Wednesday, 29 May 2013
May 29, 2013 Sister at Mount Everest
Today my sister completed a marathon down from Mount Everest Base Camp over extremely rough terrain. And she did it only 11 days after running the Great Wall of China marathon and then had to trek up to EBC in less than a week. The STARTThe FINISH in her new Mount Everest track suit
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
May 28, 2013 Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
Up at 6:00 for Tai Chi on the deck. At 8:30 the Day Boat came to take us our for a day of activities. Only one Canadian couple on board so the four of us had the boat and day to ourselves with at least four staff. We went to a new island and climbed to the top -a mere 100 steps followed by a long trail created by water running down the mountain.
Next an hour cruise to a gathering spot for Day Boats and we went kayaking. We had a guide in a plastic kayak; we were in fiberglass. The guide took us thru a cave into a lagoon then thru another cave into a second lagoon. The couple went first at the direction of our guide. Guide was waiting for Larraine an me. When we caught up, guide led the way thru the cave. There were lots of rapids and it was hard to keep the kayak from crashing into cave walls. When we got to the other side, guide was grinning which I thought meant "wasn't that a wild ride?" The guy in the other kayak said our guide had made a mistake and should not have taken us in there. They thought the bug grin meant "oh shit". We could not get out. Guide tried paddling until he was exhausted but going no where. Finally he got out of his kayak and tried walking out dragging his kayak. We waited, wondering if we could climb out or how someone could rescue us from the lagoon. It was a beautiful place to be stranded but we didn't have much water
left and no sun screen between the four of us. Guide came back to pull each of our kayaks out. The current was strong and he had to pull while holding onto barnacle covered rocks. His feet must be cut. He was chest deep in water and we had to paddle like crazy but he finally got us out. Quite an adventure
CAT TIEN National Park May 24, 2013
Picked up at our hotel by a new air confitioned Toyota van. Han, the girl we booked this hike with, showed up at our hotel to bring us each two large bottles of water. She had to get up at 5am and take a bus just to make sure we got off to a good start.
May 17, 2013 JIXIAN, CHINA
The Yu Yang Hotel is not the place for comfortable beds, air conditioning that works, or sleep but could be the best place in town. If I had wifi I could look up the population here but am guessing anything under a million people is a small town and this is a small town with a few major traffic streets. 
These seniors dance around in a large circle to a live band for hours and hours. They have a fan in one hand and a scarf in the other. There are simple steps and arm movements for a full body workout. More fun than Zumba. Larraine and I dance for almost an hour with these folks. They shared their fans and scarves. We were exhausted but they were still moving when we left. The band never stops 
Last night we went in search of a massage after our two hours on the wall. Massage is apparently not as popular here as in Beijing so we had no luck but did discover an amazing area that reminds me of any "Chinatown" but far larger and more beautiful. People were dancing in the streets, singers on street corners but not busking, just having fun. We are going back today to see real life in China during the day.
Today we went to the "adult playground" and joined in on some of the senior dancing. We got a lot of "thumbs up" from folks so they were happy we participated.
Sunday, 26 May 2013
Cu Chi Tunnels. May 23, 2013
Cu Chi is a system of underground tunnels built by the vietnamese Communists (Viet Cong) in South Vietnam with the help and support of South Vietnamese farmers and workers, to fight the war against Americans. The tunnels run 3 levels underground with many tiny, secret entrance holes, dead ends with traps to trick the Americans, ventilation holes disguised as termite mounds. Absolutely amazing amount of work and ingenuity. They refer to it as the American War. They say things like: "Like a crazy batch of devils they fired into women and children. Even pots for cooking"
"Merciless American bombs"
and they gave out "American killer heros awards"
May 27, 2013 HA LONG BAY
Long bus ride from Hanoi to Ha Long. Nice bus but packed so hot. Ha Long is a World Heritage Site. 
We visited a floating village where we took a kayak out to explore some caves and the village. The caves open into a lagoon with only one way out-the same cave entrance we went in. Unfortunately the lagoons we full of litter and waste. The whole village just dumps their sewage and trash into the ocean. Disgusting. We showered as soon as we got back to our boat just in case we were covered with e-coli. 
Sunset party with Vietnsmese wine
Our cute little cabin
Top deck of the lovely Aclass Opera cruise ship
Happy hour margaritas
View from top of Titop Island
View of Ha Long Bay from our boat
Peddlers come to back of our boat and right up to our cabin window "please buy from me. Baby hungry"
I LOVE this boat. We are on a small cruise. Very old dark wood boat. Four levels. Looks like and old paddle wheeler. Larraine and I are on the bottom floor with the staff. I wasn't even expecting a private bath but I love our room. The second floor is cabins. The third is the dining room and the top is the deck. There are 35 passengers including 6 kids. Most are from Malaysia. A family of three from Russia and two Canadians
Then we had a "sunset party", two hours before sunset, free wine and fruit, then we all loaded back into the small boat for a visit to Titop Island. Titop was named for a Russian government official that Ho Chi Minh was was very fond of. 400 steps to the gazebo at the top of Titop seemed easy after the Great Wall 10 days ago. Back to the boat for Happy Hour (3 drinks for the price if two) with karaoke but only two Canadians showed up. Us. Dinner was amazing. Ten dishes again. We can't make a dent in the food. Then a couple hours on deck trying to get wifi.
JUNGLE TREK & Leeches May 25, 2013
Our guide, Jung, met us at the ecological centre and we all hopped into the back of the jeep for a 9km drive. Then we trekked 5km through the jungle to a forest ranger station that overlooked Crocodile Lake. Unfortunately we were too late for early morning croc sitings and too early for early evening croc sitings so we had to settle for a male firefly, a blue headed lizard, civet cat dung(missed the cat), and a giant Tung tree. We left the park by ferry, then our driver took us directly to the HCM airport which took over 5 hours. We got a 10pm flight to Hanoi.
HO CHI MINH Street Scenes
Durian. So smelly it is not permitted in hotels or on airplanes. Vietnamese love it.
Five Million registered motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City. Population 9 million people. The women all wear masks, long sleeves and gloves to keep their skin white
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Mekong River Delta May 22, 2013
The Mekong River is up to five km wide in places and is known as the Yellow River in the south and the Red river near Hanoi due to the pollution. We took a three hour bus ride to Cai Be where we boarded a long boat and toured thru village life on the delta. The floating market is a wholesale market. Smaller boats buy a minimum if 10kg of product and resale at retail markets. Each boat sells one product as designated by the item hanging high on a pole. One boat had an onion on a pole.
We watched then make coconut candy from only coconut and sugar. Some has added ingredients like peanuts or cocoa for flavour varieties:
We stopped at a guest house for lunch, borrowed some bikes for a short ride thru the village, then we relaxed at the hammock cafe. Hammock cafes are everywhere. What a great idea.
Ladies waiting to row us through the village
May 21, 2013 HO CHI MINH CITY
Our flight was delayed last night so we didn't get to out hotel in Vietnam until 3am. We made it to breakfast by 9am and then walked our neighborhood, hit the giant Ben Than market, booked a tour for tomorrow and a hiking trip for Friday and then had a foot massage. $10. More expensive than Cambodia and Thailand. HCMC is less civilized than China but far, far more modern and advanced than Cambodia.
Beijing Last Day. May 20, 2013
Larraine and I walked to the Temple of Heaven. It is almost as huge as the Forbidden City. Would take days to see it all. For example a 40,000 square foot Fasting palace used just for the emperor to fast from meat, alcohol and women for three days a year prior to the sacrifice of goats to the gods to pray for a good grain harvest. Another vast temple called temple to pray for grain etc. 
We found another adult playground on the way back to hotel. Larraine on a rowing machine
JIXIAN to Beijing May 19, 2013
Arrived back at our hotel in Beijing last evening so this morning we all piled in two cabs and went to market for the day. The Gala dinner for the marathon was held near the Olympic village so we saw the Birds Nest stadium and the Water Cube. Amazing buildings! Tamara went straight to the airport after dinner, and the Day Balas have to leave at 6am tomorrow so we all said our goodbyes.
GREAT WALL MARATHON DAY MAY 18, 2013
Our bus picked us all up at the hotel at 5:00 am. 2670 runners had year old be ready by 6:30. They had Rick music blasting and then opening ceremonies, a group 10 minute warmup and the run started at 7:30 in waves of 500 people starting with marathoners down to us "8k Fun Runners". As far as I know everyone completed. A good marathon time is just over two hours and on this challenging course the record breaking time was 3:09. Warren and Tamara finished the full 26.2 miles including 5164 steps in just over 6 hours while LArraine and I took 2:18 for our 8k which included 2582 steps. I was hoping to leave with 'buns of steel' but no such luck. 
Larraine on our final descent
Debora on steep stairs. Beautiful misty morning
Larraine, Tamara, Debora, Jaki, Lynda and Warren is up in the tower
Warren and Tamara at the finish line looking pretty good for having completed 6+ hours of running goat trails and stairs
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
May 16, 2013 LEAVING BEIJING
We went to the Huangyaguan section of the wall. A two hour drive from Beijing. There was an information gathering in yin yang square and then the buses dropped us at the top of the mountain. The majority of our descent was downhill but there were several sections of stairs going up as well. The weather and therefore the view was spectacular. Our portion was 2582 steps. Up and down. Flights were generally about 60-100 steps each. Some stairs were 6" some were 2'. Much of the wall was steep stone goat trails. Stairs would be easier. I would hate to try it on a rainy day.
Checked into hotel and it is very gross. Leaky toilet so walls are moldy, sink plugged and horrendous mold smell. Fortunately we were able to change to a different room. Not nice but bearable. Thanks to the translator app.
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