Third of January 2005: arrival in Hong-Kong, the world's most liberal marketplace.

Here you get a detailed review of my China trip.

You will find a melting pot of pictures on my picture page and a fine selection with comments on this special HK page.

Click HERE to see all the pictures!!

Best-of

MONTH 7 ñ AprËs-Hong Kong

Totally broken by the tons of hours I worked in HK, I made a two weeks trip through the Philippines, doing my PADI Open Water diving certificate (diving in 34 degree water is fun!) and Bali, where I did a big tour of this marvellous island, seeing active volcanoes, a human cremation on the beach, a lot of art, stunning diving sites and interesting people from all over the world! Definitely a place to go back!

Beside this solo-trip, some friends of mine invited me to Sweden, south of France, Florida and the Belgian beachÖcould one imagine better holidays??

Boracay - whitest beach of the Philippines		Manilla
Singapore		Bali and it's wholy monasteries
A local creamation...amazing!		Funny monkey on Bali's last active volcano
Sunny Florida trip with the Lausanne team

MONTH 6 

June, already the last month on pleasure island.

Together with my flatmate Founet, we organized two last parties: the beloved ìSoirÈe maillotî, a hot event flavoured with damn cool cocktails, lovely bikinis and the sudden appearance of the local policeÖsome neighbours have been angry that they havenít been invited! Our big farewell party was organized on the beach, with tons of gifts, more than 130 friends, ending at 5 in the morning lying in the sea watching the starsÖcould this moment last forever?

Another sporty trip was our water-ski outcast on mainland China. Together with a bunch of friends, I did my first steps on the wake-board and the mono-ski (I have to admit that I didnít manage to get out of water with this damn single board! Is it calling for more??) We had a lovely week-end, a lot of massages, great Chinese food and a lot of fun, in and out of the water!

So, that was all! Time passed by amazingly fast, and Iíd like to express my deepest thanks to all the folks that Iíve met, especially at Scental, my workplace (greetings to Charlotte, Evelyne, Isa, RÈmy, Seb and Olivier), the ìBronzÈsî, which whom I had soooo much fun, the Clem&Seb-mafia, the Anne-Claire-Clan, so sweet, ChloÈ, my hiking-mate and, last but not least, Founet-le-Fou, my flat-mate, who shared the best moments with my. I will never forget you, damn bunny!! 

Happy days on the junk		The Cocktail factory!!
The SPF-dream team		Bye-bye work place!! Big sniff
The bronzÈs on the road		Mongkok lady-market
Unfortunately it's not me...not yet!		Oily situations on Caine Road
My water-ski class

MONTH 5

May was a month of astonishing travel experiences in deeper Chinese regions, such as Xiían and Guilin.

Xiían is well known to European tourists as you can find one of the World Wonders in this Town: the 6000 terracotta soldiers (donít imagine to se them all, they only dig out a 1000 of them by now!). Together with Agathe and ChloÈ, we spend a whole week-end discovering these amazing man-like figurines, a lot of museums and the wild and amazing central China food culture: boiling whatever you find in a spicy soup and donít ask what you are really eating! We even discovered that the city had a very active clubbing cultureÖ

What should I tell you about Guilin: I think that it was one of the most marvellous countrysides Iíve ever seen in my life! Enormous wild and green mountains in the middle of rice-fields. Once a 4 hour bus-drive done, we could discover Ping-An an itís breath-taking terraced rice-field landscape---awesome!! Together with ChloÈ I did a 15km hiking tour through the terraces and we finally managed to find shelter in a simple but totally clean youth-hostel in the middle of the foggy mountains, the sound of the mighty clouds in our ears.

The rest of the month was as always fulfilled with some dirty parties in our flat, the ìSoirÈe Chapeauî was surely the highlightÖyou should have seen all these people wearing pants on their head!

As the sun finally decided to come out in HK and the temperature had risen to 30 degrees, we often went off to wild beaches with a rented junk, sunbathing, cocktailing and swimming all day longÖthat were happy daysÖ   

Founet & Geo @ Tai Long Wuan, HK's nicest beach		The hottest disco mates
Lovely time-out on the sea		Head or Heat?
Xi'an's terracotta soldiers		Guilin and its mermaid
Ping-An's rice-teraces		...incredibly beautiful
Uh..what's that?		...and that?

MONTH 4

AprilÖthe month of our big tour through China. We took a 10 days break to discover the worldís largest country in terms of mouths to feed: China (every five years, China grows bu 65 million peopleÖitís one France every five yearsÖ).

We took off in HK in a total stress, no money in the pockets and full of goof will. Our first stop was Shanghai, the new Chinese economic headquarter. The city isnít as beautiful as expected. They decided to destroy all the ancient town and build up high-scale American style skyscratchers to show the whole world how amazing strong China isÖit was just a pity. The Bund was quite impressive, delivering us an amazing skyline of Shanghaiís new business plaza Pudong. The old town and the old Chinese garden are impressive too and are worth it. In cultural terms, the Shanghai museum gives you a great impression what Chinese art is about (Calligraphy, architecture, porcelain, seals, pottery and bronze). Shanghaiís nightlife was way more amazing than we expected!! Mostly French owned, fashion bars pop up like mush-rooms and having a drink often turns out being an impressive adventure in the made-up trendy bars in and outside Shanghai. The most beautiful places weíve seen was the Face Bar, located in the old French Concession, totally in red and totally glamorous and beautifully installed in a colonial-styled house. The Bar Rouge was our second winner, installed on the Bund, with an amazing retro-pop-art deco.

We went to Hangshou for two days, the so-called Venise of China. We discovered a perfect place: perfect lake-side, perfect gardens, perfect look-outs, perfect templesÖa lovely place to see China how it could be if the people would seriously care about it.

After this short trip we took the night-train in Shanghai to reach Beijing (Peking). We were impressed: the night-train was the most luxurious train Iíve ever seen, with perfect beds, perfect service and perfectly staffed. As the rail system is quite old and therefore noisy, we were glad to drink our Chinese red wine in the bar till late to forget what noise was. After a 12 hour journey, we finally reached Beijing, the most impressive town Iíve ever seen. The Forbidden City, the temples, the Peopleís Place, the Great Wall, the old town, the people, Maoís presence and the strong and everlasting communist spirit were things I wonít forget for my whole life. The Great Wall was the most gorgeous thing we discovered, far away from tourist busses. We walked for hours on this 6700 km long stone-snake and felt like thrown back into the Ming-DinastyÖun unforgettable trip you should absolutely do in your life!!

Chinese mood		Shanghai, China's next New York City
Hangshou, 200% kitsch		Train-exit...
Big brother is watching you!		Funky pinky plastic party
Dim Sum, a Chinese Masterdish		Grand Hyatt Hotel
Traditional Family picture with Mao		Forbidden City army
The Great Wall - I did it!		Amazing Acrobats
Ultra-hype restaurant deco		Fish and Meat Market
Mao-Original Sales, everything must go!!		Founet & Georges discovering the Huthongs

MONTH 3

March was just weird. After having discovered the island and toured through Thailand, we finally decided to make a break, to take a rest and enjoy life. As you might know, enjoying life and taking rests always ends up in big parties, lots of beer and incredible headaches. I forgot to mention that we moved in our new flat, just a minute away from our old mansion on our so beloved Caine Road, the young heart of Hong-Kong. We had to celebrate this move and so we organized a huge house-warming party for all our friends, fools and families here over. As usual, it all ended up in the early morning on our 500 square feet roof-top, talking about French cheese we miss in HK and the misunderstandings of Chinese architecture for Westerns.

All March long we danced till late every week-end and week-day through the most chilling bars (Gecko for French lovers, drinking heavy Absinthe, Dragon-i for wannebe V.I.P.s looking for 2 m tall female aliens, Yumla for the best Drum'n-Base Sounds, Drop for it's hardliner rails, Volare for its funky Chinese hip people and the whole Wanchai district for it's fast-love women...). We have to admit that HK.s nightlife is just crazy!!

Company annual dinner		The Bosses'hug
Seb & Flo!!		Nice candles
Top part team
Till late...		Our mentor Max

MONTH 2

Our February was quite exciting. On the 8th of February, we went to Bangkok. As you might know, early February stands for Chinese New Year, a period during which every normal Hong-Kong guy leaves the island and rushes back to his family. As our families are far away, we decided to make a short 5 day trip to Bangkok. We spend 2 days in this busy capital, visiting every corner (the nice ones (Grand Palais, Big Buddha,etc) and the dirty ones (Patpong, Thai Boxing Stadium Lumpini)...) and slept really well. For the final days of our short journey, we went to a little island in front of Pattaya (not known as a nice place). This little island, named Ko-Larn, was just gorgeous....we went to a lovely beach, totally deserted, rented a small bungalow and had a lovely time with sea, love and sun...Thailand is definitely a good place to stay.

We had a lovely time in Thailand		A lot af stress
Nice ladies		Nice beaches
An amazing country		Deep culture
Big stress		Oily situations
I love Thai food...spicy-hot as my a...

MONTH 1

My travel guide told me that November-March would be blissfully spring-like...at our arrival temperature was about 7Cƒ...brrr. An average air humidity of 80% makes you feel the incredible coldness of the island. Nevertheless, I enjoyed checking-in to one of the world's most exciting cities. There are only two rules: stop at cross-roads and don't spit on the road. For all other issues, do what you want. The amazing liberal attitude goes from working rules(10 official holidays, no closing hours for shops) to gambling (Macao, a neighbour island, just overpassed Las Vegas in terms of gambling turnover), and from partying (party till 9 am is common) to construction (sky is the limit...60 floors are an usual set). I'm actually living together with Thierry (a busy banker looking for freedom on Earth) and FranÁois (aka Founet) (a HP triple-star outlet designer at L'OrÈals). Business here goes from selling Turtles and Frogs for 1 HK$ to hedging fonds (business breakfasts are scheduled at the 25th floor of the Pensinsula Hotel...one of the nicest loos ever seen on earth...who knows Stark?)

We made some nice tours of the island, discovered the gorgeous green countryside, the beaches (mmmhh..waiting for the hot spring and the nice ladies). Surrounding islands are still virgin and blended with pulsing nature (tigers and deadly boas are a real threat).

For all the guys who think that Hong-Kong is just a European runaway: there are only 4% of immigrans who live here...90% of the population doesn't speak a word of English...exciting!

Mister G loves HK		Th HK WC humour...we just love it!
Our butcher.		Our fish store.
My sales team. No, I'm not the father.		European movies are well seen.
Top-down view from the peak.		Condoms are present on evry counter...quite liberal as I said...
My shelter at the 25th floor.		My office at the 16th floor.