We're in Hong Kong, with a 16th story view of the harbor...

We left Shanghai today for an adventure in Hong Kong while David, Cathy, Lauren and Richard go off to Guilin. They were in Hong Kong before we arrived, and I decided I'd rather have a chance to see Hong Kong than take the river boat tour with them through the country side. Sounds like the decision was a good one, it was about 78 degrees when we landed, but it's pouring rain where the parents are!

We were quiet early for our flight, so we took some photos in the airport, did some wandering, I did some captioning of photos and eventually we were off to Hong Kong. We took a bus to the plane... had a decent meal and arrived in HK a bit late. Getting through immigration was easy, a guide lead us to a bus to the hotel. We're at the Shangri La in Kowloon, the "other side" of Hong Kong... the Peninsula, as opposed to Hong Kong Island.

When we arrived we were given a "standard street view" room, and asked if we wanted to upgrade to the Harbor side... nope, our pre-paid room is just fine, thanks. We go upstairs. Have a very kind filipino man escort us up with our bags. He gives us a tour of the room, shows us the switches, control panels and other bells and whistles. Lauren mentions a strange smell. As we settle in, break out the tour books to decide what we want to do on which day while in Hong Kong, we both start feeling a bit ill... paint fumes? chemicals? We went to the desk and mentioned the problem. They offered to switch us and make a complimentary upgrade to a higher floor and a harbor view room. Score!

Our friendly filipino was back in a jiffy to help us move. The new room is great and the view is awesome. Pictures to come... I'm catching up. Shanghai is done now. Here's a camera timer capture of our view from the new room,

From Hong Kong: Day 1

We ran a few errands, had thai food for dinner, and are now getting into bed in anticipation of our cable car tour, recommended by a friend of the Krinskys, to a giant buddha statue.

Back to pictures, it's come to my attention, by way of a few people that it's not clear that the hyperlink on the end of each caption is a link to the album where the photo is housed. I'm only posting a few photos from each day...you're on your own to see the others, if you so choose. The direct link to my photos is: http://picasaweb.google.com/vsvisitsnvacations

Last night in Shanghai

Just finished packing up my suitcase in preparation for our trip to Hong Kong. I'm already tired and haven't gotten to the photos from yesterday, yet. Hopefully I'll be able to work on the during the flight tomorrow.

The New Shanghai Circus was a bit odd, but great to see. There were several different acts, the first was contortionist women, followed by men juggling hats, then women doing acrobatics while twirling 4-5 plates, on 3 foot sticks, in each hand. There was also a pair of strong men doing acrobatics using only themselves and each other for balance, a group of women spinning a rubber toy on a string and doing acrobatics, women doing tricks on bicycles, men jumping through hoops, women throwing the rubber thing to each other, making pyramids, etc... these girls dropped a few, it certainly wasn't as polished as it should have been, but having tried to use one of those things, I give them a pass--it's a toughie. There was also a magician, which was oddly placed, she pulled decks of cards out of the air, turned things into doves, and did the swords through the lady in the box trick, but ended up taking 5 women out of the box in the end, instead of just the one. There were also things that made Cathy close her eyes, or peak through a small space between her fingers covering her eyes: two women on roller skates who spun each other from a rope on the leg or with a lasso connecting them by their necks, and finally, a sphere with motorcycles, first one, then another, then another, until 5 were inside.

The strangest part of that last one, was that the 3rd guy fell on his way out. Looked like he was really hurt, and they pulled the curtain to end the show before the other 2 were out of the sphere. I saw his headlight shatter... I couldn't tell if it was choreographed into the show or not, because he did come out to take a bow at the end with the rest of the performers. The tour guide said she'd never seen anyone fall like that before and I'm sure she's taken hundreds of groups to see the show.

After the 'circus' which was actually a stage show of odd proportions, we got back in the van and headed to meet David Packard and one of his roommates, Mike, for dinner. We had family style Chinese food... David & Mike ordered for the table. The great fiasco of dinner was asking the wait staff, none of which spoke only about 30 words of English, collectively, if they had "gin". We had only been given the food menu, the specials, and a wine list. Eventually after discussing the types of beer for the women, the men tried to question whether or not the restaurant had gin for their martinis-- it's their drink of choice, Bombay Sapphire martini, no vermouth, 3 olives. They finally found on the wine list that the only gin was Beefeater. They pointed, in what I assumed the attempt to request it in martinis, and the waiter ran away to fetch the entire bottle of Beefeater gin, and some glasses. Luckily, David and Mike showed up speaking enough Chinese to stop them from opening the bottle, sending it back and ordering some additional beers for the men. High Comedy.

My apologies things are getting more boring without the photos to break up the text. I'll try to get them up tomorrow... the unfortunate part is, I'm not sure we'll have internet access in the hotel in Hong Kong. We shall see.

Until the next time...

Shanghai: Day 4

So far we've gone shopping... we went to an indoor flea market and a few high end malls, had lunch and did a photo montage with the expo mascot.

From Shanghai: Day 4

Now we're off to the circus to see some Chinese acrobats & have dinner... hope you all slept well, more when I get back.

Happy birthday, Jacob, sorry I missed you yesterday... at least I didn't post your photo. Hope someone made you some carrot cake.

Shanghai: Day 3

Today we had a private tour with a fantastic guide, Cecilia, and a van driver who didn't speak, except in Mandarin to Cecilia.

We started the day with breakfast at the hotel's buffet. Mostly the same as the day before, so I won't bore you with the details. Then Cecilia met us in the lobby to start the tour. We headed over to a Buddhist temple, the most famous in Shanghai. We toured the different halls, she explained some history, culture and the significance of the different buddhas. More details to follow once I'm able to caption and upload all of the photos.

Next we headed over to the silk factory, we saw the whole process from the silkworm cocoon to the spinning process to the hand weaving techniques. We spent a ton of time on the sales floor, where the Packards bought a great new silk carpet & the rest of us got silk duvets. We'll see if silk does any better helping me sleep, since it's completely hypoallergenic and natural.

Next was lunch, pretty traditional Cantonese family style cuisine, lazy susan, loads of food. It was a great middle to the day. We followed lunch up with a trip down the new walkway on the Bund, where we had been yesterday, but were able to get a bit of history from Cecilia, as well as ask her some questions.

Walked through a market, took photos with statues along the way to the Yu Garden. According to Cecilia, you cannot say you've been to Shanghai if you haven't visited this garden. It is a great garden paradise, complete with halls, coi ponds, natural foliage and rock structures. Dragons, carvings and pagodas were very present, as well.

The final stop was planned to visit the French Concession... since the Children's Palace is closed on Mondays, but we didn't have the time since our other stops along the way were so lengthy. It was okay though, because between Seychelles and David, we got plenty of history on the lane houses and other parts of this part of town.

The final stop of the evening, after a quick wardrobe change back at the hotel, was the Passover Seder at the Millennium hotel. What an interesting experience! We were early & started out with drinks at the bar, martinis for the men, sprite for Lauren & green tea for me... headed up to the Seder in a ballroom of about 300 people. It was lead by 2 Orthodox Rabbis and was a crazy circus of unorganized chaos. I got yelled at for taking photos, since button pushing isn't allowed, and did my best to captures the moments prior to the yelling or on the sly after the fact. It was a nice time to spend the holiday with the Jews in and around Shanghai, including the Krinskys and the Packards who are all missing traditional Seders at home while we're traveling.

Like I mentioned before, more to follow with the photos, I took 322 today, before dinner, so closer to 350, now. I'll work on captioning & uploading them in the morning, but for now... off to bed.

Shanghai: Day 2

We had a fun day, today... according to our itinerary, it was "Shanghai: free day at leisure, breakfast included". We had slept so much the night before that it was fairly easy to wake up when Cathy came to get us for breakfast. We went down and enjoyed the hotel's buffet. I decided to make my plate with half traditional western breakfast and half Chinese cuisine. It turned out nicely, pancake, french toast, bacon, a variety of dim sum dumplings and noodles:

My plate at Breakfast, Shanghai: Day 2

After breakfast we returned to the room to catch up with some emails, facebook, edit some photos and get ready for the day's activities.

Besides the Krinskys, I am traveling with another family, the Packards. David, the younger son of the Packards lives here, in Shanghai and works for David Krinsky's law firm. He was kind enough to spend our "free day at leisure" with us, showing us around a bit, we walked by his office, and took his commute (on foot) from work to see his apartment.

The Packards & Krinskys, Shanghai: Day 2

It was a nice spot, ground floor apartment with a great patio. He shares the place with 2 roommates, a fellow future law student from NJ and a Brit that he met through another friend. His bedroom/bathroom alone was the size of my studio, so it made me (and Lauren) laugh a bit. We used his internet to do some research planning the day, and made a brunch reservation for 2PM at M on the Bund.

David & his apartment building, Shanghai: Day 2

We took taxis over and walked around the Bund since we arrived early. They've been building up the area for the Expo happening soon, and it was very crowded since it was the first day it was open to the public. The restaurant turned out to have a fantastic view of the bund, the river and the buildings across the river. I don't really have the energy to post the photos tonight, but I'll get to it, soon, I hope. The brunch was great food, the views were fantastic, and the company was outstanding. Even ran into a few of David's friends who had brunch there as well. My favorite part of brunch, however, was the rehearsal happening in the new performance space. Most noteworthy was the rendition of "We are the World" with the dancing. They had a leader/choreographer trying to get everyone to make the same hand motions along with key words in the song, so he would sing over the soundtrack in his Chinese accent. Words like 'world', 'children' and 'place' were making me laugh so hard I nearly lost my brunch.

We are the World rehearsal, Shanghai: Day 2

After brunch we took a walk through People's Park back to our hotel. We wouldn't all fit in one cab, so we took 2, and had quite a debacle trying to get back together. Cathy's directions were using landmarks and the position of the sun. This will likely be more entertaining once I post the photos, but one of them was something like 'walk toward the building that looks like a phillip's head drill bit (the Marriott hotel) and we'll meet you in front of the Starbucks'. Turned out the men were in a different park and took nearly 30 minutes to find us, still standing in front of the Starbucks. Once we did finally start walking, it was a good time...

Cathy, in front of the Starbucks in front of the drill bit, facing away from the sun, Shanghai: Day 2

Tonight's dinner was hosted by the Gould School, where Richard Packard is Chairman of the Board of Directors. They host several Chinese students, so he had invited some of their parents to join us at the Ritz Carlton for a 9-course dinner. We had an interpreter that made it a good time for all and I thought the food was great... though not everyone agreed with me. I'll work on the photos, soon, but now it's time for bed!

A Bit of a Recap, Shanghai Day 1.

I haven't had much time to blog since arriving, as I keep getting tired, darn jetlag, when I'm in the room. I've spent a lot of the time editing the photos and getting them up on picasa, go there if you'd like, but for now, I'll do a quick recap until I have some more time to write/post photos.

After we showered and got ready Lauren had a bit of a nap before we headed out for dinner, so I went for a walk with her parents, down the main street in the Jiang Na district, which is the main business center in Shanghai and where our hotel is located. We had a nice walk, grabbed a small snack before dinner, a small pizza, a little salty a little sweet, with lots of toppings. Delish!

Our first dinner was Italian/Mediterranean food... even though Lauren and I had only arrived, everyone else had been in China for over a week, and were sick of Chinese cuisine! So we went to a place that someone had recommended. The food was good, we shared a bunch of appetizers and I had lamb with a great fresh mint crust over cous cous. After dinner we headed back to the hotel, everyone was falling asleep, and stopped at the grocery store to buy a few snacks. I chose brown sugar mochi & another random fruit that I didn't know. I still haven't had a chance to try it, so I don't even know how it looks on the inside, but I will post a photo to link you to the rest of the Day 1 album, Anybody know it?

Shepiguo, Shanghai: Day 1

Blocked...

As you may or may not know, the government here has intelligence specifically to look into activity on the internet, they block all forms of social networking, like facebook, blogs, youtube and most other things that make the internet fun. Luckily, thanks to a little help from my friends, namely Philip & Christoff, (thanks guys!) we've been able to get around that, sort of... hopefully things continue to work out.

Lauren was pretty surprised that she couldn't access facebook or twitter and has been using my computer a bit to get around the blocking. If you need to write to us, the best is through regular email or to post on the blog.

Happy Birthday Jared & Barbara!

I'm sorry I'll be missing two of my favorite birthdays this year...

Barbara, I hope the weather is perfect for your BBQ!!


And Jared, enjoy the day with your friends!


Both of you, stay out of trouble.
xo

It's Saturday Afternoon in Shanghai

We made it!

A Sign welcoming us to Shanghai, we actually had to look for one, Lauren thought maybe it wasn't a very friendly country, but found it near customs, Shanghai: Day 1

A 15 hour flight from LAX to Hong Kong, arrived late, rushed to transfer to our Shanghai flight, crazy traffic coming from the airport, but we made it!

Just took a shower for the first time in what seems like forever, and am so happy to feel clean! A little recap of the adventures since the previous post. We boarded, late, we took off, late, we were served dinner at 1:45am, which was odd, but welcomed since I was sure we'd be hungry in the middle of the night. Just a little meal of airplane food, completely unmemorable, all things considered, but we ate, then slept. I think I got a fairly solid 4 hours in, which was pretty incredible for me. I watched several movies, The Blind Side, Up in the Air, An Education. A few episodes from this season of Big Bang Theory, played with the trivia and tetris games. It wasn't as bad as I thought. Got in a bit more sleep before "breakfast" was served. Fruit, yogurt, and a ham & egg croissant. Pretty plain, as one would expect from airplane food.

We arrived to Hong Kong late and had to make a pretty lengthy transfer to our next plane. We walked up while the signs were flashing "final call" but made it. It was an easy flight about an hour and a half, but we got a 2nd breakfast... I went with the "pork and rice roll" option over the omelette, since I had actually eaten breakfast foods, may as well have lunch, albeit at 9:45am. It was actually quite good, and I was introduced to a new white fruit with black specks, that look like small black sesame seeds. It was my intention to google it, but haven't had a chance... anyone know? Here's a photo (I won't bore you all too much with food photos, but if you care, the link to the album is below in the caption):

What is this Fruit? Airplane Food

Customs was easy, we found our car, we hit some traffic, but grabbed a bit of a nap along the way, and have now connected to the wireless & showered up in time for a walk before dinner. More to come later on... if I can stay awake after dinner to write more.

Awaiting boarding at LAX

Spent the day in Laguna with Andrea and Kian, had coffee with Beak, lunch with Aaron, visited the Sea Lion rescue, drove up to LA to spend some time with some family at uncle Lem's cafe.

Now Lauren and I have been sitting in the airport for a long time, security was quick, I downloaded and edited all of my photos so far, but couldn't connect to wifi. We are waiting in the boarding area with 20 mins left before the plane is scheduled to take off. Thought I'd try a free blogging iPhone app while we wait.

By popular demand, mostly due to complaints, I changed the background color of the blog to make it more of a contrast to the text on the page... Congrats, complainers!

Sorry I didn't get to say more farewells in person or by phone, the time ran shorter than expected... Almost time to board, I'll write again from Shanghai!

Hanging around in Laguna & LA

Was a treat to see some family in southern CA before I left town, just a few photos, nothing really noteworthy to say, other than it was nice to see those who I was able to see, and sorry I missed the rest!

After Lunch with my Siblings, Adolfos & Sea Lion Rescue

Visiting the "Friends of the Sea Lions" Rescue Center Adolfos & Sea Lion Rescue

Kian Rides a Sea Lion (statue) Adolfos & Sea Lion Rescue

Lindsey, Jasper & Kian at the Cafe, Twiggs at the Cafe

Back in CA

I arrived last night a bit before 8PM, Andrea and Kian were waiting for me with some Del Taco and we headed north to watch Clayton play some softball. Like any good Californian, my trip wouldn't be complete without making a visit to In-N-Out burger. I wasn't hungry, since we got there after 10PM, and it was after 1Am for me, but I did take a photo and have a bite of Andrea's cheeseburger. Kian got a paper hat which made for some other excellent photos. Let's see if my blogging skills include photo uploads.

Andrea's meal, In-N-Out

Kian with his new hat and a french fry, In-N-Out

Kian with Scott & Clayton, after their softball game, In-N-Out

All packed & ready to go, until the Snafu!

The final pack was easier than I thought... the pre-pack definitely helped. I laid out all of the clothes that I thought I would want/need, into piles by category. All together probably would have been 3 weeks worth of outfits, socks, and other essentials. My sister called on Monday night and we went through each category, staging a mini-debate on what would make it into my carry-on sized suitcase that was meant to weigh 44lbs or less. Accomplished it quite quickly & efficiently, thanks, Ading!

On Tuesday night, after packing up the final bits, electronics, chargers, toiletries, etc., I called to say goodnight to Kian, and just as I was about to get in bed, I got an email & phone call from Jetblue saying that my flight to CA had been canceled. Early snafus with on a 16 day trip was not my idea of a great time... but my suitcase was packed, and I was ready to go, so I called Jetblue to handle it. They said due to bad weather in NYC, (according the weather on the 11 o'clock news NYC was expecting mid-60s temps and less than 10% chance of precipitation... apparently jetblue's weather service had different things to say) they needed to rebook me onto a flight on Friday night, which certainly wasn't going to work, since my flight to China left from LA on Thursday night. After being on hold for nearly 2 hours, looking at the clock seeing 3:24AM, I begged, pleaded, and cried a little until the woman with whom I was speaking did a little string pulling to get me onto a flight to San Diego. A little more driving for my sister, but at least I would make it to California. Thanks, again, Ading.

Now I'm sitting at JFK, waiting to board, it's warm enough to not wear a coat with my short sleeved shirt, and there isn't a cloud in the sky...way to predict those cancellations, Jetblue. But thank goodness for your free wi-fi!

Why Am I Going to China?

I sent along the link to the blog to some family and friends, last night & woke up to a lot of emails asking various questions, so rather than individually responding to each of you, I thought I'd address them here...


Most of the questions are about with whom I am traveling and why China?


I'm traveling with the Krinskys, my friend Lauren and her parents. For those of you who have known me for a long time, you know her. I've traveled with her family to places near and far, several trips around the states, to Colorado, Wyoming, Hawaii, Washington, and a few times to New York before I moved here. After high school we traveled to England/Ireland together and after college we went on a tour of the east coast of Australia.


So, for our 30th birthdays--last summer, Lauren's parents offered us a trip, anywhere in the world. We had some trouble deciding, sometimes the most open-ended questions are the hardest to answer. So we ended up deciding to tag along on with her parents and some of their friends. Should be an amazing time!

Itinerary Basics

3/24: Leave NY for CA, after work.
3/25: A little time with family & friends in CA.
3/26: 1AMish (PST) flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, change planes to Shanghai.
3/27-3/31: Shanghai
3/31-4/3: Hong Kong
4/3-4/5: Xian
4/5-4/9: Bejing
4/9: 10AM Bejing to Hong Kong, change planes, 4:15PM Hong Kong to Los Angeles, change planes 4:36PM (PST) LA to NY
4/10: 12:35AM (EST) land in NY

The Countdown

Pre-packing...

Pre-packing isn't really a concept I've ever understood... traditionally being a procrastinator, but as it usually is, in getting ready for this trip, preparedness, or the extreme lack thereof seems to be the theme. Stakes being higher on this one, flights being longer, culture being vastly different, I'm feeling it more than usual. Lists help me feel more accountable. Thanks to a former project manager, I'll employ the ever popular color-coded done/not done method.

Expired passport -- renewed, check.
Planning flights -- travel agent for international, domestic by me, all booked, check.
Dual entry visa application -- handled by Marie, David's fab assistant, check.
Broken camera -- bought a new one, check.
Preparing my team at work for 12 work days without me -- in progress, hope to finish, pending check.
Luggage restrictions, carry on only, 44lbs or less, so I can buy things along my trip -- hence the need to pre-pack. Let's hope for a check on this one by Sunday night...
Also, started a blog, to publish my thoughts & photos along the way, let's see how it works out --done it, check.

Next steps:

• find & post an automated count down.
• start new picasa account to host the photos.
• post itinerary.
• begin the pre-pack process.
• send the blog link to those who may care and others who may not.

for now, this will have to do:
Less than 4 days until CA, and 6 days until China!