Sai Kung West Country Park

Filmed during 4 hours on a Kai-To over 2 days, through some of the awesome scenery in the West Sai Kung Country Park near the China Mainland. This is one of the most remote parts of Hong Kong SAR.
Music: Tangerine Dream - Cloudburst Flight

Monday - Travelling in the New Territories.

Well Em has entered what is her final week of work here and is still furiously working on getting the new starter up to speed. It's a short one too with it being a national holiday for Buddha's birthday on Friday, so Em's last day here will be Thursday.
We were up at around 6 and I was out by 06.45 and on the MTR for 7.00 headed for the Sai Kung National Park in the New Territories. Just in case you're following on a map this involved an MTR from Central to Mong Kok, Change line and on to Choi Hung, Bus from there to Sai Kung, then another bus to Wong Shek ferry pier in the Sai Kung West National Park. I was already in the town of Sai Kung by the time Em got to work and in all it took me 2 hours to get to Wong Shek Pier, the start point for the day. After watching a load of college students loading their boat for the day up with all kinds of canoeing equipment. I got the 10.20 Kai-To from Wong Shek for a 2 hour journey stopping at Tap Mun Island, and various other places and skirting the Chinese border before heading down the Tolo Channel past Plover Cove and finally berthing at Ma Lui Shui in the Tolo Harbour. There are very few settlements here, and the Islands are for the most part untouched. The whole area is a protected geological park. There were both Police patrol boats doing spot checks in evidence and also numerous Chinese PLA PT boats and a Destroyer. The PLA have been maintaining a very high profile in the South China Sea in recent weeks and there have been a number of articles about it in the South China Morning Post. Apparently China has been building up it's navy over the past 10 years since becoming a major financial player and has been flexing it's muscle in the area over the last few months, much to the disgust of neighbours Japan, Taiwan, The Phillipines and Indonesia. Who are all alarmed at the scale of the manouvers that have been taking place. Indeed the PLA are currently patrolling the south China Sea enforcing a fishing ban in their waters. On arrival at Ma Lui Shui i headed for University station and headed straight down eastern rail line to Hung Hom where I picked up a Star Ferry to central, grabbed a coffee and went to the garden cafe/bar on pier 3 where i stayed till Em joined me after work. I got chatting to a very funny Danish airline pilot called Soeren over a beer or two. We ate at the reclaimation diners on our way home.
Pics will be up soon but as of writing this it's really sunny today so I am contemplating heading back to University to go on the Kai-To again to get some more pics as there are storms forecast for the end of what is our final week, but heading in the other direction this time ending at Wong Shek. The Boat leaves at 3pm which means I'll more than likely not be home too early so I may have to wait till tomorrow to put the pics taken over the 2 days up. That is of course if I don't make the trip to Tai Long Wan that I'm seriously contemplating!!

Star Ferry Harbour Tour

Another late start today as we wallowed in bed for far too long again - but it is the weekend!
Quick march down to the IFC and onto Uncle Russ coffee at the pier followed shortly by a drink at Pier 3. When the weather is glorious, its good to get out of the shopping areas and somewhere peaceful. Deciding not to go to Lamma as it would be completely packed today, we chose to do the Star Ferry Harbour Tour. Starting from Central Pier 7, it took us to Wan Chai, Tsim sha Tsui, and back to Central. The boat ride took an hour and I sat at the front like lady muck (Hyacinth Bucket) while Rus did all the running around taking video footage! Some northern brit did a rendition of Kate Winslet at the front of the Titanic and almost got a shove from me for being so irritating. Weather was beautiful and we got some good footage (note, I say "we") of the skyline from the water. After disembarking we considered doing the full blown tourist thing and get on the big bus tour of hong kong but it was pretty pricey considering we've already walked the entire route and have seen all the buildings. Instead, we went back up to Pier 3 for a quick drink before making our way back up to the apartment. Grudge 2 was on the telly today - will have to sleep with the lights on. This evening was spent laughing at video footage and chilling in our pyjamas - rock and roll! x Em x

Have a guess where we've been......

To Lamma!
Yes, shock, horror - its the weekend and we have once again revisited Lamma Island.
To be fair, we didn't wake up until gone eleven this morning and by the time we left it was just after midday. After an amble down to the IFC, we went to the IFC rooftop terrace over the mall. Unbelievably hardly anyone goes there but the views are breathtaking, lots of places to sit, water features, gardens, bars and restaurants. We then took a walk over to the piers and after a teriyaki chicken and Uncle Russ on the front we caught the ferry over to Lamma. Rus almost fell asleep on the boat :)
We opted not to do the walk after my allergic reaction to a particularly nasty mozzie last week, where we were considering walking into A&E because of the size of the bite and subsequent rash that spread over my leg.... we went straight to two shops (I HAD to get a particularly childish but I love it Cookie Monster bag) and on walking back to the front we met up with our old friend Peter Ip again.
After some dinner with Peter (his shout as a farewell gift to us) we caught the 8:30 pm ferry back to central and enjoyed a further few drinks at Pier 3, overlooking the harbour.
Looking forward to another lovely day tomorrow with my lovely Rus - no real plans except chill and see what we fancy.
Em xx

"BT" & "Dub Dub" Get Funky

Famous world travellers and style guru's "BT" and "Dub Dub" get funky somewhere in Hong Kong for your viewing pleasure.
Music: K C & The Sunshine Band - Get Down Tonight.

Star Ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central.

Onboard the Star Ferry upper deck for the 7min crossing from Tsim Sha Tsui on the Kowloon side to Central Pier 7 on Hong Kong Island.
Music: Massive Attack - Bumper Ball Dub.

IFC2 55th Floor Viewing Platform.

Today I went up to the 55th floor of the 88 floor 1362ft IFC2 where they have a viewing platform and currency information centre. IFC2 was until quite recently the tallest building in Hong Kong (overtaken in 2009 by the International Commerce Centre, Kowloon at 1584ft and 118 floors) and is currently the 12th highest in the world (ICC Kowloon being 4th). Although in a "Height to roof" measurement it actually ranks #7 with ICC being #3. I had to complete registration including passport scans before I could go up and when I did manage to get in it was in one of 8 dedicated turbolifts to the gallery. The staff lifts were located elsewhere.
Glad to see there is very stiff security.
The lift took all of 30 seconds to reach the 55th floor, at great expense to my ears!!
But the view was fantastic even if it wasn't the clearest day, on the 55th floor you are at the same height as the top of the Bank of China Tower nearby and it was quite awe inspiring to see just how high you had gone up in such a short period of time. I'm just glad it wasn't a glass lift or there would probably have been one hell of a mess!!.
The Monetary information centre was interesting, with all kinds of stands relating to the history of Hong Kong finance as well as how money is made, counterfeited etc etc. Quite an interesting read.
I got some pretty good video of the view without too many problems with reflections as well as some of the exhibits.
Music: Pink Floyd - Money

Central in Daylight

Yesterday I decided to see if I could go up to the Viewing platform of the IFC2 building to have a look but although visiting the rooftop garden of the IFC mall which overlooks the harbour I found I needed my passport to get near the IFC2 proper (Which I did suspect would be the case anyway). Instead I decided as I had the camera gear with me anyway, i'd take some pics around the local central area, I've taken a few in the evening but not really during the day as i'm usually off and away somewhere.
The days in Central are very very busy which is why i'm usually out of there but I had a good walk around and got not only pics of the metropolis area but also a lot of the more traditional smaller streets.The sun just happened to come out with avengence in the afternoon which meant that by the time I was finished I was absolutely soaked in sweat as I'd put on some combats expecting a breezy overcast day.
After making it home to meet up with Em and grabbing a shower and some food we headed for the wheel for quiz night, A lot of the regulars were not there but after hearing that last week was such carnage with a rather large piss up happening we did expect that maybe this week would be a little calmer. Bottle of vodka and second place, that'll do nicely. Got 3 bottles in the fridge now which'll do nicely for gifts for housekeeping and others when we leave!!. See, We don't really drink as much as some would think, indeed out of all the bottles we've won in our time here we only opened one of the vodka's for one drink when Andrew was here, And have opened the Red wine to use when cooking!!. The rest is still completely untouched!!...Honest!!!.
We didn't stay too long after the quiz as on the weekend Em had been bitten by a mosquito again and it had come up to the size of a large orange!!. Luckily the local chemist had recommended her taking some antihistamine and using some Hydrocortisone on it which luckily we had both of, And as a result it's much much better today. However I think it would be safe to say that Em is probably allergic to mosquito bites!!!.

Pics Here

Gallery Raid!!!

On friday I was at a quaint little coffee shop I am a regular at in princes terrace when i saw a guy in the window of one of the galleries looking like he was having a bit of trouble getting a pic on his instant camera of the recent installation. I went and asked if he'd like me to pop down with the wide angle as i had nothing else to do. To which he agreed.
On my return I took pics of the gallery for him and told him he could use them as he saw fit.
While I was there a police officer turned up stating that there had been a complaint regarding the art as being too rude, There were nudes in the exhibition but nothing at all extreme.
That evening was due to be the opening of the exhibition, and I left wondering if the guy was going to get shut down....with local media, critics and others due to attend the opening.
The Artist in question gave me a couple of signed copies of his book of prints of the collection, one personalised), for doing the shots...and invited me and Em to the evenings opening......
We decided to pop down but not necessarily enter just to see if it had all gone well for him.
The opening went brilliantly, and although the police had stated that the local "Thought Police" or whoever they are would be there on Monday to deem his art "OK" or not,,,,the opening was not interrupted!!!.....apparently you have to be ssooooooo careful now the Chinese rule here.
Anyway...it turned out the following morning that there was a feature in the South China Morning Post about a gallery that was raided for nudes being too rude!!!!. And I was there when it happened!!!!
Turns out the artist was not only the Artistic Consultant for Louis Vuitton Asia Pacific, but also Deputy Secratary General for the Hong Kong Arts Council, and the head of Secretariat of the Australia Council for the Arts.......as well as being a respected art critic!!!.
And me and Em got enjoy a glass of wine with him and to see him pissed!!!!
Brilliant!!!!.......a thoroughly nice bloke!!!

35 degrees in Sok Kwu Wan

Today we went for our picnic and a walk from Sok Kwu Wan to Yung Shue Wan on Lamma Island....and it was hot!!!!!.
Lovely ferry over in the beautiful sunshine, chicken and mayo sandwiches en route, stopped off and Lo So Shing and Hung Shing Ye beaches, and finished up in Yung Shue Wan bumping into our friend Peter Ip for a few Tsing Tao's on the front and a shish with all the trimmings at our friend Dohra's shop. We even managed to pick up a couple of bits in the shops as well as a 24 case of Pepsi max for em.
A boat back at 19.30, taxi to mid levels and we were home for a shower and are now getting settled for a movie and the Tottenham game at 23.00 local time. A fantastic day!!!!
Em is SOOOOOOOOOO red!!!!! LOL.