Finally arrived back at Shanghai

After a 45-min delay because some d*^mb asses did get to the flight, their bags had to be pull off the plane. An Airbus 330 fully loaded; that was some task. Got inside the apartment by 11pm. That was 5.5 hours after starting our journey from the Kowloon station.

Well, may have to get back to HK later next week. I have just checked the Dragon Air/Cathay Air Travel package; for a 3-night stay at the HK Island Shangri-La along with an econo ticket, the cost is cheaper then booking the room yourself for ONE night. Yes, one night! One night at the HK Shangri-la will cost HK$5,000 to 6,000 plus all the taxes. Go figure huh? That's why I hate paying any Internet pricing from the hotel; even via a Macau/Hong Kong travel agent; still not able to get that rate. If I do choose that, I will post here.

Last day in Hong Kong

OK, last day here. Will head back to Shanghai tonight after Audrey is done her class. I may not able to post from Shanghai to this site. If you notice there is no posting after couple days (2 days or so), go to: http://sengheng2006.wordpress.com.

Hong Kong

Well, been back here since Sunday; pretty busy working remotely back to Canada. Time zone different really helps along with adequate highspeed connection.

Good thing the temperature has been nice, around 20-25C. It makes breathing bearable vs hot, humid and stale air. You can still see the smog across the harbour though. But "thiner". You can see the mountain backdrop when looking back to the Hong Kong side. (I think I will take my camera and do couple quick movie clips for you guys.)

The hotel we are staying is the Sheraton on the Kowloon side. It is just next to the Peninsula Hotel. Those green Royces, I see them everyday. Very sharp looking and HUGE. Good thing all those driving have received special training!

I have been taking the Star Ferry very day to Hong Kong. Sometime more than one round trip. It's pretty cheap. Round trip costs about HK$4.40 (US$0.56, CAD$0.56, Euro$0.38, IDR$5,339.49); if I were to take the ever so convenient subway, it will cost me about HK$20 per round trip; that's using my Octopus card discount. Speaking of Octopus card, no, it is NOT a card with tentacles and slimy; good thing, otherwise, putting in the front pocket would have been quite uncomfortable. It is only a RFID card which you can use all over town including supermarkets, 7-11, any transportation medium except taxis. I don't have to list the value of HK$20.00 in other currencies; I am sure you can do the math here.

The Star Ferry on the Hong Kong side is so far out in the harbour now, you are actually still in the water. There are more construction, actually reclaiming the sea for land, going on along Hong Kong side of the Victoria Harbour the water is quite turbulent. Traffic is congested as well. I thought my ferry was going hit this cargo ship this aft.

Overall, the service sector in HKG is quite good compared to before. Service with a smile. Wow, that's a change. But the Hotel's receptionists need some tuning in. They were not smiling, not accommodating, every time I asked for something, they would say NO this, No that; so finally, at the check-in this time on Sunday, I put my foot down. Rudely, in response to the attitude received. I actually got what we wanted. Umm.... I hate doing that. In my feedback form, I have totally put my opinion out about the receptionists, but also given lots of credit to the House Keeping staff; they were, exceptional.

Tomorrow, last day in HK. Leaving for Shanghai.

Singapore Airline experience....

Can you believe two one-way First Class tickets from Singapore to Hong Kong is cheaper than paying AC one-way Business class from Regina to Toronto? First off the seats are 4 times bigger, tonnes of room, real hot plates during meal service. Six different ways for your eggs....

As a grand finale to Audrey's 40th b'day celebration, I splurged for two one-way First Class seats to Hong Kong. The experience began at the Singapore airport; there is a different drop-off for First Class passengers; dedicated porters from the airline greeted you at the curb, took you and the bags to the check-in counters just next to the immigration hall. The Check-in counters were actually a huge lounge. Nothing was rushed. Every details were taken care of for you. After we had thru immigration, we went to lounge - against all tradition of calculating everything to the last minutes, WE actually HAD time to use the lounge. The First Class lounge was separated from the Business Class lounge. As I step into it, I couldn't believe. There was a chef there making Laksa (a Malaysian noodle) for you. That was today's feature; there were also fruits, sandwiches, and some local Indian b'fast. You could tell things must be doing well in Singapore, at 7:15am, the First Class lounge was busy. Packed actually...

After we got on board, the service was like any other higher class of service. But we were served using real china; plates were warmed up; not the icy cold as AC would have done. Coffee, I was stunted; upon asking for coffee, I got 4-5 choices to choose from. Sorry, Dave, I had cream and sugar so could not really tell you what Blue Moutain coffee really tasted like. The headsets we had, were in surround sound mode. I was hoping that the 777-300 we were on had been remodeled using the newer and wider seats; but no such luck. We were already lucky having two wonder seats. Too bad, didn't get a chance enjoying the features. We spent too much time readying all the newspapers we got our hands on. By the time I settled in to watch movies, time to land. That was after 3 hours and 20 minutes later.....

Singapore Day 2....

Not much happening; it was a mandatory rest day. The furthest we went was to the an Indian restaurant to eat one street down from the hotel. Slept, slept and slept.

One thing about Singapore is eating; so last night on the way to the restaurant, there were tonnes of hawkers you could get food from. Stir-fried clams, noodles, soups, chili crabs; ethnic food from Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Japanese... You have to be here to experience; all open air seatings. The hawkers right underneath our hotel offer cheap b'fast too. 2 eggs, toasts and coffee for S$2.5. Go figure huh?

In Singapore, all your do is shop and eat; there's not much else; jungle forest.

Beach.... You have to be out of the country or get to Sentosa, a man-made island. Pay thru the nose.

You can stop by Singapore for 4-5 days then move on.

China flight delays..

Well, there have been lots of flight delays and some cancellations in and out of Eastern part of China including Shanghai, Xiamen, Hong Kong. The delays can last up to 8 hours. The reason is that the Chinese Military is doing it's exercises. There is no advance warning. It does whatever it feels like it. Yesterday, there were over 5000 passengers sitting at Shanghai airport. Our flights on Monday was delayed as well due to the exercise. Of course, there is no explanation.

There is only one route in and out of Eastern China. Negotiation on opening up another route has gone nowhere. This type of delay will be more and more.

On another note, the China air traffic control has lowered the vertical safety distance between aircraft from 2000 ft to 1000 ft in order to accommodate more flights. These guys are the same who decided on the Three Gorge dam?

A Mediterranean flavour vegetarian food....

First night out to eat in Singapore; went back to Original Sin. It was and is a vegetarian restaurant. Still the same from last year when we were there. The restaurant was located in the Holland Village. A kinda centralized eating place, mostly western style.

Food last night was OK and service was OK. Notice the OK rating... I have noticed a change in service attitude compared to last year. Hence the OK rating. According to Audrey's friend (we had supper together), the service is getting worse. In Mandarin, it's Ma Ma Fu Fu.

Good thing we got a ride back to the hotel; there weren't many taxis available anymore. Apparently, most taxis were on "stay by" with someone because the driver could charge more. So, flagging down a taxi was next to impossible even at designated taxi stands. So we got a ride in this nice Subaru Impreza WRX STi. With Sports seats! Nice! Nicer than a Bimmer 3-series. Too bad, I couldn't really try it out on an open stretch of road. Singapore is too congested. Plus the driver had a babyseat in the back. Hee hee....

In Singapore now... Day 1

After a mid-morning flight from Hong Kong, we have arrived at Singapore in early afternoon. Total flying time was 3 hours and 20 minutes. The service, compared to Air Canada, was superb. The vegetarian meal, Indian style, was better than the slob for mushy stuff from AC.

The hotel we are staying at is Le Meridien. It is situated at the end of Orchard Road, downtown. The hotel, from the inside, looks tired and dated. I expect an update is coming. Don't let the glossy stuff mess with your mind. Compared to other hotels I have stayed, this seems to be a middle of the road.

Just below the hotel has a two-story shopping arcade. Not the fancy stuff you would expect. A mix mash of things Chinese and what seemed like boiler room type travel agencies lined the hallway. But the food court, well..... Now, my eyes just lighted up. Hee hee.... Authentic Asian food and cheap!!! I just had a bowl of noodle soup with shrimps, S$5.00 or US$3.44. Two glasses of fresh juice, S$7.00 or US$4.83. OK, maybe because I am in with the locals. If I were heading a bit more center of Orchard Road, I would have pay at least 3 times as much for the same thing. But, what the hey. I like it that way; local and cheap.

Well, this is Audrey's surprise b'day trip. She's here making her social calls and lining things up for the next two days. I may have to apply for an extension to the wedding committee about launching of the wedding site..... :-P

Various....

Wedding site is all done; pending the China/Spokane review session before launching life. However, the temporarily site is up. You can view if from http://web.mac.com/damiaolo. This site will be the official site as well once approved.

Invitations finally have arrived at Regina on Monday; they will be distributed via variety of methods. Don't be surprise seeing someone at the door handing you a square white envelope. Speaking of square, do you know you have to pay extra mailing square envelope in the US. The postal sorting machine was designed handling rectangular shape envelopes.

Last night in Hong Kong before tomorrow's surprise trip for Audrey's 40th birthday. Will be back to Hong Kong this Sunday and stay at the Sheraton again until next Thursday. Stay tune if anyone is eager to know where this surprise destination will be.

In HK now....

Man, what a long travel day yesterday! Normally, it would have taken us 2 hours and 20 minutes door to door from Shanghai airport to Hong Kong. But yesterday due to Chinese air traffic control, we never left until 5:30pm! Our flight was to leave at 2:40pm! Then with all the people coming to HK and with the ever so efficient HK planning, the immigration queue took over 45 minutes! Must have modeled after the TO airport I experienced back in May. Bloody stupid. So, from the time we left the airport, 12:45pm, we arrived in our room in Hong Kong at 9:30pm! Good thing we only had to go to the Sheraton Kowloon.

There is nothing writing home about at the Sheraton Kowloon. We requested a King size bed over a week ago, nothing. The lobby and restaurant were huge; the room was small but a little bigger than the one we stayed at the Kowloon Hotel I bitterly complained. There is no advantage with the Gold Sheraton Preferred Guest membership card. The most it offered us last night was a HK$80 drink ONLY voucher. O boy! But I should give the hotel a bit of credit for fast and efficient service at the Cafe restaurant there though. Service was excellent. Of course, just like any other hotel, the b'fast was expensive; well, didn't have time to run around this morning. I would rather eat something else 8 times vs only once with the amount for the b'fast. Yes, for Dave, that would have been having freshly squeezed Guava juice 18 times!

Must run now....

One thing forgot telling you all.... At the Pudong Airport in Shanghai, the washroom cleaning crew could be either male or female attendants; and you should NOT be surprise seeing a female one cleaning while the men were doing their business in there. ;-) China, everyone is equal.....

Back in Shanghai for now....

Finally arrived back in Shanghai. On my way thru YVR's Air Canada Lounge, I began hearing Mandarin. This is a sign that there are more businesses moving back and forth; before, I hardly heard any.

Temperature in Shanghai is about 15C; cool and rainy. The construction outside the apartment is all done; new sidewalk....

You guys may have to check sengheng2006.wordpress.com for new blog entires once in a while; I get no access to this site from China. :-( Am remoted back in to someone's computer in Canada to post this.

Tomorrow, heading to HK tomorrow. So, I can still post from this site for at least another month.

So long Regina....

Well, cannot believe that I have been here over two weeks; and now, I am on my back to Shanghai.

Didn't get a chance to see as many people as I had wanted; too much work.

For those who will be attending the wedding, the invitation is somewhere between Shanghai and Regina. The artist in Shanghai didn't follow instruction to Fed Ex them; rather, he did the EMS system; this, translated to Canada Post's Express Post; so I could not hand delivery them. Will be mailed out from Dave's office once it arrives.

But here's the highlights about the wedding...

1) We will arrive on Jan 28 morning
2) 2-round of golfs at the Wailea Golf club. Friday & Saturday mornings.
3) Saturday evening at 5pm, Luau @ Marriots; all guests are invited
4) Sunday wedding day begins at 230pm
5) Monday post-wedding lunch, location TBA
6) RSVP will be via email to: damiaolo@mac.com with subject "RSVP: Maui wedding". You can reply from my website. Will be posted later.
7) All info regarding the wedding will be posted on the site as well.

Starting next Monday - Shanghai time, I will be traveling in Asia until end of December; will be back in North America; the closest to Regina will be in MSP; might pop-up.

Have a good one everybody.

Navada Bob service....

I don't understand how that place can survive for that long; service was terrible! I tried ordering my replacement clubs; the sales person was so rude, after the first 30 seconds, I was ready to leave. Not helpful, sarcastic, with a huge belly sticking out. Attitude sucked. Asking a question about if the irons are oversize, his reply was: " well, they are for better players to play". What kind of answer was that? And when he walk around showing us the clubs, he just talked without addressing you. And always 6 feet in front of your with his back to your face.

We left; and went to Loney's to see Shawn instead; and was very happy with the service.

Cross-platform networking...

It has come a long way - having different operating systems sharing files in the same network (easily). This type of mash-up networking has been done already; but now it is to the point that anyone can do it without hiring a team of highly paid consultants that sometimes don't know what they are doing. I have networked a Vista, a Windows 2003 server, an Apple computer running Tiger, an XP computer and a Ubuntu Linux computers all together. And I have done the hook up in less than 30 minutes. Of course, I didn't include the boot up time on some of the computers. Add a wireless/ethernet printer to the mix, you can do whatever you like. You no longer being tied to a specific operating system to network. Bonus.

Just when u want to give Vista a chance...

It does not really GIVE you a chance to 'give Vista a chance' to say: 'ok, I can do it; I can suffer a bit and get use to the "Microsoft" user interface way.' Then wham, another enlightenment! You cannot! It is still a piece of cr@P!

I thought, cool, the network discover and network sharing options are very user friendly. Checked. Plug in a HP LaserJet printer, Vista automatically discovers it and installs the proper driver. Checked. Sharing printer and the default "public" folder are a snap. Checked. Installing wirless HP printer. Takes a bit of time (maybe because of the wireless bandwidth, no problem). Checked. Start up the built-in webcam. Poof.... No device detected. Gone! The webcam driver has driven away. Gone, gone..... Same problem as when I was in Boston. Out of the blue, the webcam does not work anymore. A reload will fix this. But this will be the 3rd reload! That is, if I decide to do it! So, you have a $2,200 machine with all the bells and whistles but a crappy operating system making it worst than a Pentium 3 with Windows 98!

Also, I cannot run dos-based programs natively in full screen. You need to either run it in dosbox or use VPC 2007 (Microsoft's virtualization software - free download). I installed both mentioned programs; my dos program works until it attempts to read a drive; that's when it cannot handle the virtualization. You would think the Microsoft VPC would be much better. Wrong! I load in Windows 98 in a virtual machine mode; start the dos program; it hangs! Cannot even run! How bad is that! On top of that, the PVC has not much instruction that really helps.

Last ditch effort. I am going to follow the PVC project director's blog and rip out the PVC 2004, extract the DOS component and load it to PVC 2007. Go figure; that's tomorrow's job.

Wedding plan update

OK, we'll be there from Jan 28 to Feb 8. The pre-wedding supper, all guests are invited. It will be a luau at the Marriott at Wailea. Just show up; of course, I need a final number before hand. The wedding ceremony and reception place has not changed. The post-wedding lunch the next day, most likely will be at the Four Seasons DUO restaurant. The golf, Friday and Saturday, will be at Wailea Golf club. I'll book the time once I have heard from people who like to play.

Wedding invitations are printed; currently as I am typing this out, my partner is handwriting all the addresses on the envelopes in Shanghai. The invitations will be mailed out shortly. Stay tune.

Windows XP firewall...

Very interesting.... Can you believe that the "Windows Firewall" icon under the Control Panel does not really reflect the state of your computer firewall? Well, this happened to two machines I tried. In order to have a "true" state of your firewall, one should open up the "Networking" icon from Control Panel; right mouse-click on the network connection you are in, select properties. Click on the Advanced tab. Click the Firewall button. There, a pop-up window will show the "true" status of your firewall. Vista, seems to only have firewall setting from the "Windows Firewall" icon only.