China. So far so fun.

Places are never what we expect, and China is fast living up to that maxim. We did expect great food, and we've found it, from wonderful dumplings in Dali where we ate our way down one street of dumpling vendors:






More dumplings please.




To amazing Naxi food in Lijiang.




All the ingredients are so fresh.



And of course nothing is made until you order it, but then the food arrives so quickly. Such a relief after Australia where we sometimes waited 45 minutes for our food.



And now for the cute critters. An integral part of any post.

We called him Nano pup. This was in Baisha, a village outside Lijiang. We ordered our lunch and he showed up to mooch some food. We fed him bits of tofu and the Naxi woman tending the restaurant smiled.


This guy would be right at home with my nieces in Colorado. They would have him hitched up to a pony cart in no time flat.



In Lijiang the restaurants line up along the canals, and over the rooftops well above the crowds cats have their own secret freeway to travel from window to window.



Lijiang is a very popular tourist spot with Chinese tourists, it's a cross between Disneyland and Venice. No cars in the central old town, everything is delivered by bike or on foot. I love a city center with no cars.





The night scene is amazing.





And as usual we got out and about on some rental bikes.



It's our favorite way to see the countryside. You see things and vistas that most tourists will never find.


It helps if your travel companion is Rich, or I like to call him, the tour guide for Ricky's no frills seldom supported adventure tours.



You never know where you'll end up.



Or who you'll have lunch with.



See Rich's blog for the full story on this lunch:
http://blogs.bootsnall.com/TravelRich/

Birds of a feather

Some times it really pays to use your feet. Muscles over motors. I may be one of the laziest humans known to man kind - why do you think I ride my bike? So I don't have to walk to transit! But I do know that when you want to see amazing stuff you have to leave the engines and the motors behind.

So, up in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney we walked. First a note on how fabulous it is to be able to get somewhere like the Blue Mountains by train from Sydney. Big City, two hours on a train that runs every few hours, and ah wilderness. Yeah for trains! And seeing the ten k of traffic jam caused by a sunday afternoon car crash just made us feel even more grateful that we hadn't rented a car and driven. Why drive when you can take the train?




And why take the cable car or "worlds steepest train" down into the canyon when you can walk down the incredibly steeps stairs....and wait a minute...back up again?



Up how many steps?



700 steps! Up? However, with the effort comes the reward. In this case in the form of a flock of sulpher crested cockatoos about 50 strong. We first saw them bathing in the falls and I was twitching with frustration at not being closer, or not having dragged a pair of binoculars around the world with me.



The noise they make. Like teenagers on cell phones they cannot move without communicating with one another. We wtched them play in the waterfall for a while and then something startled them and they took off in a loud cloud of white.



And landed right near us! The trail was very steep and the trees tops on which they landed were just about eye level with our sweaty selves.





Motto of the story? Muscles not motors. Take the stairs.

And then at the top of the stairs, bonus echidnea!

Hong Kong Transit

This post is out of order, we were in Hong Kong before going to New Zealand. But NZ was so fun and busy that Hong Kong got lost in the shuffle.

Hong Kong - what can I say about your transit system except that You Rock!

Not only are your maps and signage close to perfect;





but you've also tapped into a little used transit option.

Escalators.



The Central Escalators run down the hill from 6 am to 10:30, then switches and runs up the hill from 10:30 to midnight. It's about 800 meters of escalators and moving walkways. You can window shop while commuting. You can pick a restaurant or bar.



This was the last bar on the mid levels escalator, so of course we stopped. And watched the escalator commuters go by.



For anyone who can't get enough of Hong Kong transit, go to flickr.com and type in hktransit under tags for all the great transit photos.

And for those who care more about cats, here you go.



Or maybe goldfish?

Going to the birds in Sydney, Australia

Who's an adorable parrot who landed on our balcony? This guy.
Who fed him? Me.
Was it a good idea? No.
Did he and his buddies show up every half hour screeching for more food for the entire morning? Yes.



But still adorable.

Rich and I are in Sydney, staying in a apartment just up from Bronte Beach. Every morning we go to the beach to swim, either in the Bogey Hole, which is protected from the surf by rocks, or in the salt water swimming pool.



The coast around Sydney is beautiful, thankfully we got out and saw a lot before the rain started. It's been raining for about three days now.



Australia has had ten years of drought, but this stretch of coast gets more then its fair share of rain. Unfortunately it just runs into the ocean, doing the rest of the state and country no good.



We did a great walk from Split to Manley with our friend Mike who was in Australia for work. Sun and lizards, what more could you ask for?



So what's it like staying in one place for so long? Weird, after so much traveling. We emptied the trash for the first time in 8 months. We had to change the toilet paper roll! We bought groceries for more then just two days worth of eating. We have our weekly transit passes and we figured out the bus system and the train system. It's very nice. I give Rich two more days before he's itching to move again.

Seaweed and Sheep

After our friends Mike and Nancy went back to SF Rich and I rented a car to head up north on the South Island. We wanted to hike and visit the wine country. The areas of New Zealand that have only one main road are not the best for bicycle touring so we decided that a car was the way to go. And we wanted to hike. To get to many of the hikes you have to drive up dirt roads and park on or near private farms or ranches.



These majestic looking sheep were guardians at the trail head of a hike we did up to SawCut gorge. The trail is just a walk up the river, in the river, with an occasional scramble over bigger boulders. The gorge is beautiful and can only be walked through during low water times.



Rich went for a chilly swim au natural, I stayed on the river bank taking photos.



New Zealand is just lousy with great walks, hikes, and tramps of varying length, vistas, and weather. One particular favorite was along the shore of the Kaikoura Peninsula. If you walk the shore around low tide you can make it past all the bluffs at water level - you will be sharing the rocks with red beaked gulls and fur seals, both of which will feel threatened if you get too close. The gulls retaliate by dive bombing you, the fur seals retaliate by scaring the pants off you as what you thought was a rock barks and makes a dash for the water.



The varieties of seaweed along the walk were amazing,





And of course it was New Zealand so there were sheep on this walk as well.



The sign says it all, watch out for sheep everywhere.



We're in Australia now, with our bikes, and after five days in Melbourne we're heading off to Victoria's High Country and then to Sydney.

Push me, pull you.

Cycling in New Zealand has a been a lesson in love versus hate, or desire versus reality. My hatred of going fast downhill (or fear) is outweighed by my desire to coast as far as possible on the bike loaded with gear.



My fear of New Zealand drivers, including the very able and aptly named Sonic Shuttles (so named because at any moment they may actually break the sound barrier) has twice won over my hatred of cycling 70 km into a headwind with rain threatening at any moment.

(note on NZ drivers - they go fast. They don't like to move out of their lane, even if no cars are coming towards them in the easily visible and straight opposite lane. yes, even if it means buzzing a cyclist at 100kmh with less then 1 meter to spare.)

But, the love of cycling with friends and Rich definitely wins out over every hardship we've encountered so far. Yeah I know, boo hoo, poor us!





And the sheep viewing never gets old!



Or the kitty petting.



The dogs are all friendly.



And the beer is always cold.