HK-Day 7-Friday

Posted by JohnP 02/08/2008 at 19:34

  • French Toast
  • Victoria Harbor / HK Art Museum
  • Zen Chinese dinner
  • New Years Fireworks
  • Soho Pub

Ok, today was a light day. We headed to the CTS (China Travel Services) to get VISAs for mainland China visits. Turns out all the government offices are closed until Monday for Chinese New Year. We complete the forms and have them checked, but need to take them and passport photos and our passports back on Monday for emergency visa service.

Next is lunch/breakfast – were we find the Perisian – a 5 star hotel. Jim has the grape nuts cereal, crescent, and fresh fruit, I have an omelet and French toast. Yummy. HK$550+ later and we are satiated.

Next we had to the HK Art Museum – it is closed, but the view of the harbor and HK across it is nice. Video to follow. We spend a little time in a local mall, check out the car and driver best cars for 2008- HK version, then decide that a siesta would be a good idea. Jim emails and does a little business, while I sleep a few hours.

Dinner is in Central at a recommended Zen Chinese restaurant. The food is tasty – 1000 year egg and jellyfish appetizers for Jim, Sweet and Sour Pork and Beef Tenderloin with ginseng and onions for both. Service is lacking … which seems to happen for non-Asians more than we’d like. I assume they know we only speak English and are uncomfortable interacting with us, but who knows.

We leave there and head home to watch the fireworks on the roof of our hotel. The fireworks are 22 minutes of non-stop colors. Nice. Video to follow.

Then we decide that a few beverages are needed , so we head to SOHO to a small pub/bar with a large assortment of beers. Some odd beers are drunk – tasty and I found a new "favorite". We wobble home on the train.

HK-Day 6-Thursday

Posted by JohnP 02/07/2008 at 13:25

Happy Chinese New Years Day!!!

  • Chinese Breakfast – Dim Sum
  • HK Midlevels
  • Krispy Kream
  • McDonald’s Dinner
  • New Years Day parade over in Kowloon

On the train this morning, I decided to try an get a movie of the entire length of the train as it snakes thru town. I think it turned out nice.

We head out to Sheung Wan for a Lonely Planet recommended Chinese breakfast.

After breakfast, we head up the hill. Ok, I know this now, but didn’t know it then. There is a group of escalators and moving walkways to go up the hill. For some reason, Jim decided to hike up the stairs. By the time we got to the highest point that we were headed, many of the skyscraper roofs were at the same level we were. See #624.

Recall that it is new years day, so most of the Chinese are dressed up (as for church) and going to family gatherings. They exchange gifts – mostly little red cards containing pins or money. Basically, anyone you have a relationship with gets a card from your husband, wife, children, grocer, waitress, laundry, anyone you’ve known on a weekly basis.

Around #679, I realize what Jim did – and I’m pissed. The escalators don’t go down, just up at this time of day. We get to walk down the steps. The escalator direction is changed based on the normal flow of people during the day. I don’t know how many there are in total, perhaps 30?

We earned a break – Krispy Kream in SOHO!

  1. shows my thoughts at the time – 2pm.

On Sundays and holidays the Indonesian house keepers all gather together across about 5 blocks of walkways to share their day off with each other. I didn’t take many pictures since they were showing family albums and it is tough to get used to so many, many, really, really, short people. Jim and I definitely didn’t belong there. I felt almost 2’ taller than the girls.

Jim decides he’d like to walk home from the Causeway Bay stop … and we are able to get passport photos for the Shenzhen trip in a few days.

The central HK library is a block away from the hotel.

Today, we started noticing the Engrish.

After the siesta, we wanted to see the New Years Day parade over in Kowloon. This is a big deal, so we don’t want to miss it and don’t want bad viewing. McDonald’s is the dinner. Since I don’t eat that stuff in the USA, I can’t believe I did here. Jim is basically discussed.

The streets are closed, and we’re the first here in front of the "New World Center". We have time to kill. A few of the participants walk by before the parade officially starts. You have to love the Chinese Kilt-wearing band. Due to the low light conditions, my camera needed longer exposure times. Combined with the movement, almost none of the pictures were useful. Jim used his DV camera to capture almost the entire parade – with just the good parts.

  • The sunflower costumes were from Spain.
  • The Thailand group was tastefully done and amazing.
  • Australian Group was unclear what they represent.
  • I’m sorry about the fuzzy pictures – it was dark and my cheap camera couldn’t get enough exposure.
  • Numerous local teams
  • UCLA Band
  • SF 49ers Cheerleaders

Jim videoed the entire parade, so look for the Divx version. It should just be the good parts since you won’t have to wait between teams or get there 2 hours early for a good location.

:TODO: Need to complete this….. #881
[[Hong Kong 2008]]

HK-Day 5-Wednesday

Posted by JohnP 02/06/2008 at 13:24

Ok, after the VERY long day yesterday, we still had a full day planned. The list of things to accomplish were long.

  • Laundry
  • See if we could alter our flights to stay a few days longer
  • Get Hotel reservations if we do
  • Buy essential clothes
  • Buy more power converters
  • Buy a wired headset so Skype is possible
  • See some culture, people, places (i.e. red light district)

Mission Accomplished

On the way to drop of our laundry at a Chinese Laundry – always wanted to say that – we came across an unexpected temple. However, the laundry wasn’t open until 8am, so we had to wait or go back to the hotel and do other things. FYI, we’ve been living on 4 hours of sleep a night since Sunday. There is simply too much to do here and we haven’t been the most efficient travelers.

Back in the hotel, we notice another cruise ship coming in to Kowloon and snap a few pictures. There seems to be less haze this morning too.

The main entrance to our hotel – seems we should have taken that on Saturday evening. Sorry. I’ve been taking more digital pictures on this trip with my new camera than I have in the last 10 years with my 35mm one.

Dry Cleaners agree to have the laundry ready "after 7pm today." They did. Everything will be closed on Chinese New Years day – Thursday.

Ok, so we are off to find the computer mall and end up in a mall, just not the right mall. It does have a Krispy Kreme, so it isn’t all bad. Neither Jim nor I partake. I haven’t been worrying about following my diet since we’ve been walking, standing, going 12 hours a day at least. The mall has 9 levels, three are just for food with a food court elsewhere. We shop for electronics, power, underwear, socks, shirts, pants since I packed very lightly. The right mall is named WANCHAI COMPUTER CENTRE, if you find yourself looking for it. It is half a block from the Wan Chai MTR station – clearly hidden from us.

Jim finds a watch store AND a watch that has a unique capability. What do don’t see is the sales girl running out to stop Jim from taking a picture of the watch. Seems they don’t like pictures of merchandise. I guess they didn’t see me snap that other pict. We never asked, but I suppose duplication of merchandise is a REAL problem here of all places?

Lunch – mummmm good (see Jim’s picts). We hope you enjoy the pre-post pictures. Sadly, we usually forget to take the untouched first image until after a few bites for some reason. The meal today was from a mall food court – US$7 or so. If you ask for Diet Coke, you aren’t likely to get what you want. Coke Lite is the proper term.

Next we seem to have found ourselves in the red light district. On the train ride here, Jim was groped by a woman as she left the train. He felt violated. Ok, we’re down a fed blocks and there are more interesting buildings. I need a rest, so we stop into a park for a sit and try to figure were we need to head next – coffee/internet cafe.

Recharged and knowing where we went wrong earlier, we find the computer mall with a McDonald’s next to it (see Jim’s picts). It is 2 floors of every desktop, laptop, ultra-portable, smart phone, PDA, Audio/Visual or related tiny shops. HK$80 later and I have a new USB media reader and Jim has lens cleaner, power converters, and is considering lots of other purchases. Fry’s is impressive. This place is more impressive and the shop keepers are extremely knowledgeable about everything they have, unlike Fry’s.

Back home where Jim lines up Hotels for the extra days (they are all full this weekend due to the new year celebration) and a small siesta for me. We pick up the laundry (yawn) and head to a "surprise" according to Jim. It is a huge mall in the HK suburbs – Tai Koo. As you may know, getting out of the subway station nearest where you need to be can be difficult when there are 6 different exits.

HK-Day 4-Tuesday

Posted by JohnP 02/05/2008 at 18:59

Our trip to Macau, SAR, China. This is a former Portuguese colony.
That means, lots of Churches, graves, and less English.

It was raining much of the day.

We start off early in the morning. The Tin Hau station is empty. At Tsim Sha Tsui we catch the 7:45a TurboJet ferry to Macau.

In Macau, we’re approached by a tour guide who wants MA$750 each to show us around. Macau has their own money, MOP, that is fixed to 97% HK$. Thankfully, most shops don’t care, so I never have to exchange currency. In fact, as Jim learns, even the local ATM won’t give Macau MOP currency.
We catch the #23 bus into town from the airport after a false start walking around the Macau Race Track. We end up near the start of a Lonely Planet Macau Walking tour and attempt to follow it. There’s always a Starbucks nearby – HK, Macau, USA.
The Portuguese history means there are many, many, churches cemeteries in contrast to the new casinos and busy downtown casino area.
As we walk down and up tiny, turning roads, we get lost over and over again in the light rain. Scooters are clearly the main form of transportation here.

  • St. Augustine’s Church
  • Getting electricity and cable seems to be as easy as splicing your neighbors feed.
  • Estrado di Cemiterio
  • Village Squares
  • Dim Sum lunch
  • Huge Casinos
  • Luxury Shopping
  • St. Lawrence’s Church
  • St. Joseph’s Seminary & Church
  • Engrish
  • A-Ma Temple – smell the incense
  • Macau Naval Museum (Closed)
  • Walk to the Macau Tower
  • Macau Tower – I’m afraid of heights ’’and’’ the prices to walk outside and bungy were high. Oddly, there was an art exhibit in the connecting building and the Da Vinci Exhibition (no photographs allowed)
  • TurboJet back to Hong Kong
  • Sushi dinner back in Tin Hau district
  • Assorted mementos and subway diagrams

HK-Day 3-Monday

Posted by JohnP 02/04/2008 at 04:47

Summary

  • Superbowl with Xpats
  • IFC Mall
  • Star Ferry
  • Golden Mile – Nathan Rd
  • Indonesian Lunch
  • HK Space Museum
  • Thai Dinner
  • Flower Festival @ Victoria Park

Today Jim and I got up earlier and headed to Bulldog’s in the Central HK district to watch the Superbowl with a group of XPATs. We arrived at 7:15am and the place already had no seats available due to prior reservations. The Game was fantastic – with everyone around speaking English. Jim didn’t like the game so much. Lots of photos of the crowd with the game highs and lows. There was a NY fan who made my morning.

Jim had Bangers and Mash and I had the "Bulldog Breakfast" of bangers, egg over baked beans, bacon, and chips. Eh, but after starving the day before, I needed some real food.

Next we headed home to Causeway Bay to get a replacement battery for a camera. While there, we went to the roof of the hotel for some better views on all sides. It was a hazy day with lots of moisture in the air so the photos reflect that.

A visit to the Tin Hau temple less than a block away from the hotel. It is just a few steps off a busy roadway. Since returning from this trip, I’ve seen that temple in a number of movies shot in Hong Kong. In fact, I’ve stood at many of the places and seen the views shown in those movies.

Then we headed back to Central to hit a mall – the IFC – which also has the HK Stock Exchange. I took lots of building architecture picts. Walking around a 3+ story high end mall was tiresome. There’s a photo of diamond earings that happen to be ear buds for MP3 players too.

Next we took the Star Ferry from Hong Kong island to Kowloon. This is one of those things that you simply must do when visiting HK. There was another mall right off the dock and we spent the better part of an hour trying to find our way out and onto a subway – MTR. We ended up going out the same door that we’d entered and had to take the long way around.

Then we walked down Nathan Road passed Louis Vuitton and other very expensive name brand shops. Notice the line to enter some of the stores. 1 person out, 1 person in.

We ducked into an alley-way – if felt like we were going back in time to the old Hong Kong market that you see in all the picture. People trying VERY HARD to sell you items that you don’t want or need from their stalls. Cell phones, internet phones, T-shirts, luggage, food, candy, and currency exchange. We dropped back onto Nathan Rd and proceeded to a Lonely Planet recommended Indonesian restaurant. Yum, tasty – Jim ate the entire prawn to show me how it was done. I tried it with 1 of them – eh, a little crunchy, but decided to peel the rest of them. See photos of before and after the meal.

BTW, on the way to and from the restaurant, I was approached by about 10 Indian men trying to sell custom made suits, pants, shirts, knock-off watches, and other items. For some reason, Jim wasn’t bothered much. I didn’t see other white people getting as much attention as I was. Must have been my stare that made me appear to be a tourist. At least, that’s what JH said it was.

Then we were off to visit the Sheraton Hotel that Jim’s dad helped build 30+ years ago. Nostalgia for Jim and a comfy couch for me and my aching feet. Next was the HK Space Museum for an imax movie on Santorini Thera (Greece) that an archaeologist discovered was destroyed by a volcano eruption. They believe it was the largest eruption ever on the earth and was see from over 1,000 miles away. This is what Jim tells me, since I fell asleep 30 minutes into it. We headed home for a late afternoon siesta. It was around 6pm so the trains were packed, literally. Trains ran every 2 minutes.

Siesta in the hotel room; Jim tells me that I snore.

Off to a local Thai dinner. See Jim’s photos, YUMMY! He had a beef dish and shrimp and intestine balls. I had a green curry and chicken dish. I’d had enough of my food staring back at me already today.

I wanted to walk off my meal, so we headed back to the flower festival. Jim, me and 20k-40k of our closest friends. See P1010122.MOV to get the feel of the festival. Nice plunger. It was almost as packed as the 6pm trains. There was lots of junk being sold, "safety panties" and a lamp where flipping the penis up or down turned the light on or off. It is the Year of the Rat for Chinese New Year.

Back home for the evening – another day in HK in the can.

HK-Day 2-Sunday

Posted by JohnP 02/03/2008 at 18:47

Ok, my first full day in HK. I’ll describe a few photos that were taken through the day.
Out the window just before the sun came up. Across the bay is Kowloon. The lights in the foreground are in Victoria Park where a flower festival is scheduled every evening this week.

I take a 5 hour walk around the Causeway Bay, Tin Hau, Wan Chai and Aberdeen districts today. This helps me fight my jet lag, get a little exercise and get the feel for the area around the hotel.

Looking back now, it appears that I took too many building photos. Some of them are of men working on bamboo truss systems. Sadly, you don’t get the scale of their work. The photo don’t include the 1st 4 floors.

I was also amazed by the trees growing where there is no dirt, right on/into the concrete.

Little walk rest stops are all over HK.

I head into Victoria Park for the morning version of the flower festival where I see lots of new and unusual plants. I plan to come back in the evening with Jim to learn what these are. There were other folks running, walking, exercising on strange devices (think wax-on, wax-off wheels placed at chest level) and a few groups of 5 or so practicing Tai Chi. The Great Crane movement has to be seen to be appreciated.

Wandering around HK on a Sunday you see the city come alive. As noon came around, more and more and more people are out shopping, meeting together, and sharing their views in official demonstration areas. It appeared that every Muslim girl on the island got together. I didn’t take many pictures of people since I didn’t know local customs. There was a point where I was surrounded by about 200 Filipino girls all about half my height who appeared to be buying panties from a corner vendor. Sorry guys, I should have snapped a picture.

McDonald’s, KFC, and Pizza Hut exist, but I haven’t been into any of them.

I walked about 5 miles today. Up and down overpasses, underpasses, crossing streets with 50 MPH double decker buses flying by and thousands and thousands of people going about their Sunday business. Outside the International Center mall, I was approached by a Buddhist Monk offering peace for a donation. HK$5 later (about US$0.90) and it was clear he was disappointed with me. I claimed to not understand and that I couldn’t understand what he wanted from me. Should have snapped a picture of him in his golden robes. I’ve learned it is common for non-monks to pretend they are to get “donations.” The monk hinted that I should give him HK$500 – US$65, not likely.

There are also a few MPG movies capturing the sites and sounds of HK. Road work doesn’t stop on Sunday. Having not lived in a city, I’m shocked when a tiny bird hops right up to me. Well, I decide to waste some video time on the bird, not that the species is interesting or anything, just the behavior. You are warned – I suck as a videographer.

Some HK money, Octopus MTR card, and bottled water are your best friends.

Jim arrives around 9pm and we’re both beat. Good night.

HK-Day 1-Saturday

Posted by JohnP 02/02/2008 at 12:50

Arrived around 8pm, sans Jim, after a 24+ hour travel day from Atlanta. ATL → SFO → HKG → Airport Express Train → MTR Subway → Hotel

The first photo is of me in the hotel room before taking a shower. The next group are of the views out the 13th floor window onto Causeway Bay, HK.
There were condensation and reflection problems. A few photos had to be deleted due to my reflection.

I was beat. Shower and to bed with me.
[[Hong Kong 2008]]

Hong Kong 2008

Posted by JD 02/01/2008 at 16:09

Ok, the trip to Hong Kong, China is on. I’ll add data here and for the friends and family, check my photo gallery for daily photo updates.

Update – due to an unfriendly stalker, I’ve removed my photo gallery from the internet. Sorry. There are hundreds of amazing photos that I simply do not feel comfortable sharing with the world anymore. It is too bad that all the nice family and friends who are interested don’t get to see my photos.

Total travel time is listed as 22 hours from Atlanta to HK. Basically, we leave at 730am and arrive at 7pm the next day.

Use this to perform a search of HK related articles.

Google Map of Hong Kong

HK-Day 1-Friday

Posted by JohnP 02/01/2008 at 13:26

Ok, going overseas requires a little more planning that heading anywhere in N. America.
The photos show my 2 bags and the items that I plan to take. Camera, N800, power converters, and chargers – lots of chargers – Cantonese and a Foder’s guide for Hong Kong – HK. Shoes for walking, passport, immunization records (not really needed),

Friday morning at 4:15am:
Jim!!! WAKE UP!!!

Ok, that didn’t work, so I left him happily sleeping inside his apartment and got on the plane alone. By the time I get to SFO, numerous voice mails have been left and Jim is trying to get on the next flight. 24 hours later he’s in the air … SFO->KHG.

AND I left my new Nokia N800 in my car … parked in airport parking. No blog updates until after Jim arrives. Also, I almost had ZERO information on HK because everything was left on the N800. I had 1 piece of paper with all the phone numbers (family, banking, credit card, AND the name of the hotel). Without that paper, I would be paying for another hotel. [[Metropark Causeway Bay]] is the keyword.

During the flight to SFO, the realization that I could be alone hits. I don’t speak Cantonese. I’ve heard that Engrish is still the official language. We’ll see since I doubt I’ll learn enough, if any, before arrival. Thanks for the Pimsleur – too bad I was so tired during the flight that none of it made any sense.

Met a Doctor and a Technical Analysis Stock Trader, both native Chinese, now living in Maryland and Dallas, on the flight. Good conversation about world events helped pass the 14+ hour flight time for that leg. 747s are a wonderful plane. I’ve never been on 1 before. L-1011, MD-11 and DC-10 suck compared to the Boeing 747. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t luxury, but I could completely stretch my legs out even 3 rows from the back of the plane.

Sorry that I didn’t snap any photos of the airports or 23+ hours of travel. Not even a snap of my tuna salad sandwich in SFO.

Left my house in ATL at 5:30am Friday. Arrived at the hotel Saturday evening around 8pm. I could smell myself. The train and subway systems in Hong Kong are unbelievable and the smoothest that I recall – even smoother than Tokyo.

Please pardon the lack of grammar and spell checking in all these posts.
We’ve had web site blog problems, local computer network problems due to the hotel networking, and we’ve simply been very tired after all the standing and walking all day while in HK.

[[Hong Kong 2008]]

HK-Pre-Trip

Posted by JohnP 02/01/2008 at 09:21

Ok, since JimH was going with me and he’s lived here, I didn’t really do any pre-trip planning beyond normal travel purchases of a camera, new 21" carryon roller, Foder’s Hong Kong’s 25 Best, and a Cantonese phrase book.
The checklists of things to bring were made, everything layed out to be packed, clothes packed twice, some items removed, repacked, removed, repack…

Need to leave the house by 4:30a to pick Jim up and head to the airport.

Ok, going overseas requires a little more planning that heading anywhere in N. America.
The photos show my 2 bags and the items that I plan to take. Camera, N800, power converters, and chargers – lots of chargers – Cantonese and a Foder’s guide for Hong Kong – HK. Shoes for walking, passport, immunization records (not really needed),

Friday morning at 4:15am:
Jim!!! WAKE UP!!!

Ok, that didn’t work, so I left him happily sleeping inside his appartment and got on the plane alone. By the time I get to SFO, numerous voicemails have been left and Jim is trying to get on the next flight. 24 hours later he’s in the air … SFO->KHG.

AND I left my new Nokia N800 in my car … parked in airport parking. No blog updates until after Jim arrives. Also, I almost had ZERO information on HK because everything was left on the N800. I had 1 peice of paper with all the phone numbers (family, banking, credit card, AND the name of the hotel). Without that paper, I would be paying for another hotel. Metropark Causeway Bay is the keyword.

During the flight to SFO, the realization that I could be alone hits. I don’t speak Cantonese. I’ve heard that Engrish is still the official language. We’ll see since I doubt I’ll learn enough, if any, before arrival. Thanks for the Pimsleur – too bad I was so tired during the flight that none of it made any sense.

Met a Doctor and a Technical Anaylsis Stock Trader, both native Chinese, now living in Maryland and Dallas, on the flight. Good conversation about world events helped pass the 14+ hour flight time for that leg.
747s are a wonderful plane. I’ve never been on 1 before. L-1011, MC-11 and DC-10 suck compared to the Boeing 747. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t luxury, but I could completely stretch my legs out even 3 rows from the back of the plane.

Sorry that I didn’t snap any photos of the airports or 23+ hours of travel. Not even a snap of my tuna salad sandwich in SFO.

Left my house in ATL at 5:30am Friday. Arrived at the hotel Saturday evening around 8pm. I could smell myself. The train and subway systems in Hong Kong are unbelievable and the smoothest that I recall – even smoother than Tokyo.

Please pardon the lack of grammar and spell checking in all these posts. We’ve had web site blog problems, local computer network problems due to the hotel networking, and we’ve simply been very tired after all the standing and walking all day while in HK.