Next Trip Belgium+ in May

My next trip originates from another work trip to Belgium. I will be leaving early in May and gone the rest of the month as I am going to piggyback a trip to Germany off the need to be there to teach class.  Basically after class is over on the second Friday I am going to take a train to Luxembourg and spend the night there. After a bit of time in town I will take another train to Munich where I am going to rent a car and drive down into the Bavarian region near Neuschwanstein Castle.  As most of you know by now I am very much into castles and the Bavarian region offers several, some of very spectacular style.  Also during the trip I hope to get to the Black Forest region as well as getting into Austria for a day.

In the first weekend between class weeks I will probably try to visit Amsterdam as it is only a quick train ride away.  I realize the tourist reasons for visiting Amsterdam are generally centered on the red light district but that is not really why I want to go. Either way I am sure I will make it a fun day for myself.

So basically my expectations are to be able to visit 4 more countries I haven't visited before on the trip. Yes, a couple of them will be very brief. All the same I will be able to see things on my pace anyway. If need be I can stay overnight in Amsterdam that first weekend.

I am quite looking forward to it.

Hong Kong for Business Day 17 - Epilogue

Today started off with an earlier run through breakfast and then checkout of the hotel. I was downstairs and in the taxi by about 7:45am.  I realize this is extremely early for my scheduled 11:25am flight but I figured it would be better to be in the airport before traffic rather than get myself stuck in traffic trying to get there. It was a fairly easy ride to the airport . The cabby was nice and of course today there is sun where there hadn’t been in the past several days. You should always expect the weather to be at its best when you are leaving a location to go back home to winter.  After checking into the flight in the business class line which was basically empty I was told to go to gate 60 for the lounge and the flight would be somewhere near there.  I did some shopping in the immediate area before taking the tram across to the gate 60 area.  I was very early of course for the flight and by the time it was posted it was showing as half an hour late.  I did some shopping in the gate 60 area then found the lounge and checked in. They again informed me my flight would be late.  In the lounge I was able to get on the internet and play around for a while on the computer and check over emails.  The lounge provides snacks and drinks and so that is also nice to have.  I could definitely get used to business class travel.

The flight out of Hong Kong was on a 747 and I sat in the upper section which was fairly isolated from any noise and had plenty of bag storage space. The odd thing was being in a seat that was rear facing instead of front facing. Overall it didn’t do anything different for the flight but for takeoff and landing it was harder to see out the windows even though I was on a window seat. The flight was mostly uneventful with a little bit of turbulence. Unfortunately I only got about 3 hours sleep on it. Which meant I was awake from the majority of the 14+ hour flight.  I watched several movies to pass the time away including Faster, with Dwayne Johnson (the Rock from WWE) and that was a fairly bad movie that made very little sense.  I then followed up with Hereafter, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Matt Damon mainly. I liked it but it was definitely on the odd side.  After those two movies was the point where I slept. During the first two I had the dinner which was a filet mignon and potatoes and root vegetables. I didn’t eat the root veggies because they were not good.  I skipped the dessert.  After my short bit of sleeping I was awaken by the teenage Chinese girl next door turning on the seating light and couldn’t get back to sleep.  First up for after sleep movies was a Hong Kong film called Frozen.  It was not martial arts or anything like that and was the strange story of a woman who was cryogenically frozen in the 80s meeting her daughter and the boyfriend who got her pregnant in the modern day. It had an odd sense of humor by far.  I liked it but it would not be for everyone, I can promise that. After that I ended up watching the third of the Narnia films.  I was never nuts about the first couple but it was there and I hadn’t seen it . It was about the same as the others so just sort of there.  Finally, I watched Inception mainly out of not knowing what else to choose. I think it was an ok movie with Leonardo Di Caprio and a few other people I recognized, including a really old and fat looking Tom Berenger, but the idea and plot were definitely  more complex than I was expecting. I think it surprised me because most dream concept movies are too convoluted to be enjoyable.  It was a little on the convoluted end but in some strange way it made sense.  After the movie was over there was less than an hour to go in the flight and I played a bit of trivia on the entertainment console and basically did really poorly.

After I landed passport control had no line and was really quick. My bag was out of the carousel quickly and I got through customs with no issue. Onto the tram it wasn’t a bad ride from terminal 5 to terminal 1. I had 3 hours for the next flight so of course it was going to be quick.  Entering terminal 1 is where the snag came in. I was sent through a full body scanner where I was told there was a “groin anomaly” during the scan. I refrained from any jokes and ended up getting the full pat down search which was a pain of course but I didn’t complain or anything like that. It is easier just to deal with it and be nice or they’ll do it to you every time I suspect.  After that treat I found out where my gate was and ate a quick lunch at McDonald’s because I was sort of hungry and it was technically lunch time in Chicago or at least in Boston.  Since Boston time was 12 hours off of Hong Kong time I opted to just leave the watch alone completely. 

Of course since I was in Chicago and had 3 hours to kill already the plane needed to be delayed an hour before we started to board then another hour on the tarmac.  The flight itself was fine. It was an Airbus 320 and I was seat 1A, front row first class.  The red wine was not amongst the best I've tasted and the lasagna was too dry to eat so I skipped and ate the salad, roll and cookie.  Entertainment was TV shows on the small overhead screens so I just slept what I could. It was a short flight at least, but it was in 2 hours later than I was originally scheduled to land so I didn't get home until 10:30pm. The blamed the delays on air traffic control issues in Boston due to earlier weather. Well, I made it home anyway.

I really liked Hong Kong a lot. Thinking back on it, I had something to do my entire second week there. I can say that I would have liked to get home on Saturday to be used to home time again before starting work. I am at work now and though I wrote most of this on the trip yesterday I can say that I am very tired.  Still I cannot complain for the accidental 2 extra days. I got to see a little bit more. I am looking forward to the next trip there already. I liked the office a lot. The people were very nice and helpful. The class was definitely a challenge to deal with the lack of classroom feedback. I realize the reasons for it but it definitely makes things more difficult to do. It sort of makes you feel like you're doing a bad job even if you know you are presenting things correctly. Still I chalk it all up to a learning experience and I will be better prepared for the next class.

Hong Kong for Business Day 16

As mentioned yesterday today was another package tour, this time to Shenzhen, China. As much as anything it allowed me to say I officially visited the mainland under Chinese administration.  The day started with breakfast in the lounge then downstairs for the pickup at 7:50. There followed about 50 minutes of bus ride picking people up and switching buses to the one to take us where we were going and all that which eventually had me one train stop away from the hotel in the opposite direction I had generally been taking. A long time to go someplace it could have taken me 5 minutes to get to.

On the tour were 3 other people, a family from Australia, more specifically Perth.  They were mother and father and daughter all come to Hong Kong together. They have apparently done this trip a few times and even similar tours into Shenzhen a few times as well.  They were very nice and easy to get along with as with most Aussies.  The trip officially started riding the East Rail Line to Lo Wu.  Amusing, it started from Hung Hom, the last stop out on the line just beyond Mong Kok East where the hotel is. The ride was first class and ran all the way to Lo Wu. It took about 45 minutes to get to the immigration center. There we had to clear Hong Kong immigration then China immigration.  The tour basically vouches for the tourists so you don't have to get a real visa to get into China like would be the normal situation.  Instead everyone is listed on one sheet and have to go in order on that sheet. I was number four. They were lucky because apparently they won't process the visas without 4 so if I hadn't signed on it would have been canceled.  We didn't get stamps of any sort from China on our passports.

First stop out of the immigration center was the Meridian Building where we went up to the 69th floor to see the pea soup clouds outside. Our guide in China was named Maggie and she was nice and spoke English better than I expected though her pacing was oddly sing-songy, probably a product of her speaking Mandarin.  The stop wasn't long and with the lacking view it wasn't very exciting either.  After the Meridian center we went to the China Mineral Center and Museum. The early part of this stop was a guided tour of a small museum about jade and other materials and they even have a couple of the actual Terra Cotta Army on display. It was reasonably a fun bit and the girl who ran that part of the tour was very cute and also spoke English well (no pictures allowed inside so I couldn't get her picture).  After that part it was like being in TSL. I again was not interested in buying jewelery so I waited it out and then we had a short tea tasting before moving on to lunch.

I am not sure what the lunch place was called but I can say that the meal was less than stellar. There were hairs on the table and I found one in the salad too. They had beef with broccoli, radish strips with chili, hacked chicken, bok choy and rice. Because we were only 4 they gave us a hard time about drinks and we really didn't get any. Definitely not my favorite meal of this trip but the food was edible and no one appeared to get sick.

After lunch we split up with the family going to the Window of the World theme park and myself going to the Chinese Cultural Village theme park. My park is apparently complex and the guide stayed with me and brought me through it and talked about the various stuff inside. It is basically an open air museum dedicated to the various minority cultures in China such as the Mongols and the Tibetans. There are apparently 55 minorities in China. They enjoy status that allows them to avoid many of the rules the majority families have to deal with such as child limits and the like.  It was an interesting park and the extra help from the guide made it kind of neat.  After that I had a few minutes to run to the Splendid China part of the park and see miniature versions of the Great Wall and Forbidden City and the like. The Window of the Wold was apparently a park that has a lot of world monuments in miniature, not just Chinese stuff. I was very happy with my choice instead of that.

After the theme park we had to pick up the Aussies and then headed back to Lo Wu to do the shopping center market thing. I was not really nuts about this. The place is filled with people that jump at you at the instant you are in sight. You have to not make eye contact and not acknowledge them or they will not leave you alone. I would only have been in to buy tourist souvenirs but there wasn't a one to be found in the entire center. We had an hour in there. I didn't buy anything. They bought a couple things. After the shopping it was back through both immigrations and onto the train back. Fortunately they just let me get out at Mong Kok East and I could head right back to the room.

I was fairly hungry by this point so headed out to get dinner but since I was fairly tired I decided to just go to Freshness Burger in the mall.  I apparently witnessed an American having a breakdown about being in Hong Kong as she flipped out over what type of burger she ordered versus what she was given. I think there was a disconnect in terminology.  In any event the burger was reasonable enough for me and I followed up with an end of trip ice cream at Hagen Daz repeating the caramel, biscuit and cream cone that I had before because I liked it.  From there it was time to head up and start packing for the return home on Monday.

The pictures from today are located here.

Hong Kong for Business Day 15

There was a potential I could go to Macau with Henri who works for Hologic here in Hong Kong (actually he travels a lot but is based here from what I can tell). However the weather did not remotely cooperate so instead I chose to take a ride on the East Rail line (which is the one I used to get to the office every day) out to Fanling Station where I visited Fung Ying Seen Koon Temple. It is a Taoist temple and the complex has a cemetery and is quite large. I walked around for a bit and up into the cemetery. Of course the whole day it rained so before I left I borrowed an umbrella from the concierge for a deposit of $100HK (maybe $11US).  The umbrella helped a lot but it was tough to get pictures while holding it having only one hand free for the camera.  All the same I tried to get a bunch.  As I came back down towards the temple it was obvious a mass or ceremony was going on and I watched it for quite some time. I recorded a couple short videos as others were taking pictures too so I guess if I was invading, so were they.  I actually watched it for at least 45 minutes and maybe more like over an hour.

After the temple I walked around the Fanling stop very briefly but I couldn't really say there was much else to see so I didn't bother with it for too long and headed back to the station where I got on the train again and this time stopped at Tai Po Market. There I walked out and found the market and the Man Mo Temple. The temple is also Taoist and is dedicated to the gods of literature and war (Man and Mo).  It wasn't very big but there were a few people there actively praying and the like. During my stop at Tai Po Market the rain got fairly heavy and it was also very crowded so I really didn't take any pictures though I wanted to. I didn't want to ruin the camera was the main issue.  I think it would have been neat to see it without the rain so I could have gotten some good pictures anyway. Maybe next time.  After the temple I walked back to the station and found a McDonald's to have lunch at. I just had a number 9 (quarter pounder with cheese) with a coke.

After lunch I got back on the train and headed back in past the office and into the Mong Kok East Station which puts me right at the hotel. I dropped the umbrella back to the concierge and got my $100 back and headed up to the room to relax a bit. Henri and Priscilla were going to come get me for dinner at 5:30 so I thought it would be good to rest a bit and have time to get cleaned up. After a short rest I decided to book a tour to China for Sunday. I wanted to book one for Shekou and Gaungzhou but apparently I was too late for the cutoff for a visa.  I was able to book one for Shenzen though. I can't figure out what the difference would be for either visa.  In any event it is not really that much a cultural spot tour as it is a city tour. I will have to deal and will try for the one I wanted on my next trip here. Either way this trip will officially notch off China for me and not just the recently reacquired territories.

When the time came I met Henri and Priscilla downstairs in the lobby of the hotel and we took a cab to Sai Kung where Henri wanted to eat seafood at the Hung Kee Seafood Restaurant. I think the area is very nice but the weather was still rainy and unpleasant as with the earlier parts of the day so it was not necessarily represented as nice as it could have been. We looked at the boats that were selling fish right off the water for a few minutes and then went to the restaurant. These restaurants have the feature of selecting your own dinner from the tanks out in front of the restaurant. Yes, everything is still alive and they kill it, clean it and cook it for you right then.  I guess you really can't get fresher food than that.  Priscilla and I let Henri pick the fish out and we had scallops, razor clams, lobster and something like small lobsters or langoustines along with a whole fish. I am sure the people who know fish well can tell me what they were but I just eat fish really and haven't fished much or cooked much fish so I really don't know. They served it all family style as with most of the Asian food I have eaten out here. There was a lot of food and it was all very good. We also had some vegetables and an Australian Merlot accompanied with some Chinese tea as well.  I was full fairly quickly but I ate a lot. We had the leftovers packed up and they took them home. Much like with the Korean restaurant the night before we finished with oranges and the waitress lady gave us seconds because she liked us or at least Henri I guess.

After the dinner we did a quick loop around the area at night because it was still raining but only a light drizzle at this point. Then I got in a cab and they got in another and we both headed home. My driver didn't speak English well and I didn't have a hotel card so he had me talk to his friend on the cell phone and they were able to decipher where he needed to take me. It seemed he was honest. The fair was cheaper than the on the way out so I can't complain.  When I got back it was past 9pm so I just went to the room and wrote this and posted the pictures for an early bed. The trip to Shenzen won't start as early as the one to Macau did but still I could use the sleep I had been missing.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Hong Kong for Business Day 14

Today started with early rise to speak to Travel one more time. I posted about that already. I ate breakfast and spoke to the hotel about extending my room for the two days that seemed apparent. After that I got to the office for what was an easy day. The second Friday of the class is typically a half day but since I handed them the tests the night before and they were able to do them overnight only a couple had to finish up some questions and they all handed them in really quickly. I graded the tests and finished off all the necessary paperwork. After that it was basically shaking hands and sending them on their way. I stuck around the office for a bit talking with the locals and helping clean up a little. After that I headed back to the hotel and then struck out for lunch where I ate dim sum at the hotel restaurant, suggested by the executive club manager. I chose 3 items: steamed pork shumai, a scallop and rice dumpling and steamed meatballs. They were all good and filling. I accompanied with Chinese tea. I was the only non-Asian in the place.  I am sure it was expensive for dim sum but all the same it was easier than trying the authentic solo.  After dim sum I went into the mall and had an ice cream at the Hagen Daz stand. I had Carmel Biscuit and Cream flavor. It was actually quite good.

After lunch I decided to head into Central station and figure out what to do. I was told I needed to ride the tram to the peak on the island.  When I got out of Central I was able to find the route to the tram via street signs. I walked to the tram and bought a round trip ticket. It rides up the mountain to the peak and then is sent right back down again, each direction filled with new passengers. The wait was less than 10 minutes. I think the ride was about 10 minutes.  When I got up their the bad weather was all you could really see. There is a mall up there but not with a ton of stores. The Madam Toussaud's is up there but I wasn't really interested in that.  There was no point in visiting the observatory in the pea soup out there but I did check out the whole mall which has a Bubba Gump and a Burger King amongst other things. Fortunately I had just eaten.  While up there I got in touch with Jack and he said his office was practically right at the tram station and I should call him when I got down. I did so and then met him at his office where I went up and saw the insides of Merryll Lynch/Bank of America for a short time before we headed out to get his wife and eat dinner.

We rode the train back to Tsim Sha Tsui and then walked a couple blocks to a Korean restaurant where we had barbecue including all sorts of stuff and probably too much.  I know there was beef plain and marinated. Seafood and tofu soup. Bacon. Noodles with black bean sauce. Beef tongue. I am sure there was more beyond that even not counting the generic sides like kimchi and such that are always there. The food was real good and I can say I ate too much. We  got a bottle of shochu which was a tad harsh and not really the best thing I have ever had to drink and some tea came with the meal.  After we were done we sent Angela back home in a cab and walked around to try to find Japanese baby formula for their daughter for a short time. Since the Japan crisis the stores have apparently been both rationing and gouging.  Most Hong Kong parents don't use Chinese formula. Most buy Japanese.  People are also trying to stockpile salt in case of radiation and also Japanese soy sauce and seaweed.  In any event we had no luck and after a bit we took the MTR back to Mong Kok station and he headed home as I headed to the hotel. It started to rain about the time we left Jack's office and it remained a steady drizzle throughout the evening. It definitely limited the desire to explore any more or to take pictures.

During the evening I spoke to travel and got confirmation of my flight to Boston on Monday. I get in around 7:30pm or so. So with the email I know for certain that I am booked. I know travel was working hard on it but it has been a bit frustrating to deal with while half a world and a whole clock away from home.

The few pictures from today are located here.

Travel Arrangements Update

I spoke with travel and they have told me that I could get a flight out of Hong Kong on Monday with no extra charge. I am still waiting for the confirmation from them but supposedly the flight was reserved for me. I had an option to fly out on Saturday but the cost was equal to the cost of my initial round trip ticket for just the 1 way. I figure it will be cheaper to spend 2 more nights in Hong Kong than to spend thousands of dollars on the flight. When I get a confirmation I will post...

Hong Kong for Business Day 13

Today was breakfast and class as per the rest for the early day. I had a really unenjoyable lunch of a turkey sandwich that was very dry even with the mayonnaise.  The class went well enough. It was the students' last real day of class. I made them fix things I broke then I handed them their tests to complete for tomorrow so it should be a really easy day for them all on Friday.

After class I went back to the room and got cleaned up. Henri and Priscilla were visiting as it was John's last night in town so I chatted with them before I had to head downtown to meet Kate. We met at the Tsim Sha Tsui station and then walked to the harbor to see the light show. I took a couple segment videos of it.  It was neat but not necessarily anything spectacular. After that we decided to get something to eat. She wanted Pizza Hut so I obliged.  She had a broccoli, cheese and potato dish and I had the Diavolo pizza which was sausage mushrooms and red peppers. It was good enough I guess. The nice thing about restaurants outside of the US is that you can sit there and talk forever after you are done and they won't try to rush you out. So that's basically what we did and left around 10:30pm or so. The light show started at 8 and was done about 15 minutes later.  So I figure it was a two hour stop in a Pizza Hut. After we got outside it was raining and quite late. She has an early morning flight and needed to get packed still and I had to get back to sort out flight changes and get some sleep for the class tomorrow.

When I got back to the room I spoke to travel and they promise me I will have something before they go home tonight. I realize it is a balancing act but I have said that being on standby for Saturday isn't going to work for me. I need to know I am on my way out. So she said she will have something and call me. I will try to make sure I can wake up and get things finalized rather than have to wait another day through to get in touch with them.  I will definitely have more information by tomorrow and will post that as an extra.

The picture of my pizza can be found here.

Hong Kong for Business Day 12

Not a ton to report today in the early going. It was of course another day of class and that was basically all well and good. I had cold chicken and rice for lunch with the class. One of my teams broke their machine just before lunch and I had to run back to the office to get it fixed before lunch was over. Fortunately I figured out how to fix it fairly quickly and all was well and good.

After class was over a bunch of people from Hologic got together for dinner. We went to a restaurant called The Pawn because it used to be a pawn shop apparently somewhere back in the 1800s.  The food was good. I had a parma ham salad for starter and lamb prepared 3 ways for for the main. I had one Stella for a beer and then for dessert I had a chocolate and coffee mousse accompanied with a coffee.

The restaurant was on Hong Kong island we took the Central line to Admiralty stop and then switched over to the Wan Chai line (I think) we took one stop there and then were basically at the restaurant. We took the trains back to the hotel as well. It was fairly simple.  There were 8 of us for dinner and it was good to meet some people from the company I hadn't met before.

I am still working with travel on getting my flight home sorted out. I've opened up more options so hopefully things will have progressed by the end of the day for the travel department in the US.  That means hopefully they will wake me up tonight with news.

The couple pictures from today are found here.

Hong Kong for Business Day 11

Today was basically just another class day. Nothing exciting or different to report about the morning or class time. We had Korean stone pot for lunch again which was enjoyable.  After class was over we headed back to the hotel and then my coworker and I went out to the night market to do some shopping but I didn't take any pictures. Night market is basically a street market of people selling all sorts of stuff and junk.  Officially it is Temple Street. It is different from the lady's market mentioned earlier in the trip because it is all haggling. I did buy a couple things then we headed back to the hotel where I had to call travel to see about changing my flight back home. My expected return flight was to pass through Narita Japan. That is no longer really a great option with everything happening in Japan right now. If I leave it be I figure the reactors will melt down and spew out tons of radiation causing issues for everything. As much as I'd prefer not to incur extra expenses and miss my chance to get some Japanese candies I think it is best that I avoid the country right now.

As I mentioned earlier no pictures for today.

Hong Kong for Business Day 10

Today started out much the same as the rest of the work days with an early rise and breakfast in the executive lounge. We made it to the office and started the day out fairly well. I bring my camera to the office every day and today looked to be sunny in general so I tried to bring it out to get some pictures during lunch with hopefully a bit better light than I had gotten last week.  I took a picture of the drunken chicken with rice that we had for lunch. The chicken was cold and hacked on the bone in the traditional Chinese style. I think the overhead clouds rolled in just in time for us to eat and left as soon as I started up class again.  All the same we made it through the rest of the day.  Just before I left I emailed with Kate and we agreed to get dinner together.

When I dropped my stuff off at the hotel I had to figure out how to get down her way. I had to take the Central line from Mong Kok station much the same as the night I went out with Jack. The difference is I needed to get out at Tsim Sha Tsui instead of Central. It was a couple stops less and a fair amount of time easier. We had sort of set up a meeting place and after a few minutes of wandering around she managed to find me.  We walked through the Tsim Sha Tsui region for a bit and I let her decide what to eat. She decided she was a bit tired of Chinese and wanted to eat Italian as we stumbled across a place named Al Dente. It was small and very quiet for a restaurant in Hong Kong which was nice. She ordered a seafood pasta dish and I had the penne alla puttanesca.  It unfortunately wasn't very spicy but it wasn't bad really.  I had a Perroni to go along with the pasta.  She thought her dish was spicy so I apparently ordered wrong.

After we had dinner we walked out to the harbor and wandered around the area for a while talking and taking pictures. We even ended up back at the Avenue of Stars. I didn't bother to retake the pictures of the hand prints though.  After a bit more wandering she dropped me off at the subway station where we said goodnight. I had to manage my way back up the Tsuen Wan line to Mong Kok station and then back out and through the pedestrian overpasses to Grand Century Place and the hotel.  I got back at about 10:50 or so and got this penned up as quick as I could before heading to bed.

The pictures from today are located here.

Hong Kong for Business Day 9

Today was an even earlier start than normal. I only woke up 10 minutes earlier but was in the shower very quickly as I needed to be downstairs for the tour pickup by 7:10am.  I got cleaned up and ate a quick breakfast and was downstairs with a few minutes to spare.  The pickup guide was already waiting for me but the bus hadn't arrived so I had to wait a few minutes. From there it was circling through the city to pick up other people on what was apparently only our tour.  Kate was not on this bus route. Apparently they had two different buses working different routes. The bus dropped us off at the ferry terminal and that was where we met up with the other group and Kate was indeed there.

She had to repurchase her tour because apparently they couldn't find her in the voucher list even though she had booked the tour before she even arrived in Hong Kong. They told her to purchase now and they would sort it out tomorrow for her when there was more time. She was definitely annoyed at having to put up more of her money.  The tour basically started with us going through immigration to head off to Macau which is a territory of China formerly owned by the Portuguese but returned to the Chinese in 1999, a couple years after Hong Kong was. The territory is still separately run like Hong Kong is but somewhere down the road (I think it was 50 years from return to Chinese ownership) they are going to be fully absorbed again.  Macau is a peninsula off the edge of China. We took a high speed ferry to Macau. The trip lasted about one hour and was fairly painless.

After getting off the ferry we had to clear immigration on the Macau side then we met our guide for the tour who is from Macau and not Hong Kong. The people from Macau speak Portuguese and Mandarin. I am sure more speak Mandarin than Portuguese as she said that about 3% of the population is Portuguese.  That doesn't stop the territory from having very heavy Portuguese influence as well as a bit of Dutch influence from some previous time where they also held the land.  The first stop of our tour was to see the gold lotus flower statue that was given to Macau when the country was returned to China. It was a very short stop. This was where we discovered that Kate's cell phone was missing. She had just bought it the day before and she had 2 sim cards in it.  As we left we checked her jacket and everything in the bus but couldn't find it.

The next stop was at a small shop where you could sample some of their almond cookies or their dried meat meat products. We spent the stop searching everything for her phone but it didn't turn up. We talked to the guide form Hong Kong and he told her it was probably already stolen. She decided to try the  guide from Macau and she called the ferry company and them the ferry type and time, her seat number and the colors of the phone and they said they would call back if they were able to find it. Of course this set Kate a bit off as she was worried about it but I tried to keep her positive about it.  We knew she had it when we got on the ferry but not if she had it when we got off so it was most likely to be on there.

The next stop was at the Saint Paul's Cathedral which had been previously been destroyed I believe in World War II. This meant that there was really only the front of the cathedral there. It was kind of a neat stop. The sun really started to come out by this point and it was getting a bit warm for me. The stop also had us go through a museum of the history of Macau and our guide took us through to a lot of the exhibits and explained a fair amount of it to us. It was a reasonably good tour and after it was over we basically headed over to lunch in the fisherman's wharf. During the ride there the ferry company called the guide and told her they found the cell phone and there was much rejoicing...  This definitely lightened up her mood quite a bit.

Lunch was a Portuguese style meal which started with a potato style soup, followed by a slaw and fried fish (think fish and chips without the chips) with the main course being a chicken stew of some sort that was very yellow and rice on the side. The food was generally good although the glasses looked a touch scary for dish washer spots (I hope they were dish washer spots).  They served us coffee and a coconut pudding that was very jellylike and not very flavorful for dessert.  After eating we were told we needed to be back to the bus by 2pm but we could wander around the fisherman's wharf. We wandered and returned at 2 along with almost all of the tour except for people from Singapore. Unfortunately they didn't show up until 2:30. This is when the guide told us she said 2:30 to everyone and we all disagreed with her. It kind of sucked a little to sit on the bus for half an hour for no reason but at least he had the AC running because it was fairly hot outside by this point.

After lunch we were taken to Macau temple. Apparently the territory is named after the temple because the Portuguese thought the name of the temple was the name of the region. The old temple is about 700 years old we were told though it has since been built up a fair bit. I liked the temple a lot. It had a lot of stairs and stone gardening and maybe a bit too much incense.  The old temple is smaller and made of stone and is the main entrance to the rest of the complex. The newer temple is much larger and red.  In the new temple there was a brass bowl that had handles that apparently if you rubbed the handles it would predict your luck. One of the Singaporean ladies tried it first and that pretty much got everyone in the temple trying it. Basically, it had water in it and if you rubbed it the right way the water would vibrate and percolate. She did it very well. Kate watched her and wanted to try and after a couple other people went with mixed results she didn't really have a good go at the start but as she started thinking happy thoughts it started to work for her. I tried it out a bit later and it was a bit better than Kate's try but not really anything spectacular. It was fun anyway.

After the temple we headed to Macau Tower. It is 228 meters tall, so shorter than the Eiffel and the Tokyo Towers.  The first stop up is the 58th floor which is enclosed and has the glass bottom sections on the floor. I have gotten over my fear of those sections by this point and it was amusing watching other people be afraid to step on them. I convinced and Aussie woman to do it so her husband could photograph her doing it. It was sort of fun. The view might have been a touch nicer without the obligatory haze that has been in the area the whole time I have been here but it was still quite nice.  After that it was on to the 61st floor which is open aired but not really in the sense there is a glass wall but the top is open. They sell bungie jumps and skywalks on this floor. We didn't really have time to try either nor would I have. You should know what a bungie jump is. The skywalk is done by putting you in a harness and hooking you up to a rail that allows you to walk around the building on the outside. The idea is to push your weight off the edge so the harness is suspending you.  There appeared to be more takers for the bungie jumps on this day than the skywalks though apparently famous people have done both.  Charlize Theron was one who had done the skywalk anyway.

From there we headed back downstairs and met up with the bus again. The tour brought many of the members to a casino where they would stay for 3 more hours then brought us back to the ferry station. We had to clear immigration then board the ferry and ride it back to Hong Kong. The people at the Hong Kong side had Kate's phone we were told so we would have to get it there. It was again an hour long ride and we basically dozed off during the trip because it was a fairly full day and we were tired.  Back in Hong Kong it was actually quite easy to get her phone. The brought us to a security booth, she had to sign a form and she had her phone back.  From there it was what I felt was an interminably long line to get back through the Hong Kong side of immigration.  As soon as everyone was through we were lead through the terminal and split up to our respective buses. Kate and I said our goodbyes and I got on my ride to the hotel. Of course the Royal Plaza was the last stop and I got back at about 8pm.

I was fairly hungry but not willing to put a lot of effort into eating so went to the McDonald's in the mall and got a quarter pounder with cheese meal and ate that very quickly. I can say it was reasonably OK but I liked the Freshness Burger from the day before more.  After that I headed upstairs to finish off the night with writing and posting.  It was a very long day for me and I was quite tired when I got in.

The pictures from today are posted here.

Hong Kong for Business Day 8

Today I took a tour of Lantau Island as the main activity. I had made up my mind I was going to see the giant Buddha during the week and so on Friday night had purchased the tour. The bus arrived at 7:50am so I basically got up early like for a work day and had breakfast in the executive lounge before heading downstairs to the hotel lobby to wait for the bus. It was a couple minutes late but I was the first stop for the pickup service.  After a few stops everyone on the route was aboard and we were brought to a central location to be put on our own individual tours. I had chosen the Lantau 360 which was a small bus and the tour was about 10 people. Our guide used the name Joelle and we had a guide trainee on the tour as well.

The first stop of the tour was the Avenue of Stars which has hand prints and placards in the walkway of famous Hong Kong movie stars. I guess it was opened in 2004 or so which means the Bruce Lee placard had no hand prints. All the same there were placards or hand prints for a few people I recognized such as Jackie Chan of course, and Jet Li, Michelle Yeo, Sammo Hung and Steven Chow.  There was also a fairly good statue of Bruce Lee there.  The stop wasn't long but it was nice out if there was a bit too much haze still.

The second stop was at a Hong Kong jewelery factory named TSL.  It was a brief tour of what they do followed by a bit longer stay in the shop for people to buy stuff. I am not really interested in jewelery and my brother works for a jewelery company besides so this stop was really not up my alley at all. After the tour part I pretty much just waited for the store part to be over. While waiting I started talking to one of the other tour members. Her name is Kate and she's German but living in Australia.  She's in Hong Kong for a few days on holiday before going back home to Germany.  We ended up hanging out together during the tour and got along pretty well.

After the jewelery store we had a 45 minute ride to Lantau Island. The guide told some stories along the way and the ride was not bad. It was basically the reverse of the taxi ride I took to the hotel on my first night and I even recognized some of it. The bus dropped us off at the Ngong Ping cable car ride which takes you up over the water and some mountains and around to the giant Buddha statue.  You have two choices of cable car: standard or crystal. The crystal cars have glass bottoms. I had chosen the crystal car because I use these moments to face my fears of heights. Kate had bought her tour remotely rather than at the hotel like I had and she wanted to try the crystal car when she found out what it was and she got the tour guide to change that for her which was cool. Of the tour it was us 2 and a couple from England in the crystal car and all the rest were on standard car. The ride takes about 25 minutes and I really enjoyed it. The glass bottom was really neat. The cars do get up fairly high at times too.  Since we left first we had to wait for the rest at the top before the tour could continue.

The tram basically puts you right in the temple and giant Buddha statue area. We got a tour of the statue but unfortunately we could not go inside it. It looks a lot like the one I visited in Japan in Kamakura which we were able to go inside and I suspect you can in this one too but it was not part of the tour.  After a brief stop for some pictures we were supposed to meet with the guide to head over to the temple and monastery. One pair of the tour was late by about 15 minutes in getting back to the meeting point and this made the guide agitated a bit. We took a short bus ride to the temple and she tried to tell us about and bring us in but there was a ceremony going on so instead she told us about it off to the side then we had our vegetarian lunch. The lunch was served family style and was a soup starter followed by many different types of vegetarian dishes and a bowl of rice on the side. All the food was very good and there was a fair amount of it. I think the only thing I didn't try was the spring rolls because they ran out before the dish got to me on the lazy Susan. All the same I was happy with the meal. We had free time after eating to check out the temple and the immediate surroundings. This time another couple was late to the meeting point and our guide got even more agitated. This couple was French and apparently didn't speak any English.  After waiting more than 15 minutes the guide called in and it was decided to leave them behind.

The next stop was a fishing village down the mountain. This was actually a neat area with a lot of tiny little houses on stilts over the water. The place was fairly run down as you might expect and there were all sorts of shops selling dried and live fish and the like.  I thought the village was really cool. There were different sights and sounds and scents around it. The guide told us various things about it along the way but I was more into just looking around.  This time no one was late returning to the bus and we got back up the mountain to the Buddha area where we were given half an hour of shopping time. Kate and I walked around and looked in a few shops but didn't buy any souvenirs. During the wait we found the French couple so they were able to get back to their hotel through the tour which was nice. It is too bad they missed the fishing village but them's the breaks I guess.

We rode the crystal car back down to the base after that and then the bus took us home. During the ride Kate said she was taking the same company's tour to Macau tomorrow and asked me to go along. I told her I would try to buy the tour when I got to my hotel. I was last stop of course just like being first picked up.  I got up to the room and got cleaned up then headed down to the concierge and booked the Macau tour for Sunday so hopefully that will be as fun.

I have to say our guide could have been better and she was the first that was adamant about not having her picture taken so I don't have a picture of her, but I had a lot of fun on the tour. The trainee was a really nice guy and knowledgeable but it was his first time on that tour and he wasn't allowed to say a lot as a trainee he told us.  It seemed like he was the guy that had to look for the late comers.  The only bit I could have done without was the jewelery store.  Other than that I had a lot of fun.  It was a very full day.

After getting my tour for Sunday I opted to jump into the mall and eat at the Freshness Burger to compare it versus Japan and it was fairly good. Better than McDonald's for certain but not maybe as good as the ones in Japan. The mild complaint would be the thickness of the grilled onion slice but I enjoyed it anyway.  After eating I headed back up and my coworker was in the executive lounge so I grabbed a drink and hung out and chatted for a bit before heading in for the night. The Macau trip is going to be even longer than the Lantau trip so I figured it best to get to bed sort of early.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Hong Kong for Business Day 7

The bad news is I am coming down with a slight cold and my nose has been leaky for the past couple days. During the course of the day I also developed a headache that wouldn't go away.  The day started off as the rest of the week with breakfast in the lounge followed by the train and bus combo to the class. I think the class went better today but by nature it is a short day dedicated to one subject. Typically I send the guys away early on the first Friday to get out and see what they can that night but since my students are stuck using a shuttle bus to their hotel they really didn't get any benefit from it.  So we all had to hang around until 5:30 anyway.  By the time we got back to the hotel I was definitely not feeling like I wanted to do much but I purchased my tour for Saturday then we stopped by the lounge for a couple hours and chatted but I didn't eat.  During the time we saw the reports about the big earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It looked fairly frightful and it is a good thing Japan is very prepared for earthquakes or it could have been really much worse.  I have gotten news that my friends in Japan are ok which is very good to hear.

Again, no pictures for today as it was classroom then bed early for my headache.

Hong Kong for Business Day 6

Basically like all the other days today started with an early rise and then breakfast in the executive lounge. After breakfast we took the train/bus combo to the office and started the day. The class went well enough but the students are sort of cheating themselves because one of the Koreans knows too much about the system and they are letting him do all of the lab work.  It also means they are racing through the material that normally takes a full day.  It is posing minor problems in that they think the class is light on material when it really isn't.

After class was over we headed back to the hotel and I dropped off my stuff and headed out to meet Jack for dinner and a couple drinks. I had to walk from my hotel to the Mong Kok station rather than just using the Mong Kok East station we have right at the hotel. All of the walk is on a covered overpass over the streets as soon as you exit the mall. It took maybe 15 minutes to get to Mong Kok station.  From there I had to figure out the maze that was the station and that took a minute or two. I had to cross the station from where I entered to practically the other side and go down two levels. The ride to Central station was about 15 minutes and say 6 stops or so. I was supposed to meet jack at the Starbucks but I couldn't find it and called him and he came and got me at the Mrs. Fields instead. Yes they have all the American places...

We first went around the area of the station and had a couple drinks at a bar there that was relatively not too crowded. After chatting for a bit we walked out of that area and got a cab heading back towards the island our hotel is on. Central station is on Hong Kong Island, our hotel is not.  We took a cab to an area with a bunch of restaurants then he thought we would have Mexican food so we ate burritos at a place I think was called Agave.  In any event the food wasn't bad. I had a spicy pork burrito to continue on with the spicy theme of food for the day.  After dinner we walked around the area and found a place to have another drink. The place had a live band that was apparently Filipino and there were all sorts of scantily clad Filipina women around trying to pick up guys. It felt like it was probably mafia owned and Jack basically said it was. The band sang songs in English that were basically dance songs current and old from America.  After a while there we picked up a cab and headed back in for the night. I got in at about midnight and basically headed straight to bed.

The few pictures from today are here.

Hong Kong for Business Day 5

Today started early with breakfast followed by heading to the office. The students upped the ante a bit today by starting a heater war in the classroom. It was set before to 23C and I was quite happy with that. When I got into the classroom just before starting my students had snuck in and set it to 28C. The heater fan was on full blast and a wave of heat greeted me as I stepped inside. I basically said, "Oh, no, we aren't doing that," and cranked it back down to 24. We really had more lab than classroom time but the rest of the day was the students turning up the heat and me turning back to human levels. After class we headed in and I spent a bit of time in the lounge with my coworker until I decided I was tired and headed in for the evening. I will definitely have to eat dinner out tomorrow since I didn't today.  Again there were no pictures taken today.

Hong Kong for Business Day 4

Not a whole lot to report today. I got up early and had breakfast at the lounge then headed over to the office.  The class was a full day affair. We had lunch provided at a different place near the office and I had a Cesar salad with fries.  After class we headed back to the hotel where I was tired and not that hungry so stayed in the lounge and had a light snack and a couple beers.  I didn't take any pictures today as really all there was was class time. The weather wasn't cooperative in that it was hazy and overcast all day. I liked the temperature which seemed to be about 60F.  It was cold for a lot of my students, but I considered it short sleeve short weather easily.  In the cool air the humidity wasn't as daunting.  Hopefully I will find reason to take pictures tomorrow. I may force myself to go out for dinner at the very least. I am leaning that way right now.

Hong Kong for Business Day 3

Today was the first day of class so basically from here until Friday a lot of my days will be taken up with work of course. I started out with a breakfast in the executive club lounge that was basically the same as Sunday's breakfast and met my coworker during that time. We both ate and then we headed to the train station to take our train from Mong Kok East to University.  From University Station we needed to take the 272K train to a short distance away from our office in Science Park.  The trip probably took about a half an hour total though I wasn't keeping track of time.

My class is fortunately only 8 students. 2 Koreans, 3 Chinese (one from HK), 1 Indian, 1 Saudi and one Iranian. My fears were moderately founded. Most of them are struggling with English and asking questions of the class basically only brings back blank stares. I will deal with it as best I can but I do not expect miracles here. It  definitely means the sense of humor is right out the window. How do you tell jokes with proper timing and all that when they barely understand a third of what you are saying?  In any event they do seem very nice and like most people who aren't American, very eager to learn so it should be a good class. We had some mild ice-breaker incidents along the way today so it should hopefully only get better.  It will be a struggle from beginning to end all the same, I am sure.

The weather today was basically perfect. Sunny, not too humid and cool and breezy.When we broke for lunch we had to travel outside for a little while to get to the place we ate. I regretted not taking my camera to lunch because the office is in a really nice looking area. For lunch I had a chicken and pork over rice dish that was good. Typical to most Asian foods it was bone in and you are expected to spit out the bones. I have already gotten used to that concept and the food was actually enjoyable. Much better than the lunches from the Belgian office. After we ate we took a short walk around the area and could see some of the bay we must be situated on.

When I sent the class home for the day I walked out to take the pictures I missed at lunch. It was still light out though twilight would hit soon. The best light was sort of gone but the haze still wasn't as prominent as the day before so hopefully the pictures came out well enough. I think I would have had the best effect from the lunch time sunlight but I will have to take what I could get.

After that I got on the bus (272k same as the way in) and then from University took the Hung Hom line back to Mong Kok East which is where the hotel is. My coworker had already left earlier so it was solo. All the same it was fairly easy and not too unpleasant. It was crowded, but not horribly so. The train was amongst the noisiest I have ever been on. You don't hear quite this many people talking on the MBTA in Boston.  After a few minutes in the room I opted to hit the lounge for a couple free beers, one Asahi and one Tsing Tao.  After that I decided to cruise the mall underneath the hotel for a little while to kill some time. I wasn't particularly hungry so I opted to just see what sort of stores and restaurants there were but really just spent about half an hour wandering around.

After that I opted to just kill some time watching TV for the night.

The pictures from today are here.

Hong Kong for Business Day 2

I woke up at around 6am but decided to force myself to stay in bed until 7 thinking it would help me out for the day. I do think I slept some more. The bed in the hotel is quite firm and I like that. After getting showered I headed over to the club lounge and had breakfast from about 8-9am taking my time.  I had expected to meet my coworker there but he wasn't around by 9 so I headed back to the room for a few minutes and then rechecked the lounge and he still wasn't there. I decided to take a walk for a few minutes and did a small loop around the area local to the hotel and then headed back in to see if he was there by 10am.  I still didn't see him in the lounge so I opted to give my friend Jack a call and we made arrangements to meet. He had to get a few things in order so I had a little bit of time to kill and headed back out to some walking in the local area.

In walking I managed to find a parade that was going on and I watched that for a few minutes. I had dragon (or lion) costumed dancers and a bunch of older people doing traditional dances as well as a lot of puppet type things, for lack of a better word. I was watching that when Jack called me back and I headed to the hotel lobby to where they met me. I haven't seen Jack in a couple years or so but he still looks the same. It was good to see him. He is a project manager for Bank of America. He hired on to them full time when they were Meryll Lynch but BofA bought them out. He also now has a 6 month old daughter which should be news to a few people, as it was to me. Her name is Nicole and her eyes are so big they don't look Chinese. It was obvious he loves the idea of being a dad. What was amazing to me is that she already has 4 teeth.

They took me out to dim sum and ordered up a whole bunch of foods that ranged from roast pork to chicken feet to jelly fish.  I think I tried everything on the table. I liked pretty much all of it.  It was a lot of food and I was pretty well full by the time we headed out of there. Angela's fried Peggy also came out to join us for the dim sum. She was really nice and spoke her English with a British accent because she was taught English in the UK.  After eating we took a short walk around the area where the restaurant was and then they got some Starbucks coffee too (never been a fan of Starbucks so I passed). After that they took me to their apartment which is spacious for a room in Hong Kong.  It is a nice place though I am sure it is quite expensive. They needed to give Nicole a bath and such so we hung out for a bit then Jack took me for a walking tour of the local area for  a while.  I am not sure how far we walked but we saw the "Lady's Market" amongst other things.  After that we headed back to his apartment and picked up the wife and kid and headed out to find dinner.

They took me to a  Thai Restaurant they really like and eat at a lot. The place is not much a tourist would look at but the food was really good and I was full before I knew it. They ordered all sorts of stuff from satay chicken to pad thai to a soup that had a citrusy and spicy taste the name of which I couldn't pronounce I am sure.  We had a couple Thai beers as well. It was an excellent meal. I really enjoyed everything I tried. I haven't had a lot of Thai food before. Jack said the Thai food here is much better than he remembers it being in the states. I hope it didn't spoil me too much to eat it here.

By the time we were finished dinner. it was already past 9pm and I was very tired and they said I looked exhausted so we took a cab to my hotel and they headed back home. In the writing of it all it doesn't look like I did a ton but it was a very full day and very tiring. The humidity here in Hong Kong is something to be reckoned with.  It was probably about 70F during the bulk of the day which is of course a great temperature to me but the humidity was at times daunting.  I felt like I was never going to have enough deodorant to survive this island. In all though I had a great first day here and it was great to see Jack again. He is one of those really good people you never forget in life. I am glad to see he is doing well and loving the whole parenthood thing. It is very cool.

Hong Kong is basically a giant sprawling city that feels a little bit like New York City and a little bit like Tokyo. I think Tokyo is cleaner but Hong Kong is cleaner than NYC.  The area where the hotel is basically is a large shopping district with streets dedicated to specific types of merchandise. I know I walked the jewelery street at the very least.  I would have to say that if you weren't into cities then Hong Kong is probably not the place for you.

I didn't take as many pictures as I should have but the ones I did take are posted here.

Hong Kong for Business Day 1

I had a Flightline van pick me up at around 2:45am. That brought me to Dascom Road where I switched to a different van. That van forgot to pick up one person and after we left we had to turn around and go and get her as well.  After that we headed into the airport and going to United in Terminal C I was the last to get off the van. The airport was open but United wasn’t for another 25 minutes so we had to wait in line to get processed. After that it was an easy run through security and to the gate to wait for the plane.

This was my first ever flight in higher than coach class. The first flight was to San Francisco and I had first class for that bit. It is definitely a lot more roomy and you get armrests all to yourself. I took an aisle seat right up front. The plane was a 757 and was not too filled with the high tech conveniences unfortunately. I had the cold breakfast of fruit and cereal because I didn’t want the omelet.  The only movie they showed in the 6+ hour flight was The King’s Speech which I watched and thought was reasonably good. Yeah, yeah, it won the Oscar, etc. Not something I care about.  All the rest was television shows which I really didn’t watch and was able to nap here and there.   As a side note, one of the flight attendants apparently knew how to make balloon creatures and several of them were carrying around or wearing balloon things.

The flight landed a little late and of course the transfer was all the way across the airport but I had enough time that it was not a big deal. I pretty much just got to the gate and waited for the plane to board. Boarding as business class I was supposed to wait until the first class and special members boarded but it wasn’t really bad and I was on without any issue. The seat in business had its own entertainment center with a larger screen than you will get in economy if you have it, but since it was a 747-400 there was common entertainment for the economy class.  My seat was the last aisle seat in front of the economy section right next to the serving station which could at times get a little busy and a little noisy but overall I was happy with the location. Since the seat folded into a bed I spent more than half of the flight successfully sleeping. They served the meal early in the flight. I had an Australian Cabernet Sauvignon named Yarumba or something like that. They served a grilled chicken salad to start and I had the braised beef short rib for the main meal. It was by far the best food I have ever eaten on a plane. I finished with a raspberry flavored ice cream in a dark chocolate shell. I enjoyed the food greatly. 

After the meal I started to watch a couple movies. I watched The Town which I liked a fair bit. Always good to see Boston in the movies. Ben Afflek was even reasonably good in it. I think he gets pummeled as an actor but really he isn’t that bad.  After that I watched the remake of True Grit with Jeff Bridges. It was ok but I did dose a couple times during it. I don’t think I missed that much of it. I was happy that I watched it but I think I don’t need to rewatch it even with what I missed.  After that I turned on Bullitt (heck, it was there) and instead used it as a sound to fall asleep to.  I am sure I was completely out before the big car chase scene.  After that it was just sleep for several hours. I woke up with about 2 hours to go in the flight.  From there I listened to music and they handed out fruit plates and juice as an end of flight snack.

After landing it wasn’t that bad to clear passport control and customs was a walk through. I found the taxi stand and took a taxi to the hotel. Of course the driver didn’t speak English well and the taxi didn’t take credit cards and I just realized I didn’t get a receipt for it. It was 205.5 HK dollars for the fare. Doh. He did stop so I could get cash out of a machine at least which got me the money to pay for it.  The ride seemed to take about 45 minutes but I’m not probably the best judge of things. It was a bit after 7pm when I got into my room.

After dropping off my pack I went to the common area where I found my coworker John hanging out for the evening talking to a guy from Belgium who was living in Shanghai and had just needed a table to sit at when he got to the common area. I hung out and had a couple beers before settling in for the night to relax a bit and write this. Too tired to go out and get lost I opted to just take it easy in the hotel for the evening.

I was a touch hungry and decided to get room service though. I ordered a set menu and though I should have gotten Chinese style foods the best offering was sweet and sour pork which is definitely not my thing. So instead I got cream of mushroom soup to start, a burger for the main and a chocolate brownie with vanilla cream to finish.  The food was good but the burger had avocado on it which made things sweet. I did have to take it off because I didn't care for the effect. That should be the only day I do room service though.  After dinner it was already past 10pm. I just watched a little English Premier League soccer commentated in Chinese and then went to bed when it was over at about 10:30pm. West Brom beat out Birmingham 3-1. I am sure of the West Brom but Birmingham I may be wrong about. I was half out of it.

I didn't take many pictures but here are the few.