This is where the answer lies on why Astrid is my favorite character. 
 What an insane trilogy! I breezed throught it for a week since I cannot even reconize the brand names but quite mesmerized with the places, especially the places mentioned were in the SEA, and for a fact that Asians are that. Filty. Rich! A quite dizzying story, a magnificent representation of modern, powerful asia and alluring description of wonderful places that makes me want to go there, this so worth my 4-hour bus ride.