Asian Christmas

Goodbye Suwon

2009-01-22T00:39:00.001-08:00

Our last day in Suwon today. It will be sad to leave Cam and Penny, they have been really great and have entertained us very well, as well as rushing off to school every day. They deserve their weekend skiing this long weekend!

I will add a bit about about our day out in Seoul on Tuesday, as I was too tired to do all that last night.

We took the train in and visted the War Museum, which was very good. Probably spent too long there though as we had a bit of "museum legs" when we got out. We foolishly tackled the big rambling namdaemun market next - Bill and I together are not the best of marketers, and we had to beat a bit of a retreat for food, and then try again. Eventually I bought a woolly hat, and we headed off to the N'Seoul tower, up the cable car on the top of the hill in central Seoul. That was great, and gave us a good idea of the layout and expanse of the city. A cute Asian touch was all the love letters and litte plastic hearts padlocked to the fence. It sounds as though we didn't do much, but we enjoyed our day.

Cam and Penny met us at Suwon station and took us for chicken galbi, which was delicious. A quick side trp for Cam to show his skill and me to make a fool of myself at baseball batting, and then back to the apartment for some serious (and very slow!) golfing at Pebble Beach. Nathan joined us, and we reckoned that on one par 5 hole between us all we hit 48 balls! It was a pretty late night, as the boys then went back to Nathan's apartment for a FIFA 09 playstation tournament.

I took the plunge this morning and braved the naked sauna. I went on my own, but Penny had taken me over (fully clothed) earlier and shown me what to do, which was handy as I would have been completely confused. When I arrived I was given a gorgeous set of orange shorts and Tshirt, which I put on in the locker area, before heading round to the male/female area of saunas. his was a big room with heated wooden floor, with little cubicles like body-length tunnels at one side that had mats in for sleeping on. When Penny and I went over earlier this room had several people sleeping on the main floor and in the cubicles, but by the time I went, there were only one or two. Off this room was a cafe, a little reading room, a computer room, and probably other things I didn't see.

At the far end were the mixed saunas, where we all wore our orange gear. I chose the coolest one to start off (the temperatures were above the door), and joined half a dozen women who were lying flat on their backs on the floor chatting animatedly. As it was obviously the thing to do, I lay down on my back too, putting my 2 little orange handtowels under my bare legs, which turned out to be a good precaution. After about 60 seconds my head was on fire, so I found a little wooden pillow. Another 60 seconds and my back and shoulders were going to burn through, so I had to sit up. I lasted maybe another 3 minutes then had to leave - I could hear quite a bit of giggling behind me!

Next I tried one of the traditional looking ones, shaped like big beehives. As Penny said, you felt as though you were getting inside a pot-bellied stove, and the floor had some sort of matting that gave off a bit af a funny hot smell. This was a bit better though, and I stayed in there maybe a whole 10 minutes.

The next step was to strip off completely and walk through to the pool room, shower at the open showers along the side, and then hop in. Once again it was obviously a social occasion, with groups of women all sitting round the edges of the pools chatting and laughing, and there were quite a few kids there too (I guess as it's school holidays). I was actually fine with the naked thing, and once I had my glasses off I couldn't even see them all staring at me. The worst thing really was that I dropped my glasses out of my plastic bag of shampoo etc, somewhere alongside the pool, and had to grope around blind in all my glory til I found them!

It was great though, and I'm only sorry I discovered it at the end of our holiday. I'm thinking about going over early tomorrow morning before we go, however.

Cam had a long lunch today, so he took us for a walk in their park, and we had a we go on some of the exercise machines. The lake was frozen, and the boys had a wee play on the ice.

Then we went and met Penny and Nathan at their favourite dumpling restaurant for lunch, which was really good and we were all stuffed full (again!)

When the others headed back to school Bil and I went and had a poke around the market, and then came home, messed about in Suwon a bit, and packed. Bill finally won a packet of rather disgusting pure cocoa lollies in the game machine outside the "family mart" that he had een feeding all week! I think we're going back to our favourite galbi over the road tonight, and then maybe to get some really spicy chicken that Cam likes a bit later.

DMZ

2009-01-21T05:43:00.000-08:00

Bill and I have had a big day with our trip to the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas today. We left Suwon in light snow in the dark at 6.30, to meet our tour group at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul. The bus load was half Japanese and half English speaking, so we had 2 guides who generally took turns speaking but from time to time went at it together with two competing microphones which was a bit head-spinney.

It was about an hour's drive down the Reunification Highway to the edge of the DMZ, where we were taken to the Freedom Bridge (lots of things had very laudable names!), where prisoners were exchanged after the Korean War and the train now crosses the river.

Then to Dorasan Station, a huge modern station built to be the major crossing point into North Korea with big warehouses for all the goods to be shipped, but which has never been used except for tourist trains that run up to there and and then back a couple of times a day - the North Koreans have not let trains run into their section for some time.

We went from there to Dora Observatory up on a hill where we could look through binoculars into the DMZ and over to North Korea and see the nearest city. Quite chilling driving up there with all the edges of the road fenced off and signs aying "Mines" hanging on the fence at intervals. We could clearly see the fence on the South Korean side, a double fence with double and triple folls of barbed wire along the top, and manned guard posts. There is a similar one on the North side 4km away, and all the no man's land in between is the DMZ. They were at pains to tell us about how this undisturbed land is a paradise for the regeneraton of native plants and birds, but in the cold winter, with ice on the puddles and no leaves on the bushes, it didn't look too heavenly. There are 2 villages inside the DMZ, one South and one North. The South Korean village has carefuly controlled residents who farm with military guards, but the North Korean village is empty, and just has buildings, a few mainatenace staff, and a huge imposing tower flaunting the North Korean flag.

Next stop was the 3rd Tunnel, dug by the North Korean Army, presumably to invade or infiltrate the South, and discovered in 1978. The South Koreans have discovered 4 tunnels, the most recent in 1996, but there could be lots more.... We were able to go down into this one and walk along 73m underground to with about 100m of the Military Demarkation Line (the actual border, which runs more or less down the middle of the DMZ). It was a pretty big tunnel for them to have dug, much bigger than the ones in Vietnam, but even so it wouldn't have been much fun down there for long. Our guide pointed out the holes for dynamite, and the slope of the tunnel, which both indicated that it must have been dug from the north side. Walking back up the 73m wasn't so much fun!

We were taken for lunch to a Korean BBQ restaurant, where we sat with an older French couple who were very nice - rather them than some of the painful Americans!

After lunch we went to Panmunjeom, the Joint Security Area inside the DMZ where both North and South Korea have buildings and troops, and where they hold all the meetings and peace conferences. The troops used to mix in this area until the "tree chopping incident" when several on both sides were killed and injured - now they keep to their own sides of the area, blue buildings managed by South Korea, and grey by North. Visiting this part was quite an experience. The guide was very strict with us, and told us over and over that we must obey whatever the soldiers said, must stick together and walk in 2 lines, and not stop walking outside the buildings, or move away from the line for any reason. We were not to eat, drink, smoke, or chew gum, and not to point, make eye contact or smile at any North Koreans. We had to dress properly, no untidy jeans, and had to leave our bags, hats and gloves in the bus, and could only take photos in specific spots where the guide indicated, and not with zoom lenses. It was very subduing, and we were all models of good behaviour because we really could feel that there was a fair amount of tension in the air. The South Korean soldiers were vigilantly on guard, some of them half hiding behind buildings.

We were allowed into the conference room, a plain bright blue prefab building with the demarcation line marked down the middle of the table. We could move around inside the room, and actually step a metre or so over into North Korea!

On the way home we drove along beside the river. The late afternoon sun angling down through the clouds onto the water and the hills behind fading into shades of blue and grey were such a contrast to the rolls of barbed wire fence and camouflaged sentry posts on the shore. Hard to believe that they have maintained this state of animosity for over 50 years now. Now that I have been here I would really like to ask Dad more about his time here - I had not appreciated the harshness of the climate, or the mountainous and rocky land, and I think the soldiers must have had a pretty hard time even when they weren't being shot at.

I will add more to this post in the morning - bed time now. Love to all xxx

Baekdamsa Temple

2009-01-19T00:23:00.000-08:00

We woke up in Baekdamsa ready for our big walk. Rachel's Dad was able to point the walk out to us no problems, after we phoned Rachel and asked her to explain what we wanted. We just turned right out of his drive and kept going!

But first we wanted breakfast, and found some at a restaurant just down the road. Bill and I are not quite acclimatised to kimchi soup for breakfast just yet, but we did our best, and there was rice as well, and then the owner/waitress brought out a free plate of fried eggs! So, pretty well fortified in the end, we headed off on our 7km walk up into the mountains.

It was absolutely gorgeous! We followed the path of a little frozen river almost all the way, winding around quite high up above the river, with snow covered, forested hillsides above us.

There were a surprising number of other people going up and down, not enough to make it crowded, but we could always see someone else. Some quite young children and a few quite elderly people too, and lots of Koreans with backpacks and collapsible walking poles.

It took us about an hour and a quarter. The path/road was covered in snow all the way, and quite slippery in spots, but in spite of a few slips and scrambles we only had one casualty (me of course, bum first on the road!)

The Temple was completely isolated in a valley, with the river running past it. From there you can do several other walks up into the National Park. They do "Temple Stays" there, where you can stay at the temple and learn Buddhist things, and just contemplate life (and I guess you could use it as a base for further walks). It was very quiet and peaceful. The river bed was full of little stone cairns - I don't know what they were for for, but some sort of prayer thing I guess. There were a few monks flitting about, and we had a very expensive cup of tea in a lovely little teahouse/gift shop.

We mistimed our walk down a bit and had to gallop along so as not to miss the bus, but as it turned out we were in plenty of time. Galbi at Jonny's Dad's restaurant again and then some Poker, and we were all in bed tired out!

Today Bill and I have been to the Korean Folk Village. It was a lovely sunny day, and seemed quite balmy after the mountains (although still thermals, jackets, woolly hats and gloves). The village was very interesting, and we had fun. We wandered around the old traditional homes, and tried some pancakes and meat stew. We watched performances of horsemanship, seesawing, and tightrope-walking, with several classes on school trips.

We also had a go at some traditional sports, sledding on the ice on flat wooden bases with metal runners underneath (the pros stood up, but Bill and I sat crosslegged like the kids), and playing with wooden spinning tops on the ice which you made to go by whipping them with srips of fabric attached to the end of a stick. There were less traditional sports too - we had a couple of goes with all the school kids at sledging full speed down a slope on plastic sledges, everyone in the starting gates and then "go" when the whistle blows!

There was an amusement park too, but the rides were pretty much for young kids. The one that looked the best, the water flume, was iced up for the winter. We had a go on the dodgems (just the thing you have to do in Asia, aye girls?), but the haunted house took the prize for best Asian flop!

Tomorrow we plan to go into Seoul and look about there, and we have booked for a trip to the DMZ on Wednesday.

Dr Fish!

2009-01-19T00:11:00.000-08:00

2 things I forgot to say about Saturday. One was that Bill and I had to sleep in a double bed together, which we managed in exemplary fashion with no fuss at all!

And the other was that at the hot pools we tried whole body Dr Fish! It was in a tiny wee warm pool inside a little tent, with room for us and about 6 Koreans. We were meant to stay 25 minutes, but we only handled about 10. I think the Koreans were pleased to be rid of these foreigners, all squealing, giggling and wriggling. It was truly weird. The fish were quite tiny, about 2-3cm long, and they didn't bite, but just sort of landed on you and tickled as they nibbled. If you kept still, more and more came, but it was awfully hard to keep still. Cam did the best, and had quite a colony of them on his chest and tummy (all I could say was thank goodness for one piece togs!) Definitely something to be tried, but maybe only once. I certainly don't think we handled the experience well enough to get any health benefits!

Seoraksan National Park

2009-01-17T16:00:00.000-08:00

We are at a little village, Baekdam-sa, in the mountains of Seoraksan National Park, surrounded by snow, staying in a hotel owned by the family Rachel, of one of Cam and Penny's colleagues.

Had a great afternoon yesterday at Sokcho at a swimming pool/hot spa complex in the snow. It was a bit like being at Hanmer in mid winter, but with quite a few more Koreans (many naked in some areas of the complex)!

After that we had a little scramble down to a wee frozen river just outside the hotel and slid about on the ice for a bit in the dusk.

We walked into the village a bit and found a little restaurant for tea, where we sat on cushions on the heated wooden floor, at a little low table and had a kind of hotpot meal of a whole chicken in broth with rice and spring onions and all the Korean side dishes. Also tried a bottle of local wine - quite thick red wine, a bit sweet, with high alcohol content. Not sure I would hunt it out again, but interesting to try.

This morning we are heading off on a walk up into the mountains to a buddhist temple. Rachel told Cam and Penny to do it, but we are not sure how we will get her father to understand that we need directions, or how we will follow them if he gives them!

It's really good being out in the country and seeing a different side of Korea for the weekend.

Suwon

2009-01-16T01:17:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning in Suwon and it was snowing!

We arrived last night, easily following Penny's perfect directions on how to get here. The taxi driver had a few words of English, and formed the impression that we were English teachers, and insisted on us using his phone to phone our "contact". So I rang Cam who managed (impressively) to talk enough Korean to him to reassure him that we were going to the right place.

Penny was doing her private tutoring, so Cam, his friend Nathan, Bill and I went to get "Chicken and Coke in a cup" snacks, and then all the boys had haircuts across the road. They could choose from 9 possible styles in photos on the wall. Bill went for "shaggy medium", and although Cam and Nathan just asked for trim I wonder if they did give Nathan "middle aged"!

Dinner was Korean BBQ at the restaurant across the road, run by the father of one of Nathan's kindergarten kids. The food was great, and we were given 2 lots of free meat, a free beer, and $2 off the bill. Then home for a quick game of High School Musical UNO before bed.

We are pretty comfortable in their wee apartment, with 2 extra beds, one for me and one for Bill.

Today Bill and I spent the morning exploring just around this little area, getting money etc, and playing in the snow. Met Cam and Penny for lunch, of Korean soup and sushi which was pretty good, and then headed off to the Fortress. It had stopped snowing by then, but there was enough lying around to make it really pretty. We explored the central palace, then climbed up to the highest point on the wall, and admired the view. Surprisingly it really wasn't all that cold, and we had a lovely walk round half the wall, finishing up having a go at the archery place, where we found that we were not nearly as useless as the American before us! Bill got 3 out of 10 arrows into the target, and although I didn't get any in several of mine made glancing blows on the target.

It was getting a bit cool and dark by then, so went to Home Plusu shop and Bill bought himself a new PSP game, for half what he reckons he would pay at home.

People here have been so friendly and nice to us. An old chap at the palace, who spoke very good strongly American-accented English that he learned from marines, wanted to sing Pokarekareana with us. And a taxi driver who spoke no English at all, who was a 5th dan in tae kwon do, offered to take Bill to tae kwon do lessons (at least that's what we think it was - Bill wrote down the phone number he was offered anyway!)

For the weekend we are going to a place where we can do mountain walks and they have thermal pools. We are staying at a little hotel owned by the parents of one of the teachers at their school.

We are just waiting for Cam and Penny to come home and then we are going into Seoul for dinner. It's so good to be here with them both, and they have gone to so much trouble to give us a good time.

Dinner at gorgeous little Italian restaurant downstairs in a bar in Seoul - sitting on the floor Korean style, eating pasta and steak (and pickled turnip!), and drinking Argentinian red wine.

Xie tien China

2009-01-14T21:21:00.000-08:00

At Shanghai airport on our way to Korea.

We had a great last day in Hangzhou, although the transport was a bit problematic at times! Tried to go to Silk St in the morning, but the driver didn't understand us and took us miles away, so we ended up having great pancakes at a little market in the suburbs. Then caught another taxi to the Linliang Buddhist temple, an absolutely gorgeous peaceful spot, with hundreds of buddhas carved into the rock face of the path leading up to it.

Tried to get a taxi back to silk st but the driver took us instead to a silk factory, where he left us miles from anywhere in the middle of a area of tea plantations! We had no luck getting another taxi, so ended up (after a couple of false starts) on a local bus back to the city.

By this time we were starving, so thought we would eat then have another try for silk st. But no - there was fish hidden in the veges! At this point we gave up on silk st!

Another start at tea and we ended up having almost our most delicious meal in China - a fitting last meal together. A quick foray into the night market and we were done.

Saw Kate and Charlotte off at the other airport this morning on their big adventure, and Bill and I are on our way to Korea. More news soon....

Beautiful Hangzhou

2009-01-13T05:53:00.000-08:00

We agree with Marco Polo, we can see why Hangzhou has a reputation for beauty.

Yesterday Charlotte, Bill and I had another go at the Yiwu Trade market, while Kate packed up her stuff. We were surprisingly succcessful. Charlotte's cold ( yes we are blaming you Hannah!) is much better, and she is pretty much back to normal apart from a bit of nose blowing and cough, so she was fully into marketing. Bill bought himself a portable DVD player, which pleases him enormously, and Chalotte found a fabulous pair of shoes - what more could we ask!

Back to the school, and a quick look at some of the students' art work with Peter (and he gave us a painting that his son had sent him - he was very sweet), and a final pack up with Kate before making a trip to the post office with our wheelie bags to post away her surplus stuff. Those bags are so useful - we must have done 3 or 4 trips back and forth between the school and hotel towing the bag!

We went out for tea with Peter, which was very good. Just him and us, and no gumbays, as Peter doesn't drink alcohol. We let him guide our selection, so what we actually drank was corn juice! It was interesting to talk to him a bit about his life, and the school. He does seem to genuinely like Kate, and has been very helpful in his funny way. He had us all cracking up with his desription of a misdirected firework knocking down a wall.

Tea was over pretty early, so we went for haircuts and hairwashes, an interesting experience. Charlotte came out quite short and fluffy but Kate, who really needed the haircut, hardly lost any at all!

Kate was a bit sad to leave Yiwu I think, but excited about embarking on the next part of their trip.

We set off early this morning on the fast train. The stations are pretty crowded with long queues booking for the New Year holiday, but luckily we had booked our tickets at the hotel. The train was great, very comfortable and quick, and we had a bit of a look at the countryside. We have booked the bus to Shanghai on Thurs however - slower and probably less comfortable, but it takes us direct to both airports (we leave from different ones) and that seemed easier with all our luggage.

We had lunch at a restaurant on the lake (where you went with Kate, Jiggs), and then had a ride on one of the wee row boats, and a walk around the lake. We also hired bikes, and rode a bit further round the lake, stopping to watch the musical fountain display.

Later we thought we would walk to a famous teahouse - an hour and a half later we were still walking, and found we were in the night market, and it was pretty much night! So we gave up on tea, and had some dinner (recommend the beggars chicken), and then marketed (again!) The girls attracted quite a crowd to watch their portraits being drawn!

Just about off to bed now. Good to get your email and comments everyone, we love hearing from you

Beijing and Yiwu

2009-01-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

I have finally made it to a computer so have lots of bloggage to catch up on. We had a great few days in Beijing. On the second day with Lily she took us up to the Great Wall at Badaling, the restored section for tourists. Kate's American friend Pete from Quzhou came with us. It was another sunny still day, so not as cold as we or Lily expected! There was a lot of haze, so you didn't get quite the impression of the wall snaking over the hills into the distance, but the shades of hills fading were lovely. There were hardly any people there, and it was perfect climbing weather. I don't think it would matter how many times you saw the Great Wall, it is still an amazing place to be actually standing.

We took our time and wandered up. Pete went on ahead at one stage, and we realised we needed to head back to the van fairly soon, so we sent Bill off to get him. Ten minutes later I found Pete - Bill had gone right past him and was ploughing on to the top. So I sent Pete after Bill - we could see them in the distance, 2 little figures a hundred yards apart almost running up the steepest bit looking for each other! It was very funny, to the rest of us at least. Eventually they met up on the highest point, and came back down to us.

We had lunch at the restaurant we went to before, with the magic show. Pete tried some snake, but we didn't try the donkey.

We drove back to Beijing past the Olympic Village, Birdsnest and watercube. Very impressive looking, and a shame we didn't have time to go in and look around, but I guess you can't do everything.

Lily took us up the drum tower, where we watched them beat out the half hour. There was a great view of the city, and we could see people ice skating on a frozen lake, which looked fun.

Kate had a sugar horse blown for her by a man on the steet, because her birthday is in the year of the horse (so is Pete's).

The hutong tour in rickshaws was good too, although I think we all felt a bit silly in our rickshaws. We visited 2 families in their houses, one less well off where they lived in one quarter of the compound, in a wee two room house with a little lean-to cupboard really as the kitchen. They were very pleasant, a retired artist and school teacher, and had lived there all their married life, and the man's father before him.
The other house seemed to be the whole 4 sides of the compound, much flasher, and really quite modern. They were very proud of their son living in Canada, and were keen to chat to Pete.

The rickshaws dropped us off at the edge of the lake, and we had an hilarious hour on the ice! Hannah and Pete hired skates, Kate and Bill hired "ice bikes" and Charlotte and I shared an "ice chair". The chair was like a little kid's school chair, welded to two runners, with another wee seat lower down in front, and you poled it along with metal sticks like long screwdrivers. We had no direction control at all, but could pick up a bit of speed! The bikes were also on runners, and were similarly directionless, but a lot faster. The surface of the lake was far from smooth, so the skaters were really no better off, but we all had lots of fun. There was a huge orange sun setting in the haze behind leafless trees, and it was absolutely picturesque.
Afterwards we walked down the food market street and Pete tried scorpions on a stick, Hannah had "stinky tofu", and Kate tried silkworms on a stick. Charlotte Bill and I were less adventurous and stuck to sticks of toffee covered crabapples and strawberries.

Pete left us there and the rest of us went out for dinner, to a smorgasbord restaurant that Lily chose for us because she thought Kate might be missing Western food. It had everything - sushi, chinese food, roast beef, pizza, pasta, and the most amazing selection of deserts with a chocolate fountain to dip your skewer of fruit under!

The next day in Beijing we were on our own. We slept through hotel breakfast, so bought chicken wraps on the street. We caught the subway to the zoo in the morning, and had a lovely time looking at the pandas, once again with hardly any one else there. The lack of crowds certainly compensates for the cold!

After lunch at a wee noodle shop Kate found in our street we headed off to the Visa place and the silk market. A couple of successful shopping hours later we were back at the hotel comparing purchases (and trying to fit them into our bags) before heading out to Ghost St for dinner.

It was sad seeing Hannah off the next morning, our little team further depleted. Our flight to Yiwu was delayed a couple of hours, so we sat playing 500 in the sun in the airport, watched by various Chinese all obviously trying to figure out the game.

Yiwu has been great fun. Lovely to meet Casey, she is such a sweetie. Their other Gapper friend Dylan was also here, so it was nice to meet him too.

First day we really just explored around their school, met Peter, opened our Christmas presents from Kate, had a swim and a sauna, and then went for tea to the hotel a couple of doors down, where there was a very loud wedding going on.

On Saturday we went to the Yiwu amusement park - Kate and Casey had been saving up this treat! It was really weird - completely deserted, and when we wanted to go on a ride they would start it up for us. The kids went on some pretty good rides however - one they voted the scariest ever! They had a go in zorb, which caused much hilarity. And we had a good long ride (inadvertently, through our lack of understanding) on the dodgems.

In the evening we had dinner near the night market, at a really nice restaurant, and then had a good wander through the market. Had to go back again last night however, for more DVDs!

We have eaten at Kate's little favourite noodle and dumpling places near her school - I think she is quite sad to say goodbye to all these.

Yesterday we braved the trade market, just the toy section but that was enough. Indescribable really! Just so much stuff - row after row of stalls of all sorts of things, lots of them the same as each other. Stopped for a brief rest in the middle and had a shoe clean. Charlotte has a nasty cold, and had a bit of a fever, so was not quite at her best unfortunately, but I think we are booked in for another foray today.

I have been up early and been to the park watching the tai chi, but the kids will be wondering where I am so had better finish. Love to all xxx

Hello Kate

2009-01-06T04:57:00.000-08:00

In Beijing and Kate is here!! So lovely to see her. She is just exactly the same and it's just as though we have seen her yesterday. Although she has picked up a few bad Chinese and Aussie speech habits,such as "uh" for "yes" which we are already working hard to break her of. Her Chinese is very impressive though!

We had a good flight from Hong Kong, but didn't arrive until about midnight, and of course we were up til about 1.30 greeting our last wee darling, so a bit tired today. Lily is great, and has been very pleasant and helpful. We have Mr Liu again as driver too - he remembered Charlotte particularly.

It has been a gorgeous clear sunny day, pretty nippy but not much wind and pleasant in the sun. We started the day with some exercise in the garden of the Temple of Heaven with all the locals who go there everyday to do theirs. Lily persuaded us to join in some of it - it's more energetic than it looks.

The Temple of Heaven itself was looking stunning against the sky in the morning sun. All the important monuments have had fresh paint and a general spruce-up in honour of the olympics, so everything looks sparkling fresh.

We went for an early lunch of Beijing noodles, at the place where you went Jiggs, where they shout out as you go in. It was a pretty good lunch - we wished you were here to help finish it!

Mr Liu dropped us off at Tienanmen Square and we walked across the square to the Imperial Palace and Forbidden City. That's looking great too. The moat is frozen solid, and there were hardly any other tourists so we were able to look at everything very easily, and get good clear photos (no download facilities here unfortunately).

We had a quick hour at the silk market, enough for Bill to replace his suitcase, and me to replace my handbag just before the straps of the old one fail completely, Hannah to buy a jacket, and Charlotte and Kate to buy (independently) identical shoes!

Then off to the acrobatic show, which was completely amazing. Some of it was almost too scary to watch (when two guys were juggling and skipping up on top of spinning cages), or a bit horrifying (when three girls almost turned themselves inside out one on top of each other), but it was spectacular. The girls on bikes were great, and the best part was all the young guys tumbling through hoops at top speed.

Our Beijing duck dinner afterwards was in a private banquet room, and as well as duck we had a selection of delicious other things, once again more than we could manage.

Now we are at a little internet cafe just down the road. Great wall tomorrow, and the hutong. We are loving it, especially having Kate with us. Love to all xxx

Hong Kong

2009-01-04T21:39:00.000-08:00

It's another clear fine day in Hong Kong. I'm at an internet cafe(unfortunately without my camera download cord), while the kids are next door in a games arcade.

Last night, after dinner in a little noodle shop in a side street near the Ladies Market, we went completely upmarket with cocktails at Felix's at the top of the Peninsula Hotel. We had our poshest clothes on (not saying much, but Hannah did change into high-heeled boots on the way, then promptly left her jandals in the taxi!), and I had to say that Bill was 18 to get in, which surprisingly they didn't even blink at. A Fling Sling, Blue Lagoon, Red Devil, and coke later, we were perched alongside the huge picture window, on powder-pink leather seats, looking over the gorgeous harbour with the movers and shakers of Hong Kong. We were fabulous! Watched the light show, although we couldn't hear the music inside. Lots of the buildings, in addition to their usual dazzling display, have huge Christmas light displays, of Santa, reindeers, stars, wisemen - you name it, Hong Kong has it!

Of course we all had to experience the loos with the views before leaving, to the total contrast of the Ladies night market. Not a lot of purchasing surprisingly - I think we are all saving room for the silk market in Beijing - but Charlotte managed a couple of Tshirts, and Bill bought 3 different packs of Uno, and a PSP case with headphones that don't work.

This morning we had the promised sleep in. I was awake at 6.30 of course, so had a read for a bit, then went for a walk and found myself in the middle of an early morning produce market, with little butcheries and fish shops down the side. You would love it Jiggs, all the housewives haggling for the day's fresh food. We had bought rolls and muffins for breakfast in our rooms, so I added some tomatoes and bananas, and went back to wake the kids...

Checkout was a bit of a mission for Bill - his bag has lost both handles, so he only has the pullalong handle, and he now has only one wheel as well! Definitely looking for a new bag in the market.

Yum cha at the London Restaurant, the only Europeans in the place yet again. It was great, managed 3 steamers of bau.

We have just been and had a look around the jade market before coming here. When the team have had enough fun gaming we will wander over to the Peninsula for afternoon tea, then off to the airport. We are all so excited about seeing Kate tonight.

Sounds as though it has been hot at home. I hope every one is well, and people's holidays are going well. Love to you all xxxx

Goodbye Vietnam

2009-01-04T01:29:00.000-08:00

A good day today in Hong Kong, quite a bit cooler then we have become accustomed to, even needing a jersey at odd times, but I guess that's all good preparation for China tomorrow!

Kate, if you read this before you go, why don't you ask your friend Peter to join our trip to the Wall the following day, instead of going twice?

Our last day in Saigon was pretty busy tidying up the necessary shopping. First of all a final trip to Ben Thanh market, very productive! Cups for Hannah and Jiggs, dresses for me, jeans for Bill, and Tshirts (and 3 pairs of Raybans for $5!) for Charlotte.

Then at Adam the tailor's at midday - no more nightmares Penny, the coat looks great, and I think it will fit, he tried it on me and it was fine. Suits all looked really good, and Charlotte was pleased with her coat too.

Lunch at Lemongrass, delicious and far too much food. Then back to the hotel to pack, via the glasses shop to pick up Jiggs one pair and Hannah's 2 pairs!

A bit sad to leave Jiggs at the airport, facing the long flight home with 12 hrs stopover in Sydney, and then up for a busy day at work tomorrow. We do all appreciate it, especially me.

Today we have had a good day, a fairly leisurely start then over on the Star Ferry, up the Peak tram (where Bill had a small run-in with Bruce Lee), and down to Aberdeen. It was a great day for sightseeing, relatively clear sunny weather, and Hong Kong looked magnificent.

The punters were enjoying the sun outside the Hong Kong Jockey Club. We had yum cha in a huge, crowded, fully Chinese upstairs restaurant in Aberdeen. While we were there a Chinese dragon and drummers came and did a dance in the foyer of the restaurant.

A sampan ride around Aberdeen Harbour after that, looking at the contrasts of the little fishing boats, old Chinese house boats, and obscenely huge modern yachts with the backdrop of all the high rise apartments on the hills.

Soon we are off out for dinner, to have a drink at a fancy top floor bar in Tsim Sha Tsui, watch the light show, and then to the ladies market. I think we will have earned a sleep in tomorrow!

Cooking, shopping and War

2009-01-02T03:30:00.000-08:00

Almost our last day in Vietnam. It was sad to see Cam and Penny leave last night, but not so bad for Bill and me as we will see them again in a fortnight, in Korea. It was so great having them here with us, they were lots of fun. Cam is an object of admiration wherever he goes - all the wee kids follow him about, and he's very nice to them all too, must be the teaching experience. Penny and Charlotte have been partners in crime at the markets, held back only by the thought that they have to carry it all!

Yesterday Charlotte and Penny elected to go shopping, and the rest of us went to a Vietnamese cooking class. It was great - we had a class of our own, and we were very successful, even me although I did fail the test of remembering the ingredients at the end (they gave me my diploma anyway!) We made tofu, and spring rolls, tomato and egg soup, and caramelised pork in a clay pot, and we ate it all at the end - one of the best meals we have had!

Later in the day Hannah persuaded us all to go for a massage, at a place just under our hotel. All of us except Jiggs went - we had sauna, steam room, full body massage and extra foot massage all for $11NZ. It was pretty hilarious! First of all we were sent to little rooms with a towel and told to take off ALL our clothes (we girls kept our knickers!), then we were sent for a shower. When we had showered we were not sure what to do next, but we all suddenly realised that it was all men and women in together! Cam had been just wandering around naked, like they do in Korea, until he spotted us and quickly jumped into the spa where he sat pleading with Penny to bring him a towel. At the same time we realised there were naked Vietnamese men in the room, so we all scampered into the sauna and crammed in there together until the coast was clear to escape. After that we were sent to individual rooms and had a fairly standard (it seems) Vietnamese massage, with lots of digging in of fingers into lower back and buttocks, and upper arms and thighs. I'm not really quite sure why we do it....

Today we have been to see the Cu Chi tunnels, some of the hundreds of kilometers of tunnels dug by the Viet Cong to hide in during the Vietnam war, and after that we went to the Vietnam War museum. It was all quite chilling really, desperately sad, and quite sickening. Amazingly the young Vietnamese people seem not to harbour a grudge against the Americans, and say they prefer to look to the future than the past. The tunnels were quite amazing, and a highlight for some (but not all) of us was being able to fire an AK47. Bill just about hit the target!

Last day tomorrow - time for serious shoppping!

Mekong Delta

2008-12-30T15:29:00.000-08:00

It's 6am and I'm sitting beside an open window by the river in the gorgeous Victoria Hotel in Chau Doc, on the Vietnam/Cambodia border. It's just dawn, but the river has been buzzing with boats and activity since we got up an hour ago, and it was when we went to bed last night, so maybe it never stops...

For the past 2 days we have been traipsing around the mekong delta with our guide Hien. We have been up early each day to visit floating markets - this morning we are off to a fish farm.

The river life is just so incredibly different to anything we might experience, my brain is struggling to hold onto any more images. We have been on wee boats through the floating markets, where people are buying and selling fruit and veges off their boats to others in little boats. The little boats have outboards with propellers on long arms that they raise and lower and swing about, often with their feet, to negotiate their way through the jumble of boats. Or else they row, standing up with huge long oars.

There are lots of little tributaries winding across the area - we very quickly lost track of where we had come from. Alongside the rivers are houses, often up on poles (and some very rickety looking poles), with little muddy ramps down to the water, and everywhere people are squatting on the ramps washing clothes, or dishes, or cleaning fish, mostly women, lots of them wearing floral pyjama-like clothes and conical hats. There are fishing nets hanging from trees, and boats of every description carting rice, veges, rice husks (for fires), wood, bricks, sand, and even furniture.

There are paths along beside the river most of the places we went, with people walking, biking and motorbiking along them. Hundreds of precarious little bridges, some the old traditional "monkey bridges", but mostly now narrow flat bridges of planks or concrete without sides, connect the villages across the river branches. People confidently ride their loaded up motorbikes across these!

A highlight for us yesterday was a visit to a stork sanctuary. The sanctuary itself was small, and while it was great to see all the storks nesting up high in the bamboo, the real excitement was getting there. The tide was too low for our boat, so Hien negotiated with some local to take us the 3km along a little narrow muddy track on the back of their motorbikes. Jiggs, Charlotte, Penny and I rode with the locals, Hannah with Hien, and Cam was given the dubious honor of being told to drive, and take Bill with him! He carried it off without a hitch, thank goodness, even managing a couple of hundred yards on the main road, including crossing the road against the traffic, but was a bit sweaty-handed afterwards!

We also went to see rice paper being made, and rice noodles, and coconut toffee, and yesterday had lunch of local elephant fish, at a place where they had a pet python, which thrilled all the kids.

The rice paper making was a family business in their home on the side of the river. The 75 year old woman making the paper had lived in the house, which had been her in-laws, since she was married 50 years previously, and her daughter and her family live there now with her. Her husband was killed in the Vietnam war. She was sitting in a dark, hot room spreading a runny rice and tapioca mixture onto a kind of skin stretched over a boiling pot, fed by a rice husk fire, and she would lift a cooked flat piece off every few minutes and her daughter would lay it out to dry outsde on racks. She makes about 800 a day, but I think the two that Hannah and Bill made were not going to make it into the production line!

Time for a swim. More news later when I have time - I could write a book and not describe it all.
Love to all at home. You can email us to our normal email address and we will pick them up here.
Take care of yourselves xxx

Asian Christmas 2008

2008-12-28T02:50:00.000-08:00

Hi all. It is nearly 6pm in Ho Chi Minh City. Jiggs and I have just had a swim in the hotel pool, and he is now cooling off further in airconditioned comfort in our room.

Our arrival on Boxing Day was perfect - Cam and Penny had brought a little Christmas tree, complete with lights, and set it up in our room with presents underneath. We added ours and had a lovely hour opening them all and catching up with the wee darlings.

Went out for Vietnamese Christmas dinner (noodles, stir fry, and spring rolls), which was great, good enough that I didn't quite fall asleep in my soup!

Yesterday we explored the huge Ben Thanh market, and the girls did some serious shopping - actually Bill wasn't too slow off the mark either. Went into the centre of the city and looked at some of the old French buildings, and had a good coffee and lime and soda.

After lunch at a very quaint restaurant we found a tailor and spent some time miming to him what we wanted made. Hannah coped well with his exclamations about Greg's measurements and managed to make him understand that we really did want the suit that size (I think)!

The 4 girls went across the road for the half price aroma oils massage - the thumbs digging into the buttocks were a lesson in fortitude, but we feel good today!

The traffic has to be seen - I can't describe the thousands of scooters and motorbikes, all loaded up with several people (the most seen so far is 4 people and a dog), babies and little kids perched between parents, and some with 6 or 8 huge water bottles, or piles of other stuff to transport. And they drive anywhere, on both sides of the road, nipping across in front of anything. The intersections seem to have only one rule - nudge your way though! Cars, taxis, buses, trucks, all fighting their way through and outnumbered 10 to 1 by motorbikes.

Today we have been to the beach at Vung Tau, swimming in the South China Sea. We caught a hydrofoil at 8.30 this morning, which took about an hour and a half down the Saigon River to the sea. That was interesting in itself, seeing all the shipping, and miles of mangrove forests on the mudbanks beside the river. We took a taxi from the ferry terminal to the beach, and were totally ripped off by the driver who took us a very long way round to get there, and then insisted he had no money to give me change. At least the tiki tour was interesting - we drove through some wee fishing villages where they had hundreds of trays of little fish lying out beside the road in front of all the houses and shops, drying in the sun. The smell was a little overpowering, especially for Charlotte who has discovered that weird Asian smells are not her forte.

The South China Sea is an interesting brownish colour (I guess it is mud from the river). There was a small surf, and the locals were particularly impressed with these foreigners who could bodysurf! Penny attracted quite a bit of attention in her bikini, so much so that she went and put her shorts on over the top. The beach we went to was pretty much all locals, lots of them out for a family picnic with their rice cookers and pickled veges.

We had some lunch at a local cafe. It looked promising from the street but was easily our worst meal so far, in fact the only bad one so far - like 2 minute noodles with mince!

We had an hour to fill in before the ferry, so Hannah and Charlotte went off for a foot massage and Cam hired a motorbike! He took a remarkably brave Penny and the Bill for a quick spin up and down the road by the beach, manouvering carefully (and fortunately without incident) through the craziness.

The girls were dropped off at the market on the way home, and have just arrived back, so I will go and view the purchases. Put some comments on everyone and let us know how your Christmas was. Love to all xxxx

Charlotte's best purchase so far!

Christchurch Christmas 2008

2008-12-24T20:42:00.000-08:00

Christmas day with only two of our wee chickies in the nest - plenty of room in the bed this morning opening the stockings! But the bonus is that we will have a belated Asian Christmas with them all.

A photo of the Christchurch Christmas to start off our blog.