Guiyang

Last weekend was a 3 day weekend in Hong Kong (which turned into a 4 day weekend due to a typhoon that kept us from getting back to Hong Kong until Tuesday morning), so Jill and I, along with another couple (friends of ours - Drew and Maureen), spent the past weekend in Guiyang which is the Capital of the Guizhou province of China.  Until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of Guiyang.  Even after coming back, people we work with who have heard of it were like, "You went to Guiyang?  Why?".

We went because of #8 on this list.  Jill had sent the list to me a while back, and I looked for a Hyatt that was near some of those places, and Hyatt Regency Guiyang was a 2 hour drive from from the falls.  The falls looked cool, so we went.

Other than the falls we didn't have too many other plans and didn't really know what to expect,  but we're so glad we went.  Not only were the falls awesome, but we got to see and experience so much other cool stuff.  The staff at the hotel basically planned out an itinerary for us for the entire weekend.  Everything we saw really broadened our views about China.  It's very different from Beijing or Shanghai.  Here's what we did:

Friday Night

We flew out of Shenzhen on Friday morning to Guiyang.  After getting settled at the hotel we headed out to dinner.  One of Drew's work friends used to live in Guiyang, so he had provided some recommendations for food while we were there.   Guiyang's signature dish is fish in sour soup (sounds gross, but is actually quite good), so we went to a place that was recommended to us to try this dish.  One thing about being in a secondary city in China is that no one speaks English (the only English speaking people we encountered were at the hotel besides two other people that realized we were struggling to communicate while out and about over the weekend).  This made it extremely difficult to order dinner...especially because the menu was in characters.  However, the waitress we had was very patient, and after a long time we were eventually able to order the dish, along with a bottle of what is basically Guiyang's version of Sake, and beers. Here's some photos from dinner:

These two rug rats were having a broom battle just up the street from the restaurant. Chinese kids are cute so there are quite a few pics of them in this blog.  We tried to just get some shots of the people we saw...just ended up that a lot of them were kids...so don't come looking for me, Chris Hanson.

Drew picking out the fish for the soup

Our fish...they just dump the fish in the soup whole...

China's version of Sake

Our sour fish soup.  There were veggies and lots of other stuff in the soup, and you just pick out what you want and dip it in this really spicy concoction that our waitress prepared for us. It was awesome.  The soup sits on a burner at your table so it is always hot.

This little girl was fascinated by the pale skins sitting next to her.  As she and her family were leaving the restaurant, she came up to our table, smiled, and enthusiastically asked "Do you like fish?".  That's all she said, smiled and walked away.  She was really excited to see white people.  Actually everyone in Guiyang was excited to see white people.  More on that later.

Just some dancers outside the restaurant

Drew, Maureen, and Jill at our table

After dinner we walked around downtown Guiyang and made our way past some street food stands to a really cool river walk.

Ran into this little fella on the way to the river walk. He ran out of his dad's store as we were walking by, and his dad came to get him.  His dad spoke very, very broken English, but Maureen (who was actually clutch on this trip because she has been taking Mandarin lessons) was able to talk to him a little.  The people in Guiyang were very, very nice.

A street food stand.  No idea what most of it was, but it smelled good.  We didn't eat any street food on this trip.

These next few pics are from the river walk.  Did not expect to find something like this in downtown Guiyang...

 

After farting around the river for a while we called it a night and went back to the hotel.  We had to be up early the next morning to make the 2 hour drive to the Huangguoshu waterfall the next day.

Saturday

We hired a driver for the day from the hotel. In addition to the Huangguoshu waterfall, there were a couple of other things that we decided to see.  It was a 2 hour drive out to the falls, but we got there early enough to beat the crowd.

JIC

There was a path you can take up to actually walk behind the waterfall which was pretty cool.

Just another cute little kid.  

This is just one of many, many instances of some random person asking to take photos with us.  Jill and I had heard before we had even visited Beijing for the first time a few years ago that people were going to want to take photos of us, or with us because we're white.  That never happened in Beijing, but it definitely happened on this trip.  The four of us were literally just stared at everywhere we went.  I think it was even more shocking for the people to see blonde hair (Maureen), so she definitely got the most looks.

After the big waterfall, we made our way to the next destination which was called the "Tianxing Scenic Spots".  It was a really cool hike through a rocky trail with a couple of waterfalls, bridges, and views of the countryside. There was also a really cool cave that we were not expecting to see.

Just another random person that wanted a picture with a white dude.

JIC

This cave was awesome...and we had no idea it was there until we happened upon it.  Obviously it's an attraction with all the lights and everything, but we weren't expecting it.

And another waterfall

Drew and Maureen on the gondola back up to where we started the hike.

After this we tried to go to another spot called Dragon Palace, but we were exhausted and the sun was going down.  We actually drove to where Dragon Palace was, but after realizing it was going to be more hiking and with not a ton of daylight left we called it a day and headed back to the hotel.  However, we were able to see some amazing country side.  The only bad part was that there was so much haze.  There were a ton of rice farms, and they were all burning stuff.  Not sure what they were burning, but there were burn piles everywhere, and the air was thick with smoke...

JIC

JIC

JIC

Just drying out some corn...there were just piles of corn laying out to dry everywhere along the side of the road.

They dry out their chili peppers too

I like to think that I captured this kid right after we passed in the car, and this is his face trying to figure out what he just saw...was that 4 white people?  Naaahh....

 After getting back to the hotel we made a quick trip to the pool and then went to bed.  We were exhausted.

Sunday

We went to the Qingyan ancient city on Sunday morning.  This was a historic part of town that had ancient temples, monestaries, pavilions, etc. that had been turned into a bit of a tourist trap, but it was still very cool to see nonetheless.

JIC

Another rando wanting pictures with the white folks

Rice drying in the sun

More chili peppers drying in the sun

The ancient city had a lot of pretty flowers

Two people that are not children

A Mom playing with her sons

This one's for my Hyatt folks...I think this is Hyatt Regency Guiyang's lab room.

I think it was actually just a room where you could leave wishes/messages/prayers etc.

I like peppers...

No idea what this was and did not try it...

Randos

Randos

Randos

Dog Day Afternoon...

Randos

Rando

After the ancient city we went to a park in downtown Guiyang.  We rented one of those 4 person bikes...which was awesome for about 15 minutes because after making two loops around the park we couldn't really take it anywhere else, so after that we just walked around some more.

Ping Pong in the park...doesn't get much better than that.  I wanted to play but figured the guy had winner...or his wife was just making him spectate.

Long story short, a typhoon hit Hong Kong on Sunday night which was when we were supposed to fly back.  The next available flight back was Monday night, so we had another night and day to kill in Guiyang.  The lovely people at the hotel (after re-booking our flights for us - they were rock stars) made dinner reservations for us as well as reserved us VIP seats at the Colorful Guizhou show that night, so after showering at the hotel we headed to dinner.  No sour fish soup this time, but it was still really good.  We went to a place called "Chew It" (which I think was just a play on how the Chinese version of the name was actually pronounced), and what we had was like fondue, but instead of dipping the food (we had beef and pork) in oil or cheese to cook it, you dip it in a boiling soup.

After the dinner we got to the theater and were escorted to front row seats of the Colorful Guizhou show.  It was basically a song and dance showcase of the cultural history of the Guizhou province.  It was done all in Mandarin, but still pretty cool to see.  Plus they had clappers at each seat, so that was entertaining all by itself.

Halfway through the show they got 5 people up on stage to see who could get dressed into a costume the fastest.  This Pakistani guy who was with a tour group won.  He was awesome.

Monday

With the extra day we decided to go back to Dragon Palace.   It was more waterfalls and caves, but we're glad we went back to see it.

We had to access these caves by boat

We didn't get back to Hong Kong until 1:45 AM Tuesday morning, so we have been tired all week.  But the trip was definitely worth it.  There are people in my office who have lived here a long time and have never been to Guiyang, so we feel pretty lucky to have experienced it.  The cool thing is that there is a lot more to see there, so who knows, we may go back.

Alright...that was probably way too much info and way too many photos for one blog...sorry about that.  Jill and I are excited to be heading out of town again. We are meeting up with Jill's parents in Maui, so I am sure I'll have a ton more photos to post soon.

Til Next Time,
Luke & Jill

Mid-Autumn Festival and Grocery Store Rewards Programs

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

In Hong Kong, the day after Mid-Autumn Festival is a public Holiday (which is this Friday), so Jill and I along with another couple are headed to Guiyang (mainland China) tomorrow for the long weekend.  Read more about the Mid-Autumn Festival here.

On our trip we're planning on visiting the Huangguoshu waterfall (amongst other things) which is supposed to be the biggest waterfall in Asia.  I'll try and put the photography lessons to good use!

And just a cultural side note...you know how in the U.S. it seems like everywhere you go you can sign up to be a member of their savings/rewards program?  Walgreens, every grocery store, Macy's etc.  Everywhere has them. And every time you go to purchase something, you get asked "Are you a rewards member? No?  Well let me tell you about all the savings you're missing out on!"  Then they go on to give you the whole spiel.  I hate that...

Well they have savings programs here too, except I've only seen them at grocery stores.  The major groceries are Wellcome (that's how they spell it), Park 'n Shop, and City Super (basically the Whole Foods of Hong Kong), and they all have programs.  What's awesome here is that there is no convincing you to join.  No selling.  They simply ask, "Rewards club member?" and that's it.  No spiel, no trying to get you to sign up.  It's great.  It's just so different from the US though.  Even after having gone to the grocery a hundred times since I've been here, I still expect them to follow the "Rewards card member?" question with a sales pitch.  But it never happens.

I believe there are two reasons why that is.  Reason #1, they aren't required to sell you on it, or they have no real incentive to do so from the employer.  Reason #2, they don't feel comfortable enough trying to do it in English.  I'm going to go ahead and assume that it's just not part of the grocery store's strategy, but it's probably the latter.

I guess I enjoy the fact that it's so opposite of the high-pressure sales pitch you normally get in the U.S. I just get a kick out of thinking of the cashiers here taking it to the way opposite extreme. Something to the effect of:

Cashier: "Rewards club member?"
Me: "Nope"
Cashier:  "Good.  Go f#$@ yourself." 

Now that I think about it, we should probably sign up...we're probably missing out on a ton of savings...

Til Next Time,
Luke & Jil

College Football

Yes I can get up early on Sunday mornings to watch the Saturday night games, but it's just not the same.  College Football Saturdays in 'Merica are really, really tough to beat.  That is all...

Til Next Time,

Luke (I would include Jill in this signature, but she doesn't feel as strongly about this as I do)

Palau

I realize it was 3 weeks ago, but I haven't blogged since then, so I just wanted to make sure I mentioned how great it was to see everyone back in the US of A.  It was a bit of a crazy trip (I spent over 40 hours on a plane when all was said and done), but definitely well-worth it.  Jill and I both got to see a lot of friends and family, got to eat BBQ (that's the one type of food you can't get in Hong Kong), and I got to play a lot of golf.  Not too shabby.

We were both a little jet-lagged when we got back, but other than that we were able to pick right back up where we left off.  Last week Jill was in Guam for a work conference, and so we planned to meet in Palau for the weekend.  Palau is located here, and it was a bit a pain to get there, but it was a really cool experience.

Palau is pretty underdeveloped, and our accommodations were certainly not luxurious, but the snorkeling and kayaking we did was amazing.  The first stop on our snorkel trip was to a place called jellyfish lake.  This was probably one of, if not the coolest things, Jill or I have ever done.  It's a lake filled with jellyfish, but they don't have stingers, so you swim out and snorkel among literally thousands and thousands of jellyfish. It was like something out of Fantasia.  Unfortunately, Jill and I forgot our waterproof camera back in Chicago (it's packed away in our storage unit somewhere, how we forgot to bring it I have no idea, but it's Jill's fault), but a guy on our boat was nice enough to take some underwater pictures of us.  Now it's just a matter of whether or not he actually sends them to me...if he does I will definitely post them, but for now, just use this as a visual for what we did.

The jellyfish were in an enclosed lake, but the snorkeling out in the ocean was awesome too.  It rivaled what we saw at the Great Barrier Reef in our opinion mainly for the fact that a lot of the coral we saw was still alive.  There were tons of fish, and we saw a couple of sea turtles, but the coolest thing we saw (at least in my opinion, Jill not so much) was sharks. On the stop after jellyfish lake, the first thing we saw after jumping in was 3 black tip reef sharks about 20 feet down. Literally jumped in, looked down, and saw 3 sharks. I have been wanting to see sharks in the wild for a long time, so I thought it was incredible. They didn't stick around very long, but it was pretty awesome for those to be the first things we saw.  Again, don't have any pictures from the snorkeling, but you'll have to take our word for it. Aside from the boat ride out to the different dive-spots (oh and I forgot to mention that Palau is famous for its scuba diving.  Jill and I were totally the odd-people out on our boat since we were the only ones not scuba diving...but whatever) the weather was pretty crappy.  It was raining pretty much the whole day, but the visibility in the water was still pretty good considering the conditions.

The second day we went kayaking amongst the little islands near the big island where the hotel was located.  This was cool because it was just the two of us and a guide that knew all about the local wildlife and plants found in the area.  The weather was crappy again, but it didn't bother us.  At one point, it just started pouring, but it was actually really cool being out on the water in a downpour...it made us feel rugged.  You'll see just how rugged in the pictures below.  The other really cool thing was that there was absolutely no one else around.  No boats, no beaches filled with chain smoking Russians, no tourists besides ourselves.  It was great. Here's some pics:

This was actually from the first day of snorkeling.  We stopped on a little beach and had lunch, and Jill and I took the opportunity to make another painfully romantic little message in the sand.  We didn't even have to wipe out another couple's name this time.

Our guide, Robby.  He was a chain-chewing (all day he was gnawing on a combination of Red Man tobacco and bitter nut...whatever that is.  His spit was bright orange), self-proclaimed medicine man who told us all about the natural healing powers of the native plants.  Most of them cured skin conditions or ear infections.

Yes-I am wearing a poncho over a rash guard and a t-shirt over my head to keep my neck from getting sunburned.  And, yes, even in the rain.  Screw you.  And I am honestly much happier than I appear in this picture.  I really don't know why I'm flashing the peace sign and look like I want to kill someone.  This was taken in one of what seemed like hundreds of little lagoons that we got to kayak into.  Robby was doing his best to find us some saltwater crocodiles to see, but they were nowhere to be found

Poncho's gone...tshirt remains

The Japanese occupied Palau during WWII, and we stopped for lunch at an area that was, at one point during the war, being used to build a dock.  It was never finished.  This is the remains of a car engine from that time.  The Japanese thought all the little islands of Palau would offer their ships enough cover from the American bombers, but based on all the ship wrecks littered around the islands it didn't work out for them.

This is at the same area where the car engine was.  There was a clam farm nearby, and the farmers come to this spot to barbecue.  These shells were huge.

One of a few different shipwrecks we were able to see.  The water is crystal clear, and not too deep near the islands so you could see the whole ship.  Pretty awesome.  We also got to see a downed B52 bomber...no pic though

Let me say that these pictures do not do the place justice.  The scenery was amazing, the water was an amazing turquoise color...these pictures are an insult to Palau.  However, Jill got me photography lessons for my birthday, so hopefully my skills will improve. Here's what Palau really looks like.



So, we would definitely recommend going to Palau, but understand that it is a pain in the ass to get there.  And also understand that it's not the place to go if you're looking for luxurious accommodations and a plethora of fine dining options.  But what made it cool was that it was not overrun with tourists.  Granted, it was not their peak season. But given the lack of huge resort hotels and the fact that almost no one's ever even heard of it (even most of the people I work with here in Hong Kong hadn't heard of it), it's pretty low-key compared to a place like Phuket. Which was nice.

On the way back to Hong Kong we had to connect in Guam.  We landed there around 5 AM, and our flight to Hong Kong didn't leave til 6:40 PM.  So while I worked, Jill relaxed by the pool at the Hyatt Regency Guam.  Here was the view from our room.  Probably the best layover you can ask for.

 

Jill didn't get to do/see enough in Guam while she was there for her conference, so we'll have to try and get back there again sometime soon.

That's all for now. Hope all is well!

Til Next Time,
Luke & Jill