BLUE BEIJING

THE WALL

What can be said about the Great Wall of China? It's great, it's steep, it's in China, it's a wall, it's teeming with people and has to be one of the most awe inspiring places I've ever been. It really is unimaginable how much labour was needed to heave the stones up the mountain side to completion. The wall snakes through the mountains as if the Gods haphazardly laid a piece of string down on the mountains and turned the string into a defensive wall.

Steeeeeep going up!

Steeeeeeeep going down!

Steeeeeep when you're together!

But intimately triumphant when you reach the top.

And then it's time to reflect on how bloody steep it was just like Dad.

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

For those of you who don't know, the 2008 Olympic games will be held in Beijing and that has caused the people to clean up their act and other famous sight-seeing spots. Luckily for us the Chinese government has painted a life-size image on the tarp that covers the actual buildings. Let me just say the painting was impressive!

The details of the Forbidden City were very cool. The doorknob below was touched by about 10 people while I was trying to take this shot.

Speaking of luck, the dragons were kept perfectly shiny by all the people who walked around the building touching every embossed dragon.

The gates of the Forbidden city have these brass or gold knobs that people touch too. I think I was messing people up by standing in the way...hopefully I didn't give anyone BAD luck by mucking up their rhythm!

Even at 6pm it is impossible to take a picture with just the two of us and the red walls of the Forbidden City.

Couldn't go all the way to Beijing without visiting old Mao Zedong.

Jenn wasn't all that impressed with him and thought he was a little crazy!

Nothing like having a Starbucks latte while chatting on the phone between the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. In 1989 the communist government opened fire on student protesters just a few hundred metres from where this picture was taken.

THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN

We reached the Temple of heaven at the end of a long day. The sky was blue, the light was beautifully golden and it was still packed with people 10 minutes before closing.

It is quite a large temple as you can see...that's Jenn in the bottom left-hand corner of the shot.

The details on the gold and red doors were stunning

It was the end of the day and the police officers escorted us out the door. They must have put their top guards on the job cause these guys were 17 years old if they were a day.

THE MING TOMBS & THE SUMMER PALACE

The Ming Tombs are the resting place of the Emperors of the Ming Dynasty. We had a guide, Helen, and she made the tombs a hundred times more interesting. For example, we learned the artisans who made the stones for the walking paths where required to scribe their name in the bottom of the stone and if the Emperor was dissatisfied with the quality of the stone, he would have it removed and then killed the person who made the inferior product.

Now that's quality control!

Kids In The Hall quote...

"I squish your summer palace!"

THE PEOPLE & FOOD

The cops were everywhere

I know it looks like this cop is forcefully escorting this lady but I think he was helping her find her lost dog or where to catch the bus home...Honestly!

The Ming Tomb cops were green with envy over the...er...green uniforms of the Tiananmen square/Forbidden City cops.

These old guys said nothing until one of the players made a dumb move and then they all yelled at the guy...talk about pressure.

We saw this musician at a tea house. I wasn't able to find out what the name of the instrument is so if any of you out there know, feel free to post a note and tell me.

P.S. Thanks to Polly Chau (the brilliant mother of my brilliant former student Helaine) I now know the name of the instrument -

" the musical instrument you saw in Beijing is called "Gu Zheng", it's a traditional popular Chinese instrument, but not so popular in Hong Kong".

From the first light of the day until well into the wee hours of the morning you can see people riding around on their bikes. Most major roads have a bike lane that's as big as a car lane.

People always trying to sell stuff.

Selling paintings and Mao's Red Book

Selling Dragons on the street for two ... who knows what but she was really excited.

Which brings us to the food. Above are skewers of pupae or pupas to be barbecued and eaten. Yummy Yummy in my Tummy

Or how about a grilled snake? The snake seller/BBQ'er thought it would be funny to try and scare me by shoving the snake in my face. I just thanked him for giving me such a cool photograph :)

THE HAT

On my way home from the Night Food Market I saw this hat and had to have it. In fact I can't see way anyone would not love to have such a hat

The hat on Duncan, self portrait.

The hat on the wall. The hat on Jenn on the wall.

The hat on Dad on the bus.

The hat on Duncan on the bus. And that is about all for Beijing. In fact I took over 1,000 pictures but thought I'd spare you and just give the highlights. We don't think we'll be back to Beijing anytime soon but it is something everyone should do once in their lives.

AHHH BALI

The surf is one of the biggest reasons people come to Bali but that certainly isn't all Bali has to offer.

There are all the traditional statues.

Traditional Balinese religious rituals.

Cheap shopping.

Drinking by the pool.

And the beautiful beach. Which brings us to Fun in the Sun with little or no sunscreen until one falls asleep...no names to be mentioned but a picture paints a thousand words (or perhaps 2 pictures fill in all the blanks).

Yaaaaoooouch that must have hurt when it got scratch-your-skin-off itchy, followed by blisters that eventually popped and then dried out and became crusty and flaked off and floated around in the air behind ya...

This is the restaurant we had breakfast at every morning followed by time in and around the pool.

Now when the yellow and red flags are crossed that means no swimming in the ocean and reflecting on our near death experience in Thailand we elected to listen to the warning.

We walked for miles down the beach away from the busiest area, Kuta, and it was nearly deserted. I love the implied symmetry of this composition.

This guy was so chilled out and cool lookin' I had to grab a shot of him.

This is Kelly as you can tell from her hat. The touts on the beach all wanted you to buy from them and remember who you had promised to buy from. She set me up with some beautifully hand-carved mahogany boxes. The guy below carried (wore) at least 100 hats down the beach everyday!

Helmets are apparently not needed on a motorbike and carrying everything from surfboards to new born babies is fair game.

These more sensible travellers are at least wearing helmets but riding all over both directions of traffic.

And when you run outta gas fill up with an Absolute Vodka bottle of petrol.

If you've ever been to Bali you'll know Bintang is the local beer and no self-respecting visitor to the island leaves without at least 1 Bintang T-Shirt. Jenn does love Bali dogs and wanted to rescue and bring quite a few back to HK with us. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she organizes something to help the little fellows out some day. That's what I look like after a beautiful seafood meal.

The following pics show the tonnes of flowers, insects, beached blow fish, chicken motorbikes and people balancing stuff on their heads too.

And sadly our vacation did indeed come to an end and we flew back to HK rested and ready for work. Well maybe "ready for work" is a little ambitious but it was a superb holiday!!!