Hard Beds!! Great Shopping and wonderful new Friends

We are now at the Red Crane Hotel next to Liutung International Airport in Tsingtao and are the beds ever hard!  Every hotel has had it's funnies from broken toilets and not enough A/C to bed bugs and elevators so slow you could go up and down the stairs twice before  you get on.  Our current hotel would probably rate third out of eight we've stayed in.  Why third?  Well the beds are definitely the hardest of them all but overall fairly clean and service is great as this is the Shandong Airlines company hotel so the chairman is here frequently.  The food is above average and the bathrooms are better than most.  Probably would have been 2nd except our room, if I didn't mention my roommate is Jonathan Rhys Evans the escort officer from the UK, has a lighting issue where the lights would fade and go off then go back to bright then fade again.  We told the front desk but they just sent someone up to put the anti slip pad in the shower area.  When we went to bed we turned the lights off and shortly thereafter on they came again.  After a good laugh we turned them off again and . . .on they came again.  We finally figured out the 30 year old power switch behind Jonathans bed was the culprit of the haunted lighting so to solve the problem we took the headboard of Jonathans bed and put it to the side and now the lights stayed off, or on as we wished instead of as they light fairy wished.

After dinner we all went to the "Night Market".  An interesting phenomenon here is in certain areas after dark an incredible open air "mall" appears and the locals descend up the area to shop.  Almost anything is for sale and kind of reminds you of a portable target store with hundreds of booths instead of aisles. 

Let me mention shopping in China.  BARTER!!!!  Everything is negotiable with usually no posted prices.  Just ask the price and get started.  Usually we will cut the original price in half and start from there.  Our host escort Tina is an absolute master at negotiating prices and we started calling her "Sensei" or master bargainer for her skills in getting the best price.  Sometimes there is a lot of yelling back and forth, sometimes it's funny looks or laughs and sometimes the booth owner will just roll their eyes and shoot you back a new price with the final price usually splitting the difference between their asking price and my 50% return volley.  If they're hesitant about dropping their price then just walk away and about 70% of the time they'll either yell at you or chase you down to keep the negotiating going.  I've purchased a few things very reasonable but not going to mention them here as some are going to be Christmas gifts this year.

Check out the photo's of the "night market" that is about 15 minutes from our hotel.  After shopping it's back to the hotel to compare notes, purchases and usually some great laughs about shopping, meeting people or dodging cars when trying to cross the street.

Tina, our escort from Hong Kong, is a wonderful and tough lady that doesn't take no for an answer has been our point person on shopping side trips with Lily coming in a close second.  Lily is the clothing, jewelry and tea  guru and has been a fantastic host.  She has always been around and very observant as she will suddenly appear when someone needs water, looks overheated or just uncomfortable seat at dinner.  Lily has definitely been our trip mother as if it's a cough, aches or pains or whatever else she might think you are ailing from she brews up some wonderful (or sometimes not so wonderful) herbal tea to fix you right up.

I've really enjoyed Lily's company and invited her to visit the US when she wants to.  She has a 22 year old daughter that is studying English in Australia and we've spent considerable time talking about kids, spouses and of course aviation.  When shopping if you see something you like and Lily notices many times she all of a sudden shows up with it and gives it to you.  She has been a big part why this has been such a great trip.

There is many more to mention as regards to contribution to the trip, tour guide, English translator and so on and I'll mention them all when I post after the Chariman's dinner.

That's it for this segment.  Talk soon!

Kelly