Winter 2025-26
A few days before departing for our winter holiday, Celia calls to say she’s been running a high fever and is worried about getting better in time to meet us. The airline said we couldn’t change her flight, even with a doctor’s note. I schedule a wheelchair to take her through the airport and to transport her to her connecting flight – but ultimately she is too sick to travel. We are sick from sadness she won’t join us.
We fly to Bangkok – which we scheduled just to meet Celia’s very late at night arriving flight and to give her a little time to see Bangkok. But of course, she won’t be there.
We check into our hotel and then go grab a Tuktuk to take us to a pier. The Tuktuk driver tells us it’s the weekend and the boat we want, or the pier is closed. He would take us to a different pier where we can get a different boat. When we get there he points us to where we buy the tickets. It ended up being a private pier – not the public one we intended to go to and the price was crazy high – as opposed to the inexpensive public ferry. We started asking questions like why is this boat was so expensive? The woman selling the tickets told us to leave the pier immediately. We stepped away and were discussing our plan. Clearly the Tuktuk driver had scammed us taking us to this private ferry. The lady selling the tickets then started yelling that this was a private area and we had to leave the area. We guessed she didn’t want other customers to realize this was a scam. We started walking out, found the same tuktuk we had just gotten off of and he took us to the pier we had asked to go to – which was open.
After some misdirection of being sent to the line of the second ferry to depart, we finally go onto the ferry and headed up river, seeing many of the Bangkok sights. We got off at the dock closest to the Grand Palace.
We grabbed some lunch. Morton ordered a chicken and rice dish -and then ordered it again. – sometimes a 17 year old boy can eat!
Once in the Grand Palace, the buildings were so over the top with glittery surfaces – amazing!
We went into one building which had the most famous jade Buddha. I was surprised by how small it was. It was way up high, wearing a woven golden cloak. Apparently the king had to climb up a ladder three times a year to change the jade buddha’s clothes – how crazy! Sadly we were not allowed to take pictures.
Once we got to the second section of the palace – closer to the more residential section, we found they had closed it off to the public for a year while the country mourned the death of the Queen a few months earlier.
On the way towards the exit we stopped at the Queen’s textile museum – which showed how the queen prioritized Thai style and Thai fabrics.
Tired, we took the boat back and decided to take the elevated subway back to the hotel – do you call it “an elevated subway”? Obviously that’s an oxymoron. Maybe we took the El back to the hotel.
Once back at the hotel, Dan and I decided to go swimming on the rooftop deck. The view was so beautiful.
We walked out that evening for a really good Thai dinner at a place called NohNoh.
The next morning, Dan and I headed to the gym in a glass cube on the roof. An amazing place to work out with the view all around. The few other people in the gym seemed to be taking more pictures of themselves working out than actually working out. It’s a funny time.
We took a quick rooftop-swim, hotel breakfast and headed back to the airport.
We Flew to Vientianne, Laos. I had read everywhere that it wasn’t worth spending any time in Vientianne so only scheduled about 24 hours there – but we actually thought it was a really nice city. The hotel was lovely.
Cute towel elephant greeted us in our hotel room.
After checking in we sat on the balcony at the hotel in the third floor bar – overlooking the street. The bar was out of almost everything on menu. Finally we asked, “What do you have?” But the view was lovely – and we enjoyed watching the people below. There were many more foreigners per capita than we see in Beijing. After finishing our snacks, we wandered around the city for a while and ended up in a French restaurant after other places lines were too long – but the restaurant was lovely as was sitting on the patio.
Boys on hotel/bar balcony
The next morning we had a surprisingly lovely breakfast at the hotel and then headed out to see a little more of the city before leaving it. Dan and I thought jogging would be nice before getting back on the road. Morton wasn’t thrilled, but he kept up. Our first stop was Liberty Arch, Based on L’arch de Triumph with Laos flair. – really lovely. We scheduled to arrive just after it opened but when we got there it wasn’t open to go up. We decided to wait a bit, sitting next to one of the two fountains next to the Arch that the Chinese donated (along with the airport, a high speed train line and stations…) The fountains played music while water jumped and shot up to the music in an amazingly long choreographed dance to many different songs. It was pretty amazing.
me dancing along with the water jets and the Arch behind.
The Arch finally opened. We payed for a ticket and headed up. Half way up there was a museum display about the city but the lights were off – and strange that no one was monitoring the museum or the entire interior of the arch. We went to the top and enjoyed the view – looking over the city – before heading back down and heading to our second stop the Golden Stupe.
On the way we walked past Pun Cafe – Dan’s still talking about it.
Our taxi driver back to hotel agreed to drive us to Vang Vieng, the next city we were heading to, for much less than the van we originally scheduled.
Once we arrived at our Vang Vieng hotel, we tried to nap but there was very loud construction next door. Tired and frustrated (mostly me), we headed out to see the town. We ended up at hotel cafe on the river. Much lovelier location than our hotel a couple blocks off the river -but traditional wooden boats which are now motorized with incredibly loud motors constantly drove by with waves of tourists. For me – I needed some peace and quiet! We went back to hotel to sit by the pool – but at 5:40 pm the construction was still banging on. Dan napped through it. I got a bit grumpy. Later we went out for dinner, followed by a loud night’s …. Minimal sleep. Sadly we had prepayed for the nights there.
The next morning We rented scooters and headed out. Being out, exploring the beautiful countryside lifted my tired spirits. It was really beautiful. We went to check out a humungous cave that the a couple villages all hid out in during the war. It was humungous! You had to climb up to the cave. From there the people also had a great look out.
Afterwards we climbed down from the cave. Below there was a lake and people were having lunch and hanging out. I had read people tubed in a nearby cave but couldn’t figure out where. Eventually we saw an opening – but no one was going in it. Dan and I decided to swim in and check it out. It, like the cave above – went on endlessly. It was amazing. There were ropes to help you find your way out again. We had to get Morton to see it. He thought it was a bit creepy, but agreed to try it on an inner tube.
After lunch we headed to another area to explore and do some zip lining. They had a loop around the area – zip lining from one spot to another. Morton didn’t make it to one of the platforms and zipped back to the middle. One of the workers had to work their way out to get him. I was worried he’d freak out but Morton was a trooper about it.
We went back to the hotel to rest by the pool before dinner. Still super loud. I’m completely confrontation adverse, but I couldn’t take it any more – especially as we were to spend a total of four nights at that hotel. The hotel manager was actually quite understanding – I’m sure many people were complaining. He agreed to move us in the morning to a different hotel they owned.
The next day we headed out for another cave and a crazy tough hike with a silly airplane on one peak and a pegasus on another peak – but with amazing views.
We then headed to a local swimming hole. At all the food carts there they were selling these wiggly …. Worms???
The swimming hole was lovely, but as we had been warned – full of Chinese tourists. At first it seemed terrible – a crazy large crowd of Chinese tourists was all we could see, but then we realized, they all stayed in one area – not entering too far – and almost none of them went into the water. There was a platform for jumping off of. All the Chinese tourists waited around it with their cameras ready – waiting for someone to climb up and jump off- which on an occasion someone did – greeted by video taping and cheers.
Afterwards we heading to our new hotel – which I thought was much nicer, Dan disagreed, but we all agreed it was much quieter and had a lovely view of the surrounding mountains.
That evening we planned to go on a sunset hot air balloon ride. A tuktuk taxi picked us up and drove us and a handful other tourists to a field where many other tourists were.
There were a couple balloons already inflated with long lines running to them. It quickly became clear that these balloons had ropes tied to the ground and people would get into these balloons, go up for 5 minutes or so, come back down and then new people would get in. We were concerned – this was not what we planned to do. We were then reassured – this was for the buses of Chinese tourists. This is what they preferred.
We waited as our balloon got filled. It was so beautiful!
When our balloon was finally filled with air, we, along with a mother/daughter pair from Taiwan, living in Australia, were instructed to get into one portion of the basked. The middle section housed the pilot, and the far side two German men and some Korean tourists we met on the tuktuk.
The only other time I have been on a hot air balloon was at Aaron’s wedding. That time the balloon was completely blown off course. We had to chase down the balloon to get on. Once in the air, being blown willy-nilly, the pilot kept yelling for us to all “GET DOWN!” And he’d ram the balloon into a tree to try to redirect it. When the balloon was finally landed, no one knew where we were or how to get back to our hotel. This was pre cell phones. A couple of the guests (was it Judd and Tanya?) had to go looking for a farm house to ask where we were and if they could use their phone to call for a pickup.
This time, in Laos, the ride was much less exciting. It was calm and lovely. Such a beautiful view. The German men in the far section (thank goodness) of the basket were drinking beer. Dan noticed dripping and warned them they were spilling. The guys gestured something to Dan. Dan looked horrified and said he’s explain later.
We landed easily in a field where the balloon was deflated and we were picked up and taken back to our hotel. On the ride back to our hotel, the Taiwanese mother/daughter pair told us they had gone on motorized para gliders that morning and highly recommended it. Dan and I thought when else could we do this. Morton thought – why would he want to do this! Once at the hotel,Dan explained that one of the drinking men was peeing. This was the dripping. I was (and still am) horrified.
That evening we wandered out and found The Kiwi Cafe for dinner – owned by an expat. Morton loved it!
The next day we planned a kayak trip on the Makong. It was lovely – but also a bit silly as we paddled downstream – we could have floated. But the scenery was beautiful and seeing the river life was interesting – people fishing with nets and water buffalo trying to keep cool in the water. Afterwards We took one of the motorized long wooden boats a bit further down the river and then back to our hotel.
Late that afternoon we headed out to go motorized paragliding – and Morton to photograph the event. It was also super amazing. It was one pilot and one tourist to a glider. It bumps down a field and then takes off. Amazing and crazy. About half way through we flew through the mountains. At that point all of a sudden I had more of an idea that maybe this was crazy. But overall – the ride was an amazing experience.
That evening we checked out the rooftop bar at our hotel. There was an amazing view of the sunset over the town with hundreds of hot air balloons in the sky all around us.
We ate at a very local Laos restaurant that evening. The vegetarian options were limited and boring.
The next day we took the to train to Luangprabang. The Chinese recently had built a high speed train line starting in China, with stops in Luang Prabang, VangViang and Vientianne. When we got to our hotel, it was also Chinese. A bit out of town, all made of marble and we had a two story sweet. Everyone who worked there only spoke Chinese (and some spoke Lao). The hotel was clearly set up for buses of Chinese to pull up, dump off a bus load, give them some very mediocre Chinese breakfast in the morning, hold their bags while they take a day bus tour of the area, and then have the buses pick up the bags on their way out. The manager and his number two, would spend the day sitting at their separate large tea tables in the lobby all day, sometimes taking breaks to sit and smoke at the pool (which is weird when we are sitting there at the pool and the manager sits down, smokes and talks on his phone on speaker at full volume) As we were their longest guests – staying four nights – and my speaking Mandarin to them – they got to know us.
Not knowing how to get into town, We rented electric scooters from the hotel and headed into the town.
The town had a pretty sophisticated strip – nice little cafes and little shops. We decided to set up a bike trip for the next morning.
Getting back to the hotel in the dark on scooters, between the pothole filled roads and the crazy drivers, didn’t feel that safe, and was exhausting, so we weren’t too excited to head back in for dinner. Dan found online a highly rated outdoor food court type of place near the hotel, so we decided to go there. Ended up the ratings may have been bought. There seemed to be only one booth in the “food court” that was actually functioning – and we seemed to be their only real customer. The food ended up being not bad and the owner showed up, told us to get the steak and all about his plans for the place. He walked around with a microphone, put on loud Christmas music, and on occasion spoke into the microphone (maybe to his couple friends who were also there).
The next day we went into the town to meet our bike tour. Ended up we were the bike tour – and a guide. We jumped into a Tuktuk taxi to a place where bikes were being rented and then biked to the ferry nearby to cross the river. From there we started biking through tiny villages and in between some pretty tough hilly stretches. We hadn’t been biking too long when I felt my bike was particularly dragging. I looked down and I was biking on the rim – complete flat tire. I called out to the guide but he didn’t hear me and kept going. Dan and Morton stopped and we waited. I figured without a tour he’d come back. After about 15 minutes, in complete misbelief, I called him through What’sApp and he came back.
We assumed he must have a plan for flats as the roads are so bad but his plan was to walk back to a village (which is a generous term since there were just a few shacks) and get someone to fix it. We were skeptical but the previous town had one store with a shelter next to it where a guy working in a field came and patched my tire.
We spent a good part of the rest of the day biking. It was pretty but there was a lot of long hilly stretches with not a lot to see. While waiting for the ferry back to the town, Morton saw a sign for ceramic classes. We decided the next day we might try that out.
The next day we decided going by scooters might be better. We traded in our electric scooters for motorized ones – so we could go further – and we headed early to the ceramic place for a quick lesson.
Afterwards we stayed and had a couple lovely drinks and I checked out and bought some of the local linens they were selling.
That afternoon we decided to go to a waterfall that Morton found on the map. We took our scooters there – which was a bit of a mistake. It was a bit of a longer ride with so many potholes and so much dust! Once we arrived, it became clear we needed to take a boat which took us to the opposite of the river and a bit upstream.
There we found a lovely multi tiered waterfall. There were remnants of past attempts to make this waterfall a tourist site – with what looked like fallen down zip-line platforms.
The next day we went to the UXO Museum – which gives information and raises money to deal with unexploded scatter bambs. It was very moving and upsetting. At the end we decided to give a donation – but how much do you donate – when your country has caused so much carnage? It brought us back to when Morton was choking and a neighbor doctor got the grape out of his throat. We wanted to give her something to thank her – but what can you possibly give that is appropriate?
That evening we went on a sunset boat ride along the Makong. Dan was all excited as the boat was advertised to be run on solar panel. When we got on the large barge there were two very small solar panels. Dan was very disconcerted. How could they possibly run this big boat on such small panels. Once we heard the large diesel engine start Dan got his answer – they couldn’t. It was a gentle, beautiful ride but Dan couldn’t get past the loud diesel engine. In addition, the boat was clearly not run by local people – who we’d prefer to support – and there were a number of things for tourists that were gimmicky and took away from the serenity of the trip: the final one being a crew member performed a very loud and dramatic magic trick – dragging it out for a full half hour – just one trick!
The next day we decided relax a bit. Dan and I took a yoga class overlooking the Makong – which was beautiful – and then we met Morton, had breakfast at a bakery Dan had been eyeing.
There is a large hill in the middle of the town which is a park, with terraces to sit and look out over the city. At the top is a small temple -mostly surrounded by tourists taking in the amazing view. We joined the crowd, resting for a while at the top, taking it all in.
We intended to go into the old palace at the base of the hill but tours of Chinese were waiting for it to reopen after the lunch break. We hoped the next day would be less crowded.
We spent the rest of the day in the town, exploring the shops, Dan found some amazing locally made coconut ice cream – which we didn’t think was our thing but we were transformed. It was amazing.
Our final morning in Luang Prabang was New Years Eve. After returning to the bakery for breakfast, we went to the old Palace. The exterior of the temple there was especially phenomenal and it was interesting to walk through the palace and see how they lived. Much more modest than the palace in Bangkok, but still pretty regal with reception rooms with amazing mosaics and murals (photographs were strictly for bidden). Dan enjoyed going into the royal garage, seeing the different cars that the royal family had driven.
Later that day we flew south to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Dan had been to see the Temples of Angkor in the late 90s but I thought Morton and I should see them. I was a bit torn if it was worth going as I had heard the temples are now over run with tourists, but I decided we should go.
We checked into our hotel that looked like it was once grand but now felt a bit dusty but did have a lovely pool in the inner courtyard. We got there late in the day but we took a long walk, seeing the city, finding a good restaurant before walking back to our hotel.
The next day a tour guide picked us up to see some of the temples – first stop (after buying our tickets) would be Angkor Watt. I didn’t realize before going that there are many Temples of Angkor – it wasn’t just one that was overgrown by the jungle. Angkor Watt is the most famous one and it was never overgrown by the jungle, but all through the rest of the area are other temples that were left to the jungle. Each temple is humungous. An emperor would come to power and build a new temple – the temples are all humungous campuses of buildings – not just one temple. They were all amazing in different ways.
We took a lunch break at a roadside, open air restaurant – there were many along the road and very few customers -so proprietors chased us trying to get us to go to their restaurant. At all of the restaurants, there, and that we passed along the road, hammocks hung near every table. At first I assumed it was for restaurant workers to take a siesta but later I realized that customers come and then take naps – a funny and nice custom.
At the end of our first day at Siem Reap our tour guide explained to us that it was such a problem he only had sons – not what one normally hears. Apparently girls stay and take care of their parents when they get married. Their husbands move in with their brides. The boys have to give a big dowery, as they will go live with the other family, and then there is no one to take care of the boys’ parents if they don’t have a daughter.
The next day we went and visited an area in which most of the houses are built in the water and the people get around by boat. It was amazing to see.
We flew to Phnom Penh and then drove south to Preah Sihanouk on the ocean. I thought I had booked us into a small rustic type place. When we got there it was dark but once we entered the grounds, we drove a while and then arrived at a large hotel. After checking in at the counter, we got into a golf cart to take us to our rooms – another decent length ride. We arrived at the bungalows I had booked and it felt like we were in the middle of the woods.
I woke early the next day, I was a bit concerned what/where I had booked us. I got up and went for a walk while the boys slept. I walked along the road and I quickly found myself surrounded by woods and a slew of monkeys who were blocking my path. It took me a while to get up the courage to walk through them. As I walked towards the hotel we had checked in at, I saw below was the ocean with an amazing view, small houses a small hotel building, and an amazing pool. I came to the main hotel, another pool, a restaurant and a spa. All looked a bit sleepy. Later Morton and I found out that the hotel was built in 1962 BEFORE the Kmer Rouge. Jaqueline Kennedy had stayed at this hotel. This place must have been the height of fashion. During the Kmer Rouge time it must have been shut and everyone involved must have been slaughtered. Recently they must have reopened it but can’t quite keep it up.
Later that day we took at walk down the beach – our hotel was at the end of the beach and as we walked past our hotel’s property the beach became busy with what looked like local people eating and the beach was quite filthy. Further on there were what appeared to be …hotels? But they seemed to be more facing the street than the beach – and the beaches by these “hotels” also were filthy.
We spent a few days at this hotel. Relaxing, enjoying ourselves. We enjoyed the gym overlooking the ocean, sitting by the pool. I went on a long swim in the ocean, and the boys tried to catch a volleyball game down the beach but ended up just passing the ball between themselves.
The second night we went to the hotel’s lovely looking restaurant overlooking the ocean. We had a nice evening, but we had to keep ordering things until we found things on the menu they actually had.
Our third and last night there we decided to go into the town whose lights we could see down the beach. We were quite surprised. We had no idea we were relaxing next to the Los Vegas of Cambodia – all we saw a moment after we left our resort was one humungous Chinese casino after a humungous Indian casino. No one was interested in the beach as they were inside gambling. It was nasty.
The next morning we headed to the port and got onto a ferry to the island Koh Rong Sanloem. Getting onto the boat was crazy chaos! There was a mob of people, at the back of the boat, someone checked your tickets, then they tossed our luggage to a pile on the side, helped you climb aboard while other guys were tossing luggage from that pile up to other guys in the boat windows who were stacking them here and there on the ferry. I can’t do the chaos justice. An hour or so later when we got to the island – more chaos. We were all dumped on a pier jutting out along a short beach. Luckily our hotel was the one hotel that showed up with a tractor and we climbed aboard, along with one other family.
The island has a few beaches, only connected by hiking paths. The beach we were on had three hotels – at the end what looked like a failed attempt at another one. Our hotel room, although nice, at first was a little disappointing as it was the second row, so the view of the ocean was blocked – two days later we were grateful for this. We spent the first day hanging out at the pool, waiting for our room to be ready and walking along the beach, checking out the other hotels. I saw lights up the hill just up from the beach, and we hiked up and found a place to have a drink and look down at the beach. After dinner, there was a fire show on the beach by a few local guys. They seemed like just some guys playing with fire – not real serious or professional – but the show was actually pretty amazing.
The next day we scheduled a boat to take us around later in the day and decided to spend the first half of the day hiking around the island. It was more hike than we expected but it was fun to see the different vibes of a couple of the beaches.
The captain then told us he couldn’t return to our beach, the sea was too rough. He docked at anther beach then lead us by flashlight up and over the hill to our beach.
The next morning we woke to hearing something breaking. The entry way to the hotel came crashing down (along with the hotel internet and phone service). This was when we were happy to be in the second row. The ocean was slamming against the hotel. We were supposed to take a 6am ferry the next day in order to make our flight out of Cambodia. I went to the desk and they told me that no ferries were running and whenever one went, we should probably get on it.
We headed to breakfast on the hotel deck, people sitting near us got pummeled by splashing waves. – and so funny – the hotel kept the pool/beach towels on the deck – they continued to put the towels there even as they were getting pummeled by the storming ocean.
After breakfast we spent some time sitting on our sheltered porch, enjoying the warm weather in our calm alcove. I checked back with the front desk who said one boat would be going out around 1:30 from a different beach. We should meet at 12:45 to go over there. We packed up. The hotel put everyone who was going and our luggage into a tractor and went up the hill – it felt crazy precarious. Once at the top, we carried our bags down the hill to where we had been dropped the night before. As there was a language barrier, no one was sure what was happening but eventually a ferry showed up. The seas were really rough and the crew struggled to get us and our luggage aboard without crashing the boat against the pier. Once aboard they quickly pushed off and passed out vomit bags. Not a good way to start a trip. It ended up being quite a wild ride but the three of us held our breakfast.
From the ferry we quickly ran to a bus station and headed back to Phnom Penh.
The bus was supposed to drop us at our hotel, but the driver refused. We were arguing with him as he was driving further and further away. Eventually he let us out and we got a tuktuk taxi back to our hotel.
Dan booked us a lovely hotel by the airport. It was surprisingly inexpensive. We forgot that the airport has moved to a far away location a month earlier! So it was an airport hotel no where near an airport. Oh well.
Leaving the island a day earlier than expected gave us time to explore Phnom Penh. We went downtown for dinner that evening, walking around and checking out the city – and the next day, on the way to the airport we went to the Killing Fields. Judd and I had slipped into Cambodia from Thailand back in 1993(?). We went into a tiny village and kids screamed and fled from us – they had never seen white skin before. There was a Killing Fields there but that was before cell phones and there was no English explanation there. In Phnom Penh we wore headphones that told you the history and what we were seeing as we walked around and many personal stories. It was incredibly horrifying and moving. How the Khmer Rouge was able to empty the entire city in 24 hours is unfathomable as is the horrible atrocities that happened there.
We flew back to Bangkok – originally planned for Celia to catch her plane back. I thought we’d return to Beijing the same day, but Dan, feeling a bit over it with Beijing, wanted to stay away as long as possible. He booked us into a hotel at Pattaya Beach an hour and a half from the airport. We spent two days there. Driving around, we noticed both in Bangkok and down at Pattaya – an incredibly high percentage of the cars are Prius’. No idea why. Are they sold cheap there? So strange. It felt like 50% of the cars were Priuses. Anyway, It’s hard to complain when the weather is lovely, but I wouldn’t return to Pattaya – even with all the Priuses. Chairs are set up eight rows deep on the beach with umbrellas blocking all direct sunlight – which made sense as in the sun it’s too hot. The city restaurants are full of older caucasian men – straight and gay – with much younger Asian partners, often who looked like prostitutes – that wasn’t pleasant. Our hotel was packed with Russians. The first day Dan and I went out very early to get chairs at the pool. We grabbed the last three – and morton’s was a bit broken. The second day we went to the hotel’s second pool which was nestled a few floors up between the hotel buildings. No view but a great breeze and almost no one there. Dan and Morton found an afternoon beach volleyball – that was definitely a highlight. I went on a long ocean swim – only to then be informed that the ocean there is incredibly polluted and shouldn’t be swum in. That was very disturbing. The hotel has a bowling alley we enjoyed one evening. But after two days there, and after a long wonderful adventurous holiday, at least Morton and I, were ready to head back to Beijing – which we did.
Once back, Morton had one more day off before school. He used to be a big ice skater but had only skated once since we got to Beijing as we didn’t know of any place nearby to skate. Morton’s friend told him of a place -that ended up being super close to where we live. How did no one we asked know of this place?!? Morton talked me into buying him new skates –
and then we went to the arena that had multiple rinks. It was super fun.
Since we’ve been back:
I’ve been working on embroidering a dress that if doesn’t look a disaster I hope to wear to the schools 45th anniversary gala mid march.
Our good friend Michael Cherney had a show open at the UCCA ( the best contemporary art museum) in the main art district in Beijing. We had a lovely time at his opening.
The next day we had our annual Chanukah party with a fierce dreidle competition and lots of latkahs.
Dan and I went to Tsinghua University art museum – where I had never been – to see a textile art show entitled “from Lausanne to Beijing International Fiber” – if only it was “from Beijing to Lausanne” it would be perfect. The show was okay- not great – but we it was a lovely outing and trying to figure out how I get into that show next time!
A friend told me Riverdance was coming to Beijing. She had always wanted to see it and asked if I’d go. We first grabbed dinner at this old Russian restaurant near the theater. Food wasn’t anything special but place was very grand.
The dancing in the show was fun – but so strange dancing with their arms so straight and tight against their bodies. The music was also pretty great and the digital backdrops were interesting. Apparently this tour was Riverdance’s 30th anniversary tour. I’m curious what it looked like 30 years ago. The digital scenery was so dynamic – so much a part of the show – I can’t imagine it without it.
The show alternates between the musicians playing and the dancers. At one point the violinist -maybe in that context you call her a fiddler – was playing a song and everyone in the audience started humming along. Apparently it was a famous classical Chinese composition.
Other than that… Morton headed off to Shanghai for 5 days for a table tennis tournament. Sounds like he had a great time.
And he worked back stage on the school musical The Adam’s Family
The other day, I was going to my friend Xin’s house and at the gate of her complex when I told the guards I was going to her house they said in Mandarin, “But she is Chinese.” I explained, “Dui, wo de pengyou shi zhong guo ren” (Yes, my friend is Chinese). They insisted on calling her house and explaining to her that a “waiguoren” (a foreigner) was at the gate saying I wanted to visit her. So odd!