Oahu - Last few days

Our 3rd and 4th days in Oahu were pretty similar. We started each day with a trip to Ala Moana Mall to do a little shopping. This was a really nice shopping mall. It had a lot of stores and a lot of restaurants. Most of the stores that we visited were clothing stores. Jackie didn't want to buy anything since she could buy things cheaper in Beijing, but she wanted to see all the fashions.


Jackie in front of the Chanel store

They also had a Hilo Hatties at the mall, so I stopped there and picked up a few more Hawaiian shirts and a bunch of chocolate covered macadamia nuts for my friends back at the office. Jackie was a little tired after all the shopping.


Jackie takes a quick nap in the hotel lobby

For dinner we went back to Outback Steakhouse, since Jackie liked that so much. There were a couple of restaurants on Oahu that I had read about that I wanted to try (such as Alan Wong's, Nico's at Pier 38, 12th Avenue Grill, etc...), but I discovered that Jackie wasn't very interested in fine dining but was rather interested in fun dining. The waiter we had was new but luckily he was being trained by Ashley, the same waitress we had the first night there.

After dinner we went back to the Harbor View Pub for a few drinks and to listen to a band that was playing there.


Enjoying the band

It was a lot of fun. The place was full of locals having a good time. One guy had a dog that would guard his beer when he left his seat....


Rascal, the beer guard dog

Another guy had some money from Zimbabwe. Their inflation is so bad that this $20,000,000,000 note is worth about 22 cents US....


Big bucks (sort of)

On the 4th day we took a little trolley that went around Waikiki so we could see some sights...


A pretty hotel on Waikiki


Surfers hanging out at Waikiki Beach


Another shot of Waikiki


A pretty surfer girl

The trolley eventually made it to Ala Moana Mall where we did some more window shopping.


Jackie tries on a coat

For lunch we went to Bubba Gump's, and had a bunch of different shrimp appetizers. It was kind of hokey, but it was fun.


Inside Bubba Gump's restaurant

After lunch we went to the Ala Moana Park, and did some swimming at the beach there.


Ala Moana Beach


Some Japanese newlyweds take some wedding pictures in Ala Moana Park


Some tourists in canoes head out to the ocean

For dinner we found a nice little Indian Restaurant called Bombay Indian Restaurant. The food was very good. Since we had to wake up early for our flights home the next day we decided to just go relax in our room. I watched a little TV and Jackie watched some Chinese TV over the internet.

Early the next morning we went to the airport. Jackie's flight to Tokyo and then Beijing left at about 10:30am, and my flight to Tokyo then Shanghai and then to Chengdu was to leave at 9:45. My flight to Tokyo on China Airlines was over an hour late taking off, and I was kind of worried that I would miss my connecting flight to Shanghai. Shortly before we were to land they moved me to business class so that I, and 3 others who were on the same flight to Shanghai, could get off the plane first and rush to catch our flight.

We ended up making our connecting flight with only a minute or two to spare. Unfortunately our luggage did not make the flight. In Shanghai I arranged to have my luggage flown to Chengdu the next day and then rushed to catch my flight to Chengdu. The next day was a work day and since I did not have my dress shoes, toothbrush, or shaver (they were in my luggage) I worked from home. Later in the afternoon I got word that my luggage had arrived in Chengdu and I had to go to the airport to get it.

With my poor Chinese it was quite funny trying to get through security to get the the baggage claim office, and then trying to get my luggage from there. Eventually I got my bags and took them home. I really needed a shave and to brush my teeth. I could go into the office the next day. I had a lot of chocolate covered macadamia nuts to give out.

Oahu - Day 2

On our second day on Oahu we caught an early morning shuttle to Pearl Harbor.

There were a lot of things to see at Pearl Harbor.... USS Arizona Memorial, tour of the Battleship USS Missouri, Submarine USS Bowfin, Pacific Aviation Museum, etc... We got tickets to go see the USS Arizona Memorial and had about an hour to wait, so we walked around some. We got to see the USS Bowfin, but did not have enough time for a tour of the inside...


USS Bowfin submarine

Some different naval items from WWII...


Jackie takes a look at a naval gun

There was also a memorial for lost submarines...


Memorials for submarines lost at sea during WWII

The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis...


A big aircraft carrier in the harbor


USS Missouri and USS Arizona Memorial in the distance

After a little bit of sight-seeing we headed over to the USS Arizona Memorial...

When we arrived at the memorial there was a place where you could rent some headsets that played information at different locations about the USS Arizona and the attack on Pearl Harbor. They had them in about half dozen languages and Jackie got one in Mandarin.

We walked about listening to recorded information at some locations, and then we were lucky enough to meet 3 Pearl Harbor survivors who were there for a short time in the morning talking to people and signing autographs on descriptions of what their story was on 7 December...


Some survivors of the Pearl Harbor attacks

One of them even spoke a little Chinese to Jackie, which made her very happy. After that it was our turn to start the tour. We entered a small theater where they played a short movie about the USS Arizona and the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the movie we went outside and we boarded a small ship that took us out to the memorial. Here are some pictures we took...


On the boat coming to the USS Arizona Memorial


Docking at the memorial


Some of the names of those who lost their lives on the USS Arizona


Those who survived and later joined their shipmates


The buoy marks the one end of the USS Arizona underwater. The USS Missouri in the distance


One of the turrets of the USS Arizona is above water. The buoy marks the other end of ship underwater


A display showing the remains underwater


Inside the memorial


The flag flying above the memorial


Some of the USS Arizona still visible


Jackie poses with a US Sailor

After visiting the USS Arizona Memorial we went over to a stadium nearby where they were having a swap meet. The swap meet is held twice a week, and is hundreds of vendors selling all kinds of souvenirs, clothing, but not much food. We bought some cold fruit drinks and walked about the area looking at things. We didn't buy anything and after awhile we decided to find our shuttle and head back to the hotel.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was almost 3:00pm. Jackie was very tired and wanted a nap and I was very hungry and wanted something to eat. I went to a little place near the hotel called the Harbor View Pub, which luckily had some very good sandwiches. A little while after I got back to the hotel room Jackie woke up and was hungry so we went out for dinner.

For dinner that evening we went to the Chart House restaurant which is right next to the hotel...


Jackie all dressed up for dinner at the Chart House restaurant

I was told that this restaurant was owned by the same person who use to own the Chart House restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia which I had been to before and thought was very good. This one didn't seem as good, and it also seemed more expensive. Jackie had the Chicken Picata (which looked really good), and I had some clam chowder and a caesar salad with chicken. It was kind of so-so.

Big Island to Oahu

Our last day on Big Island and we started with a nice breakfast of cinnamon French toast and fresh fruit. I have not had French toast in ages, and Jackie had never had it before. It was delicious! After saying good bye to the others at the Volcano Forest Inn we got back on the road again. We wanted to see some of the east side of the island before we caught our afternoon flight to Oahu.


On the road again

Where the west side of the island is mostly volcanic soil and in some places resembles a desert, the east side of the island is lush with lots of grasslands and jungle. Here are some more pictures...


Some grasslands near cattle farms


A big beautiful tree


A lovely scenic view

North of the city of Hilo are a few waterfalls, the largest being Akaka Falls which was very beautiful...


Akaka Falls


A little side trip into some jungle


Some jungle flowers


This gives you an idea how big the jungle growth was


Another waterfall near Akaka Falls

There was one place that I was hoping to go to, but we had trouble finding it. Laupāhoehoe is a place that was hit by a tsunami in 1946, and there is a memorial for the school children that died in the tsunami. It turns out it was a little north of Akaka Falls, but we thought it was to the south.

For lunch we stopped at a little Thai place in Hilo. We were in need of some spicy food and some rice.


Our waitress was impressed we could eat such spicy food

After lunch we went to the airport, dropped off our rental car, and caught our flight to Oahu. The flight from Hilo to Honolulu was about 40 minutes, and at the airport we got a shuttle to our hotel. We were staying at the Hawaii Prince Hotel Waikiki. It seemed that 90% of the guests at the hotel were from Japan, so the service was very good and the place was very nice and clean. Our room was on the top floor.

Across from the hotel is a large marina with all kinds of sailboats and yachts, as well as some very pretty beaches.


Left view from our hotel room on the 33rd floor


Middle view from our hotel room on the 33rd floor

Soon after checking in we made arrangements to go to Pearl Harbor the next day, and then Jackie wanted to go to the beach next door that is in front of the Hilton. Jackie went for a swim and I decided to relax in the shade of a palm tree.


Jackie goes for a swim

After that we went for a walk in the marina to look at all the boats.


Jackie poses by some boats in the marina

At dinner time we went walking around Waikiki near our hotel and decided to have dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Jackie had never been to one before, and it looked like fun. I had the Outback Special (sirloin steak) and Jackie had the Savory Pepper Mill Steak, and we both had a beer that was either local or Australian... I had never heard of it before. Our waitress was great, and really took great care of us.

NOTE: I got my evenings messed up and changed the last paragraph to the right place.

Big Island - Day 5

We got up early on our 5th day on Big Island, checked out of our resort, and hit the road. We decided to drive around the south side of the island and see some sites before checking in at the bed and breakfast place near the town of Volcano we would be staying that night.

Driving along we stopped at places to see some of the beautiful scenery...


View of the see along Route 11

Down around the southern most point of the island we stopped at a bakery called Panaluu, which is the southernmost bakery in the USA. Since it was lunch time we decided to eat there. They had a nice little place outside where people can sit and eat.


Outside the entrance to the Panaluu Bakery


Some birds who hoped we dropped some of our lunch

After lunch we wandered about looking at all the different types of flowers that grew nearby.


Jackie really loved all the different flowers

We got back on the road and started heading east along route 11. There was lots more beautiful scenery to see.


Some coastline along the southern part of the island

We stopped at one place that was very beautiful, and Jackie had to yell, "漂亮!" (piào liang... beautiful) since it was so lovely. It was the only time I heard her speak Chinese during the whole trip. The picture here does not show how vivid the colors really were.


Jackie really loved the view here

We also visited a black sand beach that was very pretty. The thing that struck me about the black sand beach was how strong the waves and wind were. It was exhilarating being there.


A black sand beach


Big waves and big winds

Eventually we made it to the Volcano Forest Inn, which is where we stayed that night. The Volcano Forest Inn is a really nice B&B place run by a couple named Debbie and Greg. They did a very good job of making us feel welcome. The inn is located off of route 11 about a mile or two from the Volcano National Park, down a little gravel road and surrounded by jungle (rain forest is the new pc term for it, but I still call it jungle).


Volcano Forest Inn among the jungle

After settling in our room and resting a bit we drove out to the Volcano National Park. Here are some pictures we took in the park...


Outside the Kilauea Visitor Center


Pele... Goddess of fire and volcanoes


Some of the many steam vents in the area


Kilauea volcano


Some hikers walk inside a crater of an old volcano


A view of the shoreline in Volcano National Park


End of the road

We went back to the Volcano Forest Inn before dusk, and met another couple that were staying at the inn also... John and Teryn (hope I spelled that right) who were from Oregon, and friends of Debbie and Greg's. Everyone else had already had dinner; so Jackie and I heated up our leftover pizza, lasagna, and Pasta Milano and had a nice Italian dinner.

After the sun went down there was a light rain and everyone headed out to the park to see the lava at night, but Jackie and I were a bit tired after all the driving around that day so we stayed at the inn and relaxed before going to bed. We wanted to get up early the next day to see some sights on the east side of the island before our afternoon flight to Oahu.

A beach and a luau

After getting back from the air tour we decided to drive up to the northwest part of the island to visit one of the white sand beaches we saw from the air. On the way there we saw a strip mall, and since it was almost lunch time, we decided to stop to find a place to eat. It was a pretty nice little mall and they had a Macaroni Grill there, so we decided to go eat there.


Enjoying some pasta

I had the Pasta Milano and Jackie had the lasagna. It was all very good, but we couldn't finish it all. After lunch we headed back out on the road and went looking for our beach. We couldn't find the one beach we wanted to. Our pilot had told us about a road to take to get there, but we ended up finding the other beach, which was much more crowded.


A white sand beach on the northwest side of the island


Beach goers and a surf paddler in the distance

Neither of us had our swimsuits, so we walked about and did some people watching and relaxed a little bit before going back to the our place. We had to get ready for our luau!


Jackie all dressed up for the luau

Our luau was held at the King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel in the late afternoon. The main area had tables and chairs to seat about 200 or so people, a large stage, and tables setup for the the big buffet.


Jackie posing with a local

Another area had some canoes setup with big bowls of mixed drinks, as well as a little bar to serve other drinks. There was also a second little stage and the big BBQ pit where they cook the pig for the luau.


Small bar in the hut and drinks in the canoes

The luau started with some little shows on the stages and around the bar as people made their way in. One guy had a show about how to open a coconut...


How to open a coconut

There was a little band that played some island music...


One of the bands

A lesson on how to fold palm leaves into different shapes...


Island origami


Jackie was definitely dressed better than I was

To officially start the luau they brought the pig out of a pit where it had been cooking all day,...


Mmmm... pig

and after that some actors dressed as the king and queen made their entrance...


Guard and hula dancer greet the king and queen


The king and queen make their entrance


Jackie tries her first ever Mai Tai

The rest of the evening was filled with lots of great food, dancing, and singing...


A Hawaiian dance to start the show


A dance in Tahiti costume

Air tour of Big Island

Early on our fourth day on Big Island we drove to the Kailua Kona airport for our air tour of the island. We looked at several air tours and decided to take one of the airplane tours. Originally we were thinking about a helicopter tour, but those were only 45 minutes long and only covered a specific part of the island, whereas the airplane tour was 2 hours and covered the entire island.

The airplane we flew in held 8 passengers and the pilot. Everyone on board had a window seat (which was not the case in some of the helicopters).


Jackie has her coffee, so we're ready

Our pilot was a Hawaiian and knew a lot about the island, its history, and also about the local legends.


Our pilot and tour guide

We got our safety briefing, boarded the aircraft, did our sound check so everyone could hear the pilot, and then took off.


Jackie checks her headsets


All buckled in and ready to fly

Here is just a few of the pictures we took while on the air tour...


Coastline off of Kailua Kona


Where lava met the sea a long time ago


Southwest part of the island


Recent lava flows to the sea


Cliff by the shore along the southern side of the island


Volcano in the distance


Lava travels through lava tubes underground to reach the sea


This use to be a residential neighborhood that was overrun by lava


Pele (goddess of fire and volcanoes) must be nearby


Harbor at Hilo on the east side of Big Island


Akaka Falls


A beautiful jungle valley


Jungle along the coast


Some of the huge coastal waterfalls


Another beautiful coastline on the northern part of the island


They film movies and TV shows (like Lost) in some of these valleys


Another view of this really large valley


A white sand beach along the northwest part of the island


Another white sand beach along the northwest part of the island

Altogether I think Jackie and I shot over 200 pictures on this air tour. I am kind of limited as to how many pictures I can publish in each post, so I could not put too many here. Other things we saw were macadamia nut orchids, coffee farms, cattle ranches, a fishing village, small towns, jungles, deserts, beaches... Big Island has a lot to see.

Big Island - Day 3

In the morning Jackie and I went to a place called Kona Royal Resort, which is a timeshare where we got a sales pitch about some timeshares. The place was very nice, and we got some time to wander about and see everything.


Swanky pool at the Kona Royal Resort


Nice golf course nearby

The sales pitch was pretty interesting, but we weren't that interested now... Maybe some day.


Lovely area by the beach


Jackie and I out for a stroll

Anyways, we got some good discounts and saved a few hundred dollars on some activities we wanted to do. We scheduled our air tour of the island and a luau for the next day. By the time we finished it was about time for lunch, so we went back to our place and Jackie cooked some Korean-style soup with shrimp and tofu. It was really yummy! After lunch we relaxed for awhile and then I went for a swim in the pool.


I wish we had these styrofoam thingies when I was a kid

After my swim we took a drive to the south. There were some places we were told that were nice to see. There was a Kona coffee farm nearby, but it was closed when we got there.


I am not sure what this says


I know what this says. Great street sign

The one place we did find was St. Benedict's Painted Church. This little church was built in 1899 and still holds services.


St. Benedict's Painted Church

We also wanted to visit a place called the Place of Refuge which is nearby the church, but Jackie was starting to feel tired so we went back to our place.


Lazy sunset

While Jackie took a little nap I went to the store and picked up a plain frozen pizza for dinner. I put the leftover spaghetti sauce on the pizza and baked that for us. It turned out pretty good. We spent the evening relaxing and watching TV. The next day would be a very busy day.

Big Island - Day 2

We spent the first part of our vacation on Big Island. We stayed a few days on the west side of the island near Keauhou (near where route 11 and route 180 is marked on the west side of the map below) which is a little south of Kailua Kona.


Map of Big Island

On our second day on Big Island we went to visit the activities desk at the place we were staying to find out what activities were available. There were two things we wanted to do on Big Island... take an air tour of the island and go to a luau. The person who setup the activities told us about a timeshare tour that was put on by the company the owned the place we were staying at, which we could go to for 90 minutes and we would be able to get some good discounts on the activities we wanted to do, so we signed up to do that the next day.

The rest of the morning we spent driving around looking for a bank where I could change Chinese Yuan into Dollars. Eventually we found a branch of the Bank of Hawaii that could do that for me. While I was looking for banks Jackie was looking for coffee. Jackie likes coffee and luckily for her there are a lot of coffee places here.


A coffee shop that Jackie visited

After exchanging some money and buying coffee we stopped by a store called Hilo Hatties next to the bank and I bought a few Hawaiian shirts. For lunch we went to restaurant called Big Island Grill, which is a place recommended by some locals. The food at the Big Island grill is mostly American food and they serve large portions. It was hard to find parking, but the food was worth it.


The B.I.G lunch special

After lunch we went driving around and stopped by a place called Kona Inn Shopping Center. There are a lot of shops here that sell all kinds of things... souvenirs, art work, clothing, and swimwear. I bought a new swimsuit and some flip flops.


Jackie doing some window shopping

The store we liked the most was an art store that had a big variety of paintings.


Nice paintings in an art store

Some even had a Chinese style to them, and after inquiring we discovered that there are 3 Chinese artists that sell artwork there.


One of the paintings by one of the store's Chinese artists

After awhile of shopping we stopped by a nearby beach. This beach wasn't sandy, but was made up of lava rock and coral. Jackie had on her swimsuit, so she went for a little swim.


Jackie takes a swim

On the way back to our room we stopped at a grocery store and picked up some things to make spaghetti that evening and to make some Korean-style soup with shrimp and tofu for lunch the next day. We also bought some strawberries and some chocolate covered macaroons for dessert.


Spaghetti dinner

That evening we ate dinner at our room, watched some TV, and did some emails and chatting on the internet. We had to get up early for the timeshare sales pitch the next morning.

Back from Hawaii

I am back in Chengdu now. I will put up a few posts in the coming week about the trip.

Long and sometimes strange journey

Wednesday morning I woke up early and worked an early shift so that I could finish work that day and go to the airport in the afternoon for my flight to Beijing. Traffic to the airport was a bit heavy since it was the beginning of a holiday in China (Dragon Boat Festival), but I made it to the airport in time for my flight. Of course, my flight was then delayed 2 hours so I ended up arriving in Beijing really late. By the time I got to Jackie's apartment it was almost midnight, and we had to get up in a few hours to catch our early flight to Tokyo.

To get to the airport we took the subway. There is a subway station close to where Jackie lives and the whole trip took about 45 to 50 minutes. It was the first time I had been on the subway in Beijing, and it was not too crowded that early in the morning. When we got to the airport we checked in at the Northwest Airlines counter, and it turns out that there was a problem with Jackie's passport.

Normally you need to have at least 6 months remaining on your passport, and Jackie's passport was going to expire in something like 5 months and 20 days. We were not sure if they were going to let Jackie fly to the US, and I really had no interest in going on this trip by myself. After a few minutes the person working at the check-in counter gave Jackie a disclaimer to sign that stated she was willing to take the chance and fly to the US with less than 6 months remaining on her passport and we could go.

We slept through most of the flight to Tokyo. Our stopover in Tokyo was more than 7 hours, so we had plenty of time to wander around the airport and visit just about every store there. Jackie bought some snacks and I bought a book called Dirty Japanese for some friends in Chengdu who are studying Japanese. We found some interesting choices in the soda machine...


Some drinks in a soda machine in Tokyo airport

We found a nice sushi place and ate there. We had some miso soup, some spicy tuna sushi, some shrimp and avocado sushi, and a salad with some different type of sashimi. It was really good, especially since I had only eaten airplane food the day before and would be eating airplane food for the next day too.


Getting ready to have some sushi

Our flight from Tokyo to Honolulu left on time, and we arrived in Hawaii a little early. For some reason I was thinking that the flight would be more than 10 hours, but it was only a little over 6 hours. When we got to Honolulu and were going through immigration they spotted the problem with Jackie's passport and we had to visit the INS office there. Normally people with this particular passport problem have to pay some fee of $540, but they gave Jackie a waiver for the fee.


View of the coast of Big Island from the air

Our connecting flight to Kailua-Kona airport on Big Island was only 40 minutes, and after arriving on Big Island we got ourselves a rental car... a cute little red 2-door Jeep Wrangler Sport. On the way to the hotel we stopped at a little scenic overlook place and took a few pictures, and I also pulled out my laptop which had directions to the hotel (which I had forgotten to printout when I was back in Chengdu).


A view from a scenic overlook on the way to our hotel


Me with our little red jeep. Happy to finally be in Hawaii

We are staying at the Holua Resort at the Mauna Loa Village, which isn't really a hotel. It's more like a condo resort complex, and is really nice. We have a big living room, 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a kitchen, and a big balcony outside with a view of the ocean and a golf course.


Entrance to the resort

In the evening we decided to go to a place called Jackie Rey's Ohana Grill, which I had read about on the internet. It was a little hard to find (we found it by accident really), but the food was really good.


Jackie ready to go out to dinner

We had calamari for an appetizer, some grilled fish called ono with some steamed shrimp for the entree, and a glass of wine.


Enjoying some calamari

After dinner we drove to a nearby Safeway to get some food for breakfast and some snacks the next day. We didn't spend too much time at the grocery store since we were both pretty exhausted from our trip; so we just bought some fruit, juice, coffee, nachos, salsa, and a bottle of wine. After leaving the store we were walking up to the jeep, and Jackie noticed that the jeep I was walking to was not red, but green. Where was our jeep? Oh great, someone stole our jeep!

We went back into the store and asked them to call the police for us. Some of the people that worked at the store went out to double-check if our jeep was missing or not. Sure enough... no red jeep. Just a green jeep where we had parked our red jeep. After a few minutes the police showed up and we walked over to where our jeep had been, and the policeman shined his flashlight on the green jeep... which then turned red! The green jeep was actually our red jeep! Under the yellow light overhead it looked green. Does this look like a red jeep to you?


How our jeep looked under the yellow lights in front of the Safeway

It was strange. Anyway, everyone was relieved that our jeep had actually not been stolen. Jackie and I got back to our place at a little after 9:00pm, and we decided to call it a night. It had been a very long and eventful day and we were both in need of sleep.

Trips and Treks

The weekend before last I sprained my foot real bad. Sometimes you go some place and the floors are not level and there will be a little ledge about an inch or two high, which sometimes is hard to see. I didn't see this one and tripped and twisting my foot. Anyways, I took it easy last week and tried to stay off my foot when I could. I was suppose to go to JinLi Street with my friend Jessie, but we postponed that until this weekend.

By this Saturday my foot was feeling better and I could walk ok. The painful thing was walking downstairs most of the time. On Saturday morning I met up with Jessie and we went over to JinLi Street.


Some vendors on JinLi Street


Some giant chopsticks hanging outside a chopstick shop

JinLi Street is setup like a market street from ancient times. The decorations and things look like old Chinese, but a lot of the shops, restaurants, and tea houses are modern.


Some of the locals touring JinLi Street


Hanging out by one of the fish ponds

There's even a Starbucks there. Jessie and I spent a few hours wandering around JinLi Street visiting the shops and watching the people.


A paint brush seller


The lovely Jessie posing for a picture


A rickshaw makes the rounds


A place to get your ears cleaned


Some ladies working with silk


Real silk worms... real ugly

By the time we made it to the area that has a lot of little food stands I was starting to get hungry, so I got a kabob with some pork on it.


One of the many snack sellers on JinLi Street


Mmmm.... pork fat rules

A little while after that we went to a little restaurant and had some lunch... Noodles, dim sum, and some cucumbers. It was pretty good and Jessie was nice enough to pay for lunch. Thanks Jessie!


Inside a little restaurant


A tasty lunch

Later that afternoon I met up with a few of my co-workers. We have a program at work to give people the opportunity to practice their spoken English and I am their mentor, and this was an ad-hoc activity that I scheduled for them. We all went to Wanda Plaza to see the new Star Trek movie. A friend of mine from Canada named Richard also joined us. We watched the movie in English with Chinese sub-titles. The movie was really good, and everyone had a good time. After the movie a few of us went to a nearby Japanese/Korean restaurant for dinner and discussed the movie.

On Sunday I just relaxed at home and did some preparations for my trip. Oh, that's right... I have not told you about my trip I am taking! Awhile back I saw this website and was thinking of going on a hunting trip...

Welcome to Somali Cruises

It's like a safari, only better

"Safari" is the Swahili word for adventure and that's just what we have in store for you.

We sail up and down the coast of Somalia waiting to get hijacked by pirates. We encourage you to bring your 'High powered weapons' along on the cruise. If you don't have weapons of your own, you can rent them on the boat.

Actually, I think that website is a joke. Pretty funny stuff...

"Like ducks in a barrel. They turned the ship around and we saw them cry in the water like little girls. Saw one wounded pirate eaten by sharks--what a laugh riot! This is a must do."
-- Zeke, Springs Kentucky USA

Just kidding! Actually, my real trip is going to be to Hawaii! I've never been to Hawaii, so I am looking forward to going. My friend Jackie invited me and we've been planning it for awhile now. Wednesday afternoon I will fly up to Beijing, and then on Thursday we fly from Beijing to Big Island with stopovers in Tokyo and Honolulu. Our plan is to spend a few days on Big Island and then a few days on Oahu. I'll post more about the trip either as it's happening or after I get back next month. Aloha!

Western food weekend

Friday night I went to the Shamrock Pub for their Cynco de Mayo party, since Cynco de Mayo was on Tuesday. It was kind of surprising how quickly they could change all the decorations and go from an Irish pub to a Mexican pub just about overnight. Even the staff were dressed sort of Mexican.

Kitty was nice enough to join me and we had some beef nachos, some chicken quesadillas, and some beef tacos. Kitty also tried a margarita. She had never had any of those before. The party was fun and there was games and things, as well as dancing. There were a pair of girls who bought a bottle of tequila, and were pouring shots in peoples' mouths. Luckily I don't drink tequila, so I avoided that.

On Saturday I had dinner with Victoria and my friends Cynthia and Tony. They all wanted to go to Peter's Tex-Mex Grill, and even though I had eaten Tex-Mex the day before, and for lunch, I did not mind. They added some new dishes to the menu at Peter's so we tried some of those. The sour cream enchiladas are new and have a salsa verde green sauce on them which is really good. Tony also wanted to try some bratwurst, which is a new item on the menu. It looked good, but I was happy with the Tex-Mex food.

On Sunday afternoon I joined my friend Kitty and we went to a hotel here in town which offers cooking classes. I am not sure if they offer classes for cooking Chinese food. The lesson for us was how to make Caesar salad, pumpkin soup, and steak. There were about 20 people who signed up for the class and we were divided up into teams. Kitty and I were on one team.


A bunch of us getting ready to learn how to cook steak

We didn't just learn how to cook the dishes, but also had a competition to see who could create the best presentations of the food. We first learned how to make the salad dressing, and then made our salads.


Our decorative Caesar salad

After the salads we learned how to make the pumpkin soup and had a little competition to see who could cut pieces of pumpkin the fastest. I did ok, but was not as fast as some. After learning about the soup and chopping up the pumpkin the cooks took all that to the kitchen to make the soup for us.

Then we learned how the restaurant tenderizes, marinates, and cooks their steaks, as well as learning how to make a black pepper sauce to put on the steaks after cooking. I already know how to cook steak, but it was interesting to see how they did it here.

Tenderizing was just beating a so-so piece of steak into a nice flat tender piece of steak with a flat metal mallet. The marinade was kind of simple... salt, pepper, some chopped up carrots and onions, and refrigerated for 6 or more hours. Then the steaks are cooked in a very hot skillet with oil. The pepper sauce was minced onions sauteed in butter, mixed with black pepper, wine, brandy, and beef stock.

We were suppose to make some nice presentation on the plate with the steak, but everyone was so hungry we just cooked them and went to our tables to eat. The whole meal turned out pretty good!


Kitty and some of our friends enjoying the meal we helped make

I've heard that this weekend they are going to be teaching how to cook some Japanese dishes, but I did not sign up for that. I hope they will do a Sichuan food class some day.

A Chengdu video

I found this video on YouTube, and liked it a lot. It was created by director and filmmaker Zhang Yimou. He directed some movies I liked (such as Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, which I have mentioned before on this blog), and also the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics.

Labor Day weekend

Friday was the Labor Day holiday here (also known as May Day), so I had a three-day weekend. I was talking with some friends about doing some sightseeing around Chengdu and we had planned to go to Dujiangyan on Friday, but there was a lot of rain that morning so we decided not to go there that day. I guess I will have to go there another time.

Reese decided she wanted to stay home on Friday, but Rena (Reese's sister) was going to join me for lunch and then we were going to walk over to Water Viewing Pavilion Park across the river from where I live. Unfortunately, Rena was in such a rush to come over to my place that she sprained her ankle real bad going down the stairs to leave her apartment. We decided to not go anywhere that day and would try to go somewhere the next day.

On Saturday we went to QingCheng Mountain, which is not too far outside of Chengdu. QingCheng Mountain is famous for being one of the earliest areas for the Taoist religion, and has many temples. I was joined by Reese, her boyfriend, Rena, and a friend of her's who was nice enough to drive us out there. Rena and her friend stayed at the bottom of the mountain at tea house, since her ankle was still bothering her. Reese, her boyfriend, and I went up the mountain.


A big crowd outside the entrance to the mountain

Since it was a holiday it was more crowded than usual.

About a quarter of the way up we took a cable lift up to a point below the very top. The line for the lift was so long I think we could have walked up there quicker.


A view up the mountain from the lift


Reese and her boyfriend

At the top of the lift there was a little snack place where we stopped to have some noodles. The dan dan mian was very good.


Burning candles and incense

We didn't make it to the very top, but we almost made it.


Entrance to a temple

Since it was after 5:00pm we decided to head back down the mountain and since we did not wait in line for the lift we got down pretty quickly. We met up with Rena and her friend and then drove to a little restaurant for dinner. It was nice day, but I figured my feet were going to be hurting the next day.


(left to right) Reese's boyfriend, Reese, me, Rena's friend, and Rena

On Sunday I went to the wedding of one of my co-workers, Shirley. I invited Phyllis to go with me and I was very happy she accepted.


Phyllis and I at my co-worker's wedding

This wedding was much more traditional, as far as the ceremony and clothing, than some of the others weddings that I had been to.


The bride's mother applauds the maids of honor going by


Groom checking to make sure he has the right bride


Shirley and her new husband

There were two of us foreigners at the wedding, and relatives of the bride and groom kept our wine glasses full and kept offering toasts, so we ended up having too much wine. Luckily there was a lot of good food to eat.

Pizza and an assassin

Last week was a bit stressful at work, so I was happy when the weekend came. Friday night and Saturday day was spent just relaxing. I had forgotten that I had invited some friends over for dinner and a DVD on Saturday night, since they were nice enough to take me out for hot pot the weekend before. I was still in a lazy mood on Saturday afternoon and decided not to go shopping for groceries. After talking with my friends we decided to make some salads and order a few pizzas from Papa John's.

My guests were Reese, her boyfriend, and her sister. We had a couple of pizzas, a calzone, some salad, and some red wine. The meal turned out really well. Initially we started watching the first Narnia movie, but Reese's boyfriend switched it to Kung Fu Hustle while Reese's sister and I were in the kitchen. That's ok... none of them had seen it before and it's a pretty funny movie.

On Sunday I just did some laundry, did some cooking, and played Everquest II. I created an assassin character back in November of last year, but did not play him much until my trip back to the US last month. I'm actually having a great time playing him. Here's a screenshot of him...



Pretty cool looking, huh? I had found a pretty rare magical item that makes his eyes look like they are glowing blue. The glowing blue eyes go well with his horse which is a nightmare, and also has glowing blue eyes and hooves.

His name is Zarirahc Ri'Lineld, who's name I made up using a dark elf dictionary I found awhile back. His first name translates to shadow (Zar) dragon (irahc) and his last name translates to house of (Rilyn) the arcane (neld). The surname was chosen since he is a member of the Arcane Masters guild, which originated as House Arcane in Gemstone III years ago.

Springtime

It's springtime in Chengdu. The weather is getting up to about 30°C (about 86°F) every day, the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, and the girls are starting to wear mini-skirts and short shorts. I think springtime is my favorite season in Chengdu.

Back from the USSA

I was hoping to post something while I was in the US, but didn't get around to it. Here's a quick rundown of my trip... I arrived, I ate, I played games, and I left. No, actually there was more to it than that. During my first weekend back I got together with my friends Greg, Amy, Gillian, Les, Lynn, and Bridgett for dinner at a new restaurant called Rosa Mexicano down at the National Harbor. The food was ok, and the company was great! It was good to see everyone.

My first week back was spent relaxing, playing Everquest II, and eating. One night we went to Charlie's to eat and had pizza. It was wonderful. Charlie was there and and it was fun to see him and his wife doing a little Greek dancing. It was really nice of Charlie to pick up the tab for dinner too!

On Friday my brother Jay and his son Nicky flew up from North Carolina. It was Nicky's first time flying on an airplane and he enjoyed that a lot. On Friday night we went up to Charlies for dinner and Jay and I had the gyros, and everyone else had pizza. The weekend was a little difficult to schedule since our days pretty much centered around the whims of Nicky.

On Saturday everyone went shopping and I stayed at home to relax and play more EQ2. In the evening we ate some really good crab cakes along with some chicken curry I had cooked earlier in the week, as well as some rice. Surprisingly to me it turned out to be a very good combo.

On Sunday we went downtown and visited the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum.


Some rockets inside the Air and Space Museum


Outside the Smithsonian Natural History Museum


Nicky and Jay with the capital building in the background

On the way home from the museums we stopped at a seafood market and bought a bunch of seafood for a seafood feast that evening.


Lots of shrimp and fish at a seafood market


Crabs, oysters, and clams

We ate steamed crabs, steamed shrimp, and fried oysters. Oh, that was so good. Jay and Nicky flew home to North Carolina on Monday and I spent the rest of the week doing pretty much what I had been doing the week before with a little shopping thrown in.

On Saturday I went to the airport and arrived back in ChengDu on Sunday night here. Monday was a holiday and I spent most of the day installing some new parts for my computer I had brought back with me from the US. It didn't take too long to install all of the hardware, but installing Vista took awhile. I did take a break in the middle of the day and had lunch with my friend Victoria.

Tuesday I was back at work and for the next few weeks I am working an early shift.. 7:00am to 4:00pm. Waking up early isn't too difficult but I really start dragging after about 2:00pm because of my jet lag. After work I take a little nap and then go back to installing software on my computer until it's time to go to bed. Today is Friday and I'm looking forward to sleeping in late tomorrow.

Vacation to use

It looks like I have a lot of deferred vacation to use up before April, so I'm thinking about going back to the US at the end of March for a few weeks. More details later.

Update: I will be flying into Dulles Airport on the evening of 20 March. Fajitas and such at Uncle Julio's in Reston at about 9:30pm. See you then!

Taking Chance

On the right sideboard of this blog is a link to another blog called Blackfive, which is a milblog that I've been reading for a long time. Almost 5 years ago he had added a post called Taking Chance which was an article written by a LTC Strobl of the Marines about escorting the remains of a fallen marine back to his home town. It was a pretty moving article and I still remember when I first read it all those years ago.

I now see that they have taken his experience and made a movie about it on HBO called Taking Chance. Here's the trailer...



It looks really good and I'm looking forward to seeing it some day.

A different Friday

A week or so ago I had to submit my paperwork and passport to get a new work visa. My contract at IBM got renewed as a 3 year contract, and this time I am hoping to get a 3 year visa so that I don't have to keep renewing it all the time. On Friday I got a call from the people helping me get my visa and they told me that there was not enough pages in my passport for a new visa, and that I would have to go to the US Consulate here in ChengDu to get some pages added to it.

I've never been to the US Consulate here in ChengDu (or anywhere for that matter). I was worried that it would be very crowded since usually I see a large line of people there to get visas to the US whenever I go by there, but it wasn't bad when I went... only one family in line in front of me. After checking in and then going through security (which I won't discuss) I went to the lobby/waiting area of the consulate building and after a short wait I got my passport back with pages added to it. Now I have a fat passport.

After dinner on Friday night I went out to a place called Carol's Too. Carol's is a restaurant, I guess. I've never really had anything to eat there and I've never seen anybody eat anything there except for fruit. Carol's has two floors... about half the first floor is like a restaurant with tables, and the other half is a pool table, dance floor, and bar. The second floor has tables and a few pool tables. There is also some seating outside, and a guy with a grill that can cook kabobs and such. The dance floor also has a pole near the far wall.

Anyways, I've only been to Carols a few times and it is usually very crowded or not crowded at all. I got there at about 9:00pm and there was not many people there. There was a couple on the dance floor dancing to some slow song that seemed to be playing over and over again, a few guys playing pool, and on the TV there was a sports channel showing some old Joe Louis fights from 1935 and 1936. Pretty relaxing.

At about 9:40pm or so a very pretty lady came in, got a big glass of water from the bar, and then headed up to the DJ booth on the second floor that overlooks the dance floor. She started playing some really loud hip-hop dance stuff, and I was wondering who she was playing that for. By 10:00pm though the place was packed. The DJ was very good and there was always a crowd on the dance floor. Most of the crowd were young Chinese with a smattering of Indians, Africans, Americans, and Europeans. At about 10:30pm I was going to leave, but then a friend of mine showed up and I started chatting with her and a few of her friends.

Sometime later a couple showed up and not many people paid attention to them, but I noticed them right away. The girl was wearing a large black coat and some thick glasses, and the guy was wearing what looked like a big black cloak with a hood that covered his head. I couldn't really see his face under the hood but it looked like he had some marks on his face. The guy disappeared into the bathroom and the girl went upstairs to talk to the DJ.

A little while later the girl came downstairs and took off her coat and glasses. She was a knockout! Short black dress, long black hair and long legs, and some major league stiletto heels. She went over to the dance floor and started dancing on the pole there, and then the guy came out to dance with her. After he removed his cloak we could all see he was dressed sort of like a cat... fur loincloth, silver mask, whiskers painted on his face, and not much else on. The pair did a really cool and sexy dance number at the pole on the dance floor, and everyone in the place stopped what they were doing to watch.

After the dance the couple put their coats and cloaks back on, and left. I do not know who they were... Did they work for the bar? Were they part of a dance group visiting ChengDu? Or were they just a couple who went around to night clubs doing a very cool and sexy dance routine? I have no idea. I wish I had had my camera with me.

Over the edge

When lack of morality meets bad economy...

Chinese mistress contest takes tragic turn

A married Chinese businessman who could no longer afford five mistresses held a competition to decide which one to keep.

But the contest took a fatal turn when one of the women, eliminated for her looks, drove the man and the four other competitors off a cliff, Chinese media reported.

Interesting article... Kind of tragic and funny at the same time. Read the whole thing to see how it ended.