SPRING 2004
April 12th
Here it is Spring time already and plants and flowers here are blossoming - bougainvillea , pansies, nasturtiums, orchids, azelas, and many more. Our rainy season has started with lots of cloudy days and some rain, although not the torrential rains which have 3 labels and levels of warnings such as "Amber Rain", "Red Rain" and "Black Rain." We have yet to experience any of these!
Monday, April 5th was the "Ching Ming Festival". A day when people visit graves of their ancestors to bring food, good wishes, offerings and to clean the gravesites. To our Western eyes, the leaving of thousands of slips of paper (fake money, good wishes) around the graves looks like a mess, but it is part of the culture here. In addition to the graves, throughout the city people place offerings of food (fruit, tea, rice, vegies) and lighted incense-like sticks in small piles on the side of streets. One morning while waiting for the bus, I placed a carry bag in front of a small offering on the street and a very upset man spoke a lot of Chinese and I guess I had inadvertently insulted some tradition. So now, I'm more careful where I set things down.
Mike returned to Hong Kong from Australia with some incredible diving pictures and stories of his adventures there. He spent a week here before returning to the states. We spent a day at "Ocean Park" which is an amusement park with the traditional rides and games as well as the most incredible walk-thru aquarium and shark tank that any of us had ever seen. The aquarium housed an enormous 3 story tank with hundreds of fish from large manta rays to huge eels to fish of all shape and size. One could spend a whole day there just watching the sea creatures. In addition there were the panda bears, a dinosaur exhibit, beautiful butterfly walk-thru, sea lion pool, dolphin show and more. It was a terrific day - the weather was fine, the crowds were minimal and we had a great time. We ended the busy day at a nearby Thai restaurant where Mike really enjoyed the spicy roast beef salad.
We were fortunate to visit Thailand for a 4 day educational conference. This small taste of Thailand has whetted our appetites for more exploration some time in the future. The conference was held in Bangkok which is a huge, sprawling city, totally polluted sky, with more traffic jams than anyone should have. The 3 lane freeway, was 4 or 5 'creative' lanes, people just driving as they choose, no emergency lane anywhere, it's being used for main traffic. What a mess! It has vibrancy however in the middle of this mess. We enjoyed the people, smiles, the weather was kind of hot and humid - like Phoenix in the summer time. We visited a 'night market' with many traditional Thai crafts and bargains galore for the shopper and took a ride in a 'tuk tuk' which is an open-air taxi where the driver weaves in among the cars at a high rate of speed! Bangkok is called the "Venice of the East" because of its location along the Chao Phraya river and the system of canals that run through the city. Many years ago the canals were the primary mode of transportation and today along the canals is an assortment of 5 star hotels and newer homes, along with traditional shanties on stilts, as well as many temples. We took a 1 1/2 hour tour through the canals to see a slice of Thai life. All along the journey people smiled and waved, especially the children. The children swim in the canals and rivers along with the pollution and 7 foot komodo dragons!
Now, talk about luxury! We went to see a movie last week and had a great surprise - imagine a small theater (40 seats - 2 seats, isle, 2 seats, isle, 2 seats isle), where each seat was an enormous lounge chair with buttons to make the seat backs and leg rests go up and down. There were small throw blankets if you were chilly. In between each pair of seats was a wooden table for your snack goodies and a button for service where you could order your popcorn. It was crazy - but very comfy and the cost was no more than a regular movie ticket (about $7 US.)
Biking in Hong Hong is very limited - actually on Hong Kong island it is purely suicidal. However, we had heard that out in the New Territories there were bikeable places so we took a journey by bus, subway, and train, rented some bikes and did a bit of biking. Our big mistake was going on a public holiday where we shared the bike path with too many other bikers. Many of the bikers acted as if they rode bikes very infrequently - weaving about, stopping right in the middle of the lane, not paying attention at all to where they were going, yikes! The path was along a lovely river so the scenery was great, and we chalk it up to an experience... but we think we'll stick to hiking around here.
We've been having fun working on developing a "Claymation" class for the kids at school. Remember the TV show 'Gumby and Pokey' or the 'California Raisins'? It's making clay figures and animating them by taking digital pictures and putting them into a movie making software. We had a group of teachers over for a Mexican luncheon and clay-play - and we all got to play like kids.
Sending love to all,
Ann and Billy
Here it is Spring time already and plants and flowers here are blossoming - bougainvillea , pansies, nasturtiums, orchids, azelas, and many more. Our rainy season has started with lots of cloudy days and some rain, although not the torrential rains which have 3 labels and levels of warnings such as "Amber Rain", "Red Rain" and "Black Rain." We have yet to experience any of these!
Monday, April 5th was the "Ching Ming Festival". A day when people visit graves of their ancestors to bring food, good wishes, offerings and to clean the gravesites. To our Western eyes, the leaving of thousands of slips of paper (fake money, good wishes) around the graves looks like a mess, but it is part of the culture here. In addition to the graves, throughout the city people place offerings of food (fruit, tea, rice, vegies) and lighted incense-like sticks in small piles on the side of streets. One morning while waiting for the bus, I placed a carry bag in front of a small offering on the street and a very upset man spoke a lot of Chinese and I guess I had inadvertently insulted some tradition. So now, I'm more careful where I set things down.
Mike returned to Hong Kong from Australia with some incredible diving pictures and stories of his adventures there. He spent a week here before returning to the states. We spent a day at "Ocean Park" which is an amusement park with the traditional rides and games as well as the most incredible walk-thru aquarium and shark tank that any of us had ever seen. The aquarium housed an enormous 3 story tank with hundreds of fish from large manta rays to huge eels to fish of all shape and size. One could spend a whole day there just watching the sea creatures. In addition there were the panda bears, a dinosaur exhibit, beautiful butterfly walk-thru, sea lion pool, dolphin show and more. It was a terrific day - the weather was fine, the crowds were minimal and we had a great time. We ended the busy day at a nearby Thai restaurant where Mike really enjoyed the spicy roast beef salad.
We were fortunate to visit Thailand for a 4 day educational conference. This small taste of Thailand has whetted our appetites for more exploration some time in the future. The conference was held in Bangkok which is a huge, sprawling city, totally polluted sky, with more traffic jams than anyone should have. The 3 lane freeway, was 4 or 5 'creative' lanes, people just driving as they choose, no emergency lane anywhere, it's being used for main traffic. What a mess! It has vibrancy however in the middle of this mess. We enjoyed the people, smiles, the weather was kind of hot and humid - like Phoenix in the summer time. We visited a 'night market' with many traditional Thai crafts and bargains galore for the shopper and took a ride in a 'tuk tuk' which is an open-air taxi where the driver weaves in among the cars at a high rate of speed! Bangkok is called the "Venice of the East" because of its location along the Chao Phraya river and the system of canals that run through the city. Many years ago the canals were the primary mode of transportation and today along the canals is an assortment of 5 star hotels and newer homes, along with traditional shanties on stilts, as well as many temples. We took a 1 1/2 hour tour through the canals to see a slice of Thai life. All along the journey people smiled and waved, especially the children. The children swim in the canals and rivers along with the pollution and 7 foot komodo dragons!
Now, talk about luxury! We went to see a movie last week and had a great surprise - imagine a small theater (40 seats - 2 seats, isle, 2 seats, isle, 2 seats isle), where each seat was an enormous lounge chair with buttons to make the seat backs and leg rests go up and down. There were small throw blankets if you were chilly. In between each pair of seats was a wooden table for your snack goodies and a button for service where you could order your popcorn. It was crazy - but very comfy and the cost was no more than a regular movie ticket (about $7 US.)
Biking in Hong Hong is very limited - actually on Hong Kong island it is purely suicidal. However, we had heard that out in the New Territories there were bikeable places so we took a journey by bus, subway, and train, rented some bikes and did a bit of biking. Our big mistake was going on a public holiday where we shared the bike path with too many other bikers. Many of the bikers acted as if they rode bikes very infrequently - weaving about, stopping right in the middle of the lane, not paying attention at all to where they were going, yikes! The path was along a lovely river so the scenery was great, and we chalk it up to an experience... but we think we'll stick to hiking around here.
We've been having fun working on developing a "Claymation" class for the kids at school. Remember the TV show 'Gumby and Pokey' or the 'California Raisins'? It's making clay figures and animating them by taking digital pictures and putting them into a movie making software. We had a group of teachers over for a Mexican luncheon and clay-play - and we all got to play like kids.
Sending love to all,
Ann and Billy
