Hong Kong so far..
Oct. 6th, 2007 06:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theducksSo we've been in Hong Kong since wednesday, and poor ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lizbyrd hasn't seen that much of it, going pretty much straight from the plane (to the train, to the bus, to the hotel, to the shower) to bed and mostly staying there since then, thanks to a bit of an unplesant plauge she seems to have picked up. Her mum says (jokingly :P) it's SARS, and I always trust primary school teachers to make immunological prognostications without physical diagnosis or laboratory testing.
That's not to say we haven't gone out at all. We went to the Peak Tram on Thursday night, and saw the lights of Hong Kong from the Peak, which was very pretty. We've also gone out to dinner last night and the night before (though last night was in the hotel).
While Elizabeth has been staying in the Hotel room and getting well, I've been out and about. My favourite haunt is Apliu Street (and the Golden Computer Plaza) at Shim Sha Po, which seems to be Hong Kong's answer to Akihabara. I went there on wednesday and friday afternoon, and bought entirely too much crap. See, the problem is that everything is too cheap. HK is very close to China's major industrial city of Shenzhen, so these people go over the border, buy stuff REALLY cheaply, bring it back to HK and sell it in shops, or even street stalls. Some examples, with AUD equivalent prices - PS2 to USB widget ($2), USB to SATA/PATA widget with PSU ($3), Sanyo Eneloop batteries ($21 for 8 x AA), 1M HDMI-HDMI cable ($15), minijack to TOSLink fibre ($5). It's all very frightening. I also saw an unlocked 8Gb iPhone for AUD$715, but decided to pass on that. There are people doing mobile phone repairs and refurbishment all over the place, including doing SMT and BGA reflow work on street corners, which is fun to watch.
ETA: Also while shopping in Apliu yesterday, I had some random Asian guy in a shop ask me if I knew anything about Ethernet cards, and was the one he was going to buy any good. Careful inspection showed it to be a RTL8139D reference design board. I gave him a brief run-down and pointed out that while it wasn't the world's best ethernet card, it'll work pretty well, and for AUD$2, who's to care if it doesn't? (ok, obviously this guy, he probably wanted a working card). Anyway, I thought it was pretty amusing that he asked me.
Also while at Apliu yesterday, I saw some billboard signs setup protesting China's treatment of Falun-gong. I say to myself, well hey, it's a free count... wait. I must say I admire their guts. It was still up there several hours later too.
Thursday I hung out around the waterfront at Kowloon and took lots of photos of the metropolis that is HK, before going to Starbucks and sipping on my Mango Frappucino while reading the South China Morning Post, before heading to collect our laundry (mm $9 for two loads? thanks chinese laundries. Our hotel wanted about $100 for the same amount, and I later found out, they would have done it at the same place). While there I got some business shirts made (about AU$40 each, not a great price, but at least I can do up the top button without strangling myself, and I've picked them up and the quality is great).
But it's not all giggles. While stuff is cheap, everyone here is SO RUDE compared to say, Japan and Singapore. But then, I suspect that every other nation on earth is rude compared to those two. But here is particularlly bad. Also, the Indians on every block trying to sell you fake Rolexes and/or tailoring services is annoying. Elizabeth and I did have a bit of a peer into some Jeweler's windows, but after 30 seconds people would come out and start trying to sell you stuff. I'm sorry, I don't shop that way, and many of them didn't/pretended not to have enough english to understand what "We'll come in if we're interested" means, so they all lost sales. I hate looking like a tourist/easy money, which is why I suspect I don't desire to go to many places in south-east Asia. Also, the haze is annoying. You can't see across the bay some days because of it, and Elizabeth can't talk at ground level, I suspect these two are not unrelated.
Lastly, while getting my thoughts together to write this post, I find myself having the Arrogant Worms Toronto-song going through my head. "Alberrrrrrrta... doesn't suck.................. but Calgary doeeeeeeeeeeeeeessss"
lizbyrd hasn't seen that much of it, going pretty much straight from the plane (to the train, to the bus, to the hotel, to the shower) to bed and mostly staying there since then, thanks to a bit of an unplesant plauge she seems to have picked up. Her mum says (jokingly :P) it's SARS, and I always trust primary school teachers to make immunological prognostications without physical diagnosis or laboratory testing.That's not to say we haven't gone out at all. We went to the Peak Tram on Thursday night, and saw the lights of Hong Kong from the Peak, which was very pretty. We've also gone out to dinner last night and the night before (though last night was in the hotel).
While Elizabeth has been staying in the Hotel room and getting well, I've been out and about. My favourite haunt is Apliu Street (and the Golden Computer Plaza) at Shim Sha Po, which seems to be Hong Kong's answer to Akihabara. I went there on wednesday and friday afternoon, and bought entirely too much crap. See, the problem is that everything is too cheap. HK is very close to China's major industrial city of Shenzhen, so these people go over the border, buy stuff REALLY cheaply, bring it back to HK and sell it in shops, or even street stalls. Some examples, with AUD equivalent prices - PS2 to USB widget ($2), USB to SATA/PATA widget with PSU ($3), Sanyo Eneloop batteries ($21 for 8 x AA), 1M HDMI-HDMI cable ($15), minijack to TOSLink fibre ($5). It's all very frightening. I also saw an unlocked 8Gb iPhone for AUD$715, but decided to pass on that. There are people doing mobile phone repairs and refurbishment all over the place, including doing SMT and BGA reflow work on street corners, which is fun to watch.
ETA: Also while shopping in Apliu yesterday, I had some random Asian guy in a shop ask me if I knew anything about Ethernet cards, and was the one he was going to buy any good. Careful inspection showed it to be a RTL8139D reference design board. I gave him a brief run-down and pointed out that while it wasn't the world's best ethernet card, it'll work pretty well, and for AUD$2, who's to care if it doesn't? (ok, obviously this guy, he probably wanted a working card). Anyway, I thought it was pretty amusing that he asked me.
Also while at Apliu yesterday, I saw some billboard signs setup protesting China's treatment of Falun-gong. I say to myself, well hey, it's a free count... wait. I must say I admire their guts. It was still up there several hours later too.
Thursday I hung out around the waterfront at Kowloon and took lots of photos of the metropolis that is HK, before going to Starbucks and sipping on my Mango Frappucino while reading the South China Morning Post, before heading to collect our laundry (mm $9 for two loads? thanks chinese laundries. Our hotel wanted about $100 for the same amount, and I later found out, they would have done it at the same place). While there I got some business shirts made (about AU$40 each, not a great price, but at least I can do up the top button without strangling myself, and I've picked them up and the quality is great).
But it's not all giggles. While stuff is cheap, everyone here is SO RUDE compared to say, Japan and Singapore. But then, I suspect that every other nation on earth is rude compared to those two. But here is particularlly bad. Also, the Indians on every block trying to sell you fake Rolexes and/or tailoring services is annoying. Elizabeth and I did have a bit of a peer into some Jeweler's windows, but after 30 seconds people would come out and start trying to sell you stuff. I'm sorry, I don't shop that way, and many of them didn't/pretended not to have enough english to understand what "We'll come in if we're interested" means, so they all lost sales. I hate looking like a tourist/easy money, which is why I suspect I don't desire to go to many places in south-east Asia. Also, the haze is annoying. You can't see across the bay some days because of it, and Elizabeth can't talk at ground level, I suspect these two are not unrelated.
Lastly, while getting my thoughts together to write this post, I find myself having the Arrogant Worms Toronto-song going through my head. "Alberrrrrrrta... doesn't suck.................. but Calgary doeeeeeeeeeeeeeessss"
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-06 12:12 am (UTC)If you wanted to look at cds, I really want any of the albums by 's.h.e.' but they're a mainland band so I don't know about your chances, given you don't speak Chinese. But if you're feeling adventurous, you know.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-06 12:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-06 07:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-06 06:36 pm (UTC)BTW if you want some really nice Chinese food and a view of the nightly neon light show from kowloon side, go to the top floor of one peking -- Hutong restaurant.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-06 06:40 pm (UTC)That said I personally prefer BKK - everyone is very polite and friendly, there's a reasonable number of people who speak some English, and there's a ton to do. Best of both worlds. Unless you don't like the weather (I can see some people preferring HK's climate).