A beautiful day in Paradise

Sunday we had tickets to the football. Brisbane Lions against the West Coast Eagles. Lions havent won a match yet this season and they stayed true to form with flashes of good play but not finishing it off. We both enjoy a game of footy and this is the only chane to get to go to see a match even though neither of us really follow Brisbane. I guess we do know the players because of the TV coverage and some things written in the papers.

It was a good day out, free train travel to Brisbane and then onto a free bus and delivered to the main gate and the same in reserve.

Our seats were good, Warren had rung and organised those, third tier which does put us above the play but there are big screens on either end if play is too far away and they also show repeats of good points.

When Brisbane kick a goal, the big screen light up with a huge lion head and a roar, first time I heard it, it nearly scared the pants of me. If you look closely at the photo, you may be able to see it. The photo also shows the cloudless sky, ground was green and yep it was a beautiful day.

The things I bought in China

I didn't buy too much, one because I didn't need anything and two because my bags were pretty full when we left. However I couldn't

resist some things. This is what I bought just for me. A canvas looking bag, it was the colour that drew me to this and I will use it for Red Hats outings. This was bought on the streets of Shanghai. We were walking past and Warren was a little ahead of me because of the traffic and the street sellers. I glanced across and saw bags and of course stopped (like you do! or I do anyway). The seller didn't have another one so he took all the stuffing out of this one taking more time, I was looking ahead to see where Warren was but knew there was a road to cross up ahead with lights so I assumed I would catch up there. I paid the money a staggering 25rmb or $5 and set off to catch up only to find that Warren was on the pavement not more than five metres away. He had noticed the bag seller and figured that I would stop there.

I had already bought 20 scarves to give to the girls at work, there are, I think, fifteen of us, not all work at the same time and I bought a variety so they could have a choice but the teal and purple I did buy to keep for me. The blue one will gold on it was also bought in Shanghai on the road going to the Bund, all scarves cost 10rmb or about $1.80. The bulk scarves I bought at the Silk market in Hangzhou.

My hand bag which I use and also bought in Shanghai about three years ago had developed a hole in the lining on the outside pocket. As I have been using a wallet for a long time and coins don't go in there very well, I tend to put any coins and my keys into the outside pocket. The hole had been getting bigger and I was losing things into the lining even lost my camera one day so needed a new pure one tht could hold coins as well as notes and so my red purse, I was hoping that my phone could fit and it probably would have before the cover is on it, again the cost was so high 29rmb, just over $5

Later I did take my hand bag to "Rubbish street" and asked one of the ladies there to mend it. Of course this was done by sign language and when we came back about ten  minutes later, it was all done and I cant even see where it was mended for the sum of two coins or 40cents!

My purchases all up was about $12.

Massage

After a lazy day we set off for a new massage place. Years ago we used to get a full massage from the blind people first in Fuyang and we did find a place here in Shaoxing but he moved. The trend is now for foot massages but they do massage legs, shoulders, head and back while the feet are soaking. With the four of us arriving together there was a bit of a flurry and they were struggling to find the right words to tell us to wait five minutes. They had to ring around their people to organise four. We sat for a couple of minutes and then we got the wave to come and follow and were taken upstairs and into a room with four beds. We filed in and took off our shoes and rolled up our pant legs

The water for our feet was very hot and we had rose petals in it, then the pounding of neck head and shoulders. Sometimes it feels very nice when they stop. Very blissful though on the feet as they are massaged one at a time while the other foot is wrapped in a soft cloth. I knew I should have cut my toe nails before coming but no need, my girl did it for me! She also wanted to trim off the hard skin at the bottom of my feet, I vigorously shook my head at that, probably nice but I knew I need to walk a lot in the next few days. Very peaceful lying back while someone rubs your feet sipping on green tea and eating rock melon. Massages take around an hour and then one can relax a little more before floating downstairs to pay, 113rmb each (just over $20).

ANZAC ceremonies

Over the last three days I have been involved in four ANZAC ceremonies. The first being at school, that was a short ceremony lasting only 30 minutes but very moving and I think one of the most moving things about that was the fact that Years sevens eights and nine students were in the hall and there was complete silence from them during that time, about a thousand students and teachers. The last post always makes my chin quiver and I feel a tear in my eye.

Last night before the football, there was a ceremony on TV, they first lit a torch from the Eternal Flame at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne and took it on horseback to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) where the game was being held. The six horses and riders entered the stadium in darkness, Ron Barassie took the torch and mounted the stairs to light the torch, it was again silent when the Last Post played. After the minutes silence, the big overhead lights gradually come up to show around 80,000 people. It was awesome.

Warren has been going to the dawn service at Bribie Island but our eldest son asked if they could do ANZAC together this year and so we travelled down there and accompanied them to Sunnybank. There was a parade through the streets with lots of school and other community groups, young and old marching. Then we went to the RSL ground for the official part which took about an hour. It was the first time that my medal had had an airing.

Warren has quite a few medals from his Military service and I have one.

My football team is playing t the moment they also play on ANZAC day and always against Essendon and they was another short ceremony before they started play, both national anthems were played.

BBQ Chinese style

We had been invited out for a day in the country side by a friend (Nancy)of a friend who had stayed with us in Australia for a few days in Feb. They picked us up at the school gate in two cars and we headed south to Ping Shui (in English it is bottle water)a small city about 12kms from Shaoxing. We turned before we go to Ping Shui and ended up at a hotel and eatry just off the highway. Although we had all been down that road (to Ping Shui) many many times, we did not know that this place was there, apparently it is very popular for locals from Shaoxing to spend a weekend there, close to home but with a very different atmosphere.

We waited for some time in the sunshine, the girls and our blokes amused themselves by playing Uno with a couple of different rules thrown in, from Canada, China and Aussie, Much to the girls disgust, John won the first one, Warren the second.

soon it was time to eat! Oh My Goodness, I have never seen anything like it.

Different areas for the meat tasted different (we were told it was lamb but as I had seen little goats near the entrance, it could have been goat) The word for lamb and goat is the same, yang but a goat can have shan added to it making it "mountain lamb". Thank goodness I am not a vegetarian, the meat was delicious. It had been cooked outside and then brought in with a few coals to keep it warm. many herbs and spices had been added to the meat, I tasted turmeric for one.

Once we had eaten our fill of the meat we moved over to the other table where soup made from the head of the lamb and other vegetables to add to it, Chinese dumplings only made and eaten around Tomb sweeping day (4 April), boiled broad beans and peanuts. What a feast! 

A three hour walk (and chat)

Yesterday  (first full day in China)J asked S & I to met for lunch at a new facility on campus, called the Faculty Club, it is a canteen/dining hall just for the teachers. Food has already been cooked and ready to go. Nice wooden tables and chairs set up for four people. J paid so I dont know how the prices compared. We had little pork rolls, these are pork meat wrapped a thin tofu wrapper, Bamboo (love the bamboo)green beans with pickled cabbage and another green vegetable like spinach and a bowl of rice each. Very typical Chinese meal. J had to go to a meeting so S and I set off and ended up walking up familiar streets and back around the canals, we walked/ambled for three hours needed a nap after that.  

 Cherry trees in full bloom on campus, many days while we were there it seems like it was snowing with the blossum falling from the trees.

The year of the Goat, this is just one of the bushes that have been grown and then cut into shape.

Black

Packing last week and I knew that I needed summer clothes for Hong Kong and warmer clothes for China. I didn't want to take too much so had to plan well. HK temps were around 25/27 so long pants and tops would be good and then layers for China. Planning and laying out my clothes, I couldn't believe how many black pairs of pants I have, there were three pairs of three quarters, four long length in various weights, three leggings and two pairs of knee length shorts, all of which I wear, I also had two sports pairs with a different coloured stripe. Not all of them made the cut to go and once we were in China I was able to wash regularly so probably some wont get worn.

My bag weighed 13.8kgs and I did have a back pack as well with a change of clothes and a jacket, plus an umbrella. Arrived back home with two long sleeved and one short sleeved shirt not worn and one pair of pants. The pants had creased terribly, I always roll my clothes to take up less space and as I didnt have access to an iron, they stayed creased and not worn.

And so into China

And so to China.

We were told at the hotel that if more than one was going then it would be cheaper to take a cab. $290 for a cab and $150 each in the bus. Taxi would take about an hour bus about ninety minutes. We took a taxi, taxi driver told us about $300, he really had his foot down and charged us $375 when we got there in half an hour, he had been going at speeds of 130kph. I knew it was fast but felt safe but Warren could see the speedo.

We had booked a hotel room near the airport, we had stayed there before and it was within walking distance but it was dark and wet so grabbed a taxi, who laughed when we showed him the address, cost was 11rmb.

Bell hops came out to the car and got our bags, waited while we checked in and then took us and the luggage to our room. It was massive compared to the one in Hong Kong. Two king sized beds, a large desk and two lounge chairs, separate wash area and large shower.

Good night sleep and again the bell hops took our luggage to the free shuttle bus back to airport.

cost of hotel room in HK $Au276 per night, cost in China.Hangzhou 530rmb ($112).

The Kowloon Hotel

The ZTG hotel in Hangzhou China

E book

I had down loaded an E book to my tablet and was reading it last night when I realised it is 135 pages long. The same length as mine that I wrote last year in Nano and editing at the moment. It had been a good read, think it was a free one and I happened to read some of the acknowledgments which I don't usually do. Maybe a word caught my eye, anyway this woman stated that she had written this book for nanowrimo in 2009. After the month and her novel was completed, she refined it and it has been published and put out to the world. Called something like Twenty eight and a half wishes. How neat is that?

Sunset Cruise

We booked and paid for this cruise for yesterday evening, it was called the Pre dinner cruise. Could do one at 3.45pm, ours at 6.15pm or the night one at 7.30pm. We picked the Pre dinner as we thought that we would see things in daylight but although get some of the night scenes as well. Also if we were to take the earlier one it was half way through the football and Warren's Hawks were playing (they won btw)

We had previously booked tours with Jason at the tour desk but Karen was working when we booked this one, her English was not quite as good as Jason's. He told us that he had worked and studied in Perth for five years.

Our instructions from Karen was to be at the clock tower at 6.10 and someone would collect us and take us and our tickets to the boat. We did a trail run and it would take us ten minutes to walk there, really only two blocks but there was a main road to get across and that had to be done to two goes.

Left the hotel at 5.55 arriving at 6.05 and waited and waited and waited until 6.45pm. We walked back to the hotel and went to the tour desk, a different guy was on. He rang the company and told us to wait. At 7.30pm he told us that he could not get anyone in the company and to come back in the morning. Grr! We left to get something to eat but I had left most of the money in the room as I didnt want to go out with too much on me. We had changed money earlier as it would cost 290 to go the airport by taxi, 150 each on the bus.

Checked out a few restaurants but quite exp and didnt look appealing so we went to M&S and bought some supplies and took back. Thought it would be nice to have a picnic on the waterside so we gave the hotel a miss and kept walking. Lots of people there and we wondered why, soon found out. It was a laser show, all the buildings over on Hong Kong Island light up to music and we were just in time. Sat on a flower bed, ate a hot cross bun and watched.

Walking back into the hotel, the tour desk guy came over and told us that our money for the cruise would be refunded to us if we came to see him in the morning after 9.30pm.

Marks and Spenser

Trying to find a Starbucks to get free wi fi, I saw M&S. My shoes had rubbed a sore spot after so much walking so I decided that i needed a pair of thongs and the best place would be M&S. Thongs had been priced at $HK150 at Ocean park. Nice thongs at M&S were 100 and they are gold, then we wandered into the food part.

We had been to M&S in Shanghai a couple of years ago.Bought a couple of yoghurts and some biscuits.

This was last nights dinner picnic $HK116 and note the sandwiches were marked down.

Breakfast

Our breakfasts are included in our hotel and it is a buffet, oh dear so much food! Our idea was to eat a big breakfast and then we don't need much for lunch, nice idea in theory, does it happen of course not!

This morning I had one small sausage, they are different to home, no bacon today, some "hash" browns really they were small roasted potato pieces, a spoonful of fried rice with vege and chicken some fish (Japanese style)two savoury biscuits and cheese, Edam and blue vein, a low fat yoghurt glass of apple juice and two small cups of coffee.(note the low fat yoghurt!)

Thank goodness we are doing a lot of walking.

We booked a sunset cruise for this evening and as we are close to the pier, we will make own way there. We walked there just check out how long it will take us, ten minutes max.

This afternoon there is AFL on the TV and Warren is watching the replay of Hopman cup (Tennis played in Perth at the start of each year)but commentary is in Cantonese. Doesn't matter as scores are in English. A slack day today to recover from the long and busy day yesterday.

Day trip to Macau

Almost a twelve hour day with lots involved but it didn't seem rushed. Twenty five of us altogether, about eight of us had Super Pass which meant we had to pay extra. When we booked there were no economy tickets left so it was pay an extra $hk100 each or not go. The only difference was on the turbo jet going over to Macau, we got to sit up the top, had a meal free Wi-Fi and got off first. Wow, never been first class on anything before.

We had to take our passports and pass through Immigration and Customs, we were met the other side by a young women Sonia who accompanied us for the rest of the day.

We toured around and went a Museum, St Paul’s church and a small temple, we had an hour there before going on the A ma temple, as it is Qing Ming Jie today (Tomb sweeping day) many were honouring their passed family members. Macau doesn’t have any resources but they do make small cookies and we tried a few different ones near the temple before going to a buffet lunch. Lunch was okay but I have had much better, lot of meat and very little vegetables. I was okay though as my favourite dish qezi (egg plant) was there so I had that over rice. Yum! I do grow it at home and cook it but I cant seem to get it quite as good as it is cooked in China.

Macau tower was next and about half of the group choose to go up for an extra $HK120 each. Warren told me that the floor was glass and he knows how freaky I get walking on glass even when it only ground level. He has done it before so we opted out and visited the shops instead, ToysRus.

Last port of call was one of the 44 casinos. OMGoodness, 688 tables! We watched a roulette table for awhile. An older guy was there and I asked him if he was winning by using the numbers up. He shook his head and pointed to something on his screen, it was in Chinese and I immediately said "canbudong" meaning I can see but I cant read. Although Cantonese is the language here, we are hearing a lot of Mandarin spoken.  One lady at a shop told me that Mainland Chinese can go to HK, 1000 people per day but there is no limit to Macau as tourism is their only source of income. Because of the casinos only people only pay 10% for taxes. I watched the next spin and this guy bet 1500 HK dollars!!!!on one spin. I have not been in a casino for several years and this was all computerized.

Croupiers were on the black jack tables but that was all. As we walked past two women there was a lot of smiles and high fives, one showed me that she had just won $HK1000, I wondered how much she had bet to get that.

A day out in Hong Kong

This morning, after a leisurely breakfast spent chatting with a couple at the next table, they were Brits and having a couple of days in HK after touring Japan, we walked to the water front. There was the Clock tower and lots of ferries crossing between Kowloon where we are and Hong Kong Island. It took us awhile to locate it as some of the roads had to be crossed by going under and through a tunnel called subways. We have used them before in some of the bigger cities in China. We ended up at the Museum of Arts the prices were quite high before we realised that the sign was for yearly tickets. Tickets for one entry was $HK10 or $5 if over 60, ($2 or $1) Warren didn’t have his card with him but the lady at the ticket office asked if we were over sixty and we said yes so she gave us the reduced price.

Very well laid out plenty of space and everyone was pretty quiet, there was a mixture of Asians and Westerners. We did three floors and our feet needed a break as it was a bit of a walk back to hotel.

We opted to go to Maccas and check emails etc can get 20 minutes of free Wi-Fi each day there. Starbucks offers 30 minutes on one device.

Ocean Park

After breakfast we went to the the tour office in the foyer and were lucky enough to get on a tour to Ocean park or it was called Panda Theme Park. We had thirty minutes before pick up at 10.10am.

It seemed that small buses went out to various areas and then met a bigger bus which took us to the venue which was on the other side of Hong Kong Island. The guide said that normally it would take an hour to get there but today being Good Friday and a holiday the traffic was less and so it would be approx 45 minutes. Cost for both was $HK880 or $159. When I hear how many dollars I cringe but then realise to divide by 5 and its not so bad. The entry cost to the park is $HK375. It is the same as a theme park at home the entry fee covers everything except food and souvenirs.

The Aquarium had a wait time of 60 mins to get in so we went straight to the train and across to the other side where the big thrill seeker rides were plus north and south poles.

Next we went to a wet water ride, had to queue for about ten minutes, there was a time thing at each entrance to show how long the wait would be.

There were spurts of water at many spots, couldn’t take photos while going around luckily I had taken photos of others while we were waiting.

saw heaps of things and went up in a tower, it took us up with about a hundred others revolving as it went did a full 360 up the top before coming down again.

Dolphin and seal show

and then lined up to take the cable car back down the mountain. Yep, I went in a cable car and didn’t scream once! (My first cable car ride was in Singapore and it went over water, I was scared sh.........ss. A few years later we did the same trip again but Warren ordered a glass bottomed one the sh...! ) This one stopped for a few minutes on the way down and we were about a hundred metres off the ground, I was glad when it got going again. The cars seated six but we were put by ourselves as there was a group of six in front of us and six behind us.

The weather was sunny and humid when we got there but turned to cloudy and fine great day to go weather wise.

Saw pandas as well as red panda. Just after I took this photo, he got up and wandered over to the back of the enclosure then he came back and lay on the rock with his backside facing the glass and people. then  he let nature take its course and pooed! well, that got everyone talking and laughing.

Finally we got into the aquarium and it was just incredible. Could take photos but no flash, my camera is set up auto to take flash and it doesn’t work very well without the flash. It was 5.15 once we had finished there. We didn’t go to the theatre as "Adventures in Australia" was showing and we figured we had probably seen most of what they were showing, plus there was a very long queue.

I stepped into a shop to take this photo, could not believe how many koala things there were to buy. 

Had a late lunch/early dinner at a bakery ($HK149 ouch!) a coke and a ham and salad sandwich for Warren, I had a small chicken pie and we shared a fruit salad and a welcome sit down. Bus was picking us up at 6.30pm.

Hong Kong

Flight to Hong Kong

Flight with Qantas was pretty good, we had the side seats so only two on each side with four in the middle. We had had breakfast in the airport before we left as it would have been a rush at the motel even though it was included in the price. Also though that it would fill in some time. I had forgotten though how expensive it was to eat at the airport!

Lunch on the plane wasn’t served until about two o'clock and we realised that we had not ordered gluten free. Warren chose the lamb and I had the stir fried pork with fried rice. There was a nice Cherry, coconut and chocolate mousse for afters. I watched the movie Paper Planes even though it is a kids movie, I enjoyed and it was interesting to see how many actors appeared in it. I started to watch a doco about sugar but couldn’t keep my eyes open.

Landed around 6.30pm and by seven we were looking for our bus to go to the hotel. Our instructions were to go to B04, we were in A so we pulled our bags into B section and then Warren saw a sign Tour buses so we trundled around there and saw B and numbers BUT they were only in odd numbers. Asked at an Info desk and we directed back to terminal 1 (where we had come from).

Still couldn’t see any numbers so asked again and were pointed to the direction where we had been going in the first place only to find small boards with the numbers facing away from us and there finally was B04. A bit of waiting around as there were others to come and then an hour trip to hotel, I know that it did say the hotel was twenty six kilometres and of course there were other people to drop off on the way.

Room is comfy was ever so small, I measured the bed side tables and bed head and I estimated that one wall is two metres wide and then there is a diagonal window and a desk is in there. Its functional and clean.

Internet is $140 for 24 hours consecutive use!!!! We are going to find a Starbucks to check emails etc.