Another New Toy

I've got a new toy recently as a Christmas present - an eeePC mini laptop. This is my first ever laptop.

Though I've a desktop with a huge monitor at home, I've been looking around for a mini one that I can carry with me on the go - perhaps sometimes to be used in office for jotting notes and more importantly for use when I'm on trip. During the recently trips to Vietnam and Cambodia, I felt that having a laptop will be really good for writing blog entries and organize my pictures when I'm back to hotel.

To my surprise, I've got an ideal one effortless over Christmas! :)

I spent quite some time during my holiday time to equip the new toy with a slipstreamed WindowsXP + some minimal software applications that I think I'll really need when I'm on the go. And I've bought an additional SD card (it's called SDHC card, to be exact, a new version of SD card with are of higher capacity) as the secondary storage since the new toy only comes with 4GB hard drive - which is definitely not enough. But considering this mini thing is meant for real mobility, I'm very happy with its configuration already.

Just like iPhone in the mobile phone area, this eeePC has become a hot topic in the laptop industry with a lot of newsgroup, websites, forums and people talking about it (i.e. tips and tweaks, ways to upgrade and optimize it ...etc.). I can even see a number of groups already in Facebook!

Vietnam Journey - Day 3 - from Phan Thiet to Saigon (Sept 25, 2007)

Had a good sleep on the 2nd night and woke up at 10am when Denis was already out for swimming already. Joined Denis and Qing in the beach but I didn't swim. After that, we checked out, had some food and then boarded thew bus departing for Saigon.

Unlike the Saigon-Mui Nei bus ride - which was a loooong journey, this return journey looked like a pretty short one. The driver pressed his horn every other minute, meaning that I heard a few hundred times throughout the ride. I guess all passengers were annoyed. But this is normal 'cos as an Australian passenger said to me 'Vietnam is a fun place but when it comes to traffic, there is no rule'.

We boarded a taxi and sent Qing to her friend's home and then settled in a noddle shop nearby. Tried for the first time in this journey authentic Vietnamese beef noddles - Pho. We also ordered some more food and drinks + desert. Everything altogether cost us VND80000 - which is around HKD40!!! Yes HKD40!!! Very good food indeed!

After dinner, we took a taxi and randomly found a hotel for tonight. Bought some Durian and Mango and have just finished them off. Pretty tired now ... About time to go to bed in preparation for the last day of this journey.

Vietnam Journey - Day 1 - Saigon (Sept 23, 2007)

Non-stop flying - Hong Kong - London - Hong Kong - Ho Chi Minh City

After the killing flight from London, I didn't really have rest 'cos by the time I was home, I unloaded everything from my little baggage and reloaded that with old t-shirt and shorts (I plan to throw them all in Vietnam!). Managed to finish packing at around 2am and then slept for 4 hours. My brother Anthony then gave me a ride - how lovely! - at 6am to the airport.

Arrived Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon) at around 11pm. The flight was not full but when I looked around I felt that I was surrounded by 90% Vietnamese and the rest foreigners (Americans fighting the Vietnam war again!?).

I've great pleasure to see the brand new airport which was unrevealed just this month. Its design and various hardware are world-class but Vietnam still lags behind in terms of their software - the people and the operation efficiency.

Met my friend Denis in the backpacker paradise - Pha Ngu Lao. He came the day before. I was supposed to arrive with him together yesterday but somehow I couldn't in view of the London business trip.

Had some light food (costing me VND170000!!!) together with Denis after he checked-out his room. We decided to move to a slightly better hotel - Vien Dong Hotel - in the same district with room rate at USD77. It was a 3-star hotel with a decent room. We then headed to the War Remnants Museum to see some exhibits used in the Vietnam war. A lot of pictures showing how cruel Americans (some are really disgusting!) were but I guess both Vietnamese and Americans were cruel when they were at war.

Had some authentic Vietnamese coffee afterwards and then took a taxi to the general post office - Bun Dien T.P. - it was built in the 18 century during when Vietnam was still a colony of France.

When it comes to vacation, you'll find that time runs quickly. We headed to Square One of the Park Hyatt Hotel for Vietnamese dinner. The coconut drink, lamb chop, fresh scallops, river shrimps and the authentic spring rolls all deserved our big hands! If you consider local living standard, the dinner costed us a fortune 'cos we paid USD120. But with the good food and cozy environment, the price is reasonable.

My First London Journey (Sept 19 - 22, 2007)

It sounded funny if you know that I only stayed 1 night in London with 2 nights on the plane.

Similar to the previous Frankfurt journey back in July this year, I took a midnight flight from Hong Kong and arrived in the early morning. But the problem this time was that the room was not yet ready and thus I could only changed my clothes without any shower or wash-up before attending the loooong meeting in office. The 2nd difference this time was that I couldn't upgrade to business class and thus you can imagine that a tall boy like me wouldn't have good sleep on the plane.

After the real-long full day meeting, I had chance to stroll around the Oxford Street and Regent Street for an hour - which was nothing if you want to shop around! I then joined colleagues for dinner in local English pub before heading back to hotel.

The next day, I had a full English breakfast in hotel. Did some exercise by walking from hotel to underground with collleagues 'cos no taxi was around in the hotel. It gave me a good chance to try the pretty old London underground. The design of the train is pretty funny - in a round tube shape. Tall people shouldn't stand close to the doors or thei heads will be chopped off when the doors close.

After the half day meeting, colleagues had a Chinese dim sum lunch in the office. Then the Hong Kong crowd (5 people including me) and our Dubai colleague Lavina spent another 2 hours in Oxford Street and the Convent Garden area before heading back to office in which I surfed the web a bit.

That was it! A real short journey.

Good Business

For this Beijing journey, I'm staying in the same Traders Hotel that I spent a few nights several years ago. I recall that I had some yogurt in TCBY during that trip. I thought at that time that such shop wouldn't last for a year since that wouldn't be popular and thus not profitable in China. To my surprise, I see the shop just now in the same location of the shopping mall underneath the hotel.

Shops selling top fashion brands are everywhere in the shopping mall. The gap between the rich and poor is probably getting wider though on average people earn more and live a bit better than in the past.

Couldn't make up my mind for what to eat and thus I simply bought some sandwiches from Subway (almost same price as in Hong Kong!) for in-room dining. Cheers!

2nd Visit to Shanghai in 3 months

After the Shanghai visit in Jan this year, I spent another 3 days this week with my colleague Christy in Shanghai.

Grace (a HK colleague working in our Shanghai office) helped us book a room in Regal East Asia Hotel (a good one: clean & spacious) located in HengShan Road. Probably 'cos our rooms were booked via our office in Shanghai, we got upgraded to executive floor with a better room (thank you Grace for your help!)

We spent most of our time during office hours in a vendor's office located in Pudong . After work, I had a walk in Nanjing Road and the Bund ... had some Xiao Lung Bao (Steamed Soup Dumpling) ... Grace took us to Xiao Nan Guo 小南? for Shanghaiese cuisine on the 2nd day afternoon. We decided not to have Chinese food again on the 2nd night ... and had some Turkish food in Hengshan Road.

The more I see in China, the more I believe in the promising developments of China. People are getting more wealthy and no doubt people will have a higher spending power in the years to come. They're more concerned about quality lives ... that's why banks, insurance companies, shops selling luxurious stuff such as watches are everywhere. I'm just waiting for some good prices when I purchase some more stocks of the Bank of Communications, ICBC and Mengniu :) These three are my favourites for the time being ...