The search is over

Ever since iron-wife tasted the Korean dish Bim Bim Bhop at Kailua, Hawaii in 2007, she has been on a quest looking for the pots which the rice is being served. The quest, I am happy to say is over after 2 years plus of search. The track has spanned from the US West Coast to the East Coast back to Korea, to Hong Kong, to Malaysia and yes, numerous times in Singapore. I spotted a Korean grocery store on Bencoolen Street just a block down from our service apartment last week. So we went in. After 10 minutes, we have found enough pots and all to serve Bim Bim Bhop. Needless to say, the smile was from one end of iron-wife's face to another.

This is such a Korean peasant dish. The locals do not make it at home. You have steamed rice or cooked brown rice at the bottom of the bowl. Then lay on top with meat, tofu, bean sprouts, green beans, egg. Put the bowl on a high heat to warm for about 10 minutes or so... Take it off and serve. Before eating, stir everything up so that the food in the bowl is all warm and hot. The rice can be a bit crusty at the bottom but that's the idea.

Arrived home

Did not miss the flight. Traffic was pretty light for a 8am road trip. Maybe I am still thinking North American work hours. We had so much time that I ended up buying wife a Singapore unlocked iPhone 3G 16G. It is one of the few places that iPhone is sold without a contract. Got sick of having roaming problem with the "unofficial" SIM adapter unlock.

The flight was half empty. We had the nine rows at the back of a A330 for ourselves. The round trip on China Eastern cost about RMB 4350.00 (CAD781.00 or so). That was from Shanghai to Malaysia and from Malaysia to Singapore and from Singapore back to Shanghai. I think we'll take China Eastern more as it flies out of Terminal 1 at Pudong. The old terminal; so no airlines are there except two American airlines and China Eastern. No lineup, no people, perfect. Plus, there are more Chinese on that terminal so foreigners actually don't need to line up that long. Haha...

A surprise to me. A mail came from Cathay Pacific. I have just upgraded to the Silver level. Now I get access to the lounge too. Maybe with my AC membership being downgraded from SuperElite to Elite for 2009, I can think of using Cathay more and forget about AC.

Heading home

Heading back to the Brrr... weather in Shanghai in 2 hours, if we leave this hotel room like I would have planned it. Haha.... Don't know what's the theory behind timing things to the last minute with BEST case scenario. Must be dumb luck.

Well, better for me; one more day of warmth by the pool.

A food tour

Post-LASIK dr appt at 8:15am, we were tired from overnight supervision and constant eye drops. Got to the hospital at 7:45am and the food tour began.

8:05am, hospital coffee shop at the Singapore Eye Centre. What a nice place! The outdoor food area was so nice; waterfall and all. The hut got everything SouthEast Asian b'fast items. However, I had a hard time understanding the menu. They were all in English but... They were in a form of Chinese dialect with English words. Like: Chow Kuai Twoy (Fried noodle). Right... Good thing there were pictures so I could understand what they were. The only items I could recognized were: coffee with milk, wihtout milk, tea, waffle with peanut, kaya, and something else. So, I ordered coffee with milk. Where was the milk? It was dark, thick and sweet. Ah... Yummy. Strong. Then my waffle, I ordered with "peanut butter". The girl that made it could really speak English. Mandarin only. I couldn't catch what she asked as my brain did not have enough of this caffeine. She was asking me "Hua Sheng"? (花生） Meaning "peanut butter" but she chopped off the "butter" part. After a few times, I comprehended. "YES, peanut butter". All in Mandarin, of course. But the older lady said, "No Mandarin, only English". Haha.... So I had a fresh waffle with peanut butter. O.. It just gooie and melted in my mouth. Then followed up with this dark "Coffee with milk".

After the specialist saw iron-wife and all, he came by to say Hi to me and crack a few adult jokes. I bet he couldn't do that if the waiting area was full of patients. The guy reminded me of Chooi - that mannerism and the body gesture.

Nap time, we were whipped by the time we got back to the hotel. Napped for two hours then headed for lunch. Fortune Centre again. To iron-wife's favorite restaurant. I had a vegetarian curry noodles and she had a rice steamed from inside a bamboo. Very nice.

After that we headed to Orchard Road to check out some sunglasses for her. Never mind that, it was such a zoo. Tourists everywhere. We couldn't find any as the sunglasses were not for function but oversize with no guarantee of UV protection. All from brand names. We walked back to the hotel, about 2.5K. After half way, we decided to walk on the "non commercial" side of Orchard Road. It was insane with the people, the construction, the cars... Not a nice place to visit this Orchard Road on a weekend. Funny, the "non commercial" side of Orchard Road had as many people as one arm length of me if I were to continue to walk on the "commercial" side. Ridiculous.

Before stopping back at the hotel, we stopped by a Kopitiam, a food court, to pick up two Jendoh. I figured we should sit by the pool to relax.

The history of Kopitiam.... as we had just found out in the evening's Singapore National Museum (free admission after 6pm), means "coffee shop". It is the Hainanese dialect of the Chinese language. When the Hainanese settled in Singapore, the men congregated every morning in their PJs to have coffee, to exchange news, little by little, street hawkers moved into take up permanent stalls to sell their food. Now, we see Kopitiam all over town with different ethnic food stalls. "Kopi" is coffee, and "tiam" is shop. The food stalls range from juice bar to Chinese to Indian to Malay to specialized dessert place.

After Jendoh at the roof top pool side, we went to Little India for dinner. The walk was about 1.5K. Not bad if my body cooperated. But all those Arthritic joints. Dammit! We walked back to the direction of Mustafa, that 24/7 grocery store where Indians go to shop. We had a very nice Indian meal, both northern and southern dishes. The total came to SIG$26.00 (US$18) We had 5 dishes in all (3 entrees and 2 breads). Not bad.

O yeah as we walked down toward Little India for dinner, we walked pass a gov't housing complex. The community area can be rent for anything. So, there was a funeral going on. Basically a mobile funeral parlor. Coffin and all.... I just felt sorry for the people living just above. All the incense being burned and the Buddist prayer service.

Just before dinner, we went to the Singapore National Museum for a quick tour. It was just a stone throw from the hotel. And what did we spend time on? The food history of Singapore. Very interesting.

So today, in a mere 8 hour or so period I have eaten:

coffee with waffle w/peanut butter SIG 2.40 (US1.66)
vegetarian curry noodle soup SIG 7.00 (US4.83)
Jendoh SIG 1.50 (US1.00)
Indian dinner (1/2 of the bill) SIG 13.0 (US8.98)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total US16.47

Now, where can you enjoy all the local food in such a short span with such authenticity with every food? I don't think we can do that, maybe in KL.

OK, I spent SIG1.00 for a can of Coke at the hotel's vending machine too. And that was the only Western food I had. Would have cost me more if I were heading to a Starbucks or Coffee Beans....

Live like locals and eat like locals have its advantage.

Done deal

Iron-wife has done the Lasik this morning at the Singapore Eye Institute. All in all, took 3 hours. Afterward, she felt no pain thanks to the anesthetic. She jumped into the taxi afterward and proclaimed "Fortune Centre". I was like what? Are you crazy? She was hungry and wanted to eat; this place is about 400M from our hotel so I didn't argue. She ate, still high - felt no pain. She was even thinking of calling some friends to meet up this aft! Go figure. Good thing the freezing wore off as soon as we stepped into our hotel room. Wham! Moaning in pain for about 4 hours. Couldn't even open her eyes....

Should be better tomorrow.

Too darn expensive!

We met up with some friends yesterday for a drink and dinner. The location is called Riverwalk. It was a little enclave of apartments and restaurants, every type of food. The drink, SIG40.00 for two drinks and a mineral water. The alcoholic drink were too tasty.

Then the Japanese restaurant, SIG95.00 a piece (SIG190 for the two of us). And we were scrubbing MSG off our tongues this morning. But we enjoyed seeing everyone again, that was the important part.

Tonight, we ate at our service apartment - Somerset Bencoolen. I bought lots of food and couldn't finish: vegetarian bento box, Vietnamese fresh rolls, Indian Sage Paneer, Yellow vegetable current, Lamb curry, Garlic nans and a Jendor. The total came to about SIG26.50. I am stuffed. Good thing the gym in about 15 yards from our room.

Obviously, you can choose how much you want to spend.

Last day in KL

Breakfast


Lebanese cream cheese


Nite shot of Petronas towers

Sidewalk?

What sidewalk? Despite the ever expanding of tall buildings around the Petronas Towers and surrounding areas, streets are not pedestrian friendly. Sidewalk seems to be a second thought or no thought, at least on most of the streets I walked on. Crosswalk far and few. People and vehicles share the roads. Very interesting.

It's official

The great leaders have reshuffled the Internet b@n l!st. Some how NY Times is no more. No one knows why. Maybe it has forgotten to submit a fee or just a "technical" glitch on the routers.

It has been out since Thursday. But the Tribune is still showing up.

Welcome to the "Wonder"Land.

I have also noticed some Official news sites are slow; maybe it IS a technical problem.

My day at the supermarket...

I picked up b'fast there and lunch. Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leaves, Nasi Ayam in lunch box and some fish balls. "Nasi" is fried rice. "Ayam" is chicken. So my morning b'fast bill came to about MYD 8.50 and my lunch came to about the same. I was hungry by 5:30pm, time for afternoon tea; went back to the supermarket and bought a curry puff and 20gm of the thousand layer cake I used to enjoy in Regina when mom baked it. All in all, before our dinner tonight, I spent MYD25.00; that is about USD$7.50 to fill my stomach. I didn't get any Starbucks or anything remotely Western. When in Rome, I like to do what a Roman does. It was so funny seeing all the Westerners in the Western shops and the locals in supermarket getting cheaper local food. Maybe I'll venture into a Starbucks just to see the price of a Grande regular.

The local food is so flavorful, no need to buy the high fat content and non-nutritional commercial Western standardized food. Though I saw DD in the food court, maybe a cup of coffee there; it's my US substitute of non-Timmy's Robin coffee. DD = Dounken Dounet.

Tonight went to Top Hat for supper; that the price was not cheap. The two of us spent MYD201.00 (including tips, 10% service charge and 5% gov't food tax). Iron-wife: mango, watermelon, mixed fresh juice, mango salad, a pasta dish and a sago dessert; me: a Gin Martini, Top Hat, Ox Tail stew and Jendoh (complimentary). Top Hat was basically little crust cup and the filling was stir-fried veggies. O the Ox Tail stew was good! Not as good as Marsan's though. When I looked at the bill, I was charged additional for having a Gin Martini; Gin MYD20 and the Vermoth another MYD20. Funny huh? The complimentary Jendoh - yes, I had the hotel made the reservation for us and the staff pull out a complimentary dessert voucher. Jendoh is a very common dessert in SouthEast Asia; it has green flour strips, red beans, shaved ice and palm syrup dropped on top. Soooooo good. O yeah, this restaurant was a on the NYT.com recommended list for KL. And it is only a slow 10-minute walk from our hotel across the park.

As promised to some who are hating the snow and one who has a knee laid up for two weeks, here is the picture of some warmth; sorry not much shorts there as this is a Muslim country. The picture is taken just behind the Petronas Towers. It is the centre piece for the KLCC park I mentioned earlier. (*Note: Shanghai temperature is sub-zero currently.)

Cloud computing

Yikes, I have just heard from NPR the US's National Public Radio news interviewing this IT security expert who has done a lot of security work with the US gov't; he has said that cloud computing can be used for the new the big O office in Washington. What? Are you insane? The safest network is NOT connecting to the cloud! The cloud computing is a new technology that is based on the Internet. You store all your information there such as your Word document, Excel spreadsheet, email and other files. A prime example is Google's web-based applications. NO. This cannot be. I hear Microsoft is actively pushing now.

Do you know over 25% of the active "visits" by outsiders is not being investigated? Simply because it was low level and the information is considered non-essential. Also, different groups of geeks or scientists like to "compose" their own little network with protocol not able to withstand any "tapping". There was an instance 8 or 9 years ago that someone got in and got out leaving no trace because of this "composed" networks.

If cloud computing is used, there is no way to know if the files have been copied, extracted or "touched"; granted you can safe-guard the invasion but ... And the current IP protocol has lots of holes as well as the DNS protocol. What if it get bombarded by network swamp? There goes your cloud computing and the entire big O office and beyond are crippled. That would not be a good thing!

BTW, good security experts that do work for big companies do NOT announce themselves publicly. That's the first step of being a security expert!

Entry to Patrona Towers

I feel safe going to the building. Forget about the US first amendment or "freedom" of doing every thing.

First we need to registered at the front desk with a valid ID; the staff keeps the ID until I return the visitor pass. Then swipe pass to get in and have to have the bags X-rayed. Every one; staff, visitors alike.

The flow of people was quite good too. One side in and one side out. And there were banks of elevators for different floors. I counted about at least 10 elevators in all for the "odd" number floors!

When I was leaving the building to drop off my visitor pass, my ID was transferred to the collection desk in the mere an hour and a half I was in the building.

The system works well...

Still not used to it

having people serving me all the time at this hotel. Don't know how the British did it way back when it colonized this country. Maybe I am more like a hands-on type of guy. Just didn't feel comfortable having people looking up to you addressing you "Sir". Opening doors, Asking you for permission to do things, very submissive.

Maybe I just never used to having "submissive" people in my "space". Having an Ayi in Shanghai doing chores is quite different. She stayed out of the way and did her things; and I am not usually home.

Maybe that's the diff.

A luxury day

After b'fast at the hotel, we felt sleepy again. Must be the winding down from all the stress and running around in Shanghai. Iron-wife slept; and I had the luxury of reading newspapers without interruption. Real paper in my hands! Quiet, warm, no noise.... WSJ, Tribune then the local Straits Time. The last one was more a dud. Too much adverts. Not much content. 2 hours or total luxury, just read.

Time to take a walk about. We didn't walk far as the KLCC park is just 30 paces outside our hotel. Then the mall. We were trapped.... park, mall, big gigantic bookstore (yes, I bought myself computer magazines and a book). We had a very late lunch, at 3pm. Nice lunch. Not even USD20.00; I had the Nasi Lemark and fresh coconut jelly; and iron wife had Gado Gado. Portion was huge. Maybe that is the reason of the "people" size we encountered. We are still stuff right now.

Nasi Lemark is a national dish. Shrimp chips, peanuts, coconut rice, cucumber slices and choice of chicken or beef (curry style of course). I'll definitely going back tomorrow for it. If I have the same dish tomorrow between 10am and 12pm, the price is MYD12.00 ++ including the Tarik. It's a tea drink - dark tea with sugar. Let see, MYD12.00 is about USD3.50. That beats 4seas!!!! Or anywhere else. Will take picture of the dish tomorrow.

Gado Gado is the Indonesian salad with boiled cabbage, long green beans, eggs, tempeh, and peanut sauce.

Hotel to the left, Patrona Tower#2 to the right


Patrona Towers - tried going up to the Skywalk except tickets all sold out.

Arrived @ KL

After a 5-hour flight from Shanghai, we arrived at KL, Malaysia. The flight was provided by China Eastern. Flight was 80 percent full; we still could not understand the logic of seat assignment by Chinese staff; everyone was crowded toward the front of the plane and totally empty in the last 9 rows of seats (3 x 3 Airbus 320 configuration). Maybe the Chinese thinking is everyone wants to get off the plane fast! There is an element of truth there with the Chinese. One passenger was up opening the overhead bin 2 minutes we landed and still taxing off the runway. Incomprehensible to me still. "What were you thinking?"

As predicted our vegetarian meal composed of 5 lumps of steamed potatoes and 7 slices of squash and red peppers as the main entree. Small salad worthy for rabbit feeding and 6 small chunks of melon. Room service was expected upon arrival.

This flight was one of the most uncomfortable I had. Very tiny seat even though we had 3 seats for the two of us. I had to re-position my right arm - someone was sleeping. ;-) And the temperature was overly "hot", must be a climatization to the warm 27.6C (on the plus side). Good thing I wore my leather loafers! My feet expanded at least a full size along with my fingers. I had problem putting on my shoes. And rather than the usual long stride I employed when exiting the plane, I was demurred into limping, hopping, limping trying to catch up to my iron-wife. Normally, it was the total reverse. Somehow, the flight had caused major problem to my Arthritis. Hands, wrists, ankles, back and my chest. At the hotel in the shower, I believe I was staring at a size 11 super wide feet worthy of being flippers for snorkeling. And not just that, my ankles did swollen good.

The new KL International airport was an imitation of Singapore's Changi Airport. Big, Big, shopping galore... Walked far in order to get on a mono-rail to get to the immigration. It was huge and nice at the immigration hall though. Took me a total of 3 minutes to be processed. But next booth, there was a Chinese screaming in the cellphone, not sure what, a different dialect. The entire hall.... everyone was looking and all.... Seem he and his family had a Visa issue.

Taxi, as the airport is bloody 55KM away from downtown or so.... good thing for super nice highway and six tolls later, we were at the hotel an hour and a half after we landed, 12:45am. The taxi was a luxury taxi just before the departure exit. MYD190 (US$55) including tips got us door to door service. A Merz, E class. The guy was doing an average of 135KM/H. Not bad.

We are staying at the Mandarin Oriental next to the Petronas towers. Room rate was MYD 399 ++. We'll hear a lot of this "++"; that means "plus taxes".

USD1 = MYD3.45

The hotel is next to the KLCC park. KLCC is the KL City Centre park.

Crappy air

O sunshine... nice. I stopped by to post some mails at Citic Square, one of the most exclusive shopping centres here in the downtown area. Yikes. White dust filled the entire basement! Worse, there was a Benz demo show, and two restaurants! One had open sitting there; people were just sitting there having food! People! Give your head a shake. And of course, the big Mac and Starbucks. Seemed there was a problem with the air venting system; instead of sending air out, I believed it sucked the bad air from the nearby renovation shops back to the basement. Yuck! I walk thru the space without breathing! And these people just sat there eating including foreigners!

Blue sky.... But when I came out from the gym 2 hours later. The bad pollution is all displayed to show. Take a look at these two pictures I took on the way home. It seemed much clear than it should be. Take the pictures and put them in a Saskatchewan dust storm. That would be what the real image should looked like. Good thing we are leaving this evening for KL.

New rules ...

New rules for real estate purchase... Just announced but have to reconfirm:

1) no property tax

2) no capital gain tax if apartment is sold after 2 years. Previously is 5 years. Now this is huge. With price went up over 5 to 6 folds in 4 years, everyone will sell. But any buyers though.

Once I read thru the new policies more, will post here.

How that happened?

This morning, the famous iPhone hacking team Dev-Team announced that it has finally able to unlock iPhone 3G using a newly developed software. Thereby not requiring a SIM card adapter. That's good news as the SIM card adapter may not work on other GSM network while roaming.

iPhone 3G (US version with 8G of memory) had its priced dropped down to RMB4,115.00 for over a month. With this new announcement of a software unlock available on Jan 1/2009, the price instantly jumped to RMB4,258.00. That's scary! I suspect the price may go up more. Agh!!!!! Guess, I am keeping my Nokia 5600. O well...

Desk ordered!

Finally, I get my working desk at home - soon..... Next January sometime! Ordered from this place started by an American. His specialty is to use recycled Elm and imported Ash from the States. Umm.... Ash from States, well think about the Carbon footprint on that.

I ordered one that is similar to iron-wife. We have to match you know. Good think we don't have to wear matching "uniforms" like some tourists we saw on the streets. ;-)

The cost came to: RMB$3,500.00 (close to CAD600.00). That's including everything! All solid wood construction and nothing like Ikea construction or particle boards. OK, taxi fare for us to ride there and back as well as the subway fare, they were extra costs.

Map below shows my last adventure for a relaxing Sunday. No, I did not walk much except going up and down the stairs in the subway stations and around the shops.

Sore ankles...

Walked a lot today. First woke up early by iron-wife. Flower market!!! 7am.... So we started off at 830am after a much needed cup of strong brew. We started from home, took the subway to JiangSu （江苏）Road subway station. And the adventure began.

Iron-wife forgot where the flower market was, so we start off walking in the general direction based on her spider sense. We hit the local web market. Man, it was like we were back in the 40's. Small back streets, curvy and crowded; but got all the things I thought with the on set of Shanghai "Cultural Revolution", we cannot get and only get things in a hyper-inflated price foreign owned supermarket. Everything was fresh. Got all sorts of mushrooms, vegetables, live ducks, chickens, peas, beans, 5 different types of Tofu, live eels, fishes and still the ever presence live fish heads. It was crowded. At some corners, we even saw make shift noodle stands. O yeah, pig blood as well. And I saw a sign saying "stewed dog meat" hanging next to a big bowl of meat. Cool! No, no, sampling. We saw an apple stand, RMB8.00 for 10 apples. In a supermarket, RMB15.00 for two of the same kind. You can live cheaply; just have to look. Yes, it was a great experience for any foreign visitors. But one thing: wear jeans, hiking boots and long sleeves shirts/jacket. Money or wallet in your deep inside pocket. Once you are done visiting, recommend stripping and shower. Clothes and shoes, get them washed. Too crowded, everyone just rubs on you. And the ever spitting by people, landmines!!!! Felt your shoes just really dirty after that.

So then we walked toward the flower market. Funny was, we were there 2 years ago just before Chinese New Year. We just forgot. So we thought we were onto this new adventure. Haha... As we entered the flower market, we were shock. People? Was this China? Barely a soul. Mostly shop workers. No shoppers. And 1/4 of the shops were empty. There were lots of flowers of different types but no one bought. We bought a small Poinsettia plant for RMB4.00 (US 60 cents or so). A big one priced at RMB6.00. Business was tough. The hotel just outside the flower market was shutdown.

After the flower market we walked home. The green path was the way we walked this morning. Got home just in time to "do the business" and left for another "walk about". Me only this time. Friend wanted to have lunch. And I knew what he wanted from us. Otherwise, he would not have called ... Map below shows my track. The green path at the bottom left was my loop.



The lunch was at this Cantonese restaurant; food was good; service was good and the price... well... 4 dim sum dishes and a big bowl of rice, had cost RMB$101.00. Good thing the restaurant provided covers for the jackets on the seat backs. Otherwise, my jacket would have smell like unfiltered Double-happiness cigarette.

Got home finally at 2:15pm or so. I could hear my ankles cracking. 3:15pm, out the door.... Another Bill's excellent adventure.

Sunday Greater China reading

- Hong Kong people are protesting against big corporations laying off workers. They are asking the Hong Kong gov't to help. Right...

- Yesterday at 旺角, a district in Kowloon, someone threw two bottles of concentrated acid to the street causing injuries to over 20 some people. No one was caught. As the economy turns bad, more stressed out people with psychological problems are coming up.

Sorry, no happy news this morning.

- Hong Kong Horse Racing Club held its annual International horse sale yesterday. Sale dropped by 30%; and on top of that, the Club itself lost money on hosting this event; it had to add in additional 1.8Million HK.

- HK$1.00 Wontun noodle is here.... It's a two-month promotion organized by the HK food industry. Recession lunch crowd. Read more about it here.

- In Shanghai. Last night iron-wife and I were walking back to our apartment from somewhere, we saw this often busy bakery shop advertising free delivery for purchase over RMB$30.00. It is not hard to pay more than RMB$30.00 for this bakery store. 6 buns later....

- A retail sale number just came out from Shanghinese gov't statistic office. Sale jumped 20% in November compared to October. Ummm... Wonder what statistical analysis tool.

- On the ground floor of our apartment here, two empty shops are taken over by fire sale brand names. G2000, a HK-based clothing retail store is selling its stock for 80% off. And another shop is now selling adult shoes at RMB$50.00 a pair.

- The Shanghainese gov't is so considered. During the high price of oil and gas this Summer, it decided holding off raising prices charged to residents. Now, with everything off so much and the economy is getting bad, it has increased the natural gas price for everyone. The gov't said this is better because the consumers wouldn't be hurt that bad while inflation was high. Ummm.....

- Got a SMS ad from a real estate agent, an apartment we saw before with 175 sq meters of space is not selling for RMB$7.5 millions and the owner will give away 4 parking spots. 4 parking spots!!!! Over the Summer time, these parking spots would have cost as much as RMB$500,000.00 per ... How about dropping the apartment price instead by RMB$2 millions?

- Rumour has it that Mark & Spencer cannot sell Xmas cards here in Shanghai is because they contained "unfit" content. Right. Speculation is it refuse to "grease". Get it?

Dinner time... more later.

Ouch

RMB540.00 later for dinner tonight, I was not satisfied. For meat eater, maybe it was good but price was too expensive. Entree average over RMB150 per dish! Salad, the cheapest was RMB75. Our Risotto, came in with not so Risotto and only had one string of sliced up asparagus. 'mal-nutritious' asparagus. Shame! But my Caesar salad was good. So was the wine, a French red w/ a mixed of Shiraz and Merlot. All in all, there were two salads, two entrees and one glass of wine. For that much money, we could have eaten 5 times in our regular vegetarian restaurants with at least 3 dishes. And leftover to take home for another meal! Haha, Iron-wife just had a small bowl of cereal.

Here's the restaurant: http://www.mesa-manifesto.com/

Various news....

In Hong Kong, the new taxi fare has taken effect by the order of the HK gov't; there were strikes and protests by the taxi drivers. This would cause them to lose income of about HK$300-500 per month. People will not take taxi as frequently as they usually would. The new fare structure is such: short distance, fare hike; a longer distance over x KM will get a discount. I sampled this new taxi fare. Wow... I was out more than HK$40.00 on a round trip from my hotel to the Hong Kong Airport Express Station. That was nuts. Usually cost HK$35.00 on a one-way is now HK$47.00.

The bus lines in Hong Kong are canceling discounts for passengers due to a lost from operations last quarter. Guess, I wonder why. High fuel cost. Now, should be back down, but why are these lines canceling discounts now for next year? According to the spokesperson, needs to recoup losses. Right. Maybe we should use the same excuses to ask the Hong Kong banks to pay a handling fee to the depositors for operating dumb accumulators or mortgages, etc. The public buses, I was wondering why they are still running on diesel? Polluting the cities and always overheated during Summer time. Two buses caught fire and burned to ground just the other day while I was there. These buses contribute to more urban overheating in the Summer. Should talk to Ballard to get some hydrogen fuel cells? By product: clean water to drink or to water the park. Why not?

A 40-ish woman with psychological problem committed suicide in her car yesterday in Hong Kong. She lost over HK$5 millions in the Lehman Brother mini bonds. The bank refused to assist nor compensate. That was the entire policy payout from her husband several years ago.

HSBC has announced to raise delinquent credit card charges to 31.5% starting next February. This is one way trying to boost its income stream. Other banks may follow soon. Ah... Wasn't you that lost money from your bad investment and loose credit giving out from people's hard earn cash deposits?

The HK governor has the lowest approval rating ever. 20+ some percent or so...

The Macau governor, his term is up next Spring, not sure who will take over.

Official 2009 Chinese holiday schedule:
- January 1 to 3
- January 25 to January 31
- April 4 to 6
- May 1 to 3
- May 28 to May 30
- National Day, which falls on October 1, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, which begins on October 3, will be combined into China's first eight-day holiday since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.

Not so busy airport

Above are the pictures from HK airport departure level at 915am. I was surprise that it was not busy. Also, our flight back to Shanghai today was 1/2 empty. Maybe too early, flight was at 10am. While I was walking down toward my gate, I noticed there were two competing shops fighting for business. Normally a small bottle of water would have cost HK$10-15. Now, special sale HK$8.00 and across the hall HK$6.50. Guess which one I went to? And I got a bigger bottle too. No more ripping off passengers! Price was more reasonable, more inline with a bottle of water from 7-11 in town.

While I was there the last day and a half, I didn't see as many Mainline Chinese shopping; but when they shopped, bags are from high-end brand names. Sales... But I believe the shopper number is getting down.

Today, the Chinese gov't has announced to allow more people from the non-Shenzen area to visit Hong Kong during the Xmas holiday. All were with the HK Disney Package. This US venture is NOT doing well. Didn't know who was the bright idea having such a small Disney here. Expensive, far and small. Been struggling ever since it opened.

Quick notes

Do you know that 95% of the wealthiest individuals in China are connected to the Central gov't? They are sons, daughters or relatives of someone high up and well connected. Wonder what happened to the other 5%? Crooks? Falsifying books? Mabye as the wealthiest person in China was arrested two weeks ago from manipulating companies in order to get loans and all...

A friend of mine who is working for AIA here in HK, her AIG stock value went from HK400,000 to HK9,000.

The booths with Internet access on the 5th floor of HSBC main building are for its Premier customers to do stock tradings. Usually you could not find an empty booth to work or check things online. Today, I was there twice; and both times, they were all empty! Empty! That was unheard of. Also, the waiting area for the Premier customers is a little bit thin. Wonder if there is anything to do with the economy downturn. If I were to give in the pressure of buying all those mutual funds from HSBC, I would have lost over 70% of the value and not qualify for as a Premier customer.

On the surface in Hong Kong, things seems to be quiet and not seeing anything about the economic downturn; but news articles in newspapers are all about that. Well, I could see though with 360s at Landmark, Central; with a receipt of any purchase you get 30% off your food at its food court.

Missing it by 5 days!

My trusty Nokia phone 5601 has the face snapped off; probably too cold in Shanghai last week. I took it to the Nokia Service Center here in HK. What a service! Staff was friendly and trying to help you!

As it turned out, my phone has passed the Nokia Mandatory one-year free warranty period. Opppsss..... So the total to have the face replaced came to HK$170.00. HK$120.00 for the "service call" and HK$50.00 for the part. Better than the alternative of buying a new phone for HK$3,900.00 (that's a later story).

The staff was trying to find a way for me to service for free. He said, if I could locate my bill and registered online, come back later so I could get the problem fix for free. O well... I tossed out my bill about a month ago during a mandatory clean-up.

Yes, about that HK$3,900.00 Nokia (potential) replacement. Went to the official Nokia store before I went to the service center. I believe it was a Nokia 5800. It is a fully touch screen phone just like the iPhone, except the keys on the screen are bigger. Shhh.... Don't tell iron-wife about it. Also, the handwriting is NOT only for Chinese (both forms) but also for alphanumeric! It has everything the iPhone 3G has but has both A-GPS and GPS. You can choose. But this Nokia phone is too new; just came out earlier this week. It's Symbian OS is the latest so no software available yet. And cannot sync w/ iCal and iContact. So.. I can wait.

Happy to have my phone fixed!

Ha ha, I just saw across the road to the park. The jumbo TV is connected to a PC; and the PC crashed out of the "display" so now I am looking at someone's screen saver!!!! It's been like that for over 15 minutes. No one notice from the park staff? Ummm....you have to be blinded not to see it specially I am 15 floor up and looking at it!

Google map did it again

Again in leading me to the wrong location. Good think I verified with the front desk of the address again. If I were to go without re-confirming, I would have been ended up next to a stadium in the middle of a flyover!

The place I went to was about 2KM away. Revenue House. I had to renew the biz licence as well as opening a tax file for the company. The total time there was 5 minutes. The travel time took 20 minutes. Very funny.

What the f%&*k!

Just had all my banking statements from HSBC opened. More "finance charges"! I was shock! And the account on the statement was not what I accustomed to. And it said I had no credit limit! What the FU%&*%&*)k! From the online account viewing 5 minutes prior, there was no abnormally. I did forget paying my Visa back in October on time because we were running around so much. My own fault. And when I tried to call to inquire, I got the runaround IVR systems with no human voice. When I got one, "not my department, please call this number.". It actually kicked me back to the same looping IVR.

So here I went, to the bank. Got thru because I sat in front of a service rep and made her call for me. When this service rep trying to call up the Biz account, she couldn't. The credit card department insisted that this service rep could. Right.... When I talked to the credit card department, guess what! Since my Visa is a company visa card and even I cleaned up the late charges and all, there is a late charge added on to the main company account! I said what? And worse part was, this additional late charge cannot be viewed online! Say again? And I could not pay cash at the counter! I need to use a cheque to mail it in! Say what? And the statement I got with that extra "finance charge" was a HSBC self-generated account number; hence you cannot see it nor the service rep! Say what? What the f*%u^*^k!

I got this "hidden" charge waved. And I have to setup automatic payments for the company Visa cards. And I have to drop the form off again. Round 3 to the bank! To Central! Pissing me off now with this bank.

Best Harbour View

View to Kowloon


View to Causeway Bay and Central

Am in HK now. I believe I have the best Harbour view in HK for 1/4 of the price with any 5-stars hotels in Central and Admiralty. I got this room for HK1,100.00 per night include service charge, free broadband access and free b'fast. There is no tax anymore for hotel room in HK. Broadband, ok. Slow at times but cannot complain as I am here running errands. And b'fast, it has everything; in other hotel, the same b'fast would have cost HK$160.00.

It's such a beautiful day here. Would have been nice for a hike but spent so far running errands and dealing with HSBC stupidity; more later on that.

The hotel room has no slippers or bathrobes provided. Who cares. This room is about 21 sq meters, same as the Excelsior which would have costed HK1,500 before b'fast and highspeed access.

Can you believe this?

Read these from the Chinese and Hong Kong newspaper...

1) A man somewhere in China had to "go" really bad in the bank. Except couldn't find a bathroom, so he proceeded to use a garbage bin next to the ATM machines to relived himself. The customers got scared. 4 security guards promptly appeared and escorted him to the bathroom at the hotel next door. This man's excuse, the bank did not provide bathroom for customers. BTW, it is very common to see a man stopping by the road side and relieve himself. Even that means stopping his car on a very busy highway, the male would still go. A common sight on the expressway to the Pudong Airport. Too much tea perhaps?

2) The famous Kownloon Airport Express station, it has a very high end shopping mall called Element. The tenants in there are requesting for a reduction in rent due to the economic downturn. Apparently, the Hong Kong MRT corporation owns it. The rent is a combo of basic rent per month plus a percentage of the profit. I was wondering how that place can survive. The last couple times in there, people were pretty thin. Element has a ice skating ring, theatre, the W hotel, LV, Boss, you name it, have it. And of course, one of the most expensive apartment buildings... And the former Lehman Brother management is frantically dumping from its speculation. The MRT Corporation will not grant the rent reduction. I suspect this mall will be a write off soon...

3) Companies are cutting back in the Hong Kong Expats housing subsidy. Take a guess how much these companies were paying? They are the who's who in the US investment banks.... Well... These expats were being paid somewhere between HK$120,000 or HK$200,000 per month for a flat! That's crazy! And totally out of line! Really have to give your head a shake! On average, hong kong people really cannot afford more than HK35,000 per month. But those 6-digit amounts! Those were the companies that are tanked the last few months along with the sub-prime... The Chinese has a saying " Greet = poor".

The gang is coming

My early report of the Wenzhou (温州）real estate speculators; they are back in Shanghai again looking for things to buy. Rumour had it that this group will purchase about RMB 100 millions of commercial and residential properties. Not confirmed. But yes, they have been here and gone; some came back.

According to the news report, because of the stock market downturn, these Wenzhou people have cash but nowhere to invest. So they are thinking of Shanghai real estate properties. Some buy because for kids to attend universities. But who knows.

The sudden surge of purchases last month was not due to improved economy; rather it was due to the Chinese gov't policies and the drastic interest rate cut. The "real" recovery, will have to wait and see for a while to confirm.

A Shanghai wedding banquet

Got invited to our PT's wedding banquet. So off we went. Only 120 people or so... But man, people smoked up a storm there. The unfiltered type. The meal was excellent! 5 small plates of appetizers - beef ribs, cucumbers, tofu, pig knuckles, marinated fish and drunken chicken. The main courses composed of shark fin soup, duck, two dishes of veggies with abalone slices, steamed fish, plain veggies, lobsters, crabs followed by stir-fried noodles and sweet red bean soup. Wine was plentiful. Red, just like the PT like it.

The banquet included different ceremonies. First, the bride and groom came thru the door and re-enacted the proposal. Then the MC asked the groom if he was ready. After that, the couple and the parents stood on stage giving some speech. The PT's mother spoke only Shanghainese. Couldn't speak that much Mandarin. Afterward, poured wine on a glass pyramid. Bubble machine made lots of bubbles. So strong was the blowing that the candle used to light the candles by the newly wed kept blown out. O yeah, exchange of rings. Quick and simple. Then the flowers the bride was holding, rather than throwing to a crowd of single women, the bride took the flower to this guy. Then he and his GF were on stage. The MC urged them to get married soon. This guy just knelt down and proposed. Staged or impromptu, have to find out next week.

The bride changed 3 times last night. On her second dress, the newly wed came into the banquet hall again with the wedding cut. We were still eating.... Cake was cut. And a big piece was placed on each table. "Dive in" people! I tried it; actually better than our carrot cake in Maui! Bummer for us! ;-)

At the end of the food and all the ceremonies, the MC announced to the hall the room number of the newly wed. Chinese tradition, people can get to the room and made "fun" of them. Considered the bride is 3 month pregnant, not a good idea! Drinking is also part of the Chinese wedding. And boy, really drink. The PT had to drink a pitcher of a combo of "coca cola, red wine and beer". His brother was suppose to drink on his behalf. But I believed he had drunken too much earlier on the groom's behalf.

We left early... By the time we came home, my nostril burned with unfiltered cigarette. Despite the cold, my clothes never touched the bedroom... I was butt naked straight into the shower.

Too much red wine, I was out pretty early only to be awaken by a SMS from Vancouver. My dad. He arrived at YVR on transit. Just wanted to let me know how much changes the airport has become. Yes, dad I knew that from my November trip.

*Note: Chinese wedding, normally the couple got their certificates about a year before the wedding banquet is to be held. So, they are legally married in the eyes of the law.

Just a feeling

This morning, I had this feeling on two different streets.

1) On my way throwing out garbage in the back lane, I thought I was playing a 3-D realistic Atari game - getting the frog to cross the road. I was the frog! So many fast moving manual propelled and motorized bikes running in both directions. And they did not stop for anything.

2) 15-minutes later, I thought I was playing another Atari game walking on Nanjing Road West. Remember the shooting the asteroids game that kick-started the electronic gaming industry way back in the 80's. I was playing that. Sidestepping incoming people on the side walk. The people were oncoming asteroids.

Yeah right...

Why do we have to listen to this HK Real Estate billionaire (李兆基)'s prediction on HK real estate market? He was the one who has lost HK $50billions in his high flying stock portfolio in mere two months. And he was the one who "proudly" announced to the HK public that the Heng Seng Index will top over 30,000 points. People piled their money into the stock market because of what he said. Now, he commented the HK real estate market will bottom out at the second half of 2009. Right. His company is a major land development company in HK. And he was known as the Asian Stock God.

One good thing though, so far he has not fired any employees but have given them the "double-pay" for end of year.

China ecnomoic news....

1) Shanghainese gov't along with local banks and investment brokerage firms are doing a tour this month to New York and London. The goal, to attract the brightest in the financial sectors to Shanghai to work. Huh? Come again? These people were the brightest that have caused the world financial systems to collapse. And we are hiring them to be here? How many times do we really want to get screwed? I hope this is only an excuse for the Shanghainese gang to do some pre-Christmas touring.

2) As expected Hong Kong residential pricing is dropping. So far, 20% or so. Will drop more as credit from banks is hard to get. HSBC has raised mortgage rate over 75 basis points. Expect the home price continues to fall to 30% by next year. The number of home prices less than the mortgage has surged over 175% in the 3rd quarter. Yikes. This sounded like the US real estate market from before.

3) The Citic Group Hong Kong that purchased the Australian dollar accumulator continues to look money. There is no bottom yet as the contract does not expire until later next year. Good think it is being backed by the Chinese gov't now. But the lost is mounting and won't know what the total tally is. As of yesterday, word was over HK$187billions.

4) An open letter has been sent to the Chinese Central Committee by 10 university economic professors. They want the Chinese gov't to start buying the A shares and the H shares to save the market. Have not heard what is the response.

5) A history professor in a Shanghai university was being investigated as "counter revolution". He was done in by two female students who attended his class. Apparently, he was critical of the Chinese policies during the pre-cultural revolution time. Go figures.

6) The world largest container producer, a Chinese company has stopped production line for over 2 months now. 38% of the employees are on "holiday".

7) The might boost Taiwanese stock market. The Taiwanese gov't has agreed to allow Chinese QDII funds to invest into Taiwan. That's huge for Taiwan as it will not depend on US. At this rate, Taiwan "will return to" China virtually but not physically. QDII is Qualified Domestic funds registered and approved by Chinese gov't. These funds collectively lost a HUGE sum of money last year in then stock markets abroad. But the management fee doubled. Wonder what these funds will invest in Taiwan.

8) The Chinese gov't is setting up a new performance review system for civil servants. If one employee has two years of "incompetent" status, he will be fired. Gee.... I thank SlackTel should discuss w/ the Chinese gov't on this. Along with this new system, bonuses will be paid out to civic servants who have "Excellent" status.

9) This is interesting... Commerical property sale, the gone years used of the slogan "guarantee rent after sale" (售后包租) is banned by the Shanghainese gov't. As early as 2005, the Chinese gov't had announced ban of this type of sale tactic. No one really cared until now. By banning this tactic, sale of commercial space will be very difficult and expect to drop dramatically. This guarantee was used to attracted large amount of investors to buy, in particular in the area of service apartment and shop usage. Now I understand why there have been so many shops opening up at places that should not have been.

10) With the economic downturn continues to affect Chinese market, commercial space demand is expected to drop. Next year's average rent cost will decrease. By how much, not known yet. Some newly developed space or still being built are giving out "up to 1 year of free rent". Or RMB1.5 per square meter favorable rent. The current rate is about RMB2.5 per square meter. Further, expect franchises are holding back in space demand pending on the economic recovery. Shops along Nanjing Road West (南京西路）and Huai Hai Lu (淮海路), even though have no sale, but still want to maintain a store front on these streets. These two streets are well known for shoppers. Polling of major cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xian all expected rental cost decreases.

11) Chinese real estate analysts all said residential price has not dropped bottom yet. Maybe by 2nd half of next year. And 2010 1st half will rise and will enter another phase of elevated pricing. Really?

Torture

Went to friend's place for a haircut and steam. Chinese herbal steam that was. It had over 37 different types of herb. Supposedly to be great for my Arthritis. Yes, it was good when the steam started and the subsequent 2 hours afterward. After that, I can tell you the weather was changing.

It was funny during my "steam". Usually, the lady would have left the room; but this one just sat and talked. Why not. I needed the practice anyway, Mandarin. ;-) She was quite petite, and about 27 or so; but man, she was mean. Very hard on my shoulder and neck and head. Found every knots on my shoulders and back due to my computer posture. Hurt like hell. I didn't know if I was sweating from the steam or from the pain! I had to change towels during my hour-long torture session.

The steam, from the Chinese medicine standpoint was to promote blood flow. Most people were so out of shape, they could only do 10 minutes. Me, 25 minutes today. I sweat from my head. And this lady just laughed and kept wiping sweat from my face.

Nice Thai food

Went to a nice little Thai restaurant for supper tonight. This is the place: Alyssa. It's opened by a friend of a friend. The location is at Taikang Lu (泰康路）. It's an artsy part of town with 4 lanes being converted into art galleries and all sorts of ethnic restaurants. Pretty cool. Had a bottle of French wine, Treviac. It was great with spicy food. Very smooth red wine. No need to let it breath. Open, drink. That was it. I can get use to this wine. 1/2 a bottle with another friend later, I am getting sleepy...

A downgraded product!

I was forced to "upgrade" to the newest Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac because some businesses don't know how to change the default Microsoft Office setting. This setting allows all documents to be viewed by people who do not want to shell out over $500.00 for a "new and improved" software that is totally non-user friendly or see no point of upgrading for unwanted new "features". The setting is only a click away. Nonetheless, after have to re-saving documents for iron-wife all the time and some "downgraded" documents could not be edited, I broke down. Thank you Microsoft! I bought the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. It works great and the User interface is 1000% better than the Windows version. But that's pretty much the end of it. Apparently, Microsoft has taken away the most useful piece of feature from the product. NO Visual Basic (VB). This means I cannot do programming right on the Excel spreadsheet. This programming language provides automation and cross-platform coding. No VB, no streamlining for me to get some invoicing system going here.

Now, I have to download OpenOffice. It is a FREE full features Office product. Actually, more stable than MS-Office. And if your Excel spreadsheet crashes for some strange reason, do not panic. You can use the Spreadsheet program from the OpenOffice to recover. For FREE!!!

As I am typing this out, my Macbook Pro is downloading OpenOffice from the Net thru the ever preying eyes of the commie firewall.

2008 Shanghai Marathon

Here are snapshots from the marathon coming thru Nanjing Road West (南京西路）. It passed thru the front door of our apartment; we had two friends running in it.



The leaders


Catch-up crew


More catch-up crew


The wave!

Spectator

The 2008 Shanghai Marathon came thru our street Sunday morning. I found a very interesting spectator. This represents the 2009 Winter style. BTW, people do wear their PJs out including bunny slippers sometimes.

Around Shanghai...

Who said the economy is not doing well? There is no such things to the restaurant businesses here in Shanghai, except for those who sell hairy crabs. The end of year banquet booking is up, that's for Chinese New Year Eve by the way. And the price goes up with it. On average per table cost is up by 8% to 10%. And over 80% of the top restaurants are booked out already. Also, next year's wedding banquet bookings for next May and October are full with a price hike of at least 10%. Future couples are forced to book alternative months. Traditionally, May and October are the best weather time to have wedding. All booked out.

Now to a more "grounded" news:

- Shanghainese city gov't has established counseling units at some downtown office buildings. This is to assist white collar workers in dealing with potential layoffs and the groomy economy ahead. Most white collar workers during the last 5 years have enjoyed tremendous employment bargaining power. And the average age is about 25 - 29. Now, they are facing experience that they are ill prepared for.

- Shanghainese real estate developers are swamping a group of Wenzhou （温州）investors. These investors made a lot of money during the Shanghai property boom. They were known to be shrew and possess lots of cash. This group is here to start looking for properties to speculate. In my humble opinion, this group was in the right time at the right place. But good for them.

- As expected, the Chinese "bail out" package is not working. The export driven economy is hurting. With the new Labour Law came into effect this January, lots of manufacturers were looking for a way out. The economic downturn was timely for the manufacturers to close up shops with an excuse. Some left overnight without notice or payout to the workers. Apparently, over 600+ shops have closed along the south coast in the Guangdong (广东）area.

- Heard from the street: DBS, the Development Bank of Singapore, is trying to introduce new financial instruments to offer to the general public. One insider said: "don't buy". It's not time and cash is still king.

- 56% jump in new apartment sales in November compared to October; no kidding. October, no one bought as things were all down. The reason for an upshot in November was due to gov't stimulus package on interest rate drop and mortgage policy. Speculation on the upshot was due to the Wenzhou investors are not entirely true. Shanghainese people might thing last month was cheap enough to switch out their old apartment with a comparable new one. Because of the interest rate drop, some developers have begun restarting idle projects, but still there will be a very tough sell next year.

- The Chinese Central Gov't may roll out Depositor Insurance in 2009. Maybe... This has been in a "study" phase for the last 10 years.

- Pork price per Kg in China has dropped significantly of late since it peak earlier this year. Lots of people have made money and lots have lost a lot more this year. The Chinese thinking of "up 1 down 2" - up one year and down the following two years, thinks the pork price drop will end in early 2009. The price drop was due to over supply; last year everyone was raising pigs in order to acquire a huge profit from the pork shortage. Now, the supply is more than demand. Way too much. One speculation of price drop is from foreign investors into pig farms. From raising to slaughtering to end product. Reference here.

- Personal observation. Air quality in Shanghai downtown (where I live) has significantly polluted. Just hazy brown. The long emptied building just 200m away is now in a full renovation phase. Dust just kick up everywhere. The city buses, some just spill out thick brown smog as they pull from the bus stop. I am afraid, the more tall buildings being built here, more exhaust and more exhaust being trapped and cannot go anywhere. Maybe time to move. The Shanghainese city gov't is using big construction projects to counteract the economic slump. For how long?