The journey begins...in Brunei!

I flew out of HK in the afternoon on May 24 and arrived in Brunei a few hours later. Some items of note - there was a pre-recorded prayer in Arabic that was broadcast over the loudspeakers on the airplane (Royal Brunei Airlines) that "blessed" the flight to ensure safe passage - making it clear that I was going to a predominately Muslim country. I was also sitting (not surprisingly, just my luck) right smack dab in the middle of a throng of Chinese mainland tourists. They were okay for the most part, besides the odd loud outburst (those of you living in HK know what I mean). In the Brunei airport I ran into a couple of other Western tourists on holiday from their study abroad semester in Brisbane, and we shared a taxi from the airport into town and hung out for the night...which basically meant that we sat around and did nothing because there is absolutely NOTHING to do at night here in the capital of Brunei, which is called Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB). My Lonely Planet guidebook says that the only thing to do at night is go to the movies, which we tried to do, but alas the theater was closed (and has been for the past 2 days every time I've gone by it, which is a lot). So I went to bed, excited about the next day.

Sunday I started out at the Royal Regalia Museum, which houses a collection of gifts from dignataries and presidents of other countries to the Sultan of Brunei (who has like 26 different words in his formal name). It also contained the royal carriage that was used in the Sultan's procession in Brunei when he became Sultan (or during his Jubilee - I forget):


The museum also contained some artifacts from the Sultan and many pictures of his younger days. It was cool because it was the first museum I've ever walked around in without my shoes - had to take them off when I entered. And thankfully the floors (tile/carpet) were quite clean!

Quick random note - I checked gas prices at the local Shell station here in BSB and 1 liter of regular unleaded costs 36 cents (in Brunei Dollars - the local currency). When I convert the currency to US dollars and change liters into gallons, it turns out people here are paying US$0.93 per gallon - so if you're fed up with gas prices in the USA then come and live here in Brunei! (Side note - gas in Brunei is subsidized by the gov't/Shell, but even if they didn't have the subsidy they would still be paying much less than you!)

After the museum I went over to one of the beautiful mosques here (under construction, but still nice to look at):


After that I headed over to a local fruit and veggie market - always an interesting place to see what the locals eat. I found some interesting items, and I also really liked the way people displayed their various items:


After the market I headed back to the hostel for a little siesta - 2 reasons:

1. it's hot here
2. there's nothing much to do here

I got up and headed down to the pier because I wanted to hire a small boat to take me around the various water villages, as well as to see the Sultan's palace and the beautiful sunset. I ran into 2 women travelers - 1 from South Africa and 1 from Wales. We decided to go on the boat together, though we also thought it a bit early (at 4pm), so we walked around and got a quick bite to eat. A lassi and rossi later, we headed down to the pier, negotiated with the boatman, and headed out. We were not disappointed at the sunset:




We also passed by the Sultan's palace, which is the biggest palace in the world. It has something like 1,700 rooms, including more than 200 bathrooms! After the boatride we got some dinner and then went to bed.

The nest morning I went to a couple of travel/tour agencies to see if I could get out of the city (because all the shops were closed yesterday - Sunday). However, the problem was that most tours had a minimum group of 2 people, and I was told that there were no tours going out today, so it was just me. Anyways, the tours seemed quite expensive, so I probably wouldn't have gone anyways. So I read my guidebook and decided I'd head for the beach in Muara.

I walked to the bus station, and evidently I looked quite puzzled, because a local named "Danny" came up to me to see if I needed help. Before too long he whipped out a page from the Brunei "Let's Go" guidebook series that had a little blurb about him as being famous for wandering around the BSB bus station giving out quality free tips to tourists. Usually I am quite suspect of people too willing to help me out, but he seemed to be genuine - anyways all he did was tell me which bus went to the beach, which was all I needed. The bus driver confirmed this and I hopped on.

So I finally got out of the city and got to see a bit of the countryside, which was nice. The bus passed by some of the residences of the various Ambassadors - not bad! After changing buses in Muara, I ended up at the beach...all by myself. I literally was the only person there (besides the construction workers, who were working on various things). Here - I can prove that I was the only one there!



The beach was okay - a bit too much pollution, but I had it all to myself.

Tonight I am off to Bali - more updates to come soon!

Censorship in China

I've finally arrived back in HK after a 2-week holiday in Shanghai and Beijing. The trip was great, although (I can't believe I'm about to write this) I think the holiday may have actually been a little too long. In all reality, the main tourist sites in Shanghai can be seen in 2-3 days, while the main tourist sites in Beijing can be done in 3-4 days. I spent a total of about 6 days in each city, which was good because I wasn't stressed about having enough time to get to each place I wanted to see, but because I didn't take my laptop with me I realized that I was going to have a lot of work when I came back to HK. I made good use of my free time by checking out the local massage scene, and was duly impressed.

Anyways, during all of my spare time in Shanghai and Beijing I also sought out book shops because I quickly finished the 2 books I had brought with me, and I'm always on the hunt for a nice, new book to read. In most of the larger book shops I went to, the Lonely Planet guidebooks were always easy to spot because of the large number of books available for all sorts of countries. I was on the lookout for the China Lonely Planet guidebook because the guidebook I bought in Boston before I left was published in 2005, and I figured there would probably be a lot of updates that I should know about. However, to my dismay, in both Shanghai and Beijing they did not have the Lonely Planet guidebook on China for sale.

So today I had some spare time in the Shanghai airport as I was waiting for my flight back to HK, and one of the bookstore employees approached me looking to sell a CD that could teach me Mandarin. I let her make her case, but I didn't feel like spending the money on it, so I told her I would browse around the store and think about it. I made my way over to the Lonely Planet guidebook section, and sure enough I couldn't find the one for China. I ask the salesperson why the China Lonely Planet guide was not for sale in China, and she said that she couldn't explain it in English, but she said something about Taiwan, and so I began to realize why it wasn't for sale. I hypothesized that the book said something controversial about Taiwan's relationship to China, and that's why it wasn't for sale.

Sure enough, I did some searching on the internet and found this article, which confirms that indeed the China Lonely Planet guidebook is not for sale in China because a map inside of the book has Taiwan in a different color than China, inferring that in fact they are 2 separate countries. As many of you may or may not know, Taiwan's supposed independence is a big deal among Chinese people, and the Chinese government is always making threats about attacking Taiwan and forcing it to become part of the mainland political system. I asked the salesperson in the Shanghai airport bookstore how Taiwan's inclusion or non-incusion as part of China would affect her life, and she couldn't really answer me.

So tonight when I got back to HK, after food shopping I went to one of my favorite bookshops, and sure enough I found the China Lonely Planet guidebook. It was published in May 2007 and so I'll probably buy when I'm planning my next big trip in China.

I'll have more pictures and stories from my recent travels to share in the next couple of weeks.

Blog Break

I'll be on holiday in Shanghai from December 20-25, then Beijing from December 25-31, then back to Shanghai (for NYE) from December 31 - January 2, so I should have lots of fun and interesting stories and pictures to share when I get back. Happy holidays to all!

26 Dead Baby Pigs

It's been quite an exciting and eventful weekend - I was on 2 different boats, saw a wedding, heard a live jazz band, heard a live marching band, and saw 26 dead baby pigs (with heads on) paraded around a room.

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)!

David the Boss

As mostly everyone knows by now, I came to Hong Kong as a Logistics Manager, and 4 months later I became the boss of the office (General Manager). While I was the Logistics Manager, everyone (co-workers and vendors) treated me very nicely, always helping me with whatever was needed, whether it was translating Chinese into English, carrying my luggage during trips to China, making sure I was safe, and on and on - I kind of felt like they were babying me. Also the door was always held open for me so I could walk through first. I was kind of uncomfortable with all of this treatment, as I just wanted to be treated like everyone else - I didn't want to be treated in a special manner just because I was an expat.

Once I became the General Manager of the office, things changed. Now I was being treated even better than before - every decision that had to be made was my decision, and people made sure that they always held the door for me and let me walk through first, even if I insisted that they go first. When at a restaurant I was always asked for what my choice of food was, when before the food was just ordered and I ate whatever was there. I became increasingly aware that no matter how hard I tried to be treated just like everyone else, it was nearly impossible - everyone was treating me extremely well.

Now I'm not complaining about this - I'm just making a cultural observation here. In the USA you wouldn't catch me dead carrying my boss's briefcase (he didn't have one, but if he did I wouldn't hold it for him). Here in Hong Kong, where hierarchy is very important, it's very common for the subordinates to carry the boss's briefcase when traveling.

And now it's gotten to the point where I expect to go first in everything - first to walk through doors, first to get on elevators and escalators, first to start eating, and so on. And I now do these things anyways because they're expected from me (cuz I'm the boss), and I'm sick of trying to tell my co-workers to go first. So I've just accepted this position, even though I don't quite feel so comfortable with it.

I know I shouldn't be complaining about being treated well, but the problem is that now I expect it, so I may unwittingly do something that might be considered rude (i.e. walking in front of someone when in line, etc.), but it's only because it's how I've now been conditioned to act. Does this make sense to anyone or have I lost it?

Returning the Favor

At lunch with my colleagues a few days ago, I learned that it is a very common practice in Hong Kong for adults to give a certain percentage of their salary to their parents each month. Basically the idea is that the parents have taken care of the child for 18-22 years, and therefore after they are done with schooling and are earning a salary, it is then their responsibility to take care of their parents (financially) when possible. It's like paying them back for helping to raise them. The figure my colleagues gave me was that usually the money given to the parents is around 20% of their salary (paid on a monthly basis).

So for example, an employee who earns HK$20,000 per month (US$2,500 - this is an average HK salary in my industry) would probably give around HK$2,000 (US$250) each month to their parents. Not a bad deal for the parents, eh? Hong Kong doesn't have social security like in the USA, but they have something similar that pays people a bit less (relatively speaking) than what people in the USA get each month after retirement.

The interesting thing is that my co-worker said that if she forgets to give her parents money one month, her mom is not afraid of calling her and asking where the money is! So I guess some parents need this money. Then when I asked my co-worker (who has 2 teenage children) if she expected her children to give her a monthly allowance when they get older, she said "no". The reason for this is that basically this system is kind of an old, traditional thing and that people growing up in today's day and age would not do this sort of thing. I'll have to ask around to some of my other local HK friends and see what their views are on this.

I guess this is all part of the fact that family bonds here are much closer than in the western cultures (the group comes before the individual in asian societies). I think it's kind of nice that the children take care of the parents when they can. I know that in many peoples' families in the west, children also take on financial and other responsibilities for their parents, but usually this only happens when the parents are much older and cannot care for themselves anymore.

Seoul Train

I spent last weekend on a quick holiday to Seoul. One of my friends was interested in going there, so we got a group of 4 together and decided to go just a few weeks ago. The only thing I really wanted to do was see the DMZ (demilitarization zone) between the border of North and South Korea. For some reason I've always had a fascination with North Korea (and in general other countries on George W's "axis of evil").

The DMZ tour was pretty good - we got to see some of the famous things like the tunnel the North Koreans dug that was discovered by the South Koreans in 1978. We also went to an observatory where we could actually see into North Korea. Our tour guide was a South Korean woman and while she gave some background on the many things that North Korea uses as propoganda to oppress their people, she was giving us some South Korean propoganda as well. For instance, when asked why the tunnel was so small (in height) she said that the North Koreans were shorter than the South Koreans because they are malnourished. While that might very well be true, I highly doubt there have ever been any studies done on the height of North Koreans as compared with South Koreans. And on and on it went like that. I would have liked to have gone to Panmunjon, which is the actual place where South Korean and US military stand facing the North Koreans at the actually border, but unfortunately tours are only given during weekdays, and we were only there for Saturday and Sunday.

Other highlights of Seoul included some interesting palaces, and some really great food. The traditional South Korean dish is called kimchi, which is basically cabbage with some spices on it. And the drink of choice is called soju, which is similar to rice wine. We ate a lot of street food - enough to make Anthony Bourdain jealous.

We also went to a show called Nanta, which is where the actors use cooking to perform and make rhythms (in a similar way to Blue Man Group). We got tickets to the show a few hours before the performance started, and we were given front row seats. Part of the show involved choosing some audience members to help out on stage, and they decided to pick me. I got to eat some soup alongside another audience member, who was a Japanese woman. The basic idea was that the cooks had made the soup and wanted to know if it was good. The Japanese woman next to me kept saying , "Oishi desu, oishi desu" which is Japanese for "it's delicious, it's delicious". The whole show was based around throwing a wedding, and lucky for me I got to be the groom, so at the end of the show the large slide projector in the back of the stage showed a picture of me and my Japanese bride smiling. Supposedly they're going to email me a picture of this, which I hope they do because it was absolutely amazing to see my grinning face on the huge screen of this show. Good times.

We also spent a lot of time shopping, which isn't usually my thing, but I happened to have travelled with some people who have good fashion sense, so they helped me pick out some good things for me and for some gifts.

Overall we liked Seoul - friendly people, good food, pretty easy to get around and use the subway, and best of all they had numerous Dunkin' Donuts stores - quite a treat for me!