Your Guide to All Things Disneyland Hong Kong
You have to try Xiaolongbao!
The Bike Shop |
Early last week I was riding around doing some HR work for campus. Let’s just say the hiring process has been quite the nightmare. It caused me to first miss flying with my family to China, and then wait an extra few weeks just to get there. I don’t think this is a “China” thing; I’m pretty sure its just a “my work” thing. There are a lot of hoops that you have to jump through to be hired in a foreign country, with work permit and visa requirements; then there’s the general onboarding process at your job that you’re probably familiar with as well.
Xiaolongbao |
Waiting on my dang soup dumplings. |
Finished off the dumplings even though they had NO SOUP FOR YOU. |
Do you have Xialongbao? No? Okay. |
The corn dumpling place. |
Steaming the wrong dumplings at home. |
Great Success! |
Pic Dump –
A Maserati for the bride and groom. |
Fruit Hat Kid |
T-Shirt Chinglish |
Coffee Mug Chinglish |
No Clue |
Recess |
Storm Chaser |
Some Green Screen action |
Logan had a friend sleep over. |
No Xiaolongbao at China BK. |
Menu Chinglish |
Star Student of the Week! |
This is How You Ride Dirty in China
Possum on a gum bush! It gets really hot here. You know the saying – “Its not the heat, it’s the humidity”? Well that’s the dang truth here in China. Seriously, just a quick jaunt down the block to the store and we’re soaking wet with perspiration. I suppose it counts as a workout though so I am not complaining.
Thankfully we don’t have to walk around the hood as much anymore because I have an e-bike. Oh, and a scooter. Well, one and a half scooters, because one of them doesn’t fully work – yet. Ok, let’s tackle the e-bike first. In China, E-Bikes or Electronic Bikes are everywhere.
If you’re confused on what I’m talking about – here is an example of mine –
My E-Bike is kind of like a scooter, but also a bicycle. I use the term bicycle loosely, as pedaling it is basically a last resort and not an easy task. It has a top speed of about 18 mph and can get me about 15 miles or so before I need to charge it. You may be asking, “Rob, how do I get one of these E-Bikes?” Well, I’ll tell you. Last week (or was it the week before?) I talked about all those crazy websites you can order stuff from here in China. Well that’s what I did. After some creative searching, I found the E-Bike I was looking for. Best thing about this thing – dirt cheap. On Amazon in the states, E-Bikes can easily cost around $1000 bucks. Here in China? Less than $200. I have no idea if they are good quality or not, but mine seems to support all of me just fine and doesn’t feel like it’s about to fall apart or is cheaply made. This is a work purchase though, not just some fun gadget!
Alanna has free transportation to her job. I, on the other hand, was left to fend for my own. I had options – ride the over-crowded bus, get a cheap taxi, or a private “Uber” like car to take me to and from work every day. I didn’t like any of those ideas as they involved me paying money to someone every day and also relying on them to be on time and ready to go. So I went with the other option – get an E-Bike. The good news again – they are dirt cheap. The bad news? They are technically illegal. You aren’t supposed to be driving them on the roads but everyone and their mother does, so why not me? Most people say that the authorities don’t really enforce this law, so I’m taking my chances. The worst they will probably do is just take it away from me. But I pass by police all the time on the thing and they haven’t even batted an eye at me so far. So yeah, I’m Ridin’ Dirty in China.
Yes, I know riding dirty actually means having illegal drugs and paraphernalia in your vehicle. No, I don’t have drugs in my vehicle.
The bike took a bit of getting use to – as it is NOT great going fast over neighborhood speed bumps.
She’s fine, don’t worry! But now I know how to handle a speed bump and will be getting a little kid seat to strap her in better behind me.
Did I mention we have scooters too? Like, electric scooters, not unlike the ones you can rent and drive around in the cities. You know, these things –
Did I mention the scooters were free of charge? A bad break up is my gain. No, not me and Alanna. Calm down. A co-worker of mine had enough of her man, so they parted ways. He left quite a few things behind. She was nice and waited and waited for him to claim the items he left, but alas, he did not. So she offered them to me! Two scooters – one that works perfectly fine and the other, that needs a little engine/motherboard repair I think. There is a shop in town that will fix it for me for cheap, but I’m in no rush. While these things aren’t as practical as the e-bike for longer trips, they are really good for zooming around our local area. Even Alanna has ridden one! And that’s saying a LOT. Top speed on ours is about 15 mph. I haven’t tested how long the battery lasts because we don’t go long distance with the scooter and it gets plugged in when you get home. But it is a nice addition. So, in summary, now I’m riding e-bikes and scooters in China. Oh, one more thing of note from that break up – ranch dressing. China doesn’t do ranch dressing. I know, I know, how could I move here? Well the ex-boyfriend left behind some bottles, one even unopened. And now they are mine.
Ok, now that I’ve bored you to death with stories of e-bikes and ranch, here is the week that was. Last week was a short work week for us as the weekend was the Mid-Autumn Festival. So we had Friday off, giving us a three day weekend. The holiday is kind of like Thanksgiving in that it is meant to be a celebration of a successful harvest and a time to spend with family eating together. They serve a special pastry during this time called Mooncakes.
You may have already heard of it. I had not. Mooncakes are a Chinese pastry that can be filled with all kinds of interesting things. Yes, you can have some filled with normal ingredients like chocolate or pineapple, but many of them are also filled with stuff like corn, green pea paste, red bean paste, lotus seeds, various other fruits and vegetables, pork, seafood, cheese, green tea and ice cream. Because they are a holiday treat, they are quite a bit more expensive than your regular run of the mill pastry. Be that as it may, and because last week there was a teacher appreciation day, both Alanna and I received a box of various flavors of mooncakes. I’m pretty sure I tried ones with corn, green peas, pineapple and red beans. While I found some of them to be mostly edible, many of them were not very tasty at all (I’m looking at you Green Pea Mooncake)! But hey, when in China.
This past Friday was not only a national holiday, but also my birthday. Which was also Friday the 13th. I’ve never gotten bent out of shape when my day of birth falls on the unluckiest (especially at Crystal Lake) of days. Although – my 21st birthday – was on Friday the 13th – and Tupac died that day. He’s still alive though – on an island with Elvis and JFK.
Don’t worry, its not King’s typical scary stuff if that’s not you cup of tea.
Where was I? Oh yes, my birthday. My wife works on an island. Yes, you read that right. How cool is that? It’s a literal island. There is a bridge that connects it to the mainland so no boat is required. We hadn’t had the chance to really explore her island, so we decided to take on a little bit of it for my birthday. First stop? A go-kart track. I heard about this spot through the grapevine and, if you know me, I’ll do anything once. We took a ride over the bridge early Friday morning and soon pulled up at the track. It looked… closed? Abandoned? A scene from the Walking Dead?
Some dude walking by told our driver that it was indeed open, so we headed up the steps and followed the signs. No one was there, other than a handful of employees and us. Granted, it was morning and they had just opened up but still, I’m not sure how this place stays in business. We found a ticket window and a price list. The karts came in two different varieties – 100cc and 150cc. I know nothing about cc, other than my time spent playing Mario Kart. The only thing I know is that 150cc is more powerful and faster than 100cc so that’s what I chose. Good news – the 150cc kart requirement means you have to wear a racing suit, racing mask, a helmet and gloves.
Pretty cool , right? The bad news – the 150cc kart requirement means you have to wear a racing suit, racing mask, yadda, yadda yadda… it was really hot in that thing. Once suited up, they took me out to the track and put me in a kart, which didn’t fit. No, this is not a fat joke. It’s a height joke. I was too tall. My knees were in the way when I tried to turn the wheel. I got a deeper kart and I was all set to go. Alanna? Nope, she wasn’t having it. She would have tried it if I really wanted her to, but it’s not really her thing. So I didn’t make her try it, in hopes she won’t make me try some dumb romantic comedy down the road. Abby was too short. (They had a pencil mark on a wall. You had to be above that.) Logan was tall enough but had no desire to almost kill himself on a track with absolutely zero safety regulations. He’s obviously the smartest one in the family.
The ride though was a blast. I got to speed around the track for 10 minutes, all alone, doing whatever the heck I wanted. The kart was surprisingly very fast and responsive. The track was a typical road course with all kinds of crazy turns, and like I said, no safety regulations. If you didn’t watch your speed or brake properly, you could easily sail off the course and into a tree. But I used my best Mario Kart skills and did just fine.
The kart would actually drift in some turns and would really pick up quite a lot of speed in the straightaways. All in all, it was a blast and I’m so glad I got to do something high energy on my birthday. I also lost 10 lbs in that racing suit.
Our next stop was a bicycle cart rental place. And when I mean bicycle cart I mean this –
Alanna and I did all the pedaling, as Abby was too short to reach the pedals and Logan’s feet didn’t touch them enough to actually do anything useful. We pedaled away from kart track and headed into the small historical town on the island. And you may have guessed – four white people + a kart bicycle thing = unrelenting stares from the local population. I think we’re sort of getting used to it, but I don’t think it will ever be something we don’t notice happening. The town was very old school China, with stone walls, merchants selling stuff everywhere, and even a Buddhist temple.
Alanna and I bought bananas for the kids and a coconut for ourselves, cause it was the tourist thing to do. The merchant chopped, carved and drilled a hole (with an actual electric drill) in our coconut and provided us with two straws. Yes, we got the picture of us drinking it, but it tasted like luke warm sour milk, so let’s just say we didn’t finish the thing once we were far out of the merchant’s sight.
We finished our island trip with a stop at a beach. Umm… bad idea. This beach here was… err… nasty. I am 99.9% sure that the stream of “water” coming out of the wall and spilling into ocean was raw sewage. The smell and the chunks (sorry TMI) gave it away. The kids went further down the beach and stuck their feet in the water. I did not, because you know, Ebola. The beach was also pretty littered with trash. To be fair, it’s not the ocean at this spot – its really a large sea that is mostly used for fishing. So no big waves or crystal clear water – mostly just trash and poop.
Later on that Friday evening, we took a trip down south to a place called the London Longue. We were hoping for some good international food. Translation – burgers, fries, stuff the kids would like. While the place had a nice atmosphere, and did have mostly non-Chinese menu choices, it was clear the food was “from” China. It tasted fine, but unfortunately didn’t taste any different than the selections we could get anywhere else. Not a bad place and I would still give it a good Google review, but it wasn’t the taste from home we were hoping for. One huge bright spot – we found out my amazing and challenging ten year old son can add mozzarella sticks to the short list of five or six things he’ll actually eat in life.
Speaking of a taste from home – Saturday night one of my co-workers hosted a Taco night. Now this tasted like home. Not that my home is Mexico, but you get the idea. It was potluck, so I made some kind of Mexican rice… thing… which turned out alright. We had tacos, bean dip, guacamole and I wore my Adios Pantalones t-shirt to fit the theme of the evening. I got to introduce my wife to my colleagues and eat tacos. Good times!
Ok, picture dump to follow, but for now…
This Chinese kid wanted me to take a selfie with him. |
China doesn’t sleep
Translated sign above a urinal |
Medical Report |
Two Typhoons heading to China. |
- Logan lost two teeth in one day, then another one the following day. The Chinese Tooth Fairy worked overtime this week. Abby also has her first loose tooth, but it may be awhile before that one comes out.
- I ordered an Electric Bike. Think of a cross between a bicycle and a scooter. More on that when it arrives.
- Yes, I did indeed try Grilled Eel flavored Lay’s Potato Chips. There are more weird flavors as well. I plan on trying to eat as many weird unusual things as I possibly can, all while trying to maintain some sort of diet.
- I was almost late to work one morning this week. I took the bus, cause I’m trying to adapt to the culture or something like that. When the bus pulled out in the morning, it was about 99% full. Then 10 people got on. They were hanging out the doors. I chose to stay behind and wait on the next bus, which came 10 minutes later. It was only 98% full, so I was able to squeeze in while everyone stared at the bearded white man.
- Daddy likes steak. So Abby likes steak. She wants some whenever I ate it. She had some at school the other day. It looked like steak, so Mommy told her it was steak. It was, in fact, duck, which is pretty common here. She was none the wiser so we ran with it.
- All apartments are not equal. Ours is really nice, I’m not going to complain. But… you are at the mercy of what people leave behind for you who lived there previously. Ours was good. We have a comfy couch, beds, TVs, all the bells and whistles. One of our teacher couple friends? They got a piano and a massage chair. I’m just saying…
- They have a nice gym at our complex, complete with all the bells and whistles. I joined the other day. Only problem? No AC. At all. And it’s close to 100 here and the humidity is off the chart. The Chinese must think Americans are sweaty pigs because that’s exactly what I look like after I finish a workout.
- We visited an IKEA here. It’s pretty much the same as in the States, just more Chinese. The hotdogs are not as good I am saddened to report. The instructions on how to put that stuff together is still just as confusing.
Pineapple Dragon Bus |
Menu Translation |
My Name… in an elevator |
Chinese students at work |
My path to work |
Sunsets aren’t too shabby |
Building translation |
You can order this… |
First Week in China
- We get stared at everywhere we go. Alanna thinks it’s my beard. But our kids get looks too. 99.9% of the peeps here are Chinese. So us crazy looking white folk stick out like sore thumbs. Even babies stare at us. One kid ran away from his Mom just to come to have a better look.
- We aren’t supposed to flush our toilet paper in our apartment. So… when we do our business, the spent TP goes into the trash can. Thankfully the Ayi cleans that up.
- China’s landscape is gorgeous. I mean GORGEOUS. We’re in a coastal area that also is surrounded by mountains. The forests are lush and green. And there are islands all over the sea.
- The internet is blocked by the great firewall. To get to anything remotely American, you need a VPN.
- Have you ever seen all those sites where there are badly translated English sayings on t-shirts? Those are real. They are hilarious. They are all over the place.
- Driving here is a little crazy. They just get so close, pull out in front of you, and generally don’t obey any laws known to mankind.
- We’re in the future here. We’re 12 hours ahead of east coast, USA. So when you’re awake, I’m usually sleeping.
The View from the 17th Floor
Here we go again!
Possessions > Experiences to Experiences > Possessions.
Lazy much?
Our “spring break” was in February. I guess its not really a spring break when the weather is always amazing though. But it was a break and we took full advantage of it. The first part of the break we flew to Iowa. You know, corn, snow, corn. As most of you know, we’ve decided to move back to the States to get Logan into some special education programs. There really isn’t anything here for him and its become a very difficult struggle for both him and us. Thankfully, Alanna had quite a few options of the WHERE when we moved back to the States. Choices ranged from California, NC, SC, to… Iowa. Iowa you say? Yes, Iowa. Iowa offered Alanna the chance to become a first time principal. The tiny little town offered to fly us there so Alanna could have a formal interview (she’d already WOWed them on Skype) and so they could meet us, we could meet them. There was a foot of snow on the ground when we got there. That was quite a shock after it being 70 degrees every day for 6 months. I think both Alanna and fell in love with the idea of “Iowa” pretty quickly – low cost of living, family friendly, small community, it seemed like a nice fit for us. And a chance to hopefully settle down for a good while. Long story short, Alanna accepted and we’ll be moving to Iowa July 1st. So that means a new job for me. I’ve been on the hunt, but thankfully our finances means I don’t have to rush.
We flew back to Ecuador after the weekend and prepared for part 2 of our break – The Galapagos. They are actually a part of Ecuador, a few hours off the coast. The islands are on many, many people’s bucket lists, so it was kind of silly for us not to go since we were so close. Again, Alanna did most of the planning, and found us a cheap 2 bedroom apartment on the main island to rent for a week. The trip was simply amazing. You really feel like you’re in the wildest, broadest habitat you’ve ever seen. The wildlife and plant life was a sight to behold. Everywhere you turned, there was a lizard you’d never seen, or a flower you’d never heard of, or a sea lion sleeping on a park bench. And it was nice to be in a place that’s 90 degrees when most of your friends are back in the States having the worst winter ever. We didn’t do as much as other adventurous tourists did, as we had the little ones with us, but we did hike in lava caves, see giant turtles, swim with iguanas, ate traditional food, had a sunset view on our terrace, watched a daughter become a local celebrity, and a ton of other really cool things I can’t remember. Its a week I’ll never forget and to get to spend it with my family made it all the more sweeter.
The last two months have been pretty tame compared to our previous adventures. Even in Ecuador, its easy to settle into day to day life. I work, Alanna takes care of the kids, and the house, all while getting her doctorate. No idea how she does it. Last weekend was Easter though, so we made it a point to get out of the house for the day. The Equator which runs through Ecuador is only about an hour north of where we live. Its a popular tourist attraction for gringos and locals alike, so we left early Saturday morning to visit the center line of Earth. It was hot, but not too crowded. There’s a long yellow line that denotes the Equator, that runs through a giant monument. Lot’s of people take pics of their feet on each side of the line. We did the campy photos of course. I even tried to sit Abby down on the line but she immediately started crying, which will make a great picture for her when she’s older. Abby again became the talk of the town though. Ecuadorians flock to her. A beautiful, pale skinned, blue eyed baby is very rare to see down here, and people always stop us to gawk at her. They talk about how pretty she is, how chubby she is, how beautiful her eyes are. Then they ask to hold her. Then they ask to take pictures with her. Yes, at the Equator, where people should be taking pics of themselves, we had more than one group of people ask to specifically take pictures with Abby. The father in me hopes she’s not this pretty when she’s 16. I will have to stomp a mudhole in some boys. Anyway, we had a great time there. They had a big village full of tourist gifts, and there was music and dancing to keep us entertained. So check that off the list.
Now we’re about a month out from leaving. We’re flying to Miami on June 1st, driving up the coast, hanging on the beach of a few days, then family hopping for the rest of month in NC. I’ll miss this country, but I’m ready for the next step, whatever that’s going to be.
Okay, here are some pictures to keep your eyes entertained…
feliz año nuevo
I haven’t blogged in quite a while. I decided that for the entire month of December I would take a social media break. It was a culmination of many things – most of which were just annoying things that people post on these kind of sites. So on December 1st I removed all my social media favorites from Chrome and my phone and promised myself I wouldn’t look at any of them for the entire month. Let me tell you, it was great. Sure, I missed wishing people happy birthday and seeing what my friends around the world were up to, but that was about it. Here are some things I did NOT miss –
Political arguments
President bashing
Other party bashing
Healthcare debates
Bitstrips
Hashtags
Instagram pictures of people stuff copied and pasted from the internet
People talking about last night’s episode
Ducky Dynasty
App invites
Status updates that talk about what mundane thing you did
People posting about privacy issues
People posting about drones
Drunk NYE pictures
There are plenty more, and most of these I do mean in jest, but honestly… it was a lovely break.
On the Ecuador..
We’re still living and loving this country. I gave up on my scooter dream when we figured we’d save more money by not buying one and me just taking taxis to and from work every day. I did buy a bicycle though. I bought it off an Ebay type of site in Ecuador and they even delivered it to my house, the next day. Trouble is, while the back looked assembled and ready to go, you are supposed to tighten every single bolt and screw down before you go out riding. People usually buy the bike, take it to a bike shop and have a guy tune it up before they ride. So I got home from work that night and took it out immediately for a spin and… broke some stuff. One of the guards of my complex was nice enough though to take my bike to a shop and get ti fixed and tuned up for me. So the next day I was out riding like I was supposed to. There is an awesome bike/walk/run trail that runs some 20 kilometers and has a few geocaches to boot. I’ve only made it about 5K so far, but it’s fun, relaxing and gets me moving on my own without a taxi.
Work is fine, but I was happy to have a Christmas break. We celebrated a low key Christmas day. Logan enjoyed opening his presents and then thankfully enjoyed playing with them for most of the day. We got out of town on the 26th and headed down south to Banos (yes, bathroom). It’s an awesome touristy, gringo town with hot baths and a bunch of waterfalls, and all kinds of other stuff. It’s a 4 hour trip down to Banos, so I convinced Alanna that it would be good to take a $3.50 bus round trip. The buses around here are a bit crazy… to put it mildly. Alanna was REALLY worried and nervous, but thankfully the bus ride was uneventful for the most part, and our children were well behaved. And by well behaved, I mean that Logan didn’t have a pee or poop emergency.
Banos was amazing. Alanna did all the planning, cause that’s what she does. She booked a gorgeous, American family-run hostal. It was 3 blocks from one of the waterfalls, and we got free breakfast every morning. And the shower water was hot… which is a rare treat here. There were a few things in Banos I HAD to do. One was the swing at the edge of the world. Its a large, old tree house with a simple swing attached to it… that… if you swing out on it you swing off and over a cliff. Very thrilling. We had a taxi drive us up the mountain to the spot, then we preceded to hike up a wet hill with a 4 year old and a baby. Alanna was a little nervous. There were a few people already there when we made it to the top. We waited our turn, took some pictures in front of the tree house, then I jumped on the swing and Alanna nervously snapped some cool pics. Then… ALANNA DID IT. Ok, I basically made her to it, but she’ll tell you it was a blast and is glad she did it. Overall cool family adventure experience. We hiked back down the hill, getting some help from an Ecuadorian dude, then took the taxi down and then up to Bella Vista. Its basically a nice view point spot that overlooks Banos. GREAT VIEW. And there was a geocache nearby so I snagged it.
The second thing our my to do list was to go puenting. Its basically jumping off a really high bridge with a rope attached to you. No, its not bungee jumping. It is literally just a rope. You jump, then swing under the bridge, then get lowered down to the ground. So I had the taxi drop me off at the bridge (Alanna was too nervous to watch.) and headed out to the middle. I watched a few people jump and then paid my $20 to do it. Being a skydiver, I paid close attention to the harness and rigging they put me in, and the stuff looked pretty safe. I climbed over the rail of the bridge, stood on a tiny little wooden platform, counted to 3, then dove head first off towards a river 200 meters below. While it doesn’t give the same rush as skydiving, it was still really fun and I’m glad I did it.
The rest of our vacation we spent relaxing, eating and doing the touristy stuff. Banos is known for their hot baths so we had to give that a try. It was mediocre. The one we went to looked like a giant community pool. The water was warm enough, but sort of smelled like pee and they made you wear shower caps. But again, it was an experience.
The bus ride back, as with coming back from anywhere seemed to take forever. The driver pulled over at one point at a garage and decided it was time for an oil filter change. The engine was basically under the front row of seats, you know… where we were sitting. So they lifted up a door under us and got to work. Alanna was a little nervous. But they finished quickly enough and we were back on the road. We made it home and spent the last few days doing… nothing. Which I was more than happy about. Yesterday, we went over to a friend’s house and swam in their heated pool. Logan had a blast and actually let me throw him in the pool a few times, which I think is a huge step for him. It was Abby’s first time in a pool so we made sure to snap some pics. Last night was low key again for us, though Ecuador is CRAZY about New Years. Firstly, some men dress up like women, widows or something and beg for money by stopping cars in the middle of the street. Also, the locals make these paper mache dolls and then burn them at midnight. It is supposed to symbolize the getting rid of the old stuff from last year. Also, they eat 12 grapes at midnight to bring them good luck for each month of the new year. And finally.. the fireworks. You know how you see one show of fireworks somewhere on NYE? Well I’m pretty sure everyone in Ecuador had fireworks last night. They started around 8pm and didn’t stop until 2am. I gave Alanna some lip locking at midnight and then quickly made my way up to the roof. No matter where I looked for 360 degrees, I could see fireworks going off. It was pretty dang impressive. And it was neat to look down at the street and see people burning a bunch of paper mache figures.
OK, so now you’re all caught up. Happy New Year to you and yours.
And some pics…. in no particular order…