The picture on top is Elements, the new shopping mall located on top of Kowloon MTR Station.
The picture at the bottom is a home in Ting Kau Village.
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October 30, 2008
Today, in our attempt to eat in every restaurant in Hong Kong, we went with Sister and Yee Gor to have Chiu Chow food at the Pak Loh Chiu Chow Restaurant in a fairly new shopping mall called The Element. This is a beautiful shopping area on top of a recent, expanded subway station here in Hong Kong. The subway system is something of a beauty. The first two section of the system opened in 1979 with about twenty-eight stations and now it has expanded to over 150 stations, carrying over four million passengers a day! As a senior citizen with an Octopus Card, I can ride to most places for about HK$3.50 and rarely does it costs more than HK$9.00. Not bad at all!
So, even without a car, getting around in Hong Kong is relative easy. Our favorite mode of travel is the MTR, and then when we are in a hurry: taxis. There are also mini-busses that are easy to use; that is if you have a native Cantonese speaker with you as I do!
Here it is October 31st and the weather is finally getting a little bit cooler, especially at night; like maybe the highs are only 84 degrees. Still no rain and if it would rain maybe it might get a little cooler
Melamine is still somewhat a problem here in Hong Kong. There is now concern about eggs as well as milk coming into Hong Kong from China. On our way to the hotel, on the day we arrived in Hong Kong, our taxi cab driver told us not to eat any eggs or drink any milk from Mainland China! Of course, that is good advise but I haven't follow that advise since being here for about a week. But we are careful!
As I have noted before, in the Chinese culture, family is everything. When family members go to work, a part of every paycheck goes back to the family to help the parents or it could be helping in other family situations, e.g. educating another member of the family. There is little or no social net in Hong Kong as we have in the States: read no Social Security, Medicare, etc. There is a government allowance paid to seniors over 65; that allowance is HK$1000 per month. As all of you know by now, that is about US$130. Also public hospitals are highly subsidized, so medical care is available to all, but sometimes the wait is quite long.
Dim sum literally means, “to touch your heart”; dim sum consists of a variety of dumplings, steamed dishes and other goodies. They are similar to hors d'oeuvres, and is also linked with “yum cha”, drinking tea. So when a Chinese family goes out for dim sum they are more likely say they are going for “yum cha” And no Fred D. dim sum is not fattening!
Today we decided to walk into Tseun Wan for dim sum. As I told you earlier we are staying in Ting Kau, just outside of Tseun Wan, which is in the New Territories (NT). Tseun Wan is a city with a population in excess of 300,000 and is located about ten miles northwest of Tsim Sha Tsui, the main tourist district on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. The walk, about three miles, is along side of the harbor overlooking Tsing Yi, a small island just off the mainland. It was very warm, and a lovely walk.
November 1st and we have already been here just over a week. Here one walks much more than in the States, which, of course, is good considerating all the food we are eating! Today, we are just going to layback and rest after walking around Hong Kong the last couple of days. Owning a car seems like more of a liability to me; the traffic is horrible and then if you can find a place to park, it is very expensive. The four plus years that I lived here I never owned a car and did quite well, thank you.
Speaking of cars: gasoline price here is HK$15.00 per liter; that is almost US$7.80 per gallon. Ouch! At that price I might park my Acura!
Good News! We got confirmation that our Cambodia trip is a go! We depart December 3rd. However, we still don’t have confirmation for our Indian trip, but we are hopeful.
November 2nd - We start back on our eating marathon by going over to Jordon, which is just north of Tsim Sha Tsui, to Wang Jia Sha Restaurant for a little Shanghainese cuisine, which is a little richer than Cantonese cuisine. The dumplings are out of this world, so I decided to have more than one!
We had a light lunch but then went on a binge with a seafood buffet at the hotel with Sister, Yee Gor and Jenny’s neice Sze Wan (Grace) and her husband, Tony. I really enjoyed watching Tony eat; he can really put some food away. But guess what, he might weight 150 pounds sucking wet!
I think if the Hong Kong people could vote in our presidential elections, Barack Obama would win easily. Everyone who has had an opinion about our elections, wants Obama to win and all for different reasons.
So, even without a car, getting around in Hong Kong is relative easy. Our favorite mode of travel is the MTR, and then when we are in a hurry: taxis. There are also mini-busses that are easy to use; that is if you have a native Cantonese speaker with you as I do!
Here it is October 31st and the weather is finally getting a little bit cooler, especially at night; like maybe the highs are only 84 degrees. Still no rain and if it would rain maybe it might get a little cooler
Melamine is still somewhat a problem here in Hong Kong. There is now concern about eggs as well as milk coming into Hong Kong from China. On our way to the hotel, on the day we arrived in Hong Kong, our taxi cab driver told us not to eat any eggs or drink any milk from Mainland China! Of course, that is good advise but I haven't follow that advise since being here for about a week. But we are careful!
As I have noted before, in the Chinese culture, family is everything. When family members go to work, a part of every paycheck goes back to the family to help the parents or it could be helping in other family situations, e.g. educating another member of the family. There is little or no social net in Hong Kong as we have in the States: read no Social Security, Medicare, etc. There is a government allowance paid to seniors over 65; that allowance is HK$1000 per month. As all of you know by now, that is about US$130. Also public hospitals are highly subsidized, so medical care is available to all, but sometimes the wait is quite long.
Dim sum literally means, “to touch your heart”; dim sum consists of a variety of dumplings, steamed dishes and other goodies. They are similar to hors d'oeuvres, and is also linked with “yum cha”, drinking tea. So when a Chinese family goes out for dim sum they are more likely say they are going for “yum cha” And no Fred D. dim sum is not fattening!
Today we decided to walk into Tseun Wan for dim sum. As I told you earlier we are staying in Ting Kau, just outside of Tseun Wan, which is in the New Territories (NT). Tseun Wan is a city with a population in excess of 300,000 and is located about ten miles northwest of Tsim Sha Tsui, the main tourist district on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. The walk, about three miles, is along side of the harbor overlooking Tsing Yi, a small island just off the mainland. It was very warm, and a lovely walk.
November 1st and we have already been here just over a week. Here one walks much more than in the States, which, of course, is good considerating all the food we are eating! Today, we are just going to layback and rest after walking around Hong Kong the last couple of days. Owning a car seems like more of a liability to me; the traffic is horrible and then if you can find a place to park, it is very expensive. The four plus years that I lived here I never owned a car and did quite well, thank you.
Speaking of cars: gasoline price here is HK$15.00 per liter; that is almost US$7.80 per gallon. Ouch! At that price I might park my Acura!
Good News! We got confirmation that our Cambodia trip is a go! We depart December 3rd. However, we still don’t have confirmation for our Indian trip, but we are hopeful.
November 2nd - We start back on our eating marathon by going over to Jordon, which is just north of Tsim Sha Tsui, to Wang Jia Sha Restaurant for a little Shanghainese cuisine, which is a little richer than Cantonese cuisine. The dumplings are out of this world, so I decided to have more than one!
We had a light lunch but then went on a binge with a seafood buffet at the hotel with Sister, Yee Gor and Jenny’s neice Sze Wan (Grace) and her husband, Tony. I really enjoyed watching Tony eat; he can really put some food away. But guess what, he might weight 150 pounds sucking wet!
I think if the Hong Kong people could vote in our presidential elections, Barack Obama would win easily. Everyone who has had an opinion about our elections, wants Obama to win and all for different reasons.
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