Japan/China Adventure - Observations - Part One

1. THE TOUR OVERALL - As I have written before, the entire trip and every aspect of it, exceeded my expectations. Of course there were bits and pieces that I had slight quibbles with (such as not having an additional night in Tokyo) but nothing that distracted from my overall satisfaction with the tour. Interestingly, toward the end of the tour I found out that this particular Japan/China configuration was a first for Globus, which explains why our tour director Mark was taking copious notes regarding our comments as the tour was winding down.

2. THE GROUP - There were 32 people in our group, 12 couples and 8 singles. The oldest person was 76 and the youngest 19. We had one family traveling with their two sons, 22 and 19, and one kissy/kissy early 40s unmarried couple. Unfortunately, the majority of the people over 50, both male and female, were overweight and one couple was almost morbidly obese, with both weighing over 250 lbs. They were a very interesting couple however - he, Paul, is a retired college history professor and she, Sandy, a retired elementary school teacher. At first you could feel some tension between some of the group because the couple was always the last off the bus and the last to get on and they walked very slowly slowly. But, as the tour developed their outgoing personalities overcame any criticisms and the single guys made a point of staying with them during the walking portions of the tour, to be of assistance if necessary. And, frankly, often assistance was necessary. At our last dinner as a group, in Beijing, our tour director announced that Paul and Sandy had bought a round of drinks for the group in appreciation of our patience and understanding - nice. By the end of the tour we actually ended up admiring them for their willingness to undertake such a physically demanding tour.

But, don’t get me started, though, on how out-of-shape American tourists are. It is just a fact. 90% of the guys over 50 had a potbelly and this was the same percentage with all of the other tour groups we saw. Man, something has to be done, it really does ... OK ... enough ... sorry about that.

Back on track - as a group we got along very well although the married couples almost all fell into what I have named “The Married Tour-Group Cycle.” What is this you ask? Let me explain ... in my years of traveling as a single traveler with tour groups I have found that almost without exception married people go through 3 phases during the tour, each phase of about equal length:

a. First 1/3 of the trip: “We are the happiest couple on earth and we want to tell you all about how happy we are to have found one another. Have we told you how happy we are and how much we love each other? Let us tell you again.”

b. Middle 1/3 of the trip: Bicker, bicker, bicker and more bickering, especially on the tour bus. To which I want to scream: “Come on people, you are not at home sitting on your couch in front of your blaring TV - we can hear you already - shut the fuck up,” but, of course, I don’t. Bicker, bicker and bicker - it is a fact of married life, I guess.

c. Final 1/3 of the trip: Ice cold silence with no eye contact between them. When talking to others they refer to their spouse in the third person, if at all. It is particularly difficult because there is very little opportunity, if any, for them to be away from one another for any length of time. This phase, unfortunately, is taken with them back home and, thusly, I have no idea how long it lasts once the tour is over and I don’t think I want to know.

3. THE TOUR GUIDE. Our tour guide was Mark Nichols, who was born and raised in New Zealand but has lived in Tucson, Arizona, for the last 25 years and has worked for Globus for about 20 years. His specialty is Asian tours. He was excellent. Polite but in control. Tactful. Understanding. Knowledgeable and very well read on Asian cultures and history. I rank him in the top 2% of all the tour guides I have had with Globus, or any other group for that matter.

He was particularly adept at supervising our luggage transfers, hotel check-in, inter-China flights, restaurant and shopping recommendations and basically helping to keep the collective stress levels under control.

Each of the local tour guides were good although I got the impression that those in China were not as open and responsive to questions as their counterparts in Japan.

4. OH MY GOD - THE TIME IN THE AIR. OK, I already knew we would spend a lot of time in the air on this trip and that we would have to fly to each city in China, but ... wow ... it was almost overwhelming, it really was. But, everything went just as planned and the Norris Travel Curse did not factor in at all on any leg/flight. I was particularly impressed with Japan Airline and with all of the airports in Japan and China.

Now, here is a statistic to end this portion of my trip observations - I flew a total of 21,040 miles. The circumference of the earth is 24,900 miles, so on this trip I flew 84% of the way around the world. Awesome, fucking awesome.

More to come later, hopefully.

Billi Pod
wanjr@aol.com

Sunday - June 1 - Back into my Big Apple routine

On Wednesday evening at 9:15pm my flight from San Francisco landed at JFK and a little over an hour later I was opening the door to my apartment, thus ending my once in a lifetime Japan/China adventure. I was tired and my body clock was trying to determine just which time-zone was correct. I gave it a boost by immediately ordering in pizza and wings. I am happy to report that as of today everything seems to be in-synch.

Thursday was a day of catching up, sorting through and reading 3 weeks worth of accumulated mail, paying bills, taking stuff to the laundry, restocking the fridge etc. etc. etc. and becoming one again with my beloved Big Apple. I definitely had jet-lag though.

Friday was an excellent day ending with The Eagles concert at Madison Square Garden. It was outstanding. On Saturday I got back into my theater routine by seeing two Off Broadway shows: “Three on a Couch” - about a famous author who fakes his own death so he can read his obituaries and the effect it has on his wife and his Shrink; and a one-man show by Mike Daisey called “How Theater Failed America” - excellent.

For the upcoming week I have already scheduled the following: Monday - “Bombs Away” Off Broadway; Tuesday - Yankees vs. Toronto; Wednesday - New York Philharmonic; Thursday - Yankees vs. Toronto.

Now, about my Japan/China Adventure - it met and exceeded all of my expectations. I was unable to post anything on this blog once I reached China because the Chinese government has blocked access to all known blog sites, yes, that is correct, the sites are blocked.

So, what I want to do is create an overview of the trip with my thoughts, comments, and observations. I am working on that now and should be able to post it/them in manageable segments during the upcoming week.

I will, however, post the following observation about what I consider to be the highlight of the entire trip, walking The Great Wall of China. This is an excerpt from a family email --

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.....I hope to write about my thoughts in some detail later but the highlight of the entire trip was The Great Wall of China. We were there for about 4 hours on Friday. When we got to the entrance our tour guide said we had two options, on the right would be the "normal" side and on the left, the steeper more difficult side. Most of our group opted for the "normal" side. Did I? You already know the answer to that. Yes, this 74 year old guy chose the steeper, more difficult side and off I went with 6 other people from our group.

Well, it was one of the dumbest things I have done in a long time because the steps were irregular and very very very steep. But up and up and up we went until about 45 minutes later we reached the top viewing point for our entrance station. I took lots and lots of pictures and had mine taken when I finally reached the top.

When I turned around to begin the descent it became obvious that this part was going to be much more difficult and dangerous and I was right on both points. I was very very careful going down because one misstep would have had dire consequences. It was also very hard on the knees.

About half way down I thought to myself - you egomaniacal asshole, why do you always do things like this? It's not like CNN is going to carry a special news flash: "Breaking News from China - Bill Norris has just walked The Great Wall of China via the "more difficult" path - more news as it develops."

I have to admit that I was tired, sore and drenched in sweat when I finally reached the exit area. But, I had, in fact, walked The Great Wall of China via the more difficult route. Yahoo!!!

I later bought my first "things" on the tour - a black T-shirt that says: "I Walked The Great Wall," and, an authentic Beijing Olympics T-shirt, also black....
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So, my cyberspace friends, it is great to be back in The Big Apple in the good old United States of America.

Billi Pod
wanjr@aol.com

Sunday, May 18 - leaving Shanghai

I haven’t been able to timely post on this blog since arriving in Japan because of the lack of internet service/availability. Hopefully I can post some interesting details when I get back to the good old US of A.

About Japan - what an interesting country and I found Tokyo to be breath-talking. I wish our tour had more time there but I understand why not because it is so hideously expensive there.

I found Kyoto to be excellent too.

I am writing this on Sunday afternoon in Shanghai. I am not certain it will post because the Chinese government has just started an internet monitoring program in anticipation of the of the Olympics. Once you got online it takes forever for every website to load.

These are emails I sent to family --
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Thursday - tomorrow it is on to China

Hi:

An awesome　day in Kyoto today　and in the morning we leave Japan to begin our adventure in China.

Once again, I hope this goes through OK.

In a few words - Japan is interesting beyond description　and the people are terrific.

Hopefully I can give more details when we get to our hotel in Shanghai．　I have been doing OK in keeping my log.

Billi Pod
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Friday night - in Shanghai

Hi everyone:

I am in the lobby of the Sofitel Hotel in the middle of Shanghai and it is 10:15pm, They have just installed wifi service, but in the lobby only.

Today was a very long day with a long bus ride to the airport in Osaka and then the flight to Shanghai. The flight went OK and we actually had a pretty decent meal.

Had no problems with getting luggage, clearing passport control and customs. Our main tour director, Mark, was with us and we were met by our Shanghai guide, David.

The airport is a long way out of the city and it took 90 minutes to get to our hotel. The weather is awesome.

After a brief rest we headed out to a museum for a couple of hours and then had dinner at a Thai Restaurant.

When we got back to the hotel around 7:30 we split and I went walking in the area of the hotel, which is on one of the busiest streets in the city. It was awesome.

Tomorrow we have a 7:00am wakeup call and depart at 9:00 for a full day of sightseeing, ending with an acrobatic show in the evening.

How about letting me know if this goes through OK and is in English.

Billi Pod
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Sunday - Leaving Shanghai

Hi everyone:

{is this comes through twice - sorry - this internet service sucks}

It is 12:10pm on Sunday and I am sitting in the lobby of the Sofitel in Shanghai. We have checked out and now have some extra free time because we don't leave for the airport until 3:45. I am not certain what our flight departure time is or the length of the flight. For whatever reason our Tour Director, Mark (who is doing an excellent job) hasn't shared that information with us.

As I wrote the other day, the internet service in the lobby of the hotel is quirky and once we get online, sites takes forever to load. Someone said that the government has ordered local hotels to monitor websites, but I don't know if that is true.

Shanghai is H U G E!!! I have tried not to compare Tokyo to Shanghai or the Chinese to the Japanese, at least not until the whole tour is over. The traffic here is chaotic and is beyond comprehension. The crowds are the same. I have taken a lots of picture, especially of the new buildings and the skyline. With all of the internet problems I will not try to send them until later.

As I said, the skyline is awesome with lots of tall new buildings.

On Saturday we spent the entire day on and off the tour bus going to various landmark locations. We also spent some time at a Kindergarten (ages 3-7) and were allowed to go inside the instruction areas to take pictures and then on to a silk production shop - both very interesting.

We had lunch in a Mongolian restaurant. I know but just like last night's Thai place, the tour selected the restaurant. I had pork, chicken, lamb and ?.

Most of the afternoon was spent at a mega-crowded rock garden.

For the evening we had a wonderful show by a world acclaimed acrobatic team, whose name escapes me at the moment.

We were back at the hotel around 9:30. I got some diet coke and a ? sandwich and after eating it spent the next several hours just wandering through the massive Saturday night crowds.

Bottom line on Shanghai - very impressive and it has been an enlightening experience.

Now, I am through sitting here and will stow the computer case and head out to do something.

Later.

Billi Pod 
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So there it is - hopefully to be posted.

Billi Pod
wanjr@aol.com