Back Home From Hong Kong

This is a picture of the famous Bank of China building in downtown Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island.

I'm back home from Hong Kong, wishing my stay would have been longer. I was just starting to get comfortable with the city and then had to leave.

This is what the night life is like in Hong Kong, reputedly the city that never sleeps.

Nightlife in Hong Kong is simply amazing. Bright lights from signs hanging out into the road from both sides of the street, steam rising from bamboo baskets bearing Dim Sum delights, fleshy carcasses of chicken, duck, goose, monkey, dog, and whatnot hanging from hooks in large paned shop front windows, money exchange counters sandwiched between large restaurants or cell phone stores, bubbling crock pots filled with octopus shish kebabs, restaurant hackers out in the streets announcing their specials and trying to drag hungry night revelers off the street and into their places of business, brightly flashing barroom beer signs, massage parlors, reflexology centers and busy news stands.

It seems that there are more taxi's and buses in Hong Kong than there are passenger vehicles. This picture shows one of the typical scenes of taxi's lined up waiting for fares.

My accommodations at the Wang Fat Hostel in Causeway Bay were modest to say the least, but at least comfortable and affordable.

Hong Kong Island was an awesome experience, if not a bit intimidating. But, in looking back over the last couple of years and all my travels, traveling only gets easier. You just have to forge ahead and not get rattled by new scenery, loud noises, fast traffic and total chaos. I found most of the taxi drivers in Hong Kong spoke English, but if I had to sum them up, I would have to say they are rather impatient.

Several times, I opened the door of a taxi, only to be curtly told to go to the other side of the street (a system I never figured out). It seems certain areas are for taxi's only going to certain locations but damned if I could figure it out. Also, I noticed that they sit idle in one place for long periods, but when they have you as a fare, they want to get you where you have to go and they don't want you dawdling in the vehicle once they get you where you're going.

One guy was so impatient with me fishing money out of my pockets (I was trying to get rid of the heavy one, two, five and ten Hong Kong dollar coins I was amassing) that he just grabbed what I had in my hand (about fifteen Hong Kong dollars) and accepted that as a fare, when the total fare was twenty-two Hong Kong dollars. It seemed he couldn't wait to get me out of that cab.

I could have walked the streets all night long, but alas, I returned to my small, cozy, modest room at the Wang Fat Hostel on Patterson road in Causeway Bay and turned on the T.V. American Idol was on the tube with a scrolling announcement that voting was closed to Asia (no doubt, because we're a day ahead of everybody else). I watched that non-sense for a bit before finally retiring in order to make the consulate in Wan Chai in the early morning for my China visa.

Wan Chai is a different (and more expensive) world than Causeway Bay. My taxi got me there quickly, in about ten minutes and I set about trying to find the China Resources Building. It wasn't any different from other consulates I've been to. Armed guards, metal detectors, etc., until I got up to the seventh floor and saw the mob (I was only five minutes late of the opening). I was told that my downloaded visa application form wouldn't do, and was handed out another (which wasn't much different than mine).

I was given a ticket number (A60) and told to have a seat.

Looking about, I felt like I was at the United Nations or something. Looking at their passports, I identified Moroccans, Algerians, Indians, Argentineans, Brazilians, British, Germans, Nepalese, South Africans, Filipinos, Indonesians, you name it, and they were all there, waiting to get their Chinese visas. Surprisingly enough, I only saw two Americans.

I waited from 9:15 a.m. until 11:25 a.m. before finally being seen, told I could not apply for a multi-entry visa if I was claiming I was a tourist, and instructed to come back at 3:30 p.m. with $840.00 Hong Kong dollars in my hand to pick up my passport. I wiled away the hours at, embarrassingly enough, a local McDonalds, reading the South China Morning Post, strictly out of convenience.

So now, back in Guangzhou, today is a beautiful day after two weeks of monsoon rains. I would have loved to get out in the sun today but I desperately needed to spruce up my apartment a bit, open the sliding glass doors and airing the place out. I've got a new respect for mildew.

Tanka, Bala and I will be going out tonight, once again, to explore the back recesses of Xintang for its shops and exotic restaurants. I'm still not burnt out on roasted oysters and mussels, so maybe I can talk them into hitting our favorite oyster haunt. I managed to pick up Tanka's highly coveted chickpeas (which I call Garbanzo beans) while in Hong Kong, so maybe I can bribe him to stop for a dozen oysters.

I've already started the slow process of consolidating my possessions here, which isn't too difficult because I didn't bring much with me when I arrived in China and I haven't really purchased many solid goods while here. I'll be giving away my printer, my lion head goldfish Lester, and some of my books, but the rest will go in the trash or in my luggage.

Annie sent me a text message last night, telling me she's been trying to reach me since she was in Lisbon, wondering if I was screening my calls. I get a lot of complaints from friends that I never answer my home phone or my cell phone calls, which doesn't surprise me because I usually don't. I really don't like the phone much, but it is a necessity and comes in handy when I run into language barriers here, which is just about every day.

For an example, I recently found myself without the aid of my little pocket notebook, which has several needful things scribbled in Chinese, to show to taxi drivers and the like. So, I just sent a message to my faithful friend Derek and asked him to send me a text message in Chinese, telling the driver where I want to go. Simple, yet a bit complicated, no? Ha! But it works! After a brisk "Ni hao!" I hand over my mobile phone, show the driver the Chinese text and I'm on my way.

Although I've only been abroad for eight months, I know in my heart that I belong here in Asia. Maybe not China, mainly because of it's pollution and language barriers, but surely southeast Asia, where I can just fold into the beautiful landscape, get dark skin like the natives and watch the awesome sunrises and sunsets over the ocean. I've found my niche and I'm happy, although I do wish I'd done this a long time ago.

-Jeeem-

Hello Blog world!

It's me again! The jeeemeister is BAAAAAAAACK! And I'm in Hong Kong. It's so awesome to actually see my blog after eight months in the dark.

Yep, I've been to Hong Kong several times, but only to Launtau Island, to the airport. This time I'm on Hong Kong Island, trying desperately to renew my passport. My school (which is less than one year old) doesn't have any more authorization to get me an "F" visa, so they had to send me to Hong Kong for a multiple entry visa.

I just arrived here at around 2:00 p.m. this afternoon, after leaving from the China Hotel in Guangzhou by bus at 9:00 a.m. I don't care what the hell they say or advertise about three hour bus rides to Hong Kong.....it ain't true! Hell, it takes a good hour in-and-of-itself just to get through customs in Shenzhen/Hong Kong.

I've been in a light panic to get my business sewn up with the Thailand ESL agency in Bangkok, and my latest venture has been to wire 2,500 Thai Baht to the agency to take care of my work permit fees. Going to Western Union in Guangzhou is a harrowing experience to say the least and they don't speak English....what a hassle! So, I decided to do my business here in Hong Kong.

I'm on Hong Kong island, in Causeway Bay, at the Wang Fat Hostel which is widely advertised in the China Lonely Planet guide. Nice place and right in the heart of things. This city is AWESOME! So much to see that it is just mind boggling.

Anyway, my trip to the Western Union proved fruitful. I hopped into a taxi (they actually speak English here) and showed the driver where I wanted to go. Much to my surprise, he said to me, "It's close....real close," then showed me how to get there and let me out. I was dumbfounded. In Guangzhou they would have just taken me there and then charged me the 7.00 Yuan to get there.

Taxi's here are a bit more expensive, at 15.8 Hong Kong dollars for the first click and 1.40 HK thereafter. So, I'm going to enjoy doing some walking around this awesome city with it's never ending tall buildings.

It was a snap at the Western Union. Easy as pie and in ENGLISH!!! Awesome. I had a nice walk from there, rubbernecking around and exploring some of the nifty sights. Hunger pangs hitting me, I ducked into a Vietnamese restaurant and had a wonderful meal of mixed vegetable soup, rice and lemongrass porkchop.

Still used to my China experience, I spoke Mandarin to the waitress at the restaurant, who was very pleased, proceeding with a flurry of Chinese, thinking that I spoke fluently. Ha! I'm very limited, and hell, I threw over half of my twenty-six some-odd words at her!

Well, gotta run folks. I'm gonna go out on the town and check out the nightlife here. Then it's to bed early and up early in the morning so I can hit the consulate at opening time. Then I'll be heading back to Guangzhou, in time to rest up before my private lessons on Saturday in Guangzhou.

-Jeeem-

Greetings Bloggees,

Once again I've caught the Great Firewall of China with it's guard down. So, I'll catch you up on all my current happenings here, while I've got the chance.

I don't want to jump the gun here and tell all of you out there in Bloggerland that I am going to be moving to Thailand, but it sure looks that way at present. I've signed a contract with a school in southern Thailand, near the Malaysian border, which was the most lucrative one to cross my computer screen lately.

Yesterday I mailed out a package containing my signed contract, copies of my degrees, my passport photos, TEFL certificate and other documents, to arrive in Bangkok (where the hiring agency is located) in ten days. I had to act on this opportunity quickly because this position is a good one, offering 48,000 Baht to start and offering many bonuses besides the regular salary.

So, hopefully things will progress smoothly and I will be moving to southern Thailand in July.

I kicked my current girlfriend, the Cantonese doctor from Guangzhou, to the curb. She turned out to be yet another "unfaithful" one, having a French boyfriend on the side. I don't know what it is about me, having this affinity for unfaithful women. Looking back, probably the best woman I had a hold of, was Alison in New Hampshire, but my wanderlust and stupidity got in the way of that relationship.

So, my search goes on....

Presently I'm in a mild panic over my visa situation here. My visa will expire in about sixteen days and the school says they cannot provide the visa service anymore. So, I will have to travel to Hong Kong soon to do a "visa run" which involves hopping on a bus to Hong Kong at 4:30 p.m. here at the transportation center, arriving in Hong Kong around 7:30 or 8:00 p.m., getting a hotel and then heading to the Consulate Department Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (what a mouthful) the next morning, to obtain my (rather expensive) multi-entry visa via one-day processing and then traveling back to Guangzhou.

Sounds like quite the hassle, but I plan on using it as a nice opportunity to explore the night life in Hong Kong for at least one evening. I've been to Hong Kong at least three times, but only to the airport on Lantau Island. This time I'll be exploring Wan Chai. So, I'll update all of you, as to my progress, in a later blog.

My old acquaintance Sebastien, whose visa was allowed to expire by the Phoenix City Hotel where he worked, went on a visa run to Hong Kong about two weeks ago and he's been detained ever since. My Nepalese friends Tanka and Bala have informed me that Sebastien is not allowed back in China and his situation looks pretty grave. So, I'm hoping that I won't end up in a similar situation and end up deported to the U.S. It seems Sebastien will eventually be allowed to re-enter China, but only to pack his things and return to Canada.

So today I'm doing some research on visa requirements in Hong Kong. Tonight Tanka and I will be heading out to Xintang to go out to eat and maybe do a little shopping. Tomorrow I head back to Guangzhou for my private English class and then I'll meet up with the father of one of my students. Kenan is Genwa's father and a native of Syria. His English is good and he's been inviting me to the Maedah Muslim Restaurant in West Guangzhou, a place I really love.

Just walking towards the Maedah restaurant is a cultural experience. Although in China, this particular neighborhood is a resting place for many Africans, Indians, Nepalese and Middle Easterners. Once inside, the Chinese waitresses wear traditional Muslim attire and the clientelle scattered about at different tables gives the impression you're visiting some Middle Eastern country for a few hours.

The Africans often show up in brightly colored dresses and scarfs and the muslims sport various styled and colored skullcaps, which adds to the flavor of this exciting place. The conversation is a mixture of several languages, which is interesting to listen to. The food is delicious and I especially like the Lebanese flatbreads that I use to sop up the very last droppings of my flavorful plate.

Enough for now. I'm gonna be taking a closer look at this strange and harsh land in the next couple of months while I prepare for my move to the "Land of Smiles."

-Jeeem-

It's a rare instance that I am able to get on Blogger and actually make changes, and this is one of those rare instances, so I'm taking advantage of it.

First on the agenda is a hail and salute to Meg, from Mandarin Design, for doing all the wonderful work she did for me in the last six or so months. Also, a hearty welcome to Chris Allen from Belfast, Northern Ireland (alias Zebulon Mysterioso) who is now doing my posting for me.

The wonderful and mysterious Great Firewall of China is very unpredictable! I still can't read any of your wonderful blogs out there, but occasionally (like now) I can sneak in here and actually do some blogging on my own, even if I can't ever even see my own blog site.

As you can see, I'm currently reading (voraciously) "Looking At America - Memoirs of a Chinese Girl" by Kelly Cha. It's interesting to see a Chinese person's view of America when I (having grown up in America), am now living in China. Stay tuned for my comments and arguments towards Kelly's views. She's evidently living in Los Angeles now and commuting between the U.S. and China, so hopefully I can shine some current light on her interesting subjects.

The weather here is still cool. We've gone into the rainy season and the thunderstorms here make any idea I've ever had about thunderstorms, seem pitiful. The clouds move in here quickly and quite literally turn daylight into nighttime. It gets so dark here (at ten in the morning) that we have to turn on the office lights to be able to see what we're doing. The rumbling and crashing goes on for hours, not minutes, and it is other-worldly here!

I've purchased my round trip ticket for Malaysia in May, but received my passport back today from the school with a stamp that expires in just a few weeks. So, in a slight panic, I e-mailed the school Know-it-all, Ms. Fang, who handles (rather poorly) all the foreign business here, and asked her to please assure me that my visa will not exprire on the twenty-fifth of this month.

I'm still in the air as to where I'm going for next year. I've got emergency resume's out in Thailand, Singapore, Borneo, Cambodia, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and other areas of China but no news yet. So, stay tuned and I'll try like hell to update you folks as often as is humanly possible from here!

-Jeeem-

Restaurant fare, Chinese children and travel?

Since my last posting, I've added to my repertoire of restaurant hopping by visiting a Korean, Vietnamese and Chaozhou restaurant. The Vietnamese one was delicious but so expensive that my wallet is severely bruised after dabbling in duck. So, I've returned once again to my experiment-in-progress...the local Cantonese restaurant.

Here I sit at this relatively fancy Cantonese restaurant, chowing down on the simmering mutton dish, which is relatively delicious. It comes out in a clay pot, "simmering" as the name suggests, and very rich tasting. Then came the flies.

By "flies", I mean the housefly variety. Literally hundreds of them, as if summoned to my plate of food by some olfactory signal, which arose from my mutton dish.

Annoying as it was, I was on-guard with my chopsticks, waving them to and fro, cautioning any winged adversary against certain death, should they venture near my dish. But wait! Hark! While dining in this fancy establishment, I was suddenly graced with the ever-astute waitress, armed with a flyswatter. Having noticed my frantic chopstick waving, she came to my rescue.

While nibbling on my mutton, this beautiful and slim-yet highly skilled Diptera murderess whacked a fly on the window near my table, splattering fly guts in a ten-centimeter circumference on the clear windowpane, leaving a red smear on the once clean surface.
She was so proud of herself when she murdered one, that she stood right near my table, guarding the area and smashing, squashing, squishing and generally mauling the little bodies until she was squealing with delight...A wonderful appetite suppressant to say the least.


It's not the restaurants, the low prices, or the cheap travel that keeps me here. It's the kids. I'm their English teacher and for the thirty-five minutes that I have with them, twice a week, we have fun. I try my damndest to make learning a new language a fun process and the kids appreciate it.

This picture is of Sandy and I. She's one of my fourth grade kids and a good student. Last semester we opened, "Jenny's Coffee Shop" (named after the winner of a poster drawing contest for the restaurant sign), and the kids had a blast taking various "jobs" at the restaurant and practicing typical restaurant jargon. Sandy was the cashier and she took her job very seriously.

Chinese kids are awesome. They don't possess the hatefulness that I saw in children in the U.S. Sure, they tease one another and they fight, but the discipline here is the key. Problems here are dealt with swiftly and instead of punishment, they are lectured on the proper decorum expected of a proper lady or gentleman.


These children are not just smart, they are polite and they share things rather than fight over possession of something. It's a pleasure to observe. In this picture, Becky purchased a bucket of instant noodles from the food stand while we were on an outing in Shenzhen, visiting an aircraft carrier museum. She shared the bucket with four other girls. From left is: Genwa (who speaks English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Arabic), Amy, Becky, Chloe and Sandy. Jack is in the background and wanted to know why I always take pictures of the girls and not the boys.


Well Jack, although I admittedly favor the girls, I do take pictures of the boys too! This is little Ben. He is one of the happiest kids I've ever met in my life. This little boy is so glad to see me everyday that he literally chases me down when he catches a glimpse of me. He loves video games and I've armed my computer with several of them, just for him. In-between classes he visits me in the office and says quite clearly, "Let's play a video game!"


Yep, I've always been the ladies man. This is my fifth grade troupe. From left is Rose, Milly, Me, Olina, Connie and Aviva. It's interesting that not only the girls here are affectionate. Many of the Chinese boys love to hug me and cling to me. I show these kids a lot of love and affection, things that a teacher would end up in court over in the U.S. Affection is not only used here in China, it is encouraged, which I think makes a tremendous difference with the kids.


I'm heading to Malaysia! Finally, after over four years, tons of e-mail, numerous telephone conversations, recipe swapping and postal letters, Annie and I will finally meet. I am purchasing a round-trip ticket to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - leaving Guangzhou on May 1st and returning on May 7th. Annie and I will spend five days and two wake-ups together in KL and she'll be my Malaysian tour guide during that time, putting all those experiences she told me about over the years, into reality!

Annie's in Spain right now, enjoying the rewards of yet another contest she has won. She'll be in Spain for about a week and then will return to KL and face her decision to take a big job offered to her in Singapore. She's an interesting woman and one whose personality alone will take her to higher and higher places.

Well cowboys and cowgirls, it's time to sign off again. Hope you enjoy the pics! Thanks again to Meg and her blogging expertise!

-Jeeem-

Culinary expertise…





Lately my friends Tanka, Bala, Sebastien and I have been on a literal food binge. We have been eating out at numerous restaurants in Xintang, Phoenix City, Guangzhou and surrounding areas, sampling some true Chinese delights.

This picture is one of our favorite roasted oyster restaurants in Xintang. These two guys cook up oysters on the half shell roasted over an open fire with garlic and green onion and they know us well because we hit this place at least twice a week.

The food here in Guangzhou and its outlying areas is simply delicious. Cantonese, Hunan, Szechuan, Mongolian, Thai, you name it, it's all here. I've gobbled up mutton, ox, frog, eel, duck tongue, pig intestine, turtle, taro, beef heart, dog, goat, pigeon, snake, about fifty different types of mushroom, vegetables that only have Chinese names, tofu, octopus and too many other things to list here.

It is true what they say about Chinese food: They eat everything on land with four legs except a table, everything in the sky except a plane and everything in the sea except for a submarine. Some pretty weird stuff, but delicious all the same.




Yeah, yeah, yeah….you say! Okay Jeeem, enough about food! How's your love life? Well, it is finally doing rather good. After a long period of searching, I've found the (near) perfect woman. Shaoping Liang is a doctor in Guangzhou and we've been dating seriously for some time now. Shaoping is Cantonese, a long time resident of Guangzhou and a lovely woman.

I'm teaching privately in Guangzhou now, on the weekends, so Shaoping and I see each other fairly often. Right now its dinner and a movie, shopping in Tianhe district, a brisk walk along the Pearl River on Shamian Dao or catching the subway to different parts of the city. But, this coming May we're going to take a trip to Beijing to walk the Great Wall, tour the Forbidden City and take in the Beijing opera, a first for her and a repeat for me.

'


Here are my two Nepalese pals Tanka (the big guy) and Bala, who I see quite often here and who work at the local five-star hotel. Both are from Kathmandu, Nepal and working here due to the Maoist rebel problems in their home city. Being Hindu, these guys make it interesting, going out to eat with them. They don't eat pork or beef and with the local chicken flu scare, there isn't much left to the imagination.

Well, enough for now I suppose. Not too much else happening here with me but I do promise to keep the info updated and the pictures coming. Take care all of you….until next time!

-Jeeem-

If anyone out there would like to take a peek at my school's website, you can click Click Here.

The website is mostly in Mandarin but several links are in English and you can see some pictures of my kids and the teachers I work with.
Note: Jeem, this is meg. The link isn't working from here. Maybe it works from China?

Ahhh….sorry folks! I've been meaning to get to this blog and get something going but can't seem to find the time. It's funny when I think of the comparison of my life in the U.S. and life here in China. I'm a totally different person here and much busier than when I was living in the U.S.

My latest news is the purchase of a cell phone. I was one of those stalwarts who swore I'd never purchase one of the things for a variety of reasons, but life here almost demands the use of one, so I purchased a used one. Equipped with text messaging and voice capabilities, I can be reached wherever I am and can reach out and touch anyone I want.

Of late, I've picked up some extra work around Phoenix City and Guangzhou. I now do some private editing of documents, brochures, menus, price lists etcetera at the local five-star hotel here and I am also teaching privately in downtown Guangzhou on Saturdays. All this is bringing in a sizeable amount of money, which allows me a little bit more of a luxury lifestyle.

Friday night I ate at the Vienna restaurant inside the Phoenix City Hotel. Very, very plush, but not so expensive and really not all that good by Western standards. I ordered a salad with lettuce, watercress, bell pepper, cucumber, tomato, almonds and Thousand Island dressing, which was probably the highlight of my meal. My entrée was called, "The Vienna Mix," and included a pork chop, steak, veal and sausage with a mushroom gravy sauce and rice. The rice was cold, dry and lumpy. The steak was quite literally raw when cut and the "sausage" consisted of two tiny hotdogs cut in a rosette pattern. All told, dessert included (honeydew melon ice cream in a glass with watermelon and cherry tomatoes), came to 138 RMB.

"So what?" you say. Well, in my six months here in China, having eaten out at least three times a week at many varied restaurants, sidewalk cafes, barbecues and holes in the wall, I could have eaten three really delicious meals for that price and thoroughly enjoyed myself. So, although I occasionally enjoy eating out at the really fancy places, I find I much prefer eating at the little crappy, run-down, scary looking places because the food is consistently wonderful.

Yesterday, after teaching my class in Guangzhou, I met my friend Derek and we went shopping. I had my shorts repaired by a local seamstress who sewed my shorts so perfectly we almost couldn't find where they had been torn. The cost? Five RMB, which is roughly about 75 cents U.S.

We ended up eating at KFC, which was enjoyable and an interesting time just people watching. Guangzhou is like New York City on steroids. You have never seen so many people in one place in your life, I guarantee you. The first thing you do when you enter either a McDonalds or KFC is go to the counter and decide what you want to order. Then you go try and find a table. This may take you anywhere from a couple of minutes if you are lucky to upwards of half an hour. Then, your partner plants themselves in the selected spot and you go order the food. In China, you get used to eating whilst crammed next to somebody else. Privacy does not exist, as Westerners know it.

Also worthy of mention here are "lines." Here in China, the buzzword is "queue." But, just because China has a special word for getting in a line, doesn't mean they actually get in lines. They don't. When you walk into a McDonalds or KFC, it's every man, woman and child for themselves. If you are polite by Western standards, you will never get served in China. You have to learn the expertise of "politely" shoving and pushing your way to the counter to get what you want. After six months here, I am slowly becoming acclimated to this method and I'm actually less annoyed by it now.

Well, that's all for now. I promise to try and get more postings on here as soon as I can but things are a bit hectic right now. Thanks for your patience.

-Jeeem-

My pal Tanka…







Hello to all, from Guangzhou, Guangdong – China.

Thanks for visiting my site and helping to keep it alive. I especially want to thank my moderators too, for helping me to post here as the Great Firewall of China won’t even allow me to view my own blog, let alone see any of yours.

This is my friend Tanka. He is from Katmandu, Nepal and works at the five star Phoenix City hotel here. Tanka came to Guangzhou looking for better work opportunities, with his sidekick Bala, whom I will post about in another bloggy.

No, he doesn’t dress like this normally. This is the garb he has to wear while working at the hotel. Unfortunately the picture doesn’t show the curly pointed shoes he has to wear, which I always make fun of.

Tanka is a fun guy. We often go to Xingtang together with Sebastien and Bala to hit the sidewalk barbecues, shop the markets or just go sightseeing. Recently we went out for barbecue amidst the fireworks and hoopla of Chinese New Year and this is the funny scenario that transpired….

Tanka is Hindu so he is seriously limited in what he eats. At the barbecue stands are also an area where you can design your own noodle/soup bowl. The table is filled with bowl full of raw vegetables, several types of mushrooms, potatoes, bean sprouts, fried tofu…you name it. You gather what you’d like and give it to the woman to fill with water, noodles, spices and boil.

It’s delicious!

I’m up to the table gathering raw vegetables, mushrooms, fried tofu and the like for my dish, when Tanka looms over me and points to a bowl full of something that looks like congealed blood squares.

“Try these, they are good!” he says.

“They are good?” I ask.

“Yes, they are good!” he repeats.

“What do they taste like?” I ask.

“I don’t know!” Tanka says.

“Have you ever tried them?” I ask.

“No!” he says.

So I crack up laughing, looking at him with tears in my eyes and saying, “You’ve never tried them but you want ME to try them and say they are good…!!!”

Tanka just grinned his big dopey grin and laughed at me.

What a pal.

-Jeeem-

Sawatdee Khrab Thailand!

Hello Thailand!

I’ve just returned from a wonderful five day trip to Bangkok, Thailand and my head is still in a stir from the activity over the course of my stay. Bangkok is beautiful! It is clean, ultra friendly and English is widely spoken. I had a great time!



This photo was taken after the traditional Thai dancing show at the Vimanmek Golden Teakwood mansion. The Thai dancers were amazing!



Yep! That’s me alright, holding onto a rather large King Cobra at the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute and Snake Farm. I saw many poisonous snakes here, including the Monocled cobra, the Malayan pit viper, spitting cobra, banded krait, Russel’s viper, Indochinese rat snake and copperhead rat snake. We watched the King Cobra being milked and I chickened out when it came to posing with these slinky things around my neck!



Yum! The local Thai food was great! No, seriously….I DID try authentic Thai food but my GOD was it hot! It is said that one has not visited Thailand if one has not tried Tom Yum soup. So, I tried it. Good thing there was a fire extinguisher close by! It is also said that the herbal ingredients in Tom Yum soup prevent digestive tract cancer….easy to figure…the stuff must BURN the cancer out!



This trip wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to the Grand Palace and a walk along the Chaophraya River, sampling some local fare eats. This place was so beautiful and ornate. I also visited the Emerald Buddha which has to be seen to be appreciated (no pictures allowed!).

So, I loved Bangkok! I’ve applied at some schools there and am considering it along with some of my other considerations for travel such as Prague, Czech Republic – Myanmar, Vietnam, South America, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Maldives and other strange and far off places….stay tuned! I’ve only got five months left in my contract!

-Jeeem-

Phan Thiet Dragon Fruit






This is a Phan Thiet Dragon Fruit.

Pretty exotic looking eh?

Well, begin peeling this sucker and what you’ve got is a whitish fruit flesh that is run though with small, black seeds about the same size and shape of sesame seeds.

Flavor?


Don’t count on it.

Dragon fruit tastes like soft, chewy,……….NOTHING.

No flavor. Zip, nadda, nothing, absent, hasta la vista baby, departed, gonzo, vanished, defunct, non-existent.

Pretty, exotic looking, but BLAND.

Now, check this ugly sucker out!








This is a mangosteen.

This ugly, pitiful looking fruit was introduced to me by some Westerners living here in China…a name placed on it by none other than the famous, “Annie from Malaysia.” My Southeast Asian connection.

You squeeze it and if it’s ripe, It’ll crack wide open for you, revealing the white, slimy garlic shaped fruit meat inside.

Taste?


Absolutely delicious.


Go figure.


Yet another proof that judging the book by the cover never works!!!!


-Jeeem-