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Random Chinese thoughts, or Cheech's temp blog


Cheech

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So it appears that Facebook and youtube are both blocked by the Great Firewall of China, so my only outlet for snark while I'm in Shanghai are you good people. Lucky you. I promise not to make 10 threads, I'll keep all my blogging here.

People on 2 wheels here are INSANE. I've seen 125cc cruisers with sheet metal tacked onto the sides where highway bars might go, I'm guessing that's to deflect water spray. If you can last here for 15 minutes, you can ride anywhere in the US, up to and including NYC. Some of the other Americans here were telling me they saw an entire family of 5 on a scooter, and that some dude in a 3-wheeled bicycle with a cart on the back was hauling a washer/dryer, 3 27in TV's, and a rear projection TV. Traffic is a complete free-for-all, nevermind about lines, rights-of-way, any of that. The locals tell me that it's better to not make eye contact with anyone not a pedestrian while crossing, eye contact only seems to want to make them drive towards you.

Flight was uneventful. 13 hours is a LONG time to spend on a plane, and it gets a hell of a lot longer when I'm sitting next to some guy that's literally spilling out into my seat. Protip to whoever is thinking about long-haul travel beyond 4 hours: Make DAMN sure that the plane has in-seat entertainment. My flight to Amsterdam was 6 hours, but it was a lot easier with a LCD in front of me and about 15 movies to choose from. Airbus A330's and 777's have this, 747's definitely do not.

More to come.

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Dude, bring us all back some stuff we can't get here in the states...

like rice.

I'll have to get these pics, apparently someone thought it was a good idea to use 3 lanes of a 4 lane roadway to dry rice.

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Here they are. Most everyone here was pretty understanding of it apparently, but since they only left one lane and the shoulder (which everyone drives on anyway), if the truckers needed to get through they would just drive on top of it.

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Here they are. Most everyone here was pretty understanding of it apparently, but since they only left one lane and the shoulder (which everyone drives on anyway), if the truckers needed to get through they would just drive on top of it.

now you know where that organic fancy brown rice at whole foods gets all that earthy flavor from.

suckers.

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I'll have to get these pics, apparently someone thought it was a good idea to use 3 lanes of a 4 lane roadway to dry rice.

hmmm.... reminds me of flying over a hill on a Honda CL350, with a girl on back, to find a rice harvest in progress blocking my lane of a two lane country road. Did a drum brake stoppie right up to this farm dude's feet...

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Cheech I know you're a liberal, but visiting commies in China for a field trip.. so not necessary, there's plenty of commies in the U.S. Well have fun, stay out of trouble, and if you get a massage don't forget to ask for the happy ending.

You have to ask for it? Thats weak, they just give it to me.

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Good morning campers!

I had mentioned before about the ridiculous amount of scooters on the roads. It's interesting to note that most of the electric scooters or mopeds will actually shut off their headlights at night to conserve battery power. I don't understand what a full battery will get you if you get smacked by a car at night, but oh well. I can absolutely say that these are some of the best urban riders in the WORLD. Rain, fog, haze, it doesn't matter. It's kinda funny as you're turning a corner in our van you'll see an entire army of them coming right at you.

Last night we had dinner at a noodle shop about 100 meters from the hotel. One of the guys I've been traveling with is originally from Vietnam and is quite the food adventurer, so on seeing duck tongue on the menu he had to have it. I'll throw up some pics once I get them off my phone.

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what you doing over there again? nobody else seems to wanna answer me :(

Installing voice over IP phones for our international sites, and upgrading/refreshing their network infrastructure. When we're done it will be possible to call our sites here from the US using a 5 digit extension for free, or to call someplace in the US from China and only be charged for a local or long distance call, since it will come out of the phone lines in Columbus instead of China.

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