Qingdao China, July 2006

Ray had the opportunity to go to Qingdao (pronounced zing-tao) China in early July to attend a consumer electronics show. Qingdao is situated on the east coast of china and is a large seaport. It is north of Shanghai and southeast of Beijing. The population of the city itself approaches 2 million, and if you include the entire metropolitan area it is about twice that. Qingdao will host the sailing and regatta events in the 2008 Olympics, the only venue outside of Beijing. A lot of work is being done to spiff up the area, and it is looking very nice.

Being further north, the sun sets later than in Manila, so it was light here until about 7:30. After the show on the first night, Ray went down to an area known as May 4th Square to go to a restaurant. When he got there, the restaurant had closed down. Since he was there, he decided to explore the area. The May 4th Square is named for the May 4th movement of 1919 in which students protested against the government. The area is between the downtown area and the sea. Many tour buses were parked along the streets and the tour guides with their colorful pennants and megaphones were everywhere. Most of the tourists were Chinese. There are much fewer English speaking tourists here than in Beijing or Shanghai, so it has been a little more difficult to get around.







Along the coast is a 40km walkway that goes from one end of town to another. The first section past the May 4th Square area was filled with vendors selling large conch shells, pearls, and lots of handicrafts. There must have been about 3-4 dozen stalls, and they all appeared to have the same merchandise. After the vendor’s area, the walkway opened up and followed the breakwater towards the beach area through an area called Fushan Bay. Along the breakwater, many people were down near the water and picking up small crabs and even collecting the local edible seaweed. The Fushan Bay area includes the Music Square park and a covered stage along with a lot of sculptures and artwork enhancing the walk. It was a very nice walking area.








As I got to the beach area (known as No. 3 Bathing Beach), I saw some buoys ringing the swimming area, but realized that they came all the way up on shore and past the high tide point. It ends up these were shark nets that are used to keep sharks out of the swimming area. Even though there were a lot of open areas outside of the swimming area, I did not see anyone in the water in these areas, so they do heed the warnings.









I tried to set up a sightseeing tour, but they required a minimum of 6 people and did not seem to have the ability to group others together. So instead, I opted for my own tour and rented a cab to bring me to my selected sights. The rate for a cab would be about $10 an hour averaging waiting time and miles. We estimated between 5 to 6 hours to complete the tour. My driver spoke just a couple words of English, understood a couple more, but between our map and hand signals we made it just fine. The cost would not be that much different from some of the guided tours, and I would have complete flexibility. Just as a side note, there aren't too many new taxis here in Qingdao. They have all seem to run fine, but just look a little worn out. I said it seemed like they got Shanghai's hand-me-downs. I also noticed a fair amount of women cab drivers, just something that seemed different from so many places. It was not a huge amount, but enough to be noticed.

The first stop was the rotating sightseeing building on top of Mount Xinhao. There are 3 round red buildings on top of the hill, and the tallest one has a rotating floor for a 360-degree view of the city. Unfortunately today was somewhat hazy, so long distance viewing was not in the cards. There was a nice garden and pathway leading up to the top of the hill with a couple of fountains and a lover’s bridge in the park that couples interlock a pair of padlocks on to signify their love. Many of the padlocks were heart shaped.







The next stop was Little Qingdao Island, home to an old lighthouse. This used to be an island, but a breakwater was built many years ago to connect the island to the land. It helps to protect the Zhangiao Pier from the direct waves of the ocean. Zhangiao Pier has a pagoda built on the end of the temple. This is the pagoda adorns the label of Tsingtao beer. Inside the breakwater is the Navy Museum with old ships you can board and climb on. There is even a submarine there, although it is above water. Speedboat rides and jet ski rides were very popular in this area both inside and outside the breakwater.






After a short ride, stopped at No. 1 Bathing Beach (there are 6 in all), and it was packed. About half the people were in street clothes, and they would roll up their pants legs and wade into the ocean. There was lots of equipment for rent such as paddle bikes, kayaks, small sailboats. There was jet skis and parasailing available. I did not see anyone doing the parasailing while I was there but did see some jet skis in action. The cost was about 480 RMB, or $60 for the parasailing. That is cheap compared to US prices, but more costly than Philippines or Thailand.

As we headed further down the coastline, we stopped at Badaguan gardens, also known as the 8 passes. It is an area of many villas built of various architecture over the last 100 years set within a wooded area. The streets (or passes) are shut off to motor vehicles on the summer weekends, so there were a lot of people strolling around the streets. Due to the beautiful architecture and the seascape, it is a very popular place for wedding photos. There were brides, grooms, wedding parties and of course photographers all around.










With it getting close to lunchtime, I headed for the Tsingtao Brewery. They don’t tour during the lunch hour, so I headed across the street for a bite. There weren’t a lot of choices that had either an English menu or a picture menu. I finally did find a place and had some shrimp, vegetables and rice. In the US, the wait staff serves you and checks in on you; in the Philipinnes, they serve you and watch you; in China it seems as if they serve you and disappear. The food was very good and served hot, which I like. With lunch out of the way, it was on to the brewery. Tsingtao was started by the Germans here in 1903 and then fell under Japanese control during World War I. It has been successful in not only dominating the China market, but also branching out into the rest of the world. It has a very modern and clean facility. There were 2 beer stops along the way, so it was a well-done tour :)

The last stop of the day was the TV tower observation deck. I kept waiting for the haze to break all day, but it just didn’t happen. As a matter of fact, when I got to the tower, I couldn’t even see more than a quarter of the way to the top. The view from the top was non-existent. The inside is being made into a hall for Olympic memorabilia and information. Ironically, as I walked out the door, I looked up and could see the top of the tower. I quickly snapped and photo, and almost immediately the fog started to roll back across the tower.

Boracay Beach June 2006

We visited Boracay Beach last weekend thanks to Ray's luck at the US Embassy Shopper's Day Bazaar back in early May when he was the grand prize winner of a trip for 2 to SandCastle's Resort on the beautiful resort and white sand beach island of Boracay, Philippines. Even though we had been there back in October of 2004 with LeAnn's mom, sister and brother-in-law, we were looking forward to a return trip.

Going at this time of year was a different experience. It is the end of peak season, so the island was very crowded, but we did not have any trouble getting into restaurants to eat, or doing activities on the beach. The most disappointing aspect of the trip was the fact that the wind was blowing into the beach and brought in lots of trash and other island debris. We did not expect this and had not heard any one talk about this before. The tides were also at their peak due to a full moon (which was beautiful at night), leaving a lot of garbage on the beach.

We arrived Saturday morning and spent some time just wandering up and down the beach, and of course going out into the water. The water was very warm, although not that clear due to the wind direction causing lots of wave action. Although the waves weren't that high, they came in with very little time in between, probably the fastest time between waves of all the places we've been.

SandCastles resort is located near station 1 about 2/3 of the way to the north end of the island. It was convenient to get to D*Mall and all the bars and restaurants along the beach. We stayed in one of the new apartment rooms which faced the beach and had a nice patio off the room.

We walked down towards Willy's Rock and stopped at Cocomangos restaurant and bar and had the best frozen margaritas on the island and a pizza and salad for and early dinner. We then went for a beach-side massage and manicure/pedicure (Ray's first). We both got so relaxed that we fell asleep during the massage and slept for about an hour before waking up (and missing sunset).


We planned some activities for Sunday, including parasailing and sailing. We both felt a little apprehensive about parasailing as neither of us had done that before. We got out onto he boat and got strapped in and where up into the air before we had time to worry about it. Within no time we were out and up 300 ft from the boat. We did not even have to get wet as we took off from a large platform on the back of the boat and then were pulled back in onto the same platform. We enjoyed the view and ride. It was a great experience.

We then went out on a local sailboat known as a paraw for a tour up and down the beachfront. The sailboats are dual outrigger and have have narrow webbed areas on each side for sitting and enjoying the ride. The narrow boat easily cut through the waves and we had a very comfortable ride. It went so fast.

Another walk down to Cocomangos for happy hour and a beautiful sunset. We went down to a restaurant near our resort and had Mongolian grill (a bowl full of vegetables, chicken, squid, pork, beef and rice heated on a large griddle with multiple sauces for flavoring) for dinner at a table out on the beach.

We got up early on Monday and took a motorized tricycle to the pier where we grabbed a banca boat to be ferried across the small strait. From there it was another short tricycle ride to the airport where we boarded a 32 seat prop plane for the trip back to Manila. A quick trip but our last chance to experience paradise as LeAnn and the kids head back to the US in about 10 days.

Hong Kong 2006

We arrived at the Disney Hollywood Hotel late on Sunday night. The hotel has a very Hollywood Art Deco feel, with hidden Mickey’s all over the place. It was quiet in the hotel and just a few people were at the pool.

On Monday morning, we decided to eat breakfast at Hong Kong Disneyland. We made reservations for 9:00 (an hour before the park opens) at the Main Street Café. We jumped on the shuttle bus at the hotel and made it to the park area about 8:45. There is a long entry way from the bus and train station to the park gates. We strolled down the walk and took some pictures. We got to the gate right at 9:00 and were the very first people in Disneyland! We wandered down Main Street towards the restaurant, and as we approached, the cast members said “Welcome Mr. Raymond.” We guessed they figured out it was us because of the group size and the non-Asian name. As breakfast went on, we found out we were the only people who were eating there before the park opened!

For the first hour, the crowds were very thin. We went on Space Mountain and the Toy Story Blaster ride a couple times without having to worry about waiting. As the day went on, the crowds were sizable, but the lines were all 10 minutes or less on all the attractions except the Winnie the Pooh ride. We never did make that one, but we did everything else including the Lion King stage show and the Mickey PhilharMagic musical review.

One of the highlights for all the kids was the photo taking with the characters. They had a nice garden area with about 5 photo spots that they rotated characters in and out of. The wait was usually only 10 minutes or less, and they let you take your own photos along with the park photos.

As the afternoon wound down, the park got quieter, although there were still a lot of people around for the fireworks display at closing. The transportation back to the hotel was easy as plenty of buses were on hand to handle all the people leaving at once. Ray and Kara walked back and it took about 20 minutes.

We heard a lot of people warn us how small Hong Kong Disneyland was. Although it is smaller than the US parks, we found it to be right sized for a day’s worth of entertainment. We did not feel we had to rush to do things or choose things not to do. Also, this being the kid’s first exposure to Disneyland, they did not have a basis for comparison and all thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Tuesday brought us to a tour of Hong Kong itself. We took the MRT (their train/subway system) from the Disneyland Transit station to Central Station in downtown Hong Kong. Our plan was to take the incline railway tram up to Victoria Peak. Well, sometimes plans in foreign countries don’t always work out. We got on a bus that took us to the top of the peak rather than the tram station at the bottom. Oh well, we enjoyed the bus ride up. Once up there, we got our tram tickets and rode down to the bottom and then back up. So at least we got to ride the tram. Once we were back on top, we walked around part of the peak and then had our photo taken at the top. The entrepreneurs up there had a full portable digital photo and printing station, all run off battery power. Since it was hazy and cloudy that day, they would take your digital image and place it on a background from a clear day or even a night shot. You can see our photo and the clear day photo we had taken below.

We then took the bus back down to central station and hopped on another going back to Stanley market on the south side of the island. If we would have known our routes a little better, we could have saved some time by catching buses along the routes rather than back to the station each time. The merchandise in Stanley market is of a higher quality level than we have found at many barter markets, and is generally fixed price. The aisles were comfortable in width and it was a pleasant shopping experience.

We then returned to the central area and hopped on the Star Ferry for a quick 10 minute ride across the strait. We got a nice view of both sides of the strait, the Hong Kong Island and the Mainland. We walked a couple of blocks to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. We have tried to go to the Hard Rock in each of the cities we have visited that have one. One last train ride back to the hotel, a swim for the kids, and our quick trip to Hong Kong was over.