Home Sweet Home

After a long 24 hour journey, Graeme and I touched US ground late Monday morning when we landed at JFK. We had a fantastic trip, but it's always nice to return to the comforts of your own home. We have many more tales to tell about our trip and plan to post more blogs over the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, catch a glimpse of our Beijing pictures if you click this link. Our pictures from Thailand should be posted next week.

A Massage a Day Keeps the Doctor Away….

Kate here. Once again Graeme has been diligent about writing blog entries, and I have not. So I decided to write about one of my favorite topics: spa treatments.

While Graeme and/or my family may disagree, I consider myself a low key female. I rarely wear make-up, I can shower and get dressed in the less than 15 minutes (thanks to my swimming days), and mismatched clothes don’t bother me. But when it comes to the spa, there is nothing low key about me. I love the spa. Unfortunately Columbia’s tuition has kept me far away from such delights as facials and massages for the past year. Thailand, the land of $12 massages, put an end to the drought of self-indulgence.

For those who have been to Bangkok know that massages parlors are as plentiful as Starbucks are in the US. Some of the parlors are down right sketchy, but others are nice and sanitary. Based on a recommendation, we ended up at a cute little place whose name has escaped me. For 900 baht (less than $30), Graeme and I both enjoyed an hour long Thai massage. For those not familiar with a Thai massage, no oil is used. While therapists massage your body in a similar manner that you would expect from a standard Swedish massage in the US, they also turn and twist your body in ways that you thought only Gumby could move. More impressive, the therapists were half our size but still managed manipulate our western size bodies (As an aside, I bought a jacket in Beijing and had to buy a 2XL!). The experience was heavenly. We returned to the same spa the next day for more, and the trend of massages continued for the rest of our stay in Thailand. In Phuket, however, the setting was less private. Instead of opting for the absurdly priced hotel spa massage, we decided to take advantage of the beach massages. Under a thatched hut, I, along with 4 of my closest hotel friends, enjoyed a massage. The tradeoff was that you could see the beach and hear the sound of the waves. As much as I enjoyed all the sight seeing during our trip, my massages were definitely a highlight!

Sawadee-ka – Hello in Thai

The new terminal at Beijing’s International Airport is GIGANTIC. Apparently the building could stretch across lower Manhattan, coast to coast. I was disappointed we didn’t see the new terminal during our arrival, but we certainly saw it on our way out. The trip to Bangkok on Thai Airways was a just over 6 hours. Our early departure meant we arrived around 1pm. The Shangri-La Hotel was a short drive from the airport and located in the heart of downtown Bangkok on the ChaoPrya River. We quickly learned the Thai greeting, “Sawadee-ka” for women and “Sawadee-kup” for men.

There are many folks who say that the traffic in Beijing is awful, or that NYC’s bumper to bumper to bumper traffic is the world’s worst. But I can say that Bangkok’s downtown traffic rivals any city’s traffic anywhere in the world. Tiny cars line up with mopeds and scooters and all seem oblivious to the traffic lights. Thank goodness for Skytrain! The SkyTrain is Bangkok’s very quick, efficient and modern monorail system that we relied on as our main source of transportation. It glides smoothly through the downtown center of Bangkok and for little more than $1 you can be anywhere in city center in a short and comfortable ride.

In addition to SkyTrain, the Bangkok natives also use the river to get around which helps avoid the snarling mobile traffic. One can travel by boat to any of the dozen or so piers along the Chao Prya. Each pier leads to important site, hotel or shopping area.

There are several “must dos” in Bangkok including a visit to the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, the Emerald Buddha and the Royal Palace. The list also includes eating Thai Street Food, indulging in a Thai Massage (or many....) and visiting a tailor. Given our short stay in Bangkok we decided to see the tailor to get fitted for some work clothes. The quality of the material is good, the fitting customized and the prices downright awesome. Both of us got fitted for some work clothes during the afternoon of our arrival.

That night we met former UVA Swimmer Guy Yimsomruay for a Thai meal at Harmonique. Guy’s mother knows the owner and the restaurant serves delicious Thai food and the décor is awesome. It was great to see Guy and learn more about Bangkok from a local.

Olympic Weightlifting and USA Men's Soccer

Our last day in Beijing was an eventful one. We had tickets to see weightlifting in the AM and soccer in the evening. Weightlifting was a new sport to us both. There were about 16 participants in the Men’s competition. An Albanian ended up winning the competition, and he would acknowledge this fact by nodding to each side of the arena’s audience with every successful lift held high.

After the weightlifting event, we went back to the Olympic Green to see the village green one last time, hit the merchandise shop for Olympic souvenirs and of course hit McDonald’s! As much as we enjoyed the local cuisine, Kate and I were both craving western food.

Our next stop was Beijing’s Worker’s Stadium to see the first game of a soccer double header. The disappointing USA team was defeated by Nigeria and Argentina played Serbia. Our tickets were awesome. They were in the second row at the 20 yard line. We got to see Nigeria’s famous celebration up close when they scored their first goal.

The Worker’s Stadium, once Beijing’s premier sporting venue until the Bird’s Nest came along this past year, held the Asian Games Opening Ceremonies in the early 1990’s. Its capacity is smaller than the University of Virginia’s football stadium and the facilities for Concessions and Merchandise are not much better than Broughton High School. We got there early, and thank goodness because security was tight and the crowd large.

USA suffered an early set back when one of their players received a red card in the third minute. They had to scramble against a determined Nigerian side one man down for the rest of the game. The USA put up a good fight and made it close at the end; however, Brian McBride and his team ran out of tricks at the final whistle.

This loss was a hard pill to swallow because it meant that the US needed The Netherlands to lose to Japan in order to move on which didn’t happen. They had been winning against Netherlands until the 90^th minute when the US conceded a game tying goal. This effectively meant that the US Olympic journey came to an end with this match. While US Soccer fans should be a little unsatisfied with the team’s performance, the US has come a long way in soccer with fellow rivals Mexico and other soccer powerhouses not even qualifying for this phase.

Our final night in Beijing included a Grand Finale dinner with our Chinese friends Liujing and Du Xiaoli. We went for a Beijing Hot Pot dinner. I read somewhere that this type of cuisine was derived from ancient warriors eating their dinner out of their helmets! Our culinary experience proved to be more civilized . Hot Pot can best be described like Fondue, only no cheese or chocolate! The meat (lamb, beef, chicken, etc) is served thinly sliced and raw and you are meant to cook it in a pot of mushroom-ish broth for a few minutes. When the meat is cooked, you dip it in a sauce made of ingredients of your choosing. You can also dip vegetables noodles into the pot. When you are done with the meat, you can take a ladle full of broth from the pot and add it to your sauce and voila! You have soup!

Our dinner was a wonderful cap to our stay in Beijing and we are thrilled to have experienced so much of it on such a short stay. The Olympics were as magnificent as they are on television and it was thrilling to learn so much about China.

Exploring the Great Wall

On Tuesday, Zoe picked us up at the hotel for our Great Wall of China adventure. She informed us that the Danaling section of the wall to which she had planned to take us was closed! Apparently the section closest to Beijing was being reserved for foreign dignitaries and VIPs. This meant that the entire area had to be secured and no tourists were allowed to visit. So Zoe explained that we would see the Mutianyu section of the wall instead. This section was a little further from Beijing she explained, but it is usually less busy and you can get some amazing shots away from the crowds. With the Danaling section closed, however, all the tourists would come to Mutianyu.

En route to the Great Wall, we visited The Ming Tombs, burial sites of various Chinese Emperors, their empresses and their concubines. The Ming Tombs are situated 20-30 miles away from the Forbidden City where the emperors lived. Upon their deaths, Emperors were brought to the Ming Tombs for proper burial. Their bodies, however, were not allowed to touch the ground. Back in the day, this trek from the Forbidden City to the Tombs would take about 3 days and many groups of strong men.

Each tomb is made up of a burial site, many memorial halls and a tower. Each of these is separated by an elaborate courtyard. We explored one of the towers. Atop the tower was a column dedicated to the emperor. During China’s Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong’s followers had it painted red and out in graffiti, “Long Live Mao”. Curators not wanting to damage the column with harmful chemicals have tried to scrub off the red paint, but it still remains in the shade of pink. After seeing one of the tombs, we decided to make the trek to Mutianyu.

The drive to Mutianyu was another 45 minutes and thankfully we arrived to bus loads of tourist departing. The trip up to the Great Wall took less than five minutes and the scenery was gorgeous. The mountain setting reminded me of Appalachia. The mountains were a couple of thousand feet high and rounded like that of the Blue Ridge. The wall climbs along the mountains and has towers roughly every tenth of a mile. We wandered about a mile and a half until the restored section of the wall met the unrestored section. The more steep the wall, the thinner the crowd. We were able to get some great shots of the wall, and this one is my favorite:

Free Day to Explore

On Monday we had a free day to explore Beijing. Before the big building frenzy and Olympic developments, the city was made up of hutongs, small “neighborhood-like” alleyways where families lived. The narrow roads only allow for a couple to walk and perhaps a couple of bikes. Along the sides of each hutong are produce stores, tea shops, curio shops and fabric stores. We started on a quiet hutong that ran parallel to the main road and eventually stumbled upon a busy farmer’s market. With sellers and customers yelling out prices for a plethora of vegetables (some I had never seen), beef, poultry, pork and lamb, Kate and I quickly found ourselves absorbed in the day-to-day food shopping of hutong dwellers.

After wondering among the hutongs, we grabbed a bite to eat. With a taxi driver who spoke almost little English and was believed to be illiterate (note: This taxi experience was an exception. Most cab drivers were excellent.), getting to the restaurant proved to be a challenge. Keeping my pinyin tones in mind, I was able to work out the address with him. It was clear he was very frustrated, but we managed to work it out. In Otto’s restaurant, we had some cheap beef and rice stir fry. The staff was extremely patient with us as we worked through the menu to determine what we wanted.

After a few beers and a $10 meal, we decided to go to the main shopping district in Beijing, Wangfudajie. Here we found a gigantic mall, an Adidas store, a Nike Store and Le Ning, Chinese’s Nike Brand. With the Olympics in town, it was apparent that Western nation fans had paid a visit to the shops because the XXL size shirts were all sold out in most of the athletic stores. We scrounged for some items, and I picked up a collared shirt from Le Ning. The quality is probably not as high as what we might expect from Nike or Adidas, but the design and style was the same. The price was fair, and the service was great. When I asked the staff if they had a particular shirt in my size, the sales person ran off to go and find it and was back in a flash. I predict that Le Ning could be competitive with Nike, Reebok and Adidas in the next decade in the US.

We ended the day with a special date. On recommendation from a friend I made reservations at The Courtyard. The location of this restaurant is probably unrivaled by any restaurant on earth. It looks out over the moat of the Forbidden City. The food and service was impeccable. We started the meal with a shrimp cocktail. Kate’s next course was oysters, while I had the beef carpaccio. The main course was rack of lamb (for me) and cod (for Kate). For dessert we had sorbet (Kate) and a chocolate cake (me). Afterwards we took some moments to enjoy the scenery. Unfortunately, pictures could never do it justice. The view and atmosphere were both just spectacular.

First Day of Olympic Events

Our first Olympic event was Beach Volleyball. We arrived at the Chaoyang Park in the northeast part of Beijing by taxi and walked a mile once inside the park to get to the stadium. Outside the stadium, Kate and I were approached by a Chinese boy and his father and asked me to be in a picture with the boy. This proved to be the first of many times we were asked to pose for a picture while in Beijing. We would get occasional stares, and Chinese would strangely ask us to be in pictures. If it weren’t for my ugly mug, this could be Coke’s new ad campaign:

After a very through security and ticket screening process that included a pat down and search of all our bags, we arrived at the stadium to see USA’s May and Walsh defeat the Japanese team. The USA team was far superior winning back to back matches with limited effort. Thanks to the planted Olympic cheerleaders, the crowd was enthusiastic dancing to songs like Shania Twain and doing “The Mexican Wave”. The next match was a men’s match and a team from China (with obvious home support) defeated a team from Austria. The stadium was beautiful and the sound system blared rock music by the Fratellis, AC/DC and The Dandy Warhols in between points. During timeouts and other official breaks, the skinny bikini-clad Chinese cheerleaders shook their booties on the volleyball count and kept the crowd going. The stadium seats were 75% filled. Considering the matches began at 9:00am, this was a pretty good turnout. We saw a few other women matches including Greece vs Austria and Mexico vs Brazil.

After the volleyball we had a free afternoon to explore Beijing. Kate was keen to visit the 798 Art District, described as the artists’ area of Beijing in our guide book. The area is filled with industrial buildings, warehouses and power plants that have been converted into art studios and galleries. We met a college student and his father outside one of the buildings. The son explained that his father used to work in the power plant 20 years ago and that they had come back for the day to visit:

There were dozens of galleries and curio shops along with western-like coffee shops and restaurants. The art was thought provoking and heavily influenced by Mao Zedong and Soviet era propaganda. There were lots of sculptures lining the sidewalk and numerous photography galleries.

Our next stop was the Olympic Green, the main area for the Olympics. It is a huge central plaza where the Bird’s Nest, Watercube, and National Indoor Gymnasium are located. There were also exhibitions from many of the corporate sponsors like Coca Cola, GE, China Mobile and Volkswagen.

Our tickets to Handball were not in this location, but we took the time to look around and took pictures of the amazingly designed buildings. The Bird’s Nest was magnificent! Far away, the beams look like twigs and the stadium gives the impression that it could blow away or even stretch like a bunch of rubber bands. Up close the construction is the opposite looking very sturdy.

After getting caught in a monsoon-like downpour near The Bird’s Nest, we finally made it to the Olympic Gymnasium for our second event, Team Handball. Team Handball is my new favorite sport! Unfortunately, I will have little chance to follow it in the U.S. For those not familiar with handball, I think it’s a hybrid of three sports commonly played in the US: basketball, ice hockey and soccer. Like basketball, handball is fast paced and scoring is frequent. Like ice hockey, handball players tackle and block each other. Like soccer, handball has a level of suspense with one on one penalty throws.

The first match pitted Poland against China. Traditionally, Europeans have been powerhouses in the sport which gave Poland a leg up; however, it was great to enjoy the atmosphere of the home crowd. With every Chinese possession, the Chinese fans would scream “China – Zhonguoren!!!”. Unfortunately, this did not help the Chinese team overcome a far superior team and they lost the game. The second match, Egypt v. Denmark, was a match up between equals. It was a back and forth affair for the entire 60 minutes. The Danish faithful were in full effect while there were only a handful of Egypt fans. The game was filled with hefty blocks, screens, bodies flying and a few injuries (some real and some suspect). The game ended in a draw which seemed like a satisfactory result for both sides as the teams really battled it out. Being a novice handball observer I would say that the Danish speed was neutralized by Egypt’s size and strength.

Paddle Ball, Scorpions and More…

Bright eyed and bushy tailed at 4:50 am, we decided to take advantage of our jet lag and head to Tiananmen Square to watch the early morning ceremonial raising of the flag. Much to our surprise, the square was filled with people. And, I think we were the only westerners. From the flag raining ceremony, we walked to the Temple of Heaven where we were greeted by hundreds of locals doing their morning exercise. Besides being the only westerners, we were probably the youngest people in the park by at least 20 years. Locals were playing badminton, paddle ball, “hacky sack” and more. Yes, 60 year olds were playing hacky sack. When we were approached by a local man to play paddle ball, we accepted and proceeded to create a spectacle of ourselves. It was lots of fun, though, and a great workout too.

We spent the day visiting the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City and the Beijing Zoo with our great guide, Zoe. For the sake of time (we need to head out and watch beach volleyball) I’ll save the details for when we return; but, the Forbidden City was gigantic! At its prime, it had 9,999.5 rooms. You may ask why the half a room? Supposedly the Gods have 10,000 rooms and the emperor is inferior to the Gods and therefore can’t have more rooms than the Gods…

To end the day, we had the pleasure of enjoying a wonderful dinner with Liu Jing and Du Xiao Li. They are local Beijinges and good friends of my mother’s friend, Ling. We had our own room in the restaurant and enjoyed Peking Duck, Beef Tripe, Seasoned Fish Head, Almond Juice and many more local Beijing dishes. It was delicious and Liu Jing and Du Xian Li were so friendly. Afterwards, we stopped by the Donghuamen Snack Market. Stinky tofu dominated the city air. Following through on a commitment, Graeme devoured two fried scorpions. Thankfully he is still alive this morning!

Thanks so much to Ling for introducing us to our new wonderful friends!

We’re off to our first Olympic event!

Welcome to Beijing!!

We arrived safe and sound to Beijing yesterday morning, and have been on the move ever since we arrived in the city. We’re staying in Xuanwu district which is 1km north of Tiananmen Square. The Olympic Village is 20 minutes north of us, but thankfully a taxi ride is no more the $4 - $5.

We struggled to keep our eyes open on our first day. With a whole city to see in just under a week, though, we didn’t waste any time. We ventured to the Silk Market, a huge building filled with vendors selling anything from electronics to tea sets to fine silk clothing and bedding. Bargaining is the name of the game. The starting price is always ridiculously expensive. For example, when Graeme asked the price of a Wii video game the woman typed in 250 yuan on her big size calculator. This translates into over $30/game. We bargained them down to 5 games for 60 yuan which is less than $2/game. Not too shabby.

After the silk market, we attempted to go to the Lama Temple. It was closed, so we wandered down a neighboring street filled with Buddhist stores and stumbled upon The Confucius Temple and Imperial College. There were numerous pavilions, tall Cyprus trees and a statue of Confucius himself. Like many of the temples in China, the details of the temple were magnificent.

After a cold beer in a neighboring coffee shop, we decided to check out the Bird’s Nest, the site of the Opening Ceremonies. Unfortunately there is a fence .5 km away from the stadium protecting it from eager Olympic visitors like ourselves. Nevertheless, we walked around the circumference of the stadium before heading to a restaurant to eat dinner and watch the opening ceremonies in a comfortable spot. Our jet lag resulted in a 9:30am bedtime, but we were awoken a couple of hours later by loud blasts. Sleepy-eyed and confused, Graeme and I climbed over to the window and were welcomed by beautiful fireworks. Let the Olympics begin!

Seoul, South Korea

Our Korean Air flight pulled away from the JFK gate at 12:57am EST. The 747 flew at 39,000 feet. It was a little bumpy on the take off and getting up to cruising altitude, but an hour in it was smooth sailing. In flight entertainment included Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda and some Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kucher movie about getting married in Vegas. Not surprisingly, Kate slept 90% of the close to 14 hour flight. I on the other hand resorted to a magic pill to help me get some winks. I did manage, however, to squeeze in 3 movies.

We arrived to a very quiet Incheon airport in Seoul, South Korea at 3:30am local time. According to the flight map the airport is an island off the coast near the site of the 1988 Olympics, Seoul, South Korea. We found a 24 hour cafe and chilled there until food was served at 6:00am. We had to try Kimchi, a Korean dish of pickled cabbage. It was delicious, and a great way to kick-off our Asian eating adventure.

The Olympic opening ceremonies are tonight, and we can't wait to witness another chapter in Olympic history! Check out today's NY Times article about Zhang Yimou.