Day 5

Well today was my last day in Bangkok. I traveled to Beijing on a 10:00am Thai Air flight arriving PEK at 4pm. The morning started out a little rough. I went to check out of the hotel and couldn't find my Corporate Mastercard in my wallet. I really wasn't panicking or anything, just wonderin' where I left it. Thinking back, I hadn't used it at all Friday and Anucha paid lunch and Jon paid dinner. That left the dinner Jon and I had at Bully's Pub Thursday night. I recalled that I put my card in with the bill's leather folder. The waitress took it and came back. I signed it, put in the tip and she took it. But I didn't remember picking out the card. Jon and I were chatting heavily about work and I just got distracted. I figured it wasn't a huge deal and it was too early to call the Pub at 8am. After I got to the airport I called and yep they had the card behind the counter (along with 3 others people left over the past 2 days). I'm guess I'm not the only weary traveler! I called and cancelled the card and checked and no charges were made, so all ended fine. But it's just a headache you'd rather not experience on a day of travel.

Since we had some extra time to get to the airport, Jon and I chatted about taking the scenic route to the airport going around the river front past the large, famous Buddhist temple. Jon had not had the opportunity to tour like I did so it was a nice idea. Jon set up the plan with the Concierge while I took care of the credit card issue. We jumped in the cab and headed off. The hotel was downtown and close to the temple, and I estimated about 5 min ride. After about 15 minutes, I asked Jon, are you sure you set this up with the Consierge? I think we're headed right to the airport. We looked up and noticed that yes we were already half way to the airport on the major highway. Oh well we said- must not have meant to be. I teased Jon a little about his Consierge discussion and asked him if he tipped her or not, in response to Jon 's earlier teasing that he thinks I lost my card on a late night party run which I obviously hadn't invited him on.

As we arrived at the airport since we had plenty of time, I sauntered around admiring the many large Buddhist statues along the concourses. Each had a plaque with the story of that Buddha. (Recall from my earlier Blog that Buddha's are simply sould that return to earth if they lived a particularly holy life) After about my third stop and discover, Jon chided me that he was calling the Pope and reporting me. It gave me the opportunity to ask Jon about his faith. He said he had no organized religion in his life or his family. He has a nice family, wife of 23 years, 3 kids-sound familiar? He said he has no problem with God, but that we humans just don't seem to know how to make religion work. I left it there and didn't probe further. He knows I'm pretty into my faith and made a comment earlier this trip on how he admired it. A related side story is that back in 2004, Jon had his chief engineer Pete Clarke visiting our office from the UK. Pete started having severe pains in his side and we ran him over to Timken Mercy and sure enough he had appendicitus. By the time it was all set up for surgury, it was 6pm. I stayed with him up in his room until his procedure, prayed with him before he went in, and stayed until he was out of recovery and called his family with reports throughout. It was obvious to me that was the right thing to do, but Jon says Pete still brings it up when people bash me in the UK office for being too concerned about business first. I am pretty serious about making money for the business I admit.

Anyway, back to Bangkok. We got to the gate and I asked jon to take one last photo for memory next to the latest Buddhist statue. I thought it'd be fun to make the hands folded gesture in memory of my trip.

After arriving in Beijing, we breezed through baggage claim and immigration. Beijing built three new international terminals for the Olympics last year. They weren't open on my last trip and I was quite impressed. Probably the highest tech and most beautiful architecture in an airport. Simon Wang, my employee from our China office was there to meet us. Simon is a great employee. He speaks perfect english, he's an engineer and technically smart, he has good economic business sense, and best of all, he is a good stable person (cares about people). What a find for $35,000/year, and that's well paid in Beijing. We traveled to the car and Simon reported that Mr. Guo our main vendor has let us use his new Mercedes S Class for the weekend along with his driver Mr Li. We loaded up and took off downtown in style. I was afraid to put my feet on the mats the car was so new. Jon was raving about the car and it's special features. I must admit it really was pretty cool. Some of the features I'd never seen like electronic control on the rear seats for multi posotion reclining and automatic window controls that raised and lowered a separate screen for sun control. As we strolled down the highway and went to the restaurant, Jon and I noticed that many high value automobiles are on the road around. Much more than cleveland or Birmingham England. We both were amazed in the tremendous change from year to year. When I first traveled to China in 1998, I was the only car in town. with 5 million bicycles around the car. Now 1o years later, not a bike in sight, but plenty of Merecedes, Porsches, and Jaguars and Bentleys.

We stopped off and unloaded at the downtown Crown Plaza hotel. The rooms are very beautiful and well appointed for $150/night. We quickly reloaded into the Mercedes while Mr Li waited out front of the hotel, he didn't wanted to park it obviously. Simon had planned a special dinner just for me-he proclaims we're going to TGIFridays! Simon knows full well I can't stand real Chinese food (especially up North where everything is sour tasting). He said, Mr. Guo is planning a big dinner tomorrow and that I'd better get some Western food in now. Simon knows me well and I appreciate that. We had a nice Fridays meal and as we walked out to the car, a small boy about 6 years old comes up holding a hat. He was kind of dirty around the face and looked like a steet urchin. I was shocked. I haven't seen that in Beijing before. I reached for my wallet and remembered that only had 100RMB bills ($35). Simon quickly pulled out some bills and dropped it the little hat. We scurried back to the hotel in our Mercedes, unloaded at the hotel and Simon and Mr. Li.

As I prepared for bed, I did my Lenten journal and nightly prayers. The little boy returned quickly to my mind. It's quite obvious that God sends people into our lives for a reason. That 30 second encounter re-centered my world. Reflecting on the big picture, here we are in China, doing business in the newly forming world heirarchy, and then clearly see that we are called to notice the children. What are our responsibilities as adults to create a better world for them? And I'm talking better not wealthier. For as it says in Matthew, "Store up your treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys; nor thieves can break in and steal; For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be." With all that has transpired in the last 6 months economically, it appears the world is in self correction. Seeing that our desire for earthly treasures in the West is now driving economic abundance in China should make us stop and ponder. Where are we headed as a people of God? I know we can't necessarily change the overall economic picture. But one person at a time, we need to act responsibly with our gifts. As I head into the week of important business dealings, this little boy will be in my mind.