I saw the (blue) sky above Beijing & Steven was LOST in Beijing

When we were heading to the Silk Market (cheap clothes, shoes, glasses where you bargain to at least 1/4 of the requested price) we had for the first time since we arrived here in Beijing a blue sky!! instead of Smog. It was an unexpected surprise, because the air pollution here is a big problem and many people talk about it. The American Embassy even sends out a 'warning'-sms to inform their people to stay indoor when the air is unhealthy. There are many cars and factories in Beijing and because there is a large mountain in the north of the city, I was told that the wind does not blow enough to clean the air. Also there are not a lot of trees in the city which can clean the air.
So, even with the beautiful sky, we still took the underground and before we realized we lost Steven. He knew the way and he was in front of us and we thought he used the other exit of the subway-train, but the next station when we had to change to line 1 he didn't come out. We waited and went back to line 1 but no Steven. His cell phone was also not working. Steven thought we were going to another shop (complete different direction) and could not find us when he arrived there. Because the phone card was empty he could not reach us and after more than an hour waiting he went back with his subway-card. Luckily he knows the underground lines and stations and the small streets to our apartment so he could find his way back home. From home he could skype us that he was okay, but that was only after a few hours of worries.

Peking Duck (not for my vegetarian friends!!)
The other name for Bei Jing is Peking and a very famous dish here is Peking Duck. My mother always  tells the story about how she went to eat 'Peking Duck' when she was here in 1991. She had to eat the whole duck from eyes, head, feet/flippers etc.
So we had to try this. Audrey  (who is working at the Embassy here) and some Dutch friends found a perfect place to eat Duck. Much more fancy than our food-courts where we went so far. They had a separate kitchen with big glass wall where you could see how they prepared the Duck. After several starters served on the round turning place in the middle of the table the Duck came and we were eating it in small pancakes (what we learned before at Katima in Hout Bay). For the different parts of the Duck there was a different sauce and ways to eat it. The skin was dipped in crispy sugar, the feet was eaten with garlic and unions and YESSSS, I had the DUCK BRAINS.It tasted like pate.

We saw people eating black Scorpions,
 fury spiders, beetles,cat ears etc. but no
dog brain.

Near our apartment we have a food-court, so we love to go and choose noodles and eat with chopsticks between the locals. We also like to shop at the local supermarket and make an interesting dinner at home. What we don't like is the 'specialties' which some of the shops have on their menu. One day we saw a food shop with the most horrible insects and they were all ready to be fried. But also there were many clients waiting in line to eat these fried scorpions, big black spiders, cockroaches and locusts.


Queen's day

We do not only eat local food and special dishes. In most of the cities where we are, there are also many Dutch families working and living. So it happened that on the 30th of April and the 5th of May we celebrated Queen's Day (Koninginnedag) and Liberation Day with the Dutch kids. First our parents had an evening in Orange organised by the Dutch Embassy with all the local Dutch People living in Beijing. The children could go a couple of days later to a picnic and we went with Juune and Pieter to the International School in Beijing who also has a Dutch School in it. We did games and sold sweets AND there was traditional Dutch food (krentebol en bitterballen). Afterwards we went to swimming classes with them and I had hockey training on the fields of the British school. It was a fun day (but also tiring), but after a diner at my favorite restaurant Anni's we had another great day in Beijing.

Attractions
Steven is going to his football club every Saturday and Sunday and  the fathers play also and the mothers walk around the field and do Chinese exercises on Chinese music. Is is part of the sport fields used for the Olympics in 2008. The soccer and the walking reminds us a bit what we do every Sunday morning on Hout Bay Beach, when we play beach football at 10.00 with the fathers and sons and the ladies are walking on the beach.

After the training we went to see the National Olympic stadium of Beijing also known as the Bird's Nest because it looks like a nest. This stadium was built and used for the Olympic games in 2008 and the Paralympics.

We also visited this week The temple of Heaven,  a park with many buildings/temples, where the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties were praying to Heaven and their ancesters. It was built from 1406 to 1420 and is very big and impressive. Beside the several temples there is also a place where you can hear the Echo of the prayers, so people where standing there and giving a speech or started singing.


School
School is going great and we have a big apartment with a park around, so we both read in the park with the smell of flowers and hearing the fountains and the waterfalls. For EMS (economic management science) we had a big test
about inflation/unions/money etc. For Natural Science we are learning about the atoms and types of energy. For maths we have done more than 3000 questions on our IXL website and every week -as usual -a spelling test. Mom is being a great teacher teaching us a lot, but sometimes someone didn't go to bed in time or is bad tempered and than the day is spoilt. Steven is reading South African Memories about the Anglo Boer War and I am reading Jane Eyre. I love Jane Eyre, but its a long story.

Thanks Loes

Beijing,China

Our last night in Shanghai we invited Joyce - the apartment secretary for dinner and she took us to a 'hot pot' or 'huoguo' restaurant, very traditional here!! You order chicken, vegetables, beef, noodles, tofu  etc. and you boil it yourself in a hot sauce in front of you on the table. (which we thought was tomato soup first) and it will float up when its ready. The place was very busy with local guests and the vibe was fantastic.

We left from Shanghai and took the Magnetic train (430km/hour) to the airport. In Beijing it was very difficult to find the way to our compound since the taxi driver was only able to curse in Chinese. His car was not so big and new, but no other taxi was available and therefore we had all our suitcases packed on top of us. Beijing is full of flats, high buildings and highways and everywhere there are building sites. My parents said that China has a lot of money are that is way they are building new metro lines and more buildings. The people live in compounds, tall flats built in a square in between the highways. In the compounds are small parks, a gym and or pool, a tennis court, a clinic and shops. Our apartment was on the outside of the compound and was very noisy, since people were building day and night on a new subway station in front of our apartment. So we moved to another building which was on the inside looking at trees and fountains. In the second apartment we had more space and Steven and I had our OWN ROOOM!!!!!!

We went to the Forbidden City,  the Chinese Imperial Palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of Qing Dynasty. It is right in the center of Beijing. For 500 years it was the home for the emperors and their households and the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. We went very early around 8:30 when it was not that busy, but when we left at 14:00 it was packed with tour groups. I had to find a quiet corner to close my eyes and feel the vibe how the Emperors and their concubines (wives and girlfriends of the emperors) lived. Also the Garden of the Palace was very special with old trees and the national flower - the Peony. This week we also visited a friend who used to live in Hout Bay, Audry. She invited us to come over for dinner and she cooked a GREAT meal and gave us many good tips about Beijing, it was much fun!


We learned already 5 words in Chinese and made a promise that every day we will add another 5 words!! Chinese language is not as  difficult as I thought it would be. You must listen and read and learn a few words every day and hopefully I can say just a few things when we leave next month. Specially because the people here are very interested to say 'Hello' and are always curious although they do not speak English themselves.

We also met with my dads old friends WTP Pentermann and Jean Pierre Evers. Their wives Da Ya and May taught us more about China and we went in a seat with a bicycle in front to an old part of town with the traditional small houses, a lake and small shops. My mother said that that was how Beijing looked like when she visited it 20 years ago. Also she said that she cycled around Beijing, but now there are only cars....many cards and a few electric bicycles and scooters.

\

At some places it says "no spitting", but
the older people still do!

Thanx Loes

On the paper it says "No Sitting"
and what do they do????

你好= Hello (IN CHINESE)

Nihao everyone.....YEESSSSSSS, we found a way to get on my Blog. After a week looking at a 'black blog-page', we managed to find a way to keep you posted. Thanks Loeke for helping !!!!

After we said good-bye to the Anema's, we had a problem at the checking-in station. They were weighing our HAND LUGGAGE in stead of our suit cases. So we all had over-weighed hand-luggage mainly due to the books and laptops. We had to take everything out and put it in our big suitcases which we had to open up, so find the key, put stuff in, than close again and and open again, cause still more had to be lifted over to the suite case etc etc. Finally it was still a 1/4 kilo over-weight!!! (THEY ARE SOOOO FUSSY). We went from Australia to Singapore and had a transit flight straight to China. When I wanted to work on my computer in the plane, one of the crew/airhostes had put my bag somewhere and I could not find it anymore. I had to look in every cupboard of the airplane and after an hour of trying to find it. I finally found it at the back of the plane.

Finally we landed in Shanghai, China, the country that my dad chose. Some people told us to go to China and some people advised us not to go; so we were very curious!!!!.
The first week we were staying in Shanghai, the largest city in China (24 million people). When we arrived in Shanghai we thought it was bad weather with a lot of mist, but after few days, the mist was still there and we found out that it was actually the smog of the pollution above the city. The many high buildings were all fading in the smog, but at night the many lights and colors were very bright and beautiful to look at from our apartement on the 22nd floor. We were overlooking the CBD (central business district), the rivers Huangpu and Suzhuo River, the bridges and of course the Bund (the famous riverbank where all the old buildings are). The best view we had was during our dinner in the Revolving restaurant on the 45th floor of the Radisson Hotel.
The center of Shanghai was very crowded with big shopping streets and malls, huge parks with many exercising people, many many many many small shops and eating places, taxis racing and hooting (when we went with the taxi, we always had a competition who guesses how many times the driver hoots; the highest score was 36 times in 13 minutes) through the streets and running you over while you cross the zebra-crossing. Also I saw many babies who do not have nappies, because it's expensive and therefore they have a hole in their pants, so the parents just have to hold them above the toilet or bin or gutter when the baby needs to go.(eeeew!!).

eating at the Radisson

Nothing is strange here.......everyone seems to clear their throats, spit, burb, walk in their pyjamas, talk and argue extremely loud without minding that we all hear them (but don't understand them anyway).!! After washing they dry their clothes all over the streets, hung over the lamp poles, on lines in between the traffic signs.
The only thing the Chinese seem to find strange are........ tourists and /foreigners!!!!! When we walk over the streets, we are being looked at with curiosity and often they turn around or ask us where we are from??
If you want to become a model and don't want to stand in line and hand in cv's to model agencies, then  come to China.....you will be instant famous and people take pictures of you left, right and center.
I am not sure why, but it seems that they are not used to see foreign people, since it was not allowed for foreigners to be in China. So, now it is catch up time!!

Now China is open to the whole world and the Chinese can do whatever they want. They have expensive phones, clothes from Zara, watches from Swatch and bags and shoes from Prada.
BUT, they can't go on Facebook, You Tube, Twitter, Linked In. You found out by looking at my black screen.

In their pyjamas

For now 'ZAIJIAN (bye) we will fly to Beijing. See you there.
Kreefts

The laundry

Walking through the Chinese streets

Our apartement view

Chinese writing

Black Screen

 

Hello everyone I am in CHINA now. 

Loeke Anema who I wrote about last week, is writing for me

because in China they have country rules so you can not go on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and my blog.
OF COURSE WE WILL MAKE A PLAN,SOON!!!

Thank you

Loeke & Loes

Australia//Mebourne

G'd day MATES!!
While we were ready to be picked up by my friends dad, we first had to be sniffed by a very cute dog which sniffs if you have drugs, plants/seeds, or food with you..

Finally we arrived at Loeke's house and we both were very excited and made many plans for the 10days we would be in Melbourne:  surfing, shopping, seeing Kangaroos & Koala's etc. Loeke was my first friend who I met in South Africa in playschool. She lived there with her 2 sisters (Wietske now 11years and Rinske = 6 years), mom and dad. Then they moved to Holland where they lived for 5 years and now they are staying in Australia. Wauw SOoooo EXCITED !!

Loeke and I taking surfing lessons

Easter holiday had started and the next morning we went out of Melbourne, 9 of us split up in 2 cars. We drove along the bay of Melbourne and had a 'braai' for lunch, visited Point Nepean where the immigrant arrived in the 19th century and took a very to the other side. The cars stayed in the 'garage' and we went up to the decks and saw beautiful dolphins swimming with the ship.  We finally arrived in our first cottage, beautiful with enough bedrooms for all of us. The next day we first had school, but now with 2 more students, Loeke and Wietske. After school we went to the beach where Mirjam organised  real SURFING lessons. It was sooo much fun!! The whole family was trying to stay on the boards until we were very tired after 2 hours. (yaaay)

We also went to see the Great Ocean Road and visited the 12 Apostles. Funny that the Australians also have 12 Apostles, like in Cape Town. When we were driving to next cottage we spotted Koalas and we saw a dead Kangaroo which was run over by a car. We stayed in Halls Gap in the Grampions National Park with KANGAROOS all around the cottages - all alive !. We saw deer, but not as many as the kangaroos.We went to Ballarat (in the state of Victoria, Australia) a open air museum/fun museum where there used to be gold mining. There was a whole village around the gold mines, but the village burned down in 1860 and the history got lost. In 1970 they built it again for tourists to learn about how the miners lived there. In the Open Air Museum ,there were many activities, shows, performances, you could see how they made candy in the old days and how the people lived long ago. We also could do gold panning as well like they used to do. They made a little creek and put little pebbles and sand in it and every morning they put little pieces of gold in the creek so people could find something.

With Easter we were back in Melbourne again and of course we had to find big Easter eggs. Loeke and I made a luxury dinner with starters, main and traditional Rocky Road for desert. (chocolate with marshmallows, mars, smarties). During the dinner we had our school presentation we prepared about Australia, showed our movie we made during the trip and Tjeerd Pieter had a nice surprise.... He showed us photos from long time ago when we met in Cape Town.
Loeke and I also -of course- went shopping and bought a few nice cool things!!(just a few otherwise it won't fit in my suitcase)
We saw the main shopping streets of Melbourne and we went to a FOOTY game (a sort of rugby game, but with different rules). It was very busy and fun, but we were very cold because of the rain and wind. After the game we watched Crocodile Dundee (Australian movie about crocodiles) on our last everning in Ozzieland!
.
Wauw the days past so fast! Now we have to say goodbye again! Our trip will go back to Singapore and then on to China - Shanghai and Beijing.

At school in Soveirgn Hill.

Blog written by: Loeke and Loes!!

                        Thanx MATE

(Next in China)

Found Gold

Finding Gold 

Cleanest City EVER!!!

Hello Singapore!!!, your sooo clean! What else was eye catching....the many different language schools: Japanese, Dutch, Swiss, Indian,German and obviously English. But the main language they speak is English or rather "Shinglish" it is English with slang. It was really hot and sticky(32C).
We arrived in Singapore airport with our jeans and kreeftonthemove t-shirt and could not wait to take a dive or shower. It was a big airport and it look familiar since it had the same design as Schiphol airport, the biggest airport in Holland. It had indoor-palm trees and many plants in the airport, you had to walk through a jungle to get your bags! When we had our stuff, also my hockey stick arrived-yeeheee, that I got from my club in Buenos Aires, we went outside and it was really tropical hot.

Not only because we were wearing warm clothes, but it was incredible tropical!! We are staying with friends of  of my parents Jannie and Gerard. They were very kind and are teachers at the Dutch (day) school. The school has 400 children and looked beautiful with bright colors, nice classrooms with a lot of laptops and electronic school boards, wow!!!. On Monday we visited the school which started with the assembly and all the kids and many parents were sitting in the big hall. Jannie invited some classes to come on stage to perform and when the birthday kids had to come forward, I expected 3 kids only like at our school, but almost 10 kids came forward and Gerard played the accordion for them and we all were singing Happy Birthday and Lang zal die leven in Dutch. After that Steven and I had a sort of presentation and all the kids could ask us questions. Of course we also asked them too, what things we had to see in Singapore.

They gave us at least 20 suggestions! One of the kids advised us to see ToySrus, because that was his favorite excursion. So funny!. In the 5 days we were in Singapore we visited a lot of the suggested sights, but not Toysrus, sorry for that! We went to the Merlion, the statue of Singapore; its half fish and half lion. Half fish because it is protecting the Singapore river and the half lion, because it is protecting Singapore at the entrance of the harbor. When we walked through the CBD (central business district) we saw many sky scrapers and beautiful buildings, interesting statues and modern art sculptures and of course the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. This is one of the most expensive hotels of the world and has on the top of the 2  tall towers with approx 60 floors a cruise-ship on the roof!!!!. It looks like it has got stuck on there after a tsunami wave. Can you imagine this with big pool and stunning views. Of course we had school in the mornings and read about this small Island/country down under in Malasia and because of that it was great we could visit the Museum of Singapore with all the history. I also did not know that they were occupied by the Japanese between 1940-45 during the 2nd World War. The Museum of Singapore was very interesting to see and hear with the earphones how Singapore came to what it is today! Because of a tropical rain (heavy rain showers late afternoon with thunder and lightning) we jumped in the first bus we could find and we arrived at Orchard Road, the most expensive shopping street. Coming from expensive Argentina, this was even more expensive, but wow what a shops and everything was clean and well organised here. What a difference with Argentina. We had a transport pass and used the bus, boat and underground and everything was clean, no lines anywhere, except on the floor of the underground platforms. This was for the people going out and for the people going in so they did not block each other, wow how organised.

We saw school kids leaving their bags outside shops when they went in for shopping and a man leaving his laptop on the table when he went to order another drink. Everything is very safe here. Maybe it is because there are fines to pay for everything which you do wrong. A fine for littering, a fine for eating in the underground, a fine for this, a fine for that....! There are t-shirts sold with on the front written: "Singapore, a Fine city".

We also went to the Indian area and the Sim Lim building to buy a screen and a battery for the laptop. There were at least 8 floors and 1000 computer and electronic shops in the building and we ran from one shop to the other to find the best deal. A lot of shop did not have the battery, but than they ran quickly to other shop downstairs and Steven was trying to follow them to see where they went to find the best deal. Later we bought nice fish and veggies at the wet market in China Town.

In the afternoons when came home at the apartment of Jannie en Gerard we could swim in their big pool and they had even a tennis and squash court. On Thursday we skipped school and went to the Island Pulau Ubin. We took the taxi and the bumboat from Changi point. Is was approx. 20 min. and saw the skyline of Singapore behind us with the airplanes going up and down one after the other, because it was near the Airport. When we arrived on the Island is was a really tropical Island with monkeys, coconuts and - unfortunately- many mosquitoes. We hired 4 bikes and drove around the Island. After 2 hours of cycling we were getting thirsty and we saw a sign fresh drinks! We arrived on a private beach with and old boat and an old garage with empty fridges and nobody there. When we went into the jungle we found the owner who was repairing the path and he picked some coconuts for us. We could drink the milk inside and scooped the milky flesh out with a spoon, jammy. Back to the only village and the place were the ferry boat was leaving, we had time to see the temple and had a quick noodle lunch on the beach.

Late afternoon Gerard surprised us and we went to Sentosa Island. Jannie had to finish her yearly report for the Dutch School and could not join us. First we went to a huge shopping mall and we all made a picture at Gap. We posted this on Face book and then went to Sentosa Island by  ..... Cable Car. Wow what a view and when we arrived there we went down with the Luges - a sort of skelter downhill.
We had dinner on the beach and in the background we saw the fireworks of one of the shows on Sentosa Island. A very very very nice evening (specially for the kids!)

And then it was already Friday and our last day in Singapore. We did homeschooling and packing and of course a quick swim. Before we left for the airport we had dinner at the dutch club were we ate kroketten, poffertjes en zuurkool(traditional delicious food  in the Netherlands!!).Just before we left we had a problem,the checking assistance(grond hostess) was new,she was very very slow and she made us wait too long at the check in desk! I wanted to do some shopping at the nice shops at the airport, but there was no more time.

Now we are leaving for Australia where we will visit Loeke, my  friend who moved to Melbourne last year from Holland. She will have Easter holiday and we will go on a vacation trip with the Anemas for about ten days!!

Sorry I published this article very late,I did not know we were driving so long and there  was no internet!!

Good day, Mate!

Please keep commenting







Loes

FAREWELL ARGENTINA, HELLO SINGAPORE

Good bye - Argentina


On the way back to Buenos Aires, coming from Salta, it was the  last time to see the beautiful mountains of the Andes with snow on the top but in the car 40 degrees C.The surroundings change from dessert to green fields that looked like Kruger National Park but without animals.Later it looks flat like Holland with the cows and mielie fields. Then we saw the skyline of Buenos Aires with the smog hanging over the capital city.
It was also nice to be back in a familiar surrounding, with bus number 17, Plaza de Mayo and the icecream shops.
AND of course......I finally went to buy my TANGO SHIRT!!!

In the last few days I started saying goodbye to Argentina and looking forward to our new destination/Singapore/Australia. I was wondering what I would miss most from Buenos Aires & Argentina :

What we will miss most:

• to see the excitement of Strikes and Protests nearly every 2nd day
• football on every TV in bars and restaurants
• ALL bars and restaurants have FREE WIFI
• the kind flower-stall-girls and the building attendants 
• dog walkers
• beautiful old elevators
• Mate (the tea that every one drinks here)
• Carton-eras (homeless people who collect the paper rubbish)
• Beautiful Andes
• Ice creaaaaaaaaaaaaaam !!!!
• Great lomo (beef filets)
• Nice and friendly people in the Province
• our own Sube cards and the bus number 17
• Trying to cross walking the 9th Julio with all green lights from the traffic lights(never succeeded)
• the stores which has "Liquidation /Sale" 
• the salesmen selling pens, torches.etc on the buses and trains 
• Kissing everyone on the cheeks, waiter,taxi driver etc

         What we won't miss:

• The rubbish in the streets of  Buenos Aires
• Not always petrol in the petrol-stations and cash in Banks 
• Unfriendly hotel owners and receptionists in the City 
• queues for banks, post offices  
• Big arrogant companies who want money for personal services (FEDEX) while they are not even doing their job properly and make your parcel disappears.
• dirty toilets
• itching mosquito bites
• the noise of the city
• having dinner at 23.00 hours and staying up too late
• graffiti on the walls 
• Super inflation!!

What I will really really really miss is the over-delicious 

ICE-CREAM

Sales man in the train selling pens

mate

SUBE card and long queue

     

Thank you ARGENTINA , thank you READERS for all your nice comments so far
Are you following me to Asia?

MUCHAS GRACIAS
kreeftonthemove
Louisa