A Busy End To 2007
Posted On Wednesday, December 19, 2007 at at 8:31 PM by AlvinWhat a mad rush to end the year ! We spent time in Shatin, Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, Shanghai Street to find our new toilet, wash basin, shower doors, lamps, curtains, sofa, crockeries ... phew ! Not to mention the supervision of lazy workmen who kept delaying the final touches to the house. Luckily it only took us less than a week to dust out the house and made sure we are sleeping and eating in a livable environment. And here is a glimpse, da dan ....
Shenzhen - The Wild Wild West (深圳)
Posted On Thursday, November 8, 2007 at at 7:27 PM by Alvin
Shenzhen (深圳) had been the poor-cousin town of Hong Kong for almost the 2 past decades when during this time it transformed itself from a gold-rush frontier dusty old town to a modern economic power house in the south of China. The house prices in SZ are now growing faster than those in HK even.
The Hong Kong Shenzhen Western Corridor (HKSWC) - 西部通道 (深圳灣公路大橋) was opened on the 1st of July in 2007, take a look at the stylish bridge connecting HK and SZ at the western end of the New Territories. Yesterday it took us about 45 minutes to travel from the Goldcoast to this new boarder crossing by bus. SZ is now full of high rise buildings housing banks, high-tech companies and well-appointed residences. What's more, the city has a number of "book-malls" where one can spend the entire day wandering around shelves and shelves of newly published Chinese and English books. 
We went to Shenzhen Book City located right next to the Shao Nian Gong MTR (少年宫站) yesterday which is reputedly the second biggest book-mall in China (the largest is in Beijing) ! There were literally millions of books there and I even located a book titled "Indian Accounting Standards". When one is tired of reading and browsing, there are coffee shops and restaurants of fairly reasonable prices and standards within the book-mall. Yes, the ever-present KFC and Starbucks are there... We went to a local restaurant where we had vegetable dumplings and buns and endless cups of Chinese tea for RMB 22 ! Then we head for the Music section of the book-mall and found some of my favorite original music albums (which I still don't own) - Fleetwood Mac (Rumours) and The First Tracy Chapman albums selling for RMB 20 each. I now know where to buy my music CDs. A great day out.
We went to Shenzhen Book City located right next to the Shao Nian Gong MTR (少年宫站) yesterday which is reputedly the second biggest book-mall in China (the largest is in Beijing) ! There were literally millions of books there and I even located a book titled "Indian Accounting Standards". When one is tired of reading and browsing, there are coffee shops and restaurants of fairly reasonable prices and standards within the book-mall. Yes, the ever-present KFC and Starbucks are there... We went to a local restaurant where we had vegetable dumplings and buns and endless cups of Chinese tea for RMB 22 ! Then we head for the Music section of the book-mall and found some of my favorite original music albums (which I still don't own) - Fleetwood Mac (Rumours) and The First Tracy Chapman albums selling for RMB 20 each. I now know where to buy my music CDs. A great day out.
The HK Stock Market - These crazy days
Posted On Saturday, October 6, 2007 at at 10:13 PM by AlvinFrom teenage kids in primary schools to the grannies doing their Tai Chi in the morning, the topic that you will most likely hear from everyone's conversations these days is the Hong Kong Stock market ! On the rise of the market, everyone is a self-claimed Buffett and the "fortune effect" explains a lot about the endless queues at the expensive restaurants in town.
Stock holders' fear and greed roller-coast to the ups-and-downs of their favorite stock; at least until the game is over when the bubble bursts. The "expert TV commentators" called this period The Big Time when playing the stock market is a serious full-time dedication. The lessons that are learnt from the Tulip craze to the recent Tech Bubble are all but forgotten under the euphoric cheers at the end of another day of rallying.
Stock holders' fear and greed roller-coast to the ups-and-downs of their favorite stock; at least until the game is over when the bubble bursts. The "expert TV commentators" called this period The Big Time when playing the stock market is a serious full-time dedication. The lessons that are learnt from the Tulip craze to the recent Tech Bubble are all but forgotten under the euphoric cheers at the end of another day of rallying.Summer Swims and Fruit Salads
Posted On at at 9:32 PM by AlvinFor the past five months, I have enjoyed my daily swims early in the morning, even during those record-breaking July hot hot months ! I managed to build up my physical tolerance and more importantly, my patience and have consistently swum 44 laps for much of September and October. Why 44 laps, I hear you ask. Good question my friends... I once read a news article about an 88 years old man doing 88 laps every day; and every year he would increase the lap count by one. Get it ?
But every good thing needs a rest sooner or later and I shall miss my Summer swims very much. The open pool will be closed from November onwards as it will get pretty cold. But I shall return ! Here is a picture of our pool downstairs and I am the black dot in the picture making the waves ;)
Running will be the sport for the coming cooler months. I am aiming to consistently run 10km every day till next Summer. One thing will not change though : the fruit salad we have every morning ! We have had this habit of eating a bowl of fruits each morning probably since we left Italy in 1998. One great treat in moving back to live in Asia is the abundance of seasonal fruits that can be bought easily in the local markets. Take a look, yummy !
Meet my lovely nephew and niece
Posted On Thursday, September 6, 2007 at at 2:34 AM by Alvin
Yep ! Nico and Nati are TWINS !!! They are really keeping Gabe and my sister Paulette busy. Although they have yet to discover the joy of using chopsticks to poke through the loud speakers, Nico and Nati have learnt to make use of their voices and that they are heard ABOVE all else...
They will be moving in to a house outside San Francisco this month, so that there will be plenty of room for them to run around. I have been planning to go and see them for a long long time but I wanted for Gabe and Sis to settle down first. If they are not going to fly back to HK this year, I'm definitely on my way to see (and cuddle) them in 2008.
I do wonder what they will think of me...the buddy type ? the joker type ? Well, they already have an idea of me - apparently Sis had already told them that I like to repeat my famous Octopus joke and also the one about the Missing Chinaman...so no surprises there...can't wait...
We Found Shangri-La (香格里拉 ) !
Posted On Saturday, April 14, 2007 at at 1:10 AM by AlvinAfter much debate between the world's experts and scholars, the exact location of THE Shangri-La was decided to be in the Yunnan province of China. Previously, India and Nepal also laid claims to this accolade. The town of Shangri-La (now also known as 中甸) itself had a frontier feel about it and quite a dust bowl, but the outlying mountains and highlands made up for it.
We arrived in the pouring rain, after the bus journey from Lijiang, as was typical in this place during this time of the year and stayed in a old styled (read Commi !) type hotel where we were grateful for its electric (but safe, I think) blanket and hot water bottles. We quickly moved to a business hotel down the dusty road for some modern comfort the day after.
A large Tibetan population can be found here together with interesting Tibetan-style temples. We enjoyed our stay here as the most northerly stop of our Yunnan exploration. We visited the famous 松赞林寺 as well as spending some free and easy times hiking in the spectacular wilderness of the 伊拉草原 where Tibetan temples abound.
Yunnan Trio - Kunming 昆明, Dali 大理 And Lijiang 麗江
Posted On Sunday, April 8, 2007 at at 3:05 AM by Alvin
After the interesting bus journey from He Kou (河口) near the Vietnam-China boarder, we spent a few interesting days in Kunming (昆明), the capital city of the Yunnan province. We visited the famous 金馬碧雞坊 and 圓通寺. We also enjoyed greatly the peaceful and relatively quiet roads in the city; because all motorbikes in Kunming were electric !Journeying on from Kunming and reached relaxing Dali (大理). Dali used to be a powerful City State in ancient times and had a number of important Buddhist temples. We took a cable car up to the 點蒼山 national park for a 5 hours hike and just generally loved this manageable town with its easy-going pace and vibes.
Lijiang (麗江) was full of interesting alley ways and canals but packed up to its armpits (maybe even up to its eyebrows I think) with tourists; luckily we managed to find peace and quiet when we ventured out of Lijiang (where lazy tourists were few and far between) to the Jade Dragon Mountain (玉龍雪山) Range and The First Yangtze River Turn (長江第一彎) at the quiet village of Shigu (石鼓).
The First Yangtze River Turn deserves a special place in Chinese geography as this is where the mighty Yangtze River makes a 180 degrees turn from South- to North- bound ! The huge geographical and economical impact is that this first (of many thereafter) turns of The Yangtze eventually gives rise to the many great Chinese cities and civilisations along the East-bound Yangtze corridor of Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing, Shanghai !
Halong Bay, Sapa and Crossed Over To China
Posted On Sunday, April 1, 2007 at at 12:37 AM by AlvinHaving spent 2 days in rainy and dirty Hanoi (highly skippable in our opinion), we managed to pick a reliable agent (heads or tails, anyone ?) for a boat trip to visit Halong Bay which was calm and picturesque - a definite must-see. Hanoi was major scam country when it came to the arrangement of this particular trip, horror stories abound which we later found out to be well-documented in other travellers' blogs ! Anyway, commercial though everything was, it was well worth the trip which we happened to share with a group of Singaporeans. They were very nice to these jaded travellers (us) and shared with us their freshly caught seafood for dinner on the boat. It was a really pleasant 2 days we spent here !
When we arrived back to Hanoi, we took an overnight train to Sapa the same night. Worth mentioning, the ticket office of the Vietnam Train Authority was a direct leaf-out from the 60 Commi's era where they could hardly care less other than chatting amongst themselves and drinking tea, but somehow we still managed to buy a seated ticket off them, amazing ! The Milanese fellow and the Europeans in front of the queue had no such luck and they were waved away like annoying flies ! Poor guys.Now, we haven't told you yet about the thieves on the overnight train, have we ? Well, to say the least, luck was on our side as we by chance, held on to our bags (tightly) when we dozed off periodically during this overnight train ride; just as well, there were thieves aplenty; the grab-your-bag-and-jump-off-train variety. Also, it was a local train and there were many farmers on board and the cocks they had brought along kept calling sunrise throughout the night of this truly truly memorable train journey ! Hey we didn't want to take the "Tourist Class" comfy trains just to sample the "real" Vietnam, right ?
We based ourselves in the peaceful hill town of Sapa and visited some lovely and colorful local minority villagers such as The Cat Cat Village and the Bac Ha Sunday Market for the next few days.
It was such a memorable day to cross the border from Vietnam boarder town of Lao Cai (老街) to China at He Kou (河口) that we elected to stay an extra night at He Kou to slowly appreciate the experience before travelling on to Kunming - one of the best days during this Indo-China trip. Ace, Man !
Buzzling Ho Chi Minh
Posted On Wednesday, March 14, 2007 at at 12:26 AM by AlvinWe found Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) to be a city buzzing with life (and motorbikes !). We spent an eventful 3 days here, buying a few nice tee-shirts, having a few Vietnam drip-drip coffee and visited a few wartime museums which showed the atrocities during the American War (Man ! There were some major bombings around here !)
We also took the Number 1 bus to Cholon and visited some of Mandy's very very distant relatives - well, they seemed to live in a Chinese Quarter much like any China Towns the world over. We said our quick Hello ( and Goodbye) and went back to the Saigon district to sample the delights this up-and-coming city has to offer. We were planning to travel north up to the beach side resort town of Mu Nei, spend a few days relaxing by the sea and then run up the coast to Hoi An and the royal city of Hue.
Phnom Penh
Posted On Monday, March 12, 2007 at at 1:39 AM by Alvin
What a day ! We arrived in the middle of the day from Siem Reap and in the middle of the 40's (Degrees Celsius !). We even managed to find a decent place to stay (with air-con !) for US 10 ! Couldn't wait to explore this famed capital but we skipped the human skulls on display at the Genocide (Pol Pot et al) Museum - we thought of paying respect for these unfortunate victims. Still, this city offered numerous interesting sights with its many monuments and really there was quite a laid-back feel to it !
Siem Reap - Atmospheric Angkor Wat and Bayon
Posted On Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at at 3:05 AM by Alvin
Arrived in Siem Reap from Bangkok after spending 12 hours on a bus along a bumpy and dusty road ! Now that's another amazing SouthEast Asia scam story reserved for another blog entry, watch this space !
After a day's rest, we rented two bikes and wandered around the ancient city of Siem Reap. The Angkor ruins were justifiably some of the most enchanting in the world and very photogenic. Over the two days, we cycled through the well-maintained but not overly touristy monument areas and we had our packed lunches next to Khmer ruins of centuries past; we were amazed to find so many "hidden" statues dotted around the city which were hardly visited. We also remembered well that, after a hard day's bike rides, we were well rewarded with an Angkor Beer and the local dish - Amok that was very similar to Thai green curry. Overall, not as touristy as we first thought. The sunset at Angkor Wat was well worth waiting for, the anticipation from the waiting crowds was electrifying. We spent 4 days here to properly appreciate these astounding monuments and also to relax a bit before moving on to Phnom Penh.
After a day's rest, we rented two bikes and wandered around the ancient city of Siem Reap. The Angkor ruins were justifiably some of the most enchanting in the world and very photogenic. Over the two days, we cycled through the well-maintained but not overly touristy monument areas and we had our packed lunches next to Khmer ruins of centuries past; we were amazed to find so many "hidden" statues dotted around the city which were hardly visited. We also remembered well that, after a hard day's bike rides, we were well rewarded with an Angkor Beer and the local dish - Amok that was very similar to Thai green curry. Overall, not as touristy as we first thought. The sunset at Angkor Wat was well worth waiting for, the anticipation from the waiting crowds was electrifying. We spent 4 days here to properly appreciate these astounding monuments and also to relax a bit before moving on to Phnom Penh.
Louang Phabang To Vang Viang
Posted On Sunday, February 25, 2007 at at 4:51 PM by AlvinWe arrived at Louang Phabang around sunset, having had a relaxing day floating down The Mekong from Pekbeng. Louang Phabang is quite pleasant to spend a few days and we enjoyed wandering around the temples and the foods greatly. We stayed on the outskirt of town where opposite the hotel was a outdoor restaurant and they have stoves for roasting and stewing the foods we ordered; of course we washed it all down with a Beer Lao !
Vang Viang located around 50km south of LP, was karst country and had a frontier feel about it ! We visited many limestone caves and generally relaxed in this laid-back town for 3 days. Off to Vientaine next.
Vientiane turn out to be one of the sleepiest capitals in Asia, if not the world. We just strolled around this tiny but pleasant city and just enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere. We caught the bus to Buddha Park which was located in a small village about an hour's drive from Vientiane. Buddha Park was a fun place to visit as it was full of funky sculptures of Mr Buddha; we took time off to have a lunch in the park before heading back to Vientiane in time for our overnight bus to Bangkok.
Vang Viang located around 50km south of LP, was karst country and had a frontier feel about it ! We visited many limestone caves and generally relaxed in this laid-back town for 3 days. Off to Vientaine next.
Vientiane turn out to be one of the sleepiest capitals in Asia, if not the world. We just strolled around this tiny but pleasant city and just enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere. We caught the bus to Buddha Park which was located in a small village about an hour's drive from Vientiane. Buddha Park was a fun place to visit as it was full of funky sculptures of Mr Buddha; we took time off to have a lunch in the park before heading back to Vientiane in time for our overnight bus to Bangkok.
The Golden Triangle and Over To Laos
Posted On Friday, February 23, 2007 at at 2:59 AM by AlvinOn our way to Laos, we spent a few days in the very northern part of Thailand where its boarders met with the other neighbouring countries. We based ourselves in Chiang Rai - a quaint city best remembered by us for its barbecue and Thai dancing shows in the open market every night (see earlier blog entry). The city was a short bus ride to the Golden Triangle (Chiang Saen) - where Thailand meets Myanmar and Laos. This area is best known for the highly sorted-after herbal leaves ;-) and the trafficking routes. The Opium Museum was very informative and well worth a visit. We went for a long walk along the city walls in Chiang Saen on this HOT day.....
We crossed the border from Chiang Khong (Thailand) to Houayxai (Laos) in the middle of the day. The border was actually a 3 minutes' boat ride with friendly Laos immigration officers waiting in a hut on the opposite river bank, nice ! We then began our 2-day boat trip down the Mekong River to Louang Phabang ! The photo below was taken at dawn in Pakbang, a midway stop for the night.
Chiang Rai And Buddha's Cosmos !
Posted On Thursday, February 22, 2007 at at 5:00 PM by Alvin
We visited Doi Tong, a peaceful Buddha's site around 30 minutes walk from the centre of Chiang Rai. At the centre of Doi Tong was a raised stone platform where each step represented a new level in Buddha's Enlightenment. It was a very interesting detour away from the night market of this town where we enjoyed our outdoor "spiedini" - BBQ meat with a couple of whiskey (leftovers from Myanmar days !) and soda; there was also a nightly amateur-ish stage dance to entertain us !
Year Of The Pig in Chiang Mai
Posted On Sunday, February 18, 2007 at at 2:53 AM by Alvin
Happy Chinese New Year ! Our stay in Chiang Mai coincided with the arrival of the year of The Pig. This city has a large Chinese community and China Town in Chiang Mai was one big party on New Year's eve where there were restaurant tables all laid out along the streets of the China Town. We also stayed up late and visited the colorful central market in the town centre. Strangely enough, we even managed to get some sleep amongst the loud fire crackers heard throughout the night.
We also took a shared taxi up to Doi Suthep, a Buddhist Temple perched up on a hill around 30 minutes' drive from Chiang Mai. The day was so sunny and the reflections of the golden statutes of His Holiness were blinding in the sunlight !
We also took a shared taxi up to Doi Suthep, a Buddhist Temple perched up on a hill around 30 minutes' drive from Chiang Mai. The day was so sunny and the reflections of the golden statutes of His Holiness were blinding in the sunlight !
