Expatriate Games

Starbucks & Burritos

Day 2 – Shenzhen

We’d arranged with Robert Lio and his lovely wife Xiao to stay at their apartment in the Nanshan section of Shenzhen for a few days. They are in Montreal for the summer and assured us that we were more than welcome to use their place . After the long ride we were ready to veg out for a while so we called Xiao’s brother to make arrangements for the key and he told us that his father was already waiting for us at the apartment. Great! A combined subway/taxi trip and we were there in thirty minutes. Xiao’s father is a spry little man with smiling eyes, in fact he has a great face for photography, I don’t know why I didn’t take any pictures. He’d turned on the AC and supplied the fridge with bottled water before we got there. He and Lily struck up a conversation that lasted the better part of three hours while I checked email and then dozed in the bedroom.

In the early afternoon, I decided it was past time to take care of my Starbucks fix. Now I am NOT like this big Starbucks disciple but unlike most places in Liuzhou, at Starbucks I know I am going to get a decent cup of coffee  brewed the way I like it. I know I’ll also find bags of ground coffee for the coffee maker at home. I remembered visiting a Starbucks near Amigos Mexican Restaurant in Shekou, so we said our goodbyes to Xiao’s father and off we went in search of caffeine and salsa. We found Amigos fairly quickly and low and behold a NEW starbucks had opened just next door. Coincidence? I think not. Mission accomplished…

After a slow cup of Americano, I bought bags of Komodo Dragon Blend, Columbia, and Italian Roast to take back to Liuzhou and then we moved next door. Now Amigos is not a great Mexican restaurant compared to those back home (or Mexico) but for China… it does the job quite nicely. They do other dishes as well but I was there for something from south of the border, and I don’t mean Hong Kong. Chips, salsa, guacamole, and refried beans came first and then Lily got her first taste of a Chicken Caesar Salad followed by the entree (that’s for you Ken),  a nice sized beef and bean burrito.

It was nice. We stayed in Shekou for a good three hours on a drizzly, humid afternoon enjoying the food, air conditioning and… quiet. It was about an hour into the meal when I realized there was no noise. That NEVER happens in Liuzhou. It was 2 o’clock in the afternoon and we had the run of the place, with the cooks sitting around taking part in the Chinese national pastime, texting. These guys were world class too. I took 20 shots of one or the both of them and they never stopped texting… to be a champion, concentration is key.

After lunch, we walked around the neighborhood a while. I bought some French bread. We browsed through maybe 6 different wine stores and were overwhelmed with the sheer amount of construction going on. In one area there was all this colorful wall art erected to hide the construction. I admit I waited in the heat for maybe 15 minutes for someone to walk by… I wish now that I had moved that traffic cone and chain first.

We later made a stop in Wal-Mart and did some window shopping at the mall next door before working our way back to Nanshan. These guys were set up near Bob’s apartment on the sidewalk (also for you Ken) directly in front of a Japanese restaurant. Few places on earth can you set up a street stall on your competition’s doorstep. In China… mei wenti (no problem).

Just a block from Bob’s we found a typical Chinese alley market. These two were arguing about something but it wasn’t clear as to what exactly. I also couldn’t tell if they were a couple or if perhaps they just wanted the same melon.

We decided to call it a night fairly early. It was hot and humid and we were both soaked and we still needed to re-pack for our weekend in Hong Kong. We got back to the apartment and unlocked the door to find Xiao’s father sitting on the sofa watching TV! It was only then that we realized that he was living there for the summer and that we were his guests! I was disappointed at first (no running around in my boxers to cool off) but the old man was a bit of a card and he was really happy to have someone to talk to so it worked out well.

So, the next stop would be two days in Hong Kong. We packed very conservatively, jamming only what we would absolutely need into one small bag. In addition I was in charge of all the camera equipment and Lily was to take care of all the finances. Vowing to leave early enough to get checked into our hotel and still meet my friends for an afternoon photo walk, we were asleep by 10.

The new site here is not completely on-line yet. Yes friends, before you leave that comment, I am aware that some of the links still go nowhere or even worse to the wrong place and I am working furiously to have it all synced up and integrated as soon as possible. If you are here trying to find out how to register for the September giveaways, first  you need to subscribe to my RSS feed and then just leave a comment here on the blog telling me you would like to win. Make sure you include your email address when filling out the comment form (I am the only one who’ll see it) so I can get in touch with the winners. Again, all you have to do is subscribe to the RSS feed and then leave a comment telling me you’d like to win something! During the month of September I’ll be giving away some great prizes to celebrate the launch of the new website, including an Apple iPad, a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 MACRO lens, autographed limited edition prints and copies of Saving Faces -A Portrait Collection. My family is not eligible but friends certainly are!

I hope you’ll tell your friends and family too.

School is back in session this week… joy.

Tomorrow: Day 3 – Shenzhen to Hong Kong

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 2:09 AM. It is filed under Blog, Post Slider, Travel and tagged with china, coffee, expat, expatriate, food, hong kong, laowai, mexican, My China Life, photo of the day, photography, photos, shenzhen, starbucks, street. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.