maggie and thatcher have left scotand

This morning at 0915 we glided down the highlands and left Caithness. It was a glorious day, the sea was shining, the fields were green, and the baby lambs were running around. After a fight with 

Thatcher outside of Stirling, which centered around his wanting to sit in the driver's seat and me wanting him to sit in the back of the car and resulted in the leash and his collar being broken and me calling him a bad word in front of a super serene lady holding her brand new baby and two whippets... we drove silently out of Scotland at 1445 and put this amazing adventure behind us.

selfie with maggie

Selfie with Thatchy

Down to Days

Taking a break from staging as the movers come tomorrow.  We have had a difficult couple of weeks.  Although I had a successful trip to Denver, British Airways lost one of my bags and it seems like it will not reappear.  

Goodbye my beautiful suede Jimmy Choo boots that I treated myself to on a particularly difficult day.  Not to mention all of my medication,which I decided to bring so I wouldn't have to lug it with the dogs.  Major sigh, I can just imagine the paperwork.

Maggie has decided to be sick and after a week of antibiotics and steroids, she has been given another weeks.  Her fever has been so bad that the skin is coming off the inside of her ears and the vet believe she'll lose her hearing, which I think she decided was okay when she pooped in the living room today due to the 'stress' of everything moving around her.  

As I called her a nasty name, she just looked at me wagging her tail and I imagine her chanting, I am in my own world, I am in my own world, I am in my own world.

We will not be beaten!!

Bees watercolor, as promised

Aren't they wonderful?

There is this great lady that I met will talking to the finance group about what they wanted to be when they grew up.  You see she wants to be an artist.  

She brought me up her portfolio, and I fell in lust with a watercolor of bees on a honeycomb; it's incredible.  So I bought the bees and had it framed and it's been in my office, when it comes home for packing, I get a snap up on the blog.

Knowing that I am dog crazy, she suggested I bring in my favorite picture and I thought picture, as in singular?!?
  
So I posed this suggestion that maybe she do 3 of each and I'd hang them side-by-side and then I didn't hear from her about it for a year.  

And then last week, she came and gave me these and they are so perfectly perfect that they had to be shared.

Hong Kong Celebrates

Thatcher's Love

I pretty much feel like I live a charmed life, but I have had a string of unfortunates, which must be shared.  

First, I was headed down to Inverness to get my haircut and I opened up my water only to have it spray all over the car and me and essentially soak everything.  There was like no water left in the bottle when it was done.  

After my haircut and still slightly damp, I headed off to the health food store and loaded up.  As I took out my bag to pack up my groceries, a pair of my underpants flew out of the bag.  I stood there marveling at my underpants, thinking what were they doing in there?  Time and everyone in the store stood still until I picked them up with a heavy sigh.

The next day, I went to work and as I opened the frig to put my salad inside, a carton of milk fell of the door.   The individual hadn't put the cap back on, so I became soaked with milk - cashmere sweater, trousers and shoes.  The kitchen had to be steam cleaned.  

I was sort of annoyed, but I cleaned myself up the best I could.

Unfortunately, as I was leaving the toilet the automatic air freshener went off and sprayed me full in the face.  

Air freshener is unpleasant in your eyes.

About an hour later, I was in the middle of a meeting, when one of the guys stopped and said I am sorry, but this has to be said, you stink.

I managed to make it through the day, headed home, peeled off my crusty trouser, and got into my PJs.  

Thank goodness, Thatchy loves me.

A Delayed Hong Kong Conclusion

I know this is really tardy, but I've been busy.  Our last day in Hong Kong was a full day because our flight didn't leave until midnight.  

We made the most of it, eating our last giant breakfast and checking out at the last possible moment.   We wandered through the central district with some last minute shopping planned.  

This is a really interesting part of Hong Kong as it is all skyscrapers, but the alleys have vendor shacks in them and since this is all below Victoria Peak, going up the street is an arduous task.  It is so arduous that many of the streets had elevated covered escalators that would take you up the hill with platforms to get off at each street.  This was very strange and completely fun.

I had wanted a jade bangle and we went to a place recommended by the concierge.  Many of the jewelry places are a bit overwhelming because the staff is all over you.  This place looked like all the others, but the staff was pretty friendly and did let us look.  I saw a bangle I liked that was close to my price range.

We hit a few more places before we came back and I said I wanted it.  I told him if he could get it on me I would buy it.  A lady came over and explained this was a difficult process, and they had to be sure I wanted it, so I bought it to prove that I wanted it.  And then the guy took off his rings and rubbed my hand with lotion.  He pushed the bangle down while pulling my fingers up and it just popped on - not that difficult really and it didn't hurt.

Gill Pictures

This process had taken a bit longer than anticipated and we had to rush to Happy Feet for our final foot massage - 90 minutes of bliss.  I had also asked for a Shanghai pedicure, which I read in my book meant that they use knives to remove every bit of hard skin from your feet.

This was a production.  First, the guy looked kind of like a doctor, and he brought in bright light and his knives and then he proceeded to remove buckets of skin.  I mean my feet looked completely different when he was done.  The lady that was doing Gill's feet explained to the guy that Gill really needed to get her feet done too, so he did Gill's too.

After all of this relaxation, we went back to the hotel and took a shower and changed into our traveling clothes.  We had one last drink and plate of samosas and then we went to the train station and checked in.  That's right, we checked in - in town - and then they took our bags to the airport while we sauntered off unencumbered.  This is a pretty awesome service, and I wish it existed in every big city.

We motored around the airport, lounged in the lounge and then ran down to our plane because it was leaving early - what's up with that?  We both slept to Istanbul, but the flight was crazy rough, and the pilot chose a route like a drunk walks a straight line.  

Istanbul was quiet when we arrived and we picked a plush location to set up camp and then we alternated wandering around and getting strange things to eat.  The flight back to London was quick; we watched movies - Gill had to finish hers from the previous flight and she was all accusatory that I hadn't informed her the Secret Life of Bees was going to make her cry.

We said goodbye at Gatwick; Gill headed off to the train station.  I took the bus to Heathrow and then went and had a bathroom stall 'shower' and change.  The lady cleaning the toilets gave me a big smile when I came out in a different change of clothes - the things she must see. 

I had my holiday manicure removed and then headed off to Aberdeen.  I tried to talk Eastern Airways into letting me go on the earlier flight as it was delayed, but they said I would have to buy a new ticket and instead made me wait 3 hours until the next one.  I eventually arrived home - 12 hours after arriving in England and 30 hours after leaving Hong Kong.  I was so glad to see my furry faces.

Hong Kong's Clever

Some things require no interpretation

And They Are Off!

After breakfast, Gill and I joined 89,998 other people in Hong Kong and headed north to the races. I guess racing is a big deal in Hong Kong and the first races of the new year is particularly popular. Getting tickets was an issue, but Gill found a 'tour' where the transportation and tickets were included. We took the metro a couple of stops down and waited at another hotel for pickup.  

This essentially went as planned and soon we were picking up another group across the harbor and then a 30 minutes drive north. It was a huge venue, and we had a box with 'free food.' Everyone else in our group pretty much did nothing but eat for the next 4 hours.  

We put together a kitty and some rules and proceeded to bet on the races. We won the first race and this was exciting and got us off to a great start. However, we then went on to lose the next 9 races. We even tried leaving the box and going down track side to change our luck, but this didn't work.  

The lower levels were very interesting, as when you looked over the side there really weren't that many people out by the track, but on each level there were thousands sitting on chairs and steps, betting and watching on TV.  There were lots of break away horses and at least 4 got scratched in 4 different races for running off before the race. This delayed everything, but was very funny. Sometimes they looked crazy as they ran off, sometimes exhilarated, but mostly they just looked put out.

We decided to make our own way back as there was a metro stop next to the track and we were going to have to metro anyway. When we got over there, we realized we were going to have to change 3 times, and we agreed no matter what we were getting on the trains. The first train came and we pushed our way on. This turned out to be the most difficult part of the journey, because it thinned out every time we changed. We got back to the hotel in around 30 minutes.

When we came out of the metro station, we saw hundreds of mostly women sitting around the sidewalks - on blankets and cardboard. There were some guys, but they were mostly selling things, like clothing. We had seen the women sitting in the tunnels and had assumed they were 'camping out' for the fireworks. And then when we left this morning we saw lots of women with big sacks streaming out of the metro. They were even line dancing in the street. Now, you have to imagine that along these streets are Prada, Cartier, and Louis Vuitton, so it was an interesting scene. We have also seen lots of signs about littering and fines for spitting, and the streets have been pristine, so this just seemed like anarchy.

We changed for dinner and then headed out for our Peking duck - we still hadn't had that yet. The concierge had made us reservations, and we managed to walk it without going outside and crossing two streets - Gill's got this town.  

The restaurant was very nice and the food was excellent, but our service was lacking. They seemed a bit put off that we were there; again, the tables were mostly filled with families. We started with vegetable dumpling and green beans with pork and then finished with our duck.  

The pancakes that came with the duck made you realize you never actually had the right kind of pancakes. In the middle of dinner, a chef came out and demonstrated how to hand pull noodles. Then a little guy came along and hoovered up the mess.

On the way back, most of the ladies had gone, and there was a crew out with a power washer cleaning the streets and the sidewalks. We googled this strange scene and found that these women are the Hong Kong 'helpers,' mostly Indonesian and Filipinos that work as domestics. The law demands a good wage and indicates that they must have 12 consecutive hours off on Sunday. Since they must live with their employer, they have no place to meet, so they converge on the streets to talk, eat, play games and line dance. We had seen a campaign in the metro about treating your 'helpers' as family. Bit sad really.

New Year, New Day

It's now officially the year of the horse. I'd read somewhere that people don't like to work on the first day of the new year because they think it means they are going to have to work all year, so Gill and I decided not to take any chances and made this our inside day - as in not leaving the hotel. We had breakfast in bed, which involved a lovely guy rolling a large table to the end of our beds. I had Eggs Benedict and a breakfast tiramisu, which is the lovely whipped yogurt layered with granola and blueberries. Gill had corned beef hash and a bread basket. It was all pretty tasty.  

After this, we went back to bed and watched a movie on TV. I eventually got up and went to the gym, and then it was time to go to the spa. I had a Chinese jade treatment and an Eve Lom facial and Gill had a 4 hand treatment and a fancy facial. My treatment involved a Chinese massage, which is just the acupressure pressure points - ouch - then she rubbed me with sesame oil and ground rice and then applied a tea mask to my legs and stomach. The massage was not traditional and she did not shy away from the areas that hurt. After a shower, I had my facial, which was deep cleansing and felt necessary after all of my travels.

When I was done, I found Gill in the lounge looking a bit sleepy and out of it - but with glowing skin. There was a guy in the lounge at the same time who had originally waited with us and either didn't know or didn't care that you shouldn't sit with your legs splayed open when wearing a robe in mixed company.

After all of this, it was time to get ready for dinner, which we did pretty quickly and then went upstairs for a drink. We really like the bar on the 25th floor as it is completely manned by women and they are really wonderful. Tonight, I had a foam cosmopolitan, which was vodka, cranberry foam and laughing gas - seriously, that is what it said: best Cosmo ever, not sweet at all.  

After our drink, we went into Man Wah, which is the Michelin starred Chinese restaurant in the hotel. We were having the set menu and Gill had sorted us the best table to also enjoy the fireworks. We had some discussion about the set menu as there were two courses where we had no interest, at least I had no interest - it was the soup course and the dessert, but we went for it anyway.

Course 1. Shanghai style smoked codfish with five spices, roast suckling pig, pickled baby cucumber with yuzu vinegar. This was all very lovely and the wonderful man that delivered it explained how he thought we should eat it and it what order.

Course 2. Soup with see conch or abalone. We had one of each, mine being double boiled sea conch soup with bamboo pith, and matsuke mushrooms. Gill's was a bit gelatinous, but she seemed to like it. Mine was okay, I ate the broth, a bit like oyster stew on Christmas Eve.

Course 3. Steamed fillet of spotted grouper, crispy ginger, crabmeat and egg white sauce. This was amazing. The fish was perfectly cooked and the sauce was lovely, like a really thick egg drop soup and the crispy ginger was an absolute revelation.

Then we had a bit of a food break for the fireworks show, which went on for 20 minutes. The fireworks were set off from several boats in the middle of the harbor. It went on and on and on.

Back to dinner: Course 4. Stewed chicken and eggplant. We had to be given a knife and fork for this course, which was too bad because we had been doing so well, but it was going to end badly and they were very attentive the utensils suddenly appeared.

Course 5. Stir fried prawn, pea sprout, and chili sauce. The shrimps were big and fat and succulent, and the greens were the same thing we had the night before, so they must be in season.

I didn't get a picture of course 6, which was braised noodles with crabmeat and crab coral sauce. It looked like a bowl of noodles with orange sauce, but they were so much more than that. We slurped and slurped them up. This destroyed the table cloth and their solution was to place a napkin over the offending area so that could serve the last course.

Final course: Course 7. Double boiled pear, birds nest, and tangerine tea. I had been dreading this because I really don't care for pear, much less twice boiled ones and then I had read about the birds nests and I didn't want to eat one. Gill was convinced that it wouldn't be an actual birds nest and instead would be a pile of noodles, but when they were delivered our lovely little man explained this was so special because the high volume of bird spit in the nest, which changes the texture of the pear. It certainly did -- inedible I say. The texture was like someone had already chewed it, but somehow left it in the shape of a pear. Our guy did seem a bit disappointed when we did not eat it.

We finished out meal with petit fours and one immediately squirted out of Gill's fingers and onto the floor. This was whisked away very discreetly by our fabulous waitstaff.

Lion Dancing and a Big Buddha

We sleep until 0730! I could not believe it when we woke up and the sun was peeking under the shade. Once we pulled ourselves together, we headed down to the buffet as Gill needed some more dim sum. We had roughly the same thing as the day before, but I switched up the order, having my dim sum last, there were some different ones this morning including a whole wheat vegetable one that was really delicious.  

While we were eating, we watched the big boss walk around and give all of the staff their New Years money envelopes; everyone looked happy.

Before noon, we went down to the lobby and found a seat. Then the eye dotting ceremony and lion dance was started to kick off the new year. The eye dotting ceremony is just someone wiping the eyes of the lion to 'light' them up. Then the lion dance started. Two tiny guys worked together to move that lion around the room and onto these tiny little pillars. They were fantastic!

Our plan for the day was to go out to Lateau Island, which is the same island that the airport is on. We headed toward the subway and noted that there were lots of people set up, we assume waiting for the fireworks the next night. The walking tunnels were filled with big groups sitting on cardboard playing games and eating.

The metro was easy as it was a different line that went from our location to the island, straight shot with no changes. When we got there we walked over to the cable car, which had this unbelievable line - like unbelievable. Gill had very smartly thought to ask the concierge for tickets and we purchased them at the hotel, this put us in a much shorter line, but it still took us over an hour to get into our cable car and then travel the 3 miles to the top of the mountain.

The line was filled with really horrible pushy people. The stop before the cable car stop was for Hong Kong Disneyland and Gill wondered if perhaps these were mainland Chinese come over for a holiday over the new year. Not really sure what the difference, but these were not the people that we have been interacting with for the last couple of days.  

For example, we finally get into our crystal bottom (glass) cable car so you can watch down as well as out and the family of four that was across from us immediately threw down a plastic bag filled with crap into the middle of the car and their fat little boy proceeded to eat the Chinese equivalent of Twinkies while throwing the wrappers on the ground. FYI: the box was empty when we stopped and 'mom' tucked the empty box between the seat instead of putting it in the trash. The old couple next to us shouted at me in Chinese the whole way and took dozens of pictures of us - mostly Gill because I kept putting my hand up.

All that said, the ride was spectacular. The cable car went from mountain to mountain - over the water and way way up into the air. Even with our horrible companions, I could not tell you how long it took us because I was completely mesmerized.

Once at the top we had to navigate a bunch of crowds and then head to the largest seated Buddha. There were people trying to worship, but it was mostly people taking very staged photographs. It was beautiful and the surrounding landscape was breathtaking.

We then walked the wisdom trail, which went through the forest a bit and then lead to this path lined with halved trees, placed in the shape of infinity. Each tree segment had lettering on it, which formed a Chinese poem about emptiness. The idea was that you walked along contemplating being empty. It was pretty cool, but again a bit overrun with morons.

Our final stop here was Po Lin monastery. This was a pretty big place where people mostly seemed to have come to eat at the vegetarian cafeteria, which seemed very complicated because you had to stand in line to get a ticket and then stand in line to get a table and then stand in line to get your food. We didn't do any of this, but we did enjoy these enormous incense sticks - like person sized, which were being lit in a bonfire creating big clouds of smoke.

We retraced our steps and the ride was a little better, and it seemed a bit quicker on the way down. We had some trouble at the metro stop because the machines were really fussy. Only one took bills - we didn't have enough change. The one that took bills, wouldn't take a 50, even though our fare was 46. Once we got change for the 50 and waited in line to use the one machine that took bills, we found out it would only take one 20 at a time. But never fear, we finally figured it out.

For dinner, we had left it with the concierge and told her roughly what we wanted and she had made us reservations at a place about 5 minutes away. Gill almost navigated us though several buildings, but in the end, we went down to the street. The restaurant was huge, and the internet said it would seat 300 people. Pretty much all the tables were filled with 3 generations and mostly groups over 8. We were given the regular menu, but everyone else had a yellow piece of paper and this caused lots of discussion at the other tables.  

We had a great guy help us, and he managed to sort out our order, which was suckling pig, spicy shrimp, braised greens with garlic, and a noodle cake with a meat sauce. We finished this amazing meal with custard dim sum, and the custard was sweet and runny inside - delicious! Watching the families was fun; there was a really big group that clapped and oohed and aahed in unison every time a course came.

We didn't even try to make it through the buildings and instead headed out into the streets and made our way home.

Can I Help?

Today, we planned to head to Kowloon. I slept a bit better, but Gill managed to say goodnight to the kids and was feeling manic about her loss of sleep. I headed down to the gym again, and it was fairly deserted, so perhaps the New Year is approaching. We ate in the other restaurant, and this one had a big buffet.  

We started with dim sum. All the little steamer baskets were piled on top of one another and each one you opened had something different in it. It was a fun game, opening and closing them until you had the baskets that you wanted. Not sure this was appropriate etiquette, but it is what we did: open - ooh - ahh - close. Back at the table, we trade for different dumplings.  

We easily could have stopped at this point, but instead, I went and had a ham and cheese omelet with bacon, some arugula, a bit of hash brown and an English muffin. My omelet as perfect - firm on the outside and squishy on the inside. Gill also had an omelet, but she had some noodles first. I finished off my breakfast with some fruit and homemade whipped yogurt. They had a honeycomb balanced at the toast table and I scooped off a spoonful to plop in the middle of the yogurt. It was all heaven.  

We knew we needed this sustenance because yesterday we walked 10 miles and today would probably be the same (turned out to be 9 - what slackers!). We started our day by heading out to the metro station. We were going to go to one as I thought we were equally between two, but a nice businessman getting out of taxi with his suitcase stopped and asked if he could help and gave us very good directions to a very close stop. The metro had everything in English and we were soon on a train. All the cars are connected and we were the only ones on this 9 car train - it was strange.  

It whisked us under the harbor and up to Mong Kok market. This is where several traditional markets are including the flower market and goldfish market. The stations are confusing but all have good maps that tell you what exit to take depending on where you want to go. Our book had a walk outlined and that was our plan, but this was completely abandoned when we got outside and saw a sign pointing to the flower market, so we just followed those; this lead us to a park, which was a bit like a carnival, but it hadn't opened yet.  

We were about to retrace our steps when a nice lady said, can I help you and then gave us very good directions to the flower market. She then followed us to make sure we got there. We wandered up and down the stalls, it was two streets of nothing but flower shops and they had displays out front. Everyone was making big purchases - I assume to decorate their house or to take to someone.  

As we were about to consult the map for the goldfish market, I heard a tiny voice next to me say, can I help you and there beside me was a little boy with his dad standing beside him with a big grin. We told him where we wanted to go and he gave us very good directions; he also said the bird market was good too, and we shouldn't miss it; we did miss it, but this was because I had recently read this really traumatic Vietnamese short story that involved a bird market.

The cool thing about Kowloon is that you can tell real people live here. There were lots of high rise buildings, but all the windows opened and everyone had their laundry hanging. People were doing actual shopping and standing around having a chat. In Hong Kong central, where we are staying, everything is very clean and crisp, but it doesn't look 'real.'

We walked up and down a regular market where they were mostly selling clothing and then we went down the goldfish market, which sold a lot more than goldfish and was really fish, and plants, and turtles and frogs. I really liked this street, and maybe could have stayed there all day.

We hopped back on the metro and went to harbor area, where we got horribly lost in this awful mall. All the malls are connected - much like they were in Bangkok - and finding something specific was very difficult. We went to a directory and our staring at the floorplan seemed to be bothering the lady minding the floorplan, and she pushed a button, which we thought might list the stores, but resulted in an actual lady coming up on the screen and saying, can I help? We really didn't know what we wanted, so no she couldn't help and this caused her and the minder some distress - so we left.

Gill found some great shoes, I got some great clips and we managed to find the bank, and I was happy to see that USAA unlocked my account. We wandered along the walk of stars and saw all the areas set up for the parade and watching the fireworks. There were lots of crowd control barriers and lots of signs saying - don't panic!

We hopped the metro for the last time and ended up on our side of Hong Kong. We hit the Chinese Arts and crafts shop and I was once again amazed at the cost of a jade bangle - for your information, diamonds are cheaper.

Back at the hotel, we read through our information on the hotel events for the new year, and we did some googling on dinner. In the end, we chose good and close, which turned out to be an Italian place - best in Hong Kong. We had a salad to start, Gill had seafood soup and I had 36 month aged ham. For dinner, Gill had a lamb bolognese, and I had homemade pasta with baby roasted artichokes. We also had a gorgeous bottle of crisp white wine. It was heaven.

On the way back, we realized that we could get to our hotel without going outside as much of Hong Kong is connected with these covered elevated walkways so you can go from one building to the next without going down to the street.

We picked up dessert at the bakery. I had a disgusting green tea cake and Gill had a gorgeous mandarin coconut cake. At least I know what that one tastes like now, I just wish I could erase it from my memory.

Day 1 Hong Kong Central

Well we both woke up at 2 am, I fell back asleep, but Gill didn't and at 0430, I gave up and turned on the light. This was unfortunate, but had some benefits. One of the benefits was that Gill could call Alex and Sarah before they went to sleep and the other benefit was that we were bound to be really tired tonight - right?

After some tea, I went off to check out the gym and then we got ready for breakfast. We had decided the night before which restaurant to eat in because you always have to plan one meal ahead. We headed down to the cafe where we could order off of the menu. The gal at the desk tried to talk us out of it, but we said we really wanted to eat there and so she begrudgingly seated us.  

We both ordered the Chinese breakfast, which was huge and included tea, warm soy milk; congee, which is soupy rice with chicken and condiments of chili, croutons, fried peanuts, abalone (sea snail) and shredded ginger. We also had a mini basket of dim sum with two steamed buns (pork and egg custard), spinach dumpling, shrimp dumpling, and two combo dumplings with pork, shrimp and mushroom. The abalone looked like grey marbled jello and I hid this from view with my excess bowls. It was all very tasty and very filling.

After breakfast, we walked up to the base of Victoria Peak and took the funicular to the top.  The funicular is about a 1.5 kilometers long with 400 feet in elevation change. It is really steep in places. Once at the top, we walked a circuit around the top of the peak and enjoyed the views. Back at the funicular, we braved the crowds and went to the top where the people watching was just as good as the views.

We headed back down and were amazed at the huge crowd waiting to go up, we seemed to have timed it perfectly. We walked through Hong Kong park, which has a huge aviary and a pond filled with catfish and turtles, we dawdled through here as it was really pretty, but our goal was the tea museum.

We found this pretty easy, and it was free. It boasted that it was disinfected 6 times per day. It smelled like it was disinfected 6 times per day and it took me a while to get used to it and decide I could stand it. The museum showed the history of tea and had a very cool pottery collection from very old to very new. It was extremely quiet in there and we were on our best behavior, but toward the end I couldn't take it any more and started laughing like a hyena with tears running down my face. It was weird, not in a bad way, but in a weird way that seems incongruent with silence. There was a round white board at the end of the tour, which asked you to write your comments. Gill wrote 'clean' and I wrote 'tea makes me pee.' Gill made me leave at this point.

We headed back toward the center of town and stopped for a Starbucks and a pee - no tea. In the toilet, we encountered something we hadn't seen before and it was that the toilets and sinks were assigned to each establishment. So, Starbucks had one toilet and one sink and you were only to use those and no one else was supposed to - since we technically hadn't been anywhere yet, we used whatever was open and then I took a picture of this very strange situation, which completely freaked this gal out - I guess she doesn't think cameras belong in the toilet.  

Our next stop was Happy Feet Reflexology and we both got a 75 minute foot rub. Gill's therapist kept clucking and telling her to relax. Mine didn't speak English. It was heaven and dirt cheap; I suspect we will be back there. Relaxed and starved we went into the first place we could find and it turned out to be a 3 story diner of sorts, and we were the only white people in the joint. I ordered chicken and rice, Gill had beef and noodles and we shared Chinese kale. It came out at three separate times and they only gave us one set of chopsticks, but we still ate everything - you can't deter us when it comes to food.

Blog note: In all our travels, Gill and I have never been into selfies; however, over the last 3 days we have taken several every day. We ALWAYS find this very funny and I suspect they will continue. We were taking one on Victoria Peak when a guy asked me if I wanted him to take a picture, I said yes and he did and then he asked if I would take one of him and his male friend and I said of course. His friend said should we use your camera or ours and then they laughed and said, we are from Bollywood, we have to say that.

the final transport segment

At the Metropolitan, we had these cute twin beds that were pushed together so that they were separate, but not really. I turned the air on to high and was soon fast asleep. Gill said she slept well, but she was really clumsy in the bathroom and rocketed me out of bed when she dropped something on the floor. We had already pre-drooled over the breakfast menu, so once dressed we went down for Eggs Benedict and shared a zucchini rosti; vegetable are important, even for breakfast. 

We lingered through a couple mugs of tea and coffee and then we went for a brisk walk around then area. We stopped in a couple of shops, mainly for curiosity and not for real purpose.

Then we were off to the airport, first a taxi to Victoria Station, then a train to Gatwick. We somehow managed to get on the train without a ticket, and this made

Gill nervous so she went off to get us one. She had a difficult time explaining she needed someone to let her out so she could buy 2 tickets, but she finally managed. Check in was a piece of cake and then we went and found the lounge, which turned it to be lovely. Gill got a pedicure and I got a manicure.

Finally, we were off to Istanbul, this was about a 4 hour flight, and it went pretty quick. They had a lady dressed up as a chef working in business class and she and the other lady were very friendly. We had green beans and assorted Turkish appetizers, and Gill had meat patties with tomato bulgar wheat and I had artichokes with ravioli - both extremely tasty. For the rest of the flight, we read magazines, played games on our iPads or watched TV - that was me I watched 5 episodes of Raising Hope. One of the gals really wanted us to try Turkish wine 'because more people should drink it' and it turned out to be really nice.

Then we were in Istanbul, which required we go back through security. Now, it was

10 pm and the airport was packed - I mean packed. We wandered around looking at the shops and then headed to the lounge, which was nicer than the last one.  

There were several food stations. We had this long flat filled bread with meat, cheese or vegetable cut up into slices, salads, chicken and beef and a few dessert. Once it turned midnight, we watched them turn everything over for breakfast. I did wonder what happened to all of that great food.

Finally, it was time for us to board and we headed downstairs and onto a bus. Some poor guy was having a hard time and they were going to telling him he couldn't board and they also wouldn't let him talk to a supervisor. It's wonder how he'd come as far as he did.

We were on a nice 767 and we got everything all sorted into position and started to contemplate the next 9+ hours.  

Once we took off, I reclined my seat which took some doing because the motor kept stopping, but I eventually got it right, I put in my headphones and lowered my eye mask. Then I w...a....s asleeeeeeeeep. I woke about between 6 to 7 hours later and Gill was being busy, but she said she had some sleep and I believed her.

With my last hours, I talked to Gill, stared at the big plane moving painfully slow on the little earth and I ate scrambled eggs, cheese, fruits and olives with fresh bread for breakfast and then we were here; it was about 5pm the following day from when we had started.  

The airport was fairly efficient and our bags came right out. We hadn't made much of a plan, but in the end decided to take the fast train into town. The only difficulty here was the fact that USAA wouldn't let me get money out, but thankfully my British bank was not so fussy. They didn't even answer the phone when I called, which resulted in a heavy sigh.

The train took about 20 minutes and was extremely efficient - they even had free wifi that even worked when we were traveling under the bay. I used this great feature to tell USAA I was in Hong Kong, but I will have to see if that does the trick tomorrow. We did a bit of wandering around to decide which exit to take out, but then pretty much walked right to the hotel, who acted as if they had been waiting for us all day.

Unpacked and cleaned up, we headed to the 25th floor for a cocktail and a snack. While we were waiting for our food, they gave us snacks which were fried peanuts and marinated olives and peppers. The fried peanuts were delicious and were fried with chilies. There was this little round almost like a peppercorn things in there. The first one I ate was very astringent, but the second one made my whole mouth and throat go completely numb - like at the dentist. This was sort of alarming, so I stopped eating them; Gill had the same experience.  

We had grapefruit, pomegranate and mint drink concoctions with fish cakes, chicken satay and samosas with mint sauce. It was all good, but the samosas were incredible; I could have eaten like 10 more.

We made a rough plan for the next day and then we headed downstairs for a sleep. I tried to work on my blog, but noticed that I was just inserting question marks, so I decided to go to sleep.

we travelled south

Segment 2 involved returning to England using the same route I had taken to get there. The snow from the day before had cleared in Denver and I thought I had timed my return through Newark between storms and only mild polar vortex.  

Everything went as planned, and the flight from Newark to Edinburgh was only 5.5 hours. According to my UP band, I slept 5 hours and 10 minutes, and I managed to do this by reclining my chair at wheels up and then sleeping until the guy next to me was forced to wake me up so we could land. He seemed a bit disgusted at having to wake me up - I thought this was funny.

I took a taxi to the train station and then a train to Oxenholme in the Lake District, which took about 2 hours. Gill was slightly detained, but that is her story. She picked me up and then we raced along - at the speed limit - to Seascale. We picked up the lovely and amazing Sarah and went and checked out Gill's new house - it's gorgeous, perfectly sized and decorated so that you know it is Gills, which means it is fun, thoughtful and welcoming.

We had a nice day with a trip to Whitehaven for supplies and gymnastics for Sarah. We ran into someone we used to work with, and I did giggle at his statement that, 'I tried to convince myself it wasn't you, but it is'. 

Gill made Thai turkey burgers with roasted cauliflower and sweet potatoes for dinner. I did feel pretty worn out, but made it past 10 and had a great nights sleep.

The next day marked segment 3, which was made of 4 phases. Phase 1 we drove from Seascale to Chorley, again at the speed limit and with no incident. We needed gas, but Gill could only fill the tank halfway because the icy rain was pelting her in the face.  

We had a cup of tea between phase 1 and 2 at Gill's flat and then the taxi driver came to take us to Piccadilly station. Phase 2 was okay, but the taxi was disgusting with stains all over the seats and stinking of cigarettes and cleaning fluid. The traffic was bad so by the time we got there I felt sick and like I wanted to burn the clothes I was wearing.

Phase 3 was lovely. We got on the train - in first class - and spent 2.5 hours reading, chatting and generally getting in a holiday mood. Phase 4 was a taxi to our hotel - the Metropolitan, which Gill had got on a secret deals, which meant the train tickets and hotel were cheaper then a train on Monday - isn't she clever?!?

Gill had spent 2 hours deciding what we should do on Sunday night, but in the end, decided we would go to our favorite restaurant because the places she picked either were not open or we could not get reservations. Her first choice was Gordon Ramsey's place called Maze, which was French tapas. I tried a couple of times, but could get anything earlier that 2030, but my last try revealed a reservation at 1815. We grabbed our bags and were off.

Between 1800 and 1845, the restaurant had a special 4 course meal for £30. After 1845, you could get a 7 course meal with wine for £185. We both decided to order 4 savory courses and had everything the same, except the second course. To start, we had pumpkin velouté with lemon creme fresh and salt cod. You could taste each and every flavor and it was amazing.

For our second course, Gill had chicken thigh and I had smoked mackerel with shaved beets and horseradish. Both were very good. Gill's was also smoked and very rich. Mine was super light and everything worked very well together.

Our third course was black cod is a seaweed broth. When I say seaweed, I mean seaweed. You know all of those pictures I take with the pinky seaweed and the black seaweed buttons and the dark brown lacy seaweed - all in my dinner! It tasted so perfectly of the ocean, but it wasn't fish, and the fish of course was perfectly cooked.

The fourth course turned out to be my favorite and that is saying something. It was a pork steamed bun with a hot corn relish. It was so rich and so homey, it made me want to lick the plate.

We turned down dessert as everything was so perfect who could want anything else, but they gave us a little plate with chocolate truffles, passion fruits meringues and orange jellies. They left us for a while and when we asked for the check they brought us another tray of these same treats and we ate those too.

We wandered out into the night and found our hotel. After watching a favorite home improvement guy make his very own personal shed, we drifted off with very full bellies thinking about tomorrow's final segment...next stop Hong Kong through Turkey.

Losing Ones Marbles

I have embarked on a foolish, yet entertaining, two journeys that will have the most indirect path to Hong Kong. On a Friday, I flew to Edinburgh, stayed the night and then flew to Denver through Newark. When I landed, I saw this very familiar, very lovely lady that also happened gone my mother.

I was thrilled to see her and off we went to collect the rental car and then off to our hotel. I didn't have a map or GPS, but before we knew it, we were pulling into our hotel. We quite smartly decided to eat in the hotel and I had the most amazing bowl of crispy brussel sprouts. After a very good night sleep, we headed downstairs to wait for Crystal, our realtor; she arrived looking much as we have expected (well, perhaps she was a bit taller).

We proceeded to drive all over Denver seeing many interesting spaces. Mustard and red seem to be hot colors right now and we saw them often - together and separately. After 10 houses, she dropped us back at the hotel to head off to watch the Bronco game.  

We went off to Boulder and shopped along Pearl street. Pearl Street was much more successful then house shopping would be and I ended up buying a wonderful piece of art for the house I would not find.

Losing Ones Marbles: This is waiting in Barbara's house; now, I just need to find a house for it.

After art shopping, we met a good friend for Mediterranean tapas and then headed home. After sleeping, I established new criteria for the house shopping based on everything I saw - like it had to be a bit bigger, which meant my price had to go up. We spent the whole day seeing houses and saw another 15. They all had some nice features, but they all had some issue like across from a mental institution, in a busy street, no yard, tiny kitchen, funny smell, filthy with a dog bed filling the entire kitchen floor - seriously.

Once we were returned to the hotel, we got in the car and wandered around Cherry Creek and bought a few bits and bobs, then we had dinner at a place called North, which was Italian, but 'this is our take on Italian food.' It tasted like Italian food to me - it was good and I had spicy shrimp pasta.

The next day, mom headed back to San Antonio and I headed to work. I saw two more houses in the afternoon and was feeling over loaded. All the houses started to bleed together and I would look at the listings and think that house looks nice and then realize I had already seen it. Another day of work and thankfully no houses. My last full day in Denver, I headed to work and then took in my two final homes afterward with 4 inches of snow on the ground.

I was a bit disappointed by this whole process, but hey, it just wasn't right. 

Friday, I got up packed my things and initiated my next installment on this adventure.

Reflections

With 3 weeks between me and my return from Indochina, I thought it would be a good time for reflection. Everyone has asked me 'how was it,' 'what was your favorite part,' and those are really difficult questions to answer because it was wonderful, but not in a typical vacation sort of way.

These are the things I know for sure:

I am really glad I went and in fact, I feel lucky to have had the opportunity.

I learned a lot about a part of the world where I obviously knew nothing.

My group was a lot of fun. Would I do a group trip again? I am not sure because I think the likelihood that I would get a group like this again is very very small. This was confirmed by Sue, who said she'd never had a group like this. The kids were super fun and the adults were all very friendly and inclusive. They were all extremely well travelled, which is why I think there were no idiots. Many of them has done several trips to South America and I thought; I've never even been there...

Having someone with you all of the time to take care of the 'stuff' like airline tickets, baggage, tips, communication, transportation is really awesome. I wouldn't want to do that on every trip, because some of that is half the fun - even (especially) when it goes horribly wrong. Sue was incredible, always ready with a story to make you laugh, interesting insights, a bag of candy and toilet paper.

I didn't get any down time on the trip and at first, I found this difficult, but in the end I wouldn't have missed any of it, so I guess I will just have to schedule some weekends to stay in my pajamas - I think that's currently pencilled in for late February.

This part of the world is fairly magical and complicated. There is a strong sense of tradition, but it felt like they were always ready to bolt something new on. They are also firmly looking to the future, and in both Vietnam and Cambodia, you could feel them planning a way for forward for the next generation.

If I had to pick a favorite, I would guess I'd say Halong Bay. Even though I got no sleep on this part of the trip; the place was completely magical and unique. Every which way you looked was a different way of seeing the bay. It was always hazy on the trip, but at Halong bay this just added to the magic.

Da Nang was a strange stop in that we we're only there for a day and we really seemed to be filling time; however, it was a stark change from the north and I got a great story from my dad about stopping here at a deserted airbase and walking through a silent hanger to find a lady selling hot dogs. I could almost hear his footsteps going through the hanger while wondering what 'how did I get here?' (to be sang Talking Heads style).

The company I went with does a lot of tours this time of year and we saw several groups on the same adventure. There was a large family (20+) - the Cohens - where grandma had planned and bought the trip; many hadn't seen each other for over a year and they were always laughing. There was a couple on a private tour that was with us all the way. He has been a marine in Vietnam, and it was clearly a very special trip for him. They had decided against the group trip for all the reasons in your head for not going with a group, and I think they were a bit disappointed that they weren't with us all the time.

The trip was a funny time vortex in that it felt like we were there forever and like it went by in a blink. Overall, it was wonderful and very very very special.