Feb 26 - Tour of Shanghai

We woke up a couple times during the night, but were able to get back to sleep.  We did have to set the alarm, because our tour was leaving at 8:30 am, and we wanted to make sure to have breakfast before we left.  Breakfast was good again, with food that we enjoy.  We are trying to not eat too much, but I fear the bacon tastes too good, and I may end up over-indulging at times (okay, most of the time).  Lisa came around to the tables to pass out our boarding passes (we needed these to get back onto the ship when we returned) and to tell us that the forecast for the day was rain and about 10 C.  We didn't bring our umbrellas, so we could have rented one from the ship (but didn't).  Consequently, by the end of the day, we were pretty wet as we were outside quite a bit over the day.

Shanghai Museum

Once off the ship, we boarded a bus that would take us around the various places today.  We met our local tour guide who described the things we saw.  His name was Shawn, and his parents live in Mississauga, Ontario.

Security at the Entrance

Our first stop was to the Shanghai museum.  We had to go through security here, similar to the airport security.  If the bell rang when we walked through the machine, we had to get checked with a wand, and show what was in our pockets.  Cameras, and other items of any size had to go through an x-ray machine.  There was a lot of security all over the place at the entrance, and

Security all over

throughout the museum.  The building is four levels high, with various exhibit themes on each level.  We only had 1.5 hours here, so we couldn't see everything, but we saw enough before we got tired of looking.  We took quite a few pictures, which we may not look at again, but it is pretty neat to see bronze weapons, tools, instruments, etc. that were around more than 2000 years ago, just in that one exhibit hall.  In all it was an interesting tour of the museum.

From there, they took us to the Shanghai Silk Factory.  There we learned about the silkworm and how they produce their silk.  We learned about single cocoons and double cocoons,  The singles are used to

Silkworm house

Starting a thread from a coccoon

produce the fine threads that can go up to 1.7 km in length.  One thread is about 1/8 the thickness of a human hair.  They spin threads together to make larger threads, and then they weave various items from the silk thread. We saw clothing of various sorts, along with some beautiful rugs.

Pulling the silk from the cocoons

The double cocoons are used to make the silk duvets that can be

Stretching the silk to duvet size

purchased in Costco at various times during the year.  They could also be purchased at this factory.  They had some women working to show the process where the cocoons are stretched out to make a pocket that is about 10 inches across, after starting out smaller and being combined with other pockets until they are about 8-10 cocoons thick.  After that is complete, these pockets are then stretched by 4 women, pulling and stretching each of the pockets until they are the size of a bed duvet.  The one they showed us was about 70 - 80 layers thick, and they go up to over 100 layers and more before they put them into a cotton case.

A loom for weaving a rug

Of course, after this display was the push to purchase things.  They had a lot of beautiful items made of silk, and I have to admit, we spent some money there.

From there, we went to lunch at a huge restaurant,.  It appeared to be much more like a huge banquet hall/convention centre, and was set up to accommodate our whole group, plus other things that were going on.  It was a Chinese meal served around a round table with a large lazy-susan.  All the food dishes were placed on the lazy-susan and it was rotated so that everyone had a chance to serve up what they wanted.  It started with some appetizers (tomatoes, lotus root, cold noodles) and then

Lunch at the restaurant

they started bringing larger dishes (egg-drop soup, pork sweet and sour, beef, Chinese fries, and other things we weren't too sure about).  It was similar to the meals that we go out with Kim and Pat Eng to eat once in a while in Kamloops.  It was enjoyable, and when we were done, there was time to go for a walk if we wanted, but it was still raining so we went outside and then came back in to wait for our bus to move on. 

A corner of the market

The next stop was an outdoor market.  They warned us here about the people who would tempt us to buy things
that weren't what they seemed, and also to be careful of pickpockets.  We spent about an hour there, and when it was over, we were quite happy.  It was too crowded, too close,

Our group meeting place

and the vendors very aggressive.  We couldn't even look at something without someone trying to get us to buy it and more.  Getting into the market and then back to our bus, required us to walk across a busy street.  There were crosswalks, but it seems that pedestrians who hesitate are especially low on the "food chain" with the drivers.  Dawn would have walked in front of a car that was not going to stop, and another man would have walked into a bus, if his friend had not grabbed his arm.

The candy store

By this time, we were more than ready to head back to the ship, but there was a scheduled trip to a higher end shopping mall, so we had to go there.  A number of us sat on the bus rather than go shopping, but most of the folks went to the mall for about an hour.  Apparently there were no bargains to be had there, and not many had bags of items when they returned.  Then it was back to the ship - about a 20 minute drive from where we were, but once again, in rush hour.  The driver certainly got us around the traffic very well.

There was some time before dinner, so we decided to write our journals (for me, this blog is it).  Then we went for dinner - again it was good.  Some things were different, but overall, we didn't mind the food.  After that, we decided to head back to our room and think about going to bed.  When we walked through the lobby, there was another batch of passengers who had just arrived.  This was what the ship was waiting for because shortly after we got into our room, the ship started off, up the Yangtze River.

I had inquired about the internet, and we got some help getting our computer attached.  It was not very fast, but I was able to receive some emails.  I read one from Christie and responded, and then it stopped working.  It costs 100 Yuan for 24 hours (about $20), so for the amount we got to use it, this was quite expensive.  I tried many, many times to get back online, but no luck.

Our VISA card had stopped working after our first big purchase in the morning, so this weighed pretty heavily on our minds.  Each time I woke up overnight, I started to think about it.  Not sure how we are going to solve this dilemma.  More about that tomorrow.

River Traffic on Yangtze River at Shanghai

Feb 24 - Fly to Shanghai and Board our Ship

Our airplane on the flight to China

We flew out of Vancouver International Airport at about 1:00 pm, after having to get our plane (an Airbus 330-200) de-iced.  That is an interesting experience, and from the amount of snow coming off the wings, likely a good idea.  After getting all the snow off with power washer type machines spraying a pink solution and what looked to be hot water, they sprayed some green stuff on the wings and then we sat for about 10 minutes - I guess to let the let this stuff set.  Once we began our take-off run, all the green stuff blew off, so I'm not sure what it was, but it seems to have done the trick, because we made it to Shanghai.

The flight was long (almost 12 hours), but we kept ourselves busy watching movies and eating.  They have a good selection of movies, mostly quite new.  They even had 3 of the 5 movies I had downloaded from iTunes, so I didn't watch them in case I wanted to watch them later.  We also kept an eye on our flight path which was quite an interesting picture.  It showed the route we were following in 3 dimensions, so as we flew along, we could see where Prince George and all the cities along the route were located.  Our flight took us North West along the inside passage route between the mainland and Vancouver Island, continuing that direction, even after we passed Prince Rupert.  A short time after that, it turned more toward the West, as we flew out over the Bering Sea.

Sometime during the trip, we turned farther in the west direction, and then started moving south, flying along the Russia coast, south over Japan, past North and South Vietnam, and the over China.  The flight monitor we watched showed us flying about 10 000 plus metres high at speeds of up to almost 900 km/h.  The temperature at that altitude fluctuated, but was mainly about -56 C with winds fairly calm.  As we moved south down the Russia and Japan, the winds became much stronger, going up to about 150 km/h.  On the monitor, it showed the path taken over Japan and south was in quite a jiggly line.

When we neared Shanghai and started going down in altitude, we got down closer to the tops of the clouds, and then finally into the clouds.  It took a while, but we got below the clouds and then could start seeing some of the land below.  It appeard to be on the river because there were patches of land that appeared quite muddy and wet, and then patches of water with boats on it (it was getting a little dark at that time, but still daylight.

The weather was cloudy with drizzle rain, and the temperature was about 10 C.  Finally we touched down at about 12:30am Kamloops time, about 4:30pm in Shanghai), and it seemed like there was a lot of taxiing to finally get to where our airline parked the plane (about a 10 minute bus ride from the terminal).  It is a huge airport with planes, trucks, buses, and lots of other vehicles driving around in what must be some sort of order.  At one point driving to the terminal, while waiting for some sort of signal that we could cross the taxi-way, there was a line of vehicles 3 buses and 2 baggage trains across, going in our direction, with about that many waiting to cross the other way.

As always, collecting our baggage, and entering the country was a bit of an adventure.  We did have to go through immigration, but we didn't have to have any special security checks done.  Then, through the exit, and out into the airport where our tour group was being met.  We first had to walk a gauntlet of people who were looking for de-planing folks, and that was like we were under scrutiny from everyone.

Lisa Wang - our tour guide

Lisa, our group's tour guide for the rest of the tour, met us and directed us to where we should wait.  Dawn and I were in group 3, which was also our bus number.  They have 11 buses for this cruise, so I assume that means there are 11 groups that were met.  Once everyone was accounted for, we left the airport to drive to our ship - during rush hour in Shanghai.  A 40 minute trip ended up taking a lot longer than that.   Our ship is quite large.  It is 7 levels high, with deck 2 being our room deck, and the first level with passenger rooms.  Passenger rooms go up to deck 5, and there is another deck above that.

We got to our room, which is very nice.  It is very similar to the rooms on ocean going vessels, but a little different.  There is a sitting area with a small couch/fold out bed, a huge king-size bed, a desk, a small fridge, a failry big bathroom with a shower plus a tub.  The downside is there is not a lot of closet space.  Dawn says she would give up the bathtub for a bigger closet.  It has a beautiful view across the river, to the west side of the river.  There are all the huge high-rise buildings (more than 10 floors) with all their lights.  It is a pretty spectacular skyline.  This is the financial area of Shanghai, and land is pretty expensive.

Part of the view from our cabin

We were getting quite tired by this point, so went to the dining room to eat.  We have been assigned to a table with four other couples, who we will eat with for all of our meals.  They are also one of three table we will be bussing with for our tours.  Meals seem to be buffet style, and although we didn't try everything, what we did eat was quite good.  Certainly I think we will get by with eating food we like, as well as trying other food that we don't know what it is.  I don't think we will lose much weight on this trip.

After dinner, we went back to our room to unpack and try and fit everything in.  We were supposed to go to a beginning of the tour lecture at 9:00 pm, so went up to the lounge on deck 5 to listen.  Not a lot of folks were there, and after about 15 minutes, Dawn suggested we go back to our room as I was falling asleep (and I suspect snoring a bit).  Then, it was off to bed.  A long and tiring day, but we are here.

Feb. 22 - Heading to Richmond

We take off tomorrow, so it was up early to watch the USA-Finland Bronze medal game in the Olympics.  We got the first 2 periods in,  and then went to breakfast with a bunch of Doug and Stella's friends (they meet for breakfast at different restaurants every Saturday morning).  It was a nice visit, as we know most of the people.  There was only one fellow we hadn't met previously, and he was easy to talk to.  He was quit interested in our trip to the World Junior tournament, so we had lots to talk about.

After breakfast, we headed back to Stella's place (Doug went to the farm to work on some electrical repairs to the barn).  We watched the last period of the game, even though we already knew the final score.  Hard as it is to believe, we felt somewhat sorry for the Americans, even though we didn't mind that they had lost.  It was like their hearts weren't in it (just like Canada's wouldn't have been if they had lost yesterday).

After that, it was get the car loaded up and leave for Richmond. 

Little bit of Snow This Morning

It had snowed in the morning, and there was about 2 cm at Doug and Stella's house.  The temperature was just about zero, so it was really close to rain.  The roads were wet, but not slushy, and traffic moved quite well on the freeway.

We got to Richmond in plenty of time to check into our hotel and then go over to the Richmond Oval to meet with the fellow about the Speed Skating Championships that I will be doing Photo Finish for late in March.  That is a pretty impressive complex.  There are 2 ice rinks for hockey/speed skating, 6 basketball courts, a number of ping pong table courts, and of course their indoor track.  All this on the second floor because there is parking on the level below.

I got a chance to get a run-through of the equipment they have, and a look at how the set-up for the event.  This gives me an idea of what I will need to bring with me, and an idea of how the system will work with all the steps.  At first glance, it is very similar to what we do at track meets, but I know the process is very quick.  Hopefully Daniel can come down so we can set up our network and work two computers.

After that, we needed to purchase a few things for the trip, then we went and had dinner at White Spot.  Once again, a very nice meal, although there was a hockey team of little kids in there eating with their parents.  The kids were quite loud, and their parents seemed to think it was "cute".  We didn't agree, as I'm sure the rest of the patrons in the restaurant didn't, too.

Then, back to our hotel to get our bags sorted out.  We had to get the weight down to 20kg for the trip out, and figure out what we were leaving in the car.  Most of that thinking was done already, but the few final things were important to get organized.  After that, it was finish off this blog post, do some emailing, plug in the electronics to make sure things are charged, and then get ready for bed.

Just watching some TV now, but I figure we will be in bed before too long.  Tomorrow is going to be a long day.  We are supposed to fly out at 12:20 pm, but there is some snow happening now, so maybe we won't be on time.  We'll see.  I suppose the next time I will be able to add to this blog is when we are in China.  Again, we don't know what our internet access will be, but if there is access that will work, I will be adding to this as often as possible.

Feb. 21 - A Day in Abbotsford

Our day started watching the end of the men's curling at the Olympics.  That wasn't the greatest of games, but with the outcome in no doubt, it was a lot easier on our nerves.  Then, the game we were waiting for - Canada vs USA in men's hockey came on, and we were pretty much tied up for the rest of the morning.  Now that was an exciting game.  We thought the Canadians played a really good game, as did the US, but the goal was spectacular.  We were able to brag that we watched Jamie Benn play Junior hockey (we just don't say that we watched him play for Kelowna).  Boy was it exciting after that.  What a relief when the final seconds of the game ticked off the clock.  Now it is the wait until Sunday morning.

In the afternoon, we went to the Abbotsford Airport to go into the RV show that was there.  We spent about 3 hours there, looking in lots of different RVs.  It was all very interesting, and Stella did tell us that when she won the $50 million that night, she would just give us a blank cheque and we could have whichever one we wanted.  I'm writing this the next day, and we still haven't heard if she won, so I'm thinking it was all talk ;-).

By the time we got back to their house, it was supper time, so we ordered some pizzas for supper.  We got a couple of really tasty pizzas, and once again, I ate too much.  The rest of the evening was spent watching more of the Olympic coverage, watching some other programs, and reading my book.

Then, it was off to bed.

Feb. 20 - Return to Abbotsford

A pretty good day today.  We got up and watched the last couple ends of the Women's curling final - Canada won gold.  That game was followed by the Canada-USA Women's Hockey final.  Because we were checking out today, we had to leave by 11:00, so we only got to watch the first 2 periods.  Well, unfortunately, it was 1-0 for the US when we had to leave.

We headed off north, but stopped in Everett for lunch at the Olive Garden.  I was craving their salad and some spaghetti and meatballs.  Once GPS Jill found the restaurant, and after we filled up our gas tank, we ate.  What a great meal.  It was certainly worth the looking for and finding the restaurant.

After lunch, we were off to Canada.  The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, although the weather lightened up somewhat, and we even got some sunshine.  Going through the border was abut a 15 minute exercise.  I think the Sumas-Huntington border crossing is great.

Stella was home when we got there, and wouldn't you know it, great friend that she is, she had recorded the women's game so we could watch it when we got there.  She fast-forwarded to the end of the 2nd period, and we watched the part we had not yet seen.  We did know by then, that Canada had won because we heard (or at least thought we had heard) it on the radio, just as we got by Linden, so it was a little easier to watch, knowing they were going to come through.

Still, it was very exciting, and we still cheered heartily when the girls scored their first goal, the tying goal, and finally the winning goal.  It was great that we were able to see these goals, and Stella deserves a hug for ensuring we did.

Tomorrow, we are going to watch the men play the US, so have our fingers crossed for that game.  Later in the day, we are going to head to the RV show that is on in Abbotsford.  I'll report on this at the end of the day.

February 18 - The Day in Seattle

We woke up at about our usual time (7:30am) and got showered and dressed.  The coffee was pretty good, and then the Canada-Latvia game came on the TV.  Of course, at that point we settled in to watch (more like "fret about") the game as the team struggled to beat the Latvian goalie.  Things were pretty tense for most of the game, but there was some good relief when Weber scored the winning goal with just under 7 minutes to play.

Mounting the Calligraphy

After that, we decided to head off to Pike Place Market and do some shopping.  Actually, I think Dawn just wanted to watch the boys throw some salmon around - we didn't get to see that although I did see them throw 3 crabs across the counter.  We purchased a few things (one thing was a couple of Chinese calligraphy art), and then went for Clam Chowder lunch at Pike Market Chowder.  It was great and very filling.

Next we returned to our car and decided to drive by Safeco Field to see if we could find a hotel near the stadium for a trip Dawn is planning when the Blue Jays are in Seattle.  There's not much right around the stadium, but there is a Best Western fairly close by.  Parking is a concern for me (as is the possible price during the summer).  If they don't have secure parking, we won't stay there.

Then after some more driving around, we returned to our hotel for the rest of the afternoon.  Reading, knitting, and watching the Olympic sports on CBC took the rest of the afternoon.

The hotel we are staying in now is about a 10 minute walk from the Key Arena.  We figure to walk to the Paul Simon and Sting Concert tonight.  Driving would be silly, and after checking out where it is located, there is a pretty straight-forward way of getting there from here.

The weather was great here today.  The sun was shining, the temperature was reasonable (about 8 degrees Celcius), and it was just a pleasant day.  It sounds like another storm is going to blow through later on tonight, so the highways will get hit again.  Watching the news about the Coquihalla make us quite happy that we came down here early, rather than wait until the last minute.

Walked over to the Key Arena for the big show.  We arrived about 7:15, with the show supposed to start at 8:00.  It is a pretty big arena.  We were in fairly good seats, on the side, but a ways from the stage.  The advantage was that we were right up against the steps walkway, so nobody could stand up in front of us and block our view.

They came on the stage at about 8:15, and then shared the stage and played for the next 3 hours.  We were mainly there for Paul Simon, but the more they sang, the more we enjoyed Sting.  Lots of their songs were familiar, with some new ones thrown in, too.  The sang/played together for a few songs, then Simon left and Sting took over for about a half hour.  Paul Simon came back and they played one song together, and then Sting left for about a half hour set by Simon.

When Sting came back,they did some more together, and then Simon left while Sting played some more of his tunes.  The crowd really seemed to enjoy what he was presenting.  Simon came back, they sang some more together.  Sting sang some Garfunkel parts on Paul Simon songs and sounded great.  Sting left and Simon played some more of his hits.  By this time, the tempo and excitement of the songs had really risen, along with the volume, so the place was rocking.  Then, Sting came back out and they finished the concert together.

There were a couple of encore appearances, again singing some great hits.  The second encore was just Paul Simon and Sting, playing their acoustic guitars, singing an Everly Brothers hit, When Will I Be Loved in honour of his "good friend, Phil Everly".  It was a very fitting song to finish the concert.

After that, it was a short walk back to the hotel, and then we watched the news and went to sleep.

 

 

Feb. 17 - First Day of our Trip to Seattle and to China

After my appointment with the Ophthalmologist, we left Kamloops about 2:30 pm on Monday, Feb. 17, to travel to Doug and Stella's place in Abbotsford.  The Coquihalla was pretty good from Kamloops to Merritt with only a bit of slush in one lane in a couple places.  Moving on from Merritt to Hope, things were much the same until Larson Hill. As we rounded the corner at the top, and headed down, the snow started, but it was more like hail than snow.  Moving farther South, the clouds moved in and the snow started staying on the road.

Then, within a few kilometres, the snow on the highway got worse and the clouds/fog got thicker.  Soon it was down to single lane that was generally being driven on, and the other lane being used once in a while, but only by those passing the rest of us who were driving much slower by this time.

As we got closer to the Toll Booth area, the snow got deeper on the road, the other lane got harder to see, and with the fog, it was difficult to see where to drive.  The signs above the highway indicated that the road was closed at the snowshed, so we thought we were going to have to wait for a while.  It was snowing pretty heavily by this time.

When we got to the brake check pull-out at the top of the snowshed hill, all the big trucks seemed to be pulled off there, but the car traffic was still moving, although very slowly.  We discovered that the road was very slippery, and it appeared that there hadn't been much in the way of plowing and/or sanding.  However, going down the hill, there was a sand truck leading the cars down (at least those who were patient enough to  drive slowly - some weren't).  We pretty much crept down the hill and through the snowshed.

There were lots of trucks stopped on the way up the hill (travelling north), and very little movement.  We did see a big tow-truck pulling a semi up the hill, a grader plowing the road, a few plow trucks with sand, but again, not a lot of movement that direction.  We assumed that was the part that was closed, not our side of the road.  We wished we had taken some pictures, but it was getting too dark for photos, and I wasn't interested in stopping.

Within a few kilometres past the snowshed, the snow had pretty much turned to rain, and by the bottom of the hill, the slush was gone, even from the wipers on our car.  Then it was just driving in the rain (heavy at times) until after Hope.  When the rain stopped, we drove at speed the rest of the way to Abbotsford with no problems - in fact the road was great; it was dry and not very busy.  We arrived at Doug and Stella's at about 5:00, just in time to sit down to a chicken dinner.

Avalanche on the Coquihalla

Up this morning (not too early) to drive into Richmond to pick up our passports at the tour company office, and then drive to Seattle for the Paul Simon/Sting concert tomorrow.  It rained all the way to Richmond, all the time we were there, and about half the way to Seattle.  Then the rain stopped, and by the time we reached Seattle, the sun was shining and the sky was blue - go figure.  I'm not sure if it is between storms, but it is still nice at 5:45 pm.  We heard on the news that the Coquihalla was closed due to an avalanche, so we were quite happy we drove to the coast yesterday.  Here is an article about the avalanche.

I just spent some time looking at Google Maps, and we are about a 12 minute walk from our hotel to the Key Arena.  We have thought about walking to the concert, but we may look at a taxi.  Not too sure about walking home in the dark, after the concert.

Enough for now.  At least we have started our next holiday.