Ocean Park

The DisneyLand of Hong Kong. Well, sort of.

This park covers the whole of the southern peninsular near Stanley on Hong Kong Island, it costs around 250 HK$, and don't be fooled into thinking it is a water park like I was.

(Apparently) the park is far superior to DisneyLand Hong Kong, by that admission I feel most children's parks must be better than Disney Land.

Seriously it is a decent place, if you have never been to a western amusement park, scared of going to 3D cinemas because things 'jump out' at you, or have little children that wouldn't be able to ride on them.

If you are not going to Ocean park for the scare factor then there is a whole host of activities you can do.

We went to see a couple of pandas in there 8 million pound cage, which to be honest with you were slightly depressing. However they did look pretty awesome:

Just plain lazy, if you ask me.

They did also have a 'gator' enclosure, however I had to leave after two minutes when I saw some fat kid constantly banging on the window near the alligator's face. I'm sure that I have seen ponds bigger than their cage.

After going on some rides that obviously were not made for a 1.9m high man, I tried to recover my bruised shoulders by watching a dolphin show. The arena resembled an american baseball stadium and the show consisted of some Brazilian music played by five Chinese men and a 'volunteer' from the crowd who just happened to be scared of walruses, fell in the pool and was saved by dolphins pushing him out of the water.

However enjoyable this show was, I could not help thinking about the amount of time these animals got after their 9-5 jobs.

People applauding dolphins suffocating themselves.

Overall, I think Ocean Park is worth a visit as long as you are prepared to queue up for a lot of your time, walk more than you have done in a long time, and find maybe one scary ride (the Abyss).

But of course, I'm not bitter.

If you have a little time and want to brush up on some extreme marketing skills, then why not give my big brother site, The ODM Group a look?

Or if you feel that websites are a thing of the past, check us out on Facebook, if you like us, we can educate you all out the world of promotional products and Marketing, give it a try, you might learn something!

A day out of the Office: Journey to the Peak

Last weekend me and my boss decided to climb 'The Peak', and even with my shoddy camera work I still managed to capture views like this:

To non-Hong Kongers ( I've decided that I'm now a HK national after a week) 'The Peak' is Victoria Peak, a mountain in the center of central on Hong Kong Island.

I am not going to tell you how to get there, as you can pretty much see it everywhere, darting in between skyscrapers. I will tell you one thing, if you decide to climb up it, prepare to be sweat. We decided it would be a good idea to climb it at 12.00, another silly idea as I'm pretty sure I lost most of my body weight on the journey.

You can get a tram to the upper stages of the Peak but, like with the Big Buddha prepare to be in tourist heaven once you get there.

You can walk to the very top of the mountain but apparently the views are not as good as the two-thirds way up area.

On the walk up I noticed that houses have been built into the mountain, as far as I could see the mountain is a kind of financial hierarchy of Hong Kong.

Everybody wants to live as close as possible to the mountain, and as soon as you start to walk up it you see the difference.

To say I was rubbing shoulders with the high fliers of Hong Kong would be lying, I did see a fancy gate though:

In addition to this I saw a little bit of DIY involving landslides, whereby to stop them the authorities decided to cement the side, simple but effective, a nice way of fusing old and new- a good metaphor for Hong Kong itself.

I read in a book that Hong Kong was 70% covered by trees, I didn't believe that until we walked to the other side of the mountain and saw this:

Here you can walk around the whole mountain, which takes approximately three quarters of a hour, bar the Star Ferry it has to be some of the best views of Hong Kong:

I would definitely recommend it, but just remember to take water and don't take a smoker with you, it could take years.

If you have a little time and want to brush up on some extreme marketing skills, then why not give my big brother site, The ODM Group a look?

Or if you feel that websites are a thing of the past, check us out on Facebook, if you like us, we can educate you all out the world of promotional products and Marketing, give it a try, you might learn something!

Lost in Hong Kong

A single word of warning when you come to Hong Kong- its more than likely you will get lost.

There are skyscrapers everywhere so you end up walking around with your head in the air. The only problem is that they all look the same.

And it doesn't help that there seems to be either a 7/11 (convenience store), Welcome (mini-market) or Mannings (pharmacy) on every corner (remember these shops, because once your money is low, you will be living out of welcome shops!).

However in Hong Kong it is a pleasure to get lost, because it is such an interesting place and so safe. The other day I got lost on Hennessy Road (where ODM head office is) for around 4 hours, and I enjoyed myself. Because every street you go down there is something new.

And down one street I found maybe the best restaurant in Hong Kong:

A little restaurant off Henessy road (opposite the SOGO sign) where you can buy traditional Chinese noodles for 30HK$ (around £2.13), called Traditional Chinese Noodle (duh).

As my boss Conor phrased it best, you never really know a city until you have got lost in it.

If you have a little time and want to brush up on some extreme marketing skills, then why not give my big brother site, The ODM Group a look?

Or if you feel that websites are a thing of the past, check us out on Facebook, if you like us, we can educate you all out the world of promotional products and Marketing, give it a try, you might learn something!

A day out of the Office- Big Buddha

This is the first part of a series of A day out of the office.... where interns tell us about a day off, so that you, our readers know where all the best places are to go in Hong Kong.

This week I adventured to 'Big Buddha' or Tian Tan to locals. This is a giant bronze Buddha on Lantau Island at Ngong Ping, next to the Po Lin Monastery in the center of the island.

To get to the monastery and the statue, the easiest route is to get the cable car, however you can still get a bus or if you are feeling brave, walk. The journey to Ngong Ping is relatively simple, you can get on a MTR and the final stop for the yellow route at Tung Chung. On most maps they even show you the cable car, so you know exactly where you are going.

Once you get to Tung Chung, you will realize there really isn't much too it. A fountain, and a lot of big buildings. It is really only there for the cable car terminal.

Big buildings.

Fountain. 'catching the water' seemed like a fun game, but I didn't really feel like it.

Once you walk past the fountain of youth, you will see a cable car terminal. If I was to go back, I definitely would walk up to the monastery. On the walk up you get to climb things like this.....

On the cable car ride you get to have awkward conversations about how 'cool' the bronze Buddha is with the other westerner in the cable car, who has decided to unbutton their shirt about a third of the way so they can let their 'inner buddha' come out. You also only really get four points of the journey where you can get decent pictures, most of them look like this:

I think the perfect way is to walk up to the monastery and get the cable car down, just try to purchase the ticket before you get there as the queues can be massive.

Once you get to the top you realize that it is a little like the 'Main Street USA' in most Disneyland's except for Buddhists and Monks.

I bypassed this stuff apart from watching some monks running around with buckets. Quite interesting really.

All of this stuff kind of takes the Buddhism out of the Big Buddha, which was created in 1993, it is a little too much of an 'attraction'. However as I walked up the stairs you get a sense of judgement from the towering figure, but I will let you discover that once you get here.

If you have a little time and want to brush up on some extreme marketing skills, then why not give my big brother site, The ODM Group a look?

Or if you feel that websites are a thing of the past, check us out on Facebook, if you like us, we can educate you all out the world of promotional products and Marketing, give it a try, you might learn something!

Hong Kong- Getting there and MTR

So, after I left the UK and had a 24 hour flight, I finally reached Hong Kong International Airport. One of the more stranger airports that I have been to (I'm not a plane spotter, honest), as it is on a island just off Lantau Island (Western Island of Hong Kong, also part of the New Territories):

After going to university in Manchester and having to take the bus through Moss Side a few times I thought I would be re-living this when I arrived at 1 in the morning, however I couldn't be more wrong.

People actually helped me out cruising around in a 100 litre rucksack and a wheelie suitcase, looking like a schizophrenic with a split personality between Bear Grylls and Donald Trump.

You may say that I didn't get robbed because I'm 6"5, however my boss has been here ten years and has only ever seen two fights, in Manchester your lucky to go ten minutes without seeing two fights.

When arriving at the airport and passing through customs and baggage claims you will get to the express MTR system, getting you into central (Hong Kong Island) for about 50 HK$ (around £4.13).

The MTR (Mass Transit Railway) puts all other underground/subways to shame, probably the most efficient and easiest to use in the world. All of the trains protective doors have arrows pointing the direction the train is going, and all of the maps in the trains itself have little LED lights showing you where you are. Its pretty much impossible to get lost. Unless your me. Even then though you can catch another train back pretty swiftly as I have not had to wait longer than 4 mins for any train yet.

It is also a good idea to purchase an Octopus Card at the nearest manned station. For 150HK$ you can buy this card with 100 HK$ credit on it, to use on the MTR, buses, and most shops. This card will give you a discount on the trains and buses and they will even give you back 50 HK$ when you return the card before you go, always good if your running low on money!!!

If you have a little time and want to brush up on some extreme marketing skills, then why not give my big brother site, The ODM Group a look?

Or if you feel that websites are a thing of the past, check us out on Facebook, if you like us, we can educate you all out the world of promotional products and Marketing, give it a try, you might learn something!

For related blogs see:

• Ferries- Hong Kong to Zhuhai
• Lost in Hong Kong
• A day out of the office: Journey to the Peak
• 
  

Interns in Asia- Welcome!!

Hello!

My name is Joe and I am currently an intern Accounts Manager at the ODM Group in Hong Kong. This is me, so that you have a face to put to the name.....

I will be contributing to this blog from time to time along with other interns at the company giving our experiences to you the readers and potential interns.

I will be moving to mainland China next week, so there will only be a few blogs from me about Hong Kong, however, many of my associates in Hong Kong will keep you informed of whats happening at base. I will be focusing my contributions to the blog on life as an intern in China, a very different experience I've heard!

So, before I start telling you how life in Hong Kong/as an intern abroad is awesome, I feel you need to know a little about me so that you can put this all in perspective.

I hail from a little village in England called East Harling, lovely place. I say to people who aren't from within 5 miles of the village that it is near Cambridge (to make myself sound posh) even though it is actually near Norwich (still very nice, but no one seems to have heard of it).

I have just left university at Manchester, also a lovely place, but with just a few more streets.

I moved to Hong Kong about a week ago because I found that in the current climate in England it is pretty much impossible to get a job.

I want to work in consultancy, however you will not even get passed the application stage without relevant experience, and it is pretty much impossible to get the experience.

So I looked around for internships and found that the majority of them were unpaid, and in London, where I would basically be paying ridiculous amounts of money to work for someone for free.

So, I spoke to a friend who recently took the plunge and moved to China and he helped me out with sorting a job, and a couple of months later....here I am, in Hong Kong, having more responsibility than I would in an internship in London, and travelling the world, logical choice really.

Our company delivers high quality new promotional ideas and products to global markets through our three offices; Hong Kong- Central sales and Marketing, China- Buying and Procurement, and Singapore- innovations and inventions.

Joe