Well, one more westerner on the way home. My co-worker Eric has finished his tour of duty, and is headed back to the US. This means two things, I need to step up, and I'm totally screwed. See, Eric had been here for 9 months, and knew the place pretty well. We'll see if I survive.
Food of the Week:
Well, like most weeks, I've eaten a couple of things that I have no clue why I did. This week? Fish intestine omlette. An omlette with fish sounds bad enough, but fish intestines? In all fairness, it wasn't bad, but I didn't eat much of it. Omlettes are hard to eat with chopsticks, btw. And today, I had Mexican food, with that special Chinese twist. I had a serious craving for tacos, so I found a place. And they were pretty good! Better than Taco Bell at least (which I have failed to locate).
Friday, June 02, 2006
Monday, May 29, 2006
Hong Kong and Its Nightlife
Made the trip down to Hong Kong last Thursday. The original reason for my trip was to get an Indian visa. Unfortunately, the HK Consulate only does one day processing for residents of Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan. I would be required to stay in HK for 5 days. That just won't do. But I went down anyways to meet the boss' boss. And I happened to meet the President of the Asia Pacific region too. But that's work, and no one wants that! What did I see while in Hong Kong? Not much. Made it to Lan Kwai Fong both nights, which is one of the ex-pat heavy nightlife areas. The events of Friday night pretty much ruined my Saturday, which means it was A LOT of fun. To those of you who come visit once I've moved to Hong Kong, you will enjoy this part of town.
This is a view down one of the streets on Thursday night. Friday night this same street was nearly impossible to walk down.
Lots of neon, of course.
Yes, I did eat at this restaurant, and I had good luck! Mostly in that I didn't get violently ill.
After I returned, I made a trip to Beijing Lu, here in Guangzhou. Beijing Lu is a large outdoor shopping mall. If you look enough, this is where all the knock off merchandise is. I took a picture from halfway down the mall, so you could get an idea of what it's like here.
Lots and lots of people, and stores as far as you care to walk. The real goods are hidden behind the stores you see in the picture, deep in the building. Anyways, the upcoming week is pretty dull, lots of work, not much travelling. So if I don't have much to post, that's why.
This is a view down one of the streets on Thursday night. Friday night this same street was nearly impossible to walk down.
Lots of neon, of course.
Yes, I did eat at this restaurant, and I had good luck! Mostly in that I didn't get violently ill.
After I returned, I made a trip to Beijing Lu, here in Guangzhou. Beijing Lu is a large outdoor shopping mall. If you look enough, this is where all the knock off merchandise is. I took a picture from halfway down the mall, so you could get an idea of what it's like here.
Lots and lots of people, and stores as far as you care to walk. The real goods are hidden behind the stores you see in the picture, deep in the building. Anyways, the upcoming week is pretty dull, lots of work, not much travelling. So if I don't have much to post, that's why.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Big Things, Little Things
So I believe Stephen asked for a size comparison of the monkey statue to something of known quantity. So we'll use myself. For those of you not in the know, I'm approximately 6'3" or 6'4".
Here's the Darwin monkey statue. Given my distance from it, and taking into account the angle of the camera, it's like 12 feet high. I'm standing at least 10-15' from the statue itself.
Since this is such a fun game, I found another picture! This one from Bangkok. It's a good picture of me in this part of the world. No, that's not a child. She was the waitress at the restaurant.
Here's the Darwin monkey statue. Given my distance from it, and taking into account the angle of the camera, it's like 12 feet high. I'm standing at least 10-15' from the statue itself.
Since this is such a fun game, I found another picture! This one from Bangkok. It's a good picture of me in this part of the world. No, that's not a child. She was the waitress at the restaurant.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Chinglish, Sanya Style
Whew, lots of posts today. Here's some assorted Chinglish I caught while roaming around Sanya last weekend.
Nasty Machos? No thank you.
I'll be honest. As soon as I saw the word bosom, I thought boobs. What else can I say?
Well, this was on a beach, so I figured it out. But really, save to living the station? I mean, WTF!? I think I could make money just being a proofreader down here. Just stop by with your translation, and for 10 RMB/word I'll make sure it makes sense to anyone who speaks halfway decent English.
Nasty Machos? No thank you.
I'll be honest. As soon as I saw the word bosom, I thought boobs. What else can I say?
Well, this was on a beach, so I figured it out. But really, save to living the station? I mean, WTF!? I think I could make money just being a proofreader down here. Just stop by with your translation, and for 10 RMB/word I'll make sure it makes sense to anyone who speaks halfway decent English.
Sanya
Coworker Dave and I decided to take a quick visit to the island paradise of Sanya this weekend. Sanya is located in Hainan Province, which is an island on the southernmost tip of China. It was described to us as "The Hawaii of China." I've never been to Hawaii, but if it's cloudy and rainy and very green, then I guess it's the same. It was pretty cloudy and overcast Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon was absolutely beautiful, though. Extremely sunny and bright. And I guess I don't learn well. After the visit to Miami, you think I'd understand what sunscreen was for. I was only in the sun for 30-45 minutes, and I burned like a mofo. Not as bad as Dave, however.
We originally decided to go down because flights are 900RMB, or about $120 round trip. There aren't a lot of sights near Sanya, but one cool thing we heard about was Hao Dao, or Monkey Island. Imagine an island with over 1000 monkeys, without bears nearby.
They had some of the monkeys doing tricks:
Then there was monkey jail, outside of which one of the monkeys became enamoured with Dave.
Near Monkey Island is a small town called Xincun. It's a harbor town, as you'll see. We took some time to just stroll thru the town and the market area. One of the most intersting things to do in any town is just walk the streets. You end up seeing things that are hard to comprehend from our standpoint. It's also a lot of fun trying to interact with the locals (sometimes, that is).
Saturday was spent just walking thru Sanya itself. I don't have a lot of pictures, mostly because we were just enjoying it. We of course ran across street vendors of all sorts.
There must be lots of Russian visitors to Sanya, because there were lots of signs like this. Many were Russian first, then Chinese, then English.
Sunday was just relaxing. So I'll leave you with pictures of 7.5 km worth of white sand beach. Yes, I brought some home!
Hopefully the upcoming weekend has a trip to Hong Kong, if just for a day. So maybe I'll get some more pics for you all.
We originally decided to go down because flights are 900RMB, or about $120 round trip. There aren't a lot of sights near Sanya, but one cool thing we heard about was Hao Dao, or Monkey Island. Imagine an island with over 1000 monkeys, without bears nearby.
They had some of the monkeys doing tricks:
Then there was monkey jail, outside of which one of the monkeys became enamoured with Dave.
Near Monkey Island is a small town called Xincun. It's a harbor town, as you'll see. We took some time to just stroll thru the town and the market area. One of the most intersting things to do in any town is just walk the streets. You end up seeing things that are hard to comprehend from our standpoint. It's also a lot of fun trying to interact with the locals (sometimes, that is).
Saturday was spent just walking thru Sanya itself. I don't have a lot of pictures, mostly because we were just enjoying it. We of course ran across street vendors of all sorts.
There must be lots of Russian visitors to Sanya, because there were lots of signs like this. Many were Russian first, then Chinese, then English.
Sunday was just relaxing. So I'll leave you with pictures of 7.5 km worth of white sand beach. Yes, I brought some home!
Hopefully the upcoming weekend has a trip to Hong Kong, if just for a day. So maybe I'll get some more pics for you all.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Say Hello to my Little Friend!
It seems this is the year to get out. And by get out, I don't mean outdoors. The list of people I know making foreign excursions this year is relatively large.
- Derek and Nicole - making a stop in Australia before moving to Germany for an undetermined amount of time.
- Chad and Liz - Heading out to Bangkok for 7 weeks.
- Donnie and Heather - A visit to Brazil.
- Erin and Sara(maybe) - making a visit to China.
- Kelsey - hopefully coming to China, if she ever gets a passport.
- My parents - also claim they're going to come to China.
Friday, May 12, 2006
Movin' On Up
Not quite like The Jeffersons, but a skyward move nonetheless. Since arriving in China, I've been living in at the China Hotel. A nice enough hotel, but there was no mistaking the fact that I was living in a hotel room. I was the proverbial man in a suitcase. Well tonight the hotel manager informs me that my new room is ready, and a suite awaits!
A suite at the China Hotel is like staying at the Holiday Inn with your extended family, and you've got adjoining rooms. They obviously just took the bathroom out of one of the rooms and made it a small kitchenette. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the extra space, but a couple months of this is gonna be rough.
Sorry I don't have any pictures today. I've been pretty busy with work, which is a nice thing for now. Maybe I'll get out this weekend.
A suite at the China Hotel is like staying at the Holiday Inn with your extended family, and you've got adjoining rooms. They obviously just took the bathroom out of one of the rooms and made it a small kitchenette. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the extra space, but a couple months of this is gonna be rough.
Sorry I don't have any pictures today. I've been pretty busy with work, which is a nice thing for now. Maybe I'll get out this weekend.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Skype
For those of you that have Skype, I'm available on that if you would like to talk to me. I should be easy to find via search.
If you don't know, Skype allows for computer to computer voice calls, completely free of charge. There is also a feature to make calls to regular lines, at a very low rate. I tested it a couple of times, and it works very well here in China.
If you don't know, Skype allows for computer to computer voice calls, completely free of charge. There is also a feature to make calls to regular lines, at a very low rate. I tested it a couple of times, and it works very well here in China.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Yul Brynner
I once received a piece of sage advice, that one night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble. Being the brave soul that I am, I tried for two nights. I wish Chad the best of luck going for 8 weeks. Oh, if you wanted to know why Yul Brynner mattered in that song, he was King Mongut of Siam in The King and I. That's something I would never have known.
My time in Thailand did not start off on the right foot. We had an excellent meal on Thursday night, or so I thought. By Friday morning, it was obvious I ate something very wrong, as the meal made a reappearance. I blame the fish.
Like Murray Head said, Bangkok has both muddy old rivers (that smell absolutely horrible) and a reclining Buddha. Actually, one of the world's largest reclining Buddhas.
But more on that later. After Thursday's debacle, we had hoped to go sightseeing on Friday. Unfortunately, the weather did not want to cooperate, so we went to a shopping district. The MBK mall is simply enormous. Each floor is dedicated to a certain type of item. 4th floor is games and DVD copies. 6th floor was touristy trinkets. It was okay. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Paul's Fashions, where Dave and I decided to get fitted for some custom clothes. I bought a shirt and slacks. Pretty impressive considering they were ready the next day.
Saturday finally brought a day we could see the sights, which is Bangkok is temples, temples, and more temples. We started the morning off at Wat Arun, which was an 85 meter tall prang, or "tall thing".
After Wat Arun, we headed over to Wat Po, also known as Wat Phra Chetuphon. This is where the reclining Buddha is located. It's pretty much the major draw to this temple, although there are a couple of other sights too.
Leaving Wat Po, we headed to the largest temple/palace in Bangkok, The Grand Palace. Up until King Rama IX, this was where the king lived. It's also the location of the Emerald Buddha, which is actually jade. This was a pretty impressive sight. Also, they have a very strict dress code at this palace, with no shorts, tank tops, or inappropriate clothing.
Now that my jaunt to Southeast Asia is over, I'll probably be spending the next two weeks or so here in Guangzhou. Because of that, I'll have less cool things to show. I may make a trip down to Hong Kong though, so check back.
My time in Thailand did not start off on the right foot. We had an excellent meal on Thursday night, or so I thought. By Friday morning, it was obvious I ate something very wrong, as the meal made a reappearance. I blame the fish.
Like Murray Head said, Bangkok has both muddy old rivers (that smell absolutely horrible) and a reclining Buddha. Actually, one of the world's largest reclining Buddhas.
But more on that later. After Thursday's debacle, we had hoped to go sightseeing on Friday. Unfortunately, the weather did not want to cooperate, so we went to a shopping district. The MBK mall is simply enormous. Each floor is dedicated to a certain type of item. 4th floor is games and DVD copies. 6th floor was touristy trinkets. It was okay. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Paul's Fashions, where Dave and I decided to get fitted for some custom clothes. I bought a shirt and slacks. Pretty impressive considering they were ready the next day.Saturday finally brought a day we could see the sights, which is Bangkok is temples, temples, and more temples. We started the morning off at Wat Arun, which was an 85 meter tall prang, or "tall thing".
After Wat Arun, we headed over to Wat Po, also known as Wat Phra Chetuphon. This is where the reclining Buddha is located. It's pretty much the major draw to this temple, although there are a couple of other sights too.
Leaving Wat Po, we headed to the largest temple/palace in Bangkok, The Grand Palace. Up until King Rama IX, this was where the king lived. It's also the location of the Emerald Buddha, which is actually jade. This was a pretty impressive sight. Also, they have a very strict dress code at this palace, with no shorts, tank tops, or inappropriate clothing.
Now that my jaunt to Southeast Asia is over, I'll probably be spending the next two weeks or so here in Guangzhou. Because of that, I'll have less cool things to show. I may make a trip down to Hong Kong though, so check back.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Kuala Lumpur
I was in Kuala Lumpur from Tuesday night to Thursday morning. If you're not familiar, Kuala Lumpur is home to the Petronas Towers, Petronas being the local oil/gas multinational. Despite the fact that the towers are the two of the world's largest buildings, they just don't look that big. Maybe it's the fact that there is nothing around them. The Sears Tower looks impressive, but it has all of Chicago's skyline along with it. Perhaps Wikipedia shows it best.
The flight to KL was a complete joke. I've never seen a smaller seat on an airplane. I actually laughed. The person in front of me was actually a bit miffed that he physically couldn't lean his seat back. He looked at me and gave me a quizzical look, like "what's wrong here?" Yeah, those are my KNEES, buddy. It was all forgiven when we landed, however. KL is clean. And it doesn't stink. They had a western radio station playing. Okay, it was Heart, but you take what you can get.
We stayed in the Ritz Carlton bacause the JW Marriott was full. That was a stroke of luck. These rooms are NICE! Butler service, full marble bathroom, all the amenities. Rockwell doesn't provide may instances to live like this, but DAMN. No iron in the room though, what's up with that. Unfortunatley, Rockwell didn't send me here for vacation. I actually do have to work. So I don't really get to see out of the city so much. But after work on Wednesday, we went out to eat in the City Center area, at the base of the towers. I did get this awesome picture.
The dinner itself was about what I expected, which was something totally unexpected. A variety of local Malay foods, with fish head soup being the "premier" dish. The highlight? I asked what kind of fish it was. A red snapper. Very tasty indeed.
The flight to KL was a complete joke. I've never seen a smaller seat on an airplane. I actually laughed. The person in front of me was actually a bit miffed that he physically couldn't lean his seat back. He looked at me and gave me a quizzical look, like "what's wrong here?" Yeah, those are my KNEES, buddy. It was all forgiven when we landed, however. KL is clean. And it doesn't stink. They had a western radio station playing. Okay, it was Heart, but you take what you can get.
We stayed in the Ritz Carlton bacause the JW Marriott was full. That was a stroke of luck. These rooms are NICE! Butler service, full marble bathroom, all the amenities. Rockwell doesn't provide may instances to live like this, but DAMN. No iron in the room though, what's up with that. Unfortunatley, Rockwell didn't send me here for vacation. I actually do have to work. So I don't really get to see out of the city so much. But after work on Wednesday, we went out to eat in the City Center area, at the base of the towers. I did get this awesome picture.
The dinner itself was about what I expected, which was something totally unexpected. A variety of local Malay foods, with fish head soup being the "premier" dish. The highlight? I asked what kind of fish it was. A red snapper. Very tasty indeed.
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