Sunday 9/24/06: work, toilets, transportation, cell phones

Sunday Sept. 24, 2006
Hong Kong

Working in HK:
This week was spent mainly working for Cadmus. They put in very long hours here, not just the American’s at the office, but the locals as well. It is not unusual for people to stay until 11pm. The locals work very long hours here, not just those working for Cadmus. Most come in to work between 8:30 & 9:30 and standard leaving time is around 6:30 to 7:30. Also, most business are open at least on Saturday mornings until 1pm. Some people just work every other Saturday, but working on Saturday is standard. Sunday is a big day shopping & outings for the locals.
They love the outdoors & the parks. There are city parks, like what you’d expect and country parks, which I think are much larger & have hiking trails. HK is covered with mountains, so the hiking can be pretty challenging. We had planned to go hiking today, but it is raining. Oh well, may have to settle for shopping & a movie. Maybe I’ll invite the others over to our apartment for bowling. I’ve still not had a chance to use the bowling alley we have (a little 2 lane alley). They charge $5 for a half hour – not bad.

If you want to take a look at a good web site about HK check out
www.discoverhongkong.com/eng
It has lots of information & photos. I particularly like the Walks found under the Touring section. I printed several of them out & the next nice day I have off, I’m off & walking……
Another site is:
www.afcd.gov/hk/english
This is sponsored by the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department & has info on the country park & other places. I’m not sure 2 years is going to be enough time for me to explore all of this!

John had to rush off to India on Thursday afternoon to check out a printer. We are swamped right now with a project for Target. You’ll see our efforts in stores in 2007. We are arranging for the printing of the labels, tags & UPC labels that will go on something they are calling Global Bazaar. There will be products manufactured all over the world, not just Asia. I have a new appreciation for the labeling that goes on products. Who would have guessed so much work would go into a tag that just gets thrown away. Seems a bit ridiculous, but it pays the bills. Guess that is why I’m in nursing…
It is fun to see what John does & I know he appreciates having me there, it’s a lot easier to ask me to run out & get coffee or sandwiches or make copies of things. I won’t get mad & threaten to quit, not yet at least. I worked all day Saturday & a friend said that she guesses sleeping with the boss isn’t really working out for me if I end up working that many hours – the folks at the office thought that was pretty funny (thanks Neenee).
So I’ve spent Friday & Saturday night at home, which was actually nice. I watched TV & did some ironing on Friday (this tiny washing machine leaves the clothes extremely wrinkled, even by my standards which if you know me at all are pretty low). I’m thinking of taking the laundry out. I found a place that does dry cleaning much less than John was getting it done for at the apartment’s service (a pair of pants with the apartment service was about $5.75, the place I found is $1.80). Guess it is the convenience of being able to take it in the building & having it at the front desk the next day. My little lady takes 3 days & it’s a good healthy walk down & then back up a very long flight of stairs connecting our street to the one below. A good cardio workout to do errands around here. So anyway, I’m going to see what they charge for laundry & might just splurge especially if I’m going to be working so many hours.
Yesterday we had lunch at a Spanish/Mediterranean restaurant that was good. I ordered Mexican Taro with Avocado & Chicken – it turned out to be a avocado & chicken wrap with chick peas & some other beans in it. It was really good.

Public Bathrooms:
Bathrooms in many restaurants are a trip. I think several restaurants share the bathrooms (space issues), so you leave the restaurant out of the back door, usually next to the kitchen & sometimes walk down a little alleyway the bathroom. They all seem to have regular toilets, but some give you a choice of western toilets or eastern holes. The holes are more common at public toilets. It is in a stall & there is a hole (good size) with porcelain surrounding it with a ridged area for you feet (so you don’t slip in I guess). I guess if you are really accomplished you can stand & hit the mark, but personally I’m still at the squatting stage. I think maybe you are supposed to squat, because the nicer ones have hand rails on either side of the wall that make it relatively comfortable to squat. Some places (usually public) the toilet paper is outside of the stalls on the counter or on a hook, so you have to be sure to take it before you go in. I was at one restaurant that had a shared toilet & the toilet paper at the register with the keys so when you pay you can get your supplies if necessary. Of course I didn’t realize this until I returned the key, but I’ve learned to carry tissues with me in my bag – I’m learning to be a prepared traveler.
I’m sure that is WAY more information than many of you wanted to know, but that is daily life & I promised to share it.

Transportation:
The taxis are wonderful & there are so many of them. I’m not exaggerating when I say that at least 75% of the vehicles on the road are taxis. I don’t know how any of them make any money. They are relatively cheap. To get to the office it costs around $3 or $4. It’s about a 10 to 15 minute ride. They pretty much know the main places we need to go & I always carry a map with me so I can point out my destination just in case. The building we live in has 24 hours guard service at the front door, so if we are taking the taxi from home, we just tell the guard where we are going & he tells the driver. So we are not missing having a car. I wouldn’t want to try to drive here anyway, the roads are so twisted & convoluted I’d be lost in no time.
I’m enjoying the buses. Talk about inexpensive – to get to work on the bus is between 50 & 75 cents depending on which bus you get. I found a great web site (actually it is on the discoverhongknog site I mentioned earlier) where you enter your origination & destination locations & they tell you which bus to take. It’s great. I love sitting on the top floor (most are double-decker) in the front seat by the outside window. This row has less leg room, so most people don’t like to sit there. You get a great view of the trip & I’ve seen lots of places I want to go back to. On the way to work I pass the zoological & botanical gardens, US Consulate, Hong Kong Park, the peak tram, & a few malls. From getting on the bus to getting off generally takes less than 15 minutes (this is during rush hour). Then it is a 2-minute walk to the office. Our stop is towards the beginning of the line, so it isn’t usually very crowded. I got John to start taking it last week & he said it was better than the taxi, because in the morning it is really hard to find free taxis. The busses run very frequently during rush hour. Coming home it takes a different route I think because it can’t make it up the hill to our road. I get off at the bottom of our building (there is a lower entrance on the street below us). It’s very convenient.
We use lots of elevators over here (with all of these high rises) & I have noticed that they are very intelligently programmed. There always seems to be one at the lower floor & the other at the top floor. If you press the elevator to go up from the bottom floor, I’ve noticed the one at the top starts coming down. That way I guess they can cover all the floors more quickly. The one you took to go up then goes on up to the top. At least I think that is how I’ve noticed it working. Makes sense.

Cell Phones & ear phones:
I think everyone here has an attachment coming out of their ear. If you think people use cell phones a lot in the US, it is nothing compared to here. Walking down the sidewalk more people are on cell phones than are not. If they aren’t on their phones then they have ear phones in listening to music I imagine. Cell phones are going off constantly everywhere you are. The cell phone tones tend to be some trendy Asian music or rap. I don’t think I’ve heard a regular ring since I’ve been here.
I need one of my kids here to help me with my cell phone. I have the basics down, but I can’t figure out how to retrieve a message or record my message for callers. I’ve even read the instruction book cover to cover. It tells me how to do every other thing with messages except how to listen to them. I think this must be like getting out of the mall, you should just know how, it should be obvious. If I could figure out where we got the phone I’d go back, but that was the 2nd day I was here & I don’t have a clue where we were. So, if you happen to call my cell phone, you will get a message in Chinese & don’t bother leaving me a message because I can’t get to it!! Just a bit of frustration…..

It’s 12:30pm here now, so I think I’ll head out & do something fun. Raining harder now, so the walk is out, but at least I’ve done the research so the next nice day – we’re gonna be ready!!!