Sorry!

Well the time, or lack thereof, caught up with me and for the final week in Guangzhou I was unable to update the blog. Due to a slow internet connection at the Athletics venue, it made it virtually impossible to login to the computer in Seattle that I used to get on blogger.
I will spend some time this week now that I am home, updating the entries that I couldn't add while I was there. I just want to add the entries so one day I can look back on them and have those memories in writing.
Thanks to everyone who read the blog for this trip. I enjoyed it!

Sleepy time

The long hours we have been putting in seven days a week is starting to add up. While it's an amzing experience to work these games in Guangzhou, it is still work. Since sleep is a premium we find ways to take it wherever we can. Here is a sampling of a few of my colleagues catching sleep around town. I will add more as I see it.

Dadswell catching up at the track workroom

Ronald and Carl in the car

Justin, Jamie and Mark on the track

The flat tire

Adam and Lo Ke changing the tire. I helped by snapping a photo

Driving in Guangzhou is a bit of an experience. There are traffic lights, painted lanes and turn signals, but the majority of the drivers here don't like to use them. While most of the time it just seems to work, most of the time there are horns being honked, lights flashed and an occasional diu (F' You).However, after all this, so far so good on the driving. Between taxi's, buses and our drivers, we have been surviving out on the streets. Of course though the one day we need to be somewhere, we get something completely rare on the steets of Gaungzhou -- a flat trire. L:iterally every road we travel on has a fresh layer on asphalt. However, yesterday on our way to the syncho swimming, we blew a tire on the brand new Honda SUV. Not exactly sure how, but it literally cost Getty Images photographer Adam Pretty some amazing photos. Adam had worked previously with the Chinese synchro team so they said he could shoot warmups from underneath the water. Even with the tire fiasco, we made the warmups by literally two minutes.

Bizarre Foods

I heard tonight the Travel Channel showed it's most recent episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on Guangzhou. It should be a pretty crazy episode because the reputation of Guangzhou is a city that will eat everything that walks, crawls, flies, or swims. I have done my best to not get too crazy when it comes to the bizarre food here but sit's hard to avoid seeing them on menus.



One item on the menu last night at dinner.

 Check out the Travel Channel site for more info: http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Bizarre_Foods/Episodes_Travel_Guides/Episode_Guangzhou


November 21 - -I tried pigeon tonight at this very local restaurant our driver brought us to. I tried some of the breast meat. Ehh, not my favorite. The driver ate the whole thing, but left the head. Yes, it comes head and all fully attached.

The attack of the killer Mosquitsos



Similar model to the one in the room



When I arrived to my apartment last week, they had a bunch of stuff laid out in the room. Free shampoo, unbrella, drinks, etc. When looking further Ronald and I noticed a box that had a mosquito on it. We opened it up and it was some sort of device you plug into the wall that is suppossed to kill mosquitos.  Ehh, we both thought this is wierd and through the box back under the nightstand where we found it. We even asked a local guy who lived here if there were a lot of mosquitos and he said no. I get bites every now and then but not someone who typically worries about it when traveling. Well, if there aren't a lot of mosquitos in Guangzhou the few that are here must have found me. I got nailed yesterday as I have like 15 bites all over my feet and legs. Sexy huh? They itch so bad. Luckily last night I was able to find a Chinese drugstore that sold me some lotion that has helped the ithcing. Today has been better but I'm still covered in bites. I've been a mess the last two days because of it. The first thing I am doing when I get back to the media housing is plugging in the anti-mosquito thingny. Lets hope that thing does it's job.

Random Asian Game Notes

* Chinese Public Security has reported no major security incidents. Traffic security has inspected more than 2.7 million vehicles and more than 5.3 million passengers.

* During the Opening Ceremony more than 100,000 police officers were on the streets of Guangzhou with 117,000 manning the torch relay ahead of the Games.

* As previously announced by the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, the total budget of the Bureau's security arrangements for the Asian Games is RMB990 million.

* There has been 399 random sampling inspections of food and raw materials

* Civic officials report no public health incidents.

* Some 226 on-site food supply and safety assurance teams work 24 hours a day to keep real-time supervision on all Asian Games service providers.

* 10,410 athletes, 4,817 technical officials and more than 9,000 accredited media reporters and members from different countries’ youth camp checked in the Asian Games Town.

* More than one million cars have been removed from the city streets.

The Bad News Bears

I do love the jacket on their 1st base coach

A swing and a miss

I'm a big fan of Mongolian BBQ as there is a place in my neighborhood where a big group of us go to have dinner every few months or so. That's my extent of knowledge of Mongolia minus a few jokes from an old South Park episode. When I saw they had a baseball team here at the Asian Games, I was confused. Baseball in Mongolia just wasn't something that sounded right. When I looked at their roster and realized they only has 12 players (a MLB roster has 25 as do most of the Asian Games teams) I knew they were in trouble. When I saw them warming up and they couldn't throw the ball from third to first I knew their Asian Games experience would be short-lived. Well after three games they have lost 15-0 to China, 25-0 to Thailand and 24-0 to Japan's amateur teaam. To think it could have been worse if there wasn't the salughter rule after five innings. That's a total of  64 runs allowed in just 15 innings. Plus, in those 15 innings, they managed a meager three hits, all of which were singles. Looks like the Mongolians should stick to the BBQ and let the other countries play baseball.

Hello Korea

Being interviewed outside Tianhe Stadium

On our way to the Badminton tonight, I got stopped by a couple of Korean girls asking me if  I would take part in an interview. After chatting for a few minutes we found out they worked for Samsung and were putting together a piece about the Asian Games for Samsung and their school. I think being that there are very few Westerners walking around all of us from Getty Images have been targets of interviews. Most of the interviews I have done in Guangzhou, the interviewer can barely speak English so it makes it incredibly hard for us to have a good conversation. Today was different. We had a quick chat about what we liked about Guangzhou, the last time we were in China for the Beijing Olympics, and the media village where we live. Ronald, always ready with his camera, snapped off a few pictures. The girls then asked myself, Carl and Ronald to pose for a picture with them.

They asked us to do the peace sign.

Oh Canada!!!!!

Probably the last thing I ever thought I would hear at a restaurant in Guangzhou was the Canadian National Anthem, 'Oh Canada.' However, last night, I heard an entire restaurant full of Canadians singing it at the top of their lungs.

The Brew - Guangzhou's favourite neighborhood bar

How's how it happened. The night started after Carl, Ronald, Mark and I wanted to find something for dinner other than McDonalds. We got a car and had Xiqin (our translator, office manager, assignment editor, jack-of-all-trades) find a restaurant close to the MPC. After the driver was lost looking for this Cantonese Dim Sum place, Carl spotted a place in a neighborhood called The Brew. Guangzhou isn't like Hong Kong where there are loads of choices from all over the world. There are very few non-Asian restaurants that we have seen so far unless it's a McDonalds or a KFC. So when we saw The Brew, we quickly made the driver turn into the parking lot. We walked in and the place was packed. All the waitresses and waiters were wearing Sidney Crosby shirts but none of them had any idea who he was. We knew there had to be a Canadian somewhere in the place. We asked for the manager and instead got the owner, a 30-soemthing year old guy from Ottowa. He has lived in Guangzhou for six years now and wanted to open a restaurant where he could watch hockey, NFL and baseball. He specilizes in burgers and has a bunch of different beer on tap. Walking in this place you would think you were at any sports bar/restaurant in the US/Canada minus the lack of English spoken by the waitstaff.

The kids playland inside the Tavern.

We ordered a beer (I had a Guiness) and some burgers. Hockey and college football were on the two large screens and for an hour or so we felt like we weren't in China. Most of the people in the place seemed to be Canadian, British and even a few Americans. The burgers were not bad as I had the Soprano burger. The Hamblogger would have been proud.

After, we stepped into The Tavern located right next door which was owned by a couple British guys. They had a bunch of TV's all showing EPL games. The crowd was split between Chinese and Brits/Aussies. We fit right in. The strangest part was there was a kids playland in the smoky bar. When we walked in there were about 10 kids playing in the kids land. It must be a culural thing because there is no way a bar would allow kids in ataround 11 p.m. let alone build a play land for them. We just were in the Tavern for a little while before heading back to Asian Games Town.

The Tavern Sports bar in Panyu

Wickets and Crickets and Bowlers, Oh My!

As most of you know by the job I have, I love sports. I can spend hours watching a meaningless baseball game and can spend an entire Saturday and Sunday watching football. Anyways, the one sport I have never been able to wrap my head around is cricket. I watched bits and pieces here and there on TV but it was just so foreign to me that I was unable to grasp it. Well of course when the schedule comes out the first event of the games I am assigned to is of course cricket. So yesterday Mark Dadswell and I went over to the cricket field (Is it a field?) to cover the first round game between China and Malaysia. Even I know when it comes to cricket very few countries play it well. Luckily Mark is from Mebourne so he shoots cricket all the time and shoots it well.


I sat with Mark as he tried to explain the rules of the game but I think the quality was so bad that it still wasn't making sense to me. All the volunteers working at the cricket stadium had no idea either of the rules. However, they all loved basbeball and actually knew a little about MLB. After spending a few hours watching cricket myself I think I'm better off sticking to baseball as well, where I am currently at.

The food at the venues

Emails have been flying all around today from all the Getty shooters and editors about the lack of food at the venues for the media. Brekafast, lunch and dinner, the only options are little cookies (cakes as they call them here) and oranges and bananas. I like the option of fruit, but how many oranges a day can one person eat (I am on six right now). The cookies taste kinda 'ehh' but are edible.


The 'cake'





Orange and bananas



I thought that's ok, if there is no media food available might as well go up and try to buy something from the concession stands. Well, that's no help either as most of the venues don't see ANY food at all. So for events like the velodrome which runs for 12 hours or so tomorrow, fans won't be able to eat. The venues are so far outside the city that even finding a local restaurant is hard.

To think that the American concept of the $5 hot dog and the $9 beer was outrageous.

The Opening Ceremony

Simone, Justin, Me, Carl and Stu at the Opening Ceremony

Last night I was lucky enough to be able to cover the opening ceremony for the Asian Games and had a fantantic seat in the press tribune about 15 rows back from the stage. Guangzhou built a brand new structure just for the Opening and Closing ceremony. They wanted to try something different and rather than have it in a stadium it sort of resembled an outdoor concert hall. This wasn't just eight big screens like you can see from the pictures, the entire stage transformed from a platform to water in nearly seconds and lights and wire gave the performers the ability to fly all over. My two favrorite moments were the large ship that came from the river into the stadium. Pirate looking guys, flew all over the sails as the boat sprayed water. The other moment that was unreal were the acrobats creating shapes on the giant boards. I sat next to Stu Hannagan, our VP in Australasia and he has been to dozens of Openings. He said this one was the best, even beating out Beijing. It was quite a show Guangzhou put on and it was an experience I never will forget.

Here are a screen grab of some of the pictures we sent from the Opening Ceremony to gettyimages.com

Check out all the pictures here at: http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.aspx?EventId=105770946&EditorialProduct=Sport

Lunch with Gu

Being that the start of the games isn't until Saturday, we still are going to new venues and meeting photo marshalls and competition managers. Today Mark Dadswell (staff shooter based in Melbourne) and I checked out a few venues and then wanted to stop for lunch before our afternoon/evening soccer games. We have been lucky that this year Getty has three drivers to take us where we need to go. The one problem is the drivers don't speak a word of English. Thank goodness for Xiqin, an assignment editor based in our Beijing office, as she can usually translate where/when we need the drivers to be.
However, today, Mark and I wanted to stop for lunch and Xiqin was unavailable. We knew we wanted some local Dim Sum (the speciality of Guangzhou) but had no idea where we were or what any restaurant was called as we were in a region that neither of us had been to before. After driving around for about 30 minutes we finally pointed at a restaurant and decided to give it a shot.
Gu, our driver for the day, has driven Mark and I a few times so far. We wanted him to join us for lunch rather than sit in the car like he usually does and wait for us. However, the drivers, like most of the service industry in China, don't accept gifts/tips or handouts so they always turn everything down. We finally were able to convince Gu, with hand signals since we couldn't communicate any other way. Mark began pointing to his mouth and shoveling imaginary food in and then pointing at Gu. After 20 minutes or so, Gu understood what Mark was doing and accepted.
We went to a local place, where we were the only non-locals there. The guy with the Aussie accent and tme from Los Angeles and we stuck out like a sore thumb. However, since we have been eating Dim Sum for the last few days, we knew a few things to order by pointing at the menu and guessed on a few as well. We wanted Gu to order something for the table as well since he should know the local food well. We were hoping for something amazing that we never had before. Well, Gu ordered something we never had before because he ordered the chicken feet and beef stomach intestine. Mark and I kindly passed and stuck with the shrimp dumplings, pork buns, broccili, soup dumplings and fresh squeezed orange juice.Gu was a great lunch companion despite the fact that we couldn't speak to him. He was kind enough to fill up our tea everytime it was empty even though we wanted him to enjoy lunch like he was a friend of ours. I wish we were able to speak to Gu to find out something/anything about him.

Preview days

So far, we have been getting acclimated to Gaungzhou and shooting/editing the days leading up to the start of the Asian Games on Saturday. Literally the only events that have been going on has been soccer. I am now on my fifth soccer match in the last three days. It's been ok, since I don't do much of it at home, but the poor guys from England have to be thinking they flew all the way to Asia to shoot the sport they see every day back home.
One of the things I am looking forward to though is once the games start I am going to be at two events a day or so. I think I am going to cover almost all the different events played here at the Asian Games. I went over to the Sepaktakraw Stadium today to check that out. The sport looks awesome. I have never seen it played live but talking to people who saw it in Doha they all said it's great.
Tomorrow, the Opening Ceremony will kick off the official start of the games. I am lucky enough to be able to attend (working of course) as I will be sitting down in the press tribune editing photos. The few people from Getty who saw the dress rehearsal said it might even be a better show than the opening in Beijing. I am taking a camera and will definitely blog about the show once it's done.

Technical diffuculties resolved

Well the blocking of all blogs/facebook and twitter from China struck again and kept me from updating my blog for two days. However, like I assummed Carl was able to save the day and find a work around. I should be back to blogging everyday now.

The Asian Village Town

‘This looks familiar’ is what I was thinking when our van pulled up to our apartments. Located about 45 minutes from downtown and the majority of the venues, the Asian Games village is an exact knock-off of the media housing we stayed in for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Literally they copied practically everything from the ultra tiny rock hard beds, to the tiny bathrooms, to the kitchenless kitchen. There happens to be three different balconies though with some pretty good views. I am sharing an apartment with Ronald as we each have our own bedroom (I got the one the size of a closet) but we share a common area and a bathroom. Our goal today is to find some sort of way to make the beds softer. They are so hard and absolutely no spring at all. It’s like sleeping on a box spring.

There seems to be about 20 media apartment buildings in this area here, similar to Beijing. There is a gym, laundry and a bar. The Main Press Centre is located about a minute away which is nice. However, unlike the Olympics, the editors, (myself, Justin and Simone) will be working at the various venues.

The strangest thing about the media village is that beer is free. They give you a card and you swipe it at a vending machine and sometimes, one or two or even three beers pop out. It’s pretty crappy Taiwanese beer but the price is right. Supposedly you get six free ones a day, but looking around last night, some of the people from other agencies must have had way more than that.

Today starts the first round of previews leading up to the start of the games on Saturday. I have to work a preliminary soccer game this afternoon about an hour from the media village. It will be interesting to see what kind of setup they have for media. It’s all been up in the air as far as wireless internet or places to plug in. Hopefully before the game we can find some sort of way to access internet in our apartment, a way to make the bed softer. Other than that we seem to be pretty set.



The unfinished kitchen that we turned into a closet



Ronald sitting in his palatial bedroom

Look at how muich smaller mine is

And off to Guangzhou

After the Peak, we reluctantly decided it was time to end our Hong Kong journey and head to Guangzhou to move into our apartments. We took a two-hour train ride that brought us from from Hong Kong into mainland China. I was expecting to see countryside, but was totally mistaken. There were massive buildings nearly the whole way to GZ.  The train ride was pleasant, but getting through customs was not. It took us about an hour and a half to get through customs but luckily we had no issues when all was said and done. As we left the train station, we had about 10 volunteers from the Asian Games walk with us along with a police escort to our van. We felt like pretty special.

The view from our apartment of the other media housing

The Main Press Centre in the background

A stage for concerts and umbrella seating

The Peak

Before leaving for Guangzhou, Carl, Ronald and I decided to head up to The Peak. It is Hong Kong’s number one tourist attraction and we found out why pretty quickly. After taking a ten minute tram straight up a mountain, you are perched atop all of Hong Kong. With stunning views of the harbor, downtown, Kowloon, the Peak is a photographers dream. Luckily we had a pro with us and Ronald was able to capture some great photos. There was a man selling a souvenir photo of the Peak from the vantage point of what Hong Kong looked like back in 1952 to what is looks like today. What a stark contrast. There wasn’t one large building back then and now, there are skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. Of course no tourist attraction would be the same with a Starbucks , Burger King, Sunglass Hut and many other chains thousands of feet above sea level.

 
 

 

 
 

Jet Lag...

I finally felt the jat lag as I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning. Unable to fall back asleep, I talked with Ronald and we thought we better see if there is a place to see the sunrise over Hong Kong. Wanting to head to the famous Peak Sky Terrace, we got all ready to go with cameras, lens and coffee in hand. However, as we were waiting for a taxi, we learned that NOBODY watches the sunrise in Hong Kong. We weren’t sure if that was because everyone in Hong Kong seems to party late every night or it’s just nothing spectacular. Well, on this clear morning in Hong Kong, it probably would have been pretty spectacular. We settled for the view from the hotel instead for now but might make it up to the peak before heading on the train to Guangzhou. Pictures to come shortly from the hotel view.

Welcome to Hong Kong...

 Before arriving in Guangzhou, Ronald, Carl and I decided to take two days and check out Hong Kong. I have never been to Hong Kong before, but flew into the airport on my way to Beijing in 2008 so since then I have been intrigued to check it out. I have always heard great things about HK and since it’s only a two-hour train ride from Guangzhou, it made sense to check it out on our way. I’m so happy we did.

A view from our hotel.

On our first night, we met up with a friend of our co-workers who lives here in HK and works for CNN International. He is from New York and has lived all over the world, but has spent the last three years in Hong Kong. He showed us around a bit and took us to an area called SoHo. The bars and restaurants were packed and overflowing into the streets as it was a ‘typical Saturday night.’ The crowd was a mix of young and old locals, but mainly Expats. It was actually hard to find someone who was Asian among the thousands of people out in the streets we saw. We checked out a few different bars – spending some time in a Russian vodka bar with an igloo inside – and called it a night way before the rest of the SoHo crowd did. We knew we had a long day of exploring coming up.

Kids playing soccer.

Today, we spent most of the day walking around and checking out some of the older parts of Hong Kong. It was a stark contrast of the SoHo area we spent time in last night. After taking the subway, we ended up in Mankook. We strolled through a local street market where all different types of fish, meat and vegetables were being sold. I could barely recognize anything in the market. We all tried to figure out what it all was.. We found a local restaurant for lunch and enjoyed some local soups. We then found a reallwy cool park and watched locals play soccer and basketball. The court reminded me of a park in NYC. It was really cool. Later, we enjoyed some Peking duck, at a restaurant that came highly recommend by our new friend Alex who showed us around last night.

Kids playing basketball in the park.

In the morning, we are going to hop a train to Guangzhou and move into our apartments. I will hopefully get a chance to update the blog and talk about the train and show pictures of where I will be staying for the next three weeks. I have already been warned the beds in the apartments are as hard as a rock. I better enjoy my last night’s sleep on a comfy mattress at the Marriott.(All photos taken by Ronald Martinez)

An outdoor restaurant cooking unrecognizable food.

A view from our hotel

Me on the subway

A street trolley.

A busy street.