Jason & Si* photo: kaishin chu © 2008

I don’t know about you, but I love random nights. Tonight we decided to go to a local Italian restaurant for dinner and drinks at 9:30pm. We got there at 10pm. Si*, the gracious owner and host seats us and we begin a usual habit of ordering drinks, salad and dinner. Then after dinner drinks happen, which Si* comps my ice coffee and Baileys – which by the way was served up as a scrumptious baileys coffee martini. Jas ordered grappa. Then came Limoncello on the house (fresh made), which was wonderful and we were 2 of 5 remaining customers. We were invited to sit up at the bar by this point, and was served arancello (orange’cello) – amazing stuff. Here we chatted with the other remaining customers (friends of Si*) as well as the chef, Steph*. It was a good time had. Our arancello kept getting topped off it seemed, which is good and bad. ( I had noticed at one point that the bottle was empty, oh dear god!). Then came the tequilla soda shot, Read the rest of this entry »

photo: Jason in Bliss. By: Kaishin Chu © 2008

One of the things that makes it great here, outside of food that is, and ohh is the food good (for those who had no idea how much I love food, you know now), is the availability of reasonably priced massages to be had. Our favorite perhaps is the foot massage, esp. after dinner. Both foot and body massages are usually the same price, so depending on what you feel like, you get to choose or go for both, two hours of bliss.

There are so many establishments to pick from, from small danky ones to spa like environments, with prices ranging as well. The trick is to try a few places, then try a few different masseuses, and once you pinpointed which ones you like or has better methods, remember their number. For the spa by our apartment, I like #37 and Jas #99. Here the technicians are a bit better trained and perform semi reflexology like massages, which actually help to better our health, esp. digestion related at the very least.

The massage session can be in a private room for more privacy and quietness, or Read the rest of this entry »

This past Sunday night was the start of another weather front, with the usual lightening and thunder that kicks of a heavy downpour… Last night was different. It was like being in a disco with strobe lights going off, as sheet lightening occurred for more 6+ hours, followed by rolling thunder and flash rain so heavy that it sounded like hail hitting the windows. Early in the morning I went into the bathroom, where the window is partly open, and was seriously scared out of my wits when one of these super bolts crashed near by, as the light and sound went off instantaneously. The open window had let the full volume be heard and felt. I ran back into bed and pull the covers over my head… forgetting the need to go to the loo. Both J and I tried to fall back asleep after that one, but it was a fitful sleep as we would keep getting woken up by the sounds over top of our air con’s fan. By mid morning the lightening started to become more singular bolts, crashing so loud that the thunder would sound like giant multiple explosives going off. I turned on the news and saw that it was a ‘code Yellow’ for both thunder and heavy rain, not surprising of course. Lucky we didn’t have to go anywhere today, it would have been unpleasant…. inevitibly bringing back bad memories from a big slip and fall I had earlier this week due to heavy rains and poor design of public building’s outdoor pathways. 5 words: slippery as hell when wet.

I badly bruised the back of my hip and got whiplash, in addition to a peer into the social psyche of the local Chinese. I was bumped coming down the steps out of a shop, where the covered hallway was packed with locals afraid of the rain (good grief, you’d think they’d be used to this weather). In that instant I lost my extreme concentration for balance while cautiously stepping down onto the next step and slipped falling heavy onto the step. It knocked the wind out of me. I was sprawled out on the steps in the heavy rain, umbrella having fallen out of my hand. I sat there for a few moments to gather my head to make a mental diagnosis to before moving to make sure I was okay to do so. I was slow to get up, as I felt light headed and already hurting. During those long moments, no a single person asked if I was okay, nor came to help me get up. By the time I got myself up, I was half soaked, and really upset and pissed. All the accounts I’ve heard from expats about their negative behaviour was becoming true to me now. It angered me. How can human decency not be a part of of every person’s values?! I as finally stood up fully, I finally heard someone making a loud disapproving remark, “Aiya, what’s she doing?”, which made me all the more angrier. I went on with my outing, though limping slightly, headache building to a roar, and stewing in outrage. By the time I got home I was nursing a nauseating headache, which lasted for 2 and a half days. I still can’t sleep on my back, but C’est la vie so to speak.

Due to the experience, I had come to realize with unfortunate clarity that I am not enchanted by China’s average people, esp. in cities with the Special Economic Zone designations. Their disregard for human life and earth’s creature is mind boggling to me, though I sort of understand it, as it’s a country that is overly crowded in cities, I am not use to and hope to never get use to their worker ant, survival of the fittest, dog eat dog mentality, which is the reality for those that venture out to these cities have to face. Cheating people anyway you can is still practiced by lots of folks, they are desperate and become greedy to prey on the weak. Foreigners are a target for higher prices, or out of the route taxi rides; honest freshly immigrated country side folks get swindled with every day life dealings, such as rent, investing, buying items that turn out to be fakes deeming the items completely useless. Cruelty to animals and non-mammals alike are visible and the average folk don’t think twice about their actions. It will take a long time for them to change and be educated.

I’ve always highly respected honesty, decency, compassion, common sense, and conscientiousness, never having to go far to experience this in Canada and many other countries I’ve visited. Here, it’s harder to come by, though it does once in a while when you least expect it. When it does, I make a point of telling the person, as they bring a smile to my heart and soul. Thank you to those who made me smile around this world of ours.

— a post from June 10th…

Wow. I can’t recollect when I’ve seen such forces of nature when it comes to rain, not even memories of childhood in Taiwan can compare. A couple years ago in Vancouver we did get a squall or two, and downpours along with it, but the heavy rain only lasted 30 min or so, which is so minute compared to what J and I have experienced the last week.

Last Thursday night we heard the thunder and rain roll in, then with some winds added to the bag. By Friday late morning, when we were ready to head out for our exit out of China, Visa requirement, we realized we might get a bit wet heading out of our compound and trying to hail a cab at the entrance. J meticulously crafted rain covers for our carry-on sized luggage, out of plastic sheeting that we kept from the new mattress. Then we armed ourselves with umbrellas and headed out. By the time we got to the gate, which was only a 2 min walk, at least 6″ of our pant cuffs were soaked, after having to step through torrents of water on the little roadways. Outside of the gates, we realized that catching a cab was going to be a challenge… the street coming in was fine, but the opposite side of the boulevard was flooded with mud water which came from the construction sites. It was surreal. We decided to head towards the highway to see if our luck would be better at seeing a taxi come down our way, but it was hopeless. The walk took about 5-7 min. to reach the Hwy. 2 minutes in, our pants were soaked up to the knee. By the time we reached the highway and got a cab, our pants were wet to the hip, squishy shoes, suitcases wet on the bottom, as it had to roll through water of 2 inches.

We managed to get on the JiuZhou ferry terminal without much trouble. When we boarded our ferry to Hong Kong, I took half of a Gravol pill to be safe, thank goodness I did. With rains and winds, it was one rocky ride. I had to sit myself sideways in order to maintain equilibrium in my ears/head. When I got up to get our usual food on the ride, bowl of beef noodle and share a can of beer, a sudden wave shifted the boat so much that I ended walking like a drunk person, forcing me right towards a pole, then just before I was to collide, I was forced the opposite direction, making me fall into another seated passenger. Man, even ordering the food i had to hold on to the railing at the front of the boat, and watch the hostesses get thrown off her stool and all the drinks in the fridge fall over. Luckily, one hostess brought us our bowl of noodles, I’m not sure how she did it. The food made me feel better, and the beer relaxed J. We took our shoes off hoping it would dry a bit, but really, only our socks dried enough to notice how wet the shoes were when we had to put them back on. Squish!! ewwwww! By the time we got off the ferry, the wet line on our pants had lowered back down to just above the knee, though damp we still felt.

kaishin chu © 2008

Our next leg of the journey required us to take the MTR (mass transit rail, underground) to our destination, which was refreshing, as it is such a great transit system, reminding us also of Japan. The only confusing bits were finding our way through the labyrinths of halls through multiple buildings were connected underground. We were at Sheun Wan station from the ferry port, and needed only to travel 4 stations to Causeway Bay, it only took us 10 min by the MTR to reach it, if by cab prob. triple that if not more, esp. with the weather. The MTR stations usually have 4-6 exits on average, where you can choose where you want to pop out of the underground. Lucky for us, it had the exact exit for us to head to Times Square, where our hotel, Holiday Inn Express, was just on the backside of it. Soon enough we were checked in and got into some dry clothes and used the hair dryer to dry up shoes, then we headed out to explore Time Square and survey what stores there were. Most of this trip was to be filled with shopping for what we cannot find in China, which is quite a few things, so it was down to a basic needs list. Before we left, I had researched and plotted out which stores we needed to check out, all located within 1-5 blocks radius, so convenient is Hong Kong! Businesses situate themselves around MTR stations.

kaishin chu © 2008

We had an early night, deciding to rest up for a full day of shopping, which would be gruesomely tiring. As we prep to bed we can see pretty large lightening bolts strike nearby in the sky, but it calmed down. The early morning was alarming with the big part of the storm coming in, thunder and lighting were timed closer and closer that it was almost instantaneous, meaning the storm was right over head, we try to sleep through the last hour or two, though not very restful. When we rose at 8 am, we look out our window, and noticed the street on the opposite side of the highway ramp was completely flooded! But our side seemed fine. By 9:30am, after we had breakfast and ready to head out, the flood looked even worse on the other side. We headed down stairs, and for the first time saw this sign posted or “Black Rain Storm” (extreme heavy rainfall, 70mm in one hour) right before the escalator to the only entrance of the hotel. As we ride down the escalator, we see debris in the foyer, then to our surprise, looking left out of the open entry way, was water rising into the foyer, Air was spewing out of drain holes on the street, as so much water was rushing to drain in, with water and and air blasting up and out at least 2-3 feet. The water was moving like a stream down the street. We had no way out, except to cross this street and get into the mall and do our best there, in case we wouldn’t be able to traverse to any other stores with the flooding. Other guests were filming and photographing the scene, not knowing what to do otherwise. I wished I had my camera, but knew that it was too risky of weather for me to carry it… darn.

I had to roll my pants up above my knee, and J rolled up to just below his knee, with flip flops the trekked across, the water reaching just over one foot tall. We were cautious going across, in case there were unsuspected objects underfoot, and trying to find curbs. I am sure both J and I are on all those footages of those who were filming, as they seemed humored by our need to get out across. When we got inside the mall, we found the only thing open, Starbucks, and had a coffee and tried to dry out. My poor leather flip flops, as they were all I had on me… Locals would even wear their house slippers, which were usually plastic out and about…

By 10:30-11am stores started to open up, but a lot didn’t most likely due to employees not being able to make it. We happily bought some computer supplies, novels, and food items such as curry paste, quinoa grains and more. By the time we came out, maybe 3 hours later, the streets were bare, just wet, the rain has eased up and the drainage system had handled it all. What a difference! />
Due to the rain, we changed our plans to extend one more night in HK, and one less day in Macau. All in all it worked out perfectly. We got to experience a Black Storm, shopped for what we needed, got to visit Discovery Bay and see my cousin and his family ( hadn’t seen him for 17 years), the additional day was a dry and sunny day and so we got to venture out to more stores, then went to Lan Kwai Fong for margaritas and Mexican food (the best ever too!!).

kaishin chu © 2008

kaishin chu © 2008
When we got to Macau it was sunny and hot, beautiful. We stayed at Hotel Royal again, and as always, it’s such a pleasure to stay there.

kaishin chu © 2008

We checked out stores, then at night we ventured out to the Venetian Macau for dinner in St. Mark’s Square in a Macaunese/Portuguese restaurant called, Madeira. We managed to get shuttled to Sands, then catch the Shuttle their to the Venetian. The place is similar but different to Vegas’, and much bigger but empty, a bit surreal. We headed home the next day (yesterday) and was glad to be back, as I got a little bit of heat stroke, as temperatures reached 29C+ with 80% humidity, which equalled to feeling like 35C+.

This morning, the monsoon is back…. lighting crashes and thunder rolls… then the rain beats up the windows yet again…

If you’d like to see photos from our trip, click here.

I apologize for not having posted sooner. It’s been a different kind of two weeks.

Today was the first day that my shoulder/arm is not in pain and seems to be capable of some computer work (story below), so I decided to post some more photos of our living area/neighbourhood in and around Huafa development, in order to give more insight to everyone of what the environment is like around where we live. It contrasts hugely from what the rest of Zhuhai is like, and hopefully I’ll get to document more in the coming weeks to show you.

A few weeks back I had been working hard on getting focused on redesigning our Launchpad Design business website, as well as my own personal one, which went quite well, so hopefully in another few weeks we can get it up and running, well, at least partially. Jas has been busy with his contract work, and is at the grindstone in the den during the days. We take lunch breaks together, some days going out, some days I cook a light meal. Sometimes we take afternoon fruit breaks on the patio, when it’s not too too humid hot. I had planned for photo walks within the compound/development, but was shutdown by security, told that they did not allow photography inside the development in fear of my selling or stealing the designs!? I was very turned off from the whole thing, thus stopped taking photos for a while due to this. Isn’t it enough that there are tons of hidden surveillance cameras all around? I even asked if I could go to the management to get permission to take just flora and fauna photos, but I didn’t get anywhere with that too. I don’t take the camera out much anymore because it isn’t the safest to lug around a SLR along with guarding my purse (some areas where it’s most interesting photographing wise, has the higher numbers of pick-pocketers), and also a lot of folks presume I’m a professional and do not appreciate seeing me take photos. J has a solution that will soon give me some much needed freedom again, we’ll buy a pocket camera, so I’ll just look like an ordinary tourist or folk. so saddened still…

Then about a couple of weeks ago, due to a TueNa (chinese massage therapy) session, I felt some pinching pains in my shoulder, not realizing something was out of alignment. Then few days later, I over strained my shoulder which further put my rotator cuff out of alignment, leading to a very painful frozen shoulder. The pain was so bad I could not bare standing, lying or sitting, so the second day I endured an hour long torture treatment at the Chinese medical center (where they yanked and twisted my already injured shoulder to figure out how or what to pop back , even though I tried to describe to them what exactly needed to be done). I had never been in such pain and misery before, I mean kicking and screaming/crying aloud and yelling for them to stop doing what they were doing. This was the first time I wish I knew how to swear in Chinese. I had nightmares for two days from the traumatic experience… I think I can empathize with prisoners or captured spies who have been physically tortured now :P Luckily the rotator cuff managed to get popped back, but I sustained more injuries to my shoulder from the session, and it took about a week of not being able using my right arm at all, swollen hand/arm, and feeling pangs of weird pains in my arm and hands while the connective tissues/musles and nerves tried to heal itself. We also had a mini adventure trying to find some more Advil, luckily we found one packaging that had one word in English, Ibufrofen, the magic word. I REALLY REALLY miss my special chiropractor, who would have been able to do two quick exact adjustments, then do some muscle manipulation to help ease the muscle spasms, and voila, finito in 5-10 min. Then I would have healed in a couple of days or less.

Sigh, modern conveniences are still hard to find here for certain things…

Okay, in case you missed the link above to where the new photos are at, here it is again…CLICK HERE to see photos