From 3 to 2

Somehow we did it. We were able to pack the exhibit contents of 3 containers into 2 containers. We did get rid of a few items, but not massive amounts of stuff. The packing and loading went fairly smooth. We prepared for the worst and ended up with a few hiccups, but nothing horrible. I used a program called Sketch-up (image from it to the right) to figure out how to pack everything and we also made mock containers on the floor in the exhibit hall. I think the Chinese guys we were working with thought we were crazy. I’m running around with the laptop measuring and drawing things up, and Mike (from Ontario) was having them place things inside our pseudo container, and them move them again if it didn’t fit the way we thought. 

Then the packing day came and a separate crew packed the containers. They were impressed at the pseudo containers and of the drawings…and they were very impressed in the end when it all fit the way we expected with less than inches to spare. It did help tremendously too that we had a guy that came with the packing crew that spoke very good English. I think a few of the times he saved us from having a mutiny with the crew about how we wanting things packed. The rest of the crew sometimes was having a hard time understanding that everything had a place and there was no room to wiggle.

The following day we all revisited the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery. Mike from Ontario and I had been there last time, but Ziggy and his daughter hadn’t been there so Mike and I were willing to go back. Its a great place, although a bit of a hike…500+ steps. This time it wasn’t raining (last time we went it was the black rain day) and I wanted to photograph more there. It was nice too, there were no mosquitoes like last time, although there were also no monkeys. Everyone was a bit dissappointed our little monkey friends were not hanging around, although there were still signs warning of the monkeys.

We visited the nearby burial temple as well. The place was crawling with monkeys last time, but none this time. We went back to the area near the hotel after our days adventures and had some very tasty sushi. The sushi is incredibly good and very cheap in Hong Kong. 

Its been a busy few days.

I’ve been running around all over Hong Kong with cameras in tow, including 2 Holgas. I revisited the 10,000 Buddhas and Macau. I also visited the Hong Kong Wetland Park as well as hiked up Ladder Street on Hong Kong Island. I rode the trolley line again so I get some of the shots that I had seen the first time riding it. I also went to the border with China and I was mere steps away from going into China but was denied. I did not have a travel visa. I thought I’d give it a try, but they won’t let you in on a passport only. I visited more temples as well. I will write more entries about each, but I have been updating the photos on Flickr so please feel free to look through them. I’ve also been poking around Hong Kong in search of Holgas since this is the birthplace of the Holga, but I’m not having very good luck. Most people have never heard of a Holga and the one place I did find them, they were $585 HK, about $70 US.  That’s very pricey, considering you can usually buy them online for around $30. I plan on hitting the markets in Mong Kok today. Its probably a good thing I have only a day left here, I think I only have 3 rolls of film left, I’ve already shot 11 rolls. Allied Photo is going to love me when I get back and have to get all the film developed.

A little trip to the Jumbo.

So we took off after work on day last week and went to Aberdeen, which is a small fishing/boat town on the south side of Hong Kong Island. It was another adventurous double-decker bus ride to get there, this time up through the city streets and hills. I had visited Aberdeen last time, but only saw the dragon boat races there. We didn’t see anything else there. So this time we decided to check out the rest of the town. Well, there’s not a whole lot else to see. It’s not much of a tourist friendly place, much more for the locals, but still the same shops as everywhere else. I’m amazed at how many medicine shops, market places and general shopping places there are everywhere in Hong Kong in general. I guess with a population of almost 7 million in a space that’s only a third the size of Rhode Island, you can support a lot of businesses selling the same stuff everywhere.

We did find an interesting temple in Aberdeen. A lot of the decorations on it where a lot more ornate that what most of the temples I’ve seen. It was right on the corner of a busy intersection, but was really well maintained. As we were walking back we got hassled by a local wanting to take us around on a junk boat, which is a common boat in Hong Kong, especially Aberdeen. She followed us all the way from the bus stop, into the subway under a main road, over to the docks and all along the docks, constantly coming up to us offering a half hour tour for $60 a person (about $8 US) It seemed that everytime we thought we lost her, she’d reappear, and unfortunately the Canadians were trying to be courteous and tell her we’re not interested and letting her talk, I just kept walking away.

We finally jumped on the little ferry boat (partially to get rid of the “tour guide”) to go to the Jumbo floating restaurant. The Jumbo is supposedly the largest floating restaurant in the world. It sounded very tourist trappy to me, but everyone else wanted to go, so I went along. We finally arrived after cruising through the harbor that was filled with lots and lots of fishing boats, some that looked barely sea worthy. It was just as bad as I thought it was. It was decorated like a traditional Chinese temple, but done way over the top. We checked out the menu and it was very pricey, but everyone wanted to go ahead and eat there. We got to the main dining room, which was huge, and there were still 3 other dining rooms that were just as large if not larger. Supposedly the place can hold over 4,000 diners. The food was okay, but not worth the price. Also, the entire time we were there, about every 20 minutes another boatload of 50-100 Japanese tourists would show up to have dinner there. Apparently the place is quite popular for tour groups. We hopped on the ferry back after dinner and then the double-decker again. I swear its even scarier at night. I’m gonna have to try and video tape the ride on the thing to see if I can try and capture what the ride is like.

One week down, two to go.

Work is going well. We have the entire exhibit taken down and now it’s a matter of wrapping and sorting everything. We are trying to fit all the stuff that shipped in 3 shipping containers into 2 containers. Its been a bit a of a challenge, but we might be able to do it.

All the help is pretty much the same guys we had last time, so they speak very little English. Once again, its lots of pointing and gesturing to explain things, but they are hard workers and are good to work with.

Friday night we went to Victoria’s Peak, which was fun. There was a much better view than what I had last time I was here. Last time the clouds were rolling over the mountain constantly obscuring the view, but this time, it was crystal clear and the view was wonderful. We had dinner at a restaurant on the Peak with a great view of Hong Kong. It got a bit cool on the Peak, but nothing like actual winter time. Its quite amusing, its winter here, and everyone bundles up like it is, even though the temperatures are in the 60’s and 70’s. They are decked out in the full winter coats, stocking caps, and scarves. I can’t figure out if it’s a fashion statement or they think its actually that cold. The Canadians and myself are enjoying it quite a bit, we take a coffee break daily and go sit in a nice patio area with barely a jacket, soaking up the sun not believing that its January.

Saturday we did the double-decker bus ride to Stanley Market. The double-decker buses are quite the ride in Hong Kong. We rode in the front seats to get the full experience of flying along the mountain roads from stop to stop and the views are magnificent and all that for $9 HK dollars which is about $1.20 US. We walked through Stanley market and had a late lunch on the boardwalk area. I did notice something odd when walking around this time, most of the buildings in Stanley, and Hong Kong, have most of the plumbing outside the building. I guess that’s one advantage to having temperatures not drop below freezing, but it has to suck to be a plumber!

Sunday we went to Hong Kong Island and hopped onto the trolley line and rode it to one end, then to the other, hopping off occasionally to explore the streets. It cost a whole $2 HK, which is maybe about $ .35 US. It’s a slow ride, but well worth it. I got to see a lot more of what I imagined Hong Kong and China would look like. The line is 35 km long which is 21 miles long. It was Sunday, so it was nanny day, which means thousands of nannies everywhere. It seems that no one in Hong Kong has a car, but everyone has a nanny. The trolley was quite empty in the morning, but by afternoon, it was jam packed with nannies and others. All of Hong Kong doesn’t seem to move very quickly until after noon or so, but it is up all night. I didn’t get to photograph as much as I wanted along the areas we went through, so both Stanley and some of the areas along the trolley line may be on my agenda for my extra days. There were some areas we passed that I was itchin’ to break out the Holga for, but we stop at most of those areas, but I took notes so that I can revisit and photograph.

The flight and first day.

I’ve made it to Hong Kong safely. I barely made it thanks to flying through Newark though, I got delayed leaving St. Louis and didn’t arrive in Newark until after my next flight had already boarded. I had to run like all hell to make it to the gate, and half way there I heard a last call for my flight, but I did make it somehow. After I had arrived in Hong Kong I was checking my messages and I had gotten a phone call from Continental telling me that due to delays I may not make my connecting flight and they had booked me for the following day. It was not a terribly enjoyable flight, sitting in the middle seat and one of the guys was an easy 300+ pounds and well over 6 foot tall. I could think of better ways to spend 20 hours.

By the time we actually got into the airport, through customs, and road a bus to the hotel it was after 11 Sat. night….I left St. Louis at 10 am on Friday…..so I passed out the second I got to the room.

Sunday the weather was very nice, sunny and around 65, so we decided to head to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha which we missed last time because of the black rain that washed out roads and shut down the cable cars.

But this time we made it without problems. The cable cars were pretty nice and the view from them was incredible.

Once we arrived, we headed straight up to the Big Buddha, it was quite a little hike up the stairs but well worth it. It is the largest seated Buddha in the world at close to 80 feet tall. We also visited the Po Lin Monastery which was very beautiful. We had lunch there, it was all vegetarian, since it’s a Buddhist temple. They actually had signs that no meat was allowed and the food was very tasty.

We headed back to Kowloon and grabbed some dinner at the wonderful Indonesian restaurant, I had been craving it. The shrimp satay and vegetable gado gado are so good and I have not been able to find anything even close to it in St. Louis.

We walked down to Victoria’s Harbor to check out the lights and they actually had a bunch of Christmas lights on the skyscrapers on Hong Kong Island as well as the usual lights. On our way back we also came across these crazy lighted trees in front of a shopping center, they were covered with hundreds of blue lights.

I’m going back.

Most of you have heard by now, I’m going back to Hong Kong to takedown the SportsWorks exhibit from the Hong Kong Science Center. I will be leaving St. Louis Jan. 2 and will return  Jan. 22. I have a 20 hour flight to go to China. The weather is supposed to be much drier than last time I was there and temps. in the 50’s – 60’s.

If you want to look back through any of my photos from the first trip, they are here on Flickr.

The image above is not mine, but one that I ran across recently. It is the view of Hong Kong from Victoria’s Peak. Here’s the link to the original image….its worth checking out the high resolution version! Its a pretty incredible place. I hope that I will get a little time to go exploring around the city and photograph as much as possible. I’m taking the Holga back with me and lots of film.

I will try and update this as much as possible and post pictures to Flickr.

I’m back.

I just wanted to let everyone know, I’m back in the U.S. now. I’ve been quite jet-lagged, but beyond that, quite good. I’m happy that I’ve seen the sun again, although apparently its been raining quite a bit here too (wow, a  500 hundred year flood twice within 15 years?). I wanted to thank everyone for all of the wonderful comments on and about the blog. I appreciated hearing from people while I was away. I’m glad I was able to share the experience through the blog and I have lots more stories and many, many more photos.

It was all a wonderful time working overseas and dealing with new challenges as well as getting to see and experience the surrounding places and cultures…..and the food was incredible! I think if I was in Hong Kong for 6 months I would never run out of new places to eat.

I never was able to make it to see the “big Buddha”, the road and cable cars were shut down through the time that I left. I guess it gives me reason to go back again someday and hopefully Jami can make the trip with me next time.

I’ve been busy.

Sorry I haven’t updated the blog in a little while. Setting up the exhibit got really crazy at the end. We pulled two 13 hour days on Thursday and Friday….and unfortunately, we still weren’t finished so I ended up working today as well to try and finish things up.

We did finally make it to Macau over the weekend. We had tried to go there originally when the black rain had hit and stopped us. Macau is actually another country that is to the southwest of Hong Kong. It used to be a Portuguese colony and was turned over to China in 1999. Its an interesting contrasting place. There are lots of old, Mediterranean styled building (some dating back to the 1600’s) mixed with Chinese influence as well as all of the casinos. Macau is a huge gambling town, it is actually as big as or bigger than Las Vegas in terms of revenue.

We headed to Macau on a high speed ferry which was an adventure in itself. I’ve never been out on the ocean with rough seas…..it was kinda fun. The ferry was cruising pretty fast and it kept nosing up and down, almost jumping waves…..it was like an hour long roller coaster ride. I enjoyed it, but others in the group didn’t.

Once we arrived in Macau we ended up taking a guided tour, which turned out to be pretty decent. We visited Sao Paulo, which is in ruins and really the only remaining part is the façade, which is still very cool to see. It overlooks some amazing streets that look like they are straight out of Europe, but with Chinese neon signs everywhere….its quite the contrast.

We also drove through the casino district which Macau definitely has some casinos that rival Vegas. Then we went to Macau Tower, which is 1,100 feet high. There were some amazing views from there. They had bungee jumping and a skywalk were you can walk the perimeter of the observation deck. We actually saw a few people bungee jumping.

Then we went to a Taoist temple called the A-ma Temple. It is over 600 years old. Unfortunately we didn’t get so spend much time there because the tour guide rushed us through.

We had a nice Japanese dinner and hit the casinos for a little while. I ended up tripling my money, I won $40 HK, which translates to about $5 US. Yeah, I’m not big on gambling, but everyone else lost money, so I figure I wasn’t doing too bad.

It was after midnight before we got back.

No, its not all fun and games.

It may appear that I’m having a wonderful vacation, but we’ve been able to squeeze all of it in on the weekends. I’m very surprised at how much we have been able to do/see during the weekends. During the week we’ve been setting up Sportsworks and not much else.

It has gone fairly well….other than our help speaking very little English. The Chinese are very efficient and they do surprise me with what they are able to do with what’s available.

Communicating involves lots of pointing, showing pictures, and hand gestures.

We’ve had a few challenges with voltage changes, computers not wanting to work, and bi-lingual graphics. The exhibit fits pretty tightly into the exhibit hall which has posed issues as well.

Things were going good schedule wise last week, but it hasn’t been going as well this week. We’re getting down to all the detail type work which sucks up a lot of time, plus we have the Hong Kong Science Museum staff asking lots of questions so that slows down the process also. The work days keep getting longer.

We only have 2 days left now to finish up everything, which will be challenging.

Once we are done though (hopefully this week), I’ll get to take a bit of time and do some more exploring of Hong Kong. I hope to see the Big Buddha on Lantau, if the roads are reopened. Definitely just bum around and photograph with digital and the Holga. I fly back on Wednesday and arrive in Toronto on Wednesday, even though its another 15 hour flight. Then back to St. Louis on Thursday. This trip has seemed to go by very fast, but at times, it seems like I’ve been here forever.

The rains finally stopped!

I woke up this morning and saw this strange glowing ball in the sky. Even though its only been a straight week of rain, it has seemed like much longer.

Everyone was itching to get out and enjoy the sun so we headed towards the ocean.

First, we went to Aberdeen to check out the dragon boat festival/races. We went by bus, which is the double-decker. It’s a crazy ride on the double-deckers in Hong Kong. If you’ve ever seen the Harry Potter movies, it’s a bit like the double decker in the movie. The dragon boat races were pretty wild. The dragon boats were even larger than the ones that we had seen in Stanley, they held 46 people! They would race 3 boats at a time along a channel that was lined with the crowd on one side, and boats on the other.

Then we headed to the beach in Repulse Bay. Its very scenic, with mountains surrounding the beach area and resort hotels on the mountainsides. It was amazing though, you can see large container ships going across on the horizon. It seems everywhere in Hong Kong you come across evidence of the shipping industry. I didn’t end up swimming though, the water was fairly dirty with trash and tree bark and such. I hope it was only there from all the rains and not a regular thing. Everyone else went swimming though. I ended up walking along the beach and found another temple that was right next to the beach so I explored that some.

Lunch consisted of Pizza Hut that was right next to a 7 Eleven. I’ve never seen so many 7 Eleven’s as there are here in Hong Kong. Its as bad as Dunkin Donuts in Chicago or Starbucks in Seattle. You can literally see one 7 Eleven from another. There were some bizarre pizzas at Pizza Hut though, they had a whole group of pizzas that had thousand island dressing as the sauce and lots of odd toppings like corn.

We headed up to Victoria’s Peak since it was actually a nice day. There is a wonderful view of Hong Kong and the harbour from there. We took a tram up the mountain….which is pretty wild, at times, it looked like the skyscrapers were at 45 degree angle or more to us. The view was great and clouds kept rolling in the whole time we were there, although it never really obstructed the view. We stayed through sunset and watched the Symphony of Lights from there.

After we had come back I ventured out again later in the evening. Its amazing how much activity is going on at 10 on a Sunday night in Hong Kong. Restaurants were packed and shops were very busy. I also saw an extraordinary amount of super high end cars cruising and parked in front of restaurants. I saw 2 Nissan Skylines, a Lamborghini, a Ferrari, and numerous Porsches.