Brussels' fireworks on New Year's Eve

Hum, where to start? Maybe by the description of it on the Brussels Tourists Information site: "New Year's fire works. Magnificent pyrotechnical show to celebrate the new year! At midnight the sky over Brussels lights up with a multicoloured light show" That was the expectation especially when the press was revealing all the secrets of it.
Now the reality was very disappointing as the sky of Brussels did not light up. There was fog so they couldn't do the fireworks as high as planned meaning it was barely higher than the buildings around the Mont des Arts where it was shot. So unless you were standing right in front of it, there was little chance you could see anything at all. For sure not worse the effort of going out in the coldest New Year's Eve of Belgium in the last 30 years.

Australia

Tonight after a long day of travel and settling down, Wolfram took me to the movie to watch Australia. I had no clue what the story was, all I knew was it is one of the blockbusters of this Christmas staring Nicole Kidman. It was an excellent girl movie: a saga with love, war, passion, vengeance, action, each time you believe it's all sorted out something happens, mixed feelings, lot's of emotions, etc. It reminded me of the Thorn Birds, in a better and shorter version. Nicole Kidman is fantastic (as usual) in the role of an English lady showing up in deep rural Australia. Hugh Jackman, the male lead actor, is the archetype of THE man; in every scene he appears there is no way Nicole Kidman could resist (should I mention the scene where he showers or his entrance at the ball in smoking?). In summary, ladies, go for it, you won't regret it!

I'm back home

I'm home, after almost 3 months away. Having travelled so much in the last couple of months it feels weird to be back in Brussels. Maybe it's the absence of new things to see / discover, maybe it's a consequence of travelling lot, i.e. you end up loosing sight of your home, maybe it's because there was no Rajah in my cold apartment waiting for me. I'm sure it will be better tomorrow once Ive emptied the suitcases, done the laundry, went grocery shopping and started to catch up with friends :)

We made it!

After 3 days of hard work, of doubt, of fear of having lost 2 pieces, of excitement each time we placed one piece, of madness because there were so many pieces left and looking the same, we made it! 3 generations worked on this puzzle and we're very proud it's done :)

211 things a clever girl can do

This is the title of the book my sister got me for Christmas. This book gathers a collection of practical tips for us, girls. For example:
- How to bake an egg like a pro
- How to prepare royal icing
- How to make fire in the chimney
- How to succeed in removing the lid from a jam pot
- How to know if a man like you
- How to do a French manicure at home
- How to loose 3kg in 3 hours
- How to manage side parking
- How to avoid the 2nd date
- How change a tire without breaking a nail
and so on. Ladies this is the survival book you need. Not only it's very useful but on top it's written in a funny way which makes it a delight to read. Boys, you can always check the 211 things a clever boy can do.

2000 pieces

Every year for Christmas we get a new jigsaw puzzle. Usually we get the one from the Unicef but since last year, they don't do grown-up puzzle anymore :( So being unfaithful to the Unicef (and because 100-200 pieces is a piece of cake) we received this year a puzzle of a painting of Kandisky: 2000 pieces :). We only have 3 days to finish it... Will the family be up for the challenge?

THE bag

I've been dreaming of this bag for months. I looked for it in all the duty-free I visited in the last 3 months but never I found it. In desperation I even searched for it in the temples of fakes in Beijing but the Chinese haven't copied it :( So finally I bought it!!!!!

PS: Thanks a lot to my sister, my brother, and my aunt who contributed to this gift.

3 brother & sisters = 3 paintings

For Christmas (and birthdays) this year the 3 of us received a painting from Renato, modern colorist painter and friend of the family. Each painting is based on a description of us and our favourite colors.
I'm looking forward to putting my very first original painting in my apartment.

Merry Christmas to all of you and your families!

Christmas Rajah

Our 2008 Christmas tree

Spending a few hours in Hong-Kong

As promised, here is my entry on the few hours I spent in Hong-Kong :)

On Friday morning I woke up 1 hour later than I had planed and decided to go walk around the hotel. The hotel was located in the south of Kowloon facing the Hong-Kong island. I walked through some park and reached the "avenue of stars" which is the Hong-Kong version of la Croisette in Cannes or Hollywood boulevard. It was very nice walking there and enjoying the view on the skyscrapers of Hong-Kong. I also discovered many names of famous actors from China, whom I've never heard of except Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan. I cannot wait going back there and see the view at night and enjoy the light show.

After 1 hour of hard work

all my gifts are wrapped :) Now I can start working on the food chapter of Christmas.

The tallest man in the world

Today as I was getting in the plane I noticed the man before me in the line was tall, very tall, extremely tall actually, so tall he nearly touched the ceiling with his head. While i'm wondering how he will manage 10 hours of flight with such long legs, I was told he is the tallest man in the world. I was a bit surprised by the somehow incompatibility of tall and Chinese, but you know nature has its ways.

So his name is Bao Xhisun and he measures 2.36m. He is the tallest man alive at this day and he makes Business class look like economy :)

La Mome

After packing (all the Christmas gifts are in; I made sure of that) I started another movie: La Mome. It's a French movie about Edith Piaf's life (La vie en rose in English) staring Marion Cotillard as the singer. I heard it was good but it was even better than that. Marion Cotillard was amazing. She literally captivated me and I stayed there for 2 hours staring at the screen. No wonder she got an Oscar for Best actress. I don't often recommend French movies but that one is a must see.

Disaster movies

Today as I decided to take it easy I planned to rest. I had about 12 DVDs on hands so decided to watch "The day after tomorrow". What I like about movies like this one is that they are predictable. Usually some big catastrophe is coming around (a storm, a meteorite, a nuclear strike, an earth quake, an eruption, you name it) and the hero somehow knows about it and tries to warn the authorities when he sees the 1st signs. Of course nobody listens to him and things get worse. Until we reach a point were the authorities come back to him and ask for his help. At this point he will save the city / country / world. Add a touch of love and you have the scenario.
The good thing about disaster movie is that you can doze off every now and then and never loose track of the story :)

Transit in Beijing

I made it back to Beijing. It was tough as my ears didn't like the flight at all. Once in Beijing I had to queue 15min outside to get a taxi and that made me feel worse again. Now I'm on my way to bed and hopefully will manage to sleep between coughing. Tomorrow will be rest only as somehow I have to get into that plane on Sunday. The good thing is that I will fly business so I can spend most of the flight sleeping or just lying down watching movies.
PS: I do have a request for when I get home: I want some veloute de tomates with croutons like only my mum can make. And I hope the kettle is ready for liters of Christmas tea :)
PS2: I will tell you all about Hong-Kong as soon as get better.

I'm in Hong-Kong

I left Manila this afternoon and arrived in Hong-Kong a couple of hours ago. This was supposed to be my mini-break in Hong-Kong to enjoy the place and my first action has been to order a Club sandwich from the room service and get ready to bed. As the taxi driver said several times when I was coughing heavily in the car "are you sick Mam?" So I'm grabbing my new best friend, namely the tissue box, and will get some sleep so I can be in shape tomorrow and enjoy the place (I have 7 hours or less to spend).

It smells clean

I stopped counting how many times I heard that sentence. So tell me, how do your clothes smell after you wash them?

Winter in Asia

The definition of Winter in Asia is very broad. As I was getting confused I got back to the definition: meteorological winter is the season having the shortest days and the lowest temperatures. Unlike what you might spontaneously think it does not necessarily mean cold, snow and ice. Just lower temperature.
So given it's winter in the Philippines, it's normal if I have a cold :) and more importantly for Chinese new year end January I might come over and enjoy the beaches instead of staying the icy Beijing.

Jollibee

Jollibee is THE fast-food chain in the Philippines. Today we ordered food from there as everyone told me I have to try it.
The experience was not very conclusive, maybe because I still haven’t recovered appetite, maybe because it tastes as cheap fast-food (in line with Quick in Belgium) and surely because I found a hair in the burger :(

Being sick on a business trip is not fun :(

It started on Sunday night when I woke up at 3am because my throat was hurting and I couldn’t breeze. Then on Monday on top of my stomach & co being messed up, I had a running nose. Everybody was joking as how could I catch a cold when I come to a warmer country (fair question). Monday afternoon was worse as I started to shiver and feel very tired. Knowing me this meant fever. I went back to the hotel after the interviews, straight to bed and slept. I hate being sick on business trip because you’re not in your home, not in your bed, I didn’t have all my pharmacy with me (as much as I was prepared for stomach, fever I hadn’t anticipated), I had to call the room service to get something to drink. I was somehow happy when I realized I had 2 sachets of aspirin with me which helped getting reed of the fever finally at 4am. Tuesday morning, I’m exhausted but I feel better. I really wish I was home and not in a hotel room, and that I could stay in bed and/or watch movies instead of going to the research…

Max's chicken

During the research today for lunch we had Max's chicken. Max 's is an institution in the Philippines when it comes to chicken. And let's face it, it was very good roasted chicken, one of the best I've ever had.

Mango Mango Mango

Mango is the national fruit of the Philippines. Everywhere you go ou can find them as fruit (fresh or dried) or as juice. I have to say it's one of the treat of coming here. Imagine starting your day drinking freshly squeezed mango juice and have a fruit salad with watermelon and mango. Mmmmhhh...

6:30am Sunday morning

It's 6:30am. It's Sunday. I'm waking up as I have a flight to catch. Even if I know it will take me to Manila and in a few hours I will be enjoying summer again, it's too early for a Sunday morning. Especially when you joined Alice's promotion dinner/drink celebration and clearly didn't have enough sleep :)

Managing people

On Monday my managing skills were questioned. As a consequence I asked my team this week to give me feedback on how I manage / coach / train them. Today they invited me for lunch as it was my last day in the office and told me how much they enjoy working with me and how much they've learned already. We had a great time. And I have to say it re-assured me on my people management skills to hear their positive feedback. I have a great team :)

What can you do in the subway in Beijing

1- Sleep
2- Watch TV on your cell phone
3- Listen to music on your cell phone
4- Read a newspaper on your cell phone
5- Play games on your cell phone
6- Have a chat via sms
7- Give a call
8- Read free newspapers
9- Watch TV on the screens of the subway. It's a good opportunity to watch the video clips of the Olympics, in case you missed them.
10- and some old fashion people like me, read a book.

Average height

Given that someone keeps on repeating that I am small and therefore should not have issues shopping in Asia, I would like to share some data to support my point. The average height for women in China is 162.56 cm, 160 cm in Singapore, 152 cm in India and 151.8 cm in the Philippines. For perspective France is 164.6 cm and Germany 165 cm. I hope this proves my point.

It's snowing!

It doesn't last but feels good still :)

Shopping in Beijing

All of those who know me know that I am a shopping addict. I can spend hours shopping and never have enough of it. Now unfortunately for me (or fortunately for my bank account) I live in Beijing and Beijing is not a place where I can shop. Why is that you would ask? After all it's the capital of China, millions of shops at hand, what's wrong with me. It's very simple. If you want to shop in Beijing here are your options:
1- Tourists places like Yashow or Hongqiao. Both are paradise for fakes. You can find almost everything you want in there for which you will have to bargain as the basic rule is to try to get as much money from you as possible. You have to be willing to spend hours searching for what you want, bargaining and of course risking a fine at the customs.
2- Xidan street. That's where the Beijingers, the Chinese ones, go for shopping. A whole street with at least 5 department stores where you can find anything you want. For sure when you go there you don't feel in a tourist place as you are likely one of the few foreigners who dares to go there and on top there are price tags, so no bargaining here.
3- Western type shopping mall like The Village or Solana. These are brand new shopping malls, so new that some of the shops have not opened yet. In there you can find most of the Western brands at a consequent price.
4- Little shops on the street where you're not sure if you should enter as it's not clear how big is the place, there are no price tags and only Chinese is spoken.
Now assuming you find something that suits your European tastes (and that's the biggest challenge for me) and that it's affordable, it is very unlikely that you will find your size as you are probably too tall for Chinese standards :(

Weekly Chinese massage

Last night I went to get my now weekly Chinese massage. I usually explain somehow that my back hurts and that it requires special attention. As a consequence the 60min of body massage become 45min on the back and 15min for the rest of the body. And let's face it, those 45min are closer to torture than to relaxation. When she applies her fingers with a strength you cannot explain when looking at the little Chinese girl on the areas where it hurts or on your neck or when she uses her elbow to stretch, I sometimes wonder if next time I shouldn't go for the aromatherapy massage, and have the full hour to relax. But the following days when I feel the benefit of it, I cannot help going back :) I guess my physiotherapist was right when she was repeating to me "a little pain now for a lot less pain later"...

Sunset over cloudy Beijing

Saint Nicolas / Sinterklaas

Joyeuse Saint Nicolas / Gelukkig Sinterklaas to all of you and your family!

PS: Enjoy the chocolate, speculoos and other treats for me :)

Give me one good reason to go outside...

because it looks like it's not getting warmer. Even the temperature in the apartment is dropping (17C this morning when I woke up - time to re-active the electrical heater they gave me some time back).

Winter is here

Winter has arrived. Temperatures are now closer to zero even negative today. Add the wind on top and you freeze right there. Even though the sun is shining, if you stand outside you'll feel the cold up to your bones. Brrr...
Makes you want to stay home drinking hot chocolate :)

Chinese numbers

Today I had my 2nd lesson of Chinese and the teacher decided to teach me the numbers. Before getting to the actual Chinese words for each number, I had to learn the hand signs for 1 to 10. As you can see, when you see Chinese people doing a gesture like they want to shoot you, they actually mean 8. I don't know why but I get the feeling it's not going to be that easy...

Now higher numbers get even better. Let me give you some examples:

- for 15 you say ten-five

- for 20 you say two-ten

- for 110 you say one-hundred-one-ten

- for 105 you say one-hundred-zero-five

- and my favourite 1111: one-thousand-one-hundred-one-ten-one

In a way it's simple because you dón't need to learn new words, just put the numbers one after the other, now it's very counter-intuitive when you're used to another system.

Crepes

Tonight I felt like eating something from home. So I bought flour, eggs, milk and prepare crepes. Finding the right ingredients was already challenging, especially the flour, but cooking turned out to be a bigger one as I had to improvise a bowl with the salad dryer, use a cup as ladle and measure based on my feeling as I do not have a measuring device on hand. As you can see the result was quite acceptable. Not the best I ever done, but given the conditions they turned out good.

360 degrees Beijing

In the past, the space and structures along Beijing's axis were invariably symmetrical, mapping fluctuant contours reminiscent of the Chinese character zhong. The spine of the city goes through the Forbidden City, Bell Tower and now the Bird nest.
Want to know more, read here. Want to see a panoramic view of the city, see here.

Singapore airlines

Singapore airlines is known to be the best airline: "For the 3rd time in 10 years, Singapore Airlines has been named World's Best Airline, winning the 2008 Airline of the Year title in the latest World Airline Awards". Judge by yourself how the business class looks like. For sure the prettiest flight attendants and the biggest TV screen I ever had (as big as my TV back home). They call it "the experience".

Help needed

I need your help. I have this week-end and the following one to complete my xmas shopping. As every year I am struggling a bit on what to offer to men. I have tons of ideas for women, but men are always more difficult. So I want to ask you, reader of this blog, to share your ideas on what you can offer a man (doesn't matter if he is a husband, father, brother, son, boyfriend, uncle, cousin, friend. Any idea is welcome). Looking forward for your suggestions. Thanks!

Less than 30 days before xmas

Just to get you in the mood. These are some of the decoration you could find in Singapore. Remind you of something? Disneyland maybe?

Starting a new collection

Obviously I've been travelling a lot lately. Maybe too much?

Back in Beijing

I'm back in Beijing looking forward for a week-end of rest. 2 weeks of work without break is tough. As mush as I enjoyed India and Singapore, it's time for a break. Lot's of laundry to do as well :)

Singapore

On Monday night I landed in Singapore and I can say it, I am back to civilization. Streets are clean, there are buildings everywhere, nobody spits (actually pavement is sparkling clean, no rubbish at all), public transportation is safe, everybody follows the rules, you even have to put your seat belt at the back of the car... After the chaos in India, it feels good to be back in a neat and tidy environment. Not much time to visit as I have meetings whole day long with my different counter-parts, but I still managed to find a couple of hours for shopping, which is the favourite activities of Singaporeans. I went to Orchard road, the shopping street, where you can find one mall after the other, same for department stores. It could have been paradise for the shopping addict that I am, it turned out very frustrating as most of the shops don't carry size above M. So if you're tall (i.e. more than 1m65) / large / have big feet, forget it, you'll never find clothes / shoes fitting you here.

Luckily I left Mumbai

Before the attacks started.
I received a call last night from HR checking on me. One of our Associate Directors in Beijing heard the news about attacks in some hotels in Mumbai and knew we where travelling there. He asked HR to make sure we were safe.
It does feel weird to think that a few days ago I was there, or that the hotel I was staying in could be attacked. All my thought are going to the families of the casualties.

Mumbai - The pictures

It took a bit of time as I was busy at work (let's say busier :) ), but here are my pictures from Mumbai.

OK, Got it, Clear!

Unlike what you might expect, very often, the person who says that has not understood what you meant / asked but will never admit it...

It's been 5 days

and I'm tired of being sick. I thought being back to civilization in Singapore would help, but I was wrong. Can't do much but wait I guess... Anyone having some tips to help?

Shopping quote

Yuli: "Do you have short sleeves shirts?"

Shop assistant: "No, we don't sell short sleeves shirts in winter"

Weather forecast in Mumbai: Sunny, 35C

A nice start of the day

Today I decided to skip running and instead go swimming. After all I’m staying in a hotel with an outdoor swimming pool so it would be a shame not to try it. And it was a good idea. The water was at the right temperature, it was extremely peaceful as I had the pool just for me. I swam for 30min under a perfect blue sky and now I feel I’ m ready to start my day.

Mumbai

Mumbai, formerly Bombay, is the financial capital of India. It is the city people come to to make a career dixit my Indian colleagues. The striking thing about Mumbai when you take a look at the city is how rich and poor live next to each other. For each fancy building or Western shopping mall, there is a area where people live in “houses” made of whatever they could find (wood, steel, plastic, etc.) just under some "tents" made with fabric on the sidewalk.
There are also a lot of beggars on the street. Whenever they spot a tourist they literally run to you and beg for money. They are ready to use every trick to get money: grabbing your arm, standing on the car, holding a clearly underfed kid or even a baby with a bloody bandage around its head. I was told by Yuli that begging is actually a business, i.e. whatever money they get they have to give it to their gang.

Service

Service in Asia is clearly one level up vs. what you get in Europe. Wherever you go there is someone to open the door for you, when you carry anything someone runs to carry it for you, if you stand in a lobby within 30s someone comes and ask you how they can assist you, in most restaurant someone will put the napkin on your lap for you, in all the shops as soon as you enter someone will come and offer help, someone will push the button to call the elevator for you, don't even thing about serving yourself from the dish in a restaurant someone will do it for you... As nice as it is, sometimes it is overwhelming and I would rather be left alone. But at the same time, when I think of what service we mostly get in Europe, maybe I should enjoy the Asian one as much as I can :)

Shopping in Mumbai

Joanna had told me that the shopping in Mumbai was great. And she was right! After a whole day of visits at consumers’ places, we went to a shopping mall. As I had not planned for shopping while in India I had to buy an extra suitcase to bring everything back. It turns out that Samsonite and Delsey are pretty cheap compare to Europe (and genuine unlike China). So I bought a mid size suitcase so I can bring back the Indian style tops I bought, the tea and some of my Christmas shopping. My only regret is that I cannot buy anything for the house, especially those amazing candle holders :( Gold is also cheaper than in Europe (India is one of the largest markets for gold) but I didn’t find anything I like within a reasonable budget (still thinking about those diamond earrings...)

Morning visitors

I thought I could escape to it...

... but I did not. Despite being extremely careful with what I ate, only drinking water from the bottle, avoiding glass, after 3 days in India, my stomach & co decided to rebel themselves. Yesterday was tough (especially when you go from 1 consumer house to the next one and you cannot really access a bathroom), night was worse and I barely slept. Let's hope today will be better. At least I can have easily access to plain rice. That's what of the advantage of being in Asia :)

National cricket team

On the flight to Mumbai, which of course was delayed 1 hour at Lucknow and another 1 hour in the sky, some athletes came in just before leaving, sitting of course at the front. After take off, 1 man went to the front with a pen and a paper, to get an autograph I presumed. Then came a second one; and a third one, and a fourth one. In no time almost all the men on board were lining up to get an autograph. So I asked, who are they? to the man sitting next to me. Given the way he looked at me, this was not the right question to ask, I should know. It turned out it was the national cricket team of India, back from playing a game against England.

A snack before taking off

As we had 1 hour to kill between before going to the airport, Skrikant took us to “Royal Café” for a snack. This place is famous in Lucknow for having the best "chats". We started with little small “pouches” of dough in which they put some chick peas and a cold spicy minty sauce. The idea is that you put it all, in 1 go, in your mouth. It was an interesting combination because you 1st taste the sauce, especially the mint then you bite in the dough and start to taste it and the rest of the spices. Not my favourite but quite an interesting experience. Next we tried some potato mixture fried served in a yogurt sauce with spices. Very good, I believe that one was preferred by most of us. Next we tried the “basket chat”, the specialty of the house, which is the same potato fried thing served with yogurt, vegetables, spices, grenades, and some more. Very good as well, but somehow quite heavy. As drink we had sweet lemon juice, freshly squeezed of course. This was a lot of fun to stand in the street and eat there like Indians do some of the local snacks.

Snapshots from Lucknow

Given I was to spend only 36hours in Lucknow and that the agenda was pretty busy, I didn’t have much time for sightseeing. I have therefore renewed with one of Monika’s and I favourite activities while on business trip: pictures from the taxi. This will give you a feel of the place and its streets. Keep it mind those pictures were taken from different cars so don’t expect high quality pictures here.
PS: cows are sacred in India, and we saw many of them hanging around in the streets. You cannot hurt them or move them at your convenience. If a cow is on your way, figure out a way around because it’s not going to move.
PS2: still the cows, I grew up thinking cows eat grass, from the field, or some variation of that. In India cows have to improvised for food so they eat whatever they can find on the street that is vegetarian: banana skins, leaves, fruits, any vegetable trash… and that’s a pretty easy job for them to find food as people just put all their trash on the street.

Embroidery

Lucknow is famous for its embroidery: Chikan kari. In the evening Prattima took the whole group to some shops selling clothes or fabric with such embroidery.
When you enter the shop, you are offered to seat on a chair in front of a very big mattress. On there are sitting 1-2 men who take care to show you all what they have so you can choose. Given we had no clue where to start, they showed us half of their selection. To be fair these were amazing pieces of work. I cannot imagine how many hours of work it represents to get one sari done. You have 2 options: either buy the fabric to make a saree (which of course you can get done overnight if needed) or buy already made shirts. We went for the later as unfortunately 1) I don’t know any Indian tailor back home and 2) let’s face it, when will I ever wear such an outfit. So as a good shopping girl I bought 5 tops and 2 stoles (for less than 30 euros). I am very pleased with my choice.
Can’t wait to be in Mumbai, as Joanna keeps saying shopping there is great. Let’s see.

On the road in India

I will never be able to describe you the way Indian drive. So I took a video from the backseat of the car. Please put the loudspeakers on while enjoying the ride :)

Lucknow airport

Lucknow is a city somewhere in the north of India. Its airport is pretty small and basic: 1 door for departure, 1 door for arrival. Unfortunately for me the hotel pick up was not there as planned. I called the hotel and they told me “it’s on its way, just a moment”. It was 8am. I got the same answer at 8:20 am and 8:40am. Finally at 9am, a man arrived with my name on a piece of paper. I got into an old white car (see picture) and we drove to the hotel.

Getting to Lucknow

The destination of my trip was Lucknow in India. The itinerary was simple: Beijing-Shanghai-Delhi-Lucknow. After a 7-hour flight I arrived in Delhi, exhausted as I couldn’t sleep in the plane. Reason for that? The gentleman sitting behind me was storing, and not a little, really bad, to the point that no one could really sleep. We landed on time, I successfully passed the customs and went to get my luggage. 1 hour and 15min later, I finally got my suitcase and was ready to transfer from the international terminal to the domestic terminal. Now, I was prepared for the worse as everyone who had travelled via Delhi told me that it was a mess, that luggage never made it, that flight were delayed, etc. Given I had actually got my luggage, even if it took long, I was full of hope; after all it was only 3:30am, and I still had 3 hours before the flight.. Right after you exit the arrival section, you can find a small counter of the airlines you need to take. I went there and asked where I should go (and how). A very nice Kingfisher employee, printed my ticket, and told me to take the free shuttle to the domestic terminal 1B. I walked into the “lounge”, told the responsible my flight number and waited. Every 20min or so, there is a shuttle between the terminals. The shuttle is a bus that takes back roads to go from one terminal to the other one. What I mean by back roads is that we go through a gate and enter the area where usually only aircrafts go. Somehow we navigated between the planes and 20min later made it to the terminal. The advantage of such an itinerary is that you get to see the airport from “backstage”. I checked in quite easily, passed security and seated waiting for my flight. We left on time, landed on time. What happened in between, I don’t know, I slept the whole way, just woke up 5min to see some mountains far away.

China Eastern

After China Southern, I am now flying with China Eastern to Delhi. 1st surprise when I arrived at the airport, it was almost empty. I actually wondered if I was the only one flying tonight. After an express check-in, no line :) I walked to my gate. Gate 50, if you recall is the gate where there is no lounge. Once again I will have a step over to go through customs. Anyhow, I still had to go through the security check. I believed they were a bit bored so took the opportunity with me to do a complete check: all the bags had to be emptied, the shoes, the powder check, the metal detector, "la totale". Of course I am not travelling with anything forbidden, however this time I packed in 15min and my trolley was a mess, given I had thrown everything I could in it last minute (my mother would definitely not be proud of my packing this time :) ). After this extensive check, one of the steward there told me to follow him to the lounge. We walked all the way from gate 50 to gate 22 via back doors so I could access the lounge. This is from there that I am updating my blog. So far China Eastern is doing a better job than Southern. Let's see how the rest of the trip goes.

Visa for India

India is one of those wonderful countries where you must have a visa to enter. Last Monday I dragged Wolfram out of bed early to go to the Indian embassy. After 1 hour standing in the cold we got into a tiny little office where a employee from the embassy asked me what type of passport I have."well, a normal one" I answered. "hum, you have to go to the visa office in Dongzhimen". Quid? He handed me a little card with an address and told me to get a taxi and go there. We grabed Nigel, our partner in waiting and went to the other office. The Indian embassy actually outsources the visa application to a Chinese office. This means that you have to interact with Chinese employees with very limited English. I will not write about the complex process, nor the unclarity on timings, nor how expensive it was (more than 150 euros), nor the number of phone calls I had to make, nor the number of times I went to the visa office nor that there were moments I just didn't want to go to such a country anymore. Bottom line is that I got my passport back today, with a visa inside :) Now I can fly to India.
The only scary thing is that my visa is a single entry visa, which means I will have to go through this again to get a multiple entry one...

4008 517 517

That's the number you can call to get you McDonald's delivered to your place 24/7 in Beijing. You can also order online.

All you can eat seafood

On Saturday, Dave, Tamy, Alice, Nadia, Sal and I went for seafood dinner at Todai. Tamy had spotted the place in Solana and we decided to give it a try, as many of us were in the mood for seafood. The concept is simple. You pay roughly 20 euros and you can eat and drink as much as you want!
Like for the brunch, not only the offer is amazing but on top food is very good. Just give you a flavour, there were:
- fresh seafood (shrimps, crabs, oyster, etc.)
- soups
- sushis
- shrimps or fish cooked in either Thai or Indian or Japanese or Chinese or Western way
- pasta with seafood cooked on demand
and if you don't feel like seafood, fair enough, just go for the beef, the chicken wings, the pizza, the salads.
As it hairy crab season, we all received a voucher for a free hairy crab. We were all excited by the idea of having a crab each, although concerned by our capacity to work out the beast. Well, we were a bit surprised when the crab arrived. The crab was about 10cm diameter max., let's say the size of a fist. I would call this a mini crab. And believe it or not, it's tough to it such a little one. Lot's of effort for not so much meat but a very good one.
I won't describe you the dessert buffet as you can imagine it was great. Basically, there is no way you cannot find something you want to it. The question is more what will you eat first given that your stomach has limited space...
We all agreed to go back (making sure we would not eat in the previous 12 hours).

Forbidden City

Only one thing to say: WOW! Definitely a must see.
The forbidden city is impressive, huge: so many rooms, palaces, statues, bridges, gardens, etc. Everywhere you look there is something to see. Parts of it have been restored, but still a lot of work to be done to rejuvenate the original colors and beauty of the palace. It is so big that unless you have a map, you would feel like you are in a labyrinth and wouldn't know where the exit is. I've attempted to capture what we've seen, but I don't believe my pictures are as impressive as it was.
PS: forget about visiting alone. Even on a week day you will not have the gardens for yourself. You'll have to share it with thousands of Chinese tourists.

Yum! Brands

While getting my nails done I was reading an article in China International Business magazine (yes, one has to keep updated even when getting a manicure) on Yum! brands such as KFC, McDonald's or Pizza Hut and how they conquer China. I had already noticed in Beijing that there were KFCs at every corner or so, and quite some McDonald's and Pizza Huts. While many have failed, KFC is very successful beating McDonald's even. One of the key reasons is that Chinese people do prefer chicken over beef (too bad for the Big Mac). On top of this taste difference, KFC managed to include some traditional Chinese dishes or cross over dishes between American and Chinese. Instead of re-applying the US model, then went for localization. And it seems to work pretty well.
Want to know more, read the article.

Lama Temple

Lama Temple is one of the most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. Like for the temple of Heaven, there is something about those places. Once you get there you feel at peace. You can forget about the hustle of the city life and pray / meditate. Not only is the temple absolutely beautiful but on top somehow you don't feel like leaving it. You just feel like staying there and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere. Here are some pictures I took.

PS: the temple also has the largest Buddha statue, as acknowledged by a Guiness record: 26m high in only 1 piece of Sandalwood!

Free!

Nothing to do with China, but I finished reimbursing my student loan and the one for the car this month. I feel somehow relieved not to have any debt anymore :) It feels really good to see "no loan / credit" on the web page.

I guess now I can start planning for buying an apartment (or maybe a house) when I'm back in Belgium...

Foot reflexology

Tonight, after several days of hard work, I convinced Wolfram to go for the foot reflexology at Bodhi. At 10pm we went down and were shown to a room. After the always extremely good apple or pear juice, 2 Chinese girls arrived and the session started. First surprise, although it is a foot massage, we started by a massage of the back / neck / shoulders. Basically while your feet are bathing in hot water, you get a massage of your upper body (roughly 30min!). After that you lay down on some kind of sofa and the foot massage starts. What a dream! I've always been ticklish so I was a bit worried but it turned out to be a wonderful moment of relaxation. For 60min you get 2 expert hands to massage your feet and legs. What a delight!
Now the funny piece was that for these girls Wolfram was "a tall handsome 22 year old man". At least 4 times his masseuse told him he was handsome, and so tall. No wonder the guy enjoyed that massage more than the Chinese one from Sunday. Not only they help you relax physically but on top they boost your ego. Did I mention that she read in his hand he would live 100 years...
As for me I was very proud to say that I was from France in Chinese, repeating what I had just learned in my 1st lesson a few hours ago. I also laughed a lot when Wolfram's masseuse told him his stomach was not good... I guess she was referring to the fact that his stomach was full after the great dinner we had at South Beauty. I still haven't worked out how she figured that out by massaging his feet. Another Chinese mystery.

Sorry...

... for not being up to date on my blog, but I will catch up this week-end, I promise you'll know all about my 1 week vacation in Beijing!

Great Wall - Mutianyu

On Wednesday we went to the Great Wall. Unlike last time, we would not hike the wall for the whole day given that the weather was not so great. We went to Mutianyu, a section of the wall closer to Beijing than Simatai, but not the most touristic one still. Following the advice from Arif and family, we "booked" a taxi for the whole day, i.e. we asked a driver to take us to the wall, wait for us, and take us back. This worked quite well as the driver was ok with our price and barely tried to negotiate. After 1 hour drive (actually we could have ended up any where as none of us where we were going), we arrived. 1st step: the cableway up, actually the chairlift in which Wolfram didn't feel comfortable at all, given he is scared of heights. Once that little discomfort passed we started our walk through the 6 towers we had planned to visit. There is one common thing wherever you go on the wall. It goes up and down, more or less stiff. The big difference this time was the weather, not so good so we couldn't see as far. I also noted that this part of the wall is more restored than the Simatai part, i.e. there are steps instead of stones :)
The funny part, as last time, was the way back down. 2 options: the cableway again or the toboggan. Yes, Joy, there is a toboggan and it is a lot of fun to take it down! (Can't wait to take you there).
See the video :)

Photo lesson #2 - Night pictures

I finally made it to the Bird Nest. Somehow I managed to live for 2 months in Beijing without going to the Bird Nest.

Tonight, my picture lesson was all about night picture. Luckily the target was not moving and patient enough to bear with my numerous attemps. You can judge by yourself but I think I did quite ok.

I will have however to consider acquiring a tripod if I want to keep on doing night pictures as I am not sure I can keep on relying on finding a bench, wall or bin to use a support.

Being a star

In Beijing, and most likely in other parts of China, when you are Western you are obviously not looking like everybody else around you. As a consequence it happens very often that people, especially children, stare at you. The nice part of this is that people want to make pictures with you. For a few minutes you can feel like a star :) and of course the more pictures you get the better it feels ;)

Element Fresh

After spending the afternoon on Tiananmen square we were both starving and headed to the brand new Village shopping area. Our choice went for Element Fresh which serves a wide selection of "American dishes" i.e. salads, wraps, sandwiches but also quite some excellent Asian ones. We picked some Vietnamese rolls as starter followed by Sweet and Sour duck and Vietnamese noodles. Service was a bit slow but the food was really great and we had great fun eating the noodles with chopsticks. Not as easy at it seems.

Above all, Element Fresh serves smoothies and I can tell you that if you like Mango, Mango madness is the smoothie for you. Can't wait to have another one :)

Photo taking - Lesson 1

As you may now I have acquired a new camera since I am in China. I moved away from my Canon Powershot A80, a compact one, to a Canon EOS 450D. Now I have this great camera with zillions of functions / parameters and honestly don't really know how to use them :) It's a pity to buy such a camera and use only the full automatic mode... Yesterday I picked up my 1st visitor in Beijing: Wolfram, who by the way was the one who told me what camera to get. Needless to say when it comes to taking pictures he knows what he is talking about. So I asked him to show me how to use my camera.

1st of all let's face it we have very different approach when it comes to taking pictures. I just take whatever I see, like, find interesting, leading to hundreds of pictures each time. He on the other hand takes few pictures and think about what he is doing, what is the right angle, light, etc. As much as I agree about thinking before taking a picture, I will not give up on taking whatever I want even if it's a silly picture.

So the lesson of the day was with the zoom lens. I had to take a picture of a soldier with Mao in the background and play around to get only one of them focused at a time. erg. After a good half an hour of trying (and I won't tell you how many pictures I had to trash), here is the result of my assignment. What do you think?

And because one cannot go against his nature, I took some more pictures out my assignment :)

I especially like the one of the woman from the monument from the people. Somehow I am fascinated by her face.

Snapshots from the Barangays

Here are some pictures I took while doing the consumer research in the Barangays of Greater Manila. Don't expect too much, just some snapshots from the streets.

Manila to Beijing - Getting back

Today was my last day in Manila. I really hope I'll get the chance to come back. This research was extremely interesting, eye opening and the people here are simply so nice. At 1pm I was dropped at the airport by Mrs Glo the manager of our laundry facility in Manila. I entered an airport where it seemed a bomb at just went on. People running everywhere, luggage everywhere, no clear signs of what is where... After 15min of back and forth I managed to find the China Southern counter. I was stopped by 3 security agent explaining me I couldn't take my carry on with me in the cabin. After arguing for a few minutes, I said the magic words "I'm travelling Business". All of a sudden I was a privileged passenger, they were friendly, caring... So nice for those who travel Economy. While checking in, I had the unpleasant surprise to discover I couldn't check in my luggage all the way to Beijing, but had to claim them in Guangzhou. The 2nd surprise was that Manila is the only airport where you have to pay yourself the airport tax. It is not included in the ticket: 750 pesos cash :( I went through the security check where strangely my choose where a problem but not the bottle of water I had with me. The agent refused even to take it. Somehow I found the lounge and sat there for 1 hour, working on my report. No wireless, only finger food (somehow I was hoping to get a mango one more time), good drinks at least. We took off on time and made it earlier to Guangzhou. Once we landed there, I went through the customs and was happy that my work permit was ok for them, I claimed my luggage, I checked in one more time and got ready for the transfer from Terminal A to B. To get from the check in counter to the gate it took me 30min, 30min of walk. Unfortunately the shuttle between the terminals was out of order (just 2km) and gate B117 is the one at the far end of the B terminal. I waited there for 3 hours and flew back to Beijing without further delay. It was a long and exhausting travel. On top the only movie China Southern played was the latest Indiana Jones (4 flights, 4 times the same one). Luckily I had some DVDs with me.

It's midnight I'm back in Somerset, ready for a good night of sleep.

Jeepney and taxi

On Thursday night Love and Nurit, our contacts from the agency, took Mona, Amalia and I out for dinner. We went to 'Recipe" a Filipinos restaurant where we discovered some more specialties from the Philippines. Food was very good and we had the chance to discover green mango juice. Unlike the yellow mango juice which is sweet, the green one, is like a mixture of lemon and apple. Very interesting and refreshing. Love and Nurit made us a little gift to say good-bye. Each of us received a little Jeepney. Jeepneys are the most popular mean of transportation in the Philippines. They are Jeeps left by the US army transformed into a mini-bus. They go everywhere and are extremely cheap compared to taxi. Most Filipinos use them. Each driver is free to decorate his Jeepney as he wishes so each of them is different and unique.
After dinner, Nurit insisted on us taking a taxi to go back to the hotel, despite it was only 10min walk. None of us minded walking but she did, especially with the rain. So we get in a taxi whose driver didn't know how to get us back to the hotel (basically a U-turn). He got lost in the streets between the malls and took a one-way street the other way around. Of course there was a policeman at the end of the street. The driver stepped out of the car ans argued with the policeman for a good 15min. In the end he still got the ticket. At that point the 3 of us were ready to walk back, no matter the rain, but Nurit insisted saying now we will be there in 5min. Except that the car didn't start. It turned out that when the weather is wet, the taxi has trouble to start. Something to do with the battery... The driver stepped out, grabbed 3 guys on the street and had them to push the car over the hill so he could use the slope to start the engine. Luckily it worked and we ended up in a traffic jam 500m from the hotel. Once we arrived there, security asked him to open the trunk. To do so he would have to switch off the engine :) the 3 of us stepped out of the taxi and walked the last meters! In the end it took us 40min to get back. Next time, rain or not, we walk!

Emergency massage

After a whole day of travel and 3 days of in-home visits, my back started to remind me its existence. No wonder after the travelling on bumpy roads and never sitting right. It was one of those days where I wishes Agnes, my physiotherapist, would travel with me. Yesterday when the agency dropped us at the hotel I went to the Spa and asked to get a massage. Unfortunately for me they only offered 1 type of massage to "relax tensed muscles". All the aromatherapy or wrapping in banana sleeves ones looked super attractive but not what I needed. So I went for the Full Body Energizing massage. After 1hour of this massage I felt like a bulldozer had gone over my body especially on my back. Fair enough I had asked the "therapist" on focus on where it hurt and she did. The good news is that this morning the pain is back to manageable :) 2 more days of research to survive...

Good question

Today Amalia asked me the following question "are we doing the right thing? is it right for us to make money thanks to these people" It was at the end of the day, after another series of in-home visits in places I never thought one day I would be visiting, if I can say so. Indeed we're making money by selling detergent to these people who can barely afford a roof on top of their head or food every meal, most don't have running water or electricity... I told Amalia that she should not think at it this way but rather that thanks to us for a few hours in the day these ladies are having an enjoyable experience. I don't wake up every morning thinking "let's make money today", but thinking "how can I delight more my consumers, how can I find a way to make their laundry easier, a better experience, more enjoyable". It may sound like I've been brainwashed to some of my colleagues, but if you don't truly believe that you can make a difference in improving their lives, you probably should change job :)
Even if for us spending 1-3 hours every day washing by hand laundry seems not the kind of activity we would spend our time on, for these ladies it's a way of taking care of their family. Nothing makes them more proud that when their children are going to school in a nice clean uniform, when their husband is happy because at the end of the day his shirt doesn't smell sweat... When you talk to them doing the laundry is not a chore but a way to take care of their family. As poor as they may be none of the ladies we've met so far complained about her situation. They are happy with their lives (that's a big difference with Europe where people complain about everything saying that their life used to be better before or should be better). You should see the smile on their face when they talk about laundry (you almost forget where you seat).

Facing reality

As fancy and luxurious the hotel is, as poor the people we visited are. We left behind us the busy center of Manila to go to the suburbs. In 30min, you completely change world and get back to reality. People are poor, fighting everyday to survive, leaving in conditions I cannot describe. During one of the interview I had a rat passing between my feet right next to me was playing a baby girl, both my arms and feet are covered by some unidentified insects bites to which I am allergic to looking at how swollen they are now. When you enter the "houses" you barely know where to seat as 1) it's extremely small and 2) everything is dirty. After 1 day listening to housewives telling me how they struggle and manage everyday, my vision of the world is starting to change. Let's see how the rest of the week goes.

Waking up in Manila

After an excellent night (and if you were wondering, there was no pea between the mattresses of the bed), I headed to the gym. Since I have started my EBT I decided to get back on track with exercising. To access the fitness center you have to pass by the pool. Despite the early hour, it was extremely hot outside and the pool looked extremely attractive. While I was painfully biking, I could see some people swimming. Tomorrow I will have a swim.
Once I had recovered from the gym, i.e. took a well deserved shower, I went for breakfast. What a great breakfast buffet! Anything you may wish from Western to Asian, they have it. There again, once I had given my room number, they remembered my name. Sounds stupid in a way, but such little detail makes you feel really special.
Now it's time to start my consumer research in Manila. Let's see...

Peninsula hotel Manila

WOW!
I mean it. This hotel is fantastic. I landed after almost 6 hours travel in Manila. I had ordered a pick up service from the hotel as I was advised by my Filipinos colleagues. I go to the hotel counter in the airport. They have me access a room where I can seat while waiting for my car and get some cold water (highly appreciated when it's 30C at 11pm). 5min later comes my car. The driver asked me if the temperature in the car and the music was fine with me. 15min later I arrived at the hotel. One of the men standing outside opened the door from the car and said "welcome miss Mimassi". How does he know who I am? Well it's simple, the driver called them and informed them of my arrival. Amazing!
While someone is handling my luggage, a groom walked me to the reception. I checked in quite fast and the lady at the reception said "let me show you your room"! almost 5 years I'm travelling on a regular basis. Never, I mean it, never, I had anyone showing me my room in a hotel. As she said, P&G clients are important for their hotel and she wants to make sure everything is fine. For sure if she takes care of us like that, we will come back. On the way to my room she showed me the restaurants, where to have breakfast, and the access to the outdoor pool. In my room she showed me how to operate the console to control the air conditioning, the radio, the alarm, the plasma TV, etc.
I feel like a princess. Next time I come to Manila I'll stay a bit longer to enjoy the hotel.

China Southern airlines

Today I took off for Manila. I arrived at the airport a bit too early but didn't really know how long it would take to go through the customs, security, etc. I checked in quite fast and asked where the lounge was. Luckily I was travelling business and thought the best way to wait is to work peacefully in the lounge. Except that my so called direct flight to Manila from Beijing actually had a stop over in Xiamen (if you don't know where that is, me neither) Consequence, no customs in Beijing, but a separate terminal for people in transfer. This meant no lounge :( I spent almost 2 hours waiting in a terminal empty with only seats, toilets and a place to buy drinks. No food, no duty free, no wireless :( I started to wonder why I was traveling business. I know it sounds like I'm complaining a lot for not much, but the access to the lounge is one of the reason you pay (P&G pays 1000 euros for my trip).
3 hours after leaving Beijing we landed in Xiamen. They made us leave the aircraft, go through the customs and 20minutes later board in the same aircraft... still wondering why we couldn't do that in Beijing. Next time, I'll choose the non direct flight with a connection in Hong-Kong where at least you can kill time doing shopping.

I made it!

Since yesterday I am officially a resident of China. I can proudly show you my work permit and residence permit. As of now I can travel in & out of China as often as I want :)

I'm glad the paperwork is over. No more blood analysis or ID pictures on blue background needed. Now I can enjoy China and Asia!

This means I can fly to Manila on Sunday. Can't wait to be there :)