This is a first for us. The hotel brought us a cake from the barkery. It was tasty despite its strange origins.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Hoi An: Lovely touristy beach town
We arrived in Hoi An on Saturday after flying to Da Nang from Saigon. We stayed at the lovely Betel Gardens Homestay. It's name did not disappoint. When we first arrived, we were invited to sit down at an outside covered table and were welcomed by fresh cold mango juice. This is where our check in occurred. One woman, Van, helped us get checked in and asked us about our travel plans. She booked our train to Hue for two days later. While she helped us, another woman brought over a beautiful basket of roses in many colors: white, yellow, pink, purple. She said, "Happy honeymoon!" Van then showed us to our room. We were pleasantly surprised to see our bed decorated in flower petals and leaves reading, "I love you" and our towels folded into four lovely swans. Van said we would have two children. This was starting to feel more like a honeymoon!
We explored Hoi An in the evening. As Dan posted last time, this town is full of tailors ("cloths for you") and cooking classes. I succumbed to a tailor and had a dress and shirt made for me, which I picked up the next day. How could I resist a $32 tailored Thai silk embroidered dress?! We also got a T-shirt (not tailored) for Dan. We enjoyed a dinner at The Bees Knees Cafe'. I had fish in a clay pot - deliciousness! The throngs of tourists and shop after shop can be overwhelming, but this is a charming town nonetheless.
Sunday we slept in and took bikes from the homestay to the beach. In spite of sunblock, we still got a bit sunburned. Touring this town by bike was definitely the way to go, even if the state of the bikes (i.e. low air, and not really fitting us) was different from what we're used to. We got lost on the way, but made it to the beach and had lunch there. The beach was touristy and we saw several Westerners sunning (sunburning) themselves. I walked into the water. It was nice to experience the Pacific Ocean warm for a change! After lunch, we biked back (got lost) and saw several patches of rice laid out to dry on the sides (or even in a whole lane) on the streets. Back at the homestay, we enjoyed the pool, which was like bath water. The gardens here are so lovely. If you ever come here (and you should!) we'd highly recommend Betel Gardens. Last night, we picked up my tailored clothes, got swindled into a $5 pedicure and a $10 foot massage, and enjoyed a nice dinner by the river.
Hoi An is really amazing. One drawback is the heat, even though the higher humidity and the breeze make it more bearable. Another drawback are all the tourists, who pass by and kind of ignore each other. We're off now to take a train to Hue for the night. Then we'll come back Da Nang tomorrow to hopefully catch the fireworks festival!
We explored Hoi An in the evening. As Dan posted last time, this town is full of tailors ("cloths for you") and cooking classes. I succumbed to a tailor and had a dress and shirt made for me, which I picked up the next day. How could I resist a $32 tailored Thai silk embroidered dress?! We also got a T-shirt (not tailored) for Dan. We enjoyed a dinner at The Bees Knees Cafe'. I had fish in a clay pot - deliciousness! The throngs of tourists and shop after shop can be overwhelming, but this is a charming town nonetheless.
Sunday we slept in and took bikes from the homestay to the beach. In spite of sunblock, we still got a bit sunburned. Touring this town by bike was definitely the way to go, even if the state of the bikes (i.e. low air, and not really fitting us) was different from what we're used to. We got lost on the way, but made it to the beach and had lunch there. The beach was touristy and we saw several Westerners sunning (sunburning) themselves. I walked into the water. It was nice to experience the Pacific Ocean warm for a change! After lunch, we biked back (got lost) and saw several patches of rice laid out to dry on the sides (or even in a whole lane) on the streets. Back at the homestay, we enjoyed the pool, which was like bath water. The gardens here are so lovely. If you ever come here (and you should!) we'd highly recommend Betel Gardens. Last night, we picked up my tailored clothes, got swindled into a $5 pedicure and a $10 foot massage, and enjoyed a nice dinner by the river.
Hoi An is really amazing. One drawback is the heat, even though the higher humidity and the breeze make it more bearable. Another drawback are all the tourists, who pass by and kind of ignore each other. We're off now to take a train to Hue for the night. Then we'll come back Da Nang tomorrow to hopefully catch the fireworks festival!
Hoi An
Hoi An... a beach town full of tailors and cooking schools. Seriously, that seems to be all there is here. Constant requests to make a suit or dress for you, mixed with "cooking school, come eat here" requests. Today we rode bicycles to the beach and passed a sign for "copy bikinis". Just show them the picture of what you want, pick the fabric, and a few minutes later you'll have a bikini.
In short, we're enjoying Hoi An very much. The weather, while hot, is not nearly as stifling as HCMC. The humidity is pretty bad though. And the mosquitoes can get rough. We're sleeping in our first bed with a mosquito net on it.
In short, we're enjoying Hoi An very much. The weather, while hot, is not nearly as stifling as HCMC. The humidity is pretty bad though. And the mosquitoes can get rough. We're sleeping in our first bed with a mosquito net on it.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Goodbye, Saigon!
We're headed to the airport in about half an hour to fly to Danang, where we'll then get picked up to go to Hoi An. It looks like Hoi An will be more of a beach resort, complete with a swimming pool and beach! It will be nice to escape the city life.
Actually, yesterday we went on a fantastic day tour of the floating markets on the Mekong River. The tour bus picked us up at 6:15 am. We then traveled for about 2 1/2 hours to the Mekong River. Our tour guide, Hai, said we could call him Mr. Hello. I laughed at his silly jokes all day long. He gave us some information about Vietnam and it's major exports, like rice and fruit. The fruit is amazing here. This is my first time in a tropical environment and I gorged myself on local fruit yesterday: bananas, longans, rambutan, white melon, water melon, coconut juice and more.
The drive to the river was interesting. Traffic works like this: you drive on your side of the street until you need to pass someone. Then you honk your horn to let the slower traffic know your passing. Finally, you move back to your lane just in time not to collide with oncoming traffic. Motorbikes are the norm here. Unlike in China, helmets are required. We noticed children and babies didn't have helmets however, which seemed...dangerous. Hai said the law is 6 and older. I'm not sure how that protects those under 6, but I guess it's not my place to judge.
Along the way, we noticed interesting buildings: churches, temples, above-ground grave sites that were multicolored and situation in the middle of a field.
At the river, beautiful lotus plants were all over the water. And boats everywhere. Our boat for the day arrived and we got on with our group of 6: a young couple from Munich (she's French and he's Hungarian) and an older couple from Belgium who live in Paris. We were welcomed with our first plate of fruit.
The boat ride provided a nice breezy reprieve from the exhausting heat of the day. There were floating markets everywhere. We also got to see (into) all the riverside homes and catch a glimpse of the daily life of the people who lived there. Some were hanging out, others were doing laundry. Hai said they liked to be right on the river for better business, just like in towns the houses are right on the streets.
We made a few stops: first for honey tea, and then to see rice getting made into puffed rice and whiskey. We also saw coconut candy being made and tried some samples. Then it was back to the boat and then on to an island, which we toured by bicycle. Our bicycles were ill-fitted and not in the best condition, but it was fun to ride around, cautiously avoiding passing motorbikes, and being greeted by school children in uniforms coming home after school. After our bike ride, we had a short lesson on how to make spring rolls, which we
rolled up and fried. They were delicious as was the rest of our lunch, which included a papaya salad and fried elephant fish, which we ate in rice paper with cucumber and pineapple. It was an amazing lunch. After lunch, it was back in the boat for our paddle tour. We went for a rowing tour in a narrow, back stream. We made one more stop then for some fruit (even though we were still stuffed) and some traditional singing.
On the bus ride back, we had a nice conversation with our new friends who we hope to see again in Munich, Adam and Anais.
Back in Saigon, we finished the day with a nice dinner at Five Oysters. I had chicken pho and Dan enjoyed fried squid and pineapple. We're looking forward to the food in Hoi An!
Actually, yesterday we went on a fantastic day tour of the floating markets on the Mekong River. The tour bus picked us up at 6:15 am. We then traveled for about 2 1/2 hours to the Mekong River. Our tour guide, Hai, said we could call him Mr. Hello. I laughed at his silly jokes all day long. He gave us some information about Vietnam and it's major exports, like rice and fruit. The fruit is amazing here. This is my first time in a tropical environment and I gorged myself on local fruit yesterday: bananas, longans, rambutan, white melon, water melon, coconut juice and more.
The drive to the river was interesting. Traffic works like this: you drive on your side of the street until you need to pass someone. Then you honk your horn to let the slower traffic know your passing. Finally, you move back to your lane just in time not to collide with oncoming traffic. Motorbikes are the norm here. Unlike in China, helmets are required. We noticed children and babies didn't have helmets however, which seemed...dangerous. Hai said the law is 6 and older. I'm not sure how that protects those under 6, but I guess it's not my place to judge.
Along the way, we noticed interesting buildings: churches, temples, above-ground grave sites that were multicolored and situation in the middle of a field.
At the river, beautiful lotus plants were all over the water. And boats everywhere. Our boat for the day arrived and we got on with our group of 6: a young couple from Munich (she's French and he's Hungarian) and an older couple from Belgium who live in Paris. We were welcomed with our first plate of fruit.
The boat ride provided a nice breezy reprieve from the exhausting heat of the day. There were floating markets everywhere. We also got to see (into) all the riverside homes and catch a glimpse of the daily life of the people who lived there. Some were hanging out, others were doing laundry. Hai said they liked to be right on the river for better business, just like in towns the houses are right on the streets.
We made a few stops: first for honey tea, and then to see rice getting made into puffed rice and whiskey. We also saw coconut candy being made and tried some samples. Then it was back to the boat and then on to an island, which we toured by bicycle. Our bicycles were ill-fitted and not in the best condition, but it was fun to ride around, cautiously avoiding passing motorbikes, and being greeted by school children in uniforms coming home after school. After our bike ride, we had a short lesson on how to make spring rolls, which we
rolled up and fried. They were delicious as was the rest of our lunch, which included a papaya salad and fried elephant fish, which we ate in rice paper with cucumber and pineapple. It was an amazing lunch. After lunch, it was back in the boat for our paddle tour. We went for a rowing tour in a narrow, back stream. We made one more stop then for some fruit (even though we were still stuffed) and some traditional singing.
On the bus ride back, we had a nice conversation with our new friends who we hope to see again in Munich, Adam and Anais.
Back in Saigon, we finished the day with a nice dinner at Five Oysters. I had chicken pho and Dan enjoyed fried squid and pineapple. We're looking forward to the food in Hoi An!
Seaf... with rice
Traveling through parts of the world where you don't speak the language, communication becomes essential. There isn't anything really profound. You start to search out alternate ways to share ideas, for example with pointing, gestures, and drawings. And sometimes this fails...
In Beijing, we went for dinner at a recommended place for dumplings with our hostel friend Jennifer. We found the place easily enough, were shown a seat, handed menus with minimal English, and left alone. After a few minutes we were able to place an order for what we thought would be about 40+ dumplings and 3 beers. What arrived were 9 dumplings and 3 beers. No problem we said, we'll just order more. We proceeded to flag down a waitress and ask for the menus again.
When we were ready we got another waitress who watched as we pointed towards items on the menu and then gave quantity counts for each order. She took the order, confirmed everything with us, and then walked away. A minute later she came back and said something to us that none of us knew. She repeated it a few more times, getting a little more hostile each time. We just shook our head and said "yeah that sounds great". Finally she grabbed a menu. While trying to open the menu, she angrily tosses her order notebook at the next table but hits two tables down. Finally she points to what she is saying to us (we assume it was "did you want this as pork?"). We say yes, and she turns to find her order sheet only to get mad that it isn't where thought it was and walks off exasperated. Some other patrons turned it in a little later. We did get our full order finally, but the behavior of the waitress startled us. It was only made funnier later as one of us inadvertently stole the chair covering insider their jacket.
The other great example we had of bad communication came while flying from Beijing to Ho Chi Minh City. On the Air China flight, we left at 7:30 PM local time and expected to arrive about 11:50 PM. On the flight they were to offer some dinner service. This sounded good. Unfortunately the intercom system was so quiet we couldn't tell what the choices were when announced initially, so we needed to ask flight attendant what the choices were. She immediately responded with "Seaf". We looked confused and asked again only to be told "It's Seaf, with rice." We both selected the other option, beef, still not sure what "seaf" is. A little later it became clear that "seaf" was fish as we curiously checked out what a row neighbor was eating.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Saigon: First Impressions
We're sitting here in Vietnam, enjoying the slightly cooler temperature of our hotel room over the heat and humidity of the outside world. Actually that's not true. We've been venturing outside all day, only now we're hiding inside as dusk settles and the mosquitoes come out for a bit. It's given us a little bit of time to reflect on our time in China versus first impressions of Vietnam, in a big city focus only. We've also done a bit of editing on the blog, adding in new pictures to an older post, and adding in Jenny's blog Pants On Fire.
Both cities have become rather massive sprawling entities, extending out much beyond what I think the original design (if there ever was one) included. They can be overwhelming in their own right if you let them. The air quality feels better in HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City) than that of Beijing, provided you're not walking past a swarm of mopeds waiting at a light (or apparently a fast food store's Grand Opening). But that also introduces one of the more interesting differences: Beijing most of the mopeds have moved to electric and are silent. Here in HCMC, they're still two or four stroke engines that just spew exhaust. At the same time, no one wore helmets in Beijing, while in HCMC, helmets are required on mopeds but not on bicycles.
HCMC as a city is setup for people of a much smaller nature. The benches in the park are a little lower to the ground than you expect, the seats along the street vendors are all small child sized plastic chairs (in the US), and leg room is just very limited. Even the elevator at our hotel fits at most 3 Americans, 2 if they have luggage, and the stairwell we haven't yet seen anyone use it other than staff (it's that tiny).
Unlike Beijing, where our hostel was in a very quiet hutong, our hotel in HCMC is in the heart of what is known as the backpacker district. This is mostly because it is cheap housing, beer, and a handful of night clubs. One of those night clubs makes enough noise that we can hear it from our hotel, and see it's illuminated neon bull head. We did pack ear plugs if needed thankfully.
Heather's noticed a difference in the people here compared with Beijing. In Beijing, English speakers were limited. In HCMC, English speakers abound for the growing tourist industry. We've noticed the Vietnamese are friendly, smile, and laugh. They also use touch a lot to engage with people, specifically a light touch on the forearm when trying to sell things to you. It was a bit weird at first as we're both sweating profusely and really don't want to be touched. At the same time the locals are not sweating at all. They are still wearing jeans, sweaters, and jackets when walking around, while most the rest of us stand out in our shorts and tshirts. Beijing had something similar. The locals were freezing in the weather, while we were both quite fine in a shirt and pants, no need for a jacket in the weather.
HCMC also runs cheaper than Beijing. Our hotel for example, on 3 nights costs the same as one night in the hostel in Beijing. The cost of the water from the hotel minibar is $0.50. Everything in HCMC also is charged in Dong, but the receipt also lists USD value to help with the conversion. We raided the Circle K near our hotel (yes there are Circle K here) for some drinks in the room: 2 beers, 3 bottles of tea, 1 bottle of lemon juice. Total cost was less than $5 USD.
Traffic in both cities is about the same mess. Vietnam tends to ignore the lights and lanes a little more, making crossing the street a little more challenging. We only had one near collision today.
It's late now. We're going to head out for some dinner and an early bed. We've got a tour of the Mekong river tomorrow morning that we're going on as organized by our hotel. Even though we've only been in Vietnam a short while now, we're both feeling a lot more at ease here despite the heat. We're ready to see more of it though, not just HCMC.
Both cities have become rather massive sprawling entities, extending out much beyond what I think the original design (if there ever was one) included. They can be overwhelming in their own right if you let them. The air quality feels better in HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City) than that of Beijing, provided you're not walking past a swarm of mopeds waiting at a light (or apparently a fast food store's Grand Opening). But that also introduces one of the more interesting differences: Beijing most of the mopeds have moved to electric and are silent. Here in HCMC, they're still two or four stroke engines that just spew exhaust. At the same time, no one wore helmets in Beijing, while in HCMC, helmets are required on mopeds but not on bicycles.
HCMC as a city is setup for people of a much smaller nature. The benches in the park are a little lower to the ground than you expect, the seats along the street vendors are all small child sized plastic chairs (in the US), and leg room is just very limited. Even the elevator at our hotel fits at most 3 Americans, 2 if they have luggage, and the stairwell we haven't yet seen anyone use it other than staff (it's that tiny).
Unlike Beijing, where our hostel was in a very quiet hutong, our hotel in HCMC is in the heart of what is known as the backpacker district. This is mostly because it is cheap housing, beer, and a handful of night clubs. One of those night clubs makes enough noise that we can hear it from our hotel, and see it's illuminated neon bull head. We did pack ear plugs if needed thankfully.
Heather's noticed a difference in the people here compared with Beijing. In Beijing, English speakers were limited. In HCMC, English speakers abound for the growing tourist industry. We've noticed the Vietnamese are friendly, smile, and laugh. They also use touch a lot to engage with people, specifically a light touch on the forearm when trying to sell things to you. It was a bit weird at first as we're both sweating profusely and really don't want to be touched. At the same time the locals are not sweating at all. They are still wearing jeans, sweaters, and jackets when walking around, while most the rest of us stand out in our shorts and tshirts. Beijing had something similar. The locals were freezing in the weather, while we were both quite fine in a shirt and pants, no need for a jacket in the weather.
HCMC also runs cheaper than Beijing. Our hotel for example, on 3 nights costs the same as one night in the hostel in Beijing. The cost of the water from the hotel minibar is $0.50. Everything in HCMC also is charged in Dong, but the receipt also lists USD value to help with the conversion. We raided the Circle K near our hotel (yes there are Circle K here) for some drinks in the room: 2 beers, 3 bottles of tea, 1 bottle of lemon juice. Total cost was less than $5 USD.
Traffic in both cities is about the same mess. Vietnam tends to ignore the lights and lanes a little more, making crossing the street a little more challenging. We only had one near collision today.
It's late now. We're going to head out for some dinner and an early bed. We've got a tour of the Mekong river tomorrow morning that we're going on as organized by our hotel. Even though we've only been in Vietnam a short while now, we're both feeling a lot more at ease here despite the heat. We're ready to see more of it though, not just HCMC.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Ho Chi Minh City Found
Just a quick note again, we found Ho Chi Minh City tonight. The airline, Air China, flew us in on an old Boeing 737 that stunk of cigarettes and was overly hot. We were able to connect with the hotel before leaving Beijing to have a hotel car pick us up at the airport. Thus we avoided the first big scam in HCMC - the unreliable taxi driver. We paid extra for the service, but we figured landing at midnight, it would make more sense to not have to hassle with this. We were also able to convert any leftover Chinese Yuan to Vietnamese Dong at no charge in the airport. This was good as the currency exchange in Beijing had no Dong and would charge us 60 Yuan for the service.
First impressions of HCMC - it's hot, it's humid, and the street we're on looks like it will be a lot of fun to check out. For now both of us are ready for some sleep. It's been a long day.
Oh, the Internet seems to be working here in Vietnam, so expect some more updates that include photos.
First impressions of HCMC - it's hot, it's humid, and the street we're on looks like it will be a lot of fun to check out. For now both of us are ready for some sleep. It's been a long day.
Oh, the Internet seems to be working here in Vietnam, so expect some more updates that include photos.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
On to Vietnam!
Today is the last day in China with a few hours to spend exploring all in preparation for our trip to Vietnam! Expect a more detailed update later. Sadly it looks like we'll be leaving the nice sun of Beijing for the thunderstorms of Ho Chi Minh City.
--
"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die."
--
"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die."
Beijing is Peking! And Other Fun Discoveries
Dan wanted to go try duck here, but we didn't find enough people to join us and I wasn't about to eat half a duck. Come to find out, Beijing Duck is Peking Duck. Maybe we'll find some for lunch before we head out for Vietnam tonight.
Yesterday we visited the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower. We got to a drum performance. Of course, I thought my brother Jon would love to see this. The Bell Tower was very impressive as well, with the biggest and heaviest bell. We then wandered into an old Hutong alley, which was quite long. It was filled with shops and little places to get snacks. We had lunch there at a fun bar with a fun name that I can't remember now.
It's sunny today and our last day in Beijing. I have a bit of a chest cold, which I blamed on the air quality here, but I may have picked up something from the other visitors here at the hostel.
Before we move on to a new culture, here is quick summary of what I'm fond of and what I'm not so fond of here:
What I'm fond of:
Yesterday we visited the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower. We got to a drum performance. Of course, I thought my brother Jon would love to see this. The Bell Tower was very impressive as well, with the biggest and heaviest bell. We then wandered into an old Hutong alley, which was quite long. It was filled with shops and little places to get snacks. We had lunch there at a fun bar with a fun name that I can't remember now.
It's sunny today and our last day in Beijing. I have a bit of a chest cold, which I blamed on the air quality here, but I may have picked up something from the other visitors here at the hostel.
Before we move on to a new culture, here is quick summary of what I'm fond of and what I'm not so fond of here:
What I'm fond of:
- hutong (old alleys, residences and businesses from the Ming Dynasty)
- dumplings
- 50 cent very large Chinese beers
- learning to barter
- getting a $22 temporary silver wedding ring
- the amazing history here
- Western toilets
- the reusing/recycling that seems to happen here
- Chinese people regularly hocking loogies
- Turning cars, bicycles and rickshaws that don't yield to pedestrians
- Street hawkers that block your path
- insistent rickshaw drivers
- the air quality
- some of the smells in the air
- squat toilets, especially the dirty ones lacking toilet paper
- the rubble piles on the streets, in the alleys
Monday, April 22, 2013
Visiting the Great Wall
We just returned to our hostel from doing a day trip to the Great Wall. We went to a less-touristy area called Mutianyu. It's a beautiful area with great mountain views - on days that aren't as foggy as today was. That said, the Wall was amazing. We opted to take a cable car up and then hike up some more to see a part of the wall that hadn't been restored. It was amazing - and difficult. There were some major inclines and not always stable footholds. The higher up we climbed, the less fellow visitors we had to contend with, which was a plus, and a welcome break from the pushing crowds we've contended with in the city. I hope we got some good pictures, in spite of the fog.
TBA on our plans for tomorrow, our last day in Beijing.
TBA on our plans for tomorrow, our last day in Beijing.
Beijing Exploration
Thanks to Ankesh we may have solved some of our posting issues from China. We'll see if this works... or not.
On the adventure side, we have had a few to report back...
Walking around the city, it is difficult to move about without
constantly being interrupted by a rickshaw driver asking to give you a
ride. Most of the time they only know a few words in english, and
continue to bother you. If you acknowledge those that do talk to you
(for example saying "no thank you") they will park their rickshaw in
front of you to block the path. Heather is learning to stop answering.On the adventure side, we have had a few to report back...
Street hawkers are really pushy here. Especially when you're leaving the Forbidden City. Those in the Olympic City are less pushy but more vocal. They sell the same crawling solider man toy Dan has seen in Shanghai, but here they've placed a Chinese flag in it's hand.
The subway back was difficult. The easy route, listed on our map, was shown by the subway ticket sales to not exist. We still bought the tickets, as the price is the same no matter where you go. When we got down to board the subway, the map tells us the stations are not yet complete, including about 80% of the Line 8, which is the Olympic City line in/out of the old city center. We eventually made it home with a long circular route around the city underground.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Email blog posting enabled
Hi Everyone,
We now have email blog posting capability enabled. We'll be sure to update more often now, so keep checking back!
Thanks,
Dan & Heather
We now have email blog posting capability enabled. We'll be sure to update more often now, so keep checking back!
Thanks,
Dan & Heather
Exploring Beijing
We've been in Beijing since Wednesday afternoon. The internet access is rather limited here, with some sites, such as Blogger and Facebook being banned from accessing. Currently we're borrowing a fellow traveler's laptop that has a VPN out to access this. A friend is looking into setting up a mechanism so we can post via email.
Here is a short version of everything we've seen since we've left: The airport security line in the US was amazingly long. We were warned that since the Boston attacks, there were many police officers in waiting. Thanks to Dan's flight status though we were able to skip through the large lines and get checked in. We also bumped up to United's Economy Plus, which was a huge bonus for us. The added leg room made a big difference.
After 11+ hours of flying we arrived in China on what was Thursday afternoon for them. It was bright and sunny when we arrived with a bit of a haze covering the air. It wasn't clear if that was general fog or smog. We took a taxi from the airport to our hostel, Sitting on the City Walls. Our taxi driver didn't speak any English, but by showing him the name in Chinese characters, he found it. Traffic was heavy but not chaotic.
The driver dropped us off and we entered the hutong (one of the original alleys for the city) where our hostel was. It was a dusty back alley and we got nervous thinking "what did we get ourselves in to?!"
We walked past residences, shops, people standing in the alley and weren't sure where we were going. An older man saw us and pointed us around the corner without any asking. Stepping around the corner, we found our hostel! Compared with what we'd just walked through, we were pleased to see that it was very nice and that the woman who checked us in spoke English. She gave us some great tips for visiting the Great Wall, Tian'anmen Square, the Drum-Tower, HouHai lake, and several other local sites (shopping, night market, etc). We did a brief bit of walking around the hostel after unpacking, and found a place to eat some dinner for the night. Then we promptly both passed out for the night.
Friday we set out to go see Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City, and a little extra shopping along the way. We immediately got sidetracked with a stop to the Beihai Park, where we got to see the White Dagoba.
It was a cool day filled with A LOT of walking. As we climbed stairs at the park, we felt shortness of breath, due largely to the low air quality. We resisted persistent offers for rickshaw rides and low-quality souvenirs. Getting around, we were impressed by the separate bike lanes, but realized quickly we needed to be aware when crossing even with the walk signal, as cars and bikes will turn and beep at you instead of stopping.
Our hostel is really comfortable. We've met another American who is also traveling the world named Jennifer. She'll be writing a book about her travels. We also met an Australian who works in Sweden for TetraPak. His name is Ian and we enjoyed visiting the night market with him last night. The night market was quite an experience. There were all kinds of creatures for sale as food: spiders, baby shark, snake, squid, silk worm, cat, dog, starfish, sea urchin, millipedes, crickets, scorpions, pig intestine, tripe. The salespeople kept offering us the oddities "snake!" "cat-meow!" We settled on trying some Chinese cheese, pineapple rice, fried bananas (paid more for the bananas than expected), potstickers and dumplings. We were also able to buy some beer from a woman selling it on the street.
Heather has had some fun trying to learn and try out some of the language, including Zao shang hao (good morning) and Tai gui le! (too expensive!)
It's Saturday morning and sunny again. Today, we're planning on visiting the Summer Palace and the Bird's Nest. We'll try out the public transportation system.
We'll work on posting pictures when we can. We took A LOT yesterday, including many fine Engrish examples.
Heather & Dan
Here is a short version of everything we've seen since we've left: The airport security line in the US was amazingly long. We were warned that since the Boston attacks, there were many police officers in waiting. Thanks to Dan's flight status though we were able to skip through the large lines and get checked in. We also bumped up to United's Economy Plus, which was a huge bonus for us. The added leg room made a big difference.
After 11+ hours of flying we arrived in China on what was Thursday afternoon for them. It was bright and sunny when we arrived with a bit of a haze covering the air. It wasn't clear if that was general fog or smog. We took a taxi from the airport to our hostel, Sitting on the City Walls. Our taxi driver didn't speak any English, but by showing him the name in Chinese characters, he found it. Traffic was heavy but not chaotic.
The driver dropped us off and we entered the hutong (one of the original alleys for the city) where our hostel was. It was a dusty back alley and we got nervous thinking "what did we get ourselves in to?!"
We walked past residences, shops, people standing in the alley and weren't sure where we were going. An older man saw us and pointed us around the corner without any asking. Stepping around the corner, we found our hostel! Compared with what we'd just walked through, we were pleased to see that it was very nice and that the woman who checked us in spoke English. She gave us some great tips for visiting the Great Wall, Tian'anmen Square, the Drum-Tower, HouHai lake, and several other local sites (shopping, night market, etc). We did a brief bit of walking around the hostel after unpacking, and found a place to eat some dinner for the night. Then we promptly both passed out for the night.Friday we set out to go see Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City, and a little extra shopping along the way. We immediately got sidetracked with a stop to the Beihai Park, where we got to see the White Dagoba. It was a cool day filled with A LOT of walking. As we climbed stairs at the park, we felt shortness of breath, due largely to the low air quality. We resisted persistent offers for rickshaw rides and low-quality souvenirs. Getting around, we were impressed by the separate bike lanes, but realized quickly we needed to be aware when crossing even with the walk signal, as cars and bikes will turn and beep at you instead of stopping.
Our hostel is really comfortable. We've met another American who is also traveling the world named Jennifer. She'll be writing a book about her travels. We also met an Australian who works in Sweden for TetraPak. His name is Ian and we enjoyed visiting the night market with him last night. The night market was quite an experience. There were all kinds of creatures for sale as food: spiders, baby shark, snake, squid, silk worm, cat, dog, starfish, sea urchin, millipedes, crickets, scorpions, pig intestine, tripe. The salespeople kept offering us the oddities "snake!" "cat-meow!" We settled on trying some Chinese cheese, pineapple rice, fried bananas (paid more for the bananas than expected), potstickers and dumplings. We were also able to buy some beer from a woman selling it on the street.
Heather has had some fun trying to learn and try out some of the language, including Zao shang hao (good morning) and Tai gui le! (too expensive!)
It's Saturday morning and sunny again. Today, we're planning on visiting the Summer Palace and the Bird's Nest. We'll try out the public transportation system.
We'll work on posting pictures when we can. We took A LOT yesterday, including many fine Engrish examples.
Heather & Dan
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
First Post
This is just a setup post describing what our trip will include. On April 17th we will be leaving the US for traveling around the world as part of our honeymoon. Here is the list of places we will be visiting:
- China - Beijing
- Vietnam
- Ho Chi Minh City
- Hue
- Hoi An
- Da Nang
- India
- Delhi
- Agra
- Turkey
- Istanbul
- Göreme
- Antalya
- Pamukkale
- Ephesus/Selcuk
- Bergama
- Cyprus
- Germany
- Münich
- Dresden
- Bad Schandau
- Görlitz
- Meissen
- Frankfurt
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