blog thoughts

Anecdotes and observations on animals during our recent holiday.

9/15/2011

I like animals, I really do. And not just dogs and cats. And they seem to like me too. I suppose I look for the interaction, or certainly don't shy away from it, and that's why I seem to have a lot more animal stories than most.

Hermit crabs. They’re great. They plod slowly across the beach and if you pick them up they plod slowly across your palm. You know it's been a hard day when the toughest thing you had to do was organise hermit crab races. Mine won. J

Swimming monkeys. On Koh Lanta, long-tailed macaques live in the jungle just behind the beach. At high tide they swim in a pool at the back of the sand, the youngsters jumping from high branches into the water then climbing out dripping wet, having a great time. Honest!
Watch the VIDEO.

Torpedo fish. The most impressive fish I’ve ever seen. They look like a rocket and move like one, but out of the water, skimming across it in a series of jumps like Usain Bolt for 50, 60 metres as they flee from the ferry boats. The power to do that with just a flick of their tail on each jump - amazing.

Little jumping fish. Whole shoals jumping in unison, I suppose to get away from bigger fish. But the ferry from Koh Phi Phi to Krabbi must have really scared them. Fish leaping out of the water in all directions right next to the boat, many actually bouncing off the hull.

Save the Snail. Walking along the busy main drag of Chaweng on Koh Samui, a snail on the pavement heading for the road. Now this was no ordinary snail – his pointed shell must have been close to 3 inches long. There was no way he was going to make it across the road so I picked him up and left him in a garden on the other side. I think he looked grateful.

Save the Crab. While snorkeling off Kho Phi Phi I felt something nip my chest. A crab about half the size of my palm ‘swimming’ just below the surface, seemingly trying to find land. I held out my hand and he latched on, walked up my arm to the crook of my elbow and sat there as I swam to some rocks. It took a while to persuade him to get off. He didn’t want to go.

Save the Shrimp. On Sairee Beach, Koh Tao, I saw a prawn, a bit longer than the saved snail, lying on the sand just above the tide. As I bent down one of his little pincers moved – a cry for help? So I scooped him up and put him in the shallow water and he swam off happily, but straight towards the sand again. So I retrieved him and he curled up in my hands like a hamster as I strode out into the surf and left him in thigh-deep sheltered water among the rocks. He looked even happier on his second release.

Geckoes and electric light. Every light has at least one attending gecko, pouncing on any insect which stops by. It’s so easy for them. Has the gecko population increased since the invention of electricity? And what did all those insects do for nighttime entertainment before then?

The gecko in the salad. We were having dinner overlooking the high tide on Koh Lanta, and there were of course a number of geckos hanging on the lamp above our table. Suddenly one dropped onto our mea bouncing off the lettuce onto the side of the plate. The gecko had a look of: “How did I end up here?” A was all: “There’s a gecko in the salad!” And I was: “I hope he’s didn’t hurt himself.” Especially having seen this advert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA7dncxVUb8 But he seemed ok (the lettuce cushioned his fall) and darted under the plate. Then he shot towards me and leapt onto my tee-shirt. which curiously had a picture of a gecko on it. If only we’d had the camera. Anyway, I stayed completely still and he wandered round onto and up my back. I thought he might make it onto my neck but no such luck. With a big jump he landed on the floor and scuttled away. We finished the salad and it was delicious.

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Cambodia and Thailand

8/31/2011

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Slighty Less Random Than Usual Thoughts

Cambodia only based on 5 days in Siem Reap, which means ‘Siam defeated.’ Not sure how next-door Thailand, modern-day Siam, feels about that. But it’s a great town.

The Cambodians have as much of a smile on their face if not more than their one-time defeated neighbours. Perhaps they remember the good times centuries ago.

Here are the amazing ruins of Angkor. The best - the more tumble-down ones, reclaimed by jungle. (Think Tomb Raider – a couple feature in the film apparently, though I haven’t seen it.)

The most impressive bit of the famous one, Angkor Wat, is the moat. British Castles should be ashamed of themselves. Call those piddly things a moat? Angkor Wat’s is 190 metres wide and 5.5km around – now that’s a moat.

There are lot of kids around trying to sell you stuff. They each only seem to know one line in English, not always the same one. eg. "Hey you. Three for one dollar,' repeated over and over again by one little girl despite me giving her 28 versions of "Thanks, but no thanks." She did finally get the message, and then said, "Hey you. Four for one dollar."

One, er, curious exchange which we got involved in:
"Where you from?"
"England"
"London is the capital of England. Lovely jubbly, chopped banana."
And this happened 4 or 5 times with different people. Is there a language school nearby that only teaches this phrase?

We travelled around by tuk-tuk – basically a horse and cart, with a scooter instead of a horse, driven by the friendly (and obviously always smiling) Tong.

The local beer is, predictably, Angkor Beer. And the most common foreign beer here is Anchor Beer. Now you can see this might cause come confusion. I liked both so it wasn’t a problem which one arrived when I ordered.

There’s one street which has a Herb’s Happy Pizza, a Happy Special Pizza, and an Ecstatic Pizza right next to each other. Imagine how annoyed Herb was each time a new pizza place trumped his name. He must have nightmares about Orgasmic Pizza opening soon.

The real highlight of Siem Reap, though, was meeting up with very good friends from Madrid. Fantastic to see them.

Siem Reap photos here

Thailand this time was about islands, 5 of them, via a flight to Bangkok and a night train south.

Koh Muk – beautiful, covered in jungle, hardly anything there, but it rained. A lot. We did manage about 4 minutes lying on the beach a couple of times. But then what did we expect in the rainy season?

Koh Lanta, about 40km away, but in the low season no direct boat means a tuk-tuk to the ferry pier, ferry to mainland, minivan to Trang, then another minivan and 2 ferries. 7 hours to get there. Worth it, though. A beach front bungalow for 14 euros a night on gorgeous Kantiang Bay, a sweeping curve of sand backed by jungle. And great (sunny!) weather.

Next stop Koh Phi Phi, famed for the film The Beach. Again, I haven’t seen the film but I did read Alex Garland’s novel while we here (more cliché, impossible?) Koh Phi Phi is absolutely beautiful. Even more than Koh Lanta (sorry Koh Lanta.)

Rules for young western travellers here: Girls – bleach-blond hair, big sunglasses. Boys – stubble, whacky haircuts. All – Havaianas flip flops, cigarettes, hangovers, bracelets, tee-shirts from previous stops and most importantly, just enough neon body paint not washed off so everyone knows you were at the last Full Moon party on Kho Pagnan.

Chinese tourists abroad (those at our hotel, anyway) fall into two categories – those who can use a knife and fork and those who can’t. How to tackle a plate of bacon and eggs using only a spoon - pick up a whole rasher or fried egg and try to bite chunks from it. They must be similarly amused by our attempts with chopsticks.

Koh Samui. We left the Andaman Sea in the west and crossed to the Gulf of Thailand in the east. Ten hours of boats and minibuses. Quite a tough trip considering we’d planned to spend this holiday for RnR. David Beckham has a place here, though how he got round the Thai ownership laws no-one knew. No foreigner can own more than 49% of a property and apparently it’s not hard to find a Westerner crying into his beer after buying a house for himself and his Thai wife who, owning 51%, then moves the family in and kicks him out.

Koh Tao. Much smaller and laid back than Koh Samui. Snorkelling here brilliant (I saw my first shark), lovely beach, great restaurants and bars. Probably our favourite of the 5 islands. I’d definitely go back.

So the winners are... Best Beach: Kantiang Bay on Koh Lanta; Best views: Kho Phi Phi; Best vibe: Kho Tao. Sorry Koh Muk – you rained on us too much, and Koh Samui – you were too like a beach resort in Europe.

Thai photos here

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Eight days in Taiwan - Easter Holiday

5/4/2011

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It’s not all cheap plastic toys and electronic goods. In fact very little of it is. Over 50% of the island is covered by tropical forest, and it has 165 mountain peaks over 3000 metres. Not bad for an island less than 400 km long and 150 km wide.

The people seemed very gentle and calm. It was so quiet on trains and buses, compared to Hong Kong (and Spain!)

And the buses and trains were also really comfortable and always punctual. The country’s infrastructure is excellent. Great roads too, despite having to deal with occasional typhoons and earthquakes. All our journeys were really easy, except for the maps (see one of the photos.)

We did some cycling/hiking into the Yushan National Park (a finalist in the New Seven wonders of the world) and met a group hiking the other way – their 7th day hiking/camping from West to East through the mountains. Boy did they smell!

The bikes we hired had on the handlebars a sticker with an arrow pointing forwards and the words 'Riding Direction'. Er, thanks for that!

Outside of Taipei virtually no-one speaks English, so apart from Ni Hau (hello) and Xie Xie (thank you) our conversations didn’t go far. Remember, this isn’t Cantonese, which they speak in Hong Kong, but Mandarin (here called Putonghua).

When we hired the bikes, I asked the guy for a lock, and made some gestures. he said "Ah ok!", went away and came back with two helmets.

In one place, Amanda asked for "tea." The owner didn't seem to recognise the word, despite a big sign in English outside which said 'Tea House'. She got her daughter out to talk to us, and she could say a few words of English and seemed to understand. We waited 20 minutes for our drinks. Amanda's tea arrived... as orange juice.

In a hotel, the girl. "Hello! Welcome!" 'Good, she speaks English' we thought. "Do you have a room?" I asked. Blank face. No idea.

But it also worked in our favour. Amanda is a seriously good negotiator – she got 50% off scooter hire just by looking at the guy. And of course, no words involved - he wrote a number on a piece of paper, she frowned and he wrote a much smaller number, so she nodded her head.

The MRT (metro) in Taipei, the capital, makes the sound of an exotic bird’s mating call when the doors are open. It was really cool!

While waiting for a train, Amanda - the healthiest eater I know - shouted out "I wanna go buy cake!" It made me smile, and some of you will know why.

The rubbish trucks continuously play a tinkly tinkly tune like ice-cream vans in England, so if you take your children to Taiwan, warn them or they’ll be a little disappointed when they run out into the street expecting a cone with a 99 flake.

I saw monkeys on a bicycle!

I’ll rephrase that: I was cycling up a trail into the mountains and there were monkeys in the trees above me.

We went up the 2nd tallest building in the world, Taipei 101, at 508m. Fastest lifts too, 60km/hour!

In public toilets, there's a sign above the urinals: "Please move closer. Automatic flush when you approach." It made me want to take a step back.

Night markets sell some great food, especially dumplings. But there’s also a lot of unpalatable stuff – innards and the like. And stinky tofu – don’t get me started on stinky tofu. Seriously, if I was in charge, I’d criminalize it. The smell is that bad. How can anyone get it even near their face, let alone put it in their mouth?

Is it ok for me to smile at the name of the DongLong Temple?

We didn’t visit Shite Port.

Photos HERE.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong the temperature and humidity are rising. First swim in the sea this week, and all bed sheets have been discarded. It's not quite to the stage of needing the a/c, but it won't be long. And apparently there's 6 months of this weather.

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Hong Kong thoughts since the turn of the year.

3/15/2011

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We’re ten minutes’ walk from the equivalent of Oxford Street or Gran Via, then another ten past that from the equivalent of Regent’s Park or El Retiro. I didn’t realise this until we went shopping in the January sales.

In a clothes shop during those sales:
Amanda - Do you like this top?
Me (thinking, I always sit on the fence in these situations, so I’ll be decisive here) - ooh no, it's horrible.
Amanda - Oh. I just bought it.

Traffic and pedestrians are often separated. There are walkways all over the place in the centre, and some routes even go through swish buildings’ lobbies.

I saw someone knitting on the MTR – a teenage boy. I don’t know what to say about this!

But I don’t use the MTR so much now (not because of the knitting teenager.) I found a bus which takes me all along the north coast of the island to my school in 25 minutes, great views over to the mainland.

I reckon I see more boats a month than I’d seen in my entire life before.

Stuff’s free here. Camp sites, toilets, and a walk-through aviary and big greenhouses in Hong Kong park – like London Zoo and Kew gardens rolled into one – and free!

Most people, apart from their Chinese name, also have an English name which their parents, or maybe they themselves choose when they’re young. Often it’ll be a name which sounds like their Chinese name, which leads to some interesting choices. Amanda works with a guy called Noddy and I was served in a shop by a girl called Tweety.

In an exam I interviewed an 11-year-old girl who told me her English name was Polly, which she chose at the age of 5 as she liked the nursery rhyme ‘Polly put the kettle on.’

Old-fashioned (at least to me) names seem quite popular. I have 8 and 9-year-olds in class called Jocelyn, Prudence, Agnes, Trevor, Arnold.

Not everybody has an English name, however - Wing Wing, Ching Ching, Oi Ching, Coco, Yo Yo and Yiu Yiu. It’s not easy to remember who is who in class!

Easier to remember are boys called Him and Ngo Man (the g is silent.) Then there are the girls called Chilly and Icy. There’s also one called Tsi Yiu (pronounced See You) but unfortunately no boy called Jimmy in that class, as I’d love to call them out together, in a Scottish accent.

Car number plates are quite simple here – 2 letters and 4 numbers, eg. LH2653.
But there seems to be complete freedom on personalised ones. The more ‘interesting’ seen recently: HERO, SUPERGUY, BINGO, MONA LISA and I BELIEVE.
I bet they have kids called Prudence and Arnold, or maybe even Tweety and Noddy.

A few PHOTOS HERE.

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Philippines Feb 1-10

2/12/2011

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Chinese New Year – what a great idea to have a ten-day holiday so soon after Christmas! The great advantage of the unique British-Chinese mix that is Hong Kong.

Manila is only 180 euros and 90 minutes away, and internal flights, of which we took 3, cost 30 to 40 euros each. You need them to get around a country of over 7,000 islands.

Public transport rules. On one journey down the island of Cebu, it was an hour before I saw a car coming the other way.

Short journeys are by tricycle taxi - a motorbike (or occasionally bicycle) with elaborate sidecar. Longer journeys by jeepney – a highly decorated stretch version of a WW2 jeep.

In Thailand they could get 4 on a motorbike, and here it was 5. On the tricycles I saw up to 8.
And jeepneys, which should hold maybe 18 inside, well over 30 - the locals on the roof accepted their windy ride with resignation, for a tourist like me it was like being at the funfair.

Things most obviously lacking: cash and socks.
Cash: Supermarkets sell individual sachets of shampoo, washing powder, coffee etc (Thanks Amanda for pointing that out) and there’s no need for a ‘maximum 12 items’ till, as that’s everyone! Petrol stations sell pre-filled one-litre coke bottles full of petrol, and no-one has change for a 100 peso (1.60 euros) note, though this was obviously sometimes a tactic to get an extra tip. Socks: Those with money wear sandals. Those with less, flip-flops. Those with none, nothing.

The barefoot kids in Donsol knew two words of English - "hello" and "money". The kids in flip-flops on the working beach in non-touristy Legaspi were genuinely lovely - smiling, laughing and asking our names, but never asked for anything. The richer kids in sandals in the restaurant later had the sulky faces of western teenagers.

Everything gets repaired and reused. The oldest motorbikes and TVs are still going, and shops selling piles of second-hand sandals were common (for those that want to elevate their status from flip-flop wearers, I suppose)

The most common language is Tagalog. Having been occupied by the Spanish and the Americans, now a third of the words they use are Spanish or English. I heard an advert on the radio something like this:
“Tagalog tagalog tagalog más barato tagalog tagalog safe and effective tagalog tagalog.”

The natural beauty highlights we experienced: volcanoes and marine life. We took a boat then trekked up Taal Volcano to see, in the flooded crater: an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island in the South China Sea. We also started out at 4am to trek up Mt. Mayon, the most perfectly formed volcano in the world, apparently, but were beaten back by the weather - the only bad day we had.

Having back-packed for the first few days, staying in cheap guest houses with, more often than not, cold showers, it was pretty nice staying in a luxury dive resort.

We both snorkelled and scuba-dived, and the feeling of swimming next to a majestic 10 metre-long Whale Shark, or being 5 metres below the surface, engulfed in a shoal of tens (hundreds?) of thousands of sardines, is indescribable.

Philippine food is nothing to write home about, or in a blog, so I’ll stop there, except to say even a begging dog turned down some scraps I gave him.

Talking of dogs – mangy describes the vast majority, but they must also be smarter than those at home. They live and sleep in the street, but never seem to get run over.

The beer, San Miguel, is better than the Spanish version and ridiculously cheap. And it makes you realise how much profit drinks companies make in the west when they can sell bottles of Coke for 10 pesos (16 cents)

Maybe this is why soft drinks, along with religion, are held in such high esteem. I saw a hand-written advert outside corner shop. Coca-cola – Gift of God.

They love to sing. Karaoke bars are everywhere with tone-deaf locals keeping us awake at night. And supermarkets play loud slushy English pop songs, accompanied by the shelf-fillers, cashiers, even gun-toting security guards on the door – all singing along! Truly bizarre.

And finally, if you want to play golf in Manila, try the Wack Wack Golf Club. Though you might think twice about sending your children to the Bolocboloc Elementary School.

Photos HERE

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Random Thoughts on Thailand. Dec 19 - Jan 4.

1/8/2011

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An 18-hour, 1000-euro journey back to freezing Britain, or a 2.5-hour, 180-euro trip to warm and sunny Thailand? Despite missing family and friends, this was not a difficult choice to make.

After the first day, I’d seen more images of Buddha than in the rest of my entire life. He comes in all sizes, from 10cm to 45 metres, and can be young, old, sitting, reclining, standing, even in party mode.

I’ve never smiled at so many strangers. You only have to catch their eye and they smile. If only the whole world could be like that. I’m trying to keep it up now we’re back in HK.

Bright colours are popular. The majority of Bangkok taxis are fuchsia pink or lurid orange. School uniforms also come in purple, pink, yellow, green…

The Isuzu Pick-up seems to be the most popular vehicle, preferably with a windswept grannie in the back.

At one sacred temple I saw an aged Bhuddist monk reach under his robe and pull out a big wad of cash and start counting it.

We didn’t see anything of the renowned sex industry side of Bangkok, but we did go out for street food in an area called Thong Lo.

Thai films, based on those seen on long distance buses, are either dramas with women wailing the whole time, or comedies with a constant stream of whacky slapstick sound effects.

Sa wat dee is Thai for ‘hello’ but to be more polite, men add the word ‘crap’ on the end. I picked this up very quickly.

At 8am and 6pm in public places, the national anthem plays through loud speakers and everyone stops and stands still.

If you sit on an elephant and tap her on the head with a banana, she’ll lift up her trunk to take it from you.

The weather at Christmas is perfect … 25-30ºC and sunny every day.

We spent Christmas day zip-lining through the rain forest (see the video) and toasted in the New Year on a bridge (not THE bridge, but near) on The River Kwai, watching the fireworks and floating lanterns reflected in the water.

The actual Bridge on The River Kwai was a kilometre away, and given that 100,000 people died building the railway, I felt the pop song ‘Hands up, Baby, Hands up, Give me your heart…’ blaring out nearby intruded somewhat on the solemnity of the place.

I bet Queen Elizabeth is a bit jealous of the Thai King. He’s been on the throne 7 years longer than her (64 years now) and everyone loves him!

I’m sorry, but Thai street musicians and me do not share the same idea of what is melody.

If you like old ruins, some time in your life you have to go to Sukhothai. Wonderful.

I can’t imagine there’s a way to say ‘water shortage’ in Thai. I didn’t see a dry ditch or hole in the ground all holiday.

Thai pronunciation in English tends to be a bit lacking in consonants. We heard some carol singing on the TV. ¨Goo Ki Wenesla loo ou, o the fea o Ste’en.¨

I thought no-one drove on the left apart from the UK. Hong Kong, fair enough, due to recent history, but Thailand does too! (And China apparently!)

Scooter hire is ridiculously cheap. When a taxi ride to a shrine on a hill costs 12 euros, and 24 hours of scooter, including petrol, costs 7 euros, who would get in a taxi? We hired in 4 different places and had great fun.

On hiring a scooter: Me – do you need to see my driving license? Them – nope.
On giving it back: Me – do you want to check if it’s okay? Them – nope.
There’s trust here.

We drove through a town called Ban Pong, and it did smell pretty nice. (Unfortunately I didn’t go anywhere called Ban Pun, sorry.)

Animals we saw included... monkeys – various kinds, water monitors (big big lizards), ghekkos, toads, hornbills, elephants, tarantulas, scorpions (this one on my hand and shoulder) and bats.

More on the bats: At sunset, two million wrinkle-lipped bats pour out of one cave near Khao Yai national park. Two million! The sight and sound as they flew only metres above our heads is the most incredible animal encounter I’ve experienced.

More on the monkeys: Lopburi is a town where the long-tailed macaques live, not only in the trees and on the ruins, but in town too. On the roofs, telephone wires, traffic lights – they’re everywhere!

The food is really, really good, and so cheap! I can’t see why anyone would bother cooking at home. Kao Soi (curried noodles) is a Chiang Mai speciality, and at 90 cents a bowl, I think it’s the best value quality food I’ve ever eaten.

And they have bananas the size of your thumb.

Buddha getting into the rhythm.

More photos HERE. Click on the first one to get the big size and captions.

And some extra photos HERE.

Zip-lining video HERE.

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HK Thoughts: December

12/18/2010

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To activate your work visa you have to leave Hong Kong and return, and the easiest way to do that is a trip to Macau. So we went the first weekend of December.

Macau, the Portuguese equivalent of Hong Kong, is only 65km and an hour away by ferry, but feels much more European. An old fort and churches, cobbled streets and little plazas, and all signs in Portuguese.

But the casinos there are another thing. Apparently it now out-Vegases Las Vegas. The Venetian has life-size replicas of all the famous buildings in Venice, including The Rialto Bridge and the tower in St Mark’s Square, plus canals and gondolas, complete with gondoliers of course.

Macau used to comprise the Macau peninsula and 3 islands. Big Taipa, Little Taipa and Coloane. Through land reclamation, the three islands are now one, called Cotai.

I now get up at 6.30. My 25-minute journey to school starts at one end of the Island line and finishes at the other end, so both ways I’m guaranteed a seat.

The level of English at primary school here is so much higher than in Madrid. They’re reading books meant for native English kids and discussing them with no trouble at all.

I’ve got a lot better at getting through the crowds on the pavements. Having played rugby helps.

December 10th: It’s quite a bit cooler. 15C min, 22C max. Still clear and dry – great weather. Apparently the really cold and damp stuff doesn’t hit until February, not that it ever freezes.

Everything is up here. So many people living in such a small area means it’s not just flats and offices above ground level. We bought most of our furniture from a store on the 15th floor and near our house we found a fantastic Indian restaurant on the 5th floor.

And because everyone seems to eat out, the sheer number of restaurants is incredible. There must be, seriously, 100 within 5 minutes of our house.

There are a significant number of people who earn their living by pushing stuff along the streets on metal barrows. They’re everywhere, men and women, young and old. There’s something Victorian about it - such a contrast to the hi-tech side of things.

On the MTR, 4 out of 5 people are on an I-phone/Blackberry/PSP. I have a lowly 200HKD (20 euro/15 quid) mobile so it stays in my pocket.

To answer the phone, say ‘Wai?’ but no-one Cantonese ever phones me (and I wouldn’t understand anything they said after my opening gambit) so I don’t use it.

Teng means stop – useful in a taxi but be careful to pronounce it right, as Deng is apparently not the politest of words.

Tai O is a fishing village on Lantau Island with tin-clad houses on stilts. It has the feel of a hundred years ago.

December 14th: Temperature down to 6C at night!

A middle-aged woman burped in the post office - the kind of burp the lads would be proud of. And nobody even looked. Must be normal behaviour.

Last hiking of the year - sections 5 and 6 of the Hong Kong trail.

My school has a room called Englishland, which includes a pets corner. I do playground duty there and have been given a position of responsibility – I am in charge of Helen
the hamster.

PHOTOS: here - click on them to see the info.

After 9 hard days at work, holidays have finally arrived. So that’s it for the blog until January. Happy Christmas everyone and see you after Thailand.

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November thoughts part two

11/29/2010

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There are plenty of... curious adverts around, but the most... curious involved a sexy girl lying, eyes closed on a beach with a man in press-up position on top of her. But he’s looking at the camera with a really worried look on his face. To one side is a picture of a box of tissues. It was all in Cantonese, but are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Waving a sword around in a public park would most likely get you arrested in most places I’ve been. Here it’s just Tai Chi.

I think it might be terrapin mating season. The (I suppose) boys in the carp pond in the local park are getting frisky, swimming in front of the (I suppose) girls, waving and fluttering their front paws in the girls’ faces. Not a technique I feel would work for us on a Friday night down the pub.

There are various ways of getting across to the mainland and back. By road through a couple of tunnels, by MTR (metro) and by far the best... by the Star Ferry – an old chugging thing which gives you five minutes of great views in both directions. And it costs the princely sum of 2HKD (Hong Kong Dollars) = 20 cents / 15p.

There are a few whacky haircuts around. Saw a really old guy with a Mohican.

I’m not too keen on some of their food/medicine products. Various shops near us sell sharks’ fins, deer antlers and foetuses, pigs uterus, and live crabs with all their legs bound up so they’re a nice square package to take home.

Hong Kong feels an incredibly safe place, maybe because punishments for minor misdemeanours are so harsh. Not putting your seatbelt on in a minibus is 5000HKD (500 euro) and 3 months imprisonment. Chucking rubbish in The Harbour from the ferry is double that! I’m not sure they’re enforced though. No-one puts the seatbelt on and there’s plenty of floating paper and plastic in The Harbour.

Also I discovered we can watch CCTV from the lifts and front entrance on our TV. (Apparently this is quite normal in modern tower blocks.) So Amanda waved goodbye to me from the bottom of the lift that day. Not daily viewing, however.

Although the top floor is 55, with us on 49, there is no floor 13 and also no floor 4, 14, 24, 34, 44 and 54. Apparently the word for four, when coupled with floor (sei lau) sounds a bit like ‘death’.

It’s still fine weather and 22C. Last day at the beach was November 20th.

Walked up Victoria Peak with a picnic and a bottle of wine to watch the sunset.

Postage is really cheap: 3HKD (30 cents, 25p) to send a postcard or Christmas card to Europe.

Favourite Cantonese phrase at the moment: ‘dak n dak’ = ‘okay’

You have to admire HK labourers/delivery men/builders. One little guy delivered our 3-person sofa on his own, carrying it on his back.

And to repair the outside wall, a scaffold builder hung out our window, holding on with one hand and only one leg inside, drilling holes in the wall with the other hand. Ok, he had a harness on, but we are 49 (ok, really only 43) floors up!

32 MORE PHOTOS IF YOU CLICK ON THIS LINK: here

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November thoughts part one

11/16/2010

10 Comments

Interesting watching people read on public transport. Their eyes go up and down rather than from left to right.

I got into carpentry on my last few days off and made four bits of what can loosely be described as furniture.

The Hong Kong Trail is a walk through the hills and forests of the island. Total 50km, divided into 8 sections. We’ve done 5 sections so far in three outings. That’s where I met the crab, but no monkeys – there aren’t any on the island unfortunately.

There did use to be big cats here, especially on the mainland but not now. A tiger was shot by a policeman in 1942 on the island, though it’s rumoured it had escaped from a circus.

Still wonderful weather. On the beach and in the sea on Nov 12th.

The 8-hour difference causes problems when it comes to watching football. The last match I watched started at 1.30am, and it was a disaster for an LFC fan (Stoke).

I now know the names of 10 vegetables. The latest being Ke Ji (aubergine) and the woman at the fruit and veg shop now tests me when I go to buy stuff:
Her “Potato!” Me: “Shi Jai!” Her: “Tomato!” Me: “Fan Kei!”

I did have a setback with my vegetable-based Cantonese, though. At a dinner I tried out a few of the words but when I said “Shi Jai” they laughed and said “that means idiot!” It does, however, shed some light on the curious tee-shirt slogan in the last blog.

If you’re interested in seeing exactly where we live, zoom in and out a bit here

First day of teaching, walk into class and thirty 8-year-olds stand up and as one, bow and say “Good morning Mr. Simon!” I sense discipline will not be a problem...

There seem to be an extreme number of safety notices around. On the MTR escalators "Mind your toes" and "Always hold the hand rail! You can make it a safe journey!" "Watch out for flash floods" next to every little stream (probably fair enough this one, considering the rain we get here at times) "Beware, wet floor" in the showers at the beach seems a little unnecceseray. But my favourite so far is this one in the photo below:

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October random thoughts part 2

11/4/2010

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There’s a bar called RED on a 4th floor roof garden overlooking the Harbour and at the very base of the tallest building on Hong Kong island (IFC2, 88 floors, 11th tallest in the world) – cool terrace, great views, amazing looking up, and bar prices to match. But… you can go along with your own food and drink and use the tables. We’ve been twice so far with cava, red wine, salmon and langostines.

Seen in a shop window – “We buy gallstones.”

My favourite number is 5 – ‘mmm’. And HK dollar is ‘man’ so “mmm man” = 5 dollars.

My fitness regime is walking/running (little by little more running) and cycling (a bit further every time before I have to stop) from my house up the Peak.

Be careful with nº 9, gau. Make sure your intonation goes up, otherwise it means penis.

I’ve just noticed that there are still quite a lot of coins with the Queen of England on. No Chinese purge on that yet then.

There’s a definite lift hierarchy going on. You can almost hear the scoffs of disdain at those who get out on single digits floors. Of course we feel pretty superior living on the 49th out of 55, but Amanda had a humbling experience the other day when after pressing our floor button, the two others in the lift pressed 53 and 55.

I’ll be bucking the world economic trend and leaving the ranks of the unemployed next week. Teaching primary school English from 8am to 2pm. I won’t moan about the timetable.

Seen on a tee-shirt: You are my love. You are my angle. Don’t treat me like potato.

Getting along the pavement really is a pain. Not only do they walk slowly, but they veer from side to side. Is straight-line walking so hard? I might teach it in class.

My fitness regime seems to have ground to a halt. Why don’t these things last? I am however writing quite a bit. 56,000 words of a new novel, 32,000 written here.

I feel taller than I did in Europe.

October weather is glorious - end of the month: blue skies, 25C in the day, 17C at night. Have spent 3 days at 3 different beaches recently and the sea’s still warm.