Travel was sometimes a feast! For my camera, at least…I never had room after the main course. Well…almost never. I did eat a chocolate cupcake in Hong Kong, but I didn’t take a picture!
Hopefully this will inspire you to make dessert. Today I am going to make two apple pies from the amazing harvest that awaited us upon our return from worldwide travel.
…was different than I expected. Well, unconscious expectations are interesting. I become aware of them only in that brief moment when I first lay eyes on the famous sight. The way turning on the light erases the dream, for an instant the contrast of reality exposes the imagined, illuminating its images in a flash before extinguishing them forever.
I think I expected the Forbidden City still to be vibrantly alive, filled with soft impermanent things like silks, rugs, robes, incense, wood, leather, music, and fragile things like ceramics and paintings, but the Forbidden City comprises mostly hard substances–stones and structures. Like other exposed antiquities, only the things that couldn’t be carried off still remain. The Chinese have proudly restored pigment to the gorgeous eaves and ceilings of the Forbidden City, and they have carefully preserved the bit of furnishings spared by British and French soldiers whose gentlemanly sensibilities thankfully restrained their conquering hands from grabbing the interiors of the women’s quarters. I hope that other treasures that are scattered in museums throughout the world will soon make their way back home where they belong.
I’ll start with the women’s quarters, where we can still glimpse the rich layers of daily life. Unfortunately, like all examples of excessive power, there is the grotesque and immoral side to the story. Girls were selected as concubines for one of the emperors, and kept here in these rooms with the emperor’s wife. Having a daughter selected for the emperor’s (lascivious and decadent) possession was an honor for the family but a disaster for the girl. Anyway, I won’t go into detail about the girls’ lives, but will note that the female occupants were not allowed to leave the inner city during this period. A raised barrier lies at the foot of the gate between the deep interior of the city and the outer part. These raised steel panels must still be stepped over, an easy feat for tourists in sneakers, but not so easy for women crippled by bound feet. The barriers were both symbolic and effective in that sense.
My impression is that symbolism abounds in the Chinese culture and in these historic sites. To me, these symbols are fascinating from sociological, historical, and art-appreciation standpoints, but, like bound feet, can cripple those who let superstition govern their thoughts, choices, actions, and lives.
Once I adjusted to the reality versus my expectation, the Forbidden City amazed me. It is vast! Walking through the bones of the ancient city gives a sense of the events and lives that took place here. Marco Polo sat on his horse on the stone expanse below the emperor’s platform (The Gate of Supreme Harmony…I think). You can imagine this huge courtyard filled with horses and the awesome power manifest in the ornately attired emperor up there on the platform with all his attendants.
The first set of photos is of the beautiful interiors of the women’s quarters where we can still see the wood, ceramics, tapestries, paintings and other artifacts. These rooms are behind glass, so that’s my excuse for the quality. I think they will still interest you despite their photographic flaws!
This picture shows the women’s quarters from outside. This is in the far back of the Forbidden City.
Look at these gorgeous rooftops and terraces.
Here is where the emperor would rest and have tea after the tiring task of being carried out of the private area.
Here’s the biggest building at the center (the Palace of Heavenly Peace) and the raised marble platform surrounding it.
Here is the stone courtyard with deeply layered stones capable of holding a lot of weight, a whole army on horseback.
Again, the largest building, the Palace of Heavenly Peace:
The gate to the left of the Palace of Heavenly Peace, through which we passed into the inner part of the city.
And just some photos for you to enjoy:
Here’s the entrance to the Forbidden City.
Here’s Tiananmen Square, which you cross to go to the Forbidden city. It’s huge. These flowers are just in a small corner of the square.
Here is another view of Tiananmen Square, showing its size:
On our last day in Auckland, we spotted a Mexican restaurant that was open for breakfast. I said to my husband, “Mexican food for breakfast?” He said, “If it’s Mexican and open for breakfast, it has breakfast burritos.” Yum. Mexican food is one of those things that I pine for when I travel.
The place was awesome. It’s called Mexicali Fresh, California Mexican fresh food, and it’s on Hobson Street, with several other locations in Auckland.
Turns out the restaurant is owned by a California transplant. We had an interesting conversation. I was really impressed by his business plan and his design skills. He was able to immigrate 11 years or so ago, with an Expression of Interest Visa, because he had graphic design skills, which they didn’t have enough of at the time.
His design skills really showed in the restaurant. I was impressed with how he nailed the exact design flavor, California fresh Mex. The color scheme was bright and vibrant hues from the south American palette, there was a rustic feel imparted by distressed bricks and wood, and attention to detail showed in electrical conduits painted an attractive bright orange which rendered them a color pop instead of an eyesore. I was also impressed by the use of technology: Three big-screen TVs displayed the menu in rotating graphics that showed specials with photos of the dishes. As for the business plan, he has 10 shops now in Auckland and it looks from his website like he offers franchise opportunities.
When we were there, he was training an employee on using the IPad for management tasks.
He looks like a surfer dude, casual, fit, relatively young. After he finished training his employee and talking to us, he headed off, probably to visit another store.
Now for the cultural observations. I noticed that he talked to us quietly, coming over to stand by our table so he could speak softly. In fact, I noticed this quietness in New Zealand a lot. When we rode the public bus back from the Northland tour, the passengers were very quiet, and if you were loud (which I tend to be), people gave you a dirty look. Well, the young people did. The older folks didn’t seem to mind. I quieted down, adjusting to local norms. Although, one caveat I have, the restaurant where we had dinner in Paihea, (Lovely Place in Maori, the access town for the Bay of Islands), was very loud, but there was a group there who had participated in a race car rally that day and they were partying. Plus there was an obnoxious group of big guys who came in to do a hazing ritual by singing loudly until the manager kicked them out. So maybe it’s not possible to generalize too much, but overall, people seemed to be quiet in public.
The other observation comes from something that the Mexicali owner said. He is from Southern California. He said when he goes back to California, he is struck by how different it is from New Zealand. Naturally, I asked him in what way California is different from New Zealand, expecting him to say it’s more crowded. (There are around four million people in New Zealand. It’s really not crowded.) But he said, while waving his hand over his eyes, he wasn’t used to being bombarded by so much constant advertising.
I looked out the window, considered everywhere we had been in New Zealand, and found his observation to be true. There were very few billboards, none on the highways, and just a few in Auckland. I hadn’t realized how much Americans are subjected to advertising. I can’t complain too much, since I advertise my books! But it was interesting to compare the two experiences.
Here are some more shots from New Zealand for you to enjoy.
I will have a number of photos to share with you as we did two amazing tours, but for now, here are a few shots from yesterday.
Our trip is winding down and we will be returning stateside soon, kicking out the house sitters, and settling down to our routines.
Speaking of house sitters, on the North island tours, we met a woman staying here as a house sitter/pet sitter. She travels the world doing that and has been traveling for over a year now. So…an interesting idea I thought I’d share in case it is something you want to look into.
Until yesterday, the Keukenhof Gardens were the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. I milked the tulip shots for a lot of posts, and I think I will be doing the same with Doubtful Sound. When I don’t have a new photo, you’ll be seeing something from the collection!
The tour company, Real Journeys, did an extraordinary job. I thought we were done after the water sports part, a couple hours in on the first day, and the rest would be resting and relaxing on the ship, enjoying the nice company of a lot of Australian tourists and a young American couple who are living in Queenstown. But they said there was a lot more to see, and they weren’t kidding.
One of the many great features of this tour was the nature guide. He was wonderful. I learned a lot and I have a lot of information to share with you along with a lot of photos. It’s a bit overwhelming, but one has to start somewhere, so I’m starting with my top four favorite photos. I have done nothing to alter these photos. I have done some creative modifications with some of the other photos, but I will tell you when I have made alterations. The reason I am calling attention to processing in this case is I want you to know the images, even the colors of the sunrise, show how it really was. I did have to adjust the horizon of one of them, though. It’s tough to stay straight on a ship, even with the horizontal guideline, which is one of my favorite features in my new camera.
Speaking of new cameras…I am hoping mine will be okay. It has had rain and fog on its lens and been dried with a lot of cotton shirts. Fingers crossed!! But even if it doesn’t last, the camera served very well on this epic journey.
Hello blog followers! Sorry for the long silence. For the part of the trip in Townsville Australia, I was very busy with my co-author’s family…the kids were on school holidays, and we had a lot of playing to do.
Today we are in Queenstown New Zealand. I wish I had my camera out when we flew in, also when we arrived. I was tired as we hadn’t had much sleep, but I did take a phone photo, fortunately, because now it is raining and you can’t see as much.
Today’s photos are 3 monochrome shots I took in Beijing, some of which will show up in Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness series.
Some eye candy for you. 
Yes, we did it! We felt safe in Beijing and a Chinese man we met in Sweden said we had to try the subway. We would be amazed at its efficiency. Once we were assured that the signs were also in English, we decided to give it a try. We rode all the way across the city to go to the zoo.
It was a challenge but manageable. It was nice to mix with the locals. We avoided rush hour but even so, the way back was more crowded, because it was around 3:00.
We made one mistake and went the wrong way on the above-ground connecting train. We stepped off at the first station and waited for the train in the opposite direction. I used the opportunity to take pictures out the window, finding it fascinating to see a non-touristy part of Beijing. It was called the Wudaokou Area. Apparently there are three universities in this area including one where Chinese learn other languages and foreigners learn Chinese. It is written about by a native here: http://blogs.transparent.com/chinese/top-10-places-in-beijing-wudaokou/. I was tempted to learn Chinese when I was on the Subway because the recorded voice pronounced the words clearly and I could hear the musicality in the language. It was good to spend a day really concentrating on the language. Who would have thought that a trip on the subway would have been a lesson in Chinese? I asked our guide, the previous day, why they had signs in English. She said for convenience. I asked if it was because there were a lot of American business travelers, and she said, no, it was that they are teaching English in the schools now, and it is a good common language. Anyway, it was interesting to listen to the translations on the subway.
Here are a couple shots from the train station window. Not much, I know, but a little peek at another place.
Yes, we did make it to the zoo, which is pretty. I have a few shots, but I won’t share the ones of the giant pandas, the reason for our trip. These magnificent animals shouldn’t be in zoos. I get depressed every time I go to a zoo because I don’t like seeing wild animals confined. I made an exception to go see these pandas, but I had the same reaction I always have. I think the only place I didn’t have that reaction was the Desert Museum in Tucson.
According to this sign, the preservation of habitat is expanding. I know the reason for zoos is to show people these magnificent animals and that helps people to have the will to protect them in the wild. The children who saw the pandas that day were delighted.
Here is a WWF article about the giant pandas and their work with the Chinese provinces to preserve their habitat: http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/giant_panda/panda/where_panda_lives_habitat/
I think the waterfowl are quite happy, though. For one thing, they aren’t confined. Here is one I thought was pretty.
I decided not to enhance the photo so you would see the smog, which is quite heavy a lot of the time in Beijing.
Nicci Carrera 