Drive Through Immigration

I had to fly to Shenzhen yesterday. Well, kind of. You still can't REALLY fly direct to China from Taiwan, so I flew to Hong Kong and then had a car drive me to the Shenzhen hotel.

The crazy thing about the journey was this: the immigration check-points are drive-through. As in, you hand your passport and immigration form through the car window - first on the Hong Kong side to leave and then on the China side to enter - and then smile really big while the officer looks at your picture and then at you and then at your picture...

Five minutes, tops. And I didn't even have to get out and stand in the humid South China air. Um, yes, I would like an order of fries, a Big Mac, oh and permission to enter China please.

Thanks.

Bintan

I had a conference in Singapore this week, so we decided to go a few days early as a family and catch some rays at the beach. Man, did ever I need it. We landed in Sinagpore and then took a 45 minute ferry to a little island in Indonesia called Bintan.

We stayed at the Banyan Tree, which was very, very pleasant. Even though the resort had a capacity of 150 people and was completely booked, we almost never saw anyone. Maybe they were all off playing golf. Or maybe the resort was just so well designed that we seemed to be secluded. Either way, it was a good thing we did not run into many people because little Miss G was SUPER cranky the first two days. When Chris ran to town for milk and diapers, the people at the front desk said "Is your baby still crying?" Ummm, yeah.


But she soon cheered up. The sand was a big hit, but the ocean... not so much. She was like a little monkey, clawing her hands up my sunburned back in fear of being dumped and left in the sea. She finally relaxed a bit, once she figured out that floating in the pool in her inflated baby tube was quite pleasant.


More pictures of our little beach trip are here.

You Know Me Well

According to the stamps in my passport, I have been to Hong Kong eight times in the last twelve months. And that does not even count the times that I transited through on my way to/from Taipei before moving here last October. Thank goodness that the new government has announced that direct flights to the mainland will start in July. Only on weekends at first, but that is certainly better than the current state of play.

On a related note, we applied for a China visa for Miss Gioia this week so she can come with us on our trips. The process requires that she surrender her China passport so the powers that be can invalidate it. Neither China nor the United States allow for dual citizenship in this particular case, so I suppose we made the citizenship decision for her a long time ago. But still, the surrendering of her China passport made me very sad.

Even my secretary came back into my office after I handed her all of the paperwork and said: "Are you SURE!? Do you really want to do this?" Umm, yes, I have contemplated the repercussions and am sure about the decision, but thank you for making me feel worse about it.

Hiiiiiii

We returned yesterday from a quick visa trip to Hong Kong. Chris stayed with the baby while I continued on to Shanghai for two days. When I came back to meet them on Tuesday night, I found that Chris had taught Gioia to wave HI on command. He took this great picture of her waving at her reflection in the bathtub. She is fascinated by waving now, and will get quite confused if the recipient of her enthusiasm does not wave back.

In related news, the visa trip was successful. For certain reasons, we were a bit worried that she would not get it (long boring paperwork story which has to do with the fact that she was born in China and trying to live in Taiwan), but it looks like this long road indeed leads to a residence card.

When we checked in for our flight to Taipei yesterday, the counter agent said, "Make sure you get to your gate early because of all the travelers." And we said - Yeah, what's up with all of the people going to Taiwan on a random Wednesday? Hah. The election. Everyone is flying home to vote. Crazy times.

More Things That Worked

Two more things - one prompted by my husband and one by Bes' comment.

12) Sleep sack - So no blankets in the crib means that baby needs another way to stay warm, especially in Chongqing in January. I brought one of the two sleep sacks that I made from an Ottobre pattern last year. It was great. Loved the sleep sack. Both are made from a waterproof fleece, which has proven quite handy now that we are home and using cloth diapers. Big fan of the sleep sacks. Do they make them in a 168 cm size?*

13) Hot shower trick - Gioia came to us with a pretty nasty cold. By the fourth day, she was waking up in the middle of the night with a persistent, hacking cough. Chris decided to run a hot shower and rock her near the open shower door. The steam build-up helped clear her airways and the white noise soothed her back to sleep. It was brilliant.

*That is a European sizing joke. Perhaps not so funny for those of you who haven't spent the last year trying to figure out if a size 74 cm is a 9 month, 12 month, or 18 month size.

Things That Worked

Before we left for our China adoption trip, we read lots of lists from people who have gone before on what to take and what not to bring. Well, most of that advice was useful, and is widely available if anyone is interested. So no need to rehash thoughts like *bring a thermos* and *lots of ziplock bags*.

Instead, I thought it may be helpful for us to share some of the more unusual things that worked for us on the trip.

1) Bedtime music routine - We preloaded her ipod* with a BeddyBye playlist that we would start right before we put her down. The list contains 15-20 sleepy time songs, mostly from this collection. Within a week, we had basically conditioned her to go into sleep mode if the songs started playing. Often, she would start to yawn about 30 seconds into the first song. If she woke up in the middle of the night and had difficulties settling back down, we just started the list again. It is important to play the songs consistently at the same time and in the same order every night. Also, we didn't play those particular songs during the day. Now that we are home, she falls asleep almost instantly after we put her down in the crib. I think the bedtime music is a big reason for that. This trick helped her to get over jet lag too.

2) Pack n' play - We knew we were going to be in three cities and three different hotels before we could fly home. We also were going to be traveling with her for a LONG time (about a month), so we wanted to establish as much consistency as possible during the trip. As part of the plan, we brought along a pack n' play given to us by one of our good friends in Beijing. Although the website says this product is not to be used in place of a crib, it worked really well. It was a pain in the butt to lug through airports, but it made her transition from hotel to hotel and finally to home much easier.

3) Carseat - There is much debate about whether one should bring a car seat on the trip or not. Chinese people really do not use car seats at all, so it is a bit of an oddity. Nonetheless, bringing a car seat was a great decision for us. She rode in it in every car we took (except for one - and that was a BAD experience). If a taxi did not have seatbelts in the back, then we waited for the next one. We also had a private guide take us to the orphanage, so were lucky to have had use of a regular car for much of the journeys. In the hotel, she took some her naps in the car seat for two reasons. First, her head was a little flat in the back from lying on her back for so much time. We wanted to give her every opportunity to stay off of her head. Second, she was getting used to being in the carseat. After six days, she would calmly sit there for thirty minutes or so. We also brought wheels that attach to the seat so it can be wheeled through airports.

Our only problem was that Air China forbade us from using the seat on the plane from Chongqing to Guangzhou. We even went to the airport the Saturday before the flight to show them the seat and try to convince them to let us buy an extra ticket (my husband speaks Chinese pretty well). We waited for an hour and a half while they called Beijing. The final response was no - not on 737s or 738s. Hmmm, China.

FYI, the rationale for using the seat on the plane has to do with turbulence, not crashes. Babies have flown out of people's arms and crashed into the ceilings of planes. I fly transpacific quite regularly, and I cannot remember the last time I was on a flight to/ from the US that did not have serious, scary turbulence for a period. For me and my family, taking a car seat was the only decision.

To balance that, however, we asked our guide in Chongqing how many other people he had seen with car seats in his ten years of doing adoption tours. He said - only you.

4) Mei tai carrier - This thing was fabulous for fostering attachment. She really relaxed once one of us had her strapped to our chest. We used a Babyhawk Mei Tai that is AWESOME. We also brought a Snuggli, but it sucks. Too much strain on the back. When she was fussy during the day, we just plopped her in the Mei Tai and walked around. It worked like a charm. In fact, now that we are home, she much prefers the carrier over the stroller.

5) Soft dolly for self-soothing - The orphanage rooms did not have heat, and all of the babies were swaddled up to sleep in large sleeping bag contraptions, tightly wrapped up in layer after layer of fleece. We think that Gioia learned to suck on the lip of the blanket as she went to sleep. Sucking was her automatic self soothing mechanism whenever she was stressed. So when we put her down in the crib to sleep, she needed something to suck on so she could settle down. We couldn't put a blanket in the crib, for fears that she would smother herself. I brought one of the simple velour doll babies along, and it worked perfectly.

6) Putting powder in all of the bottles - We had a veritable assembly line going in the bathroom in the morning. All powder for the bottles ( at that time, it was still cereal and formula together) was put into the bottles before she woke up. Then when a bottle was needed, we added room temperature water and then 50 ml of hot water from the kettle. A quick shake and we were ready to go.

7) Emergency food - We kept a few scoops of dry rice cereal powder in small bowls in the diaper bag at all times. If she needed a snack, we just added hot water and we were good to go. We also brought several jars of baby food with us because I was sure we wouldn't find organic where we were going in China. We did find lotus paste baby food though. She liked it.

8) Bath strategy - The first time we tried giving her a bath she screamed bloody murder and made us scramble for a fluffy towel. The secret lay in getting in the tub *with* her and her favorite toy. Which leads me to...

9) Stacking cups - Best invention EVER. The version we brought were bath toys too, so they were doubly great. Beyond that, no expensive toys were needed. We wandered into a toy store one day and bought a fancy rattle. That was not money well spent. She MUCH preferred to shake the tube of gum that we bought for one tenth the price.

10) Gerber stars - Baby crack. Awesome.

11) Casio point n' shoot camera - This little, inexpensive camera was excellent for taking quick little movies that could be quickly uploaded to the web. Our immediate and extended family all live in the United States, and they still have not met her in person yet. So movies are a really important way for everyone to share the Gioia experience. We have a big video camera too, but we barely used it on the trip. Actually we only used it one day: on the day we picked her up in Fuling.

*Yes, our infant daughter has her own ipod. To be fair, it is a hand-me-down. And we use it for play music, wakeup music, bedtime music.

Sea Park Outing

We made it to the sea animals park today.


More pictures here. For the record, Chris took all of these because I was carrying (playing with) the baby.

Lounging Around

We are hanging out in the United lounge until our flight to Honolulu. There are some amazing antique dolls on display here with intricate faces and kimono.


But Miss G was not really into the dollies. She was more into catching some Zs in the family room.


Everybody slept. It was good.

Thank goodness for the family room. Every time Gioia emitted a little whimper in the main room, some business person would look around in confusion. We are much happier tucked away in the corner with stuffed animals and colorful mats.

^$%$#%@#$ China

I have been stuck in Hong Kong for four hours now because China decided to hold military demonstrations over Shanghai. It could be worse. I could be sitting on the runway.*

But now I will not get to my hotel until 3 am, then up for an early client meeting.

YAAAARGH.

*That happened this summer. I was stuck on a Air China flight for six hours after landing en route for a weather delay. At 1:30 a.m., just before I stormed off and tried to hitchhike to Beijing, the plane took off.

Night Safari

Last week in Singapore, I convinced a bunch of my teammates to skip out on yet another group dinner and pop over to the night safari instead. This is something that everyone tells you is a "must-do" in Singapore, and they are right. It was very cool. Basically it is a zoo at night, which makes it more mysterious and fascinating. You hop on a 45 minute tram ride, which takes you past all sorts of endangered creatures, like golden jackals, lots of esoteric deer species, and a Malaysian Tapir. Some of the animals were walking around on the tram path, uncaged (think deer, not jackals).

The deal with night safaris, though, is that they are at night. In the dark. With prohibitions on flash photography so the animals are not disturbed. As a result, all of my photos looked like this...



I did manage to take one decent animal picture - of a fish in the tank by the bathroom. Heh.


It was a good time. As one of my friends said the next day: only in Singapore could they get all of those wild animals to stand so obediently under the spotlights.

Speaking of wild animals, be sure not to miss Chris' latest picture of Frankie at the dog beach. Looks like my boys are having a great time without me.

Celadon

I met up with my dad in Bangkok this past weekend on my way to Singapore. We went to have dinner Saturday night at Celadon, which is in the Sukothai Hotel. Dad was a little bitchy about the whole experience because he really prefers to eat on the street, but he was swayed once we sat down with a tangy little Australian Shiraz.


The food was oh so good. I love Thai pomelo salad, don't you? The restaurant was nice and soothing. All diners eat surrounded by lily ponds and subtle, traditional live music. I thought the music was a recording until we stepped out into the foyer after our meal and saw this lady.


Yummy yummy. Must go back. Even Dad was pleased.

Makin' My Way Home to You, Babe

I am winding my way to Taipei. Last week, I left Beijing and went through Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Bangkok. I am now in Singapore through Friday. Ironically, I just received word that our sea shipment will land at the port in Taiwan on Wednesday, which means that our stuff will arrive before Chris or I get there.

I was very suprised at how beautiful Hangzhou was. I had heard lots of good things, but was always like, yeah.. yeah. But it really was nice. I would even go back. We had a three day training session at the Sofitel Xanadu, which is away from the city. It was an excellent hotel, and probably much cheaper than the one by the West Lake. And it had some fabulous black swans floating nearby that had vibrantly red beaks. They let me get right up close to take photos. No bites, thank goodness.



After dinner in town one night, some of my team members and I went for a stroll down the old (read "touristy") street. We came across this giant Buddha statue, one of those with the hundred babies crawling all over. I stayed away from rubbing the belly - it would certainly be awful to mess up the adoption by getting preganant at this late date. But I did get close enough to see the great and very detailed children statues.



More Hangzhou pictures here.

Mei You

We are all packed up and out of our Beijing place. Chris and Frankie flew off to the US of A last Wednesday, leaving me with an empty house and two suitcases. Beijing's emptyness creeped me out a bit, so I left as soon as I could. It will be two weeks before I actually land in Taipei, though. Work travels will take me to Hangzhou and Singapore first.

It is hard to be without the ones you love most. Luckily, I am here now in Shanghai and hanging out with some of my friends. It is nice to stop back into my old life of dinner parties and glasses of wine, even if only for a few days.

I do have two special friends to keep me company in Shanghai, where I am cat sitting for a friend. Finnegan climbed into one of my bags this morning as soon as I zipped it open. Thomas (not pictured) is sitting on my lap as I type.


Cats are different from dogs, that much is clear. As I was about to leave the apartment this morning, I took one last look around for the kitties, but I could only find one. I spent 30 minutes searching for the second one (mischevious Thomas) in this little three bedroom place, but I never found him. It really freaked me out, and all day I was wondering how in the world I could have lost a cat in a locked apartment in under three hours. When I came back after running errands (thinking: please be there, please be there), he was sitting on the floor watching me open the door. A dog would never have done that, would never have hidden sneakily for 30 minutes as you frantically called out his name. Sheesh.

I do appreciate the company, though. Frankie and Chris are far, far away. It is nice to have someone around to distract me from missing them. Instead of being sad about what I do not have (mei you), I should appreciate the love and company that I do have.

And now I am off to open a can of tuna....

Mangroves

One of the neatest things that we did in Langkawi last week was take a tour of the mangroves with the hotel's naturalist. Mangroves grow where the sea meets the border of the rain forest. There are 23 species of trees in this particular area which have adapted to take in salt water instead of fresh. Many of them have crazy cool root systems, which are homes to all sorts of crabs, mudskippers and other crawly things.


While on the tour, we saw a feeding of kites, which are birds that kind of look like eagles, except their legs and claws have no feathers. The feeding boat dropped a bunch of chicken necks in the water and a tremendous amount of birds came swooping in out of nowhere. Apparently, the government started this kite feeding program a few years ago. There was an ecosystem imbalance at the time and the birds were starving. As a result, they started attacking Malaysian Airlines planes, which did not go so well for the birds. Now that the mangroves have recovered from their earlier trauma, natural food is back for the birds. So the government needs to wean them off of the free chicken necks. It made a good show, though.


This little guy was hiding in the trees as we floated by in our boat. He looked to see if we had food, and then sauntered off when he discovered we had nothing to offer. Apparently monkeys cannot digest bread products (unlike fish), so they can get really sick when tourists feed them. A fed monkey can get kidney ailments and other horrible diseases. Yet people still float by and toss these little guys slices of bread, hoping to see a show. Aren't humans lovely?


More pictures of our Mangrove tour are available here.

Langkawi

China's National Day was October 1, so the whole country spent the last seven days on holiday. As with all Golden Weeks, Chris and I joined other expats in getting the heck out of dodge. This time, we trekked down to Malaysia for a couple of days of scuba diving, bird watching and relaxing by the beach.


We splurged a bit and spent four days at the Four Seasons on Langkawi, which is an island group in northwest Malaysia famous for its beaches, rainforests and mangroves. It was a lovely time. The resort is outstanding (if you ever are in the area). The wildlife on and around the islands was excellent. We saw three sea turtles while diving, loads of red and orange (male) and green and blue (female) crabs, monkeys, lizards galore, birds (babalas, kites, mynahs, sandpipers and others whose names escape me now), mudskippers, stingrays (that liked to be petted - really), and a little red tree frog on the toilet seat at a restaurant.


Now back to reality. Do the movers really come tomorrow?

More pictures are available here and here.

Things That Make Me Smile

Monks in airports. After seeing one, in Hong Kong or Shanghai, I always wonder what they are doing, where they are headed. Are they going to an existentialist convention? How did they pay for their flight? Do they freak out like me if they are delayed and miss their connection?

Seeing them against the backdrop of stores peddling perfumes and fancy bags makes me think ... how ironic. Suffering is caused by desire, right?

Lovely, in their muted saffron robes. Makes me smile.

Paw Attention

Have a rest, y'all.


Spied in a transit lounge in Southern China.

The DMZ

Guess what we did last weekend? Yup. We visited the Korean demilitarized zone, aka the DMZ. Did you know that this still active, cold war memorial doubles as a tourist attraction? Yes, in between the land mine signs, the barbed wire, and the barely prepubescent soldiers rumble busloads of tourists.


Our tour took us 73 meters underground to a tunnel dug by the North Koreans. This particular tunnel was blasted out by political prisoners of Kim Il-sung. It goes underneath the 38th parallel and down towards Seoul. The South Korean Government officially admits that there are four tunnels, but unofficially there are 10 or so.

So what do you do when your tour of the Commie tunnel is over? Why go to the DMZ souvenir shop, of course!


More Korea pictures are available here.

Sorry, We Cannot Change Coins

One of the downsides of traveling a lot is that you get stuck with a bunch of foreign coins. Money changers will not take them, so you often find yourself wandering around an airport going... Hmmmm, What can I buy for 40 Baht? Often, the answer is nothing. Then you take the 40 Baht home in your pocket thinking that you will just spend it when you come back. Except you forget to bring it back next time, and instead the money piles up in a forlorn jar in the kitchen.

I went through our jar last week and sorted all of the coins. We have some crazy coins in there. For example, we have coins from monetary regimes that no longer exist, such as French Francs and Austrian Groschen. We have Mexican Pesos and Israeli Scheckels. Now, we haven't been to these countries in years, which means that we must have moved to China with all of these ridiculous coins.

I have now sorted all of the coins into very fancy plastic red cups. I guess the thought is that we can grab the cup o' coins next time we travel to that country. But it really seems futile. And the cups are ugly.

Perhaps a better idea is to just lug them on my next Cathay Pacific flight and donate them all to the Change for Good Program. Although that requires forethought as well. Sigh.

Anybody wanna Peso?

Back from Beyond

Phew! I am back in Beijing after nine days in the United States. Well, really eight days once the 24+ hours of trans-Pacific air travel is factored in. During the trip, I was in Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando and Boston.

I was able to take a breath and put my feet up at a true Chicago barbecue, complete with some super luscious sweet corn. Ahh, sweet corn. I saw my parents, gave a baby doll to Zane, and attended a wonderful doll workshop with the fabulous Mimi. Oh, and I worked too.

Still jetlagged and pooped, so I will save some stories for later this week.

What a Magical Day!

On Saturday, Chris and I were standing in line for the Jungle Cruise ride at Hong Kong Disneyland. From behind us, we heard a two foot tall little one say: What a magical day! Indeed it was.

Chris flew down to meet me in HK on Friday as I was making my way back from Taipei. We expected to spend three to four hours at Disney, but we wound up staying for over seven hours. It is the smallest Disneyland around, but it was more than enough for us.

The Stitch interactive show was crazy technosavy. We still don't know how they got that one to work. I survived Space Mountain (I hate, hate roller coasters), and Chris turned out to be an Ace Buzz Lightyear fighter on the space blaster ride. The Lion King show was really spectacular. Disney does it all well: staging, lights, vocals, choreography, timing.

I was most impressed, however, by the logistics of getting to and in the park. We bought our tickets at the Central MTA station, took the train for about 25 minutes to a station near the airport, switched to the Disney line, and then walked right into the park. No driving, no trolleys from the parking lot to the gate, no long lines to get inside.

Chris took this picture of me on the teacups. Who says Disney is just for kiddos?


For those of you who have not yet been, take note that HK Disney is a great time.

Battered and Bruised

I am in Taipei for nine days or so. Today was my one weekend day, and a friend and I checked out a spa nearby the hotel for a little sauna and massage action. It all started well, with a nice shower and steam room, followed by some lounging around in a comfortable chair with healthy snacks and a Vogue. There was a lot of nudity, which kind of weirded little ol' American-me out a bit. It was a women's only spa, and they all jumped in the communal baths naked as jaybirds.

But I digress. This story is about the Chinese-style massage, the one that made me almost cry for 90 minutes straight. The massage that hit every single nerve in my entire body. The one where I had to ask a "little" less pressure THREE times.

I should have known better. Chinese massages in China are rough affairs, so I avoid them in Shanghai and Beijing. I was thinking maybe they would be a little westernized here in Taipei. But no. Amber, the masseuse, even took great pride in telling me that she studied for two years in China.

Just for the record, I am not a baby. I like strong massages, unlike my husband. His perfect massage would involve no pressure at all, only a feather. But this - this was a sumo wrestler on steroids. I hurt way more now than I did going into the spa. At least I won't get breast cancer now, though. That's what Amber told me, anyway.

Four Seasons, How Do I Love Thee?

When I show up to check in and realize that I left my passport in a bathroom stall in the Hong Kong airport an hour ago, you call your guy at the terminal and he finds it for me in ten minutes.

Four Seasons, I love you.

I will never, ever stay anywhere else again.

ShanXi Hanging Monastery

On Saturday, we went to the Hanging Monastery in ShanXi, which is also around 1,500 years old. It is an architectural wonder that is literally built right into a vertical cliff wall. The structure was high and narrow, with lots of stairs and small dark rooms full of idols. Certainly there were no kiddos running around. This monastery is a bit unique in China because it was built to jointly honor Confucius, Buddha and Lao Zi (the founder of Daoism).



While this place was a bit scary for acrophobic me, the statues in the little rooms of the monastery were wonderful, just wonderful. More pictures here.

Yungang Grottoes

Late last Thursday evening, Chris and I called our driver and said: So.... How much would it cost for you to drive us to ShanXi this weekend? Less than 36 hours later, we were bundled into the car - snacks and all - for a four hour road trip to Datong.

One of the places we visited during our weekend roadtrip was the Yungang Grottoes, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Unlike the nearby polluted, banal city of Datong, this place is outstanding. It was built around 1,500 years ago, and has over 51,000 buddhas carved into caves - teeny tiny buddhas and humongous buddhas.


It was really beautiful. Unlike some other tourist attractions in China, this one had an authenticity that was inspiring. Imagine, one guy years ago said - hey, let's carve some buddhas. And carve they did. Not many people know about this site, it seems, but it is definitely worth a trip. We are so glad we went.

More Yungang pictures here. Also, Chris has uploaded some videos of the trip, which confirm once and for all that I am a big dofus. "I mean, that was a really long time ago!" What am I, 14?

Dalat Flowers

Dalat is well-known for its flowers, which are grown for show in local gardens and for sale throughout Vietnam. More flower pictures are available here.

Gifts from Afar

In China, people typically bring back little gifts from their vacation for co-workers. I really like this tradition because it reminds me of how Chinese people are very thoughtful and intentioned. However, it does mean that you have to be very good at remembering and buying something for your colleagues when you travel. When I had a small team, picking out gifts for everyone was easier. Now that there are 14 of us, it is more of a challenge.

Luck was with me this time, though. I found these wonderful embroidered bags in Ho Chi Minh city for US$1.50 each. Then I bought some specialties from Dalat to fill each pouch: strawberry and mullberry jelly candies, tamarind candy (oh so sour!), and artichoke tea bags. The end result is a very special token that is really representative of Vietnam, all for less than US$2.00 a gift.

Here is a closeup of the incredible embroidery on each little pouch. The quality is outstanding. Can you image doing all of that work for so little money?

Dalat Evason Ana Mandara Resort and Spa

Six days and five nights in a mountain resort, with cocktails and massages at your beck and call, excellent food, your own personal butler and a 1940's convertible roadster to take you touring around town whenever you like. Nice, huh? First let me say that the town of Dalat itself was really charming. I am pretty partial to mountain towns, though, like Cuenca in Ecuador and Baguio in the Philippines. There is something about the cool air and pine trees that relaxes my soul.

The Evason resort is still pretty new; it opened in the later half of 2006. We had some minor issues which were probably linked to the newness. The biggest problem was that our fireplace exploded into the room 30 minutes after it was lit. I think it was the first time it had been used, and there was an unfortunate air pocket behind the plaster in the back that expanded and blew. Luckily, there was no damage to us, the room or our stuff. Although, the fireplace now looks pretty bad.

Even still, the resort is very well managed. From the handmade soap in the bathrooms to the eco-friendly resort policies, all of the little details of our stay were well thought out. We took three excursions during the week - a scenic Dalat tour, a picnic lunch by a lake and the coffee lover experience. My friend and I were more into being driven around than being active ourselves, but they do also have whitewater rafting, mountain biking and rock climbing. Personally, I prefer to just have a massage. Or three.

As I mentioned before, we got a fabulous deal through the Luxury Link auction website. Perhaps they are running a promotion because the resort is so very new. Even at full price, though, this resort would be worth the money.*

If you aren't so keen on mountain vacations, the Six Senses group also runs two oceanfront properties in Nha Trang (and some in Thailand and Oman). Pricier, of course, but I am sure those resorts are well managed too if beaches are your thang.

More Dalat pictures are available here, and resort pictures are here.

*I don't know why I feel compelled to say this, but please know that I have no affiliation with this hotel. I just really liked it. Since good resorts (at good prices) are sometimes hard to find in Asia, I wanted to share the news. I actually think that the new blog advertising phenomenon is ugly. Can't trust anyone these days.

Little Smocked Dresses

I have a real soft spot for smocked dresses on little girls. Perhaps it comes from growing up in the Southern United States, where nice clothing is expected every now and then. Or maybe it is because I spent six weeks in Ecuador one college summer observing women working in a smocking factory. Either way, the delicate embroidery on children's clothes makes me feel that all is right with the world.



I can smock, but I have not had much time lately. The last project I did was the flower girl dresses for my brother's wedding. That was in 2005, and my plans to get out the pleater since then have not yet worked out. So when I saw these incredible smocked dresses for sale in Vietnam, I snatched up eight of them. Yes, eight. But they were very reasonable! The cheapest dresses were US$7.50 and the most expensive (made of a fine cotton batiste) was $30.
Who could have resisted?



I also picked up some appliqued t-shirts for US$6 each. Isn't this one wonderful?



So now Miss G has pretty little dresses waiting in her closet. We'll have to go back, though, so that we can restock once she outgrows these. No, I am not kidding.

Vietnam is the new Thailand

I am back in Beijing after a lovely, lovely week in Vietnam. I cannot recommend this country highly enough. It has all of the joys of Southeast Asia - great food, nice people, high quality handicrafts - with a laid back French colonial flair.



I am still recovering from my 4 a.m. Air China flight back from Ho Chi Minh (with a beyond crappy hour layover in Nanning), so I'll save details of the trip for later this week, including a review of our spa villas in Dalat and more pictures.

Dong?

Did you know that one US dollar is 16,000 dong? I gave out some really wild tips last night after I got to my hotel in Ho Chin Minh (at 4 am). My breakfast this morning cost so many dong that I almost couldn't do the math. It's just not right, people.

But our afternoon snack before wandering through the Reunification Palace? One strawberry shake, one lemon soda and a plate full of the freshest shrimp and pork rice paper rolls ever made on the planet = 102,000 dong.

Love it. I am going to eat the whole country.

You Know You Travel Too Much When

Your passport is less than a year old and it already needs new pages.

The only time you have to get new pages is during a business trip to Singapore.

You have memorized your passport number - and your China Visa number.

You know exactly which security line to pick in the Beijing airport for domestic flights.

You know which China airports have Starbucks and/or internet.

You avoid the first flight out of PEK because that is the one with all of the obnoxious American Chamber of Commerce tour groups.*

You know that taking the bus from HongQiao to downtown Shanghai is often faster than waiting in the taxi line. And it only costs 4 kuai.

You know that Air China Business is worse than Singapore Airlines Economy.

You regularly tell your driver as he drops you off at the airport that you have no idea when you will be back.

You buy all your makeup at the dutyfree stores in airports.

You intentionally buy two sizes of perfume: regular and travel.

You know which shops to hit at each airport during a layover - Jim Thompson in Bangkok, Liberty and Smythson in Heathrow, Khiel's in Hong Kong, the bookstore in Dubai, every single store in Singapore, and no stores in Bangalore**.

You recognize the Singapore Airlines flight attendants.

* No, I will not apologize for that comment.
** Worst airport experience ever. Well, except for the time in Guayaquil when the drug dog identified a ham sandwich in my bag. But that was situational.

There and Back Again

Chris and I just took a quick three day trip to Singapore. I had to go for business, and airfares were so cheap that I was able to convince Chris to come along. It was a good thing because I missed him desperately while he was away in Shanghai and then Denmark for the last three weeks. We had a really nice time. Singapore was so very sunny and green and wonderful. Instead of being my normal cranky pants, I was smiley and almost giddy.

Returning to dreary, dusty Beijing would have been a bit of a let down if it weren't for all of the flowers for sale on every street corner. We bought two big pots for the back patio and a smaller one for the front door. A guy came over yesterday to fill them up with loads of color. He had to go back for more flowers, in fact. After all that work (not by me mind you), our house is starting to look a bit brighter. Notice we picked up a new camera too?



Happy Easter every bunny!

For my Father

To the one who gave me, amongst other things, a love of life and travel: Happy Birthday.



More pictures from our Fall 2006 trip to Angkor Watt here.

I Am So Excited

Making plans to go to Vietnam for the May holiday. Chris has school and won't be able to come with, so friend and I are going to a spa in Dalat. We got a five night package on Luxury Link for US$715, which includes accomodation for two, two hours of spa treatments per person, breakfast every morning, one 3 course dinner, cocktails one night and airport transfers. So cheap, in fact, that I have budget to go shopping here in Ho Chi Minh city.

Mmmm .... pho. Can not wait.

Where were we?

Can you guess where Chris and I went this weekend? One hint - it was reeeaaaly cold. OK, here is another hint.



Did you guess Harbin (pronounced "Har" as in "Jar" and "Bin" as in "Bean")? Yup, we flew to north China on Friday to meet some of our friends for the snow festival. This was a non-stop trip packed with tons of sightseeing. It was definitely a good time, although the peeps in town have learned the word "tip" and use it constantly. As in, "Will you be giving me a tip? How much tip? Don't forget my tip!"

These pictures are from the largest ice park in town, which features life-size buildings and statues all carved out of ice dragged in from the river. Lights are embedded into the ice blocks, so the huge park is awash with colored lights by night. It was so bright that we could see it from our hotel.




Later this week, I hope to write more about the Siberian tiger park and 731 museum, but I am off now to drink a glass of wine and soothe my windburned cheeks.

Tips on Traveling to Korea

One of my friends from Chicago recently received a referral for a baby boy in Korea, and her family will be soon traveling to pick up their new son. This was such fun news to hear, especially since we will soon be in a similar position. How exciting to know that you will soon be saying "Well hello" to a new little member of your family. Chris jokes that by the time we pick up Miss G, she will likely be big enough to walk right up to us and say "Whas' up peeps?"

Because this was on my mind all day, I found myself compiling a list of tips for traveling in Korea for my friend that may (or may not) be useful. It was really the only thing I could think of to do to be even remotely helpful. I am sure that you all have tons of things to add that I have missed, but here is my list.

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1) For the most part, there is no tipping in Korea. If you try to give a taxi driver or a family restaurant staff person extra money, s/he may be confused. If you stay at a big Western hotel, though, the people will likely be spoiled and may expect tips anyway.

2) Unless you have a super secret special cell phone, it will not work in Korea. They have their own system and 99% of the world's cell phones do not work there. Even if you think it will work, it will not. Even if the dude at Cingular said it will work, it will not.

3) The best food around is in small family restaurants that you just stumble into. If you are adventurous, the local food can be fabulous. Avoid the "Pizza Huts' and similar chains that look familiar to you because they are normally VERY WRONG and you will be disappointed that it is not like you expected. That said, McDonalds is usually a good bet anywhere if you crave Western food.

4) My parents flew Korean Air over Christmas and they said the food was horrendous, even when they got upgraded to Business on one leg. So bring a sandwich.

5) If you can, watch 5-10 minutes of US Military TV when you are in Seoul. It is hilarious. Korean soap operas are really funny too, especially when you cannot understand anything.