Visit to Beijing - part II

Beijing was pretty hard to get around if you don't speak Mandarin. So yes, it was pretty difficult for us. :-) It's a good thing that I am good with maps (unfortunately, my GPS did not have any maps for Beijing) so we did not waste any time getting lost in the city. Most of the time, we would take the subway. Their subway system is really good. It cost only 2 yuan per person to go between any two stations in the city, regardless of the distance. Much cheaper than cabs, which were not very expensive, but definitely cost more than 4 yuan for a round-trip.

We enjoyed Beijing food, dumplings being our favourites. Some of the other food that we saw but definitely avoided were skewers of non-traditional 'animals': scorpions, sea horses, cockroaches, and all kinds of other insects. For some reason, I did not feel vary adventurous in the food area on this trip. I was really trying to not get a food borne disease, and I succeeded. That is, until I got back home, and then I was out for a week. Well, better to be sick at home than while traveling.
Shopping was pretty good in Beijing, if you know how to drive a good bargain. Silk Market and Pearl Market are two popular places where you can find anything counterfeit. Last year, when I was in Shanghai, I definitely bought more than I did on this trip. But I realize now how much I overpaid last year as I did not know the unwritten rules of these markets. In Shanghai, I was always happy if I got an item for 1/3 of the initial quoted price. Now, if they did not go down to 1/6 of the initial price, I would not buy. The amazing thing is that they would still sell items even at 1/6 of the price.

For example, we tried to buy a watch for Carla and the lady started off at 250 yuan. Well, she would only go down to 150 yuan. Using a patented technique of pretend-that-you-are-disinterested-and-start-looking-at-the-neighboring-stall I offered 35 yuan. She first pretended to be insulted, but as I started walking away she yelled "Give me money" which I took as "We have a deal." :-)

All in all, the trip was a great success. We saw a different culture, had a great time, ate great food and would definitely like to go back again for a visit.

Visit to Beijing - part I

Our trip to Beijing was very different from our trip to Hong Kong. The first difference that we experienced as we arrived in Beijing was that it was cold! Somewhere around 10 C or even less in the morning and evening. This was a big change from the perfect temperature range (23 to 29 C) that we've experienced in Hong Kong.

Another big difference was to see how big and spread out Beijing is. It is huge!!! Streets are super-wide, buildings are spread out, and the subway has at least different 10 lines, if not more. That is what happens when a city has over 16 million residents.

The first sites we went to see were the Olympic Stadium (Bird's Nest) and the Acquatic Centre (The Cube). Absolutely amazing structures! All olympic buildings in this area look like they are really close to each other, but they just look that way because they are so big. It took a while to walk from one building to another. The inside of the Olympic Stadium is huge, and both Carla and I could feel the positive energy in the stadium. Almost as if all the goodwill from the games had accumulated and stayed there.
We also saw the Forbidden City. Pack your good shoes because this place is BIG. You walk and walk, and then you walk some more! The emperors sure knew how to build walls and palaces. The place looked pretty spacious inside. I actually used Google Maps satellite view to check out the Forbidden City before going there, but not even that had prepared me for how grandiose this place is. Something to see, for sure.
Our first three days in Beijing were so cloudy and smoggy, that the visibility could not have been more than 500-1000 meters. We also found the air really polluted, since whenever we blew our noses, the napkins would be full of black stuff. I don't think that was supposed to happen. :-)

The Tienanmen Square in front of the Forbidden City was Chinese-big. Here is my gradation of big; there is big, then there is USA-big, and then there is Chinese-big (which is the biggest big in my dictionary). :-) The Square was surrounded on four sides by the Forbidden City, Museum of Peoples' something, Mao Zedong's Mausoleum, and Hall of the Peoples' something.
On our last day we caught a bus to the Great Wall of China, and according to my definition of big, it was Chinese-big. The wall went on for miles and miles. The surprising thing was that you could see people walking the wall all the way. The wall was pretty crowded so we kept bumping into people all over the place. Then, we took a wrong turn (I know, you're probably thinking how can you take a wrong turn on a wall) and ended our walk of the wall prematurely. Oh well, this is why I take pictures early, because it was not easy to get back on the wall.
More to come...

Hong Kong - Big Buddha

The last sightseeing trip we did while in Hong Kong was to see the Big Buddha at the Lantau Island. We took a long gondola ride to the top of the hill where the world's largest outdoor Buddha was waiting for us. Unfortunately, we got there when the sun was right behind the sculpture of the Buddha so we were unable to get good pictures.
The interesting part was getting back. Colin told us that there was a challenging path back from the Big Buddha, so we decided to take the path. Well, what an adventure. The path was a collection of uneven path with lots of steep ups and downs. At one point, I was ready to die. I had overheated so much from going uphill that we needed to stop and rest for a while. The good thing was that we had a bag of M&Ms as I needed energy. After we wolfed down the M&Ms, we were back on the path. At one point, the path turned into a steep drop of stairs. I don't have a fear of heights, but at this point I had to stop and calm myself. The stairs down were so steep and narrow that I had to go down the sideways. My foot would barely feet on the step, even when my foot was turned sideways. SCARY!!!

This path is actually built to be used for rescue crews in case the gondola breaks down. The path was about 6 km long, and even with all the breaks with took and hiking up and down the hills, we were able to finish it in hour and a half. The view from the path was breathtaking so I am really glad we took this path. You can see the airport to the left.
One drawback of this 'excursion' was that my knees and calves were killing me for the next four days. I could barely take the stairs my knees hurts so much. After a few massage sessions in Beijing, I was back to normal. Phew!

Hong Kong sights and shopping

We took a bus to the Peak (overlooking Hong Kong and Kowloon) at night, as the view at that time is amazing. The bus ride was a bit scary as the road was windy, narrow and with a steep drop on one side. After we got to the top, Colin led us up a footpath to a place with an amazing view of the city. Take a look at these pictures.

Another night we took a Star Ferry over to Kowloon. Standing on the Kowloon side, we had a beautiful view of Honk Kong. They really light up the buildings nicely at night. Other places of note in Honk Kong that we visited were Causeway Bay and Time Square Plaza.

There are a lot of shopping malls in Hong Kong. Causeway Bay was full of them. One building had two floors of just electronics. Yes, I DID enjoy it. :-) The electronics they had on display were not cheaper than here (much to my dismay). But they did have some things that I have not seen here (like various cordless Skype phones).

Kowloon side had a larger collection of stores carrying cheaper merchandise. I hit the jackpot when I got off at the MongKok MTR (their subway) station. They were selling electronics EVERYWHERE. Cell phones, laptops, TVs. Crazy! I found an electronic mall called Sim City few blocks from the station, and this mall had four floors of only electronics stores. Heaven!!! And this stuff your could bargain for. Some of their web cams were no name, and thus the quality was questionable, but the rest of the stuff looked legit. I loaded up on memory cards, USB hub, headphones, and computer memory. I wanted to walk away with a lot more, but I had to keep it together. :-)
Ladies Market in this area had a lot of good and inexpensive items. Knock-offs were also on display (purses, suitcases, watches, etc.) Good place to go shopping if you don't mind bargaining. If you are not willing to bargain, you will pay too much.
More to follow...

A new goal

I was doing some thinking and thought that I needed a tangible goal to work on. Something where I can see progress every day, but at the same time, something that will have a great impact on my health.

I decided to set a goal for myself of performing 10,000 push-ups by June 1st, 2009. That means that, on average, I will have to do 55 push-ups a day. That's quite a few push-ups, but just think of the effect that this will have on my body!

I am setting up my life so that I align the things that I like to do with the things that I want to achieve. I love tracking things, but I also love to see progress on a daily basis, so a goal that can be worked on every day is perfect for me. Also, having a goal which can be worked on from anywhere is another way I am setting myself up for success.

Finally, I am posting the goal and the current progress on my blog page, so that I have the accountability and motivation to achieve the goal. Encouragement is appreciated. :-)