июля 10, 2004
Home
7/10 19:04 Portland time(!)
Well, here I am. Wrap-ups later.
Well, here I am. Wrap-ups later.
Korea
7/10 17:38 Seoul time
A quick note from the airport in Korea. Whatever The Company pays its travel agency, it isn’t enough. I requested a flight configuration that would leave me hanging around airports as little as possible. I got it; after the security garbage (which is, here, taken over by Americans, and so a harsh reminder of what’s absence I’d so easily gotten used to. I’ll be in Incheon at the gate waiting for a grand total of 20 minutes. It looks like Vancouver, BC will be the same sort of setup. Un-freaking-believable. The standard flight combination out – in fact, the one being used by all the Americans on the plane with me out of Vladivostok (we did a spot-check in the terminal) goes from Incheon to LA, after a six hour layover. I’ll be at home before I would have even landed in the States using that route.
I have no impressions of Seoul, other than that their airport is big, clean, and generally nicer than all the Russian airports put together (with the obvious exception of fabulous Domodedovo, of course...). I miss speaking Russian already. Maybe my neighbor will be from there, and I will able to bother him/her for the whole ??? hour flight. Hngh hngh that would be cool.
A quick note from the airport in Korea. Whatever The Company pays its travel agency, it isn’t enough. I requested a flight configuration that would leave me hanging around airports as little as possible. I got it; after the security garbage (which is, here, taken over by Americans, and so a harsh reminder of what’s absence I’d so easily gotten used to. I’ll be in Incheon at the gate waiting for a grand total of 20 minutes. It looks like Vancouver, BC will be the same sort of setup. Un-freaking-believable. The standard flight combination out – in fact, the one being used by all the Americans on the plane with me out of Vladivostok (we did a spot-check in the terminal) goes from Incheon to LA, after a six hour layover. I’ll be at home before I would have even landed in the States using that route.
I have no impressions of Seoul, other than that their airport is big, clean, and generally nicer than all the Russian airports put together (with the obvious exception of fabulous Domodedovo, of course...). I miss speaking Russian already. Maybe my neighbor will be from there, and I will able to bother him/her for the whole ??? hour flight. Hngh hngh that would be cool.
июля 09, 2004
The long trip home
7/10 13:39 Vladivostok time
So far so good. I’m at the Vladivostok airport, International Terminal, waiting for check-in to start for my flight (in about 1.5 hours, they tell me – safer, I say, to wait in the airport than to wait to go to the airport). The very nice people at this airport have so far humored me in my attempts to get myself or my baggage sent to China, and have kept all of these from being successfully carried out. The airports here are exactly the same quantity of boring as the airports everywhere else.
This morning, breakfast with С П, surrendering J V’s cell phone (sans Russian sim card, which is mine) and charger to him, before he left for his flight back to Moscow, then to Saint-Peterburg for another week, entertaining some trainers sent by one of The Company’s main vendors. He jokes that his address is “Aeroflot, flight 883”; that any mail sent there will not have to wait too long before he gets to it. Poor guy. Then, I left my stuff in the hotel bag room, and went out to walk the town for a bit. My ‘end-of-term exam’, if you will. I think I handled it fairly well, all things considered. I did manage to find a couple more nifty items to gift to people back home. Near the end, I came to a shop selling military gear. They had exactly the fuzzy hats I am looking for, though only in a terribly small size. These were also fairly cheap. I’ll know next time I’m in Russia (all of a month and a half from now) exactly where to go to get the hats. A very productive walk, indeed.
So, I’ll sit here and ponder things for the next hour-plus, then move over to another spot for pondering, then get on a plane. In less than 20 hours, I will be home.
So far so good. I’m at the Vladivostok airport, International Terminal, waiting for check-in to start for my flight (in about 1.5 hours, they tell me – safer, I say, to wait in the airport than to wait to go to the airport). The very nice people at this airport have so far humored me in my attempts to get myself or my baggage sent to China, and have kept all of these from being successfully carried out. The airports here are exactly the same quantity of boring as the airports everywhere else.
This morning, breakfast with С П, surrendering J V’s cell phone (sans Russian sim card, which is mine) and charger to him, before he left for his flight back to Moscow, then to Saint-Peterburg for another week, entertaining some trainers sent by one of The Company’s main vendors. He jokes that his address is “Aeroflot, flight 883”; that any mail sent there will not have to wait too long before he gets to it. Poor guy. Then, I left my stuff in the hotel bag room, and went out to walk the town for a bit. My ‘end-of-term exam’, if you will. I think I handled it fairly well, all things considered. I did manage to find a couple more nifty items to gift to people back home. Near the end, I came to a shop selling military gear. They had exactly the fuzzy hats I am looking for, though only in a terribly small size. These were also fairly cheap. I’ll know next time I’m in Russia (all of a month and a half from now) exactly where to go to get the hats. A very productive walk, indeed.
So, I’ll sit here and ponder things for the next hour-plus, then move over to another spot for pondering, then get on a plane. In less than 20 hours, I will be home.
июля 08, 2004
Last Working Day
6/9 12:26 Vladivostok time
In less than 24 hours, I will be on my way to the airport to head home. They say, today, that my trip might be delayed, as the weather has taken a small turn for the worse, and the [South] Korean airlines are rumored to be excessively careful about the weather. Wouldn't that be a kick? To end up stuck in the Vladivostok airport because my plane isn't allowed to leave until the rain clears? I'm staying optimistic, though. After all, certainly there will be a business class lounge with plenty of free liquid entertainment and couches to sleep it off, if thing drag on that long (please, please, don't drag on that long...)
On the drive out, И Ч showed us his true Russian nature. Wet roads, unpredictable, not particularly light traffic, thick fog, medium-quality twisty hilly roads, speeds reaching (when I was wiling to look at the speedo) 145 km/h. I just couldn't have left without that experience one last time. As an added bonus, he picked up three extra guys in the city, so we were all packed tight.
I started this morning at the dealer off well. Easiest from here to route a call home through Moscow; I was talking to Andi in the payroll office. The girls there were joking about when С П and I were going to take them out to dinner. As joking got more crude, volumes went up. I, listneing with only 1/2 ear (on the phone with A at the time) didn't realize what was going on, heard my name said a couple of times, turned to see what was going on, and with my elbow, dumped my cup of tea all over the week's timesheets on the main payoll girl's desk. It all ended up being laughed about, of course, but still -- what a guest I am! Making 20-minute, around the globe calls, making Russian computers inable to handle Russian programs, destroying payroll records...
After that, the training this morning went really well. I'm starting to put together my report on this trip; the market status, attitudes and statuses of the dealers, and recommended programs for the next six months, the next two years, and the next five years. This will be a long one. Also, got more information on what I'll be doing in Moscow in August/September. This conference will be a sales event so, whereas this trip now is for training in the mechanics of The Company's service operations, at the conference, I will present the theory -- so to say -- of the service operations. That, I think I can do without repeating at all anything I've gone over this past month. Ex-cellent.
In less than 24 hours, I will be on my way to the airport to head home. They say, today, that my trip might be delayed, as the weather has taken a small turn for the worse, and the [South] Korean airlines are rumored to be excessively careful about the weather. Wouldn't that be a kick? To end up stuck in the Vladivostok airport because my plane isn't allowed to leave until the rain clears? I'm staying optimistic, though. After all, certainly there will be a business class lounge with plenty of free liquid entertainment and couches to sleep it off, if thing drag on that long (please, please, don't drag on that long...)
On the drive out, И Ч showed us his true Russian nature. Wet roads, unpredictable, not particularly light traffic, thick fog, medium-quality twisty hilly roads, speeds reaching (when I was wiling to look at the speedo) 145 km/h. I just couldn't have left without that experience one last time. As an added bonus, he picked up three extra guys in the city, so we were all packed tight.
I started this morning at the dealer off well. Easiest from here to route a call home through Moscow; I was talking to Andi in the payroll office. The girls there were joking about when С П and I were going to take them out to dinner. As joking got more crude, volumes went up. I, listneing with only 1/2 ear (on the phone with A at the time) didn't realize what was going on, heard my name said a couple of times, turned to see what was going on, and with my elbow, dumped my cup of tea all over the week's timesheets on the main payoll girl's desk. It all ended up being laughed about, of course, but still -- what a guest I am! Making 20-minute, around the globe calls, making Russian computers inable to handle Russian programs, destroying payroll records...
After that, the training this morning went really well. I'm starting to put together my report on this trip; the market status, attitudes and statuses of the dealers, and recommended programs for the next six months, the next two years, and the next five years. This will be a long one. Also, got more information on what I'll be doing in Moscow in August/September. This conference will be a sales event so, whereas this trip now is for training in the mechanics of The Company's service operations, at the conference, I will present the theory -- so to say -- of the service operations. That, I think I can do without repeating at all anything I've gone over this past month. Ex-cellent.
About town
6/8 23:13 Vladivostok time
Another good day on the job. We spent the morning with И И (the parts manager; I remembered it wrong the other night) and his guys, and the afternoon with И Ч and his guys. Very productive. Tomorrow, we should easily be able to wrap thing up, leaving this last dealer our most successful of all, as far as ‘completing the program I set out with’ is concerned.
A bit about Vladivostok, now that I’ve kept you waiting for a couple of days...
As I mentioned earlier, the city is built on a range of steep hills, making up a peninsula into the Sea of Japan. The vast majority of the architecture is on the Soviet, ‘Dilapidated Brick’ school, though a respectable minority is of the alternative ‘Dilapidated Pre-Fab Reinforced Concrete Slabs’ style. The post-soviet buildings stand out like beacons of glass and metal among the apparent near-ruins. On the other hand, this is one of the most important port cities in the Far East. Shipping facilities – piers, cranes, drydocks – are the sole features of 90% of the waterline. I have yet to see a marine facility less than 3/4 full. Business here is apparently growing at a berserk pace.
For my taste, too many people speak ‘American Tourist’ here. I’ve grown to favor, elsewhere, the presumption Americans have of tourists to our country, that the guest will respect his hosts by using the local language. It pisses me off to a surprising degree when, hearing my accent, a hostess will shift into tortured English as if I am incapable of surviving without such concessions. Thank goodness none of the И’s speaks a whit of English, or I’d be going crazy. С П and I, at a Chinese restaurant the other night, were seated by a guy who spoke only chinese. We both fumed about how a person could come to a country, unable to communicate whatsoever, only to have the waitress – who must have heard us jumping back and forth from English to Russian -- come to the table and give me a menu in English. Grr... Save me from tourist towns...
At the same time, something – maybe the way the buildings and surrounding villages carpet the steep, otherwise forested hills; maybe the definitely un-European styling of the buildings; maybe the many, many, many Chinese and Japanese running around town – leaves me wanting to describe this place as a ‘typical Asian port city’. I don’t know, likely I’ve just been in Russia too long...
We have, in Vladivostok (and really, in the whole of Primorsky Kray [Territory]) reached the apex of wrong-hand drive usage. I would say that fewer than one of fifty (perhaps fewer than one in a hundred, though I hesitate to make such a bold statement) vehicles here is not a Korean or Japanese make. Of those oriental cars, all have the steering wheels on the wrong side. It’s vanishingly unusual to see a car on the street here whose driver is not sitting at the curb side.
Out of town, and the forests have a jungle look to them, carpeting the hills that march to the north. There are no bare spots, unlike around Yekaterinburg and Khabarovsk; the small villages all blend into each other. Even when you can’t see the ocean, the weather, smell, and ever-present seagulls let you know it’s nearby. Since the road northwards is the highway from Vladisvostok to, eventually, Moscow, it is in quite good shape. The side streets, on the other hand, are all suffering from the constant freeze/thaw cycle, the erosion from the sea air and moisture, compounded by the relative roughness of the terrain compared to much of the rest of Russia. Small potholes dominate, and to see a major sinkhole is no big surprise. This evening, С П, not looking where he was going, almost fell into one in the sidewalk about ten inches across whose bottom we could not see.
I have only the working day tomorrow, and then Saturday I leave. For now, I sleep.
Another good day on the job. We spent the morning with И И (the parts manager; I remembered it wrong the other night) and his guys, and the afternoon with И Ч and his guys. Very productive. Tomorrow, we should easily be able to wrap thing up, leaving this last dealer our most successful of all, as far as ‘completing the program I set out with’ is concerned.
A bit about Vladivostok, now that I’ve kept you waiting for a couple of days...
As I mentioned earlier, the city is built on a range of steep hills, making up a peninsula into the Sea of Japan. The vast majority of the architecture is on the Soviet, ‘Dilapidated Brick’ school, though a respectable minority is of the alternative ‘Dilapidated Pre-Fab Reinforced Concrete Slabs’ style. The post-soviet buildings stand out like beacons of glass and metal among the apparent near-ruins. On the other hand, this is one of the most important port cities in the Far East. Shipping facilities – piers, cranes, drydocks – are the sole features of 90% of the waterline. I have yet to see a marine facility less than 3/4 full. Business here is apparently growing at a berserk pace.
For my taste, too many people speak ‘American Tourist’ here. I’ve grown to favor, elsewhere, the presumption Americans have of tourists to our country, that the guest will respect his hosts by using the local language. It pisses me off to a surprising degree when, hearing my accent, a hostess will shift into tortured English as if I am incapable of surviving without such concessions. Thank goodness none of the И’s speaks a whit of English, or I’d be going crazy. С П and I, at a Chinese restaurant the other night, were seated by a guy who spoke only chinese. We both fumed about how a person could come to a country, unable to communicate whatsoever, only to have the waitress – who must have heard us jumping back and forth from English to Russian -- come to the table and give me a menu in English. Grr... Save me from tourist towns...
At the same time, something – maybe the way the buildings and surrounding villages carpet the steep, otherwise forested hills; maybe the definitely un-European styling of the buildings; maybe the many, many, many Chinese and Japanese running around town – leaves me wanting to describe this place as a ‘typical Asian port city’. I don’t know, likely I’ve just been in Russia too long...
We have, in Vladivostok (and really, in the whole of Primorsky Kray [Territory]) reached the apex of wrong-hand drive usage. I would say that fewer than one of fifty (perhaps fewer than one in a hundred, though I hesitate to make such a bold statement) vehicles here is not a Korean or Japanese make. Of those oriental cars, all have the steering wheels on the wrong side. It’s vanishingly unusual to see a car on the street here whose driver is not sitting at the curb side.
Out of town, and the forests have a jungle look to them, carpeting the hills that march to the north. There are no bare spots, unlike around Yekaterinburg and Khabarovsk; the small villages all blend into each other. Even when you can’t see the ocean, the weather, smell, and ever-present seagulls let you know it’s nearby. Since the road northwards is the highway from Vladisvostok to, eventually, Moscow, it is in quite good shape. The side streets, on the other hand, are all suffering from the constant freeze/thaw cycle, the erosion from the sea air and moisture, compounded by the relative roughness of the terrain compared to much of the rest of Russia. Small potholes dominate, and to see a major sinkhole is no big surprise. This evening, С П, not looking where he was going, almost fell into one in the sidewalk about ten inches across whose bottom we could not see.
I have only the working day tomorrow, and then Saturday I leave. For now, I sleep.
июля 07, 2004
Quickie
6/8 08:42 Vladivostok time
The water got hooked back up again fairly quickly. However, the stuff that comes out of the tap is so dark-brown-colored that you can't even see through it. I wouldn't even brush my teeth with this (though the toilet is working, at least). So, I will be able to get a shower or two before heading home. Yay.
Right now, I'm using one of the dealer computers, while waiting for the management to get out of their weekly meeting. I'm going to have to make this short.
A bit of joy this morning; I found a single page of paper I used to supplement my Notebook one day when I left it in my briefcase, then went for a walk around the Yekaterinburg dealer. So, I am not completely without notes from my trip. I called the boss yesterday to chat a bit -- my weekly reminder that I still work for him -- and mentioned the Notebook incident. Fortunately, he's been in this field for quite some time, and his only comment was, "Man, I bet that makes you feel like an ass..." Dead-on.
Also, late yesterday afternoon, I got a call from J V (my cell phone is working again -- time difference from Portland is +18 hours (or -6 hours, + 1 day, as I remember it) go ahead and call) regarding the conference The Company is having in Moscow at the end of August. Apparently, it Was Decided that I would be the sole representative (see what I get for having a muti-entry visa?) for service and parts, meaning that I will be doing the presentations on these subjects. Oh, and by teh way, could I please send him a copy as soon as possible of the material I will be presenting(!!!!!). I am hoping very hard that my boss has something canned, and that I can just change the country names from Argentina, or Ghana, or Yemen, or whatever, to Russia, then learn whatever it is I will be presenting so I can field any questions. The alternative is too horrible to even contemplate.
The water got hooked back up again fairly quickly. However, the stuff that comes out of the tap is so dark-brown-colored that you can't even see through it. I wouldn't even brush my teeth with this (though the toilet is working, at least). So, I will be able to get a shower or two before heading home. Yay.
Right now, I'm using one of the dealer computers, while waiting for the management to get out of their weekly meeting. I'm going to have to make this short.
A bit of joy this morning; I found a single page of paper I used to supplement my Notebook one day when I left it in my briefcase, then went for a walk around the Yekaterinburg dealer. So, I am not completely without notes from my trip. I called the boss yesterday to chat a bit -- my weekly reminder that I still work for him -- and mentioned the Notebook incident. Fortunately, he's been in this field for quite some time, and his only comment was, "Man, I bet that makes you feel like an ass..." Dead-on.
Also, late yesterday afternoon, I got a call from J V (my cell phone is working again -- time difference from Portland is +18 hours (or -6 hours, + 1 day, as I remember it) go ahead and call) regarding the conference The Company is having in Moscow at the end of August. Apparently, it Was Decided that I would be the sole representative (see what I get for having a muti-entry visa?) for service and parts, meaning that I will be doing the presentations on these subjects. Oh, and by teh way, could I please send him a copy as soon as possible of the material I will be presenting(!!!!!). I am hoping very hard that my boss has something canned, and that I can just change the country names from Argentina, or Ghana, or Yemen, or whatever, to Russia, then learn whatever it is I will be presenting so I can field any questions. The alternative is too horrible to even contemplate.
AAARGH!
6/8 00:14 Vladivostok time
Just a quick one tonight; I’ve got to get to bed.
Today went well at the dealers’. After having gotten things off their chests yesterday, and our having clarified our relative unimportance, С П and I were able to get a fair bit of stuff done. The drive out is nice, a winding highway through jungle-looking vegetation. The terrain out here is hill after hill after hill. С П and I, if we keep up our habit of strolling around town after work, are going to get some San-Fran-mailman legs before too long.
Then again, we won’t be here for too long... Two working days left.
Dinner tonight was chinese again, and as good as I’ve come to expect around here – which is to say, awesome. Afterwards, С П and I ended up discovering a sort of boardwalk area with small vendor setups selling barbeque and booze and pirated CD’s and gambling and karaoke sets (it really does make sense when you’re there). Not a bad walk; the weather has been ‘Northern Pacific Coast Pleasant’, meaning not much sun, a bit of sprinkle, a bit of wind, and decent temperatures. It’s supposed to be this way all week – the standard pattern for after a typhoon, apparently.
Coming back to the hotel put an amusing, Russian-style cap on the evening. The floor receptionist, seeing that we were on our way to our rooms, advised us to fill up our bathtubs tonight. Asked why, she explained that the city was shutting off the hotel’s water at midnight, and it wouldn’t be back on for at least a day, and “god knows how much longer”. How did that saying go? “I used to be sad because I had no sink, but at least I had something to pee in.” С П had the idea that we should demand from the hotel compensation for going to a sauna every day to at least get showers. I’m thinking that is going to be the plan whether the hotel compensates us, or The Company does. At least we didn’t have a big dinner....
Joke for the day: С П and I saw a dragon on the side of a truck; I commented on how it must be a Chinese truck; he responded that Russians have a dragon too, which has three heads. I pointed out that, considering the two-heade eagle as well, Russians seem to have a thing for freakishly mutated animals. His response: "The extra heads are important for the Russian culture. The one head can be getting drunk while the other stays sober and can devote his entire attention to stealing silverware."
Just a quick one tonight; I’ve got to get to bed.
Today went well at the dealers’. After having gotten things off their chests yesterday, and our having clarified our relative unimportance, С П and I were able to get a fair bit of stuff done. The drive out is nice, a winding highway through jungle-looking vegetation. The terrain out here is hill after hill after hill. С П and I, if we keep up our habit of strolling around town after work, are going to get some San-Fran-mailman legs before too long.
Then again, we won’t be here for too long... Two working days left.
Dinner tonight was chinese again, and as good as I’ve come to expect around here – which is to say, awesome. Afterwards, С П and I ended up discovering a sort of boardwalk area with small vendor setups selling barbeque and booze and pirated CD’s and gambling and karaoke sets (it really does make sense when you’re there). Not a bad walk; the weather has been ‘Northern Pacific Coast Pleasant’, meaning not much sun, a bit of sprinkle, a bit of wind, and decent temperatures. It’s supposed to be this way all week – the standard pattern for after a typhoon, apparently.
Coming back to the hotel put an amusing, Russian-style cap on the evening. The floor receptionist, seeing that we were on our way to our rooms, advised us to fill up our bathtubs tonight. Asked why, she explained that the city was shutting off the hotel’s water at midnight, and it wouldn’t be back on for at least a day, and “god knows how much longer”. How did that saying go? “I used to be sad because I had no sink, but at least I had something to pee in.” С П had the idea that we should demand from the hotel compensation for going to a sauna every day to at least get showers. I’m thinking that is going to be the plan whether the hotel compensates us, or The Company does. At least we didn’t have a big dinner....
Joke for the day: С П and I saw a dragon on the side of a truck; I commented on how it must be a Chinese truck; he responded that Russians have a dragon too, which has three heads. I pointed out that, considering the two-heade eagle as well, Russians seem to have a thing for freakishly mutated animals. His response: "The extra heads are important for the Russian culture. The one head can be getting drunk while the other stays sober and can devote his entire attention to stealing silverware."
июля 06, 2004
Only one more pond to cross
6/6 21:10 Vladivostok time
My hotel room here is crappier than the one in Khabarovsk. The best short descriptor is: no sink (I suppose, wash your hands in the toilet?). Still, it sits on a hill – what doesn’t here? -- looking out onto the Sea of Japan. The weather was fairly clear when we landed, but a drizzle has come in from the sea, and I can’t even see the other side of the bay anymore in the haze. Still...
Our flight was on a plane (a Як-40к [Yak-40k]) marked Vladivostok Airlines, but with stewardess and tickets marked Дальавия (Dal’avia, from Далье Восток, or Far East – our carrier also from Moscow to Khabarovsk). The plane was an ‘enter-from-the-rear’ mini, and our tickets were marked with the word “free” (Russian, of course) in the place for a seat number. We left three hours late. Good thing C П and I are so much bigger than the average Chinese; we were able to easily push and otherwise intimidate our way to the front of the plane, where there was actual legroom. I must be absorbing a bit of russian mentality; that didn’t seem the slightest bit wrong to me until I just now wrote it down. Hmm...
Anyway, it seems that at this final dealership, the name of choice is И. И Ч picked us up from the airport, and took us to the main facility to meet the manager, И П. Also there was our third main contact, the warehouse manager, И Л (I think). The facilities at this last place are beyond impressive, considering what I’ve seen so far through the rest of the country. They’d even get a grudging approval, I think, compared to dealerships in the US. Phenomenal. If The Company ends up keeping relationships with both, these last guys and С П-ёв are going to give each other some hellacious competition; they’re all we have to cover the Far East and Eastern Siberia, though, so I’m sure they’ll be able to both thrive. However, it turns out the guys here are less than confident about that. They were given the impression, originally, that they would have exclusive rights of licensing for the whole regions to themselves, and we got a major earful (delivered in Russian, since none here speak a whit of English) from a pair of smiling Russian guys who were just aching to tear our heads off and leave our bodies in the woods somewhere. Considering the fact that I am here typing this, I am fairly confident that С П and I weathered it well, and that any resurgences of irritation and/or frustration will be of less dangerous intensity for the rest of our trip. I’ve found that total honesty, particularly including the willingness to say, “I can tell you what I think, but I’m not the guy who makes that decision – though I will briefly have his ear when I finish, and hope to make some impact on him” is quite effective. Maybe I accidentally told the truth about that diplomacy thing in my interview...
Regardless, my remaining three working days in Russia should be fairly straightforward. I briefly tried one last time to find fuzzy hats. Some did turn up, but they were the highest-quality ones, made out of an animal that no one knows the English name for, but is somewhat like an otter or mink, or other “large, long, rat-like” as С П tried to describe. The 3,000-6,000 rouble (that’s between one hundred and two hundred fifty dollars) price tag made up my mind to wait until August / September when I’m back in Moscow.
С П and I went wandering this evening around Vladivostok. I’ll describe the town a bit more later, but for now the main observation was that a large US Navy cruiser (I forget the name the sailor gave me) was parked in the port, and the town was swarming with sailors and marines. The ship leaves tomorrow, but at least the local prostitutes should be getting enough business tonight to leave us alone – I am told that when С П was last here with three other gentlemen on a business trip, they called all of their rooms a couple of times every night, offering their services. We should be clear from that until at least Thursday, and then, I can always unplug my room’s telephone.
My hotel room here is crappier than the one in Khabarovsk. The best short descriptor is: no sink (I suppose, wash your hands in the toilet?). Still, it sits on a hill – what doesn’t here? -- looking out onto the Sea of Japan. The weather was fairly clear when we landed, but a drizzle has come in from the sea, and I can’t even see the other side of the bay anymore in the haze. Still...
Our flight was on a plane (a Як-40к [Yak-40k]) marked Vladivostok Airlines, but with stewardess and tickets marked Дальавия (Dal’avia, from Далье Восток, or Far East – our carrier also from Moscow to Khabarovsk). The plane was an ‘enter-from-the-rear’ mini, and our tickets were marked with the word “free” (Russian, of course) in the place for a seat number. We left three hours late. Good thing C П and I are so much bigger than the average Chinese; we were able to easily push and otherwise intimidate our way to the front of the plane, where there was actual legroom. I must be absorbing a bit of russian mentality; that didn’t seem the slightest bit wrong to me until I just now wrote it down. Hmm...
Anyway, it seems that at this final dealership, the name of choice is И. И Ч picked us up from the airport, and took us to the main facility to meet the manager, И П. Also there was our third main contact, the warehouse manager, И Л (I think). The facilities at this last place are beyond impressive, considering what I’ve seen so far through the rest of the country. They’d even get a grudging approval, I think, compared to dealerships in the US. Phenomenal. If The Company ends up keeping relationships with both, these last guys and С П-ёв are going to give each other some hellacious competition; they’re all we have to cover the Far East and Eastern Siberia, though, so I’m sure they’ll be able to both thrive. However, it turns out the guys here are less than confident about that. They were given the impression, originally, that they would have exclusive rights of licensing for the whole regions to themselves, and we got a major earful (delivered in Russian, since none here speak a whit of English) from a pair of smiling Russian guys who were just aching to tear our heads off and leave our bodies in the woods somewhere. Considering the fact that I am here typing this, I am fairly confident that С П and I weathered it well, and that any resurgences of irritation and/or frustration will be of less dangerous intensity for the rest of our trip. I’ve found that total honesty, particularly including the willingness to say, “I can tell you what I think, but I’m not the guy who makes that decision – though I will briefly have his ear when I finish, and hope to make some impact on him” is quite effective. Maybe I accidentally told the truth about that diplomacy thing in my interview...
Regardless, my remaining three working days in Russia should be fairly straightforward. I briefly tried one last time to find fuzzy hats. Some did turn up, but they were the highest-quality ones, made out of an animal that no one knows the English name for, but is somewhat like an otter or mink, or other “large, long, rat-like” as С П tried to describe. The 3,000-6,000 rouble (that’s between one hundred and two hundred fifty dollars) price tag made up my mind to wait until August / September when I’m back in Moscow.
С П and I went wandering this evening around Vladivostok. I’ll describe the town a bit more later, but for now the main observation was that a large US Navy cruiser (I forget the name the sailor gave me) was parked in the port, and the town was swarming with sailors and marines. The ship leaves tomorrow, but at least the local prostitutes should be getting enough business tonight to leave us alone – I am told that when С П was last here with three other gentlemen on a business trip, they called all of their rooms a couple of times every night, offering their services. We should be clear from that until at least Thursday, and then, I can always unplug my room’s telephone.
июля 05, 2004
Russian Air Travel
6/6 08:50 Khabarovsk time
No luck on the Notebook. -sigh-
Lots of excitement this morning in the Khabarovsk airport (where I am still sitting, by the way; there is some sort of typhoon hitting Vladivostok right now, so our 9 AM flight has been delayed for [at least] three hours). It all started out relatively well. С and А П-ёв picked us up this mornng, and got us to the airport in excellent time. We hung around for a bit waiting for check-in to start for our flight, chatting and having some breakfast (pineapple juice is all it’s been so far). Then, they called the beginning of check-in (called here ‘registration’, just in case I slip somewhere in the story). I was on the phone with A at the time, so only marginally involved with carrying our stuff to the registration counter, I handed my passport and tickets to С П.
Then the fun began. Some sort of heated discussion between both С’s and the red-haired registration lady. Then С П goes back to the belt, takes my bags off, and sets them down next to me. More discussion, then both C’s take off, with my passport. I figured at this point I should start paying closer attention, so asked A to call me back. Interrogating А П-ёв, I found out that the airport lady had insisted that, since I am a foreigner, we needed to go to the international terminal. Of course, this makes no sense, since the flight is from Russia, to Russia. In no other airport has this been an issue. So, after red-head planted her feet, the C’s went to talk to the airport manager.
Shortly, they returned; the manager had agreed with us, that to send me to the international terminal for a domestic flight was stupid. Red-head insisted (no discredit to her) on calling the manager to confirm, which he did. She gave us boarding passes, and tagged my bags “Hand-Carry”(!). We headed to the gate security section. There, a police guy checked out our papers and, once again, insisted that we needed to go to the international terminal (this is, in Russia, a completely different building, sometimes ten minutes’ drive from the domestic terminal). A brief chat, and he relented. But...
Straight up came another airport lady, who said, no no no – foreigners have to go through the international terminal. Again, the explanation; again the argument. But this lady was having none of it. We tried to at least get her to take my bags, to which she replied that there was no way she was going to do this, and that we could carry our own damn bags. Shortly, she turns her back, saying that we should pay more attention to airport rules. С П-ёв shouted after her for her name so he could report her, to which she shouted over her shoulder “I don’t have to tell you that”, to which he shouted back, “TELL ME YOUR F-ING NAME!” (this is a big deal; Russians do not curse in mixed company). He finally got her name from the (now) sympathetic police guy; we headed to the international terminal. As all vocal transactions were in Russian, I increased my ‘strong’ vocabulary by at least a couple of phrases.
Over to the other terminal. Which is, by the way, a rat-hole, even by normal Russian standards. We go up to the registration, and guess what? The lady here says that С П should be at the domestic one, since he is a citizen, and that I should just go over there with him, since we’re traveling together. She was nice about it, though, and after hearing our sordid tale, let us in. Of course, by now it was far too late to check the bags. I have no idea where we are going to put them – a question for a later time, I suppose. Anyway, we get into the international terminal, which is full of, exclusively, Chinese. I commented on this, and С П indicated that maybe the unique policy at this airport had something to do with this. The extent of illegal immigration into the area makes the authorities here excessively conscious of the proper documentations and nationalities. I asked him, “Do I look Chinese?”. Humorously enough, this very same question is the one that С П-ёв asked the airport manager, which tipped him over to letting me use the domestic gate. Not that it did any good.
So, at our international gate, or our domestic flight. An announcement is made in Russian (only, not Chinese, not English, not Swahili. In the International section – where they send only foreigners!) that the flight has been delayed by weather until noon. And here I am. Before, I might have used the term ‘unbelievable’ to describe this morning, but I’ve been here almost a month; this is most definitely believable.
No luck on the Notebook. -sigh-
Lots of excitement this morning in the Khabarovsk airport (where I am still sitting, by the way; there is some sort of typhoon hitting Vladivostok right now, so our 9 AM flight has been delayed for [at least] three hours). It all started out relatively well. С and А П-ёв picked us up this mornng, and got us to the airport in excellent time. We hung around for a bit waiting for check-in to start for our flight, chatting and having some breakfast (pineapple juice is all it’s been so far). Then, they called the beginning of check-in (called here ‘registration’, just in case I slip somewhere in the story). I was on the phone with A at the time, so only marginally involved with carrying our stuff to the registration counter, I handed my passport and tickets to С П.
Then the fun began. Some sort of heated discussion between both С’s and the red-haired registration lady. Then С П goes back to the belt, takes my bags off, and sets them down next to me. More discussion, then both C’s take off, with my passport. I figured at this point I should start paying closer attention, so asked A to call me back. Interrogating А П-ёв, I found out that the airport lady had insisted that, since I am a foreigner, we needed to go to the international terminal. Of course, this makes no sense, since the flight is from Russia, to Russia. In no other airport has this been an issue. So, after red-head planted her feet, the C’s went to talk to the airport manager.
Shortly, they returned; the manager had agreed with us, that to send me to the international terminal for a domestic flight was stupid. Red-head insisted (no discredit to her) on calling the manager to confirm, which he did. She gave us boarding passes, and tagged my bags “Hand-Carry”(!). We headed to the gate security section. There, a police guy checked out our papers and, once again, insisted that we needed to go to the international terminal (this is, in Russia, a completely different building, sometimes ten minutes’ drive from the domestic terminal). A brief chat, and he relented. But...
Straight up came another airport lady, who said, no no no – foreigners have to go through the international terminal. Again, the explanation; again the argument. But this lady was having none of it. We tried to at least get her to take my bags, to which she replied that there was no way she was going to do this, and that we could carry our own damn bags. Shortly, she turns her back, saying that we should pay more attention to airport rules. С П-ёв shouted after her for her name so he could report her, to which she shouted over her shoulder “I don’t have to tell you that”, to which he shouted back, “TELL ME YOUR F-ING NAME!” (this is a big deal; Russians do not curse in mixed company). He finally got her name from the (now) sympathetic police guy; we headed to the international terminal. As all vocal transactions were in Russian, I increased my ‘strong’ vocabulary by at least a couple of phrases.
Over to the other terminal. Which is, by the way, a rat-hole, even by normal Russian standards. We go up to the registration, and guess what? The lady here says that С П should be at the domestic one, since he is a citizen, and that I should just go over there with him, since we’re traveling together. She was nice about it, though, and after hearing our sordid tale, let us in. Of course, by now it was far too late to check the bags. I have no idea where we are going to put them – a question for a later time, I suppose. Anyway, we get into the international terminal, which is full of, exclusively, Chinese. I commented on this, and С П indicated that maybe the unique policy at this airport had something to do with this. The extent of illegal immigration into the area makes the authorities here excessively conscious of the proper documentations and nationalities. I asked him, “Do I look Chinese?”. Humorously enough, this very same question is the one that С П-ёв asked the airport manager, which tipped him over to letting me use the domestic gate. Not that it did any good.
So, at our international gate, or our domestic flight. An announcement is made in Russian (only, not Chinese, not English, not Swahili. In the International section – where they send only foreigners!) that the flight has been delayed by weather until noon. And here I am. Before, I might have used the term ‘unbelievable’ to describe this morning, but I’ve been here almost a month; this is most definitely believable.
Wrapping up Kh-Town
6/6 00:28 Khabarovsk time
Checking out and heading to Vladivostok tomorrow morning, early (surprise, surprise). So few days left before I come home...
Today was another interesting day. On the way back from the shop out by Хор, we stopped at a colleague of С П-ёв’s garage to check out our goodies on some of his equipment. Five minutes after we left, the buddy placed an irate phone call to С П-ёв, claiming that his equipment had stopped working properly right after we left. The mode of failure he described made no sense, nor was logically ascribable to our gizmos, which are completely diagnostic, and do not actually interact at all with the equipment they are diagnosing. What proceeded was a very neat – particularly since С П-ёв speaks so very, very quickly even when not agitated – white-hot yelling argument between the two parties. Since, as with many such arguments, the same points were repeatedly made by both sides, I was able, after a while, to understand almost everything they were “saying”.
Dinner tonight was with А П-ёв, likely since his brother was in no mood for socialization. We figured, what the hell, and went to a Chinese place. Har Har Har on me; the menu was in Chinese, with translations and descriptions in Russian. I searched until I found an ingredient I recognized in two dishes, and ended up with grilled cheese and sweet-and-sour pork. Yummy yum. On a lighter note, С П paid for dinner tonight, and I was able to perfect my joke, “он перекрадёт золото у фашистов” [‘he is stealing gold back from the fascists’ - a reference to the fact that С П works for Germans, and always a hit with Russians].
On a less happy note, I seem to have lost my Handy-Dandy Notebook. My last specific recollection of having it is Saturday morning at С П-ёв’s office. I’ve thoroughly tossed my room twice, and my luggage four times. I searched С П-ёв’s car and office. We retraced our steps back through restaurant and Internet Cafe, all to no avail. My last hope is that I (for some reason) brought it to, and left it in, С П’s room. He has taken pity on me and is tossing his room as I type. Otherwise... Well, I have another notebook that I started using this morning, realizing the other was missing; and thank goodness I’m not the only one who’s been taking notes. Possibly my memory, jogged by С П’s notes will be more reliable than my memory tends to be on its own. Thank goodness, too, for this record; there’s not much of work-related substance here, but it may knock some items loose that would otherwise have remained buried in my cobwebs.
Then again, maybe when I meet С П for breakfast tomorrow morning, he’ll have my missing Notebook waiting for me...
Checking out and heading to Vladivostok tomorrow morning, early (surprise, surprise). So few days left before I come home...
Today was another interesting day. On the way back from the shop out by Хор, we stopped at a colleague of С П-ёв’s garage to check out our goodies on some of his equipment. Five minutes after we left, the buddy placed an irate phone call to С П-ёв, claiming that his equipment had stopped working properly right after we left. The mode of failure he described made no sense, nor was logically ascribable to our gizmos, which are completely diagnostic, and do not actually interact at all with the equipment they are diagnosing. What proceeded was a very neat – particularly since С П-ёв speaks so very, very quickly even when not agitated – white-hot yelling argument between the two parties. Since, as with many such arguments, the same points were repeatedly made by both sides, I was able, after a while, to understand almost everything they were “saying”.
Dinner tonight was with А П-ёв, likely since his brother was in no mood for socialization. We figured, what the hell, and went to a Chinese place. Har Har Har on me; the menu was in Chinese, with translations and descriptions in Russian. I searched until I found an ingredient I recognized in two dishes, and ended up with grilled cheese and sweet-and-sour pork. Yummy yum. On a lighter note, С П paid for dinner tonight, and I was able to perfect my joke, “он перекрадёт золото у фашистов” [‘he is stealing gold back from the fascists’ - a reference to the fact that С П works for Germans, and always a hit with Russians].
On a less happy note, I seem to have lost my Handy-Dandy Notebook. My last specific recollection of having it is Saturday morning at С П-ёв’s office. I’ve thoroughly tossed my room twice, and my luggage four times. I searched С П-ёв’s car and office. We retraced our steps back through restaurant and Internet Cafe, all to no avail. My last hope is that I (for some reason) brought it to, and left it in, С П’s room. He has taken pity on me and is tossing his room as I type. Otherwise... Well, I have another notebook that I started using this morning, realizing the other was missing; and thank goodness I’m not the only one who’s been taking notes. Possibly my memory, jogged by С П’s notes will be more reliable than my memory tends to be on its own. Thank goodness, too, for this record; there’s not much of work-related substance here, but it may knock some items loose that would otherwise have remained buried in my cobwebs.
Then again, maybe when I meet С П for breakfast tomorrow morning, he’ll have my missing Notebook waiting for me...
июля 04, 2004
Once more in the taiga
6/5 12:03 Khabarovsk time
In the back seat of С П-ёв’s car, heading back from the service location to Khabarovsk. The countryside here is spectacular. So is the sheer volume of swarming insects which come out to greet anyone venturing into their territory (which consists of “outside”). We spent almost three hours outside at the service center, working our diagnostic magic on some of the rigs there; and we had an audience of thousands of tiny, tiny flying critters the whole time. We were reduced to swatting ourselves and the air around our heads with branches pulled off a nearby tree, just to keep somewhat sane. The head mechanic tells me that this is nothing – I should see how bad it gets in the evening... of course....
С П-ёв and his brother’s dealership is only a small piece of their overall financial picture (for now). Their main business is timber; their service business starts with working on their own equipment. Timber here is huge. Every day, all day long, you can see fully loaded barges running down the Amur, one after another. Three million cubic meters (whatever that translates into; I have no idea) of lumber is exported from Khabarovsk region each year – and this necessarily excludes the months when the Amur is frozen over. A significant part of this is either С П-ёв’s or his debtors’. The amount business this guy is going to be able to throw to The Company is staggering. It causes me pain to recall the impression of his operation I was sent out with – that he was some guy from out of nowhere who claimed to be willing to build a dealership if we would invest in him first. To say that this was a misunderstanding is a powerful understatement.
His mechanics all seem quite solid, though their experience with electronic systems is basically only what we’ve showed them since Friday. As with the other Russian mechanics I’ve met, though, they seem to be extremely quick studies. All are decent enough to interact with; there was some amusement in the beginning when they asked why an American was sent to work on Canadian products (their stuff is old, from back in the day when the factory was in Canada). It turns out, in the Far East, selling equipment declared to be Canadian is much easier than selling American stuff, so that’s how the salesman and general manager have been representing our stuff. Since it was designed by Canadians, and continues to be (generally) engineered by Canadians, and since it sells, I have no objections; I doubt The Company’s sales management will, either
In the back seat of С П-ёв’s car, heading back from the service location to Khabarovsk. The countryside here is spectacular. So is the sheer volume of swarming insects which come out to greet anyone venturing into their territory (which consists of “outside”). We spent almost three hours outside at the service center, working our diagnostic magic on some of the rigs there; and we had an audience of thousands of tiny, tiny flying critters the whole time. We were reduced to swatting ourselves and the air around our heads with branches pulled off a nearby tree, just to keep somewhat sane. The head mechanic tells me that this is nothing – I should see how bad it gets in the evening... of course....
С П-ёв and his brother’s dealership is only a small piece of their overall financial picture (for now). Their main business is timber; their service business starts with working on their own equipment. Timber here is huge. Every day, all day long, you can see fully loaded barges running down the Amur, one after another. Three million cubic meters (whatever that translates into; I have no idea) of lumber is exported from Khabarovsk region each year – and this necessarily excludes the months when the Amur is frozen over. A significant part of this is either С П-ёв’s or his debtors’. The amount business this guy is going to be able to throw to The Company is staggering. It causes me pain to recall the impression of his operation I was sent out with – that he was some guy from out of nowhere who claimed to be willing to build a dealership if we would invest in him first. To say that this was a misunderstanding is a powerful understatement.
His mechanics all seem quite solid, though their experience with electronic systems is basically only what we’ve showed them since Friday. As with the other Russian mechanics I’ve met, though, they seem to be extremely quick studies. All are decent enough to interact with; there was some amusement in the beginning when they asked why an American was sent to work on Canadian products (their stuff is old, from back in the day when the factory was in Canada). It turns out, in the Far East, selling equipment declared to be Canadian is much easier than selling American stuff, so that’s how the salesman and general manager have been representing our stuff. Since it was designed by Canadians, and continues to be (generally) engineered by Canadians, and since it sells, I have no objections; I doubt The Company’s sales management will, either
Vacation Time
6/4 22:30 Khabarovsk time
So, that was this thing, "day off" of which I have heard so much. Interesting...
I’ll start by noticing that the quality of my English composition seems to have degraded in my postings of the last week. Let me assume that this is due to my near-constant interaction with a different style of linguistic composition, and that my thinking will quickly revert to normal upon my return home in a few short days. I apologize for any cognitive inconveniences this may have caused / be causing any readers.
Today started late, meeting С П in his room to wait for С П-ёв to show up. On the telescreen was a program about Russian aviation in the second world war. I realized almost immediately that, of course the Soviets must have had aircraft during the war, somehow my history classes (and pretty much all generally-accessible historical works in the States) failed to consider it as having been of much significance. This started a chat between the two of us that led to a mutual acceptance that here, too, was another subject about which our respective societies had basically lied to us. I’ve added to my list of “to-do’s”: find and read a good book about Soviet air power during WWII. We keep running into this sort of thing; it started out amusing, got frustrating after the dozenth or so item, and by now is back to amusing – the volume of lies being so great that one can do nothing else but chuckle and shake one’s head, finding yet another.
Accidentally keeping on topic, when С П-ёв arrived with his brother, A, we first stopped at the local world war 2 memorial. On it were listed (as, I suppose, is customary pretty much everywhere) the names of all the local soldier who died in the war. It was arranged in such a way that an accurate estimate of their number could be made. Within a couple hundred or so, there were fifty thousand names on the board. This is from a region whose population at the time was maybe one hundred and fifty thousand – or one out of every three people in the region died in the war. Turns out, this was close to the same ratio for the Soviet union as a whole (I think the number was one in five...). And these guys were on the winning side. I’m fairly sure, even, that the losers didn’t get whammed as badly as the Russians did. These guys don’t seem to have had things go right for them even one time in the past couple of centuries. Here’s hoping we can help turn this around...
We from there drove out of Khabarovsk, down the Уссури River (another border with China), to a lodge complex on the banks. Here, we strolled in the taiga a bit, communing with the biting insects; saw a squirrel, two bears (on chains), and a monkey (also on a chain, but more pettable than the bears). The weather today was nice – not too cloudy, but not particularly hot, with a breeze strong enough to (out of the woods) blow away the bugs before they could settle on you. We hung around for a bit in the woods outside the lodge, then went in for a sauna (without booze, by mutual consent), and had dinner all within view of the border outposts just down and across the river a ways.
Coming back into town, we stopped at a less-than-one-year-old building in the city center. Name was “Platinum Arena” – a sports arena only big enough for a hockey rink, but seating 7,500 people. I commented on how the style of the architecture was unlike anything I’d seen in Russia so far; С П assured me that, no worry, the “dilapidated brick” look wasn’t about to go out of style anytime soon. We pulled in to catch the last half of a volleyball match between the local team (Самородок, which means “Nugget”, as in gold nugget, as in one of the region’s three main exports, with fish and timber) and the Russian national team.
After the crushing defeat of the Самородок’s (who I was, of course, rooting for), evening was a riverboat leaving from the Amur bank just down from the hotel, going downstream past the whole city of Khabarovsk, and the next city, and under the “Bridge to Siberia” – the 5-km-long(!!) connection over the Amur of the highway from Vladivostok to Moscow. In the winter, the Amur freezes over, to a depth of 1.5 meters, and people – very determined people – walk out onto it and ice fish. I’ll have to try it if I’m out here that time of year.
Tomorrow begins the last work week of my first trip out. This has been good; home will be better.
So, that was this thing, "day off" of which I have heard so much. Interesting...
I’ll start by noticing that the quality of my English composition seems to have degraded in my postings of the last week. Let me assume that this is due to my near-constant interaction with a different style of linguistic composition, and that my thinking will quickly revert to normal upon my return home in a few short days. I apologize for any cognitive inconveniences this may have caused / be causing any readers.
Today started late, meeting С П in his room to wait for С П-ёв to show up. On the telescreen was a program about Russian aviation in the second world war. I realized almost immediately that, of course the Soviets must have had aircraft during the war, somehow my history classes (and pretty much all generally-accessible historical works in the States) failed to consider it as having been of much significance. This started a chat between the two of us that led to a mutual acceptance that here, too, was another subject about which our respective societies had basically lied to us. I’ve added to my list of “to-do’s”: find and read a good book about Soviet air power during WWII. We keep running into this sort of thing; it started out amusing, got frustrating after the dozenth or so item, and by now is back to amusing – the volume of lies being so great that one can do nothing else but chuckle and shake one’s head, finding yet another.
Accidentally keeping on topic, when С П-ёв arrived with his brother, A, we first stopped at the local world war 2 memorial. On it were listed (as, I suppose, is customary pretty much everywhere) the names of all the local soldier who died in the war. It was arranged in such a way that an accurate estimate of their number could be made. Within a couple hundred or so, there were fifty thousand names on the board. This is from a region whose population at the time was maybe one hundred and fifty thousand – or one out of every three people in the region died in the war. Turns out, this was close to the same ratio for the Soviet union as a whole (I think the number was one in five...). And these guys were on the winning side. I’m fairly sure, even, that the losers didn’t get whammed as badly as the Russians did. These guys don’t seem to have had things go right for them even one time in the past couple of centuries. Here’s hoping we can help turn this around...
We from there drove out of Khabarovsk, down the Уссури River (another border with China), to a lodge complex on the banks. Here, we strolled in the taiga a bit, communing with the biting insects; saw a squirrel, two bears (on chains), and a monkey (also on a chain, but more pettable than the bears). The weather today was nice – not too cloudy, but not particularly hot, with a breeze strong enough to (out of the woods) blow away the bugs before they could settle on you. We hung around for a bit in the woods outside the lodge, then went in for a sauna (without booze, by mutual consent), and had dinner all within view of the border outposts just down and across the river a ways.
Coming back into town, we stopped at a less-than-one-year-old building in the city center. Name was “Platinum Arena” – a sports arena only big enough for a hockey rink, but seating 7,500 people. I commented on how the style of the architecture was unlike anything I’d seen in Russia so far; С П assured me that, no worry, the “dilapidated brick” look wasn’t about to go out of style anytime soon. We pulled in to catch the last half of a volleyball match between the local team (Самородок, which means “Nugget”, as in gold nugget, as in one of the region’s three main exports, with fish and timber) and the Russian national team.
After the crushing defeat of the Самородок’s (who I was, of course, rooting for), evening was a riverboat leaving from the Amur bank just down from the hotel, going downstream past the whole city of Khabarovsk, and the next city, and under the “Bridge to Siberia” – the 5-km-long(!!) connection over the Amur of the highway from Vladivostok to Moscow. In the winter, the Amur freezes over, to a depth of 1.5 meters, and people – very determined people – walk out onto it and ice fish. I’ll have to try it if I’m out here that time of year.
Tomorrow begins the last work week of my first trip out. This has been good; home will be better.
июля 03, 2004
Another perspective
6/4 00:55 Khabarovsk time
Today was interesting. С П-ёв and I started the day out laptop-shopping, as he lacks this most basic diagnostic tool. We went to a couple of shops, and ended up buying a Russian model (iRU). Chatting with both the C’s these past couple days has been interesting, to say the least. I hope that I’ve proven myself to be the ‘diplomat’ I baldly claimed to be during my job interview... С П-ёв has not really seen the best face of The Company to begin with; he has been trying to get price quotes and to start buying from us and has pretty much gotten the brush-off for the past year. For the first time in my life (that I’m aware of) I intentionally put my credibility on the line, and got on the horn with Portland this morning to make something happen for him. We’ll see how that goes next week. As he told me over dinner, while I was trying to demonstrate with words The Company’s regret that thing hadn’t been going well, and commitment to good relations in the future, he told me, “You sound like one of my mechanics, when he say to me, ‘I know I’ve not worked too well so far, but next month I’ll do better, particularly if you pay me more now’”. What was I to do? This guy is going to be (if things work out between us, that is) a huge asset to our operations in the Russian Far East, if he keeps his interest in us. If my actions work out, I’m confident that this alone will have earned back the price of this trip.
Other topics were also discussed. It began with a comment by С П that the US imports were “destroying Russia’s industries” (by taking all the business away from the local firm). I, of course, disagreed and tried to explain why the concept of the division of labor applies equally well between individuals in different countries as between individuals in different cities or neighborhoods. Some four hours of sporadic discussion later (participated in equally by С П-ёв, whose degree is in economics, from the Soviet times...) we all sort of realized we had hit a wall. So, I shifted gears the next time the opportunity occurred, and asked whether, in general, they thought this was a view that would be shared by many other Russians (to which С П replied “View? It’s common sense!”... argh...), and what steps I could recommend The Company take to mitigate this impression. This ran us another six hours (no conclusion reached). I am definitely going to put this in my report.
After dinner, С П-ёв took us to a nightclub on the top of the tallest building in town (12 stories). This was interesting. The hostess seated every group of new people, with space between groups. This space was immediately occupied by a pair of prostitutes (as I am assured by both C’s), who were otherwise sitting over at the bar and chatting with the staff. I am told that they are actually on the staff. Anyway, after recognizing that none of us were interested the ones bracketing us turned their attention to the Japanese (I know because I recognized a few words) businessmen on either side. Which left us to watch the floor show. This was yet another new thing for me. It consisted of a few people who rotated through ‘acts’. There was a girl who played the violin, another who sang, a couple who danced, and a pair of girls who did traditional Russian Gypsy dances. Others were, but obviously none made so much of an impact. We hung out, watched, and talked travel (С П-ёв turns out to have been to the US on a couple of occasions, Canada once, and not a few times to the Middle East – where he must have stuck out as much as I would) for a couple of hours. It was pretty nice.
Tomorrow (Today, actually) is my first day completely off since June 6. I’m told the plan is to sleep in (actually, I told that part myself), then head out of town into the taiga for some excursioning. Maybe we’ll even go up to the Chinese border and make fun of the commies (probably not, but the C’s both thought it a great suggestion). I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Today was interesting. С П-ёв and I started the day out laptop-shopping, as he lacks this most basic diagnostic tool. We went to a couple of shops, and ended up buying a Russian model (iRU). Chatting with both the C’s these past couple days has been interesting, to say the least. I hope that I’ve proven myself to be the ‘diplomat’ I baldly claimed to be during my job interview... С П-ёв has not really seen the best face of The Company to begin with; he has been trying to get price quotes and to start buying from us and has pretty much gotten the brush-off for the past year. For the first time in my life (that I’m aware of) I intentionally put my credibility on the line, and got on the horn with Portland this morning to make something happen for him. We’ll see how that goes next week. As he told me over dinner, while I was trying to demonstrate with words The Company’s regret that thing hadn’t been going well, and commitment to good relations in the future, he told me, “You sound like one of my mechanics, when he say to me, ‘I know I’ve not worked too well so far, but next month I’ll do better, particularly if you pay me more now’”. What was I to do? This guy is going to be (if things work out between us, that is) a huge asset to our operations in the Russian Far East, if he keeps his interest in us. If my actions work out, I’m confident that this alone will have earned back the price of this trip.
Other topics were also discussed. It began with a comment by С П that the US imports were “destroying Russia’s industries” (by taking all the business away from the local firm). I, of course, disagreed and tried to explain why the concept of the division of labor applies equally well between individuals in different countries as between individuals in different cities or neighborhoods. Some four hours of sporadic discussion later (participated in equally by С П-ёв, whose degree is in economics, from the Soviet times...) we all sort of realized we had hit a wall. So, I shifted gears the next time the opportunity occurred, and asked whether, in general, they thought this was a view that would be shared by many other Russians (to which С П replied “View? It’s common sense!”... argh...), and what steps I could recommend The Company take to mitigate this impression. This ran us another six hours (no conclusion reached). I am definitely going to put this in my report.
After dinner, С П-ёв took us to a nightclub on the top of the tallest building in town (12 stories). This was interesting. The hostess seated every group of new people, with space between groups. This space was immediately occupied by a pair of prostitutes (as I am assured by both C’s), who were otherwise sitting over at the bar and chatting with the staff. I am told that they are actually on the staff. Anyway, after recognizing that none of us were interested the ones bracketing us turned their attention to the Japanese (I know because I recognized a few words) businessmen on either side. Which left us to watch the floor show. This was yet another new thing for me. It consisted of a few people who rotated through ‘acts’. There was a girl who played the violin, another who sang, a couple who danced, and a pair of girls who did traditional Russian Gypsy dances. Others were, but obviously none made so much of an impact. We hung out, watched, and talked travel (С П-ёв turns out to have been to the US on a couple of occasions, Canada once, and not a few times to the Middle East – where he must have stuck out as much as I would) for a couple of hours. It was pretty nice.
Tomorrow (Today, actually) is my first day completely off since June 6. I’m told the plan is to sleep in (actually, I told that part myself), then head out of town into the taiga for some excursioning. Maybe we’ll even go up to the Chinese border and make fun of the commies (probably not, but the C’s both thought it a great suggestion). I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Hanging Miscellany
6/4 00:40 Khabarovsk time
Let’s pick up where I left off yesterday.
The city of Khabarovsk is fairly small, and, unlike the other cities I’ve been to – which had small villages on their immediate outskirts -- surrounded by pretty much nothing at all. On the other hand, construction here is booming, and there are more newer buildings here, relatively, than in any other city I’ve seen. What’s more, the city itself is laid out on a series of parallel hills, running back from the river, which makes for a San-Francicsco-style driving experience in some places, and for a large number of parks and green spaces. The main downsides come at two times of year: between September and May – bitter cold, combined with unbelievable winds from the river; between May and September – three (count them!) types of vicious biting insects, ranging in size from ‘mosquito’ to ‘gnat’, all of which tend to swarm on any semi-stationary warm-blooded target. I can’t believe I actually thought the bugs were bad in Peterburg!
Friday afternoon, the three of us (С П, С П-ёв, and myself) walked the bank of the Amur from the hotel, downstream to where the port area begins. There is “beach” access all along the way, and there were a large number of locals sunning and otherwise enjoying their weather. I noticed that this city either had more, or has gotten rid of less, Soviet iconography. Everywhere you look, you see at least the hammer-sickle, in a carving on a building, on a statue, mosaic’d into a wall. There is even a flag flying over a building not too far from my hotel which has a very small such symbol in one corner. I’ve yet to ask for an explanation to this, though I have pointed it out a few times, and gotten no answer – which might be itself an explanation of sorts. The crest of Khabarovsk includes a bear and a tiger, both of which I am told can be found in the surrounding taiga, but not in the sort of abundance from the time the crest was laid down (Khabarovsk was founded in 1858).
Let’s pick up where I left off yesterday.
The city of Khabarovsk is fairly small, and, unlike the other cities I’ve been to – which had small villages on their immediate outskirts -- surrounded by pretty much nothing at all. On the other hand, construction here is booming, and there are more newer buildings here, relatively, than in any other city I’ve seen. What’s more, the city itself is laid out on a series of parallel hills, running back from the river, which makes for a San-Francicsco-style driving experience in some places, and for a large number of parks and green spaces. The main downsides come at two times of year: between September and May – bitter cold, combined with unbelievable winds from the river; between May and September – three (count them!) types of vicious biting insects, ranging in size from ‘mosquito’ to ‘gnat’, all of which tend to swarm on any semi-stationary warm-blooded target. I can’t believe I actually thought the bugs were bad in Peterburg!
Friday afternoon, the three of us (С П, С П-ёв, and myself) walked the bank of the Amur from the hotel, downstream to where the port area begins. There is “beach” access all along the way, and there were a large number of locals sunning and otherwise enjoying their weather. I noticed that this city either had more, or has gotten rid of less, Soviet iconography. Everywhere you look, you see at least the hammer-sickle, in a carving on a building, on a statue, mosaic’d into a wall. There is even a flag flying over a building not too far from my hotel which has a very small such symbol in one corner. I’ve yet to ask for an explanation to this, though I have pointed it out a few times, and gotten no answer – which might be itself an explanation of sorts. The crest of Khabarovsk includes a bear and a tiger, both of which I am told can be found in the surrounding taiga, but not in the sort of abundance from the time the crest was laid down (Khabarovsk was founded in 1858).
июля 02, 2004
Raining in China
7/2 22:22 Khabarovsk time
Here I am in the Russia Far East. Less than a couple hundred miles from the Pacific, and only six time zones (and one date line) away from home. Our flight out here began later in the day, and stretched until the fairly late morning (Moscow, and Khabarovsk time, respectively). C П and I flew this time with Дальавиа air lines, serving the Russian Far East. We also flew business class, in row 1, which was kind of neat. Sleeping on an airplane is less than effective, particularly when, sitting across the aisle from you, is a Russian government official with neither manners nor any particular incentive to develop any, getting drunk and rowdy with his buddies all night long. On the other hand, I did get to see the Yenisey, as well as a bunch of snow-capped mountains which must, I assume, be a northern expanse of the range that includes the Himalayas.
С П and I were picked up at the Khabarovsk airport by our local dealer, (wait for it....) С П-ёв (I’m still complaining about the lack of imagination in naming around here). His car is another right-hand drive, like С А’s in Yekaterinburg. However, basically every foreign-marked car around here is a righty, and the foreign cars make up over 60% of the machines on the local roads. By this point, though, I’m used to it.
The hotel we are staying in is in a phenomenal location. I am on the second floor, and out my window is a view of the Amur River bending around a strip of hills. On the other side of the river is China; close enough to actually make out individual trees and weather (hence the title of the post). We went down and walked along the bank of the Amur a ways this evening; I’ll make a point to get my feet wet sometime before we leave here.
С П-ёв’s current shop is located about an hour’s drive out of town on the only highway between Vladivostok and Khabarovsk (and via that city, the rest of Russia), about 3 km from the village of Хор. Z will be delighted to hear that it is located in the middle of actual taiga (which is, itself, pretty impressive). He has a huge location, with fairly adequate equipment, knowledgeable people, and dirt floors (something had to be wrong with it). It’s got great potential. To make matters even more interesting, he will, on July 8, take possession of a 3-hectare parcel of land right off the main highways to Yakutsk and Komsomolsk. On this land, he expects to have a full service center, along the lines of what I saw in Yekaterinburg, earlier. I am quite excited to work with this guy.
Hmm. I wanted to post more tonight, but I’m going on less than six hours’ sleep for the past 60, so it will have to wait.
Here I am in the Russia Far East. Less than a couple hundred miles from the Pacific, and only six time zones (and one date line) away from home. Our flight out here began later in the day, and stretched until the fairly late morning (Moscow, and Khabarovsk time, respectively). C П and I flew this time with Дальавиа air lines, serving the Russian Far East. We also flew business class, in row 1, which was kind of neat. Sleeping on an airplane is less than effective, particularly when, sitting across the aisle from you, is a Russian government official with neither manners nor any particular incentive to develop any, getting drunk and rowdy with his buddies all night long. On the other hand, I did get to see the Yenisey, as well as a bunch of snow-capped mountains which must, I assume, be a northern expanse of the range that includes the Himalayas.
С П and I were picked up at the Khabarovsk airport by our local dealer, (wait for it....) С П-ёв (I’m still complaining about the lack of imagination in naming around here). His car is another right-hand drive, like С А’s in Yekaterinburg. However, basically every foreign-marked car around here is a righty, and the foreign cars make up over 60% of the machines on the local roads. By this point, though, I’m used to it.
The hotel we are staying in is in a phenomenal location. I am on the second floor, and out my window is a view of the Amur River bending around a strip of hills. On the other side of the river is China; close enough to actually make out individual trees and weather (hence the title of the post). We went down and walked along the bank of the Amur a ways this evening; I’ll make a point to get my feet wet sometime before we leave here.
С П-ёв’s current shop is located about an hour’s drive out of town on the only highway between Vladivostok and Khabarovsk (and via that city, the rest of Russia), about 3 km from the village of Хор. Z will be delighted to hear that it is located in the middle of actual taiga (which is, itself, pretty impressive). He has a huge location, with fairly adequate equipment, knowledgeable people, and dirt floors (something had to be wrong with it). It’s got great potential. To make matters even more interesting, he will, on July 8, take possession of a 3-hectare parcel of land right off the main highways to Yakutsk and Komsomolsk. On this land, he expects to have a full service center, along the lines of what I saw in Yekaterinburg, earlier. I am quite excited to work with this guy.
Hmm. I wanted to post more tonight, but I’m going on less than six hours’ sleep for the past 60, so it will have to wait.
