A Day in Hong Kong, Part 2 - Kowloon 九龍

... continued from 'A Day in Hong Kong Part 1'

After that, it was back on the bus to catch the Star Ferry to Kowloon peninsula. This short boat trip which was included on our bus tour package, is normally quite cheap anyway. It's a great way to see Hong Kong's impressive skyline and the many boats that occupy the waterways.

As soon as I landed in Kowloon it was off for a stroll into it's centre. Well, to be honest I don't think there is an actual centre. As soon as I got off the boat I felt like I had just stepped into the centre, and it was suddenly moving me along! Having walked through more and more people I decided it was time to find the Big Bus again. It hard to take in the atmosphere and sights when you have to watch where you're walking all the time. Kowloon seemed more busy than Hong Kong island, with more shops and markets. The most notable thing I detected was the difference between the executive business class and the normal working class. While on one road during my bus tour I was surrounded by big brand stores, modern high rise company buildings with luxury motor cars parked outside and many jewellery stores packed with young people. Then suddenly my Big Bus then drove me only five minutes around a corner to find stacks upon stacks of run-down and shabby apartment blocks. A sad and confusing sight.

The Chung King Hotel and the Hung Sing Hotel
... and many more easy names too remember!!!

I hopped off my bus again briefly when it passed by a busy street market. It looked like I might find a bargain or two there. To my surprise it wasn't as cheap as I expected, and I became tired of seeing the 'usual suspect' brands found worldwide, Goodbye Doggy etc.!!  Luckily I was saved when I bought a small wireless speaker with Bluetooth for €10, a bargain in my book! With so many people going through this market I became a little uncomfortable and claustrophobic. 'Time to find my Big bus again. But now, with so many people and all the signage looking the same and so unfamiliar, I couldn't quite figure out from where I originally got off my bus. Only for the odd western shop-sign I would probably have missed my bus or even my flight home. Thank you Hennes and Mauritz!!!

There's so much to see in this big city, even a week would be too short I reckon. I consider myself lucky to have had a chance to see just a snippet of it. Here's a good time-lapse video I found on YouTube featuring some amazing imagery of Hong Kong. 

It was good to finally see the Big Bus again, and lucky for me it was on it's last tour of the day. It dropped me off close to the Star ferry terminal, where I had an hour or so to find a toilet and look around at more shops and sights. I also got a chance to see the lights from accross the bay over Hong Kong island. Every evening an event called the 'Symphony of Lights' takes place. I had heard about this previously and wanted to see it. So I waited. And then I waited more. Nothing spectacular was happening. I got the feeling it would begin as soon as I was gone. I couldn't wait around any longer and had to dash for my ferry and train to the airport, it was getting late. I managed to see this lighting spectacle on YouTube when I got to the airport, and to be honest I wasn't impressed. The fact that this show takes place every night and the amount of energy it must use up is sad and a little worrying. The regular city lights were impressive enough for me.

   

I must say Hong Kong was very interesting and worth the visit, even if for just one day. I would have liked to stay a little longer and perhaps if I had known some local people, I think I would have loved to go out and sample some bars with them, especially a karaoke bar! 

Both Hong Kong and Kowloon were a bit of a culture shock for this easy-going european, but that won't stop me going back again if the chance ever arises again. All the time I spent walking around this city I never once felt intimidated or uneasy. 

I want to finish this blog with a video of my own which captures a small taste of this huge city. Sadly there's no karaoke bars, Big Buddah or even Bruce Lee statues. But it does have exciting escalators and me on the Big Bus!

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A Day in Hong Kong, Part 1 香港

Last month I spent a day in the city of Hong Kong. It was primarily a stopover period of over 17 hours at Hong Kong airport which I decided to turn into a city day-trip. Luckily there is a good train link direct from the airport which only take 30 minutes. The airport itself is huge with plenty of places to grab a snooze if necessary. There's even a private area to rest and have a shower after your long flight for a payment. A range of packages are on offer, the cheapest being €18 for the use of a shower for an hour (there was no half-hour for €9 option available. I mean,who spends an hour in a shower anyway?)  The main feature at the airport for me was the long travelator or moving walkway which stretches from one end of the airport to the other!

After a 30-minute train journey into Hong Kong city  I immediately went for an early morning stroll outside. The first thing I noticed was the poor air quality. Having walked for a short while (30 minutes) I could feel a caustic-like irritation down my throat and I needed to cough a little. There wasn't a lot to see either as an early curtin of smog blocked any of the nearby views. This was not an early morning mist!

Early morning haze at Hong Kong airport

The air quality may not have bothered me so much a few years ago, but now that I have been living in a small rural town in Finland for a while this was a big change. I do recall experiencing days of poor air quality while living back in Dublin and visiting London, but this was different.

Anyway enough of the moaning, the Big Bus Tour awaited...Yayy!!! :D ... (said the hypocrite...)

I fully recommend this bus tour as it offers good package deals which can include tickets for the Star Ferry to Kowloon, Bus tour of Kowloon, Tram to Victoria's Peak including admission to the Peak viewing platform and lots of other attractions!  It's a chance to enjoy the city and relax in between long walks, especially if you're a daytripper like myself on this occasion. 

'Still early morning and having passed through the modern financial part of town (boring!) the first stop I got off at was for the tram to Victoria's Peak. My brother recommended this to me after he visited here a year or two ago. I wasn't disappointed either. I was even more surprised on discovering a multi-storey shopping mall was waiting to greet me when I got off the tram at the top. This was special, and the views were something else! ... Amazing! (luckily the smog had blown away just enough so not to hinder my view)

Impressive view from Victoria's Peak

On arriving back down from the Peak I noticed a massive queue for the next tram up. I felt slightly relieved that I had made this little excursion earlier in the day.

'Back onto the Big Bus tour and into the old part of Hong Kong city this time. Having stepped off the bus and strolled around briefly the sheer population density of this great city was becoming more and more evident to me. It's population of 7,184,000 is greater than the whole of Finland (5,454,444). It didn't bother me at all though as I quickly found the Central-Mid-Levels escalator, so I didn't have to hustle my way through any crowds. This is the longest escalator in the world covering over 800 metres in distance and elevating over 135 metres from bottom to top. At times it seemed like it would never end!  On the way up and down I noticed a variety of shops and restaurants, the air odour changing rapidly to one of delicious food and spices. I decided to stop and try out some food at a small Indonesian place called 'So Bali Bali'. The food wasn't cheap like some may think, but it tasted delicious and got two beers for the price of one during Happy hour. So a reasonable result!

A tower of marinated chicken at the So Bali Bali
Indonesian restaurant in Hong Kong.

During our stroll around Hong Kong I stumbled upon an interesting exhibition of photography called The Portfolios 10 Exhibition. Here I saw a fine collection of contemporary imagery, some quite unique and inspirational. There's a selection of images from this exhibition on a previous blog of mine called Hong Kong Hot Shots. 

After that, it was back on the bus to catch the Star Ferry to Kowloon peninsula. This short boat trip which was included on our bus tour package, is normally quite cheap anyway. It's a great way to see Hong Kong's impressive skyline and the many boats that occupy the waterways.

Read Part 2 of this blog in my next post HERE

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- Alan 

               

                                                             

Society6 - product review

This is a short review for a Tote bag recently purchased for a friend from online store Society6. The bag features one of my own designs called 'Red Floral Decay'. 

Having removed the bag from it's packaging, I first asked a female friend for her opinion. The verdict was immediately positive as far as design and product were concerned. But I couldn't help but to have a closer look myself. 

Indeed, I was very happy with how well the design transferred to the bag's material. The colours were just as they appeared on my computer screen. The material itself seemed quite strong and the dark lining inside was good. It was good to see some double-stitching also and all-in-all I have to admit I thought the bag was satisfactory.

Here's a quick video of some hairy guy checking out the bag.






To quote Society6, these Tote bags are "hand sewn in America using durable, yet lightweight, poly poplin fabric. All seams and stress points are double stitched for durability. Available in 13" x 13", 16" x 16" and 18" x 18" variations, the tote bags are washable, feature original artwork on both sides and a sturdy 1" wide cotton webbing strap for comfortably carrying over your shoulder". 
I'm not sure what exactly poly poplin fabric is, but the bag felt like strong canvas-like material to me!

Conclusion: 

I was happy to see my design transfer well on to this material product. Colourwise it was perfect and fashionwise it got a thumbs-up from a female colleague.

Here are a few more of my Tote bag designs, and they are all for sale at my Society6 online store here

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- Alan 

               

                                                             

Hong Kong Hot Shots

Last Saturday I got to see an exhibition by a group of professional photographers based in Hong Kong collectively known as HKPPN. The exhibition was titled The Portfolios 10 Exhibition and featured a variety of intriguing works showing at The Central Oasis, a busy public space in downtown Hong Kong. 

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To be honest, I actually found this exhibition by pure accident while on a short visit here before returning home to Finland from a holiday in Australia. While not a serious photographer myself I do enjoy this artform and take a lot of inspiration from it. I also appreciate good photography when I see it. If I ever get a proper camera for myself one day I can only pray to produce results like those seen here in Hong Kong. 

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Click image to enlarge

Anyway, after spending several hours walking around the huge metropolis that in Hong Kong, this sudden find was an instant oasis of calm and enjoyment for me. Having arrived back home I found out more about this exhibition and was quite surprised to see the amount of work involved in producing this show.

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For example, the exhibition's official poster was an achievement in itself. Here's a short video of it's creation. While involving some hard work, it certainly looks like these guys had a lot of fun too!
More photos from this exhibition can be found on the HKPPN Facebook profile here.







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No Snow in Finland!

Karjaa, Finland - 12.12.2013

Okay, so this blogpost was meant to go out a few days ago. It was meant to be a short post with lots of pretty snow photos from Finland. I even took a quick video from where I'm actually sitting right now which was going to be followed by more winter images. There was a drop in temperature to -13 degrees celsius, so everything was looking all nice and glitzy. I could almost hear the Jingle bells ringing!

But then all of a sudden the temperature rose to +8C degrees! And did I get a chance to take my Christmas photos? ...No!
Instead, after seeing awful weather on tv from the recent memorial for the late Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and hearing about the first snow in Jerusalem for over 60 years, I stood at my window taking photos of grass outside my Finnish home. This is truly terrible! It's now less than two weeks to Christmas and there's no snow in Finland! What's up with that?

Here lies possibly the last piece of snow of 2013. 
It is now in my freezer in case of emergency.

I realise the title of my blogpost isn't entirely true, of course there is snow in Finland. It's such a big country, you only need to drive 200 kilometers north and you will be guaranteed snow. But if anyone is travelling to the capital area of Helsinki, beware for you may be disappointed, especially as one of Finland's finest events occurs today.




Today marks the crowning of Lucia, an annual event on December 13th happening in various towns across Finland with the largest and most media-covered crowning being held in Helsinki against the backdrop of the fabulous Helsinki Cathedral.  

I have seen this event without snow before. I remember a group of students from Sweden brought their own Lucia celebration to St.Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland about 10 years ago. It was something special indeed, especially when I first saw the group all dressed in white gowns with red sashes walking up the freezing stone floor in their bare feet. It was a very cold evening and walking barefoot didn't look easy. While I still remember that occasion in Dublin very well, it is still not as spectacular as the proceedings in Helsinki. 
If you missed the Lucia celebrations at the big white church in Helsinki today don't worry, you can watch it all on the Finnish National broadcaster's channel. Just click this Link. 

Thanks for reading my blog and please feel free to share it with any of your friends. Let's hope the snow arrives here and wherever you are for Christmas!

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- Alan 

                     

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