Hong Kong Again

So I was in Hong Kong for the second time in a year. This time for work. It was also because one afternoon my boss was leaning against my cube wall and said "So you've been quite involved in this thing.." and he scooted of to the department secretary to book my flight and hotel. Funny thing is that I was to attend a 4 hour afternoon meeting followed by a dinner but the flight times made it such that I ended spending two nights in the Conrad. Not a bad deal some might say. Ahem.

The cosmic twist of fate is that when you're not at your desk at work, suddenly the whole world needs something from you. Apart from trying to get to sleep between some TV and showers, I had 2-3 hours to myself. That was it. My mum told me to try to get a toy double decker bus for my nephew but seriously, I had no time to even have a slow paced breakfast.

More pertinently, the hotel was in this posh area called Pacific Place that full of high-end boutiques up to the wazoo. So high end that I never saw a crowd anywhere. But in my roamings to find a cha chaan teng for a spot of nai cha and bo lo yao (which doesn't exist in this posh area) I ended up Starbucking (with a tinge of disgust and disappointment. HK nai cha is way better than anything Starbucks can offer me there) and finding a CD shop. It was with glee I spent 30 plus minutes looking through discs from eccentric dance artists I would hardly come across in Singapore. Reasonably priced stuff too. I ended buying 7 discs for HK600. The only thing I really spend money on is music.

Anyway, the drama goes on. I was booked on a 8am flight back home. I had to struggle with the two alarms I set for 520am, finally leave the soft soft bed at 535am, and ready myself to checkout at 6am. I managed 30ml of coffee so kindly provided by the hotel at a discreet corner for early departing guests such as moi before scooting off into a taxi to the Airport Express stop at Hong Kong station in Central. I missed the first train by 1 min. Sigh.

You can buy a round trip Airport Express ticket for HK$171, a HK$9 discount, online at the MTR website >>

All goes well though. My fear of having to run to the departure gate were unfounded as thankfully, immigration counters for visitors suddenly tripled as I was queueing up (so thoughtful the HK airport immigration is) and the gate was in the Terminal 1 building (unlike past situations where we were running after the plane having had to take the connecting subway between the main terminal and gates for budget carriers). Phew. I actually had time to buy pineapple cakes for colleagues and family.

What I learnt on this trip:
- there's still something magical about Hong Kong, on the island, not Kowloon. The density, the high rises, the even higher hills, the crazy weather (rain, sun then rain all in 4 hours), the low clouds between the peaks and all the greenery still around, the super taxis, how early the sun rises and the nai cha.
- take a taxi when the transport is covered. I braved the MTR to the hotel. Big mistake. I got lost at Pacific Place and kept a colleague waiting for dinner and beer. Taxis and receipts, taxis and receipts.
- work follows you everywhere. So get it done.
- office politics follows the job everywhere. Look out, stay sharp and shut up. Done.
- be friendly whenever, whatever. You never who you'll meet in the hotel lobby.