I just arrived in Bangkok, which will be my last flight ever into the old Don Muang airport. Normally, I wouldn't be so happy about this but since I arrived here from Hong Kong, it's a big deal.
Hong Kong by itself is a really great city, and if it's famous for two things that would be food and shopping. Most of the Chinese food you get in the U.S. is Shizhuan or Cantonese style, and it's a good thing too - no one would eat Chinese food if it was Taiwanese style. I had some good sweet-and-sour meat (maybe beef), and then hit the markets. I was looking at a Nikon digital SLR (the D70s) which I could have for $200 less than in the US. The problem is that any camera I buy needs an underwater housing, and for the D70s those start at $750. I got a bitchin' pair of shades to replace the three I managed to lose at Green Island recently at a night market, even if it did cost me $2 more than in Cambodia.
Oh, right - so why I'm glad to be gone... Even though it rained the whole time I was there, breathing hurt. I mean, you take a deep breath and it burns. I understand this is from the factories in Shenzhen, but no matter, it sucks. I thought I was sick - even buying vitamin C - until I got off the plane in Bangkok as was better by the time I got to the hotel. God forbid I ever get assigned to Guangzhou or Shenyang.
Anyway, so as I'm talking to some friends from Taiwan that are discussing ABCs (American-born Chinese), one of them calls them bananas, just like black people call others who grow up in the 'burbs Oreos. I kept laughing at that the whole night, although I had to explain the Oreos connection for it to be funny for them. Then they tried to claim it wasn't derogatory because bananas were natural while Oreos are not. Whatever.
Oh, I fly to Berlin on Monday.
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