Day 0:
After enjoying a quick trip up to Seattle for Thanksgiving dinner with the family, I spent all night Friday packing, doing laundry, and trying not to forget anything for my four week adventure in the far east. I jumped on the plane at 7:30am Saturday, arrived 6:30pm Sunday in Hong Kong after a long ride of being jammed in a seat that is not made for someone of my height.
Day 1: Monday 11/30
Jumped on the bus to Foxconn at 8 am in the morning. Got my first taste of how printers are made. Ate at one of the four hotel restaurants for dinner. The menu had shark fin soup and bird nest for outrageous prices, can't imagine eating something that costs nearly a grand in US$. We ended up sticking with the more reasonable dishes but they were pretty good.
Day 2: Tuesday 12/1
Ate at the food court tonight. Wandered around and just pointed at wax replicas of the food to order. I really need to learn some Chinese for next time.
Day 3: Wednesday 12/2
Joined our SGP counterparts for a traditional Chinese meal. Tried a few things I had never seen before and never really figured out what they were, this language barrier thing can be a bit difficult at times. For dinner we went out to an Italian place to send home John. I ordered a pasta dish with giant prawns, and believe me they were nearly lobsters! I love the seafood over here.
Day 4: Thursday 12/3
Ate out at the Brazilian BBQ place tonight. I had never heard of the type of restaurant before but it is all you can eat, and very heavy on the meat selection. The servers just constantly show up with a skewer the size of a small sword with different types of meat on it. They walk up, let you know the type of meat it is, and carve away at it onto your plate, my type of dining. We had beef, chicken, pork, lamb, and even camel! Believe it or not I hit a point in the meal where I didn’t want any more meat, I must have tried at least 10 different entrees of it. After dinner we joined up with some coworkers that are working on another build at the bar.
Day 5: Friday 12/4
Loooong day at work. We’ve been working 14 hour days but today we didn’t leave Foxconn until after nine…bleh. Got back after 10 and ordered room service, way too tired to go out tonight.
Day 6: Saturday 12/5
Only had to be on the bus at 9 this morning and planned on leaving the plant by 5… should’ve known better. Finally left around 7:30. Although I did get treated to Chinese noodles from the Foxconn engineer I’m working with. He will actually be joining us in Vancouver starting in January. Ended up eating Thai food with the crowd. Went out to get some drinks and play liars dice while sitting outside, enjoying the mild evenings in December here (t-shirt weather). The bar we were hanging out at started wrapping up at 3am, so we started heading back but some of us were distracted by another bar we had been to previously. Scott really wanted to play pool there so we stuck around until the table was open, about 3:30am. I figured we would end up shutting the bar down for the night but began to realize that wouldn’t happen when it was 5am and they were still serving drinks! We decided to call it a night, after being awake for about 21 hours. Had to make up for the fact we didn’t go out on Friday
Day 7: Sunday 12/6
Lazy Sunday…should have been more motivated but after working six 12+ hour days was just drained. Ended up joining some of the work crowd for dinner at an Indian place which we took a cab to. Now, the traffic in China is a little different than back home. It seems as if only half the intersections are regulated and only half the drivers pay attention to the regulation. Add on to that that the drivers can be extremely aggressive and there is a definite unspoken pecking order of size, buses and trucks pretty much do whatever they want, taxis drive in oncoming traffic, and the wrong way on one way streets and it seems like everyday I think I’m going to see a little old lady get run over in the crosswalk. The cab ride was a bit nerve racking, I was sitting in the passenger seat and definitely had the urge to push down on an imaginary brake.
Day 8: Monday 12/7
Bus is now leaving at 7am…I really hope things start to get resolved as this is our last week of the build. We are running into issues we haven’t seen before but I think we’re finally getting solutions in place. Hit up the Japanese restaurant in the hotel tonight, sushi time! You know what I was saying about the seafood being good here? I think I just had the best sushi/sashimi of all time. I ordered an assortment, not knowing what would show up on the platter. I recognized salmon, yellow tail, tuna, and some others looked familiar but what stood out was the raw shrimp. I have heard before that raw shrimp is very tasty but must be very fresh to enjoy. My friends, the raw shrimp I had tonight was definitely the best shrimp I have ever had. Its hard to describe it but the flavor was awesome! We have been taking turns picking up the bill but the one for tonight was my turn and I’m hoping no one will look to closely at my expense report, it was a bit on the high side…
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
New and unexpected journeys!
Today I get to travel to Asia for business and pleasure. I will be spending two weeks in hong kong supporting a build for work, but then I get to head south for Thailand! I have been looking forward to traveling for HP for sometime now and I am very excited to see how all the manufacturing is done and how we will be running around like crazy to fix issues. I have had about three days to prep for this trip so I hope I don't forget too many things. I will do my best to keep you informed of my travels, looking forward to updating on hong kong!!
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Heidelberg, Stuttgart, and the long ride home
Sorry for the large delay in my posting, but I've been tired/busy since returning from Europe. So, for those who have been patiently waiting, here's more on the tail end of my trip.
After spending a great Easter Sunday with the Klemm's, we packed up and got ready for a trip to Heidelberg and Stuttgart. Heidelberg was an important destination on the itinerary because 40 years ago, Tessa and Mike were married here while Mike was serving in the military. Of course, a lot can change in 40 years, including your memory. Upon arrival, we picked up a map and looked over it as we had lunch hoping to spur some memories of where they lived, hung out, got married, etc. The street name they could remember was, of course, not on the map and the military base is no longer there. The map wasn't too successful so we hit the town.
Heidelberg has a beautiful but very touristy old town. In fact, we thought the town was a little dead until we came upon the pedestrian strip and all of the sudden the streets were packed with people. As some of our party were distracted by all the neat souvenir shops, I went walking around trying to get some good pictures of Schloss Castle. As you can see from the pictures, it has seen some better days.
We all climbed the hill to check out Schloss Castle and had some great views of Heidelberg. Tessa also had Mike reenact a picture that they have of him overlooking Heidelberg on top of Schloss (I'll have to get a copy of it later). By now, they remembered that the place they lived in was across the river. Sadly we didn't have time to check it out because we needed to get back to Stuttgart to meet up with a family we were staying the night with (another great perk of traveling with a missionary with connections).
We stayed outside of Stuttgart that night at the family's house. They were very accommodating and had a good time talking with them. They have three boys as you can see in the pics below (if you haven't figured it out yet, you can click on the thumbnail for more pics!).
Darren also arranged transportation for us getting around Stuttgart. A woman named Silka served as our private taxi driver in her huge Renault van, she was great. We checked out the Porsche Museum and tried to get in on a factory tour, but there were none available. The rest of the day we spent walking around Stuttgart, enjoying our last day of Europe as we had to leave early the next day.
After the day in Stuttgart, we took the train home to Landshut for one last evening with the Klemm's. I must say that they really made the trip great but we had to say goodbye. Hopefully someday they will come visit us in the States so we can return their hospitality.
Wednesday was literally the longest day of my life. Thats what happens when you leave in the morning and fly halfway around the world. I think I was awake for 26 hours with a few naps here and there and finally crashed at home around 10pm PST which was 7 in the morning the next day back in Germany. The trip in Europe was great, but I'm not looking forward to the long flight next time I go.
Enjoy the rest of the pics, I finally figured out that I took nearly 2000 pictures on my trip so I need to do some editing. I haven't decided how many more I'll post here but feel free to check back for more.
Now that I'm back I'm getting ready for the real world, I start up the new job with HP on May 1st. I'm excited about it but not so excited about having to leave Seattle. Well I better get back to packing for the move. Thanks for reading and I've enjoyed all of your comments and emails. Maybe I'll set one of these up for everyday life...we'll see.
After spending a great Easter Sunday with the Klemm's, we packed up and got ready for a trip to Heidelberg and Stuttgart. Heidelberg was an important destination on the itinerary because 40 years ago, Tessa and Mike were married here while Mike was serving in the military. Of course, a lot can change in 40 years, including your memory. Upon arrival, we picked up a map and looked over it as we had lunch hoping to spur some memories of where they lived, hung out, got married, etc. The street name they could remember was, of course, not on the map and the military base is no longer there. The map wasn't too successful so we hit the town.
Heidelberg has a beautiful but very touristy old town. In fact, we thought the town was a little dead until we came upon the pedestrian strip and all of the sudden the streets were packed with people. As some of our party were distracted by all the neat souvenir shops, I went walking around trying to get some good pictures of Schloss Castle. As you can see from the pictures, it has seen some better days.
We all climbed the hill to check out Schloss Castle and had some great views of Heidelberg. Tessa also had Mike reenact a picture that they have of him overlooking Heidelberg on top of Schloss (I'll have to get a copy of it later). By now, they remembered that the place they lived in was across the river. Sadly we didn't have time to check it out because we needed to get back to Stuttgart to meet up with a family we were staying the night with (another great perk of traveling with a missionary with connections).
We stayed outside of Stuttgart that night at the family's house. They were very accommodating and had a good time talking with them. They have three boys as you can see in the pics below (if you haven't figured it out yet, you can click on the thumbnail for more pics!).
Darren also arranged transportation for us getting around Stuttgart. A woman named Silka served as our private taxi driver in her huge Renault van, she was great. We checked out the Porsche Museum and tried to get in on a factory tour, but there were none available. The rest of the day we spent walking around Stuttgart, enjoying our last day of Europe as we had to leave early the next day.
After the day in Stuttgart, we took the train home to Landshut for one last evening with the Klemm's. I must say that they really made the trip great but we had to say goodbye. Hopefully someday they will come visit us in the States so we can return their hospitality.
Wednesday was literally the longest day of my life. Thats what happens when you leave in the morning and fly halfway around the world. I think I was awake for 26 hours with a few naps here and there and finally crashed at home around 10pm PST which was 7 in the morning the next day back in Germany. The trip in Europe was great, but I'm not looking forward to the long flight next time I go.
Enjoy the rest of the pics, I finally figured out that I took nearly 2000 pictures on my trip so I need to do some editing. I haven't decided how many more I'll post here but feel free to check back for more.
Now that I'm back I'm getting ready for the real world, I start up the new job with HP on May 1st. I'm excited about it but not so excited about having to leave Seattle. Well I better get back to packing for the move. Thanks for reading and I've enjoyed all of your comments and emails. Maybe I'll set one of these up for everyday life...we'll see.
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| Heidelberg and Stuttgart |
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