Hilton, Marriott, Shangri La, Mandarin Oriental, and all the others must flood the Filipino Craigslist with adverts asking for good singers that can do dance routines, sing, and never get tired of entertaining expatriots.

Below is one of the singers from the Marriott, who I met one night between sets. One of the owners of the Hong Kong Marriott was in the lounge and he saw me in the corner drinking coffee and working on a few photos. He was a big fan of my work and soon started calling all the staff, bartenders, his friends, and eventually the singers over to my laptop. I was surrounded and they were all looking at my photos and asking all kinds of questions. Joy, in the picture here, asked me if I would meet her in Kowloon on the weekend to take a picture of her for her portfolio.

The following is from Wikipedia:

Two International Finance Centre, completed in 2003, is attached to the second phase of the ifc mall. This 415 m tall building is currently Hong Kong’s tallest, is quoted as having 88 storeys to qualify as being extremely auspicious in Chinese culture, and 22 high-ceiling trading floors. In actual fact, however, it is short of the magic number, due to the fact that the “taboo floors” like 14th and 24th etc., are omitted as being inauspicious - 14 sounds like “definitely fatal“ and 24 like “Easily fatal” in Cantonese.

The highrise is designed to accommodate financial firms. For example, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is located at the 55th floor. It is equipped with advanced telecommunications, raised floors for flexible cabling management, and nearly column-free floor plans. The building expects to accommodate up to 15,000 people. It is one of relatively few buildings in the world equipped with double-deck elevators.

The 55th, 56th and the 77th to 88th floors were bought by the HKMA for US$ 480 million in 2001^[6]. An exhibition area, currently containing an exhibit of Hong Kong’s monetary history, and a library of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority Information Centre occupy the 55th floor, and are open to the public during office hours^[10]. The 88th floor of the tower contains the office of the Chief Executive of the HK Monetary Authority, and is served by an individual lift.

I brought my iPhone with me to China so I could listen to music and flip through the albums with my fingers because it is cool rather than functional. But upon landing in Hong Kong, I got this SMS message: “Welcome to PEOPLE’S Hong Kong! Calling home / other countries? Dial <001> .” You can zoom in to the maximum size to see the message yourself.

I thought this AT&T thing only worked in the US. That’s what the man said to us, but now I have reasons to doubt the man.

How does my iPhone know I am in Hong Kong? A few weeks ago at a lunch with Will, we put our iPhones very close to one another on the table while we ordered our food. We were hoping that perhaps they would mate and spawn a third iPhone. But maybe what really happened is my iPhone started to learn from Will’s iPhone. I don’t know what it could have learned, other than how to dress conservatively and part your hair in such as way as to make you look one-quarter inch taller, but that does not explain the Hong Kong Recognition Enigma.

Perhaps my iPhone is confused and thinks I am Steve Jobs because I sometimes wear all black in speak like a vainglorious huckster. I cannot say for sure, but I will continue to explore what happens to the iPhone in various countries.

The pic up there on my Apple is the one I took of Hong Kong from The Peak on the previous night… Here is a link the full size.

In the foreground is Hong Kong and on the far side is Kowloon.