The Wade Family: Ryan's trip around the world!

Well, my trip to Asia was very interesting and busy.. The calm before the storm started when we arrived at the lake on July 3^rd and I was able to enjoy and beautiful 4^th of July week with the family. The weather was gorgeous and the company was fantastic. (I think we’re going to have a “low key” 4^th next year and just party boat the lake and watch everyone else burn their money up). I left on the 10^th of July and was gone until the 20^th of July. My trip started from Seattle to Taiwan, then to Hong Kong, Shanghai, and finished in India. It was a world wind tour. It was my first time in Taiwan and the weather was hot and rainy. As I was there I started to notice 7 – 11’s everywhere. It reminded me of Starbucks in Seattle as every street corner was covered with these things. Come to find out that there are over 3 thousand 7 – 11’s throughout Taiwan and it’s really not that big of a geographic area. It was then onto Hong Kong. I was happy to arrive because I had been there several times and it almost felt like home just because it was familiar. The highlight of my stay in HK was visiting my boss’s boss’ house and having dinner with his family. He lives in a high rise building that overlooks the Hong Kong Harbor and the rest of the hi-rise buildings. I had a wonderful time with his family (his wife, and 4 children – 3 boys and 1 girl). On Friday I had to take a day trip to Shanghai (2 hour flight); left early Friday morning and got back late Friday night. It was a long day and I was very glad to be back in HK for the weekend. I got to hang out with my quality engineer that is also from California that just happened to be there during my trip. I got another custom suit made during my stay in HK which was a great perk. Sunday afternoon I flew to India (8 hours). The hotel was beautiful brand new 5 star that was placed right in the middle of a very dense and not so clean place. The day started on Monday and traffic was nothing I had ever seen before. People everywhere, cars, tractors, motorcycles (thousands) and even cows laying in the middle of the highway.. It was organized chaos.. The food was wonderful (curry) and the company was great. People in India are very helpful and friendly and are willing to do anything for each other. I visited one of the managers’ homes during my trip and I hadn’t even met him until this trip. He opened up his home and family and they were very generous. The sales person that I was traveling with (Reddy) was very generous too.. Funny story – The last day during my stay in India I wanted to find a gift for Ainsley for her Birthday and found the perfect thing (Barbie –Ken from India!). Reddy insisted to also buy her a gift and wouldn’t let me leave the store until he also bought her a Barbie doll. My trip ended in India as I flew out of India headed for Germany at 2:30AM Wednesday morning. 9.5 hour leg to Germany and then from Germany to Seattle another 10 hours. Being in the air for almost 20 hours straight was rough. I can officially say I went around the world in over 10 days. I can also say I will never do that again!!