...:::: Daily Braindump ::::..: July 2005

hello world

so i got back from my business trip to shanghai on saturday. it was quite an experience meeting with five different PRC clients all in one day. man, doing business in china is a whole different animal! never realized how useful my chinese language came into play until now -- esp. because most of the clients didn't speak a lick of english. since i was educated in the US, i had hard time trying to figure out how to say some of the technical financial terms in chinese. how the heck do i say gross profit margin, return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), balance sheet all in CHINESE?! luckily the client knew those terms in english. hehe. overall, i was quite impressed with the chinese market and how the entire market is continuosly growing -- its like you can feel the upbeat energy of growth in the air! it was a long day though...my day started when our driver picked us up in his benz at our hotel at 7am and lasted literally for 12 hours non-stop (even had kentucky for lunch in the car!). I was exhausted but it was good coming back home to my hotel.

in other news, the grand hyatt in shanghai turned out to be one spectacular hotel. i have never seen or stayed in anything like it. right when I walked into the hotel lobby (which was on the 54th floor) and checked into my room (on the 77th floor!!), i couldn't stop saying "OMG" for at least a good 10-20 seconds. the room was really nice and it was tastefully decorated with hints of chinese and western interior design. i especially like the chinese scribblings that was on the wall...so i took a picture as usual....over the years, i've been taking and collecting lots of pictures of various things that i find it to be cool and in the hopes that one day i can use these ideas in my future home =) but back to the hotel room...the bathroom was really nice too. the shower was a bit high-tech for me with 3 different spouts splashing water out from head to toe.

on the same day that i left for shanghai, my friend kristy arrived from sydney to visit and stay with me. originally i wanted to show her around when she got here but since I found out about the shanghai trip at the very last minute, she had no choice but check into my hotel first and explore the city on her own for few days until i came back. after coming back on saturday, we hung out and i showed her around hk. she did quite a bit of shopping that day since everything was much cheaper than sydney or tokyo. kristy is actually my friend from tokyo...actually my ex-coworker from KPMG to be exact. we've managed to keep in touch over the last few years. interesting because we always manage to meet or travel together to various places. one of the last time i saw her was last october in boston when my roommate-to-be, yun, and i stayed with her in her hotel in boston. before that, i've travelled with her and my other friends to taipei one year and guam another. since she was also in tokyo in june, i did meet up with her for dinner with our other friend, michael. although I wanted to visit her (and see Sydney), she has recently decided to relocate back to tokyo. i think its good for her that she's moving back to tokyo. but now i have to find a reason to go travel to sydney...anyone want to travel to australia with me?

on sunday, we went to sz and shopped and ate. she bought tons of dvds and had a nice lunch at my favorite dim sum place. then walked around a little bit more until we we were both tired and went and got a 3 hour massage. i think i must go there often because most of the ppl who work there recognizes me by my name..and i even have my own specific masseuse that i request everytime (#111 for body, and #132 for feet)...after feeling refreshed we took a train back to our hotel.

kristy is leaving this afternoon..but right after she leaves, my another friend, mary arrives in hk tonight..she's coming all the way from berlin and will be staying with me. hehe..mary will be my 4th visitor in hk..and i've only been here for 5 weeks! =)

lastly, i want to wish haeran, happy belated birthday! sorry that i didn't get a chance to talk to you until sunday. we'll have to re-celebrate (and get you drunk) next time i'm back in LA!!!

b-trip to shanghai

just found out this afternoon that i will be going to shanghai tomorrow to meet several different clients. i'm excited because it seems like its been ages since i was there last...although...actually come to think of it, its only been since january of this year. i'm also excited because i'm staying at the grand hyatt shanghai...i've heard a lot about this hotel and been wanting to check it out. its supposedly the world's tallest hotel..the rooms starts from the 54th to 80-something floor. crazy huh? i'll be back either friday evening or saturday morning! hope ya'll have a great rest of the week!

still hung over

on friday, i finally saw "war of the worlds" with my friend tony. overall, the movie was pretty good although the ending was too simple i thought. the movie theatres here are pretty much the same as the ones in the US except instead of movie traliers in the beginning, they have several very long consumer product commercials - like some toothpaste, body deodorant, etc. these commercials literally took up about 15 to 20 minutes before we got to the actual movie.

on saturday, i rolled out of bed late, had breakfast downstairs and took the subway to shenzhen. i had two reasons why i wanted to go to sz this weekend.. one was to buy some dvds of shows i've been dying to watch..and well the other reason obviously is to get a massage =D i end up spending lots of time shopping for dvds that i only got an hour feet massage...but i did buy a whole load of dvds. lets see, i bought lost (season 1), oc (season 1 & 2), desperate housewives, and alias. i didn't get any movies because i'm hoping to watch it in the theatres this summer. i started watching desperate housewives when i got back and oh man, its such a good show! slightly twisted but the story is pretty good and it keeps getting interesting the more i watch it. so far i watched 8 episodes (3rd dvd out of 9) so I still have long way to go.

at night, i first met up with my friend, colleen for some drink at this bar called fong in lan kwai fong. then we met up with some of her friends and went to "club hei hei" (double happiness in chinese). it was this ultra exclusive club where once again, it was a members only club. but since we were too cool they let us in.. it was a pretty good club with nice patio area in the back. then i met up with some of the other interns from my company and also met stanley's younger brother, ryan. stanley's younger bro is so much different than him. i was gonna meet up with stan but when i called him, he was still in england..so i'll probably see him next week when he's back. it was a lot of fun drinking and talking to different people. man, i drank so much that night that i was completely trashed... it was quite embarrasing. there were alcohols everywhere! i just remember some of the interns buying me drinks and shots... i only remember bits and pieces from the night...apparently, i was so drunk that i started petting people's head towards the end.. its weird because i seem to do that a lot whenever i'm completely trashed...perhaps, i was a dog lover (or a dog) in my past life?! i dunno. anyway, around 3am, i decided that i was too wasted and so just took a taxi back home.

sunday: i must have drank a lot because i felt sick all day. i have this huge headache all day long and i'm still not feeling so great even though its monday now. is it medically possible to be still hung over after 2 days??!

at night, i met up with elaine for dinner at a thai restaurant in causeway bay.. man i stuffed myself like a cow again. the food was great.. i tried to eat more hoping that it'll make me feel better since i didn't eat anything all day since i was feeling sick... but i'm still not feeling well and I'm not sure what it is that's making me feel sick.. i almost decided to call in sick this morning to work too... hopefully i'll get better soon... in the mean time, i concluded that i'm probably too old to be out drinking and partying like this. tonight, i have this csfb reception to go to but i might just skip it and stay in my room to rest (and watch some dvds).

Thai dinner with Elaine in Causeway Bay

Muji store in Shenzhen.. I suspect it was a fake Muji store because all of the stuff they were selling were not typical Muji stufff -- like have you ever seen a Muji t-shirt with bling-blings rhinestones that spelled out "muji" on the front? i don't think so.

Colleen and Ryan (Stanley's brother) at Club Hei Hei in LKF

Early in the night with Colleen and I at Fong...that was my first drink of the night...

yet another humdinger day

yesterday was yet another humdinger day. work has been quite slow but i reckon that things will slowly pick up starting middle of this week..otherwise, i think i'll start to be bored out of my mind. last night, i left work around my usual time of 8pm, and went to the UBS invite-only intern reception. what it is is that its basically a banking recruiting event where they would invite selective interns from other banks to come and meet their business folks. apparently these receptions are only done in asia, and all of the banks distribute their intern's resume to each other. so that way, the banks will have a chance to recruit the ones they want for fulltime. so its more of a collaborative process where if the intern doesn't end up getting an offer from his/her summer employer, the hope is that they have met enough of other banks for networking and possibly interviews which may ultimately lead to an offer in hand. every bank have their invite-only receptions through out this month..tonight is lehman's having one.. which i was invited and plan to go. it's at the mandarin oriental hotel across the street so its relatively close. i suppose it never hurts to meet more people from other firms to get different perspectives about the business..although its always tiresome to be all happy and perky during recruiting events esp. after a long day at work. but I did enjoy the UBS reception last night though. people were ultra friendly (and very professional) and they had a really NICE office.

i think the hardest part for me now is to decide which business division i want to pursue after my mba. i feel lucky in a sense that I have all these choices to chose from. i remember it was over an year ago, before I got into Cornell, that I felt trapped with what I was doing at work. but now, it seems like the opposite - lots of freedom and mobility to pursue the field of my choice. i guess that's the sheer miracle of plunking down $100K and getting an mba.

last night was a bad night. after i got back to the hotel, i was hoping to get on the internet to check email and do my usual internet stuff. but the wireless connection (and quite possibly, the network backbone) at the hotel was completely down. so i rush down to the front desk to make a complaint. this is rather frustrating because probably 3 out of 5 times that I want to use the internet from my hotel room, it DOES NOT work. if i'm lucky, it lets me connect and download my email and then i get cutoff. i mean its one thing if the internet usage is free, but if i'm paying close to $100 a month to use the internet, i expect it to work when i'm home. I don't think i'm asking too much, am i? anyway, the front desk guy tried to convince me that it was a problem with my laptop and not their network. of course i had to step up and say something since i may not know much about anything, but networks - i do. and it was definitely not my laptop problem. anyway, the night ended with me internet-less (boo), and the front desk later calling me to profusely apologize to tell me how he was wrong and how it was indeed their network problem and not my laptop (i don't want to say i told you so, but i told you so). anyhow, no more complaining about this topic from me. i'm just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping the internet is back again when i get home tonight. hallelujah.

weekend with kin in hk

all in all, it was yet another busy weekend for me. My friend, Kinyoshi was visiting for the weekend so it was nice having a visitor around.

Saturday - got another 3 hour massage during the afternoon - man, i can really get use to this! Then just spent the rest of the day shopping until Kinyoshi arrived at night. Once he arrived, we went out to Lan Kwai Fong to meet up with some of his other friends. We first met up at this bar called Da Vino for some drink. The place was pretty cool and it was packed with foreigners. Then after about an hour or so, some of his UCLA friends showed up so we all hung out, drank and talked. It was great fun meeting new people. Interesting because one of the girls who just moved to HK few months ago is also from Cerritos! Small world eh? After drinking, me, Kin, Christina, and Tanya tried to go to Volar while the rest of the group went to Backroom. Man, Volar was completely packed and its one of those places where you need to be either on their "cool" list, have membership to the club, or simply look "cool" enough to get in. But I guess Christina or Tanya has connection and was able to get us in so we all waited right near the entrance..but me and kin was tired and felt like eating instead.. so we ended up leaving the girls with their friends and went to eat at this late night chinese place called "Tsui Hwa" or something. It's basically a big chinese version of the late night diner joint. we were so stuffed...but we didnt' want to go back to the club since we were both tired so we called it a night around 2:30am and hitched a taxi home.

Sunday - woke up early and grabbed a quick bite to eat downstairs at the hotel buffett with Kin. Then we went out to Causeway Bay for some suit shopping for Kin. For lunch, met up with his UCLA friends, Raymond, Jen, and Amy for some good hardy dim sum. The food was awesome but the A/C was on full blast which was freezing! Spent the rest of all afternoon shopping around Mongkok for clothes and other stuff. Then said good bye to them and met up with Tanya and Christina at this Singaporean fusion style restaurant (Y's) back in Causeway Bay. I have to say, the food was excellent and I'm definitely going back! After dinner, we went over to Tanya's to check out her new apartment that she just moved into. The place was very nice. Afterwards, we headed back to LKF to meet up with Lucien, another friend from Tokyo for some drink. We drank at this bar called "Twenty One" and just talked. It was nice catching up with him since I haven't seen him ever since I left Tokyo last year! Then we called it a night around midnight since both Lucien and I had work the next day.

I've been sleeping so late every night...I guess I mainly try to stay up late so I can try to catch up with some of my friends back home on AIM. I've been getting less than 5 hours of sleep for the past 4 days -- NO WONDER I'M TIRED..sigh. Even the masseuse noticed from massaging the bottom of my feet that I was lacking sleep. What to do? Guess I'll have to force myself to go to bed early. My new goal for the summer: be in bed by midnight.

Drinks at a "Twenty One" bar in Lan Kwai Fong on Sunday night with Lucien and Kin

my latest dessert addiction - mango sherbet + mango juice+ shaved ice + real mangos+ big round tapioca-like balls. yummy

Kinyoshi, Jen, and I at Da Vino's bar in Lan Kwai Fong

@ Da Vino's bar in Lan Kwai Fong - Christina, Tanya, Yolanda, Kinyoshi, and me.

another new blogger!

check out my friend Anna Banana's new blog!

Long weekend - Macau and Shenzhen

This past weekend was quite a busy but eventful weekend for me. Friday, July 1st was a public holiday, so I had an extra day to relax and not have to work. This past Friday marks the 8th year after HK was gracefully returned back to China from the British after 99 years of ruling in 1997 - interesting huh? Since we don't get fourth of July off here, this was a good way to make up for my lost public holiday. So on Friday, I took the train with mom and travelled to Shenzhen for the day. We decided to be more adventurous this time and went inside the city - further away from the HK/China border to a place called "East Gate". I must say that area of Shenzhen was quite the hip and happening place. There were tons of shops and restaurants everywhere, not to mention all of the people swarming around. We had lunch at this very cool dim sum place where we waited literally 1.5 hours for a table (yes, it was that crazy). but the food was just okay though. I still think the best dim sum I've ever had was at this one place right next to the border on the China side called "Laurel".

We spent the afternoon doing the usual -- eating, shopping, and getting feet massages. So apparently they have this special feet/leg massage where they apply ginger all over your leg (supposedly its good for your health or what not). Of all these years of getting massages, we have never heard of such a thing. So, of course, we had to try it. In a nutshell, what they do is that they apply grinded ginger paste (kinda like the mushy ginger sauce you get when you buy BBQ duck) ALL OVER your leg!!! Then they wrap your leg with these hot towels. At first I didn't feel anything, but after few minutes into it, it felt as if my legs were on fire! According to the masseuse, apparently your leg doesn't get hot, but its because the ginger seaps into your leg and makes you feel "hot" (as in spicy) -- if that makes any sense. Anyways, its suppose to be good for your leg and for anti-arthritis purpose. It was fun but I think I'll just stick to my regular feet massage next time ;)

On Saturday, we took the fast speed boat and travelled to Macau. It only took us about 1 hour to get there. Macau is a pretty interesting place to visit because of the mix of Chinese and Portugese culture. All of the signs were in Chinese and Portugese which was interesting to say the least. We visited couple of the casinos there since that's what they're known for. Funny thing about their slot machine is that they're totally made for Chinese -- instead of "7-7-7", all their slots were "8-8-8" for good luck and propperity. Then, we joined a local tour in Macau who took us to different tourist must see spots. Basically, we saw lots of interesting artifacts and ate lots of good Macanese food there. Did you know Chiang Kai-Shek was from Macau? I sure didn't.

On Sunday we didn't do much except shopped, ate and got another massage (again). I found a place in the city where they have tons of DVDs...one interesting thing about it is that they were selling the complete first season of Desperate Housewives, and entire second season of OC on DVD. Funny because I never knew these were already released...and sure enough according to amazon, these have not yet been released..so my question is, what the heck were on those those DVD's? ;)

hope you all had a great 4th of July! Some pics from the weekend…