Chance's 2011 Adventure Cycling trip

I arrived in Orlando Sunday night. On Monday, a day I stayed home to let my mind catch up with my body, Chance decides to go on a seven day Adventure Cycling trip. He takes the van in the rain to the city of Cocoa and starts on a bike ride around South Florida. He made a bee line to Key West.


View Keys Ride in a larger map
Day 1 - Cocoa to Ft Pierce
Day 2 - Boca Raton
Day 3- Miami
Day 4 - Everglades and Florida City
Day 5 - Pine Keys
Day 6 - Key West
Day 7 - Fort Meyer to Sarasota

Chance took a ferry from Key West to Fort Meyers and then rode up to Sarasota. Sally, Stephanie and I were visiting colleges so we planned to head his way afterwards so we met him in Sarasota right as the sun was setting. He never claimed of being sore or out of spirits. He did over 80 miles a day. He camped, slept in a Hostel, a motel and on the beach; he has many stories to regale.

HK to Chicago

About to board my plane back home. Head congestion has reared backup. HK airport is bigger than I remembered it was a long walk and train ride to our gate. It seems there are thousand of stores from news tands to Tiffany. Who buys Jewelry in an airport??

Thanks,
Gregg
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LKF

We ate at the Disney hotel restaurant, which was incredible. We let Susan and another cast member order the meal. During our taxi ride home a consultant that was traveling asked if I was going on an adventure tonight; I said if you want to go somewhere we should go to LKF. Lan Kwai Fong is where the Expats party and the Chinese come to watch :)
After two Erdinger beers we headed home. I was explaining about another cool area to visit and unknown to me the taxi driver understood English and took us sightseeing. So I am now back at the Shangri-La hotel packing for my return flight to the US. I leave HK at 11AM and arrive in Chicago at 11:05AM Sunday, I just cannot get my brain to understand that mathematical word problem of a 5min flight :)
.
Thanks,
Gregg
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Farewell HKDL

Thanks,
Gregg

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America in its a small world

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Gregg

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Down from the Peak

This is the view going down from the peak.

Thanks,
Gregg

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Central & Western District- of Hong Kong.jpg

View from the peak. To get here we took an incline plane... Except the car was not at an incline so you get pushed back into your seat.
Thanks,
Gregg
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Victoria harbor

Saturday brings a visit from the HK IT director for breakfast then a hike up the peak with a cast member that is lobbying for a job. We will end the day with a park visit.This picture is from my hotel room. The odd building on left is called the kuala bear building by the locals. Can you see why?

Thanks,
Gregg
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Macau

Sites from our visit today

Macau was a Portuguese colony, and is both the first and last European colony in China. Like Hong Kong, it is a Special Administrative Region as of 1999. Under the policy of "one country, two systems", the People Republic of China's Central People's Government is responsible for defense. Macau maintains its own legal system, police force, monetary system.... According to The World Factbook, Macau has the second highest life expectancy in the world! The architecture of the central city is European because of the Portuguese influence but the cultural is very Chinese.

Thanks,
Gregg

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Macau, China

Went to the Venetian Casino today. The one here in Macau has the largest casino floor in the world. Here are some stats we learned

More than 10,000 employees
15,000 seat arena
Cirque show
Famous Venetian mall with waterway and Gondolas.
6000 rooms on one property
They have 6 properties
40 casinos in Macau

Thanks,
Gregg

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Hydrojet to Macau

Today we are going to Macau, the Las Vegas of China. We are doing benchmarking with the Venetian?
Thanks,
Gregg
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The oh-so-important card

This is how I get back to the hotel. In Mandarin it says "My residence in Shanghai is Kerry hotel , Hua Mu rd.... I am very careful to always have this card in my possession at all times outside the hotel bubble.

Thanks,
Gregg
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My communication tool

I would have never thought that my Ipod touch would become my main tool for communicating. With Skype and my Bluetooth headset all I need is a Wi-fi connection and I can call a disney conference bridge for free as well as any other laptop for free. For just 2.6 cents a minute I can call any US phone number. Tonight I called Sally from a restaurant until my battery started to die. Amazing tool the Ipod touch has become.

Thanks,
Gregg

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Blue marlin-shanghai

Sitting in a expat restaurant drinking a favorite german beer listening to a Chinese band cover American music. This is too unreal.
Food was great, chili made with spicy curry and a order of cedar planked salmon. Great to find a expat restaurant away from the Kerry bubble I call home.
Thanks,
Gregg

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Going out

Going to dinner alone, having the concierge write down the address is the only way to communicate to the taxi drivers.

If I get lost send the police this photo haha

Thanks,
Gregg

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92 floor dinner

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Gregg

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Giant bridges and many tunnels

It is very expensive to own a car (get a vehicle license) but they still have huge highways.

Thanks,
Gregg

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Walmart - made in America lol

We arrived early for a meeting and saw a Walmart on the corner. We went in and walked around for just a fee minutes. Food and everyday goods are very inexpensive. 50lb bag a rice is just a few bucks.
Thanks,
Gregg

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Vagabond shoe shine

I approach a street corner downtown and a woman runs up and says shoe shine, I say no! I look for traffic so I can bolt across traffic and before I know it she slathers the wrong colored polish on one shoe. So off to Starbuck I went for napkins to clean up the mess.

Thanks,
Gregg

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The Bubble

The Kerry Center is where I will be working when in Shanghai. As I have wrote before it has a hotel with 32 floors, four restaurants in the hotel, largest gym in any hotel, separate residence condos, 60+ floor business tower, a mall and subway station all in the same city block.  The mall has a grocery store and 20+ restaurants.  Everything is very new, western and pricey. We have come to realize the Kerry parkside puts a bubble around us.  Once you venture to the Puxi district you are out of the bubble.  This is going to be quite the learning experience.  We met a Westerner that gave us his four rules of living in Shanghai:

1. When crossing a street the pecking order is bus, truck, car, motorcycle, moped, electric bike, rickshaw, bike and then pedestrian.  Pedestrians never have any rights.
2. If you would not do something in New York city do not do it in Shanghai
3. You eat with your mouth.  Chopsticks just get the food close, always feel for objects within your mouth and do not be embarrassed to spit anything foreign out.  (I have never had to spit anything out)
4. Have fun

All good rules to live by.  

Happy Valley Map Location

Today we drove to a local amusement park called Happy Valley.  Here is the route we took -

Map:

View Larger Map

This should show the route-
http://g.co/maps/tastb

The park has been open for two years but by looking at the facilities paint, concrete cracks it would seem to be 30 years old. They have a LOT of thrill rides

We think we recognized a lot of the rides. Bug out, Sheikra and the Universal coaster that goes through water.  The ride above with a bear in the center looked intense as that moved along a wavy track while spinning and tilting.  It was a great day until the bus would not start then, the park closed and they locked us in until a replacement bus arrived.  We then had to walk out and under the guard gates.  Nothing like being stranded in China.
More photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/wagsplace/2011_12_04_Shanghai_HappyValley?authuser=0&feat=directlink


I then took a few people to the "fake market" always fun dealing with the hundreds of hawkers.


Gregg

Breakfast

Thanks,
Gregg

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Peking Duck and a view

We ended the night at the Hyatt on the Bund.  We had a Peking duck served to us and we ate it the traditional way.  Below the chef is slicing the cooked skin off the duck. We ate these strips with a little sugar on top which was wonderful.  The meat is laid in a wrap with cucumbers and another vegetable and topped with a thick, dark sauce. 

The view from the roof top of the Hyatt was unbelievable! Please click on the image for the larger view.

Water Village

Susan put together a great Excursion for nine colleagues that are visiting Shanghai.The village is 2 hours West of Shanghai by bus. To hire a driver and bus it cost a little over $150 USD for one day. The village is a tourist destination with many shops along the canals but it also is a place where people live on the water and make their living selling fish and seafood.

  Below are pictures of the boats that move along the canals of the water village.

Below are a few other pictures, in all I shot 217 pictures, it was a great place.

Toll plaza in China

Thanks,
Gregg

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Map Location heading home from water village

At the water village my phone did not have data service which stopped me from updating my blog in real time. Here is my location on the way back to Shanghai.
View Larger Map

Adventure starts

Susan arranged a nice bus for nine of us to go to a water village 2 hours outside of Shanghai. We will also be going to Madame Troussauds and the Bund for dinner. Peking duck has been arranged which I hear is a quite a production to serve. Tomorrow we go to a local theme park. Everywhere we go we are trying to understand how companies do business in China.
Ticketing systems, point of sale, receipts, cash handling we are looking at it all.


Gregg

Lobby in my hotel

Thanks,
Gregg

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Smallest McDonald's

This is a functioning McDonald kiosk along the river Huang Pu. It was closed and I could not find a menu to see what was served.

Thanks,
Gregg

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Famous landmark TV tower

This would look better with mickey ears

Thanks,
Gregg

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All adventures by train start here

I went by myself Friday night. 6 others were too tired. I have great pictures on my camera which I will post soon.

Thanks,
Gregg

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Mmmmmm Curry Laska

This is my favorite dish to date. An Australian dining manager helped me one night venture out of my comfort foods.

Thanks,
Gregg

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