Weekend in Xiamen

Saturday we actually had a lot of activities planned, so we were up and out of the house as soon as the Red Sox game we were listening to ended. A run over to the bank to deposit money into our electrical and water accounts, then over to the other bank to pull out some cash, and a quick jaunt over to Gulang yu so that I can get a watch that Tina bought for me adjusted.

As long as we were on Gulang yu we figured that we may as well stop and enjoy a drink while watching the crowds of tourists wanted the island.

Notice the nice new watch?
Ice delivery

Looking over to Gulang yu

From there we wandered up through Zhongshan lu on our way over to meet up with the Mexican at the Millennium Hotel.

Enjoying Saturday on Zhongshan lu

From there we took the Mexican on a quick tour of the alleys and the wet market - seeing as he had never taken the chance to wander around down there when he lived her before.

Chicken Sales

Tina & Rene waiting as I got my shoes polishedBack Alleys
We finished up over at the newly opened outdoor patio over at the Wyndham hotel for a few drinks while we watched the sunset. The view's not that great from there, but we then went to the buffet for dinner - I will say that this hotel does have the best buffet of all the ones that we've been to.

Next stop was a quick trip over to My Way for a few drinks before we dragged them Mexican over to the night market for a late night snack.Longan for sale

Cooking up squid and corn

Waiting for our food at the night market

More good food and a few drinks before we headed over to The Key to finish our evening. The Key was packed full, most of the laowai's are back and apparently they all missed heading out to the clubs. We didn't stay there too long, only one beer, prior to heading home after a very full day...

Still playing tour guide.

Although Joe spent more time in Xiamen then we have, we have still managed to pick up a few things to do that aren't always standard touristy things to do, and thus we offered to tag along with him and his tour group so that we could share our knowledge. Yes, most of our non-touristy knowledge is based around local watering holes, but that's just what this group needed.
Of course, the number one item on the tour is Gu Lang Yu - that's not the bit of our information, but we figured we would head over with them and tour around.
This time we actually hiked all the way up to Sunlight Rock, I don't think that we've climbed up there since Matt was here to visit almost a year ago. It does help that we've gotten another cold front here, as it is much easier to hike up all those steps in 20C instead of 27-30C, the downside to the cold being that it was also very hazy - not as nice for enjoying the view.
But after the trip to Gu Lang Yu, that's when Tina's tour guide instincts kick in and take over. Any regular reader should have a guess as to where we went afterwards - and if you guessed Temptations you would be mostly correct. We swung by Temptations to grab some wine to take with us to dinner, and for dinner we went to the prawn restaurant.
This was one of our better outings at this place, with each of us catching at least 3 shrimp. I think overall our haul was somewhere over 20 prawns. Enough to get the order split and have them cooked in 2 of the 18 ways they will prepare them - we went with garlic prawns and the salt-caked prawns. Happiness, and we've finally gotten to a point where we can order the food without having to call for help, and stepping up to a fine wine with dinner was a definite improvement.

From there we head back over to our favorite local little bar, My Way, for a quick drink and to say hi to Gino...

Fishing for dinner...

Wednesday was another pristine day here in Xiamen. Tina and I slept in a little, then ran errands. We went to Trustmart, a big department store where you can buy anything you can think of: groceries, jewelry, china, silk flowers, and over-the-counter drugs which I think might not be "over-the-counter" back home.

Lunch was one of the best meals yet. Tina and I ate at a little Chinese restaurant around the corner and shared a spicy pork dish with noodles and dumplings. It's funny that the Chinese are so thin because I feel like I've been "carb loading" the last couple of days. Tina and I think it's the portion size; meals seem to be served family-style with a large platter for the table to share and the tiny plates or bowls to eat out of. Even if you have beer, you get a little shot-sized glass to drink it out of. It's a nice way to eat, and although you get full after a meal here, it's never the painful unbutton-you-pants-full you feel back home.

Lunch

After lunch, Tina and I met up with Siew and her two boys and took the ferry to Gu Lang Yu, a little island off of Xiamen. It's an amazing place with victorian-style architecture and large broken down estates from the 1800s. Many of the consulate generals lived on the island with their families, so it has a European feel. Motorized cars are also forbidden - it's quite and peaceful once you get out of the tourist market zone. We shopped for a while and paid a visit to Tina's pearl dealer, Lina, at Pearl World. Siew, Tina and I spent a lot of time trying on jewelry until the boys were ready to move on. Siew then left with the kids, and Tina and I went tea-tasting. That was one of the highlights of the afternoon since we got to sit down and try all the different teas. Oolong tea was the best.

Pearl World

Tea-tasting

The rest of the afternoon we spent walking the island. We stopped to watch the sunset and share a tsing-tao.


After returning from Gu Lang Yu, we met up with Mark and took Siew's two boys, Ben and Daniel, to a shrimping restaurant. The place had large pools in the center of the restaurant where you fish for your shrimp, then the kitchen cooks up the shrimp any way you want it: garlic, lemon, fried, BBQ'd... I think there are about 13 different options. It was fun although none of us could catch anything except Siew's 7 year old son, Ben. He was much more patient than the rest of us and caught 4! Luckily the restaurant took pity on us and threw in a few extra shrimp so we wouldn't go hungry. Dinner was a blast because Ben and Daniel are so cute and fun to be around. They acted as our translators with the waitstaff since both boys speak perfect English and Chinese.

Fishing for dinner...

Ben and Daniel with Ben's catch
Dinner

Tina, Mark and I ended the night at My Way, a little Chinese-owned pub that's got an Irish feel. I loved this place so much last year that I made the Wichmann's take me back. Good times...

My Way

Back home

We're back at 'home', in Xiamen. Amazingly, the flight from Guilin seemed to go really quick. Its too bad, since we has great seats. Lots of leg room.

We came back to the Wichmann B&B and dropped off our stuff and picked up Mark. We really missed him. So off went for dinner. It was Korean where they BBQ at the table. The beauty of the bbqing is that it's done in front you. From there we went a drinkin'. A cute little 'hole in the wall' for maybe 7 people (if you're lucky). More beer!! Willie you are really going to enjoy this country. Back to the B&B we go.

It Saturday, and a great day!!!! Its time to shop. Off we go to Gulang Yu! Interestingly enough, you don't have to pay for the ferry ride over, yet you do have to pay on the way back. If you want first class seating you pay a little extra. A ferry ride of 8 min. ( I think.) Tina won the bet, by default , Mark gave up trying to time the ride. We wandered and wandered and wandered. Finally our guide let us rest and have a beer. This little island is quite nice and a great place to discover. The beaches are peaceful. In the distance you can see the boats, boats and boats. Large and small. Quite fascinating are the large steam liners that are filled with containers going for the west. ( I think) Greg, remember the show we saw, just like it. I wondered if the captain would meet up with some pirates. We continued on to do more sight seeing.

Some history ....
This little island was once an area used by foreign dignitaries. At that time outsiders were not allowed in mainland China.

Now it was time shop! That was fun. Tina knows all the good spots. It helped that Tina knew some of the merchants as we got some great bargains. It seemed like Christmas, for we received free gifts. I am sure Tina is a great economic supporter of Gulang Yu. Now it was time to go home. Back to Xiamen and we go shrimping.




Meaning, we had to fish for our dinner. Luckily, we could order our food. The 5 shrimps that were caught couldn't sustain cat. Our great fishermen were DOD with 3, Ben (Siew's son) 1 and Christel with 1. The rest of us enjoyed our beers and did a lot of yakking. This took about an hour and we went to order our dinner, which much easier. From there we went to Temptations and enjoyed some nice wine and great conversation. Tina had left for a few minutes and came back with some fruit. We sampled persimmon (really good), custard apple r(really tasty and mice texture), durian (ugh..really stinky and a taste you had to get used) Sorry Sue, (her favourite), magosteen (quite tasty but not much meat to it), Chinese apple (a little drier that our royal galas).


Talked, drank, ate and left!

Farewell to the Mexican

Today was the crazy Mexican's last day in Xiamen, so last night we met up with him for a few drinks and to wish him well.

It was a nice day, Tina and I met up with friends Howard and Juan for yet another excellent dinner at Temptations and then the four of us wandered over to one of our favorite bars, My Way. We've mentioned My Way before, it's a tiny little pub with seating for about 8 people and when we got in there last night it was jam packed. Luckily, after standing cramped in the corner of the bar for about 5 minutes, the people sitting in the small room upstairs left and we wandered up there to sit and enjoy. Our friend 老Joe met us there and then about 20 minutes later the Mexican finish having his farewell dinner with other friends and he joined us.

Good times. It was nice to sit and reminisce about the fun and parties that we went to at the Mexican's house. The rest of his family had moved back to the states a few weeks ago and he was here just finishing up some final items, so he'll be glad to get back home and be with his family. Once home in San Diego he has to gather up the family and move them all up to Seattle where he's now been relocated. So, at least now we've got some good friends that we will be able to go and visit in Seattle....