What a hectic day!

I went twice to the Indian Visa office today, all the way to HongQiao, one shower and 5 changes of shirts!!!!!

It was raining this morning, but very humid and cold. I walked to the Indian Visa office to pick up my visa. It was a good hike, about 40 minutes. I was soaked outside and inside. The Goretex rain jacket repelled the rain but could not wick away my sweat; so i cooked. Got to the Visa office and found out the consulate did NOT issue my visa as promised!!!!! Good thing the Visa office was staffed by young Chinese eager to assist. They called and 5 minutes later, it was promised to be issued by 430pm. Fine. I hiked back to my house. 40 minutes later, soaked thru and thru, my first change of clothes.

Second round began 30 minutes later. Had to get to HongQiao to meet my aunt Connie (Queen of Macau) and my driver. I took the subway and then did a 20-minute hike to HongQiao Yin Bin Guan. A Chinese state own enterprise. My aunt and her friend decided to stay there overnight as they were impressed with the decor. Soaked by the time I got there. I had one less layer as in the morning. Too hot with that Pategonia shell. I wonder if it actually breath. I started to wonder. Dried off shirt while waiting for them at the lobby. Then her friend decided to get an haircut at my hairstylist place, next door in the same complex. OK. That was an hour and half later. Connie did a trim too. Since there was no time to do any out of town sightseeing; they went to my area with driver. Note: driver been waiting since noon. Clock ticking and he got paid well for sitting. O well, their money.

3rd round an hour later for me, a change of shirt and started hiking back to the Indian Visa office. OK, rain stopped. I had only one layer on. Cooling... Wrong! Humidity after the rain, even though the temperature was nice, but humidity was high. Half way on HuiHai Road, I was dripping. I could feel my sweat under my jeans (It's in wash as I am typing). Got there.... O... Passport still at India Consulate. Well, if I knew that, I could have walk over from my apartment!!! 15-minute walk rather than 40!!! And on top of that, not sure if I got it! Hey, I bought the ticket on Thursday AFTER the visa guy at the consulate said "done, no problem will give you Thursday afternoon". Right, Indian... Giving every one a bad name for his country. I was there at 4pm waiting until 5pm before the box arrived with all the passport. OK, hike back to my apartment; 530pm - dark already outside and I had to organize a dinner in the evening via SMS message to 4 different groups of people. Chinese and English. Text, walk, Text, walk. I adopted the no texting and walking. Specially in dark streets and rush hour traffic.

Home!!!! 615pm. Soaked. Stripped, showered, cold shower that was to cool down. Fresh shirt. Phone rang, looked at watch, time to go. The dinner was in Xin Tian Di in a Shanghainese restaurant. I'll take whoever visiting there. Good food. I met up with iron-wife on the same route I did twice already prior. Good thing only half way!

O.. couldn't count. Only four changes of clothes today.

The driver, we paid him RMB1,000 to drive Connie and her friend from noon to 10pm. After the conversion, cheap huh? I'll do the same for anyone coming here. It's quite common for people to do so. And convenient.

Wow, my mandarin has improved. Even conversing with the driver pretty much all day. About a year ago, the only language coming out of my mouth was English. And now, I text and spoke Mandarin, ok enough that I could place the driver to the right place and organize a day trip. ;-) All without the supervision of iron-wife. Haha.

Queen of Macau has arrived!

Nope, that is not her train arriving. It was the Maglev that I took to the Pudong airport from Longyang station. This is that fast magnetic levitation train that can go 430KM/hour. From the Longyang station to the airport took only 12 minutes. Beats all the traffic on the road. Just to give you an idea how fast the maglev is, I have place the map below to show. Normally, it takes 50 minutes to an hour from my area to Pudong airport. But with my subway ride to LongYang station and jump on the maglev, 28 minutes; of course, have to make sure I catch the maglev; otherwise, I have to do a 15-minute wait.

I am hooked...

Yes, the video site I reported couple days ago, I am hooked to it. Getting to watch all the TV shows that I didn't have time or couldn't watch because the North American broadcasting blocked it. One show is BBC's Top Gear. And I have been watching old movies on it - Matrix Revolution and Tombradier. Well, I can see my productivity is going down now.

On another note: the queen of Macau is coming for a short visit. She wants to relax. And reportedly she wants to spend, spend, spend. Yikes.

Shocking!

Finished at my gym and in the elevator heading down. Two foreign staff stepped in at different floors. They were both management level and female. Dressed professionally. After the customary "Hi", one of them began bursting the "F" word right in front of me conversing with the other one as if I did not comprehend a word of English. European accent. I was shocked. Here we were in JW Marriott, a 5-star hotel, being managed by foreign hotel professional staff and I got this! I was shaking my head "inside".

I got mad as I stepped off the elevator. As I walked home, I kept revising my draft email to the hotel. Just 2 minutes ago, I fired it off from the hotel's web-based contact form. Let see if I got a response acknowledging my complain.

Haha

You know how easy to get movie DVDs cheap in Shanghai, RMB5-15 per DVD, old and new. Last night, we spent RMB45 for 5 movies - the entire Matrix collection, Super size me and Mr & Mrs Smith. Well during today's Chinese lesson, my teacher told me that a new site has been very popular. It's www.youku.com. This site has all the movies and TV shows. And the funny part, I am watching Matrix Revolution on that site now. Yes, the entire movie - streams through and not download. And the quality. Wow. Learn Chinese and you can browse the site but in the mean time, try this. This is the Matrix Reload movie. I should have waited until today before thinking of buying the DVDs. Haha.

Snap shots around my apartment

Here are some snapshots around my apartment:

This is outside our kitchen's balcony. The commie had just finished putting a new coat of paint (full of Formaldehyde) on the outside. This is the aftermath of it. Nice paint job huh?



This is in the stairwell. People hang stuff. O yeah, I know what you are wearing underneath. Hee hee... We have to be careful when walking up the stairs. Duck!!!



See all the seats on the bikes. Foul weather proving. Since bike stealing is so common, just don't care what the bike looks like.



Have you seen this before? Probably too young for you guys to remember. Fuss boxes, collector's items. Pre-commie era.


This is just outside our door. Awful isn't it? It's a mess; that's Chinese for you. Our apartment is really nice; most place on the outside sucked. But inside, people renovate. The two boxes hanging are milk boxes. Milkman actually delivers bottles of milk everyday. The two boxes are for the two families living next door. Remember the commie era, two families share the same unit at least. Those wires are various cables for TV and all; the peeling, was the new coat of paint the commie workers attempt to put a fresh coat on. It peels after several weeks.

What do you think?

Guess what these people are doing? This picture was taken by Ming Pao News at a Hong Kong MRT station.



Take a guess. Welcoming committee? Grabbing autographs from a star? Think a little bit....

The answer: They were all salvaging newspaper as waste paper to sell so they can make a living in Hong Kong.

With the economy tanking and mini-bond collapsed, these people are looking for a way to subsidize their day to day living. And because of the price of salvaged paper keeps dropping, on average these people make about HK$3.00 per day collecting paper. This picture was taking on last Friday. These people asked passengers, actually yelled, asking for them to bring extra copies of the "Job Wanted" newspaper to give. That's life folks.

People want "Green". And what will these old folks do to continue to sustain life? The HK gov't only giving them a meager HK1,000 a year "Fruit money". And after an uproar, the gov't canceled the required "supporting documents" to prove you are old in order to get the money. Population in HK is getting older; the social assistance is not a social assistance. Hence HK is rated the top city with the biggest gap between rich and poor.

*Side note: Since the economy turns south, there are lots of arson in HK. This was due to the fact there are lots of crazy people just got "crazy". Need some ways to relief their anxiety and stress. Just last week, caught one that lighted six fire in an hour in an apartment complex. Yesterday, another arson withing half an hour started burning people's clothes in another complex. This person has not been caught yet.

A Western Getto

After the furniture "looking", we met up with some friend for brunch in the same general area. They just moved there couple months back for their kids schooling. We were in the JinQiao district of Pudong. From the map in my previous post about funiture, you will see it. Just below the word "JinQiao", that was where we had our brunch. That whole area was occupied by Westerners. Chinese was minority there. Scary thought consider we are in China! We went to this Irish pup called Flying Fox. Across from it had a church and in front, just full of 7-passenger mini vans made by GM. Yes, all the Lao Wai families going to church and the drivers were waiting for them. "Lai Wai" is the Chinese term used to refer to Westerners. It was a funny sight to see with all those mini-vans occupied half of a major intersection. And when the church was over, just groups of Westerners coming out. And then we saw families on bikes just like back in the States and around Regina. If you don't want to speak Chinese in Shanghai, this area will be it. All full of Western restaurants and pups.

Back to the brunch, I was surprised seeing lots of Irish dishes on the menu. I order the Banger and Mesh. Ummm... gravy with my meshed potato. Disappointed. What I got was chicken sausages I thought but should be pork. Right... and the gravy... not even close. So I had to drown my food down with katchup. Bummer! I should have order a sherpard's pie or something.

This Flying Fox apparently is the favorite hangout for our friend's husband. He's Irish and she's Malaysian. I hope he only drinks Guiness there.

This JinQiao district has no soul. Meaning, Chinese atmosphere. So sanitized. One thing though, less traffic and flat road to run or to bike, not like the street, Nanjing Road West right downtown, we are living. Air was much better than here; that's for sure.

Looking for a new place, Pudong maybe ended up THE area; it's cleaner and cheaper. Will have to see. Just got a SMS message from an agent, the Four Season developed apartment building has a unit for sale. Quick sale, the per square meter cost is now RMB42,000 rather than RMB52,000. I'll say... keep dropping. Even with the Chinese gov't incentive program started over the weekend, will be hard to find people to buy. The Shanghainese are more realistic compared to the Beijing residents.

Furniture shopping

We went to check out a custom furniture place in Pudong area today. See the map here. It is in the top right corner of the map. Today was the first time I actually venture into Pudong. Going to and from the international airport did not count.

This furniture place is American own. The shop uses old and new wood to build custom furniture. Pricing wasn't that bad when I looked. Good workmanship. Now, have to figure out what I want for the apartment; I have been working from the patio table that Audrey shipped back from Spokane. I want something that I can spread things out. Have to decide then order. A nice computer chair with it will be a good touch.

Quite a unique little device

OK I have to admit, the more I use this iPod Touch the more I have a hard time putting it down. It's truly a device all by itself. Wi-Fi, all those apps I can download for free like Bloomberg, Instant Messenger (Gmail Chat, AOL, MSN), Mortgage calculator, Scientific calculator, my Chinese Pinyin system and a sleuth of others... All for FREE! O yeah, the built-in email program supports all my mail accounts - .Me (formerly .Mac) and Gmail. And the number 1 usage: flashlight! Yes, a flashlight. It's quite bright. In case I get lost in the wild, I can even set a SOS strobe light on. Go figure.

Rather lugging my 7 lbs pre-historic Macbook Pro (only 2 years old but considered ancient now) to the bedroom, I just take the iPod Touch. My iron-wife has been laughing at me for being such a geek.

Do you all know that there are more and more applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch? And now there is even a sub-site within the iPhone forum to deal with usage etiquette. Yeah. Out of curiosity, I took a look at one. Silly people. One asked if she should remove the "sent from my iPhone" footer from the default email setting. I think there are more important question to ask like: "do I still have a job?" or "how low can my retirement money go?" or "what is the meaning of life?".

Umm.... Nov 23 is coming close. I wonder if an unlock iPhone 3G will be a good way to celebrate someone's birthday. Have to use the Google map to local all the iPhone battery charging depot though. Battery life is a little sort with these types of device, mobile devices, Smart cellphones.

What service

I went to apply for an India Visitor Visa this morning. The cost was five times than I would have done in Vancouver, CAD$22.00 vs CAD$100.00. Then the time Vancouver, next day, 7 working days here. Yikes. I might miss my flight. We'll see how it goes. Will have to call the embassy to fast track next week. Anyhow...

There is a visa service office for India, lots of countries have this setup in Shanghai now. All staff are young Chinese. Service was good though. After reviewing my application, due to the footsy loosy description on the Indian gov't website, I missed couple documents. No worries, the girl that reviewed my application just sprinted out of her chair and within seconds, a new form! She even told me "man man lai" (it's pinyin so not to pronounce this phrase without professional instruction) ; that meant, "take your time". Then, I need a photo copy of my passport. She just did it. No fuss, no complaint. Then when I asked when I could get it back, 5 staff in the background tried to count the days for me. Haha... Some even tried to use their phone's calculator function. How funny. But they were very helpful. Overall, a very good experience except of course, as expected you would see some staff sleeping on the job. Literally.

A quick lunch trip to Zhuhai

Not really quick, by the time we ate, shopped a bit for fruit and all, it was 3 hours later; but this time, very relaxing as no need to rush back to the hospital or cook for the next meal.

Anyone that went to Zhuhai on the 1996 trip probably remember this gate. But this gate is virtually just a historical landmark with a footnote. Nothing else. See the picture here for the historical border gate. I really don't recommend foreigners using this border crossing; it is so heavily used by everyone, line up thru immigrations (both Chinese and Macau) will take at least an hour.



Not sure what is the name of this fruit we bought in Zhuhai. I used to eat that a lot when I was a kid. Lots of sugar! Lots of black seeds, you just spit as you eat. The meat is white.



Couple more days here and I am out of here. Wednesday back to Shanghai and have to get my Indian visitor visa processed. Heading to Bangalore in two weeks time.

Spain's trip is off as I have suspected. That company canceled it due to the economic downturn. No really? Now it is going to do a virtual meeting. Right.

All done!

After a day and a half of a military precision funeral arrangement, all done! Must quicker and easier than the previous one. Reason: no one gave a crap about "you know who". Get it done over with as compared to the last time; veryone wanted to "participate". This time was whatever.

At the funeral place, it was the same funeral hall; same workers, same staff, same taoist monks. Pretty much the same ceremony less the monks from Lantau Island. This time, stuck to the script and to the funeral package bought.

Yes, I did thru the crematorium again - both front and back. The body and casket in one end, bone fragments out this little hole. This time because there were so many bookings, everything was rushed. Bone fragments should have been smaller but it was barely an hour. I think it was less than an hour, should have timed it. I saw one pelvic bone still large and all. So here went the magnet as a hammer head. Smacked! There you go. This time no one fought over who carry the urn with the ashes. Everyone just pointed at me and said, well you are the grandson of the eldest son; it should be you. Why not. So I carried to car and thru to the Zhuhai border back to the Macau. Very unceremonious. The urn was still hot; bone just came out from the oven at over 750C. Of course!

The urn is being stored in this same storage unit as grandma's. Today, the family just picked the permanent home for them. In three weeks, the place will be ready and after the 3-7 (that 21 days of mourning period) was over.

Wednesday, me back to Shanghai. And iron-wife just had a nice spa at the Banyon Tree resort in Bangkok today. But hey, I won't need to fly back to Shanghai from Bangkok on this 1am flight. But she's flying Thai biz class.

What a travel day!

Back on the plan again today, to Macau. Grandfather finally passed away late last night. So I made the track southward from Shanghai.

Booked myself online on Dragon Airline; it had hourly flights to HK. Great I thought. I could finish running my errands, got my much needed monthly haircut (have to look proper, not shaved yet though; that's for Saturday), then I could take the taxi to Pudong Airport trying to catch an earlier flight. Well, seemed there was a force making me "sweat". Everything liked clock work with my errands. Even my hairstylist got a taxi waiting outside for me. It all started when we left the salon. Good thing the taxi driver was an experienced old hand. His licence started in the 190,000 range.

10 minutes into the ride. Traffic jam as far as we both could see on the freeway. There was no reason for it, just like Regina. Just dumb drivers; and here worse. No one wanted to give way! We inched forward. Finally after 20 minutes of that, we were free only to encountered another road block. Bridge refurnishing. We were routed to a little side street. 4 lanes of traffic squeezing into 3. And those dumb asses from the intersection turning left into another rest area totally blocked the in and out. Squeezed thru that light after 10 minutes. We were on our way. Now, much better speed. We could make up time. The driver was driving like Grand Thief Auto 6! No, there is no 6 came out yet. We made it in just over an hour with a total distance of 46KM. And the time was 2:35pm, I left the salon at 1:25pm.

I was hoping to catch the 3:30pm flight. No such luck. Full. And the next hour and the hour that, both flights were delayed by over 45 minutes. Great. So I got on the 430pm flight leaving at 5:15pm. Lounge I went. 2 hours! Agh... Once boarded, the plan did not push off until 5:30pm; then, lighting problem with the plane. We had to circle around the airport while the pilot rebooting computers. Right, Airbus.... So, we left at 600pm. Party!! Of course, I had to have a guy filled with smoke on his clothes to sit next to me! Asia! The unfiltered type!

Things were smoothed out once airborn. Dinner, my Indian vegetarian special meal. Ah, nice... spicy... Better than the India House back in Regina. A glass of wine, the re-run of Friends. And the Just for laugh clips..... 2 hours and 10 minutes later we landed in HKG.

Much smoother just how I liked it. The plane parked at the gate only 600m from the Immigration Hall. I walked quickly toward it. But why was there always a woman with big wide asses with two big bags walking in the middle of the walkway? Taking up the entire width and walked slowly as if she owned the place. (Sorry ladies, I only saw more of this in Asia). I actually had to say "excuse me" and continued my trek. Zip thru immigration with my special pass. As I walked toward the immigration, I saw this Western from my flight hiring a cart to take him to the immigration. The cost was HK50.00; hey buddy, you just got off a flight and you said too long. Walk! Get the blood flowing!

From the time I arrived HK to the time I arrived in the apartment in Macau, it was smooth. No hitch of any sort. I landed in HKG at 8:10pm, got to Macau/HK Ferry terminal at 9:00pm, bought the 930pm ferry, arrived in Macau at 10:35pm, home in the apartment by 10:55pm. Whew....

From the time I left the apartment this morning in Shanghai at 11:30am, I was in Macau's apartment at 10:55pm. Almost a 12-hour journey. Beat....

The next two days will be very busy. I have a scratchy throat. And not looking forward to being sick and tired and had to be up early and sleep late. 1:10am Friday morning now.... Getting ready for bed.

Bangkok hotel next week

Bearing no family emergency in Macau, this is the hotel we will be staying from Sunday night to Tuesday evening before catching a flight out at 1am Wednesday morning. I think I will try the roof top restaurant w/ my iron-wife.

Due to the political problems in Thailand, the Thai Airways is having a promotion. Return ticket for a Economy class is RMB 900.00 plus RMB 2,059.00 for taxes. Then a biz class is RMB 5,200 plus RMB 2,059.00 for taxes. There are tones of seats and no one is in a hurry to go there. Wonder why.

Bikes are here

Alright, finally assembled my new bike. Now have to build up my butt tolerance and the art of using those clip-on shoes. They suppose to provide good power but I am not so sure about the balancing act on a busy street in Shanghai and its surrounding area. We'll see. I think I might just ride early early in the morning like 530am for an hour or so everyday. Good luck w/ that; I think my iron-wife wants me to go with her right away. Yikes.

Iron-wife's bike - US10,000


My bike - a little over half of her bike's price tag


My sorry butts and her "happy" - priceless. Ha ha...

AGH!

What was that crawling on my left foot? I thought it was a fly. But NO! It was a cockroach! AGH! O well, this is China. With doors opened and gaps on every windows and doors, just don't know what little creatures would pay a visit. I just brushed it aside and WHAMP with my flip-flop. This little bugger was flattened. Of course, I had to clean up the mess after, gut and all.

Next I pull out my Raid and sprayed everywhere. Yes, I had not done so since I arrived back. Last I did it, my iron-wife didn't like; but yet, she screamed when one was found and chased after it with a shoe. Very hilarious to see. So, I sprayed and sprayed. Good thing there was a breeze. I had all the windows and doors opened to air out. This spray should last for about a week. Just in time to spray and leave the house this Sunday for a not so political stable country - Thailand. Bangkok to be exact.

Pictures from an intersection

Amazing! Now that I have realized my mobile phone can take nice pictures and can be downloaded to my Macbook Pro via Bluetooth. Whoever reads my blogs are in trouble! Visual harassment. Haha...

Just hiked over to Xintiandi (新天地）to the Staple store (circled area on the map below). Things were cheaper there than the Cybermart for HP ink. Xin tian di is one of the most expensive development in Shanghai. Three months ago, per square meter for a new residential development was RMB100,000. From the apartment to Staple was about 1/2 hour walk. It was just a nice cool day. So walking was good compared to shoveling 10cm of snow today in Regina (Just rubbing it in).

http://ditu.google.com/maps?q=%E4%B8%8A%E6%B5%B7&ie=UTF8&ll=31.224069,121.468534&spn=0.020221,0.031328&z=15

The two pictures below here were taken from the flyover I walked on. The pillar in the center of the street hold up quite a number of freeways altogether. Hence you see the dragons on it. And if you were a Chinese movie buff, you might see that pillar in many movies.

Price drops

Just did my first grocery shopping since Sept, I must have missed something. The regular items we bought have the price dropped. Yes, dropped and not increased! The Soy milk, price dropped from RMB42.00 to RMB38.00. My Brie cheese, last time I tried buying would have costed RMB88.00; I didn't buy it. Today, the price was RMB58.00. That was a big drop. Things either cheaper or grocery store is doing a discount so people will come back and shop.

*Note: economy hurting? I am not sure yet as this morning in HK on the way to the airport, I saw a black Lamborghini. Then this afternoon at Shanghai, I saw a Ferrari Spyder and then a Porsche Cayman. The first two were driven by people between 25 to 30. The latter one, a 45-ish woman.

But here is an interesting thing in HK. Apparently, things are getting bad though. A well known sports car and luxury yacht dealership has seen sales dropped since this June. Two weeks ago, a GTS sports car from Japan was listed at HK120 Million. Last week, HK900K, no one wants. Lots of his customers with deposit down are walking away from their orders. Tones of 25 to 30 years old customers are putting up their cars for consignment sale. Cash calls. Some customers usually called to order 2 vehicles at a time are now calling in to order one and still heckle with the pricing.

The luxury apartments on top of the Kowloon Airport Express station, value has been dropping. Some speculators were trying to unload now with the same purchasing price as when they had bought the apartments, no bidder. Now, price has dropped by 200K, still no one interested.

Apple

On Oct 4 morning, bunch of analysts from "deeply troubled" US financial firms issued warning about Apple's next year revenue. They stated that this company will be in trouble because no one will buy the high price products. Apple does not have a product line compete in the 1,000 price range. Hence downgrade and all. Three days ago, Apple made an announcement for this coming months and next year. Guess what? A 1,000 PC to compete in the market place.

Now, my question is what do these analysts know then? How can they provide analysis to a company when they don't even know what the company is rolling out in the next while? No wonder we are in such a deep hole with the financial market.

Surprise, no one holding Apple shares has come up with a class action suit suing these guys and their companies for causing a dive in the share value.

M & S

Wow, the Mark & Spencer across the road from our apartment looks really nice. Take a look here:



This is taken with my cellphone camera. I have been using it more and more; easy to take pictures and I can use Bluetooth to download to my Macbook Pro. I use my cellphone like a harddrive connected to my Macbook Pro. Cool. Nokia rocks. Haha..

Then on the other end of the street. In the center of the picture, an old building. It's a new boutique hotel called Jia. It is created and built by a Singaporean developer. There are other Jia across Asia.

Station stop PVG

Just arrived back from HKG. Took the first flight out with Dragon Air. This is just a little experience everyone should remember! Racquet case is considered too large a dimension to be ALLOWED as a carry-on!!!! You need to check the bag! BUT if you are carrying badminton racquets, they are OK! But if your case has badminton racquets and squash racquets, they are NOT OK to be carried on! That's the stupid rule by the HKIA security rule! How stupid was that? So I had to check in my racquet bag at the airport. Thank goodness I spent US$50.00 for a Cathay Pacific Marco Polo membership. It's valid for Cathay and Dragon Air. I went all the way from one end of the airport to the center of the airport but found out some dumb assess had this one-way only policy for Dragon Air. So I had to walk the length of the airport in width to get to the other entrance. By then I was pissed with all these stupid rules. And my heels were hurting so bad from Arthritis. At the counter, the staff said " O... Yeah, you have to check the racquet bag". So I wonder if all the professional racquet related players would have to do the same when leaving HKG after a professional tournament and entrusted there will be no damage or racquet stolen. I checked my bag as soon as I got it. Everything was there.

This coming Sunday, heading to Bangkok; iron-wife has a course to teach with a company. Will be interesting to see how stable that place is. Unpack my bag and repacking it; that's the order of the day; but I am getting good at this. My bag is getting smaller by each trip.

what a contrast

After a 15-hour stay in Macau from Friday night to Saturday morning, we were back in HKG. Audrey's friend whom they won a race in Taiwan was getting married. It was at a beach, Repulse Bay. A Google map is here where it marks with letter "B". For those who went to Stanley with me back in 1996, we passed by this beach. Nothing has changed much but more new residential buildings making the narrow and congested area worse.

The wedding was at one end of the beach overlooking the sea. The weather yesterday was beautiful. 31C, blue sky with lots of breeze. We couldn't stop comparing our Maui wedding with this wedding. Ours a bit more formal with suits and all; this one, flip flops, beers, pizzas. The groom wore all white, linen pants, linen shirts and white runners. All very casual, the best man had a pair of Khaki pants and white shirt. Yes, it had a beach party feel then wedding. And the ceremony itself, wow, we thought ours were short, but this one was shorter. Music started, bride walked down the aisle, Officiant made an announcement making sure the bride and groom understood what they were doing, exchanged wedding rings, signed official paper, done! It was a total of less than 15 minutes. O yeah, before the groom organized a run from Happy Valley out to the beach. A total of 1.5 hours to 2 hours thru hills and slops and all. Weren't you guy glad I only tried organizing a round of golf rather than a run from Palms on Wailea to the wedding location? Hee hee... No one would have come anyway.

We left shortly after the wedding. Had the best salad at Life Cafe. Awesome. I had a craving for a vegetarian entree at Original Sins in Singapore. Unfortunately, it was a bit too far to get one.

Heading home - Shanghai in about 3 hours. A short station stop of about 1 1/2 weeks. Bangkok next.

Another yummy breakfast

For those that love fruits, I had my fair shares for all of you. Dave, the Guava a la tones. Michele, the fresh Passion Fruit. I am Vitamin C up for my air travel. Papaya... I think everyone loves it. And bread, O, so nice and fresh. I had the ones with flak seeds, sunflower seeds and wheat loaf. The German buns with fruit jam inside. O.... I am loaded up until tonight at Macau. Wonder what my mom will make for us (as my iron-wife is laughing away in the background watching Tina Fate being Palin on YouTube.)

A good hike at Xiang Shan （象山）

It was a beautiful morning; a perfect day for the Taiwanese National Day, the "Double Ten Day" (Oct 10th). We saw the Taiwanese flags everywhere. Blue sky. Temperature was at 25C or so.

As Taipei is surrounded by mountain ranges, it was an easy jog to a hiking trail hugging one of the many hills and mountains. We went to Xiang Shan this morning. A 10-minute jog. All of a sudden, full of trees, flagrant flowers, and stairs. Yes, stairs to climb all the way to the top of Xiang Shan. Xiang is "elephant", shan is "hill or mountain". This is one of four animal mountains named by a Taiwanese general in the late 1800 or so. The name was such because of the shape looked like an elephant. I couldn't see it even if I looked from Taipei 101's observatory. I guess I am not as artistic as I thought.

This is the map. The place at the lower right corner marked "A" is the elephant hill. Just left of the center of the map, you should see something "..101". That's the Taipei 101. Our hotel is just next to 101.

City Walk

Finally the sun came out after two days of non-stop rain. This morning was pouring. But after lunch, the sun came out nicely.

We did a city walk. one hour walk up to this Thai restaurant iron-wife liked to eat. Yes, in Taipei. The restaurant was in the north west direction. Normally people just take taxi but we walked. The service was excellent. The food was good! We had veggie green curry and stir-fried Chinese broccoli. Yummy... And each of us had a Thai milk tea. Iron-wife's hot and mine was a cold one. Yummy.... That's all I could say! The food was good. It was cheap. The total came to TWD760 (US$30).

During our meal we were commenting how one needs to exercise a lot before coming to Taiwan. Otherwise, one might gain at least 10 pounds by eating around town! So many wonderful and specialty food. Hence, we walked there and walked back. 2 hours of walking for one hour of eating time. Good ratio.

While we walked there, this is what we saw. Hilarious!

Taipei 101

The Taipei 101 tower pronounced as: Tai Pei Ye Ling Ye







After lunch at the food court again, we did the tourist thing. We went up to the 89th floor of Taipei 101. The elevator apparently is the faster in the world. Has a vertical speed of 60mph. From the 5th floor (where the ticket office is) to the 89th floor took 42 seconds! The elevator is pressurized.

Once the elevator began going up, the light dimmed. The ceiling became a constellation gazing thingy. Very tacky. Then the accompanied staff began to speak in 3 different languages. What I could gathered, the person attempted to speak Mandarin, Japanese and English all within the 42 seconds inside the elevator. I could not understand a word of any language! Even my linguistic gifted iron-wife had a bewildered look on her face.

As we stepped out onto the 89th floor, we were greeted by sunshine and friendly staff. We were guided to a booth which handed out personal speaker set. We could just walk and listen to all the explanation. The view from the 89th floor was majestic. I did not realize Taipei was surrounded by mountains until I was looking out the windows. Taipei used to have only 200,000 people; in a mere 30 years, it has grown to over 2 millions. We saw adjacent towns as well; they were more like the suburns. We even saw one of the three dampers used to stop the building from swaying. Very cool.

As we were having a cup of coffee at the end of our 89th floor visit, we saw these two kids screaming and running around. We commented that where was the security guard. He was there to kick an older Western tourist off a step labeled as "For Children only". But when these kids screamed like no tomorrow and being rude, this security guard was nowhere to be found. So Audrey and I commented about these kids. After that, I realized the parents were just sitting at the next table having coffee; I believed we saw loud enough that these parents had heard us. The kids finally returned to the "nest" quietly.

What a breakfast buffet

"wow" was all I could say. The spread for the b'fast buffet at Grand Hyatt. Tones of stuff; even have enough vegetarian dishes for iron-wife - both Chinese and Western. In HKG or China or anywhere else, we just couldn't get enough vegetarian dishes for her. Taiwanese people are more vegetarians. So, the menu always have at least half contains vegetarian dishes.

The fruit bar, all freshly cut papayas, guava, water melon, cantaloupe. Guava, huge slices. I ate enough for Dave R. The eggs in the Western section, scrambled or omlette, no meat. The Chinese section, dim sums all over and then two types of congee. Tofu, preserved eggs, stir-fried green veggies, Taro steam cakes, mushroom stir-fried rice noodle. You named it had it all. Just could not have big enough of a stomach to sample all the food items placed in front of me. Smoke salmons, salads, breads, pastries. Yikes.

One weird thing though, the restaurant does not open here in this hotel until 630am. By the time we got down there, there was a line up waiting for the restaurant to be opened. Lots of business people staying here. So we all wanted to get one with the day. Funny. I would have thought it should open at 6am. O well. So this morning was a mad dash as soon as the door was opened. The staff though, handled the crowd quite well. Within minutes, no more line up. I guess they have get used to this every morning.

My trip to Taiwan - Day 1

It was a Cathay Pacific 747-400 that we took from HKG this morning at 10am. Arrived at 11:30am. The seats in the economy class were upgraded. We got more leg rooms. Brand new individual entertainment screens with tones of programmings to watch. OK, if Cathay can do this, why AC cannot? I had to suffer all the same reruns in AC from YVR to HKG because I watched everything from YQR to BOS! Go figured! Anyway, back to Cathay and its econo seats. More leg rooms, yes. A little wider so my ass could fit in. Then the reclining. Rather than the seat back reclined, the seat itself slid forward. It seemed to be comfortable enough, but I guess my Paul and Shark jeans was not stretchy and was made of the European high end fashion cut. Looked good standing up; but couldn't worth anything if you wanted to sit down. So could not comment on the seat comfort as I had to keep adjust from side to side. I will wear shorts this Friday coming home and leave the jeans back at the hotel.

Sorry, sorry, I kept digressing. Yes, Cathay service. It was good. But I believed the high fuel price really bit the airline. We had a quick lunch. It was a nice egg and ham sandwich, a bowl of fresh cut fruits, Apple juice, water, coffee and tea. That was it. No more soft drink available. I guess the added weight of the tin cans. Flight wasn't full. The night before I went online and booked our seats. I blocked a row of 3 seats for ourselves.

We were early arriving at TaoYuan airport outside of Taipei. Took us about 45 minutes from the airport to hotel. We booked a private car as it was cheaper than taxi. The private car had cost us TWD1,000 (US$31). Cheap. We are staying at the Grand Hyatt which is next door to Taiwan's 101 tower. Hotel food was expensive as expected. The hotel was very grandiose but someone had forgotten about a gym. We went to the gym floor and discovered that it was a series of existing rooms with walls knocked out and furniture removed. Then the gym equipment were placed. Yikes. Room compared to Shanghri-la was better; but in the hall way I have noticed that someone had skipped vacuuming the edges of the carpet all along the hallway. Dark and dusty. Not good.

Food and grocery were cheaper than I expected. Food, outside of hotel that was. We had a quick eat in the food court in Taiwan 101. Expected to cost an arm and a leg; but our meal total came to half of one of our meals at lunch time at the hotel! Half! TWD360 (US$12) for two Bim Bim Bop. They are Korean rice with a very hot rock rice bowl. One of Audrey's favorites ever since our Seoul visit. See the picture here:



At this food court, there were so much good food. A stall specialized in clams. Lots of Japanese and Korean food stalls. Cheap, cheap, cheap!

Next to this food court, there was a super market. I think I have decided on what I would have for lunch the next couple days. Baggette, cheese and wine. Haha... We got some groceries there: a 20L water, two huge mangos, two cans of coke. The cost came to TWD294 (US$9.00). Then we bought some famous local pineapple cake for desert. For 8 of them, the cost was TWD184 (US$5.70). Take a look of our shopping here:



Will take some pictures on Tower 101. It has been raining here. And both of us still trying to get over the jet lag. We already went to Ci--os' training center as well. Man, talk about messiness. I had to help clean up the room for iron-wife to teach tomorrow. Apparently there was no cleaning crew to clean up. Half emptied bottles, nuts from leftover fruits, half drank liquids in paper cups. Lights on everywhere. Where's that corporate value in saving the planet or saving the expenses?

Another veggie place in HK

Went to have supper with iron-wife and her friend. A new veggie restaurant right next to Sogo. That big department store in Causeway Bay where some 1996 visitors got really scare crossing the busy intersection.

This is the place: 銅鑼灣軒尼詩道502號黃金廣場8樓. Check out the pictures ....

*Side note: weather here in HK is nice; getting to be perfect for tourists to visit. 24C, in the evening. 27C during daytime.

Another hotel

Just checked out of the filthy carpet Shangri-la and into Excelsior Hotel. It is also HK$1,000 cheaper. But of course the square footage is smaller too. Almost by half. Funny, both hotels had asked me if I want to upgrade when checking in. I wonder if they are hurting or what.

The Excelsior, for HK1,600 per night includes b'fast; that's pretty good; b'fast in hotel on average at about HK180 to HK295, scarily expensive!

Now, I am in a room with a window that is looking over to a beige wall. Since I don't sit in hotel, that's good enough.

*side note: got a letter from HSBC; iron-wife and I both got a Samsonite computer roll bags. I care less, how about lesser service charges and better service?

Some highlights from today's HK newspaper

1) Small investors are rebelling and doing silent protests in front of banks. One of such bank is Bank of China Hong Kong. Investors were barred from entering the bank to demand compensation on the minibond backed by Lehman. They claimed the bank employees had misrepresented them that these bonds were low risk, as recent as this July. There were some retirees sinking in more then HK2.0 Millions hoping for a safe, low risk, decent rate return for the retirement life. This no more. I can see their side of the story as I was being pressured to purchase HSBC's mutual funds. I declined after sitting there for an hour. Stay tune if the gov't will help out. I think NOT.

2) The sales of new apartments in HK has dropped 30% year over year for the same period. Gee... I wonder why.

3) The Chengdu city gov't has mandated students must run to get fit in preparation of the 60th anniversary next year of the comm*** party rule. The run is stemmed from that school kids are too fat and obese. Young ones must run 1K daily while older kids (secondary school) must run 2K daily. Umm... I wonder if those fast ass comm*** party will run with them or just sit around smoking.

Island Shangri-la

I asked for a king size bed; and I got a two twin beds. That was fine except the room was not up to my standard as being a 5-star hotel. The carpet was so stain up. I thought it was a tour group room and they are charging me a premium. I asked for another room; but they said there's none. However, I can pay them extra HK500 per night to upgrade myself into a suit. It will include free Internet, use of the club lounge and free b'fast. Right....

Internet per 24 hours is HK120. B'fast, I can eat somewhere else for HK50. Club lounge, I don't use. Right.... Do I look that dump when I sign in? Or someone tried hosing me because I had that 13-hour flight?

I actually use my Scotia's money back cc to check-in; this gives me an additional discount. And I still get my Aeroplan points.

I have requested for a king-size bed room starting tomorrow; if there's none, I am going to check out and go somewhere else. Maybe iron-wife's Golden Circle will give an update; I doubt it as they probably says I checked in and its under my name.

For a HK2,900.00 per night, this room is a rip off.

Who let them in?

Arrived at HK after an hour of delay. Couldn't find a passenger so had to unload bags and reload. Should fine the guy for an hour of fuel and then everyone's time!

The flight was full. Got a group of guys late 40's on the Biz First. Talk about loud. The Chinese phrase for them would be: 没家教 (the translation would be: your family didn't teach you anything about politeness). One guy just kept drinking; his pants almost fell to his knees because his gut was stuck out over 60". His pants probably 34". They were loud. Standing around talking in the Biz cabin. Wearing expensive stuff from top to bottom. The flight crew had to tell them to be quiet; and one guy actually made a face "why?". At some point, the seat belt sign was on. I wonder if it was the turbulence or because of them. If I didn't have the noise reduction headset, I might as for a seat change. But nowhere to go though. They finally quiet down 5 hours later.

Other than that, flight was ok. I've found that I didn't eat all the things served. No point. And noticed the seats are not as clean as it should be. One funny thing, I could not wait outside the bathroom by the cockpit. I had to be summoned to that one. Go figure. New rules. Well, dumbass... move the bathroom when laying out the plane then! Apparently it was a new rule. Must be those management again and Gov't of Canada. I used the others behind me instead after that. I couldn't stand behind the curtain to wait as I would have obstruct everyone from moveing in and out. Stupid.

The new toiletry given to us. Who the heck thought of that. It rolled out with Velcro and individual compartments. I could not hang it as there was no hook in the toilets. And people can't take it with really to store other things. So, think about the non-decompose garbage! Stupid.

I think we should begin charging airline execs for dump "inventions". Fuel surcharge, I think we need a customer charge for putting up with dump things. Carbon surcharge, how about dumb Exec refund too?

Happy October 1

The Chinese National Day. Things are not as busy as previous years. The economy sucks, the stock market tanked, the expensive Macau hotel rooms, and the Hong Kong/Macau travel visa restriction, all these factors have contributed to a very not so "Golden Week" for people.

The Macau casinos have empty tables rather than having mainland Chinese gathering 4 rows deep at each table. Take a look at the Venetian Hotel here:


The Sept 1 Visa restriction of not letting mainland Chinese to cross over from Hong Kong to Macau really dampen a lot of visitors. That's a good thing. Now, I don't have to hear all the loud mouths and the ever sound deafening throat and nose sucking noise for an hour on the ferry.

The mainland Chinese are staying in Hong Kong to partake in the Gambling Boat. This is an overnight trip from HK to open sea; gambling, sleeping and eating as much as you like for a fraction of a night of hotel in Macau (HK350 to HK450). See here all the mainland Chinese lining up waiting for the ferry to board the Gambling ship.

*Note: These pictures are from MingPao New