Our Travel Blog

Twenty Five hours after we were picked up at our Hong Kong hotel we landed in Ottawa! Now to try and stay awake a little longer to fight off jet lag!

Sent from 35,000 feet over Northern Russia!!!

The end is nigh, currently we are waiting for the Beijing to Toronto flight. If the internet is working on the plane, I’ll send my first airborne log! Was trip worth it? Absolutely! Did we go over the top with the business class flights, five star hotels and private guides?  No, Maybe and No for this particular trip. I can always use the excuse that the trip was to celebrate our upcoming 40^th wedding anniversary therefore we were entitled to go a little crazy. Conversely, we have both agreed that for long or ultra-long flights we will go business class if a reasonable fare can be found. Hainan Airlines had a very reasonable fare and excellent service, so that was the one for us. The hotels we finished up in, for the most part, blew us away and we probably could have dropped down a category or two and still been happy with the accommodation. For us, in a totally different culture where there is limited or no use of English, the tour guides were great. Looking at all the tour groups been shepherded around in groups of 20 or more just reinforced the fact that we had made the right decision (for us). This was also borne out when were on our own in Hong Kong, although the Hop-on-Hop-off wasn’t a bad solution.

The beginning of the trip turned out to be a little too hectic for us, and Beijing could have been extended for a day or two. Tibet was the same, although altitude also played a part in us getting tired there. From then on the tour went at a more relaxed and better pace, and we’re glad we did all the sights we did.

One thing that has to be mentioned is Chinese driving! On our first day in Beijing I had our life expectancy measure in minutes while we were in the car, there appeared to be no rules whatsoever, BUT on observing for a few days I believe the following is true. There are no driving rules in China, all Chinese know this and obey the non-existent rules! Basically you just need the confidence to do whatever you want to do, push into traffic, do a U turn in the middle of the road etc. Just do it and you (within reason) will be  OK and accepted by other drivers, but hesitate and you are in deep trouble.

That’s it from the Far East for a few years, the next tentative trip will be next fall. The current plan is to go to South Africa and take a tour on the Shongololo Express railway. I won’t be doing a blog in January from the trailer as we will be more in “living in the trailer” mode rather than traveling and exploring.

There were probably a few more typos than normal in these blogs, I am using a netbook rather than my laptop and the keyboard is a little temperamental. Although I follow spellcheck suggestions, and try to proof read a number of mistakes slip through when I miss a letter and the result is a word that spellcheck likes!

I will also have to think about how to do future blogs, as I found they were taking more time to write than I wanted. This was due mainly to slow internet (as the blog has to be composed on line) and the time needed to compress, sort and upload pictures.

Today is China’s 67th Birthday. This is  national holiday here, they celebrate for 2 days in Hong Kong an 7 days in mainland China!

We woke up to  dull morning after some storms went through last night, but the visibility had improved. At first we were sorry that we had used our ticket to the Peak yesterday rather than save it for today (more on that later).

Again we headed out sans escort and had breakfast. On the way to there we walked along an elevated pedestrian walkway situated above the road. Along either side of the walkway groups, predominantly women, had set up sheets on the ground and were sitting on them surrounded by food. At first we thought we may have come across a women’s rights demonstration, but we later found out these people were domestic help from the richer families, and they group together on holidays and Sundays to socialise with people from their own heritage.

 After feeding, then headed down to the southern end of Kowloon to the ferry terminus. From here took a short ferry ride across Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island. Today’s plan was to take a different route on the Hop-on-Hop-off bus.

Another Ferry and a Dull but Clearer view if Hong Kong

Inside the Ferry

Skyline View

Docking in Hong Kong

Below are a couple of general views of the city.

Tram is a less Prosperous Area

As the morning wore on the crowds of people heading downtown for tonight’s celebrations increased. We arrived at the Peak Tram station; yesterday we waited maybe ten minutes to board the tram to the top, today I’d estimated the wait at greater than two hours. With the temperature in the low 30’s and the humidex in the low 40’s I was happy to forgo the trip, even with the improved visibility.

At the end of the tour we took the ferry back to Kowloon for lunch and a final round of shopping. It may be a national holiday but the shops are all open, it’s seems only the banks are closed!

At the end of or MTR ride back to the hotel we cashed in our Octopus cards, in the two days we had spent $5 Cad each on transportation!!

Next on the agenda is to take advantage of some of the hotel facilities and go for a sauna and a swim before dinner, then pack everything up for a 26 hour trip home via Beijing and Toronto starting at 5 A.M. tomorrow morning.

I will probably do a wrap up blog either on the plan tomorrow if the WiFi works or early next week.

Despite having been upgraded to a Club Room on the top (18th) floor, despite having a TV in the wall at the end of the bath etc, we woke up to reality this morning. No complimentary breakfast and no guide ad driver to whisk as away on our tour.

We had to go and find a breakfast place, I’d rather starve than pay the hotels  US $40 each for a buffet breakfast! After that we had to find the nearest MTR (Metro / Tube  / Subway) station an learn how to use it. Hong Kong has a vast public transport system used by over 90% of the population to get to and from work and seems to work very well. We bought an Octopus Card (Oyster for the Brits). It costs HK$50 which you get back when you hand it in after the last trip plus HK$100 for fares. Any unused fare money is also refunded when you hand back the card. With card in hand you just tap it on the gate when you enter and leave a station and it decrease the amount of credit by the cost of the fare and also displays the amount left at the gate.

First we headed up to a market area at Shim Sham Po where there were both fabric and electronics markets. Lyn managed to by a few metres of material, then we headed to the nearby electronics market. Most stalls were closed!!! They didn’t open until 11AM… not amused! There were a few stalls open, enough to prove to me that eBay is just as cheap, if not cheaper. Plus with eBay, if it doesn’t work you have some recourse.

Market Area and Fabric Stall

From there we headed south,  under Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island where we got on the Hop-on-Hop-Off bus. Our first stop was he Peak Tram, which climbs up 12ooft in around 1.4km,  that should  satisfy both imperial and metric users! From the top there should be fantastic views of the area, but the pollution put paid to that today.

The Tram

The Pollution

Back onto the bus for our next stop, Aberdeen Harbour and a Sampan ride.

Sampan

Sampan Driver

Sampan Ceiling

Hong Kong’s Largest Floating Restaurant

We continued on the bus back to our starting point, general views below

Less Wealthy Neighbourhood

hon Kong Eye??

Hillside Cemetery

Beach

Lutheran Church

At the end of the tour we had about an hour to spare before starting on a night tour. I thought there may be some geocaches around, and sure enough there was on 27 metres away, unfortunately it seemed to have disappeared! All was not lost though as there was another one 300 metres away. It was placed under a seat on a pier, unfortunately there were a couple sitting on the seat! Luckily they didn’t seem to appreciate our presence and moved away after a coupe of minutes. Our first Hong Kong Cache

Chinese Junk

Cruise Ship

Lights

Ladies Market at Night.

After Shanghai, Hong Kong’s lights were somewhat disappointing.

We headed back on the MTR and got some some dinner n the way, arriving back some 12 hours after we started.

Time to rest!

Today was a travel day. We headed back to Guilin, from the beautiful Rice Terraces, where we had lunch and then went to the train station for the 3 hour ride on the bullet train to Shenzhen which is the end of the line for mainland China. From the station we were picked up and taken through the Chinese exit process, quickly followed by the Hong Kong entry process, all in all it took about an hour. A little silly if you consider, in effect, we were leaving China and entering China!!

Once in Hong Kong we had to adjust to driving on the other side of the road, just like rel Brits do.

This weekend is the Chinese equivalent of Canada Day, except it lasts a week, so unfortunately everything is busy. So busy in fact they had to upgrade us to a Club Room on the top (18th) floor.

So far it looks like the cheap meals of China may be a thing of the past, this place seems a little expensive. This is even more true if you order 4 tour tickets instead of 2 by mistake, hopefully they will take pity on me and refund the cost of the extra 2 tickets.

This morning was a little cooler than yesterday, I forgot to mention yesterday was a tad warm, the temperature was around 36°C and I am guessing that with the humidex it was closer to 45°C.

We met up with our guide and driver and headed off to the Dragon Back Rice Terraces near Longsheng, unfortunately the first part of the journey was on the same rod as yesterday until we got to Guilin. 

This is typical of the flowers and bushes along, and in the centre of, the road.

Two Ladies on the Water Tanker Tending to the Bushes

The vehicle above must have come from the ’40’s. There were a few of them around used for hauling anything that is haulable, as well as a number of things that shouldn’t be hauled. The far side of the engine is more interesting as it has a couple of unshielded flywheels and drive belts. Health and Safety would have a field day with this guy!

From Guilin we headed out through a number of villages on our way to the Longsheng area. Once we were arrived we were given the option of storing our luggage at a secure location until tomorrow morning, or having someone take it to the hotel. It was at this stage we found out that the only way to get to the hotel was a 20 minute walk. We opted to have our bags carried for us. What a shock was in store when the luggage carriers arrived. Two little (under 5 foot) old (over 60) ladies with their baskets would be doing the carrying!

What was interesting was the fact they could only just lift the suit case to get it away from the van, but once it was on their backs they seemed to have no trouble carrying it for 20 minutes up hills and steps.

Easy!

The hotel seemed to be fairly modern with wood featuring heavily in its construction and decoration. We settled in for 30 minutes or so soaking up the views, then headed out for lunch with our guide. 

Shower and Bathroom Sink

Wood Design on Walls and Ceiling

But the Best Part – The View Form the Room

We were back in Lyn’s favourite area, hills and steps, and of course lunch was uphill.

Could this be Lunch?

Lunch

We had a local rendition of rice with lunch, bamboo rice. A piece of bamboo is stuffed with rice, corn and other goodies, then cooked on an open fire. When done the bamboo is split open to allow access t the rice. When finished the bamboo is then used as fuel for the fire.

Carrying Goods  to the Village

Carrying Heavier Loads

A whole new Outlook on Poop & Scoop

Bamboo Scaffolding is Still Used on Large and Small Projects

General view of the Rice Terraces.

These terraces were started some 800 years ago, and finished about 100 years ago. All the terracing was done by hand!

This is the last calm day of the vacation, tomorrow we head off back to Guilin, then a 3 hour bullet train ride Shenzheng where we cross the border into Hong Kong.

Last night we headed out of the hotel in search of food. It turns out we both had the same idea about our meal…… anything but Chinese, we needed something we could sink our teeth into (the bull frog we had the night before may have has something to do with this decision). Not too far a way we found a burger joint whose name may have started with M. Anyway, we weren’t overly hungry but a burger an fries hit the spot. We walked along the river after dinner where some entertainers had set up and we listened to them for a while before retiring from the heat. We are currently at the same latitude as the Florida Everglades. This morning we set out at a reasonable hour, having consumed our FREE breakfast,after all we are either in wind down mode towards the end of the holiday, or conserve energy mode for a bustling Hong Kong, we’re not sure which yet!

Our first stop was the Guilin Tea Research Institute where we were shown the tea plantation and then taken through the process of making tea by hand.

Tea Plantation

Heating the Leaves to 250C

Rolling the Leaves by Hand

End Product
Tea Ceremony

After sampling (and buying) some of the tea we headed out along the Li River Valley, here there were a lot of limestone needles, for which the area is famous.

“Half Moon hole in Rock Lunch at Half Moon Cafe

Next stop was our river cruise, I was expecting a larger boat than this, but this was far more interesting. A few pipes bent and held together with a canopy over the top powered by what looks like a weed whacker with a propeller on the end!

Like western boats, Chinese ones work far better when there is gas in the tank!!

Water Buffalo

General Views

Next stop was our “Boutique Hotel”, an eco-friendly self sustaining hotel on the banks of the River. It was a neat place, but lacking many of the facilities of the hotels we had become used to!

 Our Hotel

Sailing past the hotel were many punts, just past the hotel was a small weir.

Going….

Going….

Gone! General Views of the Hotel and Gardens

Tonight we are off to a water show, and then tomorrow off to our last stop before Hong Kong!

Last night we had an early dinner, and then we were picked up from the hotel by our driver. We were taken to the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where there is a theatre for an acrobatic show. About 20 minutes before the start of the show our guide got word that there was a problem and that the show was cancelled. Within a few minutes she had us hurrying through the lobby and into a taxi, a few sentences of rapid fire Chinese instructions to the driver saw us speeding off to some other venue in the city! Luckily our guide knew her job and was able to get us tickets to another show, as well as getting us there only 1 minute after it started.

Unfortunately no photography was allowed during the show, so no pictures. The show contained a wide mixture of events involving acrobatics, juggling, dancing and even motor bike riding!!! The latter involving 6 motor bikes driving around on the inside of a steel mesh cave! The show was far better than my description.

Back at the hotel it was time to pack and hit the sack in preparation for a 04:00 alarm call to get us to Shanghai airport for a 07:10 flight. We met the driver right on time, the traffic was light at that time of morning; it looked as though we had finally beaten the jinx of Chinese internal flights. The jinx was not willing to concede defeat. After finding the correct check-in counter we stood close to the front of the line up and waited for the counter to open at 05:30. We started the check in process, and the agent seemed a little puzzled and kept checking our passport against her screen. Finally we got the news, no booking for this flight! We looked confused, she looked confused then she punched a few more keys on the computer and took a picture of the screen with her cell phone to show me what she had found. We indeed did have a booking to Guilin, just not on Shanghai Airlines at 07:10 from terminal 1. Somehow the airline fairies had sprinkled their stardust yet again and re-booked us on Yangtze River Airlines, 10 minutes earlier from Terminal 2. Terminal 2 was only 10  minutes away by transfer bus, so no great panic….. until we got outside and found the first bus didn’t run until 06:00 and there was no other realistic way of getting to Terminal 2.

The bus turned early, but refused to move before 06:00. We made it to T2, then had to go through the initial entrance security again, then find the check in counter, which we did by 06:15, problem was the cut-off time for our flight was 06:15 and  the line up was at least 20 minutes. Luckily there was an agent close by yelling “Guilin”, so we rapidly advanced to the front of the queue. Check-in went fine, and we were told to “hurry, boarding now”, well at that point the X-Ray machine for checked luggage starts beeping. In China as soon as the baggage is checked in it is X-Rayed, Lyn’s was causing an alarm! Boarding passes were taken away from us, and off to the office to see what was causing the problem. Turns out that something we had bought looked suspicious on the X-Ray. Now that was resolved it was back to claim the boarding passes and head off to security. The line up here was horrendous, so we employed the Chinese method of queuing; ignore everyone else and barge to the front, trying not to trample too many people underfoot. You know what, it  works! No screaming, shouting, physical abuse or evil eyes challenged our progress. Suffice it to say we made the flight with a couple of minutes to  spare.

Of course no time for breakfast, but unlike North American airlines, the Chinese still provide service (at no extra cost) on their domestic flights. We had a hot breakfast, admittedly not our favourite, but rice, spicy chicken and greens fills the stomach effectively.

After this all proceeded quite well, I was a little worried about the bags making the flight, but ours were among the first off the belt. We were met by our guide and taken to our hotel in Guilin.

Guilin is a smaller city with less than 1 million people, the city relies almost solely on tourism for its income. Like all other Chinese cities it is remarkably clean, and all the flowers and bushes along the roadways from the airport were beautifully maintained. In all the cities we have visited there is a army of street sweepers, both human and mechanical.

The ecumenical ones also sprays the road with water regularly to keep it clean. The presence of these vehicles is heralded by loud music, similar to that of an ice cream van. I could not forgive the guy the other day who was playing the tune “Its a Small World”, as I find it takes at least 24 hours to clear that tune from the memory!!!

After an early  check-in to the hotel and a brief discussion over my interpretation of “breakfast included” and their understanding of the same, we reigned victorious with the help of our guide. I then had the cheek to present my Sheraton Gold Club card (expired 2009) and got a free room upgrade!!!

View of Hotel Lobby from Glass Elevator

After lunch we headed off into the local streets and looked around the market for an hour or so, and then returned to our room to escape the 35°C heat for a while. Later in the afternoon we walked along the River Li for a while.The main reason for the stop in Guilin is to position ourselves for a scenic bot trip along the River Li tomorrow morning.

River Li

No Idea – bit it Looked Interesting

River Walk

Fishing

A brief Description of the Area

Generl Views Around One of the Around Lakes

So, for this post, more words than pictures…. any one still reading or have I bored you all to death?