Pearl of the Orient

Today I got to explore Penang, otherwise known as the "Pearl of the Orient".  There is a GAT audit member who is a local here, Andy Lim, so he and his wife helped us foreigners explore.  It was very helpful, since when you are not in the hotels and office buildings, there is a very strong possibility that people will not be able to speak English.  Andy took us around to see some of the local tourist sights as well as eat some of the local food.  Here are some highlights of the day:

The gang eating local food.

Tonya and me eating some local food.

Bob (a.k.a. Vanna White) showing off some of lunch.

The kitchen of our dining facility.

In front of the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (aka the "Blue Mansion").

We made a quick stop by Fort Cornwallis. 

A building that was built by some of the British rulers of Penang Island back in the early 19th century.  It now operates as a government building.

The gang during our site-seeing day.

The historic buildings down some of the streets in Penang.

First Week

I've made it through my first week in Asia!  Luckily it has all been pretty smooth sailing.  Tuesday through Thursday we worked at the AP2 Dell campus on the mainland because it is where most of our Global Trade & Compliance clients work.  Each morning the team eats breakfast in the G Hotel cafe where we are able to get a lot of western food breakfast items (eggs, waffles, cereal, yogurt, fruit, etc).  I tend to stay away from the eastern breakfast food items for breakfast (porriage, noodle soup, century eggs), since most of my lunch and dinner contains eastern food (a LOT of fried rice and noodle soup).  We leave the hotel together in a taxi van around 7:30 a.m. and it takes us about an hour to commute to the AP2 facility.  The drive is pretty long and takes up a lot of the day, but we use it to debrief as a team as well as have some casual bonding time.

Most of the days at the office have been taken up with meetings with our clients to walk through their business and daily tasks.  Soon we'll be spending more time testing the data they've provided us to make sure there are not any risk items - we'll be starting to do more of that starting tomorrow.  Friday we were at the AP1 Dell campus building on the Penang island.  Again, the day was mostly spent in meetings.  The highlight of the day was getting to eat lunch with the FDPs that are based in Penang.  Most of them are in the new class, so this was mine and Bob's first time meeting them.

Being that it was Friday, we were finally able to do a little relaxing after work hours.  We walked about a half mile down from our hotel to a bar called Over Time to have some German beer and appetizers.  The local GAT members as well as most of the FDPs also met up with us to hang out. 

That's been the first work week here abroad.  Below are some pictures I've taken during the week.  I haven't taken many pictures yet because most of my time has been in the office, but you can expect many more after I do a bit of site-seeing this weekend.

At the Taipei airport during one of our several layovers on the way to Malaysia.

View of Penang Island as we cross the Penang Bridge from the mainland during one of our daily commutes.

The tallest building in Penang:  the Government building.

One of my most adventurous food experiences so far:  ostrich.  Quite delicious actually!

Yay! Dell Penang!!

The FDP gang in Malaysia.

I Made It!

After 40 hours straight of traveling, I finally made it to Asia and all in one piece!  I took off from Austin on Saturday 11/5 at 1:18pm, flew to New York where I had a 6 hour layover, then took off on a 7 hour flight to Alaska where we had a 2 hour layover to fuel back up, then headed out to Taiwan which was about a 10 hour flight and had a 4 hour layover there, and finally had our final flight to Malaysia.  We got into Penang around 4:30pm Monday afternoon local time, missing a day inbetween due to time zone changes (14 hours ahead of US Central time).  The jet lag wasn't too bad, although I was pretty sleepy on Tuesday afternoon.  I think I've adjusted now.

After checking into our contemporary hotel, the G Hotel, we regrouped with the rest of our collegues for dinner and then went to bed for an early night to recoup from the long couple days of traveling.

Tuesday and Wednesday were full of meetings all day long, so I haven't had much free time (hence the late blogging, not to mention spotty internet connection).  I also haven't gotten to explore the local area too much either, so I haven't taken many pictures yet, but I promise there will be some soon!

First Blog

Welcome to my first blog ever!  I will be traveling in Asia for the next five weeks, so I thought it was about time I created a blog so that family and friends can keep up with my life as I'm globe trekking.  I'm not sure how much time I'll have to dedicate to this blog since I'll be busy working during my travels as well as exploring the regions I'm in, but I'll try to at least keep you updated on the key highlights.  Hope you enjoy!