Come, Fly With me

June

Neehaw, (Yeehaw with an “N”)

 

My June was spent on vacation in Southern Thailand and Laos, and then off to work in Hong Kong and China.

 

I went to Laos for a Wakefield reunion with the Wenkoffs. Their new ‘home’ in Vientiane is a quiet, lazy little place with lots of temples and cheap dvds .

The EU donated tons of cement for a new airport but the Laotian government thought they needed this massive Victory monument instead.

 

I traveled with a friend to the Sunny south of Thailand and visited Krabi and the Phi Phi (Pee Pee) Islands. There also happens to be a Pu Island, But for obvious reasons we did not visit that one.

 

These Islands are still suffering from the effects of the tsunami 6 months ago:

 

There’s still a lot of work to be done. Anyone wanting to volunteer, can rent a room for a month (100 USD) and spend the day rebuilding a paradise.

 

Truly a worthy cause.

 

 

The fun ended and I headed to Hong Kong to soak up some of the torrential rain that has been pounding Southern China.

 

They have 3 rain warning levels, the highest is black. You don’t go to work when that happens. I went to work during a red warning, which was bad enough, 50 mm per hour.

 

At lunch time I went out and bought an umbrella. It hasn’t rained since I left the store.

 

Naturally.

 

I’m now in Shenzhen, Southern China. Eating with chopsticks is going ok. Mostly I just try to impale my food and hope that something comes up along with the sticky rice.

Some strange things pop up on the menus here. As I was trying to get a picture of this menu the manager came up and took the menu away from me. This has to go on some “engrish” web site somewhere…Check it out:

 

The Chinese people are above tipping, as this is seen as Capitalist nonsense. Suits me fine, they never bring me what I want anyway.

 

We inspected a factory that makes electrical cords for Christmas lights. Long have I dreamt of this moment.

 

I took a few of the workers into a cool room, dropped the temperature to –30, gave them some mitts and a ball of knotted cords and told them not to come out until the knots were out and ALL the lights worked.

 

After half an hour they came out crying and cursing Xmas. Now they know how we feel.

 

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

 

Oh they’re so very loud here. When they’re on the phone, it’s all about yelling louder than the person they’re talking to.

 

Yell as loud as you like, it’s all Chinese to me.

 

Time for dim sum and green tea.

 

Zaijian,

Lars