Really, I haven't forgotten about my blog, really!

Picture from my hotel room in Beijing. Some days I couldn't see those buildings at all.

Ok, maybe I did.

But I'm still here, reacclimating to Eastern Standard Time and getting settled in my apartment. I've been so busy with travel that I haven't gotten to completely unpacking some of my stuff.

My pictures have all been uploaded to Flickr, so if you click on that box over on the top left, it will bring you to them.

Or, to see the Beijing pictures, click here.

There's a few pictures of Guangzhou here.

Picture from the hotel in Guangzhou...clearer, but still not great.

I'm going to start a new hobby

It's called pearl arranging :P

Before I get to some of the pictures from the places I saw, I spent this morning taking pictures of all the things I bought and I wanted to show some stuff off.

Some burgundy silk fabric, with dragons on it. Interestingly enough, it is very similar to some burgundy silk brought back from China by my great great aunt Marcy for my grandmother, and that my mother ended up using for an Asian inspired top and skirt. I wonder if I was subconsciously remembering that fabric when I this?

More silk, this time a wild, handpainted floral pattern. I had bought a cheap 'silk' bathrobe at one of the markets and wasn't sure it was actually silk (still not quite sure, it may just be cheap silk), so I wanted to buy some real silk to make myself one. I know this stuff is the real deal, given how slippery it is!

One of the pearl necklaces I bought for myself. These are black pearls, and its a long strand I can loop around twice, or tie in a knot like in the picture. It was about 40 bucks.

Another pearl necklace, my favorite, and I do believe the best buy of the trip. Also the most expensive, so I'm not tell you how much I spent. These are salt water pearls, as opposed to fresh water. These are similar in quality (and price!) to Mikimoto pearls. Let's get a closer look, shall we?

Aren't these just gorgeous and absolutely perfect? I just can't get over them. If you recall from my early trip, I did buy some silk fabric in a similar color, and these match perfectly! Even though I didn't have plans for that fabric, it has now moved to the front of the queue and will be made in to a hot little dress!

Here's a picture of pretty much everything I bought for myself. No presents in the pictures here, and there are more things I bought that I also bought as gifts. To sum up: some grey wool, the cheap bathrobe, a purple cashmere wrap that reminds me of a stadium blanket, a tea set, a jade elephant, and a coconut necklace that I'm sure will look familiar to Colleen (that was from Hawaii, not China). Also, more pearls, some of which are loose so I can make my own necklaces!

Finally home!

Well, it looks like that last post got cut off a bit! I was posting from my phone, so I wasn't sure how it would come out - fail, obviously. My apologies for that picture of my pale, pale chubby legs.

Anyway, I'm home, after a long trip that included 4 flights and a little layover in this nice little group of islands in the Pacific. You know, Hawaii? It was a nice little break. I know this will be surprising to hear, but I actually put on a bathing suit (!), went swimming in the ocean (!!), and then laid out in the sun for a few hours (!!!). Obviously, the extreme jetlag has gotten to me, and I've been very confused and doing things that are very out of character.

I'm going to get started on uploading my pictures today, in between doing laundry, catching up on my tv shows (so many!) and eating Honey Nut Cheerios, which I've decided are the best thing ever. Oh, and maybe some sleep?

Homeward Bound

Well folks, my Asian travels appear to be over...

The Brides and Babies of Shamian Island

The hotel where I'm staying, and the office I'm working at in Guangzhou, is on a little island in the Pearl River called Shamian Island. Now, the Pearl river...well it's a lot like the Charles, or the Potomac. So it's really sketchy when I see people fishing in it.

 

When European merchants first came to Guangzhou, the only place they were allowed to settle was the Shamian Island. It's not too big, about 3 blocks wide and maybe 5 long. But the architecture is nice, there are some old European style buildings that really stand out from the rest of the city, which is full of dirty and shabby looking homes and tall apartment buildings, all alike, that are very much 1984 meets Miami. I have pictures, I think you'll understand it. So Shamian Island really stands out, and while the buildings are not all well maintained, it's got character and some interesting architecture, and trees as tall as the buildings.

 

There are 2 groups that are drawn to the Island. The first being the brides.

 

Apparently it's popular in China to get a photo book done before one's wedding. It appears to be more than just the typical posed photos of the bride in her dress, and the groom in a tux. I think they also take photos in normal dress, well, at least dressed up. So there's always a bunch of brides and their posse (posses?) all over the island, taking advantage of the scenery and getting lots of photos. They, the Chinese, also seem to be fond of very goofy poses.

 

There's a second group that is drawn to the island, the babies - and their families. Not the babies of the aforementioned brides though. The US Consolate's office for processing visas and passports used to be on the island, so all the Americans who adopt Chinese babies had to come here before heading home to the US. The Consolate's office has moved, but the families still come here. The hotel caters to them well, and all the little stores around here have free stroller rentals, and cute baby stuff to buy. It's nice to see the happy families, and the really cute babies everywhere. There weren't as many over the weekend with the holiday, but I saw a couple more at breakfast today. Most of the time it's just the parents and the baby, but I have seen one family that brought their 2 other kids, and a couple today with a grandmother.

 

I haven't mentioned the hotel I'm staying at, The White Swan, but it's pretty nice. Aside from the bed, which is a rock - I did ask for a second duvet for more padding, and they brought that, and a mattress pad, so last night I slept much better, but that could have also been the Jack and Coke I bought at 7-11 for about 3 bucks... Decor-wise, the hotel is nice, although I've heard they are going to be closing it in the next year or so to renovate the whole thing. Aside from the lobbies and restaurant areas, it reminds me of the Vineyard...particularly the front bedroom. The carpets are light pink and green, and there's a lot of light wood in the room. Of course, the musty smell in the hallway, and the smell of the water (though this is from the river I believe, not the ocean) might be what really reminds me of the Vineyard! 

Hello from Guangzhou!

So far, Guangzhou has been pretty uneventful, and honestly, I don't expect that to change. Let's sum up:

 

-Arrived Tuesday. Walked down the street with my coworkers for dinner at Lucy's, a restaurant that serves all sorts of food. Decent and cheap.

 

-Work on Wednesday, almost a full day. One of the folks here took us to a local Dim Sum place for lunch. Dim Sum is a local Cantonese food, and we were the only Westerners in the place. What is dim sum? Basically, think the Cantonese version of ravioli and other filled pastas - except with out the pasta and cheese (aka the yummy parts). We had some veggie filled things, others with pork, chicken, shrimp, etc. I was a little weary since I wasn't sure what was in them - we didn't pick from a menu because they just bring a cart around filled with little containers of dim sum, about 3 in each bowl - so I just made sure my coworkers ate each kind first, and then after I had their assurances it didn't have any sea food it it, I would try it. We also got two noodle dishes, both of which were pretty good. Dinner at Lucy's again that night.

 

-Thursday, October 1st. Went in to work for a few hours in the morning. Now, the first is National Day, and the first of 5 days of vacation for pretty much everyone in China, so the office was quiet. That does mean we are able to get our work done, without worrying about interfering with people's work. Left before lunch, and we walked around the island for a bit looking for an Italian restaurant. Couldn't find it, so we got a taxi and went back to the mall we were at the day before. There was a bbq place our coworker had pointed out to us the day before so we decided to check it out. It wasn't so much bbq as it was a buffet of unidentifiable meat dishes. I picked out some noodles that looked safe, and had a spring roll or two. 

 

After lunch, we wandered around the downtown area for a bit. There's a lot of shops there, and there were a lot of people out, so it was pretty crowded, and the weather is hotter than in Beijing. I headed back to the mall by myself for a bit, and wandered around the jewelry vendors, then found a cab to go back to the hotel. I was pretty tired by that point, and was having a nice caffiene-withdrawal headache, after one of the waitresses at breakfast filled my half finished cup of tea with coffee. The rest of the day was quiet, but it got pretty noisy as evening drew near. We had early assumed that there would be a firework display that night, and that our hotel would be a prime viewing spot. Of course, our rooms are on the other side of the hotel. I went downstairs at one point, to see about getting some dinner, and it was very crowded at that point. It seemed, by the noise, that there were about 50 people in each room on the otherside of the hotel, facing the river and presumably, the fireworks. A peek out my window later showed very crowded streets, and lots of noise. The fireworks went on for a while, and were very loud - being that this is China, I'm sure they were quite spectacular. 

 

That's about it so far. Almost lunch time, and most of our work here is done now. And we've got 3 more days in the office too. I'm really not happy with the poor planning of this trip, but there's nothing I can do about it. As great of an experience this is, I'd much rather get the work done, change my flights, and go home early. If there were actually something to do here, other than shop, maybe I wouldn't mind, but I'm really ready to go home.  

The Great Wall

Before I start talking about the Great Wall, I'd just like to say, there's only one way to follow up a night like Thursdays...it involves going to Hooters for dinner, then a club named 'Sex in Da City' and watching pole dancers with your male coworkers. :P

 

The most obvious of things to do when one visits China is to see the Great Wall. And that's exactly what I did this weekend.We were able to arrange for a driver through someone at work, so Saturday morning myself and 3 of the guys met up to head out to Mutianyu, one of the sections open to tourists. We all hopped in to an old VW Passat and headed out. It was a pretty tight fit, but apparently the guy arranging this for some reason didn't know I was coming. Apparently the guy wasn't expecting all of us either, because a few minutes after we got out of the city, he pulled over at a gas station and started looking at one of the tires.

 

Now, this is something that would never happen in the US...the gas station guys came over, they talked to the driver, and then right away jacked the car up, pulled the tire off and wheeled it off to the garage to fix it. We stood around and watched, amazed at how quickly it was getting done - and the driver hadn't even filled out any paper work yet! It turned out that his car really couldn't carry all of us. He called someone and was able to arrange for a van to come pick us up at the gas station. We hung out, had some snacks and were on our way after less than an hour.

 

The ride out to the Wall was interesting enough. Our new driver was some kind of cross between a Nascar driver and a New York taxi driver. I'm not sure if the far righthand lane in China is strictly a breakdown lane, but he had no qualms about driving in it. Or in the lane going the other direction. Even in the narrow, winding roads as we got up the mountain. We were all pretty scared at times!

 

Once we were up there, we bought our tickets and hopped on a chairlift to take us up to the wall. I'm not sure if there were walkways or stairs to get up there, but it would have been a long walk, and we probably wouldn't have had any energy to walk on the wall. The views from up top were pretty amazing, but we had some pretty crappy weather. I'm not sure how much of it was clouds, and how much was smog, so you couldn't see as far as you might on a really clear day. We walked along the wall for a bit, taking pictures and taking in the view. The wall itself is pretty cool. The ground was often unlevel, the stairs were steep and crooked, but everything was in pretty good condition. We could see further along the wall, and there were parts that were falling down and in very bad condition.

 

For the way down, we hopped on some 'toboggins' and slide down a giant luge. It was pretty fun, although you couldn't go too fast without getting yelled at! We did a little shopping at the bottom (I bought a shirt that says 'I climbed the Great Wall') and headed back to Beijing.

 

And that's about it for my trip to Beijing. Sunday was spent seeing the Temple of Heaven, and then a little more shopping at the Pearl Market. I'm off to Guangzhou tomorrow, which sounds like it's going to be a pretty quiet trip. Not just because the office is closed for 3 of the days we're there, but because there doesn't seem to be much to do there. Well, hopefully it will be a relaxing end to my travels for now!

 

 

 

 

Folks, you just can't make this stuff up.

Hmm, so I was going to write a bit about some of the shopping I've done so far (pearls! cashmere! pashminas! silks!), but last night was a very interesting evening, and it just can't wait.

 

Last night my coworkers and I went out for dinner. Actually the 3 of us staying at the same hotel walked over to this area that supposedly had lots of bars and restaurants. I obviously was not the one navigating, and the 40 minute walk took about 2 hours. We met up with the two other guys at a nice Italian/Mediterranean restaurant, which was very good. I had a 4 cheese pizza, which sounds plain but it was very good. I think they had a brick oven, because it was very tasty.

 

After that, we headed down the street towards the bars. There were a couple people, often men, outside each bar trying to get you to come inside. "Beer! Music! You come here!" Eventually, one of the guys picked a bar, and we headed inside. We sat down in front and ordered a round of Tsingtao, a Chinese beer. There was a band, I guess you could call them, playing. 2 girls, 2 guys. After them, a belly dancer, who was actually very good - the band, not so much. They could sing, and the guitar player was good, but when you've got Chinese people trying to sing in English (they did some Beatles music, and even an Abba song), it's not that great. Some songs, I couldn't actually tell if they were singing in English or not. But it was cheesy, and entertaining. Another round of beers. Eventually, the real reason we picked that bar (although, we could have seen the act at any of them it seems) - a Micheal Jackson impersonator. Don't worry, I got pictures! He actually wasn't that bad, just danced and lip synced a bit.

 

All in all, it was a very entertaining evening. Lots of beer, and some crazy local entertainment. And did I mention the belly dancer had a snake? Yeah, that scared one of the guys pretty bad. Hilarious for the rest of us though!

Pearls

Does anyone want some pearls from China? Necklaces, bracelets, earrings...all sorts of colors - natural and dyed. I've picked up some already, 3 necklaces for under $60. The pearls aren't perfect quality, but they handknot everything for you while you wait, which is pretty awesome. Let me know!

It's like one giant Chinatown!

First things first: living without my computer - not too bad so far. We'll see how this continues to go.

 

So, I've been in Beijing a few days now. We got in on Friday afternoon, and went right to the hotel. I showered, took a little nap, and mostly just hung out in my sweats for the evening. The flight over wasn't too bad, I was lucky enough to be upgraded to business, which was about half full. I even managed to sleep for a good part of the flight, inbetween meals and reading a couple books.

 

Saturday I was up bright and early, around 6:30 I think. I hadn't done much research into touristy stuff to do in Beijing, aside from the obvious places, so I was pretty open to ideas. One of the maps at the hotel highlighted a couple places as 'must see,' so I've pretty much used that. I decided to spend the first day, or morning, at the Beijing Zoo. The most popular animals to see there are the Giant Pandas. Lazy buggers were all pretty much sleeping, but I did get some pictures of them, and the lions and tigers and bears...oh my! I also saw elephants, giraffes, zebras, rhinos...all the typical zoo creatures. I spent the morning wandering around, snapping pictures, and had a cornetto. The weather has been cooler than I expected, and I've found I've needed a long sleeve cardigan most days.

 

I also had my first experience trying to communicate with the taxi driver. When we got close to the zoo, there was a road closed and we couldn't go down it. Through many pantomines, I figured out that he wanted me to walk the rest of the way, and that it wasn't a long walk. Thing was, I couldn't figure out which road to walk down. The road opened up after a few minutes though, and he was able to get me about a block from the zoo. While walking around the block to avoid the road block, I started to think that maybe something was going on...the signs were all in Chinese, but numbers are the same, and I quickly guessed it was the 60th anniversary of something. Sorry, but 20th Century history isn't my strongest.

 

By Sunday, I was a bit more rested, and feeling a bit more adventurous. I hopped in another taxi (I only discovered last night how close the subway was to the hotel. I don't think the stop is on the map I have), and headed down to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We hit some traffic, but eventually it started moving...I started to add up the things I'd noticed - the traffic, and the 60th anniversary signs - and guessed that maybe I shouldn't try to go to Tiananmen today. Well, yes, it appeared there was something going on in the square, that involved a lot of people and a lot of police. Hmm, not what I was looking for. I got out of the taxi, and headed down the block away from the square, figuring I could loop back towards the Forbidden City side of things. That was easier, but then where did I get in? I just headed in the first entrance, which ended up being a garden alongside the Forbidden City. It was a nice park, with some buildings in it. I couldn't figure out how to get to the actual Forbidden City though.Well I'm smarter than I look, and I eventually got in the place. It is huge! Once inside, it's like a series of buildings, all in a row one after the other, and you just keep walking and walking. At one point, I was going through one of the buildings and could see through to the rest of them, and all the way at the end, was one smaller temple, at the top of this hill. And it looked really, really far away and I thought, crap, I have to start walking faster! It ended up being close than it looked and I eventually made it all the way to the end...and found that the temple on the hill was across the street, and not part of it!

 

Despite the fact that I had been walking for over 3 hours by now, and there was still a hill to climb, I pushed onwards. I headed in to Jingshan Park and found my way to a path up the hill. The stairs were steep, and the last flight or so weren't actually stairs, but rocks fashioned in to stairs. Of course, I got up there and noticed another set of stairs on the other side, that were nice and even and shallow. Durr. Still, it was worth it, because I now realized I was on the highest point of the city and could see everything - at least, what could be seen through the haze.

 

After I caught my breath, I sat and had a granola bar and took some pictures of the view. I headed back down, on the easy stairs, and went back to the hotel. After over 4 hours of pretty much non-stop walking I was ready for a rest!

Deja vu all over again!

My bags are packed (mostly), my apartment is cleaned up (a bit)...time for another trip!

I'm off to China in the morning. I'm mostly ready - it was a lot easier since I know what I need and don't need. Same clothes for the most part, with a few changes. I found I had plenty of non-work clothes last time, so I didn't bring as much this time. I also ended up getting a new suitcase, which is bigger and nicer than my last one. It's got those nice 360 degree wheels.

I've also rethought what to pack in my carry on - last time it was 22 pounds, and that didn't include my purse! One big thing I'm not taking this time is my laptop. Yup, I'm going to go computer-free for 3 weeks. I think you know me well if you can imagine how hard this will be. For a multitude of reasons, it just didn't make sense to bring a laptop this time. I will have computer access at work, obviously, so I'll try to post some updates from there if I can. There won't be any pictures until I get back though.

Well, I guess that's about it. Wish me luck!

Testing...

this is just a test...

Jetlag (and more shopping!)

Hmm, have I really been back over a week? It doesn't seem like it. My jetlag appears to be worse coming back than it was going over to Asia. I'm still exhausted! And I really should be thinking about my next trip, but I just haven't got the energy right now. I did promise some more pictures though, so here we go!

I might have mentioned that I bought some more silk when I went back to Central Market on my last day in Phnom Penh. Yeah, about another 50 bucks worth!

4 more colors. These are all the same weight, much lighter than the raw silk, but still not really shiny like the stripped fabric I bought previously.

The pink is a two-color weave, with the pink threads going one way, and green threads going the other. It kind of matches the stripped fabric, which is why I got it. I think I could get away with making matching pillows for my sofa and arm chair, but I'm not quite sure that's what I want to do with them.

The other three colors - black, grey, and a sea-foam green. No plans for any of these right now, but I'm thinking of a skirt out of the grey.


Finally, my favorite thing from my trip. I had wanted to buy a teapot, and I looked at a lot in Thailand. The thing was... there was nothing special. Everything looked too much like your average English china, but with an Asian look to it. It all looked like it could have been by Wedgewood, and some of it probably was. So, nothing really caught my eye... until I was in Phnom Penh, at the Russian Market. I stopped by one stall of knick knacks, looking for a gift for someone, and this tea pot caught my eye.

It's jade and bronze. It came in two other colors - pink, and a creamy beige. I had never seen jade in any color other than green, so I was surprised to learn it was also jade. The girl working there told me all about it, and if I understood her correctly, it's just got to do with how deep the stone is, and how tightly packed the sand is around it.

Well now that I've mentioned it came in pink, I'm sure everyone is surprised I didn't get that color! It was a nice pink, but I really liked the traditional green. In this picture, you can see how the light shines through the stone, and you can see the color in it - that's how you know it's real, and not painted to look like jade.

I got the teapot and two cups. The pot is lighter than the cups in color, but it will apparently darken as it ages. I'm so very happy with my gorgeous teapot and tea cups. I was looking for something special and unique, and I think I found it!

The only decent cup of tea I've had in 3 weeks!

Today was my last day in Phnom Penh, and it has been great! This morning I headed back to Central Market and got some more silk, and a few more gifts. Then it was back to relax in my room and get some knitting done. The total sum of knitting I've done on this trip? About one sock - pathetic! On the other hand, I have read about 12 books...

After I finished up my sock, it was time to dress up! Actually, I didn't really dress up, I just put work clothes on and headed down the street to the Raffles Hotel for afternoon tea. You would think, being in Asia, that the tea would be pretty good, right? It hasn't been. I suppose part of it is just my preference - I like my Irish Breakfast so strong that the spoon stands up in it. So the weak tea-flavoured water I've been getting hasn't exactly been giving me the kick I've been looking for. There was even a horrendous afternoon tea at my current hotel, with a Filipino couple singing bad 80s and 90s love songs. As hungry as I was, I left after barely a cuppa.

Raffles is actually a chain of hotels now, but the original one is in Singapore, and is named for the English lord who I guess founded Singapore. Now, being that I am not the historian in my family, I won't try to recall what I read about this earlier, so I'll just say that the Raffles hotel has that whole British Imperial period thing going on, and its very classy and nice. There's a Sherlock Holmes book, presumably about him solving a mystery at Raffles. And actually, the Raffles here in Phnom Penh is where Jackie Kennedy stayed on her trip to Cambodia. So, a great historical place. And they serve afternoon high tea in the conservatory.

Let me just say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself! I sat, drank a great pot of tea, ate some scones and cucumber sandwiches, and read a good chunk of the latest Sookie Stackhouse book. It was clearly an afternoon of guilty pleasures. Notice in the first picture, not only did they break out the nice silver for me, but that is real tea, the loose stuff!

Truly, I think this was the best way I could have ended my trip to Thailand and Cambodia. Now I've got a long (long!) day of travel ahead of me, and then I get to rest for a bit...before heading off to China! Now, if I can't find a decent cuppa there, I'm really going to worry.

Shopping (Days 1 and 2)

I had an interesting realization this weekend, that even when it comes to leisurely activities, I can sometimes be way too productive and efficient. Take my weekend plans - going to 2 different markets and doing some sightseeing. Well, Saturday I was home by 12:15, and Sunday by 1:30 or so - with everything that I wanted to get done done, and nothing else to do. Hmmm.

But on to the spoils! I actually bought more than you'll see here. In fact, both days, I only left because I had run out of money. I could have gone on! But that's why I'm going back to Central Market tomorrow!

Central Market is only about 10 minutes from my hotel, so I walked down there Saturday morning. It's normally housed in an old Art Deco building from the 1930s, but they are renovating parts of it, so a lot of vendors are in the buildings surrounding it. Well, to be honest, it seemed pretty crowded, and big as it was. And, I shall be completely honest here: I may have gotten lost at one or two points while at the markets this weekend. I know, it's un-heard of, me getting lost, but it did happen, especially on Sunday at the Russian Market. But anyways.

Two things to note: First, there's a lot I got both days that I can't show right now - either because they are gifts, or in the case of one thing, very well wrapped and I don't want to unwrap them. Second, these pictures are kind of crap. I have some spectacular lighting in my hotel room, which means that after it gets dark out around 6:30 and I close the curtains, I have to squint to see. The best light happens to be right in the doorway, which is where I took these. Too bad that light does nothing for me in the rest of the room.

As it was, I ended up spending all my money on Saturday on jewelry. Those 2 pairs of earrings, supposedly real? $25. For both! And looking at the diamond studs compared to my CZ ones, these are a lot more shiny.

My favorite purchase...of Saturday. This was one thing I couldn't get the woman to budge on the price, but I took it anyway. I love it! I'm generally not one to wear gold, but the silver version was a bit chunkier, and didn't have such a delicate look.

After all the jewels on Saturday, I knew I needed to focus on my other desire for Sunday: silk. I actually had a lot more picked out, but misunderstood the price per meter and didn't have enough money to buy it all. The color of the turquoise and the stripped fabric are accurate but the red is completely off - it's more of a cranberry. 5 meters of the raw silk each, 1 of the regular silk.

This is the reason I couldn't buy more silk. I fell hard for something just after I got to the Russian Market. Too well wrapped for me to unwrap it, so these will get their own post once I get home!

Finally, some wildlife!

Today at lunch my boss mentioned that he had seen a lot of monkeys and some elephants here in Phnom Penh. I was very disappointed, because I hadn't see any! Then he started talking about baby monkeys, or baboons, we're not sure what they are, and I was even more jealous.

Well, it's a good thing I went out for a walk after work this afternoon, because I struck gold! There's a temple right across the street from our hotel, and even though I had been there before, the animals weren't out then. Today they were though. And you'll have to excuse this picture, it had just rained a little before I went out, and when I took my camera out the lens got all steamy. I thought it was just the screen, but once I got back home I realized the lens must have been all fogged up too. I was able to clear some of them up, but the colors are still a little off.

If I wanted, I could have ridden on this guy, or fed him some peanuts I think. I opted to take pictures, from a short distance away. I don't think he showed up very often, because even the locals were hanging around and checking him out.

I nearly missed these guys! I was heading back to my hotel when I noticed them. There were a bunch just hanging around and getting food from people. I'm not sure why I didn't notice them when I was here the other day, but they must have been up in the trees or something.

They were definitely not afraid of people! I was able to get pretty close to some of them, and they hardly noticed me.

Isn't this guy a cutie? He was the littlest one there.

Finally, I just wanted to thank everyone for their comments. I haven't really gotten a chance to respond, but I am reading them, and the emails! Some people have said they had a problem leaving a comment, but I'm not sure why. I've got everything opened up to anonymous users, and I turned off the word verification, so maybe that will help.

Cambodian Fruits

I've got a couple posts planned, but I thought I'd interrupt myself and tell you all about some Cambodian fruits that showed up at my door this evening.

There was a little incident earlier, when I went to make myself a cup of tea, and noticed that house keeping had...overlooked some things when cleaning my room before I got here. I called room service to get some tea, instead of using what was provided in the room, and when it arrived, I gave the waiter a piece of my mind. He called house keeping, and eventually a manager showed up, and I gave him a piece of my mind - I'm getting quite good at that by now. But seriously, I was a little disgusted by the dirty napkin and erm, body hair on the dishes. Well a little while later, this fruit basket showed up at my door - just in time, since I was getting hungry! So, I thought I'd take a look at some of the local produce, and try it out for your entertainment, human guinea pig style.

Okay, the orange colored, round thing...just an orange. I didn't bother with pictures of that. If you're curious, walk yourself down to your local grocery store and pick one out yourself. Then come back, there's more to come here.

First, we have this fruit, kind of looks like an apple, kind of looks like a pear.

Once inside, yup, still can't decide - apple or pear? I took a bite...still couldn't really tell. Well, really, it's an Asian pear, but tasted pretty bland. It definitely needed another day or two to ripen.

Next, oh boy, we've got something strange looking here. The spiky looking bits are funny, and kind of soft. Hmmm. I cut it open to see what it's like on the inside. My first thought - damn, these would make good eyeballs for a Halloween haunted house - like grapes, but bigger, and even more slimy. I scooped one half out, and gave it a little nibble. Tasty. Sweet, and a little on the tough side to bite off at first.

I wasn't so sure about eating that seed though, so I turned to my good friend, Mr. Google, for help on this one. This is a rambutan. And you're actually supposed to just squeeze them to get the fruit out, and don't eat the seed now, because that can be toxic. Okay, should have googled a bit sooner!

Don't worry, I didn't eat the seed. You're just supposed to nibble this and leave the seed, and the skin around it. It was kind of hard to get the flesh off without eating the skin from the seed, so I gave up after a bit. Still, tasty, and enjoyable.

On to the next funny looking fruit. I turn to Google right away, since I'm not too sure how to approach this one. According to a Cambodian cooking school website, and all the other sites I checked, this is a dragon fruit. I can kind of see where that name came from. And all you have to do is cut this right in half.

It cut very easily, and opened up to a white inside, with lots of little black seeds. I took a spoon, and scooped out the flesh, just like you would an avocado. The seeds are edible, luckily, and the fruit itself is kind of like a kiwi, but without the tartness. In fact, without really much taste. It's a watery fruit, and didn't really jump out at me. Okay, but not my new favorite fruit.

Lastly - you didn't think I was going to eat the bananas, did you? I'll tell you, I actually ate one in Bangkok (since there was always a bowl of fresh fruit in my room there), and it tastes like a banana. Plain old, boring, mushy banana. Never been a fan.

Actually, I finished up with this. I stopped for lunch at this place called The Shop, and they had a good selection of pastries there. The mousse is chocolate hazelnut, and it looked much more attractive before I bought it and took it home with me in a tuk-tuk. And the brownie...just a brownie (and upside down too, I think). I'm actually saving that for tomorrow - I hope it's worth it!

Not much to report so far...

It's been pretty quiet here in Phnom Penh. We arrive on Tuesday, and since then I've been pretty much lying low. I'm ok with that though - I found that in Bangkok, I just focused on my work during the week, and on the weekend had enough time to see everything I wanted to see. I do have a few things planned for this weekend and I am looking forward to them.

I also managed to do something to my knee on Tuesday after I got here. Once I got settled in to the hotel (which sadly, is nothing like the hotel in Bangkok - it's more like 70's era Holiday Inn furniture and bathroom), I decided to go for a little walk, and see what was in the near vicinity. Well, there isn't much, aside from the tuk-tuk and motorcycle taxi drivers every 10 feet, each of whom as if I want a ride. I came back and had lunch at the hotel, and when I got up, noticed something not right about my knee - it had all of a sudden swollen up and I could barely walk. I hobbled back to my room, barely, to assess the situation. Ice was order from room service, and I spent the rest of the day with my leg up in bed. It's still a little swollen, but today I was able to walk fairly normally. I'm hoping that by Saturday it will be doing even better, and I'll feel like I can go out and see some stuff. I have to admit, even in Bangkok when it wasn't swollen, I was disappointed that I couldn't do as much walking as I might have been able to a year ago. Just something I still have to keep working on!

Chatuchak

After visiting all those temples on Saturday, I decided to spend Sunday shopping - clearly I've got my weekend days of worship a bit mixed up.

It wasn't quite as early a morning as Saturday, but I was up at a decent hour and headed down the street to the local Skytrain station. The train, or BTS as it is really called, is nice and clean, and easy to figure out - they only have 2 lines. I headed up north to the end of the line and got off at Mo Chit, for Chatuchak, the Weekend Market.

The Weekend Market is the biggest in Bangkok, I believe. Some estimate that 200,000 to 300,000 people come on a single day. There are 2 main 'buildings' with maybe 6 or 8 aisles in each one. While I did have a map, and there seemed to be general areas for specific things, it wasn't uncommon to find a stand selling jewelry right next to the pets, or food stands in amongst the silk stands.

Like the Night Bazaar, you can buy all sorts of things at Chatuchak - and then some. Clothes, new and used, jewelry, purses, shoes, silk products, ceramics, silver, paper products, furniture, pets, toys, old army stuff, random junk, etc. I didn't spend too much (what a surprise!), but did pick up some souvenirs for gifts. I also bought myself a strand of tourmaline gems, and the only thing I regret is that I didn't get more. I'm such a conservative shopper!

I ended up spending a couple hours at the Market, mostly just wandering up and down the aisles. It was definitely a nice way to wrap up my weekend, and my trip to Thailand. Next stop - Cambodia!

Grand Palace and Wat Po

Finally, the weekend arrived, and I had two things in my pocket: time and energy. I also had great plans and plenty to see! While work has been going well, I wasn't really getting out much last week, and wasn't really enjoying Bangkok as I should have. But I definitely did this weekend! Just in time to leave on Tuesday, too.

I started out nice and early on Saturday. I wanted to see the Grand Palace and some temples, and luckily they were all in the same direction. I flagged down a taxi outside my hotel and told the guy to take me to the Grand Palace. You'd think that would be easy, right? I mean, I'd assume every Thai knows where that is, unless I'm overestimating it's importance.

Luckily, I got there in one piece, though for a second I did think the guy was going to take me to one of the temples on the other side of the river, though when he pointed to it on my map, I vehemently said no, and kept pointing to the big picture of the Grand Palace. A little detour through Chinatown, and we were there in about 30 minutes, and all for about 3 bucks.

I'll admit, I did get a little brochure about the Grand Palace, but I didn't read it. All I know is that it's a huge place, with lots of temples and most importantly, I believe, the Emerald Buddha. Sadly, no pictures of him, as he is inside one of the temples and it's a holy place, so no shoes, no hats, no cameras. There were a lot of people sitting down, praying, making offerings, so I just quietly walked though. While I did see the Buddha, I didn't actually realize it was the Emerald Buddha until afterward.

There seemed to be a few different styles of design among the temples. We've got the one big shiny gold temple, we've got glass mosaic ones, and we've got ceramic mosaic ones. For the ceramic ones, they actually took new bowls and broke them to use the pieces in the designs. I think the ceramic ones were my favorite design.

Some of the shiny stuff you'd think would be kind of gaudy, but it's not really. Like I said, I didn't read the brochure, so I'm not sure how old some of the temples are. They were actually working on some of them, fixing or re-tiling, throughout the day at both places. Amongst all the shiny stuff, there were also a lot of gargoyles-type statues. I think they're supposed to be demons.

After I finished seeing everything at the Grand Palace (and had an ice cream!), I headed over to Wat Po, which was pretty much next door. I had an interesting encounter with some guy on the way, who tried to tell me that Wat Po was closed until 1:00 to foreigners because it was a holy day. He told me I should go see some other temples, and for 20 baht, his buddy with his tuktuk would take me.

Now, I'd read about these guys, so I knew he was full of it. And there was certainly no way I was getting in a tuktuk, which is a little three wheel motorized contraption. I'm sure no matter where I'd ask him to take me, it would involve some sort of scam at some point. So I walked up the block, crossed the street and came back down on the other side, and what do you know, Wat Po was open! I felt like going back to the guy afterward and asking him if lying was bad karma.

Wat Po is another temple (or wat), and a lot of it was very similar to the temples at the Grand Palace. What makes Wat Po famous though, is the Reclining Buddha. The Reclining Buddha is huge, and has a pretty big temple all to itself.

After I finished up at Wat Po, it wasn't even 1:00! I was also very hot and sweaty - it was in the 90s, at least, and I had on pants since I was going to be going in to the temples (if I had worn shorts, I would have been required to buy a nice long skirt before going in). I grabbed a cab and headed to a mall on the way back to my hotel for lunch. Then it was home, and time for a shower!

The good thing about Saturday though, was learning that my new camera takes pretty good pictures! It was incredibly sunny all day, and sometimes I was shooting right in to the light. Most of these came out gorgeous, if I don't say so myself! You can see more at my flickr page.