The name of “Phnom Penh” always conjured up all sorts of remote, mystical, and bizarre images in my head.  I made up my mind to at least spend a day or two there before heading back to Shenzhen.  Li Zhen, on the other hand, had no immediate interest in coming along and opted to go to Thailand for a few days.  I had heard all sorts of stories and rumors about “modern” Phnom Penh, being infested with street crime ,gangs, and other unsavories, but still wanted to go.  Of course, in the end, there was no reason to worry, so long as I was always mindful.

I had arranged with the owner of the guest house to purchase a ticket for the 7:30 AM boat ride to Phnom Penh the following morning.  At $35, the ticket is grossly overpriced.  A bus will cost less than one third the price.  But, they must know that tourists will pay the $35 fee for the Romantic notion of boating down Tonle Sap and the river into the capital of Cambodia – Phnom Penh, the “Pearl of Asia”!

So, the night before, after a “four-hand massage” to relieve the aching muscles (which consisted of a small room with four giggling Cambodian massage girls), Li Zhen and I turned in early.  I needed to get up around 6:00 AM to catch some shuttle bus that was to appear somewhere between 6 and 7am.  I didn’t want to wait around for a whole hour.  I figured if I missed it at 6:15, I’d just catch a motorbike or something.  Now, for our entire time in Cambodia, Li Zhen refused to turn his watch back one hour.  So, I eventually started giving him a hard time about this.  My mobile phone didn’t have roaming reception here, so I turned it off the whole time.  However, when I went to set my alarm to get up at 6:00 to catch the shuttle, I completely spaced the time change.  As a result, I got up at 5 AM instead.

Outside in the courtyard, behind the locked gates, no one was stirring.  Uh, how do I get out?  Do I have to scale the fence?  Eventually, I made enough noise that one of the very polite attendants appeared from somewhere in the dining area.  While he was unlocking the gate, I wondered, “Where the heck did he come from?”  I peered between the tables and noticed that there was a sheet slung between the tables, little-kid-play-fort-style, where these guys were sleeping!  One of them was even looking outside at me.  He waved politely and popped out, still wrapped in his blanket.  Wow, hardcore.  They’re English was very rudimentary, but they complained, in their genuinely friendly way, about how cold it was.  “To me”, I said, “It’s very warm!”  They just smiled back and nodded.

I was still oblivious that it was 5:45 AM and I started getting worried that this bus wasn’t coming.  So, I started flagging motorcycles down.  I tried as best as I could to explain that I wanted to take the boat, but no one could make sense of it.  They would just take the map and just chatter with the guest house attendents.  OK, obviously, they had no clue what I wanted.  Eventually, a “tuk tuk” driver came up and asked where I wanted to go.  This guy knew where it was.  “Five dollar”, he said.  “OK!”  I grabbed the map out of the still chattering motorcyclist, said my goodbyes, and left.

The ride out to the boat docks was quite fun.  It took about thirty minutes and I got to enjoy a gorgeous sunrise en route.  I should have asked the driver to stop, but, at this point, I was still in a big hurry.  When we finally arrived, I saw the boat sitting far most of the houses.  “The dry season”, I remembered.  I hopped off.  Someone grabbed my bags and carried them on to the boat.  His English was quite bad too and it was a long time before I realized he wasn’t a member of the staff!  I kept insisting, “I’ll pay you in Phnom Penh” and “Unload my bags in Phnom Penh and I’ll pay you.”  Suddenly, it struck me that he had just scammed me (one dollar -big deal, but still irritating).  No point in arguing at this point, so I reluctantly reached into my pocket and pulled out a dollar bill.  I needed to be careful with my money, especially if the hotel didn’t take a credit card.  I still had a 50 Euro bill, my ace-in-the-hole.

I was also thinking, “Where the heck is everybody?  Is this really the boat?  It sure does look like it from the pictures?  We’re overdue and I’m the only passenger!  What’s going on?”  Then, like an idiot, I finally remember.  D’oh, I could have slept an extra hour!  No matter, that sunset was worth it.

Eventually, the tourists arrived.  Many many English speakers whom I talked with a good bit during the boat ride.  There was one horrible looking French woman who could have been a man in her former life for all I knew.  She was huge and masculine with big tough hands and yellow greasy hair.  Her profile reminded me of a classic Halloween witch, complete with wart.  Her voice was like deep sandpaper rubbing and she smoked constantly and hucked the cigaratte butts into the river.  The scary thing was that she was with a reasonably decent-looking man.  I’ll never forget the sight of that wrinkled work glove face puckering.  I kept clear.

The design of the boat made no sense.  If you sat inside, you couldn’t see out.  The windows were dark amber and so cracked and scratched that you could only make out shapes through them.  Outside, there was nowhere to sit comfortably.  Most folks sat on the rounded roof.  For the beginning of the trip, I sat in the chair and read while we passed through the landless sections.  Once we started moving on to the river, I went outside.  But, you couldn’t sit in a large section of the front because the captain would honk the horn at you.  Did the captain sit up high?  NO.  The cockpit was down low in the boat.  The thing look like a long bullet, basically.

Still, between sitting uncomfortably and standing on the rail-less edge of the boat, it was enjoyable watching the countryside pass by.  Often children would run to the shore and shout “Hiiiiiii!!!” and “Hellooooooo!!”  I never thought this got old.

Eventually, we arrived in the city and the dock was full of extremely loud and pushy people wanting to give you a ride to…anywhere.  I was supposed to be picked up here by my hotel, but there was no sign of them.  “Hello sir, oh too bad, no one picks you up, where you want to go, sir?”  This teasing became really annoying and I just started walking like I had a purpose.  Actually, in addition to just wanting to get away, I wanted to find a shady spot.  I crossed a street and encountered a very laid back and pleasant tuk-tuk driver who offered to drive me.  He had a printed sign, laminated and hanging in the back, introducing himself as “Chandara, your tuk-tuk driver.”  At the hotel, he offered to take me around the city all day today for $8.  Good price; I accepted.  Smart choice.

I had another reason that I needed to come to Phnom Penh.  I had to pick up my air ticket to Guangzhou.  I don’t know why, but I waited until the last minute to decide how long I wanted to stay in Phnom Penh.  By that time, tickets were hard to find.  A friend pointed me to an agency in Phnom Penh.  They had the cheapest prices, but I constantly felt like they were trying to scam me.  It turned out to be legit, but it took ten days to actually secure the ticket.  When I asked the staff to call the agency, the girl behind the counter exclaimed, “One minute, one dollar.”  In disbelief, I met her gaze, “I dont’ think so.  Can you make the call for me?”  This was to begin a numerous amount of minor scams that the hotel (Flamingos hotel) would try to pull on me.  While she fumbled around, another staff member walked in, so I asked, “Can you help me make a phone call?”  “Sure.”  Hey, a reasonable, honest guy!  He made the call and I talked to the agent who promised to deliver the ticket by 3pm.  And, as a side note, I did get the ticket, made it back to Guangzhou no problem, which turned out to be a fine choice.  Catching a bus back to Shenzhen was a piece of cake.

Also, I asked why there was no one to pick me up at the dock.  “Oh sorry sorry, we’ll provide you with a free ride to the airport, OK?”  Well, that was a nice gesture.  Finally, someone showed me to my room, which featured an unmade bed that looked like it had been stirred up with a spoon.  So, they moved me to another room.  At $25 per night, it was a little high, but at least it was clean and private.

I finally made my way back outside where another throng of motorcyclists asked me if I wanted a ride.  I walked past them to see “Dara” waving at me.  I hopped in the tuk tuk and we head off to Tuol Sleng, the Khmer Rouge prison camp from 1975 to 1979.  On the way, we passed the Independence Monument and I snapped a quick picture.  OK, in my short time here, that officially counted as visiting another tourist site.  Upon arriving at the former high school, I was met by two disturbing looking beggars who aggressively pushed for coins.  Dara said I should watch the movie too and he’d suggested two hours.  “Sounds good”, I said and I went in to the relative calm of the former detention center.

Now, I’m not going to spend time writing much about this place since you can find it online elsewhere, but I found it to be a sobering place, not for the faint-hearted.  It’s a great reminder for everyone, showing what madness people can collapse into in the quest to achieve a stable, peaceful, socialist, agrarian society, or whatever noble ideal.  Many cells are still intact with shackles, torture devices on display.  There are also hundreds of portraits of the inhabitants and oil paintings depicting life at Tuol Sleng.  The movie equipment was primitive, so it was hard to make out a lot of the audio, so the English was hard to understand.  But, at least there were subtitles for the Khmer language.  The movie, along with several stories hanging in various galleries, told an amazing and heart-breaking story of people separated by the insanity of the Khmer Rouge.  I left Tuol Sleng with a different mindset.

We zoomed off to the Royal Palace.  I was really hungry, having only a little bread for breakfast, but since the palace would be closing for the day in an hour or so, food would have to wait.  I bought my ticket and didn’t think twice about plunking down an extra five bucks for a private guide.  I enjoyed having him with me explaining all the various stuff that I was looking at.  I really enjoyed the silver pagoda, which was loaded with treasure!  There was an amazing emerald Buddha sitting high on a pedestal and another golden Buddha adorned with gold and diamonds, one of them being a massive twenty-five carats!  I hope this place is well-guarded at night.  Seems to be a great set for an awesome heist movie.

I asked Chandara to take me to a Cambodian restaurant for some “Amok” and invited him to eat with me.  He seemed a little uncomfortable, but eventually warmed up and we had a good time.  He had a fascinating story.  He was thirty-five years old so experienced the tumult back in the late 70’s.  His parents had been killed by the Khmer Rouge.  His aunt took him and fled into the jungle to the Thai border and hid.  Eventually, he moved back to Phnom Penh, was married, and is now raising two cute daughters with his tuk-tuk and tourist guide business.  At one point, he ran out to the tuk-tuk and brought back some photographs of his family.  It was really special to see these and learn about his life.  Now, I know almost no one who reads this blog will be traveling to Phnom Penh any time soon, but I do have his contact information.  I even wrote him an email after returning and sent the picture that I took of the two of us – and I heard back.  So, I heartily recommend this friendly guy to anyone as a driver for your time in Phnom Penh.  It is a city worth spending, especially with such a capital guy.

Chandara dropped me off at the airport and I gladly paid him.  He offered to take me to the airport in the morning, but I informed him that I had a free ride coming to me.  I snapped a photo of us, said goodbye, and headed in.  Inside the hotel, I picked up my ticket (yes!) and tried to arrange my ride to the airport.  Of course, “Oh no, there’s no free ride to the airport.  We don’t pick up at the dock, so you don’t get a free ride.  It’s $9.”  I argued a bit, but the person who made that promise to me was long gone and when the current attendent showed me an official (looking) price sheet showing the price for a ride to the airport.  OK, no more point in arguing.

I wandered around a little after dark.  But, the number of unsavory characters roaming around coupled with the high frequency of dark alleys and sections of roads convinced me to call it a night early.  I was a little hungry so went back to the hotel and went to the bar and ordered some fries to munch on.  A grizzled old American named “Jerry” showed up some minutes later and began chatting with me.  With the smooth manner that he started the conversation, I thought to myself, “OK, this ought to be interesting.”  It was.  I asked questions, made comments, and he told stories that just blew my mind.  I have no idea if he was exaggerating or making some facts up.  Probably not, but it two hours well-spent.  I did give him my email address and would love to hear from him again.  He’s not the kind of guy I’d want to hang out with, but man, what a source of crazy info and stories.

This trip was a busy one, from sun up to sun down every day, and I was really tired.  I crashed fairly early, around 10pm and, again, slept great.  I awoke the next morning and went to check out.  Various prostitutes were closing up shop:  one leaving a room as I was, one in a discussion with some western guy as I pop out of the elevator, and one next to me at the front desk fetching a room number as I check out, jeez!  As the same attendent who told me “No free airport ride!” handed me my check-out slip, I noticed “Free ride ride to the airport!”, scribbled across the top.  “Ah!  Here!”, I said to the guy as I pointed at the note.  He worked really hard to squirm out of it, but in the end, I got my ride.

There were a few funny or interesting events that wrapped up the trip:  The weird country music en route to the airport (something about an old-fashioned country boy who proclaimed his love for cornbread and taters), the broken ticket machine at the airport and driving over the curb to bypass it, how easy it was for me to figure out how to get back to Shenzhen by bus from Guangzhou (all in Chinese), and telling the guy off in Shenzhen who tried to charge me 60 RMB for a quick ride to the quickest subway station and the satisfaction of him seeing me get into the taxi and speed off.  Another fantastic trip comes to a close!

Looking back, at the time, I thought Phnom Penh was a depressing, grim place.  It certainly feels much different than Siem Reap.  But now, I realize how much I enjoyed my short time there.  It was indeed a rich experience.

By the way, Phnom Penh is pronounced, “Puh-nom Pen”.  The “P” sound is connected quickly to the “Nom”.  It’s not “Nom Pen”.

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Here’s the post on the sites that bring the tourists to Cambodia, and for good reason.  I can’t imagine taking a trip to Cambodia and not seeing the ancient Khmer ruins.  When I was a kid, I had this really cool map hanging up in my room (now it’s in storage in the basement of my condo).  Though it sits under glass, it appears brown, crinkled, and very old.  And, it’s illustrated with various famous sites all around the world.  The map is titled “Wonders of the World” and includes natural as well as man-made wonders.  I can clearly visualize Angkor Wat displayed on the lower center part of the map.  And, I recall often looking at that map and imagining what those places, including Angkor Wat, must be like.

The funny thing is that whenever I go on these trips, I do little in depth reading of what I’m about to see.  The same thing with climbing trips.  I never fool with too much detailed beta (my partners usually do that).  But, I notice that I enjoy reading these details after I visit a place.  Strangely enough, I usually purchase my guidebooks either during my visit or after.  Weird, huh?

Well, I had no idea that the system of temples in this area was so vast.  I assumed there were a couple of big ones and then several small ones, maybe consisting of a small courtyard and a pagoda.  No.  The short guidebook provided by the owner of the guest house showed maybe 50-75 temples in the nearby area, all of them quite big.  Some of them are like small cities.  Angkor Wat, of course, is the single largest structure and is well-preserved.  It sits on it’s own island surrounded by a wide moat.  The image that we’re all familiar with is just the main area, but there are outer walls that enclose a much bigger area complete with the original streets.  There’s not much to see anymore on the outskirts other than jungle, but it’s a pleasant walk.

I was warned that I would be “templed out” by day three and this was certainly true.  We only spent a half day seeing temples on the last day, the main one being Beng Mealea, which was a two-hour drive on decent dirt roads from Siem Reap.  I hear it’s often impossible to get to during the rainy season without a boat.  The neat thing about Beng Melea is that much of it is still wild and dominated by the jungle.  The locals talked this place up about how you can crawl around and explore.  Well, it wasn’t nearly that wild; since there’s a $5 entrance fee, there’s also a guide provided who will take you around the most expiditious route.  I probably got on his nerves some by often slowing down and wandering off on my own, climbing on some unsafe roof, or whatever.  I behaved, for the most part.

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(Above) Panoramas of Angkor Temples

If I had to pick a favorite temple, hmm, it would probably be Bayon, which is part of the huge fortified city called Angkor Thom, right down the road from Angkor Wat.  This is the site with all the big smiling faces – over two hundred of them!  It was so neat because it was big, well-preserved, and loaded with passageways, steep stairs leading to numerous towers, and hidden alcoves.

But, of course, each temple had it’s own charm. Ta Phrom was made famous from that awful “Tomb Raider” movie (yes, I endured watching it after returning from Cambodia).  With various trees supporting the crumbling walls, it has some of the best “temple” atmosphere in all of Cambodia.  Angkor Wat, of course, is by far the biggest single structure.  It’s a chore looking at all the carvings on one side of the structure, and there are four sides!  If you love that sort of thing, you will go nuts over Angkor Wat.  There are just too many to mention and some of the others started blending together in my head by day three.

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(Above) Lots of images from the Angkor Temples

I sat on the east side of the plane and, because the rising sun was so intense, I kept my window shut. When I did open it, I looked down on Cambodia and realized we were banking along the northern edge of Tonle Sap, or “big freshwater lake” in the Khmer colloquial language. Siem Reap sits on this northern edge while the capital, Phnom Penh, sits on the southern edge. Exiting the craft, we were delighted at the perfectly comfortable temperature at 8am. This was certainly a pleasant change from Kuala Lumpur, but it was not to last. The sun becomes intense around 10:30 and the day is hot thereafter. Of all countries so far, Cambodia had the most complex entry requirements. Well, it was easy enough, but there is more attention paid in the entry and exit forms. In fact, the agent staples it to your passport. Also, a visa is required. We used the Cambodia eVisa site, which was a piece of cake, but you can get one at the airport (not recommended since you have to wait in a line). A guest house representative was supposed to be there and, sure enough, when we left the cute little airport, there was someone holding a “Mr. Theron” sign. He spoke no English, but introduced us to our driver for the trip who’s English was functional enough.

We drove into Siem Reap and met the owner of the “Yaklom Angkor” Guest House. I have to have thank my friend, Suzanne from Portland, who recommended this spot.  It was inexpensive, comfortable, clean, and the staff was delightful.  Our room was a minimalistic setup with two twin beds running $28 per night.  It had an attached useable bathroom.  It was plenty good for us and, splitting the cost, $14 a day was a great price, though I’ve heard that prices have risen quite a bit.  It’s true; Cambodia is cheap, but perhaps not stupid cheap the way it was about five years ago.

One of the things that struck me about Siem Reap was that it resembled and average sized town in the US.  In what way you ask?  Probably because most of city seemed to consist of outskirts.  Riding in, we passed various small building after building, hotels, restaurants or clubs, and so on.  Each sat on it’s own lot separated from others.  So, without a car or certainly a bike, getting around would be hard.  Of course, there is an “old town” where most of the fun is (markets, restaurants, and most guest houses).  Besides walking, the main form of transportation for tourists is the “tuk tuk”, which is a two-wheeled carriage capable of carrying up to four people pulled by a motorcycle.  Everything destination within the town seemed to cost “two dollars”, which is overpriced.  One dollar is too, but that’s what we paid usually.  The town is small enough that you can walk much of it.

I was struck at the number of westerners in Siem Reap.  Of course, it makes sense; it’s home of one of the world’s great religious monuments, Angkor Wat, but still, on some sections of streets and in many restaurants, one was hard-pressed to find someone who was not western.  Siem Reap is very friendly and easy for English speakers to get around in.  It’s a fairly safe city too, unlike Phnom Penh.

We avoided the more expensive restaurants and ate most of our meals here on the street, with the locals.  The tourist restaurants, with their big fancy five dollar entries were just too upscale for folks like us.  On the street, each meal and drink was almost always $1.  Most meals consisted of either fried rice or barbecued noodles with your choice of meat or just vegetables.  The “Angkor” beer brand is quite popular, but beer has never refreshed me much.  Spending all day in those temples, often under the hot sun, I needed something more refreshing.  Since those tropical shakes were so popular, that’s basically all I had.  We ususally had our more fancy meals somewhere around one of the temples.  When I could get it, I would order a dish cooked in with the “Amok” spice, which was reminded me of a Thai peanut flavored dish.  It was delicious.

Overall, Cambodia is more depressed and poor than China.  Though there are paved roads in key places, most of these roads are no more than two years old.  Our driver was proud to point out to us who had commissioned and funded the roads (usually the Japanese or Koreans it seemed) and how old they were.  I believe only a few were more than five years old.

By the way, “Siem Reap” means, “Siam Defeated”.  Think the visiting Thais feel bad?

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Another Chinese New Year upon us!  That means: time to travel.  I can’t believe this is my third Chinese New Year spent in Asia.  My first trip was to Guilin and environs.  My second was to the Yunnan Province.  This year, well, though there is still plenty to see in China, it was time to leave the country.  The Plan:  Cambodia, a place that I’d wanted to visit ever since I was a kid.  Reliable Li Zhen was my traveling partner again and he booked the air tickets to go.  Because there was no direct flight to Siem Reap from Shenzhen, we connected through Kuala Lumpur.  Because Li Zhen told me that our layover would be overnight, I lobbied for us to spend two nights and see the city.  Good call.  Kuala Lumpur, like Cambodia, had a certain exotic ring to it, which was why I was so interested in a vist.  For some reason, the creepy opening scenes of the one of the early seasons of 24, set in Kuala Lumpur, is what sticks in my mind most.

However, this trip was far from creep.  We stayed in a posh hotel, the Traders in KLCC, in Kuala Lumpur (or “KL” as the locals like to call it) while Cambodia was much more lower end (but still quite comfortable).  The hotel is very affordable though and the view of the Petronas Towers is unbeatable.  Kuala Lumpur is a very easy city to get around in for English speakers, way easier than China.  I mean there’s not even any comparison.  English is widely spoken.  I only encountered a few people who could speak any English, and yet there was always someone nearby to help out.  So, want an easy taste of Southeast Asia?  Try here.

However, make sure you enjoy oppressive tropical heat.  In January, it was hot and humid with temperatures pushing into the 90’s.

After dropping off our bags, we headed out.  Our first stop was to find some food and we settled on a sit down Lebanese place.  Later on we found the highly-sought-after food street and made our eating home here for the rest of the trip.  The food was cheap (do I daresay cheaper than China?) and tasty.  It’s a nice blend of many Asian cuisines.  Same for the tropical drinks; they were numerous, cheap, and refreshing.  My favorite was some sort of coconut drink with a sweet tangy brown substance that you mixed up.  Also, as is popular in Asia, was some sort of green tapioca substance which you could suck up through the straw.  Weird stuff, never tasted anything like it before, but it was good.

It seems I’ve been visiting various tall towers of the world lately, Shanghai being the latest – and best, so I felt we needed to go up into the Petronas Tower, but this was a big waste. I knew that we were only allowed to go up into the Skybridge, but this might be cool, right?!  “NO!”  It’s not that high up, and getting the stupid tickets is absurd.  They’re free, but you have to wait in line.  And I’m shocked at how long I waited in line with hoardes of other people to get them.  And yes, they did “sell out” for the day after I got our tickets.  But, before you go up, you get to watch a movie.  Pretty cool, right?  “NO!” again.  It’s a long propaganda film about how great the Malaysian Petronas company, an oil and gas company by the way, is.  Then, we go up in the Skybridge and take a few pics.  Li Zhen summed it up well when he asked, “Is that all?”

Fortunately, we got our good view shots from the hotel and from the KL Tower, a tall telecommunications tower which affords the best views of the city.  We did this at night, and by the end of this day, we had marched over a large section of Kuala Lumpur (it’s really not that big) and were beat.  We picked a relatively expensive “executive cab” to take us back to the hotel.

We spent much of the next day wandering around a large park/garden area just north of KL Central station.  We took the train to get to KL Central, then, against the advice of a security guard, opted to walk our way to the gardens.  It was quite convoluted, crossing major roads, going through a museum exhibit of ancient weapons, and a tunnel before we arrived.  A neat thing about the city is that there are various places that monkeys run wild, and the garden, of course, is a great place for them to hang out.  We ended up finding our way to both the bird pavilion and butterfly pavilion, both of which were fun tourist destinations.  The bird pavilion boasts that it is the largest walk-through bird park in the world.  Maybe it is; we were there quite a while.  The butterfly pavilion is much smaller, but a densely packed tropical enclosure with butterflies.  I still don’t think it was as good as Callaway Garden’s butterfly conservatory, but they had a collection of BUGS that was awesome – and disgusting.  They had plenty of displays of pinned down monstrous bugs, including some abominations that I thought, until now, only were found in movies like “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, but they had some live specimens too:  foot long brutes that fortunately were labeled as “rare”.

After the gardens, we hopped a cheap taxi to go over to China town.  Strangely enough, I couldn’t find much native Malaysian food outside of China town, but I did find some within China town.  We didn’t wander too long there.  Much of it was quite similar to parts of China, although the salesmen all spoke English.

We decided to turn in early since Li Zhen had booked us super early departure tickets for Siem Reap.  Because it was a 7am departure, we had to get up at 3:30am in order to be at the airport in time to catch the flight.  The distance from the city center to the airport is absurd.  And you thought the Denver airport was bad.  The Kuala Lumpur airport is at least three times as far away.  And the strange thing is that there seems to be a grid of highways that we cross over to get there.  Not sure where all those roads go to, but we sure did get on and off a lot of exit and entry ramps.

By the way, do you know how to pronounce:  “Kuala Lumpur”?  No, it isn’t Koala Lumpur, as in Koala bear.  The “Kua” sound is one syllable and sounds like “Kwah”.  Everything else is how it’s written.

Oh yes, and I need to thank Robert for his various tips on Kuala Lumpur.  He told me about the “Nasilama” food (see pictures), the big gardens, and various time saving tips.

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I just love showing simple office cultural differences between China and the US.  In some ways, the US is more stiff, in some ways China.  The office party has always been fun to observe.  I can’t endure the stuffy boring parties in the US, so China was a relief.  However, have a look at this wonderful dance presented by some of my coworkers.  Put yourself in their shoes and answer my poll!