Sunday, November 9, 2014

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Today, we planned a hike for the morning and the weather could not have been nicer.  About 50 degrees and sunny with a light breeze.  

Here are two views from my hotel - the one of the water is from my room, and other other is from the elevator on my floor facing Xinghai Square (the largest square in Asia)...  (Remember to click on the photos for full view)

We headed to the east past the new fabulous Castle hotel (formerly the amazing shell museum that was torn down a rebuilt over the last three years).  Past that, along the winding coastal road, we gradually wound our way up the 300m (1000 foot).  After a total of 1.5 hours of walking, and a close encounter with about 4 deer, we made it to the top for a break and some picture taking.  Here is the view from the top (my hotel is the tallest building at the center of the photo) - long walk indeed:

We then headed down and after another 1.5 hours of walking ended up back near Xinghai Square at a Korean restaurant – a North Korean restaurant to be exact.  After ordering the food from the lobby, we headed upstairs to a large empty dining room where 5 young (~18) North Korean girls in bright pink classical dresses were practicing some music/dancing, but as we arrived, they seemed to scatter to the back.  Winson explained that he thinks they are brought in for about a 1 year stint in Dalian where they receive daily allegiance training from a government appointed chaperon – quite sad.  Our attendant seated us at a table near the stage and our food slowly arrived.  Lunch consisted of small slices of beef, some wheat dish where the pieces resembled cooked carrots, and some dried fish (that looked like strips of dried apricots.  There were also triangles of spicy wheat (like a pizza slice) that while tasty, the heat slowly built where I could only handle one piece.  I should mention, you would take the slices of meat, and place them in a cabbage wrap with some veggies and your choice of some sauces.  There was also a tasty seafood soup, as well as a cold rice noodle soup that I enjoyed as well.  During our meal, the girls performed a few songs of seemingly classical Korean style.  The meal was very tasty as I really enjoy Korean food – and this being North Korean, was also a first for Winson.

We then walked back past the hotel and then proceed along the beach for another mile or so west past the mansions near the hotel, to some nautical buildings.  One a large coral aquarium, another a giant penguin exhibit, and yet another that features sharks, whales, etc.  Winson informed me they are about $20 US for each building.  Eventually, we passed a marina (that featured a couple of new 70 foot yachts) and a large tower for bungee jumping out over the sea.  Since we had now been walking for about 5 hours including a small mountain climb, we took a cab back toward the hotel and stopped at a high end shopping area.  At this portion of town are yacht dealers, a Ferrari dealership, Maserati dealership, Harley Davidson store, and even a Lamborghini dealer that my son will surely enjoy seeing pictures from.

We then returned to the hotel for a drink and discussed work for a couple of hours before having dinner at the hotel.  That ended up being quite the treat.  In short, it was easily the best dinner buffet that I had ever experienced (and, as it turned out, the most expensive at $45/person).  All of your standard items were there with chef’s cooking lamb, steak skewers, sushi chefs preparing food for that section, tempura, noodles, and some of the most fantastic desserts to be seen (as tasted).  One thing of note was the tiger crab – which looked like a sand crab crossed with a small lobster.  It tasted like a 50/50 mix of shrimp and crab – tasty – but a ton of work for small pieces of food.  The lamb was insane, and, for the first bit of sweet that I have tasted since flying over the north pole 5 days earlier, a fantastic mango pudding.  Judging by the quality of everything that I tried, the Tiramisu was bound to be good – however, Lisa will have to try it for herself – if I can ever convince her to join me here.

Afterwards, I called it a night and returned to my room to write down my blog notes of the weekend.