September 2011

 

 

Ephesus is awesome. It blows away anything we saw in Israel.

We’ve been to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, ruins of dozens of temples spread over a large area. Very impressive, but no sign of the people who lived there. Gods’ houses were made of stone, people’s from wood and have long disappeared.

In Ephesus, you see the city, remains of the agora, stoas, theaters, the library, the public toilet, the brothel. Everything a city needs.

 

 

We met our tour guide at the boat and he took us around in a minivan. He was efficient but thorough. In a little over three hours he had taken us through Ephesus and up the mountain to the house of the Virgin Mary, pointing out additional sights along the way. Much more efficient than being in a big tour group.

One annoying note, I seem to have lost my small camera. I didn’t use it today, but had it in my pocket and it wasn’t there when we returned to the ship. Must have fallen from my pocket in the van. Fortunately, I have all the Ephesus pictures.

Odd, somehow. On the anniversary of 9/11, we find ourselves in a Muslim country.

 

 

December 2007

The biggest impression we took away from our first trip to Berlin was:

Not this:

 

 

Or this:

 

 

Or not even these:

Here’s Pat’s take on it:

We left LA on Christmas Eve, arriving in Frankfort on Christmas Day. From there we drove to Gottingen and had Christmas dinner with YK’s 3 cousins and their families.

From Gottingen we planned to go to Dresden for two nights, then on to Berlin. Yk has been using Priceline, the travel bidding site, to make hotel reservations. With a little bit of research, she’s been able to get good deals. From Gottingen, she set out to make Berlin hotel reservations for Dec. 29 and 30. Her research told her that $80 a night usually worked, so she tried $70 for a 4-star hotel. No go. She tried a higher price, changed areas, still no go. Finally, she dropped to a 3-star hotel and dropped the price to $50. Bingo! Courtyard by Marriott. I thought we were home free, but apparently she had also dropped the request to the night of the 29^th. When we tried to extend to the 30^th, not available. Higher bids and wider searches turned up nothing for the 30^th. Apparently the entire country descends on Berlin to celebrate Silvester (New Year’s Eve). Abandoning Priceline and searching hotel websites, yk finally found a downscale hotel for the 30^th for 80 euros, a far cry from $50. It did include breakfast, though.

May 2014

My cousin’s graphic designer daughter took us around the ethnic neighborhoods of Berlin.  The cousin’s young professional son and daughter were attracted to the vibes of these areas, and they chose to live in Tempelhof, a multiethnic area. The most popular kebob sandwich place was only a 5-minute walk from my cousin’s apartment. The line was long, but the wait was worth it.

 

May 2015

My cousin was out of town, thus, we took over the apartment and played locals for a couple of days. Walking from the central station to the parliament(Bundestag) then onto the Brandenburg Gate was a nice introduction to the historic center of the city. We then checked out some art museums and galleries.

August 2016

My cousin and his children took us to a Korean fusion restaurant in Berlin city center. It was quite artsy in the interior design and the food presentation. Tasted pretty good, too. Considering all that, the prices were not too high.

November 2006

Once again, yk has brought me somewhere I would never, in my wildest dreams have expected to visit – Inner Mongolia.

We are traveling with a group of Korean businesswomen who are interested in buying a building and setting up several retail businesses, including an English academy. That’s where we come in.

We flew out of Beijing on Wednesday night (11/21) arriving at the brand new airport (opened in August) in Hohhot at about 11PM. We were met by a bus, the local district manager and a bilingual (Korean, Chinese) guide. The government guy gave us an introduction to the city as we rode to our hotel.

Hohhot and environs comprise 2.5 million people and is growing rapidly. In fact, we were told it’s the fastest growing region in China which could well make it the fastest growing region in the world.

We are staying in a 1000 room (that’s right, 1000 room) luxury hotel that is as fine as any hotel I’ve stayed in in the U.S. and better than most. It’s the only hotel I’ve ever been in which features a “pillow menu.” The only reminders that we’re not in a luxury hotel in the U.S. is the admonition not to drink the tap water and the ubiquity of matches and ashtrays.

Wednesday we were shown around the city by our guide and numerous local officials in full sales mode, concentrating on marketing area and areas in development. Late afternoon we met with several government officials, including the chairman of the local communist party, for two hours. They offered to negotiate with owners for us.

The chairman then hosted a traditional Mongolian dinner for the group. If this guy were an American, he’d be a Republican. He explained that the job of government is to support the business person.

The dinner featured an interesting drinking ritual. A young woman and young man in traditional Mongolian dress entered the room. While the man played a stringed instrument, the woman sang and approached someone at the table and presented him or her with a tea cup full of strong Mongolian whiskey. Being the only westerner, I was one of the first approached. Yk had told me that I had to down it all at once, so, of course, I did. The young lady, still singing, had the cup refilled and gave it back to me, so I had to down another. I was subsequently told that if you empty the cup before she finishes the song you must drink another.

At the end of the song, she would drape a white silk scarf around the neck of the drinker.

I subsequently learned, after watching some local people, that there was more to the ritual.

Apparently one should dip one’s finger in the drink, then toss three drops over the right shoulder, then anoint the forehead. Then you finish the drink and turn the cup upside down over your head, presumably to demonstrate that it is empty.

On Friday we drove about two and a half hours to Baotou City, an older city in a region of heavy industry. Hotel and meal were decidedly less spectacular than in Hohhot.

Inner Mongolia is an autonomous ethnic region of China, similar to Yanbian. As such, signs must be bilingual with the ethnic language first. I don’t recall ever seeing Mongolian script before this road trip. The characters appear to be vertical bars with various curlicues coming out of them. We were told that virtually no one reads or speaks Mongolian.

We took the long way back on Saturday, stopping at the Genghis Khan mausoleum. Oddly enough, it does not contain his remains, the location of his grave is unknown, but some of his clothes and weapons were found here and the site is considered to contain his spirit. There were about ten older men bowing and singing at the shrine inside. I was told that they were the 39^th generation of Genghis Khan’s first general and were praying for a family member, a recent suicide.

Stopped in another booming city, Erdos City, for lunch, then returned to Hohhot for dinner, at which yk and I met with the dean of a local university and his English interpreter. He is interested in our program and invited us to visit him at the university on our next visit to Mongolia. We’ll see what happens.

We flew back to Beijing on Sunday morning. That morning, in the hotel, I saw the first, and only, western face I saw during the 4 days in Inner Mongolia.