TravelStream™ news feed for member ruthbarz on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/ruthbarz en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:53:04 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1245457485/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1245457485/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1245457485/tpod.html Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:53:04 -0400 China Part 2

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Beijing, China

I told Alex I was going to write one more blog, and he was surprised I had more to say. After all, I was only in China for 12 days, and most of those days were uneventful. I came to China planning to just visit Alex; I wasn't looking to do a lot. But I think that by just living here, instead of visiting, I learned a lot. I was around the same people for longer periods of time, and since I was driving through the same streets I stopped paying attention to the scenery and more attention to the driving. The last time I was in China (I got here 1 year ago exactly. Weird how that turned out.) I was so impressed with the efficiency of the driving and the travel, and I still am. But I think I understand it so much more now. In the US, we have all of these traffic laws to protect people. In China, they don’t seem to need those laws of driving. If they did, the crowds would be more crowded and there would be more stand still traffic. I have a feeling that if everyone on the Chicago highways started driving the same way people do in China, the stand still traffic would be cut in half. In China, drivers go to where they need to go by making themselves fit on the roads. If they are going to take someone else’s spot, they will get beeped at or have brights flashed at them. But oftentimes, who ever was in the spot originally will move over to let the person in. That’s kind of the key. People are in a hurry, but they are also aware of each other and aren’t as aggressive to be in first, like drivers are in the US. They honk and swerve and act aggressive, but it’s in a much more cooperative way than I am used to. At one point today, I was in a normal car and we were sharing a lane with a smart car, because there was space. I think that in America, most people think of driving as mind numbing but here it is very interactive and requires all of a driver's attention. And I like it.

The other thing that I’ve decided is that in general, in the 6 cities I’ve been in, people are more honest and helpful than I’ve encountered in other countries. When I get in a taxi and there is a language barrier, I tend to think I’m going to be screwed over, because I have been so many times. At one point Alex and I got in a taxi and I was so convinced we were driving in circles in order to rack up the fare. Turns out, we were taking some sort of short cut through back roads, and the fare was cheaper on the way home than the way there. People have been friendly to me the whole time I’ve been here, and so many people say hello in passing. When I try to speak Chinese back, people tend to laugh, but when I’ve asked the translators about it, they said that its probably because they are excited that I am trying to speak Chinese (with a horrible accent). The only thing that does kind of bother me, is that I’ve seen LOTS of girls giggling at my feet/shoes. I’m not quite sure what that is about. For one thing, I think they think its funny that I don’t wear stilettos everywhere I go. Last year, there were women wearing heals at the great wall!! (Maybe they like foot pain! After the feet binding was over, they moved to painful shoes?) When I know I’m going to be walking around, I wear gym shoes, so maybe they just think I have ugly shoes? Either that or big feet, or they are checking how big my heels are because I am so tall. What ever it is, it’s a big deal of some sort, because it happened to me nearly every single day.

And now I’m going to pause and break my train of thought, because I am being distracted by men in white suits running on and off the plane I am supposed to board in 20 minutes. I’m pretty sure that someone on the flight before me had a fever and they are running around trying to figure out how to handle it. At least four men in full body white suits were running in and out of the plane. I saw one go in with a suitcase, and the flight attendants were running out, a couple at a time. It is now about 45 minutes after they landed, and they are finally letting people off the plane. A young boy and his mother were brought out to an ambulance, but it looks like they aren't quarantining anyone else. It was weird and fun to watch from the outside. I’m sure if I was on that plane I would just be annoyed that we had to sit there almost an hour extra… Although I suppose this does mean my flight may be a bit delayed… (It was delayed. One hour)

Now back to complimenting China. Alex has met so many great people in Dagang for work. There were three different people who brought us out to dinner because they knew I was here and wanted to meet me. We went out with one guy, Vincent, and some of his friends along with Alex’s translator, Mrs. Liu. After two beers, Vincent was telling us his religion was Communism, but he also came close to falling down the stairs. Who knows what he meant. Mrs. Liu was a fantastic translator to have at two of the dinners, and her English is so clear! Her background is in accounting, and she took a 9 month online course to become a translator. I’m impressed with how well she speaks for having less than a year of formal training. At the second dinner she was at with us, Alex and I were invited to a nice restaurant with a bunch of the managers Alex works with. It was interesting for me to see how Alex works, and what it's like to need a translator to just have a conversation. I felt pretty uncomfortable not being able to converse with anyone. Not to mention the fact that I am pretty bad at using chopsticks, and we were served pigeon and snails (large snails… maybe an inch in diameter). During dinner I told Mrs. Liu my story about finding a four leaf clover, and maybe a ½ hour later, without me knowing she told the table my story. Afterward she just turned to me and said "I told them about your clover!"… Haha, thanks, Mrs. Liu. However, one of the men later called me charming, so maybe the story worked in my favor!

Alex’s other translator, Alice, also brought us to dinner. She has an 8 year old daughter, and Alex gave her the English name Ashley (sticking to the A names!) The four of us went to another hot pot restaurant, and it was nice to see a family just let loose. Ashley was just running around the table, dancing and taking TONS of pictures of Alex and me. You could tell Alice was sort of embarrassed, but I thought it was funny. We were in our own private room and it was nice to see Ashley feeling comfortable around us. On the taxi ride to that dinner, I was asking Alice about the “Flip Flap” on the dashboard of the taxi driver. It’s a little flower that dances when the sun is out. I’ve seen them a lot and I like them. She told the taxi driver I was complimenting it, and when we got out of the restaurant, he had one for me! We ended up using him as a taxi driver when we went from the hotel to the super market, and back as well, and he didn’t charge us for the ride. So of course when I needed a taxi to the train station today, we called him. He was so nice to me. He even parked his car, bought me a ticket, and brought me to my seat. He got into trouble with two different people because he was in an area for “ticketed passengers only” but he was really helping me out. Alice said that he is just genuinely a nice person. I tried to tip him well, but he wouldn’t accept anything more than the taxi fare (which was less with him than with the other 3 drivers I’ve had for the same trip.)

Whew, that was a lot. If you got through that, thanks for listening to my rambling on and on about how much I love China and the people. I am so impressed with this country, and I can’t wait until I get another chance to visit (which luckily may not have to be too far away… After all, I got a 1 year visa when I applied!)

Oh and one last thing… After everyone go off the plane I am waiting to board, a group of about 50 people hopped on the plan. I’m pretty sure they are going to clean it all up, and quickly too! While they have the strange regulations over the flu, its nice to see that because of their efficiency we won't be delayed TOO much.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1245220634/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1245220634/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1245220634/tpod.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:22:40 -0400 China Part 2

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Dagang, Tianjin, China

Today Alex and I walked around Dagang. There was a cool plaza where a little boy had 2 ducklings following him. Someone was out there with a hose, cleaning the paths I think, and the boy and ducklings were just playing around in puddles.

We started walking to the man made mountain that everyone was telling Alex about, and on the way we stopped at a park. I've seen these workout parks before, but we probably spent almost an hour checking out each of the machines. I don't really know what think about these parks. If that's where kids go to have fun, then its a good thing, because I guess they are doing good for their bodies. But if its where adults go instead of the gym, then I guess its a good reason why, in general, Chinese people don't tend to be very muscular. Either way, we were the only ones on the machines, but there were plenty of people standing around watching the foreigners play!

On the rest of the way to the man made mountain, there was a clover patch and I bet Alex I could find a four leaf clover. Back in the day, when I was an outfielder for my t-ball team, I spent lots of time searching for four leaf clovers and I got pretty good at it. We just kept walking and after less than a minute I bent down and found a nice big one! Its by far the biggest 4 leaf clover I have, and the first one I've found in well over 10 years. I guess some luck is coming my way! ;)

The man made mountain was really nice. If we didn't already know it was man made, it would have been pretty clear when Alex started climbing the rocks, only to realize they were plastic. There were a couple of monkeys right by the entrance and there were 3 teenage boys teasing them. They would lure them in with peanuts but give them lit cigarettes. Luckily the monkeys were smart enough not to eat them, but instead just tore them apart. But then they were whipping peanuts at them, and I felt really bad for the poor monkeys! I actually started yelling at the boys, but no one understood me and I think they were happy to get any reaction from other people there. We continued on, because I was getting more upset. In the park there was a mountain that you climb up, with a pagoda on top, and then when you reach the bottom, there was a nice pond. Then you could go up one more smaller mountain or leave the park area. There were lots of tourists there too, everyone had a camera and they were taking pictures and videos of us all day. It was really pretty, and took you out of the city life.


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1244779200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1244779200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1244779200/tpod.html Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:53:27 -0400 China Part 2

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Dagang, Tianjin, China

Well I have been in China almost a week, and unfortunately I don't have any exciting stories to tell. This trip has really been uneventful, and I stay at the hotel all day while Alex works. There is a little park area next to the hotel that I like to spend the mornings in. There are walking paths, pagodas, a river, benches, and a nice view of some oil refineries. In pictures it looks really nice, but actually its a little beat down. Sort of like the whole hotel. There is a brochure for the hotel, and the lobby looks amazing, but in person everything is a little less nice than I would expect/want. In the park there are two pagodas. One of them is nearly impossible to get into because all of the paths have been overgrown with bushes (which are also invading the benches inside too), and other other is just beat up and I would be afraid to put my weight on the benches.

Being outside is a nice change of scenery though, so I've been out there nearly every day in the beautiful weather! 80 degrees or higher and sunny each day. Each day while I sit outside, I have noticed (it would be hard not to) a truck that turns the corner right across the river and shoots firecrackers off the back of the truck bed toward the street each. On days that I'm not outside while they do it, I can hear it from the room. I'm not sure whats going on and I've asked two locals about it but no one seems to know what they are doing. I think I will be ready with my camera for the next few days and try to get it on film. Its strange and pretty startling while I'm relaxed and reading in my own little Chinese park.

The downtown area (in Dagong, not Tianjin) may be one of my favorite areas I've see in China. Unfortunately it is about 3 miles away so it would be hard to get to without taking a taxi, but there are a bunch of little shops and street vendors everywhere. Alex and I go there when he gets off work, and you would think that we were celebrities. Its pretty obvious that foreigners don't come to this area very often. Most people just say hello, but the little kids seem to be the bravest, they are the ones that come up to us and speak English. While we were eating one little girl came up and started a conversation with us. I assume that the young kids are in the process of learning English and want to practice, while older people don't use it and have forgotten most of it. But again, thats just an assumption.

Last night Alex and I went out with Milo, a guy Alex met at his gym. We went to a "hot pot" restaurant where you order a broth and meats and vegetables to add to it. Then you just eat the cooked food out. It was pretty good! One of the best meals I've had here (including the three weeks from last year) but Milo said it was no good. I guess I like bad Chinese food?

After dinner we went to a "K-TV Bar" which is a bar with a bunch of individual rooms to karaokee in. I always thought the concept of having your own room to karaokee in was pointless and lost the fun of karaokeeing, but it was a ton of fun! For one thing, you don't have to wait two hours until they get to your song, by which time you don't even want to karaokee! Also, I think I sang about 8 to 10 songs in an hour AND I didn't have to be embarassed when I sounded bad because there were only two people listening to me sing! The room, and actually the entire bar, was decked out with crazy colored lights, and there were little buttons you could press to give the person singing a round of applause or roses. It was really cool and I totally want to go to another one of these places before I leave! I have a video of the room, with Alex singing a song in Chinese (Milo got a phone call in the middle of the song). I have to get the OK from him before I post it though.

I'm hoping to get a chance to go see Tianjin and possibly Beijing before I return home. Hopefully Alex will have a day or two off this weekend and we can try to plan something (which it seems like he will). If he does work, his translator, Alice, has the weekend off and so I might do something around here with her. Either way, it seems like this weekend will be a lot more eventful than the past week has been.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1245140499/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1245140499/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1245140499/tpod.html Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:48:03 -0400 China Part 2

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Tianjin, Tianjin, China

Alex had the weekend off, and we went to Tianjin city on Saturday. Its the 6th biggest city in China, but people don't really go there because it's not a touristy city, and there isn't really anything to do. We spent the day walking through the city center, which was a big shopping area. Each store had its own music blasting, trying to over power one another. It was loud and crowded, and it seemed like we were always getting in the way of the trolleys that brought people from one end of the street to the other. The shopping area was huge, but it seemed like every store was just repeating itself over and over. I think we saw about 10 different Nike stores, 20 McDonalds, and almost every store in an 8 story mall was selling clothes that looked pretty much the same. My only idea for the reason for this was that in a city so populated, each brand wants to spread itself out as much as possible to get to the most people... But the set up seemed weird to me.

We were really hoping to get massages in Tianjin, but it seemed impossible to find a spa in the area we were. We found a sign that said SPA -> 1km, but we walked and walked, and saw nothing that looked like a spa. We didn't want to just ask a taxi driver, because who knows if we'd end up someplace sleazy. We ended up in a park area for awhile, where we ate some cheese and chocolate (since I was having Western food withdrawls already... After only a week!) The city was really nice though, and I'm glad we had the time to check it out. A lot of the architecture looked nothing like what I picture China to be. There were lots of columns, and it almost looked European. There was a river going through the city, and everything was very clean. While it wasn't necessarily a fun city to visit, I could see how it would be nice to live there.

The drive from Dagang to Tianjin was pretty cool, too. I had this idea of what China would be like when I came here last year, but since I only visited cities, I thought my impression was totally off. But during the drive we were in more rural areas and I saw shops that reminded me of India. There were also men working in rice fields, but there were big urban buildings in the distant background. It was a perfect picture of what I was expecting, and I wish I could have stopped to take a picture. It made me realize there is surely a whole other side to China that I have yet to visit.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1244260800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1244260800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/5/1244260800/tpod.html Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:04:33 -0400 China Part 2

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Beijing, China

I was really worried about being quarantined after my flight to China. Not because I was sick, but there was talk about quarantining anyone within three rows of someone sick, and there were 4 kids in my row. The whole swine flu procedure was pretty funny though. As soon as we landed, two men wearing heavy duty face masks and white lab coats boarded our plane. They walked down the the aisles and shot each passenger in the head with a temperature gun. The doctor (?) on my side of the plane nodded excitedly after each temperature was taken. I wanted to take a picture of it, but unfortunately my camera was in my bag in the overhead compartment, and people were getting yelled at on the loud speaker for being in the aisle.

After the each person's individual temperature was taken, we also had to give a form about our health to someone, and I noticed at least three different cameras that we walked by that I'm pretty sure were reading body temps. It was a really quick procedure, but it seemed so overdone to me!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/4/1233888300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/4/1233888300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/4/1233888300/tpod.html Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:36:06 -0500 Italia - My most spontaneous trip ever

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Rome, Lazio, Italy

I don't have too much to say about Rome. I feel like everyone knows a lot about what to expect, and there are a lot of tourists and history. The city is much smaller than I expected, and we were able to walk to everything which was nice. I'm very glad I went, but I'm in no hurry to go back soon (but I still threw my coin into the Trevi Fountain!).

One thing that we did that was cool was a wine tasting at our hotel. They had 17 different wines, and they had them set up at different tables with food so you know what food to eat with which wines. They also gave us a booklet that explains how to rate wine and a form to use to do the rating. I am proud to say I had some of every wine, and barely spilled any out (except some dessert wine that tasted like whiskey... ick). Plus you knew it was good wine - no hang over the next day!

Also, FYI, February was a bad time to go because the catacombs were closed. I think it was the entire month that they closed for maintenance. So that was unfortunate.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/4/1233707340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/4/1233707340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/4/1233707340/tpod.html Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:38:47 -0500 Italia - My most spontaneous trip ever

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Florence, Tuscany, Italy

I absolutely LOVED our time in Florence. We arrived by train on the morning of the 3rd, and checked out our hotel. The location was fantastic - right in the middle of everything. We could see the Duomo from our room! We walked around on our first day, and just enjoyed the sights. I was really happy to see streets of Italy that looked like the streets I was expecting. (As opposed to Naples, where streets were dark alleys)

We spent our first day doing the two major museums. Galleria dell' Academia was first. Its very small! But it was well worth it to see David in person. I am not an art lover by any means, but I was so impressed with David! When we walked into the wing where we could see it from afar, I couldn't pay attention to anything and just made my way over to him. I've never been so drawn to a piece of art.

We did the Uffizi next. Fortunately we were there during the off season, and there really weren't too many people to push through to see everything. There was sooo much there, so Alex and I decided to follow our tour book and only really stopped and looked at the famous pieces... Like I said, I'm no art lover. It was cool to see the Birth of Venus and some other paintings that I learned about in my Greek and Roman class, but overall I was happy to be with someone else who didn't care to linger too much.

The next day we had an iPod on hand, and we listened to some sound guides at each of the main attractions. We were in the Piazza della Signoria, went to the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge), and of course the Duomo. We climbed the bell tower and saw the city from up high - a beautiful view. We did everything we wanted to with plenty of time to spare.

I guess that is what I really liked about Florence. Everything was within a small enough area to see and do everything you want with plenty of time to relax and linger. We stopped for gelato, had a long lunch, did some shopping, and just walked through the city, exploring and talking. It was really relaxing, really nice, and seemed very European to me.

There were also a lot of Americans around. We spotted two large groups of American girls, studying there. Had I known Florence was so cool, I probably would have tried to do the same! All of the people studying there probably explains why an old Italian man started speaking Italian to me. I think its pretty obvious that I'm not Italian (is there ANYWHERE I can go to and look local??) and when we bumped into each other he smiled and started speaking Italian. When I told him I didn't understand he said something that sounded like "only a tourist..." Now I wish I knew Italian though, I've fallen in love with Florence and would love to live there!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/4/1233594360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/4/1233594360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/4/1233594360/tpod.html Fri, 13 Feb 2009 12:55:20 -0500 Italia - My most spontaneous trip ever

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Capri, Campania, Italy

I arrived in Naples on Sunday afternoon, and when I came out of the airport Alex was waiting for me. We spent the day exploring the city, eating pizza, and drinking wine. I can't believe how good the cheapo house wine is! We would get a liter for about 4 euros, and it was amazing!

My first impression of Italy (and Europe for that matter) was strange, mostly because it was a Sunday afternoon/evening in a non-touristy area during the off season. At one point we were walking back to the hotel (which was a great hotel, with a great location, but in the middle of a bunch of small streets and pretty hard to find) and I thought we were in some really shady areas! There were dark alleys and animal poop all over the streets, and shady people asking for money. I could have sworn our hotel was in a shady area, but the next morning we realized that these "dark alleys" were actually busy streets filled with stores and people during the week. Things were just closed on Sundays. Also, we got pretty hungry come dinner time, and there were NO restaurants open! And this wasn't the only time we had this problem. It seemed like restaurants had very specific times to be open, and if you were hungry at 6PM you were out of luck until 7.... Strange.

On Monday morning we went to the Isle of Capri, as recommended by Bethie. She said it was her favorite thing to see in Italy, so we made sure to check it out. Our ferry ride there was a little rocky! I saw a man get up and do a vomiting gesture to a crew man, and the two of them ran to the back of the boat. One can only imagine what happened next. But Alex and I were definitely feeling the waves!

When we finally made it to the island, we realized we weren't really sure what there was to do in Capri. The island was beautiful and was the first thing that looked like what I expected Europe to be like. Unfortunately, though, all of the tourist areas were closed on Mondays, so we spent our day taking buses from one side of the island to the other, and then back again. I suppose it was a good sightseeing tour of the island, but at one point we got kicked off the bus because it was the end of the route, and we were in the middle of no where! We decided to hurry back to the ferry to try to make it back to Naples so that we could do an underground Naples tour, but we missed the last English tour by about 30 minutes.

Instead we made it to Castel Nuovo before it closed. There really wasn't too much there, but the view from the top was great! There was also some modern art in one of the rooms, and some of it was pretty cool. We walked around the area near our hotel until the restaurants opened. I really wish I would have bought more souvenirs in Naples! Everything was so much cheaper there than in Florence and Rome, but unfortunately since it was our first stop we didn't want to have to carry everything with us on the rest of the trip. Had I known then what I know now, I probably would have wanted to do our entire trip backwards, starting with Rome and ending with Naples.

Overall, I'm really glad we stopped in Naples for the day and a half. The food and wine were the best we had (probably because there weren't tourist spots that know that its customers are only around temporarily) and it was really good to see a part of Italy that isn't meant for pulling in tourists.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/2/1215280860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/2/1215280860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/2/1215280860/tpod.html Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:30:00 -0400 No Gourou for Me, Please! - Adventures in China

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Hong Kong, China

Since we saw most of what Kowloon and Hong Kong Island had to offer yesterday, today we took a ferry to one of the outlying islands called Lantau. We landed in Mui Ho which was a cute little fishing area. We missed the first bus to the Big Buddha so we just walked around and checked out the area.

An hour later we got on a bus and got a cheap tour of the island. Everything was very pretty, and we passed quite a few beaches that I would have loved to stop at! We also drove by a weird neon green lake. I don't know if it was chemicals or algae, but you could see it wasn't the right color from up by the Big Buddha statue! As we started moving up the mountain that the statue is on, we were getting nervous because there were parts of the mountain that you couldn't see due to cloud cover. When we got off the bus I looked around and wondered out loud where the Buddha was, only to look to my right and see it nice and clear. The statue really was "big" and it deserves its name as the Big Buddha! There was a temple and monastery in the same area, and so there was absolutely no meat allowed. That was unfortunate when we got hungry!

From the Buddha, we were able to walk to a cable car that takes you to the other side of the island, near the airport. It was a 25 minute ride that takes you 5.7km over all of the mountains and it was a great view! I've never flown into Hong Kong, but I bet you can see the Buddha statue from the air, because the airport is so close by. It was a really cool ride, and I would recommend it! From the airport we took a subway back to Kowloon.

After a fabulously American dinner at Outback Steakhouse, we did an hour long night star ferry tour. I think I would have had pretty much the same experience if we would have just taken the ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong. The best part was when we first got on the boat and there was a light show going on. It is the only permanent light show in the world, because it is the lights on all of the buildings. I was thinking that we should have done the tour on Friday for the 4th of July because it was the closest thing to fireworks we could see!

Overall I loved Hong Kong! We only had two days to see everything, but I would have loved to stay the night on Lantau and spend a whole day on the island. Everything was so pretty, and in Hong Kong it was a nice change to have almost everyone (including taxi drivers) understand English. I definitely want to come back sometime when I have more time to really explore and enjoy everything!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/2/1215207180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/2/1215207180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ruthbarz/2/1215207180/tpod.html Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:02:16 -0400 No Gourou for Me, Please! - Adventures in China

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Hong Kong, China

Flying from China to Hong Kong was about as expensive as flying from the US to Hong Kong, so Alex and I decided to fly into Shenzhen and then take a ferry to Hong Kong. We got into our hotel and realized that it was a different YMCA than all of the guide books were talking about. We thought it was going to be a really nice place that was cheap, and instead we just ended up in a cheap hotel. Location was good for markets, though! The Ladies Market and the Temple Steet Market were both within walking distance, so on Thursday night we hit the Ladies Market to do some shopping. I'm pretty sure that we missed about 3/4ths of the entire thing, but I doubt it mattered much. Everything they were selling was the same throughout. There were the purse stands, the dvd stands, the sunglasses, etc.

The next day was the 4th, and unfortunately it didn't seem like it at all! We started the day by taking the Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island. We knew we wanted to go up to the peak, but didn't really know how to do it, so we followed signs to a bus that would bring us up there. It turned out to be a scenic trip, and it was my first time on the top of a double decker bus (to my memory). There isn't too much to say about Victoria Peak. It has a great view of the city, and we lucked out with the clear weather, but there really wasn't that much to do.

We took the Peak Tram down, which was much quicker than the bus but less scenic. We then took a cab to the Repulse Bay Temples. Had I known that they were right on the beach we would have brought our swim suits! They were by far my favorite temples I've ever seen. Everything was really colorful and cool looking. Plus they were literally right on the beach and everything around us was scenic as well. Strangely enough, we had three guide books for Hong Kong and not a single one talked about the temples! But it is a must see in my book.

After that we went to Stanley. The Stanley Market was supposed to be one of the best, and we did see some new things there, but mostly everything looks exactly the same. It was also right near the beach, so we had a nice dinner at a little cafe on the beach. Strangely I can't find any pictures of Stanley. Not sure if I'm looking over them or if we just didn't take any. Let me know if you find some, Alex. =)

We took the Star Ferry back to Kowloon and headed to the Temple Steet Market. It was very similar to the Ladies Market the night before, but there were fortune tellers there. We both got palm readings, and mine was nothing special. He did tell me that I'd have two daughters and one son, and of the three kids two will be twins. With Alex's reading, he said that Alex would do very well with a job that had him traveling a lot. That was right on! But who knows, it may have just been a lucky guess.

We also tried to go out tonight, in honor of being in Hong Kong and 4th of July. Unfortunately we didn't leave Kowloon, and I think that was our mistake. We didn't find much of a night life, but there was a really good Irish restaurant where we had some good food and beer. But Hong Kong is supposed to have the best nightlife in China, and we just didn't see that at all.
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