I have recently changed my nationality to Chinese and have a HKSAR passport now. This makes most of my traveling visa/hassle-free. But I need a permit to enter China or Taiwan for the first time. Last week I had the priviledge to visit Chung Hwa services’ office in Hong Kong to apply for a permit for Taiwan.

I had all the necessary documents, photos etc. with me. And I was told if I can submit my application before 1030, I could be interviewed at 1130. You cannot download the application form; you can only collect it at the office. So I reached the visa office at 0945 to be safe. Out of the five counters, only two were operational. One to collect your visa, the other for collecting and submitting forms. There were about 15 people in the queue, and I had no idea I’d be doing four rounds in the same queue:

Round 1: The lady reviewed all my documents and issued a form. I quickly filled up the forms, leaving my ‘name in Chinese’ blank. I also saw a section where you had to paste the front and back copies of your ID card into the exact boxes. In the absence of any scissors or glue, I just clipped my ID copies with the form and queued up again – in the same queue with almost the same 15 people.

Round 2: The lady showed me a corner where a pair of scissors was chained to the wall with a pot of glue and brush (see photo). I came out of the queue and joined the small queue next to the scissor/glue station. I neatly cut up and pasted my ID card copies in position and went back in the queue.

Round 3: The lady pointed at the blank space next to my Chinese name. I showed her my Chinese name on the ID and asked if she would be kind enough to help fill that in, as I can’t write in Chinese. She refused and said I should ask someone else. And she gave me another small form which was all in Chinese and asked me to fill in my name, ID number and home address in Chinese too. I got out of the queue, went back to the scissor/glue station and asked one of the ladies if I could help cut and paste her ID while she could write my name and address in Chinese on my form. That worked well and I went back in the queue.

Round 4: The lady smiled and showed me the clock. It was 1040, which meant I’d have to come back in the afternoon for an interview. I requested and begged her to make a small exception, considering that I had done four rounds in the queue since 0945. “No”. She gave me an appointment slip for 1630 in the afternoon.

I went back at 1630 and was asked to wait until my name was called. Waiting was easy; I watched people doing the same rounds near the counter and the scissor/glue station. I even took the photo. The interview happened at 1650; just some simple and basic questions. And I was given a receipt to collect the permit after a week!

An excellent training in following instructions, patience, anger-management and dealing with ’situations’ in life! No complaints. I am also practicing how to write my name in Chinese!

This event attracts hundreds of local and international publishers, and over 200,000 visitors every year. Our company is participating as an international publisher for the second time, together with our local distributors.

The set-up day today was a major disaster, obviously a result of total lack of organization and absolute mismanagement!

The first shock was the lack of security despite the recent events in the country. Any vehicle could enter the gates unchecked and come all the way near the main entrance to the halls!

Secondly, there was no lighting in the halls except for some sunlight. And no power supply for the exhibitors! We kept complaining all day, and got different explanations from the organizers every time:

We want to be careful that nobody gets electrocuted!
The Expo Center electrical staff is off in the morning due to Christmas – you’ll have lights by 1 PM.
There is power failure.
The staff is off today due to Christmas.
The Expo Center wants to save on power. You’ll have power tomorrow!

All exhibitors worked in darkness and heat and humidity all day. Our team left around 7 PM, without setting up our lighting, computers and audio-visual stuff!

Both ladies and gents toilets inside the halls remain locked all days due to “security reasons”! Everyone had to use the dirty and filthy, open-air, under-construction toilets outside the halls. The ladies in our team couldn’t go near it. After non-stop complaining to the organizers, toilets in the main reception area, also away from the exhibition halls, were finally opened around 1 PM. Those were a bit cleaner but without any toilet paper, soap, paper napkins or dryers!

The list goes on, but just one more thing worth mentioning is the blame game that all organizers engaged in throughout the day, instead of accepting any responsibility!

Time and again, Cable TV Hong Kong has disappointed me with their termination policies. In this modern era they still insist on FAX as the only way to send in a signed confirmation of account closure which will always be guaranteed a month delay no matter how much you attempt to time this. So apart from the agony, you lose a month of service fee without any reason. Why can’t companies learn to create it easy for users to close accounts (which are charged real money) by simply a phone call, online click or something easier than filling in long forms? I ended up paying 4 months of bills for services i did not use a single bit just because they did not make it easier for me to cancel my subscription when i really wanted to!

In addition, the challenges with language when you call them on phone are laughable. Each time i have called them, mostly in panic, they have tried to tell me that they will get someone else who speaks “English” call me back “shortly” (they tell me this in English). Occasionally, the call came within 4-8 hours (and i felt lucky). Other times there was none. Without any followup!

Hong Kong, the world class city otherwise, needs a lesson or two in customer service further!

I don’t work for a rival airline. I am a salesman who does a lot of traveling, mostly on Cathay due to easier connections from Hong Kong. I even have a gold status with Cathay. And I continue to witness how the service standards on this airline have gone from WOW to SHIT.

On a recent flight from HK to Colombo, via Singapore, I had three more SHIT experiences:

1. When we were served dinner, the passenger next to me asked for his special Muslim meal. He was told off by the crew ‘we don’t have it, did you request?’ The passenger told them that he had not only requested it but reconfirmed at checkin time. Once again, he was told ’sorry, we don’t have it; please take the pasta, it’s vegetarian.’ He refused to accept it, saying ‘i don’t want to eat anything if you don’t have my Muslim meal.’ He had been fasting all day (about 13 hours of no food or drinks). Half way through our dinner, the crew appeared ’sir, here’s your Muslim meal!’ No apology, no explanation!? Go figure.
2. The same passenger had his video console (that you pull up if you are in the first row) falling off every couple of minutes. So he at his dinner with one hand, while holding the video console with the other!
3. Just before landing when I wanted to change the SIM card on my iPhone, I realized I had lost my pin (you need a pin to push down the SIM card tray on an iPhone). Firstly it was difficult to get anyone’s attention through the call button. When I finally asked the crew ‘would you be able to give me a safety pin?’ She looked surprised and said ’safety pin? what’s a safety pin?!’ Then I asked for any kind of pin, and finally got it.

Then on my way back from Colombo, I upgraded myself to Business Class using my miles. First the movies didn’t match the program printed in the entertainment guide. When I pointed out, they reset the program so everything matched the channel except that my desired channel/movie went blank. The resetting went on for a while and finally everything worked. Except that the movie went blank again just 20 minutes before ending! When I complained to the crew, I also told her about the three SHIT things that happened on my inbound flight. She said ‘you should write to Cathay’. I told her about Cathay’s standard response to such complaint letters: ‘We are sorry. We will investigate the matter’. Don’t ask me why do I still travel Cathay

I have started keeping local SIM cards for all the places where I frequently travel to. This saves me on the roaming charges but of course I do miss out on a few calls or sms from people who try my HK phone. When I went to Riyadh on my first business trip, the first thing I wanted to do was buy a local SIM card. But soon after landing, I got a text message from Al Jawal, the local network: Get a local number without changing your sim, call … WOW! I immediately called the number and followed the recorded instructions; soon I heard, ‘your local number has been activated’, and the line went dead. I said, ‘wait a minute, what’s my local number, what do i do next???’ At that moment another text message came with my local number and instructions on calling and recharging. WOW!

For the next four days, I was able to use both my HK number and the local number at the same time. What’s more, after every call Al Jawal would send a message about the balance amount. Surely a WOW network!

I had been happily using a Palm/Treo for about ten years. I ditched it last week when I finally succumbed to the temptations of iPhone. Being a Mac user and fan for a few years, I had very high expectations from the iPhone. I expected it to seamlessly sync with my mac’s Contacts, iCal, Mail, iPhoto and iTunes…which it did beautifully well with a touch of a button! It even copied my bookmarks from Safari! I finally browsed the Internet, logged into my blogs, checked the stats, looked at flight schedules, browsed the movies in local theaters, watched a couple of trailers and even booked movie tickets – none of which I’d ever do on any other handheld! Now I also open the attachments to email – even Excel looks pretty on iPhone! Plus other cool features like the intelligent keyboard, Mac-type widgets, scrolling and twitching and turning pages, are all WOW!

Now comes the SHIT part: It has blue tooth but only for headset; can’t transfer files! It has SMS but can’t do group SMS; plus there’s no outbox for unsent messages! There’s no copy, cut and paste function. So I can’t copy numbers or info from a text message to contacts or calendar – I need to have a PAPER and PEN! Notes in iPhone can’t sync with any application on Mac; so there’s no backup! And it doesn’t have multiple color-coded calendars like in Mac or Treo. No more red dots showing trips, or purple dots showing birthdays, or green dots for commitments with family or friends! I miss my Treo

While iPhone is way ahead in lot of things, it’s a step back for me in a lot of ways. So I say, it’s both WOW and SHIT, or somewhere in between! I should have listened to you, Hamza

This is the Pizza Hut right after the tollgate on the highway to Bandung. And there’s something different about this one. Besides the fact that the staff is very happy and enthusiastic, they love to entertain kids by making balloon animals for them. There’s a huge basket in a corner which is filled with long balloon tubes. Kids come and select a color and one of the staff would make an animal or something for the kid. Kids love watching the transformation of balloon tubes into different shapes. And these balloons are easier to keep. It also makes their parents happy because the whole process keeps their kids away for a while. It seems to make the staff happy because they get to interact with different kids and spread some cheer in between taking orders and serving pizzas! The balloon hat in the picture is my contribution to the shapes now available ☺ What a simple idea! And so much WOW!

My Fiancée lives in the Philippines and I live in America. I often send her money for some support, or to build up some savings for when I arrive there to live. I have used a few of the money transfer companies available on the internet, which I will not mention except Remit2Home.I had been happily using a company before Remit2Home started flooding the internet with their ads. They said their fee was less so I decided to try them out.

I signed up, and proceeded to send Elena some money. They did their test of my account sending me a small amount then taking it back. I then got a phone call from them wanting to know everything about me except maybe my blood type. One thing they did ask was the test transfer amount to prove I was the account holder. This all happened within 2 days after I signed up. Then we waited a week, nothing. Then 2 weeks, still nothing. They advertise 24/7 support. WHERE? Their phones are never answered and their Chat Live crashes or never works.

Oh, one time they answered the phone, and the girl said she would contact someone in the customer service department and have someone return my call. NEVER HAPPENED. I would send emails and 2 days later I would get a promise they are investigating. 2 days ago, I get an email saying the money has been deposited. Well, my fiancée went to her bank and NO, NOTHING THERE. Also now all I get is their auto-response email, but nothing more. It has been ONE MONTH and no money. BEYOND SHIT!

[Contributed by Bruce - http://filipinainamerica.com/?p=17]

Cathay has been my favorite airline since 1997 when I first started traveling on it, up until recently when I finally made up my mind that I don’t like it any more. And it’s the little things that seem to be slowly disappearing – like the genuine smile at the check-in desk, the passion and enthusiasm of the cabin crew and the real care for the passenger.

I have had faulty AV systems on my seat twice in the last six months – they say, “Sorry sir, would you like to change your seat.” I don’t, because I am sitting on a first-row aisle seat – the only comfortable seat in the plane for someone who is tall and suffers from back pain.

Most cabin crew don’t hear English very well, so you almost always have to repeat yourself if you ask for anything other than water. People making cabin announcements often sound like kids who have just learnt how to read.

What peeves me the most is when you press the call button and nobody bothers. I have often had cabin crew pass by without stopping, even when they see the call light turned on above my seat. One of my colleagues often tells the attendants who show up after a long time, “If I had a heart attack, I’d be dead by now”. Most of them don’t seem to understand what he means by that.

So yeah, Cathay is consistently moving from WOW to SHIT on my scale. So why do I still travel Cathay? For it’s convenient connections from Hong Kong, where I (mostly) live. And for crew like Athens, who still care and love what they do. Today he recognized me and remembered that few months ago, I had given away my favorite seat so a mom and child could sit together. He treated me really well today.
[Written during a Cathay flight from Hong Kong to Karachi on Oct 19, 2007]

Here we are waiting for our new domestic helper to arrive in Hong Kong, and she is stuck in Kerala due to insufficient funds to buy a ticket. No, she does not have any bank account; plus it’s Friday so most banks have the excuse of non-processing day garbage. Let’s face it, the world is global, fast paced and at least the big companies should (and can) cater for the poor individuals who only get time to clean up their act on weekends. Yes, planning is important, but if you don’t have unplanned emergencies in your life you must be lying or simply not living!

Back to my story… I decided to try Western Union. I went to their office in Central. I paid cash; they charged a small commission; provided me with a code which I sent through text message to the receiver in Kerala. She went to the Western Union office; provided the code and got cash. All in less than 10 minutes! There may not be an ATM or even a bank in some villages in Kerala, but fortunately there is Western Union. WOW!

[Contributed by Altaf, Hong Kong - Oct 2007]