Blogs from Hong Kong, Asia - page 323
May 11th 2005
Hong Kong is a city of contradictions, from bird's nest shops in one street to Pizza Express in the next. It is possible to walk from the hustle and bustle of Soho and find oneself in front of the Man Mo temple, an oasis of incense. Some of the most interesting streets are those near Hollywood and Possesion streets where shops sell herbs and spices in canvas bags, fish lie drying on the pavement and antiques stores sell vast quantities of jade. We saw skyscrapers being built using scaffolding made of bamboo which went all the way to the top of these huge buildings. On our first day in Hong Kong, we took a trip on the Central-Mid-Levels Escalator, apparently the longest in the world. For me, it was a bit of a disappointment, it was ... read more
May 9th 2005
Our last day in Hong Kong didn’t go as planned. We planned to go to Ocean Park, but when we awoke this morning it was pouring rain which means, shopping again. POOR DAD! One great thing about this city is being able to get from place to place without ever going outside. The subway is so perfectly connected that we can go from shopping mall to shopping mall for days on end without getting wet. How long Dad can hold up is another question! Yesterday we took the tram to Causeway Bay. We were missing “good old” American food so we were excited to eat lunch at Outback Restaurant. You might be thinking… that’s Australian food not American., but it was our favorite restaurant in Orlando so we felt like we were back home. We ... read more
May 7th 2005
Maybe you’ve seen the Hong Kong television advertisement “LIVE IT, LOVE IT- HONG KONG” that says it all! After living in HK from 1996 -1998 we’re very excited to be back for a visit. When we arrived at the JW Marriott on HK island we couldn’t believe our good fortune to be upgraded to a room with a harbor view. As soon as we got into the room we spent several minutes just enjoying the skyline. Then something surprising happened. Fireworks began to explode from the tops of the skyscrapers all around us. What a welcome back! Although we would like to think it was all just for us it was in celebration of Golden Week. Golden Week is part of the Asian labor day and May day holidays. It’s hard to believe it has been ... read more
May 6th 2005
March 29 More grocery shopping today. The fridge is so tiny that you have to shop nearly every day cuz there’s just no place to put large quantities of food. You couldn’t lug large quantities of anything up here anyway. Besides, it gives us a chance to wander about and get familiar with the city. Stopped at a new restaurant for lunch, one that we pass nearly every day heading towards the MTR or the trolley, block south of Des Voeux on Morrison. Harmony Restaurant is like many in HK, a medium sized family place with a menu offering the gamut - everything from pancakes (what they could be like I may never know) to steamed fish to noodles to hot dogs…let me interrupt this to say something about hot dogs. Hot dogs are EVERYWHERE here. ... read more
May 4th 2005
March 28 Woo hoo! Tony has another day off! It’s Easter Monday here in HK. We get our normal late start, but what the heck, I’m retired. For the moment. Destination: Victoria Peak, 552m (let me get my calculator out - about 1820ft), highest point on HK Island. It’s a fabulous day, puffy clouds and blue sky above, warm with a pleasant breeze - first decent weather since I arrived. Walk towards Central and on to catch the Peak Tramway (est. 1888) off Garden Road next to Hong Kong Park. Woah! The line is snaking out the door for tickets. Yikes! We forgot that it’s a holiday. A dreaded holiday. Sundays and holidays always mean loads and hoards of people at all the typical tourist stops. Tony’s not taking this lying down. He goes up to ... read more
May 3rd 2005
Its supposedly one of those unique cities in the world, up there with New York and Paris. Why? Cos its so darned busy and crowded. But yes, it does have something special - watches - lots of cheap watches!! The day started out fantastically with a FREE BUSINESS CLASS flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong. How did we get this free, and why was it business class. Well, let me teach you a lesson in not letting anything go to waste. You see, in 2003 when Melenie and I flew to London, we went on Japan Airlines. And we had the clever idea of joining the Japan Airlines frequent flyer programme (it was free) simply because we had nothing else to do on the plane and the form was sitting in front of us. Two years ... read more
May 2nd 2005
Ok, so I'm waaay behind on the journals... March 27 It’s Sunday and Tony finally has a day off - poor boy, he’s worked 13 days in a row. All that scrambling for a China visa for me, and we chuck the whole idea. We were up late. Drank wine. Watched silly television. Slept in. Besides I’m still under the weather. Speaking of the weather I realize I haven’t spoken of the weather yet. So far it’s been very gloomy, cool, windy and not at all tropical. I am disappointed because LA was gloomy, cool, windy and really rainy this past winter and I was sooo looking forward to warmth & sun to bring some life into my reptilian-like circulation. In chucking the China plan, we had to come up with a local replacement. Since I ... read more
May 1st 2005
by Charlie ---------- This story is dedicated to Captain Ken Conde, a good friend who died of cancer in Bangkok shortly after I wrote this article. May his new skies be CAVU forever.-------------- ThaiSky Airlines flight 328 pushed back from its' ramp space at 10:50 with 80 passengers bound for Hong Kong along with 12 cabin and 3 flight crew members. On today's flight, with a light drizzle starting to fall, I was on the flight deck. After securing the cabin and getting our clearance to Hong Kong, we contacted Bangkok ground control on 121.9 for pushback out of our position, Remote Stand 94. The slow-starting high by-pass engines were started next and from there it was only a short taxi to Bangkok International's 21 Right runway. Traffic was a bit heavy and combined with the ... read more
April 29th 2005
It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, Would you be mine, could you be mine? Huh? I never got what Mr. Rogers was aiming at. Anyway, here’s a look at our neighborhood and our swell little apartment. As I mentioned before, we live in the Sheung Wan district, a mainly Chinese working class area. Our apartment building is owned by the same guy who owns the club Tony works at, who owns many restaurants and other businesses …which is why he is a millionaire. And a very nice guy. The building is small in comparison to most in HK, having only 5 floors - well, I’ve explained this before - it’s actually 6 1/2, the first and a half floors are just not recognized as official, a sort of European ... read more
