Hilarious Holiday in Hangzhou

  We heard about a favorite tourist town escape for the Shanghai locals. Hangzhou, only 50 minutes away by train is steeped in history and set around the beautiful lake at its center. While some of the lake side temples and gardens were a little “plastic” the whole ambiance was quite relaxed compared to neon-frenzy of Shanghai. The weather was a pathetic drizzle most of our first day (reminded us of a little place called Seattle) and we finally bought some umbrellas after surviving for 8 months with just our trusty rain jackets. $1.20 well spent.

  The weather was significantly better our second day and we set out on the 4 hour hike/walk around the lake. While the lake side boulevards were crowded with Chinese tourists obviously on a weekend getaway, we were seemingly a strange new attraction to many, especially Sue in her work out tights and tank top. The Chinese, both men and women, have absolutely no reservations about slack jaw gawking and blatant staring even at close range. It proved to be a rather amusing sight for us in return as we cracked up at the innumerable confused, bemused and contorted facial expressions of the passer-bys.  Ok so we weren’t exactly stylish, but damn.

  Also, we want to send a big thank you to Chris Parrish who has been acting as our relay and  posting all our China Blogs for us. Due to restrictions by the Chinese government several sites, including facebook and blogspot (by Google) have been permanently blocked from access within China. So without Chris’ time and effort, none of you’d be able to continue your vicarious living for the last few weeks. Thanks Chris.

The high speed train from Shanghai to Hangzhou, travelling at 300 KPH (or 186 MPH) it covered the distance of 110 miles quicker than the subway ride from the center of Shanghai to the train station. We actually missed the train we originally bought tickets for…. Who knew it would take  1 hour to go 9 stops on the subway?? The good news was that we were able to trade our tickets in for the next train at no cost. Incredible. 

One of the several hundred little bridges that zig zag across small corners of the lake connecting the smooth boardwalks.

Misty day on the lake. Supposed to great on a clear day (when the smog isn’t too bad)

Graham squeezing through a more remote section of our urban hike. 

Fall colors on the lake

A good representation of how we felt after discovering McDonald’s has a Oreo-Coffee McFlurry for about $1. Fat and Happy. Might have had a few….

Sleek and Spendy Shanghai

   For our first taste of mainland China we spent 4 nights in ultra-modern Shanghai .  Our days were filled with shopping, our standard wandering/sightseeing, flavorful Shanghaies dishes and a little culture at the free Shanghai Art Museum.  For a city of 19 million people we were surprised at the cleanliness and lack of crowds (expect for rush hour on the subway). The legendary Shanghai shopping was true to form, especially if you crossed the bridge, out of the expensive touristy area and entered the expansive subterranean malls that never seemed to end. 
    On our first outing in the city we were walking through the vast People’s park when we met 3 people about our age who were very curious about the United States and what we were doing in China.  After chatting in the park for 10 minutes they invited us to a traditional tea tasting, where they were headed.  We learned a little about the 5000 year history of tea as well as many health benefits of the varieties we sampled.  At the end of the tasting we each owed $50, which is our whole days budget…..oops.  We spent the rest of the next few days eating cheap street food and walking everywhere to bring us back on track.  It was an interesting, but rather expensive experience.

The vast Shanghai skyline

Our new friends, If you look closely you can see the jasmine tea leaves under our eyes to reduce the “panda eyes.”

Fancy pants tea that blooms like a flower when you add the water.

With the streets lined with historical brick and columned buildings, it could have been London, not what we expected when coming to China.

At the Shanghai Art Museum, an illustration of the old and new China.

A narrow ally in “old town”, maybe a preview of what is to come in the rest of our China exploring.

Incense burning at the Temple of the town Gods.

A peaceful respite from the busy narrow streets of old town.

Smoked duck and mouth tingling spicy chicken, so so good.

“Hershey store, Uh Oh”  Sue’s exact words knowing that the Reese’s would be irresistible.

The 100 story World Financial Center at and the slightly shorter Jinmao tower. We ventured up to the 87^thfloor of the later (which took 3 elevators to reach) for the view and a drink at the Grand Hyatt’s bar.

The neck craning two towers.

Enjoying our fancy drinks (which cost about a 1/3 of our daily budget) on the 87^th floor.

The view of Shanghai from the bar.

Happening and High-Rise Hong Kong

We made the transition from laid back SE Asia to the ultra-modern metropolis of Hong Kong. Tuk Tuks were replaced by luxury double decker buses and an expansive subway system. While offers for massages were replaced by calls to examine high end watches and jewelry. Every corner turned revealed yet another sleek sky scraper bursting with name brand shops while the streets were packed with Mercedes, BMWs, and Porches with hardly a Toyota or Honda to be seen (except taxis). Sadly the spacious and cheap hotels were also left behind in SE Asia and we found ourselves instead in an incredibly cramped room for $50 US a night, which was a steal by Hong Kong standards.

For Graham, it was a bit of trip down memory lane back to the days when his family lived in Hong Kong for 4 years in the early 90’s.

The skyline of Hong Kong Island and a Star Ferry, one of the few old things left in Hong Kong, crossing the harbor.

The tiny room which could barely contain us and all our stuff.  Not in view is the closet sized bathroom.

The street Graham’s old house is on.

The house has since had a story added and been converted to a set of apartments plus the lawn torn up for parking. The woes of progress

Stanley Market, Graham’s old stomping grounds

While Hong Kong is known for being an rather crowded and busy place, the Island’s steep mountains have left much of it undeveloped and several hiking trails offer an escape from the concrete jungle. To access the “Dragon’s Back” trail we climbed up through this cemetery built into the hills.

The ridge of the Dragon’s back.

Hard to believe this is only a few subway stops and short hike away from a cosmopolitan hub of 7 million people.

Some of the fresh seafood on offer at the market. The gills were still moving!

Mmmm chicken foot soup. Gives it that extra zang.

Sue found a groupon for a nice dinner out. We ordered the signature leopard coral with trout (the big bowl in the middle) which made our tongues and lips tingle, sort of like licking a 9 volt battery.  Very tasty but a little odd. The locals sharing our table couldn’t believe we ordered it and said it was too spicy for them to try.

We heard about a little whole in the wall dim sum place with a former four-seasons chef and the claim of being the cheapest Michelin star rated restaurant in the world. While we had to wait almost an hour for a table at lunch, it was well worth it for the $12 dim sum feast.

The view from atop Victoria Peak after riding the tram to the top.

One of the lesser advertised attractions of Hong Kong is the free botanical gardens and zoo located just outside the center of town. The mammal area had a huge variety of some very active primates.

The nightly laser and light show. The major buildings of the skyline are equipped with lights that pulse in time to the music played from speakers along the waterfront. Only in Hong Kong.

Sunny Koh Samet- Our Little Vacation From Traveling...Yes We're Spoiled.

To finish off our time in south east Asia we dedicated a solid week to sit in the sun on the tiny island of Koh Samet ( sometimes spelled Samed). It proved to be everything we hoped for with a couple of restaurants, a 7-eleven, a cheap room and a few very fine beaches to lounge on while improving our tans. We fell into an extremely relaxed schedule that included homemade breakfasts, then coffee down the street before eventually making our way to the beach by around 11:00. We’d lay sweating on the beach (the sun was HOT) as long as we could manage before going for a swim and returning to town for a late lunch of great Thai noodles from a little hole in the wall shop we found. After retreating to our air-conditioned room to rehydrate and reapply sunscreen we usually manage to make it back into the sun for a few more hours of sun before the call to happy hour to celebrate a hard day’s work (do we really have to come back??) 

Yep.

We stumbled upon a model shoot on the beach. Go figure.

In between sessions of beach sitting we also met an incredibly kind local woman. Lex, a 22 year old from Chanthburi Thailand, who moves to Koh Samet each year during the high season to sell ‘pancakes’ (crepes) from her little cart. We gave her plenty of business (peanut butter & banana)  and after a few days we became friends. A couple of times she insisted in taking some time off of work to show us her favorite beach, tour the “fish farm” or play some pool down on the beach. When not serving up crepes she knits gifts for her long term customers who return to the island each year. On our last day she gave Sue a purse she’d knitted over the last few days. Couldn’t have been nicer and her pancakes were dangerously delicious.

The rope tow out to the fish farm. More of attraction for the Thai-tourist from nearby Bangkok, we wouldn’t have ever know about it without Lex as our tour guide.

More of an outdoor aquarium than a fish farm as the fish aren’t actually sold or eaten, just displayed. There were some surprisingly large specimens for the rather small enclosures including a sea turtle and zebra sharks.

During our ritual breakfast of cornflakes, pineapple and yogurt the same dog would appear to scratch its behind on Sue’s chair.  Every morning without fail, and only Sue’s chair.

Some of the large beachside resorts had nightly fire shows which were quite impressive.

The nightlife beach strip, each place tried to outdo the next with their lanterns.  

After the blissful beach time we headed back to Bangkok to catch our flight out. If you watch the news you’ve probably heard about the crazy flooding hitting Thailand and threatening downtown Bangkok. At the time of writing this our area of downtown was still dry and with any luck we’ll be on the plane to Hong Kong before the worst of it arrives. However with floods predicted to hit most of the city and speculation that the water could stick around for weeks, the hotels and  stores all over town are building sandbag barriers with some of the more serious shop owners building miniature cement walls to protect their storefronts.