Hello everyone.
We know we are way past due on more exciting installments of the happenings on Rendezvous Cay, but it has been an action packed month and a half. We left you in mid-May with a good report on Rose's situation and rebooking our trip to China. As for the Rose update, the new pills take about 3 months to take effect, and the doc is building up the dosage, At the same time she is tapering off the steroids, so there is a bit of a relapse as the reduction in steroids is outpacing the increased dosage of the other stuff. In any event she is deserting the boat for almost six weeks on July 8 (AND missing my birthday) to visit everyone back in the UK. Seeing her family always perks her up so we are hoping all will be well on her return.
So, we were able to rebook China and spent the interim week hanging around Penang, doing chores and generally chilling. We left at the crack of dawn on May 22. First stop Macao. We have to admit this part of the trip was a disappointment. The whole 4 days it pissed rain, and our hotel was really unsatisfactory. More on that later. We flew direct from Penang to Hong Kong. There was supposed to be some way to check our luggage through to the Macao ferry, but we never did figure it out, so we had to check into HK, then take a ferry to Kowloon where we got the Macao ferry. The good news is we did figure the deal out on our way to Beijing and were able to check everything through from Macao. So the hotel!!! Depending on what you read this was supposed to be either a 3 or 5 star casino hotel. Not. On arrival late in the day, I must admit we were fairly impressed with the room, but then we tried to get a "welcome to Macao" drink around 5 or 6. Nope. Only one bar in the place, but not really in the hotel and it wasn't opening 'til 7. Okay, we'll walk around and find another bar. Nope, nothing nearby; tried again at 7. Not open. In fact, in 4 days, we never found it open--in a casino hotel!!!!!!?????? Oh, and you can't drink the water out of the tap. In fairness, this is pretty much all over China, but they give you two mingy bottles and the charge about 5 times the cost in a 7 11 for more. Next morning we went to get a cup of coffee. Nope. Must buy the entire $15 breakfast buffet to get coffee. Oh, and the TV never worked right. The casino consisted of a million baccarat tables, about 1 blackjack table and no craps. We're getting seriously pissed off. On a more amusing note, we did find a reasonable restaurant in the casino, and, one night, I asked what the soup of the day was--pork, I was told--and ordered some. After a few spoonfuls, I dipped a little deeper to get some pork and came up with a chicken foot. Otherwise the food was pretty good and cheap. We passed on the double boiled pig lung soup, though.
Our first full day, we hired a driver, but, unfortunately, we had very heavy rain. We hit a temple or two, the old Portuguese quarter, etc. Not very interesting in the rain, but we did go the the big new Venetian Casino hotel, where the captain took them for a bit of money at craps. A return trip later was not as successful. Another day, we took the ferry over to Hong Kong and took a rather long ride down to a famous market. Some good deals, especially on silk shirts. I had wished I bought more until we hit even cheaper Saigon!! Another day there was supposed to be a "famous" market near the hotel. Nope, rained out, but we managed a really nice lunch at a Portuguese place. All in all, this was a bummer of a start to our trip, but we couldn't be in China and not check this part out.
Anyway, China proper made up for it all. Piece of cake, as I said, with baggage check through, and Beijing officialdom for getting into the country (they still treat Macao and HK differently) were the best we've encountered, especially eliminating the usual 2 miles walk to immigration. By the way, everywhere we flew, there were new forms to fill out about swine flu. Our Beijing hotel was a 5 star and really was. Bottled water was free, good lobby cafe and bar, and an all you could eat Japanese Teppanyaki (like Beni Hana) restaurant. From this point on in all our travels, breakfast was included, and they were the full deal, huge buffet, custom eggs service. Our room was large and really nice with a working TV. There was a big picture window into the bathroom from the sleeping area which we still can't figure out. Kinky Chinese, I guess. Rose closed the shade over my protestations!!! The only problem was the lack of English speaking staff. In all our travels, here and Hanoi were the only places where there were serious communication problems. One night, we decided to stay in and get room service after a long day of sightseeing. They had a small menu in the room, unfortunately without numbering the items. It took a couple of calls to room service and, finally, two calls to the front desk to get anyone who could understand club sandwich and cheeseburger!!!! Small price to pay for such a nice hotel, but we didn't get dinner 'til 9.
This was an organized tour with English guides, and they were just packed days starting at about 7:30 and ending sometimes as late as 7. We had for 5 to 11 people on the tours. As a small bummer, and we knew about it, every day you had to stop at some way over priced tourist shop--Jade, Silk, etc. Just a waste of time. However, about China, all we can say is WOW. The stuff you see in the movies and on TV just don't do justice to the monuments in China. The Forbidden City is acres and acres right in the center of the city, and, unbeknownst to us, adjacent to Tiananmen Square. We were there just before the anniversary so everything was quite open. Surprisingly, they still revere Mao, although I thought he had been discredited for the excesses of his last years. I really expected to see everyone in those Mao outfits and millions of bicycles, but that's a thing of the past. Traffic is awful and everyone is in western dress. The first day, we also visited the Temple of Heaven, a giant pagoda and the Summer Palace which is a huge park--among the many in Beijing--where people do Tai Chi and there are a bunch of sort of karaoke entertainers--hard to explain. This is mainly for the old folks to get together as their living quarters are so small. The city is just full of large parks and wide Parisian type boulevards. Really quite nice.
The next day we headed out of town to the Great Wall, the section you always see on TV. Totally awesome. First we hit the Ming Tombs, also very cool. So to get to the first guard tower on the wall, you have to climb 600 odd steps, some about a foot high and quite steep. We had our doubts, but were spurred on by the sight of a woman descending the stairs using crutches. We thought the 230 steps at Batu Caves here in Malaysia were tough, but try over 600!!! BUT, the old folks made it. You could actually go up another bunch to a couple of more towers, and a couple of young girls fresh from a trip in Tibet did do that. We stopped at the first, though, and just a little way on--a flat part and then down about 20 steps--was a souvenir shop, so I went off to get a couple of bottles of water. I have neglected to mention that on our entire travels through China and SE Asia, it has been blazing hot--high 90's with humidity to match so in spite of our eating ourselves silly, we both dropped a few pounds with all the sweaty exercise. Anyway, at the souvenir shop, for about $5, they had these cool brass plaques with some etching of the wall and "I have climbed the Great Wall", and then they etch in your name and the date. Got one for us both, but on our descent, we checked out the shops at the bottom and the bastards were selling the same thing so one doesn't really have to climb the wall to get a plaque. That's really cheating, but we're glad we did do it!!! After lunch we headed back to Beijing for a trip to the Olympic village where we got poor foot massages thinly disguising an attempt to sell us Chinese medicine!
We got back to the hotel late that day to wait for our lift to the train to Xian, site of the Terra Cotta warriors. The train left at about 9:30 PM and, fortunately, they had a MacDonald's in the station. We arranged the train on purpose to get an idea of the countryside and booked a "soft sleeper". This is a roomette with 4 berths so we had room mates. A Saudi guy and his Thai girlfriend. While they weren't too sociable, there was an American expat next door, and he clued us in on the way the train works, etc. The train was quite nice with good facilities and a dining car for morning coffee and a Chinese brekkie. We were a bit late arriving--about an hour--so our guide met us and suggested we swap days and do the warriors the next day and a city tour that day. Okay by us. The hotel--4 star this time--was pretty good and near the station. Xian is a city of about 2 million and was the first imperial capital of China, seat of Qin, first emperor who has the huge tomb with the warriors. The inner city in enclosed by a 14 kilometer 10 meter high by 5 meter thick wall which is still in good shape. We climbed up--again--walked around a bit, but the rickshaw drivers up there had touristitis--somewhat a problem all over China--so we decided not to ride all the way round. Hit the local museum which was fascinating in its portrayal of ancient China, and finished at an old famous mosque. To get to the mosque, you have to wend your way through a huge outdoor market where I added a fake Omega to my collection of replicas. We followed that up with a proper foot and body massage--dirt cheap, too. On the way back, I asked to stop at a western pharmacy as I thought I was developing a tooth infection. Cost me about $2.00 for two different prescriptions!!! $100 easy in the states. God, the older and poorer I get, the more liberal I become. My brother probably won't speak to me at all now!!! Whose says socialism is all bad?
The second day was one of the highlights of the trip. Our guide spoke fluent English, and we drove out to the site of the warriors. History has known about the emperor's tomb, but no one knew where it was. A farmer was digging a well in the 70's and dug up a terra cotta head, reported it to the authorities, and now the entire site of the tomb--55 square kilometers--is under investigation. The warriors are only a small part of this tomb which took 700,000 workers 39 years to construct. Fascinating and lots of photo ops. There's also a museum with history of the Qin dynasty. Followed that up with a trip to Wild Goose Pagoda, site of the original Buddhist guys in China, then back to the hotel to wait for the train back to Beijing. This time we had some crazy Romanians that had migrated to the states as roommates. They were more sociable and brought out cookies and a bottle of the local spirits reminiscent of slivovitz. Ouch.
We arrived early AM in Beijing with our driver meeting us at the train door. This was a free day for us, and we thought we'd do some "real", as opposed to tourist, shopping at the Silk Market, a huge multistory air-conditioned place. Added a few more watches and silk shirts, while Rose got some jeans and shoes. Doesn't pay to bargain too hard with those damn Chinese though. On our return, we discovered one of Rose's shoes was missing a decorative stud. Should have checked the one she didn't try on, but we think we can repair it. I love these places, however. They ask 100; you offer 10. Bargain, bargain, bargain, and you end up about 30. One shirt Rose bought started at 425 Yuan--about $60, and she got it for 50--about $7!!! Cool, but the best shopping was yet to come and with that I will leave you as the rest of the trip was too long to get in the letter. Next day we flew to HK, changed planes and flew directly back to Penang. On a side note, the old man can get social security this year and for some reason the website to enroll is inaccessible here in Malaysia. Kudos to the guys in manila we were directed to who promptly (same day!!!!) emailed me to set up a phone call on June 3rd, called me on time and did a 15 minute interview to set up my benefits. No pain, no strain unlike the Homeland (or should I say Nazi) Security problem I'm having with my Captain's license (more on that later). Two days there doing laundry and resting up, buying a netbook computer for wifi on the road, and we were off to Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat. How's that for a cliffhanger.
Cheers
Tim & Rose
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