It's typhoon season!!

Well this week has been exciting, we've had 2 storm warnings, first one on Wednesday, and today a much better one! Today we got the No. 8 signal which means we all got to go home!! Yah! The excitement about being able to go home early created quite a spark around the office, while the bus lines were something else. A HK specialty is the line for the bus, no one pushes to the front to get on, everyone lines up in an orderly way, even when there's a typhoon warning, and even when the whole of HK is trying to empty at the same time!

Anyway thought you guys might enjoy some contrasting photos from K Town - first one is from last week when the US navy was in town, second is this afternoon from our living room.


And in case anyone is worried, the warning signals actually only tell you how close the storm is to HK, not how strong the storm is, although I'm not going to argue with a number 10, nor a day off! Today's storm is packing massive winds of 63 km/hr!! hehehe!
The warnings stand as No. 1 being a standby warning the storm is within 200 kms of HK, No. 3 being a strong wind warning and within 100 km, No. 8 being a gale or storm warning is within 50 kms, and the big kahuna No. 10 being you're going to get very wet and probably blown away warning aka a hurricane warning and its going straight through Honkers. Don't ask me what happened to 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 - there is a 9 but its really just an extension of 8 and everyone holds out for the 10 to really say something serious is going on!!

Life just is....

Hello All!

We know its been awhile, but as some of you warned, life settles into a routine, and it stops being all that 'worthy' of reporting with good photos and new adventures. HK has become home, and its good. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. We've slowly learnt how to cope with its frantic pace, we're not having to think quite as much to do the basics, and summer has arrived in full force! We haven't had a day under 30 degrees in at least 6 weeks, but its the humidity that really kills you, lowest during the night (surprise, surprise) where it drops to about 70%... We've had 2 days without rain, which generally means it should brew up a good thunderstorm tonight or tomorrow. I like the predictability! But generally we spend life in air conditioning - work, home and in between (bus, shops, restaurants, anywhere that is air conditioned so you stop sweating....)

But on the weekends we've been venturing out - here are some of our adventures......

Big Wave Bay, several weeks ago Anne-Marie, Shaun, Trent & I took the long haul journey to the eastern end of HK island - according to all we were able to read, this was the only place on HK island and one of only 4 beaches in greater HK where you could get decent swell, surfing was a definite possibility, and it was somewhat secluded..... We should have known better, but hey I've always been a glass half full gal! It was quite a pretty spot, and it was made very colourful by the multitude of umbrellas, deck chairs and lilos available for rent and the multitude of people who had hired them!! That aside, it was nice to get out into some greenery and fresh air with good friends too!

Several weeks after this little trip, we were again given a public holiday in HK, this time to celebrate the Dragon boat festival. Trent & I had tried dragon boating a couple of months ago, but decided it wasn't for us, however, we didn't see why this should stop us from enjoying others' pain while participating in this rather quick, colourful and challenging sport. So Tues 19th June we headed out to Stanley in 35 degree heat to view the dragon boat festival in all its glory - the team we could have potentially been a part of ended up gaining a 7th out of 120 boats - quite impressive and one we're very proud of Glenn for as he held up the EY associated end of our group of friends!! (Glenn is Liz's husband for those wondering).

Then we had quiet weeks, both Trent & I were flat out with work, and the heat & humidity keep us inside & rather boring..... But last weekend was another long one, Handover day - 1st July 2007 was the 10th anniversary of HK going back to China and in good HK tradition it needed to be celebrated with a public holiday and massive fireworks show! So we figured the best thing to do was get into the swing of things and watch the fireworks from the balcony at work, to enjoy the uninterrupted views & no crowds - a rarity in HK even when you're as tall as us! We also decided to head out, not such a rarity in HK, for a bevy..... it was actually a very refined evening! But Trent does appear to be a very lucky man ;-)

To follow such refinement, we went out to Lamma island on Monday to catch some fresh air, some green, and see somewhere new. We decided to take the "Family Trail", which we took to mean as budding butterballs we'd be fine, hell if families, ie kiddies can do it, we should be fine! The 1hr 20min trail took us 2hr 20mins, we sweated like piggies, went rosy red (partly from sun, partly from exertion) and felt we'd achieved something great until we realised that it may have taken us a little long, and we were rather wilted.... but it was again nice to get out of the high-rises and experience a new place. We did also discover that Lamma island is home to one of several power plants that supplies HK with its insane appetite for energy!

After a week that felt much longer than it should have, given it was a short week we decided that it was time for Trent to finally use his Christmas present. So today we took "The Land Between" tour of the New Territories of HK. It's an interesting mix of local Cantonese people, Hakka, literally translates to "Guests" a name for Chinese gypsies, and northern Chinese refugees who arrived during 1960s. It was very agricultural, but this has dwindled as the younger generation move into the towns and get jobs in the city. They want better lives, better housing, and aren't interested in the difficult lives of making a living off the land. HK also now imports 90% of its food, mostly from China but also around the world - we drink Aussie milk, eat Dutch tomatoes, US chicken, and lots of Chinese veggies..... almost like being at home really! The New Territories is also another much greener & less built up place in comparison to HK island, so it made for a nice escape. Sometimes more greenery than the villages need ;-) - just thought it was a great photo!

I was reflecting after arriving back today on why it is taking us a long time to cope with the heat. I think we're a little dim, but it's only slowly dawning on us why the locals walk slowly (everywhere), take umbrellas out even when its not raining, wear long sleeves, long trousers, hats, scarves etc - we might come from a hot place, but we're a little dense when it comes to keeping cool - my defense is that we spend lots of time in air-con and therefore it doesn't occur to us just how hot it is until we're outside and on a bus already, but partly because we've laughed/sneered (here & at home) at the speed of movement, the umbrella fetish etc, and hung onto a perceived superiority perfected by the Brits - after today's expedition I'm going to buy a white hat, and will probably carry a brolly in my handbag from here on in - after 4 fun days of melting in the sun, sweating like there's no tomorrow, and wishing I could just ask to borrow that portable piece of shade..... I think I'm ready to swallow my pride and accept that the locals might just have it right ;-)

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!! ;-)

The way other people live

As many of you know we had a holiday over Easter in the Philippines, in a place called Cebu. We flew in on Wednesday night (Thurs - Ching Ming holiday, Good Friday, Easter Monday, all being public holidays in HK.... god I love this place!!) and after negotiating the frantic airport exit road proceeded towards our accommodation in air conditioned comfort. We were confronted at the entrance of the resort by sniffer dogs and security with mirrors searching under the bus. A little perturbed, we continued up the luscious driveway, unloaded and got asked to have the backpack searched...... Welcome to the Philippines!! The War on Terror is alive and real here, even if the searches are conducted half-heartedly, the Filipinos take terrorism seriously. We were searched every time we/our bus arrived at the hotel, the airport (x-rayed 3 times), popular churches and tourist spots. But this had to be the worst inconvenience we suffered!!

The resort - had everything you'd expect from an expensive western style resort, lovely clear pools, palm trees, white sandy beaches, fish life, 'yes Sir' 'yes Ma'am', lots of smiles from lots of staff, big bed, and a crap load of obnoxious spoilt brats.... welcome to Easter holidays!! Cebu itself is something very different. The Philippines is a developing nation that's just never really made any in-roads into the corruption, while also no longer really appealing to foreign investment the way it did in the 90's. But the Filipino people are delightful! They're all smiles, no where near as in your face as the Chinese (very welcome relief), and seem to accept this is what life has dished up. Have lots of children, enjoy yourself, and you'll be OK!! Maybe being Catholic has helped - the big fella must being looking after things.....

We did a couple of tours to get out (its scary just how well off we really were in comparison to the locals) - the resort was actually quite a distance from local areas so it wasn't easy on our own (we were also there to relax, sleep, swim, and generally unwind from the frenetic pace that HK sets). Our tour guide, Jowell, was lovely, a wealth of knowledge and took time to explain why or how things had happened. We got our first real taste of what poverty looks like - TV doesn't really do it justice, but then I don't think you ever believe or react with the same emotion as you do when you see it for yourself. The other thing that surprised me was how proud they are of their heritage. Jowell spoke about Chief Lapu Lapu with real passion (for those of you who don't know, he was the dude who killed Magellan after he tried to assert his authority over the Chief - don't mess with man!!). Proud of Catholicism which Magellan bought with him; proud of the Spanish influence; the US influence and now their multiple 'export zones' where foreign companies can get major tax breaks in return for employing local people.... I'm not sure what else is in it for the Philippines, but it's been popular with the Japanese. Their biggest tourism dollars roll in from South Korea and Japan, with Australia's major mention being we helped after WWII.

Ironically, it was the poverty that we captured the most in photos, the resort seemed sterile in comparison. We were sitting at a set of traffic lights when a guy selling mats for cars starting jumping up and down yelling at our bus. In the split second it happened I thought he was angry about the camera I had in my hands, until I looked again. He wanted his photo taken! I lined up, shot it, looked at the screen, and gave him the thumbs up. He ran off hands in the air to celebrate his victory as his friends sat grinning on the road side. From there on, I watch the crowds of people we passed, they smiled, waved and seemed happily satisfied with a wave back. Sometimes it's the simply things.

The other thing they seemed to take exceptional pride in where their vehicles.... Check out the assortment of accessories, paint jobs, and general effort in their decoration of their transport!

A little late but here's to the Sevens!

Ok, for those of you know are familiar with HK, would probably be aware of the Sevens weekend. It was news to Trent & I who weren't necessarily completely aware of just how big it is.... but we found out!! We may not have participated fully, ie no dress-ups for us, but we were there as part of the action, drinks in Lan Kwai Fong (or affectionally Lankers to us locals....hehehe), rugby all Saturday - got to watch one nail-biter of a match between Australia & USA (discovered just how much the rest of the world doesn't like us when it comes to ball games....but not as much as the French!!) Only to finish on the high of actually with Australia storming home over France! As I said its a tough call for the rest of the world, but the French lost on both fronts, rugby and popularity!The end result for anyone who's interested Samoa wiped the floor with Fiji. Australia was beaten by Samoa; New Zealand beat England; Fiji beat New Zealand. Apparently all very good games, but we'd decided we'd had enough drunken fun, and headed for Macau Sunday. Hope the photos do it all justice!!

By the way, this is Carolyn, Shaun & Anne-Marie compliments of BC magazine!