It's nice to be back to familiar things.
Just the little things...Bathroom stalls with toilets, toilet paper, hand soap AND paper towels! Even the NY taxi lines were a comfort to see. It's been fun sharing glimpses of my days... Back to reality. Time to retire the blog, until the next visit or vacation.
Hope to say farewell again soon!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Made it back to the US
I'm on the LAX Shuttle changing from Bradley International terminal to terminal 7 for my flight back to NY.
What a long day! It's Friday, again & I'm happy to be back on American soil... Even though the trip was fantastic.
Time to jump out... Until NY.
What a long day! It's Friday, again & I'm happy to be back on American soil... Even though the trip was fantastic.
Time to jump out... Until NY.
Back in Hong Kong...but just the airport.
Just a quick update...
We got out of the hotel after a quick breakfast. I'm going to have to go back to oatmeal and bagels now... instead of bao buns and other delicious Chinese food. Sad.
A quick ride to the airport, no traffic at all. No problem through all of the customs and passport checks. I slept the whole way with the exception of food time. Which was pretty good. Black Pepper beef and white rice, fruit and yogurt (which I didn't eat). I gave my croissant to Lauren since she's trying to keep her food pretty bland since she's been so sick. The most irritating part about it is that I cannot stand to sit with empty food dishes, it's one of my greatest peeves. As they started to collect the trays, no less than 15 mins after we were finished eating, we hit a patch of turbulence, so they stopped. I was so frustrated, just wanted to go back to sleep after only getting 2 hours the night before.
Now, I'm just organizing some photos while we wait for the next flight. Catch up with you in LA if I have the time between collecting my bag, customs, immigration, changing terminals and getting on my flight to JFK.
Bye bye China, hope to see you, again... someday.
We got out of the hotel after a quick breakfast. I'm going to have to go back to oatmeal and bagels now... instead of bao buns and other delicious Chinese food. Sad.
A quick ride to the airport, no traffic at all. No problem through all of the customs and passport checks. I slept the whole way with the exception of food time. Which was pretty good. Black Pepper beef and white rice, fruit and yogurt (which I didn't eat). I gave my croissant to Lauren since she's trying to keep her food pretty bland since she's been so sick. The most irritating part about it is that I cannot stand to sit with empty food dishes, it's one of my greatest peeves. As they started to collect the trays, no less than 15 mins after we were finished eating, we hit a patch of turbulence, so they stopped. I was so frustrated, just wanted to go back to sleep after only getting 2 hours the night before.
Now, I'm just organizing some photos while we wait for the next flight. Catch up with you in LA if I have the time between collecting my bag, customs, immigration, changing terminals and getting on my flight to JFK.
Bye bye China, hope to see you, again... someday.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Pandas & Packing
My last day in Beijing was a fun one, unfortunately the same can't be said for Lauren. She's been so sick, running a fever of 101.7 and hasn't been able to leave the room.
She was so sad to miss the Panda House at the Beijing Zoo. I went with Cathy this morning while Lauren slept, other Lauren had reflexology and a massage at the hotel's spa and the boys had a shave... after which the Davids went over to their Beijing office to catch up with a little work and Richard had some free time to relax.
The pandas were AMAZING! I had read about how actively they play but it was better than I'd imagined. We got to the panda house and saw one lounging around in the corner. There was a great wooden structure, much like a jungle gym at the park. It had a slide, a tire swing, a bunch of wooden things to climb, a jug hanging down from a rope, and a little pool.
But the panda wasn't moving and I thought, 'crap, just like the zoos back home, animals laying around doing nothing... until they're fed'. Then I grabbed the map to see if there was a feeding schedule and when I looked up he was running up the slide. I grabbed my camera and took a bunch of photos and then changed to video. I think I took 6 or 7 throughout our visit. It was so great to watch him play... I mentioned to Cathy that he was the Kian of Pandas.
When he got bored and went to lay back down, we walked to one of the indoor habitats, saw another sleeping one along the way outside, and found them all sleeping inside too. Boring! We went to check out the gift shop, since I'd had a special request for panda chopsticks and hadn't seen any in the markets. We found what I needed and a pencil for Lauren (it's tradition when we visit something new without the other to return with a souvenir pencil). The pencil looks like bamboo and has a panda head that is a sharpener on the top.
We walked back out of the gift shop and saw all of the sleeping pandas had gotten up and started eating. I got some great shots of them sitting in the bamboo and chowing down. Was such a great experience to see the Giant Pandas in Beijing.
The rest of the day was pretty relaxed, I had lunch with the boys and took them over to the market that I had been to with the girls a few days before. Had a few more requests for pearls from my aunt and got a few others as gifts, took them down to the floor of tchotchkes and bought a few more things myself.
Got back to the hotel before dinner to check-in with Lauren and show her the fruits of our shopping day, and realized I missed an entire section of my list... I ran back to the market and met everyone at dinner. I just had soup and salad and part of a dessert, which was nice to have a lighter meal!
Now I've just finished packing all of my souvenirs, tchotchkes, and other assorted crap... not to mention my clothes while preparing to get to sleep... The wake up call is in 2.5 hours! Here's my flight schedule for those of you who are curious:
6AM: wake up call
630: Breakfast
715: Meet Kitty & the driver in the lobby
8: arrive at airport
10: flight to Hong Kong
140: arrive in Hong Kong
415: depart to LAX
reliving Friday for the 2nd time:
215PM: arrive in Los Angeles, immigration, customs, change terminals
436PM: flight to JFK
1259AM (Saturday morning/Friday night): arrive at JFK
Such a long day...hopefully I don't miss my flight to NY or I'll have an even longer day waiting on the red eye that arrives at 6:10AM on Saturday! Wish me luck...
She was so sad to miss the Panda House at the Beijing Zoo. I went with Cathy this morning while Lauren slept, other Lauren had reflexology and a massage at the hotel's spa and the boys had a shave... after which the Davids went over to their Beijing office to catch up with a little work and Richard had some free time to relax.
The pandas were AMAZING! I had read about how actively they play but it was better than I'd imagined. We got to the panda house and saw one lounging around in the corner. There was a great wooden structure, much like a jungle gym at the park. It had a slide, a tire swing, a bunch of wooden things to climb, a jug hanging down from a rope, and a little pool.
But the panda wasn't moving and I thought, 'crap, just like the zoos back home, animals laying around doing nothing... until they're fed'. Then I grabbed the map to see if there was a feeding schedule and when I looked up he was running up the slide. I grabbed my camera and took a bunch of photos and then changed to video. I think I took 6 or 7 throughout our visit. It was so great to watch him play... I mentioned to Cathy that he was the Kian of Pandas.
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| From Beijing: Day 4 -- Panda House at the Beijing Zoo |
When he got bored and went to lay back down, we walked to one of the indoor habitats, saw another sleeping one along the way outside, and found them all sleeping inside too. Boring! We went to check out the gift shop, since I'd had a special request for panda chopsticks and hadn't seen any in the markets. We found what I needed and a pencil for Lauren (it's tradition when we visit something new without the other to return with a souvenir pencil). The pencil looks like bamboo and has a panda head that is a sharpener on the top.
We walked back out of the gift shop and saw all of the sleeping pandas had gotten up and started eating. I got some great shots of them sitting in the bamboo and chowing down. Was such a great experience to see the Giant Pandas in Beijing.
The rest of the day was pretty relaxed, I had lunch with the boys and took them over to the market that I had been to with the girls a few days before. Had a few more requests for pearls from my aunt and got a few others as gifts, took them down to the floor of tchotchkes and bought a few more things myself.
Got back to the hotel before dinner to check-in with Lauren and show her the fruits of our shopping day, and realized I missed an entire section of my list... I ran back to the market and met everyone at dinner. I just had soup and salad and part of a dessert, which was nice to have a lighter meal!
Now I've just finished packing all of my souvenirs, tchotchkes, and other assorted crap... not to mention my clothes while preparing to get to sleep... The wake up call is in 2.5 hours! Here's my flight schedule for those of you who are curious:
6AM: wake up call
630: Breakfast
715: Meet Kitty & the driver in the lobby
8: arrive at airport
10: flight to Hong Kong
140: arrive in Hong Kong
415: depart to LAX
reliving Friday for the 2nd time:
215PM: arrive in Los Angeles, immigration, customs, change terminals
436PM: flight to JFK
1259AM (Saturday morning/Friday night): arrive at JFK
Such a long day...hopefully I don't miss my flight to NY or I'll have an even longer day waiting on the red eye that arrives at 6:10AM on Saturday! Wish me luck...
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The Wall really is Great...
We went to the Great Wall today, on our last day of touring... it really was great. It was amazing to drive into the lot and see the wall on both sides of the road going on and on as far as you could see in any direction. Kitty, our guide, told us it's over 3,000 miles long and stretches along Mongolia from northeast to northwest China. We were able to walk up part of the wall, take some photos (and a bit of video, just for you, Tara).
Both Davids went the farthest up, got to the point of where they couldn't go anymore after taking the fork that lead to the watch that overlooked the other side of the mountain. Both Laurens and Richard made it much farther than Cathy and I. I was very prepared for the climb, it was mostly straight up and a lot of stairs... not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, since I live on the top floor of a walk up apartment building, but it was nutso. Being raised never to look over the edge of something and never to get near any edge, I was scared out of my mind... thanks a lot, dad! Going up wasn't bad at all... I was breathing well, I was having a good time looking at all of the different sized steps, until I decided to turn around and take a photo... bad news, I pictured the trek back down the wall and decided that was it for me. I think she read it on my face, because Cathy said her knees were hurting so she was more than happy to hang out with me and people watch while we waited for the others to make their ways up and back. We saw a huge group of school children on a Bejing educational tour (said it in their jackets). One kid was probably about 9 or 10 and had a camera around his neck that weighed so much it bent him nearly half over... Another woman was climbing the wall in knee-high boots with gold studs. It was interesting to see the different groups of people climbing and coming back down. Tourists from all over, military using the wall as stadium practice, running up and down, elderly people, children, families, couples. The people watching was better than in Times Square!
We also saw a cloisonne factory where we watched the process of making it and saw another showroom...
I just got something small, but some other things were purchased by others, we toured the Ming Tombs (where the emperors of the Ming dynasty were buried), the Olympic Stadium (just to take photos from the side of the highway) and had lunch inside of the jade factory, where Lauren K got a beautiful jade butterfly ring and a the others bought some great stuff, we went to a tea ceremony which was done like wine tasting, but with different types of tea. We topped the day off with a 9-course dinner and I was home just in time to catch Kian & Andrea on the webcam, again!
Such a great day. The final day of touring with a guide. We're going to the zoo tomorrow to see some pandas and doing our last bits of shopping before we head home on Friday.
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| From Beijing: Day 3 -- The Great Wall |
Both Davids went the farthest up, got to the point of where they couldn't go anymore after taking the fork that lead to the watch that overlooked the other side of the mountain. Both Laurens and Richard made it much farther than Cathy and I. I was very prepared for the climb, it was mostly straight up and a lot of stairs... not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, since I live on the top floor of a walk up apartment building, but it was nutso. Being raised never to look over the edge of something and never to get near any edge, I was scared out of my mind... thanks a lot, dad! Going up wasn't bad at all... I was breathing well, I was having a good time looking at all of the different sized steps, until I decided to turn around and take a photo... bad news, I pictured the trek back down the wall and decided that was it for me. I think she read it on my face, because Cathy said her knees were hurting so she was more than happy to hang out with me and people watch while we waited for the others to make their ways up and back. We saw a huge group of school children on a Bejing educational tour (said it in their jackets). One kid was probably about 9 or 10 and had a camera around his neck that weighed so much it bent him nearly half over... Another woman was climbing the wall in knee-high boots with gold studs. It was interesting to see the different groups of people climbing and coming back down. Tourists from all over, military using the wall as stadium practice, running up and down, elderly people, children, families, couples. The people watching was better than in Times Square!
We also saw a cloisonne factory where we watched the process of making it and saw another showroom...
 |
| From Beijing: Day 3 -- Cloisonne and Ming Tombs |
I just got something small, but some other things were purchased by others, we toured the Ming Tombs (where the emperors of the Ming dynasty were buried), the Olympic Stadium (just to take photos from the side of the highway) and had lunch inside of the jade factory, where Lauren K got a beautiful jade butterfly ring and a the others bought some great stuff, we went to a tea ceremony which was done like wine tasting, but with different types of tea. We topped the day off with a 9-course dinner and I was home just in time to catch Kian & Andrea on the webcam, again!
Such a great day. The final day of touring with a guide. We're going to the zoo tomorrow to see some pandas and doing our last bits of shopping before we head home on Friday.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
It's just like camping...
A few days ago I mentioned to Lauren that I will never again complain about the cleanliness of the bathrooms at home. Today, I had to squat, for the first time (granted, we've been here for 11 days and I didn't have to for the first 1o). I'm not sure if you're familiar with the "toilets" in China, but they have them in other countries, too. A hole in the ground... not a toilet like we're used to. I've always opted to wait in the longer line for the western toilets rather than take the squatting position over the hole in the ground. But today, rather than peeing my pants, I opted for the first door to open when I got to the front of the line. A squatter...damn. It wasn't as bad as I thought... relief was on my mind, not the disgustingness of possibly peeing on my shoes. Just like Cathy said, It's just like camping...
We had a long day, today. It started with a rushed trip to the breakfast buffet and ended with a relaxed, luxurious meal including peking duck and other Chinese dishes followed by another trip to Haagen Dazs. In the middle, a tour of Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, yet another Chinese family-style meal and a Kung Fu stage show. It was pretty amazing to see the history China in Beijing. David Krinsky made a point to give us part of the tour through his eyes from the western perspective in addition to what Kitty, our guide, was saying. He told us about seeing Tienamen Square on tv in the late 80s, the chaos that the American reporters captured and fed back whereas Kitty told us she wasn't even sure what happened. The Chinese government had kept it from their people.
Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall and a few other things to finish up the scheduled tours. So weird to be going home in 3 days!
We had a long day, today. It started with a rushed trip to the breakfast buffet and ended with a relaxed, luxurious meal including peking duck and other Chinese dishes followed by another trip to Haagen Dazs. In the middle, a tour of Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, yet another Chinese family-style meal and a Kung Fu stage show. It was pretty amazing to see the history China in Beijing. David Krinsky made a point to give us part of the tour through his eyes from the western perspective in addition to what Kitty, our guide, was saying. He told us about seeing Tienamen Square on tv in the late 80s, the chaos that the American reporters captured and fed back whereas Kitty told us she wasn't even sure what happened. The Chinese government had kept it from their people.
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| From Beijing: Day 2 -- Tianamen Square and Forbidden City |
Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall and a few other things to finish up the scheduled tours. So weird to be going home in 3 days!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Champion Negotiator
After an early start to the day, 530AM wake up call, 6AM breakfast, 630AM shuttle service to the airport, 9AM flight to Beijing, we checked in to another beautiful hotel...the St. Regis. Lauren and I have another upgraded room, with a walk-in closet, a giant tv & another tv built into the mirror in the bathroom. The view isn't as ideal as it was in Shanghai and especially not in Hong Kong, but it's nice out there.
We had a Thai-Indian lunch, a restaurant suggested by an English speaking woman we ran into in a coffee shop while wandering around looking for lunch. We ate family style and enjoyed the food. Lots of spices, curry, lemon grass, etc. It was a nice change from the Chinese flavors, without being too western.
Back to the hotel for a quick chat with the concierge and we broke up into 2 groups... men to the spa for massages, women to the silk market to do some shopping. So both Laurens, Cathy and I set out around the corner and up the main street a few blocks to the silk market. It was 6 floors. We read the signs on the outside, and I suggested we start at the top & work our way down. We stripped off our layers of coats and sweatshirts as we went up... it was extremely hot inside.
Lauren & her new fan,
Started out in the jewelry floor. My aunt (Vivianne) had asked me to pick up some pearls for her, so I started out in one shop with a younger looking woman. We agreed on a price, what I wanted to pay, and she began to irritate me... swapping out strands to be lower quality and all around being shady... so I walked out. Found another lovely woman who had a nice store, nice stuff and gave me a great price for not only a necklace but included a bracelet, earrings and an extra clasp for the same price as the original.
I became a hard core negotiator and everything else I bought was for the price I wanted or I walked away until they chased me down and offered it to me for less than what I was originally counter-offering. It was an exhausting day... but we got some great things at great prices.
For dinner we had some American cuisine... fried chicken, steaks and pork chops. A good break from the Chinese food before we start on more tours tomorrow.
A fortuitous moment, tonight, I checked my email and saw the Groupon for a 67% discount on a photobook... hooray memories from China memorialized for two-thirds of the cost. Fancy that!
We had a Thai-Indian lunch, a restaurant suggested by an English speaking woman we ran into in a coffee shop while wandering around looking for lunch. We ate family style and enjoyed the food. Lots of spices, curry, lemon grass, etc. It was a nice change from the Chinese flavors, without being too western.
Back to the hotel for a quick chat with the concierge and we broke up into 2 groups... men to the spa for massages, women to the silk market to do some shopping. So both Laurens, Cathy and I set out around the corner and up the main street a few blocks to the silk market. It was 6 floors. We read the signs on the outside, and I suggested we start at the top & work our way down. We stripped off our layers of coats and sweatshirts as we went up... it was extremely hot inside.
Lauren & her new fan,
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| From Beijing: Day 1 -- Food and Silk Market |
Started out in the jewelry floor. My aunt (Vivianne) had asked me to pick up some pearls for her, so I started out in one shop with a younger looking woman. We agreed on a price, what I wanted to pay, and she began to irritate me... swapping out strands to be lower quality and all around being shady... so I walked out. Found another lovely woman who had a nice store, nice stuff and gave me a great price for not only a necklace but included a bracelet, earrings and an extra clasp for the same price as the original.
 |
| From Beijing: Day 1 -- Food and Silk Market |
I became a hard core negotiator and everything else I bought was for the price I wanted or I walked away until they chased me down and offered it to me for less than what I was originally counter-offering. It was an exhausting day... but we got some great things at great prices.
For dinner we had some American cuisine... fried chicken, steaks and pork chops. A good break from the Chinese food before we start on more tours tomorrow.
A fortuitous moment, tonight, I checked my email and saw the Groupon for a 67% discount on a photobook... hooray memories from China memorialized for two-thirds of the cost. Fancy that!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Happy Easter!
Throughout my travels to Buddhist and Taoist temples, I haven't seen too much reference to Easter, which is the opposite of what I'm used to... I think I started seeing Cadbury eggs starting in February! Luckily, the hotels cater to their Western visitors...
Thought I'd send out an Easter greeting and include a funny photo of one version of the Easter bunny, on display with some colored eggs on the buffet in the hotel's restaurant.
Hope you all enjoy whatever you're doing to celebrate!
Today we took a tour, I know, you're surprised... we watched the last few minutes of Butler's win over Mich State over breakfast & headed out to the Wild Goose Pagoda,
a Lacquer factory, had lunch, went to see the Terracotta Warriors,
and finally the city will around Xian.
I ended the day with about 340 photos, putting me farther and farther behind in captioning and posting them... but we saw some amazing things today.
We're headed out now for some dinner and are retiring early today... we need to be up at 5:30 and off to the airport for a 9AM flight to Bejing.
Thought I'd send out an Easter greeting and include a funny photo of one version of the Easter bunny, on display with some colored eggs on the buffet in the hotel's restaurant.
Hope you all enjoy whatever you're doing to celebrate!
Today we took a tour, I know, you're surprised... we watched the last few minutes of Butler's win over Mich State over breakfast & headed out to the Wild Goose Pagoda,
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| From Xian: Day 2 -- Wild Goose Pagoda |
a Lacquer factory, had lunch, went to see the Terracotta Warriors,
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| From Xian: Day 2 -- Terracotta Warriors and City Wall |
and finally the city will around Xian.
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| From Xian: Day 2 -- Terracotta Warriors and City Wall |
I ended the day with about 340 photos, putting me farther and farther behind in captioning and posting them... but we saw some amazing things today.
We're headed out now for some dinner and are retiring early today... we need to be up at 5:30 and off to the airport for a 9AM flight to Bejing.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Goodbye Hong Kong, Hello Xian
We've made the 2nd move on our 4 stop trip... 2 nights in Xian, a full day tour tomorrow...
Breakfast at 8, meeting the tour guide & driver at 9, full day tour including lunch, and 9AM flight to Bejing the next morning...
Bottom line, time for bed!
There's not so much to report for today... we decided we'd sleep in today, since there hasn't been a lot of time for that and won't be for the rest of the trip. We had a later breakfast (10 rather than 8) and did a bit of walking/shopping. We stopped a place in a mall for foot massages... great end to the Hong Kong bit of the trip, we've done a lot of walking! They soaked our feet in tea... hot tea, I'm talking super hot, worse than the jacuzzi hot. And put on a game show, with teams of 3 competing to put their bodies in through holes... I don't know if you've seen this before, but it was awesome! I found a clip on youtube that will demonstrate the amazing laughter that I experienced (internally, mostly) while having my feet massaged.
The clip:
The most interesting part of the massage for me, were the parts of my feet that were the most sore when she massaged them were the ones that correspond to the sinuses and lungs on the reflexology chart.
We did a bit more wandering/window shopping, bought a few more souvenirs and headed back to the hotel to grab some lunch & pack. We met the airport shuttle shortly after 3PM and were off to the airport. Wandered around the airport, flew to Xian and had some dinner with David Packard in the hotel restaurant before David, Cathy, Lauren & Richard arrived. Now I really better get into bed!
Hope all is going well with everyone back home! Write to us, email is fine, or post to the blog, or on the photos. We love seeing comments...
Breakfast at 8, meeting the tour guide & driver at 9, full day tour including lunch, and 9AM flight to Bejing the next morning...
Bottom line, time for bed!
There's not so much to report for today... we decided we'd sleep in today, since there hasn't been a lot of time for that and won't be for the rest of the trip. We had a later breakfast (10 rather than 8) and did a bit of walking/shopping. We stopped a place in a mall for foot massages... great end to the Hong Kong bit of the trip, we've done a lot of walking! They soaked our feet in tea... hot tea, I'm talking super hot, worse than the jacuzzi hot. And put on a game show, with teams of 3 competing to put their bodies in through holes... I don't know if you've seen this before, but it was awesome! I found a clip on youtube that will demonstrate the amazing laughter that I experienced (internally, mostly) while having my feet massaged.
The clip:
The most interesting part of the massage for me, were the parts of my feet that were the most sore when she massaged them were the ones that correspond to the sinuses and lungs on the reflexology chart.
We did a bit more wandering/window shopping, bought a few more souvenirs and headed back to the hotel to grab some lunch & pack. We met the airport shuttle shortly after 3PM and were off to the airport. Wandered around the airport, flew to Xian and had some dinner with David Packard in the hotel restaurant before David, Cathy, Lauren & Richard arrived. Now I really better get into bed!
Hope all is going well with everyone back home! Write to us, email is fine, or post to the blog, or on the photos. We love seeing comments...
Friday, April 2, 2010
"Kian's in Hong Kong?"
Though many things happened today, the highlight was definitely talking to Kian & Andrea on the webcam tonight... we planned a webchat date at 11:30PM here/8:30AM in California since it'd been a week since I'd last spoken with them. I was showing him around the room, he asked about Lauren (who was in the shower). I tried to explain it was night time here and took the computer to the window to demonstrate that it was dark outside. Throughout the room tour, he saw himself on the computer in the mirror, and exclaimed, "Kian's in Hong Kong?" Such a cute kid!
Anyhow, the more blog-worthy trip information... we had another tour today, ie. we woke up too early, had breakfast, put on our sticker & waited by the fountain. We were picked up by a bus, given a different sticker and were off on another tour. This time to a different temple, a different fishing village and a different jewelry factory... plus a tram rather than cable car, and a boat ride in the fishing village. Though it sounds virtually the same, we did see some different things and the jewelry store was far less intolerable, since it was Good Friday, fewer people were around. Lauren even bought something. We also went to the Stanley Market, a large open air market... and we did some shopping. Nothing too outrageous, but a few souvenirs may make it into some of your hands due to this market tour.
We also had "Afternoon Tea" at the Peninsula Hotel. Cathy, David, Lauren & Richard had stayed at the Peninsula before Lauren and I arrived in China and recommended we have the experience. It was fun. A line of people waiting, a proper tea service, complete with the tiered serving tray of pastries, savories and desserts.
After tea time, it was raining, so we headed back to the Kowloon Shangri La... Lauren took a nap, I did some photo editing and we went back to Hong Kong Island for a show for which Brad and Joanne had given us their tickets since they left town today. We took the ferry again... found the venue, got in line, got inside, the opening acts were terrible... Lauren wasn't feeling well and we hadn't had dinner, so we left before the headliner. Bummer... but when you're not feeling well, you're not feeling well. We had a nice Italian meal at the hotel and came upstairs for my webchat date with Kian and Andrea.
Now for some sleep, time to rest up for our last day in Hong Kong and flight to Xian.
Anyhow, the more blog-worthy trip information... we had another tour today, ie. we woke up too early, had breakfast, put on our sticker & waited by the fountain. We were picked up by a bus, given a different sticker and were off on another tour. This time to a different temple, a different fishing village and a different jewelry factory... plus a tram rather than cable car, and a boat ride in the fishing village. Though it sounds virtually the same, we did see some different things and the jewelry store was far less intolerable, since it was Good Friday, fewer people were around. Lauren even bought something. We also went to the Stanley Market, a large open air market... and we did some shopping. Nothing too outrageous, but a few souvenirs may make it into some of your hands due to this market tour.
We also had "Afternoon Tea" at the Peninsula Hotel. Cathy, David, Lauren & Richard had stayed at the Peninsula before Lauren and I arrived in China and recommended we have the experience. It was fun. A line of people waiting, a proper tea service, complete with the tiered serving tray of pastries, savories and desserts.
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| From Hong Kong: Day 3 -- Afternoon Tea at the Peninsula Hotel |
After tea time, it was raining, so we headed back to the Kowloon Shangri La... Lauren took a nap, I did some photo editing and we went back to Hong Kong Island for a show for which Brad and Joanne had given us their tickets since they left town today. We took the ferry again... found the venue, got in line, got inside, the opening acts were terrible... Lauren wasn't feeling well and we hadn't had dinner, so we left before the headliner. Bummer... but when you're not feeling well, you're not feeling well. We had a nice Italian meal at the hotel and came upstairs for my webchat date with Kian and Andrea.
Now for some sleep, time to rest up for our last day in Hong Kong and flight to Xian.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
An All Day Tour and Dinner
An alarm clock went off at 7:02AM, we got out of bed & ready for the day, had some breakfast and were in the lobby in front of the fountain to meet our tour. We were greeted by a guide and joined a bus load full of people, picked up a few more passengers at another hotel, and went back to the tour company's meeting spot. We were each given a sticker to wear & were directed to change buses to go with the correct tour group. We joined the others with the "LA 360" sticker and were off...
The first stop, "Avenue of the Stars"... much like the Hollywood walk of fame, but all Asian actors. Statue of Bruce Lee is the center of the attraction, as well of stars & hand prints of Jet Li, Chow Yung Fat and Jackie Chan. The more entertaining part of this was we took a 10 min bus ride, changed buses and started a tour across the street from our hotel. I thought it was so amusing that I took a photo of the tour bus stopped in front of our hotel. On the opposite side from where a different bus had picked us up over an hour prior.
Next stop TSL Jewelry factory, which annoyingly turned out to be a 4 minute tour down a hallway watching people in cubicles analyze & set stones, followed by a running sales pitch in their show room for their overpriced jewelry. Horrible.
Then a lengthy bus ride including crossing the world's longest double decker suspension bridge, the Port of Hong Kong's shipping depot, and other random sites en route to the cable cars. We got another sticker offering us priority boarding, ie. skip the long line. So now, wearing 2 stickers, we boarded the cable car that brought us up the mountain to the next section of the tour. Our car included 2 gay Canadians in their late 70s, super cute men who had been traveling together for the better part of 40 years--they were in Hong Kong after a 10-day cruise of the Asian coasts. A Dutch father and son combination with an awesome camera, they spent most of the time framing up their next shot, a Filipino man that was touring alone, switching back and forth between his camcorder and still camera and our tour guide Rex. The others on the tour were in the cars following us.
Here we are in the cable car,
At the top, we went to a Monastery, toured around, had an not so pleasing vegetarian lunch, and took a bus up to see the "big Buddha". I took so many photos that my batteries died, luckily I had 2 backup pairs.
Next we went down the hill a bit to a fishing village called Tai O. Saw stilt houses, saw enough dried seafood on the streets to feed a small army and another temple. Finally, back to the village to do some souvenir shopping and meet the cable car to take us back to the bus, to a different bus, and back to the hotel. I downloaded my memory card, 488 photos, today... Needless to say, I'll get to them when I can.
We showered up & took the ferry across to Hong Kong Island to meet good friends of the Krinskys' for dinner. We had a nice walk through part of the financial district of Hong Kong and had a great meal. I'm actually very tired, tonight, so I'm off to bed a bit early.
Photo of Hong Kong's skyline from the ferry,
Another early breakfast for 8:20 pick up for our tour tomorrow.
The first stop, "Avenue of the Stars"... much like the Hollywood walk of fame, but all Asian actors. Statue of Bruce Lee is the center of the attraction, as well of stars & hand prints of Jet Li, Chow Yung Fat and Jackie Chan. The more entertaining part of this was we took a 10 min bus ride, changed buses and started a tour across the street from our hotel. I thought it was so amusing that I took a photo of the tour bus stopped in front of our hotel. On the opposite side from where a different bus had picked us up over an hour prior.
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| From Hong Kong: Day 2 -- LA 360 Tour |
Next stop TSL Jewelry factory, which annoyingly turned out to be a 4 minute tour down a hallway watching people in cubicles analyze & set stones, followed by a running sales pitch in their show room for their overpriced jewelry. Horrible.
Then a lengthy bus ride including crossing the world's longest double decker suspension bridge, the Port of Hong Kong's shipping depot, and other random sites en route to the cable cars. We got another sticker offering us priority boarding, ie. skip the long line. So now, wearing 2 stickers, we boarded the cable car that brought us up the mountain to the next section of the tour. Our car included 2 gay Canadians in their late 70s, super cute men who had been traveling together for the better part of 40 years--they were in Hong Kong after a 10-day cruise of the Asian coasts. A Dutch father and son combination with an awesome camera, they spent most of the time framing up their next shot, a Filipino man that was touring alone, switching back and forth between his camcorder and still camera and our tour guide Rex. The others on the tour were in the cars following us.
Here we are in the cable car,
 |
| From Hong Kong: Day 2 -- Cable Car Ride |
At the top, we went to a Monastery, toured around, had an not so pleasing vegetarian lunch, and took a bus up to see the "big Buddha". I took so many photos that my batteries died, luckily I had 2 backup pairs.
 |
| From Hong Kong: Day 2 -- Big Buddha |
Next we went down the hill a bit to a fishing village called Tai O. Saw stilt houses, saw enough dried seafood on the streets to feed a small army and another temple. Finally, back to the village to do some souvenir shopping and meet the cable car to take us back to the bus, to a different bus, and back to the hotel. I downloaded my memory card, 488 photos, today... Needless to say, I'll get to them when I can.
We showered up & took the ferry across to Hong Kong Island to meet good friends of the Krinskys' for dinner. We had a nice walk through part of the financial district of Hong Kong and had a great meal. I'm actually very tired, tonight, so I'm off to bed a bit early.
Photo of Hong Kong's skyline from the ferry,
 |
| From Hong Kong: Day 2 -- Ferry to Dinner |
Another early breakfast for 8:20 pick up for our tour tomorrow.
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