Return from China

Monday I flew back to Jakarta from China.  I knew I'd have a late night Sunday, so I planned ahead and booked an afternoon flight.  This meant a late arrival into Jakarta, but Tuesday was a holiday (Buddhist New Year) so I knew I could sleep in.  The only interesting part of the trip occurred on my Singapore to Jakarta flight.  I'm sitting in my business class seat when an enormous Indonesian sits in the seat next to me.  He was so big I was tempted to ask if he held a job that was responsible for his size.  When he started sleeping the moment after he sat down, I thought it better not to wake a sleeping giant.  While waiting for baggage, several airport staff, including security, rushed up to have their picture taken with him.  He exited the airport shortly before I did so I asked my driver if he knew who it was.  He informed me it was Ade Rai, the number one body builder in Asia.

Tuesday morning I didn't sleep in as long as I had hoped.  We decided to make a return visit to Taman Safari.  We do this with all our guests...did I forget to mention my cousin arrived?  She is the solution to our Singapore nanny dilemma.  She'll be with us until 1 July when my mom takes over.  Anyway, we decided to take her to see the animals.

I was quite impressed with the strides my daughter has made with her fear of animal encounters.  In prior visits, the idea of being close to the animals was always more appealing than actually being close to them.  This time, the fear was gone and she fed everything, including the elephants.  My son even got in the act of feeding the large beasts.  He knew exactly what to do when I gave him a mango and walked him to the elephant.  He put that tiny green fruit directly in the gaping maw, only to see it fall to the ground.   I would say there is no fear in that boy, but we also finally had the opportunity to ride the elephants...and my son wasn't exactly happy about it.

 

 

 

On our return to Jakarta our son gave us the scare of my life.  It is a long drive back from the zoo and I was making the most of the opportunity by taking a nap.  Our nanny calling our son's name in a panic woke me like a bullet firing in the car.  I turn around and my son's eyes are open and rolled in the back of his head.  I touch him and he feels like food fresh from the oven.  I pull him out of his car seat and onto my lap and he is as limp as a rag doll.  I thought I was holding my dead son.

I steeled my nerves and was preparing myself to give artificial resuscitation.  I checked his breathing - it was shallow, but there.  His heart was racing.  Our nanny said she had watched him have a seizure and that his lips had turned blue, that's why she started calling his name.  Our daughter starts freaking out whining:  "I don't want my brother to die, I don't want my brother to die."

My wife retrieves the fever reducer from the diaper bag and I instruct our driver to pull over as soon as possible at a gas station.  I want ice.  Minutes later we're pulling into a rest area that happens to have a Starbucks.  Despite the efforts of the staff, I was able to procure some ice and napkins, and, in addition to the fever medicine, we were able to bring his core body temperature down.  After twenty minutes of rubbing his chest, neck, back and head with cool water, our son became responsive and started voicing his displeasure.  He then proceeded to vomit all over himself and my wife who had the bad luck of just taking him from me.

I called ahead to the emergency clinic and asked if there was anything else we could or should do while we traveled there.  They said to just keep doing what we were doing.  Ninety minutes after holding my limp son in my arms, we arrived at the ER.  Ninety minutes after giving him fever reducing medicine, which did definitely reduce his fever, the ER nurse reported his temperature as 103.6.  I can only imagine how high it was when I picked him up.

We spent a few hours in the ER and left with five different medicines to give him.  The doctor said the seizure was likely a result of the fever and is common in young children with fevers.  No long-term damage is expected other than the reduction in years of my own lifespan for having the scare of my life.

Trip to China

Normally, I wouldn't go this long without posting to my blog.  I have a good excuse.  Last weekend (13 May - 16 May), I flew to Shanghai, China to attend the wedding of a friend I've known since the 6th grade.  The only friend from before college with whom I am still in contact.  And China is known for two things:  The Great Wall, and the Great Firewall.  I couldn't get to my blog or Facebook while I was in Shanghai.
I flew from Jakarta to Singapore to Shanghai.  About eight hours of flying for thirteen hours of travel.  The flight itself was uneventful.  What I will always remember about the flight is the thick, brown blanket I could see covering the city as we landed.  Los Angeles, Phoenix and Jakarta are all polluted cities.  I've flown into smog at all of them.  I've never seen a brown mist as thick, as large, and as disgusting as the one that covers Shanghai.

Shanghai immigration was fast and efficient.  As I stood on line, I noticed about seven college students wearing University of Michigan shirts and sweatshirts.  I struck up a conversation with the one closest to me and learned they were engineering students studying in China for the summer.  I remarked:  "That seems backwards.  The Chinese usually come to the US."  A young lady behind him interjected, with all the authority literacy can provide:  "It's the best University in China."  She was obviously proud (and defensive) of her exchange program, so I didn't bother telling her that someone is the best player on the Detroit Lions, too.

Not wanting to attempt to hail a cab and give the name of my hotel, prior to leaving Jakarta I arranged transportation with the hotel.  They met me as I cleared customs and drove me the sixty minutes from the airport to the hotel.  I checked in and called my friend.  He said:  "We're on our way to dinner.  I'll turn around and come get you.  Be there in ten minutes."  I probably should have waited until the porter had delivered my bag before calling him.  I was still wearing my travel clothes and not properly dressed for dinner.  Thankfully, my luggage arrived a few minutes later and I was able to put on slacks and a nice shirt.  I even had time to snap a few pictures of the view from my room on the 56th floor.

 

At dinner, I reconnected with my friend's family, who sat at one end of the table and conversed in English, and met his wife, who sat with her family at the other end of the table and conversed in Chinese.  My friend has lived in Shanghai for six years now and his Chinese skills are quite impressive, so he tried to bridge the gap.  It was great catching up with everyone.  After dinner, I returned to my hotel and called it a night.

The next day, Saturday, we had a full day of planned activities.  We were starting with a visit to the Shanghai zoo, followed by a BBQ (not of the zoo animals).  After a quick breakfast at the hotel, I joined my friend and his family (mother, father, sister, sister's boyfriend) in the car they had rented for the day and we went to the zoo.

I've been to so many zoos in the last few years that they tend to all blur together unless they have something that stands out.  The Shanghai Zoo had three unique features I'll remember.  The first is the bus ride safari.  Nothing really compares to the safari zoo in Jakarta, but this comes in a close second.  We drove through an area with lions, tigers and bears running around, just like the Jakarta zoo.  Unlike the Jakarta zoo, at Shanghai, they feed them.  For about $5, you can buy a live chicken that they feed to the big cats.  They make it even more interesting by driving away as they hold the chicken, resulting in the lions and tigers chasing the bus.  The second highlight for me was feeding kangaroos.  They charge $3 to enter their enclosure and $1 to buy feed for them.  The final and best highlight was the ape.  Despite the signs that advise visitors not to feed the ape, people still throw it food, bottles of water, anything they have handy and are willing to part with.  Well, the ape doesn't appreciate all the litter.  After it had gathered a few plastic bottles it couldn't figure out how to open, it worked itself into a frenzy, charged the visitors, and launched the bottles back at us!  It was hilariously entertaining.  We spent twenty minutes watching it.

 

 

 

 

After the zoo, we went to the house of my friend's friend for a BBQ.  Most of the people who would participate in or attend the wedding also attended the BBQ.  I met the Asian CIO for Avaya, an American living in China who owns his own iPhone game business (score!), and the owner of a wine distributorship in Shanghai (the host of the BBQ).  After eating, we played Texas Hold 'Em with a $100 buy-in.  On one hand, my full house lost to four of a kind and dropped my $100 to about $10.  By the time we had to leave, I had clawed my way back to even (thankfully!).

I knew I wouldn't have time on Sunday (the day of the wedding) to buy souvenirs for my wife and kids so I asked where I should go Saturday night.  We decided on pearls, and that we would go to the shop that my friend's company has arranged a fixed-price amount with the owners so their employees and visitors don't have to haggle.  More on that in a minute.  First, we had to stop at the store, the Chinese version of WalMart, and buy twenty-two bottles of champagne for the wedding.  The purchase was easy.  Leaving turned out to be problematic.  There were long lines at every open check-out.  We finally found one that was empty and walked through it.  The only issue was there were four carts piled high with raw meat and no one around to help move them.  We took matters into our own hands.  Literally.

Once past the meat obstacle, we went to the jeweler.  I bought my wife and daughter pearl necklaces, earrings and several other necklaces and bracelets.  Turns out that the fixed, no-haggle price was 10% of retail!  Can't beat that!  Not wanting to leave my son empty-handed, I bought him a kung-fu outfit he looks pretty awesome in.

I had a late dinner at my hotel and called it a night.

A few quick pictures

I've already written about all of these pictures, just haven't uploaded them. The first is me giving a watermelon to an elephant and what she enjoys doing with it.




The Singapore zoo has a children's play area that includes a zip line. Sometimes things are just scary fun...

Safari Park Pictures

Last week, we went to Safari Park. I blogged about it here in the "Kemang Club Villas" section. Safari Park is a large zoo with incredible animal interactions. It starts with the section that you drive through. If you buy carrots from the street vendors on the way up, you have the opportunity to feed many of the animals in the park.

Some of the animals are better seen from a distance, though the park rangers don't mind getting closer.

The drive takes about 45 minutes. The road ends at a parking lot with access to other sections of the park - one of which allows you to have much closer interaction with the animals. By now, I have no problem walking right up and hugging the animals. My daughter, on the other hand, still prefers the view from a distance. With enough persuading, though (basically, telling her if she smiles she can leave), she'll pose for the picture.

Once she saw mom and grandma get up close and personal, though, she felt much braver.

Eventually we did find an animal that was much more her speed.

Though still afraid of animals, mechanized adventures with seat belts do not phase her. In addition to the animals, Safari Park also has a small amusement park, a few animal shows (dolphins, birds) and were in process of building a water park. The blurriness you see is not a camera issue. These rides were actually going that fast. Seriously.