Day 50. Easter weekend in Moscow.

Saturday of Easter weekend...Cynthia and I slept in a little bit, before meeting our English speaking guide, Ludmila, for our tour of Moscow. We were originally scheduled for a two hour walking tour, but we quickly accepted the extended option, requiring a driver. We started out by visiting Red Square, the most iconic building in the square being St. Basil's Cathedral...


This cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the terrible and was built between 1555 and 1561. There are nine small chapels inside under each onion shaped dome. It is customary to have an odd number of domes ... It can be 1...3...5...etc., but cannot be an even number, as this is bad luck. This cathedral was originally built with just 8 domes to represent each successful conquest by Ivan the terrible...the 9th dome was added later. Twice, this cathedral was ordered demolished...first by Napoleon, and then by Stalin. Luckily, neither attempt was carried out.

The east boundary of Red Square consists of the huge GUM mall, which I mentioned yesterday, while the west side is bounded by The Kremlin, surrounded by a red brick wall (it was a wooden wall when first built in the 12th century; the brick wall was built between 1485 and 1495). There are 20 watch towers interspersed around the perimeter....this one being the tallest was built in 1491 and was expanded to include the clock in 1625...


News reporters usually stand here, across the Moscow River, to report on events taking place involving the Kremlin...


This is still the official residence of the president (Medvedev? Putin? The lines of authority are currently unclear, commonly referred to by the locals as "the tandem")...Reporting live from the Kremlin, the globedotter and her colleague, Cynthia, who has just joined her for this report from the bank of the Moscow River!

The Kazan Cathedral...


And the Resurrection Gate..


...Were both destroyed by Stalin, but have since been rebuilt at the north end of Red Square.

We stopped off to see this sculpture Of Peter the Great.....



.....Which has an interesting story. This piece was originally Christopher Columbus, which the artist thought he would be able to sell to the United States for one of the anniversaries of his discovery of America. But....there were no takers. So he later changed the face of Columbus to be that of Peter the Great and sold it to his friend, the mayor of Moscow, to commemorate an anniversary of Peter's establishment of the Russian navy. However, there were still some obvious Spanish type carvings on the statue and the locals would really like to have it removed. Oh, for you chocolate lovers out there, the main Russian chocolate factory, Red October, is in the background.

We then headed further along the Moscow River to see the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which is the highest Eastern Orthodox cathedral in the world.


This was originally built in honor of the defeat of Napoleon in 1812, although it was not completed until 1883. Then it was dynamited in 1931 under Soviet rule, and just recently rebuilt and completed in 2000. We were able to go inside to the smaller chapel downstairs, but the upper chapel was closed due to preparations for the Easter service to be held later that day. (We were then able to watch that service, which was attended by both Putin and Medvedev, on TV later that evening). The chapel did not have pews, but rather people stand throughout the service.

Next, the Novodevichey Convent...


....which is known for having housed many women of nobility who were forced to become nuns, such as Feodor I's wife; Peter the Great's sister, after she tried to overthrow him; and Peter the Great's wife, when he was ready for a new "trophy" wife; etc. They were not forced to live as nuns in the strict sense, but were instead allowed to have pretty clothes and eat whatever they wanted....but they could not go outside the walls of the convent...so were basically held as prisoners.

Next to the convent is a cemetery where many famous people have been buried...not just political leaders, but artists, writers (Chetkov and Gogol for example), astronauts, etc. While we weren't that excited about visiting a cemetery, we did find the sculptured head stones to be very interesting....this one for Khrushchev...


...was commissioned by his successors by a modern artist whom he himself had banned. After viewing this burial site for Boris Yeltsin, featuring the Russian flag...


...his wife then appeared to pay her respects for Easter...


...so our one celebrity sighting.


She was accompanied by so many guards we couldn't count them.

We then viewed the sprawl of the city through a haze from Sparrow Hill, where you could see the CBD, which is now being built.....all at one time!!!....


...there has not previously been a CBD, but rather the city has suffered from a lack of urban planning and is just sprawled out in all directions. We wondered (as any commercial real estate professionals would :-) what impact this new construction would have on other areas of the city where we assume whole buildings will be emptied to fill these new buildings.

We then drove by the World War II memorial...


...they lost 27 million people in that war, all of whose names are inscribed on this memorial. (They are preparing for their holiday commemorating that war on May 9th). We then descended into the metro system to return to our hotel, while seeing the opulence within some of the stations....the marble, the chandeliers, the frescoes, the bronze statues, etc...









Even the platforms were opulent...



The nose of this dog (one of 88 bronze statues at this metro station) was worn to a shine from people rubbing it for good luck as they pass by, so Cynthia had to definitely take a turn....



Phew, a long and great day with our wonderful guide, Ludmila (we will get to see her again on May 4th, when we return to Moscow, and will do a tour of the inside of the Kremlin).

But....our day was not over...we then went to the Moscow circus...


It was interesting and there were some good acts, but we couldn't figure out why it is so famous, as it doesn't come close to the Cirque du Soleil performances that we've seen. But we couldn't resist the bronze statue of the founder of the circus....


...who we had learned about earlier in the day, as he was buried in the cemetery of famous people.

A great dinner at Il Forno italian restaurant (slow service), and on to our hotel to watch the Easter service at the famed cathedral we had seen earlier in the day.

A phenomenal day in the very European city of Moscow! -- not at all the dreary city we had both expected! (while there were some square concrete block buildings as we expected, there was also a lot of Italian architectural influence in the city).

Happy Easter, at the stroke of midnight!

Day 49. Moscow.

Cynthia arrived in Moscow on Friday afternoon, Day 49. Before she arrived, I had the chance to walk around the city some more and check out the sights. I went into the GUM retail mall to check it out. This building was originally built in 1890 and lines the entire Eastern side of Red Square. It is absolutely beautiful, both Inside and out...





..with an all glass vaulted ceiling (like the Musee d'orsay in Paris). It is now an upscale shopping mall (I felt like Mel Simon had invaded Russia--it feels like something right out of Las Vegas :-), with stores such as Dior, Louis Vuitton, Ferragamo, etc. It had previously been a huge "state universal store" or department store. People would line up outside before it opened, not even knowing what might be available that day.

The weather is beautiful here, by the way, so I did what the locals do, and I had a hot dog in the park for lunch. Just like home!

I tried to stroll through Red Square again, but it was all blocked off. I found out later that it had been Lenin's birthday and some dignitaries were paying their respects to him at the mausoleum within Red Square, which actually houses his embalmed body. You can go into the mausoleum to see him, but I will pass on that myself. I had gone to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum in Hanoi on my first trip to Vietnam, and I thought it was weird and freaky.

After Cynthia arrived, we went to an authentic Russian restaurant for dinner, where they had some Russian singers. Then we strolled over to Red Square to see it all lit up in the evening. Spectacular!

Tomorrow, Saturday, we will do a tour of the sights and go to the Moscow circus.

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Location:пл. Революции,Moscow,Russia

Days 47/48. Hong Kong to Moscow.

Day 47 was the full day of travel. Brutal. The good news is the airplane from Hong Kong to London had the full beds. And the other good news is the hotel let me check in at 5:00am this morning when I got here! That saved me, as I was exhausted and don't know what I would have done that early in the morning in a strange city that was obviously asleep when I got here (although they say this city never sleeps either....must be in a different neighborhood). I did set the alarm so I could get up for the breakfast buffet (as I was asleep when they handed out dinner on the plane) and am now sitting in the opulent dining room with painted glass skylights and gold everywhere and a harpist playing. Absolutely beautiful! Afterwards, I might still get in another little nap before I head out into the streets. Cynthia arrives tomorrow.

When I arrived here, I had arranged for a car to pick me up at Cynthia's suggestion. I had also read that it's tough getting a taxi here, since hardly anyone speaks English and so it could be difficult getting to your hotel, and I wasn't about ready to try out the subway at 5:00am (although I look forward to seeing their subway stations, as my friend, Denise, told me they are unbelievably ornate). The ride from the airport was gray, dull, boring (just like the ride from lots of airports, including NYC), and then my driver spoke for the first time, saying something in Russian (he was supposed to speak English!), then we turned the corner and there, lit up in all its glory, was Red Square! I felt like I was in a Tom Clancy novel...trying to get to my contact on the bridge in Gorky Park to deliver "the" package before the sun comes up :-)) I've obviously read too many of those....

...After another short rest, I did go out and explore the city for the rest of the day. It is a bit intimidating since I can't read the street or any other signs, so its good I have a good sense of direction as I was able to get back to the hotel after about five hours of wandering around.

Wow, I never realized there would be so many gold domes...












Etcetera, etcetera....In every direction.

I arranged a two hour walking tour for Saturday for Cynthia and me with an English speaking guide, so I'll save the city narrative until after that tour. Also looks like there is a Russian army band concert tomorrow night, and the Moscow circus on Saturday night. And...they delivered our tickets that we had ordered a month or so ago for Sunday night's premiere performance of a new production, Lost Illusions, at the Bolshoi ballet!!!

So, tomorrow, I put out the welcome mat for my first travel companion, and we can navigate the language barrier together!!

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Location:Moscow, Russia.

Days 45/46. Hong Kong.

Well, laid low my entire time here. The weather did finally clear up today, Day 46, but still too hazy to get a good photo from the Peak, so just hung out by the pool...


...and, you must admit not a bad place to hang out. Finished my Bryson book about Australia (enjoyed it, but almost feel you've had to have been there to appreciate his observations), and now almost finished with the newest book about the #1 ladies detective agency in Botswana, Double Comfort Safari Club, by Alexander McCall Smith...if you haven't read this series, they are quick, enjoyable, mindless little stories that I enjoy from time to time. Next on my list is "Stones Into Schools" by the author of Three Cups of Tea (although I just read in the Hong Kong paper today that someone is disputing the legitimacy of his story?--seems like it took an awful lot of time for that to surface? As his first book has been out for quite some time).

Yesterday, I also went to the Ladies Market for a couple of hours, which is a famous street where they set up tents every afternoon, and sell "stuff" into the evening. It got its name because most of the merchandise is geared towards the ladies....but I saw plenty of men there, too. T-shirts for $4 (I bought myself one, as I am getting tired of the two shirts that I have :-), jade jewelry, clothing, embroidered items, handmade purses, etc. People were rolling whole suitcases down the street....loading them up....I think its called the exporting business :-). I still find the signs very interesting walking down the street...hip pop dance instructions...very god chinese food...lukfuk jewelers...and on and on.

All in all, a pretty lazy four days in Hong Kong, but I've about knocked this cold out of my system (there is a part of me that is also wondering if it was actually the side effects from my malaria medicine, which could be similar symptoms....if so, I'm done with those, so regardless should be mostly out of my system for Russia).

Other things one can do here are take a boat cruise on the harbor (the last time I was here, I went on a boat to an island that was an old fishing village and had lunch...I think you can still do that), go up to Victoria peak for the vista and lunch (you can walk up or take the tram), walk along hollywood street, take a side trip to Macau, go to the famous Stanley market, or the jade market (they sell pearls there too), have high tea at the Peninsula Hotel, etc.

Tomorrow, I head off to Moscow, where I'll hook up with my friend, Cynthia, from Baltimore, who is going to join me there (she was one of three people who took me up on my offer of meeting me somewhere to help me celebrate my 60th year). So she will be my first travel companion....am looking forward to the company. We will also take the train up to St. Petersburg for a few days.

It's going to be a long haul to get there. I was originally on a direct flight from Tokyo to Moscow. But the only other OneWorld carrier who goes to Moscow is Cathay Pacific, with only three flights per week, and they were all booked for this week. So I have to fly to Moscow via London. So about 13 hours to London, then another 4-5 hours to Moscow. Hope the London flight is one of those planes with beds :-).

Russian I learned from my shoe repair man in brooklyn...(spelled phonetically)...
Spasibo-- thank you
Izvi nitay -- so sorry
Dos vi dania -- goodbye.
Darn, forgot to get the important one -- where's the bathroom?

Anyway, dos vi dania, until the next time I have wifi access....

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Location:Tak Fung St,九龍,Hong Kong

Days 43/44. Weekend in Hong Kong.

It's Saturday afternoon, Day 43, and I am sitting on the pool deck on the 21st floor of my hotel, overlooking Hong Kong Harbor. Sweeeeeettttttttt! It's a bit overcast, which is actually perfect, as there is a slight breeze. It's probably about 25 degrees celsius (a relief after 40 degrees). Lots of sail boats in the harbor.

I arrived last night, and didn't feel great. Felt a little cold coming on (getting in and out of an a/c car in 40 degree celsius weather probably wasn't much help). Plus I wasn't eating a lot of veggies the last few days because they were served raw and I was worried about how they'd been cleaned. I did order some fried veggies one day, but they were a little greasy. So, my stomach has survived so far, but my head decided to get stopped up.

Btw, the food in Myanmar was not the greatest. Kind of like Bhutan....I.e., they don't quite have their own food identity (that first day, the guide had told me how the other countries had influenced their food, but instead it has made them undecided about their food identity). And they are not used to cooking for tourists. The lunch my guide made for me was the best meal I had, and the other meal at that same restaurant was good, but otherwise, not so great.

So last night I stayed in and ordered room service and nursed my cold, with the hope that it will go away quickly. It seems to be working.

I slept in this morning, and then went down for breakfast....to be confronted by yet another breakfast buffet :-). So I asked if I could order off of a menu and had eggs with spinach and a plateful of fruit. (ps, I did have a chance to weigh myself yesterday, and I am right on target with my goal of not gaining any weight :-).

After breakfast, I took the free shuttle bus into the main area of Kowloon and walked around the market area for about 2-1/2 hours. Then thought I shouldn't push it, and came back to the hotel to relax and nurse my cold some more. So I will sit here for a while and read my book....current book is "in a sunburned country" which is Bill Bryson's travel book about Australia. I had tried to read it before I left, but it has much more meaning now that I've been there. I finished the book "Moscow Rules" and it was a typical spy/espionage book. I enjoyed it ok, but it barely touched on the actual city of Moscow. and was too much about planned terrorist attacks, which still unnerves me a bit.

Hmmm, clouds don't look so good. It is supposed to rain the next two days, so it looks like I still might not get a good photo/view from Victoria Peak.

Dinner....I did feel like I needed a good dinner, so I went into the main district and had shrimp with veggies and cashews, and fried rice. Then back and into bed early.

This morning, Sunday, Day 44, my little cough seems to be gone, and so now its up to the sudafed to clear out my head (which it has started to do) before I head off to Russia on Wednesday. Since its even yukkier out today, I will probably just hang out at the hotel to let the head clear out. (although I'll go into the main district for dinner....I can only take so much hotel food :-)

Sunday, day of rest!

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Location:Hong Kong

Day 41/42. Back to Saigon, and on to Hong Kong

(posted Day 44)
Got into Saigon at about 8:00 last night...had to take the only flight out in the early morning to Bangkok, then sit at the Bangkok airport for the only flight to Saigon at about 5:30pm. But I got into the lounge at Bangkok, so it wasn't so bad. I had to return to Saigon, as that is where I had to pick up my RTW airline trip. I had separately booked my excursions to SaPa and Myanmar, so couldn't change the RTW ticket to go straight from Myanmar to Hong Kong, but had to instead back track to Saigon.

Anyway, Duc picked me up in the military jeep, and I got to Sue's by about 9:00. Because of my change of plans (of going to Hong Kong instead of Tokyo), I had to leave at 11:00am this morning rather than 11:00pm, so didn't have much time to enjoy the Saigon oasis. Just time to repack my bags (I had left about half of my stuff at Sue's when I left for SaPa and Myanmar).

This morning Thanh brought me a nice plate of fresh fruit and some yogurt to eat by the pool, and then it was off to the airport.

The last time I was in Hong Kong was November (Thanksgiving weekend) in 1991, at the end of my first trip to mainland China. Wow, has it really been 20 years ago? I am staying on the Kowloon side of the harbor, and I don't remember so many high rises on the Hong Kong side as there are now (will have to do another photo comparison--if it even clears up enough for me to take photos...quite overcast here). In 1991, I had stayed in the Regent, which now seems to be called the Intercontinental. It was right in the middle of the action, next to the ferry station to Hong Kong island, and across from the famous Peninsula Hotel....it actually has a better location than the Peninsula, as it sits right on the water. On this trip, I am staying at the Harbour Grand Hotel, which is on e Kowloon side again, and right on the harbor, but a bit off the main track. I chose it because it has a pool, health club and wifi access (although the wifi didn't work for my first day and a half here) and was at least $100 less per night than the hotels in the main district area. Plus they have a free shuttle bus that drops you off right next to the Peninsula Hotel. It was also easy to get here from the new airport (new since I was here....I think they were building it at the time--my recollection is that it was controversial at the time, as I think they were building it on a reef)...anyway, they have a train like the Heathrow Express in London, and then they have a free shuttle bus that drops you off at the various hotels. The train was about $12. Since I'm not feeling great, the easiness of transport helped.

I'm hoping for a sunny day while I'm here to get a good photo from Victoria Peak...it was overcast when I was here previously. For now, need to settle in and get to bed early to fight this little cold I feel coming on...

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Location:Hong Kong

Day 40. Last day in Myanmar.

(posted Day 44)
So.... After my shower yesterday afternoon, we walked up to see what it was we had gone to so much trouble for......Golden Rock....



This is a geological phenomenon. You can't even see it that well in this photo, but only a very small portion of the rock is making contact with the rock it is sitting on. So why doesn't it just roll off? No one knows.....and its been sitting like that for at least 2,000 years. Through rain, wind and earthquakes. Maybe this one gives you an idea of how precariously it sits...


It is really hard to understand how it sits there when you see it in person.

The myth is that a monk had a piece of Buddha's hair and he needed someplace to save it (a lot of the temples claim to have relics from one of the buddhas....a hair, or a piece of cloth, or something). Anyway, he kept going down to the river and bringing up a rock on which he could build a stupa to house the Buddha's hair. An angel (I think it was an angel, although that sounds too Christian?) kept rejecting the rocks he brought up and kept throwing them aside (there were other large rocks strewn around at the top of this hill which are considered to be the rejected rocks). Until this one, which was chosen, and placed on this ledge, and the stupa was built on top of it. Even though that is just a myth, still, noone has any idea how he got up to build the stupa on top of the rock. But they have since built bamboo scaffolding to go up to repair it, cover it with gold leaf and even rebuild the stupa (again, more later on this repair/maintain strategy).

We stayed long enough to see the sunset...


Again, it wasn't a great sunset due to the haziness, but it was still awesome!

Then this morning, I got up to see the sunrise outside my window with a wonderful view of the surrounding mountains....again, through the haze...


...then after breakfast, it was the three kilometers walk back down to catch the truck...during which time we were water gunned from time to time with water....you'll understand this as you read on. Anyway, they put me in the front cab with the driver this time, and I felt like quite a wimp, until I understood why....keep reading. Today is the first day of their water festival. I thought this was going to be about colorful parades. But, NOT....So, what does this mean? The water festival occurs during the four days preceding their new year. It is a time to clean....yourself, your vehicles, your mind, your house, etc. (kind of like the concept of spring cleaning). To celebrate this, they spray water on each other. Ok, not always spray......sometimes they throw buckets of water at you...As these boys were doing as the trucks proceeded down the hill.






If I had been in the open truck, I would have been soaked for the air conditioned ride back to Yangon! They even have staging areas set up everywhere where they stand and bombard you with water...


It's quite a day for the kids....they love it! Although it made for a tedious drive back to town for the driver, as he had to watch out for all of the kids running onto the road in all of their excitement.

As we drove back, you saw entire families piled in their vehicle with all of their stuff, including filled water tanks, for their day of celebration in some village or town.

We did stop at a temple in Bago on the way back, where I cleansed the statue of the guinea pig (the guinea pig is at the front at the bottom), for people born on Friday, for good luck...(different animals for different days of the week)...


You pour 5 cups of water (I was born on the 23rd, so 2+3=5 cups of water) on the protector ( the one holding the umbrella), then 5 cups on the buddha, then 5 cups on the guinea pig.

When we got back to town, the water festival got even more serious, with staging areas more predominant. The music was blaring and people were standing in front of the stage dancing, and getting soaked by hoses...


They even had a stage where vehicles could go through...motorcycles, open trucks, open jeeps, etc. My driver thought I should experience it, but again, we wimped out, and went through it with our windows closed to the barrage of water.....



You can imagine from this how soaked I would be if the windows had been opened! It was quite a happy, festive day in Myanmar!

After dropping my stuff off at the hotel, we proceeded to schwedagon pagoda. That was the one I had seen from the airplane when I arrived in Myanmar...
It is the most famous one, although it's not the highest one...


...yes, that speck in front of it is me.

Now for my thoughts, as promised, on the repairing/rebuilding of their monuments. The places I have been these last two days have involved stupas, monuments, temples that have all been refurbished, repainted, in some cases, torn down and rebuilt, covered in real gold bars and jewels (as this one is--it has a 76 carat diamond at the peak, with rubies, diamonds, etc surrounding the top, which you can't even see). Way too much emphasis on a projection of wealth....which seems totally counter to the Buddhist religion. While all of this was quite impressive, I was disappointed that they are not instead restoring these to their original, more simplistic beauty. Many of the ones in Bagan are still more natural, and I hope they don't expand their rebuilding efforts to that area (although I am afraid that's what they are planning to do). UNESCO had wanted to put Bagan on its heritage list, which would include expert restoration efforts, but they rejected this offer, as they did not want foreigners interfering. And I assume they will proceed to do it their way. What a shame it would be if all of that history were lost.

I have had a wonderful time in Myanmar, and thank both of my guides for their great hospitality and friendship. I am so glad I added this excursion to Myanmar to my RTW trip!

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