A Letter from China!

Happy 2012!

Hi everyone.  It is New Years Day in China.  Believe it or not we are sitting around watching football. 
 
We celebrating New Years Eve at a place called "The Brew" last night with a Chinese rock band singing Justin Beiber songs.  Earl was giving a special brew master's tour of the facilities  and we ate risotto truffles, blue cheese and barbecued ribs.  I had a meringue with a strawberry filling.  Nothing primitive about the expat lifestyle.

I cannot write online using Earl's computer because the Chinese have blocked Blogger.  It is very frustrating for me.  I did have a VPN but they have also blocked that service.  I will wait to use a computer somewhere else or back at home.  I guess there is no way for them to sort the good people out from the bad. 

Air quality has been very bad but the wind is blowing off the China sea today so I guess the muck will be circulating the earth before long.  It has not rained since we arrived and every leaf on every plant has turned a dusty brown color. 

After a drive yesterday it occurred to me that sewage may be a problem especially with so much standing water.  In this largest city in the world the millions of people do have a hard time disposing of their waste.  Andy tells me the largest sewage treatment plant in the world is located out here in Pu Dong close to their house.  As for the garbage, trucks are hauling huge loads out to use as fill for the new runways they are building out in the sea at the Pu Dong International Airport.  Amanda keeps saying garbage is making China bigger really fast!  It is so amazing to see.

The trip to Vietnam was just as wonderful as we thought it would be.  We traveled from the far north very near the China border on the eastern slope of the Himalayan Mountains to the southern tip of the country where a fishing village was surrounded by house boats on the southern island.  The smell of Vietnamese fish sauce lingers in my nose and I feel that I smell like fish still.  The food was delicious and it made my life of dealing with celiac easy.  I lost several pounds just because there was nothing to snack on.

We traveled on the night train to Sapa in the north as well as taxis, vans, planes both big and very small.  I saw silk sleeping bags in markets but could not understand what they were for until we saw trekkers beginning their journeys through the mountains to do home stays with H'mong families.  I wished I'd had one on the train.  In fact, when we arrived back at Andy's house the first thing we did was wash everything we owned.  Amanda just threw many things away.  We all were sick at one time or another but nothing serious.  My hands were raw from washing.

We will be leaving on the fifth (Thursday) and arrive home on that same day.  That international date line still is hard for me to wrap my mind around! We miss you all.

Love you,
Barbara 

10 Things about travel in Vietnam..2011

Cassia Cottages

FYI:

1. Do not worry about not speaking the Language
2. Taxi service is very good and not a problem.
3. You do not need to be fearful for your safety.
4. The cost for food is ridiculously low.
5. The food is delicious but if you want to pretend you are back home, you can probably order food just like mom cooks.
6. If you suffer from celiac disease this is the perfect place for you.  Food can be very salty so ask for no salt if you need to.
7. Travel with hand cleaner even though the accommodations are very clean.
8. Drink lots of water before and after the plane flight.
9. Carry small packs of kleenex...and do not put toilet paper or kleenex in the toilet.
10. Always bargain with the people on the street and remember that store owners have a set price. Offer half what they ask but you will pay 1/3 less usually.  If you cannot afford the price just walk away but remember that if you touch an item or look closely, the vendor will think you are going to buy.  Expect to be beckoned in to the stall...get over the fact that you are not used to the practice.  You are not in Kansas anymore!

We are on Pho Quoc, an island off the coast of Vietnam and Cambodia.  We are staying in a resort called Cassia Cottages on a beach lined with other small resorts. We did not make arrangements for this vacation so I wondered about the process of making our stay in Vietnam happen. How do you find the perfect resort? I asked my daughter-in-law.  She then told me about the website she used for this particular trip called Trip Adviser.  

She used this website for the hotels in Hanoi, Sapa and Phu Quoc.  The hotels are ranked by people that have stayed in them so finding something that meets your requirements is just not that hard.  When you read the comments related to the resort you think might interest you, they are separated by family, couples or business.  This will give you a very clear vision of how people like you see the resort.  For example in Hanoi we stayed in Hanoi Gecko with bigger rooms so that we could put three beds in the rooms that needed them.  The owner actually went out and borrowed what he did not have.  In Sapa we stayed in Sapa Rooms but arrangements for our train trip was made through  Six on Sixteen, a Sapa Rooms sister hotel in Hanoi.  We stored extra luggage their when we traveled to Sapa and they opened the hotel early so we could wait in comfort for our plane flight out to Ho Chi Min City.

The small hotels and resorts are run in a very personal way.  The Six on Sixteen in Hanoi and Sapa Rooms are owned and run by an anthropologist/business man.  Amanda contacted him daily for a long time.  The personal care we received from him was amazing.  He is in the business of running hotels that give back to the Hmong people living in the Sapa region.  On Christmas day he will host a dinner for locals people and the guests in the hotel will wait tables and contribute to the meals.

We flew Vietnam Airlines directly from Shanghai, then from Hanoi to Ho Chi Min City and added a short hop over to the island.  Service was okay in all the cases.  I would advise you to eat before boarding the planes.  The food is marginal at best!  Really, looking inside the sandwich at the gray meat will give you a subject for conversation for quite a while.

More tomorrow.  The ocean is calling my name!

b

Phu Quoc fishing boat

The Teeny Tiny Cottage...a trend?

One of 10 Tiny Getaways on Apartment Therapy

      I have been a fan of the teeny tiny cottages for quite some time. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I have not given this concept in housing much time on this retire in style blog.  THEN I see that Apartment Style had a feature about the tiny houses this week. I want to be Apartment Style anyway and when I saw they had usurped my love of the tiny cottage, I was just miffed! Okay, I admit there is a blog called "Tiny House Blog" and Apartment Therapy is all about small spaces so I cannot lay claim to the small house exclusively. But still!
     You can buy a tiny house prefab...there is actually a company that sells them to consumers.  The company is called Tumbleweed Houses.  The small houses they sell prebuilt are on wheels so you can put them almost anywhere.  If you are a DIY kind of person, they sell the plans too.
      I received a question the other day from a senior citizen living here in the Tucson area wanting know if I know of any "tiny houses" here in the area. I could not give the person an address. However, here in Tucson you will find that very small houses are everywhere you look.  You just have to recognize one when you see it!  Here in the southwest they are called casitas...small house in Spanish.  With the arrival of the snowbirds in places like Green Valley just south of Tucson in the 1960's the small affordable housing craze began.  As I understand it, money from New York States Teacher's Retirement fund was used to built the first casitas and the rest is history.  These tiny little houses are still being used.

From NYTimes Home and Garden Section

     My favorite picture of a tiny house comes from the New York Time Home and Garden section. This little jewel was a stick built house in the Catskills.  I found the article via the blog about tiny houses I spoke of above.  When you go to the Tiny House Blog you will be treated to the elegant and the not so elegant in tiny houses.
     The Apartment Therapy article called 10 Tiny Getaways made me dream of lakes and firewood and sleeping with all the windows open.  The Tiny House Movement could be a dream that takes many forms.  I just thought you would want to know.

b

 Janette said...

There is a co housing place in Tucson that uses casita they way they were meant to be used. Milargro. Most of the houses are small themselves- but the casitas are small and VERY livable.
I keep telling my husband I want a tiny house in my future. I don't want a condo or an apartment- but small houses are rare. What do I need with even 1000 sq feet when I am 90? Much easier than living in a "rest home"

Related articles

• Tiny Rental Cottages - You Could Try On The Tiny Life Before You Commit (lifeaftersixty.wordpress.com)

Vacations Made Easy...tips for a short vacation!

Bridge near New Port, Oregon on the beach!

Have your ever gone on a tour and been in 4 countries, stayed in 6 hotels and eaten every meal in a "tour bus" restaurant?  It is a good way to cover a lot of ground, a pre-vacation of sorts but when you don't make the plans, it is all a blur.   Travel is a very personal thing and tours are not able to meet everyone's needs.  I have a better idea!

There are other ways to travel in a country or city and see a lot in a short period of time.  Our friends call it a "very vigorous vacation"! You can do it...I know you can.  Here is what we do.

• We choose a hotel or timeshare near the center of the location.  When you rent a car, for example, you are near to almost everything.  If you walk or use public transportation you can get around easily.  We did this in Spain.  We stayed on Costa del Sol, rented a car and took day trips to Rhonda, Granada and even went on a 2 day trip to Seville, Cadiz and Gibraltar.  
• When we check into the hotel we go to the postcard rack...my friend Norah taught me this trick.  All the major sights are on those postcards.  You can make your weeks plans before you even go to your room!  Buy a packet.
• Get to know the concierge...these people are a fountain of information.  I used to think they were only for reservations...not so.  They can answer most of your questions or will find what you need.  Take your packet of cards and let them help you find the places you want to go.  If you are in the far east, have this person write addresses for you.  The Chinese, for example, have a unique way of finding places.
• Most hotels or resorts are surrounded by support businesses.  Take a walk and get the lay of the land.  Local restaurants are generally better than hotel food...sorry!  In Puerta Vallarta Nuevo we walked a short distance,  enjoyed the company of locals and ate at a reasonable price.
• Talk to taxi drivers.  They are almost better than the concierge.  We have located wonderful neighborhoods, food and local color at the directions of a taxi driver.  They love to show off their knowledge.  Remember the postcards...here you should even find addresses plus pictures to show to a taxi driver that does not have a good grasp of the English language.
• We sometimes do one local tour.  It is expensive but worth it.  We generally do not go for the glitzy stuff.  We do not eat by candlelight on the beach...unless we light our own candles and take a picnic.  I do not think it is worth it.  I just don't have enough imagination to make the event seem "romantic".  I personally like something that includes several stops...shopping, tour of the countryside, a historic site.  We make up everything else as we go along...no more tours for us.  We don't need too...we have a package of post cards!

Relax...this is not hard.  Even riding public transportation in NYC is a lot of fun.  Ask questions and smile.  People want to help you out.  Vacations should be easy!.

Note:  I suggest you look at the Frugal Traveler in the New York Times.  He has some wonderful suggestions for train travel on the east coast. Guide to Cheap Buses (Including How to Score $1 tickets),

b

Obesity + Airplane Travel = Trouble!

If you are obese and planning to fly anywhere soon, you need to read this story.  This is absolutely the truth and just happened yesterday, July 1, 2010.

Yesterday our family flew in from Tucson, AZ.  When they put their feet on the ground and smelled the beautiful Portland, OR air, they smiled.  Really, there is nothing like the smell of damp air and things growing.  It would have been a perfect little trip.  But here is the rest of the story.

We're overloaded...YOU get off the plane!!!

Their flight required a layover in Denver...not a long layover but none the less an unloading  and a reloading procedure was required.  When the take off time arrived they reloaded, sat down and had just taken off their shoes and the shoes of their two young daughters when a stewardess announced that there was a mechanical problem and they would need to return to the terminal. Not a big thing because who wants to fly on a broken plane, right?

This is where it gets very interesting.  After a 1 1/2 hour wait, they were re-boarded.  They sat down, strapped in, took the families shoes off.  A stewardess came down the aisle as if to check to see if everyone was okay.   She looked each passenger over carefully and then stopped at the seat of an overweight older lady.  "I am very sorry mam", she said, "but we are over our weight limit and we will need for you to get off the plane."  Stunned silence followed the request.  The lady complied with their request...imagine her embarrassment.  The passengers around her helped with her carry on and the plane left Denver with one empty seat but not over the weight limit.

Now, what does this say about the American public?  If each person on that plane had weighed say 5 lbs. less, the plane could have flown.  If each person had taken a little less in carry-on luggage or stowed luggage, the plane could have flown.  And can you tell me which person should be asked to leave on a plane loaded with only over-weight passengers...say 250 to 300 lbs?  The fact that airlines are so anxious to get paid for extra luggage that they would not limit what their passengers can check so that there is always room for the passengers is nuts.  If they make the commitment to book people on a flight then the human seated on the plane should be the last thing to go.  They were late already...why not off load some luggage and put in on the next flight.  They made the promise when they sold the ticket.  I guess the necessity for something like this is what bothers me.  I am just saying!!!

Anyway, if you are obese you should be aware that this can happen to you even after you are seated on the plane.  I don't think there is anything that you can do.  If there is, we should all know what it is. At the rate we are going, anyone of us could eventually be asked to get off the plane.    This story made me sad!

Just a thought!

b