The Long Trek Home

Here we sit, it's hour 4 of an 8 hour layover in Narita...after an all night flight from Ho Chi Minh City.....and I'd rather be chewing glass. In all reality, the kids are holding together pretty well. This is a long hard trip and we are trying to remain civil. (Some of us are doing better than others...care to take a guess who?) DGF had to return to Shanghai to work...or do you suppose it was to avoid this long stint in Tokyo? From here we fly to San Jose, then Dallas and finally home....a circuitous route to be sure.

Haven't posted anything the last week or so. Either we've been really busy, REALLY HOT and worn out, or mulling over what we've seen. I really have to digest parts of Vietnam before I can even comment on it.

I will say that I loved the $5 Manicure and Pedicure that Molly treated her mom to....If we'd planned it right we'd have made a whole day of massages, facials and skin treatments and gotten EVERYTHING you can think of for less than $50.

But other parts of Vietnam have left me stymied and I will post some thoughts after I'm in rested and better frame of mind. We will post lots of pictures from the trip once we are back home. It was simply too great a challenge with David's computer and timeframe.

Hong Kong Highlights

We had three days to enjoy Hong Kong. We planned on making a day of going to Ocean Park so Leslie Ann could see the pandas but rain off and on all day put a damper on the outing. We were hoping the skies would clear for a jaunt up Victoria's Peak for dinner and to watch the city lights but it remained overcast canceling those plans as well.

Our first evening in town we spent enjoying traditional Irish treats (and lager) in an Irish Pub. Molly and David Garreth had a ball playing darts. Molly and I trounced the David Duo in the end. Proving once again that girls rule, boys drool. The next evening we took the Star Ferry across the Causeway and enjoyed dinner in the Soho area of Hong Kong. Very upscale and artsy, as the name implies. We went to an Argentinean restaurant and feasted on authentic Argentinean beef and wine. Leslie Ann took a real liking to the blood sausage. I much prefer the chorizo...

Yesterday we sat glued to the TV as the bombings in London unfolded and spent a quiet afternoon in bookstores before taking in the nightly laser show on the Causeway from the Skylounge in the hotel.

David, of course, spends the bulk of his time working, say 24/7. When Asia is winding down, the West is just beginning to stir so he never gets to call it a day.

In a few hours we head to Vietnam. It is about a two hour flight from Hong Kong to HoChi Minh City. The links that follows takes you to some really nice pictures of Hong Kong. We've enjoyed a great view of the Causeway from our windows.
http://www.pbase.com/accl/hong_kong
http://www.terragalleria.com/asia/china/hong-kong/hong-kong.html

Blogging from China

Interesting tidbit. We can (or anyone can) blog from China, but going to a blog is not allowed. So I hope these messages are posting correctly as I can't log in to see........

Sunday Evening in Shanghai

It was a busy final day in Shanghai. We nearly melted going to the market to haggle over Leslie Ann's few last souvenirs. The government cautioned people to stay in and cool as the temps continue to soar, but that didn't stop this intrepid troupe!

We spent the evening on a cruise up the river in the Bund area. It was a treat to see the city lights from the water but even starting at 8:30 p.m. it was HOT! We were actually supposed to take the cruise last evening but met friends for dinner and managed to miss the boat. (Story of my life...) at any rate we strolled the Bund enjoying the architecture, history of the area and city lights.

Dinner was in a refurbished traditional Chinese home in the French Section of Puxi. It was wonderful as has been every meal thus far. Since Puxi is full of expats and diplomats, it was the first time we've been surrounded by more foreigners than nationals.

Tomorrow morning we fly to Guangzhou before continuing on to Hong Kong and Vietnam. Shanghai is supposed to get a slight break from the heat...only 31 Celsius...we should feel feel right at home in Guangzhou as it is usually 10 degrees hotter than Shanghai!

Check out Guangzhou here: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/guangzhou.htm

Molly's Master Mind

OH, Man! This trip is amazing. I have gotten to be with my dad, go to museums (snore), eat different foods,and go shopping! Of course I miss all my friends, but I will be back soon. Very soon actually. Yesterday I rode on a city bus and subway for the very first time! It was amazing, but very, very crowded.

I could enjoy this trip a little more if it was not as hot! I mean it was 38 degrees Celsius yesterday! Oh, that was in the morning.

Well that is all for now. We have another adventure to get to today! I love you all! Talk to you later!!

Love,

Molly

Expats on China

DGF was up nearly all night working after returning from Ningbo around 11pm, so I have the computer for a while...a rare treat.

I found the most interesting blog and parts have me laughing out loud. For some insight from those that live in China check out http://www.talktalkchina.com/

A really poignant piece that offsets a lot of the site's good natured poking and griping can be found at http://www.talktalkchina.com/index.php/2005/05/23/peacock/

Saturday Morning Musing

So much for a DAILY dairy...and have yet to get the few pictures we've taken uploaded. The problem with pictures in China is that it is SO CROWDED wherever you are that good pictures are hard to come by. There are a lot of things I'd like to take pictures of that I think you'd find interesting, but am cautious that no one "loses face" in the process. I tryto teach the kids to be very sensitive to that aspect of the culture.

For instance....here we are in a city of over 24 million people and one of the things I find most intriguing are the street sweepers. The roads in Pudong are sometimes 4-8 lanes wide and excellent...but they are swept clean by hundreds of tiny elderly women with traditional Chinese brooms fashioned of a piece of bamboo and a clump of leaves at the base.

Perched on the 38th floor deck the other day it dawned on me that for as much traffic as there is, and as many close calls in taxis that we've had...a daily occurrence... that I hadn't actually seen a traffic accident. Minutes later I heard the gut wrenching sound of metal upon metal and looked down to see that a taxi hit a motorcycle. I wondered how long it would take the police to arrive...they never did...and after about 15 minutes the taxi left and some from the crowd that had gathered help the cyclist push his cycle at least 20 city blocks out of my range.

Three city sweepers on neighboring streets converged to clean up the mess in the roadway. From my vantage they looked like lithe Pac-man figures hurrying to the spot with their hotdog vendor type dirt bins and brooms. My heart really goes out to these tiny grandmotherly types. The weather has been extremely hot all week and the heat that emanates from the streets and buildings is brutal, yet they are out there from sun-up to sundown every day.

Likewise, you will find patch of lawn or landscaping being tended with scissors by a group of elderly men...I'm not kidding...they cut the grass, even soccer fields with handheld scissors. Yesterday we spotted a group of same under an aqueduct and at first glance I thought it was a group perhaps playing Mahjong. No, they were clearing a small park sized area for landscaping...by hand, literally weeding it clean.

Each year millions of Chinese from the outer provinces make their way to the city to make a better life. There is a glut of labor and a problem with unemployment, there are simply so many, many people. On the one hand it is ingenious the ways they think up to keep them working, on the other it is hard to see the elderly working so hard for literally pennies per day.