From Wikipedia - - In 1975, German-Canadian businessman Allan Zeman, also known as the father of Lan Kwai Fong, moved to Hong Kong. He felt it needed a western style restaurant, so he opened “California” in 1983 in Lan Kwai Fong which became his claim to fame. One year later, following this success, Zeman invested HK$32 million to buy a whole block and began a new career as an entertainer and property developer eventually founding the Lan Kwai Group and developing this location into one of Hong Kong’s most popular entertainment destinations for expatriates as well as tourists. Friday and Saturday nights are often jammed with people, leading to vehicle traffic being suspended at certain times, giving the streets over to pedestrians. The square, together with a gay club "Disco Disco" founded earlier in 1978 in D'Aguilar Street, made Lan Kwai Fong and its surroundings a famous spot for night life.

Hong Kong Skyline

 

Daytime

Hong Kong Honda mini-van

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Thursday - 2 days left in HK

Sorry for lack of pics. I started to use steph's camera and the memory card would not connect to laptop.

I am getting very confident riding the Metro Train Rail (MTR) System. It is very clean, no police, beggars, street performers, smoking, eating or drinking. They are not faster than US trains. Today we boarded at peak rush hour and it is quite busy. Two trains Susan and I were packed like sardines. When walking it is quite hard to navigate in the crowds. Shanghai is suppose to be worse in regards to crowds. To get to HKDL I board 3 trains and change stations once (5min walk)

Last night dinner was at a Thai restaurant with some friends of Susan. Once again I found myself in a very large shopping center. This one was for the high-high end stores, Chanel, Monte Blanc... The back end of mall had an eclectic mix of stores. One friends brought her boyfriend who was from Australia. He was quite interesting to talk to. He is on a horse racing team stationed in HK but they race all across Asia.
Food was quite good and not overly spicy for being a non-US Thai restaurant, with that said I did not sleep well. I ate something call Mawl which is a fish organ, if you look it up do not tell me what it is.




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Marriott Bed

The bed in Marriott feels like box springs with nice sheets.  I never knew the definition of tired until this week.  Not only are the days scheduled with back2back meetings but we participate in USA conference calls which can and do occur from 6AM - 9AM HK time or 8PM-10PM.  I have three people in Hawaii, two teams in Glendale and Florida teams to communicate with on a regular basis.  Keeping track of time zones is important. The bed could be concrete and I would sleep through the night. 

I think I heard Susan say she is not getting enough sleep so I hope she slows the pace.

 

Busy, busy Tuesday

 

This is the office that the IT team works in.  The building was suppose to be temporary. 

I was given a 90 minute tour of the back of house areas today.  There was an hour where I went into the park on my own and walked around.  

 The park is a clone of Disneyland California when you look at the architecture and design. 

Like anywhere in the world the dress varies from one extreme to another. On the train ride home I was able to capture the sunset over some of the many islands that surround the main Hong Kong Island. Dinner tonight was within a supermarket that had three internal cafes.  I ordered a hamburger and savored every bite :)

Hong Kong Harbor

If you clcik on this picture you will be able to see a "junk boat" in the harbor.  Here is an explanation from wiki- A junk is an ancient Chinese sailing vessel design still in use today. Junks were developed during the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) and were used as sea-going vessels as early as the 2nd century AD. They evolved in the later dynasties, and were used throughout Asia for extensive ocean voyages. They were found, and in lesser numbers are still found, throughout South-East Asia and India, but primarily in China, perhaps most famously in Hong Kong. Found more broadly today is a growing number of modern recreational junk-rigged sailboats.

Hong Kong harbor from the 25th floor of the Prince building.  Tonight I had dinner with the IT Director of HKDL.  After my dim sum lunch Susan suggested a more western restaurant that specialized in fish. Their Salmon was very good as well was the sea bass that they let me try.  All the fish was brought to the table to preview before ordering.

What would you choose?

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HKDL resort

I made it to the resort today (Monday). We arrived from the hotel by train by 9AM. Susan packed the day with a data center tour up until noon and then a taxi back into town to meet with a D1sney IT team that manages an International data center that is in HK.  (D1sney has offices in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, China and Korea. These offices make up Asia Pacific market) We stayed in the International teams building until 6:30PM and then met for lunch at a nice restaurant downtown.    How many D1sney added touches can you make out in the photo?  (This is a special train line that is a leg off the normal train line. Total time from hotel downtown to HKDL was 75 minutes.

Sunday Dinner

The bus ride from the south part of the island is along a windy road and the bus is a Double-Decker that is not that smooth. With the heat, humidity and hunger I started to bonk and the jet lag started to kick in. So instead of continuing Susan and I headed to the hotel.  We stopped and ate at Peking Palace. This was a nice restaurant that served Mandarin and Cantonese.  I ordered the shrimp fried rice and spring rolls and Susan ordered a vegetable that was like our collard greens. It was all very good but the families around us were ordering the Peking duck which is presented at the table and cut in the restaurant (see picture).  Poor picture because it seemed rude to photograph in this restaurant.

Typical HK highrise

This is a typical high rise where the middle class live.  They are monstrous buildings.  Susan calls the apartments "flats".  This is from the bus returning to the city. There was a beautiful horse race track to the right.  The track was a pristine grass.  We rode the bus and trains today with "domestic helpers"

from another blog --

The lives of domestic workers in Hong Kong resemble something like this: They live with their employers and work morning until night six days a week. They wear many hats; nanny, cook, house keeper and also run errands. They keep the households of well heeled Hong Kongers and privileged ex-pats running for paltry pay. Room and board are provided and they are typically paid a mandated minimum wage of HK$3,480, about $450USD a month.

More often than not these women are well educated and fluent in English but due to the dire state of job opportunities in The Philippines they seek overseas employment. Many have children they have left behind with family and send back a large portion of their wages to support them all. They are the migrant workers of Hong Kong.

Stanley Market

Susan took me to the South side of Hong Kong Island to an area called Stanley. The market is an interesting array of little shops selling silk garments, sportswear, art, Chinese costume jewelry and souvenirs. It reminded me of the shopping village in Tunisia.  This part of the island was also like the city we visited in the Canary islands.  Public beach, ocean facing restaurants make up this area.  

While walking over to the market Susan pointed to a pub that she says many people from the US that came over to help open the HKDL park frequented.  This was a welcome rest stop, a very eclectic place with a lot of history.

Blog thoughts

Sorry about typos, grammar and brevity but I try to get my points across quickly. Always go back a few pages because at the end of the day I add pictures that I took when I did not have a network connection or with another camera.  I keep the timeline on the blog correct. 

Time Square HK

Tese are pictures of Hong Kong Time square.  

Waiting to catch the train from Time Square to  Tsim ShaTsui

 

Tsim Sha Tshui is an area where the locals live and shop but tourists make there way across the harbor to get better pricing.  Susan took me to multiple stores, malls and street vendors. Pricing in the US is cheaper on everything I was looking at.  I compared Cameras, Laptops, Electronics.The one thing that seems like a good deal is the tailor shops that will make a custom suit and 3 shirts for less than $250 USD.  

Lunch

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Grand piano fitting for the starship enterprise

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HK time square shopping center

Sunday morning I rode a stationary bike for 40 min then met Susan to go sightseeing. We rode a very crowded train to HK times square. I cannot describe how big this place is. Susan says Shanghai shopping much bigger.

There is an art exhibit, these statues are made with waste handbills, magazines and sales flyers.

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Mall under the hotel

Susan and I went down and ate dinner in the mall located on main level of hotel. Below the mall is the main MTR rail line.

Mall is very western, Susan says it is 15yr old but IMO it looks newer. Of course there is a Starbuck.

We ate at Zen, Susan ordered in Cantonese. I had Corn chowder, crab soup, Jasmine tea, fried rice and a green vegetable. The vegetable does not have a English translation but reminded me of Asparagus. Hard to pick up with chop sticks but I was abe to eat a lot.
Dinner was 423 HKD

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Marriott in Hong Kong

From Lobby

I am in a Marriott hotel. The TV guide is on a bamboo roll which is unique. The view from my room looks at a common road that links three hotel. The lobby over looks the harbor.
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Taxi ride into Hong Kong

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747 upper deck

Another shot of the upper deck. I just had a heart attack, they announced flight number and destination and said flight to Ho Min Chi. They then explained that is final destination after HK.

Thanks,
Gregg

This message was composed on a mobile device, please excuse brevity and typos. Please only reply when it is safe to do so.

747 upper deck

The upper deck is very cool

Thanks,
Gregg

This message was composed on a mobile device, please excuse brevity and typos. Please only reply when it is safe to do so.

Another shot of my plane, Mountains and cloud bank

United 747-400



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San Francisco

We were 43 miles from SFO when the pilot announced the temp of 63?? It is July right? I opened the shade and saw rolling mountains that looked arid and sparsely populated. It was a clear sky until wham we hit a cloud bank. The infamous SanFran micro climate. Look to left of pic for clouds (click to make larger). You can not make it out but there are large letters on the side of the mountain spelling out SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO THE INDUSTRIAL CITY" This is a city I want to read up on.


Thanks,
Gregg

This message was composed on a mobile device, please excuse brevity and typos. Please only reply when it is safe to do so.

1st Asia Trip

My next adventure is to the Far East.  I am getting on a United Airbus 320 in Orlando and flying 5hrs to San Francisco where I have a layover.  After a 3 hour layover I then board a United 747 for a 13hr trip to Hong Kong, I can remember when Hong Kong was given Special Administration Region status (SAR) by the People Republic of China in 1997.  Hard to believe 14 years later I am going there.   I am meeting Susan in HK who is a peer of mine that now lives in Shanghai.  Susan was born in Hong Kong and has family there.  Here are some fun facts:

The city of New York has 8.3 million people where Hong Kong has 7 Million people. Shanghai where I will travel to on Saturday Aug 6^th has 13.3 million people. 1  The numbers are for the city not the metropolitan area.  China has 1.3 Billion people where as the US has 311Million. 

In Hong Kong I will be visiting people that are in charge of providing the infrastructure for the D park that was built there in 2005.  I am learning a lot about the details of International work and it is very intriguing. My colleagues that fly from the west coast do have a much easier flight since they forgo the 5hr flight across the US. 

Bobblehead launched on high altitude balloon lands in Autauga Co. | Arts & Culture | Prattville News

Chance and I find it intriguing that these amateur scientists are doing these cool experiments.

Bobblehead launched on high altitude balloon lands in Autauga Co. | Arts & Culture | Prattville News

Flooring continue two months later :(

We finished room 5 of 7 this weekend.  We are replacing all of the carpet, baseboard molding in the house along with painting and redecorating.  Steph's old room was a bear to get trimmed out due to the walls being not square.  The floor goes down quick but the detailing takes the most time.  

Amazing how much Sally has changed around the house.  She even twisted my arm to get the TV hung on the wall.