Street Performer off WangFuJing

Just recently I was scanning through the videos we had taken during various times in Beijing and came across an interesting one (not great quality unfortunately — the evening we took the video we had just a small pocket digital camera with us which had basic video functions). That evening friends of ours and us went out for dinner in the Pacific Plaza Mall (near the intersection of JianGuo Avenue and WangFuJing) and after dinner decided to take a stroll in the area. We ended up in one of the backstreets (near the night food market) selling the usual small eats and trinkets but we also came upon a stage where amateurs performed various Beijing Opera acts….. So if you are interested in that, this could be an easy area to get to and spend some time checking out the various performers — apparently they are different each evening….Here is a short video of what we saw and heard:
Beijing Opera Performer off WangFuJing in Beijing

Review of Ethel M Chocolate Factory and Cactus Gardens

If you are visiting Las Vegas and are looking for things to do with your family or friends you may be tempted to visit the Ethel M Chocolate Factory. After all it is advertised and promoted as “quite an adventure in various Las Vegas related travel sites. Well, mine and my family’s verdict after following the advice of those Web sites — SAVE YOUR TIME! AVOID THE ETHEL M CHOCOLATE FACTORY.

WHY?

Well think of the following experience: On our way back from a trip to the Hoover Dam we decided to look for the Ethel M Chocolate Factory and tour it. We plugged in the address in our GPS and headed off to the supposed adventure. Upon arrival we were rather surprised by the large number of tour buses in the parking lot. It was late in the afternoon just before sun set.
We entered the factory to find a very narrow corridor which was glassed in on one side and revealing a view of the factory floor — where we saw a bunch of mixers and other machines obviously used in the making of chocolates. Walking along the wall through the corridor was a 10minute experience — at the end of which was a table with samples.

An employee of Ethel M Chocolates was there to hand out the samples — there were two kinds: white and milk chocolate — small bonbons. My wife asked if she can sample both — just one of each. The response was rather terse “NO!” Only one per person….. Oh, what a decision — which one should we choose :-)

Then the corridor / tour ended up in a huge store — this is where the real action was :-) Lets buy very expensive and overpriced Ethel M Chocolates!!!! After all you have spent the time to get here — might as well buy some chocolates :-(
We DID NOT…..

Then we decided to see the “famous” Cactus Gardens…. Well if you have not been in the Arizona or New Mexico or Nevada dessert, this may be a place to see a cactus or two…. Other than that, SAVE YOUR TIME AGAIN. Not worth it.

All in all — this is a place to avoid. There are plenty more very interesting places to visit in and around Las Vegas. I will write some more on these soon.

Happy Travels!

Trip to Zion National Park - from Las Vegas

Well folks, the Christmas and New Year’s holidays are almost over - literally a few hours left of the weekend and the first work day of the new decade starts - tomorrow is January 4th….But in the next few hours I will try to catch up on posting photos and writing a brief set of notes about what my family and I considered the noteworthy points about some of the trips we took during this vacation.

So lets start — first topic: ZION NATIONAL PARK. In planning our trip during the week of December 20-25th we had several destinations in mind (Las Vegas of course — it was the place we were going to stay the nights, the Grand Canyon, Zion). ZION was certainly a very pleasant surprise — its beauty was quite something! But first things first. If you are willing to spend only a day at the park — which is what we planned — then you can certainly make a day trip out of it. Plan to leave your hotel in Vegas early in the morning. The trip is about 170miles (one way) — we stayed at the Signature at MGM Grand — and will take you approximately 3 hours of driving. Here is a link to the driving directions (per Mapquest — our GPS system showed similar route)

Once you get close to the park, you will enter the town named Hurricane — interesting name :-) where you will see many rock and jewelry shops. We did not get a chance to see any of them as on the way in we wanted to spend as much time as possible in the park so we did not stop. Later that evening, on our way out of the park everything was closed — surprise ! We had forgotten that it was December 24th — yes we visited ZION on Christmas Eve. Needless to say there were plenty of benefits of that — most importantly — the park was near empty. We felt we had the place to ourselves. One of the park rangers told us that there are 5000 cars that enter the park daily in the summer!!! On Dec.24th there were may be 5 :-)

Once in the park, we went to the visitors center (only a couple of miles after the main entrance), where we took a map and were told that the best thing to do for a day trip is to take a drive first on the North Fork road (along the Virgin River) and then backtrack and take Route 9 / Zion Mt.Carmel Hwy through a couple of tunnels and as far as we would like to go past the two tunnels.

It is very difficult to narrate all the beautiful views we encountered on both roads. The North Fork gives you access to see the Grotto, Angels Landing, Big Bend, West Rim, Court of the Patriarchs, Temple of Sinawava…. all these names are neat but the best thing to do is to see the photos (at least) - my descriptions will not do them justice.

The views from the Zion Mt. Carmel Hwy are very different — also spectacular… Here you will get the benefit of climbing through a series of switchbacks in the road. Since we were pretty much alone (or one of the few cars in the park) it was very easy to stop or pull off the road at many of the pullouts and of course took tons of photos….Going through the tunnels gave us the opportunity to see some interesting views as the tunnels have “windows” to let natural light in — as they were built in the 1920s and finished in 1930, there was no provision for electricity — and none is needed as the tunnels are small and the “windows” provide plenty of light and of course give you the opportunity to see the canyons framed in a different way.

On the way out of the park we stopped at a bridge just before the visitors center and again had the opportunity to snap some great photos….

The return journey back to Las Vegas and our hotel was uneventful — we spent the time recounting all the different sights we had encountered and deciding when we will make a longer trip to ZION next…. Hopefully soon :-)

The first set of photos are active on the Web — two albums….

One album is from photos taken in Las Vegas (various hotels and exhibits) and one album with a bunch of photos from Zion National Park. The Park is stunning. I will write more about it in the next 2 days or so. For time being enjoy the images — I believe they speak for themselves….