A life in taxis
I’d like to take you through a typical day of our production manager, Massimo Venturini. He’s always traveling, so I couldn’t shadow him, but I asked him to tell me about his travels the last time we crossed paths.
Waking up in a room at the Shangri-la in Hong Kong or on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Singapore is as usual as having a cup of tea for Massimo, make that a cup of Asian green tea!
After a minimum 16-hour flight with stopovers in at least one or two international airports (he never wants to change planes in Singapore or Bangkok because they make you check in again and sometimes with your luggage) he gets to his final destination.
The first thing that hits him is the humidity, with rates as high as 95%, along with average temperatures of 29 to 32 ° C. The most difficult moment is passing from the air-conditioned plane to the humid airport corridor. Once he’s back in air-conditioned public spaces, he feels back to normal again.
Hong Kong taxi drivers are very original characters. They have at least three cell phones on their dashboards and they choose which phone company to use based on who they have to call. They’re the lords of the “best rate”.
Amongst his various adventures, Massimo fondly remembers how once, after getting to his hotel and paying his fare, he had to fight with the taxi driver to get his suitcase out of the trunk. After much patient arguing, he finally retrieved his bag. Who knows, perhaps the taxi-driver was a Mandarina fan and wanted to keep the most beautiful suitcase he’d ever seen…
A less pleasant experience was when he arrived very tired after a long trip at his hotel at 1 am and the receptionist told him that there was no booking in his name and that the hotel was full. Massimo, however, had the booking confirmation in his hand. Finally, at 2 o’clock in the morning, after speaking with the Italian travel agency, the managing director of the hotel chain and the hotel director, the mystery was solved. The taxi-driver (and not only him) hadn’t realized that in Hong Kong there are two hotels with the same name, belonging to the same chain but located on two different streets in two different districts. Massimo got to bed at 3.30 am only to have to wake up at 6 am to catch the first ferry to China!
Technorati Tags: taxi, Hong Kong, Massimo Venturini
9 April 2008 at 00:53
oh no.. what a night for massimo.
Those discounted taxis are illegal but common. sometimes, after a short taxi trip, they hand u their ugly biz cards with their nicknames and phonenumbers printed on it. and tell u the special rate they can offer for your next trip, longer trip ofcourse. I, too, have been calling one driver for the past years. $80+, i get 20% off. haha. this driver happens to be the “head” of a “team”, i have no idea how big the team is but always enough drivers in all areas. haha. amazing. sometimes i do get scared when he deals with different phonecalls or writes numbers down while driving. haha.. and sometimes drives me crazy as his phones just wouldn’t stop ringing. haha.. thesedays, they are using better technology, a paging system. when the head gets a call from one of us, he sends it out and i think, more than 40 drivers can get this message at the same time. then see who’s in the area and who’s quickly to accept the job.
i sometimes get biz cards from other drivers. some even offer bigger discount but to me, 20% off is good enough.
they, too, are working hard to make a living. 
9 April 2008 at 00:58
oh by the way, i came across this blog after spending DAYS, searching for mandarina duck store in hong kong. where are they? all their numbers no longer exist… i wanna get something for a friend’s birthday.
online store wouldn’t ship to hong kong. i might have to ask a friend in UK to get it for me then. oh no..
no more M.D. in hong kong? please tell me this is not true. haha..
14 April 2008 at 09:49
Hy Annie!
Since you were looking for a shop nearby HK,keep in mind that the existing MD corner is located at No. 555 Hennessary Road Causeway Bay HK, The Sogo Department Store 10th Floor. General hotline is 28338338
Please feel free to let me know if anything unclear.
I hope you’ll come to visit us again
Take care!
29 April 2008 at 16:56
wow wow wow~~~ i got a reply~~~!!! haha.. ok, i ended up asking my cousin in UK to get the bag for me. all done. thanks! but i will go to sogo sometimes anyway to check out the bags. i love MD. haha.. when are u coming to hong kong again? i dunno, i’m a food lover and always wanna tell people where to find good food in hong kong, haha.. yup, just food, i dunno anything else in hk, haha.. cooking and dining are my favorite hobbies. ok, and table tennis too. haha.. thanks again!! take care! ^^
3 May 2008 at 12:15
I’m so proud of myself. the friend who got the MD bag from me as a birthday gift, likes the bag so much. and during his biz trip to london, he went to the MD store and bought a suitcase(he’s not too familiar with brands)! yes! i’m good! hahaha…
12 May 2008 at 04:41
Hi there:
I have been looking for MD store in HK too. The MD corner at Sogo has been closed after April 2008. The phone line for the one at Landmark has been diconnected. I was told by a staff at Sogo that MD had withdrawn from HK! Is that true? Do you know where I can get a MD bag 53C15606?
Thanks.
15 May 2008 at 11:50
Hi - I also live in Hong Kong and am looking for:
1 - the 53V21 suitcase and
2 - a repair on my current 53V18
Is there a MD shop in Hong Kong? If so, please help me! Thanks!
21 October 2008 at 21:21
Thank you very much for the great information-
Thanks
27 October 2008 at 00:05
woohoo! found a MD shop on nathan rd @miramar~~