Incidentally, for those staying at the Ai Mori, SCUBA equipment will be provided.

Dovster, who is 57 hours away from starting his odyssey to Venice.

In case you can't locate this dish by it's name, here's what you need to tell the waiter in Guangzhou. The dish is made with spaghetti-type noodles laid out on the plate like bamboo stalks. They are covered with a sauce containing slightly incapacitated large ants or beetle-type insects. They slowly crawl up and down the pasta which, to some sadistic Chinese chef, looks like "Ant's Climbing A "Tree".
And as I recall, this was also the same area I was served "Drunken Shrimp". Basically, live shrimp are delivered to the table, placed in a bowl and a sauce containing alcohol is poured over them. You're supposed to greedily consume them as they are flopping around in a death throe.
The Chinese, for whatever you want to say about them, seem to like food that is also entertaining.
Perhaps we should select Guangzhou as the next DL Forum FT Do. We can fly there on China Eastern or Korean Airlines. Imagine the gastronomical delights that await!! ;)
I'm relatively confident that Punki and Dovster would be among the first to sign up for this DO......

I guess if I can handle frisbee-sized moths, footlong roaches, and eating cold bloody zebu, a little water in the shoes won't be that bad. Yay for adventures :).

Is there any dress code for any of the events or restaurants to which we plan to partake?

I want to pack as lightly as possible, as I will be quite mobile on this trip...

Sounds like a plan! ^ ^

I'll stick to BA or CX to HKG and the train from there, though...

Man, if Dovster gets scared off by a little squid ink in his risotto, imagine the look on his face when his only choices are fish head stew, fried bird tendon, and (yummy) rat!

I'm salivating already.

I had an incredibly delicious meal (at an Italian restaurant in Fresno, California of all places!) where I had black ravioli (colored with squid ink) filled with salmon.

Of course, several days passed before the side effect of temporary tentacled appendages that suddenly “grew” on me as a result of eating this meal would finally disappear...

About the only place where there should be a dress code is the casino, and then only in the tables section. You can get into the slots area dressed very casually.

My problem is that I have to pack for Florida, Switzerland, and Italy -- meaning summer, fall, and winter clothing -- and between Italy and Israel I am allowed only 30 kilos of checked luggage and 5 kilos of hand luggage.

I do not intend to go to the casino (as I do not particularly enjoy gambling), so would jeans and sneakers suffice?

I wouldn't recommend sneakers -- Venice might well not be quite dry enough for them.

Jeans are borderline. I doubt that you will get kicked out of anyplace for wearing them, but Italians like to dress up so you might feel a little out of place at some restaurants.

Platbrownguy: "I'll stick to BA or CX to HKG and the train from there, though...

"Man, if Dovster gets scared off by a little squid ink in his risotto, imagine the look on his face when his only choices are fish head stew, fried bird tendon, and (yummy) rat!"

Fortunately, the entire world has McDonalds. This allows us to retain a layer of civilization no matter where we go -- even to places where some restaurants serve up creeply crawly things from the sea.

I would recommend bringing a sports coat. But, it definitely is not essential. DrO2K normally brings 1 sports coat and a leather jacket. Bring your sneakers, but have another pair of leather walking shoes, just in case your sneakers get soggy.

China may have McDonalds, but even at the all-American restaurant, there will still be creepy crawly things from the sea:

Not content to lag behind, McDonald's Vegetable and Seafood Soup and Corn Soup were introduced, and the company worked to modify the restaurants' design. During the 2004 Spring Festival, McDonald's on Beijing's Wangfujing Street attracted many people with a traditional Chinese look, decorating their interiors with paper-cuts of the Chinese character Fu (Happiness), magpies and twin fishes, all auspicious symbols.


There were no McDonalds in Madagascar. Not one, although I suppose not having any cows is reason enough. Even worse, there were no imported beers available either, and thus not a single Irish pub anywhere to be found, nor a pint of Guinness.

A question for anybody familiar with the area.

As I have thought about things, I am not really keen in sleeping at a hotel where the bulk of the group is not staying.

I have done this once before and it was rather annoying having to leave events early simple to return to my hotel when I felt comfortable to do so. I would much rather be able to spend the maximum time with the group and travel with them when possible. If not, I totally understand and will stay at my current hotel, just curious about other options.

My understanding is that the Ari Moni is sold out, are there other hotels within walking distance that are of a similar quality?

Thanks for your time in this matter,
Dan

Flooding is the highlight of any trip to Venice, but this year sounds extreme. Fortunately the tides receed quickly.

Here is some information. I can only find tide charts for three days into the future.

Dov and Punki: The only "meat" McDonald's in India serves is fish and chicken. They gave up their lamb burgers, probably due to lack of interest.

I've spent a total of nearly four weeks in Guangzhou. This was back in 1997, on two business trips there.

I agree that it is one of the culinary capitals of China -- perhaps THE culinary capital, in some people's eyes. However, as a place for tourists, it has its shortcomings. It's a (mostly) ugly, tacky, crowded, noisy, polluted city, with a subtropical climate. However, with its growing wealth, evidently some money is going to be spent on solving some of these problems. Maybe a few decades from now it will even be a tourist destination!

P.S.: You can also fly to Hong Kong, spend a night or two there, and take a train (or plane or bus) to Guangzhou. Stopping over in Hong Kong is highly desirable and helps buffer the experience of visiting Guangzhou.

Reminds me of the media coverage of Tampa during the hurricanes - Bayshore Boulevard shown under water, complete with jet skis traveling down the street. They didn't give the rest of the story - the street was back to normal a few hours later when the tide receded.