Tuesday to Thursday

Writing this at 5:15 on Thursday afternoon.

Pictures above are mostly of the sites of Shanghai and Guangzhou. As you can see, most picture of buildings and people as we drive from the hotel to the plant and back to the hotel.

We had traveled to Shanghai on Monday night. Nice Hotel, though it is hard to remember already. There seems to be a constant overcast weather condition. I think it is smog. No odor, just heavy air.

We spent Tuesday with the Engineering team so that was friendly and then toured the razor factory. Very old products (double edge) but a clean site. Many, many people working, because labor is so cheap. They work 40 hours per week for a total of about $45. A few of the pictures above show the people on scooters and walking side-by-side on the streets. Cab drivers steer with one hand and beep the horn with the other. So if you have many cars and many beepers it is laughable how noisy it can get. One of the pictures has a no Horn sign!!!

Dinner at a real chinese restaurant with a lazy susan and lots of so so food in the middle. Tasty but I didn't particularly like my chicken to have the skin on it or to have so many bones, even though they were bite size!! Also, no serving spoons so plenty of double dipping of the chopsticks!!!

Wednesday was the worst day because we were in transit for at least 8 hours. Two suppliers and plenty of driving/flying. Arrived in Guangzhou at 10:30. Work with Grant to position the Potfiller at 12:30!!!!

Today was spent in a P&G tower. 35th floor, reminds me of the Pru. The last picture is my view out the window right now. Lunch was cantonese. Almost exactly like you would get at a good chinese restaurant at home. Spicy beans, spicy beef, rice, etc. They had there pig knuckles but we passed.

Tonight will be early because the ferry to Hong Kong leaves early on Friday. Not much of a visit to GZ but oh well, HK should be more of a chance to see the sites. We will head back to the hotel once I post.

How I spent my St Patrick's Day in Korea!

I just took the picture above (5:00 am Boston time on Monday moring), @ 6:00 pm in the airport in Korea.

We got here a little early so I was able to update the blog and add pictures. Hope you enjoy.

Today was the first new supplier visit. A company named HoongA. Hoong means "to Grow" and the A stands for Asia. They make equipment that packages blitsters. Think of any cards that hang on a peg with a card in the back and a clear front.

Interesting day and interesting hosts. We had lunch with the top two guys and it was a traditional Korean meal with many small courses of all kinds of veggies with garlic and spices. Overall very tasty but hard to replicate I am sure. Had to take off the shoes to enter the restaurant. They make a big deal out of exchanging business cards, face hand and bow. I can say a polite hello, AnnYoungSayoh!!

We then drove another 1.5 hours to the airport. Checked in and waiting to board at about 6:40 (5:40 your time).

That is all for now. Flight from 7:15 for 2 hours. I believe when I get to china we move to only 12 hours ahead. Hopefully i will have blackberry coverage once there.

Talk to all later. Jess, Jen, David, hope all is well and please send along a message of what is happening with you (haven't check email today). I miss you all.

Love Dad

Sunday - A day in Seoul

Sunday March 16th

Well, today was bit of an adventure. Not wild, just an adventure.

We signed up for a tour group that would take us to ancient wonders. We got picked up at the hotel at 8:30 along with 5 others, we spent the next hour in traffic as we picked up two more people. Turns out one was back at the our hotel (they forgot him).

Anyway, for the next 10 hours we tooled around Seoul and visited a few interesting places and others which were part of the overall experience of being in a foreign city.

A palace where the king and his family lived in the 1300’s. Picture #1 building artwork and#2 is me in front of the main building. There are about Ten of the houses on the grounds.

Everytime I add a picture it goes to the top so I have decided to tell you what I did and you can look at another posting of just pictures.

We visited a museum of life as a Korean citizen. Tough life, they have been in constant war for centuries and usually on the losing end with China and Japan near by.

We visited a Temple, another Palace. Amazining things about the palace is that it probably the size of Boston Commons and the Flower Garden in Boston, if not bigger. Souronded by housing and walls so you don't get the sense of the size.

The tour was a little bit of a sell job. Advertised as a Amethyst Factory. It was a jewlery store selling purple rocks at high prices and just waiting to haggle. Didn't like the purple look so I didn't buy anything.

Then they took us to a Ginseng Store!!! Another sales scam. Brief tour of why Ginseng form Korea is the best and they attempts to sell $300 supplies for 3 months to cure all that bothers you!!

The last part of the tour was to stop at a couple streets with street vendors. Lots of junk but some odds and ends. We will probably visit a similar scene in HK so I was not looking to buy anything but interesting none the less.

Finally back to hotel at 6:30!!!! Also they fed us a lunch which was fine. All that (including museum access for about $58. Not bad.

After a rest to went to another casino!! Rob is the gambler not me. More to check it out since there aren't many in the area. It was small and only had a few games of cards and roullette. I ended up taking my $60 max to the roullette table, played 10 won (korean money) a spin with the usual numbers of 3, 4, 18, and 22/23. Had 6 chance to win before running out of money. Won on 4th spin with 18, yeah mom, ended up quiting +$21 Won About $19. We were there less than an hour before heading back to the hotel for the night!!

That ended our exciting free day in the city. Look for the next posting of pictures.

luv dad

A couple pictures

This is LAX (Los Angeles Airport). Palm Trees, Cool!! And the Mountains of Southern California.

I'll Add more later. Just got it working and I need to sort through the best way to load pictures so they layout better.

Nice Moutains

First 3 days in Words

March 13th,2008

Hello Family and Friends!

This 14 day trip is going to take me and my travel companion, Rob Adams, ½ way around the world. We are going to visit a number of cities. Spend 50 “Scheduled Hours” in the air and who know exactly how many more in transit. Looking forward to visiting a number of the locations and the key supplier companies and P&G sites in this part of the world.

Quick Agenda:

3/13 Thursday Fly to LA
Friday Fly to Seoul South Korea
Sat Arrive in Seoul at 5:00pm
Sun Free Day in Seoul
Mon Work in Seoul, Fly to Shanghai
Tuesday Work in Shanghai, China
Wed Work in Shanghai, fly to Guangzhou China
Thursday Work in G’Zhou
Friday Boat to Honk Kong, Work in HK
Sat Free Day in HK
Sun Fly to Penang, Maylasia
Mon Work in Penang, Fly to Singapore
Tuesday Work in SingaporeWed Fly to Newark, NJ, USA and hopefully timed to get home Wednesday

March 13th
Flight from Boston to LAX was OK. 6 hours went quickly. This is the famous LAX airport tower which is like most things being overhauled!

We had to Drive about 35 miles up to the north of LA. Traffic at noon in LA is probably not much different than any other time of the daylight time so it took us a while.

Good day of work, headed back to the hotel on Marina Del Ray. Ate lunch at the marina hotel surrounded by millions of dollars of idle sailboats. Even saw a good name if we ever get a boat!!

Rob and I ventured out to “casino”! In reality it is a “poker house”. They are everywhere out here. For the 2nd time in my life, the first was out here with Uncle Dan in 1991 I believe and it was pre-Texas Hold-em mania!! I made $76 over a couple hours. Rob took some west coast $$ also and we were back just after 10:00 because Friday was going to be a tough travel day.

Friday the 14th Into Saturday the 15th
Simply put, got to the airport at 9:00, ate and worked until 11:30 for boarding,

First view of Korea



Flew from 12:30 LAX time for 13+ hours and landed in Seoul at almost 6:00pm Korean time on Saturday. Another 1.5 hours to the hotel through a very modern cityscape. Basically this city, which has been a volatile area during the last 70 years (World War 2, Korea, plus a number of local issues) and many redevelopment plans have been implemented.

Walked around the hotel area which was clean and mostly a business area. Starbucks, Burger King and the ultimate American Scene, Two Dunkin Donuts (One on each side of a busy road. Very nice DD’s also.

With exhaustion setting in, we settled back at the hotel lounge/restaurant for light dinner (accompanied by a wedding singer type group from the Philippines sing old USA songs to a sparse crowd)

Sunday the 16th
I am sitting here at 6:30 am entering the first info on this site. I have a few pictures but traveling in the car here didn’t allow for many good action shots in the dimming lights.

Plans for today are to join a tour group for a trip to “Ancient Korea” A series of museum stops, a staged Korean Village, and many photo ops I would imagine. My limited history knowledge tells me that the location of Korea so close to China and Japan has made it very difficult at times for Korea to be free.

Sunday 7:00am local – Signing off