One a.m. at Hiong Gong

It sure doesn't rock to learn physics in overseas trips. Um.. Murphy's law is categorised as physics, no?


"I'm sorry if you're screwed, but my name is Murphy"

The trip began on friday night. But the night before, thursday night, i was tapping away in front of my computer in the office up til midnight just to get the software ready for the hiong gong project. Yet another of those unappreciated, i deserved it for being the scrub of the universe, OTs @#$%^&*

22nd Thu Sep One a.m.
I was still packing my bags trying to ensure that i had enough underwear for half the trip keeping an optimistic mind that i could always turn them inside out to reuse buy more should the need arise.

Friday morning, i went to office to work plus pick up the office's lap top so i could surf net do programming while i am over in hiong gong. Evening came a little quickly and i boarded an aircon-less Cathay Pacific aeroplane. The stewardess assured us (passengers who complained) that everything was normal and that these things are quite normal and that they couldn't turn on the aircon until they started the engines and just maybe this was the very first i am taking aeroplanes.

What was worse was that the take off was delayed, probably due to the intensive airport security, which Nogum insists on it taking place at the boarding gates. Thus the majority who came to board 20 minutes before the boarding time as per instruction, so they won't be "refused to be boarded", end up having to cook in the aeroplane shaped oven. And when the plane finally flew away, the cooking had already done its damage. The stuffy heat simply won't clear away.

And reaching hiong gong, meeting with our customer at twelve midnight, and discovering that Value Air had aircon the whole time, and discussing with our customer til 1am, and having to be at breakfast by 6:30am the next day, it simply didn't seem like it was going to be an easy trip.

I shall digress. My colleague tried calling for the stewardess by pressing the call lights. The stewardess came quickly, and without batting an eye, told my colleague that he must have mistakenly pressed the call lights and promptly turned it off for him. There must have been some other combination of signalling in addition to the call lights to call for some service. Doh!

23rd Fri Sep One a.m.
Finishing the dicussion with the customer, i was taking a shower before going to bed.

Saturday, met up with the customer's other vendors, the thai guys. The thai guys were kind of a fun bunch. Lunch was at the hotel's restaurant, throughout lunch, the thai guys pointed out the window across the street at a Sunny Massage and Sauna parlour and suggested that if the project was a success, we should have *cough*lunch*cough* over there. And that was it, my first landmark to help me locate where my hotel was.

And later on during lunch, the thai guys said that there was one night where there was a girl who came knocking on their hotel door asking if they ordered massage. I'm presuming that the girl came from across the street...

Anyway, later on, it was discovered that communication is a skill that can ever be acquired, and that the hardware cosiderations which our company had, was not informed onto the thai guys before hand. Being the only software guy there, i had to scribble up something for them to work around the problem.

And it was a fateful night, Murphy had a deal with whatever powers that be, and the laptop i brought died the moment i tried to click save after doing some programming. Which explains why i didn't blog the whole time i was in hiong gong. Coz i didn't know where to find internet access and the laptop had dieth.

24th Sat Sep One a.m.
Waited fruitfully for a knock on the door asking if i ordered massage.

I shall digress. In an attempt to defend my innocence, ahem. I shall emphasize that i would have said, "No, i did not order massage". The point about talking about it is that i thought there would be some eye candy given the chance to say no to the massage girl.

Sun was kind of like a half day. After having the laptop die on me, i had to redo whatever i did so the thai guys could leave that night. Lunch was over quickly and i managed to get Yinyin out to meet me, just as it was howling typhoon number three. I have no idea how harsh number three is, but there was some wind and rain.

You could say we were mad, we tried strolling Kowloon Park in typhoon 3, but was beaten down by the rain. Later at night, almost went out to the Avenue of Stars but the thought walking the coast with typhoon overhead turned us away. Oh well... 貴人出門招風雨.

25th Sun Sep One a.m.
Waited fruitfully for a knock on the door but not quite expecting it.

Monday was kind of boring. Took an entire day to find out that my reader couldn't work with desktop PCs, only laptops, the voltage levels being the suspect of the whole problem. Not only that, our customer was having problems with their customer. Their customer was rather unwilling to cut the tiled floor to lay the required cables until proper documentation was supplied. And they didn't want us to touch the gates which we supplied, preferring to let them stay wrapped up in the storeroom. So all in all, there was nothing we could do or show on monday. The trip was turning out to be a wasted trip, in terms of work. Atleast i got to meet up with Yinyin.

I got separated with my colleague during 'work' and had to take dinner on my own. Went to walk the Avenue of Stars on my own... twice...

26th Mon Sep One a.m.
No longer waiting for any knocks, too tired to stay awake. I think it showed Cast Away on Tv. Kind of liked that show personally.

Tuesday was supposed to be an off day. But ended up having to teach the customers how to setup the gates since we weren't going to be there when they do finally get the approval to dig the tiled floor to lay the cables in.

After the 'lessons', which took up most part of the day, i asked my colleague if he wanted to join me and Yinyin for dinner. Afterall, it wasn't so nice to ditch him to let him have dinner on his own. We went Sogo (Not the one a Tsi Sha Tsui, not opened yet at that time, opens on 30th same month), then went to Mong Kok 女人街 to meet Yinyin.

So after dinner, i asked him in canto, "Do you need to go off on your own to do some shopping?"

He replied in canto, "I don't mind going with you guys."

Some people just don't get it...

27th Tue Sep One a.m.
Still no knock on the door.

Wednesday, i went off on my own to Lantau Island to look at the big buddha. Walked around quite abit and even off into the less travelled paths and managed to find sites which my auntie herself hadn't seen, and she's quite well-versed with hiong gong tourist attractions. I'll pin up pictures in another post.

Met up with Yinyin for my last night in hiong gong and went up 山頂. But it was too dark for non-couples to walk around, and areas where it wouldn't have been too dark to walk around was under renovation. The trip up and down the mountain was rather quick. Took a boat from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon and went to watch some Tv instead. I think watching Tv with Yinyin in Gippy was more fun as she didn't have to work the next day.

28th Wed Sep One a.m.
My last night in hiong gong. Maybe i should have put a big welcome sign on the door...

Thursday, my last day in hiong gong. I decided to get some roast goose rice and hot lemon water (um... ya, lemon water, its kind of a fad). The place was kind of busy with customers, the waitress showed me to a seat opposite a lady. I decided to mind my own business and eat my own roast goose rice, but the lady decided to chat with me, switching between canto and pinyin trying to figure out what language i spoke. Basically, being deaf and not very keen on more difficult words, i just sputtered yahs and nos.

Turn out that she works in massage and sauna parlour. And over lunch, she asked if i wanted a massage. Doh... Smiled at her weakly and said no need, then she did what i assume to be the usual negotiation procedure saying, "You so leng zei, i give you discount lah."

Oh well...


And no, i didn't get any massage or any acompanying services. Truth.