Asia Grand Tour

So, I've been traveling now for about a week and thought I'd give an update on what I've seen and where I've been including pictures.  My Itinerary:

Sat Feb 8th: Leave Boise at 8am, Arrive in Singapore Sun Feb 9th at 11:50pm.  This didn't work, the flight was delayed out of Boise due to the flight crew needing to sleep after what I assume was a night of hard partying. I got to San Francisco late, which made me miss my flight to Tokyo Japan. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise since it turns out it was snowing in Japan and they had shut down a bunch if not all of the flights. A bunch of the Micron travelers got stuck in Japan for 1-2 days, many without hotels (having to sleep in the airport).  I ended up getting a flight out on Sunday at 11am instead of Saturday at 11am, so I didn't arrive until Tues Morning about 1 am. 

Feb 11th Tuesday: 9am - arrive at one of the Singapore fabs and have a full agenda. We finished about 6pm, I was pretty jet-lagged and tired at this point, but didn't want to miss out on my Fav restaurant (The Steakhouse). Also knowing I needed to convert my schedule anyway, I ate dinner and went to bed about 9pm (after a conference call at 8pm).  Of course I woke up around 2am, I took an Advil PM and fell back asleep pretty quickly. 

Feb 12th Wed: I had a conf call at 7am, so I called into that, said my bit and then left for F13 where I could meet with some of my team members. I then headed for the airport to fly to Taiwan. I landed about 5pm, got to my Hotel about 7, ordered room service for dinner. There were 3 choices, 2 Asian dishes and a cheeseburger. That should be pretty safe, right?  WRONG! It was the worst burger I've ever had. I ate two bites and then left the rest. They had a bunch of lettuce and Tomato on the side, covered in Mustard. Why would you cover it in Mustard? The Fries were good so I ate those. The salad was weird and had raisins. 

Feb 13th Thurs: Breakfast was very good, I do like the Taiwan breakfast buffets! headed to Inotera with Li Xin (one of my team members). We met with the Inotera team for most of the day, went to lunch with Kevin Tzou one of the RDA Managers to a Japanese Sushi place. They had some beef that was quite tasty.  about 4:30pm we left for Taichung, another city in Taiwan. We arrived about 7pm and went to our Hotels (he was at a different Hotel).

Feb 14th Friday: Stayed at Hotel One, BEST FOOD EVER IN TAIWAN! seriously, I was soooooo impressed. Dinner was great, breakfast was great.  Wish I would have stayed one more night here. Happy Valentines day! Had a wonderfully sweet card in my luggage from Suzy I opened. She's so nice to me, even when I'm away.  Headed to F16 for the first time ever (new fab we just bought from another company). I got a ride from Hongchen, who is a Singapore Micron Employee who is on assignment there for 1 year.  He drove Li Xin and I to F16 where we met with a bunch of people, quite a few Micron folks are there helping with the Integration. Took a Taxi to Taipei.  It cost 3000 NTD (New Taiwan Dollars), which was about $100 US.  Stayed at the Grand Hyatt, which is a beautifully appointed hotel. You'll see some pictures later of the Lobby. 

Feb 15th Sat: Went to Chili's for lunch/dinner! it was delicious! I also walked around a bunch and took some pictures of the interesting Architecture which you'll see below. 

Feb 16th Sun, My flight out wasn't until 4pm, so I thought I'd try to go to Church. I looked up a location, which was about 2 miles away and decided to walk. I got there in good time, except for one problem. The place It said that there was a ward had nothing that closely resembled anything like a church. It also didn't have any people go in that looked like they were going to church. I waited around for about 20 minutes and then walked back. I stopped at McDonald's for breakfast, which was delicious. However, there were some language Barriers to overcome. I thought I ordered an Egg McMuffin Meal, an extra Egg McMuffin and an order of hotcakes.  I got: 2 Egg McMuffins, 3 Hashbrowns, 3 Diet Cokes and 2 orders of Hotcakes.  what the heck! It only came to 280 NTD (less than $10) so I had no clue from the total what I was getting. Oh Well, I left some of it on the counter and just left. There was a Krispie Kreme close by on the way back to my hotel, and they had a big old line! Who knew! Headed to the airport at noon. Saw a bunch of Micron folks on the flight (about 12 or so that I knew). We arrived in Japan, and I was with a couple of OCT (my department) members who helped me get on the right bus to my Hotel in Hiroshima (Sheraton, not to bad).

Feb 17th Mon: We are car pooling to the Micron site (F15). Very nice of them to give us rides (about 30-40 Minutes).  Started the summit, very busy! Ate dinner at a local Japanese place, you'll see some fun pictures below.  

Feb 18th Tues: More summit stuff, how fun. Also, this is when I'm writing, more meetings, meetings and meetings. 

Model of the F16 Micron Site in Taichung, Taiwan

 View outside my hotel in Linkou (by Taipei)

 They're just finishing up Chinese New Year, This was the display in F16 (Taichung)

 Another view of the F16 Lobby. It was huge, you could play basketball in here.     

 

Large Rhino Statue in Taipei. Outside of a bank, pretty cool. I think we'll have to get one of these for our front yard some day. When we have more room. 

 General view of Taipei and some random buildings.

 They're really into the weird angles on their architecture. You'll notice that as a theme.

This is a view of 101, the tallest building in Taiwan, with, as you may have guess, 101 floors.

Here's me trying the whole selfie craze for my first time. You can see my look of joy as I figure out how to do this. I figure keeping such a happy expression will invite people to interact with me to the exact amount I want. Also, that's 101 in the background.

 This and the next building were right next to each other and both had these rounded facings inset. Seems fun, no?

 This is the other building with the rounded weird part.

 Who doesn't love a blue and white cow to play on in the park! such fun! I don't think anyone was allowed on the grass.

How fun is this! Lots of fun!

 Here is a Mall, I think it was about 6 Stories, and filled with SUPER expensive stores. 

Like a Boss. Apparently a Hugo Boss,which is probably just a bad translation for Huge Boss, meaning I'm an awesome Boss. 

 This guy was randomly waiving the Chinese Flag around and the Antheme was playing so he was saluting. 

Thought this was a cool building, also I wanted to show more of my smiling face.

So, they had some basketball playing! I caught this a few times, it's pretty funny. Each team is composed of a bunch of small Asians and one tall American Black center. They always match up on each other, and are obviously not skilled enough for the NBA.

Here was the Random place I was lead when looking for an LDS Church.

Another view of the place where the GPS lead me.

 Here's the exact spot it lead me.

 Here's a look at my trip back on random roads.

I thought these little setups were quite fun. It almost brought a big smile to my face.

 Here was another of those fun booths. I have no idea what they're for, but this one had rainbows and umbrellas, so I figure my girls will like it.

Here was the line outside of Krispie Kreme.

Me taking a picture of the rest of the line, and also getting all buddy, buddy with whoever the random dude on the sign behind me. Also, you can see my selfie skill level exploding exponentially. 

 Here's the Grand Hyatt Lobby. Ostentatious baby!

 Here's some random Eel from the Japanese restaurant. I didn't eat it.

This food looks Raw. That's because it is Raw. I didn't eat any. 

They devoured this in minutes.

Some of the guys I was with in the restaurant. 

 Here's the menu, yes, it is completely in Japanese. Lest you worry though, I ate nothing but some Edameme and some beef.

 Here's the weather outside in Hiroshima, it does get a it cold.

Here's a view of the Micron Plant off in the distance, you may be able to see it if you enlarge.