Hong Kong - Week 1

I want to start with my special thanks to Kenil and Tim (Honorable Mentions to: Korbi and Jenn Pedde (her second honorable mention)). Kenil is my cousin’s cousin (basically) and my manager at DHL. He’s been a great help in getting me situated in Hong Kong. Tim is a friend I met through Jenn Pedde who was kind enough to assist me in getting from the airport to Kenil’s place. My post will explain why these two men, who may never read this post, deserve special thanks.

September 8, 2010:

I arrive in Hong Kong and get passed immigration without any problem. The immigration dude was looking at me and my passport a lot and I thought I might have some problem but he was probably just racial profiling…haha. Once I collected my bags, I went to the entrance hall and met Tim. He escorts me to the subway. I was allowed to bring my cart (for rolling my luggage around) all the way up to subway platform, which was quite nice and convenient. Tim helps me get this Octopus card that everybody uses in Hong Kong. Instead of carrying around cash, they use this Octopus card and it’s accepted everywhere (it’s accepted more than my AMEX card…no surprise there). It uses an RFID chip and works like a card reader. Once you use it, it tells you your balance..etc..etc. I guess Hong Kong is doing a good job on improving its working capital/cash flow; people store a shit load of money on this in advance…genius.

Now it costs $150 HKD (about $20 USD) to activate this thing. I only was able to convert $100 HKD, so I was short. So, Tim, this guy I just met, gives me the $50 I needed. We get to Kenil’s place and I go to give him (Tim) these Godiva cookies that I bought for him at the duty free shop and he declines and leaves. I don’t know what to say. I owe him one, that’s for sure. We’ve been in contact since and he’s offered to help me find a place if I need it. Perhaps he’ll spot me my deposit…haha..just joking, Tim, in case you read this. You’re a life saver!

I get up to Kenil’s place and see that he lives in this awesome luxury apartment complex that’s right on top of this luxury mall. Kenil did not decline the Johnny Walker Black Label I got him from the duty free shop. We chatted some before calling it a night. Now, this guy is a VP at the age of 33. He’s living the good life. I already write too much, so I won’t go into detail as to the who/what/where/why/when/how about his good life but he had good stories. He also told me that pretty much everybody gets maid service at their apartments for dirt cheap (even by U.S. standards) because all these Filipino immigrants come to Hong Kong to work and send the money back to the Philippines. Unfortunately, none of these Filipinos have much work to do on Sundays and sometimes just bum around the subway stations; I haven’t seen this yet but I’ve heard and read about it.

September 9, 2010:

Kenil has to go to work but I’m penniless (with respect to having HKD on me, anyway). He suggests that I should come down to the mall with him in the morning and get cash. I want to decline but I’m not in a position to; so, he’s another guy I’m in debt to. He withdraws some money and hands me $1000 HKD (around $129 USD). Now I didn’t think I need that much but I actually did (since places don’t take credit cards, etc..etc..). I actually owe him over $2000 HKD now (you do the conversion).

*** side note (#1): Having to learn the metric system and the currency conversion has been a bitch. Btw, I’m now 62 kgs…how the hell did that happen!? I’ll fix that, so don’t worry. I wonder how much I am in stone…but I digress… ***

So, Kenil gives me $1000HKD and walks me around this fancy mall. I feel like it was a scene from Inception. The fact that he was wearing business clothes and I was in a tshirt, gym shorts, and flip flops probably helped support the “Inception” possibility.

September 10, 2010:

I go down to the closest HSBC to create an account. I don’t know what it is about this place but it can be difficult, at times, just to get to street level and walk. If any of you come visit me in Hong Kong you’ll see what I mean. I get to this HSBC and go to open an account. They clearly know I’m from the U.S. once I start speaking and they start asking me for details. This one girl asks me where I live and at the time I didn’t know the name but I had a piece of paper that had the name written in Cantonese. She immediately told me to go get lunch and that when I came back she’d help me personally. The address was Kenil’s luxury apartment complex in Kowloon. Everybody I’ve met knows that you have to be a baller to be living there….so, naturally, this girl thinks I’m a baller (despite the fact that I’m still walking around in shorts, a tshirt, and flip flops…it’s hot and humid and I just moved from a place that has the most perfect summer weather…sue me). I come back from a fancy McDonald’s lunch to open the account. She starts asking me all these questions like how much I make and how much I’ll be depositing a month and my currency conversion brain starts to go haywire. She’s a bit baffled, to say the least .

Then she asks me for my home address. I don’t want to give Kenil’s address because I might not be staying there too long, so I go with the work address. I used Kenil’s business card and she sees VP on it and asks if I’m the VP (what a gold digger…lucky for her she was pleasant to look at). I inform her that I’m not and that’s he’s my boss. I further blow her mind by saying he’s a distant relative and I’m staying with him at the Sorrento (name of the luxury apartment complex). She’s really confused now but she lets it go (and I don’t think she’s interested anymore…haha). She asks me for my phone number but I don’t have one yet. It was comical to me but I’m not sure if she thought I was a baller or a poor man…whatever.

*** side note (#2): I got a prepaid sim card from a 7-11 (and you can recharge it at any 7-11). It’s only like 3 cents a minute and you can text too (I’m not sure how much it charges from sms, as they call it here, if it does at all). I have to add a special thanks to Tim who initially got me a sim but I lost it…whoops…and sorry…we’re cool, though. I owe another thank you to Vince, who hooked me up with an unlocked 3GS iPhone. He’s the man! ***

*** side note (#3): So far, between the Japan blog and this one I’d have to say I’m pretty consistent with my format. My future posts will likely be few and far between and will not involve daily events (since I start work tomorrow) and should be (hopefully, for all 3 of you or so reading this) a lot shorter in length and detail (and perhaps more specific to some interesting event or the like). ***

It’s Friday night and Kenil and I go out and meet Korbi, a coworker, around Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) for a drink. It starts raining like cats and dogs. So, Kenil and I are roaming around by ourselves because people are hiding in bars until the rain calms down. He decides to buy me my welcome to Hong Kong drink (see pictures). Yeah…that’s a once a life kinda drink…thanks.

September 11, 2010:

Kenil and I didn’t do much on this day. We went to the grocery store and bought and ate a lot of fruits that I’ve never had before. Otherwise I mostly remember just sleeping and watching Sherlock Holmes, which was a great movie but super long (over 2 hours, I think).

*** side note (#4): Robert Downey Jr. is f’n awesome. I saw Iron Man 2 on one of my plane ride from CA to Japan, Sherlock Holmes, and Tropic Thunder was on HBO. He’s just amazing. I feel an Aziz Ansari quote or two coming on but I’ll just save them for a rainy day. ***

September 12, 2010:

Caught up/worked on EYS stuff (check the links…especially the kick starter one…on the right side bar of this blog) and…worked on this blog.

September 13, 2010:

Kenil wanted me to check on his friend’s apartment for him while his friend was out of town. Kenil gives me money, a job, a place to stay, etc…now I’m checking his friend’s apartment…no big deal. I draw the line at delivering suspicious packages and brief cases. His friend lives in a semi-sketchy place where the people don’t speak English. I get into the apartment and it’s super nice, like Kenil’s place. That’s all I really have on that.

I head over to an ATM that is sister ATM of BOA to withdraw some money. Of course, it doesn’t work. The people tell me to call BOA. Only it’s the middle of the night in the U.S. so I have to wait until 8pm local time. This became a recurring theme. Long story short, if you’re going to move to foreign country and want to have a large sum of cash accessible, bring it with you before you go or get traveler’s checks or something. I can certainly help educate any of you interested and help you avoid wasting time and money.

September 14, 2010:

Now Kenil doesn’t do laundry in his apartment. He sends it out. So, we did this on Saturday and now it’s Tuesday. I’m running low… I ask him about it and he said they would put a slip in his mailbox when the laundry was ready.

I didn’t do much otherwise. When Kenil comes back from work I think he’s baffled that I’m not exploring more. This guy likes adventure and told me a story the first night about when his brother came to visit and just sat around and did nothing. Now he compared me to his brother and I’m sure that means he thinks I’m weird or something. The truth is…I love not having do anything. I spent the last I don’t know how long working like a slave for Amtech (the division of OTIS that I was working for). I loved the job, the people, the company, etc…but damn…I needed the endless ridiculousness to end. Short of going into detail, the nothingness that I had going on was awesome.

September 15, 2010:

OK…still no laundry so I go and buy boxers and socks. One of the boxer sets I buy have boxer briefs…it’s too bad they’re nonrefundable because they’re a bit snug. I knew they were boxer briefs in advance but I didn’t think they would be so..snug. Oh well..they’re new at least.

*** related note (#1): Some of these are probably more related than there are side notes, right? Anyway, interesting post talking about boxers, eh? I hope you all are enjoying. ***

So what happens? What allllllwayysss happens after you buy new boxers and socks? Of course, Kenil shows up with my laundry. No big deal, really, I probably needed the extra boxers and socks anyway.

I check out an apartment in Central but it sucked (I saw a much better one today).

There was a dinner with DHL coworkers and a wine tasting event at the W hotel, which is in the same complex as this mall and the apartment I’m staying at (sweet!). It’s the first time in my life where my age is the median (as opposed to just being the youngest person in the office).

E-mail me on the side if want to read the three paragraphs [plus side note (#6)...it was after side note (#5) initially] that I wrote but cut out. Plus, I want to know who’s actually reading this blog :P (an emoticon for all you ladies [non blood relative, that is] out there).

*** side note (#5): I’ll close out with a side note…a true side note. Occasionally the local DHL workers will chat in Cantonese and Kenil, Korbi (he’s German), and I won’t have any idea what’s being said. Then Kenil (who is also German) will occasionally speak to Korbi in German. I’m the odd man out. It’s too bad everybody knows English, in spite of how ridiculously difficult of a language it is. I don’t really care that I don’t know another language but it would be cool to have secret conversations right in front of people. It would be even cooler to know the language being spoken (be it Cantonese and/or German and/or whatever) without them knowing I understand. ***

Japan

I want to start with my special thanks to Ai, Christine, and Tony (Honorable Mentions to: Chris Weir, Emily [Jason Demant’s friend], Jane, Jason Demant, Jenn Pedde, and Tonya). Ai and Christine helped me a ton with the planning and execution of this trip; I owe you guys big time. Tony has always been that friend who is willing to travel the world with me without complaining (too much) about where we are going, how much it costs, how long we’re going for, and (most importantly) me. This trip would have been way worse without the help from all of you…so…Thanks!

August 31, 2010:

Tony and I met in Japan since I was coming from California and he was coming from Tennessee. Fortunately Tony came on this trip because, if for nothing else, he was able to help me carry my bags since I was going straight to Hong Kong from Japan. We determined taking trains to our hotel will be the best bet; we had these Japan Rail (JR) passes but we couldn’t use them yet (I’ll explain later). We asked the train person at the airport if they can help us get to our specific hotel (Hotel Monterey La Soeur Ginza) and the woman tells us which subways we have to use.

*** side note (#1): I booked my flight and the hotels on Expedia; I’m content with the end result in terms of price and convenience. Ai provided me with the hotels and trip advisor was a great asset, too; I’ll have to write reviews for these hotels on trip advisor at some point because I liked all of the places we stayed at. ***

Back to where I left off…

Thanks to Christine, we had a subway map already and it seemed fairly straightforward. Once we got off at the stop the woman told us to get out at, we see a map (which is in all the subway stations and is very helpful) but we don’t see our hotel on the map. We ask someone else for help and we find out she told us the wrong stop (both stops are in Ginza, so it wasn’t that big of a deal). We get to the correct stop, find our hotel on the map, and start the walk. It was hot and humid and we were lugging around a bunch of bags. There are two Monterey hotels (of course) and we go to the wrong one. They are sister hotels and our hotel was only another minute away (so, no big deal). We finally get to our hotel, check in, and settle in. At some point Tony hits his head since the ceilings in some places are so low. We set the over/under at 2 total head hits for him and I took the under. Fortunately for him, I was right.

We head out to dinner but can’t find the exact place I wanted to go to and we eventually just pick a random place. Japan has a lot of restaurants, etc, that are either a few floors up on a building or hidden a few floors down in the basement. You don’t always know that you’re going to end up walking a few floors down until you go in. The place we went to was a few floors down but it was pretty cool. Now it isn’t customary to tip in Japan but a lot of places add service charges (and tax), so don’t let the prices fool you; we ended up paying about $56 per person (I incorrectly guesstimated about $45 per person). I had an awesome dessert, so I was happy. Our waiter was super interested in us Americans and was showing us his Hideki Matsui batting stance (no lie). After we left, some random woman in the street who spoke the best English we had heard to this point asked us if we wanted to go to some bar that had a lot of pretty bartenders. Tony was intrigued and then I reminded him that I don’t think she’s trying to sell us drinks. We decided not to go but maybe we should have…perhaps it was only just a bar with pretty bartenders…I guess I’ll never know...haha.

September 1, 2010:

The next day we planned to go to Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Roppongi. Since we were going to be using the subway a lot, we bought an unlimited day pass. The subway is very inexpensive but you need to make sure you buy the right ticket because we wasted a few bucks here and there because we didn’t pay attention to the fares from one place to the next. If and when any of you go to Japan, please contact me and I’ll be sure to explain how to make best use of the subway. While out and about, I saw this weird looking people mover (sort of like the ones you see at the airport) but only it curved up and down; I guess it was a love child of an escalator and a people mover. Since I spent the last almost 4 years of my life in the business, I had to take a picture of it. While I was taking a picture of it some random girl wanted to be in the picture and flashed me the peace sign but I missed it. Of course the people mover thing was functional and moved her away. We were going to go to this place in Shinjuku called Toto Super Space but it was closed; if you want to know what the Toto Super Space is all about I say you look it up online and have a laugh. We went up the Tokyo Tower in Roppongi; if I had a nickel for ever tower that I’ve been to just like this one I’d have 4 or 5 nickels.

*** side note (#2): Actually, lets figure out how many nickels. I’ve been up the CN Tower in Toronto and whatever the tower in New Zealand is. I’ve seen the space needle in Seattle (but didn’t go up it). There was some other tower in Osaka that I went to (later in this trip). Alright…I’m done counting towers. ***

Once our day was over we took the subway back. The subway platforms have certain subway cars designated for women only because groping is a problem during rush hour. Tony and I went to one of the non-women only cars but this young (maybe 12 year old) girl came to our car too clearly not concerned about the groping issue…haha. It wasn’t rush hour and there were guys going to the women only car, too, but it was funny. I was super jet lagged and went to sleep for the night around 6 or 7 pm local time.

September 2, 2010:

This was the day Tony and I were supposed to go to the base of Mt. Fuji. We almost made it.

It takes about 3 hours to get to Mt. Fuji from Tokyo. We decided to start early. Prior to coming to Japan, we got these JR Passes for traveling around. These passes are awesome. The best one, for us, was a 7 day unlimited use pass but we were in Japan longer than 7 days, which is why we didn’t use the JR pass from the airport to our hotel when we arrived. Prior to using the JR pass, you have to activate it; so, we left early in the morning to get it activated and to make our way to Mt. Fuji, however, the office for activating our passes doesn’t open until 9 am (and now it’s 7 am). With two hours to kill, we grabbed some McDonald’s breakfast and sat around wherever there was air conditioning.

*** side note (#3): In a past life (more specifically, during my time with Carrier), I learned that air conditioning is actually the process of controlling temperature, humidity, cleanliness, and distribution but in this case (like the majority of the people I know) I’ll use the term “air conditioning” to describe cooling. ***

And…we’re back…

The office opened up and we activated our JR Passes. We need to take two trains and one bus to get there. As it turns out, we didn’t go to Mt Fuji in the most cost effective way as we could have. Again, for those interested, I can explain how you can learn from my mistake if and when you decide you want to go to Mt. Fuji from Tokyo. Long story short, we get to the bus depot and buy tickets to go to the base. Someone tells us what bus to take and we jump on. The bus we jumped on didn’t go to the base, it drove around the mountain to the other side and it took an hour to do it. The bus ride was supposed to be a 1 hour ride anyway and we didn’t think much of it until towards the end when we noticed that we were moving away from the base. Once we got off the bus on the other side of Mt. Fuji, we went to the ticket counter to ask some Japanese woman, who didn’t speak English, for help. All she did was look at our tickets and show as much shock and make as many strange sounds without speaking a lick of English. We knew something was wrong but we already knew that when the damn bus didn’t take us to the base of the mountain. We were lucky to have this older Japanese woman approach and ask us in perfect English if we needed help. She was sporting a NY t-shirt, so I already liked her. She helped us with the ticket counter and trying to figure out what our best option was. It turned out our best option was to cut our losses, jump on the JR train that happened to be right there and head back to Tokyo, which is exactly what we did. I asked her how she spoke English so well and it turned out she lived in Alameda, California for a huge portion of her life. So, she was wearing a NY t-shirt and she lived some 40 minutes away from where I lived in California…small world. That woman was awesome.

Once we were back in Tokyo, we waited in line at this bar that always had people waiting in line to get in. Apparently the beer was, on average, minus 2 degrees Celsius. I was baffled that people were willing to stand in this high 80s to low 90 degree weather (not to mention the humidity) to get into this place. So, we decided to wait in line and get in (it was like this every day). We get in and have a beer but the place was overrated except for this one white dude who was getting liquored up by some Japanese people. I think it was a business deal; they had the drinks and the women (plain looking women). There was some other random American that came in with us that was in Japan on business. He was by himself and we had a beer with him. At the end of this day, we had counted 13 people wearing protective masks over their mouths. It was a common theme in Tokyo (the record was 15 on September 7, 2010).

September 3, 2010:

We considered waking up early to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market but we were still defeated from our Mt. Fuji debacle and decided to sleep in. We checked out the Imperial Palace and then we went to the Tsukiji Fish Market for lunch. I don’t know if I missed anything by not going to the market in the morning but it was awesome during lunch time and we had an awesome lunch there as well (in the top 3 for meals on this trip). The place we went to have sushi (that was what we had for lunch, btw) was pretty cool with cool employees, too.

After lunch we went to Asakusa. This place was pretty cool. There were markets and stores for souvenirs (all I bought were post cards). There were these kids that were trying to practice their English on the tourists; one of the came up to talk to Tony but he didn’t notice. When I mentioned it to him later, he seemed uninterested. I don’t think they came up to me because either they thought I was from India or because I was quite possibly the darkest person they have ever seen (they didn’t seem scared…haha). They had this thing near the temple where you could get a fortune by shaking this box and getting this twig that came out and the twig had some writing that corresponded to some fortune..etc…etc. Anyway, I did this. A donation isn’t required but a 100 Yen donation is suggested. I had maybe 10 Yen on me and Tony said to do it anyway. Well, I got a bad fortune. It read, “Your happiness in the pass was hidden among the clouds, like you lost all your dependence. Going over a mountain with a harp means that you have hidden yourself from the world. If you can’t meet a hermit, after climbing up the mountains, you will not feel yourself at ease. You will be completely at a loss with your empty heart.” Then it says, “*Your wish will be hard to be realized. *The sick person is hopeless. *The lost article will not be found. *The person you are waiting for will not come. *It is bad to build a new house or to remove. *It is bad to make a trip. *Both marriage and employment are bad.” The second part is because you’re supposed to make a wish before getting your fortune. Don’t worry about me and this fortune…trust me.

There was some holy water that people were pouring on their hands near this temple. I figured after my bad fortunate I needed to cleanse myself and I poured some water on my hands too. Tony said I needed to shower in it. Then there were people throwing coins into this pit and praying. I would have done the same but I was out of coins with the exception of this mystery coin that Tony and I had; it was the only coin we didn’t know how much it was worth. We later found out it was only worth 5 Yen.

We go out in Roppongi that night. It took us like 40 minutes to find this bar that was unreasonably difficult to find based on the signs. We went there because apparently a lot of expats go there but I guess a lot of gold diggers go there too. It was a waste, really, but it was an interesting place to people watch. I’m sure Tony and I could have done OK with the locals but we had our two beers and bailed.

September 4, 2010:

It was time to check out of Tokyo and head to Osaka. We weren’t about to lug my bags all around Japan, so we kept them at the hotel because we were coming back here anyway. The hotel was super cool about it, didn’t charge me, and my bags were returned in the same condition. We get to Osaka and checked out the Osaka Castle near our hotel. I put on some Ninja Warrior clothes too for a small fee. Later on that night we went to the Umeda Sky Building. This was a cool looking building that had two escalators cut across empty space (basically). I think this place was sort of like a date place because I only recall seeing couples there. We had dinner at some restaurant at one of the highest levels (the highest floor you could have dinner anyway).

*** side note (#4): Tony and I would always down our waters in three seconds and be waiting days for refills sometimes. ***

After dinner, we went to the top for a panoramic view. At the top I also had my chance at redemption with one of those fortune things. This time I did have the 100 Yen to donate and this time I got a good fortune. It read, “Do not dwell on the past; make your mind anew and troubles will change to joy. Under the blessing of the Devine, good fortune will come.” Then it says, “ILLNESS: You will get better; LOVE/MARRIAGE: If you are true to your own feelings, things will go well; THE PERSON YOU AWAIT: He will come; LAWSUITS: You will win; LOST ITEM: It will reappear or you will find something to take its place; BUYING & SELLING: Do both at the same time; BUILDING/MOVING: With due consideration; TRAVEL: Be careful en route; MONEY: Effort pays off; EXAMINATIONS: With hard work you’ll succeed.” Tony mocked me about “The person you await” one with it saying “he” will come. I told him I’d sue his ass (since it said I’d win lawsuits).

September 5, 2010:

Only one day and night in Osaka and we were off to Kyoto, which was only 15 minutes or so away by train. Upon Ai’s recommendation, we went to the Nijo Castle. This place was super cool and had squeaky floors, just like she told me, so that ninja’s couldn’t sneak up on you. You’d have to go there to understand (or just ask me for more details). We went to this dinner buffet in our hotel and almost put the place out of business. They’ve probably never seen two people capable of eating so much. This was in the top 3 for meals on this trip. We went to this beer garden on the rooftop of our hotel. Like a lot of other places, this was sadly tricky for us to get to for a couple of seconds because only one elevator went to the roof. We weren’t fooled for that long but it was sad it took us even a second or two. In all fairness, signs and maps could be better (not including the subway maps and the maps in the subway stations, which were awesome). While we enjoyed a beer, we chatted with this one waitress that loved chatting with us Americans. She walked us out and was sad to see us go. We told her we’d come back there the next day for dinner and drinks because she said she was working but there must have been a misunderstanding because she wasn’t there the next day…oh well. We went to this other bar on the lobby level of our hotel and I had some cold saki.

*** side note (#5): All the women working at the hotel (in the main lobby) wore kimonos. They did all the heavy lifting for the bags, too. They wanted to assist me with my bags but I refused since they were way too heavy for these tiny Japanese women (I’m not being sexist/prejudice…they struggled when they attempted to carry my stuff); they seemed to appreciate the gesture and allowed me to handle my own bags. The staff was super helpful and cool. ***

September 6, 2010:

We went out to check out temples around town. The subway system in Kyoto was as awesome as the subway system in Tokyo (and I think the air conditioning was better). We only saw 1 of the 3 temples/shrines that we wanted to plus some other random temple/shrine. The only one we saw that we planned on seeing was the Heian Jingu Shrine. It was a cool place with the place where you can toss your coin into the pit and pray (and I did) and cleanse yourself with the water (I did that again). Tony used the water to cool down.

We went to the Beer Garden place for dinner and grilled our own food. This meal rounds out the top 3 for meals on this trip. We saw this random, old Australian couple there and they chatted with us for a bit. Then we went back down to the lobby bar (called the Castle Gate) for a drink. This Australian couple was there again but now they were hanging out with this Japanese couple. It was funny to see them communicate with each other. The Australian dude wanted to buy the Japanese dude a drink and it was funny just watching it all go down. The Japanese dude wasn’t drinking cheap drinks either. At the end of the night, they wanted Tony to take a picture of them and I swear there was some potential “swinging” action that was going down (If you saw the picture, you’d know why I had this thought). It was funny to see it all.

September 7, 2010:

We leave Kyoto and get back to Tokyo. We hadn’t checked out Harajuku, so we go there for the evening and for dinner. I find out that part of my lcd screen on my digital camera is busted but it is still functional. I’m not sure how this happened because I did nothing to it, that I can recall, to cause this damage. This is, perhaps, poetic justice for me busting the lcd screen on my work blackberry two days before my last day. Anyways…Harajuku was cool and we had some Indian food there. These Indian dudes definitely didn’t know Japanese (they told me they knew very little) but they were running their business there. We went back to Roppongi for a final beer and then called it a night.

September 8, 2010:

I know I’m leaving some detail out (I can think of some that I’m too lazy to find a place to add it) and I probably wrote too much.

The trip was over and it was time to take the JR to the airport. We went from point (Hotel) to point (Airport) pretty fast and it still took over 2 hours (I want to say almost 3 hours) to get there. Once we were at the airport, I ran into some trouble at the check in counter because I was entering Hong Kong as a visitor but I didn’t have a return ticket out of Hong Kong yet (or on me). I wasn’t concerned and it didn’t turn out to be a big deal with them (and immigration didn’t check). I have a working visa for Hong Kong but it was still in Hong Kong; no big deal, really, but it made check in a little longer. I can explain this process, etc, more as to why it wasn’t a big deal and why I wasn’t doing anything wrong if any of you are interested.

I did some duty free shopping and then waited with Tony at his gate since his flight was taking off first. Tony was trying to figure out if these two girls that were sitting nearby were lesbians. I thought one of the girls was a guy before he even mentioned it but it turned out she was a girl. I don’t think they were lesbians but this one dude that was sitting with them (I think he was one of the girl’s bf) was wearing a t-shirt that had San Francisco and New York written on it. What a weird combo and I’m not sure why both places were written on this shirt but I told Tony he should get the shirt for me since I’ve lived (basically) in both places. It was funny because Tony always gave me shit for wanting to tell people that I met that I’ve lived in both New York and in California. I figure I would appeal to more people by saying I’ve lived in both states. Now I was moments from moving to Hong Kong. How the hell am I going introduce myself to strangers now?

The Decision

This is the original post that I shared on facebook announcing my decision to move to Hong Kong (note: the format is based off the LeBron James "The Decision" transcript):

Jim Gray and I sat down recently to talk about my future....

JG: Are you ready to go Matt? Where is the powder?

MT: Manu Joshi stole it so he could play that Carrom game.

JG: What's new? What's been going on with you this summer?

MT: In June I had two interviews with for two different positions. One that would bring me back to NY as a Service Manager with another division of United Technologies Corporation (UTC). I actually had multiple interviews with these guys. They even wanted to fly me out to NY. I was the best candidate they had according to the direct manager I would have been working for. It was a good opportunity that would have been a step up in the UTC ladder . The second interview I had was for a Strategic Consulting position with DHL...in Hong Kong. I had to do a case interview (similar to those found on The Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey websites). It's a 6 month contract from September to March. I passed the 1st rd interview on 6/28/10, my 6 year UTC anniversary. My other options included staying in California or moving to the DC area.

JG: What have you thought about this process?

MT: I have mixed feelings about my decision.

JG: You weren't able to be recruited because you went straight to the NBA from high school. Have you enjoyed this recruiting process now?

MT: Actually I went to Syracuse from High School, Jim. No, I haven't enjoyed this recruiting process. In a perfect world I could be in NY, CA, DC, and HK all at the same time.

JG: How many people know your decision right now?

MT: Everyone except Shawn Abraham and Saugat Sen.

JG: When did you decide?

MT: On 7/11

JG: While you were on top of the 7/11 convenient store?

MT: No, on July 11th. Actually, on July 12th.

JG: What was the major factor, the major reason in your decision?

MT: My age

JG: Do you have any doubts about your decision?

MT: Doubting Thomas, right? There are pros and cons to all locations.

JG: Are you still a nail biter?

MT: What?

JG: You've had everybody else biting their nails. So I guess it's time for them to stop chewing. The answer to the question everybody wants to know: Matt, what's your decision?

MT: Oh, I get it. Nice transition, Jim. In this fall, this is very tough, in this fall I'm going to take my talents to the Far East and join DHL (in Hong Kong). I gave UTC my 6 week notice on July 12th and my last day will be on August 20th.

JG: Why?

MT: If there's a time to do something like this, it's now.

JG: How do you explain this to the people in New York, California, and DC?

MT: I will miss California. My parents are moving from the house I grew up in NY, too. I'll miss that house. Change is crazy/scary. Loss is inevitable. My hope is that the future will be bigger and better and that the gains will outweigh the losses.

JG: What was the major reason for leaving the California?

MT: The guy to girl ratio is like 3 to 1. I mean a Yahoo! article referred to San Jose as Man Jose.

JG: What do you think will be the fans' reaction back on the East Coast?

MT: They were all pretty happy when I left in 2006.

JG: Ever want to go through this again?

MT: No but I will have to. In 2011, I'll have to decide on where to live again. NY is my home and will have an edge. I have a lot of friends and family in Cali and DC, too, and I'll consider these locations as well.

JG: Final Thoughts?

MT: I will be traveling to Japan prior to my departure to Hong Kong (around 8/30 to 9/8; feel free to join in on the trip). I hope to travel while I'm in HK. At the end of my 6 months, I plan on going to Thailand (sometime in March) and anywhere else (I'll need company; a few people have expressed interest) before coming back home to the United States. Feel free to visit me while I'm in Hong Kong.

This is a big move for me from both a personal and professional stand point. When I left NY for CA 3.5 years ago I was pretty naive about the impact a move can have on relationships, etc. I suppose I'm a little bit more mature/smarter now, which makes this decision that much harder. I think I've summed a lot up in this note. I will certainly miss (by being so far away) my parents, sisters, other family members, and friends but this is a rare opportunity and I'm excited about it. That's my story.