Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car on Lantau Island

We enjoyed visiting there in 2008 and decided to do it again on this trip as my brother James and Kacy have never been there before.  When we arrived Tuesday afternoon, June 15, they informed us that it had been windy so that the ride may be a tad rough and that it may be drizzling and windy as well on the mountain top.  Being the intrepid souls that we are, we decided to brave the elements and went on the cable car ride to the top any way.  As you can see from a few of the photos, it was quite foggy as we neared the top. Other than an occasional pause, we did not really feel the winds that much.  Thus the ride was relatively smooth all the way to the terminus.

Hong Museum of Art

The Hong Kong Museum of Art is located along the Promenade as well and is minutes away from our hotel.  Although its collection is small compared to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, its quality is still very high, especially in its collection of ceramics and pottery.  BTW despite my best intentions to maintain this blog, it is now 12:23 AM in HKG and I suddenly feel very sleepy.  Therefore no more posts tonight.  Gee, I have not been doing all that great on the blog thus far.  Hopefully as my body adjusts more to the local time, I find the energy to keep my blog up.  Thanks for bearing patiently with me during these first few days in Asia.

Hong Kong Avenue of the Stars

On our first day, we walked along Hong Kong's Avenue of the Stars which seeks to emulate its Hollywood counterpart.  The Avenue is located on the eastern portion of the Promenade.  Alas I am not familiar with most of the stars noted along the avenue.  Hong Kong has long had a thriving film industry but it has only been in relatively recent years that actors and directors from Hong Kong have figured in Hollywood movies.  Among the well-known Hong Kong Actors are Jet Li, star of many Hollywood movies including Lethal Weapon 4, Romeo Must Die, etc., Chow Young Fat of Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragons, Michelle Yeoh who starred with Pierce Brosnan in "Tomorrow Never Dies", Jackie Chan in the "Rush Hour" series of movies, and John Woo who directed "Broken Arrow", "Mission Impossible 2", and "Face/Off".  Needless to say, the late Bruce Lee has a bronze on the Avenue.

Pat and Kacy by the bronze of Bruce Lee and his plaque on the Avenue.  The last plaque is of Michelle Yeoh

   

First Day in Hong Kong

After a rather bumpy13 hours and 42 minutes flight from San Francisco, we finally arrived in Hong Kong.  During the flight, I managed to finally see Avatar and "How to Train Your Dragon".  Avatar dragged in spots but was a decent movie overall.  I actually preferred the animation movie "How to Train Your Dragon".  The airline food was decent but Kacy and Pat made the mistake of ordering the pasta dish.  According to Kacy, the dry dinner roll had more flavor than the penne pasta. 

I will now start posting more regularly as my biological time clock has begun to mesh with local time.  Even thought it is almost 11 PM here, it is only almost 8 AM back in CA.  On one hand I am ready to go to sleep here in HKG but waking up in CA.  Rather conflicting combination of mental states. 

Made it to HKG

 From the left, Kacy, Patrick, my brother James, my Mom, and Teri at Starbucks

We have made it to Hong Kong after a 13 hour and 42 minutes flight.  Immigration was a breeze as we went through in about 3 minutes.  As we arrived at the hotel at 8 AM local time, we could not check into our rooms.  Thus the first thing we did after arriving at our hotel was to go to a nearby Starbucks.

The hotel will charge me $350 HKD or roughly $45 USD for seven days of Internet access.  Gee I much prefer the free Internet access I usually enjoy in the US.  I was too tried to work on my blog yesterday but I will add to my blog later tonight as it is 10 am here and we are going to zoom out shortly.

Internet in Hong Kong

Unlike in the United States, it is rare for hotels in Hong Kong to provide free Internet access. The hotel we are staying in while in Hong Kong charges around $20 US for 24 hours of Internet access.  Hence my posts while in Hong Kong through Sunday, June 20, will be sporadic.  But when I do have Internet access while in Hong Kong, I will post as many entries as I can.  Thus it will be either feast or famine on my blog during the first week we are in Asia.  We do have free Internet access while in Singapore so I will post regularly from Monday, June 21 through the early morning of Saturday, June 26.  Do remember that while in Asia, we are 15 hours ahead of you all.  :-)

Almost Time to Sail Away Once More

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. 
Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore. Dream. Discover.  Mark Twain

After all these many months of planning and researching, the time has come to actually sail off on our trip.  Teri, Pat, and I have been to Hong Kong several times before.  Thus to a degree, we are comfortable and know what to expect. Kacy on the other hand has never visited there before but she is willing to explore the marvels that Hong Kong has.  I admire her willingness to do so as she will be akin to (with apologies to Robert Heinlein), a "Stranger in a Strange Land". I am very interested in hearing how she feels about being in Asia. To see something with "new" eyes is a rare experience and perhaps I will see Hong Kong in a different light on this trip through Kacy's eyes.

Hong Kong as seen from Victoria Peak

Rudyard Kipling once wrote "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet....."  But in Hong Kong and Singapore for that matter, I see a melding of Western culture, the British in particular, and Chinese culture that have produced two of the most dynamic economies in the world.  I am very interested to see how the political institutions in these two cities will develop in the years ahead; Hong Kong as it is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and Singapore as it is a small island nation at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula.  In these two cities, East is meeting West.  What will the future be like?  But as Mark Strand said “The future is always beginning now” and we shall see soon enough.

OT: Go Bruins!

This post is Off Topic  Although this blog is about my trip to Hong Kong and Singapore, those of you who know me probably can tell that I am an avid alum and fan of UCLA.  :-)  For me, UCLA is suffused with purity and righteousness while usc is the embodiment of rank evil and crude depravity.  Even during the dark age of being pummeled by usc in football, I retained faith that one day, usc would be punished for its blatant transgressions and gross violations of the rules.

On June 10, the happy day arrived and the NCAA punished usc with heavy penalties for its flagrant violations of the rules.  But to quote the arrogant Athletic Director of usc, Mike Garrett, "As I read the decision by the NCAA," he told the group, "… I read between the lines and there was nothing but a lot of envy. They wish they all were Trojans."  Yeah, everyone fervently wishes to be a condom and the arrogance of usc continues unabated.  With this attitude, I am sure that they will commit even more transgressions and thus will deserve the death penalty for its athletic programs.

One has to wonder about the academic acumen of the football mercenaries that usc hires to ostensibly be student athletes.  After all, one athlete misspelled his own mother's name when having a tattoo of her name etched on his arm.  Another recruit in February 2010 tweeted that he was proud to be a trogan (sic) this Fall.  When he repeated this misspelling in subsequent tweets, people realized that he really thought it was spelled trogan.  Should someone inform him that Troy lost to the Greeks?  That Troy burned after taking in the infamous Trojan horse?  Perhaps he really thinks that usc's athletic teams are named after a condom brand?