Jeff's Recent Travels

In the past few weeks I’ve been traveling extensively. Dale has already described our trip to Macau, but earlier that week I was in Singapore. The next week I spent in Taipei, Taiwan and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with an overnight back home just to change suitcases. Yes, I actually packed different suitcases for the two trips.

Singapore is a very clean city, but somewhat of a disappointment. In some ways it really is the Asian Switzerland – clean, neat, functional, precise. But from what I saw, it has no grit, no soul, nothing that makes you want to return as a tourist.

Despite the exorbitant taxes and duties placed on cars (to keep them out), the traffic in Singapore is quite heavy. Because of the taxes and the overall level of income, the cars are also quite new. Also because of the affluence, the downtown area is filled with large “label” stores in upscale malls within new high-rise office buildings. We visited one mainly-English bookstore the size of a large Barnes & Noble or Indigo, but on one floor. Most of the books were British imports and there weren’t any bargain bins, so I bought nothing.

The highlight of the visit was a lunch of Black Pepper Crab, Garlic Prawns and Bamboo Clams with one of my colleagues. 

Unfortunately, I don’t often eat shellfish. I found out two days later that my pigging out had resulted in a bout of gout. Unknown to me, shellfish are high in purines, the main cause of gout.

The part of our trip to Macau that Dale didn’t mention was my hobbling around. When my boss and I left for Taiwan on Monday it wasn’t too bad, but by Tuesday night my biggest worry was that they would make us take our shoes off at the airport to go through security and I wouldn’t be able to fit back into mine. In between Taiwan and Malaysia I found the time to visit the doctor and get a prescription to help me out. I looked tres chic walking around Kuala Lumpur in one dress shoe and one Teva sandal, with black socks.

Taipei was a quick two-day trip, and I saw very little. It does boast one of the tallest buildings in the world, the Taipei 101 (509 metres, 1670 feet). It has just recently been beaten out by the Burj Khalifa, the white elephant in Dubai. It in turn had topped the Petronas Towers (see below) in Kuala Lumpur. I had lunch in the Taipei 101, but got no higher than the third floor.

What little I saw of Taipei was nice. Taiwan is a mountainous island, so the views in the distance are pretty, with green mountains rising out of the lowlands. The area in which our office is situated was a former army base, now given over to mid-rise office buildings and high-end apartments and town houses – all built within the last 15 years.

Kuala Lumpur, or KL, as everyone calls it, is a very pretty city – lush, green, lots of park space. It has a somewhat North American feel, as it is more spread out, affording the opportunity for suburban housing tracts. The difference is in the size of the houses and the lots. Suburban Toronto's (905-land) zero-lot line developments look spacious. KL also has a cosmopolitan feel, since it is 60% Malay and 30% Chinese. Most of the rest of the population are Indian. It’s officially a Muslim country, but the only overt sign is the head scarves worn by many (but not most) women.

Not to be outdone by other Asian cities in the quest for a landmark, KL boasts the Petronas Towers (452 m., 1670 ft., see Taipei 101 above) and the KL Tower, a communications tower that looks like the CN Tower and is the fifth tallest freestanding building in the world. We didn’t get near them.

As for eating, Malaysian food is a wonderful blend of Chinese, Malay and Indian food. I tried their specialty, Fish Head Curry, twice. It is apparently Singapore’s claim to fame, but the Malaysian version is perfectly acceptable. It turns out our GM in KL also suffers from gout, so I just ate whatever he did and stayed away from the rest.

The advantage of all this travel is that I’m already at the second rung of the perks ladder with Cathay Pacific. I think it entitles me to two packets of peanuts with my water and the ability to board early so that I can spend more time in the sardine can.

Now that I’m home, with no business trips in the near future, Dale has decided that we must plan another international long weekend. Stay tuned.

Birthday weekend in Macau

I never thought I'd be spending my 60th birthday in an exotic location!
Jeff and I took the turbojet catamaran ferry (red boat in the photo) to Macau on Saturday morning.  The ride takes about an hour:  it's comfortable and not too rocky.  Unfortunately, our guide book (lonely planet) did not tell us that if you use Visa, you get a 30% discount on a round trip ticket.  It also neglected to tell us that seniors over 60 get a 10% discount.  We discovered the savings reading some literature at our hotel in Macau, so on the way home I got my first seniors' discount!

Arrival in Macau is not breathtaking, however, the new Science Museum, designed by I.M. Pei, is easily viewed from the ferry terminal.  We will visit it on our next trip.

We stayed at Pousada de Mong Ha, a beautiful, quiet hotel run by the school of tourism.  The staff were so young and eager to please!http://www.ift.edu.mo/pousada/eng/index.htm

Like HK, Macau is a Special Administrative Region of China.  HK became part of China in 1997, and Macau followed in 1999.  It had previously been a colony of Portugal, which set it up as a trading centre in the 16th century.  The main draw for us was the Unesco World Heritage site in the centre of Macau.  The site is actually a small (walkable) district of linked squares with 17th-19th century Portuguese official buildings and churches.  The buildings are painted bright colours, and looked impressive in the bright sunlight.  The pedestrian mall is newly re-tiled, and from above the main square looks like wavy pavement.  Neat optical illusion!

The most impressive Portuguese site is the remaining facade of the Church of St. Paul.  The church was designed by an Italian Jesuit and completed by early Japanese Christian exiles and Chinese artisans in 1602 - globalization thrived even four hundred years ago!  The entire church except the front facade was destroyed in a fire in 1835.

We sat at the bottom of the steps to the ruins and watched a young troop of lion dancers perform.

Aside from the colourful entertainment, we also pigged out on the treats that were for sale on the main street leading to the town from St. Paul's.  The hawkers were all over the road giving out samples of freshly baked almond cookies, slices of sweetened beef and pork, and the local specialty Portuguese egg tarts (yum yum yum).

Macau is also famous as a furniture-making centre.  We saw a nice armoire at one store and will probably order it (online, of course) if I can find the business card...

Whenever Jeff and I travel, he takes a photo of me at the local library.  This picture was taken at the City Hall archival library.  The guard gave me a very dirty look when I picked up the sign.

Since we were first-time tourists in Macau, everyone suggested that we have dinner at Fernando's on the beach.  I was despairing that it would be an overpriced, tasteless, touristy place, but we were quite surprised at how low-key and good it really was.  Our hotel provided us with a shuttle to the restaurant - it's about 45 minutes away from Macau centre - it's actually on the last connected island that is still part of Macau.  (Since our boxes hadn't arrived from Toronto yet, I was still wearing my old jeans and lululemon jacket).

Some other observations about Macau:

Casinos - Macau is the Las Vegas of China.  The hotels/resorts are as over-the-top as Vegas.  The Chinese are big-time gamblers, but they are not at all interested in entertainment.  There is only one hotel (The Venetian) which has a permanent (Cirque du Soleil of course) show.  Sorry to disappoint my mother, but Jeff and I steered clear of the casinos.  Here is a link to photos of the largest one, the Grand Lisboa, which seems to loom over the whole city, and is a not-too-attractive backdrop to the historic centre  http://www.grandlisboahotel.com/

Flores Garden, Guia fort, and Guia lighthouse - Flores Garden is Macau's "Beaver Lake".  There is a cable car that takes you about halfway up the hill, and then you can follow a shaded path to the old fort and the lighthouse.  Tai Chi is very popular in the park, as well as Chinese dancing.  The photo of Jeff is taken inside the air raid shelter (1931) in the fort.  Note the bamboo scaffolding on the fort.

Dogs - poodles seem to be the most popular dogs in China (at least in HK and Macau).

Funny signs - 

Strange clothing (for 25 degree weather) -

Waiting for the slow plane to China

Another week has passed without our "stuff" from home.  We've been camping out in the spare room on the trundle bed with the heat on!  No snow yet (or ever, they assure us).   Our boxes are due to be delivered on Monday.
We spent a touristy day in Stanley last Saturday.  Jeff was anxious to pick up my birthday present from the jeweller located in that town (about an hour's bus ride from central Hong Kong).  As we got off the bus, he started nattering on about buying me a charm bracelet so that I could add to it in all of the countries we plan to visit in Asia.  I was mortified - I already have a charm bracelet that I received on my 12th birthday.  It has charms from all the places my parents travelled to in the 1960s.  I haven't worn it in 40 years!  Of course Jeff just wanted to keep me guessing, and when we walked into Ellis jewellers, the staff were smiling at us (he had phoned ahead) as they handed me my GORGEOUS pearls.

I continued to wear them all day as we moseyed through the flea market.
The busiest stall in the market was the one selling doggy apparel!

We also found the small temples in Stanley very interesting and colourful.  They reminded us of the small shrines we saw by the roadside in Ecuador, however the Ecuadorian shrines are placed at the scenes of fatal accidents (numerous on the Pan American "highway").

Although the restaurants in Stanley are pricey and picturesque (on the waterfront), one doesn't have to walk too far to notice the poor conditions that some locals live in.

When we returned to the city, we wandered through Pottinger Street and some other small, crowded streets in Central.  The colours, especially the prominent reds, are beautiful.  And the contrast between the old market streets and the new high-rise financial centres is remarkable.

Here are a few photos of the Graham Street food market.  If anyone can tell me the name of the vegetable on the left, I would be most grateful!  Susan, the orchids were so cheap and beautiful.  I will buy some once we are more settled in the apartment.

We had a lot of success on Sunday buying furniture at the Horizon Plaza in Ap Lei Chau.  It's like a furniture Chabanel warehouse.  We will post photos when it all arrives.  The stores assured us that everything will be delivered before Chinese New Year, which falls on Valentine's Day this year.  We ordered a custom-made Chinese shoe cabinet - Jeff made sure his size 10s would fit on the shelves.  Sorry,  Andrew and Jeremy, your shoes will never fit!
Other highlights of the week included a Schubert concert with the HK philharmonic.  The concert hall is very much like Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, just a bit smaller.  The only Asian decor in the hall is the modern backdrop behind the stage.  While we were at the concert (on the Kowloon side), there was a terrible acid-throwing attack in the market area, not too far from where we were.  We didn't know about it until we got an email from Bill in Toronto, worrying about us!   The police seem to have rounded up "the usual suspects"...
Jeff spent most of the week in Singapore.  We will blog that city when we visit it as tourists.  Here is an example of how efficient transit is in HK:  his flight arrived at the gate at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, and at 9 p.m. he was already home!  There's a metro that runs from the airport to Central, and it's under 10 minutes by taxi from Central to our apartment.
My "welcome to HK" course began at the YWCA.  Very disorganized and unstructured, but I will stick with it long enough to find the name of a good hairdresser and spa in my neighbourhood!  The course seems to be a forum for exchanging information on where to find services and grocery stores that stock foods from other places.  The other participants were all young moms whose main concerns are schooling for their kids.
Speaking of my neighbourhood (the Mid-Levels and Soho), here's a link to a BBC video about the escalators that transport me all day long (thanks to Gillian for sending me the website):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8441626.stm
(As an aside to my sister, Sandra, who spent four years going up and down the escalators in the Hall Building at  Sir George Williams in the 1970s - yes, the escalators do break down here too, but not as often.)
And I just found out where the Lululemon store is in HK!  (my trainer swears by it, too)
Off to Macau for the weekend for my birthday. Will write again next week with our impressions.

Jet-lag

I'm starting to feel like I really belong here.  Yesterday, I stopped to watch some Japanese tourists taking photos of my neighbourhood!  I felt like saying "I LIVE here!  Aren't I lucky?"  Later on, a young woman (Israeli) asked me what kind of milk to buy when we were at Park and shop (which I have dubbed Park 'n fly).  I guess I'm starting to even look like a native!  It's all in one's attitude.  This is a photo of the escalators and some of the shops along the way.

The week has been busy - it feels like September used to when we were busy signing the kids up for swimming and all of the other extra-curricular activities.
On Monday morning (after very little sleep), Jeff pointed me in the general direction of the YWCA, and off I went.  An hour later, I was still trying to find my way out of the maze of paths in the botanical garden/zoo with no YWCA in sight.  But the weather was lovely, and it felt so wonderful to be in a beautiful park.   I did manage to find the Y (not easy because of the expressways and the zoo in the middle of my journey), and signed up for their signature course called At Home - it's an intro to HK for newly arrived expats.  Reminds me of Julie's orientation for "foreign" students at Caltech!  She made nice new friends through that program, including Eric!  My goal is to find one kindred spirit in the group.
Speaking of the YWCA, they offer normal courses like Chinese cooking and Mahjong, but also some weird ones like "employing a domestic helper" and "party dress shopping".  I'm planning to take advantage of their historical walks, art tours, and perhaps their book group.
Activity number two on Monday was joining Pure Fitness http://www.pure-fit.com/en/hongkong/studios/studio.php?location_id=2 - a nice step up from Dunfield (Linda - the spinning bikes are terrific but the instructor was not as good-looking as Lance; Monica, Judith, Diana, Florrie and Lulu - there seem to be a lot of instructors who are as good as Barb).  The club is filled with young expats (except for a few huffing and puffing 50+ men in my spinning class), the locker rooms are clean and beautiful with dry and wet saunas, and they even provide you with workout clothes (shorts, sox, tshirts), which is a good thing since our belongings are still on that slow boat/plane to China.  The staff wipe down all the mats in between classes!  The best part of the gym is its proximity to our apartment - about a 10 minute walk down the steps, and up the escalators on the return journey.
Other housekeeping duties this week have included getting my HK i.d. card (the picture is better than my passport - I was allowed to smile!), opening up a joint bank account at HSBC, buying a cellphone, and getting the wifi to work at home.  All in all, very productive.
Now if I can only figure out north-south, east-west in this city!  It's truly upside down for an ex-Montrealer/Torontonian.  The harbor is north, we live up the hill - south.  Expressways criss-cross, streets are not on a grid.  And don't get me started on Causeway Bay - the area where Jeff's office is located.  I walked out of Times Square (a large indoor mall) and tried to find Jeff's office building - after 10 minutes of cutting through both small and large streets, I was right back at T.S.!   I was tempted to buy a cellphone with GPS!  The subway stops have multiple exits, and Jeff and I had arranged to meet at Exit F at Causeway Bay.  Times Square is exit A.  Yup - I went back into Exit A, paid $3HK to go through the turnstile and find Exit F!
What made me laugh out loud:  There's a very popular chain of small take-out kiosks called Herbal Tea and Soup Square.  Two of their packaged meals are:  "Cooked chicken with Chinese wine for supplementing blood and Qi" and "Lily bulbs and crocodile meat double-boiled with chicken soup for invigorating lung".  I kid you not!

An Island walk

Lamma Island
Sunday was a nicer day than Saturday. Still hazy, but brighter. I decided to take myself to Lamma Island, one of the many that make up Hong Kong. It’s now mainly a day-trip destination for Hong Kongers and tourists, but contained, at one time, a number of thriving fishing villages. There are two villages now - Yung Shue Wan and Sok Kwu Wan, plus a few beaches.

The trip started out ominously. En route to the ferry terminal, a taxi cut in front of my bus, causing a fender bender. Fortunately, we were close to the docks, and another bus stopped and picked up the passengers from my bus to continue our trip.

Lamma is a major day-trip destination. For once in my travels, the ferry seemed to be filled with Hong Kongers, including a lot of westerners who looked like they live here. The local visitors included seniors groups, extended families, a camera club, and a few groups of helpers. Unless you’re heading for one of the beaches, a visit to Lamma consists of ferrying into one village, and walking the path to the other, with a stop at either or both ends to eat at one of the fine seafood restaurants.

Looking out from the ferry, one can really see how HK island is inhabited at the shore line and on reclaimed land. There are high-rises climbing the hills, with the mountains behind them in all directions.

Lamma is also pet and pedestrian friendly. A sign on ferry stated that, "Seats of first two rows are reserved for pet carriers." Cars are not permitted, so the pollution level may be slightly lower, but see below.
I ferried into Yung Shue Wan, a harbour town looking like many in all parts of the world – ferry dock, marinas, one main street, filled with restaurants, souvenir shops and guesthouses, curving around the shore. I made a meal of street food - curried fish balls, beef satay, ice cream drumstick, and some kind of warm mini tart. Cheap, filling and tasty, but not exactly nutritious.

The ferry I took is one of several making the voyage regularly throughout the day, so, on a nice weekend day, the place is crowded with day trippers. Hint - everyone is going in the same direction. Unless you want to feel as if you were downtown heading for the subway, stay in town for an extra 15 minutes. Give your shipmates time to clear out ahead of you.

The “Family Trail” is a well-marked path between the towns, with spurs running off to various sights. Going through Yung Shue Wan and leaving the town you see shops and stalls all along the way. Once out of town, it calms down and there is greenery, filled with birds, and offering shade - just don't look inland where you continue to see houses, pipes, and other signs of civilization.

Just outside Yung Shue Wan you come to Hung Shing Yeh – a pretty, crescent-shaped, sandy beach. Unfortunately, the large power station on the peninsula at the far end spoils the view, and probably, during the week, the sky. To give you an idea of Hong Kong’s perspective on beauty versus utility, one of the advertised highlights of the walk is a side spur up a hill to see the electricity-generating windmill – a Mercedes-Benz hood ornament on a stick. It matches the one at the CNE.

Not to be outdone by its larger neighbour, Sok Kwu Wan boasts its own eyesore – a small cement factory spoils the view when approaching the town from an elevation. Otherwise, it’s a quaint village with clusters of boathouses and fish farms in the harbour, and a renovated temple at one end. Lamma is not far off the southeast tip of Hong Kong. From Sok Kwu Wan on a clear day you can see the high-rise apartments of Ap Lei Chau.

One neat, to me, feature is a series of caves dug out of the hill side by the Japanese during WWII. They were meant to house kamikaze speedboats filled with explosives that could be used to fight off invaders. They never were.

Sok Kwu Wan is much smaller than Yung Shue Wan, but seems to have even more restaurants along its path by the shore. All have numerous tanks filled with live fish, crustaceans and mollusks. You pick your meal, they scoop it out and prepare it to order. You can’t get fresher than that. Some restaurants, including the Rainbow, have their own private shuttles offering a free ride from HK Island or the mainland upon reservation.

I have no observations, but this week's pun is from a little restaurant in Yung Shue Wan - the Deli Lamma Café.

Manila
I went to Manila Monday and Tuesday for a few days of meetings. It’s a huge city, filled with traffic and smog.

Since I had never tried it, I ate Filipino food at dinner Monday and lunch Tuesday. I don’t know how they manage to live past 50 – everything is either fried, sometimes more than once, or sweetened – sometimes both. The food was interesting and unlike other south-Asian cuisines I’ve tried, although the sauce bases are similar – soy, coconut, peanut, chilies.

One of our businesses is in Quezon City, the government office centre and site of some large universities, including the University of the Philippines (UP, as I noticed on a number of T-shirts). The other is in Makati, the upscale neighborhood that includes the local head offices of many major international companies.
Manila seems to be a city of distinct areas, We saw some of the nicer ones, including Makati. Lunch on Tuesday was in the Greenbelt shopping plaza, a beautiful, open area with a shop for every label under the sun.

Traffic here is brutal. Most Canadians, especially Torontonians couldn't even be pedestrians - they'd have to cross a street at some point. Stop signs are optional. So are traffic lights, lane markers and shoulders. Honking is an art and lane switching a science.

The people are very friendly - except for the police and security guards at every intersection and entrance. Oh yeah, and except for the bomb-sniffing German shepherds at the entrance to the hotel. The lady who goes through your briefcase is friendly, but the guy who pats down the locals before letting them in is not.
Manila airport is not one of the wonders of the world. Security is heavy – you have to show your ticket and passport to get in, and the Arrivals lounge is the road outside the terminal building. As we approached, it looked like a tail-gate party with people milling about, eating drinking and chatting, with their car trunks open.
Inside, there are separate security lines for men and women, because the check includes a wanding and a pat-down. Sort of reminds me of Ford Field in Detroit, where we underwent similar scrutiny before NCAA tournament basketball games the past two years. You have to remove your shoes, but they don’t require you to unpack any electronics. Why does every airport seem to run on its own rules?

Home Again, Home Again, Tweeldlee-dee
I’m returning home on Friday, but who’s counting the two days, three hours and 3 minutes until then. I’ll see some of you over the next two weeks, and be in touch with the rest.

Dale and I will be in Hong Kong on January 3.

Have a pleasant holiday season.

A Pleasant Weekend

Too Much Choice

We need living room and dining room furniture and storage pieces for clothes and other stuff, so that we can put you all up in style when you come to visit.

To that end, I went to the Horizon Plaza in Ap Lei Chau Saturday. Twenty-eight floors of upscale furniture and home furnishings, interspersed with designer outlets and various odds and sods. Actually, excluding the left-out floor numbers, it was only 23 floors. Did I just say, “only”? Talk about too much choice. The furniture was sufficient, I didn’t need the touch of Chabanel thrown in.

You could tell it’s an upscale joint by the modern Toto fixtures in the common area washrooms on each floor. I’ve been in million-dollar (Canadian) homes with worse amenities.

The stores ran the gamut from Euromodern to antique Chinese and everything in between. There was even a patio furniture store with BBQ grills to make Bobby Flay envious. The juxtaposition of stores filled with Chinese antiques and playing Christmas carols struck me as odd. I’m working on it; it’s not like I have a choice.

I saw a few things that Dale can look at when she gets here. The antique Chinese armoires and chests were beautiful, and the modern furniture with Chinese touches also looked nice.

Ap Lei Chau is an island off the southwest corner of Hong Kong Island, across from Aberdeen. It is a residential area consisting mainly of large apartment complexes, and, I believe, is one of the most crowded sections of the city.

The Hong Kong School of Motoring (government operation) is across the street from the plaza, and there is a Ferrari dealer in the plaza. I guess the student drivers and driving test takers can go across the street to drool before and/or after their lessons.

After what I went through (literally and figuratively), I gave myself permission to splurge on a steak dinner. I went down to Soho (South of Hollywood Road) and ate at an Argentinean restaurant that had received some good reviews. It wasn’t expensive, but it wasn’t wonderful. The meat was good, but it lacked something. I don’t think it was charcoal grilled. They also served the baked potato wrapped in foil – another no-no. The wine was pretty good though.

The East Asia Games

Hong Kong is hosting the 5th East Asia Games. It’s the largest sporting event ever held here and the largest of these games so far. Saturday night at 9:00, I was jolted by explosions. I looked out the living room window and saw fireworks going off down by the harbour. I realized it was for the official opening of the Games. That was just a short hors d’ouevre. At 9:15 it started up again and lasted for 15 minutes. Spectacular! They even had some set off from the roofs of the tallest buildings in town. The fireworks reflected off the high-rise towers, adding to the effect. There were dozens of local tour boats in the harbour, all lit up. I took some pictures with my phone, but they didn’t come out well. Every day I stare out the window – it’s worth the rent just for the view.



Sunday at the Museums

I went off exploring on Sunday, walked down to and around Central, looked at some of the office towers a little more closely, then hit two very good museums.

The Bank of China building is one of Dale’s favourites. It starts out as a rectangular block, then loses a quarter every ten or fifteen stories until it is one quarter its original size. Interesting, but apparently has bad fung shui. It is an I.M. Pei building.




The HSBC tower is like the CIBC towers in Toronto. The new one next to the old, except the old one here is nowhere as tall as the old Commerce Court. The new one has been dubbed “The Robot”; from one side it looks eerily like a Transformer, complete with huge cannon-like protuberances on the roof.



I looked at the Lippo Centre closely for the first time. I like it. It’s new and not in the guidebooks I have.

While touring the skyscrapers, I visited the Museum of Tea Ware in Hong Kong Park. I had missed it during my first visit (see Oct. 19). It is housed in a Victorian-era heritage home (Flagstaff House) and includes rooms dedicated to the history of tea, the different types of tea and the method or ceremony for preparing each to drink. The highlight is a history and beautiful collection of tea pots and assorted tea wares from a thousand years ago to contemporary designs. Guess what? I found a tea in their gift shop that I had not tasted before. I think Dale is going to have to keep me on a short leash. I could easily start a new hobby – collecting tea pots and wares.

After Central I walked to the ferry dock and went over to Kowloon, where I walked through Tsim Sha Tsui East and visited the HK Museum of History, a museum dedicated to the natural and human history of the city and area. It’s a great museum. I got there for the free, English-language tour. It was advertised as lasting 1½-2 hours, but our docent ran us through in an hour and a quarter – not enough time to really look at any of the exhibits. I knew enough and got enough more to provide me with a basic understanding that will be helpful in future visits.

The only problem with going over to Tsim Sha Tsui is the hawkers on the street who accost you constantly. Walking the mile or so from the Ferry dock to the museum and then back again I was offered watches, suits, handbags, saunas, massages, meals and things I didn’t understand (and I’m not sure I wanted to) at least 50 times each way. Why anyone would think a guy with a three-day growth, wearing grubby jeans and plugged into an iPod, would want a Rolex or a custom-made suit is a mystery to me.



Only a few observations this week:

• Saw a number of Buddhist monks today. I hadn’t seen any before today.

• Hong Kongers love puns. Many of the stores have names based on puns. Three from this week:

o Discount household accessories store – Homeless

o Store selling lacquered Chinese plates and gifts – Good Laque

o State-Of-The-Arts Gallery

A Walk In The Park
It’s been a long week, and the weekend came just in time. I was fading fast. Weather has improved, but the smog is brutal. This morning was grey, but the sun came out by 9:00 and the day is beautiful. Unfortunately, the sun could not burn off the haze covering the city.

I say unfortunately, because I went for another nature walk today, into the Tai Tam Country Park, around the Tai Tam reservoir system in the centre of the island. Not my idea of a walk in the park. I took the Tai Tam Country Trail up to Violet Hill and returned via the Wilson Trail. Not my idea of trails. I climbed 10,000 steps up through the woods to the top of Violet Hill (elev. 460 m.) and another 10,000 down. The birds were singing and it was quiet on the way up. Either I was early or I must have taken the reverse route, because I saw dozens of people climbing as I was descending. I think they agreed with my assessment of “not a walk in the park”. Not one smiling face among the lot. During the walk there were a number of open spaces where one could get a view of the surrounding area. Unfortunately, the haze tended to cover much of the view. I took a few pictures with my phone. If you are looking at them now it’s because Dale enhanced them or decided they were clear enough to be seen.

Christmas
It’s getting to look a lot like Christmas in Hong Kong. All the stores have their decorations up and the malls have north poles and Santas. I even walked by a storefront where they had just trimmed a few fir trees for a display. The smell was wonderful. Everywhere you go, you hear Christmas songs. I still haven’t heard Feliz Navidad, so it’s not official. I have been told that things are so bad in the US that they were advertising for Christmas before Thanksgiving. Is nothing sacred?

Given the crowds in the stores at normal times, I’m afraid to venture a guess as to what Christmas shopping crowds look like here.

A Classy Joint
Attention all potential visitors/guests. A notice in my lobby advised that some occupants had taken to leaving shoes by their apartment front door, and some had even set up shoe racks. This is against apartment by-laws and generally in poor taste. All have been given a week to remove them. That means that certain of you will not be welcome during the summer if you have to bring your shoes or sandals into the apartment. You know who you are, and you have been forewarned.

The Best Place To Live
A recent poll by CNN found that Hong Kong was the best city in the world to live. See for yourself: http://www.cnngo.com/hong-kong/none/worlds-greatest-city-hong-kong-576599 . I have also attached a link to some panoramic pictures of Hong Kong. The view from our apartment is very much like the third on the web page.http://www.diserio.com/hongkongskyline.html

Observations and Musings:
• They now sell baked potato flavour potato chips here – potato chips artificially enhanced to taste like potatoes. Am I missing something? What did they taste like before the addition of potato flavouring? Somebody please explain it to me.

• They have a tradition here that attracts all the tourists. At noon every day they shoot off a cannon at the harbour, near the Excelsior Hotel. I can hear it from my office. It sets off my lunch hunger pangs.

• Interesting follow-on from my comments about work hours. In Toronto I used to go to lunch at noon. Here I go between 12:30 and 1:00, and I’m early. Mind you, I eat breakfast at 7:00 before most of white collar HK is up.

• One more thing that will make Dale happy here – diagonal intersection crossings. She loved them in Pasadena.

• This week’s sign: Political Correctness in not always practiced in Hong Kong. I came across a high-end furniture/home furnishings store called The Homephiles. Don’t think you’d get away with that in the World Class City.