Chilly suddenly

Last Tuesday the weather was very pleasant. The temperature was in the low to mid 60's, and there wasn't any wind. On Wednesday though the temperature dropped suddenly and it got windy. The last few days have been in the low 40's with wind and sometimes rain. It seems to have caught us all unprepared. I think it will warm up a little at the end of this week though.

We have a new person on our team here at work from Thailand. He's a having a very rough time with the cold weather, since he's never been in cold weather before. He didn't even know what a humidifier was. Now he had to go buy a heater for his apartment, coat, sweaters, etc... Luckily he is already use to spicy food.

Happy Birthday USMC!

The 10th of November is the birthday for the U.S. Marine Corps. There are six marines here in Chengdu who provide security for the consulate here, and on Saturday night they had a party at the Crowne Plaza Hotel to celebrate.


Nice ice statue

I asked my friend Jessie to go with me and she was nice enough to accept. We spent Saturday afternoon running around getting our clothes, and Jessie's makeup and hair done. She looked great!


Jessie and I all dressed up

There was about 150 people total who attended the party. Most people were Americans, but there was a few Chinese, a few Australians, and a few Brits.


Cocktail hour outside the ballroom

We both had a good time meeting new people, as well as people I had known previously. We also met someone named Rachel. Jessie doesn't usually meet many women taller than herself, so she had to get a picture with her...


Jessie and Rachel

After the cocktail meet and greet, we went into the ballroom and watched the ceremonies. The started with some of the marines presenting the colors...


Start of the ceremonies

After that the person in charge at the consulate give birthday wishes to the Marine Corps from the State Department. Then they showed a video from the head of the Marine Corps wishing the marines a happy birthday, and showed a bit about what the marines are all about. After that the guest of honor talked about his 17 years in marines. By the time he was finished we were all ready for dinner.


Dinner table centerpiece

We had salad...


Nice salad. Jessie is good at taking pictures of food

... and soup...



Minestrone soup with pesto

Jessie had the stuffed chicken...


Jessie's chicken entree

...and I had the beef tenderloin...


My steak

For dessert there was a dessert buffet...


A small part of the dessert buffet

...and someone making Bananas Foster. The kids loved that...


Flame on!

After dinner there was some dancing and more socializing...


After dinner dancing

It was a rather enjoyable evening, and it was nice to spend the evening in such an American way.

Halloween Party

Saturday was Halloween, and I hadn't really planned to do anything or go anywhere. I was talking with my friend Reese about going out to dinner on Saturday night when I remembered that there was going to be a Halloween party at Hooters. We decided to meet there that evening; and Reese would bring her boyfriend, her sister Rena, and their mother. Their mother had never been to an American restaurant before, and none of them had been to a Halloween party before.

I knew that the waitresses there would be wearing costumes, but I was surprised how good they were and I was surprised that so many customers dressed up in costume. Here's a few pictures...


Welcome to Hooters!


Nice chains


Here kitty, kitty!


Me with the lovely witch Ivy


A nice variety of costumes


The four riders of the apocalypse take a break


A new Hooters girl? I hope not


Time to dance!

For entertainment the waitresses put together a cool little dance. It started with the girls lying on the floor like they were dead...


Arise my pretties!

Then they came to life and did a Chinese style fan dance...


Lovely fan dance

Then it turned into a really sexy modern dance...


Go girls, go!

It was a lot of fun. There was also a beer drinking contest...


They have to drink from hats?


Heck with the hat. Gimme the glass!

...and they also had a limbo dance contest...


How low can you go?

It was all a lot of fun, and my guests had a great time too.


Nicole, myself, and Cici


The Manchus grab Tina!

Almost Halloween!

It's almost Halloween. The first thing we need to do is make sure the pumpkins don't find the beer. Oops! Too late. Oh well.



I hope everyone has a fun Halloween!

Now and then and now

Last week they were having a trade fair at the exhibition center nearby our office. On Friday Chinese Prime Minister Wen, and several heads of state from other countries came to visit the fair, so security was very high in the area.

Wen Jiabao Meets with Foreign Leaders Attending the 10th Western China International Economy & Trade Fair

A lot of traffic lanes were blocked and there were police everywhere. A lot of us weren't able to go to the office that day, so we had to work from home. I made a comment about politicians blocking traffic to some of my co-workers, and one of them asked me if this doesn't happen in the United States. I told him that sometimes a politician will do something like this, but they usually don't get re-elected if they do.

We also saw on the news about several people in the Obama administration praising Mao, which is really weird. Last week it was was Anita Dunn, who is the White House's communications director. Here's the story from the Wall Street Journal...

From Mao to Obama

Anita Dunn, the White House's communications director who has declared war on Fox News, came under scrutiny herself last week when it was discovered she had told an audience that Mao Tse Tung was one of her favorite political philosophers and quoted Mao on how to "fight your war." In her speech last June, after she joined the Obama White House, Ms. Dunn said the "two people I turn to most" were Mother Teresa and Mao Tse-Tung. She barely discussed the late nun, but waxed at length about the lessons Mao had taught her.

And then there was Ron Bloom, who is the new manufacturing czar. Here's the news story from the Washington Examiner...

Another Obama administration czar agrees - 'kind of' - with Mao

First, it was White House communications chief Anita Dunn telling a high school commencement audience that the murderous Chairman Mao was one of her "two favorite philosophers." Now, it's manufacturing czar Ron Bloom who it turns out "kinda" agrees with modern history's most prolific genocidal murderer that "power grows out of the barrel of a gun."

Were these people born stupid, or did they just get progressively stupider as time went on? Anyways, here's an amusing story about Obama and Mao in the People's Daily...

"Oba Mao" items popular with foreign tourists in Beijing

A souvenir shop in the popular Houhai tourist area of Beijing has recently become quite famous because it is selling products with the image of U.S. President Barack Obama's face imprinted over that of China's late leader Mao Zedong, CCTV.com reports.

Here is a rather good article about the dangers of maoism from BigGovernment.com...

Lessons From Chairman Mao

There is something tragic in man’s nature that an ideology which has been the scourge of the 20th century, inflicting misery and death upon hundreds of millions, still has so many adherents. China recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of its Communist Party. Although communism’s horror show continues to enslave a large portion the world’s population, many in our county are still sympathetic to this cancer. Its track record bears repeating, particularly to students, whose naïveté and inexperience leave them susceptible to dangerous belief systems.

If you want to read about the entire horror that was Mao I would recommend reading Mao: The Unknown Story.

Trip to Bali

There is no direct flights from Chengdu to Bali, so I had to change planes in Hong Kong and Singapore. I flew to Hong Kong, and the person working at the check in counter for Dragonair Airlines made a mistake on my baggage claim, so they were nice enough to upgrade me to business class. I had a few hours layover in Hong Kong and did a little shopping at the stores in the airport. I also had lunch at a place called Champions Sports Bar, and the burger I had was kind of so-so.

The flight to Singapore was kind of uneventful. There was a really nice sunset over Singapore when we were arriving, and we were on time so I did not have to rush to catch my next flight to Denpasar (Bali).

When I arrived in Denpasar I got my visa, and got in line to go through immigration. I was almost at the head of the line when I realized I had left a carton of cigarettes, that I had bought at the duty free store in Chengdu, on the plane. I went to an information desk and asked if they could call the plane and they did, and I could get my cigarettes at the lost and found. In the mean time a large plane load of people had arrived from Japan; so now the lines to get through immigration were really long so it took me almost an hour to get through immigration, get my bags, and go find my ride to the resort. I arrived at Club Med in Bali at about midnight.

When I woke up on my first day at Bali I realized I had caught a small cold from either the air conditioner during the flight over, or from the air conditioner in my room. It wasn't too bad... just a little coughing, runny nose, and a sneeze every once in awhile; but it meant that I could not do some of the things I was hoping to do. Sneezing while snorkeling would not be pleasant.

My fellow guests at the resort were from all over the world. There were people from Indonesia, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Germany, etc... Not too many Americans, since it is so far away. I was kind of surprised to see quite a few Chinese there. Someone who worked at the resort told me they only come during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) and National Day holidays. They seemed somewhat well behaved, and the only problem I had with any of them was some lady who would cut in line in front of people everywhere. I also saw one spitting, but he did that into an ashtray, and not where people walked. The biggest problem others had with the Chinese were that they talk very loud. I hadn't noticed since I am use to that.

Most days at the resort were spent waking early and having breakfast, wandering around the resort, hitting some golf balls at the little driving range, shooting some archery, having lunch, taking a nap, going for a swim, shoot some more archery, wander around the resort some more, have dinner, socialize with others at the bar and maybe watch a show, and then go to bed.

I enjoyed wandering around the resort. It was very tranquil and very pretty. Here are some pictures...


A nice six-hole par 3 golf course


Area leading down to the beach


A small shrine. For shows or weddings maybe?


Some local ladies make some straw baskets


Outside the rooms


Aerobics in the pool


A view from the beach during low tide


Even Buddha likes the beach


One of the dragons in the main restaurant

The food was really good too. Just about every meal had dishes from Indonesia, India, China, Korea, Japan, Italy, and a variety of western dishes also. My favorite breakfast was an Indian egg dish (scrambled eggs, chopped vegetables, and curry), bacon, and fruit. Sometimes I would have Japanese style salted fish instead of the bacon. It was hard to select a favorite for lunch and dinner since there was so much variety. The kimchi was great for my cold. The sushi was fresh and very delicious. Everything was wonderful and even with a little self-control I think I managed to gain a few pounds.

I ended up shooting a lot of archery. The guy who ran the archery range like to have me come over, since I could translate a little of his instructions to the Chinese guests who showed up to do a bit of shooting. He could speak English, French, and a little Japanese; but no Chinese. There were a few people that worked at the resort who could speak Chinese though.

Every afternoon they had a little archery tournament of some kind, and I was in 4 tournaments. The first was a team tournament and I was teamed up with someone named Mitch from Australia. We came in third and got bronze medals. I won gold medals in the other 3 tournaments. One was a "beat the pro" tournament and I shot the second highest score there. I should have gotten a silver medal, but they gave all of us that beat the pro's score a gold medal.

One afternoon I traveled to the northern part of the island to visit an elephant park. They had a lot of information about elephants and a nice little museum of elephant related stuff.


Some elephants at the elephant park

They had a total of 30 elephants at the park. Three of them were brand new baby elephants.


The newest arrival with mommy

After watching a little elephant show I went for a half-hour ride on an elephant through the nearby jungle and farm area. Once you got use to the little swaying back and forth it was pretty nice.


I feel like King Julien!

Even though the rainy season in Bali has officially started it never seemed to rain where I was. Sometimes I would go somewhere and they would say "You're lucky... it was just raining here this morning". I did seem to have luck when it came to nice weather there. The day I went to the elephant park was a lucky date, so on the way back we saw a lot of weddings going on.


Outside a temple where a wedding is getting ready to start


A small shrine

I woke up early on my last day and I had a nice breakfast. After breakfast I went to say goodbye to my friend Maria before I had to catch my ride to the airport. Maria is from Korea, and it was really great getting to meet her. There were a few girls from Korea that I met there. I use to live in Korea ages ago and they all brought back a lot of memories about Korea that I had forgotten.


Maria and I take a look around the boutique

From Denpasar I flew to Hong Kong and had a few hours at the airport to do a little shopping before my flight to Chengdu. It turns out that I was not at the main terminal, and the stores I wanted to visit were all at the main terminal. I browsed around the shops at my terminal, but did not see anything I wanted to buy, except a nice silver ring with a beautiful blue sapphire. Too bad it costs over 26,000 Kong Kong dollars (about $3,400 US)! It was nice, but not that nice. I bought some nice big cookies for my driver and his family. I knew his daughters would really like them.

For the flight from Hong Kong to Chengdu Dragonair upgraded me to business class again, but I am not sure why. Maybe they like me, or something. I flew into Chengdu in the evening and I got home at about 10:30pm. I did the minimal amount of unpacking I needed to do, and then went to bed. Traveling is so tiring some times.

It took me awhile to post this since one of my teeth has been bothering me, and typing away in front of the computer is kind of dreary when you are in pain. Anyways, by the last day of my trip my cold was pretty much gone but one of my teeth had started to hurt. I would have rather had the cold back.

Time with friends

Last week they were having an Oktoberfest celebration at the Paulaner's restaurant in the Kempinski Hotel. It ran every evening from Tuesday night to Saturday night. I went on Wednesday night with some friends. Paulaner's had a really nice buffet of German food, and some good Oktoberfest beer they had brewed. They also had a band from Austria called Alpenrocker who played a mix of songs in German, some songs in English, and at least one song in Chinese.

It was pretty fun, but it was very warm that day and for some reason the restaurant didn't have their air conditioners up very high. I was also pretty tired from the long work day, so I didn't stay too long. After lots and lots of good German food and two beers I decided to go home. I got home at about 10:30pm or so. There was a lot of lightning flashing around, and we had a really huge thunderstorm later that night that went on until about 4:30am or so. We have been having a lot of rain just about every night.

On Friday night I went to Mooney's Pub at the Shangri-La hotel. The American Chamber of Commerce was having a TGIF Happy Hour party, and I thought I would go to represent IBM, since the people from the company who usually go tho these events could not go. Mooney's had a band from Australia called Peachy which was good. For a warmup act there was a very pretty Chinese girl who played some songs on an electronic fiddle. I ran into a bunch of friends there from the US, and a lot of what we talked about was football. It was a nice evening.

On Saturday I went to visit my friend Reese and some of her family who are visiting Chengdu. Her mother and oldest sister, Hong Ping, had traveled from Hunan province to visit Reese and her sister Rena. Hong Ping is thinking of moving to Chengdu, and I think her mother would like to play matchmaker between the two of us. Lunch was a large variety of Hunan dishes made with pork and vegetables as well as a chicken dish. I ate too much so I didn't need to eat much for dinner that evening.

Hong Ping is hoping that some day she can get a job translating books from English to Chinese. She can read very well, but needs some practice with her spoken English. The book she is currently reading is Jane Eyre which uses a lot of old English, and even I have trouble reading some of that. After lunch she read some of this to me. We also talked a little bit about Chinese writers, and she was very surprised that I had read works by Lao-Tzu and Zhuang Zi. It was an enjoyable afternoon, but I was a little tired since I got a support call from work early that morning and did not get as much sleep the night before as I had hoped.

Bad choices

I saw this article in the China Daily...

China's national flag to go up in White House on Sept 20

The national flag of the People's Republic of China (PRC) will be hoisted at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on September 20, media reported Sunday.

Chinese associations in the United States had applied to hold a ceremony in front of the US President’s residence to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of PRC.

...and I thought that's... strange. Why would the government of the United States, the country who has liberated more people from tyranny and oppression than any other country in the history of mankind, want to celebrate the 60th anniversary of a government that has oppressed and destroyed the lives of so many human beings?

Traffic problems

Traffic here in Chengdu seems to get worse and worse every day. This morning's commute was the worst I had ever been in... anywhere in the world at any time. The traffic in Chengdu is not fast, but it is very heavy at times. There are a lot of factors that make traffic here bad...

1) Cars are still new to China and most drivers do not have much experience driving. On my first trip to China in 2001 everyone was on bicycles and there were only a few cars. Now it is the opposite. Of course, if you ask people if they can drive they will tell you they have been driving for a long time and are very experienced.

2) There are probably about 1,000 new drivers every day in Chengdu. That's just a guess, but I heard that Beijing sells about 2,000 to 3,000 brand new cars every single day, so 1,000 new drivers for Chengdu with a population of about 11 million people is not a bad guess.

3) A lot of these new drivers have no training, and many pay bribes to get their license. Corruption is bad everywhere here, and the Chinese version of the DMV is no exception. When I first looked into getting a driver's license here they only had the written test in Chinese, but I could hire an translator. There are two types of translators I could hire... one that would translate the questions for me, and one that would translate the questions for me and give me the answers. The second one is a little more expensive. Just about every person I have talked to that has gone through a driving class here has been encouraged to bribe their teachers with small gifts if they wish to pass.

4) Most Chinese drivers are rude and selfish. Selfish driving is the rule of the road here. Never let anyone else have the right away. Never let anyone pass you. If you have to stop somewhere be sure to stop where it will provide the most inconvenience to others around you. Do not pull off the road if you need to use your cell phone... Get into the left lane and slow down to 5 MPH while you chat on the phone. Heck, if you can drive down the divide between 2 lanes at 5 MPH then that is even better. This stuff about saving face is a load of BS too. I've heard people say they did not want to let someone pass them because they might lose face, but their actions to avoid this loss of face are shameful most of the times. For example, I've seen someone in a car almost run over some little old lady as she tries to walk across the street because they didn't want to let her go by first. Crazy.

5) Most Chinese people do not know how to wait in a queue. Traffic is basically a long queue of people who happen to be in (or on) vehicles. Although you will often hear that China has a civilization that has lasted for 4,000 years (or 5,000 years or 6,000 years, etc... depending on who you talk to) waiting in queues seems to be a civilized behavior they missed. Or else they knew about it, but forgot about it while Mao was in power.

6) Political elites are the worst offenders of traffic laws, and many other drivers emulate their bad driving behavior. If you are driving down the road and see a car with a red colored character on their license plates then you know they are high up in the government and are better than you. They are above the law. They also have a special sounding horn, and you better get out of the way if they honk it at you. Failure to do so could be reason enough for a trip to a labor camp for a few years. If one of these idiots hits you just go ahead and plead guilty. It's never their fault.

7) Chinese police do not enforce traffic laws. They do pull people over who have not paid their car tax, but that's about it. Want to drive down the sidewalk? Go for it!

There are probably dozens of other reasons too, but I won't go over all of them here. You get the idea.

Here's a picture I took a few weeks ago at an intersection near where I live that I travel through every day on the way to work....



It's not a very good picture, since I did not want to get out of the car to take it. We weren't moving, but that doesn't mean someone would not run me over if I stepped out of the car, especially the people on bikes, scooters and motorcycles that weave in and out of this mess.

I will have to try to explain how traffic flows through this intersection... It is a 3-way intersection that comes off of an old bridge which goes from west to east. The bridge can support about 3 lanes of traffic (there are no lane markings on the bridge) and the other two roads which run north and south can support 3 to 4 lanes of traffic. There are lane markings on the north and south roads for one lane of auto traffic on each side as well as a lane for bicycles. Cars, trucks and buses use the bicycle lane whenever they want and bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, pull carts, etc... sometimes use the auto lanes if they can survive doing so. Lane markings are only guidelines... not rules.

Up until yesterday there was no traffic lights at this intersection, and going through the intersection is a bit of luck and a bit of chaos since the concept of right-of-way is not really understood here. Sometimes someone has to stop to let traffic in one of the other roads of the intersection pass because the others have nudged in, and this is when the problems start.

If someone in front of you stops to let other traffic go by you do not just stop and wait your turn (you do not know how to wait your turn in a queue, remember?)... you go around them using the bicycle path or even the lane for oncoming traffic. If there is a lot of traffic you can have a lot of lanes of traffic, since people will continue to go to the sides to go around the stopped traffic. Since you are not an experienced driver you did not look down the road to see that there are 3 lanes of traffic trying to squeeze into the one lane of oncoming traffic that you have now taken, and being a rude selfish driver you do not care. So now you will sit and wait for someone else to move.

Although there are now traffic lights at this intersection it did not seem to help this morning. After all, traffic lights are like lane markings... only guidelines, not the rule.

What is curious though is this... I've seen cars hit pedestrians, other cars, bicycles, etc... but I've never seen them hit a dog. Dogs seem to have some magical property that allows them to cross the street with no fear and no danger. It's weird.

Football season has started

The NFL season has started, and like the previous years I am listening to the Redskins Radio show through NFL Fieldpass over the internet. The Redskins' first pre-season game against the Baltimore Ravens was pretty bad. The Redskins' next two pre-season games against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots seemed much better.

On Tuesday evening I went out to Shamrock for dinner, and they had the usual soccer and rugby games on the TV there. I mentioned to my waiter that I wished I could watch American football, but the stations here never carry that. He told me there was a new sports channel on their cable called ASN (All Sports Network) that showed American football, and sure enough I got to watch the Monday Night Football game between the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Jets. It was even an exciting and fun game to watch!

A replay of the game between the Washington Redskins and the New England Patriots was supposed to be on Saturday night on ASN, so I went to watch that. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the satellite hookup, and they could not get that station that evening. Oh well, I had dinner there and ran into some old friends and made some new friends, so the evening was not a total waste.

Dog days

A few weeks ago I went over to a friend's house to see some puppies. They have a big copper colored poodle that just had puppies a few days before. This weekend I learned that someone stole the mother dog a few days ago. Not sure how well the puppies will do since they still have not been weened yet.

On Friday night I got a support call from work, and had to work all night. Then I got another support call early on Saturday morning, and when I was done helping with that I had to help with an upgrade to one our systems in Korea. I was very tired by lunch time. Even so, I went out to do some shopping with my friend Reese in the afternoon. I bought a few long-sleeve shirts and a jacket, since summer will be ending soon. In the evening I joined my friend Kitty for dinner. We went to the fish hotpot place near my apartment. It was excellent... I ate too much.

Sunday was a lazy day. I could have slept all day, but got myself up and did some things around the house. I played on the computer some and watched a few movies in the evening. Terminator 4 and Inkheart. This week is going to be pretty busy since half my team at work is on vacation.

My P-38

About this time thirty years ago I was going through basic training in the Army. Back then when troops were out in the field they ate C-Rations, which are tins of food. In order to open those cans of food we had a simple little can opener that we referred to as a P-38. The P-38 is considered by many as the Army's greatest piece of gear... simple, compact, durable, and easy to use. I was given a P-38 thirty years ago, and not only has it been on my key chain all these years but I still use it regularly.

When I got my P-38 it was a dull silver color, and through the years it has turned darker and darker. On Sunday I was surprised to find to find it covered in a thin layer of rust. I could easily rub the rust off with my fingers, but I can't understand why it got rusty all of the sudden. I've had it all these years, in all kinds of weather, and it's never gotten rusty before. A trivial mystery that occupies my mind sometimes.

News of the new news

I didn't have a lot planned this weekend. I had some friends over for dinner on Saturday night. I cooked some spaghetti and we also had some french bread and gouda cheese from Holland. It was pretty good. The rest of the time I spent playing on the computer, doing some laundry, and catching up on the news back in the USA.

I haven't read the news much lately since I've been so busy. It's amazing how much has been going on... I never even heard of this cash for clunkers program until now. What a financial disaster that is. It looks like a typical government program... give everyone $3,500 or $4,500 for their old cars, but the taxpayers end up spending anywhere from $20,000 to $45,000 per car. It looks like they are going to try to keep the program going too. These are the same idiots that want to run the health care system?

The socialization of the US health care system is another big topic in the news. It's always funny when these aristocratic-wannabes in Washington decide they know what's best for the masses, and then they get all upset when people complain. How dare those sheeple complain!

Doesn't matter... they don't care about the will of the people and they'll pass that socialist garbage. It is interesting to see them display their utter contempt and disdain for the average person though. They always say their there for the people but we all know that, like socialist political elites everywhere, they don't give a rat's pah-tooty about anyone but themselves. If the changes to health care are so great then why are the politicians exempt from it?... for their whole lives?

It looks like they really underestimated the public's reaction though. Only in a few places did their red guard thugs show up to beat the complaining peasants. No worries though... they're taking names, and a few years in a re-education though labor camp will stop those pesky complainers. This article is pretty funny...

Know Your Town Hall Mob Agitators!

Greetings citizen! By now you may have heard scattered rumors of state and party officials encountering reactionary resistors at local health care reform information programs. Do not be alarmed, for our 5-year plan for citizen health proceeds without delay. Remain stalwart! The truth can be told at last, that these so-called “protests” are merely the desperate rear flank mob actions of dead-end bandits and saboteurs in the pay of enemy insurance agents.

About time the people in the US started standing up for their rights. I have to wonder if events in Iran and Honduras helped.

The recession here in China is pretty much over with. When it hit here back at the beginning of the year you could tell something was wrong. Usually the whole country is one big construction site, but all those migrant workers who usually do all that construction work were told to stay home after they left for the Spring Festival holidays to visit their families, and construction came to a stand still. It seemed rather quiet sometimes with no construction going on.

The government then put together a stimulas package which gave tax breaks to businesses, so that they could hire people and get the economy going again. It seems all that construction is going again, which is good for the Chinese economy even though it can be loud at times. Even the government in Beijing knows that tax cuts are always a great way to get out of a recession. Increased government spending and tax increases are really bad for economies. Too bad the idiots in Washington don't know this, or maybe they do and they just don't care.

Let's see, what else?... Oh, there was this trip to North Korea by Bill Clinton. A reporter discusses socialist culture in an interesting article I saw in the Washington Post about a photo taken there....

An Emotional Restraining Order For Clinton the Statesman

When former president Bill Clinton arrived in Pyongyang on his mission to bring home the two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who had been detained by the North Korean government for nearly five months, he posed for an official photograph with the country's reclusive leader, Kim Jong Il. The photograph is, to be blunt, weird. Disconcerting. Creepy.

Why would anyone dislike life in North Korea? They have government run health care (political elites are exempt from it though). No need for tax cuts for business (since the government owns all the businesses). No need for tax cuts to improve the economy since they are in a permanent recession (since the government owns all the businesses). No complaining peasants. No food either.

Contest, hotpot, and shopping

Last Monday when I was at Hooters some of the girls asked me to come back on Friday for something special, so on Friday I went back with some friends and a co-worker. Friday was the one year anniversary of Hooters in Chengdu, and they were having a Miss Hooters contest for the Hooters in Chengdu. The competition started with each girl saying a few things about themselves to everyone in Chinese and in English.


Ariel (left in pink top) from Shanghai Hooters was the MC

After that the girls did some dancing and some even sang a little.


I wish they danced like this in the Hooters in the US

And more dancing.


Getting everyone to sing along

We had dinner there too.


Victoria ordering dinner


Limbo time

Then they went around and introduced themselves to customers and encouraged the customers to vote for them. There were four winners of the Miss Hooters in Chengdu contest. Those four girls will go to the Hooters in Shanghai where they will compete against girls from the Hooters in Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, and maybe Wuhan. The winner of that contest will be Miss Hooters of China, and will go on to compete in Las Vegas against Hooters girls from all over the world.


Nicole and Ruby

On Saturday I woke up and played around on the computer, fixed lunch, and did laundry. In the afternoon Reese and her boyfriend came over for some swimming. In the evening we went to a hotpot place behind my apartment. I had been to this hotpot place before, but they have changed recently. Before they served your regular style of hotpot, but now they specialize in fish hotpot. It was really good.

On Sunday I just lazed about the apartment in the morning. In the afternoon I went to meet my friend Victoria and we went over to do some shopping at Metro. I was really hoping to get some Italian sausage there, but they were all out of that. I did get some Australian beef, some cheeses from Europe, some wine from California and France, and a new mosquito zapper. The plan was to go back to my place and cook dinner, but by the time we got back it was pretty late, so we just went out to dinner at another restaurant near my apartment.

A movie and a steak

Last week I took some of my English mentees from work to see the new Harry Potter movie. The week before that I re-read the book. The movie was entertaining and the effects were really good, but there were a lot of changes from the book.

It seemed to me that in the earlier movies they left out things, but did not make many changes to the story. I figured that was due to the fact that the last book had not been published at the time so no one knew how the story would end, but the sixth movie was finished after the last book was published so I do not know why they made the changes that they made.

After watching the new Harry Potter movie I had to read the last book of the series, mostly because I had forgotten what happened in most of it. It will be interesting to see how differently the last movie will be from the book, or if they'll be able to include all the things they left out and/or changed.

This last Monday was my birthday, and for dinner I went to Hooters. I had a nice steak tenderloin and a small chicken caesar salad. They put in a Wii there and I played a little golf on it. I splice as much playing on the Wii as I do in real life. It was a lot of fun, but I couldn't stay as long as I would have liked since I was on call, and had to go to work early the next day.

A few things

I know I have not posted anything after posting about my Hawaii trip, but I've been pretty busy. It seems I am spending all of my time either working or sleeping. There was also a lot going on that I didn't feel like posting about by themselves, so I'll tell you about a few things that have happened since I got back.

In Chengdu there are a few international schools. They usually teach foreign kids and a few rich Chinese kids. I wonder if they teach certain things, such as the Chinese version of history (which tends to be really inaccurate). Anyways, on the Saturday before the 4th of July there was an international school here that was having a 4th of July picnic which I was invited to, but I waited too long and wasn't able to get a ticket for it. I heard it was ok.

A few days after that I was chatting with a Chinese friend online and she asked me to marry her. I was very surprised and somewhat flattered, but I said no.

The 4th of July weekend was a bonus experience weekend in Everquest 2. For those that don't play the game that means is that your characters in the game can do some adventuring and quests and they are rewarded with experience, which helps them gain levels in their chosen profession. On Saturday I got my assassin to level 72 (yeah!) and decided to have my alchemist get some experience on Sunday. At sometime in the early afternoon on Sunday I got knocked out of the game and could not get back in.

In a lot of online games there is a problem... plat farmers (also called gold farmers in some games). These are people who logon to a game and make in-game money that they turn around and sell for real money to other players, usually through a third party. Plat is a term used for platinum, which is a denomination of coin in the game (e.g. platinum, gold, silver, and copper). A lot of plat farmers are from China. They can be very annoying at times, but I have met a few nice ones.

Back when my assassin character made level 70 I started saving my in-game money to buy him some nice items. It seems that having a positive cash flow and logging in to the game from China was justification enough for Sony (the owner of Everquest 2) to think I was a plat farmer and ban my account. It took about a week to work with their customer supprt to get my account reinstated.

Other than that things here are going ok. Last week the weather was a little cool and rainy, but this week is starting to warm up quite a bit. The new Harry Potter movie opens here later this week, and I am trying to setup a time some weekend to take some of my co-workers whom I help with their English. I took a few of them to see Star Trek a few weeks ago, and we had a great time. I am hoping I can get more to go with me this time.

Oahu - Last few days

Our 3rd and 4th days in Oahu were pretty similar. We started each day with a trip to Ala Moana Mall to do a little shopping. This was a really nice shopping mall. It had a lot of stores and a lot of restaurants. Most of the stores that we visited were clothing stores. Jackie didn't want to buy anything since she could buy things cheaper in Beijing, but she wanted to see all the fashions.


Jackie in front of the Chanel store

They also had a Hilo Hatties at the mall, so I stopped there and picked up a few more Hawaiian shirts and a bunch of chocolate covered macadamia nuts for my friends back at the office. Jackie was a little tired after all the shopping.


Jackie takes a quick nap in the hotel lobby

For dinner we went back to Outback Steakhouse, since Jackie liked that so much. There were a couple of restaurants on Oahu that I had read about that I wanted to try (such as Alan Wong's, Nico's at Pier 38, 12th Avenue Grill, etc...), but I discovered that Jackie wasn't very interested in fine dining but was rather interested in fun dining. The waiter we had was new but luckily he was being trained by Ashley, the same waitress we had the first night there.

After dinner we went back to the Harbor View Pub for a few drinks and to listen to a band that was playing there.


Enjoying the band

It was a lot of fun. The place was full of locals having a good time. One guy had a dog that would guard his beer when he left his seat....


Rascal, the beer guard dog

Another guy had some money from Zimbabwe. Their inflation is so bad that this $20,000,000,000 note is worth about 22 cents US....


Big bucks (sort of)

On the 4th day we took a little trolley that went around Waikiki so we could see some sights...


A pretty hotel on Waikiki


Surfers hanging out at Waikiki Beach


Another shot of Waikiki


A pretty surfer girl

The trolley eventually made it to Ala Moana Mall where we did some more window shopping.


Jackie tries on a coat

For lunch we went to Bubba Gump's, and had a bunch of different shrimp appetizers. It was kind of hokey, but it was fun.


Inside Bubba Gump's restaurant

After lunch we went to the Ala Moana Park, and did some swimming at the beach there.


Ala Moana Beach


Some Japanese newlyweds take some wedding pictures in Ala Moana Park


Some tourists in canoes head out to the ocean

For dinner we found a nice little Indian Restaurant called Bombay Indian Restaurant. The food was very good. Since we had to wake up early for our flights home the next day we decided to just go relax in our room. I watched a little TV and Jackie watched some Chinese TV over the internet.

Early the next morning we went to the airport. Jackie's flight to Tokyo and then Beijing left at about 10:30am, and my flight to Tokyo then Shanghai and then to Chengdu was to leave at 9:45. My flight to Tokyo on China Airlines was over an hour late taking off, and I was kind of worried that I would miss my connecting flight to Shanghai. Shortly before we were to land they moved me to business class so that I, and 3 others who were on the same flight to Shanghai, could get off the plane first and rush to catch our flight.

We ended up making our connecting flight with only a minute or two to spare. Unfortunately our luggage did not make the flight. In Shanghai I arranged to have my luggage flown to Chengdu the next day and then rushed to catch my flight to Chengdu. The next day was a work day and since I did not have my dress shoes, toothbrush, or shaver (they were in my luggage) I worked from home. Later in the afternoon I got word that my luggage had arrived in Chengdu and I had to go to the airport to get it.

With my poor Chinese it was quite funny trying to get through security to get the the baggage claim office, and then trying to get my luggage from there. Eventually I got my bags and took them home. I really needed a shave and to brush my teeth. I could go into the office the next day. I had a lot of chocolate covered macadamia nuts to give out.

Oahu - Day 2

On our second day on Oahu we caught an early morning shuttle to Pearl Harbor.

There were a lot of things to see at Pearl Harbor.... USS Arizona Memorial, tour of the Battleship USS Missouri, Submarine USS Bowfin, Pacific Aviation Museum, etc... We got tickets to go see the USS Arizona Memorial and had about an hour to wait, so we walked around some. We got to see the USS Bowfin, but did not have enough time for a tour of the inside...


USS Bowfin submarine

Some different naval items from WWII...


Jackie takes a look at a naval gun

There was also a memorial for lost submarines...


Memorials for submarines lost at sea during WWII

The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis...


A big aircraft carrier in the harbor


USS Missouri and USS Arizona Memorial in the distance

After a little bit of sight-seeing we headed over to the USS Arizona Memorial...

When we arrived at the memorial there was a place where you could rent some headsets that played information at different locations about the USS Arizona and the attack on Pearl Harbor. They had them in about half dozen languages and Jackie got one in Mandarin.

We walked about listening to recorded information at some locations, and then we were lucky enough to meet 3 Pearl Harbor survivors who were there for a short time in the morning talking to people and signing autographs on descriptions of what their story was on 7 December...


Some survivors of the Pearl Harbor attacks

One of them even spoke a little Chinese to Jackie, which made her very happy. After that it was our turn to start the tour. We entered a small theater where they played a short movie about the USS Arizona and the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the movie we went outside and we boarded a small ship that took us out to the memorial. Here are some pictures we took...


On the boat coming to the USS Arizona Memorial


Docking at the memorial


Some of the names of those who lost their lives on the USS Arizona


Those who survived and later joined their shipmates


The buoy marks the one end of the USS Arizona underwater. The USS Missouri in the distance


One of the turrets of the USS Arizona is above water. The buoy marks the other end of ship underwater


A display showing the remains underwater


Inside the memorial


The flag flying above the memorial


Some of the USS Arizona still visible


Jackie poses with a US Sailor

After visiting the USS Arizona Memorial we went over to a stadium nearby where they were having a swap meet. The swap meet is held twice a week, and is hundreds of vendors selling all kinds of souvenirs, clothing, but not much food. We bought some cold fruit drinks and walked about the area looking at things. We didn't buy anything and after awhile we decided to find our shuttle and head back to the hotel.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was almost 3:00pm. Jackie was very tired and wanted a nap and I was very hungry and wanted something to eat. I went to a little place near the hotel called the Harbor View Pub, which luckily had some very good sandwiches. A little while after I got back to the hotel room Jackie woke up and was hungry so we went out for dinner.

For dinner that evening we went to the Chart House restaurant which is right next to the hotel...


Jackie all dressed up for dinner at the Chart House restaurant

I was told that this restaurant was owned by the same person who use to own the Chart House restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia which I had been to before and thought was very good. This one didn't seem as good, and it also seemed more expensive. Jackie had the Chicken Picata (which looked really good), and I had some clam chowder and a caesar salad with chicken. It was kind of so-so.

Big Island to Oahu

Our last day on Big Island and we started with a nice breakfast of cinnamon French toast and fresh fruit. I have not had French toast in ages, and Jackie had never had it before. It was delicious! After saying good bye to the others at the Volcano Forest Inn we got back on the road again. We wanted to see some of the east side of the island before we caught our afternoon flight to Oahu.


On the road again

Where the west side of the island is mostly volcanic soil and in some places resembles a desert, the east side of the island is lush with lots of grasslands and jungle. Here are some more pictures...


Some grasslands near cattle farms


A big beautiful tree


A lovely scenic view

North of the city of Hilo are a few waterfalls, the largest being Akaka Falls which was very beautiful...


Akaka Falls


A little side trip into some jungle


Some jungle flowers


This gives you an idea how big the jungle growth was


Another waterfall near Akaka Falls

There was one place that I was hoping to go to, but we had trouble finding it. Laupāhoehoe is a place that was hit by a tsunami in 1946, and there is a memorial for the school children that died in the tsunami. It turns out it was a little north of Akaka Falls, but we thought it was to the south.

For lunch we stopped at a little Thai place in Hilo. We were in need of some spicy food and some rice.


Our waitress was impressed we could eat such spicy food

After lunch we went to the airport, dropped off our rental car, and caught our flight to Oahu. The flight from Hilo to Honolulu was about 40 minutes, and at the airport we got a shuttle to our hotel. We were staying at the Hawaii Prince Hotel Waikiki. It seemed that 90% of the guests at the hotel were from Japan, so the service was very good and the place was very nice and clean. Our room was on the top floor.

Across from the hotel is a large marina with all kinds of sailboats and yachts, as well as some very pretty beaches.


Left view from our hotel room on the 33rd floor


Middle view from our hotel room on the 33rd floor

Soon after checking in we made arrangements to go to Pearl Harbor the next day, and then Jackie wanted to go to the beach next door that is in front of the Hilton. Jackie went for a swim and I decided to relax in the shade of a palm tree.


Jackie goes for a swim

After that we went for a walk in the marina to look at all the boats.


Jackie poses by some boats in the marina

At dinner time we went walking around Waikiki near our hotel and decided to have dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Jackie had never been to one before, and it looked like fun. I had the Outback Special (sirloin steak) and Jackie had the Savory Pepper Mill Steak, and we both had a beer that was either local or Australian... I had never heard of it before. Our waitress was great, and really took great care of us.

NOTE: I got my evenings messed up and changed the last paragraph to the right place.

Big Island - Day 5

We got up early on our 5th day on Big Island, checked out of our resort, and hit the road. We decided to drive around the south side of the island and see some sites before checking in at the bed and breakfast place near the town of Volcano we would be staying that night.

Driving along we stopped at places to see some of the beautiful scenery...


View of the see along Route 11

Down around the southern most point of the island we stopped at a bakery called Panaluu, which is the southernmost bakery in the USA. Since it was lunch time we decided to eat there. They had a nice little place outside where people can sit and eat.


Outside the entrance to the Panaluu Bakery


Some birds who hoped we dropped some of our lunch

After lunch we wandered about looking at all the different types of flowers that grew nearby.


Jackie really loved all the different flowers

We got back on the road and started heading east along route 11. There was lots more beautiful scenery to see.


Some coastline along the southern part of the island

We stopped at one place that was very beautiful, and Jackie had to yell, "漂亮!" (piào liang... beautiful) since it was so lovely. It was the only time I heard her speak Chinese during the whole trip. The picture here does not show how vivid the colors really were.


Jackie really loved the view here

We also visited a black sand beach that was very pretty. The thing that struck me about the black sand beach was how strong the waves and wind were. It was exhilarating being there.


A black sand beach


Big waves and big winds

Eventually we made it to the Volcano Forest Inn, which is where we stayed that night. The Volcano Forest Inn is a really nice B&B place run by a couple named Debbie and Greg. They did a very good job of making us feel welcome. The inn is located off of route 11 about a mile or two from the Volcano National Park, down a little gravel road and surrounded by jungle (rain forest is the new pc term for it, but I still call it jungle).


Volcano Forest Inn among the jungle

After settling in our room and resting a bit we drove out to the Volcano National Park. Here are some pictures we took in the park...


Outside the Kilauea Visitor Center


Pele... Goddess of fire and volcanoes


Some of the many steam vents in the area


Kilauea volcano


Some hikers walk inside a crater of an old volcano


A view of the shoreline in Volcano National Park


End of the road

We went back to the Volcano Forest Inn before dusk, and met another couple that were staying at the inn also... John and Teryn (hope I spelled that right) who were from Oregon, and friends of Debbie and Greg's. Everyone else had already had dinner; so Jackie and I heated up our leftover pizza, lasagna, and Pasta Milano and had a nice Italian dinner.

After the sun went down there was a light rain and everyone headed out to the park to see the lava at night, but Jackie and I were a bit tired after all the driving around that day so we stayed at the inn and relaxed before going to bed. We wanted to get up early the next day to see some sights on the east side of the island before our afternoon flight to Oahu.

A beach and a luau

After getting back from the air tour we decided to drive up to the northwest part of the island to visit one of the white sand beaches we saw from the air. On the way there we saw a strip mall, and since it was almost lunch time, we decided to stop to find a place to eat. It was a pretty nice little mall and they had a Macaroni Grill there, so we decided to go eat there.


Enjoying some pasta

I had the Pasta Milano and Jackie had the lasagna. It was all very good, but we couldn't finish it all. After lunch we headed back out on the road and went looking for our beach. We couldn't find the one beach we wanted to. Our pilot had told us about a road to take to get there, but we ended up finding the other beach, which was much more crowded.


A white sand beach on the northwest side of the island


Beach goers and a surf paddler in the distance

Neither of us had our swimsuits, so we walked about and did some people watching and relaxed a little bit before going back to the our place. We had to get ready for our luau!


Jackie all dressed up for the luau

Our luau was held at the King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel in the late afternoon. The main area had tables and chairs to seat about 200 or so people, a large stage, and tables setup for the the big buffet.


Jackie posing with a local

Another area had some canoes setup with big bowls of mixed drinks, as well as a little bar to serve other drinks. There was also a second little stage and the big BBQ pit where they cook the pig for the luau.


Small bar in the hut and drinks in the canoes

The luau started with some little shows on the stages and around the bar as people made their way in. One guy had a show about how to open a coconut...


How to open a coconut

There was a little band that played some island music...


One of the bands

A lesson on how to fold palm leaves into different shapes...


Island origami


Jackie was definitely dressed better than I was

To officially start the luau they brought the pig out of a pit where it had been cooking all day,...


Mmmm... pig

and after that some actors dressed as the king and queen made their entrance...


Guard and hula dancer greet the king and queen


The king and queen make their entrance


Jackie tries her first ever Mai Tai

The rest of the evening was filled with lots of great food, dancing, and singing...


A Hawaiian dance to start the show


A dance in Tahiti costume