Frozen toes, one sheep, ### tigers and some silly foreigners

Since Devrim, Sheila and Nick have all posted some nice comments on our common trip to Harbin last weekend (060120 - 060123), mine will consist of no more than keywords and pics (saying sometimes more than a thousand words (but require, at times, some clarifying comments.. see below..;)

• Who: Sheila, Habib, Simon, Nick, Devrim, Aude, Rebecca and Dom
  
• Trip: 12 hours. Train. Soft Sleeper. Silly, noisy (drinking) games. Passed out > 2 hours of blackout. Also Chinese can sound like rusty chainsaws (Habib learned it the hard way).
  
• City: Harbin. In the North-East of the PRC. Considerable Russian influence (Architecture, Fashion, Vodka (Elaboration of this point on Devrim's BLOG..)). Bloooody cold (-28C at night. No way one can send a textmessage without gloves. Dropping pants works however.. (eg. silly foreigners..;))
• Ice Lantern Festival: Stunning. Colourful and big style (very Chinese). Made out of Ice (and some carcinogenic benzene) carved out of the Songhua River. (Why Benzene?: Factory explosion. Tons of Benzene contamined the river. Harbin was without water supply for more than a week. A month before the accident the company responsible for disaster had won a National Environmental Friendly Enterprise award from the gov.) What will happen once the ice melts?) Back to Festival: Carved Ice. Cartier on Ice (check my Flickr account for "Cartier attracks all kinds of women" if you like). Flowers in Ice. Light in Ice. Ice. Ice. Ice.. Gorgeous!
• Food: Heaps! Mostly Russian at Russian Cafe. Russian Sausage, Potatoes, Pickles, and Vodka. Also at local Chinese place. Oil with Eggplant. Oil with cabbage. Very good prices. SHOCKER: chicks on stick on the Grill/Braai/Barbie/BBQ.. (see picture below) sold in the streets of Harbin.
• Irritating / Interesting stuff: (a) Eg. chicks on sticks. (b) Stalin, Lenin and Usama for sale. What the hec?!?! (c) dirty water (aka (or rather sold as) Coffee) for 30kuai (ca. 4Euros; at ice lantern festival). On the next day 4 of us ate lunch for the same amount of money... (d) malodour in the hallways of our hostel (e) "Russia meets China" => tank (just next to a destroyer made of ice) at the festival (f) day can resemble night in some of the neighbourhoods of Harbin (see pic below)..
  
• Other fun/Interesting stuff: (a) Fabulous slide onto the frozen Songhua River. Simon performing the starfish. (b) buying extremly cheap firecrackers and setting them off just around midnight. Oh yes, Habib is a firebug as well. (c) The funny "Harbin playmobiles" with integrated heating (and huge exhaust pipe) (d) Watch tigers (some call them male lions (ain't I right, Nick? ;)) hunting and savouring a sheep (controversial topic; but admittedly fascinating). (e) Broaden my personal horizon: there is such a thing as a Liger (see previous post)). (f) Sheila likes sausages on her hair (others use beer, eggs or simply shampoo..)

>> ice cold but top! good, somewhat crazy and interesting week-end trip !!