Sunday, May 01, 2005
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One sad thing is that here in Beijing I can’t find any Windows Mobile smartphone. Nokia and Samsung are everywhere ;-(
I got a China mobile SIM card and unfortunately I see some ‘••••••’ on the home page of my phone. I also received some SMS messages from Chinese government to say that I should not go to the protests in Tiananmen square next week. But I couldn’t read them because I have English OS installed on my phone.
It is really interesting to see that SMS is an official method of government propaganda.
OK, Off to Tiananmen square. Maybe you can see me on TV. I will be guy directing the tanks to line up so I can fit them in my picture frame. ;-)
This months issue of The Economist has a special report on crud oil prices. I have been reading it veraciously in the past few hours in the plane to Tokyo.
Back in 1998 crude oil prices declined to near all time low of $10 per barrel. Since then the crude price has gone up steadily and in 2005 it has been sustained at $40+ level. IDC released a report just recently saying that this summer or in the near future it could easily reach $100 per barrel.
I believe oil price will have a profound impact on the global economy. I have tried to learn more about this subject and I will try to summarize my learning into an article soon.
The Oil and Gas index is the best performing index funds this year. I bought some about a month ago near its 52 weeks high. It is somewhat risky but I am pretty confident that we have not yet seen the worst of high oil prices. Any disruption in the oil supply from Iraq or Saudi Arabia will likely be followed by a sharp increase in the oil price. Since the oil production is already at its highest level it can’t absorb any anomaly in either production or consumption. I am still not sure how long I want to hold on to this index fund; I am thinking at least until end of summer.
Wow. What a fantastic way to stat my vacation. After 11 hours on flight I got to Narita Airport. I was walking around exploring the airport and amazingly enough I ran across a small sign saying “Showers 30min --> $5”
I gotta try this; It will be just like the capsule hotel that I went to in 2002 in Tokyo.
.... 20 min later….
Ohhh. It was amazing. Aaaaah so nice and relaxing. Here is how the shower looked like. Towel, shampoo was provided for fee. And even a super clean freek like me everthing was so clean that I felt completely relaxed.
This alone is enough of motivation for me to always fly though Tokyo to go to India.
This morning before I left Seattle I stopped by Costco to buy a 1GB memory card and at Borders to buy a travel book for Shanghai and Hong Kong. I got to the airport with an hour to spare. That is unusuall for me as I have missed plenty of flights in the past; I guess I have learned my lesson.
I am going to be in flights and airport for the next 2 days. So I might as well stop counting hours.