The Asia Trip

Flew Overnight 18 hours from Newark to Singapore, on Singapore Airlines....my flight was all Business Class, completely lay flat beds.

Pictures from the Ukraine

So now a few picks from my October trip to Ukraine:

Tried to get a picture of the Soviet signature that was still seen on the top of the building where we landed in Kharkov....this was actually the Kharkov Airport....

Next are my 2 buddies in front of the airport - Rino (left) and Ralf....the two that are running the implementation for the Confections Business in EU and CEEMA.

This was after all the crazy driving over some of the bumpiest roads I have been on when we were heading home. Two lanes with lots of passing. Thank goodness we didn't land in Kiev as planned it would have been 4 or 5 hours of that headache (literally) but from Kharkov we were only about 1 to 1.5 hours from the plant.

Not sure if it is visible but there was a ton of Mistletoe in the trees. The round blobs in the treats. These are even good pictures.....I couldn't believe all the mistletoe.

Other colleagues from Ukraine:

This is Olga she is from Kiev. Very interesting discussion with her about her choices after the Soviets left. Originally she told her parents that she wanted to continue in the Russian school. They had a choice to go to Ukrainian school or Russian school when the Soviets were withdrawing. Her parents were fine and let her go. What is interesting is how clear her next decision was and still is to her. At age 13 she decided she wanted to go to Ukrainian school. The interesting thing is how Olga described the change in her thoughts.....it was clearly completely of her own accord, based completely on her evaluation of what she had learned about the Soviet Occupation. At age 13 she decided that what they had done was wrong and wanted to change completely over to all things Ukrainian. She was Ukrainian and very proud of it.

Katerina on the other hand was really too young to remember anything about life with the Soviet Occupation. She is so sweet. She had 2 or three cell phones with her and they all rang sometime during the evening. I made a joke that the only way she could keep all her boyfriends straight was to have a different phone and number for them. She thought it was funny....but I think it might have been true! Then there is Andry....my comrade....I ask the question so how has it been for you since the Soviet Occupation has ended. The answer was: "it wasn't an occupation, it was my country". He was a member of the Soviet Military. We continued to talk about his life with the changes, he said he can't relate to being a Ukraine, in his mind he is Soviet and always will be. He has seen a lot of negative changes, children that don't have the close knit family ties anymore. Kids hanging out after school in groups or gangs, not doing anything productive. He sees this as fart of the downfall of his country. We talked more, it was certainly interesting to hear his perspective

This is the whole group....missed talking about Vi era, she is from packaging in Kiev, she was quiet. Then there is Imola, my travel buddy from Munich. She is the Hungarian that grew up in Romania. She and Andry had a very interesting discussion the prior night, but I missed it. I went to bed early.

The food in this hotel was AWESOME.....the theme of the hotel was around Kazakhstan. I loved the flavors of the food. It was very yummy. I also had Borscht while I was there. It was quite good. Most of their veggies are in the fermented form....pickled. I guess that is the way to have them through the long winters. But I liked them too.

The hotel was on a guarded compound in Sumy....but outside my side of the hotel, there were the Ukrainian version of the McMansions going up!!

I am only sorry I didn't get any good pictures of the typical homes. The economy is not good here. There are a lot of people living in unacceptable apartment buildings. Some of the buildings are abandoned....but I can't tell the difference between the empty ones and the occupied buildings.

Missing in Action!!! Next was THE UKRAINE

Sorry all who follow my blog....I have been missing in action.

My next trip after Lithuania was Ukraine in October, wanted to get in and out before winter. Obviously a smart move given this Natural Gas Embargo from Russia. Can I just say WOW...that was some trip into the past! The lack of everything is just unbelievable. I have pictures I want to post, but haven't done it yet.

The Roads: Insane!! Rough, unmarked, no speed limits....flew into Austria then to Kharkov and had a car from Kharkov to Trostyonets (where our confections plant is). The mix of past and current is a bit crazy too. I saw a man leading his cow talking on a cell phone. The trucks are Soviet Union Era. There still are horse and carts on the road. The roads were so bumpy that I my brains were a bit sloshy when we got to our destination.

The homes: Our hotel was very nice, very new and on a guarded compound. Not for our physical safety but to keep our 'stuff' safe. Our rooms were very big and empty!! Had a desk, a nice bed and a TV....and a lot of empty space....the rooms were bigger than typical western high end hotels. But out my side of the hotel I saw huge McMansions being built....very much like what we have in the states but not stone or brick....plaster/smooth stucco. But everywhere else the homes were small and in decay and behind gated walls along the highway. There was an attempt to keep them painted in very bright colors, blues, greens, yellows. Or they were high rise apartment building again in horrible decay. Saw a woman moving her heard of goats along the road and all the women that live in the country wear what you would expect as typical ....babushka on the head, longer skirt, sensible shoes, over sized cardigan sweaters and aprons. In many ways it was a very cool trip to go to the past.

My colleagues: well, the down side was when I got to the meeting to do my presentation, the IS folks made all kinds of changes on my computer but still couldn't get me on the Kraft Intranet.....but then just left....didn't put anything back and my computer was hosed for days. When i got back to Munich the site IT helped a lot to get me back on the network. But it took someone from India to take over my computer over the Internet and work to reload and make changes to allow me to use my iPass again...so I could log on from off-site. The huge upside, was getting to meet all the great folks....I will post pictures later with some information about each of them.

The food: AWESOME....we were in a hotel that was modeled after Kazakhstan....I will tell you, I love Kazakhstan food. The spices and flavoring was just terrific. I did have Borscht and they pickle just about all their vegetables. It was all very good. My Hungarian friend, Imola, loves her Vodka. Every trip we need to sip on an icy shot of vodka. I just need to say I am not a fan of vodka. She usually gets to finish my too!! She knows her vodka too. Her grandfather used to make his own, but from fruit (plums?) instead of potatoes.

I will post pictures soon.