Ah, Travel

Well, It's been a "fun" week. I left Boise Sunday at 12:30pm, arrived in Singapore at 2:30am Tuesday morning. Made it to my hotel by about 3:45, asleep by 4. Woke up at 7, got to work about 8. Went to eat with my boss and a nice Japanese restaurant.

Wednesday, had a meeting at 7:30, went to lunch with some of the guys from Singapore at a nice authentic place. I had the mutton curry, wasn't bad. I find it interesting that they don't do refills though. Interesting doesn't mean good. They seem to think that drinking more than 8oz of anything at a time is wasteful.

That night I ordered room service for my first time.

Singapore drives on the left side of the street (they were a British acquisition until just after WWI I believe). Their infrastructure is British as well (weird outlets).

It's incredibly green. Lots of plants. I ate a dragon fruit at breakfast, white with black spots (looks sort of like choc chip ice cream). Everything is very controlled and orderly. The government is really into taxing things. For example, they have an electronic payment system in the car for toll roads. Similar to some places in the US, except that pretty much all roads are toll roads.

My boss, the first time he was driving home, got stuck on a roundabout. He kept taking the wrong exit. He spend $30 before making it home that night.

The prices change depending on traffic. One of the taxi drivers let me know that at rush hour, they really hit you hard, no matter which way you go. Weather? Pretty much 90% humidity and 90 degrees every day. It does cool off slightly at night (maybe to 80 F).

I flew to Taiwan on Wed morning at 7, arrived about noon. Picked up by a local vendor for a company that also has a site in Boise. Went right to the Nanya Fab (I Would have taken a taxi, but apparently this place is in the middle of nowhere and 85.6% of taxi drivers get lost on the way).

I went to eat that night with a different vendor at a very nice "Shanghai" style restaurant. We had somewhere close to 15 different dishes. Some were pretty good (I don't know if I should admit this, but the tofu noodles with Beef were pretty good). Some were not so good. Some I really, really tried hard not to taste as I swallowed whole. Unfortunately the first dish was some type of congealed fat with little specs of meat in it. Of course, I got the honors of first taste! Yeah!

The next day I spent at one of our partner fabs, although I did go to lunch with another group of vendors. We went to a Thai restaurant, most of it was pretty good. The only interesting item was a fish (they looked up the English word, we believe it was a bass). A whole bass, head, tail etc. They very kindly put a piece on my plate, luckily sans head.

I begged off going to dinner that night. At another meeting though (with other another company) they brought us coffee. As I discretely attempted to leave it on the table as we were leaving, they said "Oh, don't forget your coffee!". I gave it to one of the engineering managers who apparently drinks 5-6 cups a day. He was very grateful.

That night, I decided to try to go to Outback, which was pretty close to my hotel. I looked it up online, and walked out. After about 20min, I realized that I didn't have the mapping skills I thought I did, especially in Taiwanese. I finally went back and asked someone at the hotel. It was about a 7 minute walk after that. And guess what, UNLIMITED REFILLS! good thing, cause man, I was sweating like no one else in the restaurant. The lady helping me was pretty much in shock after my 3rd glass of Coke Zero on out.

The Ceaser salad was great! just like the US. The side dish of mashed potatoes was about the size of the scope of butter they give you with the bread in the US. The steak was okay, but not great. I don't think the Taiwanese culture is big on "steak". The steaks were all "thin cut", not really seared on the outside.

Anyway, time to get ready to board the plane (I'm in the Tokoyo airport currently). I'll put some pictures on later.

Asleep, asleep

Ah, bedtime at last. Long day at work, chance to talk to Suzy finally, tell each other about our days. What's that? Oh, Hi Kate and Faith (who had been put to bed at least 5 minutes previously).
Kate, "Faith pinched me."
Suzy, "Really? She must have really long arms." (They sleep in bunk beds)
Kate, "Nooooooo, she doesn't"
Suzy, "How did she pinch you then?"
Kate, "I was in her bed (then in one quick breath) But she was in my bed before"

Okay, we get that issue resolved.

10 seconds later, Kate crying hard -
"I ran into the wall and bit my tongue"

Okay, we get that issue resolved.

30 seconds later, Faith, crying.
"I got this stuck in my hair" [curler]
Suzy, "Why is it wet"?
Faith, "I got it wet"

Don't you love putting the kids to bed? Especially since they let us get so much practice.

Suzy went out, luckily. The faucet upstairs was on full bore. Both girls in bed.

Batting

Faith today while getting ready for church, "My eyelashes are pretty when I flap them."