Beijing China Trip 1

AJ and I were able to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip to China in July of 2005. It was a two-part trip which included 4 days in Beijing, 5 days on a cruise down the Yangtze River and then back to Beijing for one day before we flew back to Korea. We were touring everyday and I took 1,000s of pictures and over 21 hours of video so there is no way that I can detail the trip into just one blog so I will have to create several. I was not so thrilled about going to Communist China but was thrilled that we were going to get to experience first hand some of the history of a land that has fascinated me since childhood. AJ just knew that she was off on another adventure.

We arrived in Beijing on 1 July 2005. A travel agent was supposed to meet us at the airport. After passing through Customs we exited into the airport and was instead greeted by a huge crowd of people that was composed mostly of young women. At first I thought, "see it's true...I'm not a Rock Star but I look like one in real life". There was a brief few seconds though when they reacted as if we were who they came to see but the screaming quickly died down when they saw that we weren't. They were yelling, screaming and waving posters in Chinese. I thought that communist did not like Western Style hedonistic music. We later found out that the crowd of young ladies were waiting on the famous Korean male singer that goes by the name of "Rain". He was evidently on the same flight that we were on and was in town for a series of concerts. He has even had several concerts in the states. I guess going to see a Korean singer that you can't understand is no different than going to listen to a Rap singer that you can't understand. Anyway, back to finding our travel person. Out of all the agents standing there not one of them was holding a sign that said "H & AJ". After fighting our way back and forth several times through the throngs of young women we finally found our agent that had gotten stuck in traffic and was late.

Enter our travel agent, Ms. Melinda, (not her real name) obviously. She was short had black hair and spoke Chinese. She loaded us up into their very small car and we headed off to the hotel. We barely got all of our luggage into the car. We had to stack what would not fit in the trunk into the back seat and AJ and I sat around it. The first thing that we noticed when we got outside was the heat. Man...it was hottern'a Chinese firecracker. The temperature was over 100 degrees and the humidity seemed higher than that. I knew then that I had not brought enough underarm deodorant. Melinda talked a lot about what we were going to do over the next 4 days and pointed out some landmarks on the way to the Hotel New Otani Chang Fu Gong which is were we were staying. Melinda spoke very good english but with a heavy accent. I could tell that AJ could not understand most of what she was saying but she nodded her head and smiled even when she was being asked a question. Melinda was enthusiastic though and seemed to know her history well. They dropped us off and we made arrangements to meet them the next morning at 0900.

We had not even got checked in and AJ was asking the question that she always does "Can we go swimming". We found out that the hotel pool was being renovated. They always seem to forget to tell you little details like that when you make reservations. They had made accommodations with an adjacent hotel which was however, not very accommodating to us. We throwed our stuff in the room, changed clothes and immediately set out walking to the other hotel to go swimming in their pool. We ended up staying about 3 hours but with AJ no length of time in a pool is ever enough.

The next day we went to to Tianenmen Square which most remember as the location where the student uprising occurred in 1989 and was squashed by the Chinese government in a bloody clash of which the true details have never been divulged by their government. Never the less this square was really big. Here AJ is with Melinda. Like I
said before it was brutally hot and the sun was shining hotter than Wok oil. The building behind us had something to do with the Chinese communist Party. Here is AJ and I with the entrance to the Forbidden City directly behind us.







The wind was blowing a lot which cooled us down a bit but did nothing for my hair-do. Per Melinda's wish I let AJ wear my hat to help defend her against the hot rays of the sun. I told her that AJ would not wear it for long. AJ just does not like to wear a hat. There was a huge line to a big marble looking building and I asked where they were going and she said that it was the line to go through Chairman Mau's tomb. That is Mao Tse Tung to those of you that don't know. It's the big building in the background. She asked me if I wanted to go see him and I politely said no. What I wanted to say was I really don't care to see the remains of a person that was responsible for the death of tens of millions of innocent people and who caused the destruction of a great number of priceless historical treasures of China. On the other hand...I was surprised that the people were so friendly to us. They always had questions about America and our guide was no different. She never once though said anything bad about her government or it's policies. Probably out of fear. We moved across the expansive square towards the entrance to the Forbidden City and she proceeded to tell us about a lot of the history of the Chinese people. She was very knowlegeable and I had read up on China and watched enough of the Discovery and History Channels to surprise her several times with what I knew about her country. This seemed to surprise her and it obviously made her proud.

Here is a shot of them just inside the Forbidden City. As I predicted AJ gave me back my hat after talking me into buying her an umbrella. I wondered out loud how long it would be before I was totin' that umbrella. Everyone knows about the old saying that "everything is big in Texas" which is true but everything in China is huge . Every building was immense in every sense of the word.













This is the Meridian Gate as viewed from inside the Forbidden City. Built in 1420, it is 37.95 meters high and is the actual main gate of the Forbidden City.

Behind the Meridian Gate, there are five bridges with the courtyard beyond. Further north in the center is Taihemen or the Gate of Supreme Harmony. I'm not sure if these are accurate translations but you can tell that these Emporers were really full of themselves. The river (really a creek) running under the bridges is called the Inner Golden River and the bridges are called the Inner Golden River Bridges...duh! Who'da thunk it. The central bridge was reserved for emperors exclusively. This is the one
that AJ is standing on here. I think it's one of her best pics. I wonder if AJ knows how Princessly she actually looks. I also wondered what would happen if the emperor got tangled up in his smock while crossing the bridge and tripped then fell and broke his leg. Would he let somebody come on the bridge and get him. He probably would but would have to execute them later for stepping on the emperors bridge. There are two bridges flanking each side which were reserved for royal family members while the two outside were for ordinary officials. I guess everyone else had to jump. The bridges have intricately carved marble balustrades with dragon and phoenix motifs. The river also served as a fire break. To think that less than a 100 years ago we could never have come to this place and if we could have somehow possibly made it this far we would have been summarily executed.

The stones that make up the palace courtyard were laid out in an amazingly defensive way...one layer lengthwise and one layer laid crosswise on top of it until there was a total of fifteen layers to protect against assassins from digging tunnels into the palace. And the bricks were specially made to sound nice when walking on, whatever that means. Taihemen, north of the square, is the main gate of the Outer Court and is guarded by a couple of gilded bronze lions which were designed to show imperial dignity. The east one is male, with its front right paw put on a ball, meaning imperial power extended worldwide. The lioness on the west, which is the one that we are standing next to here, puts its front left paw on a lion cub, indicating a prosperous family. We are trying to imitate the lions stance. I guess you could say that we are life imitating art...that's a joke if you didn't notice. I know that's pretty corny but so what. Notice that the gilding has been scraped off which was done by some invading army but from what country escapes my memory. I can't help but think that a woman made these statues. Look at the mane. It looks like someone has put it in curlers. I remember as a kid that my Mother used to look like that about haflway through her beauty shop visits. The curlers went on right before they stuck her under one of those hinged hooded industrial hair dryers that sounded like a jet engine. When she left she could barely get in the car without messing her hair up by scraping it on the inside roof. How they made it so tall I'll never know.


We moved our way around the City and took lots of pictures. This is over the moat that encircles part of the walled compound. There was really so much that we saw it's difficult to talk about all of it and try to keep readers' attention. You really had to be there just to experience the immenseness of the place.

Of course no ancient historical place would be complete without a Starbucks. Right smack in the middle of The Forbidden City is an American Coffee Shop where you have to stand in line to get your coffee, they charge $3.50 for a cup for which there is no such thing as a refill and the workers still expect a tip. AJ and I split an iced coffee which was a mistake on my part. After we worked our way out of the major crowd then AJ spent the next thirty minutes turning cartwheels as we worked our way out of the complex.

We went into a nice garden that was not really a garden in the sense where they grew anything to eat. It was just a place for the royalty to go relax. Looked to me like that is all they did. They sure did everything up right though. Every single area had to have buildings for the folks to set or lay around...it was surreal. How many buildings does an Emperor need?



This alley which went for a long way was supposedly the only part of the Forbidden City that was filmed for the movie The Last Emperor. I am not sure why as the entire place looked like an elaborate movie set.

It seems as if we have walked 10 miles and we are only going to eat lunch. This could be a long day.

Recent Bangkok Trip

This is my first blog so please bear with me as I try to learn to be interesting and not boring, to be informative and but not rattle on and to be upbeat but not nerdy. I only used initials but if you are looking at this you probably know who we are.

We were able to treat Mother to a trip to the Land of Smiles. Thailand is one of mine and AJ's favorite places to visit. The people are nice and there is always so much to see and do. To tell you the truth I would not mind living there...The weather is always warm (sometimes to warm) but it is not cold and that is good in my book. Lots of exiting adventures around every turn and you can't swing a cat anywhere in the country and not hit some of the most delicious food in the world.

Anywho, I think Mother was surprised (I know that I was) that she could still be so adventurous at her age. I do not mean that in a negative way either. My method of sightseeing is often tantamount to picking a place to go and then head in that general direction in anyway that seems easiest, cheapest or most adventourous at the time. At first she was a little uncomfortable about this method but later was able to see that not taking the tour guide every time allows one to see more of the sites and not just the ones that are shown to you.

Here we are in the SkyTrain. It's similar to a subway except its above ground. Well, its actually way above ground as its elevated above the streets as well. Lot's cheaper than a Taxi and much faster. It can get you pretty close to everything in Bangkok. Not real sure where we were going or coming from in this picture but it's not really important. We pretty much took the SkyTrain every time that we could.

Here is another shot of Mother and Ashley on a walkover on Sukhimvit road in Bangkok. Ashley does not look very happy because she just twisted her ankle after she fell off of her platform soled sandal's. I hate those things. If any part of a person attire should be functional it should be their shoes. Pretty is good but if you are prone to fall off of them then what good are they. Women and shoes...I'll never figure it out. The elevated structure behind them and to the left is the SkyTrain track. This was our first day and as you can see Mother looks a little concerned but if you had only been to an overseas Asian country twice in your whole life then you might be a little apprehensive as well. She loosened up later and was a lot more comfortable. I really cannot say enough of how well she did on the trip. I really think that she enjoyed herself and I know that we enjoyed her company.

Another mode of transportation that I liked but was not immediately appreciated by my two travel partners was the commuter river boat. We took the SkyTrain to the Oriental Hotel and and then walked down to the wharf. Before we even got down there we were met by a street hawker trying to sign us up for a tour boat ride. We fended him off and when we got to the wharf we were met by another guy trying to sell us an $80 dollar 1 1/2 hour boat ride. I asked him about the Express Boats and he acted like he didn't know anything about them. Anyway we jumped on the Express River Boat and it cost us about 25 cents each and we could get off anywhere we wanted. The boat was pretty crowded and it was growling and shaking as we took off and scared both of them. It was pretty funny and as you can see that the little one did not like it at all. After much cajoling I convinced here that it was just a big boat and not to be scared of the noise and that it was safe. I was praying that I was right! Keep in mind that this thing was pulling in and out of stops all along the way and this guy could flat drive this boat. We would be in and out really quick. I thrive on this stuff and the little one does to but the vibrations kind of shook her up a bit. Get it!

We visited the the famous Wat Arun Temple, perhaps better known as the Temple of the Dawn, is one of the best known landmarks and one of the most published images of Bangkok. The last Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt that I purchased has this temple as the backdrop. It consists of a massive elongated prang (Khmer-style tower), and is surrounded by four smaller prangs. The prang is described by the Tourism Authority of Thailand as 104m high, while most other sources quote figures around 80-85m. We went up as far as we could but it was almost straight up and I'm way to fat to be climbing in that hot weather and it was hot. It is decorated by bits of porcelain which had previously been used as ballast by merchant boats coming to Bangkok from China, a hallmark of the reign of King Rama III. The Wat had a brief period as host of the celebrated Emerald Buddha, which now resides in nearby Wat Phra Kaew at the Grand Palace. The Wat really looks better from a distance than close up. The grounds are fairly pleasant and peaceful, with good murals and a main Buddha image supposedly designed by King Rama II. We walked up the very steep stairs of the main prang, which gives a reasonable view of the Chao Phraya river. When we left we were going to go to the Royal Palace. However, I failed to bring a map and so we could not poing out our destination to a taxi driver. None of the drivers understood where we wanted to go so we ended up going to Siam Ocean World which is just another name for an Aquarium. It was okay but when you have seen one aquarium you've seen them all unless your 7 years old and they are all the best one you have ever seen.

In the words of Jed Clampett "AJ loves water more'na bullfrog". She would stay in the pool all day and night if I let her. The pool here was no where even close to being as good as the Hard Rock Hotel's pool in Pattaya but it was full of water and that was enough for us. As you can tell from the pictures I have put on a few pounds. I was just sure that all the exercise in the pool was going to lesson my girth by at least an inch...not! Anyway, she drug me and Mother down there at least once a day and sometimes twice. While Mother was able to relax and do one of her favorite pastimes which was doing her word search books... I was relegated to tossing AJ in the air over and over and over for at least two hours at a time. Whew she wore me out. To tell you the truth I had just as much fun as she did just watching her have so much fun. I had to have thrown her once every two minutes. I would go underwater and then she would climb on my shoulders and then I would leap out of the pool and she would jump at the same time launch herself off of my shoulders. You know what...sometimes that hurt a lot. Her feet, when wet, would take on a gecko like form and if she slipped it felt like my skin was being rolled off like knee skin during a fall on a basketball gym floor. The only difference is that it did not make that awful screeching sound. Remember that sound it made when you fell on your bare knees in gym class and then as soon as you stood up and looked at your knee about an inch of skin was rolled back like the top on an opened can of oysters. Boy did that sting and seemed like it took forever to heal. We would also play this game where we would pull ourselves along the edge of the pool going all the way around the pool to see who could go the fastest. AJ won all the time...Boy I am getting old. Not to old to still have fun though.




Our next tour was to the Elephant and crocodile Zoo just outside of Bangkok. The one in Pattaya is much better and the one in Chang Mai is even better than the one in Pattaya...but this one was still very entertaining. AJ has grown to really like elephants as have I. It is normal for grandmother elephants to work up until they are 80 to 90 years old and are as gentle as morning rain. The older females are always more gentle we are told. The greatest aspect of elephants in Thailand are that you get to get up close with them. In the states there are all of the regulatory laws because everyone is afraid that if something goes wrong the zoo will be sued therefore a look but don't touch approach is established. Sure something could go wrong and an elephant could go nuts but that is a part of life and you would actually have a greater chance of dieing in a car crash to or from the zoo than in an altercation with a pachyderm. That is why Thailand is so much fun because they let the individual make the choice to encounter with the elephants or not. Needless to say we chose to encounter and have very fond memories with our adventures. On this trip they only rode the elephants for a 10 minute ride but if this blog works well I will show you other rides that we have taken through jungles, rivers, hillsides and even alongside one of the most famous railways of WWII called the Death Railway alongside the infamous River Kwai but that is another story. The show was very elaborate with examples of work and especially the war between Thailand and Cambodia and how the elephants were used in battle. After the show the up close encounters begin. You can purchase a bunch of bananas or bamboo for 50 cents and feed them to the elephants. This obviously serves two purposes. The elephants get fed at no cost to the zoo and the visitors get to get close to the elephants. The most moving thing about the animals to me are their eyes. They absolutely emit understanding and are full of emotion. You can visibly see feeling in their eyes and it is easy to see. Elephants are amazing animals and their family structure rivals that of their mammalian counterparts called humans. The mothers are the patriarchs and the bulls roam around until it's time to mate. If you think about it their system could be perceived as being more successful than ours in some cases...they never get divorced. You really can't understand how big they are until you're standing right next to them. They are huge but are so docile it's incredible. The pads on their feet make them virtually silent when they move. It is incredible that an animal this big can move so quietly. They are the greatest 4-wheel drives on the planet.
The two girls even went for a short ride. It was Mothers first ride on an elephant and probably AJ's 10th. Don't you think that they both look like they were having a great time. On the other hand the mahout looked hoter'na chinese firecracker. Their ride lasted about 10 minutes and cost a whooping $5. Insurance was not included. Another reason why we love Thailand so much.





Here is AJ with a 2 month old baby elephant. She kept trying to put her trunk in Mothers pockets but I kept missing the shot. It was very funny. Mother fell in love with the orchid farm. She loves flowers and has been able to work with them more since she retired.





There are more different variations of orchids grown in Thailand than in any other country in the world. Orchids are unique in that they do not grow in the ground but rather grow in other plants or structures such as tree branches and rock crevices. So when they are grown for profit the plants are always hanging from elaborate overhead systems. No matter how they are grown they are very pretty and they can grow so many different variations...it is truly a testament to the patience of the growers. They also had a playground that the two girls could not pass up. Without the gray hair it would be hard to be able to tell which one was is the kid. Ain't that what makes life grand. They played up until the time that we had to catch the van back to the hotel.

Our next outing was to one of Bangkok's most traveled to tourist sites The Grand Palace which is full of magnificent buildings displaying a grandeur architectural style with a unique asian flair. Since the founding of Bangkok as the Nations capital by King Rama I, The Grand Palace has been the major architectural symbol of The Thai Royal Family. The Royal Family no longer resides here but lives at Chitralada Palace while The Grand Palace is used only for ceremonial purposes. The main buildings within the Grand Palace compound were built for King Rama V, who was the first Thai King to travel to Europe. I have been to the Grand Plalce several times but this was AJ and Mothers first time. We took the SkyTrain and then a river boat that was for tourist and was less crowded than the last one and it was much more comfortable. As we sat down and enjoyed the ride there was a guide who pointed out the sites as we sloshed and roared up the river. What I always find amazing about historical places is that in the past countless families, warring armies, merchants and sightseers have traveled the same place that we are now on their own adventures that have molded their lives and the particular area and environment. Just being in an historical place makes me feel that all the spirits from the past are plying together to make my trip that much more enjoyable and safe. I know it's wierd but that is how I feel. We visited the grounds and walked around for several hours. The architecture is filled with rounded buildings spiraling up and pointing to the sky and gilded paint schemes that are anointed with very detailed painting schemes which are adorned with shiny mirrored cut tiles that glimmer in a million different shards of light. The entire grounds is abundant in different carvings and statues that are supposed to protect and provide good luck for the palace and it's inhabitants.

The actual buildings where the ceremonies are held is very large but visitors are not allowed inside. The only part were entry is allowed is the armory on the 1st floor which is full of ancient and antique weapons. They have thousands of spears, pikes, knives and swords as well as a huge collection of hundreds of firearms from the US and Europe. There were many early American weapons that were presented to various Kings and dignitaries from Thailand that were presented by companiy founders such as Colt, Winchester and Browning.

The grounds have the standard guards that have to stand in the hot sun and get gawked at all day by passersby but always show no emotion. I could not do that job. My nose would always be itching or some other places in areas that would definitely not be good for someone to get a picture of me scratching. I'm not sure how long their shifts are but even one hour would be a long time in the heat and humidity of Thailand.














Like I said before the journey to and from is often just as exciting and interesting as the place that you are going to or from from (an old Henry Blake quote from MASH). The street back to the wharf was full of hawkers selling a lot of Buddha related items which appeared to be very old but one cannot be sure over here. They were also selling lots of junk. As soon as we left the Palace a woman was trying to sell me some sunglasses and must have followed us for 50 yards continuously dropping her price as we went. I always just politely ignore them and smile and shake my head no and then if they persist I just completely ignore them and continue to go about my business. Sometimes they can be annoyingly persistent. Many sell books about the tourist site and I usually always buy a book that talks about the history to the place that we visited. These hawkers also sell these book at discount prices however, I have discovered that most of them are misprints, have pages that are out of order or are defective in other ways so I always buy in the shops at the site.

When we got back to the wharf we were setting there and started watching what appeared to be a couple of men diving for junk at the waters edge using a small canoe like boat as their diving platform. AJ observed at one point that the person in the boat only had one arm.
They were both slim and muscular. No doubt a result of their daily diving regimen to the bottom searching for salvageable materiel just waiting to be relieved from it's muddy grave. You can't help but feel sorry for people like this but I respect them at the same time for doing what they can to survive. It's hard to see in this photo but the diver has his head just above the surface of the water and had just deposited something that clanged with a metal thud onto the bottom of the boat. Shortly thereafter they motored over to the dock and the one-armed man climed up the side of the dock. AJ was the first to discover that the one-armed man was actually a one-armed woman. Her skin dark and tanned from the sun and her clothes disheveled and worn threadbare. It was the look on her face that was amazing to me and I wish that I could have gotten a picture of her. She wore a resolute and proud expression that was capped off by a big smile. She nodded to us as she went by and I nodded back and smiled at her as well. I wanted to set down with her and hear her stories but she quickly disappeared. It is amazing to me how some people can have so little monitarily and still appear be happy with their life and others can have so much and somehow happiness still eludes thme.

Here is AJ at the pier as we wait for our return ride.







Our hotel room was okay. We tried to get two small beds but because we made our reservations so late we had to take what we could get so Mother or myself had to sleep on the couch every night. Bangkok is still cheap to visit but is still more expensive than the other tourist spots in Thailand. The pool was small but AJ and I usually had it to ourselves so that was okay. During our down time AJ likes to play travel agent with the phone and writing material that is in the room. We also got ourselves a foot massage right across from our hotel room one day. Foot and reflex massage places dot the streets and are quite reasonable. It only costs about $10 for one hour and it is very relaxing. So naturally AJ has to give Mother a foot massage and she actually does a pretty good job herself.

Well we hope you enjoyed reading about our little adventure. Since this is generally for our family and friends we sure hope that all of you are blessed with God's graces and that good fortune runs you over like a freight train. So until next time we say laew phob gan mai or see you again.