It's getting busier and busier at work. Summer is one of the busiest times, along with Christmas/Chinese New Year. Ironically, Memorial Day weekend is nothing special. It is not technically summer yet and no one here cares about American vets. So I took some time off a little earlier than usual because it is only going to get busier.
Ryan came to Hong Kong the last two times, so it was definitely my turn to go to him, but since it was a holiday weekend, at least to us, we decided to do something different. Instead of me going to Fuzhou or him coming to Hong Kong, we went to Xiamen.
We went to Xiamen on our cruise last summer. Ryan hated it. I did not exactly hate it, but I was not all that impressed. What I liked the most was a small grocery store that had a surprisingly large selection of American items. These were actual American groceries made in America by American companies, not the “genuine” “made of USA” things with Chinese packaging and Chinese names you see throughout China.
Ryan misses American food even more than I do, especially since I live in Hong Kong where I can get a wider variety of international food. He lives in Fuzhou where his non-Chinese options are limited. They have plenty of Chinese Italian restaurants, but they are even more Chinese than our Chinese Italian restaurants. I convinced him to go back to Xiamen for the food.
I also told him that if he really hated it that much, we could just stay in the hotel all day naked. It was an empty compromise since I knew he could easily say he hated the city no matter what he really thought and he knew I was never going to spend the entire trip inside a hotel room.
Even though neither of us was all that impressed with the Xiamen stop on the cruise, I knew there had to be more to it than what we saw. We were only there while the shipped was docked, about nine hours. Since then, I have heard a few people say how much they like Xiamen and how much cleaner it is than most Chinese cities. I figured there must be something to it that we missed.
I went to see what else was there. Ryan went for the hotel. We both went for the American grocery store.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Monday, May 19, 2014
Vacation to Somewhere part 5
What really brought me around to Finland was the house where we can stay. Since there are four of us, we have always been thinking about renting a big villa or house instead of just staying in the usual hotel rooms. There is a really nice house in Helsinki in the downtown area. It looks like it's close enough to walk to Helsinki Cathedral, which is one of the main sights.
Helsinki Cathedral is close to the main train station, so getting around should be easy. It all looks pretty close together on a map, but you never know until you are actually there.
I have never particularly thought about going to Finland, but I have never been opposed to it either. It is just one of those places I never thought much about. The more I look into it, the more I'm warming up to the idea.
Kevin wants to go to Finland more than Bali. Ryan wants to go to Bali more than Finland. Lily & I are currently on the fence. I suppose we will know which one it will be when one of us makes up our mind.
I'm just glad we finally narrowed it down to only two choices. Hopefully, no one will come up with another option.
Helsinki Cathedral is close to the main train station, so getting around should be easy. It all looks pretty close together on a map, but you never know until you are actually there.
I have never particularly thought about going to Finland, but I have never been opposed to it either. It is just one of those places I never thought much about. The more I look into it, the more I'm warming up to the idea.
Kevin wants to go to Finland more than Bali. Ryan wants to go to Bali more than Finland. Lily & I are currently on the fence. I suppose we will know which one it will be when one of us makes up our mind.
I'm just glad we finally narrowed it down to only two choices. Hopefully, no one will come up with another option.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Vacation to Somewhere part 4
What do we know about Finland? It gets very cold. But our trip is in August. That is the warmest time in Finland and that is when Finns seem to leave Helsinki, making hotels much cheaper.
It looks like Helsinki has an efficient public transportation system. They have lots of trams, which I like a lot better than subways, and you don't have to take a taxi from the airport into the city. I would rather take a train from the airport than a taxi any day. Taxis have different rules and systems everywhere in the world and you have to know how the locals do it to do it successfully. Trains are pretty straightforward and don't charge different prices at the driver's whim.
Most of the main attractions in Helsinki are all in the same part of town. That just makes it easier. There are cities in China where everything is a million miles from everything else. You can't just walk from one sight to another. When I'm in a city for the first time, I want to be able to walk as much as possible. You don't see as much from a taxi that is taking you on a wild goose chase, and you see even less from a subway.
None of us can speak any Finnish at all. I don't know a single word in Finnish. But I can say, “Jag pratar inte svenska” in Swedish. A lot of people seem to speak Swedish in Finland.
Not that it matters. I don't think you need to know the local language to enjoy your visit. Sometimes not knowing the language makes it more interesting. I don't know a single word in Thai, but I had a great time there. I don't know any Dutch and precious little Italian, but Amsterdam/Rome was a great trip. I don't know any of Indonesia's languages, but Bali was one of the best trips of my life.
English is also very common in Finland, so there should not be any problems. We were thinking about Thailand, the Netherlands, Israel and Jordan and none of us speak any of those languages.
It looks like Helsinki has an efficient public transportation system. They have lots of trams, which I like a lot better than subways, and you don't have to take a taxi from the airport into the city. I would rather take a train from the airport than a taxi any day. Taxis have different rules and systems everywhere in the world and you have to know how the locals do it to do it successfully. Trains are pretty straightforward and don't charge different prices at the driver's whim.
Most of the main attractions in Helsinki are all in the same part of town. That just makes it easier. There are cities in China where everything is a million miles from everything else. You can't just walk from one sight to another. When I'm in a city for the first time, I want to be able to walk as much as possible. You don't see as much from a taxi that is taking you on a wild goose chase, and you see even less from a subway.
None of us can speak any Finnish at all. I don't know a single word in Finnish. But I can say, “Jag pratar inte svenska” in Swedish. A lot of people seem to speak Swedish in Finland.
Not that it matters. I don't think you need to know the local language to enjoy your visit. Sometimes not knowing the language makes it more interesting. I don't know a single word in Thai, but I had a great time there. I don't know any Dutch and precious little Italian, but Amsterdam/Rome was a great trip. I don't know any of Indonesia's languages, but Bali was one of the best trips of my life.
English is also very common in Finland, so there should not be any problems. We were thinking about Thailand, the Netherlands, Israel and Jordan and none of us speak any of those languages.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Vacation to Somewhere part 3
Lily, Kevin, Ryan and I finally decided where to go on our big summer vacation. Our short list was Amsterdam, Thailand, Scotland, Bali, Israel and/or Jordan.
We ruled out Amsterdam because there were too many temptations for the men. I am generally not fond of judging people, but I don't want my travel companion to be baked the entire trip. I wanted to get some cheese in Alkmaar, but it would have been hard to get the others to leave Amsterdam, even for a little while.
We ruled out Thailand because it would have been a pain to get to every place we all wanted to go. If we just went to Bangkok that would be easy, but going to one place then another and another is never the most relaxing vacation in the world.
We ruled out Scotland because I was the only one who wanted to go there. There are four of us, so it has to be somewhere with more interest.
We ruled out Israel/Jordan because there are just too many issues. Going to one or the other might be easy, but flying into one and then flying home from the other turns out to be problematic. I don't care about the politics, but Ryan and Kevin do. We could not get past the unnecessary bullshit enough to have a good trip.
That left us with Bali. I'm always up for a private villa with a private swimming pool. With four of us, we could get a four bedroom villa with a bigger pool. Indonesia has been in the news lately with some less than flattering stories, but that was true the first time we went to Bali. None of it ever affected us. Bali seems to be removed from a lot of the general turmoil, or at least they do a good job of keeping it under the surface.
Then Kevin came up with Finland. We all collectively said, “Finland?” I assumed that since no one else liked my Scotland idea, no one would like Kevin's Finland idea.
We ruled out Amsterdam because there were too many temptations for the men. I am generally not fond of judging people, but I don't want my travel companion to be baked the entire trip. I wanted to get some cheese in Alkmaar, but it would have been hard to get the others to leave Amsterdam, even for a little while.
We ruled out Thailand because it would have been a pain to get to every place we all wanted to go. If we just went to Bangkok that would be easy, but going to one place then another and another is never the most relaxing vacation in the world.
We ruled out Scotland because I was the only one who wanted to go there. There are four of us, so it has to be somewhere with more interest.
We ruled out Israel/Jordan because there are just too many issues. Going to one or the other might be easy, but flying into one and then flying home from the other turns out to be problematic. I don't care about the politics, but Ryan and Kevin do. We could not get past the unnecessary bullshit enough to have a good trip.
That left us with Bali. I'm always up for a private villa with a private swimming pool. With four of us, we could get a four bedroom villa with a bigger pool. Indonesia has been in the news lately with some less than flattering stories, but that was true the first time we went to Bali. None of it ever affected us. Bali seems to be removed from a lot of the general turmoil, or at least they do a good job of keeping it under the surface.
Then Kevin came up with Finland. We all collectively said, “Finland?” I assumed that since no one else liked my Scotland idea, no one would like Kevin's Finland idea.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Old Ryan, New Home
This was going to be my turn to visit Ryan in Fuzhou, but since we just moved into the new apartment, we decided that he should come here to check it out. Usually when Ryan comes to Hong Kong, we go to a hotel. The old apartment was just too small for everybody at the same time. Staying in a hotel gave Ryan & I some time alone and also worked out for Lily & Kevin. Now that there is plenty of room for everyone, Ryan can stay here whenever he comes to Hong Kong.
Lily & Kevin were at work a lot, so Ryan wanted to test drive the apartment. His top priority was to have sex on the balcony, but that was never going to happen. It is certainly a big enough balcony. It is the biggest balcony I have ever seen in Hong Kong. There is plenty of room to do all manner of unspeakable things, but this is still in Hong Kong. Our building is not pressed against the next building, but we still have neighbors who can easily see our balcony when they are out on theirs. The balcony is big enough to have a party, but you are never going to have any privacy on it.
Naturally, Ryan suggested we wait until night time. Hong Kong is never truly dark at night. There are always plenty of lights on everywhere, but you could probably go unnoticed on the balcony with the living room lights off. So maybe there is slightly more privacy at night, but there are also far more mosquitoes. There are plenty of mosquitoes in the day time, more than enough, in fact. But night time is when they really come out in full force. Since this is mosquito season – anywhere between March and December is mosquito season – I would prefer to be as covered as I can when I'm outdoors at night. There are parts of my body that really don't need mosquito bites.
Lily & Kevin were at work a lot, so Ryan wanted to test drive the apartment. His top priority was to have sex on the balcony, but that was never going to happen. It is certainly a big enough balcony. It is the biggest balcony I have ever seen in Hong Kong. There is plenty of room to do all manner of unspeakable things, but this is still in Hong Kong. Our building is not pressed against the next building, but we still have neighbors who can easily see our balcony when they are out on theirs. The balcony is big enough to have a party, but you are never going to have any privacy on it.
Naturally, Ryan suggested we wait until night time. Hong Kong is never truly dark at night. There are always plenty of lights on everywhere, but you could probably go unnoticed on the balcony with the living room lights off. So maybe there is slightly more privacy at night, but there are also far more mosquitoes. There are plenty of mosquitoes in the day time, more than enough, in fact. But night time is when they really come out in full force. Since this is mosquito season – anywhere between March and December is mosquito season – I would prefer to be as covered as I can when I'm outdoors at night. There are parts of my body that really don't need mosquito bites.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
New Year, New Home part 6
What I like most about the new apartment is the kitchen. Most Hong Kong apartments have no kitchens. They all claim to have a kitchen, but a sink against a wall is not my idea of a kitchen. The newer expensive luxury apartments all have kitchens, but they are also ridiculously overpriced. People in Hong Kong are more than happy to pay way too much for something if it gives them a sense of status. If a building is famous or is in the neighborhood that is more fashionable this week, they are more than willing to pay twice as much as it's worth. We found a few reasonably priced apartments with kitchens, but most were smaller than this one.
I predict I will be spending more time in the kitchen than any other room. Now that I have space, I can make more than toaster oven brownies.
What Lily likes most about the new apartment is the gym. Newer apartments all seem to have gyms. Most of the older apartments do not. I don't know when they started putting gyms in Hong Kong apartments, but you can always tell when an apartment was built by the gym. The gym in our apartment is decent. It is not like a club that you would join, but for something just downstairs, it is pretty good.
What Kevin likes most about the new apartment is the balcony. Most apartments in Hong Kong have balconies, but they are usually very small. They all seem to have tiny laundry balconies that are just big enough for a washing machine and a little bit of space to hang your clothes out to dry. Our apartment has the laundry balcony, but it also has a real balcony outside the living room. It was the biggest balcony we saw in our entire apartment search. Even the new luxury apartments had smaller balconies. Some had no balconies at all.
There was a building overlooking the harbour that had great views of the Hong Kong side, but it did not have any balconies or even big windows. That seemed strange to me. They build something with this great view but don't take advantage of it.
I don't know how much time Kevin, or any of us, will spend on that balcony, but it is nice to have. My old apartment only had the tiny laundry balcony which only had a view of the building next door. We can see plenty of other buildings from this one, but we can also see the harbour. Looking out the window and seeing water is a nice change of pace. Seeing anything besides other buildings is a luxury in Hong Kong.
I predict I will be spending more time in the kitchen than any other room. Now that I have space, I can make more than toaster oven brownies.
What Lily likes most about the new apartment is the gym. Newer apartments all seem to have gyms. Most of the older apartments do not. I don't know when they started putting gyms in Hong Kong apartments, but you can always tell when an apartment was built by the gym. The gym in our apartment is decent. It is not like a club that you would join, but for something just downstairs, it is pretty good.
What Kevin likes most about the new apartment is the balcony. Most apartments in Hong Kong have balconies, but they are usually very small. They all seem to have tiny laundry balconies that are just big enough for a washing machine and a little bit of space to hang your clothes out to dry. Our apartment has the laundry balcony, but it also has a real balcony outside the living room. It was the biggest balcony we saw in our entire apartment search. Even the new luxury apartments had smaller balconies. Some had no balconies at all.
There was a building overlooking the harbour that had great views of the Hong Kong side, but it did not have any balconies or even big windows. That seemed strange to me. They build something with this great view but don't take advantage of it.
I don't know how much time Kevin, or any of us, will spend on that balcony, but it is nice to have. My old apartment only had the tiny laundry balcony which only had a view of the building next door. We can see plenty of other buildings from this one, but we can also see the harbour. Looking out the window and seeing water is a nice change of pace. Seeing anything besides other buildings is a luxury in Hong Kong.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Paperback Writer part 2
Hailey's Bali Diary is now in paperback. As usual, if you buy the paperback, you can get the e-book for free. The price will probably change all the time. Nudist Cruise seems to have a new price every day. I don't have any control over that.
Most stores and sites price match, so if they find it somewhere cheaper, they will lower the price. I don't know if they raise the price when they find it higher, but I would not be surprised.
Most stores and sites price match, so if they find it somewhere cheaper, they will lower the price. I don't know if they raise the price when they find it higher, but I would not be surprised.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
New Year, New Home part 5
Moving is a pain in the butt. I like to think that I don't have a lot of stuff, but when you move, you find out just how much you have. I definitely have less stuff in Hong Kong than I did in Minnesota, but it is still too much.
I came to Hong Kong with a suitcase and a backpack. If I knew then what I know now, I would have brought less. Most of the clothes I brought were completely inappropriate for Hong Kong. I even brought a big winter coat. That just seems ridiculous to me now. Most of the clothes I wear now are from Hong Kong anyway.
Lily & Kevin came to Hong Kong with three or four suitcases, two carry-ons, and backpacks and bags. Like a lot of expats, they brought everything they thought they would need. Like most expats, they found that they did not need most of it and ended up buying the things they needed here. Now they have a crazy amount of stuff. Every time I take a trip out of Hong Kong, I bring back souvenirs and gifts for other people. Every time they go out of Hong Kong, they bring back gifts for others and souvenirs for themselves. They have boxes full of trinkets from their travels.
We also had to move Ryan's stuff. He did not bring nearly as much to Hong Kong as Lily & Kevin, but he has bought more here than I have. He left most of his stuff here when he went to Fuzhou because he never knew how long that would last. He has been there for almost two years now, but he still sees it as temporary. Now he is buying more stuff there.
We decided to go through each other's stuff and throw away whatever we did not think was necessary, but that was never going to work out. If I suggested throwing out Kevin's golf clubs and all the junk that goes with them – balls, tees, gloves and a bunch of other crap – he said he might start playing golf again. He has not played in all the time he has been in Hong Kong. I think he should at least sell them to someone who might actually use them.
Kevin wanted to throw out Lily's CD collection. She has I don't know how many thousands of CDs. We could not even count them. It is endless boxes and boxes full of CDs. Obviously, music is good and nobody suggests she do without it, but all of the songs on all of those CDs can be put on her computer. It would probably take an extra hard drive, but at least that hard drive would be a lot easier to carry. These are not rare, unusual prints of hard to find LPs. These are garden variety CDs from China and Japan.
Lily wanted the throw out most of my Disney stuff. When you work at Disneyland, you get a pretty good discount and I went a little overboard when I started working there. Kevin thinks it is all junk and Lily is not impressed by anything she sees every day at work, but I think some of it is cute. I'm not going to work at Disneyland forever and someday I will want some of this stuff when I look back on this time. People are always saying they wish they still had Disney things from 20 or 30 years ago that Disney does not make anymore. Maybe I will feel the same way in 20 or 30 years.
In the end, Lily got rid of a few boxes. She kept all of her CDs, but she threw most of the old clothes she never wears anymore. Kevin kept his golf clubs, but threw out maybe 10% of his stuff. I was the most drastic. Though the new apartment is much bigger than the old one, I like the idea of having less clutter. I threw out several boxes of Disney stuff, almost as many clothes as Lily and pretty much anything that had been sitting in a box since they moved into my tiny apartment. If I never used it, I don't need it.
I came to Hong Kong with a suitcase and a backpack. If I knew then what I know now, I would have brought less. Most of the clothes I brought were completely inappropriate for Hong Kong. I even brought a big winter coat. That just seems ridiculous to me now. Most of the clothes I wear now are from Hong Kong anyway.
Lily & Kevin came to Hong Kong with three or four suitcases, two carry-ons, and backpacks and bags. Like a lot of expats, they brought everything they thought they would need. Like most expats, they found that they did not need most of it and ended up buying the things they needed here. Now they have a crazy amount of stuff. Every time I take a trip out of Hong Kong, I bring back souvenirs and gifts for other people. Every time they go out of Hong Kong, they bring back gifts for others and souvenirs for themselves. They have boxes full of trinkets from their travels.
We also had to move Ryan's stuff. He did not bring nearly as much to Hong Kong as Lily & Kevin, but he has bought more here than I have. He left most of his stuff here when he went to Fuzhou because he never knew how long that would last. He has been there for almost two years now, but he still sees it as temporary. Now he is buying more stuff there.
We decided to go through each other's stuff and throw away whatever we did not think was necessary, but that was never going to work out. If I suggested throwing out Kevin's golf clubs and all the junk that goes with them – balls, tees, gloves and a bunch of other crap – he said he might start playing golf again. He has not played in all the time he has been in Hong Kong. I think he should at least sell them to someone who might actually use them.
Kevin wanted to throw out Lily's CD collection. She has I don't know how many thousands of CDs. We could not even count them. It is endless boxes and boxes full of CDs. Obviously, music is good and nobody suggests she do without it, but all of the songs on all of those CDs can be put on her computer. It would probably take an extra hard drive, but at least that hard drive would be a lot easier to carry. These are not rare, unusual prints of hard to find LPs. These are garden variety CDs from China and Japan.
Lily wanted the throw out most of my Disney stuff. When you work at Disneyland, you get a pretty good discount and I went a little overboard when I started working there. Kevin thinks it is all junk and Lily is not impressed by anything she sees every day at work, but I think some of it is cute. I'm not going to work at Disneyland forever and someday I will want some of this stuff when I look back on this time. People are always saying they wish they still had Disney things from 20 or 30 years ago that Disney does not make anymore. Maybe I will feel the same way in 20 or 30 years.
In the end, Lily got rid of a few boxes. She kept all of her CDs, but she threw most of the old clothes she never wears anymore. Kevin kept his golf clubs, but threw out maybe 10% of his stuff. I was the most drastic. Though the new apartment is much bigger than the old one, I like the idea of having less clutter. I threw out several boxes of Disney stuff, almost as many clothes as Lily and pretty much anything that had been sitting in a box since they moved into my tiny apartment. If I never used it, I don't need it.
Monday, April 21, 2014
New Year, New Home part 4
We finally moved to a new apartment. We looked at so many different places that now I can't even remember what any of them looked like. Each one could be classified into two different styles. Every apartment in each style was just like all the others. There were always minor differences here and there, but it almost looked like they were all made by the same company. Maybe that is how buildings can go up so quickly in Hong Kong. They all follow the same blueprint.
The hardest part about picking an apartment was not what it looked like. It was finding one that we could all agree on. We did not want to vote and let the majority rule. We wanted it to be unanimous. If we took an apartment that one of us did not like, there would only be problems later. Since we all agreed on this apartment, hopefully we can stay here longer.
The second hardest part was location. Lily & I work at the same place, but Kevin works on the other side of town. Most expats, and most of the better apartments, are on Kevin's side of town. Living there would only make it harder for Lily & me to get to work. It would not really be hard. We would still take the MTR. It would just take longer.
I don't want to live around a bunch of expats anyway. What is the point of living in a foreign country if you are only surrounding yourself with other foreigners? I already work with a bunch of foreigners and I'm sharing an apartment with two foreigners. The last thing I want is to live in some gated foreigner community or exclusive building. I want as many Chinese neighbors as possible. I want to go outside and be in a Chinese neighborhood.
The third hardest part was the price. Kevin makes more money than the rest of us combined. We agreed right from the beginning that we would all pay an equal third of the rent. This meant that it had to be based on Lily's & my salary, not on Kevin's. Finding a cheap apartment in Hong Kong is easy. There are a lot of dumps out there. We wanted something nicer. With three people we could still afford something better, but we had to ignore some very nice places. There are a lot of cheap run-down apartments in Hong Kong, but there are also a lot of very nice luxury apartments. We limited our search to something in between.
Eventually, we found a place in our price range that was more or less half way between our jobs. It is technically closer to Kevin's job, but it has a free shuttle to an MTR station that goes almost directly to our job. That was the clincher for us. We were trying to decide between this apartment and another one that we all liked when we found out about the shuttle. We can always walk to the nearest MTR station, but then we have to transfer to the line where the shuttle goes. That shuttle just makes our lives easier.
The hardest part about picking an apartment was not what it looked like. It was finding one that we could all agree on. We did not want to vote and let the majority rule. We wanted it to be unanimous. If we took an apartment that one of us did not like, there would only be problems later. Since we all agreed on this apartment, hopefully we can stay here longer.
The second hardest part was location. Lily & I work at the same place, but Kevin works on the other side of town. Most expats, and most of the better apartments, are on Kevin's side of town. Living there would only make it harder for Lily & me to get to work. It would not really be hard. We would still take the MTR. It would just take longer.
I don't want to live around a bunch of expats anyway. What is the point of living in a foreign country if you are only surrounding yourself with other foreigners? I already work with a bunch of foreigners and I'm sharing an apartment with two foreigners. The last thing I want is to live in some gated foreigner community or exclusive building. I want as many Chinese neighbors as possible. I want to go outside and be in a Chinese neighborhood.
The third hardest part was the price. Kevin makes more money than the rest of us combined. We agreed right from the beginning that we would all pay an equal third of the rent. This meant that it had to be based on Lily's & my salary, not on Kevin's. Finding a cheap apartment in Hong Kong is easy. There are a lot of dumps out there. We wanted something nicer. With three people we could still afford something better, but we had to ignore some very nice places. There are a lot of cheap run-down apartments in Hong Kong, but there are also a lot of very nice luxury apartments. We limited our search to something in between.
Eventually, we found a place in our price range that was more or less half way between our jobs. It is technically closer to Kevin's job, but it has a free shuttle to an MTR station that goes almost directly to our job. That was the clincher for us. We were trying to decide between this apartment and another one that we all liked when we found out about the shuttle. We can always walk to the nearest MTR station, but then we have to transfer to the line where the shuttle goes. That shuttle just makes our lives easier.
Friday, April 11, 2014
Vacation to Somewhere part 2
Our short list is Amsterdam/Alkmaar, Scotland, Bangkok/Chiang Mai, Bali, Israel/Jordan. There are pros and cons of each.
The only downside to Amsterdam is that Ryan & I have been there, but we both liked it and we would never complain about going back. I really want to check out the cheese in Alkmaar, which is just outside Amsterdam. Lily wants to rent a houseboat, but I think if we go to Amsterdam, we will get nice hotel rooms or a suite.
Scotland is mostly my choice. My family was originally from Scotland and I know everything about our family tree, though I have never seen any of the places I have heard about. Kevin is a little interested in Scotland, but nobody else really cares. So we probably will not go there. If we do, there is a castle where we can stay.
Ryan & I have been to Bangkok and Kevin wants to go to Chiang Mai. If we do this one, we will fly into Bangkok, stay there for a few days and then go to Chiang Mai. I think this could be a pretty good trip, but going from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and then back to Bangkok might be a hassle. There are flights from Hong Kong to Chiang Mai, but far more options to Bangkok.
Lily really wants to go to Bali. A lot of people seem to want to go there now, and of course, she heard all about our trip. One of the great things about Bali is that with four people, we could get an exceptional 5 star villa. I would also like to see more of the island since we saw precious little the first time.
I would love to go to Israel and/or Jordan, but Ryan and Kevin have opposite opinions on all the political issues. I don't care about any of that. I want to see the history, meet the people and eat the food. Lily thinks if we go there, we should spend equal time in each country. That way Ryan and Kevin can have equal time. That sounds fair, but I have no idea where to go in Jordan outside of the most obvious places. I also don't know anything about hotels in Jordan, but I can figure it out. In Israel, I know that we can rent a house. I would rather stay in a nice house than a hotel.
The only downside to Amsterdam is that Ryan & I have been there, but we both liked it and we would never complain about going back. I really want to check out the cheese in Alkmaar, which is just outside Amsterdam. Lily wants to rent a houseboat, but I think if we go to Amsterdam, we will get nice hotel rooms or a suite.
Scotland is mostly my choice. My family was originally from Scotland and I know everything about our family tree, though I have never seen any of the places I have heard about. Kevin is a little interested in Scotland, but nobody else really cares. So we probably will not go there. If we do, there is a castle where we can stay.
Ryan & I have been to Bangkok and Kevin wants to go to Chiang Mai. If we do this one, we will fly into Bangkok, stay there for a few days and then go to Chiang Mai. I think this could be a pretty good trip, but going from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and then back to Bangkok might be a hassle. There are flights from Hong Kong to Chiang Mai, but far more options to Bangkok.
Lily really wants to go to Bali. A lot of people seem to want to go there now, and of course, she heard all about our trip. One of the great things about Bali is that with four people, we could get an exceptional 5 star villa. I would also like to see more of the island since we saw precious little the first time.
I would love to go to Israel and/or Jordan, but Ryan and Kevin have opposite opinions on all the political issues. I don't care about any of that. I want to see the history, meet the people and eat the food. Lily thinks if we go there, we should spend equal time in each country. That way Ryan and Kevin can have equal time. That sounds fair, but I have no idea where to go in Jordan outside of the most obvious places. I also don't know anything about hotels in Jordan, but I can figure it out. In Israel, I know that we can rent a house. I would rather stay in a nice house than a hotel.
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