Good Bye Zhao

As I mentioned before, Intel expat families are given a 24x7 driver and car since they discourage Intel families from driving in China due to safety reasons. Also, it is illegal for foreigners to drive in China without a Chinese driver's license. There are pros and cons to being chauffeured and we've come to realize that if you have a bad driver, the con list can outweigh the pro list and definitely have a negative impact on your China experience. After the first 5 months of a not so good driver, we were lucky enough to find our current driver, Zhao. He  absolutely is the best driver any family could ask for. Most importantly he's a safe driver, but he's also polite, punctual,  friendly, smart, non-smoker, and he doesn't smell. 

With out assignment coming to an end we contacted the driver/car vendor and recommended Zhao for another assignment since we were hoping he would immediately be placed with another Intel family. A week ago he was reassigned to another family with only two weeks left to our assignment. We were thrilled that he was placed with another family, but were very sad to see him go. He'll definitely be missed. 

With him departing we're realizing that it's actually happening, we're moving home...

Kauai, Why Not?

One of the benefits of being Intel expats in Dalian is that Intel will provide two "home" leaves to the U.S. each year. The other leaves have been used to return home to visit friends and family, but with our assignment coming to an end in just a few short weeks, we thought what better way to use a home leave than to travel to Hawaii. It's the U.S. right, so kind of like our home? After our honeymoon in Maui last year we thought we couldn't go wrong. 

After little consideration of which island to travel to, we decided on Kauai where spent one week on the garden isle. We had a great time. I've definitely fallen in love with Hawaii, great weather, nice people, great food, spectacular sights and adventure. What's not to love?

View from the top

Andrew insisted on a Jeep since we regretfully didn't splurge for it last year in Maui.

Kauai's "Grand Canyon"

 (Little windy)

Na Pali Coast

More of the spectacular Na Pali Coast

Andrew took surfing lessons and in no time he was riding waves, a natural

Relaxing after a little snorkeling

Who doesn't love beach crusin' on the coast?

A little hiking in a swamp.

Shopping in Dalian

In the past few weeks I've had a couple of interesting shopping experiences in Dalian.

First, I was with a couple of friends at Er Qi, the fabric warehouse, picking out fabric at a stall that sells fabric to make sheets and duvet covers. I had selected a couple prints and asked for one to two meters of each. I then chose two different fabrics at the bottom of the stack, meaning 15 bolts of cloth would need to be moved to get to them. The woman who was helping us looked at me and then looked at the stall owner and the stall owner said "bu," gave a discouraging look and shook her head, meaning no you can't have those. I wasn't about to leave without the fabric so I pretended I had no idea what she was talking about and persisted. The stall owner continued to shake her head and tried to wave us off, but eventually came out behind the stall and helped to get the fabric. We were boggled why it initially wasn't worth the little extra work to make a sale?

Yesterday, I had a similar bizarre shopping experience. I was shopping with friends at a large indoor market. We came to a stall that sold trench coats. There wasn't anybody there, but we figured the owner would be there in a minute as they normally appear out of now where when someone enters their stall, so we walked in and started to try on a couple of jackets. About five minutes later I saw the stall keeper across the way look in on us and get on her mobile phone. I assumed to call the stall owner to come and sell us a jacket. About two minutes later the stall owner from across the way stormed into the stall, rudely grabbed the coat, and stammered something in Chinese which I understood to mean basically "you can't have this jacket and get out of here." So we left. Again, why wouldn't the stall owner want to make a sale, especially to foreigners who she can more easily overcharge?

Some things in China I'll never understand.

McDonald's Anyone?

Andrew and I stopped by McDonald's on Sunday for a delicious McFlurry. The options for flavors are limited, oreo, oreo with strawberry, and the new offering, oreo with caramel,  but still delicious. I appreciate how they also come in one size, regular, which is smaller than the small in the U.S.

When we got to the counter we noticed this new offering:

We're not sure what the new items are. Our best guess is the new sandwiches are on a special kind of bread (looks like chocolate, but the Chinese aren't that into chocolate, so probably not that), with maybe pork? As far as the new beverage it definitely has corn, definitely not for us.

Malaysia

Andrew had to attend a conference in Penang, Malaysia the first week in August so we decided to make it a mini vacation. We went to Penang four days prior to the conference. We enjoyed relaxing at our fantastic oceanfront resort, The Lone Pine. We didn't do much those four days, except eat good food, watch the sunset on the beach and take a short bike ride. The weather was beautiful and we loved the resort. 

While Andrew was at the conference I entertained myself (which I've become very good at.) The first day I did some sight seeing and spent more time at the pool, the second day I took the bus to the national park, which is the world's smallest, and on the last day I took a cooking class. I was also happy to be introduced to Andrew's co-worker's wife who was also there and enjoyed spending some time poolside and sharing a meal with her. It was a great, relaxing trip.

Reading poolside

The view from our balcony.

Reading on the balcony. I know, I have a tough life.

Andrew on the beach.

Water monitor lizard 

On the dock on the bike

Andrew was not a fan of his corn juice

Sunset

Hawker stand, what Penang is famous for.

Hiking in the national park, it was HOT.

A quiet beach in the national park.

Curry anyone?

Learning to make a few Indian dishes with two Japanese classmates.

Tranquil surroundings at the Spice Garden, where I took the cooking class.

Delicious

Andrew and I truly enjoyed the food of Yunnan, our favorite food in all of China. We also enjoyed the food in Yangshuo, but we mostly ate at the Danish run guesthouse, which wasn't always Chinese. 

The best fried rice, spicy cold cucumber salad, and beer we've had.
(May have something to do with it being a late lunch after hiking 2.5 hours)

Potatoes and fried dumplings at the Five Finger Guesthouse on the Tiger Leaping Gorge. A little hot.

Breakfast at Five Fingers. Yunnan pancake with honey and walnuts.

Yunnan pizza, stuffed with onions and bell peppers.

I LOVE my cheese. Yak dumplings anyone? (Essentially fried yak cheese balls)

Spicy pork in Shangri-la

Yak burger. Andrew enjoyed, me not so much.

Dali "pizza," sweet or salty. Sweet is stuffed with red bean, salty with chives and onion.

This is how the Dali pizza is made in the market.

The worst thing we had on the trip, Hawaiian pizza. Not sure, what the cubed clear jello type product is.

Spicy mashed potatoes and peppered pork.

Fried cheese

Fresh potato chips, Longsheng Rice Terraces