Danielle Isabell Renee's space

In the morning, Isabell got up early and climbed up the stairs from the 15th to the 17th floor where the hotel roof-top pool was located. Even though it was 7:30 am it was already hot (ca. 26 degrees Celsius or 80 degrees Fahrenheit) and after 5 minutes in the sun it felt great to jump in the cool water. Danielle had to watch the Redwings (Detroit ice hockey team) in the finals and thus Renee and Isabell went to the breakfast buffet without her. We had omelets made-to-order, hash browns, spring rolls, fruit, yogurt, toast and juice and were in heaven. Best breakfast since Oxford. We left the hotel for a metro trip to  Lantau Island where we took a cable car (de: Ski-lift) to the top of a mountain and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We couldn't imagine how people mastered the trip up the mountain, which took us about 20 minutes by cable car, by foot in the sweltering sun.

Upon arrival, we enjoyed the Chinese style tourist village set up to accommodate all the visitors that come to see the Giant Buddha, the world's largest Buddha statue. It was very impressive to walk up the stairs towards the gigantic big-belly with a swastika (de: Hakenkreuz) on its chest. We guess that Hitler must have adopted the ancient symbol from the Buddhist culture. We wondered how the Chinese had gotten that monstrous thing up the hill. An exhibition gave details about the statue and we realized that nobody carried the Buddha up the hill. It was put together on the mountain top in the early 80's. A very young temple therefore. With that information in hand we were a little less impressed but had to admit that at one point the Great Wall was also only 25 years old…

After a quick lunch break we took the cable car to the bottom of the hill where we bought some English books, something that we weren't able to do easily in Xiamen. Next, we were off to Stanley Market, Hong Kong's cheap and famous open-air shopping discrict on the very South side of Honk Kong Island. We did not realize when we got on the bus that it would take us 45 minutes each way. The drive there was very nice; along the hilly coast line we saw beautiful villas and beaches, standing in great contrast to the busy downtown area that is reminiscent of New York or London. The market was a bit disappointing as most of the vendors sold poor quality items (de: Ramsch), but we were nonetheless able to find some nice gifts (tea sets, kimonos) to bring home. However, our 30 minute stay at the market and 90 minute transit time caused us to be late for dinner with Jenny, Isabell's friend from grade school in Germany, who is working for a beauty product company in Hong Kong. She was so gracious to wait for us and took us to a late dinner in Soho, the restaurant and art gallery district of town.

You get to Soho from the Central train station by escalators (de: Rolltreppe) that take you up the steep hill. The hip restaurant, Jaspas, offered great food and wine we knew from back home (Penfold's Koonunga Hill - Danielle and Isabell's favorite). It was crowded with young people and we very much enjoyed the nice atmosphere. Afterward, we climbed down the steps to Lan Kwai Fon, the party district of Hong Kong. Our first stop was the Ice Bar. In a little room that was outfitted with ice sculptures and freezer temperature, we had vodka shots. After a couple of minutes we could not stand the cold (and didn't want to put on the fur coat (de: Pelzmantel) that were provided and thus we went back outside in the tropical evening night (at least 90 degrees Fahrenheit or 32 degrees Celsius). We had drinks at a bar and enjoyed the party atmosphere. Our next stop of the night was a roof top party at one of Jenny's friends. As she is German most of her friends are too and we found ourselves at a party where everyone spoke German, lots of interns who spend a couple of months in the city before returning to finish their master's degree. After midnight both Renee and Jenny had enough and went to bed, but Danielle and Isabell went back to Lan Kwai Fon to continue the night at a bar dancing with some new friends we made. It was lots of fun. 

We woke up in anticipation of a great day. Dell arranged for a driver so we could transport our luggage for Hong Kong from the hotel to work which wouldn't have been possible on the crowded shuttle bus. How nice of our employer. That meant we got to sleep in. How could the day go wrong? Today, Grace (big boss) was back at the office after a 10-day business trip to Malaysia and Australia and we had a big update meeting with her…and the entire team of 9 people. It seems that in China (might be a broad generalization) everyone is asked to join if they are remotely connected to the topic of the meeting, but most of the attendees never even speak a single word, but rather look at their superior to lead the conversation. We were able to clarify some details about our project and thus considered it a successful meeting.

At 5:30 pm we left the office for our 7:50 pm flight. Very unusual for us, we were early as the trip to the airport took 2 minutes. We checked in, went through security and sat down close to our departure gate for some dinner. It was a "Western Restaurant" with Korean, Malaysian, and Japanese food. (Does that mean those countries are considered Western countries in China?) But we also found some Spaghetti Bolognese on the menu, which we ordered. As an appetizer we got French fries.  However, our main meals arrived before the appetizer and by the time we finished our food we thought language barriers had caused them not to understand our order of French fries. But then one of the waitresses came running into the restaurant with a little bag and we joked that those must be our French fries she had picked up at the KFC on the other side of the terminal. We could  not believe it when she, shortly thereafter, brought a plate with fries and ketchup to the table. We think we outsource to China - but they already have a pretty good concept of how to outsource to America, or KFC in this case.

Our flight was so short we didn't even have a chance to get comfortable in our seats. We just got around to watch one 22 minute-long episode of 30 Rock on the plane's TV system when the food trays (dinner on a 60 minute flight, really?) were cleared off and the plane started its decent into the Hong Kong airport.

We had never seen an airport like this. Every high-end brand (like Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany's) was represented, wireless internet was free, and everything was organized and orderly. We bought our public transportation pass and took the express train to the city. Our hotel was in the middle of a shopping mall and  on top of a train station on the Kowloon side of the city. We did not want to pay the extra guest charge and thus smuggled Danielle into the room. No problem! The room was tiny but very nice with soft mattresses (!). It was already late and thus we decided to go to bed and venture out the next morning.