City of snow and ice

Last weekend we took an overnight train to Harbin for their famed ice and snow festival. James had wanted to see this for a while, but to me it just sounded COLD. Like, really cold. And while I think it was probably the coldest weather I'd ever experienced (well, there wasn't much wind--Boston could really get you with the wind), we survived, and the ice festival was oddly magical.

I'll post photos, because I have them, but really photos in no way capture what the festival is like. It makes you feel like a little kid again, remembering winter's giddy and childlike joys. I mean, seriously, this huge conglomeration of structures, many of them multi-story, all made from ice, that will melt and will have to be totally reconstructed the next year--amazing.

Here I am. I look cold:


Harbin had some other charms--the Russian-style architecture through the main street and the lovely old church (which is not in such good shape anymore), a lively street life, and if nothing else, the hot tub at the Shangri-La--but definitely go during the ice festival. We also saw the Siberian tiger park--it was not my favorite, though they are majestic animals, but I didn't have a great feeling about how the animals were being treated.

I did love how just about every older person in the city seemed to have been conscripted into some sort of performing arts troupe--we saw a choir in the old Russian church, stilt-walkers, elaborately costumed dancers--but something about these older ladies doing their fan dance, full of pride, really touched me:


And did I mention our hotel had an ice bar?? That is all you really needed to know, wasn't it? We in fact ate dinner in the adjoining ice restaurant--the entire structure was made of ice. We had hot pot, and the steam from our pots of hot broth created such a cloud that we couldn't see people across the room. Plus, who doesn't love hot pot?

A really fun trip. And tomorrow night we fly off to Kenya for some transcontinental adventuring!

Destination: Hong Kong

Okay, folks... whoever is out there still reading after my lame hiatus(es). It is time to talk Hong Kong.

I went to Hong Kong four months ago. Wow. It is crazy to say it that way. Can we have a side note on how time in Beijing is just FLYING? Like, hurtling by at lightning speed. I can't handle the madness of that. I JUST KNOW that it will feel like maybe two weeks from now when we're packing out and getting ready to leave.

But anyway, once upon a time I went to Hong Kong, and it was amazing, and I immediately started plotting how to move there (though not quite as aggressively as I did when I first saw Sydney).

Hong Kong is a great city for just hanging out, absorbing, observing, being. There are not too many tourist must-dos--we rode the Star Ferry (several times, in fact, since it was actually a fairly useful way to get around in addition to being a tourist favorite--it was cheap, normal public transportation cost, and definitely in use by locals as well), took the tram up to the Peak and took the obligatory photos:


But before James arrived for the weekend (I went for a work trip, specifically to get a new visa, and then James joined me for the weekend), I mostly shopped (iPad! Clothing that didn't top out at a US size 4! Jewelry from funky boutiques around Hollywood Road!) and ate. And once James arrived, we continued the eating (but cut the shopping). Dim sum. That is all I need to say. (Must say, on a side note, L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon was slightly disappointing; not as disappointing as Maison Boulud in Beijing, but not nearly at the level of Jean Georges in Shanghai, which I think may take the prize of best Western restaurant in China).

I was fortunate to get lots of tips from college chum Hana, who edits/writes for several cool, out-and-about type magazines and knew lots of great hidden places. She also took us on a really fun day trip to Lamma Island, which required a ferry ride to be transported to pretty much a completely different world from Hong Kong Island, filled with hippies, hiking trails, fishing boats, and tasty seafood restaurants.

Hong Kongers are also shockingly friendly, especially after Beijing, and I found the politeness and friendliness when asked directions to be really lovely. As I said, plotting my someday moves... :)

Reasons why Shanghai is awesome

1. It's walkable! There are lots of areas within walking distance of each other, and lots to see on foot. I enjoyed long strolls, even if it was a bit chilly at Christmas.

2. Jean Georges. I could stop the list right here and everyone would be like, yes, Shanghai is awesome. Me looking happy as a clam at Christmas brunch:

3. Shanghai has a pirate bar. For realz! Unshockingly, we were the only ones there on Christmas. Whatever. It said "Christmas spirit" to me.

4. People are marginally more laid-back and less likely to shove you into traffic to nab your bit of sidewalk. But only marginally so. They're still living in China, after all, and if you don't shove a little, you don't get anywhere.

5. Lots of gorgeous architecture on the Bund and the surrounding area--much preferred it to some of the monstrosities in Pudong.

6. Plenty of good opportunities for transporting oneself into the movie Lust, Caution.

7. Soup dumplings! We were sent to an amazing hole-in-the-wall dumpling place steps from out hotel door, and it did not disappoint. We went twice in a 2.5-day trip--and each time ordered what seemed like an impossible number, only to finish them all. Mmmm:


(With a touch of James's argyle.)

8. It's linked to Beijing by an incredibly efficient and fairly comfortable high-speed train, which leaves from the sleek, new, airport-like Beijing South Station--a HUGE upgrade (almost infinite, really) from the chaos and filth of that blight upon the train-riding public, the Beijing West Station (which we used when going to Xi'an). So the crazy lady doesn't even have to fly! Add that to the fact that hotels were shockingly cheap over Christmas, and it's a perfect getaway.

Next up--I really, really need to catch up on Hong Kong.

Book update

While I still haven't finished A Suitable Boy (and who could blame me? 1400 pages what what?), I did start and finish (all in one sitting, in fact) The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes. Thoughtful and oh-so-haunting--after I read it I spent the next day randomly talking about it and thinking through various parts aloud (to James, who hadn't read it)--it got so bad that I finally just made him read it on the train back from Shanghai so we could talk about it.

Also massively excited to read Haruki Murakami's reputed masterpiece, 1Q84, which my mother kindly gifted me for Christmas.

Happy New Year!

2011 had its ups and downs, but in the end, I am sorry to see it go.

We are having a productive New Years Eve thus far--woke up (relatively) early, got our yellow fever vaccines (remind me never to return to a Chinese clinic that isn't Beijing United or International SOS--no choice for this one as the government restricts who can give it) in preparation for our trip to KENYA!!! next month (where we'll hang out with this lovely lady), ate a delicious dim sum lunch at the Hong Kong import Cuisine Cuisine, shopped for ingredients at Jenny Lou's, hung out reading the internet for a bit, and are now getting ready for New Years Eve festivities.

May your 2012 be filled with glorious adventure; reasons to remember why you are still globetrotting (or if you're not, perhaps why you should be?); love, in all its forms; and beautiful things, people, and vistas.

This vs. that

So... it's been a while. Hey guys. Sorry about that. The problem is, you see, I live in a city with STUFF TO DO. Blogging was, in fact, quite easy when living in Dhaka, where there was no stuff to do.

For example, here there is a Pizza Hut around the corner from my house. I am not sure to what depths of boredom and lack of imagination I would have to fall to consider eating there. In Dhaka, on the other hand, a major highlight was gathering friends and partaking in Pizza Hut's annual all-you-can-eat pizza iftar special, when Bangladeshis would camp out at tables hours before sunset awaiting the moment they could devour some cheesy goodness.

You see, life is different now.

The other night, I was at a colleague's birthday dinner in the fabulously appointed new restaurant, Temple, eating foie gras, sipping wine, and listening to another colleague tell stories of a former posting in Istanbul. And I thought to myself, wow, I've really been a sucker, haven't I?

Because all along there were these people in THIS Foreign Service, and I was over in THAT one, where alcohol was illegal, the hand-size spiders lived in my house, and THERE WAS NOTHING TO DO.

So I have to apologize for my lack of blog posts--I still owe one about Hong Kong, which would be good to write before we jet off to Shanghai this weekend. Because darlings, I am in THIS Foreign Service now.

At least until the State Department decides I am going to Afghanistan.

Of fancy balls and meatballs, whines and wine.

Once again, time has gotten away from me, and I am a mediocre blogger, at best. This weekend was the weekend of the Marine Ball (which I had forgotten when I thought about going away). The Marine Ball was a lot of fun, so much fun that I didn't take pictures. And maybe a little too much fun, since it appears I left my shoes (I had changed into flats on the way out) in a cab on the way home. Oops.

Friday we celebrated Veterans Day with a trip to our favorite Swedish house of fun, Ikea. We had wanted to go on an American holiday since we heard it is mobbed on weekends. It was still pretty crowded on a Friday, but not so bad that we couldn't move around, so I guess that's a win.

We came away with much-needed items large and small, from bookshelves to an armchair to read in to a wok to a soap dish. Plus lots of excellent items from the Swedish food store: ginger cookies, smoked salmon, lemon-and-elderberry vodka, salmon paste in a tube (hey, don't judge. James thinks it's gross, but that is his problem). And did I mention that in China they'll deliver and assemble the furniture for $25? Yessssssssss. Follow that all up with some Swedish meatballs in the restaurant, and you can call it a successful day.

I wore an air cast to hobble about Ikea--my sprained ankle is improving slowly. Very slowly. Same with my skin--some parts of me look normal, other parts are still covered in fading hives. My skin, which never used to be sensitive, now reacts to the slightest things--something touching my skin for too long (an air cast, for instance?). My eyes have been red and itchy and dry and covered in a perpetual rash for weeks. Basically, I am mostly better, but I feel like my body is ready to turn on me at any moment. I am pretty sick of this feeling.

So there I am, living in moderate low-level skin rash crankiness, and still not really succeeding in getting out to see Beijing, between the Ikea trip, the waiting for the Ikea furniture to be delivered/Marine Ball-ing, and then today's post-Marine-Ball recovery.

But lest you think I did nothing today, I did make pumpkin chili and halfway organize our bookshelves. Not all the way, though. That would have been too productive.