- Get an Octopus at the earliest opportunity. It’ll pay itself off over and over, is supremely convenient (you can pay at McDonalds or 7-Eleven with it), and you get most of your deposit back, minus a HK$7 (AU$1) processing fee. Typical ride cost is in single figures, and while it’s not as extensive as London or New York, it is as efficient as the tube and as comfortable as the subway.
- If you don’t have much luggage, take the Airport Express. Taking a taxi is only worth it if you’ve got a few people together.
- Victoria Peak is probably where everyone heads first, and with reason. The mountain rises sharply and to height, giving spectacular views over the city and harbour, despite the efforts of developers to build apartments in improbable places. Take the Peak Tram for a good ride up.
- Try to time it towards the late afternoon or day – you’ll get both the day views, and after taking a walk around the Peak – there’s an hour long walking trail – you’ll feel pretty refreshed and hardly feel like you’re in a metropolis at all. Which is good, because the rest of time in Hong Kong will be pretty much the opposite. As the day sinks into night, Hong Kong truly comes alive in the lights across the city, and hopefully the smog clears a little too.
- Central is the business district – a little expensive, a little soulless and without any decent places to eat. It is where the designer shops are, though you’re paying for it.
- Lan Kwai Fong is just south and east of Central, and it’s where all the city workers go for lunch, and after work for a drink. Good for a wander, with a warren of streets.
- Wan Chai and Admiralty don’t have much of a rep, and perhaps deservedly. I’ve heard tell of little gems, but only go there with local guides so you avoid the crap.
- Causeway Bay is an extensive shopping district that feels a lot like Tokyo’s Shibuya or Shinjuku. Great for a wander, and prices are decent too. The Food Forum at Times Square offers a variety of food, and if you’re hankering for some Japanese, especially sushi, you can’t go past Wasabisabi, on the 13th floor. So funky.
- The ferries are cheap, but nothing special by any means. Take a ride at night to see the city lit up.
- Across the harbour, Tsim Sha Tsui (a.k.a. TST) is the tourist draw, where many hotels are and where the hawkers are thicker than flies on a camel’s back. Learn some choice Cantonese swearwords to send them off.
- TST’s most famous stretch of Nathan Road, the so-called “Golden Mile”, is rip-off central. In fact, there’s little redeeming features to TST other than perhaps the Avenue of the Stars, on the harbour, from which you can watch the ‘Symphony of Light’, a laser-and-dancing-building-lights show on every night from 8 to 8:15.
- If you want the cheap shopping, follow the locals to Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok. Still a little tourist oriented – they are after all just north of TST – but on the relative fringe and as such a little cheaper.
- If your instinct says to buy, buy dammit. Don’t be like me and regret not buying that iPhone later.
Massive Blast in Albania
An Albanian munitions depot has blown up during a dismantling exercise. As much as this is a tragedy – 5 confirmed dead, hundreds injured, property extensively damaged – there’s definitely some spectacular footage out of it. The main explosion blows the whole thing away.
Estimation skills
Scott Adams asks a question which challenges your estimation skills: it’s things like these that make you realise the scary scale of numbers and how the human mind is limited in its perceptions.
Your visit is valuable to us
but currently without internet at home (currently wifi hopping) so until then, normal service cannot be resumed. Apologies!
Don’t wanna be dooced
Gee, I wish I could say more about work, but I really don’t want to get fired for opinions expressed.
HK continues to be a very fun modern city, even if I’m only finishing work every day at 7:30. More to report later, probably when I have some net access outside of work.
Movie Review: My Blueberry Nights
A visual review for a very visual movie:
Norah Jones debuts, with blueberry pie.
Wong Kar-wai plays with camera angles and positioning.
Rachel Weisz plays distinctly against type, and looks gorgeous, particularly with the soft-lighting treatment she gets all throughout.
The visual technique of looking through the windows is quite strong, and plays out the theme underlying the movie.
You may be beginning to guess that this movie is mostly at night…
Not really helped by placeholders such as this for daytime. (fear not, there’s at least 3 scenes in full daylight).
But even Nat Portman with a languid southern drawl can’t save the movie from its underwhelming plot. Gorgeous cinematography, but beyond the visuals there’s not much to it.
Plan Ahea
In HK
In HK, at work. Great view over the harbour here, though the haze means it’s not half as spectacular as it could be. I feel like a bit of a country bumpkin coming here from London, because there’s hardly a building worth talking about that’s not at least 30 floors. “Crick in the neck” doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Earthquake!
Earthquake! I felt that! Trying to get to sleep, there was a slight feel of movement and the door & mirror rattled. Initially thought it was a truck passing maybe, but it went on for a bit longer… cool :)
Dammit
Man, you must be really looking forward to going back.
You gonna to come back here? Are you going to miss the place?
We’ll miss you.
Dammit, just when I think I had it all sorted, I get that stab of last-minute repenting.
I am looking forward to going back, but if you ask me why, I can’t really name it. It’s nebulous – there’s no one thing that would make me say, “that, that is the reason I’m going home.”
Am I going to come back? Chances are, yeah. Given the nature of the work and the company, certainly. Within a sensible timescale? I don’t know. But then if I knew… And for sure, I’ll miss the place. London is the kind of town where your niche is catered for, in one way or another – one of the few cities around the world that would do that, I suspect, and some niches are more equal than others, but it is definitely the kind of place that grows on you. (Except…)
And I’ll miss these people most of all.
I’ve found the groove, the feeling you know where you fit, so many times now, I thought I was almost tired of doing that over and over, and yet here I am doing it over again, ripping myself out in exchange for… something.
The people here are warm and generous and open, welcoming me in and allowing me to quickly settle into a comfortable social life. As dismissive and uncomfortable as I am at times about the “fuzzy stuff”, I really know I’ll miss these people as much as I did the people in Melbourne, when I left for Sydney – only now, it’s not an hour flight and a hundred bucks to pop in to visit. The timezones are 9 hours apart at best, so communication is likely to be stuttered at best.
And just as I figure out how it all works and sticks together, just as I was getting comfortable, just as the winter was ending, I up sticks and move back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
Well, I’m not sure which one I took, and whether it has made all the difference. We shall see.