From Seattle to the World

Georgia Sports Culture

leelefever — Tue, 5 Dec 2006 14:51:00 GMT

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Georgia Tech Fans Not Allowed, originally uploaded by LeeLeFever_TwinF.

A defining factor of Southern culture: college sports rivalries. We watched a bit of the Oklahoma/Nebraska game last night and heard that Wake Forest won the ACC championship and UNC beat #1 ranked Ohio State and Kentucky in basketball. My team is UNC and it's fun to have the American sports back on the agenda. I never did get into cricket really.

Paris Car Charger

leelefever — Tue, 7 Nov 2006 10:14:00 GMT

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This is the first time I've ever seen this, but somehow I doubt the last.

The Italian Post Office

leelefever — Fri, 3 Nov 2006 10:49:00 GMT

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Adventures with Poste Italiane, originally uploaded by LeeLeFever_TwinF.

Sending packages home is how we manage to stay light, and usually it is not a problem. China, Vietnam and many other unexpected places make it a smooth, albeit paperwork laden, operation.

In Italy, where some things are so well designed and easy, the postal system seems to be a mess - at least for the traveler.

We needed to send home about 10 lbs of items and, as usual, found the post office near the train station in Milan. After waiting for 20 minutes, they could only sell us an oversized yellow box and the basic direction of another post office where we could send it. So, with our backpacks and a giant yellow box, we walked to the other station and waited again. It looked bad. There were 6 windows all blocked by glass - no place to pass over a big box. With a help of a very friendly Italian guy, we finally communicated that we wanted to send the box to America. At this point, she looked at us like we requested an express package to the moon. Neither post office was set up for sending packages - only items that could be slid under the glass sneeze guard. I wonder how Italians send a package?

When she asked about the contents of our giant yellow box, my translator communicated that one item was pasta. She shook her head and had to look up if it was OK to send pasta to the US. I just wanted to say "We're in Italy right? Is pasta a protected item here? Is the US concerned about ecological effects foreign pasta? C'mon"

After a lot of talking in Italian, it became clear that our 10lbs of goods would cost USD 90 and about 500 dollars of pure hassle. Our translator left us with solace by saying that even for Italians, the post office is always an adventure. Fortunately for them though, they don't have to schlep around 10 extra pounds wherever they go when it doesn't work out. Maybe it'll be easier in France.

Meeting Friends Abroad

leelefever — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 10:24:00 GMT

One of the things we miss about being on the road is contact with our friends and family and even a little contact with fellow Americans. Sachi was saying yesterday that she has gotten so used to English with an accent now that it sounds normal.

Luckily, we’ve had a few occasions to hang out with friends from Seattle to get our fix. What has made this extra special is that we never made specific plans to meet anyone – it was purely good timing. We both want to give a quick shout-out to a few folks that made the effort to meet us along the way…

A few days before arriving in Hong Kong, our friend Christi realized that we would be there at the same time as our mutual friend Kerry. Sure enough, we were there at almost the exact same time and spent a day and night together, including a little karaoke.

After that we heard from our friend Jake Ludington that he would be in Beijing for a conference and sight seeing and sure enough – the dates coincided nearly perfectly. We ate Peking Duck, drank beer over the Forbidden City (below) and in a couple of neighborhoods around Beijing.

With both Kerry and Jake, meeting them really made us feel like we made new friends. We knew them both before, but not very well. Now though, having shared international experiences together, we have great new friends.

Lastly is our friends in Amsterdam and The Netherlands. Betty and Josh got married months ago and planned an Amsterdam honeymoon. Once their date was set, so was ours and Amsterdam become a far off date for us to make. As it worked out, we had a great time with them over a few days, including a Heineken Experience.

I’m lumping Lilia and Robert into the Seattle people because Lilia lived there for a while last year. This is the same Lilia that also met us in Moscow. She and her Dutch husband Robert opened their home to us in the town of Enschede, Holland and we got a chance to meet their friends at a party for Lilia’s birthday. Their friends also included Ton Zylstra, a blogger that I’ve known online for a long time and finally got to meet in person. It was such a great experience to see a glimpse of their normal lives in Holland.

Sachi, Lilia and Ton at Bad Bentheim Castle near Enschede...

Our hospitable hosts, Lilia and Robert...

For the next couple of months we’ll be in Europe – so if anyone out there is visiting and would like to hook-up, please do contact us – we’d love to meet you…

Thoughts of Home

leelefever — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 16:07:00 GMT

With this post I'm adding a new tag to the "filed under" list: "goinghome". Our thoughts are increasingly looking to the end of the trip. We still have a couple of months which is a lot of time, but it really feels like home is just around the corner. The inevitable transition into a normal working life has been a big topic of discussion and one that we wish could wait another 6 months. We've also been considering what to do with this web site when we're finished. We're considering coming to a hard stop at the end of the year so we don't just fade away.

Two friends that we met on the Trans-Siberian train are at the very end of a mammoth 400+ days across 40+ countries. Kathy and Sharon are back in the UK and only days away from home. They remind us of the mix of excitement and sadness of going home. Check out their site- a truly incredible trip.

Alas we have a lot to think about now - like making it to Amsterdam today and meeting our Seattle friends Josh and Betty. Yup - mainland Europe and hopefully a respite from the ridiculous prices we've found in Scandinavia. Sachi has never been to Europe, so I think the last phase of the trip will be some of the European basics - and some rest. We've been moving constantly - every 2 days for weeks and it'll be nice to settle in for a week or so and regroup for the final push.

Besides the whole city being sold out of hotel rooms thanks to a soccer match, Copenhagen was awesome. One of the most interesting things to us is how diverse the populations are becoming as we move into mainland Europe. For most of the trip we've been in mostly homogenous societies (at least in appearance) - India, SE Asia, China, Japan, Russia, Scandinavia; everyone looks the same. Suddenly, it seems strange to see such diversity - and a little more like home. Did I mention home again?

Here are a couple of photos from Copenhagen...

This is "Nyhavn" - quite touristy, but also very cool.

One more from there...

Copenhagen has great cobblestone pedestrian walkways throughout the old city.

Drink Russian Vodka!

leelefever — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 14:17:00 GMT

Given the opportunity, we will choose to hang out with the locals and in nearly every instance. The vast majority of the time, it has been a rewarding and interesting experience. However, on the Trans-Siberian Railway we’ve learned that there are Russian locals that you don’t necessarily want to “experience” for 2 days on a train.

Peer pressure is an issue on the Trans-Siberian train with consistent reminders from other travelers that this is the “vodka train” and you must drink Russian vodka. This pressure is lost on the Russian locals though as they need no pressure whatsoever to drink on a train. It is a requirement for them and when mixing with foreign travelers the requirement is shared by all.

So we found ourselves in the dining car on the second night of a 48 hour journey from Irkustk to Ekaterineburg.

Between Slava, the gigantic ex-Russian Army captain with bullet wounds and Victor, the pudgy Belushi-esque ex-Mafia family man, we had our hands full. While our English friend Paul was busy being pressured by Slava into drinking more vodka than he wanted, I got a dose of vodka with Victor and his fellow Russian friends, who seemed to be complete blockheads. We drank more, became friends, toasted to health, arm wrestled and looking back I can say that I have never witnessed so many scars on so many people. I think these guys have had a hard life.

For some reason I accepted Victor’s invitation for me and Sachi to come to his room and drink more vodka. Not only did this end up with me losing a few hours of memory, but it caused Sachi to end up babysitting Victor’s Coke-spewing 4 year old child “Sergei” for over an hour. She was not happy and I had no idea why. What I did remember was Victor telling me at some point in the night that the wolf tattoo on his arm was from his 3 year prison term. Apparently had “only killed one person” while in the Russian mafia. Had I had my wits about me, I may have escaped at that point, but I didn’t.

The next day I awoke to a hangover, an upset wife and a half-drunk Russian ex-con banging on the door at 9AM with a 2 liter beer in his hand. We were still friends and he was clearly doing me a favor by bring over the beer. He started with the old Russian saying “A good friend drinks vodka with you yesterday, a great friend drinks vodka with you today!” as if I might appreciate the classical nature of the moment. I would have none of it, despite him barging in, pouring a glass, spilling it on the floor and insisting I drink no less than 15 times. Of course Sachi was now noticing that she would now clean up after both father and son in our compartment. I was at a loss for more ways to say “nyet” – nothing seemed to work. Sachi would later say that when he came in she wanted to kick him in the face. Of course, I was implicit in this frustration.

Later Victor hooked back up with the Blockheads and they formed a roaming band of drunk-in-the-morning Russian annoyances. They went from one end of the train to the other, peer-pressuring everyone from the night before to drink with them. One of them even forced his way into the compartment of understandably shaken American and Canadian girls. He would later be quite accurately called a stalker.

This band of drunks eventually caused the revelers from the night before to close their doors and hide out for the majority of the morning. Many, including Sachi and I ignored knocks at our doors. The foreigners on the train tried to memorize compartment numbers so we could visit one another without keeping a door open. There was talk of passwords being used. We were held hostage by the locals.

By about 1pm the drunk Russians had passed out – we could hear Victor snoring through the compartment walls and from that point the foreigners on the train began to appear like refugees after a bombing campaign. Shaken, annoyed and hungover, we stuck together and decided that drinking with the locals is fun, but sharing 2 days on a train with the same people is another story all together.

Watch the Video Here.

Allergic to China

leelefever — Fri, 8 Sep 2006 14:47:00 GMT

I do love my wife – but she is such a huge nerd. Did you know she has a degree in microbiology? You’d think with such knowledge, she would be more in tune with her own health. Before we left, Sachi saw an allergist and learned that she has allergies to trees and grasses – it affects her every year at home and her allergy medicine, which helps immensely, is in her backpack now. Sometimes Sachi needs a reminder about this fact.

For nearly the entire time that we’ve been in China so far (3 weeks) Sachi has had cold-like symptoms. In fact, I have acquired a cold and gotten over it while her symptoms persist. Just today, I asked Sachi about the possibility of her symptoms being related to her allergies and a light bulb went on. After weeks of sneezing 50 times a day and wiping a chapped nose, the cure seemed so obvious – in fact it was not much further than the pack on her back. As of this afternoon, Sachi has fully recovered from the “cold”, thanks to Zyrtec. DUH.

I do not know why Sachi can’t recognize her own allergies, but I am now on allergy alert on her behalf. Never again will I watch her suffer through weeks of a “cold” only to find that we’ve been sharing the room with the cure the whole time. So much for microbiology.

Line Breaking in China

leelefever — Sat, 2 Sep 2006 13:47:00 GMT

I had made a decision and I was going to act on it. Gone were the days of standing passively in line while Chinese people wedge themselves in front of me and place an order before I could react. I was going stand up for myself and try to be a little more Chinese.

This is not the kind of thing you can plan – it just has to happen and just last night, I had my chance. We were in the Shanghai subway terminal in line for our first subway card at a vending machine, as we’ve done so many times before in other cities. Just as the couple in front of me at the machine received their card and turned away, a young Chinese guy stepped directly in front of me. So, with great determination, I stepped in front of him enough to place my right shoulder at about his eye level and in a single motion stepped directly in front of the vending machine. It was mine! HAHA! I’ll show you line breaker! I’m no push-over tourist softy!

So there I was, with this foreign and unfamiliar machine staring me in the face. It was mine, yes, but I realized all too quickly that I had no idea how to use it. The instructions were in English and the #1 read “Select Fare”. Scratching my head with waves of embarrassment pending, I searched the machine for anything that said “Fare”. Nothing. I inquisitively pressed a couple of random buttons in the hopes that something would happen. Nothing. My pride was on the line here and I was blowing it! Thoughts of fleeing in shame entered my mind when I heard a voice over my shoulder, “Where do you need to go?” It was the line breaker politely asking a simple question that I couldn’t answer completely. All we knew was that we needed to go two stops on Line 2. He ended up doing the whole transaction for me and after many “thank yous” I left with our subway cards in hand and my pride more than a little crushed.

The moral here is that if you’re going to try to act like a local, be prepared for the entire event. Going off half-cocked is a good way to shoot yourself in the foot.

Qingping Market Guangzhou

leelefever — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 01:04:00 GMT

We’ve finally started our month-long journey through China, starting in the huge and industrial city of Guangzhou. This city greeted us with a couple of surprises.

Before we left I remember hearing about an amazing market in Guangzhou where you can find anything that can be eaten – including wild animals from all over China. Upon hearing about such a market, I made sure it was part of our itinerary. The market is called the Qingping Market and it is one of Chinas largest and most famous, for a few reasons.

Upon arriving in Guangzhou and the Victory Hotel on Shamian Island (US$50/night) I was happy to find that the Qingping Market was only a few blocks away to the north. We would make a long, 95(f) degree day of it.

We’ve seen our share of street markets over the last 8 months and Qingping is certainly the granddaddy of them all with an unimaginable assortment of anything that can be dried and eaten, from snake skin to deer tendon and bugs, lots of bugs. However, the market left me frustrated. For one thing, it is hard to understand where the market ends and the city begins- there are no maps or signs or information boards (not a big surprise of course). This set us wandering. Second – as hard as we looked and as many people as we asked, we simply could not find the animals. Where were the stacked cages of raccoons and civet cats? Where is the roasted dog? Everyone who has visited this place has been disgusted by it and dammit- we want to see why!

So we searched and asked more people and even got a map of the area that a person used to denote the location of such a place. This sent us many blocks out of the market on a less-then-figurative wild goose chase. We found nothing. Despite being amazed by buckets of live scorpions, eels, scary looking cats and meat hooks full of unidentifiable meat, we left disappointed that we didn’t find the animals.

It was a frustrating failure for two people who have grown to feel confident in such situations.

Then, upon consulting the Internet, the story began to coalesce. I saw my fist bit of evidence on this Flickr photo, which reads:

At one time, stores featured many exotic animals (for eating). Today after the SARS scare these are mostly gone, or at least hidden in back alleys.

HAH! This was it. It was the SARS virus! So, I looked on Google and found a little more information that actually painted the Qingping Market in a wicked light, from a microbial perspective.

This Environmental News article writes:

The Guangdong provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today that experts from Hong Kong and Guangdong have found a large quantity of the SARS-like coronavirus from civet cats and other wildlife collected from markets in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

National Geographic writes:

Many wild and exotic animals are sold as food in China, such as these raccoons in stacked cages at the Qingping Market in Guangzhou. Some scientists warn that such conditions are ideal for a virus to jump from animals to humans, which likely happened in the case of SARS.

Ahh sweet vindication (both for our search and the wild animals)! We had been frustrated because what we were looking for no longer exists or is too well hidden for travelers to find. We were not being rookies- we (and the people we talked to) lacked a specific piece of information about the recent history of the market. SARS had a very positive effect on the market overall, but one that caused us frustration for a day.

Hong Kong Efficiency

leelefever — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 02:32:00 GMT

After being in SE Asia for a while, Hong Kong was a bit like a trip home. While it is a very westernized city, it retains enough of the Chinese and general Asian “feel” to make it interesting and foreign. We fell in love with the city over about 6 days.

The incredible efficiency of Hong Kong was most fascinating to me. Looking around, there are so many things that I hope we’ll see in Seattle.

The first and coolest is the “Octopus Card”, which operates like a debit card and works for all city transit, 7-11s, McDonalds, drug stores, supermarkets etc. Anywhere you see the little Octopus card reader, you can press your card onto it and money will be deducted from your prepaid account. The first time I used it at a 7-11, the first words out of my mouth were “holy sh*t that's efficient!” You don’t even have to take the card out of a wallet or purse- just hold it over the reader and the money is zapped out.

Last night over dinner we talked to some locals who showed us their Octopus card which had their picture and information on it. For them, the card is used to open the door of their home and other places that require membership. They said that some schools even use Octopus cards for daily attendance. By their estimates, 90-95% of all Hong Kong people have one and most people love it. For people who are worried about privacy or Big Brother, they can choose to get a card with no personal connection. However, they lose some of the convenience. Seattle needs this.

In busy restaurants, the servers have wireless ear pieces that are used for constant communications among the staff. It’s invisible to the customer, but the communication makes service seem magical, as if they are almost reading your mind. You walk in the door and each server looks up and guides you along your way as you wind through the restaurant. The teamwork is remarkable.

The public busses are generally double decker. That’s all I have to say about that.

I’ve never waited so little for the subway. We never waited more than 2 minutes for the next MTR train to arrive and when it did, it would never get too packed with people. Because they run so regularly and often, as a train fills up, people often choose to wait for the next one instead of forcing their way into an already full train.

The world needs more escalators if you ask me. Hong Kong has hot weather and hills- a good recipe for putting escalators to good use. In the hills rising up from the Central area of downtown there are a system of covered escalators called the Mid-Levels, which efficiently shuttle people to and from their hillside high-rise residences and the hip café-culture neighborhood called Soho. The Mid-Levels system ascends 800 meters up the hill, running downhill in the morning and uphill in the afternoon.

Hong Kong must be one of the best air conditioned places on earth. We made up a couple of names for our interaction with the cool air:

AC Poaching – This is shopping in a store for the single purpose of cooling down.
The Hong Kong Arctic Wind – Shops blast cool air onto the sidewalk as an invitation to come inside for some AC poaching. In the dense retail areas of Kowloon the Arctic Wind seemed to lower the overall sidewalk temperature a few precious degrees.

Hong Kong even seems to have served one of my long standing culinary pet peeves. I have never understood why shrimp are served with the tail attached. You often see a nice grilled or sautéed shrimp arrive at your plate with the tail on; obscuring a section of meat and causing the consumer to have to clumsily remove the tail before eating it. So far in Hong Kong, my shrimps have arrived as whole shrimps, tails removed but hidden meat intact. Again, Hong Kong makes something more efficient.

Hong Kong’s efficiency is surely rooted in the money that flows through the city more quickly than almost any city in the world. Hong Kong is quite good at making it easy for people to depart with their money. When it comes in the form of something like the Octopus Card, I’m almost happy to see it go.