Thoughts from working and travelling outside the USA
My first trip to Taiwan. They still had a quarantine on entry for COVID for 3 days at a hotel – I could have a long dissertation complaining about the bureaucracy of the process, but at the end of the day, I chose to go at this time, so no whining. Ended up 3 days... Continue Reading →
First trip to Asia in six years, first stop Vietnam. It was a work trip so I was pretty booked the whole time but did get out a couple of hours for some long walks. I had been to Hanoi several times and spent the first two days there, pretty much in meetings the entire... Continue Reading →
I hadn’t been to Dubai since 2001 - it was outrageous then - completely over the top now. So in selecting my flight option, the Emirates option provided a stop over and with two red-eye flights, a hotel night in the middle was appealing. Glad we did just for the break as well as seeing... Continue Reading →
Had never been or planned to go to Bali before – the idea was to end the trip with Sharon at tropical place. We also considered Thailand and Philippines, but had a lot of positive feedback from people who had been to Bali – mostly diving, surfing, and other watersports and I was looking forward... Continue Reading →
Singapore was the second place selected for my trip – a transition place where I could get Sharon to with a business class ticket with minimal frequent flyer miles that also had direct connections to Bali. Once the Singapore flight booked for Sharon, then I worked backward for the details of my rest of trip.... Continue Reading →
The original plan was to have gone from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Min City – but I added two days in Chiang Mai to recover/regroup and when I got off the plane in a modern city with high-speed train to city and the promise of a “door-to-door” porter – I have to admit I... Continue Reading →
Case inside Killing Fields monument with 20,000 skulls Never had planned on visiting Phnom Penh before – only came this trip because it was “on the way”. Glad that I did as I learned much more about a terrible part of world history that happened during my lifetime and I was not aware of how... Continue Reading →
Simply incredible. Only the Pyramids had more of a wow factor than the ruins around Angkor Wat. Actually the temples near Angkor Wat were more impressive – Angkor Wat was discovered and cleaned up and maintained while the other areas were left for nature to overgrow. I had signed up to run a half-marathon here... Continue Reading →
I had visited Hanoi back in 2011 and had planned to stay the weekend to visit Ha Long Bay. But had to come back for some reason I can’t remember. So my plan was to never actually go to Hanoi and have the tour bus pick me up at hotel at airport and return to... Continue Reading →
Sharon and I originally planned to visit Chiang Mai in 2004 – but then the SARS breakout happened. The “vision” of Chiang Mai is a sleepy mountainside village that was the capital of a separate kingdom from Thailand until only about 80 years ago with a karmic feel and access to outdoor activities…reality is that... Continue Reading →
I had plan to post this before my trip, but got too busy so this written afterwards with benefit of hindsight. I’ll post an update from each stop over the next week as I still have plenty of plane time ahead heading to Dallas for a day for orientation with US affiliate then immediately to... Continue Reading →
Busy travel week between various negotiations and meeting Sharon for a long planned trip to London – this only came up over the prior week. Going to four of the great cities of the world in a week provides quite a contrast, three cities were similar with nice people and modern facilities but one city... Continue Reading →
Had a quick turnaround from my fun weekend in Busan back to work travel – subway to Busan train station, train to Seoul, subway to apt, bus to airport, redeye (in econ) to Singapore, a couple of quick meetings then evening flight to Jakarta. Except for a middle seat which I got changed at the... Continue Reading →
After working 40 hours after 5pm Friday and 10PM Monday, proposal done and I was off first thing Tuesday morning to Bangkok for an industry conference. Or a conference center 30 miles from Bangkok. Would be like going on a business trip to Washington DC and spending the entire time in Frederick and except for... Continue Reading →
Originally I had a busy weekend planned, Friday night lecture with a North Korean defector, Saturday at a tomato festival, and Sunday a scenic raft trip. But had a business trip to Tokyo (at this point, similar to a trip to Chicago or Houston – just another conference room) and long days so by Friday... Continue Reading →
Was able to start the week on a good note, a couple of hours at the BMW driving experience on Sunday. Modelled after the program in South Carolina, except instead of week commitment (and serious money) had about an hour on the test track in an M5 for $65 (after 30 minutes of instruction). No... Continue Reading →
After returning from Hong Kong, I had an unexpected surprise last Friday afternoon – no weekly 7pm Friday call (to another time zone), the Saturday work schedule had been cancelled, and it was 70 degrees and clear skies. So we got a small group and headed out to an American BBQ place in Itaewon –... Continue Reading →
Was able to spend some time at home in March, then back to Mexico City and back to Seoul a couple of weeks ago. Still on an extended work schedule – so not much to report when I am in Korea....as spring comes around hopefully that will change. We are all able to meet up... Continue Reading →
A week late with this update - pacing myself. Not much happening locally – did have an interesting conversation with a co-worker that resulted in the statement – “Stella McCartney’s parents are famous too?” - generational/cultural, who knows? We missed Alexandra –she would have liked all the rules and structure. But she is pretty much... Continue Reading →
Busiest intersection in world at Shibuya Good week home for the holidays and headed back to Seoul. Did another “long layover”, this time 26 hours in Tokyo. The other 2 worked out great in Beijing and Panama and I actually did the most advanced planning on this one – the plan was to drive to... Continue Reading →
I really didn’t realize it when I booked the trip – Phuket and Phi Phi Island are really two separate destinations (it takes longer to get from Phuket to Phi Phi than back to Bangkok) and this really compressed the trip. We had 4 major transitions in 8 days with cash issues, language, multiple Type... Continue Reading →
Sharon, Alexandra, and Annelise arrived after scoring an upgrade on the way over from DC. It was Alexandra’s first visit to Korea and we got her immediately acclimated with cheap Korean BBQ. The three girls took a trip to the DMZ (the real tour – I did the DMZ light tour) and actually went into... Continue Reading →
At home most of the week – Alexandra and I coming back at the same time was a little disruptive to the calm that Sharon and Annelise were getting used to. But it was a good week and we got some stuff accomplished which will make things smoother in the future. Proud of both girls... Continue Reading →
Spent a couple days in Tokyo for some meetings and did get a little free time and included some pictures. I was very interested in how the Koreans would interact with the Japanese as they are very competitive with them. But it was all positive and no negative comments – except for the Koreans remarking that... Continue Reading →
I had a side-trip to New Delhi on one of my normal trips to our jobsite south of Mumbai. We have a large office there and it is my only trip ever - which is pretty unusual in my company. Had the standard stay in the guest house and they cooked dinner there for whoever... Continue Reading →
Had four trips to Saudi in 2000 and 2001 to our two jobsites. Both were remote and on the coast and generally I spent most of my time in the camps. One site was on the Red Sea coast near Mecca (spelled Makkah on the map) and the other was on the Arabian Gulf near... Continue Reading →
Most of my time in India was on the Dabhol Power Plant construction site which was a multi-level joint venture between Enron, GE and my company. Enron was the lead in the owner/operator (and local relations) and our focus was on building the plant and supporting the financing requirements of the largest project financing of... Continue Reading →