da haze of 2026

there is a fine mistiness to everything that looks almost wintry except for the temperature the green leaves AND THE SMELL.

yesterday's downpour was much welcomed is late lamented and barely budged the smog.

au revoir! 2

we say goodbye to J1 and Yi. as we said goodbye to J2 Ji A and E.

HOM's cystoscopy comes up next.

life marches.

amid the blessings, the weight.

amid the joys, the shadow.

God keeps.

inspector alleyn - ngaio marsh (1930s)

finally starting on these, half a century after first learning her name. agatha christie was just much more easily available at the jaya supermarket bookshop back in the day.

alleyn is my kind of ultimate detective: clever but courteous compassionate generally non-dysfunctional and (so far) quite free of unnecessary angst. so that one can just enjoy the murders.

au revoir!

final brunch of xlb and sjb and we're off!

i hope we can do many more such trips, HOM says. yes, i agree. but lovely too to have had this one. we are thankful.

if we are ever in shanghai around, say, our anniversary date, and resources permit, i tell HOM, i want to stay at 和平饭店. HOM says ok.

last dinner

our final nite before we decamp. we choose laozhengxing, our old favorite on fuzhou road, all quiet with wide apart tables for gentle conversation and the familiar great cooking. 

it's been an altogether lovely interlude before re-entering the old grind and facing HOM's upcoming re-scope.

so call me shallow, but i'll take shanghai any day over urumqi.

lady of the moon

super long lines on nanjing road today on account of the festival tomorrow. unlike back home the mooncakes here come out warm from the oven. in any case, glad we are not in those snaking waits.

sudden light

to attend to needs. to anticipate the needs.

to attend to the predicted. to attend to the unexpected.

attending. inattendu. may we learn both.

attending

we leave the pub. room elevators this way, the fellow at the door says.

we exit the elevator. breakfast to your right, murmurs the guy at the lobby.

i balance my bowl and my plate. let me help you with the bowl, ma'am, the waiter says, and suits his action to his words.

where's the trash bin? i ask the concierge. let me take it for you, he replies, and my trash disappears.

there is being courteous and helpful, and there is quietly and smoothly anticipating my needs which is a whole different level of hospitality. 和平饭店 gets the gold amidst a host of great service contenders this trip.

ye olde jazz band

a misnomer if there was one. they play 70s oldies shanghai classics hokkien songs and when the saints come marching in. just not jazz. but i have a roaring good time nevertheless.

we should do this more often, i tell HOM. live music has a specialness that youtube doesn't.

yummo

special lunch treat in that elevated restaurant* with friends celebrating their wedding anniversary so we get the love treatment and rose petals. the food is gorgeously umami and (plebe that i am) i enjoy it tremendously and forget to enjoy the view.

*at the top of the shanghai tower

duoyun

like a magical enclave in the sky. the book culture looks alive and well and it almost feels like a travesty to look at the non-book distractants. dad would have loved a visit here. i buy my first paper book in years, partly because it calls out to me (shanghai! women!) and partly because dad would have bought a book or two as well.

thoughts on travel-mates

very tiring types:

• the one who must cover every possible location and tick it off his list
• the one who must take twenty photos in various poses at every possible spot

my kinda folks:

• the one who needs the loo at every stop and in between too (me)
• the organized punctual ones with no actual agenda of their own (people i like)
• the optimizer who gets the best deals and gives the best suggestions (that's HOM)

the soul-suckers:

• the one who gripes at everything and trusts no one in a foreign land
• the sucker who buys every tale and the produce attached as well
• the one who talks non-stop (arghhhhh)
• the one who listens and hears nothing and then asks what? when? what?

as you can see, i am indulging in a bit of therapeutic ventilation.

le stash

 

i guess i am committed to longer hair now. *gives a delicious little shiver*

fairmont peace hotel

there was the e&o, and there is the 和平饭店.

same modernized vintage esthetic superbly delivered. a tad less real estate than the e&o, possibly due to more exorbitant prices. but on the bund! at the cusp of walking street! with his-and-hers sinks! separate closet space! multiple charging points!

it wasn't on the bucket list before but it's there now.

full disclosure: there's no laundry room but there's a gym.

qipao tailor (again)

my dream is to have a qipao made in shanghai, my friend says. let me bring you to my tailor then, i tell her. always glad to have an excuse to visit!

give me a couple more years, i tell the tailor. i will be getting another one tailored. the maroon silk, i think. with three quarter sleeves. although to be honest there is one tonight in flowery cotton that whispers my name.

goin' places

huangshan north to shanghai hongqiao, business class.

there are many worse ways to travel. whoo hoo!

huangshan, done!

not being the sporty adventurer type, this counts as a major achievement. although one confesses that part of that is due to being hauled up many of the steps under duress the enticement of a hot shower and the promise of ice cream.

for the record there is no good ice cream up there.

the perfect hotel room

must-haves for this middle-aged traveler:

• firm mattress soft pillows
• bedside charging potential for every occupant
• powerful hot water in the shower
• and hair conditioner, not just shampoo
• a table to sit at
• space to stretch into, and
• a minimalist decorating philosophy

also, the ideal hotel (not the room) needs self-service detergent-ready washer and separate dryer. and a gym. 

table for two

simple food. good company. with promise of a nap later.

beihai hotel

much of the magic of yupinglou including modern minimalist chinoiserie and a bathroom with every convenience. 

PLUS (most appreciated, this) a laundry room with (mark you this) two shoe drying cabinets.

yessss.

huangshan foosh

owing to pitch nite darkness and a treacherously unexpected step i take a flying leap onto all fours.

the good news is, despite an OSTA in extreme negative territory, there is no fragility fracture.

the other good news is that my trusty phone escapes unscathed. 

yupinglou hotel

great location a short climb from the cable car station magnificent view with promise of sunset instant hot water on tap and all the mod cons in the room including a nice tête-à-tête set-up. so call me shallow but this takes its place amongst my all-time most impressive hotels.

anhui!

material change from XJ! we see green vegetables in abundance there is easy access to the loos and they actually enforce no smoking indoors. plus TP is provided! the times they are a'gettin' better.

hungree

  dinner and dessert. delivered to your room. 

nearly orgasmic.

chain hotel big city

back in possibly my favorite city in the east. in a nice holiday inn express. 

where the girl at the hotel reception is confidently reassuring and delightfully helpful. and no smoking means just that. and the washer comes pre-loaded with detergent. and the dryer lint catcher is lint-less. and the meituan options are (possibly) legion.

oh shanghai, how i have missed you!

onward bound

camping out in the airport lounge waiting for the next leg and being thankful for HOM's frivolous foresight in planning a convalescent second half to the vacation.

at last

final dinner in urumqi, sans logistic imperatives sans innumerable photo takes sans time keeping sans stress.

thank you for organizing! everyone tells HOM. thanks for everything!

we need to start planning the next trip, i hear someone say, all proactive-like. yikes.

general tso's chicken

what i learn today from the cotton tour is that the guy behind the dish was a real person and he was a military hero who won back xinjiang's western borders!

imagine proving your great prowess and being rewarded as a foreign fast food item! if you ask me, colonel sanders had the better deal.

thoughts on xinjiang

• the VIP tour bus has in-seat lumbar massage and a fast charging pod that works 
• AAAAA attractions live up to their classification. the toilets there are a sight better than the hoi polloi variety. TP provided!
• the local milk popsicles you find at pit stop stands are really to-die-for
• amazing how they get 4G and 5G coverage at the most remote locations high up deep in and everywhere in between. what did people do before data?
• xinjiang is enormous. its size expands your spirit and makes you realize how small you are
• the smoke, as with pretty much everywhere else in china, seeps into your bones thru your nose

last stop

lovely view* that HOM hauls me up hundreds of steps to enjoy. 

quads weeping but heart sang gloriously for a bit.

and THAT'S IT!

*tianshan tianchi

currency

the most precious breakfast commodity, it appears, is the chicken egg. yes that humbly ubiquitous oval-spherical long-time staple that we don't even think twice about. at xinjiang hotels you need to produce an issued-by-person coupon attached to a warm body before you can access one unit per human.

this must be the (almost) unbelievable thing i learn before breakfast on this trip.

longest day into night yet

the torment finally ends at 11:30 PM when we arrive at the hotel. i will need a vacation to recover from this one.

in other news, the views are spectacular.

lake kanas

unwittingly decanted into a human sardine can situation at the AAAAA tourist attraction so the only sensible thing to do is to decline to add to the overcrowding and have a cuppa.

motivation-challenged

here we are, HOM and i, shooting the breeze whilst our travel mates hike up to 280-odd steps to the scenic spot and back.

anthem

today we shlepp to the altay peak to ooh at the boundaries between the 4 nations. the views are even more stunning than over the last few days and the sun keeps up a sizzling presence.

shortest day yet

the bus decants us into the hotel at 6:30 PM. there is a collective gasp of relief from all the women in the group. laundry finally gets done. the hair gets washed. and we are in time for a late dinner instead of supper!

the guide promises us payback tomorrow. 

duku highway

if you ever think of adding a highway to your to-do list this might be a candidate. you'll get expanses of jaw-dropping scenery interspersed with a nerve-wracking drive along hairpin bends. throw in a supremely confident driver in a poorly suspended vehicle and you also get hair-raising. altogether memorable.

nalati grasslands

much hyped and justifiably breathtakingly gorgeous. but just a little bit greener in the photos and just a little bit better as a concept than in reality, owing to the blazing sun and abundance of dung of the bovine dromedary and equine variety.

another long day into night

during which we visit many spots take many photos have lots of pointless discussions and walk many steps.

today's lesson: in the profusion of numbers lies an explosion of frothy interactions opinions distractions and impediments. the ideal tour group size might be 4. me and HOM and possibly 2 carefully chosen like-minded fellahs. almost certainly not 18.

long day into night

the xinjiang tour is shaping up to be the modern day equivalent to cecil parkinson's pre-retirement tour for civil servants*. as in, the program is packed and inexorable the pace is relentless the cheer is distressingly hearty and the loo breaks are fewer than i need.

i don't need to do so much! i want to whimper. i want to stay in the hotel and rot! unfortunately we move to the next location hundreds of miles away tomorrow. and tomorrow's morrow. and the morrow after.

note to self: try not to be part of a group tour again.

*per Parkinson's Law (c. n. parkinson, 1957)

souvenir

fairly dinky flat hat that i persuade HOM to get.

now he can accessorize his entire wardrobe of blacks greys and navies.

loo break

plumbing new depths in bathroom design.

urumqi grand bazaar

great tourist trap. other words escape me.

en route

last mark sheet submitted. last presentation presented. document edited. various elders loved. instructions confirmed. (some) ideas hashed (a bit).

after being grounded in august, HOM and i are off again!

a midnight pastry shop called hwawoldang - lee onhwa (2026)

[spoiler alert] in the usual slice of life-interconnected short stories-with some fantasy thrown in genre that the modern asian writers do best. perhaps a little bit more fantasy than the japanese cat stories or the korean laundromat stories but as enjoyable, although it is taxing to read a series of short stories each of which (you realize quickly) ends in sudden demise. 

nice interlude to my streak of murder stories.

after the storm

two wonders here that i confess

my worth and my unworthiness

- getty & kendrick

in quietness of soul today in church, after the past fortnight of tornadoes with Ji J2 A and E. we are grateful for the time, as we are grateful for the rest. thanks be to God.

start CPR! (or not)

early this morning we meet a man lying at the shop front. 

hello! are you ok?

he doesn't respond. start CPR? call 995?

fortunately there is a nice pulse going and he is breathing peacefully so we leave him to sleep off his booze. HOM asks if we should call the ambulance nevertheless but i think the resource will be better spent on someone else.

they need to update the training algorithms. right now every simulation starts with hello! hello! are you ok? and proceeds immutably to call ambulance! get AED! start CPR! and doesn't leave space for the poor bro who just needs to lay down his poor head.

visit's end

we say goodbye to Ji J2 A and E. their last day is marked by fevers (A and E) vomiting (A and E) disrupted plans (all) much stress (all) with every indication of the same continuing in-flight.

all in all a lovely visit topped with pain. very grateful we have O to help keep the place looking and smelling civilized.

in other news, E the dog looks positively distressed and lethargic as well, possibly in sympathy.