Tam in Hong Kong Harbor
Sunday, October 16, 1994
Monday, October 17, 1994
United Express Flight Kalamazoo To Chicago
United Flight Chicago To Tokyo
Sunday morning ... gorgeous sunshine! My wife, Tam, and I were up early and headed to Kalamazoo on a perfect day for flying! We boarded United Express 5004 to Chicago and shared what might be our last meal of American food for a month, a slice of cheese pizza from Pizza Strada.
At 12:45 p.m. we boarded UA881 nonstop to Tokyo Narita Airport. Captain Jerry Urban gave us an excellent briefing. Flight 881 would take us over Milwaukee, Duluth, Juneau, the Russian Kamchatka peninsula, Sapporo and into Narita. Projected flight time was 12 hours 5 minutes. We would fly at 575 miles per hour, covering 5681 nautical miles. Our seats were in the Business Class (upper deck) section of a 747-400 jet.
Among the highlights of the flight were the beautiful bird's eye views of Juneau and the port of Valdez, Alaska. But even more impressive were the volcanic mountains along the Kamchatka peninsula that soared up to 20,000 feet.
We listened to the pilots' flight conversations on the audio program. Interestingly, Russian air controllers were using poor equipment and were often loud and over-modulated. Our pilot requested to change altitude and was told sternly "Negative ... you have military company behind you." The controller repeated his order again, in a distinct Russian accent. Close behind were two military escort planes.
We were two tired puppies by the time we circled Narita three times in a traffic hold. Finally, we landed, passed through customs, and waited for our companions to arrive on Singapore SQ11 from Los Angeles. It would be a two hour wait.
As we waited at baggage claim, we met Chris Lenz, our tour director. He was a computer programmer from Marin, California and had been directing tours as a side business since 1962. He was with a very nice Japanese lady named Haruko who, we discovered, would be our local tour guide in Tokyo. Her name, Haruko meant "Spring born".
During the 1½ hour bus ride to Tokyo (after we met our tour-mates) we were given a briefing on Japan by our local guide. One of the more interesting things of note was that Japan still believed in a "class" system dating back to Shogun days. There were four groups or classes in Japanese society:
Highest ranking . . . Samurai (descendents)
Second. . . . . . . . . . Farmers
Third. . . . . . . . . . . . Artisans
Fourth. . . . . . . . . . . Merchants
Farmers and Artisans produced things of value while Merchants did not.
We checked into the Imperial Hotel and went downstairs to eat their famous "corn soup" a thick creamy almost puree of corn. It was a delicious late night snack!
We checked into the Imperial Hotel and went downstairs to eat their famous "corn soup" a thick creamy almost puree of corn. It was a delicious late night snack!
Still excited to be in Tokyo, even though we were both very tired, we ventured out into the Ginza, also known as the "lights" district, where we found a lot of drunk Japanese businessmen wandering the streets. We went back to the hotel and finally, after 28 hours, and went to bed.
Tuesday, October 18, 1994
Asakusa Kannon Temple
Imperial Palace
Meiji Shrine
Hard Rock Tokyo
We woke up at 6:00 a.m. to a beautiful cloudless day in downtown Tokyo. As we looked out the window we saw a deserted street - no people, no cars. Only the periodic above-ground trains squeezing between high rise buildings. Tam and I went to the 17th floor Rainbow Room buffet. The view was spectacular ... particularly of the new Imperial Palace peeking above the trees about a mile away.
The difference between Tokyo and other downtown areas of large cities was that every building had dozens of radio/tv antennas on them. Some had gardens and shrines on their roofs. Tokyo was one of the most populous cities of the world, twelve million people lived in the city limits, and another fifteen million lived in the surrounding areas. Nearly one-fourth of Japan's total population lived here.
The difference between Tokyo and other downtown areas of large cities was that every building had dozens of radio/tv antennas on them. Some had gardens and shrines on their roofs. Tokyo was one of the most populous cities of the world, twelve million people lived in the city limits, and another fifteen million lived in the surrounding areas. Nearly one-fourth of Japan's total population lived here.
Tokyo had regions called Kus and districts called Chomes. There were no such things as street addresses in Japan. This required expert local knowledge on the part of taxi drivers. More on that later!
The huge metropolitan area known as Tokyo was located on an estuary with several rivers forming a delta. Located on a sand and mud land mass, it was particularly susceptible to earth quakes. Buildings were constructed to withstand the liquefaction that often occurred during large earth quakes.
We boarded our tour bus at 8:30 a.m. and made a brief trip through the Ginza shopping district on the way to our first stop - the Asakusa Kannon Temple. This temple was the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan. Its history went back more than 1200 years. The temple had been destroyed by fire several times and had been rebuilt each time. At the entrance to the temple were two guardians - two warriors on either side of the temple gate. On the right was a guard with an open mouth signifying the beginning of life (like a baby entering the world crying). It represented Alpha. On the opposite side, another guard was closed-mouthed, signifying death. It represented Omega.
There are two major religions in Japan: Shintoism and Buddhism. The majority of Japanese belong to both faiths. In fact, they see them as complementary beliefs. Shintoism is a "happy" religion celebrated during birthdays and other special holidays. Buddhism addresses the more serious questions of life and death. When a Japanese person dies, it is with Buddhist rites that he is buried. It makes sense to most Japanese to celebrate both faiths - with 75 percent claiming to be Shintoists, 85 percent claiming to be Buddhists. Only one percent are Christian.
As we approached the Buddhist temple at Asakusa we saw that the entire temple was painted bright red with a great deal of ornamentation. In front of the temple was a large pot - four or five feet in circumference with burning incense. Practitioners waved at the rising smoke and placed their hands on their face and shoulders as it had healing powers. Tammy wiped smoke on her face and hands, I wiped it elsewhere.
About twenty feet away - to the right was a large circular fountain with ladles surrounding it. This area was used to cleanse oneself prior to entering the temple. You first washed your hands, then face, then mouth. This was more symbolic than practical. After walking up a steep staircase and entering the temple the traveler saw ornate gold leaf woodwork and a small (one foot tall) Buddha centered at the back wall.
Practitioners tossed coins into a grated box, clapped twice, prayed with hands together, clapped twice again, and left. To the side of the room was an area where you could pay 100 yen to shake a tin or wood box with numbered sticks inside. When a stick came out the small hole in the bottom, you read the number and pulled open the matching numbered drawer to take a printed fortune. I paid this and pulled number 17. Our local guide read the fortune and said it was very bad:
- many headaches.
- people don't understand you.
- save penny, lose dollar
Great ...
When a visitor gets a bad fortune, he fold it long ways and tie it on a tree in the temple - leaving that fortune behind. I did this immediately and walked away, very quickly.
About 100 yards from the Buddhist Temple was a Shinto shrine. Much smaller and simpler in design the previous one. One does not pray to a Buddha or similar item in Shintoism ... he/she prays to unseen spirits. Shinto shrines are typically not painted but are constructed of fine grain wood ... so that you can see the imperfections - as in life. Shintoism is a much less structured belief than Buddhism. The saying in Tokyo goes "You are a Buddhist by day, but a Shintoist by night."
As we left the temple, we observed that there were many shops, schools, and playgrounds on the temple property. Although the grounds were sacred, the Japanese interweaved religion and life on a daily basis. We boarded the bus and drove through Tokyo where we saw the National Diet Building, Imperial Palace, and Western Palace. Because they were active government buildings, they were not open for tours.
The Western Palace was home to the crown prince of Japan and his new wife. It was an exact copy of Buckingham Palace and often served as host to important foreign dignitaries such as U.S. Presidents.
Our next stop, the Meiji Shrine consisted of two garden areas - an outside area that included the Olympic Stadium and Gymnastic complex as well as art and history museums. The Olympic complex was built in 1953 for the Asian games and later hosted the 1960 Olympics. Inside an inner garden was a magnificent Shinto Shrine with more than 200,000 trees planted during the last 1,000 years. We made the half-mile walk through the park to the shrine. We cleansed ourselves and entered the shrine ... it was a serene and spiritual experience.
We then were served lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel - Chinzanso Garden Restaurant where we sat around large lava stones and were served a Mongolian Barbeque consisting of vegetables and meals of all kinds, topped off with Asahi Beer. Next, we were treated to a presentation of Kyogen Theater. Kyogen is a 600 year old form of comedy. Two members of Japan's last Kyogen company presented a play and then discussed the history and significance of this form of entertainment. The name of the play was "The Inherited Cramp". A story about a servant who invented an "inherited" leg cramp to avoid work. They performed the play in English for us and then performed another one in Japanese. Interesting to say the least!!
We returned to the hotel, where we grabbed a taxi and headed for the Hard Rock Cafe. The cabbie could not speak English, so I gave him a card with a map on it. After ten minutes of winding into a tiny residential neighborhood (Rappongi) he opened the door and gestured up an alleyway. We looked around and didn’t see anything that resembled a Hard Rock Cafe. He started yelling and pointed again up the street. So in a panic, we paid and got out. We aimlessly walked several blocks, hoping for a miracle. There was not a Hard Rock anywhere and no English-speaking people within miles.
We continued walking up one alley and then down another and then up another. We walked at least a half-mile between tightly-stacked domiciles ... and then, suddenly, I could see something ... another block away. Nirvana! Hard Rock Tokyo!! The giveaway was the huge four-story air-inflated gorilla climbing up the side of the building. We ate an ice cream sundae and drank two diet Cokes. Once inside, this Hard Rock looked exactly like every other one we've ever been in. Tokyo HRC ... check.
We bought $150 worth of guitar pins and flagged down a taxi with ease. Unfortunately, the driver had never heard of the Imperial Hotel. As usual, I had gathered a few hotel cards from the concierge for just such an emergency!
Later that night, we ate dinner at the French restaurant at the hotel with our tour-mates. I wasn't hungry so I ate two appetizers: lobster salad and scallops augratin ($100 worth of appetizers). Although Tam wanted Chateaubrion for $250 dollars, she settled for something else.
We got to bed about 10:00 p.m.
Wednesday, October 19, 1994
Bullet Train to Nikko
Kegon Falls
Nikko Samurai House
Toshogu Shrine
We awoke, ate breakfast at the Eureka Coffee Shop and met our group at 8:00 a.m. where we boarded a bus and headed to the train station. We caught the 9:00 a.m. train from Asakusa Station to Nikko. It was a real experience watching the Japanese exit the trains on their way to work. It was like watching a thousand race horses burst out of the starting gates! The ninety-eight minute ride up to Nikko, on the other hand, was extremely relaxed and smooth as the modern magneto-driven trains slid along at sixty to seventy miles-per-hour.
About thirty miles outside of Tokyo, the infrastructure slowly gave way to rice fields and an emerging mountain scape. By the time we arrived in Nikko, we were in the midst of rugged mountain terrain. We were already 2,500 feet above sea level and were about to ride a bus up to 4,200 feet. The bus ride up to Lake Chuzenji was a bit of a thrill due to the twenty switch-back turns we made as we climbed up the mountainside.
Lake Chuzenji is nearly 500 feet deep and is located more than 2,500 feet above the community of Nikko. This area is called the Japanese Alps and looked similar to the Smoky Mountains - primarily because clouds obscured the low, rolling mountain peaks.
At the end of the lake were the Kegon Falls. These are the second highest falls in Japan, and considered the most beautiful. The drop is 360 feet from the lake to a basin where the water begins its run as the Daiya River toward Nikko in the ravines below. The Nikko National Park was packed full of visitors because the foliage was beginning to change and millions of Japanese had made the trek to the park to witness it. Once a year, before winter, two cranes are brought in to pick up the two or three people that have plunged to the bottom during the summer.
We began our trip back down the mountain and the "28" hairpin turns that had to be negotiated before reaching bottom. In fact, there were actually 49 switchbacks going up and down the mountain, however 49 is a very bad number to the Japanese. Loosely interpreted, the pronunciation of the word "four" means death and "nine" means suffering. Many hotels avoid rooms with the number 49 in it. And most do not have a 49th floor.
We stopped at an original Samurai House in Nikko. It was built in the 1800's and was extremely well preserved. This was not a typical tour stop, but rather a private residence passed down through several generations. It was a marvelous opportunity to see 19th century living in Japan. After our tour we were given green tea and snacks by the elderly hostess who was the caretaker of the house. She was a most gracious hostess!!
We then proceeded to the Nikko Hotel (Nikko Kanaya Hotel) where we were served the house specialty of two year old rainbow trout from the river outside. The hotel posted registries of famous people who had visited there along its walls. We saw autographs ranging from Edward (Prince of Wales), to Helen Keller, to Charles Limbergh, to Jack Nicklaus. Just before leaving, we purchased a rice paper poster of Japanese calligraphy - "The Shogun Way of Life."
Down the hill from the hotel, crossing the Daiya River, was the Shinkyo Sacred Bridge. In Japanese mythology, there was once a Buddhist Monk who wanted to build a temple on the mountain across the river from Nikko. But the river was fast and not crossable. For seventy years, the monk tried to cross the river and failed.
After years of contemplation, the monk still wanted to try to cross the river one last time - he failed again, finally admitting that he was too old. One day, two snakes (a green one and a red one) appeared, joined together, and became the Shinkyo Sacred Bridge - allowing the elderly monk to cross and build the temple.
The bridge itself was a crescent-shaped wood bridge, painted red and with detailed decorative work throughout. It covered a span of about 50 yards.
Our next stop was the Toshogu Shrine. This shrine was of great significance to the Japanese not only for its immense beauty and size but also because of its history dating back to Shogun times. It was first built in the eight century and rebuilt as the Toshogu Shrine in the 1600's. When arriving at the shrine, we encountered a very large Buddhist temple at least three or four stories tall and one hundred yards long. Behind was a long uphill gravel walkway three hundred yards long leading up to the Shrine gate. The opulence of the gates gave us only a whisper of the beauty to be found inside. The shrine represented the "Edo Era" ... of great Shoguns ... and reflected the prosperity of the times. The name "Toshogu" is derived from the Shogun Ieyasy Tokugawa who was entombed at the shrine in 1616. Nearly every piece of this shrine was designated as a national treasure and therefore very culturally important. At the top of the hill were thirty-two buildings varying from stables to sacred sanctuaries. Every building was highly decorated with gold leaf and immaculately preserved over the centuries. All but two of the buildings were original.
There were several particular points of interest at this shrine. First, was the original carving of "The Three Wise Monkeys" otherwise known as hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil. They were carved into the stable entry. Another was a painting of a sleeping cat at the Sakashitamon Gate. Yet another was a ceiling painting of a dragon in Honjido Hall. The name of the dragon was Happo Nirami. The legend is that if you stand directly below the dragon and clap your hands, you can hear him roar back at you. This was demonstrated for us by a Buddhist Monk when he hit two sticks of wood together. Impressive demonstration, although you had to listen hard to hear it!
The Toshogu Shrine was perhaps the most opulent and highly detailed Japanese architectural work I had seen, so far.
As the tour concluded, we walked to our bus and boarded the Express Train back to Tokyo. On the train, Haruko, our local tour guide, discussed the various forms of Japanese traditional dress including Kimono design.
Tokyo was surprisingly quiet in the early evening as we returned to our hotel. We had room service and packed for our flight to Beijing.
Thursday, October 20, 1994
ANA Flight Tokyo to Beijing
Hard Rock Cafe Beijing
Cab Ride Through Beijing
We awoke at 5:00 a.m. and room service was brought at 5:30 a.m. We checked out of the Imperial Hotel and boarded the bus to Narita. On the way, we went through the Federal District, including the National Diet Building (which houses the Japanese Parliament) and we also toured Tokyo harbor and crossed the Rainbow Bridge.
We arrived at Narita in plenty of time for our flight to Beijing (Nippon 905 - 10:00 a.m.).
Chris, our tour director, briefed us on Beijing to prepare us for what lay ahead. He discussed China's rich cultural and political history and told us of his role as one of the first modern Westerners to open China for tourism in 1980. He said China had evolved light years beyond where they were fourteen years earlier. But he also said that the Chinese, while desiring results like the West, have been reticent to change their less desirable cultural habits - such as lack of cleanliness and other details - mainly because they had not been exposed to other cultures. He finally said that our flight would be an hour longer than normal because we would have to fly south to Shanghai and north to Beijing to avoid North Korean airspace.
At 10:15 a.m. we quietly murmured "arrigato goismus" (thank you very much) as we departed Japan. At 2:20 p.m., we landed in Beijing. (time change) When we crossed the East China Sea into China, we knew something was very different. The earth had no color, only a gray-brown tone. Almost the entire landmass was rice fields. We only saw small pockets of very condensed housing. Single buildings were indistinguishable. Rivers were muddy brown.
As we approached Beijing, signs of large cities began to emerge - thousands of multi-unit buildings all constructed of raw concrete and rudimentary windows were stretched as far as the eye could see.
Beijing Capital Airport had one runway which was cracked and covered with overgrown weeds and brush. It had one small terminal with six or seven modern gates. Other planes were using portable stairs. Chinese military patrols marched quietly along the perimeter of the tarmac. The inside of the airport looked like Chicago Midway Airport - only older. Bare light bulbs and blackened ceilings from oil/coal heating made for stark surroundings. First-time arrivals, such as ourselves, nervously looked around with raised eyebrows.
We waited briefly for a passport check. A young man in a green uniform reviewed my passport, stamped it, and then threw it at me! Chris had warned us that the Chinese people did things like this. He said that they especially like to slam your dinner plate down when serving you in restaurants ... their way of telling you that you are no better than them.
We gathered our luggage and drove about twenty miles into Beijing. A new six lane highway completed in 1993 was superb, even by U.S. standards. But this state of the art highway was passing by row after row of high-rise housing units in absolutely horrible condition.
The moment we stepped off the plane Tam and I could smell smoke. As we approached Beijing, the smell intensified and the sky became tinged with a blue-gray color. The Chinese were using coal as the primary energy source - not only for heat but for cooking as well. We also noticed that tens of thousands of people were bicycling home from work. Men and women of all ages were threading their way through automobile traffic. They almost looked like schools of fish swimming around.
We drove to our hotel while being briefed by our new local guide - Ann. She was a native of Beijing. Atypically, she was wearing blue jeans and other western adornments. Ann's English was excellent. Better than Haruko's. Ann told us that she was proud of her home and pointed out areas of beauty from between walls of rubble. She also told us that she would fill us in on both old and new Chinese history.
We arrived at the hotel, which was quite nice architecturally but rough around the edges - maintenance wise. The hotel staff was extremely courteous and all knew English.
With our first night for leisure, Tam and I decided to make the run ... to the Hard Rock Cafe - Beijing, located twenty miles away. We had the concierge write the address in Chinese so the taxi driver could read it. The cab ride took thirty minutes to the far, eastern-most, side of Beijing. It cost us 88 yuan (about $8.50). The Beijing Hard Rock Cafe was outstanding!! Bigger and newer than most. Tam and I ordered BBQ chicken (thinking it was the safest, most “cooked” thing on the menu.) And yes, the waitress slammed the plates on the table.
As we left HRC, little did we know that we were in for one of the most exciting parts of our trip!!
We walked up to the first cab we saw and showed the lady driver the ShangriLa Hotel card. She could not speak English but wrote the number 50 on the card to tell us that her meter was broken and she would take us for 50 yuan — flat rate. This sounded great because it was almost half the cost of the first cab. Once we climbed inside her minuscule van, we discovered that the only seat on the floor of the vehicle was a big seat cushion laying loose on the floor; and, the thing had no springs. What had we gotten ourselves into? She immediately made a wrong turn, away from the expressway, and plunged into the Beijing side-streets. It was now dark and the streets were teeming with humanity on wheels and on foot. Our cabbie took us down streets unseen by Western man since Marco Polo. We saw thousands of Chinese eating in the streets — cooking on the sidewalks. Riding bikes in the dark. Walking, playing, and socializing. We were seeing Beijing from the inside - off the beaten path. We saw kids playing, people smiling, and lovers walking hand-in-hand on a beautiful evening. For more than an hour, our cabbie wound around the side-streets of Beijing. It was a wonderfully precarious thrill for both Tam and me.
Wow! What a fascinating day!
Friday, October 21, 1994
Ming Tombs
Beijing International Golf Club
The Great Wall of China
We woke to a spectacular smog-filled sunrise over Beijing. Tam was first in the shower and almost immediately jumped back out, telling me that the water smelled like kerosene. It did, in fact.
The streets were quiet with the exception of army trucks driving by in huge caravans and teams of 20 - 30 army joggers running in formation down the sidewalks. They were all wearing solid dark blue uniforms. Beyond the city-scape were the gently sloping foothills of the Miaofeng Mountains.
The streets were quiet with the exception of army trucks driving by in huge caravans and teams of 20 - 30 army joggers running in formation down the sidewalks. They were all wearing solid dark blue uniforms. Beyond the city-scape were the gently sloping foothills of the Miaofeng Mountains.
As the city came to life; civilian cars, buses, and bicycles took to the streets by the thousands. Many bicyclists carrying payloads eight feet high and weighing hundreds of pounds. These people were among the ten million citizens of Beijing who work six days a week from dawn to dusk. In recent years, however, Premier Deng Xiaoping had been calling for a five day work week.
Beijing was definitely a city on the move. Despite its third world standard of living, there was construction and modernization taking place all over. Modern factories with names such as Motorola, Sony, Mitsubishi, and Lufthansa were rising above mud huts. Five star hotels numbered more than two dozen, compared to five years before, when the ShangriLa was the only one to grace this city. Most of this construction was being supported by Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan. This development had been made possible by Deng Xiaoping opening the door to capitalism in 1978.
Friday's tour started an hour late because our bus driver had struck and killed a bicyclist on the way to our hotel. We were left waiting with no word because he was being detained by government officials. At 9:30, our new driver arrived and we piled into the bus. We were further delayed because this driver had to acquire a government pass to drive to the Great Wall.
After a long, two hour drive North of Beijing, we arrived at the Ming Tombs. This area was located about 45 miles northwest of the city in the foothills of the mountains. The Chinese, like the Japanese, believe in Geomancy, which is the belief that geography plays an important role in life. In this case, having mountains to the north, rivers to the east, lakes to the south, and highways to the west signified a peaceful and protected location. There were thirteen Ming Tombs spread around the southern slope of the mountains. Each built for thirteen of the sixteen Ming Dynasty emperors between 1368 and 1620. We visited the largest of the tombs - belonging to Chang Ling. He was the Third Ming emperor and was responsible for moving the Capital of China from Xian to Beijing.
The structure was built in 1427 and consisted of three gates - each progressively larger - leading up to the tomb itself. The third gate was actually a very large building with 32 huge nanmu wood pillars. Chang Ling was interred there in 1424. Inside that third building were treasures of another emperor (Ding Ling) on display. Very similar to Egyptian tombs, these were filled with items for the life beyond - gold fixtures, furniture, clothing, and jewelry. Most of the tombs were raided over the years. Ding Ling's corpse had been preserved here. Even his concubines were buried on the grounds for future use. Although impressive, these structures were not as opulent and precisely-detailed as the Japanese temples we had seen.
Our next stop was the Beijing International Golf Club. It was a joint venture between the Japanese and Chinese. The club was located about two miles from the tombs. The greens were rolled smooth, although the roughs were not lush and sand traps were shallow dirt holes. I would rate it among most decent public courses in the United States. There were only four golf courses in China, and this was their best. Deng Xiaoping had become a real golf fanatic, although he was nowhere to be seen. We ate lunch there and went downstairs to the pro shop where we purchased several gift items for friends back home.
It dramatically swept up the rugged slopes - almost vertically in some spots. As we continued, we could see more and more of it. They were absolutely incredible!! The walls were originally constructed in 230 BC under the empire of Qing Shi Huangdi. They were completely constructed by hand by workers who carried two ton boulders up thousand foot high hillsides.
The Great Wall of China is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and is the only man-made structure visible from the surface of the moon!! Over the centuries, major portions of the 2,680 mile long wall fell into disrepair. Some of this occurred naturally. But it also occurred when farmers disassembled portions to build their homes over the last 2,000 years. Today, if they attempted to pilfer from the wall, they would be shot.
We were going to one of the highest sections of the Wall. Completely restored in the last ten years, a thirty mile section of the Wall was rebuilt using the original methodologies, carrying the stones by hand in baskets by manpower only. This reconstruction took several years and cost two dozen lives (locals say). But this pales to the toll exacted when the Wall was originally built. Some experts say more than three-thousand workers died building the original structure. This was one percent of the 300,000 who helped build it!
After what seemed an eternity in accumulating tourist traffic, we arrived at our destination, a section at Badaling, where we boarded a gondola to take us to section number seven - nearly to the top. Section number eight climbed at a 45 degree angle from section number seven and required a tremendous effort to reach the summit. The length of this climb was two-hundred yards up very uneven stairs, many portions requiring a handrail to pull oneself up. Of the nine people in our group, only four of us made it to the summit. Tam and I were the first to make it ... but the effort was brutal! Our lungs were screaming and chests pounding as we stood 3,800 feet above the Beijing valley.
We shot at least fifty photographs and ten minutes of video from the top while we regained our breath. We bought "I Climbed The Great Wall" t-shirts and had certificates made from vendors who had set up shop at the top. Capitalism was, indeed, rampant in this communist country.
I suspect we were the first Olins to climb the Great Wall of China - but probably not the last!
After an hour, we piled into our bus and drove back toward Beijing, making a detour at China Beijing North Suburbs Industrial Art Factory. A low light of the tour, at least I thought.
Our tour guide informed us as we arrived, that the finest cloisonné ware in the world was produced here. I listened with crossed arms and a great deal of cynicism ... but I will tell you here and now that I was truly astonished. What was being made there were minutely detailed works of art being made completely by hand in factories barely light enough to see. I was so impressed that we purchased a cloisonné dragon for the mantle at home. It was definitely a stop worth making!!
As we drove the last hour back to the hotel at night, I noticed that while there were streetlights, none of them were on. I also noticed hundreds of trucks bringing bituminous coal into Beijing from the mines in the mountains north of the city. These trucks were barely fit to drive; some of them pulling two or three more trailers of coal. Coal was the primary means of power in China. It was used at their main power plants. It was used by its people to heat and cook. It was even used by the ShangriLa Hotel to heat the ovens in the kitchens. You could smell it burning in the lobby of the hotel ... while tuxedoed musicians play piano and violin duets in the foyer. The smoke got so dense in the city that people often came down with flu-like symptoms and respiratory infections. Face-masks were commonplace.
Tonight was no exception. As we drove back to Beijing, the moon rose from the east with a reddish-brown glow as it cut through the smog.
Tam and I ate with some of our tour people at the hotel's Chinese restaurant, the Shang Palace, where we dined on Peking Duck. They brought a whole cooked duck, beak and all, to the table where they carved it into slivers and wrapped them in soft-taco-like bread tortillas. It was excellent!
Another night going to bed on a full stomach.
Saturday, October 22, 1994
Tian Anmen Square
The Forbidden City
Summer Palace
Beijing is a mixture of both old and new history. Bone fragments of a being named "Peking Man", and dated to a period more than 400,000 years ago were recently discovered at the village of Zhoukodian, just at the edge of the city. Several dynasties dating back to as early as 2000 BC were key periods in Chinese history. But the China we know today, The People's Republic of China, the world's most populous nation, is one of the world's youngest governments.
Beijing has been a focal point in world history since October 1, 1949, when Mao Tse Tung proclaimed the PRC from the rostrum of the Gate of Heavenly Peace in front of Tian Anmen Square. The square has witnessed several political struggles in recent years. In April of 1976, 100,000 protested the removal of memorial wreaths which had been laid in tribute to Zhou Enlai. More recently, Tian Anmen Square was the scene of a major riot against the government in June of 1989 which was seen live on television around the world.
We boarded our bus and began to head into downtown Beijing. Turning left onto Fuxingmennei Daije, we could see the square two miles away. As we proceeded toward it, we passed what the Chinese people call the "new" forbidden city - the current premier's residence. It was not visible from the street nor was it open for tours. We parked a short time later and walked out onto Tian Anmen Square. The square was nearly 100 square acres and could hold a crowd as large as 500,000 people. A perfect blue-sky day brought out a crowd of 50,000 or so wandering about enjoying a day at this great public stire.
Tian Anmen Square is not only at the physical center of Beijing, but it is also the central point on which several key buildings form its perimeter. To the north is the Forbidden City, and the Mao rostrum. It is also where the iconic fifty foot picture of Mao is mounted. To the east is the Chinese Revolutionary History Museum. To the south is the mausoleum of Mao. Those patient enough to wait the three hours in line, get to see a wax-like embalmed Mao in a crystal coffin. To the west is the government center from which the communist state is run.
At the center of the square is the Monument To the People's Heroes, which stands 100 feet high. It had been roped off since 1989 to reduce the likelihood of it being used for any dissident activity.
The square was absolutely massive. The picture of Chairman Mao seemed ever-present, because it was so large and perfectly placed that it drew your attention to it no matter where you were on the square. Two motionless guards, standing a quarter-mile away, flanked the picture, framing it perfectly for pictures. A tall flagpole with a huge red PRC flag waved from it. It was a huge photo-op!! Chinese visitors of all ages proudly posed in front of this backdrop. Tam and I did too!
There was no sign of the struggle that occurred five years before except for the roped-off monument and the propaganda books being sold in the gift shop.
The Forbidden City is also known as the Imperial Palace. It was the center of the Chinese world for 500 years... between 1420 to the fall of the Qing in 1911. As we entered the southern gate, we were struck by the massive size of the palace. The Meridian Gate was at least six stories high. The entire perimeter walls were three stories tall and large palace moats also protected it.
It was hard to believe that this masterwork of architecture was destroyed and rebuilt several times. It was burned to the ground in 1644 during the Manchu take over and raided by the British and French during the 19th century. The palace grounds covered 183 acres and within the walls was essentially a fully functioning city.
Running north and south were a series of gates and buildings, each serving a specific purpose; although it could be quite confusing when one walked through them. For example: each building looked very similar to the next and all had similar names - Gate of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Complete Harmony, Hall of Preserving Harmony, Gate of Everpresent Harmony, and so on. Each served a specific purpose. Basically, the southern half of the palace was used for official business and ceremonies while the northern half - called the Inner Court was the residence of the Emperor. There was even a specific building to celebrate just birthdays. There were special quarters in the Inner Court for the Emperor's concubines as well as a private courtyard where the Emperor rode his bicycle. He needed the exercise, because he never walked anywhere. He was always carried throughout the palace by servants.
The movie The Last Emperor was about the Emperor Puyi, the last emperor of China, who ascended the throne at three years of age. The movie was filmed on the original palace grounds. Our local guide, Ann, had seen the move and said it is quite accurate and served as a good study guide to understanding this culture of the past. Emperor Puyi was forced from the palace in 1924. It was almost destroyed by rebels at that time, but luckily, survived. I was very impressed with the palace, but in a different way than the temple in Japan. Much of the beauty of Japan was in the level of detail ... the delicate, precise craftsmanship ... whereas the impressive thing in the Chinese palaces is the immense size of everything.
This was particularly true of the Summer Palace.
About seven miles northwest of Beijing is the Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) which served as the summer resort for the Emperors. Built and rebuilt several times, the current incarnation dates back to 1751. It was huge! It was a city, several miles wide, and included three lakes within its grounds. A highlight of the palace was The Long Corridor - a covered walkway 2,550 feet in length which traces the north end of Kunming Lake. Tam and I walked its entire length. At its end was the famous Marble Boat - a vessel actually made of stone.
We boarded a shuttle boat and crossed Kunming Lake to the Spring-Heralding Pavilion.
On the bus ride back to the hotel, it was quite difficult sorting each of the dynasties, emperors, temples, and monuments. I found myself simply admiring the beauty of everything.
That evening, we were treated to something special. We attended the HanLin Peking Opera, where we saw three short plays: "Havoc in Dragon Palace", "18 Arhats vs. Monkey King", and "The White Snake". The Peking Opera was a combination of dancing, singing and acrobatics. Once again, while my expectations were low, I came away quite impressed! The acrobats were outstanding and the dancers kind of sexy. Tam was impressed because it was so different, the costumes were beautiful, and the music very unique. She said it was "primitive" entertainment - reflecting the primitive culture of ancient China.
Our bus made the quick trip to the outskirts of the city and the Temple of Heaven where we saw several Chinese men and women practicing Tai Chi on the large square parking area.
The Temple of Heaven was originally built in 1420, during the Ming Dynasty. This was a sacred place where only the emperor could communicate with the Gods. He would be carried five miles south of the Forbidden City twice a year to offer his sacrifices. Because the Chinese believed that the earth was square and heaven was round, the builders used a circular theme throughout the construction of the grounds and temples. The temple also featured a blue porcelain roof - symbolic of heaven. Roof color was very important. For example, yellow signified the emperor and green signified his wife.
The largest building, the Hall of Prayer was struck by lightning and destroyed by fire in 1889. But it was immediately rebuilt that same year.
Thousands of Chinese were enjoying the beautiful Sunday morning. Some were playing catch with cloth Frisbees, some were ballroom dancing to music played over big loudspeakers, others had brought their young children to get them out of the confines of the city. Tam and I noted that Chinese toilet training differed greatly from our own. It seemed that every toddler had a large split in their pants that would open up whenever the child squatted. The child would do their business, right on the sidewalk, where it would be left for other tourists to dodge. There were hundreds of little puddles and piles all over the sacred temple grounds … almost creating a minefield, of sorts. Watching the Chinese at play was one of the subtle highlights of our trip. It was both intriguing and fun to see “The Chinese Menace” living life just like we do ... and yes, they kick ass at ping pong.
Regretfully, we boarded the bus and traveled back into the city to go shopping at the Friendship Store — the government-sponsored shop for national artists. (Located on Tian Anmen Square) Fabulous art … cheap prices!! We purchased two beautiful watercolors there.
Our final stop in Beijing was the Palace Hotel for lunch and the local department store for more shopping. The Palace Hotel was a five star hotel in anyone's book. It was newer, better maintained, and more centrally located than the Shangri-La. It was the future of Beijing.
We were "wheels up" for Singapore at 4:30 p.m. Projected flight time was five hours and forty-five minutes, luckily just missing typhoon Teresa. "Sie Sie" (Thank you China).
Once we were safely headed out of Chinese airspace, Ann told us privately much more about about Beijing. First, she said that even though there were green uniformed army personnel almost everywhere we went, there were also plainclothed security police posing as tourists to see if the local tour guides said anything denigrating about China or the Tian Anmen Square incident. She also said that while she was a card carrying member of the communist party, she also had dissident feelings but could not express them. And while the party officially does not support religion per-se, she secretly was a Buddhist in her heart.
Ann said that the "Tian Anmen Incident" was absolutely horrible and that while 6,000 army soldiers were killed or wounded by protesters more than 17,000 dissidents were put to death or imprisoned for life. Chris, the tour director said that the leader of the uprising, Liu Chang, escaped through Hong Kong to the United States, where he ran a restaurant in San Francisco and hoped to earn a million dollars before the year 2000.
The flight from Beijing to Singapore was uneventful except for the French couple who pulled up their shirts and sprayed deodorant on themselves while seated next to us. The wonderful scent of Right Guard which wafted throughout the cabin.
Chris told us that Singapore Airport was the most beautiful in the world. When our wheels touched down at 10:26 p.m. and we taxied to a temporary parking area one could tell that we were back into the twentieth century. We rode in an air-conditioned bus to a special door and entered into an absolutely gorgeous terminal. Fresh flowers everywhere! Smiling, beautiful people! Very courteous!
They waived us through customs with no inspection. Perhaps the strict laws on drugs and guns which punish violations with death prevent the need to be concerned with importation of such items.
We met our local guide, Tanny, at the airport. She escorted us to a modern shuttle bus and we proceeded to the hotel.
As Travcoa Group #C070 whisked from country to country, and passed by centuries-old points of interest, a subtle game of cat and mouse was being played out among its members. As any expert in group psychology would tell you, our tour group was melding its array of individuals into an amazing study of human interaction, one-upmanship, and dysfunction. Let me give you a profile of each of our cohorts:
Tanny briefed us on local laws - including the famous chewing gum ordinance. Littering cost $1,000 on the spot. Jay-walking cost $200. Chewing gum cost $50 for each offense.
She told us that many of the police were not in uniform - so citizens were never quite sure what they could get away with. She also said there was a "courtesy" campaign going on here in Singapore. If residents did not welcome and smile at a visitor, they would be fined $200.
The Oriental Hotel was fabulous!! Spotless polished marble throughout the facility. Our room was very modern and extremely comfortable. Tam and I piled our dirty laundry in the center of the room. Tam sorted it into two bags. We basically cleaned everything we brought. The laundry bill for this was $200. We were told to do it here rather than in Beijing, for obvious reasons.
As we ate breakfast in our room, we watched CNN which had only recently been made available due to strict censorship laws. One of the news stories was a report from Luxor, Egypt, that a tour bus had been attacked and several tourists either killed or injured ... a reminder that much of the world was a restless and dangerous place. Having been to Luxor, I clearly visualized the buses I rode when we toured the ruins of Karnak and the Valley of The Kings.
This morning we had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Chua Beng Huat, Professor of Sociology at Singapore University. He had been featured last September on the cover of Asia This Week Magazine. He was world famous for his understanding of Singaporean economic policies. Dr. Chua opened his discussion by listing several unique observations about his country. Singapore, with a population of 2.9 million, had had no unemployment since 1970. It had no foreign debt. It was a leader in investments in other Asian markets - especially China. Singapore was no longer competitive on low level wages so it was now producing high level products. It was the world leader in computer software production.
Singapore was also considered the best provider of medical care in Asia - surpassing Japan. But Singapore was most famous for its shipping ports, which until last year, were the busiest in the world.
In 1959, Singapore was a poor third world nation. The election of Lee Kuan Yew as Prime Minister that year proved to be a godsend. Although he installed a "soft autocracy", the benefits of his programs were blatantly obvious. Some of his programs had been criticized, but the results have been excellent. For example, each resident was under a compulsory savings plan with a government bank. This was not a collective program. Each person saved for himself, for his own retirement. The government, in turn, had access to these funds for local and foreign investment. The trade off was a loss of individual freedom with one's income. These "losses of freedom" had yielded one of the lowest crime rates in the world, the miniaturization of drug problems, clean streets, and a dynamic and self sufficient economy. It made one take a serious look! Malaysia and Thailand were now employing similar strategies as well as several provinces in China.
However, as one might expect, some things had gotten out of hand. For example, there was no "writ of habeas corpus". The police could hold someone for up to two years without cause. And some experts questioned structural inequalities such as the $100,000 entitlement certificate one must first acquire before buying a car.
Dr. Chua talked with us for more than a hour, then we began our tour of the city/nation of Singapore. First we visited the Raffles landing site which was at the southernmost tip of the island. From this point, the equator was only 76 miles away. We could see the city hall and Parliament House from this location. Looking south, we could see Singapore harbor. On a peninsula jutting into the harbor was a large statue of the "lion-headed fish", the symbol of Singapore.
We then proceeded to Chinatown where we stopped at the Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple. Today, October 24th, was a special day at the temple. It was the day Hindus celebrate Diwali (Festival of the Lights). This was the famous "walking on hot coals" ceremony during which people walk barefoot across thirty feet of red hot coals supposedly to cleanse their souls in preparation for the Hindu new year. Those people walking on the coals wore yellow, a significant color during the celebrations. Prior to walking the coals, each person was absolved of their sin by holding their arms in the air and getting beaten with a whip. The recipient would get down on one knee lock his hands and raise them above his head. A helper would stand behind him and steady him while another person would apply the hit.
There were thousands of people at the temple. Tam and I removed our shoes and walked among them as they chanted, made offerings, and lit candles in this religious ritual. What a strange and marvelous opportunity to experience the culture of a different people!!
We also walked through the markets of Chinatown, including a medicine and herbal store and the local fish market. The combination of incense, garbage, and raw fish played a wonderful olfactory medley on this smothering ninety degree day in the tropics.
The view from Mount Faber was mostly obscured by fog. But I did get the opportunity to have my photograph taken with an eight foot king snake around my shoulders.
Singapore was world famous for Orchids. We went to the botanical gardens to watch them grow. Boring!
The afternoon was free-time... so we made our trek to the Singapore Hard Rock Cafe where we nearly bought out the store. Good Christmas gifts for friends! The food was excellent, especially the shrimp rolls. Wow! Tam and I returned to the hotel where I caught up on the journal and Tam shopped for T-Shirts. We also packed more things up to ship home from the hotel. The Business Centre at the hotel very kindly packed our stuff and shipped it via UPS.
We took a taxi (drivers spoke English) to several dive shops to try to purchase dive hats. The only thing available was a small T-Shirt. No other paraphernalia.
At about seven p.m., Tam and I returned to the Hard Rock Cafe with our bag of trader pins. The cabbie dropped us off across the street. Tam and I quickly looked both ways and walked directly across the street to the café. Two old ladies pointed and started blowing whistles on us for jay-walking. Then they started to chase us!! We ran inside the restaurant, and got lost in a huge crowd of people standing at the bar. The ladies stood in the window, peering in to see the perpetrators. The general manager had seen what happened, greeted us and gave us two prime seats in the back of the crowded restaurant. He said that those two ladies hung around the Hard Rock, looking to make citizens arrest all day by preying on tourists.
Once in the safety of the packed restaurant, I opened my Hard Rock pin bag. Dozens of waiters and waitresses swarmed around us and several tried to cut deals with us. In trade for a Hawaiian surf board, two Elvis-Chicago pins, and a Nashville, we received a limited edition Singapore, a first year anniversary Jakarta, and two Berlins. We also made several contacts to acquire other pins and we traded business cards.
Our next stop was the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel where we had two delicious Singapore Slings and ate in-the-shell peanuts. A waiter told us that the bar averaged 2,000 slings per night. The Raffles Hotel had caught a lot of flak recently for becoming too commercial ... many critics said that since its renovation in 1989, it had lost the personality it had when it was the favorite spot of great writers of the early 1900's such as Rudyard Kipling. We thought the bar was very nice and had plenty of personality ... and the drinks were great!
As nightfall and smog combined to create a halo around the illuminated tops of Singapore skyscrapers, we returned to The Oriental, had room service dinner, and took a bath. Perhaps our last opportunity to do so before Hong Kong. We needed it because Singapore was not just muggy, it was damned hot!! And this was Singapore's cool season.
As the sun rose over Singapore, it looked like a dim orange ball because the smog was so thick. Visibility was maybe a half-mile, tops. We casually packed our clothes for the transfer to Bangkok. It was at this time that I noticed I was missing a pair of pants. Some guy in Beijing was probably enjoying them!!
After packing, we walked through the mall connected to the hotel and purchased two CDs of oriental music - one traditional and contemporary. They would be put to good use sometime in the future. We ate lunch at the pool side Italian restaurant, Pronto! Tam and I both had Caesar salads and shared an antipasto appetizer. It was the most relaxing meal we had on the trip.
At two o'clock, we checked out and left for the airport. On the way, we saw several golf courses on both sides of the highway. They looked pretty challenging too.
We were wheels up for Bangkok at 4:52 p.m. (Singapore SQ68).
Thailand, officially The Kingdom of Thailand, is a constitutional monarchy. It had a population of 60 million. Seventy-five percent of Thailand's population were Thais. Chinese were its largest minority. Rice production was its primary industry with textiles a distant second.
The Thais migrated from China in the 13th century. The kingdoms established here became quite powerful as it had become the center of Siam. It was only as recently as 1939 that it became Thailand. During the Vietnam War, Thailand supported the United States and was the site of numerous U.S. air bases. It still supported the U.S., but in recent years, it’s government endured several military coups and had become somewhat unsteady.
Thailand was the antithesis of Singapore. It was not run by a strong autocratic leadership. It was disorganized in its societal structure as exemplified by the fact that Bangkok suffered from the worst automobile traffic jams in the world!! It sometimes took four hours to move five miles during rush hour.
Bangkok is the capital of Thailand. It is located on the east bank of the Chao Phrya river. Its population was 7.5 million people (about the size of Chicago). And yes ... it had a Hard Rock Cafe!!
We broke through the clouds on final approach to see miles and miles of rice patties. Whole areas looked completely flooded. The setting sun reflected off this water, giving the impression that all of Thailand was virtually under water.
We touched down in Bangkok at 5:46 p.m. Bangkok International Airport was surprisingly large. Much larger than Beijing or Singapore. After deplaning, we walked to passport control where there were four lines of fifteen people each waiting in line. As is typical with these areas, there was a red line with large print on the floor saying "Do Not Cross Until Called". While everyone else got in line, Katherine cut in front of the long line and walked straight up to the booth saying to us, "What's the matter, are you all blind?" Everyone else died laughing. Katherine had no idea.
Well, the traffic in Bangkok lived up to its expectations. It took us two hours to drive the eighteen miles into the city. Our new local guide, Peter, said that Bangkok was in a constant state of rush hour. In the middle of the night, the trucks took to the streets because they were restricted during daylight hours.
It was, indeed, a wild trip into Bangkok. Jaguar automobile dealers side by side with tin huts. Skyscrapers as backdrops to whole villages constructed of cardboard and barrels. People washing themselves and their clothes with hoses and buckets beside the freeway. We wound through progressively smaller streets as we approached the central business district. Perhaps, the best example of this contradiction was that Patpong (the raunchy nightclub district) was two blocks away from the most luxurious hotel in the world - The Bangkok Oriental.
"Understated elegance" would be good words to describe The Oriental. It was neat, but not flashy. Formal, but not stuffy. Our room (#802) was standard-sized. The bathroom was very large. There were fresh flowers throughout the lobby. And we were served fresh mandarin orange juice upon arrival. Prices were through the roof. Minimum laundry charges were $100 and some massage packages exceed $40,000. They had a helicopter golf package where you could fly your foursome and clubs to an outlying world-class golf course in a helicopter for a mere $35,000. The published room rates were $800 per night - minimum. (Travcoa obtained special excursion fares.)
Tam and I went to bed early. Our tour would begin promptly at 8:00 a.m., so we could beat the traffic on our return during the afternoon.
Wednesday, October 26, 1994
Tam and I wandered down to the Veranda where we ate buffet breakfast along the river's edge. Tam noted that many of the people staying at The Oriental had "pinched-drawn" faces. The clientele did seem a little snooty ... but what do you expect when you're staying at "the greatest hotel in the world". My initial attitude about this place was ... yes, this was a fabulous hotel. The rooms were extremely tidy and clean. The ice at the hotel was purified but the tap water was not. All of the food here was beautifully prepared, at each of their nine restaurants. The service was outstanding. The view along the river was wonderful. But as far as I was concerned, nothing came close to the Mauna Kea for sheer esthetic beauty and accommodations.
We met our tour companions, including four new ones, at eight o'clock in the lobby. Our tour began with the Golden Buddha. Ninety percent of the population of Thailand were Buddhists. There were 30,000 Buddhist temples in Thailand. There are 400 temples in Bangkok alone.
And so, the great Thai Temple Tour began! The Temple of the Golden Buddha contained the largest solid gold Buddha in the world. It was ten feet tall and weighs 11,000 pounds. Next was the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This temple was located in Wat Po. Buddhist communities are called "wats". The Reclining Buddha was 50 feet tall and 160 feet long and was snugly tucked into a temple building like a blimp in a hangar. The soles of the Buddha's feet were intricate mother of pearl designs depicting 108 images of the Buddha himself.
But the highlight of today's tour was the Grand Palace/Temple of the Emerald Buddha. These two sites were conjoined - mainly because the temple was to be used primarily for ceremonies involving the King of Thailand. This was an incredible sight. Billions of pieces of colored glass inlay covered huge temple buildings. Giant gold leaf spires reached for the heavens. Intricate hand-painted murals lined inner walls. The level of detail used to decorate these buildings was much more advanced than China and more fanciful than those in Japan.
Inside the largest temple building was the famous Emerald Buddha - a 24 inch tall Buddha made from solid jade (not emerald). This was the most sacred religious artifact in Thailand. No cameras were permitted inside. No pointing at the Buddha. Especially no pointing with your toes! Supposedly, this statue was two thousand years old and came directly from India. The Buddha itself was on a thirty foot gold-leaf platform and several spotlights were focused on it. Armed guards kept a watchful eye on everyone who entered the temple.
Behind the temple were the palaces of the last four Kings of Thailand. Each king would build a new palace. At one point, Peter, our local guide, pointed to one of the buildings and said it was the residence of Anna and the King from "King and I". He went on to say that the movie was censored in Thailand because it portrayed an "unflattering" image of the King ... "It made him look like a monkey". To which Amanda stated so adroitly, "I saw the King and I on Broadway and thought it was absolutely wonderful!"
We piled into our tour bus and headed to our last stop: P.J.'s International Gems, Inc. Thailand is world famous for two gems in particular - sapphires and rubies. This particular store was recommended by Travcoa because of its reliability and quality. The manager personally greeted us, provided us with free refreshments, and showed us a movie on how these gems are mined in eastern Thailand. Afterward, I purchased a pair of sapphire earrings for Tammy. The earrings were 1.76 carats of sapphires surrounded by .80 carats of diamonds. Very nice! Tam deserved them for putting up with me all of these years!
On the way back to the hotel, Peter pointed out the Hard Rock Cafe as the bus rolled by. Tam and I yelled to make the bus stop. It did, they let us out, and we walked right into the HRC Bangkok. This one was smaller than most but it had some of the most elusive pins in the world!! We ate lunch there and flagged down a cab to drive us back to the hotel. The driver could not speak English so I showed him a map of Bangkok - which he could not read. So I told him to drive to Patpong ... everybody in Bangkok knew where that was! Tam and I walked from there to the hotel. Just before we got there, we were stopped by street vendors and purchased fake Rolex and Breitling watches. Then Tam and I relaxed for a couple of hours in our room, watched boat traffic on the river behind the hotel.
At 6:00 p.m., we boarded a rice barge headed north up the Chao Phrya River. We ate appetizers such as puffed shrimp, pork kabobs in spicy peanut sauce, and pineapple slices. As night fell on Bangkok, the golden spires of Buddhist temples lit up the skies as spotlights were trained on them. The cruise lasted more than an hour. We returned to a dock on the opposite side of The Oriental, where the hotel-operated Thai restaurant, Sala Rim Naam, was located. Once inside “The Sala” we sat on the floor and ate a nine-course meal which included Minced Pork in Silk Threads, Curry with Blue River Prawn, and Honey Chicken in Pandanus Leaves. After dinner, we were treated to an authentic Thai dance performance. We saw six dance programs: Celestial Gathering, The Grand Battle, Glory of the Maidens, Long and Short Stick Duel, Pursuit of Benyakai, and Dance of the Bamboo Basket. They were less dramatic and flashy than the Peking Opera. But Thai music was more rhythmic and dance-like. A very enjoyable show.
We returned to the hotel via water taxi and went to bed. The hotel was beginning to grow on me. The staff maintained a terrific attention to detail. We returned to our room, which had new fresh flowers, another fresh fruit plate, turned-back beds and our laundry returned in sealed packages stacked neatly in our entry. The miracle of the whole thing was that this oasis was located in Thailand - a poor, third world country.
Thursday, October 27 1994
As we looked down from our hotel room, we clearly saw the French Embassy right next door. It was a nice, but not fancy, basically a house with a dock on the river. Armed guards were posted on the dock and rear of the house. The lawn was well manicured and the French flag flew above the lawn.
At 8:00 a.m., we boarded a water taxi and cruised several miles south and turned into a very small canal system. Riverside huts were lined up side-by-side. Many had uneven floors. Some even had water lapping onto the front door. Unbelievably, all had color televisions playing inside! We saw people bathing and washing clothes in the river. Many others were cooking or preparing foods on their porches. We were approached by crafts solicitors who floated up to our boat side to sell their wares. We also shopped at a riverside market which had everything from teak carvings to bogus Gucci handbags.
Our final stop was Wat Arun, Temple of Dawn, a Cambodian Buddhist temple manufactured from concrete and broken porcelain. The main temple had a very steep staircase which Tam and I climbed. At the top was a beautiful panoramic view of Bangkok. The climb down wasn't as easy, and took three times as long as the climb up!!
We rested for a couple of hours, preparing for our strenuous three o'clock appointment at The Oriental Spa. We crossed the river on the free hotel shuttle boat and arrived at the spa where we were met by our masseurs and escorted to private rooms with our own showers, toilet and changing areas. I showered, toweled off lay on a mattress on a teak-wood floor and teak walls. I was brought a Perrier and rolled over onto my stomach. The massage began at the base of my spine and proceeded upwards toward my shoulders and neck. I was a little self conscious about my butt which was uncovered during the session. He then moved to my legs and feet. After awhile, it was very relaxing. Before I knew it, the hour was over. I showered and met Tam in the lobby, completely refreshed. She had a male masseur and jokingly said she felt "violated".
Later, we dressed up and went to "Ciao" - a riverside Italian restaurant at the hotel. We watched the sunset over Bangkok while water taxis danced across the reflected sunset.
This hotel was truly world class! Every restaurant was outstanding. The staff was very efficient and polite. The fact that hotel properties lie on both sides of the river and are accessible by shuttle boat help give it a special uniqueness that other resorts don’t have. The hotel boasts 183 chefs and 1,800 other staff. Each day, fresh fruits were brought to our room. Every night, fresh flowers were brought as well. I had changed my mind … The Oriental Bangkok could very well be the finest hotel in the world.
As part of the Diwali "Festival of Lights" celebration, there was a spectacular fireworks display along the river. Our timing had been excellent as far as festivals were concerned.
Bangkok is also world famous for its "ballet". Exotic dancing had been raised to a fine art here. Several streets had become very familiar over the years for their strip joints and dance clubs. The most well known of these streets were Patpong One and Patpong Two. Whatever you were looking for, you could find it here. In recent years, however, the police had been cracking down on some of the wilder shows, so we had to be somewhat clandestine on this special tourist trip.
Peter, our local guide, picked up Tam, Anita, and me at 10:00 p.m. and drove us about six blocks - and then down several alleys - to a warehouse with several men standing outside. This was not a typical exotic dance club. It looked and felt more like a gang hangout. We went inside and paid 500 baht each to watch a one-hour show. Peter admitted that this kind of show was illegal in Bangkok because it was too raunchy.
We walked in an sat down in a small but very crowded, and dark, room. About one-fourth of the audience were women. About half of the audience were westerners.
What we witnessed was not dancing at all but a series of sex acts beyond anything I had seen before. The first dancer brought out a birthday cake, lit the candles, and blew them out with her genitals. Ok, that was kinda neat. She then stood up and began pulling a string out of herself with twenty razor blades tied to it. Interesting ... but slightly gross. After she pulled them out, she demonstrated that all the blades were razor sharp. Then out stepped the next act. This dancer played a horn - very unusually! I looked around and saw other people looking around. It was really a little bit sick, but riveting at the same time. The rest of the hour consisted of similarly weird acts including a Coke bottle routine and lesbian acts. The young girl performers were absolutely beautiful, but their eyes and expressions were dead and it made you wonder about whether they were under the influence of some controlled substance or other intoxicant. The finale “came” when a man and woman walked out and did it fifty different ways in front of us. The guy looked bored the whole time he was going at it. It got creepy, too, when he would look around the room while doing it, often locking eyes with you.
Needless to say, the show climaxed and we returned to the hotel where Anita bought us some drinks in the Oriental's Bamboo Bar. The headline performer was Alice Day. She performed an outstanding be-bop jazz and blues set while we talked about life in Cleveland. The next day, everyone except Katherine and us would go on to Katmandu.
We went to bed at midnight.
Thailand is called the "Land of Smiles". Indeed the people of Bangkok were very friendly. Peter said it very well, "Feel free to smile back at them, just keep your hand on your wallet." We had also heard that Thailand had some of the most beautiful people in the world. Although I did see some beautiful women here, for the most part I found that the majority of people have a "ruddy" complexion - not nearly as pristeen as the Japanese or as smooth as the Hawaiians. I left Thailand with a mix of feelings, both positive and negative. "Sawasdee Bangkok". Goodbye Bangkok.
Our flight to Hong Kong took us over Thailand's massive rice patties, Kampuchea, and Hanoi, Vietnam. Flight time was two hours and twenty minutes. We were very comfortable in the upper deck of a Thai Airlines 747-200.
Hong Kong has a unique and colorful history. It was first settled by westerners in 1841 when the British were expanding their grasp around the world. Although it was still a crown colony, on July 1, 1997, it would be returned to China.
In the 1830s and 1840's, the British were busy importing tea from China and were paying for it with opium brought from India and Turkey. This created a major drug addiction problem in China. The problem became so bad that the Chinese government declared war on Britain. This was just what the British wanted. They handily squashed the Chinese, forcing them to give up Hong Kong island and eventually the adjacent Kowloon peninsula on the mainland. Years later, in 1898, Britain agreed to lease the new territories from the Chinese for 99 years. During those years, Hong Kong became the busiest port in the world. It was selected in a recent CNN poll as the best area for developing business.
Hong Kong had more Rolls Royces per capita than anywhere in the world. It was the world's largest market for cognac. It boasted more than 130,000 millionaires in a population of 6.5 million people.
In 1984, the British attempted to renew their lease with China for the new territories and Kowloon. The Chinese said they had no intention of extending this lease ... and as a matter of fact, they said they wanted the Hong Kong islands as well. One hundred years later, the shoe was on the other foot! China had emerged as a formidable world power, Britain's empire was shrinking, and all of Hong Kong's food and water supply came from mainland China. The British could only grin and bear it! After several rounds of negotiations, Britain agreed to give up Hong Kong as long as it remained capitalist for 50 years after 1997.
During the Tian Anmen Square massacre, a chill fell over Hong Kong, as many people were worried about the Chinese cloak of control coming down from the north. It was a sober reminder that Beijing saw democracy as anarchy.
Despite this, capitalism was spreading northward into China from Hong Kong. Some experts said that the lower third of China was now a flourishing capitalist state - Shanghai included. For example: 25,000 factories operating in China were owned by Hong Kong companies. After centuries of being a closed nation, China was stepping out as a major political and economic powerhouse.
We strafed the multitude of skyscrapers along the Kowloon coast and touched down at 2:22 p.m., landing from the south. We rolled to the international gates and we waited 45 minutes to pass thought the passport check. We picked up our bags and proceeded to the bus pick up area where we met Cecilia, our Hong Kong tour guide.
We were no more than two minutes out of the airport when we passed by the Ferrari dealer. More than fifteen Ferraris lined up in a row. All red! This was a tip off that Hong Kong would be different than our other tour stops.
Our shuttle bus went under the western tunnel and we quickly arrived on Hong Kong Island. The Island ShangriLa was the newest hotel in Hong Kong. It was a fifty-six story structure. Every room had a crystal chandelier and hand carved cherry wood detailing. The rooms started on the thirty-ninth floor — ours was on the forty-fourth. We electrically opened our curtain to one of the most spectacular views I had ever seen!! We had a totally unobstructed view of Hong Kong Harbor. Hundreds of boats in the harbor, massive skyscrapers on both sides, all against a rolling backdrop of mountains. Absolutely incredible!! This was a sight that nobody should miss!!
We went downstairs to meet our tour guide. Cecilia took us on the MTR subway system under the harbor to Kowloon. We got off at Tsim Sha Tsui station and went to the garment district where Tam and I were fitted for clothing. Tam decided to buy a "Suzy Wong" dress of red silk and I purchased a fake Armani suit. Both for $700 - not bad. This first fitting took about an hour. We would go back the next day to be fitted again to assure correct sizes and then we would go back a third time for detailing.
From there we walked three blocks to Canton Road to the Planet Hollywood - Hong Kong. The food was delicious, and very American. This restaurant was bigger and had more memorabilia than the others.
After dinner, we walked the streets of Hong Kong. Throngs and throngs of people were enjoying the evening - shopping, socializing, and partying. Hong Kong was the most stylish place we've ever seen! Everybody was wearing designer fashions. Hong Kong boasted the most attractive people of both sexes as far as we were concerned. These people were far more sophisticated and stylish than any of the other oriental cultures. Perhaps it was the "western" look they all had.
Tam and I walked to the unfinished Hard Rock Cafe on Canton Road. It would have a large spiral staircase and an oversized bar centered in the entry. Too bad I couldn’t get some pins. We walked back to the MTR and went back to the hotel where we sat in the dark looking out over one of the most beautiful night-scapes ever seen!
Cecilia met our tour group downstairs at 9:30 a.m. We drove to the Peak Tram where we boarded the tram to the top of Victoria Peak. We arrived at the top, elevation 1,300 feet, and had a beautiful sight of Hong Kong Harbor. The real estate of Victoria Hill was the most expensive in Hong Kong. Condominiums sold for one-million each. Apartments rented for $11,000 per month. Houses were beyond comprehension - $40 million plus.
We drove our bus to a viewpoint above the Happy Valley Race Course where we could see the track inside. We then walked down the hill to the only original Chinese Mansion on Hong Kong Island. It was a beautiful brick building with original ceramic roof and a well manicured garden. It was at this house that the movie Soldier of Fortune was filmed. Clark Gable had stayed there once. This house was also featured in the book Noble House. Our next stop was Aberdeen, a small village at the western end of the island.
It is here, at Aberdeen Harbor, that communities of people spend their entire lives aboard "sampans". They are born, they live, and they die on them. There were 10,000 residents in the sampan community. The word sampan means "three planks" - one bottom plank and two side planks. We boarded a sampan and toured the harbor. Our boat was piloted by an eighty-year old Chinese woman, whose skin looked like dried leather. She was tough!! She drove our boat, with six people in it, all over the harbor. She weaved in and out of other boat traffic while we craned our necks in every direction. It was like driving through an RV park on the water - people doing laundry, fixing their boats, drying their squid ...
After the boat ride, we drove about ten miles to Stanley - a tourist market at the south end of the island. It was at this point that Katherine discovered that she had lost her purse. Cecilia and Katherine returned to Aberdeen while Chris, Tam, and I stayed to shop.
We met Katherine and Cecilia at the private Repulse Bay Club. (They had successfully retrieved Katherine's purse.) We ate a gourmet lunch outside on the courtyard which had a fantastic view of the South China Sea.
Our bus then took us through the Aberdeen Tunnel back to the central district. Tam and I were dropped off at the Swire House where (after some searching) we found the Hard Rock Cafe - Hone Kong. It was currently being built (like its sister restaurant in Kowloon) but the merchandise store was open. We bought pins and finally ... a Hard Rock Café leather bomber jacket. We also discovered that there was a HRC merchandise store in Kowloon at Star Ferry Pier. We would hit that the following day!!
The tour group met again at 4:00 p.m. and we took the MTR back to Kowloon for our second tailor fittings at Pete's Fashion and Optical. Pete also owned and operated the custom tailor ship at the Grand Hyatt Regency. Tam's dress looked fantastic - only a few small alterations. Mine on the other hand required six tailors all shaking their heads when they saw my body. A truly terrible and embarrassing experience! Pete himself came over and said that by lengthening my jacket slightly, it would make me look trimmer. I asked, "How about taking it to my knees!?"
Afterward, we walked a block to an expensive designer mall where we went into a small fabric shop. We walked through it and climbed a set of stairs in the back where a sign said, "Bitaly Importers, Inc." We sat down in a small waiting room. On a coffee table was a wedding photo album. When we opened it, it had photos of Rolex, Gucci, and other designer watches and LV, Gucci, and Chanel bags. Cecilia told us to pick some designs out and they would bring them out for inspection. I selected a Rolex which looked absolutely authentic - including a sweep second hand. What made these counterfeits so good is that they were made with world-class Seiko mechanisms, not plastic movements, like cheap watches. We bought the Rolex and a Chanel for $140.
We then walked down to the Star Ferry Pier in Kowloon where we boarded a "junk" ferry for a sunset harbor cruise. It was a wonderful evening for a cruise, except for one thing. The seas were quite rough due to another typhoon that affected conditions a hundred or more miles away.
Our cruise lasted two and a half hours as we went to the south end of the island. The choppy water made Cecilia quite uncomfortable and she stayed in the center of the boat. Tam, Katherine, Chris, and I stayed on the bow. We were ten minutes from port when a large freighter went by creating a wave which rattled our boat. Katherine fell, hitting her leg and head. There were ten of us on the bow and we were all knocked by the wave in the dark. We helped Katherine up. She was not badly injured except for a bump on her leg. She was, however, quite embarrassed. Today was not a good day for Katherine. She wanted to go home. At 78 years of age, I think that it had been quite a long and tiring trip for her.
We shuttled back to the hotel and agreed that we would meet the next day for our gala farewell dinner.
Sunday, October 30, 1994
Today was a day for independent activities, so we slept in. We read the paper and in room magazine. One of those magazines, "Business Traveler" conducted a survey of the best cities, airports, and hotels in the world. Let me give you a little breakdown:
Top Five Airlines
1. Singapore
2. Cathay Pacific
3. Quantas
4. United
5. British Airways
Top Five Destinations
1. Singapore
2. Hong Kong
3. London
4. Sydney
5. Bangkok
Top Five Asian-Pacific Hotel
1. Island Shangri La, Hong Kong
2. Regent, Hong Kong
3. Oriental, Bangkok
4. Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong
5. Royal Orchid Sheraton, Bangkok
Top Five Airports
1. Singapore
2. Amsterdam
3. Hong Kong
4. Zurich
5. London-Heathrow
Well, you can tell by these survey results that it had been a pretty swanky trip.
We took the MTR to Kowloon where we bought Tam's mom a Cartier watch (from Bitaly Importers). From there we walked down to the Star Ferry Pier and we people-watched as locals boarded ferry shuttles to the islands. It was interesting watching these people out on a Sunday morning, especially the guy with one black shoe and one white shoe.
At 11:30 am., the Hard Rock merchandise store in the pier opened and we bought some Kowloon pins. This completed our tour of Hard Rock Cafes for this trip!
We ate lunch again at Planet Hollywood but not before we watched a parade of Ferraris leave the hotel on a Ferrari-sponsored tour of Hong Kong. More than 80 cars were in the parade. Ferrari racer Nikki Lauda was Grand Marshall of the event.
After lunch, Tam and I took a walk north through the business district. Lots of street vendors selling everything from fish to Rolexes. We covered twenty blocks and tried to visit two dive shops on Portland Street. Both were closed. So we caught the MTR at Prince Edward Station and returned to Admiralty Station. We shopped for kids toys at the Pacific Place Mall, next to our hotel. We returned to our room and prepared for our gala farewell dinner.
At 7:00 p.m., Tam and I went upstairs to the 56th floor and the Cyrano Lounge. We ordered margaritas and enjoyed a tremendous view of Hong Kong. The predominant building in the skyline was the Bank of China building, designed by I.M. Pei. It was 78 stories tall and was the sixth tallest building in the world. It was a very modern glass geometric structure with two large radio beacons protruding from the top. It was vaguely similar to the Hancock Building in Chicago. There were many other modern skyscrapers in Hong Kong. It was quite an impressive architectural landscape.
The term "Feng Shui" had been mentioned several times to us during our trip, particularly in Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In general terms, Feng Shui is the art of placement of things in order to influence the cosmic breath of a site. It helps man utilize the earth's natural forces and balance yin and yang to achieve health and vitality. Here in Hong Kong, Feng Shui had become a fine art. Building orientations, entrance ways, gardens, fountains, and other architectural details subtly attempted to create this balance. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Corporation, for example, always placed its main door diagonally across a corner of its building so that money could come in from two sides - not just one.
So Tam and I spent a half-an-hour experiencing positive Feng Shui while looking out over the Hong Kong nightlife.
At 7:30, we met Chris and Katherine at Petrus, the finest French restaurant in HK, on the top floor of our hotel. We enjoyed a fabulous five course meal and reflected on the last two weeks. We talked about Buddhism, travel, and many other topics. We toasted our travel-mates who were somewhere in Nepal, picking at their meals, as we ate in grand style. After a relaxing two hours, we bid "good luck, and God speed to Chris and Katherine. They would be leaving the next day while we would stay for one more.
Our final day, Tam and I headed for Lantau Island. We boarded the junk "Lotus" at the Queen's Pier at 9:00 a.m. It took about an hour and a half to get to our destination by boat. Lantau Island is the largest of 235 outlying islands comprising Hong Kong. It is twice the size of Hong Kong and yet is only inhabited by 30,000 people. Locals called this the "unspoiled paradise". Some of the very wealthy businessmen in the colony had weekend houses here.
We landed in Silvermine Bay and took a shuttle bus to Cheung Sha Beach - a beautiful stretch of virgin white sand beach on the south end of the island. We continued to the Tai O fishing village. We walked among the resident fishermen and wandered down intimate village alleys with family shops selling things like dried fish stomachs, shark fins, and sea bass, all considered delicacies. Tai O was a very pleasant surprise, a rose on this thorny island. The village’s future was in some doubt because the new Hong Kong airport was being built just over the hill on Lantau. The airport (scheduled opening date July 1, 1997) would be connected to the other islands by a series of bridges and subways. This increased accessibility and traffic would inevitably change Lantau forever.
This particular tour of the island was run by British tour guides for British visitors. We were the only Americans in the group. It was an unforgettable ride!! It was being in a live Monty Python skit. We would pass by some important historical landmark and then someone would blurt out a really stupid remark and everybody would break out howling and laughing. And it seemed the more stupid, the funnier. For example: They all decided they would walk "crazy" from the bus to the sacred Po Lin Temple. I thought we got rid of Benny Hill when Katherine left. Now we were stuck with a bus load of them!!
The highlight of this tour was the Po Lin Monastery which is home to the world's tallest outdoor bronze Buddha statue, high on the top of "Mok Yue Hill". We were treated to a Buddhist vegetarian lunch. Actually, it was quite delicious. We then toured the temple, which was just a bit "touristy" especially considering that it was built ten years ago and could accommodate parking for thirty buses. The Buddha itself was quite impressive, more than one hundred-fifty feet high. It was completely made of bronze from mainland China and shipped here in segments. The statue was completed and opened to tourists the previous December. We toured the inside of the statue, too, which supposedly had some of the actual ashes and bone fragments of the original Buddha, who died two-thousand years ago.
As we waited at the pier for the next shuttle boat, a Buddhist monk approached, greeted us, and volunteered to pose in a picture. A kind gesture and wonderful send-off from the orient.
The junk "Noble House" met us at the pier at 2:30 p.m. and we sailed for Kowloon. We docked there at 4:15 p.m. and proceeded to Pete's for our final fittings. Tam looked fantastic in her red dress. They did a good job on my suit too! We took the MTR back to the mall at our hotel. And for our final dinner of the trip we decided to really do it up big - McDonald's. Tam had a double cheeseburger, small fries, and orange juice. I had a Big Mac, small fries, soup, and a shake. Afterwards, we visited a bookstore and loaded up on reading material for the trip home. We went back to our room, packed our bags, and went to bed early. The next day would be a long day!
All was not the same back home. CNN interrupted its international news with a bulletin on the crash of American Eagle flight #4184 in northwestern Indiana. Apparently bad weather was a contributing factor. Halloween was getting washed out back home too. All of this was being followed by a line of snowstorms in the Midwest.
At 10:00 a.m., Tam and I checked out of the Island Shangri La and were taken by limousine to Kai Tak Airport. Upon arrival at the airport, we were greeted by additional hotel personnel who carried our bags, checked them in, obtained our boarding passes, and escorted us to passport control. Now that was real first class treatment!
We wandered around the departure area and finally found the United Red Carpet Room upstairs. We hung out for an hour and then went down to the concourse for lunch. We only had enough Hong Kong dollars to buy corn soup at the cafeteria. I guess it was fitting that both our first and last meals in the Orient would be corn soup.
At 1:30 p.m., we crowded onto a shuttle bus and drove across the tarmac to our plane. United flight #806 would stop in San Francisco (equipment change) and continue to Chicago. Although we were in Connoisseur class, we rode in the lower section of the 747-400. We were wheels up at 2:02 p.m. and flew directly over Taiwan. It became dark quickly, but Tam and I were not sleepy. We watched Cheers reruns and the movie The Flintstones again.
The flight to San Francisco was very turbulent. The seat belt light was never turned off. The flight crew was not able to finish serving breakfast. And the kid two rows behind us threw up all over the floor. We touched down in SFO at 9:04 a.m. and went to customs to check our baggage. We paid a duty of $294.
Then Tam and I bought sourdough bread and TCBY yogurt. We reboarded flight #806 at gate 82. Our aircraft was now a 757. We were wheels up to Chicago at 11:12 a.m. The movie on board was The Client. This flight was turbulent as well until we got in range of Chicago. It was a lovely late Fall evening in the Windy City. Just a touch of color left in the trees as the sun set. We landed at 4:37 p.m. and missed a 4:50 connection to Kalamazoo, so we had to sit in the Red Carpet Club for four hours.
Our United Express Flight (#5009) to Kalamazoo was forty minutes late because the plane had flown into a flock of birds and the crew was busy washing bird-guts off the wings and windows. After an uneventful flight, we landed in Kalamazoo at 11:09 p.m. Tam collected the luggage while I found the Jeep and brought it to the door.
At exactly midnight, we walked into our house to a massive pile of mail. We lay in bed and opened it all because our time clocks were telling us it was noon. We nodded off to sleep around 1:30 a.m.
At 5:58 a.m., a little voice was heard in a bedroom down the hall "Grandma ... Grandma ..." I cracked Laura’s door open. She thought it was Grandma until she saw my face. She exploded out of bed, gave me a big hug, and jumped into bed with Mom.
We boarded a shuttle boat and crossed Kunming Lake to the Spring-Heralding Pavilion.
On the bus ride back to the hotel, it was quite difficult sorting each of the dynasties, emperors, temples, and monuments. I found myself simply admiring the beauty of everything.
That evening, we were treated to something special. We attended the HanLin Peking Opera, where we saw three short plays: "Havoc in Dragon Palace", "18 Arhats vs. Monkey King", and "The White Snake". The Peking Opera was a combination of dancing, singing and acrobatics. Once again, while my expectations were low, I came away quite impressed! The acrobats were outstanding and the dancers kind of sexy. Tam was impressed because it was so different, the costumes were beautiful, and the music very unique. She said it was "primitive" entertainment - reflecting the primitive culture of ancient China.
Sunday, October 23, 1994
Temple of Heaven
Friendship Store
Singapore Airlines Flight Beijing to Singapore
Both Tam and I slept very well and woke ready for our last day in Beijing. Before heading out, however, we had a few more tasks to complete, including another temple and the Friendship Store. We had difficulty checking out of our hotel because a number of phone calls had been charged to our room. As it turned out, the room was not ours at all. We had a few tense moments with the hotel staff, but eventually, everything was worked out.
Our bus made the quick trip to the outskirts of the city and the Temple of Heaven where we saw several Chinese men and women practicing Tai Chi on the large square parking area.
The Temple of Heaven was originally built in 1420, during the Ming Dynasty. This was a sacred place where only the emperor could communicate with the Gods. He would be carried five miles south of the Forbidden City twice a year to offer his sacrifices. Because the Chinese believed that the earth was square and heaven was round, the builders used a circular theme throughout the construction of the grounds and temples. The temple also featured a blue porcelain roof - symbolic of heaven. Roof color was very important. For example, yellow signified the emperor and green signified his wife.
The largest building, the Hall of Prayer was struck by lightning and destroyed by fire in 1889. But it was immediately rebuilt that same year.
Thousands of Chinese were enjoying the beautiful Sunday morning. Some were playing catch with cloth Frisbees, some were ballroom dancing to music played over big loudspeakers, others had brought their young children to get them out of the confines of the city. Tam and I noted that Chinese toilet training differed greatly from our own. It seemed that every toddler had a large split in their pants that would open up whenever the child squatted. The child would do their business, right on the sidewalk, where it would be left for other tourists to dodge. There were hundreds of little puddles and piles all over the sacred temple grounds … almost creating a minefield, of sorts. Watching the Chinese at play was one of the subtle highlights of our trip. It was both intriguing and fun to see “The Chinese Menace” living life just like we do ... and yes, they kick ass at ping pong.
Regretfully, we boarded the bus and traveled back into the city to go shopping at the Friendship Store — the government-sponsored shop for national artists. (Located on Tian Anmen Square) Fabulous art … cheap prices!! We purchased two beautiful watercolors there.
Our final stop in Beijing was the Palace Hotel for lunch and the local department store for more shopping. The Palace Hotel was a five star hotel in anyone's book. It was newer, better maintained, and more centrally located than the Shangri-La. It was the future of Beijing.
We were "wheels up" for Singapore at 4:30 p.m. Projected flight time was five hours and forty-five minutes, luckily just missing typhoon Teresa. "Sie Sie" (Thank you China).
Once we were safely headed out of Chinese airspace, Ann told us privately much more about about Beijing. First, she said that even though there were green uniformed army personnel almost everywhere we went, there were also plainclothed security police posing as tourists to see if the local tour guides said anything denigrating about China or the Tian Anmen Square incident. She also said that while she was a card carrying member of the communist party, she also had dissident feelings but could not express them. And while the party officially does not support religion per-se, she secretly was a Buddhist in her heart.
Ann said that the "Tian Anmen Incident" was absolutely horrible and that while 6,000 army soldiers were killed or wounded by protesters more than 17,000 dissidents were put to death or imprisoned for life. Chris, the tour director said that the leader of the uprising, Liu Chang, escaped through Hong Kong to the United States, where he ran a restaurant in San Francisco and hoped to earn a million dollars before the year 2000.
The flight from Beijing to Singapore was uneventful except for the French couple who pulled up their shirts and sprayed deodorant on themselves while seated next to us. The wonderful scent of Right Guard which wafted throughout the cabin.
Chris told us that Singapore Airport was the most beautiful in the world. When our wheels touched down at 10:26 p.m. and we taxied to a temporary parking area one could tell that we were back into the twentieth century. We rode in an air-conditioned bus to a special door and entered into an absolutely gorgeous terminal. Fresh flowers everywhere! Smiling, beautiful people! Very courteous!
They waived us through customs with no inspection. Perhaps the strict laws on drugs and guns which punish violations with death prevent the need to be concerned with importation of such items.
We met our local guide, Tanny, at the airport. She escorted us to a modern shuttle bus and we proceeded to the hotel.
As Travcoa Group #C070 whisked from country to country, and passed by centuries-old points of interest, a subtle game of cat and mouse was being played out among its members. As any expert in group psychology would tell you, our tour group was melding its array of individuals into an amazing study of human interaction, one-upmanship, and dysfunction. Let me give you a profile of each of our cohorts:
Katherine Mills — Cincinnati, Ohio
A militant, seventy-plus year old chain smoker who outlived her husband, but so far, not her toy poodle named Benny Hill, of whom she talked about incessantly and even brought pictures to share with us. We hit it off well until I jokingly mentioned that the mystery meat in our Chinese dinner in Beijing was barking an hour ago.
Pat and Rod Baker — Monte Sereno, California
A pair of nerdy, health conscious, fifty year olds who had just finished putting their last kid through college and had been traveling the world for eight straight months. He was an Anesthesiologist and she photographed vegetables. She brought and shared her pictures too.
Alfred and Amanda Smith — Morristown, New Jersey
Alfred was CFO for Merck Laboratories. The operative word here is "was". Alfred was less than sixty and made no bones about the fact that his leaving was not voluntary. He also was a chain smoker. He seemed to be a fairly well balanced guy until we pulled into the parking lot at the Great Wall of China and he panicked when he saw the gondolas we were about ride. He sat in the bus for an hour smoking while we toured one of the wonders of the world. Considering our knowledge of Chinese buses, the gondola may have been safer!
Now Amanda, his wife, was a different story all together. After growing up in Germany in the 1930s she somehow got hooked up with Alfred, most likely while he was in the Army serving in Europe. She too was an incessant smoker and she also carried pictures of her baby dogs. She was always complaining - "the elevator moved too slow, the bread was stale, pasta was not invented in China, and things were worse in Germany." But to top it off, she was emphatic when she told our Japanese tour guide that the Japanese Alps were not anything like the “real” Alps at all.
Anita Kazarian — University Heights, Ohio
Mary Papazian — New York, New York
Anita and her mother, Mary, were veteran travellers. Anita was a fairly hip 40+ year old self-employed, unmarried Advertising Executive who has been to China and Asia several times previously. Her mother looked somewhat like Grandma Ann Olin. At 79, she was almost blind with cataracts and shuffled her feet no more than six inches at a time. I did not hear her say one word during the first three days of the trip! In fact, she had slept during the entire length of the tour so far, with the exception of one ten minute span at Narita Airport when Tam and Anita went shopping and I was told to watch Mary. At this point, she suddenly awoke and launched into an oracle about her life in Armenia, how Ellis Island refused to let her in, how she moved to Cuba and how great New York City was. I was getting worried, I thought maybe her life was passing before her. Anita was a shopaholic but liked to do it away from the rest of us. After slamming Tam and me for buying so many gifts, she casually informed the group that she dropped $4,000 on a jade necklace.
Chris Lenz — Tour guide; Marin, California
I can't quite put my finger on this guy. An obvious intellectual, he enjoyed being a "smart snob" and provided bites of information solely for the purpose of letting us know that he knew it. He could sense that Tam and I were "with it" so we tended to socialize and eat with each other. He was a computer programming consultant of the first magnitude. He freelanced with Lucas Sound and Light Effects groups as well as Microsoft and Apple.
He was a full-time tour guide twenty years ago but it got boring for him. He still acted bored, but he said he continued to give tours to break up the boredom of programming. Go figure! He said he attended both Michigan State and U of M but graduated from Stanford. Go figure that too! He also said he was a two handicap golfer but gave it up ten years ago and hasn't played since. You would think that maybe he was "pulling our chain" but he was too well equipped for what he was telling us to be a con job ... and I had seen him receiving faxes from Microsoft almost daily.
So you can tell we were really a nine-ring circus over there. The local tour guides must have shuddered when they saw us board the bus like Gilligan's Island. We were getting on each others nerves already ... and it had only been a week. I was going up the wall, and I had already been there!
Everybody except Katherine was continuing to Nepal after Bangkok. From there on it would just be Tam, Tom, Katherine ... and Benny.
Singapore was a magnificent city. Not a speck of litter on the ground. Perfectly manicured hedges and trees. Water and food quality that actually exceeded U.S. standards. Outstanding architectural beauty, such as the new I.M. Pei designed Westin Hotel, which was the tallest hotel in the world at 72 stories. Legend has it that when I.M. Pei attended the grand opening of the hotel, he got lost trying to find one of the conference rooms. He was so embarrassed that he removed his name badge before asking for directions.
Tanny briefed us on local laws - including the famous chewing gum ordinance. Littering cost $1,000 on the spot. Jay-walking cost $200. Chewing gum cost $50 for each offense.
She told us that many of the police were not in uniform - so citizens were never quite sure what they could get away with. She also said there was a "courtesy" campaign going on here in Singapore. If residents did not welcome and smile at a visitor, they would be fined $200.
The Oriental Hotel was fabulous!! Spotless polished marble throughout the facility. Our room was very modern and extremely comfortable. Tam and I piled our dirty laundry in the center of the room. Tam sorted it into two bags. We basically cleaned everything we brought. The laundry bill for this was $200. We were told to do it here rather than in Beijing, for obvious reasons.
Monday, October 24, 1994
Singapore Lecture
Raffles Landing Site
Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple
Diwali Festival
Herbal Market
The morning was overcast although still very warm and humid, as one would expect so near the equator. A fog settled at the top of the tall buildings. The forests of neighboring island Sumatra had been on fire for three months and smoke drifted over Singapore occasionally, as it did on this day. Being the halfway point of our trip, we mailed several things back home today. Other priorities were to visit the Hard Rock Cafe and the Raffles Hotel - where we would share a Singapore Sling in the place where it was invented.
As we ate breakfast in our room, we watched CNN which had only recently been made available due to strict censorship laws. One of the news stories was a report from Luxor, Egypt, that a tour bus had been attacked and several tourists either killed or injured ... a reminder that much of the world was a restless and dangerous place. Having been to Luxor, I clearly visualized the buses I rode when we toured the ruins of Karnak and the Valley of The Kings.
This morning we had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Chua Beng Huat, Professor of Sociology at Singapore University. He had been featured last September on the cover of Asia This Week Magazine. He was world famous for his understanding of Singaporean economic policies. Dr. Chua opened his discussion by listing several unique observations about his country. Singapore, with a population of 2.9 million, had had no unemployment since 1970. It had no foreign debt. It was a leader in investments in other Asian markets - especially China. Singapore was no longer competitive on low level wages so it was now producing high level products. It was the world leader in computer software production.
Singapore was also considered the best provider of medical care in Asia - surpassing Japan. But Singapore was most famous for its shipping ports, which until last year, were the busiest in the world.
In 1959, Singapore was a poor third world nation. The election of Lee Kuan Yew as Prime Minister that year proved to be a godsend. Although he installed a "soft autocracy", the benefits of his programs were blatantly obvious. Some of his programs had been criticized, but the results have been excellent. For example, each resident was under a compulsory savings plan with a government bank. This was not a collective program. Each person saved for himself, for his own retirement. The government, in turn, had access to these funds for local and foreign investment. The trade off was a loss of individual freedom with one's income. These "losses of freedom" had yielded one of the lowest crime rates in the world, the miniaturization of drug problems, clean streets, and a dynamic and self sufficient economy. It made one take a serious look! Malaysia and Thailand were now employing similar strategies as well as several provinces in China.
However, as one might expect, some things had gotten out of hand. For example, there was no "writ of habeas corpus". The police could hold someone for up to two years without cause. And some experts questioned structural inequalities such as the $100,000 entitlement certificate one must first acquire before buying a car.
Dr. Chua talked with us for more than a hour, then we began our tour of the city/nation of Singapore. First we visited the Raffles landing site which was at the southernmost tip of the island. From this point, the equator was only 76 miles away. We could see the city hall and Parliament House from this location. Looking south, we could see Singapore harbor. On a peninsula jutting into the harbor was a large statue of the "lion-headed fish", the symbol of Singapore.
We then proceeded to Chinatown where we stopped at the Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple. Today, October 24th, was a special day at the temple. It was the day Hindus celebrate Diwali (Festival of the Lights). This was the famous "walking on hot coals" ceremony during which people walk barefoot across thirty feet of red hot coals supposedly to cleanse their souls in preparation for the Hindu new year. Those people walking on the coals wore yellow, a significant color during the celebrations. Prior to walking the coals, each person was absolved of their sin by holding their arms in the air and getting beaten with a whip. The recipient would get down on one knee lock his hands and raise them above his head. A helper would stand behind him and steady him while another person would apply the hit.
There were thousands of people at the temple. Tam and I removed our shoes and walked among them as they chanted, made offerings, and lit candles in this religious ritual. What a strange and marvelous opportunity to experience the culture of a different people!!
We also walked through the markets of Chinatown, including a medicine and herbal store and the local fish market. The combination of incense, garbage, and raw fish played a wonderful olfactory medley on this smothering ninety degree day in the tropics.
The view from Mount Faber was mostly obscured by fog. But I did get the opportunity to have my photograph taken with an eight foot king snake around my shoulders.
Singapore was world famous for Orchids. We went to the botanical gardens to watch them grow. Boring!
The afternoon was free-time... so we made our trek to the Singapore Hard Rock Cafe where we nearly bought out the store. Good Christmas gifts for friends! The food was excellent, especially the shrimp rolls. Wow! Tam and I returned to the hotel where I caught up on the journal and Tam shopped for T-Shirts. We also packed more things up to ship home from the hotel. The Business Centre at the hotel very kindly packed our stuff and shipped it via UPS.
We took a taxi (drivers spoke English) to several dive shops to try to purchase dive hats. The only thing available was a small T-Shirt. No other paraphernalia.
At about seven p.m., Tam and I returned to the Hard Rock Cafe with our bag of trader pins. The cabbie dropped us off across the street. Tam and I quickly looked both ways and walked directly across the street to the café. Two old ladies pointed and started blowing whistles on us for jay-walking. Then they started to chase us!! We ran inside the restaurant, and got lost in a huge crowd of people standing at the bar. The ladies stood in the window, peering in to see the perpetrators. The general manager had seen what happened, greeted us and gave us two prime seats in the back of the crowded restaurant. He said that those two ladies hung around the Hard Rock, looking to make citizens arrest all day by preying on tourists.
Once in the safety of the packed restaurant, I opened my Hard Rock pin bag. Dozens of waiters and waitresses swarmed around us and several tried to cut deals with us. In trade for a Hawaiian surf board, two Elvis-Chicago pins, and a Nashville, we received a limited edition Singapore, a first year anniversary Jakarta, and two Berlins. We also made several contacts to acquire other pins and we traded business cards.
Our next stop was the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel where we had two delicious Singapore Slings and ate in-the-shell peanuts. A waiter told us that the bar averaged 2,000 slings per night. The Raffles Hotel had caught a lot of flak recently for becoming too commercial ... many critics said that since its renovation in 1989, it had lost the personality it had when it was the favorite spot of great writers of the early 1900's such as Rudyard Kipling. We thought the bar was very nice and had plenty of personality ... and the drinks were great!
As nightfall and smog combined to create a halo around the illuminated tops of Singapore skyscrapers, we returned to The Oriental, had room service dinner, and took a bath. Perhaps our last opportunity to do so before Hong Kong. We needed it because Singapore was not just muggy, it was damned hot!! And this was Singapore's cool season.
Tuesday, October 25, 1994
Walking Singapore
Singapore Airlines Flight Singapore to Bangkok
Chris had told us that if we were to skip one event on the tour, it should be the Breakfast with the Orangutans. First, he said, the breakfast served at the zoo was lousy and second, you got to be with the Orangutans only long enough to have a picture taken. So Tam and I slept in and watched Far and Away (Tom Cruise) and Intersection (Richard Gere).
As the sun rose over Singapore, it looked like a dim orange ball because the smog was so thick. Visibility was maybe a half-mile, tops. We casually packed our clothes for the transfer to Bangkok. It was at this time that I noticed I was missing a pair of pants. Some guy in Beijing was probably enjoying them!!
After packing, we walked through the mall connected to the hotel and purchased two CDs of oriental music - one traditional and contemporary. They would be put to good use sometime in the future. We ate lunch at the pool side Italian restaurant, Pronto! Tam and I both had Caesar salads and shared an antipasto appetizer. It was the most relaxing meal we had on the trip.
At two o'clock, we checked out and left for the airport. On the way, we saw several golf courses on both sides of the highway. They looked pretty challenging too.
We were wheels up for Bangkok at 4:52 p.m. (Singapore SQ68).
Thailand, officially The Kingdom of Thailand, is a constitutional monarchy. It had a population of 60 million. Seventy-five percent of Thailand's population were Thais. Chinese were its largest minority. Rice production was its primary industry with textiles a distant second.
The Thais migrated from China in the 13th century. The kingdoms established here became quite powerful as it had become the center of Siam. It was only as recently as 1939 that it became Thailand. During the Vietnam War, Thailand supported the United States and was the site of numerous U.S. air bases. It still supported the U.S., but in recent years, it’s government endured several military coups and had become somewhat unsteady.
Thailand was the antithesis of Singapore. It was not run by a strong autocratic leadership. It was disorganized in its societal structure as exemplified by the fact that Bangkok suffered from the worst automobile traffic jams in the world!! It sometimes took four hours to move five miles during rush hour.
Bangkok is the capital of Thailand. It is located on the east bank of the Chao Phrya river. Its population was 7.5 million people (about the size of Chicago). And yes ... it had a Hard Rock Cafe!!
We broke through the clouds on final approach to see miles and miles of rice patties. Whole areas looked completely flooded. The setting sun reflected off this water, giving the impression that all of Thailand was virtually under water.
We touched down in Bangkok at 5:46 p.m. Bangkok International Airport was surprisingly large. Much larger than Beijing or Singapore. After deplaning, we walked to passport control where there were four lines of fifteen people each waiting in line. As is typical with these areas, there was a red line with large print on the floor saying "Do Not Cross Until Called". While everyone else got in line, Katherine cut in front of the long line and walked straight up to the booth saying to us, "What's the matter, are you all blind?" Everyone else died laughing. Katherine had no idea.
Well, the traffic in Bangkok lived up to its expectations. It took us two hours to drive the eighteen miles into the city. Our new local guide, Peter, said that Bangkok was in a constant state of rush hour. In the middle of the night, the trucks took to the streets because they were restricted during daylight hours.
It was, indeed, a wild trip into Bangkok. Jaguar automobile dealers side by side with tin huts. Skyscrapers as backdrops to whole villages constructed of cardboard and barrels. People washing themselves and their clothes with hoses and buckets beside the freeway. We wound through progressively smaller streets as we approached the central business district. Perhaps, the best example of this contradiction was that Patpong (the raunchy nightclub district) was two blocks away from the most luxurious hotel in the world - The Bangkok Oriental.
"Understated elegance" would be good words to describe The Oriental. It was neat, but not flashy. Formal, but not stuffy. Our room (#802) was standard-sized. The bathroom was very large. There were fresh flowers throughout the lobby. And we were served fresh mandarin orange juice upon arrival. Prices were through the roof. Minimum laundry charges were $100 and some massage packages exceed $40,000. They had a helicopter golf package where you could fly your foursome and clubs to an outlying world-class golf course in a helicopter for a mere $35,000. The published room rates were $800 per night - minimum. (Travcoa obtained special excursion fares.)
Tam and I went to bed early. Our tour would begin promptly at 8:00 a.m., so we could beat the traffic on our return during the afternoon.
Wednesday, October 26, 1994
Temple of the Golden Buddha
Temple of the Reclining Buddha
Temple of the Emerald Buddha
Golden Palace
La Sala Rim Naam Restaurant
Looking out of our hotel room window, at 6:30 a.m., we could see Bangkok coming to life along the Chao Phrya River. Dozens of water taxis, ferry boats, and shipping vessels were already hard at work. It was another beautiful, cloudless day - and at 70 degrees, rather cool for Thailand.
Tam and I wandered down to the Veranda where we ate buffet breakfast along the river's edge. Tam noted that many of the people staying at The Oriental had "pinched-drawn" faces. The clientele did seem a little snooty ... but what do you expect when you're staying at "the greatest hotel in the world". My initial attitude about this place was ... yes, this was a fabulous hotel. The rooms were extremely tidy and clean. The ice at the hotel was purified but the tap water was not. All of the food here was beautifully prepared, at each of their nine restaurants. The service was outstanding. The view along the river was wonderful. But as far as I was concerned, nothing came close to the Mauna Kea for sheer esthetic beauty and accommodations.
We met our tour companions, including four new ones, at eight o'clock in the lobby. Our tour began with the Golden Buddha. Ninety percent of the population of Thailand were Buddhists. There were 30,000 Buddhist temples in Thailand. There are 400 temples in Bangkok alone.
And so, the great Thai Temple Tour began! The Temple of the Golden Buddha contained the largest solid gold Buddha in the world. It was ten feet tall and weighs 11,000 pounds. Next was the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This temple was located in Wat Po. Buddhist communities are called "wats". The Reclining Buddha was 50 feet tall and 160 feet long and was snugly tucked into a temple building like a blimp in a hangar. The soles of the Buddha's feet were intricate mother of pearl designs depicting 108 images of the Buddha himself.
But the highlight of today's tour was the Grand Palace/Temple of the Emerald Buddha. These two sites were conjoined - mainly because the temple was to be used primarily for ceremonies involving the King of Thailand. This was an incredible sight. Billions of pieces of colored glass inlay covered huge temple buildings. Giant gold leaf spires reached for the heavens. Intricate hand-painted murals lined inner walls. The level of detail used to decorate these buildings was much more advanced than China and more fanciful than those in Japan.
Inside the largest temple building was the famous Emerald Buddha - a 24 inch tall Buddha made from solid jade (not emerald). This was the most sacred religious artifact in Thailand. No cameras were permitted inside. No pointing at the Buddha. Especially no pointing with your toes! Supposedly, this statue was two thousand years old and came directly from India. The Buddha itself was on a thirty foot gold-leaf platform and several spotlights were focused on it. Armed guards kept a watchful eye on everyone who entered the temple.
Behind the temple were the palaces of the last four Kings of Thailand. Each king would build a new palace. At one point, Peter, our local guide, pointed to one of the buildings and said it was the residence of Anna and the King from "King and I". He went on to say that the movie was censored in Thailand because it portrayed an "unflattering" image of the King ... "It made him look like a monkey". To which Amanda stated so adroitly, "I saw the King and I on Broadway and thought it was absolutely wonderful!"
We piled into our tour bus and headed to our last stop: P.J.'s International Gems, Inc. Thailand is world famous for two gems in particular - sapphires and rubies. This particular store was recommended by Travcoa because of its reliability and quality. The manager personally greeted us, provided us with free refreshments, and showed us a movie on how these gems are mined in eastern Thailand. Afterward, I purchased a pair of sapphire earrings for Tammy. The earrings were 1.76 carats of sapphires surrounded by .80 carats of diamonds. Very nice! Tam deserved them for putting up with me all of these years!
On the way back to the hotel, Peter pointed out the Hard Rock Cafe as the bus rolled by. Tam and I yelled to make the bus stop. It did, they let us out, and we walked right into the HRC Bangkok. This one was smaller than most but it had some of the most elusive pins in the world!! We ate lunch there and flagged down a cab to drive us back to the hotel. The driver could not speak English so I showed him a map of Bangkok - which he could not read. So I told him to drive to Patpong ... everybody in Bangkok knew where that was! Tam and I walked from there to the hotel. Just before we got there, we were stopped by street vendors and purchased fake Rolex and Breitling watches. Then Tam and I relaxed for a couple of hours in our room, watched boat traffic on the river behind the hotel.
At 6:00 p.m., we boarded a rice barge headed north up the Chao Phrya River. We ate appetizers such as puffed shrimp, pork kabobs in spicy peanut sauce, and pineapple slices. As night fell on Bangkok, the golden spires of Buddhist temples lit up the skies as spotlights were trained on them. The cruise lasted more than an hour. We returned to a dock on the opposite side of The Oriental, where the hotel-operated Thai restaurant, Sala Rim Naam, was located. Once inside “The Sala” we sat on the floor and ate a nine-course meal which included Minced Pork in Silk Threads, Curry with Blue River Prawn, and Honey Chicken in Pandanus Leaves. After dinner, we were treated to an authentic Thai dance performance. We saw six dance programs: Celestial Gathering, The Grand Battle, Glory of the Maidens, Long and Short Stick Duel, Pursuit of Benyakai, and Dance of the Bamboo Basket. They were less dramatic and flashy than the Peking Opera. But Thai music was more rhythmic and dance-like. A very enjoyable show.
We returned to the hotel via water taxi and went to bed. The hotel was beginning to grow on me. The staff maintained a terrific attention to detail. We returned to our room, which had new fresh flowers, another fresh fruit plate, turned-back beds and our laundry returned in sealed packages stacked neatly in our entry. The miracle of the whole thing was that this oasis was located in Thailand - a poor, third world country.
Thursday, October 27 1994
Wat Arun
The Oriental Spa
Patpong Porn Palace
Good news! The three typhoons that were developing in the Pacific were moving north and dying out. Another perfect day in Bangkok.
As we looked down from our hotel room, we clearly saw the French Embassy right next door. It was a nice, but not fancy, basically a house with a dock on the river. Armed guards were posted on the dock and rear of the house. The lawn was well manicured and the French flag flew above the lawn.
At 8:00 a.m., we boarded a water taxi and cruised several miles south and turned into a very small canal system. Riverside huts were lined up side-by-side. Many had uneven floors. Some even had water lapping onto the front door. Unbelievably, all had color televisions playing inside! We saw people bathing and washing clothes in the river. Many others were cooking or preparing foods on their porches. We were approached by crafts solicitors who floated up to our boat side to sell their wares. We also shopped at a riverside market which had everything from teak carvings to bogus Gucci handbags.
Our final stop was Wat Arun, Temple of Dawn, a Cambodian Buddhist temple manufactured from concrete and broken porcelain. The main temple had a very steep staircase which Tam and I climbed. At the top was a beautiful panoramic view of Bangkok. The climb down wasn't as easy, and took three times as long as the climb up!!
We returned to the hotel where we had a seafood buffet lunch at Lord Jim's restaurant.
We rested for a couple of hours, preparing for our strenuous three o'clock appointment at The Oriental Spa. We crossed the river on the free hotel shuttle boat and arrived at the spa where we were met by our masseurs and escorted to private rooms with our own showers, toilet and changing areas. I showered, toweled off lay on a mattress on a teak-wood floor and teak walls. I was brought a Perrier and rolled over onto my stomach. The massage began at the base of my spine and proceeded upwards toward my shoulders and neck. I was a little self conscious about my butt which was uncovered during the session. He then moved to my legs and feet. After awhile, it was very relaxing. Before I knew it, the hour was over. I showered and met Tam in the lobby, completely refreshed. She had a male masseur and jokingly said she felt "violated".
Later, we dressed up and went to "Ciao" - a riverside Italian restaurant at the hotel. We watched the sunset over Bangkok while water taxis danced across the reflected sunset.
This hotel was truly world class! Every restaurant was outstanding. The staff was very efficient and polite. The fact that hotel properties lie on both sides of the river and are accessible by shuttle boat help give it a special uniqueness that other resorts don’t have. The hotel boasts 183 chefs and 1,800 other staff. Each day, fresh fruits were brought to our room. Every night, fresh flowers were brought as well. I had changed my mind … The Oriental Bangkok could very well be the finest hotel in the world.
As part of the Diwali "Festival of Lights" celebration, there was a spectacular fireworks display along the river. Our timing had been excellent as far as festivals were concerned.
Bangkok is also world famous for its "ballet". Exotic dancing had been raised to a fine art here. Several streets had become very familiar over the years for their strip joints and dance clubs. The most well known of these streets were Patpong One and Patpong Two. Whatever you were looking for, you could find it here. In recent years, however, the police had been cracking down on some of the wilder shows, so we had to be somewhat clandestine on this special tourist trip.
Peter, our local guide, picked up Tam, Anita, and me at 10:00 p.m. and drove us about six blocks - and then down several alleys - to a warehouse with several men standing outside. This was not a typical exotic dance club. It looked and felt more like a gang hangout. We went inside and paid 500 baht each to watch a one-hour show. Peter admitted that this kind of show was illegal in Bangkok because it was too raunchy.
We walked in an sat down in a small but very crowded, and dark, room. About one-fourth of the audience were women. About half of the audience were westerners.
What we witnessed was not dancing at all but a series of sex acts beyond anything I had seen before. The first dancer brought out a birthday cake, lit the candles, and blew them out with her genitals. Ok, that was kinda neat. She then stood up and began pulling a string out of herself with twenty razor blades tied to it. Interesting ... but slightly gross. After she pulled them out, she demonstrated that all the blades were razor sharp. Then out stepped the next act. This dancer played a horn - very unusually! I looked around and saw other people looking around. It was really a little bit sick, but riveting at the same time. The rest of the hour consisted of similarly weird acts including a Coke bottle routine and lesbian acts. The young girl performers were absolutely beautiful, but their eyes and expressions were dead and it made you wonder about whether they were under the influence of some controlled substance or other intoxicant. The finale “came” when a man and woman walked out and did it fifty different ways in front of us. The guy looked bored the whole time he was going at it. It got creepy, too, when he would look around the room while doing it, often locking eyes with you.
Needless to say, the show climaxed and we returned to the hotel where Anita bought us some drinks in the Oriental's Bamboo Bar. The headline performer was Alice Day. She performed an outstanding be-bop jazz and blues set while we talked about life in Cleveland. The next day, everyone except Katherine and us would go on to Katmandu.
We went to bed at midnight.
Friday, October 28, 1994
Thai Airlines Flight Bangkok to Hong Kong
Kowloon
Hong Kong Island
Garment District
We awoke early in preparation for a morning flight to Hong Kong. It was another picture-perfect day in Bangkok. We left the Oriental Hotel at 7:30 a.m. and drove to the airport. It took an hour-and-a-half to drive the 18 miles. Our tour group split up at the airport. Katherine, Chris, Tam and I boarded Thai Airlines flight #628 and we were wheels up at 11:04 a.m.
Thailand is called the "Land of Smiles". Indeed the people of Bangkok were very friendly. Peter said it very well, "Feel free to smile back at them, just keep your hand on your wallet." We had also heard that Thailand had some of the most beautiful people in the world. Although I did see some beautiful women here, for the most part I found that the majority of people have a "ruddy" complexion - not nearly as pristeen as the Japanese or as smooth as the Hawaiians. I left Thailand with a mix of feelings, both positive and negative. "Sawasdee Bangkok". Goodbye Bangkok.
Our flight to Hong Kong took us over Thailand's massive rice patties, Kampuchea, and Hanoi, Vietnam. Flight time was two hours and twenty minutes. We were very comfortable in the upper deck of a Thai Airlines 747-200.
Hong Kong has a unique and colorful history. It was first settled by westerners in 1841 when the British were expanding their grasp around the world. Although it was still a crown colony, on July 1, 1997, it would be returned to China.
In the 1830s and 1840's, the British were busy importing tea from China and were paying for it with opium brought from India and Turkey. This created a major drug addiction problem in China. The problem became so bad that the Chinese government declared war on Britain. This was just what the British wanted. They handily squashed the Chinese, forcing them to give up Hong Kong island and eventually the adjacent Kowloon peninsula on the mainland. Years later, in 1898, Britain agreed to lease the new territories from the Chinese for 99 years. During those years, Hong Kong became the busiest port in the world. It was selected in a recent CNN poll as the best area for developing business.
Hong Kong had more Rolls Royces per capita than anywhere in the world. It was the world's largest market for cognac. It boasted more than 130,000 millionaires in a population of 6.5 million people.
In 1984, the British attempted to renew their lease with China for the new territories and Kowloon. The Chinese said they had no intention of extending this lease ... and as a matter of fact, they said they wanted the Hong Kong islands as well. One hundred years later, the shoe was on the other foot! China had emerged as a formidable world power, Britain's empire was shrinking, and all of Hong Kong's food and water supply came from mainland China. The British could only grin and bear it! After several rounds of negotiations, Britain agreed to give up Hong Kong as long as it remained capitalist for 50 years after 1997.
During the Tian Anmen Square massacre, a chill fell over Hong Kong, as many people were worried about the Chinese cloak of control coming down from the north. It was a sober reminder that Beijing saw democracy as anarchy.
Despite this, capitalism was spreading northward into China from Hong Kong. Some experts said that the lower third of China was now a flourishing capitalist state - Shanghai included. For example: 25,000 factories operating in China were owned by Hong Kong companies. After centuries of being a closed nation, China was stepping out as a major political and economic powerhouse.
We strafed the multitude of skyscrapers along the Kowloon coast and touched down at 2:22 p.m., landing from the south. We rolled to the international gates and we waited 45 minutes to pass thought the passport check. We picked up our bags and proceeded to the bus pick up area where we met Cecilia, our Hong Kong tour guide.
We were no more than two minutes out of the airport when we passed by the Ferrari dealer. More than fifteen Ferraris lined up in a row. All red! This was a tip off that Hong Kong would be different than our other tour stops.
Our shuttle bus went under the western tunnel and we quickly arrived on Hong Kong Island. The Island ShangriLa was the newest hotel in Hong Kong. It was a fifty-six story structure. Every room had a crystal chandelier and hand carved cherry wood detailing. The rooms started on the thirty-ninth floor — ours was on the forty-fourth. We electrically opened our curtain to one of the most spectacular views I had ever seen!! We had a totally unobstructed view of Hong Kong Harbor. Hundreds of boats in the harbor, massive skyscrapers on both sides, all against a rolling backdrop of mountains. Absolutely incredible!! This was a sight that nobody should miss!!
We went downstairs to meet our tour guide. Cecilia took us on the MTR subway system under the harbor to Kowloon. We got off at Tsim Sha Tsui station and went to the garment district where Tam and I were fitted for clothing. Tam decided to buy a "Suzy Wong" dress of red silk and I purchased a fake Armani suit. Both for $700 - not bad. This first fitting took about an hour. We would go back the next day to be fitted again to assure correct sizes and then we would go back a third time for detailing.
From there we walked three blocks to Canton Road to the Planet Hollywood - Hong Kong. The food was delicious, and very American. This restaurant was bigger and had more memorabilia than the others.
After dinner, we walked the streets of Hong Kong. Throngs and throngs of people were enjoying the evening - shopping, socializing, and partying. Hong Kong was the most stylish place we've ever seen! Everybody was wearing designer fashions. Hong Kong boasted the most attractive people of both sexes as far as we were concerned. These people were far more sophisticated and stylish than any of the other oriental cultures. Perhaps it was the "western" look they all had.
Tam and I walked to the unfinished Hard Rock Cafe on Canton Road. It would have a large spiral staircase and an oversized bar centered in the entry. Too bad I couldn’t get some pins. We walked back to the MTR and went back to the hotel where we sat in the dark looking out over one of the most beautiful night-scapes ever seen!
Saturday, October 29, 1994
Victoria Peak
Repulse Bay Club
Fake Rolex Importers
The morning brought another perfect day. All kinds of vessels moving about in the harbor - ferry shuttles threading their way between groaning tug boats pulling massive freights. Hong Kong was already hard at work.
Cecilia met our tour group downstairs at 9:30 a.m. We drove to the Peak Tram where we boarded the tram to the top of Victoria Peak. We arrived at the top, elevation 1,300 feet, and had a beautiful sight of Hong Kong Harbor. The real estate of Victoria Hill was the most expensive in Hong Kong. Condominiums sold for one-million each. Apartments rented for $11,000 per month. Houses were beyond comprehension - $40 million plus.
We drove our bus to a viewpoint above the Happy Valley Race Course where we could see the track inside. We then walked down the hill to the only original Chinese Mansion on Hong Kong Island. It was a beautiful brick building with original ceramic roof and a well manicured garden. It was at this house that the movie Soldier of Fortune was filmed. Clark Gable had stayed there once. This house was also featured in the book Noble House. Our next stop was Aberdeen, a small village at the western end of the island.
It is here, at Aberdeen Harbor, that communities of people spend their entire lives aboard "sampans". They are born, they live, and they die on them. There were 10,000 residents in the sampan community. The word sampan means "three planks" - one bottom plank and two side planks. We boarded a sampan and toured the harbor. Our boat was piloted by an eighty-year old Chinese woman, whose skin looked like dried leather. She was tough!! She drove our boat, with six people in it, all over the harbor. She weaved in and out of other boat traffic while we craned our necks in every direction. It was like driving through an RV park on the water - people doing laundry, fixing their boats, drying their squid ...
After the boat ride, we drove about ten miles to Stanley - a tourist market at the south end of the island. It was at this point that Katherine discovered that she had lost her purse. Cecilia and Katherine returned to Aberdeen while Chris, Tam, and I stayed to shop.
We met Katherine and Cecilia at the private Repulse Bay Club. (They had successfully retrieved Katherine's purse.) We ate a gourmet lunch outside on the courtyard which had a fantastic view of the South China Sea.
Our bus then took us through the Aberdeen Tunnel back to the central district. Tam and I were dropped off at the Swire House where (after some searching) we found the Hard Rock Cafe - Hone Kong. It was currently being built (like its sister restaurant in Kowloon) but the merchandise store was open. We bought pins and finally ... a Hard Rock Café leather bomber jacket. We also discovered that there was a HRC merchandise store in Kowloon at Star Ferry Pier. We would hit that the following day!!
The tour group met again at 4:00 p.m. and we took the MTR back to Kowloon for our second tailor fittings at Pete's Fashion and Optical. Pete also owned and operated the custom tailor ship at the Grand Hyatt Regency. Tam's dress looked fantastic - only a few small alterations. Mine on the other hand required six tailors all shaking their heads when they saw my body. A truly terrible and embarrassing experience! Pete himself came over and said that by lengthening my jacket slightly, it would make me look trimmer. I asked, "How about taking it to my knees!?"
Afterward, we walked a block to an expensive designer mall where we went into a small fabric shop. We walked through it and climbed a set of stairs in the back where a sign said, "Bitaly Importers, Inc." We sat down in a small waiting room. On a coffee table was a wedding photo album. When we opened it, it had photos of Rolex, Gucci, and other designer watches and LV, Gucci, and Chanel bags. Cecilia told us to pick some designs out and they would bring them out for inspection. I selected a Rolex which looked absolutely authentic - including a sweep second hand. What made these counterfeits so good is that they were made with world-class Seiko mechanisms, not plastic movements, like cheap watches. We bought the Rolex and a Chanel for $140.
We then walked down to the Star Ferry Pier in Kowloon where we boarded a "junk" ferry for a sunset harbor cruise. It was a wonderful evening for a cruise, except for one thing. The seas were quite rough due to another typhoon that affected conditions a hundred or more miles away.
Our cruise lasted two and a half hours as we went to the south end of the island. The choppy water made Cecilia quite uncomfortable and she stayed in the center of the boat. Tam, Katherine, Chris, and I stayed on the bow. We were ten minutes from port when a large freighter went by creating a wave which rattled our boat. Katherine fell, hitting her leg and head. There were ten of us on the bow and we were all knocked by the wave in the dark. We helped Katherine up. She was not badly injured except for a bump on her leg. She was, however, quite embarrassed. Today was not a good day for Katherine. She wanted to go home. At 78 years of age, I think that it had been quite a long and tiring trip for her.
We shuttled back to the hotel and agreed that we would meet the next day for our gala farewell dinner.
Sunday, October 30, 1994
Shopping In Kowloon
Cyrano Lounge
We awoke to a live CNN news report that a man with a Chinese made SKS automatic weapon had just fired 30 shots into the White House from Pennsylvania Avenue. The world, it seems, is becoming a more violent place and the United States is no exception.
Today was a day for independent activities, so we slept in. We read the paper and in room magazine. One of those magazines, "Business Traveler" conducted a survey of the best cities, airports, and hotels in the world. Let me give you a little breakdown:
Top Five Airlines
1. Singapore
2. Cathay Pacific
3. Quantas
4. United
5. British Airways
Top Five Destinations
1. Singapore
2. Hong Kong
3. London
4. Sydney
5. Bangkok
Top Five Asian-Pacific Hotel
1. Island Shangri La, Hong Kong
2. Regent, Hong Kong
3. Oriental, Bangkok
4. Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong
5. Royal Orchid Sheraton, Bangkok
Top Five Airports
1. Singapore
2. Amsterdam
3. Hong Kong
4. Zurich
5. London-Heathrow
Well, you can tell by these survey results that it had been a pretty swanky trip.
We took the MTR to Kowloon where we bought Tam's mom a Cartier watch (from Bitaly Importers). From there we walked down to the Star Ferry Pier and we people-watched as locals boarded ferry shuttles to the islands. It was interesting watching these people out on a Sunday morning, especially the guy with one black shoe and one white shoe.
At 11:30 am., the Hard Rock merchandise store in the pier opened and we bought some Kowloon pins. This completed our tour of Hard Rock Cafes for this trip!
We ate lunch again at Planet Hollywood but not before we watched a parade of Ferraris leave the hotel on a Ferrari-sponsored tour of Hong Kong. More than 80 cars were in the parade. Ferrari racer Nikki Lauda was Grand Marshall of the event.
After lunch, Tam and I took a walk north through the business district. Lots of street vendors selling everything from fish to Rolexes. We covered twenty blocks and tried to visit two dive shops on Portland Street. Both were closed. So we caught the MTR at Prince Edward Station and returned to Admiralty Station. We shopped for kids toys at the Pacific Place Mall, next to our hotel. We returned to our room and prepared for our gala farewell dinner.
At 7:00 p.m., Tam and I went upstairs to the 56th floor and the Cyrano Lounge. We ordered margaritas and enjoyed a tremendous view of Hong Kong. The predominant building in the skyline was the Bank of China building, designed by I.M. Pei. It was 78 stories tall and was the sixth tallest building in the world. It was a very modern glass geometric structure with two large radio beacons protruding from the top. It was vaguely similar to the Hancock Building in Chicago. There were many other modern skyscrapers in Hong Kong. It was quite an impressive architectural landscape.
The term "Feng Shui" had been mentioned several times to us during our trip, particularly in Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In general terms, Feng Shui is the art of placement of things in order to influence the cosmic breath of a site. It helps man utilize the earth's natural forces and balance yin and yang to achieve health and vitality. Here in Hong Kong, Feng Shui had become a fine art. Building orientations, entrance ways, gardens, fountains, and other architectural details subtly attempted to create this balance. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Corporation, for example, always placed its main door diagonally across a corner of its building so that money could come in from two sides - not just one.
So Tam and I spent a half-an-hour experiencing positive Feng Shui while looking out over the Hong Kong nightlife.
At 7:30, we met Chris and Katherine at Petrus, the finest French restaurant in HK, on the top floor of our hotel. We enjoyed a fabulous five course meal and reflected on the last two weeks. We talked about Buddhism, travel, and many other topics. We toasted our travel-mates who were somewhere in Nepal, picking at their meals, as we ate in grand style. After a relaxing two hours, we bid "good luck, and God speed to Chris and Katherine. They would be leaving the next day while we would stay for one more.
Monday, October 31, 1994
Lantau Island
Po Lin Monastery
Giant Buddha
Halloween is celebrated all over the world. Every nightclub in Hong Kong was throwing a Halloween party. Many stores were having Halloween sales. Nowhere was the western influence more prevalent in the Far East than in Hong Kong!
Our final day, Tam and I headed for Lantau Island. We boarded the junk "Lotus" at the Queen's Pier at 9:00 a.m. It took about an hour and a half to get to our destination by boat. Lantau Island is the largest of 235 outlying islands comprising Hong Kong. It is twice the size of Hong Kong and yet is only inhabited by 30,000 people. Locals called this the "unspoiled paradise". Some of the very wealthy businessmen in the colony had weekend houses here.
We landed in Silvermine Bay and took a shuttle bus to Cheung Sha Beach - a beautiful stretch of virgin white sand beach on the south end of the island. We continued to the Tai O fishing village. We walked among the resident fishermen and wandered down intimate village alleys with family shops selling things like dried fish stomachs, shark fins, and sea bass, all considered delicacies. Tai O was a very pleasant surprise, a rose on this thorny island. The village’s future was in some doubt because the new Hong Kong airport was being built just over the hill on Lantau. The airport (scheduled opening date July 1, 1997) would be connected to the other islands by a series of bridges and subways. This increased accessibility and traffic would inevitably change Lantau forever.
This particular tour of the island was run by British tour guides for British visitors. We were the only Americans in the group. It was an unforgettable ride!! It was being in a live Monty Python skit. We would pass by some important historical landmark and then someone would blurt out a really stupid remark and everybody would break out howling and laughing. And it seemed the more stupid, the funnier. For example: They all decided they would walk "crazy" from the bus to the sacred Po Lin Temple. I thought we got rid of Benny Hill when Katherine left. Now we were stuck with a bus load of them!!
The highlight of this tour was the Po Lin Monastery which is home to the world's tallest outdoor bronze Buddha statue, high on the top of "Mok Yue Hill". We were treated to a Buddhist vegetarian lunch. Actually, it was quite delicious. We then toured the temple, which was just a bit "touristy" especially considering that it was built ten years ago and could accommodate parking for thirty buses. The Buddha itself was quite impressive, more than one hundred-fifty feet high. It was completely made of bronze from mainland China and shipped here in segments. The statue was completed and opened to tourists the previous December. We toured the inside of the statue, too, which supposedly had some of the actual ashes and bone fragments of the original Buddha, who died two-thousand years ago.
As we waited at the pier for the next shuttle boat, a Buddhist monk approached, greeted us, and volunteered to pose in a picture. A kind gesture and wonderful send-off from the orient.
The junk "Noble House" met us at the pier at 2:30 p.m. and we sailed for Kowloon. We docked there at 4:15 p.m. and proceeded to Pete's for our final fittings. Tam looked fantastic in her red dress. They did a good job on my suit too! We took the MTR back to the mall at our hotel. And for our final dinner of the trip we decided to really do it up big - McDonald's. Tam had a double cheeseburger, small fries, and orange juice. I had a Big Mac, small fries, soup, and a shake. Afterwards, we visited a bookstore and loaded up on reading material for the trip home. We went back to our room, packed our bags, and went to bed early. The next day would be a long day!
Tuesday, November 1, 1994
United Flights Hong Kong to Chicago
United Express Flight Chicago to Kalamazoo
Today was the fifteenth consecutive day of perfect weather. The three typhoons went north, clearing the way for cloudless sunshine for two weeks.
All was not the same back home. CNN interrupted its international news with a bulletin on the crash of American Eagle flight #4184 in northwestern Indiana. Apparently bad weather was a contributing factor. Halloween was getting washed out back home too. All of this was being followed by a line of snowstorms in the Midwest.
At 10:00 a.m., Tam and I checked out of the Island Shangri La and were taken by limousine to Kai Tak Airport. Upon arrival at the airport, we were greeted by additional hotel personnel who carried our bags, checked them in, obtained our boarding passes, and escorted us to passport control. Now that was real first class treatment!
We wandered around the departure area and finally found the United Red Carpet Room upstairs. We hung out for an hour and then went down to the concourse for lunch. We only had enough Hong Kong dollars to buy corn soup at the cafeteria. I guess it was fitting that both our first and last meals in the Orient would be corn soup.
At 1:30 p.m., we crowded onto a shuttle bus and drove across the tarmac to our plane. United flight #806 would stop in San Francisco (equipment change) and continue to Chicago. Although we were in Connoisseur class, we rode in the lower section of the 747-400. We were wheels up at 2:02 p.m. and flew directly over Taiwan. It became dark quickly, but Tam and I were not sleepy. We watched Cheers reruns and the movie The Flintstones again.
The flight to San Francisco was very turbulent. The seat belt light was never turned off. The flight crew was not able to finish serving breakfast. And the kid two rows behind us threw up all over the floor. We touched down in SFO at 9:04 a.m. and went to customs to check our baggage. We paid a duty of $294.
Then Tam and I bought sourdough bread and TCBY yogurt. We reboarded flight #806 at gate 82. Our aircraft was now a 757. We were wheels up to Chicago at 11:12 a.m. The movie on board was The Client. This flight was turbulent as well until we got in range of Chicago. It was a lovely late Fall evening in the Windy City. Just a touch of color left in the trees as the sun set. We landed at 4:37 p.m. and missed a 4:50 connection to Kalamazoo, so we had to sit in the Red Carpet Club for four hours.
Our United Express Flight (#5009) to Kalamazoo was forty minutes late because the plane had flown into a flock of birds and the crew was busy washing bird-guts off the wings and windows. After an uneventful flight, we landed in Kalamazoo at 11:09 p.m. Tam collected the luggage while I found the Jeep and brought it to the door.
At exactly midnight, we walked into our house to a massive pile of mail. We lay in bed and opened it all because our time clocks were telling us it was noon. We nodded off to sleep around 1:30 a.m.
At 5:58 a.m., a little voice was heard in a bedroom down the hall "Grandma ... Grandma ..." I cracked Laura’s door open. She thought it was Grandma until she saw my face. She exploded out of bed, gave me a big hug, and jumped into bed with Mom.
It was a great welcome home!
Enjoy this 'very-dated' vintage video,
produced in 1994 by Tom and Tam
as a memento of their adventure
Around The World With The Olin Family
Full-Length Feature Film
FantAsia
Enjoy this 'very-dated' vintage video,
produced in 1994 by Tom and Tam
as a memento of their adventure
Around The World With The Olin Family