The Wedding and Home

The big day arrives and we all congregate at 10:00 in our finery in the lobby awaiting the arrival of the bride. And what an arrival it was. Drummers, dragons and being carried in an enclosed chair with her groom dressed in traditional Chinese red garb.

In the end it seemed something like 30 Klinger Family and Friends, 30 of the kids friends and 60 of the Dalian connection family and friends so around 120 people.

Up to the reception hall where three amazing photos of Ari and Lucy have been canvas mounted in 3mtr x 3 mtr frames outside of the ballroom. We are then ushered into the ballroom where there is a full movie theatre screen broadcasting the live video feed interspersed with fantastic shots of Lucy and Ari taken in the days before the wedding.

A beautiful Chuppah ceremony condcuted by a Jewish Marriage Celebrant who is a friend of Ari and Lucy's who flew in from Sydney for the occasion. All of the Jewish traditions, seven times around the groom and the breaking of the glass.

Lots of Horas with even Zorba the Greek sneaking in.

A traditional Chinese Banquet, kosher style of course, with some wonderful speeches including Ron's in Chinese and Lucy's uncle translating all of those that needed to be.

Anyway can't describe it as anything less than awesome and that I would certainly have missed something special by not being here.

Pix can be seen at

http://davepics.net84.net/

And a video which is a very large file so dont download unless you know what you are doing

http://davepics.net84.net/Lucy-Ari.qt

Off to catch the plane and see you all soon

XD

Sunday - The Day Before the Wedding

Sunday morning and off to the Shangrila for breakfast before the buses take us to the markets. There have been two buses on call the entire time taking us to each restaurant and activity.

I shop with Suzie Klinger who buys some handbags and I buy a jacket - yes they did have my size!! While the excursion was supposed to last 2.5 hours after just one hour we grab a cab and go back to the hotel.

12:00 and off to another beautiful banquet lunch. I am sitting with different people each time and many of them are friends of Ari and Lucy's, young entrepreneurs living in varying parts of the world - Philippines, Singapore and New York for instance and all very interesting.

Lucy's divorced mother Sue lives in Sydney and her boyfriend is a South African Jewish man, Sydney who, with Sue do a lot of the herding and organising. The entire weekend is so well planned it is amazing.

I decide after lunch (at leisure as they say) to walk back to my hotel (Google says 850 metre) and easily find it noting that all of the cabs I had taken, maybe 10, had taken a different and much longer route between hotels. As the fare starts at $A1.35 and includes the first 1 or 2 kilometres there is no benefit to them to going the long way but they all seem to do it.

On this walk I stop at the Carrefours Hypermarket as one does to see what the locals are buying and prices etc. One interesting thing I noted was an entire wall of imported supermarket products and even more interesting how many people were studying these shelves and buying from them.

I first came to China in 2006 and there is an seeming increase in the standard of living and affordability that I have noticed in those five years.

Back to the hotel and I fall alseep on the bed waking in time to walk back to the Shangrila for our banquet dinner. We are bused to a restaurant that is on many levels of a very large building and every single part of it is built in marble, marble and more marble. They usher us into a sumptuous private room on a very large floor which only has private rooms.

The banquet was great and it was followed by two great speeches from Ari's and Lucy's friends. It now seems that there are 80 people here around 35 family, 35 of Ari/Lucy's friends and 10 of Lucy's family.

I am truly struck in action and in the speeches on how generous Ari is not only with the festivities but they spoke of his mentoring and helping friends start their businesses etc..

Anyway back to the hotel for a pre-wedding day early night for all.

XD

Saturday Festivities

My morning SMS to kids "sorry to be so wateful of yer yerushah (inheritance) but even at $1.59 I can't eat this breakfast - heading to the Shangrila Hotel" Good move as the breakfast there was sensational - as good as most lunch buffets in a five star hotel.

Bus leaves at 10:30 for a tour of the city and as I suspected there wasn't much to be seen. As I get on the bus someone says "are you Danielle's dad" seems he and his partner are very good friends of Dave and now Danielle and are coming to their wedding. Small world!

That said however the city, while big, is modern and very tasteful. Amazingly it is spotless - no rubbish or the like littering the streets.

Dalian is a port city - a small 4+ million people many of whom seem quite young. The bus then takes us to a pancake restaurant for lunch. We split into 4 or 5 groups in small private rooms. Without the recommendation of our hosts I certainly would not have given this place a second look. The crockery is wrapped in one plastic bundle and it is seriously down market. When I go to the toilet they are all squat - not a good combination with my now upset stomach!!!

Anyway looks deceive and the restaurant is outstanding. A dairy, pork and seafood free meal has been arranged and the tasty food just keeps coming.

It would be remiss of me not to point out that our hosts have, exceedingly generously, picked up the tab for everything this weekend.

I then go shopping to Victory Square which is 4 levels of underground shopping with small stall/shop holders. Apparently the largest underground shopping centre in the world. I buy two supposedly leather handbags for my iPad and head back to my hotel only to find there is a fault with one bag. I head back and they apologetically fix the problem.

A short rest before the evening activity which is a steamboat dinner where everybody has boiling broth to cook their food. I elect for the chili broth and the lamb, beef, noodles and vegetables are incredibly tasty. Our table elected for no seafood for dietary reasons but that would have been the perfect end.

The bus then takes those who wish to a bathhouse for a communal bath and massage. The bathhouses are very luxurious and open 24 hours and very busy I am told. I opt out being very tired and stomach still a little upset but do go to a bar near my hotel for a drink where I meet a guy who works for IBM as technical support for Australian Companies. He was very interested in life in Australia as was I in Dalian. He was born in Inner Mongolia and earns around $A600 per month of which he pays $A300 a month for his apartment. He says he only just gets by. He has a degree but not in IT and therefore his only prospects are in management.

Anyway now VERY tired I head off for bed before a sneak into the Shangrila breakfast.

Night all
David

Enroute

I was invited to the wedding of Ari Klinger and his fiance Lucy some time ago. I didn't really think about going until the day the invitation arrived showing that there would be three and a half days of organised festivities - so then I booked.

I left Sydney on Wednesday morning deciding to spend one day in Guangzhou, somewhere I have never been. Arriving at the hotel around 18:00 I grabbed a light meal and had an early night.

In China no access to Facebook and some other websites and every time I tried to access Google I got taken to Google Hong Kong. Anyway my IT expert resolved that by creating a VPN through Sydney - fixed.

Next morning breakfast and I met my guide in the lobby for a tour of downtown and sights of Guangzhou. Just let me summarise Guangzhou as JABAC - Just Another Big Asian City - one i could happily give a miss to.

The interesting thing is that anything with a brand is substantially more expensive in China than Australia. A Lacoste Polo, a Hugo Boss shirt all around 20% to 30% more than Sydney. But that said no shortage whatsoever of all brand name products EVERYWHERE.

By 14:00 I had enough and parted with my guide and headed back to my airport hotel 30kms from downtown GZ. I was very tired and flopped on the bed at 17:00 waking up at 03:00 on Friday morning.

Anyway mooched around the airport on Friday morning where there are many many shops and food outlets before going back to the hotel, packing and back to the airport for my flight to Dalian.

Board the plane and take my seat to find the seal belt so frayed I wouldn't trust it to hold a child let alone my weight....anyway. Southern China Air is a functional airline with very bad food and minimal service - nothing much to recommend. I have been on this airline before but it gets me from A to B in Premium Economy and at a very low price.

Arrive in Dalian and land at the airport seeing brand new three storey very attractive apartment blocks lining the runway - literally. I don't know who would buy such apartments as clearly they were up market but there appeared to be a lot of life there so obviously there are such buyers.

The plane lands on the tarmac, down the stairs to a bus which takes us to the terminal at which not one airbridge slot is occupied by a plane - clearly some cost benefit of parking on the tarmac as it was like an aero parking lot out there.

Luggage arrives quickly and cab to hotel - I had the previous hotel write the next hotel in Chinese as no taxi driver I have ever taken in China speaks English.

I quickly ready myself as I have to get to the Shangrila hotel (1km away) for the first dinner which is a lovely buffet within the Shangrila. There are around 30 people from the Klinger side, 30 friends of the kids and 10 of Lucy's family. Lucy lives in Sydney but comes from Dalian and her parents still have an apartment here.

The dinner and company was lovely. I know a few of the people, a good friends of the Klingers, Suzie Klinger's sister, Ron Klinger's brother and sister and even a few of the kids friends like Adam Pisk (a cousin) and Ari's business partner.

Activities continued (without a very tired me) at a Jazz Club and drinks. I head back to my hotel for an early night. My Hotel, the Ibis is 1km from the Shangrila and is a normal 3 star Ibis Hotel and while I regret not being at the centre of activities the $A16 a night was too tempting.

Anyway more later XD