And I forgot
You've been in Hong Kong? I thought you'd never gone out of the UK, for the way you talk about never going visiting places. HK is quite far away. I loved the place, specially the little tiny islands, as busy as the main one, but in the middle of the jungle!
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:08, 1 reply, 15 years ago)

Oh no I've been all over the world
I just haven't travelled much around England, hence my London virginity being broken on Friday!

I went to Hong Kong a year before it was handed back to China, it was an amazing place, really interesting.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:12, Reply)

I loved living in HK

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:19, Reply)

You lived in HK?
Details please! I'm so jealous of people who live in exotic places.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:25, Reply)

From 2004 to 2006 when I worked for The Coca-Cola Company.
Lived in Happy Valley, worked in Times Square. Spent a lot of time in Shanghai and Shenzen with work. Used to love going to Lamma island on a Sunday to relax and Friday nights in Lan Kwoi Fong.

It's expensive there but I was lucky not to pay tax as an ex-pat and my company paid for the flat, maid, driver etc.
(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:28, Reply)

that's pretty sweet
I'd love to do something like that, but my skills aren't really in demand anywhere else!
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:31, Reply)

I was lucky - I went on secondment.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:39, Reply)

Is that where you go crazy and get asked to leave for a while?

( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:48, Reply)

No that was why I left HK and came home.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:51, Reply)

Hong Kong is one of my favourite places to visit.
First time there I went for a drink in Felix at the Peninsula. Sounds odd but the toilets are what I remember most about the place. The urinal was set into the window so you had the feeling of peeing on Hong Kong from a very great height.
(Zoz prayed for twink on, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:40, Reply)

Ooh ooh, those toilets are famous
They were designed by Phillipe Starck, who's doing the interior design for the Virgin Space Station.

I'm excited because I've learned something from my studies.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:49, Reply)

Next time you're there go to the restaurant on the top floor of the Shangri-La hotel on the island
56th floor, with amazing views of the harbour.
(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:50, Reply)

Will do.

(Zoz prayed for twink on, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:59, Reply)

Oh, I see
I've been mistaken for a long time.

I'd love to live in HK, we tried to find a job there, but things are not very good at the moment, Chinesse people are happy with salaries much lower than ours, and we can't speak Chinesse. Nobody replied to our emails. :(
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:22, Reply)

Apartments are very expensive. Live on HK rather than Kowloon. I lived in Happy Valley which I really liked, however the mid levels and Stanley are nice too. Avoid living in Wanchai.
(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:25, Reply)

Yep
I still need to find a job there before I start thinking where to live.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:32, Reply)

You don't need to speak Chinese though so don't let that put you off.
I am sure there are specialist recruitment companies in the UK that handle jobs in Asia.
(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:34, Reply)

Yes, we contacted a few
We've been told that with the crisis as it is there's no way they'll be paying European salaries to work there; and even if we go for a good cut, they'd probably won't pay for flat and expenses either. We've been recommended to keep our jobs here and wait a year or so and then try again. In the meantime we're learning Mandarin (I know they do Cantonese, but we don't mind working anywhere in China, so Mandarin seems better)
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:37, Reply)

Oh dear. What about Japan? A lot of people go over to Japan so the language must be less of a barrier

( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:26, Reply)

Japanesse work too hard
I'm not up to 12h/day, 6day/week working time.

Mark was working there for a while too, and it was very "funny". They are very misoginist (?) and don't accept women can work like man. He was there with a female collegue; Mark was doing one bit of the job and she was doing the other. When she'd send documents for the client to review, they'd come back with the comments to Mark, and tried for him to explain what it meant, ignoring the woman completely. Same for team buildings and going out.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:35, Reply)

The Japanese are fuckers to do business with - almost as bad as negotiating with the French.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:39, Reply)

that sounds pretty sucky!
I'd always wanted to visit Japan, but that was mainly because I heard that they have gin and tonic vending machines.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:40, Reply)

I guess it depends what you go there to do
I know a few people who've gone there teaching English and some who've gone there on fellowships to do research and none of them really had difficulties with language. Although as Aberaccion said, in business they are extremely sensitive to hierarchy and the highest position Japanese women usually attain is either an air hostess or an office lady (administrator).
(Zoz prayed for twink on, Wed 20 Oct 2010, 10:49, Reply)