Hello from Japan!

Day 5: Juneau

Updated: June 1, 2014

Let me warn you in advance there are no live bears, whales or eagles in today’s blog. It is so dull, in fact, that for breakfast, I ate the same thing I had two days ago – delicious salmon hash browns with eggs from the Capital Cafe. Be aware that dinner will be a repeat performance too.

This was just as good the second time

After breakfast, I was feeling a little dizzy, so I headed back up to the room to take a nap while my parents made a run to the post office and brushed up on their Alaskan history at the Alaskan State History Museum. I woke a couple hours later feeling A-OK and rejoined Mom and Dad in downtown Juneau.

Front and Franklin Street is the original center of town circa 1880-81

The Alaskan Brewery Tour was one of the remaining items on our Juneau to-do list. We paid the shuttle driver and were taken 10 minutes north of town to the brewery’s production facility. They didn’t waste any time getting a sample in your hand as you walked thru the door. Best part is all the samples are free. And although they have a sign indicating a six sample limit per person, nobody seems to be counting.

Step right up for free beer!

Six standard beers on tap — the same six I tried in bottles earlier this week

In addition to the free beer, a friendly employee spoke to us about the brewery’s history. Basically, the Alaskan Brewery was born when some cool Juneau residents listened to their friends rave about their home brew in the 80s, and then decided they should open a brewery for the upstanding folks of Juneau who deserved an Alaska brewed and bottled beer.

Photos of the brewery’s history, featuring hip 80s fashion trends

Represent! New Glarus makes the wall of beers from around the country

A couple times each year, the Alaskan Brewery releases a “Pilot Series” beer which is a limited run of something special that may or may not graduate to greater distribution depending on how it fares. It turns out that this morning the brewery released the latest Pilot Series, which is Raspberry Wheat. Apparently, they’ve released this one before and it was quite popular. By sheer luck, I was able to pick up a bottle at the brewery before they ran out (which they did an hour later).

Definitely sounds good. I’ll confirm or deny this later on.

After a couple more samples, we piled into the van that was taking us back to Juneau. On the drive back, the driver made a point to tell us how much everybody in Juneau loves the CostCo. Remember, I warned you about today’s blog!

When you live in a city without roads to the outside world, CostCo is a pretty big deal

More exciting than driving by CostCo, we struck up a conversation with the other couple travelling in our van. Turns out the husband is the graphic designer who created the distinctive “eskimo face” logo for Alaska Airlines, which had been staring at me from airport tarmacs the last few days as I flew to Seattle and Alaska. He created it a long time ago as an employee with the design firm who handled Alaska Airlines as a client, so unfortunately, he does not have a “fly free forever” card from Alaska Air. Oh well.

Alaska Airlines logo creator Vic Warren and his wife

After the brewery tour dropped us off back on Franklin Street, we mulled about town and worked up our appetites for another round of crepes for dinner. Then we gave mom our flyers for a free chunk of “Glacier Blue” at a nearby jewelry store, and she stopped inside to pick out a trio of tiny aquamarine stones for some future project.

Juneau’s army of crossing guards bring you back to middle school

Mom and Dad await their crepes for dinner

Back to the Baranof… its later than the daylight indicates

The only thing left to do was crack open the highly-prized bottle of Alaskan Raspberry Wheat in my backpack. Definitely not a sweet fruit-based beer, but after re-calibrating my expectations, the natural raspberry flavor was equally distinctive and tasty. However, at the end of the day, I’d probably still take a bottle of Belgian Red over this contender. Sorry Alaska, Wisconsin wins this round!

Day 4: Juneau

by Matt

Updated: June 1, 2014

2 Comments

According to my parents, one of the few downsides of Juneau is the frequency with which loud city vehicles pass by the hotel early in the morning. I’ll take their word on this because I am peacefully asleep until a more reasonable morning hour of 8AM-ish.

Dad is torn because the streetsweeper is loud, but has a flair for design

Rather than rushing out to grab food right away, we met my parents’ travel agent Barbara Carpenter, who happened to be cruising (literally) through Juneau today with her husband. Barbara and Jim showed us a nice tiny cafÃƒÂ© run by a friendly old woman who prepared a variety of made-to-order egg dishes. Afterwards, we strolled around the Historic Downtown area to check off some of the standard things the guide books tell you to see in Juneau.

St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church established in 1894

Alaska State Capitol building built in 1931, became the capitol in 1959

Downtown Juneau bus terminal and police station

By the time we finished walking around under the bright midday sun, it was time to eat again — so we checked out the Twisted Fish restaurant near the water where all the cruise ships dock. We relaxed and chatted with Barbara and Jim until it was time to go, wishing them the best of luck as their boat sailed onward.

Twisted Fish pizza

At 2:45PM, we were picked up by bus for the Gastineau Guiding Photo Safari tour, which includes a water portion followed by a land portion. First, the bus took us to Auke Bay northwest of Juneau. From there we boarded a small boat with our 12 fellow travelers, plus the driver and our tour guide David. If there was any concern about the boat ride being choppy, it was quickly dismissed. Today’s water was about as still as it gets in the Inside Passage.

Sitting by the dock in Auke Bay

Take a picture, I’m on a boat!

I’ve seen choppier water in a fish tank

After the captain kicked the motors up a notch and pointed us south from Auke Bay, we sailed down the west side of Douglas Island toward Young Bay and a large pile of rock in the middle of the bay, dubbed Skull Island. This first stop featured some distant views of cautious seals and sea lions chilling out on the surface of the water.

Skull Island, named for all the human skulls they found there, right?

Skull Island, named for all the human skulls found here, right?

The next few stops on the boat tour were dictated by the captain, who was doing his best Captain Ahab impression in an effort to find us a whale. Using a series of radio communications with other boats in the area, he picked a good spot and dropped the boat into idle. We all started scanning the waterline for activity. Minutes later, we saw the blow spout of a humpback whale feeding near the shore. Humpbacks tend to repeat the blowing process about four times, then they’ll breach, kick up their tail and dive under for 5-10 minutes before re-surfacing.

First humpback spotted

Humpback whale breaching and diving back underwater

We saw another whale, but this one was “lunge feeding,” which is when the whale silently glides under its prey, takes a huge gulp, and then expels the excess water. Since the tail never rises like it does with the usual feeding method, it is less photogenic. All you see is a splash with a nose and mouth cresting quickly above the water.

Tour guide David leads us off the water and into the woods

After the marine portion of our trip, we returned to the dock and boarded another bus which took us to a trailhead near the Mendenhall Glacier. We were given the usual “watch out for bears” disclaimer before starting the hike. Five minutes later, the bears obliged. To the left, a mother black bear and her three cubs were heading in our direction (looking to cross the road to the stream to our right perhaps?). After pausing for a moment to let our group pass, the four bears started forward again and crossed the road about 20-30 feet behind us.

Mother black bear and three cubs

Bears relative distance from group, I was crouched down in front

So that was awesome. We gathered ourselves and continued the hike. David pointed out a couple locations where bears had been digging in the dirt to snack on northern ground cones (which grow on the root system of nearby alder trees). For human appetites, he offered up spruce tips straight from the tree, which are rich with vitamin C — not to mention a key ingredient for the Alaskan Brewery’s special Winter Ale (which unfortunately was not in season). I tried a handful because I don’t want scurvey. They weren’t terrible.

Eventually, we reached Mendenhall Glacier. From the visitor’s center, we saw the glacier’s terminus, but the whole thing extends about 12 miles back up the mountains. There are helicopter tours that will take you back there and drop you off into a pile of snow (or so I imagine), but we were satisfied with our view across Mendenhall Lake in the golden sunset.

Mendenhall Glacier terminus

$Intrigued by the refractive properties of glacial ice (clear, no air, blue tint)$

Intrigued by the refractive properties of glacial ice (clear, no air, blue tint)

Take the picture quickly, this ice is cold!

Hurry! This prop ice is cold!

Tour complete, we returned to downtown Juneau. In an inspired move, we capped off the day with a meal of fresh Alaskan King Crab at the most highly-recommended crab shack in town (literally… Tracy’s Crab Shack is a mere, shed-sized building which sits near the cruise boat ports for high foot-traffic). After dinner, we returned to the hotel with full stomachs and SDHC cards and called it a day.

Fresh Alaskan King Crab is great, but the New England Patriots still suck

Day 3: Juneau

by Matt

Updated: May 31, 2014

3 Comments

Today we woke up to fantastic sunny, crisp and clear Alaska weather — the kind that makes you want to throw open the windows the second you roll out of bed. Our plan was a hike up Mt. Roberts (the one right behind the city overlooking the port). But before that, we decided to fuel up with a delicious breakfast at the hotel’s cafÃƒÂ©. In my continuing effort to eat local-sounding foods whenever possible, I can report the Salmon Hash was delicious.

The Juneau Empire's weather forecast for this week looks spectacular

The Mt. Roberts trailhead is about 10 blocks north and uphill from the Westmark Baranof Hotel — not to be confused with the Mt. Roberts tramway, which is located to the south (by the cruise ships) and is the lazy-man’s method of getting to the top.

Sunshine lights up the trees near the trailhead (stairs in distance)

The Mt. Roberts trail is a solid two-mile hike up 1800 feet to the wildlife center and the tram drop-off. We encountered a few other hikers along the way, and although some guy in the hotel elevator told us there was a bear sighting in the vicinity, the most threatening wildlife I saw was a chipmunk. At the bottom of the trail, there were some rough patches, and near the top of the trail, some sections still had snow and ice on the ground, but nothing impassable.

Capturing the great scenery along the trail

Mom on a mission

A quick break at the midway point

Onward and upward

Mt. Roberts offers some great views of Juneau and the city’s port area. A resident told us she hikes up the trail everyday to train for an annual race they run up the trail each fall. The trail continues beyond the tram station for several miles to higher peaks such as Gastineau Peak (3800 ft) and Observation Peak (4k-something feet), but the views from Mt. Roberts are great because it looms so close to Juneau.

Looking down Mt. Roberts on Juneau's port area

Lazy bums can take the Mt. Roberts tram to the top

A friendly (sort of) face greets you at the Mt. Roberts Nature Center

Click, click, click

In addition to the great views of the city from Mt. Roberts, there is also a large population of bald eagles patrolling the area. Some hawks show up from time to time, but the eagles steal the show.

Cruising at 1800 feet

I'm two feet short of bald eagle status, more of a Canadian Goose

Beyond the Mt. Roberts visitor center, ten more minutes of hiking brought us to a couple of great observation points which marked our highest elevation of the day.

Mom, Dad and myself on Mt. Roberts

View of Juneau from above, with tram station partially hidden by trees

Mountainous Inside Passage landscape looking northwest from Juneau

For lunch, we decided to eat at the Timberline Bar & Grill in the complex at the top of the tramway. When you buy at least $10 of food or merchandise at the top of the mountain, they will waive the $10 fee to purchase a one-way down ticket. So that was a no-brainer. We were seated shortly after noon, but after about 45 minutes, it became apparent they forgot about us. We tracked down somebody to take our order, but after another 45 minutes, it became apparent they forgot about us again. LOL. Lucky for them, the view from our table was pretty sweet, we were still hungry, and we still wanted that $30 receipt to go down the tram! Finally, our discounted lunch arrived but the Halibut sandwich tasted 100 percent great.

The wait for lunch was comical, but...

...the weather and view from our table were allright

After lunch, we strolled through the gift shop, and then boarded the tram with the rest of the cruise boat folk. With four cruise boats in port, it was pretty busy and they packed us into the cable car pretty tight (even asking passengers to take off your backpacks).

Taking the tram down Mt. Roberts

Upon our return to sea level, we spent the remainder of the afternoon strolling through town. Mom and Dad stopped by Juneau’s Rainbow Foods health food store (not to be confused with the Rainbow Foods giant grocery store chain) and picked up some fruit for an evening snack. We all kicked back at the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the day, soaking up the evening’s beautiful weather until the sun finally decided to set a little before 10PM.

Late afternoon view of Mt. Roberts from our hotel window (looking north)

Sunny weather and melting snow feeds a waterfall down the face of Mt. Roberts

Day 2: Juneau

by Matt

Updated: May 31, 2014

3 Comments

Bernard said yesterday’s blue sky was rare for Seattle, and on cue, we woke up today to the Pacific Northwest’s usual gray overcast skies. But it wasn’t raining, so hey, whatever. We proceeded to enjoy Super 8’s tasty continental breakfast — including the “make-your-own” waffle machine which will pay dividends in their forthcoming Trip Advisor report, I believe.

After breakfast, Bernard dropped me off at SeaTac airport. I navigated the Alaska Airlines check-in kiosks and SeaTac security, then had an hour or so to wait for my 10:50AM flight. Some awesome person has decided that SeaTac airport should offer free WiFi, so I took advantage of that for a while, mainly because I can’t at stingy airports like O’Hare or Midway.

Originally, both parents and I were on the 10:50AM flight to Juneau (Flight 75), but when my parents’ early flight out of MSP was axed by Delta for some reason, they ended up sliding Mom and Dad to a later flight out of Seattle as well. Hence, I won this leg of the Amazing Race.

Flying north over impressive Inside Passage terrain

Upon arrival at Juneau, I confirmed there was no hotel shuttle, and due to the weekend, the express bus was not running. The Juneau airport is not exactly Grand Central Station. It clears out pretty quick after handling the passengers who have just arrived and assumes the feel of a high school building during summer break until the next flight arrives. After pondering the situation, I decided to go find the regular bus (vs cab) because it would save a few bucks and I had time to kill.

Turns out the closest regular bus station was at Nugget Mall — a 20-minute, hitchhiker-style walk along the side of the highway, down a couple non-descript side roads, past some closed commercial buildings, to the back of this completely depressing strip mall. A guy pulled over in a pickup and offered to give me a lift to catch up to the previous bus, but I declined and ducked inside to get exact change before the next bus arrived.

I did not get change at Lucky Louie's, but maybe I should have

After catching the next bus, the ride into town was smooth. I found our hotel and dropped of my bag in the room. I wandered around Juneau for about an hour before my parents successfully arrived and called me from the airport. I suggested they opt for a cab rather than try to replicate my strip-mall bus stop method. Thankfully, they did.

View from our hotel window

It’s about a 10 minute walk along Franklin Street from the Westmark Baranof Hotel (located near the center of town) to the port area where all the cruise liners dock and let their passengers off to swarm the touristy shops along the shoreline.

One of a couple cruise liners in port today

Couple smaller boats parked at the dock as well

If you’re not a docking a boat and unloading passengers, then you are probably docking a boat and unloading fish, which is processed and packaged by a local fishery. One of the operations runs a nearby gift shop with live demonstrations of cutting and preparing the fish when fresh catches arrive. Dad and I can confirm they sell excellent salmon jerky.

Taku Fishery

Fishery rules of the road

Fishy art

Heading back north along, we found a savory crepe stand and ordered a tasty dinner. We strolled in and out of the various tourist shops, many of which are jewelry operations touting gemstone names that sound made up. Mom found a quilting shop and nearly disappeared for the rest of the evening.

Looks like Mom is getting some ideas

There are some really big birds around Juneau. Eagles and hawks are a given, of course, but the crows hanging around town look like they are on steroids.

This bird is quite large, and not just because of the forced perspective

City mural proves there are giant crows around here

Juneau also offers plenty of excellent photo ops of animals… which are stuffed.

Mom, Dad and moose

Mom, myself and eagle

Dad and a bear mauling in progress

In less than 4 or 5 hours, I think we got a pretty good idea what downtown Juneau is all about. There are quieter and more residential parts to the northwest of our hotel, but that’s about it. There is a WalMart about 10 minutes back toward the airport, so depending on how you see it, Juneau is not that far out of the loop”¦ or WalMart is everywhere.

Last, but not least, the Alaskan Brewing Company is based in Juneau and offers a brewery tour that has been added to my to-do list in the next few days. In the meantime, I found a nearby convenience store and got a head start. Mmmmm”¦ beer.

Collect 'em all

Day 1: Seattle

by Matt

Updated: November 22, 2014

2 Comments

I have had a long-standing, semi-serious plot to drive to Alaska someday. So a couple months ago, when the parents informed me “we’re going to Alaska next summer,” that was my cue. Technically, they replaced the driving part with flying, but that’s probably for the best. The travel blog is now back open for business for our trip to the 49th state.

The plan… First week will be Juneau and Glacier Bay. Second week will be Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula. After that, the parents hop a train to Denali, but Nicole and I hop a plane back to Chicago. By the way, Nicole brings her blogging skills to the Land of the Midnight Sun during the second week. Until then, I’m all you got!

Day 1 however, is a stop in Seattle, Washington – a function of coordinating a Sunday-morning flight to Juneau with my parents. More important, spending a day in Seattle afforded me a rendezvous with Bernard, who lived in the Emerald City a couple years ago, and returned to meet me at the airport (after driving up from Portland).

Bernard once lived in Seattle, but not in the Bernard Apartments

From SeaTac Airport, we made the short drive up Interstate 5 (which is a freeway that should appear next to the word “bottleneck” in the dictionary) and found a parking garage that hadn’t been taken over by Mexican and/or Equador soccer fans in town to watch the game at Qwest Field (why are Mexico and Equador playing in Seattle???). Our first order of business was to walk north along Puget Sound and find lunch.

Fresh fish tastes better

Continuing north, we walked up from the water toward the Space Needle. Today’s fantastic weather thwarted us here, as the line to take the elevator to the top wasn’t worth the hour wait. Instead, we decided to throw a bone to our old boss Paul Allen and check out his Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum, featuring exhibits on Nirvana and Battlestar Galactica, respectively. Good hunting, indeed.

Space Needle on a clear day best viewed from here

A portion of the EMP building as designed by Frank Gehry

Critics say the EMP is ugly, but they don't say it isn't shiny

After the museums, we stumbled upon Seattle’s Folk Festival. An annual gathering featuring music, food and entertainment”¦ or perhaps a gigantic excuse for the population of Seattle to dress up like hippies and get high? Probably the latter.

Folk Festival and Queen Anne Hill in the distance

Bernard wishes to hide from the Folk Festival folk

Heading back south, we walked along 1st Avenue to the Pike Place Fish Market, where we saw some Salmon get tossed around in dramatic fashion (a la the Monday Night Football cut-ins) and we ordered some more tasty seafood-based dishes, including a hilariously expensive Cobb salad.

Throw the fish already!

Hey Bernard, just get something cheap like a Cobb salad

Hunger quenched, we continued our walking tour south through “Old Seattle” — a more artistic, bar-hopping part of town. After a free tea-tasting and a pit-stop in a local sports bar, we walked a couple more blocks to SafeCo Field for the Yankees-Mariners game. Thanks to the great weather and the influx of Yankee fans, the scalpers looked realtively busy.

Great Seattle skyline view from our section

My primary objective in attending a Mariners game at SafeCo was tracking down and eating an Ichiroll, which is a spicy tuna sushi roll named after good ‘ol Ichiro. Mission accomplished. It was better tasting and more filling than I expected. The only problem is that Ichiro’s face is not plastered all over the Ichiroll box. Hey Mariners marketing staff, what gives? You’re not gonna trade him, are you? So just put his face on the box already!

First watch Ichiro bat...

...then eat an Ichiroll!

Later in the game — at least four times — fans decided to “enter the field of play” for a chance to greatly disappoint the public address announcer who solemnly reminded us each time that fans who do such a thing will be escorted from the stadium and subject to arrest. I subscribe to the theory Keith Olbermann tweeted later, which suggests a reasonable portion of the paid attendance might have been comprised of the pot-smoking hippies from Folk Fest.

and BONUS...then rush the field to meet Ichiro!

This guy was glad the crowd booed A-Rod more vociferously

SafeCo's outer walkway offers a cool view of Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula

We left the game in the 8th inning, walked to the car and drove to our Super 8 near SeaTac. Leaving the game early turned out for the best because it went into extras and I had an early-ish flight to catch to Juneau the next day. Plus, I didn’t want to make Bernard watch any more Yankee baseball than he had already been forced to watch.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Alaska.

Straight to the Sound

Day 16: Beijing

by Nicole

Updated: July 2, 2012

2 Comments

This morning we took the train to Beijing’s National Center of the Performing Arts located near the Forbidden City. We had tickets to a performance later that evening but since we weren’t going to be able to take our cameras in, we wanted to get some pictures of the theater during the day. Opened in 2007, the theater is known as “The Egg” due to its elliptical dome shape and is completely surrounded by a man-made lake. Its construction was a considerable source of controversy due to its proximity to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City; the architect defended his design, saying that as the capital and an important international city, Beijing needed both modern and traditional Chinese architecture.

The theater is designed to look like it’s floating on water

Entrance to the theaters via a long hall under the lake

Hall leading to theaters

The NCPA has three separate performance halls for opera, musical performances, and theater. The Beijing Opera performs here, as well as the National Ballet of China. It is located immediately west of Tiananmen Square and the Great Hall of the People.

Poster for “Raise the Red Lantern”, the ballet we were going to see

Great Hall of the People

Kids playing shoot-em up (!) around the theater perimeter

We wanted to walk back to the hotel past Tiananmen Square, but we were stopped by a massive security line leading to the entrance for both the square and the Forbidden City. Even the underground tunnel that runs along the length of the square had a long line for security, so we gave up, headed back to the subway and got off at Wangfujing, the famous shopping street near the Peninsula.

Thankfully we saw Tiananmen last year and avoided this mess

Beijing’s trains are packed at all hours of the day, every day of the week

The famous “Wangfujing Shopping Street”

Along Wangfujing, we did some shopping and snacking, including a stop at a store selling an incredible number of different candies (we think?) – too bad we couldn’t tell what any of them were!

Kid in a candy store (what IS all this?)

Snack 1: Caramel-coated strawberry kebabs

Snack 2: Jasmine tea soft-serve

Snack 3: New flavor! Just as tasty as taro and banana!

Back at the hotel, we started packing while watching TV coverage of the Japan earthquake until it was time to leave for our show. We had tickets to the National Ballet of China’s performance of “Raise the Red Lantern”, a ballet version of the famous Chinese film. It tells the story of a young woman who becomes the third concubine of a wealthy man, her subsequent affair with her former lover, and the repercussions when they are found out. The ballet has toured around the world to international acclaim and was only in Beijing for two nights. This was the first ballet I have seen – it was an outstanding performance and a lovely end to our trip.

Sneaky iPhone pic inside theater

Our flight back to Chicago was leaving at 6:30 the next morning, so we decided to stay up until it was time to leave for the airport. We enjoyed our first McDonald’s dinner in Asia (we had money to spend and it was the only place open!) and spent the rest of the night packing and relaxing. By 3:30 AM we were in a cab to the airport, and fifteen hours later we landed in Chicago.

Leaving in the middle of the night

Our plane home

We enjoyed this China trip just as much, if not more, than last year’s. A little research beforehand, more-than-a-little patience during, and an open-minded sense of adventure are all called for when visiting this country, but the rewards are totally worth it. It’s a fascinating place to travel, and we would return in a heartbeat. And if we do, we’ll blog it all over again!

Day 15: Beijing

by Nicole

Updated: July 2, 2012

Day 14: Hangzhou/Beijing

by Nicole

Updated: July 2, 2012

3 Comments

This morning we had breakfast in the Hyatt’s Regency Club lounge before leaving for the airport. Our room had a view of Hangzhou’s famous West Lake – unfortunately, no time to sightsee in this city!

Hazy view of West Lake from our window

This is false: Every lane in China is an “overtaking” lane

After a comfortable flight to Beijing on China Southern, we took a taxi to the Peninsula. We flew with three different domestic airlines this trip – Sichuan Airlines, China Eastern, and China Southern – all have been excellent (and very inexpensive). Service is incredibly efficient, you always get a meal, and they nicely (and kind of hilariously) remind you at even the mildest turbulence that an airsick bag is in the back of your seat should you need it. (Chinese travelers treat turbulence like a roller coaster ride, complete with gasps and shouts at particularly bumpy spots.) Matt also appreciates being able to leave his shoes on as he passes through Chinese airport security.

At a standstill in Beijing

Watching the traffic start to move again

Upon check-in we were pleased to learn that our stay included breakfast – a first at any of the Peninsulas we’ve stayed in. Usually we just eat all the delicious fruit they give us!

Welcome amenity

Behind on the blog after a few days without internet, we spent the afternoon catching up. News of the Japan earthquake/tsunami had just broken – we were in the air when it happened, though it was reported to have been felt in Beijing.

Even Chicago is under threat of a tsunami! Looks like the safest place is Beijing.

Another quake – this one near Lijiang the day after we left

Once the trip to the mountains had been properly documented, we walked to Da Dong, a restaurant near the hotel famous for its roast duck. After waiting twenty minutes for a table and another twenty for our server, we were informed that the duck we ordered would be ready in 80 minutes. Uh, no. So much for that visit.

By now it was nearly 10:00, we were hungry, and our options were limited. We stopped at a nearby convenience store, stocked up on snacks, and went back to the hotel for a tasty dinner of ramen noodles, cookies, and the bottle of wine from the Peninsula Shanghai we’d been carrying all over China.

Take that, Da Dong! And your ridiculous 80-minute wait!

A toast to a wonderful trip so far

Day 13: Huang Shan

by Nicole

Updated: July 1, 2012

5 Comments

Note: Back from the internet-less mountains — days 11, 12 and 13 posted…

This morning we woke up before dawn to see the sunrise. We made hot chocolate and ate the breakfast we brought along – fruit, muffins, and granola bars. Our hotel provided red down coats for all the guests – we’d brought our own jackets, but we wore the hotel’s so we fit in with all the other Chinese tourists.

The coffee shop wouldn’t give us empty cups, so the hot chocolate went into our empty soda bottles

Less than ten minutes from the hotel is one of the best spots on the entire mountain to watch the sunrise. We followed the red-coated crowd up to the Refreshing Terrace, where we staked out our spot and waited. When we heard shouts and gasps from people watching higher up, we knew it was almost time, and suddenly a sliver of orange appeared behind one of the peaks.

Here comes the sun

Worth the early wake-up call

Morning on the summit

After the sunrise, we walked back to the hotel to check out and plan our route down the mountain. There are two sets of steps on Huang Shan – the Eastern Steps, described by Lonely Planet as “long and hard”, and the Western Steps, described as “longer and harder”. Our cable car trip brought us up the eastern side, so we decided to walk across the summit and go down the western side, climbing a couple of the peaks along the way.

On the way to Bright Top Peak

Morning haze across the mountains

At Bright Top Peak, second-highest peak of Huang Shan

This hike was no walk in the park; it was nonstop steps with very few flat paths. Almost every Chinese tourist carried the standard-issue, sold-everywhere, wooden walking stick, but we were too tall for them to be effective. We stopped frequently to catch our breath and check out the amazing views.

You can see our path down the mountain in the background

Looking west from Turtle Rock

Some steps carved right into mountainside

Climbing up the “One Hundred Ladders”

We passed by Lotus Flower Peak, the tallest on the mountain (its narrow stairway was lined with tour groups) and kept going toward the challenge of Celestial Capital Peak and its even narrower and steeper stairway. Eventually we reached the top of the western cable car, Jade Screen Peak, Greeting-Guests-Pine, and all the tour groups just arriving on the mountain. We pushed our way through the crowds and continued our descent in near solitude.

The beginning of endless steps downward

Look closely and you can see the path we’re taking down the mountain

When we arrived at Celestial Capital Peak (which, according to Frommer’s, features a narrow, 85-degree snaking staircase called the “Carp’s Backbone”) we found it closed for maintenance. We were disappointed – this peak featured a precariously narrow bridge at the top that we were looking forward to braving, but based on the posted sign, it has been closed since December 2009 so apparently nobody has braved it in quite a while.

The “no-fun” crew informs us “No carp for you!”

Many unique-looking trees up here

Where’s the “Rocks are napping” sign?

We swear, this was not taken against a fake background.

The mountain is kept in great condition; we saw many workers sweeping paths, patching steps, etc. Everything on the mountain – food, drinks, supplies – is brought up on foot by porters, who hang the loads from long wooden poles balanced on their shoulders. You can hire porters to carry your luggage up, and if you get really tired, you can hire them to carry YOU up in sedan chairs. We saw some bags being carried up, but no people.

Keeping the mountain clean

This is why everything up here is so expensive

Down, down, down we climbed; once we left the summit area, the path was almost continuously downhill via endless sets of stairs. Another way to think of it: take the elevator to the top of the Sears Tower, walk down, ride up again, walk down again, ride up once more, walk halfway down. Four hours from when we started, we arrived at Mercy Light Temple (the start of the western steps) with shaky legs and aching calves. (OK, by “we” I mean me. OMG.)

SO MANY STEPS

At Mercy Light Temple – where is the bus!!!

We took a bus down to the front gate then walked along Tangkou’s main street back toward Mr. Hu’s place. A block away, Mr. Hu himself greeted us and made sure we turned down the right alley. We were positively starving and had been looking forward to lunch all morning. Over a delicious meal of fried noodles and braised beef with potatoes, carrots, and onions, we talked with Mr. Hu about our trip and left an appreciative message in his notebook.

We inhaled this meal after our l-o-n-g hike

1200 ml of beer for $1.60 really hits the spot – Cowboy Matt approves

Our bus back to Hangzhou was scheduled to leave at 4:30, but we’d made good time down the mountain and had Mr. Hu arrange for us to get on the 2:30 bus instead. At 2:30 we were led out to the main street where the bus stopped to let us on; it was completely full save for two seats in the very back. No matter – we were happy to be heading back earlier than expected and arrived in Hangzhou around 6:30.

Another successful navigation of China’s public transportation system

We caught a cab back to the Hyatt (again, thanks Mom and Dad!) and enjoyed a lovely meal of appetizers and drinks in the Regency Club lounge. Huang Shan was an incredible place to visit and was absolutely worth all the pain I’m currently feeling in my calves. 🙂 Tomorrow we leave for Beijing and the last leg of our trip!

Day 12: Huang Shan

by Nicole

Updated: July 1, 2012

2 Comments

Today we set out for Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain), a mountain range in the southern Anhui province located about 200 km west of Hangzhou. Known for its scenery, sunrises/sunsets, and strangely shaped granite peaks (there are 72), it’s one of the most popular tourist destinations in China. After breakfast, we left our suitcases with the Hyatt concierge (we would return there on Thursday) and took a cab to Hangzhou’s bus station. We arrived five minutes late for the 8:00 bus, so we bought tickets ($15/each) for the 9:50 bus instead.

At the bus station in Hangzhou

The bus was a comfortable Greyhound-style coach and the trip to the Huang Shan scenic area was about three hours, mostly via expressway.

Yeah! We’re on the right bus!

When we arrived in Tangkou (the town at the base of Huang Shan), the bus stopped in front of a restaurant and everybody got off. This was definitely not the entrance to the scenic area. A man hopped on the bus, asked us if we spoke English, introduced himself as Mr. Hu, and invited us to his restaurant where we could have lunch, book return bus tickets, and figure out how to get to Huang Shan. We were a little confused, but by that point the bus had emptied, so we accepted his offer.

Walking with Mr. Hu to his hotel/restaurant

As it turned out, Mr. Hu is well-known within Tangkou for helping foreigners navigate the area; he’d been mentioned in Lonely Planet’s guidebook and showed us notebooks filled with messages from travelers all over the world who’d been recipients of his assistance. Mr. Hu told us someone on our bus notified him that we were on the way, which was why he was there to meet us. We ate some delicious noodles while he arranged our return bus tickets, and after lunch he drove us to the Huang Shan transit center. He left us with his business card and instructions to come back to his restaurant the next day to catch the bus back to Hangzhou. The whole encounter was so unexpected yet so pleasant – we would have eventually figured things out on our own, but Mr. Hu made everything so much easier.

We bought bus tickets to the base of the mountain and ended up in a taxi when we were the only two people waiting when it was time to leave. Twenty minutes of winding mountain road later, we arrived at Huang Shan’s front gate.

Winding roads a little easier to stomach in a car vs. a bus

At the museum, checking out a scale model of the mountain range

There were conflicting reports on whether or not the cable cars up the mountain were running this early in the season, and we were pleased (OK, I was incredibly relieved) to discover that they were, since we’d been prepared to hike up to our hotel. We took an amazing ten-minute ride up the eastern side of the mountain – this was the coolest cable-car ride we’ve taken so far in China.

Forgot the Yellowstone hat, so took a page from Nate’s playbook

Great views of some of Huang Shan’s 72 peaks

More great views of Huang Shan

At the summit (approx. 1600 m, or 5250 feet) we followed the signs to Beginning-to-Believe Peak, the nearest one to our hotel. The sign at the top of the peak, in its typically odd English translation, said this: “It’s so fantastic you don’t believe your eyes; seeing it with your eyes you believe it’s really fantastic.” Indeed it was.

At the top of aptly-named “Beginning-to-Believe Peak”

Not wanting to have to find our hotel in the dark, we decided to go check in before heading back out to catch the sunset.

On the path to the hotel – gorgeous views everywhere

Hey, this is awesome!

The Beihai Hotel is the oldest of all the summit hotels and is thought to have the best location on the mountain for the sunrise. Our room on the top floor was really nice but absolutely freezing; we turned on the little electric heater and hoped for the best. Dinner was kung pao chicken, camping style – Matt brought along a Backpacker’s Pantry meal, and after we added boiled water and waited fifteen minutes, we ate a tasty (and free) meal in our hotel room.

Thanks, Annamarie!

After checking the card posted in the room for the sunset time, we put on our coats and hats and hurried halfway up one of the nearby peaks to catch a view. The weather was chilly, probably around 35 degrees, but all the uphill climbing kept us warm!

Sunset

Just about gone

Back in our ridiculously cold room, we bundled up and made up our beds with the thick down comforters we found in a cupboard. We were asleep by 7:30 – the sunrise was at 6:15 the next morning and we were planning to scale a few peaks and hike all the way back down the mountain, so we needed our rest!

Beihai Hotel at dusk