Onward

So last week I thought maybe I would be in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for a meeting but the price of tickets and the fact that my local agent only had a single meeting set led me to cancel the trip. But yesterday I found the company he was dealing with in Cambodia wants me to come and present to them.

That means in two weeks I'll be in Phnom Penh for a few days. My boss then wants me to stop into Hong Kong to see a customer on my way back to Taiwan. Don't get me wrong about this--I'm totally jacked that I can get to do this. But there is a huge music festival going down on the beach in southern Taiwan that I wanted to check out that happens to be that weekend. The Spring Scream music festival runs April 3-5.

Well April 3rd I have a vendor coming in that I have to take care of. Then I have to leave on the 5th for Cambodia. So that means the only day I could get down there would be the 4th, which means getting up hella early then taking the train back that night. Not sure if it's worth it. Anyway I might just go hang out with my friend here in Taipei. Not a bad alternative really.

Congrats

Matt and Amy a big CONGRATS on the new member of your family. You guys will be fine parents.

It Never Gets Old

Sophomoric? Absolutely. Funny? You bet.

I'm not sure if it is a good or a bad thing that this is still funny to me, but I think this story is hilarious.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/newsbeat/newsid_7961000/7961224.stm

Prepare Yourselves

Dear All,

I will be back in the U.S. from July 6-19. I will be in L.A. for a few hours for work on the 6th before heading to Portland until the 19th when I fly to Japan for work (then back to Taiwan on the 23rd).

So please do the following:

If you live in Portland, prepare your livers--you know what's coming.

If you live outside Portland, it might be a good idea to prepare your liver anyway since this party might cross some state lines.

If you live anywhere in the U.S. it might be a good idea to keep women and small children indoors during the aforementioned period.

You have been warned.

Best,

CDB

Trip Report

Well I am back in Taipei. For me it was a crazy week and a half, I was in China, Laos, Thailand, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. For more pictures check facebook.

Day 1:

On Monday I went into the office for a few hours and worked like mad to take care of things before I left and make sure everything was in order. Then a coworker ran me to the airport. A few hours later I was in Bangkok where I checked into my hotel and spend 2 hours on my computer doing work.

After that I went to get some Thai food. I passed up on the fried cockroaches one lady was selling. Instead I got a pork dish that tasted about what I imagine napalm to taste like (see the picture). I loved it.

Day 2:

On Tuesday I got up at 3AM and caught a flight from Bangkok to Udon Thani in northern Thailand with our local agent who handles Thailand and Laos for us (he is also trying to get in touch with a Cambodian company for us, so who knows, I may find myself in Cambodia too). From Udon Thani we took a van to the Thailand-Laos border and I got a entry visa for $45 and crossed into Laos.

Two things to note: I now have US dollars, Taiwan dollars, Hong Kong dollars Chinese renminbi, Lao kip, and Thai baht. Also I try and travel light for trips—a bag with my work stuff like computer and another carry-on with clothes. Well I didn’t bring shorts and it was close to 90 the entire time was there in Laos and Thailand.

From the Thailand-Lao border we took a taxi about 30 minutes into the capital Vientiane. It is the exact opposite of Bangkok—small, turns in early, the tallest building is 10 stories but most aren’t over 5, you can walk anywhere in the city, dusty, and dry heat. I will say that the people are quite nice. What caught me off guard was the enormous number of backpackers in the city; it is just crawling with them. The other thing that caught me off guard were the prices—for a can of Pepsi (there is no coke in the country and they have a lot of glass bottle cokes) for 5000 Lao kip or about 59 cents. It’s not every day that you pay 3,000 for a bottle of water—so everything was pretty cheap but seemed expensive. After we checked into our hotel we went to meet the marketing department of LTC for some initial introductions and I had a few moments to check my work email. And then went to lunch at a very good restaurant with two managers. From there we went to headquarters of LTC to buy their bid documents.

I was in slacks, a shirt, and tie so I felt a little overdressed walking around on the street. That night I went to one of the famous ex-pat hangouts with the local agent. I had thankfully been able to find some strong mosquito repellent that day since the mosquitoes were out in force. In between meetings that day I was able to walk to a Buddhist temple and take some pictures when I was stopped by a novice monk who spoke English. That night I learned our local agent has over 4,000 American records and has already sold over 10k.

I also learned on the Internet that it is illegal for a foreigner to have sex with a Laotian, 180 degrees different in Thailand.

Day 3:

On Wednesday I was up early and we went to stop into the office of the second largest telecom in Lao. I was caught off guard to find about 5 foreigners working there, including the French guy we met with. From there we went back to the customer's office and took the marketing team to lunch. At 2PM I gave our company presentation to their marketing department, including the top marketing manager. I used English so I really have no idea how much they understood. We then took a tuk tuk (a supercharged tricycle with room for a few people in the back) to the third largest telecom in the country where I gave a short presentation. Then we went back for a private meeting with marketing and took 2 of them to dinner. I wish I had my camera. It was an outdoor restaurant where you ate by candlelight next to the Mekong River.

Day 4:

The last day I had no meetings scheduled. So went out for a walk to try and find the famous Wat That Luang temple. I walked the wrong way and really regretted wearing jeans in heat that was in the 90’s but seemed hotter.

Well I eventually took a tuk tuk to the temple. I did so after a lot of bargaining when the drivers realized that I knew the real prices for a local. Of course they wouldn't let me have the low prices, "No Lao same same," was the phrase they used.

It was really amazing but also incredibly hot.

When I got back to the hotel I got there in time to see some Canadian who had apparently spent a night drinking and then decided to pop some pills (among other substances) and wouldn't wake up. I got back as 4 people carried his ass to an ambulance.

At 3PM I caught a taxi to the Lao-Thai border and made it through Lao customs to the Thai side where I waited for over an hour in the hot sun in a line to get my passport stamped. The guy behind me was a big Norwegian who had been travelling around SE Asia for several months/years in big combat boots and a conical farmer’s hat.

When I made it through I was supposed to meet a guy to drive me back to Udon Thai. But there were probably 20 touts there all offering rides. After 30 minutes of more waiting I realized the guy holding the “Mr. Kiel” sign was waiting for me. Apparently my name sounds slightly like Kiel when it is said in Thai. That night I spent the night in Udon Thani. They don’t see to many foreigners since no restaurants, save the hotel, had English menus. I spent the night watching Thai kick-boxing on tv.

Day 5:

I got up early and took a taxi to the airport and flew to Bangkok. I got to Bangkok just in time and Cathay Pacific helped me run through security and customs and even held the plane for me and a few others who were late. I will say Cathay is great. They have amazing service, a free newspaper, and meals on each flight. Then I got into Taiwan about 7PM or so. It has been a pretty good few days. But I will have a ton to take care of on Monday at the office.

Prepare yourselves!

I will be back in the U.S. from July 6-19.

For those of you in Portland, Oregon: Prepare your livers.

For those of you not in Portland: first you should be in Portland since it's a damn good place...but during the aforementioned dates please take women and children inside. The Portland party may just cross state lines.

What a Difference a Year Makes

Last year I was having a rocking good time on St. Patty’s at ND with my buddies--boozing, house parties, and bars. This year I was at work. I also my weekly dinner with the old people I teach English too. Chicken soup was on the menu (with the whole damn thing put in a pot). Not a drop of booze for me yesterday.

Some Things

I'll post eventually about Xiamen and Laos. I put up some pics on facebook. The problem now is my wireless network at home is down.

I have been thinking about politics, as I am known to do, recently. The whole deal with Rush Limbaugh is what got me started on it. Listening to some of vitrol he spews I couldn't help but think how stuck he (and most of the Republican Party too) is in the past. His whole deal is that whatever Reagan said we need to do and follow.

Please, get it together. Reagan was right for his time and had solutions and policies that responded to specific conditions and situations in the 80's. Right now the conditions we have are a far cry from the 80's so let's not keep looking back to that. Update your thinking. Cutting income taxes sounds great--except when you consider we did it the last 8 years and it didn't do much and that Americans pay more in payroll taxes than in income taxes.

Republicans--please get some new ideas and help us get out of this mess that we are in or, God forbid, work with Obama.

Then again, forget all that stuff I just wrote. You are struggling to find anything solid in your party, so you fall back on the lions of the past like Limbaugh and Newt. Please continue to follow everything they say they led you to glory in the past they will do so again.

I kid, but I hope they do follow Rush. That will do more than anything else to crush them as a legitimate electoral force.

More to Come

Well I am chilling in the Hong Kong airport. I have now been to HK 3 times in the last year so that means I am eligible for a frequent visitor card next time I roll through.

I'll try and update this thing later after I get home and get some sleep. But Laos was good, I really liked it. Lots of heat, lots of dust, not much development, lots of mosquitos, cokes that cost 5,000 kip, and lots of backpackers.

Hello From Laos

Well I am hanging in a possible customer's office to wait for lunch with them. Laos is kind of the poor and undeveloped step-kid to Thailand.

There is only Pepsi here, there is no Coke. Speed traps are a cop sitting in a chair with a camera by the roadside and we were stopped by the cops for no reason earlier.

I have no internet access at the hotel so I'll try and stay connected where I can.

Hello from Bangkok

Well I was back in Taiwan for a few hours. I'll write more later on the goings on in Xiamen.

I am in Bangkok now. I have to be at the airport here at 5AM to catch a flight to the north and then go into Laos by car.

I need to get some rest but first this gem. On the taxi ride from the airport my driver turned to me and said "lady-boy" or something close to that. Now in Thailand ladyboys are trannies or katoeys. Well come to find I the driver was trying to say I was a ladies man. Hell yeah, I told him "women yes, katoey no."

Stuff in Xiamen

So some things are the same and others change.

China is still the less developed version of Taiwan. That is pretty clear. But there are fewer foreigners here so people are much more impressed with my Chinese. On the same token, little kids see fewer foreigners so they are not sure what to make of me. There was one little girl at dinner tonight and each time I looked at her she got scared, so I went talk to her and her mom and say hello in Chinese. The fact that a white person was speaking Chinese to her scared her even more.

At lunch today we had hot corn juice as a drink. There is indeed a first time for everything.

However, I spent most of the day at a paper company here sitting in on meetings for a product deal that I was not part of and hopefully will not have to deal with. So the motivation to listen to the prep yesterday was minimal. That meant today I had hours of meetings about something I cared nothing about (seriously I was meeting/looking at paper production for 7 hours including a lunch with the company) and didn't understand.

你好

Hello from China. I am at the house my boss rents in Xiamen, China. I will be here for two more days to see some more of the company here and hold some meetings. Today after I finally got connected to the internet I was emailing and Skyping like a madman. I talked with a bunch of people in two different languages by calls, messages, and emails. It seemed like I was working on 50 different things at once. This is on top of the fact that I left the Taiwan office at 10:40PM last night.

The main thing I was working on was a trip to Laos that I have planned next week. Our agent from Thailand is going and I decided that I will go too and meet a potential customer. So next week I'll try and update this thing with some pictures about how it goes there.

In other news, it's official I am no longer together with the girl. I am by no means heart-broken. It was what had to happen and I was more or less surprised it took so long. If it happened early it would have sucked but after not seeing someone for several weeks you stop caring as much.

Starfruit

When I was a young lad my mom would sometimes buy starfruit as a bit of a treat for us. It was also a fruit that we really didn't see that much of. As we got older my mom always bought less and less of it. The cool thing about Taiwan is that there is a ton of really good and locally grown fruit. I really enjoy being able to stop by any of the road-side fruit stands and pick up some of the good seasonal stuff.

Apparently, the starfruit is in season right now. When I go for a walk at lunch I actually see them growing on trees all over the place. The guard at our company handed me a huge one today when I came and said it was now in season.

What a Difference a Day Makes

So last night I was not feeling well. I was sick and tired. On top of all that is was one of the coldest days in Taiwan in the past few months. Then I wake up this morning after a good sleep and I feel alert, much less tired and sick, and the sun is out. It was good.

International Emails

I received emails from the following countries yesterday:

Japan
China (via Skype)
Germany
Namibia
Kenya
Uganda
Thailand
Hong Kong
Singapore (and Skype contact)

The crazy thing is that I sent emails to a lot more countries than that.

Continued from 2 posts below

I went to dinner with the girl last night but I didn’t say anything at dinner since she had a friend there and I didn’t want to embarrass her (and it was already a bit awkward seeing her not after 1 month, but she is even hotter than I remember--which is damn hot).

Instead, I brought it up on the subway ride back. I said that if we are in a real relationship we need to see each other more since the last few weeks don’t cut it. My suggestion was that we could set a regular day (Wednesday was my suggestion) that I can run out to Linkou and meet her for dinner as a way to see her more. Nothing fancy really, just a meal then go back home but it would let us to see more of each other. Not asking too much here.

She was both taken aback and less than thrilled. She didn’t give me an answer and instead said she would think it over. The feeling I got was that my travelling to Linkou would intrude on whatever she has going up there (another dude?).

When I got home I emailed her and basically said: if we are in a relationship it means we actually have to spend time together and work to make time for one another. If we don’t and just want to change our facebook status and call it done then it’s pointless. My view was that it is no longer a real relationship so why should we continue to call it what it isn’t?

I was able to talk with her a little bit on MSN before I went to bed. She asked if I still like her, yes I still do. But I told her my feeling was being in a relationship with someone you like but never see is kinda pointless. She then told me something “bad” had recently happened to her but then didn’t respond to any messages asking what.

Unless this “bad” thing is pretty convincing and she can agree to see me more then there is no use being in a relationship. I’ll still be friends with her and think she is cool and really hot but to me there is no use being in a relationship with someone who seems to have minimal desire to see you.

Happenings at Room18

So I was going clubbing with 2 Hong Kong friends. These dudes wanted to go to the club Mint since it was free cover. It was free for a reason, mainly that it sucks. There was no one there, there are too many seats, its small, but the redeeming quality is good music (not the standard club fare). Seeing the state of affairs we left and went to Room18.

The place is pretty expensive but is very cool and very crowded. I actually ran into my buddy Oscar. I had been meaning to call him and go grab a coffee so I was pretty cool to bump into him there. For me one of the funniest things of the night was my Hong Kongese friend Victor could not talk to women worth anything. As soon as he tried they would leave or if he was lucky he had a good 5 min before they fled.

Of course, this is not to say I had any better luck. The people were happy to take drinks I bought and then move on. The feeling I got whenever I talked to any ladies was, "Hey nice of you to talk to me but I am damn hot shit and I'll move along in a few minutes unless you drop a ton on drinks, and even then I'll probably move along." Then again I vibe I got was that every guy there was on the prowl for girls, so maybe that had something to do with it.

That said, there were some very very pretty ladies there last night. Toward the end of the night I started dancing with one lady there. Get your mind out of gutter, I went home alone. But she has been texting me a ton and trying hard to hit me up on MSN and do little video chats. Slow it down baby. I still have a "girlfriend" situation I need to work out here.