I was told at this time of the year, Turkey is cold.
While I was packing my stuff, I asked myself, just how cold?
Therefore, I checked The Weather Channel, and this is what it tells me.
Istanbul
Ankara
This is really really cold. Much colder than Taipei, and even Melbourne too. Istanbul might be OK, but Ankara is really going to kill me.
I really don’t feel like going anymore.
Interesting, just like the start of this year, I will be sent off to another country right after new year.
I went to Vietnam on the 3rd of January this year.
This time I will be in Turkey on the 6th of January.
Wow, Turkey, sounds like a fun place? Well, yes and no. Just yesterday a letter bomb exploded in the central of Istanbul, killing one.
I will be in Istanbul too.
I will bring my DSLR with me this time, just in case I get to visit some interesting historic places like some of the famous mosques, museums, castles, churches or towers. Maybe the ruins of Troy or the Trojan Horse too!
Anyway, anything is good, just don’t give me another letter bomb.
I am back from Philippines!
The schedule was so shit I had to buy dried mangos at the airport…fuck.
Got to Taoyuan airport yesterday at 6:30am.
Took 7:30am flight.
Delayed and arrived in Manila at 10:00am.
Met customer and had lunch at 12:00pm.
Finished presentation at 5:00pm.
Finally checked into hotel at 6:00pm
Meet potential customer at 7:00pm.
Aat, drank and massaged with customer till 12:00am.
Went to bed at 1:30am.
Had shit all sleep and woke up with headache at 7:30am.
Met customer at 9:00am.
Finished discussion at 12:00pm.
Had lunch at 12:30pm.
Arrived at the airport at 3:00pm.
Brought dried mangos at 3:40pm.
Plane took off at 4:30pm.
Arrived in Taoyuan airport at 7:20pm.
Arrived home at 8:30pm.
What a shit trip. I am tired, I need to sleep.
I have been real busy, at work, as usual. Nothing new.
Drank a lot last night and came back home at twelve.
I had mega bad sleep and still got up and went to work.
I just arrived back home again almost two hours ago.
Right now is 12:10am.
I need to wake up in five hours time and jet off to Philippines.
Yah well, nothing new, work is still work.
I am back.
It was the most bizarre 24 hours.
It was the craziest 24 hours.
Yet, it was also the most memorable 24 hours.
I made a really crazy decision today, and it will be even more crazy when it happens.
Just call me Crazy.
Next week is going to be strange. I will fly back to Australia, well, not for holidays, but for work related trip. I will stay in Sydney, but I need to make my own way to Melbourne.
Company is stingy. They won’t let me have a direct flight back to Taipei from Melbourne, because I purposely delayed the trip for personal benefit. Gay.
Anyway, like always, I am under tremendous pressure again. I don’t like business trips. They send you and make sure you cannot come back unless you get the tasks done.
If this statement stands, then dammit!! Maybe I cannot come back.
Such a fascinating country, it resembles China very much.
A lot of of motorbikes and bicycles. Main methods of transportation in Vietnam.
Pretty females at shopping plazas.
Actually, a lot of the girls are quite pretty.
A very tiny door I saw at the hotel. I wonder what it behind it?
After exactly three weeks, I am back in Ho Chi Minh City again. This trip is bit longer than the last one, and apart from staying in Ho Chi Minh City, I will also visit Hanoi on Sunday, then finally arrive back in Taipei on Monday.
Good that I am not single-handed this time, as country manager and marketing manager are also here. Nevertheless, problems still exist, and so as pressure, but hopefully I will get a bit more time to relax and do some sightseeing over the weekend.
I do want to see some old propaganda pictures though. I love communist artwork.
By the way, I saw SHE on the way to Vietnam. Actually, they just sat right in front of me on the plane. Hebe is nice.
Two days ago, a call from my boss, and two days later, I was on a 6am flight to Ho Chi Minh City. Quite frankly, I did not even understand the whole issue until the last few hours before I hopped onto the plane, and only if I knew the situation was this bad, I would have never accepted this trip.
So what’s the big deal about the whole issue? Well, to make story short, our Vietnamese customer claims we need to pay them USD400k, but at most we can only offer then around USD90k. Here, negotiate to the customer and come up with a win-win solution. By the way, do it fast.
Mmmmmmm…yes, to convince the customer to accept 90k instead of 400k. REAL EASY HUH??
Apart from work, I do find my hotel room quite nice. Although Vietnam is not exactly a wealthy country overall, but on the contrary, this is the best hotel I have stayed out of all of my business trips.
