Chiang Mai & Zhongshan Profiles

Exactly a year today we got on a flight and left America, with just three big suitcases and a small suitcase for the three of us! Since then, we have experienced so many new things, but the most precious of all is all the people that we have come across, whom we would have never met!

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai is such a beautiful city! I can still see the rolling hills, the green paddy fields, feel the warm sun rays, taste the endless selections of fresh fruit… I miss the unhurried pace of life.

Mr. Li is actually from Zhongshan, but has spent many years in Thailand building a string of successful businesses. He’s now building a new business in the Greater Mekong Subregion. He has been generous with his help since even before our arrival in Thailand, having never met us in person before! He and Mrs. Li and their son are all so nice. What touched me the most, is that when I felt stupid for being conned ¥10,000 (~$1,600) shortly after our arrival in China, he told me that I shouldn’t feel stupid, but instead I should continue to treasure and protect that pureness of heart.

R. is the manager of the spa resort during our first few weeks in Thailand. He was professional cyclist from the U.K., then a personal trainer, then a penniless yogi in India. On one of his trips back to Thailand, he met this beautiful woman in a train station whom he married later. Now they live with their son in Chiang Mai. He is so laid back!

P. is a Thai lady that is in charge of PTIS’ restaurants, hotels, spa, and properties. She lived in Australia for many years and used to manage the hotels there. She is such a nice lady and she is smitten with Sam.

L. is the tennis coach in PTIS. He is from a minority tribe in Myanmar. When the missionary left his area as a kid, all he was left with was an old tennis racket. From there, he managed to become the national tennis champion in Myanmar, with his entire tribe’s support who pooled money to help him. He ended up receiving more training in Japan and has devoted his life to tennis.

D. is a veterinarian who’s been devoting her life to wildlife animals. Every month, she seems to be somewhere in Nepal, in Singapore, in somewhere dealing with some wild tigers etc. Her husband D. retired after having spent many years in Hong Kong working in international finance. They came to Chiang Mai (from Montana), around the same time we did. Their kids went to PTIS and Sam got along with them well.

Jim left U.K. at the age of 53, after many years working in financial services, and went to South Africa. He is now semi-retired, in Chiang Mai (see his blog: http://jamoroki.com). He is sweet, gentle, and young at heart!

Zhongshan, China

Zhongshan is such a sleepy little city by Chinese standards (its population is around 2 millions by official counts). There are about 5,000 foreigners living here, with the majority being Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan. With big cities like Shanghai and Beijing, you don’t think twice about seeing a foreigner. With a third-tier city like Zhongshan, I always wonder how these people end up there. Their stories fascinate me.

J. and M. are sisters from Russia. They run the little cafe close to us where a lot of foreigners from our development go and hang out. They are very friendly, and always full of information whenever we ask a question, everything from taxi drivers to international schools. They have made our transition to China a lot easier! They are now opening a second restaurant close by.

M. and C. are Mr. Li’s friends. They live in Kaiyin as well. They are retired and they have given us numerous help during our first few months in Zhongshan. They ran us everywhere, from the local Notary to the car dealerships, to the Immigration bureau, and countless others. They are gentle, good-natured, generous, patient. Their son E. went to the same school as Sam, and now they are ready to start their own adventure! Actually, M. went to Seattle a few weeks ago, and C. and E. are going to leave in just a few days so that E. can go to high school in America! Adjusting to America for them is probably a little easier than adjusting to Zhongshan for us, but nonetheless, it takes a lot of courage. Best of luck to them.

C. is the daughter of M. & C.. She used to study in a boarding high school in Atlanta in America. After 9/11, she completed her studies in China, and now works for a hotel in Macau. Her boyfriend J. is an international business lawyer in Macau who came from Portugal originally. When we visited Macau weeks ago, they showed us the ultimate yummy Portuguese egg tarts, the disappearing harbor, and the quaint little cafe with the best coffee in Macau!

P. and R. are from Singapore. R. is in charge of a marina-building residential project in Zhongshan and will be here for a few years. Their son and daughter go to the same school as Sam. The two girls just love to play with each other and constantly ask for playdates.

N. came from the ghetto is America, but managed to pull himself together, and ended up teaching English in Zhongshan, and selling specialized signs online. He is married a Chinese girl. They have a 3-year old daughter. He’s now managing a party popper manufacturing company, but still sells his signs and does private tutoring. He is one hard-working man!

H. is Sam’s tennis coach. He was born in Taiwan but moved to Texas since he was 4. He studied computer science and worked in that industry for a while, but his passion is tennis, so he’s been in Zhongshan for the last ten years building his tennis coaching business. He’s very much tied into the pro-tennis circuit and works extremely hard (too hard).

S. is one of H.’s coaches, also from Texas. He used to coach Andy Roddick since Andy was a kid. A few years ago, it came to him in a dream that he should moved to China, so he got hook up with H. and moved here. He coached Sam for quite a few sessions and the two got along really well. They talked everything from tennis to rock and roll. Unfortunately, he’s now back in the U.S. for an operation. Hopefully, we’ll see him back here soon.

G. sold a successful business in the U.K. and now owns a 3-D prototyping company in Zhongshan. I never quite got the story of how he ended up here.

P. is from the same area in U.K. as Gary. He worked in a cruise ship before, then went to West Africa, met a Chinese girl M. (from Guangzhou), and a week later, they got married! They lived in the U.K. for many years, and now they are in Zhongshan with their young son. They own a software company with their partner S.

S. was born in Zhongshan but left for Australia since he was 4. Now many years later, he’s married to V. from Hong Kong, whom he met when she was studying in Australia. They also spent some years living in the U.K. but have moved to Zhongshan for the last few years. S. can speak Chinese but not read, so he’s managed to memorize the character for beef in Chinese. Whenever he’s in a restaurant by himself, he would look for something with “beef” in it because the waitresses would otherwise be very impatient with him as they expect him to read the menu himself and not ask questions on what’s available.

J. and D. are from Huntsville, Alabama. D. used to work in the company finance area. A few years ago, they adopted a girl from China, and that just changed their world completely! They have since been devoting their lives to running this non-profit foster home, first in Beijing, and now in Zhongshan. Every day, they try to save sick and disabled orphans, and try to find them a good family for adoption. They are very special people.

The stories are endless. Years ago when I was a little kid, I read this book by a famous Chinese writer called 艺海拾贝, which roughly translates to picking up seashells (or treasures) from the sea of literature. I feel like that we have been transported to brand new beaches, discovering beautiful seashells in these new seas of people. Happy Anniversary to us!

Zhongshan!

We were planning to move to Zhongshan towards the end of January, but after we dropped Mom and Dad off on Jan. 19, there seemed to be very little point to stay much longer, other than packing up our stuff since we had sold our car to some friends and the paperwork was being taken care of, and we had gotten our visas for China as well. So our plan changed yet again and we took the flights yesterday!

Packing & Shipping

Packing was painful as ever. We (mostly me) started packing on Sunday after Mom and Dad left, and it continued all the way till Tuesday night, the night before our flights.

Mom and Dad already took some shoes with them for us when they left, but we did not want them to carry too many suitcases so we did not give them much. I looked into shipping some items to China. From what I could find online, it seemed that the Thailand Post was pretty good, reasonable price and reliable. I also looked into clearing the Customs in China given my painful and expensive experience with Thailand.

China seems to have a similar Customs/duty/VAT scheme as Thailand. It was difficult to tell whether I could get any items exempt. However, Hong Kong has absolutely no import duty whatsoever. Since we are very close to Hong Kong, I asked one of my cousins whether I could ship the items to her and we could take them over later. She very graciously agreed.

We went to the local post office and ended up purchasing two boxes. For Hong Kong, the maximum size is 20kg per box. We filled the two boxes with all my books, a little bit of toys and stuffed animals and shipped them via EMS (air) service to Hong Kong on Monday Jan 20. They were supposed to arrive within 7 days. Each shipment costed about $100 USD. If we shipped via SAL (sea & air), it would be cheaper (~$65), but it would take a month to get there!

I checked the tracking numbers today. The first box (shipped in the morning) already arrived Hong Kong today and a delivery had been attempted. The second box was shipped in the afternoon, and it seemed to be on the same container as the first one and went out the same day. Yet, the latest status stops on Tuesday (Jan 21). I hope that it is not lost.

Flights & Ferry

We flew to Hong Kong from Chiang Mai via Bangkok. Just like our move from the U.S. to Chiang Mai, there were minor dramas.

Given all the demonstrations going on in Bangkok over the last couple months, we were a bit worried that the airport would be affected. Furthermore, the Thai government just declared a state of emergency on Jan. 21, the day before our flights! I searched for any news regarding the BKK airport but nothing special came up. I checked the flight status and everything seemed to be operating normally. Fingers crossed!

The flight to Bangkok was leaving at 7am, so we booked a taxi for 5am to take us to the airport (about 20 minutes away). When I tried to book the taxi with the lady who drove me before, she said it was too early and wanted to think about it. She eventually agreed, thanks to our friend Mr. Li pulling some strings. We were worried that the taxi wouldn’t come on time, but the lady called me on Tuesday after to confirm the picked, and a big van showed up on time in front of our house.

Gary worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to check in since we wouldn’t get to the airport until around 5:30am and the flight was at 7am. However, once we got to the airport at around 5:20, no one from Thai Air was actually there to do any check-ins. We were told that the counters would be open at 5:30am, and eventually the people started rolling in slowly, past 5:30am.

I packed all 3 suitcases to the fullest, as well as a small suitcase, and were prepared to pay any excess baggage fee, which was only about 10฿ per kg, not bad. However, the two biggest cases weighed about 36-37kg and the man working at the counter told us that he couldn’t take these two as-is due to the Thai labor law. No single bag should weigh more than 32kg. We were told to take some things out, which was impossible for us! At the end, there was a luggage packing place in the airport. We bought a box to take out some extra items from these two suitcases. We managed to take out enough to lower the weights to the acceptable range. However, the box we bought was too big for what we put in there. Gary tried to exchange for a smaller box but the guy said no. Instead, he cut the bigger box down to fit the contents. It was a weird thing to do in our eyes, but whatever…

The flight arrived Hong Kong about 30 minutes early, which gave us enough time to purchase tickets for the ferry and gave them all the luggage tags to transfer the suitcases over. The prices for the ferry to Zhongshan seemed to have gone up quite a bit. For the VIP tickets, they costed about $60 each!

When we got into the VIP room on the ferry, we were surprised to find that the old leather benches were gone. Replacing them were individual massage chairs! We couldn’t turn them on ourselves, but a service lady helped us. Samantha got a giggle massaging. The bathrooms were much cleaner too. I used to avoid going to the bathroom on the ferry, but this time, while it was not great, it was clean enough, so quite an improvement!

We arrived at the Zhongshan Port about 1 1/2 hours later. We were amazed to find all of our luggage got transferred and they were all there. The line for Immigration Control was not very long so we just zipped through. However, we were picked by Customs to run all of our bags through the scanner, so Gary got quite a workout.

Once we came out from the Port arrival area, my parents and some relatives were there to pick us up. With two small cars, it looked like we may need to call a taxi in order to fit everything. However, the Chinese ingenuity took over and got all the cases and the people packed into the two cars.

First Impressions of Zhongshan

Upon arrival last night, we were all pretty tired. Since it is close to the Chinese New Year, there are all kinds lantern hung on the trees, very pretty!

Shortly after dinner, we all went to bed (including me, which was unusual). The rooms were pretty cold and none of the heaters seem to be working!

Today, we finally had some time to take a look.

Driver License

We tried to get a driver license for China so that we could buy a car. There seems to be an awful a lot of confusion of what needed to be done. Eventually, we ended up going to the Zhongshan Certification organization to get our translated US passports and Calif. driver license to area to look at.

Jam Cafe

After a morning well spent visiting Chinese agencies, we took it easy a bit. Samantha was with my parents, so Gary and I went out to look for food. We went into this little cafe by the corner close to us. There were quite a few foreigners there, and the owner(s) seem to be very friendly as well. We were told that there are actually quite a few foreigners there and they all go to breakfast at the cafe during the weekends so we plan to do the same. Since we enjoyed the food (limited menu but good) and the people (the owners are two Russian sisters) so much, we went back to dinner there with Samantha.

My mom called the Service department for the ACs/heaters and they came in the afternoon to work on the heaters. They fixed all but the heater in the living room, which needed a new board so the man would come back tomorrow. We are just relieved that we now have heat! Maybe that was Gary’s birthday gift.

After dinner, we went for a walk around the neighborhood. To our pleasant surprise, there are many more shops opened, and quite a few restaurants (for me and Sammy). Tomorrow, we will go walk some more and see what other stores are there.

After all these years living abroad, it feels a bit weird to be back in Zhongshan with the intention to stay here for quite a while. I hope that this is the right move for us.

Waiting for 2014

Christmas in Singapore

We had a great Christmas Day in Singapore. Samantha was really excited to see all the presents under the tree when she woke up in the morning. She inspected the carrots and cookie that we had left for Santa and was satisfied that all the food had been consumed, leaving just the stems of the carrots.

We proceeded to open all the presents, and Sammy was obviously the most excited, and also the one with the most presents! She got plenty of new clothes, a couple different bracelet/jewelry making kits, and some other science-related kits.

We had Christmas dinner around 1:30pm, with a big roast turkey that came all the way from the U.S. Apparently turkeys in Singapore are not very good and very expensive. When Nick and Audrey were in the U.S., the bought a heirloom turkey and put it in a cold box inside their luggage! Regardless how the turkey got to be on our dinner table, it was very delicious and way too big for just the 5 of us!

We walked down to Orchard Rd after dinner. We were hoping to see some floats, but we were either too late or there were no floats to begin with. There were many people walking on the streets though, which surprised me.

On Boxing Day, we went for the River Cruise since it was close by and not too busy. We wanted to go for a high tea before we left so we had to schedule our activities around the high tea time.

The cruise was nothing special, though it was nice to see the Singapore skyline from the river. What was enjoyable was the kaya toast we had after the cruise. The kaya toast is a Singapore specialty, made with 2 very thin slices of toast with some kaya jam (made from coconut) in the middle. It was quite delicious and we were glad that we had a chance to try this before we left.

We wanted to go to the Raffles Hotel for the high tea but we couldn’t get it, so we ended up going to the Hyatt for the 3:30pm high tea and buffet. The food was delicious and we all had a very good time, though completely stuffed (the usual theme since we got to Singapore). Samantha was smiling the entire time!

Chiang Mai

We came back to Chiang Mai on Dec. 27. When we were landing, the captain announced that the temperature in Chiang Mai was 19°C (~66.2°F). There was an audible gasp from the passengers. This was the coldest ever since we have come to Chiang Mai. I was told by our friend Jim that Chiang Mai had been unusually cool over the entire Christmas break.

The weather has continued to be cool since we came back. It has been around the 70’s – 80’s (mostly around 70’s °F). It is actually quite pleasant and we don’t need any air conditioning. In fact, we wish that we have heat as well but we don’t, so we have added another layer of comforter at night. It’s amusing to see how the locals dress. While a shirt and a pair of jeans keep me comfortable and warm, we see many Thais with big jackets, thick scarves, and knitted hats.

My parents are arriving tonight to spend the New Year with us. We’ll be picking them up from the airport later tonight. They were quite excited when I talked to them last. It will be good to share Chiang Mai with them.

There have been ongoing demonstrations in Bangkok since November and the Thai government has been dissolved. We have received security alerts from the U.S. embassy regarding travels to Bangkok. However, in Chiang Mai, it has been quiet and peaceful as ever. I thought about taking my parents to Bangkok for a visit before, but now I think we will just stay in Chiang Mai.

Good-bye to 2013

On this last day of 2013, it is hard not to reflect on the year.

2013 started off very busy at work, with my department winning one big contract after another and my job was to make sure that we had a very good scale-up plan to meet the work demands. It was emotional for me to leave my team behind, to say good-bye to a place where I had spent the majority of my working life. I wish there was a way for me to take all my team with me to work on another business, but that’s not the case, at least for the near future. Saying good-bye was never easy, but at least I was comforted to know that there would be plenty of work for my team for the next few years so no need for me to worry about them in that regard.

2013 is definitely a year of change. As a family, we have made the biggest move since Sammy’s birth. Living in a foreign country, not understanding the language, and not having the security of a regular paycheck can be unnerving at times. Sometimes I wonder if I should have joined the start-up that contacted me after I had quitted my job back in June. I liked the company technology and I liked the people working there, so did I give up a good opportunity? When I refused the offer, the founder thought I was brave. I don’t know how brave I really am, but I think sometimes you just have to do things that break the mold, that set you free, without knowing what will come after. Sometimes you just have to take that leap of faith, because if you don’t, you will always wonder what would happen if you did. Living with regrets is worse than living with “failure”.

As we contemplate yet another move in the new year, I hope that we will stay happy and healthy as a family and take that optimism with us wherever we go.