Day 6, Another Brick in the Wall

Remote Outpost
Originally uploaded by jrherron

On our sixth and final full day in china we had arranged to be picked up at the hotel at 7 to be whisked off to the Mutianyu section of the great wall. Yes, We'd been there in November, but Francie had never been, and the weather had no choice but to be better than the first time we were there. As you can see we got significantly improved conditions from the first time. A side effect of that was that we had to share the wall with more people on this day, As you can see from the pictures, it was a fair trade. It was a beautiful day, we'd brought snacks and drinks, and we were ready to do some walking. Instead of Taking a left after the lift we took a right, and found the climbing to be much steeper. The right side is actually much shorter too, so we were able to turn back at the end of the fully restored portion and walk a little back the way we'd gone originally. We spent about 3 hours up there and napped a little on the way back and asked our driver "Victor" to recommend us a lunch place. He took us someplace in the Lido district near where some of W's fellow employees stay when they're in town. The sign outside said Welcome flight crews (in English) and we actually chatted up a flight attendant from the Beijing/Chicago flight while we ate.

Up close and Personal
Originally uploaded by jrherron

There was a dish called famously delicious green beans on the menu, and it turns out they were as good as advertised. Salty and with just enough pork to make them interesting, they went down wonderfully. Then we stopped by the Ladies street market to find some silk flowers Francie had been admiring at the Massage place, and then to the Framing store to pick up our goods. We were pleased with all but one of the frames, but we ended up not getting charged for it. After that it was back to the hotel to drop off our goods, and then a final trip to the pearl market to pick up a few last minute items. We had some trouble catching a legitimate cab back out to the lake district, but eventually found someone to take us and we ate inside at the same restaurant as the afternoon before. We went back to the hotel to pack up all our goods, and W and I snuck out for one more massage.
We knew we had too many bags to fit in one cab in the morning but the concierge arranged us a bigger luxury car for just under what it would have cost to get 2 cabs. We were immediately given business class seats on the plane, and did some last minute shopping at the Olympic store, and wandered off to the plane where we got upgraded to first class. I watched 2 movies and then crashed hard waking up just in time for breakfast. After a quick shower I ran off to work for a 1 pm meeting that I really needed to attend. I hope nobody was watching me too closely because I was nodding off frequently and would wake up just as my head was starting to drop.

Day 5, Power Tourism

100_2652
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On our 5th Day in Beijing (Sunday if you're somehow trying to keep track) W and I split up to accomplish important Vacation Goals for ourselves. I wanted to go out and see some more sights, and W wanted to rest. And since it was just the 3 of us including Francie, we could actually do what we wanted. So Francie and I mapped out a route plan and got rolling around 9. Our first stop was the Lama Temple, a place Madhura had highly recommended we visit since we had tourist time. We took a cab directly there and spent an hour or so marveling at it's architectural details, Admiring the Giant Sandalwood Buddha, and choking on all the incense that was being offered up by worshipers there. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed of the giant Buddha, but you can find some here. Ready for more adventure and some fresh air we jumped on the subway ($.50 for both of us) to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden Palace. It was so busy in the square that I only got offered a Mao watch one time, I was (almost) disappointed.

I gave Francie the abbreviated tour, and we even found a part that costs an extra 10 RMB each that W and I missed on our first trip there. It had beautiful pieces of Jade and Gold artwork and the enormous official seals of the emperors. We took a quick cab ride back to the hotel to meet up with a rested and happy W and then were ready to Go check out the lake district and the old summer palace. We were starving by that point and decided to detour to the lake district first to find a little lunch. We found a great restaurant with some outdoor seating that served wonderful regional dishes served over a Sterno burner. It was a picture perfect day, so we rented a little electric boat and cruised around the lake for an hour.
We only got rammed by another boat once, and that was mostly because the wind was a little stronger than our piddly electric motor and the other boat's human peddle power. We continued our journey around the lake and were constantly accosted by peddi-cab drivers offering a Hutong tour. We found a cute little bar with comfy couches and settled in for a beer and a review of the maps. and then cruised off for a massage. I went along for the ride and sat comfortably in a chair watching tv and grabbing a little nap. I watched the most ridiculous state media coverage of the events in Lhasa, and have never been so angry at the TV before. I won't say too much about it here, since I do intend to go back again and would prefer not to be arrested in customs as a dissident the next time I visit.

Time for Reflection
Originally uploaded by jrherron

But some day ask me what the internal news coverage looked like. Oddly enough in the same news coverage there was news about the 5th anniversary of the Iraq war that I completely agreed with. It was crazy juxtaposition. We went back to the hotel and rested from a busy day, and to mentally prepare ourselves for our last day in town.

Day 4, More shopping + Malaysian Food

So once again the morning started with a crazy rush to the airport, and a less than stellar Chinese style breakfast on board a China Eastern Airlines flight. We swung back by our hotel dropped our junk off and went for some lunch at our new favorite restaurant near the pearl market. We shopped some more spending an insane amount of time helping Betty buy a Wii. The Wiis sold by our favorite and highly recommended electronics guy (Who's name and shop I won't mention here) are Japanese models chipped to play lots of games easily available in the market place. We decided to test it pretty thoroughly on the spot, and I had to teach them how to sync the wiimote to the machine. The menus are all in Japanese, but as long as you buy games in English it works fine. After surviving the super lengthy purchase process, It was time for dinner at our favorite restaurant in Beijing, Cafe Sambal. We had a big group and found a lady standing outside the pearl market with a van looking for some people to give a ride to. She was charging at least double what a cab would have cost, but since we would have needed at least 2 and possibly a third cab, it suddenly seemed like a good deal. Fortunately Betty knows the neighborhood so well that when our driver didn't know whee she was, Betty knew exactly where to go. The restaurant is hiding in a Hutong but is filled with the most delicious Malaysian food you ever laid eyes on. Exhausted from a full day we crashed early.
To start the post I've given you a look at Xi'an's calligraphy street, below, a little bit of awesome grammar for your viewing pleasure. I'm accepting definitions for the word "areaturnover".

Day 3, Warriors, Come Out and Play

Warriors, Come Out and Play
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On our second full night in Beijing I was doomed not to get any sleep at all. We had to catch a 7 a.m flight the next day which meant needing to walk out the door at 5. Our room didn't have a clock that lit up so it was very difficult to tell what time it was without getting up and finding enough light to read a clock. I woke up at 3 and only dozed for the next hour. It wasn't fun, but it was far from the most painful part of the day. We rushed like crazy to get everyone downstairs to the 3 cabs we had ordered, and arrived at the airport and got ourselves checked in pretty smoothly. The hard part would be the security line. We stood in this huge mass of people with everyone growing more and more nervous about actually making their flight. Standing in line is not something built into the Chinese culture like it is into ours, so at every conceivable opportunity someone would try to push past you as if you weren't standing there or cut under the rope that made the line orderly. We knew we were cutting it close and ran through the terminal after having our bags picked apart and having each and every liquid or gel sniffed by a security person. We got to our gate just in time to find out it had been changed, and had to backtrack to a different gate. We then waited on a bus for 15 minutes to gather all the flight's stragglers and got on in the very back rows of the plane. (That'll learn you to make your reservation 2 days before you want to go). The flight was short and they served a bad breakfast (you could opt for the Chinese style breakfast of porridge, or the even less appetizing egg and sausage western style breakfast). The good news was the seats were actually quite comfortable equivalent to W's employers upgraded seats, and was far less scary than you might think. The flight attendants were quite helpful, and all spoke at least some English, and in typical Asian style went through a couple of wardrobe changes even for such a short flight. We went to the information booth and scored a van big enough for all of us for something like $10 per person for as much time and mileage as we needed. We went straight to the Terra Cotta Warriors museum and and began to take in the sights. Under the massive domes you can shove your way up into the picture taking throng and struggle to hold your camera steady enough to get good pictures. (Flashes and Tripods are forbidden D'OH!!!) It's hard to imagine that the Soldiers are over 2000 years old. The compound itself is huge, and makes for a solid 3 hours of walking around snapping pictures and taking in the history. When we got done we stopped by the little cafe to have a Vienetta on a stick. It was awesome!!!! We had an hour ride to the hotel, and ran right back out to eat our first real meal of the day. Needless to say most of our party was cranky and hungry by that point and patience with wait staff and each other was wearing a little thin. We ended up at a hot pot and seafood place, but didn't eat either, settling on some non-threatening typical Chinese food. About half the group had bailed to the KFC, and actually missed out on a very tasty soup and a nice fried rice dish. In the process we learned that the hand signal for 8 is not what you'd expect it to be. Your instinct tells you to hold up 8 fingers, when in fact you should just make an L shape with your thumb and index finger, if you want to be understood that is.

The South Gate
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Use of the walkies reconnected us with the group on top of the city walls, where we really wanted to rent a bike and ride the 9 mile trek around the city, but we'll have to save that for next time. Most of the group went to the Xi'an branch of their favorite massage place, but I went back to the room at the Sheraton Xi'an and promptly fell into a ridiculously deep sleep. W even brought me a dessert home that I had to eat for breakfast the next morning. Which was good, because I had to face another early flight and boring Chinese Porridge again for breakfast the next day.

Here's almost the whole crew hamming it up on the ancient wall of Xi'an From Left to right you've got Millie, Francie, Shin, Heather, Betty, Madhura, W and Me. The Tripod and Camera are managing themselves and Jen stayed back in Beijing since she'd already been to Xian Before

Day 2,Shoppers Paradise?

On our second day in Beijing We had much shopping to do. We rolled out of bed at 9, and grabbed new travel buddy Shin and rolled out to the framing store. We knew it was near the workers stadium, but unfortunately our cab driver dropped us off on the wrong side of it. We strolled around and put in our framing order in, and then it was off to experience the Pearl Market.
I learned a quick lesson on the way that if I memorized the Chinese names for places, I'd actually understand when the cabbie asked me to confirm. (The name of the Pearl Market is Hongqiao [pronconced: hong chow])Since I was the tallest in our party most of the time I had front seat privileges, which also meant having navigation and negotiation duty. We never visited the pearl market on our first visit, so this would a new experience. We made a side trip to the noodle restaurant across the street from the pearl market and were pleasantly surprised by its awesomeness. Unfortunately I don't know what it's English name is, but I recommend it.

When you walk in some one in front yells something across the restaurant and several waiters seem to compete to serve you. There was a very tasty eggplant dish, and a really great sweet/spicy chicken dish with nuts. With full stomachs we walked back across the catwalk for some power shopping. A few gadgets and purses (from the super secret around the way purse shop) and some scarves later it was time to meet up with the other half of our party for some shopping and dinner at the Silk Market. We all had walkie-talkies that had impressive range, and we arranged to meet at one of the coffee shops on the street level. We grabbed a few things from our favorite jeweler, and then it was time for some Peking Duck at Quanjude. This branch seemed a little more touristy than the one we'd eaten at in November but our duck and side dishes were still very delicious. After Dinner we made an early night of it, since we had a 7 a.m. flight to Xi'an the next morning.

Repeat Offenders, Day One

Next in Line
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Early Tuesday morning it was time to throw off the shackles of work and do what we do best, jump on a plane travel far away and make a town our own. This time we meant business, since we'd already been to Beijing once, and knew what to expect in a lot more situations. Getting on the plane was mostly drama free, scoring some first class seats for Me, W and travel/food buddy Francie. I watched Alvin and the chipmunks, Superbad, and 3:10 to Yuma. There was time for a little nap mixed in there, but I found myself unable to get a real night's sleep and knew I'd pay for it later. We arrived in Beijing early Wednesday afternoon and had much running around to do. We met the rest of our travel party at the hotel, and then broke out to the Sheraton Great Wall, where we had to go sit with the travel agent to arrange the final details of our Xi'an trip. We grabbed a little food at a little place the Sheraton Concierge recommended right around the corner, where we dove right into our first Chinese food and our first Tsingtao. We had to go back to the hotel after that, since W had to take one of her finals online. After her test, we were ready for some Peking Duck. We asked specifically how to get to the Famous place in town that we'd been to last time, but instead got pointed to a place right near the hotel (The Marriott Executive Apartments) that we got lost trying to find. We went back, and someone else at the concierge desk actually walked us there personally. It was a nice gesture, but the place was already closed, so she nicely walked us to a nearby noodle shop that had great food, little spoken English, and a cat that wouldn't stop crying while we were there. I know what you're thinking, and the cat was a very well taken care of pet on a leash who was just a little noisy, he was never in any pain. We enjoyed a great meal that included fresh made noodles and then went back to the hotel and crashed pretty hard.

Standing up for a worthy cause

Jason, San Leandro, CA
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Attached is my entry into the HSUS Anti seal hunt campaign lolseal contest. I don't really think I'll win, but W is such a seal person it was only fitting that I at least enter and show my support. I've been running around a lot lately trying to find a new gig. My fate was "sealed" on that one when I had a meeting with my boss a couple of weeks ago. I said, I think this job is substantially different from what I thought it was going to be and is much more difficult based on some new structural changes. The response I got was I don't really see what the problem is, the other guy used to do it. So at that point I actively started looking. The results have been slow, and not all that great. I had an inteview with a startup software company that would have been perfect. I had to drive to Palo Alto twice, spent a total of 12 hours including travel time, just to have them decide they wanted some one LESS experienced so it would be cheaper. I almost threw up. For perspective you can find my countless other posts about not getting a job because I didn't have any experience. Another potential job sent me to Brisbane for 3 hours worth of 30 minute interviews. I impressed my potential manager, but did not impress the next level up guy because I couldn't quote the job description very well. I had another phone interview with someone today and you can be sure I'd committed the job description to memory. This week we are packing our bags again, and I'm not working for a whole week, so you can assume lots of pictures and excitement are coming your way very soon.