Bored

I am bored. Almost time to go home and its raining cats & dogs out there. Nothing to look forward to except dinner at the hotel and maybe some Wimbledon action.

I was so looking forward to some sunshine today and hoping to get to play tennis..stupid rain. Thats how it has been the past month almost..rain, rain and more rain. But not enough rain to cause a "red color warning" which would mean I would not have to come into work.

The Sharapova-Williams match better be on when I get back and it better be good.

Snake Wine anyone??

We had a new guide on the second day of the tour and were part of a bigger tour group on the cruise. Our guide arrived promptly and we were bused from the hotel to the ferry station. We were the panda group...stickers with pandas on them to help the guide identify us. The cruise is going to be 4 hours long with lunch included. I had a special request for a vegetarian meal.
The boat launched on time and we saw some spectacular scenery on the way. Two hours into the cruise, lunch is served. The only beverage available as part of lunch is beer. Non-alcholic beverages are extra and the price is a rip-off. We decided to go with the beer...just one bottle for the three of us. I got my veg dish, and my friends are served all kinds of other stuff. LonelyPlanet's guidebook warns that Guilin is famous(notorious) for exotic food...including eel and dog. So, my friends are real careful of only eating what they can identify.

Towards the end of the meal, the waitress came to our table with a wine dispenser and a couple of glasses..."Do you want to taste some snake wine?". Snake Wine???? Yes, it was rice wine with some dead snakes floating in it. No one on the cruise was brave enough to try it..although some Japanese tourists did have a long discussion about it with the waitress and then decided against sampling any. Thank God!! That would have freaked me out too much.

In China, they drop live snakes(poisonous ones) in rice wine...it is known to have recuperative powers [yeah, it would probably kill you]

We reached Yanghsou around 1.00PM. Our tour guide gave us 45 mins to walk around the market area and then meet up at the Paradise hotel for our trip back. He also said we can visit a minority village on the way back..for an extra 100RMB. Some passengers were staying back in Yangshou so our tour group was down to about 10 people.

We walked around the market and I picked up a hand-painted Chinese fan.Again my bargaining skills drop the price from 90RMB to 30RMB.

The group ended up skipping the Minority village excursion since a few of us had to head back to Guilin for early flights. We were back in Guilin at around 4.00PM. Another trip to a cafe, struggle with the English and we finally ordered some food. Then we decided to go in for some pampering..foot massage. One blissful hour!!

Flight back was ok and we were back in Zhuhai at around 10.00PM.

On a side note, I am trying to post some pics of Guilin and the cruise and blogger keeps giving me an error.Gggrrrr....

Guilin...Day One

The trip from the hotel to the airport was pretty uneventful. The taxi was on time, we did not have much luggage and it was not raining too hard.

We pull up to the departure area and it is deserted..not a single car or person around. And there are hardly any lights on. Is the airport shutdown? Were we in the wrong place? We have no way of asking the driver..the only English he knows is 'Yes' and 'hello'.

Pay off the taxi and walk into the building. Spot a few people in the semi-darkness. Walk in further and discover more people, more lights and check in counters. An announcement in English asks passengers to Guilin to check in at counter # 68. But..all the counters are empty and #68 is in a section that is cordoned off!!

Walk around for a little bit and spot an airline rep behind one of the counters. She takes our tickets and hands out boarding passes. The flight is delayed by 30 mins and we land in Guilin at around 10.00PM. Our English-speaking guide Mary is there to receive us.

Mary belongs to an thnic group..the minority people. All non-Han people are called "minority people".

Mary's English is pretty good and we have no trouble getting all the tour details.
She wants us to pay in advance..we are not too sure we will see her the next day if we do. We finally agree on paying for one person and to pay her the remainder the next day. The min-van takes us to the hotel, we check in and head straight to bed.

At around 4.00 AM, I wake up soaked in sweat..the air con is not working. Toss and turn and finally wake up at 6.30.. We meet up with Mary at the lobby at 9.00 after a terrible breakfast.

Off we went to see the Reed Flute Cave...an underground cave with stalacites and stalagmites formed out of limestone rocks. A pretty spectacular sight...except for the weird lighting. We spend about an hour and a half walking around and then head off to Elephant Hill. On the way , we stop at a pearl exhibition. We are shown how pearls are extracted from the oyster. The area around Guilin is famous for fresh-water pearls. I end up buying a couple of bracelets..they come pretty cheap at 100RMB each.

Elephant Trunk Hill( a hill shaped like an elephant with its trunk in water) is on the Lijiang River. We spot some rafts on the river and hire one of those to take us across the river to the foot of Elephant hill. Not much to look around and we head right back in about 10 minutes. Next stop...Fubo Hill. Again, nothing spectacular..just a dozen Buddha statues carved into the cave walls. I do pick up some hand painted scrolls depicting the four seasons in Guilin. My bargaining pays off...i get 4 of them for 200RMB when the initial asking price is 320RMB. The shop owner compliments my bargaining skills..this according to Mary. For all I know, he was probably cursing me for being such a cheapskate :)

Mary tells us that is the end of Day One of the tour. She offers to drop us off at the city center for a spot of lunch. We head there and she takes us right to McDonalds...perfect. We decide it is too hot for window shopping and head back to the hotel for a nap.

For dinner, we decide to go back to the city center. We walk around for about 2 hours trying to find a restaurant with an English menu. It starts raining and we decide to head back to the hotel and brave the food there. On our way, we spot the Sheraton hotel. Lucky for us, they have a coffee shop. Dinner, hotel and sleep. We had switched rooms in the afternoon and the air con was a little better here.

Tomorrow is our cruise on the Lijiang river to Yangshou.

Off to Guilin

I am off to Guilin for the weekend.

Guilin is located in the Guangxi province in China and famous for its scenery. I have booked myself on a 2-day tour with an English speaking guide.
Day one includes a cruise on the Lijiang river to Yangshuo and back by bus to the hotel.
Day two will be spent visitng the Reed Flute Cave, Fubo Hill and Elephant Hill.

Will post some pics when I get back...stay tuned!!

Indian Restaurant

I am a vegetarian..and no, that means no seafood also. And China is not the place for vegetarians. Zhuhai is not a big city like Beijing/Shanghai..so it is very difficult to find something that meets my "vegetarian" standards.
According to a colleague from China, the Cantonese are "are notorious for eating any animal they can imagine". I believe that!!

Last week, J, E [colleagues from work] and I were our way to a Thai restaurant on the local bus and spotted this sign that said "Indian restaurant". I was super thrilled and yesterday some friends and I decided to check it out for dinner.

We walk in to the restaurant and see all these waitresses dressed in denim skirt, t-shirt and a feather headdress. It was Indian alright - not Asian Indian but American Indian!! To cut a long story short, I did manage to find a vegetable curry dish thai style - go figure!!

Can't wait to get back home and go to my favorite restaurant!! Only 3 more weeks to go- yeah!!

Hello World

Now, if that title does not give away my profession, what will??
This blog has no specific focus right now..that may change soon..or maybe never.

Here comes some background info...female, residing in the Bay Area (California), work as a Software Engineer for a transportation & logistics company.

I am currently in China..for work. have been here for about 5 weeks now and have a few more to go before i get back home.

that should do for my first post - better get back to work now.