Sandy

Well it's Halloween here today and I must say I haven't seen anyone out in costume today.  That's not to say they won't be out tonight and weren't out in force last weekend or planning on dressing up this coming weekend.  Halloween is one holiday that seems to pick up steam and get bigger and crazy every year!  What was once mostly a child's holiday has become everyone's.

That being said I'm guessing the festivities are slowed down significantly on the East Coast of the US, thanks to Sandy the monster hurricane.  I know that my mom (among many) still doesn't have power in her home in CT.  My NY office has had two days without power as well.  For me my email and such is housed on our NY server so with their power being out, I have had a few quiet email days.  Can't complain about that but at the same time I admit I'm a bit scared about what happens when the power turns back on!

In any event, thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by the storm.

JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge Shanghai

A couple of weeks back I actually got our office to do two things that I pretty much never thought I could get them to do.  More importantly I got them to do both at the same time!  Those things?  Exercise and Charity.

The JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge took place for a 2nd time here.  This time with over 6,000 people taking part, some companies having multiple hundreds of competitors.  I was happy getting about 29 to sign up out of 50+ in our office and having 25 actually run.  All proceeds raised by this race went to support education of Shanghai's migrant workers. 

http://www.jpmorganchasecc.com/events.php?city_id=25&page=events101812

Call me optimistic but I think most of the team had a lot of fun, even if they aren't athlete's.  Hopefully next year we can get more to participate!

Morning bike rides

I've done a fair amount of early morning bike rides this summer and fall.  Typically leaving my apartment by about 4:45 and meeting a group of friends at 5:30.  From there we head west out of the city.  It's amazing how different Shanghai looks from a bike at that hour.  Recently with the sun rising later and later we get totally different views.

Here's a couple of sunrise photos from a ride the last week or so....

We end up biking through some small villages where we see the locals brushing their teeth, washing their clothes, etc in the streets.  But yet it is so peaceful and quiet out there, not the blaring horns of the city.

Boracay

October National Holiday meant basically a forced vacation!  Gotta love the forced vacations a couple of times a year in China.  This year I had grand aspirations first to go to someplace like Myanmar/Burma, but when I couldn't find others interested I was set on Laos.  I had the whole itinerary planned and was getting psyched.  Well long and short it fell through because I waited too long to pull the real trigger and at that point tickets to get me to Bangkok, from where you take a train to Laos, was over $1,500usd.  Yup onto the next plan which was simple.  Find a ticket ANYWHERE!  Easier said than done when more than 200 million Chinese were expected to also be traveling.  Bottom line I found at ticket to Manila and then separately purchased domestic tickets from Manila to Boracay, Philippines.  Which incidentally is supposed to be one of the top ranked beach destinations in the world.

So a flight to Manila for an overnight stay then on to Kalibo, from there it's about a 90 minute drive towards Boracay.  After that drive you take a 15 minute catamaran boat ride to Boracay, where you are greeted by tons and tons of "tricycle's" (essentially a motorcycle with extra space for people/luggage) for your short trip to the hotel.

 Out the calm side of the water from the catamaran into Boracay...

 

One really cool thing about Boracay is that there is a sand walkway that extends probably about a mile up and down the beach, separating the beach itself from the shops, restaurants and hotels.  No motorized vehicles allowed, meaning if you hung out there your entire trip you could literally not see a car/truck until you left.  

Unfortunately the weather didn't want to cooperate with my visit.  The first day we arrived mid afternoon and it was nice...too bad we didn't know that would essentially be our best day.  Lots and lots of driving rain and wind.  So that left eating and drinking...

Check out that steak knife!  It was small sized but sharp as all get out!

A "Booze Buffet" huh?  All for 598php or $14.50usd!  Thankfully the only enjoyment I got out of this was the photo, I didn't figure I needed all you can drink vacation...

That being said my favorite beer in the Philippines is Red Horse "Extra Strong" seen in the photo above.  It's about 7% alcohol and quite dangerous in the large 500ml bottles.  Gotta love the white napkins that wrap the top.  I thought they were served this way to keep sand out before you started drinking.  Makes sense to me.  However I found rather it was so you could wipe off the rust on the top of the bottle.  Given they are dark bottles you don't visibly see the rust, but it's there in the heat, humidity and salt water environment.  We never had a shortage of Red Horses come evening time.

All in all a place Boracay is a place I must head back to but only if I can have good weather.  Would love to take a boat trip, go scuba diving, rent a scooter to check out the island, etc.  All would have been fun but weren't in the cards with the driving rain 3 out of 4 days.

Heading off the island we took a hotel provided speed boat and said our good byes, on what was the 2nd nicest day weather wise!  Until next time Boracay!