Today we leave for the USA and home. This has been one wonderful trip. Being here has been fantastic but to experience it with my son, nothing could be better.
Since coming back to HK we have been non stop. Wed afternoon we spent with Stefani, her family and her Swedish mom, Hellen. Not only did we eat a great lunch at a beautiful restaurant but we had a delicious non stop dinner that her mom had made us. Fish, crab, vegetables, pineapple and beef, cucumber and dried scallops, tea and then some fruit. Everything was so tasty and new. Her family is very sweet and kind just like their daughter!
Yesterday we spent it at the Jade Market doing some shopping and of course haggling! I wonder if this techinque will work in the US? :) Then last night we went to the Peak. Now that was an experience. Once up there you see all of HK and the beautiful lights. We were also able to see the laser show. Once down the mountain we rode on the Star Fairy and then walked along the pier. We ended our evening having a nice coffee and sandwich. A great way to end a great trip.
Today we leave the hostel around 8:15 and take a bus to the airport. We leave HK at 11:45 Am, get into San Francisco at 8:30 AM and then to Arizona at 1:15 PM. This will literally be the longest day of our lives because we get the have 36 hours in our day today. I'll let you know if it really does help having more "hours in a day".
Posting has been fun and I hope you have gotten to experience a bit of HK and China through my trip. I feel a bit of sadness for having to leave and can only imagine what Sam must be feeling today. As excited as he is to get home and see is family and friends he is very sad to be leaving his Asian home!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
It is Wed night to me...actually Thursday morning since it is now 12:46 AM. We are back in Hong Kong to spend our last day! Today we traveled by train from China to Shenzhen then took the MTR to our Hostel. Once we got here we went and met Stephani, her dad and her Swedish mom, Hellen, for lunch. It was delicious!!!!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Donna sent the next installment of her blog:
This was written on Tuesday to me, Monday afternoon to people in the states.
I first have to say I am sitting in the lobby of the hostel and there is this intense argument going on outside by a Chinese man and women. I mean intense…I was on Skype when it started and Yvonne even heard it. They might be tourists to this area, but they sure are not agreeing about something, and neither one is backing down. I do think they are a couple and not strangers. It's a bit distracting as I write my blog.
But back to our trip! Yesterday we left Yang Shuo and took a bus to GuiLin. It is very beautiful here but much more touristy -- so the prices for things are a bit higher. Sam has taught me how to haggle down prices for things though. In fact, yesterday I wanted something and he left me on my own to do the dealing…me, who can only say hello and yes in Chinese. This is how it works…you say “how much?” Then they say or write down a price…you indicate that is way too much (or if you are like Sam you say “too much” in Chinese and shake your head) and they hand you the paper and say “how much, you write“. You write down a very low price and it goes back and forth from there. If they don’t accept the price you feel is fair you walk away and they come after you and say “ok, for you ok“. It’s an interesting exchange. They do start by saying in their broken English, “cheap price for you, come look, cheap price for you”. Sam says he spent more money than he should have perfecting his bargaining skills! But I am sure impressed with how he does, especially since he learned Cantonese and here they speak Mandarin, and they are two totally different languages.
Once we checked into the “Backstreet International Youth Hostel” we dropped off our bags and started walking around. Within 100 feet from our place are many stands with people selling their goods. This group of sellers were much more physical then others have been, grabbing my arm and pulling me to look. It was fine though, and very interesting!
Then we came upon an outside mall area. This place was very large with many shops! I keep looking for a pair of sneakers to buy, but no luck so far. Sam looks too and they take one look at his feet and shake their heads and say no, no, no. His feet are just too big for this culture! We did come upon a store…just for your information there are typically no doors or if there are they are open, and Sam started looking at things. Then a man (maybe an owner, maybe just a man, we don’t know) started talking to us. He spoke broken English but enough for us to understand, and he told us that he was a teacher and artist. He also told us about a theater show that was happening that night, the final showing of four nights for the Annual boat Festival that had just happened. He said it was a “traditional Chinese Acrobatic show” and “very good”. It sounded great and something we both would love to see. So, we follow this man to the theater, only 15 minutes away and close to our hostel and decide to purchase tickets -- “a great price for us” says our friendly "guide." He dealt with another man for getting us the tickets. They showed us the seating chart and told us the prices. Hesitant, we decided to go for it. We didn’t have enough money, so they gave us the tickets
, we gave them half the money and the man follows us to the ATM. We give him the rest of the money and he then takes us to an art studio so we can look at the beautiful art. Wow this story is getting long…
Anyway, we do not purchase any art and also reject his offer to go with him then to have tea. The rest of the afternoon we are just hoping we didn’t get ripped off. Finally it's show time and we head there, after waking up from a nap with only 20 minutes to get to the show, but we get there on time, no problem. Everything seemed as the man said -- there were people there to escort us to our seats, and although we did not get the VIP seats he said we would have, we had good seats -- in fact row 7 with no one in front of us. He did say the sho
w had been sold out the three prior nights. This night it was not. As it gets ready to start we are still worried that it is a legit show. We happen to be sitting next to an English speaker and find out she lives in Flagstaff and works for NAU. Small world!
So, good show or not, legit or rip off? Within the first two minutes I turn to Sam and say, “this is well worth the money!” It was fantastic, the backdrops, the costumes, and then the talent. We loved it -- it was 75 minutes of pure entertainment! We could not take pictures during the show, but after it the cast was in the lobby for pictures. Here is one of them we took, and one I snuck of the show. We will for sure go back to find that man and thank him.
This was suppose to be a short post…sorry I got carried away!
Moon Pagodas.
This was written on Tuesday to me, Monday afternoon to people in the states.
I first have to say I am sitting in the lobby of the hostel and there is this intense argument going on outside by a Chinese man and women. I mean intense…I was on Skype when it started and Yvonne even heard it. They might be tourists to this area, but they sure are not agreeing about something, and neither one is backing down. I do think they are a couple and not strangers. It's a bit distracting as I write my blog.
But back to our trip! Yesterday we left Yang Shuo and took a bus to GuiLin. It is very beautiful here but much more touristy -- so the prices for things are a bit higher. Sam has taught me how to haggle down prices for things though. In fact, yesterday I wanted something and he left me on my own to do the dealing…me, who can only say hello and yes in Chinese. This is how it works…you say “how much?” Then they say or write down a price…you indicate that is way too much (or if you are like Sam you say “too much” in Chinese and shake your head) and they hand you the paper and say “how much, you write“. You write down a very low price and it goes back and forth from there. If they don’t accept the price you feel is fair you walk away and they come after you and say “ok, for you ok“. It’s an interesting exchange. They do start by saying in their broken English, “cheap price for you, come look, cheap price for you”. Sam says he spent more money than he should have perfecting his bargaining skills! But I am sure impressed with how he does, especially since he learned Cantonese and here they speak Mandarin, and they are two totally different languages.
Once we checked into the “Backstreet International Youth Hostel” we dropped off our bags and started walking around. Within 100 feet from our place are many stands with people selling their goods. This group of sellers were much more physical then others have been, grabbing my arm and pulling me to look. It was fine though, and very interesting!
Then we came upon an outside mall area. This place was very large with many shops! I keep looking for a pair of sneakers to buy, but no luck so far. Sam looks too and they take one look at his feet and shake their heads and say no, no, no. His feet are just too big for this culture! We did come upon a store…just for your information there are typically no doors or if there are they are open, and Sam started looking at things. Then a man (maybe an owner, maybe just a man, we don’t know) started talking to us. He spoke broken English but enough for us to understand, and he told us that he was a teacher and artist. He also told us about a theater show that was happening that night, the final showing of four nights for the Annual boat Festival that had just happened. He said it was a “traditional Chinese Acrobatic show” and “very good”. It sounded great and something we both would love to see. So, we follow this man to the theater, only 15 minutes away and close to our hostel and decide to purchase tickets -- “a great price for us” says our friendly "guide." He dealt with another man for getting us the tickets. They showed us the seating chart and told us the prices. Hesitant, we decided to go for it. We didn’t have enough money, so they gave us the tickets
, we gave them half the money and the man follows us to the ATM. We give him the rest of the money and he then takes us to an art studio so we can look at the beautiful art. Wow this story is getting long…Anyway, we do not purchase any art and also reject his offer to go with him then to have tea. The rest of the afternoon we are just hoping we didn’t get ripped off. Finally it's show time and we head there, after waking up from a nap with only 20 minutes to get to the show, but we get there on time, no problem. Everything seemed as the man said -- there were people there to escort us to our seats, and although we did not get the VIP seats he said we would have, we had good seats -- in fact row 7 with no one in front of us. He did say the sho
w had been sold out the three prior nights. This night it was not. As it gets ready to start we are still worried that it is a legit show. We happen to be sitting next to an English speaker and find out she lives in Flagstaff and works for NAU. Small world!So, good show or not, legit or rip off? Within the first two minutes I turn to Sam and say, “this is well worth the money!” It was fantastic, the backdrops, the costumes, and then the talent. We loved it -- it was 75 minutes of pure entertainment! We could not take pictures during the show, but after it the cast was in the lobby for pictures. Here is one of them we took, and one I snuck of the show. We will for sure go back to find that man and thank him.
This was suppose to be a short post…sorry I got carried away!
After the show we went to see the “Twin Towers” --
the Sun and
Moon Pagodas.If you are an Amazing Race fan it was one of the pits stops for one leg of the race this past season. It was beautiful too, and here are two pictures of us and the towers and also
a picture of a little girl near the towers and a light.
Today, Tuesday we were just
Today, Tuesday we were just
planning on touring the area and then taking the train back to Shenzen (sp) tonight for our trip back to HK. Unfortunately, it is pouring rain, so we stayed at the Hostel longer, even though we've checked out, and hope it stops in time for us to see some more before sights before catching our train.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Here is Donna's account of the bike trip. Since she can't access Blogger.com in China, she is sending it to me to post for her -- Yvonne
More pictures for this post are on the post just before this one, and at http://picasaweb.google.com/dlteachape
Our plans for today were to take a nice bike ride and see some of the sites of Yong Shuo then in the evening to go see the light show. We ended up having quite an adventure on our bike ride, to say the least. My biggest worry was being in the crazy traffic, but that ended up being for just a short time!
The ride took us to what I call the inner parts of China, mainly where locals live. The sites
were absolutely breath taking. One of my favorite parts o
f this trip is taking pictures of local people in their everyday lives, and I had the opportunity for lots of that on this trip.
The trip started out great…great paths to ride on, plenty of people to make us feel safe and even a very local place to eat. Here is the restaurant we ate at. The location of the restaurant (which seems odd to call it that since there were no doors or windows to this place) was beautiful. It was by the river where locals offered bamboo boats for rides and the views of the mountains were spectacular. It was right before lunch when we met a girl from Germany who asked if she could eat lunch with us, since she was also on a bike but by herself.
Here is a picture of the kitchen where they cooked our lunch. Lunch consisted of rice, an eggplant dish, a green bean and chicken dish and a whole chicken. In China, sometimes when you order chicken, that is what you get --the entire chicken cut up and served with peppers (I come to find out). So on our table is placed this huge plate of chicken including bones, feet, head and all. Sam tried a chicken foot -- I on the other hand, stuck with pieces I recognized.
After lunch our new friend, Teresa, decided to go with us to see “Dragon Bridge”. We really didn’t know how to get there but we had this nice local woman also on a bike kind of escorting us. It was another 30-minute bike ride through areas we could never find our way out of alone. The twists and turns she took us on were beautiful, but also made me nervous. Sam and Teresa were very happy…you could see it in their faces. The homes we saw were just small shacks -- many with no doors or windows. One older local came out of her home smiling and waving for us to come into her place. We didn’t go in, but it I know if we had it would have been very interesting.
Anyway, we finally get to “Dragon Bridge” and she was right it was beautiful. This bridge is more than 500 years old and the largest arch bridge in China. My thoughts when we got here were that we would have to take the bamboo boats because we had no idea how to get out of this place. The boat would take us and our bikes down the river to a stop close to our location. So the woman tells us the boats can only take two people, and she points to me and Sam. I tell her (she did speak and understand a bit of English) “no, all three” she tells me $400 yuan f
or the two boats. Even for our standards that was a lot of money…like about $52 US dollars. Mind you, this was the most expensive lunch we had to date, and it was $13 for the three of us. So, $52 for a boat ride was way too much. Sam has become very good at haggling for a lower price since he has been to China, so he tried to work her down. She only came down a little and he could tell she was not going to go low enough for us to take the deal. (We only had $200 yuan on us). So Teresa and Sam decide we can find our way back by going over the bridge and just heading back.
Lets just say that 2 hours later (seemed like 10) we made it back. We had to say to every local we came into contact with, “Yang Shuo” and point. No one understood English, they just shook their heads. Luckily, we eventually did come into contact with some people who did help us more than just shake their head. We basically stayed to the main road (which was just a dirt road, but it was wider than the paths we were on most of the time). After about our 5th “Y” in the road, having to make decisions each time…and no they were not educated decisions, we had to go on instinct -- we came upon two men working in the rice fields. Again we asked “Yang Shuo?” and they pointed to a path between these two mountains. By this tine I am getting a bit nervous, we have no idea where we really are, it’s hot and humid,we have only a little water left and we're still unsure where to go. We decide to follow the direction ( I mean the point) of the men. Up and over this mountain we go. I never thought my first experience with mountain biking would be in China. We have been riding for about 5 hours at this point through rough paths with rocks and stones and mud…
Then we come upon a little man who when we asked “Yong Shuo?” started running along this path...so we followed him. By this time my knees have about had it and my hands hurt so bad because I had to hold on so tight to the bike. Anyway, he takes us to a river that has bamboo boats. Oh no! not again. But he tells us $20 yuan to take us across the river. We are like, "Yes!" since we knew at some point we would have to cross the river again. He tied two boats together loaded us and our bikes on and off we go. He sang us a song and really brought smiles to our faces. I think right before this point even Sam and Teresa were a bit nervous. We got off the boats and see Chinese writings on a rock that were the symbols for Yuan Shuo. We gave him $20 yuan, which is enough to feed his family for about a week. 30 minutes later we were in territory we recognized.
Here is a video of the man singing as he takes us across the river: http://picasaweb.google.com/dlteachape/BikeTrip#5342025084876599410
Although at some points I was not sure we would find our way home, I look back and I am glad we made the trip and can write about it.
Bike ride in Yangshuo
Donna will post her own account of this trip when she can, but just know she and Sam had an adventurous (read long, lost?, but fun) bike trip to see the river and areas around Yangshuo.
As she told us via Skype (love that!)... Seems they left their hostel at 10:30 a.m. , thinking it would be about a 7 km trip, just a few hours -- they got back more than 6 hours later -- but they got back!
Long story short, they went through some amazing scenery, saw very interesting houses and people, made a new friend (a woman from Germany that they then rode with), had an expensive ($13 for 3 people!) lunch that included an entire chicken (feet and head and all...) and then when they reached their Dragon Bridge destination, chose to not go back on the bamboo boats because they were too much money. So they headed back to town, and after a few turns and trying to ask directions (Sam wished he knew as much Mandarin as he knows Cantonese -- maybe even more!) they managed to get back to their hostel safely -- but pretty tired and a little bruised!
This area is one of the most beautiful in China, or so many people say. The vertical karst mountains are green and a very unusual shape. They are surrounded by rice paddies and you see rural Chinese people in their daily activities. The Dragon Bridge Donna and Sam ended up at, on the Yulong River, is 500 years old and the largest free-standing stone arch bridge in China. Of course, what they really cared about was finding their way back to the city after they saw it!
That night they went to the light show, which was interesting, but not nearly as exciting as they had been led to believe.
To see pictures of the bike ride, more than are right here, go to:
and click on bike ride
and to see a video of the boat ride across the river, with the Chinese owner singing! -- it is picture #60 in the above album.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Latest from China - Lang Shou
What I have found out is that in China you can not access blogs or YouTube for that matter. So, I am going to write my blog and email it to Yvonne to post.. But you can access skype….which is cool.
We have been in China for 2 days now. Spent our first day at the Queen Spa….now that is an experience! Check it out on Google. Queen Spa in Shenzhen. We had 22 hours of total relaxation. Sorry, but no cameras allowed. I did get a foot massage! We could eat all the fruit and ice cream we wanted, sleep, or watch your own TV that was attached to your reclining bed, shower as often as you wanted…they supply everything, watch a movie on a big screen, we saw Twilight…in English -- and all for me $30 and Sam spent just $13. Oh, we even had a meal there that is part of that price. Crazy cheap.
The spa was suppose to be at the end of our trip in China but we could not get a bus from Shenzhen to Gui Lin on the day we arrived so we had to spend a night.
The next day we took a 13-hour train ride from 6:00 in the evening until 7:00 the next morning. See the picture above! We slept in what is called, hard sleepers. 6 people to a unit. Three beds stacked on each wall. We each had the middle bed. Some very nice young man changed rooms with Sam so we could be in the same unit. That train trip was an experience! Also, I learned I will take a USA bathroom any day! I did learn that Americans spend way too much on diapers. Here they just cut the child's clothing in the crotch area and take the kids to the bathroom…So, yes they are totally exposed all of the time and even will hold their child with their back to the mom's chest, bring their knees up and let them go right over a drain on the road or into the hole, which is how the bathrooms are here.
Once we got to Guilin we took a bus to Lang Shou, 1 hour, one of the most beautiful places in China, so I hear…it is beautiful. Our Hostel [West Lily Hotel] is wonderful. The owners are self-taught English speakers and very nice. They even were able to meet my parents over Skype this morning…now that is cool! They thought so too.
Yesterday we took a bus ride to Xing Ping and took a boat ride….sorry I don’t remember the name of the type of boat. It was fantastic and so very beautiful. I posted some pictures on my Picasa web album [http://picasaweb.google.com/dlteachape] and there is even a video of the boat ride. There are also a few pictures with an earlier blog.
Today we are taking a bike ride to see water caves, a self directed little tour. Sam has assured me the bike ride will be (for the most part!) out of the main traffic area. I sure hope so, because driving here is crazy. After that we will be going to a famous light show tonight. The show is directed by the creator of the opening to the Olympics. It is a bit expensive by China standards, $20 US each, which includes the bus ride. We are excited about both of these trips today.
With that I better end this blog and get on my way. A bike is waiting for me!
Look at pictures on Picasa
Posted by Yvonne:
Donna can't get on her blog in China, so she asked me to post this info.
She will update it when she can, but in the meantime, go to
http://picasaweb.google.com/dlteachape
to see pictures and video of her and Sam's trip in mainland China!
Pictures like this of the boat they traveled the river on, and the next one, which is the mountains they saw on the river!
Today (Sunday) they are taking bikes out into the countryside and down to the river, then tonight they will see a light show by the river that is done by the same people who did the light shows for the Bejing Olympics.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
So...I had an eventful day yesterday. Although we had a lot planned the weather and things got in the way. But we did some cool things. I went to Sam's room and helped him pack up his stuff because we leave for China today and he needs to be totally out of his room before we go....
After that Stephani took us to meet her Grandma. that was one of the cool things...not packing him up:) Anyway, she made us lunch. It was very good but I don't know what the name of it was. I'll post a picture of it. It was good though. Then she shared some pastry's from Japan with us. They were good too. Her grandma...gosh I guess I never learned her name just grandma, was very sweet. She could say "thank you very much" in English otherwise Stephani did the translations. It's more than I can say...sam could say a few things to her.
Once we got off of the MTR to her place it was raining pretty hard. When we left it was raining still. So all we did after that was go and pick up my visa for China. Then I got to go to may room and take a nap....now that was cool because if you know me I never nap.
Later that evening...and I mean later...I meet up again with Sam and we meet his friends Ivan and Julia who had just got back from a trip to China for dinner. It was 10:30 PM when we left my room. :) We wanted to eat at a sushi place with half price meals but we were number B32 and in the 20-30 minutes we waited the numbers moved only from B15 to B17...so we left and went to Modern Toilet...interesting place...food was good too.
I finally got back to my room around 12:00. It was a great day...oh we hit a mall...13 floors...so cool.
Today we head for 6 days in China....should be fun and interesting. We will be going to Guangchou for the afternoon, then travel by train during the night to Yangshuo. I think we are spending 2 nights there and then onto Guilin. If you watched Amazing Race, they spent a few days in that area. So I am very excited to see that area. We will be back to HK on the 3rd.
After that Stephani took us to meet her Grandma. that was one of the cool things...not packing him up:) Anyway, she made us lunch. It was very good but I don't know what the name of it was. I'll post a picture of it. It was good though. Then she shared some pastry's from Japan with us. They were good too. Her grandma...gosh I guess I never learned her name just grandma, was very sweet. She could say "thank you very much" in English otherwise Stephani did the translations. It's more than I can say...sam could say a few things to her.
Once we got off of the MTR to her place it was raining pretty hard. When we left it was raining still. So all we did after that was go and pick up my visa for China. Then I got to go to may room and take a nap....now that was cool because if you know me I never nap.
Later that evening...and I mean later...I meet up again with Sam and we meet his friends Ivan and Julia who had just got back from a trip to China for dinner. It was 10:30 PM when we left my room. :) We wanted to eat at a sushi place with half price meals but we were number B32 and in the 20-30 minutes we waited the numbers moved only from B15 to B17...so we left and went to Modern Toilet...interesting place...food was good too.
I finally got back to my room around 12:00. It was a great day...oh we hit a mall...13 floors...so cool.
Today we head for 6 days in China....should be fun and interesting. We will be going to Guangchou for the afternoon, then travel by train during the night to Yangshuo. I think we are spending 2 nights there and then onto Guilin. If you watched Amazing Race, they spent a few days in that area. So I am very excited to see that area. We will be back to HK on the 3rd.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
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