Blogs from Kowloon, Hong Kong, Asia - page 103

Mushy Mushy? Chinese new year lasts all week and today we made the mistake of visiting a theme park called ocean park! This was probably the busiest day of the year to go and definitely the worst. The layout of the park was impressive, built on a steep hillside with views looking over the bay. The rollercoasters hung over the cliff edge as if it was contemplating suicide and the views fantastic. The only way through the park was via esculators or cable car which ended up being the worst design for a shed load of people. The rides we went on were great but it took usw forever to get out of the park being squeezed into a bottleneck alleyway with nowhere to go - more claustraphobic the cu chu tunnels! Once we squeezed ... read more

OK, I've bowed to pressure and posted more photographs (for this and previous blogs). Any typos in the following blog are entirely down to the fact that I'm finishing it in Thailand, and am so relaxed that I can hardly push the keys. This may be my last blog for a short while, as the travelling continues from here on in at a rather more leisurely pace... A bit out of my way, but I felt it would have been rude not to visit Hong Kong. Perched on the edge of China, and home to countless number of ruthless capitalists, Hong Kong is a place that I'd heard about often, but knew very little about. My previous impressions of Hong Kong had come mainly through news media, prompting images of merchant bankers screaming to each other ... read more

The Routines of Life I’m so busy now that I can’t catch up in one sitting when writing my journal. So, I’ll continue where I left off. Last Sunday I went to church for the first time. The U.S. Consulate had located an English speaking church service for me to attend. It is a daughter church of St. John’s Cathedral near the U.S. Consulate. But, the daughter church where I go is called Emmanuel and is located nearer to campus. It is an Anglican church. It is similar to a Lutheran traditional service in the sense that we sing hymns and an organ plays. But, the Gloria is sung to a different melody. And, the Lord’s Prayer is quite different too. Father Matthew is very kind and considerate. When I called him up to arrange a ... read more

I have just add a map of the countries I have visited to help you see where I have been. div style='text-align:center;'a href='http://www.travelblog.org/VC/my-visited-countries.html?cl=chfrukus' onclick='window.open("http://www.travelblog.org/VC/my-visited-countries.html?cl=chfrukus&popped=1","tb_map","width=820,height=510,toolbar=no,menubar=no,scrollbars=auto,resizable=yse,status=no,location=no");return false;'img src='http://www.travelblog.org/VC/vc-mini.php?cl=chfrukus' width=197 height=107 alt='Visited Countries' border=0brMy Visited Countries/a/div brGet your own a href='http://www.travelblog.org/VC/visited-countries.html'Visited Countries Map/a from a href='http://www.travelblog.org/'Travel Blog/a So many things have happened in a week’s time! I’ll just start at the beginning and relate all that’s exciting. Last Saturday night Dr. Lian kindly offered... read more

Learning the Lay of the Land A lot has happened since my last posting. I had my first O&M lesson on Tuesday night. The instructor is very kind and knowledgeable. He showed me how to go from my dormitory to my office and to the main library. We joked a lot, and he even offered to continue my lessons after our agreed contract is over, should I need more help. I haven’t been back to the library yet, but I have been between my office and my dorm several times. People are so helpful that I barely have time to learn how to know when I am on the right path and when I’ve deviated before someone offers me help. If their English is good enough, I ask the specific question that will help me learn ... read more