A week in Hong Kong; work and pleasure: Victoria Peak, the Star Ferry, Soho, Lantau Island and the Big Buddha, Stanley Market, the Ladies Market, afternoon tea at the Peninsula hotel, harbour cruise, the symphony of lights and my experiences.

Sunday 21^st May 2017

By the harbour in Hong Kong

Hi everyone,

How time flies! Last Sunday was my first full day in Hong Kong and now the week is over and I am writing on the airplane on the first leg of my long haul back to Madrid. I am on the impressive Emirates B888-300 Boeing flight which will cross over parts of China and Indo China and the whole of India and Pakistan until it reaches Dubai and which will take 7.45h. It’s very cool to be flying over places such as “Mandalay”.

My flight route from HK to Dubai

Also the Emirates flight lets you know when it’s time to pray hahaha. I didn’t pray, but was up at 4.45 local time and the flight left at 8am. From Dubai I shall take another 7 hour long Emirates flight which should get me to Madrid, all going well, tonight just after 8pm local time. It’s been a great week with lots of experiences but now I cannot wait to return to Spain, my family and home.

So let’s start from last Monday 15^th. The exhibition I was coming for, Critical Communications World, wasn’t starting until Tuesday and we had hoped to decorate the stand on the Monday but found out it wasn’t allowed. Thus I had a whole free day to myself. It rained all day – as it did a lot of the week, although it was warm and humid – and I stayed in my small but perfectly equipped hotel room (BP International Hotel on Kowleen Peninsula, opposite HK Island) and worked, mainly on fine tuning our international press release and sending it out.

At about 5pm I ventured out, got out some HK Dollars (approx. 7 or 8 dollars per euro) which I would need as a lot of things, like taxis and the metro can only be paid in cash. My destination was the Victoria Peak overlooking the HK skyline. For that I would have to take the famous Peak Tram up to the top. It was built over a hundred years ago and is one of the musts to do in HK. Thankfully it has been renovated over the years by Swiss engineers, who are the worlds’ experts on funicular cars hahaha. It was, however, an amazing piece of engineering for its times.

Peak Tram

There are pretty long queues to get into the 2 old carriages but the wait was worth it as you ride past the towering skyscrapers of this mega city. Once at the top you walk straight into a shopping centre – that is very common here – but thankfully I found my way outside and was able to enjoy the views and the greenery on the mountain top.

The ugly and big shopping and leisure centre at the peak

The view at the peak as you get off the tram and come through the ugly shopping centre.

It was wonderful to be there, but not that much fun on my own as there was no one to share the experience with. Even so, I enjoyed walking along the HK trail in the mountain spying the skyline of HK. Then, before it got dark I went up to the Peak Sky Terrace, once again using my octopus card, as I did with the tram.

There you are at the very top of HK. Unfortunately it was raining and cloudy so the views were not as good as they should be.  However I still loved every moment of it. I even had my photo professionally taken for a lark; the one below.

My paid for picture at the top of the shopping centre. Loved the moment. 

I then wandered down through the gigantic shopping hall – how I hate them – to find somewhere for dinner. I chose a Chinese restaurant as I was eager to taste the typical HK dumplings; the “dim sum”. My place was laid at a table overlooking the skyline of the city. What a pity I was on my own. I was, of course, given chopsticks and had to ask for a knife and fork (sorry, never could handle them however many times I have tried).

My Chinese dinner at The Peak 

The dinner was delicious as you can see in the photo.

But I had to curtail it a little to join my colleague Miquel who was in town after dinner with a customer and we were to meet at Pier 7 by the Central Harbour to take the 5 minute ride on the Star Ferry to Kowleen. Hong Kong is on the Pearl River, a tributary of the South China Sea and apparently Hong Kong means the harbour of fragrance. Taking the Star Ferry is perhaps the number 1 thing to do in HK and it’s a lovely experience watching both skylines of the two islands it joins. Little did I know but I would take the famous ferry at least 5 times but each time I marveled at the views.

On the Star Ferry for the first time.

The ferry is used by the locals just as much as it is by tourists. It’s cheap and I always paid using the proverbial Octopus card – very useful indeed.

The Star Ferry from Central Pier 7 left us at Kowleen pier and here we had to walk back to our hotel; about 20 minutes as the metro combination involves as much walking underground as over ground.

Even walking is a problem with so many people on the pavements; it’s very crowded. After all, 7 million people live in HK with the smallest amount of space per person in the world we heard. Traffic is horrendous, so taxis are not practical unless you get lost or it’s very early in the morning. Unlike mainland China, you do not see bicycles here which surprised me, although there were some in the lesser populated Lantau Island. Everywhere there are signs on what not to do for every possible situation which drove me mad.  

There were telling you what to do and mostly not what to do were everywhere.

HK may not be communist, from its history of being a British colony, but I must say it seems like a very strict “nanny” state. Some of the people, here, mostly officials of any kind can be very abrupt and quite rude when telling you what to do or not to do. That’s the one thing I hated about HK; otherwise, non-official type people were lovely and very helpful whether they knew English or not and many did not. I should add that surprisingly, HK is quite clean and you can see there is a clear effort to diminish pollution although it might be a losing battle. The loos are very acceptable too (that’s important for me hahah) and in general everything is very well organized; maybe even a bit too organized for me – nanny state again I’m afraid but, then again, it can’t be easy to govern HK. Who am I to judge after only havong spent a week here?

My other impression was just how gaudy, kitsch and over the top the local taste for fashion, jewelry etc, is. The HK people just love neon lights and the favourite colour must be either red or yellow. I found it too much but of course, without it, HK would not be HK.

So much gaudy taste in HK

Miquel is great with maps and we got there walking through the pretty Kowleen Park where we even saw an open air swimming pool with people bathing at 11pm in total darkness!

People swimming late at night in a public pool!

I had to walk to and from Kowleen Station/Piers from our hotel in Austin Road by Nathan Road or Jordan Road many times and each time I got lost as there is so much construction going on and Google Maps couldn’t always keep up. I have to say I got lost when I was on my own; not with Miquel, a real wizard getting round HK on foot or by metro. If you have Miquel in town, you don’t need a guide hahaha.

We were late back at our hotel as we nearly always would be as getting around in HK is so time consuming. The next day, Tuesday, would be challenging and what I had really come for and I needed a good night’s sleep. Thankfully my jet lag was receding.

The exhibition we had come for was starting that afternoon and would last until Thursday evening. We were up early, took the free shuttle bus to the Airport/Asia World Expo express station at Kowleen and were at the Expo by 10ish. We were carrying all the stuff we had brought from Spain and had bought locally in HK which was a bit of a burden.

This was what our shell booth looked like just as we began. Miquel looks a little forlorn in the middle of the picture haha, wondering what it would look like in the end.

Arriving at our empty stand with all our stuff.

We had to put up 8 gigantic adhesive posters on the booth panels for which we had been given smaller sizes, so we had to do our best to make sure no one noticed haha.  And here we are putting up the posters made by my events agency, QuintaEsencia. Thanks girls.

Having fun decorating our stand.

Once they were up and looking good, we started on the rest. We did a guessing game, a sort of low cost marketing tool to get customer’s details.

Our guessing game.

Most popular would be our Spanish food and wine corner offering ham and Rioja wine. After all we were the only Spanish company present and had to fly the flag so to say. 

Our Spanish food and wine corner

Everything looked ok and well ahead of the start of the exhibition which on the first day was from 4 to 8pm.

Our finished stand.

But our food and wine corner was inaugurated before anything else when the Chairman of the TCCA, Mladen (can’t remember his complicated Serbian surname) came to taste the Rioja with Miquel.

Inaugurating our stand with the Chairman of the TCCA

But not all things were alright. Poor Miquel had cut his finger with the Ikea knife we had bought when he was about to cut the chorizo. It bled a lot and I went with him in search of first aid. Before finding it, the head of the Finnish pavilion, guided us to two nurses on their booth. They were there with a policeman and other colleagues to represent their community where they all used “critical communications” the sort shown in the Finnish pavilion. They were so sweet and bandaged Miquel’s finger very efficiently.

Miquel after having his finger bandaged by the Finnish nurses!

We then invited them over to try our wine and ham and of course they came. I got talking to the Finnish policeman, who, by the way, was extremely dishy hahaha. I asked him what the main crime was in Finland. He told me that this Nordic country has the lowest crime rate in the world which I can believe. And here I am with the guy, enjoying the moment on our stand.

With my Finnish policeman.

It was a long day, but lots of fun, trying to drive traffic to our small stand at the back, but we managed it. One good thing we did that morning was to secure a better location at next year’s event which will take place in Berlin (nice). In fact we were the first company to do so! 

When the fair finished we took the express train back to Kowleen and from there we went straight to a dinner engagement in Harbour City. One of Genaker’s partners, Kevlin from Singapore, would be hosting the dinner at a great Italian place called Al Molo which I think means by the harbour in Italian.

Al Molo restaurant. 

Also with us was Ariel, Genaker’s distributor in the Philippines. So we were a very international team.

My dinner partners at Al Molo

I should mention that David and Nabil from Genaker, based in Barcelona, arrived on Monday night and got to the stand on time to help us with the decoration the next morning.

The location of Al Molo couldn’t have been better, the skyline of HK island with all the lights at night. The food too was out of this world, expensive but worth splashing out on as I would write in my Tripadvisor review. I especially enjoyed the dessert, my first in HK – it’s not a very cultural thing to have desserts with meals in this area of the worldL

I think the best photo of myself in HK was taken there by a kind passerby and it’s the one I chose to illustrate this week’s blog. The look on my face tells you how I was feeling.

We walked back, once again guided by Miquel but even so it seemed that each time we took that walk we always went a different way. It doesn’t help that all streets look just the same with their bright neon lights advertising all the brands in the world.

Once back in my room it was midnight, rather late if I was to get up at 6.30 the next day and especially as it was daytime in Spain and I wanted contact with my family and had to answer some emails. Oli had arrived in Stavangar that very day. We could not have been further apart.

Oli after having arrived at her hotel in Stavangar in Norway

The next day would be Norway’s national holiday. She sent us this photo with some Norwegians all dressed up in their colourful national costume. Apparently they had to climb a huge rock which took some effort.

Oli with her Norwegians on their national day

I also had to respond to Airbnb enquiries and bookings and I got quite a few this week. In fact I think all the weekends are fully booked from now to August apart from my birthday party weekend. I can’t believe my luck. The people who booked that night were from Bordeaux, a group coming to take part in a martial arts competition in Villaviciosa de Odón! I must say our guests are very varied in many ways. But I like it like that.

I woke up on Wednesday morning after just 5 hours sleep. We were at the fair by 9, ready to open it. That day we got some quality visitors as we did every day actually.

Our busy stand on Wednesday

We also got a visit from a representative of the Spanish Commercial Office, a young man called Julian from Granada. We had contacted the Spanish consular services in HK to alert them to the fact that we, Genaker, would be at the fair, the only Spanish company taking part. So Julian came along and after being obviously satisfied with what he saw, he sent along his boss, the Commercial Attaché, the next day haha.

With Julian from the Spanish Commercial office in HK

I got bad news at the end of the day at the exhibition. It was from my ex Nokia friend and colleague, Keka who lives in HK.  I was to stay on for the weekend with her at her home in the “new territories” in Lantau, but she wrote to say she was in hospital with a suspected virus and advised me to look for alternative accommodation. I was sorry for her of course, but gutted. Firstly I could not change my flight to leave with my colleagues on Friday morning and secondly, I had nowhere to stay and would have to try to extend 3 more nights at my hotel which was not cheap. I would have to deal with that later.

Meanwhile I had some good news. It was from my potential Swedish customer, a fiber network operator in Spain, who wanted to go ahead with a plan we had discussed. That was great except there is not much time. All has to be ready and done by 2^nd June and I was here in HK. But it was good to know that after the PR project in HK I had another one to work on.  On Saturday I had a conference call with them and on Wednesday next I shall be going to see them in Barcelona – funny my 2 customers are based thereJ

All that happened just as the exhibition was closing for the day and on the express train back. We took the shuttle bus back to our hotel which was a wrong decision as it got us back so late because of the horrendous traffic. We had a quick shower and change and were on the street again at about 9pm. We refers to Miquel, David and I. Miquel wanted to show us the Soho area and especially the amazingly long escalators, the longest in the world, up to the top, past all sorts of tempting restaurants and bars. They are called mid-level and high-level I think and they are just great. Soho was really special and worth visiting.

The escalator in Soho

We had dinner at a Greek place. I was tired of Chinese, David not too keen on it either – plus he had lived in Greece – and Miquel didn’t seem to mind. He had already been there with his customer the night I took the tram to the Peak. The place was called Santorini and we loved it. It was so relaxed and the food was good. Here are my 2 dinner companions at our table that night.

David and Miquel at dinner at the Greek restaurant Santorini in Soho

From Santorini in Soho, we made our way down towards Central which is just huge. Miquel wanted to show David the iconic Bank of China building, not the tallest on the HK Island but the best known.

The iconic Bank of China building lit up at night. 

We walked and walked until we got back late to our hotel and there began my battle to extend my stay for 3 nights. At reception they told me it was fully booked but to try the web. Once in my room I went online only to find there was just one room left and 22 people looking at it! My fingers trembled as I made the booking but it was successful. No it was not cheap but now at least I was not on the street with my suitcase in HK! I was shattered when I finally went to bed with only 5 or so hours ahead of sleep for the second night in a row and another long day at the fair. But I had to carry on and carry on I did.

Thursday was the last day of the fair and it was a good one, although we were all tired, partly from the jet lag I imagine, not only the long nights and the long days on foot on our stand. It was busy again and very soon we received the visit of the Commercial Attaché as Julian had promised the day before.

With the Spanish Commercial attaché on our stand.

We also announced the winner of our sweet jar guessing game. There were 207 sweets in the jar and the guess of the nearest figure would win. I was very happy it was one of the Finnish paramedics, Mikko, the one who had been involved in bandaging Miquel’s finger on the first dayJ When we went to tell him, he and his colleagues came to our booth for the photo and of course for some of our wine and ham.

Mykko the Finnish paramedic who won our guessing game.

At 5 all stands had to be taken down. This time we were 4 people and we did it quite quickly. Here we are in the middle of it.

Taking the stand down on Thursday with the team.

We left after 6 with all our possessions, especially the stand posters to be kept to use again. It was a nightmare getting back to our hotel as everything was packed. We eventually did so by metro and once again had to rush as that night we had a dinner arranged by an important customer of Genaker’s. It was to be at the Victoria Peak which pleased me as I didn’t think I would get to go there again and also because it meant both Miquel and David would experience it too.

We had 20 minutes to get ready. I spent 10 of them on the phone to Eladio who was in Montrondo for a fraternal meeting. It was strange for me to be in HK and my husband in Montrondo.

Eladio in Montrondo

We took a taxi to the Peak Tram station but just one look at the queue made us take another one to the top, Victoria Peak, Our dinner date with Patrick and Peter was at a very American type joint called Wildfire with great views from the Peak. Before eating, we had a photo session. We were also celebrating an important agreement which for obvious reasons I cannot disclose here or anywhere. I do know though, that Miquel and David will never forget that night.

David and Miquel at the Peak for the celebration dinner

It was a bit windy and there was slight rain and it was the first time I had felt cold during this trip. The food was superb and included fish and chips. Yes it did. The dinner was a celebration of an agreement and finished late. We took the peak tram down for Miquel and David to experience it. Then it was another long walk to Central station to take the metro to Jordan road. We recharged our octopus cards for the umpteenth time. I also recharged my local pre-paid sim card which has been very useful here.

Once back at our hotel it was time to say goodbye to Miquel and David as they would be leaving with Nabil early the next morning. Of course, I was staying on for 2 more days; on my own. I owe this trip to Miquel, my first customer and ex Nokia colleague who has now become a firm friend. I am so grateful to him, my first customer, not only for bringing me here but for inspiring me to become a freelance Communications Consultant.  I hope I have done them justice helping with their participation in the exhibition. As Miquel says, it’s a “win win” situation and I could not agree more wholeheartedly.

That night I slept like a baby until 9 am. I went to have breakfast which is not included in the room rate and costs 20 euros and is nothing special. As I mentioned before, this is a very strict country, in many ways and often for silly little things. I had problems persuading the breakfast staff to let me take a cup of coffee to my room or get a take away for some fruit. They drove me mad and the last two mornings I had breakfast in my room by buying nescafe, milk, croissants and fruit wherever I could find them.

I spent Friday morning winding down and chillaxing in my room and also beginning to work on the new project.  I had booked two tours, an afternoon tour of Lantau Island that day and a Harbour cruise on Saturday night. In between time I planned on doing some shopping.

The tour people came for me earlier than scheduled at around 13.15. I was to join other tourists on the same trip, some from my hotel and some from others. Thus the tour began with visiting various hotels before our little bus was full of tourists like me. It seems to me that most tourists in HK come from India, Philippines, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand which makes sense. There were some English people too but not one Spaniard did I see.

We set off for Lantau, the biggest island but actually a peninsula. It’s where the New Territories are (newly inhabited area next to the border of China) and is still quite sparsely populated.

There are 260 islands or so in HK but only about 4 are inhabited. Lantau, although the least populated (hundred thousand plus) is the biggest and I like this fact: it is half way between HK Island and Macau, the ex-Portuguese colony, just about 40 miles or so away and easily reachable on a fast speed boat.

The suspension bridge to get there is bigger than the one in San Francisco! The population will grow since the new airport was built there and you can already spy lots of ugly high rise buildings which will spoil the beautiful terrain full of mountains, beaches, cows and dogs. There is even a Disneyland now in Lantau – hate them tooL

Beautiful Lantau Island as seen from the Big Buddha

Regarding the beaches, we were told there are sharks everywhere on the coast and quite a few deaths caused each year. Recently they government has put anti shark nets in nearly all of them. That piece of information put me off any bathing in the sea at all hahaha.

Our destination was the famous big Buddha aka Tian Tan Buddha. It is a huge bronze statue of the Buddha Shayamuni which was built quite recently and located above the Po Lin Monastery. It was built by the monks who, by the way are decreasing – with just 15 or so of them left. They did it with the big money donations they get from tourists. However they are finding it difficult to recruit new monks these days as young men are not keen on becoming celibate or vegetarian. Who can blame them?   I was bowled over by it. 

The Big Buddha

For the record it is 34 metres high, weighs over 250 metric tons and was built from 202 bronze pieces.

By the Big Buddha

I noticed our guide using both the metric and imperial system and that seems to be normal in HK. I was told they also use the Chinese system.

We then visited the monastery which is in a pretty amazing location nature wise.

The Monastery 

We even got to see the monks praying, something I had seen years ago in Shanghai.

From Po Lin Monastery we made our way to the nearby village Ngong

The monks praying

Ping. Here we were supposed to see one of the last traditional fishing villages left in HK. It’s one of the last because of “over fishing”. We learned that only 1% of fish consumed in HK is local and that most of it comes from Japan and Indonesia. Even the fresh water is imported but from China.

One of the fishing boats at the village in Lantau

It is one of the few villages left with houses on stilts. It seems people still live in them. I was fascinated.

Houses with stilts still in existence in the fishing village in Lantau

Ngong Ping was a strange little place but worth visiting. It also had a market where the locals sold dried fish bowels or something similar or equally awful. A Singapore lady told me it was used to make stock. Well it stank and I was glad to get away.

We also saw another, much more modest, temple and a lot older too. Here we experienced placing joss sticks by the Buddhas and making a wish. It was a nice moment.

The temple in Ngong Ping in Lantau

That was the end of our afternoon tour to Lantua and now we had to catch the catamaran ferry back to HK Central.

The Catamaran ferry we took from Lantau back to HK

It was freezing on board, thanks to the air conditioning. That was a bit of a problem everywhere reallyL

I arrived at Pier 5 and walked the short distance to Pier 7 to catch the Star Ferry to Kowleen. I never tired of the views of both sides of the city. This time, instead of walking back to my hotel, I went to have dinner on my own and I chose the Italian place, Al Molo, right by the harbour where we had been with Genaker’s customers. I got a privileged seat outside overlooking the city buildings.

Dinner alone on Saturday night by the Harbour at Al Molo

 Also I would finally get to see the symphony of lights. It is supposed to be a light performance which is in the Guinness Book of Records but honestly it is nothing special. With a name like that, I was expecting a lot more.

Symphony of lights

Dinner was alone but it was fabulous and accompanied by not just one glass of Chardonnay but two! Later I managed to walk back to my hotel using google maps and a bit of my memory. It was all so busy and all so gaudy. It’s an amazing place to visit but I just could not live here. I was back in my little hotel room earlier than usual so chilled out, spoke to Eladio and also dealt with a few new Airbnb enquiries. In fact someone was coming that night from Portugal and I had to alert Lucy. Sofia, the guest, was coming especially to take photos of our house and videos as she is an avid “instagramer” I was amazed. We had two other guests that night, 2 brothers from Denmark coming for a drone competition!!!

Saturday was my last day in Hong Kong and I was determined to make the most of it. It started with home-bought breakfast in my room thanks to the kettle there. Saturday would be a day for shopping; after all I hadn’t done any since I’d been there and that’s what HK is supposed to be all about. Well advised, I went to visit Stanley Market on the other side of the island of HK; the south side.  A guide called Frances told me to take a bus nearby. It was a double decker one (English of course) where I used my octopus card and it took about an hour. There was lots to see on the way, including the beaches with the shark protector nets.

There are shark protection nets like this one on nearly all of the beaches in HK

Stanley market was nice as I had been told and not too big.

Stanley Market

It was drizzling again; I hardly saw the sun during my stay although it was only cold once and that was at Victoria Peak. But I didn’t need the sun to shop and shop I did. I bought a silver ring with a pearl and quite a few linen garments, the latter from a lovely “Filipino” woman. I also got some polo shirts for Eladio but nothing for the girls because I had no idea if they would like any of the clothes.

I also walked along the Stanley promenade and saw Murray House.

Stanley Bay from the Promenade

It was very quiet in Stanley in sharp contrast to the metropolis and I was grateful for that. When my bags were full, it was time to go and I caught the same bus back which seemed to hurtle around the bends as if it were a funfair attraction. I had to hang on for dear life hahaha.

The other market I wanted to see was The Ladies Market which I got to by metro, the Mong Kok station.

Mong Kok station

I was disappointed with the market which was full of “made in China” rubbish, the sort of stuff you see all over the world in cheap markets. Here I just bought 2 umbrellas and nothing more.

The Ladies market, a lot of rubbishy stuff really

I was hungry by then and decided on the spur of the moment to go to the Peninsula Hotel, the signature 5 star hotel built in Colonial times. I wanted to have their afternoon tea which I had been told was just like in London.

The flagship hotel in HK, The Peninsula Hotel

Google Maps got it wrong directing me to the 21A bus which actually went to the airport and I had to get off it after a couple of stops. Then I was completely lost in Hong Kong hahah, so just had to take a taxi.

Once at the Hotel I joined what looked like an endless queue for afternoon tea in the lobby while a live orchestra played music from above. It was majestic.

Afternoon Tea at The Peninsula Hotel (The Lobby)

It was also a vestige of Colonial times. I was interested to see for myself how much British influence there was in HK and if it remained. Well there is, certainly, but not a lot. One thing that stands out is that they drive on the left. All the names are in Chinese (sorry Cantonese for these parts) and in English. There are lots of English street names, Austin Road, Jordan Road, Salisbury Road, etc, but people don’t speak English well as a rule. HK now belongs officially to China but is allowed semi home rule for the next 50 years. They continue to have their own currency and trade and people borders with China.

It was past 4 in the afternoon when I had to attend to a conference call with my new Swedish customer and a Spanish colleague of his. They rang my Chinese prepaid number after a few attempts. Meanwhile, I finally got a table and using sign language, so as not to interrupt the conference call, I ordered full afternoon tea. This is what it looked like:

My mouth watering afternoon tea

And I ate it all, down to the last morsel. Feeling stuffed, I walked out of the luxurious hotel where Jaguars and Ferraris were parked and asked the doorman where the nearest metro station was hahaha. I found it and took the train for the last time back to Jordan station.

The metro

I got back to my hotel on time to drop my shopping and get a breather before venturing out for the last time. I was to go the harbour cruise I had booked on a supposedly old fashioned Chinese boat to see the symphony of lights. Well I got there just on time, after slightly losing my way, and was a little disappointed with the boat. It was Chinese but not the old type with the red sails.

The Chinese boat I went on for the Harbour cruise

The Chinese boat I would have liked to go on.

We were to see the symphony of lights I had already seen the night before and which I wasn’t that impressed with. Well on my last night it was very cloudy and you could hardly see the lights for the clouds. However, I still enjoyed my last vistas of the HK skyline from both sides and the breeze of the South China Sea on my face. It has been an amazing experience. The cruise dropped us an hour or so later at Central, so guess what? Yeah, I had to take the Star Ferry back to Kowleen Ocean terminal for the last time.

I was back at Kowleen by 9ish and this time did not get lost finding Nathan Street on my way to the hotel. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw an M+S on the way and in I went to buy fruit for my journey today. I also bought chocolate and quite a lot of it tooJ

Once back in my hotel, I finished packing, had a shower and washed my hair and went to bed as early as possible as I had to be up at 4.45 a.m. this morning.

Everything went smoothly and I am now writing mid-air looking forward to my stop in Dubai to stretch my legs.

So, guys and gals, I’ll leave it there now and try and get a few winks, aided by the glass of Reisling just given to me by a charming Icelandic air hostess who I confused with being from New Zealand – flags are similar and she’s in the wrong part of the world hahaha.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my tales of my trip to Hong Kong.  If you’ve been there you will be reminded of your time or times there and if you haven’t maybe I have inspired you to go.

So, my friends and readers, all the best until next time.

Cheers from “up in the air". Masha

PS You can see the full set of photos of my trip here. 

A new President for France, Yoigo's last summer party, Suzy home for a wedding, off to Hong Kong and other stories.

Hong Kong Monday 15th May 2017

It's more than amazing to be in Hong Kong

Hi everyone,

Well what a busy week it has been. The amazing thing this week is that I am publishing this post from Hong Kong. What an exotic destination it is, but more about it later as, as always, I have to start from where I left off; last Sunday. 

7th May was Mothers' Day in Spain; not that we have ever really celebrated it. I just wasn't brought up by my own Russian mother to do so in England or anywhere. It seems to get bigger every year and I did get nice messages from both girls. 

Sunday was the day our Colombian Airbnb guests, Paola, her husband Juan and other members of their family, left us to continue on their Spanish and European journey. I look forward to seeing them on television on Monday 22nd May in Oli's now "old" programme, "Mi Cámara y Yo". That will be such a lark. 

Goodbye Paola and Juan, our lovely Colombian Airbnb guests

It was a beautiful sunny day and Eladio and I went for a walk with all three dogs. Here I am holding little Pippa surrounded by fields covered in wild flowers. 

Eladio mowed the lawn that morning. You can spot him in the distance in this photo I took last Sunday.

Our garden - Eladio mowed it last Sunday

But the most important thing about last Sunday was the result of the second round of Presidential elections in France. Of course we all know by now that Emmanuel Macron, the ex socialist minister and now leader of his own party, beat Marine Le Pen, the ultra right wing candidate. Thank goodness for that was the general feeling. He will be youngest French president ever and his wife, Brigitte, possibly the oldest First Lady. I love their story by the way and the example they set of a younger man married to an older woman, his ex school teacher. 

A new President and First Lady for France

All I can say is Vive la France and Vive la Démocratie as well as Long Live the European Union. For the moment it is saved, thanks to Macron.  

Monday was busy. I had to get ready for our new Airbnb guests. Sira, her husband Vicente, daughter Paula, sister Raquel and her one year old baby were arriving that afternoon. They were coming from Victoria and were not to be tourists. Sadly they were taking their one year old baby to be operated on at the nearby hospital to have her adenoids removed and tonsils operated on. I tried to make their rooms as welcoming as possible, putting flowers and fruit in for them. 

No sooner had they arrived, then I was off, dressed up to the nines. I was going to a very special party. The ex CEO and my late boss at Yoigo, Eduardo T. who was also made redundant like most of the management team, was hosting a goodbye party for all the Yoigo staff and many of our partners. In a way he created the last Yoigo summer party. This hit a nostalgic chord with us all but especially for me as it was I who created a fantastic summer party for the staff every year. Of course, since Másmovil bought "us", they scrapped this lovely tradition as well as many others. I dressed in pink for the occasion wearing a lovely imitation Custo t-shirt I had bought in Shanghai on a Nokia press trip there in 2004. I had never been able to wear it as it was far too small. Well, not now it isn't. Eladio loved my outfit and just as I was leaving he took photos of me. Isn't that romantic?

Dressed in pink for what would be the last Yoigo summer party

Eduardo had recreated a Yoigo summer party at his own amazing house in La Moraleja, one of Madrid's most exclusive area. QuintaEsencia, our or my events agency had helped plan it. Just everyone was there and it felt like being at one of our summer parties but it was of course the last one. It was so nostalgic but wonderful to be together again on Eduardo's lawn. I shall not forget that incredible Yoigo reunion which was themed in Spanish "aquellos marivollosos años" (those wonderful years) and wonderful years they were. It's such a pity they are now in the past. The reunion made us all realise that as a group of people, we were much more than just a company, we were a team of very special people who did a very special thing together; create from scratch a brand new mobile phone operator, the coolest in the market. 

Yoigo's "last" summer party. Thanks Eduardo. 

Monday was a new start for Olivia who has just joined Telemadrid's "Madrileños por el Mundo". That night, while I was at the party, her very last programme was being broadcast. It was all about the different markets, flea markets and car boot sales that exist in Madrid and which you can see here. 

A still photo of Oli during the last programme she made for Mi Cámara y Yo which was broadcast last Monday

She will be travelling one week every month with the new programme. My Father was tickled pink to hear that her first destination will be Norway. Tomorrow, Tuesday, she will be travelling to Stavanger and Bergen and visiting the beautiful Fjords. Her trip will also coincide with the National Day of Norway which my Father knew is on 17th May. You see he was there in WW2, lived there after the War and studied Norwegian as part of his German and Scandinavian languages degree at Cambridge University and of course, loves Norway. 

On Tuesday I worked hard on the PR part of the Hong Kong project for my customer, Genaker, the Nokia Spain R+D spin-off, founded by my ex-colleague Miquel T. That's the reason I am in Hong Kong, to help them with their participation in the biggest exhibition of their sector (professional mobile communications aka walkie-talkies) here this week called Critical Communications World.

I took a break, as I usually do, at around midday and joined Eladio for a cup of coffee and some fruit. We had it on the patio outside our study where my husband had recently installed some of the porch furniture which we used to have at 6 Heaton Grove where my parents lived in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

Fruit and coffee time with Eladio and Pippa on Tuesday morning at home

That day I had a lunch engagement with two ex Yoigo colleagues, Maria and Sonia who had also been made redundant. However they were given worse leaving conditions than I was which is totally unfair. In a way I was lucky as the members of the management team and a couple of others were paid what was our due. That is not what is happening to the other staff being made redundant now and makes me ashamed of the company that bought Yoigo. In any case, we had a great lunch at La Txitxarrería in Pozuelo talking mostly about the past. I also got lots of snippets of the latest gossip. Thanks girls and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

With my ex Yoigo colleagues at lunch last Tuesday

That night Real Madrid lost (1-2) to Atlético de Madrid, city rivals, in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final. However, on aggregate, they got through to the final where they will meet Juventus in Cardiff on Saturday 3rd June. For Real Madrid it will be their 15th final and if they win, their 12th European Cup title. They are the team with most trophies in this competition. However, Juventus will surely be the "hungrier" team. I remember being in Amsterdam at the Ajax Arena when Madrid beat Juventus in what I think was their 7th Cup. May the best team win is all I can say although of course I shall be backing "los blancos". I have to add though that I felt sorry for Atlético on Tuesday as they have gone far many times in the Champions League only to be beaten by their "bête noire" Real Madrid. Annoyingly we couldn't watch it on TV as these days most important football matches can only be seen on pay per view TV:-( 

On Wednesday I was up early as usual. I had lots of errands to do that morning. On one of them in Majadahonda, I bought some very fashionable silver shoes at H+M at the Centro Oeste shopping centre.

My new silver shoes

In the afternoon I was to hold my last mentoring session with Lola who is head of corporate marketing and communications at an American health equipment multinational. I do hope she has found the sessions useful. I have certainly enjoyed passing on my experience to her.  

Thursday came and at about 2.30 pm Suzy would be arriving for a long weekend. She was coming for Tere's wedding, a member of their group of friends they call "La Manada". It was to be a two day affair, from Friday evening to Sunday morning. She had Thursday afternoon and Friday morning free and we would be going to León for her to pay her respects to her Aunt Pili after her husband passed away very recently. Suzy was gutted not to be able to attend the funeral and was determined to visit her Aunt as soon as she could. 

I was up early with lots of things to do before she came. There was time for a rainy walk wtih Eladio and the dogs. I then came home for some last minute work on the Hong Kong project. I also checked in online and importantly got aisle seats for the long flights. I also bought tickets to Paris for a wedding and cousin reunion I will be attending in August. That's going to be great. I really am a long term planner hahaha. Before I left for the airport, I said goodbye to our lovely Airbnb guests. Thankfully their baby's operation was a success. 

I set off to the airport in pouring rain. Suzy's flight was late and we didn't leave the airport until past 3.30. I had prepared sandwiches for us both which we ate on the way. It was super to be with Suzy again. She drove my Mini and enjoyed it. We went rather fast and got to León at 18.40 or so and I hope there will not be any speeding fines coming soon. Pili was on the street outside her house to meet us and we, the 3 of us, hugged so much it hurt. It was a strange sensation to be in her house without my brother-in-law. Soon other members of the family came and later we went for a walk to take Trebol the dalmation around the block.

Suzy in León on Thursday

My sister-in-law had prepared an excellent dinner of tortilla and potato salad with lots of side dishes. We ate until we were full, then spent quality family time together until it was time to go to bed.

On Friday morning I was up at 6 and was soon joined by Pili for a cup of coffee before she had to leave for work at 7.15. After breakfast, Suzy and I left for Madrid, once more in the pouring rain, at about 9.30. We stopped for a coffee at Rueda on the way but not for wine or ham. I had a splitting headache. 

Meanwhile back in Madrid, Eladio had taken Norah our beagle to the vet as she seemed so sad lately and had been throwing up a lot. Unfortunately the diagnosis was leishmaniasis, a rather dreaded and incurable virus that occurs in dogs. Poor Norah. Thankfully it is not life threatening. We are now waiting to see what type it is so that the vets can decide on the treatment. 

We were home on time for lunch and for Suzy to see her Father and Grandfather. I was so tired. The trip to León and back had made its mark on me and my head still throbbed. Even so I had to do the food shopping to leave the family with enough provisions during my absence in Hong Kong. 

Eladio drove me to the airport at around 8 for me to catch the first of two flights to Hong Kong. The first was to Dubai, leaving at 22.05h. On our way I suddenly got an instant booking on Airbnb. 1.5 hours later a young couple from South Korea were coming to spend the night. The next day too a family from Manchester were coming. So I was to leave all the hosting in the hands of Eladio and Lucy. 

The flights to Hong Kong were with Emirates, a great airline I was told and it wasn't bad. I took plenty of healthier food with me; fruit and yoghurt, as I don't like the starchy food served on airplanes. I was lucky that the middle seat was unoccupied as it would be too on the flight from Dubai to HK. Both flights were to last just over 7 hours. On the first leg of the flight I watched Sandeep's "Spectacular Spain" series which has recently been broadcast in the UK and I love it. It is very respectful of the country and shows the British public there is more to Spain than Benidorm!

Watching Spectacular Spain on the Emirates flight

The multimedia "ICE" screen on Emirates was great, similar to the one on Iberia when we flew to Havana in December. The series had me riveted until I fell asleep with the help of a glass of wine and two sleeping tablets.  It was to be the next day, Saturday, when I woke up again. 

There was  a 2 hour transit time in Dubai and here I was to meet up with Miquel who had flown from Barcelona. We had breakfast together at Paul, that delicious French patisserie that is quite abundant these days. 

Soon we had to check into our next flight, again with Emirates.

In Dubai with Miquel

If Dubai was 2 hours ahead of Madrid, Hong Kong would be another 5 hours ahead. We were to leave at 10.05 a.m. from Dubai and reach Hong Kong at 10.30 p.m,  nearly bed time, but of course the middle of the afternoon in Madrid for me. I don't know whether I suffered jet lag or not but I was rather muddled about the time of day and still am really. 

The Emirates plane to Hong Kong was far bigger than the one I travelled on to Dubai. It was two stories high and I had a glimpse of the entrance to First Class which looked like a luxury hotel with its wooden staircase. I don't know what Boeing it was but heard it's the biggest passenger plane in the world. It seemed enormous to me.  I tried not to sleep as it was supposedly day time and watched Good Will Hunting on and off as I dozed in between. We arrived on time at the gigantic and bewildering Hong Kong airport. We had to wait ages for our luggage and my over sized parcel containing the images for our booth walls at the exhibition. We were also carrying lots of bottle of Rioja wine for our Spanish food and wine corner on our booth. 

It was warm when we arrived, some 26º late at night and very very humid. 

Our first lesson in Hong Kong was that visa cards are not accepted in taxis, and in many other places too. We got into a very old red taxi with our huge suitcases on the way to the unknown and feeling shattered.

Getting into the taxi upon our arrival

Our destination was Kowleen, the modern part of Hong Kong and one of the islands. I was learning fast and wished I had had more time to read up more on our destination and what there is to see and do here.

Map of the Hong Kong Islands. We were staying at Koleen

The journey took about 45 minutes and cost 280 HK dollars which is about 33 or 34 euros, quite reasonable. Driving at night, what I saw of Hong Kong seemed like a crazy over populated concrete jungle. Someone had told me to expect a gigantic Asian type of New York and I think that is the best way to describe it. It's like being in a gigantic never ending Pound Land store where there is so much consumerism even I, a shopper lover, am put off by it.  We checked into the BP International Hotel which is actually the HQ of the Hong Kong Scout movement. The hotel is fine if you like modern high raise hotels which I don't. The room is comfortable but on the 15th floor and you can't open the windows. All I can see from my room as I write are sky scrapers and roofs with some mountains in the background. It seems also to be permanently cloudy, a bit like Delhi and I suspect that is because of the pollution. Over 7 million people live cramped together here and it is noisy and crowded and not everyone speaks English. I can hardly understand those who do and in shops where people don't, they thrust their mobile at you for you to write the word or words in English of a product you want and the mobile translates that into Chinese or Cantonese which is what they speak here. It's so funny. People are really kind and helpful and when you look lost they come up and try to help. 

I eventually fell asleep past midnight, although in Spain it was the equivalent of 4 in the afternoon. 

 As I was travelling and sleeping, the girls were at Tere's wedding in Rascafría near the mountains outside Madrid. I have yet to hear about it but I did see some photos. What I can't wait to see is the video of Suzy singing at the wedding; You've got a friend in me. 

The girls at the wedding with some of their friends in Rascafría this last weekend

I woke up on Sunday at about 8.45 local time, totally shattered and disorientated by this gigantic city spread around various islands. It is overwhelming, even for the seasoned traveler I consider myself to be. 

Breakfast was the usual international hotel stuff although with a leaning towards Chinese cuisine which I did not fancy in the morning. At breakfast I read the news and saw that Portugal had won the Eurovision song contest the night before and that, unsurprisingly Spain had come last hahaha.  

I had come for work and that's what we did yesterday morning. Miquel and I had lots of shopping to do, but not for stuff from here, but for our stand. We had to go to Ikea and supermarkets to buy all sorts of things. Miquel, who is a good navigator, led me to the metro where our first adventure began. We had to find out how it worked. We eventually bought an "Octupus" card, like the Oyster card in London. We took the tube at Jordan Station near our hotel and I must say the Metro here is pretty modern and clean although the stations are gigantic and you end up walking miles. Our destination was a mega store fittingly called Megabox where we found Ikea on levels 3 and 4. And here we are with our purchases which we would carry on a practical Ikea trolley we bought too.

Our first task in Hong Kong - shopping at Ikea

We still had more stuff to get such as a screw driver, paper cups, etc and these we found with difficulty at Aeon, but we found them. From Megabox we took a taxi back to our hotel to leave our heavy purchases there.

So, at about 2.30 or so local time we were free to explore Hong Kong. We took the metro again, this time to the Central station on Hong Kong Island. It was so big we didn’t’ know which exit to take but finally went for one of them, the one leading to the Bank of China tower.

The Bank of China tower (I think)

We came out to heat and lots of people camped all over the place picnicking. We were told by a group of Filipinos that it was a sort of passive demonstration of immigrant workers, women from the Philippines and  Indonesia on their one day off a week.

The camping demonstration

We asked the Filipinos where we could have lunch and they directed us to a nice place called Can-teen where of course we had a Chinese lunch. We were starving and it tasted delicious.

Lunch at Can-Teen

The Filipinos had also recommended us taking one of the old trams which would take us by the main sights of the city or rather all along the main street. A local told us the trams were over a hundred year old and they were a pretty sight to see.

The old double decker trams

We did so using our octopus card which is very useful. The views from the tram were always the same, lots of people and lots of sky scrapers. When we got tired of the same view from the top, we got off and walked our way back looking for the sea. We found it and enjoyed a long trek by a promenade with views of Kowleen. The photo illustrating this week’s post is of me there basking in the novelty of being in Hong Kong and by the sea.

The cloudy view of Kowleen Island from Hong Kong Island

We carried on walking and our next destination was the highest hotel and bar in the world, the Ozone bar at the top of the Ritz Carlton. Many people had recommended it to me. Again we went by metro and at the Kowleen station made our way to the luxury hotel. I was bowled over when we got there and that was from the views of Hong Kong by night from Kowleen. It reminded me of Shanghai.

The view of Hong Kong Island from Kowleen Island

I’m not a one for bars, even top floor bars, but the Ozone was amazing. We sat on the closed terrace of the 118^th floor and drank gin and tonic and a margarita. It felt just so special.

We wanted to walk back but it was impossible as there was too much building going on. Instead, we took a taxi to the Harbour district near our hotel. I wanted the famous HK dumplings but the place we had been recommended was closed as it was about 10pm. So we just walked along the street deciding where to have dinner. There was only really Chinese, Italian or Korean to choose from. We went for Chinese and had a lovely dinner for 150 HK dollars, the equivalent of about 17 euros. I had fried noodles with beef!  It’s all quite cheap here.

We were back at our hotel and I went to bed past midnight feeling exhausted. I was also exhausted by the sheer hugeness of everything. It’s all so mega and the consumerism is so hyper I am actually put off by it. I have been told to go to all sorts of markets, the Stanley Market, the Jade market, the bird and flower market, etc and there are markets everywhere. The place feels like a mixture of Bond Street with the luxury brands and Pound Land with not much in between. In the end, all I want to do is turn my head away. And that’s funny coming from someone like me who likes to shop. But, no, not in Hong Kong. It’s just too much.

And today is Monday and the anniversary of the passing away of my dear brother George. He was a great traveler and it would have been great to be with him here.

It  has been raining all day so I am stuck in my room. We can’t mount the stand until tomorrow thus I have the day to myself but as it’s raining I haven’t been out yet. But now it’s time to do so.

You will hear more about my adventures in Hong Kong next week.

Cheers till then everyone, Masha

PS here is the link more photos of my trip to Hong Kong