this morning i did some work for The Organisation in that i met up with a bunch of english teachers here in Kaohsiung to photograph them during a meeting. it was a relatively tame gig in comparison to the work i usually do but it had to be done and i’m glad to have been the one to do it. i was also reminded of how small of a place the world really is when i discovered that one of the teachers knew a good friend of mine in Chicago.

anyway, that’s all for now.

an interesting fact about Kaohsiung is that it was founded almost 400 years ago and its original name was 打狗 (”Takau” in Taiwanese) which roughly translates into “beat the dog.” then, when the Japanese took over, the name was changed to the current 高雄, which is pronounced ‘Takao’ in Japanese but (thankfully) means something along the lines of “high hero.”

my aunt and uncle took me out for a seafood dinner earlier tonight. the main course being a lobster that looked like it used to roam the sea floor on a throne carried by lesser lobsters. too bad we had someone gut it, drain its blood, and put its meat on ice for our consuming pleasure. that’s right, boys and girls: lobster sashimi. mmm mmm.

but first, the blood.

freshly drained, they combine it with alcohol for a fiery pre-dinner shot. they even snap off a lobster antenna to mix the drink with. how great is that?! the blood itself tasted a little strange but the alcohol helped it all go down. it was by far the most bizarre thing i’ve ever drunk.

here is dinner in all its glory. a few of the lobster legs were still moving on the plate while we were eating. then, halfway through our meal, they took the head and the tail to make miso soup with. it was all ridiculously awesome.

i shared a lift with Sir Gordon Wu when i was in Hong Kong last week. it was at the Hopewell Centre, whose top floor serves as his office. he came in talking with one of his colleagues about business; then got off at the 57th floor to buy and sell more people like you and me.

i think it’s safe to say that he’s the richest person i’ve ever been in an elevator with before.

SNAKE SOUP!

not bad, not bad.

the flight from Hong Kong to Kaohsiung only lasts a couple of hours but i scored a window seat on a pretty sweet airline. check out the accommodations!

while it isn’t quite up to par with a KLM 747, these seats are great for a budget airline. in addition to the personal screen, i also dig the standalone cup holder and the two netted pockets for twin helpings of awesome.

anyway, i’m in Kaohsiung now, staying at my uncle’s place downtown. i saw my grandmother (婆婆) for the first time in about a decade and got up this morning at 5am to join her for a walk in a nearby park. i’m trying to be a good grandson, you see.

i’m flying to Kaohsiung today to see more relatives. will post more later.

the most awesome part of Chaolian (now that the mechanical pointing idol is gone) is the Lo family hall.

this is the main entrance. note the two heavily armed bouncers at the door.

this is what the inside looks like. (sorry if this isn’t terribly exciting to read)

one of the side rooms houses a series of enormous black stone tablets with the names of Lo family members carved upon it. the empty space at left will soon be where my father’s, my brother’s, and my name can be found.

i suppose it’s comforting to know that i’ll be leaving my mark on this world in one way or another.

the village of Chaolian is situated on a little island on the river maybe about 15 minutes from Jiangmen. a big chunk of it is pretty old, some of the buildings dating back hundreds and hundreds of years.

the house on the right is the one my grandfather grew up in and the house on the left is the house that another one of my dad’s cousins bought later on. if you look carefully on the ground, you’ll see patched up concrete from when the dividing wall between these two houses was removed some years ago. word has it that my grandfather spent a lot of time playing as a child near the entrance by where the stack of bricks is now.

here’s an advertisement for the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. there are thousands of these fliers posted all around the village.

a powerful guardian deity is believed to have protected Chaolian for centuries. as the story goes, Chinese pirates raided every settlement along the river except Chaolian because they had so much fear and respect for its deity. the villagers erected a temple to the deity about 400 years ago which is still used today to house an idol. on a stranger note, the temple used to have two other versions of the idol: a mechanical one that could stand up and point (!!!) and a lighter, static version they would parade around the village. thankfully, neither of those are still in use.

tomorrow: PART III

so to get to the my ancestral village of Chaolian, i first had to get to the city of Jiangmen which lies north of Macau on the Xijiang River. it’s a fairly small city as far as major Chinese cities go but still had a population of a little under four million.

to get to Jiangmen, i boarded a ferry that would take me from Hong Kong past the Pearl River Delta, through Macau, and up the Xijiang River. unfortunately, the region had been plagued with rainstorms so the ride was quite choppy.

also, if you look carefully at the photograph of my ticket, you’ll notice that i’m not sitting in my assigned seat. i’m out of control, suckas!

this is a view of Jiangmen, China. note the healthy layer of smog.

in Jiangmen, i had dinner with my dad’s cousin, his children (my cousins), and their respective families. everyone was really nice and eager to get to know me. in return, i’ve mosaicked all of their faces, likening them to the criminals you see on the television show Cops.

dinner in Jiangmen was really cheap even by Hong Kong standards. it was also fairly exotic in that i ate a duck’s lower jaw as well as whole (but tiny) birds that were cooked until their bones were soft. i think they were finches. finches are absolutely delicious.

tomorrow: PART II