Bangkok - Day 3

As advised by the guide I was ready for an early start at Chatuchak market. I arrived there shortly after 9am, so early that some stands were still opening. The place is huge. Zillions of stands selling every thing you may need: clothing, shoes, jewellery, decoration items, handicraft, house clothing, plants, pets, books, etc. everything except food. Regarding clothes, as again, if I was the size of a Thai lady, I would have been in heaven. Given I’m not, I’ve seen a lot of things I would have loved to but, never fit in :( I still bought some silk scarves and a couple of bags. On top of which I got some cushion cases and table runners, all of them in silk of course. I guess now I need to get more tables :) the sad thing is that they were amazing pieces of furniture and paintings around that I wanted to buy but a little voice in my head reminded me I’m flying so I have limited space. Now that I’m thinking about it maybe I could have arrange some shipment… Too late.

After another lazy afternoon by the pool, I went to the massage school for another massage. This time it was harder that yesterday, as the masseuse really worked on my back. “is it ok?” is what she asked each time she pushed on the key muscles and I was grimacing out of pain. Strangely the longer she applied pressure the pain was changing to a feeling of burning. Anyhow after the massage she told me I worked too much. Really? Does it show? Apparently my muscles spoke for me.
After the massage I took a taxi to get back to Siam square. What should have been a 15min ride ended up in 1h15 ride as my taxi driver got lost, stopped 2 times to ask the way (at least he did ask), got us stuck in the traffic of a one-way street, and brought me to the wrong Meridien. This ride managed to erase all the effect of the massage. Seems I will have to go for another one tomorrow :)

Bangkok 2nd day

Wat Arun:
After a long and lazy breakfast on the riverside I took the boat (yeah it’s becoming a habit) to go to Wat Arun, the temple of dawn. This temple is the tallest religious structure of Thailand (which explains probably why the steps were so steep. It was more climbing a wall than stairs). What fantastic about this temple, beside its height which gives you a great view on Bangkok), is that it is covered with pieces of broken ceramic. The whole decoration is made of pieces of dishes or other vases that were leftover from Chinese merchant ships. Next time I break a plate, I might think twice before throwing the pieces away :)
The video.
Wat Pho massage school:
After the climb at Wat Arun (actually going up was easier than going down, especially when you wear flip-flops or sandals like everyone else in Thailand… had I known I would have wear better shoes), I decided to find the Wat Pho Thai Traditional massage school, which offers according to all the guides cheap hour-long Thai massage and lessons as well if you want to learn how to do a massage. The later requires a longer stay in Bangkok, maybe next time; therefore I went for the 1 hour massage. Unlike the hotel spa, you don’t have your private room. It’s a big hall with maybe 20 beds where you lay down and a student gives you a massage. It is indeed cheap, around 9 euros for 1 hour and really pleasant. During 1 hour a masseur or masseuse applies pressure on different points of your body to release the tension. They also stretch you and every now and then you can hear some of your joints crack. It was so nice I’m considering going again tomorrow (and Sunday).

Fully relaxed after the massage I picked up my suitcase from the Hilton and moved to the Plaza Athenee Royal Meridien, located in another part of the city. I left the riverside for the shopping area. The room was more modern and had a view at the Hilton but the pool here is way nicer. Of course I spent my afternoon there swimming and sun bathing (and napping, after the massage I was ready for a sleep :)).

Later in the day I decided to explore Rattanakosin the shopping district. I walked the skywalk which takes you from one shopping mall to the other without having to get back down on the street. I like walking in cities I don’t know. For me it’s one of the best ways to discover it, to get a feel of the place, to see what inhabitants look like, etc. So I enjoyed my walk despite the heat (I have to say that there were only 3 subway stations to cover, but by 30C it seems longer).
Based on the places I’ve been so far in Asia, Hong-Kong, Singapore and now Bangkok are shopping paradise. Shopping is like a national sport for Thai people. I’m still wondering every now and then, how they can afford all of that. They have the latest modern shopping center where you can buy all the latest western fashion and brands, including luxury brands. Those shopping centers are always crowded. How can they afford it? The whole world is going through an economical crisis but it doesn’t seem like it reached Bangkok (or Asia). I guess that’s something I’ll have to investigate further.
The video
Again it is quite shocking to see some people leaving in luxurious apartments and spending a fortune in luxury products, while others sleep on the street…

Suan Lum Night Bazaar
It’s an open-air market with thousands of stands selling souvenirs, handicrafts, clothing, jewellery, antiques, etc. It’s one of the must see of Bangkok therefore buses full of tourists sow up. There were some very nice pieces of handicrafts and house clothing. I didn’t buy anything as tomorrow I’m going to Chatuchak week-end market, which is supposed to be bigger and better. Now I have an idea of what I can get and the prices. I’m ready to bargain!

1st day in Bangkok - What a day!

I woke up around 8am as I had decided to spend my mornings visiting and my afternoons by the pool enjoying the sun. I took the boat shuttle from the hotel to the central pier, figured out which boat was the Chao Phraya River Express Boat, and waited for it. 10min later I was seating in the ferry going up the river from until stop 9, Tha Chang Pier. Given there was no one joining me on this trip I gave total freedom to my mania of taking millions of pictures. As I do not want to overwhelm you with them, I will make short videos that you may choice to watch or skip :) so to get you started here is the riverside going up the river Chao Phraya and going down.

1st stop: Wat Pho
Wat Pho is Bangkok’s largest and oldest-surviving temple. Apart from its historical significances, visitors come to Wat Pho to pay homage to the monumental Reclining Buddha. After seeing the 26m high Buddha in the Lama Temple in Beijing I was prepared for a big Buddha. It turned out that one is insanely big: 46m long, 15m high (see here by yourself)! It’s made out of brick and plaster covered with gold (so I read in the travel guide). The interesting part of that Buddha is his feet (no fetishism here). Seriously, his feet are covered with mother-of-pearl illustrating the 108 auspicious signs for recognizing Buddha. Very impressive piece of handicraft making me wish I could have a few pieces of furniture with mother-of-pearl.
2nd stop: Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew
After admiring the Reclining Buddha it was time for the Emerald Buddha (I know lot’s of Buddhas around here). I walked from one Buddha to the other coming across a street market where they were selling some quite appealing food. I didn’t try though, too afraid that my stomach would not survive to it and spoil the rest of my stay. Still very pleasant scent experience.
For those who don’t know, Thailand is a kingdom and the Grand Palace is the royal residence. Numerous throne halls and temples are located in that complex. Once again I’m visiting a palace and the king doesn’t come to welcome me. What a disappointment! Luckily for him, the Grand Palace is worth the visit especially the temples and throne halls. The real jewel of this complex is Wat Phra Kaew, the royal monastery of the Emerald Buddha. The moment you enter the monastery you are surrounded by gold and other gems. Everything shines.
As it is a monastery you have to wear decent clothing to get in, i.e. no short pants or skirts, no sleeve-less shirt, etc. Thai people are very organized. Instead of forbidding you the access, they lend you a piece of clothe to compensate the one you’re missing (you do have to give a deposit of 100 THB). As much as I find this system great as nothing is more disappointing that coming all the way to the Grand Palace and not getting in, from a hygiene point of view, I’m not convinced as they do not wash the clothes between 2 persons and with the high temperature of Bangkok, people sweat…. On top of wearing decent clothes, you also have to remove your shoes before entering the temples.
Now that you are dressed appropriately and bare foot, let’s go check out the Emerald Buddha. 1st surprise, it’s small, very small (75cm high only). It’s green but I learnt that it’s not made of Emerald but Jade (the one who found it in the 1st place made a mistake: he thought the green stone was emerald. Men…). I was not really impressed by this little Buddha which Thai people were worshipping, but I was more by its temples and all the buildings around that really left me speechless. After such beauty the palace itself was a bit disappointing as there was not much to see, except some thrones and paintings.
The video.

After such amazing visits to the temples and palace, my eyes still filled with all the gold I saw, I had a quick lunch and headed back to the hotel, via boat of course. I jumped into my bathing suit and enjoyed the swimming pool through out the afternoon. While lying there feeling the sun on my face I was thinking “I should do that every winter. When it’s cold and dark I should escape to a warm location and enjoy some days of sun bathing”
After a few hours in a sun I explored Siam square, one of the very popular shopping areas in Bangkok. I struggled quite a lot as there were sales, which is torture for the shopping addict that I am. But I decided not to buy anything until I have explored the night market and Chatuchak week-end market. Let’s be patient.
To complete my 1st day in Bangkok, I went for a massage in the luxurious hotel Spa. I picked the “recovery massage” which consisted in 1h of body massage using aromatherapy oils. I can tell you it does relax you very well as right now, I really feel like sleeping. Every now and then, between 2 Chinese massages, I should go for aromatherapy and relax.

On my way to... Bangkok!

So here we go. It’s noon, I’m jumping in a taxi direction the airport (this time the main airport :) ). I quickly checked in, went through security, got to the gate and plane. Seat 36A, that’s mine. Yep, the very last row of the aircraft. Quite different to be seated back there instead of the comfortable spacious business class. Well I’m paying the ticket this time, so last row it is. 5 hours later we landed in Bangkok. Temperature: 32C!
30 min of queue at the customs, 45 min taxi (which driver of course tried to make me pay double price of course), I reached the hotel. Tonight and tomorrow I’m staying at the Hilton Millenium. As a Hilton Preferred Guest I get to check in in a separate area, nicely seating on a sofa, even though I'm using my points to stay in this hotel. I really like service in Asia.
So here I am in my fancy room with view on the river planning my visits for tomorrow. I’m so excited to be in Bangkok!

Fireworks!!!!

Tonight, Alice and I joined Andrea and Bert for dinner. After taking a look at the amazing apartment they just moved into, we went for pizza at Kro's nest. Quite a good place for American style pizza. For info a large pizza over there is way enough for 4 people.
After the dinner the plan was to fire some fireworks. Bert had bought some earlier that day. Basically you can buy these days at almost every street corner a box of fireworks. All you have to do is find a spot where to put the box (any street would do), switch it on and there you go! 2 minutes of your own fireworks!
It was absolutely amazing to watch your own fireworks and great fun!

Decathlon

Today Alice wanted to go to Decathlon. According to the Insider's guide we had to get to Guomao station and get a shuttle. Easy! Except once we got to Guomao there was no obvious sign of the shuttle none we asked knew. We didn't want to waste more time searching so we grabbed a taxi and showed the driver the address. He didn't look very confident about it but said ok. Then started a journey that took us back almost where we started in the north east of Beijing (Guomao is in the south east). At some point he stopped to ask people his way and no one had any idea where it was. Of course no Decathlon at sight. Alice ended up calling the shop, fighting to get someone who spoke English on the phone, so we could hear that the address in the guide was wrong! Luckily someone could explain the driver how to get to the nearest Decathlon (as they have 3 in Beijing) where he took us, back all the way further south from where this all trip started!
2 hours after we left Somerset we finally made it to the shop and bought some sport clothes, including some baby ones for Andrea and Bert's baby to come.
Amazing how a simple trip to a shop can become a journey through the city. Well, that's Beijing!

Temple fair

There are many events organized during the new year period such as parades and lion dances (and not dragons like I believed), new year markets, temple fairs and fireworks. Today Alice and I went to Ditan park to visit the temple fair over there. This fair is the biggest and most popular one in Beijing.

The 2 of us had noticed that the city was pretty empty these days, especially the subway. When we arrived at the park we actually found the people. A huge crowd of families (i.e. parents + child + grand-parents) came to visit the fair. There are hundreds of game or food stands (and almost none of drinks because we've been looking for them). You can watch different groups performing some traditional Chinese dance or music. Let's face it the quality of the performance varied a lot on the group. Some were amazing, some were just ok, some others we still believe anyone could do it. Still it was quite interesting to watch. What was also fun to watch was the people and the way they were dressed. It felt sometimes more like a Halloween / Mardi gras party than a New Year one. Judge by yourself :)

Chinese New Year?

For those who are a bit curious here are some info about Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year is also known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival. It is the most important traditional Chinese holidays. Spring Festival celebrates the 1st day of the 1st month according to the lunar calendar.
Legend says that a monster, often depicted as a fantastical lion-like beast, would come on the 1st day of the new lunar year to terrorize the townspeople, devouring livestock and children. People began to put food in front of their doors on that day to feed the monster so that he would leave them alone. One year, the story goes, a little child wearing accidentally wandered outside when the monster arrived, and instead of devouring the child, the monster fled in fear. The townspeople realized that the monster must have been scared of the color red, and from then on people have decorated their houses with red scrolls and worn red clothing at lunar new year. The custom of creating a fearsome din by lighting firecrackers also emerged as a monster-repelling tactic.
The legend helped to give rise to traditions such as decorating homes and businesses with wishes written on red paper scrolls.
Chinese families put a lot into their preparations for welcoming in the new year. 2 days before the new year, everyone does their spring cleaning. People believe that cleaning their homes and businesses will bring in fresh luck for the coming year. There are also a lot of groceries to buy before the new year. New clothes and new shoes are also bought, and new haircuts are common. Most people wear new clothes on the day, again in the hope that this will equate to rising fortunes. Anything new is welcomed, and if it is red, even better.
On New Year's eve the family reunion dinner takes place. Most families will eat chicken, fish and dumplings.
Other Spring Festival traditions include the giving of hong bao stuffed with money to children and unmarried people and visit to the homes of family and friends. Candies, biscuits, chocolates and fruit hampers are usually offered to hosts / guests.

Fire works and fire crackers

It started tonight around 6pm with some fire crackers. Then gradually there were more of them, almost giving you the feeling that the city is under attack. Around 10:30pm the fireworks started and increased until we reached midnight. At midnight it was absolutely amazing. The whole sky became a huge firework. Everywhere you look you can see fireworks. Bottom line is that anyone can buy fireworks and shoot them, therefore the massive impression.

I've tried to make some pictures from my balcony, which as you can imagine was not easy as fireworks don't really stand still, but I gave it my best shot hoping you'll get a feel of how it was.

Standing in line at Carrefour

When standing in line with Chinese people you really get a chance to experience the total lack of respect for others they can demonstrate sometimes. Today I went to Carrefour to buy some webcams for a project at work. It took me 10min to choose the webcams and 1 hour to pay. This Saturday is the day before Chinese New Year so all the people are getting ready, including doing their shopping. Going to Carrefour over a week-end reminds you that there are more than 1 billion Chinese people around. I have never seen so many people in a supermarket. Now what you need to know is that Chinese people keep on doing their grocery shopping daily or every 2-3 days. Therefore when they go to a supermarket they buy few things only which they put of course in a cart. Thus making the line longer and reducing the space available for you to move around. Like in Italy the whole family goes along which means even more people around (sometimes they even take 2 carts: 1 for the food, 1 for the kid). Assuming you manage to get all you wanted to buy (which is not a given as many aisles are partially empty) you then have to queue. Queuing in China is a fight for death. It is a very serious business. 1st of all you'd better have a cart with you as it is your weapon against the others and help you maintain some distance between you and the person before you (the one behind has her cart stuck to your legs already). No free centimeter in the line is tolerated. If you leave some space between you and the person before, you can be sure someone will come in between. Of course every 5 minutes someone is trying to sneak his way up in the line so you need to keep being focused on what you do (reading a book like me while waiting is not a good idea). Should you not move or indicate your disagreement, you can be sure to be yelled at.
Today, a man came and tried to move forward while we had reached a point were no one could move anywhere. He started to yell at me. Have no clue why, as it was in Chinese. I ignored him and gestured that no one could move. He yelled stronger. I still don't know why but I yelled back, in English of course. The louder he was screaming, the louder I was going in response. Believe it or not, it was fun. I was laughing and screaming at him at the same time. After 1-2 minutes the people around realized I was laughing and started to laugh as well. The man backed off and worked is way back. I guess this was my victory of the day :)
Next time I feel like screaming, I'll go to Carrefour :)

Hongbao

Hongbao is a red envelope which Chinese people give at weddings and Chinese New Year. It's red as red color means luck and good fortune in China and it's used to give money.
The same way we would have Christmas parties in December, in the last 2 weeks we had several lunches during which we had lucky draws to get our Hongbao with 1, 10, 50 or 100 RMB inside. I did not get much money (which I dropped in the charity box) but I really liked the envelopes:)
Today my ayi (i.e. my cleaning lady) left the below plate in my apartment: some fruits and a red envelope. An empty one. I read that on Chinese New Year you are supposed to give your ayi a hongbao worth 1 month of wages. I assume the empty red envelope in my apartment means I should give her something. But how much? I have no clue what 1 month wages is as I'm staying in Somerset which pays her. Now I don't mind giving her something but don't know how much would be appropriate. Dave found the same envelope in his apartment and his facing the same question. So the two of us are trying to figure it out now before Sunday. Any idea?

Harbin - Walking down streets under the snow

On Sunday, we woke up to find out that it snowed during the night and everything was white. At least early in the morning, after a few hours of traffic the snow started to turn grey which is not so nice to see. We continued our exploration of the city, checking out Saint Sophia, the orthodox church now converted to a museum (when you're in front of it you feel like if you were in Moscow, Russia, and not Harbin, China), discovering the underground network of shopping streets and more ice sculptures.
It was both pleasant to walk under falling snow and quite perilous as you need to pay attention at each step (as you maybe know where I grew up there was 1 day of snow once every 2-3 years, so whenever I see some I'm somehow fascinated).
I'm still amazed by the number of people we saw eating ice creams, which we would never consider given how cold it was.
Last thing on our to-do list: the Disney park. One of the parks of the city is converted into an ice park featuring Disney characters. It is also the place where you can have a look at the ice sculptures from the international contest. Some of them are quite impressive by the level of details. By the way, did you know that Gabon has a team of ice sculptors? I would have never guessed.
Last but not least, we tried one of the ice slope. Basically you sit down at the top of it (yes directly on your trousers) and someone pushes you. Before you know you're going down full speed and screaming (probably scaring the Chinese people around who do not scream when they go down)! 10s of fun just for the cost of wet trousers for a couple of hours afterwards:)

Harbin - The Ice Bar

or the bar we never found!
Tamara had read on the Internet before leaving that there was an ice bar in Harbin. The concept is simple: the bar is made of ice and you can enjoy several drinks, including vodka shots (highly appreciated when it's so cold). So we asked the hotel reception were it was, no idea. We asked in the restaurant where we had dinner, no clue. We asked lot's of local people on the streets, no idea either. Sunday afternoon we even asked foreigners, just in case, no further success. We did walk a lot in the center of Harbin looking for this bar and sadly left Harbin without having found it.

Harbin - Lao Chang Delicious Food

Following the recommendation of Lonely Planet we went for lunch on Sunday at Lao Chang, famous for its pancake / tortilla. In a nutshell it was like eating Fajitas except that what you put inside is Chinese.
Eggs:
The tortilla:

The meat and peppers:

Your Chinese Fajita

Of course you enjoy the food with a bottle of Harbin beer.

In case you wonder, this is what happens when you want to make a picture right after entering a warm place coming from the cold outside.

Harbin - The Ice Festival

After an afternoon exploring the center of Harbin and enjoying the winter sports on the river, we took a taxi and headed to the Ice Festival.
Despite the cold that was getting through all your layers of clothes, despite we felt we would loose a finger or a toe, it was definitely worth the trip. From ice bricks, they built "reductions" of churches, castles, temples and other significant buildings from around the world. At night the neon tubes inside the structures are switched on and it becomes magical, being surrounding by these colorful sculptures. They play music in the parc and to keep warm some people are dancing :)
PS: for the occasion I bought a tripod thinking "night pictures mean tripod". What I had not anticipated is how much effort it requires to use a tripod. It's not like you put the camera on and off you go (wouldn't that be great?). No, you actually need to adjust 20 000 screws to reach the perfect angle. I guess that would have been ok if the temperature was not so low (-22C), if I wasn't wearing 2 pairs of gloves on top of each other reducing considerably my agility and if the ground was not made of snow, which per default is not flat nor stable. Changing the lens was not an option either. So despite this I took quite some pictures. They might not be highly focused or horizontal :) but I hope they will give you a feel of how wonderful it was.

Harbin - Winter sports

In winter, the river is completely frozen giving people the opportunity to enjoy many winter sports. It was the 1st time for me that I was walking on a frozen river and let's face it every now en then it feels weird to think that under your feet there is water. You can:
- ice skate
- slide down on icy slopes (extremely funny!)
- ride horses
- enjoy a sleigh ride
Less usual were 2 activities:
- the "skating chairs", some hybrid between a chair and ice skating, very popular with kids and parents as you can ride it together
- some kind of spinning cone; the purpose being to keep it spinning as long as possible.
You can check this out in the video.

Harbin - The year of the ox

2009 is the year of the ox therefore oxes and cows are everywhere, as stuffed animals, as pictures, as ice sculptures... or made of cans. In a few hours on Sunday morning 2 men built 2 cows out of Pepsi and 7up cans.

Of course we couldn't resist and bought 2 little red and gold ones. Now we are ready to celebrate the year of the ox!

Harbin - Zhongyang street

Zhongyang street is the main street of Harbin. It's a pedestrian shopping street, mostly clothing and Russian markets. The Russian influence is everywhere in the center of Harbin. The buildings have Russian / European style, very often names of shops are written both in Chinese and Cyrillic (making it very easy to read as you can imagine for foreigners like us). If it wasn't for all the Chinese people you could feel in Europe. Along the street there are different ice sculptures. Despite the cold a lot of people were outside walking and shopping. Most likely doing they Chinese New Year shopping, in a similar way we do the last week-end before Christmas.
Now I would like to share 2 key learnings from Harbin:
1) if you stop moving you will freeze. It is very important to keep on moving or enter in a shop every 15min to warm up. This gives you the opportunity to explore the different Russian shops selling imported Russian products such as chocolate (who would want to buy Russian chocolate, I still wonder?), Matryoshka (the Russian dolls), different army outfits, candies and some weird things like dried frogs or deer penis (apparently typical Chinese remedy for a lot of issues. I will let you investigate further if you want to know more).
2) ice is slippery. It may sound obvious but when you're not used to walk in the snow or on ice, it leads yo to some scary unbalanced steps or even falls. Luckily when this happens usually a couple of Chinese men run to come and help you back on your feet, and that's very nice. Now I still have a question I would like to share with you. We all know that when it's -15 or -20C water freezes. If you're Chinese you have a tendency to spit on a regular basis (apparently the spitting ban for the Olympics never made it to Harbin as it was non stop all around us), the saliva will end up on the ground and eventually will freeze thus being dangerous as someone may fall sliding on it. So what do you do? Quit spitting? No, you hire people to scratch / remove the frozen saliva from the ground, especially on the steps of stairs. Sometime the Chinese logic is a mystery to me...
This said here is the link to the video of Zhongyang street.

Harbin - Getting to the hotel

A couple of hours later, we were in Harbin looking for the bus shuttle to the center. Once again everything was in Chinese so we bought tickets for a shuttle without knowing exactly where we would end up. Tickets in hand we walked out of the airport to get into the bus and experienced the 1st impression of cold. We were nicely surprised when we saw next to the bus our very 1st ice sculpture: a rabbit. Made me thought of Easter somehow :)
The bus drive was about 45min to the center. We stepped out at the station planning to take a taxi to the hotel. This turned out to be a bit of a challenge for the simple reason that there is some kind of taxi mafia in Harbin (I guess the Russian influence) and each time we asked drivers would ask for 5 to 10 times the price with meter. It seems they see foreigners as cash cows. Given we knew how much we should pay we walked around asking every taxi we could find until one agreed to take us with the meter on. 15min later we were at the hotel. We checked in, dropped the suitcase, wrapped ourselves in all the layers of clothes we had brought, asked a map at the reception and headed for Zhongyang Dajie, Harbin central street.

Harbin - Getting there

The 1st challenge of the week-end was to get to Harbin. After spending a week or so looking for plane and train tickets, a colleague of Tamara managed to book us tickets for 1500 RMB, about half the price of what we would have paid by air, and roughly the same than by train (the big difference being that the flight is 1.5 hour vs. 10 hours by train). So on Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30am, got dressed, grabbed the suitcase and stepped out of the building. There are always taxis waiting in front of Somerset, even at 6am. I knocked on the window of the 1st one to wake up the driver and showed him where I wanted to go: Nanyuan airport. He looked at me and said something which I guessed meant "are you sure?" Nanyuan airport is known as the "other airport" of Beijing. It's located in the South of Beijing and the only description I could find of this airport is the following: "Nanyuan airport is the purgatory of Beijing air travel. Only travelers with frightening karmic debt end up here and all clients of China United Airlines (me!)". Sounds like the airport you want to go to, isn't it? Still tickets were cheap and we assumed it would be some kind of low cost airport.

After 35min taxi ride, I arrived in some kind of domain with walls all around and no light on the road. 5 more minutes of total darkness and finally I could see the airport, well at least the building. I entered and thought "this is real China". Everything was written in Chinese (the only English words being: check-in, unusual size luggage (another example of bad translation; I believe they meant oversize), security check and gate). In total there were 6 non Chinese persons in the airport including us. We were standing there surrounded by Chinese people going back home for Chinese New Year, having at least 3 suitcases per person, kids running all over the place, eating noodle soup (yes at 7am!), spitting every now and then, pushing anyone in the way to get to the check in. We checked in, passed the security with a smile then waited for the flight until we realized we'd better watch the gate. The announcements were only in Chinese, so to find out when you are boarding, just watch the gate until you see people getting through.

The nice thing about flying in China is that the majority of the aircraft are quite recent. So the one we took was in good shape and smoothly brought us to Harbin (including a nice meal with a cake, a clementine, and a sardine (Dad I thought of you at that moment)). Let the cold begin.

Wow!!

I just came back from Harbin. Dropped my bags, switched on the computer and then noticed something was different. The TV was no longer this huge old one but has transformed over the week-end in a huge plasma one!!! 1 meter wide it is! I should go away more often :)
It's a pity it's Sunday night and I have to get up early. I'd love to watch a DVD to give it a try.
PS: I fear this means the programmed death of my little 36cm diameter TV back home because I'm sure once I will be used to the new one, there is no way I can watch my little one again.

I'm in Harbin

Stop - It's freezing cold - Stop - Ice Festival amazing - Stop - Cannot find the Ice bar :(

Getting ready for winter wonderland

This week-end Tamara and I are going to Harbin, capital of the Heilongjiang province, 1000km or so north-east of Beijing. Why would I go over there you may ask? For the Ice Festival. Every year Harbin host an ice sculpture festival which is now world wide famous and brought back some economic dynamism to the city. So despite the -20C, I don't want to miss it. Who knows if I will ever have the chance again. I am now packing looking forward for my week-end in the "Chinese Siberia"!

Work-Life Balance?

Last Friday during our yearly event there was a whole section on the meeting dedicated to work-life balance: what works, what does not work, tips to improve it, etc. We even had some Chinese guru who came over and told us we need to do more artistic activities and sport to balance our work activities. Thus the singing, dancing, painting, tai-chi and other yoga demonstration. Everyone was quite enthusiastic about it. Who wouldn't if your employer is willing to pay or help organize some yoga / belly dancing / ping-pong / latin dancing / etc. classes.

This Thursday we have a review with our Directory and Vice-President. On top of our normal workload we have to prepare tons of presentations and 1-pagers. Conclusion all of us are working crazy hours. Yesterday, a colleague ended up saying a bit before 8pm: "so much for our work-life balance. We don't have a life anymore!" I tried to convince her it's exceptional circumstances, until I was asked to provide some ideas on a specific topic by the next morning. I guess I was supposed to get during my sleep... So indeed, so much for my work-life balance :)

My 2 new friends

Today we had an off-site event for the senior scientists in BJTC. We received as a gift a little cow (as 2009 is the year of the ox). Incidentally I won a second one later during the day. I know proudly own 2 cows dressed as watermelon. Aren't they cute?

zhen-song blind doctor massage center

On Saturday night Dave invited us over for dinner. After great food the group split into 2: guys went for drinks and shisha, girls decided to go for a massage. Cindy recommended us to go to zhen-song blind doctor massage center where she goes once a week. It's a traditional Chinese medical center. After a quick ride in taxi we arrived there. The place look like an old dispensary, with white bed sheets everywhere and masseurs who are (semi)blind wearing white lab coat. After 50min of massage the conclusion is the following: It must have been the wrong masseuse. While it was a moment of relaxation for the others who nearly fell asleep, it was closer to torture for me. She literally hurt me. The massage was painful. I don't know how much of what she has done was supposed to help but I got out of there in pain (and 2 days later my back is hurting like hell). After this experience I am not sure I will be willing to try again traditional Chinese massage center.

Trivia

Did you know that 1st video ever played on MTV was Video Killed The Radio Star? Now you do :)
That's one of the topics we were discussing over Bujitos and Mojitos at Luga's. What's amazing about this place is that it's very small and the decoration does not really make you want to enter. But that would be a mistake because they have the best Mojitos and Margheritas of Beijing. hey also claim they have the best Bujitos but I would challenge that claim. If you order Guacamole, they come to your table with all the ingredients and you get to choose what you want in it and how spicy you want it :) That's really cool.

BJTC Yearly party - 2009

Today was the P&G Beijing yearly event. We started by the traditional business review and different results in the afternoon, then had a cultural fair with booths from different countries followed by dinner and the party. While the afternoon was pretty much predictable the 2nd part of the event was more surprising. At 6pm dinner was served and right before that everyone changed from Business casual to their party outfit. Some people (especially the girls) went into a lot of effort by renting costumes or wearing their red carpet outfit. It was sometimes difficult to recognize your colleagues. At 7pm the red carpet ceremony started, everyone entered the room walking on a red carpet where you would pose for the photographs. Given the demographics on the site, men at to go 2-3 times to make sure each girl would have en escort. 1 hour later (that’s the time needed when 500 people are attending your event) the Show started. I won’t elaborate too much about the show and will let you judge on the pictures (quite a lot I have to admit). It was a talent show i.e. each team had to come up with 2 talent shows : singing, dancing, acting, etc. covering the theme Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow. As you can see people went really for it and gave their best. Some performances were amazing, some were good, some were hilarious, some we still haven’t understood the storyline, some could have been spared. It lasted almost 3 hours (way too long but everyone should be given the chance to perform on stage). The most important is that we all had a lot of fun. The only regret is that when you spend 3 hours watching a show you don’t really get a chance to mingle.

The organizing committee:Traditional dancing with fans:

Children in the audience:

A robot from the future:

A peacock:

A dandy:

Snow White was there with 2 dwarfs?

A magician:

A team of school girls:

Kung Fu Panda:

A Chinese pop star:

Belly dancers:

Harry Potter joined as well

Traditional Chinese dance

A Chinese boys band:

Special apparition of James Bond

and Zorro:

Even Elvis granted us a visit:

No ice in Beijing yet but Titanic was around

No show could be complete without the Village people (believe it or not some Chines people did not know them... and had to learn the choreography of YMCA)

A fashion show:

Getting into History, an empress and her eunuch were around:

as well as some kings and queens from the 1700s

Leornardo Da Vinci & Mona Lisa

A bunch of cave men and women

The wishes from the leadership team

Me as Laura Ingalls :)

2 princesses:

The technology team or the Imperial family

Arif and Dave. Please note Arif is wearing his traditional costume and performed with his bagpipe. One of the highlights of the evening.

The Tamara sandwich: Tamara (Tami) / Arif / Tamara

Tamara, Arif & Alice

Tami & Dave in their gorgeous outfit

The Belgian booth for the Cultural fair (we had to add some pictures to hide a bit the Manneken Pis, symbol of Belgium according to Chinese)

The new advertisement for Kit Kat, by Aaron and Tamara

Tamara had the chance to have professional hairdresser and make-up artist to take care of her. We improvised a photo shoot.

Aaron and me Aaron & Dave

Everybody singing under the direction of a professional: