SHANGHAI

Arrival Monday, November 15, at 0800

Until the mid-19th century Shanghai was a small fishing town on the Huangpu River.  Its rise to prominence came as the result of its selection as a treaty port by the British after the Treaty of Nanking.  Since then, its unparalleled locational advantages have sustained it position as one of China's leading cities, if not its leading city.  Certainly it is the financial center of mainland China.  When we came in 2003 the population was 16 million as compared to Beijing's 13 million. In 2010 the population is 22 million.

Shanghai City Orientation - We had already been to Shanghai but decided to take this tour.  We began at Yu Garden, a fully-restored classical

Chinese garden with ingeniously mingling pavilions and corridors, small hills, and carefully selected and placed rocks, lotus ponds, and bridges, winding paths, trees and shrubs.  The various ponds are stocked with coy.  We had been there in 2003 and Grace remembered a picture she had taken with Winx on the walk over the main pond. But it was good to return.

Ken at Yu Garden

Hieu Dovan at Yu Garden

Dragon on Wall in Yu Garden



Yu Garden

 

Rock Sculpture in the Yu Garden

Coy in the Yu Garden

Burl wood furniture in the Yu Garden

The Yu Garden is in the Old Town Bazaar so after the garden we shopped - Grace bought a scarf. Then to lunch in the local area. Next we went to the Bund, a seven-mile-long grand boulevard on the bend of the Huangpu River.

Happy Shopper

From there a visit to the Shanghai Museum of Art.  This is where 7 years ago Grace had bought the accordian sketch books that she has used for many of her recents works over the last few years.  We bought 3 of the large accordian books plus other minor items.

Ken and Grace outside the Shanghai Museum of Art

We went from there to visit the Jade Buddha Temple, an active temple with some 50 monks. The temple has bright saffron walls and its centerpiece is a 1.9-meter high jade Buddha encrusted with jewels.



Large Buddhas in the Jade Buddha Temple

No pictures are allowed of the Jade Buddha or the female Jade Buddha



We had a reservation for dinner about 20 minutes away but as we tried to go there we saw clouds of smoke coming from a fire. It seems an apartment building had experience a huge fire. It was near our restaurant and there was no electricity in the restaurant. So the tour guide, after much ado, arranged for another restaurant. As of our leaving there were 42 confirmed deaths in the fire.

After dinner we saw an acrobatics show at the Shanghai Theater. It was good but had too few women acrobats and too much slap stick. It was also the only thing we had not seen on our trip years ago.

The next day was the Urban Planning Museum tour. There was also a drive through the old French Concession area, but that wasn't very interesting.

The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre is an architectural joy. The Centre condenses the planning stages of yesterday, today and tomorrow, showing the construction of the Shanghai metropolitan are based on themes of City, Humanity, Environment and Development. It is a tour de force. The pictures below don't do it justice.

Part of the Shanghai layout in the Urban Planning Museum

More of the Layout - includes the 2010 Exposition in the bottom

Near where our ship was docked was a very unusual building.  The architecture included 3 large "drops" or whatever.  You can decide.  We think it was called the "Water Building".

Water Building

Before leaving we took a picture of the Pearl Tower which was a very new building when we visited before. There were few other buildings across the Huangpu River from the Bund. As some may remember about half of the world's tower cranes were in Shanghai then. There aren't as many now but one can really see the change across the river as there are a multitude of new buildings. And a lot of new highways and elevated roadways. What a change?

We all had dinner in the top pearl of the Pearl Tower seven years ago.

Pearl Tower



HONG KONG

Hong Kong arrival was Thursday, November 11th, at 0800.

Although Hong Kong was governed by Great Britain for decades, it has retained many traditional Chinese features.

We immediately went to the tailor to have the material we had bought in India to be made into a jacket for Grace.  It would be ready on the next day.

Then we rushed back to the ship to take our city orientation tour.  There were several trips into mainland China but we opted to stay in Hong Kong and stay on the ship to our next stop, which was Shanghai.  Since we had done a lot of the mainland in 2003 on our trip to China with many friends, we decided we would like to spend two days in Hong Kong.  The orientation tour was really a must for us as first time visitors.  We took a bus that made many stops.  The weather was beautiful.  A tram took us up to Victoria Peak where the view of the city skyline and Victoria Harbor, Kowloon and the surrounding islands was great. 

ARRIVAL PHOTOS BELOW

Breakfast with Craig Irving and Thomas Shelton on arrival

Grace, Ken with Don Kimmel and Jim Law

Betty Waldron, Sue Weitz, Grace, Hieu Dovan

Grace, Alexandra "Cookie" Echsner and Thomas Shelton

ON THE ORIENTATION TOUR


Inside St John's Cathedral

 

Lunch in a pocket park in the middle of the financial district

Colorful Ferry Boat

Salle Stemmons and Ken at Victoria Peak

View of Hong Kong from the tram

We walked to many historical buildings including St. John's Cathedral, the Court of Final Appeal (Old French Mission Building), the Legislative Council Building (Old Supreme Court) and the Museum of Tea Ware.  We took a ride on a sampan in the harbor by Aberdeen which is home to hundreds of people living on fishing junks.  Lastly we went to the Man Ho Temple and ended up in the market.  And, of course, we shopped - there is always shopping for tourists in every country.

View from Sampan

Junks from Sampan contrasting with modern high-rise buildings

That night Salle Stemmons took 20 people for dinner at the American Club. We were so lucky to have become friendly with Salle. We sat in the Presidents' dinning room. To get there we took the ferry across the harbor from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. Wow! What a dinner - place cards and all.

Salle's dinner group on the ferry to Hong Kong from Kowloon

Carlos and Salle with Obama's picture between in the President's room

Picture of Grace's end of the table

Picture of Ken's end of the table - note that Ken Kurica is wearing one of Grace's ties as he could not afford one of his own

The next day was our tour of the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Actually we had signed up for the Buddhist Monastery/Lantau Island tour but that tour ended up being cancelled. The Museum is managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. It was established in 1962 and was moved to the Hong Kong Cultural Center in 1991. The center is located a short walk from where we were docked. The Museum's collections now number over 15,000 art objects, including Chinese paintings and calligraphy works, antique Chinese treasures and paintings of historical significance - such as paintings about the Boer Wars. We saw a special exhibit of various art including beautiful accessories - purses, earrings, hair pieces, etc. Grace loved it and, of course, bought a book in the museum shop.

Antique Headdress

Grace in front of the Landscape Journey Exhibit

Then we went an picked up Grace's jacket, got back on the ship and went on to Shanghai.  We may have made a mistake staying in Hong Kong because we missed one of the trips which everyone who went said was spectacular - Guilin/Yangshuo for 4 days and 3 nights.  However, we loved Hong Kong and got Grace's new jacket and had 2 full days and nights on the ship with only 166 passengers.  Both nights were sit down dinners with excellent food as the chefs did not have to cook cafeteria style for 700 passengers.

CAMBODIA - ANGKOR WAT

On Thursday, November 4th, we left for Siem Reap and saw Angkor Wat in the afternoon. An interesting note is the passport check-in at Siem Reap. We handed our passports and the photo plus $20 to a passport officer then walked down a long counter. There must have been at least 12 passport officers that each checked our passports and did something with them. Each passport agent was sitting behind the long counter and opened our passport and fiddled with it until it got to the end where the last passport agent handed our passport back to us.

As we exited the airport we noticed that the scenic beauty was like Hawaii. The weather was perfect and the scenery hard to believe. Who would have guessed we were in a communist country? We checked in at the Allson Angkor Paradise hotel. Although we forgot to take a picture at the airport we did take some pictures at the hotel.



Salle and Ken at Allson Angkor Paradise Hotel, Siem Reap

Then we went to visit our main attraction, the Angkor Wat temple,

for about 3 hours. We were photographed and received our 3 day

pass for all the temples in the Siem Reap area.  The Angkor Wat temple was built in the early 12th century between 1113 and 1150 with additions.  It was built during the reign of Suryavarman II.  Angkor Wat means the city that became a pagoda.  It was dedicated to the god Vishnu.  It is the largest and most impressive of the temples of Angkor.  It is faced in laterite and sandstone.



Entrance Gate to Angkor Wat




Bas Reliefs

 

Grace and Ken at Angkor Wat



Long Hall with Bas Reliefs on Inside Wall



Bas Reliefs on Inside Wall

The Bas Reliefs are where the Cambodians come and make rubbings on paper to make a very beautiful artistic "painting".

The Angkor Wat complex has many sides and long walls. Below you can see the extent of a long hall. Inside the hall to the right is a long complete wall filled with bas relief sculptures.  These walls are on all sides of the Angkor Wat temple.  So many bas reliefs you cannot count them.

Our guide for out stay in Siem Reap

Cultural Dancer

Two Women in relief on the walls of the Angkor Wat Temple

That night we had dinner at Koulen II Restaurant and saw a Cultural Dance show. The buffet was extensive and crowded and the food average at best. The cultural show was good but it did not start until after dinner and we were so tired. The walking up and down Angkor Wat gave Ken leg cramps that night. The hotel was very nice except that the water pressure kept dying out when you took a shower.

 

Young Boys destined for monks in a pavilion next to the temple at Angkor Wat



Angkor Wat Early Morning on Friday



Salle Stemmons and Grace Early Friday

TA PROHM

The next temple we visited was Ta Prohm.  The main feature of Ta Prohm is the trees that have been growing there for many many years and they have taken over the temple.  There was much destruction of the temples from the trees.  This temple was built by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.  Two types of trees are responsible for the destruction of Ta Prohm - the larger tree is the silk-cotton tree and the smaller is the strangler fig.  The trees that have grown intertwined among the ruins are especially responsible for Ta Prohm's atmosphere, and have prompted more writers to descriptive excess than any other feature of Angkor.

Grace surrounded by the tree roots at Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm wall figures

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

Tree Roots were everywhere at Ta Prohm

ANGKOR THOM - was built in the late 12th century by Jayavarman II and his successors.  One of the largest of all the Khmer cities and the capital until the 17th century.  The name means Great City.



Large Buddha at Angkor Thom

Tom Powell and Brett Chatelain thanking Tom's mother and step father for the trip around the world

Elephant Terrace at Angkor Thom

In the afternoon we visited 5 more temples – Pre Rup, East Mebon, Ta Som, Neak Pean and Preah Kahn. That made 8 temples in one day.

PRE RUP - was built in 961 under the reign of Rajendravarman

Apsara Dancers at Pre Rup

 

Grace and Salle at Pre Rup

 EAST MEBON - was built in 953 under the reign of Rajendravarman. This was used as a water supply as it held water all around the temple. It was originally capable of holding 55 million cubic meters of water. It is now dry.

East Mebon

Elephant at East Mebon

TA SOM was built in the late 12th and early 13th century by Jayavarman VII.  This small temple is like a miniature version of Ta Prohm and owes its charm to a combination of remoteness, semi-ruined state, and face-towers.

Grace at Ta Som

NEAK PEAN was built in the late 12th century by Jayavarman VII. It is a small monument in a cruciform arrangement of ponds with a sanctuary tower on a circular island in the middle.

Grace at Neak Pean

PREAH KAHN was finished in 1191 by Jayavarman VII.  This one one of Jayavarman VII's largest projects.  It was more than a temple with over 1,000 teachers it appears to have been a Buddhist university and a considerable city.

Grace at Preah Kahn

Salle Stemmons, Deena Behnke and Grace in Rickshaw on the way to the Hotel de la Paix for dinner



Sooo Good - Great Bread at the Hotel de la Paix




One of the dishes in the Special Gourmet Dinner at the Hotel de la Paix

The next morning we headed out to Tonle Sap Lake.  The lake is huge and goes for some 140 kilometers.  It is the home for fisherman and their families who live on the lake.  There are several water villages and many Vietnamese who came to avoid the various wars between Cambodia and Vietnam or other wars that have occurred over the years.

           Fishing Village on Tonle Sap Lake - one could easily feel like they are in South Louisiana

Area for entering and returning from the lake

While we were cruising on the lake there were several speed boats that pulled alongside and young girls would either jump on our boat which held 35 of us to sell us snacks and soft drinks or would have a python wrapped around their necks and ask for money to take their picture.

Snake Girl - note the Python around the little girl's neck

Family working in their home that morning

When we left Tonle Sap Lake we had lunch and then went to the Artisans d'Angkor in Siem Reap.  There the government sponsored a training center for crafts.  Older crafts people were teaching the younger generation their various crafts - painting, woodworking, lacquering, sculpting, gilding, etc.  We bought a gilded lacquer piece of the Apsara dancers.

We thought that Cambodia was the biggest surprise - so interesting and fun.  Grace hardly knew where Cambodia was and we were both surprised at how advanced the civilization was so many centuries ago.  A part of history we knew nothing about.  It was really overwhelming.

Next stop Hong Kong.