Jeff's Recent Travels

In the past few weeks I’ve been traveling extensively. Dale has already described our trip to Macau, but earlier that week I was in Singapore. The next week I spent in Taipei, Taiwan and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with an overnight back home just to change suitcases. Yes, I actually packed different suitcases for the two trips.

Singapore is a very clean city, but somewhat of a disappointment. In some ways it really is the Asian Switzerland – clean, neat, functional, precise. But from what I saw, it has no grit, no soul, nothing that makes you want to return as a tourist.

Despite the exorbitant taxes and duties placed on cars (to keep them out), the traffic in Singapore is quite heavy. Because of the taxes and the overall level of income, the cars are also quite new. Also because of the affluence, the downtown area is filled with large “label” stores in upscale malls within new high-rise office buildings. We visited one mainly-English bookstore the size of a large Barnes & Noble or Indigo, but on one floor. Most of the books were British imports and there weren’t any bargain bins, so I bought nothing.

The highlight of the visit was a lunch of Black Pepper Crab, Garlic Prawns and Bamboo Clams with one of my colleagues. 

Unfortunately, I don’t often eat shellfish. I found out two days later that my pigging out had resulted in a bout of gout. Unknown to me, shellfish are high in purines, the main cause of gout.

The part of our trip to Macau that Dale didn’t mention was my hobbling around. When my boss and I left for Taiwan on Monday it wasn’t too bad, but by Tuesday night my biggest worry was that they would make us take our shoes off at the airport to go through security and I wouldn’t be able to fit back into mine. In between Taiwan and Malaysia I found the time to visit the doctor and get a prescription to help me out. I looked tres chic walking around Kuala Lumpur in one dress shoe and one Teva sandal, with black socks.

Taipei was a quick two-day trip, and I saw very little. It does boast one of the tallest buildings in the world, the Taipei 101 (509 metres, 1670 feet). It has just recently been beaten out by the Burj Khalifa, the white elephant in Dubai. It in turn had topped the Petronas Towers (see below) in Kuala Lumpur. I had lunch in the Taipei 101, but got no higher than the third floor.

What little I saw of Taipei was nice. Taiwan is a mountainous island, so the views in the distance are pretty, with green mountains rising out of the lowlands. The area in which our office is situated was a former army base, now given over to mid-rise office buildings and high-end apartments and town houses – all built within the last 15 years.

Kuala Lumpur, or KL, as everyone calls it, is a very pretty city – lush, green, lots of park space. It has a somewhat North American feel, as it is more spread out, affording the opportunity for suburban housing tracts. The difference is in the size of the houses and the lots. Suburban Toronto's (905-land) zero-lot line developments look spacious. KL also has a cosmopolitan feel, since it is 60% Malay and 30% Chinese. Most of the rest of the population are Indian. It’s officially a Muslim country, but the only overt sign is the head scarves worn by many (but not most) women.

Not to be outdone by other Asian cities in the quest for a landmark, KL boasts the Petronas Towers (452 m., 1670 ft., see Taipei 101 above) and the KL Tower, a communications tower that looks like the CN Tower and is the fifth tallest freestanding building in the world. We didn’t get near them.

As for eating, Malaysian food is a wonderful blend of Chinese, Malay and Indian food. I tried their specialty, Fish Head Curry, twice. It is apparently Singapore’s claim to fame, but the Malaysian version is perfectly acceptable. It turns out our GM in KL also suffers from gout, so I just ate whatever he did and stayed away from the rest.

The advantage of all this travel is that I’m already at the second rung of the perks ladder with Cathay Pacific. I think it entitles me to two packets of peanuts with my water and the ability to board early so that I can spend more time in the sardine can.

Now that I’m home, with no business trips in the near future, Dale has decided that we must plan another international long weekend. Stay tuned.

Birthday weekend in Macau

I never thought I'd be spending my 60th birthday in an exotic location!
Jeff and I took the turbojet catamaran ferry (red boat in the photo) to Macau on Saturday morning.  The ride takes about an hour:  it's comfortable and not too rocky.  Unfortunately, our guide book (lonely planet) did not tell us that if you use Visa, you get a 30% discount on a round trip ticket.  It also neglected to tell us that seniors over 60 get a 10% discount.  We discovered the savings reading some literature at our hotel in Macau, so on the way home I got my first seniors' discount!

Arrival in Macau is not breathtaking, however, the new Science Museum, designed by I.M. Pei, is easily viewed from the ferry terminal.  We will visit it on our next trip.

We stayed at Pousada de Mong Ha, a beautiful, quiet hotel run by the school of tourism.  The staff were so young and eager to please!http://www.ift.edu.mo/pousada/eng/index.htm

Like HK, Macau is a Special Administrative Region of China.  HK became part of China in 1997, and Macau followed in 1999.  It had previously been a colony of Portugal, which set it up as a trading centre in the 16th century.  The main draw for us was the Unesco World Heritage site in the centre of Macau.  The site is actually a small (walkable) district of linked squares with 17th-19th century Portuguese official buildings and churches.  The buildings are painted bright colours, and looked impressive in the bright sunlight.  The pedestrian mall is newly re-tiled, and from above the main square looks like wavy pavement.  Neat optical illusion!

The most impressive Portuguese site is the remaining facade of the Church of St. Paul.  The church was designed by an Italian Jesuit and completed by early Japanese Christian exiles and Chinese artisans in 1602 - globalization thrived even four hundred years ago!  The entire church except the front facade was destroyed in a fire in 1835.

We sat at the bottom of the steps to the ruins and watched a young troop of lion dancers perform.

Aside from the colourful entertainment, we also pigged out on the treats that were for sale on the main street leading to the town from St. Paul's.  The hawkers were all over the road giving out samples of freshly baked almond cookies, slices of sweetened beef and pork, and the local specialty Portuguese egg tarts (yum yum yum).

Macau is also famous as a furniture-making centre.  We saw a nice armoire at one store and will probably order it (online, of course) if I can find the business card...

Whenever Jeff and I travel, he takes a photo of me at the local library.  This picture was taken at the City Hall archival library.  The guard gave me a very dirty look when I picked up the sign.

Since we were first-time tourists in Macau, everyone suggested that we have dinner at Fernando's on the beach.  I was despairing that it would be an overpriced, tasteless, touristy place, but we were quite surprised at how low-key and good it really was.  Our hotel provided us with a shuttle to the restaurant - it's about 45 minutes away from Macau centre - it's actually on the last connected island that is still part of Macau.  (Since our boxes hadn't arrived from Toronto yet, I was still wearing my old jeans and lululemon jacket).

Some other observations about Macau:

Casinos - Macau is the Las Vegas of China.  The hotels/resorts are as over-the-top as Vegas.  The Chinese are big-time gamblers, but they are not at all interested in entertainment.  There is only one hotel (The Venetian) which has a permanent (Cirque du Soleil of course) show.  Sorry to disappoint my mother, but Jeff and I steered clear of the casinos.  Here is a link to photos of the largest one, the Grand Lisboa, which seems to loom over the whole city, and is a not-too-attractive backdrop to the historic centre  http://www.grandlisboahotel.com/

Flores Garden, Guia fort, and Guia lighthouse - Flores Garden is Macau's "Beaver Lake".  There is a cable car that takes you about halfway up the hill, and then you can follow a shaded path to the old fort and the lighthouse.  Tai Chi is very popular in the park, as well as Chinese dancing.  The photo of Jeff is taken inside the air raid shelter (1931) in the fort.  Note the bamboo scaffolding on the fort.

Dogs - poodles seem to be the most popular dogs in China (at least in HK and Macau).

Funny signs - 

Strange clothing (for 25 degree weather) -

Waiting for the slow plane to China

Another week has passed without our "stuff" from home.  We've been camping out in the spare room on the trundle bed with the heat on!  No snow yet (or ever, they assure us).   Our boxes are due to be delivered on Monday.
We spent a touristy day in Stanley last Saturday.  Jeff was anxious to pick up my birthday present from the jeweller located in that town (about an hour's bus ride from central Hong Kong).  As we got off the bus, he started nattering on about buying me a charm bracelet so that I could add to it in all of the countries we plan to visit in Asia.  I was mortified - I already have a charm bracelet that I received on my 12th birthday.  It has charms from all the places my parents travelled to in the 1960s.  I haven't worn it in 40 years!  Of course Jeff just wanted to keep me guessing, and when we walked into Ellis jewellers, the staff were smiling at us (he had phoned ahead) as they handed me my GORGEOUS pearls.

I continued to wear them all day as we moseyed through the flea market.
The busiest stall in the market was the one selling doggy apparel!

We also found the small temples in Stanley very interesting and colourful.  They reminded us of the small shrines we saw by the roadside in Ecuador, however the Ecuadorian shrines are placed at the scenes of fatal accidents (numerous on the Pan American "highway").

Although the restaurants in Stanley are pricey and picturesque (on the waterfront), one doesn't have to walk too far to notice the poor conditions that some locals live in.

When we returned to the city, we wandered through Pottinger Street and some other small, crowded streets in Central.  The colours, especially the prominent reds, are beautiful.  And the contrast between the old market streets and the new high-rise financial centres is remarkable.

Here are a few photos of the Graham Street food market.  If anyone can tell me the name of the vegetable on the left, I would be most grateful!  Susan, the orchids were so cheap and beautiful.  I will buy some once we are more settled in the apartment.

We had a lot of success on Sunday buying furniture at the Horizon Plaza in Ap Lei Chau.  It's like a furniture Chabanel warehouse.  We will post photos when it all arrives.  The stores assured us that everything will be delivered before Chinese New Year, which falls on Valentine's Day this year.  We ordered a custom-made Chinese shoe cabinet - Jeff made sure his size 10s would fit on the shelves.  Sorry,  Andrew and Jeremy, your shoes will never fit!
Other highlights of the week included a Schubert concert with the HK philharmonic.  The concert hall is very much like Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, just a bit smaller.  The only Asian decor in the hall is the modern backdrop behind the stage.  While we were at the concert (on the Kowloon side), there was a terrible acid-throwing attack in the market area, not too far from where we were.  We didn't know about it until we got an email from Bill in Toronto, worrying about us!   The police seem to have rounded up "the usual suspects"...
Jeff spent most of the week in Singapore.  We will blog that city when we visit it as tourists.  Here is an example of how efficient transit is in HK:  his flight arrived at the gate at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, and at 9 p.m. he was already home!  There's a metro that runs from the airport to Central, and it's under 10 minutes by taxi from Central to our apartment.
My "welcome to HK" course began at the YWCA.  Very disorganized and unstructured, but I will stick with it long enough to find the name of a good hairdresser and spa in my neighbourhood!  The course seems to be a forum for exchanging information on where to find services and grocery stores that stock foods from other places.  The other participants were all young moms whose main concerns are schooling for their kids.
Speaking of my neighbourhood (the Mid-Levels and Soho), here's a link to a BBC video about the escalators that transport me all day long (thanks to Gillian for sending me the website):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8441626.stm
(As an aside to my sister, Sandra, who spent four years going up and down the escalators in the Hall Building at  Sir George Williams in the 1970s - yes, the escalators do break down here too, but not as often.)
And I just found out where the Lululemon store is in HK!  (my trainer swears by it, too)
Off to Macau for the weekend for my birthday. Will write again next week with our impressions.

Jet-lag

I'm starting to feel like I really belong here.  Yesterday, I stopped to watch some Japanese tourists taking photos of my neighbourhood!  I felt like saying "I LIVE here!  Aren't I lucky?"  Later on, a young woman (Israeli) asked me what kind of milk to buy when we were at Park and shop (which I have dubbed Park 'n fly).  I guess I'm starting to even look like a native!  It's all in one's attitude.  This is a photo of the escalators and some of the shops along the way.

The week has been busy - it feels like September used to when we were busy signing the kids up for swimming and all of the other extra-curricular activities.
On Monday morning (after very little sleep), Jeff pointed me in the general direction of the YWCA, and off I went.  An hour later, I was still trying to find my way out of the maze of paths in the botanical garden/zoo with no YWCA in sight.  But the weather was lovely, and it felt so wonderful to be in a beautiful park.   I did manage to find the Y (not easy because of the expressways and the zoo in the middle of my journey), and signed up for their signature course called At Home - it's an intro to HK for newly arrived expats.  Reminds me of Julie's orientation for "foreign" students at Caltech!  She made nice new friends through that program, including Eric!  My goal is to find one kindred spirit in the group.
Speaking of the YWCA, they offer normal courses like Chinese cooking and Mahjong, but also some weird ones like "employing a domestic helper" and "party dress shopping".  I'm planning to take advantage of their historical walks, art tours, and perhaps their book group.
Activity number two on Monday was joining Pure Fitness http://www.pure-fit.com/en/hongkong/studios/studio.php?location_id=2 - a nice step up from Dunfield (Linda - the spinning bikes are terrific but the instructor was not as good-looking as Lance; Monica, Judith, Diana, Florrie and Lulu - there seem to be a lot of instructors who are as good as Barb).  The club is filled with young expats (except for a few huffing and puffing 50+ men in my spinning class), the locker rooms are clean and beautiful with dry and wet saunas, and they even provide you with workout clothes (shorts, sox, tshirts), which is a good thing since our belongings are still on that slow boat/plane to China.  The staff wipe down all the mats in between classes!  The best part of the gym is its proximity to our apartment - about a 10 minute walk down the steps, and up the escalators on the return journey.
Other housekeeping duties this week have included getting my HK i.d. card (the picture is better than my passport - I was allowed to smile!), opening up a joint bank account at HSBC, buying a cellphone, and getting the wifi to work at home.  All in all, very productive.
Now if I can only figure out north-south, east-west in this city!  It's truly upside down for an ex-Montrealer/Torontonian.  The harbor is north, we live up the hill - south.  Expressways criss-cross, streets are not on a grid.  And don't get me started on Causeway Bay - the area where Jeff's office is located.  I walked out of Times Square (a large indoor mall) and tried to find Jeff's office building - after 10 minutes of cutting through both small and large streets, I was right back at T.S.!   I was tempted to buy a cellphone with GPS!  The subway stops have multiple exits, and Jeff and I had arranged to meet at Exit F at Causeway Bay.  Times Square is exit A.  Yup - I went back into Exit A, paid $3HK to go through the turnstile and find Exit F!
What made me laugh out loud:  There's a very popular chain of small take-out kiosks called Herbal Tea and Soup Square.  Two of their packaged meals are:  "Cooked chicken with Chinese wine for supplementing blood and Qi" and "Lily bulbs and crocodile meat double-boiled with chicken soup for invigorating lung".  I kid you not!