Saturday, December 9, 2006
Comments now on for everyone
Sorry all- Dad told me last night (it's Sunday morning, about 7:15am here, and I finally slept!!!!) that comments were on for regsitered users only... everyone can comment now...
Friday, December 8, 2006
Hong Kong, Part 1
This post and the following I wrote in Word this morning...
It’s 4:15am, I’m awake typing in the dark, on a computer for which I forgot to bring a plug adapter… oops! The rooms here all seem to have sort of master light switch so when that’s off, then I can’t even turn on the lights to the bathroom…
Ok, so… Our flight from Taipei to Hong Kong was a short and sweet 1 hr 45 min, and we were STILL served a meal- in coach! It was delicious, minced pork and rice, with vegetables, and a “Delicious Cake”\” that really was pretty good- no complaints here! Jordan fells asleep on the flight as did I, so it went fast…
We landed in Hong Kong to the scenery of water and mountains outside of our plane- they actually built all of the land the airport and landing strips are on- really amazing!
Jordan quickly discovered that riding on the luggage carts was the way to travel through the airport- except of course when it came time to get through immigration. No issues there (of course everything that COULD happen to you flashes through your mind as you stand there waiting for that stamp to enter Hong Kong), and now my clean, pristine passport has some stamps in it (ok, well, I guess it wasn’t pristine once they put the visa in it,… but you get the drift). Caroline had done all the research, so once we picked up our luggage off the carousel (after immigration- and YES! All the luggage made it intact!) We got tickets on the Airport Express train, which was smooth and amazing and took us quite a distance towards Hong Kong proper, where we got off at Kowloon station. We then took the Airport Express Shuttle (included in the cost) to get to the Kowloon Hotel,
We checked in at the Kowloon Hotel- which has bellhops in full service and folks ready to handle heavy luggage (yea!) and found that our rooms were- and now I know there is Santa Claus- ready even at 11am, and no early check in fee, Can we say S-H-O-W-E-R?
Hot, wonderful water (that of course we didn’t get in our eyes or mouth) and clean hair, clean body, no more plane stink, and best of all- yes, clean underwear, Bliss!!!!! The rooms were teensy with two single beds that had maybe 4” between them, and just enough room to walk around them, but they were actually very nice, and their beds were comfier than most hotel beds in the US that I’ve been in. Soft clean bottom sheet, and- like the European style- no top sheet, just a soft white down comforter.
After cleaning up, food was the order of the day; we decided to suck it up and eat at the hotel (ouch on the budget- about $3O US a person!)- it was a buffet of huge proportions- I ate an Indian vegetable curry with steamed rice, samosa, sushi (all cooked or veggie), I tried Japanese style chilled tofu with roe in soba sauce (not liking that so much), some amazing medium rare duck breast slices, fried rice with duck and salmon in it, some out of this world pineapple and watermelon, and a selection of desserts- semisweet chocolate cake, mango napoleon, lemon custard thing, bread pudding with vanilla sauce. YUM!
Naps were next on the agenda and Caroline made us promise to be up by 4:30pm. Mutti was the only one successful at that… I dragged myself up shortly thereafter… and when Mutti called Caroline, she was still sleeping! We all convinced ourselves we needed to get out though, so went out and walked down Nathan St and near Kowloon Park to see what was what. We did discover a 7-11 and a Starbuck’s, of course! The lights were just beautiful, but of course I had decided not to take my camera- alas! We headed back after a bit and made a stop at the 7-11 to buy bottled water and some chips for Jordan that promised to be hot and spicy (but just tasted like barbecue- we didn’t even try the wide selection of prawn flavored chips that appear to e popular)) and mosied back to the hotel… we were still so tired and frankly full from all of the meals we’d eaten on the planes and from lunch that we skipped dinner. I went down for the count at 7:30 pm.
I started waking up at 3am, tried to sleep for about 2 more hours, and about 5am knew it wasn’t going to happen. After reading in the bathroom for about 19 minutes, and then on the floor by the nightlight for about 5, I discovered my mom was awake too, and we ended up talking in bed til 6am, at which point we deemed it acceptable to turn on the light. Surely Starbuck’s must be opening, right?!?!? We called Caroline’s room and found Jordan had been up since 3am too, so we all leisurely started to get ready. We found one of my sister’s travel buddies literally had the room across from hours- Jordan had knocked on our door and I opened it to find the person across from me was M. with her little C. too! We all chatted for a while, and decided to finally get ready and find food. We had seen a DeliFrance the night before, and it served croissants and pastries, which sounded great.
About 7am we headed out… and Starbuck’s wasn’t open, and neither was DeliFrance. Luckily the latter opened at 7:30am so we hung out on the sidewalk and watched Jordan and C. plays for 15 minutes, and then proceeded in. For about $6 US I ate a scramble with cheese, cherry tomatoes, and bacon mixed in (SO GOOD), a huge almond croissant that topped any I’d eaten in the US in
a long time, orange juice and an Orangina. I was stuffed, and I was happy! We started back after a leisurely breakfast, and stopped in at Starbuck’s on the way back- café mocha was 3x as good as it is in the states… maybe it’s traveling, but you all know I like some coffee with my sugar, and I didn’t have to add any at all to this… and the mocha part tasted even chocolatier than usual, Hmmm… I was tempted by the city mug that Stbx sells- maybe some of you have seen them? You can only buy the mug that says “Charlotte” In Charlotte, “Atlanta” in ATL… and in front of me is the “Hong Kong” mug… but I resisted (so far) although the temptation was great. We went back to the hotel, checked out (they were kind enough to whole all of our luggage for the day- we were switching that night to the Regal Kowloon which is where the agency travel groups were all straying) and we took the metro to HONG KONG DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!
It’s 4:15am, I’m awake typing in the dark, on a computer for which I forgot to bring a plug adapter… oops! The rooms here all seem to have sort of master light switch so when that’s off, then I can’t even turn on the lights to the bathroom…
Ok, so… Our flight from Taipei to Hong Kong was a short and sweet 1 hr 45 min, and we were STILL served a meal- in coach! It was delicious, minced pork and rice, with vegetables, and a “Delicious Cake”\” that really was pretty good- no complaints here! Jordan fells asleep on the flight as did I, so it went fast…We landed in Hong Kong to the scenery of water and mountains outside of our plane- they actually built all of the land the airport and landing strips are on- really amazing!
Jordan quickly discovered that riding on the luggage carts was the way to travel through the airport- except of course when it came time to get through immigration. No issues there (of course everything that COULD happen to you flashes through your mind as you stand there waiting for that stamp to enter Hong Kong), and now my clean, pristine passport has some stamps in it (ok, well, I guess it wasn’t pristine once they put the visa in it,… but you get the drift). Caroline had done all the research, so once we picked up our luggage off the carousel (after immigration- and YES! All the luggage made it intact!) We got tickets on the Airport Express train, which was smooth and amazing and took us quite a distance towards Hong Kong proper, where we got off at Kowloon station. We then took the Airport Express Shuttle (included in the cost) to get to the Kowloon Hotel,We checked in at the Kowloon Hotel- which has bellhops in full service and folks ready to handle heavy luggage (yea!) and found that our rooms were- and now I know there is Santa Claus- ready even at 11am, and no early check in fee, Can we say S-H-O-W-E-R?
Hot, wonderful water (that of course we didn’t get in our eyes or mouth) and clean hair, clean body, no more plane stink, and best of all- yes, clean underwear, Bliss!!!!! The rooms were teensy with two single beds that had maybe 4” between them, and just enough room to walk around them, but they were actually very nice, and their beds were comfier than most hotel beds in the US that I’ve been in. Soft clean bottom sheet, and- like the European style- no top sheet, just a soft white down comforter.After cleaning up, food was the order of the day; we decided to suck it up and eat at the hotel (ouch on the budget- about $3O US a person!)- it was a buffet of huge proportions- I ate an Indian vegetable curry with steamed rice, samosa, sushi (all cooked or veggie), I tried Japanese style chilled tofu with roe in soba sauce (not liking that so much), some amazing medium rare duck breast slices, fried rice with duck and salmon in it, some out of this world pineapple and watermelon, and a selection of desserts- semisweet chocolate cake, mango napoleon, lemon custard thing, bread pudding with vanilla sauce. YUM!
Naps were next on the agenda and Caroline made us promise to be up by 4:30pm. Mutti was the only one successful at that… I dragged myself up shortly thereafter… and when Mutti called Caroline, she was still sleeping! We all convinced ourselves we needed to get out though, so went out and walked down Nathan St and near Kowloon Park to see what was what. We did discover a 7-11 and a Starbuck’s, of course! The lights were just beautiful, but of course I had decided not to take my camera- alas! We headed back after a bit and made a stop at the 7-11 to buy bottled water and some chips for Jordan that promised to be hot and spicy (but just tasted like barbecue- we didn’t even try the wide selection of prawn flavored chips that appear to e popular)) and mosied back to the hotel… we were still so tired and frankly full from all of the meals we’d eaten on the planes and from lunch that we skipped dinner. I went down for the count at 7:30 pm.
I started waking up at 3am, tried to sleep for about 2 more hours, and about 5am knew it wasn’t going to happen. After reading in the bathroom for about 19 minutes, and then on the floor by the nightlight for about 5, I discovered my mom was awake too, and we ended up talking in bed til 6am, at which point we deemed it acceptable to turn on the light. Surely Starbuck’s must be opening, right?!?!? We called Caroline’s room and found Jordan had been up since 3am too, so we all leisurely started to get ready. We found one of my sister’s travel buddies literally had the room across from hours- Jordan had knocked on our door and I opened it to find the person across from me was M. with her little C. too! We all chatted for a while, and decided to finally get ready and find food. We had seen a DeliFrance the night before, and it served croissants and pastries, which sounded great.
About 7am we headed out… and Starbuck’s wasn’t open, and neither was DeliFrance. Luckily the latter opened at 7:30am so we hung out on the sidewalk and watched Jordan and C. plays for 15 minutes, and then proceeded in. For about $6 US I ate a scramble with cheese, cherry tomatoes, and bacon mixed in (SO GOOD), a huge almond croissant that topped any I’d eaten in the US in
a long time, orange juice and an Orangina. I was stuffed, and I was happy! We started back after a leisurely breakfast, and stopped in at Starbuck’s on the way back- café mocha was 3x as good as it is in the states… maybe it’s traveling, but you all know I like some coffee with my sugar, and I didn’t have to add any at all to this… and the mocha part tasted even chocolatier than usual, Hmmm… I was tempted by the city mug that Stbx sells- maybe some of you have seen them? You can only buy the mug that says “Charlotte” In Charlotte, “Atlanta” in ATL… and in front of me is the “Hong Kong” mug… but I resisted (so far) although the temptation was great. We went back to the hotel, checked out (they were kind enough to whole all of our luggage for the day- we were switching that night to the Regal Kowloon which is where the agency travel groups were all straying) and we took the metro to HONG KONG DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!
(I love you Dad!!!!!!!!! Mutti says "I love you HBH!!!")
Part 2 to follow soon...
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Blogger in Chinese characters is hard to navigate...
Hi all! I am in Taipei, in Taiwan!!!
Pardont he typos- everything on Blogger is in Chinese characters so it was an adventure just trying to get logged in! :-D
The flight was pretty good!! Only 3 major meltdowns J. has endured. We don't blame her, it's a stressful journey! C. has handled her beautifully though, and 2 of the meltdowns were in airports so not too big a deal. Nevertheless, it is awfully weird to have completely missed out on December 6th. I have taken several photos and can't wait to post them later when (hopefuly) I can get my laptop set up in Hong Kong. Y'all would be so proud of me- I had the Chinese breakfast option this morning, which included Beancurd Skin with Mushrooma, Egg Congee with Pork Balls, fresh fruit, and soy milk. The mushrooms were probably the best part as they were served with thin slices of fresh red chilies. Ate two dinners (one w/ Us Air on the way to LAX, the second with EVA Air (yummy) on the way to TaipeI)
It's just dawn here in Taiwan and the sun has just peeped out, the sky is blue and what I can see of that airport out the windows everything look lovely. Our flight to Hong Kong leaves at 8:15am on Dec. 7 (in about an hour)- it's a 13 hour time difference from the East Coast to anywhere in China, so it's only 7:15pm or so on Dec. 6 for you guys.
We'll be checking into the Kowloon Hotel just for tonight, then moving to the Regal Kowloon Hotel until Sunday morning (Sat afternoon for you guys). We'll be visiting Hong Kong Disneyland on Friday too- not many rides, but should be fun! Then we fly to Changsha on Sunday, and Dec 11th is Ellie Day!!!!! (Dec. 10 evening East Coast?) I can't remember when we go to Guangzhou but I'll put up the official itinerary laer on.
C- is Smudge doing alright? I hope so! I am so worried about her poor tummy. Please kiss and brish Pushkin and loev on Thumper, and give Baxter lotyts of love too. And most of all love to you! I left you a voice mail last ngiht from LAX but I think you had fallen asleep= hope work went well today.
gOTTA RUN!
Pardont he typos- everything on Blogger is in Chinese characters so it was an adventure just trying to get logged in! :-D
The flight was pretty good!! Only 3 major meltdowns J. has endured. We don't blame her, it's a stressful journey! C. has handled her beautifully though, and 2 of the meltdowns were in airports so not too big a deal. Nevertheless, it is awfully weird to have completely missed out on December 6th. I have taken several photos and can't wait to post them later when (hopefuly) I can get my laptop set up in Hong Kong. Y'all would be so proud of me- I had the Chinese breakfast option this morning, which included Beancurd Skin with Mushrooma, Egg Congee with Pork Balls, fresh fruit, and soy milk. The mushrooms were probably the best part as they were served with thin slices of fresh red chilies. Ate two dinners (one w/ Us Air on the way to LAX, the second with EVA Air (yummy) on the way to TaipeI)
It's just dawn here in Taiwan and the sun has just peeped out, the sky is blue and what I can see of that airport out the windows everything look lovely. Our flight to Hong Kong leaves at 8:15am on Dec. 7 (in about an hour)- it's a 13 hour time difference from the East Coast to anywhere in China, so it's only 7:15pm or so on Dec. 6 for you guys.
We'll be checking into the Kowloon Hotel just for tonight, then moving to the Regal Kowloon Hotel until Sunday morning (Sat afternoon for you guys). We'll be visiting Hong Kong Disneyland on Friday too- not many rides, but should be fun! Then we fly to Changsha on Sunday, and Dec 11th is Ellie Day!!!!! (Dec. 10 evening East Coast?) I can't remember when we go to Guangzhou but I'll put up the official itinerary laer on.
C- is Smudge doing alright? I hope so! I am so worried about her poor tummy. Please kiss and brish Pushkin and loev on Thumper, and give Baxter lotyts of love too. And most of all love to you! I left you a voice mail last ngiht from LAX but I think you had fallen asleep= hope work went well today.
gOTTA RUN!
Friday, December 1, 2006
Here we go...
So, I'm not much of a blogger any more, but I am hoping that I will be able to record some of my thoughts and experiences here on the trip to the People's Republic of China, as my sister and my niece go to meet her 2nd daughter (younger sister), Ellie, in the Hunan Province. Ellie is currently in Dao Xian Social Welfare Institute in the southwest of China, and we will meet her in the Hunan provincial capital, Changsha.
My sister got her Travel Notice this past Tuesday, and received her U.S. Consulate Appointment (CA) yesterday. The CA is the last thing you do to finalize the adoption while in China, so it determines your travel dates. Well, today we bought our tickets and we are leaving TUESDAY!!!!!!!!! That's right, December 5! Talk about a fast turnaround- and much faster than I thought it would be! As such, I'll be missing the Magic Hips dance recital (dang it) in which we were (ok, everyone else still is, LOL, just not me) doing a drum solo and Khaleegy mix choreographed by Yas. I also had planned a solo to the song "Slow Descent" by Knossos (those of you at Kara and Dolph's wedding saw me dance to that during the reception)- and this style of music is so out of my usual comfort level, so I was quite proud of myself... but it's not to be.
Not that I am complaining, because, HELLOOO- I am going to CHINA to meet my new niece!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways, we'll be landing back in the home city at 6:30am on December 24, after which I will get picked up, go home and take a shower, change clothes, and head to C.'s family in Hotlanta to celebrate Christmas Eve (and a belated solstice). I'll probably be completely jet lagged and half asleep the whole day- not the way I wanted to be to meet his mom and renew ties with his siblings, dad, and L., but hey- I'll be the one driving us back home at the wee hours of the morning (probably 2am- my body will think it's afternoon) so we'll be in good time for Santa to arrive at my sister's house.
I bought a new camera- my first digital- just last weekend, and am still learning to use it. I hope to be able to post some pictures on the blog while in China if I can make the camera work with my laptop. It's a Canon Powershot A630- and I know I am going to love it because my sister has one and I watched her take pictures over Thanksgiving in Phoenix- the quality was fabulous, the features were wonderful, and the 8 megapixels with 4x zoom is just enough for me (who wants to be able to take pictures of people on stage without them looking tiny or grainy) but not too much as I am not a serious photographer.
My other splurge for this trip is an iPodNano, 4GB (no video)- have I finally actually joined the 21st century? I got with my points I earned at work, so didn't spend a dime- now that's a treat. I've been loading music this week to it and hope to finish that up tonight or tomorrow, and maybe set up some playlists as well.
So this weekend will be trial and error packing (I have a list, just need to figure out how much is actually coming with me). All of my bags must be based on the smallest luggage restrictions between all the flights- and that is the internal China flights, where I believe i am allowed one checked bag not greater than 44 lbs. and one carry on. I may just suck it up and pay the extra baggage fee because, gosh darn it, I am bringing some goodies home with me!
The other thing we did today is get our plane tickets- I haven't had real paper tickets in so long, it makes me nervous as all get out to have them be my responsibility. And there's so many of them! Flight from Charlotte to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Taipei (Taiwan), and Taipei to Hong Kong. Plus the return tickets. Add that to the ones I'll be getting from the adoption agency that allow me to fly from Hong Kong to Changsha, and Changsha to Guangzhou, and Guangzhou back to Hong Kong. EEK! That's alot of flying- I expect I won't want to see the inside of a plane again for long time once I'm back home. (Heck, I don't particularly want to see the inside of a plane since I came home from the flights from Phoenix!). At least one good thing- I forked up the three grand to fly 1st class from Charlotte to LAX (and that same leg returning) so my legs won't be completely cramped, and i get good food (relatively speaking). No businss class seats available from LAX to Taipei/ or to Hong Kong, but we have "Premium Economy" which I am assured is pretty darn nice on the airline for those legs (Eva Airlines- a Taiwanese carrier- anyone out there know anything about them? First time I'd heard of them was yesterday).
If I can make my digital camera upload pics to this computer I'll see if I can post a picture of my tickets- I am THAT excited. And maybe my visa... yes. I'm a geek.
I get my itinerary for the whole trip Monday night, I think (hopefully earlier), and I will share that with y'all so everyone can come along for the ride. This promises to be exciting... and probably a little nerve wracking... and I'm sure filled with moments of frustration (for me, my family, my sister, my 4.5 year old niece, and probably most of all for Ellie, is going to be stuck with people who sound funny, who smell funny, and who aren't feeding her exactly what she's been getting- like eel!!!!!!!!!!
More later!
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