Tag: misc

HK: misc & some photos added to older posts

added photos to the following posts:

  • money shot – added photos of front and back of the HK$20 bills issued by all three banks.
  • hotel room – added a photo of my tiny hotel room

other misc:

  •  fast Internet: in my hotel room, I had 33/30 Mbps and 45/26 Mbps down/up on my two tests today, though I wouldn’t know it with this slow netbook :-)
  • there was a Bavarian restaurant in Stanley today

HK: obligatory money shot

Here are the common HK coins and bills.
Well, the HK$10 coin is old as an equivalent bill has replaced it.
Also, I received an old HK$20 bill, so I made an old vs new comparison too.

Update: there are actually different bank notes and coins issued by 3 banks (like in Scotland). Also, there is a HK$1000 note but I wouldn’t call it common as it didn’t cross my hands.

And yes, the currency is a little too big to fit comfortably in my walled (it’s taller than US/Cdn bills)

Note the newer HK$10 bill is plastic.

HK: will it be sunny today or won’t it?

The weather forecast (online) is still calling for very sunny weather today. I see dark clouds over The Peak.
So which one is it? Maybe it will be sunny later today…

I was going to do some require-good-weather trips today (up The Peak and either a bus ride to Stanley Park on the south side of the island or a trip to Sunset Peak on Lantau Island), but if it doesn’t clear up soon, I’ll have to go with Plan B and see some sights in the New Territories (like a centuries-old walled village) and Kowloon.

Though I was going to save Kowloon for tomorrow when the museums are free (and most of the museums seem to be in Kowloon).

So far the weather has been quite cooperative, in that there have only been a few brief sprinkles (vs the low-chance-of thunderstorms called for)

Update: no it wasn’t sunny. It did sprinkle a little in the late afternoon. Even the MTR entrance showed the rainy forecast and temp on the digital display above the entrance turnstyles.

HK: random tourist moment

So earlier today I was sitting on a bar patio having a happy hour pint (not much of a bargain, HK$40/US$5.15 instead of HK$50/US$6.50; some places have 2-for-1 specials) and free peanuts – I was resting my legs after doing my architecture walk and walking back down from the mid-levels, and it had started to rain slightly…

Anyways, so I’m sitting there minding my own business (with wi-fi on my smart phone to keep me company), when I see two Chinese girls smiling and taking a photo of me, and then one takes a photo of the other standing next to me (on the other side of the rail separating the patio from the road).

I figure they must be mainland Chinese tourists (the fastest growing segment of tourists in HK), especially since i was sitting in a bar in a well known little street of bars called Lan Kwai Fong (in Central). And there were quite a few other Chinese obviously-tourists-what-with-their-cameras-and-posing-under-the-street-name-sign behaviour.

Tables turned? I wonder what they’ll say about me when I they show their pictures when they get back home…

HK: Day 1/Sat summary

Here’s what I managed to do on my first day (a Saturday) after the late arrival the night before:

  • Walked around my immediate area (near Causeway Bay MTR), including a light breakfast (not that many options at 8am!), purchasing and activating a SIM card and wi-fi plan, stumbling on a St@rbucks (pros and cons for that one :-), and a light lunch of squid ball soup at a hole-in-the-wall resto in Jardine’s Bazaar
  • Rode the double decker tram (streetcar) westbound to a loop terminus at Chun Yeun St Market near North Point MTR
  • Walked around North Point area, finding the pier where my dinner cruise will leave from later this week, a little seafood market, little a waterfront promenade, a cement dog run park, a green park and another cement park with (Chinese) Checkers players
  • Hopped on the tram to the next westbound terminus at Shau Kei Wan MTR (not much to see there); the south/inland side of the road/tracks starts going uphill right away
  • Met a nice local traveler named Yin for a veg dinner
  • Walked around Wan Chai in the evening – lots of bars, many with “bad” bands, and hostess bars (apparently this is where the sailors used to go, but the area has cleaned up some)

HK: More random observations

ok, it’s day three and here are some more random observations:

  • There is an IKEA (with big blue and yellow sign) in the basement of a building in Causeway Bay retail area (i.e. downtown in expensive real estate, something unheard of in North America). And twice now I’ve seen someone carrying a large IKEA item – once downtown, and once off the ferry on Cheung Chau island
  • Octopus card – can use for contactless payments at some stores (e.g. 7-11, Circle K, St@rbucks)
  • Octopus card – can go negative HK$35 (comes off next top up or card deposit refund). A very handy feature as yesterday my HK$2.30/US$0.30 tram fare was more than I had on my card. Oops. No problem – it just debited the fare and I had negative one HK dollar on my card…
  • Octopus card – the card checking machine (which shows balance) also shows last 10 transactions (amount and date), although you’d have to have a good memory if using that to  double-check usage
  • The tram runs on dedicated right of way, and very frequently – often two or three trams back to back. Reasonably quick, with stops pretty much every major block or two.
  • Traffic lights go red-yellow before green, like in Europe
  • Cantonese/English Look Left and Look Right messages are painted on pedestrian crosswalks (both are needed because of one-way roads, and of course it depends which way you are crossing
  • My St@rbucks card worked: similar price $3 for grande soy misto (we’ll see if it counts towards my rewards program, although it’s probably a bad exchange rate :-)
  • $150 for a pair of not-so-fancy name-brand pants (Tommy Hilfiger?) in Sogo department store. Really?
  • One morning I saw 29 wi-fi signals at breakfast. Crikey!
  • Steps tend to be rather steep and narrow here – I don’t think I’ve ever used handrails so much!
  • Some eateries use stainless steel plates instead of styrofoam – I applaud them.
  • Quite a few pedestrian flyovers, as well as long pedestrian bridges (sometimes next to a raised road, sometimes freestanding)
  • Lots of A/C everywhere; annoyingly you get blasted by it while walking on sidewalks due to open doors. How is that excessive power usage environmentally friendly? (for that matter, how is making everything electric/automatic, like faucets and advertising signs on subway escalators, green or helping reduce dependency on oil?)

 

HK: Exhausted on the return ferry

After bailing on going up The Peak because I didn’t want to wait in line for an hour, I hopped a ferry to Cheung Chau Island.
Great day trip!
Fresh seafood, temples, beaches, long walk with views and cool boulders. Epic!
Before rounding the point, the big tower in Kowloon sticks out from a distance, much like Taipei 101.
Also catching the nightly festival of lights.

Tallest building in Hong Kong is in Kowloon, lit up during nightly Symphony of Lights

HK: initial impressions (favourable!)

Weather outlook had potential thunderstorms most days, though I have yet to see more than a 5-second trickle of of a shower, though it was cloudy and hazy yesterday.

Today (the 2nd day here) it’s sunny so just some quick random impressions of Hong Kong from yesterday so I can get out and explore in the sunshine (more details to come):

  • Easy to get around – English and Cantonese bilingual signs everywhere, and efficient transportation system
  • Lots of people. Duh! Although not at 9:00 on a weekend where the streets are empty and most stores aren’t open yet
  • Tall buildings. Well, not insanely tall (besides a handful of buildings), but definitely a vertical city
  • Good food!
  • Some areas (little local street markets) are very reminiscent of Chinatowns in North America :-)
  • There are no toilets in the MTR (subway) – say what!?
  • Even outdoor public parks (which can be small concrete areas with benches and such) are non-smoking! Come to think of it, haven’t seen many cigarette butts on the ground, as most garbage cans on the street have big ashtrays on the top.
  • There are paper/plastic/metal recycling bins around town
  • The double-decker (wood-sided) tram (aka streetcar) is funky and apparently the only one in the world (not sure if it’s the “wood-sided” makes it unique or not – I’ve never seen a double-decker tram/streetcar anywhere else)

And some random notes from things I’ve read:

  • There are 44 (almost) daily newspapers here –  a boon for crossword lovers??
  • Given how expensive land and rent are here, it’s amazing how cheap food can be (esp. when people can be paying half their salary in rent).
  • HK has a “flat” income tax rate of 16%, though with credits for low/regular income, very few people (1% of population) only pay that maximum rate.