Georgetown in Early Morning

In the early morning a city shows itself without false modesty.The lack of people filling sidewalks allows you to peek deeper and with time. Thus it was with Georgetown early this morning.

Ritzy Georgetown

The Ritz Carlton in Georgetown is elegant and exclusive; it is one of the Carlton’s smallest properties yet carries a lot of zip. The property is near the heart of Georgetown and near M Street so a short walk takes you to the local action. The suites are spacious and filled with amenities, the tub more like a small pool. The hotel offers privacy to celebrities and guests that is prized in DC.

Perhaps the most amazing part of the Ritz Carlton Georgetown is its history. The building was once an historic incinerator then was left empty for many years. The 130 foot smoke stack still stands and today houses a private room. The sleek interior of the hotel is filled with art work and the lobby perfect for sitting in and having a “Fahrenheit 5 Martini”, the signature cocktail.

Heading to the Ritz

Today I head to Washington DC to visit a Ritz Carlton, plans made months ago. This Ritz is supposed to be a gem. It was once an incinerator plant and now is a highly rated hotel with accolades galore. I have never been to Washington as strange as that seems and a day at the Smithsonian is on my list. Perhaps a massage thrown in will clear away my China fog.

Finding Therapy in Travel

I am very happy for my buddy Karen Schaler and the success of her book, Travel Therapy. I was lucky enough to write a blurb for it. She has now written the lyrics to a song with Rob Holub, an international singer/songwriter. This is a first, a theme song written for a book with lyrics by the author. Emmy winning Karen is one hard working girl! The song can be heard here http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002B4MN6C/ref=dm_dp_trk6?ie=UTF8&qid=1243484192&sr=8-1

Those Met on the Road

I am padding around the house this wet and cold morning wrapped in an old bathroom, somewhat in a fog. The usual cup of coffee isn’t kicking in. It could be because I flew back from Taiwan yesterday but somehow it isn’t feeling just like the regular jet lag I deal with often. As a travel writer I am used to observing places, that is what most publications want. It occurred to me as I awoke that the number of people I meet while on the road is a story in itself often pushed into the background.

As I sipped from my mug I picked up a small booklet that I was given on the plane yesterday. It was filled with wonderful artwork. Page 52 in the brochure had a piece by Chu, Chen Nan sitting just two seats away. My introduction came about because of one of my trip companions, Amy is open and friendly. Mr. Chu graciously agreed to sign the booklet and did so in a wonderful way, in English and Chinese characters. Mine basically was about my dreams coming true. One wish I have is that all the people I have met while zipping around the world could know that they have all had an impact on me. Many people have slipped past and faded as time passes. I plan on keeping the booklet in a place that will remind me that the people met are just if not more important than the places seen.

Take Out Bag From China

It is time to prepare for a long grueling flight home from Taiwan after a speed dial trip through China and Taiwan. This trip is perhaps one of the strangest I’ve ever taken, in ways both good and not so. Movement to places not known though is always a good way to test myself. It will take some time to filter all that has happened in the last two weeks, to savor some moments and discard others. Bottom line, that is really just life but in a concentrated way. To see things others only dream about is a blessing.

China's Impact...On Me

This trip through China and Taiwan has been one that will take a long time to filter through. We have been moving rapidly and sometimes uncontrollably into places that will take time to compute. At this moment it is the smiling faces of people that stick out, sometimes a full blown frontal and often a quick side pass. All appreciated at the end of a long day. This trip has also been about traveling with a group of people that often bypass years of getting to know one another. Your faults and attributes rise to the surface and it is hard to hide when moving at break neck speed. Tonight is our last night in Taiwan and then it is home. Thanks to all the great people that raced with me through a land that will take time to unveil its impact on me, bit by bit.

Storm Brewing In Taiwan

The night air is heavy and moist matching emotions brought about by traveling through China and Taiwan. Up one minute and down the next, seven minutes can seem an eternity yet three minutes flash past. An hour isn’t matched elsewhere, you cannot gage anything. Unsteady on your feet and breathing deep as beads of sweat race down your back, yet hour’s later calm comes, as a soothing single malt and conversation takes away uncertainty. That is China to me tonight! Bright pictures of festivals flicker on my computer screen matched by a distant brewing storm that is also China.

Pictures With Captions

The pace is fast on this trip and you get a bit silly. Pick a caption for each picture.

Picking up friends in China.

Feeling cooped up

Censored in Mainland China

I sit here now writing a blog after 3 days of being unable to post a blog in Shanghai, I was censored. I am not the first as my travel writing friends have let me known, Banned in Shanghai, isn’t my new name. It was a fantastic trip to Mainland China and I would recommend it to anyone, peddle fast if bicycling Hyatt to Hyatt, better yet get a cab, it is cheap. I guess I am kind of proud that this blog, Be Our Guest, is considered subversive. It just might mean that my brothers are tuning in.I kicked back in Taiwan with a massage at Htwtreded&**%% knowing that I could report back. All is well and now I can fill you in.

Beijing Equals Diversity

As I sat in the highest restaurant perch in Beijing at the Park Hyatt last night I gazed at the huge city of Beijing spread out below, the city is massive in scope. The other thought that popped into my mind was how diverse Beijing is. A luxury dinner was waiting but a simple lunch the day before was also a fantastic event. We ate at the home of an artist in a hutong or old part of Beijing. His wife cooked a lunch that was so fresh and satisfying and simplistic and the small streets and alleys made for a perfect stroll after. I think diversity best explains Beijing!

Great Climb on the Great Wall

Been so busy doing and little time for writing, great wall today, time that is free tomorrow.

Prof. Barry Goldsmith's Beijing Tips 1

Magic in Beijing

An Early Morning Stroll in Beijing

An early 5 AM wake up and I headed out of the Hyatt to see what I could see. The empty streets were fog shrouded and the food stalls closed up tight. I met this guard and we talked a bit he in Chinese and I in English. We came to some conclusions, trying to talk beats no communications. He wanted to pose and I wanted him to. We shared a cig as he checked out his image, he liked it. We jabbered a bit and I continued on my way. I like it here, very much!

The Temple of Heaven, Bejing Grand Hyatt

The Grand Hyatt Beijing is perfect, no doubt about it!Fresh flowers skillfully laid out in my room and a meal never to be forgotten in their Made in China restaurant. The pool area is underground yet laid out as a island resort style pool, just amazing.

Beijin Grand Hyatt Suite and Sweet

China Air to Beijing

I am in JFK terminal one and in the JAL Lounge. My luck flying has been great and I got an upgrade to Bizz class for this very long flight over the North Pole and into China. The lounge is serving Ram an noodles and tea a very different style than this westerner is used to. I am sure that is just the beginning of many things I will take as new and eastern on this trip to China. Beijing here I come!

Visa to China Complete, Grand Hyatt Bound

What a difference a day makes, the last six have been stressed filled. My visa for China was delivered to Fed Ex and is due to arrive early in the morning, thanks Visa Express for coming through! Mrs. St John is finding me better tempered and the cats aren’t running every time I walk by. I have allowed myself a good look at the itinerary for this historic first press trip between the two Chinas, Mainland and Taiwan. Grand Hyatt is doing most of the hosting and after checking them out in the cities of Beijing and Shanghai online I couldn’t be more excited.

Hotels are my thing and I love checking them out and I cannot wait to sit in my huge marble tub looking over the skyline of Shanghai, the hotel is on the 53 to 87 floors of the Jin Mao Tower. It was once the tallest hotel in the world but it looks as if the other Hyatt in the Shanghai World Financial Tower is a few floors taller. Word is that we will split our stay at both. I have to laugh at myself a bit because of the amazing and usually off limit places we will be seeing on this trip. But after waiting for several sleepless nights to see if I could get my visa in time, I can appreciate a few great places to bed down.

China, Maybe, Upstate NY Beer Trail, Plan B

My stomach is tighter than a fiddlehead fern, just on the inside. My mood changes like the recent winds swirling around Ulster County. I know that traveling often requires mega bursts of patience, but the truth is I am not a patient person, even under the best of circumstances. Character flaws also tend to be brought to the surface when a traveler. Two days till my departure to China and due to the changes to visas requirements said to be because of the swine flu; I sit and impatiently wait, perhaps pace fits better. I need a visa!

In my mind I go over what I could have done differently, short of being a diplomat or related to the Premier of China, very little. I pick up the new issue of National Geographic Traveler in the hopes of a calming read on the back deck. The gods are laughing at me I realize when I thumb straight to an article called Are Your Papers in Order by Christopher Elliott. I love his pieces but bummed when he hit on visas and how quickly the rules change. My peaceful period on the porch is done.

As often happens when on the road something good pops out of nowhere, a plan B forms. The same issue had in the Cutting Loose section a piece about the beer trail in Upstate NY. Local brewer Tommy Keegan and his fine ales from Kingston get a lot of well deserved praise. Okay I think if my visa doesn’t get here in time, I will hit the beer trail. No visa required and I can base in an old farm house dating from 1845, my own. I’ll get to see my wife nightly and go back to the newly reopened restaurant at the old stone Hasbrouck House just down the road. I think about what Max said at the NY Times Travel Show, start local. Old habits die hard and the lure of China strong, the wind and mood have changed, the road calls and I need to answer.

Salvador by the Sea

Seafood is Best in Recife Brazil When Served with Beef, Spettus Restaurant

Brazil is a land of surprises, mostly great ones. For example the best seafood in quality and choice was at a place known for great cuts of meat done in the parrillas style. Skewers or various cuts of prime South American beef, cut and delivered till you surrender. Spettus was no doubt one of the best restaurants in Recife if not in Brazil. It was however the bowls of huge shrimp and Brazilian lobster tails that enthralled this meat eating man. After six perfectly cooked huge tails and mounds of shrimps almost the same size I groaned every time slices of filet was deposited on my plate. I am most likely the cause for the sharp rise in the cost of Brazilian lobster tails in the US right now, I plead the fifth.

Soon Enough Sunflowers

There is nothing so summer to me as sunflowers. It is a stretch and a reach and I love living back in the four season Northeast. Back breaking planting of buds and roots are a part of life here. It is the tall stalks that I most admire.

Friendly France, More Americans Agree

I read a little blurb in the NY Post today about France and it seems more Americans are feeling like I do about France, warm and fuzzy. In fact the US ratings for France are up more than any other nation’s citizens. A Quinnipiac University poll gives France an approval rating up 12 points since 2006, bringing it to 57%. England remains at 80 with Canada rating a 79. I would give France a very high rating myself, on all my visits I have found nothing but friends. Then again my last name isn’t Bush.

Light a Joss Stick and Ask the Travel Gods for a Chinese Visa

Sometimes the travel gods have ways of letting you know they are in control. Today China put restrictions on visas for US citizens traveling to China. No rush or specials visas will be done it was announced today, May 5th 2009. It is a six business day wait before visas are issued; Swine Flu is given as the cause. My application just arrived at Visa Express this morning, not under the wire. So for me that means I should get my passport and visa on the day of my departure, if the travel gods are in my favor. Perhaps I shouldn’t have taken the announcement from Jiang Yu a Chinese government spokesman's statement that reports of visa changes were “groundless”. That statement was issued last week.

My last trip recently was to Brazil where a visa for US travelers is also needed, it isn’t a fun process. I also however have to remember that getting a visa for entry into the US isn’t an easy task for many in countries abroad. A news account for AP did bring up that the visa changes are just for the US not countries such as Spain and Canada where the flu has been reported. For the next six days I will be twisting in the wind. I will try not to look at the fantastic itinerary put together or open the several guidebooks bought to get ready. I perhaps will light a few Joss Sticks and mutter a few prayers to the travel gods, it can’t hurt.

Travel Writing Family Style

I can be a strange but wonderful thing to see your son’s byline. It recently was checking out GoNOMAD after a few weeks on the road in Italy and Brazil and there it was, Colorado by Chance St John. I actually was just reading the story and liking it when I saw it was by Chance, I forgot he went, my schedule is tough enough to follow. He has done several other pieces for us at GN but I really thought this his best. He will soon be done with college and I often wonder what road he will take. I smile thinking that it was my dad and his love of traveling that was past on to me. I guess that those trips to Mexico when Chance was a little tyke may have kept the shuffling feet moving. I also love that Max’s daughter, Kate and Steve’s daughter Sarah also do pieces for us. There really is a family feeling at GoNOMAD and that goes for all of the steady writers and bloggers. I hope that someday I will see another St John getting bylines perhaps for generations.

Early Awaking in NYC

After a great dinner with the people from Walloon (Belgium) at the Union Square Cafe I retreated into the Union W Hotel. I got up early and I had the city to myself, and a camera. Two hours of just wondering around was heaven. I then went to Vanessa’s Dumplings on Eldridge for a plate of 4 perfect dumplings all for a buck. Years ago I spent time as assistant manager and bartender in NY, not good your for health but a mind opening experience. Often after closing down my place of work I headed to the numerous after hours places that then filled Manhattan. Black jack tables and smoky bar scenes blended night after night. I much preferred my morning rambling after a good night sleep than staggering through after a night of debauchery, there is something to be said for ageing.