fun2rv

IMPERIAL JEWELS OF CHINA - October 16 - 18

DAYS 15-17 - Hong Kong

Our last flight inside China was from Guilin to Hong Kong. This made a total of 5 flights inside China. Other than my episode in Beijing, flying in China was good. No matter how long the flight, you were fed. The whole system was very efficient and apparently we were very fortunate that we had no delays. We were rather intrigued by the fact that our guide Jimmy had a gorgeous jade bracelet that he wore when he flew. This brought him good luck, he said.

Our hotel in Hong Kong was actually on Kowloon Island and was the Kowloon Shangri-La. Another spectacular hotel, second only to the Shangri-La at Guilin. It was in a wonderful location, right in the busy downtown section, close to the bus terminal and within walking distance of everything. Our local guide was Alex and he was probably the best guide we had, after Jimmy.

We started our first day with a tour of Hong Kong Island, driving to the top of Victoria Peak.

Eric fascinated by the construction with bamboo

Honk Kong from Victoria Peak

We drove to Aberdeen (don't you love the British influence) and visited Stanley Market. This has to be shopper's paradise! Jimmy helped Judi pick out an authentic Chinese jacket for a small fraction of the price it would have cost me on the ship and a much nicer item. We did not have a long time here and knew we wanted to return.

Shopping in Stanley Market

After we finished, we drove back to Kowloon Island to do a tour of the harbour on a Sampan.

"Captain Sampan" .... don't mess with her

Scenes from Hong Kong Harbour

The largest floating restaurant in the world

More harbour photos

Even though we had nothing more planned for the day, they did take us to another jewellery factory .... what a shame!!! Only 30% of the population of Hong Kong can afford a car and the cars we saw were mostly luxury cars. The street where the jewellery factory was located had a garage where these cars were parked. Eric went snooping and saw some of these cars, took a photo and then got kicked out!

Actually, this is not the car, but a good representation

Workers inside the jewellery factory

The owner had a wonderful antique display, clipping this Indian motorcycle which Eric fell right in love with

Our day tour was over and we returned to the hotel. Our guide, Alex offered us an opportunity for a "tour" of the underground network near our hotel. There was a whole underground city. Judi declined and Eric did go. He came back full of information and we were set for the next day on our own.

For dinner, we had planned with our friends Arlene and Herbie to take our tour guide Jimmy out for dinner. We asked him to choose the place and he chose Outback Steakhouse. We could to believe that we were in Hong Kong eating at Outback Steakhouse. Jimmy was rather overwhelmed by the Bloomin' Onion and the size of the steak!

Dinner with Jimmy, Herbie and Arlene at Outback Steakhouse

The next day, which was our last in China was a free day. Jimmy was set up in the lobby with lots of information on where to go and what to do. We had already decided to go down to the waterfront and do a couple a geocaches. It was stinking hot and humid, but we set out on foot. Judi will not go into the story on how Eric tried to buy a fake Rolex watch .... you will have to ask him.

Down on the waterfront we enjoyed the local culture and did manage to do 2 geocaches ... not virtual ones. We watched a band competition and generally just took in all we could.

Downtown

We had been so fascinated with Stanley Market, that we went back to the hotel and caught the bus to Stanley Market. It was a 2.5 hour drive to get there and we sat at the front of the double-decker bus and enjoyed every moment of the drive .... through the winding streets of Hong Kong and along the shore.

Love this photo-top of the double decker bus

When we got to Stanley Market we wandered around the stalls and did some more shopping. We had dinner along the water's edge at a small restaurant. Our bus ride home was much shorter, but we did it at night and the lights were beautiful. We had a family sitting behind us and the two little girls were so cute. They would start talking in Chinese and then English .... totally bilingual.

Dinner at Stanley Park --- yes, more Chinese beer!

Our vacation was pretty well over. In the morning we were the only ones going to the airport on our shuttle as most had left very early and the British people were leaving late. We were most impressed with our private luxury car drive to the airport and our guide Alex was there to meet us and take us through check in. He was our last contact in China and it was great.

Here are a photo of our hotel lobby in Hong Kong ... it was lovely.

Home to Canada ..... wonderful trip ...... cherished memories.

Thank you Bob and Francine for sharing the time with us. Family is so important and we love you.

To all our friends ..... we have many more photos ... drop by to see them.

Oh yes .... keep checking our blog. South America next. We leave here on Feb. 17th.

IMPERIAL JEWELS OF CHINA - October 15, 2015

DAY 14 - Guilin and Hong Kong

The schedule for today sounded very interesting. It included the Li River cruise, lunch on board the boat, walking tour of Yangshuo village and drive to the airport. This day turned out to be one of the best on our trip. Actually, it was undoubtedly the most special day we had.

Guilin means "forest of Sweet Osmanthus" and it is named after the fragrant and small evergreen trees located throughout the city. It is located on the Li River. Sadly, we only had one night here and it certainly would be worth a return trip.

After breakfast at the wonderful buffet, we boarded our bus to head out to the Li River cruise. Once again we were fortunate to be with Viking, as we were one of the first ships to leave for the tour. It turned out to be the most beautiful scenery we saw on our trip. The river is very busy and the surrounding areas are quite populated, but it soon became evident that this river was the source of employment and food for many. This was the China we had been waiting to see! The dramatic limestone peaks were breathtaking and we took many photos. We saw our first water buffalos and also saw the cormorants that the fishermen use to catch their fish. They put a metal ring around their neck and when the cormorant catches a fish, it cannot swallow it and the fisherman takes the fish from its beak. We had special seats on this boat with access to the bow and stern so we could take photos. We also had a lovely buffet lunch on board.

Our boat waiting for us to board

Many more boats ... a real tourist area

They brought us the customary Chinese tea

Passing boat ... booking on the stern

Local boats docked by their homes along the river

Water Buffalo

Local fisherman

Snake wine anyone ....... $5 a shot .... no takers

Cormorant

Magnificent limestone peaks

More beautiful scenery

Local taxi service

Waterfall

More scenic photos

The general haze in these photos is rather annoying. We don't know how people get these gorgeous photos with clear blue sky and no haze ... must happen seldom, but is really special when it occurs. This was probably the most frustrating time for us because we had to leave our Canon 7D camera home because of luggage regulations in China. It was very painful taking photos with our "point and shoot cameras". No matter, this place was so special and unique.

When our cruise was done, we were transported to a smaller boat which took us ashore. That was an adventure as anyone with physical problems would not have made it. Once ashore we boarded our bus and drove through the town of Yangshou on our way to the airport. The driver had to stop for fuel and several of the ladies on the bus decided they needed to use the washroom. They came out laughing because they were definitely not western toilets!

Our drive to the airport was fascinating. This was the "heart" of China. 55% of the population of China are farmers and we got a small glimpse of their lives. The farms are very small. We noticed many homes under construction and obviously abandoned. The story here was that they are not abandoned, but people leave the area because they cannot get work and work as labourers in the cities. They send money back home to build their retirement homes. Generally these homes are three stories and very sparse.

As we were driving through this area, Jimmy our guide had the driver stop the bus. He wanted to show us a typical farm home. Jimmy just randomly picked a home. The bus stopped at the side of the road and we got out. There were rice fields on the right side of the road, at various stages of development. We crossed the road and walked up a paved driveway to an area with several homes grouped together. Along the driveway there were crops planted on each side. Jimmy went ahead to talk to the people living in one of the homes to see if we could visit. Can you imagine these people having 26 "Westerners" arriving unannounced at their home!!

The home was very clean but so sparse. The only electrical appliances were a rice cooker and very small and ancient fridge. The home was constructed entirely of concrete and had no furniture. Chickens could be seen from the back entrance and certainly had free range in the home. The wife was very tiny and stooped over, the result of a lifetime of working in the rice fields. Her skin was like shoe leather and she had very few teeth. Her husband was also very tiny and had few teeth. They were so honoured to have us visit and it was truly a humbling experience.

The husband came out almost immediately with tea for us, in paper cups. It was a rather awkward time for us "westerners" as we really did not know what to do. We started to leave them some money and Jimmy rounded us up to get out quick. He later told us that these people were so proud that they would have wanted to feed us. The money we left them was more than they made in a month, but also it was probably very upsetting to them. This is another one of those experiences in life that we will never forget. We did not take photos inside the home as it simply did not seem appropriate. We look back at this time and try to image what these folk's thoughts and feeling were.

Outside their home, we did get a group photo taken, thanks to their granddaughter who was there. She had a cell phone and wanted photos.

The left house was the one we visited

The tiny road into the group of homes in this village

Lettuce drying

Guess we did get one photo inside the home ... Eric took this!

Getting ready to take our group photo outside the house, Mother and Father with Granddaughter

IMPERIAL JEWELS OF CHINA - October 14, 2015

DAY 13 - Beijing and Guilin

After breakfast, we said goodbye to most of our bus friends and met our new bus friends. Most of them had been with us on our previous bus, so we only had a few to get to know. The majority of them were from Britain and they sure were a great bunch of people to travel with. We were pleased to still have our guide, Jimmy. Off we went to Beijing airport and this was where Judi got into a run-in with security. Apparently, her lithium charger for her iPad was not permitted on the plane, even though it had already been on 4 China flights. She argued with security but of course it was of no use. As the lady apologized to her, she picked up her charger and it was placed in a box full of similar ones. Of well, when she got home she ordered another one from Aliexpress .. upgrade, lower price.

As soon as we landed in Guilin, we could sense it was special. A high tourist area, it is the only place in China were a person can visit for up to 72 hours without a visa. A relatively small city of only 880,000 people, it caters to English speaking tourists. It was nice to get away from the busy crowded intensity of Beijing and to see the beautiful scenery and lovely gardens.

Our hotel was the Shangri-La and it was by far the most beautiful place we stayed on our whole trip. It had lovely gardens surrounding the hotel and we walked them just before sunset. A lot of ethnic people live in this area and they did a musical presentation in the hotel lobby as well as outside. The buffet was the best we had experienced so far with many of the dishes being more than we could imagine. They had eel soup, turtle soup (which we would never eat) and things we could not even begin to identify. It was nice to relax and enjoy the beauty of this place.