A Quick Trip to Hong Kong

The Regional office for Chris's company is in Hong Kong, so he's there often.  So, since he was going to be there for the week after Golden Week here in Shanghai, I decided to join him on Thursday, October 9, and stay until he returned on Monday, October 13.

This was my third trip to Hong Kong, so I wasn't desperate to see a lot of sights, but was very excited for our weekend plans to go to Disneyland Hong Kong and to visit the Giant Buddha.  I arrived on Thursday afternoon and mostly spent Thursday and Friday streaming videos with fast, unrestricted internet access and relaxing.  We went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse on Friday night, which was definitely a highlight of the trip.  The food was great, we even had a bloomin' onion, and it felt like we were in the U.S., at least for the length of the meal.  

The real fun was saved for Saturday, when we headed out to Disneyland and got there just about the time it opened.  Although it was a little weird to be at the park without the girls, we had a great time.  We're Disney people - heck, we went to Walt Disney World in Florida for our honeymoon and we've been to every Disney except Tokyo, so far.  We've taken the girls to WDW several times and are planning our next trip for Samantha's college graduation in May.  We went to Disneyland in California for Miranda's high school graduation.  We like Disney, even without the kids. 

Knowing that we're going to WDW in May, we also wanted to buy Hong Kong Disneyland-specific pins to trade (read, give away) when we're in Florida next spring.  Chris, in particular, really enjoys having pins from the far away parks to give away at other parks.  We're going to hunt up any we have left from Disneyland Paris before we go to Florida.  So, we bought quite a few new, fun pins during our day.

We rode the Buzz Lightyear ride several times, zapping as many aliens as possible, saw the Lion King show, and enjoyed Winnie the Pooh and It's a Small World without any kids to hide behind.  Then we decided to get in line to have our picture taken with some of the characters. 

In the U.S., this is very much a child-oriented process.  Although there are certainly adults who pose with Mickey, Daisy or Goofy on their own, the overwhelming majority of people in line are families with young kids.  Not so in Hong Kong.  We saw a few kids in line, but it was overwhelmingly adults who were waiting to take pictures of, and have their pictures taken with, the many Disney characters.  

We visited Disneyland Paris during the Halloween season one year and were impressed with the decoration and overall theme of the park for the season.  We visited a Universal park in Spain during Halloween as well and saw lots of Halloween decorations.  Even though we were in Hong Kong the second week of October, there wasn't much evidence of Halloween.  We posed with the characters in an area of the park where they were wearing Halloween costumes and we saw a few decorations, but hardly any.
We didn't stay for the evening parade or light show, so that may have contained more Halloween theme, but overall, this just isn't an Asian holiday.


We did enjoy a new area of the park built since we were last there, which contained Toy Story Land and Mystic Manor.  Most of the rides in Toy Story Land are targeted to young kids, but we were impressed with the cute construction of the whole land, including Tinker Toys and other Toy Story favorites.  And Mystic Manor was a lot of fun - similar to the Haunted Mansion ride at WDW, but it has a better story and was something new we hadn't seen before.  All in all, we had a great day, although our feet were sore and we were pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel.

On Sunday, we took the subway back out to Lantau island to catch a cable car up into the mountains for an incredible view of Hong Kong, the surrounding wilderness and a visit to the world's largest seated outdoor bronze Buddha statue.  Fortunately, we were told by a couple of people to purchase our tickets for the cable car ahead of time, which I had done at our hotel on Friday.  The line to get on the cable car was nothing compared with the incredibly long line of people waiting to purchase tickets before getting in the line to get on the cable cars.  The ride is about 25 minutes to the top of the mountain and the views are wonderful.
 
While Hong Kong is a huge city with high rise buildings, a beautiful harbor, and several islands, it is set in beautiful mountains and has incredible hiking trails, bird-watching, and nature views.  While we were riding up the mountain the cable car, we could see people hiking up and down the trails below us.  Surprisingly enough, we shared the cable car with a young couple from Chicago.  Fortunately, Chris restrained himself after seeing the guy's Cubs shirt, so no punches were thrown.  :)
 
When we got to the end of the cable car ride, we entered Ngong Ping Village.  We were happy to find a cool spot to eat our Subway sandwiches and enjoy the beautiful breeze and temperature in the shade.  Chris was sorely tempted to stay in his comfortable seat in the village, but he finally marshaled himself to make the climb to the Giant Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery.

The village is filled with traditional tourist shops, massage centers, and restaurants.  It leads to the base of the steps to the Buddha and then on to the Monastery.  Along the walk, there are statues of the signs of the Chinese zodiac as well as flags and gardens.  The gateway to the Monastery is a bright what against the blue of the sky and the green of the mountains and we were lucky enough to be there on a beautiful, although slightly hazy, day, where the breeze offset the high, Hong Kong temperatures.
This was a good thing, as we had a long climb ahead of us. 

The Tian Tan Buddha is 112 feet tall and we climbed the 268 steps to get to the Lotus platform upon which the Buddha sits.  While I took my time getting to the top, the view was worth the work.  We had a great view of the cable cars climbing over the mountains, the village, the Monastery, and the rolling hills of the countryside.  Supposedly, the Buddha is able to be seen from Macao, but the day was not really clear enough for us to see very far.


After working our way back down the steps, we stopped for a water break and met an American mom sitting at the bottom with her one-week-old baby while the rest of her family climbed the stairs.  Brave lady.  After we caught our breath, we walked over to tour the Monastery.  We've also visited monasteries and temples in Thailand, and this temple seemed to be more tourist-oriented, with fewer people there for worship.  The buildings, however, were beautiful.  The entire compound is not very old, with the Buddha being built in the early 1990's and the Monastery, while founded in 1906, is housed in a very new-looking building.  They have created one of the most popular tourist sites in Hong Kong.  We had a great trip out to Lantau island for the day and enjoyed our cable car ride back to the bottom of the mountain.  We returned to our hotel, had a restful evening in and flew back to Shanghai the next morning. 

Photos from Snorkleing on The Great Barrier Reef

 We got the film developed from our underwater cameras which we used the day we were snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. 

It wasn't that sunny and it was very rough, so many of the pictures were not great, but we have a few really nice ones.  (Mostly ones Chris took - he handled the rough waters better than I did.)

A few of them, including the ones with both Chris & I in them, were taken by the professional photographer on the boat.

 

Allergies in Asia...and beyond

One problem I bring upon myself over and over again is assuming that those around me know what I'm thinking.  Even the people I love, and who love me, don't know what's in my head.  And even when it comes to things that are life and death for me, like my food allergies, I have to speak up for myself and not assume that anyone else is thinking like I am. I am responsible for making sure I'm safe and for letting people know when I'm uncomfortable or afraid.  It's on me.

I am allergic to a lot of food, as well as several medications and things like mold, dust, trees, etc.  I have been to the E/R several times for tree nuts, starting at the age of 10 months, when I ate my first chocolate chip cookie with walnuts.  (I was the 4th child, so don't ask why someone gave a 10-month-old a cookie with nuts in it, plus, it was 1962!)  I've also been to the E/R for sesame seeds, although not until I was in my late-40's.  And I've taken bushels of Benadryl over the years for all the other, less-intense reactions.  I am constantly developing new allergies to things I've eaten for years, so I never know what's going to be next.

I have life-threatening allergies to all tree nuts and to sesame seeds, oil and paste.  I am also allergic to caraway seeds, coconut, eggplant, and crab and have adverse intestinal reactions to Splenda artificial sweetner and carob.  I don't know if I'm allergic to poppy seeds yet, but assume they're on the coming attractions list, along with soy and peanuts, so I try to limit my exposure.  I have a number of other medical issues that limit the amount of dairy, spinach, leafy greens, sweet potatoes, fruit and other foods I can eat, but at least these aren't allergies, not yet.  Unfortunately, my allergy to tree nuts is so severe that cross-contamination is an issue -  if you eat nuts and touch me or anything I touch or eat, I'll have a reaction.  I don't know if that's true for sesame yet, but I operate under the assumption that it is.

Living with life-threatening allergies is hard.  Let's get that right out on the table.  You may have heard of something people with allergies carry, an Epi-pen, and you might think, what's so hard about it?  If you have a reaction, use your Epi-pen.  True, I have 2 Epi-pens on me at all times.  ALL times.  I can never go anywhere without a purse, because I have to have Benadryl and my Epi-Pens with me all the time, but I can deal with that.  The problem is, if I'm having an anaphylactic reaction, where my throat and mouth are swelling and threatening to close my airways, an Epi-Pen will give me 15 minutes of relief, time to get to an emergency room or into an ambulance.  I can use 2 Epi-pens, which is why I carry two, but still I have to be in an E/R within 30 minutes.  Two's the limit, though.  And once there, and saved from death, I have to be monitored for 48-hours or more, as the reaction can, and usually does, come back.  

Traveling with life-threatening allergies is very hard, but I really enjoy travel, so I do it.  I was very lucky to find Select Wisely, an online company that prints wallet-sized cards listing food allergies in more than 60 languages, which is extremely helpful for international travel.  Airplane food is problematic, especially on a long flight, as airlines don't have a nut-free option for their special meals and there's always a chance someone sitting next to me will be eating something containing tree nuts.  This could be a problem if they touch me, my chair, my arm rest or anything that I might touch with nut oils on their hands.  I always carry wet wipes and bring my own food, but on a 12-hour flight, I have to eat the protein I bring with me early in the flight, since I don't have a cooler or ice-pack to keep it cold.  But, I can make it work with some planning.

Living abroad with allergies is frightening.  When we lived in Germany, I learned the German words for tree nuts, eggplant, crab and coconut (I wasn't allergic to sesame or other seeds then).  While I don't speak much German, I could read labels at the grocery store to see what contained nuts and I had my Select Wisely cards in restaurants, so I was less frightened.  I bought allergy cards in French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Dutch, and every other language that I might encounter during our 2 years in Europe.  And, I was confident that if I had a reaction, I could summon an ambulance (Select Wisely has cards for that too) and go to a reputable hospital.

Living in China, and traveling in Asia, with life-threatening food allergies is so frightening, it's almost paralyzing.  This is what I haven't made clear to the people around me.  I'm doing the best I can and trying to be adventurous, but mystery could mean death.

I can't learn the characters for tree nuts or read any labels. Even the western food sold in the Expat-oriented grocery stores has a Chinese label plastered over the English ingredient list, so if I'm not familiar with it and haven't used it before, I can't buy it.

The Chinese cook with some nuts, but usually not many, other than cashews, but they use sesame seeds and sesame oil ALL THE TIME!  I have my allergy cards and the Chinese waiters and chefs have been very helpful in making sure I don't get any allergens in my food, but many times, I'm just not sure they understand, both the allergies and the severity of my reaction.  Most people don't understand the severity of my reaction.  In the U.S., I often "joke" with a waiter or waitress who says they don't know for sure whether something contains nuts that they might as well call 911 now, because I'll be dead if they don't.  They usually get my point.

Recently, one American-style Chinese restaurant here in Shanghai told me that the other American-style Chinese restaurant was probably lying to me when they told me that their food didn't contain nuts and seeds.  The conversation ended when I told them that if anyone lied to me about that, I'd know immediately and would probably be dead.

Beyond the worry of communicating my allergies is my real fear of living in China - there is no 911, or at least the emergency medical treatment is not something upon which I can reply.  Of course, there is an emergency number I can call, but they won't speak English.  If I can communicate my problem and get an ambulance, they are notoriously slow to arrive and there may not be any medical professional on the ambulance - it's a glorified taxi that you have to have cash to pay for up front.  Once I get to the local hospital, assuming it's after hours or on the weekend and I can't go to an Expat Clinic, they probably won't speak much English either.  I would have get in line behind the others who arrived ahead of me, armed with my allergy cards and several thousand RMB in cash, as they don't take insurance and demand payment before treatment.  My 30 minutes of Epi-pen will be long gone by the time I actually finished getting there, paying, and communicating what the problem is, despite my allergy cards.

And that scenario is for Shanghai, where there are a quarter of a million Western expats and lots of English speakers and expat-oriented medical clinics.  Traveling to smaller cities and towns, places where fewer expats live, is much more problematic.

I really enjoy meeting other expats and attending meetings, gatherings, day tours, trips, and luncheons for the American Club, the Shanghai Expat Association, and all of the other women's groups available to me here.  However, most of these events involve food and so I always have check with the organizers ahead of time, be the "difficult" one, and often bring my own food.  Do I ever get much of a discount off the fairly steep prices of things because I have to bring my own food - very rarely.  While the food isn't the only thing to experience at these events, I'd just once like to be able to choose my food and get something I want to eat rather than take whatever different meal they come up with for me in substitution for the nut or sesame contaminated entree.  

I'm always the high-maintenance person at the table.  And I was not raised to be high-maintenance, so it just goes against my grain.  I'm embarrassed, uncomfortable, unhappy and usually still hungry.  I'm a diabetic, so I have to eat something at these luncheons or on day-long trips or tours, but I can't bring my own food to a fancy restaurant for a luncheon.  And if I never went to any of these events, because I was scared of the food issues, I'd have no social life at all in Shanghai.  

We're planning a trip with our daughters to Siem Reap, Cambodia over Christmas.  I'm excited to see the temples and enjoy a family vacation, but worried about Cambodian food, which apparently contains a lot of coconut.  We've hired an English-speaking guide and I already explained to him my allergies and concerns.  This is the only way I can feel brave enough to travel n Asia.  It's more expensive, but I feel more comfortable with someone who can interpret for me. 

I just have to accept that I can't try street food, I can't eat "local," I can't order from a menu with no English or a waiter who doesn't understand what I need.  Whether it's when friends and family visit from the U.S. or when I go out to eat with people I've met here in Shanghai, I have to stand up straight and say no, there's nothing I can eat at this restaurant, we have to go elsewhere.  I can't even try a bite, and it's not because I'm stuffy or elitist or an "Ugly American" or unadventurous or dull.  It's because I want to stay alive.

Sericulture Tour - Making Silk in Shanghai

On Saturday, September 27, Chris and I joined the Shanghai & Beyond tour group on a trip to Nanxun, which is about 90 minutes southwest of Shanghai, to learn about Sericulture - the process of raising silkworms.

In the Yangtze river delta, silkworms are raised only twice a year-May and September, so we took to a tour out to Nanxun, an old water town, to see this ancient skill and observe the traditional methods still being used today. According to our guides, this heritage skill will eventually fade into history as China’s younger generation seeks sustainable and better paying jobs in the cities.

We started our day at the factory, where we saw some of the finished silk bedding products produced for the Chinese market.  We learned that the factory owner purchases eggs from the University in Suzhou, where they have the moths who lay the eggs that will grown into silkworms.  The eggs go to the farmers to be raised for 30 days.  There are many farmers raising silkworms for the factory, so we went to a farm to see the process up close.


The farm didn't look at all like what we think a farm is - it was a long table in the back room of someone's house with 20,000 silkworms spread out on a table munching on mulberry leaves.  

The farmers were very happy to see us, as were there neighbors, who came out to take pictures of us.  The silkworms were nearing the end of their 30-day growth cycle, during which they have to be watched and fed constantly.  The noise of them eating their mulberry leaves was amazing and the constantly wiggling table was a little creepy.  Within a few days, the silkworms will poop and then begin to spin their cocoons.  Once the silken cocoons are finished, the farmer will harvest and boil them, thereby killing the worm inside, and deliver them to the factory.  It takes a good 10,000 cocoons to make an average duvet, so the factory receives hundreds of thousands of cocoons.


We drove from the farm back to the factory to see the different types of bedding made by this particular factory and learn about the process of taking this silken thread and stretching it into the filling of these remarkable duvets.  Silk duvets keep you both warm and cool and are lightweight, soft and fluffy.  We've had them in our home in Elmhurst for more than 10 years, but didn't really understand the process until this tour.


Everyone was given the opportunity to purchase bedding, if desired, even though shopping is not a usual component of a Shanghai and Beyond tour.  Of course, we ordered a new "summer weight" duvet for our king-sized bed back in the U.S. as well as a new pillow for me.  The silk is hypo-allergenic, so I want to see how well I like the pillows, as we've never tried them before.
 
The factory owners live on the factory complex and hosted us for the private tour and then served us lunch at their home.  Of course, I had checked ahead of time and couldn't eat any of the lunch, as we had no idea what was in any of it, so I brought a lunch of my own.  Chris enjoyed it though.  :)
 
After lunch, we headed back to the old part of town, the beautiful old water town.  We toured the 19th century homes and gardens of the wealthy families that helped build the silk industry in the community and took a boat ride on the canals.  The canals were so peaceful and the gardens were lovely.

Even though it was a three-hour round trip drive, the tour was fascinating and well worth the drive.  We learned a lot, had a beautiful day in the country, and ordered some great new silk bedding.