SE Asia 2007 - Photos (Part 1)

Okay everyone,

My trip photos are up on Facebook.  Well, up for Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. 

Yes I've also taken the courtesy to include some videos, so you can live through some of the completely random stuff we experienced along the way.    The reason they're there is because it is way too time-consuming to do it xanga-style.

Check it out!  Comments are appreciated.

Edward in Vancouver~

Okay, so I'm back at home.  Things I have learned:
- Vancouver is hella boring, especially when compared to Europe and Asia.
- Vancouver people are stuck-up, compared to the rest of the world.  Sure enough, I am not imagining this!
- The HK people I talked to are right.  Vancouver is a nice place to retire, but Asia is the place to be if you want a dynamic lifestyle.
- Beer here is EXPENSIVE ><

So now the question is whether I want to remain in Vancouver, or immigrate to Guangzhou and begin a brand new future.  Kind of a scary prospect, now I know how my parents felt when they dropped everything in Hong Kong and started a new life in Vancouver from scratch.  *sigh*

Let's see what else has happened.

I got a new cell phone.  Yeah, normally I don't care about these things, but Fido decided not to give me back my old plan (even after being with them for 3 years ).  Okay, they would, but they wanted another $10/mo.  That would push my plan to about $53/month when it was all said and done.  So I talked to my buddy at Bell and he hooked me up with a corporate plan, and now have more features AND minutes, for only $29/mo.  The reason why I held off all this time was that it was only recently that Canada got the ability to port numbers between carriers (I did not want to lose my number).  I took the cheapest phone they had (as usual ), which is the Samsung SPH-M500.  Wow, this thing is not "cheap" at all.  Bluetooth, MicroSD slot, built in MP3, dual displays... next to the baozi in China, this is the best $ I've spent in a long time.   The best part is that this thing is smaller than my 6-year old Sony Ericsson T200, one of the reasons I never bothered upgrading (and dealt with the hordes of people making fun of me over the years) was that very few phones could fit better in my pocket.  The Samsung is actually smaller in all dimensions.  Yikes.  I  Samsung.  (they also made my MP3 player)

I installed a CD changer in my car.  Yes, after 3 years, I am no longer stuck with only a tape deck.  Yes I did have a car tape adapter hooked up to my mp3 player for those long drives, but the sound never quite came out right (left channel was too soft, no bass etc).  Wow, the same songs on a CD come alive now.  Saved $1000 (what the dealer wanted to charge; I got the parts for $200USD, labour was free ) too.  Awesome!  Anybody for some Thai music?  This. stuff. is. actually. better. than. Chinese. music.  Yeah, Thailand out of all places, wtf haha.

Over the weekend I saw 2 movies: Life Free or Die Hard (they call it Die Hard 4.0 in Asia), and Ocean's 13.  So, let's do the reviews.

DH4 is crazy.  Non-stop action.  Somehow Lt. McClane pulls off this entire movie without saying the f-word once.  The plot is pretty good, though sometimes you have to feel bad for the villian and why he made the decision to pull off his plot...  And some of the stunts are pretty original.  Realism is questionable sometimes, but wow.  As an added bonus, Maggie Q is hot

The verdict: Theatre.  Plenty of explosions.  SilverCity recommended.

Ocean's 13 is another keeper.  Not as much drama as Ocean's 11 (I never saw 12 by the way) as it was obvious this movie was not tied to an older movie or a book.  The plan this time is pretty crazy, but it actually looks doable.  I think the hotel (where the movie takes place) is fictional though.

I love that Chinese acrobat guy, especially when he's yelling in Mandarin (and of course there are no subtitles)

The verdict: Theatre/Rental.  Good clean fun for everyone.  It's worth the movie ticket/rental fee.

Chapter 12: The Return Home

Okay, so now I am sitting at HK International Airport, waiting for my boarding time 1hr away.

Wow, what a trip.  A few things that have happened.  My last 2 days were spent walking around HK.  Wow, haven't seen so many Philipino nannies in one shot, ever.  Looks like all 100,000 of them converge at Central on the weekends!  They were sitting on the sidewalks, underground tunnels, streets (yes, many streets were cordoned off in Central just for these flips), even the subway station stairs!  Then the surrounding malls are completely packed with them too!  It was so exotic that I had take a picture.  Damn.  Tried another Cafe de Coral (Da Gar Lok), and THEY. WERE. OUT. OF. PC. RICE.  ARGH x 2.  Me no likey ><

My mom's friends probably think I'm the biggest idiot alive.  Wow,  I have a LOT to learn about HK customs, especially the art of inviting people or dinner.

This morning I had a chance to eat one last breakfast with my friend AW.  It was really nice of him to take me out for breakfast.  Then I tried to take the MTR and found out MTR DOES NOT ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS.   Uh oh.  Had to run to a crappy money changer and cash a traveller's cheque at crappy rates again.

Went to Wan Chai and picked up my HK Identity Card.  Now I am an officially government-sanctioned Honger  Awesomeness.  The pick-up process took less than 10 minutes.

Had  lunch with a good family friend PT by the Renaissance.  Wow, he is really nice.  Never really chatted with him (haven't seen him since 1996 when I was a kid), but it was really nice to catch up, we clicked.  Had a nice French meal, right down to escargots.  Yum   He got his driver to pick me up, and drove me to ifc where I checked in my bag and hit up the Airport Express.  Wow, this train is quick, HK to Airport in less than 30 minutes.

Hopefully the movies and food on the plane will be good.

Chapter 11: Canada D'eh!

omg this has to be the most random segment of my trip.

Okay, so now I'm back in HK, leeching free internet off a coffee shop in Times Square (okay, not leeching, it did say you need to buy a drink and I got one for 29hkd).

Before I get into the HK details...

More observations of China:

1. They like putting ramps next to flights of stairs.  Just so you can slip and die.  Okay okay, it's good for dragging wheeled stuff around, but it also doubles as an "express lane" when the stairs are full.
2. Everything is really tacky.  I can't explain it.  The tackiness is so thick you can almost cut it with a knife.  Mmm... so tasty... *licks tackiness off knife*

So my last 2 nights were spent partying it up with my good friend RC.  One night was spent drinking at a lounge, the other night was spent clubbing.  2 words for those nights: Oh snap.

My dad took me to Shenzhen for a day as per my request  My Lonely Planet guide book specifically says that you only go there if you're stuck between HK and China, and I'd have to agree.  The book also says that it's like a crappy version of China to people coming in from HK, and a crappy version of HK if you're coming in from China.  Couldn't have said it better myself.  Saw a beach, and a super TACKY *ding, word of the day* theme park called Window of the World.  They had all these miniature version of famous buildings such as the Eiffel Tower and the Easter Island statues.  They also had this show featuring dances (all danced by Chinese people of course, where are you going to find a white person in Shenzhen) from around the world.  I couldn't stop laughing at the Persian ones.  Ever see a whole bunch of Aladdins and Jasmines (like 30 of each type) dancing?  The USA one (Broadway imitiation) was also kind of TACKY *ding* but I guess it's not bad considering I bet nobody on that show has ever left China before.

Afterwards, at McDonald's, a bunch of those 24hour moon men in suits came dancing into the restaurant.  I have never seen so many FOB customers look terrorized.

Edward in Hong Kong~

My dad went with me to Hong Kong because we were meeting an old family friend for lunch.  Before that though, he took me to see his grandmother's (ie my great-grandmother's) grave, up on a mountain in Fanling.  We couldn't find the correct section so we had to walk up and down the road a few times.  Finally we found it, but omg I have never seen so many mosquitoes in my life.  Whenever I slapped one on my leg (squishing it), another 3-5 would land and bite my other leg!  While I took pictures, my dad was slapping both my legs.  Just took 2 pictures, 3 bows, and had to run out.  Afterwards I counted over 20+ nice big bumps on each leg, and about 10 on each arm.  All for 1 minute of remembrance.

As for lunch, my cousin was invited too, this was going to be interesting because I haven't seen her since 1992.  Hmm... same old, nothing special.  We didn't have that much to talk about at all, guess I didn't miss out much.  Afterwards I had my stinky tofu!  Yeh~

My dad also took me to see the movie walk in Tsim Cha Tsui.  Hm... I could only recognize a few names (Jackie Chan, Leung Chiu Wai, Andy Lau, and Stephen Chow).

At night my school friend took me to Lan Kwai Fong.  They were celebrating CANADA D'EH there.  Yes.  CANADA D'EH.  There were Canadian flags all over the street, just like in Hanoi, Vietnam!  There was even a UBC Alumni party there wtf.  So we partied it up and drank LKF beer (yeah, that exists too!?).  They were giving away free stuff.  Got a CANADA D'EH! cowboy hat, 2 Roots bracelets, a bunch of stickers, a fan, and a Roots whistle.  Yes, all for free, though you had to answer a trivia question for each item, which is stuff you learn in Elementary school in Canada.  The guy would give you a tough one though if he knew you were Canadian.  While Hongers would get "What is the capital of Canada?", locals would get "True or false, East Hastings is the dirtiest area on the face of the planet?"  Bahaha.

Then I met up with my friend VS.  I also met 15 of his lawyer friends.  They were friendly and stuff but all I wasn't in the mood to get hit on by a bunch of lawyer girls, all I could think about was how the hell I was going to get home (my mom's friends live in Sha Tin and they sleep at 0100!)  Drank a few shots (tequila and Jagermeister) and glasses of red wine, then had to head back.  Wow, HK drivers can drive fast if pushed.  Made it back in less than 15 minutes.

Today I went to Times Square to meet my other cousin + aunt, who I haven't seen since 1992.  Wow, this lunch was awkward.  You can totally tell we were all on different wavelengths, as there were these deadly silences throughout the entire meal.  Boy am I glad I don't need to stay with them.  Noticing a pattern here... guess one meal together every 10 years is enough.

The highlight of the day tonight was the 10th Anniversary of Hong Kong SAR.  They had fireworks on display over HK Harbour!  Got to Tsim Sha Tsui early and got a good view of one side of the fireworks display (the centre section was reserved for VIPs) Blew off an entire roll of film.  Which brings me to the next point.  While people normally go ooh and ahh while watching fireworks, people in Hong Kong go wah, wah, WAH!  I was laughing so hard I could barely keep my camera level and still.

Today I went to Cafe De Coral (Dai Gar Lok) to get some curry corners (been waiting since that fateful day in 1996) and... they. TOOK. IT. OFF. THE. MENU!?  ARGH!  Now I cannot die complete... *sniff* 

2 days left...

Chapter 10: Chinar (Guangzhou)

So now I'm living with my dad in Guangzhou GZ.  It's supposed to be one of the "A" cities (alongside Beijing BJ, Shanghai SH, and Hong Kong HK).  Yup.  It's a big city all right.  Right down to the smoggy sky, awful traffic (rush hour past 9pm just like Bangkok), and lack of general culture and friendly locals.  If you're looking to backpack, GZ may not be the place for you.

Observations of China (well, more like Guangzhou):

1. Nobody here has that really nasty BJ accent.  The Mandarin has more of a TW (ie neutral) accent.
2. There are a LOT of black people here (mostly from Nigeria), and they like to sit on the stairs of ghetto office buildings (almost looks like LA).  According to my friend RC they are all scammers or smugglers.  Great to know.  And yes many of them understand Mandarin so I have to keep my mouth shut around this place.
3. They drive on the right, with left-hand drive.
4. Highway speed limits here are 120km/h.  Awesome!  However, trucks here tend to travel 40-90km/h, so you do have to stay quite alert to prevent yourself from piling into a truck and ending up in an inverted fireball of death.
5. Unfortunately, the same highways (expressways, similar to Autobahns) are stupidly expensive, for example, driving 500km along the road cost us 190rmb PER DIRECTION.  Therefore only transport trucks use these roads.
6. To overtake someone on the left for example, you keep your left blinker on for the entire duration of the pass.  This lets other know that you don't plan on cutting right anytime soon.  The same applies to passing on the right.
7. When there's a work zone (ie the highway is being repaired), the only indicators are 2 small signs (usually partially hidden by bushes) with a picture of a guy with a shovel at 1600m and 800m before the site.  If you miss those (which I did), the cones suddenly appear, sometimes during bends, and you're forced to do a real fast lane change.  Right before the site (maybe 100m there's a tiny sign telling you which way to merge.  It's almost like a video game.  Merge right!  Merge left!  Yes, I almost died a few times here.
8. This is the land of the U-turn.  They have right turn lanes, left turn lanes, and U-turn lanes.  The U-turn lanes happen every block or so on the major roads.  Sometimes the U-turn lane is set on the RIGHT side of the road, so to make a U-turn you have to cut across 4 lanes of traffic going in the same direction!
9. They like to park on sidewalks.  Not mopeds (like in Vietnam or Taiwan), but CARS!  When buying a car, make sure there is enough clearance to go over curbs!  Also there's no point trying to drive a nice car here.  You seldom go faster than 40km/h, as soon as you leave a major road the roads turn quite ghetto, and if you drive anything that isn't a China brand you're asking to get carjacked/shot/stabbed.  And yes this happens quite often.
10. The place is flooded with China-built cars.  Most are some brand like BYD (ripped off BMW, even their logo is ripped), LongLi, or JiangLing.  Stuff that would never pass North American/European crash tests.  (but the cars are so cheap, like $500USD for a brand new 2007!).  Most of them are quite small (like Japanese K-cars, they're called "mian bao che" or "bread cars" because of the shape).  Curiously, the minivan my family has back home is quite common here, though it's sold as a Buick instead of a Pontiac.
11. The Chinese are the world leaders in copying.  Saw quite a few Toyota Echos that weren't Toyotas upon a 2nd look, and a "BMW X3" that looks like a crappier version of the real thing.
12. Motorcycles are completely BANNED from the Guangzhou city centre.  This was done as a result of several people (mainly women) getting dragged to their deaths by people who ride by and grab their necklaces/purses.  This came into effect January 2007.
13. The parking areas are done using bathroom tiles, or beautiful granite or marble slabs.  You can imagine how long these last under the weight of a car.  According to my dad, they do that here because most contractors don't know how to pour concrete properly, so they hide their lack of skill by covering the concrete with these oh-so-beautiful tiles.  Unfortunately, the concrete below is lumpy and uneven, so...
14. Make sure you know the city well.  There are no good maps you can buy.  The one I picked up is half-decent but it doesnt show all the tiny streets.
15. The traffic here is worse than any other country I've seen so far.  At least in Vietnam and Thailand the people stay in the lanes!
16. The road signs here seriously suck.  Ever seen a highway interchange (2 highways) with absolutely no signs to indicate where the turnoffs are located or where they go?
17. Everything shuts down here by 2230-2300.  Including the subway and bus system.  Thank goodness a taxi ride here only costs 30rmb to cross the entire city.
18. This is seriously the land of opportunity and shady business practices.  Karaoke and saunas (and a lot of Chinese girls from other provinces) are the way the businessmen operate here.
19. The currency is RMB or Yuan, and the conversion is about 7.8rmb = $1USD.   Many people work here for 3rmb/hr, so yes, quite often our business meals (which would be slightly upscale but not 5-star) cost more than a day's pay per person!  Masters students can be hired here full-time for $130USD/month.  I think I made more than that being late for work.
20. Restaurants like to give discounts when it's not busy.  For example, this one lunch we had (79rmb/person) dropped to 35rmb.  More than half off.  Not bad!  And for the staff to eat the same meal, even at a discount they need to work 1.5 days!
21. You don't drink the first cup of tea they pour for you at the restaurant.  Big no-no.  Instead they put a big empty bowl into the middle of the table.  You take your cup (with tea inside) and swish your chopsticks inside.  Then you pour the tea from the cup into your bowl, and wash your spoon in the stream.  Inside the bowl, now you flip the cup upside down and wash the rim by dipping it inside the tea.  Finally, you pour the tea out of
your bowl into the big bowl in the middle of the table, and rotate your bowl while doing so to wash the entire rim.  Yeah, I'm serious.  Good thing SL taught me how to do this back in Vancouver! (and I just thought she was nuts haha) It's supposedly done to a) flush any DDT that may have ended up on the tea, and b) to disinfect the cutlery/bowls.  I think it's kinda retarded because for a) you're really just spreading the DDT all over your utensils,
and b) if the water used to wash the dishes was dirty, the tea isn't going to be any cleaner.  And it's not hot enough to disinfect anyways!
22.  The gap between rich and poor here is crazy.  You either make 30rmb/day in general labour, or you make 100000rmb/mo running a small factory.  This factory could be absolutely anything; people here have become multimillionaires from printing stickers.  If you run a factory, starting one costs less than $20000USD, then you can have 20 people working for you 0800-2200!  And yes, this includes kids (some workers here look seriously young).
23.  People here do not understand teamwork.  They'd rather screw over a whole group (which includes themselves) than work together.  I can start to understand why Chinese people in Vancouver are so damn defensive.  There are so many people here, you need to fight to keep yourself above the crowd.
24. Many manufacturers are forced to make false claims about their products because otherwise the retailers refuse to stock up on the product!  I have no idea how to fix this one.
25. Bribery works quite nicely, even in this day.  The head of the Chinese Food + Drug Administration was recently sentenced to death for approving a whole bunch of crappy drugs that ended up killing a whole bunch of people.

So, let's do a quick recap of things that have happened.
1. Checked out my dad's factory.  (I did not know this existed until last week).  Also met my uncle who I haven't seen since around 1994.
2. Extended my trip as a result of realizing I could not see his entire factory in one day.
3. Met all the workers in the factory and realized how lucky they are to have my dad as a boss.  Especially when compared to some of the workers in the adjacent warehouses!
4. Sat through many business meals, eating food that is priced well beyond the range of the average worker.  (and yes I feel bad)
5. Learned the importance of "guanxi" in this place.  Wow, guanxi runs the entire country!
6. Learned how slow things can happen for you if you do NOT have the right connections.
7. Watched how businesspeople celebrate the close of a deal.  And yes, it includes a whole ton of barely-legal girls from small towns throughout China, and a whole lot of karaoke.  (it's true, girls are a dime a dozen here).  Had some random country girl (from Hunan if I remember correctly) all over me (my dad's distributor paid for her to sit on my lap since I was the "guest of honour", it's kinda gross though haha), and puked my brains out all over the company car in front of my dad and uncle afterwards.  Awesomeness.  Only in China...
8. Almost died a few times while my dad's driver (23yo ex-army guy) pulled some seriously amazing moves in traffic.
9. Learned the manufacturing process of bottles, and the assembly process to create a bottle of product.  (the coolest part has got to be the datestamping machine)
10. Drove on the Chinabahn and the city of Zhanjiang (illegally of course). Almost died a few times (see above).
11. Ate sandworms, and dog.  Sandworms taste like calamari, and dog tastes like a sweeter version of lamb.  To kill a dog for food, they either a) beat it to death with a stick, b) drown it, or c) choke it off by pinning it against something by the neck with a stick of bamboo. (nope, never got to witness it).
11. Went to Fo Shan (home of Wang Fei Hong).  Finally, met some white people (all backpackers) too!
12. Drank some seriously strong herbal tea.  The booths are everywhere, just like bbt in Vancouver!
13. Ran with the Hash House Harriers, Guangzhou chapter (Run #891), with my friend RL.  "A running club with a drinking problem", I can live with that.  What a
riot.  Got to drink beer out of a hospital bedpan, and sprayed Coke all over the ceiling of the bus.
14. Ate some 0.5rmb buns.  Yes, that's $0.06USD for a meat bun.  Cheaper than Vietnam!
15. Bought lots of beer here.  $0.40 for a 650mL bottle at the supermarket!?  Also cheaper than Vietnam!  I'm in heaven.
16. Corrected a bunch of Engrish packaging for my dad.  Now I can understand why Chinese products have such crappy spelling.  Everyone learns English here but nobody ever uses it (exactly like French in Vancouver).  Also, Chinese words do not have spacing, so they aren't used to it.  Then they do direct translations using those little computers, so sometimes you'll see words being used wrong, like a "recommended dosage" for an oil additive, or "self-terminating machines" in banks.  Bahaha.
17. Ate donkey meat.  Eeyore anyone?  Almost got to eat live, crawling silkworms
at the same restaurant, but they were sold out for the day.
18. Helped out at the factory.  Wow, perfect timing for my visit.  They just solved a problem with their manufacturers (improved plastics being used) today, so now the factory is moving at full speed for the first time.  Also helped design and install a ventilation and automatic sprinkler system for the warehouse (wow, my controls knowledge actually came in useful!) and fixed up all the English on all their packaging.  Now my task for the next few days is to make recommendations to streamline the manufacturing process, and create and implement a list of procedures for the workers.  Wow, just like management.

Why couldn't my old HVAC job have been like this.  I actually feel useful here.

Wow, what a long post.  Stay tuned...