Norma and John

HAVANA - IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HEMINGWAY Second only to the iconic images of Che ,which appear everywhere in Cuba from coffee mugs and T-shirts to graffiti and Government billboards, are the images of Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway is a legend in the Havana area and three of the main tourist venues in Old Havana are links to him - first is the Hotel Ambos Mundos on Obispo Street where he wrote “For Whom The Bell Tolls” in the 1930’s and Room 511 is kept as it was when he lived there. Not far away are two bars which he used to frequent - La Bodeguita del Medio and El Floridita - and these are meccas for Hemingway aficionados, checking out why he said “My mojito in La Bodeguita, my daiquiri in El Floridita”. Both bars make ... read more

Many different locations have been suggested for the site of James Hilton's fictitious Shangrila - somewhere in the mountainous tangle of the Himalayas and Kunlun Mountains. The Chinese government are promoting the area of Zhongdian in the extreme north of Yunnan province as their candidate. Zhongdian is the capital of the Dechen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and close by is the spectacular Ganden Sumsanling Monastery, sometimes called the Songzanlin Lamasery, built by the 5th Dalai Lama in the 17th century. This was once referred to as the summer palace of the Dalai Lama and certainly looks like the Potala Palace in Lhasa. It is the home of 800 monks today, many of them very young boys. There are massive renovation and reconstruction works in progress ( Summer 2007) and the entrance is a sea of mud ... read more

Another day trip by car from Dali concentrated on the Bai minority culture. Our first stop was at the Folklore Centre in the Bai village of Xizhou (admission 50 yuan). This building had a double courtyard plan, surrounded by wooden balconies on the second floor and in a large room beyond the second courtyard they demonstrated local costume, songs, dance etc in a presentation of the Three Tea Ceremony. The dialogue was only in Mandarin but the show was very visual and enjoyable, culminating in the sequential tasting of three teas - the first was bitter, the second very sweet with honey added and the third one was just right - with some honey and cinnamon. Leaving this area we found a quiet street on the far side of the village with many traditional Bai ... read more

We did feel that we had selected a good hotel but were delighted when we got here - the New Era hotel is a cheap 30 yuan taxi ride from the airport (about $4) and is set in the middle of an interesting part of the city - the Yunnan Provincial Museum, the Bird and Flower Market, local mosques, old shopping streets and great pedestrian shopping avenues are all around it. The Provincial Museum has an excellent collection of bronzes from the ancient kingdoms of this part of China, well presented and actually labelled in English. The admission is cheap, just over a dollar. Nearby is the Bird and Flower Market, a large market which sprawls over several streets. There are not just birds but all sorts of pets for sale - birds, chipmunks, rabbits, ... read more

We've returned to Xiamen to visit friends and see some familiar sights from our adventure here last year. TRANSPORTATION TRIVIA An inexpensive and convenient way of getting around Xiamen is to use taxis. We collect and carry business cards of our hotel/apartment, certain restaurants, people we know etc. to communicate our destination to the drivers. The rules of the road are another matter. Canadian drivers might see these road warriors as bad drivers - lane changes are made at whim, vehicles drift to cut off others, near misses with bicycles, motorbikes and hapless pedestrians are frequent and parking is an exercise in creativity - however the skill to manoevour these city streets is admirable! Crossing major streets requires a plan (at least for tourists). Crosswalks marked by lines or lights indicate a possible place to ... read more