Got invited in April to a Hawaiian luau in July by JH- she had180 people in attendance. Sounds like a blast, and I had all the Hawaiian shirts, lava lavas and leis to hula the night away! I sure hope someone took great pictures for me to appreciate what I have missed, and it'll teach me not to be prancing around halfway across the world. Can't win them all, J and thanks again for the invitation and update. Sounds like you had a great success.
While the luau was a-hulaing, we were probably in China, and a-sweating by the buckets. Though we were in (beginning from South heading North, along the eastern sea board) Xiamen, Shanghai and now Beijing, a luau in warm but dry weather sounds wonderful.
Arrived Beijing Wednesday Aug 23 morning, riding the 13-hour night train, sleeping through the night - worked out really well, and getting great sleep. China rail can't touch Eurail trains, but Eurail can't touch China price of Y499. Had a night's sleep and arriving in the morning to start a brand new day in a new city ain't a bad way to travel. (Flight - I was told it would be an hour flight, about Y500ish - but with increased surcharged Olympic prices, plus an hour ride to airport, another 2 hour airport arrival, and another destination transfer, all costs and time add up quick - all making the night train looking pretty good. In addition, at least for now, I am not dealing with all the flying restrictions of practically undressing at security, and liquid limitation and weight limit on low cost airlines of 15Kg checkin and 7 Kg carryon - 2.2 lbs, per Kg)
KC loves train rides (got hooked on Eurail at age ten), and enjoys them in China too. Considering the number of China's 1.3 billion (1,325,115,000= 20% world's population vs USA 304,678,000= 5% world's population), public transportation, including trains can get crowded. (Need to relate the Xiamen- Shanghai 10pm ride that was sold out due to U start of school break- and experiencing first hand the onslaught and crushing of Chinese aggression) Privacy /personal space is a premium virtually unknown in this land of pushing and shoveling to jostle for a spot anywhere and demanding one's turn NOW. I suppose one could relate to a child among 10 siblings vying for parents' one on one time. If I ever consider job offers in China (perhaps in a few years,) I may consider taking up black belt to pro actively react to some aggressive person stomping all over me - something to think about- LOL
Convinced the tour guide to let us drop the rest of the tour to let us to wander the day at TianAnMen Square (the June 4 student protect), and Forbidden Palace after his canned tour. Essentially, he got the rest of the afternoon off. We walked the paths of the last 24 emperors of Qing and Ming dynasties who lived at the Forbidden Palace from some 600 years ago (Beijing was the 3rd China capital after Xi'an and Nanjing) before the imperial reign ended with the beginning of Communism in 1949. We took time to enjoy the sights and sounds of this royal site while savoring our authentic Peking Duck (crispy deletable duck) wrapped in Chinese thin "tortilla" with springs of sliced green onions and cucumber and duck sauce. You'd love it. The Palace staff found humor in our picnic as they hurried us out of the grounds of the Palace at five o'clock closing. KC wanted to see the royal collection of time-pieces gifted to the emperors from local and foreign dignitaries, but the staff waved her off near closing. I'd paid the Y10 to catch a 5-minute glimpse of the collection - but that didn't happen. Perhaps they might consider letting her do the clock museum with paying the high cost entrance for the Palace on a different day. I tend to believe that cute chicks can get away with anything if they requests courteously. Time to test that hypothesis another day next week when we have extended visit after the land tour we signed up for ends.
Strolled the Square for more sights: Mao ZeDong's Memorial and Heros Memorial, and made friends of Marialaura of Brussels, Belguim (Italian from Naples, Italy) who came for a few day convention in Beijing. Great company, delightful visit, and promises of accompanied / entertained visits if we go to Italy. We shopped some, and she spent almost all her last RMB (Y) on a silk fan she bargained down to Y20 from Y25. She's leaving for Brussels that evening, and sad to part company while we headed NW of Beijing to return to our hotel (http://sarizhotel.com.cn/Html/285/) - via subway that we have yet to try. All subways are similar - if you are geared with a subway map, can visually read/ recognize the stations, or count the number of stops, have a decent street map of the city, you can reach your destination (assuming you have the hotel business card with all the relevant information in the target language) without being a rocket scientist. If all else fails, take a taxi costing about Y50 in Beijing (one of the cheapest taxis in the world) . I don't reccommend this strategy in Mexico and similar countries, but China is relatively safe - especially since the world is watching as the Olympics roll around on August 8, 2008, two weeks from Friday.
Got to go to bed, up in 6 hours and seeing more of Beijing.
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