Once again, I have to say that everywhere is overstaffed here. We just got off our night shift and went to the hotel restaurant for some breakfast before bed. This restaurant has around 20 tables, 10 of which were occupied. We counted a grand total of 9 servers for this buffet breakfast. That does not include the 4 cooks.
We have been going to this place every morning for 2 months now so they know us pretty well. We have also spent the last week on night shift so they know that we don't want coffee in the morning as we are about to go to bed. Still they offer.
It may be that we are just tired, but when the fifth of the nine servers asked us for coffee in that 30 minute period, we burst out laughing. She wasn't too sure what we were laughing at and we decided not to fill her in as insider knowledge could damage future studies.
I just read this post and it really doesn't seem that funny anymore. I think I should go to bed.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Driving - Zhuhai, China
I just realized that I have spent 6 weeks here and have not yet mentioned driving here. It is definitely a topic worth noting.
The rules of the road here are a little different from Canada, so much so that my company does not allow any of us to rent cars here. The first thing I looked for was stop signs. I once heard that stop signs say STOP in english everywhere in the world except for Quebec. I wanted to validate this in China. I looked and still to date I have not seen a single red octagon in China. It turns out a stop sign here is an upside down triangle. Which is also rare to see. Needless to say, people don't stop for much.
Motorcycles, these do not seem to abide by any laws. I see them on sidewalks, on the street, and even going the wrong way on streets. On the way to work, we go on a street that has 6 lanes (3 each way). The right lane seems to be reserved for 2 things: passing, and motorcycles going the wrong way. Normally I would think that these do not mix, but apparently it works here.
There also seems to be no maximum capacity on motorcycles or bicycles. It is not uncommon to see bicycles, going the wrong way on a street, carrying four propane tanks. That just doesn't seem safe to me. It is also not uncommon to see a family of four on a single moped. Ussually it is the dad driving, with the kid standing in the foot area. The wife sits side-sattle on the back and carries a baby in one arm and holds on with the other arm. Helmets are ussually omited in these cases. The one thing that actually made me stop and laugh was a man with a dog on a scooter. The man drove the scooter and the dog stood on his hind legs in the front and had his front paws on the handlebars.
Taxis here are incredible. They charge 10 yuan (2 dollars) to get most places in the city. If the place is far, it can cost as much as 20 yuan (4 dollars). The catch is that they all drive mark 2 VW jettas and don't have seatbelts. The doors are also locked and can only be opened by a lever that is beside the driver. Even the window handels are missing. This seems like a safety hazard to me, but if the Chinese govenment says it's safe then I have full confidence in the system.
I think my favorite story was from Daniel, our project manager. He took a taxi from the airport and the taxi driver was going over 100 km/h. This is fine, except he was speeding slightly. So when there was a speed trap, instead of slowing down, he would pop up onto the sidewalk and continue his pace. Daniel could not wait to get out of that car.
We have a driver that we call at all hours of the night. He is a good driver, and I almost felt sorry for him when I called him for 3:30am this morning, except then I found out that he makes more than I do. Chinese people never make as much as we do, so I can't really feel sorry for him.
The rules of the road here are a little different from Canada, so much so that my company does not allow any of us to rent cars here. The first thing I looked for was stop signs. I once heard that stop signs say STOP in english everywhere in the world except for Quebec. I wanted to validate this in China. I looked and still to date I have not seen a single red octagon in China. It turns out a stop sign here is an upside down triangle. Which is also rare to see. Needless to say, people don't stop for much.
Motorcycles, these do not seem to abide by any laws. I see them on sidewalks, on the street, and even going the wrong way on streets. On the way to work, we go on a street that has 6 lanes (3 each way). The right lane seems to be reserved for 2 things: passing, and motorcycles going the wrong way. Normally I would think that these do not mix, but apparently it works here.
There also seems to be no maximum capacity on motorcycles or bicycles. It is not uncommon to see bicycles, going the wrong way on a street, carrying four propane tanks. That just doesn't seem safe to me. It is also not uncommon to see a family of four on a single moped. Ussually it is the dad driving, with the kid standing in the foot area. The wife sits side-sattle on the back and carries a baby in one arm and holds on with the other arm. Helmets are ussually omited in these cases. The one thing that actually made me stop and laugh was a man with a dog on a scooter. The man drove the scooter and the dog stood on his hind legs in the front and had his front paws on the handlebars.
Taxis here are incredible. They charge 10 yuan (2 dollars) to get most places in the city. If the place is far, it can cost as much as 20 yuan (4 dollars). The catch is that they all drive mark 2 VW jettas and don't have seatbelts. The doors are also locked and can only be opened by a lever that is beside the driver. Even the window handels are missing. This seems like a safety hazard to me, but if the Chinese govenment says it's safe then I have full confidence in the system.
I think my favorite story was from Daniel, our project manager. He took a taxi from the airport and the taxi driver was going over 100 km/h. This is fine, except he was speeding slightly. So when there was a speed trap, instead of slowing down, he would pop up onto the sidewalk and continue his pace. Daniel could not wait to get out of that car.
We have a driver that we call at all hours of the night. He is a good driver, and I almost felt sorry for him when I called him for 3:30am this morning, except then I found out that he makes more than I do. Chinese people never make as much as we do, so I can't really feel sorry for him.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Another Restaurant - Zhuhai China
Well I went to another restaurant and this place was very much a Hit/Miss place. It was another one of those cases where the menu was all in Chinese and the waitress could only say "I don't speak English". To give her credit, she did say it very well.
The first dish we ordered was supposedly chicken. Now the chicken was served with a bunch of spices and such. It looked good until we noticed three things. First, the chicken was served cold which I can deal with. Second, in traditional Chinese fashion, they cut the chicken evenly. Slicing through bone so there are pieces of bone in every little bit. Third, it wasn't just chicken breast or wings or thighs, it was the entire chicken. I noticed this when I grabbed a foot. We put that plate to the side and continued with the others.
We got a big plate of green beans with a ton of chili peppers and other crazy Chinese spices. Since birth, I have been completely against green beans and have not been able to stomach them. Tonight, I couldn't get enough of them. They were incredible. I think I may actually like green beans now.
We had a few other plates and I think I ate another foot, although it didn't have any bone in it. The rest of the meal went well until we heard a noise in the ceiling. At first I thought it was water flow. Then we realized what it was. Rats! The noise started and then grew louder and came from everywhere in the ceiling. We instantly stopped eating (we were done anyways) and asked for the Midan (cheque). On the way out, I thought I heard squeaking and got the shivers as soon as we were out the door.
The first dish we ordered was supposedly chicken. Now the chicken was served with a bunch of spices and such. It looked good until we noticed three things. First, the chicken was served cold which I can deal with. Second, in traditional Chinese fashion, they cut the chicken evenly. Slicing through bone so there are pieces of bone in every little bit. Third, it wasn't just chicken breast or wings or thighs, it was the entire chicken. I noticed this when I grabbed a foot. We put that plate to the side and continued with the others.
We got a big plate of green beans with a ton of chili peppers and other crazy Chinese spices. Since birth, I have been completely against green beans and have not been able to stomach them. Tonight, I couldn't get enough of them. They were incredible. I think I may actually like green beans now.
We had a few other plates and I think I ate another foot, although it didn't have any bone in it. The rest of the meal went well until we heard a noise in the ceiling. At first I thought it was water flow. Then we realized what it was. Rats! The noise started and then grew louder and came from everywhere in the ceiling. We instantly stopped eating (we were done anyways) and asked for the Midan (cheque). On the way out, I thought I heard squeaking and got the shivers as soon as we were out the door.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Night on the town
When we finished dinner, we went back to the hotel to get beers from our minifridges and then seven of us took a taxi to a local nightclub called Yesterdays. We were drinking in the car and singing too. This is where my memory starts to get a little hazy. We had a few beers at the nightclub and Daniel challenged some of the locals to a game of dice, a local drinking game where you try to get poker hands. We have no idea how to play and Daniel lost bad. He doesn't remember playing. They had a stage with Chinese people singing and everyone dancing around. At least that's how I remember it. I later heard that it was only me dancing along. That is the extent of my memory of the evening. I heard the rest of the story from the people I was with the next day.
I woke up this morning at 5:00am, fully clothed with the exception of pants, and laying partially on my bed. The chairs were also flipped over. I had a cut in my hand and there was a bloody bandaid on the bathroom floor. I went back to sleep and got woken up at 1:00 pm by Daniel on the phone asking if I had seen his phone or wallet. He lost them. I went back to sleep and got up at around 3:00pm. Surprisingly I wasn't that hungover. I met with the rest of my team in the lounge, all of whom were in rough shape themselves. Then the stories started comming out.
First of all, I guess I put a beer on the table rather hard and it exploded in my hands which would explain the cut in my hand. I then went to the bathroom for a bandaid from the concierge guys in there. Then I went to use the urinal. One of the concierge guys started massaging my shoulders while I was peeing. I finished and ran out and told the others. That has to be one of the strangest things that has happened to me in a washroom, but they all got the same treatment.
After that, it was around 1:30 and the place was clearing out. There was no more singer on the stage so I guess I got up and dance. From my friends there, they told me that it wasn't regular dancing, it was more like kung foo dancing. I got the attention of the entire club. Oh boy. The club closed at 2:00am. We then went home and I don't remember paying the cabbie, but I guess I did.
A couple of the others went to the bar next door called Tommorows and got lost trying to find it. They went down the wrong hallway and walked into a room with a bunch of people with straws in their noses and white powder. Whoops! I guess there were even Chinese security guards there. I don't know what the guards were doing there, but they sure weren't checking for drugs.
So that was my insane evening. I'm here for another week and then heading back home to Montreal.
I woke up this morning at 5:00am, fully clothed with the exception of pants, and laying partially on my bed. The chairs were also flipped over. I had a cut in my hand and there was a bloody bandaid on the bathroom floor. I went back to sleep and got woken up at 1:00 pm by Daniel on the phone asking if I had seen his phone or wallet. He lost them. I went back to sleep and got up at around 3:00pm. Surprisingly I wasn't that hungover. I met with the rest of my team in the lounge, all of whom were in rough shape themselves. Then the stories started comming out.
First of all, I guess I put a beer on the table rather hard and it exploded in my hands which would explain the cut in my hand. I then went to the bathroom for a bandaid from the concierge guys in there. Then I went to use the urinal. One of the concierge guys started massaging my shoulders while I was peeing. I finished and ran out and told the others. That has to be one of the strangest things that has happened to me in a washroom, but they all got the same treatment.
After that, it was around 1:30 and the place was clearing out. There was no more singer on the stage so I guess I got up and dance. From my friends there, they told me that it wasn't regular dancing, it was more like kung foo dancing. I got the attention of the entire club. Oh boy. The club closed at 2:00am. We then went home and I don't remember paying the cabbie, but I guess I did.
A couple of the others went to the bar next door called Tommorows and got lost trying to find it. They went down the wrong hallway and walked into a room with a bunch of people with straws in their noses and white powder. Whoops! I guess there were even Chinese security guards there. I don't know what the guards were doing there, but they sure weren't checking for drugs.
So that was my insane evening. I'm here for another week and then heading back home to Montreal.
Celebration dinner
Well we finished our project yesterday and we are so happy. I will be staying another week to ensure the remaining issues are fixed. We had a formal dinner last night and it was incredible. This was followed by a celebratory night on the town. We went to a place called the boat restaurant which is a big boat on an island. We ordered a bunch of neat dishes and everyone had a little of everything.
First of all we had lobster. I've only had it once before so it was really good to have. They had it available two ways, one with soy sauce and the other with cheese and noodles. We had the cheese and noodle selection. Two lobster's came, (one for each table) and it was soooo tasty. Another dish we had was goose feet. I've never tried this before, but you eat the webbing which is really just skin and you eat the meat around the bone. Strange, and difficult with chop sticks, but it was also good. We also had crocodile, squid, oysters, and a few other things here and there. I've never had food like that, it was really really good.
We sat down and when we started eating, the waiter filled tiny glasses (1/2 ounce) with a liquor. I think it was called Maotai or something but it was a rice drink that was around 60% ABV. There were a few toasts and this stuff burned on the way down every time. Eventually things started to pick up and the gumbays began. As far as I know, Gumbay is the Chinese word for 'bottoms up'. Everyone toasted everyone else and would finish their drink. There were about 20 people so I had around 20 half-ounce shots of this stuff. Then Daniel, our project manager challenged the authority there to drink a wine-glass full of this stuff. The authority said he would if three more people from our company joined in. I was one of the ones chosen and that is where it went downhill. It really didn't burn as it was going down (I was doing it fast though) but man it did not sit easily once it was in my stomach. I managed to avoid being sick though.
By this point our dinner had ended and we were all feeling really good. We went back to the hotel to get beers from our minifridges and then seven of us took a taxi to a local nightclub called Yesterdays.
First of all we had lobster. I've only had it once before so it was really good to have. They had it available two ways, one with soy sauce and the other with cheese and noodles. We had the cheese and noodle selection. Two lobster's came, (one for each table) and it was soooo tasty. Another dish we had was goose feet. I've never tried this before, but you eat the webbing which is really just skin and you eat the meat around the bone. Strange, and difficult with chop sticks, but it was also good. We also had crocodile, squid, oysters, and a few other things here and there. I've never had food like that, it was really really good.
We sat down and when we started eating, the waiter filled tiny glasses (1/2 ounce) with a liquor. I think it was called Maotai or something but it was a rice drink that was around 60% ABV. There were a few toasts and this stuff burned on the way down every time. Eventually things started to pick up and the gumbays began. As far as I know, Gumbay is the Chinese word for 'bottoms up'. Everyone toasted everyone else and would finish their drink. There were about 20 people so I had around 20 half-ounce shots of this stuff. Then Daniel, our project manager challenged the authority there to drink a wine-glass full of this stuff. The authority said he would if three more people from our company joined in. I was one of the ones chosen and that is where it went downhill. It really didn't burn as it was going down (I was doing it fast though) but man it did not sit easily once it was in my stomach. I managed to avoid being sick though.
By this point our dinner had ended and we were all feeling really good. We went back to the hotel to get beers from our minifridges and then seven of us took a taxi to a local nightclub called Yesterdays.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The hole in the wall resturaunt
We just went to a really good Cantonese restaurant. This place was amazing as it really did look classy and the food was incredible. But there were a few things which made this restaurant less than five-stars.
1. Location: First we had to walk through the darkest alley we could find. I was expecting to walk into an opium den. Then we had to walk through an arcade and out the other end into an even darker alley. A little ways down this alley was the resturaunt
2. Limited selection: They had a great sizzling plate of chicken which looked good. But we were there late so the guy came back later to tell me there was no chicken in the kitchen. Okay, fair enough. Then I choose the donkey meat. Nope, still no dice. Soft-Shelled turtle? Nope. Eventually I had to settle for the sizzling beef. I would have loved to try the turtle.
3. Language barrier. After they told us that the options were not available, they never brought back the menus to choose new things . We had to go and take menus from them. We tried asking them for menu's but I guess our mandarin has too thick of an English accent to be understood by the Cantonese living in a Mandarin-invaded city.
4. The love shack: While this may be a name my Dad calls his weekend house, it also applies to this restaurant. One of the waiters was making out with a girl in a booth not to far from us. The manager came and yelled at him, and he went back to work for a moment, but the girl stayed right where she was.
Despite all of that, it was the second hottest chinese food I have ever tasted and was probably the best I have had. I'd go back!
1. Location: First we had to walk through the darkest alley we could find. I was expecting to walk into an opium den. Then we had to walk through an arcade and out the other end into an even darker alley. A little ways down this alley was the resturaunt
2. Limited selection: They had a great sizzling plate of chicken which looked good. But we were there late so the guy came back later to tell me there was no chicken in the kitchen. Okay, fair enough. Then I choose the donkey meat. Nope, still no dice. Soft-Shelled turtle? Nope. Eventually I had to settle for the sizzling beef. I would have loved to try the turtle.
3. Language barrier. After they told us that the options were not available, they never brought back the menus to choose new things . We had to go and take menus from them. We tried asking them for menu's but I guess our mandarin has too thick of an English accent to be understood by the Cantonese living in a Mandarin-invaded city.
4. The love shack: While this may be a name my Dad calls his weekend house, it also applies to this restaurant. One of the waiters was making out with a girl in a booth not to far from us. The manager came and yelled at him, and he went back to work for a moment, but the girl stayed right where she was.
Despite all of that, it was the second hottest chinese food I have ever tasted and was probably the best I have had. I'd go back!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
A ghost story - Zhuhai, China
It's been a crazy week and I haven't been able to get to my blog this week and haven't really done much worth mentioning outside of work anyways. We did go to a restaurant the other day and passed by a hotel on our way. I heard a great story. The story is as such:
A woman was hosting a large party at this fancy 5-star hotel for a group of Japanese businessmen. She decided to give them a little extra and hired several hookers to this party. Now this is not that uncommon it seems in China. I have seen so many hookers here. The thing that makes this story special is that she hired 400 hookers to this party. Obviously no-one went home lonely! The police ended up finding out about this and took the appropriate action as 2 conditions were currently met: China's current anti-smut fad and she had forgotten to pay the police ahead of time. She was arrested and sentenced to death.
Now I'd love to turn that into a ghost story somehow, but I am not sure of the best way to do it. "If you ever go to that hotel with a hooker and listen carefully, you can hear her cheering you on" may be a good way to do it, but I need some feedback. Let me know!
A woman was hosting a large party at this fancy 5-star hotel for a group of Japanese businessmen. She decided to give them a little extra and hired several hookers to this party. Now this is not that uncommon it seems in China. I have seen so many hookers here. The thing that makes this story special is that she hired 400 hookers to this party. Obviously no-one went home lonely! The police ended up finding out about this and took the appropriate action as 2 conditions were currently met: China's current anti-smut fad and she had forgotten to pay the police ahead of time. She was arrested and sentenced to death.
Now I'd love to turn that into a ghost story somehow, but I am not sure of the best way to do it. "If you ever go to that hotel with a hooker and listen carefully, you can hear her cheering you on" may be a good way to do it, but I need some feedback. Let me know!
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