An Independent Hong Kong?

Could Hong Kong really be an independent nation?

I know practically the PRC government would probably never let this happen, but just say it turned round and said to Hong Kong, you are now on your own, could Hong Kong really stand on its own two feet or does it always need some sort of father looking after it?

Hong Kong government efficiency

I know we love knocking HK and moaning etc about it (I am very guilty of doing this). However at least the operations side of things are very efficient.

So the IRD's etax service only works up to Firefox 7 (and the latest version is 9.0.1), however how many people actually raise any issue with the IRD about it cause they think they will just get a stock run around answer which doesn't actually deal with the problem?

Well, anyway, I decided to email the IRD yesterday with my compliant that Firefox 9.0.1 didn't work with their etax service. To my surprise, I got an email today saying that they've looked into the matter and fixed the problem.

Now that's what I call efficiency!

Hong Kong unlimited mobile data plan options?

My 3HK contract is finally coming to an end shortly and I'm going to shift network.

I am after a SIM only all you can eat data plan (or one which offers a generous cap).

At present the options I am considering are SmarTone, One2Free and 1010, and maybe China Mobile ("CMHK").  I know One2Free and 1010 are on the same network (CSL), but I've been told 1010 does have network priority over One2Free (kind of makes sense as 1010 is more expensive).  The one network that is missing is PCCW Mobile, this is a network I am not willing to consider due to its reputation for very poor customer services ("CS").

3HK for all you can eat data is probably the cheapest (I am paying HK$210 a month, but the network is very weak where I need it (which is around IFC, Jardine House and on the MTR) for both data and voice calls. At and around my home (Sheung Wan), the network is fine, but is redundant, as I have wifi in my home. The CS has actually been fine, and they have quite a few innovative products, its just that the network has been very poor.

I had previously been with SmarTone and it was generally OK, but it did have quite a few blackspots around where I used to live (Tung Chung) and on the Tung Chung line. It seemed to be fine in and around central though and CS was never an issue.

The plan prices are as follows per month (and inclusive of any tunnel fees):

- SmarTone: HK$250 18 month commitment
- One2Free: HK$279 12 month commitment or HK$249 24 month commitment
- 1010: HK$351 12 month commitment or HK$321 24 month commitment
- China Mobile: HK$230 12 month commitment

With SmarTone and the CSL providers the early contract end penalty is HK$500. I cannot find information for CMHK in relation to early contract end penalties.

Smartone and CSL uses HSDPA+, while CMHK claims to use HSPA. I wasn't aware that CMHK had its own 3G network, so it may be piggybacking off another network.

At present I'm leaning towards the One2Free 24 month plan.  CSL is regarded to have the best network in Hong Kong, but 1010's prices are a bit too high for me.

CMHK does sound tempting, but it seems like quite a bit of a gamble as their network infrastructure is a bit of an unknown. I have been with CMHK in the past and it was fine both network and CS wise, although this was on 2G.

Any thoughts / comments / suggestions?

Happy New Year!

Well, 2011 was an eventful year!  The crazy travelling continued with my partner in crime, but we took our journey to the next level with our biggest challenge to date.  We survived, learnt lots about each other through the process, but came out stronger.  While, at times, we were in a dark place, there was always light at the end of the tunnel, jokes were had, laughs became louder and merriment was had.  I don't know what 2012 holds, but with my partner in crime at my side, we'll be travelling, joking around and causing general havoc to those who come in our path (in a good way mind you!)  Wishing everyone a very happy new year.

Piss poor customer service by Suunto and Victorinox

I own a Suunto Mosquito dive computer.  Its not the most advanced dive computer in the world, but it does the job.  Recently I was having problems opening the battery casing and in any case thought the computer needed a servicing, as I had owned it for about 6 years and had not had the computer serviced since I bought it.  I therefore went to the Suunto home page to find out where the Suunto service centre in Hong Kong was.

I went to the support section of the website and I was told for a "diving instrument" to contact the nearest service center and therefore clicked on the service center locator link.  For Hong Kong, the search revealed that Victorinox was the Hong Kong service agent for Suunto, with their location being in Kwun Tong. 

As Kwun Tong is quite far away for me, I emailed Victorinox to see if they could assist me in repairing the dive computer.  Victorinox were quite quick in their response and told me to bring the computer to their service centre in Kwun Tong.

So off I go one lunch time (office hours are not the best for Victorinox, meaning the only time I could go was at lunch time and the location is about 50 minutes away from my office).  When I get to Victorinox in Kwun Tong I get told by the service centre staff that they do not deal with Suunto dive computer servicing and that a company called CD Services deals with this. 

The service centre lady is quite surprised that I would come to their service centre for my dive computer.  I showed here my email exchange with her company (where I had specifically stated I was enquiring about a dive computer) where they told me to come to Kwun Tong.  Again the lady remains completely surprised but can't really do much about the situation.

The kick in the teeth, CD Services is about 5 minutes walk from my office.  I go along there and they happily deal with servicing my dive computer.

What annoys me most about my little episode above is that it is not mentioned anywhere on the Suunto website that CD Services are the dive computer service centre and that even when I asked Victorinox via email, they told me to deal with them, only when I got to their service centre, they turned around and said they do not service dive computers.

HKBN, usenet, Highwinds

My ISP, Hong Kong Broadband Network ("HKBN") offers me,  a dedicated fibre internet connection with a guaranteed speed of 100Mbps.  This sounds great, but that guaranteed speed is for connections to the Hong Kong Internet eXchange ("HKIX")!  For foreign connections HKBN claim its on a best efforts basis.  Through testing it seems that HKBN has a cap of around 20Mbps for foreign connections, which actually isn't that bad at all, but this is the absolute maximum speed I found I could connect at.

For most of my downloading I use usenet.  When I was PCCW's Netvigator I was on their 30Mbps plan and I was pretty much guaranteed that speed for usenet downloading, regardless of where their servers were (tried this with the likes of Astraweb and Blocknews).  With HKBN, if a newgroup provider's servers are abroad (like Astraweb or Blocknews) it seemed speeds were capped at around 20Mbps.

There is one newgroup provider that has servers in Hong Kong, Giganews.  While Giganews does have a solid reputation, its monthly prices are quite high compared to other providers (I really want just plain usenet, don't need extra features like VPN or newsreader software).  However, with Giganews I was getting speeds of 100Mbps (tried this out on a trial account)!!!  Giganews do offer an unlimited account with just basic downloading, but even then its around US$25 a month.  Its affiliate reseller, Supernews, is available via specific sites for US$9.99 a month, but alas it does not use Giganews's Hong Kong server.   

Recently a bunch of newsgroup providers had their blackfriday specials at very good rates.  The majority of them were Highwinds resellers.  Highwinds has an OK reputation, and if all things were equal (i.e. pricing with the likes of Astraweb or UseNetNow) I would not go with them, but they had some very good offers.  For example with Thundernews I was able to get an unlimited plan with 50 connections for US$6.50 a month.  Also, (not through blackfriday, but another promotion) I was able to get a 1TB block account with NewsgroupDirect (note, affiliate link) for US$50.  My view was, even though I'm getting download speeds of 20Mbps I might as well get the cheapest option.

To my surprise I found that with both Thundernews and NewgroupDirect I was able to get download speeds of around 70Mbps to 100Mbps!!  From the tracroutes on my computer it seemed to suggest that I was being connected to US servers and not any Hong Kong servers (also I'm not aware of Highwinds having servers in Hong Kong).  Naturally very happy with these fast connection speeds and they are coming at a fraction of the price I would pay if I decided to go with Giganews.

moving experiences

I've just recently moved home (yet again) in Hong Kong.

This time the move was quite a big job as furniture (beds, wardrobes, TVs, sofas) needed to be moved.  By moving I mean these items needed to be dis-assembled and then re-assembled at the new place.

I had contacted various moving companies, some local and some more expat oriented.  Ended up getting two companies Yan Yan and Links to come round to my place to get a more detailed quote.

The sales person at Yan Yan had a quick look at the place and then gave a quote the next day.  The sales person at Links took their time, asked various questions and then gave their quote.  Both claimed to give an "all-in" price.  But then, they started saying that if X needs to be done, then we will need to charge extra.  An added benefit of Links was that they would pack all the goods for you (but you would have to unpack at the other end).

I eventually went with Yan Yan (basically because they were the cheapest by a few thousand dollars).  Yan Yan provided us with boxes and tape prior to the moves, allowing us to pack our belongings.  First time round, however, they forgot to provide us with bubble wrap, so they had to return for that.

Day of the move was set and time arranged for 10am (with an odd job man coming round and hour early to dismantle some fixtures to be taken to the new place).  I get a call at 8.40 in the morning saying that the moving van has arrived and we need to be there ASAP (I was about to start to eat breakfast at McDonalds).  OK, so this is new, a company that's early, but they were over an hour early!!

In any case we rush back to our flat to let the movers in.  We were expecting at most about 3-5 movers.  Yan Yan had sent over an army of 10 movers.  They started getting on with their work, seems like a bit of chaos, but the movers were doing their job.  We had been promised one of the movers would be English speaking, which was the case, but his level of English was limited.  There were times when the movers just resorted to Cantonese, so my missus had to deal with them.

We did find a few of the movers to be very rude.  One even started telling my wife off (in Cantonese) and pointing at her.  He was having a moan at our IKEA wardrobe and saying that these things are only supposed to be installed one time and that he would never move for us again (fine by us as well).  Anyway, everything got packed up and we drove to our new place.

One of the problems with our new place was that the lift is actually quite small.  We were told by Yan Yan that if they had to carry any items up stairs there would be a HK$40 charge per floor.  I was worried this would be a possibility as some of the items were actually quite long.  Luckily everything did fit into the lifts.

The movers quickly unpacked the items.  We have a glass table which the movers shifted around a bit.  As the floor for the new place is stone, some glass scraped off, so we asked the movers to stop shifting the table around.  Same mover as before decided to tell my wife off about this.  Anyway, everything got shifted and the odd job man hung around for a bit longer to hang up the various fixtures.

I paid the men (they cheekily asked for more money for their tip over what I had given them) and off they went.

When the move was completed we noted some of our chairs got quite badly damaged by the move.  I contacted Yan Yan about this (and about the few other problems I had with them), however, to date I haven't heard back from the company.

Overall, I guess we got what we paid for.  They moved the stuff for us.  Most of the items got their in one piece and the job was done quickly.  However, their "customer service" style was quite "local".  Would I use Yan Yan again?  I'm not too sure, but then again, their price is very competitive.