Honeymoon: Hong Kong Harbour

It seems the British did good things with Hong Kong during their extended leasing of the estate. The deep natural harbour and central shipping location have also contributed to its rise as one of the more impressive financial centres of the world.

On the top floor of every skyscraper, I like to imagine a millionaire businessman sipping coffee and staring contentedly at the concrete empire below. Then I like to imagine that one day I'll be someone rich and powerful like that. Then I imagine that I would buy a speedboat and zoom across this harbour, drinking Moet & Chandon straight from the bottle while gloomy office workers stare from their office windows.

But then I wake up and realise that we can't all be at the apex of the capitalist pyramid.

They say it's lonely at the top anyway.

Although Heather and I were pretty keen to buy these 'I love HK' shirts, we haven't worn them since. They seem a little irrelevant elsewhere, and I'm trying to think of other things that HK could mean.

Happy Kids? Heptagonal Kangaroos?

In case you didn't know, the new hip thing to do in now is to take a photo of yourself when you jump. The aim is to create a non-digitally altered special effect, whereby it looks as if you're floating in the air. The most logical way to approach this task is for the camera operator to count to three and synchronise the timing with the jumpee.

(Jumpee (n): One who jumps).

Easier said than done. Canon cameras autofocus as you press the shutter down, which means that the timing of the image to the split second is a little difficult.

It took a while for Heather to get airborne, but in the end it was well worth the effort. If you use your imagination extensively, you might look at the picture above and think that Heather is actually floating around on her anti-gravity knees. As our friend Anthony likes to say "Nothing is impossible."

And then I like to add "But some things are infinitely unlikely."

Yuen Wo Ping is a kung fu choreographer who has worked on some of the classic Hong Kong movies. He also directed the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Incidentally, him and I seem to have almost exactly the same sized hands. I wonder if that means anything.

Well, for a start I guess it means that I could borrow his gloves and they would fit quite well.

Here's Heather doing a bit of role playing.

And here's Heather doing a bit of shopping. We'll have to change the name of this blog soon to Lee's Heather Blog.

The Intercontinental Hotel in Hong Kong has one of the best lobby views in the world. They've really made the most of it too, with large glass panels and an elevated seating area.

One would expect hotel lobby food to be overpriced, but it's still fun to look at the menu and proclaim daylight robbery anyway.

You do need to divide by seven to get US dollars. But still, that is a bit steep for a bottle of wine.

Heather and I ordered a cocktail each. Whenever I find myself drinking cocktails before midday, I always think of our friend Jef in Busan. Not because we used to drink cocktails together before midday, but because he taught me never to feel guilty about being a daytime alcoholic.

I like the composition of this photo.

It takes a while to get a westernised tongue around the pronunciation of Tsim Sha Tsui.

On our first day in Hong Kong, we found a foot massage place. Heather really wanted to go back to the same place on the third day, but we couldn't quite remember where it was. We finally found it after walking up and down the streets in 30 degree heat. In the photo above, Heather is displaying how pleased she is at recognising the poster in the lift.

For about US$13, they will massage your feet while you watch TV for 45 minutes.

The funny thing was that Heather really likes strong massages, while I like soft ones. But I ended up getting some dude who really got stuck into me, and Heather got a little lady who barely touched her. Contrary to our appearances, Heather is actually the big tough one in our relationship, while I'm fragile and delicate.

Then our three nights in Hong Kong were up and we left on the ferry to Macau. The photo above is from the HK-Macau ferry terminal. In a nutshell, Hong Kong is a place worth visiting. The locals are friendly and the city is geared toward tourism. The good points are that the food and shopping are excellent. The bad points would be that it is a little congested at times, and the humidity can limit your outdoor options. All in all though, I'd definitely go back again. Hong Kong reminds me of Kuala Lumpur, but with more British flavour.

And in the next post, we're off to Macau.

See you soon!