Our first stop in Thailand was Bangkok. Bangkok is known to be the largest city in the world with over 8 million people. However the whole area is very flat and spread out such that it was not as dense as hong kong felt. We spentmost of our time checking out the royal palaces and the Buddha temples as we were only in Bangkok for one night. The culture is most definitely different here. Most of the thai people are very friendly and outgoing but like in most areas with lots of tourists, there are people out to make some money off of stupid tourists. It hasbeen very hard to figure out the difference between those trying to help you and those trying to scam you. Overall we have gotten by just fine but wehave definitely heard our fair share of stories and offers that are too good to be true or cost way more than they should. You definitely have to watch out for the tuk tuk drivers who want to take you to all their favorite shops. Once again the language barrier can be quite a hamper to negotiating deals.
We got away from the bustle of big cities though and headed for the beach at hua hin where Gabe just so happens to have an uncle hanging out there. Got to love local knowledge!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Vacation at last!
Hong Kong
Alright, so we finished up the build over a week ago and for most people I've gone dark and you haven't heard much. Sorry about that but I'll try and update you with the happenings so far. After completing my first build for HP, Jaime, Gabe, and I all headed for hong kong. We stayed in a hostel which was fine but a big change from the Marco polo in shenzen. The room was smaller than the hotel room and we had 9 people in it. All sharing one bathroom. Good thing we were on separate schedules. We did a bit of sightseeing and I must say the public transportation there is pretty easy to use, especially since I don't know the language. The first thing you notice about hong kong is there are a ton of people all crammed onto a tiny island. Say goodbye to personal space. The buildings are all built up at least 20 stories tall and you are hard pressed to find open ground. We had a lot of fun wandering around and saw the giant Buddha. We also ended up taking a day trip out to Macau island. Turns out that Macau is gearing up to be like Vegas, but bigger. Gabe and I tried our luck at black jack. Gabe ended up tripling his money, I ended up giving it all to the house but pushed a whole lot so I got to get some entertainment out of it. After hong kong it was time to head south to Thailand.
Alright, so we finished up the build over a week ago and for most people I've gone dark and you haven't heard much. Sorry about that but I'll try and update you with the happenings so far. After completing my first build for HP, Jaime, Gabe, and I all headed for hong kong. We stayed in a hostel which was fine but a big change from the Marco polo in shenzen. The room was smaller than the hotel room and we had 9 people in it. All sharing one bathroom. Good thing we were on separate schedules. We did a bit of sightseeing and I must say the public transportation there is pretty easy to use, especially since I don't know the language. The first thing you notice about hong kong is there are a ton of people all crammed onto a tiny island. Say goodbye to personal space. The buildings are all built up at least 20 stories tall and you are hard pressed to find open ground. We had a lot of fun wandering around and saw the giant Buddha. We also ended up taking a day trip out to Macau island. Turns out that Macau is gearing up to be like Vegas, but bigger. Gabe and I tried our luck at black jack. Gabe ended up tripling his money, I ended up giving it all to the house but pushed a whole lot so I got to get some entertainment out of it. After hong kong it was time to head south to Thailand.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
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…
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…
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