Vietnam Roadtrip

Today in Hue I started my Vietnam road trip. After one night in HCMC (Saigon) and a short flight to Hue, I am now in the ancient capital of Vietnam.

Many aspects of Hue life has obvious Chinese influence, from long ago. The writing on old stone stele, or on the ancient bronzes, is Chinese. The Imperial Palace has a layout similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing. The Clothing styles of the royals are practically indistinguishable from that of the royal Chinese.

Even the food has Chinese influences. Actually, Hue is famous for its cuisine and there are over 1000 dishes that come from Hue. Vietnamese imperial food comes from here. What we eat in the States, like Pho and spring rolls, are basically street food and nothing like the high class dishes from Hue.

It is pouring down rain here now and the streets are flooded. The imperial palace and some other tourist sites are inaccessible.

Junkin' around

Today in Hong Kong I went on a junk cruise! This is basically a booze cruise that expats here do as often as they can. Some companies even have their own boats for their employees.

I thought it would be one of those refurbished old junks with the funny red sails that looks out of Taipan. There are a few of these boats that go around in the harbor. I think that Aqua Restaurant Group has one that will take you from Hong Kong island to their restaurants in Kowloon.

This was sorta shaped like a junk, but once on it feels like a regular boat. I was a little disappointed, as I am sure many first timers are! I was the only American and the only first timer (I think).

Still, it was so relaxing to sit up top in the breeze, chatting away while girls brought us nibblies and drinks. The sea breezes were flowing and beer and bad wine was available too.

We motored out to an island (there are about 200 hundred islands off this side of Hong Kong) where there was a small beach. I jumped off the top of the junk and swam to the beach where beer and, thank goodness, water was waiting for us in a cooler.

When the sun shined through, the water was clear aqua and the beach sugary white.

A leisurely swim back (I really didn't want to get out) to the boat brought me there in time for lunch. A pretty good lunch with steak, salmon, and chicken and a yummy eggplant dish (and other stuff too, like salad).

THIS is the life!!

Dragon's Back

Today in Hong Kong I went for a hike on the Dragon's Back. This is a very popular hike on Hong Kong Island that takes only about 2 hours at a pretty leisurely pace. The trail is mostly natural rock with some stone steps and curves up over the undulating verdant hills overlooking the South Side of the island. Below on one side are villas inhabited by HK's richer set and the Hong Kong International School, also occupied by HK's rich set. On the other side are crashing waves, beaches, and a small golf course. It is so great to be out in nature, away from the sounds of traffic and from the throngs of people. We did see a few other hikers, but hiking in HK is definitely one way to get away from it all. Unfortunately, we didn't get away from the heat and smog and the views were definitely obscured by the purple haze that is Hong Kong most of the year. Hopefully as the weather cools down there will be more hikes in store!

We rewarded ourselves with a delicious Thai meal down in the village of Shek-O and a wade in the warm waters. Next time- DEFINITELY bringing my swimgsuit!

Factory blues

Today in Zhongshan, for good measure, we had a repeat of last night's feast for those who couldn’t make it on the night of the wedding. We had 3 more tables and the same food in the same restaurant. It is unclear who exactly were the latecomers as two of the tables were still just the families and us.

After lunch, we went to a garment factory to check out a Chinese factory as one of the American boys wanted to see one. The grand factory that my former student works for won't open until tomorrow as it is still Golden Week so we went to a jeans factory that Lesley's brother did some work for. This “factory” is a little more typical maybe of the small factories that dot the mainland. There are 2 floors, about 50 square feet. The workers live in the back in a somewhat uriney-smelling area. The was a small office and out on the floor there were several (maybe 15) people sitting at sewing machines making collars or sleeves or whatever for the button-down shirts they make. In the back two men were measuring denim. They had a huge length of denim that they had already measured about 12 4 meter lengths from and they still had a huge pile on the floor to get through. They stretch the material out over a table and place a metal rod on the end to keep it in that place, return it to the beginning, where another metal rod is placed and it is brought around over the rod to the first rod, which is removed and placed on top of the material for it to be brought back to the beginning. And so on.

Lesley found some jeans to bring back to the states as samples, but Janey and I looked at them and knew that few American butts were going to fit into those jeans! After that we had to get out of there because I had to take the ferry back to Hong Kong and Jason had to catch a plane back to California. Once again, things that were supposedly going to take 20 minutes took 45 and so on so I wanted to make sure I didn't miss my boat. We left, but were called back so that Jason could take the samples back to California with him on the plane! A huge bag of jeans as his carry on. Lucky him!

Wedding No. 2

Today in Zhongshan we had the Bride's wedding. This was a much smaller affair and included only the brides’s immediate family- so there were only about 30 tables. Only 300 people. About 30 minutes after we arrived I was asked to give a speech. And tell the bride's sister what I was going to say so she could translate. Which gave me about 1 minute to think about what to say. So of course I said something corny and not well-thought out.

The food came out with a lot of fan-fare and girls with lanterns. Two boys came out with a dragon and a phoenix on poles and a line of girls holding fancy lanterns. Tonight we had lobster and suckling pig again- which came out with little blinking hearts in its eyes, as if it wasn't gruesome enough to see his face and tail still whole. But I love suckling pig so I can get over it. I didn't get to eat everything because I went with the couple to make toasts at each table. She had 3 tables of teachers! There was a waitress or hostess keeping us on track and moving us along. A sort of wedding whip-cracker.

After the dinner a bunch of us young folks went out for KTV (Karaoke). This was at a nice hotel with lots of chandeliers and a floor to ceiling window that looked out over the river. Pretty ritzy.

The best singers were the Bride's sister and her 9 year-old daughter (the flower girl in the picture above).

Fore!

Today in Zhongshan I went with the American contingent to the Zhongshan Hot Springs. We had an interesting “Western” lunch and then walked around the area. There are large pools for swimming and, I assume, smaller hot tubs to take advantage of the hot springs. Inside the hotel confines there is a nicely manicured pond with trees and scholar stones. But overall it was a rather run-down place that could use a little modernizing.

On the same premises is a beautiful golf course that made me want to take up golfing. It had just started to rain and soft lawns curving into the mist with the sheets of rain coming down on the bamboo lining the lake and trees on the course really made it a very beautiful site. It was rather inconsistent with the hotel and resort down the road, where I assume golfers must stay.

China is really getting into the golf craze and there are several very popular courses just over the border from Hong Kong. Hong Kongese golf enthusiasts have only good things to say, especially about the 216-hole (12 courses in one location) golf-a-palooza in Dong Guan.

National day dragons and turtles

Today in Zhongshan we went to see some dragon boat races. These were quite different from the races in Hong Kong. For starters, these races are much longer distance. Also, the boats are simple dug-outs. No dragons' head, no fancy paint job, no drumming coxswain.

They paddle down a canal through the town, 4 or 5 men paddling steady and hard. These guys seem like pros. The whole town (and then some I am sure) is lined up along the canal watching. It is very difficult to edge in to see. Again, my height helps here! But finally someone in our entourage has succeeded in herding us down to a tarp draped over some wood where someone's cousin's friend's customer (or something like that, it is always something like that) has set up a spot and claimed it as his own.

People make way for us foreigners. I seem to be in the smoking section as all the men seated on stools around me are smoking. I move to the back where I can still see over their heads and watch the race. I guess this sort of race is not that exciting if you are not at the finish line. There are boats going back and forth; it is impossible to tell who is ahead. It is not the furious paddling of Hong Kong, so all I can do is watch the boats go by and try to determine if one or another has gone by before.

We leave and head for lunch. Some guy who owes Brother a lot of money has invited us to have lunch at a place he has rented out. There are several tables on a dock-like structure with a roof over it. It is resting in the water and there are a few out buildings on stilts for private rooms. It is dining al fresco on the water, what else could you want?!

The host owes our friend money, but he evidently gave 200 roast pigs to the city, one for each township! And he is holding this meal for about 25 tables. I guess we know where the money went! And by inviting us he has bought himself some reprieve in the deadline for repayment.

Lunch is hot pot. Turtle hot pot. We are served some gelatinous stuff and some meat.
The gelatinous stuff is what I guess is the turtle's skin. It still has the “freckles" you can sometimes see on some turtles. American Mom gets a foot, with toenails still intact!!
We hand that one over to the groom!

This restaurant has all kinds of things for sale: eels and snakes, frogs, turtles of course, and some sort of mammal that looks like a raccoon crossed with a sloth?! We don't know what it is. We want to set it free.

(I will post a picture of the restaurant later when I get one from the others. I had already run out of batteries on my camera by this time)