I Could Be In Wyoming...

Chengdu-Xinduqiao-Litang

Off-the-Grid Adventure: Face-to-face with the Genie of Sichuan

I'm off to see a Genie, the wonderful Genie of Sichuan! That would be Mt Genie. I love that name, even though it's not supposed to be pronounced the English way (it's pronounced with a hard "g"). MH reminded me that I should make 3 wishes.

The area is known as Sichuan's Tibetan Highlands, and the altitude will be well above 4,000m. We'll be starting from Chengdu, passing through Kangding, Yajiang, Litang, Genie, Daocheng and Yading. As always, trips to remote areas of China stress me out a little bit beforehand, but I know that once I'm there I'll be quite buzzed (hopefully, not from lack of oxygen).

I've just finished packing and have brought along a whole duffel bag full of Doritos, Kettle chips and other snacks to keep our group's munchies satiated during our 8-hour-long drives. Other people are bringing some supplies for the local villages. I'm also bringing my laptop, iPhone, a back-up Samsung phone (the battery lasts a whole week) and flip video camera, but I wonder whether I'll be able to charge everything and whether I'll have access to a 3G network. Hence, I've prepared myself for 10 days off-the-grid, of connectivity withdrawal. When I complained to a friend about not being able to charge my laptop so I can watch DVDs in the car, I was told I'm supposed to look out the window and enjoy the scenery. So that's what I'll be doing. That and looking out for great sites along the way for some guesthouses. Looking forward to these views:

Courtesy: James.Wheeler @ flickr

Here I go. Switching off...now.

Chill: Flavorpill SmartWater Summer Yoga Mix

While I take a brief hiatus from blogging to finish a project, here's an awesome mix:



When I get a moment, will blog about dinner with Thomas Heatherwick, whose amazing design for the UK Pavilion can be seen at Expo 2010 in Shanghai at the moment. In the meantime:

Hanging In the Kitchen: Zuma

I love it when I get to hang out in a restaurant kitchens, especially ones so clean you can eat off the counter tops. I was at a photo shoot of Zuma's Chef Matt this afternoon. He had to prepare two dishes, and we were taking casual "action" shots of him chopping tomatoes and dehusking corn. During the shoot, somehow it came up that I haven't bothered to eat tempura outside of Japan after my unforgettable meal in Kyoto's Tenyu. Once the food shots were done, there was a bowl of leftover corn he had deftly carved off the stalk. I tried a handful, and it was incredibly sweet.

"What are you going to do with the corn?" I asked, still munching, thinking he might just let me finish it off.

"Since you haven't had tempura in a while, I'll make tempura with it," Chef Matt replied.

And off he went into the kitchen to heat up the tempura oil. I was walking outside the glass walls of the kitchen, hoping to catch a glimpse of the frying action when he invited me into the kitchen. Everything was spic-n-span. It's in plain view to the restaurant, so it would have to be. The oil in the tempura fryers had just been changed after the lunch service.

Here are the kitchen shots. As I was taking them, I couldn't help wondering what would happen if I were to drop my iPhone into the hot oil:

Chef Matt about to make corn tempura...

M

Mixing the corn with flour and batter...

Testing the oil temperature; it's ready!

 And in goes the corn...

Sizzle, sizzle...

Done!

With just a few flakes of sea salt and pepper...light and yummy...

Sydney: SMH Half Marathon

This morning, I ran the SMH Half Marathon. It was my first half marathon, the longest, but also most exhilarating, run of my life thus far. I'd been training earnestly for 10 weeks -- running 3x/week, yin yoga and even a detox. It's only 21.1K (nothing compared to a 42K marathon!), but I still felt butterflies in my stomach as race day approached. It was a mixture of nervousness, excitement, and of course, "Shit, do I really want to do this?" But as soon as I opened up the race pack yesterday, and saw the souvenir running chip, I said to BL who was also running his first race with me: "I want a collection of these." This, coming from the mouth of someone who would have scoffed at the idea of going on just a half hour run 5 years ago. Another reminder of the wisdom behind that James Bond movie: Never Say Never.

Perfect blue-sky morning from Hyde Park

For my first half marathon, I could not have asked for a more ideal race. The weather, course and crowd were amazing. The start in front of St Mary's Cathedral by Hyde Park was simply picture perfect. I loved running through charming Rocks, up Argyle Street, the view of Sydney Harbour Bridge and of course the Opera House. The crowd was pretty awesome. There was a great sense of comraderie, especially for and among the orange-shirted Can Too runners running to raise money for cancer research. It was inspiring to run behind a blind runner, guided by runners from Achilles Running Club. I was amused by people along the course holding signs that read: "Run! Zombies are chasing you!!" I was spurred on by the woman banging out a steady cadence on the Hunter Street hill. I loved hearing the sound of plastic cups crunching under runners' feet 300m before I could even see the drinks station. Even my iPhone knew exactly when to play Placebo's cover of Kate Bush's "Running up that Hill" -- the second time I had to tackle the hills of Pitt and Hunter Streets. It was also interesting to see how different runners geared up along with their individual quirks. Compression pants were widely spotted. Lots of runners with taped-up knees, shins or ankles. My favourite quirk was seeing how a runner had taped his earphone buds to his ears. Interestingly though, the top seeded runners were the most minimally decked out -- running shorts instead of compressions pants, no bandages, braces or tape, and no earphones.

8,854 runners lined up behind the start line by St Mary's Cathedral

Race completed, I can now confirm that half marathons are addictive. KS, who had to sit out this race on doctor's orders, has already been baiting me with the 19 September Blackmore's Sydney Running Festival, where the half marathon includes a run across Sydney Harbour Bridge. Very tempting...

Which Is Your Fave City Skyline?

 Hong Kong Skyline courtesy of cblee/flickr.com

I'm putting together a list of the world's Top 20 Skylines for cnngo based on the following criteria:
1.  Architecture -- any iconic landmarks? starchitect-designed buildings
2.  Urban Planning -- logic, ease of getting around, aesthetics of layout
3.  Proximity to Nature -- parks, proximity to beaches, natural landscape, integration of greenery etc.
4.  Photogenic -- makes for picture-perfect postcards or memorable film scenes
5.  Stunning views -- i.e. place to take a date/propose/impress out-of-towners

So far, in the running (in no particular order) are...
1.  San Francisco
2.  Seattle
3.  Vancouver
4.  New York City
5.  Paris
6.  Rome
7.  Saint Petersburg
8.  Tokyo
9.  Shanghai
10. Sydney
11. Istanbul
12. Dubai
13. Athens
14. Hong Kong
15. Geneva
16. Barcelona
17. Rio de Janiero
18. Brasilia
19. Kyoto
20. Chandigarh
21. Alexandria
22. Cape Town
23. Venice

Which are your favourite city skylines? Why?

Hong Kong Ranks No. 1 in Economic Freedom: Any Correlation to Happiness & Creativity?

According to Heritage Foundation, Hong Kong is number 1 in economic freedom! I usually take research findings or policies coming out of conservative think tank Heritage Foundation with more than a grain of salt. But I did find Richard Florida's analysis to see if there was any correlation between economic freedom and other measures of progress such as happiness, tolerance and income equality interesting. Check out the graphs in his 19 April 2010 The Atlantic article: Free, Tolerant & Happy.

According to his graphs, there is a positive correlation between "life satisfaction" (based on data from Gallop) and economic freedom. Interesting to note, however, that Hong Kong rates its life satisfaction below the other top 10 economically-free countries. Same for creative class, but again, Hong Kong's creative class is smaller than all the other top 10 countries except for Chile. I can't find Hong Kong on the income inequality graph.

 Source: Richard Florida, The Atlantic

So why is the economic freedom to happiness/creativity correlation weaker for Hong Kong than the other top 10 countries (Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Switzerland, Canada, United States, Denmark and Chile)?