January 2007 archive

Travel Schedule 2007

Wednesday, 31 Jan 2007 | Journal

This year I plan to do quite a lot of traveling. This schedule is just a first rough outline and will undoubtedly change a whole lot. I have scheduled some things in certain months for a reason, Hong Kong in August for instance is coupled to Shanghai so I can combine the two in one trip and save on airfare. Trips might be added and certainly will if there is a ‘follow-up’ reason to do so.

I have the money and more importantly the time to do it. And while the main reason for my travel shall be ‘business’, I will certainly be a good customer of Lonely Planet this year and buy many of their guidebooks to try and get the most out of those visits from a personal / cultural perspective as well.

Of course, if I find a job somewhere down the line that would change everything. But I will deal with that when it happens, I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to look at.

January

Hong Kong (scouting trip)

February

Singapore (scouting trip)
Somewhere in Thailand (doing the tourist thing, happy birthday to me!)

March

Malaysia (scouting trip)

April

South Korea (scouting trip)
Singapore (scouting trip)

May

Hong Kong (scouting trip)
Netherlands (to visit family and friends, for formalities regarding unemployment benefits, to see executive searchers, to attend a wedding and maybe even to do some freelance work at the Haagse Hogeschool - trip will last into June)

June

London (to visit friends & executive searchers)
Canada? (unlikely, but I’m tooling around with the idea of visiting Toronto while I’m in the Netherlands to visit friends, check out the job market over there and do some networking)

July

Taiwan (scouting trip)

August

Hong Kong (scouting trip)
Shanghai (scouting trip & to visit my friends Frank & Marn who will have moved there by then)

September

Nothing planned at the moment

October

Nothing planned at the moment

November

Japan (scouting trip & to pick up my friend Natalie who will be visiting friends there and subsequently come with me to Bangkok)

December

Nothing planned at the moment

Evaluating the trip

So did I succeed in what I set out to do in Hong Kong?

Well, my main goal for this and most following trips will be to build a network in Asia. So it pretty much comes down to collecting business cards. I did collect those, so yes, I was succesful.

I feel I rushed into this trip. I mentioned that last week and I still feel this to be the case. Perhaps I’ll write up sometime what exactly is the idea of a scouting trip such as this one, but having a weekend in the middle of it certainly is not one of them. It was wasted time and I won’t be doing that again. Ofcourse I kept myself busy, but thats not why I was there. Also, I had too little items on my calendar even on the business days. I did meet some people individually outside the events I attended, but I would have liked to be a little busier.¹

Another lesson learned is that I should also take a look at the conference calendar of a city before flying somewhere. I was considering visiting the PMI office in Hong Kong, but when I opened the South China Morning Post on Friday morning I saw that they were in fact holding a conference. I did not visit the conference, but did attend one of their functions and met a few interesting people there.

In the end, I feel moderately happy with the results from a business perspective.

From a personal perspective, as I’ve said before, it was amazing to be back in Hong Kong and it made me realize how much I love this city.

Comparing Hong Kong to Bangkok

After having been in Bangkok for so long, it was all the more interesting to be in Hong Kong from a western point of view. While some people claim all asian cities are the same (with the exception of Singapore), I really disagree with that view. I’ve gotten used to being in Bangkok, so here are a few things I noticed when I was in Hong Kong.

• People in Hong Kong are rude. And that is not a nice thing to experience when you’re used to the soft and gentle nature of the Thai. People seemingly don’t care about anything, service in restaurants can get quite bad and nobody seems to smile in that city. It was strange, coming from the land of smiles.
  
  
• Hong Kong is a true melting pot. There are people from all over the world and the city seemingly has been succesful in mixing cultural aspects from both the east and the west. In Bangkok, anybody who is not Thai is more an outsider and certainly not part of the system.
  
  
• Bangkok is warmer. And I don’t mean this in the temperature sense. It is really easy to connect with people in Thailand, even Thai people. While perhaps they are not the deepest of friendships, they are very nice. From what I’ve seen so far I think it would be really difficult to meet people in Hong Kong, although I guess the highly active expat societies will certainly help in that sense.
  
  
• Expat embracement. We all know (right?) Hong Kong was until recently ofcourse a British colony. It is also seen as the gateway to China. As a result, there are people from all over the world and they are there to stay. It seems expat life has settled more into society than it has in Thailand. People relocate here and stay for countless years, while people tend to leave Bangkok after a few years.
  
  
• Cars are newer. And I don’t just mean the Mercedes driving elite. All cars are newer and to find an old truck with thick black clouds of exhaust fumes is quite a task, while they can not be missed in Bangkok.
  
  
• People have more money. Cars are an example of it, but in general it is pretty obvious that this is a much wealthier city than Bangkok is. While there are big groups of people slaving away for meager wages in Hong Kong too, there is a much larger middle class and higher class.
  
  
• No chaos in traffic. It is such a relief to see cars just steadily flowing around the streets and not having to worry (or just having been lucky) about getting stuck in traffic somewhere.
  
  
• Things are more organized. Not just traffic, but everything seems more organized and better taken care off than in Thailand. Which I guess you can do in a more affluent city.

As a final note, I want to state my amazement at the incredible percentage of people wearing glasses. My own non-scientific and hardly credible research (it consisted on guestimating based on a sample group of about 20 people I passed) says that at least 50-60% of Hong Kongers wear glasses. I think I have read somewhere that this has something to do with the MSG food additive, but I don’t know for sure.

What went inside

Most of the Chinese food people around the world eat has its roots in Cantonese cuisine, simply because most of the Chinese we see in the west are actually from Hong Kong and surrounding Guangdong province. The food served in Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands however, is far from Cantonese. It is a mix of Cantonese and Indonesian¹ cuisine, altered to the not-so-adventurous taste of Dutchmen in the late 1950’s, when Chinese restaurants first started popping up. But in both Rotterdam and Amsterdam, there is quite a large Chinese community and so I got a slightly more authentic Chinese food eating at restaurants on the Zeedijk. Oh those days of eating at New King, how I wish … wait, I’m in Hong Kong! How authentic do you want it?

Here are some of the things I put in my mouth the last week:

• 
  I’m always in the mood for sushi.
  Sushi: Lets start off with absolutely not authentic Hong Kong food! The most expensive breakfast I had was sushi from a conveyer belt sushi place in Mongkok, just down the street from my hotel. It was a good sushi place and especially the nigiri unagi was delicious (hi B&S!) … I also had horse meat sushi and delicious scallop sashimi.
  
  
• Deep Fried Tofu: At one of the networking events I attended, I spoke to a gentleman who had recently been to a 600 year old tofu restaurant in Japan. To me, tofu spells the same as b-o-r-i-n-g and so when I saw this as a signature dish on the menu of a restaurant I just had to try it. It was interesting, served with fried garlic and made for a nice snack. But not really all that amazing. I guess I’ll visit that restaurant when I go to Japan.
  
  
• Kanom: Thai refer to a lot of things as ‘kanom’, among them cookies and bread and dessert and what not. I visited a store and got a collection of different things, but was not impressed with it.
  
  
• 
  Sip, slurp, gulp.
  Tea on the go: Something I had previously never noticed were the countless tea stalls all around the Mongkok area. Just running down the street, Chinese stop and gulp down a cup of tea. I had nothing but a suspicion of it being tea, but I figured I would try. There were different kinds, I had something that had a gingery taste to it.
  
  
• Duck: That is what a lot of westerners think about when thinking about Chinese food. And since I’m a big fan of duck, I ate lots of it. And I’ve had it in various degrees of yumminess, from tasteless and still on the bone at Can-Teen till delicious in little finger snacks at a mixer.
  
  
• Dim Sum: Did you know there are over 2000 (nobody actually knows how much) different dim sum recipes. It is eaten for breakfast or lunch and especially big on Sunday, when the family will get together for dim sum. I love it. And just now (I’m at the airport), I had sum for breakfast at the airport.
  
  
• Suckling Pork: Really delicious was the crispy suckling pork skin I had, although undoubtedly not the lightest of dishes I consumed (the skin was lined with fat) it was very flavoursome and certainly worth a try if you have the chance.
  
  
• 
  I ate this! Weird, huh?
  Preserved Egg: By far the most adventurous of dishes I have had, is the preserved egg. Also known as the thousand year old egg. It is an egg that is kept for several weeks and which then develops into a weird transparent looking outside with a deep green goo on the inside. There is a slight rotten smell to it. It is eaten with sugar and ginger. Next time, I will try a tea egg.
  
  
• Sticky Meat: When I passed a store I had visited on a previous trip and recognized the meats they sold inside, I went to indulge again. They sell some kind of meat lollipops, well thats what it looks like when you stick a stick (?) in a large coin shaped piece of meat.
  
  

Cantonese cuisine is based on balancing opposites in both taste and texture. Crispy with soft, sour with sweet, etc. There is never one of the two that has the upper hand, including specific flavors. So when comparing Cantonese to Thai cuisine, one thought immediately springs to mind and that is the lack of spicyness. I can’t wait to be order some naam tok this afternoon!

Lots of people

Sunday, 28 Jan 2007 | Journal

One of the things that is hard to miss about Hong Kong is the unreal number of people that walk the streets here. Less people live in this city than live in Bangkok, but there seem to be a lot more people on the street. That, I think, is because the city is built on a smaller surface area than Bangkok. And also, most of the city is built on the slopes of hills which makes much of the surface unusable. Cram the same amount of people on a smaller surface and you get a busier surface. Simple!

Yesterday I went to Causeway Bay, the shopping district of Hong Kong. Now, Hong Kongers (yes, that is actually how you officially refer to them) love to shop and so there are malls everywhere in this city. But this is the main shopping area. Getting there is easiest with the subway, but taking the doubledecker tram is always the most fun in Hong Kong. And the cheapest way too. And although chilly, there were an unreal number of people there. Every little street was jam-packed with people going in and out of little shops and buying their wares, as you can see on the photo (go to the site to see the photo) it really is a never ending stream of people. One of the busiest spots is a certain crossing, of which I made a video [MPEG-4, 8.85MB] for your enjoyment.

After just aimlessly walking around and (fruitlessly) trying to find anything more interesting than mainstream westernized shops, I decided to go have some food. Just as I had decided, I turned into a street lined with little restaurants and other type of food joints. A shiny and clean looking noodle shop would have been a very understandable choice. But I opted for a tiny little place called ‘Traditional Noodle’ (well, that was the only english I could find on the storefront, so for me that is the name!) and was seated at a table with a slurping Chinese lady. While I was there, people were coming and going all the time and the 10 or so tables constantly packed with only Chinese. I was the only gwai-lo and a sight for many. I ordered some Yunnan noodle with pork and some fried fish on the side. I couldn’t do what most of them were doing, the slurping thing. But I had my own way and had a great meal!

After dinner I walked around for a bit more, got some snacks here and there (some to take home) and made my way home using the subway. A little early perhaps, but it was getting chilly and I didn’t want to get sick.

Note: There seems to be some problem in the combination of not sufficiently configured web servers and the Safari web browser. If you’re getting gibberish after clicking the video link above, try right-clicking and saving the file to your harddisk first. The video is worth the hassle if you ask me. I’ll try to fix this on my new server. Sorry about the inconvenience.

They sure love their big cars here

Friday, 26 Jan 2007 | Journal

What is this love afair that Hong Kongers have with Mercedes S-class cars? It is ridiculous! For those of you who don’t know, that is the most expensive model Mercedes has. And they are EVERYWHERE in this city. Even here in Mongkok. There is the occasional really old but perfectly maintained model, which I think is very stylish. Also a lot of those battleship S-class models from the early 90’s. But most of them are brand new, shiny, glimmering and driven around by a chauffeur. Unreal.

There are so many of them, it almost feels like it’s nothing special anymore. There might actually be more of these Mercedes’ than there are taxis. But I could be mistaken.

But here is a nice inside scoop. Hong Kong, I was told, is the capital of appearances-is-all-that-matters. Some of the people driving this big car actually have an apartment that is smaller than their car. Nobody comes to their apartment, so who cares what it looks like, right? But people see my car, so it has to look expensive! I think the scale tipped a little bit too far into the ridiculous on this subject, here in Hong Kong.

I LOVE THIS CITY!

I forget how much I love this city. When I arrived and was taken from the airport to the hotel (got a new room by the way, everything is fine now although the hotel is a little too run down to be worth the 4 stars it claims) I was reminded of how much I liked this city. But when I went to Hong Kong Island (I’m staying in Kowloon) to attend an event in Lan Kwai Fong last night I was reminded of how breathtaking, stunning and amazing this city is.

During the day I tooled around Mong Kok, like I said I would. I love this area, because nobody speaks English here and there are hardly any farang (the Cantonese word for it is “gwai-lo”, which means ‘white dragon’) around here. You really feel like you’re in China. I just walked around the market and streets and relaxed for a bit. There was this little cart selling some liquid, I had no idea what it was but tried it … some kind of tea with ginger or something. Quite good. Slurp, gulp, gone. Although the Chinese old lady next to me was a lot quicker in drinking it than me. Oh well.

At night I went from my hotel using the subway and got to Central in about 10 minutes, perfectly acceptable. Upon exiting the station there I was immediately surrounded by huge shiny skyscrapers that were framed by the darkness that was falling upon Hong Kong (how poetic, eh?) and made my way through a few alleys. It was amazing how I remembered many things, “wait I think Tsui Wah is around the corner here” … and low and behold, there was that cute little 24 hour eatery. And “I’m early, I’ll go have a coffee. I think there was a Starbucks aroun… ah, there it is!” … Ofcourse I am not claiming to ‘know’ Hong Kong, but it is a nice feeling. The same happens to me in London and also when I arrived in Bangkok, not quite knowing the ins and outs of the city but feeling like you have some sense of where you are. I guess it happens after you’ve been to a city a few times.

Lan Kwai Fong was as I remembered: bustling with crowds going for after-work drink or a quick bite. And when I left the networking event I attended there, I had some food at Tsui Wah and walked around for a bit. It is in the sloped parts of Hong Kong and so has all these cute little streets waving their way up the mountain. Kinda like a mountain village, but streets lined with hi-so bars instead of farmers’ houses. This area really is a far cry from Mongkok, this is the area where the white collar workers go out and you’re truely surrounded by people from all over the world. A stroll on the waterfront ended my night and after that I went back to the hotel. A great day. I love this city. Oh wait, did I already say that?

Wake up and go

Wednesday, 24 Jan 2007 | Journal

When I woke up this morning I called Orient Thai and it turned out I was still able to book with Orient Thai and since that ticket was half the price (I’m paying 130 euro return) of flying with Cathay Pacific, it was a quick decision. So I made the reservation, took a shower, packed my bag, had some lunch and made my way to the airport. I’m excited to be back in Hong Kong, but I miss Gigi. On my two previous trips to Hong Kong, I flew with Dragon Airlines and to this day I remember the Chinese angel¹ that woke me up on each of those flights. She will forever be in my heart, beautiful and gracious Gigi. Who knows, maybe I will see her on the street tomorrow in Hong Kong.

The new Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (suvarnabhumi means ‘golden land’) was not entirely new to me, as I’ve picked up people there. But I had never been airside. From the day it opened, people were complaining about too little public area seats² and too little toilets. The last couple of days there has been a lot to do about the runway showing cracks after only a few months of service. The Bangkok Post today reported this was because ‘the builders were tired’ … thats right, a multi billion dollar airport, but the guys who were pooring the asfalt for arguably the most important part of the airport, they were tired. What can I say: This is Thailand. Anyway, the airport is exactly what I thought it would be, a big shopping mall with gates. So I thought the sign was very fitting — “Welcome to Suvarnabhumi Airport, thank you for shopping here”.

Orient Thai was as I remembered. I had to go and pick up my ticket downtown at the “One-two-Go Tower”, so I’m walking around looking for a tall building with the airlines’ logo on it. But I couldn’t find it. The ‘tower’ turned out to be 3 floors high. Right. Anyway, I got an exit seat, departure and arrival on time and an Oishi bento box for dinner, so I’m not complaining. The guy behind me was less fortunate, he had ordered vegetarian food but that somehow didn’t make it into the plane. So the guy was a little sad and asked the stewardess what happened and if or not they did indeed offer vegetarian meals. Her reply was “yes, we do, but we’re a budget airline”, as if being a budget airlines excuses messing up like that. Staff is not very friendly, but whatever. It’s a bus.³

I’m staying at the Metropark Kowloon. When I staid in Hong Kong last year, the coolest day I had was when I visited the Mongkok area on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. So, while most of the events I’m visiting are on Hong Kong island, I decided to book a room here. It’s a short walk from a subway station, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get around. I’m paying 60 euro per night, which does not include breakfast but does include free broadband internet in my room. The experience so far has been mixed, I was picked up at the airport (included in the price) and the staff was very friendly in the hotel. But it looks a little run down. Wait and see tomorrow how things work out.

Tomorrow during the day I will tool around Kowloon for a bit and in the night go to my first event.

Oh, it’s COLD here! 16C/61F at night!

Here I come again on my own

Tuesday, 23 Jan 2007 | Journal

The first international trip (not counting my brief visit to Cambodia) will finally happen this week. For the last few months I have been concentrating most of my efforts on Thailand, but I knew there was never a big chance I could land something here. So I decided the first trip is going to be to Hong Kong.

Now I’ve been to Hong Kong a few times already, so why did I decide to go here? Well, I need to start somewhere. I figured since I know my way around the city it would make a good start. I found a few events worth visiting and to top it all off, I am going to go visit my friend Andrea who recently had a cute little baby boy.

The idea is as follows. I will visit some events on Thursday and Friday, have Saturday and Sunday to go see Andrea and hang around town and then on Monday and Tuesday I perhaps might have some follow-up meetings AND might have some meetings with people I’m being introduced to via-via. If not, I either fly back earlier or visit the Project Management Institute for an introduction to their certification program.

Here is are the events I’m considering to visit:

• Thursday: New Years Party at the Dutch Business Association
• Thursday: “Shaken, Not Stirred”, the UK Chamber of Commerce business mixer
• Friday: Kick-Off Breakfast Meeting by the American Chamber of Commerce, although I’m not sure I will be allowed in as it states ‘all members’ are welcome, but says nothing about non-members.
• Friday: Monthly luncheon by the Belgian Chamber of Commerce
• Friday: Australia Day Lunch (by the New Zealand Chamber of Commerce … no silly, the Australian Chamber of Commerce of course!)
• Friday: A visit to a factory in Shenzhen, organized by the UK Chamber of Commerce

Now, I won’t be able to attend all of them. The Thursday events happen at the same time, so I’ll have to make a decision or (if nearby) move venues to cover both. I’ll probably connect better with Dutch people but the British obviously have a larger group and stronger hold in Hong Kong, what do you think? The two lunch events on Friday also overlap, but the Australia one is really expensive so I’m not sure I will want to go there. The factory visit is a whole day, while perhaps interesting I don’t think it would do me a whole lof of good so I’ll probably pass.

My ticket is not booked yet. I am either flying Cathay Pacific or Orient Thai. I’m going back to the travel agent in the morning to confirm which one, if it turns out to be Orient Thai I will have to hussle as that flight at 6pm tomorrow night. If Cathay, I will fly the next morning. I also haven’t decided on which hotel just yet, but also narrowing that down.

I am not quite as prepared as I feel I should be. But it’s time I get started on this thing, so I’m just going to go. I can always come back some other time.

What I'm doing to find employment

Monday, 22 Jan 2007 | Work in Asia

One of the questions a lot of people ask me when I talk to them is how the job hunt is going. While it is one of the things I have early on decided I would not keep a journal about on this website, as I feel it not polite and it perhaps would have a negative influence. I have indeed been working on getting a job and have recently decided to step up that effort as well.

Acquisition

The first step each and every time is ‘lead acquisition’. After all, I’m simply trying to sell myself. I try to get these leads from a few different sources.

One of the most important sources for actual openings is regularly reading the classifieds in the newspapers. Most of them publish their classifieds online as well as in the actual newspaper. Thats why, even when living in Bangkok, its still fairly easy to read the classifieds for Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post and Singapore’s Straits Times.

Although seemingly bigger in the west than they are here, executive searchers are still a major player in the job market. And because these firms are hired to fill high-end positions, they make an interesting source of opportunities. I will be selecting a few respected ones and introduce myself by sending them an open application letter.

The most time consuming but also most fun part of my effort however, is networking. I have an existing network in the west which I try to use. But in addition, I attend events where I will be able to meet new people. Networking events, business functions and perhaps even trade shows and exhibitions make for good opportunities. It’s always great to meet new people, perhaps it is not those people who will be looking for someone like me. But maybe it is their friends, or the friends of their friends. And the fun thing is, everybody is there for that exact reason. So, while there is an etiquette involved, there is no shame in ‘plugging’ yourself. It will help someone determine who to introduce you to, which will help you on your way.

Follow-up

And after I get a good lead, which means there is certainly an opportunity for a job somewhere, I go to the next step of ‘follow-up’. These are pretty basic activities, but perhaps the most important of all to ‘close the deal’.

Writing letters is important. And a lot of thought goes into each and every one I send out the door. This goes for the open applications I mentioned before, as well as applications for a specific job. They of course can’t be too long, so I have to try and make every word count as much as possible. Writing a coverletter as well as customizing my resume (changing the emphasis slightly) for each application I feel is very important.

And of course I will be meeting people. Either because I met that person at an event somewhere, somebody referred me to them or because they invited me to their office to further discuss an opportunity.

Closing the deal

Well, I’ll let you know when it happens! One thing I have already learned is not to get too excited about a lead. Things are always super positive here and everybody is in a ‘can-do’ mode, but until there is a signed contract things could bounce at the last second.

Moving my vacation to the Netherlands

When I arrived in Bangkok, I knew I would have to make a trip to the netherlands within 6 months. I needed to for some formalities regarding unemployment benefits there. So about a month ago I booked a ticket to leave late February. The deadline for these formalities as it turns out is not 6, but 9 months after my departure.

So I moved my trip. There was no immediate need to fly back. While I would love to see my family and friends, I’m still ‘on a budget’ and felt it was the smarter thing to do to just postpone my trip. Also because I could now combine several reasons for me to fly to the Netherlands in one trip - among them a wedding I want to attend which is planned in May.

But aside from the trip, I have actually decided to change the entire planning of my move. The first time I set an actual planning for my move and set a deadline by which I would have had to find employment was in December 2005. I made this planning based on four things; the promise I had made to my boss, the rules for unemployment benefits, the available financial resources and a general notion of ‘one year is enough’. The date of departure shifted because of that promise to my boss, but the planning basically still remained the same.

I’m now changing that planning and extending the initial 13 months to 16 months. The main reason is the extra 3 months I got in regards to the unemployment benefits. I’m also able to finance these 3 months due to some unexpected financial gains. And the ‘one year is enough’ still stands, for reasons I previously discussed. So the deadline for having a job is now January 1st, 2008. I’ve got a little less than 1 year left.

And as for my family and friends in the Netherlands … well … I’ll see you all in May I guess!

Best holiday card

Friday, 19 Jan 2007 | Journal

Entry for the competition of ‘who sent me the best holiday card this year’ was closed on Monday, the 15th of January. It was a very tough call and the jury deliberated for hours, but the above won the ‘Best holiday card sent to Rob in Thailand 2007 Award’.

It was sent to me by my friend Chidi, who tells me he shot the photograph at the Kwakoe Festival (Amsterdam) in the summer of 2006. He graciously allowed me to publish it on here. I absolutely love the light coming from he setting sun, the smoke and the energy in the photo and have been using it as my desktop backdrop ever since I got it. GREAT shot.

Ofcourse I appreciate all the cards, emails, sms messages and thoughts you all sent me over the holidays. But there can be only one winner.

Postscript: The ‘competition’ mentioned in the article above actually never took place. I was just looking for an excuse to put the image up, because I really do think its an amazing shot. I hope Chidi is not writing an acceptance speech. Sorry guys, I thought it would be pretty obvious that this was a joke, but I surprised a lot of people and they are all telling me they “never knew about this competition” … I presume they would have entered if they did. So perhaps an idea for next year? I’ll announce it here if I do!

The symbol says it all

The other day I walked home from the skytrain station and passed a hospital on the way, I take that route because I like the blast of cold air that greets me as I pass the front door of it. Involuntarily I always look inside when I pass, usually I see some nurses hanging around and a new patient getting registered. It was the same this time, but something I saw shocked me this time around.

As I turned around the corner I slowed my pace to further inspect what I saw through the side windows of the lobby. There was a girl there wearing a t-shirt with a swastika covering her entire back. You know, the sign most commonly known for its use by the Nazi Party in Germany. I figured that could not be it. I was aware of the fact that it actually originates from India. It means ‘eternality’ and is often also sewn into the collars of Chinese kids to protect them from evil spirits. I’ve even seen it on bowls in a Chinese Buddhist temple in Amsterdam. Actually, there is a really extensive (ofcourse) article about it up on Wikipedia with a lot of non-Nazi uses of the symbol. But for me, I was shocked to see it. The initial shock replaced by the feeling of ‘it must be something else’ and was then replaced again by amazement.

Now closer to the girl I could actually see her shirt more clearly. And printed right above the symbol was ‘Adolf Hitler’. Ok, well, there is no mistaking there. I had my camera with me and considered shooting a photo, but felt that to be improper. So as I walked away, I just shook my head.

I’m pretty sure she was blissfully unaware of how the meaning of the symbol changed with that name above it, at least to farang. Because I can’t imagine her (100% dark skinned Thai from the looks of it) being proud of her arian heritage. But I’m sure you can understand my surprise.

As reliable as... anything

Thursday, 18 Jan 2007 | Journal

A power outage happens quite often here. The first time I experienced one, I was actually out on the balcony putting laundry in the machine when I heard a loud bang. My outdoor aircon units started spinning down, which I thought was a funny coincidence. It wasn’t ofcourse, when I walked back inside everything was off except for the glowing screen of my laptop. It happens about once a month and usually doesnt last very long. They happen more frequently but are off a different kind than the outages we have in the west, here its usually a local transformer that blows.

But it isn’t just electricity that will disappear every once in a while. Making a call on my mobile phone sometimes also requires me to redial a number several times, you learn the difference between the different busy signals you get and what they mean - because it doesn’t always mean the person you’re calling is already on the phone. And today I was driven from my home in search of a decent internet connection.

Internet in Thailand is not always as reliable as one would hope, the funny thing is that the cause for bad service is not due to overcrowding of the network at the edge, which is often the case in the west, but due to overcrowding at the core of the network - the lines out of Thailand.¹ And so when that core gets hit, it affects everyone. And that is exactly what happened a few weeks ago. Just after Christmas, Taiwan was hit by an earthquake which damaged one of the underwater cables which happens to carry a large part of the internet traffic in and out of Thailand. The repair work on this cable I think is still ongoing and quality of internet connections changes daily as providers reroute their traffic according to changes in available international connections.

This morning, traffic from my DSL connection to my mailserver in Amsterdam was routed through Los Angeles, Ontario and New York, the Google server I was assigned was in Taiwan and completely unreachable and I could hardly get anything up in my browser. A big change from yesterday, when pretty much all my traffic was routed via Hong Kong - the biggest internet exchange in Asia and thus very well connected. So I packed my stuff and moved. I’m using a free network in Siam Paragon (a shopping mall) now, which uses the True network. And I’ve got a great link with the entire world, funnily enough my mail traffic is now routed through Australia. It’s a strange world!

An afternoon of screentime

Sunday, 14 Jan 2007 | Journal

Some of you perhaps were a little surprised about the seemingly negative tone in last nights’ article in which I looked back on last year. Nothing is further from the truth, I was honest about my feelings but not at all feeling negative about being here. How could I, when this has been my day so far.

After waking up and taking a shower, I went out to get some breakfast at the coffeeshop near my home. Soon after I walked to the skytrain, on the way a couple of kids rode their bike next to me and were having a ball trying out what few English words they knew and being genuinely surprised when I said something in Thai to them. Ofcourse then they start rattling off in Thai and soon after disappointment replaced their initial excitement, when they figured out my knowledge of the Thai language was not as much as they perhaps had hoped.

A single stop to the Ari skytrain station. A new shopping center opened here recently and I decided to go take a look at it because it looked so different from the countless malls around Bangkok. Storefronts open to the outside air and not airconditioned, sunlight-deprived corridors. And the outside air today is amazing, clear blue skies and a gentle whisper of a breeze to compliment the 30C/86F temperature. It honestly does not get any better, it’s the dead of winter!

The Ari shopping center is a really nice place and so I decided to settle in at Starbucks for the afternoon. I have a great book I’m about to finish and took my laptop on which I will be writing some emails and hopefully getting around to some other things I’ve been meaning to do on my computer as well. A screentime afternoon! I’ve got a great view of the road and people walking around the center from here, as well as people sitting outside on the patio reading a book. Soft jazz music playing in the background. And I noticed an Apple store that ofcourse needs to be checked out later on.

Tonight I’m meeting a friend for dinner. Perhaps we can go have sushi at the Fuji branch upstairs, but I asked her to pick a place so who knows where I will end up.

Good times.

Not quite content, but happy nonetheless

Saturday, 13 Jan 2007 | Journal

With the start of a new year, like many others I’ve recently been reviewing the past year. It has been an interesting and eventful year for me, but I’m not quite happy with where I am at the moment.

Last year ofcourse saw one of big changes in my life, my move from Amsterdam to Asia. The decision to move had already been made in 2005 and so the first 8 months of 2006 were about preparing for the actual move and subsequently just ‘doing time’ before I could move. I was scheduled to leave in July, but that got bumped to September because I promised my boss I would finish the project before I left. I did just that and had an incredible time doing it. No regrets about how I prepared or anything else in the first 8 months, it all went pretty much the way it should have gone.

Less happy am I with where I am after having been in Thailand for 4 months. I had lots of plans to go places, see things and do stuff. And although I haven’t been idle in all areas and am content with how I spend my days, I haven’t explored my new country (or city for that matter) as much as I expected to do. I actually caught this early on in my stay here, but figured it would get better. It did not. I don’t believe (I could ofcourse be wrong) this has something to do with the phases of culture shock and subsequent acceptance that expats commonly go through. I love learning new things about Thai culture and do so almost every day. It’s just that I’m not very happy with the things I undertake and places I go to make this country and city more familiar to myself. Beyond my day to day needs, I haven’t explored a whole lot. Maybe that will still happen, perhaps it never will. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what I would want myself to be doing, but in general feel something needs to change.

I’m also not entirely content with the effort I have put into looking for employment. I think I perhaps should have worked a little harder on that. I have applied for jobs here in Bangkok, but the interesting options are few and far between and competition is fierce. So I’m stepping up my game on this, adding active networking to my activities for Bangkok. Meanwhile I am also preparing the first two scouting trips, to Singapore and Hong Kong. More on that soon.

The past few months have been mostly about resting and relaxing, which makes for a great feeling of not HAVING to do anything. Sometimes I decide in the morning I need to do something that day, but as the day progresses things turn out completely different and nobody is bothered by the fact that I postpone doing that something to the next day. It gives you a great sense of freedom.

Despite the self-criticism, I do feel I’m happy here. I have a great life and feel really good about being here and doing what I have been dreaming about for 10 years. The rest will all come together in due time.

How are you?

Friday, 12 Jan 2007 | Blogging

From: Rob
To: Readers

Hi,

How are you? I’m good.

In my “Happy New Year”-note I wrote that one of my resolutions was to put new life back into writing articles for this site. After having written a few articles every week for a year and a half, the frequency with which I was writing new articles was dropping to a few every month.

I briefly touched on the reason why I had not been able to find the motivation to write a lot of articles the last couple of months. While I do get some form of satisfaction from the writing itself and it does help me put things in perspective, I like to think that the main reason I write this site is for the readers. About 30-40 people have subscribed to or frequently visit this website to stay up to date on my life, so my audience for any given article will not exceed something like 50 readers. Hardly a large number.

So I guess it would be unfair to expect a lot of response to what I write. But there is a big difference between ‘a little response’ and ‘hardly any response’. As an example, last year I wrote an article in which I was wondering out loud if or not I should continue writing this weblog. I got one reply. On average, I get one reply for every 3 articles I write. The thing is, people do read what I write. They refer to it when I speak to them in person. I guess thats the point, right? Not to get response, but to get read.

Thats true to a certain extent. One side effect is that this turns into a one-way form of communication. I write about my life, readers read about it. They dont go hitting the ‘reply’ butting and saying “thats cool, here is whats going on in my life” as one would in a normal email exchange. So I’m missing out on whats going on in the lives of my readers. I hardly know some of my readers, but with others I do mind. Maybe I should write more emails to ask them, I’d write something along the lines of “Hi, how are you? I’m good, read my weblog to see what I’m up to. Tell me what you have been up to.”

Please note: I’m not pointing any fingers. Just thinking out loud. I’m not planning on stopping this site. I’m not trying to get you to respond to articles more often. I’m not trying to say anything really. Just thinking out loud.

So, tell me what you have been up to! :-)

bye,
Rob

A new mobile phone and computer!

A few days ago I was sitting at my computer at midnight. I had a drink ready and was waiting for something to start on the other side of the world, in San Francisco to be exact. Steve Jobs, the big boss of Apple, was about to deliver his keynote speech at the Macworld Conference and I wanted to be among the first to know what was about to come. What was I looking at? Basically, there was somebody in the audience over there who was writing text messages of what was being said on the stage. Myself and other pathetic individuals were watching these messages on our screen as they were rolling in. I was hoping for an Apple mobile phone and a sub-compact notebook computer.

Apple introduced a mobile phone. And it seems to be one incredibly amazing device, I won’t go and list all the features here because you probably don’t care.¹ While a lot of those features are really cool and I certainly don’t mind they are there, it is the integration of iPod and mobile phone that is why I will try to get my hands on one as soon as I possibly can. I never wanted an iPod, because I will not hear my phone when it rings. Also, I don’t want to have to carry many devices around with me. I wanted phone, music player and digital camera in one device. And nothing out there² was good enough for me. So I just decided to buy nothing. I’m glad I didn’t. Because the iPhone does everything I want. Ok, perhaps the digital camera is not so impressive at 2mpx, but whatever. It’s good enough for snapshots and when I want to take real photos I’ll take my Canon with me. What sucks is that the phone will not be available in Europe until November 2007 and in Asia somewhere in 2008. That is a really long time to wait for something. But I’ve waited this long, I’m sure I can wait a little longer. One wish came true. But the other one did not.

There will (for now anyway) be no sub-compact notebook computer. So it looks like I will be replacing my Powerbook with a Macbook sometime this year. My Powerbook is turning 3 in April of this year and is getting sluggish. I can still sort of do what I want to do with it, but the increasing demands that new applications put on system resources are making the it all slow down too much. A black or white Macbook will be the replacement. If history is any guide, May will see a new Macbook be released. And around that time the new operating system will also have been released. So I’ll probably wait until May until I buy my new notebook computer.

Getting around Bangkok

Sunday, 7 Jan 2007 | Life in Asia

Bangkok is a large city, some people say it is actually hard to tell where the city ends exactly due to the lack of distinctive features around the cities edges, and has a large number of people living in it and commuting into it. And so a lot of people are trying to get from A to B every day.

Some of you might recall my stories about cheap taxis and perhaps expect this is the preferred mode of transportation, but with the notorious traffic jams Bangkok still has every second of the day it is not always the smartest way to get somewhere.

TAXI A taxi is by far the most comfortable way of travelling this city. All taxis have air conditioning, they are all over the city and so it’s easy to flag one down pretty much anywhere you are and they make for a comfortable door-to-door delivery at a reasonable price.¹ The problem is the aforementioned traffic jams, ironically enough (at least in part) caused by the unreal number of taxis on the street. And so a taxi is not always the smartest decision. Experience is required in deciding if or not to take a taxi, taking into account the time of day and the (most logical, which is not always the actual² ) route to be taken from A to B. If your destination or route does not hit any of the traffic jams that occur in certain spots at certan hours, go ahead and take that taxi. If not, take a pillow … I have indeed slept in a taxi for over an hour once getting stuck somewhere.

CAR Ofcourse taking your own car would be an option, presuming (a) you have one; (b) you’re ok with driving on the wrong err. left side of the road and (c) are mad enough to try and wrestle your way³ through Bangkok traffic. I’ve spoken to people who have cars here and I’ve read stories on the web, all of it and the omnipresence of readily available alternatives makes me wonder why people bother to have a car here. Unless perhaps you have a Thai driver to go with it. Then again, perhaps I’m not the right person to ask.

SKYTRAIN/MRT The third most comfortable way of getting somewhere is by using mass rapid transit systems, such as the oft mentioned skytrain⁴ (an elevated metro system which currently has two lines) and the underground metro line. It is by far the preferred⁵ method of getting somewhere if departure and arrival points are near a station. The trains quietly moves its passengers in air conditioned comfort through the city. It runs from 6AM till midnight and gets positively packed during rush hours. Proximity to a skytrain station was certainly an item on my checklist when looking for an apartment, I currently live a 5-10 minute walk from Saphan Khwai station.

TUK-TUK The noisy tricycles found at just about every street corner of Bangkok are an alternative to a taxi for some. They are a tourist attraction for sure, many tourists take a tuk-tuk if for nothing else but the novelty of it. Locals also use them, although I mostly see them use it as motorized shopping cards (I’ve actually seen tuk-tuks with ripped out seats as to convert them to mini delivery vans) - packing it full of stuff and people and “hi-yo Silver, away!” … it will then speed its way through traffic, being the daredevils that they are. Prices are negotiated upfront with the driver and generally are a around the same price point as a short taxi ride. The advantage of a tuk-tuk is that it is quicker and more maneuverable than a taxi. I personally use them when I’ve got a lot of shopping bags, for a short ride from the Big C supermarket near the skytrain station to my home. Lazy? Just a 5 minute walk? You try walking with a dozen bags full of groceries in the burning sun and 38C/100F, I’ve done it and I’ll have you know it is far from a pleasure.

MOTORCYCLE While tuk-tuk drivers are ‘daredevils’, motorcycle drivers are positively insane. These guys, to be recognized by their orange vests, gather on certain street corners and are a rowdy bunch. If you’re in a rush to get to a meeting you absolutely need to be on time for and all of the above will not work for you, these guys are a last resort. And they will indeed get the job done, or so I’m told. Funnily enough, they are also used by locals as an alternative to having to walk for a few minutes which I guess is why there are so many of them. They zigzag their way through traffic, seemingly oblivious to the dangers involved. And yeah, accidents with these things are fairly common. I have never taken one and probably never will either.

BUS Perhaps not the least comfortable mode of transportation, but at the bottom of this list because I’m writing from the perspective of a farang. And so why is this uncomfortable for a farang? Because the bus system in Bangkok is, like so many other things, complete mayhem of which absolutely no sense can be made. There are green, red, blue, white and mini busses. Some just drive up and down a long street, others have more intricate routes. But they all have just a number on the front, drivers who don’t speak English and run whenever the hell they feel like it. So why is this uncomfortable for a farang? Because getting on a bus means you’re basically going to get somewhere at some point, but you have no idea when or where. It’s dirt cheap though, with fares being 2 baht (EUR 0.04).

Getting somewhere in Bangkok means you look at your option, look at the circumstances and puzzle your trip together. Or just give in to whatever happens to you and take a taxi.

New Years Eve

Wednesday, 3 Jan 2007 | Journal

By now, most of you will have heard about the New Years Eve bombings here in Bangkok. In the early evening, Bangkok was shook up by a series of explosions. One was about 5 minutes from my home, the rest elsewhere around the city. Confusion abound and the governor of Bangkok called off all public festivities, including the big celebration at Central World Plaza where tens of thousands of people were gathering. A good thing too, because the last bomb exploded right there at midnight. Heavy speculation in the press and on the street about who did it, most have them being linked to the ongoing unrest in the south as well as to those unsatisfied with the new regime. But as far as I know there is nothing clear just yet.

I had long been wondering where to go for New Years Eve, going back and forth between celebrating the new year with all the other Thai at Central World Plaza or going to a ritzy, glitzy party at State Tower. I ended up opting for the latter, which was a good choice - as I was getting dressed up for it, the party at Central World Plaza got cancelled. Security was immediately beefed up at State Tower by the way, security guards checking the bottom and trunk of each car and taxi entering the driveway and ID checks at the entrance.

You’re right, the Thai have a different calendar and their new year starts mid April every year. What is weird is that even though they celebrate Songkran (new year) in a few months from now, they already start using the new year on the same day we start using 2007. So it’s January 3rd, 2550. Regardless, our New Year is a big thing here too and one is wished sawadii pimai by all and sundry.

The Dome is a a group of high-end restaurants and cocktail lounges on the top floors of one of the Bangkok highrises, State Tower. I love going there for the incredible view of Bangkok, ‘distil’ on the 64th floor being my favorite hangout. The reservations desk suggested I go to ‘breeze’ for the New Years Eve celebrations, because it would sport a much better view of the fireworks.

And so I found myself in the elevator gliding up to the 52nd floor. All dressed up I joined the crowd at the outdoor bar. While the place itself is not as gorgeous as Sirocco (11 floors up), the view was indeed the best to be had at The Dome for this night. At my feet were all the great hotels of Bangkok, which is where the action would be later. Before going outside, I sat down for an espresso (ofcourse) that was ok. Later I walked over the skybridge to the outside area, the colors in the floor lighting under my feet gradually changing from a warm red to a deep blue. Once at the bar, I tried the ‘Apple Mojito’ non-alcoholic cocktail. It tasted somewhat like a dressed up lemon icetea and is not recommended at all. The crowd, consisting of both westerners (I even met two dutch guys there on holiday!) and Thai, was demure and pleasant. The odd individual excluded, everybody looked spectacular. No countdown at midnight, which I always find a shame because all of a sudden people are going “… oh wait … it’s … huh? already? … ok, HAPPY NEW YEAR!” … but we quickly gathered on one side of the patio to watch the fireworks.

It turns out fireworks at new year is not as big here as they are in Amsterdam, as I was checking the horizon there was the occasional spot of light but not nearly as much as I’m used to. That was all made up for what was going on right in front of me though - the expensive hotels lining the riverside near the Sathorn bridge organised (or at least sponsored) a spectacular display of fireworks of which I had an absolutely stunning view. I put up a 33 second clip (MPEG-4, 4MB; see note below) for your viewing pleasure, to give you an idea of what it was like. Ofcourse, the best fireworks came when I had my camera turned off. But it’s still worth a look.

Nonetheless, if I find myself in Bangkok next year at New Years Eve, rest assured I will return to this very spot!

Note: There seems to be some problem in the combination of not sufficiently configured web servers and the Safari web browser. If you’re getting gibberish after clicking the video link above, try right-clicking and saving the file to your harddisk first. The video is worth the hassle if you ask me. I’ll try to fix this on my new server. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Sawadii Pimai!

Tuesday, 2 Jan 2007 | Journal

To all of you, your families and your friends -

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

One of my resolutions for the new year is to put some life back into sixtysix. The last couple of months has seen only a handful of articles, a far cry from the average of a new article every 2-3 days I’ve been writing over the last year and a half. Writing sixtysix is something I really enjoy, but due to the one-way nature of it (I write, you read) it sometimes takes a lot of self-motivation to keep going. Not being able to find this motivation, I simply did not make the time to write anything. But the new year brings a new start!

Watch this space.