A Coogee Moment...

It's been quite a while since you've had a post from me... well, let's be honest - I've only written one entry since we've been here :-0

Anyways, back to the blog. I arrived home from work this evening and I was inspired to write my 2nd blog entry because I had experienced my first "Coogee moment" in Hong Kong. Those current and former residents of the Valley will understand what I'm about to describe - the rest of you will just have to take my word for it or move to Coogee and make the place even more expensive to live in for the rest of us ;-)

Let me set the scene. Hong Kong has terrible, visible air pollution. I mean terrible. One of my neighbours back in Coogee was an International pilot. I told Scott that I was moving here and he said, "It's a great city - it has a real buzz. I really like it BUT the pollution will shock you." Oh, was he ever right...

Let's transgress for a second with a quick trip down memory lane. Take a look at the pictures we took on our first day in Hong Kong that we posted in our first blog entry. Take a look at the second picture. We saw this smog on the horizon and we thought to ourselves, yeah, the pollution is pretty bad here. How naive we were.

A few weeks later we found out what bad, really is. To see what I mean, let's continue down memory lane and look at blog entry from when we first moved into our new place. Now pay close attention to "fog" outside, above the harbour. I say "fog" only because that's the term used by the local observatory but, I assure you, it ain't no fog - that's thick, undiluted, smothering, all blanketing smog!

Initially, we were quite concerned that this would be our only chance to see pollution but, thankfully, that wasn't to be the case ;-) There was more than one morning we opened the blinds only to be completely bowled over by the brightest white glare we had ever seen. I've never been on the surface on the sun (funnily enough) but I imagine it's a fair comparison... except for the whole hot thing...

This is what my reflective side likes to call, my "fog period".

For me, this was a pivotal moment in my Hong Kong experience. Those who know me well, you know that I'm neither pro-greenie nor anti-greenie - I'm a great Australian fence sitter. Although, I did receive somewhat of a reality jolt last year by watching Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth but, nonetheless, it never really hit home what impact we're having on this planet until this point during my stay in Hong Kong [PS: that's an absolutely must watch film for e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e. If you haven't seen it already, do yourself (and the world) a favour, go watch it. Then make up your own mind].

Hang on, my sister's just Skyped me... ok I'm back. Apologies in advance if this entry now seems disjointed. If you know Vanessa, you'll understand why I'm giving this warning - love you, sis ;-)

Where was I. Ah, I was waffling on about pollution - let me get to the point. Here's the first thing I saw when I walk in the door this evening:


Completely different, isn't it?

Amazing what a week's rainy weather will do to the sky, isn't it?

It's just like Coogee - the water's calm, you can see the sky and there's this great expanse of orange lighting up the horizon as the sun sets... and, just like Coogee, there's planes flying over head! ;-)

It's a Coogee moment.

Like I said, those who know Coogee, know what I'm talking about.

Bloody hell it's good to see the sky again. Anyways, it's probably time for me to have some dinner now. How about I leave you with a couple more pics from this evening - enjoy:





PS it's hard to believe but we've almost been here 6 months! All the experienced ex-pat's reckon that's about when the people back home start dropping off and you stop hearing from them. If you got a spare couple of minutes, why don't you prove them wrong?

Stay beautiful,

Rail travel HK style

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrtAAfEHpdY - this is the best view we can give you of the HK MTR (rail network) apparently this footage was taking when a train caught fire in one of the tunnels, but in true MTR fashion there's no real rushing or pushing, you just follow the crowd and exit sensibly through the doors and into a tunnel..... Thought it would allow you see the inside of HK rail network, the handles that everyone is walking underneath, Trent & I hit our heads on the rail they're attached to, there are virtually no seats, only the ones on the sides, so everyone stands, and you get a lot more people in one train, they also don't worry about silly things like dividing the train into distinct carriages, let it be open end to end and again you can get more people in. Then make sure they are cleaned regularly, no one eats in the station or train, and they are super efficient. We can count on one hand the number of times the MTR system has been late since we've been here..... CityRail could learn so much!! I'm not sure if this clip gets any more interesting that the first 30 secs, but in case you haven't been HK and were wondering how they move people around so effectively, we'd give you a visual!! I'm sad I understand, so if this doesn't do it for you, try the Bus uncle clip instead...... every city's got one! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsYRQkmVifg

Ok, we've been busy, and a little bit slack....

Hello All!

I apologise for not posting for quite some time, we really have had a lot of things happening. Most excitingly, it was my birthday, which we spent in Hanoi, Vietnam! Life's tough I know...... but what can you do! Anke (mum) was in Vietnam for 22 days of touring fun throughout Vietnam, Trent and I on the other hand had 5 days, which overlapped Anke's tour and my birthday. I call that planning!! It was great to see her, even though we don't see each other all that often in Oz, it was good, especially on my birthday!!

Hanoi was interesting, we had some lovely experiences, and some not so lovely experiences. Firstly, our hotel, Church Hotel http://www.churchhotel.com.vn/index.php?lan=e was fabulous, great service, really friendly, good English, and the room was fantastic - we had the roof top suite US$70 and it was worth it (this was our view). Koto is a restaurant/ cafe based on taking street kids off the street to complete a traineeship and an opportunity to get off the streets permanently. They currently have a 100% success rate in getting these kids work after their 18 months. http://www.streetvoices.com.au/
Hanoi is a beautiful city, the lake in the middle is quite lovely, and it's green in comparison to a large number of Asian cities. It has an interesting mix of cultures, its quite rural in a lot of ways, but the French and US have had a big impact on architechure and self image of Vietnam. Outside Hanoi (and we didn't go far) was incredibly green, there is so much rain, and rice fields and farms covering large tracks its a really pretty place. The workers still farm, dress and transport goods the same way they have for generations. There are conical hats, and ladies with baskets on poles over their shoulders everywhere. They are resourceful, and unlimited by the idea that road laws/ safety or physics should limit you in what you can fit on a bike/ motorbike/ truck. They are also very flexible and adaptable, seeing no reason restrick yourself to using one side of the road when the other side is free. Just take things slowly and carefully so everyone else knows what you're up to so they can avoid you. Somewhat terrifying the first day or so, but you get the hang of it!! It did make me appreciate why we experience some differences in driving styles on Aussie roads. And also made me appreciate the relative sanity of HK!!

Unfortunately, our experience of Hanoi was very different to what so many people had told us. We feel that tourism is having a really big impact on the place. Our experience of a lot of people were that they were rude, aggression and demanding - we just didn't want to shop/ go near a cyclo or even look interested most of the time because they were straight into you. We could totally understand it, given the gap between what we have and what they do, but it didn't make for a very pleasant time

I also had it in my head that we'd find some really nice unique/ unusual pieces that we could bring home to start making our place a bit more us. But there was lots and lots of the same. Lacquerware, silk scarves, decorated sandals. To the point where it would be the identical design, shop after shop. And I guess most disappointingly, we had seen most of it in Australia (Freedom, Target, Home, House etc etc) for pretty much the same price. I know that's not the people of Hanoi's fault, they are proud of their export of goods, and I'm sure its doing wonders for their economy, it was just disappointing for us. We also felt a little let down by our Lonely Planet - prices were well out of date, its just a word of warning to anyone heading to Vietnam soon, double your lonely planet figures (at least), especially if you're on a tight budget you'll need to expect it to be quite a bit more than the figures quoted. Our sense is that Hanoi & Vietnam is moving rapidly, and not necessarily for the better at the moment.

However, our last day was definitely our best, we went to Koto and ended up going to a little lacquer shop where Anke had been the night before, and finally saw (& bought) some unique pieces. (Son Lacquer - 119 Hang Gai St, Hanoi, in case anyone is going). Our recommendation, especially after speaking to Mum too, would be visit soon, and don't spend too long in the cities - I think this was our mistake -but with meeting up with Anke we didn't have time to explore outside Hanoi very far. Going off Anke's recommendations, Halong Bay is a must, Sapa is interesting but very aggressive, Mekong is really good. I don't think we saw the best side of Vietnam - Anke is a lot more positive about it, so we're thinking we need to be a little more strategic in planning our next holiday. Thankfully, we're thinking we'll be in HK for a while now so we've got some time to do that!!

HK is heating up, temperatures are heading up to the high 20's, humidity following to 90% plus. It was into these conditions we welcomed our first visitors. Marianne & Stephen arrived last weekend for a brief stay to say hello and get a taste of HK for themselves. We had a really lovely relaxing weekend, Stanley market, Deep Water & Repulse bays, Lantau to see the Buddha and a return trip on the Ngong Ping Skyrail. Have to say big recommendation - we definitely recommend the Skyrail for any of our future visitors - quite impressive!! (Remind us to buy tix beforehand, 90 mins was a long wait, even with the infinite snaking abilities of the Chinese!!). We hope Stephen & Marianne enjoyed their time with us as much as we enjoyed having them! And we think we're ready for more visitors, if anyone happens to be planning a holiday our way!

Anyway thats us for a little while, we're both into global teleconferences for the coming weeks, Mon Trent, Thurs Nik both at 8pm - god its fun being part of multinational!! ;-)