The Dutch Invasion
Be warned: I write a lot and I don't expect you to read everything... But this blog is also like a diary to myself you know, so I just blurt everything out...In the past week it seems like the Dutch are invading Hong Kong. I have had 'visits' from some friends from Delft, which was really fun.
First of all, students from my faculty arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday, for a study trip organised by Students Association i.d. This is the same trip I organised myself 4 years ago; we went to Japan then.
On Monday I met the students, in the evening, on Hong Kong Island. I was going to have dinner with them, but I was watching Superman: The Movie on dvd at Yoyo's house, so by the time I got to the restaurant, they were already finished. From there I accompanied the Delft students to the Peak. Being a bit of a HK guy by now, they could use me as their guide, showing the wat to the Peak :). The view was beautiful; clear sky, so I made some nice pictures again.
Also, on Tuesday and Wednesday I joined the group to their company visits, which I really liked. If they read this: thanks guys! Having experienced a similar trip to another Asian trip, it brought back a lot of nice memories of Japan2002... Wearing your suit in the really hot weather, waiting at the train stations, almost falling asleep during the lectures at the companies... Actually, I didn't really have the last problem, but many of the Dutch students did have some difficulty keeping their energy level up. Lastly, I gave them a little gift... When I was in Japan, we had a small 'gossip book', which we called 'The Pink Bible'. This was a blank notebook with a hard cover that could be used by all the participants to write down any kind of gossip, jokes and other kind of nonsense, to entertain ourselves during the trip. By chance, I had brought an empty notebook to HK, but didn't use it, so I gave it to them. I didn't need to explain much about how to make a gossip book... the pages immediately filled themselves almost. Great fun, I'm very curious to browse through the book after their trip.
So, about the company visits: on Monday, we visited GoldPeak, a company manufacturing batteries and light switches, which was really much interesting than it may sound. In the afternoon, we visited a very familiar place for me; the School of Design (SD) at the PolyU, where I spent 6 weeks for the IDO project, of course. I ran into Nicole, Roger, Peter and Sheila (tutors) and also my group mate Angela, later that day, by chance. It was very nice to see them again. At the SD we got some presentations and later we went to the Industrial Centre, which I had already visited during the IDO project; it's a facility for students where they have any manufacturing technique imaginable, to produce prototypes and such. In the evening I had dinner with the group in a nice Chinese restaurant. After that, I went with Joost (one of the organising students) to Mong Kok, to walk around and do some shopping. Later Yoyo joined us, as she had just watched a movie nearby.
On Tuesday, in the morning, we went to Philips Design, which is situated in the Science and Technology Park; a brand new and really high tech park where more and more R+D companies are settling. We first took a train from Tsim Sha Tsui to another train station, and from there, because we were a little late, we took taxis! A whole row of taxi's was lined up to bring a group of more than 30 people to the company... so luxurious! At Philips, we met some designers who gave interesting lectures about their way of designing. Very nice visit, but unfortunately time was too short to have a tour around the design office. After consuming the very nice lunch that was provided by Philips, we went to the Hong Kong Design Centre (again by taxi!), where we had some presentations about HK wanting to become the design hub of Asia.
I then said goodbye to the group and met with Yoyo and her friends in the evening, to enjoy a nice 'hot pot' dinner in a restaurant near my hotel.
On Friday, I met Trieu, my friend from Delft and former internship mentor. He owns a small strategic design agency in Delft, where I did my internship earlier this year. The day before, Trieu emailed me that he would be in HK for one night, on his way to Taiwan. He travels to Asia a few times per year for business. So of course we had to meet. Friday night I had just come back from Macau (see other post), so we met late in the evening at his hotel, Langham Place in Mong Kok. First, we went to the really bad 'Cyber' disco on Nathan road; hiphop and some 'gabber' type of music... nice, but REALLY LOUD. After a while we went to a place a bit more quiet; we took a taxi to Lan Kwai Fong on Hong Kong Island; the nightlife area where all the foreigners (and Chinese women looking for foreigners to hook up with) go. Drank some beers and enjoyed a nice live band.
It was kind of strange but ofcourse also a lot of fun meeting all these people that I know well in Hong Kong. I wish them a pleasant stay in Asia...
posted by Patrick @ 4:16 AM
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