Beijing 2017, part 3 - not as expected

After the Summer Palace, we got caught up on a part of Beijing we missed on our first day - starting with the Lama temple

The Lama temple is the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet, and home of the Panchan Lama as well as the largest Buddha carved out of a single sandalwood tree - roughly four stories tall.

From the Lama Temple we hiked to the Drum tower and Bell tower - These two imposing towers (which were the official timepiece of Beijing until 1924) were sadly closed for the week for maintenance, but the kids made the most of the large square between them.

The Drum and Bell towers are nestled into a part of residential Beijing that is undergoing some controversial re-development, as their status as a tourist attraction comes in conflict with quaint neighborhoods like this one:

Leaving the Drum and Bell Tower square, we prepared to hunt down a taxi, and instead met with a friendly tuktuk driver, who assured us we could all fit into his vehicle. We swerved through car lanes, and bike lanes, scraping by with centimeters to spare. Zoom!

The next day we had booked a trip to the GREAT WALL OF CHINA. That's right, you've heard about it since elementary school, though much of what you've probably heard has been myths propagated by (or for) tourists. The section we were scheduled to tour, the Mutianyu section, is known for gorgeous views, and fun alpine slide down from the ridgeline.

The day dawned rainy, gloomy, and gray...and stayed that way. We soldiered on, and I am so proud of team SingaBorchert for keeping in good spirits despite the rain.

Well, we were able to see the wall itself, but will have to depend on Google to show us the gorgeous views...now that we're on the right side of the great firewall.  At the very least, we were able to get out into the countryside and get a glimpse of China that was very different from the Beijing urban experience.

Next up: Back to Beijing for the Forbidden City!

Beijing 2017, part 2 - Summer Palace

Michael's quote for Beijing was "I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this!"

I've been reading my guidebook, and all of the internet to prepare for this trip, but these don't always have the details you really want to know. Like, will the restaurant staff speak English, or have an English menu? (answer: probably not) Or, how long should we plan to spend at the Summer Palace? (answer: as much time as you possibly can)

Our plan for the second full day was to spend the morning at the Summer Palace. With Eldest feeling better, we marched the crew over to a local shop for dumplings. With Eldest translating, we enjoyed our local-style breakfast,

Then we hopped into a taxi to visit the Summer Palace! This huge estate was a summer retreat for emperors, first built in 1750, and last rebuilt in 1912, and opened to the public in 1924. But knowing that, and reading about it in a guide book did not prepare us at all!

Walking in, I felt like I was at an amusement park. This is not entirely unreasonable, since the north gate, where we entered, was an amusement area for the Emperor and court. The artificial riverfront featured pretend storefronts, so the emperor and concubines could play at shopping. Of course, the previously fake shops now contain souvenirs, so we admired the view and then ushered the kids through as quickly as we could.

Not really knowing what to expect, we followed the crowds straight ahead, which led us up, up, up the hill. Good thing we left the stroller at the hotel!

The kids had a grand time climbing the hill and exploring all the side halls and caves, and were in good spirits as long as we kept doling out the snacks.

And then back down the other side, through amazing temples and imperial apartments filled with artifacts.

At the bottom of the hill, we encountered the crowds who entered through less strenuous routes - as well as the famous long corridor, which the kids were happy to run along. Where do they get this energy?

This was also the kids' first day of being the tourist attraction. Many of the other visitors were interested in the kids, and wanted to touch them or take pictures with them. Danger Monkey was having none of it, and consistently ran back to Mommy when anyone approached. Middle Child also usually hid or ran away, but Eldest was willing to entertain a few pictures and enjoyed amazing her fans with her Chinese skills.

We then caught a boat across the lake to the Temple of the Dragon King. The view back to where we had climbed was gorgeous, and I was transported to a different world, imagining myself aboard the imperial barge. I can only imagine how it must have looked pre-smog.

Overall, I give the Summer Palace two thumbs up. It is gorgeous, and has plenty of nooks to explore and opportunities for the kids to play. In our five hours there we saw only a fraction of the grounds, and I can't wait to go back.

Beijing 2017, part 1

The SingaBorcherts were on the move!

The Bigs had their first school holiday last week, so we packed up the crew and fulfilled a years-old promise to the Eldest by heading off to China. For our first visit, we decided to take it easy and just explore Beijing.

I say "just," but after five days, I know that we have only barely scratched the surface of this city. Wait, wait, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Where was I? Oh, right, taking three kids to China!

Taxi, airport, queue, queue, queue, aaaaaairplaaaaaane, queue, queue, tram, queue, queue, taxi, hotel.

Phew! We made it!

We stopped by a local restaurant for dinner, then headed over to the Wanfujing Snack Street to see what that all the fuss is about. The scorpions on a stick were almost as intimidating as the crowds!

Unfortunately, that night, the Eldest came down with the bug that had recently laid the rest of us low, so the poor girl was stuck on the hotel couch for her first day in China. Mike and the Littles kept her company for a quiet morning, while I went out to explore.

I wandered through the neighborhood until I ran into the Beijing Working People's Cultural Palace.  Built in 1420 for the emperors to pay their ancestors a proper worshipful respect, it's architecture closely mirrors the famous Forbidden City. But in 1950, Chairman Mao opened it to the public, and now the grounds are available for any number of uses.

One can meditate on the serenity of the lovely rock garden.

Or drill your soldiers in their precision marching - watch those foot angles!

Or take your turn with all the other bridal couples getting wedding photos (I counted 7 in the main courtyard alone!)

Or perhaps you'd like to enter the ancient temples to view an exhibition of modern German art works set next to the Peace Chimes, bells commissioned to celebrate the unity of China and the new millennium.

All in all, it was an amazing introduction to the interaction of Imperial and Modern China!

I then picked up the Littles for a walking tour of a Hutong neighborhood. These are the traditional neighborhoods of Beijing, that housed court officials and wealthy families before the revolution. Though many have been razed, the remaining hutongs are bustling neighborhoods filled with locals (and a few tourists, depending on the street). Leo, our tour guide, did a great job introducing us to their history and current-day experience while the Littles cavorted.

Leo then brought us to visit a famous cricket trainer, who invited us into his home, and showed us the tools of his trade (and fed my kids some much-appreciated bananas). This local character is clearly passionate about his crickets and other pets, and gleefully introduced us.

Look! I made a friend!

Before saying goodbye, Leo recommended a few restaurants and helped us order jianbing - Beijing's answer to the crepe. Yum!

Stay tuned for more palaces, temples, and cute kids!

Wilderness Adventures

Singapore is actually made up of a number of islands, however most of them are small and mostly undeveloped.  The largest of these is Pulau Ubin, to the north-east of the main island of Singapore in the channel that separates SG from Malaysia.  It is partially developed with fish farms and orchards, but is predominately a recreational getaway from the urban environment.

You get there via bumboat from a ferry terminal near the airport.  There are no tickets or reservations, you just show up and as soon as there are 12 people waiting the next captain in the queue waves you all onto his boat and sets off.

At Ubin you unload on a jetty that leads into the main town, and are immediately beset by bicycle rental hawkers. 

We had originally planned on walking to the nature preserve at Chek Jawa and then taking a taxi back, but Elizabeth convinced us to rent some bikes with kid seats and explore the island that way.  There are some mountain bike trails on the island, and you can bring your own bike on the bumboat if you don't want to trust the dodgy rentals.  As we weren't planning on doing any extreme sports they were perfectly fine.  The island's a little hilly, but nothing the bottom gears couldn't handle.  This was actually the first bike with gears that Eldest had ever ridden, as it turned out.  She got the hang of it pretty quick.

The biking was pretty great.  We were there on a Saturday with beautiful weather, and still had stretches with no one else in sight.  The roads are all well-maintained for the minibus taxis and maintenance vehicles, so it's a smooth ride through the jungle under a thick canopy.  It's about 3km to the Chek Jawa visitor center where we parked our bikes and hiked the boardwalk on foot.

The first stop was a lookout tower where you could see the mangrove forest, coastal area, Malaysia, and a wide array of cargo ships, tankers, floating oil platforms, sailboats, barges and tug boats, floating fish farms, and fishing boats plying the Johor Strait.

The rest of the hike was just above the mud and water level of the mangrove forest, since we were there right around high tide.  We saw mudskippers and craps, and towering mounds of mud that were apparently the tailings from burrowing mud lobsters.

We eventually came out onto the coastal boardwalk.  At low-tide there's a rocky shore full of tidal pools visible, but we'll have to come back to see it.  As it was, it made a beautiful place to park ourselves in a rain/sun shelter and eat our lunch.

After lunch we went back up to the visitor center and checked out the interpretive center, which was a restored tudor-style building from the 30's that a British official had used as a weekend retreat.  We had some cold drinks out of a vending machine, and we read the warning signs about what to do if you encounter a wild boar (found this one from elsewhere in SG on google):

Back at the bikes, I was looking at a map while Elizabeth got the kids packed up when lo and behold a large boar ambled right past!

...heading straight for the bike parking.  After snapping the picture I called out to Elizabeth to watch out for the pig.  Which walked right up to her.  To her credit, Elizabeth followed the instructions to the letter, staying calm, getting Danger Monkey out of the bike seat, and backing away from the boar.  The boar then climbed up on the bike frame, pushed the bike over, grabbed the backpack out of the front basket with it's teeth, and shuffled off into the underbrush.

I did _not_ follow the instructions, and chased after it into the jungle.  I was able to get this picture which looks like the basis of a cryptozoological conspiracy theory:

...in which you can sort of make out the wild boar tearing my backpack apart like it was made of tissue paper.  I followed it shouting and throwing sticks along with two other gentlemen, but the boar knew who was in charge.  It continued to tear apart the backpack while shuffling out of reach (which was fine with me, considering how much damage it was able to do to the relatively durable backpack in a short amount of time).  Eventually the backpack suffered enough damage that it started leaking contents that I cared about (umbrellas, Nalgene, diaper pad & supplies), which I was able to collect while still giving slow chase.  Eventually I had collected enough of our belongings that the risk/reward equation tilted in favor of "stop chasing the pig with razor sharp teeth".  The helpful strangers were all about continuing the "fight", but I told them "It's alright.  The pig won this one."  I think the pig scored two granola bars.

As we were packing up and getting ready to head out the rest of the hog family ambled across the road, including about a dozen baby pigs, but by that point we were ready to get out of there.   We biked away to check out a campsite with Danger Monkey signing "Piggy" and "Backpack" over and over.  This was probably the high point of her week.

We biked to a campsite on the northern coast of the island, and Eldest and I followed sketchy hand-written signs to a gentleman in a run-down homestead selling cold drinks out of coolers.  On the way back with her 7-up and a big bottle of water a lizard jumped out of a tree onto her leg!  It scampered down her leg and up a nearby tree, leaving her pretty freaked out.  Here's the offender:

It was about 8-10 inches long.  Some sort of iguana, maybe?

After we guzzled our water we biked back to town, returned the rental bikes, and hiked a "sensory trail" that we saw on the map.  It turned out the highlight was a small secluded beach (no pictures, sorry) where we could play in tidepools and watch airplanes landing at Changi airport and boats of all sizes going past.  We finally hiked back to the pier and took a boat back to the "mainland".

After getting back we visited a nearby brewery to have some salty snacks and rehydrate.  It was a pretty cool place, and the beer was pretty good and not that expensive, by Singapore standards.

We also got revenge on the pig.  Or at least, a pig.

More Mid-Autumn Festival Festivities

One of the reasons we came to Singapore is to gain first-hand experience with traditions originating on this side of the world. And what better way to understand a festival, than to take part? So that's what we did for the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival (aka Lantern Festival, aka Moon Festival, aka Mooncake festival).

We ate mooncakes given to us by friends. We've noticed that mooncakes (especially the cooked kind) are kind of like fruitcake. They're both dense and kinda sweet, and some people like them, but many others give and receive them for the sake of tradition. Either way, they are very popular, are sold everywhere in this season, and come in a large variety of colors and flavors.

We ogled the fantastic lanterns at Gardens by the Bay and in Chinatown.

Then we made our own mooncakes and lanterns at the Chinatown family-festival - where we attracted a lot of attention for our obvious lack of Chinese ancestry.

We joined a large lantern-carrying parade through Chinatown, where Michael got to tell our kids "if you find yourself on the interesting side of the crowd barriers, keep doing what you're doing."

And then on the night of the full moon, we played with sparklers generously shared by our condo neighbors, who had clearly celebrated this festival before.

Happy Autumn everyone! Wishing us a long life to share the graceful moonlight, though we be thousands of miles apart.

Happy Autumn Equinox!

Today we mark three months in Singapore, the (incredibly slight from here) shortening of the days, and the continued dance between Earth and Sol. Oh, right, and the moon. Because it is also the season of the Moon Festival (aka Mid-Autumn Festival), a traditional Chinese festival that culminates on October 4 this year.

Usually we love celebrating the Autumn Equinox by hosting friends at our house. Happily, that tradition is continuing (Thank you friends!), though without us this year.

So, for our own celebration, we journeyed to the Gardens by the Bay once again. This time, in addition to the musical super-trees, it was the opening of their Moon Festival - with lantern displays, extra food options, and traditional Chinese crafts.

I had no idea "lanterns" could be so elaborate! My cell phone pictures just cannot do them justice, so I cropped them and used the "posterize" feature for funzies.

We also saw quite a few of these guys. They were munching on apples near the food street (which we only just passed on our way out of the gardens), and here is one from the harvest display, who is clearly working hard to put food away for the cold, unforgiving Singapore winter (I jest).

This was one of the grandest: a fishing village on the water! On the shore nearby is a rice field with farmers as well.

 And I bid you adieu with one final display. Happy Autumn to you all - however you celebrate!

Here is the magnificent entrance to the festival. The peacock's tail is color-changing and flashing tunnel that is spectacular to walk through!