Dave Sabol

Fortunately for me, my numerous calls to U.S. Air and Singapore Air finally paid off, at least in terms of giving me some peace of mind. Little did I know that the concierge at the Grand Hyatt was on top of the situation from the moment I checked in. Around 10:30 in the morning I received a call from the hotel front desk asking if it would be ok if they brought my luggage up to my room. Needless to say I was ecstatic. It’s hard enough being so far away from home, but it’s even worse when all you really have is your laptop bag and the clothing on your back. I guess the travel addage is true…there are only two types of luggage: carry-on and lost, and it served as a great learning experience for me and tip for future trips…take at least two days of clothing in a carry-on bag just in case.

Shortly after getting my bag and unpacking I took a long hot shower and put on some clean clothing. Never in my life did I think that something as mundane as clean clothing elicit such happiness and relief. I no sooner got dressed that I received a call from my colleagues asking if I wanted to head out on the town again and possibly make another stop at the Stanley Market since our first visit was really too short to really explore everything the market had to offer.

We first headed to the Craft Market, which despite it’s rustic sound is actually a pretty high-end shopping area / department store. It is really unlike anything I have ever seen and what they sold was really quite extraordinary. We only spent a limited time there before realizing that we weren’t going to find many deals and those that we found were still quite pricey. That didn’t stop us all from making a few purchases, but we knew the Stanley Market is where we needed to go to really do some shopping.

Our group consisted of 5 of us and we took a cab on our next adventure. An interesting aspect of Hong Kong travel is that the taxi cabs are allowed to carry 5 passengers instead of the more typical 4 passengers (1 passenger per seat belt) that we are accustomed to in the U.S. The taxi ride from our hotel is approximately 20 minutes, largely due to the winding nature of the roads and the fact that traffic is quite heavy during the day. It was definitely a ride of a lifetime as our driver bobbed and weaved through traffic and got us to the market quickly (and a bit shaken up as well).

I headed off on my shopping adventure with a member of our I.T. staff who is travelling with us and we had a blast. Stanley Market is located quite near the water and we came to realize that the surrounding area is quite similar to the boardwalk at a typical beach. We spent quite a few hours exploring the surrounding area and visiting a number of really quaint shops. In the end I made some fantastic purchases including a tremendous oil painting of the Hong Kong skyline that I am going to give Laura as a gift. Between the weather, the adventure and the company, it was definitely a fun day and I was left with a lot of fond memories.

We headed back to the hotel, dropped of our purchases, and met up with a few more members of our group to head out for dinner. We chose a Japanese restaurant in our hotel and I had the experience of eating things that I had never tried before like tofu, seaweed, and a few types of raw fish. My main course was an Austrailian beef steak that was marinated in soy sauce and it was delicious. From what I was told, it wasn’t a traditional Japanese meal and seemed to be more of a fusion between Chinese and Japanese. It was good and very different, but I’m not sure that I could do it every day. The evening ended there as we have a pretty busy schedule ahead of us tomorrow.