Bill

Well, technically, I have been back since Saturday but today is the first chance I have had to actually blog about my return to the states.

In my last week there I actually started to build relationships with some of the other people who work at the Hong Kong office so on Wednesday a group of us went and played basketball. I am not very good at basketball though I do get a little better if I play somewhat frequently. You might think, considering I live in front of a park with a basketball court, that I would play fairly frequently but you would be wrong for thinking that. Instead I almost never play. I warned the guys that I wasn't very good but they said not to worry about it. I didn't lie - I wasn't any good - however, fortunately, most of them aren't very good at basketball either so I didn't really feel outclassed by anyone on the court. There was a large guy named Vijay who really used his size and strength to his advantage down low and really pushed me around whenever I jumped for a rebound but other than him I didn't really feel like anyone was doing anything "better" than me. We played games to 21 and the games all took over 30 minutes. It wasn't pretty. In the final game my foot got tangled up with this large Dutch guys foot and I tore my big toenail up pretty badly and sprained the top of my foot. It hurt like hell.

I figured my one advantage in basketball in Hong Kong would be the fact that I am 6' tall and most of the people there aren't. However, it seems the banks only import tall people and so along with Vijay there were some other people who were substantially taller than me in the game. The Dutch guy was easilly 4" taller than me and there is a tall Brit who was probably 6" taller than me. I actually managed to block one jump shot by the Dutch guy but beyond that my highlights were very rare.

On Thursday the tall Birtish guy, Joh, and two other guys (Barrie and Mike - another Brit) and I went out after work back to Lang Kwai Fong to have a couple beers. As the night progressed Mike and Barrie eventually went home until finally, around 2 or 3 am it was just Jon and I so we headed to Ebeneezer's Kabab stand and had a very late dinner before parting ways. Over the course of the night Jon and Mike both talked to me briefly about staying on in HK. I told them the bank wouldn't be able to pay me enough and they both laughed and told me I'd be surprised. While the bank may be able to pay enough I just don't think there would be enough incentive for me to uproot my family and move to Hong Kong. First, and foremost, Lisa already has a very good job which would be hard to replace there. Sure she could get another sales job but she always wanted to work in the Pharmaceutical industry and she probably wouldn't be able to do that in HK. Secondly, it is really hot there and Lisa would be miserable in the heat. Thirdly, Shannon is in her second year of school and is pretty much friends with everyone. While she could make new friends if we moved I would prefer if she didn't have to move around like I did growing up. If I went to Hong Kong we would undoubtedly move back from HK well before she was done with school. Furthermore, flying home to visit friends and family would be a pain - that is one long flight. And finally, I doubt the bank would be willing to buy our house at market value right now and I don't think we could afford to move unless they did.

If we were not American, but rather British or Canadian the thought of taking a Job in Hong Kong would have a bit more allure. They don't have to pay taxes in their home country will living abroad while US citizens do. Effectively these guys get a pretty nice pay raise just from moving and not paying out the 30-40% in taxes. They do have to pay apx 10% in HK tax but that is even offset some because they don't have to pay tax on any money that goes towards rent or mortgage. Considering how high rent is there I imagine that is a pretty nice savings.

Friday was my last day and I only worked about 7 hours before heading back to my hotel to finish packing and preparing for the flight home. On Saturday I woke up, checked out, and headed to the airport where I figured I would have plenty of time to get a bite to eat before I departed. I was wrong. It took a long time just to travel through the airport. Security was actually pretty fast but the airport is really large and there are a ton of places to stop and shop on your way through - it is almost like a mall in and of itself. I stopped and exchanged my Honkies for USD and then stopped in an electronics store and considered buying a playstation portable. I decided against it and instead bought some chocolate and headed for my gate. My flight departed at 12:30pm on Saturday. After a 14 hour flight I arrived in Chicago at 1:30pm on Saturday. Crazy eh? Once in Chicago I had a 5 hour layover. Fun!

In Hong Kong service in a restaurant is vastly different from that in the US. I could go into any dive in HK and get pretty darn good service. At the Chicago airport I went to Chili's for lunch and had pretty crappy, pretty typical, American service. I went to Chili's because they were showing college football on the TV. When the game ended Tennis came on. I asked the waiter if he could try to get football on the TV and he said "Talk to the bartender" so I asked him "can you just pass my request on to the bartender?" and he said "I'm busy" and walked away. Nice. At about the same time some loud drunk guy yelled out of the bar at his buddy calling him a fatass. Another quick bit of culture shock when I returned. In Hong Kong people rarely talked and nobody ever yelled. I don't mind the yelling or noise here but it definitely jumps out at you when you've been living in virtual silence for five weeks.

I finally arrived in Charleston around 8pm I think. The girls were all at the gate waiting for me and it was great to see them. We then loaded up the car and headed home. Once home I handed out all of the presents I bought the three of them and gave everyone a bunch of extra hugs before we finally headed to bed. I woke up at a pretty normal hour on Sun and had breakfast, played with the girls, watched some football, then went grocery shopping, and then came home and at about 8pm felt exhausted so I went to bed so I could wake up at 5:30am to start off my work week back in Huntington. So far this week I have been falling asleep really early every night - last night was just after 9. I have to be at work by 6am so I can overlap with some of the HK people while I work in the morning. I figure I will get used to this new schedule shortly and then stop going to bed so early (but not too late).

So that's it. I'm home. Hong Kong was fun but a lot of hard work (60+ hours every week) and I am glad I had the opportunity to go. However, I am glad to be home even though I'm still working 60 hour weeks. Hopefully that won't be taking place for too long. I put up a couple extra photos in the end of the Hong Kong Week 5 album from my trip home.

#HongKong #Travel #Photos

This past weekend I had it all planned out. I'd go to Macau on Saturday, relax by the pool at the Hotel on Sunday, get a good night sleep and then get back to work for my final week in Hong Kong. Not surprisingly none of that really worked out the way I expected. Just goes to show that I need Lisa around when I am really going to do something that requires a little prior planning.

Friday night was really the catalyst that started everything off on the wrong, but exciting foot. The main manager at the office I'm working in took the team (15 of us including him) to a dinner at a pretty nice Chinese Restaurant called "Peking Garden" where we had a nice meal that was highlighted by two full Peking Ducks. The food was good and the wait staff very efficient. A cool bonus was this guy who came out and made pasta in front of us by hand. It was neat to watch. He would split the long piece of dough in two, stretch it, fold it, cut one end off, then split the 4 pieces into 8, stretch fold, cut, repeat until the pasta, which started as thick as bread, ended up as thin as spaghetti.

After dinner we all headed to Lan Kwai Fong - party spot of Hong Kong - for drinks and socializing. I started off with the plan to just hang out then leave in about 30 minutes and head to bed. Instead I was invited to participate in a contest called CityChase. It was a promotional event for the actual CityChase that takes place on the 15th of Sept. In this event contestants are invited to complete one challenge - the winner of the challenge gets a prize. So this guy Padman, who is here for the company from London for two weeks, and I decided to participate. The challenge involved figuring out some obscure clues about Lan Kwai Fong and then finding a specific bar and finally getting someone to buy you a shot. Great - just what I didn't need an excuse to go talking to women in a bar. But, it was too late. I had accepted the challenge and there was no way I was going to let this British guy beat me. So, using my slightly more extensive experience in Lan Kwai Fong to my advantage I took off for the bar (the only Irish bar in the area). Unfortunately, when I arrived there were already other people there competing in a similar challenge. I was also clueless about figuring out how to get some strange woman (or man I suppose) to buy me a shot. I tried being straight forward with a couple people but they weren't buying. Then Padman showed up and he tried to be very direct with a couple ladies but they thought he was full of shit and just judged him as a loser. He tried again and almost succeeded with one but she finally told him to go away. It seemed neither of us were going to win. So I offered to just buy his drink so we could find out the prize. He liked the idea but we both decided that we would prefer to complete the challenge. Finally a new group of people came in. Two huge guys and two really attractive women. I moved in for the kill. I figured I'd either get the drink or one of the huge guys would kill me. I explained the situation and one of the girls in the group agreed to buy my shot. Woo woo. So I won. I got my hand stamped by the bar and moved back to the finish line to claim my prize with a dejected Padman in tow. The girl who gave us the challenge card awarded me my prize - a free entry to the official CityChase. Dammit. I am, of course, not going to be here for that so I basically just won piece of paper. However, the experience was fun so that was cool.

Padman and I then headed back to Stormies to meet up with the rest of the crew but, because we were so bad at getting someone to buy us a shot, they had all given up on us and left. So Padman and I decided to hang out. He is actually pretty cool and we had a good time just chilling. He is single though so I decided to take him somewhere he would have a chance to meet some hot single ladies so I took him to Dragon-I. While there are probably better bars (for the price) I don't know where any are so Dragon-I is the best place I could take him. There are plenty of attractive ladies hanging out since they get in and drink for free so I figured Padman would be pleased and he was. The only problem was I stayed until about 3am so I didn't get back to my room till about 3:30. This pretty much put a serious dent on my getting up early to head for Macau.

So at about 1pm I woke up and still needed to go to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) to talk to the tailor. I showered, got dressed, and loaded up for the tailor then headed downtown. Eventually I arrived at the tailors, I tried on the shirts for him, and he identified what needed to be fixed and I headed out for the Ferry station to get to Macau. I got there at about 3 and decided to try and get the 3:30 ferry but then started debating the 3:30 helicopter ride which, while much more expensive, would be a cool experience. I talked to the ferry people and suddenly realized I would need my passport which was back at the hotel. So, I ran out, down the street, up the escallator, up the road, down Robinson road and into my hotel where I grabbed my room key and headed up the elevator to my room. It was 3:30. Damn. No getting back in time for that ride. So I showered, changed clothes, and grabbed my safe deposit box key and headed back downstairs to get my passport. Finally I hailed a cab and rode back to the ferry depot. The next ferry wasn't leaving until five and neither was the next helicopter. If I took the ferry I would get there at 6pm or if i took the helicopter 5:15. I decided to take the helicopter and start my time in Macau off like a high roller even if I couldn't afford to act like one when I got there.

The Helicopter ride was cool. We flew pretty low the whole way and I got to see the area from a neat perspective. Then, when we arrived at Macau we got expedited treatment through customs as we got to go through the "Diplomatic" line. That was sweet as the line from the "ferry people" who were just arriving from the 4 o'clock ferry was pretty long. Once through customs I headed outside and hopped on the free shuttle for the new Venetian Macau.

The Macau version of the Venetian pretty much looks just like the Vegas version it's just 3 times bigger. It's huge. However, the Grand Canal Shoppes were only about 50% completed and open (if that many) and the Casino, while large, had very few games that interested me. The slot machines are all overly complicated and there were very few blackjack tables. On top of that there were few to no Roulette tables and zero craps tables. I decided to stick to blackjack. I had gotten 1000 Macau Pictas when I arrived (about $100) but the tables at the Venetian only took Hong Kong dollars so I had to go convert my money. That was weird. Finally I had the right money and headed to the $100 HKD table (the cheapest they had which is something like $13.50 US per hand. Way more than I like to play (I like to play $5 hands). While I ended up losing my money (and another $100 US) after that I managed to stay at the table until around 1am until finally both poverty and hunger demanded I head out. The Venetian was fully booked and the guys at the table told me that the ferry didn't run all night so I needed to find a place to stay. The concierge at the Venetian recommend the Wynn and sent me on my way.

After waiting about 10 minutes for a cab I headed to the Wynn (about a ten minute drive) and then tried to check in. All they had available were two suites so I took one (ouch that was expensive). It was an amazing room, here's the floorplan (pdf). Not worth the money considering I was alone and the guy in the room next to me woke me up at 7am yelling on his cell phone. But wow, the accommodations themselves were top notch. A huge living room, an expansive bedroom, a palatial bathroom, and even a private massage room. The TV, a 60+" plasma, even knew my name! It was pretty amazing. Of course I slept like shit just like I always do the first night in a new hotel. However, checkout time wasn't until noon so I took my time leaving unfortunately I had to leave by 11 because I planned on meeting someone in HK for lunch at 1pm.

After checkout I caught the shuttle bus to the ferry and bought a ferry ticket - 1st row in "first class" which was a whopping $30. First class amounted to slightly bigger seats, a smaller cabin (so less crowd noise) and a small lunch served as soon as we disembarked. I passed on the lunch because I wasn't sure how my stomach would handle the ride. It turned out to be pretty smooth sailing and we were even in an old ferry that rode low and heavy. I arrived in Hong Kong at 12:50 - plenty of time to be at lunch on time because it was scheduled at a place near the Western Market. The Western Market sits adjacent to the ferry terminal. I hurried out to the Market and then up to Queens Road Central to look for the Millenium plaza and the Gaia Restaurante. 30 minutes later I was still wandering up and down Queens Road Central between Central and Sheung Wa (west end to me). I couldn't find it. So I started to give up and left Queens road heading back to De Veoux Road where I could do a little work before heading to my room and lo and behold I saw Wing Lok street which, I thought, was supposed to intersect with Queens Road Central at, you guessed it, Millenium Plaza. So I headed up Wing Lok street and found the restaurant. My companion was nearly done eating and had, understandably, assumed I wasn't coming since it was about 30minutes past our arranged meeting time. She was very gracious and accepted my apology and invited me to join her. From there I ate lunch and we chatted for a few hours. I was very surprised at how much time passed.

The lunch was one of those things that came out of the blue. A few days previously Lisa had been in a doctors office talking to one of the Nurses about how I was here in Hong Kong. The Nurses best friend, Judith, it turns out had just moved to Hong Kong that week to take a job with a newspaper. Lisa gave the nurse my email address, the nurse passed it on to Judith, and Judith emailed me. It is funny how, in a small town like Huntington, Lisa managed to find someone for me to have lunch with. It was nice. She was very friendly and it was great having someone to eat with. After five weeks eating out at restaurants alone gets pretty old.

After meeting with Judith I headed up to my hotel, dropped off a small bag of stuff I had bought in Macau, showered and changed then headed back to TST to pick up my shirts. They all seem to fit very well now and the collars are what I wanted so I'm pretty happy. I wandered around TST for a bit afterwards looking at Jade and Gold stuff trying to find something neat for the girls but had no success. They actually have a lot of these neat little hollow gold statues of varying sizes. The gold is shiny in some places and dull, sort of a brushed look, on the rest of the statue. As it is the year of the pig there are a bunch of cute little pig statues that Shannon would get a kick out of. However, I want to find one that Emily can have too and there isn't a monkey to be found. Well, there was one, but it didn't have the same cute motif - it was more of a realistic monkey and very serious looking.

Judith gave me an idea though so sometime this week I'm going to leave work during the middle of the day for a while and head over to Kowloon to visit a jade salesman. I am doubtful the Jade is real but what he does with it sounds like a cool gift for both Shannon and Emily so I don't really care. I won't spoil the gift here until the girls have them in hand. I also have to go to Causeway Bay again and pick up Lisa's birthday present. Her birthday is this Saturday (the day I get home) and she is turning 40! Make sure you wish her a happy birthday!

#Family #HongKong #MyLife #Travel #Photos

Yes, I have been remiss this past little while in not posting an update. I apologize. However, I will try to make up for that by posting today (along with a lot of photos)and again early next week. Hopefully that will appease the angry masses who clamor for more news of my adventures in SE Asia.

While I can't really talk much about work - and you would be bored to hear about it - I can say that things seem to be going pretty well. I will be having my first delivery, if all goes well, tomorrow afternoon. Then I will have the next two weeks to finish up the second delivery before heading home and doing a major overhaul of the underlying framework. It should be interesting and should prove to keep me very, very busy.

I ended my last work week on an interesting note by heading out to a local bar called "Stormies" with a bunch of the other people who really work here. Stormies is a popular Expat bar that plays a bunch of 80's music and has decent prices on beer. We stayed there for a while and then four of the people I was with decided they wanted to head to Wan Chai to troll the bars there for more activity as Stormies was too dull for them. So in a cab we hopped (all five of us, four uncomfortably wedged in the back seat) and we headed to Wan Chai.

I had been warned about Wan Chai not only being the seat of some exciting bar/dance action but also as the home of the Hong Kong island Red Light District. Now, I have been to a few different seedy locations in my time but I wasn't fully prepared for the aggressive onslaught of the prostitutes of Hong Kong. I would guess that few of them were actually Chinese - they appeared to be more Indonesian or Filipino. Some were even very, very attractive; however the overall overbearing nature of the legions of prostitutes was really just too much. It got old very fast. However, I was the only sober one of the five of us and I had told the others, before we left, I would look out for them. Eventually, I just got too tired to wait for the last of the bunch to decide to call it a night so I hailed a cab at 3am.

It turns out over the course of the night I had actually drank quite a bit of gin so I wasn't as sober as I thought by the time I got back to the hotel. I went to bed pretty quickly and then woke up a few times before finally falling into a restful slumber at about 7am. I woke up at 11am when the hotel called and told me they wanted to deliver my laundry and again at 2pm when they called to ask when they could clean my room. Clearly the "Do Not Disturb" sign on my doorknob wasn't very effective. Finally I got out of bed, showered, and headed out for some food. I didn't really do much of note on Saturday except walk around some new parts of Hong Kong near my hotel.

Sunday was a more typical weekend day for me here. I decided to do two things. The first was to visit Stanley which is a town on the south side of the island that is sort of famous for it's market and some beaches nearby. In order to get to Stanley I headed downtown and hopped a double-decker bus and rode up on the top in the very front which proved to be a great place to sit and get some photos.

It took a while but eventually I reached Stanley and for the first time since I have been here it was very sunny - no clouds at all. Of course I don't own sunglasses and I hadn't brought sunscreen to Stanley so I had to stop off and buy both. You can't buy cheap-o knock of sunglasses where I was at - at least I couldn't find any (until later) so I ended up buying some ridiculously expensive sunglasses - I think the most I had ever paid for sunglasses before was about $15 - these were ten times that. It was stupid. The pharmacy where I bought the sunscreen was a little local thing and after I bought it the clerk gave me a free sample bottle of the same sunscreen. Why did I have to buy the bottle then? Of course I couldn't return it.

With unnecessary expenses out of the way I started to walk around Stanley and one of the first places I visited was the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. It was pretty cool and they had some amazing scale models of various ships throughout the history of Hong Kong. Another cool feature was this screen that displayed the Hong Kong harbor from way back in the early 1900's all the way to today sort of morphing gradually between different periods. I actually managed to take a few photos in the museum before someone there told me I wasn't allowed to take photos. That seems to be a pretty normal restriction around here - heck I couldn't even take a photo of a neat lobby in an office building I walked through. It is crazy.

After the museum I headed over to the market and the coast line. First I walked out on some rocky outcroppings (almost killing myself in the process thanks to some being exceptionally slippery) and then I headed down the alleys that make up the market. I was unimpressed so I worked my way back to the bus station for a ride to stop number 2 of the day - The Peak.

Before I could get to the Peak let me just remind you how rich people here are. As I was riding around on the bus I saw one Bentley drive by, 4 Ferrari's and a Lamborghini. I have now seen around 10 distinct Ferrari's, 4 Bentleys, and on Lamborghini. I think I also saw an Aston Martin but it was a little far away so I'm not sure. The Lamborghini was the first I have ever seen in person. I actually managed to get two photos of it as it drove away from me.

On the way to the Peak I again sat on the top level but someone beat me to the front seat. About halfway there the couple in the front had to go downstairs because the girl had gotten sick (motion is very exaggerated on the second floor) so I took her seat. True, there was some vomit on the floor next to it but the view was substantially better. Finally I arrived at the Peak and had a nice middle-aged Canadian woman give me some guidance when I arrived so I wouldn't waste too much time wandering around looking for the lookout points. The Peak, by the way, is the highest point on the island (I'm not sure it is the absolute highest but it is the highest point I could get to on this side of the island and still have a great view).

The view from the peak is very nice - however almost as soon as I arrived a cloud bank did as well - I had clearly left the sunny skies back in Stanley with the $150 I dropped on sunglasses that I probably won't wear again while I'm here (sensing buyers remorse? good!). I took a bunch of photos from the Peak and even a little bit of video of the clouds sweeping around me. It was cool it was just like I was walking in the clouds.

Finally I rode the tram (a cable supported box) back down the mountain to the main part of Hong Kong (but a part I hadn't been in before) and then I walked back to my hotel stopping on the way for dinner (and some more of that Death By Chocolate dessert - yum!).

Last night three of the guys I work with and I headed out across the harbor to Tsim Shai Tsui (TST) for sushi. I have had sushi just about twice before (once a long time ago in California with my friend Chuck) and the second time on a cruise with Lisa. Neither time really prepared me for the sushi joint we ate at last night. First off the sushi was far more varied and secondly it seemed expensive because of the HK pricing. In the end the four of us combined ate for just around $100 so it wasn't bad at all - but it seemed like it was as we went. I ate a lot of salmon, eel, and a little bit of shrimp. I also had some "Fatty tuna" which is supposed to be really good but I thought it was over powered by the soy sauce and wasabi.

After separating from the other three after dinner I wandered around TST for a bit and encountered yet another of the thousands of tailors in the area. This time, however, I actually ordered a custom shirt be made. I paid in advance (apx $44 US) and it is a french cuff shirt, with a pretty nice blue/white checkered pattern (I normally don't like checks as they are too busy but this one is more calm). It has a standard "italian style" collar so I can use my fancy collar stays, and a front pocket. I also had the guy install a little innovation I thought of between the top two buttons. Basically, I don't like how a non-buttoned down collar shirt flares open enough to show my t-shirt. So I had him install a little hook that should be invisible when it is in use halfway between those buttons that will control the collar flare. He will be delivering the shirt to my hotel tomorrow morning so I'm pretty anxious to see how it works out. I'll take a photo for you.

This weekend I plan on going to see the Giant Buddha which is on a small island near here and trying to visit the China Visa office to get a tourist Visa so I can go to Beijing the following weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for me because I would love to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace to name a few things. I think it is a 3 hour flight from here to there so I will end up spending a night. I really hope I can do it.

#HongKong #MyLife #Travel #Photos

So, today I walked all along the antique street in Hong Kong - Hollywood Road - but most of the shops were closed. At the end of the road I encountered a temple, the Man Mo Temple that is dedicated to two different Gods and is responsible for raising charity money for hospitals - it's like the Chinese version of the Shriners! The temple was cool though the air was thick with incense that worshipers had burned in offering. After I left there I wandered around a bit more and witnessed some other ritual on a street that involved incense and a dead pig. I'm not entirely sure what was going on but I believe it has something to do with the fact that this month is the Ghost Month. There are all sorts of little offering places setup along the buildings on the sidewalk.

After wandering around the area of Hong Kong known as Sheung Wan I took the HTR down to Causeway Bay and discovered yet more high end shopping. As it turns out I needed a couple of things so I searched for collar stays and undershirts - real fancy eh? Well, on the flight over I read all about collar stays and it turns out there are more than just your garden variety of plastic collar stays. You can get all sorts of different kinds - most of the time I would think, "Why" but fortunately the aforementioned article anticipated my question and answered - If you forget a plastic one in your collar it can melt when you iron your shirt. A metal stay is a better choice - they won't bend or melt! So, I bought some fancy gold collar stays. Gold you say? Yes - Gold. A bit frivolous for sure but they were only about $60US and now I should never have to worry about ruining a $60 shirt by melting a collar stay in one. Seems like a decent investment when I look at it that way. Of course, my co-workers will give me shit over it but oh well.

I actually had a really hard time finding t-shirts that were white and my size. There were plenty of black ones - but I really didn't want a black undershirt. Finally I found a place called Marks and Spencer that had plain old normal white crew neck undershirts so I bought a pair. They were far more reasonable at just under $20 for the pair. Then I headed back to the central area to have dinner.

I took a different set of trains on the MTR than I normally would because I accidentally got off at the Admiralty stop (one before Central) and it actually worked out well because I was able to go straight up to the Central building instead of IFC mall which is actually out of my way. However, once I got there it was a bit too early for dinner really so I walked around and then stopped in Lan Kwai Fang at a British pub called Bulldogs where I watched Liverpool play some soccer and I had a 2-1 Guinness draft. Afterwards I was debating on where to go to dinner - a Scandinavian place called F.I.N.D.S. or an Australian joint called Wagyu which is actually named after the type of steak it specializes in [[Wagyu]]. Wagyu is basically Australian Kobe Beef. Now, I have never had Kobe beef so Wagyu won out even though it was expensive - $480HKD for an 8 oz filet (the exchange rate is about 7.75HKD-1USD). It turns out it was worth every penny. Not only was the steak ridiculously tender and flavorful - it basically just melted under the knife as I cut it - but it was just the right size. After I ate dinner I decided to further indulge myself and have dessert via "Death By Chocolate" which, while it didn't kill me did let me visit heaven just briefly. This was, by far, the best chocolate dessert I have ever had. "Death By Chocolate" is composed of a layer of thick and rich chocolate mousse on top of which rested the absolute best Chocolate Ice Cream I have ever had, and then heavy rich chocolate brownie chunks and strawberries. It was really exceptional; however it was so rich I couldn't finish it all - so I ended up leaving just a touch of the Mousse behind. All in all, after tip, I had finished the most expensive dinner I have ever had (just around $100). It was fabulous. This whole pretending to be rich thing was fun!

Because I had over indulged at dinner I walked back up the stairs (instead of using the escalator) to get back to my hotel. The dinner was so good I had a smile on my face the entire walk up the hill, a hill which probably involved 300 stairs to ascend.

As this is the first day of week 2 I am starting a new web album for photos. I'm starting with 16 from what I saw today ranging from the temple, to the pig ritual thing, to some interesting parts of a market. Enjoy!

#HongKong #MyLife #Travel #Photos

I woke up late today - after going out and partying in Lan Kwai Fong (a big expat bar area) - and decided I was going to try to go to some different parts of Hong Kong. Once I was out I really didn't know where to go so I rode the escalator down and wandered to the ferry port and took the ferry over to the Kowloon side - specifically to Tsim Sha Tsui which basically just seemed like another big name brand shopping place. The area was dominated by Gucci, Louis Vitton, and Prada type stores. The Louis Vitton store facade was pretty cool - it looked like a giant suitcase. After wandering around through the stores and mall I found myself in a subway - which is just a big tunnel to walk through - which led me to the Hong Kong Theater and the Hong Kong Space museum.

There was some kind of event going on in the theater so there was a stage setup with different people signing. The singing was in Chinese so while I couldn't understand it it was still pretty cool. At first there were four guy singing in tuxedos. They were like the four tenors but the song didn't sound that serious and one of the four guys had a pretty animated face so you could tell he was having fun singing it. After they finished a single lady took the stage and she sang some really powerful sounding song and she had a very strong soprano voice. It was pretty cool. After listening to her I wandered outside and saw a small wedding party getting their photos taken. The guys tuxedo was a golden kind of color and was pretty neat - it had a very old French look to it. The walkway outside the theater ended up merging into a "Hollywood Walk of Fame" type of place but Hong Kong style. I saw the stars for Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan amongst others then I encountered this big bronze statue of Bruce Lee that was really cool.

I ended up walking a long way down the waterfront before crossing a big street and then wandering around some more before I decided to try and take the subway train (MTR) back under the water to the Island. Once back on the Island I decided to go to the Wan Chai area. I was told there is a red light district there and a bunch of restaurants - but I didn't really see either. it was a very busy area though and it reminded me of different neighborhoods in NY while the area I am in for work reminds me of Manhattan. After wandering around Wan Chai I took the train back to the central area (where I work) and then took the escalator back up to my hotel. I probably walked about 10 miles today and I took just around 160 photos! I put up about 25 on in the photo album

#HongKong #Geekiness

Yesterday was a rough day for me in Hong Kong. To start with I woke up very tired. I think the prior 15.1 hour work day may have taken it's toll on me. However, I got up and did my normal morning routine and, if I do say so myself, was looking really good in this new shirt we bought in NY, and then headed out. It was my first day where I was going to get to the office after 8 - I got here at about 8:10 but I was the third person here. At about 9:30 I was feeling pretty hungry so I headed across the street to Starbucks to buy a scone and a hot cocoa. This was my first mistake of the day.

The Hot Cocoa must have been loaded with sugar because my body almost instantly became unhappy. My stomach was cramping up and, just what I didn't need in hot and humid Hong Kong - I started to sweat. Sure, you may be thinking why did I order a hot drink in hot Hong Kong - well chocolate sounded good and I'm a sucker for chocolate sometimes. Anyway I just soldiered on and ignored my bodies complaints until lunch time. I figured I could get something solid to eat and everything would be fine. I asked my local manger for a recommended place for lunch and he suggested a joint called "Cosmos" - some kind of "healthy food" place. They have these take out "box" lunches that are sitting in a fridge and that they will heat up for you. I picked a chicken and brown rice combo and was lured in by the big menu board behind the cashier hawking their smoothies. I really like smoothies so I ordered the 4-fruit smooth; strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and banana. Mistake number 2!

My stomach was in fits at this point so I decided to head into a little pharmacy that sat between my building and Cosmos to get some [[loperamide]]. Now, cosmos gives you a really nice bag for "take away" orders. Its got a cardboard bottom and nice rope handle. Inside there rested my box lunch (in a cardboard box) and my drink in a plastic cup with a plastic bubble lid that was sealed shut. The cup was actually in a cardboard thing-a-ma-jig that helped keep it from falling over in the bag - a pretty nice setup really - except that as I entered the pharmacy the cup fell over in my bag anyway. It only spilled a little - a few drops really before I saved it and stood it back up. Then I just carried the bag at an incline so the cup couldn't fall again. With my immodium in hand I headed back to my desk to eat and treat myself.

The food was pretty good and the smoothie was nice too. I threw the trash away and then addressed my keyboard only to spot, out of the corner of my eye, a big red splotch right in the middle of my new shirt. A shirt I was really admiring earlier in the day because it was cut so much better than the rest of my shirts. Dammit, now it had a big red stain! Some of that spill from when the drink was in my bag had crept down the cup and fallen on my shirt. Too top it off my stomach still felt like crap. So back downstairs I went to the pharmacy in hopes I could find a stain stick. Of course I have both immodium and a stain stick back at my hotel room and the pharmacy didn't have a stain stick. My room is about 30 minutes away and at this point I was feeling so sleepy I thought if I went there I would just go back to bed - not a good option. So, instead I headed upstairs and asked if there was somewhere nearby that might sell a stain stick. My manager sent me down the road to a small grocery store.

Grocery stores here are small - it's part of the nature of the beast that is Hong Kong - space is limited and the only stores that are huge are big name brands like Versaci or something - not grocery stores. So of course the Park and Pack I was in didn't have anything even remotely like a stain stick. However, there was an older French lady shopping there who was kind enough to tell me about a nicer grocery over at the International Finance Center (IFC) called city super. I was there! Except I didn't really know how to get to the IFC - but how hard could it be, it's the tallest building in Hong Kong.

As it turns out it is pretty hard. You can't see the tallest building through all of the other tall but not tallest buildings. However, I'd been there twice - both times while I was working so all I had to do was backtrack to my office and follow the path we had taken the on the prior two trips. Good idea in theory but in practice I had to have actually paid attention to the path we had taken on those two trips. The thing is I have been in constant catch-up mode in learning about all the technologies I have to work with since I got here - and on the trips over to the IFC I've been talking to the other team members about various topics - focusing on their answers and not on the path we took. So, basically, I had no idea how to get to the IFC.

That didn't stop me from trying though. A neat feature of Hong Kong is, because it is so hot, humid and rainy, you can get from one part of the central area to another without ever going outside. That is basically how we had gotten to the IFC before. You enter one building and then just cross over streets into others via overpasses. I had a basic idea of how our trip to the IFC started but before long I was in a huge square building with a one or two major entry points at each corner. I was pretty sure I didn't have to go to a different floor but I had no idea which cardinal direction to travel in let alone which of the exits at each corner I should take so I just started going down each to see if any felt familiar. The problem was none of them did. Finally, some Australian guy walked by and I asked him where to go to get to the IFC. At that point I was in the exact opposite corner from where I needed to be. He told me to just follow the signs to the "Airport Express" and I couldn't miss the IFC and sure enough he was right. About ten minutes later I was at the entrance to the IFC.

The first two floors of the IFC are a big mall full of fancy name brand clothes and shoes. Name brands here aren't "Levi's" or "Nike" they are "Prada" and "Tiffany". Somewhere in this mix was the City Super that, hopefully, had my stain stick. The floor layout is sort of circular so I just picked a direction and started walking - of course, from my entry point I picked the "wrong" direction as I had to walk nearly 3/4 of the circle before I reached the store. Not to be anti-climatic or anything but they did have a Tide to Go pen which took the stain out of my shirt without a problem.

Now all I had to do was find my way back. Not a big deal until I got back to the square that caused me all of the problems in the first place. By this point my stomach was in agony and I had no idea which way to go. However, I knew I was in the Central part of Hong Kong so I just headed to the Central Building and sure enough it got me close enough where I could find my way and I started to recognize parts of the hallways as somewhere I had been before that day. Eventually I made it back to the office. However I only stayed until 6:30 because I wanted to do 2 things that night; 1. go back to the IFC and make sure I could complete the trip without difficulty because that is where the traders for my Client work and where I may have to go by myself for work at some point and 2. Eat an early dinner and get some sleep.

The IFC trip at this point was a no brainer. So I completed it and then headed up the escalators to the part of town called "SoHo" for dinner. Most of the restaurants there are European and feature pretty similar meals. I wandered around for a bit looking for one that seemed a little better, saw a Lotus (car) for the first time, before settling on "Boca" because there were more people there and I thought it would be nice to hear voices. However, I had to wait about 15 minutes for a table and then, after I ordered, I found out it would take 30 minutes for them to make my meal - clearly I had picked the wrong place. My meal finally arrived and it was huge - way too much food. So I ate about 1/4 of it and then waited patiently to catch the eye of a waitress so I could get my check. Eventually I did and I left $350HKD (or honkies!) lighter. By the time I made it back to my hotel room it was 10:30. So much for going to bed early.

Fortunately, I slept well and I woke up today feeling much better - both my energy and my stomach.

#HongKong #Work #MyLife #Geekiness #Travel

This is just a quick update to let you know I updated the Hong Kong photo album with 10 more photos.

#HongKong #MyLife #Photos

Yesterday I finished my first official day of work in Hong Kong. It was fairly uneventful and kind of boring. I spent the majority of the day getting my machine setup and configured so that I could actually start working today. However, there were a few things about the day that stood out. First and foremost is how quiet everyone is here. I had thought perhaps I experianced an anomoly on Sunday because it was a weekend but Monday was no different. The full 1million+ people were downtown at lunch time but it was pretty quiet. The office I work in is a microcosm of the greater silence. There are about 40 people here and the loudest sound I hear is the clacking of my keyboard. I enquired with my local project manager and sure enough he said this is pretty typical of working in China. This phenomena was further exemplified by my visit to the trading floor where I met with the lead end user of the software I'm working on. The trading floor was full of traders and all of them were busy working but their was almost no sound. There was no yelling or waving of hands with paper. People were moving around in a hustle - they were all just sitting in their chairs and getting work done. Granted, this wasn't a stock exchange trading floor but the banks private trading floor so that should explain some of it but with that many people on the phone and working you would think there would have been a bit more noise.

I did get to have some good food yesterday which was a nice change of pace. I started off with a pretty good Kebab lunch. There is a little street near here called "Rat Alley" with a bunch of small eateries and right around the corner was this little Kebab place. I had a mixed lamb/chicken kebab - spicy - and it was very tasty. Much better than the "Pita Pit" back home. Once I got off work (after about 13 hours) I was hungry but very tired so I was going to just skip dinner but as I went back up the cities escalators I came across a small section of town called "SoHo" that my PM told me had some good restaurants - I had tried to eat here the night previously but nothing was open when I thought of it. This time I stopped at ate at a little mediterranean join that sat above a bar. I had Paella with Seafood (mussels, shrimp, clams, salmon, and tuna) and it was really really good. I will probably end up eating there again before I leave.

The crazy thing is I still haven't had any good Chinese food. So far the two best meals I have had are greek and spanish. What's up with that? I just need someone to direct me to a good Chinese place.

I need to remember to bring my camera to work beause my view from the office is even better than my view from the hotel. I'll try to post that as soon as possible.

#HongKong #Work #MyLife #Travel

I left on friday morning flying out of the Charleston WV airport at 6:30am. I arrived 50+ minutes later in Chicago at 7:30am Local time. The wait in Chicago was long. My flight left there at 12:30pm which, while waiting for, I upgraded to Economy Plus on my flight. I couldn't upgrade to business class because I didn't have any frequent flyer miles with United. On my flight into Chicago I sat besides a friendly and chatty guy from Wyoming then on my flight from Chicago I sat beside a friendly and chatty guy from Kansas City. The guy from Kansas City travels to Hong Kong about 5 times a year so he gave me a couple tips on how to navigate the airport upon arrival and he told me that I can actually visit a lot more of China than I expected. He then took some sleeping pill and slept for most of the flight. He was kind enough to let me know I can get beer/drinks for free on an international flight - so I had a bit of gin and orange juice with my first lunch which was a "Southern Beef BBQ". We were fed three times on the flight. The first meal (the BBQ) then a snake of chinese noodles (alot like Top Raman) and a cookie, and then a a hot turkey and cheddar sandwich.

The flight was seemingly endless. I slept for about 2 hours after the first meal then watched the following movies "Premonition", "Shrek the Third", and "Next" I also read most of a book, a newspaper, and three magazines. However, eventually we landed in Hong Kong at about 5pm Saturday without incident.

The process getting off was pretty smooth. I found a place to convert my money and get an "octopass" which you can use to ride the public transportation or to buy things at alot of different stores. I then went through customs which involved them stamping my passport and sending me on my way. I had to take my hat off when I went through security and they scanned everyone who walked through with a heat sensor. The terminal was really large - and really empty. It has clearly been built to support far more traffic than I saw coming in. Finally I had to take a small train to the baggage claim area and then I was off to the train to ride to the Hong Kong Island. Once the train arrived at the "Central Station" I had to get a cab. I gave the cabbie my hotel's address (written in Cantonese) and I was off. $24HKD or about 3.25 US later and the Cabbie dropped me off on the wrong side of the street for my hotel (The Bishop Lei International House) so I had to navigate the traffic with my bags. Check-in was uneventful and I am very happy with my room; pleasantly surprised with it's size. I have a small living room with a tv and minibar fridge (which I will use to store some of my own stuff in, a nice, but small, bathroom, and a bedroom that is almost filled by the bed. However, the room feels far larger thanks to the floor to ceiling windows and the great views. After I had gotten all of my clothes unpacked and stowed away I headed to the hotels restaurant for dinner then I came back to my room and went to bed at about 9pm.

Today I woke up around 7am and got ready for the day then I just started to wander around Hong Kong. To be honest the fact that I am here is just starting to sink in. The air stinks and my breakfast was really bad. I think I ate at something like a Hong Kong version of McDonalds. It was very cheap (about $3.50 US) but it wasn't worth that much. The air is not only smelly it is also very humid. The organization of this island is pretty windy and there are a bunch of hills. My hotel is in the "Mid Level" and all of the business stuff is down on the lower part. There are actually covered escalators to help you get between the two but they only travel in one direction and today they were going down. Perhaps in the evening they go back up? I was pretty comfortable walking around in my jeans and shirt but they were too much on the walk back up to the hotel. The hill is pretty steep and I was sweating really heavily by the time I got back. During my walk around I did find a bunch of pubs and other places to eat and I found where I will be working starting tomorrow; so it is nice to have that out of the way. This afternoon I'm going back out and I am going to try and find a grocery or market to buy some water for the room and maybe some bananas. Hopefully my next meal will be better as well.

It rained a bit earlier while I was sitting here and now the sky has really cleared up a lot and my visibility is great. I can see all the way to Kowloon (mainland Hong Kong). Each week I am going to upload photos to a new album on the webpage. Here are the first of this weeks photos.

My Menus So Far

Dinner Last Night

Pan fried Duck with a sauce
Apple Salad
Ox-Tongue Salad
Beer: Tsing Tao

Breakfast today
Scrambled Egg with tomato, corn, and onion (didn't taste right)
Toast (OK)
Chicken and Mushroom Sausage (not good)
Tea (very bad and I like tea)

#HongKong #Work #MyLife #Travel