Trip Report

So I have some time. Which, right now, is bad since this is the second night in a row I have to stay late at the office to wait for someone else to do their work so that I can then finish mine.

I digress...

A few observations. Thai people love pickup trucks. I have not seen that many pickups even back in Oregon. The people there thought 80 degrees was quite cold and some even told me that was the coldest Bangkok has been in a long time. It was a high of 6 or so back in Indiana. I had some kick-ass dinners on the trip. The strangest thing for me was feeling like a real businessman (sorta) when I have a tie and slacks on in the airport on my way to see customers. Cathay Pacific is a great airline. Below is my only picture, from when I left the airport.
So I got up damn early on Wednesday and got into Bangkok in the afternoon so I could get a Chinese visa. Well the visa office was closed. So I bought some gifts and then went for a little swim before my boss got in. That night we went to dinner with a client at one of the nicer hotels in the city. I liked the dude since we had an interesting conversation about politics and he was very anti-Thaksin.

The next day I applied for my visa and I ran off to some meetings. I had a little slip up though at lunch. We were with engineering and marketing and since we were there for a party the company was throwing (I thought it was a whole company party and everyone knew) I asked about it right off the bat. Thankfully engineering didn’t catch on. After more meetings and a massage we went to a nice dinner with one of the marketing people and her friend. My boss dropped all kinds of money for a great Italian meal and two super expensive bottles of wine.

The next day I picked up my visa and we had some more meetings. We talked with an old contact and now we think that we might do some business in Laos. So there is a decent possibility I may go to Laos in the next few months.

We then went to another Italian place with another contact for lunch…more wine.

After that we got ready for a dinner time party with the marketing people. It happed that the boss and I came across an open bottle of $300 wine there. But it was the best booze in the place. They had tons of whiskey but it was watered down.

My performance went relatively well. It was a change of pace from lip-synched Chinese and Thai songs with corny/half-assed dances. You know, for that matter it went as well as it could have gone.

The next day I got up for a breakfast with the Laos contact then headed to Hong Kong. I was able to take a little break and go hang in Hong Kong for a few hours. Then it was back to the bone-chilling 50 degrees in Taipei. Below is a picture of a Chinese New Year show in a Hong Kong mall and the view from Jordan Road.

All that means I feel more like a businessman, I got in a nice trip and visa run, I had some nice food, and now I have a Chinese visa for 6 months.