Euros in Mono

We're on a quick trip down the east side of the Sierras, and are spending the night (and tomorrow AM) in Mono Lake. Having dinner, it was impossible to miss that easily half or more of the diners were European. The Euro must be doing quite well.

Tale of Two, er, Three Flights

Get to the Shanghai Pudong airport at 10:30am June 11, check in for United 858, nice new airport terminal (Pudong Terminal 2) and nice business class lounge. Board the plane, push back.

Pilot annouces the air conditioning is broken. We sit out on a side runway. After two hours, we get towed back to the gate, and told the flight is cancelled. We have to walk back out through immigration (typical Chinese queueing, meaning, every person for themselves), get our bags (no agents to tell people exactly *where* to get them), and stand in line to be reticketed. We decide to stand in line at the ticket counter, since the sooner you get reticketed, the more options you have (overhear people calling their travel agents and rebooking while waiting to re-enter. Isn't it annoying that our new agency only has a toll free number, worthless outside the US?) While Lizette waits, I dash downstairs to get our bags to shortcut things. No news, no info, not enough agents visible (really, just one or two not behind the counter). Turns out you walk down to the Burger King (!) and go through a side door through security and get the bags and exit customs, back up to ticket line, where we're at the front of the line, but... 300 people changing their flights - it's a little slow. By 4:20pm (4 hours after original push-back), have tickets to Chicago and then to San Jose. Those folks who rebooked while waiting to get through immigration have seats to SFO, but we don't, too late.

Oh, did I mention that United cancelled 858 the previous Saturday and Sunday? Are they skimping on maintenance to pay for gas?

Board the nonstop to Chicago, push back at 5:30pm or so. Kinda warm - pilot tells us, one of the three air conditioning packs is "degraded". Seems it was that way when the plane flew from Chicago the day before, and there's no way to fix outside the US. Good planning, guys!

3 hours into the flight, the captain comes on and says, "We know it's in the 90s back there in coach, but the only other choice we have is to turn around and go to Tokyo, and you wouldn't get home for 2-3 days. Just think of it as a summer day." He must be getting lots of flack. Plenty comfortable in business class - I stand at the boundary for a while to cool down. After about 8 hours, temperature finally reasonable. Only 4-5 hours to go!

On the ground in Chicago. Recheck bags. (Later, we realize that they failed to remind us about checking duty free in checked luggage -- helpful ticket counter agent fixed that up.) Security again, and at least that paid-for-with-miles Red Carpet Club membership comes in - wireless and power (and potato chips).

Hey! Guess what? Plane to San Jose is delayed! Finally take off two hours late - 10:20pm, in to San Jose at 1am. Thanks to Debbie Boydston, there's a very patient limo driver waiting to drive me to Berkeley. Finally in bed at 2:15am Thursday June 12: 32 hours after departing the Salvo Hotel in Shanghai!

China’s Loyal Youth - New York Times

China’s Loyal Youth - New York Times - an interesting article about internal Chinese opinion on Tibet. The English language media in China is pretty much the same way.

Real Programmers

Real Programmers use...

Stuck on the Plane in Shanghai, or, Mei You Deicer Truck

Almost 150,000 passengers were stranded at Guangzhou Railway Station on Saturday night after a power failure caused by snow, ice and sleet stopped more than 136 trains in Hunan Province on the trunk line between Beijing and Guangzhou.

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/6345929.html

I’m stuck on the plane (shockingly, stealing internet access from some place at the airport), with conflicting information about when the deicer truck will be available, and when we might freakin’ leave this place.

This is the impact of two or three days of sleet and snow on a city that if it's lucky, gets a few drifts each year.

OK, yesterday there was lots and lots of miserable, remind-me-of-Wilmington-DE 雨夹雪 (sleet). Today, I wake up, and what do I see from my hotel window? 雪 on the rooftops! In Shanghai!

Back to China...

I flew into Hangzhou Airport this afternoon from Tokyo Narita. What a quick and easy process... except for the many hour schlep to Narita. Immigration and Customs at Hangzhou is amazingly quick - 10 minutes. They seem to have copied the unfortunate plan of putting the airport way way out in the boonies, though - an hour to the hotel and our office.

And it was snowing! Not sticking, but snowing...

oobject » best Rube Goldberg Machine videos

You've got to check this out: oobject » best Rube Goldberg Machine videos: http://oobject.com/category/best-Rube-Goldberg-Machine-videos. I have a special fondness for these kinds of systems, having been a software architect :-)

Back in Berkeley

OK, we've been back in Berkeley for a month and a half. People keep asking us if we've adjusted. Short answer - both yes and no. Here's where we lived: Ambassy Court. Here's where we live now: Berkeley. One's urban, one's a town. We certainly miss the street food and the ease of getting around. We missed the good food in Berkeley. Dunno. Perhaps we should go back :-)

Where We Are, For A Little While More

Well, we'll just be here for a few more weeks, but here's a nice view of Ambassy Court. Google Maps is amazing.

Back in the Saddle... Lessons Learned from a Thailand Vacation

OK. Remember that quote by Nietzsche? The "what doesn't kill me" one? Consider this: 23 hours from Phi Phi Don Island (in Phuket) to Guangzhou in China. 3 hours on a boat, a quick lunch, a drive to a "gem showcase" where we were pestered by sales drones while looking at a godawful selection of tacky gems. Then, the airport: wait, wait, wait, board the plane. Oops! Back off the plane, it's broken. 5 hours of no answers from Orient Thai Airlines, followed by a 10pm departure, 2am arrival, bus to downtown Hong Kong to a bus to the Shenzen border to a van to Guanzhou, arriving at roughly 7am.

Sigh.

Also, while there were some nice moments (an elephant ride, a half day snorkel trip), Patong really is only suitable for 23 year olds and creepy old men who like young Thai women. Not for families.

So, I need a vacation to recover. Would we return? Well, maybe. But not to the same places.

Hong Kong

We've begun our May Holiday (aka Golden Week) with 3 days in Hong Kong. Shanghai and Hong Kong are often compared ("Shanghai is the new Hong Kong"). What is striking is just how different they are.

• Shanghai is flat and sprawling; Hong Kong is dense and mountainous
• Hong Kong is remarkably multi-ethnic; Shanghai by comparison is just Chinese

The food has been quite excellent, with only one minor exception. Julia had a fabulous time strolling through the Ladies' Market shopping for hair ties and watches.

Plus, of course, the inevitable Mao memorabilia...

17 Hates

Here is a translation of an article written by a Chinese blogger. Interesting read. Some things that are really only Chinese, but you can probably come up with a list of your own for your own town.

Lunch in Shanghai

Here we are having a team lunch in Shanghai. 12 people for about $100 US. Is it any wonder I'm gaining weight?

Photo Albums Online

Finally got around to posting photos from the last 8 months. You can check them out at http://picasaweb.google.com/bill.hofmann.

Life at Ambassy Court

You know you're cool when they do fashion shows for hip urban brands like Van Dutch at your complex. I missed the actual show (got back from Hangzhou an hour too late), but the next morning, the Harley Davidsons and the catwalk were still there. By tonight, it should be like we were never hip.

It's a shame, though. I kinda wish they would leave the red carpet. It's the closest I'll ever get...

We're in the middle of a kind of heat wave (although we're about due for the weather to change). So half of Shanghai is walking around with a coat or sweater, the other half is cautiously considering summer. Me, being a gringo, I'm wearing my bold geometric print shirt.

One of the nice things about the new place is that you can see something from the balcony. We're in the middle of a mostly low-rise neighborhood, with some fairly nice houses that clearly have had money put into them recently. The orange one is actually a restaurant, "Cilantro." Feels like I'm back in California!

Spring Has Sprung

It's hot and sunny here in Hangzhou. What a shock! All of a sudden, it's not cold and windy.

Brief Sojourn in Suzhou

On Sunday, we made the trek to Suzhou, which is a quick train ride away from Shanghai. The pleasant thing is that there are very few tall buildings. I would say, however, that the train station is a major obstacle for tourists. They're doing massive construction across the street, so in addition to all the dust and noise, it's not immediately clear where to go to escape the van touts and hopeful tour guides.We made the decision to escape to the Humble Administrator's Garden (Zhuo Zheng Yuan), which is a 16th century garden covering many acres. Not always the best choice with a bunch of kids, but it was so nice compared with the train station that it was worthwhile. The weather was excellent, and there is a nice pedestrian street (DongBei Jia) fronting it and the fancy new Suzhou Museum.

The pedicabs, as you can see here, are covered with ads. They seem (as in other places) to be actually used by locals. The good news is that the drivers didn't really seem to be too interested in pestering us to take them. One "no" would suffice...

New Neighborhood

We just moved from right-in-the-middle-of-everything-downtown to out-in-what-in-the-thirties-used-to-be-the-burbs. We're now in Ambassy (sic) Court on Huaihai Zhong Lu. Across the street, the American Consulate. Next to that, the French Consulate. A block away, the German Consulate. And to round it off, around the corner, the Iranian Consulate.

Across the street and down a little is the Shanghai Library, which is huuuge, and quite interesting. Our street, where we are, isn't terribly interesting. But downtown a ways, it's one of the two big shopping streets (Nanjing Xi Lu being the other, in our former neighborhood). South of us, however, is a charming set of sycamore-lined streets with the occasional lovely villa. Also, a few blocks away, Xujiahui Park, which is large, and on a sunny Saturday, full of kids.

Beijing institutes queuing day

Beijing institutes queuing day

"The 11th of every month in Beijing is to be 'voluntarily wait in line' day as the city attempts to eradicate queue-jumping before next year's Olympics, a city official said on Wednesday....

"'The reason for establishing such a day is to mobilise the Beijing population to ensure that where there are more than two people, they should wait in line,'" said Zhang Huiguang, director of the Capital Ethic Development Office."

Of course, one of the most striking things to a Californian living in Shanghai is the mob scene to get into anything, and how people will just walk up and cut in front of you, and often shove you just because. Queue-jumping is hardly the word for it. On the upside, however, when you're in a bad mood, it's nice to be able to shove people and cut in line.

For folks from New York City, though, no big difference. Boarding a plane at Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai or in LaGuardia Airport in New York is pretty much the same....