The Travel Bug

We finally have our passports back from renewing our visa's and man oh man do we have the travel bug!   I think it's because of the unnerving feeling of having your passport taken away from you for an extended period of time that when you get it back there's this rush to actually book a trip and use it!

Travel is great, and I love the adventures and experience we've had, but travel in Asia is CHALLENGING and today I'm frustrated to say the least!  I've spent my entire day trying to book what is suppose to be a quick weekend getaway.  The problem started with the flights, normally you go to Kayak or Expedia or direct to the airlines website and click, click, click you're done flights booked.  Here you go to the sites, click, click, click, your credit card is declined!  Today, my actual issue was with Visa, in the past it's been that the Chinese airlines and local booking sites here don't accept US credit cards(which is a whole other blog/rant on this topic).  So a few calls to Visa on Bill's phone while he's getting ready for work(because my phone doesn't work internationally), they won't talk to me because the account is a joint account but Bill is the first name on the list, Bill has to call them back on his way to work, another few hours later… FINALLY confirmation!  Whew, we're flying to Xi'an this weekend… next up hotel… and the VPN just went out, so much for searching on Google or actually having enough bandwidth to book an online reservation.
It's 3pm and I've managed to book a flight and a hotel… I'll call that successful!    

Texas Hold Em

You gotta know when to hold em and you gotta know when to fold em…

Today was a great day to learn how to play Texas Hold Em!  I am a little bit embarrassed to say that I have never played Texas Hold Em before.  Sure I've wandered and or stumbled my way through a few casinos in my days but I've never sat down at those poker tables!  And when people got together to play cards and friends houses, I think I was more interested in chatting and playing other games than poker so I've never played!   Today, the Not Mommies group - which is not being called the No Kid-ing group - had a poker lesson!   One of the ladies Cathy plays 4 to 5 nights a week - there are a ton of leagues here in China that I had no clue about and so she plays a lot and was actually willing to teach some newbies.   By the end of the afternoon I was feeling pretty good at my poker skills.  However we weren't exactly playing for money and the chips were free!  I think I'll keep practicing and maybe in June I'll be ready for Potawatomi!

This what the cheat sheet Cathy made on the order of highest to lowest winning hands!

Grand Buddha at Ling Shan

Saturday April 5th was Qing Ming (aka...Tomb Sweeping Day) here in China but the holiday was observed on Monday, so Bill had the day off and we decided to take a ride to the next town west of us Wuxi to see the Grand Buddha.

The Grand Buddha at Ling Shan is one of the tallest Buddha's in China and stands at 88 meters (289 feet tall).

 It was quite a "foggy" day so you can barely see the Buddha from the front entrance gates.

 The Buddha is in a complex that is about 75 acres and also houses a temple, a palace and a Muda Madras!

 This is the 9 Dragons Bathing Sakyamuni which is

 According to the Buddhist sutras, Sakyamuni was born with the ability to speak and walk. A lotus grew and bloomed on every step he made when he walked seven steps in the four directions. He said ‘I’m the honored master of the world’ with one hand pointing to heaven and the other pointing to the earth. At that time, nine dragons appeared in the sky to bathe the Buddha with water.

Giving old Buddha a high 5!

 Here is a replica of his hand.

 This is a Ginko tree from the 7th century.

 Looking out from the top… Taihu Lake is in the distance but again it's "foggy".

 The Hall of 10,000 Buddhas.

 Buddha has big toe nails!

 A different view of the Ginko tree.

 The 9 Dragons Fountain open.

 Cherry Blossoms in bloom!

 Mudra Madras.

 Xingfu Temple