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Taipei, Taiwan, a place to quell my disquietude
Post Date : 2015-05-20
Taipei, Taiwan
Apr 16 - 23, 2007.
After three years under a tyrannical fascist at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, it was time to move on. Instead of finger-pointing, I discovered that there are two camps of people--those who worship the ground the despicable chairperson walked on and those who spit on the ground he walked on. I spat on it numerously. This trip lasting from April 16 -23, 2007 or the 96th year of the Republic of China in Taiwan was a much needed getaway from the chaos and turmoil at home.
Part of the reason for this trip was to pick up a Ching-styled 1st rank officer robe from a costume maker in Taipei. I had the intention to display it on my apartment wall. In my previous trip in November of 2006, I had identified the shop called Lan Tee and proceeded to place an order with them which require painstaking embroidery of colorful threads to form decorative patterns. When it was ready, we discovered that some alterations were necessary and the seamstress couldn't locate the cap and a replacement had to be made. It wasn't easy to deal this hiccup caused by the seamstress as I had expected a complete set to take with me. Adding salt to the wound, this was a similar situation being replicated all over again--in Taiwan, on a different scale within a different context. Usually, during my trips, many pictures were taken to commemorate the trip but this time, my heart was somewhere else... at la la land perhaps, wishing and hoping that things could have been different. The difference is brought about by how I deal with it. While I couldn't do much about the situation, I could change my fate by doing something about it.
On the plane heading for Taipei, I befriended Angela, a Taiwanese woman in her thirties who runs an educational agency that places students for oversea studies. Although I had decided to transfer to another school within the university, retail therapy helped and having Angela, a stranger from Taiwan who became a confidante helped immensely to quell my disquietude... We reminisced and shared a lot.
A Chinese foreigner in Beijing (1 of 2)
Post Date : 2015-05-20
Shenzhen & Beijing, People's Republic of China
May 23 - Jun 4, 2007.
As someone born and raised outside of China, the only thing that connects me to China is my sense of Chinese-ness through associations in my name, the limited Mandarin and the numerous southern Chinese dialects and a healthy dosage of history books about China. The Middle Kingdom, to me is what the saying 藕斷絲連 [Ou duan si lian] is which basically describes people who are apart but remain connected in each other's heart like the silky fibers found in lotus roots.
I need a familiar face to be my tour guide and who would be better suited for the position that my brother who was already in Shenzhen prior to my arrival on May 23. Jin joined me the following day for some errands before we left for Beijing on an internal flight on May 25th. A ride from the airport to our hotel shouldn't take more than 40 minutes but a damn con artist/cab driver in a black sedan duped an hour's worth of our precious time, not to mention the extra Renminbi (RMB) he made under the pretext that he was trying to avoid traffic. Barely at the hotel and we were already being scammed! We met up with Liz Gisselberg, an American customer of Jin's whose husband is now stationed in Beijing. For fun, both of us dressed similarly when we visited Panjiayuan market before stopping at Hard Rock cafe where I noticed decals on the ceiling featuring famous singers with Chinese landmarks. We parted at Wangfujing for some shopping before beginning our foot journey to the Palace Museum. I was in awe of the magnificence of what used to be the most powerful center of all China. That probably explains why when the communist came into power in 1949, the constructed the People's Hall just outside of the palace.
Prior to the trip, I was suffering from cough and the bad air quality in Beijing didn't help. We decided to join a one-day tour and instead of going for an English-speaking tour, we joined the Chinese ones and all the unpleasant expectations begin to pop up one by one. Never mind about the substandard service, I could only understand about 40% and sometimes 0% of what came out of the tour guide's mouth. Even my Chinese-educated brother was having a tough time understanding him. Our first stop was at the Ming tomb followed by the Great Wall. We both kept getting treated like not worthy tourist or at least being yelled at a lot but when I had enough in trying to reason in Mandarin and replaced it with English instead, at the very least people would leave us alone. I turned to my brother and said, "this is one great language to dominate!"
A Chinese foreigner in Beijing (2 of 2)
Post Date : 2015-05-20
We really picked a wrong time to visit Beijing because some of the major buildings in the Palace Museum such as the the The Gate of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Supreme Harmony and the Confucius temple were under constructions. Upon close inspection, I thought they were plastering wood structures with cement and it seemed like a wrong thing to do if they were to preserve these old buildings. There was nothing much they could do about the Yuan Ming Yuan, a lavish European styled palace which was it was never rebuilt after French and British troops looted and burned it down during the Second Opium War of 1860.
Jin was nervous about taking the subway as he is used to driving but we found that it was easy to get around once we figured it out. After all, this was his first time to get on the subway although he had visited China numerous times. It was a lot of firsts for me: the first time to see the palace museum; the first time to see pandas up close and the first time to see people squatting openly in a public toilet! Children wear pants with slits that easily allow them to do their business wherever necessary at any time. It was hard for a foreigner like me to accept but again, this is China which never ceases to amaze its visitors.
Compared to the Palace Museum, Yihe yuan of the Summer Palace wasn't as crowded and it was more relaxing when we sat down to enjoy a performance at the Grand Stage (Daxi lou). As though recognition is so important that even the toilets were star-rated! The view from the observation deck of CCTV tower was breath-taking and when I noticed a long scroll of red of cloth well-wishers, I joined in to write "Good Luck, China" in wishing them the best for the Olympics in 2008. In a congested city where buildings are needed quick and cheap, they have built many functional buildings without much design sensibilities and they appear like matchboxes with little holes on them from far.
We left Beijing on May 31 and headed back to Shenzhen before we took a train Guangzhou to visit Henry Lim, a Singaporean lecturer who now works at Raffles Design Institute. it was fun to see the previous streets dating back to the 12th which were unearthed at Guangzhou's Beijing Lu. Our last stop was at Shenzhen before Jin parted with me on June 1st while I extended my stay till the 4th of June. So many things to see and buy, so little time and money left...
Lonnie 'The Bunny Farm' Wheeler
Post Date : 2015-05-20
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Bangkok & Chiangmai, Thailand
Dec. 4 - 25, 2007
Lonnie took a picture of my sign "Lonnie 'The Bunny Farm' Wheeler" when he exited the gate at Changi Airport in Singapore. He flew all the way from Lubbock, Texas, arriving on December 4, 2007 and it was the first time we met since I left Lubbock in 2002 after completing my doctorate at Texas Tech University. Back then, we nicknamed a place called "The Bunny Farm" where they used to raise bunnies and it is now a playground for lonely men. After a short trip in Singapore, we took a 6-hour bus ride to the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. We were both set in our own ways of doing things and many compromises had to be made. Against my advice, he decided to haul his big luggage and it wasn't advisable especially when we had to clear the customs in Johore in Malaysia. In addition, we needed to find a hotel upon arrival in Kuala Lumpur (KL) and if I were traveling alone, I wouldn't go for a RM320 per night room at Berjaya Times Square but with Lonnie's big luggage, we had become easy targets in a crime-prone KL. Apart from the picture snapping activities during travels, two memorable events happened: Lonnie had misplaced our hotel key on Dec 7 and which cost him us RM250 and a 40-minute waiting for a locksmith to arrive in the middle of the night. While waiting, the previous Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia (King of Malaysia) from 2001 to 2006, Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin walked by, a few away from us. HM is now the ruler of Perlis, the smallest state in Malaysia in the northern part of the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
A simple exercise of handing my credit card over to Sharon Cheung at Woo Hing for my first Rolex taught me one important lesson as I have a tendency to be evasive about decision-making and it is about being resolute. There was a sense of satisfaction in owning a well crafted piece of time-telling machine but it had also burned a big hole in my pocket. We left KL on the 10th of December and shortly after our arrival in Singapore, we had to pack for Bangkok the following day. Against my advice again, Lonnie, citing the reason that he simply didn't have enough time, had decided to haul his big luggage again, making us an easy target the second time over. Lonnie was reliant on me but yet he wasn't as receptive to my advice. I felt that I was looking after a baby and he was a liability, a responsibility and when the going got tough, Dionne Warwick's "That's what friends are for" was played in my mind as a reminder. Nonetheless, it became stressful for me as some rules and expectations were not established and communicated. And when it came time to do so, we were at the end of our patience. we visited Ayuthaya on December 12, Chiangmai from December 16 - 18 before returning to Bangkok to wrap up our trip till the 25th of December. At the Suam Lum market, I placed an order for a custom designed daybed/couch for my living room. I had prepared a sketch during our trip in Chiangmai. At the end of our trip from December 4 - 25, on a positive note, we discovered many things about each other.
Other travels in 2007
Post Date : 2015-05-20
Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia
Jul. 17 - 24, 2007 for mom's 74th birthday.
Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia
Jun. 13 - 22, 2007.
Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia
Feb. 14 - Mar 2, 2007 for Chinese New Year.
Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia
Dec. 15, 2006 - Jan. 5, 2007.
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