Lars Fløe Nielsen

Yet another day in Hong Kong

So, up at 5 o’clock in order to process the most necessary batch of mails as well as downloading the latest training materials before meeting up with Torben at the breakfast restaurant. I felt surprisingly fresh and seeing the sun rise over Hong Kong is a uplifting sight despite the heavy layer of fog and smog.

At around 8 we were down at the harbor to take the ferry over Wan Chai, - the Hong Kong river. We were the only two westerners amongst hundreds of locals, and when sitting on the boat looking at he very local boats sailing by, you cannot help getting the feeling of something very out of the ordinary. What a trip. Unfortunately it’s no more than 10 minutes before arriving on the other side with extreme traffic and smog.

We went to our new partner and did a training session. It’s quite interesting how such a day forms. Today, we did have major problems with installing the software at many different training PC’s. This is mostly, I think, when we train partners who have brought their own developer laptops, as in this case (where we naturally could not bring anything). Not that this always poses a problem, but developers tend to keep different configurations on their personal PC’s. This results in all kinds of potential hiccups when installing the software, for example security issues.

Well, we got it up and running, and then went on with the training, only with a few other strange minor problems such as Norton Antivirus interference (latest edition) with the software.

After 9 hours, we decided to stop, and now I’ve gotten home safe from the partner now and just need a few hours of work. It’s quarter to ten in the evening, and I’m getting somewhat tired. But I guess that’s how life is.

Tomorrow, I’m up again same time as today. Hope the day tomorrow will be just as good as today, though a bit more relaxed.

“Wow, you are so lucky!”, is usually the reaction I get from folks when we talk about my frequent travel activities to remote and exotic places around the world.

Right now I’m in Hong Kong, and while it may, - from a Danish perspective, seem exotic, it’s not remote. In fact, I’ve been surrounded by people the last 30 hours. And while traveling may seem exotic for some people, it’s usually not.

Let me tell a tale.

It all started Saturday when I met Torben in the airport, and immediately found out that the flight to Bangkok was 3 hours late. And as you are to be in the airport 2 hours before departure, - we had to wait 5 hours. This also meant that we would loose our connecting flight.

So we waited. And had some the. You know, the airport gives you a voucher for DKR 75 if you are to wait more than 2 hours. And for this extensive amount you can, with airport pricing purchase a cup of the (no milk, because it costs extra), a pack of butter and a napkin. If you get lucky, you might trade the butter for 4-5 pretzels.

Well finally we did depart, after additional delay and flew for the 10½ hours it takes to get to Bangkok. Food was excellent (it really was, - I got lobster, even on economy class) and even though airlines has the odd idea of cool down the inner sphere of the plane to around 12 degrees when you are about to sleep, I actually managed to get around 1½ hours. Something I usually do not do.

By the way, the “neck support” balloon pillow, doesn’t work for me. It’s supposed to support your head and function as a good soft pillow, but in my case it was like putting a hard rock bottle of water as support for your neck. The bright reader may suggest letting off some air to make it softer; I did that resulting in, when leaning back that air was pressed to the sides, moving the (now) rock hard sides directly inwards: It simply felt like someone was strangling me from behind.

Link: Strangling next pillow.

Well we got to Bangkok airport, the brand new one which was launched two weeks ago. A lot of confusion, I must say trying to find a new connecting flight; most likely because these people had just moved in. We went from queue to queue and after around an hour we FINALLY got a flight to Hong Kong. So we ran from one side to the other of the new HUGE terminal (just as long a run as Frankfurt), and made it after 40 minutes just as they started boarding.

So we went in… and had to wait around 1½ hour for some hydraulics to be fixed. At midday, without air-condition, in Bangkok, the inner tube can be extremely hot, making you wish you could move to the North Pole. Something I surely felt I did once they decided we had to sleep. From 45 degrees to 12 in 10 minutes.

We eventually landed in Hong Kong after a total of 21 hours in airports and in air, and got our taxi which drove us straight to the hotel. And finally things improved. Torben and I have had something to eat, and I’m now at the hotel writing this BLOG after being up in almost 32 hours. And just need ½ hours work to do.

Tomorrow at 5 o’clock my watch is set to ring.

Link: Asia Gallery