While partaking in the Xmas eve gathering at Pu Dong, I had an opportunity talking to the husbands at the table. All of them had been in Shanghai for ages - late 90's. Two were in the HR recruitment field and one ran/is running an Australian food restaurant called Mesa.
The two in the HR field were talking about a possible slowdown in Shanghai; the leading indicator - of hiring Executives is slowing down. This will lead to a slow down in hiring the subordinates - GMs, Managers, assistants. So next year things may look like a very lean year. Also, they were talking about no corporate culture in Shanghai or China at large; people do not stay at one place longer than one and a half year. Employees only want to make big money; only go where they get pay more; and they expect to be pampered and "cared" for. Employees expect the CEO, the managers dropping everything and "worship" them. This is inline of what I see; kids want to get the "top jobs" without going thru the 'proper training". This is sad; the get quick rich scheme. The two HR guys said there were companies wanting a recruit with "super" qualifications; you just cannot have that. But companies still want it; this has indicated top management still not mature or not knowing what it needs. Also, HSBC a big client from a HR recruitment firm, wants to have 600 new employees with a specific qualifications. Well, it just cannot be done in China. So, companies are stealing from each other for employees from a limited pool of resources.
As to the restaurant owner, he was expressing frustration in dealing with the local food inspectors; forget about the rhetoric of how improved the gov't has come in to accommodating businesses. There are still corruption. A certain "quanxi" (relationships) must be maintained; he rather pays up front then gets surprises, No matter if you follow the food guideline to the letter, you still need to pay a little of "penalties". Doesn't matter; the "paying scale" is based on how much your business' ability to make money. Obviously, the foreign owned restaurants will get levy more than the local ones. This restaurant owner told us a story:
Last year, at 7pm one evening, 7 food inspectors stormed into the restaurants without any announcement; grab all the tables and chairs and sat in the middle of the restaurant; smoking and talking. So, the owner sent out the chinese speaking local manager to inquire. One of the food inspectors rose and walked into the kitchen; after a while, came out and served a notice of RMB$5,000 for rule violation. The owner had to appear at the food inspection office to pay the fine and "explained". After those inspectors left, the chinese manager laughed. The reason there was such a dramatized "show of force" moment before was that those inspectors wanted to extort money from the owner; they wanted to show up during peak customer hours. Well, they were off by an hour as the Westerners usually didn't come in until 8pm.
That's one of many stories you can hear from businesses. Doing business in China is still.....
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Flying on Christmas day
Flying on Christmas day actually is quite good from Shanghai to SFO. There were no line-up, lots of seats. At the moment I am sitting in the UA's Economy Plus section with 3 seats all by myself. Better than paying the US$10,000 for a Business Class seat on a tired 747-400.
Service is par with AC; that is so-so. But you can tell some fly attendance are trying hard to "service with a smile". After flying in Asia, the UA cabin seems very dated, dirty and improving. I am watching very bad movies. The movie skips and jerks. There is no personal entertainment system. Only 12 channels to choose from for audio selection. Will it get worse before getting better? Good thing this flight will be only 9 hours and 20 some odd minutes; good tail wind! Am dragging the looong flight back from SFO to PVG on January 10th. Have to pack my snack boxes.
The lunch portion was quite small. From the look, my vegetarian meal was far better than the regular ones. I think the airline was trying to save $ on "smaller" portion; maybe MacDonald should "downsize" its meals like UA. Obesity might go away gradually. When the snack came, the passengers including myself inhaled the content in record time. Seem the service was hurry up to eat, drink then collect. There was no civility of having your food digested. Yes, the snack contained non-heathy carb as well as fried chinese crackers with cheese. I think my own snack box will be healthier. Since Audrey and I ordered vegetarian meals, we had our own snack boxes; rather than meat with the finger size sandwich, we had what seemed to be tomatoes and cucumber. Cabin light dimming had it advantage :-P
Service is par with AC; that is so-so. But you can tell some fly attendance are trying hard to "service with a smile". After flying in Asia, the UA cabin seems very dated, dirty and improving. I am watching very bad movies. The movie skips and jerks. There is no personal entertainment system. Only 12 channels to choose from for audio selection. Will it get worse before getting better? Good thing this flight will be only 9 hours and 20 some odd minutes; good tail wind! Am dragging the looong flight back from SFO to PVG on January 10th. Have to pack my snack boxes.
The lunch portion was quite small. From the look, my vegetarian meal was far better than the regular ones. I think the airline was trying to save $ on "smaller" portion; maybe MacDonald should "downsize" its meals like UA. Obesity might go away gradually. When the snack came, the passengers including myself inhaled the content in record time. Seem the service was hurry up to eat, drink then collect. There was no civility of having your food digested. Yes, the snack contained non-heathy carb as well as fried chinese crackers with cheese. I think my own snack box will be healthier. Since Audrey and I ordered vegetarian meals, we had our own snack boxes; rather than meat with the finger size sandwich, we had what seemed to be tomatoes and cucumber. Cabin light dimming had it advantage :-P
Monday, December 24, 2007
Xmas Eve in Shanghai
It was an excuse for the younger generation to party and got drunk. When we arrived home by taxi last night, there were lots of "happy" people on Nanjing Xi Lu. This was a contrast to the normal quiet down street I accustomed to. Yikes. Good thing we will be away for New Year's Eve.
We didn't do much; started off by sleeping in until 6am :-P Then proceeded to work on the computers for couple hours. After that, we were beat up by our PT. Long hard sessions; good sweat but couldn't climb stairs again afterward. Hee hee... All sorts of running around. I quite enjoyed walking in Shanghai when the air was cool and still not that many cars or people on the road. Couple meetings later then off to the salon; my friend decided giving me a last minute hair trimming. Kinda nice.
Off we went to Pu Dong area for a Christmas gathering; Pu Dong is a huge development area with a Science and Technology Park, the famoous international airport and new residential development. By taxi from the salon we were surprise how quick it went. All traffic was coming into the city to party. Normally at around 6pm or so, good luck. One would have been sitting in a vehicle generating large quantity of CO2 plus whatever else chemical coming off from the gasoline refining process. We went thru Nan Pu bridge connected to Pu Dong, as we "climb" up to the bridge; yes, "climb" as in driving in circular upward path similar to a parkade; at each level, we had the US imitation exits which could have caused serious accident as the exit and entrance are pretty much on the same curve with a driver concentrating on the round and round, dizzing effect, blind exit and entrance signs hanging high up... O where was I now? O right..... after much dizzing climb to the bridge; didn't take us long arriving at the destination; 20 minutes. For that far a distance, about 35Km, only less than CAD$10.00.
By the time we got back home, we were too tired to pack... Time for bed............
We didn't do much; started off by sleeping in until 6am :-P Then proceeded to work on the computers for couple hours. After that, we were beat up by our PT. Long hard sessions; good sweat but couldn't climb stairs again afterward. Hee hee... All sorts of running around. I quite enjoyed walking in Shanghai when the air was cool and still not that many cars or people on the road. Couple meetings later then off to the salon; my friend decided giving me a last minute hair trimming. Kinda nice.
Off we went to Pu Dong area for a Christmas gathering; Pu Dong is a huge development area with a Science and Technology Park, the famoous international airport and new residential development. By taxi from the salon we were surprise how quick it went. All traffic was coming into the city to party. Normally at around 6pm or so, good luck. One would have been sitting in a vehicle generating large quantity of CO2 plus whatever else chemical coming off from the gasoline refining process. We went thru Nan Pu bridge connected to Pu Dong, as we "climb" up to the bridge; yes, "climb" as in driving in circular upward path similar to a parkade; at each level, we had the US imitation exits which could have caused serious accident as the exit and entrance are pretty much on the same curve with a driver concentrating on the round and round, dizzing effect, blind exit and entrance signs hanging high up... O where was I now? O right..... after much dizzing climb to the bridge; didn't take us long arriving at the destination; 20 minutes. For that far a distance, about 35Km, only less than CAD$10.00.
By the time we got back home, we were too tired to pack... Time for bed............
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Sore today....
After a much needed 12-hour sleep yesterday, I think I have finally caught up to my sleep for year 2004.
Went to the gym today; man, did the PT push me hard; I liked it but I was sore. Upper body, lots; core exercises, yikes. Sometimes, I didn't know I was "uncoordinated" until this morning. At the end of the session, walking up the stairs to cross the pedestrian bridge was hurting. I meant "hurting"! I didn't walk home but took the subway - one stop and the exit was just in front of my apartment. Two hours later, I was having a massage. We bought this 20-pack for a discount at our hair salon.
After being worked on by a PT, now I was being worked on by this very petite woman with strong hands and elbows. Ouch, it hurt! She seemed to know all the sore spots I had. Hands, elbows, all together trying to "unknot" me on those spots. Well, I am ready for the CIA training camp, Bush! The captive torture sigment that was. Once she worked me over, I thought my session ended; no.... She did the suction cups on my back where my sore spots were. Yikes! Now, those spots needed to be 'sucked" up to the surface so she could work on them tomorrow! With soft voice speaking in Mandarin: "Mr. Lo, no pain no gain! You will feel better soon! " Since I was lying face down, I wasn't sure if Carrie (that was her name) was genuienly saying that or just saying it with a big grin from side to side.
One thing though, I now have a full range motion with my right rotator cup. It was my old injury from badminton that had inhibited my full range of motion. Now, I can stretch way back; and I have a full range of motion. Believe it or not. I do have those little dark round cup imprints on my back to show. Not uploading pictures though ;-)
Went to the gym today; man, did the PT push me hard; I liked it but I was sore. Upper body, lots; core exercises, yikes. Sometimes, I didn't know I was "uncoordinated" until this morning. At the end of the session, walking up the stairs to cross the pedestrian bridge was hurting. I meant "hurting"! I didn't walk home but took the subway - one stop and the exit was just in front of my apartment. Two hours later, I was having a massage. We bought this 20-pack for a discount at our hair salon.
After being worked on by a PT, now I was being worked on by this very petite woman with strong hands and elbows. Ouch, it hurt! She seemed to know all the sore spots I had. Hands, elbows, all together trying to "unknot" me on those spots. Well, I am ready for the CIA training camp, Bush! The captive torture sigment that was. Once she worked me over, I thought my session ended; no.... She did the suction cups on my back where my sore spots were. Yikes! Now, those spots needed to be 'sucked" up to the surface so she could work on them tomorrow! With soft voice speaking in Mandarin: "Mr. Lo, no pain no gain! You will feel better soon! " Since I was lying face down, I wasn't sure if Carrie (that was her name) was genuienly saying that or just saying it with a big grin from side to side.
One thing though, I now have a full range motion with my right rotator cup. It was my old injury from badminton that had inhibited my full range of motion. Now, I can stretch way back; and I have a full range of motion. Believe it or not. I do have those little dark round cup imprints on my back to show. Not uploading pictures though ;-)
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Twist cap Wolfblass
I figure I should be civilized by getting a bottle of nice wine, relaxing at home while listening to music coming from Audrey's piano playing. (Wow, a mouth full!!).... Bought a bottle of Wolfblass Yellowtail. It costed RMB$180. That was about CAD$26.00. Even bought a wine opener. Just when I attempted to insert the proper tool in extracting the cock. Well, I have discovered the bottle had a twist cap!!!! A Wolfblass with twist cap? Could this be possible? When it was bottle in 2005? I am not sure where it bottled at? Has anyone seen a twist cap Yellowtail? Well, will let you later if I have survive the experience. I just noticed too, the label has some funky line across the label. Didn't remember having those lines before. Ummm..... And I didn't buy this bottle on a street but a very reputable highend Japanese supermarket next to the Ritz on Nanjing Xi Road.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Shanghai now
Yes, we are back to Shanghai now. And we have 5 days here. That's amazing considering the time we stay at one spot.
Leaving again on the afternoon of Dec 25. Arriving at SFO in the morning of Dec 25 at 830am. We got to spend Xmas day twice. Not bad.
Nothing to report.
Merry Christmas!
Leaving again on the afternoon of Dec 25. Arriving at SFO in the morning of Dec 25 at 830am. We got to spend Xmas day twice. Not bad.
Nothing to report.
Merry Christmas!
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Still scratching my head.
Guessing Singapore's taxi fare is a total art form. This morning's fare from hotel to the airport costed S$40.00; extra surcharges this time..... "Early morning booking". Three weeks ago, I left pretty much the same time from another hotel, Le Meridien, at Orchard Rd to the airport; total cost S$25.00. This time, was a bit less distance but costed more! And from the airport to the hotel on Sunday, it was only S$29.00. Umm....... I guess the best way is sticking to the MRT, the subway; at least I know I am only being charged $0.90 one way to anywhere. But wait, I haven't taken it during really rush hour. Might be more. Who knows...
Monday, December 17, 2007
Chinese labourers everywhere
In Singapore that is. They are from mainland China employed in the service sector. Mostly in hotels as cleaning stuff. The so called lower paid. The more well-to-do Singaporeans don't want to do. I use more Mandarin here than in Shanghai! Ha!
You want better English speaking, best head to Orchard Road. Sometimes I got blank stares on the other end when communicating in English. At street corner this afternoon, I overhead an conversation between two men. They started with Hokian, then Manadarin then English and all in one breath, a mix of all three in couple sentences. After a while, I really have no idea what they were talking about; because I just couldn't pick out what language; seems transformed to a new language.
You want better English speaking, best head to Orchard Road. Sometimes I got blank stares on the other end when communicating in English. At street corner this afternoon, I overhead an conversation between two men. They started with Hokian, then Manadarin then English and all in one breath, a mix of all three in couple sentences. After a while, I really have no idea what they were talking about; because I just couldn't pick out what language; seems transformed to a new language.
Taxi in Singapore
Very interesting facts. It is hard catching a taxi on the street anymore; the taxis are waiting at major buildings or running around with advance bookings. Advance bookings because the drivers charge a surcharge of S$3.50. On top of that, there are peak hours surcharge as well. About S$3.00. Surcharge this, surcharge that. You better start walking or take the MRT (subway). Subway, only if you can stand the "sweaty" smell permeates in compartments once you get on. I was quite surprise that there is not enough ventilation for body odour.
Yes, back to the taxi. You can get a variety ranges of models. From Corolla to Benz, same price, same metering.
When we got on a taxi at the Singapore airport, it was a Benz. The driver trashed the interior pretty good though; stapled Xmas decoration dangling through out the ceiling. On the dash and on the back, more Xmas decorations. Didn't need more reminding anymore after exiting that taxi.
Yes, back to the taxi. You can get a variety ranges of models. From Corolla to Benz, same price, same metering.
When we got on a taxi at the Singapore airport, it was a Benz. The driver trashed the interior pretty good though; stapled Xmas decoration dangling through out the ceiling. On the dash and on the back, more Xmas decorations. Didn't need more reminding anymore after exiting that taxi.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
my HSBC experience from HKG Head Office
Dear Mr/Mrs. Lo,
Thank you for your keen inquiry into whether your business account has been setup. As part of our bank's continuing cost saving and efficiency program, we assume that you should telepathically know the account has been setup along with a valid account number for sometime. Our bank has provided a humanoid taking inquiry messages pretending the bank is concerned with your well being and your business needs. Should you contact your Premier account relationship manager for any assistance, please understand that he/she can only provide you further phone numbers to contact in the SMB unit. Our bank has defined very fine and absolute compartmental procedures in inter-department communications. In short, in order to save cost and pass on the saving to you, we only provide our service half ass. Should you deem a full service is needed, we recommend either switching to a more competent bank or opening up a super Premier account; this new type of account will provide you with a plusher waiting area with more buttery cookies and a humanoid providing Nescafe instant coffee with processed cream.
Again thank you for your keen interest into your own business needs. We value your business. Please do not hesitate in contacting our bank again at our convenience. We are busy penetrating the Chinese market as well as plugging holes in the subprime mortgage fiasco due to the greed factor.
Should the telepathic communication is encountering problem between you and the bank, we do levy a small service fee at HK$100 per month for inquiry under 5 times.
Yours truly,
HSBC Banking Service Team
------------------------------------------------
Service excellence begin with US.
------------------------------------------------
Thank you for your keen inquiry into whether your business account has been setup. As part of our bank's continuing cost saving and efficiency program, we assume that you should telepathically know the account has been setup along with a valid account number for sometime. Our bank has provided a humanoid taking inquiry messages pretending the bank is concerned with your well being and your business needs. Should you contact your Premier account relationship manager for any assistance, please understand that he/she can only provide you further phone numbers to contact in the SMB unit. Our bank has defined very fine and absolute compartmental procedures in inter-department communications. In short, in order to save cost and pass on the saving to you, we only provide our service half ass. Should you deem a full service is needed, we recommend either switching to a more competent bank or opening up a super Premier account; this new type of account will provide you with a plusher waiting area with more buttery cookies and a humanoid providing Nescafe instant coffee with processed cream.
Again thank you for your keen interest into your own business needs. We value your business. Please do not hesitate in contacting our bank again at our convenience. We are busy penetrating the Chinese market as well as plugging holes in the subprime mortgage fiasco due to the greed factor.
Should the telepathic communication is encountering problem between you and the bank, we do levy a small service fee at HK$100 per month for inquiry under 5 times.
Yours truly,
HSBC Banking Service Team
------------------------------------------------
Service excellence begin with US.
------------------------------------------------
Singlish
Man, it's getting bad here in Singapore; people's English seem to degrade pretty good. I think it has evolved to a totally different language. I am having a hard time, 1/2 of the time, understanding what people are saying.
Read in the local newspaper three weeks ago. The gov't is sending over 200+ teachers back to English school because their English level was so poor, parents were complaining.
Read in the local newspaper three weeks ago. The gov't is sending over 200+ teachers back to English school because their English level was so poor, parents were complaining.
Wow, AC's Super Elite now
Just got an email from Aeroplan, I am qualified for AC's 2008 Super Elite status. Still cannot figure out how I got there. And after comparing the benefits with current status level, I am scratching my head. What benefits? Just a new set of name tags with different colour and a dedicated contact number. Yuppy! It certainly does not offer me a free round of Biz class anywhere I choose. Just lots of upgrade certificates that are hard to use.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
A Balinese village
The last day we were in Bali, Audrey's friend, Nicky, invited us to his village; to see his new born baby girl. From our resort, his village was about 5 minute highway ride and what seemed eternity rough & broken road to the village - probably about 15 to 20 minutes. Getting bounced up and down in a small Susuki jeep on benches was interesting. That was rougher than the Safari rides in South Africa.
The road from the turn off toward the village was amazingly broken up. Not potholes, but "broken"; repeat "broken". Worse than the secondary highways in Saskatchewan by 500 percent.
Nicky's house was not just a house; but a series of houses. Generations live in the same premise. There were buildings - living quarters, "traditional" bathroom and work shed. There were two trees with fruit similar to Kiwi; when riped, they fell to the ground; the two trees produced over 100Kg of fruit; you then sold to the market. Nicky is in the middle of collecting building materials for his new house on the premise.
We had some fresh coconut juice while visiting; the taste was a bit salty; not the same as we experienced in restaurants; wondered if there were other additives to the coconut when being served in restaurants. Didn't have much as the hygiene factor - his dad, just picked freshed from the tree; dropped to the ground, hacked up the top, made a hole with whatever, then a straw. But the straw was a bit "muddy". They were great hosts but ....
We walked a bit around the village; saw real grove trees and coco trees. Rice fields. And a 70 odd years old woman balancing two long tree barks on her head walking.
One thing you need to get used to was seeing dogs everywhere in a village; then the occasional open drainage; OK, that was the second thing.
I finally saw tempe (or tempeh) in one of the village's stores. It is a staple diet to the Indonesians. Very healthy. You can get some in health food store in Canada or the US I believe.
Every house in a village has a temple. And every village has a community hall that meetings are held; and the population statistic is recorded and displayed. Also, there is a temple for the village.
The road from the turn off toward the village was amazingly broken up. Not potholes, but "broken"; repeat "broken". Worse than the secondary highways in Saskatchewan by 500 percent.
Nicky's house was not just a house; but a series of houses. Generations live in the same premise. There were buildings - living quarters, "traditional" bathroom and work shed. There were two trees with fruit similar to Kiwi; when riped, they fell to the ground; the two trees produced over 100Kg of fruit; you then sold to the market. Nicky is in the middle of collecting building materials for his new house on the premise.
We had some fresh coconut juice while visiting; the taste was a bit salty; not the same as we experienced in restaurants; wondered if there were other additives to the coconut when being served in restaurants. Didn't have much as the hygiene factor - his dad, just picked freshed from the tree; dropped to the ground, hacked up the top, made a hole with whatever, then a straw. But the straw was a bit "muddy". They were great hosts but ....
We walked a bit around the village; saw real grove trees and coco trees. Rice fields. And a 70 odd years old woman balancing two long tree barks on her head walking.
One thing you need to get used to was seeing dogs everywhere in a village; then the occasional open drainage; OK, that was the second thing.
I finally saw tempe (or tempeh) in one of the village's stores. It is a staple diet to the Indonesians. Very healthy. You can get some in health food store in Canada or the US I believe.
Every house in a village has a temple. And every village has a community hall that meetings are held; and the population statistic is recorded and displayed. Also, there is a temple for the village.
Drive to the airport
Time to leave Bali; the driver came to pick us up right at 5:45am; our b'fast was packed - mango, water melon, bananas, cakes. Couldn't really eat, either the road was too windy or we were followed up a string of cargo carrying trucks spitting out thick black smoke. Quite choking! Where were those hydrogen fueled vehicles?
When we arrived, it was under the cloak of darkness; when we left this morning, the sun was up; we could see more. Villages, rice fields, and couple busy markets people were selling and buying b'fast. It had a total different feel. We got whiffs of traditional cooked food as we passed thru some streets. Too bad, we weren't staying for another day; otherwise, we could easily immerse into the local atmosphere; bare in mind though, you do need to ignore certain things - the degree of dirtiness, the crowd, the "local" bathrooms - more beneficial to be man than a "westernized" woman.
Some funny scenes we noticed while driving to the airport.
- A woman sitting at the back of a motor bike carrying two rice bags; they looked heavy. I was commenting about how strong that woman must be; the driver smiled and said; that woman was carrying piglets. Wow, that explained the sound we heard. The woman was on her way to the market with the piglets to be slaughtered.
- A man was walking on the side of the road; thought he was talking on a cellphone; but no.... He was utilizing his index finger as a 2" drill bit in order to clear his nostril of something; maybe the hole was plugged from all the smogs. I believed I stopped eating after that. Some coordination - walking and "drilling" at the same time.
When we arrived, it was under the cloak of darkness; when we left this morning, the sun was up; we could see more. Villages, rice fields, and couple busy markets people were selling and buying b'fast. It had a total different feel. We got whiffs of traditional cooked food as we passed thru some streets. Too bad, we weren't staying for another day; otherwise, we could easily immerse into the local atmosphere; bare in mind though, you do need to ignore certain things - the degree of dirtiness, the crowd, the "local" bathrooms - more beneficial to be man than a "westernized" woman.
Some funny scenes we noticed while driving to the airport.
- A woman sitting at the back of a motor bike carrying two rice bags; they looked heavy. I was commenting about how strong that woman must be; the driver smiled and said; that woman was carrying piglets. Wow, that explained the sound we heard. The woman was on her way to the market with the piglets to be slaughtered.
- A man was walking on the side of the road; thought he was talking on a cellphone; but no.... He was utilizing his index finger as a 2" drill bit in order to clear his nostril of something; maybe the hole was plugged from all the smogs. I believed I stopped eating after that. Some coordination - walking and "drilling" at the same time.
Done Bali
After a much needed 2 day of rest, we are now getting into work mode for Monday in Singapore; we have just arrived here. Imagine that 6 hours ago, we were waken by the sound of ocean waves and chorus of insects in the forest. And not to mention the 1/2 open air bathroom. You literally showered under the stars! With some luxury items like flush toilet and hot water, of course. Hey Rod, I have finally found a camp site that fits your requirement of "camping" - 5 star hotel with room service. Hee hee....
Anyway, the place we stayed at was called Shankari's Bali Retreat (formerly Sacred River). Audrey used to work there for 9 months in the late 90's. Over the last two days, I found out that we were both in the same place over the same period of time! We were in Hong Kong over the New Year's Eve (Rod and Michele, the trip we took together in the late 90's). And then, she was back to Bali to work and I was at Kuta. How weird was that?
This place in Bali was geared toward spirituality; a self inner discovery type of place. But we were not doing that sort of things. There was no "seminars" of any sorts. We had the entire complex to ourselves with a full complementary staff. At night after 10pm, we were the only people there with the security details of two people. This place needs promotion of doing retreat for companies - like strategic planning and team building. The owner was a very interesting character; she arrived Bali over 20 years ago with only US$500 in her pocket with 3 young children; this resort was her life work; now, she's expanded into jewelery making. She designed all her work; Audrey and I had a tour of the jewelery factory just 5-minute walk from the retreat.
For those of you that are curious: NO, I was not there for the World Climate Change conference. I was doing a bit more in-depth than sitting in conference rooms (fully air-conditioned) at Nusa Dua isolated from the REAL problems. How can you plan to save the world in 5-star hotels with air-conditioned rooms? Firstly, with all the technologies available, we can easily have regions connected to the WWW for web conference; rather have everyone flying into Bali; isn't airplane flying is one of the pollutions? And air cond as well? If we want to make an impact, shouldn't the conference to done in community halls across local villages? You could then listening to the local concerns of what have been causing "the problem"? By transporting all delegates to and from different villages, they would KNOW how polluted in Bali has become; diesel fueled trucks hauling goods from East to West. As a statement, at least car manufacturers could contribute hybrid vehicles, gov'ts sponsoring hydrogen fuel cells buses.... At least that would showed the world that things are changing. Just staying at Nusa Duo, a prime Western tourist destination, would really help? Umm..... I have been living among the local Balinese people - more than those 10,000 participants to the conference. We used less energy; candles, mosquito net, coils... Just trying to conserve. We visited a local village where one of Audrey's friends lived. Now that was the real Bali! Broken roads, people planting Grove trees, Coco trees, rice fields. Concern with the change in climate because it has begun affecting their livelihood.
Anyway, the place we stayed at was called Shankari's Bali Retreat (formerly Sacred River). Audrey used to work there for 9 months in the late 90's. Over the last two days, I found out that we were both in the same place over the same period of time! We were in Hong Kong over the New Year's Eve (Rod and Michele, the trip we took together in the late 90's). And then, she was back to Bali to work and I was at Kuta. How weird was that?
This place in Bali was geared toward spirituality; a self inner discovery type of place. But we were not doing that sort of things. There was no "seminars" of any sorts. We had the entire complex to ourselves with a full complementary staff. At night after 10pm, we were the only people there with the security details of two people. This place needs promotion of doing retreat for companies - like strategic planning and team building. The owner was a very interesting character; she arrived Bali over 20 years ago with only US$500 in her pocket with 3 young children; this resort was her life work; now, she's expanded into jewelery making. She designed all her work; Audrey and I had a tour of the jewelery factory just 5-minute walk from the retreat.
For those of you that are curious: NO, I was not there for the World Climate Change conference. I was doing a bit more in-depth than sitting in conference rooms (fully air-conditioned) at Nusa Dua isolated from the REAL problems. How can you plan to save the world in 5-star hotels with air-conditioned rooms? Firstly, with all the technologies available, we can easily have regions connected to the WWW for web conference; rather have everyone flying into Bali; isn't airplane flying is one of the pollutions? And air cond as well? If we want to make an impact, shouldn't the conference to done in community halls across local villages? You could then listening to the local concerns of what have been causing "the problem"? By transporting all delegates to and from different villages, they would KNOW how polluted in Bali has become; diesel fueled trucks hauling goods from East to West. As a statement, at least car manufacturers could contribute hybrid vehicles, gov'ts sponsoring hydrogen fuel cells buses.... At least that would showed the world that things are changing. Just staying at Nusa Duo, a prime Western tourist destination, would really help? Umm..... I have been living among the local Balinese people - more than those 10,000 participants to the conference. We used less energy; candles, mosquito net, coils... Just trying to conserve. We visited a local village where one of Audrey's friends lived. Now that was the real Bali! Broken roads, people planting Grove trees, Coco trees, rice fields. Concern with the change in climate because it has begun affecting their livelihood.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Middle Eastern food in Cikarang
Yeah right. Last night we went to a recommended restaurant amid traffic grid lock. Took us about 40 minutes from the hotel to restaurant normally would have taken 10 minutes - on a well developed road system that is.
The restaurant is called Al Hambra; it is branded as middle eastern food; but I don't really see much on the menu; saw Western, Chinese, Indonesia and a very small selection of considered middle eastern. Finding vegetarian for Audrey was a challenge in this town. The food wasn't as advertised. We had a hard time getting vegetarian food. O well. I did, ordered Indonesian food in this Middle Eastern establishment; oxtail soup and squid with rice. The oxtail soup was a mail all by itself; 3 huge slaps of oxtail. And it came with rice. That was labeled under "Starters". In this town, you have to roll with the punches when ordering. Cannot expect any sophistication like in more well developed areas. Audrey's salad came out totally different than from the menu; the reason: no more ingredients. So, they were hoping she didn't notice; yeah right! Had they known... There were no one in the restaurant; only us; it was a 3-story house. Guess everyone was too busy stuck in traffic. The town is an industrial one; so should not expect much. People were friendly though.
I think I can classify the area we are in as little Korea/China/Japan; there are so many Korean, Chinese and Japanese restaurants; but fail to find any authentic Indonesian food. Call this progress? We even found a bar called Cheers. There are some authentic Indonesian food if your stomach can handle the street side hawkers; as we inched forward to the restaurants, there were lots of street hawkers setup for business, right on top of pools of waters from the heavy rain earlier in the afternoon; with lamps stringed out from god knows where and pieces of clothes shielding customers from the exhaust. Customers sat on the hard wooden benches. Did not see any locals sampling; only saw three or four people on couple blocks along the street eating; not a good sanitary condition. Most I saw, sat in much more well "cleaner" and "hipper" restaurants - rib places!
I see progress but people are losing out on the traditional food. Everyone long for Western type of things; KFC and Dunkin Dougnuts, Nokia and Sony, Costco type store and Supermarket with frozen food. Well, let see what happen in Bali tomorrow. It will be interesting to see.
The restaurant is called Al Hambra; it is branded as middle eastern food; but I don't really see much on the menu; saw Western, Chinese, Indonesia and a very small selection of considered middle eastern. Finding vegetarian for Audrey was a challenge in this town. The food wasn't as advertised. We had a hard time getting vegetarian food. O well. I did, ordered Indonesian food in this Middle Eastern establishment; oxtail soup and squid with rice. The oxtail soup was a mail all by itself; 3 huge slaps of oxtail. And it came with rice. That was labeled under "Starters". In this town, you have to roll with the punches when ordering. Cannot expect any sophistication like in more well developed areas. Audrey's salad came out totally different than from the menu; the reason: no more ingredients. So, they were hoping she didn't notice; yeah right! Had they known... There were no one in the restaurant; only us; it was a 3-story house. Guess everyone was too busy stuck in traffic. The town is an industrial one; so should not expect much. People were friendly though.
I think I can classify the area we are in as little Korea/China/Japan; there are so many Korean, Chinese and Japanese restaurants; but fail to find any authentic Indonesian food. Call this progress? We even found a bar called Cheers. There are some authentic Indonesian food if your stomach can handle the street side hawkers; as we inched forward to the restaurants, there were lots of street hawkers setup for business, right on top of pools of waters from the heavy rain earlier in the afternoon; with lamps stringed out from god knows where and pieces of clothes shielding customers from the exhaust. Customers sat on the hard wooden benches. Did not see any locals sampling; only saw three or four people on couple blocks along the street eating; not a good sanitary condition. Most I saw, sat in much more well "cleaner" and "hipper" restaurants - rib places!
I see progress but people are losing out on the traditional food. Everyone long for Western type of things; KFC and Dunkin Dougnuts, Nokia and Sony, Costco type store and Supermarket with frozen food. Well, let see what happen in Bali tomorrow. It will be interesting to see.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Traffic jam
Man, going from our hotel to the industrial park where Audrey is teaching was a major headache. We were double-backed, criss-crossed and nudged. In order to move toward our destination, we had to double-backed getting onto the highway; from the hotel to the highway entrance took over 30 minutes plus; Mostly, we were stuck in traffic moving at a sub impulse power of about 1/2 meter per 5 to 6 minutes. The road was half built. So, you were either on the elevated part or the dirt part of the road. Once, you were on the elevated part, you are stuck there.
Free way driving was interesting; you just pick a lane and drive, shoulder included. Seat belt hence was a must. Saw couple abandoned trucks in the ditch; crashed one. Entirely on their sides; one even had the front end completely crushed - passenger cabin flattened.
I think the town was built before the road.
Free way driving was interesting; you just pick a lane and drive, shoulder included. Seat belt hence was a must. Saw couple abandoned trucks in the ditch; crashed one. Entirely on their sides; one even had the front end completely crushed - passenger cabin flattened.
I think the town was built before the road.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Saw the A380
Saw the A380 parked at the gate as we were taxing out to the runway yesterday; from afar, it was not that big but I am sure it was massive. It's flying between SIN and SYD. And you have to pay more to fly this A380 even though the fuel consumption is 25% better than a Boeing. I can see you have to pay more for the Biz and First class; as they are much bigger than anything you have seen. You can even reserve First Class cabin for two. The flight attendants will remind you that the cabins are not sound proved.
I am not sure if I like flying the A380 to anywhere; think about the amount of people will deplane and fight their ways to the immigration hall; imagine if you are frustrated currently with people taking up the entire jetway after deplaning; think about how much more you will be frustrated. And the washroom; good thing this giant is not flying in between any Chinese cities yet!
I am not sure if I like flying the A380 to anywhere; think about the amount of people will deplane and fight their ways to the immigration hall; imagine if you are frustrated currently with people taking up the entire jetway after deplaning; think about how much more you will be frustrated. And the washroom; good thing this giant is not flying in between any Chinese cities yet!
Wow, I am a local millionaire....
with US$300.00 in my pocket. After the money exchange of US$300 in my pocket, I am now possessing a little bit less than R$2,700,000.00 in my pocket after my lunch. The exchange rate at the Official Exchanger was US$1 = R$9,000.00. Tried doing the exchange at the hotel but the rate was much lower then published. Apparently, my US note possession is the "B" series. I cannot get a higher rate. Go figure!! Since when the money serial numbers affect exchange rates? The visa office was happy taking my US$ without even reading the serial number printed on my notes. Maybe some finance professor can enlighten me in a proper financial reasoning. Was there something happened between notes starting with a "B" in the serial number and one starting with a "F"?
I got some mangos from the supermarket after the money exchange. Michele & Rod, hee hee, I got two for about R$2,700.00. Or about 30 cents. And had real Nasi Goreng, melon juice and fish balls for R$33,000. That was about $4.00. Am trying to adjust having so many zeros after the currency and pricing; why not just chop off the "zeros" at then making things easier; I have a stack of R$100,000.00.
The restaurant I just my lunch was across the street from the hotel. There were more workers than customers. A ratio of about 4:1. All the workers looked young like 12 years old or so and up. Umm.... Just wondering what is the minimum age for work here.
As I went from the supermarket to the restaurant, there were lots of drivers on motocycle bikes trying to get your attention; they were the unofficial taxi drivers; nice to see there are some similarity between Shanghai streets and here.
I got some mangos from the supermarket after the money exchange. Michele & Rod, hee hee, I got two for about R$2,700.00. Or about 30 cents. And had real Nasi Goreng, melon juice and fish balls for R$33,000. That was about $4.00. Am trying to adjust having so many zeros after the currency and pricing; why not just chop off the "zeros" at then making things easier; I have a stack of R$100,000.00.
The restaurant I just my lunch was across the street from the hotel. There were more workers than customers. A ratio of about 4:1. All the workers looked young like 12 years old or so and up. Umm.... Just wondering what is the minimum age for work here.
As I went from the supermarket to the restaurant, there were lots of drivers on motocycle bikes trying to get your attention; they were the unofficial taxi drivers; nice to see there are some similarity between Shanghai streets and here.
In Indonesia now
After flying 5 hours or so from PVG to SIN, then 1 hour 20 min from SIN to CGK, we are finally here! And we are not in the Jakarta proper; we are at a town called Cikarang. It is a town "owned" by Lippo! For those who had visited Jakarta briefly with me in 96, the airport has not changed. The only thing is that we need to queue up to pay a visa on arrival; US$10 for 7 days and US$25 for 30 days; being our stays is 7 days, I opted for the 30 days pass instead of 7 days; just in case the rainy season may flood roads. Last week, rain flooded the only highway to and from the International airport; the road was actually built lower then the sea level. Ummm.....
The flight down from PVG was uneventful which was what I liked. Going Business Class helped too. But the food was just terrible. Yuck! The vegetarian meal from PVG to SIN composed of fried noodle, beans and broccolis. The smell from the beans kinda turned me off; it was overcooked and "smelly". What I meant was the smell evoked the much buried pre-90's airplane food smell that caused me vomited from HKG to Heathrow in the 80's. Tried washing some down with coffee was not good; as the the coffee was worst then Tim Horton's by several miles. :-( The thought of having some red wine or Scotch with water occurred to me - need stronger liquid. Singapore airline; wonder what happened? So maybe Frank and Jean were right about the food. Once landed in SIN, we had about an hour; besides went to the washroom as soon as we landed, we went to the lounge; at least there was that place with semi-eatable food. We had the usual sandwiches - "ok la" as the Singaporeans would have said. I did, however, washed down my food w/ a glass of simulated Caesar, extra spicy. Brent would have a hay day in there ;-) Hee hee....
An hour later after arrived in SIN, we departed to our final destination; this time, I opted out the vegetarian meal; poor Audrey, this time the dish came with heavy gravy covering up the not too appetizing noodle and mushroom; always noodle with some sort of mushrooms or cabbage or broccolis. An hour and 20 minutes, we arrived! When the plane was descending, we could see lots of residential buildings on outer islands. No wonder there were always property damages with water.
Immigration was a breeze; friendly buggers too! Not like we went back in 96. When we left the airport, no one collected our custom cards even though we attempted handing them in to someone.
The ride to the hotel from the airport was also non-eventful; it was all well developed highways with crazy driving like Shanghai, except with must faster speed (over 110KM/hr) and a driver with much better manual shifting than Shanghai ones.
The hotel staff are friendly; except they cannot communicate well with English; guess just like me with Mandarin in Shanghai. And things are bit backwards here. There are not enough adapters available; am going to head to a mall in the morning.
Food at this restaurant is very bad; my vegetable curry was made with pre-mixed curry, canned mushrooms, canned carrots, canned everything vegetable; you would figure there are more local dishes; all I saw was Gado Gado; and not the type I accustomed to.
About the car ride, will be tomorrow's report..... Have to save battery.
The flight down from PVG was uneventful which was what I liked. Going Business Class helped too. But the food was just terrible. Yuck! The vegetarian meal from PVG to SIN composed of fried noodle, beans and broccolis. The smell from the beans kinda turned me off; it was overcooked and "smelly". What I meant was the smell evoked the much buried pre-90's airplane food smell that caused me vomited from HKG to Heathrow in the 80's. Tried washing some down with coffee was not good; as the the coffee was worst then Tim Horton's by several miles. :-( The thought of having some red wine or Scotch with water occurred to me - need stronger liquid. Singapore airline; wonder what happened? So maybe Frank and Jean were right about the food. Once landed in SIN, we had about an hour; besides went to the washroom as soon as we landed, we went to the lounge; at least there was that place with semi-eatable food. We had the usual sandwiches - "ok la" as the Singaporeans would have said. I did, however, washed down my food w/ a glass of simulated Caesar, extra spicy. Brent would have a hay day in there ;-) Hee hee....
An hour later after arrived in SIN, we departed to our final destination; this time, I opted out the vegetarian meal; poor Audrey, this time the dish came with heavy gravy covering up the not too appetizing noodle and mushroom; always noodle with some sort of mushrooms or cabbage or broccolis. An hour and 20 minutes, we arrived! When the plane was descending, we could see lots of residential buildings on outer islands. No wonder there were always property damages with water.
Immigration was a breeze; friendly buggers too! Not like we went back in 96. When we left the airport, no one collected our custom cards even though we attempted handing them in to someone.
The ride to the hotel from the airport was also non-eventful; it was all well developed highways with crazy driving like Shanghai, except with must faster speed (over 110KM/hr) and a driver with much better manual shifting than Shanghai ones.
The hotel staff are friendly; except they cannot communicate well with English; guess just like me with Mandarin in Shanghai. And things are bit backwards here. There are not enough adapters available; am going to head to a mall in the morning.
Food at this restaurant is very bad; my vegetable curry was made with pre-mixed curry, canned mushrooms, canned carrots, canned everything vegetable; you would figure there are more local dishes; all I saw was Gado Gado; and not the type I accustomed to.
About the car ride, will be tomorrow's report..... Have to save battery.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
The night before my second 10-day trip out of Shanghai
Alright, all packed and ready to go. This time, will take us to Jakarta for 4 1/2 days, Bali to 2 1/2 days and Singapore for 2 1/2 days. Bali is a station stop rather than flying back to Shanghai and then back to Singapore. At Bali, this is where we will be staying. Audrey used to work at this place for about 9 months in the last 90's. And no, we are not part of any China delegation to the UN's Climate Change meeting in Bali. I am bringing only a small suitcase. Traveling to a tropical place is so easy specially when you don't have to work in front of people; just the computer, Internet and youself. But I do have locks on all compartments; going to Indonesia, you have to be "careful". ;-)
Tonight, we went across the street to a restaurant we were so curious about. The name of the restaurant was/is "Onion Restaurant". It served Cantonese food; Yuck. The food was quite disgusting. I prefer instant noodle than eating there; now we know. Surprising that place was quite busy every night except when the typhoon hit this Summer. Food was not that cheap. Our regular Taiwanese vegetarian restaurant was cheaper and "cleaner"; "cleaner", two meanings... cleanliness and "feeling after you eat" - not the scrap off the MSG, grease, cooking smell from my body and clothes.
Tonight, we went across the street to a restaurant we were so curious about. The name of the restaurant was/is "Onion Restaurant". It served Cantonese food; Yuck. The food was quite disgusting. I prefer instant noodle than eating there; now we know. Surprising that place was quite busy every night except when the typhoon hit this Summer. Food was not that cheap. Our regular Taiwanese vegetarian restaurant was cheaper and "cleaner"; "cleaner", two meanings... cleanliness and "feeling after you eat" - not the scrap off the MSG, grease, cooking smell from my body and clothes.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Before Jakarta
Alright, I am back in Shanghai. It took a long time getting back. Started at 530am! Replied emails, showered, the usual.... Then headed out the door at 7:15am. My ferry was at 8:15am; but with no taxis in town, I just couldn't take a chance; you could wait for an hour and nothing came. But I lucked out this morning; by 7:16am, I got one; by 7:28am, I got to the ferry terminal; here lied delima, should I chance an earlier ferry and got stuck to the "back of the bus" along with all the gamblers - "hecking" from their throats, listening to their gambling experience the night before in a very rough Cantonese local slang? In the end, I decided just to start quieting down from the running around to HK the last two days.
Everything was pretty much the quiet down, from slow walk to the Hong Kong Station, to the checking in, to the walk getting a coffee, to wait for the guy picking up some documents for me, to the Airport Express, to thru immigration and finally, sat down in the lounge overlooking one side of the runway. Got over an hour and a half, just read. And I had discovered that I am not a beer drinker. 1/2 a can.... Max. Too early for Scotch, Doug!
The Dragon Air flight was packed to the hill. We got delayed on the ground at HK due to Shanghai traffic control; u see, the military takes over everything in the air, so you get this tiny little corridor for the ever growing flight services into China. Just wait until Olympics and the 2010 World Expos.
Alright, signing off; my head begins to spin either from the sloshing around at the HK harbour after boarding ferry to Macau, or not enough coffee. It would have nothing to do with flight; Do u know Dragon Air has air filter that can filter things out as small as 0.3 micron?
Side note: There was a Lo's Board of Directors meeting in Macau two nights ago; due to the share structure, the two most senior directors have decreed the "no-host" lunch on Feb 4/08, will be a "hosted" lunch. Promised, this lunch will have a "meat" component! ;-)
Everything was pretty much the quiet down, from slow walk to the Hong Kong Station, to the checking in, to the walk getting a coffee, to wait for the guy picking up some documents for me, to the Airport Express, to thru immigration and finally, sat down in the lounge overlooking one side of the runway. Got over an hour and a half, just read. And I had discovered that I am not a beer drinker. 1/2 a can.... Max. Too early for Scotch, Doug!
The Dragon Air flight was packed to the hill. We got delayed on the ground at HK due to Shanghai traffic control; u see, the military takes over everything in the air, so you get this tiny little corridor for the ever growing flight services into China. Just wait until Olympics and the 2010 World Expos.
Alright, signing off; my head begins to spin either from the sloshing around at the HK harbour after boarding ferry to Macau, or not enough coffee. It would have nothing to do with flight; Do u know Dragon Air has air filter that can filter things out as small as 0.3 micron?
Side note: There was a Lo's Board of Directors meeting in Macau two nights ago; due to the share structure, the two most senior directors have decreed the "no-host" lunch on Feb 4/08, will be a "hosted" lunch. Promised, this lunch will have a "meat" component! ;-)
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Tour of Hong Kong
Man, been to HK daily for the last 2 days; today, I am heading back there early to catch a flight back to Shanghai.
The ferry ride from Macau to Hong Kong was busy and chaotic at times. 8am. It's rush hour traffic for the Hong Kong gamblers rushing back to work. I have seen some ugly behaviours in the waiting areas; enough for me to say "yuck". These people have no regards for anything. Saw two women kicking those massage chairs for over 15 minutes, swearing because the chair malfunctioned and "ate" the coins. They kept kicking and kicking....
Dealing with banks. You would have thought HK being taunted as the world leader for ease of use in the finance part; yeah right; at least from the bank I am dealing with - HSBC. Seem the staff do not know how to think outside the "tiny little" box, have "their" interpretation of rules or not knowing enough English to communicate even though they were adamant about it! A little bit frustrated... But life goes on.
The ferry ride from Macau to Hong Kong was busy and chaotic at times. 8am. It's rush hour traffic for the Hong Kong gamblers rushing back to work. I have seen some ugly behaviours in the waiting areas; enough for me to say "yuck". These people have no regards for anything. Saw two women kicking those massage chairs for over 15 minutes, swearing because the chair malfunctioned and "ate" the coins. They kept kicking and kicking....
Dealing with banks. You would have thought HK being taunted as the world leader for ease of use in the finance part; yeah right; at least from the bank I am dealing with - HSBC. Seem the staff do not know how to think outside the "tiny little" box, have "their" interpretation of rules or not knowing enough English to communicate even though they were adamant about it! A little bit frustrated... But life goes on.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Flight from PVG to HKG
Because I need to get some work done on the flight from PVG to HKG, I have purchased a Biz class tix. Good thing, as my body type and the seat configuration in the "back of the bus" would not allow me having a laptop on my lap (no punt intended) even though for this trip I have my Sony sub-compact w/me. Price for the Biz tix was not expensive compared to AC; yes, never compare anything to AC as everything looks better, much better.
Service was good on the flight; roomy seat allowed my body to stretch and work. Got two seats all by myself just before b'fast was being served. The guy sat next to me got the boot. He purchased an econo seat but decided to upgrade himself. Hmm... Wonder where he got this idea from? His excuse was he read the wrong seat number; 31H compared to 17H. And if you have flown before, wouldn't you know the difference between classes?
It's going to be busy in HK. Getting all the final papers done for SchroederLo Associates. The name just rolls off the tongue isn't it? And then head over to HSBC giving my 3rd degree - no response for any inquiry. My account manager is on leave; the backup is virtually, no backup. Then to St John's to run some errands for my wife-to-be; yes, she has class. St John's, officially endorsed by Angelina Jolie and Wu Yi, the Chinese vice-premier.
And finally my wedding or "monkey" suit has arrived at the Zegna store. Funny, I got the email yesterday; very timely for the arrival. Let see if it fits me since I have not been exercising that much the last month and a half. And while in HK the last 2 weeks, I had been consuming large quantity of Chinese bakery stuff. Last look, still fitting into my size 34 jeans with some extra room - about an inch or so. BTW, wedding attire for guests is business casual or island casual. I plan on putting something on, "island fitting", after the wedding ceremony. ;-) Flip flops and shorts if I am allowed. :-P
As to the wedding, the only thing left is the dinner menu and the lunch the day after the wedding. Still working at that with the wedding planner; island time.
Service was good on the flight; roomy seat allowed my body to stretch and work. Got two seats all by myself just before b'fast was being served. The guy sat next to me got the boot. He purchased an econo seat but decided to upgrade himself. Hmm... Wonder where he got this idea from? His excuse was he read the wrong seat number; 31H compared to 17H. And if you have flown before, wouldn't you know the difference between classes?
It's going to be busy in HK. Getting all the final papers done for SchroederLo Associates. The name just rolls off the tongue isn't it? And then head over to HSBC giving my 3rd degree - no response for any inquiry. My account manager is on leave; the backup is virtually, no backup. Then to St John's to run some errands for my wife-to-be; yes, she has class. St John's, officially endorsed by Angelina Jolie and Wu Yi, the Chinese vice-premier.
And finally my wedding or "monkey" suit has arrived at the Zegna store. Funny, I got the email yesterday; very timely for the arrival. Let see if it fits me since I have not been exercising that much the last month and a half. And while in HK the last 2 weeks, I had been consuming large quantity of Chinese bakery stuff. Last look, still fitting into my size 34 jeans with some extra room - about an inch or so. BTW, wedding attire for guests is business casual or island casual. I plan on putting something on, "island fitting", after the wedding ceremony. ;-) Flip flops and shorts if I am allowed. :-P
As to the wedding, the only thing left is the dinner menu and the lunch the day after the wedding. Still working at that with the wedding planner; island time.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Go figure
I did on online air ticket purchase via Dragon Air (now partly own by Cathay Pacific Airline). It was painless and fast. Even had "verified by Visa" which was good. One thing lacking was the pre-assign seating. O well. The confirmation and notification of my e-ticket were instantaneous. I thought, wow, that's Asia. But then again....
I wanted to leave a day early, like this afternoon rather than tomorrow. Call the Shanghai reservation number to change; first, the Dragon Air phone was disconnected; even though it was on the website. OK, tried the Cathay line, it was disconnected to with blunt English - "Sorry, number no longer in service; click". Alright, tried another Cathay line. This one went thru. After waiting for about 3 1/2 minutes, I got thru. Well, I could not change the ticket from this reservation number; I have to call a special line in HK, a long distance, to change since I had purchased the ticket online. Go figure. Who cares whether I purchased online or not. It was on the darn computer system. This seems there are some "Chinese" version of computer systems that could not cross over from one system to another; well. Darn it. Is this progress or just dumb implementation? Don't say.
I wanted to leave a day early, like this afternoon rather than tomorrow. Call the Shanghai reservation number to change; first, the Dragon Air phone was disconnected; even though it was on the website. OK, tried the Cathay line, it was disconnected to with blunt English - "Sorry, number no longer in service; click". Alright, tried another Cathay line. This one went thru. After waiting for about 3 1/2 minutes, I got thru. Well, I could not change the ticket from this reservation number; I have to call a special line in HK, a long distance, to change since I had purchased the ticket online. Go figure. Who cares whether I purchased online or not. It was on the darn computer system. This seems there are some "Chinese" version of computer systems that could not cross over from one system to another; well. Darn it. Is this progress or just dumb implementation? Don't say.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Brrr.....
It's cold here in Shanghai; even though it cannot be compared to the bitter cold I had experienced over the last 24 years in the Prairie, the not so insulated and brick construction make the cold a bit more difficult to bear (sometimes when u r alone :-P). With the type of brick construction and the original single pane windows (1940's), sometimes, the place is colder than outside. When the wind wipes up at night, the street outside is quite deserted.
Start walking around in my neighbourhood again. Man! One block where shops were vibrant once, gone! Boarded up and being dismantled from inside out. Not just one block, there are other sections along my street, the Nanjing Xi Lu. Google Earth may still have some old record of those tear down places. Bill, if you were reading this, about a block south of the street are being demolished. So much "de-structions" Some buildings were only less than 10 years old. Scary. For once, yesterday I truly felt how dirty the city was.
I walked from my apartment to Hilton for my gym session. All I could see was thru a shroud of something - dust kicked up from all the constructions and the exhaust from all sorts of vehicles (manual or powered). Not good. Maybe it was just a bad day or it is showing its true colour - city advancement.
Well.... Our tickets are in hand for the first half of December traveling. We are actually going to join the United Nation conference on climate at Bali - NOT; but we will be there when it is still going on though. Our travel, this time, will take us to Jakarta this Sunday until the following Thursday. Then Thursday to Sunday @ Bali - Audrey is going to show me where she used to live and worked for 9 months at Sacred River. Then on Sunday, we head to Singapore; no, it is not for a 40th b'day follow-up; it is for work. She will need a bell boy carrying all those extra outdated video equipment one of her clients want to use. :-P Hence my Hilton gym sessions. The from Singapore, we are HOPING to be able to go home on the 19th. Or is that 20th. After that, I am happy reporting that we will be in Shanghai for about 4 days. Anyone who likes to visit, please plan now. :-P Hee hee....
I have just spent the whole morning mapping out the second part of the December and January trip prior to our wedding. I believe from Dec 25, we will fly to SFO then to MSP, to ORD, to RDU, to PDX then back to PVG. I believe, we would have complete the world's circumference at least one and a half this month? Anyone has an exact distance? ;-)
Then with the physical limitation of the Earth as well as airline schedule, we best fly to SYD from PVG rather than going thru OGG/HNL. We would have lose 2 days flying from HNL to SYD. So, my honey will have to make a station stop at PVG (Shanghai Pudong airport in case you have not figured it out yet). Drop off winter clothes and re-pack with better air-flow and lighter clothes for SYD. We should be "home" again by January 20. This will give us exactly 7 days before heading back to OGG from HKG. Our route will be PVG->HKG->HNL->OGG. Keep this up, I might join Phil to take up flying lessons.
That's about it..... Have to buff up my physique; lots of bags to carry in airports....
Start walking around in my neighbourhood again. Man! One block where shops were vibrant once, gone! Boarded up and being dismantled from inside out. Not just one block, there are other sections along my street, the Nanjing Xi Lu. Google Earth may still have some old record of those tear down places. Bill, if you were reading this, about a block south of the street are being demolished. So much "de-structions" Some buildings were only less than 10 years old. Scary. For once, yesterday I truly felt how dirty the city was.
I walked from my apartment to Hilton for my gym session. All I could see was thru a shroud of something - dust kicked up from all the constructions and the exhaust from all sorts of vehicles (manual or powered). Not good. Maybe it was just a bad day or it is showing its true colour - city advancement.
Well.... Our tickets are in hand for the first half of December traveling. We are actually going to join the United Nation conference on climate at Bali - NOT; but we will be there when it is still going on though. Our travel, this time, will take us to Jakarta this Sunday until the following Thursday. Then Thursday to Sunday @ Bali - Audrey is going to show me where she used to live and worked for 9 months at Sacred River. Then on Sunday, we head to Singapore; no, it is not for a 40th b'day follow-up; it is for work. She will need a bell boy carrying all those extra outdated video equipment one of her clients want to use. :-P Hence my Hilton gym sessions. The from Singapore, we are HOPING to be able to go home on the 19th. Or is that 20th. After that, I am happy reporting that we will be in Shanghai for about 4 days. Anyone who likes to visit, please plan now. :-P Hee hee....
I have just spent the whole morning mapping out the second part of the December and January trip prior to our wedding. I believe from Dec 25, we will fly to SFO then to MSP, to ORD, to RDU, to PDX then back to PVG. I believe, we would have complete the world's circumference at least one and a half this month? Anyone has an exact distance? ;-)
Then with the physical limitation of the Earth as well as airline schedule, we best fly to SYD from PVG rather than going thru OGG/HNL. We would have lose 2 days flying from HNL to SYD. So, my honey will have to make a station stop at PVG (Shanghai Pudong airport in case you have not figured it out yet). Drop off winter clothes and re-pack with better air-flow and lighter clothes for SYD. We should be "home" again by January 20. This will give us exactly 7 days before heading back to OGG from HKG. Our route will be PVG->HKG->HNL->OGG. Keep this up, I might join Phil to take up flying lessons.
That's about it..... Have to buff up my physique; lots of bags to carry in airports....
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Pasti not so tasty
Went to Pasti for supper last night; that little "our list of restaurants" to eat. The service wasn't that good; seemed there was a whole crew change; no one seemed to know how to take order, they were just standing right behind you in a row chatting. Wine was good; an Australian Wolfblass - Merlot. Audrey's pasta, she tried choking it down. My thin crust pizza, so so.... Slightly better than Domino's. Didn't know what happened. Ordered desserts, never came despite asking for them twice. Finally had to cancel; then we were being charged for "missing" orders. Won't be going back there.
But tonight, found a nice hamburger place; yes! Hamburger place.... It served vegetarian stuff as well; but the "real" meat hamburger was good. Lots of varieties. And all the patties were home-made. Nothing greasy; after you ate, you felt good and not feeling that huge bloc of grease somewhere between your throat and your belly button. The salad was huge and light. So excited about the place, completely forgot - this new place is called "Gourmet burger" on Shaanxi Bei Lu. "Shaanxi" is a province - literal translation is "west of mountain", "Bei" is "north". "Lu" is "Road". It is about 10-min leisure walk from our apartment. There are other nice shops next to this burger place; very high class Italian shops. O, English friendly place.
But tonight, found a nice hamburger place; yes! Hamburger place.... It served vegetarian stuff as well; but the "real" meat hamburger was good. Lots of varieties. And all the patties were home-made. Nothing greasy; after you ate, you felt good and not feeling that huge bloc of grease somewhere between your throat and your belly button. The salad was huge and light. So excited about the place, completely forgot - this new place is called "Gourmet burger" on Shaanxi Bei Lu. "Shaanxi" is a province - literal translation is "west of mountain", "Bei" is "north". "Lu" is "Road". It is about 10-min leisure walk from our apartment. There are other nice shops next to this burger place; very high class Italian shops. O, English friendly place.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Finally arrived back at Shanghai
After a 45-min delay because some d*^mb asses did get to the flight, their bags had to be pull off the plane. An Airbus 330 fully loaded; that was some task. Got inside the apartment by 11pm. That was 5.5 hours after starting our journey from the Kowloon station.
Well, may have to get back to HK later next week. I have just checked the Dragon Air/Cathay Air Travel package; for a 3-night stay at the HK Island Shangri-La along with an econo ticket, the cost is cheaper then booking the room yourself for ONE night. Yes, one night! One night at the HK Shangri-la will cost HK$5,000 to 6,000 plus all the taxes. Go figure huh? That's why I hate paying any Internet pricing from the hotel; even via a Macau/Hong Kong travel agent; still not able to get that rate. If I do choose that, I will post here.
Well, may have to get back to HK later next week. I have just checked the Dragon Air/Cathay Air Travel package; for a 3-night stay at the HK Island Shangri-La along with an econo ticket, the cost is cheaper then booking the room yourself for ONE night. Yes, one night! One night at the HK Shangri-la will cost HK$5,000 to 6,000 plus all the taxes. Go figure huh? That's why I hate paying any Internet pricing from the hotel; even via a Macau/Hong Kong travel agent; still not able to get that rate. If I do choose that, I will post here.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Last day in Hong Kong
OK, last day here. Will head back to Shanghai tonight after Audrey is done her class. I may not able to post from Shanghai to this site. If you notice there is no posting after couple days (2 days or so), go to: http://sengheng2006.wordpress.com.
Hong Kong
Well, been back here since Sunday; pretty busy working remotely back to Canada. Time zone different really helps along with adequate highspeed connection.
Good thing the temperature has been nice, around 20-25C. It makes breathing bearable vs hot, humid and stale air. You can still see the smog across the harbour though. But "thiner". You can see the mountain backdrop when looking back to the Hong Kong side. (I think I will take my camera and do couple quick movie clips for you guys.)
The hotel we are staying is the Sheraton on the Kowloon side. It is just next to the Peninsula Hotel. Those green Royces, I see them everyday. Very sharp looking and HUGE. Good thing all those driving have received special training!
I have been taking the Star Ferry very day to Hong Kong. Sometime more than one round trip. It's pretty cheap. Round trip costs about HK$4.40 (US$0.56, CAD$0.56, Euro$0.38, IDR$5,339.49); if I were to take the ever so convenient subway, it will cost me about HK$20 per round trip; that's using my Octopus card discount. Speaking of Octopus card, no, it is NOT a card with tentacles and slimy; good thing, otherwise, putting in the front pocket would have been quite uncomfortable. It is only a RFID card which you can use all over town including supermarkets, 7-11, any transportation medium except taxis. I don't have to list the value of HK$20.00 in other currencies; I am sure you can do the math here.
The Star Ferry on the Hong Kong side is so far out in the harbour now, you are actually still in the water. There are more construction, actually reclaiming the sea for land, going on along Hong Kong side of the Victoria Harbour the water is quite turbulent. Traffic is congested as well. I thought my ferry was going hit this cargo ship this aft.
Overall, the service sector in HKG is quite good compared to before. Service with a smile. Wow, that's a change. But the Hotel's receptionists need some tuning in. They were not smiling, not accommodating, every time I asked for something, they would say NO this, No that; so finally, at the check-in this time on Sunday, I put my foot down. Rudely, in response to the attitude received. I actually got what we wanted. Umm.... I hate doing that. In my feedback form, I have totally put my opinion out about the receptionists, but also given lots of credit to the House Keeping staff; they were, exceptional.
Tomorrow, last day in HK. Leaving for Shanghai.
Good thing the temperature has been nice, around 20-25C. It makes breathing bearable vs hot, humid and stale air. You can still see the smog across the harbour though. But "thiner". You can see the mountain backdrop when looking back to the Hong Kong side. (I think I will take my camera and do couple quick movie clips for you guys.)
The hotel we are staying is the Sheraton on the Kowloon side. It is just next to the Peninsula Hotel. Those green Royces, I see them everyday. Very sharp looking and HUGE. Good thing all those driving have received special training!
I have been taking the Star Ferry very day to Hong Kong. Sometime more than one round trip. It's pretty cheap. Round trip costs about HK$4.40 (US$0.56, CAD$0.56, Euro$0.38, IDR$5,339.49); if I were to take the ever so convenient subway, it will cost me about HK$20 per round trip; that's using my Octopus card discount. Speaking of Octopus card, no, it is NOT a card with tentacles and slimy; good thing, otherwise, putting in the front pocket would have been quite uncomfortable. It is only a RFID card which you can use all over town including supermarkets, 7-11, any transportation medium except taxis. I don't have to list the value of HK$20.00 in other currencies; I am sure you can do the math here.
The Star Ferry on the Hong Kong side is so far out in the harbour now, you are actually still in the water. There are more construction, actually reclaiming the sea for land, going on along Hong Kong side of the Victoria Harbour the water is quite turbulent. Traffic is congested as well. I thought my ferry was going hit this cargo ship this aft.
Overall, the service sector in HKG is quite good compared to before. Service with a smile. Wow, that's a change. But the Hotel's receptionists need some tuning in. They were not smiling, not accommodating, every time I asked for something, they would say NO this, No that; so finally, at the check-in this time on Sunday, I put my foot down. Rudely, in response to the attitude received. I actually got what we wanted. Umm.... I hate doing that. In my feedback form, I have totally put my opinion out about the receptionists, but also given lots of credit to the House Keeping staff; they were, exceptional.
Tomorrow, last day in HK. Leaving for Shanghai.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Singapore Airline experience....
Can you believe two one-way First Class tickets from Singapore to Hong Kong is cheaper than paying AC one-way Business class from Regina to Toronto? First off the seats are 4 times bigger, tonnes of room, real hot plates during meal service. Six different ways for your eggs....
As a grand finale to Audrey's 40th b'day celebration, I splurged for two one-way First Class seats to Hong Kong. The experience began at the Singapore airport; there is a different drop-off for First Class passengers; dedicated porters from the airline greeted you at the curb, took you and the bags to the check-in counters just next to the immigration hall. The Check-in counters were actually a huge lounge. Nothing was rushed. Every details were taken care of for you. After we had thru immigration, we went to lounge - against all tradition of calculating everything to the last minutes, WE actually HAD time to use the lounge. The First Class lounge was separated from the Business Class lounge. As I step into it, I couldn't believe. There was a chef there making Laksa (a Malaysian noodle) for you. That was today's feature; there were also fruits, sandwiches, and some local Indian b'fast. You could tell things must be doing well in Singapore, at 7:15am, the First Class lounge was busy. Packed actually...
After we got on board, the service was like any other higher class of service. But we were served using real china; plates were warmed up; not the icy cold as AC would have done. Coffee, I was stunted; upon asking for coffee, I got 4-5 choices to choose from. Sorry, Dave, I had cream and sugar so could not really tell you what Blue Moutain coffee really tasted like. The headsets we had, were in surround sound mode. I was hoping that the 777-300 we were on had been remodeled using the newer and wider seats; but no such luck. We were already lucky having two wonder seats. Too bad, didn't get a chance enjoying the features. We spent too much time readying all the newspapers we got our hands on. By the time I settled in to watch movies, time to land. That was after 3 hours and 20 minutes later.....
As a grand finale to Audrey's 40th b'day celebration, I splurged for two one-way First Class seats to Hong Kong. The experience began at the Singapore airport; there is a different drop-off for First Class passengers; dedicated porters from the airline greeted you at the curb, took you and the bags to the check-in counters just next to the immigration hall. The Check-in counters were actually a huge lounge. Nothing was rushed. Every details were taken care of for you. After we had thru immigration, we went to lounge - against all tradition of calculating everything to the last minutes, WE actually HAD time to use the lounge. The First Class lounge was separated from the Business Class lounge. As I step into it, I couldn't believe. There was a chef there making Laksa (a Malaysian noodle) for you. That was today's feature; there were also fruits, sandwiches, and some local Indian b'fast. You could tell things must be doing well in Singapore, at 7:15am, the First Class lounge was busy. Packed actually...
After we got on board, the service was like any other higher class of service. But we were served using real china; plates were warmed up; not the icy cold as AC would have done. Coffee, I was stunted; upon asking for coffee, I got 4-5 choices to choose from. Sorry, Dave, I had cream and sugar so could not really tell you what Blue Moutain coffee really tasted like. The headsets we had, were in surround sound mode. I was hoping that the 777-300 we were on had been remodeled using the newer and wider seats; but no such luck. We were already lucky having two wonder seats. Too bad, didn't get a chance enjoying the features. We spent too much time readying all the newspapers we got our hands on. By the time I settled in to watch movies, time to land. That was after 3 hours and 20 minutes later.....
Friday, November 23, 2007
Singapore Day 2....
Not much happening; it was a mandatory rest day. The furthest we went was to the an Indian restaurant to eat one street down from the hotel. Slept, slept and slept.
One thing about Singapore is eating; so last night on the way to the restaurant, there were tonnes of hawkers you could get food from. Stir-fried clams, noodles, soups, chili crabs; ethnic food from Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Japanese... You have to be here to experience; all open air seatings. The hawkers right underneath our hotel offer cheap b'fast too. 2 eggs, toasts and coffee for S$2.5. Go figure huh?
In Singapore, all your do is shop and eat; there's not much else; jungle forest.
Beach.... You have to be out of the country or get to Sentosa, a man-made island. Pay thru the nose.
You can stop by Singapore for 4-5 days then move on.
One thing about Singapore is eating; so last night on the way to the restaurant, there were tonnes of hawkers you could get food from. Stir-fried clams, noodles, soups, chili crabs; ethnic food from Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Japanese... You have to be here to experience; all open air seatings. The hawkers right underneath our hotel offer cheap b'fast too. 2 eggs, toasts and coffee for S$2.5. Go figure huh?
In Singapore, all your do is shop and eat; there's not much else; jungle forest.
Beach.... You have to be out of the country or get to Sentosa, a man-made island. Pay thru the nose.
You can stop by Singapore for 4-5 days then move on.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
China flight delays..
Well, there have been lots of flight delays and some cancellations in and out of Eastern part of China including Shanghai, Xiamen, Hong Kong. The delays can last up to 8 hours. The reason is that the Chinese Military is doing it's exercises. There is no advance warning. It does whatever it feels like it. Yesterday, there were over 5000 passengers sitting at Shanghai airport. Our flights on Monday was delayed as well due to the exercise. Of course, there is no explanation.
There is only one route in and out of Eastern China. Negotiation on opening up another route has gone nowhere. This type of delay will be more and more.
On another note, the China air traffic control has lowered the vertical safety distance between aircraft from 2000 ft to 1000 ft in order to accommodate more flights. These guys are the same who decided on the Three Gorge dam?
There is only one route in and out of Eastern China. Negotiation on opening up another route has gone nowhere. This type of delay will be more and more.
On another note, the China air traffic control has lowered the vertical safety distance between aircraft from 2000 ft to 1000 ft in order to accommodate more flights. These guys are the same who decided on the Three Gorge dam?
A Mediterranean flavour vegetarian food....
First night out to eat in Singapore; went back to Original Sin. It was and is a vegetarian restaurant. Still the same from last year when we were there. The restaurant was located in the Holland Village. A kinda centralized eating place, mostly western style.
Food last night was OK and service was OK. Notice the OK rating... I have noticed a change in service attitude compared to last year. Hence the OK rating. According to Audrey's friend (we had supper together), the service is getting worse. In Mandarin, it's Ma Ma Fu Fu.
Good thing we got a ride back to the hotel; there weren't many taxis available anymore. Apparently, most taxis were on "stay by" with someone because the driver could charge more. So, flagging down a taxi was next to impossible even at designated taxi stands. So we got a ride in this nice Subaru Impreza WRX STi. With Sports seats! Nice! Nicer than a Bimmer 3-series. Too bad, I couldn't really try it out on an open stretch of road. Singapore is too congested. Plus the driver had a babyseat in the back. Hee hee....
Food last night was OK and service was OK. Notice the OK rating... I have noticed a change in service attitude compared to last year. Hence the OK rating. According to Audrey's friend (we had supper together), the service is getting worse. In Mandarin, it's Ma Ma Fu Fu.
Good thing we got a ride back to the hotel; there weren't many taxis available anymore. Apparently, most taxis were on "stay by" with someone because the driver could charge more. So, flagging down a taxi was next to impossible even at designated taxi stands. So we got a ride in this nice Subaru Impreza WRX STi. With Sports seats! Nice! Nicer than a Bimmer 3-series. Too bad, I couldn't really try it out on an open stretch of road. Singapore is too congested. Plus the driver had a babyseat in the back. Hee hee....
In Singapore now... Day 1
After a mid-morning flight from Hong Kong, we have arrived at Singapore in early afternoon. Total flying time was 3 hours and 20 minutes. The service, compared to Air Canada, was superb. The vegetarian meal, Indian style, was better than the slob for mushy stuff from AC.
The hotel we are staying at is Le Meridien. It is situated at the end of Orchard Road, downtown. The hotel, from the inside, looks tired and dated. I expect an update is coming. Don't let the glossy stuff mess with your mind. Compared to other hotels I have stayed, this seems to be a middle of the road.
Just below the hotel has a two-story shopping arcade. Not the fancy stuff you would expect. A mix mash of things Chinese and what seemed like boiler room type travel agencies lined the hallway. But the food court, well..... Now, my eyes just lighted up. Hee hee.... Authentic Asian food and cheap!!! I just had a bowl of noodle soup with shrimps, S$5.00 or US$3.44. Two glasses of fresh juice, S$7.00 or US$4.83. OK, maybe because I am in with the locals. If I were heading a bit more center of Orchard Road, I would have pay at least 3 times as much for the same thing. But, what the hey. I like it that way; local and cheap.
Well, this is Audrey's surprise b'day trip. She's here making her social calls and lining things up for the next two days. I may have to apply for an extension to the wedding committee about launching of the wedding site..... :-P
The hotel we are staying at is Le Meridien. It is situated at the end of Orchard Road, downtown. The hotel, from the inside, looks tired and dated. I expect an update is coming. Don't let the glossy stuff mess with your mind. Compared to other hotels I have stayed, this seems to be a middle of the road.
Just below the hotel has a two-story shopping arcade. Not the fancy stuff you would expect. A mix mash of things Chinese and what seemed like boiler room type travel agencies lined the hallway. But the food court, well..... Now, my eyes just lighted up. Hee hee.... Authentic Asian food and cheap!!! I just had a bowl of noodle soup with shrimps, S$5.00 or US$3.44. Two glasses of fresh juice, S$7.00 or US$4.83. OK, maybe because I am in with the locals. If I were heading a bit more center of Orchard Road, I would have pay at least 3 times as much for the same thing. But, what the hey. I like it that way; local and cheap.
Well, this is Audrey's surprise b'day trip. She's here making her social calls and lining things up for the next two days. I may have to apply for an extension to the wedding committee about launching of the wedding site..... :-P
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Various....
Wedding site is all done; pending the China/Spokane review session before launching life. However, the temporarily site is up. You can view if from http://web.mac.com/damiaolo. This site will be the official site as well once approved.
Invitations finally have arrived at Regina on Monday; they will be distributed via variety of methods. Don't be surprise seeing someone at the door handing you a square white envelope. Speaking of square, do you know you have to pay extra mailing square envelope in the US. The postal sorting machine was designed handling rectangular shape envelopes.
Last night in Hong Kong before tomorrow's surprise trip for Audrey's 40th birthday. Will be back to Hong Kong this Sunday and stay at the Sheraton again until next Thursday. Stay tune if anyone is eager to know where this surprise destination will be.
Invitations finally have arrived at Regina on Monday; they will be distributed via variety of methods. Don't be surprise seeing someone at the door handing you a square white envelope. Speaking of square, do you know you have to pay extra mailing square envelope in the US. The postal sorting machine was designed handling rectangular shape envelopes.
Last night in Hong Kong before tomorrow's surprise trip for Audrey's 40th birthday. Will be back to Hong Kong this Sunday and stay at the Sheraton again until next Thursday. Stay tune if anyone is eager to know where this surprise destination will be.
Monday, November 19, 2007
In HK now....
Man, what a long travel day yesterday! Normally, it would have taken us 2 hours and 20 minutes door to door from Shanghai airport to Hong Kong. But yesterday due to Chinese air traffic control, we never left until 5:30pm! Our flight was to leave at 2:40pm! Then with all the people coming to HK and with the ever so efficient HK planning, the immigration queue took over 45 minutes! Must have modeled after the TO airport I experienced back in May. Bloody stupid. So, from the time we left the airport, 12:45pm, we arrived in our room in Hong Kong at 9:30pm! Good thing we only had to go to the Sheraton Kowloon.
There is nothing writing home about at the Sheraton Kowloon. We requested a King size bed over a week ago, nothing. The lobby and restaurant were huge; the room was small but a little bigger than the one we stayed at the Kowloon Hotel I bitterly complained. There is no advantage with the Gold Sheraton Preferred Guest membership card. The most it offered us last night was a HK$80 drink ONLY voucher. O boy! But I should give the hotel a bit of credit for fast and efficient service at the Cafe restaurant there though. Service was excellent. Of course, just like any other hotel, the b'fast was expensive; well, didn't have time to run around this morning. I would rather eat something else 8 times vs only once with the amount for the b'fast. Yes, for Dave, that would have been having freshly squeezed Guava juice 18 times!
Must run now....
One thing forgot telling you all.... At the Pudong Airport in Shanghai, the washroom cleaning crew could be either male or female attendants; and you should NOT be surprise seeing a female one cleaning while the men were doing their business in there. ;-) China, everyone is equal.....
There is nothing writing home about at the Sheraton Kowloon. We requested a King size bed over a week ago, nothing. The lobby and restaurant were huge; the room was small but a little bigger than the one we stayed at the Kowloon Hotel I bitterly complained. There is no advantage with the Gold Sheraton Preferred Guest membership card. The most it offered us last night was a HK$80 drink ONLY voucher. O boy! But I should give the hotel a bit of credit for fast and efficient service at the Cafe restaurant there though. Service was excellent. Of course, just like any other hotel, the b'fast was expensive; well, didn't have time to run around this morning. I would rather eat something else 8 times vs only once with the amount for the b'fast. Yes, for Dave, that would have been having freshly squeezed Guava juice 18 times!
Must run now....
One thing forgot telling you all.... At the Pudong Airport in Shanghai, the washroom cleaning crew could be either male or female attendants; and you should NOT be surprise seeing a female one cleaning while the men were doing their business in there. ;-) China, everyone is equal.....
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Back in Shanghai for now....
Finally arrived back in Shanghai. On my way thru YVR's Air Canada Lounge, I began hearing Mandarin. This is a sign that there are more businesses moving back and forth; before, I hardly heard any.
Temperature in Shanghai is about 15C; cool and rainy. The construction outside the apartment is all done; new sidewalk....
You guys may have to check sengheng2006.wordpress.com for new blog entires once in a while; I get no access to this site from China. :-( Am remoted back in to someone's computer in Canada to post this.
Tomorrow, heading to HK tomorrow. So, I can still post from this site for at least another month.
Temperature in Shanghai is about 15C; cool and rainy. The construction outside the apartment is all done; new sidewalk....
You guys may have to check sengheng2006.wordpress.com for new blog entires once in a while; I get no access to this site from China. :-( Am remoted back in to someone's computer in Canada to post this.
Tomorrow, heading to HK tomorrow. So, I can still post from this site for at least another month.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
So long Regina....
Well, cannot believe that I have been here over two weeks; and now, I am on my back to Shanghai.
Didn't get a chance to see as many people as I had wanted; too much work.
For those who will be attending the wedding, the invitation is somewhere between Shanghai and Regina. The artist in Shanghai didn't follow instruction to Fed Ex them; rather, he did the EMS system; this, translated to Canada Post's Express Post; so I could not hand delivery them. Will be mailed out from Dave's office once it arrives.
But here's the highlights about the wedding...
1) We will arrive on Jan 28 morning
2) 2-round of golfs at the Wailea Golf club. Friday & Saturday mornings.
3) Saturday evening at 5pm, Luau @ Marriots; all guests are invited
4) Sunday wedding day begins at 230pm
5) Monday post-wedding lunch, location TBA
6) RSVP will be via email to: damiaolo@mac.com with subject "RSVP: Maui wedding". You can reply from my website. Will be posted later.
7) All info regarding the wedding will be posted on the site as well.
Starting next Monday - Shanghai time, I will be traveling in Asia until end of December; will be back in North America; the closest to Regina will be in MSP; might pop-up.
Have a good one everybody.
Didn't get a chance to see as many people as I had wanted; too much work.
For those who will be attending the wedding, the invitation is somewhere between Shanghai and Regina. The artist in Shanghai didn't follow instruction to Fed Ex them; rather, he did the EMS system; this, translated to Canada Post's Express Post; so I could not hand delivery them. Will be mailed out from Dave's office once it arrives.
But here's the highlights about the wedding...
1) We will arrive on Jan 28 morning
2) 2-round of golfs at the Wailea Golf club. Friday & Saturday mornings.
3) Saturday evening at 5pm, Luau @ Marriots; all guests are invited
4) Sunday wedding day begins at 230pm
5) Monday post-wedding lunch, location TBA
6) RSVP will be via email to: damiaolo@mac.com with subject "RSVP: Maui wedding". You can reply from my website. Will be posted later.
7) All info regarding the wedding will be posted on the site as well.
Starting next Monday - Shanghai time, I will be traveling in Asia until end of December; will be back in North America; the closest to Regina will be in MSP; might pop-up.
Have a good one everybody.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Navada Bob service....
I don't understand how that place can survive for that long; service was terrible! I tried ordering my replacement clubs; the sales person was so rude, after the first 30 seconds, I was ready to leave. Not helpful, sarcastic, with a huge belly sticking out. Attitude sucked. Asking a question about if the irons are oversize, his reply was: " well, they are for better players to play". What kind of answer was that? And when he walk around showing us the clubs, he just talked without addressing you. And always 6 feet in front of your with his back to your face.
We left; and went to Loney's to see Shawn instead; and was very happy with the service.
We left; and went to Loney's to see Shawn instead; and was very happy with the service.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Cross-platform networking...
It has come a long way - having different operating systems sharing files in the same network (easily). This type of mash-up networking has been done already; but now it is to the point that anyone can do it without hiring a team of highly paid consultants that sometimes don't know what they are doing. I have networked a Vista, a Windows 2003 server, an Apple computer running Tiger, an XP computer and a Ubuntu Linux computers all together. And I have done the hook up in less than 30 minutes. Of course, I didn't include the boot up time on some of the computers. Add a wireless/ethernet printer to the mix, you can do whatever you like. You no longer being tied to a specific operating system to network. Bonus.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Just when u want to give Vista a chance...
It does not really GIVE you a chance to 'give Vista a chance' to say: 'ok, I can do it; I can suffer a bit and get use to the "Microsoft" user interface way.' Then wham, another enlightenment! You cannot! It is still a piece of cr@P!
I thought, cool, the network discover and network sharing options are very user friendly. Checked. Plug in a HP LaserJet printer, Vista automatically discovers it and installs the proper driver. Checked. Sharing printer and the default "public" folder are a snap. Checked. Installing wirless HP printer. Takes a bit of time (maybe because of the wireless bandwidth, no problem). Checked. Start up the built-in webcam. Poof.... No device detected. Gone! The webcam driver has driven away. Gone, gone..... Same problem as when I was in Boston. Out of the blue, the webcam does not work anymore. A reload will fix this. But this will be the 3rd reload! That is, if I decide to do it! So, you have a $2,200 machine with all the bells and whistles but a crappy operating system making it worst than a Pentium 3 with Windows 98!
Also, I cannot run dos-based programs natively in full screen. You need to either run it in dosbox or use VPC 2007 (Microsoft's virtualization software - free download). I installed both mentioned programs; my dos program works until it attempts to read a drive; that's when it cannot handle the virtualization. You would think the Microsoft VPC would be much better. Wrong! I load in Windows 98 in a virtual machine mode; start the dos program; it hangs! Cannot even run! How bad is that! On top of that, the PVC has not much instruction that really helps.
Last ditch effort. I am going to follow the PVC project director's blog and rip out the PVC 2004, extract the DOS component and load it to PVC 2007. Go figure; that's tomorrow's job.
I thought, cool, the network discover and network sharing options are very user friendly. Checked. Plug in a HP LaserJet printer, Vista automatically discovers it and installs the proper driver. Checked. Sharing printer and the default "public" folder are a snap. Checked. Installing wirless HP printer. Takes a bit of time (maybe because of the wireless bandwidth, no problem). Checked. Start up the built-in webcam. Poof.... No device detected. Gone! The webcam driver has driven away. Gone, gone..... Same problem as when I was in Boston. Out of the blue, the webcam does not work anymore. A reload will fix this. But this will be the 3rd reload! That is, if I decide to do it! So, you have a $2,200 machine with all the bells and whistles but a crappy operating system making it worst than a Pentium 3 with Windows 98!
Also, I cannot run dos-based programs natively in full screen. You need to either run it in dosbox or use VPC 2007 (Microsoft's virtualization software - free download). I installed both mentioned programs; my dos program works until it attempts to read a drive; that's when it cannot handle the virtualization. You would think the Microsoft VPC would be much better. Wrong! I load in Windows 98 in a virtual machine mode; start the dos program; it hangs! Cannot even run! How bad is that! On top of that, the PVC has not much instruction that really helps.
Last ditch effort. I am going to follow the PVC project director's blog and rip out the PVC 2004, extract the DOS component and load it to PVC 2007. Go figure; that's tomorrow's job.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Wedding plan update
OK, we'll be there from Jan 28 to Feb 8. The pre-wedding supper, all guests are invited. It will be a luau at the Marriott at Wailea. Just show up; of course, I need a final number before hand. The wedding ceremony and reception place has not changed. The post-wedding lunch the next day, most likely will be at the Four Seasons DUO restaurant. The golf, Friday and Saturday, will be at Wailea Golf club. I'll book the time once I have heard from people who like to play.
Wedding invitations are printed; currently as I am typing this out, my partner is handwriting all the addresses on the envelopes in Shanghai. The invitations will be mailed out shortly. Stay tune.
Wedding invitations are printed; currently as I am typing this out, my partner is handwriting all the addresses on the envelopes in Shanghai. The invitations will be mailed out shortly. Stay tune.
Windows XP firewall...
Very interesting.... Can you believe that the "Windows Firewall" icon under the Control Panel does not really reflect the state of your computer firewall? Well, this happened to two machines I tried. In order to have a "true" state of your firewall, one should open up the "Networking" icon from Control Panel; right mouse-click on the network connection you are in, select properties. Click on the Advanced tab. Click the Firewall button. There, a pop-up window will show the "true" status of your firewall. Vista, seems to only have firewall setting from the "Windows Firewall" icon only.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Jiuzhaigou pictures
This is the link to the pictures from the Chinese national park at Jiuzhaigou that I visited 2 weeks ago.
http://web.mac.com/damiaolo/iWeb/jiuzhaigou/Page%201.html
http://web.mac.com/damiaolo/iWeb/jiuzhaigou/Page%201.html
VLC player
VLC player is a software program that runs on every single platforms, almost. It is a very versatile and is free! It plays pretty much all the formats which Microsoft Windows Media Player has problem. If you have problem playing videos, audios or streaming, try this VLC player. Download at: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Vista part 3...
Had to reinstall everything from scratch on the sony laptop. Somehow there was a conflict to the sony internal webcam driver with a programs.... This, I had never seen before. Despite my every effort, I had no choice. Restore the computer back to when I got it in HK resolved the problem; now, just have to apply all the patchings and the software I need, one by one.... Make sure the conflict won't happen again. A pain in the butts.
Going to Boston
Another early flight; pretty soon, I am going to be my own jet! Darn it! Good thing I was in shape - not round. Interesting though, Pearson is huge; but the US immigration people were hard to find. We only had one US officer for all the US transit people! So allow a lot of time - 2 hours is a must!
I must have flown too much; as I walked into the YYZ to BOS flight, the flight attendant was the one who served me last December going to Thunder Bay. What's the odd of that? Keep this type of coincident, I may have to buy more lottery tickets.
I must have flown too much; as I walked into the YYZ to BOS flight, the flight attendant was the one who served me last December going to Thunder Bay. What's the odd of that? Keep this type of coincident, I may have to buy more lottery tickets.
Back in Canada ...
Back in Canada; the flight from PVG to YVR was brutal. The plane was packed. Actually oversold by a lot; AC was asking people to get off. Go figure. The seats in the back were much tighter than I remembered. Pretty cramped; but good thing it was only 10 hours or so. The service was totally bad. My meal was handed to me by shoving into my face. I thought the flight attendants were worry about spilling food and drink on their clothes than on passengers. Maybe AC has cut back the laundry expenses to the flight attendants. Out of the entire crew, I believe I saw one or two that were below 40's. The rest were in the high 50's and overweight. Wonder what happen in the event of an evac? The flight attendants would be a block or not to the aisle or the door!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
One interesting thing....
At the Sheraton Jiuzhaigou, I tried using the safety deposit box. Followed the instructions, I successfully set my combinations, lock and unlocked. After that, I expect to use this same combinations as any other hotels I accustomed to. Well, this one was not. The combinations were only used ONCE. Once you have locked it, your combinations were no longer in use. And guess how to open it? It was a secret - all the staff knew, use "0#" to unlock. LOL!!! So, what good would this safety deposit box to me? Very funny indeed. The staff was so serious explaining to me how it worked. ;-)
Chengdu 成都
What a messy city! Polluted. Well... After spending time in Shanghai, this city does not appeal to me at all with the heavy pollution, cramp streets, traffic rules pretty much non-existent at times. Maybe I have not spent enough time outside yet. But....
My impression is such: city overgrown very quickly because of economic growth. Streets cannot handle that many cars and people and bicycles and motorcycles. You either see very old buildings or very new buildings side by side.
Shangri-la hotel, opened this May, provided the best oasis in Chengdu. It has everything. You really don't want to get out once you are in there. The hotel was very grandeur and very service oriented. Cafe Z offered the best dinner buffet I had ever seen! 7 or so large food stations: Japanese, southern Chinese, northern Chinese, Mediterranean, Brazilian, Indian, bakery station, dessert station. If that's not enough, skewers of meat were brought out to your tables. The total cost: $138RMB or about $20CAD.
One thing though, food is cheap in this city even in hotels. Here's the thing, I don't think I could eat any food at street level. Too much pollutions!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Very interesting...
Ummm.... I am going thru the www.google.cn site; my gmail works good and I can get back on my Google related blogs.... Wonder what's up with that.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Pasti on Beijing Lu
Yummy.... Must be us very hungry from today's exercise. Pasti on Beijing Lu, just behind Portman's Ritz Carlton was very good! Imagine that! Nice Italian food in the middle of Shanghai. Everything was organize and home-made; no processed stuff; Michele, I think you would love it :-P The salad dressing was not the run of the mill stuff; it was home made with organic ingredients. We had the Black pepper dressing, very light and had a little kick to it. The pasta was exceptional; flavourful and you could taste the different ingredients; not like the Alfredo's pasta and sauces. I must not had any Italian pasta except in Regina; because there was no comparison. Prices were good; we each had a main pasta dish and a huge apple/cheese/spinach salad to share; the cost came to RMB$182 - that's CAD$25.00; and of course, you do not need to tip in China!! No extra service charge; they are getting smarter but maybe in the future, there will be!
Rod, I had a bottle of 600ml coke today after my bike ride. It costed me CAD$0.30. Hee hee... Should I send you some? ;-)
Rod, I had a bottle of 600ml coke today after my bike ride. It costed me CAD$0.30. Hee hee... Should I send you some? ;-)
Saturday, September 15, 2007
I have survived my first 80KM bike ride...
on a rental bike with poor seat, crooked handles and flicky gears. Yes, my biker chick fiancee organized a group of bikers having a morning bike ride. We started from our apartment on Nanjing Xi Lu and cycled East to She Shan Le Meridien. It is a popular resort; in the same area, actually the road leading up to Le Meridien, Tiger Wood played there once in the Shanghai Open. By car, from our apartment to the hotel would have taken 45 minutes. With manual power, about 2 hours at a very good pace. All of the riders had nice road bike; me a rental moutain bike. (Am I stressed that enough time?) Good though as some roads were quite broken. I got to experience the village type atmosphere which old Shanghai used to be. Small road, fresh air - yes, fresh and smelly depending where we passed, fields and flower plantations. On the way back, we stopped by the road size and bought a melon to eat; very refreshing.
This trip was the first one on a bike since Grade 10! I did not forget a thing. Obviously, my butts did! Many things I have learned about Shanghai traffic today. (1) Red light does not mean stop; keep going if there is no vehicle rolling toward you. (2) no matter how busy in the bike lane, people will part for you if you show boldness. They will brake for you. (3) Even the bike lane indicates one way, you can "create" a bi-directional lane, no one cares. (4) People "play chicken" often. (5) If u want to ride, do so very very early in the morning. With 20 Million people, you want to have some quiet time and less 'fume' unless, of course, u are suffering from fume withdrawal. (6) If you find the bike lane is too crowded, ride in the car lanes; they will not hit you. (7) A corollary from (6): not true when people turning right specially Taxi. Brakes must work good! (8) Don't get a crazy girlfriend on Bike! LOL! It was fun.
Have to nurse my butts now as I have a session with a Personal Trainer in about an hour. Yes, we never stop :-P
This trip was the first one on a bike since Grade 10! I did not forget a thing. Obviously, my butts did! Many things I have learned about Shanghai traffic today. (1) Red light does not mean stop; keep going if there is no vehicle rolling toward you. (2) no matter how busy in the bike lane, people will part for you if you show boldness. They will brake for you. (3) Even the bike lane indicates one way, you can "create" a bi-directional lane, no one cares. (4) People "play chicken" often. (5) If u want to ride, do so very very early in the morning. With 20 Million people, you want to have some quiet time and less 'fume' unless, of course, u are suffering from fume withdrawal. (6) If you find the bike lane is too crowded, ride in the car lanes; they will not hit you. (7) A corollary from (6): not true when people turning right specially Taxi. Brakes must work good! (8) Don't get a crazy girlfriend on Bike! LOL! It was fun.
Have to nurse my butts now as I have a session with a Personal Trainer in about an hour. Yes, we never stop :-P
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Back to Shanghai.
OK, we are back to Shanghai now after a world wind tour of HK and Macau the last couple days! Haven't been there for a month and things changed so fast! New building start and shops closing. Fast changes.
Dragon Air service was good both ways (Shanghai-Hong Kong return); but the seats were very tight. We just saw a "big" guy needed a seat belt extension! Hey, beer was free; maybe Brent will be happy. Ha ha. Since Dragon Air flights to Shanghai from HK on an hourly basis, you can switch flight without penalty! There you go Air Canada. How cool is that. As well, you can do a Dragon Air package to visit Shanghai with air ticket/hotel; cheap that way.
My "Return Village Card" aka Chinese ID card entry into China via Shanghai is getting simpler by the months. Now, I don't even have to fill out any immigration card; just hand over your card, scan and you are on your way; totally processing time, 5 seconds!!!! Now, Canada and US should learn a few things about this! Hee heee...
Not even two hours arriving back, I had done my first spinning class! Of course, it was my better biker chick half dragged me there; well, our gym was/is just across the street about 50M; hardly to say NO to that! Spinning class is a very intense exercise using stationary bike. I sweated more than couple litres. Now as I am typing, I have craving for a beer and a coke as well as some meat. All bad vices. Maybe I should do no more Spinning classes in the future. ;-)
Dragon Air service was good both ways (Shanghai-Hong Kong return); but the seats were very tight. We just saw a "big" guy needed a seat belt extension! Hey, beer was free; maybe Brent will be happy. Ha ha. Since Dragon Air flights to Shanghai from HK on an hourly basis, you can switch flight without penalty! There you go Air Canada. How cool is that. As well, you can do a Dragon Air package to visit Shanghai with air ticket/hotel; cheap that way.
My "Return Village Card" aka Chinese ID card entry into China via Shanghai is getting simpler by the months. Now, I don't even have to fill out any immigration card; just hand over your card, scan and you are on your way; totally processing time, 5 seconds!!!! Now, Canada and US should learn a few things about this! Hee heee...
Not even two hours arriving back, I had done my first spinning class! Of course, it was my better biker chick half dragged me there; well, our gym was/is just across the street about 50M; hardly to say NO to that! Spinning class is a very intense exercise using stationary bike. I sweated more than couple litres. Now as I am typing, I have craving for a beer and a coke as well as some meat. All bad vices. Maybe I should do no more Spinning classes in the future. ;-)
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Cruise to Lama Island
Never been to Lama Island until this evening. Audrey's potential employer is associated with the Swire Group; so we had a private boat taking about 12 people from the Yacht club (across from Excelsior Hotel) to Lama Island. The island is famous for seafood. And no cars there. Yachts bring tourists and locals alike to the island for seafood. I sampled fresh scallops, lobsters, squids, etc...
On the way back, we could see the Hong Kong harbour first hand. No crowds, no noises or cellphone ringings from other people, just 12 people in a yacht enjoying the views.
On the way back, we could see the Hong Kong harbour first hand. No crowds, no noises or cellphone ringings from other people, just 12 people in a yacht enjoying the views.
Monday, September 10, 2007
L'hotel Hong Kong @ Causeway Bay
Just checked into L'hotel Hong Kong @ Causeway Bay. Well....
My star rating is 3 out of 5. Service is good; room is clean to a point and damit the Chinese never master the bathroom thing or what! The dated white tiles, small white bathtube, yellowish shower curtain, blacken shelves in the shower, yuke..... I think I will have to spoil Audrey with Four Seasons on the 12th. Since the Swire Group is paying for the hotel, I am not too fuss over it; this also give me a look on how Audrey's accommodation has been while working - paying by the clients.
My star rating is 3 out of 5. Service is good; room is clean to a point and damit the Chinese never master the bathroom thing or what! The dated white tiles, small white bathtube, yellowish shower curtain, blacken shelves in the shower, yuke..... I think I will have to spoil Audrey with Four Seasons on the 12th. Since the Swire Group is paying for the hotel, I am not too fuss over it; this also give me a look on how Audrey's accommodation has been while working - paying by the clients.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Great Wall picutres
You can visit http://web.mac.com/damiaolo to see some of the Great Wall pictures we took. At one tower, our words echoed back to us from the valley; we did not even yell, just quiet talk. Very fascinating! We stayed at a "hotel" in front of the wall at Simatai. It had costed less than CAD$30 per night; had all the basis but the bathroom was a bit "shady". Don't expect much! "roughing" it....
We did two hikes; one very early in the morning like 530am. We had the wall all by ourselves!!!! Then after breakfast, we did another stretch; more climbing then anything else on the second hike. Rough. You need to be in good physical shape! After about 2 hours, we got bored; tower after tower, broken section after broken section... So we turned back to our hotel.
Closer to the bottom of the entrance, we did the "flying fox" for the last bit of downhill. That was being dangling on a long wire, strapped down and pushed off over a reservoir to pretty much the front of the hotel. It was a lazy way to go downhill if you dare to do so. No helmet though; so if the wire broke, you know how much force your body will experience.
And because of this experience, we met three BHP executives, an Australian mining company. One knew Audrey's friends, one lives in Vancouver and visit Regina & Saskatoon every month. He was just in Regina talking to our beloved premier last month. How weird was that! Of all the people at the wall visiting!!!! Hee hee, the BHP picked up the tab for beer and lunch.
*Note: In China here, I can post but cannot see my own blog site; so if you plan on leaving comments, sorry I cannot read them.
We did two hikes; one very early in the morning like 530am. We had the wall all by ourselves!!!! Then after breakfast, we did another stretch; more climbing then anything else on the second hike. Rough. You need to be in good physical shape! After about 2 hours, we got bored; tower after tower, broken section after broken section... So we turned back to our hotel.
Closer to the bottom of the entrance, we did the "flying fox" for the last bit of downhill. That was being dangling on a long wire, strapped down and pushed off over a reservoir to pretty much the front of the hotel. It was a lazy way to go downhill if you dare to do so. No helmet though; so if the wire broke, you know how much force your body will experience.
And because of this experience, we met three BHP executives, an Australian mining company. One knew Audrey's friends, one lives in Vancouver and visit Regina & Saskatoon every month. He was just in Regina talking to our beloved premier last month. How weird was that! Of all the people at the wall visiting!!!! Hee hee, the BHP picked up the tab for beer and lunch.
*Note: In China here, I can post but cannot see my own blog site; so if you plan on leaving comments, sorry I cannot read them.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Service experiences......
Wow, I think I am getting spoiled (kinda).
Going thru security at the Shanghai domestic airport - Hong Qiao, everyone needs to have ID cards of some sort; you know, movement to be tracked. The security guards were so polite! They smiled and greeted you; then received your ID card and boarding pass with BOTH hands!!! After couple stamps and electronically captured your face et al, your ID card and the boarding pass were handed back to your BOTH Hands!!!! Then, when I went thru the security, the Chinese adopted the US no liquid rule. However, I asked if I could bring along my bottled water; well, he smiled and opened the lid; using his right hand, he made a wave motion to draw out the air inside the bottle to check. That was it. I walked thru with my water; no fuss, no heighten panic... Quick and simple.
Then at the Beijing airport today, we discovered there was an earlier flight with a different airline back to Shanghai; being Audrey, she wanted to hurry; so we changed our flight to a different airline with NO fee penalty!!! How odd was that!!!!! And on top of that, we had the airline's employee escorted us thru a "special" line. No queue. You know, we still had 35 minutes before boarding; but nonetheless, we went thru the no queue line.
Now, that's big cities for you though; when we were at the Great Wall; things were a bit dicy. Well, different standard of education as well as training. At the Great Wall (Simatai section), we kept getting harassed if we had pay our room, or a pass to the gate; well, #1, there was no gate, #2, there was no lobby to check-in. In order to do both payments, we had to get to the hotel restaurant and asked. I believe Miss Audrey was getting "pissed" of being harassed; after an "exchange" with the staff (still a bit foreign to me at this time), she had "provided" improvement of the way things run - logistically. I believed the staff/employees around the wall, the hotel and the restaurants were from surrounding villages that had no formal business organizational knowledge. Thus the poor service.
Going thru security at the Shanghai domestic airport - Hong Qiao, everyone needs to have ID cards of some sort; you know, movement to be tracked. The security guards were so polite! They smiled and greeted you; then received your ID card and boarding pass with BOTH hands!!! After couple stamps and electronically captured your face et al, your ID card and the boarding pass were handed back to your BOTH Hands!!!! Then, when I went thru the security, the Chinese adopted the US no liquid rule. However, I asked if I could bring along my bottled water; well, he smiled and opened the lid; using his right hand, he made a wave motion to draw out the air inside the bottle to check. That was it. I walked thru with my water; no fuss, no heighten panic... Quick and simple.
Then at the Beijing airport today, we discovered there was an earlier flight with a different airline back to Shanghai; being Audrey, she wanted to hurry; so we changed our flight to a different airline with NO fee penalty!!! How odd was that!!!!! And on top of that, we had the airline's employee escorted us thru a "special" line. No queue. You know, we still had 35 minutes before boarding; but nonetheless, we went thru the no queue line.
Now, that's big cities for you though; when we were at the Great Wall; things were a bit dicy. Well, different standard of education as well as training. At the Great Wall (Simatai section), we kept getting harassed if we had pay our room, or a pass to the gate; well, #1, there was no gate, #2, there was no lobby to check-in. In order to do both payments, we had to get to the hotel restaurant and asked. I believe Miss Audrey was getting "pissed" of being harassed; after an "exchange" with the staff (still a bit foreign to me at this time), she had "provided" improvement of the way things run - logistically. I believed the staff/employees around the wall, the hotel and the restaurants were from surrounding villages that had no formal business organizational knowledge. Thus the poor service.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Interesting sign
As you all know, in China there are signs for English and Chinese together. Take a look at this one. This is one of the things people come to see in China. You can still find some of them around but with the up coming Olympics, someone is carefully replacing embarrassing signs with proper English ones.
Who would have thought...
Haha, today is the first day I have a private trainer in my life. Well, the badminton coach I had does not count as a private trainer. We worked on my core. I have been worked over and liking it. This early "retirement" thingy is really good ;-) Thanks dad. I have never sweat so much. Humidity and all but still... Good for my body. I have discovered that if I were not in air cond room or cold anything long, my bones don't hurt as much.
After all these years slaving away at SlackTel, I finally can take a breather. Two things out of many I want to do and I am doing them! Move to Shanghai and hire a swim coach.
At the Hilton Hotel downtown Shanghai, I get both a swim coach and a private trainer. Of course, like everything in China, you prepare your sessions and get a discount. Have not paying the swim coach yet; didn't have time to organize.
After all these years slaving away at SlackTel, I finally can take a breather. Two things out of many I want to do and I am doing them! Move to Shanghai and hire a swim coach.
At the Hilton Hotel downtown Shanghai, I get both a swim coach and a private trainer. Of course, like everything in China, you prepare your sessions and get a discount. Have not paying the swim coach yet; didn't have time to organize.
Beijing Day 1
Reporting live in Beijing. We just arrived about an hour and half ago. Traffic was bad and the taxi driver was rude! Good luck with the Olympics. He dropped us off at the wrong entrance at the hotel and then charged us additional cost to "drop us" off at the "correct" entrance.
We are staying at the Holiday Inn, Lido Place; it's about 14 Km from the airport. Coming in, traffic was heavy; funny when I was here last, you would not have seen Chinese natives flying in and out of Beijing just like any Western countries.
The hotel is ok. Things are bit dated but hey, you are in China, it's come a long way. Just roll with the punches. The laundry lady was nice; Audrey needed a shirt for tomorrow's work; the lady bended backward to help us. Beijing people is known for their hospitality just not that assh*le taxi driver.
Don't know what my plan for tomorrow while Audrey works for the 1/2 day. I might sleep in and just veg....
In the afternoon, we are heading off to the Great Wall; staying there for two days to hike. Expect nice pictures when I get back to Shanghai.
We are staying at the Holiday Inn, Lido Place; it's about 14 Km from the airport. Coming in, traffic was heavy; funny when I was here last, you would not have seen Chinese natives flying in and out of Beijing just like any Western countries.
The hotel is ok. Things are bit dated but hey, you are in China, it's come a long way. Just roll with the punches. The laundry lady was nice; Audrey needed a shirt for tomorrow's work; the lady bended backward to help us. Beijing people is known for their hospitality just not that assh*le taxi driver.
Don't know what my plan for tomorrow while Audrey works for the 1/2 day. I might sleep in and just veg....
In the afternoon, we are heading off to the Great Wall; staying there for two days to hike. Expect nice pictures when I get back to Shanghai.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Arrived back at Shanghai
Now, I am officially living in China; first day, Sept 4, 2007. A life altering experience. It'll be fun.
And of course, being us... We are heading to Beijing this Thursday afternoon for the rest of the week. Coming back on Sunday.
Then maybe head to Macau for a few days the following weekend. :-P Yes, the traveling duo.
And of course, being us... We are heading to Beijing this Thursday afternoon for the rest of the week. Coming back on Sunday.
Then maybe head to Macau for a few days the following weekend. :-P Yes, the traveling duo.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Last day in Canada
At last after the "goodbye" tour from Regina to MSP to SFO to PDX to YVR, am heading over to Shanghai tomorrow. It's marking an end of close to a quarter of a century in Canada. Wow....
It'll be a fun adventure; another chapter to the life of D.
It'll be a fun adventure; another chapter to the life of D.
We will miss you!
I am sadly to say, our closest friend, Theresa McNeil had succumbed to cancer on Aug 29, 2008. A day after her 41st birthday. She was survived by her husband Jacey, daughter Antonia (4 yr old) and her mother Eleen. Theresa passed away quietly overnight after her husband had said good bye the night before. After such a long struggle with cancer and a hair-raising trip from Honolulu to Portland just last Sunday for a final chance with an oncologist, her struggle ended.
Anyone who had shared their experiences or discussions with her knew that this person was smarter than anyone. Theresa had been an Asian analyst in the intelligent service. If people were familiar with Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum spy novels, she was not that far from the things stated in the books. From her office, she commanded all sorts of equipments available.
Darkhorse, California
Golfed at Darkhorse golf course, about 45 minutes outside of Sacramento, on the hottest day there. Yikes. Good thing cart with GPS was mandatory. It made the experience a bit better. I didn't bring my clubs as the US security would have scrutinize every golf balls I brought over. Take my word! Make sure you have locks with TSA feature enabled. Otherwise, the locks on your luggage would be cut for closer examination. Go figure.... Back to golf.
I got this rental set with stiff R7 irons and a collections of driver, 3 wood and 5 wood. The irons, I think I will get some myself, the woods.... umm.... they were various types of regular shafts; that was the cause of my game..... If I were to have my own putter and the woods, I would have easily cut down at least 10 strokes. My final score, 99, same as my future father-in-law. Ummm.... coincidence?
The course was lovely; short from the white tees; the challenging part was on the green. Tricky. The course was hilly, sand traps were strategically well located. And the lips were high. Expect to take a penalty shot if you get in there.
Service from the club house was excellent! Beat the crap out of the Regina city run courses!
I got this rental set with stiff R7 irons and a collections of driver, 3 wood and 5 wood. The irons, I think I will get some myself, the woods.... umm.... they were various types of regular shafts; that was the cause of my game..... If I were to have my own putter and the woods, I would have easily cut down at least 10 strokes. My final score, 99, same as my future father-in-law. Ummm.... coincidence?
The course was lovely; short from the white tees; the challenging part was on the green. Tricky. The course was hilly, sand traps were strategically well located. And the lips were high. Expect to take a penalty shot if you get in there.
Service from the club house was excellent! Beat the crap out of the Regina city run courses!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Apple Store (Palo Alto) experience
Man, talk about service. I don't think it can beat the Apple store support service. It's awesome! Not like the PC experience. The staff bends backward for you if you request. Put in a new HD for Audrey's Macbook as her drive crashed at MSP. When we arrived at Palo Alto, I went shopping for the OS X disk as well as the new iLife'08. Her computer just would not take the OS X installation disk, called over to the Apple Store, they sneaked me in to take a look; after 15 minutes and an exchange of an open box installation disk (u cannot do that with Bill's stuff I can assure you!), the technical staff basically just installed it via Firewire drive directly; total = 10 minutes! Bill's stuff cannot do that! Granted I have to do updates but so is Bill's. Now, the computer is up and running. I didn't have time leaving the computer for a day and two; and the technical staff made exception. They were trying to save me money by NOT letting me to purchase a new one on the spot! How cool was that?
Monday, August 27, 2007
SFO
Arrived via NWA on time from MSP to SFO. You would have thought that the airport signs are cleared and concise being in a hi-tech place. Wrong!!! This place is so stupid, confusing and convoluted. I am talking about the airport and its road leading out. The car rental place was way out of the airport; take the BLUE line. Not the RED Line; if you follow the signs to pick up your rental car, you maybe utterly confused when you arrive at the train platform. Which train? Umm...... Inside the train, you get no handles to hold on to. So, better practice your Chinese Ku Fu standing. That's the only way to keep your footing while the train is in motion. Leaving the airport... I would follow the sign and then the road led to turn left yet the sign for the highway still pointing to go straight. Go figure. Needless to say, it was to turn left.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
WiFi access in YQR AC Lounge
Wow, YQR's AC lounge finally comes of age. The age of WiFi access. No longer do I need to "borrow" unsecured Access Points. Datavalet is the provider, just like any other AC lounges across Canada. After all these years of traveling via YQR, before I leave (almost 25 years later), we have WiFi in Regina. And I don't see any mouse traps !!!
Friday, August 10, 2007
Engagement party....
OK, the party is on the 20th at 630pm at Bick's store. Looks like there will be lots of people. I should mention to Bick hiring some security guards. Ha ha...
As I mentioned to some many moons ago, my stash of wine that I have saving for a special occasion... Well, they are coming out. I found a bottle of South African wine left in the basement that was from my 2000 trip. It will be good.
Come early to help open and sample them; as it needs to breath...
I have two bottles in the 1998 vintage and two from a year after; two Wolfblass and two South African.... Someone will have to drive me home...
As I mentioned to some many moons ago, my stash of wine that I have saving for a special occasion... Well, they are coming out. I found a bottle of South African wine left in the basement that was from my 2000 trip. It will be good.
Come early to help open and sample them; as it needs to breath...
I have two bottles in the 1998 vintage and two from a year after; two Wolfblass and two South African.... Someone will have to drive me home...
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Wedding Update Part 3
Vendors booked, location booked, everything is booked. Nice having a wedding planner. We are down to detail things like flower centre piece, colour of the flower bouquet, making up and mailing of the invitations, finalize guest list, wedding program, beverage consumption estimate, post-wedding brunch, etc.... I must be missing something everything seems to be done according to "plan". Ummm....
Now, I can focus on helping Bick to get the engagement party prepared - Aug 20; cancel my various utilities and get ready for the move.
Now, I can focus on helping Bick to get the engagement party prepared - Aug 20; cancel my various utilities and get ready for the move.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Wedding Update Part Deux
Wedding planner hired. Location booked. It is at Honua Kai Lani Estate. Address: 7750 Makena Road. See map here. This place is on the south side close to Wailea. 15 minutes from Four Seasons Hotel. This is a useful link to Maui accommodation, activities and more.
O yeah, don't forget looking out to the sea as you will see lots of whales. It's February, I was told.
Preliminary schedule for a 3-day festival
Feb 2, 2008
- BBQ in the evening for wedding guests in lieu of a rehearsal dinner
Feb 3, 2008
- 230pm wedding ceremony begins
- 330pm chinese tea ceremony / picture taking
- after the wedding ceremony, reception begins as well ....
- 500pm dinner is served.... babysitters will be on site
- 700pm .... guess will have a DJ
- 1100pm .... lights out ...
Feb 4, 2008
- 1230pm brunch for wedding guests - could be at Four Seasons
O yeah, don't forget looking out to the sea as you will see lots of whales. It's February, I was told.
Preliminary schedule for a 3-day festival
Feb 2, 2008
- BBQ in the evening for wedding guests in lieu of a rehearsal dinner
Feb 3, 2008
- 230pm wedding ceremony begins
- 330pm chinese tea ceremony / picture taking
- after the wedding ceremony, reception begins as well ....
- 500pm dinner is served.... babysitters will be on site
- 700pm .... guess will have a DJ
- 1100pm .... lights out ...
Feb 4, 2008
- 1230pm brunch for wedding guests - could be at Four Seasons
Friday, August 3, 2007
Get a Mac for your next computer
It's not a joke. I have just purchased a Windows Vista computer; after 5 minutes with it, the only thing I can say is: Yuck!!!!!! (Along with some censored expressions in both Chinese and English languages.) This operating is really crappy in terms of usability. Maybe we are so accustomed to the XP currently available. But things have changed in the Vista that really not improving anything but cause more problems: 1) You need 2G of RAM to run. Don't be shy when buying a computer, 1G is not enough; remember the good old days when you buy a Windows XP with 512M of RAM? And then you complained things are running slow. Same thing; except now, you need 2G as a barebone minimum. 2) There is no Start, then Run.... It is so intuitively mislabeled as "Search" but you get a nice search box provided. 3) Network connection. You have to read more and carefully in order to understand what the F^&()^&% you are doing. ONLY after you have a IT/computer science degree to understand the verbage. 4) There is no Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel; it is now call Program Feature. 5) When I tried scrolling with a Microsoft wheel mouse, it worked sometimes but not the others on the same F*^$^%)_% screen. 6) Every time you try to do something "administratively", you get an annoying pop-up window asking to "are you sure" or something. 7) Visual cue of double clicking is gone, at least on some screens I was in. OK, OK, I better stop; this is only after 5 minutes of working with it for me without going to the net to seek out answers for simple tasks I could do normally with my eyes closed. Maybe I am old fashion and should be retired from IT. Or this product is just sucked.
Before swiping my credit card for this new Vista laptop, I was seeking high and low looking for a XP Pro machine in Regina - London Drugs and Best Buy; guess what, there are none in plain sight. And when I inquired about one, we were in such a soft voice I thought I was dealing with a less than legit purchase from a "dealer". The policy is "put those XP machines away, pretend they never exists". Hmmm... I wonder how many of those machines are out there.... Microsoft power...... Pretty awesome huh?
So to consider a new machine, take a look at the Mac. It's easier, less problematic, and nicer. If you have problem, I'll fix them for you. The interoperability between some "standardized" files (aka Microsoft standard) are interchangeable now. The only thing is certain games; but hey, not all are ready for Vista anyway....
Before swiping my credit card for this new Vista laptop, I was seeking high and low looking for a XP Pro machine in Regina - London Drugs and Best Buy; guess what, there are none in plain sight. And when I inquired about one, we were in such a soft voice I thought I was dealing with a less than legit purchase from a "dealer". The policy is "put those XP machines away, pretend they never exists". Hmmm... I wonder how many of those machines are out there.... Microsoft power...... Pretty awesome huh?
So to consider a new machine, take a look at the Mac. It's easier, less problematic, and nicer. If you have problem, I'll fix them for you. The interoperability between some "standardized" files (aka Microsoft standard) are interchangeable now. The only thing is certain games; but hey, not all are ready for Vista anyway....
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Quick update
Ok, back from HKG. Got lots done as well as some R & R. Sale definitely was sale! All brand name product like Prada, St John's, Bally, Gucci, etc. were 1/2 price. Even 1/2 price still ran about close to $1,000CAD per piece. I would not know how much the same item costed in Canada; but yikes!
Anyay the wedding is shaping up. The venue may change due to the recommendation of our wedding planner. It's a bit bigger. It is going to be at Honua Kai Lani Estate; it is about 3 acres at the end of Makena which is about 15 minutes from Wailea. See map: here. It's a bit shorter drive than my original location. Will post more info about this new location later.
Audrey and I have agreed to provide babysitting service for the guests at the wedding ground. The wedding planner has couple sitters in mind that will compliment the age, toys and activities. As well, we will provide kid's menu. So when you get your RSVP, kindly promptly reply.
If you are a constant meat eater, our buffet will be vegetarian. And since this will be on a private estate, I will have to do a "beer" run or three to Costco. I will include a wish list to choose from, probably.... O yeah, there will be a BBQ the night before the wedding, everyone welcome. And of course, a brunch the day after.
And the most important piece or two activities - Golf and a visit to the big island to see the lava flowing.... I am thinking of golfing at least twice before the wedding and at least once afterward.
The Outrigger Palms on Wailea, pretty close to Four Seasons, is the choice of stay for the guests.... But feel free to do any other arrangements.
Anyway, that's about it for now.
Anyay the wedding is shaping up. The venue may change due to the recommendation of our wedding planner. It's a bit bigger. It is going to be at Honua Kai Lani Estate; it is about 3 acres at the end of Makena which is about 15 minutes from Wailea. See map: here. It's a bit shorter drive than my original location. Will post more info about this new location later.
Audrey and I have agreed to provide babysitting service for the guests at the wedding ground. The wedding planner has couple sitters in mind that will compliment the age, toys and activities. As well, we will provide kid's menu. So when you get your RSVP, kindly promptly reply.
If you are a constant meat eater, our buffet will be vegetarian. And since this will be on a private estate, I will have to do a "beer" run or three to Costco. I will include a wish list to choose from, probably.... O yeah, there will be a BBQ the night before the wedding, everyone welcome. And of course, a brunch the day after.
And the most important piece or two activities - Golf and a visit to the big island to see the lava flowing.... I am thinking of golfing at least twice before the wedding and at least once afterward.
The Outrigger Palms on Wailea, pretty close to Four Seasons, is the choice of stay for the guests.... But feel free to do any other arrangements.
Anyway, that's about it for now.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong
Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong located at Central offers an excellent service. It is a must for everyone to stay for at least once. Room rate per night is not cheap. I did find a weekend package rate from the hotel website; more than what I want to pay but being a quick getaway from all, it's worth it. You can book this hotel through Macau's STDM travel agency; for that, the rate is about $2,700 HK per night plus taxes. Though you get no choice of what room you get. Mine, booked via the hotel website, is a Harbour view one. As I am typing this, I am overlooking the Victoria Harbour. The hotel is only about a 7-minute walk from Macau Hong Kong Ferry Terminal over an above the street walkway. As well, this hotel is only a 2-minute walk from IFC Tower where the Hong Kong Airport Express station is. So, this hotel is strategically well located.
There are two outdoor swimming pools on the 6th floor. One is a lap pool and the other is an Infiniti pool facing the Harbour. Deepest end in the pool is about 1.2m. It is very interesting looking up from the pool to see all the tall buildings and behind your back is all those buildings up the hill. In the middle of Central, you get an oasis! Recommend time to spend at the pool, first thing in the morning at 630 am or 7am.
The hotel does not recommend you drink from the tab; it provides complimentary Fiji bottled water (500ml) as many as you want! I think Audrey and I have gone thru over 2L per person each day. There is nowhere in the hotel room telling you complimentary bottled water; I found it out by calling the frontdesk about drinking from the tab water.
The gym is quite nice; it's a 24-hour one. "manned" service is from 6am to 10pm. It was nice having the gym by youself at 530am! The complimentary freshly squeezed watermelon and Guava juice, bottled Fiji water and various tea are available for guests.
O, there is a complimentary shuttle service from the Hong Kong Airport Express station to the hotel; I recommend walking unless you have tonnes of stuff. The driving take longer than walking to the hotel.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Air Canada lounge at YVR, International side
This lounge is getting busy. Have all the basic requirement of a standard lounge. There's no hot food; only soup and salad; for those who have problem, namely constipation, take stock on the salad and eat!
Business travel must be increasing busy. With that, we have bonehead people pacing back and fore in the hall way talking loudly on the cellphones. Yes, we know how important you are. Or remind me not to buy any shares from that company. Other people have the ringer on so loud, I am sure the volume drowns out the sound of aircrafts taking off at over 4000lbs thrust. Insane! People need a bit of etiquette. Maybe rather than showing an emergency evacuation video, should supply the video with lounge access and phone etiquettes.
I nearly turned to this dumb ass and started yelling at him to sit down and shut the F*^*&( up.
Business travel must be increasing busy. With that, we have bonehead people pacing back and fore in the hall way talking loudly on the cellphones. Yes, we know how important you are. Or remind me not to buy any shares from that company. Other people have the ringer on so loud, I am sure the volume drowns out the sound of aircrafts taking off at over 4000lbs thrust. Insane! People need a bit of etiquette. Maybe rather than showing an emergency evacuation video, should supply the video with lounge access and phone etiquettes.
I nearly turned to this dumb ass and started yelling at him to sit down and shut the F*^*&( up.
Off to Hong Kong
OK, leaving for Hong Kong in two hours. I'll be meeting Audrey there for the weekend. Have to have a proper engagement celebration. Will stay at Four Seasons Hong Kong. See here: http://www.fourseasons.com/hongkong/. The room is expensive; however, if booked via Macau's STDM Tour office, you may get about 40 to 50% off the rate. Also, there is a free shuttle at the Hong Kong station (Airport Express). Once exit out of the gate separating the train and the Service Desk, go to your left and exit out....
In Hong Kong, we'll discuss wedding related items as well as shopping for summer work clothes. Mid-Summer sale. It's cheaper flying into HK and shop rather than do it in Shanghai.
That's about it for now.
*PS. For Michele, do I need to apply to have Rod bringing his clubs to Maui? I need to reach my 12 rounds a year requirement! :-P
In Hong Kong, we'll discuss wedding related items as well as shopping for summer work clothes. Mid-Summer sale. It's cheaper flying into HK and shop rather than do it in Shanghai.
That's about it for now.
*PS. For Michele, do I need to apply to have Rod bringing his clubs to Maui? I need to reach my 12 rounds a year requirement! :-P
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Wedding annoucement: Feb 3, 2008 - Maui
OK folks. For those who actually reads my blogs, the wedding date and location are set; 3:00pm Feb 3, 2008 Sunday @ Maui. I am looking for a venue. Start planning.... I'll have a travel agent for the Regina people to use. She's away for a month and won't be back until August 9th. So will be in touch on Maui packages....
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Wedding date set: Feb 3, 2008
OK, finally a date is set for the wedding; it will be Feb 3, 2008; location is not determine at this time. This date will be very close to Chinese New Year - Feb 7, 2008. And in about 3 from next year, the Chinese New Year will fall on Feb 3 as well. Man, talk about me having my birthday on Chinese New Year and now my wedding anniversary; how weird is that?
Stay tune for the announcement of a location. Most likely at Maui....
Stay tune for the announcement of a location. Most likely at Maui....
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