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Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Monday, 11 April 2011
Sunday recap
Alright, thinking about it know that I have time, there was more to Sunday than the pisco sour punch on the terrasse ...
Initially I planned my day around having a sunday afternoon project meeting at 3pm, so the brunch with Christian and Florence was not held at the free-flow champagne location.. but to compensate we afterwards went to awfully chocolate in Caine road in Soho, single product pushed to perfection..
Afterwards I went towards down-town-down-town, checking all the very cool buildings like HSBC, Bank of China etc -- my favorite is Lippo Centre, really unique structure. Then headed towards Hong Kong park, quite an oasis in the city, with fancy birds and all the Asian people getting out their big guns (in terms of camera lenses).
From there to wild Wan Chai market, pretty much everything mixed from fish to toilet paper, just standing there and watching the people is well worth stopping by, plus found a cool temple that was totally quiet, unlike the one on Hollywood road. Rest of the evening I already described in the last post .. --- pictures to follow as soon as I have more time ..
Initially I planned my day around having a sunday afternoon project meeting at 3pm, so the brunch with Christian and Florence was not held at the free-flow champagne location.. but to compensate we afterwards went to awfully chocolate in Caine road in Soho, single product pushed to perfection..
Afterwards I went towards down-town-down-town, checking all the very cool buildings like HSBC, Bank of China etc -- my favorite is Lippo Centre, really unique structure. Then headed towards Hong Kong park, quite an oasis in the city, with fancy birds and all the Asian people getting out their big guns (in terms of camera lenses).
From there to wild Wan Chai market, pretty much everything mixed from fish to toilet paper, just standing there and watching the people is well worth stopping by, plus found a cool temple that was totally quiet, unlike the one on Hollywood road. Rest of the evening I already described in the last post .. --- pictures to follow as soon as I have more time ..
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Sunday sundown
View from the Totts' bar roof terrace (Hotel Excelsior, 34th floor) in Causeway bay, with views to central (the large tower in the back to the right hand side is 2 IFC) - glorious ending to a great weekend ...
Saturday, 9 April 2011
HK - first week
So I just went out to find après sun lotion and found Si Chuan noodle soup, the latter being part of my quest to try all restaurants in the vicinity of my apt (think I have to limit it to a 200 meter radius, otherwise won´t be successfull).
The rest of the day I was venturing on Lantau, based on a recommandation by Florence, a friend of mine whom I met on Wednesday (drinks on the roof of LKF hotel to be recommended). Lantau is the island where the airport is located, but it`s also very famous for it's trails and its giant buddha.
Taking the ferry in the morning from HK centre to Mui Wo, I got on the first section of the trail, winding up to Sunset peak (869meters, from sea level..), then going down again (think to around 350meters elevation) and taking on the second challenge, Lantau peak (934meters), afterwards heading to Ngong Ping, where the big buddha is sitting/ chilling.
Ngong Ping was initially a (I guess) rather quiet monestry, but then in 1993 some genius had the idea to install "the largest sitting bronze Buddha" in the world (31meters height), connecting the whole place with a cablecar (where you can pay extra to get a crystal cabin with glass floor..) in 2005 and the turning the whole place in a major tourist attraction.
But still have to give some credit, the Buddha ist quiet impressive, at least when standing below it (from Lantau peak it took my 5 minutes to spot it). Anyways, great day but a healthy portion of stairclimbing up and down (Chinese trails seem to be mostly rock staircases, plus seem not to have flat sections..) and not so much sleep last week so early bedtime for today.
Bits and pieces...
Friendlyness (1): I read in my smart guidebook that Chinese people will hand you business cards holding it with two hands, and initially thought it was a legacy, but in fact it is very common, including return money in restaurants, credit cards bills in the supermarkets etc. - will follow the "when in rome do like romans do" and see what happens..
Friendliness (2): people generally do rather not greet on trails (some even don't look at you when passing); as the trail was not that crowded, it seems that feeling empathy with the other folks that enjoy nature is more a concept from the central alps (I do not intend to adapt to local habits..)
Smog: Tuesday was a public holiday, but I decided not to go hiking because it was foggy. Wednesday morning in the early morning coffe talk I learned that Tuesday had been a clear day. Seems to be a fact that especially HK downtown is quite often in a cloud of grey and any tendency towards sunshine is welcome.
Outdoors: it's amazing how fast you can get into nature here, basically taking the Soho escalator (15min) from downtown brings you already in the trees, and taking ferries or the subway adds another ton of possibilities, plus there are lot's of short and long trails around on HK island as well as new territory.
The rest of the day I was venturing on Lantau, based on a recommandation by Florence, a friend of mine whom I met on Wednesday (drinks on the roof of LKF hotel to be recommended). Lantau is the island where the airport is located, but it`s also very famous for it's trails and its giant buddha.
Taking the ferry in the morning from HK centre to Mui Wo, I got on the first section of the trail, winding up to Sunset peak (869meters, from sea level..), then going down again (think to around 350meters elevation) and taking on the second challenge, Lantau peak (934meters), afterwards heading to Ngong Ping, where the big buddha is sitting/ chilling.
Ngong Ping was initially a (I guess) rather quiet monestry, but then in 1993 some genius had the idea to install "the largest sitting bronze Buddha" in the world (31meters height), connecting the whole place with a cablecar (where you can pay extra to get a crystal cabin with glass floor..) in 2005 and the turning the whole place in a major tourist attraction.
But still have to give some credit, the Buddha ist quiet impressive, at least when standing below it (from Lantau peak it took my 5 minutes to spot it). Anyways, great day but a healthy portion of stairclimbing up and down (Chinese trails seem to be mostly rock staircases, plus seem not to have flat sections..) and not so much sleep last week so early bedtime for today.
Bits and pieces...
Friendlyness (1): I read in my smart guidebook that Chinese people will hand you business cards holding it with two hands, and initially thought it was a legacy, but in fact it is very common, including return money in restaurants, credit cards bills in the supermarkets etc. - will follow the "when in rome do like romans do" and see what happens..
Friendliness (2): people generally do rather not greet on trails (some even don't look at you when passing); as the trail was not that crowded, it seems that feeling empathy with the other folks that enjoy nature is more a concept from the central alps (I do not intend to adapt to local habits..)
Smog: Tuesday was a public holiday, but I decided not to go hiking because it was foggy. Wednesday morning in the early morning coffe talk I learned that Tuesday had been a clear day. Seems to be a fact that especially HK downtown is quite often in a cloud of grey and any tendency towards sunshine is welcome.
Outdoors: it's amazing how fast you can get into nature here, basically taking the Soho escalator (15min) from downtown brings you already in the trees, and taking ferries or the subway adds another ton of possibilities, plus there are lot's of short and long trails around on HK island as well as new territory.
Sunday, 3 April 2011
HK day 2
Quite a late start at around noon from my place which is near Sheung Wang metro station, venturing towards the Lin Heung tea house. Imagine a crowded place with 98% Chinese people, where you first need to fight for a chair and then for food; it was brilliant - next time I will attempt to order a menu after I managed the infighting at the dim sum trolleys quite good after a while this time...
Then took the escalator up Soho, checking out some side streets as well as Man Mo temple on Hollywood street, strange mix between temple and kiosk.. - afterwards got myself two (probably overpriced) green jade dragons in Lascar row and continued the escalator uphill.
While the dragonshop sales person wanted to discourage me from climbing to the peak I luckily met two Germans at the top of the Soho escalator who put forward a strong recommandation to go ahead - and it was well worth it, leaving the skyscrapers behind and entering real and quiet jungle until arriving at the peak tower crowded with tourists again. Hypothesis: all great cities have a great house mountain and a larger amount of water nearby, this would include Hong Kong, Vancouver and Zurich (and to the extent it is a "city": Bergen), putting NY and London a bit on the sidelines ..
After enjoying the peak views I went back via Bus (15), finding out that it was running to the "other" star ferry terminal, and hence took the tram back to my place, feels a bit like "back to the future" when riding an ancient doubledecker tram between blinking skyscrapers, quite an experience in itself...
Then took the escalator up Soho, checking out some side streets as well as Man Mo temple on Hollywood street, strange mix between temple and kiosk.. - afterwards got myself two (probably overpriced) green jade dragons in Lascar row and continued the escalator uphill.
While the dragonshop sales person wanted to discourage me from climbing to the peak I luckily met two Germans at the top of the Soho escalator who put forward a strong recommandation to go ahead - and it was well worth it, leaving the skyscrapers behind and entering real and quiet jungle until arriving at the peak tower crowded with tourists again. Hypothesis: all great cities have a great house mountain and a larger amount of water nearby, this would include Hong Kong, Vancouver and Zurich (and to the extent it is a "city": Bergen), putting NY and London a bit on the sidelines ..
After enjoying the peak views I went back via Bus (15), finding out that it was running to the "other" star ferry terminal, and hence took the tram back to my place, feels a bit like "back to the future" when riding an ancient doubledecker tram between blinking skyscrapers, quite an experience in itself...
Saturday, 2 April 2011
Arriving in Hong Kong
Arrived safely in Hong Kong and used first day to check out IFC mall roof terrace, ferry to Kowloon, Acqua restaurant at 1 Peking Road with (awesome views on HK Central) and then back home via the Peninsula Hotel and a short peek at Hollywood road (Tivio is cool), let's see what tomorrow brings...
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
good times - new year
long time no talk -- could say working got in the way of updating this page, but then again there´s always some spare minutes where we embrace the TV or whatever that could be used for the better..
Anyways, the calm days ahead and the new year might give you some time to think about ONE simple question
Where do you want to wake up the next morning?
so, what´s your answer for the new year?
Anyways, the calm days ahead and the new year might give you some time to think about ONE simple question
Where do you want to wake up the next morning?
so, what´s your answer for the new year?
Sunday, 19 August 2007
pics malle, finally
been some time, moving to zurich and working really takes its toll, but I´ll try with updates, starting with a gallery from Mallorca from the hike ende of may/ beginning of june. ENJOY
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
Friday, 8 June 2007
back from mallorca
Wow, haven't been surprised that much for a while now. Mallorca is absolutely beautiful. Landsccape, mentality of the people, the food, cities and towns...
As I'm busy moving to Zurich I'll see when I find time to post more, but for sure there'll be lot of tipps on where to stay and what to do, probably in consecutive posts, day by day.
I'll probably have time for a first post tomorrow, to make the wait shorter check out agroturismo-balear.com to find your favorite calm "farmstay" (well, it's more like farmstay with **** )
As I'm busy moving to Zurich I'll see when I find time to post more, but for sure there'll be lot of tipps on where to stay and what to do, probably in consecutive posts, day by day.
I'll probably have time for a first post tomorrow, to make the wait shorter check out agroturismo-balear.com to find your favorite calm "farmstay" (well, it's more like farmstay with **** )
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