It’s only two weeks until we leave for our new gig in Saigon. Right now it’s all about priorities and trying to get ready for a whole set of unknowns. I’ve moved before, and I’ve lived overseas before. But Southeast Asia is really different. I don’t even know how to think about the language. I’m OK with most European languages (at least I can make myself understood), but the tonal languages of the Far East are a real challenge to my ear and tongue. Then there’s the weather – hot and humid. What clothes are right for business? Probably not shorts and flip flops, but certainly not coats and ties. What should I pack? Then – I know I’m not going on vacation, but I love to play tennis and the guitar so I’m taking my tennis racket and guitar and feeling a little funny about showing up for a new job with all my toys. Anyway, the countdown is on, and in between now and then we have one more trip to Oakland to attend an East Meets West function. Life’s a little jammy at the moment, but it’s better than sitting around clipping coupons.
Travel memory is very selective, at least mine is. I tend to let the stress and aggravations settle to the bottom and let the street scenes, people’s faces, and interesting landscapes rise to the top like heavy cream. That’s the way it should be; those are the main reasons we travel – at least when travel is elective. But traveling on business is another animal entirely. We do it because our jobs require it and it adds another level of stress. While the recreational traveler can get upset at a cancelled flight or making a wrong turn on the way to the airport it is more of an inconvenience than a serious problem. For the business traveler it usually means disrupted relationships, meeting cancellations, and stress on both ends.
I experienced a little of that yesterday. Like everyone I hate going to the airport these days. For a two hour flight to Oakland I had to be at the airport two hours before departure. And now that security precautions are so draconian there are almost always long, long lines at check-in and long, long lines to clear security. Business travelers have the drill down better than their vacationing counterparts – no checked bags, no liquids in their carry-on, no scissors or pocket knives, etc. So, we go directly to the head of the line and check in with our e-tickets. I don’t like much about post-9/11 travel but this is one thing I do like. I don’t have to deal with an overworked, snarky agent who had a fight with her kids before work or who doesn’t like the look of my carry-on stuff. I just tap the screen, put in the confirmation code, print the boarding pass and Whammo I’m off to security. I probably saved myself 40 minutes and untold anxiety yesterday by being able to cut the line at check-in.
But, security is another matter. I’m as patriotic as the next guy, an ex-Marine whose son fought Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. But, I don’t get it. The climate of fear that provoked this mind-numbing cluster of “security” procedures is preventing us from either catching the bad guys or developing an efficient system of airline security. Anyone who has traveled home to the US from Europe or the Far East since 9/11 knows that check-in, passport control, and customs procedures are simple, thoughtful, efficient and effective. Traveling in the US is different. Does anyone think that rifling through my shaving kit is doing anything more than wasting two peoples’ time? Do my shoes or anyone else’s really pose a threat to national security? Does treating every person entering the US (citizen or foreign visitor) like a criminal really make us safer? I don’t think so. I think it says a lot about the fact that even though we live in a global society a very vocal minority of Americans (including a sizeable number of legislators and bureaucrats) are still provincial rubes who think owning a gun is more important to their survival than extending a hand in friendship. “Homeland Security” at airports is a time consuming waste of resources and time. We can do it better. Let’s get on it. Be careful, be vigilant, be aware but get real. Our culture, productivity, standard of living and life expectancy are not what they used to be. In many ways we’re living on our laurels. We need to be better world citizens and stop putting the wagons in a circle to fend off the redskins. The airport travel mess is a symptom of the greater disease.
Oh, by the way, on the way to my 10 o’clock appointment I got on the wrong BART train and went to San Francisco instead of downtown Oakland. Sometimes the pain of modern travel is self inflicted. It’s not always the other guy’s fault when things don’t go as planned.
Yesterday Marilynn and I went down to King County Public Health to get some shots for Vietnam. Do we need shots? I don’t really know, but exotic places have exotic bugs so we got shot up – Hepatitis A and B, Thyphoid boosters, and Japanese Encephalitis – as recommended by the public health folks. $800+ when it was all done. You could go broke and drive yourself crazy trying to stay safe.
I’ve always liked to live close the ground when I travel – on foot or bike, eating street food or in small local places, and asking locals for recommendations. Still, I don’t want to be crazy or do something stupid. You don’t eat salad or unpeeled fruit and vegetables in Mexico, and the same holds true for the more exotic places. Sanitation in the Third World is never what it is at home, and your stomach probably isn’t going to adapt on a vacation. It makes sense to control what you can control, but some things like mosquito and insect bites are more difficult to control. Just be sensible – lots of bug juice and mosquito netting when you’re in the zone.
But we’re not in the zone now, so after visiting King County Public Health we walked over to Monorail Espresso for a hit of caffeine. Monorail is the quintissential espresso stop in Seattle. It’s a street side window in the architecturally unique Coliseum Theater building (now Banana Republic) on Pike Street. The neon sign above the window simply says “Caffeine,” and you’d guess from the scene in front that the entire clientele was made up of tattoo covered bike messengers. But, it’s not. Monorail’s owner, Chuck Beek, knows almost everyone who stops by and “almost everyone” does stop by – at least the cognescenti. The Monorail space is tiny, just room for the friendly and attractive barista (sometimes two), the macchina, and a sink in back. Except for the open window, the rest of the window area is covered with pictures of customers, pictures of Chuck with custormers, Obama posters, and last year’s countdown calendar to the end of W’s term in the White House. Chuck gave up regular work after a brief stint as a flight attendant for Continental. So did his wife Susie, and in 1988 he opened one of Seattle’s first espresso carts under the monorail built for the 1962 World’s Fair. It prospered, and today it’s still thriving in the permanent space on Pike.
I got to know Chuck like most people do – at the window. We struck up a conversation when I discovered that he rides his bike to work every day from his home on Bainbridge Island. Then I discovered that he and Susie like to vacation in Europe on their bikes and that sealed the deal. We started comparing European bike routes and best places to tour. Then in 2005 we ran into Chuck and Susie in the Amsterdam airport. They were on their way home from a tour of Switzerland and we were coming back from two weeks in Provence. Small world.
Yesterday, Laura the barista drew us a couple of ristretto shots, steamed some milk, and executed a perfect onion-like drawing with exquisite foam at the top of our lattes. Then we joined the bike messengers at one of the small sidewalk tables and watched the parade. It wasn’t long until Buddy Foley, the Ladybug Man, came along to join us. Buddy is a legend in Seattle. He’s an artist, a musician, a collector, a street person, and a walking history of the offbeat downtown scene. He sells ladybugs (100 for $5), plays keyboards, makes art, talks compulsively, and knows everyone. Yesterday he was sporting a Christine Gregoire Staff badge and lanyard. Christine is Governor of the State of Washington. Was Buddy really serving at a Gregoire event? Don’t doubt it. Sometimes he seems like an escapee from the state hospital, and then you learn that whatever he said that seemed outrageous is true.
Marilynn had never met Buddy and it was fun to introduce her to some of the characters that were part of my downtown life for the last 10 years. I’ll miss downtown Seattle, but downtown Saigon will be crazy interesting I’m sure. And, it’s not as if we’re leaving forever. We’ll be back and I’m sure we’ll see Chuck and Buddy and the two homeless guys that panhandle on the two sides of the Eileen Fisher store across from Nordstrom. That’s been an interesting part of the downtown experience for me too. All over the core area homeless people have staked their claim to a corner or a place near some building, and every day they man the space and hold their paper cup or a box cover out to panhandle for spare change. The two guys at the Eileen Fisher store have become friends of sorts. I passed them every day. We always greeted each other and every once in awhile I put a buck or five in their cups. They’re both very friendly and often they’re too busy talking to someone to say hello or hold the cup out. I’d like to know their stories. Why are they there? They are actually more reliable and predictable than some employees. And when they aren’t at their spots I wonder if something has happened to them. But, sure as anything, they’re back in place the next day. I used to feel sorry for them, but now I see them differently. They may not have had a lot of choices in life, but I think these are choices they’ve made for themselves and they seem to be making it just fine. Not my style but just fine.
I woke up this morning to find my Inbox full of very gracious welcome messages. Earlier, John Anner, the Executive Director of East Meets West, had sent an email to staff introducing me as the new Development Director for Vietnam and welcoming me as the newest member of the EMW team. Immediately, I had 10 new welcome messages from other staff. Next week I’ll get to meet the people in the Oakland headquarters face to face.
I always seem to be talking about change, but that’s not unusual. Everyone is talking about change. Technology is driving the change, and most of us are just trying to hang on. Talking about it is the way we’re learning to adapt to it. it. Almost everything we do in daily living is changing in remarkable ways and at remarkable speed.
It has also dramatically altered the way we make travel arrangements. It’s still possible to make a reservation on the phone, but it costs more and usually takes more time. My guess is that it will cost even more and possibly take more time in the future. The future is online, but it has it’s drawbacks… This morning I needed to make reservations for three round trip flights – two to East Meets West headquarters in Oakland and one from Seattle to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City these days) and return. The problem was that only one of them was a straight forward to and from situation. That was the first trip to Oakland – traveling alone. No problem.
The second trip to Oakland, with Marilynn, involved an Alaska Air companion ticket, and in order to get the discount code for the ticket I had to login to the Alaska website. But, although I had a frequent flier number and an Alaska Air Visa, I had never established an online account with them. It didn’t take a lot of time, but it did take some and then I had to wait for a confirmation email that validated the transaction. Then I was able to go back to the website, login, and make the two reservations with the discount code. Slight irritation, but not really a problem – manageable.
The third trip, actually the third and fourth trips, are more complicated. This is where human to human contact can really make it easier. First, the login, followed by the reservation selection process. Seattle to HCMC is more complex than Seattle to Oakland. No airline flies non-stop, so there are a number of choices about when to depart and where to stop. I knew that Northwest/Delta offered the best fare for the dates and times we wanted to travel, because I researched fares yesterday on Orbitz and Travelocity. I also knew, from previous experience with Orbitz, that it is always better to cut out the middleman – there goes another middle person – and deal directly with the airline of choice. So far so good. Northwest on its own website was $100 cheaper than on Travelocity. But, there was a problem. Marilynn and I would be traveling to HCMC together but returning separately on different dates. You can’t do two different reservations in one transaction online, so the process has to be repeated for each ticket.
First, I made my reservation (Seattle – Tokyo, Tokyo – HCMC), and then I went back to nwa.com to make Marilynn’s. Login again, but this time I had to enroll Marilynn, because she has her own World Perks account. Enroll, wait, receive email confirmation, login again. It takes a little time – again. I repeat the process. I put in the flight cities, departure and return dates, etc. and check to ensure that I am booking her on the same flights that I have chosen for myself. Yup. Put in the credit card info, hit Purchase, and it’s done. But not quite…
I purposely did not make seat selections, because I thought it would be impossible to coordinate online. I would, I thought, give them a call once we had confirmation numbers and ask that we be seated together outbound to HCMC. It didn’t work that way. When the reservation confirmations arrived each one included seat assignments. I tried to solve the problem online, but a series of unsatisfying email form letter responses about how to make seat selections drove me to the phone. After sitting on hold for what seemed a long time a pleasant customer service agent came on and solved the problem. We are seated together to Saigon – at last.
These three or four transactions took almost 3 hours. I know that businesses and individuals are more productive now that we are able to work independently with the help of such extraordinary technology, but Oh my God did I wish for the old days when my secretary called the firm’s travel agent and Shazzam the hard copy ticket showed up the next day by courier. I know we can’t go back to the future, but look at the jobs we could create if we did.
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