Wondering with Wind

My knowledge about New Zealand was very limited：dairy products and kiwi. But after I watched the movie “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, it became one of my most desired travel spost of the planet: who won’t want to see the mountain, the snow, the water and the land of hobbit, wizard and King? Even though I know quite large percetage of the specular scenery in the move is created by special effect experts.

In New Zealand offical tourism website about the “Home of Middle Earth“, you can see the the journey start from Waikato to Wellington (Wellington accomodations), Queenstown, Nelson, Canterbury Plains to Mt Ruapehu. However, this is not practical and detailed enough for a foreign traveler like me. The travel guidebook <Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook> by Ian Brodie is said to be the “Lonely Planet” of New Zealand. According to the book review on Amazon, you will need a GPS to leverage the guide on this book, and keep in mind “If you’re going to this fantastic country simply to see LOTR filming locations, I promise that you are missing out on what could be one of the greatest experiences of your life. Yes, go to see ‘Middle-Earth’ but do not forget the rest of New Zealand!” (by A. R. Snyder “Pluperfect”)

Planning your trip as I am?

1. Flights: there are 3 international airports in this island country: Auckland and Wellington in North Island, and Christchurch in South Island; you can land on other 4 cities if you depart from Australia. (see map for details)

2. Hotels: I found this website cheaperthanhotel.com has very competitive and comprehensive New Zealand accommodation choices. For example, I am very happy to find that I can book a hostel for backpackers for NZD $ 25/night in Auckland downtown. Other good option for me is the four-star service apartment started at $85/night in Christchurch.

3. Tours: Since most of the LOTR locations are in South Island, it is said that the concentration of professional Lord of the Rings film tour operators is in Queenstown. Most tour you can find on Google is a 4WD tour, the other option is helicopter/airplane which is pricer but provides unrivalled scenery.

Check out photos of New Zealand here.

As my Hangzhou vacation plan, we spent three days in this beautiful city. We didn’t go through a typical tour-guided trip in which you will be shown around many attractions, of course including many factories visits, within one or two days, but randomly walked around and saw things as we planned.

Day 1: Longjing Tea Leaf Shopping

We had a pleasant train riding experience from Shanghai to Hangzhou. Check  Shanghai South Railway Station: the start of a most environmental friendly travel option   for tips on how to take trains from Shanghai to Hangzhou.

The weather wasn’t perfect, so we went to Long Jin Village to shop LongJin green tea leaf.  Spring tea season usually lasts for 5 to 6 weeks: 3 weeks before Qing Ming (April. 5) and 3 weeks after Qing Ming. Qing Ming is a traditional holiday for Chinese to “sweep” the tombs of their ancestors to show the respect ion and worship of the passed family members. Because of the snow storm disaster happened early this year in South China, the season started about 2 weeks later than usual and we were very lucky to buy the 3-day old fresh tea leafs from the farmers at very good price - more than 50 % less than the prices  in the tea stores in the cities. 

Day 2: West Lake (Xihu, 西湖）

Hangzhou is famous for its West Lake, and West Lake is famous for a lot of Chinese historical events and people, of course also its scenery. I was surprised at myself that I don’t know how the West Lake came from even though I know its big name when I was little. In this trip, I found some description on the attractions implying that West Lake is a volcanic lake, but when i researched on line later resources  say that there are two explanations on the cause of West Lake: 1. volcano eruption, 2. it was a bay connecting with Qiantang River and East Sea in about 12,000 years’ ago and was blocked and separated by sediment later and became a lake.  I don’t know  which to trust.

Anyway, because West Lake is a “money making” lake, the government of Hangzhou City obviously invests a lot in maintaining its surrounding environments  so that it is very beautiful around the lake — a lot of greens and flowers. The roads are clean and the air condition is much better than that in Shanghai.

But if you are not familiar with / interested in the Chinese classical literature and histories, you probably don’t want to spend more than half day around the lake, and I also won’t recommend you to take any paid tour around the lake.

Day 3: Silk Museum

There are two kinds of gifts you want to buy when you visit Hangzhou: 1. green tea leaf, 2. silk.  I didn’t buy any silk as I am not confident enough that I can tell the high quality silk products from the bad. Instead, we decided to visit the silk museum to get some education. The museum is free and I didn’t see more than 10 people during our visits. It is very nice and quiet. But if you go with your family, your kids and/or husband might find it a little boring.　But I enjoyed a lot especially watching skilled workers to make the complicated patterned silk fabric from the threads.

(I am going to Hangzhou this weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Here is what I have done in planning our trip:

1. Where to go: Nanjing and Hangzhou were our two preferred options: a nearby city with enough attractions for a 3-day vacation. Both of us haven’t been to Nanjing, and I have been to Hangzhou once 8 years’ ago (I’ve been to Hangzhou in 2006 for Chinese Blogger Conference but I didn’t go anywhere, so it didn’t count.). I know Hangzhou will be extremely beautiful with plum and peach blossom in early April, but I don’ t know about Nanjing. So we decided to take a less risky option to avoid ruining our vacation. Later, I found out there is also cheer blossom and an exhibition of tulip in a park called “Prince Bay Park” (太子湾公园).

2. Where to Stay: I spent a weekend night reading hotel reviews on two major hotel booking sites in China: elong and ctrip. Ctrip has much more user reviews and even has a page of the ranking. For one moment, I was every exciting that I found a great hotel in Ctrip with a very high user rating. But then I cross-checked it on elong and there were only less than 10 (maybe 3) reviews on this hotel. What’s worst: they are all very negative. I was then very frustrated in whether or not to trust the reviews. It is easy to trust when all you hear are good news, but things become complicated even when you read one line of negative words. At the end, I picked a hotel under “holiday inn” brand rather than a highly recommended “best western” one. In my knowledge of hotel, “holiday inn” is a better brand than “best western”. This experience really made me wonder “how hotel reviews will be useful to users” ? I wish I can ask an emotional search engine to filter the reviews for me!

3. What to Do: “West Lake” (xihu, 西湖) is the natural landmark of Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang Province. So this is a must-go spot. And I am highly interested in Chinese green tea, and Hangzhou is the home to the best green tea - longjin tea (龙井茶) in China. I want to hike into the village to buy some fresh green tea of 2008, and watch people “stir fry” the tea leaf. And also check out a few museums.

4. How to organize the trip: We love map! so we start looking at the maps to plan our itinerary. The most interesting map I found is a 3D virtual map (see below screen). It is specially helpful to optimize the route by grouping the attactions by area with map like this.

(click to see  larger image)

Kango.com, a travel search and discovery service announced a name change to Uptake.com on Mar. 26, 2008.

(before)

->>>

(now)

” UpTake’ refers to a quick understanding of key facts. We believe the new name, UpTake, describes our core offering — the aggregation and analysis of collective wisdom such as reviews, blogs and articles from across the Web to help consumers plan their trips,” said Yen Lee, UpTake president and founder.

Elliott Ng wrote on Kango blog saying: “We want our new brand UpTake to convey our ability to gather, organize and deliver the web’s collective travel wisdom to help you make trip planning faster.” He aslo mentioned that Uptake will launch it public beta later this spring.

“Uptake” means “quick understanding and comprehension” in English language.

Patricia Jenkins from Kango blog wrote an interesting post about “how to define a family friendly hotel“. Her list of “benchmarks” includes: free breakfast, swimming pool , two rooms, clean, central to many activities, babysitting services, television with kids’ movies on demand, room services and good value.

I don’t have a kid yet and I haven’t paid attention to most of the above criteria, except of “free breakfast, good value and clean” before. In my recent trip from Shanghai to Palo Alto California, I have a chance to stayed in 4 different hotel/lodge/inn/motel (in each kind of accommodations, REALLY!) and even at friend’s house. Here is the full list of them:

• Extended StayAmerica Hotel in Santa Clara CA: great location to access hwy 237 and less than 5 miles away from the best Chinese food of SF Bay Area in Milpitas; and less than 8 miles away from the a shopping outlet Great Mall which will please moms. This is a studio hotel and mostly for long term stays. So no pools or kids’ movie on demand, but big room with kitchen with high speed internet at $4.99 per stay. Remember to ask to stay at double digit number rooms which are away from the rails and trains. So I am not surprised that I don’t find it in the list of San Jose family hotels.
• Pacific Inn in Mountain View CA: Free breakfast everyday and light dinner on Monday-Friday. Located on El Camino Real and easy to get around MV downtown. The room is a bit old but clean. On demand movies are available, again, no pools. I will rate it as a “very good value budget family hotel”.
• Monterey Bay Lodge in Monterey CA : I knew this is a kid friendly hotel even before I checked in as I saw kids were playing in the outdoor pools so happily when the temperature was only about 15 degree celcus. The single room I stayed was very tidy and neat but small, especially the restroom. I think they have rooms for families (read more details about the amenities and reviews here) Its location is a highlight, 3 minutes walk to a beach, 10 mins to Monterey Marina and probably less than 20 minutes to Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of the best ten in the country. As I expected, this lodge is on the list of Monterey family hotels.
• Oak Motel in Palo Alto CA: This is an old motel. Everything looks fine, but I felt like I was in 1990s. I only stayed for one night and nothing bothered me. I won’t suggest you eat the free breakfast if you are not in rush. Kids would love a tall Oak tree that goes through the 2-floor building.

It is a very different aspect to look at a hotel from “family” stand point. I never know that “two rooms” is so important for a family, especially when the kids are under a certain ages that parents wants to check out how they are doing from time to time. And a good family hotel is very important for a family vacation!

What’s your tips in finding the family friendly hotels?

Kids are swimming in Montery Bay Lodge. (Mar. 2008)

I went to Point Lobos State Park in Monterey in California two weeks’ ago in a sunny morning. The stunning blue color of Pacific Ocean is as beautiful as last time I visited Big Sur. We entered the reserve from the main entrance from hyw 1 and hiked from Granite Point Trail and then Moss Cove Trail to see the MOSS COVE (click the trail map for detials). One interesting finding is that I noticed a beach around Moss Cove is BLACK. (see image below.)

From my previous Hawaii Dream Vacation visual tours, I know that Punaluʻu Beach is one of the most famous black sand beach on the Big Island of Hawaii. And the black sand on the beach is created by lava flowing into the ocean which explodes as it reaches the ocean and cools. But there is no volcano activities around Monterey area on Pacific coast and we even suspected that the “black” color is a simbol of “dirty”. but when i took a close look on the surrounding area, I can see this is not DIRTY.

You see, did I discover a black sand beach? Even though I don’t think black sand beach is more attractive than white sand beach. I’ve also been to the black sand beach in Macao in Asia a few years’ ago. It was not a nice looking one, but different. Isn’t it an exciting moment to find/see some thing different and special? If I am going to take a Hawaii dream vacation, I will visit Maui, because “Maui no ka oi” which means “Maui is best”. We will rent an ocean front Maui vacation rental and to check out Red Sand Beach for sure. And take some random “wondering” steps to try new things. I also want to take a boat tour near Kauai to the ocean to see sea turtle swimming freely without notice human being’s existance.

Does ” The Day After Tomorrow” come true in South China this winter right before the joyful Chinese New Year is coming. Here are some number for you to image what it is like now:

• 19 provinces are suffered from the unexpected snow storms which will continue in the coming few days;
• 60 people died.
• Direct lose in RMB: 53.79 billion = USD 7.5 Billion
• 1,280,000 square kilometers of land is covered by white snow.

Shanghai:

Day 1

Day 5.

Update on Feb. 9, 2008:

More images can be viewed here.

Chinese New Year (aka the Spring Festival) is approaching. According to Chinese lunar calendar, the last day of Year of Pig (2007) will be Feb. 06, 2008 which is the Chinese New Year Eve. I am going to cook the CNY eve dinner by myself for the first time this year. Here is the menu of my CNY dinner:

• Drinks: Sake
• Main Dishes: 1) Steam fish; 2)Shanghai style bouilli pork; 3）Chicken with mushroom; 4)Crab meat soft dofu, 5) Chinese cabbage with soup;
• Staple food: Steam rice;
• Drinks after dinner: Kungfu Tea;
• Disert: Sweet sticky rice dumpling stuffed with sesame paste, served at mid night according to tradition

This is definitely not a traditional CNY dinner menu, I am just going to cook what we love to eat (and forget about the tradition), and I am a meat-lover.

My things to do during Chinese New Year holiday?

I have wished that I can go to Cambodia in my 2008 place to go. But the airticket from Guangzhou to Sihn Reap during CNY is ridiculous high (5,000 RBM + tax for round trip). And the weather starts to getting very warm and raining season is coming. Then I check tickets and hotels in Australia and New Zealand because we want a warm holiday, I want to visit Sydney or Perth where one of my college friends is.

I started googling “sydney” as keyword and bumped into new things. (yes, everything there is supposed new to me.

Darling Harbour is one of the “buzz“ areas but in fact I found there are quite some family friendly things to do there: Sydney Aquarium, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM and even a Chinese Garden of Friendship. I really interested in this garden, especially after I know there will be an identical twin garden of Yu Garden of Shanghai in Europe . I don’t want to see another copy for freindship.

As AUD and NZD are appreciating a lot recently, the hotel price is one of my budget concern. I check these three hotels (note: all rates are for Feb. 18, 2008)

• Star City is a five star complex with a casino, restaurants and bars, entertainment venues, hotel apartments, and banquets; conference centres. The best deal i found it AUD 75/night for one bed room apartment.
• Ibis Darling Harbour Hotel was recently completed a full refurbishment in September 2007 (good news!). It has 256 hotel rooms together with iBistro restaurant. The best deal I can get is 1 Queen Bed room: AUD 239/night.
• The Four Points by Sheraton, Darling Harbour is Australia’s largest hotel. There are with 630 rooms including 45 suites, wow! It is located very closed to major entertainment and shopping districts including Pitt Street Mall, Queen Victoria Building, and Chinatown. The best deal is City Side Room: AUD 238/night.

It is pretty expensive, especially after I read what Brian from Kango has blogged about the “$400-$500/month” apartment in Bali. I don’t think i will go to Sydney this time.

We visited my parents in Guangzhou during New Year holidays and we spent one day (Dec. 31, 2007) in the Chime Long Resort （广州长隆旅游度假区）. There are a zoo called Guangzhou Xiangjiang Safari Park (广州香江野生动物园）, an amusement park (Chime Long Paradise), a water park（水上乐园）, a circus (Chimelong International Circus，长隆国际马戏团), a golf course and a few hotels in the resort area. Its official website is well organized and easy to use for vacation planning.

We took Guangzhou metro line 3 to a station called Han4 Xi1 Chang2 Long2 (汉溪长隆) dedicated to this resort and then took a cycle shuttle bus to the safari park. Free map is avaliable at the entrance and it is very helpful to plan your route when deciding what animals you want to see. The park is quite large and you can easily get distracted by shows and programs. So plan ahead if you are with kids. I was very exciting about the safari but was a little disappointed after the tour. The animals are no longer WILD and it is not really a safari. You can even see Tiger and Lion live together in the same yard which is out of imagination in Africa real life.
The zoo is closed at 6pm and we took free shuttle bus to the circus. Feel free to hop onto the earliest shuttle bus, they are cyclying and will bring you to your destination anyway. The current circus show is called and was an extremely exciting one. Highly recommended!!! The show starts at 7:30pm daily and we entered earlier to get front seats. But this is not necessary. We found it could be more fun if sitting at back. VIP seats in the center area are avaliable inside and 100 RMB extra. Basically, you can plan a light dinner between zoo and the circus show.

The amusement park Chimelong Paradise could be a thrilling experience. You will find the world’s tallest diving roller coaster there (but still under construction on Dec. 22 2007, check before you go).