Monday, August 3, 2009
Now that's a Rainbow!
This is the view from our balcony this morning. Couldn't get it all in one shot, but it was 3/4 of a circle. Really beautiful!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Toilets
OK I've been meaning to do this for some time, so let's just get it out of the way.
First of all, if you need to use the restroom in these parts, you'll need to ask for the "TOILET." If you are an ignorant foreigner, like myself, and you ask for the "Ladies room," you have about a 2% chance of being understood. If you ask for the "rest room," you could very well be immediately escorted to the nearest Restaurant. If you are lucky enough to land a person who understands your query, they will almost certainly look at you with a pathetic smile and say, "Oh, you mean the TOILET."
Not the loo, not the water closet, not the ladies' or men's room, not the little girl's room. It is the TOILET.
So, now let's discuss options.
Pictured above is the "Western" toilet found in our apartment in Hong Kong. Yes, there is a flush, but it is on the top of the tank just behind the seat lid. Most of my readers should be familiar with this option.
Now, when you go to Japan, you will likely be faced with something a little more high tech.
Note the control bar on the left of the photo (user's right). Look at the interesting variety of choices there are!!
Or, at the really swank places or hotels, the control center may even be mounted on the wall.
See the small control on the user's right on this one?
Let's take a look at the control panel mounted just above the toilet paper rolls...
Don't know if you can see/read the main features, but they include
1) Bidet
2) Shower wash (it's different in spray intensity and surface area of coverage)
3) Seat warmer (could be a bit disconcerting to westerners who may think of "elapsed time issues" when they encounter a warm seat...but evidently popular with the Japanese)
4) Music
5) Flushing sounds
All in all, quite an interesting and entertaining place.
And of course, in all its glory...
The Chinese toilet. Now most places in Hong Kong have Western toilet options, but many in mainland China do not. For example, on some of the remote paths at the Great Wall, the only option is the "Chinese" toilet hole-in-the ground. The above one is actually quite luxurious. Just like a high-end hotel has a different Western toilet than do the "Rest Stops" on the lonely Texas highways, so there are varying degrees of Chinese toilet. The one above is NOT the rest-stop toilet. It is in a high end hotel.
The nice thing is, at some places like the Tokyo Narita airport, you can just pick from among all three! And the the lines for each are very specific...usually the lines for the Chinese toilet are the longest. We all have our preferences, don't we???
First of all, if you need to use the restroom in these parts, you'll need to ask for the "TOILET." If you are an ignorant foreigner, like myself, and you ask for the "Ladies room," you have about a 2% chance of being understood. If you ask for the "rest room," you could very well be immediately escorted to the nearest Restaurant. If you are lucky enough to land a person who understands your query, they will almost certainly look at you with a pathetic smile and say, "Oh, you mean the TOILET."
Not the loo, not the water closet, not the ladies' or men's room, not the little girl's room. It is the TOILET.
So, now let's discuss options.
Pictured above is the "Western" toilet found in our apartment in Hong Kong. Yes, there is a flush, but it is on the top of the tank just behind the seat lid. Most of my readers should be familiar with this option.Now, when you go to Japan, you will likely be faced with something a little more high tech.
Note the control bar on the left of the photo (user's right). Look at the interesting variety of choices there are!!Or, at the really swank places or hotels, the control center may even be mounted on the wall.
See the small control on the user's right on this one?Let's take a look at the control panel mounted just above the toilet paper rolls...
Don't know if you can see/read the main features, but they include1) Bidet
2) Shower wash (it's different in spray intensity and surface area of coverage)
3) Seat warmer (could be a bit disconcerting to westerners who may think of "elapsed time issues" when they encounter a warm seat...but evidently popular with the Japanese)
4) Music
5) Flushing sounds
All in all, quite an interesting and entertaining place.
And of course, in all its glory...
The Chinese toilet. Now most places in Hong Kong have Western toilet options, but many in mainland China do not. For example, on some of the remote paths at the Great Wall, the only option is the "Chinese" toilet hole-in-the ground. The above one is actually quite luxurious. Just like a high-end hotel has a different Western toilet than do the "Rest Stops" on the lonely Texas highways, so there are varying degrees of Chinese toilet. The one above is NOT the rest-stop toilet. It is in a high end hotel.
The nice thing is, at some places like the Tokyo Narita airport, you can just pick from among all three! And the the lines for each are very specific...usually the lines for the Chinese toilet are the longest. We all have our preferences, don't we???
Sarah and Max Estill visit us in May, 2009
After touring Beijing and Shanghai, Max and Sarah Estill paid us a visit! What fun it was to have Westerners in the house!
We messed around quite a bit in HK, but a few sample highlights are below...We rode the "Ngong Ping" (pronounced Ong Ping) 360 cable car/gondola to the BIG BUDDHA. He's really big! He's the largest bronze Buddha in the region. There are 268 very steep steps leading up. Christina and I went halfway up, but the rest of our party made it the whole way!!!
This is serene Buddha. Not the fat, happy Buddha with the belly, which Mark prefers.
There's also a cute village where you can shop and eat and just enjoy yourself. It was SOOOOO HOT that day, though. I don't think it has been as hot since! We lived on Gellatto.
Afterwards, we went to Tai-O, a little fishing village where you can really feel the energy and lifestyle of the native Hong Kong people as they earn their living fishing.
There are quite a few restrictions on fishing, though. From upper left to lower right from the sign above -
1) No Suction Devices
2) No Explosives
3) No Dredging
4) No Toxic Substances
5) No Electrocution
(Hardly seems fair....)
...but still they manage to catch a few and dry them out inside the house.
Max Loooovvveeed the food!!!!!
Thanks for coming, Sarah and Max!!! We love you!
We messed around quite a bit in HK, but a few sample highlights are below...We rode the "Ngong Ping" (pronounced Ong Ping) 360 cable car/gondola to the BIG BUDDHA. He's really big! He's the largest bronze Buddha in the region. There are 268 very steep steps leading up. Christina and I went halfway up, but the rest of our party made it the whole way!!!
This is serene Buddha. Not the fat, happy Buddha with the belly, which Mark prefers.
There's also a cute village where you can shop and eat and just enjoy yourself. It was SOOOOO HOT that day, though. I don't think it has been as hot since! We lived on Gellatto.
Afterwards, we went to Tai-O, a little fishing village where you can really feel the energy and lifestyle of the native Hong Kong people as they earn their living fishing.
There are quite a few restrictions on fishing, though. From upper left to lower right from the sign above -1) No Suction Devices
2) No Explosives
3) No Dredging
4) No Toxic Substances
5) No Electrocution
(Hardly seems fair....)
...but still they manage to catch a few and dry them out inside the house.
Max Loooovvveeed the food!!!!!Thanks for coming, Sarah and Max!!! We love you!
Vietnam - Spring 2009
Christina and Jessica in Vietnam.
We arrived in Hanoi late one evening. Ngo Mihn Duc (a.k.a "Duc from Wietnam" - "Duc" rhymes with "took" or "book," not "duck" or "duke"), our Genral Sales Agency in SGN and HAN, picked us up from the airport and took us to eat yummy noodle soup (Pho). Duc just has very young children, so it was our honor and duty to teach him a few things about 6 year olds - - sometimes they lose their teeth! Christina lost her first front tooth at the restaurant - it was quite a show, blood and all.
The Vietnamese Tooth Fairy came that night and gave her about $150,000 VND (Vietnamese Dong, which trade for about 17,000 to 1 USD) AND let her keep the tooth! Wow. They do things differently in VN!
The next morning we set out on a long car drive to Halong Bay - a world UNESCO heritage site many times over. On the way, we stopped at some nice stone carving store - the stone carvings are done by handicapped people and are simply beautiful.
The gentleman to the right of Jessica (her left) was Son, our tour guide. He took super care of us all the way through.
After the long ride, we reached Halong Bay and were taken on a ferry to our destination - the "Bahaya" cruise ship. I had been on this before during a team meeting and couldn't pass up a repeat for the kids. They have one and two night programs, and we did the one night one this time. Next time, we'll do two, for sure!
Onboard the Bayaha in Halong Bay.
There are 20 cabins so the whole thing has a very intimate and family feel about it.
We had such a fun and relaxed time...
We took a cooking class where we learned to cook egg rolls...
Outdoor massage in a private area of the deck didn't bother Jessica one bit! (Christina, Mark and I enjoyed this, of course, too!)
Christina learning about sails.
We went via row boat to the floating village. Very primitive I suppose, until you see they have a bank! Cool!
Look even closer and you can see antennae for the TVs. It sure is quiet, though, and we saw the children coming home from school in the boats. Very different from our lifestyle.
We took a little ride to some caves and went exploring. Above is our "outing" guide.
The above speaks for itself, I think.
If you want to buy a snack, here's the floating 7-11!
Just a lovely view of the village surroundings and the water.
The scenery was just breath-taking, with the enormous limstone formations extruding from the water. Halong Bay has my heart!
Then we took a nature walk - Son, Jessica and Mark took the lead...We enjoyed some time on Catba Island at a resort, then back to Hanoi for some city exploring...
Touring the streets of Hanoi by "cyclo" - bicycle powered buggies - is a must. That way you can really get to know the energy and color of the city. Christina thought it was "crazy busy." Even more bustling than Hong Kong!
You can see why from the above...there are motorcycles everywhere. Being in a car (as we often were) was kind of a drag. They go too slow and can't dart in and out. Hanoi has no real public transportation system. A few busses, and that's about it. An underground train or subway system would really rock here!
The old mixes with the new.
Here's a great shot of infrastructure in Hanoi - this shot can ONLY be caught on every street corner in Hanoi.
More street life -
More infrastructure. All houses have water tanks on top. We were a little disappointed when we learned that they were not beer kegs. They have very narrow houses (which are often amazingly deep), because the taxes are levied based on the width of the house. On the right hand side of the house, you can see gray concrete. They don't paint the sides, only front. This is because soon enough someone will build a house joining yours.
By the time we left, we felt like locals! :-)
We arrived in Hanoi late one evening. Ngo Mihn Duc (a.k.a "Duc from Wietnam" - "Duc" rhymes with "took" or "book," not "duck" or "duke"), our Genral Sales Agency in SGN and HAN, picked us up from the airport and took us to eat yummy noodle soup (Pho). Duc just has very young children, so it was our honor and duty to teach him a few things about 6 year olds - - sometimes they lose their teeth! Christina lost her first front tooth at the restaurant - it was quite a show, blood and all.
The Vietnamese Tooth Fairy came that night and gave her about $150,000 VND (Vietnamese Dong, which trade for about 17,000 to 1 USD) AND let her keep the tooth! Wow. They do things differently in VN!
The next morning we set out on a long car drive to Halong Bay - a world UNESCO heritage site many times over. On the way, we stopped at some nice stone carving store - the stone carvings are done by handicapped people and are simply beautiful.
The gentleman to the right of Jessica (her left) was Son, our tour guide. He took super care of us all the way through.After the long ride, we reached Halong Bay and were taken on a ferry to our destination - the "Bahaya" cruise ship. I had been on this before during a team meeting and couldn't pass up a repeat for the kids. They have one and two night programs, and we did the one night one this time. Next time, we'll do two, for sure!
Onboard the Bayaha in Halong Bay.
There are 20 cabins so the whole thing has a very intimate and family feel about it.
We had such a fun and relaxed time...
We took a cooking class where we learned to cook egg rolls...
Outdoor massage in a private area of the deck didn't bother Jessica one bit! (Christina, Mark and I enjoyed this, of course, too!)
Christina learning about sails.We went via row boat to the floating village. Very primitive I suppose, until you see they have a bank! Cool!
Look even closer and you can see antennae for the TVs. It sure is quiet, though, and we saw the children coming home from school in the boats. Very different from our lifestyle.
We took a little ride to some caves and went exploring. Above is our "outing" guide.
The above speaks for itself, I think.
If you want to buy a snack, here's the floating 7-11!
Just a lovely view of the village surroundings and the water.
The scenery was just breath-taking, with the enormous limstone formations extruding from the water. Halong Bay has my heart!
Then we took a nature walk - Son, Jessica and Mark took the lead...We enjoyed some time on Catba Island at a resort, then back to Hanoi for some city exploring...
Touring the streets of Hanoi by "cyclo" - bicycle powered buggies - is a must. That way you can really get to know the energy and color of the city. Christina thought it was "crazy busy." Even more bustling than Hong Kong!
You can see why from the above...there are motorcycles everywhere. Being in a car (as we often were) was kind of a drag. They go too slow and can't dart in and out. Hanoi has no real public transportation system. A few busses, and that's about it. An underground train or subway system would really rock here!
The old mixes with the new.
Here's a great shot of infrastructure in Hanoi - this shot can ONLY be caught on every street corner in Hanoi.
More street life -
More infrastructure. All houses have water tanks on top. We were a little disappointed when we learned that they were not beer kegs. They have very narrow houses (which are often amazingly deep), because the taxes are levied based on the width of the house. On the right hand side of the house, you can see gray concrete. They don't paint the sides, only front. This is because soon enough someone will build a house joining yours.
By the time we left, we felt like locals! :-)
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Australia April 1 2009
I got to celebrate my birthday this year in one of my new favorite cities in the world, Sydney!
After a long, hard, 2-week long winter in Hong Kong (ha ha!), we started our spring thaw with a trip to Manley Beach - a short ferry ride from Sydney Harbour (that's Aussie for "Harbor").
The Harbour is full of local color - an "aboriginal" tourist attraction with his Diggery Doo. Yes, of course we bought his CD. No, it just isn't the same on the home CD player. However, his makeup job did impress Christina.
Anyhow, about a 30 minute ride from the Harbour is Manly Wharf. Not the Caribbean, but perfectly awesome compared with HK beaches!
Just plain ole fun in the sun without any translators needed!
One of the things we really enjoyed was the opal museum. It is just a small museum, but since we're big geology and rock fans, this was right up our alley. We learned all about the history of opal mining in AU, and we saw everything from the raw opals in stone to majestic, crown-quality gems. One had recently sold for $14,000 USD earlier in the day. We settled for the free gift - the pin-on kangaroo with a 1/2 lady-bug sized stone :-).
Another great thing to do in Sydney is the history museum. They have an awesome booklet of activities for the kids. It guides you through the museum with activity-based learning. No photos allowed inside, though. Too bad.
The bridge is awesome! We didn't climb it although when the kids get a little older I'd like to put that on our list of things to do.
The opera house is even more impressive in person than it is in all the books, if that is possible.
Once, when Christina was 3 years old (before we had moved anywhere away from Texas), we were looking for something to read - - the kids have always liked fact books. We were looking through "Great Buildings of the World," and I saw the Sydney Opera House. I said, "Oh let's read this page." She said, "No way, Mom, that's too easy! That's the Sydney Opera House, of course!" [DUH!!!, Mom]
After dinner one evening on the harbour, we were visited by two new friends who gave us a talent show just off the restaurant's knee-wall facing the harbour. They are "Traveler" (the small Kangaroo), and Kelly the kookaburra. What great fun we had :-) !
Jessica, Christina and Dad got to see the real things the next day at the zoo while I worked. What a SUPER place to visit!!!
Yeaaahhhhh....Sydney!!
After a long, hard, 2-week long winter in Hong Kong (ha ha!), we started our spring thaw with a trip to Manley Beach - a short ferry ride from Sydney Harbour (that's Aussie for "Harbor").
The Harbour is full of local color - an "aboriginal" tourist attraction with his Diggery Doo. Yes, of course we bought his CD. No, it just isn't the same on the home CD player. However, his makeup job did impress Christina.
Anyhow, about a 30 minute ride from the Harbour is Manly Wharf. Not the Caribbean, but perfectly awesome compared with HK beaches!
Just plain ole fun in the sun without any translators needed!
One of the things we really enjoyed was the opal museum. It is just a small museum, but since we're big geology and rock fans, this was right up our alley. We learned all about the history of opal mining in AU, and we saw everything from the raw opals in stone to majestic, crown-quality gems. One had recently sold for $14,000 USD earlier in the day. We settled for the free gift - the pin-on kangaroo with a 1/2 lady-bug sized stone :-).
Another great thing to do in Sydney is the history museum. They have an awesome booklet of activities for the kids. It guides you through the museum with activity-based learning. No photos allowed inside, though. Too bad.
The bridge is awesome! We didn't climb it although when the kids get a little older I'd like to put that on our list of things to do.
The opera house is even more impressive in person than it is in all the books, if that is possible.
Once, when Christina was 3 years old (before we had moved anywhere away from Texas), we were looking for something to read - - the kids have always liked fact books. We were looking through "Great Buildings of the World," and I saw the Sydney Opera House. I said, "Oh let's read this page." She said, "No way, Mom, that's too easy! That's the Sydney Opera House, of course!" [DUH!!!, Mom]
After dinner one evening on the harbour, we were visited by two new friends who gave us a talent show just off the restaurant's knee-wall facing the harbour. They are "Traveler" (the small Kangaroo), and Kelly the kookaburra. What great fun we had :-) !
Jessica, Christina and Dad got to see the real things the next day at the zoo while I worked. What a SUPER place to visit!!!
Yeaaahhhhh....Sydney!!
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