"The Trip"

So, I know I went to Hong Kong first, but the Taiwan trip was more important so will report on that first. As a few of you know, my HK trip was originally supposed to be from Thursday the 26^th to Sunday the 29^th so I would have sufficient time to do my company visits as well see as much of HK as I could. My plane ticket was booked and then I got the report that my grandmother in Taiwan was having some surgery for a pretty serious ailment. Unfortunately, since this set of grandparents live so far away, its sad to say I have probably only seen them 10 times give or take (with the bulk of those them visiting the States when I was much younger). I have only been to Taiwan two other times, one when I was three and then two years ago when my grandfather was having some major surgery as well. So while passing through, my sister thought it would be a great idea for me to go to Taiwan while I was in Hong Kong since one has to go via HK anyways (cannot fly directly to Taiwan from mainland for a whole host of reasons…check it out on Wikipedia or something if interested). It made all the sense in the world, and as a bonus it is quite close – only about an hour and 15 mins by plane. So I ended up changing my return flight to Monday the 30^th and got a ticket to Kaohsiung, Taiwan for Saturday morning to Monday morning. My grandparents actually live in Taipei, but the surgery was getting down in Kaohsiung (not sure if it has something to do with that my mom’s little brother is a doctor down there).

While it made my trip to HK only about 36 hours, it was totally worth it – the happiness my grandparents had was worth all of the effort and more. My grandma had her surgery Tuesday and fortunately was looking great when I got there – she was talking and sitting up and just starting to eat some solid food, and grandpa was so happy too. My mom also arrived there the same day I did, about 2 hours earlier, so that worked out so well.

My uncle, aunt, their 9 and 11 year old daughters, and their dog Pee-Pee were very gracious in hosting us, driving us around to run errands and even taking us out to a delicious dim-sum place for dinner – that’s right, they had dim-sum for dinner! Anywho, I with I could have stayed longer as these opportunities will not be available forever. At least if I work in Hong Kong it will just be a hop skip and a jump. Unfortunately my other grandparents both passed away years ago, and I wish I had been old enough/mature enough when they were alive for me to truly appreciate them.

(the dog Pee-Pee...he is kinda funny since he answers to Chinese and does not understand any English).

As a side note, Kaohsiung (2^nd largest city in Taiwan with about 1.5 million) is like LA or something – its weird, it is very urban feeling when you are walking around because its all mixed use buildings with retail on the bottom and housing/offices on top, but there are no real tall buildings and the city seems pretty spread out. I would estimate most buildings were no more than ten stories, so it’s a sort of odd feeling to be walking around in an urban environment with all low-rises and no real “central” area I could figure out.

Now, onto HK – the visit really was amazing! I got in fairly late on Thursday night and right away it was a weird adjustment (lets call weird #1) because all of the sudden everyone could speak English! A weird juxtaposition in my head with all the Asian faces that normally only speak Mandarin in Beijing while in HK it’s a lot of Asian faces that speak perfect English. Took the superb train into the city, which along with the airport train in Copenhagen is the most impressive in its speed, efficiency, cleanliness, etc etc. Every city should have something like that. I then took a cab from the train station to my cab where I had weird #2 b/c everything is right hand drive (HK was ruled by the English up till 1997). I don’t know if its because I haven’t been to London for like over ten years, but I had a momentary moment of panic as we were driving around up the ramp from the train and I thought we were going to slam into someone head on.

(the HK airport is kind of cool because one side is bordered by mountains and the other side is bordered by water/mountains...wonder if its a pain in the ass to land when weather is crap)

After getting to the hotel – weird #3 – pedestrians actually follow traffic signals here! I’m used to whatever goes in Beijing and here we are, waiting to cross a street with absolutely NO cars on it, but we are all standing there because the cross signal said don’t walk – such a weird feeling after following the locals no matter if it is green light, red light, yellow light, walk, don’t walk, bus coming, etc.

Stayed at a nice and reasonably prices Ramada and then woke up for day of meetings. And let me tell you, they went great! I was fortunate enough to meet with some great people and I really felt like I hit it off with them and got a much better idea about what finance/real-estate in HK is all about. The verdict? I-banking looking for more local native level speakers while the buy-side is still very foreign dominated English speakers so looks like we know where I will be focusing…HK mission accomplished. The buy-side shop in particular was especially impressive and the Director I was speaking to made me really feel like I might have a chance there – I will be focusing my summer/full-time efforts there as the culture there seemed to fit me very well.

(Hong Kong at night is really gorgeous....the pic on the left is Hong Kong from across the bay in Kowloon and the 2nd pic is Kowloon itself...incredible pics courtesy of Andy)

Then my friend Andy and his girlfriend Fion hosted me and showed me around the city, and they did an INCREDIBLE job. I met Andy last June at my finance fellowship orientation week in New York City and he is a great guy.

After my last meeting I went to Andy’s office (also his g-friend’s) and they took my on the ferry across the way to Kowloon. It was a beautiful night with a bright sky, and the HK skyline really is something else - like nowhere else. We walked around a very upscale mall there until our 8:30 reservation at an incredibly delish Cantonese style restaurant with a breathtaking view overlooking the bay.

(Real pictures of the food...nummy....)

(As an aside, let me you the Hong Kong-ians (?) love their malls – the whole
central area of HK where all the companies and banks are are literally connected by over the street walkways with mini malls in each one, and a lot of Central is also connected by underground malls combined with the very robust, clean, and fast subway system the MTR. I suppose its good so you can have a constant dose of A/C if you are walking building to building, not mention if it rains?). They then took me to a night market called Mong Kok which looks a lot like what you see on TV a lot when they show Hong Kong, with lot street vendors selling shady merchandise and booths selling foods. Did not get any fake handbags for myself but did buy a sweet pair of headphones/hands free phone kit (my phone has MP3) for only about $7, which would normally cost about $30 in the states.

They then took me to the nut-so main nightlife area called Long Kwai, which is the only place I think thus far that really reminds me of Bourbon street in New Orleans. It was like 2 AM and the streets were packed with loud music coming from everywhere. I was pooped so we ended up just grabbing a drink at a laid back Russian bar that had a cool giant icebox you could go into and take shots.

(The icebox in the Russian bar)

Andy was gracious enough to let me crash at his place, so we were back there by about 3 AM…slept at around 3:30, then up at 6 to catch my flight to Taiwan. Andy and Fion, just wanted to give a shout-out for showing such a great time!

The one thing – OMG was it HOT there….temperature wise in the mid 90’s, but the humidity – oh the humidity! The body depends on sweat to evaporate in order to keep cool, so when its that hot and that humid your body is just miserable. It did not help I was running around all day in a suit and tie (since did not get to Andy’s till 3:30 am, was wearing the same dress-up clothes from 8 AM to 3:30 AM! Talk about ring around the collar). The good part is everyone uses ridiculous air conditioning – like, so cold I was glad I was wearing a suit and tie to keep warm. Oh well – better than the alternative I guess, but sounds like a good recipe for a cold or something?

Verdict on the weekend? Was pretty pricy, but worth every penny both personally and professionally - lets see if I end up there...