Category Archives: Art

Day 502 In Beijing: The Maiden’s Tower.

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The Maiden's Tower.

The Maiden’s Tower.

 

Jill and I were cruising on the ferry back to Istanbul and enjoying the ride.

One of the joys of riding this ferry is that it passes by the Maiden’s Tower.

The Maiden’s Tower is a beautiful that pops right out of the bay and into the sky.

It isn’t very large, but it is quite impressive, all the same.

The story behind the tower is interesting enough, as it was built long ago and used as a military look out against invaders, and is now a restaurant and tourist destination.

Jill and I didn’t visit it, this trip, but we’ve both been there before and found it quite enjoyable.

The legend behind the Maiden’s Tower is quite intriguing.

Supposedly, an oracle told an emperor that his daughter would die from a poisonous snake on her 18th birthday.

The emperor, thinking he could outsmart fate, built this tower and kept her in it until she turned 18.

However, on her 18th birthday, he brought her a basket of delicious fruits in a beautiful basket.

When she reached in to get one of the fruits, an asp, which had been hiding in the basket, bit her and killed her.

A close up of the Maiden's Tower.

A close up of the Maiden’s Tower.

So, in case you think you can tempt fate, and ignore what an oracle’s prophecy, think again.

Day 498 In Beijing: Trip To Prince Islands: More Horse and Carriage Videos.

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Two horses and their dyed manes.

Two horses and their dyed manes.

 

Honestly, Jill and I grew up in the countryside and we love horses.

We just can’t get enough of them and love to take videos and spend time around them.

When we get out of Beijing, and start traveling again, we will definitely take our time and ride horses more often.

I’d like to do a fairly major campaign, on horseback, for a few days and see what it is like.

Maybe in the Grand Canyon or maybe some place much less busy and more isolated so that we can just enjoy the freedom, solitude, and quiet of the Earth instead of the noise and speed of cities.

 

 

Day 495 In Beijing: Trip To Prince Islands, Part 4.

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Another house in disrepair.

Another house in disrepair.

 

Jill and I wandered around the port area for most of the rest of the day.

It was very relaxing, calm and beautiful.

We really miss being near water, since we are so used to it living in San Francisco and the Bay Area for much of our lives, and this was wonderful.

We just walked, for a few hours, and took pictures of the people, the sights, and the scenery.

Honestly, we couldn’t have asked for more and it was just another fantastic memory that we will have from this trip.

One of the great benefits of being hired to work in China is that we get to travel to so many places and see so many different cultures.

So far, in just over one year, we’ve been to Malaysia twice, Singapore twice, Shanghai, Xian, Tianjin, Turkey, Greece, and Mongolia.  Add in all the places we’ve visited in Beijing and it has been a very eventful year to say the least considering Jill and I met only 8 days before I moved to Beijing and she had no intention of moving away from San Francisco until she met me.

I truly love ports, and the small boats, that are all over these little islands and would love to learn how to sail someday as that would give us another way to find freedom and visit places that others don’t get to very often.

I was thinking of doing that, but then was hired for my job, and that has been put on hold.

Who knows, maybe when I get back to the states, I will follow through with it and become a sailor.

Just one more thing to add to the bucket list.

 

Day 493 In Beijing: Trip To Prince Islands, Part 2.

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A horse drawn carriage in front of one of the beautiful houses.

A horse drawn carriage in front of one of the beautiful houses.

Jill and I arrived at Buyukada and and checked into our room.

It was about a 3 minute walk from the port and we have a wonderful view of the rooftops, the walking street below our balcony, and the Sea of Marmara.

We loved that they had set up the bed with red roses petals and made a very cute heart design on it.

They also had a complimentary bottle of wine and a fruit and cheese plate for us in our room when we arrived.

It was a perfect way to start our island getaway and “vacation” from our vacation.

We love Istanbul but there is so much construction going on that it is quite loud.

There are also lots of cars, and with lots of cars, you get lots of horns honking.

We both grew up in small towns and forget how wonderful peace and quiet is when we don’t have it for so long.

Well, Buyukada is about as peaceful and quiet as they come.

Why?  Because cars are not allowed on the island.

It is all horse drawn carriages and a few electric vehicles.

It is wonderful because it is so quiet other than the click-clacking of hooves on stone roads.

They have paved some of the “main” roads (which are two lanes so still not very big) that circle the island but many of the streets in the town are just cobblestone.

It is truly wonderful.

We walked by the horse drawn carriage station and took a few pictures but decided to wait until tomorrow because we wanted to hang out and just take in this little town.

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Day 491 In Beijing: The Istanbul Funicular.

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The view from inside the funicular.

The view from inside the funicular.  I love the look on his face.

Jill and I love trains and subways.

It just makes life so much easier when you can let someone else do the transport and not have traffic.

That is one of the true benefits of Istanbul and other major cities in that we can just relax, cruise around, and see the sights instead of stressing out and driving.

Our plan, when we return back the USA, is to live carless and be as mobile as possible.

As I’ve written before, we stayed for a full month in Turkey and Greece with only one carry on luggage each.

We don’t want to stay locked down to one particular location and want to be as free as possible.

Jill’s business, San Francisco Tourism Tips, is one of the ways we can accomplish this endeavor.

Istanbul has a funicular underneath one of the major hills and it makes travel very easy.

The hill that it hides under is the same hill that has the Galata Tower on top of it.

It isn’t a terribly tall hill, but it is steep, and in the heat and humidity of the Turkish summer, it can be a nice little respite.

We ended up taking the funicular about 10 different times, in our 2 week stay, and it cost about 2 USD per ride and took only about 60-90 seconds. It travels about 2000 feet.  If you see the hill we were able to remove from our travels, it was worth it.

By the way, make sure to watch until the end of the video as the gears that move the funicular are quite beautiful and painted by people that are very artistic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 481 In Beijing: Xian and The Muslim Quarter.

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Annie, Jill, me, Eleni, Alena and Phil in front of the Xian Drum Tower.

Annie, Jill, me, Eleni, Alena and Phil in front of the Xian Drum Tower.

Jill, the rest of the group, and I really enjoyed riding around on the wall.

Since it was flat, it wasn’t very strenuous and it was fun.

We had to be done by 6:50 otherwise we couldn’t return our bikes so we spend through the last corner and turned them in.

We also then met up with Emre, from Turkey and Alena, from Russia.

We headed down the stairs and into the walled city so we could meet up with a few other people that were attending the conference and check out the Muslin Quarter and have some dinner.

After taking a few pictures, we were able to find Catarina, from Portugal and Sarah, from Germany.

We also met our “host” Marco, who is from Germany but has lived in Xian for the past 9 years.

He knew every nook and cranny of this city and made sure to show us a good time.

Marco was even kind enough to lead me and Jill on a hunt for good vegetarian food because the dinner place everyone else chose only had meat.  We ended up bringing our food back and enjoying it with them.

We all went out to dinner and then went to a crazy restaurant named, “Mexico” since we wanted to hang out and it is one of Marco’s favorite places.

Jill and I ordered Micheladas and they were quite good, other than being served in beer glasses instead of mugs, but that is where the fun started.  Our friends ordered mojitos that seemed to have been made with Sprite and vodka.  Everyone else said their drinks were fine and we were more than happy with our Micheladas.

We also ordered chips and….honey mustard dressing?  Yep, the chips came with that as a sauce and also with ketsup.  Not really how I remember them being served when I went to Mexico, but, when in China…

Anyway, it was a great night and we had a lot of fun.

Best of all, we made a bunch of new friends, from all over the world, and were able to experience a brand new city.

 

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Day 479 In Beijing: The Xian Wall, Part 1.

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The gang with our bikes. From left: Jill, Phil, me, Eleni and Annie.

The gang with our bikes. From left: Jill, Phil, me, Eleni and Annie.

Jill and I have been to the Great Wall of China two different times.

We are actually going again in about one week.

We will be going with a bunch of students from Eseune Business School and our dear friend, Nuria.

I actually met Nuria when I first moved here and went salsa dancing.

She’s from Bilbao, Spain, and a wonderful person.

She works at the school and invited us to come along with the new students and stay at a farm house.

We immediately accepted and thought this would be a wonderful way to spend the Autumn Holiday in China.

However, since we were still in Xian, at the conference, we decided to check out the Xian Wall.

Now, it isn’t as long as the Great Wall, obviously, and is actually inside the city itself.

It runs about 16 kilometers long and is about 50 feet high.  It is also formed in the shape of a rectangle that protected much of the old city.

Most of the houses and businesses inside it are the “old style” but they are being torn down, like so much of China, to build new and “civilized”housing which is not very interesting or exciting.

This is the way of progress, I guess, and it makes us quite sad.

We ended up going with a bunch of friends, from many different countries, and riding bikes on top of the wall.

We had been told that it had rained for 2 weeks straight in Xian, and the skies had been hidden by “fog” that whole time.  A word to the wise, when a Chinese National says “fog” they mean smog but they don’t want to admit it.  Trust me, it is smog.

Tonight was absolutely gorgeous and we were able to take a lot of fantastic pictures with our new friends.

Phil is the tall guy and he is from Austria, Eleni is blond and from New Zealand, Annie is a brunette and from Sweden.

 

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Day 476 In Beijing: Trip To Xian, Terracotta Warriors, Part 6.

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Jill and I primarily take photographs but we also realize that having a video of something as magnificent as the Terracotta Army makes a real impression on others.

It is still hard to comprehend the size, and amount of soldiers, if you aren’t there in person, but this gives a better representation of it all.

If you are ever in town, to paraphrase Ferris Bueller, I highly recommend visiting it.

 

 

 

Day 475 In Beijing: Trip To Xian, Terracotta Warriors, Part 5.

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The final shot of the Terracotta Army.

The final shot of the Terracotta Army.

 

Jill and I continued our tour around Pit 1 and were able to see more of the warriors that were getting excavated and refurbished.

We didn’t hire a guide, since we were in a rush and didn’t want to bargain.

Yes, everything in China is a bargaining event and it gets very tiring.

Sometimes we just want to pay a fair price and be done with it so we just give up and don’t bother.

Imagine living each day as if you were going into a car dealership and having to bargain for a lot of what you want.

It tends to make us cynical and jaded and we, therefore, don’t have as much interaction as we normally would with others.

So, we skipped the tour guide and I wish we hadn’t because I would have liked to know why they are wrapped in cellophane.

Our guess was they were being glued back together and this allows them to hold until the glue settles but we aren’t sure.

Either way, walking around the back of the exhibit was a wonderful way to end our visit to the Terracotta Army.

 

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Day 474 In Beijing: Trip To Xian, Terracotta Warriors, Part 4.

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Jill and me in front of the army.

Jill and me in front of the army.

Jill and I kept cruising around Pit 1 and looking for places to take pictures of this magnificent vision.

We loved every second of it, other than the pushing and shoving, and we really amazed by all the different people visiting the site.

We didn’t realize it, but there were about 15 other EACHAM people there at the same time we were there.

How do we know this?

Well, we saw a bunch of expatriates walking around and one of them was very noticeable.

His name, we found out later in the day, was Phil, and he was from Austria.

Why did Phil stand out?

Phil stood out because Phil stands about 6 feet and 7 inches tall.

He is a giant in China.

He is also a very kind person and when we ran into him the next day at the expo that EACHAM paid for us to go to, he invited us to tour the Xian City Wall and check out the Muslim Quarter inside the wall afterward.

We ended up meeting a bunch of new friends, from many different countries, which I will blog about in a few days, and having a wonderful time.

It is repetitive but this is why Jill and I love being expats:  We meet so many people, with so many different stories, from so many different parts of the world.

I think that is also why I loved dancing Cuban style salsa back in the USA: It brings together such a diverse community, from all over the world, the just enjoy being together and connecting.

I’ve included a few of the pictures that the nice Australian couple took of us while we spoke with them.

 

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