Hong Kong (not King Kong. One's an ape, the other a city)

Day 40 (Tuesday) -
The rest of the train ride past gave us a great view of the lush green country side. And, after surviving the 20hr train ride from Shanghai to Hong Kong, we began our cross town travel to Jimmy's apartment. To get an idea of what it took, let me list the transportation systems we used: one train station, six metro stations, three metro lines, one huge apartment complex plaza, two helpful huge apartment complex employees, one elevator, and one apartment belonging to Jimmy. Upon further review, it was only a half hour walk or a ten minute taxi ride.

We spent the next couple hours trying (with varying degrees of success) to do our laundry on Jimmy's fancy washer/dryer combo unit. The successes came in the form of extra-clean laundry (we may have run the wash cycle twice), and regular clean clothes (wash cycle only run once). Our failure came in operating the dryer. On this particular unit (for user safety I am sure) you can not open the door until the full cycle is complete. Which becomes a problem when you are standing shirtless, late, and nursing a sore toe after resorting to physical violence to solve your problem. Note for the impressionable youth who might be reading: resorting to physical violence does not solve problems, especially when dealing with a washer/dryer combo that might actually be 10% smarter than you.

Eliza and I met up with Jimmy (I in his shirt), Cody (another friend of Eliza's) and Nupur (yes, another friend of Eliza's) for dinner and drinks. We dined at a nice Cuban restaurant in SoHo. SoHo is reached by, what is reported to be, the longest escalator in the world. Before we arrived in Hong Kong, I read in our guide book that we were going to be in the same city as the longest escalator in the world. Needless to say (but I will anyway) I was excited. Spoiler alert: it is a series of escalators not one really long one. Stupid misleading guide book.
John, Nupur & Cody on the longest escalator.

Day 41 -
Today we headed off to the Vietnam Consulate in search of a tourism visa. The consulate is located in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong. The area is a collection of Cantonese shops and restaurants. There area is quite confusing because the street signs and addresses do not exactly point to what they are supposed to. After consulting two different maps and one hotel concierge, we located the consulate. The process of visa form filling out is some-what straight forward when you get used to the reverse date system and semi-logical form layout. Time, money, and our passports in the hands of a foreign government we ventured off to find more summer clothes. Which of course we need because, apparently, a fleece jacket and down vest are not going to be that useful in SE Asia.

John NOT fitting in the booth at lunch

And speaking of the weather. The weather here is really nice. Highs in the upper seventies and lows in the lower sixties. The best weather so far.

Day 42 -
We began the day by walking to Nathan Road to an area called the "Golden Mile" because of the ability of the occupants to make money. There you can buy pretty much anything. There are all kinds of shops selling the full range of tourist knock offs to jewelry stores with diamonds sparking in the windows. An interesting note here, the people that approach you here actually tell you straight up the the item is fake. "fake watch, handbags", "you buy here, good fakes" and so on. Gotta hand it to them for their honesty. We looked for a backpack for me (the man-bag is just not working), but apparently I am so out of style that even the fakes don't appeal to me. I guess extra zippers, bells, whistles, pockets, and big logos are in.

Then we wandered down to the "Avenue of the Stars". This avenue is a pedestrian only walk way right on the water front which has great views to Honk Kong across the harbour. The Stars are all Asian actors and actress like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. There are a collection of golden stars with the actor's hand print in concrete spread along the ground. One thing I learned is that hand size does not dictate Kung-fu skills.

John as Jackie Chan

Next up we toured the Hong Kong History Museum. A really interesting museum detailing the history of Hong Kong (shocking I know, who would have thought). Eliza was really happy because there was an exhibit on the history of banking in Hong king and Shanghai. Plus there were life size dioramas and she got to pretend to be a local shop keeper in 1891.

For dinner we dined inside the Element Mall and Kowloon Station complex. Basically Jimmy lives in a city within a city. Centered on the subway stop is a collection of apartment and commercial high rises, a hotel in the making, and a shopping mall. The mall is named Element and the rest of the apts have equally innovative and pro-marketing names as well (Jimmy lives in "The Arch"). Food was not bad at all. Located "nachos" on the menu (good first step), and when they arrived we realized it was a nice take on the nacho concept, Doritos chips (the spicy kind) with a cheese and meat sauce to dip them in. Step one in curing the Mexican food craving. A list of things you should not do at The Arch.

Day 43 (Fri) -
So apparently Hong Kong has a Disneyland. You would know this if you read in a guide book four months ago and have been telling your boyfriend everyday for the last two months. Welcome to my life. Middle of nowhere China on a train: Eliza will turn to me "Did you know there is a Disneyland in Hong Kong? Wanna go?" Initially I humored her, but after a month of this daily onslaught I started ignoring the questions. When that didn't work, I started saying "No, Disneyland Honk Kong is the last place I would want to go". Yeah, that wasn't the smartest thing I've done.
How could you not be excited at the prospect of this!?

So Disneyland Hong Kong is not the biggest of the Disneyland theme parks. In fact it is downright small. There is only one roller coaster (Space Mountain), so we rode it two or three times. They have replaced Mt. Toad's Wild Ride with a Winnie the Pooh ride. Because nobody knows who Mr Toad is. Also, when did Winnie the Pooh become Disney? The other "cool" ride is a Buzz Light year ride where you get to shoot down Emperor Zurg and his minions. You get points based on some inane scoring system in which I beat Eliza the first time (she claims that her score reset halfway) and Eliza beat me the second time (I have yet to hear the end of the bragging). A definite highlight was the car driving ride. The one were you get to drive a car (which is on a rail negating the need for "driving") unless you were a small child growing up and there for had to ride with your uncle while the rest of your cousins got to drive their own car. Ha, twenty years later and I am finally driving. Right-hand steering wheel sided and all (Hong Kong being a former British colony).
In his very cool red sports car, driving on the right.

After the adventure that is Disneyland Hong Kong, it seemed only right to meet up with Jimmy and Nupur for some end of week debauchery in the bar area known as Lan Kwai Fong. The brilliant plan of "drinks and appetizers" at every bar we went to would have worked, had "we" realized that Lan Kwai Fong is really a 4 block square area that is a cross between really swanky NYC style bars with frat row. So when each bar has spilled completely into the street and mixes with the ones around them, it is much harder to know where one ends and the next begins.
The LKF "scene"
Fun time all around and a chance to meet lots of Jimmy's HK friends.
Jimmy, Liza & John
Nupur & Liza
John, Nupur & Jimmy


Day 44 -
Today we made our way at the crack of dawn (1:30 pm) to the "largest seated bronze Buddha statue" in the world. So apparently there are larger standing bronze, or larger seated non- bronze, or just plain large Buddha statues in the world. I'll let you know if we run into any on our trip.

Joining us is Eliza's friend Nupur, who recently moved to Hong Kong and is therefore also an eager tourist.

To get there one can take a twenty minute cable car ride which give you a view of the surrounding islands and beyond, or hike for twelve hours. The cable car was a great choice on my part. Also, Eliza did not tell me about the hike option until after we were in the cable car. Must have slipped her mind.

The Buddha stature was indeed large and bronze and seated. A fairly impressive structure.

At the Buddha there is a working monastery from which you can purchase lunch. Buddhism, as part of its beliefs does not allow the consumption of alcohol or the eating of meat. Which brings us to the saddest sign ever:


After eating non-meat food and sipping on non-booze drinks we headed back to Jimmy's to make Mexican food. This particular culture's food is highly underrepresented in Asia. Eliza made a delicious meal with the help of Nupur and Jimmy. (I helped by clearing the plates of leftover food. Also, Jimmy's kitchen is not the largest place in the world.)

Day 45 -
Today Jimmy, Eliza, and I took the ferry to Lamma Island for a little stroll and some good seafood. Lamma island is located southwest of Hong Kong island and is known for it's really good seafood. In order to make people feel better about gorging themselves (okay, I suppose because it is a really beautiful island with no cars, spectacular views, and lush green vegetation) you can hike along the island. The hike takes you from one side of the island to the other (each with a ferry dock) and takes about 1.5 hrs. The path is clearly marked if you are paying enough attention to see the signposts. We missed one and had to backtrack at one point. At both ends of the path are small towns each with its own row of restaurants right on the water. The restaurants serve all kinds of seafood pulled from the bay in front of you. It was quite delicious. We had a six course meal which took us longer to eat than walk around the island.
This is us working up our seafood appetite.

Day 46 -
Once you have been to the hard to locate Vietnamese consulate, it is much easier to find it. In fact, after shipping home a 16kg package filled with no longer needed winter clothes, we went straight to it. This time around we spent more time in line to pick up our visas than we did trying to find the place, definitely an improvement! Passports back in hand we headed over to Victoria Peak, essentially the mountain (large hill?) that made the island of Hong Kong. They have now built a cable car that takes you up at a 17% incline (rough guess) from the heart of the commercial area. Pretty cool ride and really great views of the whole island on a 3k path around the top.
Celebrated Saint Patricks Day with some nice fish and chips for dinner at Dot Cod, where you get a 10% discount if you are a card carrying member of the HK Cricket association (we are not and therefore did not get the discount, we'll know for next time).

Day 47 -
So the one request my mother made (OK, maybe better phrased as one of the requests) before embarking on this trip was for John and I to see "Jewish Asia" (pretty small request overall). While perusing Jimmy's guidebook selection we located the Ohel Leah Synagogue in dedicated Hong Kong book. One long escalator trip later (well, lots of short connected ones), we arrived at the gates to both a huge apartment complex and one Jewish Synagogue. Then it got a bit stickier. The money belt/ leg satchel is great, but not the single most comfortable accessory ever worn, and due to the secure nature of Jimmy's building, we opted to leave non-essentials there. The lack of passports instantly made the synagogue guards suspicious. Twenty-five minutes of conversation, proving we were indeed Jews who just wanted to see the temple, later, we were admitted. And then left to roam the whole place completely un-checked. Hey, everyone has their own system.
Said Synagogue.
It get's two pictures due to the amount of talking required to gain admission.
When we were walking away from the temple John commented that he was quite glad he did not set off the metal detector, as his blond hair and lack of correct pronuncation of basic Jewish holdiays might not be for the best. (Hey, I am trying. Is it a "H" or a "Ch", nobody can tell me.)

Stopped by the botanical gardens and zoo on the way back to the subway. Lots of birds (lots and lots and lots actually, pretty much half the zoo) as well as some primates. All very large, clean enclosures, much happier than the Beijing zoo!

Somewhere around mid-China my cousin and I figured out that we were going to overlap 1 or 2 day in HK.
The cousins
Reina had been in China for the past week for work and her husband James arrived this morning to meet here and take a little vacation! They are a super cool duo and we had a chance to also meet some of her co-workers who were on the same trip. After a swanky drink in the Kowloon area we took the Star Ferry across the water to Hong Kong. A brief wander led us to serious, west coast style Mexican food.....it was amazing!!
Reina's two co-workers, Reina & Liza
John and James on camera duty


Day 48 -
Today we took a ferry to Macau, another "special zone" of China, and toured the former Portuguese colony. The two main attractions of Macau are its architecture and gambling. The buildings (at least the ones that aren't casinos already) are mostly European inspired.
In front of the new Lisbon
The casinos are also a sight to be seen. It is alot like Vegas, with the themed casinos, but only if Vegas was suddenly taken over by thousands of Chinese. Most of the day was spent wandering up and down the streets. We played one slot machine and Eliza won 20 patacas (about $2.50) which totally paid for our snacks on the ferry ride back.
Big money locale...sort of.

Also snagged a water shot of Jimmy's building, points for whoever guesses the right one (Not sure you can play Jen as you are a ringer).

Day 49 (Thurs) -
The highlight of today actually came this evening. We made plans during the day to meet up with Nupur and her boyfriend Robin, who was convinced to fly into town Thursday so that we would all get the chance to celebrate his birthday and see him before we get to India. As Nupur tends to work a bit later, we wandered out to meet up with Jimmy and his co-workers for a post work glass of wine. Turns out he works with some of the funniest European gents we've had the chance to bull shit over wine with so far this trip. After gaining some useful trip advise, we hoped in a cab and headed over to meet up with Nups and Robin. Somewhere pretty early in the night I convinced Robin it was best he wear a light up button (so everyone would know it was his birthday) and then purchased just the smiley face for him. We had a great evening of chatting and drinks, ending the night with John trying Hookah for the first time (not love at first puff) and a little bit of dancing. All around a great time.

Day 50 -
Most of today was spend packing and getting ready for Vietnam. We have really enjoyed taking over Jimmy's apartment and touring Hong Kong. It is by far the most Western city on our trip so far. The best part has been staying with Jimmy and watching "The Office" on DVD. Ah, American TV how you have been missed. Next up Vietnam.

And a banana picture for my sis

Shanghai/ Moganshan and a Deis crew

Day 32 -
Welcome to Shanghai! So with all our nice minimalist packing a few things were forgotten, mainly some cool pants for me, shirts that will help me not burn my shoulders in the coming countries and some sort of super lightweight top for John (this all occurred to me when I started actually reading the weather for future countries, 90's from Vietnam on out...oy). After a successful day of John's very favorite activity, shopping, we moseyed to the French Concession and found some great South American food (read, not oil heavy, totally corn started cruise version of Chinese). And the rocking spinning sensation is finally gone!

Shoes!!!

Day 33 -
Our Lonely Plant has been a good "guide" book. Unfortunately sometimes it is just that, a guide. As in not all the facts, locations, prices, or times are accurate. For instance if you were aiming for the 9am bus to Tongli, you would get there at say 8:30. Maybe today you were running five to ten minutes late. Not problem, plenty of time. That is until you get to the bus terminal and find out the bus departed at 8:30am.

So instead we headed to the Bund. The Bund is a stretch of land along the banks of the Huangpu River famous for its historic buildings (many built in the 1920's (in think)). The architecture was highly influenced by the Europeans living there (and controlling the money) at the time. From the Bund you can see across to Pudong. Pudong is a mass of high-rises and planned development.
View of Pudong
Bund side

Side note: China makes some really great knock offs, and often times they resemble the real thing. But sometimes quality control misses some spelling errors, which is usually fine, until the spelling error makes it into an add campaign that is literally on the side of ever little ice cream cart, yup, that's right, she shops at Abercrombie and Titch.


With the Great Leader on the Bund

After the Bund we headed to the Shanghai Museum. The museum is located in the middle of People's Square. People's Square is a large park in the middle of Shanghai. As best I can tell, there are a large number of people in China and Shanghai. So when a location has "people" in the name, there are going to be a couple of ladies and gents there. The Shanghai Museum is shaped like a "ding vessel" according to our "guide" book. And what is a ding vessel? We didn't know either until we saw one in the museum. How convenient. A ding vessel holds food or soup, and is shaped like a sauce pot with legs and two curved handles.


Day 34 -
Met up with Alissa (a friend from college) and her boyfriend Dave for lunch today. They have been living and working in Shanghai for the last 18 months and taking Mandarin classes in the evenings and weekends, very cool. After lunch, a call was placed to a guy she knows who does good bags. His shop is a room in a housing area and he does indeed do really good bags ;)

After a much needed nap, John and I hopped the subway to meet up at Alissa & Dave's apartment in the French Concession. It turned out to be this really cool place in a restored building in the heart of it all. When everyone was assembled we took off walking to a local wine bar to meet up with some other friends. Lucky for us, Alissa knew a short cut, though at one point we wondered just a little as we walked down a completely unlit alley that appeared to be a dead end, never should have feared and we got there in one piece and it took less time than walking around all the blocks would have. Met up with two other friend from college, Brent and Samantha, at the wine bar, what a treat, old friends and good red wine in the middle of China!
Brent & Samantha
Whole group
Followed this up with a mildly debaucherous night on the town that ended with the infamous "meat on a stick" (prior to leaving Seattle this delicacy was described by Brent as one of the top things about being in China), turns out he was quite right and you can compliment your meat on a stick with all sorts of veggies on a stick! I got a little to go container for the back of the taxi on the ride home.
Trusty guide book with BBQ meat in the background.
If Alissa decides not to stick with PR there is always a spot for her in late night grillin'

Day 35 -
Today we managed to get to Tongli. The bus does in fact leave at 8:30. The bus ride was a little bumpy as we were located in the last row of the bus. The one where the seat is higher than all the others so it fits over the engine. The one with no foot room. So the two tallest people on the bus are sitting in the only row with no foot room. Also, in the back of the bus you are behind the rear wheels making the ride even bouncier. Mental note: when traveling to China next time, learn the phrase "two seats in the front of the bus please" and the phrase "I'll pay extra for two seats in the front of the bus" or the phrase "Please give me two seats in the front of the bus. I just had Chinese food for breakfast, and I will probably donate it to your bus company if you put me in the back".

Tongli is a small canal town about 2.5 hrs outside of Shanghai. It houses picturesque little canal lined with Chinese shops and houses. On display are several restored and preserved estates with expansive gardens. There are a couple of museums to wander through. The oddest of these museums is the Chinese Sex Cultural Museum. Which, let me tell you, is not your normal museum. Basically two guys are showing off their collection of sex related artifacts. We are also sure they made most of it up. For instance, one caption read something like "this bowl is a sign of male virility because of the picture of the bird on the side". Or, maybe the artist just really liked birds. The best part about the whole museum; It was the only place we say rabbits in all of China.
John in a tunnel in Tongli
View of a canal

After returning from Tongli, we were picked up by Brent in his car. That's right and he drives (please refer to my previous car riding experience descriptions). Actually, he is a much calmer driver than most in Shanghai. One of my favorite comment from Brent "I refuse to honk at the old men with canes". He does flash his brights at them.

Day 36 -
We began the day by packing for our trip to Mogan Shan. Once that as completed we deposited our belongings at Alissa and Dave's apartment and headed to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. This museum basically outlines the planned growth of Shanghai for the next twenty years. It is really a trip to see that someone has thought out a city plan of this scale. There are plans for the subway system, parks, housing, and ports. Actually the plan for the massive sea port is a little disturbing because they are going to put it in "an ideal location containing wetlands and small islands". All throughout our travels we have seen China repeating the same industrialization/environmental mistakes that the western world made. It is hard to watch knowing that there are better solutions that just are not being used.
A very nice diorama of a future subway station, complete with the adds on the walls.
Shanghai, someone built a ton of mini buildings.

For the evening it was off to a nice dinner with Alissa, Dave, Brent, Samantha, and a collection of their friends. We went to a newly opened boutique hotel and restaurant (I can't remember the name, but I think it's name was spelled creatively to add a level of sophistication. At least that is what I tell people when I misspell words. No, it must be spelled like that for the cool factor). Next we headed to a bar on the Bund named "18" (and I even think I spelled it right). Great view across the river.

Day 37 -
We arose early to day in order to be chauffeured to Mogan Shan, a mountain retreat several hours outside of Shanghai. First sign there might be trouble, our driver did not know the way. He would, at a random intersections, run to another car and ask for directions. Which is apparently an effective means of navigation because we ended in the right place. When we got there the entire mountain was suspended in a thick cold mist. The visibility was about twenty feet, which is problematic when you are driving up a curving mountain road. In sharp contrast to the predominant Chinese driving style, our driver played it safe and took the road nice and slow. This pace suited us well and we finally reached our destination. The top of the mountain was historically used by the Shanghai elite (French, British, and American) as a place to escape the summer heat. I don't think any of them stayed at our hotel. After settling in, we opted for Chinese for for lunch (as it was the only option), during the course of the meal Dave and Alissa full on did chicken soup with only chop sticks and a knife at their disposal (see picture below).

Later we walked around through the bamboo forest, made even more surreal by the presence of the fog.
Do you see the size of this bamboo!?
After our walk we ate dinner at one of three open restaurants. As an after dinner activity we taught Dave and Alissa how to play O'Hell. They promptly kicked our butts (beginner's luck I say).'
(Card winners flanking John)

Day 38 - The next day was sunny and beautiful. We got to look out of our hotel rooms at the view missed yesterday. Which was quiet wonderful from our mountain perch. Again we hiked around the mountain looking at the houses and wandering through the bamboo forest.

After hiking, it was back down the twisting mountain road and on to Shanghai. For dinner we ate a wonderful Yunnan/Burmese restaurant.

Day 39 -
One of Eliza's tasks has been to see the Jewish side of Asia. Located in Shanghai is an old Jewish ghetto and the Ohel Moishe Synagogue. With Alissa as our tour guide (taxis driver translator) we located the ghetto and Synagogue. The Jewish population in Shanghai reached it peak during WWII when the city of Shanghai (with its designation of a free port within China) allowed undocumented and unregulated immigration. However, during Japanese occupation travel outside of the ghetto was highly restricted.

The nice curator of the Synagogue allowed us to walk through the accompanying museum (which was still under construction, but since it was a slow day we got a private preview tour) which looks at the role Shanghai played in allowing the Jews to escape the Nazi's by fleeing east when many other countries closed their boarders. The museum was rather small, but very well done, the English and Hebrew translations were all gramatically correct, wonder if it was a collaboration effort.


Next up was the "Old Town" section of Shanghai. This area has been restored to the original Ming Garden layout (built in the mid 1500s). There is a nice garden (gardens here mean less plants and more rock designs and water features) complete with bridge and fishes. Except where personal houses might have been there are now tourist trap shops. I am only speculating the masses of shops were not original to the garden, but I could be wrong.

Alissa getting some snacks for John in the masses of Old Town

After saying our goodbyes to Alissa, we journeyed to the train station. Along the way we unsuccessfully tried to return our subway cards (If anyone is headed to Shanghai let us know, we can save you 20 RMB). Another heads up: if you are going from Shanghai to Hong Kong via train you do not need to fight in line with the rest of the crowds. Because it is an international train ride you get your own special check in area just to the left of the regular check in (that took awhile to figure out). In order to more enjoy the train ride, we booked a Deluxe Suit (two people only) room. The cost was about halfway between regular train tickets and flying, but well worth not having to share with any one but Eliza.



Bye China (proper, as next up is Hong Kong, a Special Economic Zone of China)!

Cruise implies a smooth ride...

A few shots from Mt Hushan:




Liza climbing down the "stairs"



Day 28:
Arrive at Chongqing around 9 in the morning, small city of only 35 million people (well 7 million in the core, 28 million in the "suburbs"). Upon our arrival we realized we had no clue where we were going as we had expected the cruise to greet us at the station in some form. Turns out that was the plan but the very petite, nice girl who came rushing up to the two sore thumbs in the crowd asking if we were Eliza quickly explained that there had been an emergency and our actual guide was unable to come so she had been sent instead.



After checking in and dropping out bags on the ship (and jumping on the softest beds yet), our stand in guide kindly took us to the one major attraction in Chongqing. Turned out that was the end of the time she had as she actually holds an office job with the company and was needed post lunch. Wandered a bit and then decided to head back. A few wrong turns later and we could see our boat, from high on a hill. Pretty sure we started passing through a large number of "back yards" as we started a hunt to take any set of stairs going down we could find.

The buildings we wandered down to find our ship:


A few hours later we waved goodbye to Chongqing in all it's night time neon goodness and headed down the Yangtze.




Day 29:
Not sure if this falls in day 28 or 29 but somewhere in the middle of the night I woke up to a major jerk. A jerk of us dropping anchor in the middle of the river in incredibly dense fog. Hhhmmm, back to sleep.

The fogged in view:


Morning found all boats in the area still completely fogged in, changing that days itinerary. Headed to the main deck to hear a talk on the flora and fauna of the Yangtze, wherein we learned the there is no longer a Yangtze river dolphin as "It was unable to adapt to the increase in noise and pollution and therefore is no longer here" What a way to put it.
When the fog finally did lift we went to visit the Ghost City (eh) though in the process got to see a new hotel being built there (see picture below)....so weird, you get to stay in some dudes face.





And continuing the theme of Safety Third, a picture from the path up to the Ghost city:


Day 30:
The final full day of the cruise turned out to be the most interesting. The day started with a "Shore Excursion" that involved taking two different boats.


The lesser three gorges




We toured through the Lesser Three Gorges on a medium sized boat (200 people) and then on a really small boat (12 people). The scenery continues to be spectacular. Some highlights of the excursion include seeing monkeys eating and drinking in the river banks, some of the local people singing and playing music on their boats, and the lush green colors of the plants.


The lesser lesser three gorges




Also, all along the main river are huge construction projects. Large shipyards can be seen every couple of hours, and there have been so many huge bridges under construction.

Right at dinner time we started to enter the Three Gorges River Dam area and the locks that would take us to the other side of the dam. As an engineer, I was giddy as a school girl. This is the largest hydro-electric power plant in the world and one of the biggest civil engineering project ever. Passing through the locks was an event all to itself. The locks are similar in principle to the ones in Ballard. Boats go in, doors shut, water goes out, doors open, boats go out. However, the scale is completely different. These locks hold about eight large ships (picture eight of the passenger-only ferries then run in the San Juans). Plus there are five levels to step down. Over all - Really cool. Eliza was happy to continue the diner discussion on the current economic...yadda...yadda... (I don't know I wasn't paying attention). But not me, I scarfed down what ever they ship was trying to pass as food for this meal and was off to see the progress down the locks. I am not sure how much water each lock holds. One, every facts is in metric (m^3, whatever) and second, none of the crew was sure. A lot, I think was the consensus.

Approaching the lock:


In the first lock:


The door closing on the 4th lock:



Day 31:
Today we actually got to see the Three Gorges Dam up close and personal. Okay, we didn't get as close as I wanted. But then I an not sure if the average tour group gets to go into the turbine are, see the control room, and all the uninteresting things us engineering types like.

The highlight of the tour had to be the "security check". Before the tour group could enter the dam area we were routed through a security checkpoint. We were told to leave our big bags and other bulk items on the bus. We exited the bus and walked through a security gate (just like at the airport) and any one with a bag passed it through a x-ray machine (just like at the airport). However, unlike at the airport, when the gate did its little ding-ding (when someone has metal) the security guards gave them a perfunctory pat down and waved them through. I had my camera on me when I passed through. I set off the alarm and was patted down. Not only did they touch my camera when patting me down, but they did not ask me to take out the large heavy object they had just found on my person. And the topper, the bus we just got off pulled around the security check and picked us up again with out being searched. Pretty sure a blind monkey with a rocket launcher could have passed through security.

The tour of the dam explained a little of the history of the site and the future plans for the area. It was a nice intro tour than bored Eliza, but I thought it was interesting. In another "I sort of understand why this was done, but what..." moment, we were ushered in to a room with a complete scale model of the dam project. To be fair, lots of places I have gone all over the world have had scale models of the engineering project. They make it easy to point out tidbits of information regarding the unique highlights of where ever you are. But this particular model was located in a building on a hill next to the dam. "Hello people, if you turn around you can see the actual-real life dam".

As an engineering project the Three Rivers Dam was pretty damn cool. Ha, waited till the last paragraph for the joke you all thought was coming much sooner. And noticed I was never tempted into the whole "gorges" vs "gorgeous" combo. Let me assure you the tour guides showed no such restraint.

Once back on the boat it was time to check out. The overhead announcement said not to rush as the lobby was crowded and there was no rush. The ladies at the front desk however had a different idea for John and I. After our 3rd call that went something like this: "ring ring" "Hello" "Um, we recommend you check out now" "OK be there shortly" We took it as our cue to actually leave. We were met in the ship lobby by our guide and driver who took us from the ship to the airport, roughly a 40 minute drive, during which our guide filled us in on all the possible bridge history and related trivia one could or should ever know, including lists of famous movies and books with bridges in the titles or story lines. When we did arrive at the airport he asked for a quick favor, he needed to know how to spell Garfunkel, as in Simon and Garfunkel as he is our guides current fave singer. It also turns out his english is entirely self taught, from a set of encyclopedias he was given a few years back (which explains the lists used to describe everything).

The topper for the day was me losing a mild bet to John. Prior to starting the trip I bet that the only people I would run into on this trip would be planned rendezvous. Well, talking to some folks at the airport, turns out they know both my Grandma Hulda and my aunt & uncle very well. I'm not sure that counts, but John says it does.

Made it to Shanghai and our hostel without major incidence. Woo hoo, done with the rocky river cruise.

(Actual dam pictures to follow)

Xi'an Videos and Pictures

Here are some videos I shot in Xi'an.

The first is a street market and all the crazyness that is included.

The rest are all of the fireworks celebrating the final night of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Also look at some other peoples videos of the Chinese New Year.

The links are supposed to open YouTube.com in a new browser window. If the links don't work, then just paste the address in a new window. Would the least technical savvy person who reads this please let me know if this works. If it does I will try to upload more videos.

Xi'an Muslim Quarter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpjayDqeME4)


Xi'an Fireworks #1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJjbbO3xEa8)


Xi'an Fireworks #2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2esweVWPgY)


Xi'an Fireworks #3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2CRhz0RLHE)


Xi'an Fireworks #4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf0PEgUOBIk)


Xi'an Fireworks #5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVwXmE77VR4)


Xi'an Fireworks #6 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJIzx3SUC9w)


Xi'an Fireworks #7 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPss5ElzEt4)

Also, I have uploaded my pictures from the trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jwwinasia

http://picasaweb.google.com/jwwinasia2