Macau 05/06

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2006-06-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

The post office headquarters in Macau. At night.

Here is a picture of one of my classes. Notice the eager, engaged, and inspired looks on their faces.

Is that a couple of live ducks in a bag? Yes, yes it is.

This was taken somewhere along King's Road. At night.

The Macau rugby team in Jakarta, Indonesia.

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2006-06-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

This was taken on a Chinese island looking across into Macau. Although it is about a ten minute swim, it took a fourty-five minute bus ride, an hour long wait in customs, and then another twenty minute car ride to get an outside picture of Coloane.

Downtown Macau in the heat of summer.

I took this during one of the many monsoons that sweep across Macau. This spring, the largest South China Sea typhoon in the last twenty years headed straight for us, but it veered off at the last minute, bringing nothing more than some slight showers and a lot of disappointment for me.

The center of Macau.

My favorite building in Macau, a bank building incorporated into the existing colonial architecture.

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2006-04-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

One of the many vendors selling kites on Tienamen Square.

This is the crazy street where our hostel was.

Some of the many street vendors in Beijing. The red candied fruits are a famous treat in northern China.

Not Beijing but Hong Kong, this was the Hong Kong Sevens stadium, where I spent three days watching outstanding rugby.

Sunset. Beijing.

2006-04-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

Although it is more symbolic than utilitarian, the military presence in Beijing was much more noticeable than in the south.

A guardian of the Imperial Palace.

A view of the Imperial Palace.

Just outside of a crowded parkspace where old people where playing cards, I saw this guy focusing his chi.

Somehow the fog and sand made this pic turn into more of a Dutch painting than a photograph, but this was taken atop of the Great Wall of China. We took a little trek a few hours away from where all of the tourists go and got to climb, play, and enjoy the wall without anyone else for miles.

Laos

2006-02-17T08:24:00.000-08:00

This is actually a tributary that flows into the Mei Kong, but it gives an idea of the terrain.

These children had never seen a foreigner before and were quite afraid to get near us. Every time I tried to take a picture, all of the little heads would duck down out of site, so I had to take this shot hidden behind my back.

At the top of the stairs is the monk that took us to his village, a mere 18 mile roundtrip walk away.

A friendly street vendor let Joe take over roasting the squid and assorted seafood.

Laos

2006-02-17T08:15:00.000-08:00

"Are those bugs for sale?", you ask. Yes, yes they are. Joe and I ate meal worms, silk worms, crickets, and a three inch scorpion. It was as disgusting as it sounds.

Tuk tuks, open air three-wheelers, are the only way to travel.

This is a shot from the dining table of the hostel/ silk worm farm we stayed at in Vang Vienne Laos.

The bus dropped us off in what first appeared to be the middle of nowhere, but what turned out to be an old US airstrip that served as Vang Vienne's main street.

Here is a ferry boat on the Mei Kong.

Thailand

2006-02-16T06:21:00.000-08:00

The main temple complex in Bangkok.

What can I say? Monkey Town. There was a section of this town in Thailand where monkeys just ran around wild everywhere. When pickup trucks stopped at stop lights, the drivers would have to get out and fend of free-riding monkeys with broom sticks. Awesome.

There were some formidable lion guardians at most Buddhist temples.

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2006-02-16T06:09:00.000-08:00

Haerbin plays host to the International Snow Sculpting Competition, even showcasing a few teams that come to Rockford. Here you can see, though, that the Chinese blow Rockford's competition out of the water in terms of scale.

- It was so cold in Haerbin...
- How cold was it?
- It was so cold that they sold ice cream... on the street! Ok, not funny. But true.

Here is where you buy tickets for the giant ice castle slide in the background.

Your average roadside truck stop on the way to a ski "resort" outside of the city.

This is in a market in Nanjing on Christmas day.

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2005-12-15T06:54:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite park in Macau, with a surprising amount of trees and quiet corners, despite being parked in the middle of downtown Macau.

Some preparations for Christmas. The seasonal workers actually have a steady yearlong job taking down and putting up decorations. The day before this was taken, they were taking down some decorations for a Chinese festival, and before that, there were decorations for some Portuguese holiday. Macau never stops the party!

This picture was shot coming back from the Chinese border gate; this is the mostly densely populated place in the world. And little ladies run handtrucks of Red Bull and Gatorade across the border up to 40 crossings a day because you can legally take across one box at a time and the old women sell it for a marginal mark-up. Take that, WTO!

Here's the Macau rugby team accepting the Plate trophy.

Here is another picture of some of the guys.

Shanghai Weekend

2005-12-15T06:41:00.000-08:00

The red lights in the doorway are candles at a shrine to the god of wealth and commerce. These shrines are in displayed more or less prominently in every restaurant I have seen in China.

This woman could tell me the price of anything before she even looked at what I was pointing to. It was always too much.

Here is another photo taken in Suzhou [Sue-Joe], the garden city".

After being in Shanghai for all of about 45 minutes, four Chinese students about my age struck up a conversation with me, made friends, and invited me to the tea ceremony they were going to. Although I have some very unflattering pictures of the five of us, here is the young woman who explained to us the proper way to hold and drink a half dozen different kinds of tea.

Shanghai Weekend

2005-12-15T06:24:00.000-08:00

A photo of Shanghai's strip at night. This street runs into the Bund, A 150 year old section of British colinial control modeled after the major periods of Western architectural design: classical, Gothic, renaissance, eclectic and modern.

Like Chicago, Shanghai has a very monolithic, granite feel to it. Unlike Chicago, there is no real downtown strip and sky scrapers reach up 360 degrees around you for miles.

This was a pagoda and temple in Suzhou [Sue-Joe], the "garden city", an hour train ride outside of Shanghai.

Here is a quieter section of Shanghai where our conference was held. Fer cute, eh?

The wealth gap was considerable; I felt like "new Shanghai" was just dropped down in chunks on the older, more impoverished sections. City blocks of beautiful new buildings and parks would be surrounded on all sides by demolished buildings and sidewalk clotheslines.

Shanghai Weekend

2005-12-11T20:30:00.001-08:00

Since I around, I spent a few hours defending the princess's castle.

People flew kites in all of the public parks.

From this vantage point on a pedestrian overpass, you can see how bikers still rule the streets (and sidewalks) of Shanghai.

This is a photo of the tallest building (not structure, that is the Shanghai TV tower) in Shanghai. Erika and I sipped martinis on the top floor literally surrounded by clouds.

Here is some evidence that the Latin influence in Macau is still strong enough to stop people from doing anything, even flying, before 10 AM. the Macau airport was completely empty.

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2005-11-06T08:11:00.000-08:00

I like this picture of a city gardiner woman laughing. Normally, they tie scarves over their faces to protect themselves from sun and pollution.

Judging from the looks of it, it would appear to be a picture of a wall.

... and then I remember I am in the South China Sea.

The view from my office window towards Coloane.

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2005-11-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

This predominant cathedral overlooks downtown Macau.

Here is a shot of the greatest place in Macau: my patio. Although you can't see it, there is a travel hammock in the foreground which is where I spend approx. 50% of my time. And the plant holder in the back-left corner is actually a little Webber grill. What more can I ask for in life than these two things on a patio?

Normally, at four o'clock the streets are overwhelmed by an army of uniformed school children running to by juice boxs and forget the day's tedium. This back alley was a quiet hide-out from the multi-colored throngs.

On the top of the highest hill in Macau, there is a park with a full size Chinese Chess board. It looks to be worth the climb.

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2005-11-06T07:46:00.000-08:00

Busy at work sorting roots, or snakes, or maybe worms. I couldn't quite tell. The smell deterred further investigation.

This photo reminds me more of Morocco than Macau, but the Portuguese influence is still strong in most of Macau's state buildings.

I thought the lighting in the background of this picture was quite interesting, as if the sky demarcated a good side and bad side side of Taipa.

This shot was taken from the jet foil to Hong Kong. About an hour trip, the boat actually goes so fast that it rides just above the water rather than on it through some feat of physics. Or perhaps by the grace of A-ma, Macau's resident goddess of the sea.

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2005-11-06T01:25:00.000-08:00

No matter how old or new the building, everything in Macau is convered in a damp and lazy rust that makes it difficult to date architecture.

Badmitton is definately the nation's number one pastime. Students and grandmothers play in every available open space not dominated by zipping motor scooters.

I thought this cathedral repair was a good example of the bamboo scaffolding (East) encaging a Catholic church (West).

As popular as Dragon Boat Racing is here in Macau, I guess the turnover on sea-worthy vessels is pretty high. Macau just won a gold medal in the East Asian Games for Dragon Boat Racing. Wooo!

Photographs

2005-10-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a shot of the rugby pitch in Hong Kong. I'm the one in green and white. We are winning.

The Portugues influence in Macau translates into a lot of pastels. And cheese. It's one of the only places in China where you can buy cheese.

Here is some street work being done in preparation for the East Asian games in Macau starting next week. I have been told that the number of people visiting for the Olympics-style event will quadruple the population of Macau. And it's already in the top ten most densly populated places in the world. Great.

Photographs

2005-10-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

This shot almost got me run over, but it gives a good idea of how hectic the traffic can be. I learned quickly that to cross the street, you step out without looking and trust the brakes of oncoming traffic.

One of the first things I noticed in Macau was the number of mopeds than zip around town, usually without paying much heed to such minor details as traffic laws, pedestrians or even streets.

Erika, my Grinnell partner, and Candy, our Macanese guide-turned-best-friend, going into our favorite restaurant, Dumpling Dumpling Town.

Photographs

2005-10-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

On Coloane, the most undeveloped island of Macau, there this amazing little beach that somehow the majority of visitors seem to overlook. I come here and play Chinese chess with a young man whose parents own a small cafe here on Choc Van beach.

This view is atop the old lighthouse that stands as the tallest point in Macau. It overlooks the jet-foil terminal and a remodeled "old" section of Macau's dock district. The bridge in the background is one of three conecting the peninsula to my island, Taipa.

On the opposite side of the lighthouse, you can get a great view of Macau peninsula, where the majority of people live and work. The Macau Tower is one of the ten tallest freestanding structures in the world...whatever that means.

Photographs

2005-10-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

A quiet morning walk.

This photograph gives you a concept of the transitory nature of Macau. Greenspace and small village-style housing are quickly being replaced by towering skyscrapers and increasingly-looming casinos.

This was taken in a mid-19th century merchant's house open to the public only on holidays.