2002-05-15

Problem fixed?

Today is an off day and we have the luxury of a dry underground garage to work in. Helge sent Sim out to search the local auto and motorcycle repair shops on a quest to find the best electrical guru in town. We want the man that everyone knows to send their toughest problems to.

Our guru; huddled over my sick KLR. He works on it for some time without progress and it becomes apparent that the crowd of people around him isn't helping. We left him alone to concentrate on the problem without distraction.

Watch out, Mike!

Mike is very careful and I had to work to convince him to pose with one foot over the manhole. There are two very dangerous things in this photo. First, the manhole cover has been left open by the workers with no barricades or warning signs to be seen. Second, look carefully at the texture on the sidewalk. Recognize it? That is the texture to guide the blind! I half-expected to see blind people piled up at the bottom of the manhole.

In China no one but you is responsible for your welfare. You must watch where you are going at all times. It's a good rule to follow no matter where you are.

China has homeless people too.

Rick and I grabbed a snack at a kiosk selling various chicken parts. We opted for the sausage so, at least, we couldn't identify exactly which parts we were getting. As usual, we pointed at what we wanted and mimed that we wanted it sliced. No problems being understood. Our visit was entertaining for the young lady working the kiosk as well as other people standing outside. Many laughs and smiles all around. Ordering food should always be this much fun!

"Ko... kurr... ko... rah..." The shopkeeper is patiently trying to teach me how to pronounce Coca Cola in Mandarin. I try and try but can't quite get it right. The tones have to rise and fall at the right time and the proper rate but my western ears are not trained to hear these sounds. My efforts to repeat after her are probably coming out as something completely different like, "Have you noticed how many Chinese people live here?"

I heard the Coca Cola marketing department once had the bright idea of coming up with a Chinese sentence that, when pronounced out loud, would sound like ko-ka-ko-ra. They picked words from a phonetic dictionary and strung them together for the new marketing campaign. Unfortunately, they didn't have a native speaker check the sentence before they released the ads. It translated to, "Lick the wax tadpole."

You might remember Coke's marketing slogan that went, "Coke adds life." It was translated into Chinese in a bit too literal fashion. The final meaning came out to be, "Coke brings your dead ancestors back from the grave." Try to match that, Pepsi!

I don't know if the stories about Coke's marketing misadventures in China are true but having lived in Japan for two years I can easily believe them. There was a coffee creamer named "Creap" and a candy bar called "Crunky." One of my favorites was a milky-white soft drink with the picture of a cow on the can. What did they call it? "Calpis!" I never could bring myself to drink it. But the one that topped them all was an advertisement where a smiling girl held out a candy bar and cheerfully offered to let you try her "Snatch."

Scenes from around Jinan.

Success! The guru has found a open circuit in a very unlikely place and wired around it. The KLR no longer blows a fuse and the battery is charging. I am thrilled and the rest of our group must finally be relieved too.

We told our riding buddies about our dinner adventure the night before and some of them wanted to come along to the same restaurant tonight. At the table, from left to right: Roy Cox, Sterling Noren, Mike Paull, Rick Wetzel.