Beijing MAY 15, 2013

  Warren, Lynda and Jaki arrived at out hotel around 9 am. We had arranged for a guide with a nine person van to meet us at our hotel- The Dongfang. We were told we could fit in 3 to 4 adventures into the day so we planned to see The Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, The Olympic Village, and if possible, the Pearl Market (mostly knock offs - no so much actual pearls). When Ya, our guide arrived in a six seat van with himself and the driver taking up two of the seats, he informed us we would only have time for one site because we had three factories to go to. We said no Factories. The guides get a cut of anything you buy. He said impossible so we left him and walked to the Forbidden City and hired Laura onsite to guide us. Cost 200 RMB or $40 for a tour hour walking tour for the 6 of us. Not bad. It was an informative tour and by now we had walked four hours without a break. Stopped at a Roast Duck restaurant as the Day-Balas had not eaten. Peking Duck in Peking (Beijing) was enjoyed by the meat eaters. We walked to Temple of Heaven because the taxi drivers won't take us for some reason. Too many people? Too short a ride?  Wrong direction? Not enough money?  Who knows. Temple was closing when we finally got there so we went to Starbucks for coffee and wifi which did not work and then shopped at the Pearl Market.  I took a non registered cab with the DayBalas back to the hotel while the skittish Larraine and Tamara chose to walk the hour rather than risk the cab. Larraine won't get in a tuk tuk. Not sure what she going to do I'm Vietnam. 

Picked up our race packages with shirt, passes, and bib numbers, packed to check out tomorrow and collapsed in bed with very tired feet- disappointed we had not found a foot massage all day. 

BEIJING MAY 14, 2013

Great day in Beijing!!  Hot and sunny with wind. I normally hate wind but today it blew away all the pollution so we had clear sky, fresh air, no stinky brown atmosphere. So much nicer!  We found a Starbucks for wifi. Enjoyed a coffee while we caught up on the outside world. Stopped at Walmart for fruit and water then spent the rest of the day walking around Tian'anmen Square area. We walked into the Forbidden City for a quick look, hired a guide to pick us up tomorrow so we understand what the Forbidden City is all about, then went walking around Old Beijing. Eventually we stopped for well deserved foot massages. By this time we were list so walked a few more miles until we found our way back. 

Eating Walmart fruit at McDonalds!

Beijing Street Scenes

     No Trombones allowed??

  We are here but where is here?

Beijing. May 13, 2013

Arrived in Beijing at 2:00 pm and it took 3 hours to clear the airport and get to our hotel. We checked in an immediately went out to explore. Beijing is like camping. The air smells like smoke, burns our eyes, is thick and brown. Hard to breathe comfortably but only a couple people wearing masks so we roughed it out.

We ate at a local little "restaurant" And had to order from photos. Not certain what we were getting but it was good. Everything is a lot more expensive than I expected.  Streets are fairly clean. 

November 9, 2012 WANG PO ELEPHANT CAMP

Great day today. We had a lovely breakfast compliments of the U Inchantree Hotel, on a patio overlooking the River Kwai. Our taxi arrived at 8:30am to take us to the Wangpo Elephant Camp.  Driver thought we didnt know where we were going so he took us to the Mekong elephant camp and told us it was the same.  We made him take us to the correct place because Wangpo is supposedly kinder to the animals, less touristy and I had read about the chance to bathe the elephants.  On our way, we noticed a sign “Do Not Feed the Monkeys” so started to keep a sharp eye out for monkeys and found a bunch of them just off the side of a road.  There was a booth selling food to ffed the monkeys.  The driver bought corn on the cob and immediately began throwing it to the monkeys.  We had some cheezies that we hand fed to them.  Apparently no one obeys the signs.  We then went on to the elephants where Rick and I rode one through some trees and into the river.  We were on a large seat on her back while the mahout sat on her neck and steered.  They called this a trek.  As we were the only people riding at the time, the mahout let us take turns riding her bareback on her neck with our legs tucked in behind her ears.  Her name is Tiku and she is 37 years old.  Riding up front was very challenging when we went down short but steep hills.  Then we stripped to swimming suits, got an elephant with no seat on her and climbed into the river with her.  This one is called Miss Noi.  Rick decided to take photos so I was sitting on her bareback while she sprayed me and then tossed me into the river several times.  It was an awesome experience even though I hate to support elephant abuse.  These elephants did not appear to be abused but Im sure they dont love their jobs.  

We spent the rest of the day by the pool and then walked down to a small massage place where we got a one hour foot massage for 150 baht.  About $5.  Off to see the Tigers tomorrow.  

2013 GREAT WALL MARATHON TRIP

MAY 12, 2013

Tamara flew in from Calgary this morning and found Larraine and I at our boarding gate in Vancouver. We will meet up with Warren, Lynda and Jaki on May 15 for the Great Wall Marathon on May 18. 

Some pics from last years' race to show what we are looking forward to seeing this year.  

Here we are in our shirts provided by the marathon group. 

Bridge Over The River Kwai, November 8, 2012

We checked out of our Bangkok hotel just after 6am and caught a cab to take us to the train station where we planned to hop a train to Kanchanaburi.  The cab driver talked us into letting him drive us all the way so we missed out on a $3 train trip but made a detour to see the floating market included in the price of $42 the driver charged. The floating market is a village on a cannels that were built in the mid 1800’s.  Many streets of little shops right on the water and boats drift by and stop at shops of interest.  Rick bought some hand carved wooden things and a crocodile belt.  We negotiated down to 1/6 the original asking price and yet found everything later at a less touristy market for asking prices of half what we paid.  You can never go too low when bartering.  We eventually reached the Bridge over teh River Kwai and since we knew our hotel was near the bridge and the taxi driver had no idea where the hotel was, he dropped us off and we walked the 300 meters to our hotel.  We were greeted with cold scented wash clothes, a tiny but spectacular room in the U Inchantree Hotel, located right on the River Kwai.  We had a delicious lunch and went for a walk across the famous bridge.  The weather is extremely hot and humid, even for meso we spent the afternnon in and around the pool.  We ordered lattes this eveing as I write this we are sitting out on our tiny but very private balcony..  

NOVEMBER 5, 2012 BEIJING

We arrived in Beijing and had just enough time to enjoy some snacks and drinks at the business class lounge before catching our 5 hour flight to Bangkok.  

We grabbed a cab at the Bangkok airport as I didn’t know how late the trains ran or how difficult it would be to find our hotel from the train station at 1:00 am. Still over 30C in Bangkok.  We had the slowest cabbie on the road.  This was probably due to the fact that he was completely out of gas according to the gauge and the gas light, his engine light was on and his steering  was barely functioning.  He was all over the road so we were glad to arrive safely at the Novotal.  Got checked in and went right to bed as we had not had much sleep on the flights.