Big Brands & When not to visit Prague

I am very happy to say that for the most part big brands have not overrun Prague. The one exception to this is McDonalds. There are more McDonalds here than in San Francisco! The McDonalds here give you something that looks like mayonnaise to use with your fries. The ingredients are mustard, herbs, and who knows what. Although it looks like mayo, has the consistency of mayo, it does not taste exactly like mayo. Either way I decided that I don’t like it.

When shopping in the city center you do not see much in the way of globalized brands. I find this very refreshing. Last year while in Singapore, I woke up and went looking for my morning espresso fix. Across the street I found McDonalds, on the opposite corner there was a Borders books, next to a Starbucks – did I even leave America? When shopping in Singapore you have to ask, what’s the point? You don’t travel half way around the world to soak up local culture and end up buying soap in a Body Shop.

For those of you that know San Francisco you will appreciate this next comment. Being in the city center of Prague in August is like hanging out at Fisherman’s wharf during high season! This city is so quant, but there are WAY too many people milling about. I would rather come here in a shoulder season when the weather is a little suspect and feel like I have the city to myself. If you don’t like crowds, don’t come in August! Once I get some more pictures up you will see what I mean.

Let the fun begin & photo gallery

I am getting so anxious for everyone to arrive. I am sick of spending my days locked up in a hotel room working. Tomorrow the gang shows up and the real fun begins. Stay tuned for stories and more pics of this beautiful city!

You will notice there is a link on the right for a photo gallery. I am sorry to say that the content and format is pitiful, so please don't even visit yet. When I get home from this trip I will clean it up and post all the pics I have from outstanding trips.

- Vietnam Jan 05
- Thailand March 05 (vacation)
- Thailand Aug 05
- Cairo July & Aug 05
- Current trip Prague, Bratislava, Budapest (vacation)

I took a lot more trips this year (Hong Kong, China, Germany, London x4), but am sorry to day I did not take many pictures. Now that I have this site, it will push me to document more so I can share here.

I will make a post once the photo gallery page is updated.

Subscription service added

I couldn't sleep last night, so I found a way to cure my insomnia by adding a free subscription service to the blog. Enter your e-mail in the box on the right and click the button, that is all there is to it. You will be taken to bloglet.com for confirmation and they will send you an e-mail with instructions on how to cancel the subscription. From that point on an e-mail goes out once a day with a brief summary of new posts. If I did not make a post that day no e-mail goes out.

Cheers,

Greg

Prague: Aug 23 - 30

Ah, the buzz / high of being in a new city for the fist time and liking what you see. I arrived in Prague a little over 24 hours ago. I will be working for a few days and then have friends joining me to start a one week vacation (Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest). First impressions of Prague are fabulous. From what I hear the city center is about as old European quaint as you will find anywhere. The walkways are crowded with people milling about taking in the sights. The buildings are old and historic while you find modern art spread throughout the city center. The picture above was taken on the thoroughfare that leads to the main museum. I am told that the outer lying portions of the city are drab and grey with lots of communism era built housing that is functional but without soul.

Cairo: Impressions, people, and negotiating in the markets

Egypt is fascinating. The people in Cairo for the most part are warm and friendly. There is a strong culture of hospitality in Islam; they also realize that their livelihood relies on tourism. I had one shopkeeper tell me “other Arab countries have oil, we have tourism”. On multiple occasions after a long negotiation I had Egyptians ask “are you happy?” They would work hard to get as much money out of you as possible, but in the end they did not want you to feel cheated. After a camel ride to the pyramids, the shopkeeper made sure we were happy with the experience and then asked us to come back to Egypt with family and friends.


Negotiating in the markets is quite an experience. Egyptians love to negotiate. They start high and expect you to work them as hard as they work you. When walking by the shops / stands they try everything to start a conversation and get you to come in and shop. Typically there is not a hard sell to buy something once inside; they just want you to look around. They show you things to buy and if you have no interest, they simply show you something else. This goes on until you basically walk out the door. I think they realize that it is all about numbers, the more that look, the more that will buy. I was in the markets with a Brit named Nick who wanted one of the chessboards that have mother of pearl inlay and are hand crafted. The salesman started high and the negotiation goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Finally Nick says this is my last offer, if you can’t sell for this price then I will go elsewhere. Of course there are a few more counter offers, but when the salesman realizes he is serious they agree on a price. After all that work he looks at Nick with a big smile and says “how about a 15 Egyptian pound tip for me?” A guy sitting on a table watching chirps in and says “yea, how about a 10 for me because I like your sunglasses”. We started to laugh and left quickly before they talked us out of more money. All in all, we found you could talk them down about 50%. One of their favorite questions to ask is “how many wives do you have”? I typically would answer with 7 or so, and then complain about how they spend all my money making me poor. How could I afford such an expensive price?

Cairo: Aug 20 – 22

I managed to get one free day on a trip to Cairo. On the last visit I got to see the pyramids, so this time I visited a few mosques and did some shopping in the street markets. The picture above is the Citadel which sits on a hill in Old Islamic Cairo. There are ancient roman aqueducts that actually move water up the hill without pumps. It is amazing what the ancients could invent - I guess that what happens where there is no TV to suck all the creativity from your mind. One of the mosques I visited was over 700 years old and was simply amazing. I did manage to a get small movie clip of a man calling out to prayer from inside the mosque. The beauty of his voice with the echo of the chamber was breathtaking. I will have to find a way to post the clip for people to see and hear.

Seoul South Korea: Aug 17 - 19

I flew out to Seoul to do a presentation for work. Sad to say I did not get to see much of Seoul as I was working the entire time. Did you know that Seoul is the largest city in the world if you only count the city limits and eliminate the outer lying suburbs? 14 million people live, work and play there!!!

Thailand: July 19 - Aug 1

I managed to get to Thailand twice this year, once for holiday and once for work – Wahooo! This trip was for work, but I did manage to get in a few free days!! I took the above picture outside one of the 33,000 temples (Wats) in Thailand. They have more temples than we have Starbucks! We were there over the Buddhists Lent holiday. It is a national holiday and everyone goes out to the temples donating food to the monks to help them through the rainy season. To give donations at temple is called 'making merit', think of it like deposits in the big karma bank. What an amazing experience.

Starting a blog to share pics and travel news

I have been thinking about this for some time. In fact I have researched it a few times, but have never manged to pull the trigger. Well here it is, the offical blog to upload pics and thoughts from my travels.

Please post comments as you see fit.

(Posted from room in Prague during a break from real work)

Greg