JB in HK

Chinese Funeral

2008-11-06T07:55:00.001-05:00

The Funeral of Karen's Grandmother
Oct 28, 2008

One of my very favorite people in Hong Kong and maybe in the world is Karen Yiu. Karen is the secretary at the office in HK, but she is also my guardian angel in China.
Whenever I need anything, Karen is always there with her shining smile to help me out. So when I heard that her grandmother had died I wanted to do whatever I could to get to the funeral. Fortunately for me the flight I had back to Asia was through HK and the very nice people at JFK allowed me to do a layover for a week, so that I could make the funeral. It is so refreshing to know that there are still people out there who are willing to be helpful and accommodating when they can.

I arrived in HK Oct 23, having left Burlington, VT the day before whlie it was snowing! And, yes, my Mom & I did manage to get into the lake the day before I left. The paper said the lake temp was 55 and it felt it! But I made my challenge - got into the lake everyday that I was in NY! SO, here in HK the temp is in the low 90's, so quite an adjustment. It feels good to return to a place that I know. The company has an apartment in Kowloon, in a great area for exploring & eating. John arrived in HK Oct 25 & it sure was good to see him!

Last night (Oct 28) was the funeral. I had attended a funeral here before so was somewhat familiar with the process. Fortunately Karen was at the door where we got envelops for giving money to the family. It is very important to make sure you give an odd amount (even amounts are for happy occassions). The family then gives you an envelop that has a piece of candy (so you will have a sweet life), a HK$1 coin (for good luck), and a tisssue (for crying into). I remembered from the last funeral that you have to make sure to use all of these items before you get home or it will bring bad luck into your house.

When we entered the large hall, we were instructed by a man in a white robe to stand in front of the alter (where there are many flowers, incense, and a photo of Grandma) and bow 3 times, then we had to turn to the family who were gathered in one corner and bow to them 3 times, then they bowed to us 3 times. We then were introduced to Karen's family. The women were dressed in black or white robes with pointy hoods on them. The men wore white woven vests & a white headband with a red dot in the middle on the forehead. They were very appreciative that we had come.

Then Karen asked if we wanted to see her Grandmother. Of course we said yes - out of respect. We were taken behind the alter in a closed area & behind a glass wall there was Grandma with an embroidered silk blanket over her, just her head was showing. She looked very peaceful! We bowed to her too.

Next Karen showed us the paper items that had been collected to be burned with Grandma the next day. The belief is that if you send your loved ones off with these items it will make their life in the afterworld more comfortable & easier. The first thing she showed us was a full sized reclining lounge chair with massage remote control (all made of paper). There was also a small car, a few houses that were probably about 4 feet tall & maybe 2 feet by 4 feet. They were very elborately decorated & furnished. There was a full size majong table with only 3 people sitting at it, the other spot was left empty for Grandma. There were also several silver & gold stairways. These are to help the person climb from hell to heaven & be sure they have plenty of gold & silver with them.

We were then instructed by the "host" (the man who sort of runs the funeral) to have a seat to watch the ceremony. He explained that 5 Chinese "priests" would perform a ritual that is supposed to help the person break through from hell to heaven. The Chinese believe that everyone goes to hell first & depending on how they lived their life, they remain there until they're allowed to move on. There are many offerings made by the family to help the person move on more quickly. I do not know the significance of the parts of the ceremony & Karen said she didn't either & she didn't know what the priest were saying.

4 of the priests put on bright blue silk robes and one wore a red robe. They had square hats with flaps down the back. There was music supplied by a drum, 2 reed type instruments & 2 very loud symbol players. 2 of the priests had little drums & bells that they played during the ceremony. There was a small block of something (maybe a candle) placed in the middle of the floor & lit on fire. Then 8 tiles were placed around the fire & paper was placed on top of the tiles. The priests gathered in a circle & chanted, then they walked around the fire several times. They would stop & one would light the paper on top of one of the tiles. Then the 5 of them would dance very fast & weave in & out of each other & over the fire in the middle. While they were doing this the music got very loud. They stopped & the priest in red pulled a sword out of his sleeve, waved it around a few times & then hit the flaming tile & broke it. This was repeated until all of the tiles were broken (about 20 minutes). Then the head priest (the one in red) did more dancing with a lantern & some flowers. At one point he threw something on the fire & it went about 5 or 6 feet in the air, nearly hitting the ceiling. It was amazing that their robes didn't catch on fire as they were jumping & dancing around the flame. When they were done a woman came in & swept away all of the debrie.

When we left we again bowed 3 times to the alter with Grandma's photo & then 3 times again to the family. I'm very glad that we got to experience this, but mostly I'm glad we could be there to show our support for Karen.

They Really DO Eat Everything in China

2008-03-14T01:06:00.005-04:00

Just returned from 7 days in Mainland China. Traveled with John’s sister, Ellen, and we had a great time. Many stories to tell, but I’ll start with the food.

For the most part the food was fine. We actually laughed because some meals were exactly the same. These meals were mostly at hotel restaurants, which I guess are considered “safe” for Westerners. We had guides taking care of us each place we went. They took care of hotels & meals, so not a lot of exploration on our own. I’ve learned that exploration on you own in a very foreign country can not always be a good thing. So although we had for the most part fairly “tame” meals, we were not upset about this.

Our guide in Beijing was Lily, whom I met last year & she is wonderful. Our 2nd night in Beijing Lily took us out to a local restaurant for Peking Duck. While we were waiting for the meal Lily asked us how we wanted to have the bones, in soup or fried. I asked if she meant the duck bones & she said of course, you know we eat everything in China! I had no idea that meant the bones too. Having never had fried bones, we had to try this. Next she said that she had to run next door to get the rest of the duck. This place does the bones & body, but next door they do the neck, wings & feet. She wanted to bring some home to her family as her parents love the feet & necks. Of course she brought them back & insisted we try them. I have to say the feet were better than the chicken feet I’ve tried, guess there is something to be said for webbing! The neck & wings were OK, but I definitely prefer US style Buffalo wings. We enjoyed the Peking duck. If you've never had it you should know that you wrap slices of duck meat up with thinly sliced cucumber & scallions & hoison sauce in a thin pancake. The fried bones turned out to be pretty good as well. Naturally it is all in the coating, which was very yummy & the bones get soft enough to eat. Wouldn’t want to make a meal out of it, but a few pieces were good. I think the coating had caraway seeds in it & some other spices that made it good. (1st photo is the fried bones, 2nd is the duck feet)

On our last day we were in Guilin. The guide did not plan for us to be staying long enough for dinner, but since the only flight out is at 8:30pm, we had time for one more meal. She agreed to take us to a local restaurant that she likes to go to. When we got out of the van I noticed a cage near the front door with some furry animals in it with long front teeth, like beavers. We naturally went over to take a look. There were about 5 of them in the cage. They were not attractive animals, but furry & lively. I asked Michelle, our guide, what kind of animals these were & why they were out there. She said they are river rats (which I remembered having seen in an aquarium I’d visited in Bangkok) & they were not pets, but were there for people to pick out for their meal (OH MY GOD!!). I have a pretty strong stomach, but RIVER RATS! I somehow think I could eat cat or dog before I could eat these things. I thought Ellen was going to lose it! Then Michelle said, you can also pick out a turtle from this box here. Next to the rats were several turtles. And moving on down there were 2 cages filled with snakes, several fish tanks & 2 long cages with ducks in them all to ensure a very fresh meal. We pretty much lost our appetite for any type of meat. We ended up ordering fish, but sent Michelle out to choose it for us, Ellen didn’t want to see any of her meal before it hit the table. The fish was local fish from the Li River that runs through the town. The way they cook it, they call it beer fish & it was excellent. We also ordered some shrimp that arrived with shells, legs & heads still attached. I couldn’t figure out how to get any meat out of them. Michelle just ate the entire shrimp shell & all. Guess I'm not as adventuresome as I thought

Realizing that we were a bit put off by the food display in the cages, Michelle explained that most people in China are just too poor to waste anything. She said she was from a rural farming village & explained that many poor people in China make the equivalent of $150 per year, so they can’t afford to be very picky. Point well taken!

Chinese Pizza

2008-02-16T02:48:00.000-05:00

Chinese Pizza

Today at the grocery store I decided to be adventuresome & try what they call at the bakery section “Chinese Pizza”. Now that we are in a new location, the search is on for essentials like, where can we get good pizza?

The crust was OK, not thin & chewy like good US pizza, but OK. The toppings that I could positively identify included pineapple, ham, corn, chicken, a strip of imitation crabmeat, cheese (but I’m not to sure what kind, I don’t think it was mozzarella), onion and a swirl of yellow cheese on top. There was no tomato sauce, but I think there might have been a very thin layer of mayonnaise instead. There were a few other things that I couldn’t really identify – mystery topping.

It actually tasted alright, but I probably will not get it again as my stomach was upset the rest of the day!

Longest Escalator

2008-02-12T20:55:00.000-05:00

HK Escalator

So I thought I’d done all the major touristy things in HK, but last night I got to experience yet another extreme of HK. I rode the longest escalator in HK. “The Escalator”, which is the longest escalator in the world, which is near where we used to live, is actually 17 escalators going up the hillside. Last night was the single longest escalator in HK, not the world. It was in a mall (what a surprise – not) in Kowloon (Langham Place for anyone who knows HK) & went down 9 floors. I went to the movies with a HK friend & the theater was on the 13th floor. In true HK fashion the exit from the theater takes you through a mall. So to get out you have to pass 4 floors of stores, circling around so you pass every store in the place. I asked why they have the escalator to skip all the lower floors & Karen said “because no shopping there, just hotel & offices.” Got to love the consumer minded people here! Keep this economies roaring!

The photo isn't too good, it was dark. The escalator is on the right & then there are some New Year's decorations - a light up plum blossom tree. I think I've explained that the plum blossom is a huge symbol for New Year's & represents romance in the coming year. If you are single & walk around the tree 3 times then you will have romance in the coming year.

The movie we saw “Enchanted”. It’s Disney – what can I say, I liked it. Very funny & of course a happy ending! I think I was the only Western person in the theater, but everyone got all the jokes, so either the subtitles were good or as I expect everyone’s English is good enough to understand.

Before the movie we had dinner at a small noodle place that serves up “healthy homemade noodles” according to Karen. You can choose green (spinach), red (tomato) or white noodles. I had a green & white combo with some pork & lots of nice Chinese broccoli (it mostly leaves & stem, not much flower at all, it’s wonderful).

I spent yesterday afternoon wandering around Tsuen Wan (20 minutes away by bus, but the closest town with a train station) with a new friend from the next building over. I met she & her husband on the bus this weekend. They’re from AZ, but have lived all over (Alaska, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, India, Vietnam, Beijing, & another smaller city in China). We are both nurses & have 2 sons, so we had plenty to talk about. As far as Tsuen Wan goes, it’s got a few, you guessed it, MALLS!! There is an Outback, KFC and ever ubiquitous, McDonald’s. So we will not go hungry!

New freinds & a new language

2008-02-11T09:27:00.000-05:00

New friends & a new language

I realized today that living over here I am going to learn a new language, well maybe not really new but different. No, it isn’t a variation of Chinese.

I attended a Corona Club meeting (not the beer, but the crown, as in the queen, as in Britain). This is the British women’s group that has branches all over the world. I have attended a few meetings in the past, but today I bit the bullet & actually joined. They are a really friendly & down to earth group of women. They meet once a week & usually have a speaker. Today one of the women who has lived here 38 years & is married to a Chinese man spoke about the traditions of the Chinese New Year.

After the meeting a few of us went out for lunch. It was funny because they wanted to go to Outback. They all thought it was an Australian restaurant (guess the marketing worked), but I told them I thought it was a US company as they’ve been in the US for years. They were all surprised. They like to go for the fish & chips. Who would have thought you’d go to Outback for fish? In listening to these ladies talk I realized that I only understood about 80% of what they were saying & it wasn’t just their accent. They were using words & expressions that I didn’t understand. One said something about kids going off to uni. (university) & getting legless (drunk). And one asked “did you need to use the wee?” (toilet). I thought they called it a loo. So I think I’m going to learn a new English being involved with this group, so forgive me if I come home speaking like a Brit instead of a Chinawoman!

I also met a couple on the shuttle bus who live 2 buildings down who are from Arizona. They seem very nice & she was wearing an LL Bean jacket & practical shoes, so I know we’ll get along. They moved here from Vietnam & also mentioned living in Beijing, India and Saudi Arabia, so I think I can get lots of travel info from them. I commented that my 2 friends in HK had just moved away, so I was feeling a bit lost. The husband said that Kathy (his wife) would be happy because she didn’t really know anyone here either, at least not out here. So we are having lunch together tomorrow.

So I’m feeling much better about living out here & being back in HK. John returns on Wednesday after 1.5 weeks in India. He was supposed to visit a printer in Sri Lanka, but the printer called him & said not to come, it wasn’t safe! That doesn’t sound good. It’ll be good to have him home!

New Year's Opera & Puppets

2008-02-09T09:36:00.000-05:00

New Year’s Opera & Puppets

9 February 2008 - Saturday

The Chinese New Year celebrations last for about 14 days after New Year’s Day (Feb 7), so there are lots of things going on around the city. Now that we live so far away from the main venues, I have not been as good at enjoying the celebrations as I was last year. But today I decided I needed to get out.

I had read in the paper about a performance by The Sichuan Opera & Huge Puppet Troupe of China. The location was on the southwest side of HK Island, so just getting there took some effort. I studied the map & got onto the bus web site & mapped my way over. I had planned to take one of the Red Minibuses, which I don’t normally take. The regular bus companies do not run them & they don’t really have a regular route, they are basically very confusing. BUT the reason I wanted to try it was because the past few days as I stood waiting for the bus for 20 minutes, about 10 red minibuses went by, so I was very curious where they were going. But of course today, the bus to HK Island came before a red minibus, so I hoped on. I had to change buses to get to where I wanted, but I had my trusty map book & it all went very smoothly.

The performance took place in the atrium of a mall. It consisted of several short performances. The first was called fighting the eye of Buddha (that’s the 3rd eye in the middle of the forehead). This was part of the opera group, but fortunately no singing was involved, just music. A man dressed in very elaborate costume was the main character & he did a very stylized dance. Two younger men who did a lot of acrobatics were also involved. The costume was great, down to the curly tipped, flat-bottomed shoes & the hat that had huge long extensions that ended in red fuzzy balls.

The next performance was the lady in red. It was one of the huge puppets. The puppet is a life-sized figure set onto a long pole that the puppeteer holds, so that the puppet is over his head. There are 2 more poles at the puppet’s wrists & the puppeteer holds these in one hand and works the arms with them. The puppet’s costume has long flowing sleeves that are probably 20 feet long & as the puppeteer moves the puppets arms, the sleeves flow in long circles. It is amazing how he could get the sleeves twirling using just the one hand controlling the arms while he moved the puppet around above his head holding it up with his other hand. As the puppet danced so did the puppeteer, sort of acting as an extension to the puppet, almost like it’s legs.

The next act was a man who had upset his wife for doing something wrong, so he was being punished by having to do stunts with a bowl on his head that contained a burning wick. The wife & husband bantered back & forth & had great expressions. Everyone was laughing at them. The guy went under 2 benches, then stood on top of them while lifting one leg over his head (all with the lit lamp). A very amusing, but skillful act.

Then there were 4 huge puppets that were supposed to be butterflies. Again long flowing wings attached to the arms that the puppeteers maneuvered with one hand. There were smaller puppets, but still with the poles that were a father & daughter on their first trip to Tibet. She carried flowers & he a pipe that he twirled around. Then was a long haired guitar player & flower child puppets that played a sort of Chinese rock & roll song. The flower child puppet did some great chest shaking & shimmying. There were 3 hula dancing puppets who did a good deal of hip gyrating & shimmying as well. These were all the same huge puppets on the poles. Very clever.

Another opera act was a woman who was supposed to be a mermaid discovering the wonders of being outside of the ocean. There was that squeaky high pitched Chinese opera singing in this performance, so I was glad when it was over. The final act was a combination of 3 huge puppets & 2 of the opera actors. It was the famous face-changing act (I’d never heard of it, but from the reaction of the crowd, it was very popular). The puppets & actors all had very dramatic looking masks on their faces. They danced around & they would stomp there foot & suddenly the mask on their face would change to a completely different mask. I couldn’t figure out how the did it. There obviously were several layers of different masks as each character changed masks many times, but it was instantaneous & they didn’t even turn away, it just flashed into a new mask. At one point the actors went to their real faces, only to change to another mask at the end. It was pretty impressive I must say.

Tomorrow I’m going to try to catch a Lion & Dragon Dance performance. These are the traditional New Year’s performances & take place all over for the 2 weeks following New Year’s Day. They usually have very loud drums accompanying them. I must have missed one this morning on the beach, because I could hear the drumming from the apartment. When I went out for my walk they were packing up the drums. I think they were accompanying a swimming event on the beach. When I got to the beach for my walk there were lots of people getting out of the water, kids & adults. Lucky for them it was a sunny day today. There was a table covered with trophies, so obviously a competition. They are brave souls, it’s still been in the 50, so I guess the water might feel warm in comparison, maybe I’ll have to give it a try!

Chinese New Year's Eve

2008-02-09T08:12:00.000-05:00

KUNG HEI FAT CHOI !!

Happy Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year

This is the year of the Golden Rat.

The tradition for New Year’s Eve is to spend it with family and have a big dinner and eat all evening. It is much like Christmas or Thanksgiving in the US. I was lucky enough to have been invited to my friend, Sophia’s home for this event. John is away in India right now. Sophia used to work in John’s office, but she left with plans to go to the US, but in the end she decided to stay in Hong Kong. I’m sure I’ve talked about Sophia before; she is a good friend.

Sophia met me at the train station near her family’s apartment building and we went to the market to buy some drinks. I wanted to bring something to the meal, but Sophia assured me that her Mom had more than enough. The tradition is to bring sweets when you visit to ensure a sweet new year. I’ve observed people at the stores this week buying boxes of cookies, chocolates and many other sweet delights. Sophia decided that I could bring fruit, as that was sweet, but would also be healthier for them all.

Sophia pointed out the apartment from the ground, it was pretty obvious, the only one with a crystal chandelier in the window! Sophia and her brother both have apartments in the same complex, but in different buildings. The Chinese like to stay close to their family if possible.

The apartment was small, but every bit of space was used well. Her Mom had a wonderful collection of glass vases; fancy stemmed drinking glasses, and many other glass objects. They had 2 chandeliers, one in the dinning area & the other in the living area. These were from their house in Toronto & her Mom just couldn’t stand to part with them.

I offered to help her Mom with the cooking, but when I got a look at the kitchen, well it just wasn’t possible. The kitchen was about 4 feet wide & about 6 feet long & really only one person could fit in it. I’m going to stop complaining about our apartment!

The rest of us sat down at the table (brother, boyfriend, dad, Sophia & I). I was offered some wonderful fried wonton type snack with black sesame seeds in it (very yummy) and some sweet sesame cookies (these were store bought & sold only at new year’s time). Then the homemade food came out. First was chicken broth with slices of meat from a shell fish they said was like abalone. Next were sea cucumbers, 3 kinds of sliced sausage with peapods & other greens, and fried meatballs (pork) with spicy dipping sauce. All were excellent, well except for the sea cucumber, which were a strange consistency.

We had a long discussion about the sea cucumber & finally they said that it is an animal, not a plant. But then they didn’t think it had any internal organs, so maybe it was a sort of plant, but not really. Anyway, they said you buy it dried & have to reconstitute it, which is not an easy task. Sophia explained that her mother’s was very good because the consistency was smooth. It takes cooking it for several hours & changing the water often to get it like this. She said if you get it at a street vendor it would often be lumpy and too chewy.

Next up were scallops with celery & lily bulbs (like small onions, but very different taste, almost a nutty flavor), sweet & sour jumbo prawns with yellow & green peppers (this was my favorite & was not like we have sweet & sour), and abalone with boiled lettuce.

Dessert was ginger soup with mochi (rice flour) dumplings filled with peanut or black sesame paste. This also was delicious, a nice light ending to the meal. Sophia brought out some cherries & logan fruit. The logan fruit are about the size of a cherry, but have a hard light brown shell on them. You squeeze them just a bit & the shell splits & you peel it off. The fruit is white & tastes sort of like a ripe soft pear. There is a large brown seed in the middle. Her dad & I ate the whole platefull of them.

I made a comment during the meal that I can't figure out why most Chinese are so thin, because they eat so much. Sophia said she thought it was more about portion size. Even though there were many dishes, there was not a lot of any one dish. Each person had enough for a healthy sampling, but not the huge portions that we would serve in the States. I also think it has something to do with genetics.

Afterwards we sat around & chatted about their time in living in Canada. Dad told me about his antennae factory in Mainland China where she spends part of his time. It’s about 2 hours from HK, so he has another apartment there. Her Mom talked about living in NYC with her younger daughter who works on Wall Street. I guess the daughter is a workaholic, so the Mom lives with her to help her manage. She talked about taking the subway to Chinatown, which naturally she likes very much. Her brother is studying for a master’s in marketing. Her boy friend was raised in HK also & he works at a printing factory that John’s company does business with. They asked me about my family & traditions for holidays. Her mom got out a photo album to show me some family photos.

Sophia & Ivan & were going to go to the flower market after dinner, this is also a tradition. Flowers are a very important part of the Chinese New Year. There are very specific plants & flowers that are supposed to bring luck & good fortune. If you go to the flower market on New Year’s Eve, then you can get really good deals, because they just want to get rid of them. It was raining & cold, so we decided to skip the flower market. I took the subway to the bus stop near work. I had to wait in the rain for about 20 minutes (seems to be my standard wait time these days), but the bus was warm & at that hour (11:00pm), there were plenty of seats.

It certainly was nice to enjoy a family celebration!

Happy Lunar New Year to All !!!

Hong Kong T-shirts

2007-12-07T04:46:00.000-05:00

If you've spent any amount of time in Asia, you realize that they must get all the reject T-shirts that couldn't be sold in an English speaking country. It is really funny to read them & I've started writing down what they say. So here are some samples:

#1 - on the front of the shirt:
CRUSTY DEMONS (written in a gothic lettering)
inside label: "Made in China by the tallest people we could find"
it was the label that I really liked.

#2 -
VOICE (in large letters) HEARI (in small letters)
AYRO (large letters)

#3 -
"It you nsicn carefully to the voice of HER your God and do what is righr ia his eyes, if you'pay attention to his com mands and heep all his decrees,t will not hrhr on you any of the diseases and heals co B005"
(the typos are not mine - you think maybe they need a proof reader? I actually bought this one)

#4 -
Function and Fullness
(picture of a Native American Indian with headdress)
The TOP "STRAIN"

#5-
(picture of a cow)
The Happiest Moment!
you got the real different of JUICE from the World?

#6-
"Bribe exist and the power which is for the opposite side is excluded"

#7-
front of shirt
DIRECTLY
NOISE
All the Right
Make Encouraging the Noise

back of shirt - written in italics
Photography

Fire Dragon Dance

2007-10-06T12:16:00.001-04:00

Fire Dragon Dance

This is something that happens just in one part of HK & it occurs for 3 nights around the mid-autumn festival. My Chinese friend, Sophia, was nice enough to accompany me to this festivity. Sophia has lived in HK her entire life & had never been to this event. She was glad that I made her come.

The event involves lots of drumming to build up to the actually dragon dance. There are teams of drummers & they take turns drumming up & down the street. The streets are packed with people all pushing to get to the front. It was very hot & humid, so not much fun being jammed in there with all those people. We waited about an hour before the event actually started. The entire time some man kept repeating the story of the fire dragon dance in Chinese then in English. I think I could have done both myself by the time it was all over. The sacrifices we make to experience culture!

After the drumming, people walk down the street with lanterns, first young girls dressed in traditional dresses carrying lotus flower lanterns, then adults with lanterns with Chinese writing on them. Then as you look up the street you can see lots of smoke. Finally the fire dragon comes down the street. It is very exciting.

The fire dragon is a long (67 meters) thick piece of jute (or similar material). There are men holding it up with large poles at about 5 foot intervals. In the dragon’s body they have placed thousands of sticks of incense. So the incense glows & smokes, giving it the fire effect. The men run with the dragon & move it up & down. It must be very heavy, as the men change holding the poles frequently. As the dragon moves down the street, he periodically stops & the dragon winds it’s body into a huge spiral with the head in the middle. When the spiral is complete the dragon’s head shoots off a huge load of confetti into the air with a big bang. Of course this gets the crowd cheering & shouting.

The head has huge red colored flashlights for eyes & they blink on & off. The tail seems like the most demanding place to be, they changed hands most frequently. I think the tail is supposed to move more than the rest of the dragon & those guys were holding up their end very well!!

The dragon danced around the streets for about 45 minutes going up & down every little side street. Some of the stores had heads of bok choy hanging above their doors for the dragon to eat. I think the brings luck to the establishment if the dragon stops at your store. Sophia & I realized that we didn’t have to fight the crowd for a spot along the front since the dragon was very accessible once the main “show” was over. One of the best things were the beer tables they had set up with 2 for 1 San Miguel beer (the local HK brew). Boy did that taste great after being pressed in with that crowd for so long!

The story of the Fire Dragon Dance:
The area where they have this event used to be a small farming village, called Tai Hang. In 1880 the village experience a python snake infestation that destroyed the crops. Then a plague broke out and many people became sick and died. The leader of the village had a dream that Buddha instructed him to have everyone in the village light fire crackers and perform the fire dragon dance for 3 days and nights during the mid-autumn festival. Sulphur from the firecrackers got rid of the snakes and the plague went away. So ever since then the town has continued the ritual. It has become a major event for the festival time.

They sold these little blow up dragon head with little lights that you put into the eyes that flash red. Lots of the kids had these & it added to the fun of the night. I can see why it is so popular, I think I’d go back, but I wouldn’t worry about fighting the crowd & I’d definitely find the beer table earlier.

Mid-autumn Festival - the true story!

2007-10-06T11:32:00.000-04:00

photo: huge dragon lantern with one of the mischievous brothers.

Mid-autumn festival

This is one of the main holidays in China. People celebrate for about a month before the actual day. This festival is to celebrate the full moon that occurs in the fall – we call it the harvest moon. At the office this holiday involves receiving lots of mooncakes and fruit baskets from companies we work with. I can’t even tell you how many tins of mooncakes we got (with at least 4 cakes per tin). I would guess at least 10. Then some companies sent non-traditional mooncakes that contained things like red bean paste & sesame paste with soft centers of fruit paste. My favorite was a mocha paste with chocolate center – it was too sweet for the other’s in the office. The outside of these has a soft rice paste shell. The Chinese staff prefer the traditional mooncakes (lotus flower paste with a semi-cooked duck egg yolk in the center). They sent me home with all the non-traditional cakes, which I shared with my classmates. This is also a holiday of lanterns so the city is decorated with lit up lanterns & lights on the buildings. On the actual day of the full moon people all go to places where the moon is easy to see, like beaches or parks & they carry lanterns to light the way. It is really very beautiful.

During this time you see many things with a beautiful woman, named Chang e, and a rabbit who is always with her on the moon. I’d been told before that she is the woman who lives in the moon with the white rabbit. I never got more of an explanation than that until my Mandarin teacher told us the story. There are also references to 10 brothers which I didn’t understand before either.

Way back in the very olden days China had 10 suns in the sky. These suns were all brothers and they went into the sky at different times, so that at any one time the people on earth only saw one sun. The parents of these brothers were named Chang e (the mother) and Hou Yi (the father). They were fairies who lived in the heavens with the Emperor of Heaven. One day the brothers got silly and they all went into the sky at once. This made the Emperor of Heaven very angry and he told the father to do something about his sons. So Hou Yi took a bow and arrow and killed 9 of the suns/sons.

The Emperor was furious with Hou Yi for killing the suns, so he decided to punish the couple. He made the couple regular people so they could not live in Heaven any more. The wife was a very selfish and vain woman and did not want to be a mortal. She did not want to get old and die. So Chang e went to the magic queen and got a potion that would make her stay young forever. The queen gave her enough for both she and her husband, but Chang e was so selfish that she took it all herself.

Chang e stays young and beautiful and does not like her old husband anymore. The husband is so lonely that the Emperor sends him to the moon to live with a white rabbit as company (I didn’t really get that part, it doesn’t make sense, but then it’s a fable). The husband eventually dies. The Emperor of Heaven makes Chang e go to the moon eventually, but her husband is already dead. So now she lives in the moon still with the white rabbit. Even though she is very beautiful, she was not a good person & was very selfish.

Someone told me that she can come back to earth to visit just once a year on the fall full moon. Someone else told me that is a different holiday.

The dragon lantern in the photo above is 80 meters long. The dragon is a symbol of good luck, ambition, peace and prosperity. The photo is just a small part of a gigantic dragon lantern with the 10 brothers surrounding it. Near the dragons mouth there is a shiny globe that I'm assuming represents the sun that was left in the sky. The brothers are renowned for thier supernatural powers (I guess that explains why the Emperor was so pissed off at the dad for killing them).

Walking home from class

2007-10-06T10:19:00.000-04:00

Oct 6, 2007
Home from the YWCA

I’ve been taking some classes at the YWCA. It is about 20 minutes from our apartment, so very convenient. I’ve taken a 4 week Mandarin class, it’s really hard. It was recommend by many people to take Mandarin instead of Cantonese (which they speak in HK) because Mandarin is easier & if you leave HK nobody speaks Cantonese & most people in HK know some Mandarin. Mandarin only has 4 tones (the same word with a different emphasis – like high to low, low to high, even, high-low-high). Cantonese has 8 intonations. To tell you the truth I can’t tell the difference which makes it pretty hard to learn it.

I’m also taking some cooking classes. I took a 3 session Yogic cooking class (no we did not cook while standing on our heads). It was pretty interesting as the teacher was very knowledgeable about the health benefits of different foods & spices. Of course the best part was that we got to eat everything she cooked!! It was really tasty. There was only one other woman who took all 3 classes with me, so it was very intimate and informal. The other student is from Japan, so she had lots of good things to offer as well.

This week I’m taking Basics of Chinese cooking and Thai Cooking. I also took an investing class that was informative. I don’t think it’ll make us millionaires, but it made things more understandable for me.

These classes are great ways to meet people, so instead of being bored with nothing to do, I now am almost too busy. Be careful what you wish for! It’s better than being bored & depressed.

What I really wanted to talk about was my walk home from the Y today. Next to the Y there is a large (by HK standards) grocery store. To be large & be in the building it’s in, it covers 2 floors. Soooo you wonder, how do you get the shopping cart from one floor to the next!!! A shopping cart escalator! .
I thought it was the greatest thing. Luckily I had my camera with me. They even have someone at the top to get the cart off for you, not that it is so difficult to do. I just thought this was so great
After the grocery store I walk through HK botanical & zoological garden. I get to see some amazing orchids and birds and monkeys. .The bird with the fancy feathered head makes the most unpleasant screeching sound. You would never guess it comes from such a beautiful creature The flamingos were being very noisy today also. There must be about 30 flamingos, so it was loud. There were also some cranes, but they were quiet.

After the aviary section you go through a tunnel under the road & come to the mammal section. There are many varieties of monkeys, some orangatanges (sp?), lemurs, turtles (I know they aren’t mammals, but they are there), and some other things. It makes for an entertaining walk home.

Oh yeah, another interesting item. This is a highly technological society here, so it always amazes me to see how inovative the street sweepers are here. There are lots of them & they do an amazing job of keeping this city very clean. Here is an example of what I mean. This is a dust pan make out of part of a large metal container. You see these all over. They brooms are all made from palm leaves.

China National Day

2007-10-06T10:16:00.000-04:00

Oct 1, 2007
China National Day 58

This is the day China celebrates becoming a nation. It’s a bit like the 4th of July without the picnics. The main thing about this day is that most people don’t work & there are good fireworks.

I went last year, it was my first experience with fireworks in Hong Kong & I’ve gone to every fireworks since at different locations. I have not been disappointed yet. This time I went by myself & didn’t worry about trying to go really early to get a good spot. Last year I went with a Cadmus friend, Ashley & we stood for probably 2 hours with little old Chinese ladies pushing us around. I just got there 30 minutes early this time & it was fine. No little old ladies near me, just families with little kids.

I love the fireworks themselves, but what I like more is the reaction of the crowd. The Chinese are very vocal and show their pleasure with loud gasps and oohs & ahhs. When the first set of explosives went off the entire crowd of 10s of thousand of people let out a collective gasp of pleasure. It just makes you feel like there is still some wonder in the world & simple pleasures (not that these fireworks are simple or cheap).

The show lasted about 25 minutes. There are 3 barges in the harbor where the display is set off from. There is music, but it’s hard to hear & not really necessary. The highlight for me and the crowd, as indicated by a very loud squeal of pleasure followed by clapping & cheering, was a huge starburst of of whitish/yellow that turned into little red lanterns that floated away over the water & lasted a very long time before they fell into the water. I’ve never seen anything like it. Of course there was the waterfall that looks & sounds like a waterfall. There were shaped fireworks: hearts, smiley faces, 2008 (for the Olympics, each number coming up in succession), 10 (for the tenth anniversary of HK being turned over to China). Other than that there wasn’t anything memorable, but just plain old wonderful, huge, over-the-top fireworks.

It was funny to listen to the sudden cry of young children that started as soon as the first firework exploded. Several parents had to take their little ones away. There was a little boy next to me who must have been about 1 year old. He was strapped to his mom’s chest looking out. He was the happiest kid I’ve see. He just watched in amazement & when everyone cheered, he squealed & clapped his hands.

It was a good evening!

Chinese Hot Pot - a very interesting meal

2007-10-04T19:46:00.000-04:00

Sept 27, 2007
Last night we went out with the office staff for what they call Hot Pot. It is sort of like fondue, but only as the Chinese can do it.

There were 10 of us so we had a big round table. There is a hot plate in the middle where the soup pot sits. Since there were so many people we got 2 soups. One was hot & sour, the other a meat broth of some kind (better not to ask). They couldn’t really explain to us what it was. Lots of things are like that here, you just have to go on blind faith or figure ignorance is bliss!

The first thing you do is put some condiments into your small bowl. This is the bowl that you will put your cooked food into after taking it out of the soup. There were about 16 choices of items. The ones I can remember are: peanut sauce, parsley, red chilies, green chilies, sesame seeds in vinegar, green onions, a bunch of different spices that I didn’t recognize.

I had been hiking all day, so I was very tired. I was not that happy that I’d have to cook my own food. Sometimes I feel like, if I’m spending all this money, I’d like them to cook the food, I don’t want to do all that work. But after a few beers I got feeling better.

Once we’d picked out condiments they started bringing dishes of raw food to the table. There were several kinds of veggies (tomato wedges, corn on the cob in small sections, mushrooms, lettuce, cabbage type greens, and other stuff I didn’t recognize). Then of course the meat & seafood, which included beef tongue, sliced beef, pork that was like spam, mutton, shrimp, scallops, shrimp paste, squid, fish balls with cheese inside, jellyfish, and other things that we didn’t recognize. There were about 4 kinds of dumplings also. Fortunately no chickens feet or ducks tongue. Each person had a little basket on a long stick that you put your food into, then placed it into the soup of your choice. You let it cook until you thought it was done or the Chinese folks told you it was time & then you dipped it in your bowl of condiments.

They did order one thing that was already cooked & it was delicious. There was one plate of shrimp bodies with potato wedges roasted with garlic & chili peppers. The other plate had the shrimp heads with potato wedges. Interestingly the Chinese preferred the heads to the bodies, which made the rest of us very happy. I did try a head & it was OK, but had a funky taste, not like shrimp.

As we cooked & ate the table began to clear off of the plates with the raw foods & I was feeling very satisfied when the waiter showed up with an entire now supply of everything. I think we were resupplied 2 more times. They tend to definitely overdo it with the amount of food they order. This happens every time we go out.

As the meal got towards the end, the locals asked John if he’d be interested trying pig brain. To there delight he said “sure, I’ll try that”. They were thrilled & took it another step. “John, how about fish lips?” John – “what the heck, how big can fish lips be”. Keep in mind I was only drinking beer, but everyone else was drinking sake, a favorite of the Cadmus HK office staff. The brains & lips arrived and we cooked them up & gave them a try. They didn’t really have much taste. The brains were like very soft tofu & the lips were chewy and tasteless, just like you’d imagine fish lips to be!! The staff was most impressed that we tried these items. The other Americans & the Thai who were with us, passed on these. I think John scored lots of “native” points with his willingness to try to local foods. Don’t worry, these items did not go to waste, the locals gobbled them up.

Pig Brains

Fish lips on right side of photo, shrimp heads on left
Fortunately we did not have to cook our own desserts. They brought a fruit tray and a sampler platter of cakes & puddings. These were just what every Westerner would want to see on a dessert plate, nothing strange to try.

Cantonese Opera

2007-09-18T02:40:00.000-04:00

Sept 16, 2007
John has been in Bangkok for this weekend, so although I miss him, it gives me an excuse to do some things he probably wouldn’t want to do. Tonight was one of those times. My friend, Sarah, and I like to experience the Chinese culture when at all possible. We’ve been wanting to go to the Cantonese Opera, that is apparently very popular here. We finally got around to doing it tonight.

I had Karen at John’s office help me figure out when the show was and how to get there. It turns out the theater is at the bus stop I get off at when I go to the bank for the company, which is about once a week. The ladies at the office got a huge laugh when they heard that I wanted to see the Cantonese Opera. They said “Be sure to bring your pillow & ear plugs.” They double checked to make sure I understood what I was going to see, by singing a few notes in a really high pitched annoying voice. I said, yes we realized that was how it sounded. They said we’d be the only westerners there and it would be all old people. I said I understood that too. They said it is really boring even for them & they can understand the language. I said I still wanted to go.

Sarah & I had both been to the Peking Opera in Beijing, so we knew what to expect. The Peking Opera does have cameras that tell you what is going on in English, so you have some idea. Peking Opera is also filled with Westerners.

When we arrived there was a huge sign up saying FULL HOUSE. We decided to give it a try anyway. There were a few seats left & we got center seats about half-way back. They were actually very good seats. We got lots of stares & giggles as we entered the theater. We were indeed the only Westerners there. The show started & people were still talking very loudly & milling around in the aisles. It was a good sized theater and I think the seat next to me was the only empty one.

As best we could figure there were several unrelated acts that make up the night’s show. The first one was 4 kids. They must have been around 8 to 10 years old. They were excellent & did some amazing acrobatics during their act. Off to a good start. The second act was very acrobatic also & not much high pitched female singing, so we enjoyed that one too. As the acts went on, they got less physical & more romantic/tragic & high pitched. We lasted 2 hours (it was a 3 hour show) before our heads couldn’t take any more of the music & singing. Don’t get me wrong, we did enjoy it & were glad we went, but also knew when enough was enough.

The costumes & makeup were amazing. They did a lot with the sleeves of the clothing. The sleeves were really long & they were always swinging them around, then they’d somehow push them up & get them all folded neatly so they could do the very intricate detailed finger movements. This is the culture of Tai Chi, so each little movement of the finger or tilt of the head is very important. Then the sleeves would come down again & get swung all around. It was very strange.

It was really funny to observe the people’s behavior during the show. People never stopped talking & they didn’t whisper, just spoke in regular voices. People were on cell phones & eating & drinking in the theater. People got up at any time during the performance to go to the rest room or outside for something. People were milling around the entire time. I think for them, this is more of a social event than cultural. Many people seemed to know each other & there were many large groups, especially of women. It was not all old people, there were many younger people, but I’d say nobody under 25.

Now I’ve had that cultural experience, so won’t need to do it again. I was not even tempted to get one of the many CD’s being sold out front!

John's birthday cake - a cultural experience

2007-09-16T10:45:00.000-04:00

John’s birthday was Sept 11 & the ladies at work asked me the week before to please come in the afternoon for tea. I offered to bring something, but they said No, they were planning something special, a surprise for John & for me.

Karen left at 4:30 to go pick up the cake, everyone at the office was very excited about it. When it arrived we gathered in the conference room & the box was presented to John. He opened it up & there was a huge peach shaped cake, but it was really a big bun. The big bun was surrounded by small buns all decorated to look peaches. Peaches are symbols of longevity so birthday cakes are frequently in the shape of a peach. We each too a little bun to eat. It is a steamed bun that doesn’t really have a lot of flavor. Inside the bun there was lotus flower paste, which has a delicate sweet flavor to it. And in the very middle there was something slightly salty. I thought it was peanut butter, but I was told that it was just a little bit of duck egg yolk. Sounds terrible, but it was actually pretty good.

If you recall my blog from last year at this time, these little buns are very much like the moon cakes that are all over the place this time of year. We are getting ready for the mid-autumn festival which celebrates the autumn full-moon. The moon cakes are really expensive (like $25 for 4 of them) & they consist of a pastry outside shell, lotus flower paste & a not all the way cooked duck egg yolk. Most westerners find them disgusting, the egg yolk part anyway.

On with the birthday cake. John got ready to cut the cake with a knife & the ladies said, “No, no, you must use 2 forks to cut the big peach!” So John tore the top of the peach open with the forks & inside there were like 15 more little peach buns. The ladies just giggled & cheered at the surprise. It was like the thing was an alien & it was multiplying. It was very strange! I guess this is one of the most popular birthday cakes in China & is very traditional. They said the old people really like these kinds of cakes. I think it had to be very expensive. It was a lot of fun.

OK, yes, it does look like a human “buns” and the ladies said that kids always get themselves into trouble with these bun cakes, because the squeeze the insides out & make it look like poop! I was thinking it, but refrained from doing it, so I was glad to hear that the Chinese are just as sick minded as we are!

John had a very nice birthday. He got calls from all over the world. And we had a new cultural experience as well.

Airbus - Monday morning Sept. 3

2007-09-02T20:29:00.001-04:00

I read in the paper yesterday that the new Airbus 380 aircraft would be in Hong Kong today & do a flyby over the harbor between 8:00 and 8:30am. I made a point of being in front of our window at that time, actually I was talking to my friend Elise on the computer. Just before 8:00am I noticed several helicopters just hovering at different points along the harbor. At 8:05am I heard a low roar & saw the A380 come around the side of the harbor. It was just above eye level and was pretty huge. It looked like it was sort of floating. It did 2 flybys. I was not smart enough to have the camera set up to snap a shot. It probably would not have made that good a photo, but it sure was fun to see. Good way to start out the week!

Back in Hong Kong

2007-09-02T01:15:00.000-04:00

Only in Hong Kong

I’ve been back in HK for 2 weeks and have made some observations. I feel like these things would only happen here, or maybe just in Asia. It’s kind of a random set of notes on amusing, frustrating, and interesting stuff that I’ve observed.

The V sign when posing for a photo:
Anyone who has seen my photos has seen the use of the V with the fingers (victory or peace sign) when having you photo taken. Everyone here does it, from the old folks to infants. Several of you have asked, “Why do they do that?” So I asked the ladies at work & they explained it. You all know Jackie Chan & if you don’t he is a movie star from Hong Kong who has made it big in Hollywood. He is extremely popular here, a local hero. Back in the early 80’s, when Jackie was just getting popular in Hollywood, he would do the Victory sign whenever he has is photo taken. So everyone in HK started doing it & it has just remained something that everyone here does. Since I like Jackie, I’m going to keep doing it. So there Chip West!

Old Man with funny socks:
Today on the bus I noticed the old man. He was very Chinese looking with the long narrow gray beard, going to the middle of his chest. He had the traditional charm hanging from his belt (everyone here as charms that they attach to themselves or their cell phones or handbags & usually all of the above. They are often jade, but sometimes it is just Hello Kitty, it doesn’t seem to matter, what matters is that you have something dangling from where ever you can). So his charm was very large and traditional Chinese. It was a large jade circle with a hole in the middle (symbolizes money & good fortune). It also had what looked like his Chinese zodiac on it (the year you’re born is always associated with an animal & these animals are very popular charms). There was some colored string in special Chinese knots. I thought “What a traditional looking guy he is”. Then I looked at his feet & he was wearing a pair of Tweedy Bird socks. Being a sock person, I loved them, but the sure didn’t match the rest of his outfit. I almost laughed out loud!

New $10 Bill:
The $10 bill in HK is the smallest denomination of bills. I was given one the other day that had a clear window in it. I was curious & took a closer look and the bill is plastic! I guess that way they don’t tear & are harder to copy (this is China, someone will find a way, they copy everything). I guess you have to be careful not to get them wet or they stick together. I just thought it was very ingenious & maybe other countries are doing this too, but I had not see one before.

Designer Wheel Chair:
I thought it was so funny the other day in the MTR (subway) station there was a wheel chair where the cloth part of it (seat & arm rest) was the Burberry plaid & the metal part was made to look like teak wood grain. They do love their designer items.

Food Frustration:
I made an apple pie for Karen’s birthday last week (she works at John’s office) & she requested vanilla ice cream to go with it. That sounds easy enough! HA! I started looking for vanilla ice cream the day before & went to 3 different stores & no vanilla. There is adzuki bean, green bean, red bean, mango, green tea BUT NO VANILLA. OK, I thought maybe it’s just this area or something. Since I didn’t want the stuff to melt on the 35-minute journey to the office, I found a store near the office, only one MTR stop away. I went to the Park N Shop for the vanilla ice cream. The only thing I could find that had vanilla in it was a combo (like we have strawberry, vanilla & chocolate) that included ume (don’t ask me what that even is), vanilla and black sesame. I went with Hagen Daz macadamia nut instead!

This week I made Sophia (from the office also) a Bailey’s Irish Cream cheesecake (her request). It was just the simple, no bake kind; so don’t be too impressed with my cooking skills. Now that I know where to find graham cracker crust I figured I was golden. I thought it would be yummy to put some crumbled Heath bar or Skol bar (toffee) on top. I went to 4 different stores; all the Western ones I knew of & none of them had any kind of toffee bars at all. With all the Brits that live here I would have thought I could find a toffee bar. Oh well, the pie was fine without it.

Excellent Movie:
If you liked the movie “The Departed” (it won the Oscar for best movie last year), you should see if you can get the Hong Kong version that The Departed was based on. The name of it is “Infernal Affairs”. The Departed followed it pretty closely, but the ending in the HK version was better. If you’ve seen my photos, you will recognize the opening scene, which is at the 10,000 Buddha Temple. There is quite a collection of HK movies, so I think I’m going start checking them out. It’s fun to see familiar places on screen.

Steps & more steps:
It is Sunday & I went for a hike today. John left for India last night, so I didn’t have anything better to do. It felt slightly cooler, which means it was maybe only 99.9% humidity. I walked to the Peak on the Morning Trail. I’ve done this before & it is a 1700meter uphill hike. Worked up a good sweat. Since I was in no hurry to get home, I decided to take a different route home. I knew this trail would end up by a reservoir & then a main road so I could take the bus back. I thought this might be a path I might want to try again going uphill, so I decided just for the fun of it to count the steps. I will NOT be taking this path uphill – there were 796 steps! I sure was glad to being doing it downhill!!!

About Bangladesh:
This is just a funny story that John heard from an American customer who does business all over the world. He asked John & his colleague, James, if they’d ever been to Bangladesh. They said no, but James said he’d been to Calcutta & thought that was pretty rough. This guy said Calcutta is nothing compared to Bangladesh. He said they have an office building in Bangladesh & they received a letter from the country’s Minister of Aviation. The letter said that due to the problem the tall buildings are causing with the air traffic, it would be necessary for them to take the top 4 floors off of their building. He said they managed to find an alternative solution, but I guess several building owners were asked the same thing. He said the government there is pretty clueless.

Soul

2007-08-16T21:34:00.001-04:00

Aug 16, 2007

Soul

In my previous blog entry about our anniversary I made a comment about a conversation with my dad & how he said he didn’t believe he had a soul. He was sort of upset that I’d said that, because he thought it made him sound like a bad person. If you know my dad at all, you know he is about the nicest, most non-judgmental and loving person in the world. But he did make the comment and it was maybe a good thing that I commented on it because it stimulated a good deal of conversation about souls, spirituality, death. They were good conversations and it was interesting to discuss our beliefs and feelings.

It turns out that my dad didn’t have the same definition of a soul as I did. He said if your soul is about love and caring and spirit, then he believes he does have that. He just meant that he didn’t think he’d be haunting us like a ghost after he dies. He is very scientific, so for him the body will be gone, so he feels that he will be gone. I shared with him my belief that our soul or spirit remains in the people we’ve loved and those who have cared about us & loved us. He did agree with that.

In conclusion, my dad believes he does have a soul, by my definition, but that he will not be spooking around the place after he’s gone. I know better, my parents will never be able to leave us alone, they will be here & everywhere we are long after they are gone from this earth. I’m glad for this connection, it is what makes us who we are.

I’m going to be leaving tomorrow morning to head back to Hong Kong. It’s been a wonderful several weeks spent with my parents, family and friends. Hope I’ve left some of my soul with all of you that I’ve seen this summer and know you will be with me. For those I didn’t get to see, I’m still with you in spirit & soul.

Our Anniversary

2007-07-31T22:44:00.000-04:00

Here I sit at Laguardia Airport on my way back from NC to NY, just another delayed traveler. I have not spoken to one person in the US this summer who has not been delayed. Although we don’t necessarily look forward to airport delays, it does give us some down time away from distractions & chores, time to reflect if we so choose.

Today is July 30, 2007 – 30 years ago on this day, John & I had a pretty fun & it would seem successful wedding day. If any of you were there, you probably remember it. Seems to be one of those occasions that people still talk about. Of course Sunnywood weddings tend to be that way. Is it the location, the relaxed atmosphere or just the wonderful loving people present that make these occasions so special?

As I think back on the years & that day I realize that the location, Sunnywood (where John & I first met as kids & then met again as young adults); that atmosphere, laid back & filled with love; and those supportive people, Rileys, Hubbells, and terrific friends have all contributed to our successful relationship. Seems strange to be sitting in an airport on such a special day, far from those I love. But, what I’ve learned over the years is that true love and successful relationships can weather the test of time and distance. I’m in New York City, John is in Hong Kong, our family & friends are spread across the world, but I don’t feel lonely or depressed. Instead I feel fortunate and blessed to know I have that support & love spread out so far & going so deep.

My father told me recently that he didn’t believe we have souls & that when he died he would just be gone. As I think about Sunnywood & all those people out there that I love and care so deeply for, it is impossible for me to believe that we don’t have souls. I know we do because I can feel those souls in me and around me all of the time. I have such gratitude for the support & love of all of these souls, especially John’s.

Happy Anniversary to us & thanks to all of you for making it possible !!!

10,000 Buddha Temple

2007-06-21T04:25:00.000-04:00

June 20, 2007
Happy Birthday Dad!!

Today I finally made it to the 10,000 Buddha Temple. It is out in the New Territories, but not too far out, just two stops past the MTR station on the KCR (Kowloon Canton Railway). The directions are not marked very well, but I always carry my trusted map book with me, so I knew what direction to head. It was just a short walk past an Ikea store (they haunt me) & some business buildings to a narrow path heading up the hillside.

Not far along one came upon life-sized gold painted Buddha’s lining both sides of the path. Each Buddha was completely different and very interesting. I started to take pictures, then realized that if there are 10,000 (actually the book says there are more like 13,000 now) I might want to hold off on the photos until I got to the top. There were a few along the way that I couldn’t resist. The very Happy Laughing Buddha & the surprised Buddha where 2 of my early favorites.

There are supposed to be over 400 steps up to the main temple, but it didn’t seem like that many. They were low & easy steps & it wasn’t that steep. As you got closer to the temple some of the Buddhas were painted other colors besides gold. Some had animals accompanying them. At the temple there were Buddhas surrounding a courtyard – one had an arm that looked to be about 7 feet long. Another had white eyebrows just about as long. I like Buddhism, they seem to have a lot of fun with Buddha. I think Buddha must have been a fun guy to hang out with.

The temple was nothing really special, except for all the tiny Buddha lining the inside walls. The building was painted a bright pink. There was also a 9 tier pagoda in the courtyard. There was a higher temple that was closed for renovation, but on the way up to it there was a Buddha with little arms coming out of his eye sockets. That one kind of freaked me out! Take a look at the photos, they are better than me trying to describe them.

It only took me about an hour from leaving the train station to returning to it. Although the climb was not that strenuous, I sure did work up a sweat. I’ve taken to the HK custom of carrying an umbrella to create some shade for myself. Also have learned to always carry a cloth with me to wipe the sweat. I guess these are tropical tricks they use to help survive the heat. By the time I got to the train my shirt & pants were almost completely soaked with sweat. I guess the local folks don’t sweat as much, because they all looked fine & were giving me some strange looks. Oh well, I refuse to just stay inside.

I had to stop by the office to drop something off. While I was there they had me try the rice roll that the cleaning lady had made for them. I guess this is a special rice roll that is to be eaten on the holiday that occurred the day before. It was wrapped in green lotus leaves & had to be steamed. I split it with Karen & was glad I did. It wasn’t very good. It had some strange mushrooms in it & some really dry beans, pork & egg yolk. I made believe I ate it all up, but actually threw most of it away. Just some strange tastes that I guess I’m not used to. If you can believe this, lately I’ve been craving a fish sandwich from McDonald’s. I NEVER eat at McDonald’s, but for some reason I just want some horrible, but familiar Western food. Guess I’m ready for a trip State-side.

10,000 Buddha blessings to all of you!!

June 17, 18, 19 2007

2007-06-19T11:25:00.000-04:00

I’ve decided that I need to get back into touring HK. If you can believe it there are still things I haven’t seen yet. So the blogging will continue!

Sunday June 17 – Father’s Day
Believe it or not we spent most of the day at the newest mall in HK. Don’t really believe this city needs another mall, but now we have “mega box”. It is 17 floors of shopping! I’m sure some of you are thinking that we must be nuts to want to spend Father’s Day at a mall, we must have really gotten bitten by the HK bug & are becoming locals. WELL, not that fast, we have not changed that much. Does it make more sense if I tell you that this mall has the only regulation size ice hockey rink in HK? Now you know why we fought the crowds to be there. Sunday happened to be the final day of a week-long international ice hockey tournament & we wanted to check it out. We only saw the adults play & it was men’s level hockey, nothing special, but it felt good to be watching real hockey again. Otherwise the mall was good as malls go. The ladies at the office are very excited because there is a store there that has a large arts & crafts section, like you might find in the US. This is a first for HK, so very exciting!

Monday June 18 – Heritage Museum
My intent was to go to the 10,000 Buddha Temple which my guide book said was at the same train stop as the HK Heritage Museum. The guide book said to get out at the north exit & follow the signs. I didn’t see any signs for the temple, but saw them for the museum. So I went to the museum. The area was nice, along a river with mountains all around. Still lots of buildings, but more suburbia (well HK suburbia).

The museum was worth the visit. They had a special exhibit of relics found in 2 grave sites in Central China from the ancient Shu civilization. I’d never heard of this, but the artifacts were pretty impressive. Huge bronze heads & gold masks. Seems to have been a very sophisticated civilization & it seems to have just disappeared. The calculate it was 3000 years ago. There was also a photography & camera exhibit that I’d like to take John back to. All black & white photos from all over China, but many from HK. Also a Cantonese Opera exhibit – I didn’t find that so interesting. It was lots of costumes & posters. A Chinese art section that was interesting. Finally there is a HK history section. This was interesting, but I think I was too tired from having seen the rest of the exhibits to really appreciate it.

The most interesting thing was a film about the Chinese holidays. It explained what they do for different holidays in the area. For the Bun Festival the build huge (60 feet high) towers & cover them with buns (yes the kind you eat) & some guys race to climb the towers & throw the buns down to the people. The higher up the bun is that you get the more luck you will have in the coming year. There was another festival where people through old chicken feathers from their window. A specially chosen teenage boy from the town has to go around collecting the feathers & puts them in a paper boat which is then burned, to signify cleaning out of the old & bringing luck. There were several others & mostly they have to do with burning big paper effigies of bad gods for good luck. I guess when you have a culture that has been around as long as China’s has, there has been lots of time to develop many interesting traditions. I think it is great that they are so good about keeping the traditions alive.

The best part about the visit to the museum was the gift shop. I was just looking around & I was shocked to see that in the display of little animals that stand on pedestals & you push the bottom & the wiggle & droop – there was a hockey player. I couldn’t believe it, no other sports represented, just animals & a hockey player. Of course I was tempted to buy it, but thought, no that’s silly. Then I picked it up & looked at the back & it was #21! For anyone who knows us well, 21 has been Brooks’ number since he first started playing hockey!! Well, I figured it had to be there just for me – karma! So of course I bought it & he stands by my computer to remind me of my little hockey players.

June 19 Tuen Ng Festival
Dragon Boat Races in Stanley

Yet another holiday in HK! I think John said the staff gets 18 public holidays. It’s no wonder they have to work on Saturdays!

This festival commemorates Qu Yuan, a 3rd-century poet-statesman who drowned himself to protest against corrupt rulers. The people loved him so they throw flowers & other things into the water so the fist will not eat him & he will be protected. I guess the dragon boat races began because the churning of the water from the paddles also distracts the fish so they will not eat Qu Yuan. Most people say, its just an excuse for a holiday!

I got on the bus around 9:30 & got on at the initial stop as I thought it might be crowded. I was right. The bus was packed, but I managed to get a seat. I was glad to see that most of the people on the bus got of at the beaches we stopped at before reaching Stanley. This was a holiday for the Philippino maids & most of the people on the bus I realized were maids. They had bags full of food for bbq on the beach. They do have a good time their days off.

On my way to the beach I encountered as the US Consulate team. I had to take a photo & one of the women asked me about my camera (I had John’s nice Nikon). Of course we struck up a conversation. I ended up getting her card, so now I have an in at the Consulate. Also funny that she is from Greenville, SC; so we are almost neighbors. She’s an information management specialist, so I’m not sure she’ll be able to help me with any favors, but she seemed really nice.

Once down on the beach, it was the usual happy, festive, crazy, disorganized crowd of people that are at all HK festivities. There was the usual horde of men with huge cameras pushing & shoving to get their shots. There were dragon boat teams in colorful shirts all over the beach along with the spectators just enjoying the show. The beach was very narrow, so most people were up to their thighs in the water, which was pretty filthy. I was relieved that I got through without getting the camera wet or dropping the lens cap into the water!

I have the feeling that not many of the teams take winning that seriously. I think it is more a chance to have a day off & hang out & enjoy the festivities. Having fun seemed to way over shadow winning! Many of the teams were dressed up in special costumes for the occasion. The Nordic Paddlers wore baby blue caps with silver horns protruding from them. An Asian team was dressed in baby clothes with pacifiers & caps. The women were in pink & the men in blue. The HK police team all had black & white striped shirts & their drummer was a very sexy woman dressed in a very short & revealing police outfit. Another group had a drummer dressed like a Nordic goddess all in gold with huge conical breasts & blonde braids. The US team had an Uncle Sam look alike & another guy with a woman’s blonde wig & lots of tattoos. Another group of men were dressed in black tank tops with gold wings on their backs & wearing bee antennae that were covered with gold sparkles. There was a group of men that had pink feather wings & little halos.

So you can see that for many it was more about the costumes & fun than about the actual race. The boats are long narrow wooden boats, which are supplied by the sponsors of the event, so the just keep recycling the same boats for every race. There are enough boats so that one race it going on while the next group is getting ready. The bow of the boat has a dragon on it & a large drum. There is a drummer in the bow, 18 paddlers & a helmsman in the stern. Each race had 8 boats & they seemed to run about every 15 minutes. They started at 8:00am & the final was at 6:30pm. So you can see, there were lots of people there. Although it was fun, it was also scorching hot. I only stayed about an hour & then had to leave to get out of the sun.

Maybe next year I’ll figure out a way to get onto a team. I think that is where the real fun is.

So Happy Tuen Ng Day everyone!!!

Making Cheesecake in China

2007-06-14T07:45:00.000-04:00

Cheesecake
June 14, 2007

The short version (I’m trying to be more brief):
Making cheesecake seems like a simple enough task. I took on this task for someone’s birthday at the office. Found a recipe that didn’t involve using my oven, which I still have not figured out even with a thermometer. All the ingredients were easy enough to find, EXCEPT the graham crackers for the crust. Went to 6 stores and never did find graham crackers, but City Super had the Keeblers ready made crust – EUREKA!

It didn’t occur to me that cream cheese doesn’t get smooth & creamy if you mix it by hand. Back to City Super to get an electric mixer (only stopped at one other store first). Now the cheesecake is completed & it only took me 2 days to make it. So next time you see a shelf full of graham crackers, please think of me!!

The long version (for those who have nothing better to do):
So, it’s been a while since I’ve written in my blog. We’ve had visitors, so there wasn’t time while they were here. Then I thought about doing the daily blog thing about what I did with the visitors and it just seemed too overwhelming, for me & for the readers. I’ve felt a bit lost since the boys left last week, guess I just need to get back into my daily routine. There is more exploring to do of HK, but it is so bloody hot outside that I think I’ll have to put it off until the fall. The indoor options include the few museums and of course there are the ubiquitous malls. A new one just opened with an Olympic sized ice rink. There happens to be an international hockey tournament there this week, so we just might join the hordes & hit the new mall, for hockey, NOT shopping!

I was mentioning to Jen Pribble that I didn’t really think I had anything interesting to write about if I wasn’t out exploring new places. She said her friend just writes about her everyday life & sometimes it can be rather funny & entertaining. This week I thought about that, so I’m going to tell you about my cheesecake experience. A seemingly simple process made difficult in a foreign country.

Anyone who knows me will not be surprised to know that I am the Mom at the office. When someone has a birthday, I take a request & make a cake or pie. Seems everyone so far has wanted pies, because you can’t get them here. I finally found a place to buy pre-made piecrust (I’m just not very good at making it & I HATE rolling it out), City Super. This is one of the stores that carries lots of western items, but it means a trek down the “hill” to get to it. Last week was Ruby’s birthday. Ruby does not like anything sweet, so she is a challenge. She finally admitted that she does like cheesecake, so I thought that would be a fairly simple request. She was away for her actual birthday, so I said I’d bring in the cake on Friday (tomorrow).

My wonderful sister sent me a recipe that does not involve baking. This is great, because I still have not figured out my oven. It either takes hours to cook something that should take 30 minutes or it overcooks things that I put in for a shorter than called for time. I have a thermometer in there, but it still doesn’t cooperate. My sister says maybe it’s the altitude since we are on the 31st floor – right!

The cheesecake recipe has very few ingredients: graham crackers, butter, cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk & lemon. SIMPLE I thought. I found everything except the graham crackers at our local store, I was very excited. I know the crust can be out of any cookie, but the choices here are not great & Ruby doesn’t like chocolate or anything very sweet. I went to 6 different stores yesterday looking for graham crackers. They are so commonplace in the US, but nobody here even knew what I was talking about. I felt like when we moved to NC & I asked for Fluff at the store & they didn’t have a clue what I was talking about, but at least they spoke English, well sort of.

Finally, at the 6th place, City Super (why didn’t I just go there first?), I found pre-made graham cracker crust, no boxes of graham crackers, but this would be fine. Interestingly, they had about 4 different varieties of crusts made by Keebler. Those cleaver little elves! This is also the first place I’ve seen brownie mix other than Betty Crocker (which we think is too cakey). And the brand they had, Ghirardelli!! I’m excited (this is a Father’s Day treat, not regular fare). It’s interesting the things you get excited about when away from home.

With crust in hand I felt like I was all ready to complete my task & have cheesecake in the office on Friday as promised. So today, Thursday I made the cake. The only cream cheese you can get here is the regular, so it is not as soft & creamy as the Neufchatel that I’ve used in the past. I let it sit out so it would soften. I even used fresh lemon juice. I mixed everything together with a spoon & realized that cream cheese mixed by hand doesn’t get smooth & creamy. Lumps are OK with mashed potatoes, but not cheesecake.

We don’t have a lot of storage space, I don’t do too much cooking, and we won’t be here that long so we had avoided getting many electrical appliances that we won’t be able to take home (different plugs). I decided it was time to break down & get a mixer. Checked the closest place I knew that had kitchen items, Japan Home Store, but alas, no mixers. I figured I might as well go right to City Super. This involved walking down the hill to the mall, but I managed to find a time today when it wasn’t raining & made the venture back to City Super. I am happy to say that I found the mixer. They even had a manual one, but it was tiny & the electric one was not much more expensive. AND best of all, I didn’t have to go to Ikea, that would have been my next attempt!!

So the cheesecake is now well mixed & hopefully nice & smooth and creamy. I’ll take it in tomorrow & hopefully it will be good (they won’t tell me otherwise). I got some mango, kiwi & strawberries to put on top. We get the best mangos here & I’ve become a mango addict. If you’ve never had mango & sticky rice, go to a Thai restaurant & get some, it is wonderful!!

I guess you can make a story out of simple daily experiences, especially when you live in China. It might not come across as amusing as I thought it all was at the time. Just funny how something that seems like it will be so simple can consume so much time & energy. Another example, today after completing the pie I went to the local Italian deli (about a 10 minute walk) to get some hummus (the only place in the neighborhood that I’ve found it & it is very good) and they were sold out. I know, why didn’t I get some when I was at City Super today – I’m asking myself that same question! That was a wasted 20 minute walk, except for the exercise.

Not a good day to move

2007-04-03T02:40:00.001-04:00

April 2 – Today was very gloomy and oppressive. Looks like rain, but then it often does and we never get any. I went to the corporate apartment to get the bulk of the items that need to be moved out. There was lots of kitchen items (pots, pans, glasses, dishes) along with linens, pillows, quilts, and assorted other items. I had about 10 boxes & bags to move. I loaded it all onto the elevator & down to the front of the building and wouldn’t you know it, that is when the skies opened up. I still hailed a taxi and got soaked loading the stuff into it. I used my new language skills in telling the driver our address. Karen at the office taught me how to say 80 Robinson Road (you say the road name first, law-bean-sun dough; then the number, bath sap ho). I was pretty pleased as the driver understood perfectly.

It was just down the road, so still raining hard. I emptied everything out & made it up to our apartment in only 4 trips. Then came the unpleasant task of finding room for all this stuff in our apartment. I have a very well stocked kitchen now, can have a dinner party for 14, have 6 wine glasses, and enough linens to open a small hotel. Fortunately some of the stuff is not opened, so I might try returning it to Ikea, if I think I can stand the pain of entering Ikea again. Maybe it will make for a good blog entry.

Later in the afternoon I was treated to an amazing show from my front window. We had a terrific lightning storm and I had a front row seat. I love lightning storms and it reminded me of being at the lake (Champlain that is), although this looks nothing like looking over the lake at Vermont. We do have water and mountains on the other side, so I guess a loose similarity.

Clearwater Bay

2007-04-03T02:29:00.001-04:00

April 1 – No April fool’s day here. I completely forgot about it. I think John already had his in India!

Had the usual Sunday omelet and actually watched the Big Chill on HBO. Never can see some movies too many times. We decided we wanted to hit the sea coast again, so figured out how to get to Clearwater Bay. This is in the New Territories on the east side of the peninsula. It is south of Sai Kung where we went a few weeks ago. We read that there is supposed to be some good beaches, a country park and seafood (of course).

We hoped the MTR and while waiting at the station noticed a public travel notice showing different sites in HK accessible on the MTR. We saw one that looked like a nice little fishing village so decided to try going there. We arrived at the designated station & saw a map that showed which way to the water. Upon exiting the station there were most high rises around and no fishing village in sight. We walked in the direction we thought there might be water. We got lots of looks as I don’t think this is a big tourist area. We finally stopped a young man and asked if there was a waterfront nearby. He laughed & said no and asked if we’d gotten off at the wrong stop. He said most of the tourists like places like Mong Kok or Tsim Sha Tsui, were we lost? We explained that we lived in HK & were just out exploring. He understood and said there was nothing to see here & said we were better off trying to get to Clearwater Bay as originally planned.

We got back on the MTR & went a few more stops. We exited into a very busy area. The bus station as on the other side of the every present mall. I think they must have a mall for every 10 blocks in this city, and all of them are packed (well on Sundays anyway). We located the bus station and began the grueling search for the right bus. I have not figured out an easy way to know what bus to take, unless it is listed in my book, and this was not. We started by checking out the large buses. You have to go to each stop & read down the lists of stops to see if the one you want is on there. I finally noticed an office & went & asked for assistance. What I could gather from the broken English was that we wanted bus 91M, but then some other bus to get to our destination. I couldn’t make out if we had to change or what. Too confusing.

We were about to hop a taxi when we noticed the mini-bus area. One of the first ones said Clearwater Bay. This looked promising. The driver was sound asleep, but as we stood there a few other people came along & qued up with us. They guy woke up & we boarded the bus. First time for John on a mini-bus. They are lots faster than the big buses especially going up hills. They also only hold 16 people & don’t have regular stops. They only stop if someone on the bus says stop or if there is someone waving them down on the street. They will stop anywhere which is nice. But if you don’t know where you are going, it can be difficult. If you are going to the end, then you are in luck as they will make you get off at the end. So we just had to relax & enjoy the ride.

The view once we got over the mountain was great. Lots of little islands and it was a very clear day. We passed the country park and the beach. There were lots of people out hiking in this area. When we got to the end of the line, we were in a little bay surrounded by hills with houses (more like shacks) lining the water. There were also several houses (shacks) on top of large blue barrels floating in the harbor. There seemed to also be some fish farming going on here as it looked like nets all around the harbor as well as small boats. We walked down to the little town (really just about 30 shacks). There was the every present little temple in the middle of the homes. A narrow path meandered between the homes. People sat out on chairs enjoying the fresh air or were in their living rooms, most of which were open to the outside, playing mon jong (a game with tiles). Kids were playing in the little square outside the temple. It had a very small town community feel to it. There were lots of Sunday visitors coming for a seafood dinner. A few people had dried fish stalls outside of their homes. They all smiled at us & waved. One man made a big point of saying “Hello! How are you?” He sounded very proud of the fact that he could speak English and recognized that we would understand him.

At the end of the village there were 2 piers jutting out into the bay. Both had restaurants on them and there was another restaurant on the seawall between the piers. We chose the place the jutted out the furthest as the breeze was refreshing and invigorating. Actually the breeze became a probably for the staff as things were blowing off tables and they had great difficulty getting new table clothes onto the tables. The table clothes were large plastic sheets. When the cleared the table, the just scrapped everything off the plates & onto the table cloth. Took the plates & dishes away, then wrapped the junk in the table cloth & threw it away. Pretty good system for a seafood place. Obviously these were not high class fancy restaurants. Just the basics & you picked out your fish in the tank before sitting down.

We chose shrimp and grouper. The shrimp came still in the shell & deep fried with garlic. They were delicious. The grouper was steamed whole (that’s how the do it) with soy sauce & garlic. We also got spinach and rice. Everything was delicious, but as we realized later a bit too much garlic. This was the same thing when we ate at Sai Kung, lots of garlic. We watched the boats come & go. There 2 large groups of patrons who left in what must have been rented cruise boats. There was a fishing boat at the end of the pier that was selling bags of shell fish to people. We went to take a look before leaving & they were cleaning sea urchins. This is a spiny creature & the inside is a bright yellow. It is fairly popular around here, but we don’t care for it. It is mushy and has a strange taste.

We got the bus back to the MTR. On the way I realized that the bus drivers had been telling me to take bus 91M then change to bus 91. I think the mini-bus was much easier.

Dinner, a movie & reflections on India

2007-04-03T01:44:00.001-04:00

March 31 – John had another interesting trip to India. The company is trying to be more cost conscious, so he was booked in a less expensive hotel. In Delhi he has learned that you either pay well over $200/night to be in a decent hotel or you pay less and get, well, here is a sample. I wish John would contribute to this because to hear him tell it, is so funny. I have to say the guy has a great attitude. Nobody else from the company will set foot in India, but John goes about every 6 weeks to support his people there. They obviously adore him for this, as they know nobody else will come. The head of the India office, Alok, looks at John as a father figure. When the head salesman met Alok a few weeks ago (they had Alok meet them in Thailand as they would not go to India), he later told John that he must be brainwashing the guy. All Alok could talk about was how wonderful Meester John was. And it was Meester John this & Meester John that.

I transgressed there, sorry. So John called me after his first night in Delhi to say the air conditioning in the first room did not work. That is not good in Delhi as the humidity is very high. So they moved him. In the second room the front door to the room would not close all the way. That might be OK in Hong Kong, but not in Delhi. So they moved him again. The 3rd room seemed fine, until he went into the bathroom. He said he guessed they didn’t advertise that rooms came with their own pets. There was a 12inch lizard crawling in the bathtub area. Not wanting to take any more chances, he kept the bathroom door closed & put a towel at the bottom. INCREDIBLE INDIA!! A country of extremes with very little in the middle.

The next day he moved to a better hotel. I told him if the company complained about having to spend more money on the better hotel, he should send them a lizard head in the mail. He said nobody complained.

He did get to take a trip about 3 hours north of Delhi to see a printer. He said the area was near the mountains and very pleasant. They had lunch at a huge hotel that used to be the residence of the local governor, but now owned by a private family. He said the meal was great, but they were the only ones in the restaurant. Again he commented on the extremes in India. They rode in the fist class train car which was very plush. The only other choice was the regular class, which was just like you see in the movies. People hanging out the windows, hard wooden benches, no glass on the windows. It is a country of the haves & have nots and it doesn’t seem to really bother anyone, that is how it is supposed to be.

Indian food is not John’s favorite so he was craving a good steak. We had dinner at Dan Ryan’s Chicago Grill. They have good salads & steaks. John was very happy. We followed with a movie. This is a new theater and is it fancy. I felt like I was in a huge house of mirrors. All the walls were mirrored & the halls curved and wound around so that you felt lost & confused. I’m glad we were not in a hurry. We saw the movie “300”. Good big screen movie, but tons of blood, tons. BUT the nearly naked, well sculpted men throughout the movie, made the blood more than tolerable, for me anyway. It was a good story about ancient Greece’s fight for freedom from Persia. Lots of action as you can well imagine.

Ovens, washers, toilets

2007-04-03T01:22:00.000-04:00

March 30 – Spent the morning finishing up travel plans & cleaning. John arrived home around 2pm. Nice to see him. If you recall we were having a leaking toilet problem. It was actually overflowing from the tank. They maintenance guy, Jerry, had to come back several times & change a few things, but today he is sure he found and fixed the problem. Sometimes renting is a good thing.

The weather has gotten hotter and the humidity way up. Now I remember why I didn’t get into the habit of doing much cooking when I first got here. The kitchen in not air conditioned so it is stifling in there. The stove has not gotten any better, it just frustrates me. It takes it about 30 minutes to heat up to 350 (I bought an oven thermometer when I was home this winter because doing the conversion just doesn’t work). If I crank it all the way up, the highest temp I can get is close to 400. That does it for most things, it is just the heating up time that is upsetting. Then the kitchen is really hot for a very long time. Just not worth it. John wanted to cook something the other night, so I said just turn on the oven to get it warmed up. He looked at me with his puppy dog eyes & I realized that he still has not learned how to work the oven. It is all pictures (not necessarily obvious ones) & lots of choices, so rather confusing. I remembered that it took me about a month to figure it out & start using it. The microwave, forget it!!

This made me recall how much trouble I had with the washer when I first got here. I couldn’t figure out why our underwear was getting destroyed and everything was running. You have to set the temperature when you do the wash. I finally figured out that I’d been doing the laundry at temp of 90. This didn’t seem to bad, at home I generally did everything on warm. But this isn’t Fahrenheit, and 90 is almost boiling. No wonder I was destroying our clothing. John finally figured out the washer while I was away in the states this winter, but I had to send him detailed instructions. A load (about 1/3 load according to what I’m used to) still take almost 4 hours, but I’ve learned to put it on before bed. Still most stuff doesn’t come out dry.

So, be glad for good old American technology when it comes to the kitchen & laundry. AND always remember what to take note of which temperature scale you are using. We have some lovely gray & blue underwear to remind me of my stupidity. At least I didn’t have any red cloths that I washed back then!!

Heifer, the office

2007-04-02T07:19:00.001-04:00

March 29 – Not a very exciting day today. I went to the corporate apartment with our largest rolling suitcase & filled it up with stuff that we need to move before the lease runs out in 2 weeks. I figure it’ll take a few trips with the suitcase, but it is a good walk & nothing is that heavy. I got some stares walking down the street with the suitcase in tow & several taxi drivers slowed down hoping I would hail them. But I made it just fine.

I went into the office to talk to Karen about the hotels for the salesman. We settled on the one that is run by the Salvation Army as the other knew of it & said it had a reputation of being clean & safe. It also is close to the MTR & not that far from the office. So that was done.

I had lunch with the ladies at work, the always order from the Chinese place down the block. I got soup & veggies. I was drinking my soup when Sophia said “stop stop, are you drinking the soup?” I said “yes”. Sophia explained that it was OK to eat the meat & noodles & veggies & tofu in the soup, but not to drink too much of the broth. She said it is loaded with MSG & not good for me. I guess I am so used to places not using MSG in the US anymore, I had never thought to see if the food here still used it. I guess so.

I’ve become friends with Stella, at the movie rental store down the street. With John being away I’ve been catching up on the movies I don’t think he’d be interested in. I do my ironing watch movies, so at least I’m getting something accomplished. Stella likes making suggestions for me, it’s fun.

Cable Guy & Heifer

2007-04-02T07:10:00.001-04:00

March 28 – Back to Heifer today after waiting for the cable guy to come. I forgot to mention that a guy did come on Saturday morning & was here for a few minutes & said it was fixed. It worked for about 5 minutes & then stopped again. Very frustrating. So yesterday I called & they sent someone today. He called before arriving & was here before 10am, as promised. He spent about 30 minutes & said he found the wire was bad at the connection, so he fixed the wires at both ends & all seems to be working fine.

My day at Heifer was better. I did not have to match up kids names for this school. BUT the first envelope I opened had like the equivalent of US$37 in coins. Most of the coins were these tiny cent coins that are worth almost nothing. So that was a bit frustrating. I’m guessing the kid emptied his piggy bank. From the look of many of these envelopes, I think the use of piggy bank money might have been a theme, as the envelopes were loaded with change. Fortunately my spot today was not in front of the radio so it was a better day. The ladies also helped me with my Mandarin, turns out the book I have is not to accurate for pronunciation. I was there from 10:30 until 7:30, so a long day.

On the way home I stopped at a drug store to get some shampoo. That was all I was getting so I didn’t bother with a basket. Of course I found a few other things & a young man (teem probably) came over with a basket for me. I thanked him very much. In a few minutes he came back over to me with a box containing shampoo. He said that I might not have noticed that the same shampoo I had was in this box & you get another smaller bottle with it for the same price & wouldn’t I rather get that? I was really floored that he had noticed what I was purchasing & then came with something that would save me money. I had to smile when I think about how I’ve been treated by teenaged employees in the states, like you are bothering them if you ask them to do their job.

What kept me going all day was the thought that I was going to get dinner at one of my favorite places from when we worked at the old office. It is a kabob place (they are like gyros). It was about a 5 block walk & well worth the effort. I got my kabob & found a spot on a bench at the park & enjoyed my dinner watching kids play basket ball & soccer. Good ending to a good day.

Planning vacations is hard work

2007-04-02T06:50:00.000-04:00

March 27 – Today I stayed home and worked on planning vacations. With my mom & sister arriving very soon & the boys coming in another month, it was time. It is a lot of work finding hotels. I made good use of a web site called TripAdvisor.com. It is great. It is just regular people’s reviews of hotels, restaurants, everything. It is not sponsored by any chain or anything, so you get honest & very useful information. I high recommend it. But it does take a lot of time reading & searching.

I found what sounded like a great hotel in Beijing for the “girl” trip. It is a local hotel that used to be someone’s mansion. All the reviews were glowing. It is a little away from the main part of town (The Forbidden City area), but not bad. I emailed about booking & of course they were full. But the woman who emailed me back, Wendy, nicely suggested a sister hotel. I looked it up & it only had 2 reviews, one good & one OK. It is also right near the Forbidden City, so better location. I told Wendy I’d take it. Then I asked Wendy about going to the Great Wall & what she would recommend. She emailed me back immediately with some suggestions. She said that if I wanted she could prearrange for a car & guide to take us & gave me the rate. It was a good rate compared to some I’ve heard from other people who have done the trip. I’ve heard getting a car & guide is the way to go since you can hit parts of the wall that are not so touristy.

I told Wendy I’d go with the car & guide. We had several more emails back & forth. I even tried some of my Mandarin on her. I’m trying to learn just a few words, just out of respect. She corrected my Mandarin & we’ve been having some great email conversations ever since. It is funny how close the internet can make the world feel. Wendy also has arranged for a car to pick us up at the airport. I’ve read it is more expensive than taking a taxi, but if they know the way to your hotel that is often well worth the extra cost. It’s nice to have someone standing there with a sign with your name on it when you arrive in a strange place.

Next I checked out places to go to in Thailand for our trip with Jesse, Brooks & Brooks’ girlfriend, Jen. We all decided that Thailand beaches would be a good place for a family vacation. It’s been along time since we all vacationed together, so we thought this would just be relaxing & allow us to spend time together. The snorkeling is excellent here & I guess there are lots of water sports to participate in.

Our friend in Thailand suggested Ko Samui (Ko meaning Island in Thai). This is where his travel agent suggested. It is a large island on the Gulf of Thailand. This season is not so good for the other side on the Andaman Sea, as it is more stormy & rough there now. I first had to decided which beach on the island we wanted & then which hotel. It was a full day of reading reviews, but I think I found a good spot. We went with the most popular beach, but the part of it that is not so busy. Sounds like there is plenty to do to keep us busy or we can just veg if we want to. The hotel is a resort, the same chain John & I stayed at when we went last year to Thailand. It looks really nice & got good reviews. So that is done & I feel a lot better.

Tai Chi - finally

2007-04-02T06:35:00.000-04:00

March 26 – I finally made it to the Tai Chi class today. They seemed very amused & interested to see me there. The instructor & several of the women were really nice & spoke with me & asked if I knew tai chi. They said they would work with me & that there was another Westerner who had just been with the class a few weeks also. There were only 2 classes left in this session and they would not make me pay for these, but wanted me to pre-pay for the next session.

There were about 50 people at the class, men & women with a wide range of ages. I went in the back as they had instructed. They started by teaching a new segment of the routine, so it went very slowly & I could follow. The instructor kept singling me out though & saying “the new student in the back will want to do this or that”. I felt like I was distracting from the rest of the class. Then I was asked to come to the front row so she could watch me more closely. After learning (going through about 4 times slowly, which was not enough for me to actually learn it) the next segment they went through the entire routine thus far. This was the 5th class in a 6 class series, so I had missed a great deal. I was instructed to stand to the side & watch as they went through the full routine with music. I felt like a young school child being told where to stand & what to do.

The group went through the series several times & the other Westerner & I and about 3 others were taken to the back where we were worked with on the new segment. I began to realize that tai chi is more about dance than exercise. It is good exercise, but the focus is on doing the routine and having you hands & fingers & feet in just the right positions. Tai chi is a specific routine that consists of 6 segments. I think the whole thing takes about 30 minutes or maybe longer. It is very slow and ritualized. It is beautiful to watch. For some reason it was hurting my knee and I found it very confusing. I guess I just wasn’t into spending 2 hours learning a slow motion dance routine. I was having trouble focusing & staying interested. They were so wonderful in working with me and giving me personal attention, but I have to admit that I just couldn’t get into it. The other Western woman was doing very well & said she was very confused the first class also. That made me feel better, but with all the visitors we are about to have I’m sure I will not have the time to focus on this & practice the routine like I’d need to. At least I tried it & can say it just wasn’t for me.

Ice Hockey

2007-04-02T06:33:00.001-04:00

March 25 – John headed to India this morning so didn’t do much but eat & pack. Since I had the afternoon/evening on my own I decided to finally hit the Sunday night youth ice hockey. I’ve been meaning to do this since I found out about it last November, but just haven’t gotten around to it. So I looked up the name of the person I’d emailed last fall about the hockey, just so I could ask someone if she was there. I looked at the schedule & location & was on my way.

Fortunately the games were at the nice rink in the really nice, new mall (Festival Walk). When I got there the first game had already started & it as squirts. These are kids about 7 & 8 years old. It was great to be watching youth ice hockey. I felt in my element. I needed his after my negative week at the flower show & just feeling a bit overwhelmed by the city & being in China (sort of China).

There seemed to be about an even number of Asian kids & Western kids. There were a good number of girls, I’d say about 1/3 were girls. The skill level was fairly low, but there were a few good players. Of course I have to keep in mind that I haven’t watched the young kids play in a long time, so maybe they were not that bad.

The woman next to me had walked away & left her purse on the ground at my feet. When she returned I asked if it were hers because it seemed to be unattended. She said that her husband was supposed to be watching it, but was obviously more interested in the game to care about it. She asked if I had a child playing. I said know & I explained that I was just one of those crazy hockey addicts. She said, “then you must be Sarah’s friend, I’m sorry I forget your name.” I was so surprised, but in a way not surprised & said, “Then you must be Karen!” So I was standing next to the person who had guided me here. We had a good laugh, she introduced me to her husband & spent the rest of the evening together. Her middle son was playing in this game. There was another squirt game & then her older son was playing in the Peewee game that followed (those are the next age group up). I stayed & watched & liked having a team to cheer for. Her youngest son had played earlier in the day. All 3 son’s won their games so they were very happy.

When I asked what brought them to HK, she said her husband works for Citigroup. I said, I have a friend who works for Citigroup in London. She said their last assignment was in London, so the odds of them knowing each other just increased a great deal. I asked Peter if he knew my friend from high school, Michael Guralnick & sure enough he did. He said they were not good friends, but he certainly knows him. It can be such a small world.

So I enjoyed just hanging out with them. It was great to see the kids begging money & buying food & being all sweaty & happy. I brought back so many wonderful memories of hours, days, weekends spent at the ice rink with our boys. I really missed them so much & those times. I’m glad they are grown and independent, but WOW do I miss those days of being a mom to young kids. Don’t worry, I’m not thinking of adopting, I don’t miss it that much.

When the game was over they insisted on driving me home. They don’t live that far away from us & they have a van. It brought back other memories being in a car with 3 hockey bags & the smell of a hard fought game. They are heading back the Canada for the Easter break for 2 weeks, but after they get back we made plans to get together. I think we have more friends AND we can talk hockey!!

Health Cafe

2007-04-02T06:15:00.001-04:00

March 24 – After my exciting & late night, I didn’t feel much like doing anything today. John was fine with that as he was still recovering from Thailand & had to get ready to leave for India tomorrow. We went out for breakfast & intended to go to one of our favorite places, The Flying Pan. There were no tables when we got there (it is very small), so we sat at the counter. After about 10 minutes a table became empty so we sat there. The waitress informed us that we couldn’t sit there as people were waiting for the table who had their name on the list. We’ve been here a bunch of times & this was the first time we had heard of a list. I explained that we’d been there for over 10 minutes & had not been waited on & were waiting for a table & that I knew nothing about the “list”. I said that we had come in well before the people she was going to sit there. Her attitude seemed to be, too bad, you were not on the list. The people waiting for the table said that we could have it, they were very nice about it. I kept my cool, but was sort of tired of being pushed around. When I turned around, John was gone. I guess he didn’t like the lack of good service so just walked out. I let the people have the table & showed my disgust to the waitress & left also.

We wandered down under the escalator until we came to a place that Kristin & Ashley had talked about liking very much when they were here. It is called Health Café & is owned by the guy who owns the health club just across the way. The menu shows the calories for all of the dishes, which is really nice. They are obviously cooked in such a way as to minimize calories because few things were over 300 calories. I went for scrambled eggs on sourdough toast with spinach & mushrooms – it was great. John had an omelet that he said was very good. We splurged & got smoothies as well. You could watch the guy put in the fresh fruit & get the juice for the smoothie. I think we’ll go back.

Cable guy, China Spa experience

2007-04-02T04:55:00.000-04:00

March 23 – I experienced something today that I thought was just a US phenomenon, but obviously it is not. Our cable for the TV has not been working, so I called & the guy was supposed to come between 9am and 1pm today. They were very specific about that & usually things in HK are very punctual. When it got to be 1:30, I called and they said he would call before coming. So when it got to be 2:30 and he still had not come or called I just left. I had more money to count & Chinese to learn at Heifer today. At 3:30 the cable guy called to say he’d be there in 20 minutes. I explained that he was supposed to be there between 9 & 1 and that I had to go to work so I would not be there. He sounded very sorry and said someone would come on Saturday (the next day). The women at the office laughed & said that is always how it is with cable, they never come when they are supposed to. It is a joke in HK. Glad to know some things are universal!

At 5:30, I headed to the Cadmus office as I had a date with Karen, the receptionist. Karen & her boyfriend, Pat, had invited me to join them for the evening to go into China to a spa. John was also invited, but having just returned from Thailand, he was just too tired. Going to the spas in China (just across the border), is a very popular pastime with Hkers. I guess the prices are so much cheaper than at HK spas. Karen & Pat go every few months & had promised to take me along the next time they went.

Karen’s brother picked us up in the family car. We drove to meet Pat & the brother left & Pat took over the driving. We drove a fair distance to a train station that is just before the border & parked the car. This all took about 2 hours so now it was about 8pm. The train was packed full, it being a Friday night I guess many Mainlanders heading home & Hkers going up for a cheap night out.

At the border, Karen was very protective of me. It was funny, I felt like a little child. She held my hand & told me to keep my backpack in front so not to get robbed. I felt very safe, but she made it seem like we were crossing into a terrorists zone or something. The crossing was easy, but at one point I had to go to a different section to show my visa & passport. They pointed out exactly where I should meet them on the other side & gave me strict orders not to talk to anyone. It was so funny. I kept my mouth shut & eventually they showed up (many more people going through their line). We went to the parking garage where the vans park for the spas. Each spa has a van & a certain place that it is parked. We got in along with a few other people & off we went into Shenzhen, China – my first trip to Mainland China!

The city looks a bit like HK, but not really. There are the neon signs all over, but not as many taxis & buses. As hectic as HK seems, this seemed more hectic. It was a bustling place. The spa was not too far. We were greeted by men in long gray coats, very much the classic doormen look. We were escorted into the large and elegant lobby and greeted by women in long flowing white gowns with high collars. All I could think of is that they looked like they’d come right off a Star Wars set or some futuristic movie set. I’m not sure what we told them, but we were next taken to the main area & Pat went to the men’s locker rooms & we went to the ladies. We were each given a bracelet with a key & number on it. This is the key to your locker & the number is how you are charged while you are there.

We were escorted to the locker area and given a huge towel. We undressed, put our things in our locker, wrapped up in the towel & were escorted to the showers. We took our shower then were escorted to the exfoliating area. This was optional & cost about US$6 for 30 minutes. We said sure. We lay on a table & a woman pours warm, oiled water over you & then rubs your entire body with a glove that is rough, but not too rough. It was glorious. When you get up you see all the dead skin that has been sloughed off in the procedure & it is kind of horrifying. Makes you feel like you should do this once a week. When you are done, a woman brings you a little clipboard with a paper on it, verifying the treatment & allowing you to leave a tip. According to Pat, the only income the workers get is the tips. But he also was very specific not to give too much. He told me exactly what to give for each thing. I think for this he said this to give only about US $3. I felt badly leaving so little, but Karen concurred that that was plenty.

We were escorted back to the showers for another shower. I was told not to use soap this time as it would destroy the exfoliation I’d just enjoyed. We were offered a sauna (free), we declined. Karen showed me the very large Jacuzzi which we got into for a few minutes. She said the men’s side has about 5 pools (warm, hot, cold, & 2 others for who knows what). I guess the women’s side will have more when the renovations are done. At this point I needed to hit the ladies room, so we were escorted to the toilets. Imagine my surprise when I sat down onto a hot seat. Well it was really warm, but very surprising. I let out a little yell & Karen laughed from outside the door & said, don’t worry, they are heated for your comfort. WOW! And they were covered as well. All very hygienic.

We were next escorted to the dressing area (can you tell by now that there are loads of people working here, you never go anywhere without an escort & each different job has a different outfit, and the locker room was huge). We were issued spa clothes to put on. The clothes were bright pink baggy pants (calf length) and a matching baggy top. Very comfortable. You are also issued paper underwear & bra. I thought this extremely funny, but Karen explained that they want people to be comfortable, but with the oils & things you wouldn’t want to be in your own clothing. Makes sense. Oh, we also had been wearing spa issue plastic sandals to protect our feet.

We went out into the main section of the spa to meet up with Pat. We had planned to meet for dinner. It was probably 9:30 by now, so I was certainly ready for dinner. We had an excellent meal of fish & pork & rice & veggies and of course tea. Pat did the ordering. After eating we went out into the main rooms. This area had 3 huge rooms filled with gigantic leather recliners. You could get lost in them they were so big & comfy. In 2 of the sections each recliner had a TV attached to it & they said you get 40 channels. We tried to get into the non-smoking area, but there were not 3 seats together. So we ended up in the theater area. Here the recliners do not have individual TV’s, but are stadium seating with a huge screen in front. They have movies running all of the time. The movie that was on for us was in Chinese, but it was really funny & pretty easy to tell what was going on. So you sit in your recliner & you can just enjoy the entertainment or you can have some treatments. The choices are many, but I decided on a foot scraping treatment (this is what Karen was getting also) & a foot massage. Karen said she doesn’t get the massage because it hurt too much. The foot scrapping was amazing. It was about 30 minutes long & the guys got lots of dead skin off of both of us. They scrap the calluses & get your foot really soft & smooth. Then he did the reflexology or foot massage. I can understand why Karen doesn’t like this. WOW did it hurt, but afterwards felt good. Pat had a head massage. You can also get pedicure, manicure, all sorts of things.

Next it was time for the full body massage. We had to go to a different section of the spa. At the entrance to the full body massage area there were a couple of video screens & they were surrounded by men. I took a look & what they are for is to pick out your massage therapist for your session. There was a photo of each along with a short bio. The only thing I could read was the age & they all looked to be early 20’s and very attractive. Karen & I went to a double room that was Indian style. I guess you can choose the décor if that really matters to you. We disrobed & lay down. We chose 2 essential oils (Pat’s suggestion) & were treated to at least an hour massage. It might have been longer, I really didn’t’ keep track. Mostly it was wonderful, except when she got to the legs. That really hurt. I didn’t understand when she asked if it was too hard & didn’t know how to tell her softer. She finally realized it I guess when I let out a wince at one point & she said something to the other woman & they both laughed a little. It was not a mean laugh, more sympathetic. She was gentler after that.

I felt like jelly after this. We looked at the clock & realized it was 1:30am. Karen had told John I’d we be back by midnight. Karen was very upset that John would be angry that she had kept me out so late & that he might be worried something had happened to me. I assured her John would be fine & we could call him as soon as we got back to our phones. We enjoyed some of the free fruit & juices they had available to guests, then decided it was time to leave. On the way to the locker rooms I noticed there was an area with pool tables & ping pong tables. There was an entire floor devoted to hair & beauty treatments. I guess the place I s 5 floors, so we only scratched the surface. The only thing I could compare this to would be like a casino, but instead of gambling you get spa treatments. I really can’t think of any more superlatives to use to describe this place & experience. I’m just glad that I went with someone who spoke Chinese, as I don’t think you could negotiate it all without that. Not many people spoke English here (we’re not in HK anymore).

We took another shower & got dressed. There were area with makeup & hair dryers to get beautiful if you were so inclined. We called John & he was fine, but wondering when I might get home, so he was glad to hear from me. We settled up the bill. Actually Pat had a prepaid card, so he settled it up. Since it was so late, the train station was closed so we took the van to a bus station instead. We had to take a few buses to get back to the car, but it was easy since they knew just where to go. There were a lot of drunk people on the buses though, so I guess not everyone goes up for the spas.

We found the car & Karen being the wonderful person she is, insisted on driving me home. This was totally out of their way as we had to go past where they lived on Kowloon-side & through the tunnel to get to HK-side. I managed to steer them to our place without a problem. When slid into bed I looked at the clock & it was exactly 4:00am. It’s been a long time since I’ve stayed up that late, but it was well worth it!!

Learning Chinese?

2007-04-02T03:49:00.001-04:00

March 22 – Today I worked at the Heifer office counting money. Some of the schools have completed their Read to Feed programs so the envelops have been collected & the money needs to be counted. As you can imagine this is very time consuming. There was another volunteer helping with this also, Eva. She is Chinese, thank goodness. I say this because, I had to match up the child’s name on the envelop with the name on the class list. OK, you don’t really need to know a language in order to match up characters, but if you’ve ever really looked at Chinese writing, it is very complicated. They use lots of small lines & crosses. It is amazing how many different characters you can create without using curves or circles (they don’t in Chinese). Also, Chinese writing can be just as sloppy as any other writing, so this seemingly simple taste was a tough one for me. As I went along I did pretty well, but I just couldn’t figure out, so Eva came in real handy. The other challenge was when there was a check in the envelope. The checks needed to have the class & student’s name written on the back. Most of them already had this, but several did not. SO I had to write the names in Chinese. OK, so I thought reading it was tough, writing it is even harder. I wrote really big to get all the little lines & slashes in. The other people at the office were very supportive & said it looked great, but the did laugh at how large I wrote. I asked if it looked like a little child’s writing & they admitted it did a little, but was fine.

The final challenge of the day did not come from the counting of the money, but from the radio. This office is small beyond belief. There is barely room to walk & with 2 extra people, well we just sat where we could. So my spot happened to be right next to the radio that was playing the entire time. I’m not much of a fan of random noise for more then maybe 30 minutes, just prefer silence. So having a radio in my ear for 5 hours was a challenge AND it wasn’t just playing music. They had it on a music talk show & it sounded like they were calling people up & having them sing. So listening to all of this in Chinese made for a tough day. I think I did pick up a few phrases, but I have no clue what the mean!

So if there are any kids reading this, my message is, be glad you only had to learn to read & write in English, believe me, Chinese is WAY harder! I think they have something like over 300 characters to learn (or is it 3,000), I’m too tired to remember!

Flower Show - March 21

2007-04-02T03:31:00.001-04:00

March 21 – I hung around the apartment for a bit this morning to see if Caroleena would contact me. She did not, so I went on with my day as planned. First I went to the frame shop down the hill where we’d taken our photos & silk paintings from India to be framed. I think we had about 15 in all. They were done & looked great. We got an inexpensive oil painting of the HK skyline at dusk, but with a good frame it looks really nice. I bit the bullet & took a taxi home – kind of had to with all those pictures.

Next I headed out to the 2007 Hong Kong flower show. This is a big deal & everyone has been talking about it & asking if I have been yet. I figured best to go on a weekday so it wouldn’t be so crowded. People here LOVE their flowers, that was obvious from the New Year’s market. This show was at the same park as the New Years market, so I knew it was going to be big.

The flower show was huge & impressive. And my idea that a weekday would be less crowded, didn’t seem to be accurate. The first thing that struck me was the number of people with big huge cameras, but I don’t think they were professionals, but just more amateurs who like to take photos. These guys were all over the flowers, getting close ups of each petal and leaf. It was funny to see them stooping over the flower really in close. Or setting up tripods to get just the right shot. After the initial amusement they got to be annoying because they really hogged the space around the flowers. Next thing that struck me, literally were all the old people. I think it must have been senior citizen day or something. Now I don’t have anything against old people, I’m not far from being one myself, but Chinese old people (or at least in HK) are the most pushy and passively aggressive people I’ve ever encountered. At first you try to be polite & let someone in front of you, then you realize that 10 more people just shove their way in & you get walked all over. I had noticed this at the fireworks & on the buses, but that is usually just one person at a time, this was hundreds of the little wrinkly creeps all jammed into one park. I could hardly get near any of the exhibits. Then the battery in the camera went dead. It was John’s camera & I had forgotten to bring a spare battery. It was probably a good thing as I was getting fairly annoyed (as I’m sure you can tell) by the crowd & needed to move on.
As I got to the far end of the park I noticed busloads of school children unloading for their day at the show and there were a few busloads of handicapped folks being pushed around in wheel chairs. This was just more than I could take. I adore all of these particular types of people, but in lesser numbers. Also, everyone was buying flowers, so not only was the place packed with people, but people carrying lots of large bags containing flowers they didn’t want crushed.

I finally found a section off to the side that was where the bonsai exhibit was along with show winners. This area was very sparsely populated so suited me a bit better. I walked around until I felt like my feet would fall off. Despite the crowds, the flowers were amazing – I’ve never seen so many varieties and the displays were over the top.

Just to torture my self a little more, I stopped by Ikea on the way home. It is a block away from the park & they have really nice salad bowls & I wanted to get a couple more. I kept my cool with Ikea & found a way to get to the lower floor without having to snake my way through the entire upper floor first. But once on the lower floor, what I wanted was completely at the other end & then I had to come all the way back to the registers. It being a weekday, Ikea was slightly more tolerable than on other visits. I also needed to stop at the grocery store before getting home. For some reason that store was packed full of people. Since the aisles are so narrow & the carts hardly fit, people are always bumping into you or blocking the aisle without any awareness of others around them. Normally I tolerate this just fine, but today if drove me crazy. I guess city living can do that to you sometimes. Just get tired of the crowds everywhere you go. I guess that is why so many people here hit the hiking trails on the weekends, to get away. Good thing green and secluded areas are so accessible here.

Cheung Chau Island - March 20

2007-04-02T02:44:00.000-04:00

March 20 – I got out early today and looked at a few of the hotels on my list. One was booked, another turned out to be way more expensive than they had advertised on the web site. The one that looked good is a place that is run by the Salvation Army. The rooms are under $100 & I took a look and they are decent. It wasn’t anything fancy or elegant, but clean and respectable. I would stay there if on a budget. So that was good to know that there is something at that price range.

It was a really nice day so I decided to treat myself to an excursion in the afternoon. There are still a few islands that I’ve not visited & want to see if they are worth taking visitors to see. I got the 2:30 ferry to the island of Cheung Chau. This is a small island not too far away from HK Island. According to my guide book it is the most heavily populated island on HK, considering it’s size. I purchased a first class ticket (only about $1 more) and you get to sit outside on the deck. I sat down & a young woman sat next to me. I had noticed her at the dock & thought that she looked like a tourist. She asked me if I knew anything about the island.

As it turns out she was a tourist. Her husband is here on business & she decided to take a weeks vacation & join him. They live in Germany, but are both from Argentina. She is 28 and was delightful. Obviously her English was very good. I told her about myself and that I was just going to wander the island & invited her to join me. She was just spending the week wandering around HK on her own & said she’d love the company. I brought my guide book with me that shows a route to take around the island to see the major sights. There are not many. We walked along the water front which was mostly tourists shops & restaurants. Definitely not the nicest waterfront I’ve been to. There are no cars here, which is nice, but there were souped up gold carts zipping all over. By souped up, I mean to be used as construction vehicles & such. They were constantly honking at you to get by. It was really annoying, but then they probably think tourists are equally, if not more annoying, so we’re even.

Next up was a temple that was very nice. We went inside & I explained to Caroleena about the incense and the fortune sticks. There was a very helpful couple in the temple & the man spoke excellent English. He gave us the history of the temple & said if we wanted he would read our fortune. His price was reasonable so Caroleena went for it. He did a great job telling the fortune (I feel like I’ve become something of an expert on this). It is really good entertainment, so you like them to make it a good story.

The path then lead us across to the other side of the island and a very nice beach (the island is about 100 yards wide at this point ). There is a nice walk along the beach, which has lots of surf, & swim shops that were closed it being winter. At the end of the beach is the thing the island is most known for (well besides the beach & sea food restaurants), and that is their rock carvings. These were found in the 1970’s, but are believed to be over 3000 years old. Not much to look at, but impressive they are that old. We continued up the path along a steep trail. We tried an overgrown path off the main road, but didn’t get very far. We laughed that we like to take the path less trodden, but that our husbands would probably have a fit if they knew that we did this so often. We decided it is just because the love us so much (group awhhhhh).

The main road/path wandered by another temple, nothing impressive, a huge sports complex, many many apartments & a gigantic cemetery. There is a section that goes through CARE Town, called this because funds from CARE helped build the community. It was mostly little shacks with old folks sitting out front smiling at you as you went by. There was one woman cleaning tiny shrimp & setting the out on drying racks. She thought is very funny that I wanted to take her picture. The far end of the island was not as populated, but still by no means deserted. We wanted to get the to very end of the island where there was supposed to be a cave that at one time was occupied by a famous pirate captain. We made it there, but there was no real cave. There were signs all around (in Chinese) lots of huge rocks that you could sort of hide under, but not cave. It was definitely a let down. But it had been a nice walk and the scenery was good.

We went back a short way to another village on the water & out onto the pier. There was a small water taxi that was just leaving to go back to the main harbor. We hopped aboard. I think the fare was $3 (US40cents). We made it back to harbor just in time to catch the ferry back to HK Island. When we returned we decided to go visit the tallest building in HK; the IFC building. We had both heard there was a public observation deck & it was a clear day. Unfortunately by the time we got there, 6:30, it was closed. The man informed us of the hours & that it is on the 55th floor. Another trip.

We found a bookstore at the mall so Caroleena could get a newer HK Guide book. A friend had loaned her one that was from 1990. I helped her find the office where she was to meet her husband at 7pm. I left her with many suggestions for the remainder of her week in HK & offered to be her tour guide if she was interested. We parted company and I think both felt it was a good day & we’d made a new friend.

Nothing really

2007-04-02T02:29:00.001-04:00

March 19 – Didn't feel too good today, upset stomach. I think it was the food on the airplane. So I hung around home today & tried to get things done on the computer. I confirmed the service apartment – the one I liked on Nathan Rd. I was also given the task of finding a hotel room for under $150 for another person coming over. He will overlap the sales person by a week, so needs a hotel. Guess I’m going to know my way around the hotel & apartment web sites.

I was able to find a few for under $100 which is tough in a city like this considering that they want it close to the office and in a decent part of town. I put together a list & printed out maps to go look at the places this week.

Weekend Away - March 16-18

2007-04-02T02:25:00.000-04:00

Weekend in Away:

This is a little bit of a teaser. I was at a mall this weekend & spent some time hanging out in the food court (you’ll find out why later). Here is a sampling of the culinary offerings at this mall & see if you can guess where I was: Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks (OK, those could be anywhere), Dairy Queen, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Subway, Haagen Dazs, Dunkin’ Donuts, Pizza Hut, and are you ready for this Swenson’s Ice Cream (I haven’t seen one of these since I lived in California back in 1970s). Hint, we are still in Asia. OK, there were tons of other restaurants from all over the world, but I just couldn’t believe seeing Dairy Queen & Swenson’s.

March 16 – John invited me to go along with him to Bangkok for the weekend. He was going to meet a customer who they are trying to convince to start printing in Thailand. This customer actually owns Titlest (the golfing people). John told me to be sure not to mention our dinner the week before with Bridgestone (the other golf people). It’s about a 2.5 hour flight, no problems. Thailand is really a great place. They are so proud of their culture and they make a huge effort to show this by decorating everything with Thai art. We flew into the new airport, which is very controversial. It is huge and lovely, but at less than a year in use, there are huge problems with cracking runway & roads and I guess tons of other things. If you know anything about the politics of Thailand you know there was a coup last fall & the prime minister was ousted by the military. I guess a lot of this had to do with the airport. It seems that the government gave the contracts & LOTS of government money to their friends to have the airport built. As it turns out those people did not do very good jobs at the airport and much of the money was squandered. So now the place is falling apart and the people are mad that the government leaders got away with this. So nobody was really upset to see the other government go, but they do want their democracy back. The military government “says” they are just temporary & will have elections soon, but it keeps getting put off. It seems that business goes along as usual though. The people love their king (the longest living ruler in the world – over 60 years) & he says to be patient so they are.

OK, back to the airport. It is filled with sculpture & art that depicts Thailand. Some of it is huge. It definitely makes you know that you are in Thailand, no doubt about that. We met up with our Cadmus Thailand guy, Meenawat. He is in his late 20’s & spent several years as a young boy living in the states. He is terrific & is a good friend. He drove us to the hotel. Again I noted the pride that is shown in the culture. All along the highway to the airport there are statues what I’m sure are Thai deities. I really should learn more about the religions on these places, but that will come.

The hotel was also amazing. John has stayed here before & told me about it, but I was still amazed. Of course the service was incredible, that is the Thai way. They even have a young man standing at the elevator to push the button for you & he remembers what floor you are on & pushes the inside button as well, then bows to you with hands together at the chest & says “kup kum ka”, which sort of means thank you, but a lot more.

The room was way larger than our apartment in HK. It actually had a living room, kitchen, bed room & bathroom larger than our HK bedroom. We also had a balcony overlooking the courtyard. I could have just stayed here all day, but Meenawat had plans for us. We headed to the office which is in a high rise in the middle of downtown. I don’t think I could ever learn to drive in Bangkok. There don’t seem to be any lane markings & most roads have more lanes going one way than the other. At least they drive on the right side of the street. The office is tiny, but a very impressive building. The guys were talking business of course & there was an issue with the printer not having the information that John & Meenawat needed to give to the customer at the meeting the next day, which would involve customer, printer & Cadmus. They needed to get an answer from the printer & make sure that printer & Cadmus were “on the same page” so to speak when they met with the customer. This has the potential to be a huge account if this first job is handled well. There were some major issues that were threatening to ruin the entire deal.

As it turns out I knew the woman at the printer that they were dealing with. When John & I were in Thailand last April she had taken us out for a few meals & taken me shopping at the night market. I said to the guys, “Hey, let me talk to Joy. I’ll invite her to have dinner with us tonight. I’ll tell her that I enjoyed getting to know her last year and am anxious to see her again.” They never thought she’d go for it, but I used my charm & of course she immediately agreed. Meenawat was amazed. I knew John had brought me along for a reason. I really do like Joy and sincerely wanted to see her again, so it wasn’t really a put on.

We all met at The Seafood Market for dinner. This place was great. You can either buy your fish to go or pick it out (it is all alive) & tell them how you want it cooked. The place is enormous and being a Friday night was hopping. We picked out a bunch of different things. For being so young, Meenawat is very cultured and knows his foods & wines. He always impresses me with his worldly knowledge of these things. Joy & her uncle, Kitti San (he owns the printing company), were a bit late, but that gave John & Meen time to strategize. It really was good to see Joy & we had a great meal. I can’t even remember what all we had or how it was cooked. I know there was lots of garlic and it was all delicious. At the end of the meal they talked their business & all seemed to be smoothed out and agreeable. It was important that they show a united front with the customer so they didn’t appear clumsy and disorganized. We all decided the dinner was a success.

Meen was going to take me to the floating market the next morning. He explained that it was “pure Thai”. It was the old way of doing things & there is really only one left. It is far away & only runs in the morning. To get there in time we would need to leave the hotel at 5am. I was game for this, but felt badly that Meen was going to take his Saturday to show me around, especially that early. The guy works like crazy & John will get calls from him late at night, on weekends, and early mornings. He is totally dedicated, so we hated to make him get up at 4am on his “supposed” day off. I told him I could see the floating market another time, so he seemed relieved and proceeded to take us to a bar at the top of one of the tallest buildings in Bangkok. He said this was the place where they had a special dinner last fall that cost $25,000 per person (and that is US money, not Thai). We didn’t eat anything! The drinks were alright, but as you can imagine expensive. It was fun to have a chance to just hang out with Meen & only talk a little business.

March 17, Saturday - Had a great night sleep & relaxing morning enjoying the hotel. It is very quiet & secluded feeling despite being in the middle of Bangkok. Meen picked us up as the guys had a 2pm meeting with printer & customer. I was not invited (thank goodness) and Meen, bless his heart didn’t want me to be bored, so after a quick lunch at Burger King (what country am I in??), he dropped me off at the largest mall in Thailand (be still my heart, anyone who knows me knows how much I absolutely LOVE malls – NOT). Even living in HK has not changed me that much. Meen did say that if I got bored shopping there is an aquarium in the basement. Now things were looking up a bit.

The area where I was dropped off was the food court, good thing I’d just eaten (although there were lots more interesting choices here than Burger King). You know from above all the US food places there were. As this is the largest mall in Thailand, the US choices were actually only a very small percentage of the offerings, but all of them were packed. It was about 12:30 & they were coming to pick me up at 5:30. I was to meet them at Starbuck’s which fortunately is where they dropped me off as there are 2 other Starbucks in this place. There was a large grocery store on this floor, so I decided to check it out. I just think it is interesting to see what there is in the food stores. It must sound like I’m obsessed with food, but not really. I just think you learn a lot about a culture looking at the everyday things like grocery stores. I have feeling this was not an everyday sort of grocery store. It was really upscale, they were even doing chocolate sculpting, which since I’ve returned to HK I guess is something the do around Easter, because all of the nicer grocery stores here also have this now. I did find some PEZ that I almost bought for Brooks, he collects them, but I’m need to see if he has these already. They were not Thai characters, but Disney, naturally.

Having exhausted myself with food looking, I had to see what this aquarium was. It got lost a few times as this mall I guess has 3 or 4 different buildings & I ended up in the basement of the wrong building. If you think malls in the US are crowded, you’ve not seen them in Asia. It is just amazing to me the number of people crammed into this place, all shopping & eating (it wasn’t cheap). I guess that is a Saturday in the big city. I did meet a nice young Scandinavian couple who were also lost & looking for the aquarium, so they tagged along with me until we found it.

The theme for this place was The Little Mermaid, so definitely geared towards the kids. The aquarium was fairly impressive for being in the basement of a mall. It was 2 floors & had several huge tanks. In fact you could pay extra & get a glass bottom boat ride in one of the tanks it was that large. I chose not to & was glad as the view I think was better from the side & the line was terribly long. They had a few shows, Mermaids swimming around was one of course. You couldn’t even get close to any of the shows there were so many people. I didn’t mind, it didn’t look that good. I did find it interesting to see some different fish than I think I’ve seen before. I think my favorite was the one that had fins that looked like feet & it sort of walked along the bottom. I also liked the water rats. They looked a lot like beavers, but with rat-like tails. They had big buck teeth like beavers. I’m sure they are in the otter family. It spent about 2 hours down there & enjoyed it, but my feet started to hurt.

I headed back up into the mall. This mall was 8 floors & each floor seemed to be a different type of store. One floor was all furniture stores. One was all jewelry stores. There was clothing; purses & accessories, etc….. There was even a health club on one floor along with the sporting equipment. On the top floor was the fanciest movie theater I’d ever seen. It was an entire floor & in what I guess you would call the lobby there were contests going on (a la MTV) & a Japanese dance performance & huge sofas scattered all over the place with people just relaxing. They had a cafe . I had thought about going to a movie, but decided against it. I had brought a book along so I found a nice spot & finished my book. Wandered around some more & when it got close to meeting time I found my way back to the food court. I did a lot of people watching, which is very entertaining in Asia. I love the differences in fashion.

The guys called to say they were within 10 minutes. I went outside to wait. After standing outside for about 5 minutes the guard (the do a security check when you enter) told me to go back inside. I said I was waiting for a friend, but he insisted that I MUST go back inside to wait. I noticed that they were clearing everyone from out front & stopped letting people leave the mall. There were strange things happening with the traffic pattern going by also, it suddenly changed then stopped. All of a sudden a bunch of police motorcycles went by with sirens going & lights flashing & a Mercedes went by with tinted windows. After that everything went back to normal & I was allowed to go outside again. When the guys got there I told Meen about this & he said it had to be someone from the Royal Family going through, that is what they do for them, it happens all of the time.

I guess the meeting had gone well with the printer & customer that afternoon. Now we were going to meet the 3 representatives from the customer for dinner. One of the guys (Ken S) lives in Bangkok and I guess was in the mood for good ol’ American steak. So he chose the restaurant; The New York Steak House. Not what my first choice to eat in Thailand would have been, but then nobody asked me. The other two people were Ken L and Joanne (both over from the US). The three of them were already at the bar waiting for us. The men had martinis and Joanne wine. We all made nice & introductions were made, I was actually the only one needing introducing. The atmosphere was initially on the formal side. We were seated & the waitress came to take our drink orders. She came to me first. I’m not shy about what I like to drink & don’t feel a need to impress people. So I ordered a beer. It was so funny, as soon as I ordered that beer, the Kens & Joanne all let out a big sigh of relief. They laughed & admitted that they didn’t like really like wine or martinis but thought it wouldn’t look good if they were drinking beer. They all followed suit and ordered beers. I guess that was the icebreaker we all needed, because the rest of the dinner was great. Good conversation. Turns out Ken L’s son attends prep school & it is one that plays Kimball Union, so we had some good prep school conversation. Joanne turns out to be a huge NASCAR fan & her husband is a Tony Stewart fan. So she was extremely impressed when I told her I was good friends with a guy who shared house with Tony. And that I’d met him a few times & used to get my kids’ ice skates sharpened in Tony’s garage. She was thrilled. She’s a Junior fan. If you’ve ever lived in Charlotte you can always talk NASCAR even if you don’t like it. You can’t really get away from it down there. They are even going to take a family vacation to Daytona for a race. I don’t get the attraction, but I played it up for the company.

She & I got along great. We talked about our kids and all sorts of other things. It turned out to be a great dinner. I managed to find something besides steak to order & it was very good. I’m not vegetarian, but beef really makes me feel sick, so I avoid it. At the end of the meal we even ended up taking group photos. Again I think it was not bad for Cadmus that I attended. If you know me at all, you know I can keep a conversation going, as long as it isn’t all about printing & this was not. I have since exchanged emails with Joanne and she again said how happy she was that I ordered the beer because she really is a beer drinker & didn’t like the wine at all. I guess it just pays to be who you are & not try to be something different. It has always worked for me.

March 18 – We kind of lazed around again on Sunday morning. It was nice sitting out on the balcony reading the paper & enjoying the breeze. I miss my deck at home. Looks like when our lease runs out in our flat in HK, that we will likely be moving to something less expensive & different part of town. Hopefully we can find something with a balcony or some outdoor space. I do miss that.

It had become obvious that John needed to stay in Bangkok a few extra days to make sure this job got completed properly and the customer left happy. So Meen picked us up and we went out to lunch to his favorite restaurant, Coffee Bean. We let Meen order & he did a wonderful job as usual. I’m not sure what we had, I think Pad Thai, some curry dish, some fried balls of something delicious. It was great. He said that what the restaurant is really known for is it’s homemade desserts. So we all went downstairs & picked out luscious looking treats that tasted even better than they looked. They escorted me to the ticket counter as Meen was going to help John change his ticket. All was well & the flight home was uneventful.

March 16 thru 18

2007-03-30T10:59:00.000-04:00

Weekend Away:

This is a little bit of a teaser. I was at a mall this weekend & spent some time hanging out in the food court (you’ll find out why later). Here is a sampling of the culinary offerings at this mall & see if you can guess where I was: Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks (OK, those could be anywhere), Dairy Queen, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Subway, Haagen Dazs, Dunkin’ Donuts, Pizza Hut, and are you ready for this Swenson’s Ice Cream (I haven’t seen one of these since I lived in California back in 1970s). Hint, we are still in Asia. OK, there were tons of other restaurants from all over the world, but I just couldn’t believe seeing Dairy Queen & Swenson’s.

March 16 – John invited me to go along with him to Bangkok for the weekend. He was going to meet a customer who they are trying to convince to start printing in Thailand. This customer actually owns Titlest (the golfing people). John told me to be sure not to mention our dinner the week before with Bridgestone (the other golf people). It’s about a 2.5 hour flight, no problems. Thailand is really a great place. They are so proud of their culture and they make a huge effort to show this by decorating everything with Thai art. We flew into the new airport, which is very controversial. It is huge and lovely, but at less than a year in use, there are huge problems with cracking runway & roads and I guess tons of other things. If you know anything about the politics of Thailand you know there was a coup last fall & the prime minister was ousted by the military. I guess a lot of this had to do with the airport. It seems that the government gave the contracts & LOTS of government money to their friends to have the airport built. As it turns out those people did not do very good jobs at the airport and much of the money was squandered. So now the place is falling apart and the people are mad that the government leaders got away with this. So nobody was really upset to see the other government go, but they do want their democracy back. The military government “says” they are just temporary & will have elections soon, but it keeps getting put off. It seems that business goes along as usual though. The people love their king (the longest living ruler in the world – over 60 years) & he says to be patient so they are.

OK, back to the airport. It is filled with sculpture & art that depicts Thailand. Some of it is huge. It definitely makes you know that you are in Thailand, no doubt about that. We met up with our Cadmus Thailand guy, Meenawat. He is in his late 20’s & spent several years as a young boy living in the states. He is terrific & is a good friend. He drove us to the hotel. Again I noted the pride that is shown in the culture. All along the highway to the airport there are statues what I’m sure are Thai deities. I really should learn more about the religions on these places, but that will come.

The hotel was also amazing. John has stayed here before & told me about it, but I was still amazed. Of course the service was incredible, that is the Thai way. They even have a young man standing at the elevator to push the button for you & he remembers what floor you are on & pushes the inside button as well, then bows to you with hands together at the chest & says “kup kum ka”, which sort of means thank you, but a lot more.

The room was way larger than our apartment in HK. It actually had a living room, kitchen, bed room & bathroom larger than our HK bedroom. We also had a balcony overlooking the courtyard. I could have just stayed here all day, but Meenawat had plans for us. We headed to the office which is in a high rise in the middle of downtown. I don’t think I could ever learn to drive in Bangkok. There don’t seem to be any lane markings & most roads have more lanes going one way than the other. At least they drive on the right side of the street. The office is tiny, but a very impressive building. The guys were talking business of course & there was an issue with the printer not having the information that John & Meenawat needed to give to the customer at the meeting the next day, which would involve customer, printer & Cadmus. They needed to get an answer from the printer & make sure that printer & Cadmus were “on the same page” so to speak when they met with the customer. This has the potential to be a huge account if this first job is handled well. There were some major issues that were threatening to ruin the entire deal.

As it turns out I knew the woman at the printer that they were dealing with. When John & I were in Thailand last April she had taken us out for a few meals & taken me shopping at the night market. I said to the guys, “Hey, let me talk to Joy. I’ll invite her to have dinner with us tonight. I’ll tell her that I enjoyed getting to know her last year and am anxious to see her again.” They never thought she’d go for it, but I used my charm & of course she immediately agreed. Meenawat was amazed. I knew John had brought me along for a reason. I really do like Joy and sincerely wanted to see her again, so it wasn’t really a put on.

We all met at The Seafood Market for dinner. This place was great. You can either buy your fish to go or pick it out (it is all alive) & tell them how you want it cooked. The place is enormous and being a Friday night was hopping. We picked out a bunch of different things. For being so young, Meenawat is very cultured and knows his foods & wines. He always impresses me with his worldly knowledge of these things. Joy & her uncle, Kitti San (he owns the printing company), were a bit late, but that gave John & Meen time to strategize. It really was good to see Joy & we had a great meal. I can’t even remember what all we had or how it was cooked. I know there was lots of garlic and it was all delicious. At the end of the meal they talked their business & all seemed to be smoothed out and agreeable. It was important that they show a united front with the customer so they didn’t appear clumsy and disorganized. We all decided the dinner was a success.

Meen was going to take me to the floating market the next morning. He explained that it was “pure Thai”. It was the old way of doing things & there is really only one left. It is far away & only runs in the morning. To get there in time we would need to leave the hotel at 5am. I was game for this, but felt badly that Meen was going to take his Saturday to show me around, especially that early. The guy works like crazy & John will get calls from him late at night, on weekends, and early mornings. He is totally dedicated, so we hated to make him get up at 4am on his “supposed” day off. I told him I could see the floating market another time, so he seemed relieved and proceeded to take us to a bar at the top of one of the tallest buildings in Bangkok. He said this was the place where they had a special dinner last fall that cost $25,000 per person (and that is US money, not Thai). We didn’t eat anything! The drinks were alright, but as you can imagine expensive. It was fun to have a chance to just hang out with Meen & only talk a little business.

March 17, Saturday - Had a great night sleep & relaxing morning enjoying the hotel. It is very quiet & secluded feeling despite being in the middle of Bangkok. Meen picked us up as the guys had a 2pm meeting with printer & customer. I was not invited (thank goodness) and Meen, bless his heart didn’t want me to be bored, so after a quick lunch at Burger King (what country am I in??), he dropped me off at the largest mall in Thailand (be still my heart, anyone who knows me knows how much I absolutely LOVE malls – NOT). Even living in HK has not changed me that much. Meen did say that if I got bored shopping there is an aquarium in the basement. Now things were looking up a bit.

The area where I was dropped off was the food court, good thing I’d just eaten (although there were lots more interesting choices here than Burger King). You know from above all the US food places there were. As this is the largest mall in Thailand, the US choices were actually only a very small percentage of the offerings, but all of them were packed. It was about 12:30 & they were coming to pick me up at 5:30. I was to meet them at Starbuck’s which fortunately is where they dropped me off as there are 2 other Starbucks in this place. There was a large grocery store on this floor, so I decided to check it out. I just think it is interesting to see what there is in the food stores. It must sound like I’m obsessed with food, but not really. I just think you learn a lot about a culture looking at the everyday things like grocery stores. I have feeling this was not an everyday sort of grocery store. It was really upscale, they were even doing chocolate sculpting, which since I’ve returned to HK I guess is something the do around Easter, because all of the nicer grocery stores here also have this now. I did find some PEZ that I almost bought for Brooks, he collects them, but I’m need to see if he has these already. They were not Thai characters, but Disney, naturally.

Having exhausted myself with food looking, I had to see what this aquarium was. It got lost a few times as this mall I guess has 3 or 4 different buildings & I ended up in the basement of the wrong building. If you think malls in the US are crowded, you’ve not seen them in Asia. It is just amazing to me the number of people crammed into this place, all shopping & eating (it wasn’t cheap). I guess that is a Saturday in the big city. I did meet a nice young Scandinavian couple who were also lost & looking for the aquarium, so they tagged along with me until we found it.

The theme for this place was The Little Mermaid, so definitely geared towards the kids. The aquarium was fairly impressive for being in the basement of a mall. It was 2 floors & had several huge tanks. In fact you could pay extra & get a glass bottom boat ride in one of the tanks it was that large. I chose not to & was glad as the view I think was better from the side & the line was terribly long. They had a few shows, Mermaids swimming around was one of course. You couldn’t even get close to any of the shows there were so many people. I didn’t mind, it didn’t look that good. I did find it interesting to see some different fish than I think I’ve seen before. I think my favorite was the one that had fins that looked like feet & it sort of walked along the bottom. I also liked the water rats. They looked a lot like beavers, but with rat-like tails. They had big buck teeth like beavers. I’m sure they are in the otter family. It spent about 2 hours down there & enjoyed it, but my feet started to hurt.

I headed back up into the mall. This mall was 8 floors & each floor seemed to be a different type of store. One floor was all furniture stores. One was all jewelry stores. There was clothing; purses & accessories, etc….. There was even a health club on one floor along with the sporting equipment. On the top floor was the fanciest movie theater I’d ever seen. It was an entire floor & in what I guess you would call the lobby there were contests going on (a la MTV) & a Japanese dance performance & huge sofas scattered all over the place with people just relaxing. They had a cafe . I had thought about going to a movie, but decided against it. I had brought a book along so I found a nice spot & finished my book. Wandered around some more & when it got close to meeting time I found my way back to the food court. I did a lot of people watching, which is very entertaining in Asia. I love the differences in fashion.

The guys called to say they were within 10 minutes. I went outside to wait. After standing outside for about 5 minutes the guard (the do a security check when you enter) told me to go back inside. I said I was waiting for a friend, but he insisted that I MUST go back inside to wait. I noticed that they were clearing everyone from out front & stopped letting people leave the mall. There were strange things happening with the traffic pattern going by also, it suddenly changed then stopped. All of a sudden a bunch of police motorcycles went by with sirens going & lights flashing & a Mercedes went by with tinted windows. After that everything went back to normal & I was allowed to go outside again. When the guys got there I told Meen about this & he said it had to be someone from the Royal Family going through, that is what they do for them, it happens all of the time.

I guess the meeting had gone well with the printer & customer that afternoon. Now we were going to meet the 3 representatives from the customer for dinner. One of the guys (Ken S) lives in Bangkok and I guess was in the mood for good ol’ American steak. So he chose the restaurant; The New York Steak House. Not what my first choice to eat in Thailand would have been, but then nobody asked me. The other two people were Ken L and Joanne (both over from the US). The three of them were already at the bar waiting for us. The men had martinis and Joanne wine. We all made nice & introductions were made, I was actually the only one needing introducing. The atmosphere was initially on the formal side. We were seated & the waitress came to take our drink orders. She came to me first. I’m not shy about what I like to drink & don’t feel a need to impress people. So I ordered a beer. It was so funny, as soon as I ordered that beer, the Kens & Joanne all let out a big sigh of relief. They laughed & admitted that they didn’t like really like wine or martinis but thought it wouldn’t look good if they were drinking beer. They all followed suit and ordered beers. I guess that was the icebreaker we all needed, because the rest of the dinner was great. Good conversation. Turns out Ken L’s son attends prep school & it is one that plays Kimball Union, so we had some good prep school conversation. Joanne turns out to be a huge NASCAR fan & her husband is a Tony Stewart fan. So she was extremely impressed when I told her I was good friends with a guy who shared house with Tony. And that I’d met him a few times & used to get my kids’ ice skates sharpened in Tony’s garage. She was thrilled. She’s a Junior fan. If you’ve ever lived in Charlotte you can always talk NASCAR even if you don’t like it. You can’t really get away from it down there. They are even going to take a family vacation to Daytona for a race. I don’t get the attraction, but I played it up for the company.

She & I got along great. We talked about our kids and all sorts of other things. It turned out to be a great dinner. I managed to find something besides steak to order & it was very good. I’m not vegetarian, but beef really makes me feel sick, so I avoid it. At the end of the meal we even ended up taking group photos. Again I think it was not bad for Cadmus that I attended. If you know me at all, you know I can keep a conversation going, as long as it isn’t all about printing & this was not. I have since exchanged emails with Joanne and she again said how happy she was that I ordered the beer because she really is a beer drinker & didn’t like the wine at all. I guess it just pays to be who you are & not try to be something different. It has always worked for me.

March 18 – We kind of lazed around again on Sunday morning. It was nice sitting out on the balcony reading the paper & enjoying the breeze. I miss my deck at home. Looks like when our lease runs out in our flat in HK, that we will likely be moving to something less expensive & different part of town. Hopefully we can find something with a balcony or some outdoor space. I do miss that.

It had become obvious that John needed to stay in Bangkok a few extra days to make sure this job got completed properly and the customer left happy. So Meen picked us up and we went out to lunch to his favorite restaurant, Coffee Bean. We let Meen order & he did a wonderful job as usual. I’m not sure what we had, I think Pad Thai, some curry dish, some fried balls of something delicious. It was great. He said that what the restaurant is really known for is it’s homemade desserts. So we all went downstairs & picked out luscious looking treats that tasted even better than they looked. They escorted me to the ticket counter as Meen was going to help John change his ticket. All was well & the flight home was uneventful.

Happy Valley Apartments??

2007-03-29T11:03:00.001-04:00

March 14 – Today I looked at some apartments in a part of town called Happy Valley. This is well known because one of the two horse racing tracks is here. Horse racing is HUGE in Hong Kong, everyone bets on them, I mean everyone. On the day of a race you can’t get near the Hong Kong Jockey Club offices that are scattered around the city because so many people are lined up there to bet. We have not attended a race yet, but we will when my mom & sister come in a few weeks. It is supposed to be really fun. For HK$10 (UA$1.30) you can go to the area with the regular people ( as opposed to the “members” area that is enclosed & I hear very fancy). It is right next to the track and I hear very exciting. Another day another blog topic.

Anyway I had called the guy about the apartment in Central that I tried to see yesterday& nobody came to the door. He said to come see the ones in Happy Valley, they were the same. The ones in Central were being renovated. I had been at the office earlier in the day, but forgot to get a map showing where this place was (I’m totally lost without a map). I had gone to the bank also, and that was when I realized I’d forgotten to print out a map (like mapquest). I asked the women at the bank to help me & they did their best. They’d never heard of Hong Kong’s version of map quest & were fascinated by it. They found the location I was looking for, but for some reason they could not get it to print. So they wrote down for me where to go & told me to take the tram towards Happy Valley & get off at the end. This I could manage.

The trams are great this time of year, because it is cool & they don’t smell. They are not air conditioned, so once the hot weather hits you want to avoid them. I hoped on the tram right outside of the bank that was heading for Happy Valley. The trams are very popular with locals because no matter how far you are riding it is always only HK$2 (25 cents). It was a pleasant ride & once you get near the race course it looks almost suburban. The race course is really a huge sports complex with various fields for soccer, rugby, tennis courts, a large track. There were lots of people using the complex, walking dogs, running, playing all sorts of sports. I liked the feel of the area. I found the apartment building (not promising looking) & when he showed me the room I had to keep from laughing. I knew Hong Kong apartments had a reputation for being small, but this was ridiculous. Calling it an apartment was really pushing it. It was more like a hallway with a bed squeezed into one end and a toilet at the other. They had a table with a hot plate on it & a tiny frig, which is why I guess they called it an apartment. It wasn’t really that cheap either.

I think he could tell I was not impressed, so he sent me to another building a few blocks away. This was only slightly better. In the 250 sqft “apartment” included a balcony, so not much room left for the room. Also, not elevators. It was only 5 floors, but I’m sure our people do not want to walk up in the heat without A/C in the stairwell. Another scratch. But I got to see another part of the city, and you know how much I enjoy that.

March 15 – I looked at more apartments today in Central, but they all turned out to be WAY more expensive than advertised. So more scratches off the list. It is a very short list now. Nothing else exciting or interesting.

More apartments - Kowloon & Central

2007-03-29T11:02:00.001-04:00

March 13 – Tuesday & I had to go to the bank this morning on Cadmus business. I like doing this because it is an interesting part of the city. I like the little markets on the street that mostly sell fruits & veggies. Just colorful and classic HK.

I have more apartments to visit today. This time it is an area I know fairly well. The main drag in Kowloon-side is Nathan Road. This is a large road lined with nothing but stores. The stores range from every highest end name brand store you can think of & probably some you’ve not heard of because they are that expensive us “normal” people wouldn’t have any reason to know about them to very inexpensive knock off shops. The lower mile of this road (nearest the harbor) is known as the Golden Mile because of all the high priced stores. If you’ve spent any time in HK, you’ve spent time on Nathan Road. I think I’ve walked the entire length of it several times from Tsim Sha Tsui (by the harbor) at one end up to the Night Market & Mong Kok at the other end.

The apartments I had on the list for today were right off Nathan Road, but up from the Golden Mile. I already knew this would be a good area and the ladies at the office would approve. The only question was going to be were the buildings decent & the apartments acceptable. With the budget they gave me to work with, I’m at the low end, so I’m not expecting much. This is one of the 3 most expensive cities in the world for housing costs.

The first building looked promising. Less than a 2 minute walk from the MTR station & nice looking building. There was even a sales office at the bottom. I was shown an apartment and it was terrific. I couldn’t believe it. Very modern furniture, nice view, clean & new looking. This one gets 4 stars. The next one was a few blocks away & quite the opposite. It looked really run down and even I would not stay there (so you know it must be bad). Good reason this one was so cheap (for Hong Kong). This one got scratched off the list.

Next I headed across the harbor to look at a few places in Central, near where we live. One of them nobody answered the bell, so it got scratched, but getting there was interesting. It was on a street with a Chinese name, but under the Chinese it says “Ginseng and Bird’s Nest Street”. Every single store on the street sold ginseng and bird’s nest. People here love bird’s nest, it is supposed to be very healthy & good for your skin. If I haven’t described it before, these literally are bird’s nests. People collect swallow’s nests (I think a very special kind) from caves. The stuff is ridiculously expensive, like several hundred dollars an ounce (that’s US dollars). The nest is made from the bird’s saliva, so it is soft & gelatinous when cooked. They like to make soup from it that is served for dessert. I’ve had it & it is a very delicate taste, nothing special in my opinion.

I looked at one other apartment in this area that was really nice. It had a great workout room. They had a piece of equipment that looks like a saddle for a horse. It was like a small bull ride. I guess it rocks back & forth & the lady said that the women like this one because it helps their waist & hips stay slim. I’d just never seen one in a workout room. Maybe I’ll have to get me one of those contraptions & get my waist in shape!! Long day, but at least there are some viable options & my search may be over soon.

Tai Chi and apartment hunting

2007-03-29T11:00:00.000-04:00

March 12 – Mondays & Fridays are the days they have Tai Chi classes at the community center down the street. I’ve been trying to go for a few weeks now, but something comes up or I forget. I’ve now put notes up all over the place to remind me to go. So this morning being Monday I finally got dressed & out the door in time for the class. When I got to the building I didn’t really know where to go, so I followed a man who looked like he was dressed for exercise. I ended up following him to the government tax office – oops. I went back downstairs & to the information desk at the back side of the building. I asked the young man were the Tai Chi class was. He had no idea what I was talking about. There was a cleaning lady there also. Both looked completely confused by my question. I repeated it more slowly “Where is the Tai Chi class?” Still blank looks. He said show me what you mean. So I did my best at demonstrating Tai Chi moves. He said “You mean Kung Fu?” I said “No, Tai Chi.” and did some moves again only very slowly. They both had a light go on & said “Oh, you mean Tai Gey, no Tai Chi.” He said, “Yes, Tai Gey in that room there, but not today, it cancel for today for some other thing going on.” Wouldn’t you know it. I finally get out & get there & find the place & it’s cancelled. Well at least I know where to go next time.

I went home & did my yoga CD which I figured as a fairly good substitute. I went into the office later in the day & asked them about the difference in the name. They said yes, he was correct, Tai Chi is English, in Chinese it is Tai Gey. I have a feeling the “Englishman” who came up with calling it Tai Chi, thought he was using a Chinese name. Oh well, now I know & so do you!!

While I was in the office Ruby asked me to help her with a project of finding a service apartment for visiting sales people. The lease on the corporate apartment we have now will be up in a few weeks, but people will still be coming over. There won’t be enough people often enough to need to have an apartment available all of the time, but they will be staying for a few weeks, so it is pretty expensive to go the hotel route. I thought this sounded like good project for me. She had a list of places & wanted to know if I would visit them & see which ones looked acceptable. This meant looking around new places that I’ve not been before, right up my alley.

I found one place that is only 2 MTR stops from work, the same stop I had to go to pay the electric bill for the office. For some reason John just got the first bill & it is a shut off notice. I guess there was some miscommunication somewhere along the line. They will not take credit cards, only cash. So I get this mission. I found the place just fine & the woman was very happy to take my cash (almost $1,000US). This area is called Shim Shui Po. John & I went here before to get the guitars for our Play Station Guitar Hero game. We did not walk around the area, just went straight to the mall with the video game stuff then home.

So this time I had a chance to check it out, being a weekday & not so many crowds. From the power company office to the service apartment I was looking at was probably about 10 blocks. I had to walk back to the MTR station & then 7 blocks in the other direction. This gave me a good opportunity to see what the area was like. The only way I can describe it is very very local. There are outdoor stalls selling everything from food to jewelry to shoes to pajamas. It is classic Hong Kong. There are mostly HK style food shops, that means noodles & fish balls. I didn’t see any other westerners there at all. It was fun to look around & see everything you can imagine for sale. There were even some old women emptying out bags of used stuff to sell. It was like a yard sale on the street.

As I got closer to the apartment building the area got more & more local looking. It was actually kind of dirty and run down. The apartment building itself was very new and nice, a sort of oasis. Right across the street was an elevated high way, that goes out to the airport & beyond that a park. I looked at the apartment & it was nice, but it made a big difference what side of the building you were on and how far up. Of course the higher floors are more expensive. I collected the managers card & told him I’d call.

I remembered that this area had a mall with an ice rink in it. This is one of the rinks where the youth hockey team plays. You know me & hockey, I had to check it out. The mall was about half way between the apartment & the MTR down a side street. It is called The Dragon Center & it has a huge lit up dragon on the front. It is a very tall building (I learned later it is 10 stories high) & circular. It took some looking but I found a directory & saw that they ice rink was on the 9th floor, interesting – guess they don’t worry about melting & leaking. I took the escalators up so I could see what else was here. This shopping center seemed to be a maze of tiny shops selling just about everything you could imagine. Mostly fashion accessories & clothes & food. The rink was on the next to top floor. It was relatively small with a low ceiling. The most interesting thing about it was the bright yellow track that wound around the ceiling. I figured out that this was part of the indoor roller coaster that starts at the top floor & winds around the top 2 floors. It was not working when I was there, but I’d sure like to see it. The hockey shop was the size of a large closet (like most shops in HK). I asked if they rented hockey skates & after some confusions about what I meant the answer was yes. They said there are certain times when you are not allowed on the ice with hockey skates though. That didn’t really make sense to me, but I guess they have their reasons. So I’m happy now, I’ve seen all the rinks there are in HK (that I know about anyway). It figures that they play hockey at the worst one. If you live in Charlotte, I can only say that this one makes the rink at Eastland Mall look really good!

When I went back to the office the next day & told the women where I’d looked at the apartment, they were horrified. They said it was not a good area because that is where the prostitutes from mainland China live & work. They said it is OK during the day, but it would be a very bad place to have any people living in an apartment. They laughed that I liked it & spent so much time wandering around. They said the only good thing about the area is The Dragon Center & that is not very nice anymore. I guess that area is known for it’s accessory markets & haberdashery (ribbons, buttons, thread) shops. At least I got a chance to explore another part of HK.

Sai Kung - seafood or should it be seefood?

2007-03-29T10:59:00.000-04:00

March 11 – Sunday, no work. John was looking at a tour book & suggested we take a trip to Sai Kung. This is a seaside town in The New Territories (which is the large part of Hong Kong that is beyond Kowloon & closer to Mainland China). Sai Kung is well known for it’s seafood restaurants and fish markets. Neither of us had been out there yet, so even though it was a gloomy day we headed out.

We had to take the MTR fairly far out. Then we could take a bus, but we were having trouble figuring out which one to take & John asked a taxi driver how much to take us & it was only about $12US, so we opted for the taxi. As it turns out Sai Kung is up & over some fairly sizable hills. It was a nice ride, but would have been better on a clear day. It started to rain fairly hard during our ride over. By the time we got there the rain had stopped, someone was watching out for us.

We were dropped by the waterfront and joined lots of other people out for a Sunday adventure in the country. This was a fairly large town & had lots of apartments & shops & restaurants. Many people were lined up along the waterfront looking over the edge. We discovered that they were shopping. The waterfront is a cement walking area that is about 10 feet above the water in the harbor. All along the wall of the waterfront were small boats (7 to 10 feet open skiffs) filled with pans of live fish of every kind. The people on the walkway would tell the guy in the boat which fish they wanted. After some discussion, I’m sure about price, the man took the fish out of the pan & handed it to an old woman sitting in front of a large wooden board. The woman took out at huge butcher knife & chopped off the fishes head & tail. They she proceeded to clean the fish & wrap it in plastic. Some people bought the whole fish. The salesman then put the fish in a plastic bag & placed it in a net that is at the end of a long pole (15 feet maybe). He sends the purchase up to the top & the buyer takes it. The buyer then puts the money in the net & the man brings it down & then puts the change in the net & sends it up to the buyer. It was fascinating to watch this procedure going on all along the waterfront. There must have been about 50 boats lined up along the wall all selling in this manner.

We walked along the waterfront which was lined with seafood restaurants. Each one had tanks of fish for the customers to buy from. You could buy & take home or buy & tell them how to cook it & eat it there. There were more fish than I think I saw at the aquarium. It really was an amazing sight. Some of the fish were huge & I’ve never seen such large lobsters in my life (and I’ve lived in Maine).

We wandered away from the waterfront along the narrow winding streets of the town. There were shops of all types tucked away down dark narrow alleyways. I think the busiest establishments were the hair salons. I guess since Sunday is the only day most people get off, it would make sense that this is when they’d have time to get their hair done. People here take getting their hair done very seriously. Most places give you a nice long head massage when they do the washing. Also, it seems like everyone gets their hair colored here. The old people get it colored black so the gray doesn’t show, now we know why it is so hard to tell the age of an Asian person. And the younger people get their black hair colored or tinted all sorts of colors. Bright red seems to be popular as does purple and orange. These are usually streaks & sometimes just 2 or 3 large streaks in the front. It’s interesting.

We found our way back to the waterfront & got talked into taking a sampan (small boat) ride around the harbor. The woman didn’t speak any English, but she knew how to communicate. She showed us her watch & took her hand around the face one circle – meant a 1 hour ride. She held up fingers to tell us how much. It seemed fair, so we went and anyway it was beginning to rain again. The boat was covered. She set us up with little benches so we could sit in the front for the good view. The boat didn’t go very fast, but it was a nice ride & we got a good view of the outlaying islands and harbor. The engine was sort of loud, so we had her cut the trip short as we were both getting a headache from it. She insisted that I sit in the driver’s seat so that John could get a photo of me driving. She talked to us about where we were going & what we were seeing, but it was in Chinese, so we just smiled & nodded like we understood her. I did get out my map & she pointed to the places we passed. It was fun & she was really sweet (I’m sure it is because she probably way over charged us & she felt guilty, I think you are supposed to bargain with them, but we usually don’t).

Back on the waterfront we decided to have dinner. Most restaurants have someone out front trying to convince you to come in & eat there. We got sucked in to one of the larger places. We went to the tanks to pick out our meal. We had no clue what kinds of fish we were seeing, so we took the easy way out & got some prawns (they were about a foot long) & fresh scallops, still in the shell & spitting. They take the fish out & put it in plastic bags & weigh what you get with this antiquated measuring system with a large hook & some tape on a stick. I guess it is accurate, we didn’t double check them. Then someone comes over & asks how you would like your food cooked. Then you wait. It took about 30 minutes, but it was well worth it. The scallops were served in the shell & were mixed with garlic & thin rice noodles. They were delicious. The prawns were grilled in garlic & white wine & again, delicious. We had rice & some veggie. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but we were stuffed. It was most delightful.
We headed home on the bus. It took a bit longer, but being on the upper level you get a good view of everything. We had no trouble getting back to the MTR & home. The only negative part of the day was all the garlic. It tasted great on the way down, but not so good for many hours later & all through the night as we still tasted it. I like garlic, but I have my limit as to how long I enjoy tasting it. I guess that is the price you pay for rich eating!

Laid back Saturday

2007-03-29T10:58:00.000-04:00

March 10 – Saturday and John decided not to go to work – YEAH!! We hung out at home, then wandered Soho (area below our apartment). We went to the frame shop & picked out frames and matting for some of our favorite photos. The man & his wife were very nice & helpful. I felt kind of dumb having to ask their opinion on everything, but I’m not used to doing this sort of thing. They were very helpful.

We tried to go to a Lebanese restaurant for an early dinner, but they didn’t open until 6, so we got sushi from our local grocery store & had a relaxing dinner at home. We watched The Departed on DVD. Pretty depressing movie, but people here were very excited that it got he Oscar because it is based on a movie about HK & written by a HK guy. People here were upset that at the Oscars I guess someone said the movie was based on another movie, but they said Japanese instead of Chinese. The woman who told me this was just amazed that someone could get Japan & China mixed up. She said Japan is very small, China is very big – how dumb does someone have to be to get the 2 countries mixed up. She said I guess because we all are Asian, then Americans think we are all the same. We are very insulted that this guy didn’t know the difference. This was Hong Kong’s chance to make the big time & he thinks we are Japan. It funny how upset this one woman was about it. But the guy should have gotten it right if he was going to bother to make the point. At least now you all know!!

Ocean Park

2007-03-29T10:57:00.000-04:00

March 9 – Friday

This morning I walked down the hill to the Central bus depot. I was to meet Sarah at the top of the escalator going down to bus #6. I was a bit early & sat on a step outside a bank branch that is there & very quickly a guard came over & told me I was not allowed to sit there. He said the bank gets very upset. I suppose I look like a vagrant. Sarah & I caught the bus to go to Ocean Park.

Ocean Park is an amusement park/aquarium/zoo. It is supposed to be one of the big tourist places to visit & neither of us had been. We both have visitors coming in the next month, so we felt like we should see if it would be worth bringing any of them here. We paid our fee, after a long discussion which they did not understand about whether at the end of the day I could turn in my day pass towards a season’s pass if I liked it enough. I gather they’ve not heard of that type of deal or we just were not communicating well enough.

We got the map & first disappointment was that the panda habitat was listed as closed for renovation. Of course that was one of the main things we wanted to see. Next was there was no butterfly area, which I was sure I’d seen on another map. Turns out that has been closed down, could not get a reason. We were pretty disappointed by these 2 things, but had paid our money. This park is interesting because it is in 2 major parts. There is the main entrance (where we entered) which has little kids activities & rides. Then there is a cable car that takes you up along a ridge along the coast to an outer peninsula, that has the “older” kid rides & sea life. There was not much to see on the main entrance side. We did find what they call dolphin university, which is where they are training dolphins for the dolphin show. Today the dolphins were getting ultrasounds. This is an education center as well as training area for dolphins.

There was also a rare bird show that we watched. They had parrots & macaws from Africa & South America. These were trained to do some tricks & to talk. There was also the largest owl I’ve ever seen, which swooped down on this poor kid who had volunteered to help. Of course he didn’t hit the kid, but I don’t think he was too thrilled by the experience. It was very well done and this also is a training & education area. They are working towards helping protect endangered species.

At this end of the park there was a hot air balloon on a tether that you could to up in for a look around, but since Sarah is afraid of heights & is was a cloudy day, we opted out of that ride. She did agree to take the cable car even though she warned me ahead of time that she’d act terrified & get sweaty palms, but not to worry, she could handle it. She did fine, but did have white knuckles as she held the edge of the seat the entire time.

The other side of the park has the “big kid” rides. I only went on one, a train roller coaster. It wasn’t very long, but some good ups & downs. It was fun. I went solo at that was just too much for Sarah. I sat in the front seat (couldn’t believe it wasn’t grabbed up) with a young Aussie woman. We had a blast & screamed & put our arms up. Sarah was watching from the side & she said we were the only ones with our arms up & screaming. She said the Chinese people on the ride just looked terrified & were very quiet. Cultural differences!

There are several ocean related exhibits mingled in with the rides. There were California seals – Sarah’s from California, so we were not too impressed with that. A large reef area with exotic fish & sea turtles. Nice large aquarium. My favorite thing in the aquarium area was the sea dragons. They are like sea horses, but with long spindles coming from their heads & tails. It is hard to tell them from the sea weed around them because they have so much flowing from their bodies. They were really interesting looking. The other thing that I loved was the jelly fish house. There were probably a dozen different tanks of jelly fish & the entire house was dark with black lights that kept changing colors. It was a very dramatic effect. It was sort of space alien feeling the way they move so slowly and the lights.

We took a bus back to town and spend an hour or so wandering around the elevated walkways around Central. These are walkways that keep you above the traffic & link a bunch of buildings together. Of course there are shops everywhere, wouldn’t be HK if you couldn’t shop. I resisted any shopping except at Oliver’s, the Western grocery store. I was in search of pizza dough & was not disappointed. I also found muenster cheese, which I’ve looked for since we got here & this is the first time I’ve seen it. Funny the things you end up missing. I also miss good hand crank can openers. Can you believe that I can’t find a good can opener here. I’ve looked everywhere. The ones they sell have a very short turn handle, so it kills your wrist. Don’t worry, Patti (my sister) has it on her list of things to bring over when she comes in about 2 weeks (I can’t wait, to see her & my mom, not to get the can opener).

On my way up the hill to come home, wouldn’t you know it, I passed a framing store. I stopped & he is about the same price as the woman in Stanley & a heck of a lot closer. He seemed very nice & he does the work himself. His English was good, which is always important when doing this type of business so things don’t get mixed up. It will be a lot easier to get John to come here then to Stanley to pick out frames. It was a good day!

Having found the pizza dough, I got the rest of the ingredients so that we could have our Friday night home made pizza. It wasn’t the same as at home for some reason. I think I don’t have the right kind of pan & for some reason the oven doesn’t get hot enough. It is supposed to be at 400, but this over only gets up to about 350 & that is pushing it.

March 8 - Stanley, dinner at Ruth's

2007-03-11T11:45:00.000-04:00

March 8 – Thursday

Alan & David asked me if I would mind very much going to the Peak & getting an oil painting like John & I have. I guess they really liked it. I explained that I’d come back after our day in Stanley & the ones out there were really about the same. I think they must have a factory where people do paint by number of the same picture, just changing the colors once in a while from blues to oranges to pinks to browns to black & whites. They all look the same, just different shades. I explained also that the woman is only at the Peak in the evening & I didn’t have an evening to go up there. Since they were leaving today, I decided to be really nice & go back out to Stanley to get each of the an oil (Alan actually wanted 2, one for office & one for home). It’s an easy bus ride out there & it was a nice day & I wouldn’t be long as the order was small & specific.

On my way down the hill to the bus depot, I passed a woman that I’ve noticed before who makes & sells jewelry. It is typical HK jewelry; jade & agate carved necklaces & bracelets & charms. I stopped to see what she had. Alan told me his 12 year old daughter is really into horses & I knew these places always had horse charms, for those born in the year of the horse. I asked the woman, whose name I learned is Gerry, is she could make a horse necklace & she could, but showed me an even nicer one that was already a necklace. The price was right (it wasn’t my money anyway), so I got it & then I decided to get something for his wife as well. I got a circular piece of yellow agate with a green shape in the middle of it. I liked it a lot, so figured she might was well. After all, it’s the thought that counts, even if you didn’t buy it yourself. I was told that she is an LLBean kind of woman, since I’m the same I figured what I’d like she’ll like. Makes it easier.

I then headed on out to Stanley. Went straight to the place I remembered the paintings being the least expensive. They all looked the same so I figured get the cheapest. Even the guy whose pictures were twice the cost of the others & claimed it was better canvas & finer detailed work, looked just the same. At the same place I noticed some embroidered bags that are typical HK. I got a small black one with Chinese characters on it for the wife & a little case with flowers embroidered on it for the daughter (they were all of $5US for the both). Then I saw that they had t-shirts, so I figured that would be a safe & inexpensive thing to get for his 2 boys. I got black ones with dragons & Chinese characters on them, so hopefully they’ll like them. They were about $6US for both, so no big deal if they don’t like them. My task accomplished in record time, I headed home to deliver the packages to the apartment so the guys could pack them up. I think I did pretty well.

John got home early for a change. Poor guy, he’s exhausted from having visitors & entertaining & getting up early to take these guys to China & staying up late answering phone calls & emails. BUT of course he said he met with a customer today who is here from Japan & he speaks no English & just to be nice he offered to take him out for dinner. John was sure he’d say no, but to his surprise he said yes. John asked if I’d please join him since maybe it wouldn’t be so awkward for them if at least 2 of us at the table could talk to each other. It sounded like it would be a very uncomfortable meal.

We met the guy at his hotel, John thought maybe he wouldn’t show, but he did. I had done some research on restaurants in the area (called Sarah, who seems to know a lot about restaurant & everything for that matter). Nobody at the hotel spoke Japanese, so John just started naming types of food: Italian, Chinese,…… and before he got to the 3rd choice the guy said “Steak, please American steak.” So we made a quick reservation at Ruth’s Crisp Steak House which was not very far away & I is certainly good American steak. That was much easier than we thought.
As it turns out he does speak a little English, he was just didn’t have to at the printer in China, because they had a translator for him. He works for Bridgestone, the tire company, who also is into sports equipment, golf balls in particular. He is the director of the packaging design. He told us that he went to University for 6 years to get his degree. We found out that he is married but has no children. He likes to play golf. Between drawing & sign language & his English we learned a lot about golf balls and Bridgestone’s place in the world market. They have a factory in Atlanta so he’s been there 5 or 6 times. All in all it was an extremely pleasant dinner. I guess the steak was good, I had a $20 plate of Portobello mushrooms & veggies. The conversation was sparse, but meaningful & fairly unbusiness related. This allowed all of us to relax & just enjoy the good food and get to know each other a little. He seemed to enjoy the evening as well. He said all he’d eaten for a week in China was Chinese Chinese Chinese, too much Chinese. It was funny to hear him talk about it. We returned him to his hotel & we were home before 9:30.

John called the sales person from his company who is on the Bridgestone account to let him know we’d had dinner with his client. He was really happy & said that he’d been reading up on Japanese culture & apparently they will not accept a dinner invitation unless they trust you, so he was really glad the man had accepted & that it went so well. We do what we can for the company, who doesn’t like having a great meal?

March 7 - office, movie

2007-03-11T11:16:00.001-04:00

March 7 – Wednesday

At the staff dinner I promised the ladies at the office that I’d show my face in there today, so I felt obligated. I figured I could find something to keep me busy for an hour or two. I told them I’d come in at lunch as they were anxious to take me to the shopping plaza near the office. Sophia & Ruby had brought some of their purchases with them to dinner (necklaces) & were very excited to show me. They did look like fun jewelry & the prices were great. When I got there they’d just ordered lunch, so they quickly added my order. I guess at the new office they usually just order in because there are not as many restaurants & they are so crowded. It was typical HK cuisine, which means rice or noodles, soup & some kind of meat & greens. They told me I should get BBQ pork because that is John’s favorite. I figured I’d give it a try. It all was good.

Ruby had a job for me to check out service apartments. The lease on the company apartment is about to run out, so they are looking for less expensive places to house visitors than hotels. So I went through the list & found those close to the new office. The Wilson showed up with a check & they all laughed that I should be there the day a big check comes in. I said of course I’d personally deliver it to the bank, guess they do need me a little. Takes a good bit longer to get to the bank from the new office, but it was good to get back out to that area. I like the feel of it, very local and native. Couldn’t stay long as I’d promised Sarah I’d go to the movies with her. John called from China to say that Alan & David wanted to go to the horse races. I was in a dilemma, but in the end I decided to go to the movie with Sarah as I had a feeling that the guys would cop out on the races & then I’d be mad that I’d passed up a chance to see a movie.

In HK you usually order your ticket ahead of time & it is for a specific seat. Sarah’s building is attached to the mall where the movie theater is, so she’d already gotten the tickets. We got popcorn & went to see Dreamgirls – a good chick flick! It just has come out here, we usually get movies a few months after they’ve been released in the states. The theater was about half the size of a US theater, but the seats were leather & very comfortable. The movie was terrific, I could have gone back to see it again the next night. And as it turns out, the guys did not end up going to the races, so I’d made the right choice.

Something funny I heard today. We usually watch the local news in the morning & they said there was a cold warning for today, as the temperature in HK was going to be 12C (that’s low 50’s to you & me). Imagine that all of your northerners who are suffering with below 0F temps, we get a “cold warning” for 52degrees. WOW!!

March 6 - Devil Beaters, Stanley, Korean - again

2007-03-11T10:37:00.000-04:00

Mar 6 – Tuesday

Today I was given two tasks by John, to take David to Stanley and to find a place to get some of our photos framed or a place to buy ready made frames. Since Sarah & I had already planned to go out to Stanley together today, the first one was no problem. Sarah had already told me about a woman that she’d used for framing in Stanley, so the 2 tasks worked perfectly together. Sophia had told me about some framing stores in the Wan Chai area, where the old office was. I decided to head out early & get prices on framing from several places, so I’d know what was a fair price.

There is a photo & frame shop just a few blocks from our apartment, so I started there. We had asked this guy before & I remember he’d seemed fairly expensive. My memory was correct, but I took his card & wrote down his price range. I caught the bus to Wan Chai & gave Sophia a call to find out where the places were she had seen. She told me where to look, but also told me that if I had time I needed to head down towards Causeway Bay (the area that Time Square is in) because today was a special day in the continuing Chinese New Years celebration. Today is Devil Beaters day. Sophia said I needed to go to the area under the Canal Road Bridge to see this most interesting Chinese tradition. She said that old women sit on low stools & people pay them to beat the evil spirits out of their lives. She said you tell them someone you want out of your life and they chant & light incense & then put a paper with images on it, onto a brick and then bang the image with the heel of an old shoe. She said there are always one or 2 of these women in this location, but today there would be dozens of them. If you want someone out of your life, this is the day to take care of it. Well, you know I couldn’t miss this.

I knew it would take me about 10 or 15 minutes to walk down there & I had a good 1 ½ hours before I had to meet David & Sarah was going to head out to Stanley on her own & we’d meet here out there. I stopped at a few more frame places on the way to the bridge & got prices. I knew I was near the bridge when I started hearing this constant banging noise, like the sound wooden heals make when walking across tile or brick. There was a crowd of people under the bridge. The old women had set up small temples in the area with candles burning & incense smoking. Each woman had her own little temple. All were decorated with some sort of tiger, either a statue or stuffed animal. Each animal had what looked like a slab of fat or lard laid across it’s back. There were also paper tigers that each person enlisting the services of the Devil Beater got to take away with them. So far I haven’t found anyone who can explain the significance of the tigers or the fat. They just say, “yeah, you get a paper tiger when you’re done, I have not idea why”. I’ll find out eventually.

It was really fun to watch the ceremony and ritual that each Devil Beater went through. Each had a long line of people waiting their turn. I was tempted to give it a try, but I was pretty sure none of them would speak English & there isn’t really anyone I’d want beaten with the heel of a shoe. Guess living on the other side of the planet and not working tends to make for very few enemies in ones life. I noticed one person paying & it looked like she gave the woman $180HK ($25US). I also didn’t feel like spending that amount of money on something I was likely not to understand. I took a video of the whole thing because I wanted John to be able to hear it. The sound was the most impressive thing, just constant banging. It was cool. I was definitely the only Westerner there & got lots of smiles from the Devil Beaters as I took photos. They seemed pleased that I found it so fascinating. My photo site says that I can post videos, so I’m going to try to post this one. It will probably take a day to upload, but I’ll send an email if it works.

I made it back in plenty of time to meet David. We headed out on the bus to Stanley. It is a great ride out there, winding roads, beautiful ocean views. We met Sarah & she having lived in Stanley the first 9 months in HK, knew her way around. She took us to a Tin Hau Temple. Tin Hau temples are temples to the goddess of the sea or fishermen, so almost every fishing village will have one. There is a story that goes with it, but it’s kind of long. There is also an area that has been restored to look like the old fishing village. It is nicely done. Stanley is known for it’s restaurants, but most for Stanley market. You know HK, they love to shop here. Stanley market must have well over 100 stalls with everything you could want, jewelry, bags, clothing, linens, souvenirs, art, the list goes on & on. The prices are OK & you can bargain some. It is a little cleaner & less manic than the night market in Mong Kok that is also famous in HK. Sarah did a great job of showing us the places were she’d found special items or knew were quality products. She also knew what was a fair price to pay for items. As enjoyable as David was to take around, he is not a shopper. In 2 hours of taking him from shop to shop, he bought a little Buddha as a joke for a friend, silk boxer shorts for his 9 year old son, a plain white cashmere scarf for his wife, and a small Chinese painted name sheet for wife & son. He was supposed to be getting gifts for Alan as well, but didn’t seem to like anything we suggested. He was supposed to get Alan an oil painting of HK like the one John & I had purchased at the Peak, but for some reason none of the ones we saw appealed to him. I have to admit that each store had the same paintings, which makes me realize we probably got a line of crap from the woman at the Peak, unless her husband works on the assembly line that does all of these oils. So the trip was pretty much a bust for David, I doubt his son will be thrilled with getting silk boxer shorts from HK. The white scarf was nothing special or typical of HK. Oh well, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. I was glad that Sarah & I had already planned to make this trip.

David & I had to get back to town for a Cadmus staff dinner with the HK director of the Company that has purchased John’s company. Don’t know if I mentioned this change with Cadmus in an earlier entry. We don’t know if or how this might effect our stay here, we’ll just have to wait & see. For now they say no changes, so we’ll keep enjoying it while it lasts.

We were going out for Korean BBQ, seems to be a favorite of this group. This time it was at a different restaurant in Kowloon. It was fun to see everyone & this time I tried Korean beer. I stayed away from the sake & plum wine, had enough last time. The guy from the new company was really nice & very relaxed & casual. He is married to a Chinese (mainland) woman, so he knows some Mandarin. The group had fun talking with him in Mandarin. It was a fairly uneventful meal, except on the way up the escalator in the building we passed a jewelry store that was called Cadmus. This of course required some photos to be taken. We had to show the others on the way down.

When John & I had told Alan & David about the vodka bar we visited with Keith, they had expressed an interest in seeing it. Before we left for dinner I checked the card I’d taken & found out they had a 2nd bar in the same block as the building we’d be having dinner in. After dinner I told them about this & they decided if we were this close we needed to check it out. So we found the place, put on the coats, had a shot (I declined since it had made me feel so sick last week), & took the obligator photo. They enjoyed it & we didn’t stay long. All in all a good day!

March 5 - Walk to the Peak, with a twist

2007-03-11T09:46:00.000-04:00

Mar 5 – Monday

A very gloomy dreary day today, so perfect for doing computer & paper work. I spent a good part of the day doing the FAFSA application for each of the boys. If you don’t have kids in college you may not know what this is. This is the application that you have to complete if you want to get any money or loans from the government for education purposes. It is almost as bad as doing you taxes & since we haven’t filed our taxes yet, it was difficult to complete. Of course their deadline is sooner than the tax deadline, so it makes it complicated. Normally our financial situation from one year to the next is not that different, so this isn’t too tough, but this year with working overseas, well, we have no idea what the tax implications are. So mostly I just gave it my best guess & I can always go back & change it later. Bottom line is it took most of the day to get those done & take care of a bunch of other paperwork things.
John was occupied with the sales guys, so I was on my own. I opted for not joining the for dinner, I’ve had enough listening to business. So about 6:30 I decided that I needed some fresh air. It was still gloomy out & looked like it might rain, but it looks like that a lot here. I have learned that I can’t keep that from letting me do what I want to do or I’d do nothing. I decided I would walk to the Peak on my favorite road. It was light when I left & I knew it would be dark by the time I returned, but it is well lit & well traveled, so I was not concerned. HK is so safe, you really don’t need to worry as long as you are smart & have common sense.

I did better getting up, didn’t have to stop as many times as I did before. Felt good to be outside & getting some exercise. As I figured there were many other people out & about enjoying the evening. It was cool enough for a long sleeved shirt, but not a jacket. As I rounded the top it began to mist & actually felt good. I continued around the front of the Peak back to my road down & as I moved along the rain got harder & harder. By the time it was coming down pretty well, I figured it would be as far to go back to the Peak & take the tram down as it would be to walk. The rain felt good & it was actually very meditative listening to the sound of the rain. It eliminated the other city noises that you sometimes hear up there & you just heard the drops on the leaves and the frogs croaking & birds singing. There were some other foolish people out, a group dressed in suits & nice dresses, which obviously had not expected the rain either. They were having a good laugh about their situation. By the time I got home I was dripping wet, but very happy. The guard laughed with me about how I looked & said I should remember to bring an umbrella next time. Took a shower & had a very good night sleep.

March 4 - Buddha, N'Dour concert

2007-03-11T09:45:00.000-04:00

Mar 4 – Sunday

As David had never been to HK before, he wanted to see the Big Buddha. It is the main tourist attraction & you really shouldn’t come here & not see it, although I think that is John’s plan (he still hasn’t been up there). The guys came over for omelets, our Sunday morning ritual. Of course the guys talked business & David & I didn’t get out until very late. I had gotten tickets ahead of time so we wouldn’t have the long wait for the cable car, but we were so late there was hardly a line at all. He didn’t seem to excited by the ride up & I don’t think he took more than one photos. It’s a pretty impressive ride, so I was surprised he wasn’t more enthusiastic. He was nice & pleasant as could be, but just not very impressionable (maybe that’s just sales people). Getting tickets ahead you have to get round trip & as we disembarked we realized that this was not necessarily going to work for us. The line of people waiting to go down the cable car was about 1 ½ hours (they had it marked along the way “45 minute wait from here”). We decided we might want to find alternative return options.

We walked up the 260 stairs to the Buddha. Like everyone that comes to visit, David commented on the amount of exercise you get in HK, just walking about up & down the hills. He took a few photos of Buddha, but again, didn’t seem too impressed. There were more people there than I’ve ever seen before, it was jammed. I’m guessing it might be the last Sunday of the New Year, but I’m not sure. It was fairly humid & warm & we worked up a good sweat climbing the steps. We visited the temple below & again, David didn’t seem impressed & took very few photos. He opted against a side trip to the fishing village or the walk out to the Path of Wisdom. Guess he was just tired & didn’t feel like sight seeing.

We checked out the line for the cable car back down & it was no better. So I said we could take a bus back to the MTR station. Turns out the bus was leaving right then so we hoped aboard. It was a great trip up & over the mountains back to the other side of the island. There was a lot of construction going on so it wasn’t fast, but better than waiting in line for 2 hours. We made it back without further incident & David said he was not going to recommend the Buddha for John to go visit. He kept saying it was a tourist trap & I kept reminding him that for Buddhists, it is a religious sight & very important to them. He didn’t seem to buy this & said unless John was going to become Buddhist, he shouldn’t bother visiting. We all laughed over that. John was glad to have someone on his side about the Buddha.

In the evening I went to a concert with my friend, Sarah. She’d gotten tickets before she realized that her husband would be out of town.. We met at the mall next to her building & had dinner at one of those conveyer belt sushi places. It was really fun. They have green tea powder at the table & a place where you push your cup in & get hot water to make your tea. As items go by that you like you just take them off & you get charged by the number of plates & the color of the plate. The food was delicious & it was a fun experience.

The concert was in Kowloon at the cultural center, a lovely building & the concert hall was great. Our seats were 1st balcony center stage, nice. The artist was Youssou N’Dour. He is from Senegal & has recorded with several popular artists. He has done a lot of work for social issues, especially ones that affect his country. I’d never heard of him, but was glad to have the chance to go to a concert. Right from the first song, it was obvious that this was going to be at a minimum a foot tapping concert. The music was very African with drumming and lots of rhythm. I don’t know much about music, but there isn’t anyway you couldn’t love this music. It just made you have to move & move people did. I was very surprised that people got up from their seats & moved to the aisles & the space in front of the stage & danced & moved to the music. From my experience, in a theater like this, people wouldn’t be allowed to stand in the aisles, but no moves were made to stop them.

We stood most of the performance, as did most of the audience, well except for the people next to me. Sarah & I figured they were French (don’t ask me why, just looked like it). The man next to me looked in his late 30’s & it was probably his wife next to him & obviously her mother next to her (they looked just alike). We decided that the wife/daughter had forced the other 2 to attend the concert & they did so just to humor her. The man spent most of the time text messaging on his cell phone, which he hid from everyone, except me with his program. I think he tapped his foot 3 times & that was the song that had everyone standing & dancing & clapping & shouting. He did smile a few times, but we think that was just to make his wife think he was enjoying himself. The wife/daughter look mildly interested & actually sat forward & clapped with a few of the songs, but not very enthusiastically. The mother held her hands close to her chest and had a look of complete distain & disgust during the entire performance. It was so comical to watch them. They bolted as soon as the performance was over, without even waiting for the encore. For the rest of us, it was raucous and wonderful and left you feeling so good and happy. I was so glad that Sarah’s husband had left town & she admitted that I probably enjoyed it way more than he would have.

So if you get a chance to hear his music, I highly recommend it: Youssou N’Dour !

March 3 - Next guys from US

2007-03-11T09:43:00.000-04:00

Mar 3 – Saturday, Chinese Lantern Day

Woke up to one of the clearest days we’ve had in a long time. The weather lately has been so cloudy & hazy. I’m not sure if it’s pollution or just winter weather, my guess is a combo. But today was clear as can be. I decided it was a great day for a hike. We had 2 sales people coming in from the US, but John said they wouldn’t be in until about 2pm. I figured I could be back by then. I had taken the linens to be cleaned from Keith’s visit & they wouldn’t be done until 4 today (Keith left Thurs). The hike I chose looked like a challenging one, but I wanted a view, so I figured I’d go for it. It was a trail called Dragon’s Back & it’s on the other side of HK Island near Shek O (the beach John liked so much). I was about to leave & John asked if I’d come over to the apartment & get some things ready for the next guys, because he had to work on the internet which wasn’t working. Of course I didn’t mind at all. We’d just gotten there & the door opens & it was the 2 sales guys, Alan & David. I guess John was slightly mistaken about the arrival time. So we ended up entertaining them the rest of the day. It wasn’t so bad & I’ll get to do Dragon Back another day, maybe when mom & Pat are here.

We went over to Kowloon-side to our favorite Japanese restaurant, Osaka. These guys felt like having Japanese, they’d just come from a week in Thailand, so Thai was definitely out. They were appropriately impressed & enjoyed the hustle & bustle around the area. Since it was such a clear evening, we told them we really should go to the Peak to get some photos. Alan has been to HK before, but David never has. So Alan wasn’t very thrilled about going to the Peak as he said he’d been twice before, but we convince him to go. We took the Peak Tram, which Alan had never done (he took taxis before & that is a much longer journey). Alan turned out to be very impressed. He said the other times he’d been there he didn’t go to the top of the Peak building & it was also very cloudy. We had a group photo taken at the top & Alan even got one to take home & put in his office. It can be hard in impress salesmen!

Today was Lantern Day. I guess this is part of the New Year celebration & happens on the 14th day after New Years. I happened to find out about this because I noticed at Time Square that they were putting up lanterns all over the front atrium. I asked someone what this was for & they explained it was for Lantern Day, like Chinese Valentine’s Day. They explained that the children & young people who are not married pull fortunes from the lanterns & it gives them a message (I guess like the little Valentine’s cards that kids give out in school). They march or dance around the lanterns & there is candy distributed. I couldn’t find out much more than that. I will have to ask Sophia for a more thorough explanation.

March 2 - Back to Chinese Int. School, lunch with the Heifer Ladies

2007-03-11T09:39:00.000-04:00

Mar 2 – Friday

Back up to the CIS (Chinese International School) today for the older kids. Today we had some other guests from Heifer China who were going to talk about the past project the kids sponsored. These are some PR people from the China group in town to help promote their work. When I got to the end of the bus line (no bathroom break this time), there were only 3 other people on the bus. When I got off, it turned out they were Jeanie & the 2 women from Heifer China. We had a good laugh at the fact that we didn’t realize we were riding together. The 2 women seemed very nice. They didn’t speak too much English, but enough for us to have a nice conversation. We were also meeting another volunteer who wants to do the same thing that I’m doing. She has just joined up & came along to observe me in action (imagine that, I’m already training people). She turned out to be American & from NY. So naturally we had plenty to talk about. She’s much younger than I am, has a 1 ½ year old son & is pregnant. Her husband is from NY also, but through some interesting circumstances he is part owner of a factory just over the border in Mainland China. She’s lived here for almost 3 years. She was a teacher until her son was born, so she’s also well suited for this work. She also happens to live the next street up from where we live here in HK. So another potential friend.

The women from Heifer China did their presentation first & it was all in Mandarin, so I have no idea what they said. It really impressed me how the kids could move so easily from one language to the other. The beauty of learning languages early in life & getting the opportunity to use them in daily life. These kids are so fortunate. My presentation went fine & there was another good discussion about water at the end. So hopefully we will raise lots of money from these kids.

Since there were 5 of us, we took a taxi back down to town. The other American had to get home, but I was invited to join the others for lunch. We had typical Chinese, they order a bunch of things & everyone shares. I love it! The other women from the Heifer HK office joined us as well & I sat next to Bianca, who handles corporate sponsorship among other things (they have a small staff, so I think they each do a lot of things). Bianca’s English was excellent & I soon learned that she is married to a Brit. I asked what he does & it turns out he is the Exec. Director of Kadoorie Farms. You may not recall Kadoorie Farms, but I visited it last fall & loved it. I took a million photos of flowers & had one of the best days I’ve had in HK there. I told her how much I loved it & she was thrilled that I’d even heard of it, let alone actually been there. Nobody else at the table had ever been, so I think I instantly went WAY up in her opinion. I told her how much I’d enjoyed my visit to the farm & that I couldn’t wait to take my sister & mother there when they came to visit. She told me to contact her when they were here & she arrange for her husband to give us a VIP tour & we could eat at the staff dining room that serves only organic food grown on the farm. Am I ever glad she sat next to me. The Heifer thing is proving to be good in more ways than I’d imagined.

After lunch they showed me to Time Square (we were right near it) as I had to pick up some items at City Super that I couldn’t find at the local grocery. I thanked the so much for the wonderful lunch. They thanked me so much for my volunteering. The women from Heifer China were particularly thankful that I was helping out. Bianca suggested that I go on the next Heifer trip to China to check out the project & the China women agreed. I told them to show me where to sign up. Wouldn’t that be something, I’d see a part of China that I’m guessing not many tourists get to see. I hope it happens.

March 1 - Heifer at Chinese International School

2007-03-11T09:32:00.000-04:00

Mar 1 – Thursday

Today I had a presentation for Heifer at the Chinese International School. Fortunately this school is located at the end of one of the bus lines that goes right past our apartment. I left plenty of time, but had to wait for the bus about 25 minutes. Good thing I left early. I’ve ridden this bus before, but never to the end. It goes through some very populated areas & everyone had gotten off by the time we started climbing the hill. I was way in the back & when we pulled into a bus station about halfway up the hill the driver stopped & got out. I assumed this was the end of the line, so I got out also. He seemed surprised to see that anyone was still on the bus & asked where I was going. I said Breamer Hill & he motioned me to get back on & pointed on up the hill. So I got back on. He got off & headed to a small building for the drivers. I figured out that it was a quick bathroom break. Never thought about the drivers having to use the facilities. He shared a few words with some other drivers who were playing cards & having snacks, then reboarded the bus. We went on up the hill, typical HK road, full of twists & turns & going ever higher & higher. We passed several schools on the way up, but at the very top, I saw the Chinese International School, it was tremendous. Several floors high (I learned it was 8 floors later in the day) & very new looking.

Jeanie, my Heifer companion, was there waiting for me as arranged. She is so sweet & was very relieved that I’d had no problems getting there. I was exactly on time. We had to go through security & get name badges in order to enter the school. We headed to the auditorium, Jeanie has been here before. She loaded our power point onto the computer at the front. The guy she works with at the school showed up & he was an American. He heads up the English department. He explained that today we would be talking to the “little ones”. First group would be K-2nd grade, then the 3 & 4 year students. Tomorrow we would have his group, 5 & 6th years. This school goes up to high school, which is why it is so large. It has been around a long time & is very prestigious. Jeff, our connection, was very casual & friendly, just like at the other school. He spoke fairly good Cantonese according to Jeanie. He said he’s lived in HK for 13 years & isn’t really that good at the language.

Jeanie explained to me that this school mainly teaches in English, but the kids also have to learn/know Cantonese & Mandarin. She said this is one reason why many people want their kids going there. There were many more Chinese children at this school than the first one I went to.

The little ones filed in & were very well behaved. The project this school sponsored last year was different from the other school, so I had to adjust my talk accordingly. Jeanie asked if I’d do both presentations, as they wanted it in English & I could do it better. I happily agreed. Last year this school raised over $350,000HK (close to $50,00US). The project they sponsored was to purchase honey bees for some communities in the mountains where farming is difficult and the level of poverty is very high. The kids loved that they’d bought bee hives. We had some lively discussion about why bees were a good thing for these people and how it improved their lives. I read 2 letters from kids whose families participated in the project & they talked about how much the bee hives had improved their lives. The girl had never had any new clothes & with the money from the honey & wax, she was able to get a few new clothes & their diets improved considerably. The boy said that nobody would ever come to his house to play because it was so awful and they never had any food to share. But after a year with the bee hives the family could remodel their home and now they could afford better & more food. The kids liked hearing these stories.

Then I spoke about the project they will sponsor this year. It is the same as the other school I went to, building water tanks & giving pigs. The kids were amazed that the children in the new area have to spend about 6 hours a day collecting water for their families. They quickly figured out that either the kids couldn’t go to school or they wouldn’t have the time or energy to do anything but go to school & collect water. It was interesting to see the kids figure this out. They also thought the pigs were cute, until on smart boy near the front figured out that in order for the families to make money from the pigs they were most likely going to have to kill them for the meat. He wasn’t very happy about this, but we kept it quite so the other kids wouldn’t get upset about “their” pigs getting killed in order to help. By the time the boy left, he guessed it was OK, since pigs have lots of babies & pork is one of his favorites foods. Overall, the kids behaved very well & I seemed able to keep their attention for the 20 minute presentation (thank good ness).

Jeanie & I ate lunch on the 8th floor (that’s how I knew how many floors) in the cafeteria. It was a good Chinese lunch of rice & veggies. The second group went very well also. Same presentation & pretty much the same reaction & response. Only thing that was different is that the teachers were so excited about the new project, because these grades have been studying water, so this fits perfectly into their curriculum. We were very glad to hear this. There was a lively discussion about water & what they’d been learning all year about it. When we were done Jeanie asked me if I would mind very much coming back the next day for the older group. The person she’d asked to help her never called her back & she felt like I had a good handle on the material. Of course I was more than happy to oblige her. We took a mini bus back (holds 16 people) & it’s generally faster than the city buses. It’s always a fun experience being around native folks as I get a chance to ask all my stupid gweilo (that’s white person) questions. Fortunately the people I’m with never seem to mind.

Feb. 25 - 28 Lots of things.......

2007-03-08T10:17:00.001-05:00

Feb 25 – NP360, Buddha, Tai O, Stanley, Aberdeen, The Peak

Not doing very well with my blogging since I’ve returned from the holidays. I’m not working any more, but seem to be keeping myself pretty busy. So today is March 8, I’m over a week behind. The good thing for those who wanted brevity, is that my memory isn’t so good, so there will be many details that I’ve forgotten.

So on this Sunday my job was to show Keith (the Cadmus guy here for the week from the US) some of the HK sight, a mission I’m happy to undertake. He wanted to see the Big Buddha on Lantau Island, a must see in HK. Having been before I knew just what to do. Since this trip was not decided on until the last minute, I couldn’t buy the tickets for the skyrail (cable car) ahead of time. This meant waiting in line for about an hour. It wasn’t too bad & the weather was fairly comfortable & not so humid. The skyrail was spectacular. This being my 2nd trip I knew what to expect. It is fun to see other’s reactions though. It was a nice clear day so good for photo shooting. (this photo is NOT Keith, just thought this guy looked so cute with his New Years pinwheel trophy)

Since I’ve described the Buddha in detail on other occasions I won’t do it again. I’ve learned a few tricks, like you don’t HAVE to buy the $7.50US tickets which include a veggie lunch in order to climb to the top (260 stairs). If you really want to go into the enclosed area under the Buddha, (museum of sorts, but the most exciting thing is the Buddha relic – piece of his bone – that is the size of a grain of rice & behind several sheets of glass, so it’s almost impossible to see & not too awe inspiring for non-Buddhists) you can just buy a much cheaper ticket for that. We just climbed the stairs. We wandered around the temple which was fairly crowded, typical for Sunday. People are still celebrating the New Year, so the temple is where they go to light lots & lots of incense & have their fortunes told. We also went out to the Path of Wisdom, which was no longer under construction like the last time I went. Much nicer now.

We then took the bus out to Tai O, the fishing village & Keith got the obligatory photo of the shark skin & all sorts of dried fish. He bought a beer for 50 cents & drank it as we wandered. No open container laws here. We hoped another bus & headed to the village where we caught the ferry back to HK Island. It was the slow ferry, but nice weather, so it was very pleasant to sit outside. The guy next to us looked like an experienced British ferry rider. He looked in his 70’s & had several cans of beer that he consumed on the ride, he also had snacks & read the paper. I guess his relaxing Sunday ride. I wouldn’t be surprised if he stayed on & rode it back again. Maybe time to get away from the wife or something, who knows.

We’d been in contact with John who stayed home to do some work & he met us at the ferry pier. We caught a bus from the pier out to Stanley Market, which is on the south side of the island. John likes to take people there, it is easy & less stressful shopping that the night market. When we arrived it was about 5:50 & the market closes at 6 (OOPS). Turns out many places didn’t really close up until 6:30. It was almost empty & many shops were closed already, so it made it pretty easy. Keith did a good job getting things for family & friends & getting them quickly. It is interesting to see how different people work the shopping thing.

We hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so we decided to try a seafood place that I had heard was good in Aberdeen. It sort of a tourist place, but supposed to be good. So we took a taxi to Jumbo Restaurant. It is supposedly the largest floating restaurant in the world. It doesn’t go anywhere, but you do have to take a boat out to it. Very fancy & Chinese. We got the set dinner which was great. We had fish soup, shrimp, seaweed salad, scallops, crab balls, a whole fish (this is the Chinese way of serving) which was delicious. I think a few other things. The dessert was the most interesting. I’d been telling Keith about how taste buds are different in different countries. I said what the Chinese consider sweet, we would not consider so. They love red beans & make candy and ice cream out of it. It is sort of strange for Westerners. Well our dessert was red bean & lotus seed cream soup. It was a hot soup & slightly sweet, but had tiny red beans in it & was red colored. Keith was not impressed. It was OK, I think John liked it.

It was such a clear evening that we decided Keith should see the Peak lest it be cloudy & he miss it later in the week. So we hoped a taxi to the Peak. It was indeed an excellent night for photo taking up there. We even talked to a woman selling oil paintings that she said her husband paints & she sells every night up there. They were mostly of HK in different shades, some at night with a moon, some at sunset, some very pink ones (strange). We each bought one, they were like $12US, so no big deal, but I think will look nice framed on our wall. Easy to transport. Since Keith felt like he missed dessert, we got some gelato & all were happy with that. The Italians know how to make sweet sweets. We took the Peak Tram down & were all pretty tired. I told Keith I think he set a record for any visitor we’ve had in visiting the most places in one day. We were all worn out.

Feb 26 – Dragon & Lion Dancers, etc…

Today I went to pick up the thing that I’d taken to the tailor to have made. Not sure if you remember, but this was for John & I thought is was something for the company, a sample or something, so I agreed to get copies made of this garment. It was a terrycloth swim suit cover all (one piece, shorts & strapless elastic top). After I took it to the tailor, Mrs. Poon, John tells me it is for his boss’s mother-in-law. Imagine sending something like that here to be made, I didn’t really get it. Anyway, I don’t think Mrs. Poon understood that the garment was not for me. I had tried to tell her to copy exactly, not for me. She kept wanting to make it bigger. Well, she made it bigger. Not a lot bigger, but definitely bigger. She wanted me to try it on & I had to say, no, not for me. It ended up costing about $50US, so I don’t think the boss is going to be very happy. I don’t know what it costs to have things made, but it was so simple I think it could have been done for that in the US.

I had to go to the post office & had found out the nearest one was down the hill on Queen’s Road, near the tailor. Walking along Queen’s Rd I naturally passed some little clothing stalls. I had to stop & a few had some bigger sized T-shirts. I got a couple of them because they were so funny. One I got says “Crusty Demons” on the front in Goth lettering. I got this for Brooks girlfriend for her birthday. The funniest thing about it is that on the inside where the label should be (there was no label) was printed “made in China by the tallest people we could find there”. This just cracked me up. I also found a t-shirt for my friend, Sue, who also has a birthday. This one was much stranger, you know why this stuff is sold here & not in an English speaking country, because half the stuff is misspelled & often what is written doesn’t mean anything. So here is what Sue’s said: “VOICE HEARI AYRO” in large letters, then under in small letters, “It you nsicn carefully to the voice of HER your God and do what is righr ia his eyes, if you’pay attention to his commands and heep all his decrees, t will not hrhr on you any of the diseases and heals co B005” Don’t ask me what it mean, but I thought Sue would find it amusing. I got one for myself that reads “HEAT” then under that “CELEB” then under that “ATTENTION”, then written over those words “CHEERFUL GIRL”. I just liked the Cheerful girl part.

I did find the post office & it was in the huge building that we can see from our apartment that has really nice lights at night & I’ve never known what building it was. It is called just The Center. There are government offices & other random offices in it & the post office. Had to go to 3 different windows, it is very confusing. You can do a lot of things at the post office besides send mail, so there are lots of windows for many different things & what they write in English is more British English, so it doesn’t always make sense to us Americans.

As I exited the building I happened to notice that they were putting up a display or something in the area in front of the building. I noticed a sing saying “Dragon & Lion Dancers at 1:30”. It was 12:45, so I decided to wait & see what it was all about. Dragon dances are a big deal for the New Year, very traditional & people go crazy over them. I was the first one there so staked out my spot. I’d learned from the New Years performances. The guards made me move back some & people kept trying to get in front of me & the guard would move them back behind me. One woman get next to me & she took it upon herself to make sure I retained my front spot. She didn’t speak a word of English, but spoke to me continuously in Chinese. It was so funny. I think she knew I didn’t understand, but she just wanted to talk. When the guy who is like the Chinese father Christmas came out with a basket of goodies, she made a point of getting some & gave them to me. They were red envelops with candy & we decided it wasn’t very good so we both gave our extras to a little boy near us, he didn’t like them either. She also went back a few times to get different strips of red paper with gold Chinese writing on them. I guess they each have a different meaning to bring you luck for different things. She got me a bunch of them & explained in detail what each one said. I understood none of it, but smiled & nodded politely. I guess I was her project for the day.

When the dance finally started I did have a good spot & got some great photos (my new friend made sure of that). The music for the dancing was provided by several huge drums & some symbols, that’s it. So it was very loud, but fun. The dragon came out first & it was a long dragon on several poles held up by probably 15 or 20 people. One person holds up a ball on a pole & leads the dragon around. They are very agile & fast & had to keep changing out dancers as they got too tired to keep up. At one point they gave the ball pole to a man in a suit (I’m guessing a government official or bank president) & he had the honor of leading the dragon, everyone cheered for him.

Next up were the 2 pole lions, that actually looked very much like dragons to me, but they were 1 person in a suit, covered by the suit. These guys climbed poles that were about 25 feet high held by people at the bottom. There was a cross bar that they danced on & leaped off of & did all sort of acrobats on. At the end they were served some lettuce with long poles & the lion took it in his mouth, held it there, then spit it out all chewed up. Next they were given a scroll & at the appropriate moment, confetti was shot into the air & the lions let their scrolls were released to reveal a long scroll with what I assume was a special New Years message. Everyone cheered like crazy.

The high point of the performance was the lion that walked on poles. There were about 10 sets of metal poles that were about 10 feet high, set up in a row with metal circles on top of them, barely enough room to stand on. This lion (2 men under a lion suit) jumped onto the platforms &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; leaped & jumped from one to another & stood on each other like raring up. They twisted & turned & you always felt like there was no way they would land on that little platform safely & they always did. They were really incredible. I can’t even describe how amazing & impressive it was. It ended with great cheering from the crowd & the dragon & all the lions dancing together & taking bows. It sure was a fun event to happen upon, I’m so glad I got to see it.

The rest of my day was spent looking for some books for John. It turns out there are not large book stores here like we have in the US. The largest I could find in our area was probably 1500 sq. ft. They had lots of books, the Chinese are great at fitting lots of stuff in very small areas, but not what he wanted. I was also looking for maps of Asian countries that are notebook size & stiff & durable. Nobody had a clue what I was wanting. I went to 4 different book stores, it was very frustrating. Thank goodness for Amazon.com!!

Feb 27 – Back to the temple & Walled City Park

It still being New Years (it lasts in earnest for the first 2 weeks after the actually day & really for a month afterwards), Sarah & I decided to do what all good Chinese folk do & go to the temple to have our fortunes read. We headed out to the best temple for fortunes (the one I’d been to last week), at Wong Tei San. The place was absolutely packed with people all over the place burning incense & fake money, praying & making offerings & doing the fortune stick thing. I bought myself a New Years bobble – it is a stick wrapped in shinny red ribbons & has a big circle with 4 little pin wheels on it. There are other ribbons of red & gold all over it & other decorations. Everyone had them & they came in all different sizes. We got our incense & fortune sticks. We made our wishes & then headed for the fortune telling area. We got sucked into seeing the first woman who had English written on her booth. Sarah had her palm read & it was not very clear what the woman was talking about. The woman took Sarah’s numbers & said about the same thing about the 2 numbers as she did about the palm. We weren’t very impressed. We next went to the woman I’d used last week. We had to wait, but it was worth it. She was much clearer. I couldn’t remember the numbers I had gotten (probably very bad luck), so I passed on the fortune. I’ll have to stick with the one I got last week.

There is a little meditation park near the temple that has a large pond that is filled with turtles. It was very peaceful to walk around. It was lunch time so we went to the little mall near the temple & had Chinese soup. On our way out we were looking at the map to figure out if we could walk to the Kowloon Walled Park. A woman very nicely asked if she could help us. I explained where we wanted to go. She started talking to some other people & they all gave suggestions in Chinese & she translated to me. He was drawing all over my map & trying to show me where to catch the bus & which bus was best to take. Sarah said afterwards that at one point there were no less than 10 people surrounding me making suggestions in Chinese. It was comical, but very nice of them to be so helpful. We laughed afterwards that we could have been at the park in the time they spent trying to tell us how to catch the bus & where to get off. Must have been 10 minutes doing all of this.

We finally told them we now knew where to go & would be fine & thanked them profusely. They wanted to take us to the bus stop, but we said that was not necessary. We wandered out & did our best to find the bus area, but after all of that, we couldn’t find it. We were laughing so hard. We finally looked at each other & said “Hell, let’s just take a taxi, it isn’t that far.” It was not far at all & once in the taxi we saw the bus depot. Oh well.

I’d been to the Kowloon Walled City Park before. It is a peaceful & relaxing place. Nice after the hectic temple scene. We walked around enjoyed the waterfall & rock sculpture. Sarah explained to me that the Chinese design their parks to resemble larger areas in nature, so the rocks were probably supposed to represent mountains. It made sense. We walked back about 10 minutes to the MTR station. I avoided taking out my map again for fear of getting “help”. Having done this trip before I knew where to go. No more adventures or misadventures on this journey.

Feb 28 –

Not a very exciting day. I worked on our taxes most of the day. We had to have all the info in to the tax prep people by today. There were many on-line forms to complete & copies of papers to scan. Not much fun, but it is done!! I went over to the Heifer International office to see the power point for the presentation that I’d be doing tomorrow. This school had a different project that they sponsored last year, so I needed to brush up on that. No problem!!

This evening I walked into our bed room, which has a good view of the harbor & something was really different. I did a second look at the harbor & there was this gigantic ship going by. It dwarfed the ferries & other boats out there. As it went by I could easily read on the smoke stacks “QUEEN MARY II”. WOW, I called for John to come take a look. I was not quick enough to get my camera out before it disappeared behind the buildings. I quickly called Sarah to tell her to look out her window. They had not seen it coming & were impressed as well. Sarah keeps up with local news better than I do, so she knew it was in town. I guess the harbor where the cruise ships usually dock is not large enough for QM2, so she had to dock out where the big cargo ships dock & ferry people in to port. It was an impressive sight.

Feb 23 & 24 - Stores, HK Park, Cheese Balls & Vodka Bar

2007-03-05T09:51:00.000-05:00

Feb 23 – Bookstores, groceries, HK Park, Cheese balls

John has asked me to see if I can find a book for him on digital photography, specifically on the camera that he has. So I decided to see if I could find any large bookstores today. There is one that I pass sometimes when taking a certain bus route home & it looks to be a good size, so I headed for it. On the way I passed a small chain bookstore called, Dymocks. I asked if they had a larger store & he said down in Central at the Prince’s building (I actually know where that is). I walked on down the hill & got the Page One (the store I can see from the bus). It is a decent size, but nothing even close to the mega-bookstores we are used to in the US.

Page One had a decent photography section, but of course that only makes it harder because I don’t have a clue what would be a good choice & at $25 to $30US, I didn’t get anything. I went on down to the bottom & found the Prince’s building. This store was smaller than Page One & had a very small photography section. End of book search.

I called Sarah & asked if she wanted to get together & try the teaware museum & restaurant at HK Park. I had heard from Sophia that it was supposed to be good. Sarah agreed & we met at her apartment. Walked over to the park & had no trouble finding the museum.

It was OK, not anything great. We went to the tea restaurant & unfortunately it was closed for renovation. Darn! We headed back to her apartment which is located next to the IFC mall. We parted & I went to City Super in search of sausage & sharp cheddar cheese to make cheese balls for the office. This is a Southern treat that is popular for breakfast gatherings. Tomorrow is the move day for the new office, so I thought it would be fun to bring a treat. Well, no sausage or Bisquick. Not a good day for finding things. This is what you come to expect though living here. I know I’ve seen both of these items at other times, when I didn’t want them, but now that I’m looking for them, nowhere to be found.

Feb 24 – New office move, Osaka, Light show, Lang Kwai Fong, Russian Ice bar

Today we moved into the Cadmus new office over on Kowloon-side. It was pretty easy, we all showed up at the new place & the movers brought all of the boxes we’d packed over. We spent the day unpacking and organizing. There are no cubicles built yet, they are being sent from the US along with shelves & everything else. I guess they had extras in the US, so instead of us buying more, they’re sending it over. So all we have are some tables & nice chairs. As we started to organize our desks, Sophia made a couple of bookshelves out of the moving boxes. Everyone sort of got into making furniture out of the boxes & some were rather creative. Ruby’s husband, Dante, I think won the prize for most creative. He was making all sorts of things out of the boxes, including a cabinet for the microwave with doors on it that open up. It was really fun.

One really funny thing at the new office is the sign in the bathroom. There is a sign above each toilet in the ladies bathroom that reads, "Do Not Tread on the Toilet Seat". I laughed so hard, I thought it was bad at the other office where the bathroom sign read, "Thank you for your coordination." I asked about the sign & they said that people from Mainland China are not used to seat toilets, just the hole in the ground type, so they think they have to climb up & stand on the seat to use them. They said people get injured in the climbing sometimes, especially the old ladies & it also damages the seats. Clashing cultures!!

We had enough time to get home to shower & change & then get over to our favorite Japanese restaurant, Osaka. We couldn’t let Keith leave without having the Osaka experience. Had the usual stuff, sushi, eel, giant prawns, beef rolls with straw mushrooms. Keith was suitably impressed. We got done in time for him to see the end of the nightly light show, he thought 5 minutes of it was enough. We headed back across to Hong Kong-side on the ferry. The New Years lights are still up, so it is a colorful ride.

We decided to show Keith Lang Kwai Fong, which is known for it’s hopping nightlife. There is a Russian vodka bar that is supposedly all ice & they give you fur coats to go in that Keith had heard about & wanted to go to. I had heard of it, but didn’t know where it was exactly. I called my friends Sarah & Clay (they seem to know all the good & touristy places). Sure enough Clay came through for me & gave perfect directions. We found Balilica’s & sure enough there was a room (not too big) that you could go into & it was very cold (which felt good because it was pretty warm & humid outside). Not everything was made of ice, but some of it was. They did have fur coats, but we didn’t feel like we needed them. With all the time we’ve spent hanging out in hockey rinks, I guess this wasn’t really too unique for us, we just felt like we were home. They had a special of 6 shots so we got that. We ordered a variety of flavors & straight vodka. I hated it. I’m not sure why I even tasted it, I know I don’t like hard liquor. The guys liked it, but we did start to feel cold, so did the 6 shots & left. We went to a Spanish place & a beer just to enjoy the nightlife & atmosphere of the area. I was feeling kind of sick from the one shot of vodka that I’d had, so we headed home. I’d go back, but I just wouldn’t drink next time.

Feb 19 & 20 - Fireworks & New Years Performances

2007-02-26T04:20:00.000-05:00

Feb. 19 – Fireworks

This little girl was waiting at the bus stop with me after the fireworks. She was just too cute not to photograph. Chinese childern dress in traditional Chinese outfits for the New Year celebrations. Her little brother was also dressed up, but he was not nearly so cooperative.

I spoke to Sarah today. She & Clay also ventured over to see the parade. They got there way earlier than we did & got a spot near the clock tower where the parade started. She said the crowds were ridiculous & Clay got impatient because the parade didn’t start on time so they saw like 2 floats & he wanted to leave. They fought the crowds to get to the MTR station & were both very mad at each other. I told her that John & just split up & he went home & text messaged me. She laughed really hard at that & said it sounded like a much more equitable way to handle it. She told Clay that is what he needs to do next time. We laughed about how much alike our husbands are.

For the fireworks, Sarah was very apologetic because without her knowing it, Clay had invited several people from work over to watch from their apartment. They have a perfect view. I told her I didn’t mind, as I like being with the crowd & hearing their reaction.

John let me know early in the day that he didn’t really feel like fighting the crowds for the fireworks, which I appreciated so I could plan accordingly. He went to the ones in the fall & felt like he’d rather not go again. It was raining lightly out so I didn’t really blame him. The cloud cover was very low, so I wondered how well we’d be able to see them anyway. I of course had to venture out. I love fireworks & just didn’t want to miss them. I left early (2 hours) in hopes of getting a good spot. I again went across to Kowloon, as I thought I might get a be better view from that side of the harbor. I found a spot about 20 people back from the front, but since this was in the sky it didn’t really matter. I met a nice couple visiting from Scotland for 2 days, on their way to Australia for a month vacation. They were in their late 20’s & so enthusiastic. They had a very full 2 days (they were leaving the next morning) & absolutely loved HK. They were talking about moving & finding jobs here. I guess the big city lights & crowds are exciting for folks from rural Scotland. We didn’t really feel the rain, but when you looked up into the lights you could see it blowing past, very misty kind of rain. The cloud cover was so low that you could only see about halfway up the buildings across the harbor. Sarah told me later that the clouds were so low that they only saw the first few explosions, then the smoke from those blocked the rest of the show. Glad I was were I was.

Turns out I had a good spot & could see very well. I could have done without the loudspeaker right next to me blaring the music, but I tolerated it. I was not disappointed by the fireworks or the crowd’s reaction. This was a much better location than last time, because I could see the fireworks from all 4 boats, it was a more expansive view. The trip home was a lot more difficult, though. I heard later that they estimated the crowd to be over half a million. I managed to find the ferry dock, after wandering around for 30 minutes and fighting massive crowds of people going the other way. It was like swimming upstream against a really strong current. I got dizzy watching the people come at me like a wave, it was strange. When I finally go to the ferry pier, it was closed. I guess since they set the fireworks off from boats in the harbor ferry service is temporarily suspended. People were waiting & after about 30 minutes they opened it up. I didn’t want to fight the crowds to get to the MTR station & be underground with all those people. Took the same mini bus home. It was actually the same driver & he laughed & welcomed me as I got on this time. The bus drivers are so nice. It was a late night, but I’m glad I went. John had an enjoyable evening watching a good movie & not fighting any crowds. We were both happy.

If my writing isn’t too good here I apologize. I wrote this very late at night & I guess I was more tired than I thought. I read through it once & made lots of corrections, but I don’t have the energy to do it again. Thanks for understanding.

Feb. 20 – New Year’s Performances

Yesterday & today the groups who participated in the parade were scheduled to do performances at a few venues over in Kowloon. Since I missed so much of the parade, I decided that I’d like to see some of the groups up close. The performances were from 2pm to 9pm. There were two main venues that were both in a mall area. One was inside the mall down about 5 floors, so you could view from many balconies overlooking the atrium. The other was outside in a large covered courtyard on a raised stage. It was about a 5 minute walk through the mall from one to the other.
I arrived a little after 2pm & could hear music booming from the mall. I found a spot on the performance level a few people back, so I had a decent view. There was a man behind me who had a huge camera with a huge lens. He looked nice & was reaching over my shoulder to get a shot, so I very politely let him get in front, for what I thought would be one shot & then he’d move back. I learned that lesson quickly. He just kept shooting & shooting. The etiquette of polite crowd behavior is a little different then I’m accustomed to, it is each man for himself. When the guy finally did move out, another man (he looked Indian), pushed into his spot so quickly that I didn’t have time to react. I took note of this.

The performance was a group from South Africa doing traditional drumming & dancing. It was spectacular. Lots of noise & energy. The cameras were out in force, with some huge lenses and tripods – the works. There were more stepladders than I saw at the parade. These people are serious about their photography. The flashes were constant during the entire performance. I wondered what these people will do with 500 photos of African dancers & drummers. Since this went on all day with every performance I realized how digital photography has probably changed how people view photo taking. I’m guessing if the had to pay to develop each photo, the enthusiasm would have been somewhat diminished.

The performances were every half hour & alternated between the 2 venues, so you had to rush to the next one if you wanted to see anything. The next performance was a group of dancers from Spain in Caribbean dress. I didn’t have a very good view & they basically had these huge feathered hoops circling way above their heads & were just strutting around & shaking. I was not inspired, so I moved on to the next location to try to get a good spot. I was starting to understand how this all works. You stake out your spot & fight to keep it no matter what. Nobody says anything, they just push & jockey for position. I can fight that battle as well as the rest of them.

I got to the next venue early & got a spot just one person back, unfortunately the couple in front of me were both tall (figures I would find tall Chinese people to stand behind). I would have asked if I could get in front of them, but they had a child & it didn’t seem like that sort of this was done. Wouldn’t you know it, the Indian guy ended up right next to me, he was as short as me so I knew if push came to shove, I could take him. This group was New Zealand stiltdancers. The costumes were colorful and dramatic. Lots of flowing wings and colorful makeup. Near the beginning of the performance a man came in with a little girl & he his wife was at the front row, in front of the Indian man. He let the man & child in & then complained that now he couldn’t see very well & one of them needed to move. The woman moved back next to me. I made a point of saying to her that she was very nice to do that because this man had pushed in front of me at the earlier performance. I said it loud enough so the man would be sure to hear it. He gave me a glare & I said “Yes, you did the very same thing to me at the last performance, so you really have no right to complain.” He just turned away & ignored me. I didn’t care, it made me feel better & I had won a friend in the woman. I’m learning fast.

Next up Flamingo Dancers from, where else, Spain. This one I watched from 2 balconies up because there was a spot in the front & I noted all the good spots on the main level were already occupied. This was another colorful and energetic performance. They had their own band accompanying the dancers, very enjoyable. I think I got some good photos of the women spinning around in a blur from above. My creative photography coming out.

Yes, I am happy to report that the USA was well represented at this event. The next group – The Arizona Cardinal Cheerleaders and Mascot. I was SO VERY PROUD of my country for sending such an authentic representation of our wonderful culture. Women half naked shaking & grinding to pounding music. Somehow the South Africans did a much better job at this. I couldn’t even get close to this performance, the men were jammed in like sardines with cameras flashing away like crazy. The stepladders were out in force, it was actually pretty comical. My lack of interest in this allowed me to get to the next venue early & stake out a good spot, because this was one I was particularly interested in – Chinese cultural dance & song.

I was near the middle in the very front (yeah, I graduated to the front row after just 5 performances, I am a quick study). I had to sit for an hour (longer break between the events this time), but it was well worth it. This group was from Hainan Province, which is an island province south of Hong Kong. The women were draped in flower and the costumes were extremely colorful. They danced & sang what one would think of as Chinese style with energy. One young man demonstrated some native instruments one of which was a bamboo flute type of instrument that he played by blowing with his nose.

I rushed from this location to the other one & ended up getting a moderately good spot. This was the Switzerland Comic Band. The only way I can describe their outfits is they looked like the guards at the castle of the Wicked Which of the West from the Wizard of OZ. They were bright blues & quilted material with geometric designs on them. They each had a different & very comical hat on. They looked like they were having a blast, very silly on stage with lots of faces & antics, but when they played, they were nothing but professional. They belted out some great tunes & were a pleasure to listen to.

Back to the other venue, but had an extra half hour so I got there early & got a good spot. I think I’m starting to get the hang of this. This group was from Korea & they were extremely good. They did farmer dances, drum dances, and Pan-Gut, which combines music dance & games (that is the description from the brochure). Their costumes were also colorful & fun. Some had hats with huge pom-poms on them with the colors of the Korean flag. There were 4 men who had long ribbons on the top of their hats (10 foot long ribbons) which were attached in such a way that when they made the slightest movement of their heads the ribbons twirled around them like the gymnastic ribbon event at the Olympics. One of them did a solo with an even longer ribbon & he could really work it, it was fascinating. The drumming was excellent also. This one was really fun to watch.

Next up, Thailand. I didn’t get a very good spot, but close enough to get some decent photos. This performance & costuming was what I would expect from Thailand. Very elaborate costumes with lots of gold & red. Some had the traditional Thai headdresses that look like temple roofs. Their movements were stylized, with lots of attention to finger positioning & angling. One group of women had long attachments to the end of their fingers with red pom-poms on the ends. This was another good performance, but I have to admit that the Thai music is very high pitched & it kind of got to me after a while. Fortunately the next performance was at the same venue, so when the Thai group was done & the people cleared out, I moved in for a front row spot.

The last group was from Yunnan Province. If you are familiar with the book called The Last Horizon which talks about a place called, Shangri La, Yunnan Province is the place the author is talking about. I’ve heard from locals here that it is a wonderful place to visit & has some dramatic scenery. Again, the costumes were wonderful, lots of color & tassels & embroidery. The women had very unusual hats. I loved the colorful sandals the men wore. The music was upbeat & fun as where the dances. They did an all female dragon dance which must be unusual, because they made a big deal about it. The Chinese love the dragon dances & the women did a great job twisting the dragon around the stage. There must have been about 30 women making up the dragon & they had to curve around & twist through the row. It required very accurate timing & precision so as not to get tangled up & crash into each other. It was a wonderful culmination to a day of culture, theater, music & fun. I was thoroughly exhausted, but so glad that I went. I took plenty of photos & even some video. I only missed 2 performances, one being the New Zealand Air Force Marching Band (I’d seen them in the parade & wasn’t too impressed) and the Fralinger String Band from Philadelphia. I hated missing a home town group, but it was them or Thailand and I opted for Thailand. So I think I did pretty well getting in as much as possible.

It ended at 9pm and I found my way to the MTR this time & took the bus home. It was a good day. I think I got some good photos, so take a look at my photo site if you are interested.

Feb 21 – Cleaning the corporate apartment

This day was not so much interesting as it was comical. There is a guy coming in from the US Cadmus office tomorrow, and it being New Years, we could not get anyone to come clean the corporate apartment. For New Year’s it is important to have your home cleaned (or clean it yourself which most people don’t like to do) to get rid of the bad luck from the old year and allow the good luck to come it & have a clean place. It had been cleaned a few weeks earlier & a guy from the office in Thailand was there for a week since then, so I figured it couldn’t be too bad, so volunteers to make the beds & be sure it was presentable. I brought some supplies with me & walked over there. My first surprise was the freezer was thickly caked with ice so that none of the drawers would open, so it was going to need defrosting. I got that task started & then went to check the rest of the place. The rugs in the bathroom & kitchen were pretty dirty, so I figured since I’d be there for a while defrosting the freezer, so I might was well throw them into the washer. I did this, then went to make the beds. After a few minutes I heard what sounded like water & thought it was strange that the freezer would defrost that fast that water would pour out. I rushed back into the kitchen to find about a half inch of water all over the kitchen floor. It was not the freezer, but the washer was gushing water out of the bottom. I realized that there was a drain hole down there &amp;amp; the plug had come out. I replaced the plug & got the extra towel & began mopping up. I had it all cleaned up & was about to go back to the beds when the washer went to the next wash cycle & the plug popped out again. Fortunately I was there to get it back in quickly & gave it a turn to tighten it up. I decided that I’d better just sit there in the kitchen and baby sit the washer just to make sure there were no more floods. After mopping up that mess, I turned my attention to the freezer & got that all cleaned up. I’m glad to say the plug remained in & I didn’t have to do any more mopping. This is the same type of washer as we have in our apartment that takes 2 hours to wash & another 2 hours to dry. So I had plenty of time to get all the cleaning done & beds made & make the place look nice. Lesson learned, washers have plugs, make sure they are IN before you start it up.

Feb.22 – nothing much

I put up some groceries in the apartment. Met John & Keith (the visitor from the US) at the Airport Express station & brought Keith’s luggage up to the apartment for him so that he could head out to the new office. Keith is an IT guy who is here to get the new office computers & phones all working the way they should. Poor guy !! Spent the rest of the day getting things done around here.

Feb 17 & 18 - New Year's Eve & Day

2007-02-23T10:49:00.001-05:00

Feb. 17 – New Year’s Eve

HAPPY YEAR OF THE PIG !!!

Today was a very busy day on the streets of Hong Kong. Everyone was bustling around getting last minute things for New Year’s. This is the day most families travel & get together for a big family dinner. It seemed like Christmas Eve, only busier if that is possible. I asked a few people their opinion & we decided that New Year’s here is like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter & solar New Year all wrapped into one holiday. It is really huge. Most everything will close up early today & be closed for the next 3 or 4 days. The factories in Mainland China are closed for the next 2 weeks so that people can travel home to be with family. We picked up a few last minute things so we’d be prepared just in case everything is closed for the next 4 days.

We met up with Sarah & Clay for dinner at the IFC Mall. We went to the Union Bar & Grill (one of the few places open on New Year’s Eve). We met at their apartment which is right next to the mall & right on the harbor. The view from their apartment is dramatic as they look right down on the harbor with no other buildings to obstruct the view. They are on the 43rd floor. They took us up to the 59th floor where the pool & health club are. Very nice!! The restaurant was very empty, which is strange for a Saturday night. Usually you can’t get a table if you don’t have a reservation. Most of the people there were Westerners. We had a nice dinner & the guys seemed to get along just fine. We wandered around the mall a little after dinner & then John & I walked home. It was a nice cool evening & we went up the escalator. John agreed that Sarah & I are very much alike & sees why we get along so well.

Feb. 18 – New Year’s Day – Kung Hei Fat Choi !!

We were very lazy today & just hung out at the apartment. It has been pretty warm & humid outside. It has also been very overcast. I was hoping the winter would be clearer & cooler. We spent the afternoon at the annual New Years Football (soccer) tournament. The teams were a Hong Kong select league team against the Jamacian Olympic team. The second game was the Chinese Olympic team against the Australian Olympic team. It was pretty fun to hear the crowd. They would roar over the slightest thing that the HK team did well. They had those inflatable sticks that you bang together & were using them well. It was more fun watching the crowd than the game. It turned out to be a decent game & ended in a shootout with Jamacia winning much to everyone's disappointment. We didn't stay for the end of the second game.

Next we went over to Kowloon for the New Year’s Day parade. I had read that it was supposed to be one of the most spectacular parades in the world, so I didn’t want to miss it. The parade was at 8pm & due to a misunderstanding we didn’t leave until after 7pm. By the time we got to the parade site, we couldn’t even get to the streets where the parade was supposed to go, they were all closed off because they were already filled with people. They had been closed off for 2 hours according to the police. You have to get there early I guess if you want to get a good spot. I’m learning that about things in HK.

We found a spot & had no idea if we would see anything or not. It turns out we were at the start of the parade. We could only see the tops of heads & the floats that turned out to be lit up advertisements for things in HK. John wanted to get some better photos so he tried going to a different location. I stayed where I was. About half way through the parade I got a text message from John saying he was home because he couldn’t find a better spot & his toes got tired from standing on them. I had moved & found a much better stop where I could actually see the people going by. All in all the parade was pretty disappointing. If you’ve been to the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade & The Rose Bowl parade, well this doesn’t hold a candle next to those. I’m glad I experienced it though. The dragon dancers were fun to see. And as always the crowd reaction is priceless. I found out that the Chinese take their photographing very seriously. Most people had big fancy cameras & they didn’t mind crawling up your back to get a photo. This situation really made the difference in personal space evident. The Chinese are WAY more comfortable on top of each other than we are. Many of the people with cameras brought stepladders that they stood on to get their photos.

As soon as the parade was over, I hopped onto the ferry & was to HK pretty quickly. I was waiting for the regular bus when I notice one of the mini bus numbers nearby that I’ve seen go by our apartment. I walked down to it & the driver asked me where I was going. I told him & he said to get in. I sat right behind him so that I could tell him when I wanted to get off. These buses will stop anywhere, they do not have designated stops, so you have to shout out when you want them to stop. Most of the drivers do not speak English so they can be a challenge for Westerners to ride. They are certainly faster than the big city buses. I managed it just fine & let him know where I needed to get off. So I’m no longer a mini-bus virgin!!
I heard the next day on the news that there were over half a million people attending the parade. I guess that is why I was having trouble seeing!!

Feb 15 & 16 - Soho, Heifer & New Year's market

2007-02-23T10:20:00.000-05:00

Feb 15 – Wandering Soho

Today Sarah & I were going to go to Victoria Park to experience the big New Year’s market, but it was raining, so we decided to just do lunch nearby. We met along the escalator, down lower than I usually venture, but closer to where she lives. We wandered the narrow streets & looked in the many shops selling New Years stuff. We ended up at a little Chinese noodle shop that was more upscale than where I ate on Saturday. We each had some won ton soup, pretty good. After eating we wandered the streets. I remembered a place that Sophia had told me is supposed to have the best egg tarts in town. These are served warm & are like small custard tarts. They are very popular for teatime treats & these were delicious.

We parted ways & I headed to the grocery store in search of minced clams. It is really strange how grocery stores that are in the same chain will have completely different items. Like the Wellcome store on Caine Road doesn’t have minced clams, but the one just a few blocks away on Robinson Road has Snow’s minced & chopped clams & plenty of them. I’ve found this to be true with several items. So I found the clams so we could have clam dip for Friday night treat.

Feb 16 – Heifer presentation, Victoria Park New Year’s market

Today I met Jeanie to do the Heifer International presentation. We met at the bus station in Central, the bottom of the hill. I left early & walked down & was there a good 30 minutes before the appointed time. It was fun to watch the people catching their buses to work. Jeanie arrived & we hopped the bus. We had a good talk, getting to know each other. She’s native HK, but spent 6 months in Australia which is where she learned to speak English so well. Jeanie had been to this school before so I didn’t worry too much about making sure we got off at the right place. I did happen to notice that the stops were showing up on a LED screen at the front to the bus. I happened to glance up & was pretty sure I saw the school name on the screen. I mentioned this, but Jeanie said that we were not there yet. I then mentioned that I thought the school address was #5 & we were at #35 & the numbers were going up. At this point Jeanie decided to ask the driver & sure enough we’d missed the stop. We got off at the next one & caught a taxi back to the school. Guess I’ve gotten pretty good at riding the buses.

They school was on a hill (of course, this is HK, everything is on a hill). We had to climb several sets of stairs to get to it. Several of the teachers & kids were dressed very strangely & we were told that it was twin day. The head master was in a dress with big earrings on. His twin was the art teacher & she was in a matching outfit. It was pretty funny. They seemed to have a good time. Most of the staff sounded like they were Australian or American. It is an international school, so they speak English.

Jeanie did the first presentation, for the older kids. They were very well behaved, but I think her lack of comfort or command of English made it hard for the kids to understand some of what she was saying. She ask me if I would be willing to do the second presentation for the younger kids. I figured what the heck, no time like the present to get started. It was a small group & they also were well behaved. I think it was good that I was a native English speaker, because it was very easy for me to simplify the talk for the little ones. Jeanie talked about the project building a cistern for the village. I doubted the kids would know what that was. I told them it would be a really big water tank. We talked about the animals & what each kind of animal can give to help people who are poor. I tried to get the kids as involved as possible. I think it went pretty well.

Jeanie was thrilled that I did so well & that I enjoyed doing it. She said it has been so hard for them to find anyone to help with this project & they really wanted to have an English speaker to go out to these schools. I guess I have myself a job. We have another presentation in early March. Jeanie said last year the school & Heifer organized a trip to visit the project site & meet the people they’d helped. I told her that if at all possible I’d love to go on a project trip if they do one. How cool would that be?

I met Sarah at Time Square & we had lunch at the City Super international food court. We both chose Thai food. It was great. We headed to Victoria Park along with hundreds of other people. The park is a large open area & it was packed. I mean Chinese Hong Kong packed with people. Check out the photos on my photo blog, you’ll what I mean. People were buying everything & everything was for sale. There were booths set up in about 4 rows. There were a few food booths, but mostly there were flowers & blow up toys for the kids. There was every kind of blow up thing you could think of that related to pigs & New Years & some that you would never in your life think of. I tried to take photos of them just so I’d remember what was there. There were inflatable pigs, of course, it is the year of the pig, but along with the pigs you could buy big inflatable butcher knives. There were huge inflatable lollypops that said “Happy Piggy New Year” on them. Some other strange inflatables were; fire hydrant, fire extinguisher (maybe because this is the year of the fire pig????, who knows), stop sign, road sign, long necked giraffe, gold fish inside of a clear balloon with seaweed painted on it (I bought this one), then the ones you’d expect like Hello Kitty & Mickey Mouse & swords & shields. People were buying stuff like crazy. Besides my gold fish, I also took a plum blossom branch out of a dumpster. This is supposed to bring good luck in love for the New Year, I figured it was worth it. Each plant & flower has some significance for bringing good luck for something. I lost track, but mostly they are yellow or gold colors that are supposed to bring prosperity.

After Sarah & I laughed about how our husbands would be so glad that we did this without them because they would have hated the crowds, we headed home. The park was on the front page of the paper the next day, saying how many people there were. On the way home I stopped on Queen’s Road to return the light bulb I’d gotten earlier that was not the right type, but they would not let me return it for $, just exchange it. It was pretty frustrating. I also bought the real Casino Royale movie for all of $12US, not bad. I fought my way through the grocery store for a few more items for the weekend. It was interesting to see what people buy for the New Year. People were buying loads of fancy boxes of candy & the sales people were wrapping them outside the store. People were buying plants & flowers like crazy. I got some New Year’s cards & red packets. Not sure if I explained the red packets. They are envelopes that you give to service people (in your apartment or at work) & you put money in them. Not much, just like $3 to $5. The bills have to be crispy new bills & they will bring the person good luck in the New Year. People get really excited about the red packets, but you don’t give them out until New Year’s day. It is all very confusing.

Feb 14, '07 Heifer training, temple, DVD

2007-02-23T07:16:00.000-05:00

Feb 14, 2007 Heifer training, another temple, Jusco, DVD from China

I went to Heifer this morning to do my training for going out to the school for the Read to Feed program that Heifer Hong Kong has developed. It was extremely interesting to find out how they do this. The basics are that the kids raise money by reading & getting sponsors. The school is given a project that their money will go towards. Since this school participated last year, we tell them about what the money they raise last year did. Then we tell them about the project their money for this year will do.

Last year this school raised over $9,000, which bought 14 cows for 7 families in Tibet. With this money Heifer also goes to the villages to find out what other needs there are & which families are most likely to be successful in the program. It also provided training to the people in how to care for the animals, environmentally friendly farming techniques (since the cows will provide needed fertilizer), gender equity & health education for the 4 villages involved (specifically HIV awareness – I thought that was particularly interesting). Heifer also helped form knitting teams to help reestablish the cultural skill of knitting & give them another income producing product.

The families have to sign a contract promising to “Pass it On”. This means that they are obligated within 2 years of receiving their “gift” to give one offspring from their animal to another needy family or to pay the equivalent of an offspring so that another animal can be purchased for another family. In this way the program keeps on working & expanding long after the initial project is completed. I think this is a really impressive organization & I’m really excited to be helping out.

The new project the school will be contributing to this year is for 6 villages in the mountains of China, north of Hong Kong. Their problem is clean drinking water & very little farmable land. This project will supply pigs to the people & will also provide the materials & training for the people to build water tanks to safely store & distribute drinking water.

My trainer, Jeanie, is native Hong Kong, but speaks English very well. I find that most people in HK speak a stylized English that has it’s own special grammar. In the Chinese language there are no tenses, so everything is in the present. I find that is how they also try to speak English, except those who have spent time in English speaking countries. I looked over Jeanie’s power point & handouts for the presentation & made some basic corrections. She was so glad to have me proofread for her. Here are some examples:
“The Heifer people play attention to what the villagers needs.”
“What Heifer do to help?”
“How’re we gonna use your money this year?”
“How is it like there?”
Since the audience are mostly native English speaking people (international schools), it is important to make sure the English correct. I was glad to be able to do this. She had me proofread several other items that she was working on. I can see that I didn’t need to worry that they wouldn’t be able to use me because I don’t speak Chinese. I guess I was just what she needed. It made me feel very useful.
After the training I went to the office just to say hi. I was told that I was supposed to be getting a New Years good luck plant for the office. I asked the staff if there was one temple that was better than the others for helping people get better or sending up healing wishes? They all said “Of course, you must go to the temple in Wong Tai Sin. That is the best one for having your wishes come true.” It turns out I’ve have this temple on my short list of must see places, so I decided not time like the present to head out there. I had found out that my dad was in the hospital that morning & wanted to light more incense for Sue’s good health. The temple is called Sik Sik Yuen.

I took the ferry over to Kowloon side & then got onto the MTR & had to switch lines a few stops up. I found the temple without any problem as it is just outside of the MTR station. I think since it is New Years, there were lots more people than normal during the middle of the day. I went to the incense vendor & got my big packet. I lit it at the lighting area & headed on up to the main area in front of the main Buddha. The place was really crowded with people with large handfuls of lit incense. It is really a pretty dangerous situation. There are men around who are constantly cleaning the old incense sticks out of the pots so new ones can be put in. This one man was cleaning out a large bunch that was still burning & he dropped in onto a woman’s bag. Luckily it was leather & didn’t catch on fire. I wonder how many people get burned doing this. The smoke is also very thick. My eyes were burning badly by the time I had stuck my incense into all the different pots. But I made my wishes for my father & for Sue, and distributed the incense all around to every Buddha there was.

This temple is well known for it’s fortune telling. I guess since it is good for making wishes come true, you need to know if they really will come true. What you do is get a little barrel of sticks from a booth (they are free). You take your barrel up to the front area near the Buddha & you kneel or stand & you make a wish. Then you shake the barrel until one of the sticks falls out. I guess you can make as many wishes as you want, you just shake out another stick for each wish. Each stick is numbered, so you remember what number went with what wish. Then (after returning the barrel to the booth), you go just outside of the temple & there are 2 floors of fortune telling booths. There must be about 50 booths on each floor. It is pretty interesting. As soon as I walked in, a woman from one booth took my arm & led me down the long hallway to a booth that said “English spoken here.”

I went in & spoke to Priscilla Lam. I told her the number & the wish. It was for good health for my friend. Each number is associated with a story & depending on the wish the story is interpreted for that wish. She said the story was a very good one for my friend’s health. It is about a very poor man who works very hard and he eventually becomes the #1 person in all of China. Each year after many examinations and much learning one person in all of China is the best (and China has a lot of people in it, so to be #1 is a very very good & difficult thing, she explained to me). This one person is employed by the emperor for life and has a very good living. So this was very good for this poor man to end up being the best in all of China & he had a very good life.

Ms. Lam asked some questions about my friend & said that she would be OK. She might go through some hard times, like the man having to study so hard and work so hard, but in the end, in the autumn everything would be good, because that is when the man took the test & became #1, in the autumn. She was sure that my friend would be fine. This made me feel better.

I had shaken out another number and said it was for myself for good luck in the coming year. She said that this story wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good. She said that I would have medium luck this year. The story was about a man who talks to his bird, it is a parrot, so they can communicate well with each other. The man sees a tiger take a sheep into a cave near his home, so the next day he goes to the cave to get some of the sheep meat because the man is poor & hungry. The town’s people see the man with the meat & believe that he stole the sheep & they put him in jail. The bird watches the cave & when he sees the tiger bring another sheep into the cave, the bird tells the town’s people to look in the cave. They find the tiger with the sheep & realize the man didn’t steal the sheep & they let him go.

Ms. Lam said that this story means that I have to be careful with communication & making sure people understand my message. The man went to jail, but then he was let out, so his luck was bad & then good. It is important to communicate. John got a good laugh out of this when I told him. He said he guessed that Ms. Lam didn’t realize that she was talking to one of the major communicators around. The fortune telling was only about $4, so it was worth it. They will also do hand & face readings, but I figured I’d save that for next time.

It was pretty interesting to see what people had brought as offerings to Buddha. One man had an entire plucked chicken; head, beak & all. See photo. He also had the usual incense & fruit. You can see in the photo the colored paper is to represent money. You burn this & it is supposed to bring you good fortune. This man was shaking out bamboo sticks & then checking in a book. Then he would throw these 2 wooden cresent shaped discs on the ground, look at them & then check his book. He did this over & over. He must have had lots of wishes.

Side note: I was listening to the news the day after New Years & they said the leader of Hong Kong had been at the temple (same one I was at) on New Years day to have his annual fortune read & the stick he pulled said that HK would have another good year. This was considered very important be the locals. I guess one year the fortune was not good on New Years & that is the year that SARS hit HK, so they put a lot of credibility in this.

On the way home I stopped at the Jusco store (large department store) to see if they had any New Years decorations & plants. They had both. I was told to get a few more things to decorate the office & a plant. I found it all. It was a bit tough carrying the plant on the MTR, but I managed & they office staff was very proud of me, for getting my fortune told & getting the plant back in good shape.

John was very sweet & offered to take me out for Valentine’s Day. They really make a huge deal about it here. All of the restaurants have special dinners & they are very expensive. Most places required reservations & it was late by the time he got home, so we just stayed in. John had gone to China to visit a printer. The printer took him to the mall that is just over the boarder & were you are supposed to be able to get all the copy products. He said there were tons of watch places & the prices were about ½ what we pay in HK for copy watches (I wonder if they work any longer – the ones we get here only seem to work for about a month). He did get a copy DVD of Casino Royale. So we decided to watch that. The previews were fine & the picture was good, but we couldn’t understand what language they were speaking once the actual movie began. I think it might have been Portuguese. We went to the menu to try to change the language, but it wouldn’t work. After about 20 minutes I finally figured it out & don’t ask me how, but I got it going in English, but you could hardly hear it. Even turned up full volume you couldn’t hear them. I guess that’s why it was only $1. I looked at the cover & it said Roger Moore as 007 (I think they are a little dated on that one). Guess they didn’t know the new guy’s name or something. We got a good laugh out of that.

Feb 12 & 13 Local shopping, HK Univ, Incense at the Temple

2007-02-13T09:44:00.000-05:00

Mon., 12 Feb, 2007 Around town:

John left me with a few errands to run today, get some Splenda packets for the office, find a tailor who could reproduce a simple garment that had been in our guestroom in a plastic bag (I had no idea what it was, but figured something for work so didn’t ask), arrange for the other corporate apartment to be cleaned (some people are coming in for a week), & get some local stamps to mail some bills off. This would normally seem like a simple list, but I knew the easiest looking thing on it was going to be the toughest, finding Splenda packets.

I started out at the desk downstairs where you arrange for house cleaning. The guy there, Simon, was the one who told me all about Chinese New Year & is always very helpful and nice. Good start. He had stamps for me to buy, but to send the 2 USA letters he said they charged $30HK as a service fee (guess they have to get their money somehow). That is almost $4US, so he suggested I just find a mailbox. I arranged for the apartment cleaning, although not the dates John wanted as everyone is off for the week of the New Year. Guess I can do some cleaning. He also had the name of a tailor, which he called for me.

Mrs. Poon doesn’t speak any English, so Simon told her what I wanted & she said she needed to look at the garment, but it shouldn’t be a problem. Simon gave me very exact directions to Mrs Poon’s shop which was straight down the hill from our apartment, near where I was wandering on Saturday. This was an opportunity to explore a new location, so I was glad to go. Simon’s directions were good except for the building. Good thing I had the address written in Chinese because there wasn’t anyone around that spoke English. I went to a few tailors in the wrong building & they were not very helpful. Finally the guard of the building showed me that I was at the wrong address, I needed to be a few buildings over. I found Mrs. Poon & she was very nice. We seemed to make ourselves understood & she pointed to the calendar & showed 2 weeks to come back. She wrote down $350HK as the price, so I didn’t argue since it is for the business. It is for 2 of these kind of bathing suit cover things with pockets. She’s getting material & all, so $45US isn’t bad. I can’t sew, so I think it’s worth it.

Since I was in a new part of the city I decided to venture on down the street instead of catching a bus. I crossed the street & there was a vendor with a microphone strapped to his chest selling & demonstrating some cleaning stuff. These people are all over the place, it is like live infomercials & they always have the microphone turned up so loud, it’s just funny. Next to him was a little storefront that was filled with chairs & women in white coats. I hesitated & was immediately confronted by a man in a suit. He started poking at my neck & shoulders & saying “velly bad, velly bad. You much need my lotion and rub.” I realized that he was selling some Chinese healing lotion & these women were applying it with massage. There were 3 men & a woman in the storefront (all open, no door or front, just an open area with chairs). The men all had their shirts off & the women in white were rubbing their bellies & poking them with some black animal horn looking thing. One of the men was down to just his underpants & the woman was rubbing all over. I was a bit nervous, but one woman spoke a little English & said “You no good blood flow in neck, make you velly sick. You need me rub special Chinese medicine in you neck to make you no mo bad health.” She told me to sit & started rubbing. She was ruthless & really hurt, but it felt great. She used her fingers, then her elbow, then she got the black horn & dug that into my pressure points. The medicine must have a lot of menthol in it because it cleared out my sinuses & felt wonderful. She worked on me for about 10 minutes & charged me $200 with the medicine ($25US). I probably got ripped off, but it was fun & I could feel the medicine for a good 30 minutes afterwards.

On down the street I came across a small shoe store. The prices were very good, so I picked up a pair of thongs (shoes, not underwear) that felt comfortable. I haven’t worn shoes like this for years, the thing between the toes always bothered me, but those were the old flip-flops. I’m hoping these will be better. I also got a pair of brown leather slip-ons that are casual but nice. Now I’ve ventured past knock off crocs to some real shoes. The cost was about $12US for both.

On down the road I passed a small electric supply store. The lights in the apartment have bothered me since I got here. They are just light bulbs coming down from the ceiling. I’ve looked everywhere for covers for them with no success. It baffles me that they don’t have light covers. The man spoke English & knew what I wanted & said I would not find a light cover, ‘It isn’t something we have here.” he said. I thought that was the end of it until a few stores down I noticed in the window a frosted globe shaped light bulb with small flowers painted on it. It was very attractive. This looked more like a large supply store, as other than the 8 light bulbs on display in the window it was just filled with large boxes. The man called up to a woman who came down & spoke English. I pointed to the bulb & said I wanted 2. The man went off & came back with 2. Asked if they were screw in & I said yes (what else is there?). He took each one out of it’s box & tested it in some special sockets he had next to the counter. How nice that they make sure they work before sending you out with them. I was very excited about finally having some nicer lights (isn’t it always the little things that really drive you nuts?).

I felt like my day was going very well, so it was time to attempt the really tough task of seeing if I could find Splenda. I had stopped in a few drug stores & grocery stores along the way, just to check, but it was hard enough just to find the regular sugar (seems like the keep it hidden). The only artificial sweetener any of the had was Equal. So, I headed for the MTR station & City Super, where I’ve been successful in buying Splenda in the past. It was a good walk to the station & to the store once out of the station. Unfortunately they only had loose Splenda, no packets. It seems you either find one or the other. OK, on to Great to see if they might have it. I was not feeling optimistic. That required another MTR ride to the next station, then the walk through the mall to get to the store. Again, very tough to find the sugar section. I haven’t figured out how they arrange their products. There isn’t a baking section like I’m used to where everything you’d use for baking is grouped together. I think it is because they don’t really do much baking here. Well, they didn’t have it either. Time to give up, I wasn’t going to go all the way to the other City Super, I’d already been out about 4 hours on my missions.

Went home & emailed one of the women at the office, Sophia, who lives near the other City Super & asked her if she would take a look for it. She was glad to do so. Thank goodness. At least I got most of my duties accomplished. I found out later from John that the garment I’m getting made at the tailor is for John’s boss’s mother or something like that. You’d think he makes enough money that he does have to send me running around HK finding a tailor to get it custom made. It is just a terry cloth one piece shorts/top thing for wearing over a bathing suit. I think had I known that ahead of time I might not have been so accommodating. It is funny, the people with the most money are the ones who send us out for the copy watches & handbags.

I almost forgot, those light bulbs that I was so excited about, well there are other types of bulbs besides screw ins. The ones in our apartment have 2 prongs that stick out & they just give a slight twist. So the great bulbs with the flowers have to go back. Whaaaaaaa!

Queen’s Rd again. Return light bulbs, kitchen products, red packets, new years stuff, McDonalds, Man Mo Temple, uphill home
HK Univ.
Tues. 13 February 2007 Out on the street again & some culture

This morning I got out early & did my Morning Trail walk. I didn’t do the entire walk, just to the top of the steep part. I figured that got me the most exercise for my time. It was an overcast morning, but I wasn’t going for the view. Still pretty warm here, I worked up a good sweat. I’m guessing the temp is still in the upper 70’s.

I decided I might as well return my light bulbs & see what else the guy might have. I took a sample bulb from the apartment to make sure I got the right thing. I headed on down the hill. I did pretty well finding the place I needed & even avoided the shoulder massagers. I’m sure they would have found something else velly velly bad with me. The light bulb man only had one flower bulb in the type I needed, so I settled for one flower & one regular. Oh well.

I got some New Years stuff, chocolate Chinese coins, cards, red packets (for putting the money in), some year of the pig items that looked fun. I also went into McDonalds, but not go buy food. They are having a promotion & the Happy Meal toys are these Sanrio figures. If you don’t know about Sanrio, they are the people that bring us Hello Kitty. There are tons of other characters, my favorite being Bad Batz Maru (a bad ass penguin with a Mohawk). So I’m trying to collect the set just for the heck of it. Bad Batz isn’t released until next week. I also found some kitchen items I’ve needed. It is good to find some regular stores where the locals shop.

On my way home I made one more stop. I promised one of my best friends in the entire world that I would light some incense for her at the local temple & send up some good stuff to the Gods that be for her. She has surgery scheduled for tomorrow, so I’m just doing my part. Whatever you believe in please say a prayer or whatever for her. I really do believe in the power of positive thought. The friend is Sue Lezon, but I won’t go into details as that is her story to tell, but I figure the more positive thoughts the better. I have observed enough “temple behavior” to know just what to do. I went to the incense table & bought a really big pack of small sticks & a pack of 3 really big sticks. I’ve observed that more is better & bigger is better. I walked in & lit the incense at the appropriate place. I’m not sure which Buddha is the one for good health so I hedged my bets & gave them all a few sticks. This is what most people do anyway. I think each one represents something specific. I focused on the one that looked the meanest, I figured he’d be the one to scare away anything bad. He was black with a really big black beard. He is probably the Buddha of war, but sometimes keeping healthy can be a war. I included some positive thoughts & incense for a few others (Kathy’s friend Lynn & my high school friend Leroy who are all struggling with health issues). Apparently this temple is for those believing in Buddha, Confusious, & Taoists, so that covered a good bit. On up the hill I passed a church & said a few prayers outside there too, just in case.

When I got home I looked up the University of Hong Kong, which I have discovered is right down the road from us. Turns out the have a museum with a few interesting looking exhibits. After lunch, I walked on down to the University. It is about a 15 – 20 minute walk, but no hills – yippee! One of the exhibits was paintings by a Chinese artist who lived in Canada. The paintings were Chinese style, but Canadian scenery. They were really wonderful. There was also an exhibit of photos around Hong Kong. I always wonder about photographers, sorry Sue, but most of these photos were blurred night photos of lights tracking. They looked like the photos that I delete after taking them because I jiggled the camera. I just don’t get it. Guess I’m not artsy enough yet. There is also a tea gallery in the museum. They explain the different types of tea & tea ware & you can buy a cup. I didn’t get any tea, but plan to come back with my friend, Sarah next week.

On the way home from the museum I passed a Community Center, so I went in to see what it was about. Turns out they have Tai Chi & line dancing classes. I think I’ll pass up the line dancing, but the Tai Chi sounds good. She said the teacher speaks English, so it would be a good choice. They have it twice a week, but classes have stopped now until after the New Year, so I’ll have to wait until the end of the month. I’m excited to have found this though & it is only a few blocks from the house.

All in all it was a good day. I feel really good about the things I discovered. I’m going to see what else is at the University, I’m sure there are lectures & other things going on. My friend Sarah was supposed to go back to the states yesterday for a court case (she’s a lawyer), but at the last minute the client settled out of court so she doesn’t have to go. That is good news for me. We are getting together Thursday to go to the New Year’s market & have lunch. Tomorrow I meet with Heifer International for my training to go out to the schools.

Happy & healthy thoughts !!!

Feb 10-11 Food markets, Shek O (beach)

2007-02-11T21:34:00.000-05:00

10 & 11 Feb, 2007 – Lots of markets, a trip to Shek O

Saturday afternoon I decided to explore the streets below our apartment building. This is part of the area known as Soho, meaning South of Hollywood Rd. Hollywood Rd is several blocks down from our street & coming up the hill towards us is south. We’ve walked this area near the escalator, but I knew there was much more interesting places getting away from the escalator. Although the escalator is a great thing, you are elevated most of the way, so miss a lot of what is going on at ground level.

From our apartment building I walked about one block east & then headed down Ladder Street, which is not a street, but a pedestrian walkway that is all steps. It is probably 4 blocks down to Hollywood Rd & the Man Mo Temple, which is very well known & was packed with people this Saturday afternoon. I’m guessing with the upcoming New Years (18 Feb) many people were taking care of New Years obligations with their ancestors. I guess the New Year is a time to pay old debts & make good to everyone, which probably means the dead as well as the living.

In previous ventures down Ladder Street to Hollywood Rd. I’ve always headed east or on down the hill to the subway, so this time I went west. Hollywood Rd is know as the antique street (every street here seems to be known for something, they tend to put all of the same products on the same street, which doesn’t make much sense to me from a marketing standpoint, but it is good for the consumer to have it all in one place). As I went west on Hollywood I saw why. I’m guessing there must be about 100 antique stores in about a miles distance. Very different from what we would see in US antique stores, no shaker chairs or washtubs. These were filled with statues & heavy wooden furniture & lots of jade &amp;amp; china (go figure) &amp; ivory & woodcarving. I really love the carving; it is so intricate & detailed. I guess the ivory is from mammoth tusks & not elephant tusks (which is illegal).

As I wandered other streets in the area I came across lots of new restaurants to try & LOTS of street markets. This is definitely where the locals do their shopping. There was not the touristy stuff like handbags & scarves, but stalls with produce & meat & poultry. There were also lots of small stores selling the everyday items people need – toilet paper, paint, hardware, cooking supplies, sheets. I knew the locals did actually shop at Ikea for that kind of stuff like us stupid Westerners did. Too bad I didn’t do this a long time ago!

The food markets I find the most interesting. As I think I’ve said before the variety & size of the produce is fabulous. It looks like it is on steroids. It being New Years time there were lots of flowers & special New Years plants available as well. They certainly use every bit of the animal & some parts I don’t even know what they are. I’m not brave enough yet to venture to buy any meat or poultry or fish. One of these days I will.

I ate lunch at a little local Chinese restaurant. They didn’t speak any English, but as with most places they had one menu in English. I just pointed to something & it turned out to be pretty good. Noodles with a slightly sweet sauce & prawns & shredded beef & pork & some sprouts & scallions. I only ate half of it as they served some soup with it as well. All for about $3.50. Not a bad deal. They were very nice & I think thought it was funny that I would come in there. Usually Westerners do not venture into these types of places.

I stopped a place that was advertising tofu cheesecake & had a sample. It was good, not as sweet as regular cheesecake. They had some other yummy looking items, so I took their card to return on a later date. I did get an almond cookie, which was delicious.

I know you all are freezing you butts off back home, so I hesitate to complain about how hot it was out today. I got home & had to take a shower because I was so sweaty. I’m still waiting for this winter they keep talking about.

John has been wanting to go back to our favorite Japanese restaurant over in Kowloon, so we went Saturday night. It was as good as always. The funny thing about the dinner was that when we were about half way through 4 people walked in & they were the same people who had been there last time we were there. The room only sits 12 people, so you tend to get to know the other people eating there. The reason we remembered these people so well is that one of them is Canadian and YES we talked lots of HOCKEY!! He played Jr A hockey before leaving Canada. He also is in the printing industry, so he & John also had that in common. His wife is Chinese & she works with him & the other couple works with him also, so there was plenty for us all to talk about. He has lived here for about 8 years. It was so funny that we should all be there again. We had another great conversation & traded business cards. Hopefully we’ll get back in touch with them; at least we know we have the same taste in food.

Sunday we headed out to the other side of the island. John wanted to do something away from the apartment, but NOT anything like the flower, bird & goldfish markets. He really didn’t enjoy that outing at all. So I thought he’d enjoy the small seaside town of Shek O. I went there a few months ago with Kristin & Steve & took lots of pictures of the rocks & water (I did not repeat those by the way). To get to Shek O we needed to go about as far east on HK Island as we could & then catch a bus out to the town. To get to the east side of the island we could take a bus, tram, MTR or combination. MTR is faster, but you don’t get to see anything. We decided to take the bus from in front of our place as far as it would take us (this is the one I took earlier in the week to the bank). Once we got off, we opted for the tram. This is a rattly 2 decker wooden trolley sort of vehicle that goes down the middle of the street. No matter how far you go the cost is only HK$2 (25 cents). Most of the locals take this because it is so cheap. It is also very very slow. It makes lots of stops & I’m guessing never gets over 25 MPH.

We finally got to Shau Kei Wan where we picked up bus #9 out to Shek O. The bus ride across the island is spectacular. You go over the mountains & the road hugs the side & you look straight down to the rocks & ocean below. Parts of the ride remind me of the hills of Scotland, bare of trees & dotted with rocks & long grass. As we looked out over the mountains with not a building in site, I said to John, “and everyone thinks HK is only skyscrapers & crowds of people, I wish they could see this.”

We walked on the beach & out to the little island for a great view of the ocean. It was a very overcast day, so you are spared photos of the ocean & rocks. There were lots of families out BBQing, a typical Sunday outing for the local folks. We had some soup at a local restaurant. John had his favorite Tom Yum Kung (Thai seafood soup) & I had mushroom, tofu & crab meat soup. Both were good. I had to get mango & sticky rice for dessert.

We caught the bus back. The town of Shau Kei Wan has a great market, again local foods. It is just festinating to see what they sell. The produce is wonderful as usual. This also had lots of meat, poultry & fish vendors as well. Many of the vendors were really surprised to see us (being Western) & one made a point of having me take his picture. Several looked at me in surprise & smiled & attempted some English. A few times everyone around the vendor also started speaking English (very limited). At one fish vendor the vendor said “Hi Lo” (I’m sure he meant hello). “Missy Missy you want some fishy fishy” Some older women shopping there started laughing & saying “yessy yessy fishy fishy swimmy swimmy fishy fishy”. They seemed very pleased with themselves for knowing some English. I laughed with them & said “No fishy fishy for missy. Missy no good cook.” They thought that was hysterical & all burst out laughing. Then they wanted me to take a picture of the guy with the fish.

Although I did not take lots of beach photos, I did get obsessed with the market. If you have a weak stomach you might not want to look at the photos of this trip. Here are some of the things that were for sale in the market. Shrimp still jumping around in the pan. Fish cut in half with the head off & the heart still beating (now that is fresh). All sorts of animal organs. Pig ears, feet & snout. Chicken feet. Legs of all sorts of animals. And the most bizarre in my opinion – I saw 2 sheep heads complete with hair & horns & eyes & tongue (see below). So I took photos of it all just to you’d believe me.

Guess I need to work on my cooking. Although after today, I’m feeling like I might be inclined to head towards being a vegetarian. They do have lots of types of tofu I could experiment with. I have been told there is something I should try called stinky tofu that stinks but tastes good. Something for another blog.

Feminine Hygiene Products

2007-02-09T23:31:00.000-05:00

Feminine Hygiene products in China:

No photos coming for this one.

So now that I’m having my period again for the first time in over a year, I find the need for some serious feminine hygiene products. Since I’ve not had to use these items, I have not noticed if they are in the grocery store or the drug store or where. Some things are so easy to find here, but other things that you think would be simple to find or can get just anywhere in the states, you have to search for here. Like our search for shoe polish other than black or brown.

I figured this is a modern enough city that feminine products shouldn’t be too hard to find. I went to the local grocery store & began my search. I figured I’d start at the aisle with paper products – toilet paper & tissues. Not there. How about the pharmacy section – shampoos, moisturizers. Not there. Then I noticed baby products – diapers. Not there. I was wondering how the heck I was going to ask for this item. Would they understand “sanitary napkin” (heck, they didn’t know what brownies or cake mix was when I tried to find that the first time, turned out I had to say “Betty Crocker” for them to understand & it took 4 people & about 10 minutes until a nice British woman helped me out). Would they understand “feminine hygiene” or “period” or “menstruation”? Probably not. I usually resort to sign language when I can’t make my language understood. Hmmmm, what kind of sign language would I need to use. Not a pretty site for a Western woman to be pointing to her crotch & to the napkins & saying blood. I figured they might cart me off to jail or something. Just couldn’t figure out how to be creative, yet discrete with the sign language.

I’m pretty determined normally to find a way to communicate, but decided this battle was one I didn’t really want to fight. I would just go next door to the pharmacy & I was sure they would have what I needed. As I got to the checkout counter, just across from the candy & before the section of cold beer & soda, well there was what I was looking for. Who would have thought it would be at the checkout area. Guess they weren’t hiding it away in some remote dark room. I was very relieved not to have to ask anyone. Of course the choices were different than I was used to. Lots of different sizes & shapes. They all came with wings, guess that is the latest in feminine protection. When I got them home & opened them up, they are way longer on one end then the other. In my past experience these items are symmetrical. No matter, I figured I’d put the longer part in front. Just strange that they would be so different. Or maybe I’m just not up-to-date with the latest styles of feminine products.

I know this was kind of random, but just thought it was funny the things we take for granted that sometimes are not as obvious as we think they are. AND the added challenge of effective communication.

Feb 8 & 9, 2007 - Back to the bank & a new park

2007-02-09T04:34:00.000-05:00

Feb 7 Wed – Paying bills, Chinese lunch, back to the bank

So today was another day of frustration & not enough information. John sent me off to the CSL 1010 Store, which is where we have our cell phone service through. He wanted me to pay his bill & get the charges credited to his Asia Miles account (they give rewards dollars & you can apply them to different programs). So I went armed with his company AmEx card & his Asia Miles card. I presented the bill & the first thing was that it wasn’t in John’s name. When this account was opened it was opened by the office director of the joint venture company, Gilbert. So the very nice woman explained to me what needed to be done to make the name change. She gave me a form for John to complete & said he’d need to bring the company chop (stamp) with him to complete the change. Then she gave me the form that was needed to be completed & faxed in order to get credit for Asia Miles. That was something John would need to sign. Then she very nicely explained that I could not pay the bill because the credit card was not in my name. If I wanted the charge to go on the AmEx card, Mr Riley would have to come back. Mission NOT accomplished.

Next John wanted me to go to the PCCW store (this is where we get our internet service & TV service from) & find out exactly what channels we are getting & what other options there are. He asked me to sign up for a few other options. I found the store, it was close to the other one, thank goodness. The two women working out front did not speak English well enough to understand what I needed. They called a man from the back who’d English was very good & he was very nice & patient. He printed out all of our channels & looked very thoroughly at our service. He explained that we really had all of the best channels & that since the service isn’t in my name, I could not make any changes anyway. Mr Riley would need to do that. Since I rarely ever turn on the TV I didn’t really care, but John wants some more news channels. I gathered the information & brought it back to John. Another failed mission. Does it sound like I’m getting discouraged. I understand that John doesn’t have time to be running around to do this stuff, but it is so hard when none of it is in my name & I can’t be successful with what he wants me to do.

I got back to the office in time to have a nice Chinese lunch with John. We went to a noodle place around the corner from the office. John likes their hot & sour soup & I usually try something of the set lunch menu. This time I had veggies with fried noodles. A bit greasy but very tasty. They are funny there because none of them speak English & I think they get a kick out of us coming in & just pointing to things on the menu. If we have any problems there is always another patron who speaks English & helps us out. After lunch John headed out to the phone store & the TV store armed with the info I’d gathered. Hopefully my earlier work made his experience there less confusing.

I had to head back to the bank. It seems that one of the checks that they wrote for us was not made out correctly. It had to be returned to the bank & a new one written & picked up the next day. When I got to the bank – the 9th floor – they recognized me & were very helpful. I did have to wait for the proper person to gather the check, but they were very nice about it. She did explain that it was not their fault, the info they had gotten was incorrect. I was told the new check would be ready after 9am tomorrow (oh joy, another trip to the bank, I’m becoming a regular at Bank of America, HK). I took the MTR & bus home & decided to stop at the dry cleaners to pick up some cleaning. This requires a fairly steep up hill climb When I got there it was closed & I remembered that Wed. is her day off. Another failed mission.

WARNING MALE READERS: you may not want to read beyond this point, it contains “female”stuff:
I got home & was feeling really depressed. I felt like I just couldn’t do anything right. The confusion & frustration suddenly made me feel so overwhelmed. I looked in the mirror & saw how fat I was & I couldn’t even hold in my stomach. What was wrong with me? I broke down & started crying. I wrote John a note say what a failure I was & decided to go for a walk & sit in the park at the bottom of our apartment. I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling so badly & low. John called & asked if I was at the airport heading home? He can make me laugh. Then it hit me what was going on. When I was home, I had some GYN issues (if any guys are still reading, that is gynecology, female stuff). Since I had not had a period in over a year, the doctor thought I should take some estrogen pills to force a period, just to make sure my “plumbing” was cleaned out well. I finished the 10 cycle of pills about 1.5 weeks ago & hadn’t thought much more about it, except that my breasts had been hurting. Well I suddenly remembered how much I hated having my period & those days before it started. YES guys PMS is real!!! Maybe having been period-less for so long my body was over reacting. I came home & John was very understanding & sweet, he even offered to order pizza. He watched a sappy chick flick with me & I felt better. AND the next morning, there was the cursed “friend” or whatever you want to call it. Guess I’m not menopausal quite yet. Darn!

END OF SPECIAL WARNING FOR MALE READERS:

Feb. 8 Thu – Back to the bank, Mexican for lunch, discovery of new park

I got up this morning feeling much better & understanding my issues from the day before. I had an early mission this morning – back to the bank!! Since I was going from home I decided to take the 23 bus. This is the bus I take to work, but I get off way before the end. It heads out the way toward the bank, so I figured I’d just take it until it turns back & see how close it gets me. It always enjoy the bus because I see all sorts of new areas. I was not disappointed. The bus turned at the MTR station stop before the one I usually get off at for the bank. It being a nice day I decided to walk the rest of the way. It was probably 20 minutes (longer than I thought it would be), but a good walk. They were very happy to see me at the 9th floor & greeted me like an old friend. The check was ready & I had the company chop (you can’t do anything for a company around here without the company chop). I made the obligatory chop (stamp) on the notebook, signed my name & was on my way with the check. I thought it would be fun to take the tram back to the office. This is an electric car that goes down the middle of the street. The locals use it a lot because it only costs HK$2 (25 cents) no matter how far you go. Such a deal !! The bus cost me about 90 cents to get there & the MTR is about $1.40. So the tram is a deal, but the only problem is that you have to know where you are going & where to get off, most of the stops are not marked. At least the bus stops are marked.
I waited at the tram stop with the locals about 15 minutes then gave up. It wasn’t worth the wait to save $1 & besides it would take a lot longer because of the traffic. That is the good thing about the MTR, doesn’t have to wait for traffic.

I got back in time to go out for lunch with John & James Kelly (an American living in Bangkok who Cadmus does business with). We went to the Mexican place, Coyote’s, around the corner from the office. They have very good Mexican food & it is never crowded at lunch time. The Chinese places are packed at lunch & you usually have to wait or sit with random people.

I decided it was time to me to do some more exploring of HK. I’ve been back almost 2 weeks & had only discovered a new trail to the Peak. So I decided to head over to Kowloon-side & see if I could find the Kowloon Walled City Park. I thought I’d already found this park, but it turns out I’d been to the Kowloon Park & that is a different place. I found it on the internet & had the choice of bus or MTR. Of course I chose the bus. I took the ferry across the harbor from Wan Chai & then caught bus #1 at the ferry terminus. The ride was long & much of it I’d seen before (we passed the flower market, the street market). We finally did get into new territory, so that was good. Nothing very nice to look at though. This seems to be where the local folks live. The buses on Kowloon are newer than on HK Island, so they have displays in the front that show the next stop. I was so glad to see this & felt confident about getting off at the right stop & I did.

The story behind Kowloon Walled City is that when the Brits took over HK, this area remained governed by the Chinese. So the area became a haven for immigrants from Mainland China. The Chinese government had a garrison there, but they were corrupt & more interested in importing opium then protecting the people. It became a haven for the Chinese Triad (mafia) & was extremely over crowded. There were some photos of the place in 1990 & it was amazing how packed in the building were. The story is that if you got inside you might never find your way out in the winding narrow streets. In 1994 the place was leveled & the people moved out to other locations. Most of the land was claimed & rebuilt, but a small part was kept as a park.

The park has a 6 – 8 foot wall surrounding it. There are many sculptures inside. There are various little areas with themes. One is the zodiac park. There are statues of the Chinese zodiac symbols (the year of the: pig, rat, dog, dragon, horse, etc….). There are some ponds & waterfalls & lots of narrow winding paths. There are covered walkways & pagodas with benches. It was very relaxing & quiet. I had some reading with me so after going around the perimeter & then through the middle, I sat & read for an hour or so. I could hear the birds chirping all around. It was very enjoyable. I didn’t see any other westerners there, so I don’t think most get this far off the beaten path.

As it started to get dark, I walked to the MTR station. It was about 15 minutes. At the station there was a Jusco store (don’t know if you remember about these stores, but to me they are the HK version of Super Wal-mart (without the politics). I had to go see what they had. Of course I found some Hello Kitty & Bad Batz Maru things to get. The New Years decorations were out in force & really fun to look at. If you want anything with pigs or cats, this was the place to go (the new year coming up is the year of the pig & I guess cats are just considered luck any year or time). It was fun just to look around.

I made my way home & got the dry cleaning successfully this time. John had a business dinner with some potential customers. He invited me, but I opted out. I wanted to get home & do some writing. So got the blog some updated.

Feb 9 Fri – Nothing much
Spent the day doing stuff around the apartment, going to the store & writing & reading, doing expenses. It is pretty hot outside & I worked up a sweat just going to the store & back. Not sure what we’ll do tonight. I get a newsletter from a HK Food review magazine & they recommended a Japanese restaurant not far from us. I might see if John feels like trying it out. It’s on a street I don’t think we’ve tried before. Heard from the Heifer International woman & we are going out to a school next week. I’m very excited about doing that. More later & keep the faith – peace out !!

Feb 2 - 7, 2007 Super Bowl & other fun things

2007-02-08T08:05:00.000-05:00

Feb 2 Friday – New Office

We took the MTR to the new office. It is on Kowloon-side (instead of just saying HK or Kowloon, they always say HK-side or Kowloon-side, goes way back). The MTR stop is pretty far out, but John will not have to change lines, so that is good. He will catch the MTR at the first stop on the way in, so he should be able to get a seat. I’m going to miss my bus ride, but it will give me a chance to learn about a new area. The office is just 2 blocks from the MTR station which is great. The area is definitely not as nice as where we are now, but the building is nice. Karen & Ruby were excited because they said there were lots of HK style restaurants nearby. They said that meant noodle & soup places.

We are on the 15th floor & the windows look out on a hill-side, but there is some construction & a highway between the office & the hillside, so it isn’t really very scenic. At least there are windows. They had to sign lots of contracts & then we went & they picked out furniture. We were going to rent furniture for a month or 2 until some stuff is delivered from the states, but it turns out it is cheaper to buy it then rent it.

I noticed a nice plant/flower store a block from the building, so maybe I’ll get some plants for the place & liven it up. Our current office doesn’t even have any pictures on the wall.

When the business was finished it was quitting time so we headed home. We get off the MTR & then have to catch the bus to our apartment. Between the MTR station & the bus stop we have to pass through Pacific Place which is a large mall. Most stuff there is very expensive. In fact I checked out a real La Sportsac bag like the fake one I got at the street market for less then US$10 & it was US$80. How ridiculous!! It was dinner time & John was in the mood for Thai soup & I wanted just Chinese soup. The mall has a food court that we’d never been to before so we tried it out. Turned out to be pretty inexpensive (US$4.50) for our respective soups & they were really good. This is why I don’t bother cooking very often.

Feb 3 Saturday – Peak & cooking

John had to go into work in the morning, so I took the opportunity to do my Morning Trail walk again. I did much better this time, but still sucking some wind going up. It was a gorgeous day & I had nothing to do so I decided to just take it easy. I spoke to a man from Holland who was here for 2 days on a stopover from China. He sells agricultural additives for cows. He said it is horrible how the Chinese don’t care anything about the environment. This seems to be what most foreign business people say. John read something that said of the people who die each year from pollution related deaths, half are Chinese. I think HK is trying to improve, but Mainland just doesn’t care I guess. I guess that it how it is with developing countries, they are more interested in the immediate results & income, not the long term effects of their actions.

Saturday was much busier than previous days especially at the Lung Fu Shan Park. Since it was lunch time there were lots of people with picnics and kids all over. It was nice to sit there & enjoy the families. I met a young woman who was also on a stopover from Australia where she’d been studying for a year. She was German and we had a great conversation. She was surprised how nice HK was & glad she had 3 days here before going back. She was especially enjoying the warm weather because it is very cold where she was heading in Germany.

When John got home we decided to try our hand at some home cooking. John is obsessed with this Thai soup called Tom Yam Kum. It is a hot & spicy & sour seafood soup. I had a recipe from a book & when I went to the store, they had a packet in the produce aisle that had everything all in one package with a short recipe on the back. I thought that was pretty cool. We also decided to try our hand at some Japanese cooking. Our favorite Japanese restaurant here makes 2 things we love. They both are very thin slices of beef that get stuffed with either straw mushrooms or chives & roasted garlic. I got the ingredients, but I’m sure the beef was not the quality of what they use at the restaurant. We spent the evening cooking & the results were not good. John said the soup was missing some very particular flavor that makes it so special. The beef rolls were OK, but nothing like the restaurant. I’m sure they use lots of butter & special sauces to make the great flavor. It was fun trying.

We spent some time playing guitar hero. If you haven’t heard of this video game, you need to check it out. The boys had it over Christmas & it is a blast. It is on Play Station 2 & your controller is actually a guitar that plugs into the system. If you’ve ever seen the dance game (Dance Dance Revolution), it is like that. On the screen notes come up & you have to press them down on the fret & strum the strum switch. The songs are mostly good old time rock & roll tunes that are really fun to play. There are several levels, so even us old folks could be successful on the easy level. We did find out that you only start out with 5 songs (out of a possible 47) and you have to unlock the other songs by “beating” the first songs. For every 5 you beat you get 5 more. BUT to unlock all of them, you have to go to Medium level & that is a lot harder. So we are having fun being rock stars. If you have kids that are teens or young adults, I’m sure they know all about this and have probably mastered the expert level.

Feb 4 Sunday – Flower Market

Since Sunday is the only day John gets off, we are usually pretty lazy in the morning. I made omelets & we read the paper & drank coffee. John had to meet someone coming over from Thailand who is going to spend the week here, so I called Sophia (my friend from the office) to see what she was up to. She & her boyfriend, Eric, were heading to the Flower Market to get New Year’s flowers. I was just there last week, but I never turn down an opportunity to go somewhere with Sophia. Being a local, she always makes the experience special. This also gives me a chance to ask her all the questions I have about everything. She is so patient & fun.

We met at the MTR station on HK-side. I had to wait quite a while in the station for them & while there I was looking at a poster about places to see in HK & what MTR station gets you there. One of the locations was the Kowloon Walled City Park. I thought I’d been to this when I was here last April. There is a park near the harbor along Nathan Rd, called Kowloon Park & I thought they were one in the same. WELL, they are NOT! I was very glad I had the time to look at this poster to realize I’d missed one of the key parks in HK. I added it to my MUST SEE list.

We took the train to the flower market. The first thing Sophia did was to get a sweet potato from a street vendor. I have been fascinated by these guys, but always afraid to try one. They have these huge cooper kettles filled with hot coals & they roast yams & nuts & sell them in bags. I guess they have a cooker or something under the kettle to keep the coals hot. It always smells so good when you pass them, but they look kind of sketchy, so I never was sure it was safe. Sophia assured me they are very safe & that I needed to make sure to get the purple yams, they are sweeter. I have never heard of purple yams, but that is what she got & we shared it. It was delicious. I also bought what looked like roasted almonds, but they didn’t taste anything like almonds. They were not too good. I should have gotten the chestnuts. I started to eat the skin of the yam & Sophia scolded me & said that it probably wasn’t a good idea to eat that since the outside might not be clean. I figured since it was so hot, the coals would burn anything bad off, but I didn’t want to upset Sophia, so I didn’t eat any more skin.

I got to ask her all about the special flowers for the New Year. Pretty much anything gold color is good luck because it is the color of money (yellow & orange are considered close enough to gold to be lucky also). Round & gold is especially lucky. So the plants you need to get are little orange trees covered with oranges (kumquats I think are what they are & little mandarin orange trees). Also, forced bulbs are really popular. I’m sure they are paperwhites or daffodils. It is the year of the pig coming up, so there was lots of pig planters & figurines to buy. There is this one fruit that is bright yellow & very strangely shaped that is especially lucky. I got a small bunch of these in a little pig pot for our apartment. Sophia approved. She got some bulbs, Eric paid. He is so nice, but very quiet. They are really fun to be with.

They were telling me about New Year’s traditions and what to & buy. If you recall the guy at our apartment said that after eating New Year’s Eve dinner people go to Victoria Park to New Year’s shop. Well, Sophia & Eric said the same thing. They said if you wait until the vendors are about to close you can get really good deals. They said last year Eric got a great deal on a plant because he went to the vendor at 3:30am. They said people will stay up shopping all night & the shops don’t close until the wee hours in the morning. I think I can manage without getting a deal like that. I enjoy this street shopping thing, but not enough to stay up that late, but we’ll see. I’m wondering if it is like New Year’s Eve in the USA where people stay up & party all night. I thought that was really funny.

After walking around for a few hours Eric was off to have dinner with some friends. Sophia wanted to do some shopping along the huge street market in Mong Kok (which I was not in the mood for, even with Sophia, just too many people), and I was heading back to have dinner with John & the guy in from Bangkok. We met at the escalator and he ended up choosing a Vietnamese/Thai restaurant that I’ve read about in the restaurant review magazine, so I was glad to go there. I tried a dish called seafood laska. Jim said it is a Malaysian dish, but often eaten in Vietnam. It was good, but had lots of coconut milk in the sauce. I’m not a huge fan of coconut milk, a little too sweet for my taste. We had some great Thai spring rolls that are wrapped in rice paper, very thin wrap & filled with nice crunchy veggies. Passed on the desserts.

When we got home I decided to make a pie that I had promised to make for another guy (our Cadmus guy) coming in from Bangkok, Meenawat. Meenawat lived in the states for 15 years (he’s only 27) & was telling me how much he missed pumpkin pie. His birthday is later this month, so I promised him I’d make him a pumpkin pie when he came. He is only going to be here Mon. & Tues. so I didn’t have a lot of time. I bought a oven thermometer while I was at home in the US, so I could better regulate the temperature. As it turns out the conversion & the actual temperature were way off. Not sure if you remember last time I tried baking pies they took like 2 hours or more to bake. This time I had the temp right & they took the normal time. Glad I got that part figured out.

Feb 5 Monday – Super Bowl, pie, Cadmus Dinner

If you are wondering why I made the pie last night & not just wait until the morning, it is because we had a date with the Super Bowl. Being 13 hours ahead of the eastern US, the game started over here at 7:00am. I had noticed last week that our favorite British Pub just around the corner from the office, Delaney’s, was opening early & showing the Super Bowl live. Since John hadn’t seen a football game all season, he was anxious to go. I had gotten to see several of the playoff games, so I had sort of gotten to know the teams.

I got there a little early because I thought it might be crowded, it wasn’t. Many tables were filled, but there were still some good ones left. They were serving a British breakfast (lots of meat & grease), so I opted out. Most people were Americans & were having liquid breakfast (bloody mary’s & screwdrivers & beer). We had tea & coffee. We are so boring, but John had to go to work afterwards & I must be getting old, but alcohol from breakfast just doesn’t appeal to me.

It was fun watching the game with a crowd. The group was fairly evenly mixed between the Bears & Colts, but the Bears fans were louder, well until it became obvious they were going to lose. We were cheering for the Colts, so were happy with the results.

Monday night was the company New Year’s dinner. We went back to the Korean BBQ place that we went to for the company Christmas dinner. I guess everyone liked it. That was the dinner where a few employees consumed mass quantities of sake & put on a good show from the crowd (that would be Steve, who is back in the states). This dinner was also very fun and got pretty loud as well. This time I think it was the plum wine & not the sake that was at fault. I know that was what did it for me. I really need to remember that I should just stick to beer. It was fun & there was more food than we knew what to do with. I’m not sure how this Korean BBQ works, but they just keep brining more & more platters of food. We had a lucky draw, which is door prizes. There were enough for everyone to win something. I brought out the pumpkin pie with candles & a crown for Meenawat. Everyone seemed to think it was excellent. It is so easy to please people who can’t get pie. I just used the recipe off the can & premade crust – how much easier can it be? Hopefully we made all the right toasts for the New Year so that Cadmus will have a lucky year. There was a lot of toasting going on!

Feb 6 Tues – More pie, the Peak, the bank

Despite the late & drunk night before, I was up at 6am & went to the store to get apples for an apple pie. This was Meenawat’s other request & since he was leaving tonight I figured I’d just get it done early. I met up with my friend, Sarah, at 11:30am. She is the woman I met at the Delhi, India airport & we’ve become friends & have had several lunches together. We have been in touch via email & she has to return to the States next week for a trail (she’s a lawyer) that she thought would settle out of court, but now isn’t. She’s been working non-stop on this case, but needed a day away, so wanted to try my new walk to the Peak.

She is in much better shape than I am. She didn’t seem winded by the climb. She explained that her last apartment (they just moved Feb 1) was 7 rooms & 7 stories, so she did a lot of climbing all day long. The apartment was also on a hill, so to go anywhere she said it was all up & down. We had a 1pm reservation at the Peak Lookout restaurant. This restaurant has been in the same location for I think 60 years. Neither of us had been there before, but it is a big tourist place. We had an outside table & it was a very pleasant afternoon. The service was very slow, but we were not in a hurry. Amazingly enough we never run out of things to talk about. We are a lot alike & found out we are even the same age. I think we were destined to meet.

The menu was culturally very varied. We both opted for soup & salad. Got Thai spring rolls to share. I got asparagus cappuccino (strange name) & spinach salad, she got a spicy Thai salad & mushroom soup. I only mention what we got because the bill was so ridiculous. When you are converting currency sometimes it is hard to realize exactly what the conversion is until after you’ve paid. I realized that it came to about US$30 each for soup & salad. We won’t be going back there any time soon. Maybe with some special visitors. The funny thing is, there isn’t even a view because the trees are grown up so high. It was fun & I’m glad we did it. We had a nice walk down & I showed her our apartment. I’m really bummed that she goes back home next week & will likely be gone a month, maybe more. We are getting to be such good friends. Guess I’ll just have to find some other friends.

I headed into the office with the pie & got some ice cream on the way in. Everyone enjoyed it. I didn’t have any. I had an errand to run for the office. I am the Cadmus delivery/fetch person. They needed me to go to the bank (Bank of America) to pick up some checks. I wasn’t completely clear about exactly what I was doing. I thought I was to get some checks that had been delivered to the bank, sign them over & have them deposited into our account. The only time I’ve been to the bank before it was to deposit checks. So I went to the bank, it is about 20 minutes away. I was told to go to the 9th floor. I went to the 9th floor & tried to explain what I was there for. They said I needed to go to the 17th floor. That is a different elevator, so I had to go back to the 1st floor & get the other elevator to the 17th floor. When I got to the 17th floor, they didn’t know what I was talking about. I called Karen at the office to have her explain what I was doing there. It turns out that I didn’t understand my mission. I guess we don’t have checks that we can write against our account, so the bank has to do them for us. I was there to pick up checks being written out of our account to pay our vendors. The woman on the 17th floor called someone on the 9th floor & then said to go back down there & they would know what to do.

Back to the 1st floor to catch the other elevator to the 9th floor again. I went to a different desk which looked more official. I explained what I was there for. This woman had no idea what I was talking about. I called Karen again & she explained. The woman went away for a few minutes, then came back & sent me back to the desk I’d been at the very first time (still on the 9th floor fortunately). They had no idea what I was talking about. Called Karen again. Thank goodness for cell phones & Karen. She explained AGAIN & they finally knew what I was there for & they were very very apologetic. They gave me a stack of checks, which is when I realized exactly what I was doing there. We speak the same language, but sometimes the ideas just don’t get across because things are done so differently that it just isn’t in my mind set to think of this.

This is funny to think about afterwards, but it is very frustrating when you are trying to make yourself understood, trying to describe something you don’t really understand. I find that happens to me a lot. I am sent on errands with what I think is all the info I’ll need, but it isn’t. There is something missing so I can’t accomplish the task successfully. It gets discouraging & extremely frustrating. Things are just done differently, guess that is the cultural differences that cause problems between cultures.

2 Feb - Morning Trail again

2007-02-01T22:54:00.000-05:00

I returned to the Morning Trail to the Peak again today. I got a little later start because John is home from Bangkok & Malaysia, so I had breakfast with him. I decided to time myself this time so I'd have a better idea about this walk when I take someone along with me.

I set off from the apartment building & it was a 10 minute "uphill" walk to the start of the trail. It was a little easier going up, but I still sucked air a good bit. Since I got a later start there were not so many old folks out to make me feel inadequate. To the end of the uphill climb took 40 minutes, then 10 minutes around to the Peak. I tried to keep going non-stop, but the views from the next leg of the walk are just so spectacular, you can't not stop & admire. So with some limited viewing, that was 30 minutes. Then it was 20 minutes from the Lung Fu Shan Park to the bottom. I did not take the Pinewood Battery detore this time. I don't think my legs could have managed all those stairs, even going down. From the bottom is was just 5 minutes downhill to my apartment.

So less than 2 hours today. Hopefully I can do this a few times a week & I should be in good shape if I survive. At least my legs will be in good shape. I didn't feel like taking a camera today, but maybe I'll convince John to join me this weekend & we can take some pictures.

Not much else going on today. I'm going to head in to the office, John has a little (I hope) project for me. Then we are going to look at the new office across the harbor. We move in later this month. John said it was really funny when they were looking at offices, Ruby (our office manager) had to have her aunt come check out the new office to make sure the Feng Shui was good. If you don't know what this is, it has to do with positioning in relation to good & bad luck. People will place their furniture in a room according to Feng Shui for good karma. The aunt also told them what day of the month would be the luck day to move in and what day the couldn't move in. As modern & sophisticated as this city is, those traditional & sometimes very superstitious beliefs are still very prominent.

1 Feb - Morning Trail

2007-02-01T06:41:00.000-05:00

1 Feb, 07 – Great morning walk

Despite all the exercise I got yesterday, I still was up at 4:30 this morning. Tried really hard to get back to sleep, but just couldn’t. The gym opens up at 6am, so I figured this would be as good a day as any to get back into the gym routine. To get to the gym I have to cross outside to the other building. When I got outside (it was around 6:45) it was so pleasant. There was a nice breeze blowing & the temperature felt just perfect for a walk outside.

I wanted to head up to uncharted territory. From where our building is, up has trees & down has buildings. I walked to the east along our road until I saw a set of stairs going up. I took them & ended up at the entrance to an apartment complex. I asked the guard if he knew of any paths nearby that would take me up. He said if I headed west down the road, I’d come to Hatton Rd & that will take you to the Peak. Sounded promising. This was a road that I’d never been on. It was all residential. It was about a mile to Hatton Road. Not far up the road it narrowed to a path & was called Morning Trail. This seemed most appropriate. There was a sign indicating 2800m to the Peak. I’m not good with conversion, but I know there are about 3 feet in a meter, but I’ve never known how many feet in a mile, one of those mental blocks I have. So I just looked it up & it's 5280ft/mile, so just over 1.5 miles to the top.

So up I went. It was pretty strenuous & very embarrassing. The path had many people taking their morning walk & many seemed to know each other. Most were older Chinese folks who moved along at a steady pace without seeming to breath hard at all. I was huffing & puffing away & made several stops to catch my breath. Some of these people even were using canes. I took my sweatshirt off & was in shorts & t-shirt, but most of them were wearing jackets & coats, but didn’t appear to be bothered by the steep up-hill climb. I wanted to turn back many times, but said to myself, “what else do you have to do today? There isn’t one reason why you can’t go to the top!” So I continued on. At 1700m the path flattened out & there was a park with fitness areas.

There was an information area & map informing the walker that this was Lung Fu Shan Country Park & fitness area. Lung meaning dragon & Fu meaning tiger, they didn't say what the Shan meant. The fitness area was great, although I didn't use it. Just different stations for working different parts of the body. You see these scattered all over HK in the parks & trails. Maybe another reason they are thin.

It was pretty interesting because there were people everywhere doing Tai Chi, some in groups, some alone. It is a wonderful thing to watch, very mesmerizing. Periodically I’d hear someone yelling at the top of their lungs. I guess this is a part of the morning ritual for some. After their yell they look very calm & relaxed. Many people were walking their dogs & a few cars passed by also. Most people who passed me on the path said a “jo san” (good morning) to me with a big smile. When these folks get away from the hustle of the city, they are very friendly.

I made it to the top with some great scenery along the way. It’s the first time I’ve been to the Peak that it wasn’t packed with people. Nothing was open for business yet, so it was a very different place. By this time it was about 8am.

I checked out a map (they have them all along the way, everything is very well marked) & found a different road to take that looped around the other side of the mountain I’d just climbed. The way up I had taken the south looking path to the Peak, which looks out over the back side of the island. This one was the north side which looks out over Victoria harbor & the area where we live. The view was amazing & I figured out which building was ours. I can’t believe I haven’t taken this path before & I know for sure it won’t be the last time. In fact I think I might get John out there this weekend.

The walk down was easier, but I could feel my thighs burning. I took another detour & saw an old WWII military battery that was down many many steps (which is why I didn’t try it on the way up, better to go down steps than up). When I returned back to the street I took a lower road heading in the direction I thought we lived. As it turns out, I was right, this path is just up the road from our building & I never knew it was there. Since there are no stores in that direction it isn’t a way we ever go. I also found that the University of HK is right there also. I had no idea it was so close. You know where I’ll be hanging out in the next few weeks.!

I got back to the apartment just after 9am. Had a nice breakfast & spent the rest of the day on the computer & reading. I did go out & get the dry cleaning & some groceries. The gym can wait for a rainy day. The Morning Path is going to become a routine, at least a few times a week. If I keep waking up at 4:30, I can do it before John even wakes up. He has just called from the airport & is on his way home. Perfect timing.

Sorry, no photos of my day today, as I thought I was just going to the gym I didn’t bring along my camera. Next time!