Migratory Musings: July 2018

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Asian Adventure: The New Otani Tokyo Hotel

Asian Adventure: Roof of the World Tour Overview
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: The Cabin at HKG
Asian Adventure: Cathay Dragon A330-300 Business Class Hong Kong to Beijing
Asian Adventure: Regent Beijing Hotel
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Dongcheng District
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Great Wall
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Run-ze Jade Garden
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Legend of Kung Fu
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Tiananmen Square
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Forbidden City
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Hutong Tour via Rickshaw, Tea Tasting, Flying to Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Hotel Shangri-La Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Qing Dynasty Terra Cotta Warriors
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show
Asian Adventure: Xi’an Wrap-Up, Flying to Lhasa, Lhasa Home Visit
Asian Adventure: Shangri-La Hotel Lhasa
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Market
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Canggu Nunnery and Sera Monastery
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Potala Palace
Asian Adventure: Leaving Lhasa and Flying to Chongqing
Asian Adventure: Viking Emerald
Asian Adventure: Shibaozhai Temple
Asian Adventure: Cruising the Three Gorges
Asian Adventure: Three Gorges Dam
Asian Adventure: Jingzhou City Walls Tour
Asian Adventure: Wuhan - Hubei Bells Performance and Provincial Museum
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Shanghai Museum
Asian Adventure: Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Old Shanghai and Yuyan Gardens
Asian Adventure: The New Otani Tokyo Hotel
Asian Adventure: Tokyo - City Tour
Asian Adventure: Mt. Fuji and Hakone Tour Returning by Shinkansen
Asian Adventure: ANA Suites Lounge Review, Tokyo Narita
Asian Adventure: All Nippon Airways B777-300ER First Class Tokyo Narita to Houston

The next morning, a Tuesday, the three of us from our small group were up early to catch our flight to Tokyo. Those who were heading back to Nashville all had later flights. Originally Viking had put two of us on one flight to Tokyo and the third person on a different flight but we got them to put us all on the same flight. The down side of that was that we had to fly on Delta instead of experiencing a new airline. We did manage to grab some bulkhead seats (for a fee) so at least we had legroom on our 3h 40m flight.

There were about 35 people on the Tokyo extension and I was surprised that not only were we not all on the same flight, people were arriving on quite a number of different flights. I think some did not get to Tokyo until dinner time or later. There were probably 7-8 of us on our Delta flight and once we arrived and retrieved our luggage we all started looking for the Viking rep. What we didn't know was that on these extensions, we're actually getting a local guide and not a Viking employee. The reason that matters? Color. When out with tour groups, Viking guides always have on a red shirt and/or a red jacket. Even the boat's staff members, when they were outside the ship guiding us back to the correct place wore red coats. But once we finally found our guide she did not have anything red on her. And every single one of us looking for her had expected someone in red. Eventually we did connect and make it to the motor coach that took us to the New Otani Hotel.

Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Old Shanghai and Yuyan Gardens

Asian Adventure: Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai

Fairmont Peace Hotel by night

Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Shanghai Museum

Asian Adventure: Wuhan - Hubei Bells Performance and Provincial Museum

Hubei Provincial Museum

Bells Performance

Our tour in the morning was to the Hubei Provincial Museum where we'd listen to a bells performance. I had visions of lots of people ringing hand bells and wasn't overly excited about this but it turned out much differently than I expected. This set of 65 bells were found in the tomb of Marquis Yi who died in 430 BC. He had been the ruler of Zeng, which was a minor state in the region that is now Hubei province.

The bells in question turned out to be zhong bells, also known as Bianzhong, which means that they are made of bronze and are in a lens shape rather than perfectly circular. Opposite sides of the mouth of each bell are cut away so that they appear to have an arch on each side. On the outside of the bell are 36 studs placed symmetrically on it. These allow the bells to be able to produce two different sounds, depending on where the bell is struck. The bells on stage were, naturally, replicas of the ones found in the tomb.

There were six musicians: two played the bells, two played woodwind instruments and two played what looked like large zither-type instruments.

Asian Adventure: Jingzhou City Walls Tour

Asian Adventure: Roof of the World Tour Overview
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: The Cabin at HKG
Asian Adventure: Cathay Dragon A330-300 Business Class Hong Kong to Beijing
Asian Adventure: Regent Beijing Hotel
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Dongcheng District
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Great Wall
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Run-ze Jade Garden
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Legend of Kung Fu
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Tiananmen Square
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Forbidden City
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Hutong Tour via Rickshaw, Tea Tasting, Flying to Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Hotel Shangri-La Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Qing Dynasty Terra Cotta Warriors
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show
Asian Adventure: Xi’an Wrap-Up, Flying to Lhasa, Lhasa Home Visit
Asian Adventure: Shangri-La Hotel Lhasa
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Market
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Canggu Nunnery and Sera Monastery
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Potala Palace
Asian Adventure: Leaving Lhasa and Flying to Chongqing
Asian Adventure: Viking Emerald
Asian Adventure: Shibaozhai Temple
Asian Adventure: Cruising the Three Gorges
Asian Adventure: Three Gorges Dam
Asian Adventure: Jingzhou City Walls Tour
Asian Adventure: Wuhan - Hubei Bells Performance and Provincial Museum
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Shanghai Museum
Asian Adventure: Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Old Shanghai and Yuyan Gardens
Asian Adventure: The New Otani Tokyo Hotel
Asian Adventure: Tokyo - City Tour
Asian Adventure: Mt. Fuji and Hakone Tour Returning by Shinkansen
Asian Adventure: ANA Suites Lounge Review, Tokyo Narita
Asian Adventure: All Nippon Airways B777-300ER First Class Tokyo Narita to Houston

At our next port of call, Jingzhou (jing – zhō), we had a couple of options: we could choose to visit an elementary school sponsored by Viking or we could visit the ancient city walls. Within our group of 12, 7 went to the school while 5 of us visited the city walls.

I'd never heard of Jingzhou and the Chinese might say that's because it's small, barely a village. It has 6 million inhabitants but "only" 1.2 million live in what we'd consider the metro area. The city has been a transportation and distribution hub for over 6000 years, due to its location right on the river.

To give you an idea where the city is within the country, here's our tour map with the arrows pointing our our last stop at the Three Gorges Dam and our current location of Jingzhou.

Asian Adventure: Three Gorges Dam

Asian Adventure: Roof of the World Tour Overview
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: The Cabin at HKG
Asian Adventure: Cathay Dragon A330-300 Business Class Hong Kong to Beijing
Asian Adventure: Regent Beijing Hotel
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Dongcheng District
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Great Wall
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Run-ze Jade Garden
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Legend of Kung Fu
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Tiananmen Square
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Forbidden City
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Hutong Tour via Rickshaw, Tea Tasting, Flying to Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Hotel Shangri-La Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Qing Dynasty Terra Cotta Warriors
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show
Asian Adventure: Xi’an Wrap-Up, Flying to Lhasa, Lhasa Home Visit
Asian Adventure: Shangri-La Hotel Lhasa
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Market
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Canggu Nunnery and Sera Monastery
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Potala Palace
Asian Adventure: Leaving Lhasa and Flying to Chongqing
Asian Adventure: Viking Emerald
Asian Adventure: Shibaozhai Temple
Asian Adventure: Cruising the Three Gorges
Asian Adventure: Three Gorges Dam
Asian Adventure: Jingzhou City Walls Tour
Asian Adventure: Wuhan - Hubei Bells Performance and Provincial Museum
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Shanghai Museum
Asian Adventure: Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Old Shanghai and Yuyan Gardens
Asian Adventure: The New Otani Tokyo Hotel
Asian Adventure: Tokyo - City Tour
Asian Adventure: Mt. Fuji and Hakone Tour Returning by Shinkansen
Asian Adventure: ANA Suites Lounge Review, Tokyo Narita
Asian Adventure: All Nippon Airways B777-300ER First Class Tokyo Narita to Houston

The next morning we awoke to find ourselves docked below the Three Gorges Dam. Overnight we'd made our way through a series of five locks to reach our current location. Using a metric of installed capacity - how many megawatts of electricity it can sustainably generate - this is the world's largest power station. Though the dam first opened in 2009, it wasn't fully functional until 2012. The locks we'd been through opened a bit later.

It appears that setting the dam up for tourist visits wasn't an afterthought as there was a very nice setup for visitors. Tour buses arranged by Viking drove us from the boat, across a bridge that gave us a nice look at the dam from the water, and to the visitor's center. There we checked in and were loaded on to buses specifically set up for transportation to the dam. We were let out in this area at the bottom of a hill but there were escalators to take us to the top.

Riding the escalators to the viewing area

Asian Adventure: Cruising the Three Gorges

Asian Adventure: Shibaozhai Temple

Shibaozhai Temple

Asian Adventure: Viking Emerald

The Viking Emerald (right) at our first port of call

Asian Adventure: Leaving Lhasa and Flying to Chongqing

Leaving Lhasa

Viking had our travel plans laid out for us: depart Lhasa on a late-morning flight with lunch aboard, arrive in Chongqing in the early afternoon, board the Viking Emerald and have a lovely afternoon getting everything organized on the boat in preparation for the week of cruising. So simple, so easy...so you know it didn't happen that way, right?

Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Potala Palace

Asian Adventure: Roof of the World Tour Overview
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: The Cabin at HKG
Asian Adventure: Cathay Dragon A330-300 Business Class Hong Kong to Beijing
Asian Adventure: Regent Beijing Hotel
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Dongcheng District
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Great Wall
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Run-ze Jade Garden
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Legend of Kung Fu
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Tiananmen Square
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Forbidden City
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Hutong Tour via Rickshaw, Tea Tasting, Flying to Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Hotel Shangri-La Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Qing Dynasty Terra Cotta Warriors
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show
Asian Adventure: Xi’an Wrap-Up, Flying to Lhasa, Lhasa Home Visit
Asian Adventure: Shangri-La Hotel Lhasa
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Market
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Canggu Nunnery and Sera Monastery
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Potala Palace
Asian Adventure: Leaving Lhasa and Flying to Chongqing
Asian Adventure: Viking Emerald
Asian Adventure: Shibaozhai Temple
Asian Adventure: Cruising the Three Gorges
Asian Adventure: Three Gorges Dam
Asian Adventure: Jingzhou City Walls Tour
Asian Adventure: Wuhan - Hubei Bells Performance and Provincial Museum
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Shanghai Museum
Asian Adventure: Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Old Shanghai and Yuyan Gardens
Asian Adventure: The New Otani Tokyo Hotel
Asian Adventure: Tokyo - City Tour
Asian Adventure: Mt. Fuji and Hakone Tour Returning by Shinkansen
Asian Adventure: ANA Suites Lounge Review, Tokyo Narita
Asian Adventure: All Nippon Airways B777-300ER First Class Tokyo Narita to Houston

It was time for the big test in Lhasa: the climb to the Potala Palace, home to Dalai Lamas for centuries. Did our two nights in the city help us acclimate well enough to make it to the top? For some of us the answer was a resounding no and those folks stayed at the hotel. Others rode the bus with us, took some photos and made it to the lower plaza near the main entrance before deciding they'd had enough. The rest of us made the climb and fortunately none of us had issues.

Named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, the palace is named for Mount Potalaka, the mythical residence of a being that embodies compassion. The Fifth Dalai Lama ordered its construction, which began in 1645. The palace exterior walls are an average of 3 meters thick and are 5 meters thick at the base. The building stands thirteen stories tall and contains over 1000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and 200,000 statues.

As we approached the street-level entrance, our guides pointed out a lovely photo angle. I'm quite pleased with this photo; I think it's one of my best from the trip.

Potala Palace from street level

Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Canggu Nunnery and Sera Monastery

Asian Adventure: Roof of the World Tour Overview
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: The Cabin at HKG
Asian Adventure: Cathay Dragon A330-300 Business Class Hong Kong to Beijing
Asian Adventure: Regent Beijing Hotel
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Dongcheng District
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Great Wall
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Run-ze Jade Garden
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Legend of Kung Fu
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Tiananmen Square
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Forbidden City
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Hutong Tour via Rickshaw, Tea Tasting, Flying to Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Hotel Shangri-La Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Qing Dynasty Terra Cotta Warriors
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show
Asian Adventure: Xi’an Wrap-Up, Flying to Lhasa, Lhasa Home Visit
Asian Adventure: Shangri-La Hotel Lhasa
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Market
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Canggu Nunnery and Sera Monastery
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Potala Palace
Asian Adventure: Leaving Lhasa and Flying to Chongqing
Asian Adventure: Viking Emerald
Asian Adventure: Shibaozhai Temple
Asian Adventure: Cruising the Three Gorges
Asian Adventure: Three Gorges Dam
Asian Adventure: Jingzhou City Walls Tour
Asian Adventure: Wuhan - Hubei Bells Performance and Provincial Museum
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Shanghai Museum
Asian Adventure: Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Old Shanghai and Yuyan Gardens
Asian Adventure: The New Otani Tokyo Hotel
Asian Adventure: Tokyo - City Tour
Asian Adventure: Mt. Fuji and Hakone Tour Returning by Shinkansen
Asian Adventure: ANA Suites Lounge Review, Tokyo Narita
Asian Adventure: All Nippon Airways B777-300ER First Class Tokyo Narita to Houston

Our tour includes a stop at the Tibetan Museum but it was closed for renovation so we made a brief stop at the Canggu Nunnery, which was tucked away in a quiet corner of the Barkhor Market. My knowledge of nuns is limited to those of the Catholic faith and while there may well be similarities, the differences in appearance were noticeable right away. While we don't see as many nuns in the "penguin" habits these days in the US, they often have their heads covered and are dressed in a business suit of sorts. Buddhist nuns shave their heads and their habits are very similar to the monks. It's such a different look that when we first encountered this nun washing a pot outside the nunnery, we didn't realize it was a woman we were seeing.

A nun washing a pot

Canggu Nunnery

We waited in the courtyard for our full group to assemble and as I looked up at the balconies of the nunnery's second floor I realized they reminded me of the second floor of the private home we'd toured the day we arrived in Lhasa. Red, yellow and blue dominated the color scheme once again.

Colorful balcony at the nunnery

The nuns were just about to start some sort of prayer or meditation service so we had to walk through the nunnery fairly quickly. They were all gathered in the center of the room in neat rows, speaking softly though I'm not sure if they were praying or what. Our group walked around the edges with all of us taking photos as we went. Now that I think about it I find it odd that we were asked not to take photos of the worshipers outside the temple, to respect their privacy, but I don't recall being asked not to take photos of the nuns. It never occurred to me not to take photos of the nuns though perhaps I was just so accustomed to taking photos of everything else that I just kept clicking away.

Note the old photo of the Dalai Lama at right

As we were leaving we passed by the kitchen where one nun was working on lunch for the others.

Had this room been in a private home, I'd have described it as a den or family room.

After walking back through the courtyard we found more prayer wheels waiting.

Prayer wheels at the nunnery

We went back to the hotel for a little while and some folks were having issues with the altitude and opted to skip the afternoon's tour. The rest of us got back on the bus to visit the Sera Monastery.

Sera Monastery

The bus took us to the closest parking lot and from there we began our walk up to the monastery grounds. Though it was only a slight incline to reach the gates, it felt like a more difficult climb thanks to the altitude. Like other doorways we'd seen the monastery's outer gates were decorated in red, yellow and blue.

Sera Monastery Entrance

Our local guide, Pen, was talking to us as we walked and when we asked where we were going he pointed to this building high up on the mountain and indicated that was our destination. We were very relieved to learn he was joking. The Sera Chöding Hermitage was built not long before the Cultural Revolution of 1959. It's a retreat house built for a famous teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, Je Tsongkhapa, who lived in the late-14th, early-15th centuries. Once upon a time the only way to reach was to climb up from this angle but today a road on the other side winds its way to the hermitage.

Sera Chöding Hermitage

A wide path leads up past some shops into the monastery proper and divides the buildings into two main sections: the Great Assembly Hall and dwellings on one side and the three colleges on the other side. We mostly stayed on the path with a couple of stops to look at various rooms where photos were not allowed unless you wanted to pay extra. We noticed the building exteriors had a common theme: highly decorated doors, white-washed buildings and lots of prayer wheels.

The monastery has been around since 1419 but when the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959, it was bombarded and hundreds of the over 5000 monks who lived here were killed. Many of the survivors followed the Dalai Lama to India where they were able to start new monasteries on land provided by the government. Today there are about 300 monks in Lhasa.

Unlike going to seminary for a few years, becoming a Buddhist monk is a process that takes about 20 years. Integral to that process is debate and the monastery actually has a debating courtyard. The monks pair up with a more experienced ("teacher", if you will) monk and a less experienced ("student") monk. The teacher, who stands, presents a case on a Buddhist topic and the student, seated, must answer within a specified amount of time. Based on the student's answers the teacher will use various hand motions to indicate how good the response is. We often saw the teacher raise his hand up by his head then slam it down into the palm of his opposite hand. I don't know what that meant, whether it was bad or good, but it was really interesting to see dozens of pairs of monks all doing this in the same place at the same time.

"Sera" means "wild roses" and it supposed that those once grew in this area. But today, except for the trees, there didn't seem to be much growing. The debates were interesting and this was quite an experience.

An entire area devoted to the prayer wheels

Migratory Musings

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Asian Adventure: The New Otani Tokyo Hotel

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Old Shanghai and Yuyan Gardens

Friday, July 27, 2018

Asian Adventure: Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Shanghai Museum

Monday, July 23, 2018

Asian Adventure: Wuhan - Hubei Bells Performance and Provincial Museum

Hubei Provincial Museum

Bells Performance

Saturday, July 21, 2018

Asian Adventure: Jingzhou City Walls Tour

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Asian Adventure: Three Gorges Dam

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Asian Adventure: Cruising the Three Gorges

Sunday, July 15, 2018