Shanghai, first impressions

First, The one thing that sums things up for me is this: imagine a country peopled entirely by only children, now multiple by 1 billion. This is my big observation.  The impact that this small, often overlooked effect has on China is incredible to see.

So as many of you know I just returned from 2 weeks in Shanghai, China. Despite being married for more than 9 years, I had never been to the country my wife grew up in. Sharine moved to the US when she was 17, and her immediate family is all in the US, while my immediate family is in New Zealand. Whenever we went somewhere we went to NZ, grandkids visiting grandparents, engagement, etc… all to New Zealand. This was my first trip to China, but not my first trip to Asia. As many of you also know I had spent a short business trip visiting Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and Tokyo. They were much more like I expected. Malaysia was a fantastic polyglot of cultures and people. Jakarta was an oft savage, close to third world experience. Tokyo was a refined, polite, deferential fashion leader that defined what the east is in the eyes of the west. Shanghai, is as once all of those things and none of them.

We did not go to China as American tourists. We went as “local tourists”. My wife had several friends and family members in Shanghai who offer to let us stay. Veronica and her family magnanimously offered to live at their parents house while we stayed out in their place on Xei Tu Road, in South Shanghai (no, not at all like South Los Angeles). We arrived tired but excited from a United flight that connected through Chicago mid-afternoon. The smog was palpable. I assumed the visibility was limited to about 1/2 a mile due to the industrial areas out by the airport, oh how wrong I was. As we drove into the city across 15 story fly-away road bridges and massive centrally suspended bridges it dawned on me that this kind of air was normal, and my first observation was the cab in front of us had a HOOTERS ad in the window, not that I notice these things. It was hot, high 90’s, sticky, and smoky. As I glanced out the window I spotted a 300 mph maglev speeding past us to the city. Hunter was so excited he squealed!

When we arrived we discovered that Veronica’s place was a 6th floor walkup, accessed through a rough hewn concrete staircase, with a security gate that rivaled a Federal penitentiary (yes I’ve been in one, during my work with DHS). My mind was reeling as we lugged out overstuffed suitcases up the 12 flights of 8 stairs. Each stair was stamped with multiple blocks of characters and numbers: advertisements for the contractors who fixed things in the building. When we finally climbed the stairs to the 6th floor we were greeted with another gate, of the same quality and strength as the one below, then a beautiful wooden door, with a 3 bolt deadlock. My initial reaction was, as you can imagine: concern. Why did they need this kind of security? What kind of neighborhood where we in? How would I cope with little to no Mandarin. I was truly giving up any semblance of control.

Veronica was fantastic, showed us all around, opened her home to us, stayed to help us make wontons and cook them up for a feast the first night (one feast of many!). Her house was not really a home as I would have defined it. They lived in this apartment during the week, basically just eating, sleeping, and doing homework. During the weekends they go to live with their parents, in a much nicer, homelier apartment a bit further out of the city. According to my Lonely Planet guide, the road we were on wasn’t even on the Shanghai map! I was worried this little place was waaaaay out in the city burbs. I didn’t realize how small Shanghai is (despite being home to 17 million people).

Filed under: NZ vs USA, happenings, on the go , china, kuala lumpur, New Zealand, shanghai, tokyo, trips, United States, wonton, wontons, xie tu lu

Shanghai, China

Well, it’s almost here. Our family trip to Shanghai will begin on Wednesday morning 8am. A quick hop to Chicago, then a long flight to Shanghai. I am so excited to finally see where Sharine grew up. Understand a little more about China and see some amazing things. I can’t wait for real Shanghai food. Out itenary so far is roughly:

The plan is coming together now.  My cousin’s daughter will get the trip tickets for us today or tomorrow.  Hopefully we we can get them on the dates we had requested. 

 

5/7 (Th) – arrival

5/8 (Fri) – Qi Bao, also to see my cousin (maybe) and Connie’s parents (for sure)

5/9  (Sat) – with Veronica to see Yu Yuan Garden and market.  Evening to Bund or Heng Shan Lu.

5/10 (Sun) – cemetary then visit grandfather and have dinner with aunt and maybe some cousins

 

5/11 (Mon) – Su Zhou Trip

5/12 (Tu) – open

5/13 (Wed) – Hang Zhou Trip

5/14 (Th) – Wu Zhen Trip

5/15 (Fri) – open, Maybe have dinner with Kirk in the evening.

5/16 (Sat) – Pu Dong and Da Guan Yuan Trip

5/17 (Sun) – Nan Xiang Old Town Trip

 

5/18 (Mon) – open

5/19 (Tu) – open

 

Open:

People Sqaure and Xin Tian Di

Pu Dong, Pearl Tower, Bund, Nan Jing Road shopping street

A few other places from your list

5/7 (Th) – arrival

5/8 (Fri) – Qi Bao, also to see my cousin (maybe) and Connie’s parents (for sure)

5/9  (Sat) – with Veronica to see Yu Yuan Garden and market.  Evening to Bund or Heng Shan Lu.

5/10 (Sun) – cemetary then visit grandfather and have dinner with aunt and maybe some cousins

5/11 (Mon) – Su Zhou Trip

5/12 (Tu) – open

5/13 (Wed) – Hang Zhou Trip

5/14 (Th) – Wu Zhen Trip

5/15 (Fri) – open, Maybe have dinner with Kirk in the evening.

5/16 (Sat) – Pu Dong and Da Guan Yuan Trip

5/17 (Sun) – Nan Xiang Old Town Trip

5/18 (Mon) – open

5/19 (Tu) – open

Open:

People Sqaure and Xin Tian Di

Pu Dong, Pearl Tower, Bund, Nan Jing Road shopping street

My Mandarin is atrocious (not even passable other than hello) but I am almost buzzing with excitement. I remember my brief time in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and Toky fondly. Shanghai awaits! I am not sure I’ll have internet connections in China so you may have to wait for photos and blog posts, but rest assured they will be on their way!

Filed under: on the go , china, family, mandarin, shanghai, travel

Big

Just watched an evening of  ”animation domination”: family guy, american dad, was to be simpsons but for some bizarre reason watched “Kings” instead. I feel big, like I’m 4″ to tall for my body. I raced today. In the 40th “Scarsdale 4mile run”. It feels weird that as I slide towards my 40th birthday (*gasp*) I placed in a race. Yes, that’s it. I won a MEDAL in a arunning race. Out of 130 people, I placed 31st. 3rd in the 30-39 year old bracket. Bronze medal for me at an 8 minute mile pace. 4 miles in 31m 56s. FAST. Faster than I thought my legs would take me, faster than my uncalibrated Nike+ told me I’d run. I felt like king of the world. In 40 year, I have mever won anything. Not on my physical prowess at least. Imma nerd. A serious nerd. Top 5 in Physics and Math in my year, in the country! But not in sports. What made me place? A few wee things, my kids waiting at the finish line, podrunner, keeping a rockin 180bpm soundtrack (Engines of Distraction). A dude and a girl, keeping pace with me, trading 29th, 30th, and 31st with me. 

I don’t know quite how I feel about this. I ran. I came 3rd. I’ve never done something like this. Ever. I love that I did this. I got a MEDAL! I have never had a medal. The race was small (200 people). I placed 30th, but still: a medal!

I think that this is significant. It makes me feel different. A small victory, but a victory none the less. This week was a complicated, difficult work victory (IWOV!). This weekend was a running victory.

The big question remains: run 10k in Van Cortlandt next weekend or tgo to Atlantic City to celebrate with my buddy Chris? Only time will tell…

Bronze, third, wow…

Filed under: happenings, scarsdale , 3rd, bronze, fitness, place, run, scarsdale

When in Texas …

So I just got back from Dallas, TX. A beautiful sunny, warm 3 night trip to a Forrester Consumer Forum. I got to be one of the Organic booth babes. Standing around in my NYC duds, telling the Organic story to prospective clients, vendors, partners. It was an enlightening opportunity. Not only did I get a great chance to practice my meeting, greeting, chatting to client skills (which I will admit sometimes atrophy a little with my internal Technology role), but I got to work with the Shane and our PR folks, which was a lot of fun, and gave me a very interesting and different perspective on our business. It was interesting seeing the different clients and their respective different level of engagement at a conference like this. It was also a very different scene to the normal technology conferences that I attend. A lot more fashion, more beautiful people, more socializing (there’s nothing worse than watching a bunch of introvert “Oracle experts” trying to mingle).

The second evening we were in Dallas, the team decided, through sheer storm of peer pressure to go shoot guns. We were talking about what was something quintessentially Texas to do while we were there and the topic of gunfire came up. Guns, trucks, and beer. So we called around a few gun ranges and found one about 20 minutes away. DFW Gun Range, which rents guns and has an indoor 10 lane firing range. As we were all getting excited about this, a prospective client wandered into our orbit, and became interested in our idea. Before we knew it we were all in this together.

As the end of the day approached you could feel the atmosphere in the booth getting more and more tense. This would be my first time firing a handgun. I have shot rifles and a shotgun in the past (rabbit hunting in kiwiland) but I am not a hunter (pun on my middle name and sons first name intended). What would it feel like? How would I react? It always looks like such an easy and trivial thing to do on the movies. As we all piled into the prospective clients tiny red, Chevy Cobalt the conversation wound up into nervous chatter about what it might be like. Where would this range be? Could they teach us noobs how to use a handgun? What would it be like. I was sandwiched, b!tch in between the other two young ladies in the back, and I could tell they were both very, very afraid and tense.I imagine they could read the same from me as we drove through the suburban sprawl of West Dallas toward a decidedly seedy part of the city. Strip club, strip club, liquor store, condom store, strip club, gas station (including lurkers), strip club passed us by. Nestled in between a gentlemans establishment and a self storage facility was the range. A long, low concrete block building. With a 10′ round red, white, and blue target painted around the door. Gulp. Here we are. I am literally shaking as we approach the door. At least one of us lights up a cigarette, maybe it was me … kidding.

As we enter, we see a bland white and grey room full of weapons and rough looking men. The room is surprisingly airy, but the posters of guys with guns and the smell of machine oil and cordite overpowered us as we walked in. We approached Timo behind the desk and explained that us NY and SF noobs were here for a full Texas experience. Our host was a treat, laughing, helping us, being rough and tough, while taking care to make sure we understood the thing we were about to use was a deadly weapon at all times. He asked us to pick a handgun, and while the rest of the team picked the ubiquitous Glock 17 9mm, I was hungry to feel what the Sig Sauer P229 .40 S&W felt like. When I worked in DC, all of my special agent friends carried this as their primary handgun. As I took the gun in my hand the whole world kind of zoomed in to the fact that this deadly device weighed almost nothing, had only a few moving parts, and could have killed everyone in the room without requiring a reload. I was terrified. It sounded like everyone else was talking at me through cotton wool. As Timo began explaining the gun and how they worked, it all became clear. Why you have to pull the slide … how the magazine just falls out … where the safety was … how to tell if it was loaded (always assume it is) … how and why to hold the gun when ready to aim and fire. This was real, tangible, cold steel in my hand. Would I have the b@lls to fire it? We collected our ear and eye protection, then posed with our handguns for a big group shot. Feeling excited and terrified, Timo knew just how to diffuse the mood. He took the shot, peered suspiciously at the camera and said “Ha, you look like a real bunch of ‘tards”.

Entering the range itself involved going through a kind of airlock. You can’t have both doors open at one time. Once inside the rubber met the road. I got separated from the group (we had lanes 1 and 3-7). So I set myself up. Loaded a magazine like Timo showed us, inserted the magazine then leaned forward onto the counter and took a deep breath. Next to me was a small group (2 guys and a girl) with a collection of handguns, rifles, and a shotgun. As I looked down at the empty brass shell casings, the young lady next to me let off 3 closely spaced rounds from a rifle. BOOM … BOOM … BOOM. F*ck. Loud, close, next to my ear (despite the bright red ear protection). Damn, if she can do this, I can do this. I picked up the loaded Sig in my right hand. It is much heavier with a full magazine. I stand, with my strong leg behind, me gun in my right hand. Left hand wrapped around the grip. Maximum hand contact with the weapon. Breathing as calmly as I can I exhaled and gently pulled the trigger. Nothing. Oh right, I have to prime the chamber. Stop, pull back on the slide, I see a round enter the chamber. Gleaming in the cold flickering fluorescent light. The slide jams a little open. I have to jiggle it. Snap. It’s closed. My target is about 10 yards away (that as close to a bad guy as I’d ever like to be). I resume my stance, calm my racing heart a little by doing some slow breathing. In through the nose, out through the mouth. One. Two. Three breaths and I feel ready. i line up the wee dot, in between the white cradle. It’s now or never.

BOOM … fire … a sharp rap on the temple … the target sways slightly. The shot is wild. I was aiming for the center of the target, it lands about 10 inches down and 4 left. The rap on the temple was the empty casing, which is ejected forcefully from the weapon hitting me in the head (after bouncing off the range divider I think). I had no idea you see the explosion of the powder from the bullet as it leaves the weapon. I feel like a giant. I’ve done it. Conquered my fear, fired the weapon. It was easy. Too easy. I emptied the mag into the target, correcting my aim as I went. At the 10th shot hit, I saw I had found my aim.

The rest of the crew had begun whooping and hollering (good Texas words huh?). We had all done it. Our prospective client (who had shot before, but a long time ago) was the best shot. I tried the Glock too, a lot lighter and easier to handle. I loved it. By the end of 50 rounds it became kind of ordinary. My aim was better. I felt comfortable handling the weapon. It felt like a small, incredibly powerful addition to me. We walked out. Nay, we swaggered out as giants. Full of testosterone, bravado, and conquered fears. What a dangerous combination. Timo was laughing at us. But we all felt like we had really achieved something grand.

We ended the night with steak. Texas steak and a real steak house. Cabernet, lobster mac & cheese and 14 ounces of Texas beef. What an incredible night. What an experience. What will I tell my kids. Will I talk about it with them and use this as an opportunity to talk about gun safety? Will I not tell them and leave them blissfully in the dark. The truth is I like it. I liked it a lot. I could find myself a handgun owner. For sport, target practice not really for protection.

Filed under: happenings , clients, guns, nyc, p229, sig sauer, steak, texas

The Itinerant Traveler

I have had a job that requires travel for a long time now. Never, weekly travel to the same location, but often travel. In “recruiting” terms my job requires about 25% travel, but this last month has been closer to 60%. It’s fine with me, and the family doesn’t mind nearly as much as you’d imagine. Normally, I fly United if I can. I have a bunch of miles on them already (and hence “premier” status) and I like their “economy plus” seats (big enough for me to actually type a blog post like this in relative comfort, legs outstretched, laptop in lap). But with my travel to SF and Toronto I have flown a couple of new and interesting airlines and wanted to get my thoughts on them down on paper.

To Toronto, I have been flying Porter Air. They are a small regional carrier, that flies carbon-fiber propeller 40 seat aircraft from Newark, Boston, through City Center airport in Toronto to a bunch of other Canadian destinations. There is much to like about them. Natty, 60’s throw back uniforms including pencil skirts and pillbox hats. Well designed, considerate lounge in Toronto. Gorgeously designed inflight magazine with interesting bilingual content. Great 60’s jazz sounds tracks playing throughout the trip and friendly staff. The only thing I don’t like about Porter is the silly ferry to the “mainland”. Toronto city airport is on a wee island in the middle of Lake Ontario or Michigan or wherever Toronto is. The island is about 150 feet away from the mainland. Apparently, there has been a huge civic argument about how best to connect the island to the mainland. So as to not upset the local ecology (which I would roughly class as late 70’s industrial trash) they decided NOT to build a bridge, but to put a small car/passenger ferry in place that moves backwards and forwards every 15 minutes. I’d take a fricking flying fox instead of awaiting the very slow progress of the lumbering ferry when you are rushing to a meeting.

To San Francisco this time I flew Virgin America. Virgin is billed as the greatest thing to happen to air travel since they invented the jet engine. Virgin is a case study for complete experience design. From the booking procedure, boarding, staff, and decor, it all rings of the Virgin brand. The planes are lit by variable LED lighting that gentles pulses through pink, purple, blue colors. The planes have transparent “class divisions”. The pilots come out of the flight deck and talk to you in the cabin. They are all friendly, joking, and give you the complete run down on the flight and what to expect. It was fantastically refreshing. However, their coach class is ridiculously crowded and cramped. Small, confined seats, no room for a laptop and in general a complete nightmare for a long distance flight. They really want you to buy that upgrade to business

So all in all, I think I like United best: boring, predictable, safe, grey. Maybe this means I’m slipping back into my “middle of the curve” funk, and maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it just means I’m growing up.

Filed under: happenings , airlines, detroit, porter, san francisco, sf, toronto, travel, virgin

The second and third derivatives of money = thin air

On the financial crisis I think most American’s have no idea what is going on. They are reacting to the media feeding frenzy and this is causing a lot of the trouble (violent swings in public opinion driving irrational investing decisions). I think the underlying cause is very interesting … here’s my take on it:

The American free market economy is a marvelous thing. To quote wikipedia: “A free market is a market in which property rights are voluntarily exchanged at a price arranged completely by the mutual consent of sellers and buyers.” The market prices in risk, reward, adjusts automatically to changing global markets and is incredibly resilient. The problem IMHO is that the metrics used to measure the market have become so removed from actual value so as to make the market dysfunctional. The market was designed to allow companies (that generate profits and losses) to trade in futures on these profits and losses.

The problem is that company value started to become linked to not profit or loss, but the rate of change of profit or loss (growth versus contraction). Now, that in itself is a useful measure, it measures the growth velocity of a company and it’s “direction” in the market. Unfortunately, at this point things get a little attenuated. The market soon began to value companies based on the rate of change of growth (we grew 10% last year, need to grow 15% this year). This creates a need for a hyperbolic or second derivative of growth. This second derivative of money is basically all just thin air.

To create this effect, companies began to create all kinds of “financial vehicles” like collaterized debt obligations, swaps of rate of change of debt, etc… Further removing the value of a company from the actual revenue, profit, and loss it created. Companies started having to operate as mini-financial institutions themselves managing real estate portfolios, debt portfolios, future on those things … the companys are like small economies into themselves. There are some companies that focs on value (Sapient USED to be one of those) and it worked well, they didn’t “beat the street” but they were wildly successful.

I think there needs to be a wholesale re-evaluation of how we value companies. It needs to retrench to the way someone like Warren Buffett values companies. He “weathered” the 2000 bubble, and this calamity not by doing anything different, but saying: “if a company has a sound product and is making money, then I’ll invest” without regard to the rate of change of the rate of change of profit. During the bubble and over the last few years, he was labeled a “dinosaur”, out of touch with current financial times. Now he has stepped in to save small companies like Goldman Sachs with his available cash. Yes, dinosaur he may be … but he’s not stupid. His approach of value investing works. Harvard Business Review has an interesting article on “Can the government use the Buffett effect to save our economy” called “Workout vs. Bailout“. With a most interesting comment, buried in the middle:

The model here is the “top down” response of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation of the Depression era rather than the “bottom up” strategy (involving the purchase of individual properties) of the Resolution Trust of the 1980s. The former returned 100 percent of its investment to the American public. The latter is estimated to have cost citizens about $200 billion, a sum that went to those who were more expert at determining value than the government’s representatives.

Buffett’s approach ties well with the ideas of Slow Leadership and focusing on what matters, not what is top of mind. To quote the about page on the site: “Slow Leadership offers ways of returning civilization and humanity to organizations. It is essential that leaders think more clearly and make better choices, free from today’s constant obsession with meeting unrealistic, short-term expectations.”. I highly recommend the Slow Leadership Manifest at ChangeThis as an interesting counterpoint to today’s “hamburger management”.

What are your thoughts about all this? How about my international readers (yeah that’s you mum) feeling about this crisis?

Filed under: happenings , financial crisis, investing, leadership, money, nyc, slow leadership

Back pain

So last week I did in my back. It was late, my wife and kids had just driven back from 3 days in DC. My buddy Chris and his fiance Lauren invited us out to dinner at a fantastic Greek joint in Gramercy called Kellari Tavern. It was delicious, but LATE by the time we got the kids home. I ended up carrying the tired wiggly kiddlies up to bed, twisting gently to put them to bed properly. It hurt, but I thought nothing of it. That weekend I ran about 5 miles, moved some furniture, then helped my “opposite friends” carry their (incredibly heavy) bags through NYC. All in all, by Tuesday night, I was basically immobile. My back was killing me.

I took Wednesday off sick to work from home, after not sleeping at all (in too much pain). I took some Tylenol but still couldn’t walk. I decided to adjust my Herman Miller Mirra chair properly and park my arse in it. All day. Turns out two neat things: a) if I am working from home I get a lot of sh!t done; and b) sitting in a well adjusted Herman Miller chair can be just like a chiropractor you sit on. It was awesome, it fit me, it supported my back, by the end of the day it felt 80% back to normal.

The next day I went in to the office and repeated the procedure (adjusted my Aeron at the office to fit properly and made sure I wasn’t perched on the edge or twisting in my seat) and it worked a treat! I jotted the following on the train:

Sitting on Metro north, trying to look after my back, the flickering of light from a passing train catches my eye as I turn to look across the East River at the northern tip of Manhattan, I see the profile of a beautiful woman, calm, refined, focused. Black silk, smooth cotton, sparkling silver, curved lashes brushing the curl of hair falling around the soft curve of her face creates a gentle cage for deep, dark, impenetrable eyes. She looks amazing. Why had I not seen her as I sat down? Where is she going, dressed like that at 10am? Why is she all alone? She hasn’t even seen me, and if she does, she doesn’t register that I exist. In NYC,  it feels like I fall for someone every day, but that is merely illusion, the illusion of choice. The grass always appears greener as they say. This is a lonely city. I think I see her loneliness, then again, maybe she had a bad burrito for breakfast.

So it’s Friday, my back is 95% better. I am going to try a test run tonight and see if I can run the Nike Human Race on Sunday. If I run ok, then game on … I’ll be one of a million people pounding the pavements across the globe.

Updated: I ran. On Friday. 4.5 miles, 43 minutes, race pace … my back is KILLING me. I will NOT be able to run the Human Race. I am a grumpy old man now

Filed under: happenings , back, girl, nike, ny, pain, race, run

Kuala Lumpur – Days 1 & 2

Here I am at 39,000 feet in a Malaysia Airlines A330, surrounded by plush red business class seats, announcements in Bahasa Malay, listening to the new Sigur Rós album Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust. I have no idea what they are singing about, it’s in icelandic but they sound like a cross between Coldplay and the Shins translated into an incomprehensible language. Like the covers of English songs, sung in Malay or Mandarin we heard throughout Kuala Lumpur. It’s been the theme song for my first trip to a foreign country, where I don’t speak the language.

The night before I left, I was sitting on the sofa with my wife, trying to explain to her that I was scared. Scared of going to a country where I might not speak the language. She "pshawed me". She’s the world traveler, opened offices for global companies in Taiwan, been all over South East asia. Now she’s a mum. Here I am, no longer scared of strange lands, trying to find the words to describe Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur.

When we landed in Malaysia, In the airport, the titles in the book store window included "The man who drove America to war in the middle east", and "Why George Bush must die". As we drove out, it looked like Florida. Palm trees, vague swamps, wide open roads, occasional hills in the distance. But as soon as we began driving it became very obvious that I wasn’t in the US any more. The roads became, not choked, but concentrated with mopeds and belching light trucks carrying everything from trash to gleaming cling film wrapped Aeron chairs. As we drove into the city, the mosques and buildings began to aggregate into spattered exurbs of the city. Train lines defined the map of Kuala Lumpurs ex- and sub-urbs. The highways were still clear and new, the infrastructure of a petrochemical rich nation are still staggering, like Houston, but with smaller cars.

As we approached the city we saw the Petronas towers and the other marvels of Kuala Lumpur appear from the haze of burning Sumatran plantations. The air was thick with humidity and the vague taste of smoke. It is strange to land in a bustling third world city. Driving past abandoned buildings, huge tracts of single family homes (identical, single car garages, small gardens, new white washed walls, all empty), and quarries. Interspersed with Asian headquarters of huge multi-billion dollar companies. It is obvious that there is a significant influx of funds into Malaysia. There are huge gaps between the haves, and the have nots. I thought the US had an issue in this area. How wrong I was.

We arrived at the Mandarin Oriental, at 9am. The sun just blasting it’s way through the clouds, and way before our rooms would be ready. We settled into the pool and spa at the Mandarin. I ran a slow 5 miles, swam a leisurely 30 minutes, then headed in for a 50 minute Malaysian massage. Wow, THAT is the way to ease into a business trip. Exercised, relaxed, and clean we settled into our rooms and then headed out to explore the city. We headed to a small ecclectic mall, to shop for interesting clothes and nick nacks. Quickly, we discovered that it was like any other mall. We headed to Chinatown, to discover their "huge outdoor market of handicrafts" was nothing more than an elongated Canal Street. Hawkers, pushers, cheap imitation goods, and tired people selling tired things. It was sad. Brian and I decided to explore a little and try to walk our way back to the hotel in the sweltering humidity. After 45 minutes, walking and absorbing the patina of the lower side of the city we encountered 2 cars, a truck, and a van that looked like they had been crushed in the pliers of a major deity. I have no idea what kind of accident could create that kind of damage. To get back, we decided to take the local light rail. As we packed ourselves into the car, along with 300 of our closest strangers, we realized just how our personal perception of space was different from those around us. Sweating, groping, and clutching our valuables we travelled the 5 stops to the KLCC. I have never been that close to a Muslin in a full burkha in my life. She was literally spooned in front of me on the train, smelt of spice and exotic scents, and I felt like I was violating both her personal space and her religion for having to be so close. But I had literally no choice, and neither did she.

That night, I went down to the pool at the Mandarin to relax, drink a beer and read about Tokyo. Jonathan and I had decided to spend 2 days in Tokyo on the way back. As I set bursing my beer and eating delicious satay several Muslim couples appears. The sun had set over the hazy city, and the building lights were starting to illuminate the pool which had it’s own understated lighting. i have always found the Burkha very foreboding as is seems to drink in the light from around it. As the light receded into night the couple removed their burkha for brightly colored clothes: a red and white striped long sleeve shirt, long white pants, black head scalf. The couple then proceeded to do what any other couple hanging out at a pool did. Play fight, laugh, push each other in the water, and the husband, held his wife as she floated and "swam", fully clothed still in the pool. I also saw the same scene replayed in Jakarta

Filed under: happenings

London and Kuala Lumpur

So I left NY early in the morning (8.30am o be precise) and arrive in London at 8.30pm after a 7 hour flight. Not a bad flight, business class makes it nice. Cabbed it into the hotel, then walked about a mile to meet up with the crew at Smiths of Smithfield. Had a fantastic steak (grass fed, scottish beef, a taste not dissimilar to home in NZ!). And a few wines, then off to SOHO House at Shoreditch, a private members only club. I got sucked into some crazy conversation with a bunch of try hard fashion designers. Involved trying on a wee pair of $200 Marni shorts. It didnae work. But it was fun. Anyways they were significantly more drunk than I have ever been, and certainly was then … scary drunk. We then decided to walk the hour 15 back to the hotel, The Waldorf Hilton (woot woot HOT)! Walking back I couldn’t help but notice that the city of London is wackingly clean, UNTIL the binge drinking brits all ome out, then it’s like a urinal and sick bin all at once. It’s a scary trasformation, with people stumbling around so drunk they are falling down walking. NY isn’t like that, everyone is out to get something or someone else in NY. Not many folks get THAT squiffy. The UK was a whole nother level.

My “day” in London was thn basically over, with a whistle stop cab ride to the airport we flew out at midday.  So much for a whole day of sightseeing. We did drive past Buckingham Palace, St Pauls Cathedral, and Trafalgar Square. It was cute, but WAY too fast.

After a 13 hour flight we touched down in Kuala Lumpur. We flew over Europe, all the *-istans, India, and Myanmar. I laughed when the pilot said “due to some air traffic congestion over Afganistan, we have been delayed approximately 8 minutes”. Ha, nothing like JFK at the end of the day!

KL is a vibrant city, so old, so third worl, so first world. We are staying at the Mandarin Oriental, it’s freaking gorgeous and wonderful, and the service is excellent. I love our new client. We arrived around 9am, and our rooms weren’t to be ready until midday. So we all headed to the spa, gym, pool area, worked out, swam, got massages, and generally had a great time until our rooms were ready.

We all headed off to explore the city. KL is a real South East Asia melting pot. All races, all colors, all religions. It is hot. Not “hot”, but HOT. 95 and HUMID the whole way. We all end up grumpy and parting ways. I hit a crazy wee fashion mall (dud), chinatown market (dud, like Canal street but longer and less inviting), then cram ourselves into a local KL light rail to get back to the hotel. I wasn’t scared at all, but the Malaysian ideal of personal space is microscopic compared to the area we’d consider in the us!

Well, might try a nap by the pol before Jonathan’s birthday dinner tonight. TTYL!

Filed under: happenings , chinatown, hot, humid, kl, kuala lumpur, london, smiths

Asia here I come!

Travel plans for next week have finally arrived. I will be meeting up with my team in London on Friday night (tomorrow!), then flying (transpolar!) directly to Kuala Lumpur on Saturday night, arriving Sunday morning. Monday and Tuesday is jam packed with business meetings and interviews, then we fly off to Jakarta, Indonesia on Wednesday, then back through Tokyo on Thursday. I am thinking of taking a few days of vacation in Tokyo with some of my other business traveller friends, rounding out a whole week in Asia. It feel strange that my first Asia trip won’t be with my wife (who is from Shanghai). We hope to go to Shanghai next summer. I am so excited, and can’t wait to get a feel for Asia. I feel like I’ll love it, i want to explore, I want to see it. I am excited for London too, a great friend of mine just tripped through there and spoke very highly of it, but it’s never been a place i desperately wanted to go. More deets to come!

Filed under: happenings