Success!

Back home.

No money or property was stolen.

No identity was stolen.

No passports were lost.

No flights or buses were missed or canceled.

No bones were broken; no blood was shed.

Only one broken umbrella...



...now that's what I call a great trip!


Thank you so much to Lynsie for taking us to DIA in the beginning and thank you to Jennifer for picking us up. Love you two! I have such awesome colleagues and friends.

Thank you to JJ for helping to get my order for School Specialty put through while I was overseas. You're awesome.

Thank you to Scott and Chris for putting us up in Sunnyvale, CA. Miss you guys already!

Thank you to Brandon for house sitting and making sure our three fluffy children (dogs and rabbit) were well fed, healthy, and safe.

Thank you to Claire for taking care of our photography business and answering calls while we were away.

Thank you to Shane for helping us continue to fix up the studio today in our mad rush to get it done by Wednesday in time for our first official senior portrait session of the season!

Thank you to Dad, Jane, and Chris for coming to help tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone else for reading along and caring! Hopefully we'll get to catch up on pictures soon, so keep checking back!

Trip Monetary Totals, for the curious:
Two Osprey Stratos 40 Backpacks: $300
Flights, International for two: $2,000
Flights, Domestic for two: $600
Hotel expenses for 13 nights: $650
Bus and misc. travel: $100-150ish (lost track of cabs/MTR)
Food, tours, admissions, and other misc. expenditures: $1,000ish
Food for the blog: Priceless ;)

Grand Total: somewhere around $4700
(two people, three countries, 19 days total)

We won't be able to go anywhere on another continent again for probably three years or so :) Next stop... Yosemite or Yellowstone or Rushmore or somewhere you can drive to!

In California

We landed safely in San Francisco yesterday, over an hour behind schedule and having not slept a wink on the flight. Turns out those new fancy planes that are supposed to be more comfortable really are less comfortable... at least in my opinion.

Oh well, it's been great to spend some time with Scott and Chris. Last night we had our first home-cooked meal in weeks; it was glorious to have a fresh salad.

Today Jim and I visited Chris' classroom in San Jose (She teaches 2nd grade for Teach for America) to experience her last day of school. The school is definitely different! Let me tell you I'm super thankful for air conditioning. It was HOT. I'm surprised students can concentrate in that climate. There are no hallways... well, it does, but they are outside. So is most of the cafeteria seating. I guess that's something that can happen in California, but not Colorado! We helped Chris clean up the classroom and check things off her EOY checklist. I should be an expert at this by now :) Hopefully there isn't too much left for her to do on Monday, just clean/organize her desk and closets.

We visited what Chris and Scott say is the "best bookstore ever"... it was a pretty neat used bookstore. Of course I ended up in the Children's section after not too long and got some more easy readers as I feel that my classroom library is lacking in a variety of those. I also got a few more Arthur books because you know I love Marc Brown :)

Tomorrow we are theoretically heading to the beach and to dinner before boarding our flight bound for Denver. Then, it's four CRAZY days of hard work getting our photography studio ready to open!! Our first "real" (not ambassador) senior session of the season is scheduled for Wednesday. Yes, we are crazy.

In reflection... I miss Hong Kong already. That's one place where, humidity aside, I could live. I still would rather live in Colorado though... there's no place like home!

HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAYS!!

Sorry I'm a little late Carrie and Momma,

Happy birthday on June 2nd Carrie! 24 years young!

Happy birthday on June 9th Momma! 44 years young!

(If only I can look as good as my momma does in 20 years...)

Love and hugs to you both. I've been thinking of you!

Vegas meets Portugal meets China

Dear Macau,

I still don't quite know what to think about you. Thank you for a very interesting mesh of... culture.

Sincerely,
Me


We have officially been to Asian lands that were once territories of Spain, Britain, and now Portugal. (Philippines, Hong Kong and Macau respectively.) I have been to Vietnam, so add one under French rule as well. Those rascally Europeans, racing to take over the world hundreds of years ago...

Today (Tuesday the 10th) we decided to spend our last full day in Hong Kong not in Hong Kong.

Macau is an island (plus a tid bit of mainland) that was Portugese until 1999 when it was returned to China (two years after Hong Kong did the same). It is known not only for its Portugese influence but also because it is basically the Las Vegas of Asia... complete with the Wynn, MGM Grand, and Venetian.

We were confused when we got to the ferry terminal to buy tickets and there were signs for "Turbo Jet" everywhere. A jet is an airplane, right?

Wrong. So very wrong. Apparently, ferries are high tech now complete with jet engines. It was seriously like being on a waterplane. These things are incredible. We tried to take a picture for you but the lens fogged (they air condition them a little TOO well) so you'll have to try this link instead... . The ride was very fast for the distance and only took about an hour.

I'll admit that I was very unimpressed when we got there. The first thing you see when you get off is "Fisherman's Wharf", which really has nothing to do with fishing but is some sort of amusement park... only it was practically deserted. I was expecting hordes of people... but nada. It seemed like a lot of waste for not a lot of use. It ws like that scene from Shrek when Shrek and Donkey arrive at Duloc.

It didn't take us long to find the Wynn and MGM Grand. While there isn't a concentration of casinos like in Vegas (they're a little scattered), once inside the casinos you would never know the difference aside from signs being in Portugese and Chinese instead of English.

Fun to note: I have spotted several other caucasians in Hong Kong, but I counted five in Macau that I saw. Could just be chance. I'm definitely the minority here! That's always a fun feeling. Same in the mainland of course. Same same ;)

The waterfront seemed so rundown compared to what we'd just seen the night before on Kowloon... and everything was eerily empty.

Finally as we wandered up the hills toward the center of the island we found the ruins of the famous church on the island and night came seemingly suddenly. We wandered around the old walled fortress (similar to the Spanish one in Manila, go figure) and generally took in the stunning views. Then I was impressed.

On the way back down we enjoyed a boba tea and finally found the life of the town in the wandering nameless (and not on the map) alleyways filled with shops. It was teeming with teens, a much younger population than we'd expected.

Back at the Wynn we enjoyed the very amusing and overly dramatic "Golden Tree" show as well as a Bellagio-esque light and water fountain show set to music. All free to the public of course.

Dress code: It seems that everyone in Hong Kong wears sandals and shorts (aside from business people going to and from work of course who wear suits), so that's what we wore to Macau. Suddenly, especially in the nice casinos, everyone was wearing slacks and close-toed shoes. It took us a while to find a place to have dinner (back at Fisherman's Wharf) where there wasn't a dress code.

In the beginning I had spotted a sign on a quickly moving taxi for Cirque du Soleil so I was trying to figure out if we could see the show as it was one I'd (of course) never heard of before... but alas, we figured it out as we were leaving instead. It was at the Venetian on the other island we never went to. Oh well, probably better this way anyway.

We ended up on the 11:30pm ferry back to Hong Kong, putting us on the last MTR train back home. Yes, home... or as close to it as we can get right now :) (Ferries run 24/7 every 30 minutes between Hong Kong and Macau... we could have caught a cab back if needed.)

You have to go through immigration and customs between the two territories, so my passport is now adorned with more entries and exits out of Hong Kong than you can imagine as well as a new Macau stamp! How about that?

It's either very late or very early right now, depending how you look at it, but I felt it important to stay up and blog. We get back on the plane for San Fran tomorrow afternoon, and by the time all is said and done if I don't write about it now I never will. This blog is as much for me (us) as it is to keep our mothers updated as it is to amuse the rest of you :) Multipurpose... my kind of style.

I'm sorry that we've been running ourselves so ragged that we haven't had a chance to upload more pictures. There's a really funny one from today that deserves its own post. Hopefully We'll get a chance in California. And by the way Chris, thanks again to you and Scott for having us and we're looking forward to seeing you too! And I'll gladly take you up on using that washing machine if you're offering it!

P.S. Attn Sam Shepherd: There are tons of Body Shops both on Hong Kong and Macau! I took a picture just for you. I have no idea if you're reading, but there you have it.

P.P.S. Sorry children, I am entirely too tired to proof read right now. I realize some of my grammatical structures are odd and I have some run-on sentences. Please forgive me!

"The Big Buddha" a no go...

I had noticed on the news Sunday night that Lantau Island had experienced incredile rains while we were in the mainland resulting in landslides that had knocked out road travel (though ferry is still possible).

I didn't make the connection that it would affect seeing Ngong Ping and the Tian Tan Buddha until we went to transfer to that line in the MRT Monday morning and discovered that the Ngong Ping Skyrail (360) was out of service. Come to find out one of the fiber optic cables was damaged in the landslides. I should have made the connection before that.

I knew that several SASers had gone to see the Tian Tan Buddha (either the largest or one of the largest in the world... I can't remember) back in '05, so I've wanted to go just for grins since. It's not actually that old and is in what equates to a Chinese Disney Land (Ngong Ping Village), but I thought it would be fun to see anyway. The views from the skyrail (like gondolas on the side of the hills) are supposed to be beautiful, and there's supposedly rainforest on Lantau Island.

Lantau will have to wait. Nature didn't want us to go there I guess. I just hope the residents of the Tai O village on the island get running water back soon.

We decided to turn back around and head to Central for some more time in the skyscraper cluster.

The day amounted to a lot of walking and hiking up hills and staircases. Along the way we might have given in and had Starbucks, visited the conservatory that was closed last time in Hong Kong Park, and checked out the Hong Kong Zoo. By the way, the parks, conservatory and zoo are all free admission and very well kept. I can't get over this phenomenon. A trip to the zoo at home is what, $20? I can't remember. It's pretty ridiculous.

We headed to the Star Ferry Pier and took in the 1 hour Victoria Harbour Tour. It was quite beautiful.

Back on Kowloon in Tsim Sha Tsui (I'm beginning to think of this area, particularly Nathan Road, as home base) we walked along the Avenue of the Stars. It's basically the asian Hollywood Boulevard, right by the Hong Kong Museum of Art. It is a beautiful, free, clean walkway all along the harbor offering spectacular views of the Central Hong Kong skyline. We spotted the stars and handprints of Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Jet Li, and even a statue of Bruce Lee.

Dinner offered an unreal view of the twinkling lights of the skyline at dusk.

Off to the night market after sunset. I can't believe how things can change in only three years. Last time I went to the night market, there was a lot of hassling. Vendors touching and grabbing my arms, saying "Missy, missy...", and generally doing their best to be annoying in order to get me to buy stuff.

This time, it was almost eerie how much they left me alone. Except for the endless offers for "copywatches" and "copyhandbags", it felt like I was back in the U.S. in that people generally allowed you to browse their booths without much hassle. I wonder if it's anything to do with the economy? At least they still bartered... some of them.

The walk home offered much of the same as we've experienced on Nathan Road this whole time... always the offers for the copywatches and copyhandbags, endless jewelry stores, offers for tailored suits and shirts, and restaurant owners beckoning you inside.

I can't explain to you how much we had been on our feet. I was practically falling asleep as we walked up the steps back to our room. I had BETTER be in better shape by the time we get home!

Round 2 in Hong Kong

Note: The roads in mainland China leave nearly as much to be desired as the toilet facilities. Ouch.

The bus ride back from Yangshuo was better than the one there (mostly due to having a much better designed sleeper bus), but was still a jarring experience. Don't take an overnight bus for that length in the mainland and expect your brain not to be a bit tenderized at the end. I think we topped the bathroom fun this trip with our first in-the-middle-of-nowhere-at-night-without-lights fun. As can be expected, the guys were spoiled and opted to stay out of the building to utilize the moonlight while the women ventured into the unknown abyss. Poor ladies - I mean it. Those things are frightening when you can see where you're stepping.

The net benefit of the bus ride back was very positive, though, as we met up with another pack of friendly Israelis. This time it was three girls who were traveling to Kowloon Hong Kong like us, so we formed a posse and navigated the bus terminal and Lo Wu (though, it was confusing since on the China side, they apparently spell in LoHou) together.

Sarah had discovered mention of a nice sounding place to stay in the SouthEast Asia Lonely Planet (whereas before we used the Hong Kong one) so we made our way to it and were pleasantly surprised to discover that their comment of “immaculate” was dead on. The room is tiny, but it seems very recently updated and is incredibly clean. As an enormous bonus, it has a mini fridge! (Yay for cold water.)

The Hong Kong return agenda was to check-in, clean up (badly needed), have a lunch and head off to the Stanly Dragon Boat races. Like the trip into the mainland, the trip back took about 40% longer than predicted and we ended up getting to the dragon boat races with only 2 hours left. It ended up working out well, though, since honestly they're quite cool, but not necessarily something you want to watch hour after hour of. After the races, we bummed around the market and surrounding area before heading back.

Since we keep seeing signs for “The Spaghetti House” around Hong Kong, we decided to give it a go for dinner before heading back to the room. It was very yummy, but Sarah was sad to find that the Crab Meat and Spinach Cannelloni apparently had mustard in them (strange...) After the yummy dinner, we stopped off for some water/snack/etc. supplies and passed out.

Heading out of Yangshuo

Note: I love watermelon juice! Why don't we have this in the states? Or have I been missing it?

The today and yesterday weren't quite as eventful as our first day here.

Yesterday we took Alan up on his offer to take us down the big Li river... it wasn't half as spectacular. Beautiful, don't get me wrong... but not quite as majestic, even though it is bigger. To Alan's credit, he did warn us of that.

It was a bumpy bus ride up to the bamboo raft (yes another bamboo raft... only this one was fancy with a propeller attached to a lawn mower motor). We rafted down the river with Alan pointing out all the peaks. It's funny because they're very into naming things after animals and what they're shaped like. Lion Riding Carp hill, Yellow Cloth in Water, Apple, Grandfather Watching Apple, etc.

Then it started to rain. A lot. Again. :) My umbrella broke so that was fun.

We had a yummy lunch of the most delicious fried vegetables I've ever had. They had a cousin to the bamboo shoot in there, so yum. We also had the local specialty which is called beer fish.

We were in the oldes village around, with many of the buildings nearly 2,000 years old. The only problem was we felt a bit rushed and didn't get to explore and take as many pictures as we'd have liked to; Alan had picked up a couple of Chinese tourists that spoke Cantonese and they were tagging along. I'm not sure how I felt about that.

Then it rained some more and another bus ride later we were back in town. Alan asked for even more money to take us to his house the next day... we declined.

The good news is, we had the hotel staff wash and dry our laundry instead of handwashing it ourselves... how lovely to have fresh clothes again! We only packed enough for 4-5 days (one small backpack and messenger bag each) because we wanted to pack super light. We haven't had to check a single bag! It's been nice.

Alan found us this morning anyway and we had to tell him again that we didn't have any more money to spend. We said our goodbyes and mainly wandered around the couple of parks here and around the town and market. It was good to see the town, but now we're hot, tired and sweaty! Yum yum. We're having a cold drink right now, then we'll wander some more until it's time to catch our bus back to Shenzhen (and subsequently Hong Kong).

Apparently, there's an ongoing commentary by the staff about how fast I'm typing. They look at me wide eyed (according to Jim), point, and talk to each other. Apparently I'm quite the spectacle!

I'm starting to hit the point where I'm just about ready to come home again. Of course I love exploring, I just really miss the dry climate and being able to not feel like a sweaty pig some times, you know? I'm also missing... how shall we say... nice standards for restroom facilities.

Love and miss you all!