China Town given answers

Have a look at this BBC story about a public well-being survey. Cheating huh?!

Great Grandaddy

Between Christmas and New Year I had a few days where I was still on holiday but Sarah wasn't. I therefore took the opportunity to pop round to the other side of the valley and try one last time to find Granny's father's grave. I bumped into a historian there who was documenting people in the graveyard who came from Devon - quite a task! He was very helpful though, explained where I could look people up to find graves.

Suddenly everything was a lot more simple - a 10 minute wait while Norman Pope was looked up, and then I was armed with a map detailing the location to within 10 metres or so.



And so here it is, a very handsome grave stone of a fallen cross. The stone is quite difficult to read after 90 years of lichen, but here's proof it's the right one:
It's a lovely spot, although there is the noise of a road nearby (a Hong Kong hazard it's pretty hard to avoid on the island).

Chi Lin Nunnery and Kowloon Walled City

We headed over to Kowloon-side the other day to visit Chi Lin Nunnery, near Diamond Hill MTR. It's an incredibly peaceful place - as you step inside the huge wooden walls of the first courtyard, the traffic sounds start to fall away. Once you move further into the complex, you could almost forget you're in Kowloon. There's also a very peaceful garden on the other side of the road (just don't try to go in the out gate, or proceed in the wrong direction)

"The Chinese new-year exodus is the world's largest annual migration"

Just to give you an idea of the scale of Chinese New Year...

Panda nonsense

I came across this while I was looking for a video of one of the Ocean Park pandas attacking a keeper. Please look, it'll make you smile.

Oh yes, one other thing...

A Hong Kong born baby has been infected with H9N2 virus - bird flu. There are more details in the news here. Bad news. Tamiflu at the ready.

(Vis a vis chicken prices: it might help to know that a catty is 605 grams)

Happy 2009!

Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, originally uploaded by Sarah K Moore.

Now that I have gainful employment, I spend my days in the retail mecca that is Times Square. (I should add that the office is in the building, I don't actually spend all day shopping) It's something of a monolith, here's one of the pics I took of the inside back in February.

The slightly freaky totem pole figures (=Christmas decorations) by Carrie Chau in and around Times Square have been removed, to make way for hundreds of scary-looking crowd barriers and a big stage. Times Square is due to be a big venue for tonight's New Year's Eve celebrations, with a big countdown, and possibly fireworks, not sure. The Standard, a free paper here (roughly equivalent to the London Shite and whatever the other rag was called) has more details here.

We're planning a night in with a friend. Basically now that we have an oven we are hugely over-excited about baking, roasting, grilling, crisping, all those things you can't do on a hob, so we'll be making pizzas. I know that many of you were deeply disappointed by our failure to produce the promised Christmas Pizza, so think of this as recompense. Hopefully we will then go to Carol's friend's office at Exchange Square to watch the fireworks over the harbour. Only 5 minutes long, not a patch on Mod-Autumn Festival's 23 minutes! I think we could probably see quite a lot of the fireworks from our flat - maybe I'll leave the webcam on for your delectation.

Of course 2009 here starts at 4pm at home, so I don't imagine you'll be feeling too festive at that time...however, midnight at home will be 8am tomorrow morning for us. Actually we probably won't be feeling too festive then either.

Hiking HK style

We went hiking on Saturday with Elaine, a friend of Ross's from work. We started in Happy Valley, walked up to Wong Nai Chung Gap, and then headed off on Stage 5 and 6 of the Hong Kong trail. It was a seriously challenging climb for poor little me - lots of steps and steep inclines. The tragic news is that I have "flip flop disease" (seriously) which means that I should avoid walking too much. Obviously I'm ignoring that advice! We ended up near Stanley, where we went for yummy lunch.

The other big news is that we bought an oven this weekend, and Ross demonstrated his culinary prowess with a superb roast dinner. It's a super-multi-purpose oven, which can do anything automatically. Steam, crisp, cook, grill, microwave - just press "Go" and adjust the "doneness" buttons.

We started Ross's birthday with the obligatory bacon butties (bacon courtesy of the "crisp plate" in the new oven!), then spent too much money on a new amp and speakers before a Nepalese dinner prefaced by the customary espresso martini.

White Elephant in the Mouse Pad

Christmas came early to Disney HQ last week. The focus of the festivities was the White Elephant – the idea is that everyone brings a wrapped present to add to the pile. It has to be something that’s new, but you don’t want. So a free bottle of washing up liquid from Watson’s would do, as would freebies from suppliers and unwanted gifts. Being a generous soul, I contributed an entirely unwanted, but pretty high quality gift – the Burberry passport cover that I got free as a “Christmas present” when I worked there. Slightly backfired, as everyone thought it was a Shenzhen rip off.

Anyway, everyone stands in a big circle around the table full of presents, and each person gets a turn to pick a present. However, you can either pick one off the table, or nick something that somebody has already got. Not really the Christmas Spirit is it?! Each gift can only be stolen three times, The most popular gifts were a teddy bear (?!), an X Men jacket (supplier freebie) and a Dior necklace (which was quite likely to be a Shenzhen rip off). It was….an experience.

We also had some amazing home made cakes and cookies, proving that not everyone in Hong Kong is oven-less.

Update

The other Mrs M tells me that the parachute dudes were actually paragliding, which is what the other Mr M does in his spare time. That's just crazy.

Here's a video to demonstrate perfect landing technique (maybe)

Crimbo on the Beach

Well, the holidays are here, and thankfully Murray the Ming Aralia has come back from the dead just in time (just long enough?) to serve as our Christmas tree, in the interests of saving us 650 bucks on a freshly-cut US one.

We've decked the halls, in a tasteful manner of course, posted the presents and even sent the cards. All that's left to do now is open 2 more windows on the Advent Calendar, belt out some carols at St John's Cathedral, avoid all retail- (and therefore crowd-) heavy areas, and manage one more day at work. Then we can enjoy Christmas Lunch at the Press Room, before calling you guys nice and early while you are opening your stockings! The Big Man (as Oliver calls him) doesn't know that we don't have a chimney, so we will be stocking-less, if you know what I mean, this year. Actually, FC might be suffering a bit of credit crunch himself. Either that or our tenants will be extra lucky this year.

We spent the day on the beach yesterday, chillaxing. It was about 24 degrees, with a bit of a breeze so there were lots of people hang gliding, or whatever you call it - you know, the dudes who jump off a cliff with a parachute? Anyway, there were lots of those, and quite a few kites, mostly being flown from sticks poked in the sand. Two of the parachute dudes laned on the beach, which caused quite a kerfuffle. Other than watching that, we mostly tried to figure out the rules of the popular ballgame played by all teenage groups at the beach.

Sisyphus, Bauble and Syble are in Oz, Carol's in the Philippines, and Tom & Rachel, Tom & Cathy, Anthony and everyone else we know are currently chasing each other across the skies to get back to Old Blighty for Crimbo. So it'll be something of a lonely one for us, but we hope to have lots of lovely webcam chats so you can admire our decos.

Firstly, an apology. I know you all wait with baited breath for the latest update from the land of deep-fried chicken gristle, but I have been somewhat busy. Secondly, two pieces of excellent news: I have a job, and we have visitors.

The ‘rents arrived on Sunday, and we’ve been trying our hardest to knacker them out ever since! The weather is a bit cooler here this week, but still warmer than London I think. It’s super-nice to have M&D here, every day’s a bit special, and it’s good to re-discover things, and remember how different our lives are here.

Thanks to all of you who sent birthday wishes – I have a splendid day, which started with a bacon butty, and ended with a 7 inch chocolate truffle cake (via Vietnamese chicken salad, deep fried shredded beef with chilli and crispy duck). It’s a hard life….

Work-wise, I now get to watch TV all day in the office, cool huh? Well, that’s not strictly true. I’m working for the company that brings us such televisual gems as Scrubs (appletini!) Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy. Any ideas? Answers on a postcard.

Yogyakarta

We arrived in Jakarta on a Thursday evening, to be greeted by a queue of everyone who had been on our plane, waiting for a visa. That took a while...Then we were introduced to the full force of Jakarta via the many terrifying taxi drivers, begging us to take their taxi into town. The first question, when we had finally negotiated a price, was "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?"

We successfully reached the Novotel Batavia (aka the Omnia Batavia) and managed a couple of beers before crashing. We got up early the next morning, in the hope of buying tickets for the many flights we needed. Back to the airport for a hi speed tour of all the airlines' desks, including many that we read were grounded a little while ago since they posed a threat to safety. Eventually, in possession of a fistful of old skool hand-written tickets, we flew to Jogja.

We spent a few days in Yogyakarta, pronounced Jogjakarta, and more usually known as Jogja. It's a lovely city whose main attractions are the Kraton, and day trips to Borobudur and Prambanan. The differences between the enormous sprawl of Jakarta and the "real world" of Jogja were marked. At first sight, it kind of reminded us of some of the Caribbean towns we've seen, like Roseau in Dominica. There are no chain stores, the roads are in terrible condition, and next to the potholed carriageway you'll find a foot-wide open sewer. The other side of the sewer are the shops - often disproportinately large, with a desk drawer for a cash till. It seems like plenty of people while the day away sitting under trees, chatting and smoking kretek (clove) cigarettes. Jogja is overrun with becacks, little bicycle taxi jobbies. Becak riders spend a lot of the day sleeping in their becaks, which seems entirely understandable when you think that for several hours a day they are ferrying lazy tourists around a bumpy city by pedal power alone.

There's quite a knack to riding a becak. The becak riders' community has somewhat altered the normally accepted rules of the road. It's so bloomin' hot in Jogja that once you have got up some momentum, the last thing you want to do is stop for some pesky little inconvenience such as a red light, or a load of traffic. So roads just gain and lose lanes as the traffic situation alters. If you are turning right onto a big road, but there's lots of traffic crossing your path, don't bother crossing to the other carriageway - just create another lane, and carry on along there until there's a pause in the traffic, and you can push across to the "correct" carriageway. Hard to explain, I hope a video will clarify!

The Kraton is a huge old palace, which is home to the Sultans of Jogja. There's a central palace compound surrounded by a larger walled city, where more than 25,000 people live. At the middle of the compund is the palace itself, currently home to Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X - more on him later. When we went in, a group of artists was performing a leather puppet show, accompanied by traditional gamelan music.

It's a curious place - there is a museum section, but the exhibits range from a pair of gloves, to a photo, to an old coat and so on. They all belonged to previous sultans, but they were terribly unprotected - most of the textiles looked like they were gradually rotting away. However, ther are sections of the Kraton which have been restored. Rather like Topkapi in Istanbul, or the Red Fort in Delhi, the compound comprises many open sided pavilions, as well as other little reception halls and waiting areas.

We stayed at the Delta Guesthouse (aka Duta Garden Hotel) on Prawirotimaran II street (try saying that after a few Bintangs). There are many hotels on the street, as well as plenty of little cafes and restaurants. It's quite a traveller-y area, with a lovely laidback vibe, and lots of hotel swimming pools!

See all our Jogja photos.

Indonesia, October 2008 - Java and Sulawesi

So our holiday involved lots of flights, here's the lowdown:
Hong Kong to Jakarta
Jakarta to Yogyakarta
Yogyakarta to Jakarta
Jakarta to Makassar
Overnight bus to Tana Toraja - shudder
Tana Toraja to Makassar
Makassar to Manado
Manado to Makassar
Makassar to Jakarta
Jakarta to Hong Kong

The most important things to remember about Indonesia are:
1) it's HUGE - nearly 2 million square kilometres. Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world
2) Everything in Indonesia has at least two names - towns, hotels, people (I became Hannah at some point...)
3) It's a foolish person who thinks flip flops are suitable foot attire for the land where the squat 'n' mandi bathroom combo is king
4) By the time you leave Indonesia, you will be in many, many strangers' photos. Hello Mister! People are super-friendly, but it does get a bit wearing after the first hour of saying cheese

Bledisloe again

OK, got the whole Bledisloe thing wrong...I think that any match between Australia and New Zealand (which is not a world cup match) is part of the Bledisloe Cup. This was the first game played in a country other than Aus or NZ, and HK seemed happy to see it.

The Hong Kong Stadium has a capacity of 40,000, and attendance on match day was over 39,000.



It was a fantastic afternoon out - a bit warm (surely the stadium is the only public place on the island without air con?!) but the beer in obligatory slightly floppy plastic cups was flowing and the Aussies and Kiwis sang rude songs. Apparently the match was a bit ugly, but we enjoyed it very much. I've never seen an international before, and the difference was quite marked.



A very big thank you to Belle and Henry, who generously provided tickets. I now have a lovely blue ANZ hand so that I can tell everyone how great ANZ is. It's also really useful for entering the door code downstairs....

...and I can't quite explain why Ross likes it....


Here's another big fan of the rugger:


Here's the hi tech solution for the TV-interview-backdrop-support:

After the match, we had supper in Happy Valley, then went into SoHo, to meet some friends. We had a lovely time, sitting on the steps on Staunton Street, being serenaded by a drunk Aussie who was standing on a postbox singing Waltzing Matilda in Cantonese (for shiz!) We then headed to Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong's infamous party zone. It is a proper expat trap, so accordingly the music is all of the Bon Jovi genre. And there's a bit of Guns n Roses thrown in now and again. It's a pretty scary place at the weekends anyway, so you can imagine what happens when 40,000 people (who've been drinking for a good 4 or 5 hours by now) descend. Here's a video to give you an idea. Be warned - you may be involuntarily transported back to Churchill's / DTMs / Filth: