Charge it to the Underhills....

Well we made it out of the city once again, this time to Harbin (Hahr – Bean), China for the Annual Ice Lantern Festival, Snow Festival, and other winter wonderland activities... We decided to forego the travel agency trip and go it alone when planning the vacation and “wing it.” Winging it is not in Tracy’s vocabulary so this caused some stress and grief, but Will took it in stride. I figure living in China has given me some tips and tricks to living life in the fast lane in not having a set plan day to day, so why not use a 3 day weekend to broaden my horizons. Screw calgon, ativan….take me away….

If you take a look on the map, you will see that it is farther north than Vladivostok, Russia!! We were a little nervous about the -50 degree C (that’s -58 F) we noted on CNN’s weather forcast, the week before we left, but we were lucky or unlucky enough to enjoy low to mid-20s F during the day and close to 0 at night. No wind and no fresh snow on the ground. Despite our hotel room (which was a little bit of a dive), we were in the center of the walking street with all its little Russian chotchsky shops.

We enjoyed a fairly carefree weekend on no one’s schedule but our own. It took a little bit of time to figure out which event was held where and how to get there, but I had my first successful “Chinglish” conversation. Will was impressed and I got another “hun how” (very good) from the coffee shop dude.

We found a great little Russian restaurant around the corner from our place and then Saturday and Sunday enjoyed the Ice Lantern Festival, the Snow Carving Festival and a little wining and dining at the Shangri-La. Its sad, but true, that being white has some advantages in China. Like showing up at the 5 star hotel (that we DIDN”T stay at) and telling the concierage we are looking for our friends, “The Underhills” and can we please leave our bags at the front desk while we go out for the day. Hey, we ate *and* paid for breakfast and returned for lunch at the schmancy place with mediocre food, yet I can’t deny that it didn’t cross our minds to sign the receipt with a fakey hotel number and Mr Underhill’s name…

(end note: I’m making final edits to Harbin: the movie – video clips and pictures from our adventure, but I’ll add a few above as well!).