IgloONotes

(Written in May 2008)

Wow...its been a long time since I've blogged about... well, anything! You can tack the reasons onto the exam boards. I'm pretty sure I passed all my courses, which is a great thing because now I can fly off to Gemany knowing I don't have to wind back into a course that I would have totally forgotten how to do. I digress.

This is about what I've been doing since my last blog post; the review of my new camera, the Panasonic TZ5 which by the way has served me very very well so far.

First up on my list was my last week with my girlfriend before she headed off to Hong Kong. Bittersweet, for those of you who knows what its like to have a loved one fly across the world. Before I let her go though, we took a bike ride all the way to the Windsor riverside to watch the sunrise.

Yes, it was very early, and because it was April, yes it was cold in the morning. No matter, we had a sunrise to catch! We woke up around 4:45 and left the house at 5:45 ish to catch the sunrise which according to online sources, would rise at 6:31 AM. On my road rocket, I can bike from my house to the river in 30 minutes. With both of us on Mountain bikes, it would be slightly longer...

I didn't know exaclty how long, but 46 minutes was the EXACT time we needed. As we were biking down the riverside to get a better view, the flaming sun pierced the horizon directly in front of us. It was Kodak moment.

It was a perfectly clear day and honestly, I never knew the Windsor sunrise could look so beautiful. It was our first time seeing a sunset and it was moment that will be etched in my mind forever. My girlfriend and I standing there together, gazing into the rising sun...

Everything else that happened that week seems dull, but dull is a relative word just because my girlfriend makes everyday so much more awesome!

We had planned to go to the US to do some shopping and get an oil change at the local Toyota dealer as well. Little did I know, we'd be treated to a bit more than an oil change. In Troy, Michigan, there is a whole whack of car dealerships. You've got your requisite american dealers such as Ford, GM and Chrysler. Then on the side you've got Toyota, Honda and Mazda. If you looked a little bit farther you'll notice a small 'Aston Martin' sign. Then you've got a HUGE Hummer dealer (no less) and stuffed into a small dark alley is Rolls Royce, Bentley, Lamborghini and Maserati.

Feeling no shame, I walked into the Rolls Royce dealer donning jeans and a shirt. Armed in my right hand was my trusty TZ5 ready to snap pictures of the one car hiding behind the glass...a Bugatti Veyron 16.4.

AHHHH!!!! IT'S A BUGATTI VEYRON!!!

1001 hp
253 MPH
4 turbos
$1,100,000 (euros)

Slap me silly and splash me with water. It was a Veyron! the Hyper car of Hyper cars. I wasted no time in snapping as many pictures as possible and inspecting every inch of the car that I read about.
Those huge disc brakes? Yea, they're bigger than the wheels on my Matrix.
The Magnesium turn signal levers? Very pretty.
The 253 mph tires specially designed my Michelin? They've got little Michelin men all over!

The carbon fiber work on the car is just simply amazing. Who would've thought that you would see carbon fiber lining the wheel wells? There's no cosmetic carbon. If you see it, its there for a reason. Heck, most of the carbon is hidden.

They Veyron certainly brightened my day, but you could also say that the addition of a few Lamborghini's and Maserati's added to the equation. Oh, did I mention that I found my dream car at the Acura Dealership? It was a pristine condition NSX. Its my dream car because not only is it an exotic with Ferrari beating performance, its becoming quite affordable.

Off to Beijing
After a few hours of packing, I was whisked away with my mom and brother to the airport for our trip to Beijing, China. Flying an airplane would be a casual experience for me because I've done quite a bit of flying in my time. From all my trips, there's a couple things I can tell you:

- Airline food is not THAT bad. it does not tastes like cardboard and the fruits are actually fresh

- in-flight movies are not THAT old. I hate to say it, but I actually missed the one movie I was looking forward to seeing.

- Turbulence IS bad...but if you fall asleep before it hits then you're fine.

It was a rather uneventful flight across the atlantic. The view was pretty, but only if you could keep your eyes open long enough. After adjusting to the darkness of the cabin, opening the shade to glance outside allows the sun to attack your eyes until it leaves white spots...I do not recommend doing it for long periods of time.

Once we arrived in Beijing, I was greeted by none other than my former Japanese exchange student who had lived with us for a year waaay back in 2000. It was a really nice sight to see both him and my Dad, my Dad, who I haven't seen in a year and my exchange student who I haven't seen in four.

Xi'an
I was promptly informed that we would be travelling to Xi'an the next day, home of the 8th wonder of the world; the Terra Cotta Solders. We took an overnight train from Beijing and arrived in Xi'an in a timely fashion to be greeted by high winds, blowing sand and gray skies.

Our hotel was the 5-star Mei Hua 'International' hotel. I don't understand what it means when all these chinese hotels stick 'International' into their name. I guess it makes it sound better than all the others but in the end, there's really no difference. There is no 'International' in the hotel. Just Chinese people running things the Chinese way. The rooms were really nice and big though the janitors could learn a thing or two about cleaning. Thankfully, the sheets were clean.

The one really annoying thing about the service is when they make a mistake, they expect us to cover it up with a little extra cash. Hello??? Haven't they ever heard the slogan, 'The customer is always right?' In this case, we were totally right and they were awfully wrong. Our stay was booked online and it stated that Breakfast was included for a price of 30 yuan. Instead, they charged us 48 yuan because get this, we didn't inform them that we were going to eat there. Who ever informs the hotel they're going to eat at their buffet breakfast? Their excuses were really sad, trying to tell us that they wouldn't know if we were guests at their hotel or not.

But before all that happened, we enjoyed a very fun time checking out the Terra Cotta soldiers and all the surrounding tourist areas. We had bought a tour package with an english guide. The nice thing was the size of our tour group. We had a total of 7 people; A shy Japanese guy who always wandered off on his own, a cool Brazillian who studied in the Netherlands our tour guide and the four Wongs.

Our tour guide was really cool. She spoke pretty good english and also knew lots about the places we visited. The Terra cotta soldiers was really the highlight because you read an see so much about them, and now you finally see it. Here's some interesting facts that you may not know:

- The Chinese emperor of the time started the construction of the terra cotta soldiers just after he came into power and they were completed just before his death (what a coincidence...). The Chinese believed that when the died, all these soldiers (and chariots and horses and servants as well) would join him in the afterlife

- All the soldiers were painstakingly detailed and painted. Each craftsman would have to write their name on every soldier they made. If the quality wasn't up to scratch, the soldier would be smashed and the craftsman would be killed. Talk about quality control!

- After examining the weapons of the soldiers, they found that every weapon had a layer of chomium surrounding the metal. That means the chinese invented Chroming about 2000 years before it was discovered by the Germans.

Ah yes, if China hadn't run into so many roadblocks in its history, who knows what they might have created. Along with the terra cotta army, we visited the hot springs where the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty had had recreation time, enjoying it with his lover, Lady Yang.

Beijing
12 hours later on a night train and we were all back in Beijing. Not to let us go without an interesting travel experience, the Chinese tossed a very stubborn woman in our way. When we got off the train we had to line up for taxi's if you thought lineups for amusement parks were long...you should visit china. There was an endless supply of people, with a seemingly endless supply of taxis. I am really glad that most people were law abiding citizens. But oh man...

We were near the final part of the line when all of a sudden a little snitch wedged herself into line right ahead of us. We saw it. The people behind us saw it, and the poeple in front saw it too. My dad yelled at her and all she did was look away, looking up and down the line as it she was looking for someone important. We kept yelling at her, shoving her out of our way but she stayed in line. But you know what's totally wrong?

I thought that maybe the security guards would do something, they are security after all. But NOOOOO. We informed them of our little pest problem and you know what they did? The youngians looked at us, looked at her, and kept walking. I already wanted to land a punch into this little lady, but now I wanted to take out that officer! To top it all off, we reached the end of the line and we informed the line master about the buzzard who had now been shuffled behind us. He took a quick glance at both of us, then pleasantly told us we could call a number in the case of someone cutting the line.
.....................................
'Nuff said.

After walking for three straight days, I was ready for a rest at home. And I tell you, there's nothing better than sitting down and doing nothing after a crazy holiday. Its even better when you open up your e-mail and find a message from your girlfriend, telling me how she's doing

Bargaining Madness in Beijing
Enough with the sitting, it was time to go shopping. The thing about shopping is that you need a purpose, a sense of direction. It is very satisfying when you can go into a shopping mall and know exactly what you want. I had a couple of things. First was a saddle bag ( a Jack Bauer bag as I like to call it) a new piece of luggage, some jeans, a shirt or two, and that's about it.

To get my bags I visited our trusty mall, the Silk Market. For the most part, the shop owners are very friendly, especially when they find out you're foreigners. Of course, opening prices are outrageous and you have to bargain down or they'll really gouge you of money. My saddle bag for example started at 580 yuan. that's about 80-90 CDN. A short time later (after my brother had told his life story to a very interested store lady) I walked away only 80 Yuan poorer.

I find one of the best ways to bargain is to put a smile on your face, set your price, and maybe give them a little bit more than you were expecting to pay. It makes you happy, it makes them happy, and hey, its a win-win situation. No hard feelings. For example, I was bargaining for a little gift for my girlfriend. I put on a smile, had a few jokes, and bargained totally in Chinese. Through the bargaining, they did mention how my chinese was not fluent, so they asked where I was from. They first guessed Japan (and quite a few others have greeted me in Korean too) but I happily informed them I was a chinese guy from Canada.

After my bargaining was at an end, they gave me an offer I just couldn't say no to. In addition to my main gift, they would give me a set of six Beijing Olympics keychains for only 10 yuan (that's about $1.20 CDN).
I could only surmise two reasons why they would throw in something else for so cheap,

a) They really liked me because I was so friendly to them and maybe they like Canadians or
b) I paid too much for my first item so they wanted to grab just a little more money from me.

They were pretty friendly, so I would rather think it was the former reason.

While at the Silk Market I was rather happy to run into a couple of Canadians from Vancouver. They were trying to buy an SD card and I noticed that they were having a bit of a hard time getting the thing to work in their camera. The store owners insisted that it would work but they tried two, and they didn't work. I decided to step in.

I think my fluent english caught them off guard a bit, after all who hears a chinese guy in China speaking fluent english without a chinese accent? I know I haven't. It didn't take much to convince them that maybe buying an SD card from China is not their best bet. I let them know that if they really value their pictures than maybe they should buy their SD cards somewhere else. They thanked me and off they went, no SD card, singing O' Canada.

Roads and their counterparts
Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari. Of course, if you're in Beijing you have to have your car in black. Black Audi's are as common on the Beijing roads as Honda Civic's are in Canada. Actually, combine that with Toyota Corolla's and Ford Focus's. No Joke.

If you've heard in the news about a new car just released, chances are you'll find them already on the Beijing roads. In any other country I would be ecstatic to see so many nice cars but in Beijing, It makes me cringe.

The roads are horrible, traffic is horrible and the drivers are not exactly the Michael Schumacher's of the world, though they always like to think they are. They weave in and out of traffic, cut you off, squeeze themselves into the tiniest places and force you to give way. If you give anyone just a car length of space, they'll squeeze in. The worst is when its at night. And raining. And having to dodge cyclists and pedestrians who expect you to get out of their way.

Yes, they cross the street when they want and cyclists swerve to avoid puddles, not even caring if there's a car speeding past him. Plus, the bikes don't have reflectors or lights.

When traffic gets jammed, it means traffic doesn't move. Taxi drivers turn off their car then go out for a walk. Sometimes its really weird why traffic just crawls to a stop, there is no apparent reason. But then again, the drivers don't have any common sense. Take for example one Truck driver (big semi) who missed his exit on the highway and thought it would be okay to reverse back to get to his exit. Its a wonder how there's not more accidents in Beijing. The way I see it, all the drivers here just expect people to get out of their own way but also don't mind giving way when the time comes.

So from all the things you've just read about Beijing's roads, why in the world would you want to drive a nice car when you know its only a matter of time before someone crumples your fender?

You see, my Dad lives in the 'Palm Springs International Apartments' (note 'international'). Its a very high class residence with loads of Ferrari's and Porsches, Merc's, Beamers...name it and its there. Even Bentley and Rolls Royce.

You could host an auto show down there. But you know what? Most of these cars have a thick layer of dust on them and barely move from their parking spaces. I can understand why they don't drive them, but then why buy them in the first place if you're not going to use it for what its for? In Beijing, you just cannot drive fast. 120 km/h is rare on the highway because the traffic is just so dense. On-ramps are no more than gaps in the dividers so that's a definite slow zone. The only car that makes sense to me is an SUV because on the roads here, size matters. In a big car, you have authority. That's why the buses drive like madmen.

My goodness, just sell your car and buy Gran Turismo 5!

The Olympic Stadium and the new Beijing Airport

Everything they've said about the Bird's nest and the Aquatic center is true. They're just massive structures of amazing complexity and uniqueness. The Aquatic center can only be appreciated when you're up close. Its truly an amazing structure.

Somehow, the birds nest manages to look natural without being too 'mechanical'. The aquatic center is a perfect complement thanks to its plain-at-first-glance design. Inside, the structure is actually modeled after the molecular structure of water. Its so strong that you could actually tilt the building onto its side and it would not collapse.

To get a sense of purely huge, I visited what is now the worlds largest building, the Beijing International Airport's Terminal 3. The underground parking is huge and the entrance connecting the parking garage to the main terminal is as big as a football stadium. Its just amazing how one can build such a monster structure...

In just a few days I'll be heading back to Canada then off to Germany! But for now, I'm gonna go watch my solar powered plant flap its leaves

Tags: airline food, beijing, beijing roads, china, driving, olzmpics, veyron