Monday, November 26, 2007

You signed me up for what?


So going to Germany to go to a Christmas Market sounded like a good idea, but take a look at what we're in for when we get there. We won't let the weather stop us, but it will surely be a stark contrast to the weather we saw on our first trip of the year to Bangkok. I just have to manage to stay focused enough to actually get some work done this week and do something fun to entertain Todd as he visits again this week. He's headed off to one of my favorite towns, Hong Kong. We thought for a brief minute about trying to join him, but the idea of seeing something new won the battle. W's Never been to Munich, but does speak German, so this should be a really great. As soon as W showed me Munich's Christmas market website I was sold. You should check it out here. Be sure to check out the pictures link.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Turkeys and Retail or Retail Turkeys

I finished the last China post without even telling you the last of the story. We knew from Betty's handed down knowledge that we should prepare to leave the Hotel about 9:45 a.m. to give us plenty of time at the airport to get last minute souvenirs and to hit the Olympic store. We finished packing, had a leisurely breakfast and made our way downstairs with all our junk in tow. ( I personally hate to pay for luggage service at a hotel, but given how much junk we had I made an exception to my policy) We got in a cab, the first one driven by a female of the trip and were comforted by the fact that she didn't drive like she had something to prove. Most of our other freeway trips were driven as if lane lines and common courtesy had not yet been invented in that part o f the world. My opinion changed however when I realized she'd craftily covered up the meter and asked to be paid far more than what the fare should cost. We discussed for a few minutes and agreed upon something a little more reasonable and were on our way. Our trip through passport control was actually pretty easy, and we were actually given boarding passes for business class seats at the gate. We shopped some more picking up the magnet I was contractually obligated to bring my boss (she's a magnet collector, she got one from Hong Kong too) and a few final things at the Olympic store. We then found a nice quiet Hawaiian themed cafe within earshot of our gate. As we're sitting there they call us up and say we have one upgrade, will you split up? I love the lay-flat seat of first, and W actually prefers the business seat, so we said yes. A few minutes later they called us again and had managed to find 2 First class seats!!!! We even traded with someone to sit together and settled in for our flight. I got to see the Simpsons Movie and Transformers and thoroughly enjoyed the good life for 10 hours.
Real life came calling again once we got home, but thanksgiving has been a nice diversion too. We ordered the Boston Market turkey breast with all the trim. Friends Michael and Cyrus came by to help us celebrate, and we chatted and laughed until it was time go to bed early. W and I both worked, because I sold my soul at the BRO so I could have next weekend off. What could possibly be worth going to work on black Friday for? Well, we've got one more adventure to squeeze in, more to come. By popular demand I've included a picture of that which made our last day in Beijing so difficult. This is a sample of what we had done, if you want to see the rest, you really should come visit us.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Beijing Day 4


100_2115
Originally uploaded by jrherron.
On our 4th and Final Day in Beijing we decided we should finally get over to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden Palace. We started with a quick breakfast with Betty before she took off, and then had to fugure out how to get our enourmous set of frames home, so we had someone look into shipping for us and then mozied out to the square. It wasn't quite like I'd pictured it once we were there, mostly because there weren't actually any tanks trying to mow me down like the only image of the square I'd ever seen before, and it was painfully cold when we first got there. We wandered around a bit and then went inside the forbidden palace to get inside the walls and out of the cold air. The inside of the palace is pretty cool except they were doing maintenance on some of the larger rooms so we couldn't go in. We debated for a long time about getting the audio self guided tour, but were glad we didn't when we saw how much was actually closed for the winter. I guess this means we'll just have to go back sometime closer to tourist season. After taking in the wonders of the palace, we wandered around a bit trying to find a reasonable cab. Sometimes the cabs right outside of tourist areas find any way they can to charge you too much, so your better off walking away a bit to find a regular cab that will use the meter and take you where you want to go. We had the concierge give us the address to a shipping place that shall not be named before we left for the morning so we went there next to see about shipping our stuff home. W is supposed to get a corporate discount, so we figured that would be the way to go. We could not get anyone there or on the phone to actually acknowledge the discount but at the very least they gave us a huge box until we figured out what to do. You should have seen me in the subway with this huge box on a train that was completely packed. When we were trying to get out at our station I had to wrestle like crazy to get it out and still only managed because I handed it around some guy that was standing in the door. So We stopped by the hotel decided we'd try to pad the frames and check them like regular luggage. That would require bubble wrap. I don't know about you, but I don't know the chinese word for bubble wrap, so once we got past that language barrier the conceierge recommended the post office as a place to get some, and we could take the subway or just walk. Well the directions we got sucked, and we couldn't find it. After an hour or so of wandering we got in a taxi showed him the word post office someone had written in chinese for us even he didn't take us to the right place. Frustrated tired and hungry we got on the subway went back to the hotel and paid someone to run out and get us bubble wrap and tape. It was not good use of a vacation day. After getting all our stuff wrapped up we went for happy hour and then a delicous korean dinner. I had the most wonderful beef dish that came on a hot flagstone. Tired but with full tummys we went back to the hotel where we scored a massage for W and a place to sleep for me.

Beijing Day 3


Through the Arch
Originally uploaded by jrherron.
On our 3rd day in Beijing we had arranged for someone to pick us up and take us to The Badaling portion of the great wall, the best restored and most visited portion of the wall. It was rainy and overcast and cold as we left, and we thought we might actually see a little snow on the wall. We woke up early (around 5:30 a.m), Cashed in on our breakfast and said goodbye to Dave, and then jumped in our car for the 2 hour ride out to the wall. It stopped raining but was still cold and gray outside. As you can see from the pictures, my camera had trouble getting through all the low hanging fog, but it was reminiscint of a dark misty kung fu movie, exactly the sort of thing you'd expect to see if you believed everything you saw on the big screen. You start your journey on a chair lift (which having grown up in Florida and never been skiing I'd never ridden on before) that lifts you up to the wall. There were a few vendors at the start and a few other tourists there, but we managed to beat the big groups and it was nothing like visiting during the peak of summer tourist season. We started out in coats and gloves and hats, and as we climbed the steep stairs and hillsides we warmed up quite nicely and were down to just a long sleeve shirt by the time we finished. In my wildest imagination I never actually pictured myself standing on the great wall, when suddenly I looked around and realized there I was in one of the world's most amazing places. The views and the late autumn colors were amazing and the steep climbs and fast descents made it a really fun adventure. As more people arrived at the wall it was fun to watch the choices of footwear, including some high heel boots, that people chose for the climb. We walked out and back for a little more than 2 hours and were rewarded with a ride back down the toboggan ride. Picture a luge that you sit in, running down a curvy metal half pipe. Is it touristy and totally out of place? Absolutely! But was it really fun? You bet! Except for the people who went down before us were really slow and we stopped one time to let them get farther down, when someone crashed into the back of W and hit head to head. That was not so fun. She toughed it out though, and on she went. We then talked our driver Lucy into taking us to a roadside fish place for lunch. Picture a trout farm sort of place where someone scoops your lunch up with a net and then cooks it for you. They really wanted us to eat the sturgeon that they had sitting in the bottom of the pool, but you can't imagine how much that grosses you out if you see someone scoop it up off the bottom of the pool before you eat it. We passed and went for a trout looking fish instead. It came fried in a brown sauce and was awesomely delicious. We also ordered an Eggplant dish that was crisp on the outside and was the most delicious eggplant I'd ever eaten. After a huge lunch (The fish we got was huge, and we ordered too many tasty veggie dishes) we journeyed back to the city, napping along the way of course, and had Lucy drop us off at the spa Wendy and Betty liked. I sat and watched The Mysterius Island on TV and had a beer while they got massages. It was relaxing for everyone. We then proceeded back to the frame shop to pick up our goods and were very pleased with the results. We grabbed some snacks and some drinks at Happy Hour, and then it was back to the silk market for more shopping. I got myself a new backpack by totally turning Chinese culture upside down and insisting I couldn't pay the asked for price because W had all the money and would only let me have more than US $20 to pay for it. Meanwhile W was breaking the spirit of the purse lady in the booth across from my backpack. You do not want to negotiate with her. Then as the market was closing I picked up 3 pairs of shoes for about US$20 each that alleged to be much fancier brands than they likely are. One pair even claims to be made in Italy. By the time we took the very convenient subway home we were too tired to venture out for dinner so we tried to get some room service but for a second day in a row couldn't negotiate the phone system and decided to just go to bed.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Beijing Day 2


Fall at the Temple of Heaven
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

We didn't exactly set the world on fire getting out of bed on our first full day, but eventually made it for our breakfast at the hotel, they served a nice mix of english style breakfast and a few chinese dishes and lots of fresh fruit, including dragon fruit a new favorite of mine. Our first stop was the framing store to get a few of my pictures framed. We needed something else to decorate the walls of our house and wanted something to remember our travels by. So we had lots of decisions about frame styles and matting to make. We then grabbed a snack at a cute little French bakery that I really should have taken a picture of so I'd remember it now, but life's like that some times. Then we decided we wanted to go see the temple of heaven. We didn't have one of the hotel cards that had it's name written in Chinese, but randomly Betty had a postcard with a picture of it on it, and we jumped in a cab and said please take us here. it worked, and off we went. It was a gorgeous afternoon, and there were still some great fall colors to be seen. its hard to believe how much beautiful stuff is nestled in among this smoggy city of 7 million people. The best moment of the trip came when the four of us were huddled around a sign trying to figure out where to go next when a young Chines boy walked up to us with a big smile and waved and said hello. Our tourist instincts made us think he wanted to sell us something when in fact he just really really wanted live subjects to practice his English skills with. We were honored he chose us. We Grabbed an early meal at a really great Malyasian place called Cafe Sambal. They served really great samosas, a mango spring roll, a fried whole fish dish that was amazing, and despite the fact that we were sitting outside in the cold, we really enjoyed. We also had the four sided bean, a new vegetable for me that our waitress recommended, and I would gladly eat it again and again. Then it was off to the Silk market, which according to the shopping bags they give you is one of the 3 must do experiences in Beijing. (The great wall, and eating roast duck being the other 2) I got myself a nice new jacket right at closing time that is a super Polo knockoff.

Ni Hao Beijing!



When working to hard gets us down, sometimes we have to get out and travel a little bit. This time we decided on Beijing. We didn't plan much except for some shopping and we'd been referred to someone who could frame pictures for us, but other than that had done little more than book a room and start watching the flight loads. As the day to leave drew closer we suddenly realized the flight we wanted from SFO was really full. However the flight out of Washington (IAD) was nice and empty. All we had to do was get ourselves there by Friday morning. The red eye on our favorite airline was full, so we once again leaned on our friends over at Jetblue. Flying standby over there gets you a ticket right away, so as soon as we got our bags checked the rest of the day was pretty stress free. We arrived at IAD nice and early, so I rechecked our bag on Airline number one wandered back through security and we grabbed a quiet space in the terminal to get a nap. After nap time W's parents wandered through on their way to Frankfurt and hung out with us while we waited to be called for our Beijing flight. The also dropped me off a very nice birthday present. We got awesome business class seats, drank lots of wine and got to check out the movie Hot Rod, got a little sleep, and finally looked at a few of the guidebooks to figure out what we should do. We got to Beijing around 3:30 local time and met up with Wendy's friend Betty who flew in on the SFO flight. (she had to settle for coach) Then it was off to the hotel. The cab ride is already sort of long, but our cab driver decided we should take the scenic route and drove us around a bit more in an effort to run up the meter. It was actually pretty cool because we got to see the birds nest and the cube, so we didn't have to make a special trip out to see them later. Once we got to the hotel we met up with past travel buddy Dave, changed and went to the executive level happy hour. They brought us prepared snacks and you could pour your own drink, so we had to guard against getting too relaxed before even heading out for dinner. We had the concierge refer us to a place to eat some Peking duck. They sent us over to Quanjude, where we had to wait a while, but it was definitely worth it. To pass the time we sampled a bottle of a fortified rice wine that was powerful enough to knock you off of your feet. The duck comes out to your table whole, and some one comes out introduces the chef who will prepare it, and it is expertly sliced while you watch. It reminded me a lot of house of prime rib, except that it was about 1/10th the price. We crashed pretty hard ready for a busy day on Sunday.

One quick catch up post before the fun stuff


I can't possibly begin another post telling you how crazy I've been the last couple of weeks but lets put it this way, I earned myself some more comp time and needed a creative way to burn it, more on that to come. In the mean time we did survive the largest bay area earthquake since Loma Prieta in 89. The house shook for just long enough for me to crawl under a table and watch all of the pieces of furniture I hadn't tied back down after we put the new floor in. Nothing fell down, we were just pretty well shaken by the time it had finished. The seismological map looked like this