Mountain hiking à la chinoise

I've been in for a unique China experience. The past few days were a public holiday and I decided to go hiking to Huang Shan by joining a Chinese tour group.

Huang Shan is one of the most fameous mountains in China. And - as I've learned the hard way - it attracts around 30'000 visitors on peak days (such as these public holidays). I guess I should have consulted my Lonely Planet before booking the damn thing, which hints that "Today the reclusive artists seeking an inspirational retreat from the hustle and bustle of the temporal world have been replaced by crowds of tourists, who bring the hustle and bustle with them". The picture to the left is not staged and is largely representative for the entire 35km of mountain trails.

The mountain was not only full of eager hikers, but also full of uniformed guards which continually opened and closed routes in a desperate attempt to spread congestion evenly across the entire mountain and to keep the crowd under control.

As a side note: The scenery really was breathtaking, although it must look even cooler on a less sunny day, when there's mist between the peaks. What's really particular, though, is that the entire network of mountain trails consists of paved walkways and stairs. Not a single patch of dirt or forest soil. Almost like walking the streets downtown, just with better air ;-)

Friday night we slept in a hospice at the mountain top in order to get up at 4am the next morning to see the sunrise. Friendly Urusla, of course, managed to call me late at night and wake me up. The net result being that I spent the remaining hours of the night listening to the snoring of my 5 room mates. I still can't believe that such loud snoring comes without hostile intentions... And yes, the next morning was cloudy *!&%

But overall it was a great cultural experience. Not to be missed, but not to be repeated either.

Surprise!

Several people among my valued readership have complained that the blog doesn't move anymore. Let me say to all of you that I feel very honoured that my humble blog apparently brings sooo much joy to your (miserable?) lives!

Anyway,
I skipped the last day of class this week to catch a flight back to Switzerland. Let me tell you one thing: Lufthansa sucks. Big time. How can an airline possibly decide to show 2 (in words: TWO) movies during a daytime flight of 12 hours? Would they not have the benefit of hubs close to Switzerland, I'd switched to BA (nice planes, disgusting food), KLM (ouch, that's what I call missing legroom), or Finnair (never tried it, but heard good things only) a long time ago!

Where was I?
Ah, yeah, I went to Switzerland just in time for my mother's 83rd birthday. Surprise! Surprise!
She didn't expect anything like that and was totally blown away when the flower delivery boy in the door turned out to be her own son. I love you mom!

The stay in Switzerland was not all fun, though. Apart from the torture of the long flights, I spent only four days in Switzerland, two of which I used for interviews of stakeholders for my Strategic Management project.

Christmas Break

The finals are over and I'm back in Europe. Things went all very smooth.

It seems that the strategy of hanging out in the Philippines for the study week has truly paid off. I was nicely relaxed for the exams and I thing I did quite well.

Right now I'm doing some fine Snowboarding here in Austria... School is far away already, and the only thing that reminds me of China is my daily dose of Mandarin vocabulary learning.

So don't expect to read anything about CEIBS until early January next year.

Merry christmas and a happy new year!

Sad Conversations

Some snippets of my conversations. Might not be the exact wording, but true to the sense of what was said.

First Girl
me: Do you like what you're doing?
her: (thinks, hesitates)... No.
me: Why do you do it then?
her: I need the money.
me: Why's that?
her: I have a kid.
me: what? You mean here?
her: He stays with my parents. I need the money to support him.
me: What about the father?
her: The father is not interested. He doesn't care.
me: He doesn't give you any money?
her: No, he's from Belgium. He won't return any of my emails or phone calls.
me: This is sick! Do you know that Belgium law would require him to pay for his child?
her: No.

Second Girl
me: Do you like your job?
her: (without hesitation) No.
me: How long have you been doing it?
her: For about two years. I ran away from my family.
me: Why's that?
her: They tried to force me to marry a muslim boy. But I didn't like him.
me: And then you ended up here?
her: Yeah, I needed a job.
me: And you go out with guests and sleep with them?
her: Yes.
me: So you didn't like the guy you were supposed to marry and now you sleep with a stranger every night.
her: (remains silent, with a contemplative look on her face)

Third Girl
me: (to a 16 year old looking girl, jokingly) Are you for sale?
her: Yes. (half-jokingly) I'm a virgin. I can come with you.
me: Don't be silly! I could be your father. How old are you?
her: I'm twenty.
me: Don't make me laugh!
(I buy her a fruit juice and we do some small talk)
me: So if I pay the barfine, will you come with me to my room?
her: Sure.
me: And then you'll sleep with me?
her: Yes.
me: And if I want to sleep with you without a condom? Would that be okay for you?
her: If you want me to... yes.
me: This is crazy. You've got all your life before you! You shouldn't throw it away that easily...
her: Most tourists want to use a condom anyway.
me: Why are you doing this?
her: I have to support my family.
me: Do they know what you do?
her: No. I tell them I work as a bar waitress...

Fourth Girl
me: What have you done before you came here?
her: I worked in a Mall. But I can make much more money here. I'm not going to do this forever. I want to study afterwards.
me: Your family doesn't pay for your studies?
her: No, I have to support my family financially. And I support my big sister, too.
me: Do they know that you work here?
her: No... You think I should tell them?
me: What does your family do?
her: My father used to be a painter, but now I gave them money so they can have a small business.
me: What kind of business?
her: They sell sandals on the market.
me: And how is it working out?
her: I don't know... I hope OK... I gave them 40'000 Pesos (note: equals two full months of work) for it. If it doesn't work out I cannot give them any more. I already gave them 20'000 earlier, but my father gambled it on a cockfight and lost it all.
me: Maybe you should call them and check with them monthly on how the business is doing...

I've hit a real Low Point

This Tuesday we went to Sabang (near Puerto Galera) for scuba diving and we stayed there until today.

I really don't know what to say about the place. My mind is completely blank! I'm afraid I might just have hit the low point of my vacation here in the Philippines or maybe of my entire stay in Asia...

Why? The hotel was nice, the food was great, the scuba diving superb...

But the nightlife really makes you wanna throw up. There are about 6 girlie bars in town and we went to check them all out during the first night.

Now I consider myself very open minded and most people would agree that I'm not easily shocked by anything. My office in Zurich was located in the red light district for several years and I was used to look at prostitution merely as a demand/supply function.

But here you go into one of these places, and you're immediately surrounded by children. Most of them will tell you they're 18, 19, 20 years old, and admittedly I'm no expert at judging Asian's women's age. But I'm absolutely convinced that at least some of these girls were underage. Even then, I doubt that 18, 19, 20 is the age where a girl conciously and willingly decides for such a career move and its associated long-term risks and consequences. Especially considering that a considerable proportion of the male guests in these places are 40+, 50+.

The girls are more or less held like slaves. They have no fixed salary. They get locked into the staffhouse after work because they're not supposed to go out and enjoy themselves.

Their job is to convince guests to buy them drinks and then they'll get part of the drinks costs as comission, thereby slowly turning themselves into alcoholics. If a guest likes a girl, he pays the barfine (CHF 60.-) and the girl is his for the rest of the night. Since the girl will get half of this money, this might look like a fair deal at first. However, if a girl does not want to leave with a (30 years older) guest, she will have to pay the bar's share of the barfine herself, thereby making up for the bar's profit loss, essentially losing all her previous day's earnings. Not exactly free choice.

I love the Philippines (Part 2)

Ok, so we went out tonight. All the nightlife is within comfortable walking distance from Martin's house.

After stumbling around and eating dinner at Greenbelt/Glorietta we invariable ended up in P Burgos to play pool. Well, what can I say...

The three coolest things to do in Manila (revised):
1. Makati Nightlife
2. Makati Nightlife
3. Makati Nightlife

P.S. For all the lads in Shanghai and/or Switzerland:
Air temperature 28 degrees, feels like 32 degrees.
But the really hot stuff happens inside the air-conditioned clubs ;-)

Massage Dreamland

I've just had a one hour foot massage and I must say I'm very happy about it.

I didn't really take advantage of the low massage prices in China because I was always too busy to hang in a massage joint for an hour or so.

But here in the Philippines, it's simply impossible to ignore any longer. I mean at 198 Pesos (CHF 5.70) for a one hour foot massage and 300 Pesos (CHF 8.50) for a one hour oil massage, what can I say... Denial simply no longer works.

I love the Philippines!

I guess I will never be able to fully repay my debt to the OB professor, who made me come to Manila in the first place ;-)

I quick word of advice: If you'll ever live abroad for a few months and get homesick, just visit some Swiss friends who live in a nearby country.

Martin and his lovely wife Som went to great lengths to make me feel right at home.

First thing after arrival was to take me shopping to Säntis Delicatessen, a store that sells whatever a real Swiss person desires: Aromat, Kägi Fret, Hero Rösti, Cervelats, a wide selection of cheese, and of course Muntz "Schoggimüsli".

They then proudly fired up their raclette oven and suddenly their house in the middle of Makati city turned into a home far away from home! And then, the next thing you know, is you being served home-baked "Buurezüpfe" for breakfest. WOW!

The three coolest things to do in Manila:
1. Eating Raclette
2. Surfing the non-chinese (i. e. uncensored, high speed) web
3. Killing time with Xbox games