Advertisement
Published: November 10th 2008
Edit Blog Post
We are safely back home from a wonderful, fun, and memorable week in Hangzhou (hon-joe) and a fascinating night in Hong Kong (a layover that turned into, gladly, an overnight stay). Every aspect of our trip went very well, from the long flights to making fast friends with our "posse" of translators, drivers, and real estate agents (7 people catered to us 4). We travelled with the Wilsons and we had a great time together.
We travelled in business class, which I have to admit -- I felt like a redneck who won the lottery. Your chair folds down into a bed, you have your own TV, and the food and drink are abundant and tasty. The flight from JFK to HK was 15 hours. 15 hours!!! Lord, I thought I will not make it this long in one place...but I did! So worth the end result. We then had to take another flight (2 hrs) north to Hangzhou.
We spent the bulk of our week "house" hunting, we saw over 20 apartments and some houses in 2 1/2 days. We found a beautiful, new apartment in a gorgeous complex that is just across the river from the school
& Jim's work. I included pictures here on the blog. The grounds reminded me of Hawaii.....and the apartment, though on the small side compared to the others we saw (the homes we saw were huge - 5+ bedrooms), was more American-style and so we chose that one to live in. The landlord was so nice - letting us pick out the furniture for each and every room. Having an oven in a Chinese home is a rarity. This particular apartment had an oven and we were never so glad to see an oven before (think about it: how often do we Americans use our ovens? every day in my house).
After house hunting and some sightseeing, we basically ate and drank our way through town. The food was beyond delicious -- tasty, beautifully prepared, and unbelievably inexpensive. I ate everything I saw. What I love about the Chinese way of eating is that every dish is communal, so at any meal we were treated to a dozen dishes at once.
We lunched at a tea house in Hangzhou and it was the highlight for me gastronomically speaking. The tea menu is expansive -- I don't know how many
different teas were listed. You pay just for your tea and the buffet is free. My Yellow Mountain Peony tea was 68 RMB, about $10 USD. No tipping allowed. There's a photo of my buffet selection at the tea house -- and I ate more than what you see. Your tea is constantly refreshed and it is normal to sit at the tea house ALL DAY -- it is strictly a social event among the Chinese. Jim's tea was the bomb -- chrysanthemum. Unlike any other tea I've had in my life.
I also had plenty of Lychee martinis and vodka/mango drinks. Fresh fruit + alcohol = heaven. And I managed to exercise every morning. I took every advantage of being kid free for the week. I didn't suffer from jet lag because I don't sleep well normally.
One morning I dragged Jim for a walk around West Lake, just steps from our hotel. There are beautiful walk/bikeways around the entire lake. I thought I'd read it was 5 miles around, which I could easily do in an hour. I think every elderly person in Hangzhou was out exercising that morning, to me, it was a beautiful sight.
Well, two and a half hours later we clearly had not finished our loop......we had to get a cab back to the hotel since we had to meet the others soon. Just for the record, I could have easily finished the walk -- it was probably 7-8 miles. Also, a great tip for foreigners -- make sure you carry with you your hotel's name & addy written in Mandarin. Taxi drivers don't speak English and I wouldn't count on them reading pinyin. We stopped in a hotel to grab a cab and it's easy to find an English speaking concierge there. Otherwise, you're screwed.
So the "highlight" of the trip was the morning spent having our Chinese medicals done. Anyone planning to live in China for over 30 days needs to be examined by Chinese doctors. Picture a stark, white, minimally furnished medical office with health personnel wearing masks. Every bed we laid on was dirty -- unkown spots of bodily fluids? Who knows. No one cleaned their equipment either after it was used on a human. However, we were relieved to see that the needles used to draw blood were in sterilized packages. So we had blood drawn
first. No band aids provided. Next was to give a urine sample -- on a squat toilet (no seat). When I was squatting, my arm started to spurt blood everywhere; it got into my urine sample 😊. I handed it over anyway. I was afraid to have "blood in my pee" translated so I pretended all was fine.
We were then subject to a chest xray, ultrasound, eye exam, EKG, and blood pressure. The only fun part was watching Jim take the eye exam, as the doctor helped him guess the answers....it was pretty comical. I flat out told her my right eye is still adjusting to surgery and she marked me as passed. On my medical form I didn't check off that I had any surgeries (my translator told me not to start any trouble by marking my surgeries). I could have died when the ultrasound technologist asked where my gallbladder was.....thought I'd be thrown in Chinese jail for lying.
It wasn't till the end of the day we got our medical reports and discovered we all passed in some form or fashion, but we were given new diseases. I was diagnosed with chronic pharyngitis and the
dr recommended Jim go on a low fat diet and have his heart checked.
After our medical exams, our translators took Claire and I to a massage parlor. It is everything you imagine or see in the movies -- dark hallways, room after room with beds. Most of you know I love my massages, but I have to say I was a little freaked by the whole scene. I would never step foot in the place without a Chinese person. Christabel and Vivienne, our translators, joined us and we enjoyed a 90 minute foot massage......for $10 and again, the food was free (fresh fruit, tea, soups, dessert). We had our feet cupped which was wonderful.....a flame heats up a glass cup and the cup is stuck to your foot and it kind of sucks out (mentally) the bad stuff. The masseur dudes were kind of choreographed too, dressed nicely, and were cute. We giggled alot and our feet were screaming with joy at the end.
We took time to see a grocery store (aisles of creatures dead and alive, including turtles), the silk market, and a cheap shopping area. You bargain for everything (in Mandarin).
We also
visited the int'l school, where the girls would go, where they would clearly be in the minority, which I looked forward to. Jim's workplace is right around the corner from the school, so that is comforting to know, since the apt. would be a good 20 minute ride headed back towards the lake.
We spent our last night in Hong Kong, which is a 2 hour flight from Hangzhou. It was 85 degrees in Hong Kong. Hong Kong was beautiful.....I had no idea what to expect. It is mountainous, with high rises, and ocean. Manhattan with mountains and scenery and warm weather! We visited Victoria's Peak -- a mountain with a mall on top of it, go figure. The views were stunning -- see the photos. We took a taxi up the peak, an amusement ride to say the least. We took a tram on the way down -- we were SHOVED and PUSHED onto the tram by the elderly Chinese folk, which is normal, accepted social behavior. We met up with neighbors of the Wilsons who are spending a year in Hong Kong, needless to say we were with the right people (and we loved their company). We
Kitchen
This is the largest kitchen we saw, believe it or not! and the fridge is in the dining room. dined at an Indian/Malaysian/Thai restaurant.....the shrimp were the size of lobsters. Best meal yet. The photos don't do Hong Kong justice (actually, we stayed in Kowloon which is across the harbor from Hong Kong) -- I was very disappointed with the photos compared to my experience there. You have to see it to believe it.
I'm tired. The kids are fighting. Back to reality (and reality sucks).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.074s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0453s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb