Travel stories and photos and the occasional life lesson

I am in my final week of this trip to China.

I spent nearly $4 on some Azithromycin (sp?) and I have one more day of it. I think it is helping. I have a cold now. I’m in day four of illness. I only let it slow me down one evening. Other than that I have been going and going. Yesterday was one of the best because of the hiking excursion. We drove two hours out of the city and arrived at a beautiful mountain park where roses grow in the summer.

The three hour hike included eighteen Chinese folks and one Texan. Everybody spoke English because of their time spent outside of China. Afterwards, we dined at a hot pot restaurant that specializes in DONKEY meat. Don’t knock it til you try it. It’s just like beef except more lean. My part of the meal was $5.50. I love those kinds of meals.

I met Lucy (originally from China) from Canada at the airport on the way to Cambodia. She introduced me to Tracy and Steven. She grew up with Steven in Beijing and she met Tracy, a Chinese native, living in Toronto. Tracy has since moved back to Beijing.  This is all a very interesting education I am getting. One of my new hiking friends, Jay, presently lives near San Francisco with his wife and two sons. He has a company that develops medical devices. He hires engineers in China to develop the devices and then he applies for approval in the United States. Jay first went to America in the early 1990′s and has since moved there. Another new friend, Vanessa, first went to Iowa for graduate school in her early 20′s. She spent 10 years in NYC after getting a degree in Asian studies. She now manages a boutique hotel in Beijing called Hotel Côté Cour .

Tracy works 100 yards from my hotel. She and I had lunch on Tuesday before touring her office. Light in the box is the website. Check it out. They sell Chinese items to the U.S. There is free shipping. Brilliant! Super cheap prices! Her boss, Alan Guo, sat with us for a few minutes. He had something to do with the Google China. Google his name. He’s all of 33 or so. He got a graduate degree at a small private college called Stanford. Tracy invited me hiking yesterday. I went. We had a BLAST. It’s a group of folks; married, single, all kinds, 20′s up to around 50 who go hiking each Saturday who are Chinese who moved away and then came back to China. They all speak English. I was the only non-Chinese person with them. We left at 11am, drove more than 2 hours, hiked more than 3 hours, drove part of the way back, ate Donkey dinner, and then drove back. I got home at 9pm or so. There was no alcohol and I loved that part the most as I have a cold.

Steven, the other friend of Lucy, is a graphic arts designer guy.  I went bowling with him last Sunday and I’m going again in a few hours. He lived in California for a few years.

Please excuse the errors. I’ll blame it on my cold. Also, they don’t have medicines at the store here. You must go to a pharmacy. It’s different.

I am getting good at the metric system.

I’ll take bowling photos today.

Greg Gordon Uncategorized Beijing, cold, hiking, new friends

Fitting in here comes naturally to me. Since my last post I have met many new friends, eaten lots and lots of hot pot and cut back my beer intake.  John, my Dallas friend/  co-worker went back to Texas and my new friend, Lucy, flew home to Toronto.  Last weekend we dined at a Japanese restaurant and attended a new club opening at the Village. We also drank coffee at a sports bar called Eudora Station on Friday night before eating at a very local Chinese restaurant.

Saturday night we ate Japanese food.

Sunday I bowled four games with new friends Simon from the U.K. and Steven from Beijing.  Bowling resumes again Sunday at noon. They are in a league that starts back up at the end of February after the Chinese new year.  I held my own. I think my scores were 127, 131, 111, and 122.

The work week produced several productive meetings. I have new fliers, postcards, temporary business cards, and stands for the foam machines in the works. The meeting with the stand people was very positive. The foam cannon attachment for the Bubble Blaster 3000 is in development as well. Friday, (tomorrow) I have a sight seeing tour scheduled for 9am and (hopefully) a fiberglass factory visit in the afternoon.  Today included a tour of the factory where the vinyl for the inflatable bubble pits are manufactured. Finding this factory may seriously reduce my cost of production of the inflatable pits. I find all of the folks I am meeting to be extremely warm and friendly.

I could see myself spending several months a year here.

Greg Gordon Uncategorized

The temperature jumped to a comfortable level around freezing. It’s much more tolerable now that breathing is easy. When it’s way below freezing it hurts to breathe outside. My second container of goods left Beijing and is now heading towards central Texas. This process is much less smooth than I anticipated. I still have a third container of goods leaving in a week. In the meantime, I am familiarizing myself with Beijing life and making new friends too. Yesterday( Thursday) was wonderful. I met a local (Steven) who speaks English after my manicure and lunch with my new Canadian/ Beijing friend, Lucy. Last night, Matt, from NC who is living and working in China showed me a new Chinese restaurant. I am fascinated with the whole, “this is really great food,” line. How much better can it be than the other place? Really? It’s all the same stuff. It entertains me. The only real differences that are obvious to me are the prices. Meals range from $1-$2 all the way up to $15 per person. My favorite still is hot pot. I can’t get enough of the boiled food.

I also ran on the treadmill yesterday morning. That was necessary. I may do that again this afternoon. My energy level increases after a 32 minute run.

I visited with my Austin friend, Chris this week as well. I find that I really crave interaction with westerners. Yes, it’s quite lonely here. Yes, I get so much work done during the days without distraction. Yes, it’s well worth my time to be here.

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2:15pm Wednesday was the scheduled departure time for the flight from Beijing to Guanjou and then to Phnom Penh. While sitting in the boarding area I struck up a conversation with a young lady on her way from Beijing to Phenom Penh as well. We acquainted ourselves with each other the entire journey. Lucy is originally from Beijing and currently (last ten years or so) lives in Toronto, Ontario Canada. Her main reason for going to Cambodia was to assist at a school teaching English and getting a sense of how productive the school is. George and Tien are friends of Lucy from Toronto who started this wonderful school. Action to end Exploitation educates young Cambodian children. Lucy planned a trip to visit her family in Beijing and added the Cambodia section a week or so ago. She did much more research on what to see in Phnom Penh than I did.

My friends, Ronit, Craig, and Shai who are working for the US government in Cambodia, picked us up when our plane landed a little after 8pm Wednesday. We dropped Lucy at her hotel and the four us us went back to the temporary residence that the US government is putting Ronit, Craig, and young Shai up in.

Thursday morning I rood a tuk tuk to Lucy’s hotel where we went to the school together on motor bikes.

We didn’t know any better and we made it safely. It was $1 each for the 15 minute ride. Thursday morning was spent visiting with Ty, the school administrator and speaking English with the kids. It appears that they are all very eager to learn English. The kids were all so gracious. At 12:30 we got out and about. The afternoon consisted of a few tuk tuk rides, a stroll along the river, a very un-exciting meal at a touristy restaurant, a lovely visit with a gentleman from New Zealand, and stroll to Lucy’s new hotel, and dinner with the Gerards.

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Last night’s activities includes beer, Mexican food, American friends, and a Dallas Cowboy football game. In a few hours, my plane leaves for a five day trip to Cambodia.

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Right now it’s 5:23am on Monday. I knew that by waiting til 5am on Sunday morning to go to sleep I would be able to go to bed Sunday night and sleep past 6am on Monday. I messed it up by going to bed/ napping after 5pm and before 9. Woopsy on me. I tried and now it’s barely 5:30.  Oh well, I’ll use the extra time for this update and a visit to the treadmill. Sunday was a lazy day after getting about five hours of sleep. John and I got out and about for some street food, some hot pot, and a bit of sight seeing. We walked past Tian’man square and through a few different (very local) shopping areas.

Each time I go to a different hot pot restaurant it is different. I love it. Yesterday afternoon, the young lady waiting on us did everything. She poured the drinks, iced the drinks, dipped the food into the boiling water, and even scooped it onto our plates. This was my first experience with so much attention. I could get used to it.

This was the Sunday afternoon meal.

We purchased a few movies. It’s so challenging (for me) to go into the dvd store and not spend $5 or $10 each visit. When it’s $1.10 per movie I figure..WHY NOT? Heck, I’ll buy dvds at home for $10 or $20 for one so it is easy to justify the $7 purchase a few different times.

Saturday night was f-u-n. We danced til 4am Sunday morning after a most lovely dinner of Chinese food with several very beautiful ladies. Amy called out the “A-team” to accompany me to dinner and an evening of dancing. John was along for the adventure too. We went to Shui bar which they (Amy & John) tell me is the “best” bar in Beijing. In a city of 20 million, can there be a “best” bar in the city? It was fun. The band sang western music and during their breaks the dj played western club music.  Our entourage included (in photo left to right) Lisa, Amy, me, Mae, & Lilly.

John took the photo.

First photo is Mae & Lisa                                                 Second photo is Lilly & Amy

Saturday night’s dinner

On Saturday when I got out by myself, I walked to the subway, traveled out to the Llama temple and enjoyed some street food along the way. I find it so different to be in a foreign (to me) country traveling alone without a cell phone. I do keep a card with the address of my temporary residence on it, a pocket full of Chinese money, a pen, John’s cell phone number, and my Texas drivers license. It’s not like I am out in the wilderness. There is food and water every few feet in the humongous city of Beijing. The subway system is wonderfully simple to get around on. Yes, sometimes I do get packed in shoulder to shoulder with other folks because so many people use the subway. I love seeing the efficiency. I stopped into a shoe store and had a short chat (in English) with a young lady who spoke perfect English. We were both there trying on shoes. The store did not stock my size so it was a bust for me.

Greg Gordon Uncategorized

When I travel, one of my favorite things is randomly running into someone I know.  Until this morning I had not randomly run into a familiar face on any of my China adventures.

John was determined to watch the National championship college football game so I was fine going along. I casually mentioned that it would be great to see someone I knew at the establishment where we landed. We arrived about a half hour before game time and quickly said hello to all four of the other patrons watching the game. Logan was from Dallas so we felt so much closer to home. The others were from all over the U.S. About forty-five minutes after we arrived Logan’s friends showed up. I could hear them talking. I recognized one of the voices as a gentleman with whom I worked way back in college when I worked for the Texas state comptroller’s office.  His name is Chris Conyers and I was recently thinking about him and where he was. His voice was very unique and I really liked that guy. I turned around and saw a guy in a Texas football jersey with his ten year old son in tow. It looked AND sounded like Chris Conyers. I thought there was no way possible for it to be my old friend. I stood up, kept trying to figure if it was Chris and heard Logan say, “Greg, this is Chris.” I responded with, “Hi Chris, I’m Greg Gordon! John, say hi to Chris Conyers. We used to work together!!!!!”

I turned to Cameron and said hello and then began catching up with Chris. This was the most wonderful football experience I have ever had. I am not a football fan. This may make me get out more often to see football games. Maybe it won’t. I have randomly run into familiar people since the fifth grade when my grandparents took my brothers and me to California. We saw Bobby Lett from my class at the Farmers Market out there. I have also run into someone in the subway in D.C., Yellowstone National Park, and Las Vegas. Now I get to add Beijing, China to that list.

After the game we bought a few things. I got new phone covers and some very needed jeans. I only came here with one pair so I am glad to be able to now wear a different pair.

The fifteen minute walk from my temporary residence to the subway was cold yesterday morning. Amy, John, and I spent a little time at the hair salon after working awhile and enjoying lunch at the factory.

I went to sleep before ten last night without dinner and then slept in all the way to 4:10am today. I get so much computer work done between 4:10am and 7am that it’s okay to get up so early.

Greg Gordon Uncategorized Beijing, china, football game, national championship, Texas

I booked a flight to Cambodia. Next Wednesday I fly south for a few days to visit a very dear camp friend from a whole bunch of summers ago. My friend and her husband, with their young child in tow, work for the United States government. Since I am only a seven hour (each way) trip away I will not pass the opportunity up to go for a visit

I woke up this morning at 3:30am and was inspired to work. I got a bit antsy and decided to see if I could exercise. I made it thirty and a half minutes on the treadmill. That’s a personal record as I never run on one of those things. My only other option is running in the 4 degree weather (before windchill) and I decided on the treadmill. I am noticing that I can be so productive when I am alone in a foreign country with a 14 hour time difference separating me from all of my normal distractions.

After eating the lunch shown above I got out in the city for a very lovely walk. I have been mainly stuck inside in front of a computer so I notice that I want to cause trouble for myself. The walks help. Any exercise is good. I am definitely an outside person. The cold weather makes it a bit challenging as I am not conditioned for it quite yet. I bet that by the time I leave here I’ll be up to speed.

I believe that today we will be visiting vendors. That’s always an adventure. I am now going to shower and head down to breakfast.

Greg Gordon Uncategorized Beijing, exercise, Greg, photoshop, website development, work

Today I stayed at the hotel and spent entirely too many hours punching buttons on the computer. It’s a necessary evil. Dinner was lovely. We ate hot pot at a different restaurant. This was a hot pot where each person gets his own boiling water pot. Stone, Amy, John, and a vendor are at the dinner table. Stone married his wife on Sunday. I missed the wedding by a few hours.

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Yesterday was Monday, my first full day in Beijing and it was COLD. I walked outside for a solid 45 seconds a few times. To inhale deeply is painful in this cold. My feet with my wool socks and Minnesota cold boots do stay warm. My hands and upper body stay warm because I have appropriate clothing. It’s the part of the legs between the boots and the bottom of my coat that get a bit chilly because they are only covered by two thin layers.

We did not save the world as we had some necessary work strategy sessions in the hotel. For lunch we ate in a shopping mall style food court that is in the basement below the hotel. I have been eating lots of noodles, soup, and vegetables. I did taste duck head my first evening here. Last night (dinner number 2) John and I ate hot pot that was cooked in a tomato soup base. I am learning that there are so many different ways to serve and cook the hot pot. It is very tasty cooked in the tomato soup.

I proudly slept in til 7:09 am. Today Amy is going to drive us to the factory to see my El Jefe foam machines before they get loaded into a container for shipment to Lockhart. I also am going to check into a plane ticket for Cambodia for later in the month.

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