tbaroundtheworld

As I was heading out of the hotel last night for a walk and a little fresh air, I met one of my pals going out to do the same thing. The hotel manager was waving her arms and talking about the gym and offering to show him the benefits of the place but I interceded and offered to take a spin on the jogging trail. It was getting dark and pretty wet so we cut the adventure short. Besides the waning light, the trails were so overgrown that I really had a hard time figuring out where I’d been before when it dawned on me that I was here last in March, before the all-consuming Irish vegetation reclaimed the open areas. So went back up the hill, walked around the back of the place and went into the pub to get a bit of dinner. I was not eating so I ordered a pint and watched while he consumed a nice looking Irish lamb shank. Judging from his name tag, our waiter's name was Ivan and he spoke as though he was from somewhere in eastern Europe, a not uncommon thing given that many of the hotels...

Preparing for this trip was much harder than usual. These days I have refined my packing strategies to the point where I have several decent approaches depending on the length of my trip. This has cost me dearly in the acquisition of many different suitcases but has offered such a banquet of options; it may be getting to where it’s just too hard to decide. In the early days of my world travel, I purchased a nice sized duffle-like roll-around bag from Eagle Creek in what has since become my signature color – tree frog green. It was ideal for a 2-3 day international trip as I had the option of carrying it on or checking it if I didn’t feel like lugging it through the various airports on my itinerary. Accompanying it was a very nice over the shoulder bag from Tom Bihn, again in tree frog. Between the two I was able to go just about anywhere and bring anything. As my trips got longer, I added another bigger bag to the family allowing me to travel in the 10 day range. When the trips became ...

The remainder of my trip was classically United Airlines. It's funny, I had three good legs in a row this week, and I rewarded them by filling out positive surveys on line. But this one managed to wash it all away, having ended up 1 hour late on a 50 minute flight. Yes, I know I am a picky traveler, but sometimes I wish they would come into the gate area and announce, "Is there an efficiency expert in the lounge?" I left my breakfast spot and headed down to the gate, discovering along the way that it had been changed. No big deal, I just walked on. Arriving there I saw all the appropriate Albuquerque information up on on the board, as expected as we were about 20 minutes prior to the planned boarding time. But something wasn't right, the gate agents were agitated and using a "tone" with people coming up to the podium with questions. In a moment it became clear - they were planning to load a plane to San Jose from this gate, despite nothing posted to that pla...

A few months ago I signed up for a product that allows me to cut past security lines in certain airports. It's an identification card that stores a scan of your retinas and your fingerprints that gate agents use to know you are who you say you are. I've used it in San Francisco on once occasion, and SFO was the reason I was willing to pay $100 a year given their abysmal security set up. It's hard to believe that in all the years since the security processes changed, that SFO still thinks it's okay to operate on a bunch of folding tables. Even Albuquerque went ahead and built a modern security center. In SFO, you enter via a different line and you're checked and plugged into a shorter bag check line. It's approximately the same here in Denver, where I tried it for the first time this morning, except that once your fingerprints are checked, and the Clear Valet had grabbed your bins of stuff, you are directed over to the regular line where the Valet asks some poor ...

We returned home to our beloved 75 degrees and 20% humidity and I genuinely enjoyed it for the 4 days I was there. Besides the contrast in time zones, this jetting back and forth between the jungle and the desert exacts its price as well. The next trip on the agenda was domestic and pretty short so I was in a reasonably good mood heading out the door on Monday. While I whine about having to leave at the crack of dawn for international travel, leaving later in the day exposes one to traveling with the amateurs. You know, Marjorie heading down to Roswell for Cousin Joey’s gall bladder operation. The people who don’t know the rules of the road make it difficult for the rest of us. Particularly the rest of us who have short fuses and no tolerance for anything innocent yet annoying. Like the women who continue to gab right up to the TSA agent before digging through their 58 gallon macramé handbag for their identification. And the guy who sends his boarding pass through the x-ray machine. Or...

This was a COD (crack of dawn) travel day, rising at 5:30 and out of the hotel by 6:00. A few things drive this kind of rigor among them a big unknown on checking out of the hotel (efficiency ranging from mechanical precision to pudding-like lameness), traffic jams due to overturned 3-wheeled motor-powered vegetable carts and the biggest variable of all – what’s happening at the airport. Check-out was not that bad, a manager presented himself and allowed me to circumvent the line. The drive in was quick, probably due to the 3-wheeled vegetable cart carrying four men down the fast lane on the highway remaining upright. After a brief discussion with the taxi driver about where to stop, we decided on the single International door and went on in. After a swab of the bags and approval from the bomb-smelling system, we headed towards the counter. Here, the primary variable kicked in. China Southern had one counter open and it was stocked very deeply, not so much with people but with dozens o...

Last night we decided to go out for a romantic dinner at Barolo, a nice little restaurant in the hills overlooking the city. I have been there a few times in the past, the last visit being notable as the cab driver could not locate it. A couple of blogs ago I told the tale of having to marshal my best Chinese in order to recover from our lost condition. As it turned out, lightning does strike twice. We stepped out into the humid evening to get a cab, but for some reason there was no doorman. I stood and looked and waited and he just wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Very strange, considering the bustle that is normal for the main entrance. Eventually he appeared from a dark spot down by the main street. Seeing us, he summoned a cab up from the queue. I had two cards, one from the restaurant itself and one from a binder full of locations provided by our relocation company. I didn’t like the restaurant card because it seemed to lack the complete address in comparison to the other. The first ca...

Saturday was house hunting day in preparation for my scheduled move in November. We had a long list of stops and so we rolled out of the Shangri La at 9:00 with Maria, our handler and her driver. Like every other day here it was threatening to be sunny but coming up short due to the haze. The daily color of the sky in Dalian makes me wonder how they get those glorious blue skies that serve as a background in every promotional video and photography layout. Either it’s a whole load of Photoshop or they have video crews on 24 hour standby whenever it happens to be clear. Probably a combination of both. Based on the commute time, I narrowed my hunting zone to within 20 or so minutes of work. A long time ago I lived on Long Island and I spent at least 1 hour twice a day commuting. I swore I would never do it again, and since that time (more than 20 years) I haven’t. In my business it pays to be close, because sometimes the call comes at 1 AM and it pays to be close to work. I won’t go too f...

We had a very long layover in Seoul – about 6 hours – and spent it mostly sitting around waiting for it to end. Since we had no boarding pass for our flight to China, we had to find the Transfer Desk and did so near Gate 114 in the International Terminal. I decided to go and check about getting the tickets, knowing full well that we would have to come back as they always have specific check-in periods, generally about 2 hours before departure. This varies from the standard US approach of being able to check in whenever you happen to show up at the airport. I asked the young woman who happened to have a big pink puffy thing on the back of her head, sort of like a bedroom slipper, what time we could get our pass. She asked our names and when I gave them she smiled and said, “Oh, you must be from New Mexico.” I was so stunned by that response that I made her show me the piece of paper she was holding and sure enough there were our names and our original departure gates. I’m not often rend...

This was the second time I have taken the Seoul route instead of my regular path via Shanghai. And based on my recent experience with the normal way of getting to Dalian, I was hoping to break my string of delays and cancellations. I did, with an on-time departure flashing in the face of the oh, too regular update on the departure board of “US857 to Shanghai – Delayed.” This was my first time in Economy Plus in many, many trips and I had forgotten just what you give up by not flying in Business. Actually, while the difference in service levels is huge, the way you feel getting off a 12 hour flight is not so much better than it makes the expense of the better class worthwhile. I like it, but it’s not a life changer. The Business cabin offers one thing in addition to more room and better food, and that is serenity. The regular cabin is just so much more noisy and busy. We had a 2 seat aisle all to ourselves which was nice, as it meant we had complete control of all the comings and goings...

This is the first time I've taken the long haul with my lovely wife, and the differences are immediately noticeable. First of all, it's never a nice thing to get up at 4 AM for that 6 AM flight, get ready and drive off into the dark by yourself. It just feels lonely. Having someone else is the car is so much nicer even though it means you have caused them the extreme penalty of getting up after 3 hours of sleep. Secondly, that sense of bleak desolation you get by showing up at the neon light airport and communing with the other zombies is far less pronounced. In fact, I didn't feel bleakly desolate at all. We got there, I got to stand by while my lovely wife and the gate agent made fun of the condition of my passport, we went through security and then spent the remaining 45 minutes people watching as only an old married couple can do. People watching with the boys is not the same. Our flight over was the same as it ever is on the little Barbie Jet, so much so that I wonder ...