Bangkok & Hanoi 2002

Wrong Road to Grenoble

In 2002 I had appointments with Texas Instruments at Nice in the morning and ST Micro in Grenoble / Crolles (both in France) in the afternoon. My rep and driver, a young strapping Glaswegian, took a short cut across the French Alps. We turned out to be the only guys in suits on this dirt road at 4,000 meters elevation and we were hours and hours late of course. But the French Alps were spectacular, and the customer, eager to see us, kindly stayed late. To top the day the customer turned out to be a stunningly beautiful woman PhD physicist, just the ticket for our suffering Glaswegian.

2006 Philippine Jeepneys

2005 Penang Chowrasta Market

In 2005 I visited Singapore for the IPFA conference and exhibited at the associated trade-show. Immediately after I visited Penang, Malaysia to develop a new SE Asia rep for my client. I stayed in an extraordinary restored Chinese mansion (another album) and from there managed a Saturday visit to the nearby Chowrasta wet market. What an experience. Penang is a marvelous island and Georgetown is still full of pre-WW2 architecture.

2005 Penang - Cheung Fatt Tze Mansion

Going to Penang? Stay here. This mansion was built in the late 1800s by a poor chinese boy who came to the British Empire and did very, very well. He was a Bill Gates of his time. This was one of 7 mansions that he owned around East Asia, home of his favorite wife, and a stunning fusion of Victorian technology with traditional Chinese Feng Shui. Recently acquired and lovingly restored, a UNESCO world heritage site, reasonably priced and has WiFi. A unique, wonderful experience.

Married in Kathmandu

Cricket and I traveled to Kathmandu to be married in 1992. They have arranged marriages so first we needed to adopt or rather be adopted by local families first.