Hong Kong and some maps. The guy at the tourist office spoke fluent English and was very friendly (I guess both of these are a part of his job description). Took bus A21 to Nathan road in Kowloon. That street is very…alive…and it has a lot of the minorities you could find in Hong Kong. It has a lot of people from India, Pakistan and different parts of Africa. A lot of the Indians in Nathan road try to tell you one of the following…do you want a suit…or a shirt…nice tailor…a fake watch…a fake bag…Halal food. You’ll find a lot of old chinese ladies distributing brochures about foot massage which is usually available in the building right next to where they’re standing. On my second day here I went to one of those foot massages and they’re really relaxing, especially after having a long day of walking.
To my surprise Nathan road has the Kowloon Islamic center, which has a mosque. So I guess it was a reminder of home.
On the second day (Saturday), kicked off by having a coffee at Starbucks (yeah I know not the most authentic chinese breakfast…). Decided to go to one of the top attractions here, Victoria’s peak. I took the MTR to central and walked to the tram station (the tram takes you up at an angle of around 45 degrees). IT has been there for a very long time. I don’t remember the exact date though… Just when I was about the board the tram, it started raining…and when it rains in Hong Kong….it rains..and rains..and rains…or at least that was the case on that day. When we arrived at the ‘peak’ went to Madame Tussaud (not sure of the spelling). Yes its kind of similar to the one in London, and iw was actually pretty nice. The eyes of these statues are so….real.
Went back down (using the tram) and went to one of the biggest malls around here, Pacific place. Well its not as big as Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, however just one thing to say…in the middle of the mall there was a fashion show by Emporio Armani (or some other fashion house I don’t really remember). They setup a stage in the middle of the mall and ofcourse entrace was by private invitation.
At night went and had dinner at a Korean restaurant (yes Korean not Chinese) and it was so good. Had assorted rice and a Chicken barbeque…mmmmm…very tasty
Anyways I need to go pickup a plane ticket now, I’ll be heading for Xi’an in a few hours. I’ll have a post about my trip to Macau yesterday (Sunday) soon.
Cheers!
Akef
I’ve been pretty unactive over the course of the past few months, however hopefullyt his will be different for the coming 2 weeks. I just arrived in Hong Kong yesterday. And the current plan is to go into China in around 2 or 3 days. The whole trip will be around 2 weeks. And hopefully I’ll be posting pictures soon. Today has been a day with a lot of walking and ended with a foot massage 
Its really really relaxing. I need to go now to get some dinner but I’ll be posting another post very soon Insha2Allah.
Cheers!
Akef