Melissa's Asian Adventure (Part 2 - Hong Kong)

I arrived in Hong Kong Friday night after a very lovely flight on Singapore Air - one of the nicest airlines I've ever traveled. Now SARs is still alive and well here in China. When you go through customs you need to go through a temperature check and many people are wearing masks. My temperature was normal so I proceeded to the money exchange. The lady asked and do you want a return (round trip) ticket for the airport express. I said, naturally, I don't know do I? In fact I did, so I was off to the train. I learned it's much cheaper and easier if you don't speak Chinese/Cantonese to take public transport. It's only about $70 ($10 usd) to get to and from the airport. The dollar is about 7 to one. I am getting a lot of use out of my 7 multiplication tables. Dinner should be about $300 that takes a little getting used too!
When I got to the hotel, it was dark and late so I went to bed. The sun woke me early and out of my floor to ceiling wall of windows on the 37 floor (one perk of traveling so much) I got my first glimpse of HK Island. WOW! This place makes NYC look like a small town. Hong Kong is a region made up of several islands. HK Island, Lantau, the New Territories (Kowloon), and a little Island that's how to Disney Land.
I wasn't completely unprepared for my first trip to China. I had been corresponding quite frequently with the concierge at the hotel so had a good itinerary laid out. I set off to do a self guide walking tour of HK Island. The city is steep! Much more so than San Francisco. Most streets even have steps on them. And there is a cross city outdoor escalator that runs above the street and takes you completely across the city from the low end to the high. There were people everywhere!
On Sunday I took the train, then the bus to Lantau Island to Po Lin Monastery. Home to the largest outdoor, seated, bronze Buddha in the world. I am not sure why it needs all of those qualifiers, I can't imagine there's a taller Buddha of any kind or indoors! I need to read a little more about this place because all of the signs and reading material was in Chinese. All I can say is that it was an intense and beautiful place. People were holding burning incense, bowing and praying. There was a temple structure with a fire burning and people were placing bags of folded paper inside. My dad probably knows why. If he reads this, he should post a comment and let us all know.
Anyway, so I took the bus to the monastery. Why the bus? Well when I got off the train people split in two directions. The white people went to the scenic cable car terminal and the Asian people went to the bus terminal. I followed them (although the agreed upon plan with the concierge had me going the other way).
The bus ride was an adventure!! We wound up a very steep mountain at high speeds on a one lane road meant for two way traffic. The locals even shrieked every once in a while. The scenery was the amazing Chinese countryside - mountains, lakes, and waterfalls all on the edge of the ocean.
So I figured that after spending the weekend in HK, I was now an expert and I could easily find my way to the offices for my meetings. Well, I got there, but it was an adventure.
First, maps are NOT drawn to scale and it is HOT. A nice local man walked me to the train station. It should be noted that I was on the right track it was just a lot further than the 500 m the map said. He was very nice, but a fast walker and only spoke chinese so I was speaking english and him chinese, running down the street. Me in a suit and him in running gear. Thank goodness I changed to flats at the last minute. Then two trains later and another 500m (read, more like 2km). I arrived at the address - I think. The address is written on the building in Chinese. So I walked up to the office and as I looked in there was a table set up with a white table cloth incense burning and fruit everywhere. The building name was all in chinese so I looked down at my map to the left and to the right. I had no choice but to go in and ask for help. It's a good thing I did, because I was in the right place. Oh no if it was this difficult to determine the right building, how hard would it be to have a conversation! But then the executive came down to meet me and it was a true "ahhhh" moment with a halo of light around her. She was Scottish! (Yes, I am that good at differentiating white people now... jk, I read her bio).

Melissa's Asian Adventure (Part 1 - Singapore)

I am embarking on a 10 day solo trip to Singapore and Hong Kong. We tried to work it out so Sean could join, but given he had just taken several days off for the Bailey's trip and I needed to go in October, we just couldn't make it work. Fortunately, I was able to ease into it by going to Singapore first ("official" language English). I had a packed schedule of meetings with IT, Compliance and Legal executives to discuss our plans for further expansion into the region. I also met with the CEO of one of our business partners to discuss some new, mutually beneficial opportunities.

Given the flight was $10,000 cheaper if I flew in on Sunday, I did that. This gave me the opportunity to explore the city a bit. Singapore is an "international" city. Meaning city=Singapore, state=Singapore and country=Singapore. There are not many historical sites to see given the newness of the city and their policy to knock buildings down every 99 years. Singapore is very wealthy, with a very generous and well structured government. 85% of people live in high rise public housing (97% of people in public housing own the unit); 10% in private high rise apartments; 5% in houses - if you live in a house you are filthy rich (foreigners are not allowed to buy houses). Singapore is the most densely populated city in the world. There are 4 million people living in 600 sq km. 40% of that is reclaimed land (they filled the ocean in with sand to make more room). There is no unemployment. If you don't work, you don't get paid. There are enough jobs for everyone and training available to help people get them. They do not understand the American way. Everyone is required to save 30% of every paycheck. This is used to buy apartments and for retirement.

While there are a lot of Westerners living in Singapore now, most of meetings were with people from either Singapore or Malaysia (singapore is not part of malaysia). This is not that surprising. What is surprising was the number of women executives I met with. (This country would have no problem accepting Hillary!) In my time in this job I have become quite skilled in recognising the person I'd be meeting with - profiling if you will. I would have been wrong every time this week. My last meeting of the week was over lunch with the General Counsel of one of the largest companies in the world - a woman. So I asked her about it. She explained it to me quite simply. In Singapore you are required to complete high school. Because women are smarter and more hard working they get into better colleges and since they are smarter and work harder they get better jobs and beacuased they are smarter and work harder they get promoted more quickly. We got along beautifully! That is until the end of the meal...
Well, she took me to a Japanese restaurant. Since moving to Australia I've become much more open to "different" food; however, this was pushing it - there were a lot of things on my plate I didn't recognise and there was so much of it. I thought I did a good job. When the waitress came around to ask if I was finished (I assumed that's what she said - I really had no idea) and I said yes, my host said, "oh no she's not" and made me eat it all!!!! Mental note: no more lunch meetings in other countries.