Chinese New Year - It's Kind of a Big Deal

We got back safe and sound to Hong Kong from our 2 week holiday in the States (yes, I'm starting to sound like a Brit, a side effect of living in HK). We had a great time terrorizing other drivers on the road, marveling at the entire aisles of detergent and toothpaste in Target, and buying clothes off the rack that fit. All too soon, it was time for us to pack our 4 enormous suitcases with our new purchases and enough American toiletries to last at least 6 months and head back home. (For those of you who were worried, thanks to my creative packing, we did not get detained at customs for bringing 7 handbags, 12 wallets, 15 polo shirts and 2 Juicy Couture sweat suits of the pirated variety into the country.)

It's now almost Chinese New Year (CNY) which celebrates the lunar new year (February 7th this year) and we're getting ready for our next adventure. Here in the city, CNY decorations have been up since the calendar New Year. Bright red lanterns, miniature orange trees, koi fish paintings and gold Yuanbao ingots (the gold sailor hat looking thing below) decorate every apartment, store, walkway, mall, office, you name it.

2008 is the Year of the Rat, so on top of all the other traditional decorations, there are cartoon rats everywhere. At the bakery, they even have little jello molds of rats complete with little rat ears and tails. If it wasn't so unappetizing, they would actually look pretty cute.

The decorations represent good luck and prosperity in the new year, particularly good fortune (as in money). The colors red and gold also represent good luck. I'll admit, it's a little strange to have just celebrated the calendar New Year with my family in Miami, then come back to Hong Kong and everyone is still saying "Happy New Year!" Even in the mall, you can hear Christmas songs from the speakers that include New Year's greetings ("We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!").

There are also miniature trees, like cherry blossoms, with small red packets hanging off the limbs. The red packets are little red envelopes in which you are supposed to put coins and give to other people. The typical amount is $10 Honkeys and are given to children and single people, so Marc and I can't actually give them out, we'll only receive them from married people. I'm not really sure if the good luck envelope is for good luck getting married or what, but hey, it's tradition and I'm not going to look a gift rat, er, horse, in the mouth.

CNY is a big family holiday and it's even bigger than Christmas in the U.S. because EVERYONE celebrates it. There is a big family dinner on New Year's Eve and the holiday lasts for 3 full days in Hong Kong. In China, workers get the whole week off to go home and visit their families. As you may have heard, this year is very unusual because China has had the worst snow in 25 years and all the train tracks are blocked, causing huge backlogs at the train stations. Thousands of people are stranded in train stations all across the country and the situation isn't getting any better as the holiday gets near. For many Chinese, CNY is the only time of the year when they get to go home and visit with their families so if they can't get home, they will have to wait until next year to see their family. If you haven't read about this, check out this article.

That first picture shows a train station in Guangzhou which, as you may remember from my blog about Guangzhou in August, is described in the guidebook as a "seething mass of humanity." Trust me, it doesn't look *that* much different on a normal day without snow delays and cancellations.

Other good luck/bad luck customs observed during CNY include the following list from Wikipedia:

Good Luck
- Opening windows and/or doors is considered to bring in the good luck of the new year.
- Switching on the lights for the night is considered good luck to 'scare away' ghosts and spirits of misfortune that may compromise the luck and fortune of the new year.
- Sweets are eaten to ensure the consumer a "sweet" year.
- It is important to have the house completely clean from top to bottom before New Year's Day for good luck in the coming year. (However, as explained below, cleaning the house after New Year's Day is frowned upon.)
- Some believe that what happens on the first day of the new year reflects the rest of the year to come. Asians will often gamble at the beginning of the year, hoping to get luck and prosperity.
- Wearing a new pair of slippers that is bought before the new year, because it means to step on the people who gossip about you.
- The night before the new year, bathe yourself in pomelo leaves and some say that you will be healthy for the rest of the new year.

Bad Luck
- Buying a pair of shoes is considered bad luck amongst some Chinese. The word "shoes" is a homophone for the word for "rough" in Cantonese, or "evil" in Mandarin.
- Buying a pair of pants is considered bad luck. The word "pants"(kù) is a homophone for the word for "bitter"(kŭ) in Cantonese. (Although some perceive it to be positive, as the word 'pants'(fu) in Cantonese is also a homophone for the word for "wealth.")

- Washing your hair is also considered to be washing away one's own luck (although modern hygienic concerns take precedence over this tradition).
- Sweeping the floor is usually forbidden on the first day, as it will sweep away the good fortune and luck for the new year.
- Talking about death is inappropriate for the first few days of Chinese New Year, as it is considered inauspicious as well.
- Buying books is bad luck because the word for "book" is a homonym to the word "lose".
- Avoid clothes in black and white, as black is a symbol of bad luck, and white is a traditional funeral color.

If you want to read more about this interesting holiday, I found this Wikipedia article fascinating.

As you may imagine, there are plenty of dragon parades and festivities during the week which we are going to miss since we are going to Palau tomorrow. However, the downside to staying here is that the city closes down for the whole week and most people leave on holiday or to visit family. So, even though we will miss the festivities, we wanted to make good use of the 2 days Marc has off from work. I'll post about Palau next week, so stay tuned and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Impressions of a 6-Month Hong Konger in the United States of America

I get on the plane in Hong Kong International Airport and 15 hours later, I find myself in a strange land called the United States of America. Specifically, I have landed in New Jersey. I deplane and my ears are assaulted from every direction.

"Final boarding call for Flight 759 to Chicago, O'Hare."

"MOMMMYYYYYY!!!!!!! Timmy took my teddy bear!"
"Hurry up, we're going to miss our flight!"

"...If you are not at the boarding gate in the next 5 minutes, your seat will be given away to our stand-by passengers."

I cup my hands around my ears. My eardrums have been operating on a 30 decibel level for the past 6 months and I feel like I've stepped into a Metallica concert.

As we walk towards customs, I notice that I am in the company of giants. Everywhere around me, tall lumbering men and women pass me in 2 giant strides while I walk the equivalent distance in 5 mini-steps. Some giants are also wider than normal, waddling past me, sweating and cursing profusely at how far the terminal is from baggage claim. I see some of these wide giants passing me on golf carts, the beeping noise gets closer as they pass me, then fades away as the cacophony of the airport noise drones on. I am amazed as this walk from the terminal is the length of my morning commute to the MTR station.

I had heard that America is a melting pot and now I can see why. There are tall people, fat people, blond people, dark skinned people, there are people speaking English and Spanish and some variation of English and Spanish that I can't classify. I am so far from Hong Kong, the land of homogeny with its short, skinny, dark-haired, fair-skinned Asians who barely raise their voices above a whisper and are always respectful.

We make it through customs quickly as we are holding American passports and I see a large American flag looming from the ceiling with the words "Welcome to the United States of America" underneath. I almost cry at the familiarity and strangeness of seeing my native country's flag and realizing that although I have called Hong Kong my residence for the past 6 months, I am now home.

A smile spreads on my face as I soak up these strange and wonderful people. Even the large African American woman at the security screening who shouts to no one in particular "PEOPLE! Take your laptops OUT OF YOUR bags and put them in the bin. Haven't you ever flown before?" makes me laugh out loud. Only in America.

Birthday Bali

After our day of diving and scooting around Kuta, we headed back to the villa for a very special pre-birthday dinner for Marc. We had ordered a candlelit dinner to be prepared at our villa and when we walked in, they had already set up:

At exactly 9 o'clock, the chef came in with food and a bottle of wine. The huge platter of typical Balinese cuisine included a whole roast chicken, fish sticks, satays, rice, and some other stuff that I didn't recognize but were very tasty. Some of the food was a little bit spicy but even I had to concede that the flavor was very good. My motto may be "Food shouldn't make my mouth hurt," but I'll try just about anything that looks normal. I leave the weird duck beaks and fish eyes to my better half over sitting next to me.

The next day was Marc's actual birthday and even though we'd been celebrating for a week, I still had some surprises up my sleeve. After yet another tasty breakfast, we hired a taxi to take us back to Ubud. We had read about the Ubud Monkey Forest Sanctuary and wanted to go check it out. The tour book warned us not to bring food into the sanctuary, even if the food was in a zipped up book bag but nothing would have prepared us for what we were about to see.

Even before we walked into the forest, monkeys were walking in the street like tiny little humans walking on their hands and feet. O-kay, so they don't believe in cages here like the good folks in the Shanghai Zoo. OSHA's jurisdiction doesn't quite reach Asia Pacific. We bought some bananas from a lovely old Balinese woman at the entrance to the park and walked in.

IMMEDIATELY, monkeys were on us, like white on rice, trying to get to the bananas. Those monkeys were FIERCE! I realized a bit too late that reading the brochure for the sanctuary would have been a good idea BEFORE we walked in. The sanctuary doesn't mind if you feed the monkeys bananas, but they suggest holding your hand up over your head so that the monkeys can climb up your body and grab the food. Then, they use their little 5-fingered hands to peel the bananas and eat them, just like we do! If at any time, a monkey starts hissing at you, that means she or he is being aggressive and the best policy is to drop the banana and walk away slowly. Again, would have been nice to know before we went in, as Marc seemed to be attracting the aggressive monkeys. Eventually we got the hang of it:

Marc got in on the action as well, keep your eye on the monkey on the right.

After the sneaky monkey got the banana, Marc pointed to the older, fat monkey and called him stupid for letting the other guy steal his food, like the monkey could understand him.

My favorite monkey was this little guy, sucking his thumb just like a little human baby. He was only a few inches tall so I had to zoom way in:

In the middle of the park, we came across a temple and, like all temples in Bali, we were required to wear sarongs to cover our legs. Marc looked quite handsome in his:

On our way out of the temple, we found a monkey who had made a new friend. This little guy climbed on this man's head and was licking his bald spot! He even picked at the man's remaining hairs like monkeys do in the wild - he actually thought the man was another monkey!

After playing with the monkeys for a while, we went into town and shopped to our hearts' content. We bought a tall, skinny mask to add to our collection, as well as plenty of souvenirs. Marc bought a large abstract painting from an art gallery and even got to meet the artist who had been working upstairs from the gallery.

Later in the afternoon, we reluctantly went back to our villa to get ready for dinner that night. We had a reservation at the cool place to see and be seen, Kudeta. Everyone that we had talked to who had been to Bali had recommended this hip beachfront bar/restaurant whose claim to fame was its unhindered view of the beautiful Bali sunsets. We got there just in time for the show and boy were we in for a treat:

We sipped cool fruity drinks, soaked in the ambiance and took pictures of the sunset. Everyone on the island who was young and beautiful seemed to be there and the surfers came in straight off the beach for a drink. After the sun set, we sat for dinner and enjoyed a seafood feast. I had arranged for a special birthday dessert to be brought out for Marc and the waiters came out singing Happy Birthday in English and Balinese. They laughed when Marc claimed he was turning 29 which made my night. All in all, it was a wonderful birthday until I got the check. That is the first and last time I sign on the dotted line for a $1,265,110 dinner,* but it was well worth it.

Happy Birthday Marc from your Sugar Mama Fiancee!

*$1 U.S. Dollar = $9,344 Indonesia Rupiahs, but STILL nothing prepares you for a million dollar dinner bill!

We're Going Back to Bali, Back to Bali, Back to Bali

Place: Bali, Indonesia

Language: Balinese

Hello: Om swastyastu (om swastiastu)

Thank you: Terima kasih (terima kasee)

Man, are we spoiled. I go to China for my birthday and get a shopping spree of counterfeit goods, Marc's birthday comes along and we go to Bali.

Now, for those of you wondering if we took a page out of that Philadelphia couple's book, the modern day "Bonnie and Clyde" who stole credit card numbers from their apartment neighbors, let me assure you all, friends, family, FBI officials, that we finance all of our vacations ourselves and it helps that we go to some really cheap places. And Bali just so happens to be the cheapest of them all. No wonder the U.N. decided to hold its climate change conference there! Coincidentally, we were there during the conference although we didn't see any luminaries like Al Gore.

Our villa - wow, what can I say about our own private villa with our own plunge pool and chef? Well, since a picture is worth 1000 words and I only have a limited amount of time, I uploaded a video to YouTube because the video was too long to post on this blogsite. You can view the video by clicking here.

No, you didn't mishear Marc, our villa really was about 2,300 square feet. Leave it to us to stay in a place roughly 3 times the size of our apartment - we crave space! And yes, that is me trying to act all suave and sophisticated swimming laps in the pool and failing miserably. (No Mom, I didn't drown, don't worry.)

I'm not sure what part of the villa was my favorite but pretty close to the top of the list was our breakfast chef. Every evening, we would fill out our breakfast card and ring the front desk to place our order and request a time for breakfast the next day. Then, about 15 minutes before our breakfast was supposed to be ready, a Balinese chef would knock on our door in the morning with a basket of breakfast ingredients. Marc and I would slowly wake up while the smells of breakfast wafted over the wall to the outdoor bathroom area. Then, as quickly as s/he came in, our chef would leave our villa, leaving on the dining table our steaming hot breakfast, just blended smoothies and a huge platter of fruit. All this for about $140/night, can you believe it???!?!?! This place was 150% better than the place we stayed in Thailand and you know how much I liked THAT place. 'Nuff said.

By now you should know that we like to try at least one new and different thing every place we visit and Bali was no exception. We attempted to learn how to surf, dude. I got this little 40-year-old Indonesian man to give me a lesson while Marc decided he would try to learn on his own. Fearing another Vail-wrist-breaking incident, I took all of my surfing guru's instruction, including renting a surfboard that was easily 3 times taller than me. Here I am taking a quick lesson next to my PINK surfboard in the surf shop before we hit the waves:

Marc, on the other hand, rented a short slippery wily board even though he had never surfed before. Mmmmhmmm, so guess who got up first? I wish I had photographic evidence but we had to use a disposable waterproof camera so our pictures aren't of the digital variety. Never fear though, I got Marc a waterproof casing for our camera, so you will no longer be in the dark about our water activities. Instead of the typical 400 land-based pictures and videos, you will now be assaulted with 800 land and water pictures and videos. I know, I know, you and your retinas can't wait.

Eventually, Marc also managed to get up on his board and he did really well until the waves totally died on us. I got a little frustrated because I had just gotten the hang of it when the waves decided to stop coming and we couldn't keep practicing. Oh well, we'll just have to find some other fantastic exotic locale with some killer waves to do some more surfing, bro.

After surfing, we went back to the villa for a quick dip in the pool and a shower before we headed to a town called Ubud located about an hour away. Ubud is the heart of Bali, located close to the middle of the island and considered to be an artist's mecca. Art galleries and shops filled with beautiful hand-crafted sculptures and wood carvings line the 2 main streets and most visitors could spend days popping in and out of the shops, buying unique curios for mere dollars. We went back a few days later to do just that (you know us, we can't pass us some cheap bargains on local schlock), but the first night we had a Balinese dinner and took in a traditional Balinese dance show.

The show, called the Kecak Fire and Trance Dance, was exceptional. About 100 men sat in concentric circles doing a chant while ladies in traditional Balinese costumes danced around the men and told a story. I had read about the traditional dances in Lonely Planet but seeing it in person was magical:

The next day we spent the day underwater, diving off of a nearby island called Nusa Lembongan. The diving was spectacular, even though the waters getting to our dive sites were really choppy. I spent most of our boat time trying not to hurl our specially prepared breakfast overboard. It should be noted that I've only been dive certified for about 10 months, but I'm probably the most spoilt diver in the entire world. I've now dived in Turks and Caicos, Thailand, Bali and even did a shark-feeding dive in the Bahamas. And to make it worse, we're going to the undisputed diver's paradise, Palau in Micronesia, in February for Chinese New Year. Nope, in case you are wondering, it does not suck to be me.

Near the docks, Marc found some funny looking spider boats that could be cousins to the Thai long-tail boats we saw in Ko Tao. Must. Take. Picture.
After a day at sea, I was ready to be on land again but not ready to be stationary, so Marc and I rented a moped and explored the areas around our resort. Bali is a HUGE island, bigger than I expected and each little area has its own flavor and attitude. Kuta is the main party area of the island and where the waves are best for learning to surf. Seminyak, where we stayed, is full of cute boutiques and upscale restaurants. Ubud, as I mentioned, is the artist haven in the center of the island. There are dozens of other villages that we didn't even get to see with landscapes as varied as the villages. There are beaches (duh), rice paddies, mountains, even a volcano. We could have easily spent another week in Bali and not run out of things to do and see.

The people of Bali are really interesting too. If you've read Eat Pray Love (which if you haven't, you should, right now, go out and buy it here), then you'll know the Balinese are very proud of their heritage and have many festivals to preserve their culture. There are temples everywhere, even this one inside the SCUBA shop:You can find offerings, those little palm leaf trays of flowers and bits of food (below the chins of the gargoyle-looking statutes on the picture) everywhere on the island, especially on the ground in front of stores. Consequently, you have to be careful where you walk lest you kick one of them and destroy the good ju-ju the store owners are trying to bring in. The Balinese truly believe that good and evil sort out all the troubles in the world, but in 2003 and 2005, forces out of their control rocked their island. In 2004, a terrorist group set off 2 bombs in the densely packed area of Kuta in the middle of a strip of packed nightclubs. Over 200 people died, including many Australian, British and American tourists. In 2005, 2 suicide bombers killed 20 people in Kuta and Jimbaran (the peninsula jutting out the southern part of the island). Since then, the economy and tourism has been in struggling to recover, hence why everything is so cheap. Store-keepers and taxi drivers talk about the bombings and there are constant reminders, including memorials to those who died everywhere you look. In the middle of Kuta, about 30 meters from where the first bomb detonated, is a memorial with all the names of the victims. It was a sobering sight:


Despite their obstacles, the Balinese remain a friendly group and you find yourself in conversations with just about everyone you meet. They all want to know where you are from and where you are going, where you are staying and how long you will be there, whether you are married and where you are eating dinner that night. Talk to them long enough and they will invite you to their restaurant or help you find a driver for the day. It is inspiring to know that they do not live in fear and still embrace foreigners.

Well, I'm starting to get the beginning stages of carpal tunnel, so I better stop for now, but stay tuned for Part II of our Balinese adventure and more importantly, Marc's multiple birthday celebrations.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Yes folks, it's our favorite time of year - CHRISTMASTIME!

The temp is a chilly 75 degrees Fahrenheit; the Locals have taken their furs out of cold storage; the streets and malls are decorated with lights, fake snow window designs and tacky tinsel; and even here at the Linerez flat, we've taken to sprucing up a bit for the holiday season. We have a "Charlie Brown" totally fake Christmas tree:

We hung our stockings by, uh, the TV with care:

And most importantly, we spent the entire weekend in Shenzhen buying fake goods for everyone on our Christmas lists. Let's hope we don't get detained by customs entering the U.S. with our loot!

We're off to Bali on Friday, so we'll have pictures from our next adventure up soon. Then, we're coming HOME for Christmas and New Year's! While we love living in Hong Kong, we miss our family and friends dearly and it just wouldn't be the holidays without a good 2-week dose of our crazy kinfolk. We can't wait!

Meet My New Boyfriend (Marc Doesn't Mind!)

Yes folks, that is me and MIKE WEIR! He's soooooo dreamy! Don't worry, Marc doesn't mind, in fact, he took the picture!

So, here's the low-down... two weekends ago, Marc found out that the Hong Kong Open was being played at Fanling golf course, a fancy schmancy members-only golf club in the New Territories. Being the avid golfer and golf fan that he is, we went to check it out. (For all you golfers out there, Marc has been invited to play that fancy schmancy golf course next week and he is super psyched about it.)

Now, I'm not a golfer, in fact, it's better for the safety of all those within 50 yards for me *not* to wield a golf club of any variety, even a putt-putt club. Watching golf on tv catapults me into a comatose state faster than you can say "Fore!" However, the ONLY exception to this is Mike Weir, man what a hottie. So, when Marc suggested going to the HK Open and I found out Mikey was going to be there, I gladly agreed. Hey, they say marriage is about compromising, right? I'm getting a head start.

The trip to Fanling took 1 1/2 hours on a shuttle bus and we got there around mid-afternoon. Marc salivated over the golf course for a while until I convinced him to find Mike. There were other famous golfers there too (not Tiger but others that I don't know) but I was on a mission.

We caught up with Mike on the 12th hole where he nearly made a hole-in-one. The ball hit the stick thingie with the flag, the one that sticks out of the hole and shot back out of the hole (it was on ESPN the next day!). I like to think I brought him some good juju even though he didn't get the hole-in-one. We stalked him for the next bunch of holes and I tried surreptitiously to wink at him as he walked from hole to hole but he was in a trance. It's OK, I forgave him since he has to concentrate, I mean it *is* his job.

At the end of the game, he walked off the field through a trellis where a bunch of cute Chinese boys were begging for his golf ball - "pleeeesss meester pleeeeees!" Mike then went into a tent to record his score and then came back out to do an interview. After all that, he got down to business, signing hats, golf balls, gloves, babies, boobs, etc. It was a bit of pandemonium:

But I got the goods:

Then, after he finished his autograph session, the best thing in the world happened. I noticed Mike was walking towards the clubhouse, so I made Marc get in position so he could snap a picture of him as he was walking past me. Marc was too slow and managed to miss the picture, but then, that's when Mike turned around and realized it was Sabrina The Puerto Rican who wanted a picture with him. HE TURNED BACK AROUND, walked over to me and voluntarily put his arm around me so Marc could snap the picture! He didn't do this for anyone else, just ME! Man, those Chinese people were pissed. I had to resist the temptation to do the "I'm awesome and you're not" dance.

All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon and I got a new computer desktop background out of it, tee hee hee! Here's to compromise! ;-)

Don't Tell Our Moms...

Place: Yangshuo, China

Language: Mandarin Chinese

Hello: Nĭ hău (knee how)

Thank you: Xièxie (shie shie)

There is a program on the Travel and Living channel over here called "Don't Tell My Mom I Went To [fill in the blank]." This guy travels all over the world to dangerous places like Afganistan and puts himself in some very sticky situations. That's how I feel about our time in Yangshuo.

It all started when I read that there were a few outfits in Yangshuo that would take you rock climbing on the karsts. Are you kidding me? Heck ya! I can't believe Marc didn't even tell me this was an option. He is no longer allowed to plan our itineraries because of this. So, after Marc's rousing game of ping pong with the Locals, we stopped by Karst Pizzeria which is a pizzeria, duh, and a rock climbing outfit. They also have a small hostel upstairs. Don't worry Moms, I read all about the rock climbing companies and chose the one that was highly recommended and specifically requested that the owner (who happens to have the most experience of all the rock climbers in Yangshuo) take us herself. I also checked all the ropes to make sure they were sturdy and new. We talked about our experience (mine at the rock climbing wall at Chucky Cheese and Marc's at the rock climbing wall at the Bull Durham minor league baseball game during the 7th inning stretch) and concluded we were beginners since we hadn't actually climbed a real outdoor rock/mountain/wall/cliff/ledge/hill. Our best bet was Baby Frog Rock, a good beginner's climb with good scenery for Mr. Shutterbug over here.

I wish we could say that we got a long lesson on how to climb the sucker in front of us but the only lesson we got was how to tie the ropes. I guess when it comes down to it, you just have to figure out how flexible you are feeling that day. To her credit though, our guide helped steer us in the right direction since she knew Baby Frog like the back of her hand. Marc went first, scaling the side of the karst like a spider monkey:

When he rappelled down, he whined like a little girl about how hard it was and how he didn't think I could make it. Waaa waaa waaaa, all I heard was a challenge and boy did I prove him wrong:

Not only did I climb that route, but I also climbed a more difficult route that went even higher. Don't worry Moms, we were only 10 feet off the ground, just enough to break a wrist but not die (see picture below).

As promised, the scenery was great and we took a bunch of pictures.

Rock climbers extraordinaire!

When we got back home, my mom almost reached through the computer to strangle me. I guess I won't tell her about the next dangerous thing we have on the itinerary for Bali... just kidding! (sort of).

Later that night, we went to a spectacular light show that took place on the Li River. We highly regretted forgetting the camera because it was a feast for the eyes. Over 600 performers put on a show unlike anything I've ever seen before. The karsts were illuminated making a magical natural backdrop. Cormorant fishers paddled on their bamboo rafts with lanterns. Chinese women and girls sang and danced in traditional Chinese costumes with elaborate headpieces and jewelry. At one point, over 200 performers wearing outfits made of white Christmas lights walked seemingly on the water (but really on floating walkways) in a long procession and flickered their lights in mesmerizing patterns. We bought the video so if anyone is interested, we can show you what we're talking about because I'm not doing a good job describing it.

The next day, we woke up early to bike around the surrounding farming villages and nearly wore our butts off on what had to be a 30 mile ride. We stopped frequently to take pictures like this one when we came across a bride and groom taking pictures in the rice paddies:

Nothing says romance like rice paddies, mud and water buffalo dung... We also stopped to see a 1,400 year old Banyan tree and to hike up Moon Hill. If you ever go on this trip, let me just warn you that Moon Hill is gorgeous but there are over 1,200 extremely steep steps and there are old Chinese women that follow you ALL THE WAY UP the mountain trying to sell you water and fan you with their bamboo fans. It's extremely irritating and no amount of ignoring or polite declining will deter them from possibly making a sale. The view at the top is worth it though:

Afterwards, we biked around the farms and came across this:

Yup, that's a water buffalo. Don't worry, he was accompanied by his owner, an old farmer lady that was gracious enough to drag her water buffalo out of the fields and let us take pictures with it. Many Locals have water buffalo to help till the soil for the rice paddies. It's really bizarre but you can be biking down the side of a road and all of a sudden, you're sharing the road with a family of water buffalo. Craziest thing I've ever seen - good thing they are tame!

Our biking trip was Marc's favorite part of the entire weekend and he took a TON of pictures like this:

And even another video:

After enough putzing around, we returned to the hotel to get our bags and a taxi to the airport. We thought we had plenty of time until the concierge told us it would take an hour longer than we expected to get to the airport. YIKES! We told the cab driver to step on it and BOY did he! The 1 1/2 hour ride from hell, I mean cab ride, involved lots of swerving to pass bikes, cars, buses, even people. We would swerve into ONCOMING traffic as if the cab were a ball in a pinball machine only to swerve back into our lane at the last possible minute. We turned on and off dirt roads without signs and, if we hadn't already used the same taxi driver the night before, would have thought he was leading us out back to get shot. I've been in many a harrowing taxi cab rides before, including Hong Kong and Thailand, but this one took the cake. We changed our pants before the we got on the plane, barely on time but on time nonetheless thanks to Speedybombeedy, and made it safely back home, much to the relief of our mothers.

Guilin - Home of 1,000 Carps

Place: Guilin, China

Language: Mandarin Chinese

Hello: Nĭ hău (knee how)

Thank you: Xièxie (shie shie)

We are just hanging out at the apartment this weekend, waiting for Morgan to call us, so I decided to post a blog about our travels to Guilin and Yangshuo.

[For those of you who don't know what/where Guilin is, just look up page 422 in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die (we're steadily making our way through this book by the way). For those of you who haven't bought this book even though I told you to, it's about an hour plane ride northwest of Hong Kong in the province of Guangxi.]

We left on Thursday night for a short weekender of action-packed adventure. The flight was non-eventful and we landed in Guilin around 8pm. Yet again, we have another story from the airport in Guilin. It seems that we can't start any vacation without some sort of note-worthy airport experience. My pea-sized bladder apparently couldn't survive the hour long plane ride so I rushed out of the plane in search of Le Toilet and came across this sign:

DO WHAT???!?!?! I was laughing so hard I just about didn't make it to the bathroom but luckily I did, without my passenger friend, and everything came out just fine,thanks for asking.

We made it out of the airport without further incident or confusing signs and made our way to the hotel. By the time we got there, it was late and we were both starving so we went to Congee City Restaurant, recommended by the concierge because it had a great variety of food available. So, I had some very tasty beef and vegetables with rice while Marc decided to go off the reservation and eat this:

Guesses anyone? I will give anyone who guesses correctly (and hasn't heard this story yet) $20 USD. Here is a close-up:

That, ladies and gentlemen, is duck jaw. Marc, in his infinite wisdom, decided to voluntarily eat the beak, tongue, ear canal and jaw ligaments of DUCK. Seriously? Out of all the things on that menu and he picks DUCK JAW? Granted, some of the other options weren't very appetizing either:

• Duck tongue (for those who don't want the ear canal I suppose)
• Soft-shell turtle
• That reptile I hate whose name starts with an S
• Donkey meat
• Guilin river snail (a local delicacy, how do you say escargot in Chinese?)
• Pig pizzle (what? There is some pig pizzle in the hizzle?)
• Sparrow (a "special kind of fish" according to the menu)
• Mouse-like fish (so, is it hairy?)
• Frog saute
• Squid on a stick
• Congee (I have no idea what it is, but you could order congee with EVERYTHING)

I'm all for being adventurous, but come on folks, some things just aren't meant to be eaten. Besides, Marc said it was kind of gristly and didn't have a lot of meat on it. Really? Does any animal have muscles around its mouth? Like I said, I stuck to my safe beef and vegetables and got plenty to eat. [I've been chastised for writing about gross Chinese delicacies because I'm deterring potential visitors from coming to Hong Kong, so I'm making more of an effort to elaborate that you can get a side of normal Western food to go along with duck jaw if you so choose.]

The next day, we woke up early to board our Li River cruise boat. Now, Marc and I are not the tour types, we like to set forth on our own adventure not shuffled like cattle from one must-see tourist attraction to another. However, some things we can't do on our own, like boating down the Li River (which is what the book recommended). So, we got on board with 100 other tourists and this kid:

Boy was HE excited to be there, he could hardly stay in his seat. Luckily, once we were moving, we were allowed to move all over the boat, including the top deck where we could take some spectacular pictures.

The scenery in this province of China is full of strange narrow limestone mountains called karsts. I kept forgetting what they were called, so throughout the trip, I kept saying "Take a picture of THAT corpse, it looks like a pencil!" or "Holy carp!" It was funny at the time. Marc ignored me and instead took so many pictures that I made him go through them all and delete 75% of them. Here is one we kept:

Marc's visions of the foggy Chinese-y mountain-scape was coming true and he was like a kid in a candy store. It was (secretly) very cute (shhhh, don't tell him).

On the boat, we met some Americans, the first since we moved to Hong Kong except for 1 of Marc's co-workers. It's amazing how many Brits and Aussies we run into, but Americans really are the minority. It was comforting to hear American accents and we spent some time telling the tour group members where to go in Hong Kong (their next stop on their itinerary).

The other group of tourists on our boat was a loud group of Spaniards who asked me to take their picture. When I said "Sure, no problem" in Spanish, they got even louder "Oh! She speaks Castellano! Let's get her to take a group picture!" One group picture turned into 20 and 5 minutes later, I was part of their group and even invited to dinner! Marc and I had other plans, so we declined but it was just really neat to meet other tourists who spoke our language(s) and who were enjoying China as much as we were.

We disembarked at Yangshuo 5 hours and 6,762.5 pictures later and found ourselves in a quaint farming river-town with more karsts and bicycles galore. Lonely Planet had offered this interesting item: "If you're like most, you'll come to Yangshuo for a couple of days after the Li River cruise but end up staying far longer." Even though it was a sleepy little town, it had so many things to do, we could easily have stayed a week exploring the town and its surrounding areas.

The main area of town next to the river is a big pedestrian walking mall with tons of unique Chinese handicrafts, paintings, clothes, fake Rolexes (of course), traditional musical instruments and jewelry. Also in town were tons of little coffeehouses and restaurants aimed at tourists' palates. You could get Italian, Greek, English pub food, even pizza! And it was good, not the weird concoctions we find sometimes when we go to the Pizza Hut in Hong Kong (prawn pizza anyone?).

We found our way to our hotel and quickly rented bikes, THE mode of transportation. Then, we rode along the river-side to a local market and made a pit-stop for Marc to play an intense game of ping-pong with one of the locals. It went like this:

• Marc sees Chinese men playing an intense game of ping-pong in the park.
• Marc says he wants to play ping-pong.
• I say OK, but they are going to kick your butt.
• Marc says I know.
• Marc plays old man at ping pong.
• Old man beats the pants off Marc at ping pong.

HELLO! They're Chinese, they invented ping-pong, what did you expect?

While Marc was getting schooled, I sat on the curb next to the guy whose head you see in the picture. We got to talking and he asked me how I was enjoying Yangshuo. I told him I really liked it and it was a very pretty town. Then, he asked me to fill out a page in a journal he had with my thoughts on his home town. His journal was just a regular black and white composition book but I could tell it had been used a lot. I flipped through the pages and saw about 100 pages filled with comments from other tourists from all over the world. How neat! I wrote a few paragraphs and he practiced his reading in English while I helped him with some of the harder words. Marc and I both agreed that this graze with the Locals was one of the most interesting moments of our trip.

Later that evening, we went back into town to line up some activities for the next day and called it an early night. Stay tuned for days 3 and 4 of our Yangshuo adventure. In the meantime, here's a video from our Li River cruise, you can see one of our newfound Spanish friends yet another picture at the end of the video. Enjoy!

Holy Batman!

Today, Marc met me at Subway on the escalator for lunch, something we do fairly frequently. However, today was a bit different because when I went to meet him, the first thing that came out of his mouth was "I just passed Morgan Freeman on the escalator."

WHAT??!?!?!?!?!

Turns out, Morgan was filming the newest Batman movie, The Dark Knight, just a few levels down on the escalator. To heck with lunch, who needs nutrition when there is a mega movie star in our vicinity? So, we went back down the escalator to Lyndhurst Street where we found hundreds of production crew members standing around and shouting into walkie talkies. We were in the middle of an honest-to-God movie shoot! At that point, we didn't know what movie, mind you, but I didn't care. Morgan Freeman was within 50 feet of me and I had a great view of him from the stairs!

We stayed for a while watching Morgan walk down a really Chinese-y side-street that I like so much - boring, I know, but the cameras were following him and the director was shouting Action! and the whole thing was just so Hollywood - right in the middle of Hong Kong! After Morgan did his strutting, his handlers shuffled him over to Pizza Express for lunch and pulled down the shades so we reluctantly went back to Subway to nourish ourselves.

Funny thing was, Marc had almost changed our lunch plans to go to Pizza Express, our favorite pizza joint, before he encountered all the craziness. AND, he had heard that the Batman movie was set to shoot in Hong Kong but that a key action scene was cut out of the movie because it involved dropping an actor into Victoria Harbor which is extremely polluted. (This tidbit turned out to be false: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/entertainment/view/310579/1/.html )

After lunch, we went back to stalk some more and saw that all of the camera equipment had signs for the movie Rory's First Kiss. "Booo," Marc said, "I'm turned off now."

However, when he went to his office, he looked up the fictitious movie and found out that Rory's First Kiss is the code-name for Batman: The Dark Knight and that Morgan Freeman is one of the actors. So, it really was Batman!

The shooting was scheduled to continue this afternoon but I refrained from making my way down there to play the star-struck fan. Who knows, maybe we'll be at dinner this weekend and run into Morgan. We can invite him to our table to have drinks and we'll become fast friends. He'll invite us to Aspen to go skiing and Lake Como to hang out with Clooney. I'll be sure to write *all* about it...

National Day

The night we got back from Thailand was National Day in Hong Kong (October 1st), celebrating the beginning of nationhood for China. Even though Hong Kong is a special administrative region and has its own Special Administrative Region Establishment Day, it still participates in Chinese holidays like this one (did I mention they are smart?).

From our apartment, we could see the fireworks celebration taking place over Victoria Harbor:

No messing with crowds and Locals who don't really understand the meaning of personal space, it was nice to just sit in the living room window and watch the 30 minute fireworks display.

For those of you who were wondering, yes, some people celebrate Halloween here in Hong Kong. It's not as prevalent as it is in the US, but there are plenty of Halloween decorations everywhere and a few big street costume parties in ex-pat sections of the city. I did see some kids dressed up earlier in the week, but none came trick-or-treating which is a shame really because if they did, they would have one stop shopping, er, trick-or-treating! Our building as 33 floors, with 4 apartments per floor, that is 132 doors to knock on without having to walk very far!

We're off to Guilin, China this afternoon for a long weekend. We'll be back on Sunday so enjoy the past few blogs while we're out. I promise not to be so slack next time! :)