I think I’ve drunk more beer this week in Germany than I would normally do in six months.  It’s just so good.  Something about Germany just forces you to drink enormous glasses of the stuff.

I’m near Stuttgart this week, for work.  Once I finish up tomorrow night, I’m taking a few days off before coming back home.  Might as well get a bit of sightseeing in on the company’s tab (well they paid the airfare to get here).

I got here on Saturday and met some colleagues for a trip to Tubingen for some dinner.  It was really quaint in the old part of the town, and dinner was good, involving of course sausages, sauerkraut and beer.

Took a walking tour in Stuttgart on Sunday, which included the treat of climbing about 300 steps to the top of the Stiftskirche, which is apparently only open for this a few days each year.

Finished the weekend off with another dinner, in Stuttgart, again involving a decent amount of beer, plus schnitzel.

I am off to Germany today.  Stuttgart to be precise, for work.

Then I’m taking a few extra days off to visit Paris.

Back in 2 weeks.

I’m in Shanghai now.  This is approximately what I can see out the window of my hotel room.

I’m staying on the Pudong side of the Huangpu River, and looking straight over to The Bund.

We went for a walk along the Pudong side of the river this afternoon, and then had a look at the City God temple in the Old City part of Shanghai.  Planning to go for a walk along the river one night, and tossing up between a trip to Suzhou or Hangzhou on Saturday.

Oh yeah, there’s work to be done tomorrow and Friday.

I’m in Beijing now, for the next few days.  Checked into the hotel early this morning to shower, change, grab a couple of hours sleep etc, before going out this afternoon to do some tourist stuff, and meet up with one of my Chinese colleagues for some dinner.  Normally I have showers, but in this hotel I’m definitely having a bath at some time, just so I can watch TV while relaxing in the bathtub.

Mind you, the glass wall between the bathroom and the bedroom will take a bit of getting used to, especially the fact that I can sit on the toilet and look out the window of my room … hope no-one in the apartments over the road is looking in.

I’m in Kuala Lumpur for work at the moment, till the end of the week, having arrived last Tuesday night.  So that means we had the weekend to do some sightseeing.   On Sunday, we spent the day at the Kuala Gandah elephant sanctuary, and fed, rode on, and swam with, the elephants.

Here’s some of what I did at the sanctuary.

First of all the keepers washed the elephants in the river.

Then we got to feed them, and ride on them, then the finale.  First, sit on the elephant….

over we go ….

the aftermath, drowned rats.

Well worth the effort to get there if you happen to be in Kuala Lumpur.  And we got a nice drive in the country, sampled some tropical fruits, had a go shooting targets with a blowpipe, and had lunch, local style.

However, back to KL, and work, now, for the rest of this week.

I’m back again Beijing again this week – its becoming my home away from home.  This will be the fifth week I’m spending here in since the middle of October.  I’m supposed to be back again next month too.

I got here last night, about midnight, and started well by leaving my phone in the taxi.  Bummer!  Haven’t got it back, and not liking my chances.

Went for a walk around the local area this morning and found Yuyuantan Park just down the road.  It has a big lake in the middle, and I thought, gee that water is still as I was walking towards it.

Well there was a reason for that.

Obviously its been bloody cold here lately.  I’ve never seen such a large expanse of water frozen like this.  It may be routine for people in North America and northern Europe, but its a novelty for us Australians.  Pretty cool hey.

I went for another look around the neighbourhood tonight looking for dinner.  Could have had Subway, maybe Pizza Hut, but no, I went to a noodle place and had some nice spicy ramen, and grilled chicken skewers.  Nice and safe and boring.  Unlike these delicacies:

I politely turned down the offer from one stallholder to try a bit of starfish.  Actually, I noticed quite a lot of Chinese pointing at and screwing their faces up at some of these yummy treats – so obviously they’re not on the menu for all.