Europe Training Trip

So the last time that I wrote, I was touring the Asian region.  Since then, I've been quiet on the blog front, but busy on the work front.  Things have been more than crazy at work with the implementation of a new e-mail application going on.  But on Friday May 6th, I hit the rode again for another Training Tour.
This time, my destination is Europe.  My itinerary had me starting in Frankfurt Germany, followed by a short stops in Arnhem Netherlands, then my current location of Copenhagen Denmark.  After here I'll be going to Warsaw Poland, Milan Italy, and finally London England.

My first weekend was spent in Frankfurt Germany.  While there Joe Sabatello (from UL as well) and I were invited to come to a local community event at a neighborhood Fire House.  It was an open house, and fund raiser for the fire house.  One of the Frankfurt UL IT guys, Frank Treml was performing at the event.  He and his partner have this two man band that does everything from cheesy 80's music, to Bavarian Beer Drinking music, and everything in between.  While there he kindly dedicated "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra to Joe and I as being the two people who had come the farthest to the open house. 

The day after the fire house gathering Joe and I did some shoe leather tourist sightseeing.  The one thing we learned is that the cost of taking Taxis in Europe is ridiculously expensive.  A 30 minute taxi ride on Saturday night cost us about $70 USD one way.  And as I go from Germany to the Netherlands to Denmark, the high pric of taxis continue.

On Monday evening, after a day of IT Meetings in the Frankfurt office, Frank Treml, along with Andreas Geil (Director of EULA IT Operations) hosted an evening of fun and frollicking at another local establishment.  Not entirely sure how to explain this place.  It has go carts, segways, an area with a beach motif, as well as a bar and a restaurant to boot.  It was by far one of the most enjoyable evenings I've ever had with work colleagues.  It's also the first time in my life I've had a steak cooked right next to me on the top of a super hot piece of granite.  It was a "rump" steak cooked on a "hot stone".

I left Frankfurt by car with a couple of UL IT guys. Frank Prossegger from our TTC (Plastic Testing Center) in Krefeld Germany, and Wouter Zeggelaar from our Arnhem Netherlands office.  Wouter was kind enough to volunteer to take me to Krefeld and then on to Arnhem.  Unfortunately I was in both places to short a time to get an opportunity to get out and do any sightseeing.  I've certainly made for that here in Copenhagen.

I left the Netherlands by plane out of the Amsterdam Airport.  It was a short 1.25 hour flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen.  Having got here by about 6:30 PM local time, I was able to check into my hotel, and get back out onto the streets by 8:00 PM.  I was looking to get a "lay of the land" as well as a late dinner.

I came across an inner city amusement park called "Tivoli".  Interesting place.  Sort of a cross between Six Flags, Gurnee Mills, Grant Park/Ravinia, and I'm not sure what else.  There were lots of restaurants, shopping, crafts, and rides and carnival type side shows. You know, the hawker type places where you try to shoot arrows into a bail of hay for a cheap $0.50 prize that you wind up paying $5 in tickets for...  I found a great restaurant called Hercegovina that served a Croation and Dutch Buffet.  Great food.  After eating, and walking around some more, I was happy to find that the amusement park had open air concerts on Friday nights.  So I was able to hang out and catch some music as well.

Todays excursion was another shoe leather sightseeing tour.  I hit the streets around 10 AM, and I walked my way around the center of Copenhagen for the better part of the entire day.  I walked through the main shopping areas.  While taking a short coffee break, I was surprised to see that the more liberal attitudes of Copenhagen lent themselves to public displays of immodesty. My next tourist stop was at the Rosenborg Slot.  This is where the Kings and Queens of Denmark resided from 1577 through 1874.  What a phenomenal place that was.  Along with being able to tour the castle, I was also able to tour the "treasury".  This held "The Crown of the Absolute Monarchs" from 1671 through 1731.

Weather permitting, tomorrow I intend to huff it over to see the "Little Mermaid" and other points of interest that I missed today. (The weather turned sour, and it started raining on me around 5 or so.)

More to come...

Tokyo and my final days in Asia...

I’m coming to the end of my last full day in Asia.  I spent the day tackling the subway and train system here in Tokyo.  The task is not for the feint of heart.  Becky and I have mastered the New York City subway system, and when we did that, we were quite proud of ourselves.  Trying to master the Tokyo system is a little like trying to get your arms around brain surgery.

Each and every line in this picture represents a train or subway line.  There’s the Tokyo Metro System, and then there are a whole bunch of private company lines.  They’re all using the same tracks, and they share many of the same stations.

My intention was to get up early and head out to find a certain Harley Davidson store I was given the address for.  That trip required two transfers and moving from the Tokyo Metro onto another private train line.  BTW… did I mention that the stations and signage within them has very limited English available?  All of maps on the walls are in Japanese, and it’s only one printed brochure that gives you this information with some English on it.

So on my trip up to the HD store, I wound up getting some bad information and was sent in the wrong direction on one of the train lines.  I finally figured it out when I was almost halfway to the end of that current line I was on.  I got off that train, crossed over to the tracks heading in the opposite direction, and made my way back to my starting point.  Ultimately, I was only two stops away from my destination, but I had wound up going through at least 15 to get there.

When I finally got through with my HD store quest, I headed to an area of Tokyo called Asakusa.  It’s a bit older, and it has one of the earliest temples in the Tokyo area.  The temple dates back to 628.  I visited the temple itself as well as walked through the multiple shopping areas around the temple.

I found Tokyo to be a real unique place to visit.  At the risk of being cliché, it really is a place where east meets west, and old and new collide. As I traveled around, I saw plenty of people dressed in very traditional Kimono’s with slipper type shoes, as well as a large share of ultrachic young kids with spikey and dyed hair.  Respect and politeness still seem to be a major theme though for the country.  Everyone was extremely polite and respectful of everyone else.

Weekend Number Two....

Weekend Number Two…

The continuation of jet lag has kept me slightly off my game this week.  I’ve had all the best intentions to put up blog posts through the week, but after coming back to the hotel from a day in the office, I wind up watching just enough TV to put me to sleep, which hasn’t taken more than 15 minutes each night.  I continue to find myself waking up anywhere between 2:30 AM and 5:00 AM, but I’ve been forcing myself to stay in bed to acclimate to the time zones.

In all honesty, it’s probably good that I haven’t posted blogs all week since the greater portion of my week has been spent in meetings with various business and IT colleagues from the AP region.  From a work point of view, this trip is definitely reaping rewards, and is proving to be well worth the effort and cost.  I’ve gained some valuable insight into the challenges and frustrations that my colleagues here in Hong Kong deal with on a daily basis.  From an entertainment point of view, blog postings would have turned out pretty unentertaining for the one or two of you taking the time to read this.

The major highlights of the past week at work though continue to focus around lunches.  My IT colleagues have taken pleasure in making sure I get a well-rounded feel for the various cuisines that are available here in Hong Kong.  Some business colleagues took me to a marvelous Thai Restaurant (Called, Simply Thai, in Sha Tin) on Friday, while my IT cohorts continued to bring me to local eating establishments with much more regular day to day type menus.

The Director if AP IT Operations, Patrick Chiu, hosted an IT Luncheon in my honor on Thursday afternoon in a very nice restaurant.  It was another Dim Sum lunch experience, sans chicken feet, and it was marvelous.  And then on Friday night, after work, Patrick was kind enough to drive me back out to Victoria Peak for dinner, which allowed me to experience the Hong Kong skyline at night.  Patrick explained that the weather shift during this time of year brings winds into Hong Kong from mainland China, and consequently it causes the perpetual haze that lies over the Island.

Saturday – 15 January 2011

I grabbed my camera, my MTR train map, and I headed off to Lan Tao Island.  The MTR takes you all the way there, and drops you about .5 block away from the Cable Car that transports you out to the Po Lin Monastery.  It is at this monastery that they have built the world’s largest statue of the Buddha, called the Tian Tan (Giant) Buddha. MAP LOCATION HERE It’s impossible to explain the grandeur of it all.  The cable car ride is an experience all in itself. Especially with the wind whipping as it was this past Saturday.  IT wasn’t enough to close down the cable cars, but it was enough to get the cars to sway slightly.  The cars hold up to ten people, and many of my fellow riders were a lot more squeamish than I over the heights as well as the swaying.  While traveling out to the Monastery, we were quite surprised when we saw a maintenance guy riding back in the opposite direction.  While I'm not afraid of heights, I don't think there's enough money in the world to get me to ride that cable system in an open basket like that.

Once I made it to Po Lin, I immediately felt things slow down ever so slightly.  Hong Kong with its dense population seems to always be buzzing with activity, while here on the other side of the hill on Lan Tao, things were much quieter, calmer, and much less busy.  You could say serene, although that would be a bit of a stretch for any place in the Hong Kong area.

 

As I wandered around the Po Lin Monastery area, taking in the sights and reading about the teachings of the Buddha I couldn’t help but think about my own spiritual journey through life so far.  Born, bred, and raised in the Catholic Church and the Christian faith I was of course taught about the “one” way to salvation.  As I’ve grown older, and have been exposed to different teachings, philosophies, and religions I’ve moved away from the “one” way, and have gained faith that there are many ways.  During one of the presentations on the life of Buddha, I experienced a brief moment of calm, and clarity, and I feel as if I’ve been exposed to validation of my own personal spiritual beliefs. (Enough religion…)

BREAK

I had to put this away for a while to finish packing and prepare for my train trip into mainland China, and the city of Guangzhou.  I’m currently writing this during my trip there.  I’m in a First Class train coach with maybe another 4 or 5 people.  Two gentlemen from somewhere in Germany and the remainder being either people local from Hong Kong or from China.  Being in First Class, I was presented with a small bottle of distilled water.  Cha-Ching! I LOVE bottled water here.  Only because I’ve experienced what most Americans experience when they travel abroad and take in the local flavor and delicacies.  I won’t go into any gory details; suffice it to say that I’ve become quite “regular” during my trip to Asia.

Back to yesterday in Hong Kong.  After finishing at the Po Lin Monastery, I made my way back via the cable car to the MTR station and navigated my way back to my hotel.  A quick bio break, and a shedding of some of the tourist trappings I had (camera bag, maps, etc.), and I headed back out again for a trip to an area called the Temple Street Night Market.  If you read my previous post where I discuss the Stanley Market, this is almost identical in offerings but it’s in the heart of what’s called the Jordan area, and it all happens at night.  There’s lots of hawking going on, and as I walked through the market area, I quickly got the sense that there were some real serious negotiations going on.  What’s interesting, and humorous all at the same time is that these people are bartering, and at times, rather loudly and with great vigor over something that is labeled at $20 HKD.  They don’t want to pay more than $15.  They wind up settling on $18 HKD.  For my American readers, we’re talking about a product that was labeled at the equivalent of $2.57. They only wanted to pay $1.92, and they wind up paying $2.31.  And they’re damn happy to have made the deal!

My dinner last night was once again in one of the very local establishments where I ordered my dinner from the picture on the menu.  I wound up getting sizzling Prawns on a bed of fried noodles.  That and a cup of hot Lemon, Tangerine, Honey Tea, and the cost of dinner was about $10.00 USD.  They’ve got great seafood here in Hong Kong.

This coming week, I’m going to be Guangzhou China on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  Tuesday evening, I’m flying to Shanghai, and then on Friday, I fly to Taipei Taiwan.  To the best of my knowledge, my IT counterparts here in China have my days filled with various meetings with IT folks, business colleagues, and some local IT training vendors.  I anticipate to be kept very busy.

Chicken Feet and Other Delicacies...

So, it's 5:30 in the morning, and I've been trying to force myself to sleep since about 2:30 this morning.  My alarm is set for 6:00, but for some reason (jet lag) I can't seem to stay asleep that long.

Yesterday was Day One in the office for me, and while I was pretty apprehensive about it going into the day, by the end of the day most of my fears were put aside, and I finished the day feeling pretty good about the whole experience. 

My fellow IT Associates were positively gracious and generous with their time, and patience.  (Being the non-Chinese speaking visitor, I had plenty of questions.)  By the end of the day, I came away with some new found respect for my Asian colleagues.

All of the people in the office make it to work by around 9:00 AM.  Since Hong Kong is so very crowded, public transportation is the primary means of getting around.  There's a very substantial Shuttle Bus service that seems to transport people around at the right time to all the right places.  I had a Shuttle Bus from my hotel to the office I'm working in.  There's a Shuttle Bus that comes around at lunch to take people to the nearby shopping area where eating establishments are plentiful.  And then at the end of the day, starting at 5:00 PM, there's a shuttle bus that takes you from the office to the Sha Tin train station which is just block or so from my hotel.  It's interesting to note that the evening shuttle runs from 5 till 8 PM, and most of the IT folks wind up working till around 7, and sometimes even later.

So, for lunch, my colleagues took me to a very local eating establishment where English was not even a choice.  Menus were in Chinese, and there weren't any pictures to make my choices from, so I relied solely on my colleagues to order our food.  We had a Dim Sum lunch, which is not unlike ordering Tapas from a Spanish Restaurant.  Small plates of food, and lots of them, give the diner plenty of options to choose from.  There were lots of steamed, meat and vegetable filled dumplings that were all quite tasty.  Along with that we had the Chinese version of sticky rice (not my favorite), and a couple of different soft, fluffy, dough filled items that were really good.  One was filled with meat and veggies, while another was reminiscent of an egg.  White fluffy dough outside, with a bright yellow liquid center that was absolutely marvelous tasting. It was sweet, and most likely a desert type dish.  The highlight of the meal, (to the unsuspecting American guy) was the barbecued chicken feet.  It was obvious to me that this was going to be the good natured entertainment for the afternoon, so I obliged by giving the feet dish a taste.

While I found the chicken feet to be tasty, I also found it to be extremely fatty.  Under the skin of the feet, there's a layer of fat, that surrounds the bone and knuckle type parts. This fatty part is what wound up not sitting well with me.  Although the effects weren't immediate, but rather more of a time bomb effect.   I spent last night in my room, passing on dinner, and sort of regretting my culinary bravado.

So, it's off to day two of work... I'm looking forward to it.