The airport at the end of the world

Carved and painted roof

Street food stall; a fishy treat!

Old doorway with roof shadow like a frill at the bottom

"38th parallell" bronze statue

Bubbling bulgogi

Les on a B52 flying fortress

Part of the National War Memorial sculpture

Ceremonial tiger drum

Flying into Incheon Airport, Seoul, was a strange experience. We flew in low over great expanses of mudflats, not a building in sight.All around was sea, dotted wth small islands or sand bars. If not the end of the world, it seemed you could see it from there. An hour's bus transfer took me to the hotel. There was a little tent set up out front and loud, rousing military-style chorus music blasting from loudspeakers. All the hotel staff were wearing bright blue waistcoats over their grey hotel uniform. Some had red head bands with Korean writing on in white. All very jolly looking! Turns out they were in protest at the hotel management and within 2 days this had escalated to a full blown strike resulting, on the day we left, in the closure of most of  the hotel restaurants, room service and other amenities! Luckily for us it was on the day we left and the breakfast buffet was still operational.
Seoul was an interesting city. First glance made me think it was flat but on walking out the hotel I realised it was far from it! More like San Faancisco.

I had dinner in the hotel's Italian restaurant (one of about 8 in house)as Les was still at a business dinner. Next morning, it was bright and sunny, so we walked down to the station and caught the great value city bus tour, one of those hop on hop off things. We toured all the historic palaces, with carved roof beams, spent an hour in a reconstructed traditional village and another hour in the artist quarter of Insadong. Having had the luxurious hotel breakfast,  we only had a coffee all day! At night we took the free hotel shuttle to Itaewon, the main tourist shopping and eating area and were spoiled for choice; everything from the various Asian styles, through Russian, Portguese, American diners, French bistros. Absolutely every cuisine imagineable. We settled on a fusion type pace where we were able to combine the salad bar with a hot food buffet and table service, including Asian and Western and both the quality and range on offer were superb.
We were glad we did not have long to wait for the shuttle bus back to the hotel as it was a tad on the chilly side compared to Hong Kong. I wore a leather jacket, 2 layers, a scarf and socks for the first time since January in Scotland.Next day we spent a long time at the Korean War Memorial museum. It was mainly outdoors with scores of planes, tanks, copters, guns and other big grey scary war machines. Les loved it. I was amused, then frustrated then very angry by the behaviour of scores of school children on field trips, ranging from toddlers (what's the point in taking them to a war history museum?They could barely walk!) to teenagers., all roaming around with little or no supervision. Where were all the teachers? The pupils were rude and loud, yelling, running around, pushing past and, for me worst of all, leaving litter strewn in their wake. Of course, I had to act on that one. I approached a group of teenage boys and asked, "Do you speak English?" Proud to show off their language skills, they said they did, so I pointed out their tinfoil lunch wrappers on the ground at their feet and then pointed to the close proximity of a clearly labelled trash can. They apologised, picked it all up and put it in the bin. Success! I felt better after that. In 35 years of taking Scottish kids to libraries, museums and literary festivals, I have never experienced such bad behaviour...well maybe once when a boy in my charge uprooted a sapling in Charlotte Square gardens at the Edinburgh Book Festival... but it wisnae his fault, honest! A big boy dun it an ran away and he was left holding the stump and looking glaikit.
In the afternoon, we wandered round the famous Namdaemon street market, which operates from 11am till 3 am with stalls selling junk, kitchen wares, souvenirs, food to eat and to take home, toys, clothes, shoes...all haphazardly thrown together in no real order. Stalls were sometimes just a tarpaulin on the ground or an adapted motorbike with a fold out table at the rear . We ate at a street restaurant; bulgogi with kimchi and other accompaniments. It was delicious.
After arriving back to a balmy 27 degrees in Hong Kong, we dumped our bags and headed straight back out, downstairs to the club lounge to meet up with some neighbours for a wine tasting. It was nice to chat  and for the husbands to meet, as we ladies already knew each other.
Today it is laundry time, as we need a quick turnaround on warm clothes.I leave for Scotland late Wednesday and Les goes to Maryland, USA on Thursday.

Post holiday antics

It hardly seems possible that a year has passed since we last went on the Mandarin Oriental private boat to celebrate Hannah's 2nd birthday, yet here we were again,on Saturday 6th, celebrating her 3rd! Of course now she is a big sister as well as a big girl. We had a lovely day sailing round the islands and again went to Rainbow Restaurant at Sok Kwu Wan on Lamma for lunch. It was gratifying to see so many junks on cruise trips so soon after the terrible disaster on the 1st. It was a dreadful tragedy, it was mourned, will be thoroughly investigated and the families will be helped by their community, workplace and financially. We had three days of official mourning and the laser light show was suspended. Many of the neon adverts along Victoria Harbour dimmed. went off or turned black and white as a mark of respect. But Hong Kongers are very pragmatic people and the boat owners depend on leisure trips to make a living.

This week, I met a lovely English newcomer. Kate and her husband moved into our building whilst we were in Singapore and by chance we met them twice in the lift, got talking and I invited her to come to Corona with me. That worked well and since then we've had lunch three times and been on a hike. The hike was wonderful. 17 of us took a bus to the East of the island and walked on narrow cliff top paths for about an hour before descending into Big Wave Bay. Except for the weather, it was not unlike the cliff walks around Eyemouth! I managed reasonably well until the descent.1000 steps played havoc with the old knees but luckily my new purchase helped. I've bought a walking pole!
A further half hour walk brought us to Shek O, a seaside village where we had a Thai lunch before getting the bus then train home. Out from 9.00am until 3.30 pm, then just time for a nap, a half hour in the jacuzzi then steam room to help my knees and then  have dinner ready by 6.30.That's how the time goes by in Hong Kong!

I attended Book Group on Tuesday when we discussed Pearl S Buck's The Good Earth.I loved it, I'm amazed it has passed me by all these years. I remember shelving multiple copies when I had a summer job in the Paisley Central library when I was about 14. My Mum had read it and I remember her telling me it was a really old book, (1932) but it seemed so alien to me as I knew little and cared less about China at that time. My loss, that's for sure; it won both the Pulitzer and the Nobel Literature prize!

From time to time I fill in a customer survey for The Co-Op and this week I won £100 amazon vouchers for commenting on their products. I like their carrot cake very much, so I told them!

Over the weekend, I'll be looking out some heavier clothes as Les flies to Seoul in Korea on Monday and I join him on Wednesday. Currently, the temperature here is 27 and it has been very dry, so we have a RED fire danger warning in force. In Seoul, it is forecast to be 18 so for us that will seem cold. It will be good acclimatisation for the following week, when Les goes to Maryland US and I fly  to Bonnie Scotland. Brr!

Singa Pura

Boat Quay by day

Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel

Dinner by the river at Boat Quay

Merlion Statue

 We had a wonderful time in Singapore. We visited loads of historic sites, so I can tell you with some confidence that the island state was originally people  by Indians, Chinese, Malaysians and Europeans, so it is a real melting pot of cultures. It got it's name erroneously, as Singa Pura means Lion City. In fact, the first sighting of a big cat was much more likely to be a tiger, as they were populous way back then.The modern popular mythical beast, the Merlion, is half lion and half fish.
Singapore became a significant trading port thanks to British Statesman Sir Stamford Raffles who had a vision for Singapore as Asia's premier city. He died relatively young, but is well respected still as the "father of modern Singapore"

We visited all the regular tourist haunts: the River, Merlion statue, Raffles statue,Raffles hotel, Fullerton hotel, etc. We spent a sobering morning at Changi Prison Museum and Chapel and a glorious afternoon in the National Orchid House at the Botanical Gardens. We went to Sentosa Island, did some shopping and visited the National Museum and an art gallery. We took a river cruise. We had a night trip to the brand new Gardens By the Bay and gaped at the magnificent Marina Bay Sands hotel. We ate at Lau Pa Sat (Satay Street)Thanks to Les work colleagues, we saw loads in a short time as they acted as tour guides for a day and on another evening took us to eat spice crab in one of the government (cooncil) housing estates. It is such a safe city and so easy to get around by MRT as they call their underground rail system. It was a bit of a whirlwind! However, the nightly complimentary cocktails in the hotel's club lounge helped us ease from day to evening smoothly!

Holiday on the horizon

We are going on holiday! On Sunday 30th we fly to Singapore for a week, we haven't been there before, looking foward to it.As we know loads of family and friends who have been there, we have a lot of tips on what to see, do, eat and drink.
Les has the week off work due to a combination of local and national holidays coupled with some annual leave.It is Jung Chau Jit, mid autumn fesival  and also Gwok Hing, National Day which as you may remember is celebrated with an amazing, lavish firework display in the harbour right outside our window. As we will be away, we have given keys to Les colleague and his wife, who live in the same block as us, but do no have a good harbour view. Hope they enjoy the show.
I went on a three hour walk on Thusday and spoke to a new Corona Society member from Korea. (Yes, I can now easily walk and talk at the same time, thanks to our new health regime.)Now that's handy, as I fly to Korea on Wednesday 17th. She has kindly sent me some websites to look at for inspiration on what to see and do in Seoul.
When I fly to Scotland on 24th, I won't need any tips on how to fill my time.1. See the boys. 2. See David and Jen. 3. See the boys. 4. See friends and family. 5. Meet up with the soon-to-be-Travelling Sisterhood. Oh, did I mention I want to see Callum and Jamie?
November 3 - December 18 I think I will be Hong Kong based, then it's back to Scotland for Christmas and on to spend New Year in Dubai.
Holidays are great, don't you think? A chance to relax and refresh,  a break from work...Oh but wait, I don't actually work. But I still love holidays.

Jung Chau Jit Faai Lohk

Happy Mid Autumn Festival! At the full moon on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, Jung Chau Jit is celebrated by fantastic displays of paper lanterns. Parents take children with little lanterns to a hill top to light and release the lanterns for good luck in the harvest.
 Here are some pictures of a fabulous display at the Tsim Sha Tsui clock tower, just 5 minutes walk from the apartment.

                            A display of giant lanterns in the shape of the terracotta warriors

It is aso the custom to eat special cakes, called yuht beng or moon cakes. They are an acquired taste!They look like a pork pie but are filled with very heavy sweet lotus paste with a preserved duck egg yolk, to represent the full moon, in the middle. .It is customary to give them to friends and family and businesses give them to loyal customers. I believe the Peninsula Hotel has very good ones, costing around £25 for a box of four. As you couldn't eat a whole one, this is not as expensive as it seems; it's OK to cut into 4 and offer a small piece to guests. (That way, you could mash it around the plate and get away with not actually eating any of it).
These are the traditional ones, but you can also get icy mooncakes and snowy mooncakes, with a light rice paper outer and filled with strawberry sorbet or chocolate or...red bean paste(!). HagenDaz  do ice cream ones but I haven't tried those yet.

A selection of moon cakes; the front one has the traditional filling.

Weekend beckons

 Here are some pictures from our boat trip last Saturday. This is where we moored for lunch.The beach was a fair old swim away.

  The dog needed to go ashore....there was no doggy toilet on board. So he put on his life jacket and allowed himself to be lowered onto a surfboad

 Then he was  pushed to shore. The little boy was being Captain!






Our boat lady ready to throw the rope onto the pier

Some views of the scenery

I had the fitting for my new dress this week, I've to collect it on Saturday, looking forward to it, it's the first made to measure item I've ever had. Including fabric and lining, it cost me £27. I also bought a new bag, not a fancy leather one, just a nice purple nylon lightweight one to use as carry on for all the flying I'll be doing over the next few months.It holds my travel document folder, iPad and other sundry items in several pockets. Should be easy to find things on board in the dark, I hope.
 Lessons, in swimming and Mahjong, continued this week, I seem to be making some progress in both. I bought a little travel Mahjong set, it is not so tiny that you can't play with the tiles and not too heavy to carry around. I really bought it so I could practice recognsing the tiles; some are easy (bamboo, circles) but the winds and the characters are more difficult.

I paid a visit to the new 3 storey bookshop over in Causeway Bay on the island. The papers have been full of it since it opened a few books ago.What a lot of hype! I really didn't like it at all.It was packed, very noisy and vey smelly, both from the sheer volume of unclean humanity and fried food from the  food court above. Also, the English and Chinese are mixed on the shelves,making it hard to find things. It gave me an insight ito illiteracy, though, all these books and I had no clue what they were trying to tell me.Whenever I tried to look at the lower shelves, people were pushing past, almost knocking me over. Call me old fashioned, but I like a calm, relaxed QUIET bookshop. For me going into a good book shop is almost like going into a temple. I feel renewed and refreshed when I come out. After coming out of Eslite, I felt like I needed a bath and a stiff drink! However, I did manage to find a book of Scottish poetry and a reprint of an American childrens book from 1949 which I hadn't seen before. I hope Callum likes it!The free carrier bag is very cool, black and white images of Hong Kong street life. After queuing for ages and answering an interrogation to get their loyalty card (which is a scrap of paper! Not even cardboard!). I emerged, blinking, into a huge shopping mall full of things I could neither afford nor fit into. Sometimes life here is tough, eh?

We went for a walk last night and ended up in a German Bierkeller for a pint. It's a bit out of the way, so we expected it to be fairly quiet as there are lots of more easily acessible bars. Obviously another several hundred patrons had though that too.

Today I'm going to the flower market and I really need to finish the dreaded ironing. Then I should start looking out clothes for our holiday in Singapore. Woohoo!

Another week, another haver

We had a great time on the junk trip on Saturday and I didn't feel even the slightest bit queasy thanks to some anti seasick pills I popped early morning. The info leaflet was interesting. On line 3, it said, , "Do not drive or operate machinery as this tablet may cause drowsiness." Fair enough, as I won't be doing either of those things. But then on line 10, it said, "Do not take this tablet before sleeping as it may cause insomnia" Since I wasn't planning on doing that either, I took it and to hang with the consequences.

But before that, on Friday evening, I bought a nice new iPad. Why, I hear you say, are you therefore typing on your old laptop and not on the slinky new model? Well, I am still getting used to the teeny weeny on-screen keyboard.I have mistyped several passwords and had to set things up all over again. Mind you, this was at midnight after a fair few wines; we took a young colleague of Les' with us ( he of the recently devoured Greek dinner) as he knew what was what regarding the purchase of technological equipment. We took him to dinner afterwards to thank him for his advice.

Sunday was a nowhere day, Les went to the poolside to read the papers and I plumbed the depths of the on line Apple store to see what could be had for free; an amazing amount of stuff, as it happens. In the afternoon, we went to a big computer market and I bought a fancy purple cover for the iPad.  Then we went to a street market as I wanted to get things for a great charity drive we are doing. We've been asked to buy a backpack and fill it with stationery to donate to a student at one of the schools we support. It was good fun, even Les got into it, suggesting highlighters, sharpeners, etc.I chose to do one for a boy; in my experience, a girl will usually find a little money to buy at least a fancy pencil, whereas boys either have none or dig down in a pocket to produce a grubby stub. So anyway I bought all blue and black items.

Monday, I attended a talk on church bell ringing which was actually quite good fun as we had to form a  circle and pretend to pull bell ropes in order as the speaker called out our numbers. Oh yes, time fairly flies here in Hong Kong. I also had a Mahjong lesson, it's all coming along nicely.
Today, Tuesday, I tidied up the house in the morning then had a hand over meeting with a friend who is taking on the school interview volunteer activity I did last year.

Tomorow I am off up to Shenzhen to look at bags and also get a dress made at the seamstress my friends used; if we can remember how to get to her! It is a huge complex and as it is laid out in two squares round a central atrium, it sounds as if it would be easy to navigate. Ha! Add to the mix a maze of side passages on either side of the two squares, several thousand shoppers and an equal number of stall holders and touts and it is impossible to find anywhere. I had on a pair of earrings I got in May and a friend asked me to take her to the place I got them. If I am not back by midnight, I'll have been swallowed up and disappeared forever into the bowels of Lo Wu commercial city. The only ones reading this and laughing are those who have not been there; if you've been there, you know it could happen!