Asia Travels

Three trips to Asia have taken me to four destinations:

In 1996, Taipei TAIWAN was my first trip to Asia for the purpose of meeting and supporting several Nicolet clients.

Also in 1996, two months later, I flew to Seoul KOREA for a Neurodiagnostics convention in which I represented Nicolet, and

Then proceeded on to Beijing CHINA for a Nicolet Asian Rim Sales Meeting.

Finally in July, 2000, I visited Bangkok, THAILAND, for the Nicolet "2000 and Beyond" Sales Meeting.

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Even though all the above destinations were Asia, they were distinctly different in cultures, socio-economic status, and geography, but every one was friendly and open to this USA visitor.

In particular in 1996, I was struck by the differences in modes of transportation:

Mainland China: Bicycles, old buses, and teeny cabs.

Taiwan: Motor scooters (absolutely NO bicycles) and small imported autos from the neighboring countries EXCEPT Japan.

Korea: Traffic jams with all sizes of autos, especially large expensive models made in Korea.

In Bangkok, yellow cabs were everywhere - was this New York? Traffic was bad, but the modern elevated rapid transit "Sky Train" was a nice alternative.

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Since I am blogging these travels that occurred over 10 years ago, there have been significant changes in the economies of these countries, particularly, China.  China today have congested super highways with lots of modern cars, which I did not see on my travels.