AmericanTCB Directors Travel Blog

From: Mike Violette and Desmond Fraser, Directors of AmericanTCB, Inc.
Received: Sunday, November 05, 2006 5:45 PM ET

Two million dollars for a villa on a lake, anyone? That's what they're selling for at the Good View Resort in Guangdong, PRC. The getaway location features a view of the lake surrounded by verdant hills and is really a site for city-sore eyes. After a day in Hong Kong -- which can only be described as un-describable (laser light show with 20 high-rises participating)--it is nice to get into the "country." The Good View is more like a country club, with a 1/4 mile long swimming pool/canal, linking the outlying semi-private rental area with the main hotel. Not to mention the disco lounge, floor shows and a Disney-esque indoor playground with an indoor walking street 100m long "...in the Boulevard we have a variety of venues and entertainment for your every pleasure. You can visit our nightclub, GO-GO bar, watch a magic show, play a game of snooker, challenge your friends at the Arm Wrestling Bar.." Not to mention the ONE HUNDRED private Karaoke (KTV) rooms. WOW.

Five years ago this was a farm.

And that's the way things are done here (parts of) the richest province in China. Guang Dong is adjacent to Hong Kong and used to be referred to as the "frontier." Before the handover to the PRC, the hills between the two politically-polarized areas were patrolled by mercenaries hired by the British government to keep the human swell of immigration from flooding Hong Kong. "If the border were open, Hong Kong would sink into the Ocean". Now, bi-directional travel between Hong Kong and Guang Dong is served by a high speed, modern, comfortable rail service. Exiting the train station, one pops up into the middle of a surging metropolis, called Shenzen. Again, before 1979, this was rice paddies cultivated by oxen-driving peasants who fertilized their farms with the notorious "night soil." Today, we hop a new Buick mini-van, operated by a husband-wife entrepreneur team who can field up to nine vans to shuttle hopefuls around the countryside.

One palpable rush an American gets when they step into Asia are the crowds: people everywhere The cities are jammed with newcomers--pioneers, really--from everywhere in China. A gold rush mentality and those with the gold spend it on fine dining, discos, massages, consumer goods of every variety, entertainment and sport. The other palpable thing is the friendliness of the people. Service is top-flight, solicitous and almost smothering.

The other striking aspect of visiting the developing parts of China is the scale upon which they speculate. The Good View resort is amazing, but it is empty. "Build it and they will come" might be the catch-phrase. One critical difference in this gamble is the very low cost wage structure for workers who assemble the marble floors and walls, finely-wrought cabinetry, manicured garden walks and expansive restaurants.

The new city of Dong Guan (the Nancheng district) is a modern arrangement of high-rise, beautifully-designed roads, parks, hotels and civic attractions. It is, though, a bit odd to see all this development without habitation. See the two photos of Dong Guan's central plaza (beautiful) and an overhead shot of the downtown.

Our trip so far has been fairly pedestrian, walking and taking in the sites of Hong Kong, with its attendant allure of commerce and unashamed consumerism. Today, Monday November 6th, we travel about Guandong to seek cooperation with our partner labs and discuss forming a delegation team to bring Chinese businesses to the US. Look out for the signs of a spending spree in the future years as Chinese investors come with their wallets to the US, looking for business investment opportunity. From our perspective, it's an incredible time to be involved.

DONG GUAN NEW DOWNTOWN

DONG GUAN CENTRAL PLAZA

From: Mike Violette and Desmond Fraser, Directors of AmericanTCB, Inc.
Received: Monday, November 06, 2006 2:45 PM ET

We hit the road running today with visits to several excellent clients and prospects, sampled some pickled pigs ear (chewy!), amongst some other fine delicacies. Every time I sit down here there is something else that is either: a brand new variation on a protein, or a previously undiscovered form of tofu. But it is really all good and we are fortunate that the restaurant business is brisk and refined in China. During the days of Mao and economic communism (as opposed to the free-market communism we're experiencing today), restaurants were nil; few ate out because there was really no disposable income and free enterprise had its mouth wired shut. Imagine closing basic services and industry for 30 years; the pent-up resurgence and revival is astonishing and we are the traveling benefactors.

Anyway, investment in capital expansion on both the manufacturing and services side is incredible. We've toured a state of the art 10 m anechoic laboratory at SGS (the ferrite foam still smells fresh) and our new good friends at TUV.

As a follow-up to last summer's tour of Southern China's Guangdong province, we re-established ties with the Nancheng District officials in Dong Guan. We're cooperating to establish a trade delegation to the US of companies seeking to establish closer ties, entice investment and possibly invest in the US economy.

Hopefully, we'll get some guidance and support from our good friends in associations, commercial partners and government development.

One cannot help but notice the newly paved highways, carved through hills in and all around the cities of Dongguan and Gaungzhou in Gaungdong province, in South China. Noticeable also are freshly painted high voltage and medium voltage electric transmission cable towers carrying power to the various factories that powers the world's largest factory, China. It is not surprising that China is experiencing double-digit economic growth, its infrastructure is constantly being improved, large water pipes can be seen constructed along its many roads and in high tech park areas. The main pillars of infracture a country needs to compete in today's Global In and Outsourcing market. While China is blessed with abundant human resources, it has managed to implement macro and micro economic policies that entice foreign investments to come and stay.

During dinner discussions with Dongguan and Nancheng district officials at the swanky Premier Court Restaurant of the newly-opened Haiyatt (no typo in the name) Garden Hotel (a five star hotel with beautifully appointed rooms at $45 US promotional rate) in downtown Dongguan. Mr. Steven Zhang, Economic Vice chief, explains the many tax incentives that make it alluring for international companies to invest in his district. As China improves its banking and monetary system, I can only imagine many other companies rushing to take advantage of this opportunity. When, not if, the cost of living and doing business in the southern areas increases, companies only have to move to the north near the North Korean border where costs are presently lower and will remain low because of our other friends in North Korea. Nevertheless, will they move to the North, knowing that one may not be too far from the "big one," (heaven forbid) only time will tell, but I am sure some will move to take advantage of the opportunity. This brings me to the author of "The World is Flat" Thomas L. Friedman and some of his observations that globalization promotes world peace and lessens world tension or at the very least cause's politicians to think twice before acting stupidly, not that they will not, but it forces them to blink once, no, twice. Mr. Friedman notes the following in his book:

1. Neighboring countries that have McDonald restaurants, may have had skirmishes, but have never gone to war since the establishment of the restaurants. Why? The existence of the restaurant helps become a deterrent to politicians acting irrationally because of the economic consequences on both sides if McDonalds were to pull out. The "McDonalds effect" may be coming less of a factor today, but other companies are stepping up to play the same roll if not more in the IT and electronics industry.

2. Global companies such as Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Cisco etc. evaluate a country infrastructure, political stability, Macro, and Micro economic policies before choosing which one will host their global manufacturing plants. In the process invests up to several Billions of dollars are made, jobs are created which these countries grow to depend on and would blink twice during political upheavals with its neighbors if it were not for the investments and manufacturing infrastructures of these companies. A case in point he argues in his book was the India-Pakistan nuclear tension, in which global companies investments such as GE and others were threaten because of this tension. Well, the tension subsequently subsided suffice it to say. Again, the global economic dependency was evidently a telling factor.

There are many more examples of global collaboration that one can cite; however, it appears that our interdependency through outsourcing and other global activities would only help to reduce world tension, if nothing else it causes all of us to BLINK TWICE. In the meantime, when in China, please try the pig ear, in Africa the omole, in the US some chittlin's or a Big Mac (TM) , in France some foie gras or other global delicacies for it may just bring us all closer and save ourselves.

Shenzen Tower

View of the Good View hotel

Visit to TUV

Banquet with Dongguan officials

Haiyatt Hotel

From: Mike Violette and Desmond Fraser, Directors of AmericanTCB, Inc.
Received: Thursday, November 09, 2006 11:33 AM ET

[Desmond]
After several meetings with Trivet/ATCB Asia, and visits to SMQ and Audix, both premier EMC laboratories in Shenzhen, South China, a teeming city that has enjoyed years of special economic zone status, but contributed to China’s Billion Dollar reserves, we crossed over the China-Hong Kong (HK) boarder, essentially, a bridge over a canal, connecting two immigration authorities. After the normal immigration quality Assurance processes, we boarded a modern high speed train that usually ferries other daily foreign business and holiday pilgrims to and from the two cites that keeps a perpetual trade buzz in a one-country two-system tango. We exited our train about the third stop, heading towards Tsim Sha Tsui train station in downtown HK. We left PRC and hopped a “Double Decker” bus bound for HK airport where we would spend the night at the Regal Airport hotel.

All went seamlessly under the guide and watchful eyes of our China Business Team, Messrs. Major Chen and Jerry Lee, whose collective attention to detail, wit, spirit and exuberant energies would make any weary traveler keep pressing to accomplish the day’s task.

Thanks for making our border crossings uneventful and we arrived unscathed. Our team, here, there and everywhere, make this—and more—possible.

We were on our own, so imagine this scene: two wide-shouldered, over-6-feet Recovering-Engineers turned entrepreneurs, heaving their starving frames (skipped one lunch) to the upper deck through metal spiral stairs with treads designed for a baby’s foot, not a pretty sight to see. Meanwhile folks from HK sashayed effortlessly upstairs with “kein problem” (no problem). Well his “Lordship” the taller, nursing a strained arm-string, after cranking up a notch as his “Funfziger” (big 50) approaches, tip-toed with great trepidations up the stairs, armed with size 12 leather soles; can you imagine!

Well, the odd couple typically garners lots of stares during Asian travels, and today was no exception after we had no choice, but to seat with shoulders adjusted diagonally in spaces normally allocated for two locals. The journey to the airport was for the most part smooth, uneventful, although we could ONLY “take-in” all that was to our right, as we meandered through narrow British style roads, gazing at lots of colorful neon Chinese signs and prayed that our knees would still hold us up at the other end. You see, it has only been 10 years or so since either of us sat in a public bus in the US designed for fast food waist lines; which gave us one more reason to appreciate some of the things we take for granted back home.

At the airport we proceeded straight to the hotel to rest and prepare for “Nam”, Vietnam. Our flight schedules at 8 A.M. the next morning to Ho Chi Minh City spared us only a few hours for diner and some after hours drinks. The Regal, with its modern décor, Feng-shui like settings, and Tokyo style appointed rooms, but bigger, was the right place to park, and be ready for our next flight. Dinner was easy, at the hotel’s Japanese restaurant, with Saki and Sushi ordered to temper our starving souls. (remember, NO LUNCH!!!)

[Mike] Shenzen: Whoo! I guess it’s tired-sounding to keep saying that the cities here are huuuuge, but they are. The Shenzen (SZ) special economic zone was one of the first to be established after the modernizations proclaimed by Deng Xiao Peng in 1978. Coming only two years after the death of Mao, Deng realized (probably not for the first time) that China had to expand to feed itself (first) and generate wealth to support the socialist state. Shenzen, being on the border with Hong Kong (the “frontier”) was a natural place to experiment. So here is ATCB’s “tent” as Jerry calls it. An outpost on the frontier of the PRC. Excursions from this location, however, are by modern highway at 70 mph, not by tank or trudge.

SMQ is on our short list after we part with Jones, our Taiwan benefactor, who helped us establish our foundation in Asia. SMQ, or the Shenzen Metrology and Quality Monitoring Administration, is a government-subsidized laboratory with 600-some employees testing all from chemical to electrical testing and evaluation.

Coincidentally, on this day, the Chinese government has also issued draft regulations on the control of Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) cut your Mandarin on the link: The Ministry of Information Industry announced in February 2006 the "Administrative Measures for the Control of Pollution from Electronic Information Equipment." The Measures take effect March 1, 2007.

Wednesday is a wake up at 5 a.m. to walk the ½ mile from the hotel to the terminal. A day of flying via Singapore to Vietnam and not much to report except the stew of modern humanity mixed together in the HK airport. Chinese, Indians, Muslims, Europeans, Americans, you name it, the DNA of the planet passes through the vaulted soaring white ceilings of the HK International Airport on Lantau Island. This place is built on dredged fill and, true to all public works projects, the scale is expansive. It beats Tysons Corner for shopping, especially if you’re interested in picking up a tasty snack of little dried fish or roasted corn on a stick. Yeah, you can get double-machiatto soy latte, too, if you need a fix from the US.

Flying from Singapore, built up after WWI as a stronghold in the Asia region for the British Navy, it is only 1 hour thirty to HCM City. I’m anxious to get there and touch down in a place that held the nation rapt during the nightly news when I was a kid. Now, Vietnam is poised to accede to the World Trade Organization (WTO) as its 150th member. My, my, good things come round if you wait. It would be nice to imagine a time in the not-too-distant future when the Middle East was as friendly a place to do business as SE Asia.

The Group at Audix

Group with SMQ

Backhoes

The group at Good View

From: Mike Violette and Desmond Fraser, Directors of AmericanTCB, Inc.
Received: Sunday, November 12, 2006 9:59 PM ET

[Desmond]
November 10 & 11

We are now half way through our Asian trip, and as a card carrying AARP member, I now have the privilege to report this part of the journey with insights and reflections, by examining some aspects of Globalization from my observations as one of its recent members. But before we address that point of view, our arrival in Vietnam provoked many thoughts and images stemming from our history with this nation. After all, this is the land that produced Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk whose teachings and philosophy of not being bound to any doctrine, ideology, or theory; is considered by many to be an influential figure of our times, which would serve us all well if we abide by his doctrine. Others present in my memory and sensory overload include Senator McCain, an American hero/prisoner of war, Senator John Kerry and the “Swift boat” episode, and Mike’s dad who was a pilot stationed in Vietnam to name a few.

All went well with the usual passport stamping and the immigration officers’ snares were successfully sidestepped; at times I was not sure whether I was seen as a basketball athlete, as is the case in other Asian cities, or I had violated some country law. But this is typical at most border crossings. We were taken to the Caravelle hotel in downtown HCM City, a lovely five star hotel indeed. The Vietnamese people were very friendly, welcoming all visitors with grace and honor: you Americans... you Americans... the locals asked with welcoming smiles that calmed all of our nervousness and apprehensions. Although I was looking forward to our meeting with QAUTEST LABORATORIES, a government multifaceted laboratory with capabilities that ranges from EMC, Metrological, Materials, Electrical, Mechanical, Petrochemical, Safety, Chemical, Biological and Food testing. I was also interested to discover the Vietnamese basic skill sets, which are necessary to participate in today’s global economy. Furthermore, I wanted to compare it with other areas of the world in order to determine which other countries in Asia, South America and Africa were capable of leveraging their citizens’ basic skill sets to meet the demands for cheaper labor, resulting in economic growth and infrastructure development. Deng Xiaoping, responsible for transforming China into today’s economic power remarked-“a white tiger is useless if it cannot catch a mouse”.

Permit me to simplistically create a new definition of Third World countries to include those that have core competencies and refined skills in the following areas: wood-working, textile/garment manufacturing (i.e., good tailors), metal workers, concrete and brick layers, electricians, etc., to name a few, and have harnessed these skills by attracting global companies in the form of plant facilities investments or have companies that are part of the global supply chain vendor programs in today’s economic global symphony. These I refer to as the “Third Plus” World countries.

For all intents and purposes, Vietnam has plenty of the aforementioned basic skills, hence the deserved investment by the international textile industry, where garments with zippers made in Japan and cloth from China are manufactured in and around HCM city. In Asia, a mature textile industry appears to be the leading global indicator. This is because other industries will follow; a three to ten year delay lags between textile and other industries; in Vietnam Intel is leading the way by investing a billion US dollars in HCM City. Dell Corporation is already entrenched. Other electronics giants are following in the footsteps of DELL and INTEL, such as LENOVO of China. If one were to review recent history, this trend has been true in other countries such as China, Taiwan, Korea, etc. where the manufacturing of garments and other commodities in the textile industry lead the way to improved economic prosperity in Third world countries.

I have become sidetracked with my continuing rattling of my global economic banter. Here are my impressions of our host, QUATEST: They have very clean and well-equipped laboratories, which reminded me of my student days in DEUTSCHLAND, coupled with an energetic educated staff, some of whom spoke fluent Japanese and other languages. The various laboratory departments provide the testing needs for government and private industry likewise. ATCB’s mission was to examine the potential for mutual cooperation with QUATEST, as this country takes economic advantage of its recent WTO membership status, one that has been received with exuberance by its citizens, as a step in the right direction in the wake of the opening of the upcoming Asian Economic summit next week.

So what’s my take on all of this? Countries in the Third Plus world need to develop their basic skill sets and increase their educated workforce, if they are to partake in the present global lucrative outsourcing markets, were they can leverage their citizens skill sets by enticing global companies to invest in their respective countries. One cannot skip these basic skill sets or advance to the next level if countries opt for more sophisticated R&D choice of development, such as Biotech for example.

Walking before running, basic skill sets must be developed from the bottom-up, creating entrepreneurs perhaps through the use of Micro loans, demonstrated by Muhammad Yanus, the recent Nobel peace laureate— an economics professor who completed his PhD in the US. Mr. Yanus envisioned and developed a Micro financing bank in Bangladesh. His native country; the Grameen Bank, has given loans to over 6.6 million people with a respectable 99% payback rate. The Third Plus world countries should look to Asia as an example of how it developed and competed for global jobs, so that they too can contribute and be counted. It is no accident that Ben Franklin and the founding fathers, looked to the five nation Iroquois Indians, when structuring the US system of government with checks and balances that has been the envy of the world. World peace and stability is increasingly bound by global economics; not by doctrine, ideology, or encumbered and stale political theory.

[Mike Violette]
November 10

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. Arriving here to bear witness to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is both experiencing a time warp and seeing the future. The closed period (from 1975 to 1987, more or less) affected Vietnam in a significant way, retarding economic expansion and certainly played havoc with the local and international political situation, but the signs are here for a new emerging economic engine in SE Asia. With 80 million people (and believe you me, there are lots of people here) the street activity is a bit like a carbonated fizzy bottle with the top just removed: lots of kinetic energy.

Presidents Bush and Hu Jintao are visiting Vietnam the same week, along with Vlad Putin and the PM of Japan Shinzo Abe. Intel is upping its investment to $US1Billion. Some kind of transformation and evolution is underway here.

The hour ride through rush hour on Wednesday is a bumpy, grinding, grungy navigation to the middle of HCMC. Asia never disappoints and Vietnam is no exception. The scooter traffic is unreal and precarious and the archetypical visions of chaos on two wheels multiplied by thousands is true and it happens in rush hour in HCMC. The airport is a nice size and getting a car to the hotel is no sweat in 90 degree heat. We do the check-in, have a couple of drinks and pass out til morning when we meet our first business contacts.

Mr. Thi (pronounced “tee”) meets us early on Thursday to drive the 45 minutes to the headquarters of the QUATEST laboratories. QUATEST is a government-supported organization that provides multiple test disciplines serving the Vietnam government and local enterprises. The lab is some 30 years old, started just as US involvement was “winding down,” but has facilities less than two years old providing food safety, EMC, biological, electrical, environmental, petrochemical and related tests. The lab campus is new and modern with a staff that is bound to expanding their mandate and market. The lab is situated in the high tech area (appropriately enough); our tour is comprehensive and we banter about future cooperation, maybe a series of seminars with some US experts that can share their operational knowledge in the various disciplines. We leave the meeting with the feeling that now is the best time to stick our feet in the water.

Rewinding to the drive over to QUATEST, I am struck by backhoes. Lots of backhoes. Literally dozens of backhoe dealers with backhoes for rent along the road to the lab. Really a lot of backhoes. Not as many in one place as “backhoe heaven” in China, but certainly a collective of earth-moving equipment ready to dig big-ax holes in the ground.

A curious fact of Asia (might not apply universally, but I’ve seen it in China, Taiwan and now Vietnam) is the fact that businesses of the same ilk gather in the same area. This is true for plumbing, wiring, construction equipment, flowers and a myriad of commodities and products. If you want a toilet, go to the plumbing street, if you want a replica of a great master, go to the painting alley, if you want a break, go to the red light district. The specialties congregate around a particular area. Like backhoes along the trip from the Hotel to QUATEST.

See the picture(s). It is a montage of backhoe pictures.

Aside from the concentration of same products, the existence of all these damn backhoes it just a sign that things are really moving here. OK, I’ll leave the backhoes alone.

On our way back to the hotel, we eat along the river at an open-air café of sorts. To say “open air” in VN is really not that Gucci, because a lot of the country is open air, including the boats which putt by on single-cylinder engines that give a wild cadence to the river activities. Bap bap bap bap bap bap they go as they go by, clumps of water hyacinth roll with the river’s flow.

A guy wades through the water with a long pole in one hand and a net in another. The pole is connected to a battery packpack that stuns the fish with an electric shock which he then scoops up with the net. Mr. Thi says this is illegal, but there seem to be a lot of regulations on the books that are “disregarded”.

We eat eel (two kinds) and river lobster (size of giant crayfish, but tastier) and enjoy having time with Mr. Thi, who courteously gives us a lift back to the hotel, which is good, because I’d still be sitting in that café working on my second case of beer if he didn’t get us back to town.

[November 11]

Friday’s a touring day in the Mekong Delta river with Ms. Phan who picks us up. One has to wonder might happen should the feared rise in global ocean levels occurs, but that is the case of concern for another day. We’re here to report the here and now, which happily includes VN’s accession to the WTO, bringing to 150 the countries covered by this agreement). The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting is in Hanoi next week which is why the Presidents of the two greatest economic powers are coming. This may move things along with respect to the APEC-US MRA, which should loosen things up across many of the main economies, Vietnam included.

We hire a fine car with a skilled driver and the joyful Ms. Phan Anh Thi treats us with folklore and fancy, ranging from driver habits to health treatment. The scooters zip by on the right side of the four lane road. Well, they also zip on the left counter-traffic, sideways and it’s like propping the top off a honey hive with the buzzing motorbikes stirred by an unseen hand. We came across two wrecks on the way which slows the traffic to a crawl. I look out the window as we pass and note a paint mark sketch of a fallen scooter rider a stick figure on the street. I couldn’t tell if the color of the asphalt was blood or no, but it was near the circle-for-a head and made me shudder a bit.

The nominal regulation regarding helmets states that highway driving requires a helmet. Police enforcement is akin to a speed trap and the zones of enforcement are well-known. Entrepreneurs have rental-helmets available, should a rider need one for renting for a kilometer or two, until past the enforcement. This, too, has set up a loose cooperation between the helmet renters and the police enforcement in the spirit of mutual revenue enhancement.

We arrive in Vinh Long after two hours of passing through numerous commercial and residential areas: hard to distinguish; it’s all mixed together. Thi does point out some new areas that seem a little more planned and rational, at least to a westerner used to the orderliness of urban & suburban planning.

Our guide for the water portion of our tour, Tony Hai, greets us as we arrive Vinh Long. Tony, his name taken to honor from an American friend who was killed during the war, was affiliated with the 101st Airborne until the Americans pulled out in 1975. Since he was a friend of the enemy, he was taken to a re-education camp after the war and spent two and a half years in hell. After his release he was forced to farm and has spent the last twenty years re-building his life. The Americans are back and Tony’s activities are key to facilitating the romance between former collaborators and foes. As he says, things changed in 1986 when the economy started to open and ties to the west re-established.

Our route through the Mekong River winds through canals and past ordinary homes, built at and on the water. Sanpans, named for the style of construction “three sides” that define the hull: one side that floats flat on the water, two others on the port and starboard. In cross-section it’s shaped like a squashed “u”.

TV antennas sprout like crazy hairs above the tumble of the settlements.

I’d come back in a heartbeat.

Man with drywall

Quatest chamber

Quatest Engineers

Quatest meeting group

Riverside Cafe

Saigon skyline

From: Mike Violette and Desmond Fraser, Directors of AmericanTCB, Inc.
Received: Sunday, November 19, 2006 6:36 AM ET

[November 12-15]

We take a breather in Singapore for a day or two, staying in the southernmost part of that City-State. Bill and Mandy join us to celebrate birthdays and help propel us through our ‘round-the-world trip.

Singapore is a major intersection of trade and commerce in the region. From our developing-world experience in Vietnam and China, we arrive to manicured streets and an efficient and friendly ride from the modern airport, built on reclaimed land.

Lee Kuan Yew is the strong, personal force behind Singapore’s expansion in to the first world and his fingerprint is indelibly placed on everything that is done here. Roads, buildings, shopping malls, tourist areas. The place is probably the most efficiently and highly functioning city that I’ve visited.

At the southernmost tip of Continental Asia, enormous cargo vessels ply the waters between Sentosa and Indonesia, visible a few miles across the straights. The container ships number in the dozens or more, that are visible. A refinery is also visible across the water; it belches a flaring red stream of burning waste-gases that glows brightly at night. You can almost sense the heat.

Singapore was run over by the Japanese in WWII, lost due to some miscalculations and oversight on the part of the British. The history is rich. Of particular importance is the origin of the “Singapore Sling,” an invention at the famous Raffles Hotel in downtown Singapore, where we make an obligatory visit for our mutual birthday celebrations.

The place we stay has a very “zen-like” quality. Healing and restoration and feng shui. There is something to the Chinese and Asian connectiveness between soul and body. A stone labyrinth is on the property. The idea is to make your way from the outer to the inner, meditating as the positive energy streams through your being. I make one out of pistachio shells, the positive martini streaming through my bloodstream.

Peacocks wander in and around the hotel, making themselves at home on the grounds, strutting their stuff. They seem to make an appearance around five p.m. every day and are shooed out of the bar by a waiter.

We have a few business meetings, visiting PSB, which is the largest lab in Singapore, providing multiple-disciplines services to the area. We meet with Ms. Tan and enjoy discussions about our services and providing mutual support.

GlobalCert: Sharon Hsiung joined us for a meeting. Sharon is a long-time acquaintance who has access various type approval markets in SE Asia. We agreed to have her contact information on our website; as homologation projects expand, we can use her as a subcontractor for various markets in Asia.

EEM Advancement Center. Dr. K.S. Lock is a sponsor of seminars in Singapore. Dr. Lock had my father over several times in the 90's to teach lightning protection courses and hosted a very fine dinner for us at Tung Lock Signatures Restaurant in the new “Vivo City” shopping complex. We agreed to discuss the possibility of seminar topics.

We depart Singapore for a trip to Bangalore, India, now-named: Bengalooru, but you can have it either way.
Des, Bill and Mandy relax

EEM Dinner

Meeting with Ms. Tan of PSB

Labrynth in pistachios - bored at the bar

Labrynth in stone

Peacock sil

From: Mike Violette and Desmond Fraser, Directors of AmericanTCB, Inc.
Received: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 6:46 AM ET

India Blog & Wrap Up

Well we’re back home and can’t help but try to wrap up the essence of our visit, culminating with a 27 hour visit to India. A day on the ground beats seeing it from 30,000 feet, but let me tell you, it is quite obvious that one can only get a scant taste of that country in a day. But oh, what a taste we had.

We hit Bangalore (now Bengalooru) airport at nearly midnight after a couple of full-flight, knees cramped, ankles pained excursion through a Bangkok stopover. Yea, we’re doing this in style—economy style. Fortunately, we are greeted by Purnima, whose smiling visage is a sight for sore eyes; she whisks us to our hotel, the Grand Ashok, which is a fine hotel with a beautiful pool and porch that we don’t get a chance to take advantage of. Alas.

Bangalore is the “silicon valley” of India, perched on a plateau about 3000 feet above sea level, which gives the weather a temperate appeal. The traffic and the energy, however, are anything but temperate. Our trip featured a “Singapore Sandwich”—three days in the most ordered city on the planet bookended by visits to two of the most chaotic places I’ve been. But it’s chaos without danger, unless you’re a cow that’s wandering along the traffic-choked streets, and they do have a few of those.

Rising early, we visit the Electronics Test and Development Center and are kindly hosted by Mr. Rao, who is a Director of the laboratory. The ETDC provides EMC, safety and related services to the local industries. He is the proud owner of a new EMC Chamber, which was made in the US of A in the Lone-Star State.

We return to the hotel and give a seminar to 17 participants from labs and manufacturers and designers—just our pond to fish in. We regale our guests with the derring-do of compliance achieved; well most of them stayed awake anyway. The exchange is worthwhile and hopefully some outreach was accomplished. What was definitely accomplished was the sampling of a dozen or more India cuisine delights, ranging from paneer to roti to chicken masala. Curried dishes, rice and desert are served for our buffet, which warms the conversation and heats up the olfactory.

Taking our leave of our seminar hosts, we join Purnima and Sathyan and Nikhil on an abbreviated pub-crawl and brief shopping excursion to buy kurtas (there’s only so much we can do in a day, but we did the most important!).

And finally, after a long mother of a day, we return to the Bangalore airport and board the 3:30 a.m. flight to Frankfurt. Now it’s getting wearing, and we’re still 18 hours away from a real bed. We are entertained by this wild “Bollywood” flick on the plane. The plot, as near as I could get it involved a gifted yuckabuck from rural India (who could dance like Travolta never could) falls for a visiting girl from the city. It’s revealed that he has super powers because his father was abducted by aliens. He has to find the girl because he’s smitten, but a bad guy invents a supercomputer and our hero emerges like a Neo from “The Matrix” to smash the bad guys, save his dad, gets the girl and dances like a gypsy on fire. Or was I dreaming?

My seat mate, Professor Kenney from UC Davis, studying India’s IT market for the past three years says that this sector is ready to take off. Wireless chip designs, migration to R&D.

Keys to India: The IT and outsourcing capabilities of that great nation is well known. What is nascent is the development of the electronics business and OEM/ODM market. That is what we’re there to find out. And from what we found out, we’ll be back.

We pass through Frankfurt and meet a dose of reality in the airport at the bar. A US contractor who’s been through hell in Iraq. What it brings to my attention is the fact that so much of the world is a place to visit, a place to do business, a place for positive outreach. Despite its different ways of doing things, and what to our American eyes are seen as flaws or inconsistencies, the fact is that so much Asia contains so many great places to go and achieve cultural experience and exposure, cooperation and commerce, friendship and long-lasting ties.

Arrive back in the US to Dulles International Airport at a very respectable 3:15 p.m. on a Friday afternoon.

After 10 flights, God knows how many miles (my guess: 18,000) and numerous searches and scans and baggage checking…all of them which went by smoothly and without undue delay, until we are met at the Dulles Terminal and stand for a seemingly interminable time in the jetway while they try to round up one of those stupid “Mobile Lounges” to take us to the main terminal and escape to the Virginia countryside. But we are blessed, we met new friends, brought back great memories and look forward to returning, even if it does mean sitting on an airplane again.

November 21, 2006

A shrine on the sidewalk

Buying Desmonds Kurtas

Guard at the door

Wow great food

Bangalore Seminar

Bangalore Greeting

Bangalore Hostes Purnima