Our New Office

Thursday, December 4th, 2008. After getting ready for our return to the USA, Sara and I took the afternoon and evening to visit Macao. Formerly a Portuguese colony, Macao (a small group of islands) is now known best as Asia’s number one gambling destination. Similar to Hong Kong in many ways, Macao is a unique destination that’s definitely worth a visit. Getting to Macao is a simple matter of an hour-long journey on a turbo hydrofoil from Hong Kong, and the hydro-foils run 24/7, so they’re pretty easy to schedule and relatively inexpensive.

This fort, on the small tip of the Macao Peninsula, was built alongside a cathedral in the early 1600’s. Today, it overlooks a group of casinos that rival those found on the strip in Las Vegas.

Macao was originally founded in the late 1500s. A trading colony, the Portuguese built a massive fort on the tallest point to protect the bay. A small European-style village grew up around the fort, and Macao became a successful and wealthy Portuguese colony. It’s one of the only places in all of Asia that one can find street signs in Portuguese and Chinese. The remnants of the Portuguese colonials include narrow, cobble stone streets, European architecture, and a smattering of Catholic statues and cathedrals.

All that remains of St. Paul’s cathedral is this elaborate facade. It’s quite striking, mostly because of the mixture of traditional Catholic symbolism and Chinese cultural icons (click the image to see a larger version so you can make out the carvings).

After making our way to the fort at the center of Macao, we walked down to the water-front. The city transitioned from colonial architecture to casinos and night-life in short order. I’ve read that Macao generates as much gambling revenue in one day as Las Vegas generates in about three days, so I was excited to see a spectacle. Sara and I had heard stories from other travelers about uber-crowded Macao casinos, where people would line-up behind gamblers sitting at a table and actually gamble on the cards that the person sitting at the table was going to play.

Imagine playing blackjack with 6 people behind you, gambling amongst themselves as to whether you’ll hit or stay, whether or not you’ll win, etc. Imagine that it behind every person sitting at every table. Crazy.

Unfortunately, we didn’t see any of the craziness we’d heard so much about. We were excited to see a bustling scene of gambling and casinos, but instead we found eerily quiet casino floors and casino employees standing around with nothing to do. Evidently, the recent financial crisis has hit Asia hard. Macao, and the casinos, were sort of a ghost town.

Christmas decorations in Macao’s city center – note the mosaic pavement on the ground.

Our last day in Asia wasn’t terribly succesful financially. We were hoping to win, but instead we paid quite a bit for a buffet dinner (buffet dinners, by the way, are hard to find in Macau – it must be an American thing) and last a small fortune playing two of the four video poker machines at the Wynn Macau. Oh well – billion dollar casinos aren’t built because people MAKE money when they visit.

So long China, Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, and Malaysia – we had a great time!

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008. After feeling mostly recovered from my bout with the Hong Kong flu yesterday, Sara and I visited the Kowloon Bay portion of Hong Kong. On the way over, we rode the star ferry. The views from the water were excellent, and it really gave us a sense of the size of Hong Kong. Despite being built on the narrow strip of land between the mountains and the ocean, Hong Kong is quite large.

Kowloon holds most of Hong Kong’s museums, lots of shopping, hotels, and restaurants. It also seemed to be a popular hang-out for models – we saw a lot of fancy looking young western women “hanging out” around important restaurants. Evidently, they hang out hoping to “bump into” someone important. It was a little surreal to see so many attractive, skinny young white girls in Asia, but I managed.

Our trip to Kowloon Bay was supposed to include a visit to a highly recommended restaurant, but we found it to be closed. Our next alternative, another highly recommended restaurant, was also closed. So was a third. It turns out that our guidebook was quite outdated, which is hard to believe since it’s only a couple of years old. I guess things change fast in Hong Kong.

Today was also my last purchase from a Chinese street vendor. I bought a trinket, a gift for a friend, and my haggling skills were at their finest. I negotiated hard, starting absurdly low, laughing and joking my way up to a number that the street vendor STILL wouldn’t accept (she let me walk away). After walking away, I knew I’d found a good deal. It was great fun, and as someone who thought he knew a lot about negotiation, I have to say my experience haggling in Asia opened my eyes quite a bit. It was fun, and I miss it terribly. In the Western world, tough, aggressive negotiation is often viewed with animosity, but it doesn’t have to be. A tough negotiation can be a bonding experience that brings people together, and it took a trip across the world to learn that. Still, it might have been the most valuable thing I take from Asia.

Next, it was off to Macau…

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008. I almost made it nine weeks in Asia without getting the flu, but late yesterday it happened. On the walk to our hotel, I started to feel bad. A combination of nausea and stomach cramps. By the time we made it to our room, I was done for. I spent last night and all day today laying in bed, sick as a dog. Food poisoning was the likely culprit…but who knows for sure. But there’s more to the story…

Late yesterday afternoon, as we were returning to our hotel, our cute little tourist map indicated we would be walking by the “dry fish market.” Without denigrating Asian and Chinese culture, what’s the freakin’ deal with dried, rotting fish? Dried fish husks (or something) were stacked waist high in bin after bin, and local Chinese were shuffling through them like playing cards. It’s like they were looking for a rookie Mickey Mantle card or something. Shark fins, whole fish (big and small), and quite a few items that I couldn’t identify (I saw some kind of dried whole lizard) were either hanging up our laying out right on the street.

What are these things, and why would one want to eat them after they’d been completely dried out?

As if the scene wasn’t bad enough, the quantities of dried and rotting sea life were astounding. Pile after pile, stall after stall, the dried fish market encompassed more than three city blocks.

The smell, of course, was overpowering. Had I not been so nauseous, I might have found it a little funny. Unfortunately, it was all I could do to keep from yacking right on the street.

My bout with Hong Kong flu began soon after, and I wonder if the smell from the fish market had something to do with it.

Monday, December 1st, 2008. We struck out early on our first day in Hong Kong with a visit to Victoria Peak. We rode an old cog railway up the very steep side of Victoria Peak, stopping along the way to let passengers on and off. Victoria Peak is a popular place to live for the well-to-do, and at $75 HKD (about $10 USD) the Peak Tram is a quick and relatively inexpensive way for these people to get up and down the hill. At the top, we visited a 6-story shopping mall with a roof-top terrace. The views were incredible. Hong Kong is mostly mountains, and all of the development occurs on the narrow strip of relatively flat land between the mountains and the ocean. It’s incredible – imagine the skyscrapers of Manhattan mixed with the mountains of Colorado and you’ve got a good idea of how Hong Kong is layed out.

It’s hard to grasp just how vertical Hong Kong is from these photos, but you can see how narrow the strip of “flat” land is between the ocean and the mountain here and across the bay.

The wife.

Next, we came back down the hill and visited Millennium Park. Like many parks in Asia, the gardens and water effects here were incredible. Large man-made waterfalls (carved from huge pieces of granite), serene ponds, and carefully cultivated gardens served home to a variety of wildlife (especially quite a few turtles). Millennium park also houses a world-class aviary. There’s nothing quite like visiting a wildlife sanctuary with skyscrapers looming overhead. Say what you will about big city life, but Hong Kong has done an admirable job of preserving a small piece of nature amidst all the buildings.

One of the many skyscraper views from inside Millennium Park.

We visited quite a few tourist spots as well. Walking down Hollywood Road, we came upon Man Mo temple, Possession Point, and a large number of trendy shops and art galleries. We also visited Antique Row, a collection of cheap knock-offs that tourists love. We stumbled across a fortune teller who charged $100 HKD (about $15 USD) to answer ONE question. I was tempted to pay the $100 HKD and ask “How do you sleep at night charging $100 to answer one question?”

One of the biggest events of today, aside from all the sightseeing, was a heart-to-heart that I had with Sara. During the past 8 weeks of travel, there were moments where my anger and frustration got the better of me. I know this doesn’t make me special – far from it – but it was a big moment to talk with Sara about how I deal with these feelings. It was very helpful, and I’d like to publicly thank her for listening, helping, and putting up with me during this trip. I think I’ve grown a little as a person.

Thanks baby.

On the way back to our hotel, things got a little rough…

It wouldn’t be a worthwhile trip if we hadn’t been exposed to new things and learned from it. Yes, eating chicken curry, shopping for dirt-cheap deals, and seeing the most beautiful temples in all the world is a big reason to travel to Asia, but it’s not the only reason.

I suppose it’s important to learn about different issues and understand new cultures too.

So here goes…

1. Climate change is really happening. Well, duh, you say. Of course I knew it was happening, but we’ve heard stories from several different places to illustrate that fact.

In Cambodia our tour guide explained that rice farmers are suffering. The rainy season is starting later than normal and so much so that some of the rice crop didn’t make it. Now, the rainy season isn’t letting up and the rice that is ready for harvest isn’t surviving all that rain. Needless to say, these already poor farmers are poorer this year.

2. When it rained in China we were afraid the acid rain would burn off our skin. Enough said.

3. Gibbons are people too. Wait…no, they’re not. And this is exactly why people should not take them as pets.  In Phuket we visited the Gibbons Rehabilitation Center and learned about how people poach baby gibbons from the jungle.

The center is run by a non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing abandoned and illegally-owned gibbons in cities across Thailand. Many of these gibbons have been neglected or outright abused by their “owners” who bought the animal from poachers because as infants, gibbons make great pets. However, once they reach sexual maturity they become aggressive and often act out (as wild animals, often do).

It’s not legal to own a gibbon (they are apes, by the way), however, the government doesn’t do much to enforce the law.

Most all of the gibbons housed here have been mistreated–some beaten, some locked in tiny cages for most of their lives, and some much much worse. Most of these gibbons won’t be released back into the jungle because they won’t know how to survive.

Moral of this story: If you see someone with a pet gibbon, don’t pay to have your picture taken with him or her.

Saturday, October 25th, 2008. Today Sara and I ventured back into downtown Shanghai to visit the history museum, and the cab ride downtown was downright uncomfortable. Full-throttle accelerations – followed by panic stops – and fast lane-change maneuvers are unnerving and unfortunately the norm. Still, taxi rides in China are always a good reminder of the “frontier” spirit and mentality here (not to mention very inexpensive).

Shanghai Bowuguan is arguably the best museum in China (perhaps except for the museum in Xian that was closed), but we’re not able to challenge that opinion.

The Shanghai History museum is excellent. The collection is vast and spans thousands of years of history, all within a fairly small 4-story building. You can get through it in about 2 hours if you’re in a hurry. You’ll see ancient artwork and calligraphy painted on scrolls, amazing pottery (some dating back 4000 years), a fine collection of jade (everything from amulets to decorative weapons and armor), and a large assortment of ancient coins. The museum only has one negative – many of the exhibits lack anything more than a basic English translation. Still, it’s a must-see if you visit Shanghai.

This scary looking beast served as a tomb guardian during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD).

Next, we went to Shanghai’s “Urban Development Museum.” Our guidebook listed this museum as “much more exciting than it sounds,” and that is a correct description. We saw some old photos of Shanghai through the years, a decent explanation of Shanghai’s growth, and some interactive exhibits that illustrate how Shanghai is preparing for the 2010 World Expo. The truly amazing part of the museum is the scale model of the future vision of Shanghai in 2020. It’s hard to comprehend, but imagine a city with the size of Los Angeles and the population density of New York, and you’ve got an idea of how big Shanghai will become. Some estimate that 23 million people will call Shanghai home within the next 10 years, and the city plan seems to reflect that belief. It’s mind-boggling.

While we enjoyed our visit to Shanghai, the city feels as if it lacks heart. Beijing is the showpiece for all of China, and for good reason. The range of historic attractions is envious for any city, and Beijing was by far my favorite stop so far. Xian does a nice job of preserving it’s old-world character as well as offering the sensation of a small city (despite the fact that 8 million people live there). Combined with the quaint attitudes towards Westerners, Xian is not without charms. Shanghai is overwhelming in both it’s tremendous size and it’s very Western qualities.

The Chinese people feel that Shanghai’s Western character and history make it unique, but my opinion (as a Westerner) is that the presence of some art-deco and neo-classical architecture, as well as the obvious influence of the West, is entirely too normal to me. Perhaps if I spent more time in Shanghai (and China in general), I would recognize and appreciate Shanghai’s psuedo-Western qualities. Despite all I’ve said here, it’s an amazing place (much like everywhere we’ve been on this trip – aren’t we lucky). If you have a chance to visit, go to Shanghai – don’t think twice about it.

No visit to Shanghai would be complete without exploring Yu Yuan Garden – or at least that’s what we’ve been told! The garden shares many of the same qualities as some of the gardens we visited in Beijing – beautiful water features and rockeries – but what makes this garden stand out is designer’s use of the small space. Unlike the gardens we’ve visited in Beijing, Yu Yuan is quite small – only 5 acres. While not as beautiful as the garden at Prince Gong’s Mansion or the gardens at the Forbidden City, it is still quite nice.

The Yu Yuan Garden.

While walking from the Bund to the Yu Yuan garden, we passed in front of quite a few buildings constructed during Shanghai’s colonial days. Originally constructed as office buildings, many of them now house important banks and ultra-premium stores. In front of one of these buildings (an expensive-looking jewelry store) we saw an obviously poor man selling roasted chestnuts off of a street cart. Just after we passed him by, I heard shouting and a loud snapping sound. I turned around to see two men wearing suits yelling at the street vendor and hitting his street cart with a large stick. The two men continued to harass the street vendor, and when it was clear these two men in suits meant real business, the street vendor tried to push his cart and run away. Alas, he was stopped by a police officer, and the look on his face was one of sheer terror. Busted.

Earlier that same day, we noticed a little old woman begging on the Bund. She might have been 5 feet tall, she was quite old, and while she was persistent (and a little rude), it was easy enough to ignore her. As she was approaching Sara and I to hassle us for some money, a street cop grabbed her arm, yelled at her, and pushed her towards the main road (and away from the Bund). This woman also looked to be quite poor.

I have mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I understand the perspective of the jewelry store. They’re not paying top-dollar for property so that they can have some shabby-looking man selling chestnuts in front of their store. They have every right to chase him off. On the other hand, I wonder how much it damages their image to allow this man to work in front of the store. After all, he’s just trying to earn a living.

Here’s a small sampling of the constant pestering that tourists get from street vendors. It got to the point that any Chinese person who approached us was told “No” before they could open their mouths. Shame on us, huh?

The same goes for the old woman begging tourists for cash. The areas that we’ve been in China are amazingly devoid of beggars in tourist areas – Beijing especially – and it’s very nice. In Denver, I couldn’t walk down 16th Mall without being hassled by half-a-dozen bums looking for a handout. While I got used to it when I was living in Denver, I noticed that many visiting tourists (and locals from the suburbs) were uncomfortable and uneasy with this nuisance. China has obviously decided that removing beggars from the public eye will help the country’s image and tourism, and I wish that Denver would follow suit.

But the fact is the old woman was begging because it was her best option. The same goes for the street vendor. What should China do about the poor? This question confronts the USA as well, and the answer still seems to be unknown.

Friday, October 24th, 2008. After taking a “mental health day” at the hotel, it was time to get out and see the sights of Shanghai. Our guidebook doesn’t recommend much here besides expensive hotels and restaurants, except for the Shaanxi Musuem (arguably China’s finest museum, but likely a close second to the museum we didn’t get to see in Xian) and the Bund.

Jason standing before the skyscrapers along the Huangpu River. This area is known as “The Bund.”

Shanghai, if you’ll recall, was once a “treaty port.” Somehow the Chinese government was “convinced” to “share” their market with the major western powers of the time – the French, English, and Americans. Shanghai’s city center was basically handed over to the French, British, and Americans (among others), and businesses from each of these countries used Shanghai to access the rest of China. Up until shortly before the Japanese invasion that is, when Shanghai’s development ground to a halt because of corruption and poor governance.

The history of Shanghai is a mixed bag – one of China’s most important port cities for the past 400 years (or so), it has been known the world over as the “Paris of the East.” It’s also been the scene of Japanese war crimes and, likely, mass executions immediately following the Communist revolution. In short, Shanghai has been at the center of a lot of events in world history.

Thus, much of Shanghai shows signs of western influence. The Bund, a section of the Huangpu river, has colonial and art-deco buildings on one side and modern Chinese skyscrapers on the other. As much a tourist trap as an historical site, the Bund is a great place to observe the meeting of East and West. Westerners, many of whom are on business, are everywhere, yet this is still a huge Chinese city with many of the same customs and characteristics of mainland China.

Shanghai is in many ways a repeat of much of what we’ve seen. However, it is more of a metropolis than Beijing as well as being tremendous in size. The city is more dense than Beijing as well – there are more skyscrapers and it’s much more “vertical” – and the automobile traffic is much worse than Beijing too. Still, there’s an energy here that is hard to explain.

We managed to fall into a tourist trap today. Known as the Bund “sight-seeing tunnel,” it costs 40 yuan per person and it’s billed as an amazing underground experience. I would say it could be more accurately described as the fastest way to get across the river, with the tag line “Get in a glorified, slow-moving subway car with lots of lights and cheesy music in the tunnel.” If you’re in Shanghai, skip The Bund sightseeing tunnel.

Footage of the underwhelming Bund Sightseeting Tunnel.

Returning to our hotel, we visited a large shopping mall just down the street known as “Wanda” (pronounced wond-ah) with lots of western restauraunts. While none of the staff at the Wan-da is terribly helpful (they seemed a little irritated by our presence, in fact), the prices are reasonable and the food is decent. We’re getting awfully tired of visiting shopping malls here in China, but the fact is they usually have a good collection of clean restaurants. If only shopping malls weren’t so crowded and over-the-top commercialized…

The Wanda Shopping Plaza is amazing, but it’s also a little over the top. We’ve been spending too much time at malls while traveling in China, but it’s sort of unavoidable. The food options are best here.

We’ve had very few challenges or dilemmas arise since being in China. Knock, knock, knock (That’s the sound of me knocking on wood). Although there have been a few interesting moments.

1. While visiting the history museum in Shanghai we had to run our bags through a security scan. After picking them up on the other side of the metal detector, the security guard said: “Drink some. Drink some.”

Standing there looking curious it finally became clear that he wanted us to drink the water from the bottles in our bag. I guess if we drank some then he would know it wasn’t an explosive. Sort of like how the old emperors would make the concubines taste the food first to see if its been poisoned. Okay, I guess its not really anything like that, but that is what came to my mind.

This is us outside the Shanghai History Museum. Two really nice teenage boys stopped to talk to us and take our picture. Unfortunately, we thought they were going to try and sell us something so we didn’t stick around to talk to them longer.

2. We’ve been shopping a bit while here in China, or at least walking through the markets to look at the same crap over and over and over again. I’ve been too timid to haggle with anyone because it was just too much pressure, until suddenly one day the courage just came from no where. I helped Jason buy a gift for 25 yuan less than he negotiated and then I managed to get 330 yuan off of something for myself. The sad part is that we still probably got ripped off. Oh well, it was fun playing.

3. We had a woman in her 50s follow us for a half block begging for money. I’m used to being asked for money, but I’ve not been followed for any significant distance before.

She was holding a baby in her arms and managed to keep close enough to us so that the baby was resting her hand on Jason’s chest. The woman kept saying: “Hello. Money. Please. Thank You. Nie Hao. Xie Xie. Money.”

The thought occurred to me that we should run and see if we could shake her, but then I thought that would be cruel. It didn’t matter anyway because she did eventually give up to set the baby down. I guess her arms got tired.

4. We watched part of a Chinese opera singing contest at a mall. The singing is always in the mall and there are malls everywhere.

5. Don’t worry, we’ve managed to find the coffee shops here. There are a huge number in Shanghai including a few hundred Starbucks (I made that number up. I don’t actually know how many Starbucks there are, but I’m sure its a lot.).

One Sunday afternoon we took our laptops to a nearby Starbucks and cozied up with about 80 other coffee drinkers. The only seats available were two seats in the corner wedged up against a glass wall. On the other side of the glass wall was the entrance to a four-story grocery store. Hundreds of people were milling in and out of the building and it only took a few minutes to realize that most of those people had to stop and stare at us as they did.

I felt like I was on TV and everyone was so amazed that they had to stop and watch. Babies pounded on the glass, old men stopped and watched, couples stopped and walked around so they could look at our screens, women pointed us out to their friends.

6. It’s possible that those folks were staring at Jason’s newly bald head. Yeah, we shaved it in the bathroom of our hotel.

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008. We had sort of a bad morning leaving Xian.

First, we had to get a ride to the airport. A little bit of laziness on my part (I didn’t want to walk around on the street trying to hail a cab with my bags) and a mis-understanding with the concierge led to us over-paying about 40 yuan for the cab ride to the airport. While it was convenient, I didn’t start off my morning as well as I would have liked to.

Next, we got to the airport, and after checking in and making our way through security, we found a nice comfortable looking coffee shop. Coffee is considered a luxury in China (very often purchased by visiting westerners), and it is therefore very expensive. We’ve never found a cup of coffee for less than $2 (even just a simple cup), and it’s not uncommon to pay $6 – $8 here for a latte. Obviously, we’ve tried not to drink coffee very much, but Sara and I were craving coffee today. We sat down and ordered a latte, an espresso (same price for both, go figure), a ham and egg sandwich, and french toast. Total cost – $22. Granted, this is the airport, and when you compare it to the U.S. it’s OK, but in China it’s ridiculous.

French toast, cinnamon toast, and ketchup?!

My ham and egg sandwich was nothing special. It was a fried egg and a small piece of ham on four slices of bread with some cucumber slices. The addition of cucumber was unusual to me, but acceptable. Sara’s french toast was completely screwed up. Two small pieces with a big dab of ketchup right in the center! Ketchup on french toast isn’t *bad*, but it isn’t good either – I tried it. Sara was very perturbed (understandably). We left feeling ripped off and a little hungry.

Fortunately, our luck changed. For some mysterious reason we again flew first class (twice in one trip)! I hope that this continues, but there’s a good chance this will be my last first-class flight for a long time. Once the novelty wears off, it’s still an airplane ride. I certainly wouldn’t pay twice as much to enjoy it (at least not until I’m filthy rich). There was also some incredible turbulence during the flight. My laptop almost flew out of my hands a couple of times.

When we arrived in Shanghai, all we wanted to do was crash. Neither one of us was feeling very well, and our hotel, The Crowne Plaza Fudan Shanghai, was simply too comfortable not to enjoy. We upgraded our room to include access to the Club level – free drinks during happy hour, a “free flow of juice, tea, coffee, and water” all day long, snacks, free wireless internet (HUGE), and free breakfast for 200 yuan a day. It was a steal. As expensive as this hotel is, it’s still inexpensive compared to the hotels in Shanghai’s city center (we’re about a 40 minute cab ride away from the Bund, essentially the center of the city).

Because we’re feeling poorly, and because we’ve been touring at what has seemed to be a non-stop pace, we made a pact to take tomorrow off and enjoy our evening.