This is our last day of trip to South-East Asia. Our flight leaves just after midnight, so we have a whole day to do something, so we are going to visit Noah's Ark. The theme park doesn't open until 10:00 a.m. so we have plenty of time to pack our bags and leave out a clean change of clothes for travelling, after showers of course. The day gets hot and muggy here in Hong Kong at this time of year and we will need a change.
We grab some pastries on the run and get on the MTR and head for the end of the track. From directions we had, we thought the park was at the end of the line, but it is actually at the end of another line with the word "west" attached to the station name. Instead of Tsuen Wan, we should have headed for Tsuen Wan West, but no problem, there is a bus that makes a route past the park and we are soon on a 15 minute ride over bridges and underpasses and we get dumped off on the advice of other passengers. No park in sight. Another nice lady on her way to visit her mother, approaches us and asks what we are looking for. "Oh, it's just this way. I'll show you" and she did until we were on the right track.
Noah's Ark Park is an amazing replica of Noah's ark and has a hotel and hostel in the upper chambers and stands 5 storeys tall. There are several theater rooms where they have exhibitions and 4-D showings depicting things like the flood, the crossing of the Red Sea and other scenarios. There are many, many theme rooms and activities for children from 2 and up, based on archeology, paleontology, astronomy, biology, the human body, and live exhibits of weird frogs, lizards, insects, fish and birds. It is an amazing concept with gardens and sculptured animals scattered throughout as if in their natural settings. There are misted gardens and walking trails to a hilltop lookout. It just happened that Matthew and I seemed to be the only ones who showed up and got tickets. We got special treatment. A few more people trickled in as it was a school day, but you can sure see how it is set up for educational purposes and hands-on activities from making and small replicas of the ark. What a fun day!
Then we headed back by fast ferry to Tsuen Wan West and headed for Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong for late lunch/early supper at Oliver's Super Sandwiches, a western style food restaurant. It appeared to be very popular and we wolfed down down the clubhouse sandwiches with kiwi juice.
Back to the guest house, shower, pack and a brief visit with Gary and Eva Winsor who had been to Malaysia and China during our absence and arrived back the same day as we did. They are PAOC missionaries here and are involved with outreach and Bible School training here in Hong Kong and SE Asia.
We made our own way to the airport with 3 changes on the subway, but arrived in good time to find our flight was delayed by an hour and 15 minutes, which actually turned out to be almost a 2 hour delay by the time we were boarded and off. Matthew slept soundly for 8 hours and I think I managed a good 6. The flight seemed to go by very quickly and almost 11 hours later we were landing in Vancouver 2 hours before we left Hong Kong. Diane says you get a chance then to correct the mistakes you made earlier that day and live it over again and do it right. The International Date Line presents some interesting scenarios.
Canada Customs and Immigration services is such a pleasure as the officers welcome you back, ask where you've been and all that. Taking the shuttle to our hotel, Matthew was quite excited that he could read all the signs along the road and on businesses, then out of sheer habit, thanked the shuttle bus driver in Mandarin! Haha! That was funny. The driver wasn't even Chinese, but from Pakistan or India.
A night of sleep and we will be in home territory tomorrow, happy to be united with our families and friends. It's been an awesome adventure, for sure. Now to assimilate some of the valuable insights we gained. Thanks for following our story.
My blog was actually shutdown and unavailable to me in China, then it was cancelled by Google for some irregular account activity, until I got to Vancouver and was able to upload my notes from my journal. Sorry there was such a blank spot there for awhile, but sometimes things are out of your control. Can't Facebook, You-tube or blog from China. That's just the way it is.
Friday 1 June 2012
Wednesday May 30 Hong Kong
We were up early this morning to get to the railway station by taxi and try to catch the 10 a.m. train. We made it with enough time to get through Customs and Immigration since we were leaving Mainland China. No problems and we arrived in Kowloon around noon. Again, through immigration and customs and we were out of the bureaucratic maze.
Now we were on familiar ground and no problem getting on the MTR finding our way to the guest house where we dump our stuff and head for the downtown area to scare up some grub. After wandering through the maze of skyscrapers, grabbing lunch, visiting the gigantic Apple store, taking the Star Ferry back to Kowloon, we head back to the guest house in the overcrowded MTR.
We had some serious laundry to take care of before packing for the trip home, so we were up til after midnight looking after that. Laundry....someone has to do it! First time we didn't do it by hand, but it took half an hour to figure out the laundry system here. We got it done though.
Now we were on familiar ground and no problem getting on the MTR finding our way to the guest house where we dump our stuff and head for the downtown area to scare up some grub. After wandering through the maze of skyscrapers, grabbing lunch, visiting the gigantic Apple store, taking the Star Ferry back to Kowloon, we head back to the guest house in the overcrowded MTR.
We had some serious laundry to take care of before packing for the trip home, so we were up til after midnight looking after that. Laundry....someone has to do it! First time we didn't do it by hand, but it took half an hour to figure out the laundry system here. We got it done though.
Tuesday May 29 Guangzhou
Well, today is our 41st wedding anniversary and I get to call Diane both today and tomorrow to wish her a happy anniversary. Here it is May 29 and tomorrow it is May 29 in B.C. You can only legitimately do that twice for the same date when you are on the other side of the world. Kind of different because now you can't forget it for two days in a row! My days are getting so mixed up!
We couldn't get together with J until 11 o'clock and had to check out of our hotel by noon, so we booked another night at the Elan Hotel quite close to the Guangzhou Railway Station. We found out later we couldn't catch the train to Hung Hom from this station, but had to go the East Guangzhou Railway station.
J arrived promptly at 11 a.m. at our hotel room and after some introductions, we decided we would take the subway to China’s largest zoo with over 400 species of animals and 40,000 species of birds. Matthew was pleased he got to see real live elephants, fed the giraffes, saw white tigers, golden tigers, rhinoceros, hippos, antelope, monkeys and so much more. He talked a mile a minute with J who is shorter than Matthew. It didn't work out for Matty to go to English class at the school which was disappointing. But 8 hours with J was great as his English is very good and Matty took advantage of that. It was a really good day.
Coming home on the subway was very crowded as subways usually are around 6. Jimmy had an appointment at 8 p.m. so was not able to share an evening meal with us. We said our farewells and then Matthew and I went looking for supper. The first place we tried, the menu was in Russian, Mandarin and some English. The pictures depicted large pupae of some insect, a variety of bugs and other things that didn’t look very appealing, plus donkey meat with fish smell(?). There was nothing on the menu we were dying to eat so we left and found a more upper class restaurant. We looked at the menu before going in and found a cheese-baked sweet potato and cowboy steak. Well, the potato was very good, but the steak was a quarter inch thick and half bone and may have had 2 ounces of meat on it (4 bites). Well, that was it for supper. With two coca colas, it came to $175RMB, one of the more expensive meals we have had in China. We’ll do better in Hung Hom tomorrow. It’s the Cantonese name for Hong Kong.
Theconstant in and out of air-conditioned buildings has left me with a head cold and now I’ve lost my voice. Great! How will I make myself understood now? Matthew will have to take over and he’s doing quite well with his Mandarin. We got into one taxi and I began looking for icicles inside the vehicle. It was cold!
We couldn't get together with J until 11 o'clock and had to check out of our hotel by noon, so we booked another night at the Elan Hotel quite close to the Guangzhou Railway Station. We found out later we couldn't catch the train to Hung Hom from this station, but had to go the East Guangzhou Railway station.
J arrived promptly at 11 a.m. at our hotel room and after some introductions, we decided we would take the subway to China’s largest zoo with over 400 species of animals and 40,000 species of birds. Matthew was pleased he got to see real live elephants, fed the giraffes, saw white tigers, golden tigers, rhinoceros, hippos, antelope, monkeys and so much more. He talked a mile a minute with J who is shorter than Matthew. It didn't work out for Matty to go to English class at the school which was disappointing. But 8 hours with J was great as his English is very good and Matty took advantage of that. It was a really good day.
Coming home on the subway was very crowded as subways usually are around 6. Jimmy had an appointment at 8 p.m. so was not able to share an evening meal with us. We said our farewells and then Matthew and I went looking for supper. The first place we tried, the menu was in Russian, Mandarin and some English. The pictures depicted large pupae of some insect, a variety of bugs and other things that didn’t look very appealing, plus donkey meat with fish smell(?). There was nothing on the menu we were dying to eat so we left and found a more upper class restaurant. We looked at the menu before going in and found a cheese-baked sweet potato and cowboy steak. Well, the potato was very good, but the steak was a quarter inch thick and half bone and may have had 2 ounces of meat on it (4 bites). Well, that was it for supper. With two coca colas, it came to $175RMB, one of the more expensive meals we have had in China. We’ll do better in Hung Hom tomorrow. It’s the Cantonese name for Hong Kong.
Theconstant in and out of air-conditioned buildings has left me with a head cold and now I’ve lost my voice. Great! How will I make myself understood now? Matthew will have to take over and he’s doing quite well with his Mandarin. We got into one taxi and I began looking for icicles inside the vehicle. It was cold!
Monday May 28 Guangzhou
The Beijing West Railway station is massive. To enter the station from the street, we had to produce passports, tickets and put our luggage and backpacks through an xray scanner. This station is so huge it reminds one very much of an airtport with 13 waiting rooms, and each waiting room has 4 or 5 gates to access the train platforms by escalators. Our train has 17 cars with a posted capacity of 118 per car, but they also sell standing room only tickets once the seats are sold out. People buy little folding chairs from the platform vendors so they can sit in the aisles. That would be fine, except all through the trip train staff roll trolleys of food and drinks down the narrow aisles just like the flight attendants on a plane and people need to make room for them. Seats are arranged with rows facing each other, two on one side of the aisle and three on the other. 10 people are in close contact for each section, but two white guys attracted enough attention to have people hanging over the seats and gawking at us. Plus the aisle seats! Conversation became interesting as we used our limited Mandarin and encouraged those around us to use English. This is a 21 hour train ride and we will have a captive audience for most of it. One fellow is a civil engineer who has been to Zambia, Uganda and Kenya. He could speak English so we chatted. Matthew struck up a conversation with a university grad and boldly went where others fear to go. He dug out a "Jesus" tract in Chinese and shared it with the university student who comes from Inner Mongolia. The student said he had a Christian instructor in university and was quite interested in the booklet…so were all the other people as it got handed around with lots of chatter going on. I could just imagine the secret police waiting for us at the next stop for questioning. No matter that Matthew had just heard Josephine’s story of being arrested for interrogation for proselytizing and doing missionary work
Because of the former discussion of being in Zambia and Uganda, someone asked what I did for work, so I had to tell the truth, that I am a pastor (no recognition of that word), a minister, a preacher, ok, a missionary. Ahhh, now they understood. So you travel around the world to tell people about Jesus? Yes, I am a Jesus-person, a Christian. One middle-aged lady smiled and stroked Matthew’s hair. I didn’t know if that meant, poor boy, you don’t know what you’re in for, or if it was just that she was enamoured with this handsome young man. I’ve had to fight off the 20 yr. old girls from claiming him for a boyfriend, but not someone in their 40’s! Matthew has been a hit throughout the trip. In case you're still wondering, everything turned out well in the end. We snacked on extra food we had brought with us, but we did see some interesting foods. You can buy small tubs of noodles to which you add hot water, much like we do in Canada, however, there are also dehydrated or preserved chicken feet or duck feet you can buy in packages to add to your noodle soup. There are tin trays provided for one to put between their feet on the floor where you can spit out the chicken toe-nails and bones. Yes, some interesting.
We arrived in Guangzhou (a modern city of 10 million) at 4 o’clock in the afternoon on Monday. My cell phone time was used up texting Diane, so I will need to get it topped up again with more minutes so I can contact some 'friends' I’ve never met. After 4 attempts we finally found a bank that would accept my debit card and also found a phone card to top up the minutes on the phone. We contacted J (don't want to use his real name) and arranged to meet at 11 a.m. the next morning after his scheduled meeting. As has been our habit, Matthew and I made a familiarization tour around some of the streets around the hotel. After that train trip, we were glad to be horizontal in comfortable beds for the night.
Sunday May 27
Today, check out of the hotel was interesting and took an hour. Every room that was checked out had to be checked by hotel staff before finalizing the process. We finally got on the bus with all our luggage and headed for the American Steak and Eggs Restaurant in the embassy district of Beijing. Each embassy has a Chinese uniformed guard that takes his position very seriously. They stand ramrod straight and they methodically swivel their heads from left to right and watch the street with keen interest. It is almost a timed motion and looks almost robotic. Once again, the directors we were supposed to meet and have breakfast with, called from another restaurant of the same name and we never did meet them. They were going to try and meet the rest of the tream at the airport as they were checking in some 4 or 5 hours before flight time. At this point, Matthew and I collected our bags from the bus and took a taxi to the 21st Century hotel and the adjacent theatre where the Beijing International Christian Fellowship meets and took in the English morning service. We had to produce our passports at the door to enter. Afterwards there was a welcome gathering for all the new people and we had a short stand-up reception where we met other first timers. We met people from Zimbabwe and Nigeria and Korea. Matty recognized a lady we had met and spoken with in the market and we introduced to her husband who had been a pastor in Brazil with a Baptist fellowship. What a small world, even here in Beijing where there are about 18 million people in the city. The suburbs and districts add even more to that number.
From the church, we caught a taxi to West Beijing Railway Station. We had lunch at a McDonald’s there before finding our waiting room and getting settled in for the wait.
Thursday 31 May 2012
Saturday May 26
The day was supposed to start with a bang….…well, it did…fireworks in the parking lot at 6 a.m. Good thing I was already up, but a lot of people didn’t appreciate that kind of excitement so early in the morning. Over here, weddings are celebrated with a lot of fireworks. Today, we had 3 weddings taking place at our hotel. Before the bride and groom arrive, long strips of fire-crackers are laid down the driveway and lit up and boxes of Roman candles are lit up nearer to the hotel entrance. The wedding party then drives in through the smoke and the carpet of red paper from the fire-crackers. The first wedding party drove in with red Audi’s, the bride and groom arriving first in a red convertible. A big red inflated arch adorned the front of the hotel and 6 golden cannons are parked along the route. They go all out here for weddings. Red is a color for good luck.
Well, if that wasn ’t enough excitement, our plans changed dramatically because we got word at 10:00 a.m. that the bus from the orphanage was broken down and wouldn’t be coming to pick us up. First gear was sounding a bit rough the last few trips and I did mention that it might not last. Well, it didn’t. The other option was to take 5 taxis to the subway and travel at least an hour to the end of the second leg of the MTR, again catch 5 taxis to an undisclosed location. Most of the group concurred that it was too tiring to do that twice today and didn’t want to run the “Amazing Race” gauntlet for our last day with the group separated twice into 5 taxis, likely going in different directions. Instead, we proceeded to a nearby mall about a kilometer away, browsed and re-convened at the hotel in Room 930 for a group meeting. There we listened to Jo’s amazing story for 2 hours and then prayed with her…well, we got carried away until 15 minutes before supper time. 15 people crammed into a room felt like a house church meeting. In fact, one of our group had at one time experienced arrest and interrogation but been miraculously delivered by God. One day, we will get to share the details.
The last supper for our team was at a very nice Chinese restaurant with a private dining room and we were treated to Peking duck. Before the duck came onto the great round lazy Susan, there was a host of other platters including jelly fish, veggies, potato noodles, dumplings and then the duck which is prepared in a variety of ways. One is with a thin flour patty, like a tortilla but much thinner, and you add the duck, some onion and vegetables plus a drizzle of sauce and rolled up like a burrito. It was very tasty. The other plate of duck was a hacked up bird, deep-fried and no part was identifiable. Come to think of it, I remember seeing a street vendor cutting up duck necks into 1” segments for a customer with a meat cleaver. Not much meat on the neck, so you must have to suck all the goodness off the bones.
After supper, Matthew and I decided to walk back to our hotel, got disoriented, and had to show our hotel key envelope to a few people to get some directions. We decided it was all part of the adventure and actually approached our hotel from the backside. Don’t know how that happened, but everyone we talked to seemed to have a different direction to go in. It was fun. A couple of guys followed us on their bikes to make sure we got to our destination. Very nice of them. We often find people to be very helpful indeed. Some just want to practice their English. Others are curious, and yes, we have been followed, at times apparently by as many as 3 UC’s.
Back at home base we need to start thinking about packing up everything for a 9 a.m. escape from the hotel to an undisclosed location downtown for a breakfast with some of the directors of the orphanage, then off to international church and then head for West Beijing Railway Station and our 20 hour rail adventure to Guangzhou. I booked our hotel room there online but without my glasses it was too difficult to copy the Chinese characters for hotel name and address. !!!Bright idea! Take a photo of the web page close up with my phone. Viola! I showed it to our interpreter and she could read it, so I have the instructions on my phone if I need to give a cab driver directions. That was easier than I thought. Will have to use that more often and save the hassle of charades and our limited Chinese. I don’t know why Chinese people have to always be shouting, but it seems normal now, and we get into the cultural spirit of it all and do our own shouting. Now we are heading into an area where Cantonese is predominant. Learn all that Mandarin for what, eh?
Well, if that wasn ’t enough excitement, our plans changed dramatically because we got word at 10:00 a.m. that the bus from the orphanage was broken down and wouldn’t be coming to pick us up. First gear was sounding a bit rough the last few trips and I did mention that it might not last. Well, it didn’t. The other option was to take 5 taxis to the subway and travel at least an hour to the end of the second leg of the MTR, again catch 5 taxis to an undisclosed location. Most of the group concurred that it was too tiring to do that twice today and didn’t want to run the “Amazing Race” gauntlet for our last day with the group separated twice into 5 taxis, likely going in different directions. Instead, we proceeded to a nearby mall about a kilometer away, browsed and re-convened at the hotel in Room 930 for a group meeting. There we listened to Jo’s amazing story for 2 hours and then prayed with her…well, we got carried away until 15 minutes before supper time. 15 people crammed into a room felt like a house church meeting. In fact, one of our group had at one time experienced arrest and interrogation but been miraculously delivered by God. One day, we will get to share the details.
The last supper for our team was at a very nice Chinese restaurant with a private dining room and we were treated to Peking duck. Before the duck came onto the great round lazy Susan, there was a host of other platters including jelly fish, veggies, potato noodles, dumplings and then the duck which is prepared in a variety of ways. One is with a thin flour patty, like a tortilla but much thinner, and you add the duck, some onion and vegetables plus a drizzle of sauce and rolled up like a burrito. It was very tasty. The other plate of duck was a hacked up bird, deep-fried and no part was identifiable. Come to think of it, I remember seeing a street vendor cutting up duck necks into 1” segments for a customer with a meat cleaver. Not much meat on the neck, so you must have to suck all the goodness off the bones.
After supper, Matthew and I decided to walk back to our hotel, got disoriented, and had to show our hotel key envelope to a few people to get some directions. We decided it was all part of the adventure and actually approached our hotel from the backside. Don’t know how that happened, but everyone we talked to seemed to have a different direction to go in. It was fun. A couple of guys followed us on their bikes to make sure we got to our destination. Very nice of them. We often find people to be very helpful indeed. Some just want to practice their English. Others are curious, and yes, we have been followed, at times apparently by as many as 3 UC’s.
Back at home base we need to start thinking about packing up everything for a 9 a.m. escape from the hotel to an undisclosed location downtown for a breakfast with some of the directors of the orphanage, then off to international church and then head for West Beijing Railway Station and our 20 hour rail adventure to Guangzhou. I booked our hotel room there online but without my glasses it was too difficult to copy the Chinese characters for hotel name and address. !!!Bright idea! Take a photo of the web page close up with my phone. Viola! I showed it to our interpreter and she could read it, so I have the instructions on my phone if I need to give a cab driver directions. That was easier than I thought. Will have to use that more often and save the hassle of charades and our limited Chinese. I don’t know why Chinese people have to always be shouting, but it seems normal now, and we get into the cultural spirit of it all and do our own shouting. Now we are heading into an area where Cantonese is predominant. Learn all that Mandarin for what, eh?
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Friday May 25
Our schedule puts us in downtown Beijing to meet with kids who have graduated from the Bethel pre-school orphanage to another location where they have learned some life skills and are a bit more independent. No bus was available and only 9 of us were going to meet with 9 kids, take them swimming and then out for lunch at McDonald
’t connect well with where we were going, so off in 3 taxis to downtown Hilton hotel to wait for the kids to arrive. When they did, it was discovered that their bathing suits had been forgotten, so there was another waiting period as we interacted with the children in the lobby, learning their names and letting them get familiar with us. They are aged 9-12. The hotel staff were getting a bit perturbed with the level of noise and some guests were a bit put off, but the kids were oblivious to the looks and we took our cue from them. Eventually the swimsuits arrived and we overloaded the elevator, so we split into 2 groups and arrived at the third floor for our swim. It was great fun and the kids thoroughly enjoyed the water. At 1 o’clock it was time to get showered and dried off. I don’t know how they do it, but these blind kids can pick out their own clothing from a pile on the bench. They find their own shoes and put them on. All that done and the change rooms cleaned up, we were off to McDonald’s across the street. Twenty-four of us was a crowd and we soon took over the restaurant. Back to the hotel lobby where we parted company, the children catching their bus and the 9 of us catching taxis to the downtown market (again). Matthew found the skinny jeans he had been looking for, 1 pair fire engine red and the other sky blue, plus a little gift for his mom. He has enjoyed bartering and got some good deals in the market.
We started off with a taxi to go a kilometer to the subway (MTR), got tickets for 2 yuan each (about 35 cents) and within an hour we were downtown. The last station didn
’t at the hotel were the 3 pairs of glasses that were supposed to have been delivered which meant a number of phone calls to track them down. That saga continues tomorrow, the day before we are supposed to leave here!
End the shopping trip at a coffee bar, regroup, and off we go to catch the trains back to our hotel in Fangshun. It was only a kilometer from the drop-off station, so Matthew and I decided to hike from the station to the hotel. It was early evening and the sidewalk market was heating up. We passed two plazas where small crowds were line-dancing or performing Tai Chi exercises. A couple of stops for room snacks and we were back. What wasn’s.
’t connect well with where we were going, so off in 3 taxis to downtown Hilton hotel to wait for the kids to arrive. When they did, it was discovered that their bathing suits had been forgotten, so there was another waiting period as we interacted with the children in the lobby, learning their names and letting them get familiar with us. They are aged 9-12. The hotel staff were getting a bit perturbed with the level of noise and some guests were a bit put off, but the kids were oblivious to the looks and we took our cue from them. Eventually the swimsuits arrived and we overloaded the elevator, so we split into 2 groups and arrived at the third floor for our swim. It was great fun and the kids thoroughly enjoyed the water. At 1 o’clock it was time to get showered and dried off. I don’t know how they do it, but these blind kids can pick out their own clothing from a pile on the bench. They find their own shoes and put them on. All that done and the change rooms cleaned up, we were off to McDonald’s across the street. Twenty-four of us was a crowd and we soon took over the restaurant. Back to the hotel lobby where we parted company, the children catching their bus and the 9 of us catching taxis to the downtown market (again). Matthew found the skinny jeans he had been looking for, 1 pair fire engine red and the other sky blue, plus a little gift for his mom. He has enjoyed bartering and got some good deals in the market.
We started off with a taxi to go a kilometer to the subway (MTR), got tickets for 2 yuan each (about 35 cents) and within an hour we were downtown. The last station didn
’t at the hotel were the 3 pairs of glasses that were supposed to have been delivered which meant a number of phone calls to track them down. That saga continues tomorrow, the day before we are supposed to leave here!
End the shopping trip at a coffee bar, regroup, and off we go to catch the trains back to our hotel in Fangshun. It was only a kilometer from the drop-off station, so Matthew and I decided to hike from the station to the hotel. It was early evening and the sidewalk market was heating up. We passed two plazas where small crowds were line-dancing or performing Tai Chi exercises. A couple of stops for room snacks and we were back. What wasn’s.
Thursday May 24
Early start to the day. Expecting to get a bite to eat at the restaurant before getting on the bus, but the restaurant was locked up, so not even a cup of coffee. Wondering if there is a boycott of our group. Good thing I had some fruit and a granola bar. We plugged into city center for another group tour day and started at the mausoleum of Mao Tse Tung. Thousands were lined up to walk past his casket. No backpacks, no cameras and a long line-up decided for us that we wouldn
“adjusted” our tour rate and wasn’t including the fee to enter, we boycotted. We had already walked through several courtyards surrounded by many little rooms and the inside of the Temple was much the same. The story surrounding the Temple was interesting. 600 years ago, it was believed that God had a mansion with 10,000 rooms. The Emperor was considered to be somewhat of a god and insisted on building 9,999 ½ rooms. Reached construction of over 8500 rooms. 9 is a lucky number in China and you see it everywhere in the architecture. The Emperor had 3000 concubines, some who never saw his face during their whole lives. After entering the Temple, they were never allowed outside the Temple area and when the Emperor died, several were sent to the grave with him. There were 24 emperors in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Quite interesting history.
Next stop that our Chinese tour guide, Linda, insisted on seeing was the silk factory. A very interesting tour as they had displays of the stages of growth of the silk worm, some live ones munching mulberry leaves and cocoons of silk. We were walked through the process of taking the single strand of silk from the cocoon and weaving eight of them together to make a useable strand. A single silk strand is 1/3 the diameter of a human hair and over 1000 meters long. The silk is used to make comforters for bedding, is non-allergenic, strong and warm. Other uses include silk cloth. Well, the ladies certainly went wild in the shopping department and the bus literally began filling up. Our guide must have received a nice commission on that stop!
The Temple of Heaven was our next stop, but when we found out that the tour guide had
’t a very cooperative group, resisting the route mapped out by our Chinese guide, She admitted it meant more commissions for her. The 90 minute spa was not in the schedule, but cutting some time off of the shopping spree would allow for that “treat”. Holding the bus back 20 minutes beyond scheduled departure was going to cost a lot and there was little flexibility in thinking and calculating reasonable remuneration. We had previously taken up an offering for the bus driver who had been doing a superb job of getting us around in a timely fashion. He was quite pleased with the extra he received even though his schedule was stretched to a rather long day.
Lunch at the Brown Door Café, upstairs in a room where it felt like the floor would not hold 18 people, but it was a very nice meal and very inexpensive. There was such a rush to go shopping at the Pearl Market, that we almost missed the complimentary dessert of deep-fried apple covered with a sticky goo that you had to immediately dip into cold water to set the crust and then pop a steaming hot piece into your mouth. One of the boys was celebrating his 16th birthday, so we all benefited from that.
As if there had not been enough shopping already, the Pearl Market was 4 floors of shopping center, plus another building adjacent where you could buy anything. Our tour guide had bid us adieu earlier from the Café, our new guide became the airline attendant in our group who had been here many times before. I guess we weren
“airline” clients. Closed circuit television monitored the entrance alley and the locked door was opened when they recognized our airline guide. Here you could purchase goods at a deep discount, really deep discount. I had brought along with me prescriptions for eye glasses and purchased replacement lenses for two pairs of glasses with blended bi-focals and one new pair including frames, a total of 3 sets for less than C$250. The ladies bought purses, handbags and 5 Samsonite duffle bags on wheels, planning on loading up, and they did…both here and at the Pearl Market. ’t do the trick, so the driver stopped at a KFC enroute home and some of the group got out to buy a snack. A chicken burger sure went down nicely, but one of the boys decided to order a pizza at the adjacent Pizza Hut, delaying our trip home even more until our the airline guide mother came and found us. We finally reached our hotel at 9:30 p.m., unloaded the bus in front of the hotel, and oh, my, what a pile of stuff! Everyone seemede to slink to their rooms. My new glasses should arrive at the hotel tomorrow noon by courier.
Before Pearl Market shopping, a clandestine trip around several corners, down narrow alleys to a dead-end with a massive steel door, a place the owners were trying to keep hidden from Chinese shoppers. This location was apparently kept secret for
Shopping ran into 5:30 p.m. and the rush was on to get to the spa where apparently we were to be given sumptuous fare while we got a foot massage. Not. A cup of lemon tea and 8 thin slices of apple called a fruit platter. Joke. After the back and foot massage, I was feeling weak and dis-oriented. A fruit bar didn’t make that trip. Tien Anmen Square was next, adjacent to the Mao site. This square is the largest in the world and can easily hold a crowd of 500,000. The 2 squares combined would hold a million people. Both squares are accessed from opposite sides of the surrounding streets through underground walkways. There is tight security including an airport-style security scanner that you are asked to put your luggage and backpacks through. They randomly choose people to screen. I must have looked particularly innocent today, because I went through the security gates unscathed. There were a lot of people and tour groups, and lots of umbrellas due to the sun. We’ve had great weather, but it is raining all around this region, especially southern China where Matthew and I will be heading in just a few days. Hopefully, the weather system will have rained out by then.
“adjusted” our tour rate and wasn’t including the fee to enter, we boycotted. We had already walked through several courtyards surrounded by many little rooms and the inside of the Temple was much the same. The story surrounding the Temple was interesting. 600 years ago, it was believed that God had a mansion with 10,000 rooms. The Emperor was considered to be somewhat of a god and insisted on building 9,999 ½ rooms. Reached construction of over 8500 rooms. 9 is a lucky number in China and you see it everywhere in the architecture. The Emperor had 3000 concubines, some who never saw his face during their whole lives. After entering the Temple, they were never allowed outside the Temple area and when the Emperor died, several were sent to the grave with him. There were 24 emperors in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Quite interesting history.
Next stop that our Chinese tour guide, Linda, insisted on seeing was the silk factory. A very interesting tour as they had displays of the stages of growth of the silk worm, some live ones munching mulberry leaves and cocoons of silk. We were walked through the process of taking the single strand of silk from the cocoon and weaving eight of them together to make a useable strand. A single silk strand is 1/3 the diameter of a human hair and over 1000 meters long. The silk is used to make comforters for bedding, is non-allergenic, strong and warm. Other uses include silk cloth. Well, the ladies certainly went wild in the shopping department and the bus literally began filling up. Our guide must have received a nice commission on that stop!
The Temple of Heaven was our next stop, but when we found out that the tour guide had
’t a very cooperative group, resisting the route mapped out by our Chinese guide, She admitted it meant more commissions for her. The 90 minute spa was not in the schedule, but cutting some time off of the shopping spree would allow for that “treat”. Holding the bus back 20 minutes beyond scheduled departure was going to cost a lot and there was little flexibility in thinking and calculating reasonable remuneration. We had previously taken up an offering for the bus driver who had been doing a superb job of getting us around in a timely fashion. He was quite pleased with the extra he received even though his schedule was stretched to a rather long day.
Lunch at the Brown Door Café, upstairs in a room where it felt like the floor would not hold 18 people, but it was a very nice meal and very inexpensive. There was such a rush to go shopping at the Pearl Market, that we almost missed the complimentary dessert of deep-fried apple covered with a sticky goo that you had to immediately dip into cold water to set the crust and then pop a steaming hot piece into your mouth. One of the boys was celebrating his 16th birthday, so we all benefited from that.
As if there had not been enough shopping already, the Pearl Market was 4 floors of shopping center, plus another building adjacent where you could buy anything. Our tour guide had bid us adieu earlier from the Café, our new guide became the airline attendant in our group who had been here many times before. I guess we weren
“airline” clients. Closed circuit television monitored the entrance alley and the locked door was opened when they recognized our airline guide. Here you could purchase goods at a deep discount, really deep discount. I had brought along with me prescriptions for eye glasses and purchased replacement lenses for two pairs of glasses with blended bi-focals and one new pair including frames, a total of 3 sets for less than C$250. The ladies bought purses, handbags and 5 Samsonite duffle bags on wheels, planning on loading up, and they did…both here and at the Pearl Market. ’t do the trick, so the driver stopped at a KFC enroute home and some of the group got out to buy a snack. A chicken burger sure went down nicely, but one of the boys decided to order a pizza at the adjacent Pizza Hut, delaying our trip home even more until our the airline guide mother came and found us. We finally reached our hotel at 9:30 p.m., unloaded the bus in front of the hotel, and oh, my, what a pile of stuff! Everyone seemede to slink to their rooms. My new glasses should arrive at the hotel tomorrow noon by courier.
Before Pearl Market shopping, a clandestine trip around several corners, down narrow alleys to a dead-end with a massive steel door, a place the owners were trying to keep hidden from Chinese shoppers. This location was apparently kept secret for
Shopping ran into 5:30 p.m. and the rush was on to get to the spa where apparently we were to be given sumptuous fare while we got a foot massage. Not. A cup of lemon tea and 8 thin slices of apple called a fruit platter. Joke. After the back and foot massage, I was feeling weak and dis-oriented. A fruit bar didn’t make that trip. Tien Anmen Square was next, adjacent to the Mao site. This square is the largest in the world and can easily hold a crowd of 500,000. The 2 squares combined would hold a million people. Both squares are accessed from opposite sides of the surrounding streets through underground walkways. There is tight security including an airport-style security scanner that you are asked to put your luggage and backpacks through. They randomly choose people to screen. I must have looked particularly innocent today, because I went through the security gates unscathed. There were a lot of people and tour groups, and lots of umbrellas due to the sun. We’ve had great weather, but it is raining all around this region, especially southern China where Matthew and I will be heading in just a few days. Hopefully, the weather system will have rained out by then.
Wednesday May 23 - Bethel
Matthew and I walked to a nearby bakery for fresh-baked pizza buns and a coffee latte for breakfast. We got back just in time to catch our bus leaving for the orphanage. It proved to be another day of work and play. Matthew collected eggs from the chickens. I started the clean out of the tool shed. Well, we started with 4 of us, but the job was so dirty that eventually it was just moi. I spoke to the director about getting some nails and a hammer to hang some of the hand tools, but the
’t do much to allay the fire from hot peppers. The total cost for the two of us was $31RMB ot C$5.00.
Others painted murals and Disney characters on the walls of the playroom to brighten them up and it was an awesome change of scenery. Just before lunch there was some talk of taking some bicycles and getting some fruit at the street market, a place where we carefully and slowly had wended our way through earlier in the morning. While others talked about doing it and whether or not to call a taxi, Matthew and I mounted the tandem bike with the basket and headed out. We found we could even pass some of the traffic on our 2-horse vehicle. It was a 5 minute ride and we found the marketers packing up, but not before we had purchased some apples, plums, lychee, grapes and dragon fruit. We were almost back at the orphanage when we met the others on bicycles heading for the market. The only ones who beat us were those who had in fact taken a taxi!
We cleaned up and had our lunch then spent some time interacting with the children. Today was actually a sunny day where we could see blue sky. I guess the evening breeze had cleared out some of the smog. In the evening, we decided as a group to walk down the street and find a restaurant. There was a fast-food Chinese restaurant where you could choose from pictures on the wall, either rice with vegetable and meat toppings, or thick noodle soup with the same. Matthew chose a plate of green beans but it was pretty spicy causing numb tongue. Two cans of Coke didn
“farm manager” whose jurisdiction was in this area, didn’t want a lot of change or organization. In the end, not much “junk” was thrown away. I found some sturdy cardboard boxes to put all the shovel heads without handles into. I did rack the hoes up on a horizontal 2x4 (they are always nasty when you step on them and the handle connects with your face). I swept out the dirt floor and put everything back neatly and it looked a lot better than before. There were some clothes tossed in with the mix that were sorted out for washing and some dusty music CD’s that were dusted off and put into clean boxes.
’t do much to allay the fire from hot peppers. The total cost for the two of us was $31RMB ot C$5.00.
Others painted murals and Disney characters on the walls of the playroom to brighten them up and it was an awesome change of scenery. Just before lunch there was some talk of taking some bicycles and getting some fruit at the street market, a place where we carefully and slowly had wended our way through earlier in the morning. While others talked about doing it and whether or not to call a taxi, Matthew and I mounted the tandem bike with the basket and headed out. We found we could even pass some of the traffic on our 2-horse vehicle. It was a 5 minute ride and we found the marketers packing up, but not before we had purchased some apples, plums, lychee, grapes and dragon fruit. We were almost back at the orphanage when we met the others on bicycles heading for the market. The only ones who beat us were those who had in fact taken a taxi!
We cleaned up and had our lunch then spent some time interacting with the children. Today was actually a sunny day where we could see blue sky. I guess the evening breeze had cleared out some of the smog. In the evening, we decided as a group to walk down the street and find a restaurant. There was a fast-food Chinese restaurant where you could choose from pictures on the wall, either rice with vegetable and meat toppings, or thick noodle soup with the same. Matthew chose a plate of green beans but it was pretty spicy causing numb tongue. Two cans of Coke didn
“farm manager” whose jurisdiction was in this area, didn’t want a lot of change or organization. In the end, not much “junk” was thrown away. I found some sturdy cardboard boxes to put all the shovel heads without handles into. I did rack the hoes up on a horizontal 2x4 (they are always nasty when you step on them and the handle connects with your face). I swept out the dirt floor and put everything back neatly and it looked a lot better than before. There were some clothes tossed in with the mix that were sorted out for washing and some dusty music CD’s that were dusted off and put into clean boxes.
Tuesday May 22 Group tour
At 8 a.m., the tour bus arrived on time to take us on the day
“ski lift” was more scenic and saved our energy for the Wall. And we needed it! The top of the wall is about 20 feet wide built with massive stones on the bottom section and large paving stones on the top, including the parapets and guard towers. There were places where the stairs were a 4” rise with a 12” tread and there were other places so steep you could hardly imagine climbing them. In that case, the steps were of chiselled rock and 8” tread with a 24” rise. Just 6 of us did the climb to a prominent guard post. Anyone who climbs the Great Wall is considered a hero. The view was somewhat obscured by the smog from Beijing City, but as the morning wore on, it did clear up some with the slight breeze. The architecture was amazing, considering the lack of modern tools to fashion some of the features. The walking area between the notched protective walls is designed to carry away water out to stone gutters that protrude past the wall to carry water away from the wall and prevent corrosion. The towers are broken up into very small rooms with openings to view the country-side. The canopy of trees beneath is so thick that it would take a pretty skilled eye to see anyone approaching the wall, let alone breaching it. To think that the stones were manually carried to the site and placed individually is staggering. So is the number of people who perished during its construction. We heard of numbers upwards of a million. It was hard enough carrying our own carcasses up there, let alone paving stones or the impossibly large main rocks. They were chinked together with shards of quartz to level them. I could carry a few of those for sure. It gives new perspective to the term “hard labour”. Coming down off the Wall, you could choose to return by the ski lift or take the luge. It’s a metal trough winding down the mountainside and you sit in a sled outfitted with a brake stick. You can rocket down the chute, but must brake for some of the sharp corners. It was fun watching from the lift as some of the lady tourists launched down the chute. Screaming all the way, but interspersed with gales of laughter. All 18 members of our group went down on the luge, 4 men and 14 women, one celebrating her 70th birthday!
Our next stop with our group of 18 was the Great Wall. You could walk from the parking lot up steep hills and deep gullies to get there, but the
’t see the whole zoo as it is quite massive, but we did see some interesting animal specimens. The hour was getting late, but we thought we could still squeeze in the Acrobatic Theatre. The traffic was horrendous during rush hour. I think we waited close to 25 or 30 minutes in 1 block just to make a left hand turn. Lots of stop and go traffic. Rules here are very different. From the right hand lane, a car made a U-turn left in front of our bus and across our adjacent lane to go the opposite direction and merging with oncoming traffic! It was wild, but apparently, the different rule applies here in China according to our interpreter. Because we missed the first show at 5:30, we got a stop at a Starbucks near the Swiss Hotel and enjoyed a break at the sidewalk café tables.
After lunch, we boarded our bus again, this time for the Beijing Zoo where we particularly wanted to see the Panda exhibit. We didn
’t tell you yet how many more motorcycles entered the cage, but it was unbelievable! Truly. There were a lot of other amazing stunts performed with real class and it was a show worth seeing.
Then we were at the Acrobatic Show. Well, it was a treat to say the least. Matthew and I were debating as to whether to buy the DVD they were selling of the show until after the intermission. The highlight was a motorcycle entering a steel ball cage and riding inside what was about a 30 feet in diameter sphere. The rider went round and round the perimeter in horizontal and vertical directions. We certainly thought that was amazing, until a second rider appeared and entered the cage. They chased each other around and round and then a third and fourth rider entered. I won
’s adventures. It took us two and half hours to get to the Great Wall area. First stop, though, was a Ming vase factory. You may think of a factory as a large industrial building, but in fact, it can be a few tiny shops linked together around a courtyard with 2 or 3 artisans in each section. The making of a vase takes six steps. First, shaping the vase out of copper and getting the right thickness. Then, they apply fines strands of wire to outline the shapes and decor, much like making a paint-by-number design. Each “number” area is filled with a coloured rock powder that has been ground to a very fine flour-like consistency. It is fired to set the colors which never fade because it is rock. Then comes the polishing with various grades of stone, right down to charcoal. The vase is put on the end of a rotating spit and spun at high speed while the artisan polishes the surface by hand until you cannot feel the copper strands. A final process glazes the outside of the vase. Very intricate, pains-taking work. The show room was the selling point. I found vases about 3 feet in height worth $480,000RMB or C$80,000. I left it there! There were many varieties of creations made in the same way as described above. Hours and hours of manual labour.
“ski lift” was more scenic and saved our energy for the Wall. And we needed it! The top of the wall is about 20 feet wide built with massive stones on the bottom section and large paving stones on the top, including the parapets and guard towers. There were places where the stairs were a 4” rise with a 12” tread and there were other places so steep you could hardly imagine climbing them. In that case, the steps were of chiselled rock and 8” tread with a 24” rise. Just 6 of us did the climb to a prominent guard post. Anyone who climbs the Great Wall is considered a hero. The view was somewhat obscured by the smog from Beijing City, but as the morning wore on, it did clear up some with the slight breeze. The architecture was amazing, considering the lack of modern tools to fashion some of the features. The walking area between the notched protective walls is designed to carry away water out to stone gutters that protrude past the wall to carry water away from the wall and prevent corrosion. The towers are broken up into very small rooms with openings to view the country-side. The canopy of trees beneath is so thick that it would take a pretty skilled eye to see anyone approaching the wall, let alone breaching it. To think that the stones were manually carried to the site and placed individually is staggering. So is the number of people who perished during its construction. We heard of numbers upwards of a million. It was hard enough carrying our own carcasses up there, let alone paving stones or the impossibly large main rocks. They were chinked together with shards of quartz to level them. I could carry a few of those for sure. It gives new perspective to the term “hard labour”. Coming down off the Wall, you could choose to return by the ski lift or take the luge. It’s a metal trough winding down the mountainside and you sit in a sled outfitted with a brake stick. You can rocket down the chute, but must brake for some of the sharp corners. It was fun watching from the lift as some of the lady tourists launched down the chute. Screaming all the way, but interspersed with gales of laughter. All 18 members of our group went down on the luge, 4 men and 14 women, one celebrating her 70th birthday!
Our next stop with our group of 18 was the Great Wall. You could walk from the parking lot up steep hills and deep gullies to get there, but the
’t see the whole zoo as it is quite massive, but we did see some interesting animal specimens. The hour was getting late, but we thought we could still squeeze in the Acrobatic Theatre. The traffic was horrendous during rush hour. I think we waited close to 25 or 30 minutes in 1 block just to make a left hand turn. Lots of stop and go traffic. Rules here are very different. From the right hand lane, a car made a U-turn left in front of our bus and across our adjacent lane to go the opposite direction and merging with oncoming traffic! It was wild, but apparently, the different rule applies here in China according to our interpreter. Because we missed the first show at 5:30, we got a stop at a Starbucks near the Swiss Hotel and enjoyed a break at the sidewalk café tables.
After lunch, we boarded our bus again, this time for the Beijing Zoo where we particularly wanted to see the Panda exhibit. We didn
’t tell you yet how many more motorcycles entered the cage, but it was unbelievable! Truly. There were a lot of other amazing stunts performed with real class and it was a show worth seeing.
Then we were at the Acrobatic Show. Well, it was a treat to say the least. Matthew and I were debating as to whether to buy the DVD they were selling of the show until after the intermission. The highlight was a motorcycle entering a steel ball cage and riding inside what was about a 30 feet in diameter sphere. The rider went round and round the perimeter in horizontal and vertical directions. We certainly thought that was amazing, until a second rider appeared and entered the cage. They chased each other around and round and then a third and fourth rider entered. I won
’s adventures. It took us two and half hours to get to the Great Wall area. First stop, though, was a Ming vase factory. You may think of a factory as a large industrial building, but in fact, it can be a few tiny shops linked together around a courtyard with 2 or 3 artisans in each section. The making of a vase takes six steps. First, shaping the vase out of copper and getting the right thickness. Then, they apply fines strands of wire to outline the shapes and decor, much like making a paint-by-number design. Each “number” area is filled with a coloured rock powder that has been ground to a very fine flour-like consistency. It is fired to set the colors which never fade because it is rock. Then comes the polishing with various grades of stone, right down to charcoal. The vase is put on the end of a rotating spit and spun at high speed while the artisan polishes the surface by hand until you cannot feel the copper strands. A final process glazes the outside of the vase. Very intricate, pains-taking work. The show room was the selling point. I found vases about 3 feet in height worth $480,000RMB or C$80,000. I left it there! There were many varieties of creations made in the same way as described above. Hours and hours of manual labour.
Monday May 21
Prior to leaving on the bus for the orphanage, I was trying to get reservations or tickets for the train from Beijing to Guangzhou. I had noticed on the internet schedule that the sleepers were getting booked up. The front desk pointed me to a China Travel Service desk in the corner of the lobby, but no one was there. About 15 minutes before our bus was due to leave, that service desk was open. After trying to communicate to the 3 people there, I had to do the charades thing and discovered that they only booked flights from Beijing to Guangzhou. Back to the front desk where at least one girl spoke some English. She called the train ticket office and found that there were still seats available, but no sleepers. Oh, well, we
’t want to do it twice, so I worked in my own area and swathed about 2000 square feet.
At the orphanage, we were again assigned various tasks. The boys and some of the ladies went back to the fields to cut down more grass. The grass is as thick as your little finger and about 3 feet tall. The tools are primitive, but they work. The youth looked like they were practicing a golf swing and making crop circles, leaving thick stubble about 12 to 18 inches high. I sure didn
“hotpot”. A boiling tray of water is placed in the center of the table over a propane flame and trays upon trays of raw food are brought out to place in the water to cook. Each person is given a small bowl of sesame sauce to which you can add condiments for flavor. When your item is cooked, you put it on your plate, dip it in the sauce and eat it. Food included; thin slices of beef, raw fish, noodles, tofu, mushrooms, jicama, and many other strange foods. It was an interesting meal, and everyone enjoyed it. The fish eyes were disturbing to some, but everyone had a great time and there was lots of laughter. Returning to the hotel, Matthew and I shopped for breakfast items, water, juice and pastries. The plan is leave at 8 a.m. for some touring in the morning.
At lunch time the supervisor asked me about handyman skills and I was assigned to make stand up signposts for a special weekend event that will attract several visitors. The wood was pine 1x2 but the tools were not what I expected. A hammer, that was ok, but the saw was a wooden bow saw fitted with a hacksaw blade and twisted at an odd angle. We made do and created the 13 signposts Alex wanted, plus 6 stands for holding ribbons for races. The stands were taken as they were completed and painted by other members of the team. Some creative people painted a beautiful flower mural on the plain white concrete fence that really brightened it up. The boys went fishing for tadpoles in the swamp which were to be used in a game for the weekend activities. Others sorted out books in the library and did some general cleaning. I got the task of cleaning out the shed and organizing the stuff in it so one of the dogs could be penned there.
After the hard work, we got to spend some time with the children. I played the piano with a little helper sitting beside me and some of the children began dancing to the music. It was not only play time, but massage time and it was interesting to watch the orphanage staff massage the fingers, toes and bodies of their little charges and to see the children just relax as they received this loving attention.
Days end and we head back to the hotel for much needed showers before the evening meal. Supper was interesting as we walked down the business area and our interpreter took us to a second floor restaurant for ’ve got to go. They would need our passports and $516RMB. I didn’t have time to go and find it and I didn’t want to lose the last seats, so a young man from hotel staff was delegated to go with the passports and the money to the train ticket office on my behalf and purchase the tickets. He would run and be back in 10 minutes. Now the bus was delayed. Our tour director suggested I stay behind and catch up to the team by taxi. I decided to get on the bus and trust the front desk clerk. Later on, I called the hotel and asked if my passport and tickets had showed up and they had. Our interpreter also called just to make sure and the reply was also positive. Later, as I approached the front desk upon our return to the hotel, all 4 staff members stood up to greet me with smiles on their faces. "Of course", the passports and tickets were right there. "Of course" is becoming a standard reply here in China.
’t want to do it twice, so I worked in my own area and swathed about 2000 square feet.
At the orphanage, we were again assigned various tasks. The boys and some of the ladies went back to the fields to cut down more grass. The grass is as thick as your little finger and about 3 feet tall. The tools are primitive, but they work. The youth looked like they were practicing a golf swing and making crop circles, leaving thick stubble about 12 to 18 inches high. I sure didn
“hotpot”. A boiling tray of water is placed in the center of the table over a propane flame and trays upon trays of raw food are brought out to place in the water to cook. Each person is given a small bowl of sesame sauce to which you can add condiments for flavor. When your item is cooked, you put it on your plate, dip it in the sauce and eat it. Food included; thin slices of beef, raw fish, noodles, tofu, mushrooms, jicama, and many other strange foods. It was an interesting meal, and everyone enjoyed it. The fish eyes were disturbing to some, but everyone had a great time and there was lots of laughter. Returning to the hotel, Matthew and I shopped for breakfast items, water, juice and pastries. The plan is leave at 8 a.m. for some touring in the morning.
At lunch time the supervisor asked me about handyman skills and I was assigned to make stand up signposts for a special weekend event that will attract several visitors. The wood was pine 1x2 but the tools were not what I expected. A hammer, that was ok, but the saw was a wooden bow saw fitted with a hacksaw blade and twisted at an odd angle. We made do and created the 13 signposts Alex wanted, plus 6 stands for holding ribbons for races. The stands were taken as they were completed and painted by other members of the team. Some creative people painted a beautiful flower mural on the plain white concrete fence that really brightened it up. The boys went fishing for tadpoles in the swamp which were to be used in a game for the weekend activities. Others sorted out books in the library and did some general cleaning. I got the task of cleaning out the shed and organizing the stuff in it so one of the dogs could be penned there.
After the hard work, we got to spend some time with the children. I played the piano with a little helper sitting beside me and some of the children began dancing to the music. It was not only play time, but massage time and it was interesting to watch the orphanage staff massage the fingers, toes and bodies of their little charges and to see the children just relax as they received this loving attention.
Days end and we head back to the hotel for much needed showers before the evening meal. Supper was interesting as we walked down the business area and our interpreter took us to a second floor restaurant for ’ve got to go. They would need our passports and $516RMB. I didn’t have time to go and find it and I didn’t want to lose the last seats, so a young man from hotel staff was delegated to go with the passports and the money to the train ticket office on my behalf and purchase the tickets. He would run and be back in 10 minutes. Now the bus was delayed. Our tour director suggested I stay behind and catch up to the team by taxi. I decided to get on the bus and trust the front desk clerk. Later on, I called the hotel and asked if my passport and tickets had showed up and they had. Our interpreter also called just to make sure and the reply was also positive. Later, as I approached the front desk upon our return to the hotel, all 4 staff members stood up to greet me with smiles on their faces. "Of course", the passports and tickets were right there. "Of course" is becoming a standard reply here in China.
Sunday May 20 Bethel Blind Orphanage
My cell phone is exhibiting
“pre-school” section but has stayed on and is obviously quite a help.
Well, we finally got to the Bethel Blind Orphanage. Matthew, our Dutch tour guide, took us through the complex and laid down the rules - stranger, friend and family levels of interaction are used for instilling these distinctions in the children. Many have abandonment issues. This is home to many pre-schoolers that are visually impaired. Some have partial sight e.g. one eye, others are totally blind and things must be left in their place as the children have memorized the locations of objects.
One little girl of about 2 or 3 yrs of age, took quite a shine to Matthew and held on to him like a big brother. Matthew was great with her because she was about the size of his youngest sister. It was interesting to hear how the organization is helping these kids find normality and educating them to become more and more self-sufficient. The biggest thing is teaching them Braille. They have Braille story books, school books, even music books! Christina is 9 years old and runs the place like a little General, helping Matthew with the tour. She is learning the computer and some secretarial skills. She has graduated from the
’s, but has an incredible memory. He asks a lot of questions and now has our trip schedule laid out in his head and repeats it back to us.
Sam is also blind and older, maybe in his 20
….we cut thick, bamboo-like grass for the goats in one of the fields. A couple of the ladies washed the two dogs, some were on a painting project and Matty, Carson and Parker donned hip waders to cut the grass in the swamp without damaging the lily pads. Very hot, humid work and it didn’t take long to have sweat pouring down like rivers from our faces.
We toured the grounds where they grow all sorts of vegetables and fruit (mainly apricots), raise chickens, goats, rabbits
’s been a good day, but very tiring.
Back at the hotel for the evening, the service at the restaurant proved to be challenging. It took two hours to get the food served to 18 people from the time the first person was served. After supper, I went foraging for market food for breakfast and lunch and alternatives for restaurants. There are lots of street vendors, but we are unsure of what they were offering. Well, actually we are sure of what they are serving. Donkey meat and "other" strange offerings cooked over charcoal fires or deep-fried. We will find a more reputable establishment for our meals. We did find a very nice bakery for bread and sweet snacks.
It“Operator Determined Barring”. Interpreter Marion called and discovered that my 300 minute SIM card was overdrawn and I had not even used it that much. I got scammed at the airport in a tag team scheme where the legitmate China Mobile clerk sent me over to another girl with a purse full of phone cards. Free enterprise is alive and well in China at the International Airport.
“pre-school” section but has stayed on and is obviously quite a help.
Well, we finally got to the Bethel Blind Orphanage. Matthew, our Dutch tour guide, took us through the complex and laid down the rules - stranger, friend and family levels of interaction are used for instilling these distinctions in the children. Many have abandonment issues. This is home to many pre-schoolers that are visually impaired. Some have partial sight e.g. one eye, others are totally blind and things must be left in their place as the children have memorized the locations of objects.
One little girl of about 2 or 3 yrs of age, took quite a shine to Matthew and held on to him like a big brother. Matthew was great with her because she was about the size of his youngest sister. It was interesting to hear how the organization is helping these kids find normality and educating them to become more and more self-sufficient. The biggest thing is teaching them Braille. They have Braille story books, school books, even music books! Christina is 9 years old and runs the place like a little General, helping Matthew with the tour. She is learning the computer and some secretarial skills. She has graduated from the
’s, but has an incredible memory. He asks a lot of questions and now has our trip schedule laid out in his head and repeats it back to us.
Sam is also blind and older, maybe in his 20
….we cut thick, bamboo-like grass for the goats in one of the fields. A couple of the ladies washed the two dogs, some were on a painting project and Matty, Carson and Parker donned hip waders to cut the grass in the swamp without damaging the lily pads. Very hot, humid work and it didn’t take long to have sweat pouring down like rivers from our faces.
We toured the grounds where they grow all sorts of vegetables and fruit (mainly apricots), raise chickens, goats, rabbits
’s been a good day, but very tiring.
Back at the hotel for the evening, the service at the restaurant proved to be challenging. It took two hours to get the food served to 18 people from the time the first person was served. After supper, I went foraging for market food for breakfast and lunch and alternatives for restaurants. There are lots of street vendors, but we are unsure of what they were offering. Well, actually we are sure of what they are serving. Donkey meat and "other" strange offerings cooked over charcoal fires or deep-fried. We will find a more reputable establishment for our meals. We did find a very nice bakery for bread and sweet snacks.
It“Operator Determined Barring”. Interpreter Marion called and discovered that my 300 minute SIM card was overdrawn and I had not even used it that much. I got scammed at the airport in a tag team scheme where the legitmate China Mobile clerk sent me over to another girl with a purse full of phone cards. Free enterprise is alive and well in China at the International Airport.
Saturday, May 19
Discovered that it is not possible to post blogs from China, so I will have to save them in a word processor for later posting.....
We start the day with a morning stroll around a few different blocks and a Burger King breakfast. We found a local market and watched the making of broad noodles by hand. Here we finally learned how to ask "How much?" in Mandarin. "Doa shao tien?" A lot of laughter in the market as we tried out our new command of that phrase. Doesn't help much because we get the reply in Mandarin as well. They have to show us the amount on their calculators.
Our team finally arrives and we meet Josephine and Marion who are our interpreters. We are expecting two mini-buses to transport us to the hotel, but there is only one. We pile the luggage in the back seat and between the seats. We cram in and a couple of us sit on the floor because there is no more room in the bus. It is almost 2 hours to the hotel in rush hour traffic. Confusion reigns at the hotel. Check in takes almost 3 hours.
Some of the team members make their way to the lobby restaurant and wonder where everyone else is. Everyone else is actually on the 2nd floor enjoying a full course buffet served on an 8' foot lazy Susan with a whole array of plates of food. After the restaurant group was served, and paid for their orders, we carried our plates upstairs to join the smorg. Since so many never got the memo, there was a mountain of food to box up to take to the orphanage in the morning.
We return to the airport by taxi to meet our team arriving on Air Canada. We wait a long time so amuse ourselves by helping the people holding up signs for incoming passengers by guessing who they might be. Mikki was looking for Mr. Pruitt. He wasn't too impressed when we ID'd him and welcomed him to Beijing. Alice (Shou Tien is her Chinese name) was looking for a group of Canadians and I told her I was looking for my sister and her name was Evelyn, too. Matthew and I became the International Greeting Team and greeting the Korean flight crew and passengers, as well as the many Chinese passengers. Qwa ying is "Welcome" in Chinese.
We start the day with a morning stroll around a few different blocks and a Burger King breakfast. We found a local market and watched the making of broad noodles by hand. Here we finally learned how to ask "How much?" in Mandarin. "Doa shao tien?" A lot of laughter in the market as we tried out our new command of that phrase. Doesn't help much because we get the reply in Mandarin as well. They have to show us the amount on their calculators.
Our team finally arrives and we meet Josephine and Marion who are our interpreters. We are expecting two mini-buses to transport us to the hotel, but there is only one. We pile the luggage in the back seat and between the seats. We cram in and a couple of us sit on the floor because there is no more room in the bus. It is almost 2 hours to the hotel in rush hour traffic. Confusion reigns at the hotel. Check in takes almost 3 hours.
Some of the team members make their way to the lobby restaurant and wonder where everyone else is. Everyone else is actually on the 2nd floor enjoying a full course buffet served on an 8' foot lazy Susan with a whole array of plates of food. After the restaurant group was served, and paid for their orders, we carried our plates upstairs to join the smorg. Since so many never got the memo, there was a mountain of food to box up to take to the orphanage in the morning.
We return to the airport by taxi to meet our team arriving on Air Canada. We wait a long time so amuse ourselves by helping the people holding up signs for incoming passengers by guessing who they might be. Mikki was looking for Mr. Pruitt. He wasn't too impressed when we ID'd him and welcomed him to Beijing. Alice (Shou Tien is her Chinese name) was looking for a group of Canadians and I told her I was looking for my sister and her name was Evelyn, too. Matthew and I became the International Greeting Team and greeting the Korean flight crew and passengers, as well as the many Chinese passengers. Qwa ying is "Welcome" in Chinese.
Friday May 18
Rise and shine at 5 a.m. - love these early morning plane connections. Pack and clean the suite and everything in its place. Gary drives us to the airport and we cleared security with only a minor problem and question about my glucose monitor. It's pouring rain today, the worst we've seen since leaving home, but it is warm. Today, Beijing is supposed to be sunny and +30. We arrive at noon, so we will have time to explore the area around our hotel while we wait for the other team members to arrive on Saturday. We need to go back to the airport to meet up with them and get on the same bus to our main hotel for the duration of our stay in Beijing. So what does the day hold? Our first day in mainland China.
’t even know where the hotel was. I noticed $16 charges for other shuttle services and smelled a scam. He insisted on taking us and on my refusal, he kept dropping the price by $50 each time. Down to $250 as we are walking away to find the cell phone store. I would rather call the hotel about a legit shuttle service.
A 50 minute delay in departure due to the pouring rain, but we land in Beijing International Airport to warm, sunny weather. We take a subway to baggage claim and the luggage gets there before we do, the fastest luggage transfer I have ever seen! No problems at immigration! The problems came with ground transportation. No shuttle to the hotel. Oh, well, we will get off on the right foot and get our communication gear upgraded. Before I could even find a cell phone outlet to get a SIM card, a man came and offered to take us by private car to our hotel for $500CYN! (About C$80) He didn
’t cost more than $100 for a 35 minute taxi ride to the hotel. “Just go to Level B1 and get a Capital Airport taxi.” Away we went to find a Disneyland style queue where the front of the line gets the next taxi. Eventually, we got to the front and a fellow with a van trundles over and offers us a ride to the hotel for $500! I refuse! That’s more than the cost for one night in the 4-star hotel where we are booked. He came down to $400 as I walked away. I went back and talked to the queue monitor who called another cab driver. Same scenario and I refused to pay what he was asking. Finally, I discovered that there were also taxis who would run “on the meter” which would be about U$15 or about $100CYN. Bingo! We took it. 35 minutes later, after congested 4-5 lane stop-and-go traffic, we were at the Holiday Inn Express. The taxi fare printed out at $44 plus a $3 fuel surcharge. I gave the driver a $50 note plus U$5 as a tip, which I had just received in change from the cell phone store. The driver understood NO English and began shouting something at me. I thought I had not paid him enough judging by my experience at the airport and asked if he needed more. A lady bystander came along who could speak a little English and talked to the driver. Finally, I grabbed all the money out of his hand and gave him $100 and motioned for him to go. He gave me the exact change back of $53, still yelling! I returned the change and motioned for him to get moving! After he had driven off, the lady bystander explained that we are not supposed to “help” them. He wasn’t even Chinese for that matter, one of the many migrant workers in China. Generosity is not a word in the local vocabulary.
Got the SIM card and asked a few questions at the courtesy counter and they thought it shouldn
’t know. We carried on and about 10 minutes later these same girls caught up to us and said they had found a hair salon and would be happy to take us there! They even offered to come in and interpret to the staff for us. One girl has been to Niagara Falls and the other is going to go to University in New York in the fall. We thanked them for their help and entered the salon. Mostly young, male yuppees, and we had about 8 of them flock to the front and want to do the haircut. Only Matthew wanted a haircut so when they pointed to a pricing chart, we chose $48 (about $8 Can.). The fellows in the green shirts did the washing, shampooing and wiping away the hair when the white-shirted scissor-men were finished. What these guys can do with scissors is amazing! An hour later after a wash and a shampoo, head massage and rinse, clipped hair, another wash and dry, and styling with gel, Matthew is beaming with a style like none other. Time to pay. I am shown a card with VIP on it and charged $26. \No, no, the agreed price was $48. I give him a $50 bill. Change is made out and I want to leave him a tip. He refuses, so I hand each of the 4 young men standing there a $1 bill. I mean, at least it pays for the complimentary coffee. Tipping is a hassle in these parts. I must find out about that. It seems ‘free enterprise’ is alive and well (at the airport, anyway), but tipping for excellent service is another thing.
The haircut:
After settling in to our hotel room, Matthew and I toured a few city blocks around our hotel, got a bite to eat at a Burger King and wandered around the local shops. We were looking for a place to get a haircut but all the signs are in Mandarin and the only English seems to be name brands. We asked a couple of university-age girls if they knew where we could get a haircut. They spoke some English and said they didn
’s Pharmacy. Matthew needed hair gel. The only way to communicate with the staff was by charades. English was of NO value! Tried my Blackberry translator, but no service underground! Before long we had half a dozen staff around us as I made the motion and sound of squirting gel into my hand, rubbing my hands together and slicking back my hair. Everyone laughing, we traipsed over to the hair gel section. Well…then it came time to pay! $34. I saw it when we picked up the gel. But I want to learn a Mandarin phrase for “How much does it cost? “ The clerk said what I think was $34 in Mandarin. Yes, yes. How do I say it in Mandarin, “How much?” $34. Now there are more than 6 clerks, all jabbering at once and laughing, almost falling on the floor. The supervisor comes and crossly jabs the one girl who is almost hysterical with laughter and I ask her, “How do I say in Mandarin, ‘How much?” I know it’s $34. I pay $34the for the gel and put up a number of nearby items on the counter and ask, “How much?” It was to no avail. We left behind a bunch of giggling girls and supervisors who still don’t know I was trying to learn the language…so, “if I can bring a little bit of happiness into someone’s life, my life will have been worth living.” (Red Skelton)’s it for one day, I'd think....
We continued our tour, crossing busy streets, never even getting run over by a bus. We found a mall under our hotel with a grocery store bigger than any Superstore, all kinds of shops with fancy stuff and a Watson
A tour through the supermarket, buy a little fruit, look at the variety of fish and meats and pastries, get a slushy and head for the room. That
’t even know where the hotel was. I noticed $16 charges for other shuttle services and smelled a scam. He insisted on taking us and on my refusal, he kept dropping the price by $50 each time. Down to $250 as we are walking away to find the cell phone store. I would rather call the hotel about a legit shuttle service.
A 50 minute delay in departure due to the pouring rain, but we land in Beijing International Airport to warm, sunny weather. We take a subway to baggage claim and the luggage gets there before we do, the fastest luggage transfer I have ever seen! No problems at immigration! The problems came with ground transportation. No shuttle to the hotel. Oh, well, we will get off on the right foot and get our communication gear upgraded. Before I could even find a cell phone outlet to get a SIM card, a man came and offered to take us by private car to our hotel for $500CYN! (About C$80) He didn
’t cost more than $100 for a 35 minute taxi ride to the hotel. “Just go to Level B1 and get a Capital Airport taxi.” Away we went to find a Disneyland style queue where the front of the line gets the next taxi. Eventually, we got to the front and a fellow with a van trundles over and offers us a ride to the hotel for $500! I refuse! That’s more than the cost for one night in the 4-star hotel where we are booked. He came down to $400 as I walked away. I went back and talked to the queue monitor who called another cab driver. Same scenario and I refused to pay what he was asking. Finally, I discovered that there were also taxis who would run “on the meter” which would be about U$15 or about $100CYN. Bingo! We took it. 35 minutes later, after congested 4-5 lane stop-and-go traffic, we were at the Holiday Inn Express. The taxi fare printed out at $44 plus a $3 fuel surcharge. I gave the driver a $50 note plus U$5 as a tip, which I had just received in change from the cell phone store. The driver understood NO English and began shouting something at me. I thought I had not paid him enough judging by my experience at the airport and asked if he needed more. A lady bystander came along who could speak a little English and talked to the driver. Finally, I grabbed all the money out of his hand and gave him $100 and motioned for him to go. He gave me the exact change back of $53, still yelling! I returned the change and motioned for him to get moving! After he had driven off, the lady bystander explained that we are not supposed to “help” them. He wasn’t even Chinese for that matter, one of the many migrant workers in China. Generosity is not a word in the local vocabulary.
Got the SIM card and asked a few questions at the courtesy counter and they thought it shouldn
’t know. We carried on and about 10 minutes later these same girls caught up to us and said they had found a hair salon and would be happy to take us there! They even offered to come in and interpret to the staff for us. One girl has been to Niagara Falls and the other is going to go to University in New York in the fall. We thanked them for their help and entered the salon. Mostly young, male yuppees, and we had about 8 of them flock to the front and want to do the haircut. Only Matthew wanted a haircut so when they pointed to a pricing chart, we chose $48 (about $8 Can.). The fellows in the green shirts did the washing, shampooing and wiping away the hair when the white-shirted scissor-men were finished. What these guys can do with scissors is amazing! An hour later after a wash and a shampoo, head massage and rinse, clipped hair, another wash and dry, and styling with gel, Matthew is beaming with a style like none other. Time to pay. I am shown a card with VIP on it and charged $26. \No, no, the agreed price was $48. I give him a $50 bill. Change is made out and I want to leave him a tip. He refuses, so I hand each of the 4 young men standing there a $1 bill. I mean, at least it pays for the complimentary coffee. Tipping is a hassle in these parts. I must find out about that. It seems ‘free enterprise’ is alive and well (at the airport, anyway), but tipping for excellent service is another thing.
The haircut:
After settling in to our hotel room, Matthew and I toured a few city blocks around our hotel, got a bite to eat at a Burger King and wandered around the local shops. We were looking for a place to get a haircut but all the signs are in Mandarin and the only English seems to be name brands. We asked a couple of university-age girls if they knew where we could get a haircut. They spoke some English and said they didn
’s Pharmacy. Matthew needed hair gel. The only way to communicate with the staff was by charades. English was of NO value! Tried my Blackberry translator, but no service underground! Before long we had half a dozen staff around us as I made the motion and sound of squirting gel into my hand, rubbing my hands together and slicking back my hair. Everyone laughing, we traipsed over to the hair gel section. Well…then it came time to pay! $34. I saw it when we picked up the gel. But I want to learn a Mandarin phrase for “How much does it cost? “ The clerk said what I think was $34 in Mandarin. Yes, yes. How do I say it in Mandarin, “How much?” $34. Now there are more than 6 clerks, all jabbering at once and laughing, almost falling on the floor. The supervisor comes and crossly jabs the one girl who is almost hysterical with laughter and I ask her, “How do I say in Mandarin, ‘How much?” I know it’s $34. I pay $34the for the gel and put up a number of nearby items on the counter and ask, “How much?” It was to no avail. We left behind a bunch of giggling girls and supervisors who still don’t know I was trying to learn the language…so, “if I can bring a little bit of happiness into someone’s life, my life will have been worth living.” (Red Skelton)’s it for one day, I'd think....
We continued our tour, crossing busy streets, never even getting run over by a bus. We found a mall under our hotel with a grocery store bigger than any Superstore, all kinds of shops with fancy stuff and a Watson
A tour through the supermarket, buy a little fruit, look at the variety of fish and meats and pastries, get a slushy and head for the room. That
Thursday 17 May 2012
Thursday May 18
Another interesting day of unexpected delights. Gary Winsor took us to the New Territories and the Ecclessia Bible College where we met the current President of the college and some of the administration. A very fine facility with about 200 students enrolled. The really fun part was going to the 700 student high school. We were invited into one class where students were doing a photo project for Chinese history. They had period costumes and we're dressing up and getting photographed. Of course, the teacher and students in the class wanted us to dress up too. We played along and had a lot of laughs. Even Matthew got brave enough to dress up for a picture or two.
Then there was rounds of some of the classes where students were quite excited to meet Matthew. One of the Chinese students, also named Matthew, was quite pleased with his own name after he met Matthew. The other students cheered for him. I guess Matthew has become quite popular...a lot of twittering behind his back and shy smiles.
Because Gary had a previous appointment, we tended for ourselves for lunch and decided to go to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. We had Dim Sum from a Chinese menu aided by a waitress they called in to communicate in English. She explained it all in Chinese which wasn't a great help, but we found some pictures that helped. The food came in steaming bamboo baskets and we both found it to be delicious.
After lunch we were joined by Korrin who has been based in Hong Kong for a few years. She was married 10 months ago, and unfortunately Adam was working and couldn't join us. She took us to "festival walk", a very large multi-level high end shopping mall, before going to work teaching English. We had coffee and visited and said our good-byes. What a jewel!
From the mall, Matthew and I once again challenged the MTR and found our way through downtown Hong Kong onto the bus heading for Victoria Peak overlooking the city. The return trip on the MTR was through a sea of humanity, literally. The trains were full to capacity and there is no personal space. Again you meet some wonderful people at close range, this time a young financial planner working for AIA.
Another day done, early to bed, early to rise at 5 a.m.
Then there was rounds of some of the classes where students were quite excited to meet Matthew. One of the Chinese students, also named Matthew, was quite pleased with his own name after he met Matthew. The other students cheered for him. I guess Matthew has become quite popular...a lot of twittering behind his back and shy smiles.
Because Gary had a previous appointment, we tended for ourselves for lunch and decided to go to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. We had Dim Sum from a Chinese menu aided by a waitress they called in to communicate in English. She explained it all in Chinese which wasn't a great help, but we found some pictures that helped. The food came in steaming bamboo baskets and we both found it to be delicious.
After lunch we were joined by Korrin who has been based in Hong Kong for a few years. She was married 10 months ago, and unfortunately Adam was working and couldn't join us. She took us to "festival walk", a very large multi-level high end shopping mall, before going to work teaching English. We had coffee and visited and said our good-byes. What a jewel!
From the mall, Matthew and I once again challenged the MTR and found our way through downtown Hong Kong onto the bus heading for Victoria Peak overlooking the city. The return trip on the MTR was through a sea of humanity, literally. The trains were full to capacity and there is no personal space. Again you meet some wonderful people at close range, this time a young financial planner working for AIA.
Another day done, early to bed, early to rise at 5 a.m.
Wednesday 16 May 2012
Wed May 16
I need to get this on the right date cause it's a bit confusing. We are 15 hours ahead over here so our morning is evening in B.C. Now where do I begin. First thing in the morning we just started of on a hunt for breakfast. Well, we came across a market with fresh fruit and vegetables and then to the meat and fish market in the back. It didn't do anything for the appetite and Matthew didn't feel hungry after that. We found a fresh bread bakery and got some cheese buns. Mmmm, they were good.
After finding directions to the MTR (Mass Transit Railway), we headed out to the very end of the road past the airport to Tsuen Wan. Tried to get the cable car to the mountain top, but a "severe" lightning storm had suspended the service. Took the bus up and ended up at the Big Buhdda monastery...it's a big monastery and the Buddha is big enough to go inside and look at 3 floors of displays, shops and artifacts. We toured through the monastery and the grounds, watching as people bought and burned incense sticks and prayed to created images. (Looked like a great fund-raising idea to me.) They are very sincere, but so sad that they leave still carrying big burdens. Interesting signs in the picnic area, "No alcohol, Vegetarian only". We had a plate of noodles for lunch, no chicken chow mein here! Well, the weather improved and the cable car was operating again, so we took the spectacular ride down to the train station, about a 30 minute ride, often hiding us in the fog and mist.
The sun was peeking out and the weather getting much nicer after the storm, so we travelled to the next station, switched trains to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort where we spent 6 interesting hours. First ride - flying saucers. Second ride - Space Mountain, but a quick run with Matthew back to Saucer #8 where we had forgotten our back-pack and, thankfully, retrieved it. Space Mountain was a hair-raising ride on a roller coaster in the dark with Matthew laughing like a fool all the way, and me trying to hold my stomach contents from erupting into outer space. That was the last ride for me for the day. Matthew went one more time before we left. We took in the "Festival of the Lion King", a live musical tribute with awesome acting, aerial acrobatics and pyrotechnics. Worth every penny. We watched the massive Disneyland parade, did a Jungle River Cruise dotted with animated elephants, hippos, rhinos, zebras, crocodiles, cannibal island, etc. A lot of fun. Oh, and a raft trip to the island with Tarzan's Tree House as the feature. As we were leaving by the entrance fountain, we met an Indonesian family, struck up a conversation with them, took some family pictures for them and then they just had to include us in the photo session. A very, warm friendly interchange and they were so happy when we blessed them before parting company.
Back to the train station and off on the MTR for downtown Hong Kong before the 8 pm "Festival of Lights", a nightly performance best seen from Victoria Harbor involving about 30 businesses whose towers were lit up around the harbor and with lazer lights and buildings fitted with colorful lights all flashing in sequence to highlight the musical accompaniment. It was absolutely stunning, the coordination and planning that was put into the performance between all the various buildings.
Back on the MTR heading to the station where we began our day, only things look so much different at night than they do in the morning. Our landmarks were not lit up, they were banners in front of businesses that couldn't be seen in the dark. A short stop in at the police station where we found the most friendly and helpful officers to give us directions. Still haven't seen the inside of a cell! Eventually, had to call our host and get directions over the phone while he tracked us on Google maps. "Home" at last before 11 p.m. and hit the bedroll, a very tired couple of boys.
After finding directions to the MTR (Mass Transit Railway), we headed out to the very end of the road past the airport to Tsuen Wan. Tried to get the cable car to the mountain top, but a "severe" lightning storm had suspended the service. Took the bus up and ended up at the Big Buhdda monastery...it's a big monastery and the Buddha is big enough to go inside and look at 3 floors of displays, shops and artifacts. We toured through the monastery and the grounds, watching as people bought and burned incense sticks and prayed to created images. (Looked like a great fund-raising idea to me.) They are very sincere, but so sad that they leave still carrying big burdens. Interesting signs in the picnic area, "No alcohol, Vegetarian only". We had a plate of noodles for lunch, no chicken chow mein here! Well, the weather improved and the cable car was operating again, so we took the spectacular ride down to the train station, about a 30 minute ride, often hiding us in the fog and mist.
The sun was peeking out and the weather getting much nicer after the storm, so we travelled to the next station, switched trains to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort where we spent 6 interesting hours. First ride - flying saucers. Second ride - Space Mountain, but a quick run with Matthew back to Saucer #8 where we had forgotten our back-pack and, thankfully, retrieved it. Space Mountain was a hair-raising ride on a roller coaster in the dark with Matthew laughing like a fool all the way, and me trying to hold my stomach contents from erupting into outer space. That was the last ride for me for the day. Matthew went one more time before we left. We took in the "Festival of the Lion King", a live musical tribute with awesome acting, aerial acrobatics and pyrotechnics. Worth every penny. We watched the massive Disneyland parade, did a Jungle River Cruise dotted with animated elephants, hippos, rhinos, zebras, crocodiles, cannibal island, etc. A lot of fun. Oh, and a raft trip to the island with Tarzan's Tree House as the feature. As we were leaving by the entrance fountain, we met an Indonesian family, struck up a conversation with them, took some family pictures for them and then they just had to include us in the photo session. A very, warm friendly interchange and they were so happy when we blessed them before parting company.
Back to the train station and off on the MTR for downtown Hong Kong before the 8 pm "Festival of Lights", a nightly performance best seen from Victoria Harbor involving about 30 businesses whose towers were lit up around the harbor and with lazer lights and buildings fitted with colorful lights all flashing in sequence to highlight the musical accompaniment. It was absolutely stunning, the coordination and planning that was put into the performance between all the various buildings.
Back on the MTR heading to the station where we began our day, only things look so much different at night than they do in the morning. Our landmarks were not lit up, they were banners in front of businesses that couldn't be seen in the dark. A short stop in at the police station where we found the most friendly and helpful officers to give us directions. Still haven't seen the inside of a cell! Eventually, had to call our host and get directions over the phone while he tracked us on Google maps. "Home" at last before 11 p.m. and hit the bedroll, a very tired couple of boys.
Monday May 14
Languishing in Vancouver Airport waiting for our boarding call to come over the intercom. We have had to find things to do for 4 hours! Almost successful in getting Matthew to take his sandals off and wade in the pond for some coin. Although there were no signs to the contrary, Matthew was sure it was not legal, so I had him take a picture of me in the gigantic fish tank. Got to dry off before the flight, though,. 13 hours in wet clothes wouldn't be fun. (haha - hope I didn't catch you on that one.) Posing in front of the fish tank created a stir with bystanders. Matthew didn't want me to take my shirt off for the pose to make it more realistic, so I let him win on that count.
While sitting in the waiting area for our flight, we met a lady going to Guang Zhou where her parents live. She kindly offered to show us around when we get there, but she returns to Canada the day before we arrive. There were a few more interesting visits along the way, prompting questions as to why I knew so many people.,.right from Kamloops airport where I bumped into 2 Logan Lakers to Vancouver and beyond.
The flight was uneventful and 45 minutes late, putting us in Hong Kong around the time of another crowd of passengers and making our luggage quite late at the carousel. However, luggage arrived intact and once we got a SIM card for the cellphone, we made quick contact with our ride and got to the room before midnight...up 5 floors and no elevator. Now that just about did me in.
It was real good to sleep horizontally.
While sitting in the waiting area for our flight, we met a lady going to Guang Zhou where her parents live. She kindly offered to show us around when we get there, but she returns to Canada the day before we arrive. There were a few more interesting visits along the way, prompting questions as to why I knew so many people.,.right from Kamloops airport where I bumped into 2 Logan Lakers to Vancouver and beyond.
The flight was uneventful and 45 minutes late, putting us in Hong Kong around the time of another crowd of passengers and making our luggage quite late at the carousel. However, luggage arrived intact and once we got a SIM card for the cellphone, we made quick contact with our ride and got to the room before midnight...up 5 floors and no elevator. Now that just about did me in.
It was real good to sleep horizontally.
Sunday 13 May 2012
The "Grand" Adventure to China (Grandpa & Grandson)
Missionaries should never share their stories, their pictures and their experiences with children present in the audience. It has a lasting impact. For me, it was the film recounting the lives of 5 men who lost their lives to primitive tribes in Ecuador. I was very young, probably less than 10 years old, but "Wow!", what an impact. Those 5 young men were martyred in January, 1956. News travelled around the globe and soon there was a book, then a film produced that has since impacted many lives for the kingdom of God. The most recent film of the events is now recorded in "End of the Spear".
I think I was in Grade 5 or 6, when a friend and began planning our first missions trip to Papua, New Guinea. We spent time in our little Gideon New Testaments, memorizing Scripture in case our Bibles were confiscated. So sure that we were destined to become missionaries that we spent hours designing our own helicopter, which when the plans were done, including a VW engine for a motor, looked like a flying outhouse. With a dire lack of engineering and aeronautical training, the contraption would never have left the ground, however, the seed had been firmly planted.
Since those early years, I've been priveleged to mingle with people of many nations. Now that I'm a grandfather, it is my desire to see each of my grandchildren experience "another world", and travel with them to share life and experience different cultures.
Dreams do come true. I did get to Papua in Indonesia with my oldest grandson who was 14. What a trip! But I'll have to tell that story later. Prior to his trip, my wife, Diane, and I took our oldest granddaughter, Jordyn, to Colima, Mexico and the Hogar de Amor orphanage. Of course, she had to prepare a presentation for her class at school about her experience, so others got to make the journey vicariously through her.
Now, on May 14th, I'm on my way with my second grandson to China. We leave Logan Lake at 6 a.m. for Kamloops to catch a flight to Vancouver and connect with a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong. We are in the final throes of packing, trying to travel as light as possible. We have one big suitcase packed with gifts for friends and 5 small quilts for the Bethel Blind Orphanage in Beijing. We will try to post as often as possible if you want to come along for the trip. Pray for us, we'll sure need it!
I think I was in Grade 5 or 6, when a friend and began planning our first missions trip to Papua, New Guinea. We spent time in our little Gideon New Testaments, memorizing Scripture in case our Bibles were confiscated. So sure that we were destined to become missionaries that we spent hours designing our own helicopter, which when the plans were done, including a VW engine for a motor, looked like a flying outhouse. With a dire lack of engineering and aeronautical training, the contraption would never have left the ground, however, the seed had been firmly planted.
Since those early years, I've been priveleged to mingle with people of many nations. Now that I'm a grandfather, it is my desire to see each of my grandchildren experience "another world", and travel with them to share life and experience different cultures.
Dreams do come true. I did get to Papua in Indonesia with my oldest grandson who was 14. What a trip! But I'll have to tell that story later. Prior to his trip, my wife, Diane, and I took our oldest granddaughter, Jordyn, to Colima, Mexico and the Hogar de Amor orphanage. Of course, she had to prepare a presentation for her class at school about her experience, so others got to make the journey vicariously through her.
Now, on May 14th, I'm on my way with my second grandson to China. We leave Logan Lake at 6 a.m. for Kamloops to catch a flight to Vancouver and connect with a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong. We are in the final throes of packing, trying to travel as light as possible. We have one big suitcase packed with gifts for friends and 5 small quilts for the Bethel Blind Orphanage in Beijing. We will try to post as often as possible if you want to come along for the trip. Pray for us, we'll sure need it!
Saturday 18 February 2012
Five minutes on Sky Train
I enjoy riding on Sky Train. Usually people stay inside their bubble with their thoughts, their cell phones or their laptops. Conversation is often quite limited. So I take the opportunity to engage people in conversation. One day I sat down beside a young Asian man. He coughed, so I asked him if he was OK.
"Yes, I'm just run down. I've been too busy. I need to slow down."
"What have you been doing?", I asked.
"I go to college and then I volunteer a lot."
"Volunteer? Where do you volunteer?", I asked.
"I volunteer at two churches!", he exuberantly replied.
"So, you are a Christian then?" I queried.
"Yes", he replied.
"Wonderful! My name is Harry. I am a Christian, too. And so is my friend here, sitting beside me."
"My name is Wen. I am from Singapore."
I didn't see any need to ask him what churches he volunteered at. It was enough that he was a Christian. He made an observation that Christians in North America seldom come right out and declare that they are Christians, and that they seem to hide their faith. I informed him that there are probably quite a few Chrtistians that he is not aware of because he hasn't asked. Wrong challenge. He immediately turned to the couple sitting across the aisle from us, they were both in their late fifties I would estimate.
Wen pointed at the man and asked, "Are you a Christian?" The man nodded and said, "Yes." Then Wen pointed at the woman and repeated the question, to which he received the same reply. Well! That was almost too much for him. There was lot of laughter and surprise that here on Sky Train were 5 Christians, sitting together, and we wouldn't even have known it, unless we had started the conversation.
Sometimes it is a good thing just to start the conversation with someone instead of focusing on our own little world that starts with "i" - iphone, ipod, ipad, "i don't care".
Sometimes just taking an interest and asking a question lets a person know you care. Try it. LIfe will be full of surprises!
"Yes, I'm just run down. I've been too busy. I need to slow down."
"What have you been doing?", I asked.
"I go to college and then I volunteer a lot."
"Volunteer? Where do you volunteer?", I asked.
"I volunteer at two churches!", he exuberantly replied.
"So, you are a Christian then?" I queried.
"Yes", he replied.
"Wonderful! My name is Harry. I am a Christian, too. And so is my friend here, sitting beside me."
"My name is Wen. I am from Singapore."
I didn't see any need to ask him what churches he volunteered at. It was enough that he was a Christian. He made an observation that Christians in North America seldom come right out and declare that they are Christians, and that they seem to hide their faith. I informed him that there are probably quite a few Chrtistians that he is not aware of because he hasn't asked. Wrong challenge. He immediately turned to the couple sitting across the aisle from us, they were both in their late fifties I would estimate.
Wen pointed at the man and asked, "Are you a Christian?" The man nodded and said, "Yes." Then Wen pointed at the woman and repeated the question, to which he received the same reply. Well! That was almost too much for him. There was lot of laughter and surprise that here on Sky Train were 5 Christians, sitting together, and we wouldn't even have known it, unless we had started the conversation.
Sometimes it is a good thing just to start the conversation with someone instead of focusing on our own little world that starts with "i" - iphone, ipod, ipad, "i don't care".
Sometimes just taking an interest and asking a question lets a person know you care. Try it. LIfe will be full of surprises!
Friday 3 February 2012
Well, this is new for me...blogging. I got a one hour introduction looking over my wife's shoulder as a friend of hers walked her through the maze of setting up a blog. Now it is a learning curve. Nothing is easy when you begin, but taking the first step is the first hurdle. Then practice and more practice until you finally know what you are doing. I think I will enjoy this.
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