Tokyo!

True believers,

After 17 hours of plane flight (DC to Houston, Houston to Tokyo), I have arrived into Tokyo. As I can't email all the people I'd like to let y'all know that I wasn't detained for being too tall, too goofy, or too underprepared, I thought I would blast it out this way.

Thanks again to all of you that made the last couple of weeks so amazing. Being in Houston made me homesick for a place I won't be for 2 years, being in Chi... well nothing is like summertime Chi with the boys, and being in DC was, as always, a blast. I hope you all continue to have an amazing summer! I expect many BBQs in Houston next weekend, many brats and baseball games in Chicago next weekend, and CRABS in Annapolis for those of you Washingtonians who will be participating in the traditional DC fourth of july celebration.

Just know, I will be spending my 4th pretending to be canadian, eh. Just kidding, I would never do that. Shil, why do you hate america?

-M

Nicolas checking in...

His name is in the blog title.

***********************************************

Bonjour people,

So it's my last night in Cote D'Ivoire, figured it's about time to get back in touch with the real world. FYI, for the future, I'll be posting to my friend Max's blog http://7weekswithnico.blogspot.com/ 
No, I didn't come up with the name or concept, but as with the rest of my life, I'm rolling with it

Speaking of which, what would you lovely friends of mine predict the first first few days of my vacation to start like? Simple, well organized, and hassle free? Smooth, well tempered and official? Of course not!
First off, my traveling consisted of a record breaking 43 hours of plane flights and airport layovers (SFO-->Tokyo-->Bangkok--->Dubai--->Cote D'Ivoire). Certainly not the worlds most direct route to Africa. Should I have worked with a travel agents to smooth it out? probly, but this trip did have the benefit of saving me a few thousand dollars in the airfare compared to anything else I could put together. 
I met my parents in the Bangkok airport and we took the last two legs to Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire together. The real fun starts when we land in Abidjan. As we exit the airplane, we are immediately met by a local who has been sent to pick us up and guide us through customs (We are in the country for a family friend's wedding, the groom[Anthony] and my father used to work together). Our guide is soon joined by a beefy looking Gendarme, who is childhood friends with Anthony, and is immensely pleased to meet us. This is a little intimidating as this guy is packing some major weaponry on his military uniform, and turns out to be the head of airport security, a position you do not mess with in a country still recovering from a trully horrific civil war. Mr Gendarme guy soon becomes our best friend. Since he has some swing at the airport, he asks for our passports and visa so that he can rush us through customs. This stuns my parents and I. Visas? What does he mean Visas, you don't need a Visa to get into Cote D'Ivoire. My dad's been traveling back and forth to this country for 7 years and has never gotten one.... Turns out, in all of the wedding plannings, people everyone forgot to mention to us that as of 2 months ago, American citizens need a Visa to enter Cote D'Ivoire. Doh.

If you havn't traveled out of the US much, let me clarify the dear, unfortunate, implications of whole lack of Visa thing. Normally you get a Visa before ever getting on the plane. This can range anywhere from a 1 day process to a 2 month ordeal depending on the country(ies) your are visiting. This is a worthwhile haste because if you somehow arrive in a country without a visa, standard practice is to spin you around, march you right back onto the plane you just disembarked from, and send you right back home. Some countries will spare you this haste, and allow you to buy a visa at the airport itself for the unfortunate passenger in our situation. Cote D'Ivoire is NOT one of those counties.....
All of this flashed through my family's thoughts, and is mirrored in the thoughts of Mr. Gendarme in about 0.5 seconds. This is when things get cool. On come everyone's serious, game face. We are quickly ushered under a series of ropes and through the gates around the sides of the customs officials. One of the customs guys yells at us as we are doing this, and Mr Gendarme brushes him off with a quick "we'll be right back with their bags". Then we get led outside, handed back out passports and bags, and told to have a nice trip. Yep, a military escort through the airport, into a country, without visa, all of which took about 15min from us stepping off the plane to us getting into the car for the actual start of our vacation. Man I love my life sometimes. 

So i'm tired of typing. The rest of the week in nonsensical train of thought typing:
Getting stopped by a random Gendarme, getting shit for 30 min for no reason, finally told he'd leave us alone if we gave him some coffee money (Bribe total = $5USD). 
Blue Zebra Stripe policeman. This guy ran on the side of our wedding motorcade, and would jump and sit on the window of a random car between intersections. Every light he'd hold out a finger and all traffic would stop. As in, smoke coming out off the wheels of the taxis as they STOP. Almost comical, couldn't figure it out, guy looked like a rent a cop with the weirdest outfit. Turns out, he was a member of the BAE ("Brigarde Ante Emeut", AKA, the riot police). This country's version of a SWAT member, the scariest police type of a country of scary military people.
Dancing. Lots of it, specially at the weeding. Old Cote D'Ivoiring man dancing the moonwalk and then giving my brother and I his condolences for the recent death of Michael Jackson. 
Only white people at the 600 person all day African wedding. Awesome.

Off to Bangkok tomorrow. Will start posting to that blog.

Cheers folks,
-Nico

Packed

Just tying up odds and ends now (trying to finish the second HBS mandatory tutorial).  Pretty much everything is in order...

Thought y'all might want to see what I'm taking.  This is it - Including a neck pillow and fleece blanket I will discard after arriving in Bangkok to make space for anything I buy along the way.

In order to illustrate scale, I've included a picture of my normal carrying for a week of work at BCG.  Mind you, that green bag is about 3/4 full when you take out the travel blanket / pillow.  Makes me wonder what I was lugging around all that time on the job.

T-Minus 5 days

Many of you made me promise to start a new travel blog. Because I hate to disappoint, I have created, ASIA! the blog...
------------------------------------------------

Welcome back adventurers. In 5 days I depart for the opposite side of the world. With only a single backpack containing three sets of clothing, I will venture off to an area of the world largely unexplored by humans. Well... maybe that's not entirely true. But, I will be off to a part of the world largely unexplored by me.

I am all set to go, and just in the midst of packing. For 7 weeks I will be traveling through Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia with Nico Grundmann - a good friend from childhood currently studying Medicine at Stanford Medical School. Despite his pedigree and seemingly noble intentions, those of you who don't know Nico should learn that Nico is normally referred to as "Evil Max." Hopefully, after 7 weeks of our style of debauchery there will still be a Southeast Asia for the rest of you to visit at some point... if not, you always can look back at this blog, right?

With all that said, I want to prepare you. This is not Germany. Unlike my time in Europe, I am traveling without a computer, to places without electricity, and trying to spend a ridiculously small amount of money (for you BCGers, I will not be staying at Starwood properties... I know, whoa). I do not expect to update this blog more than a couple times a week. But hopefully, when I do update it, I can post some pictures and let you know of past events.

I hope all of your summers are beginning well and that you enjoy the warm weather and a couple of beers for me while I am gone. God knows I will do the same for you, and more, in ASIA!


-Maxwell, Max, Maxyboy, Wallstreet, Gumby, or whatever you call me.