Blogs from Hong Kong, Asia - page 361

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

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

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

Rest of the first week here… March 22 Did some more walking around the neighborhood. Most of it went by in a blur as I became very disoriented (pun, ha) on my whereabouts. The streets are angled, and curve, so the direction I think is home is completely the opposite. Tony’s circuitous routes don’t help much. He travels in a "straight line" even if it takes you up 100 steps and down 50 and through an alley and back up. Much of our neighborhood, and of HK, is the same pattern, so when you think you have a landmark, it turns out there’s one just like it on the next block: DeVoeux Street East: bank / 7 eleven / variety store / atm / cell phone store / bank / bakery / drug store / noodle ... read more

Good Evening! It’s April 21st… The fried vermicelli was excellent! Xiamen vermicelli - slices of pork and small shelled shrimp in an exotic tasting sauce with sweet pickled julienne veges & sprouts, very fresh & tropical - a huge dish that could have served both of us, but, of course, we ordered a second dish too. Piggish Americans. The other was slices of beef & flat rice noodles with onions, green & red pepper chunks in a black bean paste sauce. And unlimited free hot tea. OK, so I’m not a food writer - Tony would do much better at this than I. All this for only $80HK ($10 US). The restaurant, Kam Sing or Golden Star, is just a block or so away from our apt. on Queens Road just north of Hollywood Road. This ... read more