hong kong: memory lane and more

During my recent Asia trip, I spent a few days in Hong Kong, which was great. I was there for the HK Consumer Electronics Fair. This was my first time attending a show of this nature, and it wasn’t very exciting. On the first day, we spent a few hours at a convention center near the airport, and most of what we saw there was fairly ghetto—boring designs, cheap knock-offs of established brands and products, etc. The second day was more of the same, and then I flew to Shanghai. It wasn’t until I went back to HK a week later that I really had any fun.

The view from my hotel window:


One of my colleagues and I were alone for about 24 hours, as our Chinese counterparts were forced to stay in Shenzhen (a large city just over the border from HK) because their cheapskate boss decided that HK hotels were too expensive—lame, especially since Shenzhen is pretty dull. Anyway, said colleague and I got to our hotel in Tsimshatsui, then took a taxi to nearby Mong Kok so that we could walk around and check out Ladies Street—a long street filled with all manner of knock-off goods and cheap Chinese trinkets.

Walking around was fun. Mong Kok is always busy, and that night was no exception. There were people everywhere, pretty girls pushing the latest phones from Samsung and HTC (using hot chicks to push new products is still completely acceptable in Asia, unlike the US), strange and unusual smells and so forth. When I lived in HK, Mong Kok was one of my favorite places to go, if only for the electronics stores. We went to a few, which was nice. Ah, memories…













We finished out the evening by walking along the pier in Tsimshatsui and catching the nightly light show. The show is pretty cool—lights on the buildings on Hong Kong Island are turned on and off and synchronized with music and such.





The next morning, we took a ferry from Hong Kong Island to Mui Wo, a small town on Lantau Island where I once lived. My colleague told me that he enjoyed seeing Mui Wo more than any other place I took him, simply because of its small size and laid back vibe. Yes, I like Mui Wo, too. It was my favorite area on my mission. We lived just a couple minutes from the beach. I used to go up on the roof of our three-storey apartment building and watch ships dock at the pier. It was quiet and peaceful—a major change from the overpopulated places I lived the rest of my mission.





We caught a bus in Mui Wo which took us to Po Lin Monastery. Po Lin is famous for having the world’s largest sitting outdoor Buddha. It’s so big that you can see it on top of the mountain from pretty far away. I went there a couple times when I lived in Mui Wo, and I always thought it was pretty cool.







The best part of the excursion was the cable car ride that we took from Ngong Ping (just outside the monastery) down to Tung Chung, which is near the airport. I don’t know when the cable cars were put in, but they certainly weren’t there when I lived in HK. Anyway, it was well worth the $10/ticket we spent on it.









A quick subway ride back to Tsimshatsui, and that was it for HK. We caught a flight to Taiwan a few hours later. More to come on that…

jet lag sunrise

My sleep is still screwed up, but at least I get to see beautiful sunrises occasionally. I took these around 7am this morning.

more on vietnam

Since I last wrote about Vietnam, I figured I might as well finish my thoughts on it before I go back to one of the other places I visited. And by the way, if you haven't read the previous entry, check it out--it's pretty entertaining.

I only spent a day in Vietnam and didn't get to see much more than a factory, a hotel, a restaurant and a "karaoke establishment", but I do have some overall thoughts and impressions of the place:

- Again, the traffic is horrible. Crazy. Disorganized. More than any other place I've ever visited, Vietnam appears to be a place where there are no rules when you're on the road. Anything goes, and motorcyles and scooters pretty much rule the road. The car I was in was hit twice in one afternoon by motorcycles. They scratched the side of the car, but never stopped, and neither did we.





- For being the largest city in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City is not very organized or developed. If China is the third world, then you may consider Vietnam the fourth or fifth.

- I was surprised to find that, unlike China, none of my favorite internet sites had been blocked. When you're in China, you can't get on Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, Livejournal or a host of other sites. No such problems in Vietnam, despite the fact that it's still very socialist.

- Vietnamese people are short. REALLY short. Even shorter than the Chinese. My 6'3" height makes me a towering colossus in Vietnam, and this was a great source of entertainment for the factory workers, a couple of whom asked the factory manager for permission to stand next to me for a quick comparison as I was touring the place. Many of the workers were under 5' tall. Hard to believe, but it's true. They're so small that they can pack a lot more of 'em on a factory line. Here's an example:



- I got the distinct impression that many Vietnamese have never seen a white guy. I got a lot more stares than I do in China, and the people seemed to get really excited when I'd "call" them on their staring by waving back. My ever-rosy red cheeks also seemed to be a curiosity. Many people pointed at their cheeks as they whispered to their friends and colleagues. Yeah, I think they're weird, too.

- You shouldn't expect to go to Vietnam and get by on English alone. Most people seemed to know little or no English, and those who did know some couldn't speak it well and had poor pronunciation. So, if someone asks you for your "ready ka", be prepared to hand over your Mastercard.

- Traditional Vietnamese dress, from the cone-shaped hats to the Chinese qipao-like dress with pants, seemed to be fairly common. I thought that was pretty cool. Note, by the way, how all the Japanese dudes standing behind me are on a riser, and yet half of them are still shorter than me. Funny.





And, of course, sometimes visitors get into the fun as well.



- The food that I ate was pretty good. I'm sure there's plenty of nasty food to be had, but I was fortunately able to avoid this in my 25 hours in the country. If you ever go, be sure to get some pho, which is Vietnamese rice noodles. I got some in the airport, and it rocked. It also rocked my intestines during the flight back to Taiwan, but I'll save that story for another day. Anyway, here are a couple photos of the fried dragonfish we ate for dinner. It was actually some of the best fish I've tasted--good white meat, not too bony.





- The people are incredibly friendly and seemed very welcoming. Although I was warned of pickpockets and other crimes, I never felt like I was in any danger there, and the people always seemed very nice wherever I went.

I'd definitely like to go back. I didn't even scratch the surface of the country, and there's definitely a lot of culture there to see and experience. Next time, I'll add an extra day or two to my trip so that I can look around.

the other miss saigon

Greetings from the Ho Chi Minh City Airport in Vietnam.

When I travel, I'm usually treated like a VIP. People I meet know that I make the final decisions for a lot of things that we do, and that I'm usually the senior person in our traveling group. As such, CEOs, chairmen, managers or whoever the senior person on hand is from the other side will want me to ride in their car or sit next to them at the table or whatever. Asians are big on protocol. It's nice to be treated like you're important, but it's not my style and can create some awkward situations. Yesterday was the best example of this I've experienced thus far in my glorious corporate career.

Three cars were waiting for my two colleagues and me when we arrived in Vietnam yesterday. The chairman of the factory (the company and all its leadership are Japanese) invited me to ride with him in his personal car, while my two colleagues were assigned to other, lesser vehicles. Traffic in Vietnam is among the worst I've ever seen--there are too many motorcycles and scooters, and there are few obvious rules--so it took over an hour to travel what seemed like less than 10 miles. This gave the chairman and me lots of time to talk. It was during this ride that he first mentioned karaoke and something about "girls being arranged" for the evening.

The subject came up again during our ride to the hotel after our factory tour and meeting. It was at this point that I wove into our conversation the fact that my colleagues and I were married, and I also asked the chairman if he had a family. He told me he had three children. Despite these facts, the subject of karaoke and girls came up again during the ride. The chairman also told me that he hoped "the girls would be quiet, just like Japanese girls". I laughed nervously, trying to play along while wondering what I should say next to try to get out of any uncomfortable situations.

After dinner, we again got in the same car to be driven to our next destination, which he told me was called Miss Saigon. At this point, I made it clear to him that I had discussed the matter with my colleagues, and we all agreed we wanted no girls there and that it was against our company policy to accept more than dinner. He replied that he had made reservations, so we needed to go but would not have to worry about the girls.

Miss Saigon looked shady--there were bright neon yellow lights on the outside, and only Japanese men and scantily clad Vietnamese women inside. We were led to a room and seated. A big bottle of Jack Daniels was brought out, which all three of us promptly refused. A few minutes later, one girl for each of us was brought out, each wearing a sheer, see-through blouse and a very short skirt. It was at this point that we starting freaking out, particularly my Chinese colleague. He excused himself from the room for a few minutes under the pretense of a phone call, while my other colleague and I gave each other "WTF" and "What should we do?" looks. The girl seated next to me couldn't speak English very well, but she was trying to talk to me so I told her my name and asked hers, and we tried communicating a bit more but didn't get too far. She tried to get me to pick a song to sing out of a phonebook-sized karaoke list, but I refused and told her to pick one. She picked Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" or whatever it's called--a loathsome ditty, but whatever. After much pushing from a couple of the girls, I jumped in for one chorus but then handed the mic back. I was really freaking out. The girl next to me kept touching my arm and leg and sitting closer, and while she was decent looking and seemed nice, hey--I'm married and don't need a hooker, thank you very much.

My Chinese colleague came back in the room and announced that he wasn't feeling well and that he had to go. My other colleague and I said we would accompany him, so we all got up when we were told that a car was ready. The girls looked bewildered, and the chairman became very upset. He tried to force me to stay in the room while letting my colleagues go, and looked like he wanted to kill me when I told him that I absolutely had to leave right then. He followed us outside and insisted that I ride in his personal car again. Fortunately, one of his subordinates got in rather than him, and while I was freaked out that I was going to be taken somewhere other than the hotel, they delivered me there as I had requested. I explained our ethics policy to the subordinate and also told him that while the Japanese may find this kind of entertainment acceptable and normal for business (and they do), Americans did not and we could not accept it. He apologized and said it wasn't a problem, but I didn't feel like he was being very sincere.

The chairman had said that he would arrange for us to be taken to the airport today, and sure enough, he did--he was waiting for us in the hotel lobby this morning at the appointed time. You can imagine my dread when I saw him waiting there. The first thing he did was apologize and say that he'd "take care of things in the future", whatever that meant. Regardless, it was a pretty awkward ride to the airport. At least I had one colleague with me this time.

To be honest, I'm surprised something shady/uncomfortable like this hasn't happened earlier in my career. We've had people in our China offices fired for demanding and/or accepting bribes, and since I'm in a position to make decisions on tens of millions of dollars in business, it's natural that I would be a target for "special services", bribes or other forms of influence that are not acceptable in the U.S.

It's unfortunate that my trip had to end this way. My trip has generally gone very well, and Vietnam is a fascinating place--I would liked to have seen more of it. The people seem very friendly and welcoming and there's a lot of interesting culture here. I'm sure I'll be back someday, but hopefully not to visit this factory again. If so, maybe I'll just forward them a copy of my company's code of business ethics before I arrive.

Anyway, I'm excited to go home. It's been a long trip.

The view from my hotel window in Ho Chi Minh City:

shanghai surprise

After a couple of days of meetings and walking around at the Hong Kong Consumer Electronics Show, I flew to Shanghai on Friday night. The flight was an interesting affair. I flew on Dragonair, which is a Cathay Pacific subsidiary. This meant that there were a lot of carryovers from Cathay: 90% of the stewardesses were very pretty, the service was impeccable, and the meal was far better than decent. It's worth mentioning that this flight was just over two hours, and that I sat in coach...Yet I was still given a full meal with Haagen-Dazs ice cream at the end. It would be nice if American airlines could find a way to not take things like meals for coach class away and still make money. Clearly Asian airlines can do it. Anyway, I was given an awesome exit row seat when I checked in. It seemed like it was going to be the best coach seat I'd ever had when I saw that there was no seat in front of me. That all changed, of course, when I was kicked awake after falling asleep. You see, there was a plastic panel where the seat in front of me should have been, and it turned out that this panel was a fold-down seat. For reasons I cannot understand, Dragonair has a stewardess sit in one of these seats on either side of the plane during takeoff and landing, which resulted in 30 minutes or so of the flight being very uncomfortable as the stewardess and I tried not to look at each other. Not being able to put headphones on and fall back asleep, I finally tried to strike up a conversation at the end. It didn't get anywhere until I switched to Cantonese, but even then, it was still weird. Oh well--I'd still give the flight an A- overall.

Getting through Shanghai's Pudong airport was fairly easy, and pretty uneventful. The health checks and precautions for H1N1 are pretty entertaining. Almost all the workers and officials in the airport wear surgical masks, and all arriving passengers are required to fill out declaration forms regarding where they've been, any symptoms they've experienced and the symptoms of any people with whom they've been in close contact. Chinese immigration officials have the right to make people submit to random temperature tests and will quarantine anyone they think looks sick, so I'm glad I was feeling and looking OK. A guy in our Shanghai office was once quarantined for five days due to one of these inspections, and it was not a pleasant experience.

I'm currently staying at a Radisson hotel. It's in a decent, if fairly quiet part of town. I went for a walk before hitting the town yesterday, and here's what the area around the hotel looks like:







Yes, as modern as Shanghai is, there are still some things here that are throwbacks to another era.

My first stop of the day was the first Best Buy store in China, located in the ultra-busy Xujiahui district. I believe this is the largest Best Buy store in the world. It occupies 5-6 floors of a high rise building, and is definitely larger than anything in the US. I've always heard this was super-expensive real estate, and it didn't take long to see why. Here's the store and surrounding area:









The last photo, with the little kids surrounding the man, is to show you what happened to me. I was standing on the bridge waiting for my colleague to show up when these kids and a couple moms walked over to me. After some coaxing, they got up the nerve to say "hello" in English, and since the moms were telling them to ask me if I understood Chinese, I told them that I understood a bit, so they went into their fundraising spiel. I gave them like $.75, which apparently was a lot because they gave me not one, but two fake roses and a sticker for my contribution.

After visiting Best Buy, we hit two of our competitors' stores. Both of these competitors are far bigger than Best Buy and its Chinese subsidiaries, but hopefully that will change. Both stores reminded me of the now defunct Circuit City: poor lighting, less clean/inviting environment, unfriendly/unhelpful staff. Their prices are, however, more competitive than Best Buy's in many cases. One interesting thing I noticed in all three stores is that even though most consumer electronics are manufactured in China, they're all more expensive here than in the US, at least, the name brand ones are.

After we were done with the store visits, we went to Cheng Huang Miao, which can best be described as an insanely crowded "temple" in which many little shops and restaurants are located. Shanghai's most famous culinary development, the xiaolongbao dumpling, is served in the most famous xiaolongbao restaurant in the city here. The lines for this restaurant were super long, but we were finally seated after ~45 minutes of waiting. We ordered three types of xiaolongbao (pork, crab and spicy pork), as well as crab spring rolls and giant xiaolongbao that had crab soup in them. The soup was sucked out of the xiaolongbao with a straw. Kind of weird, but very tasty. In fact, everything was very tasty. It was a nice trip down memory lane. My only other visit to Shanghai was nine years ago, when I was a student, and my friend that showed us around also took us to this very same restaurant.















After more walking around, we left and went to another part of town, near Jing An temple. We were kind of beat, so we went to a donut shop to hang out. Like Haagen Dazs and some other American eateries in China, what is essentially a fast food affair had been turned into a sit-down experience at this place. We ordered some beverages and hung out for a few hours, discussing various work topics. The weather was really nice and we had seats outside in the shade, so it was a good experience overall. Here's the area near the donut shop:





My colleague had gotten excited that I had mentioned that I liked hot pot (you cook your food in flavored, boiling water), so she insisted that we go to a popular hot pot restaurant for dinner. Now, if you know me, then you know that my digestion sucks and that I can't really eat more than once a day without feeling like I'm going to explode, so I wasn't really looking forward to this. The lack of air conditioning in the mall and people smoking where we were waiting (for over an hour, I might add) only made matters worse. Still, I'm glad we went. The restaurant's decor and ingredients were of higher quality than any hot pot establishment I'd ever been to, and my colleague explained that this was the reason why the place was so popular, and that it had been widely copied since it opened a few years ago. Anyway, I got curry-flavored water, and we ordered beef, pork, lamb, winter melon (a slightly bitter melon I've never seen in the US) and white mushrooms (the only kind I will eat) to cook in the water. It was the best hot pot I'd ever had.

By the end of dinner, I was hot and exhausted. I fell asleep about 30 seconds after getting into the taxi to get back to my hotel. Since it was 45 minutes away, I got a nice nap. All in all, a very good day.

the joys of travel

Travel can be so hit-and-miss or up-and-down, and the last 24 hours have been no exception.

- There was no one sitting next to me on my flight to San Francisco, which was awesome. That made it easier to stretch out, especially because I was sitting in coach. The only downside to the flight was that it was an hour late.

- I flew business class from San Francisco to Hong Kong, which meant I got access to a business class lounge (British Airways, in this case) while I waited for the flight. This meant free internet access, free drinks, free snacks, comfortable chairs, etc. My experience was only marred by the old dude who chose to sit on my side of the lounge while he proceeded to talk loudly on his cell phone for over an hour about live animal tests or something like that.

- I got settled into my seat early (again, the benefits of business class), but we ended up sitting at the gate for three hours before getting cleared to take off (apparently the crosswinds "exceeded tolerance for the Boeing 747" or something like that). However, it wasn't like the horror stories you hear about on the news. We were offered snacks and drinks multiple times. I don't know if that happened for the people in coach, but if I know Cathay Pacific, it did.

- Cathay's business class seats are interesting. You get a pod of your own. Size-wise, these pods were probably designed more for someone of typical Chinese size than American size, but they certainly did have benefits. The major benefit was privacy. The pods are slanted rather than side by side, so you don't actually sit next to anyone. This meant that I didn't have to have any awkward conversations or listen to anyone blather on about their business--a frequent occurrence, based on my previous business class experiences. The other major benefit to this seat was that it reclined so that it was perfectly flat. I think I slept like six hours, which absolutely rocks for a flight.

- Cathay has good food and wonderful service. Meals typically had 4-5 courses, and included tablecloths, alcoholic drinks if you wanted them, hot towels before and after, etc.

- You gotta love the Chinese response to swine flu, SARS and the like. Most of the airport workers were wearing surgical masks, which was funny and creepy at the same time.

- When traveling in Asia, it always seems like white people get through immigration faster than everyone else, and tonight was no exception. All the Asians from places other than HK seemed to be taking forever to get through. Immigration officers were asking questions, challenging answers, etc. When my turn came up, not a word--my passport was quickly stamped and I was waived on. I observed similar experiences for my white brothers and sisters.

- HK's public transportation system rocks. There's nothing like being able to take a quick subway ride from the airport into the city (on a train designed for people carrying luggage, no less), and then a short taxi ride from the subway station to the hotel. The total cost for both was less than I pay for a taxi ride in Minneapolis, despite the fact that it took 3-4 times as long.

- HK taxi drivers. Still fairly rude. I think that's normal for most HK people until you get them to open up, though.

All in all, so far so good. My late flights only resulted in my having to cancel dinner plans with an old friend, and I was able to easily reschedule. Four hours of delays could have been much, much worse.

Tomorrow: Hong Kong Consumer Electronics Fair. Woo hoo!

winter storm warning

That's right--after Saturday's light snowfall, today we have a winter storm warning in effect until 4pm. We already have roughly two inches on the ground. This is crazy. Also crazy is how crappy my Canon G9's ISO 1600 performance is. I hadn't previously played with it much, but the grain is...um..."exceptional."

I checked the weather for a few of the cities I'll be visiting in Asia (I leave tomorrow morning), and it looks like high 80's/low 90's for most of my trip. I'm sure I'll be complaining in a few days about how hot/humid it is.

powerline sunrise redux

32 degrees this morning, but great clouds and colors. It's nice to be able to see this stuff standing in my driveway. (Click on the photos to make them bigger).

We're supposed to get 1-3" of snow tomorrow, so maybe I'll have more interesting photos to share then.

it's too early for this

I have an above average love of snow, but even I have my limits. This is the earliest in the year I've ever seen snow, and I don't think I'm mentally prepared for it yet. Just a few weeks ago we had temperatures in the high 80's, so to wake up to a bit of snow and 27 degrees is just a tad disconcerting.