Wondering with Wind

This is picture I took in Apr. 2003 in Yangshuo, Guangxi, China. We were rafting on Yulong River and took a break on the river side. This sow was very freindly to her master as she is his pet.

The first time I got to know Santorini was from a book written by a famouse TV hostess Lan Yang. Will anyone forget the white wall blue dome under the blue sky on the cover? No, I never forgot it. I read travel blogs and do virtual tours on my dream vacations on the Web. Here I am. Sarntorini, a small, circular archipelago of volcanic islands located in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km south-east from Greece’s mainland.

Being one of the most beautiful islands of Greece, besides of walking around enjoying the breath-taking view, what things we can see in terms of sightneeing on Santorini? The Volcano (read a recent eruption research by National Geography), musuems and the beaches. Read the I found these interesting reviews about Santorini beaches on a Santorini vacation planning site:

“Instead of the “ordinary” sandy beaches there are also black-pebbled beaches, which a result of a past volcanic eruption, and the famous Red Beach, near Akrotiri, with its red-coloured sand. Water is most of the times quit deep,2m from the shore the depth can be already more than 3m, and quite cold, but the crystal clear water will more than compensate you….”

It is my second time ”visiting“ a black beach within the week. (Last time I ”visited“ black beach in Hilo Hawaii). Both beaches are formed from the volcano lava.

Red Beach

Black Pebble Beach – Perissa Beach
The site I found for Santorini is actually pretty cool – you can plan you whole vacation with it. Starting from locating it position on globe on a google map which is already annotated with local hotels and attractions. Then book your flight to/from the island and do more research on how to get around, and book your hotels sorting by price or reviews or region. On arrival, you can then decide what to do, what to eat and even what’s the fun at night! But it would be even better if there is a gallery section which i can preview the island better. I will definitely make this place my next vacation destination!

This is a sponsored post. 

Kauai tourism official website calls Lihei “Kauai’s county seat, as well as the center for business and transportation.“ Located on the east shore of the island of Kauai, it is the second largest town of the island. “Lihue” in Hawaiian literally means “cold chill “. Viewing from google map, you can also see Kauai airport is also on that area.

As a waterfall lover, I took a virtual tour (as usual) on Picasa images for Lihue’s waterfalls. Wailue Falls is recommended as “Not to be Missed” by Andrew Doughty in the guidebook “The Uiltimate Kauai Guidebook”. To visit this “higher-than-Niagara-Fall” waterfall, take Maalo Road (583) on the Mauka Side. The official height of the waterfall is 80 feets, but the author of the guidebook measured it twice with fishing line and the result was 173 feet! In addition to its own beauty, Wailua Falls is also well known as a place that Hawaiian men prove their manhood by jumping from the 10-floor-height fall. (I figured out this from the number of Taipei 101, 101 floor, 1670 feet).

Kipu falls is only 20 feet high, so it is a practicial location for men jump off (See below picture from Picasa). I have jumped from a 50 meter high tower for my first bungee jump, so I think I would love to try this fall if I can swim.

One of most interesting attractions to me in Lihue is Kauai Museum. It has a perminent display called The Story of Kauai. The artifacts, exhibits, and photographs in the collection show the history and story about the era preceding Western contact as well as the plantation period. I especially am interested in its history of sugar cane plantation history. Ninini Lighthouse sounds like an interesting place to visit, it is said that its light is using a 4.7 million candlepower light. Hmmm…4.7 million candlepower…

There are two major chain resorts in Lihue: Kauai Marriott and Hilton Kauai Beach Resort. An annotated Google map of kid friendly hotels of Kauai can be found here. More other choices of hotels in Lihue can be found here.

A friend of mine sent these images in an email to me today. Isn’t it a great thanksgiving gift?

Today is your mother’s birthday. Early in the morning, in stead of waiting her to get up and make breakfast for you as usual, you decide to get up earlier to leave a nice “happy birthday” note to her and make her a breakfast.

So you decide to make a toast for her.

Here you go! “Eat your word Toast Messenger!”
According to the informaion in my email, this toaster is designed by Sasha Tseng.

Last weekend I copied the first batch digital photos I took on 2002-2003 out of our 120GB hard-drive. I remembered I had a headache in changing photo titles, adding descriptions at that time. Now, in the era of Flickr and Picasa, everything is so convinient. So I want to 2.0ing my old pictures.

My first own digital camera is a Canon S50 which was bought in late 2003. So, all the pictures I took were from DCs of friends, when 2.0 mega pixel lense was main stream. Can’t believe we were so happy with JUST 2.0 mega pixel! 🙂

Today I am revisiting Kuala Lumpur, a city of the most kind and nice people I’ve ever been to. It was the second stop to pursuit a CPIM certification issued by APICS, so I must have visited here. The information in my photos show that I visited there from March 19-22, 2003. If you still remember, that was when SARS broken out in Canton and people around the world paid weird looks on you when they knew you were from Hong Kong SAR. Lucky me, I didn’t get any of these looks but warm-hearted and selfishless help. Dr. Yan-Goh Ng, head of Malaysian PICS (MPICS) helped me to get ticket back to Hong Kong when he knew that I need to get back the next day. He made phone calls and searched on line when I was working on the papers. Wonderful memory!

In 2 days, I would be mad on this F1 car because I missed my plane due to F1 event traffic on the way to airport.

We got a free ride from one of the people behind after we got lost.

A really amazing building.

Good Year is on the sky in Shanghai Bund, who else?

Two flying fishes！Who is on the ground?

Banks！

I haven’t visited Shanghai Bund for more than 6 years after I graduated in 2001 until yesterday. My parents-in-law are visiting us and we wanted to walk around the city in weekend. The bund obviously is our first choice of sightseeing. The weather wasn’t perfect, windy, cloudy and chilly, especially by the Huangpu River.

Things have been changed so much: Jinmao Tower is no longer the most visible building in Pudong from the Bund; Chartered Bank Building was redesigned and renovated by a team of international architects led by Italian designer Filippo Gabbiani, and was reopened in Nov. 2004. It is now no longer a bank; one of the Big Four nation-owned banks China Bank of Communications moved out of the Bund, but the other 3 (BoC, ABC, ICBC) of Big Four are still on the Bund. Wikipedia page didn’t catch these changes.

China Citic Bank

Take a real virtual tour on the Bund to see all the buidlings here:

http://shgov.city8.com/sh10951_BA1H-0.833_0.206_1.309.swf 

You wil need to install Flash 9 in order to take this grand tour developed by a Chinese map company city8.com

My father called me today telling me a recent trip my mother and him took to a farm called Qianjin Farm in western Guangdong province. I grown up in that sugar-cane-planting farm where my parents “devoted” their best time of lives. Sugar cane, sugar cane, I love sugar cane in the way that none of my friends can understand.

Well, I googled sugar cane and found sugar industry was booming before 1980s in Hawaii. How interesting! Ok, see what I found here:

“Tsunami – 1960

Hilo became a stopping place for explorers, whaling ships, traders and those curious about active volcanoes. By the 1900’s, Hilo had grown into a commercial center. The sugar industry was booming, a number of wharves had been constructed, the breakwater was begun and a new railroad connected Hilo with other parts of the island. Then in 1946, and again in 1960,two destructive tsunamis swept Hilo’s Bayfront causing the relocation of Hilo’s government and commercial life. When the town was rebuilt, a large park and roadway were situated between the buildings and the shoreline to absorb future tidal waves.”

How about a virtual tour to Hilo beaches.

Hilo is on the right east side of Big Island of Hawaii (see Google maps). It is your town to stay if you want to explore the east part of big island, including a black sand beach, rain forests, themmost heated pool and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The most well-known attractions in Hilo is probabely the Rainbow Falls.

What really interested me are a black sand beach called Waipi’o Bay beach revealed by Andrew Doughty from Wizard Pub. Inc on guidebook , and an oceanside lava swimming pool.

Black sand beaches

lava swimming pool

Here are some more great photos about Hilo I found on picasa.

A turtle found on Hilo black sand beach

Rainbow Falls in Hilo Hawaii

Add the following image on Nov. 19

black sand beach. 🙂

I joined the Stop Global Warming Virtual March today after I read a hilarious post about Sheryl Crow’s eco-friendly baby shower, saying that Sheryl, my favorite rocker, “wants to limit the use of toilet paper to one sheet per visit”. I don’t know if she was talking about using one sheet of paper after wash her hands or … 😉

Anyway, I don’t own a car in Shanghai, so I feel good at doing something stopping global warming in my daily life. My action is to get around by foot instead of bus or taxi. I was “proud” that I took train to Beijing in my recent trip instead of plane. Train is the greenest transportation in travel, according to Tom Mercer on Trains, Planes, Automobiles.

Here are some more numbers for your reference:

Total Emissions Per Vehicle

SUV (15mpg) – 2.29 lbs/mi
Average Car (25 mpg) – 1.39 lbs/mi
Prius (55 mpg) – .61 lbs/mi
Motorcycle – .57 lbs/mi
RV – 4.58 lbs/mi

Total Emissions Per Person
Average Car/Single Driver – 1.39 lbs/mi
Average Car/Family of 4 – .34 lbs/mi
Train – .32 lbs/mi
Bus – .48 lbs/mi
Plane (250 mi trip) – .85 lbs/mi**
Plane (600 mi) – .69 lbs/mi**
Plane (3500 mi) – .56 lbs/mi**

During my recent trip to Beijing alone, I stayed in a new budget hotel called Master Inn (贏家酒店, meaning: a hotel for winner or a hotel better than home). It is a business economic class hotel in China. One of my friend founds this online when we wanted to find a budget hotel near “Tsinghua Science Park” area. It is located in the campus of Peking University, Health Science Center, and recently remodeled from a college-run hostel into this business chain hotel, and it is in “beta phase” during my stay.

What I like about the hotel:

1. Brand new items: the hall, the floor, the carpet, the wall, the sheet and towers…When everything is new, everthing looks and feels clean and good; and more important, I didn’t smell any “renovation odor”.

2. Quite environment: It is no surprise that I didn’t hear much noices since it is in campus. The wall is not as thin as other new hotels, and I really had the same sound sleep as at home.

3. Free Internet and breakfast: the price of a queen-size bed room is 188/night, the lowest I can find online at that location.

What I dislike about it:

1. Unclear direction: I went to the hotel with a local fiend who has looked up the hotel location on map before. We need to ask direction to the hotel; on the second day, I was with another friend and we both got lost in the campus.

2. Small room: The bed/living room and restroom are really small, but the layout is good enough for ONE person to stay. I don’t know if the room with two twin-size beds is larger.

3. Service: I asked for a hair drier and was told that all the driers were borrowed. They didn’t follow up to ask if other customers have finished using the drier.

I am in Beijing for the 3rd Annual Chinese Blogger Conference from Nov. 2 -5. I took an overnight train to Beijing. Here is the tour from Beijing Train Station to the conference venue: Tsinghua Science Park (where Google is located at.)

Beijing Train Station

An ancient building I shot on taxi.

The main entrance of Tsinghua Science Park

Conference sponsors and popular bloggers (the thumbnails)

The hostess