The title of this blog came from my international musical experience through the Northwest Airlines (NWA to those in the know) "radio station". Yes, I listened to music from all over the world groups like "Asia" who lent us the title and Europe (Final Countdown from the "Rock Classics" station). I must say there is only one way to make a 24 hour day of flight better -- and it is simply by having 80's synthezizer choruses stuck in your brain.
Final Days
The rest of the work week was relatively predictable. Breakfast became less and less adventurous where in the beginning if I couldn't tell what it was -- I would try to eat it. Later in the trip, I was eating simply scrambled eggs, toast and papaya (with tea) -- and staring hard at the Cocoa Pebbles too afraid of the milk to make a move. I have made a note that my next trip to Asia will include powdered milk. I am sure you have the image of me smuggling contraband cocoa pebbles in my pocket, sneaking back to the room to enjoy the blissful hints of chocolate left in the safe to drink American milk...
Wednesday night we were a smaller group, just Jesse, Andy and I back to Roma's Bar & Restaurant Bar (no typo, that is how the window reads) for good Italian food. As it was a very traditional Italian place, I was conflicted as to whether to get the Tacos again or the Fajitas (I went with the latter). Very good and I must say that they were the best Italian Tacos I have ever had.
After dinner, if it was legal to do so, I would tell you about the DVD dealer on the corner on the way that had movies out that were very current. The way as I understood the story, here is how it works...
- The day the movie comes out --- available on DVD by "Kramer Cam". Not that I got MI-3, but if someone had, in the first five minutes you actually see a guy get up, walk out of screen and come back with popcorn
- One week after movie is out --- someone has plugged into the sound board for better sound and has taken the time to setup the start of the DVD to allow for scene selections, etc..
- Two weeks after the movie is out -- someone has made a true copy for a complete DVD of the movie (no extra special features)
Nicole had threatened that if I did get any less than legal DVDs that her and her library-copyright-protection-posse would come down on me in a bad way. This does have me long for days when the worst thing you had to deal with from a librarian was a shush and a harsh look. Apparently now the MLS program includes some martial arts and counter-terrorism tactics.
By Thursday (note 2 business days left), the China team had warmed up enough to me to ask very detailed questions. So Thursday flew by. It was my pick for dinner Thursday night and we went to a Brazilian place (why not?) I had been to one in the US, and it was a similar deal -- gouchos (guys) come around with random meat on a stick that you can select for them to slice on your plate. In the US, it is beef, turkey, pork and usually the delicacy of chicken hearts (very good with lime). In China, it was beef, chicken, pork and camel. For the curious reader, while camels may store water in their humps, the moisture does not carry over to the meat. It was worth the taste but is not as flavorful as the soup from the foot of the hen.
Speaking of... My favorite Mandarin story was one day at lunch Andy was trying to call the waitress over (in Mandarin) only to have everyone look at him funny. Finally, one of the women at the table asked him "Why do you keep saying Chicken Feet?" This became my curse word of choice for the rest of the trip.
Friday we packed up to leave. After taking a bath in all of the bottled water I had hoarded over our two week stint, I packed everything up choosing to take pearls over tennis shoes. I almost choked on my $10,000 hotel bill -- until I realized it was for two weeks and you divide by 8 for USD. Our main trainee arranged for a special Korean meal for Jesse across town -- and it was really good. They brought out a very hot cast iron pot for each of us where the food was simmering in the bowl like a fajita. A fresh egg was simmering on top of it -- and you stirred it all up.
We only found out after this lunch was scheduled that there was another restaurant a couple of blocks from the office where if you ordered chicken they brought out the live chicken to prove it's health and freshness -- and then took it back to get it ready (and then brought the whole chicken back out). Also, there were several other animals that you could choose from, Red Lobster style, and have similarly prepared. Sorry I missed it.
Friday had us taking a border car back to Hong Kong. Crossing a border seems to be a great equalizer as all types of cars were queued up for a good distance. We got behind a very nice Ferrari. We checked into our hotel at the airport and took the train back into Hong Kong (1/2 hour) to go to Stanley Market (1/2 hour bus ride). Stanley, for future reference closes at 7 p.m. Luckily the restaurants do not. We ate at Beaches again and had pizza.
Saturday Kathy flew home and Andy, Jesse and I met relatively early (10) to take the Hydroplane ferry to Macao. Here, in a crowning moment for OCD folks everywhere -- since I always had my passport with me, I was the only one who could go... (One forgot, One didn't know). So Andy went to his hotel to get (1 hour round trip) and we were to meet Jesse at the Macao lighthouse at 3 (Jesse had a 2 1/2 hour round trip to our hotel).
Macao, it should be noted, is known for the gambling, prostituion, opium, and very nice Portuguese architecture. While we had very limited time for the first three, we did manage to get a bunch of great pictures of the architecture. It was raining (wow, rain in monsoon season, go figure). We got a tourist map at the ferry station and got around the island by pointing at the picture since my Portuguese and Cantonese is equally as strong. We started with a Buddhist temple that was pretty and it was interesting to see folks toss paper money into the fountains instead of coins. We then thought we could walk to the next point of interest on foot (based on my top ten travel guide map) and got to see several other sides of Macao not generally covered in tourist information. Once we found a street that saw some vestige of sunlight, we were able to head to the Sky Needle for a rapid lunch. We caught a taxi to the lighthouse to meet our friend, who arrived breathless at 3:45. Apparently my idea that the lighthouse must be -- (1) close to the shore which logically would be near the ferry and (2) be easy to find/get to -- was a bit off. We then toured some ruins and went to a casino to let provide one of us a chance to donate money to the locals and two of us to sit at the bar (me included). I did sneak off for a Portuguese bakery to get a local custard thing which was excellent.
Saturday night was back to Hong Kong for Italian at the wonderful backstreet restaurant that we never would have found on our own. We made it back to the hotel around midnight and I need to finish packing to leave the room by 5:30 the next morning. All part of the plan so that I could sleep on the plane.
Rounding Third and Heading for home...
The plane ride home was uneventful. I only slept one hour which made the same movies from the flight over all that more exciting. King Kong does lose something on a 5x9 screen. We arrived joltingly back through US Customs and on home no worse for the wear. Nicole, as promised, took me directly to Ted's for some well deserved "home" cooking.
Creepy
The story of the trip would not be complete without a complete rendition of this piece of "art" that I had done while I was there. I had a B&W picture of Nicole that a friend (I won't say "ex") took of her at my little sister's bridal shower. I carried this picture 1/2 way around the world where I saw a local artist doing charcoal drawings of caricatures or portraits from a picture. Through my primitive communication (pointing and grunting) we reached an agreement of 200RMB to have this done. He gave me a receipt in Chinese and told me to meet him here in 2 days. I said 3 days as I was going to be out that night. I then picked it up -- and the picture was admired by all on the square (oddly, the policeman kept following me to look at it). I then took the unframed, uncovered art back to the hotel under cover of my small umbrella (I got wet) for safety. This art was carefully hand-held to work on Friday, placed in a special area so it would not rub the charcoal. It was hand-held through border crossings, three airline exchanges and customs and hung in a locker by itself on the international flights. It also required special tower and federal approval to be hung in the pilot's area on the small flight from Detroit to Lexington as I refused to place it in the overhead compartment. All this story, this quest, this challenge I tell you -- all this to be told by Nicole that the picture is "Creepy".
It is good to be home.
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