Hong Kong

I've only been here for a night but add Hong Kong to the short list of
places that I'd consider living. It is truly where the East meets the
West and has the best of both worlds.

The airport bathrooms were a 2 on the scariness scale. That is saying
a lot since JFK is a 3 at best. Airport experience was the best that
I've ever had - breezed through immigration and took the express train
into the city.

I'm staying at the Intercontinental Hotel. It's a place I've always
wanted to stay and the view from my room does not disappoint. The
pictures are the view of Victoria Harbour from my room.

Guilin

A quiet day today. Took advantage of the hotel spa and did some
shopping in town. Guilin is a small and much more relaxed place than
the others we have visited.

I have to admit that I'm getting sick of eating with chopsticks. No
wonder the Chinese are so small. It is so tiring to eat with
chopsticks.

My hip is holding up as well as expected given that I had surgery just
5 months ago. All of these hotels have had pools and gyms so I've
been able to keep up with my exercises.

I'll close with a note on the horrible jobs we've witnessed:

window cleaner 102-stories above Shanghai, tending to the flowers on
the median of the highway with nothing but a prayer and an orange cone
to protect you, sweeping the middle of the highway in Guilin with a
broom and not even a cone to protect you and carrying people up and
down to view the rice terraces.

We leave for Hong Kong tomorrow. Last city before we return home.

More Li River and Dragon River

Li River

Our first bad weather day. We got caught in a few downpours but it
did not ruin the day.

Started off with a cruise down the Li River. This is one of the most
picturesque rivers in all of China.

The cruise was great and the only problem occurred when this nasty
German woman would not let me back into the buffet line after I
stepped out to take a picture of the snake in the bottle of alcohol.
When will I learn not to eat on a boat in China?

After the cruise, we did some shopping and then took a bamboo boat
ride on the Dragon River. We also stopped for pictures on the famous
Dragon Bridge.

Rice terraces

Another day of climbing but the rice terraces are an impressive sight.

Other things to note, we had our first encounter with a scariness
rated 9 bathroom, had our 3rd best meal of the trip and our best tour
guide, Happy David.

I won't give you details on the bathroom but the meal consisted of
local food including rice cooked inside a bamboo tube and a sizzling
spicy hot beef and pepper dish.

Best meals so far in order of best... peking duck, hotpot, rice terrace lunch.

The worst meals in order of worst... shanghai dinner cruise, Xi'an dumplings.

Guilin

We arrived in Guilin last night. The word I'd use to describe the
landscape here is "Seussical." Crazy mountains, strange trees, exotic
flowers. Our taxi driver was wearing a lace dress, a silk hat with a
large bow and white silk gloves.

Today we are hiking in the rice terraces and tomorrow we are taking a
cruise down the Li River.

Here are some pictures from my hotel window.

Stuff you don't see in the US

I haven't been surprised by anything yet.

The food can get crazy (fried squid neck anyone?) but that is not surprising.

They smoke everywhere. Our cab driver was smoking. When is the last
time you saw that in the US?

Holes in the ground instead of toilets. Is not surprising but does
get old. We have a bathroom scariness scale. 1 is the bathroom at
your home and 10 is that absolutely disgusting bathroom that the
militant muslim woman trapped us in in the market in Egypt. Most of
the bathrooms have been in the 3-6 range here.

They will also carry anything on a bike, scooter or motorcycle.

Labor is so cheap here that the medians and sides of the highways are
covered in beautiful flower gardens.