Cultural Diversity

Signs that China is opening up to Western Culture.

This was taken at a restaurant in Haining - far from the beaten path. I can't imagine that they see more than 1 or 2 foreigners a month, so I was impressed that they took the courtesy to provide a proper Western toilet - along with a useful illustration.

Shanghai At 250 mph

On a recent trip to China, Nuch and I had a few hours before our flight back to Bangkok, so we made a speedy trip into Shanghai to have dinner and visit my old stomping grounds.

With limited time, there were only a few highlights.

Here is the apartment I lived in back in the 1900's. It's the old, brown building in the background. I think those old ladies were in the same spot when I left.

We also stopped by the famous Long Bar (apparently, the longest bar in China), which is attached to Shanghai's, previously, premier hotel, the Portman.

When I was doing my overseas program with Thunderbird, my classmates and I would spend some time here, wishing that one day we could actually afford it. A beer at the Long Bar was 3 times the price anywhere else, but as a young MBA student, it was well worth it to mingle with the international businessmen we hoped to be someday.

I have to admit, though, seeing it almost 10 years later, it didn't leave near the same impression. I'll never go back.

We only had about 3 hours altogether, so to make the most of it, we took the hi-speed MagLev train into Shanghai. It was the best 7 minutes of our little outing. It took about 3.5 minutes to reach a top speed of 250 mph, and another 3.5 minutes to slow down. Then, we were there.

Obama In Bangkok

Not really, this was an Indonesian look-a-like that was in Bangkok promoting a stronger environmental policy and the Olympics in Chicago.

The Lion's Den

If you had a multi-million dollar company (100's of millions), what would your office look like? Would you even have an office?

During a visit to a furniture factory in China, the sales manager took me into the Big Boss's office, so I could admire his... taste in furniture? The Big Boss was not actually there. In fact, if he was there, I imagine I would not have been invited, so I felt a bit like a trespasser.

Anyway, the whole room reminded me of that line from the movie Speed, when Dennis Hopper says something to the effect of... when you're poor, they call you crazy, but when you're rich, they call you eccentric.

I'll take a $100 million with a lion-themed office any day.

Tennessee's Bowl...

On one of the Gator websites I follow, someone took a tour of the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and posted some pictures of the facilities, including the locker rooms.



This was taken the week prior to the Tennessee game, but it may be like this year-round.

Emergency Exit

What are the chances that you'll ever use an emergency exit on an airplane? It seems that in most plane crashes you would be able to comfortably walk out of the open fuselage - assuming you survive.

Still, there is some comfort in knowing that proper exits are available - not to mention the extra leg room. That's why I was a little concerned about the row of seats blocking a third of the exit door on my recent China Eastern flight.



I would have thought there were rules against this.

Manchester Derby

I'm sure no one cares, but last week I saw one of the greatest football (soccer) matches I've ever seen.

Manchester United was playing their crosstown rival Manchester City. Although early in the season, it was a big match because Man City had made several big aquisitions in the off season and after 4 games were tied for first place along with Man U and Chelsea - this, after years of mediocrity, barely surving relegation and hovering around the middle of the Premiere League.

Man U led most of the game but in the final minute of regulation Man City scored an improbably goal on an uncustomary error by one of Man U's star defenders. For those who have never sat through an entire football match, this is the equivalent of a homerun in the top of the ninth inning. But unlike baseball, football does not have extra innings and that's why about a quarter of all games end in a dull, unsatisfying, "kiss your sister" tie. However, they do have injury time - usually, 3 to 5 minutes added to the end of a match that makes up for lost time from carrying injured players off the pitch.

Tied at 3 a piece and in the final seconds of injury time, Michael Owen, who had just come off the Man U bench knocked in a long pass of Ryan Giggs to secure the win and 3 points for Man U - in other words, a home run in the bottom of the 10th to seal the win. See Below

Fortunately, I was cheering for Man U, who I adopted about 9 years ago for no other reason than they were the best team at that time.

This is what it looked like at the pub where Nuch and I watched the game.

Oyster Bar

Nuch and I found a new restaurant near our apartment that specializes in Oysters - all are imported from different parts of the world. New Zealand, Vancouver...

I overheard one of the waiters saying that one species would be extinct in a couple years. Fortunately for them, I'm not a big oyster fan. To me they taste like Ocean. Perhaps, I'm eating them wrong. However the shells, crab and lobster were fantastic.


Breadsticks and caviar.

Here's the interior

and the Oyster Bar

Under Construction

Here are some pictures I've taken in Singapore during my last couple trips there.

There's a stretch of highway along the Singapore River where there must be over a hundred cranes working on a project. I know a Casino is being built, but I can't imagine what they are building that will take up a good kilometer of riverfront property.

The three buildings on the left are the new casino.

Bangna Sunset

There have been some amazing sunsets the last couple days on the way home from work.

Yesterday, I was able to snap some photos, which is not easy while driving and dodging speeding cars.

This is the Erawan Elephant Monument that I wrote about before.


This is one of two the mammoth bridges that I need to cross (over the same river!) to get home.

The God Of Fruits

The other day, Nuch and I had the good fortune of getting a VIP taxi. How can you distinguish between a VIP taxi and a plebeian taxi, you may ask?

It's not so much what you do get with the VIP taxi - DVD, Karaoke, and vibrating? chair. It's what you don't get - dogs, smoking, alcohol, and most importantly, Durian, the native Southeast Asian fruit with a vomit-inducing smell.

(See the symbol 3rd from the left)

I've tried durian only once in my life. It was during my last days with the Peace Corps, while I was making the rounds, visiting friends, co-workers, and students who wanted to wish me farewell.

One class of seniors had invited me to their village, where they wanted to make me lunch. I got there a little early, so they gave me a seat outside underneath the house. While some of the students were busy cooking, the others joined me outside to chat about what I was going to do once I got back to home, would I miss them, would I ever return, etc...

They also brought me a Coke (to help start the process of re-assimilation) along with some ripe durian (to remind me of where I still was). When they cracked open the durian in front of me, the first whiff was enough to tighten my stomach and contract my throat. To make things worse, it was a particularly ripe durian with the consistency of an unpeeled banana that had been floating in the pool all afternoon. It's the first time I had ever seen a smell, as it slowly wafted through the moist air.

Doing their best to be good hosts, the students served me up a full plate that no normal Thai would ever dream of eating in its entirety, and then, sat there eagerly waiting for me to get started. Someone's grandmother had also joined and told me to eat it, it's good.

Not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings, I resigned myself to my eminent fate and picked up a piece. As I watched my fingers slide through the fleshy, yellow dermis, I held my breath to avoid the acrid smell, and took a bite.


I tried to swallow, but the glutinous fibers clung to the back of my throat, and then, in front of everyone, I started to dry-heave. Using every ounce of effort to keep the durian and my breakfast from coming back up, I hacked endlessly with eyes bulging like a cat, who had just lick-cleaned a herd of woolly mammoths in June. I was fortunate enough to keep everything down, but needless to say, that was my first and last bite of Durian.


Some people claim to like durian. Others, like myself, are of the complete opposite persuasion. Here's the Wikipedia description of Durian.

"A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy."

Wallace cautions that "the smell of the ripe fruit is certainly at first disagreeable"; more recent descriptions by westerners can be more graphic. The English novelist Anthony Burgess famously said that dining on durian is like eating vanilla custard in a latrine. Travel and food writer Richard Sterling says:

"... its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away. Despite its great local popularity, the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia."