Category: photos

Hong Kong trip recap: Day 5 (part 1)

This is part of a series on my (still kinda sorta recent) trip to Hong Kong in August. I have already posted about day 1, day 2 and days 3 & 4.

Day 5: Friday, August 19

My fifth day in Hong Kong was a bit of a departure, in both senses of the word. While the morning started off much as the previous couple of days, with attending talks and a poster session at the conference, this was an official half day for the conference. Back in May, when I registered for the conference at the last minute to get the pre-registration discount, I signed up for the local tour and harbour cruise. (There were three of us registering for the conference that day, during our lab meeting. We decided we should all probably sign up for the tour. I don’t exactly recall the rationale, but there was probably the sense that we should make attempts to be social with other conference attendees.) The cost was $500 HK, about $50 US.

Fast forward to the conference, 3 months later. Chatting with various friends from various places revealed that most people I knew were not going on the tour, and had other plans. I waffled about going on the tour, as did the professors I work with. A half day seemed like an awful lot of time to commit, which would be time not spent doing other things in Hong Kong. On the other hand, the main features of the tour looked promising. There was a trip up Victoria Peak, considered a Hong Kong visitor’s must-do, as well as a trip to the south side of Hong Kong Island, a direction I was not likely to go on my own. Then the harbour dinner cruise seemed like it might be enjoyable. I hadn’t yet been out in the harbour, and it seemed be shame to miss out on a meal I’d already paid for. (Oh, if only I’d known…)

In the end, my advisor and I went, but the other professor from our group did not. We lined up with the mobs of people from the conference who we didn’t know, and were assigned to a bus.

I confess that I am not a big fan of buses, nor of tours. My favorite way to see a place is to wander around and drink in the unfamiliar location with all my senses. But I like to get places and learn stuff, and buses can be a good way to get places, and tours can be good ways to learn stuff. One of the things I learned was that I was right to be wary of guided tours. The bus ride, while physically comfortable, was painful. The tour guide, who was not the driver, stood at the front of the bus with a microphone. And he talked. And talked. And talked. Unfortunately, he had a somewhat warped expectation about what tourists visiting Hong Kong are likely to know. Here are some of the many things he explained to us:

  1. A lot of people rent apartments in Hong Kong, but if people have a lot of money, they can buy a place. Some people buy apartments, but some people can afford more and buy a house. Sometimes, though, people don’t have enough to pay the whole price of buying an apartment or a house, so they can pay just a portion, such as 10% or 20%, and borrow money from a bank for the rest, and then pay it back over 10 years. Or 15 years. Or 20 years. Or 30 years. (This explanation went on for a good 10 or 15 minutes. Or 20 minutes. Or 30.)
  2. Mandarin and Cantonese are not the same, and have different words for things, and are also both different from Japanese. (I should perhaps mention that this was an international phonetics conference, and therefore the bus was filled with people who study aspects of language professionally, which either the tour guide did not bother to find out, or did not consider relevant.)
  3. People in Hong Kong like to shop
  4. People in Hong Kong like to gamble.
  5. There are racetracks where you can go to gamble. Or you can go to Macau, to gamble and shop.
  6. Tour guides do not make very much money, which is a shame, since he liked to shop and gamble.

The tour guide was cheerful and friendly, but he talked pretty much nonstop. He talked a lot about money, getting money, spending money, not being able to save money. What he didn’t talk about were any other aspects of local culture, or almost any sort of mention of any sort of history.

When we got up Victoria Peak, we were delivered to the mall up there. The guide pointed out “the place where we could take good pictures,” and then encouraged us to return to the mall for the duration of our hour-long stop. He made a point of telling us about the Burger King and the McDonald’s, in case we wanted to get food. And of course he encouraged us to shop.

After we piled back into the bus at Victoria Peak, we headed down toward the south of Hong Kong Island to see Repulse Bay and then Stanley Market. On the way, we learned a lot about how expensive the houses were around Repulse Bay, and about how people who own such houses had a lot of money. We did stop at the beach at Repulse Bay, which was a blissfully non-commercial stop. We walked on the beach, and many of us took our shoes off. I enjoyed the sound of the waves, and even more, the sound of not hearing the voice of the tour guide. I amused myself by gathering tiny shells and taking photos. All too soon it was time to get back on the bus, and before long, we were delivered to Stanley Market. I believe that this is a famous and possibly historic location. Our guide made a point of mentioning that we could get good prices on Timberland™ and other brand-name products.

My advisor and I wandered around in the maze of stalls, which was actually pretty intriguing, if largely junky, and we each ended up finding some gifts for our respective children. The high point, though, was coming across a fruit and vegetable market as we headed back to the bus. My advisor recognized some mangosteens from his previous travels, and suggested that we should get some. We also got some rambutans, and I picked out a rather dramatic-looking dragon fruit.

And then it was back to the bus to head back to the north of the island to catch our harbour cruise. (To be continued…)

Below are a few photos from the afternoon. A bunch more photos from day 5 can be found on flickr.


There was a terraced overlook point, which did, indeed, offer good views.


It also had these cute lions.


Phoneticians and lions in the foreground, large buildings and strip-mined hills in the background.


A bit beyond the overlook point were some surprisingly quiet paths.


Many people disregarded the suggestion to shop and eat fast food in favor of checking out the scenery and greenery.


I was intrigued by the variety of retaining walls all around Hong Kong. Walking around, we had up-close views. Look how the concrete is shaped to the hill, leaving space for the trees to grow.


I liked the look of this maintenance employee’s straw hat and rustic-looking broom. Look at how long the brush part of the broom is.


Looking over to the overlook.


A view from the another direction. Lots of islands and ships.


And now down south. A mass of fully clothed phoneticians on the beach at Repulse Bay.


I got my feet wet. Also sandy.


Outside Stanley Market, where the tour bus delivered us.


The high point of the afternoon: a mangosteen.

Waste not, want not

Earlier today, I was drafting up some emails to remind subjects of their appointments tomorrow for an experiment I’m running. I started by forwarding the info emails I sent each them last week, detailing the time and place of the appointment, along with some minor updates. I changed the subject line to begin “Reminder:..” rather than “Fwd:…” As I started to delete the “Fwd,” and got to the d, I caught myself thinking: “But I’m going to be using a d in ‘Reminder.’ I shouldn’t waste it!”

Clearly, I have internalized the whole reduce-reuse-recycle message.

Also, I don’t think I got quite enough sleep last night.

I did manage to get a nice sleep on Saturday night, when I was home alone, and slept in till 8 (which really felt like 9). Admittedly, that doesn’t sound very late compared to my former life’s schedule, but it was glorious. I felt so well-rested. Unfortunately, circumstances were such that I made up for getting 8+ hours of sleep on Saturday night by getting only about 4 hours last night. I was up too late, then both kids were up at different times in the night. By morning, the whole family was in the same bed. Much like dogs, small children can take up a remarkably large amount of space on a mattress. Even a king-sized one. I had to struggle to keep on the bed. Then Theo didn’t get the memo about the time change, and was all done sleeping by 6.

You could say that I was not exactly at peak mental performance today. (Not that I can remember being at peak mental performance.) While I did get some work done, it felt like much of the day was wasted. What I needed was a nap, or at least some quiet time to focus. But that wasn’t going to happen, as we are having some work done in our attic. (Our insulation is a mess up there. Lots of heat has been getting wasted.) (Also, we need a new roof. Not that it’s all that relevant here, but it sure is a pain.)

So, yeah. Not sure what my point is. Look, here’s a completely unrelated photo!


I like this photo, and it’s been sitting around for weeks. I didn’t want to let it go to waste.

a little crabby

The trouble with committing to doing something like writing a blog post every day is that you feel this irritating compulsion to write a blog post every day. Even when you are tired and crabby and should really get to bed. And then you find yourself trying to work up any of the dozen or so blog post ideas that you have recently had, but find yourself too tired to follow through. You find some drafts that are half-written, but you don’t have the energy to half-write the other half. So you putter through your photos again and again looking for something quick to post. But you just posted cute photos of your kids last night when you were tired, so you want to vary the subject matter a bit more. And then you have all this work to do, which you’d probably do better if you got a decent night’s sleep, which you didn’t last night, probably due largely to an unfortunate binge of Halloween candy. So you putter around on your laptop some more, not doing your work, and just getting more and more tired and crabby.

This is all purely hypothetical, of course. You know, the generic you. Not YOU you. And certainly not at all me. I am only imagining these things, and not in any way speaking from personal experience. I am cheerful and perky. Why, right this very moment I am totally not slumping into the dents of my couch cushions and scowling at my laptop, but dancing around the house making everything sparkle. With bluebirds singing and everything. I’m like the love child of Donna Reed and Mary Tyler Moore.

Oh, but I did remember these photos. I took these during my hike with YTSL during my trip to Hong Kong. See the cute little crabs?


These first two were in a stream that we crossed over.


I think this one looks like it’s wearing boxing gloves.


This third one was a land crab. (Land crab makes me think of Land Shark.)

obligatory Halloween photos

Here are my witch and frog.

The frog refused to wear the hood for most of the night.


Here, the witch completes the transformation of her brother into a frog.

We didn’t manage to carve pumpkins this year. However, we did manage to make some snowmen. Here’s hoping that this is not a new Halloween tradition.


Here was Saturday night’s pre-dinnertime snowman. My only contribution was to bring out a carrot.


This is one Phoebe made all by herself on Sunday. (Should I be concerned that she made a right-leaning snowman?)

We really lucked out with the storm, actually. You may have heard that much of the Northeast lost power, and many are still without even days later. There have been lots of trees down on powerlines in our town and neighboring towns. At least when we lost power back in August it was warm! So, again, we were lucky.


For us, it just looked like a lovely December snowstorm. With more leaves.

Hong Kong trip recap: days 3 and 4

My third full day in Hong Kong was the first day of the conference. The conference is a very high-quality international meeting with hundreds of phoneticians presenting their cutting edge research. The program looked fantastic. However, I found myself resenting the conference for keeping me from exploring more of Hong Kong. (Not very fair to the conference, given that it’s what got me over to Hong Kong in the first place.) I got over my grudge and plunged in. I started to enjoy myself, attending talks and poster sessions and catching up with people I typically only get to see at conferences. By the afternoon, though, the tiredness kicked in big time. Rather than falling asleep during the talks, I ended up skipping out of the conference for a couple of hours to go back to the hotel for a nap.

The fourth day was better, and I managed to attend sessions without risk of falling asleep. It was also the day of our group’s presentation, and then a follow-up dinner with some of the other participants of the special session we were in.

Day 3: Wednesday, August 17

  • headed to conference at the HKCEC
  • sat in talks, attended poster sessions
  • got really tired by afternoon
  • went back to hotel for a nap
  • returned to conference for reception
  • had dinner with a group of linguists in a Vietnamese restaurant near my hotel

Day 4: Thursday, August 18

  • more conference
  • late for my own group’s talk (but happily wasn’t the one presenting)
  • attended organizational meeting for a professional society
  • saw that the conference venue had windows!
  • had dinner with special session organizers and speakers at a Cantonese restaurant in the HKCEC


There was apparently a visiting VIP at the HKCEC (the convention center) or nearby. There were swarms of police officers.


The cluster of police officers from the previous photo were standing near this set-up. I interpreted the scene as some sort of protest or demonstration, but I am only guessing. Can anyone read the signs?


Since I was pretty tied up with the conference, I didn’t get out and about much these days. But the walk between the hotel and the conference venue was pretty long (~20 minutes), and there were still many interesting sights to be seen. This was when I was returning to the conference after my afternoon nap on Wednesday. I was quite taken by the patterns made by reflected light on the building in the center of the photo.


This fire station was across from the conference venue.


Look! Here I am again. I ended up wearing my hair in a braid most days on my trip, which I don’t do at home. (Usually I wear a ponytail.) I was inspired both by the comfort of keeping my hair of my neck in the heat and humidity, and by the extra time I had to get myself ready in the morning since I had only myself to get ready.


A typical Hong Kong scene: colorful buildings, bamboo scaffolding, and laundry hanging out.


Another view from a pedestrian overpass heading to the conference. It seems like a very large percentage of the vehicles on the road were either cabs (all red in this part of Hong Kong) or buses.


The view of Hong Kong harbour from the conference venue was stunning. (No wonder they kept the drapes closed during the day; people would have just stared out the windows slack-jawed instead of attending to the talks.)

I’ve got a few more photos from these 2 days up on my Flickr site.

Next up: 2 days when I really got out and about.

Hong Kong trip recap: Day 2

For my second day in Hong Kong, my main plans were to meet up with my two local friends.(Among my major motivations to get to Hong Kong for the conference, aside from the conference itself and the reputed amazingness of Hong Kong, was the rare opportunity to get to see these friends, one who I hadn’t seen for 9 years, and the other who I’d never technically seen.) Seeing as my friends don’t know each other, I was meeting up with them separately: lunch with one, and dinner with the other. As such, my day was a bit fragmented, so I couldn’t stray too far. Also, and it may not surprise you to learn this, I was a bit tired after my rather long and busy (read “insane”) first day. Here’s a summary of my major activities:

Day 2: Tuesday, August 16

  • woke up early to say goodnight to my kids by 7:30 a.m./p.m. (the 12-hour time difference was remarkably handy for this)
  • puttered about hotel room, trying to decide whether I had time to do much before my 12:30 lunch date
  • wandered about near hotel a bit
  • walked to Admiralty to meet the friend I knew from high school for lunch
  • After my friend had to go, took MTR to Central with goal of going up the Mid-Level escalators and checking out Hollywood Road
  • went up big escalator as far as Hollywood Road
  • wandered down Hollywood Road, browsing among antique shops
  • headed back down the stairs along the big escalator and back to MTR
  • met my other friend, YTSL, for a delicious dinner at Din Tai Fung, then over to a pub to continue conversation over a pint of ale
  • headed back to hotel to attempt a decent night’s sleep before the onset of the conference

(Not included in the list are several walks back to my hotel room to do things like collect forgotten MTR card, and pick up and/or drop off purchases and/or gifts, and also to change clothes and shower. It was hot as hell out and twice as steamy. And also like day 1, I walked so much that I got new blisters on my feet.)

And here are some photos:

This was near my hotel. Many people use umbrellas for shade in Hong Kong. This was about 10:30 in the morning, and already quite hot.


One of many alleys near my hotel. I enjoyed getting fresh juice in the morning from a little hole-in-the-wall place in one of these alleys.


You see a lot more color on Hong Kong buildings than on typical US urban buildings.


This was the dessert from my lunch with my high school friend. I can’t remember what it was called, but it involved apple, caramel, custard and pastry, four food-things of which I am quite fond. It didn’t look nearly as pretty once I started eating it, but I’m happy to say it didn’t suffer long.


A fruit stand, as seen from a raised walkway along the big escalator as I headed up. (The shot’s not totally in focus, but I still like it. We can pretend that the fuzziness was artistic choice.)


Game & Fun!


Another view from above. I like the patchwork pattern of the road surface.


The skyline is definitely dominated by ultra-modern skyscrapers, but more traditional Chinese architecture can be found here and there. Hong Kong is also quite hilly, and alleys that lead to stairways, such as the one in this photo, seem to be pretty common. (This was along Hollywood Road.)


Lions outside, and a goofy looking horse and what looks to be a Great Dane inside, at an antique store along Hollywood Road. Many of the shops had signs in the windows saying “no photos.” This one didn’t.


Going back down the stiars along the Mid-Levels escalator. The escalator part is actually one-way. Apparently it runs down during morning commute hours, and then up the rest of the day. It was afternoon when I was there, so it was going up. This section has more of an upward-angled moving sidewalk. I wish that I’d found time to go up further. (I have a thing for stairs, escalators included.) To see what the whole thing looks like, here’s a youtube video that someone made while ascending.


There are lots of shops around Hong Kong that sell various (and often mysterious-looking) types of dry goods. I don’t know what these things are, but I suspect they are food-related.


Dinner was fantastic, except maybe for the bitter gourd, which is the rectangular thing on my plate. Having never tried it before, I was curious. You may not be surprised to learn that it was bitter. Also shown (going clockwise from the left): a glass of fresh soymilk, some sort of salad with turnip and jellyfish, some sort of salad with strips of bean curd and vegetables (but I can’t remember which), vegetable dumplings, spicy cucumber, more bitter gourd, and sauteed water spinach.

You can find quite a few more photos from my second day up on Flickr, but I haven’t yet added captions.

waiting

It’s been ages since I’ve participated in PhotoHunt, but once again I’m inspired. (I continue to enjoy seeing weekly or near-weekly entries from YTSL and azahar, and every once in a while, the theme sparks something in my brain.¹) This time the theme is “waiting.” Here was a photo I took in Hong Kong on my trip there in August.

Speaking of Hong Kong, photos and waiting, sorry to keep anyone waiting for my next installment of my trip recap. It’s coming soon. I have drafts for days 2 through 8 in various stages of completion. Day 2 should be ready soon. Please stand by.

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¹ Interesting that last time² inspiration struck was when I posted a photo from azahar‘s city, and this time from YTSL‘s.
² I would also like to point out that the aforementioned photo, which was for the theme “silhouette,” was one of unintentionally funniest photos I’ve ever taken. I aimed for pretty, and what I got made me burst out laughing.

Hong Kong trip recap: Day 1

You may have long given up on me actually posting any more about my Hong Kong trip.¹ But I really do have a lot to share, and what’s more, I want to write down at least some of my thoughts while my memory is still relatively clear.⁵ Over the past few weeks, I have spent bits of time here and there sorting through my photos, and making notes on some of my activities. I can’t tell you how many times I started to write about my trip, only to run out of time.⁶

In the interest of saving time and actually getting this ready to post (along with the many other recap posts I’d like to get to), I won’t go into much detail. But please understand that my first day was in no way moderate. I covered a lot of ground, both in walking and by subway. Along the way, I took a lot of photos, a few of which I am sharing below. I have posted quite a few more from on flickr. Before I get to the photos, here is a list of my major activities and movements that first day:

Day 1: Monday, August 15, 2011

  • wondered* around near hotel, in the Wan Chai district, in search of breakfast
  • took MTR to Kowloon
  • went to Hong Kong Museum of History
  • walked to vegetarian restaurant for lunch
  • took MTR back to Hong Kong island
  • stopped by hotel room to get telephoto lens and waffle over plans for the rest of the day
  • walked back to MTR station
  • 40-minute MTR ride to Lantau Island
  • cable car to see the Big Buddha
  • took long bus ride back to bottom of island
  • had dinner of pastries from a bakery while sitting out in the square
  • watched movie in movie theater
  • caught MTR back to Kowloon
  • swung by Temple Street night market (but didn’t buy anything)
  • took MTR back to Wan Chai
  • walked back to hotel

And now some photos:


At the History Museum. These lanterns were lowered over the audience at the end of a film about Hong Kong peoples and cultural events. (The museum had many small theaters showing short films that focussed on specific time periods or specific aspects of Hong Kong history. In addition to this one, I saw films on local geology, the Opium War, the Japanese occupation in WWII.)


Walking around after the museum, trying to find a specific restaurant. (I had my camera strap around my head, with my camera hanging near my waist, and was taking photos without looking at the viewer.)


One of the few photos I have of myself in Hong Kong.


A fountain at the square outside the Tung Chung MTR stop on Lantau island.


The cable car ride was really quite dramatic and impressive. The building that the cables are leading to (and from) is not the start of the ride, but a point part way through at which the ride makes a more-or-less 90 degree turn. It’s hard to see in the photo at this resolution, but you can see a couple of cars dangling over the water in the upper right corner of the photo, between the two bridges. You can click here to see a crop of that region.)


At one point, I passed over a beach that was spotted with people. Most of them were digging clams.


I’m not sure whether this pair was involved in the clam-digging, but I did appreciate their shadows. (The glass-bottomed cable car let me take a lot of shots straight down.)


The views of cityscapes (and cloudscapes) were quite impressive.


The cable cars went up into forested mountainous areas. Again, my glass-bottomed car led to some dramatic views. I felt like I was floating above the treetops.


It was very impressive when the Big Buddha came into view. As you can see from the way he towers above the tree tops, he is indeed Quite Big.


I arrived just too late go up the stairs to get a closer view of the Buddha (and to see the building he’s sitting on). The views from below were still beautiful. (I was going to say “impressive” again, but I don’t want to overuse it. But it was impressive.)


When I finally returned to the square outside the MTR station, I saw that there was a movie theater there. I checked the listings, and was happy to see that Wu Xia was playing, a Hong Kong action movie (and one suggested to me by YTSL, Hong Kong film buff extraordinaire, as an option to fulfill the trip goal of seeing a Hong Kong action movie while in Hong Kong.) The movie theater was large and modern, and I was surprised by two things: 1) I had to select my seat when buying my ticket, much like for an airplane and 2) the popcorn choices were buttered or chocolate. (As I am one who is drawn to novel things, I opted for the chocolate.)

So there, in a rather large nutshell, was Day 1. Here are a few things I left out of the nutshell:

  • It was super hot and steamy (probably low 90s and 90%+ humidity), even after dark.
  • In spite of the ginormous time difference (12-hours!) and the very long travel day of the day(s) before (~28 hours door-to-door), I only felt tired when I was in my hotel room. When I was out and about, I was so excited to be in Hong Kong that I only felt excited to be in Hong Kong
  • I did get some blisters on my feet, which I also felt (in additioning to feeling excited to be in Hong Kong).

I really hope I’ll get to post more about my trip soon. (I still really, truly, absolutely owe YTSL at least one post on our excursion and hike together.) Please nag me if I go too long before posting on this again.

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¹ You may have long given up on me actually posting.²
² You may have long given up on me.³
³ You may have long given up.⁴
⁴ You may have long ___. [I’ll let you fill in the blank]
⁵ Um…too late, alejna.
⁶ Well, I can tell you the number of times. It was 5.
* And by “wondered,” I meant “wandered.” But apparently both words fit, so I left my typo. (See comments, below.)

k, fine

Today was Phoebe’s first day of kindergarten. (Yes, this is quite late for school to start. Our school district’s start dates got bumped forward a week due to the massive power outages in the town and schools.) Last Thursday, the schedule first day of kindergarten, was a beautiful, pleasantly warm, sunny day with blue skies and fluffy white clouds.

Today, on the other hand, was rainy. And I don’t mean drizzly. When we stepped outside to go wait for the school bus at around 8:30 this morning, it was raining buckets and as dark as dusk.

Phoebe, however, was very excited for her big day.

Phoebe is ready to go. Mr. Potato Head looks on.
My camera didn't want to focus in the dim light and pouring rain.
Phoebe and John reach the top of our driveway to wait at the edge of the stream running down our road.

The bus approaching. The only shot of the bus I managed due to being unable to get my camera to focus fast enough in the dim light while holding an umbrella.

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I have way too much to write about again, but need to get to bed. Things have continued to be crazy, but largely in a good way. My mother just left today after a really wonderful visit. (They always go way too fast.) I’m hoping to catch my breath for a bit tomorrow, at least after I get Theo off to daycare and Phoebe onto the bus and before I drive in to Boston for a lab meeting and a grad program meeting. I have not yet managed to upload my Hong Kong photos, as our regular internet connection is still down after the storm. (John got us a “mifi,” since he can’t do his work without an internet connection, but the service is very spotty, and we are still dealing with data limits.)