Photo was taken flying over Alaska on the way back from China.

Use Dopplr to Document Travel

I’ve been using Dopplr for a couple of years to document and share my travel itineraries. It’s nice to be able to see who will be where and when, and how our trips align. You can see my travel schedule in the widget on this blog and I do my best to keep that up to date.

Another feature of Dopplr that I love is the 6 month and year end reports of my travel. I got this chart (above) in my email last week showing me what I’ve done and where I’ve gone this year. Not a bad start to 2009, and it’s not done yet!

My Travel in 2009

In February this year I had the opportunity to travel for work to China and stay there for a month. I spent the first 5 days in Hong Kong which I found to be amazing. Hong Kong was a perfect mix of western and eastern culture, and the city is young enough that I would probably live there for a while if the opportunity presented itself.

The second half of my Asia trip was spend in downtown Shanghai. Here are some of my reactions to weird China stuff.

Posts from China:

• In Route to China
• Crazy China Stuff
• Tongli, Suzhou
• More Crazy China Stuff
• Shanhai World Financial Center
• My last day in China
• China pics on Flickr

Then, more recently, again for work, I had the opportunity to go to Sweden for a week. I was based in Uppsala during the week (about an hour outside of Stockholm) but stayed in the city during the weekend to take advantage of the perfect weather and epic nightlife.

Sweden blew me away due to the beauty of the cities layout with so many rivers & islands, and the people. A walk through certain areas of Stockholm is honestly like walking through a catalog (people are so preppy!), not to mention the fact that it was light for 20 hrs per day in the summer. I was out until 2am and it felt like happy hour the entire time because the lighting was like dusk all night.

Posts from Sweden:

• My First Day In Sweden
• How To Take A Vacation: A Lesson (Learned) From Europeans
• Investing Yourself and The Value of Strong Relationships
• Sweden pics on Flickr (update coming)

As most of you know I’m getting married in November (wedding site: RyanGotMolly.com) and I’m headed to Costa Rica for my honeymoon. I posted pictures of the hotel on my personal blog.

• Honeymoon hotel in Costa Rica

One thing I’d really like to start doing more often is exploring the ol’ US of A. So much travel is focused on getting outside of the US, but there are some phenomenal sites right in our own backyard. For my birthday I started getting camping gear. I’m preparing for trips (with my wife-to-be) to go around the US to check out National Parks, monuments, and other natural treasures.

I’ve been reading Backpacker magazine and there is an overwhelming amount of amazing hikes and camp sites to check out. Probably not far from you! In September, for my bachelor party, I’m headed to Boulder, CO to camp, white water raft, hike, and yes, probably drink a bit as we’re headed to the brewery tours in Ft. Collins. I’m excited to start checking out some great travel/get away opportunities right here in the US.

Blog posts to come!

Finding Opportunities to Travel Outside of Vacation

Not every job is going to provide opportunities to travel, I understand that. But, many do, and I highly advise you never miss the opportunity to travel for work. Not only is there huge value to getting out of the office to meet people face to face, there is no cheaper way to travel on your personal pocket book. If you’re traveling with work, bust your ass Monday to Friday and use the weekend to explore. Maximize your personal time so it feels like a mini vacation! You may be tired when you get back home but it’s absolutely worth it. Believe it or not, red-eyes are your friend.

Another way to get away is to volunteer. Last year a good friend of mine headed to Tanzania, Africa for 2 weeks on a solo trip with plans to volunteer. He ended up meeting people that that will be friends of his for years to come. You don’t always have to do the “it’s all about me” trek through Europe. Select a random destination and find a way to help people and I guarantee you’ll have a blast and make some lasting memories.

Learning About Yourself During Travel

Through my travels this year I’ve found that one of the best ways to learn about yourself is to travel solo. I’ll be the first to admit that I really don’t love being alone for a long time. I enjoy having someone there to share sights and experiences with. This has been one of the greatest things about getting engaged. My fiance and I love to travel together and it makes trips so much more fun! However, when you set out solo, you are in complete control of your itinerary and you learn what’s important to you. When I’m solo, I never go to museums or sight seeing, I find spots where locals hang and try my damnedest to get into conversations with them. It’s only through the people that you can truly learn about a city. Get out and go solo.

The other strategy I’ve employed to learn more about myself during travel is to go with the flow. I rarely have a plan and I’ve really never regretted it. I sort out my day about 2-3 hours in advance. If I miss an opportunity (which I have) then I guess it wasn’t meant to be. This way if I meet people I can turn on a dime and jump in another direction if needed. This no plan strategy can really piss some people off but I’ve found it’s the best way to relieve stress of commitment and enjoy my travels most.

Summary

The gist is that I feel incredibly lucky to have had as much opportunity to travel as I have. Travel is one of my favorite things in the world and this year, my job has allowed me to see quite a lot. As I write this blog post I’m sitting overlooking the ocean at home in San Diego. I realize that as much as I absolutely love travel, what’s really important is who you are with. So, take sometime to get away from work and see the world but keep the right priorities and focus on the people who you love.

I’m not a fan at all of this “staycation” trend. There are plenty of options for cheap travel out there, you just have to seek them out. Find a trip, even if it’s close to home where you’ll see something brand new. Look for experiences that will challenge you and do them. The money spent will be worth it! Best of luck in the second half of 2009 to find great places to travel.

My last day in China was another amazing one. I decided to head solo to Tongli, one of the ancient water cities in China. I was to arrive at the bus stop by 8:30a and travel for about 2 hours by bus to Tongli. I chose Tongli because my guide book said that it was less touristy, thus less crowded, and I wanted  to experience authentic, rural China on my last day. I wanted the reverse culture shock to be as drastic as possible as I came back into the States . I wanted the sites, sounds, and smells of China to be as memorable as possible as I returned.

The Sprint through Shanghai

That morning I decided to take the subway to the train station. I got on the subway about 45 minutes before my bus was scheduled to leave. Plenty of time, so I thought. Well, I some how misread the map and went one exit too far. This added an extra 10 minutes. Then, when I finally got off at the correct stop, I asked a woman, “where exactly is the train station?” I was pointed in the direction of the Shanghai Stadium. At this point I had about 15-20 minutes to spare. The stadium however was a good 10-15 minute walk from the subway station. I started walking. As I check my watch at 8:25am I realized I was really pushing it. Picture this… a white man, standing 6’3, with a full day pack, absolutely sprinting through downtown Shanghai. I became the laughing stock of many Shanghainese that morning!

I finally recruited someone to help me find the train station at about 8:31am. Me and my recruit were both running towards the train station and all around the stadium, neither he, nor I, had any clue where exactly this station was. How I convinced a commuting Chinese guy to run through downtown with me, I’ll never know. As we arrived at the station and ran to the counter I didn’t need to understand Chinese to understand that my bus had left and there wasn’t another one coming…all day.

At this point I really wasn’t upset at all. I just decided there’s gotta be somewhere else that would be cool for a day trip. I refunded my ticket for 80% of the cost and purchased a ticket to Xitang, another water city. This one was about an hour and fifteen minutes away. Closer but much more touristy.”Oh well”, I thought, “better this than nothing”.

“Be Back On-time!”

I got the bus to Xitang about 9:15am and we were on our way. I read as much as I could about Xitang but my guide book didn’t include much other than saying, “this place is touristy”. No biggy, I’d explore none the less, and I was excited to be traveling solo again.

I continued to read ‘The 4 Hour Work Week‘ on my drive and really enjoyed the chance to read, take it the country side, and get out of the city for at least one day on my trip. I also met a guy named Paul (English name) who had lived in LA, and now in Shanghai, but was from Taipei. I love how traveling around the world, everywhere but the US, is normal. I make a promise to myself that life won’t stay in one country, I will live outside the US at some point. 

As we get off the bus I had Paul ask if I understood what time to be back, I responded, “Yes.” Then I had the bus driver show me a sign with the departure time, asking, “do I understand”. Finally, as I was walking away, a girl name Christine (real name) grabbed me and asked if I was sure I understood what time to be back to the bus. I confirmed, “I got it, I’ll be here at 4:00p and we’d leave at 4:15p”. I appreciated that they were helping but I felt absolutely helpless. I felt like those kids who travel alone under the age of 10 and need a stewardess to assist them between gates. At somepoint in time, I was that kid, but I’d like to think I’ve grown out of that. Apparently, not in China. Oh well.

The Serenade

After walking around Xitang for a while, bartering for gifts, and taking some pics, I was looking for a spot to chill and grab lunch. I decided upon a place where I could sit on the second floor overlooking a popular bridge (where they filmed part of MI3) and the river to watch the boats. I have no idea how to say the name of the place but somehow without speaking good Chinese, I got a HUGE plate of fried rice with egg, and a big bowl of veggy dumplings. It was amazing, and I paid a total of 38RMB = $5. Awesome. As I was wrapping up lunch, this lovely man (video below) decided to serenade me for a few minutes. 

I didn’t want to give him cash so I started drawing a picture of him (also below) and he loved it as my form of payment (he later came back for real money and I obliged). I guess the bartering culture worked in my benefit this time! This was a perfect way to wrap up my $5 lunch of veggy dumplings and fried rice, overlooking the river. Although touristy, Xitang was proving to be a great day adventure!

Kung Fu Fighting

At the end of my lunch the waitresses of the restaurant brought out a friend of theirs who spoke minimal, but some, English. He proceeded to tell me how much he likes Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, and Kung Fu. I called him on his interest in Kung Fu and politely asked him if he would show me some Kung Fu. He obliged and I got a 2 minute Kung Fu show. He then called me out and I tried out a few kicks myself, which obviously got a laugh from everyone. The kid who spoke English was Allen (English name). Allen and I ended up spending the next few hours together, walking around the town, seeing a home or two of local Xitang-ites and grabbing tea. He clearly took me to the most expensive tea place he knew of in the city but at a total of 8 bucks I was ok with it. I told him of my need to be back to the bus by 4pm and we started towards the buses at 2:30p. As the afternoon went on his comments about how much money I must have started to slightly annoy and I worked hard to redirect the conversation. He was relentless with bringing up how much money my family must have since I was American. I thought we were connecting on the fact that both of our families owned a Honda. I left out that my Mom drives a Mercedes as that would definitely just drive more money related questions. After a while Allen got me to the bus stop but I was about an hour early. I thanked him for my Chinese lessons and the tour around Xitang, he asked for more money and cigs, I said sorry about 100 times and thanked him again. We parted ways and in that moment the difference in culture, attitude, and privilege was made extremely apparent. For the next couple hours as I returned to my bus (on time), I felt bad for Allen. I felt guilty for not being able to give him more, and I felt intrigued by the drastic difference in lifestyle between us in the west, and the many impoverished in the east. This is a world need that I’d like to be able to address later in life. I will be back to China.

A Close to Xitang

On the way home I was back to reading and gazing out the window at still very crowded rural China. Soon I’d be back in the the big city. Knowing that I’d leave the next day, and be back with the guys, I tried to make the most of each minute of that ride. I spoke with as many people as could understand English on that bus and even made some more Facebook friends. 

Thought on Facebook: Facebook is brilliant and has literally brought the world together. So many people I met in China are on Facebook and I will no easily be able to stay in touch with brief but memorable friends from across the world. I hope to return to China and when I do I’ll definitely leverage the relationships that I made in China, via Facebook. Any web start-up, or community driven company not looking at how Facebook will affect them either as partners, or competitors is seriously missing the boat. The breadth of their reach is far greater than I had imagined before my trip.

The trip would be over the next day but with the help of my Flickr account the memories would be shared and would last a very long time.

Image via Wikipedia

Pedestrians absolutely do not have any kind of right of way. Really nobody in Shanghai has a right of way. At one point I was in a cab at 9pm (dark) and there in front of us was a guy on a scooter with no light coming directly at us. He was honking that we didn’t see him! In short, the driving is way crazier that NY or anything we’ve seen in the States.

KFC is huge. The colonel is killing it in China. I don’t know how they’ve completely dominated the Chinese markets, but in both Shanghai and in Beijing, Kentucky Fried Chicken is the bullocks. Much larger even than McDonald’s is in the States.

Spitting, no swallowing mucous. The Chinese don’t believe it’s healthy to swallow your mucous. So, every morning you hear “hawking” non stop. It’s pretty disgusting.

Subway pushing. Basically, there is no sense of personal space in the crowded cities of China. On my last day in Shanghai I was riding the subway during rush hour and witnessed first hand the sardine packing that goes on in the subways. The ideal situation is that you keep your footing and end up inside, the less ideal is that you get pushed onto the ground. I held my own.

No tipping. From taxi drivers to bar tenders, you never tip in China. Call me cheap but it’s kind of nice.

Americans all have guns. I had lunch with a random Chinese kid that I met in Xitang on my last day in China and he asked me how many guns does my family have? This shocked me, but he went on to say that he thought all Americans have guns. He said that that’s why we are such a safe country because everyone has guns. Interesting huh?

One front wheel on full sized trucks. I’ve never seen it before, but in China they have full sized trucks, almost as large as an F350 that have only 1 front wheel. I was trying to figure out why this was, but all I could come up with is that they don’t have to go 60-80 mph on a freeway and maybe one wheel allows them to make tighter turns in smaller streets.

Service employees study customer names and characteristics. In our hotel I thoroughly enjoyed coming to breakfast (sometimes hungover) and have 2 or 3 hostess’s say, “Good morning Mr. Graves” or better yet, “Zao Shang Hao Mr. Graves”. Apparently, the reason they learn the customers names so well, is because they have meeting where the employees talk about the names and the physical characteristics of each guest. Also, there are 2 -5 people assigned to each guest, to know their names. At any giving time it seemed there was always 2 service people for each guest. It was brilliant!

I miss China. 

Tomorrow I’m headed out of Shanghai for a solo day trip to Tongli, Suzhou. Tongli is a water city also known as the Venice of the East. Apparently the stand-out features of this rural, authentic, and tourist light city are the beautiful bridges and the Chinese sex museum. No, that was not a typo.

I’m pumped for a day of solo exploration and adventure. Much pictures to come!

For previous pictures from the trip check it out.

I spent the last 2 hours relaxing at a tea shop in a market called Tea City in Zhong Shan Park, Shanghai. As I read (4 Hour Work Week) the man running the shop (Wu Jin) prepared and poured tea in the typical Chinese fashion. My goal was to read, relax and have tea. The shop I chose delivered perfectly. I also learned a very valuable lesson about underselling your competition from this shop owner.

As I walked through the market all the tea shops were essentially the same. 1 or 2 workers per shop waiting to prepare your tea. Each shop had tea products ranging from tea sets, pots, containers, and tea itself. They all basically offered the same thing so how was a customer supposed to choose which shop to go to?  Well, I made my decision based on where I thought I could relax the most and with all the vendors practically yelling at you as you walk by, I didn’t see that I would be able to relax very easily. The vendors all yelling for your business was the offline equivalent of spam. So, I chose the vendor that didn’t yell at me, the one who didn’t spam me. I chose the shop where the vendor was sitting peacefully in the back reading and wouldn’t scream at me. He differentiated himself by underselling. This was a valuable lesson.

With all products and service roughly the same it was difficult to differentiate from shop to shop. I was very happy to find one shop out of 30+ shops that was inviting and could deliver a moment of relaxation. This is a less is more situation. The same principle may be applied to a guy trying to pick up a girl in a bar. If the guy in the bar doesn’t hit on the beautiful girl in the corner but instead gets her attention and waits for her interest to bring her to him, he will likely have a better chance. Hubspot always preaches the importance and value of inbound marketing and this is classic inbound marketing. Create a good product and let the customer come to you. Put out the right “vibe” and wait for her to come to you. Save your energy and your budget by not spamming the customer.

Then, 2 hours into it, I had plenty of tea, was very relaxed, had a chance to read, and decided to buy about 500RMB worth of tea products. I got 2 hand carved tea containers, 2 different Oolong teas, and traditional wooden Chinese tea tools.

I should also say that I didn’t even get charged for the tea that I drank, only for the products I purchased. In the future when I recommend the Tea City to friends I will definitely point them back to Wu Jin’s shop. By underselling his competition Wu Jin differentiated himself perfectly and got quite a bit of business. You should try the same.

Sunday night photo from the Bund on the opposite side of Pudong, in Shanghai, China.

Tonight we are headed to Skybar at the top of the needle behind me. Yes it is true, the dream is certainly in Action!

Here are some pics from the trip thus far. I’ll be updating the China 2009 set a few times a week with new pics.

I’ll probably end up posting a cumulative version of this list at the end of my trip but I wanted to share a few of the crazier things I’ve experienced here in Shanghai over the first week. Some are just cultural and some are just weird…some are both.

-massages while urinating – You know that guy that every hates tipping just to give you some soap…well, in China when using the urinal in a mens restroom in most bars or clubs there is a guy to massage your back. I’m not a fan. Special messagy?

-employees watching window washer (silently) – I was grabbing a snack the other day and I walked by a conference room and there were 15 hotel employees standing at the window watching the window washer in silence. Upon my return about 15 minutes later, they still stood there. Awkward.

-rumpled table cloths – I’ve not seen a table cloth just normally drapped over a table. Almost every single one is ruffled or folded in some artistic fashion.

-pigeon soup – The other night I had a soup that taste similar to chicken noodle soup, except without noodles. It turned out the soup was pigeon…and by the way, there was an entire pigeon in the soup…head and all. Yum!

-waitress got slapped from dropping glass – (I did not see this) The other morning my friend watched a waitress drop a plate at breakfast. About 30 seconds later the manager of the service people (of which there are many) come up to the waitress and slap her. I thought that was a not an equal punishment for her error.

-doorbell ditching from room service personnel – I was taking a nap during my lunch today my room doorbell range. I got up to answer the door and when I opened it I saw a lady (hotel staff) hiding across the hall behing the corner. Once she knew she got caught she said, “sorry”, in terribly pronounced english and ran off the other direction. I check for a flaming bag of shit but couldn’t find one.

So, I’m sure there will be many more experiences to come but these are just a few of the crazy and culturally different experiences I’ve had thus far.

When we first arrived we hunted around for a place to stay on the Island of Hong Kong. The places were expensive and I didn’t want to pay top $ for a place that I knew I wouldn’t be spending much time in. I finally convinced the group to head across the harbor to Kowloon. It’s obviously the more “seedy” of the two areas but for cheap accommodation’s that’s the place to be. We were walking down Nathan St. in Kowloon as we were approached by an Indian guy first trying to sell us a suit, next a watch (Rolex & Breitling, which Dave and Tony later purchased, only to have then break about 20 mins after), then he proceeded to sell us a room. We checked out the room and it was…well, you get what you pay for. We’re paying $300 Hong Kong dollars which is about $19 US dollars per person, per night. It’s all about the experience right.

We decided that this first night would be one we would rage. We took it all in going to Lan Kwai Fong and meeting as many people as possible. In a club called Beirut, we met the CFO of Pepsi Asia. He was awesome, and a huge proponent of Hong Kong. He was also very encouraging about our roles with GE. Then we met a bunch of Indonesian girls who it seems just party and have been in HK for 13+ years. Sounds fun, but no thanks. I met a sweet bro, Patrick, from Dublin who works for a ritzy hotel chain. He worked for their corporate office in Ireland or the UK (didn’t catch it) and now here in HK. He’s been here for 5 mths and he also loved it. Pretty much everyone we met loved living here in HK. We stayed out extremely late, took in as much of the cities nightlife as is safely possible, and were successful in avoiding the ladies that go out for business, if you catch my drift. That apparently runs rampant in HK.

Kowloon, where we are staying isn’t as far as it seems on the map. We staying in a guest house (same as a hostel) that is owned & operated by some Indian guys. It seems way sketch when you first get there but I’ve been encouraging the guys to not compare it to anything they’ve experienced in the US. Things are different and just because it may seem unsafe or dirty to US standards it’s actually not to bad. They’re not really buying it. HAHA!  As far as the ferry to get over to Hong Kong Island it costs a total of 1.70 Honk Kong dollars which is 1.70/7.5 = uber cheap. It takes only about 10 minutes to get across and the views of the harbor and downtown are beautiful.

The next day we walked around the city just to take as much in as possible. We had 3 main requirements on the first full day. 1) Ride on the tram system, which is terrifyingly amazing and efficient. 2) Go to the Victoria Peak for the day, dusk, and night views (pics to come). The city is brilliant as the lights really bring things to life. 3) Eat authentic meals. Aside from Kevin’s Subway sandwich as about 2pm, we ate very authentically. I had porks, beefs, and lots and lots of steamed rice. Yum. We called it quits relatively early that night so we could maximize the next day.

Today started around 7:15am. I left the main part of downtown and came East, past Wan Chai to North Point by the Victoria Park. Here I found the Hong Kong public library so I’m stealing some free internet. The library is nicer that any I’ve every been in and was happy to get into such a calm environment. I feel a little bad about sitting in the library writing this post when there is much to be consumed just outside but a little reflection and rest can’t be a bad thing right now. It’s 12:50p and its about 74 degrees and quite humid outside. For me, it’s paradise. I’m thoroughly enjoying the change from Milwaukee’s 20 degrees.

I’ve really enjoyed Hong Kong so far for one main reason. It’s diversity. My first impressions of Shanghai were not as good because it’s ALL Chinese. Hong Kong has whites (British, American, and Aussie), blacks, Chinese, Mexicans….everything. I love that. But these are just first impressions. I’d say 1/3 of the people can at least understand and help a little in English.

The place I had lunch about 2 hours ago was brutal, no pictures on the menu to point to, only Cantonese characters on the menu and no English speakers at all. I finally lucked out when one of the workers began eating. He had a plate of pork with steamed, white rice. That’s exactly what I wanted so I just got up, walked to his meal, and pointed to it. It worked and they loved it. I got my pork and steamed rice and had an amazing lunch. I also got laughed at for ordering the equivalent of a 40 ounce Tsing Tao beer at 11am. Oh well. I met a Hong Konanese taxi driver at later that lunch named Kai, great guy. We spoke about Obama and the US economy. He told me about the Chinese financial crisis in the 90′s and how it cost him his job. He started driving taxi’s and 11 years later still does. He’s the one who gave me the tip about the library. I figured I might be able to get free web so here I am.

The guys are all meeting back up tonight around 7p or 19:00 as they’d say here. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to write again until I get to Shanghai on Sat or Sun. Hope all is well in you’re part of the world. I would love any tips, comments, or feedback! From Hong Kong. Cheers.

As you are reading this post, I’m likely on a plane a la Shanghai, China. This image of Shanghai was taken by my friend Blake when he was on this same trip 1 year ago.

I’ll be in China for about a month and for that time this blog will likely (temporarily) transform from a startups, social web, entrepreneurship blog, to a travel stories, pictures and travel video’s blog. It’s likely I’ll be tying the topics together but I wanted to give you a heads up on what is to come.

While I’m in China, I’m planning a 3 day trip to Beijing where I hope to meet Xiaoteng Jin the CEO of Linkool, a Beijing based software startup. If you’re in Hong Kong, Shanghai, or Beijing and run a web startup I’d love to see if we can connect in my spair time! Much more to come!

Because of this, I’ve spent the last 3 days moving out of my apartment. I’ve been largely offline with minimum interneting (as my gf would say) and it’s been kind of nice. Pretty much all of my work involves being online and starring at a screen and I think sometimes its good to close the laptop and get out and work…you know manual labor. I’ve spend much of my time last few days out working in the snow and something about working in the cold really makes me feel like a man. Can anyone relate?