Our first trip to the Southern Hemisphere - Bali!

Bali has been on our bucket list for awhile and we finally made it over Chinese New Year.  It did not disappoint.   Bali is in Indonesia, in the string of islands east of Java,  roughly 5 hours by plane due south of Hong Kong.   That it was mostly south and not much west was a surprise at least to me (Paul).  I guess that's why it is a haven for Australians.

This trip was our longest to date - 5 nights. That gave us enough lazy time to mix with our sightseeing.  We spent the first full day relaxing at the pool and the beach. We stayed at a ritzy hotel in the village of Sanur, right off the beach.    Here's a picture of us enjoying breakfast:

Lunch by the Infinity pool overlooking the Indian Ocean.

Happy hour!  Mom and Dad were downing cocktails while the staff was entertaining Paul Eli and Esme.

 More cute pics of the kids swimming in the beautiful pools.

Esme really made progress with her swimming on this trip.   Here's a short video of her swimming on her own.

OK,  no more hotels and kid pictures,  I promise.  Bali stands out as a vacation destination because it has both beach/weather and culture in significant measures.  Driving up to Ubud,  which is the cultural center of Bali,  you see lots of artisans working on their respective crafts.  Here are the stone sculptors.

I thought it would be cool to send home a super-heavy stone sculpture but we decided against it.

Here is some wood working.

This the impressive grounds of an art museum and gallery.  I would have taken more pictures of the artwork and painters but the host/salesman was all up in my grill trying to get me to buy something.  It must have been my camera that tipped him off that we were big money.

Another cultural highlight in Bali is their version of good vs. evil dance - the Barong keris dance.   Like most things in Bali there was a feeling that all of this performance was done for the tourists,  but we still really enjoyed it.

More poses with Asian women and Esme.   The background is the local community theatre located in "suburban" Ubud (Batubulan).

Accompanying the dance was the local orchestra.   Our guidebook provided some interesting facts about the musicianship.  The recorder (called a Suling) in the lower right is played continuously using circular breathing.   The xylophone type things are actually tuned to be mildly dissonant,  at least by western ears.

This is the Barong.  He is the good guy,  representing order and harmony.

These women danced synchronously.   Their makeup and dancing style was quite interesting.

Paul Eli was pouting because he had had enough culture.   But they jumped into the stands for some audience interaction and it got a smile out of him.

 Our next big stop was the Monkey Forest Sanctuary, a bit of a respite for the children.

The park was set up to protect three varieties of long-tailed monkeys.   They certainly act like they own the place.

 The park was quite nice.   They had other temples within the grounds.

This statue is right next to a beautiful spring at the bottom of a long set of stairs.   This kind of flair is seen everywhere in Bali.

We spent awhile trying to get a monkey to eat a banana out of Paul Eli's hand.   Third take,  we got it but it's kind of underwhelming:

Near Ubud,  we had lunch at a beautiful building overlooking the Wos river valley:

 I didn't take pictures of the food but it was quite nice.  The owner was one of the Big celebrity chefs for local Balinese cuisine.   Of course she was Australian.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped off at a picturesque bridge built by the Dutch oppressors that spanned the river valley.  Unfortunately I didn't get any really nice pictures looking down from the bridge - it looks similar to the view from the restaurant.

 Our last important artisan stop was a teak furniture store to buy some outdoor furniture.   We were kind of flying in the dark - we couldn't get any good recommendations from the hotel or interwebs and the first place we tried wasn't a store at all,  maybe the owner's house?   We finally decided to drive down the main road towards the capital and have the cabbie drop us off when it looked promising.    We like to live dangerously,  but it worked out well...look at all that furniture!

Next post:  a bike tour through a Balinese village and rice fields.

Suzhou, Part II

On to part II of our Shanghai/Suzhou trip.  Arriving at Chuck and Caryn's apartment after our cold day in Shanghai, we regrouped and then enjoyed pre-dinner hour long foot massages at their local favorite massage place and then went out for Sichuan food. That'll warm you up.  The next day our first tour stop was a 1000+ year old Buddhist temple with a big pagoda called Huqiu Tower or Tiger Hill Pagoda.  It's a nice walk up the hill through the grounds and various other buildings up to the pagoda.

 

This was the start of the walk and you can see the famous pagoda framed in the background.

 

Throughout the park there were various signs encouraging appropriate behavior, but Paul and Chuck are not civilized and do not add grace to the scenery.

 

 

A good view of Suzhou from up top.

 

The tower has seven stories and eight sides and has a definite lean as you can see here.  It used to have a traditional wood exterior, but that was torched during the Cultural Revolution.

 

There were many pretty spots throughout the garden with waterfalls, big rocks, sculpted trees.  Would be prettier in spring, of course.

 

 

After lunch we explored the classical Chinese garden in Suzhou, which is a UNESCO heritage site.  Lots of pretty buildings, ponds, waterfalls and gardens.  The architecture is amazing.   

 

 

There's also a giant ancient metal bell that I was saying how fun it would be to ring it, when sure enough, for about $1 you can bang it three times with a big wooden battering ram and then get a souvenir postcard.

 

 

And the third sight of our day was wandering down an old waterfront road with lots of old buildings converted into little shops and food places.  There were little bridges and cobble stone streets, it actually reminded us of some of the European old town areas we've been to.

 

That night for dinner we joined a Seagate event at a big German restaurant featuring German food, Malaysian food, and karaoke.  Kind of a funny mix.  Our last day Paul and I both made work visits.  Paul went with Chuck to Seagate to tour around and meet some people and Caryn escorted me into Shanghai on the train so I could visit the Target Sourcing office there, where my boss is based, and have yummy Shanghai food with the Finance team for lunch. 

 

After lunch the four of us all met up for one last tourism bit--going to the big fake market.  You're all getting $10 "Rolex" watches for Christmas next year, surprise!

 

Paul's last request on the way out of town was to take the "Maglev" train to the airport, seen below.  This train moves via magnetic levitation rather than wheels and averages 260 mph, but disappointingly you can't actually see it levitating. Boo.

 

And that's it!  We packed a lot into four days, thanks Chuck and Caryn!  Next stop, Bali...

 

Shanghai & Suzhou, Part I

 

Happy new year 2014!!  We had a great time on our whirlwind holiday trip back in the US, hitting ND, MN and MI in two weeks.  But there's no rest for the wicked.  After arriving in Hong Kong just in time for New Years and working for three days, we headed up into the friendly skies again.  This time for a long weekend to Shanghai and nearby Suzhou to visit MN friends, Chuck and Caryn.  Chuck works for Seagate like Paul and is currently working for Seagate in Suzhou for a couple of years.  His wife Caryn visits in four week chunks of time every three months or so.  The kids stayed behind with Jelyn, which made them happy, as long as we brought back presents. 

 

We arrived in Shanghai late in the evening, in time to head to our hotel and get some good sleep for all our sightseeing the next day.  As you can see below, we started off the day with masks.  The air pollution indicators were at "extremely unhealthy" that day.  Even if you don't believe climate change is real, can we all agree that it might be better for all of us if we stop polluting so much? My vanity can't take wearing a mask in all of my vacation photos.

 

 

 

We enjoyed some souvenir shopping in the Yu Yuan Bazaar and a nice walk through the Yu Yuan Garden (Garden of Contentment).  The garden was created in 1577, but the buildings are "period style", so not that old, but have the look.  The architecture is beautiful and amazing. 

 

 

Paul thinks it's better for photos when he wears a mask and he doesn't have to pretend to smile.

 

Here are some decorations in place in advance of the Chinese New Year holiday that started at the end of January.

 

Next stop on our chilly, gray day was a walk along the Bund, the famous riverfront area in Shanghai.  There are nice views of the river and the skyline along the way.

 

After being outside all morning, it was time for a pretty tea break to warm up at a coffee shop in the M50 Creative Park.  It's an area of art galleries and Chuck and Caryn are considering going in on a new one with an artist friend so we stopped to meet her and check out the space.

 

We refreshed ourselves back at the hotel and then had a delicious dinner at Yunnan, a restaurant with northwestern Chinese/Tibetan cuisine.  Loved the plate toppers.

 

The next day was a little warmer, a little sunnier and less polluted.  We took a stroll through Fuxing Park, which was designed by the French (it's in the so-called French Concession area of Shanghai, settled by the French in 1849 for almost a hundred years).  It was fun to see everyone out enjoying the day, participating in a wide variety of activities from karaoke performances, couples dancing, kite flying, kids playing, and one of my favorites is this old guy doing calligraphy on the sidewalk with water.  We're guessing he was telling a story to the group.

 

I loved the trees in this park and around the neighborhood, so pretty and felt very European.  Even though Shanghai has three times the population of Hong Kong (21 million), it's not sandwiched by water, mountains and the China border so there is more room to spread out, so it felt a bit roomier with bigger sidewalks, more greenery and trees. Here 's a Tai Chi lesson going on below.

 

Birthplace of Chinese Communism anyone?

 

Time for more shopping and eating in a quaint network of alleyways that I can't remember the name of or find on Trip Advisor.  Paul warmed us up with hot chocolate with tapioca pearls and hot milk tea with red rice (was kind of like barley, not as tasty as tapioca pearls).

 

 

After two days in Shanghai, we continued on to Chuck and Caryn's place in Suzhou for two more days, but that will be separate post.  For my parting shot of this post, I'll take you back to Fuxing Park for a fun sight... little kid playing in the dirt wearing easy toilet access split pants (common in China) completely oblivious to the cold air on his bum (and to the dumb foreigner gawking and trying to get it on camera).