マイナス7度でした！！！

7月のボスニアでの結婚式の後の写真です。

20070120 HCMC 7:40am / Fort Smith 18:43
I am at “Highland Coffee” in HCMC, listening to very good French jazz, drinking good coffee and
hot banana cake. (The girl at the coffee bar asked me if I want the cake warm, which I did not
expect to be asked, but just said yes as it seems to be the right answer.) It was 17000VND, which
is $1.06US.

Meeting with professors and officials at Vietnam National University went really well, and I cannot
wait going back and giving a report to the Chancellor. The university is going through enormous
development for next a few years, new buildings and colleges. The Bowing, Intel, IBM and better
known companies invested billions of dollars in the near by science and IT park. The university
was newly created by the central government, and in three years they have over 2000 students.
As the size is quite reasonable, this is very appropriate and great chance for us to start the
newest relationships. At the hotel elevator, there was a guy or maybe he was the professor,
but from University of Oklahoma. Competition for partnerships seem to be very intense, but not
the university I visited. Hehehe…

First day was overwhelmed by every thing. The bikes and bikes and bikes. I am talking about the
motorcycles with high speed engine and the street was so full with constant flow of the
motorcycles.

To my opinion, there are several different types of countries, even though commonly people think there are only developed countries and developing countries. From my window at this coffee shop, there are city buses running, and security guards standing at the bank. There even traffic signals,
and there are no street beggars and kinds. Vietnam, or at least Ho Chi Minh City, is not the least
developing country, even though it is a developing country for sure. I would categorized this
country as a learning country. This country does not need, and there are no countries in the
world that they have to develop so quickly. Catching up with “Developed Countries” in GDP
or whatever the World Bank and others can provide in numbers does not necessarily mean
the greatest things. Economics at the university teaches the simple economic model of
the developing process, and I am not saying the classes and lectures are not worthless but rather
imp0rtant, just need to recognize that every country has its own speed and pace for achieving
the next developed stage, and people should respect these great differences. It is like it is
impossible to jump up to the million dollar huge mansion from the 300sq feet small apartment
house with one bed room. People know that jumping from the apartment to the mansion is
impossible, but expect their own country to be the one. People here work hard, very honest and
humble. The later two elements tend to vanish away when street start seeing a lot of “rich
people” with expensive watches and bags.

Yesterday I met one Japanese businessman who lives in Vietnam more than 15 years. It is always
good to know that Japanese are doing well, and know how to appreciate the local culture and
customs. Mr. Yasuda in 40s runs the company produces Vietnamese sweets, which I do not know
its kind. He is going to show me his factory and the products. This trip should be very informative
and will bring back a good/unique facts to the university. It is 8:07am and I am supposed to meet
with him at 9am.

Ideas
Take one or more students with me for next business trip if they can affortd.

The world is getting flat
Great coffee and mango smoose with French Jazz in Ho Chi Minh City
“Desperate House Wives” DVD with Vietnamese sub titles
Chicago White Sox baseball cap at the night market in HCMC
Kenyan airline pilots in Bangkok

20071117
Well, any diary can star both from good stories and bad stories, here I am having a breakfast
at Sofitel Silam Hotel, let’s start something I found in Bangkok yesterday. The flight was almost
on time and the airplane was landed at 10:50am at Bangkok International Airport. Beautiful airport
with modern architecture. The airport shuttle was arranged by the hotel, and the my shuttle which happens to be a Mercedes and 30 minutes brought me to Downtown Bangkok.

After greeted by Japanese lady works at the front desk, changed the clothes, and I went out for
a lunch. The hotel lady recommended a Japanese restaurant “Akebono.” Well, it was just okay,
I had Tempura Udon and hot green tea, and the taste was just okay. Noodle itself was just too
thick to me. After the restaurant, I walked about 30 minutes from the shops to shops,
and the streets to streets. Very crowded with too many cars and pollution.

Coming back to a hotel room at 3pm, I fell asleep for about 2 hors. It was Antonela’s sweet voice
which woke me up at 5pm. At 6pm changed to the suite and tie, take a cab and I headed for
Intercontinental Hotel for Rotary Meeting. The Club has about 15 people attended, all of them are Japanese. Yes, this club was run by Japanese living in Bangkok. The president of the club and the
most of them seem to be able to speak perfect Thai. The Thai National Anthem started the club,
followed by the salmon dinner for 500BH ($14)
It is 7:30am now and I am having a breakfast. The buffet menu looks the same with the one
in Hong Kong. I found the nice salt and pepper tingy on my table. The fresh squeezed kiwi juice
was great, and the fruits and assorted pastries were great. One question…at the buffet counter,
there were American bacon and British bacon. The difference is not in the bacons,
but the British one is not simply bacon but HAM! So what? Nothing, I was just curious.

Today I am visiting the university which is in one hour drive from here. Feel good, and ate well.
Let’s get into business!!

9:40am
I am at Asian Institute of Technology. The cab driver was driving crazy and it took only
40 minutes to get here from the hotel. (It should take at least one hour.)

20071116 Hong KongBangkok
10:43am Hong Kong / 12:43pm Tokyo / 9:43pm Fort Smith
Breakfast at Novotel Hotel was great, a lot of fruits and great pastries. There were “Seinfeld”,
“Gray’s Anatomy”, “NFL” and more on TV in addition to regular CNN and BBC. In the elevator
Pay Charles music was played and, if you do not try to realize you are actually in Hong Kong, it is
hard to find out in which country you are in. The Hong Kong airport has free wireless network for
the passengers, and my AA Platinum status enabled me to stay in the very comfortable club
lounge, which has free hot meals, and Playstations. It will not be so difficult to spend entire day in
that nice lounge.
My suitcase is still missing, and the Cathay Pacific ground clue was very encouraging that they did not know where it was. There are nothing valuable in the suitcase, but it will be very helpful if it
comes back to me by the time of my presentation at HKBU on next Monday.

20071115
4:14am FSM / 7:17pm TKO / 6:17pm HKG
Bad news… One of my suitcases is not traveling with me. One suitcase is full of my clothes and the other one has a lot of university business materials. This flight will make it to Hong Kong in two hours, and I am staying there for one night, technically 12 hours, and then will head to Bangkok. I am wondering where I should receive the suitcase, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, or Hong Kong? At this moment, I do not know which suitcase is coming with me and it is not easy to say I do not need either of one, but I need to tell American Airlines where to receive it.
DFW HKG BNG DFW HKG SAG
1/15/ 1/16 1/17 1/15 1/16 1/17
I do not know….I guess receiving it in HCM sounds the safest, but what can I do in Bangkok? I hope the suitcase will be coming in the next flight, which is arriving a few hours later…

20071115
9:30pm HKG / 11:30pm Tokyo / 8:30am Fort Smith
On stepping aside the airplane, in leas than 10 seconds, warm air came over to my face. Yes, I feel I am not in the cold place anymore. Immigration was easy, no question and no conversation. No, suitcase did not come, the one with university materials. Cathay Pacific ground clue was extremely kind and polite, and I lost interests in arguing with the 40sh ground serviceman, and first of all, this is not his fault nor Cathay’s, but it is American Airline’s. The man gave me a receipt and apologized deeply and told me that he would do his best, which seems very honest and reliable.
I did not sleep for more than 24 hours

6:46pm FSM / 9:46am TKO
We still have more than 5 hours to Tokyo, and then one hour waiting time bring me into another 6 hours flight to Hong Kong. I told Antonela that she could reach me at 11pm in Fort Smith time, but I must have miscalculated she would not be able to reach me unless she called me around midnight there. I watched all the movies which interested me by now. For next five hours…not sure what to do.

4:15pm FSM / 7:15am TKO
I watched two movies in a row. The first one was “Queen”, and the story was about the British queen and Prime Minister Tony Blair. The movie showed how the Royal family, particularly Queen, spent their times right after Princess Diana’s death in 1997. Interesting but I am not sure how the director filmed the movie. It looks like Queen paid for the movie to get the better reputation back from the public. Anyway, the second one was powerful one, “the last king of Scotland.” The story was about the young doctor living in Uganda under Amine’s regime, the militarily government. The story was similar to “Hotel Rwanda”, but I have not seen such a brutal and cruel movie for a long time and it really shocked me a lot. I am here sitting in the airplane and visiting countries for exchange. There are people suffering from hanger and the lack of the medicine all over the world. My thoughts something similar to this occurs from time to time. We have a nice house with plenty of food in our fridge… well I think I need to study hard and see what I can do to these issues in the future.
At any rate, the screen shows we have still more than 7 hours. The departure was late due to ice, I just hope I will not miss the flight to Hong Kong from Tokyo.

20070114
6:25 am Fort Smith-->Dallas
Deep and thick fogs could keep the airplane from leaving the ground, and indeed the flight attendant was talking with one of the passengers that she was told this flight was going to be canceled last night. The 10 o’clock flight, the one just after this, was canceled, in stead. Lucky me.
It is 6:25am and I am on my way to 14 days South East Asia trip. I will be visiting 3 countries in 14 days. Temperatures will be from 30F (-2C) in Beijing to 80F (35C) in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Hong Kong. Packing was not that easy for this trip at all. As always, my suitcases were over weight, but not that bad. Bid black Samsonite weighted 65 pound, and the penalty was only $25.
Fort Smith has been suffering from ice storm and heavy rain since yesterday. It was so dark with black clouds when I left for the airport and could not see anything but darkness above my head. This airplane is flying over that dark, mean-looking sky, and it is very interesting that there we can see beautiful stars and the moon from the airplane window.
Antonela is in 18th week pregnant this week. It was not easy for her to go through the first trimester in December with vomiting, tiredness, and more sickness. She seems to be much better compared to the condition in a few weeks ago, and I am so glad that she is feeling better and better. We went to see the doctor on Thursday, January 11th, but could not find if it is a boy or a girl. To be very ho0nest, I do not care the gender, and both of us will be very happy if the baby is going to be very strong and healthy.

出張の予定が確定しました。
色々なアドバイスありがとうございます。
また旅の途中からのレポートを楽しみにしていてください！
もし旅先の現地でお仕事をされていらっしゃる方などで
お昼ごはんや夕飯ができそうな方がいらっしゃったらご連絡ください。
ぜひともご一緒させていただきたいと思います。

January 14
Fort Smith 6:10am-->Tokyo-->Hong Kong

January 15
-->Hong Kong 8:45pm
Novotel Citygate Hong Kong
Tel :(+852)36028888
51 Man Tung RoadTung Chung, HONG KONG

January 16
Hong Kong 9:05am-->Bangkok, Thailand 10:50am
Sofitel Silom Bangkok
Tel : (+66)2/2381991
188 Silom RoadBangrak 10500 BANGKOK - Thailand

7:00pm Japanese Speaking Rotary Club of Bangkok Surawongse
Intercontinental Hotel

January 17 Bangkok, Thailand
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)
Agendas:
1)Exchange programs for student and faculty
2)Join project on Entrepreneurship
3)Summer internships in Thailand for Business and Engineering students
Contact person:
Khin Ni Ni Thein, Ph.D. (Hydroinformatics)
Vice President for Development and Resources
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) http://www.ait.ac.th

January 18
12:00Rotary Club (English)
Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel
2:05pmBangkok, Thailand-->
3:35pm-->Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Hotel:
Caravelle Hotel
19, Lam Son Square / District One
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Phone:+84 8 8234999 Fax: +84 8 8243999

January 19 Ho Chi Minh City
International University, Vietnam National University - HCMC
Agendas:
1)Exchange programs for student and faculty
2)Join project on Entrepreneurship
3)Summer internship
4)Vietnamese language program for UA Fort Smith Students
Dr. Hoang, Tuan Anh, Acting Director,
Office of International Relations and R&D Management
International University, Vietnam National University - HCMC
Quarter 6, Linh Trung Award, Thu Duc District,
HoChiMinh City, Vietnam

January 20 Ho Chi Minh City

January 21 Ho Chi Minh City 11:40-->Hong Kong 3:20
Stay at HKBU, NTT International House,
Hong Kong Baptist University, 32 Renfrew Road, Kowloon

January 22 11:30-13:00
Lecture to students of HK Baptist University
Meet with Dr. Luk & Faculty members on education exchanges with HKBU

January 23 Morning Sightseeing
6:20pm CA 418 Hong Kong-->Guiyang
8:00pm Guiyang

January 24 Morning Guizhou Tourism Bureau
Ms Yang Sheng Ming, Director
Guizhou University

January 25 Guizhou
January 26 8:15 CA 4161Guiyang--> Beijing
11:05 -->Beijing
Meeting with State Information office
Meeting with Ms Wu at the Chamber of Commerce

January 27 Sightseeing Great Wall, Forbidden City + Lunch

January 28 Morning Free
5:15pm Depart for Hong Kong by CA 117 1715-2040

January 29 10:15am AA6116 Hong Kong-->Tokyo
Monday 3:20pm -->Tokyo
7:00pm AA60 Tokyo-->Dallas
3:35pm Dallas
5:40pm Dallas-->Fort Smith
6:45pm Fort Smith

まだまだ仮の状態ですが、出張の前半スケジュールが決まりました。
またまた忙しい出張になりそうです。
ベトナムは初めてなので、
もし詳しい方がいらっしゃったら色々と教えていただけると助かります。

January 14 Fort Smith 6:10am-->Tokyo-->Hong Kong
January 15 -->Hong Kong 8:45pm
January 16 Morning: Hong Kong 9:05am -->Bangkok, Thailand 10:50am
January 17 Bangkok, Thailand
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)
January 18 Bangkok, Thailand 2:05pmHo Chi Minh City, Vietnam 3:35pm
January 19 Ho Chi Minh City
International University, Vietnam National University - HCMC
January 20 Ho Chi Minh City
January 21 Ho Chi Minh City 11:40 Hong Kong 3:20

フォートスミス・ウオーカーとでも言えばいいでしょうか・・・、
日本にあるような関西ウオーカーのような雑誌の2月号に
特集としてタケオのことが掲載さえることになりました。
今朝はそのインタビューと写真撮影。
掲載された雑誌が発売されたらまたここでご紹介します。

今朝、ダニエラがマイアミに帰りました。
リトルロックまで車で送って、
そのまま仕事に来ています。
片道2時間半はかかるので、早朝の2時にフォーとスミスを出て、
7時半に帰ってきて、そのまま出勤です。
さすがにかなり眠いのですが、まだ9時になったばっかり。
5時までがんばらなければ・・・。

アントネラのつわりはすこしよくなってきている様子。
ごはんの量も増えてきています。
昨日は何ヶ月ぶりかに初めてスーパーに買い物にダニエラと行っていました。
食べ物のにおいでスーパーにもいけなかったのでかなりの前進だと思います。

今日は1月2日。
うちの大学は今日が仕事始めです。
日本の正月三が日が懐かしい・・・。
休み中のメールが100通以上。
今週はその対応だけで終わってしまいそう・・・・。

あけましておめでとうございます☆
アメリカも2007年になりました。
ことしもどうぞよろしくお願いします。
タケオ