China – Bejiing – I need a Hero, and he’s got to be fresh from the fight!

Posted on December 25, 2010July 28, 2017 by patrice

Yes those are some of the immortal words of Bonnie Taylor but was she really speaking about “The Great Wall of China”? Chairman Mao proclaimed that any person who wanted to be a real hero must climb the Great Wall. I can tell you that after climbing “The Great Wall”, I sure can relate to what Chairman Mao said, but back to the original point.

Now think of the words that Bonnie Taylor has in her song. Now let’s quote some of her immortal words and take a closer look at them. Let us look at these words,” I need a Hero, I’m holding out for a hero, ’til the end of the night. He’s gotta be strong and he’s gotta be fast. And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight”.
It is obvious that she needs a hero and he has to be strong and fast and also fresh from the fight. Hmmmm, now she is going to wait til the end of the night also. Now what could be the meaning of these words I ask you…Of course I ask rhetorically of course because I am going to tell you what they mean. I just wanted you to think about it it for a second. Ding times up.

The key is the context to think about these words. Now if you had heard what Chairman Mao said above and had in fact, like yours truly, [insert a smug look on my face here], had climbed The Great Wall, well everything would just fall into place. Let me save you some time now and succinctly state the meaning as clearly as I can, because it is only one that has been enlightened by the climb that can see it so clearly.

Bonnie was talking about waiting at “The Great Wall” for her guy to come back a hero from climbing the wall. He has to be strong and fast to be able to endure the challenge of climbing The Great Wall. Enduring that climb is what she is referring to as the fight. And, now this will toast your noodle, she is only going to wait until morning for him to do it.

She, Bonnie, must go for wussy guys or something because it didn’t take me all night to climb it and return – oh no not me. To give her and him, whoever he is, the benefit of a doubt, perhaps he didn’t start the climb until the late afternoon and underestimated what it actually takes and she was growing impatient waiting in the dark for him. We may never know exactly what her situation was that inspired her now immortal words.

But now you know the true story – believe it…or not.

Great Wall Bejiing, China

Hong Kong – Sitting at the dock of the bay

Posted on December 25, 2010June 25, 2011 by patrice

Well not really exactly what the title says…

We are actually sitting in the lounge at the Hong Kong airport and trying to catch up on some of the blogging while we wait for our flight. So I thought I would put this little note in here in case you think some of these blog entries aren’t exactly in order, cuz they aren’t.

We have been so busy that we haven’t had time to keep making timely entries. After all we have been touring around and have been joined by some friends too. So at the end of the day we have to sit around with a glass of wine or something and discuss the events of the day.

Now perhaps you can understand the grueling schedule we have been under while over here. It is hard work being a tourist…

We have had to deal with the “Mongolian Express” in Beijing. Ok I will explain that phrase.

It was about minus 3 zillion degrees Celsius the day we went to the “Forbidden City” and the wind was approaching gale force. In hurricane terms it was approaching a level 5, just to give you a scale to compare too. Everyone was dressed in as much warm clothes they looked like colorful penguins waddling around. They would have been over dressed for the Ididarod we were at in Alaska earlier this year. But not I, no I dress for what is needed, nothing more, nothing less. I had a t shirt with a long sleeve shirt over it, buttoned of course. The shirt was black and had that “Territory Ahead” look if you know what I mean. That would have been fine except for the wind. I happened to have a light wind breaker along that fit into it’s own pocket and took it out to break the wind, hence the name. But there was no need to zip it up as it was for blocking the wind and nothing more.

If bunny boots would have been available our little troop of penguins would have been wearing them for sure. But not I, no not I, for me it was sandals, with light socks of course. What a sight we were.

The group of Penguins going through the Forbidden City all huddling together waddling through and listening to a tour guide fill there heads with trivia they would never remember. As I, your roving reporter, in true Alaskan form, broke the trail for them and snapped some of the most fabulous and memorable pictures that have been ever taken in the Forbidden City.

But I digress… My main point was to let you know just a hint of the extremes that have been endured during this trip. At least now that we have a few moments to reflect on the trials and tribulations we have had to deal with. That is while sipping a glass of wine in Cathay Pacific’s First Class Lounge. They have respect and know how to treat a travel warn passenger like us

China – Shanghai Nights

Posted on November 25, 2010July 28, 2017 by patrice

Shanghai at night

I know the title almost sounds like a Jackie Chan movie doesn’t it. Well it isn’t, it is a picture taken from our hotel room, and what great nights there are in Shanghai too. Ok the days are pretty good too. We even got to the highest points in Shanghai too, the Pearl Tower that you see in the picture. We will have to put in a shot or two in the pictures section when we get a chance for you to appreciate the view from there.

It stays all lighted up until 10:30 pm and if you come here – do a river tour in the evening. They are about an hour or so but there are some amazing views from the river too. We did notice that all the tour boats have more lights on them than a Xmas tree, but the local boats / ships seem to lack any lighting. Our tour boat came up on a barge that had no lights on it. Even with repeated horn blasts the barge just lumbered along. Finally the barge moved out of the way – not by much though.

So that is the short version of Shanghai. We hope to get some time to put in reviews of the hotel and the like when we get a bit more time. So stay tuned…