Around the Southern World or RTSW or better yet "The endless summer tour" Part 3

If you haven't noticed there is a lot of ocean below the Equator and by the time we get to Africa we will have crossed the Equator 3 times with another crossing at the end of our travels.

So just like the airport dance to arrive at Puerto Iguazu we need to do something similar to get to the Serengeti. Dick does not want to go to any airport near the Middle East nor Kenya so we will fly from Singapore to Johannesburg then fly to Dar es Salaam before heading to Arusha.   

During this trip there were a number of decisions to be made like do we go to Zanzibar and Madagascar. Unfortunately, we opted to not do either but Madagascar is on a future trip and maybe Zanzibar.  

We get to fly into the Kilimanjaro airport where we will be picked up before going on our safari in the Serengeti.  It appears that most of the safaris go to the same places and one is to include visiting a Masai village.

After the safari we will spend a full day exploring Dar es Salaam. Dar as the locals like to call it is similar to Frankfurt in that  it is the banking center of Tanzania. From there we will again fly to Johannesburg before catching a train to Capetown.   

I really like to travel by train whenever possible and we get a chance in South Africa. The Shosholoza Meyl Tourist Class train is a long distance, city to city, economy sleeper class passenger train travel in South Africa where we will travel to Cape Town. From other reports it is a great way to see the scenery and an excellent way to see Table Mountain when entering Cape Town. 

Unfortunately, there is not a similar train between Cape Town and our next stop in Durban.

Durban is on the Indian Ocean so the beaches in early February should be nice and warm. Remember this is part of the endless summer tour.

I had thought we would take the train back to Johannesburg from Durban but outside of the stop in Pietermaritzburg where Gandhi was removed from a train, this was where he decided to perform his first act of civil disobedience, there is not as much to see. So we will fly to Paris (via Johannesburg)  then onto SFO. We are hoping that the airport will have their new policies in place that will allow us to change planes easily.  I had hoped we would go to Amsterdam as there are number of people I would like to see again and to see the reopened Rijksmuseum. Well there is another trip to Europe in the plans so maybe then.

Around the Southern World or RTSW or better yet "The endless summer tour" Part 2

The second country in our RTSW will be in the Land Down Under - Australia. Why you may ask. Well when you go around the world you need to pick a direction and stick with it. Yes, we did head east first to go to Rio but the cruise has us in Chile at the end, so go west. Besides it takes less time to fly to Oz from South America than it does from SFO.

The name Australia (pronounced [əˈstɹæɪljə, -liə] in Australian English, is derived from the Latin Terra Australis ("southern land") a name used for lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times. We are not really spending that much time in Oz and will only go to Sydney (New South Wales), Cairns (Queensland), the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), and Perth (Western Australia). We will not see Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock), nor Melbourne or Darwin. We should still see lots of marsupials. For the GBR portion we will be out on a boat for 3 nights but it will be jellyfish season so snorkling will require the use of 'Stinger suits". Dick will try a scuba dive and I won't as I can't clear my ears well enough not to get seasick. Yeah it does happen and it ain't pretty.

From Oz we fly to Indonesia to the island of Bali. Below is a map of Indonesia and you really need to look to find the tiny island of Bali.

Okay find Bali and Singapore

It has been a lifelong dream for me to go to Bali. I don't really know why I have this desire but I do like Gamelan music. And besides what is not to like to sit on a sandy warm beach.  As we are a bit more mature now I have chosen to stay in Sanur or as some like to call it Snore for its lad back quality. We may take a trip to Kuta to see the over commercialization and nightclubs but probably won't.

The next stop will have us flying to just above the Equator to Singapore. This is the one stop that will be above the Equator until we head back home through France.

 

I don't know much about Singapore other than what I have seen on the news and I don't chew gum much anymore. Dick has been to Singapore back in his Navy days but he expects the City/Country to have changed a lot. 

Singapore has done much to expand its size by dredging and adding new land. The airport is built on such land.

The next country on our RTSW is Africa. We were in Northern Africa in 2014 so now we will get to see what the southern portion is like. More in Part 3.

Around the Southern World or RTSW or better yet "The endless summer tour" Part 1

Last year while Dick and I were in Turkey we looked at each other and said that neither of us had ever been below the Equator (though Dick has come the closest when he was in Singapore) and we did want to do an RTW.  

We would then be able to boast that we were no longer a "Wog" but a "Shellback". To go from "Wog" to "Shellbacks" one needs to cross the Equator and we will be doing just that but without the ceremony (click to read what is involved). Why no ceremony you ask. Easy, we will be flying to Rio and not crossing by ship. But this will be just the start of our "Endless Summer Tour" where we will visit countries below the Equator or not to far above. There is one exception that I will mention later. But if you look at a map of continents you may notice that there really isn't much land below the Equator but there is a lot of ocean. 

Our first country in this will be in South America during their summer season.

Where we will get our internal clocks reset in Ipanema. Beach and more beach followed by many rum drinks I am certain. Lucky for us we will be in Rio a year after FIFA and before the next Olympic games. There will still be a lot of water pollution but hopefully not where we will be staying in Leblon.

We then get to see what is like to do the equivalent of flying into O'Hare then catching your next flight out of Midway.  Our flights with Aerolíneas Argentina were changed recently to just such a scenario. When I called to ask why and how we were to get to the other airport in Buenos Aires the customer service rep said we have a free shuttle and the time between your flights has been extended, so no problem. You have plenty of time. Not certain I got a warm fuzzy with that one. But again this will not be the first time nor I expect the last time air travel was not made exciting.   

So why the changes to our flights are such a big deal. Well it is a strange tale of going from one SA country to another where Americans need to either have a visa (Brazil) or pay a reciprocity fee (Argentina). We want to go Iguazu Falls and the easiest way appeared to be to fly from Rio to Buenos Aires then to the Falls then back to Buenos Aires. We need to be in Buenos Aires to catch our cruise ship so would need to pay the reciprocity fee anyhow.



Did I say cruise. Would a lady not take her sailor boy on a cruise around the Horn? But of course I would. We will sail out of Buenos Aires, Argentina (ahh the Tango) and 14 days later we end in Valparaiso, Chile. Not really certain why but the Falklands/Malvinas are part of the cruise. Well one time it may be better to be an American than British.

We will be in Chile during the Christmas holiday and then continue our tour to the Land down under - Australia. 

29 Ways to Live Your Legend Now

The following are from Natalie Sisson as a tribute to Scott Dinsmore of "Live your Legend" who died recently and are good words of wisdom for life.

Life is a gift. Be grateful for it every day.

Give your very best. Period. The world will thank you for it.

Never stop learning. Stay curious. It makes life so much more enriching.

Build a community of passionate people and bring them together often.

Change your surroundings. Change your world.

Push your limits and learn your own impossible.

Spend time with people who inspire possibility.

Don’t hang out with people who bring you down.

If you don’t like your job? Quit it now. Do what you love.

Learn from everyone. Every single person can teach you something.

Do something that matters to you.

Make an impact that only you can make.

What seems impossible can become the new norm.

Be intentional daily.

Work on yourself and always improve.

Discover the work you can’t NOT do. Live it.

Dance like nobody’s watching.

Love boldly.

Step outside to play, explore and be with the people standing next to you.

Show up and do the work.

Take time to pause. Go off the grid. Disconnect.

Life is an experiment. Push and test new boundaries

Learn by doing. Make taking action your priority.

We are all leaders. We are all followers. Dance together.

Be the change!

Angkor Wat - Google Maps

Angkor Wat - Google Maps

American Fast Food in Asia or the Chicken Story

KFC in a traditional traditional Minnan style structure
http://www.vagabondjourney.com/

I recently was reading some blog posts by other bloggers and came across some interesting postings of American fast food outlets in Asia, notably China. Many writers complain about the ubiquity of fast food brands across the globe, seeing them as the ultimate symbol of American imperialism. Some may say they dilute local culture, threaten culinary heritage and encourage unhealthy dietary habits. 

But there is more going on than you may think between China and the US as far as American fast food exports and foreign imports. The more I looked into the fast food expansion in Asia the more interesting it became to me.

Yes you can get a Big Mac in Beijing

In China American chain restaurants like KFC, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks, as well as many Chinese fast-food chain restaurants that are (surprise) similar looking to some American brands have sprouted up everywhere in China. The Chinese chains have picked up on the American concept of inexpensive, standardized food items served in disposable paper and plastic convenience. China has also adapted the fast-food approach to its own cuisine. Chinese street food vendors offer dumplings and noodle soup served in a bowl lined with plastic. This allows the bowl to be reused by just putting a new plastic bag. Slick, no need to wash the bowl between customers. Street food in Asia is a wondrous sight if not amusing at times.

Last year I mentioned in my "Fan with Soy" blog posts about seeing restaurant chains in Japan that are no longer found in the US, Bob's Big Boy, and about competing 7-11 stores on opposite corners in Bangkok. I also mentioned that Shaq was the spokesperson for Harbin Beer which is an NBA (yes, basketball) sponsor. The Harbin brewery is owned by Anheuser–Busch InBev, which has helped to export Harbin beer to European and North American markets.

Shaq as the spokesperson for Harbin Beer

Note the NBA logo at the bottom of the can

Harbin Beer probably wasn't really looking to be part of the InBev product line but was probably looking for some capital for expansion. Well they got that and meanwhile the US opened more fast food outlets under YUM!Brands, Inc in China. Yum! is a United States-based Fortune 500 corporation and operates four licenses Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and WingStreet restaurants worldwide.

 

Yep, food on a stick or a stick on a stick.

Okay, so what is so bad about YUM!Brands? Well again not much unless you think about the absurdity of some of the locations. The company opened its first restaurant in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in May, 2013. For Mongolia, KFC is the first western fast food to open its doors in the country. The company is planning to open 15 more restaurants in Ulaanbaatar in the next 5 years, including the country's first drive-thru service. Mongolia?!?

Now this expansion in China and the rest of Asia hasn't translated in absurd profits for either McDonalds or YUM!. When fast-food giants McDonald’s Corp. and Yum! Brands Inc. reported fourth-quarter and full-year results for 2013, both chains said that US sales were flat at best for both periods. When McDonald’s reported January same-store sales Monday morning, US same-store sales were down 3.3% compared with January 2013 sales.

McDonald’s reported that same-store sales in China were flat in the fourth quarter, while Yum! said that its sales in China were down 4% in the quarter and 13% for the full year. Both companies have been hit by concerns over avian flu and tainted chicken supplies that surfaced late in 2012. Yum! was hit harder, and it has taken the company a full year to climb back to its relatively small sales decline last quarter. With some 3,700 stores in China, more than half of YUM's business now comes from KFC China, 44% revenue and 50% profits, to be specific. And now it occupies half of the total fast-food industry in China. For every million people in China there are only 3.5 YUM! restaurants, compared with 58 in the US.

But for the suppliers of chicken both here in the US and China there is another hidden story. Here is an article by BETTINA ELIAS SIEGEL about processed chicken sold in the US.

USDA Misinforms Parents About Chinese-Processed Chicken in School Meals

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

On August 30, the USDA announced that it will allow four Chinese facilities to process poultry raised and slaughtered in the United States, Chile or Canada, and then export the cooked poultry products back into the United States.  The USDA’s move is widely seen as a preliminary step toward eventually allowing China to export its own raw poultry into this country, in exchange for China’s opening up its lucrative beef market to American beef producers.

Given China’s troubling food safety record and the fact that its own government official essentially admitted that China can’t live up to the food safety standards of more developed nations, there are those who speculate that the timing of the USDA announcement – the Friday before Labor Day weekend — was not unintentional.  But whether or not the agency was trying to bury this news, the announcement quickly led to an outcry among journalists, environmental watchdog groups and Congressional representatives, including New York Senator Charles Schumer (D), Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown (D) and  Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D).

In the days following the announcement, a few readers asked me if the new USDA policy means that Chinese-processed chicken will appear on American school lunch trays.  On the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) website, I found this helpful Q & A:

Will chicken processed in China be included in school lunches?

No. The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service ensures that products included in [sic] school lunch program are produced, raised, and processed only in the United States, its territories or possessions, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or the Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands.

To parents with little knowledge of how school food programs operate (i.e., the vast majority), this statement from FSIS would seem to settle the question — and provide solid reassurance for those concerned about Chinese-processed chicken being fed to their kids at school.

But the FSIS statement is in fact quite misleading.

It is true that school districts participating in the National School Lunch Program (the “NSLP,” which also includes school breakfast and after-school snack programs) receive agricultural commodities from the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, and it is true that these products are domestic.  But the USDA is well aware that school districts also procure significant portions of their school food from private vendors, and this method of school food sourcing is entirely omitted from the answer above — despite the blanket “no” response.

So the pertinent question is: Can private vendors sell Chinese-processed chicken to schools?

I emailed the FSIS and a USDA spokesperson agreed that “schools also make their own purchases” of school food, but she went on to note that such purchases are governed by a “Buy American” regulation which

requires participating schools to purchase domestically grown and processed foods, to the maximum extent practicable. A domestic . . . product is defined to be “. . .  a food product that is processed in the United States substantially using agricultural commodities that are produced in the United States.”

This regulation sounds like a de facto ban on Chinese-processed chicken.  But at the end of her email, the spokesperson also disclosed that under the “Buy American” rule:

[p]roducts that are processed in the United States and comprised of at least 51 percent domestic ingredients are considered domestic.

I have since expressly confirmed with the USDA that this definition of “domestic” would indeed allow Chinese-processed chicken into the school lunch program.  Here’s how:  if, for example, a manufacturer of frozen chicken egg rolls fully assembles the egg rolls in this country, but sources the cooked chicken in the egg rolls from a Chinese processor, the egg rolls are considered “domestic” so long as the Chinese-processed chicken doesn’t comprise more than 49% of the total product. School districts could buy these egg rolls without violating the “Buy American” rule and the egg rolls would not have to bear any country-of-origin labeling to disclose the location of the poultry processing.  And this scenario could easily apply to any chicken-based entree supplied to schools, such as chicken soup, frozen chicken burritos, chicken chili, chicken-stuffed ravioli, and more.

I also learned that there’s a second exception to the “Buy American” rule.  In the unlikely event that the economics of chicken processing shift, such that it becomes reliably cheaper for schools to source items like patties and nuggets using Chinese-processed chicken over domestically processed chicken, then schools can freely buy such products, regardless of ingredient percentages.

So the bottom line is this: despite the blanket reassurance to the contrary on FSIS’s website, it is entirely possible that Chinese-processed chicken will be used in school meals.

It’s also worth noting that, according to the USDA spokesperson, there is no analogous “Buy American” restriction on schools providing evening meals to students, nor does it apply to meals served in day care centers, as both of these programs are part of the Child and Adult Care Food Program rather than the NSLP.  (“School supper” programs are increasingly common; by 2015, an estimated 21 million students will be eating dinner at school.)  Accordingly, it appears that any Chinese-processed chicken product, regardless of ingredient percentages, can be used in these meals as well.

Whether Chinese-processed chicken presents a serious concern for parents is open for debate.  According to sources interviewed by Politico, few U.S. poultry producers have expressed interest in processing chicken in China at the present time due to logistical constraints.  If that situation changes, however, parents are unlikely to know about it.  Moreover, because no country-of-origin labeling is required on products containing Chinese-processed chicken, only school districts which expressly obligate vendors to use 100% domestically processed chicken will know exactly what they’re serving to kids.

In my opinion, though, parents ought to be far more worried about the possible lifting of the export ban on Chinese-raised and -slaughtered raw poultry.  If raw Chinese poultry enters this country and becomes reliably cheaper than domestic poultry, its use in school food could become widespread under the second exception to the “Buy American” rule noted above.  (And, at any rate, raw Chinese poultry could always be used, up to 49%, in manufactured food items regardless of cost.)  Given that some Chinese poultry farmers allegedly used large quantities of illegal drugs in raising chickens sold to KFC, and given the potential vulnerability of young school children eating such chicken, a lifting of the export ban on raw Chinese poultry is a cause for serious concern.

In the meantime, is FSIS intentionally misleading the public on this issue?  I can’t know, of course, but I suspect that in the rush to quell concerns about the August 30th announcement, the FSIS simply failed to vet its school food Q & A with the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, the branch of the agency overseeing child nutrition programs.  Regardless of motive, however, my own questioning of the agency (which began a full two weeks ago) has clearly brought the inaccuracy to its attention — yet, as of this writing, the original statement remains on its website.

So are these fast food outlets really contributing to bad dietary habits? Probably yes but considering the amount of disposal income in China and much of Asia not everyone nor is every meal being eaten in a fast food restaurant though I can't say the same happens in the US. Statistics do show an increase in obesity in some areas of China. Then there are other indicators that say it is not the fast food but other environmental factors that contribute to the increase in obesity.

Should the US be concerned about processing chickens in China then shipping them back? Again probably yes. But as the article says you may not know where your food comes from even if it is labelled. So the concern should be with the US regulations that allow this type of labelling or lack there of.

I will have to admit that as a traveller seeing a familiar US brand while travelling overseas can be comforting. But you may need to tone down your expectations. Some of the worst coffee I have ever drunk was from a McDonalds in Italy. I know I committed a sin in a country that can make good coffee. When I took my son to Amsterdam the first meal he wanted was from a Subway and I let him do it, though only once. And many of these familiar chains are filled with Americans looking for something like home. 

Sometimes it is lonely to be a Stranger in a Strange land.

Note the travellers not from China eating here.

And for some amusement follow this link to some of the most unusual McDonalds locations.

If you have read this blog post so far thanks as I know it is a long one. This may be the last "Fan with Soy" post using the Blogger platform as I am going to focus on the "Adventures in Europe - Part 3" blog and move to everything to a WordPress platform (as soon as I can figure out how to do it).

China's Modern Ghost Cties

Update Aug 2014:
60 minutes covered this subject 
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-real-estate-bubble-lesley-stahl-60-minutes/
The Fengdu Ghost City is a tourist attraction about 170 kilometres (110 mi) downstream from Chongqing on the north bank of the Yangtze River. It is an attraction that we were able to see during our 2002 cruise tour along the Yangtze River.  Legends said that Ming Mountain is one of the 72 graveyards for Taoism. Tao believes when people die, their spirits will gather there (also called "spirit world"). All the temples were built at Western Jin period (265 ~ 420A.D.) and rebuilt in Ming and Ch'ing Dynasty (1386 ~ 1911A.D.)

The City of Ghosts was a place of worship before the flooding of the Three Gorges due to the Three Gorges Dam Project. Today it is a tourist attraction the Chinese and foreigners visiting the Three Gorges on their Holidays. The site has been almost entirely rebuilt and replicated from the original city that now sits 70 metres below the waters surface.

Fengdu is the only ghost city in China. The temples are all over the mountain with many statues. In the "spirit world", there are series of super beings in the temples. They all have its own responsibility, they guard the spirit world.

But wait there are more ghost cities in China. On our way to the Shanghai airport I noticed several large building complexes that did not seem to be occupied. Our guide noticed that I was looking at the buildings and her comment was that the farmers got rich by selling the land for apartments. Great but there wasn't any transportation going to or from these "cities" nor did I see any cars or in fact any traffic moving. Here are a few videos from other explorers that noticed the same thing.

China's Italian Ghost City  

China's Empty Cities

Shanghai's German city

But not all are apparently true ghost cities just not fully inhabited - or so they say.