#4, #Chinese #iPhones and Elevators!

I noticed that the elevator did not have a #13 while I was in Mexico! When I visit the Far East it startles me because there it is big is life...a floor with the #13 button. However the Chinese have their superstitions too. They don't have all the buttons either. How does that work just exactly?

I had always thought that #13 superstition had something to do with Harry Houdini. I looked it up and I was wrong. However, numbers do play a part in most cultures on this earth I think. But to leave out a whole floor on every building's elevator just seems very, very strange don't you think?

Then I began to think about the iPhone. Since the Chinese think that the #4 sounds the same as the word for death, they don't have a #4 elevator button. I wondered if they allowed a #4 on all those new cell phones everyone is using.  Imagine...no #4 or GHI if you are texting the old fashioned way.

I don't know why it just hit me but #### are very strange, exotic and wonderful things when you think about them.

Have a wonderful day!

b+

This is an elevator panel made in China. Notice the differences.

Any number that ends in #4 (i.e. #24, #34, #44) is omitted. 

Both #13 and #14 are missing! I guess they don't use #1 and #2 either.

Obviously they are not taking any chances.

Note: I do know about the Last Supper, the stages of the moon and a lot of other stuff! Honestly I did look it up! Special thank to Janet and her article A Brief History of the Telephone on Midlife Boulevard for the inspiration!

Interesting huh?

Frugal Travel....Vietnam might be the place!

I was reading the Frugal Traveler this morning.  Author of the column, Seth Kugel, writes for the New York Times and is the "guru" of cheap travel.  You remember him...he was the one that blasted this blog out of the water last spring.  The article today is about Portugal.  Now that really is a place I would like to visit. But.....

In my world the Far East (excluding China) is by far the best buy for the frugal traveler right now.  We just returned from a trip to China and Vietnam. We visited Sapa, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and the island of Phú Quốc in Viet Nam and Shanghai in China. If I were looking for the most frugal of all adventures, Vietnam would be my choice right now...that is what I know so indulge me.

• Flight: $1450 (from Tucson AZ)
• Rooms:  $20+ Sapa Boutique Hotel, $140 Grand Hotel Ho Chi Minh City, $20-$100 Hanoi, $150 Cassia Cottages Phú Quốc (included breakfast).  This is a resort so the price is higher but in this case I think it is probably a very good choice.
• Trekking:  We booked our day hikes in the hotel we staying at.  We booked the guide after we had arrived. There are websites for treks with overnight stays in villages.  2 days 3 nights will cost around $170.  
• Overnight train fare from Hanoi to Lao Cai $25-$78.  Connecting Bus (1 1/2 hr.) $2 one way.
• Note:  A trip to Halong Bay could be another place you should put on your list.  

Sapa Rooms Boutique Hotel Lobby/Restaurant 

Night Train to Sapa from Hanoi

Valley below Sapa on the slope of the Hoang Lien Son range of mountains 
at the eastern extremity of the Himalayas.

Trek to Cat Cat Village

Cassia Cottages, Phú Quốc

I don't know when you last stayed in a $25 hotel room but it had been a very long time for me.  We stayed in a very small hotel in Hanoi called Hanoi Gecko.  The rooms were clean and the hotel was extremely small.  The hotel owner was there to greet us personally and the breakfast we were served in the morning was in a dining room off the lobby.  It was all just fine!  On the other end of the spectrum, we found the resort on Phú Quốco be very luxurious in Vietnam's terms and within a few years the price will probably be beyond our reach.  Our hotel in Ho Chi Minh City was indeed very nice but was not a 5* hotel.   All in all the trade off we made for the cheap rooms allowed us to upgrade in other locations.

Shopping Viet Nam is still very affordable and Hanoi Old City is very much like it has always been I think.  The charm of the way of life that reflects how the Vietnamese really live is still alive here as it is in Sapa.  The farther you go south the costs seem to go up.  

Market Place, HCMC

HCMC from the air.

A young frugal traveler that is willing to stay in less than *****hotels will find this to be a winner.  At least that is what we found.  Save up all your credit card points, keep a look out for cheap airline tickets or special...this could be the trekker adventurer's trip of a life time.

b

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