In May of 2006 I spent two weeks in Liverpool to attend a class on International Cotton Trading. It was essentially the last of the official hazing process for my new job. My boss told me I was the designated trouble maker since I was attending the class for experience but did not need to learn the details. He kept giving me questions that I could ask that would create quite a disturbance to the well-mannered organizers. As it turns out the trip was good for learning the delicate art of dodging politically sensitive questions.
This was one of the trips where I traveled by myself and was held captive the entire stay by a strict class schedule that included a lot of official dinners and activities over the weekend. Official dinners are not the way to experience local cuisines – hotel/banquet food is lacking in any country. There was an unfortunate theme for most of the meals I had in that every occasion they felt the need to present us with classic mutton dishes or the same Indian Chicken Korma. I had no occasion to sample much else.
Liverpool was all I expected: grey, misty, mix of old and older, a bit run down but not unappealing. The drive from Manchester airport was pleasant especially in the hilly, farm land areas which might as well have been Lancaster, PA or any other green pasture area you can think of with cows and horses. I stayed in a lackluster Holiday Inn where the class was taking place. I can sum up the accommodations as: non-working AC, dial-up internet access only, and disturbing noises inside the walls at night.
The first main dinner was at the Racquet Club and consisted of tomato and cheese stuffed into roasted red pepper for starters, then lamb with a café ole sauce (not New Orleans coffee but instead a rich brown meat sauce), roasted potatoes and other veggies, and mint jelly if you wanted it. The meat sauce, roasted veggies and potatoes were quite good. The lamb was a little over done and a bit fatty and gamey. Dessert was a sticky toffee pudding which was like a cross between ginger spice cake and bread pudding in terms of taste and similar to pound cake in texture. It was served with cream, not American whipped cream, but real double cream (10,000 times richer and tastes like a cross between real butter and whipped cream). It takes some getting used to. The cake part of the dessert was one of the best things I have ever eaten in terms of dessert, not too sweet but so yummy.
Another night it was a medieval banquet at Ruthin Castle in North Wales. Everyone should go to the UK at some point and drive through Wales because I don’t think I can begin to describe it. It has to be one of the most beautiful sections of country side I will ever see. I have never seen fields so green. It is like a cross between the foothills and actually being on a mountain. And there were spring lambs everywhere in the fields and quaint cobblestone houses. The castle was neat but not as amazing to me as the country side.
So at the castle it was a lot like any of those themed medieval dinner places with everyone in costume. The main eating room consisted of long tables and everyone sat on benches. No eating utensils other than a knife and they came around and tied fabric bibs on all of us. We had both mead and red wine. The mead was interesting. I would have said pleasant except that after a few tastes and discussion about it someone said it reminded them of cough syrup so I will forever relate mead to non-menthol honey flavored cough drops because that truly is the closest taste to it. We started with a thick pureed soup made of veggies, cream and butter and we either dipped bread in it or drank from the bowl. They had season trays on the table which were long boards with carved out bowl areas with a variety of spices such as salt, thyme, red pepper, etc. After the soup it was leg of lamb with roasted potatoes. The leg of lamb was falling off the bone tender and had a fantastic flavor. I ate it with my fingers and would have eaten more if available. Next we had chicken that had been coated with honey and wine and then roasted and it was the best tasting chicken I have ever had. I was really impressed with the food and never expected it to be so good at a place like that. Finally we had tart cherries topped with double cream. After clearing of the remains they performed a little show with the jester reading poetry, the wenches singing, etc. They sang some songs in Welsh and it was beautiful.
For lunch one day we went to the Artists Club, your basic men’s only place with dark wood, pictures of lots of old men and all that. They served assorted salads on toast (chicken, tuna, shrimp, tomato), fried prawns on sticks, and curly fries.
Over the weekend they bused us to Chester, which was a roman town 2000 years ago. It is now a quaint town with cobblestone streets turned into shopping Mecca. We had a nice lunch at Café Uno which I highly recommend if you are ever in Chester. I had a coke with lemon and really good lasagna. We went into the cathedral which has been the Cathedral of the Diocese of Chester since 1541 but the site has been a church of some form for over 1000 years. Due to the weather we really didn’t get to explore the ancient roman ruins around the shopping area.
One night we had dinner in the Anglican Cathedral. The food was pretty good starting with a smoked salmon pate and salad, then grilled chicken in cream sauce with wild mushrooms and roasted potatoes and raspberry something like a flan for dessert. After dinner they gave us a one hour tour of the cathedral which was amazing. They started building the cathedral in 1904 and finished it in 1974. It was completed a phase at a time so that it could be used during the entire building process. During WWII all the stain glassed windows were blown out by a bomb detonating in the air near the building after it actually hit inside and bounced out! The building has the largest organ in UK and “largest functioning one in the world”.
Our final dinner was at the Maritime Museum. We got to roam around the museum during the reception portion and it was interesting to see the various models and paintings of ships. They also had a special limited time section on cotton which was really neat. It showed the varied history, garments through the years, had interactive paintings of bad bugs on the floor such as the boll weevil and when you stepped on them they made cartoon dying bug noises. Dinner consisted of cream of mushroom soup, baked salmon, two kinds of potatoes (some roasted and some boiled), cooked carrots and an apple tart and cheese platter for dessert. The food was very good. One absolutely comical thing was the way they were pushing wine. I was at a table of people that don’t drink a lot if at all and it was ridiculous how often they either tried to pour wine into our glasses or asked if we wanted wine. Seriously, one waiter would just have walked away from asking and a second one would come over and ask. None of the waiters had any clue that we had already been asked. I must have said no thank you to wine a minimum of 30 times in a short period time. What made it even more humorous was that we could not get water refilled. We asked and they said it was on the way and then 4 more people would try to give us wine and when we asked for water again it was like we were impatient about it. Normally that kind of thing would make you kind of irritated but we were all so tired from two weeks of class and long dinners that we actually got the giggles about it and would crack up when we were asked if we wanted more wine.
So that was my Liverpool experience if you can call it that. I did actually walk past the Cavern Club (Beatles fans rejoice) but never had time to actually go inside. Maybe next time.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
The Exotic Life of a Business Traveler
I have decided I should really work on posting my travel notes from some of my international business trips. Thus begins this latest series. I will have to do some considerable condensing because my travel notes are essentially very detailed accounts of daily experiences when on the road. I traditionally do this as a means to stay connected to my friends and family as well as to pass the time which can drag on forever when you are away from everything you know for two weeks. These trips are typically very busy and if I don’t make notes of everything each day it soon all becomes a blur and I would not remember much.
My travel is sporadic. When I do travel overseas it is almost always for a minimum of two weeks. The classic thought process behind this is to make the most out of the effort. Thankfully I have never actually been on a three week international trip although that isn’t uncommon for our company.
I also want to go on record as indicating that business travel, for us, it not the glamorous life one would imagine. Yes, I do get to stay in fabulous places and experience some nice perks but I am often in meetings all day long and too darn exhausted later to really sightsee. Often these trips encompass visits to multiple countries so that I can end up being on and off airplanes every couple of days. And it is rare that I actually get to travel with my coworkers so that tends to minimize the type of things I would do as a lone, foreign, female in a strange place. While I do not often travel with U.S. companions, I always have local contacts, usually our international staff or staff of one of our sister organizations. They are responsible for arranging the meetings, getting me to and from meetings, and often try to slip in some sightseeing, shopping or other culture when they can. I joke that they are my “fixers” but they are actually dedicated account managers eager to provide my technical services to their clients. I am for the most part on my own on for weekends which is when sightseeing might be possible except for being alone and beat down tired.
Some of the perks are that we do experience is that we travel business class for international travel and that means sometimes first class when in foreign countries. An 18 hour flight is no fun but certainly significantly more tolerable when you have room to stretch out. We fly U.S. carriers in and out of U.S. unless that is not an option but after we get to where we are going we fly the major airlines in that area. And for the most part, the world of air travel outside the U.S. is a flashback to the days of good customer service. I have had little Asian ladies smaller then me refuse to let me lift my own bag into overhead bins. Yes, I know part of it is being in first/business class but overall it is just better. It is a slap in the face to arrive back in the U.S. and make that last connection through Atlanta, Chicago, wherever and be brought back to the reality of U.S. travel.
Other perks include private cars to and from airport and hotels when in certain locations as a means of secure and safe transport. There are hotels in Asia where the check in process for the hotel actually takes place in your private car and you are then escorted directly to your room upon arrival.
Another perk is the caliber of toiletries in hotels in Asia and they are restocked often. My suitcase gets heavier each leg of the trip not so much from purchases but from stock piling fancy bath products.
And then there are the not so great things. In addition to being alone, lonely, and beat down tired you also suffer from the differences in food. I have learned it does not matter how careful I am, I will get sick. After avoiding all kinds of things and still getting sick on my first two trips I decided going forward to just eat whatever I wanted and I have enjoyed things a lot more. I still get sick but at least I have a larger variety of food to experience and I rely on my local contacts to expose me to things I would not think to order or try on my own. And almost always, at least where I have traveled, when you do finally get to where you cannot eat one more local ingredient you can find some chain food place or order the Americanized food off the room service menu for a taste closer to home. Regardless of that I send emails home several days prior to my return with my list of food demands for my arrival.
Clothing for trips can be very challenging. Trying to pack for two weeks, sometimes with extreme temperature ranges during your trip, when you may not be in one hotel long enough for laundry service can be an issue. And all those flights, having to lug large bags around in addition to your work laptop and supplies. Between food disagreeing with me and hiking daily with laptop backpacks I tend to lose 5 to 10 pounds every trip (unfortunately short term weight loss at best). Clothing for professional females is a challenge overall from the standpoint of what is or is not culturally accepted in addition to balancing professional look with shoes and garments that can withstand lots of walking and permit you to make use of international toilet facilities. International toilet facilities are another not so great thing. There is nothing better, when feeling poorly, to actually encounter the rare U.S. style toilet versus the much more common squat toliet (hole in the floor).
But all in all I am thrilled to be able to have what experiences I do have thanks to my work travel. I have become much more tolerant of travel and accepting that I cannot control everything. I have been delayed, stranded, bags not arrived, gotten sick and had to buy medicines locally, etc. enough that I don’t fret about it happening now.
Stay tuned for upcoming recaps of exotic places…
My travel is sporadic. When I do travel overseas it is almost always for a minimum of two weeks. The classic thought process behind this is to make the most out of the effort. Thankfully I have never actually been on a three week international trip although that isn’t uncommon for our company.
I also want to go on record as indicating that business travel, for us, it not the glamorous life one would imagine. Yes, I do get to stay in fabulous places and experience some nice perks but I am often in meetings all day long and too darn exhausted later to really sightsee. Often these trips encompass visits to multiple countries so that I can end up being on and off airplanes every couple of days. And it is rare that I actually get to travel with my coworkers so that tends to minimize the type of things I would do as a lone, foreign, female in a strange place. While I do not often travel with U.S. companions, I always have local contacts, usually our international staff or staff of one of our sister organizations. They are responsible for arranging the meetings, getting me to and from meetings, and often try to slip in some sightseeing, shopping or other culture when they can. I joke that they are my “fixers” but they are actually dedicated account managers eager to provide my technical services to their clients. I am for the most part on my own on for weekends which is when sightseeing might be possible except for being alone and beat down tired.
Some of the perks are that we do experience is that we travel business class for international travel and that means sometimes first class when in foreign countries. An 18 hour flight is no fun but certainly significantly more tolerable when you have room to stretch out. We fly U.S. carriers in and out of U.S. unless that is not an option but after we get to where we are going we fly the major airlines in that area. And for the most part, the world of air travel outside the U.S. is a flashback to the days of good customer service. I have had little Asian ladies smaller then me refuse to let me lift my own bag into overhead bins. Yes, I know part of it is being in first/business class but overall it is just better. It is a slap in the face to arrive back in the U.S. and make that last connection through Atlanta, Chicago, wherever and be brought back to the reality of U.S. travel.
Other perks include private cars to and from airport and hotels when in certain locations as a means of secure and safe transport. There are hotels in Asia where the check in process for the hotel actually takes place in your private car and you are then escorted directly to your room upon arrival.
Another perk is the caliber of toiletries in hotels in Asia and they are restocked often. My suitcase gets heavier each leg of the trip not so much from purchases but from stock piling fancy bath products.
And then there are the not so great things. In addition to being alone, lonely, and beat down tired you also suffer from the differences in food. I have learned it does not matter how careful I am, I will get sick. After avoiding all kinds of things and still getting sick on my first two trips I decided going forward to just eat whatever I wanted and I have enjoyed things a lot more. I still get sick but at least I have a larger variety of food to experience and I rely on my local contacts to expose me to things I would not think to order or try on my own. And almost always, at least where I have traveled, when you do finally get to where you cannot eat one more local ingredient you can find some chain food place or order the Americanized food off the room service menu for a taste closer to home. Regardless of that I send emails home several days prior to my return with my list of food demands for my arrival.
Clothing for trips can be very challenging. Trying to pack for two weeks, sometimes with extreme temperature ranges during your trip, when you may not be in one hotel long enough for laundry service can be an issue. And all those flights, having to lug large bags around in addition to your work laptop and supplies. Between food disagreeing with me and hiking daily with laptop backpacks I tend to lose 5 to 10 pounds every trip (unfortunately short term weight loss at best). Clothing for professional females is a challenge overall from the standpoint of what is or is not culturally accepted in addition to balancing professional look with shoes and garments that can withstand lots of walking and permit you to make use of international toilet facilities. International toilet facilities are another not so great thing. There is nothing better, when feeling poorly, to actually encounter the rare U.S. style toilet versus the much more common squat toliet (hole in the floor).
But all in all I am thrilled to be able to have what experiences I do have thanks to my work travel. I have become much more tolerant of travel and accepting that I cannot control everything. I have been delayed, stranded, bags not arrived, gotten sick and had to buy medicines locally, etc. enough that I don’t fret about it happening now.
Stay tuned for upcoming recaps of exotic places…
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