Things any traveller should bring to Thailand

• Toilet paper
• Alarm clock (added bonus if the alarm clock is inside your cell phone)
• Compass

Also, a cell phone is handy as you can call ahead to a guest house to see if they have room at your leisure rather than from a pay phone. Also very useful when meeting up with someone.

I brought toilet paper (wet wipes actually--they're useful for washing your hands, face, feet, etc.) and a cell phone with an alarm clock, but didn't bring a compass. I was a bit uncomfortable at the bus station in Nan since my Lonely Planet map told me where the Nan Guest House was, but it was dark and I had no idea what direction to head in. I decided to call the guest house, and the owner was nice enough to come pick me up, on a motor bike…. It was a short, fun ride, and it's a good thing I don't have too much luggage!! Holding on to all of it was challenging enough.

We speak English; therefore, we own the world

Especially in touristy areas, English and the local language always seem to be available. I'm surprised that even in remote Thailand, I'm seeing periodic signs in English (most recently, 'Police Station') and running into people that speak some English. Americans have it pretty easy and it's a shame that there isn't more emphasis on a second language, especially when kids are young.

Left or Right? Vote now!

Around the world, countries differ in driving practices. Some countries drive on the right and some drive on the left. Which is better and why? Why do you think these differences exist?

I suspect that since most of the people reading this are accustomed to driving on the right, most will say that driving on the right is better. I doubt there's any scientific evidence out there to support any claim, but I'll be curious to see people's opinions, and if somebody's really ambitious, a reference to some Internet debate on the subject.

The most important words to know in a foreign language

This is a list of absolute basic words one should know, at minimum, in the native language before entering a foreign country.

Critical:

• Toilet
• Hello
• Goodbye
• Please
• Thank you
• Water
• Common numbers

For a little added convenience:

• Hotel
• Police
• Telephone
• You're welcome
• I do not speak
• Beer
  

Do you think I missed something? Let me know whether you think the word is critical to getting around or whether it just adds convenience.

Getting around Thailand

Even for anyone without their own mode of transportation, travel in Thailand is quite easy. For large distances, all of the traditional options are available: air, train, and bus. Of course, air and train options are somewhat limited. Thailand has a government-run bus system, like Greyhound, but many other bus companies compete for travellers as well, especially along the Bangkok-Chiang Mai route. Busses offer different classes of service, depending on the bus mainly. My experience relates to an air-conditioned trip with movie. I was surprised to be offered a small snack box and a glass of cola. It turns out that the bus system has some equivalent of flight attendants: people to help you out with minor services during the trip.

When in a local area, the traveller can make use of local buses (although this is not efficient for those of us with time constraints) or taxis. Generally in Chiang Mai, there are two types of taxi: swangthaews and tuk-tuks.

Swangthaews are basically a pickup truck that has been outfitted with a somewhat enclosed rear and seats in the cargo area. (In Thai, swangthaew translates into 'two rows' as in two rows of seats along the two sides of the cargo area.) You flag one down, state your destination, and if the driver agrees to take you, you negotiate the fare. In Chiang Mai, anything more than 15-20 baht is generally a rip off, except for trips that cross between two outer depths of the city, or the trip from the zoo to Doi Suthep. I have found that negotiating in Thai (and using polite phrasing like '20 baht, is that ok sir?') is better than negotiating in English. The drivers will try to swindle you if you're not careful, and even though it's an insignificant amount in USD, it's important to play the game and talk the price down. On my trip from the city center to the bus terminal today, I was originally quoted 50 baht and insisted right away on the legitimate fare: 20 baht.

Tuk-tuks are like a miniaturized and open-air version of a London taxi or a PT Cruiser in that they have a narrow front and wider back end. Generally fares on tuk-tuks are higher due to the novelty factor I suppose. They are quick to get you to a destination though, and especially pleasant during the hot part of the day due to their open-air nature.

A meter-taxi company just started up in Chiang Mai as well, but there are not very many taxis, so if you really wanted to use this option, you'd have to call ahead to schedule it I suppose. The swangthaew drivers have been doing their best to shut this down apparently.

Thai food

Many people associate Thai food with spiciness, however, Thai meals are really organized around balance between all of the various flavors: sweet, spicy, sour, bland, etc, and all food items are served at the same time (except of course, dessert items). Unlike China, where chopsticks are the norm, Thai food is eaten with the usual utensils. Dishes are meant to be shared, family style, and as a result, are slightly small. Individual servings of rice compliment the main dishes. When eating, one chooses whatever suits their fancy and adds it to their own rice. Generally speaking, northern dishes tend to have a bit more spiciness. Thai curries do tend to burn intensely but briefly, due to the balance between pure and strong spices and softer herbs like lemongrass and galangal. Thai meals are a communal event of two or more people, primarily because the greater number of people leads to a greater number (and variety) of dishes ordered.

Stepping out of my comfort zone

So far, it has been really easy for me to get around with just English and *very* basic Chinese and Thai. Today, I boarded a bus to Nan, a small city Lonely Planet describes as little known but steeped in history. The population is listed at 24,300, but looking at the map, the city seems very small for that sort of population. I figured, since the ride is 6 hours or so, I might as well catch up on some of these topics I've been holding out on.

I've already called the Nan Guest House when I was sitting at the bus terminal and confirmed that they have a room available. I think the lady that answered was trying to say something about the bath being attached or shared, but I wasn't sure, so we agreed that I would come take a look first.

So a recap from my update yesterday:

Monk Chat was very interesting, yet again. I asked a lot of questions about Buddhism, the five precepts, the process of becoming a monk, etc. and it was all very interesting. A pre-med student from Chiang Mai University also joined in on the conversation so he could practice his English. Both had been studying English for awhile and did fairly well. I think they could be stellar with some great teachers, but even they admitted that Thailand is short good English teachers. Anyone can teach English here--no degree in English is required. Not even a basic teaching certificate! They helped me with some key words in Thai as well. We focused on some numbers and phrases that help establish the price.

I stayed at Monk Chat well past the designated finishing time, but nobody seemed to mind. After Monk Chat, I caught a swangthaew to the Night Bazaar and checked out the various wares. DVD's were expensive at 100 baht each. I wouldn't pay more than 40. Generally, I wasn't really in the market for anything, but it was cool to look around and see all of the fake name brand clothes/watches, and the various local crafts. Everything was quite overpriced.

I walked from the Night Bazaar to the Bar Beer Center near Tha Phae Gate. Monday nights are Muay Thai night (Thai Boxing), and since I was arriving so late, I didn't pay the 400 baht cover that everyone else apparently paid. I had a couple of beers, the local beer is Chiang, and at 6.75%, it packs a nice punch. My waitress told me that it's the number one beer in Thailand even better than Singha apparently. I chose it because it was cheapest and I hadn't heard of it before. Thai boxing is interesting as it's quite legitimate over here. They flight with gloves but have no other visible protective gear. They punch and kick hard, and will throw each other around violently. Over all, there is still a sense of respect between the fighters though, both before and (if the losing fighter can get up) after the match. It certainly seems like healthy competition at any rate. I think it caters to the tourists quite a bit, but there were a good number of locals at the event as well.

Today, I went to Doi Suthep, pretty much the thing you have to see when you come to Chiang Mai. This is one of the most sacred temples in northern Thailand. This wat is situated in the hills northwest of Chiang Mai. Legend says that during the reign of King Kuena (1355-1385), holy relics were discovered. It was determined that they would place the relics on the back of a white elephant, and the elephant would stop at the location where the wat should be built. The elephant walked all the way to this location, where it died from fatigue due to the long journey. I thought the wat was interesting, but since I do not subscribe to Buddhism, it was just another wat to some extent. Certainly, I appreciate its importance to Buddhism however, especially since I was told the legend of how it came into existence. I was pretty annoyed by this guy from Switzerland (originally from Malaysia). He kept comparing Thailand to various other places and complaining that Thailand didn't meet his expectations. It was ironic that he was talking about how knowledgeable he is (he knows 5 languages and two dialects) but he seemed to hold a number of false impressions of Americans, couldn't say a nice word about the Chinese, etc. He really seemed quite overeducated and intolerant.

I felt like I was running a bit late, so I grabbed some take-away lunch from Mike's burgers. The burger was ok, not like In-N-Out, but it had all the trimmings and was a nice break from Asian food. I should note that I feel like my concept of eating here is similar to in the states. Back home, I'll eat Italian, German, Asian, fast food, etc, but my primary staple back home is probably European based food. Over here, I'm eating mostly Asian food, with a periodic burger or whatever, to keep things interesting. It's also nice to have a taste of home.

So now I'm on the bus. They showed a Hollywood movie- I'm not sure what movie, as I missed the beginning of the credits, but it was a Don Roos movie (ND graduate) so I definitely thought that was interesting. I was able to follow the basic storyline but had no idea on the details as it was all in Thai. We're something like 100+ km from Nan right now, so I still have a few hours to kill.

Questions about Thailand?

Here's your opportunity to ask me questions about my time in Thailand, using Blogger's comments feature. Please limit yourself to questions about the Thailand trip; I'll have another post for Beijing later.

Sawatdee krap

I've arrived in Thailand, safe and sound, and even have a roof over my head! Just a quick recap, as I only have a few minutes before I need to head out. Also, the keyboard at this Internet cafe sucks, so I'm having to go back and correct a lot of stuff.

I arrived without trouble on Saturday, although of course I had to go through security three times - Beijing, Hong Kong, and Bangkok. I had a little trouble getting the bottle of Margarita mix through Beijing (they kept saying I had to declare it), but I played stupid. After I opened it and the customs agent took a whiff, he must have decided there wasn't enough alcohol in it for there to be a problem.

Recall that my itinerary is officially with Cathay Pacific (to Bankok). The firstl left was operated by Air China though, so they could only get me checked in to Hong Kong. Air China was nice- I watched part of some movie in French (with English subtitles) and they came around with a hot towel often. I was even given a free model of an Air China 747 because I was in business class and it's Chinese New Year.

Just a note to you travellers out there: when making international connections and switching airlines, it is easiest to deal with carry-on luggage. The benefit is that I didn't have to go through customs and back just to retrieve my luggage and get checked in again. All I had to do was go to the transfer desk and get my boarding pass. I also had to go through security again, as it seems like they keep international arrivals and departures quite separated. I did have to go through security though. It was nice to leave my laptop in the bag while going through security... it made the whole process easier. The Hong Kong airport is amazing. I took a few photos, but I won't post them here as they're not very interesting. Toward the end of the trip, I'll post everything to a gallery so you can see all of the photos if you like.

In Bangkok, I had to go to the transfer desk again to get checked in for my Thai airways flight. I also tried to find a place that would sell a SIM card for my phone and an ATM so I could load up on baht. Unfortunately, they don't sell SIM cards at the airport and my only option for cash was an exchange station. Not knowing the situation in Chiang Mai, I figured I would change 200 RMB, which got me about 800 baht, enough to get started. I gave Sean a call from a phone at the airport to see when we can meet up- looks like Wednesday will be best.

In Chiang Mai, I went through Thai imigration and found both an ATM and pay phone. I loaded up on a couple thousand baht and started calling guest houses. I found Smile House for 350 baht/night and since it was midnight and I was tired, I took it. The room was basic but clean.

Sunday was a bit of an orientation day for me. I got up at about 7:30 and went to Wat Suan Dok just west of the old city to check on a meditation program that was supposedly offered on Sunday nights. Well, the program changed to Tuesday nights, and was cancelled this week anyway, so I wouldn't be able to do it. I met a couple novice monks (and have a photo that I will post later), and we chatted until lunchtime about Thailand, the language, differences with English, their life, etc. Turns out that Sunday was Buddhists day and today is Novice's day, so there's a lot of celebrating going on right now.

Once back in the city, I bought a SIM card and started to hunt for replacement lodgin. Smile House seemed to have a lot of people who were into trekking, and generally had an odd environment. I lined up the Pagoda Inn, which is also clean and basic, with a much nicer courtyard area. The room unfortunately does not have a window (except in the bathroom) and has a double bed, but they charged me the single price, 250 baht/night. Since I'll only be sleeping there, I didn't mind too much about the window, and as for the price, it's busy season apparently. By this time, it's about 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

With all of that sorted out, I decided to head to the bus station to get information on the schedule to Nan, near Sean's location. It's quite a long walk,m but I stopped at a small market along the way. If you've ever wondered where the random crap from garage sales ends up, it's all along this street. They had some VCDs and Levi jeans and other stuff too, but of course I didn't buy anything. On the plus side, many items had marked prices and were very cheap. At the bus station, I decided to buy the ticket to Nan right away- 295 baht for the 4-6 hour ride, in air conditioning. Not too shabby. I depart tomorrow in the early afternoon. Finally, to close out the day, I browsed the Sunday market on Tha Phae gate. The notable nearby attraction that I didn't visit was Starbucks Coffee. My 5 baht bottle of water was more than adequate. Lunch and dinner at the market cost a total of about 50 baht, and everything was quite tasty. I had some egg wonton sort of thing in a sweet sauce (a dessert item it turns out), some quarter-sized fried egg with soy sauce, and pad thai (Thai style noodles). One of the oddest things about the market was the music that was playing: Christian rock. I'm not sure if it was intentional or if the DJ just didn't know. Seems like kind of an odd thing in a mostly Buddhist state. I thought about going out to a bar, a club or heading to the Night Bazzar, but I was still tired from the short night before, so opted out.

This morning, the roosters were crowing early, but I stayed in bed until 7:30 again. Unfortunately, the shower was fairly cold and uncomfortable, but that motivated me to be quick. One note on the shower that I initially thought was odd, but have since grown accustomed to: the shower simply hangs on the wall in the bathroom and there's a drain in the bathroom floor. Of course, at the door, there's a little lip to keep the water from leaving the bathroom. The shower is slightly separated from the toilet at the Pagoda Inn by a partial wall, but at Smile House, that was not the case. It's a basic setup but works well in this tropical environment. I wouldn't be surprised to see the setup at a beach house along the oceanfront or in Hawaii.

I bought a banana for 5 baht this morning, but still felt quite hungry and succomed to the temptation of the regular American breakfast for 95 baht (including fresh squeezed OJ and hot tea). Then began a further celebration of food. I took the Thai culinary course offered by Gap's House. This lasted from 10a - 4p. The class started with a tour of a local food market, offering all of the typical things-- vegetables, coconut cream, meat, fruit and fruit juice, and of course, various insects. (Insects are not a major ingredient in Thai food however. We were shown them mostly for the wow factor and everyone took the obligatory photo.) We cooked about 5 things for lunch, made roses from tomato peelings and some sort of flower looking thing from an onion. Don't think that's really amazing or anything, because once somebody shows it to you, you realize how easy it is. Really cool nonetheless, and I look forward to dressing up a serving platter some day. We also made a few items for dinner and I have those in some styrofoam for later. Among the items we made are green curry chicken (with homemade green curry paste), stir fried chicken with cashew nut, fish souffle, Thai fish cake (with cucumber sauce), and lemongrass soup with shrimp, plus some item that I'm forgetting. Food for take-away (mmm, dinner tonight!): Thai spring rolls (to be dipped in some plum sauce that they provided us), pad thai, and steamed pumpkin with coconut custard. An overwhelming amount of food actually. More on traditions around Thai meals later.

If it isn't obvious, things are very cheap in Thailand from the perspective of a foreigner.

Anyway, now I'm off to Wat Suan Dok again for 'Monk Chat.' After that, the Night Bazzar.

Tomorrow, I'd like to head up to Doi Suthep (if there's time), and of course, the afternoon will be spent in transit to Nan, where I'll be meeting up with Sean and unloading this heavy bottle of Margarita mix (among other gift type things).

Back to Chiang Mai on Thursday, and I'll catch a flight to Bangkok on Thursday evening, where I will meet up with Thana.

Sawatdee krap!

It's official: I'm on vacation!

I just finished a 21:00 (Beijing)/7:00 am (Chicago) conference call and am now on vacation!

Well, almost. The only other thing I need to do is submit my time report. I'll do that tomorrow before traveling to Chiang Mai, Thailand.

My flight leaves Beijing at about 13:00 and after two connections (Hong Kong and Bangkok), I arrive in Chiang Mai at about 23:30. Thailand is 1 hour behind China, so it will take about 12 hours to get to Chiang Mai. Amazing that it would take only another hour if I was flying direct Beijing to Chicago.

No accommodations are arranged yet, and it's Chinese New Year, so the lodging options appear thin, but I'm confident that either tomorrow morning or upon arrival, I will be able to sort something out.

It's a small, small world

My uncle Alan works for Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) and has been making some trips to China in recent years to help develop barley varieties and brewing practices. Today, I had lunch with one of his contacts here in Beijing, enjoying several glasses of Tsingtao. Incidently, Tsingtao is 75% or so owned by A-B.

Here I am outside the Holiday Inn Lido with David Zeng.

Just as a side note, this Holiday Inn is really quite nice--5 star. It's close to Capital Airport and all of the flight attendants stay here. It's also conveniently near a great $1 DVD shop.

We had lunch at a Cantonese (southern-China) style restaurant at the Holiday Inn. It's David's favorite restaurant in Beijing. I have another post about food in draft, so you can look forward to that.

El presidente

Tonight, I met the president of Holland Loader Company. It turns out that we are staying at the same hotel and both visited the Hard Rock Cafe, Beijing, this evening. After a minor dinner of some chicken wings and Tiger beer, we went to Sanlitun (a street full of bars in the Embassy district), and had some Tsingtao.

We talked about a variety of things-- he lived in Beijing for a short period of time, but has traveled back and forth pretty extensively also. He has heard of the Falkirk (sp?) mine. Of course, I mentioned that my dad works at a mine, but really, very little conversation centered on business types of stuff. He's flying back to Denver tomorrow, but he's going to try to get me in touch with a buddy of his for the week after spring festival (Chinese New Year).

I'm just asking....

Why do hotels place towel bars IN the shower? Granted, they're at the other end of the shower, but the towels still get some spray. I'm sure they don't replace ALL of the towels after someone's visit either.

News censored

So I'm looking at my personalized Google homepage right now, and it has a headline from BBC about some violence in Nepal that left 20 or so dead, but I keep getting a "server timeout" error. I found the article from the New York Times with no problem, but of course, it's buried beneath a lot of other news because Americans do not generally care about world events. I bet that if I VPN, I would be able to read the BBC article. Over my two weeks here, I will definitely be keeping my eyes out for other potential examples of the Chinese government exerting its muscle over Internet content.

Chinese tea ceremony scam

I kinda felt that a scam was coming, but I still walked right into it. Now of course, my retelling of the situation is jaded, so I'm going to have more emphasis on the things that probably should have thrown warning bells, but understand that in actuality, many of these things things were quite subtle.

So I was milling about a shopping mall today and a young lady approached me. She said she had been studying English and now was in Beijing living with her uncle and looking for a job. Her english was quite good actually, and we talked quite a bit about Chinese customs and in particular, the Lunar New Year. I wasn't entirely truthful with her-- I said I was from Canada, but to cover for my obvious American traits, was truthful about going to school and currently living in America. After a long period of chatter and walking around, she suggested that we sit down for coffee or tea. As most of you know, I'm not a fan of coffee. So, she suggested a tea place that was nearby and that her uncle had taken her to. I figure that since she's local, she probably knows a few relatively decent places around.

We end up on the second floor of this place in the commercial shopping district near the Forbidden City. As we enter, I thought it was odd that they served tea in these individual little rooms, but it turned out that we had our own server who guided us through about 12 different types of tea, ranging from those familiar to me like oolong, green and black (lychee) teas, to those less familiar, like fruit, jasmine, dragon, etc. Having an individual room allowed me to ask a lot of questions about the tea preparation and kept distractions from other groups out. I wasn't told much about the origins of the tea ceremony, other than that it's a special occasion--the Chinese New Year. I found it interesting that they rinse the cup (slightly smaller than a shot glass) with a small amount of the tea you are about to be served, that while most teas are added to a pot before water, one tea is added after the water, and that some teas are prepared with specifically different water temperatures. I was also told about the various health beliefs attributed to the various types of tea.

At the end of the tea service, I was offered the chance to buy some tea in a nice looking box, which I expected. Although I might purchase a small amount of tea before I depart, I didn't take them up on the offer. Then I was presented with the final bill, and knew I'd been had. I absolutely refused to pay for some tea she had requested for herself and tried to split the bill, but was given some bullshit about the Chinese custom of giving the bill to the man. 1,184 RMB later, we parted ways and I can guarantee you that I just had my company provided (liquid) dinner and will still be footing most of the bill myself. Here's hoping the free hotel happy hour buffet has some decent food.

In the end, yeah, I feel bad/pissed about getting ripped off. All the same, I enjoyed the conversation, and the tea ceremony was indeed very informative. It's only money. Lesson learned of course: ask for the price before sitting down.

I chatted with the attendant in the executive lounge about it this evening, and he related a ripoff experience in New York City, so we Americans can't get off the hook, as we take advantage of foreigners too.

Mom and dad-- I don't need to hear your comment on this one. Since I don't exactly know what you are thinking right now, I'll cover my bases: I won't appreciate any pearls of wisdom or think your mocking comment is funny.

Ni hao

So yeah, I'm in Beijing. Pretty tired though, and it's almost 21:00 here anyway, so I'm gonna crash.

Upgrade!

So I am at the airport right now. Just wanted to celebrate my upgrade to business class. It cost me 30,000 miles, but it's not like I don't have any miles laying around.

I also had a freak out moment--I switched from the long-life battery on my laptop to a regular battery with a smaller profile, since it would fit in my bag a little better. Then I boot my computer up and get a nasty Windows 'STOP' error and apparently it couldn't mount the hard disk. I switched back to the long-life battery and now it's working fine. Time will tell I guess. *crosses fingers*

Time to grab a fruit and walnut salad from one of many O'Hare McDonald's, just in case there isn't a meal at the beginning of the flight.

Final packing list

All in all, I'm quite pleased that I was able to fit everything into my usual luggage and generally pack so light. So for three weeks, I will be limited to the following list of clothes, plus anything I might buy along the way:

• 3 dress shirts and undershirts
  
• 2 dress pants
• 4 pairs black socks
• 5 pairs underwear (Didn't your mother ever tell you, "you never know when you might get hit by a bus and you don't want to be caught wearing dirty underwear")
• 1 athletic shirt
• 1 athletic shorts
• 1 plain white socks (in case I buy some cheap running shoes)
• 1 pair jungle pants
  
• 2 polos
• 1 clubbing shirt
• 1 small towel
• 1 pair dress shoes
• 1 pair Chacos sandals (they're nice)
• 2 belts: 1 dress, 1 casual
  

Incidently, I'll be wearing my Columbia jacket and will have a hat and gloves along as well, since Beijing is quite cold right now. I don't expect to be needing it in Thailand!

I'm still thinking about whether or not I should bring a backpack to use as a day bag when I am out and about (mainly in Thailand). My gut says that I could probably buy a cheap one somewhere along the way.

As far as my schedule for today/tomorrow goes: I have a 15 min. conference call in the morning at 8:30 am. I'm going to head to the airport at 9:00, then chill until my flight leaves at noon. Thirteen hours later, I'll be in Beijing. During the flight, I need spend some time preparing some slides for a kickoff meeting on Monday morning, but since noon Chicago time is 2:00 am Beijing time, I think I will focus on getting a few hours of rest first to help in transitioning into the new time zone first, and work on the slides later in flight. (I've been staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning almost every night this week getting various things ready for this trip, and I could use the sleep anyway.)

Upon arrival in Beijing, I'll do the customs bit to exit the airport. The client arranged for a car service to transport me from the airport to my hotel. On Saturday evening, I'll grab some dinner and most likely stay in, but if I am not too tired, I might check out the night scene.

Since I'm staying in Chaoyang district, I'm going to try to check out the 2008 Olympics site, although I may come up with a more interesting option between now and then.

My luggage

 

Entertainment

I am bringing a few things along to help pass the time occasionally. A deck of cards, Pocket Farkel (a dice game I received at Christmas), and a book, Robinson Crusoe.

You might think that I should spend all of my time sightseeing, but I don't want to burn myself out. In Beijing, I'll be fairly busy with work, so that will help keep some normalcy within the day.

I'll write something later about how vacations can be exhausing, and how these types of items help keep my energy up.

Athletics

Previously, I asked for people's opinion on what shoes I should bring, either athletic or casual. Well, I didn't expect any responses because not that many people know about this blog and I doubt that many people check it daily.

In any case, I decided not to bring either type of shoe, for a couple of reasons. First, I already have my black dress shoes and the new sandals, and a third pair of shoes seems excessive. Second, I remembered that for the most part, in Beijing, I will be dressed in business casual so I really wouldn't need casual shoes, and in Thailand, I'll likely be wearing the sandals 24/7. Third, and finally, I did bring some workout clothes, and it will be easier to buy a cheap pair of shoes over there if I feel compelled to run on a treadmill, or I can wear the sandals if I'm just lifting weights.

Gifts

I'm bringing several items along with me as gifts.

• 3 Chicago baseball-style caps
• 12 Chicago post cards (most likely to be used as thank-you cards)
  
• 1.75 L pre-mixed margarita (lime)
  
• selected 2005 college football games burned onto DVD
• playing cards (even though gambling is banned in Thailand)
  

I also mailed a small box of childrens' books to Sean today, since he's trying to get a small library going. "They don't know much English," he says, "so look for books with lots of pictures."

It's not much, but I do hope people appreciate the effort.

Packing

Since I travel a lot for work, packing for a trip is really no big deal. The types of clothes you need are very predictable. The So, for Beijing, I'm all set.

Personal trips make life interesting though. Taking a trip to Thailand means I need to leave some space for gift items and ensure I have adequate "casual" attire. In addition, Thailand is significantly warmer than Beijing right now (but can be cool in the evenings and at night), so I also need to consider weather in my planning as well.

Packing

So I've started to pull stuff together.

I'm trying to limit my amount of stuff. So here's a quick opinion poll- should I bring athletic shoes in anticipation of working out, or bring casual shoes in anticipation of not working out?

Additional itinerary detail

Saturday, Jan. 28, shortly after arriving in Bangkok, I will be catching another flight (third of the day) to Chiang Mai, the "capital of the north." I'm scheduled to return to Bangkok on Thursday evening. Inbetween all of that, I don't have any definite plans. Cost was just what I expected: 5,320 Thai Baht or about $133.00 (plus whatever extra transaction fees my credit card company will charge).

3 days and counting.

Picked up my business visa today from the Chinese Consulate. I waited for a few minutes while the lady behind the window examined a $100 bill. I guess she thought it was fake or something.

I also had a minor hiccup with the Chacos- apparently, Half Moon uses some credit card service that assigns a security score to every transaction, and mine didn't make the cut, so the order was denied. I contacted Chase about this, and they said that there were three authorizations to Half Moon (two from me trying to buy online and one from a staff member trying manually today) so there was no problem with my credit card. I contacted Half Moon and left a voice mail. I received a call back and the lady indicated that since I answered the phone with my name, it gives some legitimacy to my order and she said she would process it. Hopefully they arrive tomorrow or Thursday.

I did receive an e-mail from REI confirming that they have shipped my order from Washington, and I should be receiving that tomorrow.

I also picked up the remainder of my malaria pills prescription from Walgreens. While discussing possible side effects, the pharmacist reminded me to wear mosquito repellant (which to my credit, was on the list of things to buy or make sure I have), so I decided to make it easier on myself and just buy some. I picked up Cutter's mini bottle with manual pump, mainly because it will save space. It's also nearly 100% DEET, which I realize is incredibly unhealthy, but I'll be careful with it.

Finally, I received some recommendations on various places to shop....

More expenses

The small things for the trip are slowly adding up:

• $15.00 - office visit to my regular doctor to get a Td booster shot
• $144.00 - Northwestern travel clinic for a Typhoid Fever shot (they only take BC/BS, not Aetna--some of this may be reimbursable, but I'll certainly be paying at least $50 since they are out of network)
• $53.39 - Best Buy for a camera case and some MiniDV tapes for my video camera
• $16.88 - Best Buy for some universal screen protectors to put over the LCD of my camera (and it turns out that Aaron already has some of these....)
  
• $49.03 - Recently published versions of Lonely Planet guidebooks for Beijing and Thailand
• $20.00 - Walgreens for Azitrhomycin and a partial malaria pill prescription (I guess I ran them out of stock on the Malarone)
• $7.99 - Walgreens for Immodium AD (because you can't predict when a little bout of "food poisoning" strikes)
• $145.71 - REI for two pairs of jungle pants and an REI membership (one of the pairs of pants will be returned--online purchase and I just couldn't decide) and overnight shipping because getting to REI in the suburbs without owning a car is quite impossible
  
• $141.53 - Half-Moon Outfitters for a pair of Chacos Z/2's and overnight shipping (which is really where they make their money)

So an interesting story about the Chacos: I checked their website for the list of local retailers, and found three that were reasonably easy for me to get to: Hanig's Footware at Clark and Diversey, Patagonia near North and Clybourn, and Active Endeavors on Armitage. I checked out Hanig's on Saturday, but they didn't have any Chacos in stock. The person that helped me out probably thought it was a little odd that I was carrying around a DSW Shoe Warehouse bag. (I just bought a new pair of Sketchers to replace my blown out Nike's.) Today after work, I stopped at North and Clybourn to hit up Patagonia (and made a convenient second visit to Best Buy in just a couple days). I took a quick glance around, but it's a small store and it didn't look promising. I asked if they had any Chocos in stock, and again, no luck. Since they also carry clothing, I asked about jungle pants. I got quite a look when I described them by saying "oh they're great for hiking and riding elephants." The story would be more interesting if I left it at that, but seeing as how I really do want to buy some jungle pants, I explained what they are a bit further. They didn't have anything in stock. Finally, I walked from Patagonia to Armitage to pay a quick visit to Active Endeavors. Indeed my visit was quick. The store had closed permanently, and some time ago, by the looks of the interior of the building.

So I struck out by trying to shop locally. Granted, I didn't hit up The North Face store at the John Hancock building, but shopping online is just easier, especially when there's overnight shipping. Since I made these purchases pretty late in the day and REI and Half-Moon are not 24-hour shops, I don't expect to receive anything until Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how long it takes for them to process the order.

Other semi-interesting progress: I received the paper tickets for PEK-BKK from Fedex today and contacted my credit card companies to notify them of my trip. I'll be travelling on directly to Chiang Mai from Bangkok, but I haven't made those arrangements yet.

I'm also thinking about packing--specifically, how do I fit these two locations into one bag? Beijing is cold right now, right around the freezing mark, and Thailand is generally in the 70s - 90s depending on whether you are in the north or south.

More travel arrangements complete

Time is growing short of course, so I spent the evening researching my travel options, now that my business arrangements are complete. So first of all, the business arrangements:

Departing Chicago on United Friday, January 20 at noon, arriving in Beijing the next day at about 3:45 PM. Hotel in Beijing: week 1--Sheraton Great Wall, week 2--St. Regis Beijing. I opted to try two different hotels, figuring it would be nice to switch things up a bit. In the end, the decision came down to two factors: Both hotels are Starwood properties, and I like points and nights. The Sheraton is closer to the client, which is important to me for week 1 when I am less familiar with the area and how long it takes to get from point A to B. The St. Regis is closer to touristy activities. I will depart Beijing on Saturday, February 11 at about 5:30 PM, arriving in Chicago the same day at 4:30 PM. (I know it's weird but that's what crossing the international date line will do to you.) I had to book economy due to the client's policies, but I have enough miles to use for upgrading and succeeded in the flight home, but was waitlisted for the flight to Beijing. Economy on such a long flight will suck, so hopefully I am upgraded for the entire itinerary. We'll see what happens.

As for personal travel, due to the Chinese New Year, flights are pretty jammed that first weekend. Travelocity was able to locate an itinerary with Cathay Pacific to get me in and out of Bangkok for $1423 (business class for all but one segment), connecting in Hong Kong. It's significantly more than I expected to be spending and I'm not thrilled to have a connection as the total travel time will be around 8 hours each way. These negatives are totally outweighed by the fact that I'll get to spend some time with friendly faces. I'm perfectly willing to spend whatever it takes to see two familiar faces in a sea of a billion unfamiliar faces. So I'll be departing Beijing at 1:00 PM on Saturday, January 28, arriving in Bangkok at 8:15 PM after a 2 hour layover in Hong Kong, and departing Bangkok at noon on Sunday, February 5, arriving in Beijing at 8:00 PM, after a slightly shorter layover in Hong Kong. The final segment is economy class for whatever reason, surprising to me as a booking class doesn't usually split two service classes. It's also a paper ticket for whatever reason.

Roundtrip flights from Bangkok to Chiang Mai on Thai Airways are running about $130 right now (with the itineraries I tested), which is about what I expected. I'm not about to book though-- I need a day to figure out what I want to do. My first instinct is to spend the night in Bangkok and continue on to Chiang Mai on Sunday, then return to Bangkok on Friday.

In booking the personal section of my travel, I discovered that Orbitz does not allow you to begin a trip from Beijing. Expedia presented options but when I tried to book, it told me that the itinerary was unavailable. Travelocity ended up being the winner in this case. I tried to look up the itinerary directly from Cathay Pacific's website, but it does not allow trips to begin from Beijing but does allow you to end them there. (Indeed, my initial segment is operated by Air China.) As far as I can tell, Thai Airways' website only allows you to search by schedule, not by price, so while the display of flight options is nice, the lack of pricing information until you choose your exact flights sucks.

Photo demo

Original photo, with an unfortunate flash (time to read the manual for the camera).

---

And some zoomed detail, with contrast correction in Picassa.

Busy Friday

Loved those margaritas. Maybe a bit too much considering how much stuff I need to get done today.

I had to attach a passport photo to my Chinese visa application, but I couldn't find the photos I had taken awhile back. So I stopped by my local Walgreens to get four new passport photos (you never know when you might need some), and conveniently had a prescription refilled. The four passport photos cost just over $15, plus tax.

Then I headed downtown to the consulate, filled out the application and handed over a letter from PwC justifying my business trip (and saying that I will have adequate funds, lodging, etc. and will not be dependant on the government of Beijing), the application w/ photo, and my passport. I was surprised when the agent did not return my passport. There's a certain vulnerable feeling you get when you surrender your passport, even to a legitimate authority.... Because time is growing short, I requested express 2-day service for an extra $20; I don't have to pay for the visa until I pick it up on Tuesday. The visa itself is expensive, something like $95-- First of all, it's a double entry visa since I'm taking the side trip to Thailand, and second, China charges US citizens much more than citizens of other countries. I have no idea why they do this, but I have my theories....

My new camera and accessories arrived today. I'm performing the initial charge on the battery right now. Expect a demo photo later today.

Things I still need to do:

• Book flights (economy: grumble grumble, I'm going to try to use miles to upgrade) and hotel, as well as ask corporate travel agent about flights to Thailand
  
• Pick up the pair of pants from Saks--alterations have been completed
  
• Consult with the travel clinic at Northwestern and probably get more shots
• Pick up some stuff I had framed. One of them is a watercolor of a world traveller, very cute.
  

A whole slew of updates

So here's everything in a nutshell:

• Picked up a plug converter and another long life battery for my T43. (Now I have two.)
  
• Started filling out the various forms to get a business visa in China (which includes an "invitation to Beijing" from a partner here in the US firm--potential slightly funny story later, if requested)
  
• Found out that the Dallas plan has changed--We had to cut one person and since i've already shadowed the product I'm expendable. Ok with me-- I'm the only one worldwide within PwC that can handle this product, and while I don't mind being the global expert, we need to get more PwC folks familiar with it. At least I get more time in Chicago to get stuff done.
  
• Determined that Chinese New Year is a family holiday and not worth sticking around Beijing
  
• Worked late
• Received an order for a pair of Rolex watches that normally retail in the US for about $7,500. Black market, probably $100 at most.
• Called Sean in Thailand tonight (Friday morning for him--he was doing laundry and getting ready for his week of camping), and have a funny story about how many times I tried to call before i got the dialing sequence right. Best dollar I've ever spent. Glad I've got international dialing on my cell phone.
  
• Was invited out for margaritas via AOL IM just before talking to Sean.
• Discovered that Thailand only has whiskey so I'm going to take some margarita mix (pre-mixed or Cuervo and mix) for Sean.
• Drank some killer margaritas.
  

(written while slightly intoxicated, forgive the lack of details and feel free ask questions in the comments.)

• went to sleep
  

Dallas, TX

Did I mention the Dallas trip next week? I should say that nothing is confirmed. I might be in Chicago, which would be all well and fine because I would have more time to do any trip-prep stuff.

I do hope that the trip happens as it is another week of working with this product before doing two weeks of it in another country. Certainly, it makes for a hectic schedule though: Depart early Monday for Dallas, return Thursday night. Depart Friday at noon for Beijing. I'll have roughly 12 hours or less from my arrival Thursday to my departure for the airport.

Things I need to do in that 12 hours:

• Laundry
• Pack
  
• Sleep
• Who knows what other random shit
  

Getting results

Surprisingly, one of the big challenges in China will be understanding English. Some people do not seem to speak using consonants, making their words sound very muffled. As if they were speaking to me with their mouth covered, a door between us, and through a mattress. I got through all of the technical information I had to cover after an hour and 15 minutes, but struggled to keep them on my agenda. They had several detailed questions that were only partially appropriate for this call. I simply didn't have the energy to keep them on the phone any longer to ask about Chinese New Year happenings. Plus, one of the people on the call was in the UK where it was half past one o'clock in the morning. (As an interesting side note, there were four time zones on the call: myself in US Central, the client in China, and two individuals from the software vendor, one in US Pacific, and the other in the UK). And I was missing a subtantial part of the game.

Since the call was so long, I only saw the last 5 minutes of the Northwestern/Penn State game where Penn State won the game. Northwestern was struggling--intentionally fouling to get the ball back so that they could try to win the game. (Penn State didn't look good either.) While I thought the experience would have brought back memories of game excitement at Notre Dame, the arena is much smaller and the energy level is much lower. I was hoping to write a little something about travelling to basketball games, but this game didn't provide much inspiration.

Evanston

Just a minor travel update. I know it's close to home, but I'm going to Evanston tonight to see a mens basketball game--Northwestern and Penn State.

Also, I have a conference call tonight at 7pm with the client in Beijing and hope to get more information about the Chinese New Year.

Beijing Accomodations

I'm considering the following hotels:

• Holiday Inn Lido (walking distance to the client, and Priority Club points)
• Great Wall Sheraton (2nd closest to client, on Third Ring Road, and Starwood points)
  
• St. Regis Hotel (on the south-west side of the Jianguomenwai Embassy Area and on Second Ring Road, again, Starwood points. Also near a subway station)
• The Peninsula Palace Beijing (just east of the Forbidden City, no points, but my manager stayed there a month or two ago when he paid a visit.)

I may still add another hotel to the list.

I am weighing several factors: convenience for travel to/from the client (as this is a business trip), but also the surrounding area, particularly restaurants and general shopping/nightlife activities. Beijing traffic is no picnic, and I'd like to minimize the amount of time I lose due to the commute to/from work and in the evenings, to/from dinner and shopping/nightlife. The Sheraton is probably the front-runner at this point.

The cash hemorrhage begins.

A new digital camera is on its way. I decided to go with the Canon Elph SD500 after hearing from so many people that it's an awesome camera line. Even though I mentioned that the SD500 has more megapixels than I need, Ben brought up an excellent point: given only 3x zoom, I may want to crop or zoom in on a particular detail in a picture after the photo has been taken. I also considered one of David Pogue's articles from awhile back where he recommended going with as many pixels as you can afford for similar reasons.

I spent $355.21 at Dell for the camera. This particular camera, regularly priced $399 (through the employee purchase program-- PwC is a Dell partner somehow), had a 20% discount attached, so I paid $79.80 less, making the camera $319.20. I chose 2-day shipping, which adds $12. Also, they have to charge sales tax to Illinois residents, which adds another $24.01. Again, total cost, $355.21. Not bad.

I found memory cards and a second battery were cheaper at Amazon. I spent $184.23, purchasing a 512 MB SD Ultra II memory card, a 1 GB SD Ultra II memory card, and a second battery for the camera. Luckily, that's all product cost. There is no tax charged for Illinois residents, and I was "randomly" selected to try Amazon Prime at no cost for three months, so I get free 2-day shipping on anything.

I'm doing the 2-day shipping option on this stuff because I will be in Dallas next week M-Th, and my flight to Beijing will leave on Friday at noon, so after this week, I won't be in Chicago much for a month. Also, even though I will be home for about 12 hours between Dallas and my flight to Beijing, I don't like to have expensive things like this shipped to my home address, as they tend to sit on the doorstep for several hours.

So Friday of this week, I look forward to receiving some packages.

Total spent tonight: $539.44

I'm sure I could have shopped around further and bought things cheaper still, but eventually, you just have to dig in and buy from those companies that you trust. Time to sell my old digital camera on eBay. The model I have has been going for $100-150 (with accessories). Probably an easier task once I get back.

Things I need to consider

• power voltage adapter
• plug converters
• borrow a GSM cell phone--will buy prepaid SIMs
• additional long life battery for laptop(?)
• new shoes/sandals
• mini DV tapes for video camera
• new battery for watch
• travel insurance, determine current coverage
  
• contact bank and credit card companies
• burn bowl games to DVD and make sure they work
• jungle pants
• small gift items (postcards, ND caps, deck of cards, but since gambling is illegal that may not be a good idea)
  
• photocopy of all paperwork
• register at State Department website
• extra passport pictures
  

Vaccinations

Just a quick update. So it turns out that my doctor doesn't carry all of the various vaccinations that I need. I was able to get a Td booster since it's been 10 years and that's a regular one. I'll need to go to a travel clinic at Northwestern or the Chicago Health Department.

Second, it turns out that the client will be closed during my anticipated week of vacation due to the Chinese New Year. In a sense, I'm sort of forced into a vacation, but things have fallen into place today quite well. I spoke with a number of people and decided that I need to move forward with the Thailand trip and not worry about the language barrier.

Digital Cameras

My old digital camera has seen better days. It still works quite well and has an amazing zoom, but its less-than-one megapixel resolution and floppy disk drive storage are not exactly desired features anymore.

Kyle is recommending that I check out the Canon Digital Elph series. He has the SD200 model and loves it. I'd probably go with the SD400, as I'd rather not have the controls squished by a larger LCD in the 450 model, and the 500 model with it's 7 megapixels seems like overkill.

Dell has the SD400 on sale for about $250. I'm looking at other prices too.

What to pack?

I'm doing laundry this evening, and it has me thinking about what I should pack. I'll need some business attire and some casual attire, but I don't want to be taking more than my usual carry on. I can certainly do laundry. I need to make sure I leave enough space for a few trinkets, plus I'd like to bring some things over (assuming a pit stop in Thailand).

Time for some immunizations

I finally received my immunization records from Notre Dame this afternoon, after discovering that there was some sort of problem with my fax server number. Crisis averted- I had them send the records to a physical fax machine here at the office. I scheduled an appointment at the clinic for Monday. I am due for the once-every-ten-years tetanus booster, plus who knows what else. I hope they don't have to use a long needle.

Beijing resources

I've already been to Beijing, already walked the Great Wall of China (and rode the toboggan ride back down to the bottom), Tiananmen Square, etc. when I was touring with the Notre Dame Glee Club. Still, that was back in 2001-- Beijing was in the middle of their campaign for the Olympics, and a lot has changed since then.

The Beijing portion of my trip is not organized around all of these touristy things anyway. The main purpose of my trip is work related. I had hoped that this international project would not be happening so quickly as I wanted a bit more domestic success with this particular product before embarking on an international project. However, I will have one more week of domestic work in this area before the first week in Beijing, so that brings me comfort. There is a second week of work that will take place either immediately after, or after a week of vacation.

It would be best for the project to have that break week in between for a variety of reasons, plus, I would be able to pay a friendly visit to Thailand. I realized today that in either case, I will "in the neighborhood" for the Chinese New Year, occuring on Sunday the 29th, so that could be way cool. For now, I'm in a bit of a holding pattern, awaiting contact from my friends in Thailand (I forgot to mention-- after I sent out an e-mail announcing this blog, I discovered that I know two people currently living in Thailand!).

I'm trying to get some critical things taken care of though, most importantly, I contacted Notre Dame's health services today to have my medical records faxed to me. I am definitely due for a tetnus shot, probably others as well. They said they'd have it to me by morning sometime.

As far as travel goes, I will be booking the major flights through my business travel provider, American Express. There's a non-stop flight by United that I'm going to try to get on, departing on Friday January 20, probably around noon or so, and ariving in Beijing sometime in the late afternoon on Saturday. That will give me a day to adjust to the time zone change. That previous week will be busy though, as I'm scheduled on a project in Dallas, TX, so I anticipate arriving home in Chicago on Thursday night, quickly doing laundry/repacking, and heading back to O'Hare in the morning. So in a sense, that gives me just a little over a week to get anything I need done locally, which reminds me, I need to contact Saks to see if the alterations on my new pants are done, make sure I get my new cell phone ordered, and get whatever shots I need. Yikes....

Due to its close proximity to the client, it sounds like the best hotel option in the Beijing area is a Holiday Inn of some sort. Other hotels are a cab ride away I guess. I usually go for Marriott so I can get nights and points, but if it isn't an easy option, I'd probably rather avoid the hassle. Holiday Inn is part of the Intercontinental group and I have a frequent guest card with them too. I could probably jump around a bit for a weekend night or two as well to experience a bit more variety. My roommate, Aaron, has a Lonely Planet guide to Beijing from 2001 that probably shows where the Holiday Inn is located. I need to find out exactly where this client is located so I'll know how close I will be to the action.

A few people have responded to me with information on travel agents, service organizations and other tidbits of information. For Beijing, I found out that my friend Tim took three years of Mandarin, so I'm going to meet up with him this weekend to learn some basics, like saying 'hello' and 'thank you.'

Beijing is scheduled

Following the conference call this morning, the Beijing project has been scheduled to start on January 23, definitely much earlier than I anticipated before yesterday. I have a lot of Mandarin to catch up on. Sent e-mails to my contacts in Thailand to let them know that Jan 28 - Feb 5 are my tentative dates for vacation in Thailand. Hopefully that works out. Otherwise, I might just take a weekend trip somewhere and plan on having two work weeks in Beijing. Also, the client needs to agree to having a split two week project. It doesn't affect them financially as I'd be responsible for all of the costs of the extra week.

There are still a number of "If's" but I definitely have two weeks of work in Beijing at the end of the month.

As far as planning goes, two weeks (plus one week while I am working in Beijing) is not enough time to fully prepare for the type of vacation I was expecting, so I'm kinda frazzled. I need to get on top of the travel agent stuff ASAP!

Productivity foiled

Despite having a good response from various people after sending out my e-mail, the length of the Orange Bowl tonight precluded much progress in my research. I finally settled on a URL for the blog however, http://mile24902.blogspot.com. Yes, the name does have significance, and it's pretty obvious.

Contacts from everywhere

I was talking to Rafael at work today about the upcoming trip and it turns out that his girlfriend has climbed Kilimanjaro. I asked him to get some info from her about her experience.

Also, it looks like there's a good chance that I'll be working from Beijing the week of January 23, with additional scheduling details to be worked out. There's a conference call tomorrow morning to sort things out.

Reaching out

I'm sending out an e-mail to a fairly large net of friends asking for tips on travel agents and service organizations that have experience with Thailand and Tanzania. I've copied that message below.

Greetings all: Merry Everything and Happy Always.

As I lament Notre Dame's loss today in the Fiesta Bowl, I'm trying to distract myself the happier topic of vacation planning. (And it's more productive than drinking.) Normally, I would plan this sort of thing totally on my own, but my locations are a bit more complex this year: I'm visiting some friends in international locations.

So, naturally, I have a request: can you recommend a good travel agent?

I have a business trip to Beijing sometime this spring and will be tacking on a week to visit a friend in northern (and very rural) Thailand. In June, I will be taking 3-4 weeks or so to visit some friends in Tanzania (Mt. Kilimanjaro/Serengeti area). Ideally, the person or agency has some experience in these areas, rather than just a set of faded brochures.

Also, I'd like to focus some of my time on service work in Thailand and Tanzania, so if anyone has any thoughts or resources that could help me in my own research of that angle, I'd appreciate it if you could pass them along. I have a lead on a project at my location in Tanzania, but I'm open to any other options too.

Also, I know this will be a long shot, but does anyone speak Swahili, Thai, or Mandarin Chinese? I want to learn as much Swahili as I can since that will be the longer trip, and enough of the others to get by. Practice makes perfect.

Thanks, Scott

An early start

I took some items to the frame shop before New Years, and the owner has a friend who climbed Kili. She just sent me his info--I'll follow up later this week, once the bowl madness subsides a bit. I'm going to send an e-mail to a group of friends later tonight asking for help identifying resources as well.