The World Revealed

2007-08-20T21:14:00.000-10:00

currently blogging at my other blog

Mahalo!

2007-08-19T02:49:00.000-10:00

Last night in Manila

Peter and I are packing for our return to Hawaii tomorrow morning. We will be leaving my parent's house at 5 a.m. to get there by 6 a.m. for our 9 a.m. flight. It's a holiday tomorrow so we expect light traffic along the major roads leading to the airport.

The weather has been wet and rainy this past week. Classes were suspended for 3 consecutive days. I was happy about this because I was able to spend some time with my mom who's always busy with school and office work. I also spent time with my dad doing home improvement stuff in their house: installing a new toilet, install a new faucet fixture/replace a pvc connection, put in a shut off valve for the water tank, clean-up after the exterminators did their job (at the cost of their dog, Pepper's life, who accidentally licked the pesticide that day), and other minor jobs around the house.

This morning during the English service my mom and I played together, piano and organ, during the Prelude and Postlude; then I accompanied another visiting UPCYMian, Ruby Agnir, during the offertory. Her husband, the retired Rev. Federico Agnir, delivered message.

My mom, Peter and I along with my brother, Jun and his girlfriend, Heidi, went to the new SM City The Block to have lunch at the Healthy Shabu Shabu place, while my Dad was in a pot luck lunch/meeting with the UPCYM alumni.

All in all, our visit here in the Philippines has been very productive, work-wise. Lots more to do so Peter might return before the end of this year again to continue what he had started.

As always, leaving will be hard because my family are all here. But, knowing that we are all connected eventhough we are apart brings me comfort and assurance that we will all see each other again.

I will definitely return next year for three very important things: my Mom's retirement in July, the UPCYM reunion in August, and the U.P. Centennial celebrations and College of Music homecoming in September 6.

For now, thanks for reading our travel blog. I will resume my daily blogging at my other blog:
http://huakai1969.blogspot.com/

Mahalo!

2007-08-11T03:10:00.000-10:00

There were a number of small tools stloen from our beach property shed last night or early this morning. When Peter got to the property he noticed the tools gone. That night he heard Nate's voice as if he were right next to him. He freaked out a bit, but now understood that Nate's voice was a warning that something was happening. Now he has replaced those tools and has asked the neighbor, Elizabeth's Garden, employees to store our tools for the mean time while the shed is being built.

It is truly sad that people would resort to stealing. For what? What is the satisfaction in that? Won't their conscience bother them? I just hope that the people who stole the stuff would have an epiphany: that doing bad things will only bring more bad things into their lives, and that by doing the reverse, will bring more good in their lives.

The positive side to this is that the tools were easily replaceable.

Because of this Peter has hired Manolo to watch over the property for the time being.

2007-08-09T03:01:00.000-10:00

Dearest Kawilihan (visayan term for "source of joy"),

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR NIECE! Now you are 10 years old. We pray and hope that you will remain to be the "source of joy" of your family. We love you and miss you a whole lot!!!

God bless you always.
Love,
Auntie Mimi and Uncle Peter

2007-08-09T02:57:00.001-10:00

We've been busy working that I haven't been able to post since the beginning of this month. The work at the beach continues despite the rain. Peter has been supervising the boys on their work to build a caretaker's compost toilet, tool/supply shed, and the mounds to cover the roots of the trees. He's also did a lot of leg work to get the electric meter and correct electrical wires connected - he is just too happy to get it done today. Now he'll just have to complete the building of the compost toilet and shed then finish up before returning to Manila before our flight back to Hawaii.

2007-08-09T02:30:00.000-10:00

When it rains, it pours...buckets and buckets of water! Every Filipino must have prayed for the rains to come to replenish the Angat Dam which has been below its critical level. Now, after typhoon Chedeng and the current one, Dodong, the water level at the dam has increased about 1.5 meters. Still under the critical level but at least it is rising.

The problem the Philippine still faces after all these years is with regard to the drainage all over Metro Manila and some of the densely populated city provinces. One of the reasons the drains do not work is because most of the Filipinos do not know how to dispose of their rubbish (which is mostly plastic) - some throw them in a nearby canal or drain thinking that they will all wash away once the water flows through. Is it the lack of common sense or the lack of respect for other Filipinos - doing things without thinking about the consequences because they just don't care. What is it really?

Filipinos are a very hospitable lot, especially with their family and friends, But, very seldom, with other fellow Filipinos they encounter along the streets or the malls.

Just drive in Manila or anywhere in the Philippines. Every driver seems to be very impatient. If the lane they are on is slow, they immediately swerve to the next lane without first looking at their rear view mirror if it is clear. If one car swerves, the rest swerves along with it, just like a ripple. Despite this habit, the Filipino drivers have the best reflexes when it comes to maneuvering their vehicles. There aren't that many accidents in the roads or highways.

The worst drivers I've seen are the bus drivers and jeepney drivers. The bus drivers feel like they are the kings of the road that they can easily switch from lane to lane while speeding. They would weave along the roads as if they were the only vehicle there. Then when a passenger needs to ride or get off, they would stop (on a dime) wherever they are - in the middle of the road or diagonally along the road. Then if they need to make a u-turn, they do it from the right most lane then block everyone while they do it. The reason for this impatience and non-caring habit is because all these drivers compete with the other drivers to get the most passengers per day for more income. Hence, the racing to get all the passengers along the roads and highways.

Another reason why the buses and jeepneys stop wherever is because the passengers themselves choose to stop wherever it is the most convenient and nearest their destination. They also choose to wait to flag a bus or jeepney or taxi right where they are (eventhough are are loading and unloading areas along the road), they even occupy the 2 right most lanes during rush hour so that these public transportation vehicles will see them.

I am too scared to drive here because I am not used to dealing with 1) vehicles that do not stay in their own lanes, or signal when they wish to change, 2) pedestrians that cross the street everywhere (even if there's an overpass walkway just a few feet from where they are, 3) the motorcycles that drive close to you and weave in and out of lanes even if it's only less than 2 feet of space.

I remember taking the driving test here. The rules of the road are the same as in the U.S. but once they have gotten their licenses and drive the streets of Manila the rules have disappeared. In China, road rules are just suggestions, as I've heard someone explain to me. In the Philippines, road rules are no rules at all. No wonder that if you have driven in the Philippines you will definitely be able to drive anywhere in the world.

2007-07-29T21:06:00.000-10:00

Manila

Work continues at the beach property: digging a new well for our water, getting our electricity connected (just needs the paperwork done), have someone build temporary huts to rent out during the busy surf days, plan for the water connection lay-out, and, of course, landscape the place. Then, we will need to find a reliable, good and trustworthy caretaker.

While the men work at the beach, I, on the other hand, helped clean, organize and rearrange my grandma's little house. I also was able to finally correct the previous carpenter's mistake with the french doors and grilled gate - the french doors wouldn't not open fully because the gate, instead of being placed outside, was inside blocking the french doors. We just couldn't figure out what the carpenter thought when he put the gate there. He didn't even test the doors after he installed them. So for eight years the french doors remained closed for most of the time, only opened when I visited because it just felt like a sauna in the house, no ventilation at all. Now I had a couple of guys remove the gate and put it outside where the doors open outward and the french doors can be fully opened inward. Screens were also attached to the gate so we can keep the french doors open without having mosquitoes and flies inside the house. At the same time I had them put a cement barrier, about 4 inches high, to block any rain water that flows from the outside. My grandma and her helper would always dread having to mop up the floor everytime it rained as water would easily flow inside the house. It has taken this long to finally correct it. Now the house is so much cooler with all the doors open during the day providing enough ventilation for air to circulate. And, when it finally rains hard, no water will come in.

My next project will be to landscape the vacant lot in front of my grandma's house, where she planted lots of trees including the 3 Narra trees (the seedlings we have given away at our wedding 13 yrs ago). We have put up a rope hammock and had someone build a bamboo platform/bed where we can hang out during the day. After we have done that my nieces and nephews (6 yrs. and below) decided that it was going to be their own little place. :-) It was really interesting that they were all outdoors, under the shade of the Narra trees and enjoying the hammock and just playing around the area - this is wonderful, gets them away from sitting in front of the TV.

Yesterday my youngest nephew, Matthew, only 2 months old was baptised and his parents had a grand party held at our compound. There were lots of visitors and relatives. It was a good day for a get-together with family.

Today we left La Union, leaving Peter to supervise the work at the beach. Got back to a rainy Quezon City after 5 1/2 hours drive south. (La Union is now under a state of calamity due to the absence of rain.)

We will return to LU next week. Need to spend time with my mom, who's busy teaching post-graduate students after office hours. Also, need to spend time with friends.

2007-07-26T00:33:00.000-10:00

Work at the beach property has begun this week. The electric post for the electric meter was installed on Tuesday. Hired the same four boys to clear the overgrown weeds in the property. The electrician and the plumber came today. A temporary shed for the pressure tank has been built. Even at my grandma's house we are going to improve the doors going out to the garden (the previous carpenter didn't do a good job, the doors wouldn't open fully as they are blocked by the grilled gate that's inside, supposed to be outside), also, put a small barrier to keep the rain waters out and not in the house. There's still lots of work to be done to put in the infrastructure but at least now there's something happening.

We realized, Peter and I, that my relatives need someone to push them to do something about the property, meaning us. When we left last year they have not maintained what we have done so the weeds were really not controlled. Hopefully, now that there will be electricity and a water tank they'll be able to maintain the property.

As for the weather, it still hasn't rained hard here. Just a drizzle and only for a short time. In the news the rice farmers are sad that their crops aren't getting the water it needs, the grounds have cracked and dried. Let's hope for much needed rain.

Anyway, we're all trying to keep cool, drinking lots of cold water, having the fans on almost 24 hours, and taking showers at least 3 times a day to not feel the heat and humidity.

Am enjoying the company of my grandma (who's had a hip replacement surgery and needs help with her walker - she's doing really well) and my adorable niece, Marianne, while all the men work. I get the easy job. :-P

2007-07-22T03:53:00.001-10:00

Quezon City

I believe the weather (seasons) has shifted. It really is quite unusual at this time of the year for the Philippine islands to experience hot weather without too much rain. The Angat Dam has reached its critical level for quite some time now due to no rainfall activity in the watershed area. The typhoon that was supposed to hit the archipelago veered and hit Japan instead. Hopefully, the rains will soon come so the dam will be replenished.

~~~
The choir at CRL did a good job singing at the wake of Col. "Tatay" Carreon last night. We sang three "oldies": Jesus Never Fails, Inibig and The Highest Praise. I am pretty sure Tita Gay sang with us as she used to be a long-time member of the choir.

The wake service was also a reunion of sorts. Old Church members and choir members were there like Tito Joe and Tita Ann Baradi, Tito Steve and Tita Girlie Salonga, Tito Reg and Tita Vicky Cabote, and of course, Tita Gay and Tita Glo (the Carreon sisters). We still remember those days when they were still members of CRL. It was, for me, the best time in the CRL choir's history (I'm just biased, because I was part of it). Anyway, we hope to meet up again before we return to Hawaii to talk about the good old days and to talk story about out current lives.

~~~
The choir, again, outdid themselves this morning. We sang Draw Me Close (which got a reprise during the Closing Hymn, as requested by the Pastor) and In Majesty He Will Come - almost everyone belted out this song, especially the Sopranos when they hit that high B flat.

After the service, my family invited the choir and some friends for lunch at the Church kiosk to celebrate our birthdays. We had pancit, lechon (crispy roasted pig), broiled fish, green salad, assorted fruits. The CRL choir (inspite of the change in membership all through the years) loved/s to eat! They can really spend so much time eating and talking story - wherever they may be. Fortunately, there was enough food to feed these (always) hungry people, but not enough forks/spoons and plates and glasses - though that didn't stop others from eating. We're just happy to see their satisfied faces after our lunch.

~~~
Tomorrow we leave for La Union again with the hopes of starting the work at the beach property: setting up the electricity, the water pump and tank, building a temporary hut for the caretaker, fixing the area where water accumulates and clearing all the overgrown weeds. It's a lot of work but we'll try to do what we can within the time that we are there. Most likely, if work there progresses Peter might want to return earlier to continue the work while I will stay in Maui - I have a job there which I love (and am grateful they were gracious and generous enough to grant me this leave of absence this year).

Anyway, it'll be a really wonderful project. My brother has designed a beautiful, native hut which makes use of compost toilets and a natural, loose tiled shower stall. His idea of bringing nature inside the hut is in line with what we really want to see - sustainable, eco-friendly, and close to nature. We just need to find a caretaker whom we can trust to really watch over the property when it's still in its beginning stages of development. Well, if they do build a hut there, Peter might want to live there full time - and live like a king!

2007-07-19T22:09:00.000-10:00

Quezon City

We have spent this week in Lingsat, San Fernando City, La Union, hoping to begin work at the beach property. On Tuesday we went to see it and found lots of overgrowth. I started to survey the property when I started to get attacked by mosquitos. They went straight for my legs and immediately I started to feel really itchy. It's "dengue" season here so I didn't want to take any chances, I quickly returned to my dad's truck and sat there bathing my legs in rubbing alcohol.

Peter, on the other hand, went to check out the shoreline, talk to the next door neighbor and Aki, the local japanese surfer. They have voiced their concerns about the municipal's plans to build a concrete boardwalk there: it will only bring unwanted people at night, cause the surf to disappear or be changed, and the sand will most likely never come back.

Meanwhile, my dad tried to tackle some of the overgrowth only to stop after a few minutes due to the hot weather.

My Uncle Apit arrived an hour later so we can all talk about putting some water pump and tank and setting up electrical lines. Fortunately, with the new municipal road next door, electrical lines have been put up so it will now be easy for us to hook up our own line and then upgrade to commercial line in the near future.

Wednesday we went to buy a weed whacker and a tree pruner for the beach property. It wasn't until Thursday when they were able to try both. The problem of doing some work at this time of the year is that the weather makes it difficult to work non-stop, it's just too hot, too muggy, to do hard labor at this time. So doing one thing less than a day is actually achievable.

This weekend is reserved for my family, so we can celebrate both mine and my mom's birthday. I think my dad got some of his friends to contribute food for Sunday lunch. I look forward to this celebration as it has been years since I've celebrated it here with my family.

BTW, on a sad note, our old family and Church friend, Tatay "Col." Godofredo Carreon passed away at the age of 88 a couple of days ago.

2007-07-16T23:53:00.000-10:00

Lingsat, San Fernando, La Union

Saw the beach property this morning: overgrown weeds all over. The new road that the municipality built right next to our fence stretches from the main highway to the beach. they wanted to put a concrete boardwalk along the shore but most of the beach property owners it is better left as is so that the sand will return, otherwise, they might simply ruin the shoreline and the surf. some officials were actually looking for one of our family members that time they had the surf competition and the battle of the bands right outside our property, they wanted to request that we give them an extra 6 feet for the road. my uncle heard about it and avoided them the whole time. thank you uncle third!

there's lots of work to do. need a weed whacker and chain saw but both of these are not sold in the philippines, and the chain saw is illegal unless registered with the government (to prevent illegal logging). we will probably hire workers to remove the weeds. need some gravel and dirt for landscaping. probably this weekend we will get some things done.

we will return to manila this weekend though to celebrate both mine and my mom's birthday at the church. (i have been "ageless" for years now and haven't really celebrated my birthday but since i am with my family i can make an exception.)

my relatives here in the province are actually preparing something but it's also going to some kind of a "despedida" party for my auntie marilen and uncle renato who are leaving for the US to immigrate - after such a long wait, more than 20 years, for the petition, by uncle's twin brother, to be approved; and, also, Auntie Esther's birthday this coming saturday - please send healing thoughts for her, she is battling bone cancer.

anyway, the weather here is utterly humid and hot!!! not too much rain yet. it seems that the monsoon season has been delayed. we hope for cool weather soon.

2007-07-08T02:13:00.000-10:00

Quezon City

Been here for 3 days now. Met up with our good friends, Verne and Gia, on Saturday. We met them at the College of Music. Both of them (and their kids) are Croc-ies too! Just like Peter and I (and my family). It's the new thing now - everyone loves to wear their Crocs for its comfort. I understand my niece and nephews in the province wear them too.

Anyway, we were treated to a Pakistani lunch at the old Drive-In in front of our church, UP CRL, and next to the UP Pool. They had so many choices with lots of vegetarian options (my friend Gia has turned vegetarian for health reasons). The price was very reasonable. And the food, good!

Afterwards, rain started to pour, apparently since Summer ended the rains haven't been pouring, only about 2-3 days since then. An unusual weather they are having. Well, we wanted to drive to the new mall across from SM City, Trinoma, but due to the heavy downpour we turned back and had coffee at a popular Singaporean cafe, Kopi Roti, which offers regular Singaporean coffee with condensed milk or tea with condensed milk or hot cocoa along with a sweet crusted bun or toast with sweet cream or assorted topping french toast, all with or without soft boiled egg in special soy sauce. Very simple, yet quite popular with the regular folk.

Then we went to do some errands afterwhich they dropped us off at the church where we waited for my parents to finish with the choir practice.

Today, we went to Church and Peter and I got recruited to sing with the Filipino and English service choirs. The church has two new pastors, the Rev. PJ Bote (quite young) and Pastor Cao (also a lawyer).

Lunch was at Tom Yang Hot Pot in Quezon Avenue. Peter and I weren't able to try the hot pot in China so my brother invited us to eat there. The restaurant is quite bit, lots of huge tables with big round hot plates where in the middle is a small round pot filled with either a spicy broth or chicken broth. There were 7 of us: my parents, my brother and his girlfriend, Heidi, Tito Manny, old family friend, then Peter and I. Right in the center of the restaurant is a huge buffet full of raw sliced meats, seafood, vegetables, mushrooms, prepared dumplings, uncooked noodles or pasta, etc. We got whatever we wanted cooked at the hot pot or at the hot plate. We had thin slices of raw lamb, angus beef, chicken, salmon belly, and other interesting meats along with lots of veggies, sides and seasoned crab. A buffet desset was also offered: 3 flavours of ice cream and halo-halo (Filipino dessert). The food was pretty good, tasty, but too much. My Dad was the first to give up, followed by Peter, and the rest of us. We were completely full and sleepy afterwards. It was a good time.

I know I have posted that Peter wants to have time to post his commentary on our trip, but he needs to get his thoughts together again as he kind of forgot what he wanted to write. So, it will probably be awhile until he gets to post. So for now it will just be me and my daily blog (if there's anything interesting).

Have a good week ahead!

2007-07-05T22:31:00.000-10:00

Quezon City, Philippines

Left our hostel early this morning, around 7 a.m., walked to the nearby Holiday Inn Golden Mile to catch the K3 Airport Express Shuttle Bus to the Kowloon Station of the Airport Express. As was always our good fortune, with regard to weather, the rains stopped when we left our hostel and began to pour when we were already in the train. Thank you, Universe.

Got to the airport early enough to be the first in line for check-in at the Cebu Pacific counter. Took our time, had some breakfast at Pacific Coffee Company and checked the internet, before going through immigration and to the gate.

The flight took only 2 hours. BTW, most of the passengers in this flight were Filipinas working as helpers in Hong Kong. The Cebu Pacific air fare was the cheapest, besides Tiger Airways (from Macao), to the Philippines. In exchange for the cheap fares, food and beverage (including water) weren't free. If I knew that I would have brought some food to eat (flight time was 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., lunch time). Oh, well...now we know.

Went through immigration, baggage claim and customs rather quickly. Found my Dad waiting for us at the outside waiting area.

The weather is surprisingly less humid than we expected due to the previous night's rain. The traffic in the highways and streets were still chaotic, especially around the Katipunan area. I kept thinking of ways to ease traffic congestion around this area - like building an elevated road turning left from Katipunan to UP Math area, widening the road from UPIS toTandang Sora ("imminent domain"), prohibit trucks/semis to drive on highways and roads only at night until early morning not during the day, prohibit tricycles/pedicabs from driving on main roads and highways, teach pedestrians to cross at overpasses , etc. If it were that easy.

Along the drive we've seen so many vehicles cut in, overtake, swerve, etc. I've even took a picture of this car, a gray mitsubishi lancer that was so rude as to drive on the opposite lane then cut in front of my dad's pick-up. This person, who is probably educated and a professional, do not know the rules of the road. Truly sad and disappointing. (I am thinking of putting that picture on the internet...hmmm...still maybe not....) Even one policeman was directing traffic without following the traffic signals himself - he simply could just turn off the signal lights and direct traffic, instead, he just made drivers irate by making the traffic worse.

After being in China/Hong Kong for a month, we have not seen this chaos in the roads, except maybe when there's a spectacle happening in the middle of the street, which is quite seldom. The drivers are pretty much obedient to the rules of the road, especially the public transportation buses. And, pedestrians know where to catch the bus (although they cross anytime they want at crosswalks - at least they know where to cross).

Hopefully, somewhere in the future, the Filipinos will learn to clean up their act and start behaving more civilised like their other Asian neighbors.

Anyway, am glad we are now in the Philippines and with my family.

Peter, after some thought, will be posting his commentary now that we have access to free internet.

2007-07-04T20:29:00.000-10:00

Hong Kong

Left the cloudy Shenzhen around 9:40 a.m. Took the Metro to the Luohu station where the Immigrations building of both the Chinese and Hong Kong border is located. It took us less than an hour, 50 minutes to be exact, to go through Chinese immigration, Chinese Customs, Hong Kong immigration and Hong Kong Customs. At exactly an hour later we were already seated on the KCRC train bound for East Tsim Sha Tsui (46 minutes - with several stops in between, at the New Territories).

Peter and I must be the only ones who have visited Shenzhen and not buy anything! I wasn't even able to buy a postcard for this city because we couldn't find one in the malls, forgot to get them at the tourist attraction places.

We simply did the "bird's eye view" thing at the Meridian View Center in the Diwang Da Sha building, the tourist attractions at Splendidi China and China Folk Villages. We got tired of going outdoors because of the humidity, it was too much to handle. So we opted for relaxing at the Mall.

Which is what we are doing in Hong Kong, too. It's quite humid plus every now and then rains pours heavily on the streets. We will be hanging out at the Mall or go and watch "Shrek 3" at Pacific Palace cinemas in Admiralty.

So, this is our last day in Hong Kong and our last day of our Northeast Asian tour. It has been truly a marvelous experience with a number of pleasant surprises along the way. The numerous times we've been blessed with great weather and serendipitous moments are incredible blessings throughout our journey. Our impressions have been corrected and we have a much better view of how the people in Japan, Seoul, China and Hong Kong live. There were times when I felt totally uncomfortable, basically in places where I don't understand what I hear or what I read and we're left feeling quite vulnerable. But, most of the time, we felt like we belonged and were part of the community.

The hostels in China and the one in Seoul, were completely different from the hostels we have been to in Europe. These are more like hotels in terms of their quality service, most of the time above and beyond the call, and with cheap room rates. We were very impressed.

The people, overall, were very helpful, friendly and hospitable. Only a couple of them surly and rude.

Everything is changing here, especially in China, that we definitely will return to see the amazing new developments. At least we got to see some of the "old" places before they are all demolished and replaced by huge, modern high-rises.

Thank you everyone for your prayers for our safety on our month and a half journey through Northeast Asia.

Signing off from Hong Kong....

2007-07-04T02:56:00.000-10:00

Shenzhen

Just came back from watching the movie, "Nanking." It was a documentary with narrations by actors who read in the first person the letters of the foreigners who helped the Chinese in Nanking in the Safety Zone, as well as interviews of people who witnessed this horrifying invasion of their city and ultimately the killing of their loved ones. We didn't get to see the Museum in Nanjing, so watching this movie was indeed an opportunity to learn about what had happened then.

This movie reminded me, also, of what the Philippines had to endure at that time. War is a terrible, aweful thing. No one should experience this in their lifetime, if we all could accept each other and live in peace.

2007-07-03T23:29:00.000-10:00

Shenzhen

The reason why people on Hong Kong and the mainlanders come to Shenzhen is because it is a shopper's paradise. Lots of places to buy clothes, shoes, bags, watches, electronics, etc.

Peter and I went to the Dongmen area where there are several buildings full of vendors selling their stuff for cheap. Most of the buildings simply house these vendor stalls and is not fully enclosed like a regular department store. After our experience yesterday of Shenzhen's summer weather, we went around the Dongmen area following the shade - meaning, wherever we find shaded areas or walkways that's where we'd go. So, we basically just went around and around.

We went inside one of the Mall's to have a cool drink but later on decided to just go back to the MixC mall and hang out there. We haven't explored this Mall yet until today. Turns out there are 5 levels full of shops, a Delicity food court, and movie theaters. We decided to watch "Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End" to cool off from the heat outside.

The theaters are really classy. We had to choose our seats for the movie. The cost was 40 yuan per person (about $6). The theater we were in was medium-sized with Stadium seating and very comfy chairs. It wasn't filled up, only about 20 people or so. The movie was in English (thank goodness) with Chinese subtitles. After the movie we were directed to an exit door that leads to the mall area different from the entrance door. A good idea.

After the movie, we had a late lunch at the Delicity, choosing fried rice and pancit. We had too much of the oily food and meats already.

We are now back at the hotel to rest a bit before going back to the MixC to watch another movie, "Nanking", about the 1937 massacre of 300,000 Nanking men and women. It's in English too. I am intrigued by this, but I know it's going to be quite explicit - I hope I'll be prepared to watch it.

Anyway, tomorrow we take the train back to Hong Kong.

2007-07-03T04:10:00.000-10:00

Shenzhen

Before anything else, I would like to greet our good friend, Lynne, and our niece, Neala, a very happy birthday today in the US! Hope you both have an incredible and amazing year full of great opportunities to achieve whatever it is you want. God bless you both!

The weather cleared up this morning after last night's thunderstorm. We took advantage of the free breakfast here in the hotel before heading out to do some sightseeing.

Today we saw the Splendid China and China Cultural Folk Villages - Epcot-type attractions. For 120 yuan per person we got to see both, well, they're both connectede so either way you still have to see both to make the entrance fee worth it.

We started with the Villages. Took our time to meander around the huge park. Rain would pour every now and then so we'd duck under a building to get some shelter. There are so many villages represented at the park, including this one minority culture which uses the roman alphabet rather than the chinese script. We finished this side of the park in 4 hours.

Went to find a place to eat where it's cool but turns out the only place that had A/C was a tea house. So we ended up downstairs at the coffee shop which sells expensive sandwiches and drinks. The Chinese tourists were smart to bring their own picnic lunch bought from Wal-Mart (as evidenced by their bags).

Next we went around the Splendid China, miniature versions of the natural attractions all over the Mainland. There were so many to see but because of the heat we tried to just pick and choose, somehow though we kind of seen most of it: summer palace, the ming tombs, the great wall, marco polo bridge, etc.

It was so hot and muggy throughout the day that both Peter and I developed headaches due to heat stroke. At least the aches held off until we had our early dinner at 4 p.m. at Taco Bell Grande restaurant (not fast food) which offers really good meals like the Almondigas with fried rice and the Chicken Quesadilla with sauteed mushrooms and bean/corn salad. Really good. We wondered how come they have the better kind of Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurants here - more classy and a full-fledged restaurant. Even the servers at Taco Bell Grande wears a sombrero and a Mexican outfit. How cute is that!

Bought some much needed bottled water and some groceries before going back to the hotel. Then went straight for a cold shower (after being so sweaty the entire day) followed by a long nap (until 9:30 p.m.).

Headache is almost gone (still waiting for the rain to pour so this will go away - it's really like a weather forecaster this sinus of mine, he, he....).

Well, I am going to let Peter post his thoughts after this. Goodnight, then!

2007-07-01T22:59:00.000-10:00

Shenzhen

This has to be to most convenient travel we had: Walked from the Tsim Sha Tsui metro station (underground) to connect to the East Tsim Sha Tsui station where the KCR (Kowloon-Canton Railway) starts for its daily, 4-minute apart, trips to Lo Wu (the station near the border to Shenzhen, China) - took about 45-50 minutes (compared to the 2 hours by boat).

We got to see the New Territories along the way, lots of high-rises but with more space in between.

Rain was pouring when we arrived at Lo Wu station. Fortunately, the station is directly connected to the Hong Kong and China immigrations building. We had to turn in our departure card (which we filled out when we arrived in Hong Kong) to the immigration officer, then walked across the border (more like a passageway between buildings) to fill out another form (entry/health card) to submit to the Chinese immigration officer. We had a double-entry visa (which allows us to stay up to 30 days per entry) because we stopped by Hong Kong first before going to Shenzhen. We could have stayed another 30 days but we didn't plan for this and we need to start the developments in our beach property in San Juan.

The Immigrations building is connected to the main shopping center everyone who comes to Shenzhen goes to, Luohu Shopping Center, and to the Metro station as well as the Coach station.

We followed the signs to the Metro station. Got a trans card (same as the Octopus and Traffica cards) for ease in taking the Metro. They have 2 Metro Lines (for now). Line A begins right there at the railway station. We asked the Info lady where the nearest stop to the tallest building in Shenzhen, she said "Garden Theater" stop. Got down to where the trains area and looked at the sign saying "Garden Theater" only to find out that there are only Chinese and Pinyin on the route plan. At least one of the maps which had the English name had the Chinese characters on them too, we simply looked for the character that is the same. Found it later - Da Ju Yuan station.

Arrived at Da ju Yuan station and both Peter and I were caught by surprise when all the signs and maps only had Chinese characters in them - no pinyin! We only knew the pinyin (romanized version of the Chinese words), even then the way they say it is totally different. Peter asked the ticket officer to show in the map where Yan He Dong lu was, he pointed to the railway station. We tried to keep calm and decided to just get out of the station and find that tallest building.

We got out through the nearest exit and found ourselves diagonally across the tallest building, Diwang Da Sha, right at the main road - it was nice and sunny by this time. Our hotel's direction was simply "just one street opposite of the tallest building." Now this could mean anywhere. At least the street signs had pinyin, thank God! So we crossed the street (the same block as the Diwang Da Sha) via the subway then asked the newspaper stand girl where Yan He Dong Lu was. No luck. She couldn't understand at all. Next, Peter asked the street cleaning lady and she kind of understood him and directed us to go straight up (using her raised palm motioning to go there) then slightly right and somewere there. Okay, at least we got a direction. So we crossed back to the same side of the road we were one earlier but on the opposite side. Went to the next block up and through a smaller road in between the buildings. Asked another guard there and he sort of knew where it was and directed us to go cross the river and over there somewhere. As luck would have it, right where we were I saw the huge sign in the building across the river, He Dong Hotel. Yipee! We found it! It is located right along the river next to the World Finance Center.

This hotel is pretty cheap, probably 2-3 stars. For a three day stay in a twin room we paid about 640 yuan (compared to Hong Kong's 450 yuan/night). We also get to borrow a computer here in our room for only 30 yuan per day - now that's really cheap (amounts to less than 2 yuan/hour). Plus, we are right here in the center of the city.

We had brunch at the nearby The MixC mall before going up to the tallest building (connected via the subway with the mall) and saw how huge Shenzhen was. It was a good way of orienting ourselves with the city's areas. Now we know that where we are now is just north/west of the railway station. We were also to see the areas of the Hong Kong side.

Back at The MixC mall, we went to Honeymoon Dessert for my usual Snow White Sago while Peter had the glutinous rice and durian in coconut milk ice. Yum!

Next, we took the Metro back to Luohu Shopping Center to see why everyone (like the Filipinas in Hong Kong) comes here to shop. It is simply like a better version of Greenhills Mall in Quezon City. Clothes, bags, shoes, food, electronics, manicure, massage, tailoring, etc. are found here. No price on items so you will have to haggle to get a very good deal. Unfortunately, I am not the shopping-for-deals-type of person. Maybe, if it's something I really really want, I will haggle to get a good deal. But I will not buy items I do not need because it is cheap. So, we simply went around the 5 floors (pretty big) and came back down straight to the Metro station.

Went back to The MixC mall to buy some groceries at Ole then returned to the hotel to get some rest.

Later we will check out the other mall at Dongmen.

2007-07-01T03:20:00.000-10:00

Hong Kong

Tomorrow we will take the train to Lowu then cross the border to Shenzhen. We will be there for 3 nights then return to Hong Kong for a day before catching the next day flight to Manila.

I will be posting from Shenzhen (hopefully our hostel will have internet).

Till then....Zai jien!

2007-07-01T02:43:00.000-10:00

Hong Kong, on the 10th year anniversary of the hand over to China

Woke up early this morning to see the flag raising ceremony at the Golden Bauhinia, HK Convention Center grounds in Wan Chai.

The prediction for today's weather was thunderstorms and lots of rain. Well, the sky was clear and the Sun even shined. Thank God for that. (Also, the cumulative thoughts of the people in Hong Kong for better weather could have also manifested it.)

Took the Metro to Wan Chai and walked on the sky way along with hundreds of locals and tourists on their way to see the ceremony. At one of the junctions in the sky way, we were all stopped from going down the stairs (the building also closed its doors for the time being) due to some spectacle that occured in the sidewalk near the stairs. Hundreds of police officers were there encircling something they covered so we couldn't see what was going on. A few minutes later we were all allowed to go down and walk swiftly towards the Convention Center.

We neared the block leading to the Convention Center only the police and security guards barred the entire road. Not knowing what was happening, we simply staked a good place to watch whatever it is they were blocking the road for. We were there for more than 20 minutes when some people began to cross the street to where the barricade was, only to have the police tell us to go back.

We didn't see the ceremony at all. It was more of a private affair for the dignitaries and special guests. The early birds were able to get in before the police put up the barricade. Peter and I went to Pacific Coffee Company, and had our breakfast, read the newspaper and magazines, checked the computer there, until around 11:30 a.m. (we were there about 3 hours)

Since we were already in the area we returned to the Convention Center to see the raised flags and the Bauhinia. Took some pictures then rain started to pour. We ducked into the Convention Center and walked straight through via the connecting passageways to the Renaissance Harbor View hotel through to the next building via the sky way. We nearing the Wan Chai metro station when we crossed the sky way and saw that people were waiting there for the parade. We weren't quite sure what the parade was or their route so we were pretty happy that we were there at that time. Saw some cool old mini coopers, classic cars and cool scooters in the parade.

Next stop was the nearby post office (yes, they are open on Sundays here in HK, China, and Japan) to mail my post card with the newly released commemorative stamp of the HKSAR 10th anniversary. On the way to the post office we walked through the Wan Chai street market full of vendors selling clothes, food stuff, bags, shoes, etc. We walked around that area after the post office errand.

Next stop was Causeway Bay station to Times Square mall. We had our lunch there at the City Super food court. Both Peter and I chose a lunch set from Chilies and Spice (Thai cuisine): 1) curry chicken with veggies, stick of chicken satay, dessert and drink; 2) pork with the same extra stuff. Each plate was HKD$44 (about $6.25), and the plate was huge, the serving enormous. The food was great and the dessert, half maja-blanca half tapioca with macapuno, coconut and taro - really delicious!

After lunch we went around the mall and discovered more places we haven't seen since our last visit here. It really interesting how much we have not seen in the place.

We realized that most of the streets near the Time Square mall was empty of cars, public buses and trucks. Only the trams were allowed and some taxi. People were walking along the streets and we followed some of them to Victoria Park where an annual demonstration for the HK people who are pro-democracy was being staged. Also in the Park were all the Filipina and Indonesian maids on their usual Sunday day off where they picnic, talk story, and just spend the entire day together. We weren't able to walk around the park on our first visit because it was very humid and we didn't feel like checking it out. This time, the weather was cooler and the clouds provided shade, so we were able to see part of the park and where these Filipinas and Indonesian women hang out.

After the park, around 4 p.m., we took the metro back to Tsim Sha Tsui and returned to our hostel. Got some rest before heading back out to watch the fireworks display.

By 6:30 p.m. we were near the Harbor. We had a quick dessert at Peter's favorite place, Hui Lao Shan - mango is the main staple. Ordered 1) the pomelo sago coconut milk, mango and mango ice cream, and 2) red bean, coconut milk, sticky rice balls, and crystal jelly. Both were good. The turn over at this place is really fast. We're wondering if something like this will work in the Philippines. Hmmmm....

Anyway, right outside, by the harbor the main promenade was closed (because it might collapse due to the sheer number of people wanting to get a better view of the fireworks). People started to stand up right next to the elevated promenade and just waited there for more than an hour. Peter and I found a place in the back where we could still see but not be to crowded - right at the edge of the sidewalk away from the harbor. Unfortunately, 2 guys from behind us kept coughing without bothering to cover their mouths, so we moved to the middle of the street were some people began to sit.

We sat there for about 45 minutes before the fireworks. Ate the snacks we bought from the Das Gute bakery. When the "Symphony of Lights" show (permanent light show shown everyday at 8 p.m.) began, people began to stand up. So we stood up and watched the show (which also was enhanced with pyrotechnics) for 12 minutes then the main fireworks display started for 24 minutes. We could hear everyone "ooh" and "aah", especially the kids. But 15 minutes into it the kids grew tired of it. The display was spectacular. Lots of shapes and colors. Awesome.

We were glad to be here at this time. Happy 10th Anniversary, HKSAR!

2007-06-30T04:19:00.000-10:00

Hong Kong

It's the eve of the 10th Anniversary of Hong Kong SAR's return to China. It is also the beginning of a 2 month long Shopping Festival in the city.

This morning our first task was to have our laundry done - right across from our hostel in a small alley is a laundry service (very convenient). We paid about HKD$35 for 8 or so pounds of clothes for only 2 hours.

Second task was to check for train tickets to Shenzhen. We walked through the Tsim Sha Tsui metro station which connects via a long winding underground subway to the East Tsim Sha Tsui rail station. There we found out that trains going to Lowu, the final station just before Shenzhen, ran every 4 minutes and was only about HKD$35 one way. We needn't have to get a ticket prior to our departure, vending machines are available for that on the day we leave.

Third task was breakfast. Knowing that Hong Kong starts its day late, especially restaurants we found food at the corner of the street, selling pancit and chow fun. Peter got the pancit to go (well, it was a street-type food stall). Then rain began to pour so we ducked into Yoshinoya (again) for my own breakfast.

By the time we finished rain was still pouring but not too hard. We walked a different route towards the HK Cultural Center near the Harbor and ended up back at Harbour City mall where we did some window shopping and eating.

The downpour started to get heavy and we had to make sure we picked up our clothes before the shop clothes for the day and opened up on Monday. We braved the rains armed with our hats and one umbrella. Still got wet.

We decided to stay in the hostel room until later that day. Then left around 5:30 p.m. to walk through the smaller streets (found a nice big bookstore where we browsed interesting books) to look for places to have dinner. For some reason, I wasn't at all hungry, so we went back to Harbour City (went to PageOne bookstore first) then Peter had his Indian dinner set while I looked on. Later we went back to PageOne to browse some more until finally we went back to the hostel.

This computer I am posting on is right outside our hostel room. We just needed to get an internet card to connect. Very convenient. Plus, right next to me is a telephone, hot water heater, a refrigerator and a microwave, all for our use.

2007-06-29T02:01:00.000-10:00

Hong Kong

Yesterday we were in Shanghai for an overnight stay prior to our flight back to Hong Kong. We didn't leave the hostel at all that night because it had rained hard in the afternoon but cleared up later that evening. It is really fortunate that the hostel we were staying at had a restaurant and sells big bottles of water - got everything we needed for the day.

We left around 8 a.m. this morning, walked to the Metro station, felt a slight drizzle but got to the station without getting too wet. Took the Line 4 to Shiji Avenue, about 20-30 minutes; transfered to Line 2 to Long Yang Road, about 5-10 minutes. From there we transfered to the Maglev Train for the Airport, only 6.5 minutes (more than an hour by car).

At the Airport we checked in early since we were already there. Thought we could bring our big bottles of water, as we did in Mainland China. Nope. They did not allow us to bring them inside the terminal. We ended up really thirsty (especially Peter) because they only sell the small 10 oz. size bottles, plus they were expensive. Oh well....

We were 2 hours from our departure schedule so we had some early lunch at the one of two restaurants inside the terminal. We both had curry with rice and something to drink. All cost us 153 yuan (really expensive!). Afterwards we went to sit at the section near our gate until about 10 minutes prior to boarding. Good thing we noticed that the flight number on the gate was not our flight. Peter checked at the main departure board and found out our gate was changed to #17 (from #14). No announcements or anything.

Boarding time came and nothing was happening. No one was at the gate counter. So we went down to the gate and saw that there was no one there, we went back up to the gate waiting area. Nothing happened for more than 15 minutes. Then we were told to line up by gate 18. All of us, including those waiting for the flight out to San Francisco, were waiting in the same line, until they started announcing loudly that the flight to San Francisco was already boarding. There were a lot of other passengers from this flight that were confused and some oblivious to what was happening. It looked like they too were assigned a different gate and was directed to the new one. There were so much confusion that some almost missed their flight.

As for us, the passengers going to Hong Kong, we had to wait until about 15-20 minutes past the flight schedule of 12 noon before we got to board the plane. No apologies or explanations at all! Well, I'm just glad we had a safe flight although delayed.

The weather in Hong Kong was a lot less humid than that first day we emerged from the airport shuttle bus. It had been raining here all week and today the weather was kind enough to let things dry out.

We booked at another hostel, the Lee Gardens Guesthouse in Cameron Road, because we just didn't want to go back to that Mirador Mansion place. This guesthouse is in a very busy road line with shops and restaurants. Charlie Chan, the manager, manages both the Lee Gardens and the Star Guesthouses. We took the small elevator up to the 8th floor where Mr. Peter (no last name given) checked us in, with the help of his Filipina employee (who speaks good Cantonese or Mandarin with some Tagalog thrown in - even Mr. Peter was saying some Tagalog words). He took us down to the 2nd floor to our room which looks a whole lot better, cleaner and newly refurbished, room. We are happy with our new hostel (at least it's not at Mirador Mansion!).

Peter and I went out to check the laundry place (1-7 lbs. for HKD$28/finished in 2 hours). We haven't been able to do our laundry since Beijing because we had to do them ourselves (we'd rather have someone do it for us so we won't have to wait by the machines all day, like what happened in Shanghai). Tomorrow we will have our laundry done while we go and see if we will take a day trip to Macau.

We then had our dinner at the nearby Yoshinoya then meandered our way to Canton Road where we found a huge shopping complex that has a food court, 2 supermarkets, and a big bookstore. I take back what I wrote about not easy to find a place to eat, it is actually easy to find them if only you look just around the corner. Now we know where to cool off during the day, and it's just nearby.

Well, it's raining outside now and we are both inside this internet cafe right next to the Harbor. After this we will be having some dessert at Hui Lao Shan (Peter's favorite dessert place).

2007-06-27T22:52:00.000-10:00

Peter and I have been talking about this trip and we realized just how wrong our perceptions were of China, especially after beginning our trip in Hong Kong and landing straight smack-dab in Kowloon. We thought that China would be like Kowloon: crowded buildings, narrow roads, hot, noisy and lots of hawking.

We were totally surpised to find out that we were completely wrong. The cities we have visited different.

Shanghai - even though it has lots of high-rises, some hawking in tourist areas, there are lots of wide avenues, wide sidewalks and parks with lots of trees for shade.

Beijing - the same thing goes for this city: lots of wide open spaces, wide roads and sidewalks. Hawking is less compared to Shanghai - most locals have learned to say "Hello!" to get your attention.

Xi'an, Nangjing and Hangzhou - were wonderful surprises, very much like the other two big cities mentioned above.

On our train rides from Nanjing to Hangzhou and Hangzhou to Shanghai, we notice very modern European-style condominiums strewn all over the once-farm land at the outskirts of the city. We have not seen any of the old style homes with courtyards in our travels.

It seems that the housing of choice here is an apartment in one of the new high-rises, completey with amenities and nice shady parks in between the buildings - they are not built side by side but given enough space to put parks or lake/ponds - very aesthetic. But these units are now quickly getting more expensive every year. The real estate is booming here, especially in Shenzhen (we heard on the news). You will not find an detached single-family homes here, we think that it is not allowed here in China.

2007-06-27T22:27:00.000-10:00

Back in Shanghai

The West Lake Youth Hostel is definitely the best hostel we have stayed at here in China. We were picked up at the train station by Kim and the driver in an expensive looking car (it was probably the owner's own vehicle). The amenities are great, the food at the restaurant was good (we've eaten there more than in town as it is much cheaper than at regular restaurants). The service was first class. The two staff members, Kim and Susan, took the time to remember our names, so everytime we needed help they would call us by our first names (we never heard them call out the other guest's names while we were there). We highly recommend this place to anyone visiting Hangzhou!

Woke up to a clear blue sky staring at me from the sunroof of our hostel room. The past few days I would awaken at the sounds of the children playing right next door at the kindergarten school. It is such a nice sound that my day would begin right. For the past 3 days the weather has been pretty warm yet remained clear and dry during the daytime. This morning it was the same.

We checked out early and had one of the staff, Kim, to call us a taxi for the train station. It was slightly traffic due to the morning rush hour but the driver got us there in no time.

The main train station is much bigger and more modern than the other train station we came in from (Hangzhoudong). We found our way to the CRH waiting area for our fast train (D698) to Shanghai - only 1:18 travel time with max speed of 140km/h. The train is very modern, clean and fast. This time Peter and I sat next to each other (last time we were both in the aisle seats across from each other), but facing a young Chinese couple - in the train cars half are facing one way and the other half the opposite way.

We arrived in Shanghai at 11:06 a.m. but didn't get to the subway station until 11:30 a.m. There were so many people in the station, most of them crowding the ticket machines, including Peter. Turns out the machines only take coins and Peter was 2 yuan less so he had to go to the main ticket counter to purchase our subway ticket to Caoyanglu.

Fortunately, the Shanghainan Zhan is the first stop for the Line 3 Metro so it wasn't difficult for us to find seats. We had about 8 stops to Caoyanglu.

The weather in Shanghai was very muggy. We quickly walked to our hostel and checked-in, went straight to the room and took cold showers. We were in need of sustenance but decided to cool off first in the room, take a nap then go out later in the day. When we woke up at 3:30 p.m. the sky was dark and rain was pouring hard outside. Thank goodness we didn't go out before that. So we ended up eating here at the hostel's traveller's club restaurant (all hostels that are under the Utels network offer more or less the same food at the same price).

This Shanghai City Central Youth Hostel has a great big common room, decorated in a kind of mediterranean look with colorful cloths draped over rods along the roof, the sofas are huge and plush, the dining tables are the usual Chinese-style chairs and high tables (perfect for Peter). You can also watch DVDs right there in comfort - all Utels or other hostels offer lots of DVD choices for guests to watch.

Our lunch was fried rice, stir-fried chicken with mushroom and peppers with rice, drinks and a dessert of pancake with fruit. It was good enough to satisfy our hungry bellies, and to just keep dry from the pouring rain. We'll probably have light pupus later tonight as we have no plans of going out.

Tomorrow we leave for the airport at around 8 a.m. for our 12 noon flight to Hong Kong.

2007-06-27T13:46:00.000-10:00

Hangzhou

We leave for Shanghai this morning via the fast train. It will take about an hour and a half or less to get there.

Last night we left the hostel to see the Pagoda nearby then walked to Hefang Street but decided to go eat somewhere neare Jiefang Road. We turned too early and walked straight back to Hefang. Which was not bad because it was a happening place at night. Stalls were set up and at the end of the street was a Song Dynasty style shopping place where we had dinner and windowshop.

We really enjoyed our stay here. The staff at the hostel, especially Kim and Susan, were very hospitable and helpful and friendly. We will definitely return here on our next visit to Hangzhou.

For now, I'll sign off and will post from Shanghai.

Zai jien!

2007-06-26T21:09:00.000-10:00

Hangzhou

We walked to the nearby Town God's Temple, about a mile away through the Nanshan Lu and cutting through the Holiday Wuyang Hotel to get to the Hangzhou Finance and Taxation Museum. The walk was not that far but because it was hot it felt like we were walking for miles. Armed with our hats and an umbrella we walked along the sidewalks, where it's most shady - fortunately, Hangzhou city has made most of its roads lined with trees.

Walking up to the Wu Hill where the Town God's Temple (Chenghuang Pagoda) sits didn't take that long. We paid a 30 yuan each to get up there. The view from the 5th floor (took the lift up) was great, the breeze very refreshing. We stayed there to cool off then took the stairs down each floor and went around for more views of the City, the Lake and the Qiantang River.

Hangzhou is a huge city bordered on the East side by the Qiantang River, the rolling mountains on the West and North, and both the Lake and the City proper right in the middle. This is also where the Grand Canal ends or begins, connecting with Beijing in the North. China prides itself with beautiful Hangzhou, claimed by Marco Polo to be the most beautiful city. We believe that this city is so far the best place we have visited next to Xi'an (which is a more ancient city).

~~~
Commentary:
Our thoughts or perceptions of China were proven to be wrong. We somewhat thought that the China today was still like the China being shown in movies, with its hutongs, cramped houses, vendors all over, rickshaws along with the cars. All the cities we have visited on this trip are very modern and very well developed. All of them start to meld and look alike with their high-rises, modern cars/vehicles, high-tech stuff we do not have in the US.

What impressed us most is their use of electric bikes and some vehicles around the cities. They are so efficient and quiet. And their cabs/some cars use some sort of gas that do not pollute the air (it's really the coal mines that contribute to the pollution all over the country).

Also their airports are incredibly civilised - no need to remove shoes or dump your bottled water. We were treated better here than in the US.

As Peter said, it seems that the American ideals have spread to the rest of the world while it has almost but disappeared in the US. People here are living exactly how Americans used to live in its hey-day.

2007-06-26T14:06:00.000-10:00

Hangzhou

The weather reports on TV show that it is raining all over China. Here in Hangzhou the rains would come at night (so far). This morning the skies are clear and we could actually see blue sky, after not seeing the sky for almost a month now, it really is a beautiful sight.

This morning we will explore the nearby pagoda and the famous Six Harmonies Pagoda taking bus K4. Then we will check out the nearby street where we can find souvenirs and other things.

2007-06-26T02:03:00.000-10:00

Hangzhou

MeiZhi or Rose, my brother's colleague and interpreter in the company he worked for here in Hagnzhou, took the day of from work to take us to some of the places in and around the West Lake. She arrived a little past 8:30 a.m. here at the Hostel. Took her about 45 minutes by bus to get here.

We walked to the nearby causeway that runs south to north through the Lake where we took a pleasure boat to the 2 islets located within the Lake: Mid-Pavilion and the one near the "3 pools mirroring the moon." (Hangzhou's tourist sights or unique places have very poetic names like "Golden Bull emerging from the Lake", something like that.) Then we took the boat to the North pier near the Yue Fei (a famous here, General) Temple.

Before we went there we had lunch at Lou Wai Lou. The place was busy with activity, lots of locals and tourists (Chinese and a few foreigners) having lunch and trying out the delicacies: Dongpo Pork (soft, sweetish/salty pork with bun) and Beggar's Chicken (wrapped in lotus leaf, sealed in clay and steamed - result was very tender meat, bones falling off easily and very tasty). Rose treated us to this lunch (we think she got a local price because when we added up all the dishes we ordered it was about 50 yuan more than what she paid. Well, we also treated her to the admission fees as well as the boat fee.

After such a good lunch we walked to the nearby Yue Fei temple and tomb. Then we took a bus, K7 to get to Lingyin Temple and Scenic Area (about 20 minutes northwest). The latter had lots of stone carvings of different Buddhas like Milefu all around this huge rock formation that is west of the main Temple. We didn't go inside the Temple as it required us to pay an entrance fee. We were simply happy with the surrounding sites which were more interesting.

Right outside the Lingyin Temple the bus terminal was located. Taking the bus here in Hangzhou is much easier than in Beijing or the other cities, well at least these buses that go around the tourist areas (they have english translations to the stops). This was where we said our goodbyes to Rose, who had to go to Zheijiang University for here 2nd day of examinations as a translator - (more written rather than oral).

It was great to have Rose around today. She helped us understand what was being said. It also was a good day for her to practice her English (which she isn't able to do in the new company she works for). She was so surprised that there were a number of people hawking around us. It has never happened to her before so now she has experienced what tourists go through. A lot of the people hawking were simply encouraging us to visit the Longjing Tea Plantation, most likely to sell not the real longjing tea. Well, she had a good experience I think and will always remember our day together.

Peter and I took the K7 bus back into town and stopped near Yan'an Road to go to Carrefour. From there we crossed to get to the Lake and had our dinner at Starbuck's (very nice location and good A/C). Then we walked back to the Hostel.

The whole day it was very steamy and we were sweating on our walks. Thank goodness we didn't get heat stroke after being out in the heat. Overall, it was such a pleasant and interesting day.

Tomorrow we have another full day to ourselves. We hope to check out more of the area around the Lake.

2007-06-25T14:02:00.000-10:00

Hangzhou

This city which boasts of its West Lake is very beautiful. The walkways around the lake is very well landscaped and built - lots of willow trees. The weather is quite steamy as it is already Summer, but I would think during Autumn and Spring it would be really lovely here.

Just strolling around the lake will take days. So Peter and I decided that we will spend our two days here meandering around the West Lake. This morning though my brother's friend and interpreter, Rose, will accompany us to the Leifeng Temple. Unfortunately, she's having examinations at school every night from the 25th until the 27th, so she can only meet with us during the day. At least we will get to meet her once or twice depending on her schedule.

Rains poured last night but it seems to have cleared up this morning.

Our hostel is located just 5 minutes from the Lake and right next to a primary school. The room we have is very modern, just like the one we had in Munich. This is the best hostel out of all the others (seems that each city we visited the hostel improved), very much like a regular hotel for cheap.

2007-06-24T19:33:00.000-10:00

Hangzhou

Computers at our previous hostel weren't working and we couldn't find an alternative so we had to wait until we got here to post.

The past three days we were in the city of Nanjing. Our hostel was located in the tourist area of Fuzimiao. At night all the lights are lit and the entire area, including the pedestrian mall the goes to the Confucious Temple, is all a bustle with locals and tourists (both foreign and Chinese). There are not that many foreigners around this area and this time because Nanjing is known to be the third hottest city in China. Still, plenty of Chinese tourist visit this city.

Peter and I found our way around town via the only Metro line they have recently opened (a new one is still under construction). The line goes from North (Magaqioau?) to Southwest (Olympic Stadium). The area in the middle, Xinjiekou, is the shopping place lined with huge malls, including WalMart Supercenter. At WalMart, the deli section and grocery section were filled with yummy looking Chinese snacks/food items, etc. Clothes are not that popular in WalMart, mostly just Chinese household goods - clothes are cheaper elsewhere.

For lunch, we found a food hall at the Grand Ocean Mall. We had some sort of Asian cuisine which was not oily. Thank goodness.

We meandered around town accessible by Metro. On our last day we took cabs to the out of the way tourist sights: Yuejiang Tower on top of Lion Hill which has a view of the Yangtze River (the area was very hazy due to the smog) and Olympic Stadium (went up the Sports Science and Technology Center tower). We wanted to visit the Nanjing Massacre Museum unfortunately they were closed on Sundays.

For our food we simply looked for places that offered interesting stuff, like steamed buns and this place where lots of locals stand in line for, a soup dumpling restaurant. I tried the "stinky tofu" - fried fermented tofu (Peter thought it disgusting and very stinky, but I thought it was pretty good). Our last night's dinner was at Chili's (Korean and Western) restaurant.

Nanjing is a city which is very modern, some of the old city wall still remain scattered around the city. It is a very nice place to visit and to stay longer than 3 days. The Zhongshan area should be a good place to sightsee.

~~~
Early this morning we took a cab to the Nanjing Rail Station (north) and boarded the train to Hangzhou (supposedly an express train but had stops at 4-5 stations prior to our destination). We were surprised at how orderly and clean people were (except for some few who still spat in the train car). Seats are reserved so there's no worry about that. Toilet was the usual squat and suprisingly un-smelly. Overall a pretty good 6 hour trip.

Hangzhou's weather is cloudy. Very good for walking along the West Lake. Will post again later.

2007-06-22T02:44:00.000-10:00

Nanjing

Ni hao! We left the beautiful Xi'an, the sun was out and everything has dried after days of light rain. The hostel staff got us a taxi to the airport (prepaid) and got us both to there in no time. We had to wait to check-in as they only have a specific counter for a specific flight/time. Our flight to Nanjing was at 3:25 p.m. and we boarded a small leer jet-type of plane (seating was 1 and 2) really small plane.

From the air we could see the same thing that covered Beijing, thick smog. The weather is warmer here as we are about 1,000 miles south of Xi'an. There wasn't that many people in the airport, only a couple or so planes, and the baggage claim area was almost bare save for the few passengers and some people waiting at the outside area.

Peter bought a map of Nanjing from the bookstore located at the waiting area. We proceeded outside to the Airport bus ticket counter. Bought two tickets to the bus going straight to the city center, near Golou.

The ride took about 45 minutes, passing through places that have been developed into suburbs full of big condo buildings. Reminds us of places in the US. Even their roads are very impressive.

The airport bus stopped at several places before ending at Shanghai road where a representative from our hostel was waiting for us. We had no idea that the bus would stop there, thought it would stop at the main Gulou square but we were a bit far from there. It is really fortunate that he was there to meet us. To get to the hostel we needed to flag a cab which was difficult due to the fact it was Friday and during rush hour. Right there I said quietly that someone will come, immediately a man in a minivan (private) stopped we thought he knew our hostel guide but it turns out he was offering to take us to where we were for only 20 yuan (for the 3 of us). I was so amazed at the power of prayer/manifestation and thankful that the guy was nice enough to take us. The ride to the hostel took 30 minutes.

We were quite happy that things have turned out this way for us. As I prayed before we left for Shanghai from Hong Kong that the way be made smooth before us, I am truly grateful for this truth as evidenced by the experiences we have had so far.

Our hostel is part of the Hostel International network and is located in the Fuzimiao district which turns out to be really a happening place with lots of lights at night and river cruises right next door to us. We will be here for two full days then take the train to Hangzhou. We will try to check out the first Yangtze River bridge here in Nanjing while we're here (I have a picture take with our UP Cherubim and Seraphim right next to the bridge in 1982).

Thank God for our safe trip here to Nanjing. Till next post....

2007-06-21T17:26:00.000-10:00

Travelling for more than a month now the days of the week and the time seem to slip away. We have to keep on reminding ourselves this so that we won't miss our flights or trains. Same goes with whatever special days in the calendar, we forget. Like the recent Father's Day, Peter and I totally forgot about this. BUT we do not forget our own father's, no matter what the day of the week it is, or the time, we always remember them in our thoughts and prayers. So, even if we have failed to contact them through email or phone, we still hold them dear to our hearts wherever we may be. To our fathers, a belated Happy Father's Day to you! We love you...always!

2007-06-20T21:00:00.000-10:00

Xi'an, Shaanxi Province

Weather outside cleared up. Peter and I got good advice from the haole Manager here at Shuyuan Hostel (really speaks good Mandarin, been here for a year), to walk along the outside of the wall which has been turned into a park (sandwiched between the wall and the moat).

From the hostel we turned right to exit the South wall and right again for the park. It's a very nice park surrounding the entire Xi'an Wall, lots of trees including pomegranate trees. As I mentioned before the parks in China are very much utilised by the people for their playtime, relaxation time, sleeping time, social time, singing time, etc. Walking through the park we see a lot of the local folk doing their own or group thing. There's the practitioners of different tai chi methods. There's the singing groups accompanied by different instruments like the erhu (2-stringed bowed instrument), violin or the chinese flute. Grandpas or Grandmas playing with their grandkids - I've seen a lot of the grandpas babysitting their granddaughters/sons. Lots of them exercising: martial arts, ping pong, badminton, etc.

What I like about Xi'an (which I hope the US or even just Maui county could do) is they have provided a whole stretch of the park full of exercise tools free for all the park goers. They have man-powered machine versions of the treadmill, leg squat, stationary bike, spinning disk, tricep/bicep pulls, ab benches, leg massager, push up bars, and so on. There were so many of these things along the park where the local people use. No need to pay gym fees, wear spandex pants, etc. They even provide a number of ping pong tables with a metal net, all you need to bring are your paddle and ball.

We realized, even before from reading about China, that they emphasize preserving health more than the treating of disease. Most of them believe that if one's health is maintained then there will be no disease. Hence, all these exercise activities provided for all its citizens.

If Maui county provided these machines in all the parks, a whole lot of our obese Mauians or Hawaiians will gain back their health.

Watching these people exercise in the park makes me feel that they love to do this together because it brings them much closer to each other. It gives you such a good feeling to see them, family, friends, acquaintances, have fun together in an active way.

We didn't realize how far we have walked from the South Gate to the West Gate until we saw the gate. We entered the city from here and walked towards the middle of the city.

Xi'an city has wide sidewalks, very clean, tree-lined and well maintained. Even the main avenues are full of trees. Their traffic signal lights lets you know how many seconds before it changes. The walk signal even does the walk motion. :-D There are some areas where they do not have cross walk signals so you will need to do the "chicken crossing the street" thing - you know, try to avoid the vehicles and not get run over. He, he... (They really speed here but if you can't get out of their way they will try to avoid you.)

Along the West street walking towards the center, Bell Tower, we found an interesting gate which we thought led to the Great Mosque, which turned out to be a shopping area still not fully constructed. There was nothing to see there and we both realized how far we have walked without even having breakfast. As Peter said, "we should find something to tide us over," we turned into the main West street and right at the corner was a restaurant selling steaming buns. What timing! He bought just one each of their 2 different buns. We ate half of each to try - one turned out to be really spicy and one just right. I ate half of the not spicy and not much of the spicy. The bun was good though.

Peter and I learned that "life is just like a basket of steaming buns, you'll never know what you get until you bite into it," after eating a number of buns without knowing what's inside.

After getting something into our stomachs we continued our walk and found the Drum Tower, a few meters across from the Bell Tower. Paid to get in and up the Towers (went to the Bell Tower after lunch) as it afforded us great views of the city.

Behind the Drum Tower is the Beiyuan Muslim Street where you can find lots of stalls selling dried fruit and nuts, and other assorted food stuffs (bought assorted snacks enroute), and restaurants (all of them didn't have electricity when we went by but were still open for business).

We walked and meandered through the streets. So many interesting food along the way. Then we saw a small alley full of souvenirs we decided to turn into. Finally found their version of the Tiger Balm for sale there, at first the cost was 35 yuan ($5) but Peter haggled and got 12 yuan ($1+). We could probably get even less but we gave in. Anyway, it costs about $7 in Maui so getting it for less than $2 is pretty good deal.

We followed this alley and ended up in the Great Mosque (which we decided not to go in, it would have been 35 yuan to enter) - after a while you get tired of visiting places that almost look the same. Continued through until we exited right behind the Drum Tower.

From there we went via the underground passageway to the Kai Yuan Mall for our lunch. This time we had a simple fare of sprouts, kau yuk (bun), and a fried pancake-type full of chives. Ate some of the snacks we bought at the Muslim Food street.

Just before heading back we visited the Bell Tower (since we already paid for the two Towers' combo tickets). Rain was pouring by the time we left the Mall to get to the Tower (luckily it is connected by the underground passageway). It had great views of all the 4 main streets of the city. We took a short detour to the Post Office to mail my postcard, then returned back to the hostel. We might go out later this afternoon, if the weather permits.

Tomorrow noon we leave for Nanjing.

2007-06-19T21:16:00.000-10:00

Xi'an, Shaanxi Province

Peter and I woke up late this morning, around 9 a.m. Had breakfast first before heading out to the South Gate (about 50 meters away). The weather cleared up a bit but still overcast.

From the Hostel we walked to the gate, crossed the busy rotunda to get to the gate right in the middle of the rotunda (wished they had an underground passageway). Paid 40 yuan per person to enter the Xi'an City Gate Wall.

Up at the Wall, which is about 30 feet wide and flat, we could see the inner central city of Xi'an - the best view of any city we have visited so far. We rented a tandem bike (40 yuan for 100 minutes with 200 yuan deposit) so we can go around the perimeter of the city on the Wall. This is one of the ways you can go around, you can also pay to ride the electric car (seats about 6) or the rickshaw bike or walk (which will probably take you half or the whole day).

The weather was quite cool which made our bike ride very enjoyable. We took our time, stopping at certain areas like the smaller gates and the main North, East, West gates, to see the scenery from these points. It began to drizzle when we reached about 2/3 of the Wall. And in an hour and 35 minutes we finished the ride around it - just 5 minutes shy of getting charged extra fee. It was a great bike ride - no crowds, lots of room, and very few bumps - a perfect place to ride.

Just as we returned the bikes back and got our deposit, the rain began to pour. We had our umbrella, hats and jackets so we didn't rush to leave the South Gate. We walked down the wall to the Draw Bridge gate (which has been repaired and is still in use) the tower of the Bridge gate is now a souvenir shop. We were able to go to the 2nd floor to get a picture from the tower to the South side of the city. A chinese man was kind enough to lead us up there and spent time talking story with Peter and myself, then, of course, showed us some of the items they had on sale. The only thing we bought are a couple of souvenirs to bring home - cost me 70 yuan for both - they should be happy.

From the South Gate we walked north up to the Bell Tower located in the middle of the city. It was raining moderately so we went inside the Kaiyuan Mall to look for a food court. We went to the basement and found nothing. Went outside and saw Starbuck's and McDonald's. As we turned to go back was saw a sign for the food court located on the 7th floor (not a place we would expect). There we found a roomy version of the Megabite with lots of stalls selling local food. We both had noodles in soup - one not spicy and the other very spicy - for 5 yuan a piece, and a piece of Chicken thigh in mild curry sauce - for 25 yuan (meats are quite expensive here).

After our late lunch (around 2:15 p.m.) we decided to return to the hostel to get some rest. We realized that the bike ride we took around the city, 13.9 km., was exhausting. This is already equivalent to one full day's sightseeing.

So we will probably get some rest after this posting and later go out to check out the nearby places and grocery for some stuff.

Hopefully, the forecast tomorrow will be much better.

2007-06-19T01:42:00.000-10:00

Recap on Impressions of the cities we visited so far in China:

Hong Kong

Overly populated, especially in Kowloon
Great Metro system - Octopus card is wonderful
Dim Sum - not what we expected, still better tasting in Honolulu's China town
Pace is very fast - people love to rush, even the escalator seems to go faster
Lots of construction going on - trying to keep up with the Mainland
Victoria Peak was great. Have a cuppa at Pacific Coffee Company for a free internet.
Lightshow every night at 8 p.m. was good. (MWF is in English).
Ferry is very cheap to and from Hong Kong island.
Make sure to visit Lamma Island and try the Tofu Fa (cold taho).

Shanghai

Not as populated, just seems crowded because of the tourists
Metro system can still be improved, crowded during rush hour, closes early at night (cannot go club hopping, not unless you take a cab)
Lots of good places to buy local food for cheap
Jin Mao tower is a good place to see a bird's eye view of the city.
Yu Yuan Gardens is good to visit but not to eat - low quality food.
Isetan's Megabite and Jin Mao's basement are pretty good food courts - just crowded during lunch time.
Construction everywhere, all over the city. We felt some tremors one time and heard an explosion - we think it is from the construction of new Metro lines.
People selling shoes, watches, bags are so irritating.
Young people who seem to be friendly but are just trying to scam tourists make us sad, they could practice their English doing something else.

Beijing

Huge city - not too easy to visit tourist sights, blocks are long and wide.
Metro - still being improved, hopefully will be a lot easier for tourist to access tourist sights.
Taxi drivers will take you for a ride - you end up paying more than you bargained for, just be tough and ready with your Chinese phrases.
Beware of the people spitting all over the place - the government is trying to educate them to use the trash bins but there are still lots of people that do it everywhere and anywhere. At least you will be warned before they spit when you here the scratching sound (don't know how to describe it).
Very polluted, probably due to the coal not from the vehicles. Bring a mask to use for protection.
Lots of tourists at the main sights so just be ready.
Have lunch after the regular lunch hours, the food courts and restaurants are too crowded and noisy that time.
Everywhere in the city there are constructions going on. Within the next 5-10 years you will see a new Beijing.

Hostels:

Hong Kong - Traveller's Friendship Hostel

Never ever go here. They go under a number of names and list themselves in Hostelworld. You sign up for a room. When you get there they will show you "supposedly" the room you booked - the ugliest room, most likely just for show, then tell you for a few HKdollars more you get this other room, and show you the "nice" one with airconditioning. It's a bait and switch tactic we fell into. The room was tiny, the bathroom/toilet miniscule, the A/C fluctuates between warm and cool, the walls moldy. Plus, it is located in the Mirador Mansion - the oldest, rattiest building in the block!!! Not recommended at all!!!

Shanghai - Shanghai City Central Youth Hostel (belongs to the Utels group)

Very nice, hotel-like accommodations. Friendly and helpful staff. A few hundred meters from the Metro (which closes at 9:40 p.m. every night). Internet - for 10 yuan/hour. Towels and toiletries provided. Bar and restaurant - soso food but very convenient. Laundry - can wash clothes but dryer is just not too hot, need to use the clothe's line. Not near a supermarket but at the Zhongshan metro stop you can get off to buy groceries at the Carrefour - convenient. Although you can buy water and snacks at the Info. counter. Has airport/train station pick-up and drop-off service. Would return to this place again. Highly recommended!

Beijing - Leo Hostel

Located in a hutong, Da Zha Lan xi jie. Very good area, near the Tian An Men area. Metro not too far. Lots of bus stops along the Meishi jie. Bar and restaurant - good, reasonable food. Friendly and helpful staff. Internet - for 8 yuan/hour. Tours given are pretty good and reasonable. Grocery store is right next door and smaller stores across selling cheaper ice cold water and drinks. Has pick-up and drop-off services, bike rentals. Highly recommended!!!

Xi'an - Shuyuan Hostel (part of Utels)

Located within the South gate city wall. A very nice Chinese courtyard home-turned hostel. Rooms are nice and very clean and modern. Bar and restaurant - good food, reasonable price. Lots of activities for hostellers - BBQ nights, Dumpling Fridays, etc. Internet is FREE! Tours are reasonable and good. Friendly and helpful staff. The best hostel so far. Highly recommended!!!

2007-06-19T01:08:00.000-10:00

Xi'an, Shaanxi Province

Before anything else, Mom and Dad, Happy Anniversary to you. I love you lots!!!

Our tour began slightly late due to some of the members of our group just arrived from a different hostel and had a late "free" breakfast. There were 11 people in our group: 2 Swiss, 7 English and the two of us.

The drive East was about an hour or so. The rain cleared this morning so it was a pretty nice day for our sightseeing. We went to the factory that officially makes reproductions of the Terracotta Warriors. For about 35 minutes a guide led us through the process of making these replicas (small), to the area where they make lacquer furniture - learned that lacquer was a sealant made from sap which they use to paint layers on the wood which gives it its sheen. Then to the main area where they sell all these things. (Peter was close to getting this small replica for 50 yuan, which was cheap, but he decided to think it through until it was already time for us to leave.)

Next stop was the visit to the Terracotta Warriors museum. For 90 yuan per person you get to go inside the 3 main excavation pits, the museum and the place where they show a film of how it was during the Qin era.

The first pit was enormous. The farmer who accidentally dug out broken pieces of pottery which looked like it belonged to the Qin emperor was the one who told the government about it in the 1940s. It took them about 30+ years excavating the area only to discover this whole area in 1974. There are more than 1,000 terracotta warriors in this pit, mostly infrantry and some chariots. All of the men faced east, in the direction of the Qin emperor's tomb. Not all have been dug up. Some have been reburied because the color (yes, they were in fact painted in different colors) once exposed to the air have oxidized. Until the time when there is technology available to protect the color, all these other warriors will remain buried.

The second and third pits were smaller. Not too many dug up. It was actually just by accident that they discovered this next 2 pits when they were erecting the building to house the first pit. Here there are a few warriors that were dug up but mostly it is just dirt. All you see are the schematics of how it looks underneath.

The museum housed some of the brass sculptures of 2 kinds of chariots and some other artifacts. And the film was not too interesting, just showed how things were in those days during the Qin era.

Next stop was the Qin emperor's tomb. There is really nothing to see here except for the artificial hill that was made on top of his tomb where people can climb the stairs up to the terrace. Around this hill you can see some of the entrances to the tomb but you would need to hire a car (small electric car) to go around because it is just so huge. Our group just went around near the entrance and checked out some of the pictures which shows the other excavated pits looked like.

It is said that there are about 618 pits and only about 4-6 have been dug up and discovered.

Lunch was included in the tour. We went to a nearby restaurant and our group was led to room 203 for a 14 viand lunch. Really good, not too oily except for the hard, tasteless cake. We were pretty much full by the time we left for the next stop.

Lintang Museum was the next stop. This used to be a Buddhist temple now turned museum that houses local cultural relics from most of the early dynasties.

Final stop was the Huaqing Hot Springs. This is a big place where you can find different bath houses once used by the Emperor, his empress and the prince. Most of the emperors who ruled in Xi'an (once called Chang'an) loved this place so much that they all built their own rest houses here where they spent their winters there. The hot springs came out from 3 sources and the water has been diverted to the fountains (where you can pay 20 yuan for legs and body indoors and .50 yuan to wash yourself outdoors - belief is this water brought healing properties).

Driving back to the Hostel, the rain began to fall lightly. It was really perfect timing.

History fact: Xi'an was the first capital of China and remained to be so for about 400 years or maybe 1,000(?). It's popularity had waned after the capital was moved and only due to the Terracotta Warriors that it has become a bustling tourist city once again.

The main city of Xi'an is enclosed in a large wall, used to have just 4 gates but now has 16 gates. Right in the middle of the city is the Bell and Drum towers. A huge number of Muslim live here because right in the outskirts of this city is where the silk road began.

Tomorrow we explore the city wall and the city itself.

2007-06-18T14:17:00.000-10:00

Xi'an, Shaanxi Province

Arrived in the rainy city of Xi'an yesterday early morning. We left Beijing at 4:30 a.m. and drove through the middle of the city, almost witnessed the flag raising ceremony at Tian an men, missed by minutes.

Anyway, the flight was pretty uneventful. The hostel driver picked us up and brought us to the hostel which is located right within the city wall. An interesting, huge city, Xi'an is - we realized.

This morning we will be off to a tour of the famous Terracotta Warriors and other sites. Will post later when we get back.

Weather still still wet but lighter than yesterday.

2007-06-17T02:10:00.001-10:00

June 17, 2007 - Beijing

Last day in Beijing. Mailed some more stuff at the China Post this morning. Walked through the hutongs in the area to Luilichang huton, an art street, which is considered a historic hutong. The post office was located here. We brought our souvenirs and some clothes we need to return to Japan. The lady at the counter took a box, got our stuff and put them in, then taped the box for us (we didn't even have to bring our own tape). It cost us about 230+ yuan. Hopefully, it gets to Japan within the next week or so.

We took our time meandering through Luilichang after mailing. Interesting things to see along the hutong. Very clean, orderly, and much preserved. We can say that even though the hutongs are narrow and crowded, it is clean, not smelly, and orderly.

Our map is really not much of use because what's in them are now obsolete. Hutongs, small roads now converted to big roads and big buildings.

We came out at a main road where the Sogo Mall is located. Huge and classy, still being renovated. Had our light breakfast here at Tous Le Jours bakery. Walked along the main road (which becomes Tian An Me jie) to check out the new National Theater, an oval shaped building right behind the Hall of the People.

We rode the Metro line 1 (red) this time. The places we wanted to see were connected on this line: The silk market street (which is now actually a big mall like in Greenhills), the Friendship store, Wang Fu Jing (Oriental Mall).

Lunch was at Yoshinoya, a japanese fast food restaurant, for a meal that is not oily. Followed by dessert at Yogen Fruz (again!)

Then we took the Metro line 1 to connect with the line 2 at Jianguomen to go north to the Lama Temple. Unfortunately the metro that stops right near the temple is closed due to the new metro line the goes from north to south which passes through this stop. We had to get off the stop after then walked the 2nd ring road to the Temple.

This Yonghe Lama Temple boasts of a huge 18 meter (plus about 8 more underneath) Buddha made of a single sandalwood tree. Really enormous. It is supposedly the Buddha of the Future.

We didn't stay long there as we both had enough of Temples and museums, and soon, Chinese food.

Well, back here at the hostel, we are trying hard to get a reservation for a hotel stay in Hong Kong for June 29 to July 2. We decided to cancel the Guangzhou trip due to the flooding and rains, and stay in Hong Kong for its 10th year anniversary of their return to China - which we believe is much more important. Hopefully, we can get a reservation without having to pay with our cc yet. We'll see.

This will be my last post from Beijing. Hopefully, we will be able to return here in 5 years or so to see the developments this city has begun.

For now, Tzai jien!

2007-06-16T00:23:00.000-10:00

June 16, 2007 - Beijing

Our hostel room is situated in the back of a courtyard and the first room in a corridor, with a small window facing the courtyard. The light the filters through the window isn't much, kind of hard to tell whether it is already daybreak or still night time. The only way we can tell if it's already morning is when we hear the Leo Hostel staff or some of the hostel guests out and about.

This morning Peter woke up feeling much much better. He had a bad reaction to the oily food we ate yesterday lunch. His headache got worse last night so I had to give him a massage and he tried to induce vomit - he had to do it three times until what was in his stomach has been removed. (I had dinner on my own here at the hostel's restaurant/bar)

We walked north to Jing shan park, just right above the Forbidden city (when you exit on the North gate you will immediately be greeted by the sight of the temple sitting on a hill in Jing Shan park). The artificial hill was made from the dirt unearthed when they built the moat around the Forbidden city, and this park was once connected to the city itself for use by the Emperor and his officials. I have a picture, which I took in 1982, of the same view of the Temple showing that it was connected. Now a big road bisects the two.

To enter Jing shan park you will have to pay a mere 2 yuan per person. As always, the park is filled with local people sitting around, walking, exercising, singing, playing, etc. It's a surprise that we even got to sit on a nice and shady bench.

We took our time here at the park, resting to have some morning snack/fruit before climbing the stairs up to the Temple. The climb wasn't that long and the steps' distance from each other were just right. At the top there sits a Temple with a huge Buddha inside (no photos allowed - but I managed to steal a shot from the outside). The views around the Temple provided us with a bird's eye view of the whole city of Beijing. It was hazy so the pictures didn't come out clear.

There at the Temple we sat to enjoy the view, despite the milling crowds around us. The breeze provided us with such a refreshing feeling after walking up the steps. To the South, we saw the enormity of the Forbidden city complex which contains so many houses of different sizes - which you do not see when you walk through the city. We saw the Drum and Bell Towers in the background to the north. To the East, we saw Bei Hai park, another artificialy made lake with a small island hill where a stupa sits on, called the White Dagoba (we wonder where George Lucas got the names in Star Wars). To the West, just more and more buildings.

We took a different path going down from the Temple going towards the west gate. At the bottom of the steps we saw a sign saying, "this was where Emperor Zhongle hanged himself." Tour groups were there clicking away in their cameras taking pictures of the supposed tree where Zhongle did the job. I too clicked away.

After having enough of the park we left through the west gate and followed the map we bought in Shanghai. Note: Maps in Beijing cannot keep up with all the changes and developments of the city, one will have this street but in another it's no longer there or it has been transformed into a park. We walked west and found the street right next to a park (which used to be rows of hutongs and roads) giving us a much shorter distance to Sun Dong An mall (north of Oriental Plaza in Wang Fu Jing jie).

Wang Fu Jing will most likely be the Nanjing Dong Lu of Beijing. Big malls and brand name shops line this street. With all the construction and renovations happening all over the dust just adds to the pollution. Sun Dong An and Oriental Plaza malls are in the middle of some renovations, as are the side walks, streets, and everywhere you look, here in Beijing.

We found a good place to have lunch at Sun Dong An; serves an assortment of cuisines - so we were able to choose something not oily. I had the beef brisket and Peter had the chicken curry - both for 65 yuan includes drinks.

Right across from this mall is a huge bookstore, Foreign Languages Bookstore. We wanted to buy a map for Xi'an and the other cities we will be visiting after Beijing but there wasn't any. We spent some time browsing through there collection of Chinese books on culture, language, history, etc. Also, to cool off from the warm air outside. I got some postcards and a Chinese script learning material - they have so many to choose from.

After an hour or so at the bookstore we went out, walked along Wang Fu Jing jie, trying to follow the path of the shade, and took a detour to where the Food stalls are. This area comes alive at night when all the food stalls are bustling with activity. Tables and chairs are laid out and stalls are permanently stationed there with an assortment of local food. During the day the tables are covered with umbrellas and food are still served. It's just too hot to hang out there at that time.

Connected to the food stalls are souvenir vendors. Peter managed to haggle a souvenir of Chinese Opera masks from 35 yuan to 15 yuan. I think the vendor still made out well from the deal, but at least we feel that we, too, made out from the deal. (They say we should actually ask for 1/10 of the price. Well, we both feel that we do not want to waste our time and effort to really get a very low price, not unless it's really something we want.)

Our next stop after this walk through Wang Fu Jing was the Oriental Mall (again) to cool off. With this weather, you will definitely need to find a mall or a place to cool off after walking in the hot afternoon to avoid heat stroke. We went to Yogurt Fruz and got a regular size yoghurt: mine with Figs; Peter, with mango. It really helped cool us off. Afterwhich we went to get some groceries and food from Bread talk for our light dinner.

We have one more full day here in Beijing before we leave early in the morning (4:30 a.m.) for the airport - destination: Xi'an.

~~~
There are so many places here in Beijing which we haven't visited yet. At this time, Beijing is not yet tourist-friendly but they are working hard to improve the infrastructure in the city. I was telling Peter that what they need in this huge city which would help the tourists would be a "hop-on, hop-off" bus. It would really be very convenient to see the sights. But, once the other subway lines are online, I am sure that it will be easier for everyone to go around this big city.

~~~
1. Toilet facilities here have improved. There are lots of paid toilet areas that are pretty clean and offer the western style toilet.
2. Toilet facilities have a centralized toilet paper dispenser for everyone's use.
3. Toilet facilities in Sun Dong An are high class and very clean - all Western-style.
4. Toilet facilities going to the Great Wall in Mutianyu are disgusting - squat style, no flush and leftovers are seen with flies all over the place. Just wait until you get to the place and go to the restaurant toilet.

2007-06-14T21:08:00.000-10:00

June 15, 2007 - Beijing

Yesterday I wasn't able to post due to a sinus congestion that gave me the headache from the afternoon till the evening. It went away later that night after I did some visualizations and, of course, rested.

We went to the Forbidden City yesterday. Left a little bit late so we were with a huge crowd of visitors both local and foreign. There were just so many people in the city that even the vast expanse looked smaller with the sea of people walking all over.

We entered through Tian'anmen gate and walked the wide expanse to the first gate to the city. The ticket cost about 60 yuan per person.

The entire city is enormous and walking from the south gate to the north, with some detours along the way, took the entire morning. We didn't realize how huge the place was until after.

The main building, the Hall of Preserving Harmony (I think) and another one, were both under construction. We think that this renovation is for next year's olympic event. The buildings were somewhat identical in architecture and design except for their functions. There is an outer court where the emperor receives his guests and military personnel and others. The inner court is where he receives the few important leaders and does official business. The empress has her own palace and hall where to receive her visitors and to change her dress.

As we exited the north gate, we can see the temple sitting on top a hill on Jing shan or Bei Hai park. Instead of going straight to the park we decided to go back south to the nearest mall, The Oriental Plaza, for some chow.

Walking parallel to the Forbidden city, the tree covered road gave us the much needed shade to walk back south. We saw some interesting streets and courtyards rebuilt for special officials and also a few hutongs (alleyways).

To sightsee here in Beijing you will need to have strong legs and lots of energy. The blocks are long and far. Not quite easy to get to especially without any subway connection, although buses run along these streets it's just too difficult to understand because there are no route maps nor pinyin translations for the chinese scripts. So we walked about more than 3 miles down to the mall. (Before that we walked from our hostel to the Forbidden City which was about 4 miles).

At the mall we found a nice Thai restaurant where we could relax and eat some much deserved lunch. (We tried the food court but it was just to crowded, noisy, and hot from the steam coming from the stoves all over the place). I was already feeling the congestion right before our lunch so after we just decided to return back to the hostel to rest.

~~~
We woke up early this morning to walk to Tian Tan (The Temple of Heaven complex). It is just south of our hostel and was quite a walk but not as long as going to the Forbidden city. We entered via the north gate, paid 35 yuan per person for the temples and the park.

As you enter the gate you will be greeted with an enormous park full of trees and local folk doing their exercises, playing and singing. The chinese (young and old) like to play here, sit down and talk story or play cards, for groups and sing songs, and others. Their parks are very much utilised in every way.

Peter and I went to see the Temple of Heaven complex with is temples and altar. The architecture is very interesting and the altar just amazing. We had to beat the crowds to see these places or else all we'd remember are the crowds shoving to see the interiors of the temples.

We lingered a bit in the long corridor in the park outside the complex where we could people watch. The chinese love to just sit there and stay for long hours - it was not easy to find places to sit because there's usually one chinese there.

There were a few times we witnessed a person fall to the ground or got hit by a vehicle or something. The injured person lays there on the ground while the local people (and some foreigners like us) would just surround the person and look. No one seems to be calling or doing something to help. At this park, an elderly man fell from the bench he was sitting on and was lying there on the ground in the hot sun while the people looked on. Someone called for the gate check person and it seemed like no one was doing anything to help. It took about 10-15 minutes before the security guards came in their small vehicle to check the man. Then another 20-30 minutes before the man was taken by ambulance. We realized that they do not have staff trained for contingencies and emergencies like this. It would really be helpful if they did especially in time for next year's olympic event when so many visitors will be coming to visit the city.

Anyway, after sitting there (watching what was happening to the old man) and resting we left the Tian Tan park through the East gate. We walked north from there. Took us about an hour to walk - crossing 3 main intersections - to get to the Oriental Plaza mall next to Wangfujing jie.

At Wangfujing jie, we looked for the famous Quanjude Restaurant that served peking duck. We were fortunate that a Chinese-American guy with his girlfriend were ahead of us. We were told to go up to the 4th floor and they were told to go to the 3rd. The difference in the floors is the higher the floor the higher the surcharge fee. The Chinese-American guy said to check the 2nd floor, and Peter asked if we could go with them. It was a good thing that the guy could speak Chinese so he managed to explain to the lady that we wanted to eat there (only 10% surcharge compared to 40% on the 4th floor). We were led to a separate table which was pretty good.

We ordered a half peking duck, a vegetable dish and a pot of chrysanthemum tea (all for 193 yuan, about $25). The chef came out and carved the duck right in front of us. There were condiments set on the table: hoisin sauce, scallions, flat pancakes, cucumber, and others more. The lade showed us how to prepare and eat the duck. It was pretty good, but we thought Hawaii still serves a more tasty and crispy peking duck with kau yuk (thicker and slightly sweet steamed bread). We left sated after the long walk we had.

Just before we returned to the hostel we got some cold dessert at the mall. It was slightly hot outside and Peter wasn't feeling too good with the colds he caught (he thinks from the trip to Mutianyu, one person in our van was sneezing). After our dessert we caught the subway back to Qian Men and walked back to the hostel.

As I mentioned above, if you plan to visit Beijing, it would be wise to do it after they have already constructed the other subway lines which will connect most of the sights allowing for ease in the sightseeing. Right now these lines are in construction so to get to most of the sights one would have to brave the bus system and crowds or to walk the entire way - which is actually not too bad because it is flat all the way.

Well, I better sign off now and get some rest too. Will post again tomorrow.

2007-06-12T22:38:00.000-10:00

June 13, 2007 - Beijing

On our first day here in Beijing we experienced something which does not happen regularly, our experience in Tian An Men square. It was really out of the ordinary and even the locals were somewhat surprised that we were all herded like sheep.

We asked the receptionist here at Leo Hostel what it was all about and she just didn't know, all she knows is that it rarely occurs.

Anyway, we walked along Dazhalan jie to check out our own hutong area and we found out that at night all the lights come up and the food stall vendors begin preparing their specialties. It was an interesting sight.

This morning we signed up for a trip to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, about 65 kms from the city. This area of the Great Wall is less crowded compared to the one in Badaling, and the vendors selling souvenirs aren't that many. Our hostel has a van able to take up to 10 passengers (minimum of 6) to Mutianyu and back. It cost us 160 yuan per person (inclusive of entrance ticket).

The weather was just perfect for a walk up the wall, it was overcast and cool with gusty winds up on top. The drive took about 2 hours along busy roads full of vehicles early in the morning. It was interesting for us to see how the local people drive here, very much like in the Philippines. Along the way we saw about 3 minor bumper accidents, a few cars driving the wrong way, and traffic jams in smaller roads. There were so many constructions along the way too, new subdivisions popping up and a lot of commercial buildings ready to be occupied. For most of the drive the land was flat, no mountains in sight, but as soon as we turned into the smaller country road the mountain ranges seemed to just pop out from the ground in an instant.

At the entrance to the Great Wall at Mutianyu are lots of vendors waiting to sell you their stuff. They will tell you to come back after your trip up the Wall. Our driver took the 8 of us to the place we were to meet up at 1:30 p.m. then led us to the gate where we needed to pay an extra fee for the cable car ride up the mountain. Yes, they have installed cable cars and a toboggan shute for those who do not want to walk from the bottom to the Wall.

We took the cable car ride up and from there went right where the wall was shorter in length (the plan was to walk the left side up to the part where another cable car will bring us back down). It seemed like a good idea but what we didn't know was that this part was much steeper and harder to climb up and down. We walked to almost the top of this side then decided to try the other side, which turned out to be much easier because the steps were low about 3-4 inches from each other, and there were parts where it was just a flat and sloping pavement. It had a much better vantage point and the wind gusts were just wonderful.

An hour before we were to meet we took the cable car (instead of the toboggan) back down. Saw a crazy young tourist go fast down the chute, while the rest were holding on to the brakes really tight.

Back down from the Wall we had a snack at the place we were to meet our driver, ordered a 10 yuan can of coke (which was expensive!). The weather got colder and a slight drizzle began to fall. Our driver came so we got ready to leave. He spoke only chinese so this one man came with us leading us somewhere else, not to the van. We thought it was another tourist scam so we waited next to the van when the driver motioned to us to go and follow the guy. Turned out we needed to walk to the exit away from the eyes of the policemen because our driver is only licensed to have 6 tourists in his van. It really was funny that we had to catch the van nearest the exit.

The drive back didn't feel as long as going there. Rain started pelting the windshield and I just felt fortunate, once more, that the weather cooperated when we were up on the Wall, otherwise, we would have had a hard time climbing up and down the slippery steps.

Now back at the hostel we freshened up, got some late lunch (at 4 p.m., as soon as their kitchen opened), and plan to go walk along Dazhalan jie (on the other side) before retiring for the night

I should mention that in the van going to the Wall we were with an Israeli retired couple, 2 couples from Sweden and us. I sat next to the Israeli man, who taught Mathematics in Ann Arbor and Yale. We had a very nice conversation on the drive to the Wall. They have been in China for more than 2 months, staying in hostels, traveling by train and just following the footsteps of their daughters who have done this while they were in college. I admire their courage and determination and strength to be traveling here. It just shows me that traveling or backpacking isn't just reserved for the young.

2007-06-12T22:36:00.000-10:00

Copied from gmail sent, Tuesday, June 12 - Beijing

I have to email you my travel blog because I couldn't get through to Blogger.

Our last night in Shanghai was spent around the Pudong district where the Oriental Pearl TV tower and the Jin Mao tower are located. We went up the 88th floor for a 360 degree view of the city. Awesome!

We walked along the park to the riverside promenade and just lingered there until it was time to get back to our hostel.

I forgot to mention that the entire morning was spent doing our laundry. Their dryer wasn't hot enough, in fact the air was cold so our clothes didn't even dry. We had to use the clothesline and let it dry until the evening when we returned (which most of the light clothes did except for the jeans and other pants which we ran through the dryer twice).

That evening we turned in early because we needed to wake up early the next day. For the second night in a row our next door neighbor began their shouting match at past 10 p.m. on through our wake up time which was 5:30 a.m. (It's too bad that guests like these had to be placed next to our room, we had to endure it for 2 days!)

~~~
We left Shanghai from Hongquiao Airport (their domestic airport). It was just like JFK but much more orderly and efficient. Peter was even able to bring in his big bottle of water, to his great surprise! All the clerk did was open the bottle and smell the liquid for any flammable fumes. That's it. They were much more civilized here, it turns out.

The flight to Beijing took about 2 hours. We landed amid the thick smog that covered the entire city. We didn't see a thing until we were already landing. The weather was not too hot, slightly humid, but bearable.

We found our way out of the airport via the airport shuttle bus that took us to the Beijing railway station. There we caught the subway to Qian Men and walked towards Dhazhalan jie. We lucked out to have met these two haole ladies along the underground walkway. Peter asked them if they knew where Leo Hostel was, it turns out this hostel is pretty popular among the young backpackers. They gave us a map which really helped, otherwise we would have been lost (or looking for it for a long time).
\n\u003cdiv\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>The hostel is not too far from the Tian An Men Square. We went there after having a good hot lunch at the hostel (located along a hutong). There were lots of people there checking out the buildings, the mausoleum, the gates, etc. When we went to where the flags were flying, there were guards all over the place. A few minutes later these guards formed into a line and slowly herded us all out of the square to Qian Men avenue. no explanations given except that we all had to leave the area immediately. The whole area was blocked off and it seemed like something of importance was going to take place in the Hall of the People (?). It was really interesting how efficient and fast this method made us all leave the area quickly. Like sheep into a pen.\n\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>Tonight we walked along our hutong and found places to buy interesting snacks: beijing thin pancakes and steamed buns. \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>Tomorrow we will begin our Beijing visit by going to the Forbidden city.\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>BTW, this visit to Beijing is like coming full circle. I was here 25 years ago (one month less). It all looks different with all the huge buildings, vehicles, traffic and the smog. I have brought some of my old pictures with the hopes of matching it with the places we will visit this next few days.\n\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>For now, zai jien!\u003cbr clear\u003d\"all\"\>\u003cbr\>-- \u003cbr\>Aloha from Mimi \u003c/div\>\n",0]
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The hostel is not too far from the Tian An Men Square. We went there after having a good hot lunch at the hostel (located along a hutong). There were lots of people there checking out the buildings, the mausoleum, the gates, etc. When we went to where the flags were flying, there were guards all over the place. A few minutes later these guards formed into a line and slowly herded us all out of the square to Qian Men avenue. no explanations given except that we all had to leave the area immediately. The whole area was blocked off and it seemed like something of importance was going to take place in the Hall of the People (?). It was really interesting how efficient and fast this method made us all leave the area quickly. Like sheep into a pen.

Tonight we walked along our hutong and found places to buy interesting snacks: beijing thin pancakes and steamed buns.

Tomorrow we will begin our Beijing visit by going to the Forbidden city.

BTW, this visit to Beijing is like coming full circle. I was here 25 years ago (one month less). It all looks different with all the huge buildings, vehicles, traffic and the smog. I have brought some of my old pictures with the hopes of matching it with the places we will visit this next few days.

For now, zai jien!

2007-06-10T17:36:00.000-10:00

Traffic rules here in Shanghai are very flexible. In major intersections you would see people crossing the street even if they don't walk sigh is on. They would cross anywhere and anytime. Same goes for the bikes and mopeds. It seems that these people riding these small vehicles just go for it and sometimes drive as if they were the only ones on the road.

When the walk sign is on, you still have to be careful because vehicles who are turning left or right into the street will go for it, given the space in between pedestrians. You really have to watch out for them.

There are intersections now where traffic police monitor and shout at those who run the light or shoo the pedestrians who begin to cross or even go down from the sidewalk. Slowly traffic order will be established when the local people start obeying the rules.

Just recently in the news one biker just crossed the street as the bus came and struck him. He was dragged underneath when the bus skidded and turned on the street. Fortunately for the biker it was a wet and rainy day that the bus skidded instead of ran him over. The biker escaped death and was seen walking out from underneath the bus. All this was captured on traffic camera.

Line queueing is followed but there will still be a few who will manage to slip into line when you are not looking or aware. This happened to Peter twice: one, at yu yuan gardens while he was lining up to buy some dumplings; and the other, at the grocery store cashier, when these two old chinese couple (or so he thought) just cut in front of him, turned out they weren't even together. Just be aware of your surrounding to make sure no one will cut in line.

2007-06-10T16:49:00.000-10:00

Monday, June 11 - Shanghai

Yesterday after posting Peter and I went to see the Jade Buddha Temple. To get there we had to take the Metro north of here and change to another Metro line going south. Since it was a Sunday there were not too many people out and about yet, or maybe, it's just because we were not where the action was.

From the Metro station (forgot the name) we walked about a mile or so to get to the Temple. It was a nice long walk. The weather was cool and slightly breezy and the sidewalks were not as crowded, some areas were pretty much empty. We had to walk some small streets, cross huge roads, and walk along a bridge to get to our destination.

It cost us 20 yuan per person to get into the Temple. There are 3 halls lined up which houses several buddhas. The two main attractions were the Jade Buddhas: one reclining and tiny, the other seated, big and very finely carved using a single piece of jade. For the latter we had to pay an extra 10 yuan to see it, and it was worth it. The carving was exquisite and the facial expression of the buddha was just beautiful.

Also located in the Temple is a Vegetarian Restaurant where we had our lunch. There are two places to have it: the one where they only serve noodles, and the other where they serve a wider variety of vegetarian dishes. We were directed to the latter since Peter wanted some rice. The menu had English translations and some pictures with them making it somewhat easier for us to order our food. Peter and I ordered two different mushroom dishes: his, with herbs, while mine was with ramen. He thought his dish was a regular sauteed dish but it turned out to be a soup dish. The food was much improved from yesterday's fiasco, definitely.

After the Temple, we walked another mile or so south to go to Jing'an Temple (one of the wealthiest temples in Shanghai, was owned by an Abbot who had his own harem and was a ganster with Russian bodyguards). There are lots of shops, restaurants and a huge park surrounding this Temple - looks like one of the Japanese temples we visited in Kyoto, so we decided not to go in as it needed an entrance fee.

We crossed the street to Jing'an park where it is nice and cool and shade. The park also boasts of a huge underground (under the park) shopping complex. Peter and I couldn't find an empty bench to sit on but found a nice flat rock instead. The place was relaxing, far away from the crowds. Peter very much wanted to lay on the grass as it was thick and very tempting - unfortunately we didn't find a single Chinese lying on the ground so I persuaded him to just sit on the rock.

Since the park was located along the Nanjing Xi Lu we decided to walk the street, passing through the shanghai exhibition center, which, according to our guidebook, was an old Russian building used to exhibit the advances of the Chinese in agriculture and techonology but now was transformed into a shopping mall. So we went. Got through the gate only to find out that the area is full of trucks and looked like they were renovating or just had a huge exhibition and were already dismantling stuff. We entered the building and it looked dilapidated. Coming out on the other side (the front) it really looked like it wasn't even transformed into a mall. This building might soon be demolished to bring in the new and more modern style.

It was approaching 6 p.m. when we got to the Nanjing Xi Lu station. We went back to this place that sells a lot of local snacks and food. On the second and third floors are the restaurant. We tried to ask for an English menu which they didn't have. Went back down to decide if we should just buy there and eat it somewhere. But after some discussion we went back up to the 2nd floor and just order what they had pictured in the placemat menu: roast duck (18 yuan), 4 pcs. spring rolls (8 yuan), 4 pcs. crab dumpling (18yuan). We wanted some kind of rice to accompany it and I blurted out "fan". She understood me and pointed to the one written in Chinese script for 38 yuan. Peter was a bit surprised why it cost 38 yuan, so he told me "are you sure it was rice you ordered, or was it noodles, and why is it so expensive?" I simply replied, "well, it will be an expensive surprise." (while thinking, I hope I'm right.)

The spring rolls arrived first, followed by the duck and then the dumplings. When the "fan" arrived it turned out to be fried rice with corn, peas and shredded meat (fish, I think). Whew! I was so relieved that our choices, despite the language barrier, were much much better than yesterday's.

NOTE: To eat out here in China, one must know how to say the dish in Mandarin and/or read Chinese script. Only a few restaurants, which cater to tourists, have English translations.

We returned early last night and wanted to post but the internet connection was too slow.

~~~
Last night I was kept awake by this shouting match going on next door, at first it was a bit muffled so I managed to get some sleep, but later towards the early morning hours the shouting got louder and louder. Fortunately I had my ear plugs on and I got some sleep. Peter almost had to call the front desk to complain but we just weren't sure if they were indeed next door to us.

I hope they left already.

~~~
This morning we are washing clothes while posting. Our plan for today is to go to Pudong, check out the Orient Pearl TV building and the Jinmao tower (70 yuan/person to climb up to the observatory). After that we will just relax and pack up for our morning flight to Beijing.

I'll post again later tonight (if the connection is fast).

2007-06-09T16:44:00.000-10:00

Sunday, June 10, 2007- Shanghai

Yesterday's sightseeing was great although the walk was too long, I think we walked about 6 miles or so.

We began our day late because we wanted to check out the Bund and Nanjing Dong lu at night when all the neon signs are all illuminated. Since it was around noon when we got to town we went back to Yu Yuan Gardens to eat at their food court. Remember, I mentioned this food court had lots of local food portioned out in plates ready for the taking. All you need to do is browse through the selection and pick a plate, put it on your tray then continue the process until you feel it's enough for your meal, then you pay at the cashier.

We grabbed the recommended soup dumpling (which you drink the soup with a straw through the huge dumpling the size of a manapua), a plate of fried chicken, a bowl of bird's nest soup, a plate of fried bread rolled up (looked interesting), a plate of a fried bean curd look alike, and a plate of green vegetables. The food looked so good, but it tasted weird and not so good!

Peter went back hoping to get better tasting food. He grabbed a plate of pork barbecue sticks and a plate of sweet lotus root with sticky rice. They were both so-so.

Fortunately, there was this old chinese lady going from table to table asking for leftover food, we gladly gave her our food since they were still good to eat. At least we didn't feel like we've wasted the food.

We realized that the food here was mass produced and because of that the taste and quality was sacrificed. This mistake cost us about $18.

To rectify this, we went to Honeymoon Dessert. We both were pretty happy that at least our dessert was delicious and good.

The walk from Yu Yuan Gardens to Huaihai Lu was long. Thank goodness the weather was not too humid. Our destination was the place of the First Congress for the CPC. It is located in Xintiandi. This area is reminiscent of French streets, wide sidewalks, tree lined streets, and beautiful parks and gardens. We were able to get in the museum for free. It wasn't much, mostly old documents and pictures and a wax replica of the group in a meeting.

What's ironic about this is that the museum is in a corner of an two block area which is now full of shops and restaurants. Very interesting.

Our next long walk took us to Fuxing park, once called the French park. It really is a nice park. Lots of local chinese were there, exercising (this one old man in his 70s, I think, was doing dips for his triceps, very strong guy), dancing, and other things. There are nice thick trees and lots of benches to sit on.

Next we went to Maoming Lu located in the French concession area to find the cafes and restaurants only to find them enclosed and not as crowded as in Xintiandi. So we went back to Huaihai lu and found a small restaurant inside this mall near the subway station - it was japanese cuisine menu and the food was so-so.

As Peter said, when we make a mistake (usually in our food choices) we make it big.

By nightfall we went back to the Bund, had to walk far from the subway station at People's Square through Nanjing Dong Lu then the Bund. There were so many people. I mean, a sea of people, all hanging out at the promenade. It was making us feel a bit claustrophobic being near so many people in the sidewalks and the streets. We had to keep walking fast to find spaces just for ourselves but it was difficult especially in this area. We didn't stay that long at the Bund. Took pictures and stayed a few minutes before going back to catch the subway for Zhongshanlu.

We did some grocery shopping first before heading back to the hostel and getting us some delicious dessert to make up for our not-so-good choices in food this day. At least, we can say that the desserts we had were pretty good.

~~~
Today we will visit the Jade Buddha then to Pudong. Will post later...

2007-06-08T02:51:00.000-10:00

Friday, June 8, 2007 - Shanghai

Today our focus was Nanjing Xi (West) Lu (Road) and the People's Park/Square.

The People's Park is at the heart of Shanghai, contains about 4 museums, one of which is the Urban Planning museum (the only museum we decided we want to check out). A beautifully landscaped garden is right at the center of this huge park, a few ponds and lots of places to sit and relax.

From the Nanjing Xi Lu station we turned left towards the park and along the way we found stores that sold local snacks and food for take away -like buns, dumplings, poached chicken, duck, etc. We bought a few items to try for our breakfast at the park: sticky rice with pork in the middle wrapped in lotus leaf, flaky crust pastry with chicken, flaky crust pastry with red bean, and a huge bun-like sticky rice full of fruit and nuts and red bean paste. They were all good and cheap, although I have had my fill of red bean so Peter is pretty happy he didn't have to share with me.

As we were having our breakfast in the park we were approached by 2 young people who wants to practice their english and at the same time take advantage of you. We started speaking in Spanish and Tagalog so they would stop. It just makes us feel sad that instead of putting their knowledge of English to good use they do it to scam tourists. Now we were a bit leary of young people speaking English. We so much want to communicate with them and talk story with them but it might just be a bit complicated.

From where we were on the park we could hear singing. After we finished eating we walked to where the music was coming from and saw a group of middle-aged people singing in the pavilion right across the pond. It was really beautiful, accompanied by an accordion and a chinese fiddle. Then as we got closer the music was finished. We sat there a bit to wait and see if they'd sing again but by then they were just singing solo. (I video taped a short portion of a woman singing.)

We walked to the Urban Planning museum and paid 40 yuan/person to get in. Right in the center of the lobby is a scale model of what they plan for Shanghai in the near future. On the second floor us a much larger model complete with light effects and colors. There were 4 floors dedicated to Shanghai's development and improvements with housing, transportation, maritime, etc. What interested Peter the most was the ecological island they are planning at Chongming (?). They have begun planning and development of this place in 2004. There will be several zones: forestry, farming, tourism, etc. A controlled population of about 650 thousand will be allowed to live and work there. They hope to finish this project in the next few years. I believe they will be host to the 2010 World's fair. The museum could actually be improved and more features can be added to make the admission fee worth it.

For lunch we ventured along Nanjing Xi Lu, the shopping street for Shanghai even from the early1900s. There are a number of shopping malls there but only in the basement of Isetan we found a food court, called Megabite. Here you purchase a Megabite card ($30, 50, 100) which you use to pay for the food you order. Just go to the stall you want to order food and give the card which they debit the transaction. You can refill the card again for future use. Note: the card will have a fee of $5, so subtract than from the store added value before you purchase your food so you know how much your balance will be.

We returned to the hostel later that afternoon and took a much needed nap. Our sightseeing trip here in Shanghai is very relaxed and spread out because we are here for about a week and this city is not the huge compared to Beijing or Seoul. We wanted to check out the Bund and Nanjing Dong (east) Lu at night but when I checked to see the last train to Caoyanglu was 9:48 or 10:48 p.m. (I wasn't too sure) we decided to just go to Zhongshanlu where there's this huge mall called Cloud Nine.

Cloud Nine is a big mall full of activity and people. They have a Carrefour in the basement and 1st floor and a number of restaurants in the building, so most of the people come here to have dinner and at the same time do their grocery shopping. It is a very convenient stop for most as it connects with the subway line 2, 3 and 4.

Because we didn't know what time the station here in Caoyanglu would close, we had to find a fast food place for our dinner - KFC! Yep, you read right! We ate at an American fast food store (that's 3 now: Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and now this.) Well, we really weren't that hungry after having a late lunch and a dessert around 2 or 3 p.m. It was a good thing we ordered the spicy chicken wings (we didn't know what it was because it was in Chinese and it looked huge in the picture).

Now that we're back here at the hostel, we learned that the subway closes at 11 p.m. I guess tomorrow we will try checking out the Bund at night.

~~~
It's just difficult to end up late outside and not know how to get back to the hostel as the buses here only have chinese characters and the taxi drivers do not speak english. Make sure to have your hotel/hostel's name written in Chinese script with you at all times so that you can take a cab when you end up staying our late.

Carrefour is the best place to buy your necessities, like toilet paper and water.

Definitely try out the local snack stores, there's really no need to try street food as they are available in stores also for slightly more in price - unless you really want to try the street food and your stomach is pretty strong.

Spend time lingering around the People's park. It's a nice place to just relax.

When crossing the street, make sure to watch out for motorbikes and bicycles that also criss-cross along the pedestrian walkways and crosswalks. Sometimes cars, along with the bikes, would run the red light or turn right very quickly. Always cross with the local people to help shield you from these oncoming vehicles.

The streets here is not too polluted compared to Manila. Yet it is still better to have a handkerchief or a mask to protect you from it.

2007-06-07T03:11:00.000-10:00

Thursday, June 7, 2007 - Shanghai

Before I post I just want to greet my Dad a very Happy Birthday! Love you, Dad!

We began the day a little late, around 9:30 a.m. I had a difficult time sleeping last night because the bed was hard, it turns out we were sleeping on top of a tatami-like mat. Peter, as it turned out, couldn't sleep either.

Since we started late we decided to just have breakfast here at the hostel. I ordered the Swiss breakfast (muesli with fruit, toast with cheese, scrambled eggs); Peter ordered the pancakes with fruit. More people came into the dining area and ordered their breakfast. What's funny was that my order arrived first (which should be because we were there first) and Peter's order came last (the other people got their orders before he did). Peter thought that it was an easy order since they were just pancakes, I told him they probably had to make the batter first and do some kind of trial and error thing because they are really not experts in making american-style pancakes.

For today we explored the Bund area alongside the Huangpu river. From the Metro Line 2 stop at Nanjing (Dong) Lu - a pedestrian mall that begins from the People's Square to a block before the main road parallel to the river. We were awed by the buildings we saw and the amount of space given for the pedestrians. Even with the amount of people walking along the street it doesn't feel too crowded like when we were in Hong Kong. The weather is also very pleasant, no humidity.

We walked along the promenade and looked out across the river to the Pudong district with their huge skyscrapers. Behind us are the transformed buildings of the past, like the Peace Hotel, the Customs building, the HSBC building, etc. It was a good long walk from where we began (around the middle) to the southern end of the promenade.

It was around noon or later when we got to the end. Peter wanted to find a place for us to eat. Since we were near the Yu Yuan Gardens (a walled area with renovated old Chinese-style buildings with the gardens in the middle) we walked there. The walk was quite long and along the sidewalks are street vendors selling their wares and some food. Most of the time we were walking along the streets avoiding the bikes and the mopeds. We found a nice park right near the area where they grow bamboo trees and right in the middle is an old Tea house.

Walking to the YuYuan Garden you would think that the place would be filled with hawkers and street vendors. What you would see first as you entered the area are shops filled with Chinese crafts, souvenirs, etc. Looked like a tourist trap place full of (expensive looking) stores. There were so many people there. We just walked around the place which felt like a maze, the buildings kind of look alike. Then we fell into this area where a lot of Chinese were lining up to by this dumpling. Well, we decided to try it. As we lined up we were right behind a Chinese-Canadian woman who heard us speak English and helped us understand what we were buying. She said that it was a popular place and for 10 yuan we get 16 pieces (or 20 yuan for 32). The line was pretty long but the service was quick. You pay first, get a reciept and then they will serve you the dumplings on a rectangular paper bowl - you can put a soy sauce/vinegar sauce on it. We got the 16 pieces and divided it between the two of us. They were simple yet tasted good!

Next, we wanted to look for a place to have dessert, we walked around and found a bigger food court which sells a huge variety of local Chinese delicacies for cheap! (Who says tourist trap areas are expensive, not so here in Shanghai!) We got 2 kinds of desserts served on steamer baskets and one tofu-looking food which was salty. It wasn't the best but at least now we know where we can eat local food.

We left the place via a different exit and found the Honeymoon Dessert place Peter actually was hoping they'd have. Too late for dessert today but at least we can come back again tomorrow or the next day.

After walking for hours we decided to catch the train back to the hostel and take a nap. By 7 .m. we went out in search of a dinner meal and a supermarket. We were directed to the nearby Carrefour. It had some restaurants we could choose from - decided to have some japanese-style dinner before buying some toilet paper (for use in public toilets - a must have when you're out of doors) and water.

Here in Wuning Road in the Putuo District the buildings look a bit exclusive in some areas which are gated and fully landscaped. Some areas look old but not run down like our previous hostel. In the late afternoons onwards vendors lay down their mats and spread out their wares and items for sale. They occupy most of the sidewalk which makes it hard for people to walk through. (We learned that we can walk, just be on guard, on the bike/moped dedicated lane - about 1 1/3 the size of an american car lane).

~~~
Today we were approached by so many locals trying to sell shoes, watches, bags, etc. They knew we were tourists from a mile away. Another one tried to strike a conversation with us in English, but we learned to be wary of them because they will lure you to a bar or restaurant and get you to pay an enormous amount.

The Subways aren't as full when you avoid the rush hour.

All public toilets are using the squat method and no toilet paper is given unless it is a paid public toilet (they only give you a 2-ply napkin tissue).

2007-06-06T02:33:00.000-10:00

Wed., June 6, 2007 - Shanghai

Ni hao! Peter and I are now officially in China. We left the hostel at 10 a.m., walked to the nearby Holiday Inn Golden Mile to catch the K3 Airport Shuttle bus that goes to the Kowloon Station. At the station we were able to check-in our bags at the counters there prior to boarding the Airport Express train to the airport. (This has got to be the most convenient way to get to and from the airport!)

We were three hours early before our boarding time so we looked around for a place to have lunch. Downstairs at the arrival lobby there are a few places to eat, we chose Cafe de Coral which offers local and Asian cuisine.

We had to go through immigration before proceeding to the gate. Everything went smoothly at the check point and at immigration - we didn't have to remove our shoes or be given a 2nd check (same in Japan and Seoul).

The wait was somewhat long so we took advantage of this to get some shut eye. An hour later boarding was announced (we didn't understand a word of it but we knew just by looking at the body language and the movements around us - you really have to keep your wits about you especially in places where you do not know the language). All the passengers were shuttled to our small China Eastern plane waiting a few hundred yards away from the building. The cabin was about half full so Peter and I moved to the back to get more room. The flight took about 2 1/2 hours. Some turbulence along the way.

The weather here in Shanghai is slightly cooler than in Hong Kong. We went through health inspection (just gave them the health form we filled out on the plane), followed by immigration (which was pretty quick), baggage claim (our bags were coming out as we got there), then straight through customs (if nothing to declare, just give them your customs form). We were out in less than half an hour.

Outside the terminal we followed the signs to the Maglev (magnetic levitation) train. It only cost us about $6 to ride this very fast train - the maximum speed (which I caught on camera for proof) is 431 kmph (237? mph). In about 20+ minutes we arrived at the station which connects with the local subway lines. It was amazing to ride this train, it was so smooth and fast, and when it turns the train simply sways/leans to the side. Incredible!

Next, we bought tickets to ride the subway to our destination in Caoyanglu (north west). It was rush hour so there were so many people in the subway. We had to take the Line 2 to Zhongshan road, transfer to Line 3 or 4 to Caoyanglu. We were packed like sardines in the last train transfer and Peter and I had to manage to keep together with our bags (that's the advantage of having small bags, it's not too hard to travel by subway, except of course when going up and down the stairs with them). We got out of the station not knowing where north was. Fortunately this lady we asked directed us to where Wuning Road was. The walk to Wuning Road from the station wasn't that far, but we had to find where our hostel was along that road. It's a good thing Peter saw their huge sign from across the street. So we crossed Wuning Road, found a gate to this group of high-rises, asked the guard where the Shanghai Youth hostel was, it turns out it's right in this gated area and the building looks so much like a classy hotel. We truly lucked out this time!

Our room is a double bed ensuite (with our own bathroom) for only $13.50 per person/night. This hostel is more a hotel because we're provided with soap/toothbrush, towels, slippers, complimentary tea bags, and there's a restaurant which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus internet connection and other amenities.

What's great about this is that because we arrived late in the afternoon, around 5:30 p.m., we would normally go out and find a convenience store to buy bottled water and a place to eat, but here we find everything we needed - a good pasta dinner, internet connection and bottled water (all for reasonable prices!).

First Impression:
There seems to be many people here in Shanghai, some dressed really hip and chic while some very casual. The subway seems to be really crowded during rush hour - this was the very first time we were really squished together in the train car. There are lots of people hanging around in areas like the stations and side roads. I believe we can get around easy here because it sure looks like a lot of the locals can speak some English.

2007-06-05T00:53:00.001-10:00

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

For our last day's sightseeing we hopped on the ferry to Lamma Island to the south of Hong Kong Island. As always our timing is impeccable. When we got to the ferry pier no. 4 the ferry was already there and the passengers were already entering the vessel. We thought we missed it but the lady who was near the turnstiles let us in (it's very convenient if you have the Octopus Card).

The ferry ride to half an hour. We went to the South side pier dock (forgot the name) where we got off, walked through the small village mostly inhabited by expats and a few locals (lots of Filipina ammahs or maids). From the village we walked past the small restaurants and shops to the small Tin Hau temple. Then we followed the signs for the North side pier dock (on the other side of the island). It was hot and humid that we would always stop to rest and drink some water. On one corner of the narrow lane we saw this small open air place covered with tarp, tables and chairs set up. The old man was serving the 4 Chinese tourists this yummy looking dessert - much like the Filipino taho (soft bean curd with syrup and sago). Yes, it was taho, called tofu fa. We ordered one bowl for each of us and to my surprise the tofu fa was cold and refreshing (our taho is warm yet still delicious). It really hit the spot; helped cool us in such a muggy weather and gave us energy to walk to the other side of the island.

It took us about an hour to get to the North side. Stopping at the nearby beach, we sat on one of the benches shaded by trees enjoying the refreshing breeze coming from the ocean. Reminds us of Kanaha Beach park. The walk after that was slightly steep but with the paved walkway it was an easy hike. When we reached the peak of the hike we lingered a bit to enjoy the cool air underneath the pagoda.

The North side of Lamma island is much smaller than the South. The homes here are slightly more modern and has more space for a garden. Lots of sampans are docked on this side and seafood restaurants are lined up along the narrow street. We didn't try eating here because it was a tad expensive and Peter wanted to avoid eating seafood for now.

On our hike down to the North side I saw the ferry arrive. Thought we'd miss it because we didn't know what time the next ferry would be. We didn't rush walking down but walked at a regular pace. As we neared the ferry station we learned that it was scheduled to leave within 20 minutes. What an amazing timing, again! The next one to arrive would have been an hour from then (we'd probably end up eating at one of the seafood restaurants there to wait).

So we got back to Hong Kong Island in about 4o minutes (30 min. ride), walked through the IFC mall to look for a place to have lunch. Well, it was around 12:30 p.m. when we got there so the restaurants, especially the Can-teen (kind of food court) was very busy and packed with office workers. We decided to go back to Times Square to eat at the food court there but we asked this Filipina behind us on the escalator where the nearest food court was, she told us to go to Pacific Place, just four stops by tram from where we were. We heeded her advice and went there.

The Pacific Place food court is not really a food court, it's on the ground floor of the mall and the restaurants (moderate to expensive) are sprinkled around the area. This was not what we wanted. So we walked back to the nearest MTR which was Admiralty and ended up finding a Can-teen right in the middle of the Admiralty building. We had our lunch there - honey BBQ pork with roast duck (and poached chicken) on rice, much cheaper and filling.

We returned to Kowloon via Jordan station to check out the Hung Hom station to the east. On our return trip from Shanghai at the end of June we will be taking the train to Guangzhou. We wanted to know where this station was and if we could get our tickets now. When we got to the station we asked the ticket person if we could get tickets to Guangzhou there. He scolded us with his raise voice telling us that that was not the place to get tickets but we should go upstairs. Now that was a surprise. The last time someone did that to us was when we were in Paris at a train station too AND she was also Chinese. Anyway, we realized that he probably got the same inquiry from tourist because there are no signs letting us tourists know where to get the Guangzhou tickets.

Above the station was the main Hung Hom station and the place to get Guangzhou tickets is the China Travel Service (the same place you can get China visas). The young person, who was the third person to help us, was nice enough to tell us to just buy our tickets when we arrive that day to make sure we get on the train otherwise if we missed it there would be no refund. Nice guy.

To return back to Tsim Sha Tsui we took the KCR train (different from the MTR) which was more convenient than having to walk outdoors.

What we learned today:

To refill Octopus cards - must be in HK$50 increments, not less. If you do not need that much, you just simply get a single ticket for every ride you take.
To go to Hung Hom station, transfer from MTR Tsim Sha Tsui to KCR east to Hung Hom (only one stop).
If you plan to visit Lamma Island, make sure to 1)arrive early in the day, 2)check the return ferry schedule so you won't need to rush - this is if you place to go to the other side of the island, either way, 3) bring water, sun block, swimming attire, hat, etc., 4)spend time meandering and lingering in some places, 5)try the tofu fa, you won't miss it, it's simply delicious and refreshing!

Tomorrow we leave for Shanghai. So my next post will be from there. Pray for our safe trip. Thanks.

2007-06-04T02:18:00.000-10:00

Monday, evening

Just had our dinner at one of the restaurants along Carnarvon Road. Peter had the Hainan Curry pork chop while I had the mushroom and chicken congee. It's interesting that most of the meat that they put in the congee are innards and just a few meat like chicken or beef.

I just remembered the yesterday when we came back from the South Side, we stopped at Causeway Bay and walked along Percival Street where we saw this Tea shop - sells steeped tea of assorted ingredients like Chyrsanthemum, Herb, etc. Peter wanted to try the Turtle tea but wasn't quite sure what it was, he ended up with the 24-herb tea which was very bitter. My Chrysanthemum tea was light and sweet. There are lots of shops like this where bowls of tea are ready for you to drink, all you need to do is pay for one bowl and drink right there and then. Apparently these bowls of tea are like their powerboosting drink for the day. Next time Peter wants to try the expensive Turtle tea (HK$39/cup).

We were walking up on Nathan Street to get some dessert from that Mango place in Jordan Street when we saw that the computers here at Pacific Coffee Company were not being used, so we stopped by to get a drink and post some more for free.

~~~
Hong Kong is a city to visit to experience living in one of the densest places on earth. It is pretty safe around here. The people are nice, some even smile back (especially their policemen). Most can speak English so it's not too hard to communicate with them.

The transportation system is very easy to understand and use. Make sure to get an Octopus card (HK$150, includes the HK$50 deposit refundable on return). This card can be used everywhere from all transportation, parking meters to grocery stores. The chip is so strong you can just put your handbag on top of the plate and it will read it (same goes for the T-Money in Seoul). Choices range from the simple credit card size, cellphone attachments to watches; easily refillable at any station with the machine.

Hong Kong is improving everyday. Construction and site improvements are everywhere. You can even find one person mixing cement right there in the side walk.

There are so many people here, the subways are always filled with people walking from one place to the other with the same fast rhythm in their steps. Peter and I can't help but march to their beats. Despite the tons of people you pass by on the streets everyday, you can safely walk to where you are going without having to bump into other people along the way - they know how to respect your personal space.

Also when walking along the sidewalks, watch out for dripping water from the air conditions on the high rises - feels like it's raining all over because of that. They haven't heard of diversion.

Anyway, Hong Kong is still a good place to come and visit, even for just a short while.

2007-06-03T22:15:00.000-10:00

Comparison between the Japanese, Koreans and Hong Kong Chinese:

Culture - all old and lots of beliefs and superstitions
Infrastructure - (Japan) good roads and highways but small pedestrain walk ways in some areas; there are 2 subway networks plus the JR Rails which can be confusing and not easy to access if using all; lots of toilets with toilet paper all over the area (squat or seated). (Korea) wide roads and highways and wide pedestrian walk ways; subways are very wide and clean and it is the most extensive network we've seen so far in our travels; some areas are messy especially around the universities, leaflets are scattered on the streets or given away at all places; toilets are easy to find, especially in Subway stations, and are pretty clean. (HKSar) cramped road ways, lots of cars, buses and trams; lots of roadwork and building renovations; clean in some areas; lots of bamboo poles used for scaffolding; toilets can be found in store buildings, not all clean and have toilet paper.
Food - Japan and Korea are easy places to find authentic cuisines for cheap (using the point method). HK, you need to have a guide to help you find them, unless you can read Chinese script.

2007-06-03T21:43:00.000-10:00

Monday, June 4, 2007

After our South side adventure at Hong Kong Island last night we decided to go to Times Square (a mall located in the Central district). This is where you can find a food court, in the basement of Lane Crawford and right next to the huge City Super (high class) grocery. The food court has Indian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Thai and some other Asian cuisine (no Filipino). You choose the meal, pay at the central cashier and return to pick up your food. This place gets busy during the weekends and during lunch and dinner. As I mentioned before, the stores and restaurants/food courts open late here (if you wish to have breakfast your best luck will be Starbucks, Pret A Manger, McDonald's, and a DimSum place).

We returned back to the Mirador Mansion around 8 p.m. and decided to just rest for the day. I have to say, our accommodation here in Hong Kong is really not the greatest. First of all, the Mirador Mansion looks like the oldest and rattiest building along Nathan Road. It's next to Holiday Inn and the Chunking Mansion (which is slightly better looking).

At the bottom floor of this building are vendor stalls (same with any other building with apartments above). At Mirador and Chunking you'd see lots of Indians and Africans loittering around the area trying to sell Rolex watches to tourists. Fortunately, we look Asian so we do not get harrassed.

The lifts (elevators) serve either odd or even floors. We're on the 8th floor, so if we took the odd we'd have to exit on the 9th and take the stairs down. Our first experience here was at the center lift where lots of people were waiting. It was so hot and crowded that it felt like we were in a project somewhere in Manhattan. Also, the lifts nearest our room closes at 10 p.m. There was one night where we returned past 10 p.m. and had to use the central lift. We got to the 8th floor along with 2 women and encountered this African in the dark corridor of the building. It was a bit scary that we walked fast past the guy and the women to get to the other side of the building. After that I told Peter to make sure we return before 10 p.m.

Other than that, this place is a cheap place to crash. You get clean towels and your trash bins empty everyday. You also get complimentary filtered water outside the corridor and laundry service for a fee. We just didn't like their "bait and switch" tactic.

Today we had a good dim sum breakfast at a nearby basement restaurant. A good number of Chinese were there having "yum cha" or tea with dim sum. We were hoping to see those carts filled with bamboo steamer baskets where we can choose what to eat but apparently they do not do that here in Hong Kong. You are given a sheet of paper with all the dim sum and other dishes from which you write the quantity of your choice. The excitement of seeing and picking what looks interesting and yummy is gone. Although they give you a picture album of the choices, it's still not the same.

We had the fried bean curd with meat and mushrooms, the char siu bao, the fried taro with meat, the shrimp and scallops dumplings and custard dumplings - all for only $10.85 (with tea for two). It was good breakfast!

Leaving the restaurant we headed to the Harbor to catch the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island - for only 2.20HKD, 8-10 minute ride. It is very easy to catch and not too crowded compared to the Subway. We took the ferry to Wan Chai and walked to the Convention Center to see the Hand Over Obelisk which marked the hand over of Hong Kong back to China. (We missed it when we went to see the Golden Bauhinia, it is located on the opposite side).

We walked through the Convention Center, which was open to people just as an access to get to the other buildings and the MTR (Metro Transit Railway). We try to take advantage of these access places to keep us cool. (I should mention that the weather here right now is much better from when we arrived, it's slightly breezy at some areas and the heat is very much bearable, the clouds are very healthy and the haze is not as thick, and it's supposed to rain - we learned from watching the news that this is kind of unusual around this time. How wonderful for us.)

We then took the Subway to get to Causeway Bay to check out the Noon Day Gun, but we couldn't find the underground walkway passage to cross the street to get there, so we just had a snack at Honeymoon Dessert (I had the Snow White Sag0 - dragon fruit seeds with banana, mango, coconut milk ice, kaong, and lychee; Peter had the walnut and almond soup - just pureed and cold) at the World Trade Center building.

After our cooling off snack, we took the electric tram to Happy Valley race course. It was not too far from where we came from, about 5-10 minutes ride. We were thinking this place was a lot bigger and was farther from the city. It's nestled in between highrises and cemeteries. Peter took a quick nap at the park near the race course before we took the tram to return to Wan Chai.

From Wan Chai we took the ferry back to Tsim Sha Tsui and now here we are at this Internet Cafe right at the harbor.

2007-06-02T22:37:00.000-10:00

Sunday, June 3, 2007 - Stanley, Hong Kong Island (South side)

Last night we strolled along Nathan Road went through the Kowloon Park situated in the middle of Tsim Sha Tsui and Yau Ma Tei. This huge park has an enormous public swimming pool (entrance fee needed), a building which houses rooms for ping pong, kendo or martial arts classes, badminton, etc. This is where the locals hang out in the afternoon.

For our dinner, we ate at the Temple Street Night Market area where food stalls abound. We had our first duck there. It's right in the middle of the street and there were lots of tourists eating there. The food was good and tasty. For dessert, we found a place which serves mostly mango with a lot of other assorted fixings. YUM!

This morning we took the bus from Central Pier going South to Aberdeen. Walked to the harbor where the sampans and boats are docked. This is also where you take the boat to the JUMBO floating restaurant. Peter also found where the wholesale fish market was bustling with activity.
Walked through Aberdeen and got some chinese vegetarian snacks and ate it at the Aberdeen square.

Took the bus to Repulse bay only to stop earlier at Deep Water Bay where we met a group of Filipinas hanging out on their day off. (When we got out of the Central station there were tons of Filipinas waiting and hanging around the walkways. Lots and lots of them.) We had a good time talking story with them before we headed off to Repulse Bay.

It was so hot at Repulse Bay, very much like Waikiki without the huge promenade. Saw the Guan Yin and Tin Hau monuments then left for Stanley. Here at Stanley, there's a market where lots of locals and tourists visit to buy bargains of stuff. It's very hot here despite the bay, some slight wind but still warm. We didn't buy anything because we're saving our money for China.

We are going back to town now via bus no. 40 to Causeway Bay in the North. From there we'll take the subway to get back to Tsim Sha Tsui.

We noticed that locals here are like us in our own places, we usually go for the cheapest food (like fast food) because most of the restaurants around here cater to tourist. All of the haole were at the open air restaurants. Really expensive.

Anyway, my time is almost up here so till next post....

2007-06-01T21:21:00.001-10:00

Saturday

There was lightning shows early this morning. Rain poured. But when we woke up to leave the sun was out and the skies were clear.

Our destination today was Ngong Ping at the top of the mountain at the end of the Tung Chung Line. This is where the huge Tian Tan Buddha sits on the top overlooking the Monastery built in the 1900s.

The weather was clear. Took the cable ride, the longest we've ridden so far, about 20 minutes one way. Great views. The Buddha is amazing and huge. We also were able to go inside plus get a Vegetarian feast meal at the monastery all for only $21 per person. Worth every penny.

We are back in town now and will be resting before going out tonight. This internet free station is right in the subway station on our way to the Tsuen Wan line. It gives us free 15 minutes to surf the net. Really taking advantage of this because it's just expensive to pay.

Anyway, it's a Saturday here and people are out and about. Still very crowded and busy in the subway statons and the pace is still very fast. I wonder if the locals every do slow down sometime during the week or the year.

2007-06-01T03:37:00.000-10:00

Friday, June 1, 2007 - Hong Kong Island

We covered a lot of tracks today: from the Peak to the Harbour to the Mid-Levels and back to Kowloon.

The Peak view is incredible. It's a great place to get out of the city with its dense population and the heat. The breeze coming from the windward side is on the other side of the Peak facing Repulse Bay. We spent half the day there.

Note: Everywhere here in HK the opening times are around 11 or 11:30 a.m. Restaurants or eateries do not open earlier but they do stay late every night. This is the reason why we have eaten at McDonald's twice because here they are open 24 hours with their McCafe.

We went to see the Golden Bauhinia, their symbol for forever blooming. It was in the middle of the afternoon and the heat was stifling and all we saw was this golden thing that looked like a half open plumeria.

What's great about HK Island (different from Kowloon) is that there are a lot of sky walkways, elevated walkways, where people use to go from one building to the next without having to cross the street. These shaded walkways really helped us cool off from the afternoon heat.

We also went to Mid-levels, the entire street of Stanley up to the Mosque, which boasts of the guiness world record for the longest escalator going up the street. I think it took us about 15 minutes to get up there but going down it really didn't feel that long.

Anyway, regarding food, we managed to eat at one of the oldest tea houses in HK Island, Luk Yu Tea House built in the 1930s. We were led to the 3rd floor and most of the patrons are old Chinese or Chinese business men/women having business lunch. They had an English menu so we were able to order some Dim Sum. This experience was worth it. The waiters were supposed to be surly but they were pretty nice to us.

Tonight we had dinner here in Kowloon at a nearby Thai restaurant. Most of the small eateries here, we find out, are all run by family. We had noodle soup with chicken and the other with fish balls. It was good. (BTW, we learned that if you come to places like these locals will help you by nominating someone who can speak English to translate for you. This is what happened to us at this restaurant.)

Now we feel more relaxed and confident that we can eat and not go hungry.

Tomorrow our itinerary is Lantau Island to check out Ngong Ping and the Buddha.

TIP: For free internet, come to Pacific Coffee Company get a drink and check your email.

2007-05-31T17:07:00.000-10:00

June 1, 2007 - Hong Kong

We have been here for three days now. Arrived on Wednesday, took the Airport Express train which is the most convenient way to get to and from the airport, within 24 minutes were arrived in Kowloon and took the K3 free shuttle bus to our hostel.

Our hostel is in the middle of Nathan road next to the Holiday Inn Golden Mile hotel. It is located in the Mirador Mansion - really a ratty looking building with lots of guest houses and apartments. The owner of the guest house did a "bait and switch" tactic with its customers. Since we booked for the $14.95 twin bed room with bathroom we were shown the room before we signed up. It's their way of selling us the more expensive room, about $6 more per person/night. Well, it's only a place to crash and at least it has its own airconditioning which is what we need at this moment.

The weather here in Hong Kong is just like Manila, very hot and muggy. On our first night here we went to the promenade to watch the permanent light show surrounding the harbor. This was the place where you can feel some kind of breeze albeit warm. The promenade stretches the entire harbor overlooking Hong Kong Island. The show was spectacular.

The next morning we went to the China Travel Service located just across from our hostel. Very convenient and there wasn't a very long line. TIPS: go early, bring cash or credit card (charges 3% more), and 1 Passport photo. When filling out form make sure to avoid putting "church worker" or employed by a church in the employment and employer because they might not allow you to get a visa. Fortunately for me I was already granted one previously so they didn't question it. We got our visas at 5:30 p.m. the same day. Paid about $300 for a double entry for Peter and myself.

I had a sinus migraine that afternoon due to the humid weather and the rain approaching. Peter too had some minor headache. Adjusting to the weather took time. We only went to Hong Kong Island to check out food areas which was so hard to find without a guidebook to let you know where things are.

Here in HK you definitely need a guide and meandering will just cause you to go hungry - especially in the culinary capital of the world.

Peter and I had succumbed to eating a McDonald's because we didn't know where to eat, and if we found a place everything was in Chinese, no translation whatsoever. It will really be ironic if we went hungry in a place like HK.

This morning we went to the Peak, where I am posting right now at a Cafe (where it's free usage for patrons). We bought out guide, finally, and now feel more confident that we can eat some good Chinese food while here.

BTW, it is a bit hard to post where we are so I might have to post every time I find a place like this. So please bear with me.

Peter and I are find now. We will be going down to Causeway Bay for lunch so I'll try to find an Internet cafe later.

2007-05-29T03:32:00.001-10:00

Tuesday evening, May 29, 2007 - Seoul

The weather changed this morning. We woke up late because of our late night conversations with our fellow hostellers. Clouds covered the entire city and slight rain drizzled over us on our way to Myeongdong.

Myeongdong was pretty busy with side street vendors selling clothes, bags and other stuff. It was not ideal to go shopping at this time because most of the products were covered in plastic to protect them from rain. So we went to Insadong to get my souvenir Korean rice bowl with cover. Returned to the hostel just before evening and took a much deserved nap. It kind of caught with us after days of sleeping late and waking up early.

What is really interesting and amazing is that just when we left Kyoto the weather was predicted to be rainy. Same thing happened in Tokyo and now in Seoul! We have been blessed with good weather during our visits to these three countries. We hope that this will continue to be our reality throughout this trip.

Tomorrow we leave early in the morning to catch the Airport Limousine bus to Incheon Airport. This hostel is truly has the best location because it's so near the subway and the bus stops and, now we find out, quite near to catch the Airport bus. How fortunate and how wonderful!

During our 5 day visit here we had the culinary experience to try Korean food. On day 1 we try the Samgyeobsal (three-layered fat) grilled right in front of us. On day 2 we had the Samgyetang (chicken stuffed with rice in ginseng broth) and Dolsot Bibimbap (rice with assorted veggies served on a hot bowl). On day 3 we had Bulgogi (strips of marinated beef cooked on a hot plate). On day 4 we had what they call the Military Soup (the one with spam and hotdog with saimin noodles cooked in kimchi broth). On day 5 we had Galbi (huge beef rib about 3 inches wide and about 13-15 inches long, one per person, grilled on the table).

As with all the dishes served in the restaurants the meal is accompanied by 4-5 or more bowls of sides (about 3 are kimchi veggies with/out meat). The chopsticks and soup spoon are made of stainless steel and are flat not rounded. It took us awhile to get used to it but we managed. Cold water is also served to keep us cool while eating spicy food.

One time Peter felt his head sweat after eating the kimchi soup. It WAS hot!!! I was surprised myself that I managed to eat and enjoy the dish - am not quite a fan of too spicy food.

Anyway, our whole visit here was indeed a wonderful surprise and an enjoyable experience. Our new friends here at the hostel has made our stay very comfortable and fun. We will definitely miss them and hope to see them again in our future hostelling trips.

So this will probably be my last post from Seoul. Anyeong Haseyo!

2007-05-28T15:46:00.000-10:00

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - Seoul

Last night after I posted on this blog the "family" here at the Golden Pond Guesthouse had a wonderful time exchanging travel stories. One group (Tim, the lady owner, Jeff, Stu and Paul) were in the kitchen drinking some local beer and talking story; another group (Peter, myself, Baggish Kumar from Britain traveling for 11 months now and Clara a Swede whom he met while on his travels) were exchanging travel experiences.

Baggish was relating to us what had happened to them on their trip to Mongolia where they camped in this pristine lakeside area only to be attacked and stoned by locals. Baggish got hit by a couple of rocks fortunately not knocking him out completely. They managed to escape and return to the city and come to Seoul to relate this frightening experience.

Later on that night Tim, our american friend leaving the next morning, was so wasted that he was totally out of it, tried to pack his stuff and kept on losing things like his toiletry kit and his key to the padlock of the safe where his documents were. Meanwhile the rest of us, in addition to the newcomers, Lisa (Canadian Chinese) and Eric (Vietnamese American), and Hac Zhou from Guangzhou, joined our conversations. It was a wonderful exchange of stories and it really felt like an Ohana was being formed among these young hostellers. (Peter and I were the oldest in the group but wasn't too obvious since we looked young like them. <>)

We have learned a lot of different perspectives in traveling around the world and also how others perceive things about certain people. What was interesting that some of us were actually in the same hostel as the other in previous trips and just didn't meet until this time.

This hostel is small which is perfect for interactions like these. For sure we will all remember this time we spent here in Seoul.

~~~
This morning we are doing housekeeping stuff like laundry and such before we leave early morning on Wednesday. The place we haven't visited yet is Myeongdong district so we're simply going to enjoy and relax today. Will write about this later.

2007-05-28T03:26:00.000-10:00

Monday, May 28, 2007 - Seoul

Went to the Korean Traditional Hanok Village within the Seoul city area. Spent the whole morning there just taking our time going from one area to the other and sitting under the shade of a tree and just enjoying the spectacular view. It is so convenient to get to this place because the subway station exit is just a few yards from the entrance.

For lunch we went to the University belt in Sinchon and Ehwa Women's University. Stumbled into this local place that offers Korean noodle soup. No one could speak English but we dared to try their fare. The server gave us what he thought we'd like - kimchi noodle soup with spam and hotdog! Ha, ha, ha.... Both Peter and I thought just because we spoke English we didn't like to try local stuff. Anyway, the soup was cooked on the table, saimin noodles added when the broth boiled, lots of side dishes were served with the food (sometimes about 6 different sides in bowls). The spam and hotdog turned out to be really, really delicious! And because he thought that we were disappointed he gave us free soda. This experience was indeed something to remember because we were the only non-locals who didn't speak any Korean word.

Tip: Learn the word for "Thank You", "Good Morning/Good Evening/Good Day", and the best phrase to know, "That was a good meal." This latter phrase I learned well, "an-joo chal mogo summnida!" It made the server's day, I think!

After lunch we went to COEX (Convention Center and Trade Center area), a huge mall where food courts offering mostly Korean food abound.

Later we went back to Dongdaemun to sit near the Cheonggyechun water way which was transformed into a long walkway with stairs and benches to sit on. About an hour later we returned to the hostel to rest after such a long day out of doors.

Our hostel mates: Tim (American), Jeff (American), Paul (Australian) and Stu (British), along with the proprietess were drinking and talking story in the small kitchen right in front of our bedroom door. We joined in the conversations and the picture taking. Tim is all red in the face, drunk and ready to drop before his early morning flight out to Israel - he's on an RTW tour for 6 weeks. As of this writing, they just begun another round of drinks!

2007-05-27T04:02:00.000-10:00

Sunday, May 27, 2007 - Seoul

Took the Palace tour this morning. It was just Peter and myself in the tour bus for the 10 a.m. schedule. We simply sat through the whole tour and got off at the last stop which was the main palace of Gyeongbukgung. It's the biggest palace where the royal family used to live. The backdrop of the palace was the two mountains which is pretty good feng shui.

The recurring theme for our day is serendipity and perfect timing.

When we went to the Palace we thought we'd check it out first then come back later for the changing of the guards ceremony, or skip it when we can't return. Well, to our surprise after we bought our tickets to enter the palace the announcement came that the ceremony was about to take place in just a few minutes. So, we were right smack dab in the front middle row. Perfect place, perfect time.

Next we went to Insadong where we walked through the streets full of vendors selling food, souvenirs, ceramics, etc. Right when we reached the end of the street some performers were dancing then when we walked back to the middle another set of performers started coming our way.

When we returned back to Daehangno area where we are staying there was a huge event taking place in the main road. The Seoul University students held a major concert with singing, dancing and stage performances. Again, we were in the right place at the right time.

We watched for awhile before having some "street food" dinner: Peter had the sundae (spicy sausage) in a bun with peanut sauce and other condiments for only $2.50, while I had the grilled ika (squid) for only $2. We took our time eating and sitting with the locals near the exit no. 4 of the subway. Then when stood up to go back to the hostel these guys in a "green tea" bottle costume were beginning their dance routines. They were so hilarious that Peter and I really laughed so hard, one of the bottle guys approached Peter to go dance with him (while some were already dancing with the other bottle guys), then later while I was videotaping their routine one of the rushed to me and shoved his face into the camera. (Will hope to put this on youtube.com)

Anyway, it really is amazing that all these things happened when we simply showed up. Perfect place, perfect timing.

~~~
Comments:

In Daehangno area the people leave their trash all over the place - no trash bins are provided in the streets, even in the subway stations (only in the Seoul station and the toilets).
The young women here can dress elegantly on certain days but on the normal days they dress casually - unlike in Japan where they are always well-dressed.
Street food is particularly the local favorite - that's why Koreans love the Philippines.
Their singing style are pretty much like the Filipino pop music.

2007-05-26T13:21:00.001-10:00

Comments:

Koreans seem to enjoy life more than the Japanese.
Young Koreans congregate in many areas here in the city and they let loose and just be.
Koreans are the Spanish here in Northeast Asia like the Filipinos to Southeast Asia- really expressive, noisy (love to talk a lot), hangs out late at night every day of the week.
Seoul is such a huge city, about a quarter of the population in South Korea live here, yet it is quite orderly.

2007-05-26T04:06:00.000-10:00

Saturday, May 26, 2007

It's a weekend here in Seoul and it seems that almost everyone is out and about in town. The subways were full but not packed. The streets were bustling with all the people checking out stores and shops.

Peter and I went to find the place to get the Seoul City Pass, first went to the main Seoul Station only to find out we needed to go to the Seoul City Bus tour counter in Gwanghwamun. Got the 2-day unlimited city bus tour which includes 20-rides for the bus or subway.

We decided to just take the Downtown tour since we were already there. The card pass is so convenient because even if you put the card in your wallet or bag and contact it on the T-Money thingy it can be scanned. The tour took us through all of downtown, we stopped in just a few of the interesting places like Yongsen (where you can buy cheap electronic stuff), Itaewon (tourist and foreign friendly place due to the military base and residence nearby), and the Nam Sam Tower (great view of the city).

We took our time visiting these various places and just caught the next bus when we're done. We decided to take the night tour also and it was such a wonderful and worthwhile experience. This route took us south of the city passing through half a dozen bridges along the Hangang river. We also stopped by the Nam Sam Tower (again!) for only 20 minutes BUT it was truly the most wonderful experience here in Seoul so far. People, local and tourist alike, were there enjoying the specatular view of the city and of the Tower. For us the city tours were the best of all the countries we've visited in the past. (Well we haven't tried the one in Paris - it might prove to be something awesome too!)

Tonight we had street food dinner - "sundae" (Korean spicy sausage), fried sweet potato sticks (like french fries) and for dessert we had an ice cream and saw Red Mango where we had fruit yogurt ice cream. YUM!

It was a wonderful and interesting day. We surely enjoyed our day. It wasn't stressful at all but rather it was a very enjoyable sightseeing day!

2007-05-25T02:19:00.000-10:00

Friday, May 25, 2007 - Seoul, South Korea
Woke up way too early this morning to leave the hostel and to catch the Keisei Skyliner to Narita. We could have taken the 6:30 trip but were not too sure if we'd get to Ueno station before then. Anyway, to be early is better than to be late.

The Skyliner took us to Narita in 56 minutes. Gray clouds covered the sky and rain pelted on to the windows. We were thankful that the weather stayed really good during our entire stay in Japan.

At the Narita Airport we went through check-in, immigration and inspection pretty quickly. Had some time for brunch near the gate - wanted to use all of our yen before going to Seoul, we only had less then 300 yen left at least.

The flight to Seoul took only 2 hours. It was quick and uneventful. Great weather and cool temperatures (64 degrees F/18 degrees C) greeted us at the Inchon Airport. Went through immigration and customs without a hitch, and found our way to the airport railway which took us to Gimpo Airport then transferring to Line 1 to Seoul Station then to Line 5 to Dangdaemun then finally Line 4 to Hyewah station. It took us awhile to find the exit 4 of this station (we got out of the wrong one). Turns out the exit 4 was right smack dab in the middle of where the young people hang out to have their barbecued meats on a stick.

Our hostel is located very near this busy area. Just a few minutes walk and you are already in the middle of the Daehangno shopping area. This is where we found our first authentic Korean dinner of three layered fat with lots of side dishes of assorted kimchi and vegetables - for only $19. We also found this nice cafe that sits on one of the busy corners of the street which is perfect for people watching.

Comments

The Japanese really like order and cleanliness. The Koreans are much more like the Filipinos who love chaos, noise and mess.
The Japanese are too serious. The Koreans very hang loose.
The Japanese can be called on for help. The Koreans are very solicitous and will help you when they know you need it.
The Japanese trains are narrow and clean. The Korean trains are wide and sparkling clean (at least the ones that we've ridden so far).

2007-05-24T10:04:00.000-10:00

Friday, May 25, 5:05 a.m.
We are on our way to Seoul this morning. Still have time to post quickly before we leave for the subway station on to the Kesei Line skyliner express to Narita.

Our last day here in Tokyo was spent visiting districts we missed the past two days to the other. Our Toei-Tokyo Metro line one-day pass card was thoroughly used. Districts we visited: Shinjuku, Roppongi, Harajuku, Shiodome, etc.

We found out that most of the young people hang out in Harajuku, a pedestrian mall full of stalls selling clothes, food, etc. This was where we had our italian dinner, which was really light yet delicious and cheap!

I will post more on this and some comments when we are in Seoul. For now I can just say that we have seen so much of Tokyo that we find this place interesting and worth visiting again, especially the other cities and towns throughout the country.

Sayonara from Japan!

2007-05-23T12:35:00.000-10:00

Wednesday, May 23 - Tokyo, Japan

I woke up at around 4:30 a.m. - because I thought my alarm didn't work and because the sky outside was already bright. Peter and I got ready by 5 a.m. so we can go to the Tsukiji Fish Market and watch the fishermen auction their catch of the day to the buyers. We walked to the nearby Asakusa Station for the Ginza line only to find out the gate was still closed. Fortunately there was this local lady on her bike who saw us check the map and the times she told us there was another gate across the street from where we were.

We bought the one-day ticket for all the tokyo metro lines (not the toei lines). I found it easier to just use one subway network for our sightseeing although we had to use one toei line because it was the nearest station from where we were. A different ticket is used and when you transfer you will need to put the toei ticket on top of the metro ticket when you insert it on the machine and the metro/day pass ticket will be returned.

Once in the station we found our way down to Tsukiji, walked to where the markets were only to find out they were closed. One local japanese we met said they were closed 2 wednesdays a month and on weekends and holidays - this was THAT wednesday. Shucks! Even the stores surrounding the market were closed only a few were open for those unfortunate tourists like us.

At Tsukiji Market the fishermen bring their catch to the market at around midnight where they prepare them for sale early in the morning. Then the buyers come and bid on the fish. The yelling and bidding heard in this place is probably incredibly loud like the Stock Exchange in NY. We could only imagine how crowded it must be with the sellers, buyers and tourists wanting to be part of the action. This morning everything was clean, quiet and empty. The opposite of what it's supposed to be like.

We left the area a bit disappointed but not for long, as we turned the corner we found a Hongaji (sister of the one in Kyoto). As we entered and sat (separately, Peter near the middle with the locals and I on the back side for the softer chair), the bell rang signaling the start of their service. Once again our timing was perfect (they only do the service at 7 a.m. and 4 p.m.). We stayed for a half hour observing their rituals and listening to their chants. It really is a good experience, quite different from what we Christians do. I stole a few shots and recorded a minute of the chant using my camera - I hope I won't get bad karma for this.

We left the Tsukiji area to the nearby Ginza just to check out the expensive stores they boast of having. No activity at the time we arrived because the locals were still on their way to work.

Next we went to the Maranouchi district for the Imperial Palace grounds. The garden area is a vast land full of trees, grassy areas and benches surrounded by a moat. We walked to the statue of a local hero, Kusunoki Masashige. Sat there at one of the shady benches, found the vending machine that sells the ice cream wafer sandwhich (like the one I had about 23 yrs ago) - it's a lot smaller now and they have more choices. Then we walked to the Sakurada-mon gate then to the famous Nijubashi bridge.

On our way to the Tokyo station which is located east of the imperial palace we stopped by the park where Peter took a short nap on one of the cool cement benches while I read and planned about our route for the day.

We explored the Maranouchi building which boasts of good restaurants - turns out there were only a few choices, we got some interesting bread and dessert from the grocery which we ate later. At the Tokyo station, a bricked building erected in 1914 but restored in 1946, stood to the east of the palace. This station is old compared to the modern Kyoto station. There were a few shops underground and the floor plan was not easy to understand. Nevertheless, we found our way to the Metro Ginza line then transfered to the Hibiya line - destination: Tokyo Tower.

Tokyo (broadcasting) tower built in 1528 is 333 meters tall. Looks so much like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The fee for the different levels get more expensive the higher you go so we opted to skip out on that and just ventured down to the nearby park to have our snack. At that park we saw a group of preschool children with pink hats and their 3 teachers. They were told to run around the grounds until they got tired. The kids were so cute and had their own personalities, Peter and I were analysing them as they ran in front of us. We were attracted to the littlest girl called Misa (we heard them call her to get her to start falling in line). She was different from the rest, she would run with focus then later get distracted by the water in the canal. She'd get some leaves and other things to throw into the water and watch it float away. Provided us with great entertainment and laughter.

Noticed that when an adult needed to scold a child they would take them to the side away from others and talk to them. Also when the child falls to the ground they simply urge them to stand up and ignore them when they cry.

After our snack and entertainment in the Park we meandered our way to the nearby Toei station (the metro station was quite far) for the Shibuya district. This is where all the working class japanese and the teenagers hang out. Some movies would show this area especially where everyone crosses the 5-street intersection. It is like Cubao in the Manila or Times Square in NY.

We tried to find a place to have lunch around the area, and we did! This small restaurant is a short order place. You purchase your order on a vending machine, pressing the button for your choice and a ticket will come out. You give this to the person in front of the bar you'll be sitting and your order will be given to you in no time. I had the regular plate japanese curry with rice and miso soup for only 350 yen and Peter got this pork with stuff on rice and miso soup for 500 yen. This was very popular among the locals because it was quick and cheap!

Meandering the nearby streets gave us a glimpse of what the regular folk do during lunch time. We wanted some cold soda to drink and we found it in a nearby vending machine (we refuse to go into a McDonald's or a Starbucks for this). We also got some dessert crepes and sat in a small area in the middle of the street. Met a couple from Sicily (she's English and he's Italian), gave us good tips in looking for antiques here in Japan and tips in Beijing.

We went back to the hostel to shower, cool off, and nap before going out later that night.

By 8 p.m. we found ourselves in Ameyoko shopping promenade. Vendors line the pedestrian street with a variety of goods from clothes, dried fish to food and snacks. We bought cheap unagi (eel) for our dinner for only 800 yen - they wanted us to get the last one too for 1000 yen for both but it was too much for us. We walked south but decided to take the subway down to Akihabara, the electric city. Found lots of anime stores in the area and some electronic stores. Bought musubi rice to go with our unagi.

Returned to Asakusa to look for a park to have our dinner but everything was dark so we went to the hostel and ate at the 4th floor kitchen/dining room. We didn't go out anymore because it was already late and we were tired from a whole day of walking.

2007-05-22T20:55:00.000-10:00

Perspective of Peter

Come Think of It There Are More Crows Nowadays

continued my conversation with casilda on the japanese and their future. what's ironic is that the traits that make them such world beaters in industry are exactly the same traits that get is getting them in trouble. they make such great products because they keep on trying to improve on something. this is true for all their products and their habits. they really go overboard when they adopt an idea or a thing. take tea drinking for example. what would have been a simple exchange and sharing of tea between host and guest has become a highly ritualized thing. or when they learn to adopt a technological process they work it until the thing is almost perfect.

the problem is that their system of adopting something and creating rigid formulas around it to keep from any deviation also kills creativity and initiative. this system called "kata" works really well to transmit information and practices without any changes far into the future. BUT it also prevents them from reacting quickly to exogenous, fluid events. take the kobe earthquake for example. the damage from fires from the gas lines was worse because no one had the initiative to turn off the the gas. they had to do major consultations with everyone involved to start doing anything.

another thing is that they have this "don't change what isn't broke" mentality. therefore they need to be really pushed from outside to make any improvements in their system. this worked really well when there were no foreigners in japan. but nowadays no one can keep the outside from coming in anymore. maybe only north korea, the hermit kingdom, has been successful but eventually even they will have to join the world.

ironically, the japanese might be rich as a nation, but its people are unhappy, stressed, and are no longer replacing their aged. what's the point when their kids will grow up to be neurotic and be just another wage slave to the system. they have very little organized outlet for their frustrations. compare that to the hawaiians who lived under 9 months of strict taboo/kapu behavior and but enjoyed 3 months of official break from it during their makahiki season.

another irony is that usually when someone has a lot of savings one feels good because he can spend it on desirable and enjoyable things. the japanese are one of the highest savers in the world. but they are still unhappy. why? they can't really spend it the way they might want because they don't want to raise the disapproval of their friends and neighbors. ostentatious wealth is looked down upon.

especially wealth that came suddenly like the rags to riches stories of a few of its entrepreneurs, are frowned on. unlike in some countries like the u.s. or china where rich entrepreneurs are lionized and become celebrities, in japan the establishment does all it can to bring them down. that's why it's very hard for anyone who is dissatisfied with being a corporate or government drone from striking out on his own. you get blacklisted when you start, and you can never go back, and if you do succeed the big boys try to bring you down. it's a lose lose situation for those who might want a different path in life.

and if you do leave japan for any length of time and then come back, they think of you as an alien. you might have learned to break your mental thought processes that made you a mindless drone in japan with no opinions, but when you come back from abroad you suddenly find yourself thinking like one again. it's very hard to break ingrained, hardwired thought processes. it is a scientific fact that repeated thoughts and habits are actually reflected in the physical brain by stronger neuron connections in the specific part of the brain dealing with that thought or action.

can the japanese actually just ignore what's happening to themselves demographically and socially and just go merrily along? they could if they are willing to give up being a superpower and have a simpler lifestyle, with decaying infrastructure and a population subservient to outsiders. but the powers that be in japan will never let that happen. thus they will do all they can to reverse these trends.

they also have a much larger fear and that is the growing power and dynamism of china, their old enemy. the japanese are in a state of fright because of what's happening right across the pond and the consequences for them. but what's worse is that they can't seem to do anything about it. so they can't ignore the problems internally and externally. they are in between a rock and a hard place.

one morning i asked casilda if the crows that scream us awake every morning have always done that. she said yeah they have, but come to think of it, "since i arrived 18 years ago they have gotten a lot louder, and there's more of them now. they seem to have crowded out the smaller birds too. i don't hear the smaller ones in the morning now like i used to."

hmmm... more numerous and louder crows, signifying death, decay, doom.

how appropriate i thought...

2007-05-22T01:13:00.000-10:00

Tokyo, Japan

Peter and I arrived in Tokyo a little bit after 1 p.m. Dad Dan accompanied us to the Shinkansen terminal and tracks. He bought an admission ticket so that he could enter the terminal to see us off.

The Nozomi shinkansen is the superexpress bullet train which took us to Tokyo in 2 hours and some minutes (compared to the 7 hours by bus). At the Tokyo station we checked with the information booth and got directions to get to Asakusa. Our shinkansen ticket was also used for our transfer to the JR Yamanote Line to Kanda station for a transfer to the Tokyo Metro Ginza line (which was about 400 meters away). We crossed the Sumidagawa to get to our hostel which was only a few minutes walk east.

The hostel is one of three here in the area. We got our key to our private room (shared bathroom) and took some time to relax and get a cold shower - it was a bit warm in the city. We went out a little bit later to explore the Asakusa neighborhood.

We have decided to just follow our instincts when we tour this city so that we will not feel too stressed trying to fit in every sightseeing place in our three days here in Tokyo.

We meandered through the streets of Asakusa and found our way to the Kaminarimon dori (street) and the Sensoji Temple area. From the Kaminarimon gate the entire street was lined with stalls selling japanese treats and souvenirs - from samurai swords, kimonas, chopsticks to the usual key chains.

We took our time going around from side street to side street following where the local people go. This helped us find a great local sushi (conveyer belt) place, everyone except for the two of us were locals - which was an incredible experience. The sushi makers and the servers were pretty noisy that added to the ambience. The color-coded plates had interesting choices which we've never seen or tasted before. We tried the raw octopus, the herring roe, the fatty tuna, this soft thing which tasted like urchin, and others. All fresh and delicious! And the price was very reasonable for the exotic sushi.

We walked around the area some more because it wasn't yet dark (and Peter didn't want to return early to the hostel, they might think we're a couple of "old" people), so we walked to the Asahi building which was next to this building with a golden turd on top. Yeah, you read right! This gold turd-shaped structure can be seen in the area. We just don't know what it really is and I've seen one review name it as such. There we found this nice little cafe where we could people-watch. Very near to our hostel. It was a good find.

This idea of not following any daily itinerary is better than having one. We are opening ourselves to serendipitious experiences and interesting adventures.

2007-05-21T00:04:00.001-10:00

Monday -
This is our last full day here in Kyoto. Dad Dan, Peter and I left early this morning to catch the 10 a.m. tour of the Imperial Palace. We went to the office to apply for a permit to enter the place - no entrance fee needed. By 10 a.m. we went inside walked directly to the waiting room where we watched a short introduction of the tour being given. This 50-minute to an hour tour took us around the palace grounds but not inside the buildings. There were several huge buildings which used to the be residence of the Emperor and his family for more than 200 years until the Shogun too power and moved the Imperial palace to Tokyo. It was after the Edo period when the Emperor was able to retake the palace in Tokyo.

After the tour we took the subway at Imadegawa station (very near Dad Dan's residence) to go to Toji Temple in the south to see the biggest flea market here in Kyoto. There are several flea markets all over the city but they are not held at the same time. This one at the Toji temple is held only on the 21st of each month. We got off at Kujo Station and walked about 4 blocks west.

A huge pagoda next to the temple is what we saw first followed by the vendor stalls on the front sidewalk and the tons of stalls within the temple walls. I think the temple occupies the entire block because there were just so many stalls that it was really overwhelming at first.

Peter and I walked around while Dad Dan sat down in a shaded area. We saw some interesting antiques and old Japanese paraphernalia like this military outfit worn during the Edo period complete with helmet and fast mask. Peter was so interested in it that he wanted to know its history and authenticity. Fortunately, a friend of Dad Dan, Goto-san was there. He helped interpret what the seller was saying nad tried to get a good price for it. Well, the price was too steep, around $3500, that Peter decided to just think about it (meaning, no way, jose!). Although it really looked authentic. Oh well, next time.

The three of us walked around to find a place to have lunch. We saw one place where assorted food were boiled or steamed. It looked interesting so we decided to go inside. Well, we thought we knew how to order, instead we let the woman choose for us. There were three plates with a piece of potato, tofu, seaweed cake, lotus root, and others I'm not familiar with. The price was expensive for what we thought was a cheap meal, we spent about $28 including drinks. It felt like we were cheated but from my research they say that the Japanese people will not overcharge anyone for even the smallest thing. Well, Peter asked Auntie Casilda and she assured us that that was the correct price.

Aside from that lunch, we found some interesting dessert items which we tried: pancakes filled with adzuki bean/custard/garbanzo bean and a sticky rice on a stick.

As for our souvenirs we only bought chopsticks with our names etched on it. We thought it was a good find.

By 2:30 p.m. we walked to the nearest bus station to get back to Kyoto Station where we stayed and meandered around while Dad Dan went back home to rest. Peter and I walked to the top of the station on both sides and had great views of the city. We also had some ice cream and soda snack so that we could sit down and relax before going back out for another walking tour.

At the Kyoto Station the Isetan department store occupied most of the west portion. We passed through the department store down to the Porta where we walked through the underground passageway to get to Nanajo street. We wanted to see the garden a block away from the Honganji temple, unfortunately when we got there it was already closed. So, we walked to the nearest subway station, at Gojo, to get back to Imadegawa and back home.

Tonight we will be having dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant. It really is a great thing that we are centrally located: just across the street is Doshisha University and adjacent to that is the Imperial Palace and there are so many restaurants around the area as well as a central point for buses and subway connections.

We hope to visit Kyoto again in the near future and to stay longer, maybe 3 weeks to a month. It sure is an interesting place to visit: for the history, the culture and the food!!!

~~~
Just came back from our dinner at the Thai restaurant. We ordered the fried bream fish with tamaraind sauce, fried chicken (karaage) with tamarind sauce, red curry with tofu and sauteed veggies, and for dessert: sweet basil seed with nata de coco / kaong and soy milk dumplings (tasted like palitaw) in coconut sauce. The food was very good especially the fish and the chicken. All in all it was a very satisfying meal.

After my post I will start packing for our trip to Tokyo tomorrow. Will tell you all about our shinkansen (bullet train) experience once we get settled at our hostel in Tokyo.

Sayonara from Kyoto!

2007-05-20T23:41:00.000-10:00

Sunday -
We attended the Karasuma Kyoku, a small Japanese UCC church led by the Uebayashi family, located east of the Kamo River. The service was in Nihongo so Peter and I didn't understand all of it, especially the message. Although some of the hymns used that morning were familiar and had anglisized syllables we could read along with, some were in hiragana or katakana.

The pastor led introductions of each person present at the end of the worship serive and then we were asked to give a brief introduction of ourselves. Among the 17 or 18 people, 6 were Filipinos, 1 from Myanmar, 1 from China, 1 from Brazil (Japanese), and the rest Japanese. The foreigners who attend this church are students at Kyoto University taking their doctorate or master's degrees. They stumbled upon this little church and were attracted to the openness and the hospitality of the Uebayashi famiy.

After church we took the bus and transfered to a slow train going to Arashiyama. This day the Mifune Matsuri was held there in the Oi river. There were many Japanese and tourists surrounding the river on three sides (one side from the bridge). This event was a re-enactment of the times when the royalty would spend the early summer or late spring time in the river on boat singing and reading poetry while the commoners would look from the water's edge. It was such a spectacle that we simply took lots of pictures of the "royalty" and some geishas perfoming in some of the boats.

It was also an experience in snacking: as we got out of the train station in Arashiyama Peter already wanted to try this soy milk drink, next we saw a crepe station and got two (one sweet with mochi and chocolate, and the other with ham and egg), then as we turned into the street parallel the river we bought a plate of 8 takoyaki (squid balls) which was, as I mentioned before, piping hot and delicious! When the festivities died down we walked around the Arashiyama neighborhood, found a small cafe where we could have tea with sweets and coffee, and also use their toilet.

Just before we went back into town we checked out the nearby temples and shrines. Soon we were back in town and in the Izumiya shopping center where Auntie Casilda went to buy some stuff for our dinner. Dad Dan, Peter and I were left at the floor where they had a foot massager - it felt sooooo good after the walking we had that morning. We met her downstairs by the front entrance later.

Our dinner, yes we still ate after all the eating we did in Arashiyama, was a type of hot pot dinner where in the center of the table is a pot with boiling broth which we filled with assorted seafood, chicken, veggies and mushrooms. It was so good, so healthy, and really hit the spot (it was perfect for a very cold night!).

2007-05-20T03:33:00.000-10:00

Saturday -

Dad Dan, Peter and I went to Kyoto Station, south of where they live, to get our train tickets for Tokyo and also to see this modern building. We took bus No. 59 which turned out to be the wrong bus because this bus was supposed to take us to the Nishi-jin Textile place which we opted not to do. The bus stop nearest the Kyoto Station was about 4 blocks away.

We walked the rest of the way and saw the huge Honganji temple a block before the Kyoto tower and station. We walked in and slowly worked our way to the temple. I went ahead, took my shoes off and entered the building. The temple had tatami mat flooring and visitors to the temple (mostly Japanese) sat on the floor facing the shrine. Peter and Dad Dan came in a few minutes later just in time to witness a Buddhist ceremony for remembering the dead. We were the only non-Buddhist foreigners there, at least for the most part (a few others came in towards the end).

The ceremony was about 10-15 minutes long. Began with the monks' entrance followed by the chanting and calling of loved ones' names. It was truly serendipitous that we were there at the right time. Again, synchronicity at work!

We left the temple just at the right time when the rain stopped. The weather turned from warm to chilly - which is pretty much what has happened these past few days. At least this time I was ready with an umbrella.

Next, we walked towards Kyoto Station passing through the "Porta" - underground subway passage with lots of shops and restaurants. Found a french boulangerie where we got some interesting pastries and bread. Right across we saw the takoyaki (squid balls) stand. Peter and I immediately ordered one plate of 8 pieces with egg salad topping and bonito flakes. These takoyaki balls are made of batter filled with squid and other veggies, quickly cooked in specialized containers and turned over and over to brown the outside while the inside is moist and hot! I was so excited to try it that I forgot to blow on it. My mouth burned on my first bite! It was extremely hot and I think my palate got scalded. But that didn't stop me from trying it. And it was worth it! Yum!!!

After our takoyaki fix we went to the Shinkansen ticket office for tuesday. We are now reserved for the Nozomi (fastest bullet train) to Tokyo.

We met Auntie Casilda at the Kyoto Granvia Hotel before we went to the Kyoto Tower for a great 360 degree view of the city. After the tower Dad Dan went back home to get more jackets for us because the weather was so unpredictably cold and windy. The rest of us took the bus to Nishiki Market.

At Nishiki Market, we walked the clean and sterile passageways which are lined with assorted food stalls - fish, candies, rice cakes, pickled food, etc. Peter and I were walking and were trying out all the interesting food we liked. Loved the berry/black vinegar ice cream. The green tea ice cream was a bit bitter. The mochi with lotus root was good as well as the shrimp and onion patty. It really was a food experience!

We returned to the house via the bus, to make use of our 500 yen bus ticket (need to at least ride the bus 3 times to make it worth it. One bus ticket cost 220 yen).

It was a long, tiring, yet interesting day. Our feet and legs were sore after a whole day of walking. Well, it's actually a good introduction to all the walking we will do in China.

2007-05-19T23:59:00.000-10:00

Peter's Perspective:
Day 1 continued

Two Options for the Japanese

dinner convo continued with the observation by an expert friend of casilda's:

the incontrovertible fact is that the japanese are getting older and the younger ones are not matching the rate of attrition, somewhere around 300 thousand a year. by 2050 or earlier, what was once 120 million will be down to 80 million mostly aging people. therefore:

Option 1: they don't do a thing and watch their population dwindle.

Option 2: they bring in new blood from other countries like south east asia, or china or korea.

i believe just by superficial knowledge of the japanese that they will never ever choose option 2. these people i believe would rather commit national seppuku rather than dilute their precious japanese blood with chinese or korean genes. there's also the superiority thing. then of course the idea that the once conquered peoples will exact demographic revenge on their one time oppressors.

therefore i believe that sometime in the future, some old japanese guy or most likely, a lady, will turn off the lights and bid everyone "sayonara" then jump off the cliff.

a couple days later though i thought there might be some other options albeit wild and totally off the wall. one obvious one of course is that the young ones who leave the country to spend time in foreign lands and learn foreign ways will come back and effect a change. this of course will never happen as the establishment institutions, and social and cultural dictates are just too well entrenched for any sort of unorganized takeover by the youth. then because of a lack of better things to think about, i came up with some really wild options.

wild option 1:
all young people under 25 leave the country. any new ones being born in the next 25 years is shipped out to live in foreign lands. when everyone who is left behind in japan has finally died off, all the foreign born and expatriated japanese come back home. then they create a new culture free of the incredible strictures of the previous japanese culture. they can take what's best, and dump what was most restrictive, thus inaugurating a new world culture in japan.

wild option 2:
ship all young people to mars or the moon. the japanese are perfectly hardwired for such tough and restrictive endeavours as colonizing a place. they can live with very little resources, can handle, nay, enjoy cramped conditions, and can repeat the same jobs and information transference, with hardly any deviation, over and over again even 20 generations into the future.

so yeah, this option should be on the table. meanwhile, they can bequeath the japanese islands to the filipinos, a people who they brutally conquered but who bear them no ill will nor are they hatching vengeful plans like i'm sure the chinese and koreans are doing. don't believe me? heck even with all the forced prostitution the japanese extracted from the philippines, thousands of filipina women stream into japan today to work there in the world's oldest institution without being forced into it. see? it's a win win for everyone.

2007-05-19T14:24:00.000-10:00

Peter's Perspective:

Day 1 Continued

Bento Boxes

riding the taxi for our 2 hour trip to neighboring kyoto from osaka. huge buildings, huge infrastructure, third largest metropolis area in the country, it's only 5pm but where are the people? i see the vehicles in the freeway. but looking out, everyone is missing! i guess they're all inside. maybe japanese don't go out of buildings often? if this was manila, or some other developing country people would be all over the place. not here.

feeling of sheer size and excess of the built up environment continues as we drive thru the freeways and past the inward curving walls of sound baffles in the freeway that go on for miles and miles. but wait! i spot green! the weeds and vines have grown thru the the concrete and around the metal of the baffles and freeway dividers. nature, life, is clawing, creeping, squeezing its way thru this impenetrable fortress of concrete and metal. hmmm, could it be reasserting itself somehow?? more questions, more hypothesizing.

the evening convo with dad and manang casilda brings some light into the situation. casilda has been living and working here for 18 years. an outsider with an insider's knowledge. the perfect person to have an objective view but also one who can easily mingle with the locals as one of them. or at least as close as the natives will allow. we'll have to mine her with info. and ask the right questions.

evening dinner was sushi in nice little bento boxes with little compartments. suddenly i saw these bento boxes morph into the huge buildings that the japanese have built. and inside these giant boxes were the japanese people, happily ensconced in their little compartments, each in their place, each perfectly circumscribed with no room for growth or spilling over into the next box, just like a delectable piece of ahi sushi. that's why i never saw anybody outside. maybe they were afraid some huge chopsticks might come thru the clouds from some hungry god or gods and eat them.

2007-05-19T12:53:00.000-10:00

Peter's Perspective
Day 1. The City of Lights Just Doesn't Compare

at the barnes and noble bookstore in honolulu, chanced upon a terrific book of satellite photos of the earth. turned upon the night time images of earth and saw all the lights. was amazed at the brightest most concentrated patch of white light in the planet. none other than the left coast of the japanese islands. paris, the so called "city of lights" or any other metro area in the world just doesn't compare. how appropo i thought as we prepared to leave for the airport to journey to the land of the rising sun and the islands of lights.

First Impressions: Overbuilt and Bento Boxes

as we swooped into the coast and into view of the osaka metropolis the sight elicited immediate one word responses from my mind: overbuilt, it's trantor!, natural coastlines are gone!! for those not steeped in asimovian science fiction, trantor is the homeworld of the galactic empire where every square inch of the planet had been paved over by concrete or metal and all living systems had become artificial and regulated, like one giant city in a bubble. huge revetments of concrete crisscrossed the coastline as if they had been anticipating a huge tsunami would be coming. no naturally shaped curving coastlines could be seen. all were straight or perfectly angled and concreted. a geometrist's version of heaven on earth.

kansai airport is another crowning example of technology and human will over nature. an artificial island built up right out of the ocean a few miles from the mainland. then there was the awe inspiring airport terminal. awesome in the sense of its excess that is. for a person like me who has spent a lot of research and time trying to learn to design human artifacts, like buildings and everyday items, out of very little materials and with the emphasis on sustainability and cultural, and geographical sensitivity, kansai air terminal demolishes those principles with gusto.

i mean do you really need a whole lot of 2 feet diameter metal posts holding up a thin walled and thin roofed structure? each supporting pole is further buttressed on its side by another pole leaning into it from the outside. and each pole and butress system is adjacent to another set just a mere 15 to 20 feet away. the amount of energy needed to extract these materials from the earth, and turn them into these posts must have been huge. this is just one example. there are many more but one must see it for himself.

suffice it to say, kansai airport is a perfect example of man defying nature, and excess wealth wasted on grandiose monuments to power and sheer will.

2007-05-18T13:04:00.000-10:00

I have been used to hearing roosters "cock-a-doodle-do-ing" in Maui every morning, although the sound is quite far and faint. Here it is now the season of the crows and their chirp is a loud "caw-caw" (a cross between a goose's "honk" and a duck's "quack"). The past couple of mornings I was awakened by the sound but this morning they "caw-ed" even louder than before. It's really interesting how many crows are here in the city. (Peter will comment about this later.)

2007-05-18T03:16:00.000-10:00

This evening we had a Japanese cultural experience at the Gion corner in Downtown Kyoto. Dad Dan and Auntie Casilda treated us to the 50-minute cultural show which featured brief performances of the Tea Ceremony, Koto music, Ikebana, Gagaku (court music), Kyogen (ancient comic play), Kyomai (Kyoto Style dance performed by a Geisha and/or a Maiko), and Bunraku (puppet play). This show is like the typical Hawaiian luau except that everything is short and sweet, and the tea ceremony was an additional expense for those interested in it. It is actually good to see this show as an introductory experience to Japanese culture.

Dad Dan and Auntie Casilda were out in the lobby waiting for us when the show finished. We all walked along the streets of Gion looking for a place to have dinner. It was at Tendan Yakiniku where we decided to dine. We ordered the "healthy" set: three-choice meats and two side vegetables. Thought we ordered the "ladies set" but it turns out we needed to order two for this, or something. Instead we ordered another "healthy" set, an assorted seafood plate, and beef soup. The meats and seafood really cooked fast, and because of the marinade the grill had to be changed so that cooking won't be uneven.

We left the restaurant fully sated.

To walk off the calories we walked along Pontocho street, a narrow alley that is filled with restaurants that only open in the afternoon until late at night. The restaurants facing the Kamo river opens the yuka (outdoor dining) around this time of the year until the end of summer. As we walked it began to drizzle then turned into rain. We immediately turned back and found a taxi to bring us back home. It was perfect timing because as soon as we entered the house it started to pour harder. We'll try a night stroll along Pontocho and the Shijo and Shanjo bridges along the Kamo river for another day.

~~~
Toilets: Public toilets can be found all over town. Japanese-style (squat) and Western-style toilets are available but toilet paper are not always available. Private shops/restaurant toilets also offer both styles complete with toilet paper. The one at Tendan restaurant even had a heated toilet seat and options for a wash spray and dry, I think that's what the picture on the bottons were.

Taxi: The back door of the taxi opens and closes by itself so there's no need to do that when you enter and exit the cab.

2007-05-17T19:53:00.001-10:00

Here are my first impressions:

Everything is clean - airport, freeways, streets, etc. (even without trash bins along the streets you will not see any piece of trash lying on the road/street)
They overdo packaging - the sushi dinner we had last night was so pretty I didn't want to take a piece because it will ruin it, the shoyu that came with the sushi were in this small plastic fishes with red covers, the snacks are wrapped origami-style, the Coke we bought was in this aluminum bottle.
Recycling is not common - with the pretty styrofoam and plastic bento boxes, and assorted drink containers the Japanese do not recycle but everything and anything is incinerated. Really sad!
Japanese love their small cars - everywhere I looked I'd see these cute little compact cars by Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi. Daihatsu, Suzuki, Honda, and even Mercedes.
Vending machines everywhere, even in the narrow alleys and streets around the city.
Street names are common for the main roads but not for the smaller streets.
We have to get used to cars driving on the left side of the road.
Dryers are not common in every household. That's why we see more people hanging their laundry out in the porch.
The toilet flusher has two choices: pulled towards you and up is for larger capacity. pushed back is for smaller capacity.
Above the toilet tank a faucet is situated in the middle which turns on when you flush the toilet, the water can be used to wash your hands after using the toilet and it simply flows directly into the toilet tank. Pretty interesting thing! I'll post the picture later.

Peter will write his impressions of Japan later tonight. (Update 05-19-07: He's still compiling his information before writing a long commentary about the Japanese)

~~~

This morning Dad Dan took us inside Doshisha University, to the oldest Protestant church in Japan (not being used for regular services only for weddings and conferences), to the cafeteria where we can get cheap and good food, to the Family Mart where we got Bus tickets, then to the Imperial Palace grounds where he left us on our own because he had a class to teach at 1 p.m.

We walked through the palace grounds (where we saw school kids eating their bento lunch) then out into the streets just meandering our way around the city. Along the way we found this hole in the wall place which sells bentos. They had a display case of the food on their menu. All we did was point to what we wanted and paid for our order. I chose the tempura bento while Peter got this assorted meat and fish bento.

The only place we can eat was at a park. So we walked along the main road and found a map near a bus stop and saw a park about two blocks from where we were. The park was small and clean. One guy was sleeping on the bench for his lunch break, a few young adults were having their lunch and some were just hanging out, an old man was practicing his bocci and Peter and I found a nice shaded bench to eat our lunch. It was a nice and quiet place to eat. The only thing missing at this park was the trash bin. Nada! We had to lug around our trash until we found one at a Temple we accidentally saw along the smaller streets of Kyoto.

Kyoto is a very old city and was once the Imperial capital of Japan. There are so many Temples and Shrines. From our walk this morning we passed by almost half a dozen of them. Some not even mentioned in the maps we had. We realize after our experience in Venice that simply "purposely" getting lost in the place can bring surprising and interesting discoveries.

After about 4+ hours of walking we went back home to get some rest before heading back out after Dad Dan returns from his class. We probably will go to the Gion corner to check out the geishas and the maikos (apprentice geisha) and walk along the river which I learned is a great place to stroll at night.

2007-05-17T14:24:00.000-10:00

We learned a very good tip from this American we met while on the plane to Madrid in 2003: To avoid jet lag, sleep only when it is at least 10 p.m. local time. This really helps beating jet lag. So last night we stayed up until past 10 p.m. and this morning we woke up at the regular hour of 7 a.m.

Crows were crowing early in the morning which woke me up. Turns out it is crow season here in Kyoto. They are huge and you will hear and see them flying from tree to tree.

This morning Auntie Casilda prepared assorted fruit, yoghurt, omelette, her famous "biko" and banana bread. Everything was really good, especially the "biko!" This will tide me over for the next four hours or so, unless there's something delicious and interesting along our tour of the city. We just have to remember: No eating while walking!

2007-05-17T00:58:00.000-10:00

Greetings from Kyoto!

On Monday Peter and I were invited to a college graduation party for Nikka, one of our young adults at MCC. She received her BA degree in Business Administration from Chaminade University that night, to celebrate her family hosted a dinner party at Dave and Buster's in the Ward Center. Friends and family gathered on this auspicious night to celebrate Nikka's accomplishments. The food was great and the entertainment very interesting. We left at half past midnight.

On Tuesday Peter spent most of the day in his company's office to sign documents and do errands before we left for our NEA vacation. I, on the other hand, drove all over the place checking out different stores along the way. Picked up Peter for a late afternoon lunch before dropping him off at the Aloha Tower for their company's 20th anniversary dinner at Gordon Biersch. I didn't join them, instead, I spent that time watching a movie at the Ward Cinema. Just couldn't believe the regular price for a movie ticket - $9.25! It's really expensive. If I know that the Restaurant Row cinemas had more interesting movies like Bridge to Terabithia and The Last Mimzy for only $1, I would have gone there instead! Shucks!

The timing was perfect when I finished watching the movie Peter's party ended. I picked him up and drove back to Waikele to pack for our trip the next day.

On Wednesday we left a little after 7 a.m. and arrived at the airport too early to check-in for our 12:40 p.m. flight. We waited about an hour and a half before checking in and having brunch inside the airport. The flight to Osaka/Kansai Airport was pretty comfortable. Peter and I didn't feel to anxious during the flight, in fact, we were able to read the books we brought with us.

We arrived at Kansai airport at 4:42 p.m. Went through the quarantine, passport control, baggage claim and customs without any problems. The MK Taxi driver, holding up a sign with our name on it, waited for us at the exit. The MK Taxi is a High Ace van which shuttles passengers to Kyoto. We paid 3500 yen per person. Sat at the seats right behind the driver. About almost two hours driving through the freeway we arrived in Kyoto City. Transferred to a local taxi which took us to where Dad Dan and Auntie Casilda live. We thought the driver was lost because we ended up in a narrow street near a small restaurant. The driver spoke in Japanese and we didn't understand what he was saying. He had a map of the address but wasn't too sure if the street was the correct one. It turns out that that restaurant place was where they live - on the 2nd floor.

Dad Dan came out to meet us and brought us up to their pretty spaciouse apartment - an unusual size for a regular Japanese apartment. We were able to relax and settle down before Auntie Casilda returned after a class at Doshisha University. We had a sushi dinner (really fresh and good!) and fruit dessert.

We were thankful that we got here safe and sound.

2007-05-14T15:53:00.000-10:00

Today we experienced further the amazing synchronicities when we needed parking. Cars would leave just as we arrive providing us with the perfect space. Even here at Kinko's near the University, just as we entered a car left. It is just incredible once you open yourself to these kinds of synchronicities just how much possibilities the Universe or Spirit will open up for you.

So try it. When you are approaching a parking lot, thank the Universe or Spirit for that specific space and just trust it will come and be opened for you. It sure works!!!

2007-05-14T15:27:00.000-10:00

On Mother's Day we attended the worship service at Moanalua Community Church. But before service began we drove around our old neighborhood in Salt Lake and Moanalua. Again, many new stores and changes in the neighborhood. Even around the Church. It really looks so different: Gone is the former Manse/Parsonage now turned into a parking lot. Gone is the old shopping center now transformed into a modern mall with lots of restaurants and stores like Ruby Tuesday, Koa Pancake House (where we shared an omelette/pancake plate, again!), Jamba juice, etc.

The service began at 10:30 a.m. with the Praise Band leading the Praise singing. Misa, the pianist Peter and I helped choose to replace me in '98, is still there and has been loyal to the Church. A couple of military personnel, who are part of the military band, has stepped up to help with the music ministry of the Church, which I believe has been a godsend and a blessing. The new minister, Dr. Andrea, has a good connection to the military through her husband who himself is a minister at Fort Shafter. And, the children of the Church have grown in number and have been given wonderful opportunities to be part of the worship experience.

After the service our friends planned to have Mother's Day lunch at the Tradewinds Club restaurant inside Hickam Air Force Base for the 12:30 p.m. seating. We were invited as guests of the Agbalog family (thanks, Lynne and Sonny!). There were about 30 people in our group and we occupied an entire row of tables. The buffet set up had so much variety of food choices: cook-to-order omelette station and waffle station, prime rib/leg of lamb/ham carving station, dessert station, salad station, breakfast/assorted meats and potatoes station.

I had some from each of the stations and took my time eating what I got. It turned out I only went once and tried some of the ones I didn't get from someone who did. Everything was good and very filling. Fortunately I wasn't overly stuffed (like a turkey, LOL).

We had a picture taking session at the lobby before we all went on our own way. (I'll need to remember to ask Richard to send me copies of the pictures.)

Peter and I went Downtown after lunch to watch Spider Man III. We knew it would be busy and the parking lot full but because we now visualize and thank the Universe for a parking space we always find parking at the right time and in the right place. (This is the 2nd confirmed experience we had since the previous day!) Then we bought our tickets for the 3:30 p.m. show (it was already 3:40 p.m.) and as we got into the Theater the trailers were still being shown and we found great seats at the center and just as we sat down the movie began. Synchronicity at work!

After the long movie we drove back to Waikele for a get together of friends at Lynne and Sonny's. There were lots of pupus and other food set at the table. It was like our lunch buffet was continued at their place. The fellowship and the conversations, as always, were fun and interesting. We sure are thankful that we can be part of this every now and then.

Our other friends left around 9:30 p.m. (because they had kids that had school the next day). Lynne, Sonny, Peter and I continued to talk story until a little past midnight when we started to feel sleepy and exhausted after a whole day's acitivity.

2007-05-14T15:02:00.000-10:00

Peter and I have now begun our vacation here in Honolulu. We arrived on Friday morning via Aloha Airlines. We were able to catch an earlier flight out which was perfect.

At the airport we boarded the Alamo rental shuttle to get our car for the next four days. I got us a very good deal from Costco for a compact car with a minimum stay of 4 days for only $84.34 (compared to Travelocity and Orbitz's quote of $150). Since this was a very cheap deal we were given the oldest car in the lot, a Chevy two door sedan. Had a lot of miles on it as well as scratches and dents. We didn't complain but was thankful we got a good cheap rental.

Our first stop was brunch at our favorite local place, The Original Pancake House in Dillingham. The wait didn't take long but they were, as always, very busy. We were informed that Mother's Day would be even worse. Peter and I had the R&D omelette with 3-stack pancakes, a side of toast and 1/2 a papaya. It was a smart move for us to order one type of food and shared it. Anyway the portions are big enough for two. We were happy with our choice and left fully satisfied.

Next stop was a cruise around town or so we hoped. While on the road a nice couple driving alongside us alerted us to a flat on the left rear tire. Fortunately we were just nearing Nimitz to turn left instead we decided to return it to Alamo. Driving along Nimitz about a block from Alamo the "check engine" light turned on. The car was a lemon, Peter said. We returned the car and got an upgrade for free. A very good sign that this vacation/trip is going to be a great experience.

After getting a brand new silver Saturn Ion, we cruised through Downtown to Waikiki to Kapiolani park and back. There were lots of changes from the last visit we had in October: More buildings were erected, more shops and restaurants opened and more improvements happening all over town. What stayed the same was the volume of traffic in the streets even during the weekend and the amount of construction being done on the main roads.

We wanted to check out the Filipino Barrio Fiesta at Kapiolani Park but there were just too many cars and not one empty parking space available. It looked much bigger that before - from what we saw as we drove by.

On our return to the Downtown area we decided to walk around the Ward Cinema and Ward Center. We wanted to see Spider Man III but we had a party to attend to at 5 p.m. Instead we walked around the shops and found a place to have a snack, Beard Papa - a japanese crispy cream puff franchise. This is now crossed off my list of places to try in Japan. The puff pastry was good, not too sweet or soggy. Tried all the four flavors: vanilla, caramel, chocolate and strawberry.

We also spent some time at Borders before heading back to Waikele at Lynne and Sonny's place, who have been so gracious and hospitable, opening their beautiful home to us.

By 5:30 p.m. we went to Graham's pool party - the son of our good friends Gabby and Carla. He turned 10 yrs. old. There were about 27 of his friends from school, soccer team and Church. All the kids had so much fun swimming and playing with each other, while the adults were busy talking story with one another. The sumptuous food was catered by Golden Coin, a local Filipino fast food restaurant. Yum! We closed the party at 8 p.m. and helped Gabby and Carla clean-up before heading home.

2007-04-26T17:20:00.000-10:00

Northeast Asia Tour 2007

Honolulu - Kyoto - Tokyo - Seoul - Hong Kong - Shanghai - Beijing - Xi'an - Nanjing - Hangzhou - Shanghai - Guangzhou - Shenzhen - Hong Kong - Manila - Honolulu

...begins May 12, 2007.

2006-10-15T14:27:00.000-10:00

I will be posting on my other blog starting today so please check http://huakai69.blogspot.com/ for new updates. Thanks for reading.

2006-10-13T21:43:00.000-10:00

We were in Honolulu for about a week. Our friends, the Agbalogs and the Balaticos, graciously opened their beautiful home to us for the duration of our stay. They really made us feel welcome and comfortable the entire time.

While in Honolulu, Peter took the chance to visit his office while I spent some time at the Ala Moana Beach Park. We toured the island, ate at the restaurants on our "LIST OF PLACES or FOODS TO EAT IN HONOLULU", enjoyed some time with old friends at MCC. We even got to have a BBQ party at Gabby and Carla's house in Mililani - beautifully and lovingly renovated and decorated by the couple, you would think that you were inside Pier 1 Imports. :-)

Shopping was limited to just buying new piano music for Church at Logos and some books from Barnes and Noble or Borders.

We returned to Maui on Wednesday evening - 2 hours early because we were able to take the 6p.m. flight instead of our 7:30p.m. flight. Took the cab and got home to a newly carpeted house. The bedrooms were a bit dusty but the kitchen, my goodness, was filled with dead little black insects (the one you find in bags of rice). Apparently they multiply if not taken cared of. There were millions of them scattered all over the kitchen floor, the countertops and the cabinets/cupboards. Tonight I found some live ones still inside the bags of spaghetti noodles. I had to empty our pantry to make sure we get all of them otherwise they will multiply and move into the new carpet. Aargh! All that work I did to make sure everything is inside the cabinets and closets so they won't get dusty, hah! D*** those little bugs.

Learned a lesson here: the more you try to avoid doing something the more you will end up doing it.

2006-10-13T09:53:00.000-10:00

Wailuku, Maui

Been back on the Island for two days now. I haven't had the chance to post earlier because I busy cleaning what with all the dead little black insects scattered all over the kitchen floor, countertops, inside the cupboards and closets - you know, those black insects that like to eat the rice, well, they multiplied when we were gone to about a million of them turned the brown rice into flour and even munched on some wood at the same time, how awful! Anyway, they were all dead when we came probably after the Incite Pest people came for their regular spraying. Plus the dust accumulated this past two and a half months was quite thick that you have to go through the floors and shelves twice or thrice to get them out. So much for that right now....

Let me back track and tell you about our adventure the day we left, supposedly left, Manila.

On Wednesday evening my parents, Mang Boy included, took us to the airport after having dinner at a nearby KFC. We got to the airport at exactly 8p.m. Getting into the terminal, checking in, and going through immigration was a breeze. We were inside in less than 30 minutes. So we went straight to one of their lounges, the Club Manila lounge, where we go ourselves a 30 minute back, shoulder and head massage. Peter helped himself to the buffet food they had at the lounge while I stuck to just drinking water. By 9:45p.m. we left the lounge for Gate 2. A few minutes later boarding began. Peter and I were one of the last people to board since we had seats in the forward section of the plane. We got comfortable, sat there and waited until it was ready to take off. We were waiting for the doors to close but instead the pilot comes on the PA system and informs us that while they were checking the flight panel, one light didn't turn on. Upon further investigation, and about 30 minutes of waiting, they needed to replace that part of the engine. We waited. The pilot gave us updates every 15 minutes. Then finally a Continental representative came on line and told the Honolulu bound passengers that we have missed our connecting flight so we will need to stay overnight and either take the same flight the next day or transfer to the Philippine Airlines flight. There were also other passengers connecting from Guam that were going east bound further than Honolulu. So we left the plane along with the other 12 Honolulu bound passengers, and passengers that were going on through to Newark airport. It was a bit chaotic on the gate area because the people wanted to know how they were going to their destination. One lady manager seemed to have it under control.

We got off the plane at almost midnight. Three Continental representatives took charge and took us to where we the bus would pick us up and drop us off at the Manila Hotel. While we were boarding the bus these three reps were arguing between themselves. It was somewhat of an indication that there was something amiss here. I had an experience like this before with Northwest and told Peter that I thought we should have some print outs of our itinerary. So Peter asked them but they simply said that it will be taken cared of at the Hotel. Once everyone was on board the rep. took a final count, got our boarding passes and left. We left the airport at almost 3a.m. (We later found out that the plane finally took off at 4:30a.m.) At the Manila Hotel registration counter Peter again asked about the intinerary and all they said was that we will get a print out about our schedule tomorrow morning. So we took that as a sign that all is well. We were able to get a good night's rest.

In the morning we went down, had our complimentary buffet breakfast which was a bit disappointing - the food was either bland, too watery, too sweet or too meaty. We had enough time to tour the grounds before going back to the room and get some more sleep. By 11 a.m. we got a reminder call about our 12 noon departure for the airport. We got ready and went down to the lobby to wait. By 10 minutes to 12 noon I told Peter to check with the transportation desk, fortunately due to our initiative the shuttle was already outside waiting. The other Honolulu passengers (well, we kind of got to know each other by then) followed us and go in the shuttle while we waited for a few more who were running late. While waiting we got to know the 4 young seamen better. They were hired by the Serenade of the Seas docked at the Honolulu Harbor and was scheduled to leave that week. They weren't sure if the ship was still there when we arrived or if someone was told to pick them up the next day. Peter and I talked story with them and learned about their jobs and their scheduled cruise trips. They were really excited and very young. Anyway, the last two people finally arrived so we left for the airport immediately.

The shuttle driver took us to the PAL/NAIA 2 Centennial Terminal. All of us asked him who was supposed to meet us there. He said he was only told to drop us off and leave. So left to our own. Peter, Mr. Yip (a young Chinese American) and this guy from Waipahu took charge and led us all to the ticketing office to talk to the Supervisor. The guys told her of our dilemma and asked if she could contact Continental for us to check whether someone was going to meet us at the PAL terminal. She called but no one at Continental answered the phone. She checked the computer to see if we were all booked for the flight, all fourteen of us were. But she said there's no way they could let us all in even with a booking if we didn't have the FIM (flight interruption manifest) from Continental. So we waited. We waited for a half hour then Mr. Yip asked if he could try calling Continental. While he was doing that a PAL representative came. We thought that he was the one who was going to escort us into the Terminal. But no, he couldn't do that without the FIM. He was giving the Continental people until 2p.m. that afternoon to come and fetch us (the flight was scheduled for 3:30p.m.). By 2:20p.m. one sweaty guy in Continental uniform came and looked for us. He had all our FIM and was just waiting for our luggages to arrive from the other terminal. Peter went with him to make sure we don't lose him. A few minutes later he came back and told us to come with him. It was really quick after that: we grabbed our luggages, walked through the gate entrance, the x-ray and body check points, checked our baggages, on through to the terminal fee booth (which was waived since we paid it the day before), and the immigration booth. Fortunately the gate was near the immigration booth that all of us were able to make the flight - well, I'm sure they would have waited for us. Whew! That was an experience. We were all relieved that we made it to the PAL flight bound for Honolulu and the plane was not even full, so some of us were able to stretch and sleep well.

The flight was 10 hours and it didn't feel that long. The attendants did their best to make us all comfortable. The food was a surprise, it actually tasted good. And they now clean and disinfect the lavatories mid-flight. Overall PAL has improved since the last time we rode with them.

We arrived Honolulu at 7:45 a.m. Immigration and Customs were a breeze so we were out of the terminal by 8:15 a.m. We met our 4 seamen friends out by the waiting area. They asked Peter to help them call the shipping company for pick-up. He was only too happy to help. He called the number on their information sheet and it was a mainland number, Georgia to be exact. He asked for a local number which was incorrect but was able to get the correct number from that previous number. He got a hold of their supervisor and told him of the situation but he simply said that these 4 guys will just have to take a taxi because no one was picking them up. Well, we felt that it was now our responsibility to take care of these 4 seamen so we rushed to the car rental company and upgraded our compact car to an SUV so we can take them all to Aloha Tower. At the Tower, we went with them to find Pier 11. We walked up and down the cruise lobbies only to find that the Pier 11 lobby was the first door we passed. The boys were so relieved to find the right place. We could see it in their faces how happy and thankful they are that we were there to help them. I took a picture of them and Peter right outside Aloha Tower which I hope to email to one of them soon.

I believe that everything happened for a reason. I am just glad that Peter and I were able to do something for someone else. From misfortunes comes a blessing.

2006-10-03T22:34:00.000-10:00

In a half hour we will be leaving my paren'ts home in Lagro to pick up my mom and have dinner at the Quezon City Circle before proceeding to the airport. Our flight is still at 10:55 p.m. so we have some more time to relax. This morning Peter, my Dad and I went to SM Lagro. Peter had an hour of full body massage for only 316 pesos (about $6.50) while my Dad and I did some last minute shopping. He treated us to lunch at Inasal Chicken Bacolod - I know, Chicken Bacolod again! Anyway, we came back home after lunch, my brother was here having his own lunch and stayed for a few minutes before heading back to his apartment. This afternoon is more of just resting and relaxing before our long flight back to Hawaii.

As always, leaving is not easy and makes me feel sad. I know I'll have constant contact with my family but being here and spending time with them is what I enjoy the most. ;-)

Signing off from Quezon City, Philippines.

Meet you tomorrow in Honolulu, HI. Aloha!

2006-10-03T04:26:00.000-10:00

This morning we went to SM Fairview to have lunch. We tried this new restaurant, the Congo Grill. From its name you know that their theme is all about the jungle but their menu is filled with delicious Filipino food from North, Central and South Philippine cuisines. Peter and I tried the "tinomok", ground pork wrapped in gabi or taro leaf cooked in coconut milk; the grilled tuna belly; and bagoong (anchovy) rice. For dessert we had the frozen maki - made of a wheat crepe with cream and mango rolled like maki and frozen, served with chocolate sauce. The experience was so-so although I would recommend the "tinomok".

While at SM we bought some school supplies for my cousin and some groceries for our dinner. As always, luck wasn't on our side when we stand in line to pay for the groceries, we always end up in the slowest lane. Today was no different. I thought that the line I chose was good since there were a few people standing in the queue. Unfortunately, the two old women took so long because between the two of them they had to separately pay certain items, then when they paid for most of the items they bought, they paid in 5 peso coins - that answered my question as to why the other woman's bag was pretty heavy, it was filled with 5 peso coins. AND, their total purchase amount was 2,300+ pesos. Imagine how much 5 peso coins there were and how much time it took the cashier to count them all! Boy, that sure was the longest wait I have had to do just for a few items.

This experience adds to the other experiences we've had be it drivers on the road, people on the sidewalk or on the corridor or at an entrance or in a queue, people here seem to not care whether what they were doing would cause other people to be inconvenienced. I know it seems pretty negative but it's simply the truth. You really need an extra dose of patience not to snap at people who inconvenience you in certain ways. So be aware and be ready to react in a more positive way. For me, I've learned to laugh about it or just shake my head or roll my eyes.

This evening we got a visit from our long time friends, Verne and Gia along with their two children, Diwa and Laya. Both kids have grown tall and slim. Laya now wears eye glasses for her astigmatism and gap teeth - really bookish looking. While Diwa has grown taller and more mature. He even came back to the house after leaving to go home and watch his Pokemon show to play for us his violin. He has improved and is now in Book 2 of the Suzuki Violin Pieces. Both kids have learned to socialize with other people well, and eventhough we haven't seen each other for half a year they are able to converse with us and not be shy. It was a nice short visit and hopefully when I return in May they will be able to come and visit us in our beach property, which we hope will be open for use, then.

2006-10-02T15:05:00.000-10:00

We were invited by Apple, my brother's friend, for lunch in Tagaytay yesterday. She and her boyfriend, Clark, arrived an hour and a half late for your scheduled 11 a.m. departure for Tagaytay but it was still a good trip. She took us to "Sonya's Garden", a garden, bed and breakfast, restaurant, spa, etc, hidden from the main highway, very secluded and beautiful. To get there you will have to go through a rough, winding and rocky road. When you get there you cannot really see any building sticking out but lots of trees, bushes and a nicely decorated road. Their walkway is a mixture of slabs of tree trunks and white gravel and cement. The buildings are all made of old hard wood, capiz shell, screens, and recycled doors and much more. In between the buildings are beautifully landscaped "english"-type gardens that look wild yet planned. The restaurant is kind of exclusive as they require reservations in advance. It's a building with a high ceiling and looks like a green house covered with screens to give us a sense of being close to nature. The tables, chairs, chandeliers, etc. are all collected from old homes or salvaged from destroyed homes. All collected by the owner, Sonya Garcia. The restaurant do not provide a menu, they simply begin serving the food as soon as you sit down. It's a 4-course meal: first they serve the salad - a big bowl of salad greens freshly picked from their own organic garden, small bowls of toppings like crumbled hard boiled egg, mango, jackfruit, roasted lima beans, cucumber slices, pineapple and a Sonya's Surprise Dressing which was so delicious; second the bread - a basket of warm bread, small bowls of spreads like pate, anchovy paste, pesto, fresh pepper corn, sundried tomato pate; third was the main meal which was fettucini paste served in a huge bowl along with small bowls of toppings and sauces like marinara sauce, alfredo sauce, olives, shiitake mushrooms, fried salmon belly; for dessert we had turon - a sweet lumpia with banana and jackfruit, and sweetend kamote or sweet potato/yam. For drinks they gave us fresh fruit juice, kind of a surprise because the refill tasted different from the previous one but it was good; and with the dessert they gave us a simple hot water with three broken leaves of mint which was surprisingly refreshing and delicious. I don't know how much the cost for this meal was since Apple paid for it. It was probably expensive but the experience and the venue was worth it.

After the meal I went to their bathroom. It is located outside the main dining hall, perched on top of the edge of the hill, decorated with old hard wood, capiz shell doors and native items. As you enter the toilet you immediately see that the window is huge and is just covered with a white screen that looks out into the garden. So while you are doing your thing you could see everything outside. I guess Sonya wants all her guests to feel that they are one with nature. I took pictures of this toilet which I hope to download when I get back to Maui.

When I returned to the table I was given a special pink roses bouquet by the manager, of course, planned and paid for by Apple. She's such a sweet girl. I felt like I just had my debut holding the bouquet with me as we went touring around the property. :-)

We walked around the area checking out the garden where they plant their organic veggies, the massage rooms with it's own bathroom - the floor is simply stepping stones and gravel, really nice, their cottages and the Lavender house which has the 100 yr. old Chinese bed. The place is so conducive to retreats and for honeymooners and for people who simply want to relax.

We left Tagaytay at almost 5 p.m. I had scheduled a meeting with some of my friends that same afternoon solely based on the assumption that we would be back at 3:30 p.m. as per Apple's text message. I didn't take into consideration the "what ifs" like what if she came late, what if there was traffic and what if the weather was bad. Well, they all happened yesterday. Instead of returning to Quezon City before 6 p.m. we arrived at 7:45 p.m. due to the rush hour traffic and the heavy downpour caused by storm "Neneng". My friends were insistent that we still meet them that night but as we neared my brother's place the rains continued to pour and the streets were filling up with water. I decided to just go straight home asking my brother to take us. It would have been very hard and inconvenient for Peter and I to go to my friend's house in the rain, carrying a big bag of pineapples from Tagaytay, then returning home later than night via public jeep. It was a wise decision that we canceled the meeting, to my friends disappointment but I hope she understood.

We got back to Lagro at around 9 p.m. I didn't realize how tire I was. I wanted to start packing our stuff but immediately got so tired that I could barely move, I just wanted to just lie down. I think the exhaustion got to me after a week or so of assisting my aunty, accompanying her wherever she went and then the long trips. I could barely open my eyes or lift my arms. So I slept early hopefully to recharge my batteries.

This morning I still feel groggy and tired. I am not sure if I want to go out and meet with my friend this noon. Maybe this afternoon we could just meet at SM since it's near our house and I don't have to travel far. I'll have to text her....

Anyway, this will be all for today. Please pray that the storm "Neneng" will not pass by Metro Manila tomorrow evening. We leave for Hawaii tomorrow night. Pray for good weather. Thanks.

2006-10-01T13:27:00.000-10:00

Update on the lost luggage - it was on the last flight out from Bacolod and on its way to the office of my dad in Quezon City. Peter and I were really not stressed out about this nor were we worried because the bag and its contents are replaceable. But thank God that it has been found.

I forgot to tell you about last night's Vespers Service at the Church of the Risen Lord. As you know typhoon "milenyo" passed through Metro Manila and Quezon City with sustained winds of about 175km/h. A lot of the trees were uprooted and some of the trees surrounding the church fell bring the electric wires down with them. The entire church compound was without power. So we had a nice and intimate candlelit service last night. I was glad to see the Vesper Choir still alive. I remember several years ago when I was a one-woman choir during vespers. Not until I invited my close friends to join me in forming the first Vesper Choir of the 80s - we were called the Vocal Chords (a group of 7 - 2 ladies and 5 gents). The Vesper Choir today is also just a handful of dedicated members. Their repertoire is a bit different from what we used to sing but still they did a great job in providing music for the service.

2006-09-30T22:19:00.000-10:00

The severe typhoon "Milenyo" passed through the South of Luzon on through Metro Manila northward. Peter, Aunty Prossy and I were fortunate that we had left Manila on Wednesday experiencing some on and off rain showers in Bacolod. Due to the heavy rains, we did not get to tour around the main town of Bacolod. The most convenient place for us to go to was the mall - Robinsons (SM Mall is still under construction and will soon open this December). Aunty had her hair colored on Thursday since we had to cancel our appointment with a friend to tour the Sugar Mill in Victorias. Peter was still recuperating from the colds so he just hung out in the hotel while we were malling.

That Thursday night news of the destruction in Manila and the neighboring cities and towns caused by "milenyo" were all over the TV news coverage. I was getting a bit worried that my parents and brother will not be able to fly out to Bacolod for the wedding. I tried contacting them through the cell and the land line and all three phones weren't picking up or was busy. I was already imagining things but was hopeful that all was well. Later that night I tried calling again and visualized that my dad answered and thank God, he did. My worries quickly disappeared. The airport had resumed flights that afternoon and they were sure to fly out the next day. Thank God for that. I was able to sleep well that night.

By next morning the Sun came out and dried out all the rain and the wet roads. Peter and I went to McDonald's hoping to try their McCafe only to find out they weren't open that early. We had their regular pancakes instead. After breakfast we walked back to the hotel. At least even though it was just a short walk we got to experience Bacolod without the rains. We packed up and checked out of the hotel around 9 a.m. then took the shuttle to the Palmas Del Mar hotel where the wedding was going to be held.

Palmas Del Mar is a resort hotel near the ocean and right behind the airport. They have cabanas, function rooms, huts, swimming pools, etc. My family and I were given a 4 bed cabana and a connecting door to my brother, Aunty Prossy and Uncle Romy's cabana. Most of the guests of my cousin's wedding, most specially the out of town guests, stayed there. It was very convenient for all us, logistics-wise.

The day of the wedding the weather was a bit overcast and humid. It rained in the late morning but thankfully stopped just in time for the wedding preparations and set-up to start. The family and relatives had a leisurely time spent eating and talking story with one another. By 2:30 pm the pictorials began. And by 4 p.m. the wedding ceremony started. My parents, my Aunty Prossy and Uncle Romy were just 2 couples out of the 10 pairs of Principal Sponsors for the wedding. My brother was one of the Groomsmen. Peter and I, fortunately, were just guests/photogaphers.

The ceremony was held outside in the resort's garden with a raised stage and tent decorated with lovely pink and blue flowers. The guests and the bridal entourage faced west toward the stage. It was beautifully decorated and the twinkly string of lights hung on tree branches added to the romantic effect. The bride was radiant. As she walked down the aisle butterflies were released alongside of her providing an awesome feeling of life and beauty. That was the first time I saw anything like that. It was one of those "wow" experiences.

The whole ceremony took place in an hour and a half with the releasing of the wedding doves right there on the garden just before they began the picture taking session. Afterwhich we were all directed to the cocktail area for drinks and pupus before the dinner reception. I snuck out after the picture taking and walked with sore feet back to our room to change shoes (from balck pumps to chocolate crocs) and change outfit (from Ladie's Barong blouse to an all black attire with turquoise blue shawl). I wasn't comfortable wearing the pumps because there was never an occasion for me to use them in Hawaii. Luckily I was just a guest and I could wear anything comfortable as long as it's presentable. I managed to escape Aunty's criciticism about my attire but not the glare! Anyway, Peter, my brother and I were assigned to the table with my two other cousins, Franz and Pinky, along with their escorts and two other cousins from their mother's side. The food was good but my eyes just got too big that I ended up getting so much and leaving most of it uneaten.

The program for the reception included the Couple's first dance, the cutting of the cake, the garter fun (where the single men rushes to put the garter through their body and pass it on to the next), the bouquet fun (where ribbons were attached at the end of the bouquet and each single lady holds one and at the count of three pulls their ribbon and whoever gets the one that is firmly attached to the bouquet is supposedly the next bride), the "how well do you know the couple" game, the toast by the best man, the message from the Groom's Dad and the Bride's Mom, the picture taking of guests and couple per table, and well wishes from the guests. My brother had a great message for the couple, it goes: Love is not a Word but a Sentence. It's a Life Sentence. But I hope that you serve that Sentence well! I commented that it was one of the good messages I have heard at a wedding. And he responded by saying, he had to research on wedding messages because he was a best man at a recent wedding in Huangzhou, China.

Everything ended at around 9 p.m. Most of us went back to our respective rooms and started packing. Our relatives that came from Dipolog whom we haven't seen yet hung out outside our cabanas for some dessert and fruit and beer and water. My parents and their cousins talked story for a long time. Peter and I and my brother were so tired that we slept early.

This morning my mom and Aunty Prossy left to buy more fruits for breakfast. They came back with one Durian, 2 Marang, 6 Atis (sweetsop), 1 small oblong watermelon, 1 Kilo of Lanzones, and Rambutan. YUM!

By 9 a.m. our cab came and brought us to the airport. We were there a half hour before the waiting area and gates were open. We had 4 checked baggage (our bag had a long umbrella attached to it (because we heard we couldn't hand carry it). Boarding was a little late, about 10:50 a.m. The flight was only 55 minutes.

THE STORY OF THE LOST LUGGAGE
We arrived NAIA a little after 12 noon. Got off the tarmac and straight on to the shuttle bus. At the baggage claim we waited for our four baggages. Three came but our (Peter and my) bag was nowhere to be found. We waited and waited until we were directed to the PAL office. There was a crowd of people getting their confiscated items and looking for their lost items and baggage. One particular person, a Mestizo Filipino, was getting so irate because the airlines had lost his "Truffle Oil" which was very expensive. At the same time a Japanese couple were waiting for their lost luggage, their situation was not good because they had a connecting flight which was soon to leave. Then there we were puzzled as to how a small airport could loose a luggage that was supposed to be for the only flight in the morning. The person helping us tried to contact the Bacolod PAL office to check but no one was answering, even on their hotline, on that end. He said that they will send a telex to inform them of the lost luggage. We gave him the description of the luggage and our contact information so they can deliver the bag when found. We waited a bit and finally we just left to leave them to do their job. The Mestizo Filipino with the lost oil was still there and just couldn't get any answers from these PAL representatives - poor thing, I wonder how much that Truffle Oil cost, I guess it was so expensive that he'd rather take the risk and put it in his hand carry and be confiscated than pack it inside his checked luggage. Oh, well, that's the price he paid for the choice he made.

While on our way to Lagro I texted my cousins in Bacolod telling them about our situation. They informed me that they will look into it. Anyway, we arrived Lagro at around 2:30 p.m. While eating I received a call from my new cousin-in law, Lou Jeane, that they have found our luggage and talked to the personnel there to make sure it made the 7:05 p.m. flight tonight. She said that her brother, Ramon, who did the inquiry almost wanted to scold the people at PAL but decided not to. It was a good thing I think because if you scold them they might just react a different way instead of the way you wanted them to react. Now happy to hear that our luggage has been found, Peter called that PAL office and asked them if they had any luck - no luck, they said. When Peter told them that we located the bag they were surprised and asked how we did it, Peter's answer was, "cellphone technology, we are in the 21st century". We deduced that PAL, eventhough it is owned by one of the Filipino Chinese billionaires, Lucio Tan, aren't given the correct resources to be up-to-date. They still operate on landlines and no cellphone contacts at all. How ancient! Well, Peter will continue to call them until that bag is delivered tomorrow morning.

So that's the saga of our lost luggage. Hmmmm....I wonder if that guy did find his lost oil? I checked the internet only to find out that the oil doesn't really cost that much, well, maybe if it's really from a rare variety of truffle.

2006-09-27T19:57:00.000-10:00

The city of Bacolod, from the air, looks like Maui with its sugar cane fields. The city is shaped like a boot they said and the main town with its main road, Lacson Street, looks like a fish's skeleton.

You can find everything here in this booming town. The traffic is much bearable that Manila and Cebu but they say the drivers here are much worse. So far I haven't seen too many cars cutting in front, swerving, or stopping anywhere and any way. Not too many people crossing the street anywhere they want - well, maybe the rains have helped lessen this. They have the biggest McDonald's restaurant here with its own McCafe that boasts of a relaxing ambience that can compare to Starbucks or Seattle's Best. They say a lot of groups or people come to the McCafe just to drink their coffee and talk shop or do meetings. I haven't gone inside yet but if the weather proves to be better tomorrow morning Aunty and I might just have our breakfast at the McCafe.

I haven't seen what the specialty of Bacolod is but from what I know now is that sugar is their main industry. This Sunday, for the entire month, the Maskarra Festival begins. It is like the Sinulog in Cebu or the Kadayawan in Davao or the parade in New Orleans. Unfortunately, we will be leaving on Sunday and will not be able to check out this yearly festival. They have begun putting up kiosks and decorations for this month-long celebration all over the town. We might be able to get some souvenirs at least.

Anyway, I'll post more about Bacolod later.

2006-09-27T19:42:00.000-10:00

City of Bacolod, Negros Occidental or Oriental (not sure)

I am posting while waiting for my Aunty Prossy who's having her hair tinted at the next door salon. I might even do some window shopping while she's still in there. Peter is at the Inn doing some Internet surfing too.

Yesterday Aunty Prossy, Peter and I left Lagro early in the morning for the airport. My dad took us to the nearest taxi terminal and got a cab that brought us to the airport in less than an hour. Our flight was at 9 a.m. and we got there a little before 7 a.m. We waited quite a bit but was grateful that we had enough time to relax after waking up so early. The flight was a bit bumpy due to the cloudy and rainy weather in the area. Little did we know that there was a typhoon headed to Manila. After 55 minutes flying time we arrived to a wet and rainy Bacolod. Lou Jean (my cousin Ansen's bride-to-be) picked us up from the airport and took us to the Business Inn located in the center of town. The room she reserved for us was the Presidential suite which has a king sized bed and a single bed. As soon as she left to pick up Ansen from the bus terminal (coming from Cebu) the three of us took the chance to get some shut eye before they came back. Peter came down with a cold from our previous trip to Dipolog that he wasn't feeling too good and needed some sleep. Ansen and Lou Jean came to the hotel after an hour and all of us had a fun time talking story. By 2 p.m. we all decided to brave the rain and have lunch at one of the restaurants that offer their famous Chicken Bacolod - apparently this dish is just grilled chicken but wherever you go the taste is different, the only thing in common is that they serve this dish with the oil drippings from the grilled chicken so you can drizzle this on your rice or garlic rice. After 2 hours (an hour for eating and another hour for talking story) Aunty and I got dropped off at the Robinson's Mall after Peter got dropped off at the hotel to get more rest. Aunty and I was at the mall until about 7 p.m. We brought some siopao (manapua) for our dinner that night. I slept early as I was so tired walking around the mall with Aunty.

Early this morning the rains got harder and harder that I had to cancel with my Dad's friend, Tita Bing, our tour of the sugar mill where she works. The rains didn't let up until after noon just before we came to the mall. Hopefully, the typhoon will pass quickly so that flights will resume tomorrow and my parents and brother will be able to come to Bacolod and have a safe flight, also with my relatives who are taking a land trip from Cebu can have a safe drive over.

Please help us pray that this typhoon will be on its way out of the Philippine Islands by this evening. Thanks so much.

2006-09-26T04:38:00.000-10:00

We have just arrived from a short visit in Dipolog. On Sunday we left for Dipolog at 12:30 pm arriving an hour later. The weather was nice and cool in the afternoon and wet and cold at night. Little did we know that there was a storm brewing somewhere to the north. We had a late lunch at the Sunburst restaurant below Hotel Camila. Met my Uncle Totong there - he's the person my brother has entrusted to get the building permits for the development of the commercial building in my mom's property. That evening we attended the English service at the UCCP church there. It was an English service but the sermon was both in Visayan and English so Peter and I had a difficult time understanding some of the words. For dinner, we shared a huge durian fruit and a large marang fruit. YUM YUM!!!

On Monday my Aunty treated us to a Jollibee (like McDonald's) breakfast. Then we all went our separate ways: Aunty to get her residence certificate and senior citizen ID, Peter to check the internet, and while I returned to the hotel room and get some zzzz's. Lunch time we went to Jo's Chicken Inato. It rained hard while we were there. Aunty Nemia's (my Aunty from Seychelles who's married to an Austrian diplomat) driver picked us up from Jo's to bring us to her property in Minaog so Peter can meet the property owner Mr. Antonio Luy who's selling the 2 hectare property adjacent to Aunty Nemia's. While Peter went with the men to check out the property and locate the "muhon", Aunty Prossy and I stayed and talked story with Aunty Nemia. It rained later that afternoon just after Peter and the guys came back from their trek. We had to wait a little longer for Mr. Luy to return from renewing his license and to bring the caretaker who knew where the other corner of the property was. Aunty Nemia's property is so windy and sits perfectly on the top most edge of the ridge facing the ocean. It was so refreshingly cool and breezy. By 5 p.m. Mr. Luy came back with the caretaker and Peter went with them again to find that "muhon". It was already dusk when they returned. At least the rain stopped by that time.

Anyway, after seeing where the four corners of the property were Peter has decided that this property wasn't the right one as it wasn't located on top of the ridge facing the ocean, just like Aunty Nemia's, but facing the valley and was much lower than where we walked the first time so the temperature there was more humid than cool. At least this trip helped us to realize where we should put our priority - the beach property in La Union.

That same night we got invited to dinner at the Kamayan ni Manay in Dapitan. Aunty Prossy's old friend from Church, who was married to an American from Seattle and has a beautiful house in Turno, treated us there. We had sinigang na hipon (shrimp on sour soup), grilled nokus (squid), inihaw na baboy (grilled pork), inihaw na lapulapu (grilled lapulapu fish), and a huge durian fruit for dessert. After dinner manang Alice Brace toured us around Gloria De Dapitan - a complex filled with shops, restaurants, amusement park, bowling place, cockfighting arena, etc. We only drove around the place as we were all tired after eating the sumptious meal. Manang Alice otook us back to the hotel at almost 10 p.m. that night.

This morning Aunty Prossy had to continue following up here senior citizen ID while Peter and I just hung out in the hotel as it was raining hard outside. We left the hotel around 9 a.m. to go to the market and buy fruits (marang, mangosteen, lanzones) to bring back to Manila. By 11:30 we went back to Jo's Chicken Inato for an early lunch before going to the airport.

We left Dipolog at 1:45 p.m. and arrived Manila by 3:15 p.m. It was quite a bumpy ride but thank God we made it back safely. We took the airport coupon taxi which is thrice as expensive as the regular taxi BUT is much worth it as the driver will definitely bring you to the destination even if it's far.

Now we're back in Lagro we went straight to packing our stuff for our trip to Bacolod early tomorrow morning. Aunty Prossy has so much stuff to bring that she's still packing as I write this post. I will have to end this here for now as I will need to wake up really early tomorrow.

Next post will be in Bacolod. Goodnight!

2006-09-23T04:09:00.000-10:00

Lagro, Novaliches, Q.C.

This will just be a short post to let you know that we are still here. We've just been to busy bringing my Aunty and Uncle from New York around the malls in Q.C. and Manila. A very exhausting experience. More on this when I regain some energy after two days of constant walking, browsing, eating, more browsing, etc. Will post in Dipolog. We leave tomorrow noon.

For now, have a great day!

2006-09-20T19:34:00.000-10:00

Lagro, Quezon City

At long last my parent's have internet connection! Now we won't need to go to Netopia in SM to check our emails and post on the blog.

Yesterday we had the privilege of being invited to The Farm or Agape Springs in Cavite. My Tito Peps have taken the responsibility of managing this property owned by a corporation (mostly CRL friends who are stockholders). Agape Springs is an event and rest house place located not too far from Manila yet isolated enough to be a perfect place for retreats, seminars, conferences, parties, etc. Tito Peps' vision for this place has now come into fruition with so many years of time, money and effort invested in this property. You can check the simple site which Mona,one of my oldest and dearest friend, put up for anyone interested in using the facilities. The address is http://agape-springs.blogspot.com

We were picked up early yesterday morning by Virgilio, Tito Peps' drivers. Picked up Tito Peps and Mona at their condo in The Alexandra in Pasig before heading on to Agape Springs. It took about 2 hours to get there. The weather was cooler than in Manila or Quezon City because of higher elevation and the tons of large trees surrounding the area. The main building houses the full-size kitchen, dining area, comfort rooms and main office on the ground floor; dormitory-style rooms on both ends with bathrooms on the 2nd floor; and an additional loft for extra bedspace.

Tito Peps took us on a tour around the place while giving us construction advice on our beach property. He is a geological engineer, the only one who graduated in his batch in fact, and was tapped to work at the BBFischer Mining Corporation. You could really tell his fascination for rocks because all over the property you can see a variety of rocks, boulders, monoliths, etc. He never took no for an answer especially if he wanted something done in the property, he will simply do it and if it proves to work then great but if it doesn't then at least he tried.

The property also includes a small public school for the village children, another property owned by an Australian who lets the visitors of Agape Springs use his swimming pool, fish ponds, an area where the spring goes through and where the village women come and wash their laundry. Tito Peps believe that if you allow the village folk, the neighbors to share in the abundance of the property then they in turn will repay you with respect when using the property. Simply prohibiting them from entering and using the area will cause problems.

We had a nice cool drink in the terraced area among the trees. After which an abundant spread of delicious lunch was prepared by manang Loreli and Lea (Tito Peps' helpers). There were four of us plus the 3 staff and 6 construction workers who partook of the sumptious meal. My brother came later and enjoyed the left overs. During lunch Peter was fascinated with Tito Peps' beginnings in the mining industry and the two of them talked up a storm about a variety of topics, while Mona, my brother and I talked about marketing strategies and important things we need to think about for the beach property. Very interesting conversations and information. Mona has lots of experience with the marketing and business side as she was employed by Tokyo Fashion for 4 years and moved up to a Sales Managerial position. Now she is the marketing director as well as the managing staff for Agape Springs.

By 4 pm we left for home. Manong Virgilio drove us back to Lagro after dropping off Tito Peps, Mona, then Manang Loreli. It was a long day but worth the time.

This morning I woke up as soon as my parents left for the airport to pick up my uncle romy and aunty prossy (from NY). I needed to clean the upstairs bedroom, my brother's room (where my parents will be staying) and my small room. It took me b5 hours non-stop to clean all rooms. They arrived just after I took a bath and set the dining table for lunch. Photo-finish!!! Fortunately, thanks to my brother came and took the resposibility of cooking food for our lunch. While Jovi helped with putting stuff away and fixing the downstairs toilet flushing system and dealing with the BayanTel DSL representative who just installed the connection this morning.

Now I can relax more knowing that I have gone through and cleaned all the rooms, all the closets and cabinets, all the spaces underneath the beds and other areas in the house. I just hope that when I visit next year it will be just simple cleaning and dusting. :-)

This afternoon, after my aunty and uncle wakes up from their nap, we will go to SM to cool off. I'll post later again.

2006-09-18T20:32:00.000-10:00

SM Megamall, Pasig, Metro Manila

Here are some things we want to make note of when visiting and traveling around the Philippines:
1. Make sure you bring a roll of toilet paper with you at all times. Some comfort rooms that charge a fee might have toilet paper but most of the time they don't. So be prepared.
2. It is wise to buy packs of wipes to bring along with the toilet paper. The women of this country spend so much time in front of the mirror that if you wish to wash your hands after using the toilet you will need to push your way through to get to the sink. Otherwise, just use your wipes and leave. (Peter said, the men also spend time in front of the mirror, so be advised.) 3. If you book a domestic flight via the internet, make sure (check it twice) that you have booked the correct date, because if you make a mistake, you will have to re-book it via the phone the go in person to the ticketing office, wait 2-3 hours just to be re-issued an e-ticket and pay the penalty fee. So, always double check the booking before confirming the order. (More on this later)
4. Also about domestic flights: not all airlines travel daily to a certain destination. Make sure that when you book online to check on the date.
5. Have a thick but breathable mask to wear with you while walking the streets of Manila or Quezon city, or while riding a jeepney or bus.
6. Bring an umbrella, a fan and small towel with you. It helps deal with the heat and perspiration.
7. Avoid the Malls during weekends.
8. The Malls in Manila and Quezon City are the places everyone wants to go because the heat outside will make you want to cool off in a Mall. Eventhough you want to play tourist and see the old ruins and historic sites the humidity and the heat prevents you from enjoying the tour.
9. Night tours are good but make sure you have someone to drive you home or to your hotel.
10. Beware of sodas or drinks with ice - you simply don't know where the ice cube comes from, what water they used to make the ice, or where the ice was placed before it was put on your drink.
11. When riding the FX (shared airconditioned taxi), if you are going to "Highway" (in EDSA) and the sign in the FX says "Highway", double check with the driver if they are indeed going there because sometimes they will go "under" the Highway.

Some food or drink you should try while here:
1. Quickly - soft tofu (taho) drink/slush with ube ice or choco ice and nata de coco (palm fruit) and sago (tapioca)
2. Letty's Buko (coconut) Pie - the best young coconut pie ever!
3. Binalot - a lunch place where you can choose different plates wrapped in banana leaf.
4. Grill Queen - the chicken tail bar-b-q, YUM! (Make sure they didn't microwave this before grilling)
5. Via Mare (my sister-in law Nyvia's favorite) - for the native dessert and snack delicacies
6. Cafe Briton - for a variety of crepes (sweets, desserts, meats, etc.)
7. Crepes and Creme - for the cheaper and more serving version of the crepes
8. Dulcinea - churros con chocolate! and the paella!
9. Max Fried Chicken - of course, the best fried chicken in the country!
10. Binagoong Rice - salted fish sauce and rice with pork, cucumber and other delicious stuff, YUM!
11. Betty's Sans Rival in Katipunan - the best ever butter icing layered with wafer cake!

Yesterday we were at the SM Mall of Asia in Manila. We had an italian lunch and the crepes for dessert. On the way back we stopped at SM North Edsa to catch an FX for SM Lagro. You notice that most of the main terminal stops are at an SM Mall. Well, the brilliant Henry Sy, the owner of the Shoe Mart Malls (began with a small shoe store in Manila and grew to a billion peso branch mall) had the foresight to build his malls at the corner of a main thoroughfare or simply build it where he sees the growth of the area is going. So whenever you go somewhere you always end up at an SM Mall or quite near it. Everyone goes to SM even if it's just to buy a simply loaf of bread, drink coffee, check the internet, or pay bills. And it's very convenient for everyone to just be in one place to do everything.

Today though we were in Robinson's Galleria to re-book our tickets at Cebu Pacific. Because of my mistake of not double checking the date of departure (I simply assumed that they had daily trips to Dipolog) that mistake cost us 2 1/2 hours of waiting at their ticketing office. Fortunately, Metrobank is next door and Peter was able to transact his errand while I waited for our number at Cebu Pacific. We had no choice but to eat lunch at Robinson's. There were a good number of places to choose from: Peter had laing (taro leaves in coconut milk) and pinakbet (mixed vegetables in bagoong) from Inihaw (grilled); I had tapa (like pork jerky) with salted egg and tomato, and binagoong talong (eggplant with salted shrimp) from Binalot. The food was good!

To burn off what we ate we walked south to SM Megamall. We will go around this 5 storey mall about a half mile wide (maybe not the entire mall) then proceed to the other mall next door, Shangri-la/Rustan's where we will take the Metro back to SM North then back to Lagro.

This entire day is truly the Mall Experience. No other way to spend the day cooling off from the heat. Maybe the best times to really enjoy sightseeing outdoors is around December and January when it is less humid. For now, we choose to go "malling" like the "mall rats".

Till next post....

2006-09-17T17:29:00.000-10:00

Mall of Asia, Manila

We arrived Friday night from La Union. The 6-hour bus ride to Manila was pretty uneventful and pleasant. We got off at SM North Edsa to catch a jeepney to UP Diliman stopping at Jollibee Philcoa to meet my mom. She was already there when we arrived. Then we took a jeepney to Lagro. It was a very long day for Peter and I.

The tiredness got to me the very next day. I slept most of the time only to wake up to eat breakfast and lunch. That night we were invited to an anniversary/housewarming party. It was a very well attended party except that it was so hot and humid in the club house that instead of enjoying the food and entertainment we were having a miserable time dealing with the heat and the perspiration.

On Sunday we went to Church then straight home. It seems that staying in Manila makes us lazy or bored because there's nothing to do in the house except clean and to get out you have to deal with so much people, the pollution and the heat, and the traffic. So it's always a problem if we start the day late we just don't want to get out anymore.

Well, my aunty from New York will be arriving this Thursday and we plan to bring her around. This will give us some motivation to get out more. Also we will be going back to Dipolog to meet the seller of the property we are planing to buy. Then the day after we return we go to Bacolod. We are always out of town that I barely had time to meet my friends. Maybe on the last week I can spend time with them. We'll see...

Anyway, Peter is waiting by my side now wanting to have some crepes at Cafe Briton. So, this will be all for now.

2006-09-12T23:59:00.000-10:00

Two more days and we will be back in Manila. My parents haven't seen me enough since we arrived and went straight to Dipolog then to La Union. They feel that it's about time that I am back in Manila to spend the last weeks of my visit with them. I completely agree but also feel that someone needs to be here to monitor the progress of the fence project. Hopefully we can entrust this responsibility to my cousin's husband, Noel, to report to us regularly.

Anyway, this morning Peter had a good time surfing. He feels that everytime he visits the swell comes at the time when we are about to leave - he feels deprived. Hopefully, tomorrow will be another good day for surfing. Even while Peter enjoys his surfing time he still keeps an eye on the fence and clean up project of the property. Unfortunately today the workers were needed at another site so they had to postpone pouring more of the concrete for the wall to tomorrow. Hopefully we will get to see the gate put up by tomorrow afternoon.

During this visit Peter and I spent time talking with my Lola and asking her to relate stories about her experiences during the war and when my dad was born and when I was born. It amazes me at how much she still remembers about those days and of course, when I was born and when I stayed with them during the summer months. I kept on urging her to write these stories and to put them all together so we can self-publish a book about her memoirs. Peter says she has begun writing some stories on pads of papers - wonderful! That'll keep her busy and excited.

Aside from spending time with my Lola I have also spent time with my nieces and nephews. My oldest niece, Maurine- 8yrs., along with her young brothers, Marthy- 7yrs. and Marion -5yrs, are children of my cousin Renmar, whom everyone calls Maui (he used to be called Em-Mau). His sister, Renelen (or Lenlen), is the mother of my youngest niece, Marianne - 1yr. I have four other nephews from four cousins. I am known as their "fun" Tita (equivalent to Aunty here) because I would play with them and talk with them. Maurine always comes to Lola's house to play chess or dama/checkers with me. I would get wet kisses from Marthy and Marion. While Marianne, being the youngest, simply is a 30 yr old in a 1 yr old body - so funny and adorable. I love all of them. I am such a lucky Tita!

BTW, we have been using our old red corolla everytime we go to the beach property. We do not use it when we go into town because it lacks some papers and we do not want to be caught without them. So, we only use it going the opposite way. One afternoon we went after it had been raining the previous day. The ground was muddy and wet that Peter decided to back the car up in reverse from the main road into the drive way. The small entry way into the driveway is situated in an area where it's a bit difficult to see oncoming traffic as it is between curves in the road. As soon as we see it's kind of free Peter pressed on the gas so hard to make sure we do not stall in the middle of the road. As he turned, almost like a U-turn, the back right door which was stuck forever, opened by itself. I was surprised to see the door wide open while Peter was reversing the car into the drive way. It was so funny that Peter's hard turn caused the door to un-stick itself and now we can open it without any problems. Well, the car in itself hasn't given us any problems either. Driving back and forth from Lingsat to the beach property is a pretty good way to keep the engine going. The pick-up is actually pretty good considering its age and upkeep. At least using it as a shuttle is good enough for us...for now.

Well, this will be all for today. Till next post....

2006-09-12T00:16:00.000-10:00

We have been in here in the San Fernando City for about three weeks now. Three weeks has given us enough time to get to know the city, the people, as well as what goes on in their day to day lives.

San Fernando has only recently, less than a decade, I think, been declared a city. It's province booming with so many people and commercial buildings, a new casino and soon a newer airport to facilitate more frequent air traffic. What was once a quiet and small town is now a busy and sprawling city. The roads are often clogged with jeepneys, tricycles, buses that travel from the far far north to Manila and vice versa, people. Just in Lingsat alone there are a number of colleges and schools: Lorma Colleges with it's school of Nursing as the flagship, now with an annex and an Elemetary and High School building in San Juan; St. Louis College; CICOSAT (a Science and Technology college); a College for Pilots and a Maritime College; as well as the public Elementary school. During weekdays it would be wise to avoid driving or going out at 7 a.m, 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. These are the times when the students are out and about. Also, if you want to check your email at Netopia or an internet cafe, do it when the students are back in school or at home because you will not find any computer available.

People are so enterprising here. They would buy fresh produce at the market and re-sell it by going door to door. My Lola has a regular vendor who comes to her house and sells whatever she has in her bucket - it may be fresh fish, a hand of bananas, soursop, freshly de-feathered chicken, etc. She also serves as the water person for my Lola - giving her extra income by buying bottles of purified water for her. Another person comes delivering meats on some days. Very convenient, but quite expensive, for my Lola who rarely ventures out of the house. One time we needed some knives, axe and garden shears sharpened. It was just like our minds were read by the very person we needed - the "manghahasa", the sharpener, who uses disassembled upside down bike for sharpening the tools, who came to the compound just within that hour. Another person who comes daily is the "magtataho", the person who sells hot soft tofu drink - YUM! The "magba-bakal, bote, dyaryo", the person who buys metals, bottles and newspapers, do not go around town with a cart but with a motor tricycle - what an improvement!

Aside from vendors, the betting game of jueteng, pronounced hu-we-teng, is popular here. My relatives and the other neighbors in the compound bet 3 times a day multiplied by the three people that come and get your bet - so that's 9 times per day! It's like lotto but you have to pick two numbers between 1 and 37. If your two numbers come out then your money is doubles. Peter and I have no idea how this works but we sure know that it's such a waste of money. Everytime I see the three people who come to get their bets or tell them what numbers came out I cringe at how much money me relatives give them to bet new combinations. Sometimes they have their formulas already written out in papers to give to these people. I just don't believe that this game is worth any time and effort.

As you might remember from my old posts from the Philippines I mentioned about the dogs here - the askals, short for asong kalye or dogs of the road. There are so many of them that some end up being eaten for dinner or pupus. Some are pretty good watch dogs and very low maintenance pets. Most of the time they use the streets, the sidewalks, or everywhere as their huge toilet. Whenever we walk outside the compound Peter warns me of holes in the ground or some puddles or some doodoo. I usually walk with my eyes to the ground because I know that I might step on dog poo. Well, yesterday we were walking back to the house when I accidentally stepped on dog poo just as Peter was warning me to watch were I was walking when suddenly he stepped on one too! Instant karma, I think! Ha, ha, ha.... To be honest, I really was looking where I was going but it seems that the dog poo here just materializes when you are about to make a step. It's bizarre. Even Peter says he didn't see it there. I guess we'll just have to really keep a really good eye on each step we make.

This is all for now....

2006-09-10T17:51:00.000-10:00

San Fernando City, La Union

We are still here. I was able to convince my dad to give us 5 more days (hopefully, the fencing of the property will be finished before then).

Our old red '71 Toyota Corolla which was fixed and retrofitted with my grandpa's jeep transmission was taken to the Ilokoslobakia Auto Shop and Clinic for some minor repairs to the gas tank connector, etc. Peter spent almost $100 for the repair and labor. The very next day after it was delivered to the compound we took the car for a ride to Bacnotan - about 20 kms from Lingsat. Peter had to concentrate on the accelerator as it tends to stick - he needs to step on it quickly to unstick it. Aside from that he had to concentrate on the road, avoiding pedestrian crossing at the wrong time and wrong places, public jeeps and buses stopping without warning or swerving at anytime, oncoming vehicles overtaking and other distractions.

The car's body is extremely strong and well preserved but the inside upholstery, dashboard, and stuff are just falling apart. The windows rattled because all the rubber moldings were removed. The wipers are not funtioning nor the front signal lights working. This car is just a fair-weather and daylight vehicle only.

As we drove out of the compound and left into the national highway, Peter was getting a bit tense because he didn't want the car to die out in the middle of the highway. We succeded in crossing the street and going into the gas station to put 500 pesos (11 liters) worth of gas. The gas station clerk was motioning to us to move closer because he thought the gas tank was on the right side but in fact it was in the back behind the license plate holder - truly an antique design. Next, we needed to turn left again into the National highway to go north - Bacnotan.

As Peter was driving it felt like he wasn't really stepping on the brakes to avoid vehicles and pedestrians but just swerving to miss them. It was such a hilarious and tense drive. Fortunately, as we drove north the lesser the cars were.

In Bacnotan, we visited the gravesite of Lolo Maximino Nebres, Lola Gregoria and Aunty Dorcas. The workers there cleared up the site, removed all the overgrown grass and plants and trimmed the guave tree growing in the front left corner of the area. Some small grass were already growing back because of the constant rain. The workers suggested a thin layer of cement poured all over the ground so that maintenance will not be expensive in the long run. We told them we'll get back to them when we've discussed this with Dad Dan.

Our drive back to Lingsat was equally funny and tense. As soon as we drove into the compound we were both relieved. It's just incredible that this old car that I used to drive when I was in College and which we had for so many years, experienced so many accidents and crashes, is still intact, except for its parts that have been retrofitted, is still able to drive us from point A-B. Maybe if we spent time and some money fixing it up it will be like one of those old VWs that is low maintenance. Maybe my cousin Ryan can do it - he can use it for his dates. :-P

That lunch we were invited to a 3 yr. old birthday party for Noel's niece, Clarisse (the daughter of our contractor/engineer). They had great food: turbo fried chicken, bopiz, kilawin, kinilaw na fresh tuna, kaldereta, battered fried chicken, and other viands. (Yep, no veggies in sight. :-( ) Anyway, it was a good time for us to talk with Jess, the engineer and to enjoy other delicacies.

On Saturday Ryan, Uncle Tird, Peter and I went to the beach property to do some clean-up of the trash in the ground. The caretaker, who's supposed to take care of the property, didn't really do his job of caring for it he was just focused on making so much money from the people coming to picnic under the huts, people who just want to hang out, eat and sing (videoke), and people coming to use the water pump (which we own) to shower. The caretaker moved next door and continues to do his business and raking up bucko pesos especially during holidays. Well, we hope to close up that pump so that he won't be able to use it and be forced to leave the premises. He's just taken advantage for 10 years. Not one cent was paid to my grandma. Hopefully, we'll be able to get his customers to come to our property once it's open. For now, we are just clearing up the site.

That afternoon my dad arrived. We wanted to show him the property but everyone in the compound was invited to the1st birthday party of Shane Jacob at Max's Fried Chicken. All of us, except for my lola and my dad, were there enjoying the fun kid's games and most especially the food. There were lots of viands: Max's fried chicken, of course, pancit, dinuguan, lechon, sweet sour fried fish, beef with veggies, etc., mushroom soup, lots of desserts and drinks. We were so stuffed that Peter and I decided to skip dinner.

The next morning we went to the beach property with my dad. It was raining so the ground was wet and muddy. The workers were able to pour some concrete on one of the gate posts. We didn't stay long because the rain began to pour harder. Instead we drove straight to CSI to buy some grocery.

Back in Lingsat, we got ready for our surprise lunch for my Lola - Grandparent's Day. I asked my Aunty Esther to make the miki noodles and the puso ng saging diningding. Noel cooked chicken inasal, sinanglaw, grilled milkfish, kinilaw na bulilit. Aunty Marilen made the gelatin drink. While I spent for the cake. It was a surprise for Lola. She looked really happy and really appreciated this special lunch for her. Despite the heat inside the house we all had a wonderful time eating and talking story with one another. There were only a few viands that had some leftovers but the rest were all demolished. The cake was still plentiful and the ice cream about half full. I am glad that there's this special day to celebrate Grandparent's and that we were here to help celebrate with her. I guess, this is also an advanced birthday celebration for us as we will not be here on October 14. Overall, we had a great time spending time with Lola and with one another.

That night the rain poured buckets and buckets of water, which felt and sounded like hale. It only abated around the early morning hours letting the sun peak through the clouds. Now it's nice and cool due to the slight breeze. Hopefully, it will dry out a bit so we can do some cleaning at the site this afternoon.