It is quite common for Chinese business men or government officials to have an “er nai” (a mistress), even though this is officially not allowed. The mistresses are often young girls from poor families who have no idea about their rights. According to the paper version of the Shanghai Daily a Beijing lawyer, Mr. Zheng Baichun, decided to set up a website in June to offer legal advice to mistresses. Until now he has helped over 100 mistresses, but currently he seems to need some help himself. His wife was not too happy with his actions, and has filed for divorce! Whether he was having a mistress himself that aided the break-up, the article did not mention.

About a year ago I lost all the mails I had saved in my Hotmail account, because according to the site I had not logged in during at least 90 days. At that time I was sure it was not true, because I had checked my mail right before my wedding (which was about a month ago at that time), but could not do anything about it. I then decided not to use Hotmail anymore, except for signing up to websites that I did not fully trust. I am glad I did so.

Today I logged into Hotmail again, and I get the message “congratulations, an account has been reserved for you”. Huh? I click on continue and read that I have not logged in for 30 days (not 90 days as before) so all my emails have been deleted – again. I understand that hotmail does not like clients that only occasionally use their services, but is 30 days not a bit short? I normally check my mails there once a week, but because of a busy schedule, october holidays and a business trip I postponed doing that to (apparently) just over 30 days. And as a result I not only loose my old mails again, but also don’t know what mails I received over the past 30 days.

Hotmail is plain arrogant as well. Other mail services that I use send at least a reminder to another email address if you did not log in for a certain period. Hotmail just deletes your messages without a warning. And not only that, they even congratulate you that an account has been reserved for you. Amazing that they can get away with this.

Independent of this Hotmail action, I had already decided not to rely too much on free email accounts anymore. I used to use my Gmail account a lot for business as well, but because the mailbox is only about 2.8 GB I constantly had to delete mail in order not to get ‘mailbox full’ messages. Furthermore, Gmail was sometimes unavailable in China, which is annoying. But I have now switched to my Spill Group address for most business mails, and only use Gmail for private mails. All my email is safely stored on our own servers, and it automatically synchronizes the mail on all my computers (and even on my phone!). I should have done this much earlier already, but never wanted to invest the few hours that it takes to set it all up.

The Shanghai Daily reported this morning that Shanghai plans to set up a citywide wireless network. However, the project is still in the planning phase and should only be finished in about 3 years… But even though that’s still a long time ahead it’s a good initiative, and Shanghai will be the first city in China with wifi access everywhere.

Whether the network will be for free has not been determined yet. If it is I am sure it will be a huge boost for online activities in this metropole, both for business and entertainment purposes. But if there will be a fee, cost-conscious Shanghainese might not adapt to it quickly. I am looking forward to it, because I am tired of always looking for available hotspots with my laptop. Although with my E61 I can now (finally) also read and write mails without the availability of broadband, so likely my hotspot searches will be less and less.

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Shanghai, where it was still a very nice 26 degrees when we landed. When we arrived home an hour later it was very hot inside, similar to temperatures during summer when you don’t put the airco on. We wondered what happened, but figured it out quickly: someone had put our floor heating on while we were away. The thermostat was set at 30.5 degrees Celcius, which explained why the whole apartment felt like a sauna. The stone floor in the bathroom was so hot that you could not even walk barefoot on it!

We asked our maid this morning, but she said she had no idea why it was turned on, nor did she know when it was turned on. Actually, she did not even know that we have heating in our apartment (most apartments in Shanghai do not have this ‘luxurious’ feature, even though it can get down to zero degrees in winter), so I suppose she turned it on by mistake. But I hope the heating was not on for too much time. We will find out next month when the gas bill arrives…

I am sitting at Dubai airport again. A nice airport, but there are better places to spend a Saturday night. I hoped I could go to the KLM lounge here, but it seemed that their worldwide policy for lounges has changed. Just like in Shanghai you are not able to enter the lounge anymore as a Platinum cardholder when you don’t fly KLM or a partner airline… So now I blogging from Dunkin’ Donuts, next to the lounge.

I really wonder what the use of my frequent flyer card is. Until not too long ago I could even use a KLM lounge when flying Chinese domestic routes, but that was cancelled. And now all international lounges are also not available when I am not flying KLM (and most of my flights are non-KLM, because I always fly from Shanghai – which only has KLM flights to Amsterdam). Only the Schiphol lounges are still available, but they are so crowded nowadays (it seems anyone can enter), that you might as well sit somewhere else. KLM is not what it used to be, and because of that I have started to try different airlines. Today I am flying Emirates, which has much better seats and in-flight service than KLM. And it’s a lot cheaper as well!

In Dubai I bought a new phone, Nokia’s E61 business phone. I liked the design and the functions, and have been using the device for a week now. The phone features among others quad-band, a full HTML browser, 3G, Wifi, and it has a normal keyboard. Exactly the phone I have been looking for for years. My “old” phone (the Dopod 818 pro), was also not bad, but Nokia beats it on functionality and the stability of its operating system. And finally I have a phone with Blackberry functionality (it’s now available in China – but only for corporate customers), so I can work 24/7 wherever I am!

In the Middle East the phone seemed to be quite popular, because it was sold out at the first three chain stores that I went to in Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates. But in Holland it is even more popular I think: this week I had a meeting in Amsterdam with 7 people from internet companies, and 6 out of 7 were using this phone already (and the 7th one had already ordered it but it was sold out)!. Unbelievable, it seems Nokia hit right on target with this design. Too bad it’s not sold in China, I think it would also do there very well.

Yesterday we decided to make a 4WD trip through the mountains and the desert. A friend of mine, Martin, who works for Shell in Dubai likes to take his SUV for a spin in the sand, and he offered to show us the real Emirates. And he did a great job, we spent almost 6 hours off-road in one of the most desolate environments I have ever been in. We started in the direction of Sharjah, where you could quickly sense that people are a lot more conservative than in Dubai. No women on the street anymore (also not in burkha’s) and with mosques dominating the skyline instead of high rises. Because it is Ramadan we were not allowed to eat or drink with other people being able to see us, so we had to watch out a bit with drinking the bottles of water that we brought. Strangely, at a gas station we were able to get coffee from a machine, although we were not supposed to drink it there.

After about an hour of following the seashore, we took a small road that led us into the mountains. The road was paved, so it was a nice drive. Suddenly, however, there was a security checkpoint and we had to show our passports. The UAE soldier took those with him into a small guard house, and studied them for about 5 minutes. Because my wife has a Chinese passport we had no idea if he would let us through, and the minutes lasted quite long. But when he came back it turned out that he was not able to read any non-Arabic, because he asked Martin and me where we where from. We told them from Holland, and I immediately followed by saying that the third person is my wife. That seemed OK for him, and he opened the gate to let us through.

Then we really entered mountainous territory, and the road became a mixture of sand and stones. We followed a wadi (dry riverbed) into the mountain, and the views were stunning. About 30 minutes later, in the middle of nowhere, another UAE checkpoint. At least, that’s what we thought. But no, it turned out that this was the border of Oman. We had not planned to go to Oman, but apparently part of this remote region was not UAE anymore. Of course this was no good news, because Chinese need to apply a visa for Oman. So we pretended to have no idea where we were and showed the map and a location in the UAE that we wanted to reach. The soldier told us we had to follow this road and would eventually get there. But he would first like to see our passports. We did the same trick again, we gave him the 3 documents and told him that we are from Holland and that the person sitting in the back is my wife. That seemed reasonable enough for him, and with a friendly “ramadan rakeem” he let us through! So now we were in Oman without visa’s…

According to Martin there would be no border control at the other side of the mountain (where the UAE would start again), and I hoped he would be right. But if not we would just go back the same way. They would very likely remember us and hopefully let us go back. Luckily Martin was right, and we did not encounter any further check point problems. The road was pretty good (all stones) and it seemed like driving on the moon. All surrounding mountains were brown, and there was not a tree or plant in sight. A completely uninhabitable environment – and indeed, nobody seems to live here.

We passed the top of the mountain (1100 meters high) and went down on the other side. Here the nature was much greener, and we also saw a few scattered houses. Halfway down the mountain we saw a man standing at the side of the road, waving at us to stop. We did so, and he gestured to us that he wanted to go to a place at the end of the road. Desert hospitality does not allow you to say no to a hitchhiker, so we took him in. He did not speak any English however, and we no Arabic, so it was a bit weird. We had to put our food and drinks away of course, and wife felt a bit uncomfortable to sit next to a local who we could not communicate with. We had no idea who he was, but eventually figured out he was from Pakistan. What was he doing here in the middle of nowhere? We had no clue, but later formed the theory he might be trying to cross illegally from Oman to Dubai with our help. So there we were, without visa’s for Oman and with a Chinese and a Pakistani on board. We really hoped we would not meet any police or other checkpoints! But at the first town out of the mountains we told the person we would go in a different direction and let him out.

We drove to the beach to have a drink (nobody around) and then took a different road back to Dubai. This time through the sand desert. This was a great experience: no roads anymore, and only sand in all directions as far as the eye could see. Without a GPS this would be dangerous undertaking, but of course Martin was well equipped. We drove around without getting stuck in the sand (always a danger) and even met several groups of camels. It was late afternoon, and therefore not so very hot anymore. The warm desert wind was actually quite enjoyable when we made short stop to refuel ourselves. We found a nice camping site, but did not bring a tent, so decided not to stay overnight. Martin marked it in his GPS though for future trips.

Just before Iftar (sunset, when you are allowed to eat again) we got back to Dubai. In the last 15 minutes before arriving at his home we saw a total of 4 accidents. Martin explained us this is normal. Not only do most people here drive like maniacs (although in daily life they are extremely friendly), but they also did not eat and drink for over 12 hours, and all want to be with their family the moment Iftar starts. Many multinationals even tell their expats not to drive between 5 and 6 PM during Ramadan. But we also survived this last danger, and decided to have an Iftar meal ourselves at one of the cities top hotels. Only hotels are allowed to server alcohol, and we were dying for a cold beer! Looking back over a few drinks we all felt it was an exciting day with memories that will last a long time.
(All pictures of the trip can be found here)

I am in Dubai at the moment, and to my big surprise the Shanghai Daily website is blocked here. Also many other sites and services that work fine in China you cannot use here, Skype for example. But why on earth did they decide to block the Shanghai Daily? Other China newspaper sites like the China Daily and People’s Daily work fine.

What is very nice in Dubai, is that they tell you that if you feel the site is blocked in error you can contact the Internet Contact Center (they provide both a feedback form and a phone number). China can learn something from this. But I don’t miss the Shanghai Daily enough to file a request to unblock it.