Hong Kong

I did a 24 hour whirlwind tour of Hong Kong. I managed to go up the Victoria Peak Tram which has a view of the Hong Kong harbour. At the beginning of the Tram it has a newspaper clipping from a newspaper describing the British fighting the Japanese (referred to as the "Japs"). It would have been quite a scene because it is quite steep. Hard to imagine the difference in the times. As I was crossing from Kowloon to Hong Kong I was thinking about how my impression for many years of Hong Kong was "junks" live in boats in the harbour. I walked up and down Nathan Rd. which is a famous shopping area in Kowloon. I also had some street food: fish balls and waffles. Not together but they did offset each other nicely. I stayed at the infamous Chenking Mansions which is a building block with about 50 different guest houses of questionable value. I thought for one night I could tolerate it so I took it but it was small. The place was another illustration of how in China there are many people working from all over the world. I met many Indians on the elevator but also people from the Middle East and Africa. I was on the 15th floor so I saw everyone get on and get off as I went up or down. I really did not want to spend too much time there knowing I am going to be in Shanghai and Beijing for a week.

Thailand

I am in China so I cannot read my blog so I am not sure where this left off. My mantra from Dik my scuba instructor which was "Breath deeply, just relax" paid off in the coming days. Thailand was a little fraught with risk partly to due to me and partly due to what I was doing. I was driving a moped around the island. I was very cautious but more so because I saw how many people were walking around with bandages on their knees or ugly scrapes on their hands and elbows due to falling off their bikes. When I was preparing for scuba diving I was warned it can lead to an embolism etc but very unlikely and I expressed some concern and Dik said "you drove here on a moped here didn't you, that is a lot more dangerous than scuba diving". So I survived riding around although I did run out of about 20 meters passed a gas station so I was able to roll my bike into the station. The gas gauge was not working properly. Then of course I attempted to walk to the top of the highest peak in Ko Phangnan and got lost in the process (in the jungle!) but I did find my way out with a trusty dog I picked up on the way and who stayed with me till I got to a village outside of the national park. I had to walk quite a ways because I was a far ways from where my moped was parked. I ended up hitchiking and got a ride on the back of a motorcycle to the nearest big town where I caught a cab back to my moped. So I thought on my last day I had survived some possible difficulties as I leave my hotel. I ask for my passport back from the owner because I had been cautious enough to ask him to put it in their safe. Aun, the owner, gives it to me and I go on to catch my boat and then the airport where I have a few hours to kill before my flight. I go to check my stuff in and present my passport and the airline person says this is not you and I look at it and its E.J. who is an ex-paratrooper from Saratoga Springs N.Y. who was staying at the hotel. So then it becomes a mad scramble to reach the hotel on the other island and hopefully recover my passport in time for the flight. At first I was unable to reach anyone at the hotel and I begin to think this will screw up my next days flight to Hong Kong etc. Then I remember "Breathe deeply and relax " and eventually it did work out. I contact the hotel and Aun agrees to bring it as he is very apologetic. Of course I have another customer's passport which I am sure they would not appreciate knowing it was on another island. Aun has to take a speedboat over stormy waters to bring it to me and he makes it in about an hour before my flight. So my time on the islands ends with a jarring event and I am able to leave unscathed.
It is not to say I did not commit any faux pas. One being one day I look up in the hotel and I see a picture of a man and woman, he has on a pair of dark, small, round sunglasses and she has a 1920's ironed looking haircut. It looks like it was taken at least 60 years ago but I just say spontaneously to Auna the co-owner "Oh is that a picture of you" meaning to be flattering although I know the picture is dated. She gives me a strange look and responds "No its the King and Queen!?!". Auna is offended I would compare the Queen to her a mere commoner. The King is very popular and there are pictures of him everywhere except they are usually more formal and at a later age. He's in his eighties. You can never ever say anything negative about the royalty. I have to be careful when I am trying to be nice.

In Ko Phangan

Well I have been on the island for seven days now and so I return to Bangkok this evening and then on to Hong Kong tomorrow. I liked the snorkeling so much I decided to take an introduction to scuba diving. I had to learn some basics and take a short quiz before I got into the water with Dik my instructor from Holland. He was a good teacher. He did not mind repeating things especially since I could not have my hearing aid on in the water. We went over some basic skills: how to descend, equalize etc before we proceeded into shallow water and then into about 27 ft of water eventually. It is so much better than snorkeling because you are really amongst the fish as you can do while snorkeling if you dive down for a minute or so. The coral was amazing and I saw many schools of fish and other marine life. I am glad I did it because now I know I would like to get certified in this area when I get back to Canada. My training here counts towards my certification in scuba diving. It has been raining here but it tends to rain and then clear and then rain again. The locals are commenting how this is unusal this time of year because generally the weather is less unsettled. As a result the water is not as clear as it normally is but it is still unworldly under water. I am just about to do some more snorkeling before I leave this afternoon so I will sign off for now.

On to Thailand

I arrived at Bangkok late on Sunday evening after travelling to Hong Kong from Guangzhou by train. The train ride was pleasant. The train ride was smooth and without event. I looked out the window and I could see all the various factories and apartment buildings between these 2 major cities. The pollution is quite bad in Guangzhou, worse than it was in Manila. In Manila it is caused by the traffic. In Guangzhou it is caused by traffic but also all the factories which are manufacturing products for the whole world. I got sinus problems after about 5 days there and it persisted until I got on the island. Shirley has had it since November and felt some relief when she got to Manila. I got to Bangkok late and got a room at Maxim Inn. I was not too crazy about the hotel or the area so I moved the next day to another area where many backpackers go and so the hotel are less expensive but my room was better. The hotel had a small pool and there was a variety of people staying there. I met Nick a young German who told me about Ko Phangan an island right next to Ko Samui but is less commercialized. So I made plane flight arrangements and tentative hotel plans. I proceeded to Wat Po a Buddhist shrine which hosts the Reclining Buddha which is 150 long and 45 ft high and it really is the Buddha reclining. Quite a different religious connotation from someone hanging on a cross. I took lots of pictures but the art work and buildings are amazing. I decided to get a picture of myself here and recalling my picture taking in Newfoundland where I had come across an iceberg without a camera and got a couple to take my picture after I took theirs and then asked them if they would take a picture of me and send it to me. Which they did. So I ask this couple if they would take my picture and they did and then I offered to take theirs. I detected a German accent and mentioned my name is Schumacher and I am of German descent. I do this with the many Germans I have met in Philippines, China, and now Thailand. He responded with my name is Schumacher too! He proceeds to take out his id to prove it. We have a good laugh and we take some more pictures of us shaking hands. Him and his girlfriend Ulma had a good sense of humour and so we went off to dinner and drank beer like good Germans or something like that.
The next day I flew to Ko Samui and then took a boat to Ko Phangan which is a smaller less commercial island. Everyone rides mopeds and many people are into diving or snorkelling which I do. I went out on a combined snorkelling and diving boat trip and the first place was not a good site. Poor visibilibity and not much coral or fish to see. The second site was great and I spent 1.5 hours snorkelling around. Schools of fish, a wide variety of fish, a beautiful coral. I had a little adventure when I noticed a fish caught in an old abandoned fish net. I tried to free with another snorkeler by tugging on the net. I saw its snout stuck and so as tried to push it out I poked my finger into a spine sticking out and cut my finger plus it stung like a bee sting. The fish was freed and I forgot about the hurt. It was an intereting day. I met people from Switzerland, Belgium, England, Greece, and of course lots of Germans. I got to know Joseph then a bit and more later because he is in the room next to me. He is a Swiss baker who moved to New Zealand 26 years ago and recently sold the bakery he and his wife ran for 26 years. He has an extra house he rents to tourists throughout the year. So now I have a place to go if I go to New Zealand which I have heard many great things about.
Yesterday I hiked up to the highest point on the island and went to a huge beach party here. Today it rained most of the day so here I am on the blog. I was waiting for a day like this.

Visiting Yi's family in Forshan

I keep posting because it continues to rain here and I am concerned I am going to lose what I have written. The meal was great and it was topped off by numerous toast of Hennessey Cognac. Yi's family were as helpful, welcoming, and gracious as he is. I learned Gon Bai which is probably spelled wrong but means delicious in Cantonese. We made our way back to Guangzhou that evening as I had to be up the next day to leave China via Hong Kong to Thailand my next destination for 8 days. My working time had come to an end after 7 weeks and now I would be on my own and on vacation for the next 3 weeks in Thailand and then again in China. I have been fortunate to have had such wonderful hosts for my time in the Philippines and China. It will be interesting to see what it will be like on my own without people looking out for my needs.

More on Guangzhou

It was interesting in Guangzhou because I spent a fair amount of time with Harold who spoke fluent Mandarin. He has been in China close to 27 years in the last 34 years mostly teaching English but also working for a few years as a translator for a Chinese manufacturer in addition to being the Director of the CIIP office in Guangzhou. I spent this week teaching so I did not get to counsel or really even see any of the Chinese clients who use this service. When I was walking around with him we went to the shoemaker and the seamstress who were both set up on the street. I got a new zippern installed on my fleece jacket for less than $3. You can see by the pictures that there is a mixture of the old and new in Guangzhou. Over the course of the week I got to see a lot of the city although at first I just got familiar with the area I was living in. A little further to the east of my hotel when I was out for a walk I discovered it was a combination of Middle Eastern and African cultures. As a result there were ethnic restaurants catering to the groups. This is a big city and it attracts people from around the world. Guangzhou and other cities between here and Hong Kong are the major manufacturers of the products being sold through Walmart and practically everything else that is manufactured. There is a lot of building going on here. The second day I was here Harold and I went to Shamian Island which is really a few small bridges off the mainland but a world of difference. It is very colonial style buildings built at the turn of the century by mostly the British. Very lush and somewhat quiet compared to the rest of the city. At the Starbucks I noticed many North American couples with Chinese babies. At the White Swan hotel many couples coming to China to adopt do it here. I must have seen 50 or 60 couples walking around with their new babies. All girls of course because with the one child per couple policy the girls are given up with the hopes of getting a boy. As a result there are too many young men around which is one of the reasons Yi is planning on immigrating to Canada. He had spent 3 years at St. Mary's University in Halifax, the same school as my niece Lindsey. He loved it there and although he is an only child he plans to emigrate.
The other really interesting thing I did in Guangzhou was go to Yi's family home in Forshan which is about 30 miles from Guangzhou. I got to see a traditional Chinese village where many of the buildings were over 100 years old. This is not like some of the ancient places I will see in China in the coming weeks but it was interesting to see there lifestyle. You could see the hole for the wok in the stone stove which could be seen when you went into the small kitchen. The houses were very close together. We also went to Yi's high school which looked like a small university with about 4,000 students and residences for the students who came from out of town. It was a public high school. The students were out playing sports and so Iwent over and borrowed some paddles and played ping pong on an outdoor court. I had to play ping pong in China! We then went to his parents home which was quite beautiful. It is located in a gated community and there is a nice hotel visitors can stay at. The house was very large, 4 stories with marble floors and balconies on each floor. You can see by the pictures which hopefully get posted how green and pleasant the surroundings are. They had large pools with the colourful Choi fish in them. These are expensive Carp fish which are good luck for the Chinese. We had a great dinner of Peking duck, chicken, and tofu.

Guanzhou, China home to 10 million people

I spent March 1 to 8 in Guangzhou. I went to the Guandong International Hotel for my lodgings. A much different hotel from the Somerset in Manila. This is a much larger hotel, it has 60 floors. I was on the 48th floor. The staff were friendly but not as conversant in English as the Filipino staff were. I had some funny experiences with their misinterpretation of my words. I asked them if the interned was free and they heard the word internet and put me in touch with the internet provided. Then the internet provider had to call them to ask and then called me back to let me know it was free. It was a roundabout way to get an answere. Another time I ask if I could get an ironing board and iron and they said there was none at the front desk. I go to my room and one of the housekeeping staff show up with some additional bath soap. Then I explain to her my need for an iron and a while later she comes back with it.
I had an interesting week in Guangzhou. The staff were very friendly especially Yi Liang who arranged for one of my airline tickets and invited me and the Goldins to meet his family and have dinner. The training went well and each night I was out eating. I went to a Lebanese restaurant, Italian because I wanted a traditional salad and it was the only restaurant I went to on my own. Yi, Harold, and I went to both Northern style restaurant which was quite good I had eel for the first time with eggs. It was delicious plus some duck, tofu, shrimp, and some different types of fish. We also went to Sichuan place which is spicier food and was delicious. Guangzhou which was formerly Canton is known for its cuisine. Many people commented that this area has not culture:art music etc they just love to eat. So I fell in line with the culture and ate my way through the week. We went to a Japanese place and had many different kinds of sushi which I also loved although I had only ate a little of it in Toronto. Drinking the saki probably helped. I also met a Canadian who had been teaching in China for over 20 years currently in the MBA program. I am going to publish this because it is raining in Ko Phangan and the power has gone out about 8 times today.