New Favourite or First World Problems

Yep - it is back to Beijing and like I say, 3rd time is a charm.  With each trip here, I am becoming more and more comfortable with it, although the whole food thing still has me a little edge, although this has yet to lead to any sort of weight loss but I digress.

For this trip I was hoping to fly on Singapore Airlines as they are supposed to have an amazing business class product but I am quickly finding out that unless I book at least 4-6 weeks in advance, they typically sell out, particularly over the weekend & Mondays, which is when I usually want to travel.  On my first trip I flew Lufthansa on the A380 (the double-decker) and it was okay however they don't have lie-flat seats - I know, first world problems, but I will come back to that.  For my 2nd trip to Beijing, which wasn't planned, I flew on Malaysia Airlines from KL and on China Southern back to Amsterdam - both were okay but once again, no lie-flat seats.  I generally also rule out KLM as well because as much as I want to collect the little blue and white houses that you get in business, they too don't have a lie-flat seat - so who does that leave me with.   I think Cathay Pacific, Emerites and Air China, and given that I am trying to requalify for my Aeroplan Super Elite 100K, I went with Air China, which is part of the Star Alliance, and to be honest, I think I have a new favourite airline!

My pre-take off Champagne

The seat is very, very comfortable.  I think it is the same seat that United has put in their new planes (okay - so there is one thing I like about United) and that Air Canada is putting in their new planes as well.  And more importantly, it lies flat.   So why is this so important to me, well the flight to China from Western Europe is between 10-12 hours depending on where you fly from, and generally lands early in the morning in Beijing.  So for me, that means that I land, go to the hotel and have a shower and then off to the office I go and with the time difference (+6 hours), I want to have had some decent sleep on the plane.  With the angle-flat seats that a lot of airlines have, my legs dangle, down, you slide down to the bottom of your footrest and it is generally very uncomfortable.  First world problems I know, but when you land and then go to work, having been able to sleep and get your body adjusted, is important to me.

The food is very good and there is definitely no shortage of it.  Asall flights heading to Asia, you have the option of a Chinese or a Western menu and for this flight, I decided to be adventurous and went with the Chinese menu and it was very good (and there was no donkey or parts).

Amuse bouche

 

Appetizers & salad

They provide you with a very nice (and large) pillow and a large duvet - no thin knit blanket here..   And frankly, being comfortable is important to me, especially when I am in the air for so long.  The only downside with Air China is the movie/TV selection - it is rather limited (reviews had forewarned me) but I came prepared with my laptop loaded up with movies/TV shows.

Most of you probably don't know, but I suffer from minor panic attacks and usually I can talk myself through them, as half of my brain knows that I am having the attack and tries to rationalize with the other half which is flipping out.   There are 3 main places/times when I have them - movie theatres (weird - I know), scuba diving and when flying.   I generally have 1 panic attack per long-haul flight and they usually look like this - my heart starts to race, I start to breath quickly and I think, get me the f*#k out of here now. - this is consistent with all locations. I have this urge/need to get off/out of the plane and while the rationale side of me knows that this isn't possible, the panic side of me continues to flip out.  They usually last 5-10 minutes and when they are over,  I am fine and I suffer in silence - pretty sure that those around me don't even realize that they are happening.  The good news is that I didn't have one on this flight :-)  Yeah me.

Main course - some sort of Chinese prawns - no donkey!

A Little Bit More Lisbon

For our first full day in Lisbon, we got off to a rather late start as we both slept in. I am suffering from a little jet lag having just gotten back from China on Wednesday morning and we left for Lisbon on Wednesday night - that was my excuse. Our first course of action was to get some food, so we asked at the front desk of our hotel what she recommended that was close. Up the street from us was this great little bakery/lunch counter that seemed to fill up with people right after we arrived.  There was a little bit of a language barrier but the woman serving us knew that we were hungry and wanted to eat, so brought us this yummy seafood and rice dish.

Portugese Coke Zero

Our next course of action was to find the Hop On/Hop Off bus stop, which happened to be about a 10 minute walk from our hotel.  For the next hour and half, we happily rode around Lisbon taking in the sites and sounds of the city (and no, we didn't hop off).  After riding most of the Red Line of the bus, we got off in the central part of the old part of Lisbon (it has some name but I don't know what it is) and decided that we wanted to go up to the Castelo De S. Jorge,  which is this old castle that looks over Lisbon. It was built in the 11th century and much of it is still standing. Both Rebecca and I commented on the craftsmanship and wondered how the hell they built this at that time?! It truly is amazing what they did with very little technology (as we know it) 

Now the castle sits up above Lisbon, up high on a hill and honestly, the thought of trekking up there was not high on my list, so we took Tram 28 which a historic tram. Given that the streets in this part of Lisbon are old cobblestone, and the tramline is set in the old

cobblestone, it was a very rough ride up but we both agreed that it was much better than walking! We probably spent a good hour up there just wandering around, looking at the views of Lisbon and just enjoying the great weather.

After the castle, we found the bus (public transit) that would take us back down the hill, not that we were opposed to walking but we saw the bus and it was going where we were wanting to go, so why not?! We went back down to the square (who's name I don't know) where we finally found the elusive gelato. About 4 hours earlier I had said that we should have some gelato - do you think we could find any - no. But lo and behold, just after we got off the bus, I looked across the square and there it was - a gelato place. 

A big international mask festival was being kicked off  in a different square about a block away and we happened to catch the end of it. There were also a bunch of food booths and little kiosks of stuff to buy, including this really cool wool shop where I bought a small purse and Rebecca got the cutest little toque for the winter. While here, we also discovered some amazing food including some sort of cherry liquor in chocolate cups (yummy), a melted cheese on bread - hard to explain - see picture, then it was back to the Portugese bakery stalls, where we each had a chocolate egg tart.  

This is the cheese being melted

OMG these were so good - now I can see why they are so famous!

Trust me - it doesn't look like much but it is oh so good!

By now we had been touring about for 6.5 hours and decided that we would grab the Hop On/Hop Off bus and head back towards our hotel for a little rest, freshen up and would head down to the Port of Lisbon area for supper. Yah - that never happened. We got back to our hotel, and each laid down for a little rest.  I think I fell asleep first and when I woke up, Rebecca was sleeping so I went back to sleep. I heard her go out about 10:30pm I think, and when I got up this morning, I saw that she had McDonalds (it is just down the street from us) and bought me a cheeseburger :-)

Today we are heading out towards Alcochete, where there is a designer outlet mall for some shopping! Alchochote is located on the left bank of the River Tagus and is an authentic/traditional Portugese vaillage - so we should get some culture today as well :-) After that, the plan is to head down to the train station (we know where it is now) and take the train out to Estoril, which is where we will spend Saturday & Sunday, mainly relaxing on the beach, or at least that is the plan for now.

Lisbon Long Weekend

The one downside about living in the Netherlands is the lack of statutory holidays - there aren't as many as there are back in Canada and they all seem to be lumped together within 3 weeks - seriously. We got April 30 for Queen's Day, May 9 for Ascension, May 10 for who knows why and May 20 for WhitMonday and then we don't get anymore stats until Christmas. Unfortunately I didn't get to partake in Queen's Day as I was in Malaysia (and will eventually get all of my blogs posted :-) ) but luckily, I had made plans early in April with a colleague/friend Rebecca to take advantage of the first May long weekend by going to Portugal for 5 days.

I know Rebecca through work but it goes beyond that. When I first started working in oil & gas, I worked with her dad at Anderson/Devon and he used to talk about his daughters Rebecca & Renee who would have been in junior high at the time (this should give you an idea of the age difference). Flash forward about 14 years and her and I now both work for Shell and started to work together on a few projects in Heavy Oil (she is a landman). In early December she found out that she got a short term international assignment (STIA) over to the Netherlands to a place called Groningen and moved there in March. What is good for me is that she loves to travel too, so her and I had got to talking at work and decided that we would try this weekend together.

For me, this is the least planned I have been on a trip, and I am not an uber planner. Essentially, all we had booked was our flights (KLM to Lisbon on Wednesday night) and our hotels in both Lisbon & Estoril. Rebecca was in charge of booking our first 2 nights in Lisbon and I booked our rooms in Estoril and our last night in Lisbon. We are leaving nice, bright and early (6:30am - ugh) on Monday, so I just booked us at the Holiday Inn up by the airport. Rebecca scored for us in Lisbon big time. She booked us into the Clarion Suites, which had decent ratings on TripAdvisor and was in a pretty central location. When we arrived, which was about midnight, the guy upgraded us to the penthouse suite, which was essentially a 2 bedroom apartment. We had a living room, 2 bedrooms each with a king sized bed and 2 full bathrooms - all for 175 euros!

We have nothing planned for this trip except that we would do the Hop On/Hop Off bus to get a sense of the city and then would just go from there. Normally I have done some searching on the internet or picked up a travel book - for this trip - nope. Just winging it!

Married or Single? Depends on the Cab

Once again, I apologize for the randomness of these posts. I think I might have another one or two on my laptop at home about China and I know that I have one on my iPad about this trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – yes, I am here now.

I have taken 3 cab rides so far while I have been here in KL (for the most part I have been taking public transit) and each time, my marital status has been questioned.  Just for the record, I am single.  I have been asked if I was married. If I was single. Did I want a Malaysian boyfriend because he is looking for a woman just like me. All of sudden, I had an imaginary fiancé. :-) My diamond ring comes in handy sometimes and I just casually slipped it over to the other hand in case he looked. I was asked if I was allowed to travel alone? Why wouldn’t I? One cabbie asked me if I had kids and then asked if I was 28 years old. When I told him that I was turning 39, he told me that I’d better get busy on having kids (who said I wanted them!) I have really learned that nothing is off limits with the cab drivers here. And they are the most enterprising bunch. They have all asked me if I need a ride to work or from work each day – I don’t because I have now bought a KL Myrapid Pass and take the LRT to the Sentral Station (their spelling, not mine) and then catch the Shell Shuttle to the office. So far I have spent a total of €2 on travel to and from work – talk about cheap!

As mentioned before, I can be a bit of a picky eater – meaning that I am sensitive to new tastes and particularly textures, so Asia is generally a challenge for me. But not Malaysia! Unlike China, there doesn’t seem to be much of an appetite for “parts”. I think that might have something to do with the fact that is predominantly Muslim here and they avoid pork like the plague. So much so that when you order anything with “sausage”, it is usually some sort of chicken-type product or mystery meat. As for bacon, and we know I LOVE bacon, they have what they call “crisp” here, which is like chicken or turkey bacon. Not the same and not as good, but at least it meets the nitrate laden meat product craving.  As per usual, I have managed to find some Mexican food – at the mall. Last night I had nachos with cream cheese (cheese sauce) and a beef and sausage taco (aka chicken hot dog). Didn’t like the taste of the sausage so I took it out. I haven’t really discovered any street food here as I currently staying in a more upscale area, so there aren’t many vendors but I am hoping this weekend to find a food stall or two where I can have some more local fare. Haven’t have my requisite McDonald’s yet but I am sure that it is coming. Hell, I can’t come to Malaysia and not have McDonald’s! Oh and yesterday when I was out getting my passport photos taken (another story for the next blog), I stopped at Starbucks – yes they are everywhere here, and got to chatting with the girls. Turns out one of the girls working there is moving to Ontario in August and will be going to Waterloo to take kinesiology – what a small world!

Now I know that most of you think that I have this glamorous life of travel, but it isn’t a glamorous as you might think. Yes, I will be the first to admit that I do get to travel a lot and lately, the locales have been a little bit more spectacular than Fort McMurray. With that being said, I need to clarify or set something straight – travel for work, isn’t all that glamorous. Yes, I get to fly business class if my flight is over 4 hours; and yes, I generally get to stay in a 4 or 5 star hotel; and yes, lately I have been going to cool places. So I know that you are sitting there saying “so what isn’t glamorous about that?!” Well for the most parts what I see of a new place is what I pass on my way from the airport to my hotel to the office, and usually anything I see of the actual place, is in the dark and at night. Couple that with the fact that most of my flights lately have been 12+ hours and a 6-7 hour time difference, I usually have jetlag, so going out after work usually loses out to sleep! Throw on top of that living in a hotel for a week and not having any creature comforts. Then the kicker – I am here to work, which takes away all of the fun (and time) of being a tourist. So in essence, I am just moving my work location over to another country – so really, not that glamorous. I do try and build in a little time on either side of my trip, but given that my travel time is now so long, it is hard to build in more time without totally losing my weekends.

It Doesn't Smell Like Chinatown

I know, I know, I am a little behind on my blogs about China - my apologies.  In fact, I have found a bunch of draft blogs saved in various places that I need to/will post.  You know the one thing that I noticed about China is that it didn't smell like Chinatown.   It seems as though it doesn't matter which Chinatown I have ever been in - Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, The Hague, Chinatown has that smell and China didn't smell that way at all.  For a bit I thought that it might be because of the pollution - you could definitely smell that, but I think what it is is that Beijing is so big and there weren't a bunch of markets all squished into 4 square blocks all selling food stuff.

And speaking of pollution, the pollution was beyond the "hazardous" level for most of the days that I was there.  The measure something called PM2.5 (particulate matter 2.5) and normally in a city like Calgary it is something probably under 10?  In Beijing, it was consistently over 400 while I was there, with the exception of one day when it seemed to blow out over night.  What surprises me is that trees and flowers and the like all seem to grown regardless of the pollution - I guess they have adapted, just as the people have.  I was given a face mask when I first got there - no, I didn't wear it except to take some pictures of me with it on, but I also limited my exposure outside.  You did see a fair bit of people wearing them and you can also get them all blinged out.  Mine, unfortunately looked like a standard home improvements type of mask.  I can say that by the end of the week though that my lungs were sore - it almost felt like I was just getting over a cold and they were kinda phlegmy.

So that is that on pollution and China.  I am going back shortly and it will be interesting to 1) see how the trees and the grass are and 2) see I'd the pollution is as bad in the spring.

Chinese Food for Breakfast, Chinese Food for Lunch, Chinese Food for Supper

I wrote this blog entry when I was in China but the Chinese firewall blocked access to my blog when I was there unless I was hooked up to the network at work.  I am just now getting around to actually posting my blogs.

If you follow my blog at all, you will know that I have realized and acknowledged that I am a fussy eater – this really came out when I went to Seoul, Korea a few years back, so when I found out I was coming to China, I immediately started get scared.  You hear all of these stories about the different “things” that they eat over here and by things, I mean parts!  And I don’t eat parts.  Or donkey.

One of my friends asked me what I have been eating and I said “Chinese food” and she called me an “asshole” thinking that it was a flippant response, but it is true – that is all that I have been eating and I am getting tired of it.  It’s not that the food is back because it isn’t, but honestly, eating the same sort of food every day for a week for 2 of your 3 meals gets really tiring.  If I wanted, I could have Chinese for breakfast, lunch and dinner but so far I have limited it to lunch and dinner as my hotel has a buffet at breakfast that includes western food like bacon. . .I LOVE bacon.  Now I have to admit, I was apprehensive on the first day with the bacon because not all bacon is created equal and it did look a little different – it has a different type of marbling, so I only took 1 piece.  Well boy was I ever surprised – the bacon here is AWESOME so I went back for more.  For the mornings when I have gone down for breakfast it has typically been bacon, a croissant, OJ and a cooked tomato – not very exciting I know but honestly, eating congee or some other Chinese creation at breakfast is not my thing.  For the days when I skip breakfast, I am happy to report that there is a Starbucks in our building and even in China, they charge European prices = EXPENSIVE!  (but worth it)

Last night (Wednesday) one of my colleagues, Zhuang wanted to share with us one of his favourite Peking Duck restaurants, so who was I to say no, even though the thought of eating duck scared me, as I have never been a big duck fan.  Well, let’s put it this way, no part of the duck goes to waste!  Just looking at the menu sent me into a mental tizzy.  But boy was the duck ever good!!!  I can honestly say, that I will have Peking duck again (minus the soup with the parts)

So today (Thursday) for lunch my two co-workers asked what I wanted and I said “not Chinese”, so off to Fat Burger it was.  You would swear by how quickly I scarfed down that burger and onion rings that I hadn’t eaten in weeks!  After I ate it, I realized that it was the first “North American” type of food that I have had in 6 weeks since I moved to The Netherlands and boy did it ever taste good!

Chinese Torture

I have come up with two of my own forms of Chinese torture.


#1 – Go into a Chinese lingerie shop and ask them to fit me for a bra.

#2 – At the market where all you hear is “hey lady – wanna buy some shoes? Uggs, Toms, Converse” “I have big feet” “oh, we have you size” “I have big feet” “oh no worry, we have you size” after trying to jam my feet into a shoe “oh you have big feet”.

These are being posted out of order due to the fact that the great Chinese firewall blocks this website.