India Trip

I am sitting at Chicago International as I write this and I have 30 minutes before my next departure to Orlando so I thought I’d use this time to blog about my trip to India.

Whenever a machine is produced by a manufacturer and sold into a specific geographic boundary such as country it often comes with regional modifications. These modifications are sometimes significant such as software systems programmed to readout in Japanese; but in most cases it’s no more than a decal change or hydraulic control configuration that is preferential for that area. Machines like these make ideal candidates for export. So, when working for an equipment dealership in Ogden I was often involved in exporting machinery from countries like Japan, Holland and China and importing them to the US, Canada, Mexico or Nigeria. When these machines are imported into a country other than the one they were originally intended for they are called “grey market” machines.

What I understand now that I didn’t then about grey market machinery is that each machine imported into a region other than it was intended for becomes a tremendous burden for the manufacturer to support.  An irony in my life is that my current position has responsibilities to support grey market machinery abroad with hydraulic hose and fittings; this was the primary reason for my travels to India this month.

India has several grey market harvesters that have been imported by someone other than my employer. The owner of these machines expects the support he receives on his domestic machinery and because we are committed to our customers and their success it’s necessary that we support these machines with parts.

So on Saturday I caught a flight to Pune, India from Moline through Chicago, Newark and Mumbai. 20 hours later I arrived in Mumbai Sunday night around 9:00 PM. My connection flight to Pune wasn’t until the next morning so I stayed at the Hilton near the airport. The Hilton in Mumbai is a beautiful hotel. They had these amazing crystal chandeliers in the lobby with very typical Indian furnishings and marble floors. The wings of the hotel had courtyards with water fountains, palm trees, park benches and gravel flooring.



Hilton, Mumbai, India



After my even stay in Mumbai I traveled to the airport and met up with a colleague from another division. From there we traveled together to Pune. Pune is the location of several of our facilities and factories so it made for a perfect location to base our travels out of.

Airport ground transportation

While in Pune I stayed at the Radisson. The hotel wasn’t as fancy as the Hilton in Mumbai but it had an upscale Indian restaurant that was very tasty and it was central to our offices which made it a nice place to stay.

Pune reminds me of South Africa, specifically the townships. The city’s commotion and infrastructure is what most resembles Africa. The buildings are of simple cinderblock construction. Most have squared walls painted with in a desert pallet. They sort of look like the type of buildings you see on the evening news when they are doing a segment about the Middle East. The picture below is looking out from the window of my hotel room.

Pune, India

My first day in Pune involved traveling to our factory to meet with the appropriate supply management personnel and take a tour of the production lines. Following our tour we returned to the hotel and had dinner with some Marketing folks to discuss about our future programs.

Traffic in India is hard to describe. It smacks you in the face, it’s chaotic and resembles the way water flows across the land or ants traveling to their nest. There are thousands of people in cars and more so on motorcycles. Adding to all this traffic congestion are ferial dogs and cattle wondering throughout the streets.

Not cows but goats in the road this time.

While traveling to the factory we actually witnessed a motorcycle wreck. It was really something to watch. We were traveling about 30 kilometers per hour when suddenly two motorcycles that were traveling too close to each other hooked one another and went down. The drivers slide across the ground and the one wearing a helmet lost it when it popped off. We slowed to a stop and watched as the two dusted themselves off, righted their motorcycles and hopped back on where they resumed their commute. It was unbelievable to witness. This wreck didn’t seem to faze either of the drivers. It appeared as though a wreck of this magnitude was routine and could be expected.

Adding to the congestion of traffic is domesticated cattle. I asked our regional representative why there were so many cattle wondering the streets. He told me that in Indian culture a herdsman will generally release one cow a year as a way of releasing this spiritual being from bondage. These cattle are then free to wonder. Since nobody eats beef in India the cows are pretty much free to roam undisturbed for the remainder of their life. The problem is their numbers are getting bigger and bigger.

The next day I visited an injection molding company and hard-line hydraulics supplier. They had several big customers like BMW & Volkswagen. The following day I caught a flight to Nagpur to visit a hydraulic hose manufacturer. The picture below is of Nagpur’s airport.

Nagpur Airport Terminal

Following our supplier visit in Nagpur I returned to the airport and caught a flight to New Delhi. New Delhi is much further north, near to the Pakistani and Nepalese borders; the Weather was pleasant there, in the mid 80’s. This was a welcomed change from Pune and Mumbai where the temps were in the mid 90’s with 50% – 80% humidity. In fact, Mumbai was nearly unbearable very hot and humid.

At the airport

Dehli Street Market

After my return from Delhi I flew back to Pune. The next morning our driver took us about 2 hours outside of Pune to visit another supplier. To get to this location we had to travel over the mountains and through a few tunnels. The scenery was great, I was able to get a nice view of Pune and enjoy the mountainous area there.

While traveling up the mountain roads our driver frequently had to overtake heavy loaded commercial hauling trucks. On one of these passes I thought I was going to die. The driver moved into the oncoming lane of travel and began to accelerate. That’s when I realized he was trying to pass on an uphill hairpin turn. Just as we came along side the truck another one equal in size suddenly appeared. Both trucks swerved to the shoulder as much as possible given that we were on a steep mountain slope and with that narrow gap our car slipped between the two barely unscathed.

Sugar Cane Harvest

After that supplier visit I returned to the airport. Boarded a plane from Mumbai where I met a connecting flight to Newark. When I landed in Newark I missed my connection flight due to a customs delay. So I caught another connecting flight to Chicago and then to Moline. All totaled I think I traveled about 35 hours to get home.

Overall my trip to India was very good. I loved the food, the people are very open and transparent and have a wonderful culture. Their English is great and they are very hospitable. I would love to visit that country again.

Indian dessert, looked so yummy but  I didn't eat a one of them.

 

Faridabad, India

Rickshaw Cabs, I didn't get to ride in one because my work forbids it.

BMW's Offices

Indian Street Market

Morning commute in metropolitan Delhi

Libation

Dinner with my colleagues

Tandoori Chicken

Common Indian home in Pune

Interesting business markets - trucks sold and used without bodies. Low cost

Common scene in traffic

Indian Temple

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving celebration started a day early with Tyson coming home from China. Lilly was so excited all day. We practiced saying ‘hello Daddy’ but she wouldn’t put those two words together. When she saw him at the airport she ran into his arms. She was so excited to have him home she wouldn’t leave his side the whole weekend. It was kind of a nice break for me. She also insisted on bringing the panda bear Tyson brought home for her everywhere.

 

For Thanksgiving we had a nice dinner at home. We had a couple of people from the ward invite us over but we decided we wanted to keep Thanksgiving a family only tradition. Tyson made the turkey and stuffing and I made everything else. All the food was yummy.

 

After Thanksgiving Tyson and Lilly took a nap and I watched a movie. Tyson was so jetlagged from the trip he wasn’t up to doing too much and it was raining so we spent the day hanging out at home. The sister missionaries stopped by our house in the evening and we played games with them.

Because of Tyson’s messed up sleep schedule he was up at 5:00 am on Friday morning so he decided to do some Black Friday shopping. He went to Home Depot and Walmart. He said that they were both pretty crazy. When he got home we went to breakfast at Village Inn. After that Tyson was sleepy again so he came home for a nap and we spent another relaxing day at home.

On Saturday I drove Tyson to the airport for India. Lilly and I are sad to see him go so soon.    

  

Trip To China

Last week I was in China for work. The major reasons for going were to meet with our local staff in Beijing, travel to Shanghai and branch out to visit a few potential suppliers, stay in Sanya where our new product intro was and then a brief stay over in Hong Kong before our flight home.

While in Beijing we toured our China offices and held all day meetings at the hotel. The two evenings were spent at a few modest restaurants where we had hot pots the one night and Peking Duck the next. I could have skipped the duck but the hot pots were good. Hot pots are where they have an electric burner at the dinner table where you would normally set your plate. On the burner is a ceramic pot that they fill with a type of soup. Then they bring out loads of sliced raw beef, pork and lamb along with a variety of hand strewn noodles and fresh cut veggies. You can pick what you want and put it in your pot for a few minutes to cook and eat right out of the pot. I really enjoyed eating this way. I knew everything was heated properly and I wouldn’t get sick.

 The next day we rented a van and traveled south of Beijing to meet with one of our dealers to conduct market research. After having lunch with the dealer we continued south to Tianjin. While in Tianjin we visited another dealer to discuss our business plans and then traveled to our manufacturing plants in that same city.

The next day we spent at the factories visiting with local people where we shared our business plans for 2013. It was great to see how advanced our facilities are over there along with highly intelligent staff.

That evening we flew to Shanghai and stayed at an ultra modern hotel called Indigo. It was a very pretentious hotel but had an amazing view and was right down town on the river.

The next morning we held meeting with one of our suppliers in Shanghai and went to a very tasty Thai restaurant (probably the best I’ve ever had) called Simply Thai. Since I’ve been to Shanghai several times before that evening I decided to take my coworkers to the markets for shopping and then down town on the river to view the lights, take in the sights and eat some good Chinese food.

The next morning I flew out to Wenzhou to visit a potential supplier. To get to this supplier's factory I had to take a 2 hour flight, drive 120 minutes and then take a 60 minute ferry boat. It was quite an ordeal but I saw some great sights. I wish I had taken more photos on this leg of the trip.

Something I came to realize this trip is that when the Chinese get in fights they rarely are physically engaged. They tend to just yell at each other. I witnessed this in the Shanghai airport and then while taking the ferry.

What happened on the ferry was that a truck side swiped a passengers car while loading onto the boat. I was told the driver felt he was not treated with respect. So, he drove his car onto the edge of the ferry, parked it diagonally, got out, remotely locked the doors and put the keys in his pocket. Then for the next hour he yelled at all the staff on the boat. His fit nearly made me miss my flight back to Shanghai and caused a huge traffic jam both on the ferry ramp and with the other boats on the water. The regional rep traveling with me, who is Chinese, said it is rare that people get in fist fights in China. It is usually just these long drawn out yelling matches.

The next morning I flew to Sanya for our new product intro and to support our parts expo that same week. Since all the dealers attend this event it is usually held in a resort type area to draw support while providing an area big enough to hold everyone. Sanya is a tropical island south of Hong Kong on the Southern tip of China. The fauna is very similar to Vietnam and the temps were in the high 80s with 60 - 90% humidity.  When we were not busy with the expo and show we had some time to swim, relax on the beach and play a few matches of volley ball and soccer against the hotel staff. I was very fortunate to get to attend this event.

After a few days in Sanya I traveled to Hong Kong. After hotel check in I went down town with my boss and did some shopping at the largest, most expensive, high end mall I’ve ever been in. While there we found an Italian restaurant and ate dinner. The food was amazing, especially after 10 days of Chinese. I had wonderful fruit drinks, prosciutto, mozzarella, bruschetta and fettuccine carbonara. The food was AWESOME!

The next morning we caught a flight out of Hong Kong to Chicago. Since I have to travel to India in three days I asked the company doctor to prescribe me some sleeping medication so I could quickly get back on schedule during thanksgiving and enjoy those few days with my family before I had to leave again.

Well, she gave me 10 ambien to take along with me. I’ve never had ambien so after the first 5mg and about an hour later I decided to take another. The only thing I remember from that following 13 hours was about 30 seconds of the movie step up in blurred dual vision,  about 10 seconds of being trapped in the bathroom and vaguely remember throwing my food down the aisle. The next coherent thing I remember was being at the gate for my connection flight in Chicago with the hiccups.

My boss and travel colleague filled me in on the details while waiting at the gate.

I guess at some point I took the whole bottle of ambien, the flight attendant had to move the person sitting next to me. At some point I got up and tried getting into someone else’s luggage.  I finally found mine and took out my laptop. I sat down at my computer at the bit locker screen and fumbled all over the keyboard trying to log in. I finally did log in and once at the home screen I tried connecting to the VPN, after that I opened a blank power point and sat looking at it for about an hour. Then I put my laptop away, took everyones pillows, piled them on my seat tray and pulled some blankets over my head. Then the attendant sat me up, gave me some more food and water and left me sitting there. Then after a few minutes I picked up my food and water and threw it into the aisle and put my head down on the tray. When the plane landed I got up, got my luggage, banged it all the way down the aisle and went through security. Following my boss I ended up at the departure gate for my final destination where I finally snapped out of my major ambien trip.

When they told me all of this I felt terrible for the people sitting next to me. I don’t even want to know what I did in the bathroom and I hope those United Airlines people can forgive me for the 13 hours of hell I put them through.

Needless to say, I plan to never take ambien again.

P.S. as I went to upload the photos from my phone I had about 20 with blackend or nondiscript photos of the airplane ride home. So I guess I tried to take some photos also.

Lilly's Birthday

Happy Birthday Lilly!! I can’t believe that I have a 2 year old. The time goes by so fast. It makes me a little sad. We were going to have a big party for her this year since we didn’t have one last year but after I started looking into the planning and the expense it lost its appeal. We decided to wait until she is a little older.

This year we celebrated just as a family. We had Fazoli’s for dinner because Lilly loves noodles, opened her presents, and eat some cake. We celebrated on Friday last week because Tyson is in China. (For anyone that doesn’t know Tyson is in China from November 10^th-21^st, then in India from November 24^th – December 1^st, and then Florida December 4^th – 8^th. Lilly and I sure miss him.) We had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme since that is Lilly’s favorite.

 

Tyson was a good sport about wearing the Mickey Mouse ears. That is what good daddys do.

I bought way too many presents. I probably should have saved some for Christmas. She got SPOILED. Lilly’s favorite part of her birthday was blowing out the candle (after I showed her it wasn’t scary) and the balloons.

 

Dear Lilly,

Happy 2^nd Birthday! I can’t believe you are 2 already. The last 2 years have been so much fun. You are the best thing to ever happen to us. You are such a sweet little girl and always give good hugs and kisses to everyone. You are pretty good at listening to mommy and daddy and doing what we ask you to. You are also a great little worker and love to help mommy around the house. 

You are always a good sport at all the things mommy takes you to including Mommy and Me, swimming, toddler music classes, play dates, and Tales for Tots at the library. You always have fun and still love parachute time. Hopefully by next year you’ll be a little better with sharing. You are also good when mommy makes you go to grown up activities with her. You’re her best buddy. 

You got to start nursery at church when you were 18 months old. You did a good job adjusting to nursery. You only cried for a couple of minutes for the first couple of weeks.  You love your teachers and nursery friends. Your teachers call you mellow and laid back and say that you usually go with the flow of things. 

I can’t believe how much you’re talking and all the new things you are learning. I think you learn a new word or two each day.  You love to count but you always start at two and only go to three “two three, two three, two three”. Now you just need to work on putting 2 words together.

You carry books around the house and want me to read them over and over. Some other favorite toys of yours are purses, dolls, your stroller, xylophone, and anything with a lot of small parts like your Mickey Mouse figurines. You are still good at sleeping but don’t like to eat everything I give you.

You are defiantly the oldest girl. You like to boss people around and like things exactly your way. You go around cleaning up, lining things up and closing doors. You like things just right. You are also very cute. Wherever we go we consistently have people telling us how cute you are.

Thank you for being a good traveler and going with us to North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Utah, and all of our other weekend trips. You never cry or complain when we are out exploring. Thank you for being such and good and easy little girl.

We love you so much.

Love,
Mommy

Halloween

Halloween this year was such a blast. Lilly was adorable. She learned how to say trick-or-treat and hold her bag out. We started off our Halloween celebration on the weekend with a Trunk-of-Treat at the church. There was chili, games, and trunk-or-treating. For this activity Lilly didn’t like all of the candy going into her bag without snacking. We had to give her a sucker while we went from car to car.

On Wednesday we started the night with pizza and pumpkin carving.

Trick-or-Treating started at 5:00 pm in our area and goes until 7:00 pm. People actually follow those time limits too. It is a little different from Utah where people go whenever and for however long they want. We took Lilly around our street. She got tired of saying both ‘trick-or-treat’ and ‘thank you’ so she just started holding out her bag and saying ‘thank you’.

After going around to a couple of houses we went back to our house to hand out candy. There were so many trick-or-treaters that we sat on our porch to hand out treats. All the neighbors were doing the same thing too. It was kind of like a big block party. We got rid of all of our candy and ended up turning our lights off right at 7:00.

Lilly was a garden gnome for Halloween. I know her costume is a little confusing. Everyone comment on how cute she was.

 

A Cut

After 15 years of long hair I decided to make a change.

Before:

 

After:

 

They ended up cutting off 8+ inches. I am happy with the length and I am having fun trying out new things.

Shush

We went to our local Botanical Gardens for the Pumpkin Extravaganza. It was not decorated very well and the gardens were tiny. This activity was not worth the $6 per person. It should be $2. We did get some cute pictures and it was good family time.

After the Botanical Gardens, Lilly and I went to our local library’s story time. We sat next to an interesting mother and daughter. The mother was insisting her 16 month old daughter sit quietly on her lap. Like most 16 month olds the daughter wasn’t having it. So the mother began yelling at her, rather loudly and forcing her to sit still. The rest of us in attendance tried to quietly ignore the awkward situation. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of ignore them when Lilly decided it was her job to fix it. She started to put her finger up to her mouth and shushing the mother and daughter, loudly and frequently. It was embarrassing but also hilarious. I tried to explain we don’t do that to other people but she kept doing it. Lilly is a little bit bossy.