Swim up bar
Bali
I couldn’t get a good photo of the pianist at the hotel bar, but he was incredible. So was the singer. Her name is Grace. She sang Bridge Over Troubled Water for us, as a request. I asked for it because it is great for piano. They both did great.
I love the song’s meaning. Isn’t that what we all need to be for our friends and we sometimes need our friends to be for us?
They had fire dancers and drummers at sunset. They were beautiful and fun, if a bit hard to capture in a photo.
I’ll be taking more pictures of Bali. The resort has a botanical park with a carnivorous plant. I have to see that! There are also a lot of pretty flowers.
Neon nights and typhoon days in Kowloon and Hong Kong
There are a lot of high rises here in Hong Kong and Kowloon. We’re staying in one of them. Hong Kong is also along the edge of a typhoon that is slamming places south of here. There was a weather warning this morning, which we didn’t notice before wandering out into the wind. It wasn’t raining at the moment so we figured we’d explore a bit.
I enjoyed taking pictures of the nearly empty streets, and learning that my lens can get fogged up. I thought it was the display screen that was fogging, but eventually figured out it was the lens. The pictures are kind of interesting though, I thought.
The storm has tapered off and now the streets below are filled with honking traffic and people with umbrellas. There are a few sirens now and again, too.
I spent the day pretty much holed up inside after getting drenched while out on the morning’s brief adventure. I have work to do on my writing, so it’s been a good day to get caught up. But I took a moment to photograph the International Commerce Center with its top in the clouds. It’s the tallest one here and now ranks as the 7th tallest in the world. Man reaches higher and higher with buildings, but I’ll take a pine tree any day. Apparently, if you go just a bit east of here on Hong Kong Island, you get to nature. That would be nice to explore, but probably not in the cards with this weather! Not that I’m complaining, it’s kind of exciting for a Californian to be in this much rain.
The rain has stopped and I can see between the buildings to a far reach of Victoria Harbor.
Yes, I love the zoom on my Panasonic. The picture above is really far away
And here’s what Hong Kong looks like at night, as viewed from Kowloon, across Victoria Harbor.
If that looks like a TV floating in the sky…well, it is. It’s on top of a building, but somehow the building doesn’t show, so it looks like it’s floating. It’s in Kowloon, and that’s Kowloon in the foreground. The wall of lights in the distance is Hong Kong, across the harbor.
Tomorrow, by the time you read this, we should be out exploring things a bit more and capturing more photos of this teeming metropolis.
Great Wall of China at Mutianyu
Hello. I’m in Hong Kong now, so why am I posting about Beijing? Well…I couldn’t really post from China, because I couldn’t see my photos. I could create the post but could only see the little icon thing that displays when a photo won’t load. I think it was because of the additional bandwidth required for the internet blocking that happens in China. I don’t really know, but it’s great to be back to blogging!
We learned that we had extraordinarily good luck with “weather” our first two days in Beijing. Weather meaning pollution as well as mist and/or drizzle. Since this point in the Great Wall is 57 kilometers from the city, I’m not sure if the pollution reaches here, but I think these are pretty unusually good shots. I think we could see for around a hundred miles.
We took a private tour to the wall. My advice is, if you come to China to see the wall, pay the money for the private tour even if you need to stay one day less. And I recommend seeing the wall at Mutianyu, because it’s a bit further and less crowded and there’s a chairlift or tram to the top, leaving very little walking. The least walking at the top is the chairlift which has the additional bonus of an optional toboggan ride back down to the bottom. You do need to use your stomach muscles to ride the toboggan, though. I was a tad tired at the end of the toboggan ride. I need to keep hitting the hotel gyms, but sometimes I slack off, and muscles go away quickly with me.
We learned about the Mutianyu site from a woman we met sitting on the rooftop patio at the hotel on the afternoon of our arrival. The closest one (Badaling) is great but very busy, according to the woman we talked to. The furthest one is a bit of a clawing scramble according to her. This one was purported to be the best combo of easy to climb up onto but also not too crowded.
Anyway, the Great Wall. Wow. It changed my perspective to see it. It’s awesome. When I first caught sight of it snaking over the mountains I think I screamed in the back seat of the car. Our tour guide, a wonderful, incredible person whom you must hire if you go, started cracking up when she heard my reaction. We climbed up there and it’s so beautiful but also sobering. I mean, they built it to keep out the marauding hordes. It’s a very concrete representation of how national defense has always been a need.
I had such a great experience in China that I get emotional thinking about it. I loved it. Maybe I’m emotional about it because I didn’t expect to like it. I was kind of gritting my teeth and going because my husband wanted to. I mean, I was kind of excited, but mostly worried.
First of all, I felt safe. Secondly, people were nice. We took the subway in Beijing and went really far, but I’ll talk about that another time. Today I want to show you my personal Nia Simone shots from this most photographed UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Impressions of Moscow, Russia
I don’t know what this is, but I admired this a lot.
Red Square was closed, but we walked through a very chic store in GUM to a cafe that borders Red Square, where we could see what was going on. Many bleachers were set up.
The restaurant where we had lunch, and what I had for lunch.
3 recommendations for dining vegetarian in Stockholm, plus Gamla Stan walking tour tips
Fortunately, we are “occasionarians” because it was a little hard to find veg choices in Scandinavia. We consumed a lot of fish. But in case you are a dedicated veg, here are 3 places we found where you can have more than one boring choice.
These are my recommendations:
#3 Hermans, in Sodermalm (South Stockholm)
Here is a photo of the view from the windows of this fabulous place.
Pluses: Friendly, filled with life, great views, awesome buffet, totally vegan. Minuses, a tad expensive.
#2 Ciao Ciao, in Ostermalm (west Stockholm)
Pluses: awesome flatbread pizza offering 7 vegetarian choices and reasonably priced. (Price is relative; Scandinavia will give Americans sticker shock.) Loved the service.
#1 The Hermitage, in Gamla Stan (old Stockholm)
This was a Rick Steve’s recommendation, and as usual for his recommendations, we loved it. We arrived as the owner was opening up, so the lovely baskets of herbs shown here were later placed outside, along with outdoor tables. I loved the atmosphere here. The vegers who showed up were all so quiet and respectful, lending a pleasant and peaceful atmosphere. We met a traveler from the U.S., from Washington state. The food was great. I had a veggie patty, lentil veggie stew, rice with a mushroom sauce (hidden in the metal heating drawers below the buffet…be sure to look!), some horseradish dip and cold ratatouille made in a Greek style. The mushroom sauce was so good it almost made me weep.
Oh…and when you step out of here all full of veggies, you can walk up the street to the left and make your way up past this nice vine covered building to the big church (Storkyrken), the obelisk and the palace.
More impressions of Saint Petersburg, Russia
Here are a few more shots for you to give you a feel for this interesting city.
Impressions of Saint Petersburg, Russia
We had a lovely time in Saint Petersburg. I was nervous about it before coming here, wondering if it was safe to just walk around, but it is. We walked all the way around the main sights in a big circle. Here are my impressions from the day.
Funny story about the Winter Palace. I said, I don’t care where we go but I want to see that green building we saw from the taxi. Then we stopped on a park bench and plotted our self-guided walking tour on the map. First stop was the Winter Palace. I said, “Okay, that works, because we’ll pass that really beautiful green building on the way there.”
Yes, you guessed it. The green building is the Winter Palace.
The changing of the guard, Royal Palace, Stockholm
We were going to skip the changing of the guard in Stockholm, but we happened upon it just as it was about to start, getting a great position to boot. So we hung around for about 15 minutes, maybe 20, and just when I was ready to bail, we heard the horses. I’m a sucker for horses. I put the horses in slideshow galleries at the end so you can flip through them fast and it looks like a video.
Here are some pictures from the palace, the old town in Stockholm and one from the ferry ride.
Nicci Carrera 