To disarm the locals we’ve been trying to pickup some useful Cantonese words to throw into our conversations with them. They’re always received with mirth and giggling. Such as neih hou mah? (How are you?) to which a response maybe mh haih gei hou (not so good) or jou sahn (good morning) or mh goi saai (thank you very much) or do jeh (thank you) or if you’re in a negative mood mh sai la (no, thanks). Of course all this may be having the opposite effect as light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui
Hong Kong used to be protected by Bruce Lee, now it's Jackie Chan!
Looking across to Hong Kong from Kowloon
HSBC on Hong Kong Island
St. John's Cathedral at Garden Road in the financial district of HK
Built in 1849 it's the oldest Anglican Church in Southeast Asia
In one of the busiest parts of the city, the church gardens are peaceful..
LHS HSBC on Queens Road with The Lippo building in the centre at the rear
The Court of Final Appeal (former French Mission Building)
Statue Square facing the Legislative Council Building (former Supreme Court)
Statue Square LHS HSBC, RHS Princes Building
The Mandarin Oriental Hotel with IFC Two towering above
Bank of China from Statue Square
Trams run along Des Voeux Road in Central and I use them whenever I can
Western Market used to be on the waterfront when built in 1906 at the end of Des Voeux Road. Now it's at least 1/2 Km back
A typical Hong Kong shop
Herbal remedy's shop incl. ginseng, reindeer horns and swallows nests
Wing Lok Street specialises in all of the above herbals
The Dragon boat racing forms part of the 2000 yr old Tuen Ng festival (in honour of the death of poet Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in the Mi Lo River during the 3rd century BC, in protest against a corrupt government) on 16th June. However, in Mui Wo we celebrated the boat racing on Sun 13th June when everyone could enjoy it.
Umbrellas are used for both the sun & the rain in HK, hence people walking in the sea on a sunny day with their umbrella's up..
Silvermine Bay, Mui Wo is where the action was that day!
Very colourful - teams of 20 rowers, a drummer and a helmsman. Spec' for a Dragon boat: 11.6M long x 1M wide, made of teak wood.
Both locals and gweilo's (white men or ghost men) make up the teams and apparently a few years back it was impossible for an all gweilo team to win..
Wanchai Star Ferry Pier
A Sampan taking it easy on one of the busiest waterways in the world..
Stonecutters Bridge - connecting Nam Wan Kok, Tsing Yi and Stonecutters Island was completed on 7th April 2009, making this the second longest cable-stayed span in the world, and opened to traffic on 20 December 2009.
Tsim Sha Tsui - clock tower (which used to be the terminus for the Kowloon-Canton railway) and the HK Cultural Centre and Space museum
Hong Kong Convention Centre completed in 1997
The reclamation work continues in Central
Interior of the Convention Centre
I've not mentioned the World Cup until now, but having broken off working on this blog to watch Holland knock-out Brazil 2-1, in an excellent game, I guess I will mention it. We had a satellite dish installed especially to watch the games, having got up at 02:00 for the 1st couple of England games and driven with my brother to a bar 8km away to watch them. So yes, we spent money to see our team perform, as I suspect most of the planet has over the past few weeks. But for England from their 1st kick to their last kick in 4 games, we were massively disappointing. A top English professional footballer is paid around £70k a week for his club and gets maybe 2 or 3 opportunities in a life-time to represent his country at the highest level.. So why were we so shameful? You have to blame all the players and the coach to show such ineptitude, not in 1 or 2 games, but in all 4 - grrrrgghhh! Anyway, the teams that are left are quality. Another great game last night with Germany deservedly beating Argentina 4-0. As I told our German vet today, I'm predicting a Holland vs. Germany final. Germany has a young, skilful, energetic and tactically brilliant team - everything England were not.
Still off topic, I thought I'd just say isn't technology great these days! There I am in the bottom left corner of my PC (located in a little village in an island off Hong Kong) talking on a videophone to my Dad in the UK. To think that when I started work in IT, back in 1977, calculators had not long been invented, neither the mobile phone nor PC had been commercialised to Jo Public yet... OK that proves I'm getting old, I'll stop right there.
Isn't Apple brilliant?
I took an outing to Tai Wo and Tao Po Market to visit the Railway Museum
Sounds a bit geeky, but I didn't write down any train numbers...
Earlier on in this blog I mentioned the clock tower in TST terminus for Kowloon-Canton railway, this is what it looked like approx 100yrs ago
Great rolling stock...look I'm not a train geek, I always preferred motorbikes and cars
Cracking engine Gromit!
Seats in the old carriages were like the Star Ferry eg. the backs moved in both directions
No streamlined carriages in those days ;o)
I met some friends
Me on those great historic trains
The old ticket office
I don't think they realised it was a museum
Great local market
..and that was Tai Po Market - worth a visit!
I also visited Lei Cheng UK Han Tomb Museum - click twice to enlarge
Detail of how the 2000 yr old tomb was discovered
..and the artefacts they unearthed
The format of the tomb
Da tomb!
I love these typical HK buildings, not sure if the inhabitants do?
And finally I took the MTR back to Central and caught the boat home to Mui Wo
There is always plenty to see and do in Hong Kong and being a big fan of the history and the architecture, I'm in heaven. I did have one other outing in June and it was something I'd been saving up for many years - Kowloon Walled City. Although the Walled City no longer exists, a park was built on the grounds after its demolition in 1993-94. I visited the park and spent the last 2 weeks researching its history, and the next blog will be devoted to both an amazing piece of history and a sci-fi architecture.
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