Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Container Loading
This was from a few weeks ago but I neglected it. We were out visiting a factory and they happened to be loading a container. Given the heat it wasn't surprising to see some of them without their shirts on...but the guy loading the container in only his underwear was a first for me!
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Thanksgiving at "Mom's"
As you may know I decided to take a real quick trip to LA to be with my brothers for Thanksgiving. I left Shanghai on Wednesday night, arriving into LAX also on Wednesday evening. Then the plan is to return on Saturday morning, giving me a little over 2 full days on the ground.
With the Packers playing the Lions on Thursday and me living overseas it was a chance to watch a game live for the first time all season. So Taylor and I went to "Mom's" to watch the game. We walked in to "Mom's" (photo below) just after halftime to the bar and instantly I was home. Wall to wall Packers fans, including one bald guy with his head fully painted like a Packers helmet!
After a 7-0 halftime lead we got to watch the Lions implode led by Ndamukong Suh who was ejected during a critical drive. Ahh what fun to see Mom's explode during touchdown after touchdown. Everything down to the Packers music blaring after each score and plenty of well lubricated fans dancing in the bar.
Now as I struggle to try and sleep with the jet lag on the short trip I don't really care as the trip was a blast and well worth it. Then again I might say otherwise as I actually have two more trips to the US before the end of the year (more on that later I guess).
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Smells
People often say that they will never forget the smells of China. Personally I've probably gotten used to a bunch of them. There is one I won't get used to and that is the smell of boiled then fried fish balls that are sold on a stick in 7-11. That smell is just nasty!
This photo was taken a week or so ago. It was in a Starbucks down the street from my office. Note the comment in the lower right..."Smells bad here." Were they referencing Starbucks? Or were they talking about all of Shanghai and China?
I'd bet on Shanghai and China in general. Starbucks has one of the greatest smells of all time!
This photo was taken a week or so ago. It was in a Starbucks down the street from my office. Note the comment in the lower right..."Smells bad here." Were they referencing Starbucks? Or were they talking about all of Shanghai and China?
Monday, November 21, 2011
Car Repairs
Add this to another in the "Only in China" series. While I can't prove this story is true or not, I can say that it is the type of thing that would not surprise me one bit. So here goes the story as was told to me...
A local (native) factory owner takes his Mercedes in to the shop as he needed new brake pads. He leaves the car for a few hours and comes back when they say it is complete. He returns to the shop, pays the bill and then goes out to the lot to get his car and head home.
On the steering wheel was a note written in Chinese that said "Out of brake pads, made horn louder."
That's logic for you here in China!!!
A local (native) factory owner takes his Mercedes in to the shop as he needed new brake pads. He leaves the car for a few hours and comes back when they say it is complete. He returns to the shop, pays the bill and then goes out to the lot to get his car and head home.
On the steering wheel was a note written in Chinese that said "Out of brake pads, made horn louder."
That's logic for you here in China!!!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Locked Out!
This just happened this evening and is one of those "Only in China" moments.
Earlier this evening the building management sent over a repair person to fix a few things in my apartment - a broken toilet, some special lightbulbs and the door handle on the front door. Basically the door handle from the inside was loose and needed to be adjusted. All in all it took the guy about 20 minutes and he charged me 60rmb (under $10). Pretty nice value. So I went out to dinner. Upon coming back, my key went in the lock but nothing turned. I tried again and again but no luck.
I then had to go the management office to explain it to someone who only spoke ok English. At first his reply was "someone would come tomorrow." When I explained I can't get it at all to my apartment and showed him my key, he proceeded to go into the cabinets and give me my spare key. So back I went knowing it wouldn't work and guess what? It didn't.
So back to the office at this point. He then realizes this issue isn't going away on his clock. So he calls no less than 30 locksmiths, none of whom answer the phone. He keeps telling me "wait a minute." Finally someone calls and says they will be over in 10 minutes. So back over to my apartment we go.
The locksmith arrives...in his pajamas with no socks on and looking dead asleep still. But he is friendly. We get to my unit and I pull out the key and he looks at me like I'm crazy. I guess he thought I simply locked myself out. He then realizes the problem. Basically when it was "fixed" earlier in the evening the repair man reversed the lock on the inside making it impossible to use the key.
He tries all sorts of tools but nothing is working. He is making plenty of noise too using a hammer at one point. Finally he pulls out a metallic sheet a little bigger than a credit card. After another 15 minutes or so with that, the door pops open and I'm back inside. He spends a few more minutes fixing the "fixed" lock and then...they bill me 200rmb ($32). Really? Now I have no problem with him being paid and so I gladly gave him the money. But the idea that the building management guy thinks I should pay for this is absurd!
Ahh life in China!
Earlier this evening the building management sent over a repair person to fix a few things in my apartment - a broken toilet, some special lightbulbs and the door handle on the front door. Basically the door handle from the inside was loose and needed to be adjusted. All in all it took the guy about 20 minutes and he charged me 60rmb (under $10). Pretty nice value. So I went out to dinner. Upon coming back, my key went in the lock but nothing turned. I tried again and again but no luck.
I then had to go the management office to explain it to someone who only spoke ok English. At first his reply was "someone would come tomorrow." When I explained I can't get it at all to my apartment and showed him my key, he proceeded to go into the cabinets and give me my spare key. So back I went knowing it wouldn't work and guess what? It didn't.
So back to the office at this point. He then realizes this issue isn't going away on his clock. So he calls no less than 30 locksmiths, none of whom answer the phone. He keeps telling me "wait a minute." Finally someone calls and says they will be over in 10 minutes. So back over to my apartment we go.
The locksmith arrives...in his pajamas with no socks on and looking dead asleep still. But he is friendly. We get to my unit and I pull out the key and he looks at me like I'm crazy. I guess he thought I simply locked myself out. He then realizes the problem. Basically when it was "fixed" earlier in the evening the repair man reversed the lock on the inside making it impossible to use the key.
He tries all sorts of tools but nothing is working. He is making plenty of noise too using a hammer at one point. Finally he pulls out a metallic sheet a little bigger than a credit card. After another 15 minutes or so with that, the door pops open and I'm back inside. He spends a few more minutes fixing the "fixed" lock and then...they bill me 200rmb ($32). Really? Now I have no problem with him being paid and so I gladly gave him the money. But the idea that the building management guy thinks I should pay for this is absurd!
Ahh life in China!
Bhutan Day 8 - the last day
Again we had some poor planning by our tour company owner making for some long time in a car. We started from our hotel in Paro at 9AM. She had told us the night before it was a 2.5 hour drive to go white water rafting. Well...come to find out that is if we had stayed in a hotel in Thimpu, so add another 90 minutes to the ride. Not a big deal but we didn't really want to spend our final day all in the car.
We finally got to the river only to notice that it was running real slow and there were no other rafts! Turns out we were out of season but they would be happy to take us. So off we went after we got our safety training. It was incredibly beautiful sights and generally super relaxing. There were a few rapids but honestly it was nothing.
Now I had mentioned a royal wedding in a previous post. Well a few days after we were to leave Bhutan the King was getting married. If I recall he was 30 years old and she is 21. Both very good looking, young and smart. He is only the 5th King in their history. All photos we saw of the previous ones were also young. His father the 4th King interestingly had 4 wives, which is allowed since he is the king. However that wasn't the interesting part. The really spooky, bizarre part that his four wives were all sisters! Weird by any standards I think.
In any event the entire country was getting ready to celebrate this royal wedding. The arrival/departure customs card even was in thirds. With the left side being arrival, right side being departure. In the middle was a photo of the new King/Queen with an announcement that this royal wedding was a countrywide celebration and that all visitors were invited to enjoy the festivities in all the country. So in essence it was my invite to the wedding.
Back to our rafting adventure. As we drove there our van got past by an official motorcade. According to our driver and guide one of the princesses was in the motorcade and apparently heading to one of their countryside residences.
(If you click on the photo to enlarge you will see the building in the background is all decorated with flags and such. This is only done on royal events, they were getting ready for the wedding in a few days around the country, even here in the countryside)
Then a few hours later as we lazily went down the river a group on the banks started waving pleasantly at us. The boat guide claimed it was the princess and her family and was able to tell because of the clothes they were wearing. Pretty damn cool!
Our final night was spent in Thimpu. In planning our departure back to Thailand and then China the next day we needed to figure out what time to go to the airport (also how late we could stay out that night accordingly!). Well even though I had the same flight number as the others, their tickets showed a totally different time than mine. We tried figuring it out but as in all of Asia what should be easy is always a challenge.
Some final photos as we walked around the city the last morning...
(That stepladder is actually the entrance to the store!)
Red Panda beer...not bad
In any event after one final dinner we were taken out to a karaoke bar where the girls did their best, while the locals sat around laughing at all of us. Then on to some local club where we were almost the first to arrive. We made the most of both places and hit the sack around midnight. Long day of travel tomorrow!
Phenomenal trip and highly recommended for those of you who can rough it a bit or like an adventure!
We finally got to the river only to notice that it was running real slow and there were no other rafts! Turns out we were out of season but they would be happy to take us. So off we went after we got our safety training. It was incredibly beautiful sights and generally super relaxing. There were a few rapids but honestly it was nothing.
Now I had mentioned a royal wedding in a previous post. Well a few days after we were to leave Bhutan the King was getting married. If I recall he was 30 years old and she is 21. Both very good looking, young and smart. He is only the 5th King in their history. All photos we saw of the previous ones were also young. His father the 4th King interestingly had 4 wives, which is allowed since he is the king. However that wasn't the interesting part. The really spooky, bizarre part that his four wives were all sisters! Weird by any standards I think.
In any event the entire country was getting ready to celebrate this royal wedding. The arrival/departure customs card even was in thirds. With the left side being arrival, right side being departure. In the middle was a photo of the new King/Queen with an announcement that this royal wedding was a countrywide celebration and that all visitors were invited to enjoy the festivities in all the country. So in essence it was my invite to the wedding.
Back to our rafting adventure. As we drove there our van got past by an official motorcade. According to our driver and guide one of the princesses was in the motorcade and apparently heading to one of their countryside residences.
(If you click on the photo to enlarge you will see the building in the background is all decorated with flags and such. This is only done on royal events, they were getting ready for the wedding in a few days around the country, even here in the countryside)
Then a few hours later as we lazily went down the river a group on the banks started waving pleasantly at us. The boat guide claimed it was the princess and her family and was able to tell because of the clothes they were wearing. Pretty damn cool!
Our final night was spent in Thimpu. In planning our departure back to Thailand and then China the next day we needed to figure out what time to go to the airport (also how late we could stay out that night accordingly!). Well even though I had the same flight number as the others, their tickets showed a totally different time than mine. We tried figuring it out but as in all of Asia what should be easy is always a challenge.
Some final photos as we walked around the city the last morning...
(That stepladder is actually the entrance to the store!)
In any event after one final dinner we were taken out to a karaoke bar where the girls did their best, while the locals sat around laughing at all of us. Then on to some local club where we were almost the first to arrive. We made the most of both places and hit the sack around midnight. Long day of travel tomorrow!
Phenomenal trip and highly recommended for those of you who can rough it a bit or like an adventure!
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Bhutan Day 7
Today was a long day but it was excellent, very different and full of more color than one can imagine. We started by driving back to Thimpu. This is where our tour guide wasn't so good at logistics and planning. It would have made much more sense to stay in Thimpu the night before but instead she booked the hotel back in Paro. Oh well, nothing we can do now. There is a royal wedding coming up (more on that in the next post) and therefore hotels are beyond scarce in the entire country.
So we returned to Thimpu for some sort of religious festival. It is a once a year, three day festival that everyone in the city makes sure they hit. The costumes and dances reminded me of similar dances I had seen in Bali. There were wonderful dresses and so much color everywhere. To say the least it was prime photo taking opportunity. In fact this whole trip was, so paring down photos has been next to impossible.
The festival was packed. This is just trying to get in.
After the festival our guide had a surprise for us. He had heard our disappointment in getting cake instead of pizza the day before so he arranged to take us for lunch at a pizza place. Nothing less than awesome! Honestly some of the best pizzas I had ever eaten. We scarfed down 5 large pizzas, even though the waitress said medium would be more than enough. Little did she know our appetites.
After lunch they said we were going to the zoo, but in reality it was a large nature preserve. Specifically to see their national animal, the Takin. This is one ugly animal. It basically has the head of a goat and the body of a cattle.
Here he is. Unfortunately he was in a lazy mood so I never got a picture of him standing up so you could see how large he was.
After that we were off to see a Buddha. Then some tourist shopping. And finally to a bar which was its own unique experience. Basically people come to the bar and sit around on couches or chairs but don't drink! The money comes in from paying a karaoke girl to sing the song on stage.
As we were doing some shopping I noticed the Coke bottles all filled with milk in one store. Not sure Coke appreciates the extra marketing. Nor would I necessarily feel comfortable with drinking that milk..
Here's the view of the bar, not much to it.
Another "super strong" beer. Interesting that the exact same beer came in both a light and a dark bottle.
Our last stop was for dinner of Indian food. And while it's not my favorite cuisine, the place was excellent. We even met a local movie star. It was also good time to reminisce on the trip.
This was the kitchen at the Indian place. That's all there was to it. I couldn't even figure out where the food itself came from.
When all was done with dinner it was back in the van for a 90 minute drive back to Paro and our hotel. Good planning huh?
So we returned to Thimpu for some sort of religious festival. It is a once a year, three day festival that everyone in the city makes sure they hit. The costumes and dances reminded me of similar dances I had seen in Bali. There were wonderful dresses and so much color everywhere. To say the least it was prime photo taking opportunity. In fact this whole trip was, so paring down photos has been next to impossible.
The festival was packed. This is just trying to get in.
We had to be dressed with long sleeves and a collared shirt for the guys. So the fleece was on and it was boiling outside!
Here he is. Unfortunately he was in a lazy mood so I never got a picture of him standing up so you could see how large he was.
At the nature preserve we saw some child labor making beautiful scarves on these old hand looms. Interestingly the kids were also studying at the same time. Not sure it will get them far but at least they were making an effort.
As we were doing some shopping I noticed the Coke bottles all filled with milk in one store. Not sure Coke appreciates the extra marketing. Nor would I necessarily feel comfortable with drinking that milk..
The Buddha wasn't anything special, especially after seeing so many in Asia, but the view from the Buddha was pretty impressive.
This was the kitchen at the Indian place. That's all there was to it. I couldn't even figure out where the food itself came from.
When all was done with dinner it was back in the van for a 90 minute drive back to Paro and our hotel. Good planning huh?
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Bhutan Day 6
Today is supposed to be super easy but in reality it is straight down for just over 2 hours. That means my quads were absolutely burning and you had to be very careful where you stepped.
A view from our campsite being packed up and us mostly ready to go.
Getting a little running water to clean our hands officially was nice.
The women, not quite ready to pass the finish line just yet. So I guess they took a few minutes of reflection.
Upon completion we were greeted by a previous guide of ours who had some Pepsi and a box that said "Druk Pizza." How awesome was this going to be? Well it wasn't pizza in fact so our dreams got shattered as it was a non-flavorful, but probably high calorie, cake.
Ahh the Super Strong Druk 11,000 beer for lunch!
We spent a bit of time checking out the city of Thimpu before driving back to Paro (which is the town our trek started from). The hotel when we finally got there was really cool and located high in the mountain, more like a lodge than anything else.
These next photos are from the city of Thimpu as we were pleased to be back in civilization I guess.
There are no stoplights in the city, so it is all done by police men waving on cars.
On the way back to Paro we noticed an awesome rainbow so we had to stop.
Ahh what I wouldn't give for a shower and a quick nap on a bed! Well that wasn't to be unfortunately. I unpacked my stuff as we would be here two nights, so enough time to air out the clothes that had gained a nice foul smell in the mountains.
When I went to take a shower all that came out of the faucet was a stream of muddy water! I ran it for a bit hoping it just needed to work through the system. Well it didn't. Turns out they were doing maintenance on the pipes and it would be another hour or so until it got fixed. They did move my room since now the entire bathroom was muddy.
Finally right before dinner they got the water working, so I took a quick shower and then it was off for some food.
After dinner we were to go to a local farmhouse for the unique opportunity to take a hot stone bath. This was supposed to be excellent for the joints and muscles after the days of trekking. In order to give you an understanding of the scenario there were individual holes built into the ground and framed out with wood. Each one was barely wide enough for a body width and probably 2 feet deep. In terms of length it wasn't long enough to allow me to stretch my legs completely. The water in these boxes was simply filled with water from a hose. Then right outside the bath house they had a massive fire going and in the fire were these large, very smooth, round rocks. Each weighed 20-30kgs (45-65lbs). They would transport them into an area near your feet that was walled off and the water heated up. After a few rocks were in and the water was hot we were allowed to each get in our hole. Holy crap was it hot! Literally it felt like the skin was melting off my shins! If you moved too much or too fast it simply caused all the water to move and everything felt hotter. I lasted about 25 minutes in this tub before I could handle it no more. But I got out feeling very refreshed.
In the farmhouse having tea before heading to the stone bath.
Yup those rocks are gonna be hot, hot, HOT!
Not a great photo but it will give you the idea...
A view from our campsite being packed up and us mostly ready to go.
That's me on the final day promoting my brother Taylor's company TssRadio. I've taken his shirts to Mongolia, the Beijing Olmypics, Bhutan and other places. A well traveled company. Check him out at tss-radio.com.
Our full group including the guides, cooks, horesmen, etc. Notice the woman on the left a couple of feet out from the group. That is the tour company owner and she was nice but wasn't great, I guess she realized it and didn't want to be in the photo.
We spent a bit of time checking out the city of Thimpu before driving back to Paro (which is the town our trek started from). The hotel when we finally got there was really cool and located high in the mountain, more like a lodge than anything else.
These next photos are from the city of Thimpu as we were pleased to be back in civilization I guess.
On the way back to Paro we noticed an awesome rainbow so we had to stop.
Ahh what I wouldn't give for a shower and a quick nap on a bed! Well that wasn't to be unfortunately. I unpacked my stuff as we would be here two nights, so enough time to air out the clothes that had gained a nice foul smell in the mountains.
When I went to take a shower all that came out of the faucet was a stream of muddy water! I ran it for a bit hoping it just needed to work through the system. Well it didn't. Turns out they were doing maintenance on the pipes and it would be another hour or so until it got fixed. They did move my room since now the entire bathroom was muddy.
Finally right before dinner they got the water working, so I took a quick shower and then it was off for some food.
After dinner we were to go to a local farmhouse for the unique opportunity to take a hot stone bath. This was supposed to be excellent for the joints and muscles after the days of trekking. In order to give you an understanding of the scenario there were individual holes built into the ground and framed out with wood. Each one was barely wide enough for a body width and probably 2 feet deep. In terms of length it wasn't long enough to allow me to stretch my legs completely. The water in these boxes was simply filled with water from a hose. Then right outside the bath house they had a massive fire going and in the fire were these large, very smooth, round rocks. Each weighed 20-30kgs (45-65lbs). They would transport them into an area near your feet that was walled off and the water heated up. After a few rocks were in and the water was hot we were allowed to each get in our hole. Holy crap was it hot! Literally it felt like the skin was melting off my shins! If you moved too much or too fast it simply caused all the water to move and everything felt hotter. I lasted about 25 minutes in this tub before I could handle it no more. But I got out feeling very refreshed.
In the farmhouse having tea before heading to the stone bath.
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