The Traveling Beach Bum

I’m sitting here, and I’ve given a very, very, seriously crazy idea some thought for about a week now. I want to broadcast a roadtrip live online. I’ve got most of the details ironed out. I’m planning on grabbing car security cameras (a 4 cam system actually) to mix a video feed of my Jeep and send a nice, simple processed video to my computer that will then upload it to a streaming video site. I even have the to and from figured out. I think I might be able to do this sans sponsors, but I’d really like some help on this trip. If anybody would be interested in sponsoring, or you know somebody who might be interested, just drop a comment and I’ll get in touch with you. Comments aren’t automatically published, so you don’t have to worry about some email address getting spammed to death. I’m currently accepting website advertising and some other kinds, details will be unveiled when I reveal it.

So what’s the problem right? First, money, but that’s not the hold-up. The hold-up is connecting to the internet with a proper connection speed to provide video. If I can figure that aspect out, this crazy dream is as good as golden.

Stay tuned…

So, I didn’t expect this to happen, but it looks like I came up with a crazy scheme for another trip; this time, very very cheaply done. This one is most likely going to be akin to my first trip which required a lot of driving, yet should provide much more in terms of content. I’m starting to reach out to some people and see what my options are, so more information may be coming along real soon. If everything goes to plan, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. Then again, nothing has ever gone to plan for me… it usually turns out a whole lot sweeter.

So much time has passed, enough time in fact that I feel obligated to post an update on what is happening. I have a back log of posts and stories that I haven’t proofed or even attempted to clean up, and since I got so far behind on the daily postings during my Beijing trip, I decided to put it on hold. So to all those wonderful readers who’ve spoken to me in person about my postings, I want to detail what my preliminary plans are for the moment.

If you’ve read my site, you’re no doubt aware that I had quit my job shortly before departing for Asia. By far the most common question I’ve received is, “How did you pay for the trip if you quit your job?” The answer is actually pretty simple, I saved as much as I possibly could, then spent it. Working for someone left a really sour taste in my mouth because I’m definitely not one who likes being told what to do, so I made up my mind to try and work on my own. Start my own company, and see what happens. I wasn’t in debt when I returned; I was just broke. I’ve been living off my credit card as I’ve been setting up my web development company and trying to collect some income. The pay is orders of magnitude less than what I was collecting from my previous employer, but it’s much more satisfying to collect every cent. The true value of a dollar is weighed in blood, sweat, and tears.

So my plans for this site at the moment is to continue to be static. I haven’t any events worthy of posting for the remainder of the year, but if that changes, the priority of this site will also change. I have a lot planned for 2010 so I must find a way to finance the trips. This site has been amazing for the short notice I put it together on, and even developed the site while on my trip. I want to take a step back and really look at what I can turn this project into.

The feedback has been completely amazing, far more interesting and encouraging that I had ever thought. This was originally going to be a way for me to talk to my family behind the “Great Firewall of China” but it’s turned into much, much more. I want to stoke this fire; if you have any ideas, let me know.

To all you who’ve told me you kind of felt guilty reading because it felt like you were stalking, and there’s been more than a handful of you, don’t feel that way. I wanted this to be an open channel from me to the world and I had no plan or idea what would happen. If you get the urge to yell back, don’t go mute, yell at me. I do some stupid stuff from time to time, and if it’s entertaining, then it was worth it.

Until I figure out my grand plan with this, I guess I’m going to disappear for a few months more.

We’re in London, safe and sound. All’s fine except one thing; the internet connection. The hotel offers “free wi-fi” but what they fail to tell you is, “browsing only, no voip, no skype, no chat, no secure connections like used for web-based email”. This is because of how they set it up; cheeky bastards. We can’t call anybody, can’t email anybody, can’t chat with anybody. I’m lucky I have this outlet, and lucky still that some people know about it. First person to read this, call around to tell everyone what’s up. Calling Eric’s parents might not be a bad idea either.

We’ve found a few Starbucks here, so we might try to take a laptop to one to bum a long drag on their wi-fi. I can’t promise success, but I can promise you’ll hear from us Monday at the latest for those of you special enough to hold a spot at the start of the queue.

Where do I begin on this little story I wonder? I think it was a few days ago that I’m just walking around the Olympic Green enjoying the venues when a guy walks up to me and just starts talking. He shows me to a park at the very north end of the green and just keeps talking, and talking, and talking. I didn’t mind this since I hadn’t a thing to do since I had already seen the event I had a ticket for that day and this was a part of the green I hadn’t visited. Sam and his uncle were trying to kill some time before heading to the athletics event that evening, and I showed them the various pavilions. Sam was from Houston, but originally was from Malaysia some 30yrs back, and he spoke Mandarin. When he said that he was organizing a trip to the great wall with some Germans, I jumped at the chance to go; I needed a translator to get there.

So this morning, they arrived in a rented van, complete with driver, and picked me up from my hotel. I met a trio of Germans already inside: Axel, Robert, and John. John was Robert’s father, and Axel was Robert’s friend. Axel and John couldn’t speak much English and were relying on Robert to be their translator, who in return relied on Sam as his translator. The course of action was to take off, visit a shop where they want tourists to buy stuff, stop for coffee and breakfast, go to the great wall, stop by a jade shop, grab lunch, then return since the Germans and I were planning on going to Gymnastics that afternoon. I had my ticket, and they needed to find a scalper to get theirs.

So we’re just driving around, and we pull into this abandoned warehouse area. This was straight out of some mafia flick with Chinese workers sitting at tables apparently working long hours. We were given a short tour of the factory, which was only a couple rooms, and shown the gift shop. The gift shop was easily 10 times the size of the actual factory, and filled with all sorts of stuff. Sam starts yacking away about how he was able to get half off something somewhere, then get another half off that, and suggested maybe he could get me a good deal on something. I pretty much laughed at this and started looking around the shop, and the staffers were following me around like gnats.

After about 5min of looking around, I wasn’t able to see anyone I came with. I get a call on my phone from Sam asking me where I am. I tell him I’m just standing in the shop and he magically appears in a doorway. So I step outside and there’s everybody and we can’t get in the van yet, no driver. Sam has to spend 15 minutes trying to track down the driver so we can continue our adventure.

So we’re now heading for a coffee shop, and I’m talking with the Germans about anything and everything. Eventually, John started getting more than a bit testy about having to wait so long for breakfast, and soon thereafter, all three of them were harping on Sam for being big on promise and lacking substance. It’s at this point Sam reveals to us that we can’t go to the big portion of the great wall since it’s closed during the games. Also around this time and oblivious to the German’s demands, he starts pointing out an abandoned Disneyland park just off the road. It really was creepy driving by. There was the footprint of an entire Disneyland, but completely abandoned mid-way through construction. The castle was there, but only the skeleton; it was depressing to see. What we were told by the driver was that the Chinese people responsible for organizing the construction with Disney had done some shady stuff and landed in jail. The entire project was effectively frozen, and there’s no word on when or if it’ll be continued.

So the more the Germans complain about the delay on coffee and breakfast, the more Sam ignores them. After a while, Sam finally says that there’s coffee at the great wall. Nobody believes him, they most likely have a snack food stand of some sort, but by this time, nobody cares. So we arrive at the great wall at Juyongguan and there’s some confusion with the Germans about when they’re going to get breakfast and coffee. Sam does a horrible job at trying to reassure them, and this only makes them barking mad.

Sam hops out of the van and goes to buy tickets. Robert also hops out, but to look for a coffee shoppe and a possible location for breakfast. He wanders past the entrance gate and looks around before returning. When he gets back, Sam comments, “I saw you go in, so I didn’t get you a ticket. Let me go get you one now.” Saying Robert was annoyed at that comment was an understatement. I heard some very choice words fly towards Sam at that point. I know my German insults well from various places, including German exchange students in high school.

Once inside the gate, the Germans go in search of a place for coffee and some food. I look in a gift shop just to see what they have, which wasn’t anything worthwhile. When I exit the store, I immediately notice the huge climb where the wall goes straight up a mountain. When I regroup with everyone else, I’m told we’ll be there at least an hour. I tell Sam I’m going up, he says it’s a difficult climb. I climbed up for about 40 minutes with a backpack and tripod on my back before I reached the absolute top of the one mountain. Few people that climbed actually made it all the way up, and I can say it was a bit challenging, but not nearly as tough as Sam tried to make it out to be. I’ve climbed worse stuff in full ski gear with my skies on my shoulder trying to get to some fresh powder.

There were stores on the wall, and they were trying to sell people trinkets as they climbed up. There were even ice cream coolers, and I have absolutely no idea as to how they got those up there. Once at the very top, I saw a flight of the steepest stairs I think I’ve ever seen, and they went straight up. Trying to climb up immediately made me realize it’s impossible with sandals. You have to remove the sandals and climb up barefoot, and even then it’s a tricky ascent. At the top was a view worth the trouble. It was absolutely amazing. To describe the guard tower best, I’d have to say think of a rook chess piece and you’d have a very good idea. Except with this rook, there was the central pillar where the stairs came from and I along with a group of California swimmers there to cheer on Phelps got on the very tip-top and just looked around. After they got down, I set up my tripod and took some pictures and a couple videos. I spent more time than I had planned up there, but I couldn’t care less about it.

After I called Sam and he assured me that there’s no hurry to get down since the Germans decided to climb a bit, I decided I should start heading down. I get down the extremely steep steps and there’s Robert, completely soaked from head to toe in sweat. He told me that he used me as an excuse to get to the very top, and wanted me to take some pictures of him there. I was more than willing to oblige, and this meant climbing those steep steps yet again. Shortly afterwards, we headed down at a very quick pace. It took 40 minutes to leisurely climb, and 8 minutes to briskly descend. Somewhere in the middle, we met up with Axel who had called it quits on the climb, and once we reached the bottom, we tried to locate Sam and the van.

When the four of us regrouped at the bottom, we couldn’t find Sam anywhere so I called him. He said, “Do you remember what the van looked like?” Now in my mind, I remember a Chinese silver van that looked like it was stunted in growth compared to an American van. I looked around for one such van and found 20 of them. I felt dejected and asked for a location. “Behind the big blue truck.” I looked around and saw a huge blue truck and saw there was space on the other side of it to have a couple vehicles. I relayed this to the Germans and we went for the truck, and when we reached it, there was no van. The Germans were livid and Robert called Sam up himself this time and had spilled out his rage to him over the phone, this time in English so Sam could understand. I thought what Sam was doing was despicable personally, but I let the Germans do the talking for me. A less colorful version of what Robert told Sam was along the lines of “Get out of the car and show us, we’re at the blue truck.” So we look around and Sam starts walking towards us laughing. He was sitting in the van the entire time I was talking to him, and we were standing directly in front of him. I was really irked by the fact that he just let us walk away while I was talking to him. When someone is trying to find you, and you see them, don’t stay hidden out of sight in hopes they’ll find you because it’s more comfortable for you to wait in an air conditioned location. We loaded up in the van and continued the road trip.

So the other day I meet Sam and his uncle. Sam is a talker, a very talkative talker at that. He was trying to meet people to do stuff with. Since I couldn’t speak Mandarin and he could, I wasn’t apposed to any ideas. One thing he wanted to do was visit Houhai, an area around lakes with a lot of bars. When I say a lot of bars, I’m not talking 8 or 9, I’m talking 80 or 90. There were so many, and there was no real difference with them, that the question was less of “where should we stop for a beer?” and more of “which one of these seven bars looks good enough right here?” Seriously, there were, dare I say it, too many bars and not enough other things like restaurants. I thought there were a fair number of people there, and it later dawned on me that they were all working on trying to convert a passerby into a customer. Everyone sold the same stuff, the cost of everything was the same, the bars all looked relatively the same, and the worst part about it was it looked like they were going to be expanding around the entire lake. The expansion doesn’t bother me, it’s the prospect of even more of the drudgingly same cookie cutters for miles as the lake is currently only about 10% surrounded by this night life stuff.

To be completely fair, it’s a nice place to hang out. Every bar seems like the size of a pretzel stand though, and with the multitude of small bars, there’s so much competition for the potential customers that the nagging the barkers do completely overshadows the good parts of the place.

So after walking completely around the lake and drifting off into some nearby slums where people were living, we just randomly picked a spot, went to the roof, and had a couple beers. We sat there for about an hour, and when we were ready, we just left. There really wasn’t much to the night life of this place. Everybody was sitting around talking with friends or watching basketball on projectors that each bar had. It was sad to say, boring, and that’s where everyone said was the place foreigners hung out. Take your entertainment and friends with you, but don’t go expecting it. Looks like a promising place, but doesn’t deliver.

So yesterday, after the morning swimming event, I walked all around the Olympic green area. I knew there was much to the area that I hadn’t seen, and thought that since I had the rest of the day to scout out the place, I’d do so. I stopped and checked out some of the corporate pavilions that were on display. Regardless of which pavilion I set foot in, there was always someone wanting to practice their English with me. Sure, it’s the Olympics, and there are many foreigners here, but we’re still outnumbered 50:1 at the venues by the Chinese. With those odds, I am not all that surprised that so many Chinese wanted to practice English with a foreigner, even when they completely understood I didn’t want to buy something from them.

I especially enjoyed the Johnson & Johnson, Adidas, and Coka-Cola pavilions. Nearly all the pavilions focused on their company’s history, and these three were no different. What separated them from the rest was how they did it. I guess I can provide the key to said success in a very simple explanation. It’s not that we care about your company, tell us what the company has done to give us reason to care. I guess these three companies took hold of the three main parts of the games: Olympic spirit, competitive athletics, host nation’s culture.

I’ll just start with the most popular of the three, Coka-Cola. Their pavilion was a direct homage to their museum in Atlanta, and if you haven’t been to the museum, do yourself a favor and go. Coke is one of the few companies that is agile enough, and smart enough to change with the times to be successful and both their Atlanta museum and Olympic pavilion showed this. The pavilion focused on their history with the Olympics. They really showed what the Olympic spirit is all about. Lenovo, who designed the torch everyone ran with, tried to do this, but came far short compared to Coke. There were the usual things to expect, old bottles, cool art from across China that focused on Coka-Cola. Coke also had stuff from Olympic games when they were in their infancy, even when they weren’t sponsors. That’s doing it right. It’s not that we should be lavishing over your brand because you’re a sponsor, it’s the fact that we should pay attention to the spirit of the games, and the brand just happens to be a part of them that’s the key. The free 600mL Coke at the end of the tour didn’t hurt either.

Did you know that Jesse Owens wore Adidas shoes when he competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics? Neither did I. I’ll admit it right now. For as long as I can remember, I have worn Adidas soccer cleats. I have fallen in love with the classic World Cups (studs) and Copas (molded), that you will never see me wear anything else on a pitch. From someone who loves sports, I was absolutely pleased to see the approach Adidas took for their pavilion. Their company originated from the need for good athletic equipment, and I really appreciate good kangaroo leather for my cleats. They showed historical events from the Olympics and showed that Adidas was right there alongside, every step of the way. Putting the company second, and the athletic competitions first doesn’t seem like something I hear is taught at business school where everything is to revolve around the company, but it’s what makes people like me so pleased to see.

I know Johnson & Johnson pretty well since I come from a medical family. I really would like to have a personal conversation with the person who decided the juxtaposition of the company responsible for Band-Aid bandages and the mending of the terra cotta soldiers. That was an absolutely brilliant decision. Their pavilion had a few items concerning their company and how they’re trying to help the world and all; typical beauty pageant speech stuff. Then they take you into a standing theatre where they show a 5-10 minute film about how they’re helping mend and restore the terra cotta soldiers of Xi’an, China. It really was a very nice topic to show. Then they blow your socks off and show you actual soldiers they brought from Xi’an and put on display. I really wish I had some space left on my camera to take a few pictures of them. It really was awe inspiring seeing them up close like that.

That’s how you do Olympic pavilions. The other companies really didn’t understand the games and just tried to either sell you something, give you a history lesson, or just bluntly confuse you with some strange stage act from third-rate performers. If any company is thinking of doing a pavilion for something similar, take note, I will be watching.

I come from the beach, and a very popular sport on the beach is beach volleyball. Now, since I can watch beach volleyball nearly at any time, and have played a little myself, I opted to pass on the beach volleyball events. What stayed crazily steadfast in my mind was a story my dad has told a few times when he was in southern California for a while. Someone grabbed some volleyball tickets and a group of them went. Apparently it was a huge, national game with two powerhouse teams. The teams were UCLA and UC Santa Barbara; they were ranked 1 and 2 in the nation at the time. I’ve watched my sisters play volleyball in school. They were members of some very good teams, and progressed far in the state tournaments on skill despite the lack of size. I wanted to compare this with some top caliber, men’s volleyball so I grabbed a ticket to a match.

Wow.

The first match was Russia v Poland, two favorites for medals. This was absolutely mesmerizing as these lanky guys, who couldn’t jump at all, were slamming the ball everywhere in spite of that fact. I don’t know if they just couldn’t jump high, or didn’t bother due to the lack of a need to. Either way, when they spiked the ball, they really slammed the ball home. It really was nearly watching a cartoon with the amount of power being put forth behind each spike. The defensive specialist for one of the teams, on one such spike, crouched down for a dig and the deflection from the blockers had the ball hit him square in the face, and he went down. He tried to immediately hop to his feet, but was in no condition to do so. He was substituted, and promptly returned on his next round in the back apparently back to normal.

Not only was watching the spectacle a treat, but listening too. You’d hear the ball explode on impact, and like a coin toss, the ball either sailed into the air from a successful dig or went careening into the bleachers. I was sitting in the second row, and sitting in front of me were about 6 Poles cheering on their countrymen. They were waving flags, and cheering wildly for the entire match, which lasted 5 sets. They were primarily girls, and really were putting on a show by themselves. All the Chinese were talking pictures of them, and in return, the girls were getting the Chinese to chant for the Polish team. The match was epic, and was as close to a draw as possible with the Polish team topping the Russians.

After the match, the arena nearly emptied entirely. I noticed there was no announcement saying the events were over, so I stayed put. I didn’t know this, but there was indeed a second match, Egypt v Serbia. This match was nothing like the first. For comparison, this was more like the teams I remember watching my sisters play for. It was enjoyable, but nothing like the Poland v Russia match. Serbia had a runaway win with the match.

You know those people who get tattoos of something in a different language and really don’t know what they mean? I think there’s some of that in China as well. I haven’t noticed too many tattoos, but I have noticed my fair share of humorous t-shirts. Humorous not by design, but by the wearer.

One notable t-shirt was worn by a lady easily in her 40s. She was a short, little rollie pollie that had no business wearing the shirt she did. I was exiting the subway and proceeding down a flight of stairs as she was coming up. I nearly fell down the stairs valiantly containing my laughter. The shirt that made me nearly break my neck was a pink shirt that read, “Yes, I’m jail bait!”

A second shirt I saw actually made me curl over in laughter. I tried so desperately to get a picture of it, that I think I scared the poor chap more than anything. The moment I saw his black shirt with white lettering, I nearly hit the deck. I asked if I could take a picture with him, but he refused. Then I tried to take a picture anyway and he ran off. I can still see this 20ish Chinese fellow and his “Black Power!” shirt in my mind with crystal clarity, and still laugh at the image.

After I saw the marathon of historical events, I perused around the Olympic Green and stumbled on the Coka-Cola pavilion. I decided to check it out and queued up for entrance. Nothing out of the ordinary happened at first, but then everything went askew.

People in China don’t show public displays of affection; it’s just something that’s not done. You don’t see people kissing, or really even hugs. You see a lot of people holding hands, but unlike in the states, almost all friends are holding hands. I bring this up because of what happened next, and why it seemed so strange.

There were two guys immediately in front of me. They’re just joking around, then out of nowhere, one grabs the other’s ass. The guy immediately jumped at this action. I found this highly out of character for any Chinese, and then I heard running water. I started looking around for the source, and finally looked down. There was this Chinese kid relieving himself on the first guy’s pant leg. The guy standing behind saw this and tried to get his friend to move. Nobody seemed to notice and if so, not care. The boy’s mother didn’t notice either. She shot a quick glance at me, and I glanced quickly at her kid. She then noticed what the kid was doing and started scolding him, but only with a stern voice with interspersed apologies to me. I was pretty shocked at everyone’s reaction. I could only stand there and laugh — and not step in the puddle.