Day 5 (Part 2) May 12th: Xi'an

It was amazing to think we'd be flying again to a different part of China.  I had to remind myself that it IS a big country.

Here's Charlie giving us our day's instructions and telling us to be sure to use the bathrooms when we can.  We really appreciated his efforts toward having a bathroom almost every two hours or less.  At this point I was getting used to the squat toilet and felt they were a bit more sanitary unless the flush is too strong and your shoes are not safely out of the way.  Another thing:  You're NOT supposed to throw your toilet tissues into the toilet, but into that little trash can.  That was gross and rather smelly.

That's me at the airport for the flight to Xian which took about two hours.

The Shangri-la Hotel may not have been quite as fancy as the Westin but still wonderful.  And yes, Art did our laundry before we boarded a giant bus again.

Xian was the ancient capital of China and has the oldest and best preserved city wall.  Xian has a 3,100 year history.

From Wikipedia:

The fortifications of Xi'an (Chinese: 西安城墙)is an ancient capital of China, represent one of the oldest and best preserved Chinese City Walls. Construction of the first city wall of Chang'an began in 194 BCE and lasted for four years. That wall measured 25.7 kilometres (16.0 mi) in length, 12–16 metres (39–52 ft) in thickness at the base. The area within the wall was c. 36 square kilometres (14 sq mi). The existing wall was started by the Ming Dynasty in 1370. It encircles a much smaller city of 14 square kilometres (5.4 sq mi). The wall measures 13.7 kilometres (8.5 mi) in circumference, 12 metres (39 ft) in height, and 15–18 metres (49–59 ft) in thickness at the base.

It was explained to us that Xian is the root of  the Chinese tree.  Beijing is the trunk and Shanghai is the branches.

We met our city guide, Catherine who explained that Xian is known for its friendly people.

Catherine also told us:

China is divided into three parts:
North:  People are closer to Russia and Mongolia and therefore tend to be taller.

Middle:  (Xian) Mid range height, square faced, baby faced women, Mandarin is spoken

South: People are shorter. 

Xian is pronounced Shee-yan and is the heart of China and the cradle of Chinese civilization.  Beijing is the throat.  Shanghai is the stomach.

Catherine and her friends all love Starbucks and it is the prime young people hang-out.

 Dinner was at the Tang Palace where we would be served 18 dumplings.   Charlie warned us to eat only the fillings or we wouldn't be able to finish all 18.

Well... the dumplings weren't all that big and often in the shape of the filling, but we listened to Charlie and removed most of the outer shell.

The dancing was lovely, but we were so tired.

Charlie was worried that we were looking rather tired and could get sick.  He'd bought some herbs at the pharmacy so he asked us all to drink it.

We did.

You know what?  Art and I were healthy for the entire trip.

And nobody caught what Charlie referred to as "Chicken Flu."

Tomorrow:  Terra cotta soldiers!

Day 5 (Part 1): May 12 Tongrentang Pharmacy

4:00  Wake up and pack
6:00  Breakfast
7:30  Sadly leave the luxurious Beijing Westin Hotel

Charlie took us to a famous traditional Chinese "Pharmacy".

He explained how the pharmacy has a 3,000 year history and used to be only for the emperor and his family.

Some things we were told:

"Food and herbs are edible and retained by the body while Western medicines are excreted.

There are very few old people in China using wheelchairs and walkers unlike in the West."

Once in the pharmacy we were told that in the West doctors ask us what is wrong and then provide the pills to cure it.  In China the doctors check our wrist, look at us and tell us what is wrong.

We were dubious, but decided to try it.  This doctor checked our pulse, looked at our tongues and then asked, "Do you have pain in your back?  Does your knees hurt?  Can you hear well?"

I told her everything was fine and I could hear well.  She never caught the fact that I don't have my thyroids, that I have high cholesterol, am pre-diabetic or that my shoulder has been bothering me.  She prescribed herbs for my kidney and liver which cost about $130.00 a piece for a 2-3 month supply.  She also said I was tired and that my eyes were red.  Unh hunh...

As for Art, he just needed to get the kidney herbs to maintain his good health.  We didn't tell her about his GERD problem.  And we didn't buy the herbs.

I'm sure many of the herbs are very beneficial.  We just weren't sold on the diagnosing.

And then we were on our way to the airport to fly to Xian.

Day 4: May 11th The Great Wall

By 6:20 we were all downstairs having the elaborate Westin breakfast. (There was even ice cream!)

We were all frustrated to find that connecting by wifi using our iPads was not so easy.  The concierge taught us to use the Chinese search engine, baidu.com.  It made things easier if not perfect.  Connection was still very spotty and could usually only be accomplished in the lobby.

We then boarded the bus at 8:00. Someone had asked if we could see the Olympic Bird's Nest so Charlie arranged things with the bus driver so we'd be able to stop by to see it.

This is the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest.  Charlie says the Bird's Nest is too expensive to use so it's now just a tourist attraction.

While we were standing there a fellow came up with this long string kite and we were all captivated. He was selling them for just a dollar a kite.  We didn't bring small American bills because we were told we should just bring large bills to exchange into yuan.  Luckily there were others in our group who did bring smaller denominations of American money so we managed to buy a couple for our granddaughter and our son.

Next stop was the government Jade factory. Charlie said this was the safest place to buy jade.

We were instructed that there were three qualities of jade.

Top:  Jadite

Mid range: Jade

Lowest quality: Jade Stone

80% of jade is from China and is their symbol.

You can tell real jade from plastic by its translucence, heavier weight and cool temperature.  I should also mention the most important thing... PRICE!  It was a LOT more expensive than we bargained for. Even with the Mother's Day special price, it was costly!  Jade bangles (bracelets) are especially prized by Chinese women.

Lunch was Beijing cuisine and Charlie was getting to know our tastes and ordering accordingly.  A wedding was taking place at the restaurant. The bride was beautiful and groom handsome in Western wedding outfits.

Back on the bus for a 45 minute ride to the Great Wall.

Our tour group opted to just climb up to the first tower where crowds of international and Chinese tourists stood (and often pushed) shoulder to shoulder. Art went off on his own to climb up to where most tourists did not go.

I asked Charlie about those locks we saw along the way.  He said couples put them up to lock their love for eternity.  You can see how the stone steps have been indented from the millions of people who have walked on them while holding on to the sides.

There you have it!  Proof that Art climbed up to where very few people attempted to venture. Charlie said there were 1,300 steps. I don't know how many Art climbed up.

He did get a great photo for me though.

Charlie told us that 5,000 laborers died in the 13 years it took to build the wall.

Next stop was a government Bung Fu Chun Pearl Factory store.  The freshwater pearls here are from Lake Kunming where we'd gone the day before.  They showed us how they produce their cultured pearls.  I couldn't understand why their pearls were so expensive when freshwater pearls in the U.S. are much more reasonable.

Charlie said he used to come to this restaurant often and that he asked his cousin to get this group to perform the Gangnam style dance for us.  Charlie had cousins all over China ready to help us.

Our Mongolian dinner was wonderful and our tour group of 15 along with our Uncle Charlie had knitted into a close traveling family.  Maybe it's because we were such a small group, but we got to really care about each other very quickly.

Tomorrow:  Catch a flight to Xian!

Traveling With an iPad

When we were preparing to leave for Los Angeles, we debated whether or not we should take our laptop.  We've NEVER traveled without our laptop.  I have all my recipes on our laptop and I would check and write blog posts with it.  Basically, almost whatever I do on my desktop, I could do with the laptop.  We figured this trip to L.A. would be a good testing ground.  If anything failed we could always use my brother-in-law's computer.

Art and his sister, Kay

All in all, the iPad worked out fine.  The best part was the fact that everything that's gone on within the last four years is on my blog.  Art could pull up posts that illustrated to his sister what he was talking about with the tap of a finger.

Our son, Jon had taught me how to install the Google Drive app so I was able to upload all my recipes onto the Google cloud that rains down on my iPad and iPhone.  Photos on my Photostream were a fingertip away.

I discovered that I didn't have to bring my Kindle after all because once I installed the Kindle app on the iPad, there were ALL my books.  Incredible!

The downside is that I found it was difficult to try to post on my blog with the iPad.  I'm also not able to upload photos from my other cameras onto the iPad.  I still need to find some wire thing to do that.   We also need to learn how to print using the iPad. Art says he'll have to look for an app.

There's still a lot to learn, but for short trips, we'll definitely stick to the iPad and leave the laptop at home.  For longer stays in Illinois I believe we'll bring the laptop.

Oh and another thing, you don't have to take out the iPad when you go through the security lines at the airport.  That was great!

By the way, are any of you experiencing problems with people trying to comment on your blog?  A friend of mine just said she was having a terrible time with the editing (preview) and posting of her comments on my blog.  I'm wondering if I need to do a comment settings fix.

Sigh... if it's not one thing, it's another.

Return to Hawaii

Too soon... it was time to leave.

I knew it would be difficult for KC when we had to leave, but it was Tiffany's tears that made my heart ache.

It seemed like only a week ago that we had arrived, but almost a month had sped by.

We were sure that we hadn't signed up for Economy Plus, but that's where our seats were and the leg room was truly ample! 

Instead of buying food at one of the airport kiosks we opted to just buy a meal onboard the plane.

We were very pleasantly surprised to find that it was quite good.

The flight this time was just short of 9 long hours, but finally... there was Oahu!  We thought it was raining because of the cloudy haze.  Unfortunately, it was stifling vog from the volcano.

Mom was happy to see us.  She had made Art's favorite nishime for dinner and there was a watermelon cooling in the refrigerator.

The following day we went to the market to get another watermelon that happened to be on sale.

Redbox had The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel available.  Yahoo!  Finally!

As we were waiting at the checkout, I was talking to KC on the cellphone.  I felt badly thinking I might be disturbing others in line. 

A smiling lady behind us had folded these two origami cranes.  Perhaps she had heard my conversation with KC.  Perhaps she just wanted to do something nice.  She offered the cranes to me and said, "This is for your safe travels."

I'd been feeling sad about leaving our old home in Illinois.

But I'm also feeling happy to be back home in Hawaii.

Travel Boo Boos

When I think of great, grand, bone head type mistakes I've made while traveling, this heads the list.

Page 1 of our Egypt-Jordan 2007 photo journal

We'd just gotten off the 12 hour flight from Chicago to Amman, Jordan on a stop-over en route to Cairo, Egypt.

I needed to use the bathroom so I left Art with my things and went to search for the facilities.

Well... blame it on the 12 hour flight.  Blame it on the cylinders in my brain not firing properly.

Sigh...

I passed by a closed door because I (for some reason) thought it was a family room for parents with children.

The other washroom door was wide open and nobody was there.  I guess I must not have looked at the Men-Women symbols carefully or whatever.  I went into the stall and sat down.

Uh oh...

Somebody came in and that person had a deep voice.  More deep voices speaking Arabic.  What to do?  What to do?  I sat there thinking about the lower status of women.  I started thinking of the International incident I could be causing for daring to invade the MEN'S bathroom.  Would they maybe leave so I could come out without anybody knowing?

No such luck!

I realized that I would need to leave before Art got worried and started looking for me.

I opened the door, dropped my head and ran out saying, "I'm sorry.  I'm sorry.  I'm sorry" while a torrent of shocked Arabic exclamations followed me out to the hall.  I scooted into the Women's bathroom and was completely floored by the difference in atmosphere.  The Men's bathroom was austere and rather smoke free.  I think.  (I don't remember clearly.)  The Women's bathroom was packed and cloudy with cigarette smoke.  Women were in various stages of dishabille, relaxing with cigarettes and chatting happily.  Many had removed their abayas and were enjoying the freedom.  I could barely get to the sink to wash my hands.  Nobody seemed to pay any attention to me.

Back at the terminal gate, I met Aya who was returning to Egypt after getting her PhD. in the states and Mari from Peru.  It was the BEST fun!  Aya loved telling me about her beautiful country and offering lots of helpful advice.  Mari was meeting her tour group in Cairo and we compared what each of our tours were covering.  My heartbeats returned to normal.

After that bathroom incident, I felt that the worst part of the trip was behind me.  Little did I know about the camel ride that awaited...

POSTSCRIPT:  Many of you kindly asked about that camel ride.  I've added links to that post.