HoNg KoNg

Hong Kong. what a great trip. 6 days. i'm going to post a bunch of pictures and just quickly list out what a did and overall thoughts. i'm trying to get current on my blog so i have to cut corners here unfortunately!

Arrived Thursday, left tuesday. stayed at an awesome hotel in Sha Tin. see pics of hotel below and the view from the room!

On Friday i visited the local Fugro office and had lunch with some people and also visited thier materials lab, which was one of the coolest places i've been. they do all kinds of materials testing, including destructive testing for the HK housing authority (i.e. open and close door 5,000 times, see if the handle breaks). there was 4 or 5 floors of all kinds of testing, environmental, water, rebar tensile, soil....the concrete tank room was enormous. each cylinder gets a barcode and is just scanned as it goes through the break and the cure time. really neat to see! all the employees have matching shirts and it really is like a big factory in there. the photo is taken from the roof of the fugro building near sha tin. the buildings are so tall here... even relatively tall buildings are surrounded by even taller ones.

friday night i took the bus into TST which is a really bustling area right across from HK island. tons of people and lights everywhere. i actually had italian for dinner... i don't know i had a craving i couldn't ignore hahah! i went into some of the night markets. there were tons of knockoff wallets and purses... even and ed hardy knockoff store. i saw a night lights show... if you stand right on the water edge across on HK island all the buildings light up for 20 minute light show. it's choreographed to music and it's a pretty neat show. nightly i think. here's a photo looking down the street at TST.

on saturday i did the 10,000 buddhas monestary walk, which is basically a long climb up to a beautiful monestary. along the climb up there are all gold buddhas in all different positions with different facial expressions. each buddha is about the size of a person. at the monestary, there is a very large buddha and all along the wall are rows and rows of small buddhas, about 1 foot tall, thousands of them.. hence the name 10,000 buddhas.

then i caught the ferry to macau, which is another special administration zone of China's. it's about 1 hour by ferry and the ferry runs 24 hours. over on macau is a strange mix of traditional portuguese and las vegas. a huge swath of reclaimed land is home to several new casinos. i really didn't have a plan for macau, i was just going to take the first shuttle bus the showed up at the ferry terminal. it turned out to be the venetian. ok. the venetian at macau looks just like the one in vegas, complete with the shops and the gondola and canals inside. plus side about the venetian macau... noodle bar. yum. minus... you can smoke inside. so i got tickets to see a cirque du soleil show and in the meantime had a few hours. wanted to play blackjack and poker, no poker room that i could find, so got $1,000 HKD to play blackjack. the lowest table for blackjack was $200 HKD, which is about $26 USD. so basically i was playing $25 hands, which ordinarily i never would have done, but i wanted to play, i was at the casino, and it was the lowest table available. by the way the casino was PACKED. the hong kongers seem to love to gamble! so i sat down. i could have played 4 hands and been done. but after a few hours of being up, being down, up, down, i ended up finishing way up with $3,600 HKD, after starting with 1K. the money i won here basically ended up covering most of my trip expenses. AND the cirque show was awesome!! picture below is in the lobby of the venetian.

On sunday i hung out with all the other tourists on HK island. walking around downtown is quite a workout. i took a tram up to victoria peak overlooking the island. got some GREAT views on a beautiful warm and sunny day.

also while downtown i noticed big groups of philipino women hanging around in big groups. apparently sunday is the day off for all of the live-in maids/housekeepers/nannies, and they get together on that day out of the house. many people have live-in help from other countries as apparently it's quite cheap.

i rode on these really cool travellators that take you up and down the steep streets downtown (which were really fun and you can see all the multi-level businesses), i rode around on the trolleys (on rails in the streets), i went to some fresh produce markets where they were also selling fresh fish and meat. the fish were just flopping around on the table still alive and then... CHOP... that was the end. there was an entire cow's head and they eye was looking at me.... also tons of fresh fruit and veggies and nuts. the street markets were all decorated for chinese new year also. so festive!


and even in hong kong there was a circle K! hahah!

after walking around downtown, up and down the maze of hilly streets, and did a little shopping, i perused the zoological and botanical gardens downtown. there was a beautiful fountain in the middle pictured below. lots of families out and about. the gardens were beautiful and this place was a real gem in the heart of the city.

i took the famous star ferry from HK island back across to TST. this ferry has been making this trip for decades. the price is cheap, it's quick and it's fun.

on Tuesday i visited an overwater project currently in the exploration phase... when completed will be the longest overwater bridge in the world. there are 2 or 3 barges and 2 or 3 more jackups out there right now. i got to go out to two of hte barges and view some of the drilling operations and installation of some test piles. it was a really unique experience and was really lucky to have had the opportunity. it was quite foggy that day but it's quite near the airport so it's a cool spot to be working. the drilling/sampling methods are a bit different so it was good to learn the local practices.

overall thoughts... very tall, skinny buildings, closely packed together at the foot of green mountains. such a dichotomy and very beautiful really. walking around the city is very hilly like SF. the smog is noticeable, even on a clear day it can be better described as hazy. a zillion people everywhere but the public transport is efficient so the amount of people is not as noticeable. long working hours, and saturday is part of the normal workweek. the work/life balance doesn't seem to be that balanced. there was a running/cycling track along the river right by my hotel and i hardly saw anyone using it. in addition, i was surprised the most people were actually a little chubby! maybe 15 pounds overweight. not fat by any standards, but just kind of chubby, a little extra weight. i suppose it stems from larger portions i observed (compared to singapore) and the unfavorable work/life balance. singaporeans are generally very fit and active. based on the stores and the shopping centers, and the clothing, it seems that people are quite fashionable and want to wear high-end brand names. not so much about the clothing but the name. also... for 75 degree weather (F), people would be wearing boots and coats! it was crazy! everything is packed so tightly onto the small amount of buildable land, but there are endless things to do and see if you're up for the adventure. i would 100% recommend visiting hong kong and i would definitely go back if i had the opportunity.