Asian sojourn highlights are up.....

Check out the highlights of my trip to Asia here.

Thru this link you can also find a few other photo galleries of mine thru the "My gallery tab" at the top of the Asian picture page, or here.

Bonus pic#4

Someone please tell me why someone built a 500m tall building in
backward-ass Kuala Lumpur.....

Bonus pic#3

Here's my host in Shanghai, my friend and former colleague, Robert
Huang. He's a great guy, which was my opinion even before our
adventures in Shanghai last week. (more on this to follow in my entry
titled "let's go get massages.")

Bonus pic#2: china deathtrap

I rode this little contraption between the bus from the airport to my hotel. I've never been so scared in my life. I rode in the back while my driver drove into oncoming traffic at full speed. Luckily, suicidal behavior on the roads (and sidewalks and medians) in Beijing is the norm, and I made it to my hotel safely,

Korean BBQ

This picture should have accompanied my earlier post on Korean food.

Bonus pics#1: Seoul at night

....pics that didn't warrant a post earlier.

Dining on the water in Singapore

Singapore is a fantastic city. If it were located off the coast of the
US, it would undoubtedly be one of the most popular cities in the US.

Some of the reasons are the mix of tropical weather, modern city
living, and lots of attractions. One of these attractions is Clarke
Quay, pictured below. It's a dining and entertainment area on the
Singapore River, where I just finished dinner at the Crazy Elephant
overlooking the river.

I'm headed to the airport in about 3 hours, to take the red eye to
Tokyo, and late tomorrow, a flight back to the US. (but first
hopefully a stop at the Paulaner brew pub for tasty German beer and
soft pretzels. (I hope it is still where I remember it.) yes I'm 8,000
miles from Germany, and the local beer, Tiger, is good, but Paulaner
is SSOOOO good I can't skip it.)

While I had a great trip, I can't wait to get back home and see family.

Kuala Lumpur, no more

Making a quick side trip thru the capital of Malaysia, and there's so little to see that I'm moving up my flight out by 2hrs.

As a former British colony and former less-successful big-brother to Singapore, Malaysia pitches KL as an Islamic version of Singapore, but the result is a series of depreciating "national prestige" projects like the Petronas Towers (below) and "Cyberjaya," a new town carved out of the jungle and farmland to be Malaysia's magnet for IT companies. (and it ain't working - Cyberjaya is half-built and barely occupied.)

(another example of an Ill-concieved prestige project: Malaysia has paid big to host a tennis match between retired Pete Sampras and world#1 and unbeatable machine, Roger Federer, also 10 years junior to Sampras. Malaysia aims to attract world-class sporting events, but 1 hrs of Federer acing Sampras will only prove Malaysia is "dumb money.")

While once impressive, each of the national prestige buildings has been surpassed by efforts elsewhere, like China. So, if you're looking to see the 4th tallest radio tower, come to KL. Otherwise, spend an
extra day in China or elsewhere.

Moving fast....

Sitting here in the Shanghai airport, realizing following my last post, that I'll be averaging more than 225 miles per hour over the next 60 hours (until I arrive at my parents' home for thanksgiving). This doesn't count the ~260mph I experienced today on the ride to the airport on Shanghai's maglev train (magnetic levitation), seen below.

Next stop: Kuala Lumpur.

Quintessential Shanghai

It's the Oriental Pearl Tower in Pudong - a forest of skyscrapers in Shanghai that basically didn't exist 20 years ago.

This town is booming. I heard this morning that the current 5-line
subway system is due to expand to 13 lines by 2012. Think about that for a second-the entire Washington DC metro is what, 5 lines that took 30 years to build?

Subway fares here btw are 3 yuan, or about 40 cents - 50% more than in Beijing.

Even with the subways here, traffic is a mess - both in terms of volume and pattern. You really do have to have your head on a swivel when walking the streets, or else you'll get thumped by a bicyclist, scooter, car, or bus. I guess the traffic here is a good metaphor for modern China - you'd better pay attention to China, no matter if you're a CEO, or just somebody walking the streets, or else you'll get thumped.

On the road again.....

Enjoying Shanghai while contemplating the next five days:

 

-Redeye flight from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Saturday night
-Fly Kuala Lumpur to Singapore Sunday night.
-Redeye flight from Singapore to Tokyo Tuesday night.
-see a little bit of Japan Weednesday between my 7AM arrival and 4pm departure.
13 hour flight from Tokyo to Washington that takes off before it lands. (4pm Tokyo time, 2:30pm D.C.)

Total is something like 13,500 airline miles in 5 days! I think I need a new travel agent, or lesser ambitions.

Better view of today's Wall weather....

Great Wall, stinky weather......

Still worth the trip!
Weather was so bad that it was lightly snowing atop the Wall, but
still a great day. (and believe me-with the steepness of the Wall, it
was better to have snow than rain.)
I hired a car & guide for the day ($40 total) and saw the Wall, as
well as the Olympic Stadium (the "Bird's Nest"), and attended a tea
service. The Stadium viewing was scary - to see it, our driver stopped
in the breakdown lane of the highway, and invited me to get out to see
it.
Next stop: Shanghai (I'm writing from the overnight train right now.)
can't wait for warmer climes.....

Tonight's dinner: Hunan tofu and donkey!

I met up with friend, former colleague, and Beijing resident Le Sun
tonight to see his biotech company and have dinner.
He took me out to eat at a fine Hunan restaurant. (hunan is a
particularly spicy regional Chinese cuisine.) He gave me every chance
to steer the food order, but I basically said "surprise me." I was
happy when he didn't order the seaturtle, but that lasted only as long
as it took Le to say that he'd ordered donkey, along with a dish of
spiced Hunan tofu. Yes, donkey and tofu.
Both dishes were fantastic, and I'd order them again. Donkey tastes
like beef, so much so that I left wondering how much donkey I'd been
served without my knowing. (though I couldn't blame McDonalds if they
did, as the Big Mac jingle loses something "2 all-donkey parties......"
Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds......

On my way to heaven, apparently

Still in Beijing, I'm here before the Temple of Heaven, a huge complex
formerly used by the Emperor twice a year to pray for bumper crops,
and celebrate the winter solstice. While the Temple buildings are
neat, the real feature is the 360 degree view of the Beijing skyline.
Enough sightseeing for now - time to get a $10 Rolex at the Hong Qiao
market, where everybody knows enough English to say "Mister, you want
Gucci?"

Ironic gift in Tian'an Men Square

Saw this in the gift shop @ Tian 'an Men square, home of Mao's mausoleum, and where pro-democracy protests occurred 20 years ago, before being crushed by the army..
It's a Philadelphia 76'ers hat. In case you didn't know, the 76ers basketball team is named in honor of the events of 1776.

Greetings from Beijing!

Hard to believe given present post-comunism realities, but Mao still
looms large over Beijing. (Not as large as LeBron James or Colonel
Sanders, who are EVERYWHERE, but that's another story.)
The Police loom large too - you can't turn a corner without seeing
one. Ironically, though repressive, the security services are still
customer-oriented, as my customs officer asked me to rate their
customer service on a scale of 1-4. US customs, take notice, or we'll
outsource your job to China!

Korean food

In one word: NUCLEAR!

Other words: tasty, plentiful, and underrated.

The Koreans have a unique approach to food. It's a very social activity- Koreans rarely eat alone and most dishes cater to this.

Most dishes, including breakfast, feature kim-chi, or pickled cabbage. It is the national dish, and incendiary, but tasty.

Kim-chi is usually served in an ashtray-sized dish, along with 4 or 5 other similar sized accompaniments, as in this photo.

The picture is the midway point of last night's BBQ dinner. In Korea, the BBQ takes place at your table(note the wire mesh over hot embers in the picture. The metal tube is an air fan that extends down from the ceiling to keep the air clean.)

The meat course is cooked by your server  in front of you while you work on the sides. You can see 7 sides in this picture. 5 more arrived soon after. I could identify 4 or 5 of these including kim-chi,, and sampled them all. Some were good, others too intense (the pickled garlic) or downright evil ( the green hockey pucks).

All told the t

Tim
Phone: 434-227-0718

Hello from North Korea!

Back in Seoul now, but today I went to the DMZ and the village of Pan
Mun Jom. The highlight was the visit to the DMZ, which was surreal. No
shooting today, thankfully, so i got to step into North Korea,
temporarily. (that's North Korea in the background, btw.)
In other Korea news, I'm a millionaire! With $1=900 Korean won, my
account balance was listed on my ATM receipt in the millions! (for the
math challenged, slightly more than $1100 makes you a millionaire in
Korean won.)
I've got about 48 hrs left in Korea, and I can't wait to see Seoul and
enjoy my millionaire status!

Taking off!

I'm happily at the gate here @ Dulles. Besides the facts that I just
missed the chance to upgrade to Business class, and the feature movie
is "hairspray," I'm excited to begin my trip to Asia. First stop, in
about 18 hours: Seoul, Korea!
(via Tokyo. Ugh-pass the Ambien!)