I'm in Berlin!

A couple pictures to start out ...The first is a picture of two Thai musicians that play each night in the hotel in Bangkok. The second is a picture of Gary Blough (VP of sales), me, and Juliet Lim (the marketing coordinator for Asia). I included the second picture so you would all remember what I look like (I'm the guy on the right).

So I arrived in Berlin about 7 a.m. this morning. This 3-time zone stuff is wierd. When I landed in Berlin it was 7 a.m. here, 1 p.m. in Bangkok, and 11 p.m. -- the day before -- at home in Salt Lake City. My body is so confused! The other body confusion -- going from 93 degrees to 35 degrees.

Berlin is cool. Lots of history. I'll get some good pictures. I'm going to work in the morning and then go see some sites in the afternoon.

Back in Bangkok...I had a lengthy gospel/church discussion with a partner from the Philippines. A couple of funny things that happened to me:

-- I sat next to a partner from Vietnam at dinner. I told him I was from Utah. His question, "how many wives do you have?"

-- I golfed with a partner from China. We are driving the cart along the course when he said, "I only prayed twice this year." My thought, "hmmm...does he want to talk religion?" Then I realized he only "played" golf twice this year.

-- The same Vietnamese partner kept telling the waiter, "I want my pear." The pear never came and it was because they didn't know what he was asking for. Finally, he stood up, went over to another table, pointed at the other guy's "beer" and repeated, "I want my pear."

-- This last one had me biting my lip. In a meeting with a partner (can't remember where he was from, I think it might have been Korea), in a very serious tone he said, "My plan has four farts. Fart one....Fart two....Fart three..." You get the idea:-)

I can only imagine what I sound like to others when I try to speak other languages.

I hope you are all safe and doing good. I love you and miss you. Oh good news...I come home next Thursday, not next Friday! Yeah!!!! Watch for more blogging tomorrow.

Morning on the last day in Bangkok

Yesterday was a good day. I didn't blog last night because I was so tired. Our conference lasted all day. I presented twice and those went well. Then we had a group dinner (there are about 75 of us at this conference -- a conference that we host for all of our resellers in Asia Pacific). I would definitely lose weight here. I had white rice and moved just about everything else around on my plate. I also had a serious allergy attack to something in the air. It was bad. Now after a benedril and a night's sleep, I'm fine.

Today we have one on one meetings with the resellers, our awards dinner, and then I fly out to Berlin just before midnight.

I was talking with someone yesterday. Bangkok has 15 million people (7 times the number of people in the state of Utah). We talked about how the enjoyment of living here would be completely dependent on how much money you made. The disparity between the people is so stark. There are beautiful modern malls and hotels and then there are tiny dirty slums. There doesn't seem to be much in between. There are a lot of street vendors. They work seven days a week, 12 hours a day, for very little money. It is sad to see. That said, I admire them greatly. They aren't begging, they are working. I'm sure just to make enough to feed their families.

I saw an elephant in the road last night. Weird.

Here are three more pics (I haven't done a very good job at taking pictures to share).

The first is the hotel. It is very nice and very modern. The second is the Thai woman who works on the hotel at the guest lounge. She opens the elevator for you, says good morning, asks you if you need anything, etc. (man, I sound spoiled). She didn't smile in the picture, but they call Thailand the land of 1000 smiles. The people are always smiling. The third pic is the busy Bangkok street.

I need to go get ready. I love you all and miss you!!!!

Bangkok -- Day 2

Okay a quick post then I'm off to bed. Today was the golf tournament. We finished second -- but there were only four teams. It was fun. I'll post some pics later. My foursome had a guy from China, a guy from Taiwan, and a guy from Malaysia. A nice cultural mix.

Tonight was one of those "smooze" dinners that I hate so much. The funniest part was the band. Cracks me up to hear Asians singing 70's pop songs in English:-) I'll bet I lose weight on this trip. Just not a lot of Tai food that I like. So I typically find something that I do like and I fill up on that.

Tomorrow I present twice. Both are easy subjects, so it should go fine.

One final thing. When you go to blogspot here it is all written in Tai. It took me awhile to "guess" what to click on to get logged in. Pretty weird.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I miss you all and love you. Have a great day!

Bangkok -- I've Arrived!

Wow. Quite the trip. Door to door, it was 30 hours and 40 minutes. Time in the air was just under 22 hours. Something just isn't right when you have two nighttimes during a single trip. Almost 3 hours SLC to Cinncinatti. 8 1/2 to Frankfurt. 11 to Bangkok. I think I slept for about 4 hours on the way to Frankfurt (had a row of three seats to myself), but no sleep to Bangkok. Slept for a couple hours here at the hotel. It is now 5:30 in the afternoon and I feel pretty good!

I got here early enough that I thought I could get to church. I found a ward that meets at 1 pm and it was english speaking. But...it was 45 minutes away and getting around Bangkok is not easy. Plus I wasn't sure I could get back. So I had to miss it.

The one thing I'd forgotten about Bangkok from my last trip is how friendly these people are. They are always smiling and are just plain nice! The hotel is one I've stayed in before. It is beautiful and the service is amazing. To check you in, they take you to your room, show you everything, make sure it is all acceptable.

This trip was certainly hard to pack for. It will be 93 degrees in Bangkok tomorrow. I fly to Berlin on Wednesday night. It will be 30 degrees there. :-) Tomorrow is going to be a really hard day for me -- it's the golf tournament. I know, rough life, but you just have to make some sacrifices.

So for some pics...

This is one of two large statues at immigration. It is about 50 feet tall.

This is a gift the hotel presented me with when I arrived. It is made out of flowers. It is really cool. Not sure what you do with it, but it's cool!

These last three pics -- the first is downtown Bangkok, from my 32nd floor hotel window. The next is the city market. Finally, a tok-tok, which is a form of taxi.

Two pictures worth posting

A quick post to share two pics with you...

This first one is amazing -- Robyn is a kid! It must be the lighting or camera angle. She couldn't have been that young when we got married. I, on the other hand, am quite mature looking. The other funny thing is that just like her own daughter, Stephanie always wanted Mommy.

This second pic is one that I took of Kenzi in Oxford, England. I love it! It is so Kenzi and so "British."