David's AW News: Crazy Journey!

Greetings from Yiwu, China

Hope you had a Happy May Day Weekend.. hope you were both busy and enjoying the weather!

Wow! I just landed after a crazy journey from Goa to Yiwu.  Feeling a little battered.. not sure why.

It's crazy that the two most populous nations on earth, who are also neighbours, have zero direct flights. And to make it worse, there are hardly any convenient connecting flights.

So on Tuesday afternoon I took a taxi to Goa Dabolim airport with Mr Chatterjee, he took a flight to Kolcatta me to Bengaluru (Bangalore) - we said our goodbyes - Mr Chatterjee, emotional as usual. I stayed overnight at a local hotel and the next morning caught a flight to Kuala Lumpur.  It's the first time I have flown from Bangalore's newish International terminal, I was very impressed. The city is known as the Garden City, and the terminal is an extraordinary garden with a huge hanging flower bed and what seems like a river running through.

Gardeners have to work in the sky.

In Kuala Lumpur I had an 8 hour connection for my China Southern flight to Guangzhou, 2 hour connection to Yiwu. Actually this 2 hour connect was not stressful because the transfer terminal was completely empty, only me. Something very strange in China. I arrived in Yiwu on Thursday at 10am and Coco was waiting for me with the grandchildren and Tuan-Tuan, a new family addition, a pet dog.

Tomas is already here.. He left on a flight from Budapest at the same time I departed Goa and somehow arrived one day before me.

More Hard Core.

Last week I was telling you about our Hard Core India experiences - if you missed it you can catch up here.

Before we left Delhi we made a trip to Paharganj, the backpacker, trader area and all round chaos zone. Lots of gift traders venture here to do their first India export trade, but this really is a buyer beware zone, we (or I) made a few mistakes here. Yes, for sure you can do business here, but in these days of massive compliance and standards - be very careful. I'm planning to make a YouTube video explaining all the things that can go wrong and how to avoid them. Join the channel here if you want to know the trade secrets.

Mad Honey part 2

Toni and I had finally finished the Nepal - India leg, a lot of hard work (hard work and non-stop) so I figured it was time to relax a little, we took the Mad Honey we had acquired in Kathmandu to our regular beach shack.. and tried it out. It was light hearted fun.. spoiler alert nothing discernible happened, but we made a fun YouTube short anyway.

Part two here. 

So I just arrived last night in China..

Tomas, Coco and I went to the main market to catch up with a few suppliers.

It was really interesting.. I'm making a YouTube video about it.. Trump tariffs are upending the market. But maybe Trump is underestimating how much the China suppliers depend on American trade, it's a big world and lots of other markets are growing rapidly.

Tomas and Coco - ready for action.

On our first day - I can tell you we already found some super interesting products, at prices hard to believe, so I think we will be bringing you next level goods soon..

Full report next week.

Meanwhile, back in the warehouse..

Lots and lots of new stock pouring into our warehouse. May is going to be awesome.. stick around for some major retail opportunities.

Anyway.. so busy here - no Bank Holiday weekend for us.. too much to do.

Enjoy your week!!

Take care.. more news next week.

David