Shanghai Surprise - Swiss Bliss

The Alps at dawn.

Zurich loves Toblerone, two and three...

The weather was lovely, that day.

I thought i might find my brother Josh in here.

Definitly not behind this door.

I thought I was at a Red Cross convention.

The view from my hotel room.

Sorry for not posting lately - I've been soooo busy. Here is one I wrote but hadnt put up:



Last week I spent Sunday night on a redeye to Shanghai. After a restless, short snooze I arrived, claimed my bag and looked for the driver who was to take me on the two hour ride to Suzhou for a meeting. No driver, no "Mr. Gimbel" sign. I was only supposed to be there for a few hours and was on a tight schedule. I made a few calls, to no avail. Some sharp taxi hawker saw my apparent confusion and distress and asked me where I needed to go. I said - Suzhou and he said, no problem. I'll get you a taxi for 800 rmb (about $100 US). Sounded reasonable so I went for it. first I had to get some cash. I only had about 200 rmb, some Euros and some Singapore dollars. When I cashed them all in I had just over 800 rmb. I was saving the Euros for the Swiss leg of my trip but it turns out that Switzerland doesn't use Euros anyway. They have stuck to the Swiss Franc as all the other old European currencies are long gone. I was hopeful that my non-English speaking driver knew how to get there and knew where to get me to once there.

He confidently zipped out onto the highway and headed in the right direction (I have been there so I kind of knew). About an hour into the ride he pulled off the highway into an urban area that I knew was not Suzhou. He stopped at the side of the road and got ready to get out of the car. I asked him why he was stopping and pointed at my watch. He knew I wasn't happy but really had no clue what I was saying. He ran into a store and pooped back out and into the car. He handed me too cold cans of "Fire" brand iced coffee and headed back to the highway. A nice gesture and the coffee was welcome and needed. We finally pulled off onto the right exit and I could tell he had no idea where the Shangri-La hotel was. There was a country type guy standing by the roadside and my man stopped and gestured to the guy to come to the car. They exchanged a few words and country guy got into the passenger seat. He turned to me a smiled and said something (not hello, because I do know that word). Off we went again and five minutes later we were at the front door of the Shangri-La.

The hotel manager apologized for screwing up profusely. They said that my car back to the airport would be on them. big deal, I said, it's a business trip so I'm expencing it anyway. This did not resonate with them. I did my meeting and headed back to Shanghai in their Mercedes sedan. I must say in retrospect I much preferred the taxi adventure on the way in.


Once back at Shanghai airport, with some time to kill before my flight, I stopped by what I have found to be the best in-airport foot massage place in Asia. (OK, it's the only one I know of). Off in a corner somewhere is a massage place with nice little uniformed attendants who offer the range of foot massage and grooming options. They have drink menus, facial menus, manicure/pedicure options and more. I go for the plain old soak and 45 minute foot massage. It was very nice and got my feet and my body ready for the next red eye to Zurich.

I was briefly in Geneva about 100 years ago, this was my first time in the Alpen land since then. While the plane started to descend as the sun rose on Tuesday morning I saw the snow peaks of the alps poking through the clouds. It was a delightful site after spending so much time in the flat, hot tropics.

The fog was so thick on the ground that the pilot missed the gate and had to be led in. Once off the plane I breathed a breath of cool, fresh, dry air. The efficient train (complete with cow bells and mooing sounds) whisked me to the terminal. I arrived at the hotel in the center of the city just as people were starting to wake up. My room wasn't ready so I pouted in the lobby. After the feisty crew of a United Airlines flight got their rooms I was given my key.

A shower, shave and change of underwear was great for my energy and my spirits. It was a great sunny fall day and our afternoon was devoted to a Zurich Scavenger Hunt. It was so nice walking around the city for 3 hours looking for landmarks and asking the locals questions. I learned about the city (pretty small), it's history (pretty old) and it's people (not as cold and aloof as I had figured they would be). Also sampled the famous chocolates and the not so famous, but very welcomed, beer.

The food was also good. Western type stuff with nice meats and soups. Our new headquarters building is almost finished and it is one of those "smart buildings". I'm not sure how smart it is. During our meetings the blinds kept going up, going down, opening and closing and the lights went off and on for no apparent reason. I half expected the doors to lock up when I tried to leave. Luckily I outsmarted the building by going out a side door.

Soon my trip to the the White Cross land was at an end. I took another red eye home but this time I was lucky to be on a plane with totally flat beds in business class. Thank god for Singapore Airlines. If I were doing this kind of travel in the US I would have either quit or dropped dead by now.....

Taiwan-Typhoon

Things started to get a little dicey.
This guy probably should have stayed in.

The wind whipped things up pretty well.
After the storm, still soggy.
World's tallest building, or.....
....stack of Chinese take out containers?
Enter the Dragon.

Mmmm, a stone that looks like meat.
The famous jadeite cabbage. Everyone should have one.

Nothing like a little typhoon to shake things up.

Last week I was in Taipei for business and Sophia joined me for the weekend. Little did we know that Taipei was on the path of the very powerful typhoon Krosa. (http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s2052727.htm) While it cramped our style a little it was still a pretty decent trip.

On Thursday I was to attend a lunch meeting with some high level Taiwan government officials and a delegation of multi-national companies. The issue was trade with China. I walked into the meeting room in very dull 50s era office building. In the room was a huge table with places for about 30 people. 20 of the places were marked with Chinese name plates and on the table were nice boxed lunches with noodles, chicken, veggies and chopsticks as well as a cup of tea. At the other 10 places were McDonald's bags and a large McDonald's Coke! I wonder where I was supposed to sit?

On Friday we visited the Taiwan Palace Museum. http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s2052727.htm Rated as one of the top 5 museums in the world. Built on a hillside to look like a Buddhist Monastery the buildings were quite impressive. Lot's of wonderful artifacts form Asia dating back 5000 years. Most of the treasure come from mainland China. Of course there is beautiful bronze work, exotic paintings on long scrolls, intricate carvings from the collections of Emperors and bold calligraphy. two of the most well known items on display were the jadeite cabbage and the pork meat stone. Both pieces were fascinating. We had to fight the crowds and tours. We find in Asia people are pretty aggressive at getting to where they want to be. One minute I might be looking at the cabbage and the next minute a tour group walks in and basically muscles their way in front of me pushing me to the back of the room. They take a quick look, hear a few words from their guide and then quickly move on to the next item on the tour.

Saturday was typhoon day. The reports kept coming in and the typhoon kept heading our way. We had to take a taxi to a drugstore to pick up a few things. The wind was really blowing, rain was falling, trees were bent over and parked motor scooters kept toppling over. We made it back safely and watched the brunt of the storm hit from the lobby or the Club Room on the 22nd floor of the Hyatt. It was funny to see the few bold doormen in front of the hotel in their bellhop uniforms along with motorcycle helmets.

That night we sipped champagne, listened to the wind and watched a movie. I guess if you have to be stuck in a typhoon, a suite on the Club level of the Hyatt isn't the worst place to be.......