Thursday night I went to a jazz boat cruise hosted by Saffron Cruises. The boat left the Aberdeen harbor about an hour late due to some customers not showing up, and even after we left we had to stop at the famously-overpriced tourist trap that is the Aberdeen Jumbo Floating Restaurant to pickup a few more customers. But once we got going all was well - the booze and food flowed freely, the weather wasn't too cold, and the live jazz band featuring Allen Youngblood was pretty good as well. We stopped at 2 different points during the cruise to steady the boat so the band could play, and the evening was also nice because it wasn't too crowded on the boat - there were probably about 15 customers in total. Here's a dark picture of Allen Youngblood and his band:
Friday I woke up late and met one of my most important vendors at the border crossing in China. He took me out to a nice lunch and then we went to his factory for a short tour. Afterwards he took us to a spa in Shenzhen (the website is all in Chinese but you can get the idea from the pics) that a friend of mine had recommended to me. I've been to 2 other similar type massage places in Shenzhen, but this was by far the best one (I will make a full post later on about spas in Shenzhen, but for now I'll make it short and sweet). I chose to have the aromatherapy massage, and was brought to a computer screen where I could view the available massage therapists - their picture, name, age, height, weight, and specialty (i.e. very strong, etc.). So I chose a massage therapist that seemed to have nice statistics, and I was not disappointed. I made it back to HK by about 9pm.
Friday night I went to an outdoor bar in Central for a birthday celebration - it was a nice, relaxing atmosphere, and unlike most bars in HK, there was plenty of space to move around (although we were sat down at a table), which I also appreciated. We also hit up a few more bars in Central before calling it a night.
Saturday afternoon I lounged around and did some shopping, and then Saturday night I went to the wedding of the son of one of my other most important vendors, which was held at a Chinese restuarant just a short 5 minute walk from my apartment. When I got into the room I had to sign my name on 2 big sheets of paper - my signature was the only one not in Chinese. Then we sat down and had some cocktails while the 10 or so mahjong games finished up. Eventually the bride and groom were introduced, a few speeches and toasts were made, and finally the food was served. The food service started with a procession of waiters, each holding a platter of a baby pig (with its head on display) and walking around the room to show everyone. My colleague said that the baby pig was a traditional wedding meal because it represents the virginity of the bride. Whatever the symbolism, the pig was delicious. This was then followed by numerous other courses - tofu, shrimp, noodles, shrimp balls, and then finally dessert (pastries and oranges). The event was over by about 11:30pm, at which time I went home and called it a night. This was definitely a fun experience, and was also my first traditional Chinese wedding.
Sunday morning I took the ferry from HK to Zhuhai, which is a Chinese city connected to Macau. The boat trip (in the first class cabin) was uneventful, except for the fact that on the TV in the front of the room, they showed a video of a monkey and bulldog (real lives ones) putting on some sort of show. It reminded me a bit of the movie Milo and Otis, except with a monkey and a bulldog instead of a cat and a pug. The monkey even lit off some fireworks! But really nothing about China (or going to China) ever surprises me anymore, I feel like I've seen all sort of weird and sketchy things, so I'm kind of immune now.
Anyways, in Zhuhai I attended the Zhuhai A1 Grand Prix, which was my first time at a motorsports event. It was quite entertaining, and VERY LOUD! There were lots of Chinese race fans there:
They had a few races on during the day, and before the main race of the day they had some lively performances:
And then they started the race:
Overall it was a fun day. After the race we caught a taxi back to the border crossing and got something to eat before our ferry left. I managed to use my Mandarin language skills a bit during ordering dinner, but eventually had to be helped by some other customers to clarify which kind of sauce I wanted for my rice.
On the ferry ride back to Zhuhai, the played the same monkey and bulldog movie!
This week: HK today, China tomorrow, HK Wednesday, fly to Shanghai on Thursday (for the start of my 2-week holiday to Shanghai and Beijing)!
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