Tokyo was a blast. Alas all good things must come to an end. Even though this grand adventure is coming to an end I think all of us on the trip are ready for a break. We got to our hotel in Tokyo just before midnight on Tuesday. It was a really long day. What should have been a two hour flight was a whole day of traveling; I guess all good things just come with a sacrifice.
Wednesday was the longest day that we had on the whole trip. I got up at 4:45 am to get ready. We were supposed to meet at 5:30 am to catch a 6:00 am train. So Jon and I decided to be smart and get breakfast at McDonalds. Well it turned out there wasn’t a train when we thought. So they gave us time to get breakfast… too bad I got up early to take care of that! From there we took a two and a half hour train ride to Nagoya. On the train ride we went right by Mount Fuji. That was really cool. Once in Nagoya we got on a bus and went to the Toyota factory. The visit was a great experience. One thing that made it nice was that we had already been to GM and their production facility in China. Toyota is a special company. They are world renowned for their efficiency. After visiting their plant I can see why. They blew GM out of the water. The Plant that we visited is in Toyota City. It was only one of a dozen or so other plants that they have their. They have a very centralized model where all their plants and their suppliers’ plants are located within a close range of their plant. They only keep between two to four hours of inventory in their plants so they are constantly receiving new shipments of parts from hundreds of suppliers. Their plant was a beautiful orchestration of man and machine. In GM’s assembly plant there were only two robots. In Toyota’s there were dozens. In GM they just used a lot of labor. Toyota went to great efforts to make sure that the workers were happy and content with their job. They didn’t cause their jobs to be more strenuous than needed. Toyota used an army of robots to automatically deliver the proper part at the right workstation just at the right time. It is amazing to see these robots move parts around to the exact place they are needed right when they are needed. With this model they can build multiple models on the same line in any order that they want.
After Toyota we got back on a bus and then took another train to Kyoto, the old Capital of Japan. Kyoto was cool. There are a lot of cultural and historical sites. It was fun however, we got there late in the afternoon and all the cultural sights we went to were closed so we could only see them from the outside. We went to the old imperial palace and to a pagoda. Had a nice Japanese meal then a three hour train ride home.
Thursday was our last day of having to wear suits in Asia!!!!! w00t!!! We started off by going to another DHL. This was our third DHL visit. Each visit has been to a different side of DHL. We visited their logistics facility where they do in sourcing for Cisco. It was a really interesting to hear one of these companies talk about taking over certain parts of the supply chain for larger companies. For Cisco they are responsible for the shipping and return of units and a little bit of reverse logistics. We then went to our last business visit of the trip at Seiyu. Seiyu is Wal-Mart in Japan. This was the second time we had visited Wal-Mart. We visited them in China. It is interesting to see the different challenges that they are facing in the different cultures. At this visited we focused on marketing. This was our only true marketing visit. They talked about how hard it has been for them to get the ’Everyday Low Price’ concept to work in Japan. The Japanese people expect the highest quality; they like brand names and are willing to pay for most. They didn’t understand the concept the non high-low market scheme. It was fun to hear how some of the marketing techniques used in the United States weren’t as widely accepted there. Such as price comparison and price matching. Wal-mart used both there for the first time and at first the ads and had a bit of shock value. They went out on a limb with significant risk and it is starting to pay off. They are the seventh largest retailer in Japan and only have 1% market share. However, they are growing. There is definitely a hint of arrogance in their minds of how they are the largest elsewhere and use that leverage to help them in Japan. One of the people in our meeting was new to Japan and was formerly then VP over electronic purchasing. I asked her about electronics in Japan and she made a comment about how with Wal-mart and Sam’s Club combined they are the largest electronic retailer in America? Is it true I don’t know? It is possible. After Seiyu we got to go to the temple! That was exciting. About half the group decided to go. We did a session and I got to do it in Tagalog! That was exciting. It is good to know that I still have it. I have got to keep up on it. There were a few words that took me a while to remember.
Friday was our last real day in Asia so we decided to live it up. We had class at 7:30 and then were off for the day. It ended up being Derek, Emma, Heidi, Jon, and me. We had a blast. This may have been the most fun day I had on the whole trip. After class we went off to the Diet building (the government buildings). They wouldn’t let us in because we are America but we took some pictures then went to a nice garden across the street. We then did something that everyone should experience in their lives. We went to a sumo wrestling match. It was so much fun. I don’t know how those Japanese people get to be so huge. The rest of the population is quite small in comparison. We went to the most popular Buddhist temple in Japan. After then we went off to the Tokyo Tower which is basically a red version of the Eiffel tower in Japan. Well we kind of got lost in transit and ended up in a Panasonic showroom where they had four floors of different displays. The top floor we found massage chairs, really nice ones. So we got impromptu massages : ) They also had this weird machine that would analyze your posture. So who is surprised that I have bad posture? Not me! After our short detour we took a twenty minute walk over to the Tokyo tower. On our way over we happened to stop and play in the park. The tower was really cool. It was just a red Eifel Tower in Tokyo. We went up to the 250 meter observatory and got a really good view of the Tokyo. I can see how 27 so odd million people live there. It is huge! The city just goes on and on. For the Tokyo tower we went to the Imperial Palace. It was closed so we just took pictures from outside. We then went back to the Ginza District and went to the Sony showcase store. That was cool. I love electronics. To complete our night we had to have dinner at a Japanese place. It was so good. I just wish I spoke Japanese. At night we did probably the coolest thing ever. We went to a Japanese karaoke parlor. It was so fun. I didn’t think we would have as much fun as we did. We ended up singing for an hour and half.
Alas all good things must come to an end. Saturday we went home. Long flights. I think in a lot of ways most of us were ready to go home and have a break. I know I was ready for a rest. I wouldn’t of traded the trip for anything it was so worth it.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Beijing
Beijing just flew on by. Time is so relative. The night train was a blast! While it was fun after 14 hours we were all really to move one to something else. That something else was to do something that I have always wanted to do! We went to the Great Wall of China. I think everyone wants to see the great wall during their life time. It was something I know that I always wanted to do. It is absolutely phenomenal. Pictures do not give the wall justice. Beijing is a very heavily polluted city. When we got there it was really smoggy. To be honest it was more of what I expected there and in Shanghai but up until that point we had been blessed with good weather. As we were driving up the mountains to get to the great wall it was still super smoggy. We were all a little sad because it made seeing the wall a little more difficult. To complicate the situation my stomach was going me problems. We got there and there are two ways up the wall. We decided to do the steeper but less traveled side. It was incredible. I cannot image building the wall on top of mountains. I had a hard enough time getting up the wall. It really goes on for as far as the eye can see. While we were up there the wind really picked up which pushed all the smog clear out. It was so pretty. It just keeps going and going and going. After basically running up both sides of the wall we went back to the hotel. We decided to go to the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube. It was really fun to go and see the Olympic sites all lit up at night. It really brought back the memories of watching the Olympics on TV.
Sunday we woke up and went to church here in Beijing. It was really nice. Church is the same no matter where you are in the world. It is amazing. Sunday was a busy day after church. We went to the Forbidden City. I never realized how large it is. It really can be a city within its self. It is huge. Across the street from the Forbidden City is Tiananmen Square. That was cool to go there. There isn’t much to see but it is just one of those things that you have to do. We then continued the sightseeing by going to the Temple of Heaven. It was really cool. It is fun to go to all these places that you see on the tourist guides, in history books, and on the internet. That night we found some Chinese place to eat that had some delicious banana fritters.
Monday was one of those long and tiring days. We got up early and had class :- { We then went on a subway adventure to our first business visit at Caterpillar. It is really hard to get somewhere in a taxi if you are given the wrong map and address. After being late we finally found Caterpillar. Once we were done there we made the two plus hour trek across town to the Cummins Emissions Solutions plant. We were only an hour late. They build diesel catalytic converters. This is no sweat shop . It is almost a completely automated plant. It only requires ten people to run. Monday night we hit some markets and then went to a super cool weird food market. Amazing. There were so many things that really didn’t deserve to be a on a stick. Thankfully I am too big of a wuss to eat some of those things.
Tuesday is just a fun willed day of flights to Tokyo. You would think that going from Beijing to Tokyo would be fairly quick. It should be however, BYU is silly and booked our flights with a layover in Hong Kong to add about five hours to travel time. Once we got to the Beijing Airport we also found that our Honk Kong Tokyo flight was canceled. Oh the adventures of traveling. It is crazy I am less than a week from being home.
Sunday we woke up and went to church here in Beijing. It was really nice. Church is the same no matter where you are in the world. It is amazing. Sunday was a busy day after church. We went to the Forbidden City. I never realized how large it is. It really can be a city within its self. It is huge. Across the street from the Forbidden City is Tiananmen Square. That was cool to go there. There isn’t much to see but it is just one of those things that you have to do. We then continued the sightseeing by going to the Temple of Heaven. It was really cool. It is fun to go to all these places that you see on the tourist guides, in history books, and on the internet. That night we found some Chinese place to eat that had some delicious banana fritters.
Monday was one of those long and tiring days. We got up early and had class :- { We then went on a subway adventure to our first business visit at Caterpillar. It is really hard to get somewhere in a taxi if you are given the wrong map and address. After being late we finally found Caterpillar. Once we were done there we made the two plus hour trek across town to the Cummins Emissions Solutions plant. We were only an hour late. They build diesel catalytic converters. This is no sweat shop . It is almost a completely automated plant. It only requires ten people to run. Monday night we hit some markets and then went to a super cool weird food market. Amazing. There were so many things that really didn’t deserve to be a on a stick. Thankfully I am too big of a wuss to eat some of those things.
Tuesday is just a fun willed day of flights to Tokyo. You would think that going from Beijing to Tokyo would be fairly quick. It should be however, BYU is silly and booked our flights with a layover in Hong Kong to add about five hours to travel time. Once we got to the Beijing Airport we also found that our Honk Kong Tokyo flight was canceled. Oh the adventures of traveling. It is crazy I am less than a week from being home.
Shanghai 2
Well time keeps flying by. I cannot believe that I am home in just a week and half. Wow. Shanghai has been amazing.
Thursday was a super busy and fun day. We got up early to catch a train to Su Zhou. Su Zhou is about a 45 minute train ride outside of Shanghai. It is a suburb of Shanghai. We went out there for one reason and one reason only. In Su Zhou they have water cities. They call it the Vince of Asia. It is an old town that has rivers and canals flowing through it. It was super pretty. We took a Chinese boat ride around the town. It really has now turned into a tourist attraction. There were a lot of pretty gardens and temples. After the gardens we went pearl shopping again. Then we went back to Shanghai. Once we got back to the city we were supposed to go and pick up our suits that we had made. Only three of us had to go so we split up. Well the three of us went out of the station a different way. That was a big mistake. We ended up coming out in the ghetto. We got to see the real Shanghai. Like in most touristy cities as long as you stay in tourist locations of the city like looks nice and you feel safe. The ghetto is different. It took us twenty to twenty-five minutes before we found a major street and the whole time we were walking everyone just stared at us wondering what three white people were doing in that part of town. After we found a main street we spent another twenty minutes trying to find a taxi. By that time it was too late to go pick up our suits. So we went straight to the Chinese acrobat show. The acrobat show was one of the most amazing things that I have every seen. People are not supposed to be able to bend like they do. It is so amazing.
Friday was our last day in Shanghai. It was super busy. We started with class at 7 am grr. I don’t think class should be allowed that early especially since we had to have our bags packed before class started. We spent the majority of our day with Honeywell. I didn’t realize how expansive their company was. We started off in their turbocharger facility. Apparently they are the world largest manufacture of turbochargers. We spoke with them for a while then we took a tour of the turbocharger plant. It was really interesting to compare the scale of this plant compared to the GM plant. They almost aren’t comparable. After the Honeywell plant we went to their Asian headquarters. They fed us and amazing lunch then they talked for an hour and a half. I feel really bad sometimes when everyone is starting to fall asleep. Some of the people are really good at engaging us then the others just talk and when they just talk people start dosing. With as little sleep as we get combined with how much we are doing sometimes we just crash. Even I have a hard time not having my head bob a little (which is really surprising to anyone that knows me). After Honeywell we went and got our suits and then got some delicious dumplings and did a little shopping then called it a wrap for Shanghai. We took the bus to the train station to take a night train to Beijing. A bunch of white people caring their luggage on public transportation is always a sight to see. The night train has actually been an adventure. We are all in the same car. Our beds are stacked three high and in open compartments. So it is us and all the other Chinese people all just chilling in this car. My experience is has been an even greater adventure. When got on the train there was a Chinese woman in my bed. Talk about awkward! The even more awkward was that both our tickets were assigned to that same bed. It took us a while to figure out what happened. We both were actually assigned to that bed but she was supposed to be in it the next night. She had gotten on the train a day earlier. So she eventually moved and found a bed somewhere else on the train. I am just glad I didn’t have to stay up all night or share a bed. The beds are not the softest things in the world but since in I like sleeping on the floor I slept amazing. I actually got more sleep on the train that have any other night on the trip. I wish the plane home was like this. It was really nice to not have to wake up at any specific time. The bathroom on the train is actually quite funny. It is just a squatter. But the funny part is that it is just a whole in the ground and it all falls down on the train tracks. You’ve got to love Asia!
Thursday was a super busy and fun day. We got up early to catch a train to Su Zhou. Su Zhou is about a 45 minute train ride outside of Shanghai. It is a suburb of Shanghai. We went out there for one reason and one reason only. In Su Zhou they have water cities. They call it the Vince of Asia. It is an old town that has rivers and canals flowing through it. It was super pretty. We took a Chinese boat ride around the town. It really has now turned into a tourist attraction. There were a lot of pretty gardens and temples. After the gardens we went pearl shopping again. Then we went back to Shanghai. Once we got back to the city we were supposed to go and pick up our suits that we had made. Only three of us had to go so we split up. Well the three of us went out of the station a different way. That was a big mistake. We ended up coming out in the ghetto. We got to see the real Shanghai. Like in most touristy cities as long as you stay in tourist locations of the city like looks nice and you feel safe. The ghetto is different. It took us twenty to twenty-five minutes before we found a major street and the whole time we were walking everyone just stared at us wondering what three white people were doing in that part of town. After we found a main street we spent another twenty minutes trying to find a taxi. By that time it was too late to go pick up our suits. So we went straight to the Chinese acrobat show. The acrobat show was one of the most amazing things that I have every seen. People are not supposed to be able to bend like they do. It is so amazing.
Friday was our last day in Shanghai. It was super busy. We started with class at 7 am grr. I don’t think class should be allowed that early especially since we had to have our bags packed before class started. We spent the majority of our day with Honeywell. I didn’t realize how expansive their company was. We started off in their turbocharger facility. Apparently they are the world largest manufacture of turbochargers. We spoke with them for a while then we took a tour of the turbocharger plant. It was really interesting to compare the scale of this plant compared to the GM plant. They almost aren’t comparable. After the Honeywell plant we went to their Asian headquarters. They fed us and amazing lunch then they talked for an hour and a half. I feel really bad sometimes when everyone is starting to fall asleep. Some of the people are really good at engaging us then the others just talk and when they just talk people start dosing. With as little sleep as we get combined with how much we are doing sometimes we just crash. Even I have a hard time not having my head bob a little (which is really surprising to anyone that knows me). After Honeywell we went and got our suits and then got some delicious dumplings and did a little shopping then called it a wrap for Shanghai. We took the bus to the train station to take a night train to Beijing. A bunch of white people caring their luggage on public transportation is always a sight to see. The night train has actually been an adventure. We are all in the same car. Our beds are stacked three high and in open compartments. So it is us and all the other Chinese people all just chilling in this car. My experience is has been an even greater adventure. When got on the train there was a Chinese woman in my bed. Talk about awkward! The even more awkward was that both our tickets were assigned to that same bed. It took us a while to figure out what happened. We both were actually assigned to that bed but she was supposed to be in it the next night. She had gotten on the train a day earlier. So she eventually moved and found a bed somewhere else on the train. I am just glad I didn’t have to stay up all night or share a bed. The beds are not the softest things in the world but since in I like sleeping on the floor I slept amazing. I actually got more sleep on the train that have any other night on the trip. I wish the plane home was like this. It was really nice to not have to wake up at any specific time. The bathroom on the train is actually quite funny. It is just a squatter. But the funny part is that it is just a whole in the ground and it all falls down on the train tracks. You’ve got to love Asia!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Shanghai
I cannot believe it but I am currently in main land China! China is so amazing. I cannot believe it. Shanghai is a lot more like what I believed Asia would be. Shanghai is by far the largest city I have ever been in. They say that here is between 17 and 23 million people that live here. Just think of 23 million people trying to live in Salt Lake Valley which is closely comparable to the geographic area of Shanghai. That is a lot of people. But it is only a scratch in the number of people that actually live in China. Can you believe that there are 1.3 billion people that live in China? That is 4 times as many people as the United States even though China and the continental United States are about the same size. Shanghai is the largest formal city in China. Shanghai is currently giving an extremely large push to be a global player in the market. Because of this they are investing huge amounts of money into the infrastructure here. There is so much road contrition that Utah looks like a nice place with little construction.We got into Shanghai on Friday afternoon. The airport that we went into was beautiful and new. It was exceptionally large. We got into the airport at an off peak time so our airport experience was painless, quick, and efficient. We are staying that that Renaissance hotel (very nice). The Hotel sent five people to meet us at the airport and then had a large fifty seater bus waiting for us. The airport is about 45 minutes to an hour outside of Shanghai. The drive into Shanghai was quite pleasant. Once we got into our hotel and checked in it was evening. We went straight to the fabric market to get suits made. Let’s just say that it was an expensive two hours : ) about two blocks from our hotel is a real touristy market. They have classic style Chinese buildings and the best dumplings in the world! Seriously they are amazing!
We did a little shopping then we walked down to a place right on the river. The city is divided into two parts, the new and the old. The river divides the city into the two parts. Along the river is the Bund which is a really famous old part of town. About 70 or 80 years ago Europe had a larger influence here in Shanghai so there are a bunch of European type buildings that are really pretty on the water front. However, if you look across the river you see where the new meets the old. China is making such a strong push to become modern. Across the river ten to fifteen years ago it was just rice fields now it is the financial center or Shanghai with skyscrapers all across the horizon. They even have one of the world’s tallest buildings that will soon be beat out by the skyscraper in Dubai. The Chinese mean business. 
Shanghai is by far the most difficult city for us to get around so far. In all of the other cities they have had a much larger western influence. Most of them have been British colonies at some point or another. We have been able to speak English and get around just fine. Here if you don’t speak Mandarin you have a really hard time. Also the infrastructure is not nearly so good. However, I would only give them a few more years they are dumping buckets of money in here to build better subways, roads, and bridges. Sunday was a really fun day. It was fun because it was really relaxing. We had to leave the hotel at 7:00 am to get to church by 8:00 am. Church was really nice the spirit was strong.
After Church we went back to the hotel and just had a relaxing day. A lot of people are starting to get burnt out so it was nice to have a day where we can all go at our own pace. We got back to the hotel and decided that we wanted to eat (food is a good thing right?). Brother, Fawcett told us of a good restaurant that he liked. We had the hotel write down in Chinese the address so we could give it to the taxi driver. We got to the restaurant at 1:45 pm and they were going to close at 2:00 pm so they refused us service. So we were still really hungry so we walked down the street to this other restaurant. The funny thing is that we are not in the touristy parts of town at this point. We had been taken to the more urban parts of shanghai about twenty minutes from our hotel. We didn’t see a single foreigner the whole time we were down there. So the eight of us in this group went into this restaurant and no one spoke a lick of English in the restaurant. So they managed to get us seated and gave us all menus and they were all in Chinese and we had no idea what we were ordering. They had pictures so we all just kind of guessed. Well two people ended up ordering beers and I ordered what I thought to be fried fish/chicken. Oh no. Definitely not.
So when the lady brought it out she came out laughing. She put it down in front of me and then stood behind me to watch me eat it while she tried to hold back her laughing. Not only did she come to watch but three of the cooks from inside the kitchen came out to watch but couldn’t hold back the laughter. Well she didn’t put any fried chick or fish in front of me. It was this weird rice cake thing with this really weird slimy orange fishy type sauce on it. The rice cake seemed like it was made of weird Rice Crispy’s. Well let’s just say that it wasn’t very good. I left the restaurant very hungry still. Some of the other people’s food wasn’t too bad. Someone ordered spring rolls that seemed like they were filled with fish fat. To this day I have no idea what I ate but I think it is better that way. I really wish I would have learned Mandarin at this moment and time. After getting back to the hotel we went swimming which was quite amazing. The pool is located on the 22 nd floor, which is the top, and the edges of the pool are glass so you can see right out to the city. The view is amazing. We went and wandered the market. It was nice. 
Monday was a really busy day. We had two business visits. The first was with a company called Human Capital Group (HCG). HCG is a company started by a foreigner. It is amazing what a great blessing being a missionary is and having the opportunity to learn a language. A large number of businesses that we have visited have had LDS people working there because of their language skills and the level of integrity. This company is a Human Resource company started by a member that served in Taiwan. The company focuses on training and talent development. China is such an emerging market; however, one thing that multinational companies struggle with is that there is a lack of qualified local talent. Western business is much different than Asian business. They are trying to help multinational companies develop and find talent that will fit their needs. Our second visit was with Trust-Mart / Wal-mart. They guy we met with was also a Taiwanese missionary that is now the Asia-Pacific CFO. Wal-mart entered into China in 1996 and two years ago they bought a 35% stake in Trust-mart a Taiwanese based retailer. They now have almost 300 stores here in China between the two companies. It was really interesting to go to hear their story about coming into china and the things that they had to do to become a major player here in this region. We were able to walk through a Trust-Mart store and it was really nice a lot like Wal-mart just not as clean. Then they took us to a local wet market to allow us to compare. Let me just say that it was the cleanest wet market I have ever been in. Refrigeration, tile, and no open sewers. It was really interesting to hear different people react to the market. Those that had severed foreign missions were not terribly surprised; those that had never lived out of the country were shocked. I also was shocked but only because of the cleanliness of the market. What really surprised me the most was when I found out that I was the only missionary that actually bought from the markets. All of the other returned missionaries said that they would never shop at the markets but only at supermarkets. I guess that really shows how rural my mission was. After the wet market we went to an actual Wal-Mart. It really looked like a Wal-mart from the United States except for the China specific products. Wal-Mart, and amazing company. The rest of the night was pretty relaxing. We went and got our suits fitted, got delicious dumplings and a light night swimming with Shanghai as our back drop!
Tuesday was an incredibly busy day. We had full day with GM. It was really interesting. One of Brother Fawcett’s good friends is a man named Hugo Decampos. He is the Asia-Pacific electrical purchasing manager. We first went to his office and learned about how the purchasing of materials from suppliers works. It was incredibly interesting. He spoke of the 4,000 suppliers that GM has and how they have keep up their relationships up with all of those companies. It was really interesting to learn how brutal souring really can be. We discussed the different methods of negotiating, some of which are more kind than others. Then we discussed what is the best way to source materials, whether it is through enduring relationships of trust or just straight price. We didn’t come to any conclusions however, it should be interesting to compare with Toyota next week. After our discussion on purchasing and quick lunch we got to go to the GM manufacturing plant here in Shanghai. The plant is actually a joint venture between GM and local company to form Shanghai GM Company. Two weeks ago they cancelled our plant tour with them because of the recent outbreak of swine flu. With much negotiation we convinced them to allow us to come but on the condition that they would take our temperature upon entry to the facility. We showed up the plant and all was well. They let us in and we started our pre-tour discussion in one of their board rooms. However, about ten minutes later a Chinese lady came up and told us that we had to leave because one of us had a fever and they were canceling our whole tour. We asked who and they told us that it was Heidi Clark. They said they wouldn’t allow any one with a temperature over 37 C (98.6F). Her temperature was 37.6 C (99.6 F) not really a fever just a little warm. We then convinced them to try again twenty minutes later and her temperature reading was 37.2 C (98.96 F) (not much of a fever if you ask me since the temperature of people naturally varies. After twenty more minutes of convincing people we got them to let us all in but her. I think that just goes to show seriously they are taking the H1N1 (swine flu) virus here; however, non-logical 0.36 degrees F may be. The plant tour was pretty incredible. The plant is only 6 or so years old. They manufacture Buicks at this plant. I know you may be thinking why Buicks since it isn’t a very big market. In China Buick is huge. It is a very popular brand and a high-end luxury car. The plant was super cool I have seen them build cars on TV but there is something different about being in the building and seeing everything come together. We didn’t get to see robotic welding of the unibody or the paint shop however, we did get to see the rest of the assembly. We then made or way to the market. At the market we did an activity. We were split up in teams and were sent off to try and purchase different things using different techniques. It was really fun to see how the different teams were able to do according to the different techniques. We got second… grrrr! After our exercise I bought some pearls to make some people happy.
Wednesday: What an adventure. This one started early. We decided to go to Nanjing today as a group. That required us to get on a bus at 6:00 am that means getting up before that… well before that: ( Good thing I am a morning person. Too bad I am a night person and don’t like to go to bed at a decent hour. Since Shanghai is a more confusing city we have taken taxis everywhere, this morning we got to try to squish 23 people on a bus that was already full. It was fun. I like the Asian pushing experience. We then took a two and a half hour train to Nanjing. My first bullet train experience. It was nice and quite comfortable. It has really given me time to get caught up on my journal. Nanjing is a really cool city. It is a medium sized city with 8-10 million people. (Crazy that 8-10 million is only medium sized.) We got into the city and went to a park to hold our morning devotional and class. It was fun we were in a grove of trees and were singing Joseph Smith’s first Prayer in China. It was really pretty.
We then walked around the city for a while enjoying our surroundings but we were really trying to find a bus that didn’t exist. Once we discovered which bus we were supposed to take things improved. We went to an amazing museum called the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. It reminded me a lot of the Holocaust museum in Washington DC. It was all about the Japanese oppression of the Chinese over the past 100 years. This persecution reached its pinnacle right before WWII when Japan invaded China and started a mass massacre of the people. They ended up killing 200,000 people here in Nanjing and raping over 20,000 over a six week period. The museum was quite graphic and in reality quite depressing to see the brutality. The museum was so enlightening. Fortunately I am a big museum person. It really made you think about people and their interaction with others. It made me realized that if you don’t keep yourself in check you can get caught up in the moment. The museum was worth five hours of train rides. The museum was through the Chinese perspective, however, extremely enlightening. After the museum we went to a place called Purple Mountain.
This is a big park up in the mountains comprised of different temples and memorials place in a beautiful forest. First we went to mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. Yat-Sen was the person that really the person that started to bring the political revolution in China. The mausoleum is spectacular. However, like everything else of value it is located on top of a mountain, 392 steps to be exact. It makes me stop to wonder what I can do to get people to build a mausoleum for me! After the mausoleum we went to the Linggu Pagoda which gave us incredible views of the city, however, it as 250 stairs to the top. 
It was well worth the climb. Amazing views. We then went to the local market here in Nanjing for about an hour then we made with great haste to the train station. Barely making our train back to Shanghai. What a great day. What an adventure. Boy is this trying. 
Friday, May 8, 2009
Hong Kong
Friday, May 08, 2009
From one amazing city to the next! Hong Kong is a lot more of what I was expecting to see from Asia and from our different visits. Hong Kong reminds me a lot of New York except bigger and in Asia.
It is full of big buildings, there are people everywhere, it is slightly dirtier, and the people are super busy. I love it. I probably have said this about all the other cities but I would love to live here. We have been super spoiled with the language so far. Each city is getter poorer and poorer as far as English skills however; we are still able to get along just fine here in Hong Kong. The City goes on for as far as the eye can see here. It doesn’t just go on and on but it goes on and on with 40 story buildings. 
We got here on Tuesday about noon. Hong Kong is really scared on the H1N1 swine flu virus. They are extra precautious because of the large out break of SARS they are not making any of the same mistakes. At the airport I had to go through a special health screening section to make sure that I am not bring the virus with me. Which is silly because if I had it I would have been super sick by now but since I have been out of the country for over a week and a half and am not sick yet, it seems silly? 
After we got through customs and immigration we took at train and a bus to the YMCA. I was really worried about staying here at the YMCA. I truly thought that I was going to super ghetto here. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. The accommodations are really nice. We are in a room with four people with two bunk beds. It is really clean and nice. After we got to the hotel we dropped our luggage and turned right around to go to our business visit. We went to Le and Fung. They are a huge trading company. Their whole purpose is to be a middle man between the manufacture and the company that wants to manufacture a product. They provide services that help the company that wants to make a product from start to delivery. It was really interesting to hear them speak of all the things that they do in the supply chain. To give you an example rock band with made through them. 
After our visit to Le & Fung we got to do something super exciting. We got to go to the Hong Kong temple. The temple is in a really nice part of town. It was amazing to walk around the corner and see this 7 story temple. The building was absolutely gorgeous. In our group we have 6 girls that aren’t endowed so I volunteer to be cone of the 4 priesthood holders they needed to run the baptistery. It was a really neat experience to be able to perform the baptisms and confirmations. However, I really need to work on my reading of Chinese. I hope those people will forgive me for how I pronounced their names. After the temple we ended up going to a night market, however, we were in our suits still so we didn’t stand a chance at trying to barter with the people. Wednesday was a really fun morning. We started off the morning by going to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. That was exceptionally interesting. It was nothing like what I had expected. I really had no idea how a stock exchange functioned. One thing I did learn was that I do not want to a trader. What a terrible job, at least for me. The Hong Kong stock exchange is really just a façade. They said that only two percent of the trades happen on their trading floor. Most of their trades happen electronically from remote locations. It wasn’t anything like you see at the New York Stock exchange with people yelling. Here everyone was quietly sitting at their desk looking at their computer screen it was really not what I was expecting. 
Wednesday afternoon we went to the second largest Buddha in the world (formally the largest but someone built one bigger, they always do). It was really fun getting there. We road about 40 minutes out of the city then we took a 30 minute gondola ride up and over the mountain. It was beautiful. The gondola gave us unique views of the city and Victoria bay. After we got up and over the mountain we found this big Buddha. Guess what? It was big! It really was just built in my opinion to be a tourist attraction. It was really fun to go to. Then they had a really pretty monastery. That evening we went to Victoria Peak. That is probably one of the most stunning places I have every been in my life. It is a peak located on Hong Kong Island directly behind the city. To get up to the top of the peak you take a train/tram up to the top. This tram is intense it goes straight up the side of the mountain at 45 degree angle. However, the tram ride is not the amazing thing. The amazing thing is the view once you reach the top. We got up there at night now so we could see the city all lit up. The city goes on for as long as the eye can see. On top of the mountain they have build a beautiful observation deck that gives you 360 degree view of the island. I was especially surprised with the temperature atop the mountain. It was quite chilling especially with the wind. Victoria’s Peak was definitely a highlight of the Hong Kong visit.
Thursday was a busy day but who am I kidding every day is a busy day around here. We started the morning out with a visit to HIT (Hong Kong International Terminal). They run half of the cargo port here in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the third busiest port in the world if I am not mistaking. It was fairly amazing to take a tour around the port. They said that they have the capacity to have 100,000 containers at their facility at any given time. That is a lot. It was amazing to see giant ships docked and having four huge cranes. Once inside their administration building we got to see the computer system they used to operate the port. It is amazingly complex. It is required for it to be that complex or else there would be no possible way to accurately track the shipments. Adjacent to the HIT administration building DHL had a freight facility that we also visited. It was really interesting. The facility we visit was a subcontracted facility that DHL uses for their freight shipping that is odd shapes and sizes. At this facility they consolidate the shipments going to different locations around the world then pack them in containers to be shipped by sea. I was absolutely floored. The facility was fairly clean but not exceptionally organized. I was so surprised that their whole system was completely paper bases. The only way to know which pallet was what was piece of paper that was stapled on the outside of the pallet it the paper fell off they would have no idea what they product was and where it was going. It was also really interesting to see how poorly the product was handled. There were multiple pallets stacked two or three high and shouldn’t have any product placed on top and because of this the product on the bottom was being destroyed. Thursday afternoon we got lunch and took a brief stroll around town. One of the highlights was seeing the tower that Batman jumps out of in the Dark Knight. We officially named it the Batman building. We then took a ride in a junk. A junk is an old Chinese fishing boat. It was really fun to ride around the harbor in this old boat. After our junk ride we went to the Hong Kong light show… Amazing. The light show is done over the bay and is done in coordination between a bunch of different sky scrapers. Each building has lights on it that go on and off in sync with music it is pretty amazing.
After the light show we went to Ladies Market in Mong Kok. I have no idea why it is called Ladies Market but it is. That was fun to be able to barter some and to buy a few things. I didn’t buy too many things I am waiting until we get to China. I am expecting thing to be a lot cheaper there. Hong Kong is a large tourist destination so the people aren’t as willing to barter with white people.
Friday was a completely free day. We had a great time. A group of five of us went to off on a cultural adventure that turned out to be really fun. We first went to a place called Ten Thousand Buddha’s. I bet you can imagine what we found. I will be honest we did actually find ten thousand Buddha’s. The ten thousand were all little status in a monastery however; the monastery was located on top of a mountain and all the way up there were over five hundred unique life size statues of Buddha. It was quite the amazing sight. The really cool thing was that it wasn’t a big tourist attraction but instead a place that people actually went to worship. We were the only white people there. That was really neat. Then we went to a place called Monkey Mountain. You could also expect what we found there. However, it took us about an hour to find the monkeys. We ended up taking this pretty hike to reservoir.
On our way back a very nice lady showed us where the majority of the monkeys hang out which was a parking lot around the corner from where we were. Start monkeys. They go where the food is.
After we got our monkey fix we make the trek across town to an amazing place. The church has just built a 13 story church building in down town Hong Kong. The building has three chapels and houses the area presidency and their offices. It is pretty amazing. It is in a really nice part of town. I was just floored by the beauty and the great expense that the church must have expended for this building. I heard that it was the second most expensive building the church has built second to the conference center. I don’t know if that is true but I can only imagine how expensive it was considering the location in downtown Honk Kong.
After we got our monkey fix we make the trek across town to an amazing place. The church has just built a 13 story church building in down town Hong Kong. The building has three chapels and houses the area presidency and their offices. It is pretty amazing. It is in a really nice part of town. I was just floored by the beauty and the great expense that the church must have expended for this building. I heard that it was the second most expensive building the church has built second to the conference center. I don’t know if that is true but I can only imagine how expensive it was considering the location in downtown Honk Kong.
After seeing the church building we went to a restaurant called Fat Angelo’s. Fat Angelo’s is a famous Italian restaurant. It was fun we all went to this restaurant together. After dinner we went and watched the light show over Hong Kong harbor again. It was ways cool. Then we just went home to get ready to go to Shanghai.
From one amazing city to the next! Hong Kong is a lot more of what I was expecting to see from Asia and from our different visits. Hong Kong reminds me a lot of New York except bigger and in Asia.
It is full of big buildings, there are people everywhere, it is slightly dirtier, and the people are super busy. I love it. I probably have said this about all the other cities but I would love to live here. We have been super spoiled with the language so far. Each city is getter poorer and poorer as far as English skills however; we are still able to get along just fine here in Hong Kong. The City goes on for as far as the eye can see here. It doesn’t just go on and on but it goes on and on with 40 story buildings. 
We got here on Tuesday about noon. Hong Kong is really scared on the H1N1 swine flu virus. They are extra precautious because of the large out break of SARS they are not making any of the same mistakes. At the airport I had to go through a special health screening section to make sure that I am not bring the virus with me. Which is silly because if I had it I would have been super sick by now but since I have been out of the country for over a week and a half and am not sick yet, it seems silly? 
After we got through customs and immigration we took at train and a bus to the YMCA. I was really worried about staying here at the YMCA. I truly thought that I was going to super ghetto here. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. The accommodations are really nice. We are in a room with four people with two bunk beds. It is really clean and nice. After we got to the hotel we dropped our luggage and turned right around to go to our business visit. We went to Le and Fung. They are a huge trading company. Their whole purpose is to be a middle man between the manufacture and the company that wants to manufacture a product. They provide services that help the company that wants to make a product from start to delivery. It was really interesting to hear them speak of all the things that they do in the supply chain. To give you an example rock band with made through them. 
After our visit to Le & Fung we got to do something super exciting. We got to go to the Hong Kong temple. The temple is in a really nice part of town. It was amazing to walk around the corner and see this 7 story temple. The building was absolutely gorgeous. In our group we have 6 girls that aren’t endowed so I volunteer to be cone of the 4 priesthood holders they needed to run the baptistery. It was a really neat experience to be able to perform the baptisms and confirmations. However, I really need to work on my reading of Chinese. I hope those people will forgive me for how I pronounced their names. After the temple we ended up going to a night market, however, we were in our suits still so we didn’t stand a chance at trying to barter with the people. Wednesday was a really fun morning. We started off the morning by going to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. That was exceptionally interesting. It was nothing like what I had expected. I really had no idea how a stock exchange functioned. One thing I did learn was that I do not want to a trader. What a terrible job, at least for me. The Hong Kong stock exchange is really just a façade. They said that only two percent of the trades happen on their trading floor. Most of their trades happen electronically from remote locations. It wasn’t anything like you see at the New York Stock exchange with people yelling. Here everyone was quietly sitting at their desk looking at their computer screen it was really not what I was expecting. 
Wednesday afternoon we went to the second largest Buddha in the world (formally the largest but someone built one bigger, they always do). It was really fun getting there. We road about 40 minutes out of the city then we took a 30 minute gondola ride up and over the mountain. It was beautiful. The gondola gave us unique views of the city and Victoria bay. After we got up and over the mountain we found this big Buddha. Guess what? It was big! It really was just built in my opinion to be a tourist attraction. It was really fun to go to. Then they had a really pretty monastery. That evening we went to Victoria Peak. That is probably one of the most stunning places I have every been in my life. It is a peak located on Hong Kong Island directly behind the city. To get up to the top of the peak you take a train/tram up to the top. This tram is intense it goes straight up the side of the mountain at 45 degree angle. However, the tram ride is not the amazing thing. The amazing thing is the view once you reach the top. We got up there at night now so we could see the city all lit up. The city goes on for as long as the eye can see. On top of the mountain they have build a beautiful observation deck that gives you 360 degree view of the island. I was especially surprised with the temperature atop the mountain. It was quite chilling especially with the wind. Victoria’s Peak was definitely a highlight of the Hong Kong visit.
Thursday was a busy day but who am I kidding every day is a busy day around here. We started the morning out with a visit to HIT (Hong Kong International Terminal). They run half of the cargo port here in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the third busiest port in the world if I am not mistaking. It was fairly amazing to take a tour around the port. They said that they have the capacity to have 100,000 containers at their facility at any given time. That is a lot. It was amazing to see giant ships docked and having four huge cranes. Once inside their administration building we got to see the computer system they used to operate the port. It is amazingly complex. It is required for it to be that complex or else there would be no possible way to accurately track the shipments. Adjacent to the HIT administration building DHL had a freight facility that we also visited. It was really interesting. The facility we visit was a subcontracted facility that DHL uses for their freight shipping that is odd shapes and sizes. At this facility they consolidate the shipments going to different locations around the world then pack them in containers to be shipped by sea. I was absolutely floored. The facility was fairly clean but not exceptionally organized. I was so surprised that their whole system was completely paper bases. The only way to know which pallet was what was piece of paper that was stapled on the outside of the pallet it the paper fell off they would have no idea what they product was and where it was going. It was also really interesting to see how poorly the product was handled. There were multiple pallets stacked two or three high and shouldn’t have any product placed on top and because of this the product on the bottom was being destroyed. Thursday afternoon we got lunch and took a brief stroll around town. One of the highlights was seeing the tower that Batman jumps out of in the Dark Knight. We officially named it the Batman building. We then took a ride in a junk. A junk is an old Chinese fishing boat. It was really fun to ride around the harbor in this old boat. After our junk ride we went to the Hong Kong light show… Amazing. The light show is done over the bay and is done in coordination between a bunch of different sky scrapers. Each building has lights on it that go on and off in sync with music it is pretty amazing.
After the light show we went to Ladies Market in Mong Kok. I have no idea why it is called Ladies Market but it is. That was fun to be able to barter some and to buy a few things. I didn’t buy too many things I am waiting until we get to China. I am expecting thing to be a lot cheaper there. Hong Kong is a large tourist destination so the people aren’t as willing to barter with white people.
Friday was a completely free day. We had a great time. A group of five of us went to off on a cultural adventure that turned out to be really fun. We first went to a place called Ten Thousand Buddha’s. I bet you can imagine what we found. I will be honest we did actually find ten thousand Buddha’s. The ten thousand were all little status in a monastery however; the monastery was located on top of a mountain and all the way up there were over five hundred unique life size statues of Buddha. It was quite the amazing sight. The really cool thing was that it wasn’t a big tourist attraction but instead a place that people actually went to worship. We were the only white people there. That was really neat. Then we went to a place called Monkey Mountain. You could also expect what we found there. However, it took us about an hour to find the monkeys. We ended up taking this pretty hike to reservoir.
On our way back a very nice lady showed us where the majority of the monkeys hang out which was a parking lot around the corner from where we were. Start monkeys. They go where the food is. After we got our monkey fix we make the trek across town to an amazing place. The church has just built a 13 story church building in down town Hong Kong. The building has three chapels and houses the area presidency and their offices. It is pretty amazing. It is in a really nice part of town. I was just floored by the beauty and the great expense that the church must have expended for this building. I heard that it was the second most expensive building the church has built second to the conference center. I don’t know if that is true but I can only imagine how expensive it was considering the location in downtown Honk Kong.
After we got our monkey fix we make the trek across town to an amazing place. The church has just built a 13 story church building in down town Hong Kong. The building has three chapels and houses the area presidency and their offices. It is pretty amazing. It is in a really nice part of town. I was just floored by the beauty and the great expense that the church must have expended for this building. I heard that it was the second most expensive building the church has built second to the conference center. I don’t know if that is true but I can only imagine how expensive it was considering the location in downtown Honk Kong.
After seeing the church building we went to a restaurant called Fat Angelo’s. Fat Angelo’s is a famous Italian restaurant. It was fun we all went to this restaurant together. After dinner we went and watched the light show over Hong Kong harbor again. It was ways cool. Then we just went home to get ready to go to Shanghai.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Malaysia
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Malaysia is amazing! After our bus ride we made it to Kuala Lumpur. This country truly reminds me of the Philippines; the weather, the people, the diversity, even the language. Malaysia is pretty much the same distance from the equator as is the Philippines. Everything is so green here. I truly love the diversity that is here. Malaysia in my opinion is a little better off than the Philippines. They seem to be doing a little better economically. Singapore was a fairly well organized city; Kuala Lumpur is fair less organized. They don’t seem to have quite everything figured out. I remember my father saying that in India you would have one really nice building then you would have a shack and trashy building right next to it. I found that to likewise be true. 
There are some really modern and beautiful buildings here then there are plenty of shacks. The diversity from the Petronas towers formally the tallest buildings in the world to the shacks a few corners away. The people are also quite diverse here in Malaysia as they were in Singapore. However, Malaysia does not have the same acceptance that Singapore has. Malaysia is a Muslim country. Islam is the national religion. They are tolerable of other religions however everything in their lives is affected by the religion. Muslims have Muslim names to differentiate themselves as do the Hindus. That way when you talk to any one person the instant you hear their names you can associate them with their religion. Each Malaysian is required to have an identification card. On their identification card it specifically says what your religion is and in your identification number it corresponds to different religions so that there is instant recognition of what religion you belong to. It has been really fun here in Malaysia. Tagalog is distant relative to the language here in Malaysia. There are many words that are similar or even the same. The whole structure and majority of words completely different, however, everywhere that I go I see words that I know whether they mean the same things or not. The first word that recognized was on our way into the country and we stopped at a rest stop. At the rest stop I went to the bathroom and the word for male is the same in English and Tagalog. I have been able to see a plethora of word that are similar and it just makes me want to go back to the Philippines even that much more. Our hotel in Kuala Lumpur was the best hotel we are staying at on the whole trip it was a Sheraton Imperial Hotel. It was really nice. It is going to be kind of hard staying at the YMCA in Hong Kong after that. Once we got into Kuala Lumpur in the afternoon they set us loose on the city. : ) 
From that point we went to the outskirt of town to the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves are some large natural caves us in a mountain side. They aren’t exactly pretty such as the Timpanogas caves. While they have stalactites and stalagmites, the true beauty is the grandeur and sheer size of the caves. To get up into the caves you have to climb 272 stairs. (While you may be wondering how I know it is 272 I can say that I am not that paranoid even though I know how many stairs up to BYU campus they just happened to number them for me.) The caves were actually a Hindu shrine. (if shrine is the right word?) It was really pretty and I definitely can say I am getting cultured. After the Caves we went to the KL Tower here in Kuala Lumpur and it is a lot like the stratosphere in Las Vegas. It was really pretty on the top of the tower to be able to see out over the city. After the tower we walked down to the Petronas towers and took some pictures (the Petronas towers are the famous Malaysian towers). The next day was Sunday. Sunday was a really nice relaxing day. We went to church here at the Branch for the city. I was really impressed with the way that the branch ran. It was surprisingly well organized. There was a lot more people that the branch that I expected. I think the most interesting this is that the majority of the people were not Malaysian. There were a surprising number of people that were foreigners. Church was fun. The Branch President’s wife was a Filipina. So I was able to talk to here. One of the other students (Jon) on the trip served in the Philippines. He served in the southern part of the Philippines in the Cebu mission so he speaks a different language. However, we both just jump at the chance to be able to speak with and talk with Filipinos. The branch asked us to put on a fireside for their youth. The fireside wasn’t required for us. However, I was so grateful that I went. At the fireside I sang “I am a Child of God” in Tagalog along with a few other return missionaries in their own languages. I messed up the words of the last line but oh well. Brother Fawcett gave a very interesting fireside. It wasn’t your normal run of the mill fireside it was completely interactive and great for the youth there. As I was sitting there I was reminded of the vast reaches of the church. The church truly is everywhere in the world. While it is still in its infancy here there is so much potential for growth. Here in the branch there are three sets of missionaries here. The interesting thing is that the missionaries aren’t allowed to wear their name tags in public only at church. They aren’t allowed to wear them because it is a Muslim country. I spoke with one of them and they mentioned that they aren’t allowed to teach Muslims (neither were we). After church and the fireside we were able to spend the evening out sight seeing. We went out and visited the Sultan Abdul Samad Building and to the Merdeka Square. The Merdeka Square is where Malaysia received its independence. 
After a visiting those sights we wanders town to get the true feel for Kuala Lumpur and then we road the monorail around the city at night to get a feeling for the city at night time. Monday was probably the best day that we have had so far on the trip. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. We started the morning off early by going to the US Embassy. One of the members of the branch is the Assistant Post Master at the Embassy and her husband is one of the military Officers stationed here. It was really interesting to go to the Embassy and see how it runs. I had never really understood how an Embassy ran. It was very informative. I really enjoyed it. They also had a few outside organizations come and talk to us about setting the procedure and processes of starting and running a business in Malaysia. 
After the Embassy we went to Dell. Dell we quite the amazing visit. Dell is located about a half hour outside of Kuala Lumpur in an economic zone called Cyberjaya. This is an area the Malaysia has built in hopes to attract large companies such as Dell, HP, Intel, and other such countries. Malaysia wanted Dell to come so badly that they built a huge 4 story building for Dell at with a 15 year rent free lease for Dell. The only condition is that they want Dell to insure 1500 job for the next 15 years. That is a pretty good deal. 95% of dell laptops are manufactured here in Malaysia, however, they are manufactured a couple hours north in Penang. This facility is a Services facility. When I say that I mean they just provide services for the facility. They are consolidating their data warehouses and this is going to be one of five for them. They are also starting to get into the business of hosting so they are creating extra space for this service. One of man functions here at this facility is their internal computer support. This is currently one of two global help desks. I was really surprised with Dell. They help desk was organized but not nearly as organized as I thought it would be. I was expecting something more impressive. In our meeting with Dell we met with the senior management for Dell at this facility. I was extremely impressed with the caliber of people they have at this facility. It is led by a lady named Bobby Dangerfield. Anyone with a name like that you have to expect wonderful things from! I was so impressed by the people and what they were trying to accomplish. It was really interesting to hear them speak about the struggles that they are having. 
After Dell we went to a place called Inti University. It is a chain of 10 private universities for profit here in Malaysia. They were recently bought by a large global company that owns over 100 universities worldwide for profit. This visit was exceptionally interesting. The universities here in Malaysia are headed by a Utahan that started a little university in Utah about 10 years ago. The concept of his college is that currently the education system doesn’t prepare students to enter into the work field. He feels that there is a break in the system. His idea is to change the whole way of educating college students and creating a more project based education system that more fully prepares students to directly enter the working world. His college was completely focused in Computer Science so it was easier to focus on just that. The college that he is heading up right now is more diverse. It was really interesting. Those three visits were amazing I learned so much. Until this point they were a highlight of my trip. Once we got home. We went down to the National Mosque. It was really cool we got there at night and the building was lit up. Just as we got there it was prayer time. It was exceptionally interesting to hear their pray being projected over the loud speaker. It is so interesting to learn about different religions. That wraps up Malaysia. It has been a really fun place to visit. I have really loved it. It reminds me of the Philippines so much which makes it really fun. Two cities down four to go!
Malaysia is amazing! After our bus ride we made it to Kuala Lumpur. This country truly reminds me of the Philippines; the weather, the people, the diversity, even the language. Malaysia is pretty much the same distance from the equator as is the Philippines. Everything is so green here. I truly love the diversity that is here. Malaysia in my opinion is a little better off than the Philippines. They seem to be doing a little better economically. Singapore was a fairly well organized city; Kuala Lumpur is fair less organized. They don’t seem to have quite everything figured out. I remember my father saying that in India you would have one really nice building then you would have a shack and trashy building right next to it. I found that to likewise be true. 
There are some really modern and beautiful buildings here then there are plenty of shacks. The diversity from the Petronas towers formally the tallest buildings in the world to the shacks a few corners away. The people are also quite diverse here in Malaysia as they were in Singapore. However, Malaysia does not have the same acceptance that Singapore has. Malaysia is a Muslim country. Islam is the national religion. They are tolerable of other religions however everything in their lives is affected by the religion. Muslims have Muslim names to differentiate themselves as do the Hindus. That way when you talk to any one person the instant you hear their names you can associate them with their religion. Each Malaysian is required to have an identification card. On their identification card it specifically says what your religion is and in your identification number it corresponds to different religions so that there is instant recognition of what religion you belong to. It has been really fun here in Malaysia. Tagalog is distant relative to the language here in Malaysia. There are many words that are similar or even the same. The whole structure and majority of words completely different, however, everywhere that I go I see words that I know whether they mean the same things or not. The first word that recognized was on our way into the country and we stopped at a rest stop. At the rest stop I went to the bathroom and the word for male is the same in English and Tagalog. I have been able to see a plethora of word that are similar and it just makes me want to go back to the Philippines even that much more. Our hotel in Kuala Lumpur was the best hotel we are staying at on the whole trip it was a Sheraton Imperial Hotel. It was really nice. It is going to be kind of hard staying at the YMCA in Hong Kong after that. Once we got into Kuala Lumpur in the afternoon they set us loose on the city. : ) 
From that point we went to the outskirt of town to the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves are some large natural caves us in a mountain side. They aren’t exactly pretty such as the Timpanogas caves. While they have stalactites and stalagmites, the true beauty is the grandeur and sheer size of the caves. To get up into the caves you have to climb 272 stairs. (While you may be wondering how I know it is 272 I can say that I am not that paranoid even though I know how many stairs up to BYU campus they just happened to number them for me.) The caves were actually a Hindu shrine. (if shrine is the right word?) It was really pretty and I definitely can say I am getting cultured. After the Caves we went to the KL Tower here in Kuala Lumpur and it is a lot like the stratosphere in Las Vegas. It was really pretty on the top of the tower to be able to see out over the city. After the tower we walked down to the Petronas towers and took some pictures (the Petronas towers are the famous Malaysian towers). The next day was Sunday. Sunday was a really nice relaxing day. We went to church here at the Branch for the city. I was really impressed with the way that the branch ran. It was surprisingly well organized. There was a lot more people that the branch that I expected. I think the most interesting this is that the majority of the people were not Malaysian. There were a surprising number of people that were foreigners. Church was fun. The Branch President’s wife was a Filipina. So I was able to talk to here. One of the other students (Jon) on the trip served in the Philippines. He served in the southern part of the Philippines in the Cebu mission so he speaks a different language. However, we both just jump at the chance to be able to speak with and talk with Filipinos. The branch asked us to put on a fireside for their youth. The fireside wasn’t required for us. However, I was so grateful that I went. At the fireside I sang “I am a Child of God” in Tagalog along with a few other return missionaries in their own languages. I messed up the words of the last line but oh well. Brother Fawcett gave a very interesting fireside. It wasn’t your normal run of the mill fireside it was completely interactive and great for the youth there. As I was sitting there I was reminded of the vast reaches of the church. The church truly is everywhere in the world. While it is still in its infancy here there is so much potential for growth. Here in the branch there are three sets of missionaries here. The interesting thing is that the missionaries aren’t allowed to wear their name tags in public only at church. They aren’t allowed to wear them because it is a Muslim country. I spoke with one of them and they mentioned that they aren’t allowed to teach Muslims (neither were we). After church and the fireside we were able to spend the evening out sight seeing. We went out and visited the Sultan Abdul Samad Building and to the Merdeka Square. The Merdeka Square is where Malaysia received its independence. 
After a visiting those sights we wanders town to get the true feel for Kuala Lumpur and then we road the monorail around the city at night to get a feeling for the city at night time. Monday was probably the best day that we have had so far on the trip. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. We started the morning off early by going to the US Embassy. One of the members of the branch is the Assistant Post Master at the Embassy and her husband is one of the military Officers stationed here. It was really interesting to go to the Embassy and see how it runs. I had never really understood how an Embassy ran. It was very informative. I really enjoyed it. They also had a few outside organizations come and talk to us about setting the procedure and processes of starting and running a business in Malaysia. 
After the Embassy we went to Dell. Dell we quite the amazing visit. Dell is located about a half hour outside of Kuala Lumpur in an economic zone called Cyberjaya. This is an area the Malaysia has built in hopes to attract large companies such as Dell, HP, Intel, and other such countries. Malaysia wanted Dell to come so badly that they built a huge 4 story building for Dell at with a 15 year rent free lease for Dell. The only condition is that they want Dell to insure 1500 job for the next 15 years. That is a pretty good deal. 95% of dell laptops are manufactured here in Malaysia, however, they are manufactured a couple hours north in Penang. This facility is a Services facility. When I say that I mean they just provide services for the facility. They are consolidating their data warehouses and this is going to be one of five for them. They are also starting to get into the business of hosting so they are creating extra space for this service. One of man functions here at this facility is their internal computer support. This is currently one of two global help desks. I was really surprised with Dell. They help desk was organized but not nearly as organized as I thought it would be. I was expecting something more impressive. In our meeting with Dell we met with the senior management for Dell at this facility. I was extremely impressed with the caliber of people they have at this facility. It is led by a lady named Bobby Dangerfield. Anyone with a name like that you have to expect wonderful things from! I was so impressed by the people and what they were trying to accomplish. It was really interesting to hear them speak about the struggles that they are having. 
After Dell we went to a place called Inti University. It is a chain of 10 private universities for profit here in Malaysia. They were recently bought by a large global company that owns over 100 universities worldwide for profit. This visit was exceptionally interesting. The universities here in Malaysia are headed by a Utahan that started a little university in Utah about 10 years ago. The concept of his college is that currently the education system doesn’t prepare students to enter into the work field. He feels that there is a break in the system. His idea is to change the whole way of educating college students and creating a more project based education system that more fully prepares students to directly enter the working world. His college was completely focused in Computer Science so it was easier to focus on just that. The college that he is heading up right now is more diverse. It was really interesting. Those three visits were amazing I learned so much. Until this point they were a highlight of my trip. Once we got home. We went down to the National Mosque. It was really cool we got there at night and the building was lit up. Just as we got there it was prayer time. It was exceptionally interesting to hear their pray being projected over the loud speaker. It is so interesting to learn about different religions. That wraps up Malaysia. It has been a really fun place to visit. I have really loved it. It reminds me of the Philippines so much which makes it really fun. Two cities down four to go!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Singapore
Saturday, May 02, 2009
I am so happy to be done with airplanes for a while. We got to Hong Kong airport and then we turned around to fly to Singapore. It was actually quite depressing to be in Hong Kong because that is only the first of four times that we will be in the Hong Kong airport. I really enjoyed my airplane ride to Singapore. I ended up sitting next to Stan and Dee Fawcett the program directors. I have had a number of opportunities to talk to them; however, this was the first time that I was actually able to have a long chat w
ith them and to really get to know them. Of the three hour flight I would say we talked for about two thirds or it. I really admire my director. We ended up talking a lot about life and how God has a plan for us and we have to do everything in our power to do what we can however, in the end he has things in store for us that we can’t even imagine. We also talked a lot about business and the global market that it is. It was really fun to get to know them well.
Singapore is an amazing city. I had heard many things about how modern and how clean the city is but I really didn’t comprehend it. Singapore is a tiny island with about six
million people. It is truly today’s modern melting pot. There are people from all different cultures. The population is split roughly into thirds: The Malay, Chinese, and Indian. The other ten percent are just a hodgepodge of other people. I was so surprised how many foreigners (By foreigners I mean ‘white’ people) that saw. Most of the people here speak two or more languages. All Children are taught English and Malay in the schooling system and if they excel in those they are able to learn a third language. Because of this we really had no problems with speaking English. Honestly it didn’t really feel like I was in a foreign country. It really just felt like I was in a really really clean large city. Everywhere we went was immaculate. Chewing gum is against the law. Littering is illegal and strictly enforced. I saw two pieces of trash on the ground the whole time that I was here.
When we got into the city went to the hotel and then turned right around to leave and go to our first business visit. I was really excited for this visit. We went to the regional distribution hub for DHL. It was really a fun visit. It took a while to get through security and get things situated. DHL was located in a large warehouse on the airport property. When we showed up it really wasn’t anything to look at from the outside however, they offices were very mince and modern. We met in their conference room that we very modern and nicely furnished. It was interesting to hear them talk about their operations. I was completely unaware that DHL holds the market share for shipping in Asia. They said that they don’t have their own airplanes in Asia but instead subcontract out their shipping. However, they own about 50% shares in three Asia air shipping countries which they mostly use for their air freight. They said that at their facility there are 60 inbound flights and 65 outbound flights. After their presentation they took us on a tour of the facilities. We first went to what they call their Quality Control Center. The QCC is where they monitor all major shipments going in and out of the Singapore hub. It was really interesting to see how they managed the various flights and adjusted for different situations. They made mentio
n that they had recently been doing major software system upgrades to hopefully give them a competitive advantage. In their presentation they showed the different modules to their system and they had over 30 different modules to handle all of the different tasks for all the steps of their business. After our stop in the QCC we got to go down stairs and see the real action happen in the warehouse. The most surprising thing that I saw there was that they didn’t have an automated sorting system. All sorting to of the 55,500 packages that go through that facility each day are manually sorted my hand. It was really fun to see the packages going around on the different conveyor belts and being sorted by people. After our visit we still had to take public transportation ba
ck to our hotel. It was about an hour back to the hotel between a combination of buses and trains. Their public transportation system here is pretty amazing. I have never seen cleaner subways. At this point we were all super tired. We hadn’t had a break until that point we went straight from the travel to the business visit. We got back at about 9 pm and some people went to bed some of us were crazy and decided to go out and explore the city. It was really fun. We went to a little Chinese eatery that we good. Then we just went and wandered Singapore at night. The city was really nice in that I never felt uncomfortable and unsafe even while walking around at night. Our hotel ended up being a few blocks away from a real happening part of town 
that was open late at night and we wondered and enjoyed ourselves.
The next day was a free day for us to all go out and explore the city. First and foremost it sure felt like the Philippines as far as hot and humid. I seriously just felt like a leaky facet. It brought back memories of being soaked in my own sweat. We had a really enjoyable time exploring the city. We went to an island that had a tower that you could go up and it would over look the city and the ocean. It was amazing to over look the ocean and see the hundreds of ships just anchored in the port because they don’t have any cargo to ship because of the global economic conditions
. Singapore is the second busiest port in Asia. We went and saw all the major tourist attractions. It was really fun. There wasn’t anything that was exceptionally amazing; however, the city as a whole is amazing. It is so hard to get past the beauty, modernness, and cleanliness of the city.
Unfortunately we only had a short period of time in Singapore. We woke up early this morning so that we could leave at 7 am to take a bus ride to Malaysia. The bus ride is only about 4 hours however; it has taken us about 6 hours. It took us almost 2 hours to get through the Singapore and Malaysian custom and immigrations. Because of the Swine flu they required us to all go through an medical screening/interview before they would let us enter Malaysia. It was kind of a pain. It would have been nice if we could have done this trip three weeks ago as to avoid these problems. However, it is okay it is all part of the fun. Well onto the next adventure. Malaysia!
I am so happy to be done with airplanes for a while. We got to Hong Kong airport and then we turned around to fly to Singapore. It was actually quite depressing to be in Hong Kong because that is only the first of four times that we will be in the Hong Kong airport. I really enjoyed my airplane ride to Singapore. I ended up sitting next to Stan and Dee Fawcett the program directors. I have had a number of opportunities to talk to them; however, this was the first time that I was actually able to have a long chat w
ith them and to really get to know them. Of the three hour flight I would say we talked for about two thirds or it. I really admire my director. We ended up talking a lot about life and how God has a plan for us and we have to do everything in our power to do what we can however, in the end he has things in store for us that we can’t even imagine. We also talked a lot about business and the global market that it is. It was really fun to get to know them well.Singapore is an amazing city. I had heard many things about how modern and how clean the city is but I really didn’t comprehend it. Singapore is a tiny island with about six
million people. It is truly today’s modern melting pot. There are people from all different cultures. The population is split roughly into thirds: The Malay, Chinese, and Indian. The other ten percent are just a hodgepodge of other people. I was so surprised how many foreigners (By foreigners I mean ‘white’ people) that saw. Most of the people here speak two or more languages. All Children are taught English and Malay in the schooling system and if they excel in those they are able to learn a third language. Because of this we really had no problems with speaking English. Honestly it didn’t really feel like I was in a foreign country. It really just felt like I was in a really really clean large city. Everywhere we went was immaculate. Chewing gum is against the law. Littering is illegal and strictly enforced. I saw two pieces of trash on the ground the whole time that I was here.
When we got into the city went to the hotel and then turned right around to leave and go to our first business visit. I was really excited for this visit. We went to the regional distribution hub for DHL. It was really a fun visit. It took a while to get through security and get things situated. DHL was located in a large warehouse on the airport property. When we showed up it really wasn’t anything to look at from the outside however, they offices were very mince and modern. We met in their conference room that we very modern and nicely furnished. It was interesting to hear them talk about their operations. I was completely unaware that DHL holds the market share for shipping in Asia. They said that they don’t have their own airplanes in Asia but instead subcontract out their shipping. However, they own about 50% shares in three Asia air shipping countries which they mostly use for their air freight. They said that at their facility there are 60 inbound flights and 65 outbound flights. After their presentation they took us on a tour of the facilities. We first went to what they call their Quality Control Center. The QCC is where they monitor all major shipments going in and out of the Singapore hub. It was really interesting to see how they managed the various flights and adjusted for different situations. They made mentio
n that they had recently been doing major software system upgrades to hopefully give them a competitive advantage. In their presentation they showed the different modules to their system and they had over 30 different modules to handle all of the different tasks for all the steps of their business. After our stop in the QCC we got to go down stairs and see the real action happen in the warehouse. The most surprising thing that I saw there was that they didn’t have an automated sorting system. All sorting to of the 55,500 packages that go through that facility each day are manually sorted my hand. It was really fun to see the packages going around on the different conveyor belts and being sorted by people. After our visit we still had to take public transportation ba
ck to our hotel. It was about an hour back to the hotel between a combination of buses and trains. Their public transportation system here is pretty amazing. I have never seen cleaner subways. At this point we were all super tired. We hadn’t had a break until that point we went straight from the travel to the business visit. We got back at about 9 pm and some people went to bed some of us were crazy and decided to go out and explore the city. It was really fun. We went to a little Chinese eatery that we good. Then we just went and wandered Singapore at night. The city was really nice in that I never felt uncomfortable and unsafe even while walking around at night. Our hotel ended up being a few blocks away from a real happening part of town 
that was open late at night and we wondered and enjoyed ourselves.The next day was a free day for us to all go out and explore the city. First and foremost it sure felt like the Philippines as far as hot and humid. I seriously just felt like a leaky facet. It brought back memories of being soaked in my own sweat. We had a really enjoyable time exploring the city. We went to an island that had a tower that you could go up and it would over look the city and the ocean. It was amazing to over look the ocean and see the hundreds of ships just anchored in the port because they don’t have any cargo to ship because of the global economic conditions
. Singapore is the second busiest port in Asia. We went and saw all the major tourist attractions. It was really fun. There wasn’t anything that was exceptionally amazing; however, the city as a whole is amazing. It is so hard to get past the beauty, modernness, and cleanliness of the city.Unfortunately we only had a short period of time in Singapore. We woke up early this morning so that we could leave at 7 am to take a bus ride to Malaysia. The bus ride is only about 4 hours however; it has taken us about 6 hours. It took us almost 2 hours to get through the Singapore and Malaysian custom and immigrations. Because of the Swine flu they required us to all go through an medical screening/interview before they would let us enter Malaysia. It was kind of a pain. It would have been nice if we could have done this trip three weeks ago as to avoid these problems. However, it is okay it is all part of the fun. Well onto the next adventure. Malaysia!
Plane Ride!
April 28, 2009
What an adventure it has turned out to be. Currently I am sitting some where over the Pacific Ocean. We are flying on Cathay Airlines. I have five hours and forty five minutes left until we get to Hong Kong. It has been a very tiring adventure so far. We started out meeting at the Salt Lake Airport at 5:30 pm. We checked in and all was well. After we checked in we started the waiting game. Our flight from Salt Lake to LA was just after 8 pm. That flight was uneventful. It was not a full flight so Sherstin Creamer, one of the BYU directors, sat next to me. Once we got to LA we had to switch to the international terminal. More lines and more waiting. It was nice to sit and chat with the different people going on the trip. Once we got past security and to the gate we still had almost three hours before our plan left. More waiting. It was kind of fun being in the terminal.
We were all sitting together in a group. Even though we were just in LA it almost felt like we had already left America. In the international terminal we were a minority. It is a funny feeling. We counted at least 7 languages being spoken. It was crazy. I noticed one thing. Americans are loud. We don’t know how to be quite. Our group of 20 sitting in the terminal was quite noisy. At 11 o’clock we had class in the terminal. That was an adventure. All of us dead tired and trying to have a discussion while there were constant boarding announcements in 3 different languages. We didn’t have a very long class. It was fairly hard to be productive. After running up and down the terminal a few times we boarded the plane.
The flight as you could imagine is long. I tried to stay awake as long as I could but I kept dosing during the first movie. Then once I tried to sleep it was less than amazing. I would say I got 3 our so hours down. The highlight of the plane ride has been while I was waiting in line for the bathroom. I talked with a man from the Philippines. He was from the southern part, Cebu, so he didn’t really speak Tagalog. It was really fun to talk with him. He was actually a minster for another church and has lived in America for many years. It was fun to hear his perception of the church. He made comments on how all of our missionaries learned his language. He talked about how beautiful all of our churches are and how many there were down in his area in the Philippines. He told me that he originally moved to a same town close to Nauvoo so he knew a lot about. He said whenever people out come and visit him he would take them to Nauvoo. It is so fun meet people from the Philippines and just have the special connection with them. The flight has seemed long but it hasn’t been that bad. Just five more hours. I think I can… I think I can. I am so excited to get this trip rolling be there.
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