Ok, so even the Dragon doesn't always breathe fire. After a week of five speaking events from Taipei to Manila, from the Rotary Club to the AmCham, the Dragon's roar went faint and dropped to a whisper.
I think it had something to do with the vocal cords and lungs encountering air pollution in outdoor heat and humidity coupled with blasts of chilly air conditioning inside -- two curses of traveling in emerging markets.
Several steaming cups of tea and plenty of water helped to bring about a cure though. And just in time, because the Dragon goes on again on Monday -- this time in Hong Kong, at a leading science and technology university.
Let me thank the kind staff at the Mandarin Oriental in Manila where I was staying this past weekend. They are well-trained to look after business guests of all kinds, and in my case, they went beyond duty to make sure I recuperated quickly. They even set me up in a conference room with free Internet access and no AC so that I could comfortably continue writing articles for the Asian Venture Capital Journal--while my eyes watered and I suffered from laryngitis. Well, onward!
This photo, by the way, was taken during a drippy trip from the Manila airport to the city's crazed central business district called Makati. It may be filled with skyscrapers but the street life is something else!
