Tuesday, December 20, 2011

149) An interlude of dislocation

This is not what you want your shoulder x-ray to look like.
Sigh.....

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

148) Dodging stones in China


Kai and Jingjing in the mists of the Huang Shan Mtns


The river view from my window in Shanghai was impenetrable murk. The air was alive - it has taste and smell and texture. It crawled down your throat. But some locals assured me that it "wasn't too bad..."
















The ICIS conference dinner had a dragon ceremony (?)/dance (it was not explained but was interesting).








But our intrepid adventurers knew something else was afoot. Of course the first trick was to catch a cab - on a rainy night in Shanghai -good luck!

Jingjing harangued the hotel bellman and was either gracious or pushy enough to get a cab somewhat out of turn. We crossed the river into another world (old Shanghai - no skyscrapers here, no flashy malls) to get us to the train station. Lots of street stalls covered in blue plastic tarps with bare light bulbs illuminating buckets of ??, scads of scooters, bicycles, PEOPLE in throngs.
We eventually arrived at the train station (where Jingjing reminded us not to ever look away from our bags). Now we were in a foreign land - the only 2 Caucasian faces in the place, all signs in Chinese - an easy place to get lost.





Kai spent his time reading up on what to do should one get lost. I focused on not letting Jingjing (a Shanghai native) out of my sight!













We had booked a sleeper section of the train - 12 hrs to Huang Shan. An interesting system of giving the conductor your ticket (which went into a binder) and receiving a card in return. Then reverse the process. We were admonished not to lose that card!

Squat toilets that simply exited onto the tracks...

It was about here that I realized that making this trip with significant kidney stone symptoms was not one of my smarter choices..... medical help was NOT nearby....









Kai watching the rainy countryside drift by where every bit of land was planted in vegetables...




















Our guide Ling met us at the train and whisked us off to the base of the mountain. Lunch first - pick your ingredients and the cooks make something. The dining rooms had no heat and it was about 33 F and raining outside - not the dining coats!

We rather underestimated the size of the dishes - Two more large dishes were delivered and we were not even close to finishing.




The cable car view was rather impeded but offered tantalizing glimpses of cliffs and wild looking trees..










The cable car gains about 800 meters in elevation and cuts off 7 km of trail. The trail we were taking was a 900 m elevati0n gain over 9 km to the hotel. Most of the path is cut into the rock- hundreds of steps, all stone walkways with concrete railing formed into tree-shapes (no metal due to summer lightning!)





















The lazy man's way to get to the hotel - and not at all expensive!













This tunnel ended at a jet-black lake with a single wizened tree over it. I couldn't help thinking of the entrance to the Mines of Moria...
















The shorter and "more interesting" path up a long set of *really* steep steps. This way was supposed to lead to marital happiness (the other way led to financial success). Then we found out that marital happiness included a mistress......huh?

























Dirk tossing a key....
The railing is festooned with engraved locks (a small booth selling locks - to be engraved on the spot, was right there). Couples and families attach the lock to the railing and then..... toss the key into the abyss (named the Grand Canyon) as a symbolic gesture of being together forever.

There were stories of people searching the canyon below






Mere glimpses through the clouds...










The hotel was pretty posh given that everything in its construction was carried up the mountain!

But the next morning dawned (in a manner of speaking - we did did not get up to hike to the dawn promontory point) to freezing drizzle. Quite beautiful on the trees, freezing Jingjing's hair... and coating every stone step with black ice.

Dicey....





Kai, our token Norwegian, also wanted to pose with the rime-ice as it reminded him of his youth walking barefoot, uphill (both ways) in the dark to school.

But he has less hair......










Personally I was amused by the pictures on the hand dryers in the bathroom. Did I mention kidney-stones! I was wondering why I left OZ.











One of the views available on a clearer day....


These pictures were along the structures housing the cable car down. We successfully navigated the ice encrusted wood bridge and more steps to crowed into a large cable car and swing out over the abyss .. large cliffs dropping away in the rain...





One of the exotically carved "ink stones" the town is famous for...













Lots of well built umbrellas festooning the zipping scooters









Ling dropped us at the airport and hustled us through the VIP line (no wait). Apparently that is how things get done here - it is who you are and who you know.

I tried to convince Jingjing that that orange sun was not quite natural - just common.

Off to Beijing!

Friday, December 9, 2011

147) Another World

The Great Wall

Dirk is still unable to post blogs from China, so he's sent a few pictures and I've cut some snippets out of his email messages. I'm sure he has lots more stories to tell!

Dirk in the Forbidden City

"The Forbidden City is amazing. It is huge and fascinating and photogenic. Way too little time - but really cold. Tianamen Sqare had hundreds of security cameras. Dinner was at a fancy place that has been making Peking Duck for 150 years. It was fun to cruise about on the subway - big upgrade for the olympics so it had maps and english announcements."


Dirk, JingJing, and Kai at Huang Shan Mountain.

"We went to Huang Shan Mountain - pretty cool but we had totally socked in weather. All mists and cold and drizzle. 9 km and 2400 vertical. Nice hotel but they have no central heat here! So the dining room was frigid. They did have showers and I could dry my clothes on the room radiator. "




"When we hiked out - rime ice was everywhere including hundreds of stone steps down - dicey..."


"We were treated to a MASSIVE Chinese lunch by Jingjings old advisor - way too much food. The Great Wall tomorrow. They are trying to get us to do a presentation for the faculty on Sunday morning! aghhhh..."

Sunday, December 4, 2011

146) Sydney to Shanghai


Dirk can't post to the blog - he is in Shanghai, where Google blogs are not even visible.

But he reports that there is considerable psychic shock in traveling from the conference on the gargoyle inhabited weightiness of the Great Hall at the University of Sydney (2 pics), and the casino atmosphere and video-game frantic energy of Shanghai.(other 2 pics)

And the pollution in Shanghai is awful....
































Saturday, December 3, 2011

145) Maggie's farewell to Oz

As part of Maggie's farewell tour of Oz, we went to Cape Byron, the eastern-most point on the mainland of Australia. We explored the tidepools in the rocks below, where Maggie identified lots of cool invertebrates and sea creatures.


We hiked up the trail to the lighthouse from Watego Bay, and found it was a picture-perfect day to view the very white Cape Byron lighthouse against the deep blue sky.
















Resting easy in the cool of the shade in the lighthouse entryway.


















It's not everyday you find a kangaroo lounging on the bench beside you! This is in downtown Brisbane, which Dirk and Maggie toured after Dirk secured new passport and his last minute visa for a trip to China.










The King Parrots are very friendly at O'Reilley's Rainforest in Lamington National Park, and everybody benefits from a parrot hat ornament that brightens up their day!

















Maggie discovered the art of panoramas on her camera. Here at Lamington campground, our little tents are snuggled next to the trees where the bowerbirds call and the pandemelons rest during the daytime. The mists are settling in for the night in the lush green campground.


A very tall tree in the rainforest, Maggie's picture captures this in a way that we've not been able to! Usually, you can only get a small part of a tree in a snapshot, but this panorama captures its grandeur.

Friday, November 25, 2011

144) Texas takes the Gold Coast by storm!

Well - it rained a lot at least.

Maggie is here on a visit on her way back to Austin after a semester at James Cook Uni in Townsville. We decided to tour some of the local temperate rainforest, where the crimson rosellas and king parrots are rather habituated to people!


A fine new mural in Springbrook - some great animal detail on this!











Maggie coming out from behind Twin Falls


















We have had a bit of rain of late - great drips, and runs, and falls along the trails.

















On the tree top walk at O'Reilley's. Maggie was simply astounded with the fantastic fog formation.

Hey - wouldn't be a rainforest without the mists!
















But the view from the "Best of All Possible Lookouts" was even better!











There are dangers along the trails. This Lamington crayfish was intent on protecting his piece of turf. Never mind that he was 100's of meters from the creek! Maybe he just didn't want to be anyone's dinner.









There are slower dangers too if you move too slowly the strangler figs take root.
















Being the kind soul she is, Maggie also contributed generously to the starving and endangered yellow-stripe leeches. She now sports a multitude of bandaids but feels much better about donating to this worthy cause (personally, I think she is simply lightheaded)















The eternal weightiness of parrots.

















A Whiptail wallaby and joey posed along the road...


















...and the splendid fairy wrens were bright blurs coming out of the mists in the campground.













The non-PC "Black-fella Falls" in Springbrook