the yangyuan huating commerce hotel no.8

the week before last i flew with a couple of work colleagues to visit a factory in yangyuan, close to the border of hebei and shanxi provinces. the closest airport was at datong, about a three hour drive away. we flew into busy datong airport (click on the thumbnail above) and headed to yangyuan.

at yangyuan we checked into the 'huating commerce hotel no.8' where i was given what supposedly was the presidential suite. the picture above is the view after entering the front door. the small table in front is for playing mahjong and was plugged in and making a loud refridgerator-like humming noise when i walked in.

the presidential bathroom overlooked the factory next door and was large but missing a few things such as... a mirror. presumably mr. president would have someone preening him in the morning and wouldn't have use for a mirror.

to the left in the bathroom there was a small sauna and jacuzzi. unfortunately there was no shower-head except for a small handheld one with about a foot of slack. i suppose mr. president doesn't worry about having to wash his own hair. the toilet was missing a toilet-paper holder, but i suppose mr. president also doesn't... never mind.

the telephones in the room were a bizarre gaudy combination of what you'd perhaps find in an early 20th-century mansion except made from plastic with a digital display.

another grotesque example next to the bed. i felt like picking it up and shouting, 'mr. watson, come here, i want you!'

the view from the bedroom. you'll notice the bed doesn't have covers on it. i thought perhaps there would be a 'turn down' service later in the evening but when i returned back to the room after dinner it still didn't have any covers on it. after hunting around for a while i asked for help and learned that the covers were stored in that small chest next to the television. yes, that made perfect sense.

this was by far the most bizarre aspect of the room. the second toilet was located right in the center of the room, surrounded by a hannibal lecter style glass room. no curtains, no screen, nothing. making matters worse is the front door to the right had about a quarter inch gap between the door and doorframe, so using the throne is not only a show to whoever is in the room but also whoever is walking down the hall. i really wonder what the purpose of this room is. perhaps some things are better left unknown....

a panoramic view of yangyuan as seen from the glass toilet cage room.

mac attack

in computer news i've finally made the switch over to using a mac, at least for work anyway. i'm running a program called parallels which lets me use both the mac operating system (on the laptop on the right) and windows xp (on the screen on the left) at the same time. it took me a while to get used to the mac but now that i've been using it for a while i like it a lot. the downside is there are a number of programs, like outlook, which are better in their xp version so it looks like i'll be using parallels a lot.

macs are famous for their reliability, being far more stable than your typical windows pc. unfortunately, as you can see by the above picture, i've had a few crashes lately. of course i have to give full disclosure and say that all of the crashes happened while using windows xp inside parallels so it's not entire apple's fault.

and fitting with the theme of buggy microsoft product, my xbox 360 recently died after a strenuous period of being rarely used. here it is showing the infamous three 'red rings of death' signifying terminal hardware failure.

the flying condo

the other week i was working in vietnam for a few days. over the past couple of months monsoon season has hit in full force in asia and the day i was due to fly back to hong kong was no exception. my flight was delayed by a couple of hours, though fortunately they kept us out of the airplane so we could walk around. the poor guys in the photo above kept trying to find a dry place to stand- finally they made a sprint for the underside of the airplane.

when i boarded the plane i was surprised to find that i had been upgraded to first class. even better, the plane was only a couple of weeks old and was fitted with the brand new cathay first class cabins.

the seat was at least 50% wider than normal and everything else was oversized too, including a 17" lcd screen that could be swiveled around on an arm. luxury!

the audio/video system was brand new and offered the usual array of on-demand music and movies.

the six first class suites shared a bathroom that was decked out in chrome and lots of shiny black surfaces that i'm sure are a real pain to keep clean.

the video i took above shows how large the cabin is- perfect for a long-haul flight. unfortunately i have about 13 hours in an economy seat to look forward to tomorrow. here's hoping and praying for another upgrade!

the met construction

of the many new condos rising up in the bangkok skyline, probably the most distinctive is the met. i checked out their showroom a couple of weeks ago and took this photo of the construction update. the lower floors have an irregular pattern to the balconies, each of which comes with its own tree. probably not a good thing for me to move in there given my (dis)ability when it comes to taking care of plants.

around chiang mai

a few months back i flew over to chiang mai for a long weekend. i've always liked chiang mai as it has a very different flavor to the rest of thailand- more of a relaxed atmosphere and the locals tend to be even more laid back than their bangkok colleagues. i rented a car and drove into the mountains- above is a road very close to the highest point in thailand, doi inthanon.

back closer to chiang mai is doi suthep, a mountain that overlooks the city and has a number of interesting places to visit including the temple wat phrathat doi suthep. on the steps leading up the temple sat two young kids in akha clothing eating shrimp crackers.

to reach the temple one has to climb 309 steps or for the less agile there's now a tram ride that takes one to the top.

this scary-looking fellow is a n?ga, a multi-headed temple guardian whose body extends the length of the steps leading to the temple.

inside the temple, standing buddhas with a temple viharn in the background.

offerings of candles, incense, and flowers.

an elderly monk gives out blessings in the form of strings tied to one's wrist. it's supposed to be good luck to wear the strings but i've never been told exactly how long to keep them on- some say removal after three days is ok and others say they should be worn until they fall off (!) which, considering that it is usually fairly sturdy string, could take quite some time.

a monk helps a tourist by taking a photo of her with her camera.

some flowers in front of a flag showing the royal emblem of celebration marking the king's 80th birthday.

a very large tree in the royal garden of phuping palace (pronouced 'boo-ping', not how you'd expect).

a rose in the royal garden.

a monk taking a photo of a group of monks in the garden.