Category: En route

4 Airline hop skip and jump

CI, SQ, PK, MH, includes a 6 hour layover in KLIA. The final destination is Islamabad. Amazing how many flight permutations there are to get there. Some go through Dubai and double back (!!! :-o). Some via Beijing. There’s a direct from Tokyo via TK. No one goes back via how they came. Amazing stuff. It makes me think that I can nail Amazing Race if given the chance. Wonder how one can sign up for it…. There’s a prize right?

Hope you folks had a good picnic and with more comfortable weather. Summer there hasn’t been so bad but then, I’m back in A/C environs with a typical corporate desk job.

Last trip back from Malaysia was good. I stayed at the KL Hilton for the conference instead of the Le Meridien. Good but I like Meridien better, more comfortable all around. We tried out their steak place called Prime which served all the traditional style cuts etc. They even had Australian Wagyu Beef which appears to be more common in some of the high end steak places in Asia. Friday night at a friend’s farewell to Taiwan party, we went to Robin’s Grill which also had it but at extremely pricey pricey prices :-o. I’ll have to go back and do the Wagyu beef at some point in time with some Joseph Phelps “Le Mistral”, a fabulous fabulous fabulous red. I think even better than the Duckhorn that I’ve had in the past.
Good food… that’s what’s important. Now just missing the good friends in Asia to join me in this passion!

Fly away ..

Catching up on some blogging now at the Dynasty Lounge in Jakarta international airport before heading back to TPE. Been on the road now for 8 days, KUL -> SIN -> CGK (Jakarta Airport code). Glad to have missed the Typhoon up north but the weather down here has not been normal either. Lots of rain in the early and late mornings. In Malaysia, flash floods due to heavy rains is a real danger on the road. Hills around the KL -> Ipoh -> Penang highway get washed away forcing the road crews to rebuild around the clock. Making it harder is the fact that the soil around Malayia is soft redish sand/clay like substance.

It’s a lot of work traveling getting to know people and learning what’s going on. Met a few really nice and smart people. Impressed with the folks here in the Jakarta office. Wish I had them. Team and relationship building along with skills development are the driving forces now.

What I haven’t figured out yet is that although it’s only 1.5 hours away from Singapore, Why is Jakarta an hour behind? I’ll have to take a look at the map again. I thought they’d be in the same window.

Jakarta is a city of 11 million people, sprawling megapolis and quite beautiful, even though areas of it area quite poor. In between Manila/Makati City Philippines, and KL. Food delicious and the people here are just so warm, friendly and welcoming. Refreshing compared to Taiwan despite the Taiwanese reputation for being friendly people. My colleagues took me to Hotel Borobudur Jakarta which is famous for its oxtail delicacies and boy, it didn’t disappoint. I’d love to come back again soon.

Not-so-looking forward to a busy travel schedule the next 6 weeks. I’ll be headed back to HK a couple of times, KL again, London, Singapore again. In between I’ll have to find time to move.

Ouch.

Happy trails folks and be well!

PS-was in my drafts, not sure if it ever made it… from May time.

The last leg!!!!

Arrived at KL this afternoon… and almost predictably, my immigration  experience at KLIA was a facsimile of rush hour traffic … loads of people queued up and inching slowly forward.  A potpourri of Malaysian visitors from Republic of Yemen, India, US, Taiwan, Commonwealth countries, Japan etc.  Luckily I got there because soon after me, there was another couple of plane loads that pretty much filled up the snaking lines.  My time at the immigration officer takes up time now as they check out my passport and the stamps going along with it.  A well-travelled passport is a bit of a warning I guess because they’ll look through all the pages and if they see something, they’ll look at it some more.  Been getting that a lot in all my destinations – arrivals and departures.  I still think it’s cool though… but my 6 months passport validity is coming up soon and will need to go to AIT Taipei to get a new one in case they reject me from entering Taiwan (or elsewhere).  If I had more time, I’d do it in KL ’cause I know those folks better.

So back in my favorite KL hotel, Le Meridien.  Unfortunately their new Prime steak house isn’t open yet (mid July) but can’t wait for my next trip. Even so, the past 5 weeks of non-stop travelling has gotten me fat.  I wonder what my upcoming health checkup next Friday is going to say about me :s

I definitely need a lifestyle change I think but this travelling isn’t helping much. It’s really more mind over matter.  I should just step away from the computer!  At least having my Blackberry shut off hasn’t proved to be too devastating.  It’s off because I didn’t pack my charger cables and in Asia, getting BB accessories is really hard to do and my model, 7730 is old so it’s particularly troublesome.  Even asking the IT staff of the company is coming up zilch….

I’m going to decompress here in my hotel room this weekend and try to catch up on my personal emails and get back to my current project of establishing a new project management community, SdB+PM Forum.  We started out as a Yahoo Group joined by the LinkedIn and common interest and experience in project management. A year ago, what started as a hobby with a dozen or so people has grown to over 300 people world-wide :)!  We’ve adopted the SMF platform for expansion which I think is a good fit which allows for greater growth as a portal via Mambo if necessary.  A little lean on the frills and development but solid and simple.

Anyways, time to watch some World Cup matches!