The Capital

So i've been to Beijing. As you know - maybe better than me - it is a
great city with a very long history and many interesting places to
visit. So you might expect an interesting story of my stay with lots
of nice pictures of what i've seen there.

Sorry, can't give you that. Business trip. I was there less than 24
hours and i didn't get to see anything interesting. Arrived late at
night, got to the hotel, some hours of sleep, then got up, Chinese
breakfast at the hotel, did another medical check, then lunch at the
hotel, and flight back. That's it. No time for nothing...
That was the third medical since i got to China. As the old man in
Johnny English says "they've taken some of my blood"... was for the
visa procedures, that's why i got to Beijing. Only came back to Shekou
on early monday morning, sleepless. Did my laundry of the week in
Zhanjiang and went to sleep. In the afternoon the office called me -
wake-up calls, you might say - and in the end it turned out they would
send me to Beijing in the evening. Three hours flight, i was really
sleepy. Managed to read about thirty pages of the book i'm currently
reading and slept for the rest of the time.
Curiously enough, the flight back took four hours. We arrived 45
minutes later than planned. Plane was smaller, maybe that's why the
flight would have been longer even according to schedule. I was less
sleepy on that flight so i managed to read more :-) oh yeah, and the
return flight made me feel packed like sardines in a can. Those seats
are designed for smaller people i guess. I fit in more or less with my
knees hardly touching the seat in front of me. But then the guy
sitting there decided to lean back his seat which also moved the whole
seat back. I had to spread my legs to fit in somehow, very
uncomfortable. And the guy in my back decided to bang his head against
my seat for the whole flight - don't ask me why, no idea.
When i got out of that plane my knees hurt, yee-haa...

So much for traveling, now i should be in Shekou for about a week.
Definitely got to return to Beijing sooner or later, on days off, to
really see it.

--
Cheers
CGA

Some more videos

Hello again. Today i finished my one-week-offshore-survival course here in Zhanjiang. Was fun. I will blog more about this week. Just to give you some impressions i uploaded several videos on youtube. Enjoy.

And since it might be that time of the year again, here's an interesting view on Dicht ins Dunkel for all Austrian readers.

The Weather

So, now for the most boring of all topics - the weather. Back in
Austria i was starting to feel a little cold, beginning of November
and all. Here i am way closer to the equatorial and the climate is a
little more tropical out of my perspective. Meaning that it's warmer
and a bit humid. I still run around with just a t-shirt. Outdoors. In
November. That is quite nice :-)
When i arrived here in the base i met three Brazilians. They're here
'on loan', i.e., just for a limited amount of time. Nice people. One
of them was about to go to a rig in the north of China. It's way
colder up there. He was not too happy about facing around zero degree
Celsius - really cold for him. So we talked about temperatures in our
home countries. He told me that even the 20 deg C were cold for him -
wow. I mean, i'm running around in a t-shirt in winter, that is warm
for me. Other background, other perspective.
All in all, about the weather: if you want to check what weather i
have right now and you don't find the reports for Shekou or Shenzhen,
just check for Hong Kong - it's the same. About 20 to 24 degree each
day since i got here. Some days a little less but then again a little
warmer. Almost too warm to physically work outside. Which, of course,
i had to do since i am a mechanic. Advanced mechanic maybe, but still.
Dull job. Definitely not what i studied for...hmmm.

So many little things and impressions that i can share with this blog.
I should blog more often not to loose them. Some more random lines:

One night we wanted to go to a Italian place near our house (i.e., in
Seaworld, the entertainment area around the ship). When we were in
front of it we lost our appetite for Italian food. Nobody eating in
there and the menu didn't look inviting. So we went for Korean food
next door. Can't recommend it. Reading the menu was the first time for
me that i saw dog food as an actual dish. Almost everything they had
was fried. We ordered one of the only things that were not listed as
fried food and a salad. Before they brought that they served us nine
little dishes with different vegetables. Nice. So, starters included.
Then they brought the salad. It was fried. Fried salad. And the main
dish turned out to be fried, too. Beef. But mainly fat, no meat. On
rice. As i've said, can't recommend it. Not planning to go there
again. Enough other choices.
I've tried another Italian place they have. Was nice. Some Penne and
Pizza. And an Irish pub. Nice atmosphere with a mixed crowd, expats
and Chinese. And a life band that seems to be part of the bar. At
least their name is painted on the wall where they play on the first
floor.

About Seaworld: I've learned that the boat there was a French
smuggler's boat that got caught. Now it has a hotel inside and several
bars. The night after the Korean food we tried the bar on top of the
boat. Löwenbräu. German name. They brew their own beer, comes in
three variations. It's niiice, i like...

Oh, and last weekend we've tried the shooting range behind the boat.
For about four Euros you get a golf club of your choice and fifty
balls. One of us could actually golf a bit and explained to us how to
hit. We were four. Was fun. Next day i had a muscle ache, of course.
Two months without sport =)

Something sweet about the local habits: it is really hard to tip them.
Anyways, everywhere you go there seem to be loads of people. So, also
loads of waitresses and waiters at each restaurant. Most of them don't
speak English. So you pay and they bring you the change. It might have
been nice and you would like to leave them a tip. So you try. To leave
some money on the table and go, just when they're not looking. No
matter how small the amount is, even if it's just three RMB, they will
come running after you. Because they think you forgot some money...
well, we tried. They're nice.

Right now i am for a week outside of Shekou, in Zhanjiang. One hour
flight from Shenzhen. On freshwater survival course. It's fun.

More will follow,

Cheers
CGA

First China pics

"The home is where the hear is i've been told...". Inside the ferry from HK to Shekou.

First lunch at work. Chicken, nuts and some vegetables, all in garlic sauce, plus rice. I didn't order cutlery, so far i was brave. You might say i'm on a chop stick diet.

In the supermarket: Hmmm, which noodles do i want, green, blue, pink, red or yellow? No idea what difference is. Of course it's written on them. In Chinese.

Advertisement on the ground.

Chinese cabbage. Hoehoe.

Germknödel. Like those Austrian yeast dumplings. But these come in different colours.

Teletubbies gone to war. Baaaad taste, tell me about it.

Chackie Chan's shampoo. Keeps your hair nice and black, according to the package. But i don't want black hair!

Chinese liquors. I guess.

They do pack a lot of different things on those bikes...

In my elevator: Keep cleaning :-)

Seaworld at night.

Night view from my new room.

Morning view from our balcony.

I now work in a country where i can drink beer for dinner. Marvellous!

Inside Walmart.

Me in front of a lot of dried and packed things.

Dried Meat.

ps: have you ever wondered what your name would be in Chinese? Try this.

Arriving in China

So i got to China last tuesday. Interesting. I finally got into a totally different culture. I took the ferry from Hong Kong to Shekou. (i'd link this to Wikipedia but that is blocked here. Aaaargh.) Ferry takes one hour, just driving along the coastline. Looking at those green hills.
At Shekou ferry port a driver was waiting. Not with my name, but with the company name. Didn't speak a word English but was very friendly. Brought me to the hotel they had booked for me. They also didn't speak English at the reception, but managed to find someone who does. Quite allright. The guy who helped me carrying my luggage up to the room also turned on the TV for me - i didn't ask, he wouldn't have understood. Chinese channels. And then he left. I just wanted to turn down the volume a little. So i got the remote. Lots of buttons. All with a Chinese character next to it, no symbols. There were only two with "up and down" options. So i assumed that one of those would be volume and for channels+-. 50% chance to get the right one. Of course i tried the channel one first. Which changed the channel of the TV. But the TV programme was coming from a satellite box. Good luck finding the button for changing back to the video input channel. Only ~35 buttons to try...

I took another night walk before i went to bed. Next to the hotel there was a public sport ground. Football, basketball, public fitness grounds etc. And: a skating ring. Old-school skating. Like you know from old American TV series. Cute.

It took them two days to get me a place in the staff house - great. Remember, back in Saudi it took eight months(!). I now live on the sixteenth floor. Next to sea world. No dolphins or anything like you might expect, they just put a real boat up on the ground and built loads of restaurants and bars in and around it. It's the top expat spot in town. So i guess it's a little more expensive. But still cheap for Middle-European standards. Flat is quite nice, living room, balcony and all. Three person flat, got an Australian flatmate who transferred here with me from Saudi. The third one might be an Indian arriving next week. We can have some nice parties at that place. And we will :-)
The flat was furnished, including the kitchen. Four plates, four soup bowls. And four Chinese soup spoons. And chop sticks. I like eating with chop sticks, but we agreed on buying some metal cutlery. So we went to WallMart to get some stuff. My first time at Walmart. Didn't get to one when i was in the states in 2004, neither during one of my many visits to Germany. Not that they're particularly special - except for some Walmart exclusive Star Wars toys, of course...
We got there with a bus for about 15 to 20 Eurocent, but having bought a couple of things we wanted to take a cab back. Of course the communication problems persisted. Try telling a Chinese cab driver you want to go to Seaworld where the McDonald's is. I was told that everyone knows that. No way they will understand you. I should have said Hai Shang Shi Jie. Obviously seaworld... which just reminds you, always, really always, have a piece of paper with you that has the name of the desired location written on it in Chinese. Always.
That time we took the bus. 20 cent instead of 1.5 Euros for a cab.
Btw, that seems to be our magical bus line. There are many buses going from our station, but that one line goes everywhere we need to go: The base, our place, the Walmart, Shenzen,...

Pics will follow with the next blog entry.

Cheers
CGA

Du Röhre

As you might have realized from my last blog entry, i now have a youtube account. For uploading videos and embedding them into this blog. I will not go into video editing or anything, just upload some quick shots if i feel it's better to take a short video instead of a photo. And since i forgot to embed it into the last post, here's one more video for you:



I know it's crappy. Just wanted to get the whole scenery into one shot. Unable to do it with one photo. But not much to see on this video.

On the road again

Hello there,

this is me, in Asia again. I traveled to Hong Kong, through Zurich. Booked a Swiss flight. Got onto an Austrian Airline machine. Interesting. Before, when i had booked AUA, i never got AUA, so Swiss is the key... anyways, just about an hour to Zurich. With a small little Do&Co meal, nice, so that's the remains of Laudaair in Austrian Arrows.

Zurich. I like that airport. Somehow futuristic. I especially like the underground train without a driver, i.e., driven by fuzzy control. Took some pictures again.
They added some screens on the side of the track, but i couldn't follow too much of that because i was just to fascinated by the front screen, i mean, the windshield. Sitting first row without a driver. Here's a video i made so you can join the excitement :-P


Flight to HK was okay. Swiss A340. Everyone's got her/his own entertainment system, a small screen and a cable remote that looks like a crossing between a SNES controller and a mobile phone. I tried one of the games and crashed the system. Hung up. And still ten hours of flight in front of me. Well, the nice flight attendants could reboot my machine without stopping all others, too.
Fortunately. So i could watch some of the movies:
Harry Potter 5: i had missed it in cinemas thanks to living in the KSA where there are no cinemas. What can i say. Still happy i didn't read any of the books. I know, the story will be better/deeper there, but still. It's so random, unconnected, feels like only kids won't notice. But still, the movies are fun. You can see that there's a lot of money put into them. They look polished and are entertaining. The end battle with loads of wizards and the camera flying around them - well, that's something i would have preferred to see on the silver screen instead of that little LCD 20cm in front of my nose in the plane. But well, at least i managed to see the movie. Airplane movies are good for catching up on what you've missed.
Then i watched the Simpsons Movie again. Niiice. Looking forward to the DVD. Till then i'll watch the season six and nine DVDs i got with me.
In the end i started watching Live free or Die Hard. Thought there was enough time. But after the first 20 minutes they cut off the entertainment system, too close to HK already. Guess i'll get the DVD of that one. Hehe, my first Die Hard DVD that might be. Maybe i'll wait for a nice box set, if that'll ever happen (there were some problems with different distributers in Europe for the first three, hence no set so far).

Anyways, arrival in Hong Kong.

This is HK airport. First person i talked to here was a nice lady who asked me to remove my baseball cap. Because they scan the temperature of your head before you go through customs. Interesting.
One of the first things i have noticed was that they drive 'on the wrong side', i.e., on the left. Heritage of being a UK colony... i'll see if that is different on Chinese mainland. But left or right, got to my hotel safe and sound.

Yet another hotel room. 21st floor, no impressive view.
Well, the lobby.
My first meal in Hong Kong. Soy and regular milk, tea and water. Interesting sizes, like 278ml packages and so forth.
Did a night walk before i went to sleep.
Now that's a skyline! My hotel is on the opposite side of Hong Kong Island.
The thing on the left looks like a concert hall. Kinda reminded me of the Sydney opera, the way it is put there in the harbour. One minute later they turned of the lights.
Street lights.
Chinese...
Hong Kong dollars. On the smalles coin you can find Elisabeth II :-)
Continental breakfast.

That's all, folks!

Dia de los Muertos

It has been said that the Viennese people have a special relationship to death. A lot of songs, "a scheene Leich" etc., come see for yourself.
What is better know in the world might be the "Dia de los Muertos" which is celebrated by Mexicans and other Latin Americans. I didn't get to see those celebrations yet. This year i wasn't even close to Latin America, but sitting in the middle of Europe. Just was at an exhibition that showed several pieces of art, all related to death in Latin America. Kinda interesting. I don't know any south americans here in Vienna, but i was invited to a morbid costume party. Some fresh(-ly rotten) impressions for you.

A dead clown. Nice.
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Murder at the buffet. Fresh heart.

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A puking pumpkin. Marvellous decorations.
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I have been told the liquid was vodka. Mainly vodka.
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Cheers
CGA