Thoughts on Hong Kong

每一次重臨香港感覺都有點不一樣。和上次比起來﹐衛生和服務態度提高了不少。不知是自己敏感還是美元近年大跌的關係﹐好像不同國籍的遊客比以前多了。

只是﹐這次回港令我更深刻地體會到自己已經實實在在的不屬於這個城市。

地鐵--現在該稱為港鐵吧--的三語廣播和扶手電梯的提示聲號﹐還有一切其他的噪音﹐都令我感到厭煩。

看到許多滿頭銀髮的耆老還在做著低廉的工作﹐令我覺得悲哀。

望著眾櫥窗的時裝﹐我並沒有心動。(當然﹐減價品除外。)

在可稱之為深夜的時份﹐於鬧市當中兜售著手提電話﹑寬頻上網﹑以至駕駛學校的一眾硬式推銷﹐令我摸不著頭腦--說實的﹐我不認為有多少人會在逛街時貿然決定轉換網絡供應商。

我想我已經成為了百分百的「加燦」﹐而更甚的是﹐這個想法並沒有令我不安。

Proud to be a Canadian.

Hong Kong, Kowloon Hong Kong

Two full days in HK so far. Dec 7 doesn't count, because my flight from Toronto arrived in HK at around 6:30am and my flight to Guam left at 11:50pm, although it was still a pretty productive day, todo-list-wise. Dec 10 doesn't count neither, because my flight from Guam arrived at 10:40pm, and we only went to siu yeah after that.

Missions accomplished:

• China entry documents. We initially wanted to get visa with our Canadian passports, but the guy behind the counter said our application might be rejected since we were both born in HK. Plus, they'd need to keep our passports, which we needed for our Guam trip. Instead, we both got a single-entry temporary pass for our HK ID via 5-day express processing (picked up yesterday). In addition, I applied for a replacement China card, though that wouldn't be available until Dec 24. That supposedly-short trip to China Travel ballooned to over 3 hours.
• Bought @ 鴨寮街: gaming headset ($20!), international power adapter ($30; convert from and to any of the three standards: Europe, UK/HK, and North America/Japan), rechargeable AA batteries, headlamps (for hiking).
  
• Bought @ 旺角: my hiking boots, clothes (at 70-90% off regular price!)
• Meet up with friends: one group down, three groups with confirmed appointments.
• Photobook printing: sent to shop, though may not be available for pick up until next week.
  

Guam is Part of Japan?

The Guam trip had come and gone. Despite the absolute lack of sleep (Tung & I didn't have a good night's sleep between the morning we woke up on Dec 5 in Toronto and the night of Dec 9 in Guam, all times local) and all the wedding-related stuff we have to help out (including moving to a different hotel room at 10pm AND having to wake up at 5:45 the next morning), we managed to squeeze in two snorkeling session. That, along with the rather unexpected nice weather at 26-30C (weather forecast said "scattered thunderstorm" for all days we were in Guam), was enough to make me happy.

How do I like Guam? Not as much as Hawaii (duh -- that's why the poorer Japanese go to Guam and the wealthier Japanese go to Hawaii). In fact, I'm not all that fond of Guam because:

1. The place was littered with Japanese. Not that I hate them; I was just shocked to see salespeople seemingly having a hard time understanding my English--my accent isn't THAT bad, is it?
2. The place seemed very run down. We stayed at Marriott, which is a higher-end hotel chain and that particular hotel claimed to be 4-star. I am content with the seemingly low upkeep of the outside walls of the hotel (it's by the sea after all) and the tidiness of the room (it wasn't vacuumed well, but that was partly because we requested a room switch at 9pm), but the decor, especially the bathroom, was dated--and I mean DATED--as in, the last reno was done circa early '80s and they haven't fixed a thing since. My guess is, other hotels in that area aren't in much better condition neither. They all spell "we can't make enough money to justify major renovations" to me. In fact, at least two hotel buildings looked like vacant and totally shut down.
   
3. Public transportation sucks, even within that tiny strip of tourist area. The tourist area consists of a single main street of at most 10km, yet each bus ride costs $2 USD, or $10 for a day pass! After some quick calculations, the four of us (Henry, Lung, Tung & me) decided to rent a car at $38/day. Even with gas, it wasn't all that more expensive than bus, plus we have the freedom to visit places outside of the tourist area.
4. Guam people (Guamese?), it seems, just LOVE to give us false information/bad recommendation. That includes meal suggestions (0/2) and beach suggestions (0/2).

Other odds and ends, plus random thoughts:

• Destination wedding is not my cup of tea, especially when more than a handful of people are attending. I'd probably choose to elope if I weren't getting married in TO/HK.
  
• Why would people spend so much time shopping for God-forbiddenly-expensive designer brands in Guam? The duty-free shop opens 'til 11pm.
• We brought our snorkels and masks (but not the fins), but Lung & Henry didn't. They bought theirs on the second day.
• Tung (finally!) bought a pair of Crocs--bright orange, no less! It was the cheapest I've seen so far ($29 USD; costs $35 CAD in TO, $268 HKD in HK), and no sales tax!
• Along the same vein, we both experienced that you can't really swim with Crocs on.
• We saw a lot of fishes while snorkeling for the second time, and took some pictures of them with a single-use waterproof camera too! Except that the waterproofing case leaked big time!!! We still don't know whether the pictures were OK or not.
  

Time for Ice-Cream!

I accidentally found this unbelievably simple chocolate ice-cream recipe last week. Yesterday I finally had a chance to shop for the missing ingredients (banana and rum) and gave it a shot. Initially, I wanted to keep it secret until the ice-cream is chilled, but Daniel found out about it before it was ready. Since it takes 4 hours to chill, we didn't get to try it until today.

The result? It worked, though not exactly the way we like best -- the alcohol content is a tad too high. Nonetheless, this is really dead easy. Go ahead and give it a shot!

Before Take-Off

Flight is leaving at 23:50, and we're going to the airport directly from office. That means tonight is the last night before taking off.

In other words, last chance to pack, wash, and clean.

I wish the vacation could come sooner!

From Photobook to HK Websites

One of the necessary evil of going back to HK is gifts to various people.  We (well, I) have decided on a custom photobook with our wedding + honeymoon pictures for the close relatives.  The problem?  They take at least 2 weeks to print.

After contemplating with various solutions (order here and deliver to HK, order here and deliver to Guam, order here and deliver to the States then ask Doug to send them to HK), I found out Fotomax, one of the biggest photo store in HK, actually prints photobook.

Which brings us to another hurdle: I spent hours upon hours editing the photobook, planning to send it to Fotomax before we leave, only to find out Fotomax doesn't allow online ordering! (The "proper" method of ordering is to burn the file onto a CDR and bring it to any of their stores, according to their website.)  What's the point of advertising such product AND giving out a free photobook editing software IF you don't allow people to order online?!?!?!  ARGH!!!!

That brings us to another pet peeve of mine: what's with HK websites and non-text data?!?!  HK websites seem to be OBSESSED with putting data in either PDF or images.  For example, Hong Thai puts all its tour itineraries in PDF -- one PDF per tour -- instead of text.  Adding the double whammie of slow transoceanic pipe and even slower web server (not sure who is the bigger culprit here), the chance of successfully loading one tour itinerary was about 1/5.  Oh, and of course you can't actually enrol online, because it makes perfect sense to spell out your name and credit card number over the phone!  They even went as far as asking us if we have a fax machine!  HELLLLOOOO 90's! [/rant]