Our vacation has ended and tomorrow we return to work. We're both returning very refreshed and with everything in perspective. It feels great & was such a wonderful trip. After Halong Bay, we wandered around the city and bought some art. Our legs are so tired from all the walking! Had another nice dinner too.
Most of today was spent in airports. We left at 11am, transit in Hong Kong, and then arrived in Shanghai. Our Hong Kong connection was so tight that our luggage didn't make it! Fortunately there was nothing urgent we needed from the suitcases. And we actually had enough foresight to give Driver Shen a small suitcase before we left. He showed up at the airport with the suitcase for Karl, who continued onto Beijing for meetings.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Vietnam – Spectacular Halong Bay
After reading so much about Halong Bay, we decided to do a 2-day/1night side trip. We did some investigation before arriving in Vietnam, but had not made reservations. Our desired tour didn’t include transfer from Hanoi – another $115 adder! We instead decided to go with the tour company recommended by the hotel. We left at 8:15 for a 3.5hr journey to Halong Bay. The boat, Bahya, is made of wood with Chinese Junk style influence. It’s very charming. The capacity is 40 people, but there are only 3 other groups on board (3 Austrian women, 9 Indonesians wrapping up 2 week family trip, and 2 other people who we barely saw). The bay itself is 600 square miles and ~3000 islands, located in the Gulf of Tonkin. It’s said the bay’s topography developed 250,000 years ago when the limestone was under the ocean.
This has been the highlight of Vietnam – hands down. The scenery is absolutely stunning and has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Picture 2000 islands made of limestone jetting out of the Bay. Old style junks and streamer boats wandering around, among the fisherman who are seeking squid and fish.
We watched the sunrise and sunset, learned how to squid fish, did Taichi exercises after sunrise, learned to make fried spring rolls, and dined outdoors. There were also a few side trips. We went into the ‘Surprise’ grotto and visited a fishing village where the houses are on water – no usable land nearby. The floating two room school house was very adorable, as were the kids on summer holiday who rowed up to see us. We quickly learned that life as a Vietnamese fisherman is not bad – the floating water village included multiple big screen TVs w/ satellite service. Fresh water and land foods are brought in daily by one of transport ships. There are no taxes and the government pays/subsidizes the fisherman. Not a bad life in this beautiful bay.
Every worry and rush seems to melt away while we’re out here. We definitely need to get to water more frequently! :) It’s been a wonderful – but way too short - stay on the boat. Life is good…!
This has been the highlight of Vietnam – hands down. The scenery is absolutely stunning and has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Picture 2000 islands made of limestone jetting out of the Bay. Old style junks and streamer boats wandering around, among the fisherman who are seeking squid and fish.
We watched the sunrise and sunset, learned how to squid fish, did Taichi exercises after sunrise, learned to make fried spring rolls, and dined outdoors. There were also a few side trips. We went into the ‘Surprise’ grotto and visited a fishing village where the houses are on water – no usable land nearby. The floating two room school house was very adorable, as were the kids on summer holiday who rowed up to see us. We quickly learned that life as a Vietnamese fisherman is not bad – the floating water village included multiple big screen TVs w/ satellite service. Fresh water and land foods are brought in daily by one of transport ships. There are no taxes and the government pays/subsidizes the fisherman. Not a bad life in this beautiful bay.
Every worry and rush seems to melt away while we’re out here. We definitely need to get to water more frequently! :) It’s been a wonderful – but way too short - stay on the boat. Life is good…!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Vietnam – Nice day in the countryside + the grossest sight ever!
This may be surprising with a Shanghai address, but Karl really is not a city boy. While Lila loves city life, she’s also a country person as well. So after a day of sight-seeing and traffic in Hanoi, we hired a private tour guide and driver for the day trip to Ninh Binh & Hoa Lu. (Figured we could also do without the war memorials & museums.)
The first stop and highlight of the trip was a river cruise. The 2 hour journey was in a row boat, very low to the water. We were surrounded by rice paddies, limestone karsts (towering mountains), and a few other boats. Given the lack of westerners, we were a tourist site by ourselves for the school kids who were also on the river. We’ve had our picture taken with complete strangers, heard “Hello” countless times since moving to Asia. Although sometimes we feel like characters at Disneyland, it has also been charming. There’s not that much to say about the ride, aside from the fact it was beautiful, relaxing, and so hot that we were sweating endlessly! Lila even got some exercise in. She felt sorry for the old lady trying to row us, so she chipped into help. Clearly her professional strength is in the cubicle workplace and not on the river.
After a quick lunch break, we took country roads to the former capital of Vietnam, where we visited two temples that were 17th century recreations of the originals. Having lived in China, we have picked up 2 habits:
1) Our table manners have deteriorated relative to Western standards. We make a mess when we eat!
2) Chinese public toilets prepare you for anything. We can now go to any public bathroom and not be grossed out.
The drive back was so relaxing – passing rice fields with people and water buffalo. There were occasional towns with cathedrals jetting above the “skyline” – a reminder of past French missionaries who settled here in the early 1800s. It’s very picturesque and calming. The homes are quite narrow and tall. Taxes are based on the width of your land, and people save money for a decorative front facing. The facades are very colorful and ornate with unpainted concrete sides (assuming someone will build next door). Karl noted that this is reminiscent of a Hollywood set! The colorful facades are even found in the countryside, where you often see large rectangular ponds for raising duck and fish.
** Warning – following text may be too graphic for dog lovers **
Speaking of pets and food… we also passed a market where dog meat is sold. Apparently dog can be bbq or grilled. It’s often eaten in the 2nd half of month to rid bad luck. Our guide explained that the good news is that this delicacy is not the same as your pet. There are dog farms who specialize in raising tasty Fido. Despite all her travel, Lila has never seen this before. We did take a picture during a drive by. Upon close observation, the head of the dog is visible. Due to graphic nature, we’ve opted to keep it out.
** end gross story **
By the time we got back to the hotel, we were exhausted. We eventually made it to dinner, then had a long walk back to the hotel – successfully dodging mopeds. Although we’ve been gone a weekend, we definitely feel more relaxed and content. We’re both surprised by how quickly we were able to shut down from work!
Finally, a few key learnings about private tours:
* Always start 1 hour than they plan to start. It helps beat crowds and results in better lighting for photography. We only did 30min ahead – was good but not enough time.
* Make sure you don’t hit great photo sites in the middle of the day – if you do, then ask to adjust schedule (e.g. reverse order, starting earlier, etc.).
* Always do 1 thing off the standard tour schedule. We took country roads between sights versus standard roads. The result was a very bumpy – but very beautiful - drive.
* Ask to go to local restaurants and select off the menu versus the poor adaptation of local food tailored for western palates
The first stop and highlight of the trip was a river cruise. The 2 hour journey was in a row boat, very low to the water. We were surrounded by rice paddies, limestone karsts (towering mountains), and a few other boats. Given the lack of westerners, we were a tourist site by ourselves for the school kids who were also on the river. We’ve had our picture taken with complete strangers, heard “Hello” countless times since moving to Asia. Although sometimes we feel like characters at Disneyland, it has also been charming. There’s not that much to say about the ride, aside from the fact it was beautiful, relaxing, and so hot that we were sweating endlessly! Lila even got some exercise in. She felt sorry for the old lady trying to row us, so she chipped into help. Clearly her professional strength is in the cubicle workplace and not on the river.
After a quick lunch break, we took country roads to the former capital of Vietnam, where we visited two temples that were 17th century recreations of the originals. Having lived in China, we have picked up 2 habits:
1) Our table manners have deteriorated relative to Western standards. We make a mess when we eat!
2) Chinese public toilets prepare you for anything. We can now go to any public bathroom and not be grossed out.
The drive back was so relaxing – passing rice fields with people and water buffalo. There were occasional towns with cathedrals jetting above the “skyline” – a reminder of past French missionaries who settled here in the early 1800s. It’s very picturesque and calming. The homes are quite narrow and tall. Taxes are based on the width of your land, and people save money for a decorative front facing. The facades are very colorful and ornate with unpainted concrete sides (assuming someone will build next door). Karl noted that this is reminiscent of a Hollywood set! The colorful facades are even found in the countryside, where you often see large rectangular ponds for raising duck and fish.
** Warning – following text may be too graphic for dog lovers **
Speaking of pets and food… we also passed a market where dog meat is sold. Apparently dog can be bbq or grilled. It’s often eaten in the 2nd half of month to rid bad luck. Our guide explained that the good news is that this delicacy is not the same as your pet. There are dog farms who specialize in raising tasty Fido. Despite all her travel, Lila has never seen this before. We did take a picture during a drive by. Upon close observation, the head of the dog is visible. Due to graphic nature, we’ve opted to keep it out.
** end gross story **
By the time we got back to the hotel, we were exhausted. We eventually made it to dinner, then had a long walk back to the hotel – successfully dodging mopeds. Although we’ve been gone a weekend, we definitely feel more relaxed and content. We’re both surprised by how quickly we were able to shut down from work!
Finally, a few key learnings about private tours:
* Always start 1 hour than they plan to start. It helps beat crowds and results in better lighting for photography. We only did 30min ahead – was good but not enough time.
* Make sure you don’t hit great photo sites in the middle of the day – if you do, then ask to adjust schedule (e.g. reverse order, starting earlier, etc.).
* Always do 1 thing off the standard tour schedule. We took country roads between sights versus standard roads. The result was a very bumpy – but very beautiful - drive.
* Ask to go to local restaurants and select off the menu versus the poor adaptation of local food tailored for western palates
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Vietnam Vacation: People on the Move, Where Baby Puppets Come From, and other adventures
Exactly 2 months after we arrived in Shanghai, we set off on our first vacation. Destination: Vietnam. It was a last minute trip resulting from both need for a break and opportunity (US out for Memorial Day)! Vietnam was chosen based on a past trip Lila made and that several of our friends love it here.
We arrived Friday afternoon in Hanoi -- population of 4.5M people and at least 3M mopeds! After 2 days here, the best description we have is that Hanoi is a city on the move. There is constant motion, and feels far more active than Shanghai.
Upon arrival, Lila “forced child culture” on Karl by insisting they go to the famous water puppet show. It’s a charming tourist trap and well worth the $3.50 for the hour performance. With live traditional music, very artistic puppeteers controlled the puppets with bamboo cane from under the water & behind the stage. Sound confusing?! It was! The highlight was the phoenix bird puppets who joined together momentarily before we realized they were actually reproducing. Out popped an egg puppet followed by a baby puppet. Not sure this qualified as G rated. We left the theatre to seek out dinner but were quickly confused by the poor maps. Fortunately a drunk bicycle taxi driver “helped” us. He led us on a 30 minute adventure in the front seat of the bicycle rickshaw. It was an exciting way to get indoctrinated into Hanoi’s traffic chaos (imagine bees – on bikes, in cars, in rickshaws, on mopeds- swarming a beehive). Dinner was at the very lovely Wild Lotus where we had an 8-dish set menu and bottle of wine for a mere $50 total in a very beautiful setting.
Saturday we spent 8 hours walking around Hanoi’s Old Quarter. Some highlights:
* The architecture is gorgeous. A lot of brightly colored, narrow and tall, French style building fronts. For ~80 years, Vietnam was a French colony and still has strong French influences.
* There really aren’t that many foreigners, and very few Americans. We’ve seen/heard a lot of French, Canadians, Australians, and Japanese. Interesting to note that the US dollar is accepted everywhere, in addition to local currency. We wonder how the foreign visitors are doing converting US dollars to their local currency in the price negotiations.
* There were 24 official stops according to the Frommers guide, but we mostly enjoyed the bargain basement shopping. Vietnam’s art, lacquer, and clothing options were all outstanding!
* A lot of farmer merchants actually wear the pointed cylindrical, woven hats and carry a pole on their shoulder balancing 2 extremely heavy baskets.
* Crossing the street is like a game of Frogger (lila translation of Karl’s video game reference: makes Purdue jaywalking seem like child’s play). There are no lights, lots of 2 & 4 wheeled vehicles, and no breaks. Karl was initially timid, while Lila embraced the challenge. It all changed when lila declared, “Follow-me! Follow-me!” Then BAM! A moped lightly ran into her. No injuries, just ego. Karl didn’t need Lila any longer to cross the street.
* There are “Reproduction Art Shops” everywhere – which do a great reproduction of oil paintings by famous artists. Example: a real painting by a high end Vietnamese artist is US $2,000 but a knock-off version is $20. They seem to have mastered the western artists much better than up& coming Vietnamese. Van Gogh for 20$ anyone?
* Streets are named after their original goods sold. Bamboo Street, for example, sells bamboo used for construction, decoration, and smoking pipes. Our route took us through door knob/lock street, shoe street, etc.
* There were people everywhere. No one seemed to be inside, except at internet cafes. It appears the favorite pastime is sitting at an outdoor restaurant eating with your friends.
* Local food is cheap! Lunch consisted of 2 noodle bowls with delicious toppings and 2 beers for a whopping $5.
* The President of Rwanda happens to be in Vietnam and staying at the same hotel. Lila feels like she's back on a geo trip with Craig - pointing out security and staffers. She met President Kagame in Rwanda last year, but didn't have guts to seek him out in Vietnam!
* We finished the day with dinner at the Green Tangerine, in honor of Melissa’s birthday. It’s a great French restaurant where Karl enjoyed green tea encrusted duck breast with lychee and Lila had a fabulous 3 rice seafood paella.
We arrived Friday afternoon in Hanoi -- population of 4.5M people and at least 3M mopeds! After 2 days here, the best description we have is that Hanoi is a city on the move. There is constant motion, and feels far more active than Shanghai.
Upon arrival, Lila “forced child culture” on Karl by insisting they go to the famous water puppet show. It’s a charming tourist trap and well worth the $3.50 for the hour performance. With live traditional music, very artistic puppeteers controlled the puppets with bamboo cane from under the water & behind the stage. Sound confusing?! It was! The highlight was the phoenix bird puppets who joined together momentarily before we realized they were actually reproducing. Out popped an egg puppet followed by a baby puppet. Not sure this qualified as G rated. We left the theatre to seek out dinner but were quickly confused by the poor maps. Fortunately a drunk bicycle taxi driver “helped” us. He led us on a 30 minute adventure in the front seat of the bicycle rickshaw. It was an exciting way to get indoctrinated into Hanoi’s traffic chaos (imagine bees – on bikes, in cars, in rickshaws, on mopeds- swarming a beehive). Dinner was at the very lovely Wild Lotus where we had an 8-dish set menu and bottle of wine for a mere $50 total in a very beautiful setting.
Saturday we spent 8 hours walking around Hanoi’s Old Quarter. Some highlights:
* The architecture is gorgeous. A lot of brightly colored, narrow and tall, French style building fronts. For ~80 years, Vietnam was a French colony and still has strong French influences.
* There really aren’t that many foreigners, and very few Americans. We’ve seen/heard a lot of French, Canadians, Australians, and Japanese. Interesting to note that the US dollar is accepted everywhere, in addition to local currency. We wonder how the foreign visitors are doing converting US dollars to their local currency in the price negotiations.
* There were 24 official stops according to the Frommers guide, but we mostly enjoyed the bargain basement shopping. Vietnam’s art, lacquer, and clothing options were all outstanding!
* A lot of farmer merchants actually wear the pointed cylindrical, woven hats and carry a pole on their shoulder balancing 2 extremely heavy baskets.
* Crossing the street is like a game of Frogger (lila translation of Karl’s video game reference: makes Purdue jaywalking seem like child’s play). There are no lights, lots of 2 & 4 wheeled vehicles, and no breaks. Karl was initially timid, while Lila embraced the challenge. It all changed when lila declared, “Follow-me! Follow-me!” Then BAM! A moped lightly ran into her. No injuries, just ego. Karl didn’t need Lila any longer to cross the street.
* There are “Reproduction Art Shops” everywhere – which do a great reproduction of oil paintings by famous artists. Example: a real painting by a high end Vietnamese artist is US $2,000 but a knock-off version is $20. They seem to have mastered the western artists much better than up& coming Vietnamese. Van Gogh for 20$ anyone?
* Streets are named after their original goods sold. Bamboo Street, for example, sells bamboo used for construction, decoration, and smoking pipes. Our route took us through door knob/lock street, shoe street, etc.
* There were people everywhere. No one seemed to be inside, except at internet cafes. It appears the favorite pastime is sitting at an outdoor restaurant eating with your friends.
* Local food is cheap! Lunch consisted of 2 noodle bowls with delicious toppings and 2 beers for a whopping $5.
* The President of Rwanda happens to be in Vietnam and staying at the same hotel. Lila feels like she's back on a geo trip with Craig - pointing out security and staffers. She met President Kagame in Rwanda last year, but didn't have guts to seek him out in Vietnam!
* We finished the day with dinner at the Green Tangerine, in honor of Melissa’s birthday. It’s a great French restaurant where Karl enjoyed green tea encrusted duck breast with lychee and Lila had a fabulous 3 rice seafood paella.
Monday, May 19, 2008
China Earthquake
The big news last week was the earthquake. Lila was in Taiwan when Karl sent the following from Beijing (1000 miles from the epicenter): “Just my luck – I just arrived in Beijing for a meeting when we have an earthquake here. Now I'm starting to feel like home. I have no clue on the size --- but my guess is 5.3 or so. I just ignored it… but all the locals evacuated the buildings … I just looked outside and there are millions of people out there. I'm not sure what is safer – hiding in the building or waiting for one of them to collapse on top of you. I'm fine however the local Intel sales team thinks it might have been 10 years since they felt a earthquake here."
Karl then sent the follow-up mail: “Oh my gosh… I just pulled the report from the earthquake site. It is listed as a 7.8 only 6 miles below the surface (but over 1000 miles away). No wonder we felt it all the way over here!"
It turns out that the Shanghai site also felt it and sent everyone home. They were told to expect light aftershocks in the evening so people stayed home. Fortunately all is fine with everyone we know. The government just announced that May 19 - 21 will be the China Mourn Days to grieve the earthquake victims. During the 3 days, the national flag is at half-mast across the country and all the entertainment is to be stopped. We didn't realize what that meant until we got home and flipped on the TV. Several channels were blacked out with statements:
“Dear subscribers, According to an announcement of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, May 19 to May 21, 2008 are national mourning days. In order to express our heartfelt condolences for the victims of the disastrous earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan Province, we will suspend the relay of overseas channels with limited landing rights that contain entertainment programmes during the above period. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”
Sports, the Discovery Channel, and Star Movies are still going. Meanwhile, the Chinese stations are filled with the sad images and reporting from out west. Between record snowfall and earth shaking, it appears Mother Earth is sending a message to China.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Airports Galore
Somehow putting the below with the earthquake update didn't seem right. So on to the more mundane things in the Liebat household…
KARL: I spent 3 days in Beijing this week. The Chinese airport is so funny: for everything that is almost liquid they take it out of bags and smell it. Then they randomly decide what you can keep and what must be thrown away. This time they decided that my hair stuff had to go. After 4 trips, this happened to be the time someone decided hair products could not go through. Unfortunately, airport negations have not been covered in my Chinese lessons. However, I practiced my Chinese with Driver Peter, and he understood about 95% of all the words I said. I can now also count to 900,000!
This week I also found out that they don't sell Benedryl in china. I went to the pharmacy and they finally gave me two drugs in the same family. The problem is that they don’t work! They had to get doctors ok for both but said I could have gone to a Chinese clinic and gotten both without doctors approval. How strange. This rash over my body has me missing the overpriced American health system.
We shipped our grill from the US since it was brand new. Too bad the Porsche couldn’t be shipped too. Anyway, the total cost for installation and 2 tanks is about $115US. Each tank refill will be US$13 – not a bad recurring revenue. The company also has air filters. We have one now – that’s about the size of Lila. The “gas tank, air filter” guy said we need another one given the size of our apartment. Although they cost thousands of dollars, it’s a small price to pay for clean air.
LILA: I spent 2 days in Taiwan this week, before heading to the US for my boss’ staff meeting. Unfortunately I ended up with massive stomach pains that killed ½ day of work and my shopping night.. I’m convinced it was the clean air. The weather was gorgeous – even hit 90s in Portland. The greens were beautifully green and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! After a business dinner the next night I did squeeze in the Costco-Target run to pick up stuff. It was kind of wild driving, knowing my way around, and there’s nothing like terrible TV to make you appreciate American commercials. I did end the week very tired of airports after having gone through 11 airports (only 5 unique) this week. The worst part was the security and check-in lines at SFO were horrendous and my seat mates (had a middle bulkhead) kept invading my personal space. Very excited to be home in China!
KARL: I spent 3 days in Beijing this week. The Chinese airport is so funny: for everything that is almost liquid they take it out of bags and smell it. Then they randomly decide what you can keep and what must be thrown away. This time they decided that my hair stuff had to go. After 4 trips, this happened to be the time someone decided hair products could not go through. Unfortunately, airport negations have not been covered in my Chinese lessons. However, I practiced my Chinese with Driver Peter, and he understood about 95% of all the words I said. I can now also count to 900,000!
This week I also found out that they don't sell Benedryl in china. I went to the pharmacy and they finally gave me two drugs in the same family. The problem is that they don’t work! They had to get doctors ok for both but said I could have gone to a Chinese clinic and gotten both without doctors approval. How strange. This rash over my body has me missing the overpriced American health system.
We shipped our grill from the US since it was brand new. Too bad the Porsche couldn’t be shipped too. Anyway, the total cost for installation and 2 tanks is about $115US. Each tank refill will be US$13 – not a bad recurring revenue. The company also has air filters. We have one now – that’s about the size of Lila. The “gas tank, air filter” guy said we need another one given the size of our apartment. Although they cost thousands of dollars, it’s a small price to pay for clean air.
LILA: I spent 2 days in Taiwan this week, before heading to the US for my boss’ staff meeting. Unfortunately I ended up with massive stomach pains that killed ½ day of work and my shopping night.. I’m convinced it was the clean air. The weather was gorgeous – even hit 90s in Portland. The greens were beautifully green and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! After a business dinner the next night I did squeeze in the Costco-Target run to pick up stuff. It was kind of wild driving, knowing my way around, and there’s nothing like terrible TV to make you appreciate American commercials. I did end the week very tired of airports after having gone through 11 airports (only 5 unique) this week. The worst part was the security and check-in lines at SFO were horrendous and my seat mates (had a middle bulkhead) kept invading my personal space. Very excited to be home in China!
Saturday, May 10, 2008
You must be allergic to China
Karl’s rash saga continues. He made it to the doctor again, who finally determined, “you must be allergic to China!” He’s on another dose of benadryl and non-scratch cream. We also switched to a new hypo-allergenic laundry detergent vs. the “Chinese Tide” (or so we think it’s Tide because of the packaging tho we can’t read a darn thing!).
We ventured out this morning around 10am for a Frommers walking tour of the French Concession. The book said 4-6 hours but we couldn’t believe there would be that much to see. Guess what? We were out until about 5pm walking around! Last weekend, we did the Frommers walk from the JingAn temple to the waterfront in 3 hours. The book points out where to stop and gives you the history and background of the main points. For example, today’s walk took us by the hotel where Zhou Enlai and Nixon met in ’72 when China opened to the West. We went to Sun Yat Sen’s (China republic) former residence. We went into the lobby of the Hotel Okura and around the corner to see the beautifully restored art deco work.
Last week Lila’s staff was in town for 3 days of meeting. Three of them arrived with goodies we had requested – magazines, healthy snack food, wine, and cereal! It was good to have everyone from the US, Brazil, and China all in 1 spot for 3 days. Some folks came early & left late, so we also enjoyed the social time with everyone. Lila also traveled to Taiwan on Monday. It should be ~3hr flight, but you can’t fly directly between Taiwan and China due to political reasons. That means transit is required in Hong Kong, turning the short journey into a 6 hour trip. Hard to do in 1 day, but can be managed w/overnight. The rumor is some upcoming election may resolve this in time for direct flights to start in July.
Our sea shipment finally arrived. We hung up some pictures and are kicking ourselves for not bringing more. Some of our clothes smell like “yucky sea” so we’ve put everything through our tiny washing machine. We did laundry all weekend, but saved the ironing/folding for Ayi (helper/maid). We’re also sending relevant stuff to the dry cleaners, which is fortunately a tiny fraction of the US cost.
In honor of mother’s day tomorrow, we cracked open a can of Cincinnati’s famous skyline chili that Karl’s mom Mary gave us before we left and sitting out on the balcony with a glass of Zinfandel in honor of Lila’s mom. The weather is fabulous, though it’s rained the past few days. The view is quite nice as pollution and heat haven’t hit yet. There’s a symphony building near us so sometimes – like now – we can hear people practicing. It’s a nice distraction from the construction that’s happening about 3 more blocks down. It’s 7:40pm on Saturday night and they’re working!
Sunday afternoon we went up to the 12th floor club room of our apartment complex. We didn’t even know this place existed! The owners keep it for Thursday Mahjong parties with their friends and as their own benefit. They made the mistake of inviting the tenants up for “tea time.” The building is only 1/3 full or so, and the tenants are really vocal about everything that’s wrong. For example, the TV signal dates back to America 1950s (but in color) and the utility bills are outrageous (because we are charged commercial vs. residential rates, and charged for common areas such as lobby). The group now wants to take the Chinese landlords to a disputes court to hopefully resolve the billing differences. If that doesn’t work, most of the tenants will move out when their lease is complete (one already left and just walked away from his security deposit). As an FYI: the difference in utility bills between consumer & commercial rates is about $150-300 / month (depending on personal usage).
We ventured out this morning around 10am for a Frommers walking tour of the French Concession. The book said 4-6 hours but we couldn’t believe there would be that much to see. Guess what? We were out until about 5pm walking around! Last weekend, we did the Frommers walk from the JingAn temple to the waterfront in 3 hours. The book points out where to stop and gives you the history and background of the main points. For example, today’s walk took us by the hotel where Zhou Enlai and Nixon met in ’72 when China opened to the West. We went to Sun Yat Sen’s (China republic) former residence. We went into the lobby of the Hotel Okura and around the corner to see the beautifully restored art deco work.
Last week Lila’s staff was in town for 3 days of meeting. Three of them arrived with goodies we had requested – magazines, healthy snack food, wine, and cereal! It was good to have everyone from the US, Brazil, and China all in 1 spot for 3 days. Some folks came early & left late, so we also enjoyed the social time with everyone. Lila also traveled to Taiwan on Monday. It should be ~3hr flight, but you can’t fly directly between Taiwan and China due to political reasons. That means transit is required in Hong Kong, turning the short journey into a 6 hour trip. Hard to do in 1 day, but can be managed w/overnight. The rumor is some upcoming election may resolve this in time for direct flights to start in July.
Our sea shipment finally arrived. We hung up some pictures and are kicking ourselves for not bringing more. Some of our clothes smell like “yucky sea” so we’ve put everything through our tiny washing machine. We did laundry all weekend, but saved the ironing/folding for Ayi (helper/maid). We’re also sending relevant stuff to the dry cleaners, which is fortunately a tiny fraction of the US cost.
In honor of mother’s day tomorrow, we cracked open a can of Cincinnati’s famous skyline chili that Karl’s mom Mary gave us before we left and sitting out on the balcony with a glass of Zinfandel in honor of Lila’s mom. The weather is fabulous, though it’s rained the past few days. The view is quite nice as pollution and heat haven’t hit yet. There’s a symphony building near us so sometimes – like now – we can hear people practicing. It’s a nice distraction from the construction that’s happening about 3 more blocks down. It’s 7:40pm on Saturday night and they’re working!
Sunday afternoon we went up to the 12th floor club room of our apartment complex. We didn’t even know this place existed! The owners keep it for Thursday Mahjong parties with their friends and as their own benefit. They made the mistake of inviting the tenants up for “tea time.” The building is only 1/3 full or so, and the tenants are really vocal about everything that’s wrong. For example, the TV signal dates back to America 1950s (but in color) and the utility bills are outrageous (because we are charged commercial vs. residential rates, and charged for common areas such as lobby). The group now wants to take the Chinese landlords to a disputes court to hopefully resolve the billing differences. If that doesn’t work, most of the tenants will move out when their lease is complete (one already left and just walked away from his security deposit). As an FYI: the difference in utility bills between consumer & commercial rates is about $150-300 / month (depending on personal usage).
Saturday, May 3, 2008
More Pix from Karl
More pictures posted from weekend adventures from Nanxu (blog update to follow soon): http://www.liebat.com/gallery2/v/Karl/China/Nanxu/
We're way overdue on Shanghai pix. Lila has a few to post, but Karl added a few here: http://www.liebat.com/gallery2/v/Karl/China/Shanghai_08
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Socializing! Kidney Massages, Duck Tongues, and Another Ancient Town
It’s been a while since the last update. We’re getting into the groove of living in Shanghai, especially as Lila hasn’t been traveling.
Last weekend we were lucky to finally have some social opportunities. Larry and Jean were visiting from the US, and we were able to meet up Friday and Sunday night for dinner. We had a great time with them, and they even helped us reconnect to Deanna (a former colleague) who now lives within walking distance from us. We also had Karl’s driver (Peter) show them around on the weekend – our first trial run. By the time the rest of you get here, this should be a well-oiled machine! We also met up with work colleagues on two other occasions – Saturday night and Sunday brunch. We’re slowly getting answers and tips to all of our expat orientation questions. In addition, it is so nice to start having a social life.
Among the weekend activities, Karl got his first kidney massage designed to remove toxins from your body. Karl decided that it was a little “too personal” for his western comfort zone. On the bright side, he felt less sluggish for the following days.
We spent Saturday exploring Suzhou, about 1.5 hour away. The old town, dating back to 464BC (!!) and famous for its gardens, is surrounded by a moat and canals with a modern city around the corner. We spent time at the “Humble Administrator’s Garden” (which is also translatable as ‘garden of the stupid officials’). Dating back to 1513, it would have been absolutely beautiful if there had been a few less hundreds of thousands of people. The nearby pagoda, topping 122 feet, was built in 1119 and now leans 10 degrees or so. The area was famous for its silk back in Tang Dynasty (600-900AD). The silk factory included some of the old looming machines that were unbelievably complex but still functional. For 15minutes, we watched 2 women operate the machine and still could NOT figure out what/how they were doing because of the complexity. We did gain another important key learning from the day: when a map looks like it is only 3 blocks, it’s really an hour walking away. Everything here is so spread out. We’re definitely getting a good share of walking exercise.
Karl had another business trip, this time to Xiamen on the southern coast of China across from Taiwan. The city has a population of 3M, and is mainly considered a tourist city. Karl’s customer manufactures and builds PCs here for North Asia. During his travel, Karl took Shanghai and Xiamen airlines. Because the government sets the airline prices, the smaller airlines differentiate themselves through service levels. Imagine this: they served beverages 3x, a meal and 2 hot towels during a 1.5 hour flight. The downside: no frequent flier miles with a US airline partner.
The food in China has been wonderful. Yesterday we found out there are > 40k restaurants in Shanghai! We haven’t gotten tired of Chinese food – there’s so much variety. In fact, Karl’s staff is trying to teach him how to identify the varieties of Chinese cuisine. This week was particularly interesting as they forced him to expand his culinary horizons while in Xiamen. He ate duck tongue, chicken feet, and multiple types of mushy unidentifiable sea stuff. Shanghai is known for its dumplings and sweet and sour flavors. There is a lot of oil and carbs in the food, which makes dieting difficult. We’re getting to the gym regularly to keep the weight in-check.
Other mundane daily life type things:
We both have our official Chinese work permits. Our sea shipment from the US should clear customs next week. We’re anxious to personalize our apartment! We are still learning to communicate with our ayi (maid). She now cooks dinners for us, does our laundry (though our whites & blacks are now both grey), irons (though everything still looks wrinkled), and cleans (but doesn’t pick up a vase to see the dust under it). This is actually very common here as standards of cleaning are different. We are still in training mode and hope the new book we bought (Ayi Survival Guide) will help. The drivers have been great. We are learning to have them run errands, grocery shopping and dry cleaning. The most difficult thing, however, is the timing. If you say pick up at 7am, you feel obligated to be there (time to finally invest in a ‘fake’ watch).
We had an English bookstore craving. As we were wandering around we found the very limited magazine section with a government issued catalog on the process for ordering foreign magazines and newspapers. A 1-year subscription to the New York Times costs $2500. Most every other magazine was over $400 / year. I guess we won’t be indulging in any US magazine subscriptions! In plain print, the catalog also states, “We hope our customer don't show the newspapers and periodicals on the public places.” ?!
We also discovered Taikang Lu. Tucked off the main road, it’s a hidden gem of small boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants housed in the old shikumen style buildings. The shikumen are British style terraced housing with elements of Chinese courtyard style house, literally translates as “stone gates” after their fancy archways. At times, up to 80% of population lived in these style houses. We read they cram 120 of these houses per acre (a developers dream!). The area was restored approximately 8 years ago, but hadn’t taken off as a successful shopping area until 2 years ago. Now every Japanese photo tourist has this top of their destination.
Last weekend we were lucky to finally have some social opportunities. Larry and Jean were visiting from the US, and we were able to meet up Friday and Sunday night for dinner. We had a great time with them, and they even helped us reconnect to Deanna (a former colleague) who now lives within walking distance from us. We also had Karl’s driver (Peter) show them around on the weekend – our first trial run. By the time the rest of you get here, this should be a well-oiled machine! We also met up with work colleagues on two other occasions – Saturday night and Sunday brunch. We’re slowly getting answers and tips to all of our expat orientation questions. In addition, it is so nice to start having a social life.
Among the weekend activities, Karl got his first kidney massage designed to remove toxins from your body. Karl decided that it was a little “too personal” for his western comfort zone. On the bright side, he felt less sluggish for the following days.
We spent Saturday exploring Suzhou, about 1.5 hour away. The old town, dating back to 464BC (!!) and famous for its gardens, is surrounded by a moat and canals with a modern city around the corner. We spent time at the “Humble Administrator’s Garden” (which is also translatable as ‘garden of the stupid officials’). Dating back to 1513, it would have been absolutely beautiful if there had been a few less hundreds of thousands of people. The nearby pagoda, topping 122 feet, was built in 1119 and now leans 10 degrees or so. The area was famous for its silk back in Tang Dynasty (600-900AD). The silk factory included some of the old looming machines that were unbelievably complex but still functional. For 15minutes, we watched 2 women operate the machine and still could NOT figure out what/how they were doing because of the complexity. We did gain another important key learning from the day: when a map looks like it is only 3 blocks, it’s really an hour walking away. Everything here is so spread out. We’re definitely getting a good share of walking exercise.
Karl had another business trip, this time to Xiamen on the southern coast of China across from Taiwan. The city has a population of 3M, and is mainly considered a tourist city. Karl’s customer manufactures and builds PCs here for North Asia. During his travel, Karl took Shanghai and Xiamen airlines. Because the government sets the airline prices, the smaller airlines differentiate themselves through service levels. Imagine this: they served beverages 3x, a meal and 2 hot towels during a 1.5 hour flight. The downside: no frequent flier miles with a US airline partner.
The food in China has been wonderful. Yesterday we found out there are > 40k restaurants in Shanghai! We haven’t gotten tired of Chinese food – there’s so much variety. In fact, Karl’s staff is trying to teach him how to identify the varieties of Chinese cuisine. This week was particularly interesting as they forced him to expand his culinary horizons while in Xiamen. He ate duck tongue, chicken feet, and multiple types of mushy unidentifiable sea stuff. Shanghai is known for its dumplings and sweet and sour flavors. There is a lot of oil and carbs in the food, which makes dieting difficult. We’re getting to the gym regularly to keep the weight in-check.
Other mundane daily life type things:
We both have our official Chinese work permits. Our sea shipment from the US should clear customs next week. We’re anxious to personalize our apartment! We are still learning to communicate with our ayi (maid). She now cooks dinners for us, does our laundry (though our whites & blacks are now both grey), irons (though everything still looks wrinkled), and cleans (but doesn’t pick up a vase to see the dust under it). This is actually very common here as standards of cleaning are different. We are still in training mode and hope the new book we bought (Ayi Survival Guide) will help. The drivers have been great. We are learning to have them run errands, grocery shopping and dry cleaning. The most difficult thing, however, is the timing. If you say pick up at 7am, you feel obligated to be there (time to finally invest in a ‘fake’ watch).
We had an English bookstore craving. As we were wandering around we found the very limited magazine section with a government issued catalog on the process for ordering foreign magazines and newspapers. A 1-year subscription to the New York Times costs $2500. Most every other magazine was over $400 / year. I guess we won’t be indulging in any US magazine subscriptions! In plain print, the catalog also states, “We hope our customer don't show the newspapers and periodicals on the public places.” ?!
We also discovered Taikang Lu. Tucked off the main road, it’s a hidden gem of small boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants housed in the old shikumen style buildings. The shikumen are British style terraced housing with elements of Chinese courtyard style house, literally translates as “stone gates” after their fancy archways. At times, up to 80% of population lived in these style houses. We read they cram 120 of these houses per acre (a developers dream!). The area was restored approximately 8 years ago, but hadn’t taken off as a successful shopping area until 2 years ago. Now every Japanese photo tourist has this top of their destination.
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