Today Rob and I decided t

Today Rob and I decided to head out and see the BIG Buddha. This requires us to take a boat to another island and then take a bus to find Buddha. Well we meet up and head out. I thought I knew about where to find the boat. I was close. About 200 yards off. Not too bad. So we get on the boat and off we go. The ride was OK, nothing to interesting happened. When we got to the island we started looking for which bus to take. We found a information booth just out side the dock, so we went up to ask them. They said they had no idea which bus to take. Then we asked if they had a map, They said no. As we left to find the bus on our own we were wondering what kind of information they did have?????
Anyway no big deal, we found the bus. It took about an hour or so on the bus to get to the big Buddha. As we left the bus I discovered I apparently was not the only person who had gotten a little queasy on the bumpy ride. At least that is what it seemed like from what was left behind. Enough of that, The Buddha was COOL. We were told this is the worlds biggest outdoor sitting Buddha. Does that mean there is a bigger sitting Buddha indoors somewhere? Have to be a really big building. The Buddha is at the very top of one of the tallest mountains on this island. The view of the surroundings was real nice. We walked up to the Buddha itself, then went to the temple next to the Buddha. Typical Chinese temple stuff. Kind of neat. After that Florence told me we should make our way to this small town of the other side of the island. So we did. At least I think this is the town she told us to go to. Florence told me what to do in this town but I could not remember. We were suppose to go to #($&#* (Some Chinese words). I know I could have asked for Florence to repeat it but I’ve found that does not usually help. If they repeat it 5-10 times I will finally catch it (I’m just really really slow when it comes to understanding/remembering Asian words). I find it just easier to just go there and guess. That works for me most of the time.
Anyway, when we got there we looked at a map to see if we could find something interesting. We found several temples that could be interesting, so we headed out for the first one. Well after backtracking for a few times we found this itty bitty temple no more than 10 ft per side. It struck us both as a bit funny to have spent about 30-40 mins looking for this temple. Especially after coming from the biggest sitting Buddha in the world. After that we just started walking. I found it interesting to just explore this small fishing village. After a while we came across another temple. I think this is the one the map was talking about. Then we followed the bay around till we got to the tip.
On the way we walked though some people making some “stuff” I call it stuff because that’s the only word I can think of to describe it. It was this purple mush. It had the consistency very finely ground up purple potatoes. More water/juice than anything. They were grinding it up in a meat grinder and storing it in these large “milk” vats. At some point it looks like they spread this stuff out on large 3ft wide straw flat plates to dry. After that I have no idea what they do with it. It didn’t smell like something to eat.
after that we hung out on the beach for a while then headed home.
When we got back to Hong Kong we went to a place called Victoria Peak. This is a entertainment area at the top of “you guessed it” a peak overlooking Hong Kong. We looked around and then tried to head back down, but the line for the cable car was so long it would have taken hours to get through it.
So we hoped a bus and got back to the hotel. After that we headed for Lan Kwi Fung again. This time we met up with Joanne and some more of her friends. The Ex-pats here in Hong Kong seem to be much closer net than the ex-pats in Tokyo. I guess it’s just Tokyo is so much bigger. Joanne showed us a new bar. This bar had a pretty good mix DJ. He kept the beat going pretty well. I only noticed him dropping the beat 2 or 3 times that night. Not bad. This place was packed. Had lots of fun. Finally got to my room and fell asleep by about 4-5am. Good Time!!

No conference today but I

No conference today but I had to go in for a few meetings. I ended up staying until lunch. Went to lunch with a few of the guys and then went out looking for something to do. I found an aviary, right next door was a botanical garden, and next to that was a zoo. So I spent several hours looking around at the different stuff. I found it interesting that one of the animals they display most prominently was the raccoon. Just goes to show you, want some people think of as exotic is other people’s back yard pest. At about 9:00 pm I met up with Florence and Mary. We had a goodbye diner and then we headed home. I think I’ve thanked Florence and her friends about a 100 times so far but they deserve it. They have been absolutely wonderful. I would not have enjoyed myself anywhere near as much if it weren’t for them.

Second day of the confere

Second day of the conference. We worked all day. Finished the conference. We all went out for diner again. Real nice diner again. After diner, Rob, Andrew and I went to Lan Kwi Fung to a bar for a few drinks. Andrew and Rob we making fun of me because I seemed to know the bars better than Andrew, and he lives here in Hong Kong. We basically sat around talking and drinking. It was fun.

I worked all day today.

I worked all day today. This was the conference that I came to Hong Kong for in the first place. After work the group went out for diner together. Diner was good. This is a pretty fun group to hang out with. Some work talk but not too much. After diner most left. Rob, Joanne, Julia, and a few of Joanne’s friends, and I hung out at the bar. We talked for a while then headed for the dance floor for the rest of the night. Lot’s of fun.

Again I spent the morning

Again I spent the morning at work. After work Florence arranged for a group of us to tour a near by island. It was a great day, sunny, not TOOOO hot. We took a ferry to the island. It was a high speed hydro-plane boat. Pretty cool. I was very surprised how much you could feel the waves. I thought that since you were not sitting on top of the water like a normal boat, but had small plane wings about 4 to 6 ft under the surface of the water, you would not feel the waves as much. Ether I’m wrong or the bay was very rough because we rocked quite a bit. The boat wasn’t so rough that I didn’t enjoy the trip, it was just more rough than I expected a hydrofoil to be.
Anyway we got to the island, picked up some drinks and headed along the coastline. We followed the coast line all the way around the tip of the island and cut across to the bay again. first we passed a temple that overlooked the bay. It had a very nice view. It was for the God of the water. Then we walked to a cave where some pirates hid out. It was a little entrance. You would never guess there was a cave here. I guess that’s what made it a good hide out, hu. Next we followed the coast line for a while. The view looked straight out of one of those movies set in the south China sea. Just like the 007 movies. As we turned the tip and headed back up the other side, we passed through a graveyard. It was interesting to see how they did it. Whole families would share one plot. Makes since to me. We in the states waist way too much land for this kind of stuff.
On the way back to the bay we passed some vacation houses, along a beach. These houses were known for a rather weird thing. It turns out that a group of kids committed suicide together. I can’t remember how right now, it had something to do with stuffing wet towels around the doors and windows and $%*& (I can’t remember what they did). I think Florence told me they still rent out those rooms by the way. Anyway after our walk we sat down for diner right by the bay. As the sun went down it was just beautiful. After diner we took the boat home. Hong Kong has a very pretty skyline at night. Once we got back to Hong Kong Florence took us to a little place that served “Ginger Milk” I got to say it does not sound that good but to my surprise, I did enjoy it.
ANOTHER WONDERFUL DAY!

I woke up and another let

I woke up and another letter under my door. Florence sent me another fax with different options for what I could do for the day. She is taking such good care of me. I had to go into work this morning, I need my visas for my trips to India and China. In Japan each would have taken about 10 days. Here in Hong Kong they got them both done if 4 days. So I met with Beat for a bit, got some work done and was off to see the world (well at least Hong Kong).
Started at the visitors center. Florence told me I could get a 1 week free pass to all the museums in Hong Kong. After the visitors center I went to the space museum. It was really quite good. I watched a movie on the new international space station. Lot’s of cool stuff. After that I took out my GPS. Marked where the station was and headed out. I turned a lot, trying to get my self lost. I walked around looking at stuff, meeting people for about 4 hours. I figured I was lost enough to try to find my way back to the station. First I tried to guess what direction I needed to go. Then I pulled out my GPS and check which direction it thought the station was. I was only about 10-15 deg. Off. Not too bad.
On my way back a typhoon hit Hong Kong. The rain started to come down real hard so I found the closest station. By now it was about 9:00 pm so I made my way back to the hotel for the night.

I woke up and started get

I woke up and started getting read for the day when I noticed a letter under my door. I turned out to be a fax from Florence giving me suggestions for how I could spend my morning. I was meeting her at 3:00 to go hiking but I didn’t know what to do for the morning. She suggested I try out the Costal defense museum. It was in the same part of town that I was meeting her at.
Sounded good so I figured out how to get there. First thing I did was to just walk around to check out this area. I hadn’t been here before. I seemed very residential. After I walked around a bit I headed to the museum. My first plan was to walk but it turned out I couldn’t find an easy path. Some roads didn’t have a side walk to cross. So I went back to the station to find a taxi. The taxi driver had no idea what I was talking about so he called the dispatch and had me tell them where I wanted to go. They had no idea ether. So I hung up on the dispatch and called Florence. She explained where to go to the driver.
The museum was pretty cool. They had a great exhibit on bows and arrows in Asia. By the time I finished it was about time to meet Florence. This time I used my GPS to find my way back to the station. It worked pretty well.
At the station I met Florence and a friend. We headed out to the base of the “Dragon Back Hiking trail” The whole hike was real cool. Well it was extremely hot and humid but real fun. I can’t remember the last time I sweet more. (I’m sure you really wanted to know that) It took a few hours to get up the mountain and to the start of the dragon back trail but once we got there the view was just outstanding. The trail is at the very top of a ridge, so you could see in a 360 deg arc. After an hour of 2 along the top, we headed back down the mountain. Eventually we hit a road and grabbed a bus to another part of the island. There was a beach. We stopped to look out over the beach for just a few minutes, then we headed out again.
This time we walked out to the end of a peninsula to a picnic area. This view was just as breath taking. After hanging out for a half an hour or so we started to head back home.
When we got back we broke up and all headed home to clean up and then meet back together for dinner. We went to a restaurant the girls often go to. More of a modern local place, but a bit traditional. Afterwards Karen and I grabbed some desert. It was a some sort of weird fruity ice cream with fresh fruit on top. Really good.

Hong Kong Day 1:

Hong Kong Day 1: My first day back in Hong Kong went a lot like my first day in Australia. When I got to my hotel room I called a friend that I met the last time I was here. She invited me to join her at a beach party with her and a bunch of friends. I had a bit of trouble finding the place. First the busses: I got on the bus and asked if I could get change. He just waved me on the bus so I figured that I could get change. After the bus started he told me I could not get change. So I got kicked off the bus on the next stop. Now I have to find a place where I can get change. I walked around for a few blocks until I found a store. So I bought a bottle of water. Now I have change so I try to get back to the buss stop and wait for the next buss. I get on the bus but I’m not sure it’s going the right way. This buss driver doesn’t seem to understand English. So about every few stops I would lean out of the bus door, (Holding up the bus) to look at which stop I was at and to make sure I was going the proper way. After a few times of doing this I think the buss driver decided to try a little harder to understand where I was trying to go. He said it would be in 3 stops. So I get off and find myself at the wrong stop. I was told to get off at the stop before ???? St. (I forget the name of the street now, but I knew it then). I think the driver missed the concept of “the stop before”. So now I have to find my way to a beach without any directions. Well I was on top of a big hill so I was guessing I wouldn’t find a beach here. So I just started to head down the hill. I figured that I might as well get to the shore before I worry about finding the correct beach. On the way down the hill I passed a kid. He looked western so I figured he may speak English. He did and he know where the beach I was trying to find was. So I followed his directions and found the beach. Now my next problem. I hadn’t seen Florence for 6 months. And 6 months ago I meet 1 night at a bar through another friend I met that week. I had a general impression about what she looked like and I remember she was cute. So now I’m walking along the beach looking for a cute Hong Kong girl. Then I remember she said some of her friend were from Germany. So I figured that would be easier to find. It was I found a bunch of white guys hanging out in the beach and looked for a cute girl hanging out with them. This worked. I found her (I think she recognized me at the same time). She introduced me to a lot of her friends. The beach party was a lot of fun and she has a great bunch of friends. I was real tired but had a great time.

Had a conference today.

Had a conference today. Not much was interesting for me. I have a presentation tomorrow so I was getting ready for that. After the conference there was a reception.
At the reception a few from work and a few from our biggest distributor went out for a few drinks. We went to a bar that had a 70’s cover band.
THEY WERE GREAT! Lot’s of fun but it’s now 1am and I have to give a presentation tomorrow. I’ve never seen Japanese people so uninhibited before. The thing I found the most interesting is that a lot of them knew the backup singers moves. You know 70’s mottown sound all had backup singers that would to the same routine every time the sang the same some. Well Most of the Japanese seemed to know all the moves for each of the popular songs.

Leaving Hong Kong. Shopp

Leaving Hong Kong. Shopping all day for gifts. I had to carry all my luggage. Finally found something I like. Met guy on train. Laid off so took a 2 week vacation to asia.