philomyth.us » travel

Asia Business Trip 0912

Emmanuel — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:00:11 +0000

In the earlier part of December, I went on another business trip to Asia. This time together with my dad. It was a meeting-packed couple of weeks, with a few Christmas parties, and even one wedding banquet. Suffice it to say, there was plenty of eating going around. As usual, most of the pictures that I grabbed with my phone were of tasty food items.

Keeping with my latest travel posts, here are some things I learned this time around:

If your suite doesn’t have a wall/door partition, it doesn’t really make a difference (knew this already, just a reality reminder).
Extra large binder clips work great to close curtains tight to avoid annoying light distractions (particularly when overcoming jetlag).
Charismatic Methodist churches do exist, and yes, they do speak in tongues.
When a morning meeting is scheduled, confirm if food is involved, otherwise, you WILL end up being a hobbit and eating two breakfasts.
When shopping for clothes in Asia, try EVERYTHING on. You may be of Asian descent, but it doesn’t mean anything will fit like it is supposed to.
Earthquakes in Taiwan are common. What’s annoying is when they disrupt the HSR schedule and you are stuck in another city away from your hotel room and luggage.
I involuntarily (see previous point) confirmed that I still get violently dizzy when riding on Taiwan’s bus commuters. Next time, can we just get a room for the night.
I may be wimpy, but Yong Kang’s beef noodles are too greasy and spicy for my taste.

Bike Commuting – Santa Barbara

Emmanuel — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:06:46 +0000

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While on our family vacation in Santa Barbara, I was able to squeeze in some bike commuting around town. And LOVED it. Riding around my own home turf is great and allows me to enjoy the commute to and from work. Similarly, riding while on vacation gave me a chance to experience the town in a more intimate and immediate way.

I uploaded the GPS track so that you can see where I rode on the google map above. Even though I only rode 3 miles or so, it was still a lot of fun to be able to move through the city on two wheels.

Here is the list of my stops and errands: Radio Shack (A/V coupler), Cost Plus (wine glasses), Ralphs (kids allergy meds), Lilly’s Tacos (duh). I was really happy with how well my new pannier worked taking it on and off the bike and carrying everything including my helmet and lock along with all the other items I picked up, without breaking the wine glasses .

Product Review: i.Tech Clip R35

Emmanuel — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:17:18 +0000

One of the complaints that I had with my new PDA-phone is that the volume is actually too loud straight out of the phone. So on top of the headphone port adapter required to use my preferred headphones, I had to get a volume control adapter, which after it was all connected made my headphone cable ridiculously long. This really become a hassle on my latest trip to Asia, as I was using my phone to listen to music and podcasts while traveling.

So while researching a solution, I discovered that bluetooth headphones have become much more common and usable. It was just earlier this year, when I was with Elijah in Hong Kong, we saw some bluetooth headphones in the computer mall, and we commented that we couldn’t see any actual use for them. And here I am seriously considering them.

Some of the advantages of using a bluetooth headphone adapter are that the headphone cables aren’t directly connected to the phone and dragging all over the place and also that as a phone adapter, I can take calls without getting my phone out or taking my headphones off. One of the more recent improvements is that these adapters can also control the music player remotely.

After some searching, I settled on the i.Tech Clip R35 because I could use my own headphones and i.Tech products are much more available in Asia, where I was at the time. I ended up getting them at my second stop in Singapore, because I didn’t have time to search for them in Taipei. Turns out that if I waited to get them in Malaysia, I would have saved a few bucks :p.

Once I got the R35 adapter, I configured it with my PDA-phone and tested it out with different settings and players. Unfortunately, the bluetooth stack that comes with Windows Mobile 5 is not that efficient with the limited memory and the sound quality is pretty bad. I tried some different hacks and eventually got a configuration which required installing a hacked third-party bluetooth stack. The sound quality was better but not optimal (some minor skipping).

For software, I then tried both the included Windows Media Player and Conduits Pocket Player. Pocket Player has better playlist management and saves your ‘last played’ position among other features. But I ended up settling on the included player since it didn’t take up additional memory and the basic operation worked well enough.

As a bluetooth headphone adapter, the R35 itself works pretty well. The sound quality while talking on the phone worked fine, and the battery life is remarkably good. But I guess I expected too much, forgetting to pack the charger on my 30-hr flight back and running out of juice. In the end, the limitation is more with the device that I was pairing it with.

Fortunately, after I got back from Asia, I upgraded my phone operating system to Windows Mobile 6, which has a much improved bluetooth stack, and works as you would expect (good sound quality and no skipping). I still stuck with the included player because for some unexplained reason Conduits Pocket Player didn’t work with the remote bluetooth controls as it did with the old operating system.

One unrelated observation is that I use these a lot more when in Asia than I do back home. The primary reason being that in SoCal, most of my ‘traveling’ is spent in my car where I don’t need to use my PDA-phone to listen to music and I can just connect it to the in-car bluetooth for hands-free phone calling. While in Asia, most of my time is spent walking or in mass-transit and on planes, and with the bluetooth headphone adapter, I have my own self-contained media/phone environment.

Asia.0710 – Recap & Review

Emmanuel — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:36:36 +0000

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[Asia.0710 photoset]

This trip was 10 days long, and as always, packed with meetings both internal and external. This was my first time giving longer presentations from 1-3 hours. My dad and I tried a different format on a couple of the talks, more in the form of interviews or a dialogue which seemed to invite the audience to participate more. For our company, we are making a strategic shift in focus towards customers and specifically consumers. It’s going to take some time since this is a big change from what we have been doing and teaching for the past 5 years, but it is ultimately more consistent with who we are as a company and the products that we develop and sell.

One big gadget plus this trip was my new GSM network compatible PDA phone, which worked quite well. The SIM unlock worked in every country. The only down-side is that pre-paid SIM cards don’t allow the use of the data networks, so I could only go online with my phone on available wifi networks. This worked well enough since most of the time I was stuck in meetings at our local offices. However, I am considering whether it makes sense to get a subscription plan with data in one country, maybe Taiwan, and just roam in other countries. Have to see how much the roaming costs would be for voice and data too.

Another part of traveling in Asia that has improved is that all the hotels and all but one of the airline lounges that we visited had a working internet connection whether via hardline or wifi. In past trips, some of the more remote locales had non-functional or no connections available. This certainly made it easier for me to stay in communication for work, but it also made it possible for me to keep up to date on my news feeds and to download the latest episodes of my TV shows for offline viewing.

One observation that I made during this trip is that I seem to sleep better when I am in Taiwan as opposed to other countries like Singapore or Malaysia. One reason could be that I feel more comfortable in Taiwan having spent more time there and being more familiar with the city beyond just the hotel and our office. This makes sense since Taiwan is the only country that I spend any extra time in, whereas the other countries are usually just quick trips with all my time spent in meetings, and little time to relax and explore. This is unfortunate since for the most part, all of the major cities are similarly accessible via mass transit and taxi.

Lastly, thanks to those of you that replied with the brain-assist and reminded me that the above picture is of The Grand Hotel in Taipei.

Asia.0710 – Day 10

Emmanuel — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:40:46 +0000

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This last day was literally all travel. I woke up a little earlier, got packed and skyped Rebecca before I left for the airport. I decided not to go down for breakfast, because to put it quite frankly, I was sick of hotel breakfasts, so I just ate a mojo bar which I had brought for just such ‘emergencies’.

We got a cab to the airport and checked in for the flight to Kuala Lumpur, the first leg of our trip home. I caught up on a couple of TV shows that I had downloaded. The thing was our first flight left a little late so we were a bit rushed to pickup our bags and traverse up to the check-in counter for our connecting flight to Taipei. Fortunately, our bags came out pretty quick, and we were able to hangout in the airline lounge for a few minutes while I charged my notebook for the next flight.

After boarding, I was happy to see that this plane had power outlets, so I didn’t have to worry about my notebook battery life (I had brought my spare battery just in case). Also, I noticed that the in-flight entertainment system was booting up so I took a picture of the Linux penguin on the start-up screen (picture above, yeah, I know, geeky). I actually ended up watching one of the in-flight movies, Bizan, which turned out to be interesting. I tried watching another in-flight movie, The Go Master, but it was just too slow and boring.

After arriving in Taipei, we took the tram over to our outbound terminal and got settled into the airline lounge for a four-hour layover. The lounge has some nice shower rooms, so I got to wash-up before our final long flight home.

On the last flight to LA, the airline didn’t switch out the planes on us like they did on our way out, so we had one of the newer planes with power outlets. There wasn’t any other movies that I wanted to watch on the in-flight system, so I watched a couple of movies on my notebook, The Last King of Scotland and Election (Hak Se Wui). I also got to sleep for about four hours.

Rebecca brought the girls and Zeke to pick us up from the airport. After dropping off my mom and Zeke at their house, we picked up a late dinner from In-N-Out (I always like to have In-N-Out or Fatburger for my first meal home, probably because you can’t get good burgers in Asia).

Asia.0710 – Day 6+7

Emmanuel — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:48:00 +0000

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Last night I was just too pooped to post, so this is a combined post from the last couple of days. Tuesday, Day 6 started with some more meetings in Singapore, then after lunch, we headed to the airport to fly to Penang. After checking into our hotel, we went straight to a dinner meeting, and then to a talk which I gave with my dad. It was a pretty good crowd and the meeting went well. But it did go kind of late, we didn’t get back to the hotel until almost 11pm.

The above is a picture out my Penang hotel window, which I took Wednesday morning. Penang is quite beautiful and relaxing compared to the rush of Singapore, but that sure wasn’t exemplified by our time there which was less than 24 hours. It might be nice to actually come back just to relax and enjoy the island one of these days.

In the morning, we had another breakfast meeting in the hotel. Then it was off to the airport to fly to Kuala Lumpur (KL). At the Penang airport, I finally got my first Coffee Bean of the trip as shown in the picture below. The great thing about Singapore and Malaysia is that they have lots of Coffee Bean’s as opposed to Taiwan which is flooded with ‘the burnt coffee place’. Unfortunately, I don’t always have the time to stop and grab a drink.

After arriving in KL, we went to check-in to our usual hotel, and then off to a lunch with our Malaysia managers. In the afternoon, we were back on the ‘meeting treadmill’, and finished off the day with a full course Chinese dinner with our senior managers and their families. One of our managers has 2 girls about the same age as our girls, so it was really cute to watch and talk to them during dinner.

After looking at the bill, I was quite surprised by what a great deal dinner was considering all the good food (although the service was ridiculously slow). Here’s a shot of the delicious roasted suckling pig:

Asia.0710 – Day 4

Emmanuel — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:14:27 +0000

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Today, we got up early and headed for the airport as we left Taipei for Singapore. I took this picture of the famous hotel in Taipei (can’t remember the name at the moment) as we were driving to the airport. After a quick airline check-in, we went through immigration which had long lines, but fortunately were moving pretty quick. We had about an hour to grab some food in the lounge before our flight started boarding.

Fortunately, today’s flight was on a newer plane with power outlets, so I could use my notebook without worrying about battery life. I actually started off watching a Japanese film on the in-flight entertainment system called Tokyo Friends. And after that, caught up on some episodes of The Unit.

My aunt picked us up from the airport and gave us a ride to our hotel. And then it was straight into back to back meetings.

For dinner, my uncle took us out for some chili crabs and curry fish head which was all delicious, of which I completely stuffed myself silly. Feeling a little guilty, I hit the gym before bed for some stationary cycle action.

Asia.0710 – Day 2

Emmanuel — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:57:00 +0000

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Got a good nights sleep, just woke up briefly at 5am and went right back to sleep until 7:30am. Went again for some Taiwanese breakfast (and remembered to take a picture before eating), this time with my parents. Afterwards, headed back to the hotel to change and get ready for another day of meetings. I took a couple of pictures of the view out my hotel room:

At lunchtime, we went to look at a space that is available for purchase near our office. I took some pictures of the space and the view out the windows.

We finished our meetings a little late and went for dinner at 101. It was late enough that we didn’t have to wait very long for a table at Ju Ru. Afterwards, we went back to our hotel to drop off our bags before going out for a little shopping (sans my dad, he hates shopping, so he asked me to go and keep my mom company). Here’s a shot of my hotel room:

It had been sprinkling on and off all day, and when we went out again, it was raining pretty consistently. We decided not to go to the night market and went instead to the shopping district on Chung Xiao Dong Lu Section 4. We checked out the East Metro Underground mall, but most shops were already closing. I then took my mom to a fashion mall which has mostly local brands, but I guess it was too fashionable for her. Turns out she was really looking for some clothes for my youngest brother. So I took her to a shop around the corner that had brand name rejects and she got a bunch of stuff there.

Alex suggested that I create a Google map of the places I know in Taipei, so here it is:

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Asia.0710 – Day 1

Emmanuel — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:50:28 +0000

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I’m once again, on a business trip to Asia. This one will be a little bit shorter, just 10 days, and this time, I’m traveling with my parents.

Things didn’t start off too good with the lackluster combined airline lounge at LAX, but I guess I should have been happy that there was someplace to sit down with a power outlet. Because, we found out that our airline had switched us with an older plane, so that meant a 14 hour flight with no power. Sure, I was planning to get some work done, but mostly, just missed out on a bunch of movies that I had on my notebook. I ended up watching a soccer movie, Goal 2 (can you believe it’s a series) on the old-style entertainment system, catching 5 hours of sleep, and watching Sunshine on my notebook with just enough juice to finish an episode of CSI Miami.

We got into Taipei at 6 in the morning. So after checking into our hotel, I ditched the hotel breakfast, and went out to get some Taiwanese breakfast. Unfortunately, I was too hungry and forgot to take a picture before I scarfed it all down.

Then after a whole day of meetings, we went out to dinner at Din Tai Fung for some delicious soup dumplings.

I didn’t want to go to sleep too early and end up waking up at 4 in the morning from jetlag, so I decided to make a quick run to Guang Hwa Sang Cang (the Taipei tech market), but unfortunately, that proved fruitless. More often now, I am finding that most of the stuff I can get back in the US online cheaper.

Since I still had some time before going to bed, I decided to work off all that eating make use of the hotel gym. On the way back to my hotel room, I saw the following sign. I guess we can all use grammar check every once in a while.

Product Review: Wagan SmartAC 2382

Emmanuel — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:32:10 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I got a power inverter from a friend whose company sells them through a lot of big box retailers. I actually bought one about 10 years ago, but it was really bulky and I think I used it just once. I have been wanting to get one to use in the car as a backup in case I needed to charge my notebook, phone or other electronic device.

The one I got this time was the Wagan SmartAC 2382, which is space efficient in its design and includes a USB port for charging accessories. It even came with a nice segmented pouch for carrying the inverter and the power cable.

On a recent business trip to Baltimore, I brought the Wagan with the plan to try it in the car when we were driving around town. But it turned out that it was a real life saver on the plane, which included a 3 hour flight to Dallas and then another 3 hour flight into Baltimore, with no time to charge batteries in transit.

On the first leg of our flight, I used up my notebook’s extended battery and was going to run out of juice before we reached Baltimore. Then I thought about checking to see if the plane on our second flight had any power outlets and I was totally surprised to find what looked like cigarette adapters underneath our seats. I plugged in the Wagan and everything worked great. Unfortunately, on our flight back, the outlets on the second plane didn’t work, but at least I had enough batteries to make it through the flight.

The Wagan is going into my travel gear bag wherever I go now