Mufia

Mufia is going to stay off the coast so Shanghai is just going to get the rain and thunderstorms.

12:00 Midnight, the wind woke me but as I look out there is no rain.  I am on the 14th floor and my room is not facing the wind direction but is adjacent so there is quite a lot of noise.  when I flip through the local channels on TV there is mention of the typhoon but unlike the USA there are no reporters standing on a sea wall giving exaggerated reports of things to come.

 

Food and view from the plane.  This was really our breakfast; it included watermelon, noodles and chicken and a pastry with juice.  It was not until we neared Shanghai did the clouds really stack up.  We landed at 10AM and the forecast puts landfall of Muifa at 7PM.  The immigration and customs process was very easy and fast.  There is an area you enter called the "Disinfection area" it was confusing in that there were fruit amnesty stations but we walked we all had to walk through a portal that was just large enough for one person.  As I walked through I saw "radiation scanner" at first I thought I was being radiated as part of the disinfection but then I realized it was scanning for radiation.   Susan insisted that they ride in the cab with me which was a non-incident.  Cabs are VW Santana I was dropped off at the hotel and immediately fell asleep once in my room for a few hours.It is 5PM and it is still not raining.  Clouds are streaking across the sky so it must be getting close.

 

 View from my room at the Kerry Parkside hotel.

 This angle you are able to see Shanghai and the Pudong side of the city.  The large green space is a large park that has a $3 RMB which is about $1usd admission rate.  Susan has not been but when the weather cools she wants to go in. 

Leaving HK

3 postcards are heading to USA, the airport is the only place that I found with postcards. I passed a post office earlier in week and bought the stamps. I have made it through security and immigration now waiting for my flight to Shanghai. I was a little apprehensive but there are other westerners here at the gate. I am flying on China Eastern MU726. Susan's husband is the CIO of this airline and he has joined us due to bad weather. He flew in last night and was to leave Sunday but typhoon changed his plans.

From my corporate travel advisory---
"The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs on 5 August issued storm alerts for the eastern city of Shanghai, as well as the provinces of Zhejian, Jiangsu, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi and Shandong ahead of the passage of Typhoon Muifa."
"Muifa weakened from a super to a strong typhoon – on 5 August was located approximately 475 miles (770km) south-east of Zhejian and was moving in a north-westerly direction."

If we get to land we will be greeted by much rain.

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Friday night the last night

So we finished working at 3:30 we were received at the Admiralty train station at 4:45. We were meeting a hospitality consultant at 6PM so Susan and I went separate ways until we would meet at 5:30 for our meeting. I went into the best buy of Hong Kong and walked out with an Olympus.XZ-1 camera. I shopped every kind of store and settled on Fortress. I arrived for our meeting just in time.

Susan went to eat with her husband leaving me on an adventure. 1st stop was a book store off queensway hwy. After visiting 5 book stores in HK I finally have a traditional Chinese HP#1.

2nd stop was at a computer mall.  There are two computer marts in HK, I went to Wan Chai. Of course I could take the MTR train which I am an old hat with but no I decided on the traditional trolley car the locals ride. Well it was so packed by the time I realized I needed off it went by two more stops so I ended up in a residential district right out of a James Bond movie. I found the mart with 20 min to closing yet walked out empty handed. Other than Flash Memory everything else was on par with online pricing.

3rd stop was a local entertainment district.  As I tried to find my way back to the SOHO district I turned and walked down Lockhart Rd and found the night life of HK. Next to "model review" bars was a British pub which looked interesting. I am on my second black and tan, spring rolls to die for and was just talked into bangers and mash. Go to oldchinahand.com.hk and read the history. There is a two piece band playing 80's tunes with an eclectic crowd. I have been paired with a new waitress, how do I know? She did not know what a black and tan was and this is a British pub. Westerners came in and it ended up a big party!

My flight to Shanghai is at 8:05 am. That means a 5:30 train ride and fingers crossed that we take off. A super typhoon is bearing down on Shanghai so the week is expected to be raining each day. Update in the AM

--
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Cheers,
Gregg

Asian Dunkle

I found my favorite beer last night. Erdinger Dunkle. This was in the KFW area at a pub called "The Keg"

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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.