Beijing 2008

I was lucky to get the chance to go to Beijing early this week to see some actions in the Olympics. This was a corporate hospitality program of which I was selected to participate. So I'd like to think it has something to do with the cigar I celebrated last year.

The visit was only three days short, but the schedule was packed. It started with table tennis on the first day, men's beach volleyball and athletics on the second day, and women's diving on the last day.

I brought along my new Sony Alpha SLR camera, and took a lot of pictures. (Yes, some of them were the cheerleaders from the beach volleyball game.)

Here are some of my observations.

Olympic Lane. To anticipate traffic during Olympics, one lane is dedicated as Olympic lane in some streets and highways. Surprisingly (or not?) people are pretty disciplined in keeping this lane only for the Olympic-related vehicles. I was also told that during this period Beijing implements odd-even license plate number to match with the days; that it was quite bad that some offices allow their employees to go to work during the days they can drive. Hey, it's the Olympics after all.

Supporters. When their countries do not play, most supporters will support the better-looking players. At least that's what I observed during the table tennis matches. Tetyana Sorochynska from Ukraine (was playing against Wenling Tan Monfardini from Italy), for example, received full supports from my Indian colleagues.

Chinese-descendant players. Most table tennis players are Chinese-descendant. Whether they represent France, Italy, Canada, Poland, and more.

Men's beach volleyball. My colleagues made fun of me going to see the men's beach volleyball game. Sure, women's beach volleyball would be perfect. But we were definitely entertained by the cheerleaders (the game was of high quality too!) See, men's beach volleyball isn't that bad.

Athletics. Usain Bolt was damn fast, and he really looks enjoying every single moment. That's the way it is!

Foreigners. The city is full of foreigners. Most are corporate guests from the main sponsors, and the athletes and coaches themselves, of course. I met a Texan, quite arrogant, who comes with the U.S. soccer team. He doesn't like to sightsee (though I met him near the Forbidden Palace), only to drink and boom-boom.

English. More people in Beijing, I believe, are able to speak English. Some information booths are trilingual. Cops can clearly explain where to get cabs. Servers can even explain that the yummy Peking duck was cooked with pork oil. (damn it!)

I uploaded some of the pictures to my flickr and facebook.

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Intersection

Which intersection is this?



Nah. It's not Mampang Prapatan :)

We had a trip to Thailand last week - our first time. We went to Bangkok and visited Dudi and Lisa Hermanto in Pattaya. (Don't worry, we don't randomly visit any bloggers - they're our friends back in the U.S.)

Like I've heard from many people, Bangkok is similar to Jakarta in many ways. That is, Jakarta today, not in the past. The most obvious one is traffic. And the number of motorcycles like the ones in the picture above.

The ability (or the lack of) to speak in English is also somewhat similar. People are mostly extremely polite.

The (what seems to be) sex workers are more visible. I guess, well, they generally look prettier and have longer legs. Though I suspect some are transsexual. (I spent three years schooling in Brawijaya area where Baskom - bakso kumis - and transsexuals popped out after dusk)

Yes, traffic. The home-feeling-factor.


We also stopped by at some warungs.


And tried some fried bugs.

Or not... ;)

And enjoyed the sight of the Reclining Buddha

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On landing and take off

I don't fly often, but I can clearly spot a difference between the practice of the airlines (cabin crews) in the U.S. and Malaysia (and other Asian airlines?) towards turning on mobile phones on (after) landing.

In the U.S., as I observed until 3 years ago, pretty much everyone turns on her cell phones once the airplane touches the ground. And the crew seems to be OK with it. Always.

Here (mostly with Malaysia Airlines and Air Asia), they make it clear that passengers cannot turn their phones on until the engine is turned off. I've seen a cute flight attendant rudely reminded a passenger in one of my Air Asia flights. (She could've done it nicer, but it's an attitude problem, I guess.)

We know that mobile phones can cause electromagnetic interference to airplane devices. I copied a quite comprehensive explanations below from Jamie. She also provides the explanation why we are required to raise the shade and put the seat on vertical position - which is a real pain with Air Asia. (I wonder whether some flight attendants can clearly explain the reasons behind these requirements.)

But the question remains: if we use our phones after the airplane touches the ground, what would be the risk? Will the pilot gets lost and not be able to find the terminal?

Well, on a more serious note, we should comply to the regulation. It's always too late to say "I wish I did that" after an accident happens.


Why do you have to turn of all electronics during take off and landing?

People must not be preoccupied during take-off and landing so that in the event of an emergency, they can clearly hear instructions given by the Flight Attendants.

You are asked not to use any electronic devices, although some may be used after cruising altitude has been reached. Cell phones, wireless computer mouses, etc are banned for the duration of the flight. This is because they pose a risk called electromagnetic interference.

Electromagnetic interference is experienced by all of us on a regular basis. An example of this is if you put a cell phone near the computer, you can hear loud static in the computers speakers every time the phone rings, and the screen may start to shake. This technically should never happen, but the wire to each speaker is acting like an antenna, and it picks up side bands in the audible range. This is not a dire problem -- just a nuisance. But notice how common it is. In an airplane, the same phenomena can cause big trouble.

An airplane contains a number of radios for a variety of tasks. There is a radio that the pilots use to talk to ground control and air traffic control (ATC), a radio that the plane uses to disclose its position to ATC computers, there are radar units used for guidance and weather detection, and so on. All of these radios are transmitting and receiving information at specific frequencies. If someone were to turn on a cell phone, the cell phone would transmit with a great deal of power (up to 3 watts for a single phone). If it happens to create interference that overlaps with radio frequencies the plane is using, then messages between people or computers may be garbled. If one of the wires in the plane has damaged shielding, there is some possibility of the wire picking up the phone's signals just like a computers speakers do. That could create faulty messages between pieces of equipment within the plane. Now imagine what would happen if everyone on the plane were to use electronic devices, and you should be able to fully understand the ban on such devices.


Why on planes take offs and landings you must: open the windows and put the seat on vertical position?

You are asked to raise your shade so that in the event of an accident you can see through the window to help you remain oriented (which way is up, etc.). Because of this, it lets you see what hazards there are outside the plane (fires, debris and such), which would be important during an evacuation. It also serves as a way to let light into the cabin and make it easier for rescuers to see inside.

Upon descent (and also if you are taking off at night) they dim the lights to help your eyes adjust to the darkness, so if anything happens and it goes dark, you're not suddenly blinded while dashing for the exits. It makes the emergency path/exit lights more visible, as these might be the only lights you see in an emergency. As with the shades, it allows you to see outside for orientation, because with the cabin lights burning brightly, the glare would make it impossible.

The seats have to be in upright position for safety reasons. In case of an accident:
*it makes it easier for passengers to exit their seats
*passengers must have easy access to emergency exits (something they wouldn't have if seats are reclined)
*it allows passengers to assume the "crash" position if need be
*reclined seat backs could kill or seriously injure the passenger behind if it should come unbolted, or if the passenger behind it is thrown forward.

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Studying aboard

Ever thought of furthering your education? Forget about the conventional MBA or Ph.D. Try studying aboard (yes aboard, not a typo of abroad) with the Scholar Ship.

What is The Scholar Ship?
The Scholar Ship is a recognized academic program aboard a transformed passenger ship hosting both undergraduate and postgraduate students on semester-long voyages around the world. Participants from diverse cultural backgrounds come together to co-create a transnational learning community that develops their intercultural competence and fosters lifelong friendships.

It offers both undergraduate and postgraduate studies, in areas like International Communication, International Relations, and some more.

What I can't get out of my mind, however, is the fact that there are many ways of communications. Like verbal and non-verbal. And in one semester, students have more than enough time to practice both... and any relations that come with it.

There are tons of examples - and theories, I believe - that prove being together for a period of time may spark something among the participants.

My wife and I, for instance, sort of met in a summer stay program. Or Rob and Amber, from the TV show Survivor, who got married a couple years ago. And all the flings and affairs that happen at work, in business trips, during study exchange programs, and in other "opportunities".

Knowing that these will happen, the program should consider expanding its core and elective courses beyond international communications and relations. Students will surely have a lot from the semester-long practice to analyze during case study discussion.

Two that top my mind are:

• Social psychology, with Interpersonal Relation as the core subject.
• Biology, with concentration in human anatomy.

Submit your application here.

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LCCT, low cost redefined

Some companies really take low cost to the limit. In this case, it's KLIA's LCCT - Low Cost Carrier Terminal.



I wonder why an airport was so overcrowded, chaotic and messy at 5 AM. So bus-terminal-like.

Perhaps there's really a bus terminal somewhere at the back.

After all, the name is Low Cost Carrier Terminal, not Low Cost Air Carrier Terminal. So we should expect any types of carrier at the end of the gates. Bus, cabs, or even becak. And the services that come with it...

And here's how the cost structure is probably like with regards to LCCT and Air Asia:

Standard air fare price

- decent customer service
- knowledgeable airport personnel
+ (more) inefficient passenger flow
- lots of luggage-scanning equipment
+ four times the queue length
- jet bridge
+ umbrellas when it rains

= LCCT air fare

- 10kg baggage
- in-flight food and drinks
- 10cm of leg room

= Air Asia fare

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Making friends with Air Asia

I had my first experience with Air Asia, finally, last weekend. Equipped with all sort of information about flying with Air Asia - good and bad, there I was, checking in at the Low-Cost-Carrier Terminal (LCCT).

(This blog shares (bad) experience flying with Air Asia.)

Interestingly, I went through several scenes that, like it or not, provided the occasions to interact with other passengers.

While I knew that the baggage limit is lower than other airlines (both for checked-in as well as carry-on baggage), I didn't know that some people with overweight baggage would approach passengers with lightweight baggage for 'help'. Two students in front of me were ones of the victims - they ended up carrying one of their bags as a lady insisted their help.

I, too, was approached. Not sure what my position at that time, I asked questions like show me your boarding pass, what do you do, etc., before finally let him 'use' my excess capacity.

Well, not knowing this person and what is in his luggage, I felt it was necessary to stay close to him.

Only to find out that he works in a multi-marketing company.

Shoot!

Luckily, he was not the sales person or the marketer, but rather in the setting up the business structure. Phew...

The other occasion was the boarding process, which was worse than I expected. A total chaos. No line to queue, which is even worse than queuing in Genting. And I hate having my body constantly touched or pushed.

And then the race to the airplane. This is where passengers with children are handicapped.

Finally, the seating process. People can get pretty rude in this process - I saw someone who practically indicated something like "I don't want you to sit next to me, look somewhere else." Rude and unacceptable.

Everyone tries to maximize his position. Hoping to sit next to an empty seat.

This is the same challenge, actually, across all airlines that don't assign seat numbers. The difference is the passengers (that people want to avoid sitting next to). In the U.S., for example, there are more oversize passengers. In Asia, or my experience flying between Malaysia and Indonesia, there are more passengers with strong body odor. Yeah, smell bad.

A friend of mine who frequently travels with Southwest Airlines, one pioneer of low-budget airlines, has a tip on this. When you travel alone and light, and the flight seems to be full, board in the last one-third of the passengers. That way you can pick and choose who you want to sit next to.

As a favor to your neighbor-to-be, make sure you take a shower before going to the airport.

Yes, everyone. Please.

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A visit to Satria Mandala

I finally was able to keep my word to Aroengbinang to visit the Satria Mandala museum, during my mudik last week. It's been at least 20 years since the last time I visited, and nothing looks to have changed. Okay, my memory isn't so great, but the Rp. 2500 entrance fee is probably a good indication.

Aroengbinang's post tells all about the museum, so I only put a picture of Anya and Ben excited to see a real tank (though not as cool as the ones in the Transformers).

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Beetlehouse

I was away for a training the whole last week to Kuala Terengganu, 50 minutes by air North of KL. At a beach resort, away from routine work. Peaceful. Refreshing.

Almost right.

The place was Gem Beach Resort. About 40 minutes outside Kuala Teregganu. Quite a decent place, actually -- with only gym, telephone line, entertainment and water pressure, among few other things, missing.

No complaint about gym - haven't been to one for some time now, despite I'm now totally out of shape. *sigh*

Telephone line was probably more of a bad luck. The line was struck by lightning some nights before I arrived. But again, landline isn't a necessity anymore these days, is it?

Entertainment, in the evening that is, posed a bigger problem. When the training ends at 5:30 and sun sets at 7, there are at least 4 more hours to kill. Four channels in a 9" TV certainly doesn't help. No LAN in the room and no phone line (now I miss the phone line) provide no option.

There's also nothing in the surrounding area, other than by-the-street shops selling kerupuk lekor - oily, fishy kind of crackers, and a couple of kedai runcit - a bigger size version of warung in Indonesia.

No one even sells playing cards. I suspect cards are banned in Terengganu.

But that's not exactly true, because they actually prepared an entertainment for our group -- traditional Terengganu performance! Well, not exactly what was expected... Even the trainer, whom I suspect the dance was prepared for, had to be picked up from his room... But hey, anything to kill the time, right? Next time I'll be more specific about what I wish for.

Equally interesting, or sad, was the water shower with terribly low pressure. This, combines with the extra-sensitive water temperature knob, presents a dangerous shower activity. You have to stand so close to the wall so that you keep touching the knob and you instantly get hot water. Ouch!

No fun.

On the other hand, there are other "extras" that wiped "peaceful" and "refreshing" away from this stay: bugs.

Yes, bugs, thousands of them. I didn't take any pictures, but they look like ones in the picture, only a bit smaller.


These creatures would crawl into the rooms. A colleague even claimed to have bugs on his bed! Yikes!

The hotel said the bug attack was unusual and unanticipated. Yeah...

Quite an experience was when I got a call at 2:45 AM in the first night. It was a colleague, male, asking if he could sleep in my room because he got bugs in his room. Fortunately, I've got bugs as well...

It would've been dangerous if the colleague was female. But male colleague? It was scary...

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Queuing culture

Some people just never learn, myself included.

Last Sunday we went to Genting Highlands (my parents were visiting us) knowing that it would be terribly crowded because of the Easter Holiday weekend. As if that wasn't enough, we decided to take the cable car.

The picture shows how close the person (a guy, unfortunately) behind me while we were queuing for cable car in Genting Highlands. It was like that - constant contact, my back and whatever his was - for at least 30 minutes.

A visit to Genting (on the weekends) is always full of queuing, just like any other theme parks. But with many visitors trying to cut the queue, Genting's management should do something about it.

Anyway, why do some people like to stand so close to the person in front of him/her while queuing?

Can't really find the reason why, but found an article about personal space:
"Social distance is the casual interaction-distance between acquaintances and strangers. It is common in business meetings, classrooms, and impersonal social affairs. Social distance ranges from 120 to 360 cm. Its close phase, 120 to 210 cm, is the characteristic of informal interaction, while more formal interaction requires the far phase 210 to 360 cm. Some physical barriers such as desks, tables, and counters, usually make people keep this distance. Proxemic behavior of this sort is culturally conditioned and arbitrary (Hall, 1966, p. 121-123)."

Or perhaps personal space is just a Western concept?

I also learned in my operations management class about psychology of waiting lines (pdf) by David Maister. He offers 8 points of psychology of waiting:
1. Occupied time feels shorter than unoccupied time
2. People want to get started
3. Anxiety makes waits seem longer
4. Uncertain waits are longer than known, finite waits
5. Unexplained waits are longer than explained waits
6. Unfair waits are longer than equitable waits
7. The more valuable the service, the longer the customer will wait
8. Solo waits feel longer than group waits
(© Copyright 2001-2007 by David Maister)

Not sure, though, if the list can explain the "closeness" in waiting.

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On dirty toilets and being hygienic

Deputy Tourism Minister Datuk Donald Lim said dirty toilets are the most common complaint foreign tourists have about Malaysia - I read in the Sun newspaper. It's not a surprise. Even he didn't deny that the condition of many public toilets leaves much room for improvements.

Also quoted in New Straits Times, Malaysian Tourist Guides Council president Jimmy Leong Wie Kong said: "Tourists are quite shocked when they visit our toilets. The toilets are dirty, wet, smelly and are often without toilet paper or soap."

It's enlightening to see them agree that this is a problem. Some actions have been taken, or planned, I guess, like introducing college courses in lavatory management. College course? Seriously, it's part of what Malaysia is doing to flush away its insanitary reputation. Or the "high-tech, self-cleaning toilets" that cost RM 400k each, as Screenshots blogged. (If I understood correctly, these sophisticated toilets will auto-flush. Kind of high-tech in early 90's to me. But still, thumbs up for providing this kind of toilets in public areas.)

What's sad is the main motive to solve this seems to be the tourism or image from outside, and not to be truly clean and hygienic - which is more the root cause.

clipped from www.timesonline.co.uk

“Try to imagine dirty, disgusting toilets that make you nauseous — these will
surely give us a negative image,” Najib Razak, the Deputy Prime Minister,
said at a speech last year at the National Toilet Expo and Forum.

Unspun has brought up the issue of dirty habit a few months back. This is perhaps true for most of the cultures in Asia. But there should be a shift in the habit - the one that is aware of personal hygiene.

Being hygienic, by the way, is not too difficult. We can all start with a discipline in washing our hands. And please dry them appropriately before getting off the toilet. I always wonder what it could be on the door handle when it's wet.

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Kill the messenger!

No one wants to deliver bad news. Particularly to the management. The urban legend is, they will kill the messenger.

That was the mission last Monday - for my boss and me. I was pretty close to having some all nighters. I got sick; probably hoping there would be some empathies to a sick-looking messenger. I broke several promises to the kids. The whole week was just unproductive.

We didn't get killed. In fact, I would consider it a good day as we managed to catch the flight in Singapore despite getting off the presentation just 45 minutes before the departure time. The cab driver was comparable to Queen Latifah in Taxi. I was the last getting into the plane. My boss ran faster than I did. I guess it's time to hit the treadmill.

Penang

So I decided to take the Friday off to Penang with the whole family. Despite the long, four-hour drive, we had a good time. Good food, good fun, and good rest. My third time to Penang, and I'm still amazed that an island of 293 square-kilometers has a 65-storey building. As a comparison, Jakarta's area is 661 square-kilometers and Wisma BNI 46 is 48-stories.

I was probably the only United fan in the hotel bar. I'm pretty sure I was the only one jumping when O'Shea scored the goal, and also the only one left watching the post-game analysis. Whatever, it was a good game - for United.

Fire incident

Got a call from our neighbor on Sunday morning - bitching that we were still sleeping in Penang. One of the units on the ground floor of our condo building was on fire. Everyone was evacuated through the stairs, at 2 AM. Except my Iranian neighbor who decided to keep on sleeping (probably there were some others).

The fire was extinguished without any fire trucks entering the complex. Apparently, everyone found out last night, the building entrance is too small for the fire trucks.

Additional checklist the next time we move: is the building entrance big enough for fire trucks?

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Mile-high scandal: increase the risk of air accident?

Another air incident, another sea accident in Indonesia.

We all might have heard that the probability of airplane accident, or crash, is much lower than the probability of (fatal) car accident. Steven Johnson's the Risk summarizes a study on this topic:

"...it would seem to be reasonable for those in charge of our safety to inform the public about how many airliners would have to crash before flying becomes as dangerous as driving the same distance in an automobile. It turns out that someone has made that calculation: University of Michigan transportation researchers Michael Sivak and Michael Flannagan, in an article last year in American Scientist, wrote that they determined there would have to be one set of September 11 crashes a month for the risks to balance out. More generally, they calculate that an American’s chance of being killed in one nonstop airline flight is about one in 13 million (even taking the September 11 crashes into account). To reach that same level of risk when driving on America’s safest roads — rural interstate highways — one would have to travel a mere 11.2 miles."

What if one drives in China? It might take only a short 2 miles to equal the risk! What if one flies one of the old aircrafts in Indonesia?

Regardless, is it really that low - one in 13 million? Statistically, perhaps. But for future forecast one must put the intelligence into it.

For example, if we will do some promotions three months from now, we gotta put in our best estimate of sales on that month, and not let statistical history figures forecast the sales. Especially if there hasn't been any regular promotion in that particular month in the past.

Through a friend who was visiting from Jakarta, I met these two Indonesian pilots of MAS and Lion Air (they were in the same company, Adam Air, if I'm not mistaken, before they parted their own way). It was around September 2006. Since these pilots haven't met each other for some time, they shared stories.

Apart from how the airlines industry has changed so much, their conversation was pretty much about flight attendants. Who slept with who. Who got this girl first. Who filmed who in what occasion. One even could persuade a flight attendant to sleep with him despite an approach from an Indonesian celebrity. And so on...

I've heard about this. But I've never heard directly from the one who did it. It was kinda fun at the beginning, but more of sick toward the end. With all my respect - what is wrong with the world?

A more recent one: "British actor caught in sky-high sex scandal." It was Ralph Fiennes in a flight on January 24, with a Qantas flight attendant who said:

"While conversing with Mr Fiennes during my break, I expressed a need to go to the toilet. I went to the nearby toilet and entered it, he followed me and entered the same toilet. I explained to him that this was inappropriate and asked him to leave. Mr Fiennes became amorous towards me and, after a short period of time, I convinced him to leave the toilet, which he did."

We can go into more detail... but I'd stop right here :)

It seems that when we fly, we are surrounded by more people who do adultery: some of the cabin crew and our fellow passengers, for relatively longer time.

Back to the intelligent forecasting. If we assume adultery is sinful and God will punish those who practice it, then won't it increase the chance of an airplane gets punished? If one can quantify the probability of getting punished because of sins, or being in the same place when the punishment happens, perhaps the one-in-13-million figure should be calibrated...

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Even gibbons are monogamous

I went to the National Zoo today. On the way rushing back to the exit, we managed to stop by at the apes area and just happened to pay a bit more attention on this guy: ungka kelabu (Bornean Gibbon).

Looks like a loyal creature, isn't he? You bet he is. The information board says that these gibbons are monogamous and that they mate for life.

And a bit closer...

Enough with the big hoo-haa AA Gym created several months ago on monogamy and polygamy.

But what's going on here? Monogamous apes? For the world's sake, animals don't register their marriages. Is this the true loyalty, or monkey love? Or perhaps they all look similar - that it leaves no motivation or desire to find the second partner...

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Car drivers with bikers' mind

China's economy has been booming. The number of private cars and taxis has also increased, slowly replacing bicycles - although there's no question that there are still loads of bicycles in China. China has become a great place for business. Perhaps to be specific, hospital or traffic-accident emergency service business.

My experience spending three days in Shanghai was horrible, both for taxi-ride and crossing the streets. I don't know what the statistics is for traffic-related accidents in China, but I would imagine it's relatively quite high. Most people disobey traffic signs and, even worse, traffic lights when turning. Not only the car drivers, but also the bicycle riders too. I suspect the change of transportation means (from bicycles to cars) are not followed by the mind and attitudes.

Sounds of car horns and bicycle bells are continuous throughout the day. It seems that the drivers/riders assume the other 'parties' (i.e. other cars or bicycles for car drivers, and other bicycles and pedestrians for the bicycle riders) have been warned by such sound that they must give way.

Looking right and left before crossing the street is not enough. It must be a constant check until you reach the other side of the street. Riding a taxi is as stressful. Make sure the taxi has good seat belts and something for you to hold on.

If I live in Shanghai, I could become an alcoholic in my first month just because the high stress level...

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Traveling with bus and train

There are many alternatives for going to Singapore from KL (or vice versa). Flying is one. It takes only about 30-minute flight, but the total time might extend up to 3 hours. Another alternative is to drive. I would think this gives the most flexibility, but driving and parking in Singapore might be a hassle, I guess. The other two alternatives are going by bus or by train. I discount sea travel as it seems not interesting at all.

I went to Singapore by bus earlier this month. It was a double-decker bus from a company called Aeroline. Not as good as the pictures in their website, but the overall experience was satisfying. Passengers are seated upstairs, while downstairs is reserved for meeting - there's a meeting table with several chairs/sofa. Apparently, some people took advantage of the sofa and used it for bed instead of meeting.

Going back, I took the train, for the sake of getting new experience. Bad call. First of all, trains are more expensive than bus (there are many more companies similar to Aeroline or with lower quality) for the same quality, or even lower. Secondly, it took just too many stops along the way. The stop for immigration is also longer as there are more passenger than there are in the bus.

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Mixed Perception about Europe

Europe is nice, but it's definitely different from America (of course, you moron!). We traveled to London (I went to, of course, Manchester), Paris, and Amsterdam via Frankfurt.

Frankfurt airport is nice. Big McDonald's with huge playground. That helps. London is freaking expensive and the meal size is small. We paid twice as much dollars of half of the portion. We missed the fish and chips, but the city tour was excellent. Manchester is old, but Old Trafford is truly the theater of dreams. (Our trip to) Paris was a mess. It must be the hotel where we stayed at. It was somewhere very close to one of the train station, but far from the city center (or at least the Eiffel tower). Cab drivers don't speak English, and it took us more than one hour to get a cab at the tower. The train from Paris to Amsterdam was nice but a bit boring. Surprisingly we enjoyed Amsterdam (I changed the hotel while in Paris -- we stayed in two nice rooms at Swissotel). Internet was free in the business center (I had to go to internet cafes in London; in Paris it was in a small, non-air-conditioned room). The food was great (lots of similarities to those in Indonesia). Tours were great too. The train back to Frankfurt was, again, nice but boring and a bit stressful as we must quickly get down at the airport. Flying back to Singapore, though, was excellent with Singapore Airlines.

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Moving Out

Moving from one apartment to another in the same city or state (e.g. from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti to West Bloomfield in Michigan) was difficult enough. The good thing was all those places were within driving range (less than 45 minutes apart) so we could manage to have a little overlap between the end of one and start of another. That helped moving in the non-essential items on earlier days (several trips in a day or even a week). The bigger and more critical ones, e.g. sofa, TV, could be moved on the d-day with a U-Haul or Ryder trucks (Ryder trucks are much better, by the way).

Moving to out-of-state, e.g. from West Bloomfield, MI to Durham, NC, was way much more challenging. No more multiple trips to move the non-essential items. Another challenge was to drive both cars, plus the truck. So we decided to rent a service. But at least we knew exactly what, or where, we were getting into.

Moving out of the country was a mess. First of all, we didn't move directly to the final destination. The target was KL, a couple of months after when we had to move out. So we had to 'stopover' in Jakarta while looking for the new place in KL. Second of all, the electrical items were not compatible. It's 120/240v and 60Hz in the U.S., while Indonesia and Malaysia are using 110/220V and 50Hz. The options were to buy transformers - lots of them, or to sell or giveaway all the electrical items. And cars too!

Despite having taken the Pricing Strategy class, I failed to analyze the 'market'. Everything we offered was initially way under what the market valued. The responses were overwhelming. The only bargaining power I used was to hold the items until the last days. It definitely helped for things like TV, DVD player, or mattress.

Another complication was the booking of container, including the attempt to "maximize" it. Some friends would ask for shipping of their goods with container, of which we couldn't make money from :) This includes all the necessary documents from and to the Embassy.

As messy as the others was the packing as we decided to not use the professional service to pack. We used Two Men and a Truck to load the container. That was when we realized all the money we could've paid for the service would've been worth it every penny. These people rocks, and they just know what they do.

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The Journey

Well, it has been almost exactly seven years since we first moved to the U.S. It's been great journey and adventure. Not much savings made even though I worked for more than four years in Michigan. I think it's because the mindset has always been "vacation", i.e. we always know that we will never end up and retire in the U.S., thus we must make the most of our time -- to travel and eat out.

Firstly arrived in San Francisco in June 1998, we spent the first five years in Michigan. What a state it is. It's geographically flat; no hill, no valley. It's one of the main victim of lake-effect snow. And it's about two hours flying to the East Coast (NYC) and six hours flying to the West Coast (LA). Four-five hours driving to Chicago, although it's only one hour away from Windsor, Canada. But what's in Windsor anyway, except a casino?

The first year, we lived in Ann Arbor, in a one bedroom economy on-campus apartment, where the only two rooms were bedroom and everything else, and a small bathroom, of course. Not a great impression of what America is. The second year we moved to a more decent two bedroom, two bathroom apartment in Ypsilanti. Great location, right in the middle between University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University, and right across from Washtenaw Community College. We moved to West Bloomfield on the fourth year for the next two. A two bedroom apartment with a garage. Great place in a well-established area. I got closer to work. I picked up a lot of football in Michigan, but missed a lot of soccer. Both kids were born in the University of Michigan hospital with the same Obgyn.

We moved to Durham, NC, in June 2003 as I would start my MBA at Duke. We moved to even a better place. Three bedroom (3.5 bath), three-stories apartment with garage. The rent was higher too. Both kids went to school and made some friends.

Durham is pretty strategically located. It's about three hours driving to the beach and four hours to the mountain (where there is snow in the winter). Less than five hours driving to Washington, D.C., and about six-hour drive to Atlanta. Charlotte is only about two hours driving away, but there's nothing much but a huge mall.

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