A Great Event

Who knew watching peopele chase rolling cheese could be so funny and so interesting. If you are someone who knows anything then you know that I am Gloucestershire cheese roll. Check out some the linkto see some more pictures of this. Or search for it on Youtube. It looks insane.

Even Borat decided to get a taste (on the far right there).

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/05/coopers_hill_cheeserolling.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOyQBSMeIhM

Cambodia Impressions

Cambodia is poor. Let's get that out there. It is still suffering in a major way the legacy of the Khmer Rouge. The streets may feel dark and dangerous at night but the people I met were nothing but nice.

My driver told me that cops there make a salary of $40 a month. That is nothing. So they are corrupt. But only corrupt when they encounter a person of the same social status (low). This is a problem since the rich do anything and don't fear the consequences. There was a story in the paper when I was there of an official's son who was in a car accident and jumped out with a gun and started shooting. The cops did nothing. They told the paper that they couldn't since the dad held too much sway and to do anything would mean losing that measly $40.

So there are 3 boom markets for products in Cambodia: sex, beer, and telecoms. I am involved in the later and occassionally the second. I thought about including begging/hawking crap as a boom market but by definition those two cannot be boom markets.

Sex: around my hotel there are a lot of "bars" with blacked out windows and scantily clad women out front or "karaoke" places with lots of girls out front. It is pretty sad really that there are SO many places like that and there are so few jobs for people. Even some of the nicer and legit bars are crawling with working girls.

Beer: there are so many damn beer ads/trucks/beer that you can never get away from it.

Telecoms: there are shops all over selling SIM cards, phone cards, and generally advertising telecom products. That market it why I will keep coming back to Phnom Penh.

Other impressions: the country is very poor but is trying to pull itself up. Traffic is insane. Want to drive the wrong way aganist traffic--no problem everyone else is doing it. No light at the intersection and there are cars, scooters, trucks, and pedestrians all wanting to go--no problem just go. There is also a lot of dirt and trash that is on the streets. There lots of beggars and homeless kids. At the same time, the people are nice when you stop and talk to them and you can tell the country is trying to move forward. I may not be in Kansas (thank God) but I do like Phnom Penh.

Girl at the Cafe

So my third day in Phnom Penh I finished my meetings a little early and went back to my hotel to do some work. About 2:30pm before the afternoon rains came I ran out to a riverside cafe to catch some lunch. Of course, the rains came, and my God, they just dumped water on the city. Basically, everyone who could started going undercover.

A few minutes later I looked to my right to the side of the cafe. The cafe was open air and had a roof but no wall on the right except for a few bamboo trees between the wall and streets. That was when my eyes met her's. I was a well-feed American with a plate full of fries and sandwiches, I am pale and pasty white from working in an office all day, I was dry, and I had money in my pocket. She was hungry girl of about 10, she was carrying a half-clothed baby brother, she was soaking wet from wandering the streets begging, she had no place to go to escape the rain, and she was dark from staying in the sun all day.

She locked eyes with me for a minute. I could do nothing but think how different out two situations were and why she was in hers whereas I was in mine. Poverty has a way of making you think. After a few seconds of her eyes boring holes through me she left as quietly as she came.

Greetings From....

This can be a running post.

June 2: I will be back in Taiwan either late or very late tonight depending if a seat opens up on an earlier flight. I had a meeting in the city today and I also got a frequent visitor card (no more waiting in line at customs like all you other suckers!). Thailand was good. It really was not overly busy. My meeting yesterday was rough. We have had a lot of problems lately so they hammered me pretty well but I stayed cool and was able to handle it. As for the part below from the 30th, I actually went out with a new Thai friend to a sweet club. Below is a picture of the sick hotel room I was able to get (2 bathrooms, 5 total rooms, my own bathrobe...you get the idea).

May 30: I went out and did some shopping for family and coworkers today. Other than that it was pretty quiet. I had a pretty rocking hangover from last night. The club we went to was free cover but closed at 2am (like everywhere else. As I was waiting for a taxi I met some people who, with broken English, invited me to an after-hours club that was open until 6am. It actually closed at 3:30am and it was a good thing since I was already in that happy place. Not sure what to do tonight. Probably go walk around the city a bit.

May 29: I am in Bangkok, Thailand now. I didnt have any meetings this morning but I did have a shit ton of emails to and reports for work to take care of. Right now I just finished dinner and I am waiting for my Taiwanese friend to get into the city so we can go out and party. I will post my thoughts about my time in Cambodia later. I may be back in late June (after my trip to China).

May 27: I have been with customers almost all day the past 2 days. Which is totally cool. They have been very nice and receptive to my products and offers. Beyond that I have had some great Khmer food. My hotel is pretty nice but there are a lot of "bars" or "karaoke" joints around with options for other services so walking on the streets is pretty funny at night ("You want boom boom?"). The two pictures below are from my tuk tuk ride to my meeting this morning. I was not able to get a picture of the sidewalk barber shop outside the temple--it was cool. The picture right below should give an idea of some of the crazy traffic here (even though it was tame this morning by Phnom Penh standards).

May 26: I am in Phnom Penh, Cambodia now at a customer's office with a bit of free time. The real work is tomorrow and Thursday. Below are two pictures I took from the office window.

Trip

Well, it is after 8PM and I'm still at my office. I'll probably leave about 10PM, pack until midnight, and then get up around 4AM for my trip to Phnom Penh. As soon as I get off of the plane I have to run to a meeting with the largest telecom in Cambodia.

People ask me if I am concerned about H1N1. Not at all. Not when I have AIDS, dengue fever, yellow fever, malaria, armed robbery, robbery, violent death, theft, and insane traffic to worry about. That said, Cambodia is pretty cool and I am jacked to be going there (Bangkok after that, then a meeting for a few hours in Hong Kong).

Weekend Report

Friday: I got off of work late and went out with my friends Calvin and Kara for dinner and to walk around some of the happin' areas in downtown Taipei.

Saturday: I had wanted to do a lot so I got up a little early. I went out to go swimming for the first time in years. I went to a sports center pool and bought some goggles. But I did not buy a swim cap. Now let me explain why, I used to swim competitively since the age of 8 and only in important races would I wear a swim cap. Little did I know that it is required that you wear a cap to swim at this pool. So they threw me a sweet pink one with some flowers.

The lap swimming sucked. The problem was that the people in my fast lane were damn slow. There is NO reason if you are taking it easy and doing the breast stroke for you to be in my fast lane. Then again even when I saw people walk in who were built like swimmers and looked the part they were swimming slow. I was the fastest one there, by far, after years of not swimming. Which was good since I started getting pretty winded at the end so I was able to take a nice break after each lap to wait for the slow pokes in front of me.

That night I got the business card of a billionaire. Yes, a damn billionaire. He is a b.f.d. here as a business tycoon. The dude sits on the board of trustees at ND and so I went and met in his (too damn amazing to even describe) board room with the ND Club and 12 visiting business students. After that we took the students to a nice dinner. Oh yeah, I have a billionaire's business card.

After that I went out to a birthday party with my friend Oscar. Half the people there were French. But no matter, I had a good time and met some new people before heading for home about 4:30am.

Sunday: The late night was bad since I had planned to go for a run with the Hash Harriers of Taipei, "A running club with a drinking problem," which sounds like a hell of a deal to me. Instead, because I got back so late I slept in then got up and ran some errands at the store, do some laundry, and buy some shirts for my business trip on Tuesday. Then I went to my have dinner with my boss and his family. My appetite is finally back and I ate like a man possessed.

Very good weekend.

BBQ Across Cultures

Everyone loves to grill. That is pretty much a fact. In the US we like a nice big grill with some big ol' steaks, chicken breasts, or burgers. For me that is the ideal summer day--grilling something up for dinner and relaxing in my backyard with some buddies and a beer.

In much of Asia, and Taiwan in particular, that is much different. We have a big ass grill to cook things in the US. I was surprised my first time at a bbq in Taiwan since the grill was about the size of a shoe box. The meat they grill is much more varied--there is a lot of fish, shellfish, shrimp--and much thinner (image beef or pork cut about as thin as lunch meat in the US then grilling it). The advantage to this is the food cooks faster and everyone can grill their own. This allows people here to set up bbq restaurants (like Korean bbq or Japanese style too) where you can go to a restaurant and cook your own bbq meal with friends.