Karl in Texas: Beef, Jeans, and Espresso. That is what stands out in my mind from a 6 day trip back to Texas. I was in Texas for a staff meeting and had a chance to even enjoy some good ol’ American baseball. Driving? Well, I didn’t hit anything. After a month of not driving, it actually came back pretty quick thanks to basic American driving rules (China’s driving rules are more spontaneous). I was a bit surprised that gas prices are so high – even in Texas. In China, gas is a set price at $2.60/gallon , which means it’s costing the chinese gov’t billions of dollars. Per a blog we read, that policy won’t change until after the Olympics is over. While in the US also had a chance to do some shopping. There were a few key purchases. First, benedryl for the never-ending rash as it’s not approved for sale in China. Also used some of the final wedding gift cards to purchase an espresso maker. While we love the coffee at Starbucks here (they warm the milk!), at $3.20 for plain coffee (latte is ~$5) it was getting to be an expensive habit. And for Lila, they don’t open until 7am – well after she’s departed to work for her hour commute. The highlight – other than catching up with the team - good Texas food – BBQ, steak, Mexican!
Lila in Shanghai/Taipei: While Karl was in the US, I had my first weekend to myself in Shanghai. I have to admit it was a bit depressing not to have anyone to call or go out with. My one friend had in-laws in town. At the same time, I decided to enjoy some quiet time. As Nabeel (brother) said, “it was the ‘old Lila’ weekend break.” I spent a lot of time at the gym, working at coffee shops, running errands, cooking, and sitting outside. It was very mellow, and exactly what I needed. I also spent 4 days in Taiwan for the Computex event, arriving the morning after their earthquake. That’s 2 of 3 times I’ve been to Taiwan in the past month when there’s been earthquakes. Computex went well for us – a lot of customer meetings and a big launch. It was great to see some US friends as well.
Together in SH: Karl returned on Saturday afternoon, just in time for a major rainstorm. We had a home-cooked Vietnamese dinner with some of Lila’s colleagues. It was fabulous food and great company. They live on the Pudong (east) side of the river with nice views. We even got to see a little fireworks show from their pad. Sunday was Dragon Boat Festival holiday. A lot of places were closed, but we managed to get a few errands in. We took 3 of the Vietnam paintings and 1 Chinese embroidery (purchased at antique market) to be framed. We had a wonderful brunch at T8 restaurant, and for dinner we barbecued! Yes, we shipped over our grill, managed to get it switched to Chinese propane (regulators & connectors different), and voila! BBQ! It was awesome. Monday was a work holiday, and we pretty much stayed put. Karl didn’t leave the house and Lila only left to pick up some ginger, milk, & bananas at the street market behind our house (for a whopping $3 total). We got a lot done around the house – some of the final unpacking/organizing. Karl worked on photos, and Lila did some work. The cleaning lady came too. We’ve realized that we get so much time back in our lives together with having drivers and Ayi (helper) running errands for us.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Vietnam - the end of our first vacation
Our vacation has ended and tomorrow we return to work. We're both returning very refreshed and with everything in perspective. It feels great & was such a wonderful trip. After Halong Bay, we wandered around the city and bought some art. Our legs are so tired from all the walking! Had another nice dinner too.
Most of today was spent in airports. We left at 11am, transit in Hong Kong, and then arrived in Shanghai. Our Hong Kong connection was so tight that our luggage didn't make it! Fortunately there was nothing urgent we needed from the suitcases. And we actually had enough foresight to give Driver Shen a small suitcase before we left. He showed up at the airport with the suitcase for Karl, who continued onto Beijing for meetings.
Most of today was spent in airports. We left at 11am, transit in Hong Kong, and then arrived in Shanghai. Our Hong Kong connection was so tight that our luggage didn't make it! Fortunately there was nothing urgent we needed from the suitcases. And we actually had enough foresight to give Driver Shen a small suitcase before we left. He showed up at the airport with the suitcase for Karl, who continued onto Beijing for meetings.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Vietnam – Spectacular Halong Bay
After reading so much about Halong Bay, we decided to do a 2-day/1night side trip. We did some investigation before arriving in Vietnam, but had not made reservations. Our desired tour didn’t include transfer from Hanoi – another $115 adder! We instead decided to go with the tour company recommended by the hotel. We left at 8:15 for a 3.5hr journey to Halong Bay. The boat, Bahya, is made of wood with Chinese Junk style influence. It’s very charming. The capacity is 40 people, but there are only 3 other groups on board (3 Austrian women, 9 Indonesians wrapping up 2 week family trip, and 2 other people who we barely saw). The bay itself is 600 square miles and ~3000 islands, located in the Gulf of Tonkin. It’s said the bay’s topography developed 250,000 years ago when the limestone was under the ocean.
This has been the highlight of Vietnam – hands down. The scenery is absolutely stunning and has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Picture 2000 islands made of limestone jetting out of the Bay. Old style junks and streamer boats wandering around, among the fisherman who are seeking squid and fish.
We watched the sunrise and sunset, learned how to squid fish, did Taichi exercises after sunrise, learned to make fried spring rolls, and dined outdoors. There were also a few side trips. We went into the ‘Surprise’ grotto and visited a fishing village where the houses are on water – no usable land nearby. The floating two room school house was very adorable, as were the kids on summer holiday who rowed up to see us. We quickly learned that life as a Vietnamese fisherman is not bad – the floating water village included multiple big screen TVs w/ satellite service. Fresh water and land foods are brought in daily by one of transport ships. There are no taxes and the government pays/subsidizes the fisherman. Not a bad life in this beautiful bay.
Every worry and rush seems to melt away while we’re out here. We definitely need to get to water more frequently! :) It’s been a wonderful – but way too short - stay on the boat. Life is good…!
This has been the highlight of Vietnam – hands down. The scenery is absolutely stunning and has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Picture 2000 islands made of limestone jetting out of the Bay. Old style junks and streamer boats wandering around, among the fisherman who are seeking squid and fish.
We watched the sunrise and sunset, learned how to squid fish, did Taichi exercises after sunrise, learned to make fried spring rolls, and dined outdoors. There were also a few side trips. We went into the ‘Surprise’ grotto and visited a fishing village where the houses are on water – no usable land nearby. The floating two room school house was very adorable, as were the kids on summer holiday who rowed up to see us. We quickly learned that life as a Vietnamese fisherman is not bad – the floating water village included multiple big screen TVs w/ satellite service. Fresh water and land foods are brought in daily by one of transport ships. There are no taxes and the government pays/subsidizes the fisherman. Not a bad life in this beautiful bay.
Every worry and rush seems to melt away while we’re out here. We definitely need to get to water more frequently! :) It’s been a wonderful – but way too short - stay on the boat. Life is good…!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Vietnam – Nice day in the countryside + the grossest sight ever!
This may be surprising with a Shanghai address, but Karl really is not a city boy. While Lila loves city life, she’s also a country person as well. So after a day of sight-seeing and traffic in Hanoi, we hired a private tour guide and driver for the day trip to Ninh Binh & Hoa Lu. (Figured we could also do without the war memorials & museums.)
The first stop and highlight of the trip was a river cruise. The 2 hour journey was in a row boat, very low to the water. We were surrounded by rice paddies, limestone karsts (towering mountains), and a few other boats. Given the lack of westerners, we were a tourist site by ourselves for the school kids who were also on the river. We’ve had our picture taken with complete strangers, heard “Hello” countless times since moving to Asia. Although sometimes we feel like characters at Disneyland, it has also been charming. There’s not that much to say about the ride, aside from the fact it was beautiful, relaxing, and so hot that we were sweating endlessly! Lila even got some exercise in. She felt sorry for the old lady trying to row us, so she chipped into help. Clearly her professional strength is in the cubicle workplace and not on the river.
After a quick lunch break, we took country roads to the former capital of Vietnam, where we visited two temples that were 17th century recreations of the originals. Having lived in China, we have picked up 2 habits:
1) Our table manners have deteriorated relative to Western standards. We make a mess when we eat!
2) Chinese public toilets prepare you for anything. We can now go to any public bathroom and not be grossed out.
The drive back was so relaxing – passing rice fields with people and water buffalo. There were occasional towns with cathedrals jetting above the “skyline” – a reminder of past French missionaries who settled here in the early 1800s. It’s very picturesque and calming. The homes are quite narrow and tall. Taxes are based on the width of your land, and people save money for a decorative front facing. The facades are very colorful and ornate with unpainted concrete sides (assuming someone will build next door). Karl noted that this is reminiscent of a Hollywood set! The colorful facades are even found in the countryside, where you often see large rectangular ponds for raising duck and fish.
** Warning – following text may be too graphic for dog lovers **
Speaking of pets and food… we also passed a market where dog meat is sold. Apparently dog can be bbq or grilled. It’s often eaten in the 2nd half of month to rid bad luck. Our guide explained that the good news is that this delicacy is not the same as your pet. There are dog farms who specialize in raising tasty Fido. Despite all her travel, Lila has never seen this before. We did take a picture during a drive by. Upon close observation, the head of the dog is visible. Due to graphic nature, we’ve opted to keep it out.
** end gross story **
By the time we got back to the hotel, we were exhausted. We eventually made it to dinner, then had a long walk back to the hotel – successfully dodging mopeds. Although we’ve been gone a weekend, we definitely feel more relaxed and content. We’re both surprised by how quickly we were able to shut down from work!
Finally, a few key learnings about private tours:
* Always start 1 hour than they plan to start. It helps beat crowds and results in better lighting for photography. We only did 30min ahead – was good but not enough time.
* Make sure you don’t hit great photo sites in the middle of the day – if you do, then ask to adjust schedule (e.g. reverse order, starting earlier, etc.).
* Always do 1 thing off the standard tour schedule. We took country roads between sights versus standard roads. The result was a very bumpy – but very beautiful - drive.
* Ask to go to local restaurants and select off the menu versus the poor adaptation of local food tailored for western palates
The first stop and highlight of the trip was a river cruise. The 2 hour journey was in a row boat, very low to the water. We were surrounded by rice paddies, limestone karsts (towering mountains), and a few other boats. Given the lack of westerners, we were a tourist site by ourselves for the school kids who were also on the river. We’ve had our picture taken with complete strangers, heard “Hello” countless times since moving to Asia. Although sometimes we feel like characters at Disneyland, it has also been charming. There’s not that much to say about the ride, aside from the fact it was beautiful, relaxing, and so hot that we were sweating endlessly! Lila even got some exercise in. She felt sorry for the old lady trying to row us, so she chipped into help. Clearly her professional strength is in the cubicle workplace and not on the river.
After a quick lunch break, we took country roads to the former capital of Vietnam, where we visited two temples that were 17th century recreations of the originals. Having lived in China, we have picked up 2 habits:
1) Our table manners have deteriorated relative to Western standards. We make a mess when we eat!
2) Chinese public toilets prepare you for anything. We can now go to any public bathroom and not be grossed out.
The drive back was so relaxing – passing rice fields with people and water buffalo. There were occasional towns with cathedrals jetting above the “skyline” – a reminder of past French missionaries who settled here in the early 1800s. It’s very picturesque and calming. The homes are quite narrow and tall. Taxes are based on the width of your land, and people save money for a decorative front facing. The facades are very colorful and ornate with unpainted concrete sides (assuming someone will build next door). Karl noted that this is reminiscent of a Hollywood set! The colorful facades are even found in the countryside, where you often see large rectangular ponds for raising duck and fish.
** Warning – following text may be too graphic for dog lovers **
Speaking of pets and food… we also passed a market where dog meat is sold. Apparently dog can be bbq or grilled. It’s often eaten in the 2nd half of month to rid bad luck. Our guide explained that the good news is that this delicacy is not the same as your pet. There are dog farms who specialize in raising tasty Fido. Despite all her travel, Lila has never seen this before. We did take a picture during a drive by. Upon close observation, the head of the dog is visible. Due to graphic nature, we’ve opted to keep it out.
** end gross story **
By the time we got back to the hotel, we were exhausted. We eventually made it to dinner, then had a long walk back to the hotel – successfully dodging mopeds. Although we’ve been gone a weekend, we definitely feel more relaxed and content. We’re both surprised by how quickly we were able to shut down from work!
Finally, a few key learnings about private tours:
* Always start 1 hour than they plan to start. It helps beat crowds and results in better lighting for photography. We only did 30min ahead – was good but not enough time.
* Make sure you don’t hit great photo sites in the middle of the day – if you do, then ask to adjust schedule (e.g. reverse order, starting earlier, etc.).
* Always do 1 thing off the standard tour schedule. We took country roads between sights versus standard roads. The result was a very bumpy – but very beautiful - drive.
* Ask to go to local restaurants and select off the menu versus the poor adaptation of local food tailored for western palates
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Vietnam Vacation: People on the Move, Where Baby Puppets Come From, and other adventures
Exactly 2 months after we arrived in Shanghai, we set off on our first vacation. Destination: Vietnam. It was a last minute trip resulting from both need for a break and opportunity (US out for Memorial Day)! Vietnam was chosen based on a past trip Lila made and that several of our friends love it here.
We arrived Friday afternoon in Hanoi -- population of 4.5M people and at least 3M mopeds! After 2 days here, the best description we have is that Hanoi is a city on the move. There is constant motion, and feels far more active than Shanghai.
Upon arrival, Lila “forced child culture” on Karl by insisting they go to the famous water puppet show. It’s a charming tourist trap and well worth the $3.50 for the hour performance. With live traditional music, very artistic puppeteers controlled the puppets with bamboo cane from under the water & behind the stage. Sound confusing?! It was! The highlight was the phoenix bird puppets who joined together momentarily before we realized they were actually reproducing. Out popped an egg puppet followed by a baby puppet. Not sure this qualified as G rated. We left the theatre to seek out dinner but were quickly confused by the poor maps. Fortunately a drunk bicycle taxi driver “helped” us. He led us on a 30 minute adventure in the front seat of the bicycle rickshaw. It was an exciting way to get indoctrinated into Hanoi’s traffic chaos (imagine bees – on bikes, in cars, in rickshaws, on mopeds- swarming a beehive). Dinner was at the very lovely Wild Lotus where we had an 8-dish set menu and bottle of wine for a mere $50 total in a very beautiful setting.
Saturday we spent 8 hours walking around Hanoi’s Old Quarter. Some highlights:
* The architecture is gorgeous. A lot of brightly colored, narrow and tall, French style building fronts. For ~80 years, Vietnam was a French colony and still has strong French influences.
* There really aren’t that many foreigners, and very few Americans. We’ve seen/heard a lot of French, Canadians, Australians, and Japanese. Interesting to note that the US dollar is accepted everywhere, in addition to local currency. We wonder how the foreign visitors are doing converting US dollars to their local currency in the price negotiations.
* There were 24 official stops according to the Frommers guide, but we mostly enjoyed the bargain basement shopping. Vietnam’s art, lacquer, and clothing options were all outstanding!
* A lot of farmer merchants actually wear the pointed cylindrical, woven hats and carry a pole on their shoulder balancing 2 extremely heavy baskets.
* Crossing the street is like a game of Frogger (lila translation of Karl’s video game reference: makes Purdue jaywalking seem like child’s play). There are no lights, lots of 2 & 4 wheeled vehicles, and no breaks. Karl was initially timid, while Lila embraced the challenge. It all changed when lila declared, “Follow-me! Follow-me!” Then BAM! A moped lightly ran into her. No injuries, just ego. Karl didn’t need Lila any longer to cross the street.
* There are “Reproduction Art Shops” everywhere – which do a great reproduction of oil paintings by famous artists. Example: a real painting by a high end Vietnamese artist is US $2,000 but a knock-off version is $20. They seem to have mastered the western artists much better than up& coming Vietnamese. Van Gogh for 20$ anyone?
* Streets are named after their original goods sold. Bamboo Street, for example, sells bamboo used for construction, decoration, and smoking pipes. Our route took us through door knob/lock street, shoe street, etc.
* There were people everywhere. No one seemed to be inside, except at internet cafes. It appears the favorite pastime is sitting at an outdoor restaurant eating with your friends.
* Local food is cheap! Lunch consisted of 2 noodle bowls with delicious toppings and 2 beers for a whopping $5.
* The President of Rwanda happens to be in Vietnam and staying at the same hotel. Lila feels like she's back on a geo trip with Craig - pointing out security and staffers. She met President Kagame in Rwanda last year, but didn't have guts to seek him out in Vietnam!
* We finished the day with dinner at the Green Tangerine, in honor of Melissa’s birthday. It’s a great French restaurant where Karl enjoyed green tea encrusted duck breast with lychee and Lila had a fabulous 3 rice seafood paella.
We arrived Friday afternoon in Hanoi -- population of 4.5M people and at least 3M mopeds! After 2 days here, the best description we have is that Hanoi is a city on the move. There is constant motion, and feels far more active than Shanghai.
Upon arrival, Lila “forced child culture” on Karl by insisting they go to the famous water puppet show. It’s a charming tourist trap and well worth the $3.50 for the hour performance. With live traditional music, very artistic puppeteers controlled the puppets with bamboo cane from under the water & behind the stage. Sound confusing?! It was! The highlight was the phoenix bird puppets who joined together momentarily before we realized they were actually reproducing. Out popped an egg puppet followed by a baby puppet. Not sure this qualified as G rated. We left the theatre to seek out dinner but were quickly confused by the poor maps. Fortunately a drunk bicycle taxi driver “helped” us. He led us on a 30 minute adventure in the front seat of the bicycle rickshaw. It was an exciting way to get indoctrinated into Hanoi’s traffic chaos (imagine bees – on bikes, in cars, in rickshaws, on mopeds- swarming a beehive). Dinner was at the very lovely Wild Lotus where we had an 8-dish set menu and bottle of wine for a mere $50 total in a very beautiful setting.
Saturday we spent 8 hours walking around Hanoi’s Old Quarter. Some highlights:
* The architecture is gorgeous. A lot of brightly colored, narrow and tall, French style building fronts. For ~80 years, Vietnam was a French colony and still has strong French influences.
* There really aren’t that many foreigners, and very few Americans. We’ve seen/heard a lot of French, Canadians, Australians, and Japanese. Interesting to note that the US dollar is accepted everywhere, in addition to local currency. We wonder how the foreign visitors are doing converting US dollars to their local currency in the price negotiations.
* There were 24 official stops according to the Frommers guide, but we mostly enjoyed the bargain basement shopping. Vietnam’s art, lacquer, and clothing options were all outstanding!
* A lot of farmer merchants actually wear the pointed cylindrical, woven hats and carry a pole on their shoulder balancing 2 extremely heavy baskets.
* Crossing the street is like a game of Frogger (lila translation of Karl’s video game reference: makes Purdue jaywalking seem like child’s play). There are no lights, lots of 2 & 4 wheeled vehicles, and no breaks. Karl was initially timid, while Lila embraced the challenge. It all changed when lila declared, “Follow-me! Follow-me!” Then BAM! A moped lightly ran into her. No injuries, just ego. Karl didn’t need Lila any longer to cross the street.
* There are “Reproduction Art Shops” everywhere – which do a great reproduction of oil paintings by famous artists. Example: a real painting by a high end Vietnamese artist is US $2,000 but a knock-off version is $20. They seem to have mastered the western artists much better than up& coming Vietnamese. Van Gogh for 20$ anyone?
* Streets are named after their original goods sold. Bamboo Street, for example, sells bamboo used for construction, decoration, and smoking pipes. Our route took us through door knob/lock street, shoe street, etc.
* There were people everywhere. No one seemed to be inside, except at internet cafes. It appears the favorite pastime is sitting at an outdoor restaurant eating with your friends.
* Local food is cheap! Lunch consisted of 2 noodle bowls with delicious toppings and 2 beers for a whopping $5.
* The President of Rwanda happens to be in Vietnam and staying at the same hotel. Lila feels like she's back on a geo trip with Craig - pointing out security and staffers. She met President Kagame in Rwanda last year, but didn't have guts to seek him out in Vietnam!
* We finished the day with dinner at the Green Tangerine, in honor of Melissa’s birthday. It’s a great French restaurant where Karl enjoyed green tea encrusted duck breast with lychee and Lila had a fabulous 3 rice seafood paella.
Monday, May 19, 2008
China Earthquake
The big news last week was the earthquake. Lila was in Taiwan when Karl sent the following from Beijing (1000 miles from the epicenter): “Just my luck – I just arrived in Beijing for a meeting when we have an earthquake here. Now I'm starting to feel like home. I have no clue on the size --- but my guess is 5.3 or so. I just ignored it… but all the locals evacuated the buildings … I just looked outside and there are millions of people out there. I'm not sure what is safer – hiding in the building or waiting for one of them to collapse on top of you. I'm fine however the local Intel sales team thinks it might have been 10 years since they felt a earthquake here."
Karl then sent the follow-up mail: “Oh my gosh… I just pulled the report from the earthquake site. It is listed as a 7.8 only 6 miles below the surface (but over 1000 miles away). No wonder we felt it all the way over here!"
It turns out that the Shanghai site also felt it and sent everyone home. They were told to expect light aftershocks in the evening so people stayed home. Fortunately all is fine with everyone we know. The government just announced that May 19 - 21 will be the China Mourn Days to grieve the earthquake victims. During the 3 days, the national flag is at half-mast across the country and all the entertainment is to be stopped. We didn't realize what that meant until we got home and flipped on the TV. Several channels were blacked out with statements:
“Dear subscribers, According to an announcement of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, May 19 to May 21, 2008 are national mourning days. In order to express our heartfelt condolences for the victims of the disastrous earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan Province, we will suspend the relay of overseas channels with limited landing rights that contain entertainment programmes during the above period. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”
Sports, the Discovery Channel, and Star Movies are still going. Meanwhile, the Chinese stations are filled with the sad images and reporting from out west. Between record snowfall and earth shaking, it appears Mother Earth is sending a message to China.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Airports Galore
Somehow putting the below with the earthquake update didn't seem right. So on to the more mundane things in the Liebat household…
KARL: I spent 3 days in Beijing this week. The Chinese airport is so funny: for everything that is almost liquid they take it out of bags and smell it. Then they randomly decide what you can keep and what must be thrown away. This time they decided that my hair stuff had to go. After 4 trips, this happened to be the time someone decided hair products could not go through. Unfortunately, airport negations have not been covered in my Chinese lessons. However, I practiced my Chinese with Driver Peter, and he understood about 95% of all the words I said. I can now also count to 900,000!
This week I also found out that they don't sell Benedryl in china. I went to the pharmacy and they finally gave me two drugs in the same family. The problem is that they don’t work! They had to get doctors ok for both but said I could have gone to a Chinese clinic and gotten both without doctors approval. How strange. This rash over my body has me missing the overpriced American health system.
We shipped our grill from the US since it was brand new. Too bad the Porsche couldn’t be shipped too. Anyway, the total cost for installation and 2 tanks is about $115US. Each tank refill will be US$13 – not a bad recurring revenue. The company also has air filters. We have one now – that’s about the size of Lila. The “gas tank, air filter” guy said we need another one given the size of our apartment. Although they cost thousands of dollars, it’s a small price to pay for clean air.
LILA: I spent 2 days in Taiwan this week, before heading to the US for my boss’ staff meeting. Unfortunately I ended up with massive stomach pains that killed ½ day of work and my shopping night.. I’m convinced it was the clean air. The weather was gorgeous – even hit 90s in Portland. The greens were beautifully green and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! After a business dinner the next night I did squeeze in the Costco-Target run to pick up stuff. It was kind of wild driving, knowing my way around, and there’s nothing like terrible TV to make you appreciate American commercials. I did end the week very tired of airports after having gone through 11 airports (only 5 unique) this week. The worst part was the security and check-in lines at SFO were horrendous and my seat mates (had a middle bulkhead) kept invading my personal space. Very excited to be home in China!
KARL: I spent 3 days in Beijing this week. The Chinese airport is so funny: for everything that is almost liquid they take it out of bags and smell it. Then they randomly decide what you can keep and what must be thrown away. This time they decided that my hair stuff had to go. After 4 trips, this happened to be the time someone decided hair products could not go through. Unfortunately, airport negations have not been covered in my Chinese lessons. However, I practiced my Chinese with Driver Peter, and he understood about 95% of all the words I said. I can now also count to 900,000!
This week I also found out that they don't sell Benedryl in china. I went to the pharmacy and they finally gave me two drugs in the same family. The problem is that they don’t work! They had to get doctors ok for both but said I could have gone to a Chinese clinic and gotten both without doctors approval. How strange. This rash over my body has me missing the overpriced American health system.
We shipped our grill from the US since it was brand new. Too bad the Porsche couldn’t be shipped too. Anyway, the total cost for installation and 2 tanks is about $115US. Each tank refill will be US$13 – not a bad recurring revenue. The company also has air filters. We have one now – that’s about the size of Lila. The “gas tank, air filter” guy said we need another one given the size of our apartment. Although they cost thousands of dollars, it’s a small price to pay for clean air.
LILA: I spent 2 days in Taiwan this week, before heading to the US for my boss’ staff meeting. Unfortunately I ended up with massive stomach pains that killed ½ day of work and my shopping night.. I’m convinced it was the clean air. The weather was gorgeous – even hit 90s in Portland. The greens were beautifully green and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! After a business dinner the next night I did squeeze in the Costco-Target run to pick up stuff. It was kind of wild driving, knowing my way around, and there’s nothing like terrible TV to make you appreciate American commercials. I did end the week very tired of airports after having gone through 11 airports (only 5 unique) this week. The worst part was the security and check-in lines at SFO were horrendous and my seat mates (had a middle bulkhead) kept invading my personal space. Very excited to be home in China!
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