Day 10 and 11- Kuala Lumpur (photos to come!)

I'm combining Days 10 and 11 here because the first day was predominately travel.


Sad the weekend was over but excited to continue our experience in SE Asia, we departed Penang at 7:30 am for the 4.5 hour drive to Kuala Lumpur.  On the way, we stopped at the Royal Malaysian Customs Department at the Penang airport for a briefing with MIDA (Malaysian Investment Development Authority.  The first portion of the meeting was very formal, we took tea and sat for a series of briefings on the Royal Malaysian Customs Department, the Malaysian Airports, and Cargo MAS.  The speakers were very welcoming and polite, and at one point asked if they could consider us friends!  The main activities of MIDA at the airport include exports, imports, and transshipments and they operate in a Free Commercial Zone (FCZ) that is not controlled by customs.  We then took a walkabout tour of the warehouse and operations facility.  After hearing from different industries and companies, it was very valuable to see from the ground up how international trade works at the cargo level.


Continuing on the drive, we arrived in KL at around 6:00 pm to check into the hotel.  Our guide driving in gave us some basic information about city and landmarks.  A long travel day left us exhausted but excited to spend some more time in Kuala Lumpur!


We woke up the next morning and departed the hotel on a public transportation mission to get to the Kuala Lumpur office of MIDA.  MIDA is the principal government agency responsible for the promotion and coordination of industrial development in Malaysia.  The organization operates under MITI, and works closely with the government finance organizations.  Four major functions include promotion (FDI, DI), evaluation (tax incentives, expatriate posts), planning (recommend policies and strategies), and mentoring (following up and assisting companies in implementation).  There are 22 overseas offices of MIDA including 6 in the United States.


It was interesting, especially after hearing Singaporean strategy for future growth at the EDB, to talk with the MIDA officials on Malaysia's strategy for the future to compete with Singapore.  Malaysia is a much better location for resource based industries, as Singapore has hardly any natural resources; the country has relative political/economic stability with a very pro-business government creating liberal investment policies.  The environment is a lot less competitive than in Singapore, and generally a much greater work-life balance.  Malaysia is currently involved in an Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) targeting creating 3.3 million more jobs and investing heavily in internal industries.


From MIDA, we walked across the street to TQPR Public Relations (http://tqpr.com/my/) for a meeting on public relations and crisis management in SE Asia.  The company was founded in 1995 by Angela Tom, and currently runs a team of 7 general specialists that teaches clients how to handle media and take control of situations.


Malaysia media outlets are owned either directly by the government or by parties of the ruling coalition government; people have to go online to get different viewpoints and those websites/publications are often censored.  The web-based media has the potential to reach a large number of people, as there is a 61% online penetration rate in Malaysia, but the authors/publicists are not free from government action. 


Unique aspects of Malaysia PR are that it is difficult to manage client expectations, especially international clients that are used to being able to buy coverage in publications and advertisements.  Stories have to have a Malaysian/local hook, and have to be pertinent to the local population; this is much different from PR in Singapore where they appreciate the international outlook.  Also, publications often have to be translated into English, Malay, Chinese, and Tamil.


The PR firm gave us a few case studies that highlighted the challenges of PR in Malaysia, but at the end of the meeting we spoke about the PR regarding MH370.  This was particularly timely as the morning of this meeting was the morning of the press conference announcing that the plan was presumed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean, and that all lives were presumed to be lost.  It was interesting to hear a local PR firm's opinion of the situation, because watching international news there is so much criticism about how Malaysia and the airlines handled this situation.  One good point that was brought up is that Malaysia is not used to operating in the international media at this level, and the fumbling of the situation is indicative of how the country has been run. The government is not used to being asked difficult questions by the press, because the government owns the local press.  It will be interesting in the days and weeks to come as the situation continues to progress to see how the government and airlines continue to evolve in their media presence.


We had a quick lunch with three of the employees of TQPR, which was a good opportunity to continue the conversation and learn more about them and how they got started in this industry in Malaysia.  The group then took a few taxis over to Gloria Jean's Coffee (http://www.gloriajeanscoffees.my/) to discuss their business and franchising in Malaysia.  GJC started in the United States but was picked up and franchised heavily throughout Australia, then moving to SE Asia.  The Malaysian government is very liberal towards franchising and creates a good environment for Gloria Jean's.  They do have very strong competition (Starbucks, Old Town, etc.) and try to build relationships one customer at a time to have repeat local customers.




(To be finished later, time to leave for Thailand!!!)

Day 6, 7, 8- Weekend trip to Penang (photos coming soon!)

Penang was my favorite part of the trip so far, and that may very well be because it was the weekend.  Friday was a very busy travel day; we got up early and departed the hotel to ferry back to Singapore.  From Singapore, we bussed to the Changi Airport and flew up to Penang arriving in at the hotel in the late afternoon.  We had the evening free, and the large group split up into smaller groups for dinner.  Some went to a large ship-shaped restaurant for steak, I went with some students to a seafood restaurant on the beach.  This restaurant contained tanks of fish, crabs, prawns, and lobster: guests pick which fish, etc. they want to eat and then how it should be prepared.


The food was delicious, and after dinner we spent some time in the pool before heading in for the night.


On Saturday morning, we had a great breakfast at the hotel buffet.  I don't know what American hotels are doing wrong for breakfast buffets, but I think they need to spend a bit of time in SE Asia and take some tips.  So much food, and approximately a billion different kinds of fresh juices.


Our bus driver came and picked us back up at the hotel for a bus tour of Penang.  The island looks like a turtle, and the government provides 52 Wi-Fi hot spots around the island.  The tourism is mainly from Europe or Australia, and people were actually surprised to hear that we were from USA. 


In Penang, it is compulsory to learn both Malay and English in school.  The official language is Malay, and you have to ask permission to speak English in the courts, but English is the language of business.


When the bus tour arrived in Georgetown, we got off the bus and onto a number of rickshaws for a more local tour of the area.  The rickshaws are very ostentatiously decorated, and some play very loud music.  Local people took pictures of us, which was weird.


The rickshaws took us to a Chinese temple, and then to a Chinese mansion.  Penang is very interesting because the Chinese and British influence is very visible, and Chinese decorations were prevalent even in Little India.


The weather was HOT, definitely hotter than in Singapore.  Also, our guide informed us that generally it only rains between midnight and 5 am in Penang; a welcome change from the daily afternoon shower in Singapore that caught me off guard and without a rain coat more than once.


After the tour, we returned to the hotel and swam in the pool and ocean. Poor Sara was stung by a jelly fish on her leg and arm, which confined the rest of us to the pool in fear we would encounter the same scenario.  For dinner, a large group went to a restaurant called Lebanon down the street from the hotel; the restaurant served traditional Lebanese food which was fantastic and one of my favorite meals of the trip.  It was nice to get so many people together; it's hard when you're travelling with such a large group to organize big dinners and I'm so glad we were able to.


The streets of Penang near our hotel are home to the night market: when the sun goes down the hauntingly empty streets become the bustling and lively rows of vendor after vendor selling Malaysian art, clothing, music, and wood products.  Sprinkled between the local vendors are the stands offering suspiciously cheap "name-brand purses, perfumes, watches, etc.


On Sunday, 12 of us took a boat tour of the island and landed on Pantai Kerachut.  The guide was very well versed in the local nature and history.  Though the island of Penang has had a number of names, the guide was very proud of the fact that none of the names came from conquerors.  Rather, the locals renamed the island which shows that the common people have the power.


On the boat ride out, we saw a braminy kite get a fishy breakfast right next to the boat as well as a number of white bellied eagles soaring above the islands.  When we got to Pantai Kerachut, we took a hike through the jungle and saw lizards, a turtle, and MONKEYS!!!!


The guides cooked lunch for us back at the beach: chicken, lamb, and prawns with fruit and cucumber.  The food was phenomenal!  Also on the island is a turtle sanctuary and we took a quick stop there.  The beach on the island is a quartz beach, meaning the same is made of semi-precious stones.  Because of the nature of the quartz, the sand retains heat much better than regular sand (anybody who walked on the beach during this tour can attest to the temperature of the sand!!).  Turtles really like the warm sand and often come onto the beach after dark to play around and flip the hot sand all over the place.  Though we didn't get to see the turtles playing, we did get to see the weak turtles that didn't make it back to sea.  The workers at the sanctuary find the weak turtles on the beach and bring them back to feed and take care of until they are strong enough to swim in the ocean on their own..


When we made it back to the hotel, we found the rest of the group who had spent the day at Georgetown or at spice fields.  The evening was free again, and was spent eating local food and visiting the night market one last time before departing in the morning for Kuala Lumpur.  Mika and I went para-sailing!


Penang was a great island, much friendlier and more relaxed than the busy Singapore.  The people were very chatty and interested in hearing about where we came from and what we were doing in Malaysia.  We had great hosts here, and looked forward to the rest of the trip in Malaysia.

Day 5- Batam, Indonesia

We've had some spotty internet service so I'm quite behind on the blog!  On Thursday, we took a ferry to Batam, Indonesia.

It was a cool way to leave Singapore, watching the hustle and bustle of the busy country slowly fade into the distance.

The ferry ride was just about an hour, and the deck on the boat was a nice change from the packed interior.

The ferry started out with just the one flag, but then as we got further towards Indonesia the rest of the flags were raised.

Arriving in Batam

Batam was much different from Singapore; driving through the slums and shanty towns was a shocking change from the clean and modern streets that we just left.  Motorcycles flew by the bus, and I wish I got photographs of some of them.  Women with no helmets or shoes were carrying babies while driving motorcycles; a horizontal board was strapped to the side of one motorcycle and a child was laying on it totally unrestrained.

Our hotel resort seemed very out of place:

We had a meeting with Mr. Ignatious Khomasurya on what it is like to do business in Indonesia. 

Following this meeting, we had a fantastic lunch buffet at the hotel.  Again, there were a lot of foods that we hadn't seen before, including this passion fruit that Haidee clearly enjoyed:

After lunch, we drove to Jabil Industrial Estate.  This isn't the best picture, but people in Indonesia do NOT use lanes on roads like we're used to back home.

Within Jabil Industrial Estate, we took a more focused tour of PT. Citra Tubindo Heavy Industries (http://www.cte.co.id/).  At this facility, they receive unfinished pipes as raw materials and take the pipes through a finishing process involving heat treatment and threading.  The finished products are used on oil rigs world wide, and have to withstand pressure both from the oil inside the pipes and the pressure from the depths of the earth.  We sat through a great presentation as well, where we learned the value of having this operation in Indonesia (cheap/trainable labor force, easy access to oil companies, great location near Singapore and Australia) as well as the negatives (difficult unions and labor laws, unrest of labor force, poor infrastructure).  Jabil is attempting to increase satisfaction of workers by building shopping centers, restaurants, sports fields, and workers dorms (interesting- the rent is cheaper on the higher floors because they don't have elevators) within the estate.

After the tour at Jabil Industrial Estates, we drove to Infinite Studios (PT. Kinema Systrans Multimedia Studios).  Though not within Jabil Estates, the multimedia studios are related because the owner of the studios is the son of the owner of Jabil Industrial Estates, and JIE is the primary investor in the Infinite. (http://infinitestudios.com.sg/)

First, we got a tour of the studios and got to watch animators at work which was very cool.  The animators described the whole process, and just how long it takes to create a character and story.  It seemed a strange location for an animation studio at first: Indonesia is known for cheap labor and manufacturing so to visit a creative company was very interesting.  The owner had considered Singapore, but the land and labor is much too expensive.  To acquire talent, they do events in Jakarta and at local universities. 

We got to watch some of the animation, including popular TV show Peter Rabbit.  We also saw some clips of their live action movies that are produced in partnership with HBO.  One was about Singapore in the 1960s, the other was very scary about zombies in a cave (or something, my eyes were closed).  We were very fortunate to also be given a tour of some of the live actions sets for both of those movies; Infinite is home to the first two sound stages in Indonesia and it was awesome to see first hand how the movies that we saw clips of were created:

It was a very long and busy day, and we were very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to visit the different industries.  In Singapore, we focused more on tech companies and it was very interesting to see a hard manufacturing plant and a creative studio.  The hospitality at all of the places that we visited was so great.

We took the bus back to the hotel, exhausted and tired from a long day of traveling and business meetings.  Some students were fortunate enough to go out to dinner and shopping with some local people that volunteered their time, the rest relaxed back at the hotel.  We all got a lot out of our day in Batam, but some more than others.  A few students had terrible reactions to mosquito bites in Batam (that we're still suffering with a week later!) and I highly recommend that anyone travelling to Indonesia put on multiple layers of bug spray.

Day 4- Johor Baru/Singapore

The fourth day in SE Asia consisted of a day trip to Jahore Baru in Malaysia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johor_Bahru).  We got up and had another amazing breakfast buffet before having a meeting in the lobby and heading out on a bus. 

 

JB is part of a peninsula, but you can get there via autobus from Singapore.  The bridge was pretty cool:

 

We had a visit at Executive Jets Asia with founder and CEO Prithpal Singh.  EJA is a charter jet service that also offers fractional ownership and a medevac service.

 

We had a meeting in the new offices to hear about the business, industry, and working in SE Asia.

 

 

Following the meeting, Mr. Singh gave us a tour of the hangars and airplanes:

 

Below is a jet that is set up for a medical evacuation.  Clients can call EVA for evacuation with as little as two hour notice.  There are doctors and nurses on staff to go and transport injured parties to the requested or suggested hospital.

After a very interesting visit, Mr. Prithpal brought us to a local resort for a buffet breakfast.

 The hospitality at EVA was wonderful.  It was a very different business model and interesting to see how Mr. Prithpal started in the industry and his plans for the future.

 

When we returned to Singapore, we had the evening free.  Some people went to the gardens, some to the night zoo, and some to the Geylang red light district.  The food that we had in the red light district was very questionable, in that we questioned what exactly we were eating.  I was pretty certain that whatever meat-looking thing I ate would make me sick (it didn't!!!), but those who ordered noodles really came out ahead.  The noodles were handmade to order from a big roll of dough, and the broth was delicious (though served out of a five gallon bucket...).

 

 

Our last night in Singapore brought reflections on the country.  All the things you hear are true: it is super clean, the buildings downtown are large and new, there is a huge foreign presence, and nobody was chewing gum.  Looking back, there really was no culture shock coming to Singapore.  Everybody spoke English, the signs were in English, and most of the business were recognizable.  We had Starbucks coffee in the morning, even.  But travelling away from the downtown, into Little India or China Town, did bring more culture (though everybody still speaks English!).  To quote our guide at Boeing, Singapore really is "Asia for beginners".

Day 3- Singapore

The third day of the trip was a busy one!  We met in the lobby at 7:30 and departed for Boeing.  The facility was down by the airport and the prison museum that we went to yesterday. 

 

We got to tour the training rooms where they do cockpit training:

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have rooms for CBT training, one of the first steps in pilot training:

 

After the tour, we went to a room with a Boeing 787 Flight Training Device (FTD): 

 

 

 

 

 

 The last rotation was to go to the flight simulators.  This site has 7 full flight simulators, 6 for Boeing and 1 Airbus.

 Our group of six split into groups of three, and we each took turns piloting and copiloting.  The scenery for the simulator was SeaTac and surrounding areas; the graphics were incredible!  There were moving cars on I5, and you could see ferries out in the Sound.

After successfully having a good time but maybe not so successfully landing the plane, we headed back to the rest of the group to debrief.

 

The next company visit was Tableau Software; Tableau has been in Singapore for two years and came to SE Asia to bring data analysis everywhere.

 

 

From Tableau, we took a bus to the Economic Development Board of Singapore.

 

 

  

Following our long day of meetings, the group headed across the street to the famous Long Bar for Singapore Slings.  While everyone had a wonderful time, we felt the pain of the new alcohol laws in Singapore.  One drink per person = $521 bar tab!

 

 

 

 

 To close out the day, some of our Boeing folks went to dinner with Jim and a local gentlemen to discuss aerospace.  It was a great opportunity to network within in the industry in Singapore, and those students really enjoyed the experience!

 

Some of the non-Boeing group went on the expedition I have been waiting for since arrival: dinner in Little India.  Following a recommendation, we went on a hunt for The Banana Leaf Apolo