Fall in Hong Kong

In a word, Fall or Autumn in Hong Kong is smog.

After a miserably hot and humid summer, people here are just glad the weather has 'improved'. And the improvement is smog, cooler and less rain... but don't know if that's a blessing or a curse. Certainly cuts back on the hiking. And the pollution index is always high, or at best medium.......

Like Ottawa, summer is the best season.... here it is winter....; and spring is awful in Ottawa, soggy, wet and chilly, whereas fall is miserable here, smoggy, dull with bits of sunshine amidst rain ...; quite the opposites, weather wise of course.

And yes, that was smog in the hiking post just before this one.

Hiking in HK

Is it possible, you may ask, for a metropolis like Hong Kong to have hiking trails? Well, in the summer, it is probably too hot and humid to do any, but there are several trails in HK...... In fact, there is a book on the activity.....lol......

Now these are pretty rough trails, not mountain bike-able.., but during the spring, fall and 'winter' here, it is a good time to 'take a hike'......

I'll let the pictures I took on a recent hike, up from Happy Valley, to the Violet Hill Trail, which essentially runs around the south side of the island down to Repulse Bay... I had a bad cold today and was a little dizzy ... and believe me, this is not a trail to take if one is dizzy......lol... it is narrow and treacherous, but it was a perfect, almost smog free Sunday.. and what better way than .... to take a hike.....

Repulse Bay in view....

This is a wider part of the trail!

The Tin Hau (another one?) Temple on Repulse Bay...

This is where the dragon drives down the southern mountainside of the island...

And this is where the architects have accommodated the dragon's path out to sea.......

Macau Robuchon

Was at the Macau Robuchon for lunch the 4th of Nov. Now this is the only 3 Michelin star restaurant in Macau. Well, the waiter serving the cheese course did not know the difference between pasteurized vs raw milk cheese! That alone would drop it a star or two....

Did not drink wine, but the breads were quite unique.

Must say the food (entrees) was ho hum for a 3 star rated restaurant... but more later when i find time .....

Ceiling was a little low... nice decor, service leaves a little to be desired... food.... ho hum...... the mozzarella cheese balls pictured looked interesting though ....

In fact I am not so sure of most of the ratings in the 2009 Michelin Guide for Hong Kong & Macau......

If I recall correctly, 1 star is a restaurant which is the best of its kind, 2 star means it is worth breaking journey on a vacation for... and 3 star means you can plan an entire vacation around it..... I have been to some pretty impressive two stars in France... and this place does not even measure up to those..... and I would definitely not plan a vacation around it!

I would prefer those bib gourmand choices better and have been pleased with most of them, but the starred restaurants, even the 1 star would leave me wondering if it was the 'best of its kind' ..... like how many cantonese restaurants can be the best of its kind....? one is the best for goose?, one for suckling pig? ... ones for roast pork, one for cha sui ... yes, but you cannot make a chinese meal out of one dish! Come on... Michelin Guide... wake up....

an example is Tim's Kitchen... there were a few exceptional appetizers, but the regular fare was very ho hum......

more on this later when I polish up my piece on Michelin's Asia Guide.

some pix of beijing

here are some pix of beijing.... despite what i said about the people and culture there, these are quite nice......

Do we live in Parking Spaces in Hong Kong?

Here's an email I received on how expensive things were getting in New York City:

Subject: Most expensive parking space?!

Waiting List for $225,000 Parking Space in Manhattan

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3374094


And here is my answer to those who live in Gotham Cities all over the world:

I don't know what others added, but if u consider the sq footage, it works out to $1,389 a sq ft. for parking spots in NYC ....

In Hong Kong, a small apartment in Happy Valley, a very popular expat area on the island is $1,290 a sq ft. ..... so there, u may not have a sink and toilets, but it ain't that expensive! That's why they have all these speculators..... and we'll be in for another financial crisis.... more bubbles and people crying for a rescue. How can u save a fool from his money?

Hong Kong's MTR system

Thought my readers might find this interesting and cute:

http://www.oddee.com/item_96720.aspx

But more so, that none of these are taken in the HK subway, or MTR, which i assume means metro transit railway? In any event, my value add is that I find that the MTR HK is one of, if not, the worse in the world. Very typically HK, it is very efficient, but not very effective. Basically, crowd control is carried to the extreme, with little effect. Terrain, up and down, are so varied, it would take less time to walk on the surface, etc, etc.....

And I have been in the subways, in just about every major city in the world.......

Temporary.... in Hong Kong.

Temporary

If there was an adjective that would describe Hong Kong… it is a very simply one….. ‘temporary’…….

It has always been a temporary kind of place…. From the present name… SAR as the special exception in china… to the days of the sun yat sen hideout to the opium wars…. It has always been a place of transition, change and inconstancy…… (would say incontinence, but that would only be a semi-malapropism…)

Maybe that’s why it is such a great place for entrepreneurship.. or every man for himself… or flush it down the toilet if u don’t know what it is… in a while… it’ll be gone or you’ll be gone…..

With the temporary nature is superficiality… everyone looks at everyone else… even when they are not looking…… appearances count and ‘never judge a book by its cover’ is oxymoron-ed against ‘a man is what he wears’, or that ‘clothes maketh the man’…..

New things as a result are always available and changing hands….. every time someone moves into a new place everything is thrown out…. If u rent a place in HKG, expect at least a new toilet….. something to do with anal retention…… I think….. lol…… perfectly good cabinetry is discarded and air cons are dumped unceremoniously …. It is cheaper to buy new than to have to refit and recycle…. So much for environmentalism ….

The extreme case is that at all these dinner conversations of buying a fuel-efficient car, like a yaris, or ….. fuel efficient yes… but status….? More rolls and Porsches per capita than anywhere else in the world…. And it’s not the cheapy boxsters, but top of the line turbo porsches and brand new Quattro TTs….. absolutely useless technology in HK!!!