The adventures of Barb and Nancy part deux

If there were words to describe this place I haven't found them. From the very modern to the very ancient. Tina and Mark as with all their guests are awesome. Yesterday we started out at the botanical gardens very nice flora and fauna of the area then on to a lakeside restaurant for a bit of imbibing in the local beer and snacks.Then onward and upward to APPLE TRAVEL to meet Grace our travel agent but actually Tina is training her and catches all her mistakes; I guess the apple does fall far from the tree but I digress. One beer stop later we head over to have the torture of the century known here as cupping . Lets just say by the look of our backs the toxins couldn't have come out too soon but the massage made up for it. Feeling like id been beaten we head out to GU Lang you the agenda for the night is a free (and i cant stress this too much) drinking party followed by running to catch the ferry and home to our abode.

Guest Blog #3 - Mark's Parents

Good Morning.

Today Mark decided to take us to the Xiamen Botanical Gardens after we had lunch. We left his place at 11:00 just as the power went out. We had walked down 4 floors before they blinked back on. Remember he lives on the 20th floor which is actually 17. We waited for one of the elevators to come down and the lights blinked off again. Nope, we do not need to be stuck on the elevator. We walked the rest of the way down. The power was still off.

We had lunch and then took a cab to the Gardens. Admittance was 40 RMB each to get in. The first part was a reservoir that was about one quarter full. We took a picture of the only bird we saw. Oh, there were some pretty neat trees. How about these roots over solid rock?

The rest of the Gardens was a hike up the rocks to view Chinese Characters carved into the rocks. We hiked up and up and up. Mark informed us that he had never been up to this section. What a hike. I think they should name it Xiamen Rock Montain. The trail read Serenity or something. I guess he thinks he had to warm us up for climbing the Great Wall.

How do you like the warning sign? No, there were not very many handrails. We think we got to the top around 2:30. What a view. It was overcast but hot. We were above the tallest skyscrapers. Then we started back down. Oh yea, we chose to go a different way down.

We arrived at the Cactus and Succulent Zone glass green house. Ah, what luck, there was a road that came up to here, which we elected to walk down. Oh the legs were starting to complain.

We finally got back down and took a cab back. The bedroom clock showed that the power came back on about 3:00. I guess climbing a mountain sure was more fun that being stuck in an elevator for 4 hours.

Oh, Mark says that symbol that I am pointing to is the symbol for water. Mark made for an excellent host, so we took a picture of him when he captured us.

Botanical Gardens

Saturday we decided that we would take our friend Siew and her two sons to see the Botanical Gardens here in Xiamen. They've only been living here for the past two years. We packed up some food for a picnic and then headed out. We went there last year in the fall, and wanted to go back during the spring to see if there would be more flowers in bloom. We weren't disappointed.

Our fearless tour guide, Mark wearing Danial's hat.

Well, apparently when you have two growing boys, it doesn't take long before they're hungry. I think it was a quick 30 minutes before they were looking for a snack. We sat down and had chicken wings before we carried on again. About 20 minutes they wanted lunch. Mark told them they had to walk another 4 kilometers before getting anymore food. They weren't impressed.

As we meandered through the park ( it's quite large and we did less than 1/3 of it) , we saw a peacock. We continued walking some more and found a small playground and another peacock (or the same, they all look alike). They occupied the boys for awhile before we heard the "I'm hungry when are we going to eat?" Sound familiar, dad?

We found a nice open area, and had a very nice picnic. After lunch Mark and Ben played some badminton, while Daniel was behind the tree pouting because his mother wouldn't allow him to put a dirty straw in his mouth. It's tough being 4!

About 1/2 hour later Mark and Ben finished playing, as Mark ran out of energy. The two boys, er I mean, Mark and Ben toured some more of the park, while Daniel continued pouting. He came around when Siew threatened him, that she would leave him in the middle of the market where he would find a new mom. After a fun filled day, Daniel fell quickly asleep in the taxi.