Hong Kong May 21 - May 27, 2009

After a little bit of struggle, we made it to our hotel in the New Territories so we decided to spend the rest of our time here in Hong Kong, instead of looking for a more centralized location. After seeing one of the guest houses in Kowloon, I can't give up my luxury hotel! This room would go for several hundred per night in the U.S. Hint: Hotels.com rates were about 35% less than the rate the hotel offers in person. This is where to go to stay off the tourist path! We are the ONLY non Asians in our 27 story hotel and the people here are the most accommodating and friendly! I think we are a novelty for them. We love it here!

If we had better info when we arrived, we could have taken a short light rail from the train. It is three stops away and about a four minute ride. Learned the hard way, but I think it was a good lesson.

KOWLOON

Took off to Kowloon via train, but with no map or guidebook. We picked a stop, Kowloon Bay. Strangely, couldn't find the bay, and walked around neighborhoods that do not cater to tourists and were definitely the only Americans.. Big white man with big hat walking down the streets around this neighborhood is a spectacle. I on the other hand, fit right in. Most people try speaking to me in Cantonese! (Hong Kong has a hodge podge of oriental looks and the British influence is obvious in the genes as well as the city itself).

We ended up getting back on a train and and heading to the museum district. We bought a museum pass good at most of the major museums that charge admission for $30 HK (this is about $4!) Went to the Art Museum and was dismayed to see that it was taken over by some Louis Vuitton exhibit, but we were able to enjoy the ceramics from 200 B.C. to the 17th centuries and spotted the greatest chairs ever, made of corrugated paper and with the look and feel of suede.

We came back for a second day of site seeing and museum touring. I went into a zero gravity chamber at the Air & Space Museum (Ben was too big!), and we both took a virtual reality hang gliding trip through the Grand Canyon. The Science museum is a blast, with
many hands on displays for adults and kids alike.

The tourist area of Kowloon is like NYC, but not in the best way. Our peaceful neighborhood in Tin Shui Wei is so calm and clean in comparison. In Kowloon you cannot take two steps without an arm in your face trying to stop us to buy a fake Rolex, there are pubs full of Anglos, a TGI Friday's and Prada, Gucci, LV, Harry Winston, etc. Boring, boring, boring.

Lantau Island Socked In

Monday, May 25, 2009

On Lantau Island sits the worlds tallest outdoor bronze Buddha. This outlying island of Hong Kong is sparsely populated and gives a glimpse at what the lush landscape really looks like. We took the MTR past the Disneyland stop to the base of a long cable car ride which takes visitors up to the giant Buddha. When we bought our tram tickets, they warned us that there would be high winds and some hefty weather on the way up. At some points on the way, we couldn't see anything but clouds in every direction and a short length of cable above our car which disappeared into the clouds around us. In the thick of it, we wondered if we hadn't died already and were riding a sky chariot into the great beyond. The rain was relentless and after walking less than 2 minutes out of the peak station, we were completely soaked. We marched onward up to the Buddha and I felt very humbled to be so much at the mercy of Mother nature while at the same time awestruck by the imposing statue. The rain flowed down the steps in thick sheets as we made our way up to the base of the monument. Inside the base of the statue was a shrine with thousands of names and pictures of the deceased along with offerings left by their families. Every characteristic of the statue bears significance, from the position of his hands and feet, to the look on his face and the style of his hair and clothing. With the rain coming down like it was, we didn't feel like staying long, so we made our way back to the refuge of the swaying tram for the half hour ride back down, where we squeezed out our socks and tried to dry off a bit. When we entered the gift store at the base, the first thing we saw for sale were some Flip Flops, which beats heavy wet shoes any day, so we bought some to wear for the MTR ride back to the hotel. Along the way, Cathie found a British passport on the ground and made it her mission to find the owner, which is a fun story in itself.

We stopped every Anglo at the monument and asked if they were traveling with Bernard. He was nowhere to be found. We took the passport back to the hotel and read his visa which listed his hotel! I left a message for him at his room and heard from him later that evening. Ben & I wanted to go near his hotel for dinner, so we met him and his partner, Paul at the Peninsula, the swanky hotel in Kowloon that is houses the Gucci, LV and other stores I complained about earlier. The concierge introduced us and we found Bernard & Paul to be interesting chaps. They invited us for a drink, and the Peninsula waiter invited us to leave because Ben had shorts on. They completely overlooked how handsome he is and that we are do-gooders. Well, add the Peninsula to places I won't be staying at in Hong Kong. To their defense, they wouldn't let us in the less fancy Sheraton across the street either. Lucky us, our invite was extended to dinner.

Ordinarily I doubt that we would be eager to eat with strangers, but we were hungry, I instantly liked them both and we had been looking for vegetarian food (long story) and Bernard recommended a vegetarian Chinese restaurant up the road. We ended up having great food and conversation. Lesson: if you find someone's passport, find the poor bloke! I did forget to do my Renee Zelwegger as Miss Potter imitation, but I am not sure if this is funny to Brits, or really anyone but Ben.

The highlight of the day was that I was able to mention the movie "Orgasmic Birth" because Paul works in a field where he would have heard of this movie. I have been waiting all my life to find someone's passport and make their day by returning it and have been waiting at least three months to say "Orgasmic Birth" at a dinner table with strangers. Score two for me!

Funny KONG

Hong Kong is Fun!

• If you stay in the non tourist area, menus are not in English. If you are lucky, someone in the restaurant will know enough to help you. Our interpreter told us, "this ones is a sammich, uhhh, chicken and eggs. This one is a sammich with pork. This congee has the pork, some pork, all pork in it. The whole pig is too large, so they must cut it up into very small pieces". What a great guy!

• All they talk about is H1N1 (not referred to as swine flu so much (probably because they eat a whole pig in their congee). Upon arrival, the only thing you have to declare is your symtoms (the form says Fever, Nausea, Coughing, etc). They actually take your temperature when you are getting off the escalator, and will quarantine those with fever. When our friend Paul helped us find our hotel when we arrived, the first thing he asked about was H1N1. When we are on the train, people typically will not sit next to us, those who do sit as far away as possible, like they are next to a poisonous snake. I saw one lady look at Ben while covering her face with the only thing she had in her purse, a kleenex. She covered her nose and mouth with both hands and actually prayed until she got off on her stop.

• We saw an odd couple on the street, a man in a business suit with a young lady in pink sweats. Sounds normal, I guess, but she was the thinnest thing either of us had ever seen that could walk. She would appear to be starving herself, but her toenails were three inches long and manicured into talons, so she must be eating something. While one from the West would think this might be lack of grooming, they were actually painted with white tips and obviously were tended to on a regular basis.

• The parks are amazing here. Ours has a skate park, model car racetrack, gate ball (croquet) area, Tai Chi area, Pebble Walk path, artificial lake full of turtles & fish, animal cutout maze, running track, etc.At 10pm there are over 150 people visible from our hotel playing basketball, soccer and running on the track.

• Hong Kong citizens are very friendly and will smile at you for walking down the street with a giant white man in a large hat.

Whirlwind of National Parks, May 12-16, 2009

Homolovi State Park, Walnut Canyon National Monument Petrified Forest National Park, Painted Desert National Park, Navajo Nation & Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Mesa Verde National Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Mineral Hot Springs, Florissant Fossil Bed National Monument - 5/12 to 5/16

After leaving the wonders of the Grand Canyon we continued down Route 66 through Flagstaff and Winslow, AZ. Yes, from the Eagles song. We went to a random corner and every side said 'Standing on the Corner" and there was a girl (my Lord) in a flat bed Ford painted on the wall. Hmm. This song stuck in our heads for days.

We camped at Homolovi State Park and for a meager $12, had a hot shower and campground with running water. There are Hopi ruins on the site along the Little Colorado River. We went to the ruins and they are littered with pottery, The Hopi believe that their god will return and follow the path of the old pottery shards to find them. We enjoyed the ruins and had a restful night.

The next day, we continued and saw a sign for Walnut Canyon National Monument. Never having heard of it and having the National Parks Pass, we popped in for a quick view. Unfortunately, we do did not plan to take the one mile hike to the cliff dwellings, but had great views and hope to return one day.

Next was Petrified Forest and we were blown away. It was absolutely amazing. This "forest" is actually an old log pile. Many trees were washed out into a creek and ended up under water. A volcanic eruption covered everything with ash. The silica in the ash seeped down with rainwater and replaced the cells of the tree with quartz and other minerals. The damage done to the forest by greedy tourists is quite sad. Before the National Park Service took the park over, there was dynamite blasting and most of the items that could be taken out were. Many of the remaining stumps are hollowed out and upon entering the Ranger gives out a form used to report theft. Sadly, they estimate that over 4,000 pounds of petrified wood are stolen from the park each month by tourists.

We continued on to the Painted Desert. Named by the explorer Coronado, this desert is truly beautiful; pink, red, green, blue, yellow,colors as far as the eye can see, the photos we took do not do it justice.

From here we went north through the Navajo Nation, which is the entire quadrant of NE Arizona and parts of New Mexico and Utah. We had quite the bog down on the car and wanted to check the air pressure. Apparently, the N.N. is not the place to do this. Along the way, we stopped at four different gas stations that had the air hoses cut off and hand written signs that they were out of order. All the same handwriting. Someone is making their fortune on flat tires. Not nice!

We arrived at Canyon de Chelly and almost fainted at the gorgeous canyon and wash below. This area has ruins and amazing vistas. We stayed at a campground called Spider Rock which is privately run by a Navajo citizen. For sure not the greatest campground, but we had a private, spacious spot. The campground manager invited Ben to join in a sweat lodge the next morning, where they pray and detox.
A Navajo sweatlodge is like a combination of a sauna and church. The small tent was just tall enough to sit in, and after Howard Smith (real name) placed several white-hot rocks inside the tent, we entered. He said some prayers for a healthy Earth and well being for us all, sprinkled some herbs on the hot rocks, and then we closed the door to the tent. The next 20 minutes was very intensely hot as each of us was allowed to sprinkle water on the hot rocks with a sage frond while thinking of our own personal prayers. Once the bucket of water had passed around the tent, Howard chanted and sang in Navajo and poured more water on the rocks until it was nearly unbearable. He said that if the heat got to us that we should bend down toward Mother Earth, who will give you cool relief. Soon enough the ceremony was over and we left the tent. Although it was 95 degrees outside in the mid morning sun, I felt freezing cold as I exited, fully soaked with sweat, from the tent. Navajo air conditioning at it's best. For the rest of the day, the heat was not a problem at all for me.

We drove on through the Navajo Nation, north to Four Corners. This is a BLM monument, run by the Navajo. After erecting the monument, they discovered that it had been surveyed incorrectly and is off the mark by at least 700 yards. Ooops!

We camped in Mancos State Park and spent the next day enjoying Mesa Verde. We had two amazing tours of the ruins, the Balcony House and the large Cliff Palace. The Balcony House tour included climbing a 30 foot ladder with a 700 foot drop off one side, which was the scary part. The rest was just fascinating. At the end, we had to crawl through an 18" tunnel to get out. There is so much speculation of what happened to the ancestral Puebloans, and the Rangers had conflicting opinions. We, of course, came up with our own theories. We also decided we would build our own Kiva one day.

The next day we left Mancos and headed to Great Sand Dunes. We watched the movie and were fascinated by the formation of the sand dune and learned about the ecosystem. In the Spring, the dune has creeks running along either side. These creeks actually have surf, or waves caused by mini sand dams breaching underwater. This is a very rare thing to see and only happens in a few places in the world. We tried to walk to the sand dune, but just couldn't! The wind was blowing the sand all over us and tearing our skin off!

With the end of our awesome camping trip coming in, we decided to get a small piece of humanity and stay at Mineral Hot Springs. There is a spa there called Joyful Journey, where we rented a yurt and soaked in the Mineral Springs. It was very relaxing and a great change of pace from the hard desert camping we had endured for the past two weeks.

With everything behind us, we headed to Denver to get ready for Asia, visit family and friends and think about our futures. It was so nice to see everyone!!

Grand Canyon & Kaibab Lake - May 6-11, 2009

Near the Grand Canyon area, we found a great campsite just outside the town of Williams, AZ, at a place called Kaibab Lake. It's a man-made lake, but serves as a refuge for a lot of birds and other wildlife.
We took a hike around the lake and witnessed a golden eagle attempting to chase down a blue heron for breakfast. Not making this up. Also, we found a stump that looked like a toilet.... and had a bunch of poo in it, of varying age. We found out later from a Ranger that the ringtail likes to use a commode. Funny!
The lake is about 45 minutes from the Grand Canyon, we drove up early and enjoyed the scenery on the way up. This area is amazing and at this point I am really loving Arizona, so unexpected. Northern AZ is nothing like Phoenix!

Grand Canyon is a wonder. Ben & I took the rim drive and shuttle and stopped at most of the vista points.

The canyon is approximately 12 miles from rim to rim, and over a mile deep. We hiked along the canyon, stopped and scanned the scenery with our binoculars. We had great views of the river from several of the stops and could see the lucky rafters on the water.

Although we would have like to hike into the canyon, it is approximately 10 hours to the bottom, and it takes one very long day to return, most will do it it two days. We were not prepared this time, but Ben & I look forward to backpacking in one day. We ran into a couple from Australia a little later in our trip. They hiked down and slept under the stars and really enjoyed our natural wonder.

The canyon has a lot of history, you could spend all day studying the people who shaped the park, the National park system and the explorers who braved the wild. Several of the stops have buildings designed by Mary Coulter, a hands-on architect who designed several buildings including the lodge, Hermit's Rest, and the Watch Tower. I loved her work, the respect shown to the Native Americans, the meticulous placement of stone and the Hopi artwork. I also love that she was a woman and built some of our country's most interesting and sustaining buildings that will be preserved by our natural park system. I hope that many young girl visitors are as inspired as I was.

After our bus tour, we stopped for lunch at the park's main outpost. Lunch tip: try the deli in the general store instead of the cafeteria across the parking lot. Your tummy will thank you.

After recouping a little, we decided to take a drive to the Tusayan Ruins and Watch Tower. We weren't sure that it would be worth it because we were so tired, but the tower is probably the best thing we saw (man-made). Another Mary Coulter design, this is a viewing tower, with a kiva and absolutely amazing placement of stone and more stunning artwork done by native artists. The handrail alone is worth the trip.

We made a lazy way home with plans to return one day soon, knowing we will see the North Rim next and hoping to get my foot healed enough to hike to the bottom of the canyon!

Animals spotted: Osprey, great blue heron, golden eagle, bats, stellar jays, squirrels, elk.
Activities: Hiking, birdwatching, sitting by the lake, painting, reading, staring at the canyon agape.
Interesting to note: The Colorado River was named for its red color due to the massive amount of silt carried by the water. These days, the river runs crystal blue becuase the sediment is trapped by the Glen Canyon Dam. The canyon was formed by the force of all that sediment grinding relentlessly against the bedrock.

Joshua Tree National Park, CA May 2 - May 6, 2009

Joshua Tree National Park
We arrived on May 2nd and were turned away because the campground was full. We purchased our Interdepartmental National Parks Pass and the rangers gave us a map to BLM land in a dry lake bed NE of the park. We camped in a windy, dusty dry lake. There were fossils of oysters. The other campers there were in RV's and four wheelers and motor bikes all of them burning illegal fires (it was posted no campfires). We had no fire and spent an interesting night on the lake.
The next day we loaded up the camp and moved to the park. It was Sunday and we had our choice of many abandoned campsites. Smartly, we looked for one with some shade, which is hard to come by in this climate. We found a great site in Belle campground, number 4.
We were nestled between large rocks, which were weathered White Tank monzogranite formations. The wind is more of a battle here, you can hide from the sun, but not the wind. It was war getting the tent up the first night. It was next to impossible for me to sleep because the wind was shaking the tent.
In the morning we went for a bike ride to White Tank campground where we saw a coyote crossing the road. He kept his distance, but watched us as we rode past on our bikes.
Joshua Tree is next to a town called 29 Palms, mostly military and retired miltary people live here.
We had the unfortunate experience of having our engine light come on, which is the worst thing when your Ford Focus is bogged down with camping gear, bikes and all of our Asian trip gear.
We had it checked at Bailey's, they couldn't get the part and we ended up staying in JT for 4 nights and finally had the car fixed on 5/6. Or so we thought.
Interesting to note: The round monzogranite boulders all over the park are volcanic intrusions of granite that have risen up underneath the overlying gneiss and been exposed through the erosion of the gneiss above by wind and water. Also, the Joshua Tree is a yucca, not a tree.
Animals Spotted: Coyote, Red Tailed Hawk, Quail, Desert Rat, Crows, Lizards.
Activities: Hiking, Biking, Windy, Hot, Joshua Tree, Yucca