Tuesday May 23, 2006
My first trip to Asia begins in Hong Kong... and I must admit that flying into Hong Kong is quite a shock when you see the endless buildings and the beautiful harbour!
Jerry - my new supervisor - picked me up and took me to the hotel. I am exhausted to say the least - from the 25 hours of flying - but so excited to venture out and experience life and business in Asia!
Saturday May 27, 2006
Woke up at 7am feeling under the weather, so I slept a little longer... until noon! Stomach aches are tempting me to eat most meals in my hotel room and then slowly ease into the local food. So I went across the street to the market (aka Superstore) and bought cereal and fruit for breakfast. Shortly after I headed to Hong Kong Island to check out one of the major tourist districts - Causeway Bay - where you can find unlimited shopping and terrific food.
I went to the Times Square area of Causeway where it feels just like a narrow streeted New York City. It's bustling with locals and tourists and more storefronts and malls than you can ever imagine. Actually, Hong Kong and the surrounding areas all have endless shopping. Nearly every subway (MTR) stop has a mall directly above, and the subway makes a stop every 2 minutes or so throughout the city. Most locals go shopping every day after work, so you can find anything you want anywhere you go, almost any time you go. I don't know how they do it.
I walked through the Times Square building where there are 10 floors and tons of shops. The floor arrangement of malls in Hong Kong is so convenient: each level has a different focus - outerwear, kids, electronics, jewelry, fashion, skin care and cosmetics, etc. Fun stuff to see. At the sub-ground (0) level of Times Square, there is a huge and AWESOME market! Flowers, baked goods, tea, fresh food stands with hot and cold stuff, ice cream, locals from Thailand/India/other surrounding Asian countries cooking for you, and then of course the rest of the typical market. It's amazing and smells like heaven, especially the ice cream (Chad, you'll never believe when I say move over Coldstone!).
By the time I got to the top floor I felt queasy so sat in a massage chair for nearly 30 minutes, heh, and then headed back to the hotel.
Sunday May 28, 2006
Woke up this morning and looked out my window to a sky full of clouds and rain, can hardly see 3 blocks away and the mountains are hidden by fog. Still the streets below are busy and I'm looking forward to a day with Jerry and his family. I felt sick again this morning; Jerry has been concerned and when he called this morning to check on me, he asked to take me to the doctor. So, a quick trip to the doc, was given something for my stomach and then headed out for the afternoon.
Jerry and Elsa took me and the kids to Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple: a popular temple where China's three main religions - Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism are practiced. Very neat temple. Several locals were praying in a common area with incense burning and smoke in the air. I learned that people visit to bring offerings for the Gods - usually meat - or to make wishes. To make a wish, you kneel while shaking a can full of wish sticks, make your wish, and wait for one stick to fall out. That one stick will tell you about the fate of your wish.
After the temple, we visited a 500 year old village originally full of members from one family name and where some family descendants still live among other families. We made a final visit to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum where we I learned more about Chinese history, art and land development.
The rest of the day we spent in Kowloon, another major shopping area and visitor attraction area. They took me to Harbor City Mall where we ate at California Pizza Kitchen overlooking the Clock Tower and Hong Kong Harbor, waiting for 8pm to come. At 8pm every night, Hong Kong Island hosts a "Symphony of Lights" best viewable from the Kowloon Public Harbor. It's a 15 minute laser/light show taking place across many of the huge buildings in the Hong Kong skyline. Probably something every visitor should see once.
Wednesday May 30, 2006
Elsa, Tiffany and Yemmen (Jerry's wonderful niece) took me on the subway today to Mong Kok where we visited "Ladies Street" (famous for "Fucci" and "Folex" knock offs). It was packed with locals and I had to take extra care of my wallet. The girls had me walk ahead so I could stop at each spot of interest while they held my bags. They were so wonderful teaching me the language and helping me talk with locals.. they wouldn't let me carry anything other than my wallet! They are so sweet!
The weather was insane - hot and more humid than Houston (which is really bad!) - mainly due to all the rain. We walked to the Yacht Club for tea time and shared neat sampler plates and fried rice. The fried rice in China is so good; it has shrimp and is more like a meal than a side! Then we walked upstairs to the club bowling lanes where 4 of us competed in a couple rounds. This is where I learned "mo fan se" (kinda what it sounds like in English), which means no dinner for you... loser ("su") gets no dinner and winner ("yang") doesn't have to pay, haha.
...afterwards was more shopping and then to a Thai restaurant for dinner where we listened to a Thai girl sing in Mandarin. By the way, the people in Asia love karaoke!
Thursday June 1, 2006
After work today, I walked down to the market to stock my fridge. It smells funny here, but it's so neat because as you walk in you are immediately introduced to the fruits section. There is an entire section dedicated to fruit since there is so much of it! And there are all kinds of funky varieties including one fruit - Durian - that smells like a sewer but supposedly tastes wonderful! They also have several tanks of live fish to chose from and a wide variety of other fish and meat.
I found my new favorite cereal called Biz Omega, it's awesome! They have many of the normal cereals - honey nut cheerios, cocoa pebbles, oh's, oatmeal.. Odd thing is that the milk is a bit sour, but I'm adjusting.
Afterwards, dropped off the food and then headed to Thai for dinner. I love Thai food and there is tons of it in Hong Kong, along with all kinds of others cuisine. A nice man invited me to sit at his table with a few others, so I met two locals (who own a box business for nice things like ties, watches, jewelry) and a man (Director of a couple of businesses in Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates). I learned more about some of the hiking in the surrounding areas, and that if I choose to go to nearby Monkey Mountain ("san"), I should avoid carrying food with me to avoid monkey attacks!
Note: I'm finding that nearly everyone in this region is slender however most food seems to be fried or cooked in loads of oil and they load up on carbs: noodles or rice plus the main course for every meal. But they don't snack and they walk a lot... we need to walk more in the States.
Friday June 2, 2006
Today is the rainiest and most thunder-filled day I've seen. I've never heard such insane thunder. It's another day of thick clouds and soggy roads, but neat to see and hear.
I've had issues accessing the network at the office since my arrival last week, so have not made the progress I wanted to make by this time, but I will get there. I'm really enjoying the people I work with. Everyone seems to be making every effort to help me feel comfortable, introduce me to others, teach me the language, walk me to lunch and share thoughts on what to do outside of the office. They are wonderful.
They collected a handful of maps and guides to drop at my desk today, and several of them arranged a dinner in the "nightlife" area of town tonight. Stephen, John, Philip, Caron, David and I went to a cool little Thai/Polynesian restaurant and ordered so much food! By the time we finished it was 11pm and everyone was full so we called it a night.
Saturday June 3, 2006
Slept in today and had a relaxing morning. Since I've had little email access at work the past couple of weeks, I worked on cleaning up my inbox and then I hit the health club for an hour. Later on, I walked around a bit then met a friend who took me to dinner in Mong Kok at a great little tapas restaurant. One interesting thing I learned during dinner is that every Hong Kong citizen has a $10,000(HK) fund for learning. You can take just about any class from yoga, to finance, to fashion / design!
After dinner we walked around the shops. The area was still packed at 11:30pm when we started back for the MTR subway station. Shopping is life here.
Sunday June 4, 2006
Unfortunately, it's been raining and overcast almost every day, so I haven't gotten to do as much site seeing as I would have liked.. but I'm glad because it's given me the opportunity to learn more about the city, the locals and their habits.
Some of the things I've learned: everyone is in a hurry. There is no such thing as personal space or privacy. Be precise including numbers, people and time, or they'll be precise for you: they are great coordinators and planners. They also have great genes: carbs and fat are all they eat, yet their bodies are so slender! Go to a restaurant for great food and poor service, go to a retail store for annoyingly great service and no space. Don't always trust what you eat: I had bird saliva the other night, haha, honest. But try some of everything, the food is wonderful. Locals believe in what they eat, no vitamins needed... so why not cook everything? For the common cold, heat some Coke on the stove, add a bit of ginger and lemon, and voile! Politeness is out the window: get on the elevator as soon as it opens or you'll be pressing the button a second time for the next lift. Open the door for others and you'll be holding it for a while. Bargain, they expect it. I see emotion, but is there empathy? They sure are tough folks. If you hear two people "yelling" don't assume it's a bad thing; they just like to talk loud with lots of emphasis. And, if you're a lady thinking you mistakenly stepped in to the men's bathroom, you probably didn't... most ladies hover over lifted seats.
And finally, wear a hat if you're blonde and fair skinned, unless you want people to look at you funny or shake your hand. Heh. Oh, and umbrellas must be a fad because everyone carries one.
Friday June 9, 2006
Today was crazy. It rained and rained like there was no tomorrow. Hong Kong has a weather rating system for typhoon season to evaluate the severity of the conditions: green - no worries, amber, red, and black - no work. Today was black. Yet we were already in the office, which meant no one was permitted to leave until conditions cleared. We had a network outage but worked through the day. The lightening and thunder were intense; sounded like huge cargo ships crashing into one another in the harbor across from my window. It was really awesome.
I took the bus home at 6pm like I do most days. The bus schedule is training me to have a positive work-life balance and improving my punctuality. After work yesterday, Di Di and I took the bus and then hopped on the train to Prince Edward Station for dinner. We went to a great buffet style Thai restaurant, which gave us the opportunity to try everything. We rolled out of the restaurant a couple hours later and both wanted to fall asleep. Haha, wonderful.
Another quick note.. I learn so much from Di Di! Did you know that the cost of land is so high that almost no-one owns a car, the majority of basketball/tennis/swimming facilities are on top of the buildings, most people are cremated to avoid grave costs, when a husband and wife end marriage and kids are involved, the kids often move in with the grandparents so the parents can work... so much to learn.
Monday June 12, 2006
Tomorrow morning I'm back to the States for a few weeks... Asia Part II on it's way...
Hong Kong Hotels
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