Disclaimer: I’m quite drunk
In fact, I’ve been drunk for most of my week here in Malaysia. One of my key learnings during this training week in Penang is this: white people love to drink. And I was hanging out with a lot of white people this week.
Summary of Malaysia trip: I and three other coworkers from Shanghai came a couple of days early so that we could soak up the sights and sounds of the country. On Sunday, the four of us went to Langkawi, a beautiful resort island, for about 30 hours of tourism. Indeed, the island is adorned with beautiful beaches, and adding the fact that Malaysian food is some of the best in the world, a good time was had by all. Except for those moments on the road when I was driving. If there are indeed seven levels of hell, one of them must be when one gets stuck in a car with three catty Chinese girls.
The result of being the only guy amongst three Chinese ladies
After Langkawi, it was back to Penang for one week of training for all senior finance analysts in the Asia-Pacific region. There’s something about being stuck in a hotel all day and all night, being served incredibly starchy and fried foods every couple of hours, and then drinking beer after beer at the hotel bar in the name of “networking” with senior leaders in the company, that adds quite a few kg to the belly. Even now, typing this in a stream of consciousness way, I cannot help but notice this huge bulge above my boxers. White people can drink! In fact, that’s all they appear to want to do when they’re not working.
All in all, a very productive week, and now I return to Shanghai, where Keith is back in town and no doubt the beer will free-flow again. I will now proceed to look like I’m 4 months pregnant.
