Visits from friends - Splendid China

So what's awesome about this post, is I get to talk about Chris Li (one of my favorite roommates) and David Yao also. Chris and David had to come to Shenzhen to do some work, so we got to hang out - practically every day of the week! One weekend, since our plans to go to Macau fell through, we decided to go to Splendid China instead. Splendid China is right next to Window of the World and has the same concept. Let's miniaturize some monuments and put them in an amusement park. In this case, this was a mini China!

Emperor's Qin's Terracotta Army
 
The Great Wall (with buildings and such behind it...)
 
Me and Chris!
 
Somewhere cool-looking. I forget.
 

Taipei

I spent a few days in Taipei with a coworker during Chinese New Year. I didn't seem to take that many pictures though... However, I spent my time eating, and sightseeing and I have a picture of each.

This was my lunch from a Taiwanese vegetarian buffet. All I can say is the Taiwanese know how to do good vegetarian food. Susan, Sirena... who's jealous of food now, eh? :P
 
This is the view from the top of the Taipei 101! I'm on top of the world!
 

Chinese New Year in Shenzhen!

[This is the beginning of a few catchup blog posts...hehe]

I spent New Years Eve packing for my trip to Taiwan. When midnight struck heard lots of firecrackers, so I ran outside to my balcony with my camera and just sat for half an hour listening to fireworks and taking pictures. It was pretty awesome!

 
 
 
 

Cool views from the Apartment

One of my roommates took some cool pictures around our apartment complex and I just had to post a few of them.



Here, you can see the garden and a group of women doing Tai Chi in the morning.



The apartment building I'm living in is in a cluster of identical buildings.

In Shenzhen!

As you know, I've accepted a manufacturing consulting position in Shenzhen, and moved here at the beginning of this year. I hopped on an airplane on Dec 30th in San Diego and arrived in Shenzhen on Dec 31st just in time to ring in the New Year. What was awesome was that Chris (being the big baller frequent flyer he is) got my economy seat upgraded to business class from my 12 hr flight from SFO to HKG. I thought about taking pictures, but then I'd just look funny taking pictures. Instead, I just enjoyed it. I had a few drinks, watched 4 movies, and slept in their recliner/bed. It was great.




At the moment, I’m staying in an apartment with a few friends. Here are pictures of the place.



It’s on the 22nd floor, which gives me a pretty nice view of the city (until they finish construction on this building right next to us).



You’d be amazed how much stuff you can pack into 2 50lb boxes. I think I have most of what I want here.

Work is great - I’m working on some pretty cool projects. I really like the guys I’m working with and I’m learning a ton from them. There is a lot that I have to learn – lots of manufacturing processes, lots of everyday Chinese, and lots of manufacturing Chinese.

So that’s what happening with me now. I think realistically, I’ll maybe post something once or twice a month – since I’m lazy like that.
Hope all is well with you guys.

oh, i'm back...

So I've been back in the Bay Area for 3 weeks now and have been so caught up with seeing people and relaxing and being a bum, that I forgot I had a blog!

I've sifted through my 4000+ pictures and have posted 300 of my favorites to highlight parts of the trip. You can find them on facebook/picasa.

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=201493
Picasa:
http://picasaweb.google.com/danaung/200807RTWTripEuropeCondensed
http://picasaweb.google.com/danaung/200807RTWTripSEAsiaCondensed#

The current plan is to fly to San Diego on Dec 15th and to leave the country to start work in Shen Zhen on Dec 30th.

When I get settled in, I will probably post pictures of my place in Shen Zhen... but that's it for my travels for now!

Thanks for the comments guys! They were fun surprises during my trip!

blogger blocked from burma, chillin in bangkok

i'm hopping on an airplane to yangon in 10 hrs, so if i don't update my blog it can be for one of 2 reasons:

1. i've become extra extra lazy
2. blogger is censored in burma and i can't find a proxy site that will get me around it

i do have tons of really cool pictures from vietnam and cambodia that i need to post.

oh, and earlier today while i was walking around bangkok i ran into some protests. i took a picture and proceeded to walk in the opposite direction right into a movie theater where i watched max payne (not so great, but i was entertained for 90 minutes, and i was far enough way from large mobs).

so i spent the better part of the last 2 days in bangkok being a mallrat - i watched 3 movies, ate lots of food, and spent a lot of time in bookstores (bangkok has 5 major shopping centers on the same street and they're connected by a skybridge, so you can walk from one right into another). julie, i bought some books, and i might actually read them! maybe by the time you finish 100 books, i'll finish this one that i just bought.

that's kinda it for now. glad that i'm pretty much done with moving hostels/hotels every other day. i'm excited about going back to burma and then excited about going home after!

the current eta in SFO is Nov 17th.