Pirates, Strawberries, Pornstars, Human Hamster Balls, Goats, and a Tandem Bike

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Mechanical Bulls. Jazz, Che Guevara, and Free Mojitos

All that and more in Haiwan park this weekend!

(love this entrance!)


This past weekend Chris got to have his first proper weekend out (with out Jet lag) in Xiamen.

Friday night we met up with some Couch Surfers to catch some live music and half priced Heineken at JJ's Bar and Grill. Yet another ex-pat hang out. It was spur of the moment, but a fair amount of people showed up and we met some of our first non CS ex-pats.



The band was from Iceland. They had a pretty mellow grove that made for good back ground music while people chatted. JJ's is owned by a guy from Tennessee and is modeled after a Texas Steak house. It even has an old Ford out front, Mechanical bull to ride, and a big neon WELCOME TO TEXAS sign.



We also got dinner at a place next door called Havana. We knew it was new but we didn't realize that we happened to be the first customers to order food since they opened that day as a test run for their grand opening the next day! We both got chicken burritos and they were quite good. The bar tender there was a British guy who might have been 26-27. He told us come back for the Grand Opening the next day.

So we did. Along we CS friend CheFung from Hawaii who came to our first meeting and happened to be passing threw Xiamen again.

Havana was a blast. Live jazz band and free monitors margaritas and sangria all night helped a lot!



Just a good weekend over all!

More later.

Zongshang Street (Walking Street)

Well I typed out 3/4 of the blog post disconnected from the internet and then I updated firefox and lost it all. Grrrr I hate retyping things.

Basically Chris and I went to Zongshang Street (a street closed to cars in the center of Xiamen) and walked around looking for a guitar string and a keyboard.



Zongshang Street is one of the oldest "roads" in Xiamen. It was where the British established a settlement when they first started opening up China to trade.

Xiamen may be better known to some as Amoy, and was one of the early places where trade was allowed.

It is now full of little shops, vendors, and restaurants and a pretty neat place to spend a night wandering.

Here are some photos of assorted shops and vendors.





Food vendor


After at a particularly bad attempt at trying to order food at a buffet (The girl we dealt with will not be my partner if we ever play charades! She also continued to speak very rapid Chinese even after asking her to slow down and and telling her we didn't understand in Chinese) we decided to to try Xiamen KFC to see if it was any different and for ease of ordering. It wasn't. (but it was easy to order)

After we walked around a bit and I amused my self by taking pictures of all of the obvious attempts of Chinese businesses to knock off American brands.

Examples:

"Pearl Boy" and obvious knock off of "Playboy" bunny and all, sold mostly women clothing.


This company sold running shoes. I'd wager that swoosh is identical to the Nike swoosh if you flipped it over.


Crocodile sold men's work clothing. Their Croc logo looks just a liiiiitle bit like that of Lacoste.
http://brandnoise.typepad.com/brand_noise/images/lacoste_logo.gif



This one didn't seem to be knocking anyone off, but I had to take a picture for obvious reasons. Unfortunately it was just a logo. The store only sold bed sheets that didn't even have dinos on them.



After some more wandering we found a little coffee shop (no where near as common as it is in the US or Europe) so we decided to stop and try it out.




It was actually fantastic and they served Hagan-das to boot! I was happy.


Afterward we walked around a bit more...


That finally took us over to where the ferry leaves for Gulangyu.








Over all fun night. Nice to get to show Chris around a little bit.

More to come.

Couch Surfing Night Out!

Last night was pretty easily one of the best nights in Xiamen thus far.



A bit of a preface. Over the break Chris and I went up to Boston and visited Dan while he moved into NEU and to see other assorted friends who live there. While there, we met up with Chris' friend from home, John Martin. We got to talking about traveling and adventures we had been on and he brought up a website called Couchsufing.org that had enabled him to travel and meet some pretty cool people. I had actually briefly heard about it before and since John spoke highly I decided to check it out.

For those who don't know (I'll be brief since it seems like this blog is becoming a place where I promote websites haha) couch surfing (CS as the user call it) is an organization that links people who want to travel, with people who have extra couches or bedrooms they are willing to make available. It has since grown to also be a place where people can find someone who knows the city you are traveling in and can recommend places to go or find people who are just willing to grab a drink and exercise your English a bit. If you are a little creeped out by the idea, read about it on the website before you judge. (there are a fair amount of safety features)

Anyway, I joined and got a few nice messages from locals Xiameners, but activity appeared to be low. So 3 or 4 days ago I decided "What the heck" and posted a message on the Xiamen message board to see if anyone wanted to grab pizza or a beer.

Well the response was fantastic! About half a dozen people wrote back on the group post and it was decided we would go to a place called ME & U2 at 8:30. (Which I didn't realize I had actually gone to with a Customer when I first got to Xiamen)

ME & U2 is a a mostly outdoor bar/restaurant/club



situated in Haiwan Park. (which is pretty impressive)



It is owned by Ulf (THE WOLF!) who if you didn't know, would just come off as an extremely friendly old drunken Swed who spends a lot of time there.



There is a stage for live music and both times I have been there a pretty decent pair of Philippino singer/musicians have played. They do a bunch of American staples, as the clientele seems to be split about 50% foreigners 50% local Chinese. They have Stella, Heineken, Carona and 5 or 6 Chinese beers which, by Xiamen standards, is a healthy selection. (Though Havana, a South American restaurant I went to once wins so far with Sam Adams!) They also had the best Pizza I have had in China so far!

Back to the meeting.

Well, to be honest I had no idea what to expect. I was hoping that at best half the people who said would maybe show up actually would. That put my expectations at 3-4 people including me, a pizza, and a beer or two which to be honest, would have been great as well.

It was a trickle at first. Once I got there a guy named Che Fung came up to me and asked if I was part of CS. We sat down and were the first. Che Fung was born in Taiwan but lived in Hawaii for 32 years and now lives in Guangzhou.

We talked for about 5 mins before he got a text from Ting a 27 year old local who had said she would attend. Ting was one of the first people to message me when I joined the Xiamen group and she had also met with Che Fung the last time he was in Xiamen.

Ting showed up with some other friends from CS. Cameron from England and his girl friend Sally who I think was from Taiwan. Cameron came to Xiamen when he was 22 and met Sally. They moved to England for a few years and have just recently moved back to Xiamen to start an English school in Sally's home town. Cameron plays Trumpet and Guitar and is learning harmonica so it was easy to find stuff to talk about and we might even play some music some time.

That made five English speaking people, pizza, and beer. My expectations were met and it was officially a good night for me, but the people kept coming!

A few minutes later Bonto a fun guy about my age from Turkey showed up. After that 3 kids who are seniors in high school participating in an exchange program in Taiwan wandered in. Thomas from France (so obviously pronounced TOE-mas) Elan from Germany, and a Taiwanese girl named Hisn Chen They were all great fun! Next came a guy named Mike from Florida who I think was 30. He teaches English in Xiamen and we might do some running together at some point. Finally came Stephanie, another local from Xiamen and her friend Lee who was an older guy from South Africa!

So if my addition serves me well, including my self that made 12 people from 7 countries (Taiwan included)!

It seemed like everyone really hit it off great! I know I had a blast. Most of us ended up leaving ME&U2 after a few hours and going to a club that also had some great live music. There we met a few people from Germany and Belgium and the party went on until 3AM!

So after speaking with Ting, Banto, Mike, and Cameron we decided we would try and make it a monthly event, which I am looking forward too. Unfortunately Che Fung, Thomas, and a few others who I really hit it off with are just passing through. But that is the life of the traveler I guess.

May they have equally fun experiences where they off too next!

It was great to meet so many interesting and fun people from all over the world! I am really hoping making it a regular thing works out.

PS: If you happen to be reading this because you are considering moving to or already live in Xiamen, you can find links to the Xiamen couch surfer forum in the live feed located on the right side of this blog. Feel free to say "Hi" and ask any questions you have!

Pizza Night

Tonight was one of the strangest nights I have had so far.

It started with a craving for pizza, which may be the death of me. It is the only thing that when I get a bad craving for I know is in at least a 2 or 3 mile radius and I have a hard time satisfying with something else.

So I went on google maps, found a place that serves pizza just a mile and a half from my house and decided I would take the walk.

This all started around 7:30pm and I didn't get out the door till around 8. It gets dark here around 6:00 now. From my experiences and from what people say the streets are pretty safe at night as long as you don't go certain places or hang around past 12ish.

The map said I had to walk straight down my street cross the road, down another street and across a park and it would be a mile or I could take the road around the park and go 1.5.

So I started walking down my street and I got to a second hand store that I had gone in a week earlier. While there the first time I had bought a folding table for about $5 to put on my roof where I am currently trying to put together a little hang out spot. Here is an early picture right after I put up X-mas lights (which where being sold at wal-mart for the holidays)



I also have 2 chairs in my apartment that I can bring up and sit up there and read a book, drink a beer, or look at the stars (about once a week when the starts are actually visible)

Unfortunately I made the mistake of leaving the table up there, and I discovered only yesterday that it had been stolen.

As I walked into the shop to look around for a possible replacement, there it was! Someone had stolen my table and sold it back to the very shop I bought it from. I was not pleased! I tried explaining to the man in the shop what had happened but no amount of translator or me being annoyed was going to make this any easier to understand or get my table back. Eventually I left in a huff and decided maybe I would go back, buy it again, and write in big letters THIS IS BRAD SWAIN'S TABLE, I WILL KNOW IF YOU STEAL AND SELL IT BACK THIS TIME on the top. Maybe I'll get someone to write it in Chinese for me.

So as I walked towards the pizza place I was hoping I could find, I was slightly bitter. Eventually I neared the end of the street and out of no where a small hill and a MIDEVIL CASTLE appeared where this park was supposed to be. Pictures will come in the future, I didn't think I was going to need my camera for a quick walk to the pizza shop. I am learning now I should bring it everywhere.

I quickly discovered that the castle was part of a theme park. I took a side street that I thought would be the quickest way around and found it to be an entrance to the park section of the theme park that I apparently saw on the map.

The only other parks I have been to in Xiamen have been small, flat, well lit, very pretty parks. Parks where you can see very well and also see the other side of the park while standing on one side. Those of course I had all visited with people.

I am now of course by my self, and after about going 100 meters in, I quickly realized that this was neither anywhere near flat nor was it well lit. There where however, plenty of people around to scare the hell out of me. From what I have gathered, all forms of gambling are illegal in China. There is no lottery, or natives with casinos, or horse races for people to take out their urges. This means that the average 20 something year old male likes to go to a high dark place with his friend and play some kind of card or dice game far away from police watch. (this was true when we went on the hike at Xiamen University as well)

Maybe its because I am a suburban white kid. Or maybe its because the only time I ever see this happen is in movies about the 1920's in a back ally and right after the game, little Georgey gets his teeth kicked in because he won to much money from the big kids. Or maybe its because I was alone in the dark in a foreign country with roving packs of 20 something years old's, but this was moderately unsettling to me. Call me a chicken, whatever, you'd be scared too.

The paths in this particular park make 0 sense, I didn't know where this pizza place was, and I was starting to get a little nervous because either 3 dudes where following me or happen to be going EXACTLY where I am going (which is every which way because I don't know which way I am going. This compounds the unsettled feeling) At one point I even stopped and they came up and stood next to me. I figured if they where going to rob or whatever me, they would do it now, but they didn't. So I kept on walking and they kept on following, and I was still freaked out.

To make this all the more exciting, this is a theme park, so there are HUGE CREEPY CHINESE CARTOON CHARACTERS around every corner.

But eventually I went around a corner and took a side path, they took the other and I felt slightly better.

Eventually I emerged in the middle of what I can only describe (to all you camp people out there) as a Jungle 80's aerobics work out on the Chinese equivalent of the sun prod stage in the middle of a park on a Saturday night in China. I was really hoping Jen Kramberg would jump out of a bush, stand up on a chair, and start singing "When You Call My Name" to make it all seem a little more realistic. But no such luck.

After this bazaar scene I walked a little further through the woods and I next arrived at an arcade. (in the middle of the woods) The arcade had a bunch of basketball shooting booths, a make the duckies swim by shooting water at the target booth, and a big sign that said pizza, steak, and french fries.

I noted this a possible place to eat if I didn't find the real pizza place (since the map had indicated that the Pizza place was not in-fact inside the park, but on a street near it)

I then proceed to walk around the arcade and found that it was only actually half arcade half BEAUTIFUL RESTAURANT ON A LAKE?! Leave it to the Chinese. (the distinction between luxury and tacky, at least by American standards, is still a very gray line here) At this point I was really wondering if the bout of food poisoning I had had 3 days ago was making me have hallucination now, and really wanted to get back into the streets of Xiamen where I belonged.

Eventually I did, and when I did, I immediately saw a giant Billboard that basically said EUROPEAN JAZZ PIZZA back the way you just freakin came. The pizza place I found online was called EJ's, so I put two and two together and headed back for the arcade/4 star restaurant.

Beside the arcade outside, I was the only person in the whole place. After some butchered attempts at ordering in Chinese (to the great amusement of all 3 waitresses working) and a fair amount of pointing I eventually got a pretty decent peppers and onions Bi Sa (the i makes a hard E sound, say it out loud) and a pi jiu (beer).

I sat in the super nice part of the restaurant over looking the lake and the people taking paddle boats out in it. I sat and enjoyed the fact that I was no longer wandering threw some horrible drug trip gone wrong.

Of course, the really smart part of me said, "Hell, I know my way back now and all I have to do is look for the giant lit up castle. So I'll just head back the way I came". So I did.

It was relatively uneventful and the castle was in sight when all of the sudden the all too familiar chorus of "hellos" started.

The "Hello" chorus is a phenomenon that, 95% of the time involves 15 - 30 year old males who are with their friends. One in Chinese says "Oh look a Foreigner!" And then As I walk by he says "Hello!" and all of the others race to catch up and say "Hello!" as well. Then the 2 that know the most English attempt to impress each other (not me so much, I am just the catalyst) by how many random questions they can ask me in English. Sort of like a verbal pissing contest.

Typically I put up with this for about 3 of such questions and then make up I place I have to be. To be honest, I think my answers are a little bit of a disappointment anyway, since they are never typical American responses they learned in School. For example, "What sports do you like to do on your free time." is usually answered with "Lacrosse, Running, and Skiing" which are not "Football, baseball, and basketball" which according to text books, should be the answer.

But not this time, this time the "Hello chorus" was followed by a different question (from a guy who spoke English pretty well). "Which kind do you like?" followed by a wave of the finger. This made me worried because it was pretty dark and his finger wave was pretty ambiguous. It could have meant anything from "we can find you heroin or crack" to "older men or younger men".

It turns out, after about 3 minutes of conversation I figured out it was the latter!

This became apparent after he apologized. His English was rusty because the last person he had spoken English with was his "63 year old Canadian boy friend who had died visiting Malaysia last year". Seconds later I found out that he was 26 and just had a thing for older men.

Thankfully the next question was "How old are you?" and the answer "23" (in China the birthdays are celebrated differently) apparently got me off the hook of being any interest to him. I next made it quite clear that I was a fan of women, no offense to them. This was received by 4 or 5 disappointed aw's from the back up singers in the Hello chorus, the group of guys I was supposed to "choose which one I liked" from a few minutes earlier.

Not wanting to be rude, I hung around for a few more minutes and talked. But by this time it was about 9:25 and I "had to meet a friend at 9:30" so I said "Zai Jian" and was on my way.

Nothing much but odd recollections of the absurdity of the last 2 hours worth of experiences happened on the way home. I was happy to get home and be some where that didn't make me feel like I was lost in wonderland.

I wish I was creative enough to make this kind of stuff up.

南普陀寺 (Nanputuo Temple)

To continue in the trend of doing turisty things on Saturdays, Shita, her Sister, Jolin, Jolins boyfriend, and I went to Xiamen University and Nanputuo Temple for a nice hike.

After being introduced to the new people I was asked to give them American names, which has become a standard procedure when meeting new people. I however am not a fan of it yet, since usually it is done before I know the person well. This is a silly reason not to like it, but I for some reason feel like it would be better if I could do it at the end of the day rather than at the begging. I'd hate to give out a name I like to some one I don't particularly want to see again and vise versa. The names given this time where Sarah and Steve, mostly because the "S" sound was preferred by Steve.

I took the bus for the first time, which is an adventure in it self. The limit to how many people may ride the bus is only regulated the size of the people on it. Half of the ride was spent getting friendly with a mildly smelly painter, but eventually the people thinned out and I got a little room to breath and a seat.

The final destination was a beach located near Xiamen University. We went for a little walk along the beach and ate little candied apple like things. This can be seen here.


After that we went for a walk around Xiamen University which is widely know to be the most beautiful University in China. It was quite nice, with a lake in the middle and plenty of beautiful architecture and art work surrounding.


We stopped for a coffee (which was a first) and I botched my order. I was trying to order a iced latte, instead I got iced coffee with green tea. (which is actually a thing on the menu so its not like I butchered it THAT bad, just one wrong word) It was still tasty.

Next we walked over to the Temple which is built inside the university at the base of a mountain. The story is that a single Monk made his home in a cave there. Apparently many of the locals got sick and the monk cured them, so they begged him to stay. It is now home to some of the oldest Buddhist writings in China.

Out side the entrance there was a pond with an unimaginable amount of cat fish in it. Many children where feeding them.



Here is the entrance.


Something I have noticed about many temples and tourist attractions that is different than from attraction in the US is that they are not at all set apart from the daily hustle and bustle. Many times a famous Church or land mark will sort of be out of the way of all the markets and shops. In China it is usually just a door that leads you behind all the shops, then you find what you are looking for.

It is worth showing a few close ups of some of the art work on the roof




Truly beautiful, I am a big fan of the lanterns.


One of the many gods people where praying too.


While it is all quite comical to me, I kept it inside as not to offend anyone. (Which, as I am sure plenty of you know, is a big step for me :D)

We then started to hike the mountain. There where steps all the way up! All along the way there where buildings and statues that looked like this


Many of the rocks had carvings like this


Each of the carvings where about 10 feet up. At each one you could find 5 or 6 people throwing coins up and trying to get them stuck on in the lettering. Apparently this brings good luck. This picture shows it a bit better.



Along the way many cracks and caves where filled with these little guys.






No one could really explain to me what they where. The best description I can give is that apparently you need them when you are dead. Sort of like the Egyptians, I guess.

Everything in China appears to be made to climb. Unfortunately, Chinese people don't seem to want to take advantage of this because every time I decided to climb things I attract a crowd of 10 - 20 people and get told "Its dangerous". When asked "why?" there seems to be no response. Maybe its because they have farther to fall. Questioning is not the forte of many Chinese.




The view from my rock.


The Island you can just barely make out in the back ground is actually Taiwan.

Unlike Hong Kong most of the stuff in the air is actually clouds not pollution.

Towards the top the statues and things thinned out but the people did not. Oddly the top was not filled with families and places to see the view, but had a food vendor, a construction project, and people playing cards everywhere. All very strange. We had to walk another good half mile to get away from it all and rest. Litter is also something that is a big problem here, there was a fair amount of garbage which was really to bad because everything else was so beautiful. Here is another rock I climbed/picture I thought demonstrated how beautiful it was.



We did eventually find a nice look out place.


Pollution and gamblers aside it was all still very beautiful and a good hike. If I had to guess I would say it was probably only 1.5 miles but pure elevation climbing.

Afterward I took the bus home and took a quick nap. I was then invited over to Shita's house for dinner with everyone form the office plus Steve and Sarah. Shita and Sarah's cooking was fantastic! Some of the best food I have eaten here so far. I have asked her to teach me to prepare a few things including a tofu dish and a Cucumber dish I thought Dan would particularly enjoy.

We ended the night by me teaching every one 2 drinking games we played in College much to everyone delight. (Kings and Up The River for those of you who played along with me in past years) It was very entertaining. Highlights would probably be "9: Bust a Rhyme" "Categories" for obvious reasons.

All in all a very nice day. I am fortunate to have such nice coworkers that are willing to entertain me all the time! Maybe some time soon I'll do some home work and show them some times I have discovered.

Until next time.