Sept.22-23 - Beijing

As our time in Beijing grew short we found ourselves in a whirlwind of tours & sightseeing, trying to get everything into the remaining days. A highlight was the Great Wall. The escape from the city into the clear air of the mountains was overdue and the wall was truly impressive. We went to an area (Simatai) where the wall was still in it's original state; a bit more run down but perhaps more scenic and definitely less crowded. The wall here was very steep so we did a lot of hiking up and down stairs after taking the cable car part way up. A highlight was the zip line we took over the lake to get back down. Standing on the platform at the top looking down turned out to be the scariest part as the ride down was quite pleasant although a bit crowded as they insisted we ride down strapped together.
We used our last day in Beijing to visit the Olympic sites, however could not get within 100 meters of any of the buildings. Security was very tight and the buildings won't open for public visits until after we leave Beijing. So we had to settle for pictures of the Birds Nest through the security fences. We also visited the touristy area (Wangfujing St.) around Tian'anmen Square where there was shopping and the must-visit food market (Donghuamen Night Market). Local vendors set up booths on the street and cook-to-order all kinds of soups, noodles, and various meat & seafood skewers. Andrew tried the snake and I, less adventurous, stuck to the pork and beef. We took a pass on the sheep balls, cow tongue, silkworms, scorpions, and dog meat stew! Pretty much anything that moved was available on a stick and apparently it all tastes like fried grease.

[editors note: added link to photo slideshow - Oct.10]

Adventures in Beijing

We finally got adjusted to the time change & made it out in time to take in a couple of sights in Beijing. Over the weekend we've had many of great adventures. We hit the streets yesterday in true Chinese style - riding bicycles. All roads have dedicated bike lanes which is great, however the taxis, buses and motorized scooters & buggies (going both directions without a clear rule as to which side to keep to) that share the lane keep things about the same as riding on the road at home. The ride in the near smogshine (extent of sunshine here) was nice, however the concentration needed to avoid collision is exhausting! Our destination was a nice park (Yuyuantan Park) where we strolled through gardens, took a paddle boat out on one of the small lakes and watched the sun set into smog (see pictures). When we arrived back at the hotel we decided to relax over a nice duck dinner in the courtyard, very tasty and understandable why it is a local specialty. Peking duck; I recommend it!

Today we returned to the park, this time to take a boat ride to the Summer Palace, where the emperors went to get away from the heat of the city. The palace and park was beautiful but due to smog & rain we weren't able to see many of the views. We visited a Buddhist temple high up on the palace hill where during an attack by the Anglo-French in the 1860's when the palace was pillaged & burned, many of the Buddha’s heads were cut off. Most of the palace was restored so its beauty can still be enjoyed however some Buddha’s still are without heads. We made our way home through the pouring rain and are now hiding out at the hotel for the rest of the evening to dry out our soggy feet! Tomorrow, we're off to the Great wall, I hope the rain stops... :)

slow tourism day

I dunno if it was jetlag, or just general fatigue, but we slept in until 2pm today, so not much tourism will get done doing that! We walked to the Temple of the Good Harvest (I hoped to cast a blessing for my brother's crops) but it was closing when we got there. The park surrounding it is nice though. The temple is where the emperor used to come to pray for good harvests. It's quite elaborate with a 500m long 'road' for him to walk.

We're aiming to sample food from main areas of China: had contonese the other night (basically normal chinese food), then some Sichuan (not big fans of it but the face changing performance was cool) and finally Mongolian (which was good).

Gulay Gulay Turkiye! Ni Hau BeiJing!

When I first saw "Turkish Airlines" on our itinerary I was a bit skeptical, but am totally changed now. Our overnight flight from Istanbul to Beijing was pleasant. Out of the 8hr flight I ate & drank for half of it! Then watched Indiana Jones and then fell asleep during the video of Beijing. Most other people were sprawled out across seats almost immediately after take-off, but Julie figured they actually had timetables to keep upon arrival. Ha! Suckers...
Istanbul's Ataturk airport is one of the nicest I've been in, and Beijing airport is definitely the biggest but nice and shiny new and both are easily navigable.
We got from the airport to our hotel's area with no problem, and then ran into cabbies who refused to take us the rest of the way. Partly language barrier, part them insisting upon ripping us off. We found an Olympic volunteer who showed us the place on a map and said the cab ride should be ~¥10 vs. the ¥50 that the cabs wanted. So we took the subway instead.
I'm glad we're here just after the Paralympics as the volunteers are still out and about, and all of the infrastructure is fresh. The subways are the cleanest and newest I've been on and are easy to use with english signs on them.
Our hotel is tucked away in a "hutong" neighborhood. We haven't explored it yet, but it's a unique place. Old men walk around in pajama bottoms and no shirt or sit in groups playing cards, old women sit and fan themselves, and kids play everywhere.
So, recall during the Olympics how the skies were sunny and blue on TV? Yeah, not the case anymore. At 5'o'clock you can stare directly at the sun without it hurting your eyes at all. It's just a red ball in the sky. Looking up with your arms straight above you, the area between your hands is sort of bluish. Anything out of that is turning dirty brown. It's gross. We walked around tonight and our eyes were starting to hurt. It's no wonder people hork and spit all the time here.
Julie noticed a couple days ago that the Paralympics Closing Ceremonies were today. We took a chance at just going to the Bird's Nest to see if we could score tickets even though the volunteer people said it was sold out. But we could not get near the stadium since police had the whole zone cordoned off. So we went for dinner at a nearby restaurant and watched the remainder of the ceremonies on TV. I'm pretty sure I noticed a discrepancy between seeing the fireworks on TV and hearing the booms outside. So we were this close -- but still this --------- far away. Neat anyway.
And the food was good and tasty. I've got a little Chinese phrasebook on my palm that's working quite well at helping us communicate. So I can say "beer" in another language (pi jiü).

il Melliore! il melliore!

I can now cross "attending an F1 race" off of my life's to-do list. It's definitely a cool experience, but oddly enough it wasn't as crazy as I had expected, although the Finnish fans of Kimi Raikkonen were certainly doing it up.
A former coworker from MacDon Testing days Rod Petersen met me in Milan to attend the race since he's currently residing in Danmark [sic].
Neither of us were wearing the bright red of Ferrari unlike the legions of fans that we followed onto the metro, onto the train, onto the bus and finally onto the circuit grounds. That was the joke - you're never lost, just follow the Ferrari's!
Oh, and for the record, I cheaped out and reneged on spending the €50-70 on a Ferrari T-shirt. no surprise there eh? :)
The weather sort of sucked - rained all weekend. But I rather enjoyed the sight of the water spraying off of the tires, billowing behind the car like a jet trail. The extreme wet tires that they were all running can displace 15 (or 50?) litres of water per second! On Saturday when we were watching the qualifying, when the first car came up to our viewpoint at an unfathomable speed we thought for sure he was going to slide right off of the curve into the wall. But no, with a loud pop of the engine/gearbox for a downshift the cars stuck to the pavement like glue, zipping around the parabolic curve - no problemo!
We watched the race on TV once we got back to our hotel room. In some ways it's far better to watch the race on TV as you can see the whole race (not just the 200m in front of you), there are replays and the views are better. But to appreciate the speed at which these cars are going, you have to be there. It's crazy fast. And so loud. Ear plugs (thanks MD!) are mandatory. Standing in the porta-potty the sound from the cars downshifting rattles the entire thing.
I never saw another friend there - Clint - failing to coordinate meeting places. But we ran into a nice couple from SK 3 times over the 2 days. Strange how it works in big crowds.
There's so much to say about this weekend - how the track in Monza is tucked away amongst the trees of a nice park, how we'd rather eat a pizza at BP's back home instead of a fresh Italian one, and how Italian women attend car races in high heels and mini skirts. Fantastico!

Currently I'm at 11,900m above Sarajevo, flying back to Istanbul to meet Julie to continue our journey to Beijing tomorrow.
Arivadercci,
AK

Sights and sounds in Old Istanbul

We spent 3 days in Old Istanbul in the Sultanahment district. We got a lovely hotel (Eski Konak Hotel) that was a quick walk away from the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya and Topkapi Palace. Our street was a typical tourist-trap street filled with hotels and restaurants. (sort of annoying since nearly every restaurant had an identical menu)

We walked through the Blue Mosque (aka sultanahmet camii) which is an active mosque - we got kicked out at prayer time. Andrew went through the Aya Sofya one morning while Julie wandered around. Aya Sofya is huge inside! It is awe-inspiring.

One evening Andrew wanted to watch the sunset over Old Istanbul from the other side of the Golden Horn (the harbour) so we went to the fancy restaurant 360 which has great views over to Sultanahmet and the Asian side of Istanbul. Good food (eclectic Turkish) and a pretty trendy spot. Afterwards we wandered the street where we were last Saturday night. Stopped in an alley to have a beer and listen to some guys play music. Then stopped in another alley to watch the end of the Turkey-Bulgaria futbol match - it's cool: big screen w/HD hanging outside in the alley.

On our last day we went through the Topkapi Palace which is where the Ottoman Empire was governed from, and where the Sultans lived. There's a lot of history there as well as many artifacts of Islam (bits of Prophet Muhammed's beard for example, and the staff that Moses used to part the Red Sea).

We're heading back to Sly's place: Krista's landed in Turkey and Andrew's flying to Milan on Friday.

Livin' the Ottoman lifestyle, Sultanahmet

Istanbul life is a beautiful thing. Over the last few days we've experienced it first hand. We've toured some of the great mosques getting insight into the religion (& yes I got to wear my gardening shirt), dined on many a roof-top terrace overlooking the beautiful bosphorus sea, sat in a crowded square while people smoked nargileh (water pipes) and sang & clapped along with the live music, and learned what makes a good turkish rug. Apparently Andrew has a "rug buying face", maybe true, but not the back to carry it the rest of the way around the world we have yet to travel!

I believe the "ottoman" style is about the lounging that goes on here. It is not uncommon to find a place to fully recline amongst pillows in a restaurant. We're thinking of bringing home an ottaman as a souvenier, we'll see if it will fit in the backpack.