Last week I received an email from the Beijing Olympic Ticketing Center, informing me about the results for the tickets that I had ordered. It was a bit disappointing, most of the events that I booked tickets for where sold out and I mainly got tickets for some athletics and some swimming events. I was also among the happy few that got a ticket for the closing ceremony (but not for the opening ceremony).

My wife also just got a few tickets, and not even a ticket for the opening or closing ceremony. Several of her family members did not succeed to get any tickets at all! It seems most of the events are completely sold out now already, I had not expected this actually. Maybe many people hope to sell their tickets at a higher price during the Olympics? You are allowed to sell your ticket to someone else (but only once I think), so I expect heavy trading during the games itself. Maybe I will sell my closing ceremony ticket (only 14% of the applicants got a ticket, so there will be quite some demand), because I don’t think it’s a lot of fun to go there on my own. Or maybe I just give it away, I’ll see next year.

If you live in China and did not order tickets online yet, you will have a second chance in October. On a first-come first-serve basis the remaining 600,000 tickets will be sold off, but these are probably only for less popular events. I hope the servers of the Olympics site are prepared for the heavy traffic that might suddenly hit it.

On Shanghaiist I came across a 6-month old YouTube video of a recorded conversation between the control tower at JFK in New York and an Air China pilot. The Air China pilot seems to have no knowledge of the English language, and the few words he says are incomprehensible to me. Quite scary considering that English is the standard language of air traffic control. I don’t want to imagine that this is something that occurs daily, and what fatal consequences this potentially may have…

As regular readers probably noticed, I did not update my weblog for a couple of days. The reason is that I was traveling with several Dutch colleagues around China (as you may have seen from my Twitter feed), and there was hardly a free minute to write a blog post. But now I am back in Shanghai again, and can spend a bit more time on writing.

The trip we had was busy (a bit too busy actually), but quite successful. I traveled with Peter Driessen (CEO, Spill Group), Willem van Wijmen (CFO, Spill Group) and Martijn Hamann (Partner at Van den Ende & Deitmers, a Dutch VC fund that invested in Spill Group), meeting with companies and potential partners in Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu. For Willem and Martijn this was their first trip to China, and I think they got a good impression of what is happening here.

As usual with people new to China they probably did not expect how modern and advanced the country is. The foreign media keep on describing China as a backward country with only low cost and low quality products, but that is not what China is anymore. In many aspects it has become more advanced than Europe or the US, but people have to come here to see it for themselves. The mass media won’t tell you, they prefer to keep focusing on scandals with inferior or dangerous products. But that’s why it’s good that there are weblogs, so people do not have to rely solely on one-sided newspapers and TV reports.

For me one of the aims of this trip was to show my guests the modern, advanced China. Not only in Shanghai and Beijing things are developing very fast, but also in China’s Western regions. Chengdu’s development for example, never ceases to amaze me. Each time I visit this place, the city and especially its development zone have developed further. The design of some of the structures there is more futuristic than any building you will see in the Netherlands, and this is only the beginning! KLM even has a direct flight from Amsterdam to Chengdu, even though most people have never heard of this 12-million people metropolis. If I would be 10 years younger I would probably pack my bags and move to Chengdu, because that is where things are happening now.

During our one-week trip we met about 20 companies, which is quite a lot for such a short time. I am now trying to digest all our discussions, and doing the follow-up for some of them. We also had a few hours of free time, and Martijn and Willem went to see the Great Wall for example (Peter and I opted to stay in the hotel and had some strategic discussions instead). In Chengdu we visited the Wenshu monastery and had the local spicy huo guo (hot pot) for dinner. In Shanghai we did not have time to do any sightseeing, but we had dinner on the Bund and in Xintiandi once. All in all the trip should have been one or two days longer, but due to our busy work schedules this was not possible this time.

I had planned to post some pictures of the trip, but because my almost new Sony camera broke down the first day, this was not possible. The others will send me some of their pictures and movies, and I will upload those later to my Flickr account.

I am writing this from Jakarta airport, where I arrived two hours ago from Bali. No wifi here, at least not a wifi connection that I could connect to (there is one but there is no way to pay for it, which reminds me of Mumbai airport). I will try to post this in Singapore, where we will have a short stop en route to Shanghai and where there is free wifi on the airport. I travel a lot, but sometimes I am still surprised by stupid things happening at airports, because airport management or staff does not think or take responsibility for their jobs. Today had some good examples.

We arrived at the airport in Denpasar this afternoon to check in for our domestic flight to Jakarta at the domestic terminal. After going through security (where they checked our tickets) we waited in line to check in. But when it was our turn we were told that we could not check in at the domestic terminal, because we had a connecting international flight… This never happened to me before, you have a domestic flight but you should go to the international terminal in order to check in? Other people for the same flight we would not go further than Jakarta could check in of course. For us this meant a 10-15 minute outside walk in 30 degree plus temperatures from one terminal to the other with our suitcases. No need to say I was in a pretty foul mood when we arrived at the other terminal.

At the international terminal check-in luckily went relatively easy, but because of the problems at the domestic terminal we were just in time for boarding. Next to the security check at the gate there was a small store selling bottles of water, and I asked the security guy if it was OK to buy two bottles of water there to take with me on the plane. At some airports that is still allowed (Shanghai for example lets you take bottles on the plane, even on international flights). The security man said no problem, so I bought two bottles. But when I passed him to go through security I was stopped by another person and told to hand in my water! I explained that I just asked his colleague, and that he had said it was OK. No, was the answer, we probably misunderstood him and had to either drink the bottles or give them to him. I told them to get lost and went straight back to the store, where I got my money back without any problem.

When we went through security again, and two girls in front of us had to hand in two bottles of chili sauce that they had just bought in duty free. The security guys just laughed at them. Then I asked the guys how it is possible that duty free sells bottles that cannot be taken on the plane. They also laughed at me and just said: “Regulations”. Thinking about it I get the feeling that they may have a deal with the duty free shops. They probably sell the product to tourists, who cannot take it on the plane, the security takes the products and hands them back to the store for a kick-back. This also explained why the store immediately took back the bottles I had just bought. I asked the security staff about it and also complained about their colleague who had “wrongly advised” me. They told me to go to their boss (this was not their responsibility they said) and they pointed at the gate. No problem, so I walked to the gate. The persons there told me that they were not responsible either, and I had to talk to their boss. I told them that was fine, and asked them to call him to have a talk.

They refused, and told me I had to go to him, and that they would kick me of the flight because of that. Of course I did not accept that, and after a short but intense conversation in which I explained them that this was not the best way to treat their important tourists, they agreed to call their boss. He indeed turned up, a fat, arrogant guy smiling like somebody who has absolute power and does not care for tourists. I explained what had happened, and the only thing he had to say was that ‘these are the rules’. I told them that I understand that these are the rules, because they are the same all over the world. But the point is that duty free shops should not sell products that cannot be taken on board (or at least seal them so they can be taken on board) and that the security staff was plain lying to me (he spoke good English, so there was no misunderstanding here). The boss said he did not understand my complaint and I then I decided to board. Further arguing made no sensde, and I did not want to miss my plane.

Upon arrival at Jakarta airport we had a coffee at Starbucks and browsed the book shops. Around 9 PM we decided to have dinner before boarding our flight at 10 PM, but that turned out to be a bit more difficult than we thought. The food court was out of food (except for some french fries) and when we walked back to Starbucks they also told us that they were sold out (“Many people today, sir”)! We walked around the whole airport, but no restaurant had anything to eat except some cup-a-noodles. Unbelievable, this is an international airport that has flights leaving until past midnight, but there is no food available after 9 PM. In the end I decided to forget about dinner, and wait until arriving in Singapore where we will be in less than 2 hours.

Yesterday Spill Group (the mother company of Spill Group Asia) announced that the crossmedia fund of Van den Ende & Deitmers has taken a substantial minority stake in Spill Group. For more information see the official press release that can be found here. An article about the investment from Dutch website Emerce can be found here (in Dutch).

This morning I went for a walk on the beach before breakfast. However, the walk had to be cut short because I stepped into something. It hurt a bit so I walked into the sea to clean my foot. When doing that I realized it was bleeding heavily and it may be more than just a small cut. So I walked back to the hotel as good as I could. There I tried to clean the wound in the shower, but it turned out this was not possible – it was actually quite deep and full of sand. Hmm, not good.

So I called the resort’s doctor, who arrived within a few minutes. The doctor turned out to be a good looking young lady, which compensated the pain a bit 🙂 She checked it out and said it was worse than she expected and she sent her nurse to get some additional tools to clean the wound. I won’t go into detail here, but cleaning the wound was one of the most painful experiences I can remember. She gave me two injections to numb my foot, but because the foot is full of nerves even that did not help completely. It took her one hour to finalize it, but it seemed like several hours to me.

Anyway, now my foot is nicely bandaged, but I cannot swim anymore. Great, because I had planned to either go diving or sailing today. Also running is out of the question for the next week or so, I can hardly walk. I am taking antibiotics, but refused the painkillers for now. Not sure if I can still enjoy a beer when taking antibiotics (luckily the doctor forgot to inform me I cannot), but it would be a pity to attend Gary’s wedding tomorrow without being able to toast with him and his wife on their future. A bit of a nuisance, but there are worse things.

Tuesday night my wife and I arrived on Bali for a short vacation. Normally Bali is not the best destination in August, because it is high season here, but when you go to a high-end resort you don’t really see a big difference (except for higher prices of course). This weekend Gary is getting married here, and that’s the main reason why we came here. I think it’s great he took the decision to tie the knot, and this is a perfect location for it. I am actually going to be his grooms man, but I am not sure yet what that my exact obligations are for that (according to some Chinese friends I will need to drink for him, that promises to be interesting!).

We are staying at the Laguna Resort & Spa in Nusa Dua, a fantastic resort directly on the beach (part of the Luxury Collection of Starwood). Half the resort consists of swimming pools, the whole hotel complex is surrounded by them. Very nice and relaxing to spend a few days here at the pool or on the beach. The rooms are not only very big but also very luxurious: think a oval sized bath big enough for two people, an oversized bed and a huge plasma screen on the wall. Our room has pool/beach view, but we hardly spend any time in the room or on our balcony. This resort is certainly in the top-5 of best hotels that I have stayed in so far (along with the Ritz-Carlton in Singapore and the Westin resort in Macau – the Grand Hyatt Shanghai does not make it to this list, because its rooms are way too small).

But still a few things can be improved, and this is something I started to pay a lot of attention to because one day I may set up (or otherwise invest in) my own luxury hotel. This hotel should avoid the problems that even high-end resorts have, so I am becoming more and more critical. In this resort the main problems have to do with the staff. For example, upon arrival I could not connect to the internet. But the IT staff that came to my room knew less about computers than I do! I think he had never seen a MacBook before. The resort should train these guys, it is very simple. In the end I solved the problem myself (and taught the guy how to do it in the process). Later I had problems sending out emails: you need a different outgoing smtp server, but another IT staff had no clue what I was talking about. He would send someone else to the room, but this person never showed up. Similar things happened in the restaurant, staff that forget about an order for tea or coffee for example (two days in a row). I normally just get it myself then (I prefer that anyway), but they don’t allow you to do that.

Another nuisance is that you have to pay about USD 20 per day for internet. A small amount of money compared to what you pay per day for a room, and as a hotel manager I would include this in the room price (just increase the price by USD 25, I don’t think many people here would care). And you cannot pay for several days (or a week) at once, but you have to sign up every day again. That is just plain stupid. Even worse, you cannot wirelessly pay every day, but you have to go to your room to connect with a line (this has to do with a cookie they put on your laptop). Very strange, and this would l never happen when I would run a resort like this. To make matters worse, we have two laptops and two other devices that use wifi. You have to pay for each one separately to go online, meaning we would have to pay USD 80 extra per day. We asked an IT staff about this, and he would solve this for us. But this was two days ago and he never came back with a solution. To me this is clearly a management mistake, they do not train the people sufficiently. Should I complain about this? Probably, but I am on vacation, so I just blog about it. I suppose most guests take the same approach, these are all minor things and we are here to relax.

All in all the Laguna Resort is fantastic, and I would recommend it to everyone. It’s not cheap, but none of the 5-star resorts here are, but on vacation I don’t mind spending a bit more. Nusa Dua is a 25 minute ride to Kuta and Seminyak, so you’re not too far from the shops, bars and restaurants (where a Nasi Goreng is 10-15 times as cheap as here in the hotel by the way). But if you are just here to relax there is actually no real need to leave the resort. You have everything here, a quiet beach with a great surf (and a wifi connection), fantastic food, nice shops and one of the best collections of pools you can find in Asia. But if you only stay here you will miss out on the fantastic sightseeing on the Island of the Gods, which would be a pity.

Pictures of our trip can be found here. I will add more pictures over the next days.

My wife and I just got back from an excellent dinner at Venexia, an Italian restaurant on Panyu Lu (at no. 127, close to Yan’an Lu). I thought I knew most Italian restaurants in Shanghai (or at least in Puxi), but for some reason I had not been to, nor heard of, this one. And it’s a pity I did not hear about the place before, because the food and ambiance are excellent!

We talked to the manager during dinner and found out that it has the same owner as La Gondola. That used to be my favorite restaurant for an after-work pizza & wine on a Friday night when I was still a partner at China Bay, but since I moved my office to Xujiahui I hardly ever go there anymore (the 20-30 min. drive is just too much, and there are too many other good restaurants around). But I still have a weak spot for the pizza’s at La Gondola, and I am happy to know that I have a similar option now.

Venexia’s menu is a bit similar to La Gondola (appetizers, pizza, primi & secondi piatti and Chef’s specials), but the restaurant is a bit more up class. The tables and chairs are bigger, and the ambiance is a bit more of an high-end restaurant, with classical paintings on the wall, and a high ceiling with chandeliers. The service is excellent, with staff that speaks good English and knows the menu well. Prices are very reasonable, my wife and I had a 2-course dinner with 2 glasses of prosecco and water for about RMB 600. Parking is available opposite the restaurant at Prince Garden apartments (the parking fee will be paid by the restaurant).