Shanghai

Our trip to Shanghai was about eating. Every day, I had a list of places to eat, and we'd usually overstuff ourselves at lunch so we couldn't be bothered to eat a big dinner. We met up with Joel, Elisa & her daughter Megan for the first few days, and it's always nice to see friends in a foreign land. Thanks to Joel's Shanghai guide, we got to see some great stuff:

• Walking to the local bao cart for breakfast each morning. On our last morning there, the cart was missing, and we even saw others asking for it. The baos we found on the food stall street nearby wasn't as good.
• Walking through People's Park on Sunday afternoon and seeing parents with homemade ads to marry off their kids. We were able to recognize heights and photos of houses and cars.
• Riding the maglev at 431 kph (269 mph).
• Eating massive meals at Din Tai Fung, Crystal Jade and Jade Garden.
• Going to the local favorite soup dumpling restaurant (Jia Jia Tang Bao) and then walking across the street to pick up fried soup dumplings (Yang's Fried Dumplings). JJTB is not as pretty nor consistent as Din Tai Fung (1 or 2 leaks out of 12), but tasty and good value. They run out of the pork filling early, but we liked the crab and pork dumplings. Yang's had stupidly good fried soup dumplings - crispy, gooey, chuy and soupy all in the same dumpling. The soup stayed hot even after our 10 minute walk back to the hotel.
• Going to the Chinese circus. Mindblowing even if you've seen a Cirque du Soleil.
• Showing Pete the Muji store. It's like a Container Store with Japanese sensibilities.
• Taking pictures on the glass floor of the Oriental Pearl Tower. It is somewhat unnerving, pretty impressed that Christine managed to get air for this photo:

From China 2011

China - Organization

In an organization fit last night, I mapped out all the places I wanted to eat at and see while in China. The red markers are for eating, and the blue ones are for sights. Shanghai looks to have amazing food and nothing to see (there are some duplicate restaurants), and Beijing is all sightseeing. The sad thing is that there is a Great Firewall in China, and my maps may not show up while I'm there.

Shanghai:

View Shanghai Map in a larger map


Beijing:

View Beijing Map in a larger map

Porto Alegre, Brasil

From Brazil 2011

Brazil is an amazing and interesting country. The people are friendly and beautiful, and they're so willing to take time out of their day to help you out, share their food and just make you feel welcome. I had amazing time here this week. (It really helps that I didn't have food poisoning this time around. Good start to the year!)

Some interesting things about Brazil:

• The largest population of Japanese people outside Japan.
• Lots of folks from Germany and Italy too. Many came here after the second world war.
• Incredibly complex tax structure in terms of calculation, exceptions, and flux. With 5,000 taxing authorities, it's estimated that a tax rule changes every 1.5 hours. (It's intriguing for me since I like the complexity and I enjoy thinking about how the government is driving behavior through incentives and taxes.)
• Very generous retirement benefits when you work for the government, and generous benefits for workers. My favorite is the 30 day vacation policy - you're paid an additional 33% of salary when you're on vacation, you're allowed to "sell" 10 days back to Dell, and the remaining 20 days are sold back to Dell at double the rate. Managers have an incentive to make sure their employees take vacation. Oh, and you get an extra month's pay in December. (The high tax and costs of living really eats into the perks. The same car as mine costs almost twice as much in Brazil.)
• Folks at Dell are interested in practicing their English. Several folks mentioned something about this. While they learn English in school, many have private tutors. I was surprised when my colleague described her trip to Miami and New York as very fun and "a good chance to practice my English."

Out with the Old and In with the New

Perhaps I'm naive, but I thought there wouldn't be as much travel for me this year as last year. I still don't think I'd do over 100K miles in 6 months. However, it's the second weekend of January, and here I am on another trip.

Well, on my last flight from Taiwan, the TSA brutalized my luggage enough that I had to purchase a new carry-on. Ten years ago, I bought my Dakota Metro after spending 15 minutes at the Bag 'n' Baggage store at the mall. This time, I spent hours researching the best brands and models, agonized over 2 vs 4 wheels and hard case vs cloth. Some requirements:

• Big enough for a week-long trip with work and workout clothes.
• International carry-on (20" length).
• Durability. It sucks to drag along a broken suitcase when you're thousands of miles from home. For some reason, emotions get amplified the further you are from home.
• Ability to sit atop the luggage. I like to sit on it when I'm waiting around - either in a line somewhere or just before I board the plane. I try not to be gate lice, but there are times when I arrive a few minutes beforehand.

As long as the hard-cased 4-wheelers have been out, I wasn't sold on the durability. So, I went with a Briggs and Riley Transcend 20" Wide Body. Since B&R have a true lifetime warranty, I figured they'd have to build bags to last and learn from their mistakes. I was concerned about going from a 22" to 20", but I'm short and my inseam makes it easy to fit pants folded in half. Also, I can use the extra space on the wide body to store my travel food (Jane snacks during the week and the random packaged food when I return).

Strange that I have an entire post dedicated to my luggage, but it's important when it's your traveling companion for weeks (or months) on the road.

More Travel Tips

I'm jetlagged and waiting for breakfast, so some more travel tips that I've picked up.

• If your hotel room requires a key in a slot to turn on the lights - any card (or a piece of cardboard) will work. You should be able to use old key cards. I believe in turning off the lights, but sometimes I want to keep the lights/computer on if I'm headed to the gym for a bit.
• Colgate Wisp "toothbrushes." They don't require rinsing or spitting, and you can give yourself a quick brush in your plane seat. (I think it'd also be awesome in T2 of an Iron-distance triathlon.)
• Global Entry. If you do a lot of international travel and you live in the US, it may be worth your while to apply for the Global Entry pass. You basically get to breeze through the Global Entry quick-entry (and get your family to the front of their respective lines) at immigration.
• TripIt. Website, iphone, blackberry and android apps. Forward your itinerary and TripIt parses the information. Great to organize multiple friends traveling or even for your own travels. Just use the free version. (iPhone and Blackberry get AMEX integration)
• For packing and security tips, just watch Up in the Air.

Trail Run and Dumplings

Sometimes, I wish I had packed differently. Yesterday, I really wanted trail running shoes, a water bottle with some nutrition in it and my camera.

Regan and I went on a Taiwan hash run through some tea and beetle-nut plantations in the mountains outside Taipei. It was hilly, humid and muddy, so the run lasted twice as long as we expected. All I wanted was water and nutrition. Every time we went up an extended uphill, we were rewarded with gorgeous views of lush mountains with just a touch of fog. Those were the camera moments. After tons of steep downhills, sliding down dirt, using bamboo to stop the momentum (once even dangling off a tree trunk with both legs in the air), I finally ate it on some mossy rock. I should have known better, but it's been a while since I've been on trail - especially with cushy road shoes. It was a big fall - massive bruise on my shin and some good scrapes.

From Asia 2010

Aside from the gorgeous views, the run had the side effect of ramping up my appetite. (I can't remember the last time I spent over an hour running/walking.) So, we went to Din Tai Fung to order their famous steamed dumplings. We got there early for dinner, so our wait for the table was only 25 minutes. (Taipei is one of the most densely populated urban areas, so there's always a wait for famous things). The wait was well worth it, and we spent the next hour stuffing ourselves full of dumplings, spicy wontons and noodles. Best dumplings ever.

From Asia 2010

From Asia 2010

Road Warrior & Mileage Run

Somehow without expecting it, I've become a road warrior in the second half of this year. I've done trips here and there in the first half, but the bulk of the miles started with the 'round the world trip late June. I didn't realize how much I was gone until I saw the chart from TripIt last night.

On the other hand, I saw that I was soo close to Executive Platinum (EXP), I decided to to a mileage run by flying from Austin to Nashville, and then from Nashville to Dallas to Tokyo to Taiwan. I had to do the Austin to Nashville leg to get enough mileage on American. The benefits make absolutely no sense to someone who doesn't travel much, but I've spent more time on airplanes than on my bike this past year and it does matter.

Just on this trip alone, some of the nicer things the airline folks have done for me:

• On the BNA-DFW flight, the attendant gave me a liter bottle of water because the flight between DFW-NRT was so long. I'm nicely hydrated now.
• On the DFW-NRT flight, the gate agent moved me to another window seat since the lady next to the original seat had a baby. As it turns out, no one was next to me on the flight, so I had two seats to myself!
• If I book enough in advance, I usually get premium seating closer to the front. It's quieter, you feel less turbulence, and you get off the plane faster and beat the rush to immigration.

I chose Taiwan since my college-roommate is an expat here, Taiwan doesn't require a visa for US citizens, and I've been meaning to visit.