Category: Taipei

My own Amazing Race ….

Back in Sydney, yesterday flew the red eye from Taipei to Sydney for a quick project meeting.  Sometimes, in this line of work, f-2-f is the way to go as virtual working doesn’t work so effectively.  Back at staying in Sheraton on the Park and enjoying Sydney much.  People are just so nice, pleasant and down to earth to talk to, even over work issues.

Ordered in room service, prime tenderloin, apple pie and cinnamon ice cream.  Catching up on my personal projects on the side, watching TV (I don’t have at home), and just chilling not dealing with all the work issues.

Flying back tomorrow morning to Taipei, then on Friday I’ll be flying to HK and hook up with FC and P-.  I’m confirmed.

Then my June month looks like 2 HK trips, 1 London trip, 1 Singapore trip, going into early July, one KL trip.

Whew….

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!

Long Distance

Thursday, I had AS try out the SlingBox using the new PocketPC version of the viewer software from Taipei. After some fiddling, it seems to work just as well as the laptop version, but it fits in the palm of your hand. Rats, only one person can register their PocketPC with SlingBox to use it.

Friday, saw Man of the Heart, which I described on Thursday. Nominally, it is an attempt to bring back awareness of Bengali mystic Lalon Pkokir, who is an original source of Bengali culture, and have been used as a focus of a nonsectarian Indian way of life. However, the subtext is a conjoining of John Lennon’s utopian song “Imagine” and something of a gnostic Islamic-Hindu belief system (gnostic Christianity being more familiar to the public from the DaVinci Code and the Matrix movie series). The play takes a lot of getting your mind wrapped around. The singing is extraordinary, and it immediately brings the impressions and thoughts into feelings, even though it is sung in the Baoul caste style. (The projected supertitles help out, too). The work toured through Southern California, and will journey to India after this run.

Saturday was the 150 mile round trip journey to Mommonth, New Jersey for P-‘s friend’s wedding. Very simple – 15 minutes for the actual ceremony, where the groom’s brother managed to get ordained from some church to be able to preform the multidenominational wedding. The area was beautiful, and the DJ did his best to get Hava Nagila blended with Pulp Fiction and Motown.

Sunday we helped P-‘s other friend move to Long Island City. The place is really starting to take off, development wise. Afterwards, we went to the 25th annual Sakura Festival at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, which was sponsored by Inuyuama Council Member and Brooklyn son Anthony Bianchi. We visited him last year at this time, and the NY Times covered this year’s tour. To celebrate the anniversary, he brought a 60 person contingent of cultural performers, a calligraphy expert and an artisian tofu maker. Families who had recently sent their children to Inuyuama offered homestays to the Japanese visitors, completing the circle of cultural exchanges. Anthony wants to use his good offices to formalize these exchanges into a two year cycle between Brooklyn and Inuyuama, which are similarly situated to cities such as New York and Nagoya. He is up for re-election next year, and he looks like he has a good shot – he’s done all of the right things and brought transparency to the way government works in his area.