Madness In The Middle Kingdom

Some shots of our latest beach - Ao Toh Kho on the island of Kho Phi Phi (prounounced pee pee … Carter was a little confused why our island was called pee pee at first). The shots are of Carter throwing rocks in the water, the beach in the pre-dawn light, our bungalow, Nathan sawing logs, and my very out of shape near 40 year old bod playing with the boys.

The bungalow looks fancy-schmancy but is a bit rustic. I had to scurry away a few Gecko lizards and kill a few cockroaches in the bathroom before sending Carter in last night for his shower. Alice has some reservations about the accomodation much like last time but she is a trooper. Nathan LOOOOOOVVVVVESSSSSS the sand. We just sit him down and he’ll dig and eat it for an hour. Nathan HAAAAATTTTTEEEESSSS the cold water show and let the whole resort know last night. Carter seems to have partially overcome his near-paralyzing fear of bugs by nature of just sheer over-exposure.

On this winter vacation I have actually found some time to read which is a pleasure that everyone should take advantage of whenever possible. Unfortunately the types of books I choose are not to most folks liking. The book that had me up until 2 am by the poolside with a beer in hand? None other than “The Music of the Primes - Searching to Solve the Greatest Mystery in Mathematics” by Marcus du Sautoy.

Yeah … my wife has the same opinion that many of you will .. “are you kidding?” She wants to know who would drop almost 10 bucks for a book whose main cover quote is “An amazing book! Du Sautoy provides a stunning journey into the wonderful world of primes.”

Just in case you have forgotten your high school mathematics prime numbers are numbers that are divisible only by themselves and 1. Example - 3 is prime. The list of the first few primes 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, … (the list is infinity long which Euclid proved sometime around 300 BC)

Why would anyone care about primes? Well - you should because all e-commerce security is built upon the difficulty in writing large numbers as the factor of 2 primes. The basic idea is this - we can choose 2 very large prime numbers and multiply them together to produce a very large number but it is very difficult to decompose that number into the product of its primes. A person can use this fact to create a secure code to encrypt data and information so that prying eyes cannot read it. The mechanics of how this is done takes a bit of explaining but the basic idea is that I can give you a public key to encode your information but I am the only one who can decode it because it relies on knowing the prime factors of a large number which only I who created the key would know.

So again .. why should anyone care? Well if mathematicians find a way to easily factor large numbers into prime factors then all modern e-commerce security would disappear overnight and everything could be read by anyone. Rest assured for now though … turns out this seemingly simple thing is actually exceeding difficult.

As promised - an update of some the photos we have taken in Bangkok. Look for Nathan checking out his nipples again.

Ok .. skipped ahead in the posts a bit but will promise to backdate as soon as I get the photos from the camera.

We spent 4 days in Bangkok and then flew to Phuket a few days ago. We stayed the first night at the Nae Yang Beach Resort which is on one of the last beaches to be developed in Phuket. It’s only a 10 minute drive from the airport and you can see the planes flying in on a regular basis but it is not very noisy at all. Had we known how great the spot was we would have stayed a few days longer but we had already booked a room for a 3 days at Kamala Dreams

We are staying on the first floor with a door opening to the small pool in the courtyard. All Nathan and Carter want to do is swim in the pool eschewing the beautiful white sand beach just a scant few meters away. We did manage to get out along the beach and kick a ball around last night and then have a great little meal in one of the restaurants on the beach.

Alice was wondering why we suffered so much in carting the kids halfway across the Asian continent spending a small fortune in the process but one day on the beach has answered that question with an emphatic - Because!

Cheers from Thailand
The MaBrown clan.

If all goes well (and when doesn’t it?) you should see a slideshow from my Flickr account that runs you through some of the photos we took in Shenzhen. I took several shots of our boatel (boat hotel), of the boys blowing bubbles and Nathan checking out his nipples. He has a newfound fascination with body parts and learned to say “Zha Zha” which is Chinese for nipple. If you leave yours exposed … watch out! More nipple pics from Bangkok to follow.

Through a complete lack of experience in planning holidays and obtaining “the best deals” we inadvertently wound up finding one of the more expensive and troublesome ways to get to Bangkok. However every cloud has a silver lining and our trip took us through Shenzhen which is home to Alice’s friend Sophia whom she hasn’t visited with in over 2 years. Sophia is now expecting a child of her own and Alice was very happy to have the face time to catch up.

Carter and Nathan were happy that we got to stay at this hotel

which is an old cruise ship that has been converted into a hotel. We actually had portholes for windows (yup - 3rd class all the way). We got a chance to warm up from Dalian’s -13 degree weather and the boys got a chance to “run around” as Carter says.

The next phase takes on to Bangkok for a few days of acclimatizing to the heat and then onto the beaches. Will keep y’all posted!

“If you see one movie this year ……” (and if you have small children this may strike a chord with you) then that movie should be “No Country For Old Men”. A fantastic thriller from the Coen brothers who have done some great work in the past (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and many many others). Seriously one of the best movies I have seen .. the theatrical trailer is below but be warned the movie is fairly violent.

For the last month and a half or so Alice’s mother (Carter and Nathan’s Lao Lao) has been staying with us making us fatter each day with her delicious cooking. It has been great to watch Nathan and Carter reconnect with Lao Lao and I will be the first to admit that having her around taking care of the kids sure did lighten the load for Alice and I.

Lao lao feichang ganxie

Congratulations goes out to the Canadian World Junior team for their 4th victory in 4 years. That spells only one word - DOMINATION.

It’s hard being in China and not getting to see the games because the World Junior Tournament is second only to the Stanley Cup in terms of excitement, passion and meaning to the Canadian Hockey fan.

Way to go boys!

Well .. not exactly the kind sung about in the popular Christmas time tune - I am thinking more Thailand rather than the northern climes. For this winter’s vacation Alice, Carter, Nathan and I will head for the beautiful (but not so cheap anymore) country known as Thailand. We are stopping at one place we visited 2 years ago - Ao Toh Ko on Koh Phi Phi island and I for one cannot wait. Alice has been busily firming up travel plans and despite costing a small fortune we plan on enjoying every single minute. Below are some shots from our 2006 winter getaway … I hope it is like I remember.