Peru Summer 2014 Day 9

We woke up kind of later than I would have preferred, had a reasonable breakfast of what we had left in the apartment, got cleaned up and then cleaned up the apartment and packed.  We got a taxi and headed to Daniela’s house where we dropped off our main luggage choosing only to bring one small bag and my backpack which made more sense.  We talked to her mother for a few and we had a cup of hot chocolate her mother prepared as well.  Then we got another taxi to the central area for longer travel and immediately found a collective taxi to Cieneguilla.  That ride was supposed to take about 40 minutes but it really took about an hour with traffic. Then the driver didn’t know where our hotel, Villas de Cieneguilla so it probably took another 20 minutes to find our way there including Daniela having to call the hotel to get their location better for the driver. He drove us far past it because it wasn’t on the main avenue.  When we got there we basically just dropped off our stuff and headed to find lunch because it was already past 3pm.

Daniela had her mind set on going to a place called Mesas de Piedras, or Stone Tables.  Surprisingly they serve the food on tables made of stone outside. The weather in Cieneguilla was warmer than the coast because we had gotten into the mountains near the city and had risen out of some of the coastal fog and humidity and while it was hazy we had actual sun.  Cieneguilla is to the south of the city. It looks really dessert like and has lots of cacti, rocks and sand.  There are palm trees too of course.  We thought maybe we could walk but apparently the locals don’t know where the restaurant is because a motorcycle taxi and the actual taxi we took thought it was somewhere completely different. Still with some help from other locals we made it there after having to turn around once at least and stopping another time because he didn’t believe us or the policeman that told him it was in another direction.  In any event we made it there probably close to 4pm though by this point I was not watching time at all.

We ordered Pachamanca which is a preparation of beef, pork and chicken in a clay pot along with potatoes, lima beans, choclo and a tamale called hamitas here.  We each had a beer, she a Pilsen Callao and me a Cuscena Red.  The food literally is served in the clay pot and it is nice because it helps keep it warm.  We took out some food at a time. The dish is suggested for 2 people but there was really too much for the both of us and we ended up taking out leftovers.  The restaurant had a band that was playing traditional music and there was even a group of 6 people (3 men, 3 women) that performed a dance that lasted for quite a while.  They were dancing huayno according to Daniela. This is from the mountains of the Andes. They had on colorful costumes (well colorful accessories on mainly black costumes).  One of the girls kept shouting which I guess is also traditional.  Sort of made me think of Taiko the way it felt random.

After we finished we managed to get some picture of colorful local birds. Then we bought Daniela a shawl because she didn’t bring her jacket and as the sun went down it got cooler significantly.  We then started walking back to the hotel and stopped a dessert place called Letorie which was run by a couple that had lived in Connecticut for 10 years earlier in their lives. He was a nice guy and gave me a chocolate chip cookie to go along with my coffee. I also had a coconut and caramel gelato and Daniela had a piece of red velvet cake.  She was curious about it. Both the owner and I explained the story to her though mine was a bit more detailed. While we were there another American/Peruvian couple came in (I was surprised, I didn’t think I would see another white person honestly).  He was from Wisconsin. We really only said hello as they took their food to go.  Daniela really liked the cake. The coffee, ice cream and cookie were all good too.  The owner put on some Santana for me too which was nice.

After we finished we started walking back to the hotel again but the distance was really far so we took a local bus most of the way then walked along from the main intersection to the hotel.  We got inside and watched a bit of television before falling to sleep after a while.

Peru Summer 2014 Day 8

We woke up and Daniela had a lot of work to do so we both basically hung around the apartment and had little breakfast and she worked until it was close to our lunch time, a bit early for Peruvians.  I reheated the chicken, rice and green beans that we had left over and we ate that quickly for a brunch type concept.  After eating and she had finished what she needed to do we got cleaned up and took a walk outside towards the district of San Isidro where we were going to eat the real lunch/dinner. It would take a while to walk there so we chose that rather than a taxi.

Originally she wanted to go to La Bistecca but before we reached there we found the ruins of Huacapucllana and she suggested eating at their restaurant instead. I agreed so we changed directions and found the restaurant which was fairly full because it was Peruvian lunch time.  She unfortunately ended up with work emergencies she had to handle so spent a fair amount of time both walking and at the restaurant on the phone. Apparently an Air France flight some of her passengers were supposed to be on was canceled due to a strike in France and she had to help them sort things out.

For the meal we started with a causa sampler which I think had smoked salmon on it rather than tuna.  It was a bit salty but nice.  Then I had the roasted baby goat leg and Daniela had the sirloin steak. Mine came with a lima bean puree and she had asparagus and onion rings.  The food was good though I think if I had understood it was a boneless section of leg for the goat I may have tried something else on the menu.  It was tasty though. As was her steak.  We shared a bottle of Argentinian Malbec from Mendoza.  This was suggested by the waiter and it was reasonably good. It was called Enemego which means enemy in English.  We chose not to have dessert at that restaurant partially because I didn’t see anything that interested me and partially because Daniela wanted to walk around to work off some of the steak first. 

So we started walking and she had some more calls and we set up a place to stay in Cieneguilla for Saturday night as we were supposed to leave the apartment on Saturday.  She had to pay a deposit so we got that done. Then her phone died and we found a Radio Shack that was willing to charge her battery a little and she ended up buying a portable battery charger from them too. She should be able to carry it with her for when her battery is running low. Apparently the way she uses the phone she doesn’t get a full day many times.

After walking in a large circle and not finding the dessert place she was expecting we decided to head to Miraflores and took a taxi back close to the apartment where we bought dessert and coffee at a new place right near her office. I had a piece of apple pie and Daniela had a strawberry pudding (mousse).  I had a hot chocolate and she had a coffee too.  Then we headed back to the apartment and watched a little bit of TV until we fell asleep.

Peru Summer 2014 Day 7

We woke up and Daniela again wanted to go running so we got ready after she finished some small amount of work and ran out to the shoreline in a slightly different direction and ran down to the park where she does free yoga sometimes then turned around and headed back.  I am sure we ran less distance but Daniela said it affected her more, probably because of the fact she did all the running and dancing a couple days before.  When we got back we got cleaned up and she had to do some more work so while she was doing that I reheated the leftover from the other day and we ate lunch.

After lunch we headed to LarcoMar to see Guardians of the Galaxy but of course the day before was the last day for it. So we checked online and found the theater in San Miguel was playing it at 4:15 instead of the 2:50 we had seen for LarcoMar.  So we took buses there only to find out that the time was wrong and the only showing of the day at San Miguel was 2:45 and it was dubbed not subtitled like the ad said.  So we decided to buy tickets to see Hercules but that subtitled showing was at 8:25 so we had basically 4 hours to kill. Daniela did some attempted shopping for jeans but eventually didn't buy anything.  She says if you do not buy it is not shopping but I wouldn't know what else to call it?  In any event we then decided to get a light dinner at La Baguette which does all sorts of foods. We got a sampler trio of empanadas and a side of papas fritas (French fries).  Daniela was not happy with the size of the order of the fries. She ordered a Limonada Cubana which I had to drink. It had mint and was done with club soda.  Fortunately I had ordered a normal limonada and she drank that. I could tell the mint flavor was too strong when I tasted the Cubana. I would not order that myself.  The food was good though. We ate taking our time because we still had a fair amount of time. Still, she had cell phone battery issues though and needed to make a call so we found a Claro booth that was willing to charge her phone for a few minutes.  She was able to get the number off her phone and use a pay phone to call.

From there we went to the theater and bought a bucket of popcorn and two drinks. I had a 7up and she had a chicha morada.  The combo deal gave us the second largest size of popcorn which could feed 20 people I think. They take orders in one line then fill the orders in a second line there. I think this would be a good process if the people filling the orders spent more time filling them than just wandering around aimlessly. We had more than 10 minutes before the movie started when we ordered but the wait brought us to the point the coming attractions were playing the second we sat down.  Kind of sad really.

The movie wasn't bad though I had low expectations going in. I certainly think there are better movies out there but there were some good jokes and action scenes in it. It had the Rock of course and Ian McShane who had a cool part.  I guess it was based on a comic book according to the end credits. I would say it is worth seeing though probably if we had been able to see Guardians of the Galaxy then I would have been happy to watch it on a plane or on cable.  We didn't finish the popcorn by the way.

After the movie we pretty much just got a cab and headed back to the apartment. We started to watch The Man Who Knew Too Much but we ended up falling asleep before it was over.

Peru Summer 2014 Day 6

We had a slightly later start but not really too bad. Daniela had to go to the office to present documents to some passengers so I stayed in the apartment and waited for her. When she was done she texted me and I walked down to meet her at the office. From there we walked to a couple of Spanish schools that do immersion classes not for this trip but for the next trip. There were two and they seemed similar though one was a bit cheaper than the other. The one that was cheaper had good reviews on TripAdvisor too.  We didn't have to pay anything at this point so it was just information gathering.

After the school search we chose to eat dinner at La Trattoria di Mambrino which had moved to LarcoMar.  We had eaten at the restaurant on a previous trip in a different location.  The waiter was very good and sold up a bit. We each tried a different cocktail. Mine had pisco in it and Daniela's was a strawberry flavored vodka drink I think.  The drink I had was not my favorite but I typically don't do cocktails anyway.  We had bread with olives, onions and dried tomatoes as a focaccia style starter along with a different version of eggplant parmigiana that had less sauce and more cheese on it. Both were very good. I had Cacio e Pepe which was rigatoni with a pecorino emulsion sauce with crushed black pepper for my meal. Daniela had Fettuccine Magnifica which was a cream sauce with prosciutto.  I had a glass of chianti that was very good to go along with the meal after I finished the other drink.  The food was all very excellent and the waiter was very smart and talkative and did a good job of suggesting things.  For dessert I had the Cinco Leches cake which was the traditional Tres Leches but with coconut milk and creme caramel as well.  It was quite good. Daniela wouldn't have any because she says she doesn't like it.  She took only the teensiest bite.

When we finished eating we walked back to the room where Daniela again had to go to the office to help a passenger that also was collecting documents for travel. I used that time to download Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory which Daniela had never seen before. Somewhere in conversation the day before the Oompa Loompas came up and she said she had no idea what they were. So when she got back we settled in and I connected the computer to the TV and we watched it.  She was dead tired by the end of the movie and we just sort of passed out by that point.

Peru Summer 2014 Day 5

We woke up early because Daniela wanted to go running so we actually did. Fortunately I had brought stuff to run with. We ran out to the waterfront from the apartment but found getting down to the actual beach would be tough because they are redoing the shoreline road so we just looked from slightly above it then headed back up the hill and around through the park to the apartment again. I think we ran for an hour and change. It was not high paced running at all. There aren't really a lot of hills in Miraflores until you get near the water so it was peacefully flat most of the time.

After the run we got cleaned up and I sent Daniela off to the office while I started to cook. I made barbecue chicken (similar to the recipe I did at their house before) with rice and green beans.  The rice I cooked in a rice cooker which I am not used to. It didn't come out the best but it was ok.  I added some lightly sauteed onion and garlic for flavor. The beans I cooked then sauteed in oil with garlic and oregano.  It took a while to make the sauce which I did as before with ketchup and Coke as the base.  Then I baked the chicken in the oven till done and finished as best I could under the broiler with the sauce.  It all came out ok. Not my best cooking but certainly not my worst.  Daniela invited her sister and friend over for lunch. They brought a bottle of chardonnay.  I would say I was cooking from about 11am till 2:30pm.  We ate and talked for a while. We had coffee and ice cream for dessert as well.

After we were done eating and the dishes had been cleaned up we relaxed for a while then got ready to go out to dancing per Daniela's request. There was a place in Barranco that was having a live salsa band on a Tuesday and she wanted to try it. We got cleaned up and headed to Barranco by taxi and first ate anticuchos at a restaurant in Barranco. Daniela misunderstood the portion sizes in ordering and bought far too much.  Still it was reasonably good food.  We had chicha morada to accompany the food.  After the meal we had a walk to the club where we got in and there was no band but the place was really crowded for a Tuesday.  We danced for a while and eventually the band did start up I think at about 1 or so. We danced for a few of their songs but I was mostly dead and after a while we left for the apartment. We got back and I think I crashed almost instantly.

Peru Summer 2014 Day 4

We got started fairly late in the morning and eventually got cleaned up and headed to the office after hanging around the apartment for some time. Daniela had some work to do in the afternoon and I accompanied her to the office to hang out for a little while.  Before we headed to the office we had Arabic food at a place she is not certain what the name is but it is across from Kennedy park.  The food was reasonable but not my favorite.  They were playing Arabic music very loudly so we sat outside even though I am sure Daniela was not fond of the temperature.

I spoke to Juan Carlos for a few minutes while Daniela was working in the office. He is the guy that owns the old fashioned record store in the same gallery the office is in. Yes, vinyl.  He played the first record of Live After Death for me which was pretty cool.  After she finished at the office we went shopping at the Metro which didn't take very long really.We bought some food for breakfast and lunch on Tuesday as well as some ice cream.

When we got back we made some coffee and had the ice cream and watched The Croods which I had gotten before I left. It was better than I expected honestly.  I was surprised Nicholas Cage did one of the voices. It didn't sound like him.  After the movie we watched a little bit more TV before calling it a night.

Peru Summer 2014 Day 3

It being Sunday we got moving later in the day. I made a pot of coffee because we had some Daniela had brought from home but we really didn't have any food so when we were ready we headed out to get breakfast which we did at the Chef's Cafe which is just around the corner from the apartment. I had a ham and cheese sandwich and she had a fruit salad with yogurt and honey.  The food was good. Each breakfast came with juice. We both got pineapple. And a cup of coffee. I had an Americano and Daniela had a cappuccino. After breakfast we were going to go shopping for food for the apartment but I guess we took too long because Daniela made us take a cab to her house instead. We got there before her sister and Edwin and helped with the preparation for the lunch (which tends to happen after 4pm by the way).  We were trying to find out what happened to my suitcase and had decided to got to the airport because it is only a few minutes away when they arrived so we turned around. Daniela's mom cooked lunch which was a stuffed caywa? (not sure of spelling) which was not quite like a pepper but I can't think of an equivalent. Also she made quinoa with chicken. We had brought some wine with us and we drank that during the lunch. Donna and Edwin brought a dessert of passion fruit pie. The food was all really good and we ate and talked. I had a tough time following the conversation most of the time.

During the lunch the airline called us and said we would get the suitcase around 7 probably so after we were done eating around 5:30 or so we just had to hang around and wait so we continued to just talk.  At 7:20 or so the suitcase did arrive and we immediately put it in Edwin's car and he drove us back to the apartment. That was very nice of him. Fortunately there wasn't too much traffic but he and Donna live much closer to the house then to Miraflores so they really went out of their way.

When we got into the apartment Daniela had not been feeling well for a while so we just made her some tea and she watched Rear Window the Alfred Hitchcock film.  I sort of started falling asleep and she eventually went to sleep after the movie as well.

Peru Summer 2014 Day 2

Since we got in so late we ended up sleeping very late too. I was exhausted from the full day of travel.  I am sure that even with the immediate rush to get to sleep it was past 3am before we actually did.  I am not fully certain what time we woke up either but I suspect it was past 10 or maybe even 11am.  We got cleaned and finished packing Daniela while her mother made us breakfast/lunch.  We had pan con chicharon and chaufa (which is Chinese style rice, ironic considering all the Chinese we had last time we were together...). The chaufa had chicken, pork, hot dogs, fried egg along with all the seasonings. The food was all very good.  By the time we were done eating and packing and everything else it was past 3pm. We took a cab over to the apartment which took extra time because the coastal route was apparently blocked with a big festival so the taxi driver said it would be much longer still than cutting through the city.

We got into the apartment then Daniela had to help a customer with some bookings at her office so I stayed and unpacked us a bit then waited for her to call me to come meet her so we could buy some basics for me since I had no luggage. It is definitely strange not having a change of clothes.  I am sure if it goes on too long before I get the bag my clothes will begin to walk around a bit. So we shopped I bit and I bought some underwear and socks and a shirt for the time being. I didn't want to spend too much money on clothes assuming my stuff is supposed to show up.  I had contacts and a holder for them but no saline solution so we also went to buy that. The market was very crowded so we decided not to shop just then and headed back to the room.

We spend the night in relaxing and ordered a pizza late since we couldn't really cook without food to cook then called it a night.  We had tea with our pizza because Daniela had brought that along from home too.  I took a few pictures today mostly of the apartment but I don't have the cable I need to download because the camera uses a special cable that is in my suitcase.

Peru Summer 2014 Day 1

The day started early so that I wouldn’t have my dad too stuck in traffic getting me to the airport. I arrived more than 3 hours early. Check in was easy although with TSA Pre for my security entrance the airport again let non-TSA Pre people in which bothered me because the vast majority of those people don’t know the rules and hold things up. Belts still on, metal in pockets , etc…  Still it was quick enough to get through. I wandered around for a bit and then found the Dunkin Donuts and got some coffee and a blueberry muffin then sat at the gate which was still clearing out the obviously totally overbooked flight ahead of mine. I played some games on the cell phone to kill some time while I waited for the boarding time.  I will give credit to terminal B in that it is bright and clean looking.  Watching the board I was #23 on the first upgrade list so that wasn’t going to happen.  I guess it was kind of cool to see I was on the upgrade list at all.  The board said it was going to be an airbus 319 for this leg to Houston.

We boarded easily and were off on time. The plane was indeed an airbus 319.  The flight was going along well, I had been sleeping most of it, until the pilot announced we would be diverting to Mobile, Alabama because of weather in Houston. We needed to refuel so we couldn’t make it all the way there and circle I guess?  So we landed quickly and just sat on the tarmac for at least 3 hours.  They were saying the thunderstorms over Houston caused a full ground stop.  At the third hour we were told we had to get off the plane because they have laws as to how long they can keep people in the plane on the tarmac.  So we all disembarked and the airport in Mobile, Alabama maybe has 7 gates and one shop/restaurant/bar.  The entire plane went there and the line was insane. I went to the bar eventually and got a Fat Tire beer and an order of fries. They were cooking burgers fast and I didn’t think I would get one not burnt to death.  Of course as soon as I got the beer and fries they announced we would board again. So I had to eat and drink quickly.  We reboarded after probably another hour and then it took another 20 minutes to get back into the air.  I am sure I am messing up all the timing. It was an hour and 20 minute flight though and we arrived at 5:30 then got stuck sitting waiting for a gate for another 10 minutes. The flight to Lima was originally supposed to depart at 3:45 with boarding at 3pm.  I had already seen on my United app that the flight was delayed and was supposed to depart at 5:30 when we landed then 5:45.  We got out of the plane at 5:50.  I spoke to the counter about change of flights and they started to give me the grim news that the flight had left and I would have to check into a flight of some sort the next day.  I was getting ready to take a flight that left Houston at 8:45am then went to Panama City through Copa then on to Lima for 7:30pm or so.  Bleh. But it was better than being in the Houston airport until 3pm because they wouldn’t pay for hotel as it was a “weather delay,” when the lady next to the one I was working with said the Lima flight hadn’t left.  They said it was at gate E20. I was at E9.  I had to run to the other side of the terminal of course. I got there to be told they moved gates to E2 (directly across from E9) as they were changing planes due to the mechanical issue.  So the flight was now supposed to depart at 7. Of course it was used for something else and had to be cleaned and prepped so they didn’t end up starting to board until about 7.

I think and we actually took off around 7:45.  Still the mechanical error saved my butt big time.  So I was able to board and get on my way. This plane was a 767 and I was in the back again with no one next to me which was nice. For all the alerts about the bumpy weather to Houston we had none. The flight to Lima had a lot though. I started by watching Appleseed Alpha then Maleficent then chose to sleep after that for the rest of the flight. They only had chicken on the food service but I didn’t end up eating it.  We landed at about 2am.  I was originally supposed to arrive at 10:30pm.  I got off the plane and had to fill out the immigration forms in the hallway because they forgot to bring them aboard the new plane and handed them to us at exit. I then got through immigration. Fortunately I have filled out those forms a bunch of times before and beat most of the other people to the line.  I then waited to the end to find out that they didn’t put my luggage on the plane. It was apparently rerouted to the flight the next day.  I had to fill out a claim and they said it will be delivered when it gets in quickly because I am a Premier member.

My beautiful Daniela was waiting in the terminal when I got out and we got our taxi to her house after a joyful reunion.  It being so late we both basically crashed immediately.  Even Forest wasn’t too excited I had arrived.  I received an email from United giving me the option of $100 eticket credit or 5000 miles. I chose to take the miles.  This was for the plane delays that kept me from having to sleep in the airport overnight. Ironic really. If only they had gotten my bag through too.

APAC Training Trip 2014 Day 30 – Hong Kong Day 12 (or the return home)

We woke up at 5am and began packing immediately. During the night it had been raining heavily and thunderstorming as well.  I was a bit concerned that might cause issues with flight departures but there was nothing to do for it but head to the airport anyway. We had a short breakfast at the lounge before getting down to the hotel lobby and picking up a taxi.

The ride was without traffic and it didn’t take long to get there. We got in and I checked in to my flight quickly while Daniela checked her luggage weights and redistributed before trying to check into her flight. They said since she was so early (she was supposed to leave at 3pm) that it would be better to take an earlier flight because it would avoid air traffic problems in Shanghai. They said the later it got the more likely flights would be significantly delayed. So they gave her a chance on the 9:30 flight where I was to leave at 10:30.  We agreed and she got checked in.  Then we had to run to the gate as quickly as possible. We had to take a bus to get there and that was a slight delay so they were already on last call for boarding when we got there. We had  very brief (much briefer than enjoyable) good-bye before she boarded.

I immediately turned around got back on the bus and then took the train to my own gate. They were just lined up and only a few moments later started boarding.  The main gangway was broken so everyone boarded the 777 from the first class entrance.  I had seat 3D.  It was still raining out but we got out mostly on time.   I waited until they served the lunch before I tried to go to sleep. The lunch was a beef fillet that was good but more cooked than I would prefer in a brown gravy with mashed potatoes and vegetables. I had a the shiraz to go along. The dessert had cheese, crackers and grapes but I only took the cheeses and some port.  Following that they had an ice cream sundae which I did chocolate and caramel only on the vanilla ice cream.  I also had some tea.  During the meal I watched the Muppets Most Wanted which  was cute but like the opening act said was not as good as the previous.

After the Muppets I put on Robocop but as I expected I didn’t find it enjoyable and fell asleep during it without much issue. I could tell they took something that was originally a tongue in cheek humorous movie and tried to make it serious which was a huge failing. I guess it is better it wasn’t a word for word copy of the original but still it was not really something I wanted to watch. I continued to sleep for a couple hours after the movie was over. When I woke up I watched The Monuments Men as I started typing my entries for the day before and today on the computer.  Since I wasn’t fully paying attention to the movie I couldn't give it a complete review but I don’t think it was bad.  From there I watched another movie called Fall of Ming which was a based on fact story about the end of the Ming Dynasty and a specific "doctor" at the time who learned a lot about virology 200 years ahead of his time.  It was interesting and I liked it overall. I then fell asleep again until they turned on the lights with about an hour and a half to go on the flight and served a breakfast of sorts. I had cornflakes and fruit and some coffee then watched the flight map until we landed. The girl next to me (who was not the one originally there but must have been a granddaughter to the Jewish couple that was there was flight sick most of the flight and used up about 10 airsickness bags over the last 8 hours or so. Her grandfather kept opening the window shade while I was sleeping which was also annoying. The flight was very bumpy but I have well gotten used to that by now.

We landed and I checked through Global Entry and had to wait quite a while for my bags. Then it was on to customs which was quick then rechecking the luggage. Apparently the tram system in Newark is being serviced so I had to take a bus from the B terminal to the C terminal. I got to go through TSA Pre again but they were letting non-TSA Pre people through from the regular line into that security check and I got some kids that left too much metal on and that caused a brief delay. I got to the gate when they should have already been boarding but the plane was late at arrival and they changed planes to a different one to head to Boston or something so we ended up being set back about 45 minutes. I took that time to get some McDonald's and then headed back to the gate and boarded. Even though I was boarding group 1 I was in economy class and seated in row 29 of a 737.  The two people next to me were both huge and I was happy to lean into the aisle most of the flight. I slept almost all of it. 

I arrived in Boston got my luggage and then couldn't find the limo for about 15 minutes before the company called me and we figured out where each other was. I was in the "Limo" area and he was in the shared van area. No wonder I couldn't find him...  In any event it was a quick and traffic free drive home and I was there at about 7pm.  It certainly could have been much worse.

No pictures for the last day of the trip out of laziness...

APAC Training Trip 2014 Day 29 - Hong Kong Day 11

We started the day by waking up early to go on the Lantau 360 tour that would bring us to Lantau Island in the new territories. That island is also where the airport is.  When we got up it was raining out though not any lightning or thunder.  The rain was moderately strong by this point.  We got cleaned up and had a quick breakfast in the lounge before getting downstairs perhaps a minute or two ahead of schedule and the tour bus was already waiting for us. Of course it was really raining by now.  The initial bus was a pickup bus only and we rode on to two more stops before being brought on to the tour operator’s location.  After a few minutes we were sorted onto the correct tour bus and starting on our way.

Our tour guide was named Roger and while he was Chinese it was obvious he learned English outside of Hong Kong. I thought his accent was probably from Australia or New Zealand but I later learned he grew up in Manchester, England. He was a glib fast talker who made a lot of jokes throughout the tour but apparently for those who weren’t native English speakers he spoke much too fast. Even the guy from South Africa who had been living in the states for many years thought he spoke to fast.  I did find him funny but I couldn’t help but joke back with him at times.

The first stop of the tour was at the Avenue of Stars near the harbor. Of course since it was raining out the guide sold it as a bathroom and Starbucks stop to try to keep himself out of the rain. It did slow down a bit while we were there though and although we started with ponchos on we took them off a few minutes afterward.  We got down to the statue of Bruce Lee and took a couple pictures. We also took a few minutes to get a hot chocolate at the Starbucks. 

The second stop was at a “Jewelry Factory” for the company TSL. As with the other factories we visited during the tour it was an over glorified reason to visit a jewelry store.  The information was brief and all geared towards selling their stuff. After that it was too many minutes in the store.  I don’t think anyone bought anything on this stop and the guide sold this stop also as a bathroom break saying we would have a couple hours before we could stop if we didn’t go here.  I don’t think he gets a cut of the sales so he was disinterested in it, unlike the Chinese tour guide in Beijing.

From there it was on the bus for a moderately long ride to Lantau Island where we would take cable cars up to the big Buddha.  We had opted to take the “Crystal Car” which meant the glass bottom car. The rain had basically stopped by now but we had all the heat and humidity still. The car we got on had all the windows closed and I opened as many as I could because I think we would have been steam cooked if someone didn’t.  The ride takes about 25 minutes and goes through a couple of turns in ground stations before it finally reaches the top. I am not sure why I was less bothered by the glass bottom cable car (which does reach heights that are enough that should bother me) than I would with a cable car that is normal does to me.  I would think it would be a more nervous experience but honestly I had less issue with it than I normally do. Especially for how long it is. In any event the guy from South Africa and a few Chinese guys were on the car with us and of course everyone took a lot of pictures.  Many pictures focused on the idea of the glass bottom whether we were over land or water.  You can also see the airport from the cable cars too.

At the top we waited for the guide to arrive on another car for a few minutes before he took us to the vegetarian lunch at the monastery.  The food was all served family style and there was a lot of different kinds of things such as mushrooms with broccoli, lemon bean curd strips, mixed vegetable dishes, vegetable fried rice vegetable spring rolls, rice chips and sweet rolls. It all came with Chinese tea as is to be expected. The food was enjoyable though of course I would have loved something meat based.

After the meal was over we had free time and walked around the monastery then on up to the big Buddha and through the Buddha museum. The Buddha is upstairs about 270 steps and in the heat and humidity it was a mildly unpleasant climb.  At least the rain had fully stopped before we did all of this.  We even had reasonably good views of the statue and the surrounding area though the clouds remained.  The monastery and the statue took up most all of our time so we didn’t get around the gift shop area.  Roger said that Daniela and I were close to his record for being the latest to get back to the meeting point.

We boarded an island bus and rode down to the fishing village next.  There he walked us through the village quickly and we got on a boat that rode through the village of stilt houses and then on out past the breakwater where we actually got to see some pink dolphins. The pink dolphin is apparently the national symbol of Hong Kong. We saw a bunch of them leap out of the water and such but it was nearly impossible to get pictures or even videos of them because each incident was so brief we couldn’t really see it, focus on it and get pictures.  I tried to get video but really only got one splash.  Too bad but they were very pink and it was cool to see. We then turned back around headed into the village after a few minutes and were given some free time where we bought some water and I got replacement batteries for my camera.  We took a quick pit stop then it was time for the bus back to the cable cars.

We rode the Crystal Car back also. There was a brief point where the car stopped for maybe 3 or 4 minutes but since it was a nervous thing it felt like 10 or 20.  I am not sure why it stopped. It must not have been a technical reason for the stop to be short. Perhaps someone had to get off at one of the stations the cars don’t stop at or something?  In any event, this time it was just the South African named Craig and Daniela and myself on the car. We were a bit nervous for a few minutes but the car did start moving again and the rest of the journey continued without incident.  We waited for the tour guide and were again put back on the bus this time to take us back to our hotels.  We were dropped off at about 4:30 and then basically after all the draining heat we took a small rest in the room for about an hour. We got cleaned up then headed back out for dinner and some shopping.

We decided to try to go to the Tsim Sha Tsui stop and search out dinner. I was not sure which exit to take out of the Tsuen Wan line (the red line) so we just sort of got out and wandered around. We weren’t fully sure what to get but I had in my mind to find the Italian restaurant I had eaten at 3 years ago and our wandering did provide me with the ability to find it. It is called La Taverna and is at the end of a dead end street.  I am not sure the name of the street. When we got in there was live entertainment in the form of a man and woman singing to music played on a keyboard. They were mainly singing older easy listening style American songs.  Stuff like John Denver and so on. We ordered some garlic bread and a bottle of the house red wine. I had the penne ai quattro formaggio and Daniela had spaghetti with shrimp.  Sort of a shrimp scampi.  Both the meals were really good. The wine was only average.  After we finished the meal we each had dessert. Daniela’s was named after Sophia Loren though I forget the full title. It was puff pastry with orange cream. It was tasty. I got the tiramisu and it was very good too. 

I think we took a bit too long at dinner but we were having a good night of it. Still we had to get to the markets before they closed. We took the train to the Jordan stop and walked to the Night Market on Temple Street.  We thought we wanted the night market for the things Daniela was looking for but it turned out that they didn’t have what she wanted at all so we got back on the train and headed to the Lady’s Market again which was much nearer to our hotel. Unfortunately we got there around 11 or so and everyone was beginning to close up shop.  This meant we had to rush around in circles trying to deal for what Daniela was looking for in quick order as the vendors shut down.  It was not a fun experience honestly and very exasperating for Daniela who had a time limit to get a reasonable deal. In any event she bought a carry-on bag for her sister which was the main goal. It was a fake Coach (or maybe Gucci) bag that looked obviously fake for the big Gs on it instead of the Cs it should have been. 

After the shopping we just headed back to the hotel and called it a night. It was hot and sweaty and I was completely done and drained from it all so it was easier to fall asleep.  We set the alarm for 5am to get packed up completely before we headed to the airport. 

The pictures from Hong Kong Day 11 can be found here.

APAC Training Trip 2014 Day 28 - Hong Kong Day 10

We ended up with a late start partially because we were both very tired and also because morning was filled with some fairly strong thunderstorms. We originally intended to get out to Tsim Sha Tsui in the morning because Daniela wanted to attend a tai chi class but with the weather it was obvious the outdoor class would not happen.  So we got moving late and had breakfast just before they closed down for the day.

After breakfast Daniela had to do some work so I went down to the concierge and spoke to them about tours for the day and Saturday.  I brought the information up to Daniela and we talked for a little while then I went down and bought Hong Kong On Lights and Launtau 360. The former for that evening and the latter for Saturday.  The tour started at 4:30 with a pickup service at the hotel so we had a couple hours. We needed to get some socks (laundry just wasn't going to be done at this point) a suitcase for Daniela and to do some basic looking for other things we needed to buy so we decided to go to the Lady's Market just down the street. So when Daniela was finished work we got outside.

We started with lunch at a McDonalds so she could have 2 more of her Hello Kitty World Cup dolls. I had a quarter pounder with cheese and she had chicken wings.  After lunch we got into the market and started to search and bargain with the sellers. We bought me some shorts and after going through about 6 different stalls trying to find a suitcase she liked at a price they would sell that was reasonable we eventually got the suitcase she wanted enough to pay for it. I let her do all the bargaining. She set the prices too low at first and we found that no one would sell that low and worked out a price they would sell for by the end.  I think the process took an hour and a half. We also bought a bunch of socks at the end then headed back to the hotel where we had just enough time to shower from the heat and humidity before setting off for the tour.

The tour picked us up at 4:30 at the hotel. We were driven around to Tsim Sha Tsui where we picked up other passengers until the last stop where they loaded a bunch onto the bus we were on. The first stop was Temple Street which is the night market. We were expecting to go there on Saturday night so this was a good scouting trip but we didn't buy anything. We walked the whole length though, including both sides.  Then we were piled onto another bus but this one was an open top double-decker and we sat up top and were driven around Mong Kok for a while to see a lot of the different sites.  From there were were put on a dinner cruise ship to have a dinner buffet and sail for 2 hours. The start of the cruise is the same time as the Symphony of Lights over the harbor so everyone went outside and watched the show from the observation deck of the boat.

After the show we went inside and had our dinner buffet. I had some spicy chicken, rice, roasted pork and grilled fish.  I had fruit and ice cream for dessert. We both had a Kirin beer.  They had entertainment in the form of a trio of women singing international music during the dinner. It was funny to watch the Chinese people dancing. They had some odd ways to dance.  Some I think were really drunk too.  They sang in Chinese and English.  We stayed on the boat until 10pm where we got off and were taken back to the hotel.  We were the furthest from the harbor so were the last stop.  From there it was in for the night to sleep.

The pictures from Hong Kong day 10 are located here.

APAC Training Trip 2014 Day 27 - Hong Kong Day 9

I woke up on time without much issue and got to breakfast probably only a few minutes after Don. We ate and left a bit closer to leaving time than we had other than the day before. I think Don just wanted the day over. We arrived just in time for class and I started my teaching with half of his class again (2 of his students had already been through this segment). This carried them through lunch where we were taken to the barbecue place again. This time I had a fried pork chop curry.  It was good.  After lunch it was back to class where Don finished out his day early but I stayed to help perform upgrades so that I left at about 5:10.  I got back to the room and Daniela had left me a note that she went to visit the ambassador to Peru in Hong Kong for dropping off some stuff. So I got dressed and headed to the lounge where I had a beer and a half until she arrived.

After she arrived we quickly got ready and headed to Hong Kong island. We decided to take the free shuttle from the hotel to Tsim Sha Tsui and then we walked to the Star Ferry and took the ferry to Central. From there we took a cab to Chicha, a Peruvian restaurant, well we sort of took a cab. The driver got us to the correct street but not in the right place. This meant that he couldn't get to the right place without a ton of extra driving (this street is sort of a pedestrian street that has lots of breaks with stairs). So he didn't charge us but we gave him a couple Hong Kong dollars for his efforts then used the GPS on the phone to find the place which turned out to be a fair walk downhill away.

The place is named Chicha and the head chef is a Peruvian named Arturo. When he found out a real Peruvian was in the restaurant he came out to greet us and provided suggestions for the food. He was very nice and very funny but also very on the other side of the field, if you understand me. It was sort of funny.  He and Daniela talked for a bit while he explained his menu and what was best. We got several things. Ceviche of course. Daniela would murder someone if she didn't get ceviche here.  Also a causa sampler with 3 types. There was a Aji de Gallina  version, a fried fish and shrimp version and I am not really sure what the last one was. We had some awesome cod anticuchos.  There was also a tiradito that Daniela loved but I was not as fond of. Then later came the pan con chicharon.  Oh yes and we had a couple of pisco sours and I had a San Miguel because they ran out of Cuscena. She tried another pisco drink that had avocado in it that I tasted and believe it is one of the worst things I have tasted in a long time. Also they made a mistake so we ended up with a different pisco based cocktail that was better. For dessert I had Suspena de Limena which is a caramel and meringue dessert and she tried their picarones but didn't like them. They were too heavy for her.  We talked to the chef for a bit after we finished. He had finished for the night too. Then we walked around central a bit. It started to rain and the humidity got terrible.  We walked to central train station and rode back to the hotel by the Prince Edward stop where we called it a night.

The pictures from Hong Kong day 9 are here.

APAC Training Trip 2014 Day 26 - Hong Kong Day 8

The alarm didn't go off because the cell phone was turned off which meant that I didn't wake up until 45 minutes after I was supposed to. Still this was fortunately early enough for me to get showered and get into the lounge to get a quick breakfast. Don was already there.  After the small breakfast I had to run to get a few more HK dollars for some tasks we had and Don and I agreed to meet at the elevator after I ran into the subway station and then back to the room. I managed this easily and got back and Don took a few minutes more than I did. We ended up getting to the office just barely on time. The class carried until lunchtime very easily then they took us to Ocean Blue again and I this time had a Korean stone bowl of beef with vegetables an egg and rice. You pour the spicy chili sauce into the bowl and mix it all up. It was very tasty. I enjoyed it a lot. Back to class I carried until about 5:15. Don had to leave earlier so I got to the hotel on my own.  I met Victor briefly at the train station and then headed back.

At the hotel Daniela wasn't around. She had changed rooms but Joi gave me the new room card so I was all set. I got showered and met Don in the lounge and we waited for Daniela. She showed up a few minutes later and got ready herself then we took the subway (East Line to West Line to Tsim Sha Tsui East then walked underground to Tsim Sha Tsui. We had to guess a little bit and Don asked some locals where the place was and we were eventually guided to the correct building and got our way in only a few minutes late for our 7:30 meeting time.

Victor and his wife Jessie were already there and seated and the hostess brought us to them. When we got there Victor ordered a bottle of wine and started ordering various types of food. The restaurant was called Ye Shanghai and specializes in food from the region around Shanghai.  All of the food was really excellent. Victor said the restaurant has a Michelin 1 star and it showed.  Things he ordered: crispy fried eel, seaweed salad, drunken chicken, beef spareribs, a chicken and pine nut mixture that was eaten inside pastry shells, sweet and sour fish, marinated green beans, spicy tofu with cashew nuts and a stuffed crab shell that had a crabmeat and egg white concoction inside. Nothing was too far out of range for scaring us and it was all very tasty and well prepared. They didn't order any soup or noodles or rice which was fine.  We talked a little bit about work and a little bit about other things and it was a very pleasant evening. Victor and Jessie will be married for 38 years on Friday of this week, so a day after classes are over.  They have 2 sons in the US in Ohio and 2 granddaughters too. So they had just come back from visiting them.

After dinner was over we walked back to the subway station and rode back to the hotel where I was dead exhausted and we called it a night.

The pictures from Hong Kong day 8 are found here.  Unfortunately I was late on remembering to take pictures at dinner.

APAC Training Trip 2014 Day 25 - Hong Kong Day 7

I woke up after a good night's sleep and felt refreshed and got to breakfast even before Don did which is a first.  We got to the class with nothing different to report for breakfast or transit to the class. The morning lecture went by and Victor the manager of our Asia operations took the class out to lunch to the same restaurant we took the class out to last week in the area. It was basically very similar in that they ordered a lot of stuff and it was served family style. I managed not to drop or spray anything on myself this lunch.  I did try two new things in this mean which were century eggs which are fermented duck eggs and I had chicken feet this time. The one I tried was prepared with a black bean sauce and was actually very tasty. It was not the sickly looking yellow of the ones from the week before.  Otherwise all the rest of the meal was basically things we saw in the week previous.

After lunch we got back to lecture and then lab time and worked until about 5 to 5:15 or so before leaving. Billy and Han had to got to a meeting at 5 so we figured it best to stop there. Don forgot his phone in the office and realized it at the bus stop so went back to get it so I traveled back to the hotel solo and met Daniela who was just getting ready for the evening. During the day Jack had connected with me and said he could probably not get together with us except that evening after we went to dinner. He had to finish work late then get to the house and put his children to bed then he could come out. So we decided to stay close to the hotel for dinner and ate at a cafe in the mall that served some Italian and western style stuff. Daniela had a pasta with avocado and mushrooms where she picked out the mushrooms and I had fish and chips. The food was actually pretty good from my perspective but Daniela thought her dish was a little odd though she ate it and eventually said she liked it.  We then bought an ice cream from McDonalds so she could get another Hello Kitty World Cup doll.

After that we went up to the lounge and met Don there.  Don was talking with some new friends he had made, a Taiwanese couple who live in California named Larry and Ester. They were in their 60s and were very nice and Larry was very funny. So we hung out for the time waiting for Jack to arrive and eventually he came upstairs and joined us too.  We had a few glasses of wine each through the evening and then had one more drink with Jack down in the Lion Rock bar before he left for the night. That was just a beer each. Daniela and I had Sapporo and Jack had a San Miguel.  We talked about a lot of different subjects along the way. It was a very enjoyable night. We went to bed after 2am though...

The pictures from Hong Kong day 7 are here. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera later in the evening.

APAC Training Trip 2014 Day 24 - Hong Kong Day 6

Waking up at 6:30 I was amazed I could even remotely function on less than 3 hours of sleep but managed to get to breakfast and eat maybe a little bit more before we headed to the office. Nothing unusual about getting there. Victor and Billy were back from there travel. Moy See was still here and Bong had left for Vietnam.  We started class with a new set of students. I carried lecture until lunchtime. They brought us to the curry and barbecue place we had eat at last week and I had the barbecue pork with tofu with spicy sauce over rice. It was pretty good. There was an iced green tea that had a teeny bit of sugar in it that had a medicinal taste I didn't like.  I didn't finish my rice because the guy gave me far too much tofu.  After lunch it was back to a full day of lecture which carried us to 5:15. Don and I rode the bus back to the train station with Victor then got on the train back to the hotel where I got cleaned up and met Daniela in the lounge.

We had a couple drinks. I had some red wine. Then Don came over and sat with us and Daniela used him as a screen to take some more red wine in a bottle back to the room. He looked embarrassed about it but it was really funny honestly.  After we left the lounge we ordered room service. I got a hot dog and Daniela got a salad. The hot dog was a bit sweet. It was strange but the food was functional anyway. I shudder to think of the price of it all though...  After dinner we talked for a bit but really it was an early to bed night and I definitely needed it.

Pictures from Hong Kong day 6 (yes I know I could technically call it day 1 again) are found here.

APAC Training Trip 2014 Day 23 - China Day 3

We were tired of course so we woke up later than other days I would say. Especially because we didn't have any official tours planned and were just going to pack up then hit Beijing's sightseeing spots before we flew back to Hong Kong.  We got downstairs with maybe 15 minutes left for the included breakfast buffet and got all our food and drinks quickly as they started taking everything away even before the time was officially over.  We ate and then went over and talked to the concierge about our options for the day. Instead of taking a taxi we could take a subway from Agricultural Exhibition Center to Guomao and then switch from the number 10 line to the number 1 line where we could get to Tianenmen Square East stop and see Tianenmen Square and the Forbidden Palace. This was going to cost us 2 Chinese Yuan rather than probably 50 yuan for a taxi. We also found out we could take the airport express on a change from the number 10 line only 2 stops away. This would cost us 2 yuan each to get to the airport express and then 25 yuan each to get to terminal 2 of the airport and would take us only about half an hour or so. The subway ride to Tianenmen Square was also a half an hour or less.  So we checked out of the room and brought our suitcase and heavy bags to the concierge who held on to them for us until we would return to the head to the airport then headed to the subway.

The Agricultural Exhibition Center was maybe 5 minutes away from the hotel. Less if you walk fast.  The subway system has you check all your bags for security at an xray machine before entering the subway system.  After that we bought our 2 tickets and headed down to the subway itself. Everything is in English enough that you can get around without much issue. There are signs and electronic displays that have English as well as Chinese to explain where the train is, which way it is going and what the upcoming stops are.  I am not sure if it was this way prior to the 2008 Olympics or if they added all the English to accommodate the foreign travelers that arrived to Beijing for the Olympics. I have to ask of some of the locals I think to find out. Still this made it easy for us to get on and change to the correct train and get where we were going. We didn't even have to exit and pay for a second ticket to get through.  The system works with a ticket you swipe at entry and put into a slot at exit. If you have more value on it then it gives it back otherwise it will just take it from you and you get to exit.  The trains were very crowded but not so much that it was uncomfortable.  Still, we were then only non-Chinese looking people on the train. Well, I was anyway and that meant a lot of uncomfortable stares from people who were probably wondering what we were doing on their train system.  On thing I've noticed on several trips to Asia is the tendency of people to wear shirts with incorrect English sayings or poorly spelled words or most often poorly constructed phrases that often times are very humorous to look at.  I saw several such shirts on this train ride to Tianenmen Square East.  It made me think about something and laugh a little bit. So many Asians wear English that they have no idea what it means on their shirts. But so many Americans get tattoos of Chinese characters and they are not necessarily certain that the character is what the tattoo artist told them it was.  I think the latter is worse. You might look like a moron to someone for a short time you wear the shirt but much worse when you have something tattooed on you forever. I admit I cannot ready more than 2 Chinese characters and some are only situationally, like the characters used for an exit which I will only remember when I see the exit so I wouldn't know if that tattoo is wrong but there are people who would know.

We arrived at Tianenmen Square east and you could instantly see the city center once you got upstairs from the subway. There is a big roadway doing a cross intersection right where we arrived. The road is about 5 lanes wide in each direction. Because of this access to the Square is from the underground. To get through the underground walkway we again had to check through some form of security which it appeared they were letting in certain numbers of people at a time.  We did the Chinese thing and pushed and cut so we got through by melding in with a tour then leaping ahead of them so we didn't end up waiting as long as we could have to get into the area. Once inside we pretty much started walking in under the gates with the picture of Mao after taking many pictures (by the end of the day I had 413 I think).  Walking inward there are several courtyards which I believe make up part of the Forbidden Palace but these areas are free. We kept on walking further in to see how far we could go for free. Along the way we saw some police taking a man into a van and an old woman yelling at and swatting at the police officers who were taking the man away. He was Chinese. I have no idea what he did or why he was being taken away or why the woman was yelling and attacking the police officers. There was a crowd that was forming to watch the spectacle but I thought perhaps it would be best to move on. I am not comfortable with the idea of them deciding they may want to bring more people to jail than who they already picked up.  So we just kept on walking and continued further into the complex.  Eventually we did hit a location that was no longer free and we found that there was a ticket booth to enter the Palace Museum.  Tickets were 60 yuan each I think and once you were inside you could buy an audio guide companion for 40 yuan.  By the way the yuan may be referred to as CNY or RMB which is a Chinese name for the currency as well.  We got Daniela an audio guide en espanol and I went without.  The guide was set up to be based on GPS and would start explaining things as you progressed to different areas. I was not privy to what was said. Daniela said the speaker was fast and the information was more about the specific points of architecture than anything historical like she was hoping.  So I really didn't get a lot of the information provided in the audio guide translated to me. But there were many sign boards in English that explained things well enough that I was able to get a good idea of the buildings and what was going on.

I want to say that the various sections of the Forbidden Palace do look sort of similar but the place is very massive. I believe the largest royal grounds I have even been on. I remember Versailles was very large too but I don't think it was anywhere near as large as this place was. I suppose it would have been nice to have some more variance in the architecture but I understand why it was the way it was. One thing I found really funny was the fact that I had about a dozen different Chinese people, teens mostly, or early 20s, ask to take their picture with me. I of course agreed and now I am probably in the photo albums of a lot of different Chinese people.  As we were continuing on we ended up running into Nathan and Anna the American and Swede from our tour the day before. Considering how massive the place is it was ironic we could remotely find each other in the place. It is a strange thing how we could choose to be in the same place at the same time among so many people we didn't know.  So we chatted for a couple minutes then moved on.  By the time we made it through the gardens at the other end it was about 3 and a half hours later.  This really put us at a point where we weren't going to be able to do much else but get back to the hotel and pick up our stuff to continue on to the airport.  But unfortunately we were on the wrong side of the gigantic Forbidden City's grounds and would have to find a way back to the subway station. I am sure it is possible to walk around the grounds and the moat to get there but it would be a significant distance and take quite a while to do so. There was a sign that said you could take a number 5 bus back to the subway and it was 500 meters to the west but it was not obvious where to go and we couldn't find any reference to a number 5 bus nor whether it was on the same side of the street or if we had to go underground to get to the other side of the street and find it there. It is basically confusing.  There are a ton of guys there waiting for westerners to come out of the gate and offer them rickshaw rides around the grounds to the other side for inflated amounts of money. They are all, like all the other Chinese very aggressive and very insistent and follow you around and grab you when you walk away. I got to the point where I was yelling no at them to get them away from me. It felt so rude but it actually worked and they stopped following us. We wandered a bit and Daniela heard a Chinese guy speaking in English to an Indian person and she started to ask him what we do. Turns out his western name was Luis and he is a tour guide that does the grounds and Tianenmen Square and all of that and he had just finished and was heading back to the subway also. So offered to lead us there.  We took a number 110 bus which got us to a subway station on the number 1 line which meant just reversing our directions to get back to the hotel. Luis was very nice and knew a little Spanish as well so Daniela and he talked a bit and exchanged business cards for professional purposes.  He rode the train to a stop beyond us where we got off and Guomao.  We then changed back to the number 10 line and on to Agricultural Exhibition Center and to the hotel where we stopped very briefly and got our stuff and then turned right back around to the subway station.

We got tickets for the subway and rode 2 stops in the opposite direction we had taken before. The name is too huge to write here out of memory. I am sure I have a map that gives its name.  We then bought tickets for the Airport Express to terminal number 2 which is the second stop on the express. It was amazing how long of a ride difference there is from terminal 2 to terminal 3.  I expected 5 minutes but I think the train loops around the entire airport and took probably 15 more minutes.  We got into the terminal and found our way to the check in desk but they had not started for our flight yet so we had to wait about 20 minutes to start check in. We managed to be first in line for that which was nice and it was quick too.  We then went though immigration and security which also both were quick. I again expected more difficulty than we got. I did have some Hong Kong money in my backpack and that apparently set them off for issues with the xray machine, so they took my backpack and searched it and found the $5 piece and gave it to me along with my backpack but they were polite and it was not difficult.  From there we found out terminal 3 is fairly small. We hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was past 6pm by this point and we were both starving so we ate at a restaurant near the entrance to the terminal after walking around and seeing how small the terminal was.  I had a New Zealand beef filet and Daniela had New Zealand lamb chops. It was expensive but the food was good. Both had a black peppercorn sauce on them which I really liked but Daniela thought was too peppery. I had 2 beers and she had 2 orange juices along with a shared bottle of Evian water.  When were done we did some quick gift shopping just as the stores all closed. Our flight was supposed to depart at 8:25 but it was delayed from arrival by traffic issues departing at Hong Kong and then a huge thunderstorm came through as we were shopping and that delayed it landing even longer so that it had to switch gates.  We boarded over an hour late and then we didn't depart for another hour after that which meant 2 hours late. The flight is 3 hours.  We were supposed to arrive to Hong Kong around midnight and then would have to get to the hotel so I have figured 1am but when all was said and done we landed late in the 2am hour and immigration and baggage claim were quick.  We had to wait a few minutes for cab as there seemed to be some sort of flow control keeping the taxis from entering the airport that eventually they all skipped around. The driver got us to the hotel directly. There was really no traffic. We checked in and got to the room with little issue. I think it was about 3:20 when we got there. After getting settled in it was significantly past 3:30 before I went to bed (yes, I had to teach the next day).

The images from China day 3 are located here.

APAC Training Trip 2014 Day 22 - China Day 2

We woke up at 6am with both a wakeup call and the alarm from the hotel clock (which actually worked, so far I had been 0 for 2 on that).  After getting cleaned up we went downstairs and had a quick breakfast at the Italian restaurant which serves as their breakfast buffet which is included in the room. I had fruit, some bread, a small Danish and some homemade yogurt.  I also had some orange juice and some of their machine made coffee. The yogurt was interesting. I liked it.  From breakfast it was to the agency where we bought the tour in the hotel where we met our guide and were immediately put on a van for our tour for the day. 

Our tour guide was named Vicky and there were a total of 7 people on the tour. We had us and 2 from Chile (which made Daniela happy for the chance to speak some Spanish), a couple from the US that live in Hong Kong where the woman was actually from Sweden (that’s a mouthful, guess we’ll be something like that someday) and a guy from Sweden also. The last 3 knew each other because the two guys worked for the same company.  The tour started with a drive of about 2hours to the Badaling region of the Great Wall. This is a section of the wall that is from the Ming Dynasty and as such only 400-500 years old and in decent repair. The guide said they have not renovated it but we all think she was wrong, there was too much that looked new. She explained a little bit about the wall but she spoke softly for someone Chinese and her accent was kind of tough at points so I am sure I missed some important information.  We got to the site with only a small amount of traffic which was nice.  There we all chose to pay extra for a cable car ride to the top rather than trying to hike there ourselves.  The ride apparently was supposed to cost 80 round trip the Swedish woman told us but we were asked for 100 so the guide took an extra cut for the purchase. The CNY or Chinese yuan is supposed to be about 6 to 1 to USD.  That means 100 is about $16 and she took about $3 each extra. The cable car ride was actually very short. The guide just dropped us off and we had 2 hours to run around the wall area we were in. The wall is apparently something in the range of 4800 miles long a had been built in various stages since the time frame of 200bc.  Many sections are now collapsed.  The area we were in had a highest point of 840 meters or so and we had to walk some steep slopes and stairs to get that high. Without the guide it was just basically a free walk and Daniela and I climbed up then met up with one of the Chileans (Chilenos) named Claudio and walked around and down and in the other direction with him for a while. We took a ton of pictures.  The weather was sunny and very hot. I was sweating almost instantly and got a sunburn by the end of the day. The wall was very impressive to be on and see, especially knowing we had seen other portions of it significantly far away on the drive to and away from where we went.  It is an incredible undertaking. It is too bad it never really worked.  We managed to get a bottle of water or two on the wall and met up with Claudio and German from Chile to head back down the cable cars to the van.  At the bottom Daniela and I bought some coolie hats to ward off the sun. The process is all bargaining and we were given an initial price of 220 each and Daniela talked them down to 80 because some Mexicans we met had said that was how much they paid.

The van then drove us on to the Peking Garden Restaurant area. Of course the Peking Garden is not just a restaurant but also a “Jade Museum” which means it is really a jade store only slightly disguised. We had a guide there that told us a little about Jade but really there was only a small amount of real information and the rest was just sales pitch. No one bought anything at the jade store which I think made Vicky unhappy. We were all sure she gets a cut if anyone purchases anything.  The restaurant was generic Chinese food and had rice, soup (which was tomato based), two forms of chicken, one thing they called beef that none of us were certain was beef, cabbage, broccoli, fried apples, jasmine tea and eventually some sweet buns.  The food was reasonably ok though not the most exciting in the world. It was all served family style. Anna, the Swede, is vegetarian and couldn’t eat any much food there because even the broccoli and soup appeared to have meat based broths used.

From lunch we moved on to the Ming Tomb where we got to see a reenactment of a special ritual that was performed during holy days in the past. The descriptions was not great and to be sure the ritual was fairly boring but apparently they only reenact it on weekends at 2:30pm which is when we arrived. At the tombs we didn’t actually get to see the tombs, just the visitor center museum and the performance.  The performance maybe too 15 minutes so with the time we had I expect the tour is typically just that museum anyway.  The museum had some interesting information about Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty.  The coolie hats helped with this area to protect me from the sun.  This was definitely less than I was hoping for in the tour.

We were then driven on to the city of Beijing again and did a drive by of the Olympic park from 2008. It was literally a drive by and you couldn’t really do much but look out the window as Vicky explained a couple things. They apparently don’t let tours inside according to her.  Since we were in a moving van I didn’t take any pictures of this part of the tour.

The van continued on to a “silk museum” which meant of course silk store. At least Lisa explained a lot about the process this time and made a very good demonstration about silk and silk making before the sales pitches started. We took a long time here because Daniela bought some stuff as well as most all of the other tourists in our group so there was a bit of shopping to be done. They had some really nice stuff but most of it was so expensive it wasn’t funny. Especially the silk Hello Kitty sheets ($400+ US). They were neat but not worth that sort of money.  In any event, even though this was a trap to get us into a store it was ok by me.

The next trap was a “tea museum” where we were supposed to do a “tea ceremony” but really we did a tea tasting of a couple types of tea and had a bit of explanation about them and the history of tea.  This museum was yet again a shop and they wanted us to buy tea. We bought some stuff but not the full sale stuff they wanted us to buy (a canister was about $80 US but they also added another box of tea and a cup for that sale (plus a thing they call the pee pee boy which tells you the water is hot enough to make tea, long story).  Daniela bought some stuff but not the full purchase but Vicky was nice enough to get her the pee pee boy though the store didn’t want to give it to her. The teas were nice but I have a ton of it at home and so does Daniela’s house so it was more about the cup she wanted than anything.

That was to be it for the tour but we wanted to go the Peking Opera in the evening. We ran so late in the various stores and in general that where we were supposed to arrive back at around 5pm it was more like 6:15pm. Vicky said we would arrive late to the opera if we did that because it is very far away and she couldn’t guarantee that traffic wouldn’t make us even more late. We talked and decided we would go to the Kung Fu show because it was closer and we could arrive on time. But this meant no dinner and no shower (which I desperately wanted after the hours of sweat).  So we pretty much got to drop some stuff off at the room, pay the agency for the tickets and then get back on the van. Claudio and German were not going to the same hotel and we detoured them to the site before they got back but they were gracious. 

We got in and immediately found the snack counter. We bought two bags of some really disgusting chips and a couple of cans of beer and settled down for a minute or two before finding our seats and waiting for the show to start. The title of the show was called Chun Yi: The Legend of Kung Fu.  The idea behind it was that it was the story of a boy who was afraid to join the temple to learn Kung Fu (afraid to leave his mother behind and the world behind) who was being told a story by the temple’s master. The story explains how Chun Yi learned kung fu and became a great warrior and fought with the temptations of life along the way before becoming the temple’s new master when the old master died.  Of course the old man telling the story was Chun Yi. The demonstrations went from martial arts to dance to acrobatics and there was some music that was nice involved. They didn’t allow pictures so I didn’t take any. They also did some of the feats of strength and will things like the spears in the chest and the bed of swords and nails and all that along the way. It was very entertaining and Daniela and I enjoyed it.

After the show we had to get our own taxi back. We asked Vicky before she left us and she told us it should be about 40 to get to the hotel. We walked outside and the taxis waiting there were trying to charge us 100 and were only going down to 50 so we walked away from them. We crossed the street and two different motorcycle taxis tried to offer us. We explained we were too far. One of the said it would be 10-15 minutes which was not remotely possible as the van took half an hour. Daniela was laughing hysterically at the idea of the moto taxi taking us there but we didn’t take it obviously. Another taxi wouldn’t tell us a price so we sent him away. He and one of the moto taxi guys were saying horrible things about us in Chinese for a few moments before they both gave up and drove away.  We then found a guy in a mini-van driving an illegal taxi (like many of the taxis in Lima).  He agreed to the 40 price and we got in but he then picked up 2 more and offered to drive them as they were going to place “on the way” to our hotel. This meant he drove us in a less than direct route and right after we dropped the two guys off we got stuck in traffic that made us take a half an hour more than it should have from that point. It should have only been another 10 minutes and chances are if we took the direct route we would have been back to the hotel in half an hour instead of an hour and 15 minutes.  Aside from that he didn’t drive fast and every stall of the traffic or red light meant he was not paying attention and huge gaps would open in front of him. That meant that 3 other cars cut him off and we started to yell go every time he was slow. We were getting perturbed at the process because I am sure we could have shaved another 15 minutes off if he was just attentive and quick. When we got to the hotel he tried to say he didn’t have enough change for my 100 and was trying to get more than 50 off us. Daniela took the 100 back and went to get it changed in the hotel while I waited with the guy.  We gave him the second bag of chips because we both thought the Italian red meat flavor was disgusting.  He was miffed that he didn’t get more out of us but I pointed out he is the one that got us stuck in traffic and Daniela definitely held her ground and beat his tricks. She is much more a city girl than I am.

We immediately got into the Italian restaurant which was still open. I ordered a pizza and Daniela had the last call on the buffet. I also had a draft beer.  We ate and there was a singing group of women in the lounge next door we could hear.  When we were done we finally got up to the room to shower and I pretty much passed out instantly.

The pictures from China day 2 are here.

APAC Training Trip 2014 Day 21 – China Day 1

We woke up at 3:45am which gave Daniela the chance to watch some of the opening game from the World Cup in Brazil.  She was excited about the idea because the World Cup is being held in South America more than anything else. The game was going to start at 4am but she had some difficulty finding the channel that was going to show it. It is a fair thing to guess it would be one of the sports channels but after she gave up all dejected I was able to find it in the regular channels. The game was Brazil vs Croatia. By the time we were watching Brazil had already scored an own goal which was bizarre to see Croatia leading but then as I was getting showered Brazil scored the tying goal and we had to leave by the end of the half where it was still tied. We both got cleaned up and finished packing up the tiny bits that needed to be done then headed straight downstairs where we were easily able to pick up a taxi to the airport from the front lobby. It appears that by 5am there are already taxis waiting.  The ride to the airport didn’t have any traffic really so we got there in maybe 35 minutes. We found the check in desk for Hong Kong airlines. There were a couple people in line but the process was quick and easy all the same. One Chinese woman tried to push past us with her family in the line but we didn’t let her. I cannot fathom any reason she had to go ahead of us.  Too bad for her. 

We decided to check security which was also quick and easy then head in to the main area to find food. I got a sausage McMuffin from McDonalds along with a hash brown and coffee.  This allowed me to buy her a World Cup Hello Kitty referee doll. The put milk in the coffee unfortunately. Daniela got her breakfast of fruit and a veggie filled bagel from Panopolis next door. I trade my coffee to her and got an iced coffee from them that was black.  I also got a marble cake.  We finished eating then had to take a train to the gate area we needed and arrived maybe a few minutes before boarding. The boarding was general and the line was huge but like in Japan there was almost no carry-on luggage so the line moved fast. 

The plane was an Airbus 330 and had in seat entertainment. When the flight took off I chose to watch Mr. Peabody and Sherman and somewhat enjoyed it. It had a few nods to the original show while probably being a touch more modernized than I expected with slang type stuff. I guess also the butt jokes were a bit weak but to be expected. If you were thinking of watching it I would say go ahead it won’t kill you.  The flight otherwise was uneventful. They served a breakfast that had scrambled eggs but I didn’t even open the hot food section and only had the fruit and bread and some of the nastiest coffee I had ever seen. The bottle cup thing of water was partially frozen. 

After we landed I had expected a horror show through immigration but most of the flight was Chinese nationals (mainlanders) and they had their gigantic lines but we foreigners had only one line but there was not many people in it. The guy scrutinized our passports both but not for long and we both got through without issue.  Then we moved on to the baggage claim and the bag was there already (probably because I had to stop to pee along the way to getting to immigration) and we almost rolled through customs but they paused and talked to Daniela about where she was from and if she was with me before letting her go. I think they racially profiled her.   It took us a few minutes to find an ATM that worked then we talked to an information person and tried to find a cab.

The cab is where things got bad. Not horrible bad but sad bad.  I handed the reservations page to the driver and he said he was not sure where it was.  This really set off Daniela because she didn’t like that he was dressed in regular clothes much like in Lima.  There is no meter here so that also works on negotiated rates as well.  So he called up someone and spoke to them and they gave him some information in Chinese and he guessed and couldn’t find the place. It was supposed to be a Sheraton Four Points. He eventually pulled us over and said he we were there but we obviously weren’t so he tried to call some more. The person on the other end wasn’t much helpful.  Then Daniela saw a policeman who said the station was around the corner so she and the drive went to the police station and they found out we were on the wrong side of the city to the Sheraton Four Points. We started to go there and ended up finding another cab driver was aware of where to go and swapped off at the request of the first driver.  We only gave him half the rate we were expecting and he left us with the new guy. We sat through traffic forever to get to the other side of the city but he did indeed drive us to a Sheraton Four Points.

We got to the front desk and were told they didn’t have reservations for us. The reservations from my page were for a different Sheraton Four Points in a far off city. I am not sure why the company booking page had done this too me I set to Beijing and close to the city center.  In any event this place was also really in the middle of nowhere so we called the Sheraton Great Wall and set up reservations there.  I will not be able to explain in detail all of the exasperation Daniela was feeling during this process and it did point out to both of us that we both did things against our gut instincts (I booking through our company website instead of my normal channels or the actual travel agency people and Daniela for getting into the first cab in the first place).   In any event we managed to get another cab to drive us through hideous traffic back to the Sheraton Great Wall which we had passed a couple times in our travels through the city. The traffic made a half hour drive take an hour and thirty minutes instead. I had to cancel the other booking still. I did that on the phone with the company’s emergency hotline for travel. The lady was very pleasant and the process quick.

We got to the hotel and checked in to room 1628. The hotel is maybe a little bit old but still it is reasonably clean and the room is a decent size.  I took picture and gave Daniela only a few minutes to relax before we headed downstairs and booked our tour to the Great Wall for Saturday.  We then chose the Italian restaurant and ate. It was almost dinner time from missing lunch with all the time in the taxis. Daniela ordered some Quesedillas first. I had a lasagna and Daniela had a chicken piccata which was not quite a chicken piccata.   We got a bottle of New Zealand Cabernet Merlot.  The food was reasonably good.  We relaxed for a while then when we settled up.  We headed outside and across to the Landmark building for a few minutes then found the area that appears to be now unused behind the Sheraton and wandered around for a while before heading into the room to call it an early night. I at the least was beyond exhausted and Daniela was tired too.

The pictures from China day 1 are found here.

APAC Training Trip 2014 Day 20 – Hong Kong Day 5

I was able to wake up somehow even though I was very tired and I got ready and made it to breakfast by 7 where Don was already there. We made it to the last day of class for this week with a fair amount of time to spare even though we left later than we had. Class started on time and I ran though a segment I teach with my own students until lunch time. We had lunch at a place called Toms Bar and Grill which specializes in Thai food and I had a Thai yellow curry with beef. The waiter said it wasn't spicy and brought me a couple samples of spicy. I tried and used the "special spicy" and it was just at the limits of my tolerance. We had a coffee after the meal then it was back to class where I taught the same segment to Don's class then went on to have a 30th birthday cake for Bong then to finish up a few things and we basically still left at 5:30pm. This time we didn't take the same bus to University but took a mini bus to Sha Tin and then rode the train back to Mong Kok East from there. This was at the suggestion of Bong who rode back with us.

I think I got back around 6:30 all the same. Daniela and I got packed for the trip to Beijing and then walked around a bit before settling into the Executive Club lounge to have snacks and drinks. After that we transferred some luggage to Don's room so we wouldn't have to take it all to Beijing then spoke to the concierge and settled up for this part of the Hong Kong visit then headed out to the Lady's Market where Daniela exchanged a dress she bought then bought a pair of New Balance running shoes for the coming days. She really didn't have appropriate shoes for tours.  After we got in it was very late and we called it a night expecting an early start for the airport.  

The pictures from Hong Kong day 5 can be found here.