Korea, Taiwan, China - September 2004

Asia Trip – Sept 12 – 22, 2004

We left on a Sunday and 16 hours later with swollen ankles and a hazy understanding of time zone, we arrive in Taipei’s international airport. American airlines, in general, suck. We went on united and had the oldest flight attendants possible, who spilled our drinks on us three times, and still maintained an attitude while doing so. Regardless of the fact that we’re in business class, you’d think that would at least warrant an “I’m sorry”, but apparently not.

In any case, we arrive to our hotel and get settled in around midnight. Even though that bed looks absolutely divine, I have to log on and work on some urgent matters, so my US coworkers get an answer within their time zone. Like I said, you’re in a hazy state, so you just go through the motions and get your work done. In the morning we go to Yahoo! TW office and meet with just about everyone possible.

It’s always fun working for a few days in another country, because you get just enough time to find quirky things that are confusing. For example, in Taiwan office none of us could figure out how to make coffee. There are many buttons with pictures, but you have no idea what does what, and all of a sudden water sounds much better, just because you can figure out how to get that from the cooler.

Food is another thing. For dinner we went to a very nice Teppanyaki restaurant. All looked good on the menu: rib eye steak, filet mignon, shrimp, lobster. Now, I should have realized that this might happen, being this isn’t my first time to Asia, but I didn’t see it coming. Someone ordered steak and lobster, and the Teppanyaki griller brought a lobster cut in half that was still alive. So Mr. Lobster was still moving on the grill, even though only half of him was there. Talk about an appetite buster. I felt bad for the lobster, but I also knew this is considered high quality food because the seafood is so fresh.

Then there’s the bathroom experience. In any country, you have to worry about what kind of bathroom you will be doing your business in. So in the Yahoo! Korea office, my boss comes back from the bathroom and has this look in her eye that says, “You better help me out but don’t say anything.” So I humbly follow her to the bathroom, conjuring up any possible situation that she might be in. Then we get to “The Stall”. She explains that she couldn’t figure out how to use the toilet and therefore never went to the bathroom, and for some odd reason thinks I would know which button is to flush the toilet. Well Korean toilets have about 8 buttons on them. Basically there is a bidet function built into the toilet that is more technically complex than my computer. So I go in, and start testing the same buttons she did, and a bold spray of water comes out of the toilet. She plasters herself to one side of stall and I go to the other, as we try to avoid the deathly spurt of water. You would think this thing would squirt water for only a few seconds, but it kept going and going and going. We finally ran from the stall and closed the door, where a big puddle started to form. These are the times you really wish you had a camcorder.

September 18
We arrive in Beijing around 12 noon. First trip is to the Forbidden City and Tiannenmen Square. If you haven’t been there before, it is a must see, but really there isn’t much to see. You enter the Forbidden City and go through a huge palace with various temples and a garden. There are a few temples where they have urns and furniture inside, like the emperor’s throne, but you are not allowed in and everyone crowds in front of the same entrance to get a peek. That night I went to “hahoi” area, which is a nice place to dine at night. There is a small man-made lake, and restaurants and bars line the sides, lighting up the lake. A lot of foreigners walk around there, and men stand outside the bars and try to convince you to become their patron. One word: “buyiola”. It basically means “no need” in Chinese, and works quite effectively. In fact, the men laugh and are excited to hear you respond to them in their own language.

We finally entered a pub for a drink and the whole time we were there, this older man kept staring at me. Now it’s one thing if he’s naturally facing me and on the other side of the bar, but in this case he was sitting behind me and turning completely around to try to look at my face, as if that wouldn’t bother me. I was thinking of turning around to stare right back at him, but then again I don’t know if that would be even worse. Then halfway through my beer I hear, “Hello…Hi”. Uh oh, he’s trying to communicate. My friend asks me if I feel uncomfortable and want to leave. I told her there’s really no reason to worry since he can’t say anything more than those two words! Ha! For some reason, men in Beijing always stare at me. I think it’s because I have blue eyes – maybe they are fascinated with light colored eyes. Who knows.

Today we went to the Great Wall. Going up the stairs on the Great Wall reminds you just how out of shape you really are. And then you feel pathetic because you see these eighty year olds doing the same trek, and suffering just as much as you are. At the bottom of the wall, you can pay to have your picture taken, dressed up as an empress or a concubine. Awesome. I had to do it. Chinese high heels are fun – basically the shoe sits on a block of wood that is right in the middle of your foot (under your arch). I think I had more fun trying to walk in those shoes than taking the actual picture!

Peking duck dinner: We went to some famous restaurant where every tourist in China seems to convene. Anyway, we were served duck #21,108 of that restaurant. All the appetizers are somehow related to duck. It’s almost like they start serving the inside of the duck first. The appetizers included duck heart, duck liver (tastes like pate), and duck feet (didn’t touch those suckers). Then they serve the actual duck meat, along with duck skin, which is pure fat. Any time you are served Beijing duck/peking duck, the waiter must carve the duck into exactly 108 pieces, as that number is good luck for some reason. Essentially you make a Chinese burrito: you wrap a small rice tortilla around some duck meat, sweet sauce, and white onion. It’s quite yummy and extremely rich. Then as a second entrée they served soup….duck soup, of course. Our duck dinner had to have been more than just one little duck!