ASIA

I never would have thought I would actually get to go to Asia, but when Rob was asked to go there for work, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to vist this Eastern World. The trip we embarked on included Cambodia, Hong Kong and Beijing in about 11 days. That's a big trip with not a lot of time to soak it all in. The flight from JFK was a mere 15 hours. Luckily we were able to fly business class, which definitely made it that much more enjoyable. After taking this 15 hour flight, the mere 8 hours or so it takes to get to Europe seems like a walk in the park!

There was some major jetlag working on us as we got to Siem Reap, Cambodia and the luggage gods were not working in our favor either. It appears that our bags were in Bangkok  somewhere and would hopefully show up at about 9am the next morning. We were dead tired and ready to head to bed. Our bags were indeed waiting for us the next day and the hotel kindly went to retrieve them for us (even though the airport said they couldn't.)

Rob spent the next 2 days at a conference while I spent it working here and there and sleeping. Having 11 hours difference in time certainly made getting an answer to a work question just a tad more difficult. By the time I had recovered from the jetlag it was the day before we left. There was a half-day tour planned for the group to Angkor Wat, which is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. One of the temples that we saw there was apparently also used in the opening scene of Tomb Raider. It was very hot out on this little tour, but also very interesting.

The next morning we left Cambodia to head over to Hong Kong.We only went to Hong Kong because we had to get a visa to enter into Beijing, so we were there for about 2.5 days. Honestly, my only impression of China was what I had seen at Epcot. I mean, this HAD TO BE what China was really like... right? Wrong. Hong Kong to me is like New York on steroids. There is crazy shopping everywhere and apartments are stacked on top of each other like little matchbooks and there are SO MANY people! Our first day there we wandered around a not so touristy area looking at the fish markets and vegetable markets and such. One of the first things that really grossed me out here was the level of raw meat hanging around outside under hot fluorescent lights. It was everywhere and it was gross!

The next day we had a quasi plan to take a look at a few more touristy things the city had to offer. Our first stop was the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden. This is the place to be if you like anything about birds. People would bring out their little cages with birds in them for you to buy. Some with the cage, some without the cage. This picture reminds me of the same living conditions I posted above:

After we left the Bird Garden we moved on to both the Flower and Fish Markets. Lots of fish and flowers to be had all along these streets. It is interesting to me about supply and demand here. You can literally walk down a street and find dozens of the exact same shop right next to each other selling the same product. How do people stay in business this way?

After our jaunt around these many markets, we went on a boat tour of Victoria Harbour to soak in the skyline by day.

On our last day in Hong Kong we were going to take a glass bottom cable car ride up to see this Big Buddah. Unfortunately, it was broken which meant we had to take a LONG bus ride up to meet this giant man.

The next day we were off to Beijing as Rob has business to attend to. We stayed at a nice hotel. It was so nice it allowed for a TV in the bathroom mirror as well as your own remote control toilet. Both a first for Rob and me! Of course, I am not even in this hotel room 10 hours and I flooded the bathroom via the shower and had to have a butler, a housekeeper and a handyman all come to my rescue while I stood there in a bathrobe.

Since it was on our first day in Beijing, and Rob would be busy with work type things and places, I started to become afraid of the dinner options that were in front of me. Many of the places had menus written in Chinese and most of the places we went with work, dinner was ordered by the locals. So, picky eating Kim had a dilemma on her hands! In China they love duck. And I just don't. Had I ever eaten duck before? Of course not. Ducks are cute, and I just don't eat cute animals. But faced with the current situation: (a) I was hungry and (b) I was at a work dinner with one of our clients, so I felt obligated to at least try um... everything...Sometimes it is better to just not ask what you are eating...

Our second day in Beijing consisted of seeing something that Rob has never seen before, even though he hasbeen to China several times: the Great Wall of China. We were also going to visit the Forbidden City. Again,  the naivety of being an American in Asia overtook me as I planned my wardrobe for this day of sightseeing. What better footwear to bring with you on a trip to the Great Wall than a pair of flip flops?

They get a thumbs up from me!

The Great Wall was... well it was great in many aspects. The sheer size of the thing is just enormous and the amount of time and manpower put into building it was extensive. The length is over 3,000 miles long. I wish that I could give you a bit more history here, but Rob was the one engrossed in the conversation with our tour guide, Nathan. I was taking pictures.

While one the Great Wall.... there were many people trying to sell you soda's and cookies and such. One of the few things I never would have thought I would see on his mountain was this cute little guy:

Also on the Wall with us today was the People's Liberation Army. China was getting things ready for the 60th Anniversary of the Chinese Goverment, and a least a part of the world's largest army was on the Wall practicing for the upcoming celebration. It was very interesting to me to see a army carry on the way they did. It was like they had never been on the Great Wall before. There were cell phones and cameras and posing all over the place. It was very odd.

What goes up, must come down and we managed to get back on to stable ground via a cable car ride. I have been wanting to go ziplining and being up so high in this cable car was making me think otherwise.

We spent the other half of our day eating local food... which I am sure you know by now I was not thrilled about and also visited the Forbidden City, which was very interesting, particularly because our tour guide had many stories to tell us about different emporers and their many concubines.

The  next day I was on my own with the Nathan and was hoping not to be bad company for him, as while I was interested in the history, I was also interested in taking pictures. One of my favorite place we went to was actually the first one that day. It was a garden that one of the Emporers had created back in the day. At this place, people would gather for organized "sports". There would be people dancing in unison as couple to a song, older people practicing tai chi, people standing on the sidewalk with ampliphers and speakers trying (and I mean trying) to sing, musicians, street performers, and the list goes on and on. I literally could have spent all day at this one place and been perfectly happy. Nathan, on the other hand, had a schedule and a watch and would walk ahead of me (as he did most of the day) and wait until I was finished with the photos.

Temple of Heaven

Our next stop was to visit one of the icon's of Beijing, the White Pagoda at Behai Park.  Here it is from afar:

Just a little more walking until we reach the top...

We also visited Confucius' Temple:

One of the interesting things I was able to do, and I don't think I would have really been afforded the opportunity had I not had a local tour guide, was to visit a Hutong. A hutong is a narrow street or alley way, and are typical in Beijing, although the number of them has dropped due to creating new streets in the city. Hutongs are found in neighborhoods, and are inhabitated by families as traditional courtyard residences. There are no bathrooms in these hutongs, but there is a shared toilet area by the neighborhood. Locals can only shower twice per week at a community shower and the water they are allotted is limited, for which they pay for. I can't imagine living in such a small space. It makes an 1800 square foot house look like a mansion in comparison. It made me feel very fortunate for what I did have, even though I think it is still too small!

There are some other noteworthy points I would like to make about my visit to Asia. The first being is airline service. Honestly, I may not be able to understand what is being said most of the time, but all in all the airline service on the 4 different airlines we flew on this journey was pretty good. We actually had a MEAL no matter what coach you were sitting in on flights as short as 45 minutes in length. I remember being on our first 2 hour flight from Cambodia to China thinking what is this.. an actual hot meal? Then we went on an hour flight and still got a meal and I thought there is no way we will get anything on our 45 minutes flight and we got a boxed lunch. They even served hot tea and coffee after. Crazy! On some US flights you don't even get a drink if the flight is 30 minutes and I was getting a full on meal at 45. Incredible.

The second is the toilet. I can only imagine that the toilet for men functions in the same manner as it does for women. In Beijing, it did not. The first time I walked into a toilet there this is what greeted me:

I was momentarily dumbfounded on how I was supposed to use this until I saw the little pictured posted outside the door. Luckily, I eventually figured it out.

We were also able to visit Olympic Park where the 2009 Olympics were held. It is amazing to me how much can be done in 2 years by a country that wants to do it. Stadiums were built, massive hotels were erected and the government actually told people they had to smile while doing all of these things. They were told that while the Olympics were going on they couldn't eat dogs (wince), they also gave everyone that bought a paper a free t-shirt so the men wouldn't walk around bare chested. Why might you ask? It was so that when Western journalists came to the city, China was portrayed in a positive light. Imagine this being a mandate in the US. I can only imagine how that might go down.

The Water Cube where Michael Phelps won all his medals

The Bird's Nest. Taken literally on a freeway where the driver stops the car during oncoming traffic and I jump out quickly to take it. This driver was crazy. He even got out of his car at one point after laying on his horn to tell the guy off in front of us for not merging into traffic.

Next Stop? LONDON!