THURSDAY, 4/2/15

Today is weird. I’m going to school, and Judy isn’t. That hasn’t happened too much this year. I hope she stays out of my kitchen.

Early classes today, so I arrived at school around 7:15 with plenty of time to set-up and hook-up everything. Classes go well. Afterwards, I organized my notes and materials for tomorrow’s classes. At lunch, I visited with everyone, had some Starbucks, and talked to Steve and Josie, the teachers I’m accompanying on the trip to Tibet. I spent the rest of the afternoon making sure I had everything ready for the Orchestra Club. Turned out to be a waste of time. There was a cooking competition after school everyone attended, so no orchestra club today. Maybe next week.

Back at the apartment, Judy had been to get a haircut, and was back sorting out a few things in the apartment. We ate dinner, made plans for Friday, and I did my usual nighttime routine of reading the digital Star-Telegram and the AP News App for anything I might have missed in the newspaper.

This is the train platform at Yonghegong as the subway pulls in.

FRIDAY, 4/3/15

Back to school for me, but not so early. Judy is still enjoying Spring Break. I had another good day of classes. We’re beginning to hear where some of the 12^th grade students will be attending university next year. There are a couple of students going to Cornell, a Berkley, a Duke, Boston College and Case/Western. We’ll be hearing about a lot more in the next few weeks.

After lunch I headed back to the apartment. I have two chores for the afternoon. First job is to meet our Chinese travel agent at the apartment and pay for the airfare to Barcelona for our cruise this summer. After she leaves, I go down and jump on the bike for the ride to the police station. Whenever we leave China on a trip, we have to register when we return. They have to see our passports, our previous registration form, and the lease agreement for our apartment. I think the clerk is beginning to recognize me.

Judy took a few pictures as she walked over to Capita Mall this afternoon. The ayi came in and Judy went to Starbucks to give her some room. Some of the sidewalks are nice with lots of tile and brick, but lots of them are in rough shape.

Judy and a small group head over to Lily nails for some relaxing. Dom and I met them afterwards for Mexican food at Q-Mex. It was pretty good. We finished up the evening making Dom and Shannon watch drumline and drum corp videos. They don’t have a similar activity in Australia, so we have fun showing them some of our favorite groups.

After our crazy rickshaw ride yesterday, the hotel was a nice quiet retreat. We’re at breakfast early today because we have to go the airport for our flight home. While standing in line for omelets, a well-dressed women walked up, asking Judy about the omelet cook, and if he could cook two a once. He was cooking both of ours in the same pan, at the same time, so the answer was yes. When we sat down, Judy said she thought the woman looked like Nancy Pelosi (minority leader of the US House of Representatives). I didn’t get a good look at her, so I didn’t have much of an opinion. Judy pulled out the phone, checked Nancy Pelosi’s twitter account and, sure enough, she had tweeted about some meetings in Cambodia and then Hanoi. Crazy!

We met our guide and driver at 7:00 am, and headed out to the airport. We didn’t have any collisions, so it was almost boring. The airport was brand new, and some of their systems were a little slow. When we arrived in Beijing, the weather was cooler, but not cold. It was nice to get home, and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening unpacking and relaxing. I have school tomorrow, and spent time making sure my materials were packed and ready to go for my early Thursday morning departure.

We had a restful sleep, and I woke up early (time zone change). It was a beautiful morning

HALONG BAY VIDEO CLIP:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1chm9yxi492pubx/15.3.31.Halong%20Bay.MOV?dl=0

First thing on the schedule today is a short stop at an island with some elevated observation areas. I made the climb, and the view was beautiful. There are lots of boats on the water today. After the island stop, we began to head back to the pier for our drive back to Hanoi. While we cruised back, they served a great breakfast. We ate really well on this cruise.

This was the view halfway up. This is as far as I chose to climb

The cruiser in the background was ours.

Back on land, our guide and driver were waiting, and we started the drive back to Hanoi. Traffic is lighter today and the back is quicker. There were still some of those hair-raising moments when drivers were passing each other in both directions on narrow roads. As we got back to Hanoi, our driver had to make a sudden stop when a car in front decided he had to move into a turning lane (and there wasn’t a hole). A scooter smacked into the back of our car. I’ve been in Asia for almost two years, and haven’t been involved in any wrecks. In less than twenty-four hours, we’ve had two collisions. Beijing will seem peaceful.

This guy had a kite he was trying to carry on the back of the scooter.

Citizens pay homeowners tax based on the width of the home. Lots of tall skinny homes. A wider home bumped them up into the next tax bracket

I was intrigued with how the wires were “carefully” organized on the utility poles. I posted a couple of crazy infrastructure examples.

Back at the hotel, our guide arranged a rickshaw ride through the “Old Quarter”. I thought we’d seen crazy traffic, but this little excursion was eye-opening. This is a crazy town. Check out the two videos below:

Old Quarter rickshaw ride videos: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tkcr0gudisnky77/15.3.31.Hanoi%20Rickshaw.MOV?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8gl32pws1hqlce5/15.3.31.Hanoi%20Rickshaw%202.MOV?dl=0

We enjoyed another great breakfast before meeting our guide for the drive to Halong Bay. As we exit the hotel there are several armed guards escorting conference delegates (not sure what conference) to their cars.

The drive to Halong Bay is interesting. The city section is busy with way too many motorbikes weaving in and out everywhere. A bus squeezed our car out at an intersection, resulting in a broken rear-view mirror for us, and a long scratch for the bus. Both vehicles pull over and discuss their options. The bus is going to Halong Bay also, so they’ll solve it when we arrive. The drive is slow. It’s a 2-lane highway with lots of trucks and buses, as well as cars and motorbikes. We arrived at noon after 4 hours on the road. The arrival pier is comfortable and we load the transport boat for the 15-minute ride out into to our cruiser.

The boat is nice. There are 10 guests, including us. Our cabin is nice, with big windows and a private balcony. After we unpack our bags, we enjoy lunch while the boat begins the trip through the bay. The beauty of all the limestone islands is striking. We’re told nearly 2000 islands are scattered through the area.

Our first stop is a small cave where we disembark and take a short tour. Next stop is a fishing village. Most of the local fishermen on the bay live on baots or floating “cabins” in this cove. A local woman paddles us around the area, giving us a close look at the lifestyle. After our tours, we load back on the cruiser and travel to the spot on the bay where we’ll be “parked” for the evening. Our boat guide explains there are 600 licensed “cruise” boats on the bay. 200 of them are night cruisers like ours.

Dinner is very good. The evening is calm and the bay is beautiful. I can’t imagine a more relaxing setting.