Random Observations

My last day in Hong Kong was a rainy one. A 5k run in Victoria Park in the rain was nice - I figured I would get soaked anyway, so why not run?

Thanks to that rain, and not bringing my hiking boots, I wasn't able to hike to Victoria Peak nor did I feel like going to the Stanley market or anywhere else outside. So I looked for a museum. The Museuem of Hong Kong beckoned, and three MTR rides later, there I was.

As musuems go, it was inexpensive ($1.20) and informative. It explained the geological origins of the area, fauna and flora, and early man. The Han, Qing and Ming dynasties, and their impacts on south China, were also presented. But most interesting was recent history - like when the Japanese occupied Hong Kong during the second world war, or the opium wars in the early 1900's, etc.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in the hotel pub enjoying the belgian brews: Leffe on tap, red Chimay and Duval in bottles. The fish tikka marsaka was excellent too. How a Norwegian came to love curry, I don't know.

Before leaving Hong Kong I recorded some random observations, thinking I'd put them in this bog somewhere. I didn't find a place for them, so I'll merely add them here, in haphazard order.

• Toilets have toilet paper and you can flush it, and they use a lot more than 1.6 gallons per flush. Compare that with Mexico.
• Traffic might get heavy, but it is orderly and lane markings are observed.
• Capitalism is alive and well, and consumers spending money like no tomorrow. They had a debt crisis twenty years ago, the government cut spending and taxes, and today China is an economic powerhouse. Compare that with the profligate spending of the US is doing (increasing spending and taxes).
• Hong Konger's expect to pay for what they get, unlike Americans. For example, they feel that those who pay more for school (like property taxes) should get better educations than those who don't. Americans think everyone should get a stellar education, and the rich should pay for it.
• When doing construction, scaffolding is made of bamboo, and there are signs that stuff falls down so walk underneath quickly and don't loiter.
• The MTR (subway system) is very efficient and easy to use.
• Hong Konger's (and many Asians) appear to really like their phones. iPhones are most prevalent; few are unlocked. On the MTR nearly everyone was listening to, playing with, or talking on their phones.

Now back to Indonesia, then finally home.

Gastronomical Adventures

Once again I suspect the client is making sport of seeing what I'll eat. On the other hand, they really seem to enjoy these items too, so I have reason to believe it's more than just an oddity to them.

The other day we went to a traditional Cantonese dim sum restaurant. Dim sum means "small food" - much like a tapas bar, or ordering just appetizers. The idea is that the entire table orders a number of dim sum dishes to share. And why cantonese? Because that's the style of food (non-spicy) which is prevalent in Hong Kong (as opposed to szechuan, which is spicy).

And I wish I had brought a camera. My descriptions will have to suffice - and what else I find online.

So ... what do we start with? Chicken feet.

That's right, the feet. I'm what you're thinking, "There ain't no meat on chicken feet" and that is correct. It is in fact the SKIN and how they are prepared (and eaten) which makes them a delicatessen here. Not to mention that each chicken only has two of them (fortunately there are many chicken here). However they marinate and cook it, is the skin which absorbs all the flavors and traps the goodness within what little is on them. They are not tough and stringy and bony and skinny. They are tender and warm and soft, just like baby back ribs. Put the whole thing in your mouth and the bones in the feet fall apart (and then spit those out). They have a very mild flavor - sort of a toasted sesame/soy mix, not unlike the mild breading we know as General Tso's chicken.

Ok ... moving on. Stomach lining. From a cow. Also known as 'tripe' in many parts of the world. I don't know which of the four stomachs our dish came from. Nor can I find a good picture online - all the links are to honeycomb tripe, but what we had looked more like a smooth white 2-mm thick membrane with little buds (like taste buds) all over it, sliced into diamonds 2x3 cm. It was rubbery that was to chew through (sort of like squid), and had no flavor, so we dipped it into a soy'ish sauce. Other than the texture it wasn't bad.

Next up: swim bladder. Also known as 'fish maw'. That thing which fish use to regulate their bouyancy.

The picture is of the soup - we had it straight up. It is like a gelatinous semi-solid froth, not unlike in texture seafoam. My hosts told me it is good for the complexion, as it made from collagen, i.e. gelatin, which is what Jello is (although Jello is made from cattle hoofs etc). Since the purpose of the bladder is to swell with air or compress, it is very porous and thus soaks up whatever source or soup it is in. It has no flavor and falls apart easily when chewed. Not my favorite item on the menu, but not gross either.

We had a whole bunch of other things too - spiced pork dumplings (in flour) and potstickers (in rice paper), squid spring rolls, and various fried doughs for dessert.

The next day we visited a "hot pot" restaurant, another traditional meal (these photos are from my cell phone .. sorry for the grainyness)

In the middle of the table there is a large but shallow dish sitting on a burner. The dish holds a boiling spiced soup. Into that soup we place the food you see around the table - very think sliced pork or beef, mushrooms, bean curds, salad, corn cobs etc. This cooks in the soup - when it was ready, we take it out and dip it in another sauce and eat it. This was very good - I especially enjoyed the flavors which the soup infused into the food items, and I tailored my sauce with vinegar soy and chili paste for a little zing. Imagine a rural chinese family on a cold day sitting around eating their main meal this way ..

The dessert was ice cream:

The black sesame ice cream was very interesting (it was actually grey) with a light toasted nutty flavor. The green tea ice cream had an intense green tea (even slight bitter to offset the sweetness .. just like beer!) yet very smooth texture. Tofu ice cream? Not good. The only think that made it palatable were copious amounts of powdered chocolate.

More to come .. I'm sure ;-)

Where the hell is it?

To get to my client I can take a taxi and pay $20 each way, or ride the subway and pay $1.20 each way. Even though the client pays, this is a no-brainer. The subway is three blocks from my hotel, I change trains once, then get a shuttle the client provides to take me the last leg. Total time is about 40 minutes.

90% of the population uses public transportation, so unless the client provided transportation from the subway to it's data center, they wouldn't get many people to work there (and there are MANY people who work there). In have, they have lunch shuttles too, which brings employees from the data center to various shopping centers and back. In addition, they have a coffee stand and cafeteria in the data center. Oddly, the coffee stand provides a 33% discount to employees of the client, and they identify employees by those who have badges, and everyone (including visitors) need to get a badge when they enter the facility, so everyone gets the discount. I can't figure out the point of offering a discount if everyone gets a discount - why not just offer lower prices in the first place? When I asked the people here, they said that's because the coffee stand is a business which has other stands around the city, and apparently they can't offer different places different prices - except through discounts.

One morning on my commute I noticed a sign for a "Colorful Pancake" restaurant, and made a note of it to return for dinner. So I did. or I tried. The sign was attached to a building and said "4F" which I implied meant the floor of the building it was on. These buildings (there are many in this cosmopolitan part of town) have 10-30 floors, the first several floors are shopping areas with little independent shops in confusing mazes with weird places for escalators. Imagine getting off an escalator and not being to see where the next escalator is, and the hallways between the shops are maybe ten feet wide. Ok, so I go up the escalator to the building where I think the pancake place is, and am immediately in a frilly girly type of mall. Lots of pink colors, underwear shops, stuffed animal shops, etc and nearly every patron is a young girl or a gaggle of girls or the occasional guy walking behind said girls carrying bags and looking totally bored and they are all walking slow in the narrow hallways ... if you've been the Portland Saturday Market you know how it is .. just more girly and manufactured rather than granola and under-bridgy. But I deal with it - I know I need to get up to the 4th floor so I'm getting off one escalator and looking for the next one gong up and thinking, I think they put the escalators in weird places so you have to walk past all the shops to get anywhere, sort of how small towns run major highways through their shopping areas to get people to see the shops and spend money. And on top of all that I'm really feeling out of place being the giant red-headed freak towering above everyone else in this uterine wonderland. Maybe the pancake place is here for a reason and it's not really what I think it is. I get up to the third floor and am having some trouble finding the escalator to the fourth floor. I just can't find it. I conclude it isn't here and like a hungry rat in a pink maze I get back out on the street (actually a mall - closed to traffic) and see the sign and wonder, maybe there's another entrance (keep in mind I'm a stubborn Norskie).

Ok. Up another set of escalators, same little shopping area but more "normal" and not feminine. Still can't find any way to get to the 4th floor. Where the hell is it? I give up, go outside, and look at the sign again. It's listed with about eight other "thematic" restaurants on floors 4 and up, including a french one which looks interesting (after visiting a french restaurant in Florence, OR I have come to enjoy their focus on sauces). Off in the distance I see a sign for a Ruby Tuesday's and think "well, that would be good, but I'm not in Hong Kong to eat average American cuisine" and think to find the French place. I wal a little further down and note an area with crowds and posters and such which I dismissed as just another entertainment place but then realized ... the lines are for elevators ... aha! I bet those lines go to the restaurants up above! But screw that, I'm not british and don't consider queuing to be a form of recreation and resign myself to Ruby Tuesday's - after all, they usually have good beer if nothing else.

Ruby Tuesday's is in another mall - so I go in there, up the escalators, see more signs that indicate Ruby Tuesday's is on "10F" and proceed to take escalators until I can't get higher than 5th floor. Where the hell is it? Do I need freakin GPS to find dinner? So I unwind my maze stack algorithm and AHA! see some elevators which take me up there. There it is! I find Ruby Tuesday's, I find a small meal, I find an unsatisfying "Victoria Bitter" from Autralia, pass on the giant chocolate cake for dessert (they should take a lesson from Chili's small dessert menus), I leave, and head back to the hotel. Still in the mood for a little chocolate I pop into a 7-Eleven for a fresh-baked brownie and Lo and Behold - they have Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, which we can't get in the states. And it's only $1.30 - one fifth the price of the Victoria Bitter. Well, now I know where to find dessert.

The best part was when the cashier asked if I needed the bottle opened. It is legal (but socially frowned upon) to walk around and drink alcohol.

The brew itself is similar in bitterness and color and aroma as the Guinness we get in bottles in the US, but maltier and more chocolaty. Definitely the best Guinness I've had - and reinforces that the standard US-issue "Guinness Dry Irish Stout" is the lightweight among stouts .. like most things created for mass consumption.

Like old rubber bands

You know how rubber bands get brittle and lose their elasticity over time? Imagine that, but with no flavor other than what's put on it .. in this case, toasted sesame seeds and mustard. That's what jellyfish tastes like.

Grossed out yet? What if I said I had some "thousand year old egg"? They weren't bad either.

This was from lunch, and included other culinary delights such as drunken chicken (i.e. marinated in white wine), pork dumplings, pork fried rice, and sitcky rice desserts. The chinese (cantonese) style here is nothing like the deep fried buffets we call "chinese food" back home.

It turns out that most Hong Kong residents take public transportation - like 90% of them! The subways and busses are jammed full (there are even attendants there to push people into overly full trains), the streets buzz with crowds, and with the world soccer thing going on, people will congregate in areas full of chairs set in front of large screen televisions. Being a redheaded oaf is nice when I can look out across most everyone's heads in a crowd.

Tuesday Twisties then home

A highlight of our trip is Highway 1 from Silver Bay to Ely.

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This twisty bit of tarmac is often regarded as the best piece of pavement in MN. While we have some great roads in the southeast part of the state (like Hwy 60 or 25), and lots of scenic stuff around Lanesboro, Highway 1 has twisties and sweepers that goes for many miles.

It was once again cold when we left Silver Bay, but it wasn't raining. I fact, we made it all the way to Ely without seeing a drop of rain. Some of the corners were moist, and due to the cold (which also compromises traction) we took it easy on Hwy 1.

In Ely we had some places to visit, the first of which was the Boathouse brewpub. We parked the bikes and went in for a brew. They had four on tap - a blueberry blonde (which, like most blueberry brews, didn't taste much like blueberries), a very good hoppy rye and a delicious brown, and a kolsch which didn't elicit much tastebud excitement.

Ely is a gateway for many heading to the Boundary Waters and such there are several outfitters there, which we visited. Also, since the purchasing public here is often captive and in dire need of equipment on short notice, the prices were at MSRP (except at the outlet, which didn't have much). We also made a stop at the Brandenburg gallery, as we had several photographers with us. I'm sort of a philistine when it comes to art, but I have to admit that they had some good stuff in there. And finally lunch at the Chocolate Moose - the others reported the walleye sandwich was excellent, while my own thai chicken sandwich didn't have much thai in it (but as a chicken sandwich, it was excellent). It was sort of wierd to see that they didn't have a cash register, so the waitresses had to dig through their purses to made change. Odd. Good thing I used a debit card.

From Ely we made a beeline for Duluth ... and got soaked. The clouds moved in, the temps went down, and we rode in rain - sometimes light, sometimes hard - all the way to Brett's house. Then had dinner at BW3's before retiring for the evening.

The next day was for getting home. Those of us left rode thorugh Jay Cooke State Park on Hwy 210 which is eight miles of new twisty tarmac. Since the pavement was damp and cold and there are park rangers there we didn't treat like a race track - but it was still very fun. Hwy 23 brought us back to I-35. In a desire to avoid metro traffic, Hwy 95 in North Branch led us to the river, and a lunch stop in Stillwater, before bringing us home.

And that's all for the wettest Walt ride in history.

More Road America photos

This is an old single-cylinder Moto Guzzi fire bike. Note the large and heavy flywheel. The owner started it up, and it ran at just a couple hundred RPM.

Custom sidecar rig. The rider has handholds on the platform to move around to help with weight transfer and changing the center of gravity.

Here's a real gem - a CBX1100. Count them .. six cylinders! I didn't actually see this on the track though.

A more modern Harley Davidson racer.

A Norton - beautifully restored and modified to race.

Monday Monday Monday

Monday we awoke to cloudy skies that held tight to it's moisture. It was still cool though, in the lower 50's.

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That's the road we took to start the day. It was really nice - reasonably smooth pavement, windy, curvy, and gravel in just a couple corners. In places the pavement remained wet and since it was cool we kept our pace down.

Once on 51 we turned left on hwy 2. Fluffy white clouds revealed the blue skies behind and I harbored fantasies of a ride through and around the Apostle Islands peninsula. Alas the clouds dominated the blue skies and threatened rain, so we rode directly to Superior, WI.

First stop was Frankie's leather. The hope was they would have motorcycle boots - perhaps someone else in the group had other ideas. Can't really say that the store held more than knick knacks and pirate costumes the Harley crowd would appreciate.

Next stop was Aerostich in Duluth. Once again we tried on suits for Jennifer and once again her body shape doesn't fit neatly into male-proportioned riding gear. The rest of the team found things like boots and hats and shirts ... and I got a banana protector:

We found a late lunch/early dinner at Lindo's and met up with a friend. Before leaving town we had a little snafu. We're using the "Drop and Sweep" method to ensure nobody gets lost. It entails that the first (leader) and last (sweeper) in a row of bikes always remain the lead and sweep. As we're riding and make a turn, the lead will 'mark' a corner by indicating that the second rider must wait there and indicate to the remaining riders to turn at that corner. When the sweep comes to the corner, the posted rider pulls in front of the sweep. The leader can mark multiple turns like this, as long as there is someone behind him to post at a corner.

This method works very well, as it allows our group to get stretched out over longer distances without having to wait around for all the riders at each intersection. Riders don't have to worry about keeping up or getting lost - they can just ride their own pace, and look for the next posted rider. In towns or congested areas, we don't have to worry about getting through a light, or finding a way to park a group of bikes safely - only one rider needs to be posted.

We originally learned about this from the ST1100 group we occasionally ride with, and they have used it successfully to group 15-20 riders through large cities like London or back roads in West Virginia or Tennessee (with many turns). Our groups were stretched out over many miles. For example, one time in West Virginia, a member of our group directly behind me crashed (he's ok). The leader didn't know about the crash (nor did I) so we kept riding and I was posted. There I was, in the 95F sun, sitting and waiting for about 30 minutes with no riders to guide. Eventually the leader came back - he had kept riding and posted two more riders, then ran out of riders. Figuring something was wrong, he backtracked, picking up the posts and we went back to the accident site.

That's how it's supposed to work. But when a posted rider leaves his post, then things get screwed up. Bill crashed on last year's Walt Rider. As I was leading, I didn't know this and kept riding and dropped off two new posts until I sat there and waited ... then grew impatient and backtracked. I picked up the most recent post, put the post prior had also grown tired of waiting and left HIS post! Since I was looking for him, I rode right past where was posted, and thus our group got split up. It took us 15-20 minutes to figure out our route and then by chance we found the rest of the group.

The other way this can fail is if a rider in the middle of the group decides to take a shortcut. This happened in Duluth. We were in traffic downtown and got separated. Rather than continue on the road we were on, the local rider (in the second group) decided to take a shortcut instead of continuing on the road we were on. When he took the shortcut, he took the rest of the riders with him, and bypassed our group down the road waiting for them. We did eventually pull off the road and make a phone call to get reconnected - but this illustrates that when using the Drop and Sweep method, every rider has to stay on the routes provided. Consider what would have happened if, instead waiting as a group, we had posted some riders. These posts would never have seen the sweep (as the sweep followed the errant rider) and would have been sitting and waiting for a long time.

Anyway .. we did finally get away from Minnesota's worst road surfaces (in Duluth) and rode north to Two Harbors then Silver Bay. It didn't rain and we even saw from blue sky. That evening we convened in a hotel room with beer, bourbon, pizza and an HBO movie.

Sorry about the lack of photos from this point on .. there wasn't much to take photos of.

Sunday. Nice day. Wet day.

Sunday morning brought out fresh eggs, fruit and additional hospitality from Mark and Linda. Once again it was a slow start, but it was sort of nice since the temps were low and it was overcast and foggy. We took our time in packing the bikes and doing other sundry things.

Among those sundry things was looking at Neal's yellow Ducati 749. His time was limited and he was gearing up to head home, and asked about tightening his chain, which was EXTREMELY loose. His complaint was that he tightened it, rotated the wheel (and the chain with it) and it was too loose in another spot. That's a sign the chain has tight spots and is worn, so we did the ol' "pull the chain off the sprocket" test and managed to pull it a good 1/2 inch off the sprocket. That's not good. Even notter gooder were 5-7 broken teeth on the sprocket. It was REALLY bad, and on a Sunday too, with the closest Ducati dealer in Minneapolis, there wasn't much to do, but ride on home with a credit card at the ready.

Around 11am we hit the road and had to make a big loop due to bridge construction. I'll spare the details .. the roads were pretty good (like Olden Road) but there isn't a whole lot of windy stuff in these areas. It remained dry until about 3pm when the rain started. It never got as bad as Friday, but it put a damper on things, especially when we got into some awesome roads after Eagle River.

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In the evening we arrived at the Timberline Inn in Eagle River, thanks for Mark's astute navigational skills. Brett from Duluth was there to meet us. The inn was nice, although the owner was surly and the room prices were high (about $100/each). I'm sure the lack of other guests had something to do with it. And the hotel was for sale. And we were admonished to not clean our ATV's with the towels.

The plan for dinner was to ride down to the restaurant where Al Capone had a shoot-out and some movie was filmed (sorry, I'm not a film buff, I don't remember the title. We weren't in the mood to saddle up and ride another 5 miles, and pizza and beer at the Pea Patch was sufficient.

Oh yeah, Neal made it home. When he got on the interstate near Eau Claire the chain was not happy so his wife came out with the truck and hauled him the rest of the way home. Way to go for domestic support staff!

Road America Vintage Races

We spent Saturday at the Road America Vintage Races. I'll let the videos and photos speak for themselves - go check out Photo Bucket link on the right.

A wet start to the 2010 Walt Ride

In the small hours of the morning we woke to the sound of our dreams shattering on the sharp point of reality.

No wait, that was thunder. Thunder? Crap, that means rain and lightning. A quick check of the neenernet revealed the plan: Meet for breakfast at Smokey Row and decide what to do.

Once at Smokey Row we looking at weather patterns and decided to delay our departure several hours, letting the ominous red weather patterns move northeast. Our planned escape from the banality of daily life was to ride down Hwy 61, hit Hwy 33 to Mauston, then aim straight for Fon Du Lac. This route, with a little delay, would put us behind the storm until Mauston, where we would enter its trailing edge then hopefully pierce the front and enter glorious sunshine. Or at least somewhat dry weather.

This would also give Neal a chance to re-start his leg from Minneapolis ... he too saw the precipitation of the universal solvent and adjusted his plans. Considering that he is piloting a fairing-less Ducati 749, we deemed that a wise decision.

After finishing our excellent breakfast paninis, burritos, bottomless cups of coffee and stashing a chocolate oatmeal bar (corner piece - Thanks Eliza!) for later, we resolved to meet at Bill's house in an hour and resume the Walt Ride.

Which we did. The sun was out, Neal arrived, it was 80F and stiflingly humid. So we rode down hwy 61, took an ice cream and restroom break in Winona, went through La Crescent to highway 33. We had decided to most slab it to Fon Du Lac to make good time, but with a little fun along the way. Hwy 33 was that 'fun'. Rather than bore ourselves on I-90, Hwy 33 is a good alternative. With mostly mellow curves int he driftless region of Wisconsin, it added 30 minutes to our trip but much more interesting scenery and riding.

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Dark clouds threatened; Amish buggies loomed; lunch was served at Badger Crossing in Cashton.

Wildcat Mountain State Park provided some of the twistiest roads of the day but the surface was moist so we didn't push it. This road was paved a couple years ago, but it is now showing signs of wear. The worst part was they ha resealed it - so the tar snakes were the same color as the asphalt. The rear tire of my FJR slid several times.

And then the skies opened up. We were piercing the storm front, and it was wet. Very wet. Neal stopped to don rain gear and we rode on, with limited visibility and reduced speeds. At least the temperature stayed in the upper 70's, so those who got wet weren't chilled. Thanks to my Aerostich Roadcrafter, I stayed entirely dry. My boots kept my feet dry, but I did not wear waterproof gloves and thus my hands and digits were soaked. That's ok ... it was warm, and deerskin dries quickly. The FJR's significant weather protection helped too.

The rest of the crew didn't stay as dry. Jenn's upper body was dry, but hands, feet and legs were soaked as she was not wearing anything waterproof on those parts. At the next gas stop she drained the water out of her combat boots and threw her slimey insoles at me .. blech .. Neal's rainsuit kept him somewhat dry except where the jacket and pants joined; Bills Roadcrafter leaked at his crotch. Tim's Darien and pants served him well with minimum leakage (and no fairing on his BMW at all); Rob's 2-pc Roadcrafter let some moisture in too, but he was also on a minimally-faired Kawasaki.

Through the rain with spirits undamaged we got to enjoy Olden Road before arriving at Mark. There to greet us were two cases of New Glarus beer along with Mark, his wife and son. They had returned from Machu Pichu mere hours before - rest assured they had better photos from their trip to Peru than we did from our trip across 'sconny ... ;-)

Tomorrow we go to the races .. and that's for another post!

Psychic Acclimation

Having left Indonesia, flown through Singapore and landed in Amsterdam for my flight to Minneapolis I had a final impression of my time in Indonesia and the people I met there. This impression came as a reflection of returning to my native western culture and being surrounded by Europeans (and their descendants).

This is difficult to explain. Imagine you live in Minnesota and it's a typical winter day, 15-20F, and you fly to Las Vegas for the weekend. You get off the plane, get to your hotel, ditch the coat and pants and don a light shirt and shorts, because it's 65F. Meanwhile the Nevada natives look at you like you're nuts and keep asking "aren't you cold?". Or you fly to Florida in April and bask in 80F and laugh at the guy wearing a down jacket. You know ... temperature acclimation. Then there's what I would call "topographical acclimation" i.e. it became weird to not see moutains on the horizons after living in Oregon for several years.

So imagine "psychic acclimation". You spend enough time in a place vastly different from what you're used to, such that it changes your perspective from which you view the people and places around you. I've experienced this shift a couple times in my life - like when moving to Norway (or back), or settling down in Oregon. These changes were slow and subtle. My travels within the US don't usually last long enough or put me into a vastly different environment to trigger any sort of psychic acclimation.

Yet my trip to Indonesia did, and I didn't realize it until I was on the plane to Amsterdam and reinforced in the Schipol airport. My very first inkling that I was looking at people differently was very superficial ... people just didn't look "right". They were pasty, wrinkly, unhappy. They looked unhealthy and most were overweight. They didn't fit into their environment (Europeans in Amsterdam, remember!). Or their seats. When I arrived in Minneapolis and walked through the airport, these impressions where magnified further.

How are Indonesians different? They're happy, helpful, generous. They have bright smiles where westerners have scowls. They respond positively to nearly every interaction - even when we have no common language and have to find someone to translate (or just persevere). When I ask questions about something that I see, they're more than happy to share an answer, and never seem bothered. Maybe they're really good at faking it and I don't know them enough to detect that - to me they were genuine.

This is so very different than interacting with Norwegians whenever I'm back in the "old country". They'll complain about something the US is doing and expect me to defend our policies, as if because I live in the US I must therefore endorse the support of Isreal, explain why Florida is so crappy and why Americans wear baseball caps and tennis shoes and are so fat. By contrast, the Indonesian's would rather ask questions about the US, our people, the way we view the world. They want to visit. They don't view the US as a competitor, but as a partner.

This experience has been sort of brewing in the back of my head until I decided to sit down and put it into my blog here. If you're an engineer you know simply explaining something to a brick wall (or me, if it makes any difference) forces us to describe, analyze, organize and classify in different ways which is often all we need to loosen a mental knot and solve the problem at hand - or understand what we are seeing and experiencing. And that's what I'm doing now. Even if you get nothing from my blog, or this post in particular, I'm figuring out stuff about myself. I may not even publish this introspection.

Having realized that the people and environment I'm seeing haven't changed, it must be that I have changed ever so little. The way I was seeing things was a reflection back upon my impressions of Indonesia, the people and their culture; an impression that wasn't readily apparent while I was there. I'm not talking about some oriental mysticism baffling an occidental traveler (I'm still agnostic and sceptical of non-observable claims of spirituality) - I hope I'm not THAT cliche'd.

I'm not even sure what I've figured out yet. I think all I can say is that, somehow, the warmth and generosity of the Indonesian's have left some sort of (hopefully) lasting impression on me.

Enough psycho-babble .. time to get outside and enjoy the sun.

Transportation

You knew this post was comming, didn't you?

Getting around in Jakarta means, for me, taking taxi's. Taxi between the hotel and the client is about $2 and takes 15 minutes. But getting a cab from the hotel means waiting for someone to arrive by taxi, can take some time. There are limo's (Mercedes sedans) parked at the hotel ready to go. One day I got tired of waiting for a cab and asked about the limo ... $4 to get to the client. WTF why am I waffling over $2 !?!? So limo it is to the client, and taxi back in the afternoon.

In Yogyakarta we rented a car (really an SUV/Minivan mix) for two days for $60 which included a driver. Turns out the driver gets about $8 of that .. so we tipped generously and tripled his income.

Most of the vehicles on the road are mopeds and scooters. Of the remaining, many are cabs, and then there are busses trucks and private vehicles. Public busses look like death traps and there's ususally someone standing in the open doorway. Near tourist attractions there are bicycle-rickshaws.

Scooters are VERY common here. Most have only the driver, many have a passenger. Frequently the passenger is is just perched on back, texting or reading instead of paying attention. Sometimes they have a child squeezed between them ... the most extreme had FIVE people on board: adult driver and passenger and three children. An infant/toddler sandwiched between the adults, one young school-age children standing between the father's legs (remember, this is a scooter) and another young'un hanging onto the back of the back. I wish I had that one tape!

At least I got an example of an overloaded scooter:

Lane markings are suggestions, even the center stripe. I'm not sure I would call it lanesplitting .. there are no lanes to split! Note how passing mopeds means simply moving partially into the next lane, with the expectation that oncomming traffic (even around corners) will simply move to the other side of the lane:

Traffic moves smoothly - it never seems to just stop. I think this all works because nobody makes any sudden moves - they just slowly drift left and right. I've noticed that drivers tend to leave space for mopeds, and whomever is in front has right of way - I never see anyone do a head-check. On occasion a car will drift within a few inches of our car, and the driver will blip his horn, and that seems to be enough to slow the approaching vehicle.

And then there are pedestrians. Yesterday, after Isreal stopped some aid ships from running a blockade to Gaza and a skirmish left nine activists dead, there was a protest in the water fountain outside of my hotel. I managed to get the following video of the protesters leaving the fountain, walking through traffic. Note how they just walk right out and vehicles sort of slow and flow around them.

While all of this is occurring, it does not appear that anyone is taking any offense. They just go with the flow. I don't see anyone get angry. Their calm demeanor and awareness of their situation is something that Americans can learn from Indonesians. This is just another example of how crappy American drivers are.

Well that's all for this trip - I'll you posted with new MC trips in the future!

Advertising on my blog

Yes there are ads on this blog now. I would like to track how many viewers I have ... and the only way to do that is by signing up for ads. I doubt there is much money in it.

Here's how you can get rid of them - because if you can see ads here, you will be able to see other peoples ad's. Let's get rid of them too. Go here: http://adblockplus.org and find the one for your browser. This will effectively remove all the advertising from ANY webpages you go to. It works great!

On a different ... just got to Singapore, and am in the airport waiting for my next flight. This is an amazing airport, in how easy it is to get around, its size, and how many different things there are to do. There's a movie theater, networking-gaming lounge, free internet stations, lots of tax-free shopping, and even a fitness center. MSP could learn a lot from this place.

They even do a great job on their flights. It took two hours from Jakarta, and we were served hot towels, full meals and a glass of wine - all in coach. Just like the old days.

See you soon!

Miscellaneous stuff

One of my concerns when planning this trip was my safety and security in general.

Not only is Indonesia listed as a 'Restricted' country by IBM, it has been the target of several terrorist attacks recently. You may recall the Bali bombings about eight years ago, and last year several hotels in Jakarta were bombed. The US State Dept. had an 'advisory' for Indonesia, for example westerners being beaten for wearing shorts that stop above the knee. Several islands are off limits, like Sumatra and Banda Aceh. You may recall Banda Aceh is where the 2003 tsunami did much damage. Today these regions are under Sharia law and are recruiting grounds for extremist islamist ideologies.

Fortunately I have not had any issues. I feel very safe here, but try to stay alert.

In Jakarta, most larger buildings have gates and guards. My hotel, the client (a bank), and the mall next door have this. When the car pulls off the street, security guards open the doors, trunk and sometimes look under the cars with mirrors. When all is OK they open the gate and we pass through. The next level of security is a metal detector and another security guard. The hotel even has a luggage X-ray machine.

The alertness of security various. At the mall and bank they don't really care - doesn't matter what the metal detector does, they let us through without asking any questions. Maybe it's just me, and I look more like a target than a terrorist ...

At the hotel they have always been alert. Last night there was a line to get in, with much activity and paparazzi, people posing for photos. I didn't see anyone I recognized, so figured it was someone local and famous. In the lobby there was a sign for a "High End Luxury Expo". Aha. The Pretty People's Gathering. Mixing with the rich for the 30 seconds it takes me to get through to the elevators.

I suppose this is to be expected when I see a big Mercedes, BMW, Ferrari or Lamborghini parked at the hotel or mall most days. The mall next door is full of pretentious brand name stores like Disney Couture (expensive Mickey Mouse bling), Bose (overpriced stereo stuff), Cartier, Christian Dior, Gucci, Armani, BvLGari, Louis Vutton, Swarovski, Tiffany, etc. To put this into perspective .. the average income for a sales manager in Indo is about $15,000. I'm in the mall daily for food, and note many people walking around but few in the stores. They may just be dining as the food prices are fairly low, even in the high end restaurants.

Well .. my time here is up. For work with the client has been cut short - they decided to use the tape drives for something else for a week or two, and we can't do tape migrations without tape drives. The plan is to return in the near future, and I'm looking forward to coming back.