Taiwan!

Made it to Taipei, Taiwan!

Bittersweet though.  

I could tell right away that this city is cool.  Clean, people are helpful and friendly, drivers obeying traffic laws, nature mixed with city.....similar to Hong Kong.

All this made me think of this analogy- Shanghai is similar to maybe Cleveland....maybe a dull Sacramento....Detroit?  Whatever- what I mean is When they built Shanghai they pretty much bull dozed everything in their way, poured 12 trillion tons of concrete on the ground, and called it good.

As a result, it lacks character and depth when you consider it's natural surroundings and environment.

Unfortunately what you get is dirty air and cranky people (in my opinion).

Hong Kong and Taipei aren't like that.  There are large swaths of natural forest, hills, clean waters, and on and on....all reminding me of home.

Enough.

I booked a fishing guide to take me out tomorrow.  They'll pick me up at the hotel and take me to the Yeelee River.  $100 gets you a full day fishing, transportation, and lunch.  Don't tell my clients that!

That was the good news.  The bad news is that I told my guide I brought a 3 weight fly rod and he said it was too heavy!

By Oregon standards, a 3 weight is light, and small- stocked fish are usually on the agenda when you're talking 3 weight.....so if a 3 weight is too heavy here- how small are the fish?  Guess we'll see.....

Last, in 3 days Sarah and I have been in Hong  Kong- back to Shanghai (one night), and are now in Taipei.  Funny thing is Taipei and Hong Kong feel similar because we're staying at the same hotel- and both have views of some of the worlds tallest buildings.  Just odd.

I leave you with some photos of the views- first in HK, second in TT....

Ok.....

Ok, ok, ok ok ok ok ok ok ok ok.....

I'm not gonna lie.

I ain't be tellin no non truth  yo.

Straight up here you go.....

If you haven't been to Hong Kong you need to go.

I think god put me on this earth just to spread the word of Hong Kong!  This place is sweet!

First of all- most all the chicks have most their teeth.  Take that shanghai!  

Second- about one in five people on the street are "western".....feels like home!

Third- the food is donkey on Opposite Day.

What more do you want?  Move it folks and get you some!

Congratulations!

To Chris and Shuree Jones of Portland Oregon!

Shuree did the truffle shuffle and out came Quendra.....just like on Goonies with the bowling ball....except it was a baby.

At 8 pounds 9 ounces, Quendra came in smack in the middle of summer and winter steelhead size....more on the summer steelhead size I'd say....but then again- not everyone catches big fish!

In honor of her birth, I wrote a poem:

Congrats to Chris and Shuree

We hope she looks like uncle Calee

For that is as good as can be

Remember this when she is three

At least she knows where to pee

At four or five she'll come alive

And you both will take a dive

But look not for a place to thrive

And rather just stay alive

Soon she'll be a pre teen

And your buddy ross is a dancing queen

But 8th grade is only the beginning 

Boyfriends soon with a promise ring

High school will come and go

College will soon follow

By that time we'll all be old

Quendra still young and bold

But our time will fade away

Your legacy, here to stay.....

By Calee Cariaga

Hong Kong!

Dude- this is not me just saying this because I know everything like I do.....I'm saying this cause it is what it is.

Hong Kong is 3 times cooler than the coolest city in the mainland.

Top 10 things about Hong Kong:

1.  Clean Air

2.  Friendly People

3.  Good Food

4.  Outdoor Activities

5.  Clean Streets

6.  Beaches

7.  Disneyland

8.  English Language 

9.  Shopping

10.  Donkey

Didn't see that #10 coming did you?  Well it's true.

We are staying next door to the worlds 3rd tallest building- in Kowloon...and we have a cool view of the bay looking on Hong Kong Central.  I'll include some pics.  

Tonight we are going to an area called mid level to check out the scene, then to the sneaker street to check out the shoes, then to the temple night market to check out the.....temple night market.

Tomorrow we are gonna try to pull off a 10k over a ridge called Dragons Back.  It ends up in an old village called Shek O....which is apparently cool.

Tomorrow night I'm getting my tattoo, if I can find the place I read about.  It's gonna be cool.

Sunday we're gonna kick it before we bounce back to SH.  I kinda want to check out one of those old Chinese style boats- they call them "junk boats" here....but the activity list in the hotel has wake boarding as a possibility.....and there are sharks in the bay.....and I've always wanted to try to take on a shark.

Last week Dade and I rallied Beijing- here are some pics from that trip, and one pic from our hotel here.....I tried to get these BJ pics up before but we have been having some Internet issues at home....

It's a tall, tall world....

It's a world of gas fumes, a world of gray.

It's a world of carbon and urban decay.

There's some junk in the air, that its time you're aware, it's a smog, smog world.

Today Dade and I forked out $17 to ride the world's fastest elevator to the world's highest observatory deck.

The viewing deck is situated 1614 feet above street level. To give you an idea, the Empire State Building is 1454.

The observatory deck had glass floors, and floor to ceiling glass windows. It was stomach churning to say the least.

Unfortunately, the view from 1614 feet can sometimes suck. Especially on a day when the smog index is over 200.....which it was.

Enough said- here are the pictures from the world's highest observatory.

Note- the building in picture 4 is taller than than any building in Oregon.

Silence In Shanghai

When I was a kid, maybe 7 or 8 years old I was at my grandma's house....my mom's mom Barbara's.  I can't remember what I was doing, but I distinctly remember her turning at me, a bit irritated, and saying "Calee go sit on the davenport!".  I had enough sense to listen to what she said....but I had no idea what the hell a davenport was.  A bit frightened, and in a flail of a guess, I went into the laundry room and sat on the dryer.

That is a true story and my point is I've been around long enough to know the sound of crap when it's about to hit the fan.  You want to know what that sound is?  Silence.

That has been the last two weeks here in Shanghai.  Sarah and I have been here for 2 weeks straight.....no quick, or long trips out, just straight Shanghai.  Silent.

Well that's about to come to a close.  Sarah leaves for the US tomorrow, the day before Dade arrives here.  Dade and I will be here for a few days then will be travelling to Beijing to breath some particularly bad air.  Sarah gets back sometime while we are gone.  We get back for a day and Dade leaves....at which point Sarah and I are travelling to Hong Kong.  Once back from Hong Kong we're here for three days then going to Taiwan....then I'm out to the US.  And on and on.  Sarah's birthday, August to US, September all over the place.....it just doesn't stop.....and all of a sudden here I am- the very person I swore I'd never be.  The planning in advance kind.

I don't like to plan.  I can't stand it when I hear someone say "We might have one weekend at the end of July" or "I wish I could but I'm booked until September".

So, what am I going to do about it?  Can Sarah and I avoid it?  In short, yes. 

In what many would consider complete irresponsibility, I'm quitting my job.  I'm changing my future plans to come home to I don't know when.....and am probably just going to show up one day at your house needing a place to stay.  We're going to bail for Sarah's birthday and hope we don't need a visa for where ever we show up.  I'm bailing to Alaska to fish, and we're going to close out the year with a backpack and a sleeping bag.  Maybe in Australia, maybe in your living room....we'll know a few days in advance.

Like I said before, we wish to live deliberately- and to see if we can not learn what the world has to teach....and not, when we come to die discover that we have not lived.....

Unfortunately it is probably time for me to fess up and let you know that I stole that line the first time I used it from Stewie Griffin from Family Guy.  This time I couldn't remember it so I cut and copied it from a previous blog.

Last, a while back Driver David went bow hunting over here and shot a pheasant.  Knowing that I use feathers to tie flies he brought me some pheasant tail from the bird he shot.  Well, this was before that whole bird flu thing really came along....and so I accepted the gift with open arms.

Fast forward to this last week and I've had time to tie up some flies for my trip to Klamath.  I sprayed the tail feathers with Lysol and called it good.  I've tied these in years past and every year they seem to evolve.  This year they include Chinese pheasant tail, olive rabbit fur with rubber legs, Hungarian partridge, the wing is goose and the collar is peacock....a blend of H7N9 if I've ever seen one.  So I'm going to name it either "Calee's Bird Flu Fly", "H7N9 Trout Slayer", or "Trout Influenza"......not sure which yet but I promise it'll catch fish!






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Modern Engineering and Happy Birthday Christine!

I just don't get it.  Everyone loves puppies and kittens.  If you say you hate kittens, you're a liar....unless you're allergic.  Then I'd hate them too.

So this is what I think, and if you disagree, go find another rad blog....

We have engineered everything.  Bridges that span miles, space ships, submarines.  We've covered every inch of this world.....even been to the moon.

We can make watermelons more juicy, corn more sweet, cows more lean.

We can turn air and water into electricity, fire, the wheel, bronze tools and more.

All that crap and no one has figured out how to bio-engineer pets.  I'd like a pure white long hair kitty that doesn't shed, and will only ever grow to 40% full size.  Is that really too much to ask?  Considering what we've accomplished, I don't think so.  I will give the first person to come up with this a cool $100 cash.

I'm on a roll.....so here is stellar idea #2- how about a small street store/booth, like a newspaper stand style shop that you'd find in a big city.  The shops walls rotate around, and have three faces.  So in the morning your booth sells newspapers, coffee, maybe bagels.  At 3pm you rotate your wall once and it's full of candy and toys for the kids who just got out of school.  At 5pm it rotates again and now you're selling beer, cigarettes, maybe umbrellas on a rainy day....get my drift...?  Why hasn't this caught hold?  This is easy stuff....anyway, the intellectual capital belongs to me- don't touch.

Update on Little Flower:

This was Little Flower's first week and it's been dope.  She's already way better than Po was (no offense Po).  So on Wednesday she and I went to the store so I could show her what kind of stuff we buy- and she'll make sure we always have it.  IOW- she's going to do most of our grocery shopping for us....which is just flat crazy that, as we all know, I really have no responsibility here, and I still can't manage to lift a finger. 

We went to the foreigner market, and she balked at the prices of stuff there....then offered to take me to E-Mart, a big Target style store not too far from our house.  I didn't really pay too much attention to most of it- but I did notice they had Ting Tao beer- 22oz- for 2 RMB.  That's 40 cents folks.  Needless to say, I was all over the pijiu (that means beer in Chinese).

After the store, we walked back to our house and she showed me some other local shops.  Nothing I haven't seen yet- but interesting to have her pointing out what they actually were....a lot of times I just walk by- half jaw dropped at the madness.  On our walk back she explained that she's been an ayi for 24 years here in Shanghai!

Long story short, she's money....she did ask me about my family some, and I made the mistake of telling her that I have 6 brothers and sisters, so she asked about each and their age....then asked how old my mom was.....and I had to start back tracking.....and she never really understood any of it in the first place....so now I think she thinks I was lying.  This is the kind of crap you have to deal with all the time around here.  My advise to you is this- when in another country, answer "yes" or "no" to every single question anyone ever asks you.  It's much more simple.

Along those lines, Mikey B asked me if I could hook up a mountain bike frame for cheap.  As you all know, I love these kinds of projects- but seriously....I don't know if its the language barrier or the way business is done around here but it's been 400 conversations, covering the same 4 points for 4 days now (4 is an unlucky number here BTW.  You'll never see a building with a 4th floor).  Its real simple- 21 inch frame, 29 inch wheel size, aluminum, how much?  Be my guest if you think you can make any headway over here with something this easy.....and let me tell you- any time the answer has anyting to do with "the factory"- you're in trouble.

Written by Calee Cariaga in a letter to you.  April 19, 2013


HAPPY BIRTHDAY Christine Williamson of Lebanon Oregon! 
Christine, mother of the 1995 Strawberry Festival Queen turns 61 today!  Arriving in Oregon via covered wagon on the Oregon Trail, Christine is now old enough to "remember when this was all fields as far as the eye could see".  If you ever get a chance to sit down with "Chirs" as her friends and family call her, you'll be in for a treat of a history lesson as she will give you first hand accounts of; the invention of the wheel, the spanish inqusition, or the civil war. 

As a baby Christine was raised by native tribes, now called Neanderthal, and as a young girl growing up in the ice age she has fond memories of riding the wooly mammoth.  Her teenage years were spent chasing "totonka" (also know as buffalo) in the fields and prairies of her back yard.  Fast forward to today and you can find her working in her yard with her beloved husband Steve, cooking in the kitchen (just kiddin!), or spending time with her grandchildren. 

You can see her documentary on the History Channel website here:

www.olderthandirt.historychannel.com

61 and still rolling!  Happy Birthday Christine!!!

Written in a twitter update- time stamp 5:11pm