Southeast Asia take 3, part I

Well my third and possibly final trip of the year to Asia is underway. A nice little 4hr layover in Narita Japan has left me full of new sushi tastes I’ve not experienced stateside, I guess this is the product of ordering the Deluxe Chef’s Special, it only cost me 3,500 Yen, I’m still not sure how many dollars that is, I’m hoping somewhere around 30$. Uneventful flight seattle to narita, except that I sat next to a doctor who was coughing the whole trip and had bad breath, 10hrs of that was about enough. I still hold my record of going (or rather not going) to the bathroom on a flight only one time in the last 2 years, and that was on a 15hr flight to HongKong. Something about in flight bathrooms make me uncomfortable. I thought I was lost in narita airport for a while, no other humans existed for a good 20mins of my walk, I felt like I was in the movie iRobot, just with how clean and sterile this place is. But alas I’ve joined with my fellow brethren and now sit in a mustard colored leather seat awaiting my ANA flight to HongKong. And let me tell you quick about ANA airlines, they have a camera in the nose of the plane and let you watch takeoff as if you were laying down in the nose of the jet, its on for landing too, a pretty incredible feature.

Its 2am for my body, 6pm for where I am, and soon to be 1030pm when I land in HK. Not sure which one of these timezones I’m in, but I’m approaching the tired one. Japan sure is green, I’d like to make it back in the future to explore it a bit more, they have some really awesome “samurai” tshirts in the duty free shops here but I cant bring myself to spending 20$ per shirt, I’ll haggle a deal in china for something way better.

I feel united with the other gringos I see in the airport. We have a certain unspoken connection, we look at eachother and its like “hey, we could understand eachother if we decided to talk, then again maybe your French so we couldnt” then I continue surrounded by the 90% of other Japanese people who could also understand me, but I don’t feel that same connection.

OK, time to board my plane, nap time for a few mins, then watching some flight of the conchords, then a nice little evening in HongKong. Not sure when I’ll have internet again, somewhere between weds afternoon for me, so Tuesday midday for most of you, this will get posted. Many pictures to follow, I’m going to look like that crazy camera carrying guy this trip.

RedBull soapbox, wow

I'm exhausted, 3weeks in china working 14hr days then a week in seattle working at least the same on this car, i'm ready to crawl into a hole and sleep for a while. Our performance yesterday was great, MattyO drove the car with perfection and was even complimented by Travis Pastrana, one of our celebrity judges. the redbull staff was alerted to "stand by and ready for cleanup" as our car took to the course, aparently a 17' ski wasnt supposed to make it through the turns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DynbFru9VUY
a special thanks to whomever filmed this for us and posted it, kristen?

The race went well and lots of good times had by all

After the race Joe and I headed to Matchstick's premier, joes the one talking to the announcer at the redbull start, i'm right next to him. Still wearing our ski apparel we fit in well at this video. After the video we headed back to Nectar for a redbull post party with dj cut chemist, it was a dance party if i've ever been to one.

Today its rainy and textbook seattle weather. I'm going to catch up on my sleep now, i'll post pictures of this even shortly

quick note, redbull saturday

Part of my busy time has been filled this past month building a soapbox car for work. We are team Skivalanche in the upcomming RedBull SoapBox Derby in seattle. Tonight we check in, and sat we race down Fremont Ave, should be a kickin' good time. The link to our video is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkP0wVLRW6c

We'll post another video after the race, and let you all know how we fared. Also, on Sat please text on your mobile phone "Team 18" to RBULL.

This weekends gonna be sweet

Deoderant-less, day one

A special thanks goes out to United airlines for loosing my toiletry bag. When my bag reached me in HongKong a pocket was wide open, and that pocket formerly housed my toiletries. Rolling with the punches I shaved my 4 day untouched face with a single blade available at the hotel in HK. I searched every cosmetic/beauty shop at the train station for deoderant, but it seems the chinese dont buy it. Thinking it was a train station thing i continued on my way and after a search of a few grocery-style stores in Guangzhou I still have no deoderant. I made the motion for "wheres the deoderant" to someone at the grocery store, sort of a shrugged shoulders and one and motioning like its applying deoderant under the other pit with a confused look on my face. Besides a little laugh she said "no here," i asked where and she didnt know how to respond. Another grocery store where I was followed around by women and children and i'm back at my room, deoderantless. Really i should be making a post about my weekend in LA but this is whats on my mind. Jet lagged and all, i'm off to bed, and tomorrow I ask my translator about the prohibition the chinese have on deoderant. Heres a picture of hong kong from my hotel window, adios

Seriously... Fritos?

C'mon frontier airlines, I dont wanna eat doritos or fritos on your flights but more than that I dont wanna smell the people around me eating either of these. Who had the genius idea to strike up a contract with this snack company, was it the guy who smells funny and sits by himself in marketing? Really, Its clear on an airplane of all places smell should be a consideration in snack choices, theres a reason chimichanga's and refried beans are not served on any airline. I look to you frontier to change the foods people eat while they travel. Denver's a healthy city, your based out of there, take charge and be the first airline to serve "ants on a log." This conversation is especially embarassing considering i'm the guy who eats hostess cupcakes and energy drinks in the morning occasionally to wake up, my standards are pretty low but you've knocked the bar to the ground. Maybe next time i'll sit in my seat and play "simon" until my neighbors cannot take the sounds any longer, then I'll be served doritos and "simon" wont seem so bad.



sorry, i had an aggravating flight home from boulder, boulder recap to follow shortly

Film the Idea

Well i just finished a private showing in my apartment of the film "Idea" and i think i crapped my pants. I'm sure most of you have no interest in the ski video i'm talking about but to those of you who do, watch the trailer at http://poorboyz.com/node/101 and check out the website at http://filmtheidea.com/ and then go watch the movie when it premiers in your area, then buy it online. I dont get a shout-out in the credits like other guys I work with, Eben, Francois and J, but if i did then what would i have to look forward to in next years film. Anyways I'm not sleeping tonight because i'm so pumped for winter, but surfing next week will help a bit, and frisbee golf this weekend in Boulder will help too. I'll put some sweet pictures and whitty thoughts in here tomorrow.

Oh, also i had a really good buffalo burrito at lunch today, thriftway burritos may take a backseat to Tatanka burritos for the remainder of my days on the island. I recommend bison burritos if you can find them

Im not a bum, i promise

Jordy really is my inspiration here. Replace his hookah with a view of seattle, (i'll put the picture below) and listen to the string cheese show he got to witness at red rocks and we're pretty similar dudes living 2000miles apart. I have no jungle adventures to report on, but i do have whales eating seals to talk about.

My parents were in town last weekend and we did everything, seriously everything. I'll list them below with quick notes so you all feel like you were here. If you do come, i'll probably do a similar abridged route with you as it went so smoothly.

-Breakfast with Catherine and Parents on cap hill
delightful restaurant opening half hour after arrival, great food good people but sad goodbyes as catherine departed for Steamboat and Boulder after eating. She made it home safely and without trouble, she's now back in MN till school starts

-Pike place market
Crazy tourist destination where you can buy fresh fish/vegetables/flowers and souviniers, I better get good at cooking fish cause this is the place to buy it cheap and fresh.

-Seattle Aquarium
Preschool and elementary school is still not in session, wouldnt recommend until fall when their back in school, but lots of fun fish to see and touch,(yup you can touch some of them)

-Downtown Overlook
Midway up Queen Anne sits a park overlooking the Space Needle and Downtown, a good place to stand for a few minutes and look at seattle. Also a fun place to stand in the background of awkward wedding photographs occuring in the foreground.

-My Apt
A quick stop by to show them my new pad, My patio overlooks lake union and downtown, no space needle though, see picture below


-Ballard Locks
Here ships move between Lake Union(freshwater) and Puget Sound(salty) by going up or down about 10' in elevation. Salmon also make this trek through the fish ladder. Neverbefore have I seen a live salmon, or a fish 3'long and 30lbs. Pretty cool place to watch salmon climb a fish ladder.

-RedDoor Brewery
It feels like new belgium inside, but its just a bar in Fremont that loves New Belgium beer more than its own. A little patio lunch and we were on our way, again

- Nap?
I think this is when we took a little rest

-Space Needle
Youve seen it on the Supersonics jerseys and in the background of Frasiers apt, we went up all 540' of it and viewed the city. Mt. Baker and Rainier in the distances, Puget Sound and Lake Union at foot, and the city to say the least. Pretty cool way to see seattle once again

-IKEA?
I needed a dresser, so this made the best use of our time before eating. We found a great dresser that only took me 4 hours to assemble

-Dinner at Salty's
Sitting at water level across an inlet of puget sound from downtown we watched the sunset reflect off the buildings and then watched seattle light up. Heres pictures from my patio of Seattle at night.



-Whale Watching
Off to the SanJuan islands we took a 6hour cruise on a yacht to where whales live. We made it out to Vancouver Island Canada to find some. We were the 2nd boat of the day to find whales, and it took us plenty long to find them. A brisk day on the ship I was bundled in my recently purchased Whale hat and a jacket, we braved the cold weather for some orcas. The whales had made a seal kill in the water and were eating/playing while moving around. The male had a 6' dorsal fin, and then 2 young orcas were near as well. Never having seen a whale in person this was very cool, and I'd like to see more of them

Large Male Orca

Little Orcas

-Sunday see where Andy works day
-Vashon Island
A little ride on a ferry followed by a factory tour of a building all but shutdown, I showed my parents where our equipment used to be, and what used to happen in each of the rooms. They got a good view of where I spend my days, and what it is I do at work.

-K2 Seattle
Here we toured what is to come, where K2 is moving. Am impressive facility in seattle, I showed them the equipment formerly missing on vashon, showed them a little about how skis are made and they got to see where I will be working in the coming 2 weeks. I'm sad to leave vashon, but excited to get back 3hours of my day currently eaten by my commute. Heres a picture I took leaving work a few weeks ago

Vashon ferry dock

-This about covers our weekend, A final dinner at Ivars Salmon House where we enjoyed a huge piece of salmon that capped off the weekend. I miss colorado and want to go back and visit often, If i didnt have this job here I would leave my orca friends behind and come home.

In store for next time....
Mt Hood again this weekend to visit mr. Paul Rozsypal (ski coach for CU) and the aspen ski team
Following weekend is Catherines 21st bday, back to boulder for a few adult beverages with some great friends
Following that is 4 days in LosAngeles visiting more great friends and hopefully a sister.
Leaving LA i head straight to HongKong China for 2 weeks, Working in the peoples republic. After that hopefully some downtime in Seattle. I apologize for the ginormous size of this blog, expect more shorter ones to follow.

My new favorite whale hat