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!

Move to Zhongshan!

“The only constant in life is change!” – Heraclitus

To celebrate the beginning of a new year, we booked another set of one-way tickets today to Hong Kong. We are moving in late January, and this time, back to my hometown, Zhongshan (中山)!

Chiang Mai has been a very nice place to relax and to reflect. I love the rice paddy fields, the rolling hills, the beautiful temperature, the friendly people. There is something very poetic about this place. It is probably the ideal place for retirement. Yet, we are no where near to retire!

After our visit to Singapore, we are craving intellectual stimulations more than ever. There were interesting conversations with our friends and their friends every day! Singapore would probably be a nice place to live for a while, but it is too expensive for us.

Then there is the business I am going to build with the people I met in Shanghai. I thought we would be moving to Shanghai, though that thought did not really thrill me. I have never been a big-city person, but if I had to, I would. As things turned out, since we need to be very frugal with funding, I have decided that it is much better to be in Zhongshan, my hometown, where it is much cheaper than Shanghai, and I can get a lot of family support when I need to travel for business.

Zhongshan is a small city in southern China, just a ferry away from Hong Kong. It is the hometown of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, the founder of modern day China. It has been designated by the central government as the National Model City of Environmental Protection. As such, the air is better than most part of China. It is much less expensive than its neighbors, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau.

I have always been amazed that so few people know about my hometown with its proximity to all of these bigger cities. The locals are quite well off here, but the cost of living is still low compared to neighboring big cities.

Except for a few short visits, I haven’t really been living there since I was a teenager so I do worry about how my family will fit in there, especially for Gary, who doesn’t speak any Chinese, and very few people in Zhongshan speak English, compared to Chiang Mai. My parents are suggesting some kind of electronic translator for Gary, which I should take a serious look.

With more uncertainties on the horizon, I do look forward to the one certainty that Zhongshan has to offer: various local snacks!

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.