Hope you all had a happy Easter and that the easter bunny brought you lots of surprises.
Well for me, I have 2 reasons to celebrate on January 26. It is Australia's national holiday "Australia day" AND it is Chinese New Year on the lunar calendar. It hasn't been Chinese New Year on January 26 since 1933.
So Happy New Year and Australia Day to all!
1. 'So what are you doing this Australia Day ?', 2. Australia Day 1, 3. Under the Southern Cross, 4. CB013121, 5. Happy Australia Day!, 6. 200401, 7. dragon_dance, 8. Chinese New Year Parade, 9. Chinese New Year of Rat
This post has nothing to do with Shanghai or China...
I have no idea how I got on Fox's mailing list but anyway, I was just notified that a new Simpsons ride is due to open soon in Hollywood and Orlando, Florida.
I checked it out and it really looks like my type of thing - so much fun!
Pictures from here.
The LA Times has a couple of articles here, here, here and here.
According to sources, the new Simpsons Ride/Krustyland is taking over the Back to the Future ride, and is due to open on May 17 or 24 in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Simpsons ride creators even added a hommage to “Back to the Future” with a brief appearance by an animated Doc Brown, the mad inventor from the movie.
Visitors to the $40-million attraction enter through Krusty’s gaping mouth, walking along his unfurled squishy red tongue and swatting at a uvula punching bag hanging at the back of his throat. In the queue, posters advertise many of the Krustyland rides and attractions.
Once through the queue, visitors wait in Funhouse loading rooms before boarding the Simpsons simulator ride. An Itchy & Scratchy safety video vividly warns riders what can happen if they don’t follow the rules.
Riders climb aboard the Krustymobile via a gull wing-style door — a nod to Doc Brown’s DeLorean time machine. The ride vehicle glows with garish LED lights in the blacklight-lit room.
The six-minute motion simulator ride follows the Simpsons clan as they are plucked from the crowd at the Krustiest Place on Earth to be the first family to tackle the “upsy-downsy, spins-aroundsy, teen-operated ride thrilltacular.”
Krustyland Rides
* Traumanator Roller Coaster
* Tooth Chipper Roller Coaster
* The Sea Captain’s Queasy Time Lagoon Adventure
* Radioactive Man – the Ride
* Captain Dinosaur’s Pirate Rip Off
* Screamatorium of Dr. Frightmarestein (starring Milhouse, Ralph and Cletus)
* Happy Little Elves in Panda Land
* Krusty’s Balloon Parade
* Death Drop
* Yard Work Simulator
Krustyland Shows
* Krusty’s Wet & Smokey Stunt Show
* The Isotop-ettes Musical Spectacular (starring twin sisters Patty and Selma)
* Sideshow Mel & Mr. Teeny’s Musical revue
* Impervo the Painless (starring Groundskeeper Willie)
* Madame Manjuala: The Future Looker-Atter (starring Apu’s wife)
Looks awesome. I loved Universal Studios in Japan and the Back to the Future ride but this sounds even better! I'm not a fan of those upside-down spinning twirling rides that leave me feeling very dizzy and nauseous, but Universal Studios' ride are just the best - I loved all of them!
I just got this email. Let me know if you want further details...
All prices are return economy, including tax.
Shanghai Pudong to:
| City | Airline | Fare (RMB) | Dates | Note: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singapore | Singapore Airlines | 2850 | Mar.30th--Apr.25th | 7 days |
Osaka | China Eastern (MU) | 2895 | Mar.5th--Mar.27th | 30 days |
Sydney | Air China (CA) | 6460 | Mar.3th--Apr.30th | 6 mth |
Sydney | China Eastern(MU) | 6480 | Mar.4th--Apr.21st | 6 mth |
Melbourne | Air China (CA) | 6320 | Mar.3th--Apr.30th | 6 mth |
Melbourne | China Eastern (MU) | 6580 | Mar.4th--Apr.21st | 6 mth |
San Francisco | United Airlines | 5890 | Mar.1st--Mar.31st | 30 days |
Los Angeles | United Airlines | 4990 | Mar.1st--Mar.31st | 30 days |
Los Angeles | Air China (CA) | 4850 | Feb.19th--Mar.31st | 30 days |
Paris | China Eastern (MU) | 6850 | Apr.1st--Jun.30th | 45 days |
London | China Eastern (MU) | 6280 | Apr.1st--Jun.30th | 1 year |
Frankfurt | China Eastern (MU) | 6750 | Apr.1st--Jun.30th | 45 days |
Loving it here. The weather is perfect. Approx 23-27 degrees all day and the water is even warmer. The sky is always blue and the water a gorgeous aqua colour (my favourite). It is so different to China. Geez - where do I start?
For one thing, hubby and I had forgotten all about wearing seatbelts! We never wear them in Shanghai and realised that people here wear them (like back home in Australia) - haha.
Secondly, the people are mega polite and helpful, cheerful and friendly. If they don't know something they:ll ask someone else and find out for you.
Everything is so clean, orderly, efficient, user-friendly, yadda yadda yadda.. need I go on?
Right now we are staying at the Renaissance Beach resort on the main island of Okinawa, about an hour:s drive from Naha, the capital and the airport.
Yesterday we drove up but it took longer than expected because
1) We had to stop for lunch (in KFC where we had chicken wraps with bits of seaweed in it)
2) We passed a 100 yen shop and spent ages there. Well I spent ages there, Mike had to practically drag me out. Here they sold so many cool things ALL for 100 yen. I don:t know how they do it. I am not talking crap either, but quality goods. Some things I had looked for in China and could not find easily, or found and they were bad quality. eg
a) toe nail clippers where the cutter bit is straight and not curved
b) tongs for when I cook pasta (could not find in any supermarket in Shanghai)
3) plastic shield to prevent scratches on LCD screens on mobile phones, cameras, etc (yes I know they are common in Shanghai but I don't trust the quality and they are not THAT cheap)
4) hair collector for the shower so it doesn:t plug the drain and I don:t get told off by the plumber
and more..
All these niggly little things that only I would be searching high and low for, and wanting to buy.. such a chore to find in Shanghai at a good price and know it is good quality - it was ALL there in the 100 yen shop! They sold ordinary stuff too like bowls and cutlery, cosmetics, underwear, stationery, DIY supplies (hardware and crafts) etc ... Amazing!
I didn:t just get ordinary tongs either, they actually sold "spaghetti" tongs, I couldn:t believe it!!
Then, Mike and I have never actually used GPS in a car before. Imagine our accelerated learning curve when we had to use one in Japanese!! Hahaha. We were like two crazy contestents in the Amazing Race show - scolding each other when one of us pressed the wrong button and didn:t know how to get back to the previous screen! However, eventually, we figured the thing out. We ended up accidently setting a new destination which was rather frustrating but thanks to my very forward planning and actually printing out a good map of Okinawa before we left with our hotel:s location marked on it, as well as trying to read a map in Japanese we figured out the location on the GPS and pressed that spot on the screen. I thank my lucky stars I can still read some Japanese from studying it in high school 12 years ago!!
So, 3.5 hours after landing at the airport we finally arrived at our hotel! What an achievement.
The only bummer here is that noone really speaks English so there is a lot of miming, smiling, nodding, etc, involved. I can understand some but not confident enough to make out full sentences. A sumimasen, arigato, ohayo, konnichwa, hai, iie is all about I can manage at the moment!
This morning (our second day) I went on a 'helmet dive' which is where you put on a big white heavy plastic helmet with glass window and walk on the ocean floor (3m deep). It is for people who can:t or don:t want to scuba dive or snorkel. I can:t manage scuba (asthmatic who can't swim 200m!) so thought it was perfect for me. In fact, one of the reasons we chose this hotel! It was so much fun. I can:t even begin to explain what it felt like. It was seriously like walking on the moon. The deep heavy breathing that you can hear inside the mask (where your face is completely dry), the bouncy, slow steps that you take.. all really surreal! And I saw two Nemo fishes!
This afternoon Mike and I watched dolphins. Our hotel is the location of a dolphin research centre and there around five of these beautiful creatures living here. They swim, and jump and do tricks in the air - totally awesome stuff.
Tomorrow we are going to Churaumi aquarium, the second largest aquarium in the world to see whale sharks!
Not long after I wrote my last post I got an email from my father saying that my grandparents were quite frail and ill and literally fading away. He told me that my grandfather (his father) was a mere 42kg and his mother was only 32kg. When I read this I felt very sad I started bawling my eyes out. I wrote an email to hubby saying that we HAD to visit them. SOON. We were originally going to visit them before we arrived in Shanghai but it would be too time-consuming and costly since we would then also have to stop in Hong Kong or some other place. When Mike came home that night he mentioned that their combined weight was about his weight!
All this time I had been planning a trip for us during either late October or late November. Since it would be my birthday present it was my pick of where we could go. The only stipulation was that it couldn't be too far away as flying for long periods is the biggest drag and time waster (not to mention the airfares would cost more) and it had to be somewhere that neither of us had been to before.
I went through a whole list of domestic destinations: Hainan (Sanya), Qingdao, Xiamen, Jiuzhaigou, Yunnan, Zhangjiang and God knows how many more!? Then the more I read and the more I found out the more I was itching to go overseas. I had a brainwave! Okinawa!
Mike had been telling how much he had wanted to go there ever since he found out that "Mr Miyagi" the main (fictional) character from the 80's movee "The Karate Kid" 'lived there'. (In actual fact the Okinawa scenes were filmed in Hawaii and interestingly, we visited some of them while we went there, and saw the 'hut' they built for the film too.)
Yes, it would be perfect! Beachey and sunny (the only decent beaches in China are in Hainan but after seeing Hawaii I thought we were be majorly disappointed), pristine and perfect.
I started researching like mad... I poured over EVERY Miyako (Okinawa) related photo on Flickr.
Then, Mike had a brainwave. He had a lot of frequent flyer points built up and JAL is a partner with Qantas. It turns out he JUST had enough points to get us BOTH from Shanghai to Osaka and back!!
Unfortunately Okinawa required more points. Hmm.. what to do.. Okinawa or Osaka... Osaka or Okinawa? Oh well, can't decide - why not go to both? :D
So anyway, now with this news we somehow have to fit in Taiwan as well.
For those that don't know, due to political tensions between China and Taiwan you cannot fly or take a ship between the two countries. So by combining our Japan and Taiwan trip into one we would save money and time since we'd have to fly to another country in between anyway.
Once again I started researching like mad. I thought it would be 'fun' to take a ferry between Okinawa and Taiwan. Then, I read something I found interesting here.
Taiwan, which suffers increasing isolation in the world due to its conflicts with China over Taipei's sovereignty, is also economically marginalized due to its five-decade ban on direct trade, sea and air links with China. The bans have also hurt Taiwan's tourism industry.
In 2006, only 12 foreign cruise liners made port calls at the Keelung Harbour, prompting the harbour to offer incentives to lure foreign cruise companies to put Keelung on the route of their round- the-world cruise tours.
Analysts said that Taiwan, which sits at an ideal location, is shunned by foreign cruise lines because their ships cannot sail directly across the Taiwan Strait - from Taiwan to China or from China to Taiwan.
Andy Lew, Star Cruises' Taiwan manager, said Taiwan had great potential, but Taipei's ban on sea links with China was a handicap.
'From a long-term point of view, we see great potential here in exploring the Taiwan-China, Hong Kong market. If it's possible, we would like to launch services from Taiwan to Shanghai and Xiamen (China),' he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Because of the ban on sea links, foreign cruise ships visiting Taiwan must sail to a third territory, usually Hong Kong, before they can visit China, or vice verse.
In recent years, Taiwan, which has beaches, mountains, temples and wonderful food, has taken a series of measures to boosts its tourism, including the waiving of visa requirements to certain countries and giving fruits to foreign tourists, but the results have been limited.
While many countries' foreign tourists outnumber their population, only 3.5 million foreigners visited Taiwan in 2006, accounting for 6.5 per cent of Taiwan's 23 million population, according to the Tourism Bureau.
The number of foreign visitors in 2006 rose merely 4 per cent from 2005.
But out of that total, only one third, or 1.1 million, were tourists. The other two thirds were foreign businessmen, workers and maids.
