http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Xujiahui/blog-561904.html
Click on that link for the new blog site I'll be using this month. If anything will go wrong with this trip, it hasn't happened yet, so I'm expecting the worst and hoping for the best.
Cheers
Steve
Wednesday 19 January 2011
A Snow Start
Today's weather: High = 0 Low = -3
Snow accumulating to 2 inches
OK so it looks beautiful outside my apartment window as Shanghai seldom gets snow, and it makes things very aesthically pleasing with the trees and the apartment buildings covered in the white stuff. Obviously some good photo and video opps and you'll see them on my other blog soon enough.
But the thing is, I'm rather worried if my Spring Festival trip is gonna get off the ground as Shanghai and surrounding area are unprepared for snow. Granted, 2 inches is hardly a lot of snow, you would think. But to get an idea of what this means, picture a city in the south like New Orleans or Atlanta getting this kind of weather. Then, throw in millions of more people trying to travel for the holidays, mix in a transport system taxed to the max, and you've got the idea. In the past, flights have been grounded and travel disrupted all over South China just because of a few inches of snow.
Let's face it, the south of China is not prepared for snow. They are supposed to get mild winters. Buildings are also designed for mild winters, not what we're getting now. Proof? My kitchen tiles are falling apart because of this weather (see last post). And finally as I type this, a car is skidding outside trying to get outside the compound gate.
So yeah I'm rather worried here. Here's the gameplan:
1. Take the afternoon train to Hangzhou -- the train option was a good call, opting out of the bus!
2. Attempt to take my evening flight to Guangzhou.
a. If it leaves the airport and lands in Guangzhou, then refer to #5
b. If it's canceled or grounded, then book another flight from a destination further south (Wenzhou)
3. Use the emergency train ticket I got to travel from Hangzhou to Wenzhou
4. Take an afternoon flight to Guangzhou
5. Transfer to the flight to Bangkok leaving a day later than today (just in case of emergencies)
Snow accumulating to 2 inches
OK so it looks beautiful outside my apartment window as Shanghai seldom gets snow, and it makes things very aesthically pleasing with the trees and the apartment buildings covered in the white stuff. Obviously some good photo and video opps and you'll see them on my other blog soon enough.
But the thing is, I'm rather worried if my Spring Festival trip is gonna get off the ground as Shanghai and surrounding area are unprepared for snow. Granted, 2 inches is hardly a lot of snow, you would think. But to get an idea of what this means, picture a city in the south like New Orleans or Atlanta getting this kind of weather. Then, throw in millions of more people trying to travel for the holidays, mix in a transport system taxed to the max, and you've got the idea. In the past, flights have been grounded and travel disrupted all over South China just because of a few inches of snow.
Let's face it, the south of China is not prepared for snow. They are supposed to get mild winters. Buildings are also designed for mild winters, not what we're getting now. Proof? My kitchen tiles are falling apart because of this weather (see last post). And finally as I type this, a car is skidding outside trying to get outside the compound gate.
So yeah I'm rather worried here. Here's the gameplan:
1. Take the afternoon train to Hangzhou -- the train option was a good call, opting out of the bus!
2. Attempt to take my evening flight to Guangzhou.
a. If it leaves the airport and lands in Guangzhou, then refer to #5
b. If it's canceled or grounded, then book another flight from a destination further south (Wenzhou)
3. Use the emergency train ticket I got to travel from Hangzhou to Wenzhou
4. Take an afternoon flight to Guangzhou
5. Transfer to the flight to Bangkok leaving a day later than today (just in case of emergencies)
House is Falling Apart!!
A short while ago there was this loud CRACK sound eminating from my kitchen. I ventured in to see most of the marble wall tiles had caved outwards and were on the verge of a complete fall down. Obviously it's the cold weather at play here. When I heat up the house in the evenings, this causes the walls to expand slightly. When I turn off the heater while at work, the inside cools down to about 5-10 degrees depending where you are in the apartment.
The kitchen tiles face the most expansion and contraction, and when this happens all winter, it's only a matter of time before they fall off. This is a real piss-off and a similar thing has happened in the guest room. Unfortunately there is no time to deal with these issues now. It is more or less a guarantee that the tiles will fall down completely during the holiday and there's gonna be a mess when I get back. But calling for repairs now is out of the question as it will only delay my departure.
Best thing I could do was put a bunch of blankets and soft covering on the floor so the tiles will be salvaged when they fall and won't shatter. Coming back, will get my secretary to look at this and call for repairs, saying that it basically happened over the break and I had nothing to do with this.
The kitchen tiles face the most expansion and contraction, and when this happens all winter, it's only a matter of time before they fall off. This is a real piss-off and a similar thing has happened in the guest room. Unfortunately there is no time to deal with these issues now. It is more or less a guarantee that the tiles will fall down completely during the holiday and there's gonna be a mess when I get back. But calling for repairs now is out of the question as it will only delay my departure.
Best thing I could do was put a bunch of blankets and soft covering on the floor so the tiles will be salvaged when they fall and won't shatter. Coming back, will get my secretary to look at this and call for repairs, saying that it basically happened over the break and I had nothing to do with this.
Holiday Approaching, Signing Off
The last class ended today. As it so happens, the long-anticipated winter holiday break is finally here! As I've mentioned repeatedly in this blog:
1) The weather these days have been bone-chillingly cold and it hasn't let up
2) Work has been busy and I haven't had a break in ages
3) Warm weather and relaxation awaits.
4) The beginning of the holiday has some uncertainty as to how I'll be leaving!
For the details of how this trip unfolds, please point your browsers to:
http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Xujiahui/blog-555712.html
Unlike this blog, there will be more pictures posted there, and it's also going to be duplicated to the Crazy Guy on a Bike website.
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com
The thing is, however, both of those blogs won't get many new updates. While first landing in Thailand I'm going to get on facebook, sort out all the past crap with my account, and rejig the security settings. Once that's straightened out, I'll post a general entry to the blog about how I left China during the winter weather, and we'll leave things at that.
The rest of the updates won't happen until a month later once I've got all the photos and can work from there directly.
I'm more or less taking a hiatus from the internet for the next month. The laptop and cell phone stay here, and the only electronic thing going with me is a camera.
The one benefit of facebook and other net access being blocked in China is that it's possible to live without it. Similarly, a backpacking type of vacation need not be tech-laden, and it can do without all those gadgets. I read a recent article about how today's backpackers carry around gadgets, cell phones, noteboook computers, Ipods, Skype, GPS and many other things. It can be an advantage on occasion, but it's now gotten to a point where you've never really out of touch, and people expect you to always be in touch. Not this time -- I'll be disappearing off the radar for awhile.
See you in a month's time.
1) The weather these days have been bone-chillingly cold and it hasn't let up
2) Work has been busy and I haven't had a break in ages
3) Warm weather and relaxation awaits.
4) The beginning of the holiday has some uncertainty as to how I'll be leaving!
For the details of how this trip unfolds, please point your browsers to:
http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Xujiahui/blog-555712.html
Unlike this blog, there will be more pictures posted there, and it's also going to be duplicated to the Crazy Guy on a Bike website.
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com
The thing is, however, both of those blogs won't get many new updates. While first landing in Thailand I'm going to get on facebook, sort out all the past crap with my account, and rejig the security settings. Once that's straightened out, I'll post a general entry to the blog about how I left China during the winter weather, and we'll leave things at that.
The rest of the updates won't happen until a month later once I've got all the photos and can work from there directly.
I'm more or less taking a hiatus from the internet for the next month. The laptop and cell phone stay here, and the only electronic thing going with me is a camera.
The one benefit of facebook and other net access being blocked in China is that it's possible to live without it. Similarly, a backpacking type of vacation need not be tech-laden, and it can do without all those gadgets. I read a recent article about how today's backpackers carry around gadgets, cell phones, noteboook computers, Ipods, Skype, GPS and many other things. It can be an advantage on occasion, but it's now gotten to a point where you've never really out of touch, and people expect you to always be in touch. Not this time -- I'll be disappearing off the radar for awhile.
See you in a month's time.
Tuesday 18 January 2011
Blog Break for a Month
Today's weather: High = 2 Low = -1
Cloudy, some showers
So after a rather long but productive semester at a new school, new job, teaching new courses, in a new city (relative to the last four I was in), I think it's time for a break. Hopefully this will be a genuine break without anything going wrong! The last three years have been fraught with 'fighting fires' and other kinds of stress as it were, too many stories to recall.
Recently, things look to be settling into a stable pattern for life and work again. Both on the job and off have been very fruitful since September. I signed the form to stay on this school for another year. This is actually the first school since 2006-08 Dalian where I've in fact decided to stay longer than a year.
In retrospect I could have hacked the other past schools I worked at and stayed longer than a year. At this particular point in time, it's awfully tempting to say that Wuhan was a better deal since they have 5 weeks of winter holiday, whereas we only get 3 weeks. But overall life is pretty good here, and all this experience at various schools can help draw up a summary table of the various pros and cons. I'll try to stick with 5 each.
Dalian and Wuhan
+ 5 weeks winter break
+ more students, so more course selection and offerings (now a semester school)
+ excellent focus on university prep and study plans in general for students.
+ pay is very good, costs are lower in these cities
+ good scooter riding opportunities (Wuhan only)
- located in the suburbs (Wuhan better)
- strict rules, long working hours, lesson plans, too much face-time (non-productive time filling), they have to stay an extra week in July.
- social life is terrible (Dalian better)
- weather in both cities is harsh.
- traffic in Wuhan is atrocious
Sino Canada (outskirts of Shanghai)
+ 2 weeks break for Christmas, none of the others schools have this
+ really, really good students and principal
+ best place to learn how to ride a scooter/motorbike and the general adventures of exploring with it
+ it's a semester school, so the course offerings are better and more convenient
+ nice working hours, Friday's finish at 11am which is perfect for the scooter ride downtown in no traffic
- location is terrible, if wanting a life, requires countless long commutes to/from downtown SH in all weather, either on sketchy transport or on a scooter. This is especially a problem in winter.
- only 2 weeks available for Spring Festival, not enough for major trips. Before Spring Fest, need to spend time on campus in the weeks right up to event, even during. This can be a real problem with all the noise, crowds, fireworks, etc.
- housing not provided, can really add up if getting a place in downtown Shanghai or going there on weekends all the time
- they pay in RMB, not Canadian dollars
Nanyang (presently)
+ located right in downtown Shanghai, no commuting, very little traffic hassles
+ school takes great care of the teachers (housing allowance, medical insurance, etc.)
+ no tax on the salary since they quote a net salary after the company pays Chinese tax
+ social life in Shanghai is excellent
+ class periods are 40 minutes, working hours are relaxed, classrooms equipped with video
- living costs in the city are very expensive ; life is also quite stressful
- photocopy reources are underdeveloped
- not enough students to offer a variety of courses, also not a semester school
- students tend to be lacklustre and they don't work hard
- winter weather is a problem
Of course, you take the good with the bad at any of these places, and you can always put a positive spin on things if you want to. For example, the commuting situation at Sino Canada will forever be memorable, and it made a daily dose of adventure that is not found in downtown. Similarly, the bad traffic in Wuhan made for a satisfied achievement every time I crossed the river.
Part of the overall problem is short-sightedness when it comes to all this stuff. In the specific moment, I'll be thinking of the benefit or the cost about a certain item, compare with the alternatives, and overlook the big picture. For example, now I'm saying how jealous I am of the Wuhan colleagues who get 5 weeks winter break and we only get 3 weeks. But these are the same guys who worked their tails off daily for the whole year. We routinely finished around 2pm and had leisurely hours, so it's only fair they get a longer winter holiday than us.
Somehow it all balances out. For now, I'll be signing off this blog and taking a break from the internet.
Cloudy, some showers
So after a rather long but productive semester at a new school, new job, teaching new courses, in a new city (relative to the last four I was in), I think it's time for a break. Hopefully this will be a genuine break without anything going wrong! The last three years have been fraught with 'fighting fires' and other kinds of stress as it were, too many stories to recall.
Recently, things look to be settling into a stable pattern for life and work again. Both on the job and off have been very fruitful since September. I signed the form to stay on this school for another year. This is actually the first school since 2006-08 Dalian where I've in fact decided to stay longer than a year.
In retrospect I could have hacked the other past schools I worked at and stayed longer than a year. At this particular point in time, it's awfully tempting to say that Wuhan was a better deal since they have 5 weeks of winter holiday, whereas we only get 3 weeks. But overall life is pretty good here, and all this experience at various schools can help draw up a summary table of the various pros and cons. I'll try to stick with 5 each.
Dalian and Wuhan
+ 5 weeks winter break
+ more students, so more course selection and offerings (now a semester school)
+ excellent focus on university prep and study plans in general for students.
+ pay is very good, costs are lower in these cities
+ good scooter riding opportunities (Wuhan only)
- located in the suburbs (Wuhan better)
- strict rules, long working hours, lesson plans, too much face-time (non-productive time filling), they have to stay an extra week in July.
- social life is terrible (Dalian better)
- weather in both cities is harsh.
- traffic in Wuhan is atrocious
Sino Canada (outskirts of Shanghai)
+ 2 weeks break for Christmas, none of the others schools have this
+ really, really good students and principal
+ best place to learn how to ride a scooter/motorbike and the general adventures of exploring with it
+ it's a semester school, so the course offerings are better and more convenient
+ nice working hours, Friday's finish at 11am which is perfect for the scooter ride downtown in no traffic
- location is terrible, if wanting a life, requires countless long commutes to/from downtown SH in all weather, either on sketchy transport or on a scooter. This is especially a problem in winter.
- only 2 weeks available for Spring Festival, not enough for major trips. Before Spring Fest, need to spend time on campus in the weeks right up to event, even during. This can be a real problem with all the noise, crowds, fireworks, etc.
- housing not provided, can really add up if getting a place in downtown Shanghai or going there on weekends all the time
- they pay in RMB, not Canadian dollars
Nanyang (presently)
+ located right in downtown Shanghai, no commuting, very little traffic hassles
+ school takes great care of the teachers (housing allowance, medical insurance, etc.)
+ no tax on the salary since they quote a net salary after the company pays Chinese tax
+ social life in Shanghai is excellent
+ class periods are 40 minutes, working hours are relaxed, classrooms equipped with video
- living costs in the city are very expensive ; life is also quite stressful
- photocopy reources are underdeveloped
- not enough students to offer a variety of courses, also not a semester school
- students tend to be lacklustre and they don't work hard
- winter weather is a problem
Of course, you take the good with the bad at any of these places, and you can always put a positive spin on things if you want to. For example, the commuting situation at Sino Canada will forever be memorable, and it made a daily dose of adventure that is not found in downtown. Similarly, the bad traffic in Wuhan made for a satisfied achievement every time I crossed the river.
Part of the overall problem is short-sightedness when it comes to all this stuff. In the specific moment, I'll be thinking of the benefit or the cost about a certain item, compare with the alternatives, and overlook the big picture. For example, now I'm saying how jealous I am of the Wuhan colleagues who get 5 weeks winter break and we only get 3 weeks. But these are the same guys who worked their tails off daily for the whole year. We routinely finished around 2pm and had leisurely hours, so it's only fair they get a longer winter holiday than us.
Somehow it all balances out. For now, I'll be signing off this blog and taking a break from the internet.
There's a Lot of People in Shanghai
SOME 23 million people were registered living in Shanghai in last November's national census, a population expert said yesterday.
That number included 9 million migrant people, according to Ding Jinhong.
Ding warned that the large population has exceeded the city's capacity for healthy development.
Since the previous census in 2005, the city's population has grown by 660,000 each year. And over the past 10 years, the population density in Shanghai - which covers 6,300 square kilometers - has risen from 2,588 people per square kilometer in 2000 to 3,600 last year.
Ding, director of East China Normal University's School of Social Development, said that Shanghai is facing a huge challenge due to the influx of migrants, and the city government must put population management at the top of its agenda in the 12th five-year plan starting this year.
Of the 9 million migrant people recorded in November's census, Ding estimated that 2 million were in the city for a stay of less than six months. This group included people visiting family, receiving medical treatment or just spending time in the city.
The remaining 7 million have lived in Shanghai for more than six months.
So, in fact, the city has around 21 million residents, including 14 million with registered residency and 7 million migrant workers, based on the census, Ding said.
Read more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=461897&type=Metro#ixzz1BRbL1QEb
That number included 9 million migrant people, according to Ding Jinhong.
Ding warned that the large population has exceeded the city's capacity for healthy development.
Since the previous census in 2005, the city's population has grown by 660,000 each year. And over the past 10 years, the population density in Shanghai - which covers 6,300 square kilometers - has risen from 2,588 people per square kilometer in 2000 to 3,600 last year.
Ding, director of East China Normal University's School of Social Development, said that Shanghai is facing a huge challenge due to the influx of migrants, and the city government must put population management at the top of its agenda in the 12th five-year plan starting this year.
Of the 9 million migrant people recorded in November's census, Ding estimated that 2 million were in the city for a stay of less than six months. This group included people visiting family, receiving medical treatment or just spending time in the city.
The remaining 7 million have lived in Shanghai for more than six months.
So, in fact, the city has around 21 million residents, including 14 million with registered residency and 7 million migrant workers, based on the census, Ding said.
Read more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=461897&type=Metro#ixzz1BRbL1QEb
2 More Days!
Today's weather: High = 0 Low = -2
Light snow
Finally, it looks like the semi-annual round of exams and marks entry are wrapping up and winding down. Buses are already shuttling out of the school full of students, and people are getting excited about the long break.
The ongoing cold weather only makes us wanna go somewhere warm. It's unique this year in the sense that we haven't had any temporary respites. Usually things will rebound upwards past 10 degrees between cold spells and we can look forward to this. But this year the powerful cold fronts have kept the temperature near freezing. It's very similar to what happened 3 years ago with the snow crisis in southern China. Weather experts point out that La Nina caused those kind of conditions, and we happen to be in another strong La Nina period. Because of that, the cold weather will stay in place until at least mid-February, and the potential for more snow and ice storms is very high.
Combine all this with the fact that I haven't had a decent break for years now (since early 2008 basically) and this upcoming trip means a great deal to me for rejuvination.
For that reason I am taking zero chances with any potential transport delays related to the weather or the annual nightmare known as Spring Festival mass migration. If we're in a similar weather pattern that caused the whole mess in 2008, then the thought of getting stuck in the cold with mass crowds of frustrated travelers scares me silly.
The plan is to catch a train to Hangzhou on Thursday, fly out in the evening to Guangzhou, thend spend a day visiting a friend. Guangzhou will be warmer and a nice transition climate. After that, I switch cities to Shenzhen and catch a cheap flight to Bangkok the next night. It's also a one-day buffer in case things go belly-up with the original flight.
Should that happen, meaning they cancel my original flight, then here's the back-up plan: I've got an emergency train ticket booked from Hangzhou to Wenzhou on early Friday morning, which is far enough south to be out of range of any ice storms. If it turns out I need to do this plan, then I can get things rolling while still at the Hangzhou airport. Whatever credit may be available from the first flight cancellation, I'll use that to book another flight from Wenzhou directly to Shenzhen. The idea would be to leave enough buffer time to make this work, both for getting to Wenzhou and also for connecting to the Bangkok flight.
So if you can follow all the logic on this, great. If not, just know that I will stop at nothing to leave the cold weather, noise, crowds, and stress behind in order to ensure that this much-needed vacation gets off the ground.
Light snow
Finally, it looks like the semi-annual round of exams and marks entry are wrapping up and winding down. Buses are already shuttling out of the school full of students, and people are getting excited about the long break.
The ongoing cold weather only makes us wanna go somewhere warm. It's unique this year in the sense that we haven't had any temporary respites. Usually things will rebound upwards past 10 degrees between cold spells and we can look forward to this. But this year the powerful cold fronts have kept the temperature near freezing. It's very similar to what happened 3 years ago with the snow crisis in southern China. Weather experts point out that La Nina caused those kind of conditions, and we happen to be in another strong La Nina period. Because of that, the cold weather will stay in place until at least mid-February, and the potential for more snow and ice storms is very high.
Combine all this with the fact that I haven't had a decent break for years now (since early 2008 basically) and this upcoming trip means a great deal to me for rejuvination.
For that reason I am taking zero chances with any potential transport delays related to the weather or the annual nightmare known as Spring Festival mass migration. If we're in a similar weather pattern that caused the whole mess in 2008, then the thought of getting stuck in the cold with mass crowds of frustrated travelers scares me silly.
The plan is to catch a train to Hangzhou on Thursday, fly out in the evening to Guangzhou, thend spend a day visiting a friend. Guangzhou will be warmer and a nice transition climate. After that, I switch cities to Shenzhen and catch a cheap flight to Bangkok the next night. It's also a one-day buffer in case things go belly-up with the original flight.
Should that happen, meaning they cancel my original flight, then here's the back-up plan: I've got an emergency train ticket booked from Hangzhou to Wenzhou on early Friday morning, which is far enough south to be out of range of any ice storms. If it turns out I need to do this plan, then I can get things rolling while still at the Hangzhou airport. Whatever credit may be available from the first flight cancellation, I'll use that to book another flight from Wenzhou directly to Shenzhen. The idea would be to leave enough buffer time to make this work, both for getting to Wenzhou and also for connecting to the Bangkok flight.
So if you can follow all the logic on this, great. If not, just know that I will stop at nothing to leave the cold weather, noise, crowds, and stress behind in order to ensure that this much-needed vacation gets off the ground.
Sunday 16 January 2011
Continuing to Watch that Forecast
If the papers are saying this, and now only two days away, this is getting rather worrisome. Will just have to keep watching the forecast and execute my emergency back-up plan in place if things go belly up at the last minute -- that is, if my flight ends up being grounded.
-----------------
Yesterday's high was just 0.9 degrees Celsius.
Rain, snow and ice are forecast through Friday in many parts of China and could disrupt travel plans for millions who aim to get on the road ahead of the Spring Festival holiday.
Shanghai is expected to see some rain and sleet this week with temperatures falling below zero.
"This could cause some trouble to transport in the lead up to the Spring Festival," the weather bureau said.
------------------
So what is the emergency back-up plan? An extra train ticket south to Wenzhou, 4 hours away, which is the next closest city south that is guaranteed to be out of range of the forecasted ice storm. If things go belly up and my flight gets cancelled on Thursday night, then I've got a train ticket booked for later that night. Once in Wenzhou, I'll then get another flight to Shenzhen. It'll cost a lot more doing this, and I've already lost with buying the aforementioned train ticket as a back-up plan.
But the original flight itself is super cheap, and that's how I justify it. There may also be a chance I can scalp the Wenzhou train ticket if it turns out my flight is indeed leaving on Thursday night and isn't cancelled.
I basically left myself an extra day in Guangzhou / Shenzhen between flights just in case something like this were to happen, and the emergency plan would end up using up that day.
Let's really hope it doesn't come down to actually having to execute this plan, but one thing is for sure: after what happened 3 years ago in 2008, I am not putting up with any shenanigans or staying around in record cold weather with the masses. Not doing it.
-----------------
Yesterday's high was just 0.9 degrees Celsius.
Rain, snow and ice are forecast through Friday in many parts of China and could disrupt travel plans for millions who aim to get on the road ahead of the Spring Festival holiday.
Shanghai is expected to see some rain and sleet this week with temperatures falling below zero.
"This could cause some trouble to transport in the lead up to the Spring Festival," the weather bureau said.
------------------
So what is the emergency back-up plan? An extra train ticket south to Wenzhou, 4 hours away, which is the next closest city south that is guaranteed to be out of range of the forecasted ice storm. If things go belly up and my flight gets cancelled on Thursday night, then I've got a train ticket booked for later that night. Once in Wenzhou, I'll then get another flight to Shenzhen. It'll cost a lot more doing this, and I've already lost with buying the aforementioned train ticket as a back-up plan.
But the original flight itself is super cheap, and that's how I justify it. There may also be a chance I can scalp the Wenzhou train ticket if it turns out my flight is indeed leaving on Thursday night and isn't cancelled.
I basically left myself an extra day in Guangzhou / Shenzhen between flights just in case something like this were to happen, and the emergency plan would end up using up that day.
Let's really hope it doesn't come down to actually having to execute this plan, but one thing is for sure: after what happened 3 years ago in 2008, I am not putting up with any shenanigans or staying around in record cold weather with the masses. Not doing it.
3 More Days Till Warmth!
Today's weather: High = -1 Low = -7
Sunny and freezing
A taxi driver said this was the longest extended cold weather snap for Shanghai in decades. This may as well be Dalian weather, in fact, it pretty much has been all January. Nearly slipped and fell on ice outside my apartment. You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to this winter break holiday. Will leave it at that.
Sunny and freezing
A taxi driver said this was the longest extended cold weather snap for Shanghai in decades. This may as well be Dalian weather, in fact, it pretty much has been all January. Nearly slipped and fell on ice outside my apartment. You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to this winter break holiday. Will leave it at that.
Saturday 15 January 2011
Keeping the Forecast in Check
Related to the last post, the weekly forecast has been revised a little, and it's looking like good news. Outcome #2 is the likely one here. The temperature forecasts are revised upwards, and they changed the freezing rain storm to just a plain old rain storm. But they still have snow in the long-range forecast when my actual flight leaves, so that's one thing to keep looking out for.
Meanwhile, a key road across Shanghai has now been closed for, get this, two years. They started work on a subway station which will open to the public in December 2012. That's a long time away folks. Meanwhile, bikes and scooters are now the only things going through what used to be a 6-lane heavy traffic road that was often backed up and clogged for miles.
This is fantastic news for an avid bicyclist and motorcyclist in the city. The road closure means the whole stretch is now virtually free of traffic and I can ride in peace on that section -- a rarity that will take some getting used to! All car traffic has been diverted to other arterials that are even more congested, but I don't use them. For once, this is a nice break.
Meanwhile, a key road across Shanghai has now been closed for, get this, two years. They started work on a subway station which will open to the public in December 2012. That's a long time away folks. Meanwhile, bikes and scooters are now the only things going through what used to be a 6-lane heavy traffic road that was often backed up and clogged for miles.
This is fantastic news for an avid bicyclist and motorcyclist in the city. The road closure means the whole stretch is now virtually free of traffic and I can ride in peace on that section -- a rarity that will take some getting used to! All car traffic has been diverted to other arterials that are even more congested, but I don't use them. For once, this is a nice break.
Friday 14 January 2011
Flashback 2008: Grateful for the Small Things
Somehow today at a staff dinner event, we got to sharing horror stories about all the events leading up to the 2008 Olympics. If any teacher was in China during that time, you will know exactly what I'm talking about: difficult visa renewals, police registration crackdowns, hotels that refused foreigners, an overhaul of internet blocking, and a dramatic surge in nationalism that has remained to this day. I was teaching in Dalian at the time and it was my final year at that school. All of a sudden, things went belly up over there, and it all happened extremely quickly. With a series of one miserable piece of news after another, the atmosphere in the final months of that school year became extremely tense and uncertain. It was clearly time to get out of there.
So the summer of 2008 marked a major transition where I moved out of Dalian and into South China. I found work quickly enough at a school in the outskirts of Shanghai, but apart from that, I knew very little about what was coming up next. The two years that followed were also rather adventurous and extremeley challenging, but with a different spin on things than Dalian. In retrospect, I'm very happy for having made the transition.
One thing I'll clearly remember was a bike trip between Dalian and Shanghai that, incidentally, also went belly up. I aborted the trip midway, stashed my bike on a train to Shanghai, put the bike in storage, and set forth for Thailand on the first flight out. That experience was more or less the nail in the coffin for China bike travel which, unfortunately, has deterred me from making future trips --- even until now.
During the trip as the Olympics loomed nearer and nearer, I experienced things like internet cafes, hotels, taxis, and many other services become suddenly out of bounds. There was also an abrupt negative change in the population towards foreigners. While the first reaction was anger, I soon began saying how I will always be grateful for a roof under my head and a place to sleep, because I know how difficult and uncertain it is now to find this while traveling in China. Money or not, there is just no way to tell if I'll be accepted or not for the serices.
So I certainly became grateful for being accepted in a hotel or having a place to stay with a roof over my head. As soon as I moved into the Zplashes hotel, which was way in the outskirts of town and nearby the new school I was working in fall 2008, I was actually quite grateful for the place. When the secretary signed me up to stay there for an entire year, I can remember feeling how wonderful it was that I could be guaranteed that, knowing just how difficult and uncertain it was to find hotels anywhere else on the road from the 2008 summer experience.
Regretably, that gratitude didn't last very long as I soon started complaining about all the conditions at the Zplashes hotel and many other things about the school. I felt so bad about all that, such that I permanently deleted that particular blog. There was much reason for gratitude during the whole 2008-09 year and for things like learning to ride a scooter and all the little daily adventures.
Anyways, I digress. What follows are a snippet of quotes from my own past blogs and those of friends who went through the whole pre-Olympics madness and lived to tell the tale. Hopefully the experience taught us to learn and grow from the difficulties, and to be more appreciative of daily things that we can't take for granted here in China.
---------------------------
July 3, 2008: This bike trip has already started, actually it began about a week after the May Holiday when I was stressed out from work took a spin in the countryside, deciding right then and there to make a run for Pikou, the next big town up the highway. Once at Pikou, I then decided to quit my job.
July 8, 2008: These upcoming Olympics are really scaring me now and I'm also having a rather bad start to this trip. I finally succeeded in getting a 30 day travel visa, but the guy at the PSB office said to wait until the end of this week to pick up the passport and new visa, minus the 7 days it took to process it.
July 9, 2008: I thought I'd test the hotel situation along the way, and so I detoured through Shenyang, the major capital city of Liaoning Province. The situation was grim. Very grim. Without even asking to see documents, at least 10 hotel clerks took a look at me and said one of the following statements:
--> We don't have any rooms
--> We can't take foreigners here
--> We're filled up, sorry
--> This is not a hotel, this is a [something something]
July 9, 2008: I screamed out, "This is unfair! I bought a ticket and so did all of us here. If a bunch of pushers can force their way through the door and get on the bus, then you kick us out, why did you sell all those tickets in the first place?"
July 10, 2008: Upon entering Yingkou around 8 pm, however, I could tell something bad was up. Police state central. Everywhere was a cop cruising the streets and I'm sure they were looking at me too. I tried about 5 hotels and got the now familiar rejection spiels .............. 30 minutes later, he came into the room and told me I couldn't stay there. He said it had to do with the new police controls ahead of the Olympics. He escorted me to the local police station, and I assume he had been in contact with them. The police were friendly enough and were satisfied with my story, Chinese, and documents, but they sent a rather clear message that they wanted me out of this town. They said, "We'll get you back to the last town along the main train line so you can go back to Dalian."
July 11, 2008: I give up loooking for hotels and catch a train. 10:30pm --> The train is ready to go, and it is a sardine can. No room to breathe, let alone move around. Sitting is an impossible dream. On the train, I meet Ryan, an American-born Chinese who is also going to Beijing. He tells me, "Oh yeah, none of the places will take foreigners." I ask him, "What about Beijing?" He says, "They will, but the prices start upwards of 1000 yuan." I knew it.
July 15, 2008: Apparently the new principal was there, so I changed into some better clothes, if I were to possibly meet him. The secretaries were very kind and helpful, and the security guards were obnoxious ... to be expected really.
July 16, 2008: OK, so I think I've reached my tolerance limit now. I'm now in Hangzhou, which has, in the past, been one of my favorite cities in the country. Now facing problems with meeting other basic travel needs: restaurants that ignore me, internet bars that won't look at my passport and callously say 'bu xing' (not OK), and taxis that go right by and the drivers shake their heads. Time to book a flight to Guangzhou, then do so pronto.
July 17, 2008: Once in Zhuhai, I attempted to cross the border. It was a traumatic experience. It started because they didn't like the look of my old beaten up passport that was full of old Chinese visas. So I got stopped and questioned. They told me to sit down and "wait a minute".
July 8, 2008: (Damien Waugh) As we were eating, a VW pulled up and 4 men got out. I could tell right away they weren't stopping bye for a bite to eat. All were clean-shaven police men in dress shirts except for one in uniform. They came in and sat down next to our table asking for our passports. After about 10 minutes of closely examining each page they told us we couldn't stay there. It was an illegal hotel and foreigners were not permitted to live there.
July 10, 2008: (Damien). When we arrived in Gaizho we had some difficulty finding a hotel that would accept us.
July 14, 2008: (Damien) When we arrive in a big city now, we try to rest and re-fuel for the hotel search. We figured we would treat ourselves to a nice hotel seeing as how none of the 2 star hotels would accept us. Unfortunately, even some of the 3 stars were turning us away.
July 22, 2008: (Damien) As I struggled with the tire I was in no mood to talk with the police. A policewoman asked if she could help and I said no. Then she asked to see our passports, so I handed them over.
July 28, 2008: (Damien)
-I'm sorry, I can't help you
-What?
-We can't give you a renewal
-Why not?
-Special regulation
-Which is?
-You have to apply for the renewal in the city of origin, which is Dalian
-I have to go to Dalian for a renewal?
August 13, 2008 (Rob Thompson) “I’m sorry sir, you cannot stay at this inn…” blah blah blah.
I tried to reason with the officer. How much is the hotel that I am supposed to be in? At least 100RMB a night, he replied.
August 14, 2008: (Rob) “I am sorry, but during this Olympic season, we are not able to process a visa extension for you. You must go to a big city like Lanzhou or Xi’an,” the desk assistant said.
I insisted. I pushed. I reasoned.
“For me to go to Xi’an, it will cost me not only transport costs, but hotel costs in Xi’an, and most of all it will cost me travel time. This is very inconvenient for me,” I insisted. “Surely you can call your superiors in Lanzhou and ask for permission for an exception.”
“No, it is impossible for us to do this at this time,” was the answer.
“Welcome to China! Welcome to our foreign friends! This is your motto at the moment, is it not? Well, I do not believe it. I do not feel welcomed. Because of the Olympic games, everything is not more convenient. It is very difficult. I have nothing to do with the Olympics. I don’t care about the Olympics!” I said.
--------------------------
Two and a half years later, the Olympics are all but a dream now, in a one world away from reality.
So the summer of 2008 marked a major transition where I moved out of Dalian and into South China. I found work quickly enough at a school in the outskirts of Shanghai, but apart from that, I knew very little about what was coming up next. The two years that followed were also rather adventurous and extremeley challenging, but with a different spin on things than Dalian. In retrospect, I'm very happy for having made the transition.
One thing I'll clearly remember was a bike trip between Dalian and Shanghai that, incidentally, also went belly up. I aborted the trip midway, stashed my bike on a train to Shanghai, put the bike in storage, and set forth for Thailand on the first flight out. That experience was more or less the nail in the coffin for China bike travel which, unfortunately, has deterred me from making future trips --- even until now.
During the trip as the Olympics loomed nearer and nearer, I experienced things like internet cafes, hotels, taxis, and many other services become suddenly out of bounds. There was also an abrupt negative change in the population towards foreigners. While the first reaction was anger, I soon began saying how I will always be grateful for a roof under my head and a place to sleep, because I know how difficult and uncertain it is now to find this while traveling in China. Money or not, there is just no way to tell if I'll be accepted or not for the serices.
So I certainly became grateful for being accepted in a hotel or having a place to stay with a roof over my head. As soon as I moved into the Zplashes hotel, which was way in the outskirts of town and nearby the new school I was working in fall 2008, I was actually quite grateful for the place. When the secretary signed me up to stay there for an entire year, I can remember feeling how wonderful it was that I could be guaranteed that, knowing just how difficult and uncertain it was to find hotels anywhere else on the road from the 2008 summer experience.
Regretably, that gratitude didn't last very long as I soon started complaining about all the conditions at the Zplashes hotel and many other things about the school. I felt so bad about all that, such that I permanently deleted that particular blog. There was much reason for gratitude during the whole 2008-09 year and for things like learning to ride a scooter and all the little daily adventures.
Anyways, I digress. What follows are a snippet of quotes from my own past blogs and those of friends who went through the whole pre-Olympics madness and lived to tell the tale. Hopefully the experience taught us to learn and grow from the difficulties, and to be more appreciative of daily things that we can't take for granted here in China.
---------------------------
July 3, 2008: This bike trip has already started, actually it began about a week after the May Holiday when I was stressed out from work took a spin in the countryside, deciding right then and there to make a run for Pikou, the next big town up the highway. Once at Pikou, I then decided to quit my job.
July 8, 2008: These upcoming Olympics are really scaring me now and I'm also having a rather bad start to this trip. I finally succeeded in getting a 30 day travel visa, but the guy at the PSB office said to wait until the end of this week to pick up the passport and new visa, minus the 7 days it took to process it.
July 9, 2008: I thought I'd test the hotel situation along the way, and so I detoured through Shenyang, the major capital city of Liaoning Province. The situation was grim. Very grim. Without even asking to see documents, at least 10 hotel clerks took a look at me and said one of the following statements:
--> We don't have any rooms
--> We can't take foreigners here
--> We're filled up, sorry
--> This is not a hotel, this is a [something something]
July 9, 2008: I screamed out, "This is unfair! I bought a ticket and so did all of us here. If a bunch of pushers can force their way through the door and get on the bus, then you kick us out, why did you sell all those tickets in the first place?"
July 10, 2008: Upon entering Yingkou around 8 pm, however, I could tell something bad was up. Police state central. Everywhere was a cop cruising the streets and I'm sure they were looking at me too. I tried about 5 hotels and got the now familiar rejection spiels .............. 30 minutes later, he came into the room and told me I couldn't stay there. He said it had to do with the new police controls ahead of the Olympics. He escorted me to the local police station, and I assume he had been in contact with them. The police were friendly enough and were satisfied with my story, Chinese, and documents, but they sent a rather clear message that they wanted me out of this town. They said, "We'll get you back to the last town along the main train line so you can go back to Dalian."
July 11, 2008: I give up loooking for hotels and catch a train. 10:30pm --> The train is ready to go, and it is a sardine can. No room to breathe, let alone move around. Sitting is an impossible dream. On the train, I meet Ryan, an American-born Chinese who is also going to Beijing. He tells me, "Oh yeah, none of the places will take foreigners." I ask him, "What about Beijing?" He says, "They will, but the prices start upwards of 1000 yuan." I knew it.
July 15, 2008: Apparently the new principal was there, so I changed into some better clothes, if I were to possibly meet him. The secretaries were very kind and helpful, and the security guards were obnoxious ... to be expected really.
July 16, 2008: OK, so I think I've reached my tolerance limit now. I'm now in Hangzhou, which has, in the past, been one of my favorite cities in the country. Now facing problems with meeting other basic travel needs: restaurants that ignore me, internet bars that won't look at my passport and callously say 'bu xing' (not OK), and taxis that go right by and the drivers shake their heads. Time to book a flight to Guangzhou, then do so pronto.
July 17, 2008: Once in Zhuhai, I attempted to cross the border. It was a traumatic experience. It started because they didn't like the look of my old beaten up passport that was full of old Chinese visas. So I got stopped and questioned. They told me to sit down and "wait a minute".
July 8, 2008: (Damien Waugh) As we were eating, a VW pulled up and 4 men got out. I could tell right away they weren't stopping bye for a bite to eat. All were clean-shaven police men in dress shirts except for one in uniform. They came in and sat down next to our table asking for our passports. After about 10 minutes of closely examining each page they told us we couldn't stay there. It was an illegal hotel and foreigners were not permitted to live there.
July 10, 2008: (Damien). When we arrived in Gaizho we had some difficulty finding a hotel that would accept us.
July 14, 2008: (Damien) When we arrive in a big city now, we try to rest and re-fuel for the hotel search. We figured we would treat ourselves to a nice hotel seeing as how none of the 2 star hotels would accept us. Unfortunately, even some of the 3 stars were turning us away.
July 22, 2008: (Damien) As I struggled with the tire I was in no mood to talk with the police. A policewoman asked if she could help and I said no. Then she asked to see our passports, so I handed them over.
July 28, 2008: (Damien)
-I'm sorry, I can't help you
-What?
-We can't give you a renewal
-Why not?
-Special regulation
-Which is?
-You have to apply for the renewal in the city of origin, which is Dalian
-I have to go to Dalian for a renewal?
August 13, 2008 (Rob Thompson) “I’m sorry sir, you cannot stay at this inn…” blah blah blah.
I tried to reason with the officer. How much is the hotel that I am supposed to be in? At least 100RMB a night, he replied.
August 14, 2008: (Rob) “I am sorry, but during this Olympic season, we are not able to process a visa extension for you. You must go to a big city like Lanzhou or Xi’an,” the desk assistant said.
I insisted. I pushed. I reasoned.
“For me to go to Xi’an, it will cost me not only transport costs, but hotel costs in Xi’an, and most of all it will cost me travel time. This is very inconvenient for me,” I insisted. “Surely you can call your superiors in Lanzhou and ask for permission for an exception.”
“No, it is impossible for us to do this at this time,” was the answer.
“Welcome to China! Welcome to our foreign friends! This is your motto at the moment, is it not? Well, I do not believe it. I do not feel welcomed. Because of the Olympic games, everything is not more convenient. It is very difficult. I have nothing to do with the Olympics. I don’t care about the Olympics!” I said.
--------------------------
Two and a half years later, the Olympics are all but a dream now, in a one world away from reality.
Thursday 13 January 2011
Will Departure to Thailand Happen?
I'm starting to get worried now. Looking at the forecast for this week, they are predicting the coldest arctic blast of the year, followed by moisture to enter. It could be a repeat of the snow disaster that happened 3 years ago which grounded flights, stopped trains, and caused a Spring Festival catastrophe. Here's what they are saying. Time will tell what actually happens.
As anyone would know, Spring Festival is the worst time to be traveling in China. When inclement weather combines with that, you have a travel nightmare of epic proportions. Yet for some of us with fixed holiday schedules, there's really not a heck of lot to do about it. All we can do is watch the weather forecast like a hawk and hope like heck the airplanes won't be affected.
Today: Cloudy with a shower. High = 6. Low = 0
Sat: Sunny and chilly. High = 3 Low = -8
Sun: Sunny and chilly. High = 2 Low = -7
Mon: Sunny and chilly. High = 3 Low = -2
Tues: Freezing rain!!! High = 2 Low = -1 <---- This would be a major cause for concern
Wed: Rain and drizzle High = 4 Low = -2
Thurs: Cold with snow High = 1 Low = -2 <---- Another cause for concern
As you can see from the above, the first cold blast is practically guaranteed, and it will bring dry and frigid air like we've been having all of January so far. The moisture entering into this airmass doesn't happen until well into next week, so there is a margin for error --- this is what I'm counting on.
Since we haven't had precipitation for almost a month, the chances or getting saddled with a rainstorm, snowstorm, ice storm, or a bout of freezing rain are in fact actually quite high. It's just a question of what kind of precicipation happens midweek, and I'm hoping for one of the following outcomes:
1. The cold comes earlier, then starts to warm up earlier.
2. The moisture comes with a warmer air mass to raise temperature high enough to make it a rainstorm only
3. If it's an ice storm, it comes earlier that way I can cancel my flight and make alternatives to get south
4. The cold air mass is strong enough to keep away the moisture until after my flight leaves
As anyone would know, Spring Festival is the worst time to be traveling in China. When inclement weather combines with that, you have a travel nightmare of epic proportions. Yet for some of us with fixed holiday schedules, there's really not a heck of lot to do about it. All we can do is watch the weather forecast like a hawk and hope like heck the airplanes won't be affected.
Today: Cloudy with a shower. High = 6. Low = 0
Sat: Sunny and chilly. High = 3 Low = -8
Sun: Sunny and chilly. High = 2 Low = -7
Mon: Sunny and chilly. High = 3 Low = -2
Tues: Freezing rain!!! High = 2 Low = -1 <---- This would be a major cause for concern
Wed: Rain and drizzle High = 4 Low = -2
Thurs: Cold with snow High = 1 Low = -2 <---- Another cause for concern
As you can see from the above, the first cold blast is practically guaranteed, and it will bring dry and frigid air like we've been having all of January so far. The moisture entering into this airmass doesn't happen until well into next week, so there is a margin for error --- this is what I'm counting on.
Since we haven't had precipitation for almost a month, the chances or getting saddled with a rainstorm, snowstorm, ice storm, or a bout of freezing rain are in fact actually quite high. It's just a question of what kind of precicipation happens midweek, and I'm hoping for one of the following outcomes:
1. The cold comes earlier, then starts to warm up earlier.
2. The moisture comes with a warmer air mass to raise temperature high enough to make it a rainstorm only
3. If it's an ice storm, it comes earlier that way I can cancel my flight and make alternatives to get south
4. The cold air mass is strong enough to keep away the moisture until after my flight leaves
Let's Celebrate Test Results
With midterms winding down, marking of one subject all done, and students clocking in with a class-wide average of 81.5% on the math 12 exams, I think it's a good cause for a celebration. Ideally we'd toss the whole rest of next week out and head for an early start to Thailand -- that's celebration enough. But school rules force us to sit out another 3 days of classes in this chilly weather crap. Time to sit back, get some popcorn, and break out the DVDs, we're watching movies in class.
More Chills, Less Thrills
As if the recent weather wasn't cold enough, reading this thing in the paper was a major groaner.
------------------
SHANGHAI is in for another cold front that will keep the mercury at or below freezing point for four straight days, weatherman said. Starting this Saturday, the city's temperatures should fall again, staying between zero and -4 degrees Celsius, Shanghai Meteorological Bureau forecasted.
------------------
Nuff said. Actually, not quite nuff said. The forecast after this cold front is for the weather pattern to shift, and then moisture to enter. Despite all these below-normal chills, we haven't had much rain or snow which is a very lucky thing indeed. But that's about to change as they are now forecasting snow and freezing rain about mid-week next week!!!
We're talking about the same kind of freezing rain that caused all the highway blocking shit in Guangxi province a week ago. If this strikes during the day of my departure to Thailand for warmer climates, and it messes up with my flight out of here, I am going to be one very angry and miserable guy. Let's hope the snow and freezing ran can be at least delayed by a couple days. I'll bargain for freezing ass weather in exchange.
------------------
SHANGHAI is in for another cold front that will keep the mercury at or below freezing point for four straight days, weatherman said. Starting this Saturday, the city's temperatures should fall again, staying between zero and -4 degrees Celsius, Shanghai Meteorological Bureau forecasted.
------------------
Nuff said. Actually, not quite nuff said. The forecast after this cold front is for the weather pattern to shift, and then moisture to enter. Despite all these below-normal chills, we haven't had much rain or snow which is a very lucky thing indeed. But that's about to change as they are now forecasting snow and freezing rain about mid-week next week!!!
We're talking about the same kind of freezing rain that caused all the highway blocking shit in Guangxi province a week ago. If this strikes during the day of my departure to Thailand for warmer climates, and it messes up with my flight out of here, I am going to be one very angry and miserable guy. Let's hope the snow and freezing ran can be at least delayed by a couple days. I'll bargain for freezing ass weather in exchange.
Wednesday 12 January 2011
Settling for Plan B
Today's weather: High = 5 Low = -4
Sunny and _______ . What were you expecting, tropical? Get real, it's chilly out.
While the midterm exams finally get underway, there is a slight break in the tension in the air, knowing that at least the ball is rolling and we're one step closer to a holiday.
That said, the school asked us to fill in forms stating our intentions for whether to return next year or not. It's pretty typical that the offshore schools make their decisions around now, and all former schools passed out the form this time of year also. How fitting this form comes around just after my last post was typed out. Basically they want it done by Monday so there's not a lot of time to ponder this one.
Turns out I'm leaning quite heavily to a 'yes' as the photocopy situation is the only major negative I can think of here, and that is child's play compared to all the problems at the other offshore schools. Overall things are pretty darn good. The principal wants me back next year, which is always a good sign, and there is lots of potential to start more AP-type courses and also to do my Masters. Of course, being in Shanghai is the big perk, and it's pretty obvious that many people want to apply for the job here for that reason.
So this more or less answers the question from the former post. The chances of doing an extended bike trip any time soon, which would require 6 months to a year, are pretty much out of the question. It sounds wonderful in theory, but the window of opportunity looks to be closing fast on doing something like this. The opportunity may already be over.
Which leads me to my next point. I am both in awe of people who can do these kind of trips, like our skateboard friend, and also left wondering *how* they actually do it. It's not just a handful of fortunate people either, as whenever I hit the road during the holidays, I bump into dozens of folks who are on the road for months at a time, if not years. It will forever remain a mystery what their secret is. For me, the potential shock of finishing off a year-long trip without any work lined up and the possibility of having to relocate back to Canada is too much of a deterrent. After reading Rob's blog about his 're-patriation' back to his home country, it scared the pants off of me. So if decent work is available in Shanghai for another year, may as well go for it, and then attack Plan B instead.
Plan B involves milking out the winter and summer breaks to do as many long-distance bike trips as possible, then documenting them. It's not as efficient as Plan A, but with enough breaks added together, this could work towards something substantial like my dream trip to the Middle East as mentioned in the previous post.
Plan B has actually been my default plan since I started getting hooked on bicycle travel, and there's enough stuff already to put together a website like Mr Pumpy, my other hero. In fact, looking at Mr Pumpy's routes, this is pretty much how he operates. None of his rides are longer than a couple months at a time, and some of them can be done in a matter of weeks. The Bromo volcano tour or the South India coastal road which I did last year are good examples.
The thing about all this is the summer break is the longest of the two, and it should be exploited more for travel than I've used it in the past. Traditionally I've used it to return to Vancouver for visits, but I figure that angling for a Christmas holiday instead might be the better option. There are ways to pull this off, and it's probably the only time of year when people back home *wouldn't* be working, and hence the trip would be worth it. Summer break has bitten me in the ass with the 'everyone is working' thing, just as much as winter break has. So I figure why not use both breaks for travel, and then use Christmas for visiting.
Meanwhile, I'm going to use the winter break time to plan the routes for the summer break trip.
Sunny and _______ . What were you expecting, tropical? Get real, it's chilly out.
While the midterm exams finally get underway, there is a slight break in the tension in the air, knowing that at least the ball is rolling and we're one step closer to a holiday.
That said, the school asked us to fill in forms stating our intentions for whether to return next year or not. It's pretty typical that the offshore schools make their decisions around now, and all former schools passed out the form this time of year also. How fitting this form comes around just after my last post was typed out. Basically they want it done by Monday so there's not a lot of time to ponder this one.
Turns out I'm leaning quite heavily to a 'yes' as the photocopy situation is the only major negative I can think of here, and that is child's play compared to all the problems at the other offshore schools. Overall things are pretty darn good. The principal wants me back next year, which is always a good sign, and there is lots of potential to start more AP-type courses and also to do my Masters. Of course, being in Shanghai is the big perk, and it's pretty obvious that many people want to apply for the job here for that reason.
So this more or less answers the question from the former post. The chances of doing an extended bike trip any time soon, which would require 6 months to a year, are pretty much out of the question. It sounds wonderful in theory, but the window of opportunity looks to be closing fast on doing something like this. The opportunity may already be over.
Which leads me to my next point. I am both in awe of people who can do these kind of trips, like our skateboard friend, and also left wondering *how* they actually do it. It's not just a handful of fortunate people either, as whenever I hit the road during the holidays, I bump into dozens of folks who are on the road for months at a time, if not years. It will forever remain a mystery what their secret is. For me, the potential shock of finishing off a year-long trip without any work lined up and the possibility of having to relocate back to Canada is too much of a deterrent. After reading Rob's blog about his 're-patriation' back to his home country, it scared the pants off of me. So if decent work is available in Shanghai for another year, may as well go for it, and then attack Plan B instead.
Plan B involves milking out the winter and summer breaks to do as many long-distance bike trips as possible, then documenting them. It's not as efficient as Plan A, but with enough breaks added together, this could work towards something substantial like my dream trip to the Middle East as mentioned in the previous post.
Plan B has actually been my default plan since I started getting hooked on bicycle travel, and there's enough stuff already to put together a website like Mr Pumpy, my other hero. In fact, looking at Mr Pumpy's routes, this is pretty much how he operates. None of his rides are longer than a couple months at a time, and some of them can be done in a matter of weeks. The Bromo volcano tour or the South India coastal road which I did last year are good examples.
The thing about all this is the summer break is the longest of the two, and it should be exploited more for travel than I've used it in the past. Traditionally I've used it to return to Vancouver for visits, but I figure that angling for a Christmas holiday instead might be the better option. There are ways to pull this off, and it's probably the only time of year when people back home *wouldn't* be working, and hence the trip would be worth it. Summer break has bitten me in the ass with the 'everyone is working' thing, just as much as winter break has. So I figure why not use both breaks for travel, and then use Christmas for visiting.
Meanwhile, I'm going to use the winter break time to plan the routes for the summer break trip.
Tuesday 11 January 2011
Maybe It's Just Time For Long Break
Fitting that I'd be bringing up the subject at a time like this, at the peak of semester exam stress and all the fun stuff (not) that goes with it. Yet it did occur that I've been doing this high school teaching in China thing for 5 years straight now. Before that, there was 3 years of teaching English to adults. After all this, I'm wondering if it might just be time to take a temporary leave of absence and go for that long-envisioned 6 month to a year bike trip I've been thinking about, well, since many years ago.
The theme of the trip is very clear actually. I know exactly what I want to do, and the countries passing through on my list. The only difficulty is that to do this bike trip the way I want, it's going to take at least 6 months off, more like a year tops. It would be much better and efficient to have a go at combining everything into one swing, rather than doing a bit here, a bit there, and another bit here during the short periods of travel we get during the winter and summer breaks.
For example, I'd be spending at least a month in India alone, and that would make far more efficient use of the 6-month tourist visa.
The theme of the trip would be: Back to Jerusalem. Once I get more serious about pursuing this one, if I do, then I'll post more details as a way of insurance to make sure I actually get off my ass and do this.
When faced with that alluring possibility, I habitually say after _________ I'll do that trip, but 8 years later, I'm still saying that. 8 yeras later, I'd still be saying that unless I put my foot down and said I'm doing this trip right now. The major inspiration here is Rob Thompson who took 2 years off during the prime of his career and rode a recumbent bike and skateboarded around the world. See his blog at http://www.14degrees.org. While not without his share of difficulties, he is now pursuing his pHD which is more inspiration, that, after the completion of such a journey, it wouldn't necessarily kill one's career. Basically, I'd think of an extended bike trip as a temporary leave of absence for 6 months to a year.
If I took the plunge and started the trip as early as this summer, it is debatable whether I could return to this school here in Shanghai, or other BC schools in China. Most likely not, so this is the main deterrent, that such a 6 month to a year bike trip could end up lynching my career.
Faced with that, the logical alternative is to do little bits here and there during the vacation periods while keeping on working. 3-5 weeks, for example, is the envy of many, but it's really not as good as people make it sound. For one, the actual teaching is very stressful and there is always something that doesn't quite go right. Moving around from school-to-school has kept the money rolling in and the savings quite nice, but it has also been unsettling. As school A has a problem with X, then B has a problem with Y, and C has a problem with Z, and so forth. It can never be predicted what sorts of difficulties will occur. I can tolerate it to a point, then things just become unpleasant in the long run and I end up living for the holidays year after year.
Even during the holidays, while they may sound enviously long, they are not. It is more economical to pick places like Thailand and Malaysia that don't require a visa, and spend the first week just winding down. Attempting a trip to India or other places that need visas, you need to spend a long time in the country to make the cost of the visa worthwhile.
For a long-term bike trip like I envision, it's going to mean crossing multiple countries, and/or spending time in places that needs visas. That can't be done very well during the winter and summer breaks, even if they are 3-5 weeks long apiece.
So we'll just have to see what happens here ... by the end of the winter break, I'll have a clearer idea whether or not I'm going through with this, but I have set myself a deadline by the end of this school year whether to do the long-term bike trip or forego it entirely.
The theme of the trip is very clear actually. I know exactly what I want to do, and the countries passing through on my list. The only difficulty is that to do this bike trip the way I want, it's going to take at least 6 months off, more like a year tops. It would be much better and efficient to have a go at combining everything into one swing, rather than doing a bit here, a bit there, and another bit here during the short periods of travel we get during the winter and summer breaks.
For example, I'd be spending at least a month in India alone, and that would make far more efficient use of the 6-month tourist visa.
The theme of the trip would be: Back to Jerusalem. Once I get more serious about pursuing this one, if I do, then I'll post more details as a way of insurance to make sure I actually get off my ass and do this.
When faced with that alluring possibility, I habitually say after _________ I'll do that trip, but 8 years later, I'm still saying that. 8 yeras later, I'd still be saying that unless I put my foot down and said I'm doing this trip right now. The major inspiration here is Rob Thompson who took 2 years off during the prime of his career and rode a recumbent bike and skateboarded around the world. See his blog at http://www.14degrees.org. While not without his share of difficulties, he is now pursuing his pHD which is more inspiration, that, after the completion of such a journey, it wouldn't necessarily kill one's career. Basically, I'd think of an extended bike trip as a temporary leave of absence for 6 months to a year.
If I took the plunge and started the trip as early as this summer, it is debatable whether I could return to this school here in Shanghai, or other BC schools in China. Most likely not, so this is the main deterrent, that such a 6 month to a year bike trip could end up lynching my career.
Faced with that, the logical alternative is to do little bits here and there during the vacation periods while keeping on working. 3-5 weeks, for example, is the envy of many, but it's really not as good as people make it sound. For one, the actual teaching is very stressful and there is always something that doesn't quite go right. Moving around from school-to-school has kept the money rolling in and the savings quite nice, but it has also been unsettling. As school A has a problem with X, then B has a problem with Y, and C has a problem with Z, and so forth. It can never be predicted what sorts of difficulties will occur. I can tolerate it to a point, then things just become unpleasant in the long run and I end up living for the holidays year after year.
Even during the holidays, while they may sound enviously long, they are not. It is more economical to pick places like Thailand and Malaysia that don't require a visa, and spend the first week just winding down. Attempting a trip to India or other places that need visas, you need to spend a long time in the country to make the cost of the visa worthwhile.
For a long-term bike trip like I envision, it's going to mean crossing multiple countries, and/or spending time in places that needs visas. That can't be done very well during the winter and summer breaks, even if they are 3-5 weeks long apiece.
So we'll just have to see what happens here ... by the end of the winter break, I'll have a clearer idea whether or not I'm going through with this, but I have set myself a deadline by the end of this school year whether to do the long-term bike trip or forego it entirely.
New Photocopy Gameplan
Today's weather: High = 4 Low = -3
Partly cloudy
This recent spat of bicycle riding is paying off ... starting to get in shape, losing a bit of weight, and it's offering good training for the holidays. It really doesn't have to be a lot, just a simple ride to/from work and lately, the photocopy shop. I made two more trips there today due to the frustrating photocopy situation at school.
Unfortunately, nothing was resolved from yesterday, and my own complaining backfired at the last minute. To make a long story short, the school authorities sided with the people who ran the photocopy machines, and my attempts to address the issue fell flat. Past experience shows that when the battle goes this way, it's better to fold rather than keep at it. Besides, everyone is stressed beyond belief at this time of year, and it's no wonder that I got snapped at.
Considering that in some schools they actually charge for copies, it doesn't surprise me that the school here (which is free) does a rather lacklustre job with the whole copying thing. Basically, you get what you pay for, and a free service can't be a 5 star service. With that in mind, I'm OK with getting on the bike every day after school to an excellent copy shop about 5km away, and doing the photocopies for the next days' lessons out of my own pocket. The benefits would be more exercise, and better lesson planning.
Assuming that a photocopier is available for relatively quick run-offs, it becomes a habit to plan for lessons the night before, generate all the print materials, and photocopy them in the morning before classes start. If this can't be taken for granted, then the only option is to plan 2-3 days in advance, even a week in advance, and have all the photocopies pre-arranged to do in the afternooon.
Despite all the advances in technology, handouts and worksheets are truly the lifeblood of any lesson. For what that's worth, having access to a reliable copier is rather fundamental as I see it.
Partly cloudy
This recent spat of bicycle riding is paying off ... starting to get in shape, losing a bit of weight, and it's offering good training for the holidays. It really doesn't have to be a lot, just a simple ride to/from work and lately, the photocopy shop. I made two more trips there today due to the frustrating photocopy situation at school.
Unfortunately, nothing was resolved from yesterday, and my own complaining backfired at the last minute. To make a long story short, the school authorities sided with the people who ran the photocopy machines, and my attempts to address the issue fell flat. Past experience shows that when the battle goes this way, it's better to fold rather than keep at it. Besides, everyone is stressed beyond belief at this time of year, and it's no wonder that I got snapped at.
Considering that in some schools they actually charge for copies, it doesn't surprise me that the school here (which is free) does a rather lacklustre job with the whole copying thing. Basically, you get what you pay for, and a free service can't be a 5 star service. With that in mind, I'm OK with getting on the bike every day after school to an excellent copy shop about 5km away, and doing the photocopies for the next days' lessons out of my own pocket. The benefits would be more exercise, and better lesson planning.
Assuming that a photocopier is available for relatively quick run-offs, it becomes a habit to plan for lessons the night before, generate all the print materials, and photocopy them in the morning before classes start. If this can't be taken for granted, then the only option is to plan 2-3 days in advance, even a week in advance, and have all the photocopies pre-arranged to do in the afternooon.
Despite all the advances in technology, handouts and worksheets are truly the lifeblood of any lesson. For what that's worth, having access to a reliable copier is rather fundamental as I see it.
Monday 10 January 2011
Photocopy Fun (Hardly!)
Today's weather: High = 5 Low = -3
Sunny
Gosh I've never been so longing for a holiday as now. The cold weather continues relentlessly, and the students are all writing their mid-semester exams starting tomorrow. Contrary to how you'd think this would work, this is hardly the time to sit back and relax and look forward to the Thailand break while the students now slug it out with the tests. Exam times are frantic for both parties, and both parties can easily lose their cool.
So my tests were all generated over the weekend and sent off to the photocopy guy today, only to find out he was absent. This guy took a day off during the busiest photocopy time of the year. The whole office was shut down with a notice in Chinese saying 'Do not Enter'
As any teacher would know, the photocopy service is the lifeblood of the school. If you take that out, you're just asking for trouble. Then again, the photocopying all year has been sketchy to say the least and has caused a lot of frustration. With so many good things about where I work in a top school, the photocopying is one of the few things I can actually complain about -- yet today was a real blow.
They managed to cobble up a substitute person to work the rooms, and I took advantage of the opportunity in the early afternoon to drop off all my math and calculus exams.
As soon as I walked in there, I saw the substitute woman in charge, and politely requested 45 copies of each exam to be made. She ripped into me, scowled, and basically chewed me out on the spot about why she wasn't going to make my copies. The gist of it was come back tomorrow, it's too late, and she ain't doing it. She then went back to her business of cutting up tiny little slips of paper in Chinese using the cutting board. Meanwhile, the copy machine remained unused, and there were stacks, and stacks, and stacks of backlogged exams from the other teachers.
Basdially I was the last in a series of foreign teachers that day who had dropped off exam copies, despite all the signs in Chinese saying not to enter and that the room was out of commission for the entire day. They played innocent, or frankly they were innocent. But then I waltzed in speaking Chinese, and she saw that as an opportunity to blame me for being part of this crowd
There are days like today when I wish I couldn't speak, read, or understand a word of Chinese -- and that my abilities of learning this language could be erased.
But thanks to a photocopy shop on the other side of the city, I was able to get the whole exams done within half an hour for a decent price, and enjoy a nice bicycle ride and exercise to boot.
Sunny
Gosh I've never been so longing for a holiday as now. The cold weather continues relentlessly, and the students are all writing their mid-semester exams starting tomorrow. Contrary to how you'd think this would work, this is hardly the time to sit back and relax and look forward to the Thailand break while the students now slug it out with the tests. Exam times are frantic for both parties, and both parties can easily lose their cool.
So my tests were all generated over the weekend and sent off to the photocopy guy today, only to find out he was absent. This guy took a day off during the busiest photocopy time of the year. The whole office was shut down with a notice in Chinese saying 'Do not Enter'
As any teacher would know, the photocopy service is the lifeblood of the school. If you take that out, you're just asking for trouble. Then again, the photocopying all year has been sketchy to say the least and has caused a lot of frustration. With so many good things about where I work in a top school, the photocopying is one of the few things I can actually complain about -- yet today was a real blow.
They managed to cobble up a substitute person to work the rooms, and I took advantage of the opportunity in the early afternoon to drop off all my math and calculus exams.
As soon as I walked in there, I saw the substitute woman in charge, and politely requested 45 copies of each exam to be made. She ripped into me, scowled, and basically chewed me out on the spot about why she wasn't going to make my copies. The gist of it was come back tomorrow, it's too late, and she ain't doing it. She then went back to her business of cutting up tiny little slips of paper in Chinese using the cutting board. Meanwhile, the copy machine remained unused, and there were stacks, and stacks, and stacks of backlogged exams from the other teachers.
Basdially I was the last in a series of foreign teachers that day who had dropped off exam copies, despite all the signs in Chinese saying not to enter and that the room was out of commission for the entire day. They played innocent, or frankly they were innocent. But then I waltzed in speaking Chinese, and she saw that as an opportunity to blame me for being part of this crowd
There are days like today when I wish I couldn't speak, read, or understand a word of Chinese -- and that my abilities of learning this language could be erased.
But thanks to a photocopy shop on the other side of the city, I was able to get the whole exams done within half an hour for a decent price, and enjoy a nice bicycle ride and exercise to boot.
Saturday 8 January 2011
So Much For Global Warming
Actually, the global warming proponents have it correct in the sense that the *average* temperatures are increasing around the planet. But let's face it, their usual speeches about global warming hold little sway at this particular time of year. Just a snippet of weather information I found on the internet for January, and you'd be forgiven for thinking we're in a global cooling period!
From today's China Daily
-- Two power plants in Southwest China's Sichuan province stopped supplying power on Wednesday due to the harsh weather. This caused the abortive transmission of 2.5 million kilowatts of electricity, China National Radio (CNR) reported on Thursday.
-- Ice caused a 5,000-square- meter workshop in a cement plant in Chongqing municipality to collapse on Wednesday, resulting in losses of more than 1.5 million yuan ($226,339), local broadcaster CQTV reported
-- A cold snap since New Year's Day has left parts of Guizhou province covered in ice. Though most expressways in the province reopened to traffic on Thursday, police warned it is still risky to drive on the icy roads as sleet continues to fall and the temperature remains below freezing point.
-- China's National Meteorological Center continued its forecast for freezing rain, which quickly turns into ice on the ground, for parts of South and Southwest China over the next 10 days. Icy rain and freezing temperatures caused chaos in 18 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in January 2008, resulting in traffic deadlocks and power blackouts.
How fitting they compare this winter with that of 3 years ago, the 'snow crisis' that disrupted travel for millions during Spring Festival. This year, we are seeing similar arctic flow conditions that caused this mess, but the moisture is thankfully lacking in most parts of China. Let's hope it remains dry and cold, as opposed to wet and cold.
Now let's look at the North America forecast. From Accuweather
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/44036/brutal-cold-makes-a-comeback-i.asp
In short, they are predicting the coldest winter since 1985 to cause a coast-to-coast chill. The main reason, if you view the link, is that the jetstream has formed a very unusual U-shaped pattern. Ordinaily, the jet stream dips up and down as it meanders across the continent, but this time it is staying locked into a U-shape. This means that arctic air is going to flow over the entire continent and stay there for about 3 weeks.
Incidentally, it is the same jetstream pattern over China right now which explains why the entire country is in this cold snap, including the southwest regions (as mentioned above) and the southeast regions (which affects here)
So the global warming proponents lose a lot of credibility during these kinds of winters. In fact, every winter I can remember for the last 10 years it has been abnormally cold like this, at least in some specific region for some specific time period.
But where they regain their credibility is during the summer when, similarly, we have seen abnormally hot summers for the last 10 years or more. The record hot summers last longer than the record cold winters, so they act to average things out above normal for the year. That being said, there are always exceptions here and there, which has become the new normal.
In short, it's best to think of climate change as producing more and more extreme weather events, or to consider it more as 'global weather gone wild' as opposed to simply 'global warming'
From today's China Daily
-- Two power plants in Southwest China's Sichuan province stopped supplying power on Wednesday due to the harsh weather. This caused the abortive transmission of 2.5 million kilowatts of electricity, China National Radio (CNR) reported on Thursday.
-- Ice caused a 5,000-square- meter workshop in a cement plant in Chongqing municipality to collapse on Wednesday, resulting in losses of more than 1.5 million yuan ($226,339), local broadcaster CQTV reported
-- A cold snap since New Year's Day has left parts of Guizhou province covered in ice. Though most expressways in the province reopened to traffic on Thursday, police warned it is still risky to drive on the icy roads as sleet continues to fall and the temperature remains below freezing point.
-- China's National Meteorological Center continued its forecast for freezing rain, which quickly turns into ice on the ground, for parts of South and Southwest China over the next 10 days. Icy rain and freezing temperatures caused chaos in 18 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in January 2008, resulting in traffic deadlocks and power blackouts.
How fitting they compare this winter with that of 3 years ago, the 'snow crisis' that disrupted travel for millions during Spring Festival. This year, we are seeing similar arctic flow conditions that caused this mess, but the moisture is thankfully lacking in most parts of China. Let's hope it remains dry and cold, as opposed to wet and cold.
Now let's look at the North America forecast. From Accuweather
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/44036/brutal-cold-makes-a-comeback-i.asp
In short, they are predicting the coldest winter since 1985 to cause a coast-to-coast chill. The main reason, if you view the link, is that the jetstream has formed a very unusual U-shaped pattern. Ordinaily, the jet stream dips up and down as it meanders across the continent, but this time it is staying locked into a U-shape. This means that arctic air is going to flow over the entire continent and stay there for about 3 weeks.
Incidentally, it is the same jetstream pattern over China right now which explains why the entire country is in this cold snap, including the southwest regions (as mentioned above) and the southeast regions (which affects here)
So the global warming proponents lose a lot of credibility during these kinds of winters. In fact, every winter I can remember for the last 10 years it has been abnormally cold like this, at least in some specific region for some specific time period.
But where they regain their credibility is during the summer when, similarly, we have seen abnormally hot summers for the last 10 years or more. The record hot summers last longer than the record cold winters, so they act to average things out above normal for the year. That being said, there are always exceptions here and there, which has become the new normal.
In short, it's best to think of climate change as producing more and more extreme weather events, or to consider it more as 'global weather gone wild' as opposed to simply 'global warming'
More Details on Winter Trip
Thanks to the following websites with all the information on previous cyclists who have done these routes already:
Mr Pumpy web site: http://www.mrpumpy.net
Crazy Guy on a Bike: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com
Let's just say it's gonna be a rather Muslim kind of a holiday -- I seem to have an affinity for those kind of places.
The Mt Bromo volcano tour and Denpasar (Bali) island cruises in Indonesia are well-traveled and documented. This one always get rave reviews, and I'll soon be adding my voice to the chorus.
In the deep south of Thailand, there have been a steady stream of cyclists doing the Narathiwat -- Pattani -- Sonkhla run in recent years, most of them continuing a run all the way from Malaysia to Bangkok (a very common cycle route). The numbers have been increasing now as the security situation has improved. In fact, they've lifted the martial law in two of those three provinces now as peace is slowly but surely returning to the region.
There is much to say on what the deal is with these southern regions in Thailand, but the media isn't a good place to start looking for information. I tend to distrust the media, for the simple reason that too many people put their trust in the media. If the media reports a melamine milk scandal in China, for example, then everyone panics and stops drinking milk, but the actual chances of getting sick from the milk in the supermarket are very slim indeed. Similarly, the media raises the alarm bell about the insurgency in south Thailand, and everyone avoids traveling there because they think the bombs are going off 24 / 7.
Media out of the way, there is lots of useful information on what the situation is like in southern Thailand. This would include the root causes of the insurgency, how the situation is changing, and a lot more news if you're willing to dig. The best way to find out is to go there and see, which prompted my first pass through the area in winter break 2008 (3 years ago). Or maybe it was a combination of my own morbid curiosity, or having traveled to most of the other tame places already
The first time I whizzed through on a combination of minivans and buses, and was scared as hell. Obviously I was not wanting to ride a bike through the area -- this was confirmed with the reports of bikers in 2007 who basically did the same as myself. Things definitely felt tense at the time -- army checkpoints were indeed lining the road, complete with razor wire and army patrols with guns. It was basically a case of getting through there as fast as possible, then crossing into Malaysia. Fast forward a year and a half, this I tried half by minivan and half by bike. The 2nd pass-through revealed lots of changes, and most of the army patrols had been dismantled. Definitely optimistic of changes in the area, I confirmed it by looking at other sources to see that the number of injuries and fatalities was way down in both 2009 and 2010, and the army was now lifting their martial law.
Ironically though, it was then Bangkok that suffered a bout of bombs during those years due to all the protesting and ugly turn of events surrounding the protests.
Make a long story short, I'm now about to face my fears and try this whole thing again, this time completely on the bike.
Mr Pumpy web site: http://www.mrpumpy.net
Crazy Guy on a Bike: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com
Let's just say it's gonna be a rather Muslim kind of a holiday -- I seem to have an affinity for those kind of places.
The Mt Bromo volcano tour and Denpasar (Bali) island cruises in Indonesia are well-traveled and documented. This one always get rave reviews, and I'll soon be adding my voice to the chorus.
In the deep south of Thailand, there have been a steady stream of cyclists doing the Narathiwat -- Pattani -- Sonkhla run in recent years, most of them continuing a run all the way from Malaysia to Bangkok (a very common cycle route). The numbers have been increasing now as the security situation has improved. In fact, they've lifted the martial law in two of those three provinces now as peace is slowly but surely returning to the region.
There is much to say on what the deal is with these southern regions in Thailand, but the media isn't a good place to start looking for information. I tend to distrust the media, for the simple reason that too many people put their trust in the media. If the media reports a melamine milk scandal in China, for example, then everyone panics and stops drinking milk, but the actual chances of getting sick from the milk in the supermarket are very slim indeed. Similarly, the media raises the alarm bell about the insurgency in south Thailand, and everyone avoids traveling there because they think the bombs are going off 24 / 7.
Media out of the way, there is lots of useful information on what the situation is like in southern Thailand. This would include the root causes of the insurgency, how the situation is changing, and a lot more news if you're willing to dig. The best way to find out is to go there and see, which prompted my first pass through the area in winter break 2008 (3 years ago). Or maybe it was a combination of my own morbid curiosity, or having traveled to most of the other tame places already
The first time I whizzed through on a combination of minivans and buses, and was scared as hell. Obviously I was not wanting to ride a bike through the area -- this was confirmed with the reports of bikers in 2007 who basically did the same as myself. Things definitely felt tense at the time -- army checkpoints were indeed lining the road, complete with razor wire and army patrols with guns. It was basically a case of getting through there as fast as possible, then crossing into Malaysia. Fast forward a year and a half, this I tried half by minivan and half by bike. The 2nd pass-through revealed lots of changes, and most of the army patrols had been dismantled. Definitely optimistic of changes in the area, I confirmed it by looking at other sources to see that the number of injuries and fatalities was way down in both 2009 and 2010, and the army was now lifting their martial law.
Ironically though, it was then Bangkok that suffered a bout of bombs during those years due to all the protesting and ugly turn of events surrounding the protests.
Make a long story short, I'm now about to face my fears and try this whole thing again, this time completely on the bike.
Friday 7 January 2011
Semester Wrapping Up
Today's weather: High = 7 Low = 0
Sunny and clear
Things are a bit milder today as we get a slight respite from the winter ... still, I've come down a fever and some other kind of sickness, so the entire weekend has been resting.
There are about two weeks left in the semester and they don't promise to be easy. The usual end-of-semester blahs will need to be dealt with, and they include:
-- making up midterm exams for 3 courses
-- administering the tests next week
-- marking the tests, and getting the reports in
-- babysitting before and after
The exams are spread out over a 3-day period of time, sandwiched in two sections of down-time, for lack of a better word, where students still need to be in the classes and where things aren't going to be productive. It was the same drill last year and the year before, so at least I know the drill. But still, it's blah, especially when all I can think about is an upcoming winter vacation!
Sunny and clear
Things are a bit milder today as we get a slight respite from the winter ... still, I've come down a fever and some other kind of sickness, so the entire weekend has been resting.
There are about two weeks left in the semester and they don't promise to be easy. The usual end-of-semester blahs will need to be dealt with, and they include:
-- making up midterm exams for 3 courses
-- administering the tests next week
-- marking the tests, and getting the reports in
-- babysitting before and after
The exams are spread out over a 3-day period of time, sandwiched in two sections of down-time, for lack of a better word, where students still need to be in the classes and where things aren't going to be productive. It was the same drill last year and the year before, so at least I know the drill. But still, it's blah, especially when all I can think about is an upcoming winter vacation!
Thursday 6 January 2011
Winter Relief Trek: Overview
Will be posting this on travelbog.org with pictures and video once the Spring Festival kicks off this Jan 20. While not wanting to plan this to the hilt, the time for this holiday is short .... based on this fact and past experience, it's better to spend some time planning a trip first, rather than just winging it.
As usual, it's going to be a bicycle trip -- I wouldn't do it any other way. Cheers for the inspiration of Mr Pumpy on this one.
Leg 1: Guangzhou training: couple of days on the bike finishing off the warmups and getting started for the real thing
Leg 2: Koh Samet recuperation: couple of days relaxing on Koh Samet (an island 3-4 hours from Bangkok) and winding down from a horribly busy year. Again, based on past experience, when in the thick of burnout, it feels like you could spend 6 months on the beach to recover. But in actual fact, a few days is really all it takes for the initial wind down.
Leg 3: Deep South ride. A week of riding in Thailand's deep south. Don't worry, things are getting a lot safer now, and there are a few remaining unexplored territories I haven't seen in this great country yet.
Leg 4: Penang or Langkawi recuperation: another couple of days recovering on another beach, this time in either of those Malaysian locations (haven't figured out yet)
Leg 5: East Java volcano ride: basically going to reverse Mr Pumpy's route from Surabaya in East Java to the island of Bali, passing through the famous Mount Bromo and the town of Probolingo. Two weeks tops.
Leg 6: Bali recuperation: couple of days recovering on the legendary beaches of Bali
Leg 7: A day's worth of flights, in series, to return at the last minute.
As usual, it's going to be a bicycle trip -- I wouldn't do it any other way. Cheers for the inspiration of Mr Pumpy on this one.
Leg 1: Guangzhou training: couple of days on the bike finishing off the warmups and getting started for the real thing
Leg 2: Koh Samet recuperation: couple of days relaxing on Koh Samet (an island 3-4 hours from Bangkok) and winding down from a horribly busy year. Again, based on past experience, when in the thick of burnout, it feels like you could spend 6 months on the beach to recover. But in actual fact, a few days is really all it takes for the initial wind down.
Leg 3: Deep South ride. A week of riding in Thailand's deep south. Don't worry, things are getting a lot safer now, and there are a few remaining unexplored territories I haven't seen in this great country yet.
Leg 4: Penang or Langkawi recuperation: another couple of days recovering on another beach, this time in either of those Malaysian locations (haven't figured out yet)
Leg 5: East Java volcano ride: basically going to reverse Mr Pumpy's route from Surabaya in East Java to the island of Bali, passing through the famous Mount Bromo and the town of Probolingo. Two weeks tops.
Leg 6: Bali recuperation: couple of days recovering on the legendary beaches of Bali
Leg 7: A day's worth of flights, in series, to return at the last minute.
South China in a Freeze
BEIJING – Freezing temperatures have forced the evacuation of nearly 60,000 people from their homes and caused more than $200 million in economic losses in southern China, the government said Wednesday.
Ice and sleet have collapsed the roofs of more than 1,200 homes and forced the evacuation of 58,000 people across the southern regions of Jiangxi, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan and Guizhou, the Ministry of Civil Affairs reported.
Freezing weather has also damaged nearly 300,000 acres of crops, including cabbage and rice, and caused about $203.8 million in economic losses across southern China, the ministry said.
In Guizhou province, 22,800 people were forced to evacuate from their homes Tuesday and drivers had to abandon thousands of cars after ice-covered roads were closed, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
"People, especially those living in the mountains and the elderly, are being evacuated from their homes," said a Guizhou Meteorological Bureau official, surnamed Zhao. "Roads and homes with poor infrastructure are being impacted by the icy conditions."
Ice and sleet have collapsed the roofs of more than 1,200 homes and forced the evacuation of 58,000 people across the southern regions of Jiangxi, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan and Guizhou, the Ministry of Civil Affairs reported.
Freezing weather has also damaged nearly 300,000 acres of crops, including cabbage and rice, and caused about $203.8 million in economic losses across southern China, the ministry said.
In Guizhou province, 22,800 people were forced to evacuate from their homes Tuesday and drivers had to abandon thousands of cars after ice-covered roads were closed, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
"People, especially those living in the mountains and the elderly, are being evacuated from their homes," said a Guizhou Meteorological Bureau official, surnamed Zhao. "Roads and homes with poor infrastructure are being impacted by the icy conditions."
Physics Behind the Indoor Chills
Today's weather: High = 2 Low = -3
Chilly and hopeless
First off the bad news, the ongoing chills are going to remain for all of January. As the forecasters predicted way back in summer time, they warned that South China would again be facing this kind of a winter. At the time, that was adding insult to injury, as they had just recovered from the most severe summer flood season on record. As summer turned into fall, we got lucky with a great November and early December, but now the seemingly hopeless cold weather winter forecast has come true. Latest news reports, for example, show ice storms in the deep south (Guangxi province) and damaged crops.
The good news is that in two weeks time I'll be on a flight to Thailand and away from all this. It's just a matter of waiting it out.
For a Canadian like me, this would seem like child's play, but every year the same problem happens time after time. Indoor chills due to shitty building construction, end-of-semester work stress, and students / teachers alike dropping like flies from illness. As any seasoned teacher would agree in China, the short period between Western New Year and Chinese New year is an extremely miserable period of time. But the good news: things do recover nicely after that.
After hearing and vocing the same complaints year-after-year about the cold weather and the supposed reasons for it, I figured it was high time to get to the bottom of this and research the Physics for why it feels so damn cold indoors here, and, in some cases -- it's actually warmer outside.
It boils down to two factors: very low specific heat of concrete, and very low indoor humidity.
Specific heat basically means the capacity of a material to "hold" heat, or retain it. Water and air have high specific heats, as they can hold the heat well, and act as good insulators. Materials like concrete with a low specific heat cannot hold the heat.
During the hot summer day, the concrete blasts out the heat into the air and warms the air (which does retain heat well), making the air temperature very uncomfortable. In the winter time, the concrete sucks the heat out of the air, and so the air gets cold and it takes a lot of work to re-heat the air (if any success at all)
Regarding the humidity, we all know that hot air plus water vapor acts to make the air feel hotter in summer. But in winter, everyone says that the cold + humid air feels colder. That supposedly explains why places like Shanghai and Wuhan feel bone-chilly and you can never really warm up. This is somewhat true, but I stumbled on a more complete explanation this morning by accident.
While rushing to work, I jumped out of the shower and my hair wasn't completely dry. As I rode my bicycle, I felt like my head was submerged in an ice block. Then it made sense: the evaporating water from my head caused the body to feel much colder, basically the same effect as when we sweat.
On cold humid days, the humidity in the air makes contact with the skin and quickly evaporates, thus causing the chills. It's a never-ending process of torture.
Meanwhile, this same parcel of air is then de-humidified as it is brought into the house and becomes even colder due to the concrete walls. The chilly air inside the house is basically due to low humidity, not high humidity.
So the solution to Part I of the problem is rather simple: find a way to humidify the inside air as well as heat it. I'm going to experiment by purchasing some humidifiers on the weekend at the supermarket, and then combine that with the warm air-con heater.
Solving the other part is nowhere near as simple. The concrete buildings are basically a heat sink, and there is no getting around that. Unless there is a way to insulate the walls or the floor, among other things, the energy is more or less wasted. The only viable solution is to close off a particular room and try to heat that smaller area up, using the humidifier, a floor heater, an electric blanked, and then count down the days until Thailand.
Chilly and hopeless
First off the bad news, the ongoing chills are going to remain for all of January. As the forecasters predicted way back in summer time, they warned that South China would again be facing this kind of a winter. At the time, that was adding insult to injury, as they had just recovered from the most severe summer flood season on record. As summer turned into fall, we got lucky with a great November and early December, but now the seemingly hopeless cold weather winter forecast has come true. Latest news reports, for example, show ice storms in the deep south (Guangxi province) and damaged crops.
The good news is that in two weeks time I'll be on a flight to Thailand and away from all this. It's just a matter of waiting it out.
For a Canadian like me, this would seem like child's play, but every year the same problem happens time after time. Indoor chills due to shitty building construction, end-of-semester work stress, and students / teachers alike dropping like flies from illness. As any seasoned teacher would agree in China, the short period between Western New Year and Chinese New year is an extremely miserable period of time. But the good news: things do recover nicely after that.
After hearing and vocing the same complaints year-after-year about the cold weather and the supposed reasons for it, I figured it was high time to get to the bottom of this and research the Physics for why it feels so damn cold indoors here, and, in some cases -- it's actually warmer outside.
It boils down to two factors: very low specific heat of concrete, and very low indoor humidity.
Specific heat basically means the capacity of a material to "hold" heat, or retain it. Water and air have high specific heats, as they can hold the heat well, and act as good insulators. Materials like concrete with a low specific heat cannot hold the heat.
During the hot summer day, the concrete blasts out the heat into the air and warms the air (which does retain heat well), making the air temperature very uncomfortable. In the winter time, the concrete sucks the heat out of the air, and so the air gets cold and it takes a lot of work to re-heat the air (if any success at all)
Regarding the humidity, we all know that hot air plus water vapor acts to make the air feel hotter in summer. But in winter, everyone says that the cold + humid air feels colder. That supposedly explains why places like Shanghai and Wuhan feel bone-chilly and you can never really warm up. This is somewhat true, but I stumbled on a more complete explanation this morning by accident.
While rushing to work, I jumped out of the shower and my hair wasn't completely dry. As I rode my bicycle, I felt like my head was submerged in an ice block. Then it made sense: the evaporating water from my head caused the body to feel much colder, basically the same effect as when we sweat.
On cold humid days, the humidity in the air makes contact with the skin and quickly evaporates, thus causing the chills. It's a never-ending process of torture.
Meanwhile, this same parcel of air is then de-humidified as it is brought into the house and becomes even colder due to the concrete walls. The chilly air inside the house is basically due to low humidity, not high humidity.
So the solution to Part I of the problem is rather simple: find a way to humidify the inside air as well as heat it. I'm going to experiment by purchasing some humidifiers on the weekend at the supermarket, and then combine that with the warm air-con heater.
Solving the other part is nowhere near as simple. The concrete buildings are basically a heat sink, and there is no getting around that. Unless there is a way to insulate the walls or the floor, among other things, the energy is more or less wasted. The only viable solution is to close off a particular room and try to heat that smaller area up, using the humidifier, a floor heater, an electric blanked, and then count down the days until Thailand.
Tuesday 4 January 2011
Air Asia: Cheap Flights!
Today's weather: High = 5 Low = 0
Pea soup
Looks like all flights are confirmed for the upcoming Spring Festival trip. I'm really excited about this one, it's gonna be a long-anticipated bike trip in 3 of my favorite SE Asian countries. Part of it will be replicating a ride from the famous Mr Pumpy, and the other is a ride I created myself -- the whole thing will be surely blogged
As expected, booking cheap Air Asia flights within the Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia network was a cakewalk. It truly is the flights to and from mainland China that cost a fortune, due to the reasons mentioned in the last post. Having nailed those flights first, that was the hard work done. The rest was just filling in the gaps. The cheapest flight I got only cost about 250 RMB, in other words, less than $50.
More details to come shortly on this trip. Basically it'll involve parts of Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia (east Java and Bali). The original plan was to head for India again, but last year's experience proved that 3 weeks was too short, and it's not worth all the time, hassle, and money to get a visa.
Will put India on hold until the summer, then.
Pea soup
Looks like all flights are confirmed for the upcoming Spring Festival trip. I'm really excited about this one, it's gonna be a long-anticipated bike trip in 3 of my favorite SE Asian countries. Part of it will be replicating a ride from the famous Mr Pumpy, and the other is a ride I created myself -- the whole thing will be surely blogged
As expected, booking cheap Air Asia flights within the Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia network was a cakewalk. It truly is the flights to and from mainland China that cost a fortune, due to the reasons mentioned in the last post. Having nailed those flights first, that was the hard work done. The rest was just filling in the gaps. The cheapest flight I got only cost about 250 RMB, in other words, less than $50.
More details to come shortly on this trip. Basically it'll involve parts of Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia (east Java and Bali). The original plan was to head for India again, but last year's experience proved that 3 weeks was too short, and it's not worth all the time, hassle, and money to get a visa.
Will put India on hold until the summer, then.
Air Asia: Cheap Flights?
As regular readers of this blog would know, I've long been a proponent of Air Asia, the airline that offers supposedly cheap flights all across Asia, and has been expanding their routes relentlessly since they kicked off in 2003 with their Macau - Bangkok run, among other initial routes.
Their motto is "Now Everyone Can Fly" and they originally promoted themselves as a budget airline to offer cheap and no-frills flights.
Now it's getting difficult to keep up with where they fly, as it seems a new airport is added every week to their list, and many new countries are also added. They now cover a half-dozen cities in India, and not everything flies out of KL (Kuala Lumpur) anymore. For example, they are proposing direct runs from Bangkok to New Delhi, as well as Bangkok to Kolkata. They also have a proposed run from Bangkok to Nanning in South China which is a very interesting development! I'm really hoping they can get something in or out of Kunming (also in S China) and would imagine it's only a matter of time.
Off the top of my head, they are also flying to airports in France, London, Australia, Korea, Japan, and Iran.
With all this expansion, new routes, and new features as the company grows, one has to wonder if they can keep operating under their original business model. Recent trips with these guys shows their prices are going way up, and hunting for bargain flights becomes more difficult.
But I think this has a lot more to do with the 'demand side' of things. Recent experiences with Air Asia have been on international flights to/from China during peak holiday times. As the masses have all this money now, it is fast becoming a nightmare to enter or leave the country. Recall I've long given up on internal travel during holiday times due to a string of inconveniences, but the SE Asia option isn't a cakewalk either. Airlines are only basing their prices on how much these new millions of pampered rich Chinese people can afford for what constitutes their version of travel. These guys have money coming out of their ears, they like to show off, and they will pay, pay, pay. Where does that leave me? Competing with them, doing the same thing, at the same time.
Ironically, me and the masses have this one thing in common: we can only take the holidays at fixed times the government sets.
I was shocked to find a one-way Air Asia flight from KL to an airport near Shanghai cost nearly $700. That is if I were to book about 1.5 months in advance! It's gonna sell out for sure. The one-way flights from KL to other Chinese cities were in the $300-400 range. Similar international flights heading to or from China were pricey all over the place. Get ready for some of this. Round trip flights to Koh Samui. $1200. Round-trip flights to Bali: $1500. One-way flights to Bangkok: $400. Mind you, not all of this was Air Asia, as they don't fly out of Shanghai directly, but even the Air Asia flights (as above) were not cheap.
So I managed to beat the system by employing similar tactics as when doing a trip in and out of Vietnam during the holiday crunch last October. Any seasoned travel would know the drill here. Use domestic flights, do land border crossings, take night flights or early morning flights, etc. Due to a complex series of flight arrangements I managed to get awesome deals and it's actually pretty good considering the time of year. But it took a lot of searching and cobblings things together to make it work.
To prove that Air Asia does still offer cheap flights, it wasn't hard to do that. I just had to look at dates outside of the Spring Festival range, as well as domestic Malaysian, Thai, and Indonesia flights for comparable distances.
Sometimes I really wish that the Chinese didn't start getting into this money thing, as there is basically no stopping this one. Or, if they insist on money and holidays, maybe it's time to re-think the whole idea of everyone traveling at fixed times.
Their motto is "Now Everyone Can Fly" and they originally promoted themselves as a budget airline to offer cheap and no-frills flights.
Now it's getting difficult to keep up with where they fly, as it seems a new airport is added every week to their list, and many new countries are also added. They now cover a half-dozen cities in India, and not everything flies out of KL (Kuala Lumpur) anymore. For example, they are proposing direct runs from Bangkok to New Delhi, as well as Bangkok to Kolkata. They also have a proposed run from Bangkok to Nanning in South China which is a very interesting development! I'm really hoping they can get something in or out of Kunming (also in S China) and would imagine it's only a matter of time.
Off the top of my head, they are also flying to airports in France, London, Australia, Korea, Japan, and Iran.
With all this expansion, new routes, and new features as the company grows, one has to wonder if they can keep operating under their original business model. Recent trips with these guys shows their prices are going way up, and hunting for bargain flights becomes more difficult.
But I think this has a lot more to do with the 'demand side' of things. Recent experiences with Air Asia have been on international flights to/from China during peak holiday times. As the masses have all this money now, it is fast becoming a nightmare to enter or leave the country. Recall I've long given up on internal travel during holiday times due to a string of inconveniences, but the SE Asia option isn't a cakewalk either. Airlines are only basing their prices on how much these new millions of pampered rich Chinese people can afford for what constitutes their version of travel. These guys have money coming out of their ears, they like to show off, and they will pay, pay, pay. Where does that leave me? Competing with them, doing the same thing, at the same time.
Ironically, me and the masses have this one thing in common: we can only take the holidays at fixed times the government sets.
I was shocked to find a one-way Air Asia flight from KL to an airport near Shanghai cost nearly $700. That is if I were to book about 1.5 months in advance! It's gonna sell out for sure. The one-way flights from KL to other Chinese cities were in the $300-400 range. Similar international flights heading to or from China were pricey all over the place. Get ready for some of this. Round trip flights to Koh Samui. $1200. Round-trip flights to Bali: $1500. One-way flights to Bangkok: $400. Mind you, not all of this was Air Asia, as they don't fly out of Shanghai directly, but even the Air Asia flights (as above) were not cheap.
So I managed to beat the system by employing similar tactics as when doing a trip in and out of Vietnam during the holiday crunch last October. Any seasoned travel would know the drill here. Use domestic flights, do land border crossings, take night flights or early morning flights, etc. Due to a complex series of flight arrangements I managed to get awesome deals and it's actually pretty good considering the time of year. But it took a lot of searching and cobblings things together to make it work.
To prove that Air Asia does still offer cheap flights, it wasn't hard to do that. I just had to look at dates outside of the Spring Festival range, as well as domestic Malaysian, Thai, and Indonesia flights for comparable distances.
Sometimes I really wish that the Chinese didn't start getting into this money thing, as there is basically no stopping this one. Or, if they insist on money and holidays, maybe it's time to re-think the whole idea of everyone traveling at fixed times.
Back on the Bicycle
Today's weather: High = 6 Low = -1
Cloudy
With the motorcycle in hibernation now until the end of Spring Festival, it's fitting to get the bicycle back up and running again. Training is obviously needed before I tackle another SE Asia bicycle adventure in a couple weeks time. This time it's gonna be Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia combined. Stay tuned for more on that. Already got my flights booked for a steal of a deal.
Besides training and getting back into shape, a second benefit of the bicycle is that it keeps the body warm in this frigid weather. A short 3km ride into work doesn't take much time, but it really helps get the leg muscles going again after a long absence, and then generate some body heat. By contrast, on a motorcycle, the wind chill is all that you can think about as you're essentially doing no work to convert into body heat, and the speeds are also faster.
The simple fact that bicycle riding generates heat and takes the edge off the wind chill was something I had forgotten about in the last two years. It's not rocket science that Shanghai winters are bone chilly, and it's always been that way -- but all this recent motorcycle riding has had the opposite effect to make the effects of the winter more severe, even if the winters may be in fact be getting warmer.
On a related subject, I've been watching my weight and have been rather shocked at the gains of the last two years. Coincidence with the beginning of my motorcycle riding career? Hardly, I suspect it has become a way of laziness. Why take a bicycle to work if a motorbike is waiting, and it's just a key turn away? That and many other short runs that could just as easily be done on a bicycle have added up. There's also the lack of exercise, and very few recent bicycle trips made. The last one was a 3-week coastal run in India exactly a year ago, which was quite good and helped things out a bit -- but the weight gains have still been colossal. It's high time for another bike trip.
I know I said this last year, but I'm really serious to make this year a hardcore one for physical fitness, and do some daily routines like the gym, etc. Actually with all the signs and ads I'm seeing for marathons in the past week, I think that's a good indication to start training for one -- albeit the event should be later in the year.
In all seriousness, I'm aiming to lose 30 to 40 pounds for this year, and it's all gonna start with the bicycle
Cloudy
With the motorcycle in hibernation now until the end of Spring Festival, it's fitting to get the bicycle back up and running again. Training is obviously needed before I tackle another SE Asia bicycle adventure in a couple weeks time. This time it's gonna be Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia combined. Stay tuned for more on that. Already got my flights booked for a steal of a deal.
Besides training and getting back into shape, a second benefit of the bicycle is that it keeps the body warm in this frigid weather. A short 3km ride into work doesn't take much time, but it really helps get the leg muscles going again after a long absence, and then generate some body heat. By contrast, on a motorcycle, the wind chill is all that you can think about as you're essentially doing no work to convert into body heat, and the speeds are also faster.
The simple fact that bicycle riding generates heat and takes the edge off the wind chill was something I had forgotten about in the last two years. It's not rocket science that Shanghai winters are bone chilly, and it's always been that way -- but all this recent motorcycle riding has had the opposite effect to make the effects of the winter more severe, even if the winters may be in fact be getting warmer.
On a related subject, I've been watching my weight and have been rather shocked at the gains of the last two years. Coincidence with the beginning of my motorcycle riding career? Hardly, I suspect it has become a way of laziness. Why take a bicycle to work if a motorbike is waiting, and it's just a key turn away? That and many other short runs that could just as easily be done on a bicycle have added up. There's also the lack of exercise, and very few recent bicycle trips made. The last one was a 3-week coastal run in India exactly a year ago, which was quite good and helped things out a bit -- but the weight gains have still been colossal. It's high time for another bike trip.
I know I said this last year, but I'm really serious to make this year a hardcore one for physical fitness, and do some daily routines like the gym, etc. Actually with all the signs and ads I'm seeing for marathons in the past week, I think that's a good indication to start training for one -- albeit the event should be later in the year.
In all seriousness, I'm aiming to lose 30 to 40 pounds for this year, and it's all gonna start with the bicycle
Sunday 2 January 2011
The Ice Man Ain't Going Away
All the more reason why I can't wait for the Thailand vacation. Only 16 more days to go now!
----------------------
It should feel a little warmer in Shanghai today and over the next few days with temperatures climbing back above zero.
This week should be mostly fine but Wednesday will be cloudy with drizzle, the city's meteorological bureau said.
There could be some light snow today like last night, it said. "The city is under the edge of the sleet zone and chances of accumulation are small," the bureau said.
There could be ice on the roads this morning, the bureau added. Winds from the northwest are expected over the next few days and temperatures will range from zero to 2 degrees Celsius and could be as high as 6 degrees.
"The last day of the holiday will be fine and the cold should not affect outdoor activities," officials said. Tomorrow, the first working day after the holiday, should see temperatures reach 7 degrees.
Read more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=460586&type=Metro#ixzz19vxJWPGA
----------------------
It should feel a little warmer in Shanghai today and over the next few days with temperatures climbing back above zero.
This week should be mostly fine but Wednesday will be cloudy with drizzle, the city's meteorological bureau said.
There could be some light snow today like last night, it said. "The city is under the edge of the sleet zone and chances of accumulation are small," the bureau said.
There could be ice on the roads this morning, the bureau added. Winds from the northwest are expected over the next few days and temperatures will range from zero to 2 degrees Celsius and could be as high as 6 degrees.
"The last day of the holiday will be fine and the cold should not affect outdoor activities," officials said. Tomorrow, the first working day after the holiday, should see temperatures reach 7 degrees.
Read more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=460586&type=Metro#ixzz19vxJWPGA
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