Gotta love technology! I am sitting in the passenger seat typing up this blog while Frank speeds down on the Interstate I-5 towards LA, and the best part is, I am actually doing this blog in real time, online!

Itching to know how? Want to know my setup? ;-) I am sure when it comes to technology as cool as this, anyone can be as geeky as me!

Gears:

• Novatel U727 EVDO BroadBand USB Card (Sprint, 1.5Mbps)
  
• CrandlePoint Pocket Router PHS300 (802.11b/g, EVDO router, 4x wifi connections)
  
• MacBook Pro 15"
  

I can simply plug the U727 into my MacBook Pro to get online, but that's nothing new, not cool enough. Here is the cool part: the U727 USB can directly plug in to the PHS300 pocket router, and the PHS300 will automatically broadcast the internet connection out, just like a regular home wifi router, and supports up to four laptops to jump online at the same time. So, even tho Frank is flooring the gas pedal and challenge the limit of our rental mini-van on the highway, I am happily cocooned in my personal moving wifi bubble, browsing online... Now that's cool!

Frank calls himself the "GearWhore", but I think "GearSlut" is more accurate. ;-) Every time we travel together, we end up bringing more electronic gears to land Apollo 13 on the moon. Two years ago, the four of us, Frank and his wifey Connie, I and my then still girlfriend Vivian vacationed in Florida for two weeks. We drove up and down the length of FL hitting all the major tourist destination like clockwork. However, by the end of the tour, our car was probably more worn out by all the battery juice we drained out of it. We definitely went overboard that time with our 1x radar detector, 3x iPods, 3x laptops, 4x cameras, 1x DV, 3x GPS, and of course 4x cell phones... At night, all the LCD and LEDs from our junks decorated our cabin like strobe lights in the discotheque! We are slaves to our gears... ;-)

Spend enough time in Asia and USA, it won't be hard for anyone to notice the not so subtle differences between the East and the West. Surely the languages are drastically different, and so are the cultures, those are given and you don't need me to point them out for you. What interests me the most are those concepts that seem so as-matter-of-fact on one side of the globe but completely distinct on the other the other side. Being born and spend my early childhood in China, but raised in USA, I can see the logic and understand the reasonings behind the way things are handled on the two continent, I can relate, and that's what makes it really interesting...

Flight Attendants
America was the first country to commercialize the art of flying, back in the early last century, when boarding an airplane was still a privilege reserved for the rich and famous, you can light up a cigar inflight and do summersaults in the cabinet, the flying experience was complemented by flight attendants (it was called "couriers" back then) tailor to your every needs.

Those days are long gone, fast forward to 2000's, the matured US airline industry is plagued by bankruptcies and union labors. United, Delta, Northwest, Southwest, American... fly any US airline, you will be greeted by mid/overaged, often over-weight flight attendants who dread make eye contacts with the passengers, they are equipped with frosty faces that would put Stone Cold Austin in shame; inflight meals means catching the bags of pretzels or rock hard cold sandwich the flight attendant hurled at you. After that obligatory duty, you will be lucky to see them again for the rest of the fight. In recent years, the US airlines have been raising ticket prices to adjust for the increasing fuel costs, well, I would suggest the US airlines to force their flight attendants to join a health club to trim their shapes, flying around those extra 20-30 lbs, each, is seriously expensive for the passengers!

In contrast, the Asia airlines, no matter which, ANA, JAL, Eva, China Airline, China Eastern Airline, Singapore Air... you will be greeted by early 20's well in-shape flight attendants in clean contour-fitting uniforms. These professionals put on their best smiles, looks you in the eye, and direct you to your seat. To accommodate the international travelers, the crew will use at least two different languages (English is always used) for the PA announcements, even on Asian domestic flights!! For areas that has diverse population, the crew sometime uses up to four different languages (ex: TW-HK flights) for announcements, well, it was kind of long and annoying to have the same message repeated four times, but it keeps everyone well informed. If you ever fly the business/first, some of these Asian airline's flight attendants would even lower themselves in half kneeling position when spoken to, so you as the passenger won't have to strain yourself looking up to communicate! Now, regarding to the inflight meal, even for the short two hours domestic flights, the Asian airlines would serve you hot food: fried rice, noodles, stir-fries or tasty sandwiches, and sometimes even provides real metal knife and forks!! That's something I haven't seen on board any US airline since that dreadful 9/11. I understand that's a security measure, but com'on! I can't image anyone hijacking a plane with a dull inflight dinner knife.

Having friends who are flight attendants for the China Eastern Airline, I was able to learn the insights of their lives. They first had to pass height, look and age requirements, then go thru two years worth of professional training before they can call themselves flight attendants. Even after they starts working, quiz and examinations are frequently done to measure their continuing professional capabilities. I recently watched a Japanese TV series called "Attention Please!" that depicted a young girl's experience as she transformed herself from a hip, causal rock band singer to a well mannered, professional flight attendants for the Japanese ANA airline. Although it is a TV series, and obviously endorsed by ANA, it is still quite interesting to see the level of attention to detail and caring to the passengers stressed by the airline.

Flight attendants, whether it is an important glamorous job or not, that's for you to decide. However, one thing for sure, flight attendants are the face and image of the airline, and the country behind them, why not make that image as rosy as possible??!

China Southern Airline Flight Attendants

Have been on the road again for more than three weeks now, the feeling of homesick is creeping up on my conscience. Although I have been spending a week visiting my hometowns and spending quality time with my close families, it still doesn't replace the absence of the immediate family across the ocean on the other side of the globe.

Traveling alone tends to offer a lot of idle time, on the road, in the plane, finally the mind got the chance to deal with the inner feelings that was otherwise buried by the plethora of information brought on by the busy world outside. Home is a fascinating concept, it can be a run-down hole in the wall in the Projects at a ghetto neighborhood, but nonetheless it bring the warm intimate feeling, it is the place where one belongs, and the place where one can claim his own little piece of heaven. The concept is further enhanced by the family at home, they bring the warmth and intimacy. Home holds a special place in my heart.

Looking forward to go hom, soon....

MUSE is officially the weekend home for the group of us here in Shanghai. MUSE is probably as successful as any club ever wish to be. It commands premium price and nights after nights of packed house. Backed by celebrity investor and experienced shares holding management staff, MUSE enjoys the tier one club status status, keeping its position amongst the countless formidable competitors. It is the place to be for the more financially stable hip partygoers here in Shanghai. It is not unusual to see famous models, professional athletes, actors/actresses, TV hostess, flight attendants, and deep pocket business men there, as the matter of fact, those are the people we party with on regular basis.

The price is not cheap at MUSE, a bottle of Greygoose can set you back 800RMB (~$120), with the minimum spending requirement for a reserved table starts at 3000RMB, this price easily double the fee at other establishments. However, the premium buys you a different type of crowd, mostly well educated, well doing individuals, who often have foreign backgrounds or understands the western culture, and can speaks fluent or passable conversational English. In comparison, the more "local" pubs and clubs are more tailored for the local audience, usually very young aged, they'd plays the Chinese styled hip-pop/techno music, and often time some retarded MC would be on the mic yelling senseless english phrases all night long in attempt to pump up the atmosphere; oh yeah, there are those really "local" clubs that features bouncing dance floors, you will be involuntarily hopping up and down as the springs underneath the floor forces you to "dance", while it is a great assistant for those who have no rhythm, it is very annoying to me as I can't even stand still on those things.

As a second home, we'd often running into other "distant family members" here, we would spend some time at our table, then hop over to other tables to socialize with friends in other groups. I swear there are people here I see everytime I come, it is almost like a high school Homecoming Ball.

So, on the weekends, there is always someone in our group sending out SMS message informing the rest the reserved table number at MUSE. While it is sickening to go to the same place night after night, but somehow, the feeling of second home always bring us back, time after time.

Shanghai is the place for shopping and entertainment, the activities has always been the same every time I come to Shanghai -- going out with friends, drinking, meeting and gawking at the beautiful people in the pubs and clubs. Shanghai really is one amazing place, I love it, besides all the laughs and good time, the best part about Shanghai really is the opportunity it provides.

My contact list constantly grows while I am in Shanghai, it seems like I am always meeting new people while I am there. The best part is, the people I meet in Shanghai are from all different walks of life, engineers, actresses, alcohol distributors, PR agents, graphic designers... it is a huge contrast comparing to the simpler life in the Bay Area, where it seems every person I meet is either a software engineer working for Google/Apple or a hardware engineering working for Cisco/IBM and the likes.

It really helps to have a diverse group of contacts, things are far easier when you have the right connections at the right positions. Connections is followed by opportunities....

Did I already mention that I love Shanghai? and that comes with a good reason!

Bangkok has now disappeared out of sight as the jet climbed thru the layer of smog and clouds, we are returning back to Shanghai after a 4+ days of excursion Yingjie and I had in Bangkok.

The traffic
Bangkok is impressive, much more modern than I had anticipated, it is a true world-class metropolis in every way. High rise buildings and levitated expressways/rail tracks hides the sky from the people on the surface. Although it doesn't have the sheer number of skyscrapers when compared to Shanghai, but it has just as many cars and moving objects in the streets. The traffic jam in Bangkok is among the worst of all the places I have been too, worse than Shanghai, worse than Tokyo, and probably even puts Seoul's traffic jams in shame. Mopeds, taxis, trucks and three wheeled motorbikes clogs every street and intersections, and there is no escaping from it, the traffic can be just as bad 2 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon. Being a popular tourist destination worsen the issue as tourists flocks in from around the globe, and gives the city rush hour traffics at any hour. Fortunately, the fairly new subway (MRT) and train (MTS) systems helps the getting around easier -- the stations are immaculate, the trains are frequent and comfortable, and the availability of one day pass (120Baht, ~$4USD), three day pass (230B, ~$7USD), pre-paid discount cards made it very easy to use. Yingjie and I have mastered the MRT/MTS over the course of four days, we were part of the locals, knew exactly where we need to get off and knew exactly which escalators to take for the MTS/MRT interchanges, and which skywalks would eventually leads to the stations... The best part of these mass transportation is, ahem... the eye-candies, which leads to the next important topic...

The women of Bangkok
ah... what can I report here? Yingjie and I are still recovering our necks from the frequent head turning we have endured in the past four days. There are soooo many cuties and hotties in this place! The decades of US and foreign influence, and the close vicinity of other SE Asian countries probably have made huge contributions to the exotic beauties of Bangkok. The Bangkok beauties ranges from the darker exotic to the fair skinned mixed looks, and each of them comes equipped with the tightest little figures imaginable. (ladies, if you are offended by my descriptions, please skip to the next section) Bangkok ladies has nothing to lose comparing to the cutesy-hotties in Shanghai, or the bling-bling, high-fashion Tokyo darlings, or the cosmetically flawless Seoul honeys. Bangkok ladies has the plump back, ample curvy fronts and shapely-long-thin-well-tanned legs, what a combination!

By the way, the most popular ladies' uniform in Bangkok consist of snug-fitted white collar shirt, tucked into a tight fitting black mini-skirt that ends six inches above the knees... store clerks, office ladies even high school girls all sport this type of uniform, what a great country!

Yingjie and I found ourselves constantly drooling uncontrollably. Drooling and sweating, add in the 95F degree temperature, and high humidity, I had to get drinks a dozen times a day, 7-Eleven, FamilyMart and other similar convenient stores are never more than a block away, offering the amenities as well as the temporary escape from the heat and smogs.

The Bangkok conveniences
I found Bangkok to be an easy city to adopt to, english translations are used everywhere, very important since Thai words are extremely long and the alphabets are squiggly, it would be very hard for the foreigners to navigate without the english translations.

As I mentioned in the last section, convenient stores are abundant, offering 24 hours quick services. Red Bulls energy drinks are only 10B (~$0.30USD), and GSM cell phone SIM cards are only 50B (~$1.5USD) which includes 15B pre-paid minutes. The SIM cards not only allowed phone usage, we were also able to send international text message to home overseas, and we were able to surf the internet using our PDA phone via GPRS/EDGE network! All these convenience from a pre-paid 50B SIM card, unbelievable!

Spent hours a day walking, sight-seeing and of course drooling, we were sticky, yucky and definitely smelly, massage parlors to the rescue! There are basically two types of massage parlors in Bangkok, one type offering bone-cracking, muscle numbing traditional Thai massage, foot massage or even Swedish/oil massage; and the other type of massage parlor, well, you can do the research on your own, just Google it. Well, in our case, Yingjie and I are all good boys, we might drool all day at the short-skirted, perfectly tanned goddesses, but when it comes to massage, we um... spent our money in the "normal" massage parlors. A quick shower wash away the stickiness, and an hour of rub down is a sure way to recovery from the day.

We did a lot during our short stay in the "Land of Thousand Smiles". I am going to try to capture as much as I can in the blog. Right now, I need to hail down the flight attendant and get myself overdued coffee.

In Munich Germany again, this time for the JEDEC conference. Germany is one of those few countries that truly impresses me, one can sense the great planning and careful designs in everywhere, everyway.

Last time I came to Munich, I had the luxury of time to check out the Munich old downtown; gawking at the centuries old cathedral and countless old intricately decorated buildings… so much culture, so much history, in perspective, the ~200 years of US history is, rather, young...

The best part of visiting Germany gotta be the Autobahn driving experience! This time my colleague Tomdio and I arrived a day early, and had the luxury to take a day trip to explore the surrounding places around Munich. Both Tomdio and I have frequent Munich, but hardly ever had such chance to have the entire day to ourselves to sightseeing.

I had a rental car, diesel powered, which is a popular option here in Europe, I love the sound of the low-purring diesel engine, great torque, great pick-up, raw diesel power! For a day trip, we had two choices: head east to Strattsburg, the home of Mozart, or alternatively head south to the Germany-Austria border to visit Neuschwanstein castle in the Bavarian Alps in Southern Germany, built for Louis II of Bavarian, a.k.a. the Mad King Ludwig. We picked the southern route.

The country side of Germany is breath taking, The white colored Autobahn cuts thru the clean canvas of the crop farms thats filled with bright and high contrast colored flowers and crops, the majestic Alps casts a vague outline in the distant, you can't even paint a prettier picture than this. Tomdio and I were so impressed, we made frequent stops along the way to satisfy our shutter-snapping urges. It took us roughly three hours to make to Germany-Austria border as there were a lot of traffic on the road, the locals were heading out to the country side with the same purpose as us.

After some nice leisure walks along the vast hilly, meticulously cared farmlands, we headed for the Neuschwanstein Castle, we were told that Disney's Cinderella castle was modeled after it, I had to see it for myself to believe it, since the Cinderella castle seemed to be something that came out of the fantasies. Well, seeing is believing, Neuschwanstein Castle truly is a fantasy, built on top of a steep mountain, half way in the cloud, and can be seen by from miles away. The sight of it is as impressive miles away as seen right in front of it. Too bad the Mad King Ludwig never saw the full completion of the castle, he died a mysterious death at a rather young age.

Cinderella Castle vs. Neuschwanstein Castle:

Neuschwanstein Castle

Disney Cinderella Castle

San Salvador was our hopping point from California to Lima, Peru. The layover was almost eight hours. We knew it was going to be a painful long wait knowing the tiny size of the airport and lack of airport amenities. Vivian and I were the first ones to arrive at San Salvador airport, we got in at 5:30am, the other two groups of our friends were scheduled to arrive two and half hours later.

The airport is small indeed, 5:30 in the morning, all the shops were still closed. In preparation of our long wait at the airport, Vivian bought a bag full of candies and cream puffs last night from LA (yeah, we had 5 hours layover in LA as well), and hand carried them with us, protected them as we flew in the overly crowded flight along with the rest of Patin American passengers.

If snacks are Vivian's way to pass time, my preferred way would be get online. and to my big surprise, they have Wireless internet here!! Free too! I hopped on the internet, finished the emails I meant to get done before leaving the trip, and even looked up travel infos while my other friends took naps and bullshitted for 8 hours.

My impression of San Salvador: pretty damn good!

Time to board my flight to Lima, Peru, see ya!



Early morning arrival


Vivian and her Cream Puffs


Been there! Done that!


A look at the country

As our wedding approaches, more and more often people ask me about our honeymoon destination of choice. My replies have been "We are not sure if we will go on a honeymoon".

There is a reason behind the answer...

Originally we have considered tropical islands such as Bora Bora or Fiji for our honeymoon, however after spending two week in Hawaii last Dec, we are a little bored with the sea/sand/sun routine. Australia was also considered, but decided to save the Down Under for a family trip together with our parents. Never really gave Europe much thoughts, Europe will also be fabulous and glamorous, this year or ten years later, we can go there next time... SE Asia backpacking excursion? Well, that's more like a trip with friends than a romantic getaway for two newly weds. We are both interested in doing a Safari in the black Africa, humm...want to save that idea for later... South America also sounded exotic, but guess what!? We are departing for Peru/Argentina/Uruguay this Friday!!

Any other ideas? Nope, neither did we, hence the answer "We are not sure if we will go on a honeymoon".

Tonight, Vivian reached an epiphany, her eyes lite up, her breath shortened and her face flushed (get your mind out of the gutter). She have decided on the place to go for our honeymoon! (drum rolls please...) Honeymoon destination ---- Dubai!!

Wedding in a five-star Ritz Carlton, and honeymoon in a seven-star Burj Al-Arab? That's living it up!! Wait... let me check my bank statement first...

We had a fun day in the burning sun yesterday, picking out lavenders and spending way too much money on lavender-filled pillows and slippers.

It was our 2nd time attending the Sonoma Lavender Festival, had to go there since Lavender happens to be Vivian's favorite flower, one of her favorite flower I should say. I do agree, the gentle smell of the lavender is soothing, and acres and acres of light purple lavender is indeed quite a sight.



More pictures:
Lavender Festival 2005
Lavender Festival 2007

Just found out today that I have to make a trip to Penang, Malaysia to give a tour of our Penang factory to one of our top customer. The date our Japanese VIPs picked was Fri 6/1, which is the day before Frank/Connie's wedding, where Vivian and I are part of the wedding party. humm... this calls for some creative trip planning.

Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz and Sidestep, I opened them all up and punched in the travel dates and searched for flights by departure/arrival time. Interesting enough, this is one result Sidestep gave me. Now, all I need to do is to convince my management to flip the bill!

(search results from Sidestep.com)

Today was one of those seldom occasions where I actually arrived at the airport well before the boarding time. I tend to be fashionably late as I detest waiting at the gate and stare at the people who I’d probably never see again for the rest of my life, it is as boring to me as watching grass grow. Anyways, I am glad I gave myself enough time today tho, as I had to go thru some interesting time consuming experiences today at the Taipei airport.

You see, I had to check-in two rather large suitcases to take back to US. “Rather large” doesn’t really describe the situation, for one of the suitcases was stuffed with books and stamp collections and more books, and I broke my back probably twice hulling it in and out of the car on the way to the airport. Naïve as I am, I thought that since I was flying business class, the lady at the check-in counter would just smile, tag my ultra-heavy luggage and send me to the lounge to sip on green tea... that didn’t happen, the heavier of the two luggage weighted in at 40kg or 8kg (~20lbs) over the weight limit (which explains my back-breaking experiences), and I was asked to “lose some weight”. I tried to play cool, flashed my frequent flier Gold card and offered to pay extra for the overweight, but she declared that the US airport luggage handlers are protected by Union and might simply refuse to move my rather large suitcases. Out of options, I proceeded to operate on the suitcase, took out the entire 1990-2000 Taiwan stamp collection I was carrying back for my soon to be father-in-law. I used to laugh at those poor idiots who have to dig out all of their underwear and strap-ons in-front of the check-in line, I have always thought them to be poor planning and thus put themselves in that rather embarrassing situations at the airport. Today I was that idiot... after removing the entire stamp collection and toss out Vivian’s sandal and my four cans of 鲁肉罐头, I made weight and wasted half hour...

Custom and security wasn’t too bad, I got thru them in less than 10 mins, I still had an hour before boarding time. That weight control incident really worked a sweat out of me, and at this point I was really looking forward to some tasty 小笼包 and porridge they have at the airline lounge.

Walking pass all the duty free shop and the Cartier store in the corner caught my eyes, “oh crap” I said, as I remembered that I needed to request VAT tax refund for the wedding ring I bought at Taipei Cartier last week. The information desk lady told me the tax refund is outside of the custom... I muttered few four letter words and approached the custom to see if they can let me go out and come back in.

This is where I really should credit Taiwan’s airport services, very impressive! The custom agent called up another custom agent Lily on the walkie-talkie, and Lily ran over to assist me by re-admitting me back into Taiwan, in another word, she pretty much void my departing custom stamp and sign a bunch of documents, took me over to security, ran my bags thru security again, signed a bunch of documents, took me to the entrance to security, signed a bunch of documents, and 20 mins later, I was standing in the main check-in lobby again, shouting distance away from the check-in lady who made me “lose weight” about an hour earlier. I refunded my VAT, got the money, and Lily took me back thru security, cutting lines at the custom check point, and another 20 mins later, I was back in the terminal section staring at the duty-free stores

Ten mins to departure, I am now dying for some 小笼包 and porridge. I limped down the terminals, hulling the entire 1990-2000 stamp collections in one hand, a bag of Taiwan sweets and treats in the other hand, and a big backpack with laptops on my back, sweat dripping down my cheek, and my eyeglasses slipping off my nose, but I didn’t care, I had my mind set on 小笼包.

Finally made it to the airline lounge five mins before boarding, the entrance lady was puzzling why I still wanted to go in as others on my flights were now leaving the lounge to head over to the gate. Two flights of stairs down, I’ve made it to the lounge’s dinning room!! I can now smell the aroma of 小笼包 by now... As luck playing joke on me, damn! there is a long line in front of the food window, seems like everyone in the lounge shared my fancy for 小笼包. I can feel the rage building up inside of me, and picture myself grabbing the steamy plate of 小笼包 the first in line fat lady who just received, and kick her all the way to the lobby’s check-in counter to have a face-to-face with the “lose weight” lady.

Needless to say, I made the decision that catching my flight was more important than the much desired food. Not eating was a big dismay, however, I was able to check in my luggages, bring back the stamp collections (brownie points with future dad-in-law), got be VAT refund, pretty lucky I should consider myself to be. And to top everything off, the gate lady swapped my seat to a window seat on the second floor where I have more storage space between the seat and the window. Not bad, not bad at all.

Taiwan streets is packed with scooters, people of all ages ride these light weight mopeds zooming around the city. In a crowded city like Taipei, major streets are jammed with buses, taxis and sedans, the countless alleys are stuffed with food stands and parked vehicles; riding a scooter really is the most convenient way to go from point A to point B.



I took this picture while in a moving taxi, quite pleased with how the pictures turned out. It gives the visual sensation that the scooter speeds down the road, sharing the road with its four-wheeled friends. Love my Leica!

We ran into some friends we met back in US here in Taipei, and they invited us to attend their wedding, on the spot. Vivian and I have never attended any wedding in Taiwan before, and since we are pulling our hair out preparing for our wedding, we thought, what the hey, let’s check out their wedding.



The wedding was interesting, fairly high class, a mix of Taiwan and western style. Unlike in the US, where the banquet usually follows the ceremony, it was combined into one event here in their wedding. The bride walked down the isle (between the banquet tables) and was handed off to her new hubby by her father, then proceed to the front of the room to undergo the “yes, I do!” ceremony. All that happens at the same time as the guests chews on their appetizers. Although sequence of events was different, but it made sense; Chinese weddings these days are mostly about the banquet, it is logically to integrate the “I do” part into the banquet.



What didn’t make sense to me was how quiet it was, as the newly wed couple went from table to table toasting, the MC actually goes around and instruct the guests not to get up during the toast. I don’t know about you guys out there, but my idea of a wedding is a good and happy time for everyone; loud and obnoxious is totally normal and wanted by my book, similar to My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Just can’t believe they actually make the effort to quiet people down.



The food was excellent tho. It was Chinese dishes but served western style. The wait staff separates the food into individual plates for the guest, quite convenient indeed and you don’t have to fight with others over food.

Interesting experience...

My flight landed five hours ago, I’ve decided to camp out at the airport and wait for Vivian’s flight instead of go to hotel and come back.

Doing what a good geek does, as soon as I walked out of the baggage claim, I took out my laptop, set it on top of my luggage cart, turned on the wireless, and went around the airport looking for hotspots...

I did the hard work finding the hotspot so for those of you planning on visiting Taipei won’t have to. As soon as you walk out of the arrival gate, head left to the end of the hall where Casa Mila Café is located, the food there is tasty, reasonablely priced, and most importantly -– they provide free wireless! I now have been sitting here in the Casa Mila Café for 4 hours, enjoyed my croissant tuna sandwich and two cups of coffee, and received abundant weird looks from the waitresses, I don’t blame them, I look like shit (and probably smell like one too) after my ATL-SFO 5 hour flight immediately followed by the 13 hours SFO-TPE flight...

Four more hours before Vivian arrives, I need to find another place to camp out.

Ritz Carlton is usually associated with the image of plush five-star hotel filled with snobbish rich people; abundant of valet, concierge and attendants to assist with your every need; lavishly decorated rooms with supple comfy bed; and plentiful thick and soft towels to make you wish you had them at home…

Well, your own image of the Ritz Carlton might be different from mine, but can’t be too far off, am I right?

Welcome to Ritz Carlton, New Orleans! This was my first time staying at a Ritz, previous visits to the Ritz was either attending wedding or planning for my own upcoming wedding, never stayed overnight.

Anyways, pulled up in front of Ritz, no doorman at the door, that’s alright, it was midnight already, understandable. We went inside, can’t find the reception desk, three man polishing the floor told us to take elevator to three floor, where the main lobby is actually at. Weird, but fine, no problem… Reached third floor, found the reception desk this time, but can not find any receptionist. It might be late, but I have never been to a decent hotel where the reception desk gets left unattended. 15 minutes later, after calling the hotel’s toll-free number, receptionist came back and checked us in.

Went to my room, had trouble finding the light switch, I stumbled and tripped, and eventually found out that all the light switches are installed in reverse, meaning switch up to turn off lights, and down to turn them on… what da…?

Anyways, I am running out of patience to finish this entry, so I am just gonna leave it as-is. Just hope my experience with Ritz will be much better this September when we host our wedding at Ritz Carlton – Half Moon Bay!

2006 is by far the busiest traveling year for me…

01/15-01/18 (Sun-Wed) :: Seattle, WA (Work)
01/18-01/23 (Wed-Sun) :: Dallas, TX (Personal)
01/23-01/24 (Sun-Mon) :: Atlanta, GA (Work)
01/24-01/27 (Tue-Fri) :: Seoul, Korea (Work)

02/01 (Wed) :: Boise, ID (Work)
02/02-02/05 (Thur-Sun):: Las Vegas, NV (Personal)
02/10-02/15 (Fri-Wed) :: Auburn, IN (Personal)
02/16-02/19 (Thur-Sun):: Detroit, MI (Personal)
02/20-02/25 (Mon-Sat) :: Taipei, Taiwan (Work)

03/03-03/12 (Fri-Sun) :: Shanghai, China (Work-JEDEC)
03/31-04/02 (Fri-Sun) :: Las Vegas, NV (Personal)

04/11 (Tue) :: Irvine, CA (Work)
04/14-04/17 (Fri-Mon) :: Lake Tahoe, CA (Personal)
04/24-04/28 (Mon-Fri) :: Taipei, Taiwan (Work)

05/12-05/17 (Fri-Wed) :: Munich, Germany (Work)

06/04 (Sun) :: Monterey, CA (Personal)
06/12-06/16 (Mon-Fri) :: Vancouver, Canada (Work-JEDEC)
06/26-06/30 (Mon-Fri) :: Atlanta, GA (Work)

07/02-07/03 (Sun-Mon) :: Santa Barbara, CA (Personal)
07/18-07/19 (Tue-Wed) :: Houston, TX (Work)
07/21-07/26 (Fri-Wed) :: Florida (Personal)

08/10-08/11 (Thur-Fri):: Grand Canyon (Hiking)
08/12-08/13 (Sat-Sun):: Las Vegas, NV (Bachelor Party)
08/17-08/20 (Thur-Sun):: Chicago, IL (Personal)
08/31 (Thur) :: Lake Tahoe (Personal-DJ Tiesto)

09/02-09/03 (Sat-Sun) :: Monterey, CA (Wedding)
09/09-09/10 (Sat-Sun) :: Houseboating (Personal-Vivian's Birthday)
09/11-09/16 (Mon-Sat) :: Montreal, Canada (Work-JEDEC)
09/11-09/14 (Mon-Thur) :: Seoul, Korea (Work)
09/14-09/15 (Thur-Fri) :: Taipei, Taiwan (Work)
09/17-09/18 (Sun-Mon) :: Raleigh, NC (Work)
09/19-09/20 (Tue-Wed) :: Atlanta, GA (Work)

10/20-10/22 (Fri-Sun) :: San Diego, CA (Personal)
10/27-10/29 (Fri-Sun) :: Los Angeles, CA (Personal)

11/02-11/04 (Thur-Sat):: Las Vegas, NV (Personal)

12/01-12/03 (Fri-Sun) :: Nashville, TN (Personal)
12/04-12/08 (Mon-Fri) :: Maui, HA (Work-JEDEC)
12/09-12/12 (Sat-Wed) :: Maui, HA (Business-Duo Forte Annual Meeting)
10/08-10/11 (Sun-Wed) :: Seoul, Korea (Work)
10/11-10/14 (Wed-Sat) :: Tokyo, Japan (Work)
10/20-10/22 (Fri-Sun) :: Santa Ana, CA (Personal)
10/30-11/01 (Mon-Wed) :: Seoul, Korea (Work)

11/01-11/05 (Thur-Sun) :: Taipei, (Work)

12/02-12/13 (Sat-Wed) :: Hawaii, HI (Work/Personal)



I enjoy traveling, but this is getting a bit too much...

United Airline's in-flight travel magazine -- Hemisphere's online version actually got some really good stuff. At least it is much cleaner to read than those on-board sticky magazines.

"3 Perfect Days In..." is a series of destinations picked by the magazine, and recommended activities in that destination. I thought it was nicely written and source of good information.

This is mad cool! Connected online while traveling at 500+ mph!!
Too bad my laptop battery will be giving up soon……

For the third time in four months, I am back in Taipei again.
The weather here is muggier than last time I was here, cloudy with threat of shower.
I will only be here for 4 days, that's not sufficient time to taste all the tasties, but I will try my best stomache whatever comes my way...