Hong Kong - November 2007

Will go back to my flight - WOW! Cathay Pacific business class is amazing :-) Don't think I'll be flying economy every again! Great service and food. Think I tried one of every drink available :-) Managed to get some serious shut eye as well.

Landed early (ok why is that when I'm in a comfy seat???), went through immigration and customs. Didn't have to wait in the long line at immigration as I had a visa :-) Collected bags and off I went, took the train (25 minutes) into HK. This was easy! Next came the hard part of the taxi…..me driver didn't speak English and of course I only speak English…managed to get to the corporate apartment without too many issues though.

The security guy took me up to my apartment (2 bedroom shoe box) and showed me around, certainly didn't take long :-) (I will be uploading some photos soon.)

Friday I woke at the wonderful hour of 2am, unpacked my bags then went back to bed until 6am. Met up with an old and great friend Kat, who I went to uni with. She's been here for 4 months so showed me the ropes. Did my first supermarket shop, and I was in heaven. Lots of kiwi/aussie things. So different to the nyc supermarkets. Had a yummy lunch at the wine bar below my apartment, nice and convenient, before picking her children off the school bus and taking the ferry (25 minutes) to their apartment. It was fantastic to see them all again, and even better that they live here!!! The views from their apartment are amazing.

We had Chinese (of course!) for dinner sitting outside. Gone are the nasty NYC winters. Winter here is like 20c degrees, which of course I'm loving! I definitely look like a tourist as I'm not dressed in warm clothes.

Saturday we looked at 17, yes 17 apartments in the same complex as Kat's. Certainly gave me an idea of what you get for your money. I'm going out with a real estate agent this Friday to look at places closer to the office. At the moment I walk to work which is great!
Saturday night I was pretty tired so spent a relaxing evening at home watching BBC.

Sunday I was completely exhausted so enjoyed the day at home. Did go out exploring a couple of times, really just to find out where my work was located and how I'd get there on Monday.

A couple of interesting facts I've noticed since being here.
1) Cars drive on the other side of the road than America, and the driver sits on the right hand side. Very confusing for one!

2) My apartment is in the midlevel's area of Central, in Soho. Running through midlevel's is one of the greatest ever inventions - the walking escalator. It runs downhill until 10am then changed to uphill at 10.20am. Great to me coming to and from work. The hills are unbelievable here, I'll certainly get very fit walking around. I'll try and take some photos and upload onto my website.

3) The dates are written as day/month/year..this will take me awhile to get use too.

4) Taxis are as cheap as chips!!

5) People walk as slow as snails on the streets, is driving me nuts!

Monday was the first day in the office and it went very well. The ladies are very nice - one kiwi, 2 locals and 1 American. It’s a very different work environment to the States even though its still the same company. The office is very open plan, no walls to block you from your neighbour. Your rubbish/trash bins get emptied at least twice a day. Security is constantly walking around the floors.

I have a friend over from the UK at the moment, she has come for work and will spend the weekend with me. I'm looking forward to doing some serious sight seeing.

I hope this finds everyone well and happy. For those of you in America, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!