Sleepless in Taipei

Damn these mosquitos! Yep, back in Taipei and still up at 5 am fighting mosquitos. Hopefully I can get back to sleep soon, don’t seem to be any more for some reason. Hmmmm, rumor has it that Ron Artest is coming to the Lakers, great another idiot to deal with . . . hopefully we get rid of Kwame so that our team IQ stays at the same level – really really low

Cambodia: Land O’ Temples

Here are some initial pics from Cambodia, more to come . . .

Postcard shot: Angkor Wat

BuddhiTourism??

The waterfall pool at our hotel . . . Cambodian luxury . . . wish I could relive those massages too . . . mmmmmm

The family in front of an overgrown temple (trees growing into the walls and doorways)

Temples, temples and more temples

Yes, after about 12 temples in the last two days I am all templed out. Its bad enough that all of them look the same (piles of mildewed bricks piled in columns), people here have really no solid idea why they were built, what they were used for, etc. So we basically go around looking at the same thing, take the same pictures . . . for all I know, we are going to the same place every time, piling back on the bus, driving around in circles and going back to the same place again.

Hmmm, this afternoon we visit the fabled Angkor Wat. Maybe this one will be better.

Day 1 in Cambodia

After five days in Shanghai and a night in Taipei, I am finally in Cambodia. Its gonna be five days of fun fun fun! So far, can’t complain, came off the plane and checked into a brand new five star hotel in Siem Reap near the Angkor temples in Eastern Cambodia. The rooms are beautiful, the service is amazing and the food so far hasn’t upset my stomach. Toured the Tongle Sap lake (1/3 the size of Taiwan), got a free 1hr full body massage (a woman this time – man massages weird me out) and then had a nice buffet dinner (mmmmmm good satays) and took a tricycle ride back to the hotel. Just found out that the spa/sauna is open til 10 so will probably hit that up soon . . . ahhhhh life is good

Refried Pork

1. With the same blanched “five flowers pork”, slice into thin slices
2. mince garlic and ginger and heat with oil
3. add pork with sliced tofu
4. brown pork and add triangular slices of green pepper and dried chilies
5. add spicy black bean sauce, a few dashes of soy sauce and water, spoonful of sugar
6. fry until meat is tender and serve

Bai Cie Pork

My mom keeps making mini samples of dishes to show me how to make them and feeding them to me . . . mmmmm mini-samples . . .

1. Buy a piece of pork Belly or flank (five flower pork in Chinese)
2. Blanche by putting the pork and some ginger into a boiling pot of water and adding rice wine
3. pour out water, replace and allow pot to boil
4. when pork is tender (you can stick a chopstick through) remove from pot
5. slice into thin pieces, add minced garlic and soy sauce paste and serve

Kong Xin Cai

1. Heat up oil and minced garlic
2. add one small teaspoon of Shrimp paste
3. Add KXC and stir fry (dashes of salt to taste)

Dou ya and tofu

1. Wash Dou Ya or bean sprouts and cut up firm tofu into vertical slices
2. Heat up oil and minced garlic in wok
3. saute tofu for a few minutes on medium heat with dashes of salt
4. add dou ya, some dashes of soy sauce
5. add one packet of chicken broth powder and water
6. add one teaspoon sugar, mix thoroughly and stew in low heat until dou ya become soft

Mom’s cookbook

I’ve decided that since I can’t get good Chinese cookin’ in Hanover, that I’m just gonna have to make it all by my lonesome. So the point of this section is to start documenting the best cookin I know: Mom’s home cooking which tends to be a blend of Taiwanese and Shanghainese flavors, more salty and sweet than spicy.

Definitely look forward to experimenting on all my friends, you know who you are! :)

Which way is home?

Long plane rides are great because of what you can’t do: you can’t read cuz the light is usually pointed at the wrong angle, you can’t sleep cuz the person next to you has smelly feet, you try to watch the movies but either the headphones don’t work right or you’re at such a weird angle that you end up seeing the back of the head of the guy in front better than the movie screen. So you just relax and think about stuff . . . on this flight, I thought about my new path in med/biz school and where it will take me.

I find that when it comes to defining my place in society, I am constantly striving for balance: between being a physician and a businessman, helping the less fortunate or selling out an making $$$, being American or Chinese or Japanese or Latin (yes, I’ve been mistaken for Chinese Peruvian). Despite all the career paths and all the social roleplaying I’ve tried or am trying, I have yet to find one that really suits me. Instead, I either try to do multipe things at once or more recently try to combine various disciplines together. Based on my track record to date, as a doctor, I will keep trying to make the untenable tenable: practice medicine while running a business on the side, help the impoverished while making enough money to buy lots of stuff, focus on my local community while being involved in international projects . . . I will try to do it all, and probably end up failing to do any one thing well.

The more I think about why I want to combine all of these things in the first place, the more I start to think about what really drives me. What I have been able to come up with so far is that most of all, I am afraid of “missing the bus”. I fear missing out on opportunities. Whether it is a new real estate investment, job opportunity or even a social activity, I always find myself wishing or hoping that I can contribute, become a useful contributor or be recognized as such. That’s why it is hard for me to make decisions without weighing all the possibilities. Its not that I want to be thorough but rather that I do not want to miss a good opportunity and come to regret it later. So I choose what I decide is the “correct balance” of my own interests, familial acceptability, social prestige and will still allow me the flexibility to not miss out on other opportunities.

When I think about it this way, my life thus far sounds petty and meaningless. It has worked for me thus far because I have been fortunate enough to be coddled by my parents, various mentors and employers I have met along the way. Through it all, I have yet to make a really tough decision that goes against everyone’s interests and my own but a one which defines who I am. For example, in my business school application essay, I describe my vision of a non-governmental medical clinic that provides both health care and financial services to the poor. Its interesting now as I train to become a doctor but doing something like this would go against everything I’ve been raised to believe about financial stability, providing for my family not to mention giving up the comforts of my life to date.

Is helping the underserved truly a vocation or is it just a passing interest? Would I really do it if the stakes became high and I could no longer balance the other forces in my life? When will I begin to choose my own path instead of letting the “right path” choose me?