The Ride Continues

Well, I am in Bangkok today. I am getting ready to get ripped apart by my customer tomorrow. But, thankfully, this time my boss will be with me so that--hopefully--means my ripping is slightlyl less.

Back in Taiwan...

Well, I took a long ass 13 hour flight from Joburg after a 3 hour drive and then another flight from Hong Kong to get back to Taiwan for the first time in a week.

I got to fly business class (upgrade) on the new Cathay Pacific 777-300 for both flights (I will write more about it later but it was amazing to get champagne to complement my multiple course meals at 20,000 ft). I also found out I will probably go back to Africa in August (South Africa, Swaziland, and maybe Mozambique and Botswana to boot). Then I may also go to Cambodia and Thailand later this week before I go home for vacation.

So--other than a strange desire for a cigar--why am I not too happy? Well my customers keep slamming me with bad news. I am worried about losing them for things that are well beyond my control or even responsibility. Beyond that, I now have 2 days to correct our production process, do all the follow up for Africa, nail down 2 new customers, get the largest telecom in Africa on board, write 5 reports for a single customer, argue with suppliers prepare for a new trip, and take care of all the other stuff I couldn't take care of from Swaziland last week. In 2 days, mind you. Then I have 1 day to get ready to head home to the US for vacation.

To put a nice crowning touch on this little shit sandwich, I get to meet with both of these unhappy customers this week and next to get my ass chewed out (for something I didn't do but am held responsible for in their eyes), which is never fun. Not looking forward to it but the only choice I have is to grin and bear it.

Oh yeah, almost forgot that given the amount of work I have to do for Africa I will undoubtedly be slammed with stuff while on vacation--necessitating daily reading of work email (what a joy that will be).

Maybe things will be better tomorrow when I have more than 1 hour of sleep.

Where am I?

If you saw the picture below on the golf course where would you guess it is? California, Bend (Oregon) maybe. How about just outside of Mbabane, Swaziland at the Royal Swazi Golf Club?

It is winter down here in the Southern Hemisphere so the hills are brown and not green like they normally are (or so I am told). Either way the country is very pretty.

In Africa

I never thought I would say this...but I am in Africa. Specifically, I am in Mbabane, Swaziland (I was in Joberg, South Africa this morning after a 13 hour flight from Hong Kong).

The digs I have here are pretty sweet. But I will write more about that later and try and put up some pictures. Problem now is the interent sucks.

Edit: re the comments on the post below--no shark cage this time. No time, but hopefully if the meeting goes well I will be back in Africa and get another chance.

Next Trip: Swaziland

I honestly don't feel like I live in my apartment any more. I am here a week and then I am gone a week. So I was happy to get back from Beijing if only to come back to a place that is not a hotel room. (To be clear I love to travel--it is the best part of my job) Then I went to work on Monday.

My boss asked how I was and I told him it was nice to be home. He smiled. I knew it...he had another trip planned for me. "Ok, when is the next flight?" I said, "And where am I going?" Swaziland.

Now all this still has to be 100% confirmed but this trip is to to Swaziland (a little country next to South Africa) with the Taiwanese ambassador as he is a friend of my boss. My boss is coming too. This trip is BIG TIME, no no, HUGE GOD DAMN MASSIVE TIME. You see, I am presenting my company and giving a market forecast for our products to the King of Swaziland. He is the last absolute monarch in the world, has 23 kids and 14 wives, and has some serious cash.

How sweet is that?

Another cool thing I now have 2 sets of extra visa pages in my passport. Too much travel...wait that is an oxymoron.

The downside is that I haven't been off work before 10PM this week getting all my research and presentations done. Packing for this trip will also be different since it is a little chilly in Swaziland now (6-20C) when I am used to much much warmer weather. The other downside is I told myself if I ever go to South Africa I want to do one of those crazy great white shark cage dives--but doesnt look like I have time this trip.

Who knows, when I get back to Taiwan I might have to make another trip to Cambodia.

Back to Beijing

For a long time now I have trying to find a way back to Beijing. It is seriously one of my favorite places ever. So it was rather fortuitous that I took over a project for my branch office in China to work on a partnership with HP (yes, that HP). Well turns out their head office is in Beijing and I needed to go there for a meeting.

First some observations: the city has changed. I commented to friends that I felt like an old hand since I could say, "Wow I remember when this was a beat up crappy area, now look, they turned this around." The city has changed so much. The people are wearing modern clothes (as Jay says the girls even look decent...but only decent), there are crazy cool new buildings all over (Beijing has to be, no joke, one of the coolest architectural cities in the world now), less dirty and polluted, people don't spit as much, and there are tons of foreigners in town. But some things haven't changed: the thick accents (which I can no longer understand), crowds, and traffic are all still there in force.

On my first day I flew up from Xiamen with a Chinese coworker and since there were no meetings planned I set up a dinner with my old tutor. It was cool to see her again. The last I heard from her was helping her to write grad school essays (she got into UC Davis). We had a Sichuan hot pot out in my old stomping grounds of Wudaokou at a place next to my favorite student club. Wudaokao has definitely changed, it is much nicer and there are way more students. I also randomly ran into an old ND prof who I used to work with a lot...in a city of 16 million. Small world.

The next day I had a pre meeting HP prep session then had a good meeting with HP. I can't give away details but the result was what I expected. Now I just have to make a huge business plan. The rest of the day I went to Starbucks in a classy district to do some serious emailing/Skyping. I met some old coworkers of my Chinese colleague and we all had dinner. After that we went to the insane high class shopping area in the city. So damn nice--not the Beijing I remember.

The next day was more meetings. And since we got done early we went to a huge lunch at an old-style Beijing restaurant.

After that I took my colleague to my favorite hutong area in the city. But I had to rush through a tea shop tour at my favorite tea shop since I was getting urgent calls from my boss and my sales manager about my Thailand customer. That solved...sort of. went to a dinner with my boss's friend. That dude loves hot pot and loves to drink hard. We should be brothers. But the problem is he drinks Beijing baijiu. I cannot take that. It is basically 60%+ gasoline that made me nearly die last time in Beijing. Boss's friend wanted to drink a lot but I had no such plans.

Afterward I went out with my old buddies Jay and Santana to my new favorite bar (new since it changed locations but kept the old feel) Nanjie. After that we went to a new and pretty damn empty club called Bling. When I was at dinner I had a funny experience contacting Santana. I put his number into my phone wrong so instead I sent a text to some random Chinese person asking them to head out for beers. Well I get a call from that number (entered as Santana) I picked up and it was some Chinese person wondering who I was and what I was sending them a message for. I apologized. They sent a new message, in Chinese, saying "Sorry I don't understand English." Ok, matter finished. Then as I was having a beer that night I got an English text from that same person asking, "Do you want massage tonight."

The next day I got up early with my colleague and one of her friends and we all went out to the Olympic Stadium. Cool venues but there really isn't much going on. Just take some pictures and move on. We had a Korean lunch and in the evening I went and got some jasmine tea before having dinner with an old coworker at a place called, well, "The Place" It has an outdoor screen hung overhead that is larger than a football field.

Then at almost 10PM I went to meet Jay and Santana for a Ghostface Killah show. Yes, you read that right. I saw the Ghostface Killah in Beijing...how many people can say that. I really wasn't, nor am I now, familiar with his body of work. But it was still a cool show (despite waiting 2 hours for it to start and having a unintentionally funny opening act). When the show was over we went to the new Club LA. The place was awesome. It was packed, amazing dj's and music, sick lights, and no cover. And wouldn't you know it we ran into Ghostface Killah there. The picture from the show below is lifted from Jay's facebook .

At about 3:30AM I said my goodbyes and went to the hotel to pack and sleep at 4:30AM. At 5:30AM I was up to the airport and then back to Xiamen before catching a ferry and another flight back to Taiwan.

Quite a week.

ONE YEAR IN TAIWAN

Well, I wasn't able to post about this on June 9th since I had to run out and catch a flight to China. But the 9th was special to me since that marked my being in Taiwan for a full year.

Think about this. I graduated from ND and then after three weeks moved to a place where I did not know a SINGLE person and had only spoken to my boss once. Despite all that, I think I have been able to thrive.

For me, it is crazy to think that I have been living overseas for over 1 year. A whole damn year! And more than that, I am coming back for at least one more--and who knows, maybe two.

Chiner!

Well I havent updated for a long while. That is 1. since I have been really busy and 2. part of being busy was being in China. Because of the Tian'anmen anniversary the censors closed all access to this website and to youtube (but strangely not facebook).

I am working to update my facebook albums. So check there.

Hopefully I will get a chance to write some more later. The problem is that right now I think I travel again on Sunday. This time to give a presentation to the King of Swaziland (next to South Africa). Needless to say I am damn swamped.

Good Stuff

These stories are alway cool.

Dad comes home from war and surprises the son or daughter. Just search for this kind of thin on Youtube. Or check out this link from the Today Show: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31165447#31122415

This is especially cool for that little girl when you consider the multiple tours that her father has likely served and will continue to serve. Much respect to those in the U.S. military (Chris and Eric I am looking at you).

What's in a Name?

For me, that depends on what name. My name is apparently pretty hard to pronounce so what I am called pretty much varies person to person.

My boss calls me Clint. Some coworkers call me by my Chinese name (others have made up a gamut of nicknames based on my Chinese name that they use with me). My GM calls me Crint or Crin-teh. Other coworkers call me Keh-lin-teh or Keh-lin. Still others call me Keh-lin-dun or Clinton.

In Thailand, people apparently cannot pronounce the t sound at the end of my name. So my name becomes Chris. After a few tries I've learned to stop saying, "No, it's Clin-T" and instead say "Yes, it's Chris."

I guess that's called being flexible. That, or having multiple identities.

Edit: I forgot some of the other names I have been called or ways I've seen my name written: Clean, Client (all the damn time actually), and Cliat.

A Passing

When I was in high school I lost a few classmates.

Unfortunately, my class lost one more--Michael Bruhn. I wish I could say the circumstances. I can't. My friend Chris invited me to join a facebook group in his memory and that was the first I heard of his passing. I wish I could say I was great friends with him. I can't. I knew him and would say hello to him in the halls but I was never extremely close.

Still, it is a tragedy he had to pass away so young. I cannot image the pain his family must feel. My prayers are with them.

Thailand Report

So my trip to Thailand was relatively relaxed. I had one long meeting but it was a real bitch.

Friday I rolled into town and went to RCA to meet up with my friend Emily from Taiwan. After searching I met up with her and some friends and we all went to the techno section. It was cool. Then 2am came. You see Taiwan's clubs close at 4am or 4:30am. So I thought it was just a set change. Nope. That meant it was time to go home. But all the cab drivers knew I was a foreigner who needed to go home and couldn't speak Thai. So they gave me crazy prices (I knew the real price back to the hotel was 60 Baht).

Instead, I waited. The night was still young and I knew after an hour they would drop their prices. While I was waiting I was offered some food by a new friend, Ying. Once she left I made a new friend, Oi. Oi invited me to a club that was open until 5am (she claimed). Like the last one, the new club was free cover and Oi ordered a bottle and proceeded to get me hammered.

So it wasn't a bad thing that the place closed at 3:30am. I woke up in the afternoon and went shopping for coworkers. That night I planned to chill out. Oi called and wanted to go back to RCA. I was tired so I turned her down. Then Ying called. So I decided to go to meet her at a club that was open until 4am (she claimed). I headed there about 1am and got out in the general area. That area, Sukhumvit, happens to be around Soi Cowboy which is famous for its go-go bars which happen to close at 1am. So when I eventually went to the club (http://www.narzbangkok.com/) I walked the gauntlet of katoeys and go-go girls.

The club was really nice. It is really 3 clubs. A live Thai music section, huge techno section, and a hip-hop section. I met Ying in the live music section then migrated to the techno section with Ying and friends. The place closed about 3am...yet again.

The next day I moved a damn amazing new hotel. It was so damn sick that I just chilled there all day. I had a huge damn suite all to myself. That night I met my customers for dinner.

The plan was to discreetly invite my customer's technical boss to Starbucks before our big meeting to get a read on his mood in advance of the meeting then see another customer after the meeting. Instead, I felt like crap in the morning and popped pills until I felt better. Then I was grilled for almost 3 hours by my customer. By the time they were done it was too late to see the other customer. So I furiously emailed from Starbucks and went to get a Thai massage. After I got back to the hotel I met Ying again for dinner. She wanted to go out again but I had to get up at 4am in the morning for my flight to Hong Kong

As cool as Oi and Ying were it makes me feel bad. My Thai is shit and their English isn't much better. In Taiwan I can speak Chinese with anyone but in Thailand that's not the case. Basically, when I was there my English regressed ("I no can" and "I same-same" were well used phrases). Guess I need to learn some Thai too.