The Green Side of the Island

Hello again! On Wednesday, September 26th we were blessed with a vacation day! It was the Mid-Autumn Festival here in Hong Kong which is considered the second most important holiday after Chinese New Year. Traditionally, family members get together and have a nice dinner and carry brightly lit lanterns through the streets. This is also the holiday were you give each other moon cake which is a Chinese pastry made from lotus paste containing a salted duck egg which is so full and bright and yellow, if you bite it in half it looks just like the moon! And, no, it doesn't taste very good to me, but the folks here seem to like them. Our HR department at the office passed out a box of moon cakes to everyone in celebration of the holiday, and being that both Tony & I are here, we were fortunate enough to get two boxes of them. I feel bad that we didn't like them very much because they are quite expensive and very difficult to make (i.e. you don't bake them at home kinda thing). If they didn't have an expiration date on them (probably due to that darn egg) I would bring the rest home for you...interesting taste to say the least.

In any case, it was a day off in the middle of the week, something that we hardly ever get in the US except for maybe the 4th of July, but that is always more fun when it is attached to the weekend anyway. Tony and I slept in, went to the gym, had lunch and then we realized how gorgeous it was outside that we decided it was time for an adventure. We decided to take the train over to one of the other islands which make up Hong Kong called Lantau. This is about twice the size of Hong Kong Island and it is worlds away. The island is gorgeous, filled with mountains and beaches and green everywhere you look. There we were headed over to see the so called "big Buddha" which is the world's tallest outdoor seated bronze Buddha (lol!) After a 30 minute bus ride from the subway station through the winding mountain roads, we arrived!

The real name of the statue is Tain Tan Buddha, and it is sat on top of a lotus throne, 34 meters high and weighs 250 tonnes. The construction cost of the big Buddha was $68M but it is free to get in. You have to climb up 260 steps to get to the top but the view is quite worth the hike. It was so beautiful as you can hopefully see from these pictures.

We roamed around the island a bit after that and found what appeared to be a very nice trail through the woods which we will do next time when we are more equipped for a hike. It is hard to believe that this world of green lies so close to this big city yet it seems like another planet. It was great.

After our long journey home, we headed out to dinner in our neighborhood. We found a great little place called Paul's Kitchen which Tony is now in love with. There is a set menu which changes every other week, so I think we will be back for sure. We started with a peach salad with mozzarella, prosciutto, and greens in a honey dressing, followed by mussels in broth then I had the grilled prawns and Tony had rack of lamb, and we also eat got dessert. For the set it was $260 HKD, plus we got a bottle of wine, total was about $125 for a four course meal and wine! It was very delicious.

We have a three day weekend coming up here as well (so much vacation, so little time) and then many many adventures planned for the month of October, so stay tuned for more frequent blogging by yours truly. Till next time, I LOVE YOU & MISS YOU!

Learning Chinese Business

Hello Everyone! I hope you are enjoying the start of fall, my most favorite time of year. We haven't seen anything to hint the season has changed down here in Hong Kong yet, except there is this lovely new breeze that happens in the morning and at night. Mostly it is still hot and humid. I went to China last week for business and it was wonderful to get out on the road again. I should have known it would be a good trip when I was picked up at the airport by someone holding a sign that said "Dr. Sollazo Sidney." Hee hee, they called me Dr.!

I started off in Shanghai where I arrived on Monday afternoon. They are in the process of realigning some of their account managers so we of course had to go out to a nice big dinner to introduce the teams. We ate at a place close by the office where I was one of the only Westerners in the whole big restaurant. They somehow slid in a knife, fork and spoon to my spot at the table without me noticing, but after they saw me use chopsticks successfully for the first few courses, they disappeared as miraculously as they appeared. I was a little nervous when the person who did all of the ordering turned to me and asked "Do you like guts?" which I promptly replied "Um, NO!" and hopefully none were eaten (sometimes you really can't tell). The funniest thing was this one dish we ordered (beef cooked table side in hot oil with chillies, cilantro and red onion - so good!) comes with a presentation which the waitress tells the crowd how it cooks and stuff. Well, since I was at the table, our poor waitress attempted to do the presentation in English. No clue what she was saying, but it sure was some yummy beef.

The next morning we hopped in the car and drove about a hour west toward Suzhou. It is supposedly a beautiful place filled with lakes and little stone bridges but as we drove, the typhoon was rearing its head (more on that later) so all I could see was grey and rain from the car window. I did manage to cross the third largest river in the world, the Yangtze River! On the road we drove past a car with an English bumper sticker which said "Be Nice to Your Kids - They will Choose Your Nursing Home" which I translated to my co-workers and we all decided that the person had no idea what it said, they must have liked the blue color or something because it has no significance in this country what so ever. People don't go into nursing homes, your kids are stuck taking care of you for all their lives, especially their daughters!

On the way we were listening to the radio...mostly soft rock and a mix of Chinese and American music. The funniest thing was when Mariah Carey's hit "All I want for Christmas is You" came on and I had to explain to the folks that although it may sound like it has a nice melody and vocals, it was a Christmas song, and typically you don't play those until at least after Halloween, mostly not till after Thanksgiving! We got to talking about what the Chinese do for Christmas since most companies that are US headquartered give the people the day off but of course they don't do anything since they are nearly all Buddhist. But they told me the younger generation of college girls will adorn Santa hats and it has become somewhat of a "Hallmark" holiday for the young couples to exchange gifts, similar to Valentines Day. Interesting, huh?

In my hotel room in Yangzhou, I received a whole kit of random AIDS "prevention" materials, including underwear for both men and women, towels, socks and of course, lube and condoms! It is apparently a big problem in some regions of the country, plus with the various business travelers and coincidentally, prostitutes, it is good that they are supplying the material and instructions. However, as you can see, it was all "non-complimentary".

The other thing I learned relative to love, is that, well you know how they are only allowed to have one baby in China now due to the government mandate and population controls? Well, since many families want a son rather than a daughter, the parents are allowed to go to an OBGYN to get ultrasounds and check on the baby, but it is illegal for the doctor to tell them the gender of the child for fear they will perform abortions on the female fetus. My one sales guys wife is pregnant and the doctor is a friend of his so he was allowed to take a picture of the ultrasound home with him, but he still doesn't know the sex. So, he is staring at this blob desperately trying to figure out the gender of his unborn baby.
Another woman I met who is in the Shanghai office just had her baby five months ago and had to send it to live with her mother in Mongolia (far far away) so that she could go back to work to afford the baby. He husbands family is apparently dead and her mom won't move from Mongolia to Shanghai (um, culture shock anyone?!) so she is forced to send her baby away, only to get to see her on long holidays when she can fly up there. Isn't' that so sad? It broke my heart. I hope she and I close some big orders so she can buy more tickets to see her baby girl.

Meanwhile, mother nature was having her way with the winds and rain and the typhoon warning for the Shanghai region reached its highest of the year. I was a bit outside of the city, but that didn't stop my dad from thinking that I blew off of a mountain into the Chinese jungle and was starving or dead or something. Happy to report, I survived the typhoon, but not without getting soaked making sales calls. Here are some cute pictures of my counterpart, Marco, and I in the rain. We decided that we were very dedicated sales people as we walked from the customers gate to the main entrance only to arrive completely drenched. It was very funny!

My counterpart was very cute (even though he wore the same shirt and pants for all three days we were together). He is young and just off of the sales training program here in China for Rockwell, but he told me that he did not think I was going to be so pretty because the rest of the Rockwell women he has met from the US were "tough" and he held up his scrawny little arm and made a muscle when he said that. I will take the compliment! And thinking back to some of the women I know have been here from Rockwell, I am very happy to not be lumped into the same glamour category! Come on ladies, just a little make-up won't kill you.

Anyways, I know you have been dying to see one, so I leave you with a picture of a Chinese toilet. You don't throw the paper into the toilet, you put it in the basket right next to the hole in the floor in order to "keep the toilet clean"....um, wouldn't that make the basket quite disgusting? If you can figure out how you poop into one of these, let me know, although it will never happen...not for me anyways! I would rather die. Till next time, I LOVE you and MISS you!

The Boys are Back in Town!

Hello blogger friends! Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. Hating you for your four day work week right now...

Jay & Christopher returned to Hong Kong on Friday night after a week in Malaysia. They stayed in Kuala Lumpur but traveled around the country on a few day trips, even rented a car and drove on the "wrong" side of the street! They were very fortunate in their timing that they were able to be there for the countries 50th anniversary of their Independance from British Rule. Among the things they loved in the country were the Batu caves which is a Hindu Shrine right outside of the city. There are several statues of the various Hindu gods as well as these terribly naughty monkeys who are wild and roam the outside, going right up to tourists and stealing things out of their hands. Not kidding, they saw a little girl get a Pepsi stolen and another man had bought some trinkets which the dumb monkeys thought were food and they stole that too! When he went after them to retrive it, the monkey turned around and made an awful noise exposing his razor sharp teeth! Um, remind me to not have any food or drink of any sort or anything in my hands when I go there. I would have died.

We had a taste for Korean food from the previous weekend, so we made reservations at a Korean BBQ place in Causeway Bay for Friday night. As my fellow Jumbos may remember, one of our Bean Town favs was a joint called Koreana where we would go for our various birthdays because they had great food and always offered us the big oil can of Sapporo (without ID!) so Korean food is close to Jay and my hearts. We ordered a wide selection of marinated meats including two Bulgogi (beef), one lamb and one chicken. We also had a delicious Kimchi pancake which was a fabulous new discovery for us. I have decided that I could live on Kimchi, maybe I can invent the kim chi diet and make millions...dibs on that idea! Although, I may need to simultaneously invent a new slim fitting brand of adult diapers...If you have never had it, kimchi is basically hot and spicy chili marinated cabbage, hot going in and hot coming out. Yummy!

After dinner we went home because bright and early the next morning, we were taking the ferry over to Macau. We had bought tickets for the 8 AM ferry but were there early enough to catch a seat on the 7:30 AM boat. They run these Turbojets back and forth from Hong Kong to Macau all day long, and the boats boogie at about 50 knots so it only takes 1 hour to get there. Before we knew it we were touching ground in another country. Macau was ruled by Portugal up until 1999 so it is a very interesting mix of Asian and European culture and architecture. We decided to splurge and spend the night at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. Since we only had one night in town, may as well do it in style. After dropping our bags we began to roam around the city. Since we were there SO early, and since it is a major nightlife place a la Las Vegas, the streets were absolutely barren! It was just us at 9 AM, walking around town. We paid a visit to the statue of Kun Iam, the Goddess of Mercy, shown in this picture protruding out into the water. From there we walked along the sea over to the Macau Tower, an 1100 ft building with panoramic views and adventures. As the bungee jumping was not open so early in the morning as Jay and Tony had hoped, they convinced Christopher and I to do the Skywalk. After being outfitted with funky orange suits, other peoples shoes and a harness, you get clipped to the side of the building at the 61st floor and proceed to walk around the tower on a glass outer rim. There was a tour guide with us, not even wearing a full harness, walking backwards, and insisting on snapping photos, wanting us to hang our legs over the side and do all these crazy things like stand on one leg, etc. We had about enough of him and begged him to keep on moving. Christopher was physically convulsing out of fear, I thought he was going to pass out up there...he did not let go of Jay the entire time, but he made it all the way around and conquered a big fear of his. Woo hoo! That was enough of a thrill for most of us, but not Jay. He insisted on returning after lunch to complete his Bungee Jump, which holds two records for "Highest Bungee Jump from a Building" and "The World's Highest Bungee Jumping Facility" in the Guinness Book. He did admit the seconds before the jump and first few after he did it were completely terrifying, but he had an excellent thrill of a lifetime, and I am happy to report, he is alive and well! Tony opted for a relaxing afternoon poolside with me, followed by a Swedish massage and facial at the hotel spa. There, I could keep a close eye on him and my husband was not dangling off the side of the building, so I was very happy about that. Maybe next time Tony!

After our tower of terror, we headed to a beautiful hilltop Catholic Church across the bay. Inside a lovely Portuguese nun asked me if I knew Jesus, to which I replied, "not personally". They were very happy to have American visitors. The church had a great view of the city as well as the Tower we had just conquered. We had worked up quite an appetite so we headed down to the Fishermans' Wharf area which is a collection of shops, restaurants and themed decor, looking like something out of Disney World. We had lunch at a fabulous Portuguese restaurant called Cameos that I had selected for our dinner that evening but they was no availability due to a large party they were hosting later that night. I was so happy to be able to go there for lunch instead! We had a selection of appetizers including dried milk cheese, baccala and empenadas. Tony got what he had been craving, a large pot of pork & clams, the boys dined on a dish of shredded duck with rice and chourico and I had a skewer of Monk fish and prawns, presentation was half the fun as you can see in the picture! Everything was wonderful, I would definitely go back to this place next time we are in town.

Once the evening rolled around, it was time to hit the slots before dinner at a Macanese (combo of Chinese and Portuguese cuisine, typical food of Macau) restaurant called Litoral. They had some trouble taking our drink order, even though we selected items that were right off of their drink menu, but the food was very good. We ate family style and shared appetizers of Portuguese ham, and shrimps with garlic sauce. For dinner we had curried chicken, Steak "Litoral" and pork with rice and potatoes. After dinner we had a tough time getting a taxi. If you want to start a business in Asia, open a cab company in Macau. The city is growing at such a rapid rate and there are so many casinos now with tourists shuffling back and forth, it would easily make millions as there are not enough cabs to go around. We took a ride to over to the grand opening of the new Venetian hotel in Macau, the world's biggest casino. Easily the size of four casinos in one, this place was huge, every table was packed with chinese gamblers. Jay & Tony got seats at the $100 HKD BlackJack table where dealers named "Man", "Fong" and "U" proceeded to take their money. Unlike Vegas, the house rules are a bit different. The dealer only gets one card face up for the first round (no hold card), they continuously add the used cards back into the shoe, the dealer can hit as many times as they like (we saw a 7-card 21, unbelieveablely lucky for the damn dealer), and if the dealer misdeals (i.e. hit on a soft 17 where they have to stay), they just shove the card back into the shoe. Kinda bullshit, but fun nonetheless. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, we won't be retiring early on our winnings...but the loss wasn't too much to speak of (less than $100 USD). The taxi line outside took about 20 mins to get through and people were still first arriving to the hotel when we went home at 2:30 AM. It was a long day, but a lovely day in Macau. I am looking forward to returning.

We got home after a delicious brunch around 2:00 PM. The boys took some time to pack up their luggage while Tony prepared for a week in China. To keep Jay entertained, I read to him from our Quote book from college...we had some hysterical fits of which Christopher and Tony just looked at us like we were completely nuts. I'd love to post them here but they are not intended for all audiences, and I imagine most of them go in the category of "you had to be there" to understand them. It was lots of fun, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

At 4:00 we headed over to the Hong Kong Cultural Center to the theatre to see the production of "Blackbird." The play was very well executed, and got good reviews from both Christopher & Jay, even Tony enjoyed it. After the theatre we walked down to the water again to get a view of the city lights one final time before heading back to the Hong Kong Island side of town.

As his final meal in Asia, Jay selected another round of Korean food. This time we tried out a place close to our apartment where supposedly all the korean expats go to eat. We were the only caucasian folks inside and decided that it was even better than the place in Causeway Bay and were very happy to find one so close to home. One word of "Kamsahamnida" (thank you in Korean) and we were their new best friends. They even brought us two extra plates of fresh kimchi, so you know I was in heaven!

It was so wonderful to have Jay & Christopher here visiting with us, I am afraid that I will be very sad to get home and not see their stuff in our apartment any longer. I am pushing for a return trip in early 2008 - we'll see how that goes!

Till next time, I leave you with a picture of Jay fighting Bruce Lee on the Avenue of the Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui. I LOVE YOU & MISS YOU!