Nolan Asia

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-15T04:01:00.000+08:00

Well for you all back in the US it is Valentine's day. For me it is over but I'm up super early and couldn't sleep so I thought I would add this.

This photo was taken on Monday in small town in China, the day before Valentine's day. The couple in the photo have been married for 60 years. And get this, this was the FIRST time they had ever been photographed in color! According to the caption they had never done that before. I thought it was too good to pass on.

I don't know how representative this is of older folks in China but it certainly isn't the norm these days. We've all seen the scores of Chinese tourists and their camera's everywhere, but maybe out in the countryside with the more remote villages it's more common than you think.

Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

I thought I had seen it all...

2012-02-10T18:31:00.001+08:00

Until today that is. It's amazing how I've become immune to so many different day in/day out challenges that I don't really even notice them anymore. Yet when visitors are here they quickly pick them up and make comments.

In any event today I had a first. I was out to lunch with our main mill in an area outside of Hangzhou. As an FYI Hangzhou is a city of about 9 million people, but I'm guessing you have never heard of it. In any event we are sitting there enjoying the typical round table lunch full of various Chinese food. I ask the waitress for some rice. While the Chinese eat rice as a staple I tend to do it when I'm in a place I don't know and don't trust the food. This way at least I have something helping to fill me up.

Well about 10 minutes goes by and the waitress comes in and says they are out of rice. Really? Did that really just happen? I'm in China, eating at a Chinese restaurant and they don't have rice???? Not to mention it was snowing outside, so I'm a little worried that "hell froze over" today...

Hard at work!

2012-02-07T12:10:00.001+08:00

This woman was working as hard as I've seen to pull this wood down the street. It isn't packed as high as some I have seen but it was heavy wood and she was doing her best. Keep in mind this is downtown Shanghai where she is working, would think they would get some more automated help but no...

A day of mourning...

2012-02-07T10:13:00.000+08:00

Well the day has come to say good-bye to a very dear friend. A friend who has been with me for just over 9 years now. This friend is my passport and I've run out of room for stamps. It's had two additional sets of pages added to it and the government will not allow more. So I need a new one sadly.

This passport has seen over 25 countries in its nine plus years, been stamped over 314 times, has visa's from China (8), Vietnam (4), Indonesia (1), Cambodia (1).

The passport will be missed but can't wait for the new one and see what adventures it takes me on...

Brawl on the Bund

2012-02-06T21:00:00.005+08:00

Back in December I attended a charity event called "Brawl on the Bund". Basically it's white collar boxing. One of my buddies was supposed to be one of the 16 fighters, that is until he got his nose busted up during training and needed surgery.

All in all there were about 1,200 fans in attendance and 8 fights that we were to witness.

The fights started at the lightest weights and went up higher and higher. As the weights increased it seemed that the intensity increased as well. This was some serious boxing and I'm mighty glad I wasn't in that ring!

The event was black tie optional and it was great to see so many folks dressed to the nines for this event.

It's been too long, sorry!

2012-02-03T12:11:00.000+08:00

Well I have a ton to report from the past two months, a Brawl on the Bund, Christmas in Chicago, Chinese New Year, Chinese New Year vacation in Thailand, apartment hunting, and so on. I will ramp back up here shortly. Sorry to those dedicated followers who have been waiting on the next big post. Lots to come.

I came across this photo recently showing the growth of Shanghai over a 20 year span and figured it was a good way to get back in the swing of things. It just shows you that life moves very fast over here and it's no wonder I haven't had time to update this of late.

One thing I find extremely interesting is the clouds back in 1990. We unfortunately rarely see that type of cloud cover anymore. Usually it's hazy or thick clouds, nothing like these.

A record of sorts

2011-12-01T21:11:00.001+08:00

Thank you one and all. The month of November set a personal record for me. It turns out that since I have started this little blog back in 2008, that November 2011 was an all time high in page views for me. So maybe someone is actually reading this even though most don't comment (props to the Schaefer's and Chip Morris for comments or emails more than anyone else).

In any event on this short week I've actually slept well after getting back to Shanghai Sunday night. Now the big test for sleep. I actually head to North Carolina tomorrow. So that is my third US/China flight in the past 9 days! I will be in NC Friday night and head back to China on Tuesday morning, so another brutally short trip.

Lastly, I'm not sure why I got this but the other day my driver gave me this bottle of alcohol as a gift. In this nice box for decoration as well. I have no clue what kind of alcohol it is. In fact about the only thing I do know is that it is 42.8% alcohol. Should be good for the jet lag huh?

Container Loading

2011-11-29T16:59:00.001+08:00

This was from a few weeks ago but I neglected it. We were out visiting a factory and they happened to be loading a container. Given the heat it wasn't surprising to see some of them without their shirts on...but the guy loading the container in only his underwear was a first for me!

Thanksgiving at "Mom's"

2011-11-26T19:01:00.001+08:00

As you may know I decided to take a real quick trip to LA to be with my brothers for Thanksgiving. I left Shanghai on Wednesday night, arriving into LAX also on Wednesday evening. Then the plan is to return on Saturday morning, giving me a little over 2 full days on the ground.

With the Packers playing the Lions on Thursday and me living overseas it was a chance to watch a game live for the first time all season. So Taylor and I went to "Mom's" to watch the game. We walked in to "Mom's" (photo below) just after halftime to the bar and instantly I was home. Wall to wall Packers fans, including one bald guy with his head fully painted like a Packers helmet!

After a 7-0 halftime lead we got to watch the Lions implode led by Ndamukong Suh who was ejected during a critical drive. Ahh what fun to see Mom's explode during touchdown after touchdown. Everything down to the Packers music blaring after each score and plenty of well lubricated fans dancing in the bar.

But I digress a bit. While watching the Packers move to 11-0 was spectacular, it wasn't the highlight of the trip. Rather just simply hanging with my brothers enjoying Thanksgiving for a couple days was the icing on the pumpkin pie so to speak. Alex had the turkey dinner catered in so we had no worries about ruining the food or stressing over cooking.

Now as I struggle to try and sleep with the jet lag on the short trip I don't really care as the trip was a blast and well worth it. Then again I might say otherwise as I actually have two more trips to the US before the end of the year (more on that later I guess).

Smells

2011-11-23T12:24:00.001+08:00

People often say that they will never forget the smells of China. Personally I've probably gotten used to a bunch of them. There is one I won't get used to and that is the smell of boiled then fried fish balls that are sold on a stick in 7-11. That smell is just nasty!

This photo was taken a week or so ago. It was in a Starbucks down the street from my office. Note the comment in the lower right..."Smells bad here." Were they referencing Starbucks? Or were they talking about all of Shanghai and China?

I'd bet on Shanghai and China in general. Starbucks has one of the greatest smells of all time!

Car Repairs

2011-11-21T20:00:00.001+08:00

Add this to another in the "Only in China" series. While I can't prove this story is true or not, I can say that it is the type of thing that would not surprise me one bit. So here goes the story as was told to me...

A local (native) factory owner takes his Mercedes in to the shop as he needed new brake pads. He leaves the car for a few hours and comes back when they say it is complete. He returns to the shop, pays the bill and then goes out to the lot to get his car and head home.

On the steering wheel was a note written in Chinese that said "Out of brake pads, made horn louder."

That's logic for you here in China!!!

Locked Out!

2011-11-16T23:27:00.001+08:00

This just happened this evening and is one of those "Only in China" moments.

Earlier this evening the building management sent over a repair person to fix a few things in my apartment - a broken toilet, some special lightbulbs and the door handle on the front door. Basically the door handle from the inside was loose and needed to be adjusted. All in all it took the guy about 20 minutes and he charged me 60rmb (under $10). Pretty nice value. So I went out to dinner. Upon coming back, my key went in the lock but nothing turned. I tried again and again but no luck.

I then had to go the management office to explain it to someone who only spoke ok English. At first his reply was "someone would come tomorrow." When I explained I can't get it at all to my apartment and showed him my key, he proceeded to go into the cabinets and give me my spare key. So back I went knowing it wouldn't work and guess what? It didn't.

So back to the office at this point. He then realizes this issue isn't going away on his clock. So he calls no less than 30 locksmiths, none of whom answer the phone. He keeps telling me "wait a minute." Finally someone calls and says they will be over in 10 minutes. So back over to my apartment we go.

The locksmith arrives...in his pajamas with no socks on and looking dead asleep still. But he is friendly. We get to my unit and I pull out the key and he looks at me like I'm crazy. I guess he thought I simply locked myself out. He then realizes the problem. Basically when it was "fixed" earlier in the evening the repair man reversed the lock on the inside making it impossible to use the key.

He tries all sorts of tools but nothing is working. He is making plenty of noise too using a hammer at one point. Finally he pulls out a metallic sheet a little bigger than a credit card. After another 15 minutes or so with that, the door pops open and I'm back inside. He spends a few more minutes fixing the "fixed" lock and then...they bill me 200rmb ($32). Really? Now I have no problem with him being paid and so I gladly gave him the money. But the idea that the building management guy thinks I should pay for this is absurd!

Ahh life in China!

Bhutan Day 8 - the last day

2011-11-16T18:57:00.001+08:00

Again we had some poor planning by our tour company owner making for some long time in a car. We started from our hotel in Paro at 9AM. She had told us the night before it was a 2.5 hour drive to go white water rafting. Well...come to find out that is if we had stayed in a hotel in Thimpu, so add another 90 minutes to the ride. Not a big deal but we didn't really want to spend our final day all in the car.

We finally got to the river only to notice that it was running real slow and there were no other rafts! Turns out we were out of season but they would be happy to take us. So off we went after we got our safety training. It was incredibly beautiful sights and generally super relaxing. There were a few rapids but honestly it was nothing.

Now I had mentioned a royal wedding in a previous post. Well a few days after we were to leave Bhutan the King was getting married. If I recall he was 30 years old and she is 21. Both very good looking, young and smart. He is only the 5th King in their history. All photos we saw of the previous ones were also young. His father the 4th King interestingly had 4 wives, which is allowed since he is the king. However that wasn't the interesting part. The really spooky, bizarre part that his four wives were all sisters! Weird by any standards I think.

In any event the entire country was getting ready to celebrate this royal wedding. The arrival/departure customs card even was in thirds. With the left side being arrival, right side being departure. In the middle was a photo of the new King/Queen with an announcement that this royal wedding was a countrywide celebration and that all visitors were invited to enjoy the festivities in all the country. So in essence it was my invite to the wedding.

Back to our rafting adventure. As we drove there our van got past by an official motorcade. According to our driver and guide one of the princesses was in the motorcade and apparently heading to one of their countryside residences.

(If you click on the photo to enlarge you will see the building in the background is all decorated with flags and such. This is only done on royal events, they were getting ready for the wedding in a few days around the country, even here in the countryside)

Then a few hours later as we lazily went down the river a group on the banks started waving pleasantly at us. The boat guide claimed it was the princess and her family and was able to tell because of the clothes they were wearing. Pretty damn cool!

Our final night was spent in Thimpu. In planning our departure back to Thailand and then China the next day we needed to figure out what time to go to the airport (also how late we could stay out that night accordingly!). Well even though I had the same flight number as the others, their tickets showed a totally different time than mine. We tried figuring it out but as in all of Asia what should be easy is always a challenge.

Some final photos as we walked around the city the last morning...

(That stepladder is actually the entrance to the store!)

Red Panda beer...not bad

In any event after one final dinner we were taken out to a karaoke bar where the girls did their best, while the locals sat around laughing at all of us. Then on to some local club where we were almost the first to arrive. We made the most of both places and hit the sack around midnight. Long day of travel tomorrow!

Phenomenal trip and highly recommended for those of you who can rough it a bit or like an adventure!

Bhutan Day 7

2011-11-13T21:07:00.001+08:00

Today was a long day but it was excellent, very different and full of more color than one can imagine. We started by driving back to Thimpu. This is where our tour guide wasn't so good at logistics and planning. It would have made much more sense to stay in Thimpu the night before but instead she booked the hotel back in Paro. Oh well, nothing we can do now. There is a royal wedding coming up (more on that in the next post) and therefore hotels are beyond scarce in the entire country.

So we returned to Thimpu for some sort of religious festival. It is a once a year, three day festival that everyone in the city makes sure they hit. The costumes and dances reminded me of similar dances I had seen in Bali. There were wonderful dresses and so much color everywhere. To say the least it was prime photo taking opportunity. In fact this whole trip was, so paring down photos has been next to impossible.

The festival was packed. This is just trying to get in.

We had to be dressed with long sleeves and a collared shirt for the guys. So the fleece was on and it was boiling outside!

After the festival our guide had a surprise for us. He had heard our disappointment in getting cake instead of pizza the day before so he arranged to take us for lunch at a pizza place. Nothing less than awesome! Honestly some of the best pizzas I had ever eaten. We scarfed down 5 large pizzas, even though the waitress said medium would be more than enough. Little did she know our appetites.

After lunch they said we were going to the zoo, but in reality it was a large nature preserve. Specifically to see their national animal, the Takin. This is one ugly animal. It basically has the head of a goat and the body of a cattle.

Here he is. Unfortunately he was in a lazy mood so I never got a picture of him standing up so you could see how large he was.

At the nature preserve we saw some child labor making beautiful scarves on these old hand looms. Interestingly the kids were also studying at the same time. Not sure it will get them far but at least they were making an effort.

After that we were off to see a Buddha. Then some tourist shopping. And finally to a bar which was its own unique experience. Basically people come to the bar and sit around on couches or chairs but don't drink! The money comes in from paying a karaoke girl to sing the song on stage.

As we were doing some shopping I noticed the Coke bottles all filled with milk in one store. Not sure Coke appreciates the extra marketing. Nor would I necessarily feel comfortable with drinking that milk..

The Buddha wasn't anything special, especially after seeing so many in Asia, but the view from the Buddha was pretty impressive.

Here's the view of the bar, not much to it.

Another "super strong" beer. Interesting that the exact same beer came in both a light and a dark bottle.

Our last stop was for dinner of Indian food. And while it's not my favorite cuisine, the place was excellent. We even met a local movie star. It was also good time to reminisce on the trip.

This was the kitchen at the Indian place. That's all there was to it. I couldn't even figure out where the food itself came from.

When all was done with dinner it was back in the van for a 90 minute drive back to Paro and our hotel. Good planning huh?

Bhutan Day 6

2011-11-12T10:14:00.001+08:00

Today is supposed to be super easy but in reality it is straight down for just over 2 hours. That means my quads were absolutely burning and you had to be very careful where you stepped.

A view from our campsite being packed up and us mostly ready to go.

That's me on the final day promoting my brother Taylor's company TssRadio. I've taken his shirts to Mongolia, the Beijing Olmypics, Bhutan and other places. A well traveled company. Check him out at tss-radio.com.

Our full group including the guides, cooks, horesmen, etc. Notice the woman on the left a couple of feet out from the group. That is the tour company owner and she was nice but wasn't great, I guess she realized it and didn't want to be in the photo.

Getting a little running water to clean our hands officially was nice.

The women, not quite ready to pass the finish line just yet. So I guess they took a few minutes of reflection.

Upon completion we were greeted by a previous guide of ours who had some Pepsi and a box that said "Druk Pizza." How awesome was this going to be? Well it wasn't pizza in fact so our dreams got shattered as it was a non-flavorful, but probably high calorie, cake.

Ahh the Super Strong Druk 11,000 beer for lunch!

We spent a bit of time checking out the city of Thimpu before driving back to Paro (which is the town our trek started from). The hotel when we finally got there was really cool and located high in the mountain, more like a lodge than anything else.

These next photos are from the city of Thimpu as we were pleased to be back in civilization I guess.

There are no stoplights in the city, so it is all done by police men waving on cars.

On the way back to Paro we noticed an awesome rainbow so we had to stop.

Ahh what I wouldn't give for a shower and a quick nap on a bed! Well that wasn't to be unfortunately. I unpacked my stuff as we would be here two nights, so enough time to air out the clothes that had gained a nice foul smell in the mountains.

When I went to take a shower all that came out of the faucet was a stream of muddy water! I ran it for a bit hoping it just needed to work through the system. Well it didn't. Turns out they were doing maintenance on the pipes and it would be another hour or so until it got fixed. They did move my room since now the entire bathroom was muddy.

Finally right before dinner they got the water working, so I took a quick shower and then it was off for some food.

After dinner we were to go to a local farmhouse for the unique opportunity to take a hot stone bath. This was supposed to be excellent for the joints and muscles after the days of trekking. In order to give you an understanding of the scenario there were individual holes built into the ground and framed out with wood. Each one was barely wide enough for a body width and probably 2 feet deep. In terms of length it wasn't long enough to allow me to stretch my legs completely. The water in these boxes was simply filled with water from a hose. Then right outside the bath house they had a massive fire going and in the fire were these large, very smooth, round rocks. Each weighed 20-30kgs (45-65lbs). They would transport them into an area near your feet that was walled off and the water heated up. After a few rocks were in and the water was hot we were allowed to each get in our hole. Holy crap was it hot! Literally it felt like the skin was melting off my shins! If you moved too much or too fast it simply caused all the water to move and everything felt hotter. I lasted about 25 minutes in this tub before I could handle it no more. But I got out feeling very refreshed.

In the farmhouse having tea before heading to the stone bath.

Yup those rocks are gonna be hot, hot, HOT!

Not a great photo but it will give you the idea...

Bhutan Day 5

2011-11-12T09:36:00.001+08:00

Back to the Bhutan updates after a few week delay, sorry about that.

Day 5 was relatively simple although we climbed to one of our highest elevations at about 4,100m (13,451ft). Much of the trek was slightly just slight up and downs over a very rocky terrain, so again had to be very careful where you stepped on some of those loose rocks. Knowing me it was a perfect chance to sprain an ankle. We've noticed the terrain has been very different day to day. Some nicer roads (not paved of course) at the start, some mud, some forest and some rock.

I awoke plenty early this morning and took some great photos of the morning before the clouds came in...

This is one of my favorites. That is the Bhutan snow capped Himalayas in the background. Nobody else captured a photo of them as the clouds started rolling in quickly and covered the impressive mountains.

One of our horses just grabbing some energy before the start of the day. All the horses were basically allowed to roam free during the nights.

More of the Himalayan's in the background.

We left our camp around 10am day 5 and got to the final camp around 3:30PM. It was rather weird as we were not exhausted from that day's trek and had descended to lower elevations so that weather was warmer. In reality upon getting to camp we were restless and didn't know what to do. We all rested for a bit, unpacked and drank some coffee.

Here is Nina and Gustaf grabbing some lunch during the trek with fantastic 360 degree views from where we were.

One of the few full group photos I got. We choose this location as it just had so much depth with all the different ranges going continuously in the background.

There it is the city of our destination, Thimpu.

The flags celebrating the final pass and really the end of anything difficult.

A temple with monk students playing soccer and the city of Thimpu in the valley below.

We met these monks on our descent. They had hiked down 3 hours to buy a saw and a few other supplies (including a Coke we noticed) before trekking all the way back up to do their chores.

Our camp was actually right next to another temple on the side of the embankment.

The city of Thimpu is the largest in Bhutan with a population of only about 70,000. Tomorrow we finish with a 2-3 hour down hill hike into the city and the trek will be over. Tonight one final dinner and night in the tents. As a side note my tent has been placed sloping heavily downward and to one side, should make for an interesting nights sleep!

Packers Season Tickets

2011-10-22T17:30:00.003+08:00

As I'm in the states for a few days and getting to spend the first part of it with my mom, I've been able to go through some mail. Well good news folks, I'm moving up in my quest for Green Bay Packers season tickets!

It might take a few decades though as I'm number 62,322 in line...

Factory lunch

2011-10-18T06:39:00.000+08:00

Interrupting the fun of Bhutan to go get back to work! Back in October my boss from NY was here and we have had an insanely packed schedule. Over the weekend to Taiwan, getting back Sunday night late. Then Monday a pick up at 6AM to go back to the airport to visit an outdoor supplier who is located between SH and Beijing.

At the airport I went to the rest room and upon getting done went to pull up the zipper on my jeans. Well the zipper broke with the tines literally pulling away from the jeans (nice crappy Chinese quality huh?). Now my zipper is broke and I'm about to start my day with a flight. So I did the only thing possible which was to untuck my shirt and wrap my fleece jacket around my waist, making me look like an over grown teenager. So keep in mind as you read the rest of the story that this is all done with the barn door being open!

Upon getting to the factory we find out that the local government office is excited to have us there as they want to further develop their economic zone. So we are "invited" (read: forced!) to go to a meeting at their offices and then to lunch, where we are warned that heavy duty drinking is in store for us!

Upon entering the gov't office there is an electronic sign saying "Welcome Richloom Fabrics." My first thought was uh-uh we are in for trouble. Well it got better as they put us in a conference room that had over 30 chairs and we literally had name badges as to where to sit. The name badge had my first, middle and last name on it. This means that the gov't party has looked us up, checked out my visa, understands I live in China, etc.

The meeting lasted about 20 minutes, all in Chinese before they took us to lunch. Below you will see the photo of the table and the massive lazy susan. I've been to a lot of nice Chinese places but this was one of the best settings. In fact the lazy susan actually was motorized and therefore was constantly turning slowly. First time I had ever seen that.

The funniest part was that the whole time we were eating in this nice big room and the waitresses were serving food was that a couple of additional servers were walking all around with fly swatters trying to kill the flies!

Meanwhile my fly is still wide open but hopefully covered up by my shirt most of the time. It was only a few minutes into lunch when they tried to bring out the Baiju (Chinese fire breathing whiskey if you ask me!). We turned that down and finally agreed on beer. Well these turned out to be professional drinkers, priding themselves and getting us to drink as much as possible. Each time walking around the table to greet us, cheers with us and then do the Gambei (bottom's up) cheers!

All in all a memorable experience.

Bhutan - Day 4

2011-10-16T20:55:00.000+08:00

Day 4 was supposed to be an "easier" day and even shorter. Well it didn't turn out that way for sure.

We left camp and embarked on a 90minute descent into the valley. It was more technical than the day before but going downhill made it quite fun. Then began the uphill portion which appeared from a visual inspection to be insane and go on and on forever! We were to climb to over 4,100m (13,450ft). A few minutes into the ascent a light rain started. The guide said it would be light and wouldn't last long. So we climbed to an area in the woods that was protected a bit and decided we would have tea/coffee and follow that with lunch. Well we had the tea/coffee and then out of no-place the rain suddenly turned into hail! We decided to skip the lunch and get to our camp which was about 2.5 hours away.

A nice simple downhill was a good way to start things out...

It was here where we crossed a small creek early in the morning that our feet began to get just a bit wet, which would not be fun as the day went on.

Our guide, Pema, getting a little rest on the side of the horse before our coffee break.

Here is where we stopped for the planned lunch.

And here you see the hail getting a bit stronger as a few of the folks decided to get on the horses to go a little bit faster.

Yeah it's hailing a bit harder isn't it?

By this point we were all freezing cold and soaking wet from head to toe. While we had some rain gear we probably weren't prepared (nor were our guides) for the onslaught of snow/hail.

While there were complaints about the weather that day, I personally thought the day was a blast! The snow/hail created a whole different complication and technical aspect to the climb. While it was cold, the ground never got slick so it didn't seem too dangerous. Although it did for the tour company owner. She was totally unprepared for the weather and was already a slow hiker. She finished probably an hour after us and only after one of the guides went to find her and make sure she safely got to our camp.

Finally at camp we see the hail has left a fair amount of snow on the ground. You can see another campground in the back right of the photo. Unfortunately when we got there we were only shortly behind our guides so they only had the ability to get the dining tent up and everything was thrown in to keep it dry. So all five of us jumped in this small place, scurried around looking for dry clothes...hopefully.

After about an hour the hail had stopped and we were warming up. Lunch was served (although it was about 4PM) and from there we were feeling better. There was concern about our boots and clothes we had worn. It was going to be impossible for them to dry by morning and we still had two days of trekking to go.

The night before we learned that bonfires are strictly not allowed in the mountains because of fear of forest fires. Bhutan doesn't have helicopters to help fight the forest fires so basically when there is one (and they are common due to lightening) then all the locals climb into the mountains to fight them.

However we had convinced the guides the night before that this evening we should find a way to have a fire. Their answer was they would "try" to accommodate our request. Thankfully they came through. As you see below in the photo one of the people used the fire to warm the feet. We also used it to dry our clothes as best we could.

Nothing like some wine and whiskey to warm us up after the hike.

Nearing sunset the weather had chilled and it became beautiful...but still chilled.

Below is a Bhutan custom called "Beetlenut". The beetlenut is chewed to give the body warmth, although in Taiwan they also eat beetlenut as a stimulant often used to keep truck drivers awake for a long time.

We all decided to try and figured since we were still chilled this would be the perfect time. As you see you have the bettlenut on the left, a white paste on the leaf and then the leaf itself. The paste is actually crushed limestone and the leaf comes from a subtropical environment in Bhutan. You put it in your mouth, chew it up, occasionally spit the excess liquid that forms and chew it all as long as you can. It's rather biter and when the nut breaks up it breaks into tons of pieces in my mouth. The spit that is produced is bright red. All five of us gave it a try with some chewing it to completion.

After the long, cold and wet day, we totally loved the bonfire and hung out until the wood was gone before heading to bed.

Bhutan Day 3 - The Start of Druk Trek

2011-10-13T21:42:00.001+08:00

The Druk Trek Path begins. Our trek was a 4 night, 5 day trek from Paro town to Thimpu City. Over a couple of mountain passes, reaching heights over 14,000 feet above sea level. However since this vacation had limited time our plan was to do it in 3 nights and 4 days, meaning we did 2x the norm on day one...straight up the damn mountain!

So getting started their were five of us, plus the tour guide owner (turns out it was her first trip ever), our guide, 3 horsemen, 2 cooks and 12 mules/horses. We actually paid for 2 of the horses in case we needed help on the trek and couldn't walk further.

We left Paro Town at 9:30AM prepared for a long day of trekking, expecting to get to our campsite between 5-6PM.

As we went along in the heat of the morning the scenery simply got more and more stunning.

I loved looking down on the town in the distance and the bright red chili peppers drying out in the sun! The sun during the first 2/3 of that day's hike was brutally hot as we hiked up, up and more up. The paths were mostly clear and free of any sort of tree cover.

As we got higher there was a long hike through a muddy forest that was much cooler which made the trek more comfortable and different in a technical way.

Lots more chilli peppers!

Some villagers heading down to the city...

"Versase" shirt out in the middle of no man's land...

Notice the ladder in the lower left. This is how the owners enter their home/farm daily. It's built like this to keep the random farm animals from destroying the crops.

The horse in the front with the red wig also had a bell on. This was the lead horse that all other horses would follow thanks to the vivid color and the noises made with each step.

Around 5:30 PM we finally found out camp site! Utter exhaustion had slowed us significantly the past hour or so. We couldn't wait to get to camp, grab some food, drink some wine and relax. In reality the sun went down around 6 and probably by 8:15 we were all dead asleep. Although I did wake hourly thanks to the rocks under my tent, but I still slept remarkably well. Refreshed for the next day, which had to be easier!

Bhutan - Day 2

2011-10-12T22:40:00.001+08:00

So day two was a Sunday which started harmlessly enough with a visit to a local farmer market. Was similar in many ways to ones I've been to elsewhere with the exception that cows and other animals were walking around and their was a fair amount of cow and horse poop on the ground, typically right near the fresh food! As was normal we saw plenty of color and great opportunities for photos...

No this is not child imprisonment, he was just on the other side of the fence...

Two of my friend looking to buy some spoons...

When I took this he actually moved his hat to the proper front facing way but I made him put it back like it was originally. He is bringing the gangster look to Bhutan!

After the farmers market we took our first real hike. From 2,000m up to 2,900m or so (approximately 9,514 ft) to begin acclimating to altitude in a real sense before our trek started the next day. We visited one of the most famous areas and most photographed called the Tigers Nest built on the side of a sheer wall. Incredibly it burned in the 1980's and they rebuilt it. We were able to walk all the way there and go inside. But given it's highly protected status no cameras, cell phones or other devises were allowed inside this temple. In fact a dress code was highly enforced. No tights for the women, no shorts, no pants with holes in them etc.

And yes a photo of me just so you know I was actually here.

This hike was mostly up stone steps after about the 1/2 way point. There was actually a rest stop with tea/coffee that we chilled at for a while before finishing the upward climb. Then on the descent our guide actually had someone bring us a meal that we ate like a picnic on the side of the mountain.

For dinner we actually went to a local farmhouse and ate with them. It was quite neat to see the house, made essentially out of packed mud and a little bit of structural support. It was well insulated but smelled like a farmhouse. The owner of the home had in the past cooked for the royal family but has since retired and his kids were grown up, leaving just 4 people living there. We found out the average family in the urban areas has 5 kids whereas the countryside is more an average of 7. We all enjoyed our time there but wished it was a house that still had a range of kids living there so we could really experience it. Here is a photo of some of my friends with the husband and wife who shared their home with us...

After this long day we start our true trek through the mountains to another city on Day 3, so more to come.

Bhutan! Day 1

2011-10-11T17:35:00.001+08:00

I just got back from vacation in Bhutan. An amazing 8 days in a very remote country that is certainly way behind in terms of being westernized. IE no McDonald's, Starbucks or much else that is recognized. My world phone didn't work, my blackberry didn't get emails...it was great!

This was the first photo I took upon getting off the plane in Paro, Bhutan. You can only fly there from Bangkok or one city in India and must fly on Drukair. According to what our guide told us they have only had one accident many years ago and that was a Taiwan pilot. Since that happened only Bhutan pilots can fly in because navigating the mountains and winds makes it too challenging.

After settling in to our hotel and grabbing lunch we started the tourist bit. Our first stop was to watch archery which is their national sport. Sounds simple until you see that the target is 140meters (459ft) away! Not only that but the other competitors stand within feet of the target and watch the arrows whip in. We were scared and we were 10-20 feet away!

Next we were on to see a temple and a fortress. We did a small amount of hiking to acclimate to the altitude. Below is a photo from around the city that gives you an idea of just how beautiful things are. Fresh air, blue skies, clear waters...all those things we don't have in Shanghai!

There were five of us on this trip and over the next few posts I will share many more photos and great experiences. One of the most intriguing things about Bhutan is that you can't just decide to go. You must actually buy a trip through one of the gov't controlled tour operators. The idea is to prevent too much tourism and to prevent a rapid spread of Westernism (not really a word of course). All tourists pay the same amount on a daily basis but that is all inclusive - guide, food, lodging, etc. If you want additional luxuries you can pay more but generally speaking they limit the tourists.

Molly Nolan's Wedding

2011-09-29T06:16:00.001+08:00

As I stated in my last post I was in Chicago last week and the main reason was to attend my cousin's wedding. The vast majority of the family was there including most who I don't get to see on my trips home so this was a great time to catch up with family, no matter how limited the time was or how busy we all were.

The wedding took place in the city followed by a reception at The University Club of Chicago, which was a stunning location. Check out the view from the window that evening...makes me miss Chicago very much!

Inside the ballroom got rocking before any of the food was served. The live band was keeping the crowd on its feet the entire time. The best was some young (probably recent college grad) woman grabbing a number of the older men and dragging them onto the dance floor and making them take off their jackets and dance! Was quite a sight to see. Unfortunately none of those pictures came through too well, but here you see a view of the dance floor. Quite spectacular.

I did get one shot that turned out well of my Aunt Jane and Uncle Ray and the raucous behind them. Mind you this is all before dinner!

Unfortunately no photos of the bride and groom as they were busy entertaining everyone and having a grand time before leaving the next day on their honeymoon.

Jet Lag

2011-09-29T06:05:00.002+08:00

As some of you know I went back to the US last week for some work and a family wedding, more on all that in the next post. The real reason for this post is to rant a bit on jet lag and how bizarre it is.

My trip to the US was a direct flight from Shanghai to Newark on United/Continental. Sitting in coach for 14.5 hours isn't the most conducive for getting sleep of course. Then it didn't help that I had what I would guess is an 80 year old Chinese couple next to me who kept trying to speak to me and had to get up many times (completely understandable). However on that 14.5 hour flight I slept less than one.

Upon arriving in NY and for the next 3-4 days I was lucky if I got 3-4 hours of sleep. Usually until no later than 2AM depending on when I went to sleep. And this is also with taking Ambien.

Then for the return to Shanghai, I arrived Monday afternoon. Took a nap which should have been 2 hours and ended up 5. Whoops! I awoke at 9PM thinking there was no way I could fall asleep. Well 11PM comes, I take an Ambien and sleep through the night awaking at 6AM. Tuesday was probably 9PM until 6AM. Now Wednesday night was a little less but I have a ton on my mind and a ton to do so maybe that is it.

But if anyone can truly explain why jet lag is so different from one trip to the next I would love to know. It's always been easier coming to China than heading back to the US, I get that. But still the variances are amazing from trip to trip.

In any event back to China for a few days before off on a trip of a lifetime...more on that later.

George Foreman!

2011-09-14T20:23:00.001+08:00

Yippee! The George Foreman is in the house! Take a look, even Chinese characters on the top of the writing...yet the instructions come in both English and Chinese!

I gave it a shot this evening and it worked well. I'll need a little more fine tuning as it looks like I didn't buy the deluxe version that has a timer, thermometer, etc so going by blind luck. Still it doesn't matter, this is awesome!

A Worldwide Remembrance

2011-09-12T21:48:00.001+08:00

This weekend was Mid Autumn Festival...also know as Moon Cake Festival. Basically it means that in the weeks leading up to the holiday we get and give lots of moon cake's as gifts (they don't taste good either!). But it also means a 3 day weekend. Given that I haven't had a beach holiday or break this year I went to Thailand for some R&R and with the hopes of getting rid of the burned in tan lines from my race in Korea. Well it rained 2 out of the 3 days so the tan lines are still there. But just getting out of China for a couple of days was well worth it. Good Thai food, lots of rest, and a bit of sun, not bad for three days. Now time for the redeye flight back to Shanghai and work on Tuesday morning.

As everyone was aware this was also the 10th anniversary of 9/11. It was cool to see how the world reacted. In the month of September there has been a bunch of coverage in newspapers in China, on CNN (Hong Kong edition), etc. It was magnified mightily this weekend with coverage in all the magazines, on TV, the internet and in newspapers. Some had a local twist to the articles be it from Malaysia, Thailand or Japan. It was sad in some ways to remember but in other ways it is great that we have not forgotten!

2011 Company Trip - Qiandaohu

2011-09-09T14:47:00.000+08:00

Every year in Chinese companies it is customary to take a company trip (wish that happened in the US too). Now getting an office of 60 people to be happy and excited about a free weekend is tougher than it should be. They all figure we have unlimited money and resources, which obviously we don't. To try and help ease the challenge, this year we had a committee of 5 organize and plan. This way there are others to blame than me!

Everything was planned for Labor Day weekend, knowing our NY office would be closed on Monday as well. We were off to Qiandaohu also known as "Thousand Island Lake." The plan was some rafting, a boat ride, hikes through some of the islands, and then to an oxygen forest. But first we had to get there...and for that we had to take the bus about 4-5 hours from Shanghai. I brought along an afro-wig for some laughs. Below is our GM, Paul and his massive head of hair. Hard to believe under there he is bald as an eagle!

Unfortunately I have no photos of the rafting but it was a blast! I wasn't sure it was a good idea given that most Chinese in my office can't swim! But everyone had to wear a helmet and life jacket. Below is a photo from a bridge on Qiandaohu.

Here is a different view of the bridge. It's actually more like wooden planks that move all over the place, making walking across the bridge an adventure. Especially when folks start to have fun and shake it! Below is one of our drivers (Mao) and the woman in purple helps run our testing lab.

Some people also did some sort of reverse bungee jump. The smaller the person obviously the higher they went and the more they flipped. Most everyone enjoyed but there were a few who did not.

My goal on this trip was to make it super enjoyable so that next year everyone would want to go. Because a few people backed out on this trip we had more room in the budget. So we switched plans about 4 days before it started. For our second night out we moved to a Sheraton hotel right on the water with unbelievable views and accommodations! Most of the team had never stayed in a western hotel so this was a big treat. Even better was that the weather cooperated. We took advantage of the pool, taught some of the Chinese to swim even and all in all had a great time.

I've tried to include nothing but the good fun photos. There are others of course. Like some of the god awful food we ate, especially at lunches. You know it is bad when the Chinese tell you the food is terrible even the rice! Plus we had challenges with buses breaking down, running out of air conditioning, etc. But we had an amazing time. One final photo of the sunset view from the hotel...

Fake Apple Stores

2011-09-08T19:17:00.000+08:00

Everyone knows by now that China is pretty good at replicating things...ok copying is more like it. Well one of the most bizarre is a city called Kunming, China was found to have two fake Apple stores. Completely set up to look real down to the employee uniforms. After lots of searching it has turned out that there are actually not two knock off stores but actually 22! All in one city.

In reality I think there are only 3-4 authorized and real Apple stores in all of China. Two here in Shanghai and either one or two in Beijing. They have aggressive expansion plans down the road but so far not 22 in the whole country let alone one city.

Check out the story and photos at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14503724

Expensive!

2011-09-02T12:05:00.000+08:00

We worked a trade show here in Shanghai this week and kept ourselves busy. On the last day I spent some time walking around talking to some suppliers. There was one mill owner who claimed her business was bad so she had more free time. In fact she had recently gone to the US with her 9 year old daughter. She commented on how she couldn't believe how cheap it was to shop in NYC! She said all week they did nothing but shop and barely looked a prices. Mind you all this is not shopping for cheapy goods, this is name brand luxury goods - Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, etc.

Then this week as I was walking home I happened to see a shirt that looked interesting in a Lacoste store. So I walked in to see if they had my size. They handed me a size "6" for whatever it is worth. It happened to fit. Then I looked at the price tag - 1,650rmb which means about $257USD for a short sleeved golf shirt! Really?????

I never would have guessed the time would be here when someone would say NY is cheap compared to China!!!!

Beer in a Bag!

2011-08-31T22:25:00.000+08:00

Well the photo didn't turn out great but I still had to post. At the Qingdao Beer Festival and really in all of Qingdao you could get beers in a bag! I guess the idea is to get a pitcher, liter or gallon from a local place that is super fresh, walk home and then pour into glasses.

It wasn't the easiest to work with at the festival but it was still well worth it to drink out of the bag!

Cheers!

Beer Fest!

2011-08-31T22:19:00.000+08:00

Well this has been too long to get posted, I'm sure some of you thought my liver took a beating at the Qingdao International Beer Festival, and you would be correct. For those of you in the midwest, specifically Milwaukee, think Summerfest on steroids! It is literally dozens of brewers with major tents and inside each tent was either live music, entertainers, auctions of art, etc. Oh yeah and tonage of beer drinking!

From the front entrance, this part seems to be a permanent structure up year round.

This photo was taken Saturday afternoon before too much of the drinking began. This is also towards the front of the festival. As you can see this is four very large western guys as I'm by no means the tallest. So what does that mean? Well it meant we really stood out. What happens to westerners that stick out at the Qingdao Beer Festival? Locals buy you LOTS of beers!

Inside the Tsingtao beer hall. This foreigner in the plaid shirt was quickly realizing what happens to a foreigner who thinks they can chug a beer...or a full pitcher of beer.

Or you could be like this buddy of mine who somehow got pulled into an arm wrestling competition with one Chinese after another! The guy on the left literally came from probably 50 feet away and it was like the red sea parting as he came through. Everyone cheering for him to take out the foreigner!

This photo was actually taken on Saturday afternoon down on the appropriately named "Beer Street." Literally fish restaurant after fish restaurant with their main focus being on selling beer. As you see at the top of the building this is part of the Tsingtao brewery.

All in all a great weekend but I'm glad it only comes once a year...

Qingdao Beer Festival

2011-08-19T12:23:00.000+08:00

The Chinese equivalent to Budweiser is a beer called Tsing Tao. Not quite sure where the name comes from of course but the beer actually comes from a city called Qingdao, which incidentally is basically pronounced same as Tsing Tao. In any event every year they have the Qindgao Dao International Beer Festival in August running for about 3 weeks. And yes yours truly is heading there this afternoon and will return to Shanghai on Sunday night, probably with an unhappy liver but plenty of good stories.

After all how many places have you been where the beers are served in plastic bags?

So I'll see you all later and should have plenty of stories after this weekend...

Duke vs China National Team

2011-08-18T23:08:00.000+08:00

Tonight I got some very different entertainment for me. I went over to the Mercedes Benz Arena to watch the Duke men's basketball team take on what was hyped as the China Men's National Team. However it turned out to be the under 23 Olympic Team but so what, all good fun!

Very cool stadium!

And the game is about to get under way....

There were a few celebrity sightings including former Duke player and NBA All-Star Grant Hill who was accompanied by his daughter. There was rumors that Lebron James is in town and was going to be attending but we never saw him.

The game itself and the entertainment was rather funny. Duke played well but I've never seen a home court advantage like this. The refs were atrocious and seemed to blow the whistle non-stop against Duke. Coach K was livid on the sidelines and this was supposed to be a "friendly" match.

In terms of entertainment they played music throughout the game, most of which was good. But for probably the first time at a sporting event ever we heard the song "If you are happy and you know it clap your hands." Everyone looked around just shocked. And then there was this guy, the China mascot...

What you can't see in this photo is that he is wearing a Superman body suit including the "S" logo. Nothing like copyright infringement in China!

And the obligatory cheerleader photo. Duke even brought along 4 cheerleaders of their own, I guess their travel budget to China was a bit limited.

All in all a great night of fun and a totally different experience. Oh yeah, Duke did win 78-66.

An insightful article on China and specifically Beijing

2011-08-15T22:20:00.002+08:00

I haven't spent a ton of time in Beijing but I've been there 3-4 times now. A couple visits for work and once for an amazing three days during the 2008 Olympics. The city boggles my mind in many ways but I think that's because I don't know much about it. I just read this article on CNN from an American who spent 4 years living there and thought I would pass it on. As the article starts out many people and certainly many Americans really don't have an understanding of China as it is today. Enjoy...

http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/08/14/beijing.welcomes.you/index.html

Best Photo opportunity missed!

2011-08-10T13:49:00.000+08:00

So the aftermath of the fake typhoon came in the other day as we drove out to Hangzhou. All of a sudden we were hit with a deluge of rain. Unfortunately I took out my camera too late to capture the good ones, like cars stalling in the deep water or trying to back up in the water.

However the absolute best photo missed, maybe of all time, was in the middle of the downpour there is a truck in the left lane of traffic. What is that truck doing you say? He was using what looks like a firehose to water the flowers! Really? Those flowers needed watering in the midst of the storm.

Camera was out too late so this was all I got...

90th Anniversary of CPC

2011-08-08T11:18:00.000+08:00

Well for those of you worried on the Muifa it was nothing. It was downgraded on Friday from a Super Typhoon, down to a regular one and then on Sunday it became just a storm. A real drag as some of us were excited to see it. The streets were very quiet on Saturday and Saturday night. But all for nothing as the direction changed and therefore it wasn't coming right at us.

On another note, China is in the midst of celebrating 90 years of the Communist Party of China. There are some cool exhibits and reminders of the group that started the party back in 1921. This photo is not far from my home and will give you an idea to the lengths they have gone...

Muifa coming to town

2011-08-06T06:52:00.000+08:00

Below is an excerpt from Shanghai Daily the local English newspaper. Muifa is the first typhoon this year and some articles are calling it a "super typhoon." Last night out for happy hour even though the weather was nice, most people wanted to eat inside instead of outside fearing the storm would come. Well it's now a pleasant and calm Saturday morning with no storm yet...

"Shanghai has ordered all its local government departments to be on emergency alert to prepare for the approach of Typhoon Muifa. This year's first typhoon alert was issued yesterday morning as the powerful typhoon moved closer to the city, packing winds of up to 162 kilometers per hour and threatening havoc over the next two days, the weather bureau said.

The possibility of Muifa directly hitting Shanghai has not yet been ruled out. Only two typhoons had directly landed on the city before, one in 1977 and the other in 1989, the weather bureau said.

Shanghai is expected to suffer winds of up to 117kph downtown and 133kph in coastal areas tonight with the stormy weather lasting until tomorrow.

"We are facing a big challenge in our utilities, especially the subway and tunnels, as the city hasn't met such a level of typhoon since Matsa in 2005," said Shen Jun, vice mayor of Shanghai. "Everyone should be on alert."

All outdoor events today and tomorrow have been canceled or delayed, Shanghai Flood Control Headquarters said last night.

All construction projects in the city's coastal areas or involving high-rises have been suspended with workers evacuated from their temporary accommodation.

Shanghai-based China Eastern is suspending online check-ins on flights leaving from the city's Hongqiao and Pudong airports until 5pm on Monday.

By yesterday afternoon, thousands of vessels had taken shelter at local ports while ferry services had been suspended for the weekend, said Wang Jiqin, a local maritime official."

Headless Horseman

2011-08-03T08:52:00.000+08:00

Since December 2009 I've always come into our office building and been confused by this massive artwork on the wall. Rumor is that it is actually made from gold (but there are lots of rumors in China that I don't believe or even listen to). However what really makes zero sense to me is that this has always been a "headless" horseman. What happened to his head?

If you click on the photo you can get a bigger image of it and you will see that it almost looks like there was never a head on this man!

August 2011 and the return...

2011-08-02T08:44:00.000+08:00

I seriously have little comprehension of where the time is going. I absolutely can't believe that we are already into August 2011. Time flies even when you aren't having fun, although I try. Speaking of fun, for those of you looking for an update on the bird here goes.

Yesterday after lunch my Angry Bird made a miraculous comeback. He was "shipped" back to me or so they wanted me to think. They even filled out some Chinese paperwork with shipping documents. Inside the box I found my bird and for my Blackberry...

They gave me a protective cover to show my allegiance....

So for now I've got me a cover on my phone to keep it safe and protected.

Bird Update

2011-08-01T07:45:00.000+08:00

In response to some of my valued followers I wanted to give you this update on my Angry Bird. To this point I have not responded to the ransom request, nor do I plan to negotiate with the terrorists. So I still haven't seen my bird in some weeks. Late last week I got this email...

Now that doesn't mean I don't plan to do anything about this blatant disregard of my personal effects. Stay tuned for my revenge plot...

Chinese Baby Photos

2011-07-25T21:32:00.000+08:00

We all get a kick out of baby photos. Especially those of you with kids. One of my colleagues here recently had a baby and today sent out some of the professional photos that they have had done. I'm sure you will enjoy...

There were a few others including two of this young man completely naked, full frontal nudity in fact. I figured that's probably not fair to include here for his sake. The captions crack me up like "Naughty little angel."

Yummy Pringles!

2011-07-24T17:56:00.000+08:00

So which is your favorite flavor? You have options of "Hong Kong Fish Balls" or "Bangkok Chicken Wing". I'll take the chicken I think.

Stolen Angry Birds!

2011-07-15T17:42:00.000+08:00

This week I realized my nice Angry Birds toy was stolen from my office. So I had a little fun and made up a Wanted poster...

Well of course nobody would fess up and admit their theft. In fact yesterday when I was in the car visiting a factory I received a phone call after I politely answered "hello, this is Nolan" all I heard was the noise that my bird makes and then the phone went dead. Ok it looks like someone is playing games now huh?

Well today they stepped it up a notch. I received an email from "Angry Bird Ransom" (angrybird.dies@gmail.com in case you want to send them nasty emails and fill up their email with junk and spam messages!). Here are the photos from that email...

And then the ransom note with their list of demands...

Looks like someone is really elevating the game...

Angry Birds!

2011-07-08T17:22:00.000+08:00

Gotta love the Angry Birds right? Someone in my office gave me this for fun. It is really intended as one of those massage type tools but the really cool thing with this one is it makes noise when you smack it against a hard surface. Sounds just like the birds in the game!

Happy Friday everyone! Enjoy the weekend and be safe!

Duty Free and Checked Luggage

2011-07-06T20:26:00.000+08:00

So on the flight back from Jeju (yes the one that was massively delayed) it was packed with triathletes, their families and friends and of course it was also packed with plenty of Chinese heading back home. For whatever reason it is pretty normal for the Chinese to bring back lots of duty free items on international trips. That is usually kept to items like cigarettes, booze, etc. However this time I saw probably no less than 8 rice cookers carried on board. Now unless I'm mistaken I can find a rice cooker here in Shanghai on probably three out of every four corners. Why in the world did they all bring those back? Did I miss out on something?

Oh well I'll never figure it out. But then it got better. When I got to baggage claim I to pick up my bike and bag I saw the below case of water coming on the belt. Really? You checked a case of water? Why?

Photos from Korea

2011-07-06T07:14:00.000+08:00

Only about 250 folks entered the 70.3 race which is only slightly more than I have had in a group in Chicago which boasts more than 8,000 total racers.

And we are off, into the ocean swim. Still only my 2nd time swimming in ocean waters and I always have that feeling of looking around me for that shark! While some people grew up swimming in the ocean, loving the feel of the saltwater that gives you the extra buoyancy, I can't shake that feeling of looking for the shark feeding on the slow guy...me!

Out of the water about 43 minutes after starting, which given my history and recent training is not a bad time. Once I relaxed and got into it I had no problems.

And onto the bike and those darn rolling hills. In looking at an elevation change map of the course it looks like the longest climb was right in the first mile or so. The complication I had was that my bike struggled to change gears for a bit. I was in a tough gear and trying to change but no luck until I had given up and then all of a sudden all the gears dropped. Thankfully only once on the course did I lose the chain and have to stop for that. More importantly I had no flat tires to fix.

Early on in the run we passed these statues which look pretty funny. I guess there are many stories as to what they are, what they mean, etc. I guess it's up to you to decide what you think.

And finally the finish line. Eyes closed, totally out of it and ready to be done and get some food in my system.

So what is next race wise? I'm not sure. I met a great group of people in Korea who live throughout Asia and travel to races together so there are opportunities. Maybe to Taiwan in November or maybe hold off until doing something in spring next year.

70.3 Korea Jeju

2011-07-05T12:32:00.000+08:00

Well the race has come and gone from yesterday but the pain is still with me! This was not originally a race I was doing but since the 70.3 in China was cancelled they gave us transfers to other races including Korea, on Jeju Island on the very southern tip of Korea. I didn't spend much time checking it out (whoops!), training well (thanks to my friend procrastination as well as work conflicts) or planning (I only booked a hotel the night before I flew to Jeju.

So let's start there. The hotel was not in the complex where the race was which added complications. After arriving in Jeju everyone took the city airport/limo bus to the tourist complex. The buses could only hold 2-3 bikes at a time and came every 15-20 min. So I didn't get on until the 3rd bus finally. My hotel turned out to be about 10k from the race site and right next door to the World Cup Stadium. Relatively new but it had its kinks. Like no toiletries provided (had to purchase them downstairs), only hand towels no bath towels, no food other than what was similar to a 7-11. So I munched on chips, string cheese and a snickers Friday night. And to top it off they had zero comprehension of English, much worse than any Chinese hotel from that standpoint. On Saturday I convinced a taxi to take me to the race area with my bike (no small feat there).

There was lots more interesting on Saturday like the mandatory race course talk that was supposed to be in English (later ones were in Korea and Japanese) but was really very broken English that ended up confusing more than helping most competitors. Before taking a taxi back to the hotel that night I went door to door to see if any hotels in the complex had cancellations by any chance. Only one did but it was a suite that was going for 1,400,000 won ($1,400USD/night). Not quite my budget. My last stop was the Hyatt so I figured I would grab pasta dinner there. So at least night before the race I got some good eats in.

Race morning as always comes early. However with the full Ironman distance starting at 7AM and the 70.3 at 9AM I did have a bit extra time after getting to the race around 6AM. I could describe the race in one word for each segment:
Swim: Water
Bike: Hills
Run: Hills

The swim was described on the official website as:
There will be 2 swim loops (1 loop for 70.3 Ironman) designed based on straight 950 meters long swim course. Even under extreme weather condition, this new swim course will always enlighten athletes to perform their maximum ability at average ocean tides due to long breakwater already built to protect such natural obstacles.

Can you tell me what that means????

As for the hills on the bike and run these weren't like the mountains I experienced riding in Phuket, Thailand back in December. Rather they were long steady inclines and declines. The maximum length I heard was 3k for one of the climbs. In other words they totally burned me out.

I thought I did ok on the bike but my computer wasn't showing speed or distance and there wasn't any mile markers on the course anywhere. But once I got to the run I realized my legs were shot once again. It was all I could do to stand up let alone run. From there the heat started kicking in and my sunscreen that they supplied must not have been waterproof so it really didn't do squat. I finally figured out that if I kept dunking my arms and head in buckets of ice for 2-3 min at each aid station I would be able to cool off enough to make it to the next one.

It was probably the first race where I had multiple serious thoughts about quitting. At the turn around for the run I was probably only 2-3 blocks away from my hotel. It was so very tempting. However I persevered didn't care about my time, just finally decided I really wanted to finish. And so I did, in pain, full of hunger and sunburn but pleased that I had conquered the brutal course.

There were two final obstacles. First was convincing another taxi to take sweaty, smelly me and my bike back to my hotel. After 2 said no I got one that would help out. The last challenge was the 1 hour flight back to SH. With my challenges of getting a bus on Friday I figured I would go early and not risk it. That plan worked but the nearly 7 hours of flight delays blew that plan and I finally got home last night around 10:30 when I should have been home to enjoy the evening of the 4th in Shanghai.

Korea

2011-07-02T07:42:00.000+08:00

Well I'm in Korea for the first time. Down at the very south on an island called Jeju. Here for the 1/2 Ironman race tomorrow. So far it has been a challenge. My flight was delayed about 2 hours on the runway leaving Shangai causing me to be packed like a sardine next to the window for longer than I cared to be. Then from the airport there was two options - take a taxi (with my bike) for about 300,000won which I converted to be about $300! Nope! Or take the airport limo bus. Problem was the buses run every 15-20 min and could only take 2-3 bikes at any given time. So with all the folks on the flight with a bike I ended up with the 3rd bus. Finally after getting to the bus stop I got a taxi to take to my hotel. Unfortunately since I booked late my hotel is probably 5 miles from the race hotels and start of the race (which will mean some planning for tomorrow early morning).

So it's now about 8PM and I get to the hotel, figuring I will check in and grab some food since I really haven't eaten all day. Except the hotel doesn't seem to have a restaurant! Thankfully there is a convenience store inside so I grab some chips, water and a Snickers along with shampoo because there is none in the room. Not exactly the meal needed for the two days before the race.

The hotel is nice but it has its quirks for sure. No light except for the overhead light in the room that must be turned off by the entry, so not while in bed. No soap or shampoo in the room. No tourist guides or hotel information. All in all just weird. But it's clean and relatively new.

Today I've gotten the bike rebuilt with no problems and am now off to get a ride in, loosen up the legs a bit and see if I can get myself to the race starting area.

Language update

2011-06-27T07:07:00.000+08:00

I can't say I've given up on learning Mandarin but I certainly have lost my sense of direction over the past 3 months or so. It's all I can do to keep up on work, a little social life, some triathlon training, etc.

However I love reading stories about the language like the one in the June 23rd issue of China Daily titled "Moving beyond the basics of Chinese into deep waters." The story was written by a foreigner living in Beijing. There were two great parts. One was where he translated a venture capital panel on some high tech products. Over and over he introduced one of the speakers incorrectly simply because of the tone or inflection of the words. Instead of his name, Ye, followed by Zong which means head or chief he used the wrong tong and essentially called this leader "Chief Love Child!" Thankfully Ye Zong was a good sport.

Another time after this foreigner passed what he described as the HSK Level 3 exam (Chinese Language Proficiency exam) he joyfully announced to his colleagues that he officially passed the level 3 exam. The audience full of his colleagues was silent for a long time. After which they all burst out into hysterical laughter. Apparently he had instead announced: "I am an X-rated adult movie star." Whoops!

The intricacies of the language certainly are challenging but I have no clue how a proficiency exam and an x-rated movie star could even be close to one another.

Vending machine...dress shirts!

2011-06-26T16:20:00.000+08:00

Spill coffee on your shirt in the morning, no problem...
Forget to use deodorant in the morning, no problem...
Need a fresh shirt for an evening dinner, no problem...

Fresh out of a vending machine in Shanghai for only 79rmb ($12.15 or so) your choice of a couple of stylish colors and lots of sizes!

Hip Replaced!

2011-06-26T07:45:00.001+08:00

As my mom would say "huzzah!" This past week my mom went in to the hospital to have her hip replaced. Everything went well and now as she told me she feels like the bionic woman with two replaced knees and one hip.

My brother Alex came from LA and got there mid week to help with the recovery and move to a short term rehab facility. In my eyes on of the biggest challenge for me living over in China is being so far from family and friends when stuff like this takes place. It's not exactly like I can get on a 2 hour plane ride from Chicago and be there, tis a little longer than that.

Pop quiz for whomever wants to answer this question. As my mom rode in an ambulance from the hospital to the rehab center she posed the question to this question to the ambulance driver: Name the 10 parts of the human body that are spelled with three letters (no slang allowed). It's not easy...unless you google it you cheaters!

Train Station

2011-06-25T22:44:00.001+08:00

About a year ago Shanghai opened a regional transportation hub. Basically we have two airports here, Pudong which is the new predominantly international airport and Hongqiao which is mostly domestic. Well right beside the Hongqiao airport they opened this high speed train station as well as local subway station, effectively linking all transportation in the city. While they did this they also opened the new terminal of the airport and doubled its capacity.

Today I took the high speed train for the first time. It was an excellent experience. Top speed I noticed was 307km/h or about 188mph. It barely felt like we were going 60mph!

Here is a view of the station. This was on a Saturday morning so basically off peak times. I can't imagine the insanity when it is busy!

Chengdu

2011-06-25T22:42:00.000+08:00

Well the bosses are back in town for me. Hence I'm running around like crazy, probably not good for the race in a week to work hard, stress, not sleep and drink more alcohol than normal but it is what it is.

Late this past week we visited a furniture factory that is the largest in China that only supports the domestic China market. I've been to a number of enormous factories but this puts them all to shame. They support about 3,000 retail stores in China. In fact this week the CEO of Ashley Furniture in the US (world's largest furniture retailer) visited them to try and partner. However this factory wanted nothing to do with them as he didn't see that it would help him at all and they would end up competing anyway.

Below is a picture of their compound. I can't even describe how big it is other than to say they have this urban planning scale model of the facilities and it was probably 15 feet by 15 feet in and of itself!

The only bad thing about the factory visit is that Chengdu is famous for two things: spicy Sichuan food and panda's. We got to eat some great Sichaun food but didn't have time to head to the mountains and see the panda's. I guess a return trip is in order to see the panda's...and eat more of the food!

Shooting at airplanes...fun times in Korea!

2011-06-20T22:59:00.000+08:00

So about two weeks until my race in Korea. I haven't booked my tickets yet as I can't find anything reasonable for the 90 min flight. But after reading this account I'm pretty sure I will avoid Asiana Airlines (even though I've flown them before and they are great). Kind of amusing that soldiers think small rifles will bring down a jet huh? Obviously tensions must be getting higher between North and South Korea for this to happen...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/657de9e8-9a3c-11e0-bab2-00144feab49a.html#axzz1PpQ7Jfiz

Plum rain season is here!

2011-06-18T22:16:00.000+08:00

Gotta love China for all the reasons for the rain. Right now we are in the middle of Plum rain season. It happens every year and has something to do with the high levels of humidity causing massive amounts of rain. Generally speaking this is good as China has had a drought of late and needed the rain. Me I could do without it. Since being back from vacation a week ago I think we had one day without rain. Friday and Saturday (today in fact) have been horrible.

I have a customer meeting at 9AM on Sunday in Hangzhou which is a 2.5 hour drive away. So given the early rise on Sunday I figured I would stay in. Also since I'm only two weeks away from a race in Korea it's all the more important to get some training in.

That being the case this evening I went to the pool. Figured I would do a long swim, knock myself out for the night and get up early to sit in the van. There were only two others in the pool with me so I had room which was nice. After about 20 min or so I heard a thump into the pool. The swimmer who was near the middle of the pool stopped and looked all around. She came a few feet probably of being hit by a falling piece of the ceiling! Yup the sky was falling outside making the sky fall inside! That was the end of my workout for the night.

Ahh China gotta love it!

Procrastination 101 and countries visited

2011-06-13T21:00:00.000+08:00

So ever since I was in school I've been an expert at procrastination. Tonight when I should be working out for my race in three weeks or downloading my pictures from Italy and posting on what I wonderful time I had there, I decided to procrastinate.
Instead I counted all my stamps in my passport. My passport is about 8 1/2 years old now. The first few years were a few trips to Canada and one or two to Europe - Germany and Ireland specifically.
Since 2007 the stamps have multiplied at a ridiculous pace. As of today I'm up to 287 stamps!

My countries visited includes 23! In no particular order: US, Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, UK, Sweden, Italy, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Philippines, Mongolia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan and Singapore.

By the end of the year I should add two more at least.

Not bad for a midwestern guy who didn't leave the states until a trip to Jamaica in college!

Bookstore

2011-06-12T17:01:00.000+08:00

Old Chinese Proverb

Confucius say,
"If you are in a book store and cannot find
The book for which you search, you are obviously
in the.....

TV-Live

2011-06-12T14:08:00.000+08:00

Well since my TV channels have generally been horrible (at least until I got a Philippines satellite dish which is pretty awesome), this was my "TV-Live"....

Different country same result

2011-05-31T21:25:00.000+08:00

I must have some amazing blood! It doesn't matter if I am in the US or in China because mosquito's LOVE me! I remember back in high school being out in the park for soccer practice getting eaten alive. Here in Shanghai I don't even have to go to the park, I just go to bed. While I've got a great apartment, somehow the mosquito's are getting in. Last night around 2AM I woke up itching my forehead, arms, etc. Then as I was wide awake the darn blood sucker tried to go right in my ear buzzing away! Ugh! The more things change the more they stay the same!

Memorial Day

2011-05-30T21:06:00.000+08:00

Well I hope everyone is getting ready to enjoy a nice day, giving thanks to those who have lost their lives for our country, maybe going to a baseball game, BBQ or just drinking some cold ones (have a Miller Lite for me if you will). Obviously I don't get to enjoy the day in the same way and of course that means I was off to work this morning. Not a big deal though as with the US on holiday it means things are a bit slower around here.

So for lunch I went to one of the new American institutions...Subway. Got myself a nice sub, chips and cookie and pretended I was back home. Here you can check out they have "live TV" to watch the sandwiches being made...

Kind of pathetic but humorous at the same time.

On another note this page now shows me the statistics of how many views I'm getting. Well it looks like May 2011 I set a new record for monthly views right now at 199. It's nothing to write home about but I figure I'll see if I can keep updating this regularly and see how many I can get in the future.

Once again have a safe and happy Memorial Day!

One week till vacation...

2011-05-27T18:04:00.000+08:00

So it's Friday early evening and that means that I have officially one week left until vacation and it couldn't come soon enough. Too bad it won't be long enough either. However a week from tonight I leave for Venice, Italy. A friend I met while I lived in Shenzhen, China is getting married their. So it will be a good group of us from all over the world re-connecting in Italy. Never been and totally looking forward to it.

It's also one week until my company has their twice annual trade show in the states showing off the new fabrics for next season. So that means it is utter chaos in my office now trying to get production completed and out the door. Not to mention all the testing that needs to be done. Or the regular problems. Or the additional government mandated power outages causing less production time. Ohhh the headaches...bring on vacation!

Bubba's BBQ Cook Off

2011-05-19T22:08:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday was good old American fun in Shanghai. A local BBQ place simply called Bubba's BBQ had their first ever BBQ cook-off with 20 some teams entering. Nothing like a day of beer drinking and BBQ tasting, made me feel back at home...The location was over in Pudong on the other side of the river, where everything is a bit cleaner and newer...

Some great BBQ although usually portions were small not like you see here. We all walked around with a toothpick and sampled different items...

Some teams went crazy on the extra's. Like this booth which took a fondue set and loaded it with BBQ sauce! Notice the bottles of booze at the bottom, guess this was the special sauce.

Complete with a live band doing covers of music like Led Zeppelin, Alabama, the Clash and so on. Not to mention games of "bags" or "corn hole" being played adding to the festivities.

Even the kids were jamming out to the live music...

Good times sure to be repeated...

Chinese Fire Drill

2011-05-16T07:20:00.000+08:00

Well this was truly a Chinese fire drill. A couple of months ago our office building ran through the drill and how everyone was supposed to exit. It was most amusing in some ways but very orderly all in all (sorry to wreck your preconceived notions on this one).

The interesting part was getting downstairs and out in the parking lots. They had set up barrels with fire in them and had people practicing using fire extinguishers. This had smoke going all over the place.

The building specifically asked me to give it a try as they thought it would look good in their training manual to have a foreigner doing it. However no photo of that...

Traffic Jam

2011-05-15T10:22:00.000+08:00

We've all heard stories living in various parts of the US about traffic suddenly getting backed up on the interstate because of a horse, deer or some other animal has gotten lost right?
Well how about for a massive goose crossing? My friend was going to work earlier this year out to some factory when traffic stopped for a while. So he got out of the car and went to the front to see what it was all about and this is what he encountered - a goose farmer taking the geese someplace. Anyone up for a game of Where's Waldo???

Race Cancelled!

2011-05-14T09:11:00.001+08:00

Nice screen shot of the race website. Now they have cancelled the entire race thanks to some vague description of a sanctioning body. My guess is that they never got all required permits chopped (a chop in China is the official stamp put on most anything) from the govt. Good news is I get that money back and get free entry into another race. I'm thinking seriously about 4th of July weekend in Korea right now.
Now I just need to get my money back from the race, the hotel and my plane tickets!
Bummer!!!!

http://www2.ironman.com/events/ironman/china/ironman-china-and-ironman-70.3-china-cancelled#axzz1MHj0JNjn

Royal Knock Off

2011-05-14T09:04:00.000+08:00

Well you can't say the Chinese are slow to market. They are nothing if not fast when it comes to knock off's. Or as they like to say when they hawk the goods they are "original copies."

This was in the China Daily (the nation's English language paper) the Monday after the Royal Wedding.

Triathlon becomes duathlon

2011-05-11T23:14:00.000+08:00

Well if this doesn't stink. In typical TIC ("This is China") fashion the local government decided not to advise the people who had gotten permits, government agreement, road closures and so on that the reservoir where the swim was going to be held was going to undergo a major renovation...until just recently. So now three weeks before the only race of it's kind in China the race goes from a triathlon to a duathlon.
My dilemma was I wanted to do at least one 70.3 (also known as 1/2 Ironman) race each year living in Asia and also to hopefully do it in a different country each time. Well if it is now a duathlon I guess I can't check off China 70.3 as being completed!
Only good thing is my training has been lax on the big picture but my swim training has been downright horrible!
Now I'm thinking of 70.3 in Korea over 4th of July weekend.
Link for the full story...
http://ironman.com/events/ironman/china/ironman-china-cancels-swim#axzz1M3ayyt2A

TCM

2011-05-08T17:28:00.000+08:00

Another new experience for me to write about. Recently I had a follow up visit to a hospital. This hospital is part of the S.O.S. international hospitals. Simply put it is a hospital that us xpats will use without feeling like we are totally in a different country.
So Friday was a follow up to have fasting ultra-sound done on my upper stomach. I had experienced some heavy pain like a cramp or stitch on multiple occasions and figured it needed looking at. Bottom line is the ultra-sound went fine, the technician saw nothing out of the ordinary with any of my internal organs. So all good.

So now for the new experience. Since I was at the hospital and had some time, I asked if they had a doctor or physical therapist that was available to check out my lower back? I seemed to have pinched something or tweaked a muscle maybe will over-doing a bike ride last week. It had gotten extremely painful and therefore since I was at a doctor's office....Well it turns out the only doctor that was in and available was a TCM Doctor (Traditional Chinese Medicine). I said what the heck, if she can heal the back then good deal.
The exam started with questions about the pain, then to a look at my tongue (basically same as most doctors so far). From there she spent probably 5-7 minutes checking out my hands, although I never found out what she was looking at them for.
Now without even showing what was causing the pain she had me get up on the exam table face down. It was here that the acupuncture needles went in! I didn't realize that was going to happen so it was quite a shock. She probably put in 8-10 of them. Honestly they must have been super small as I really didn't feel anything. Then she turned on some sort of heat lamp and pointed it on my back and told me to rest for 20-25 min. When that time was up, out came the needles.
She then said she would now do the cupping. I wasn't so sure about this one as I have heard it can be very painful, almost like your skin melting off. But I finally said yes. She only put two of the cups on - one on my lower back right in the middle and one on my right hamstring. Here is an image of what the cupping looks like. It's basically a suction cup that pulls up your skin...

You can literally see on this the skin getting pulled all the way into the cup. The feeling for me was more of pressure than anything else and just a weird sensation all in all. These stayed on for about 10-15 min I think. The normal result is bruising almost like a hickey if you will. Here is an image of what it can often look like...

Thankfully neither of mine produced much of a bruise at all. Not sure if that was of the location they were placed or because there were only two.
After this was complete it felt like the doctor ran some sort of stone over my back up and down over and over to get the "chi" flowing in the right direction or something like that.
Then it was done. I stood up and immediately noticed a difference! My back felt great. There was still some pain but probably 90% of it was gone. The doctor requested one more follow up but so far I haven't done it simply because I couldn't get an appointment when I had time. But given the success I'm sure I will do the TCM route again in the future. Pretty cool.

Kobe in bad advertising

2011-05-08T17:15:00.000+08:00

So what does this ad make you think when you look at it? That Kobe is "Smart" and actually drives one of these cars? Really? Because I have a hard time thinking that Kobe at 6'7" or so could actually fit in this car. Nice that he wants to save money and be more environmentally friendly and all but I'm not buying it.

Police bike

2011-05-08T17:13:00.000+08:00

I am not sure what this police bike is doing. It was probably nearly midnight and this bike was just sitting there with the lights flashing as some sort of deterrent. To what I'm not sure. Just thought it looked find of funny sitting out there....

English names for Chinese folk

2011-05-05T21:22:00.001+08:00

As I'm sure most of us would agree pronouncing Chinese names, let alone remembering them is next to impossible. So for years the Chinese have used Western names for business practices or when in university and those names carry with them in addition to their Chinese name. I've even been involved in naming a few people myself. I've thought about doing something outrageous but never quite pulled the trigger. That doesn't mean someone else hasn't though, there are some seriously funny ones.
For instance last night I was in Guangzhou for the Canton Fair. We were at a hotel having dinner and I couldn't help from laughing out loud when I read the waitress's name badge. She was none other than "Uranus."
So this got me to thinking about some of the other funny ones I have heard or met. There was a woman working at the Renaissance Hotel in Shanghai on the club level lounge. Her name surprised me so I asked her how she got it? Often it is given to them in school so I figured maybe a teacher did. She said no that she picked it all by herself. Why? Because as she said nobody would ever forget it. Well she was right, I haven't in these years and still tell the story. What is the name you ask? "Internet." Enough said!
So after the meeting of "Uranus" last night I decided to post on Facebook a question to my friends of some of the other humorous names that we have run into over here. In short order I got the following and anticipate to get plenty more:
Peter Pan
Ima Ho
Beer
Swallow
Grizzly
Smallhole
Romantic
Dolphin
Apple
Seven
Trainee
Chewing Gum
Charlie Shin
Yu Ok
Phuc Vu
Dick (was a woman's name)
Sky (as a boy)
Dream
Hibiscus
Natural
Casual
Bunny (for a guy)
Wendy (for a guy)
Morgan Freeman Ho
Superman Wong
Billboard Kwok
Zero
And the all time winner that was a late entry is "Semen".

Bin Laden one last time

2011-05-05T13:00:00.000+08:00

Thought I would share these...

Bin Laden

2011-05-02T22:17:00.000+08:00

While today was a holiday (May Day) and our office was closed, I still had a customer so I was in around 10AM. Around 11AM this customer, who is Canadian, says to us that he just got a text from his mom stating that the US gov't had killed Osama Bin Laden. Really? It had been so long that I, like many others, simply thought it was not something that was ever going to happen.

As soon as i got home a couple hours later I started watching a ton of news on it. There already were impromptu celebrations going on at The White House and where the World Trade Towers had been. I get most of my news here on CNN. And I genuinely think they do a pretty good job reporting on a world wide basis using their crews out of Hong Kong. However it was also most interesting to watch it unfold on BBC and an Australian news network. It appears obvious to me that this was not just a US incident but rather a world-wide incident. Even reading it online here in China either on Shanghai Daily or China Daily gives a pretty good view of the events.

Now lets hope we can all put this behind us and move forward.

Bob Dylan in Shanghai

2011-04-22T08:08:00.000+08:00

So a couple of weeks ago I returned from my short visit to the US. Landed here at 10:30AM, went home, showered and then off to the office to meet my boss who was in town. Worked the rest of the day and then a group of us went to the Bob Dylan concert here. The concert was literally right across the street from my office so that made things easy.

This was only the 2nd concert he had ever given in China. The first being 2 days previous in Beijing. It also happened to be that the date was nearly 50 years to the date from his first ever show! So yes he has been at it a long time.

Here's a view of the arena and stage before he came on...

Looks more like a small college arena than anything but still it's Dylan right? We were ready for anything.

Above is with him on stage (sorry for the poor iPhone quality photos). Unfortunately there was no large video screen to see what was happening up there. Dylan is now 69 years old. His song writing skills are brilliant but at this point his voice is pretty much gone. He played a two hour set but not until the encore songs did I even recognize one of them. That was because the Chinese gov't strictly controlled his playlist. In fact he tried to come to China last year but was refused entry by the gov't.

All in all it was a fun experience and I'm glad I got to see him especially saying that I saw him in China. But given I had arrived that morning on a trip that took nearly 32 hours from start to finish I could have used a show that was more upbeat to keep me fighting the jet lag!

This is China, driving to work

2011-04-21T08:49:00.000+08:00

Another China moment on my way to work this morning typifies what we go through on a daily basis living over here. My driver, Cash, just picked me and headed our normal route to the office, same one we did yesterday and the day before in fact. Getting one block away from my apartment complex and crossing an intersection he realized that over night the road had been made a one way street, the other way! So there is some oncoming traffic coming right at us. To make it more fun they haven't yet put up the "one way" street signs! Thankfully we had only gone about 15-20 feet but still. Then the next fun was backing up into the cross traffic to get on a street going the right way.

Oh China how I love thee!

Chinglish at its best

2011-04-18T20:18:00.000+08:00

For a good laugh check out the article in the top right corner. Keep in mind that this was written in the Shanghai Daily which is the main English written newspaper serving all of Shanghai. While they might know the words in the English language it doesn't appear that they always know how to actually put those words into use.

Hope all is well everyone!

A quick trip home

2011-04-02T12:36:00.000+08:00

I am just about to head to the Pudong airport for the 14 hour flight back to Chicago. Unfortunately it's a short trip so really not much time to hang and catch up with anyone. Arrive Saturday evening and then on Sunday mid-day fly to North Carolina for the wonderful High Point furniture show! Spend a couple days there and then on Wednesday make the return to China.

Taking a whole new way "home" so to speak. Departing Chicago at 1AM and going to Seoul and then from Seoul to Shanghai landing around 10:30 Friday morning. Then right to the office as my boss from the US arrives the night before. Spend one night in Shanghai before flying down south for a couple of meetings.

Good luck to my sleep and for that matter the training I am already doing horrible on. I've signed up for 1/2 Ironman China up in Beijing at the end of May. Not quite sure why I keep agreeing to do these when I know I don't have the time to train!

See you soon USA!

Beijing and the bank

2011-04-02T12:32:00.000+08:00

Last week I went to highly entertaining conference on Cotton Sustainability in Beijing (ok so not entertaining at all). A couple of days of speakers that were mostly in Chinese but that was ok because we all had headphones and it was instantly translated. Kind of felt like being in a UN type meeting in fact. The difference between the Chinese speakers and the western speakers was astounding. The Chinese took the approach of just spitting out statistics, numbers and data one sentence after another. Honestly it was impossible to keep up and follow what they were trying to tell us. Then the western speakers were mostly following their agenda using anecdotal evidence, relating to previous speakers and being a little more free with information. Was quite an interesting difference between the two. All in all the conference was beneficial even though it seemed to be more focused on cotton in relation to apparel than my field of home furnishings.

In my free time I wandered around near the hotel as the weather was awesome. Right down the street I found this bank and wondered who in their right mind would deposit their money here????

The Worri-bank? Really? Not smart folks!

Medicinal Wine

2011-03-06T09:46:00.000+08:00

On a recent trip to Dongguan (southern China) we had lunch with a factory. The food itself was excellent, so much better than the style of food in Shanghai. For those of you not very familiar with Chinese food it is very regional in style and taste. Some areas are very spicy, some more fish, some hot pot, some sweet/slimy (Shanghai), some rice, some noodles. You get the idea. Well this place was good...until...

We were leaving and they showed me some special bottles of wine that are very expensive and typically used for medicinal purposes. I couldn't take photo of them all as a couple just looked normal. For instance there was a bottle filled with ants and another one with bees in it. Those just looked like a pile of something at the bottom of the bottle.

Then there was this...

It's a little tough to tell but the image above is a bottle filled with scorpions!

And then the absolute kicker and one that nearly made me lose my lunch right there...

Yes folks that is probably what you think it is. Those are mice fetus! Who in their right mind drinks that and why???

Rainbow dog

2011-03-06T09:39:00.000+08:00

I was walking around Shanghai the other day and saw this dog (yes it is a very real dog) in the window of some shop. I couldn't resist the chance to take a photo.

Now I know many people love their dogs but has anyone thought about if their dog would really appreciate being painted like this?

March 2011

2011-03-02T16:11:00.000+08:00

Well I just realized it is March now. This is cool for a lot of reasons...spring is on the way (fingers crossed that it comes sooner than last year), my birthday is coming (the 14th if you want to send gifts or money), St Paddys Day (although not the biggest social event in China), etc.

But the other thing that makes it pretty cool is that I have now officially lived here for one year. While I started this job in December of 2009, I didn't move to Shanghai until the end of Feb 2010. So I've now been in this apartment one year, have extended for the next and so on.

Looking back it was a good year filled with plenty of challenges and lots of laughs along with some fun. As I said before let's bring on the next year!

It's been too long since my last update

2011-03-01T06:17:00.000+08:00

Sorry all, it's been too long since my last update. A tremendous amount has happened in the past month and I have a lot of updates to get onto here. I will get to them as best I can over the coming days...

But for some recent humor I thought I would include these couple of photos first. The first one is from a flight last week. Not sure why he had his shoes off in the first place given it was a short flight and all, but if you knew your socks were worn down to nothing do you really think everyone wanted to see?

And this one was from a factory visit. I just appreciated the irony of the situation. You have a huge conference table with these nice US/China flags all down the way, a no smoking sign prominently displayed and then the ash tray right behind it. Unfortunately there was no way to get a photo with the other 6 or so ash trays all down the table.

More to come, check back soon.

Mao Live

2011-01-30T13:47:00.000+08:00

Last night I went to a place called Mao Live to see some live music with a buddy. It was the final night for this venue and the show was to include 7 different bands. When we arrived and went to check our coats they wouldn't give us a ticket for them. They simply said they were out of tickets and to get your jacket back it is pretty much the honor system. Well I didn't go for that as it was my warmest winter jacket and I couldn't risk losing it.

Once we got it we found the place to be packed to the gills! Probably 90% local Chinese with the rest being foreigners here and there.

We watched three bands play. I would say the first two were punk/rock type...kind of like the Chinese version of the Violent Femmes. All the music was in English but that didn't help me recognize any of the music. The last band was Heavy Metal with the lead signer being Chinese with dreadlocks! That's a new one for me.

A pretty cool night and different but after a few sets we had to get out of there, not quite my music scene.

Chinese New Year Gifts

2011-01-30T13:40:00.000+08:00

The other night we went out to dinner here in Shanghai with the owner of our main partner mill. We do a tremendous amount of business with him and he has really grown with us over the years.

There were seven of us at the dinner along with three people from the mill. After an excellent meal at a place called Shanghai Tang he proceeded to pull out gifts for each of us. For the men it was belts and the women was a pocketbook. The kicker is that these gifts were all bought at the Louis Vuitton store and they were the real deal. Mr Luo, the owner, doesn't speak much English but it was translated that they were very careful when buying these, especially for me as I was the "biggest" person there and they wanted to make sure they bought the correct size.

He gave us the receipt in case we needed to exchange later for a different size. The belts each cost 4500rmb or $675!!!!! Holy crap that is a super expensive belt! It's not bad looking either but I almost feel guilty about a gift like that.

The Pack is back!

2011-01-24T20:56:00.000+08:00

3:05AM this Monday morning my alarms went off all over my room. I figured I couldn't be too careful about sleeping in after all. By 3:30 I was in a taxi off to a hotel here in Shanghai to pick up my boss who was in from NY. Upon getting the taxi to stop and grab him we were off to Big Bamboo to catch kickoff at 4:00AM local time.

Upon arrival the bar was nearly full. There was basically only two tables open. There were other seats but honestly I was shocked how full it was at that hour. It was obvious a few folks had not gone home that night but were still continuing the evening of drinking, but there was another group planning on heading to work after the game. Way more folks drinking beer and doing shots than I would have expected. We grabbed a seat a few minutes before kickoff and were joined by another American co-worker a few minutes later.

The game itself kept my heart heart from beating for too long at a time. We should have put the Bears away long before we did but we took it down to the end before punching our ticket to Dallas and the Super Bowl on Feb 7th...The bar was filled with both Packers and Bears fans making for some good fun. Here is the screen at the end of the game...

In another week or so we hit Chinese New Year and the year of the Rabbit. Well just like the rabbit who says he is #1, I say the Packers will end the season as #1. Aaron Rogers (#12 for those of you who don't follow) didn't play great this week so he should be primed for an awesome game in Dallas during the Super Bowl!

And after the game we headed for some breakfast before being in the office by 8:30 ready to start the work week. I can't lie, my eyes were a bit tired during the day but I had a smile on my face! Super Bowl here we come!

Chinese New Year Speech

2011-01-23T18:22:00.000+08:00

A year ago when I started with Richloom Fabrics here in Shanghai I made a semi-promise during our Chinese New Year dinner that the following year I would do my best to give some of my speech in Chinese rather than have it translated.

So along with my Chinese teacher the past few months I have worked on this to make good on my promise. I didn't tell anyone in my office I was going to attempt it.

This past Thursday night was our dinner. We had about 70 people total of which probably 60 were local Chinese. I, as the boss of the office, was the first to speak. I called up our GM as he usually translates for me. I started in English saying a few things to him and then to all I said that Paul would translate and I wanted him to see the speech first. I showed him my paper and he says in total shock and laughter "what is this???" Even at this point most people had no clue what I was doing.

Back up a few minutes more and I had just used the rest room and washed my hands. The water was absolutely frigid! I hadn't much to eat since lunch and had consumed a 5 hour energy a few hours ago (basically a caffeine kick). So between cold hands, empty stomach and caffeine I was already shaking...

But then as I stood there looking at everyone staring at me my hands and really my whole body started to shake! I haven't been so nervous to ever speak in public before.

Below is the text of my speech. End result was a fantastic job if I do say so myself. A few mistakes of course but everyone was super impressed. I guess next year I'm going to have to stretch a bit further and do a speech without notes.

By the way my Chinese language skills are piss poor. So that makes the whole thing even more impressive to me.

New Years Resolution

2011-01-22T18:58:00.000+08:00

I'm not the type to make a New Years Resolution. However this year I figured to do something a bit different. I decided that since I did a 1/2 Ironman in December and was essentially in shape that I would go as long as possible in 2011 before working out. In other words how long until I become a sloth from not working out!

Well today is the 22nd of January and I still haven't worked out. So far the worst part is that I haven't been sleeping well. So I think the resolution is over, back to the gym shortly... Good thing is most other people's resolution includes more working out but after 3 weeks most people have given up on it, so the gym should be wide open!

Back to the grind...

2011-01-22T18:54:00.000+08:00

Well, the US holidays came and went. Was great to be home in Chicago for about 10 days, seeing friends and family. The only down part was I had to stop by my condo which is currently rented out to 3 grad-school students. It was my first visit since leaving in Feb 2010. I only met one of the guys and my first impression of him was that he looked like a young Jim Belushi! And I'm pretty sure he parties like it from some of the complaints I have received. The place, while clean, looked like a college dorm or fraternity. It was honestly depressing.

Then after Chicago I was back to Shanghai for a night before heading to Shenzhen and Hong Kong for New Years eve. Had a blast, stayed out too late, etc.

Since then it has been work, work and more work. Trying to figure out raises and bonus's for about 60 local employees wasn't easy. The Shanghai gov't announced in December that the average raise for 2011 in the city would be 11%! Can you imagine the days of raises at that amount in the states?

Lots more updates to come so check back soon...

Home for the holidays...but first snow in Shanghai!

2010-12-21T21:54:00.000+08:00

The day before I was to return to Chicago for about 10 days Shanghai was covered in snow. You should have seen the little kids going crazy. Snow isn't totally foreign to SH but generally it is a few flurries and that is about it. Well this time we ended up with a fair amount more and plenty even sticking to the trees and buildings. Here are a few from around my place in Xintiandi...

I'll be in Chicago from the 16th and departing back to Shanghai on the 28th in the early morning. Give me a shout or send me an e-mail!

Asia Pacific Championship - 1/2 Ironman - Laguna Phuket, Thailand

2010-12-21T21:47:00.000+08:00

Well as I mentioned before I was "training" for another 1/2 Ironman (1.2m swim, 56m bike and 13.1m run) in Phuket, Thailand. The good news is that I did the race, the bad news was I didn't train hard enough. In the weeks leading up to the inaugural race there were media reports describing it as what could be the most challenging course in the world for 1/2 Ironman...oh great!

Day before the race the bike is ready to go and so am I sort of....

I should point out that the day of the race, Dec 5th was the King's birthday. The King of Thailand was 83 that day and the longest governing monarch in the world. He has been in power more than 60 years! All these notes on the right were signed by me and other athletes to hopefully give us a bit of luck...

Here is the swim start. A very unusual course because you swam about 2/3 of the 1.2mile swim in the ocean. From there you got out and ran across the sand dunes for about 150m and then dove into a fresh water lagoon to do the final 1/3 of the swim. It was my first time racing in ocean and while I loved the saltwater for the buoyancy I can't say it tasted great. Plus the thought of looking around for sharks got my heart pumping. The biggest challenge was the lagoon actually. In that the lagoon tasted like motor oil! They had been ferrying athletes via pontoon boats all morning and the oil runoff was brutal!

But I did finish the swim. 1/3 (at least segment wise) done with the race! Now let the fun begin...

The bike was 56m or 90km. It was characterized not by hills but by mountains! Two that were exceedingly difficult. However many stretches of road were amazingly scenic through the countryside of Thailand, small villages, etc. There were lots of spectators out, including many little school kids making lots of noise and cheering us on.

The first major mountain stretch came at kilometer 45 of so. We basically came around a corner and looked smack dab straight up! Most people attempted the climb thinking we could see the top. I'm not sure how far I made it before doing as most others did and walking my bike up. Now for those of you who understand heart rates this will put it in perspective. WALKING up the mountain my HR was between 167-175 which is very high! Back to the course. When we thought we were to the top, we weren't, it was just another switchback. So tried to ride again, dropped my bike chain causing my legs to flail and me to simply fall over and off the bike. No pain as I wasn't moving but it was rather funny.

Finally at the top one thinks the fun is about to begin right? Get to cruise down super fast? Nope. These were areas marked as "yellow flag" areas. This meant according to the rules - no passing, hands must be on your brakes, you must sit up on the bike, etc, oh and you can't go more than 12mph! Why? Because the descent was so steep and so full of curves that someone would have died on the course. Honestly it was all I could do to pull the brakes hard enough to stay below 15mph!

The 2nd major mountain and far and away the hardest was at kilometer 80 out of 90. By that point my legs were completely jelly. I biked as much of it as I could but of course I dismounted and walked my ass up that too at some point. I would venture to guess that 90-95% of folks walked these mountains.

Finally the bike was over and it was time for the run...or in my case the very slow jog. My legs were burning and had nothing in them. The run thankfully was very flat and through the Laguna Phuket resort area. So we ran on all sorts of terrain from golf courses, to asphalt, through an Elephant park, etc. It was two loops and I did my better on the 2nd loop than the first as my legs slowly started to recover.

I guess I will need more training to do this race or others while living in Shanghai. But all in all I am thrilled I did the race, met some great people and surprisingly had a lot of fun.

1 year

2010-12-12T21:19:00.000+08:00

Well it is now official, I have lasted one year with my new company. Not quite one year of officially living in China since I didn't move here until February but still one year with Richloom Fabrics. After 14 years with my previous employer and now only one year here, it seems a lifetime ago that I was in my previous job.

I'm thrilled with my decision to join this company and I haven't looked back one time. The people and the organization are top notch which is huge. The amount that I have learned and absorbed in 2010 can't even be put into writing. I started knowing the industry because it is related to furniture but not the real specifics of the textile trade. Now one year later I can say I feel relatively comfortable with textiles.

The past year has not been an easy one. The year started with the usual of employee challenges. It is typical that after Chinese New Year employees change jobs, want more money, etc. As we had about 45 people at the beginning of the year we are large enough to have this type of problem. Now at the end of the year we are at 59 employees and every day is a challenge.

We have experienced excellent sales but lower margins thanks to rising material costs. We have had some quality issues that have forced me to learn more technical aspects of the business as well. Plus we have had to deal with the rising of the value of the Chinese currency vs the US dollar. Last but not least the unprecedented skyrocketing of material costs. I use the date of Nov 8th as our M-Day for material day. That was the day that all broke loose and went haywire.

So I look back on lots of accomplishments and with plenty of pride about surviving through what has been a tough year. I'm sure the year ahead won't be easier on many fronts but at least I'm far ahead of the game by now knowing the textile industry much better.

Duck Crossing...

2010-12-12T21:11:00.000+08:00

On Friday morning I got an e-mail from one of my customers that he was stuck in a traffic jam. He was on his way from Shanghai to a factory near the Hangzhou area.

Ever seen a duck crossing?

How about thousands of ducks, upon thousands of ducks?

As my buddy said, "just another day on the way to the office."

Ohhh Chiner...

2010-11-28T12:55:00.000+08:00

I never get bored of some of the signs that I see. Unfortunately I can't take credit for this one but it sums a lot of things up here...nice finger huh?

Taiwan

2010-11-21T21:22:00.000+08:00

This weekend I made my first trip to Taiwan, unfortunately not for fun but for work but still worth it. Taiwan is considered by China to be essentially property of China and by Taiwan standards they consider themselves a free and independent democracy. It wasn't until just a year or two ago that direct flights were allowed between the two countries. Before that if you went between the two you had to fly to Hong Kong.

In any event we went to see our partner supplier there who handles predominantly outdoor fabrics, for patio furniture, umbrellas, etc.

My first impression was how clean it all was. Organized without millions of folks pushing, arguing and getting in my way. Driving on the roads (no I personally didn't drive) was pleasant. If not for the Chinese characters on road signs and store signs you would think you were in any other western country.

After two long days of work, on Saturday night we visited a night market near a University. The market was very much a local one with very few tourists. We checked it out, did some shopping and tried some local street food. The worst was chodo fu. Basically that means "stinky tofu." I've had it once before in Nanjing and it was awful. As the name states the chodo fu smells awful. The first bite isn't so bad. But after it sits in your mouth the aftertaste just gets worse and worse. The version in Taiwan was also spicy so I think that eliminated some of the taste. All in all not terrible. A few from the night market...

One of the best parts of Taiwan was how peaceful and organized it was. The sign below is one that is NOT followed here in China. Might be a good idea if they put some of this up all around China...

A great couple days, for sure need to go back and spend some downtime there...

Through the eyes of a newbie...

2010-11-18T06:30:00.000+08:00

Since I have spent a couple years getting to know China and Asia, I have probably gotten a bit jaded on things. I don't see things through eyes as open as I once did. That's not bad all in all as I have certainly acclimated to things. But it does mean I see it differently. So the below is an excerpt from a work e-mail from a NY colleague visiting China for her first time. She has very much enjoyed her visit to Shanghai and then out to the mills we partner with in the Hangzhou/Liping areas. Take a look at how she describes the more rural areas. By the way Hangzhou is a city of about 9 million people give or take...

"Well- hangzhou is very interesting!! I thought I was mentally prepared to see certain things, but then when I was actually put right in front of them, I
found them shocking and heart breaking. The amount of poverty is really crazy and the number of bike contraptions carrying heavy loads was out of control!! I was really excited to see Elite, but holy crap the smell!! How do the workers work without masks or the ones by the looms without ear plugs!! But, I finally got to see my first jacquard loom and (this is nerdy), I almost cried! It was so amazing and beautiful. We haven't had a chance to really see the area- we were hoping to walk around last night, but it was late and raining. So maybe tomorrow I will get up early and explore.
We had a traditional Chinese meal last night and I will never forget pigeon
egg as long as I live! I know that doesn't sound daring- but in my eyes
pigeons are flying rats of the world, and I ate its egg! Yikes."

Triathlon

2010-11-13T23:15:00.001+08:00

I do miss my triathlons back home so as some know I'm going to try and do one here, specifically the 70.3 in Thailand in early December. 70.3 basically is the designation for a 1/2 Ironman or 1.2mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run.

My training has been less than ideal. All my swimming takes place in my apartment complex pool so no open water swimming. My biking takes place indoors as well on my bike that is set up on an indoor training machine. Then running outdoors. Add to it that I'm working like a dog and I feel terribly unprepared for the pain I will feel.

Today I read an article about the race site. It's a first ever race and they did a training camp there last weekend. Sounds like the bike is going to be brutally difficult. Lots of hills and technical riding to be done. Here's the article hopefully the link will work, just cut and paste...

http://ironman.com/events/ironman70.3/asiapacific70.3/laguna-phukets-new-ironman-70.3-asia-pacific-championship-course-has-been-given-a-seal-of-approval-by-the?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ironman%2Ftopstories+%28Ironman.com+Top+Stories%29#axzz15Aul1YmF

In normal training mode this would be my last serious week of workouts, then start to taper down a bit. Problem is I haven't had time for the serious workouts and won't this week either. Oh well all in fun right?

Material Costs

2010-11-09T23:05:00.001+08:00

I try and keep this site full of the fun and interesting stuff. This won't be so fun, at least not for me, but maybe interesting.

Since I have been back in China from my trip to the US we have been negotiating price increases. As many of you know the US gov't is pushing China to allow the RMB (Chinese currency) to increase in value more. Well when it does that it makes the goods we sell more expensive back to you. So far YTD it has changed about 2%, nothing major so far. There are rumors that it will go 20% in the next couple years. That means in essence I will take an automatic 20% decrease in salary because I get paid in USD and not in RMB. So that sucks...might be time to renegotiate that.

In addition to a rise in the value of the RMB there are MAJOR material cost increases going on. I won't bore you but cotton has gone up to the highest level since the US started following commodity prices. Then on Monday I come in to the office to find that the cost of Polyester has gone up 35% in just 3 days. Today being Tuesday it went up an additional 10%.

Long and short we have negotiated with mills and they are coming back saying they need another 5-20% raises effective now. But that isn't the worst part.

The worst part is that even if you agree on a price, no matter how high it is, you can't get the materials. The actual suppliers are not selling, they are hoarding the goods and hoping that prices will continue to rise. Already in 2 days numerous mills have shut down completely because they can't get raw materials. They will reopen when they get materials but right now it doesn't even pay to bring employees to work.

I've had mills in the past 2 days and they want more money from us but don't know how much to ask since it changes on a daily or hourly basis. I personally see the mills in survival mode right now. They will take not making money as long as they don't lose money in the short term. But they can't get the materials. I've heard stories of far Western China, near Pakistan where the Chinese Army is protecting cotton fields from people pillaging in the night!

For anyone I've talked to who has been in this business for years, nobody has ever seen anything like this. It is insanity. Talk about every day being different! If you don't think this will affect you, I'm sure it will it if continues. There is no way cotton t-shirts are going to be so cheap next season or the season after that.

Let's see what tomorrow brings...

To the US and back...

2010-11-04T07:12:00.000+08:00

Well since I last wrote I've been back to the US with stops in NY (company headquarters), CT (to see mom), North Carolina (for a trade show) and then to Chicago to see friends and family, pick up some stuff and generally hang out. It was a busy 12 days or so and compounded by being sick with a temp nearly 103 for a while.

Now back in China for a week or so and settled back into the insanity routine we call life here. The weather is cooling off quickly just like Chicago fall weather, except no football to watch here.

I've got just about one month left before I do my first triathlon outside of the US. This is a 1/2 Ironman race also called 70.3 series. Consists of 1.2mile swim, 56mile bike and 13.1mile run. Down in Phuket, Thailand. My training so far to say the least has been piss poor! Although this past week since being home I'm surprised my body has done as well as it has on some of the long workouts. Trying to get workouts in with my schedule work wise simply is tough. Oh well, at least I have a goal and a timeline to follow...

My week...

2010-10-10T21:41:00.000+08:00

So come back from vacation have one day in Shanghai, including the wedding I just went to. Tomorrow back to the office for a few hours, then off to the airport for a flight to Shenzhen. Meet with JCP on Monday night and then first thing Tuesday fly back to Shanghai. Spend the afternoon in the office, have dinner with a colleague and their family that night.

Then on Wednesday begin the trek back home to the USofA! First stop NY. Spend the end of the week in our office there. Then the weekend with Mom in CT. Sunday off to NC for the High Point Furniture show.

After all that then off to sweet home Chicago for a few days before returning to China. I'm excited to come home, see some folks, etc but am tired thinking about all the travel. Thankfully I'm well rested after vacation!

A Chinese wedding

2010-10-10T21:37:00.000+08:00

I got back from Bali around midnight last night. All in all a very good trip. I will post an update and photos in a couple of days.

Tonight I went to another Chinese wedding, of a colleague. Upon arrival with another western colleague we find ourselves, not surprisingly, to be the only foreigners in attendance. All weddings i've been to here are totally different from each other as well as a western wedding. This one being Shanghai families was a bit more upscale. Much of the wedding part was in tuxedo's. We arrive, take photos with the couple and then are lead to our seats. First they check the seating chart. It's easy for us to find our names as all the other ones are in Chinese characters and then, almost in bold you see the names "Nolan" and "Megan." Too funny.

Throughout the evening the bride changed into 4 different dresses making a ceremonial entrance each time. In addition she and the groom came out one time wearing jeans and white t-shirts that they had all the attendees sign upon arrival. That was pretty cool.

The wedding itself was fast, an exchange of rings, a few speeches and that's it. On to the games and the food. One of the games was that they flipped through the photos that were taken upon arrival and someone yells "stop" and the person who's photo is on the screen wins. I was winner #2! Got myself a nice chopstick set! Winner #3 was actually my CFO. There were only 4 work people there and two of us won prices. Not a bad showing. When I went up they asked me to say a few words about the bride and groom. That was a bit tough given I don't know him at all. The audience was never so quiet all night until I had the mic in my hands.

From there the bride and groom go table to table drinking with every guest and saying thanks.

A nice evening and a beautiful bride and groom. Photos to come.