We made it home!

We finally made it home today. Brian and I decided we have never been so happy to be home. Our flight took off Newark around 11am. We got home around 1:30pm. We are busy unpacking and going through mail. Hope everyone enjoyed reading our Asia experience. I will check in after Christmas.

Snowed in at Newark

Once we got our luggage we went and stood line for 2 hours making little progress. Finally after being on hold for an hour with Continental they confirmed they had automatically re-booked us on a flight in the morning (9:30am). I was happy at least we had a flight. By this time it was about 10pm and it was not worth getting a hotel. With nearly all flights cancelled, I am sure that they were pretty sold out and the price was going to be high. We asked several people at the airport and we were told we could not check our baggage until morning. This meant that we could not go through security until the morning. Great! We get to sleep outside of security in Newark. My night is getting better.

Finally they made an announcement that they were going to allow people to check their luggage early and proceed through security so we would not have to wait until morning. Again we got to wait in line to do this. When we got to the ticket counter, they said we needed a special document to get on the flight since we were being transferred from an international flight to a domestic replacement. They had to get someone to give this to us which again took a while. After we got that they took our bags.

After that we went straight into security. We searched for a home to sleep for the night. We found a place and set up camp around 11:30. Our flight landed at 6:15, so it had been a long night leading up to this. Sleeping on the floor was not too bad at first. However we think they turned the heat way down at 1am and it got really COLD! Plus the floor is not very comfortable. We probably slept for two to three hours. Now we are up and cannot sleep. We are hungry because this would be dinner time in China. This is not going to be good for the time change difference, but what can we do. Hopefully we can stay up until bedtime tonight assuming we make it home. We usually try to avoid jet lag by not sleeping so we are tired when it is bedtime locally. Aside from a few hours of sleep on the airport floor, we have been awake since 7pm Friday night. If we make it until 8pm tonight, that will be more than 48 hours!

The Cavs play tonight too, so we’ll need to prioritize that in as well. It is funny that they played Friday, were off Saturday, and now play Sunday. From our perspective, they actually play twice in one day though. This whole thing is blurred into one gigantic day.

Our flight has already been changed to 10:30am. Let’s hope it takes off then! It has snowed steadily all night long, but has finally tapered off just around 6am. Our fingers are crossed!

Flying Back to the U.S.

We got up this morning at 8:30am. We wanted to sleep in a little bit since we knew that we had a long day ahead of us. Also the Cavs played at 9am our time and we were hoping that it would be on TV so we could tape it. If we could tape it, we could watch it on the plane. That would be perfect!

At 9am we went through all the TV channels in the hotel. We were disappointed to find out it was not on. We did not get ESPN. Then we started looking online to see if we could somehow get it. Brian found a way to watch the game live using ChannelSurfing.net. The next challenge was to figure out how to record it so we could see and hear it later during our flight. The original plan was to point the webcam at the television. Since the webcam is built into the laptop screen, it can’t be pointed at itself. Once again, Brian found a way though by using a mirror. It required him to take apart the bathroom mirror so he could bring it to the laptop (the internet cable was not very long). He had it all set up by the second quarter.

With the game taping, we went to breakfast at our hotel. It was included since we were in a suite and had a very nice view from the 30th floor. The breakfast had Asian and American food like all of our previous hotels. It was a buffet, but we could also order off the menu. We both ordered crepes. We also had egg rolls and noodles.

After breakfast we returned to our room to check on the game and pack. The game was playing live while we were there. To ensure that we did not hear it, we both wore our headphones with music playing. To communicate with each other, we used our own type of sign language. Occasionally we would also run into the bathroom and close the door and then talk. Since we were going through so much effort to tape the game, we did not want to know how it was going until we watched it.

After we packed, we went out and walked the streets. It was still cold, but it seemed a little warmer than yesterday. We went into stores but did not buy anything. I was worried about our weight on our luggage. The last thing I needed was to spend more on luggage from the airlines. We went into a store that sold bulk candies, dried fruits, and preserved meats by weight. They had numerous island counters throughout the store. It was about the size of a typical drug store back home, but just arranged differently. Each counter had several people working it. We counted at least 60 employees working in this one store! Apparently there really is a surplus of labor in China! A store that size would not have 60 people on the payroll back home.

Outside of the stores, people trying to sell us things constantly approached us. “Fake watches, shoes, t-shirts” they would run up to us and say. “Lady, lady! Please come look!” We stand out, so we attract a lot of attention from these people.



When we got back to our hotel, the game was over. We finished up packing and checked out around 12:30pm. We got a cab from our hotel. The hotel told the taxi driver where to go for us. There was a lot of construction on the way to the airport. We thought traffic would not be too bad since it was Saturday, but there still was a lot. They were doing a lot of construction in Shanghai which meant some of the roads were tore up. The construction they do is mostly hand labor. We saw many brooms, shovels, and hammers and not many machines except for big ones. It took an hour to get to the airport and cost 196 RMB (about $30 USD).

Once we arrived we had to wait for the Continental ticket counter to open. It is not like at home where the ticket counter is always open. The international airlines have an assigned location and they only open 2 hours before the flight and close one hour before the flight. At check in our checked luggage was weighed. One bag was 50 pounds and the other large one was 45 pounds. That meant we were not over the limit and did not have to repack. I was excited! Also we have seats next to each so that made me happy. They manually went through one of our bags though. We had to go into a special room for that. The shaving cream can and the canned hair moose roused their suspicion.

We had some money left in RMB, so we bought a few snacks at the airport. We have learned that it is cheaper to buy things outside of security. There is also more selection. Next we had to go through China’s Security and Quarantine (security and immigration). Once we finished, we felt like we were one step closer to coming home. Bye bye China!

Our flight was delayed leaving the gate due to air traffic control for some reason. It was about 30 minutes late. Of course that did not make us too happy since our flight was going to be 13 hours 40 minutes from take off to landing without the delay! Finally we took off.

We hear there is suppose to be snow in New Jersey (6-10 inches forecast is what other passengers are telling us). We are hoping we can land and get our connecting flight to Cleveland tonight. I really want to sleep in my own bed tonight. I’m writing this on the airplane right now. Our flight has electrical plugs so our laptop can be plugged in. We first watched the Cavs game. We were excited to see they won! It was really nice to be able to watch it. It was a good two-hour distraction for us.

When we flew to Beijing, we flew east. We thought we would fly west, but we did not. We flew East eventually passing over northern Europe and Mongolia on our way to China. Today we are also flying east passing over Japan and Montana and other northern U.S. states. The fact that we flew East and returned from the West means that we officially flew around the world on this trip!

Continental’s entertainment system is really nice. Everyone has their own small screen that you can watch movies, listen to music, or watch flight status. For example, we are going 688 miles per hour right now and flying over Montana.

In China and most of the countries we have visited, we could not drink the water. In fact we could not use the water to brush our teeth. It was difficult to remember that since we did have running water, but were not allowed to use it. All of our hotels gave us complimentary water. Try brushing your teeth with a bottle of water; it is a unique experience in itself.

This trip was amazing. There were so many things that we witnessed first hand that is difficult to put into words. We tried to describe our experiences in this blog but we know we left out some too. We did a lot everyday. In the end we took over 3,500 pictures! I will have my work cut out for me with my scrapbook. We did so much sometimes that I would sometimes forget about things when I would write the blog. The Asian culture is fascinating. We hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures. I will write final thoughts about this trip however it may be in a week or so since we will be busy with the holidays.

Shanghai, China

We got up this morning at 6am. We needed to leave our stateroom by 8am so that the crew could start cleaning for the next people coming on. We don’t like to be rushed so we always get up early. We went to breakfast at the usual buffet.

We went to the waiting lounge on the ship at 8am and we got off around 9am. It worked out fine. We needed to go through immigration at the cruise terminal. That took about 45 minutes. It was difficult because we bought a new large backpack to help bring all of our new stuff home. We also wanted another backpack for future long weekends anyway. We got a 95 liter one with a built in frame. Since we did not want the cruise ship to ruin our new bag (like what happened to our garment bag in Australia), we carried that off with our other 4 carry on bags. We have way too much stuff, but we did manage.

We got a taxi from the cruise terminal to our hotel. The cruise docked in downtown Shanghai so the trip was about 10 minutes. It cost 20 RMB (about $3). We arrived to Sofitel Shanghai Hyland hotel. We went to the desk and they told me that I booked an executive suite and we needed to go to the 30th floor for VIP check in. I think Brian had a heart attack at that moment. He later told me that I booked too nice of a room and hotel. The women at the desk personally took us up to the 30th floor. They had chairs for us to sit in while they checked us in. We were served punch in wine glasses while they prepared our room key. Then they gave us our room even though we were checking in hours early. Our room was on the 22nd floor and overlooks downtown. We have a perfect view of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower right out or window.



We were in our room by 11am. It was really nice. We decided to first visit Oriental Pearl Tower. We walked down the street. It was a mile and half from our hotel. The problem was that it was across the river. We saw a bridge so we walked to it thinking that would get us across, but we were wrong. It crossed another river. Finally we went back to Nanjing Road and we saw The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. We decided to check that out. Tickets were 50 RMB per person for a round trip. We bought too since it promised to get us across the river. Aside from a bus or taxi, I don’t know how else we would have gotten across (there are no bridges).

We got into small tramcar that fit about 10 people per tram. There were only four of us when we went across. It was dark since it was a tunnel. There was a light show, music, and announcements during the ride. The tunnel had different flashing lights, videos, and other things to entertain us on the tunnel itself. The tramcar moved fairly slowly to allow us to enjoy the entertainment. It took about 10 minutes. When we walked out, we were excited that we made it across the river. We walked to the Oriental Pearl Tower. Since it was so big, it was easy to find.



When we got there, we had to figure out what type of tickets to buy. We decided to buy tickets for all sections and lunch on top at a revolving restaurant. I was excited Brian went along with this. I got to eat lunch on the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower! Lunch was an extra 200 RMB (about $28), which is a bit expensive compared to local options. It is definitely not something we would do back home, so we thought we would give it a try. Once we got to the top, we walked around for a little while. Then we went to the restaurant. It was a buffet with all kinds of Asian food. We tried many things however there was still some things we were too afraid to try. We ate a wonderful lunch and talked about our trip. It was amazing everything we got to see and do on this trip.

Fortunately we got to eat with normal silverware. We still have not really learned to use chopsticks well. It is interesting how different cultures eat. Americans tend to eat with only a fork in one hand. A knife is only used as needed. We ate with a British couple each night on the ship. They tend to eat with a fork in one hand and a knife in the other. Both hands are involved all the time. The Vietnamese also use two hands when they are not using chopsticks. They hold a fork in one hand and a spoon in the other. The spoon is used to help scoop food onto the fork so that it can be eaten with the fork. It makes sense. It is interesting how different something as simple as silverware can be.

After lunch we went to the other parts of the Oriental Pearl Tower. At one section, there was a glass bottom walkway that visitors can walk out on. I was really scared to do that. It was all sealed off and had a railing (not as scary as the Sky Walk in Auckland, NZ) but it was still really scary. It did not help that Brian reminded me that the Chinese VGA cable he bought was poorly made (he ended up throwing it away when we finished using it). Hopefully this Chinese tower was built better than that!



While at the tower, we watched a multi-dimensional movie. It was 10 minutes long. We sat in simulator seats that moved up, down, left, and right. The movie showed a roller coaster, snow mobiles, and other things. It was fun, but I was still hesitant at times. There were 10 people in the theatre and we were the only foreigners. Before it started, they made a long announcement in Mandarin. We did not understand any of it. Hopefully it was not too important. We noticed everyone put their bags on the floor after the announcement, so we put our camera on the floor too. At least we figured that out. We spend the entire afternoon at the tower.

After we saw everything there, we walked to river. It was really cold (the high today was supposed to be 5 degrees Celsius). There were not many people out. However I am not sure how many people are out walking on the lakefront back in Cleveland today either. After we finished, we went back across the river using our sightseeing tunnel.

Next we walked Nanjing Street. There are several stores around and sections of the road are closed off to traffic. We are basically finished buying everything, but it is still fun to look. We would go into stores just to get warm. Brian considered buying a new coat to replace his older winter coat (the zipper tab broke off last year). We looked in several stores but could not find something big enough for him. Most of the sleeves were too short for him. The few that were not were not heavy enough. It was funny because in one store Brian had 8 women all trying to help him. They were all running around the store trying to find coats in his size. They only spoke limited English. The one coat that was long enough was not warm enough. Brian tried to tell them that and then they tried to sell him a sweater. Another one did not have a hood. I pointed that out and they tried to sell Brian a scarf. They brought it over and wrapped it around his neck. We told them no, and then they grabbed Brian’s hat from my hand and put it on his head for him. See? Problem solved! Now you can buy it! Much to their disappointment, we left without anything.



I also briefly looked for boots. I did not know what size I wear (it turns out 235 – whatever that means; no wonder she looked at me funny when I told her I was a size 7.5 by typing it into her calculator). I went through 5 pairs before I found that out. The woman kept grabbing more boxes and tearing out the boots for me. She had boxes and boots flung all over the store trying to help me. Once I found the right size, I decided I did not like how they felt and we left. I felt bad for the mess I left them with.

We both ate a sandwich at McDonald’s tonight for dinner. We were not too hungry because of our big lunch. We wanted something simple and cheap and had enough Asian food this trip. Some of it was really good but some honestly scared us (like the chicken feet stir fry at the buffet today). We are now back at our hotel and going to enjoy our last night in Asia before our long flight home. Our flight leaves at 4pm local time (3am EST) and arrives in Cleveland around 11pm EST.

Last Day on Cruise

We will be getting off the cruise ship tomorrow morning. We had fun on our cruise but we are getting ready to come home. Today we watched a movie in our cabin then packed. Packing was a bit of a challenge. We have bought stuff that needs careful packing. Brian helped me with it. It was nice because Princess has hand scales that guests can use so they know how much their suitcases weigh. Our two large ones are 40 and 45 pounds. I still need to pack all cosmetics yet but at least I should not be over.

Today we wore our Cavs jerseys on the ship and the Cavs won. We also got some comments from some cruise staff and guests. We just saw a commercial that the Cavs and Bucks game Friday night will be televised live on ESPN international. We might try taping it in our hotel room if it has the channel in Shanghai (the game starts live at 9am Saturday morning local time). We can do this by pointing our laptop web camera at our TV. This way we can still see the city and save the Cavs game for the flight. Our last Continental flight had power plugs under the seat so laptop battery life was not an issue. Watching the Cavs game would be a nice distraction during our 13+ hour flight back to the U.S.

We will be spending a day and half in Shanghai. Remember that means we will be in China without access to the blog. If Brian has not made Melissa too mad (see the Okinawa post pictures), she may be willing to help out with this again like in Beijing. However we may not have time to write it so we would then update once we get home.

Asia has been great. The places we have visited were better than expected. The look into their culture has been a growing experience for us.

Christmas in Asia

Christmas is about a week away. Being in Asia we thought we would be removed from that fact. Most people in Asia are not Christian. They usually follow Buddhism or Confucianism. Some do not follow a religion at all. However we have been surprised on how many Christmas decorations we have encountered. We have also heard Christmas music in several public places while in port. All Christmas music has been in English and are the same songs we know from back home.

Several places we have seen snowman too. It has been amazing to see since when we see the snowman it is usually warm and sunny. For us that seems weird. For us, the Christmas season is synonymous with cold and snow. We usually could build a snowman during the Christmas season at home if we wanted.

It has been exciting to see all of the Christmas decorations. We wanted to share some of the decorations we have seen. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Happy holidays for all of those who don’t celebrate Christmas.

Singapore

Singapore

Taipei, Taiwan

Hanoi, Vietnam

Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam

Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam

Bangkok, Thailand

Hoi An, Vietnam

Hoi An, Vietnam

Okinawa, Japan

I’m back from my one day of blog vacation. Brian did a very nice job with his Cavs post yesterday. I was not feeling to well so I left it up to him to make a blog post. Last night was our final formal night on this cruise. We got dressed up and took some pictures by the Christmas tree on the ship. The ship is beautifully decorated for Christmas. It is hard to imagine that Christmas is nearly a week away.

Today we docked in Okinawa Japan. We went on a private tour arranged by a group from cruisecritic.com. Our guide was Yukari Marsh and I would highly recommend her. We had to go through temperature sensors again before going ashore. Most stops have required a health questionnaire, temperature sensing, or both to screen passengers with possible H1N1 infection. We got on shore around 8:30am. Yukari was there to meet us. We had an 8 passenger mini van. There were 8 of us on this tour (shown below).



Our first stop was peace memorial park. Japan is the second country we have visited on this trip that was formerly an adversary of the United States in a war. Like Vietnam, the people of Okinawa have moved on. Their focus today is on peace. The peace memorial park has monuments outside with the names of people who lost their lives in Okinawa during the war. There are nearly a quarter of a million names. I found it inspirational that the park features names of Japanese and Americans. There are about 14 thousand American names memorialized in the park too. The zig-zag pattern of the monuments is intended to symbolize peace trying to spread outward.



We saw several groups of students visiting the peace museum on field trips during our visit. A couple of groups were dressed in school uniforms with the boys wearing ties and the girls wearing skirts. Another group was dressed casually and did not have uniforms. We asked our guide about this expecting that this was due to differences between private and public schools. This was the case, but not the way we expected. In Japan, public school children wear uniforms and private school children do not. It is the opposite of what is typical in the United States.

Next we went to Japanese Navy underground headquarters. This was a network of tunnels that were dug to become their bunker in 1944. We learned that the war was not always popular with the Okinawa people and they had to make tremendous sacrifices. Many civilians were called to service and lost their lives. They have a lot of respect for admiral Minoru Ota. He ultimately committed suicide in the tunnels after sending a note back to Japan drawing attention to the sacrifices made by Okinawa. Our guide told us that the Okinawa people were taught that they would be treated terribly by the enemy if they surrendered and therefore should choose suicide over surrendering. Many civilians also held this belief. Some spoke enough English for soldiers to convince them to surrender. In the tunnels Brian had to duck his head often to avoid hitting his head on the low ceilings. This visit offered another startling glimpse into war and history.





Next we went to Shuri Castle. At Shuri castle it started to rain kind of hard. The wind was blowing hard too. We walked the grounds. Also went inside to see where the King conducted political business. At some places inside Shuri castle we had to take off our shoes and carry them around with us. They are doing a lot of restoration on the castle. Unfortunately most of the castle was ruined in the war and they are trying to rebuild.







Our next stop was Okinawa prefectural museum. It was a museum of history and culture of Okinawa. The museum was opened a few years ago. Okinawa is working on increasing their tourism. They just finished a new cruise pier a few months ago. Our tour guide stated that about 90% of people in Okinawa work in tourism. That includes service industry of restaurants, hotels, drivers, etc.



For the record, Brian handles all of the blog photos. He swears that the following photo is unedited and shows a display at the prefectural museum. I had nothing to do with this. Melissa is Brian’s sister.


The final stop of the day was Kokusai Street. We walked around in some stores and also visited a local market. In the market there were fresh fruit, meat, and seafood. In the meat market we saw some pigs. We learned that they eat everything from a pig except its snout (or its “oinker” to quote our guide) and skin. I found it disgusting. This trip is almost enough to make me a vegetarian. In the fish market, we saw all kinds of colorful tropical fish. It is amazing all the types of fish they have and eat. Thanks to Brian you have pictures to look at. I looked at them but did not want to stay in there any longer due to the smell. Brian said it was not really that bad, but it was too much in combination with some of the stuff I saw.



We were back on the ship around 4pm. We are now at sea. Two tugs boats had to pull us away from the pier since the winds are so strong (about 35-40 knot winds). We have been warned that the seas are going to be rough. They closed the porthole in our cabin, but Brian opened it back up so we can see. The ship is really going up and down. At dinner the whole dining room shook violently for a few seconds making everyone pause and “ohhh and ahhh.” I have already taken some Dramamine so hopefully I will be able to function tonight and tomorrow. Tomorrow we are at sea all day. The plan is for us to pack, which should prove to be very interesting. Lets hope everything fits.