Biggest burger I've ever eaten (and almost died doing so)

Biggest burger I've ever eaten (and almost died doing so), originally uploaded by JamesA.

anNQ

I'm back

Now for a month of laundry and unaswered mail.

How IR technology can be used

IR Footage of a Fart

10 Books that have really impressed me.

Following on from the conversation at the BBQ, here are 10 books that have really impressed me (they are in no order, apart from the one I wrote them down in).
* Michael A Stackpole - Talion: Revenant
* Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
* Joe Haldeman - The Forever War
* David Brin - Sundiver
* Raymond E Fiest - Magician
* Ian Irvine - The View from the Mirror (series: A Shadow on the Glass, The Tower on the Rift, Dark is the Moon, The Way Between the Worlds)
* David Gemmell - Legend
* Kim Stanley Robinson - "Mars Trilogy" (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars)
* Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash

Day 15 - 15-12-06

Was a little bit tired after the amount of drinking done last night - but I managed to struggle through. Got up again to watch the third session of the cricket this morning - it's a nice way to get up.

Went down to do the London Eye this morning with the family. Last time I did it, it was at night, so this was a different view. London, with it's flatness is in many ways similar to Paris that regard - just just seems to sprawl on and on and on...

Took a wander up to visit Shakespeare's Globe - even though it's not on the actual site of the original Globe (we found that later). I guess it's another one of those touristy things you tick off to say you've seen. On of the funnier things was watching a group to visiting students (from America naturally) running through some script excerpts on stage. Shakespeare just doesn't sound right when it's done with a broad American accent.

Had lunch at a nice little restaurant near there called Fish! - which oddly enough has fish as its specialty.

Went out for drinks with Kathleen and a few of their friends up in Camden. Started at a bar call The Good Mixer - typical English pub - small, crowded and smokey. But it was pretty decent overall.

Ended up then going to a club called Koko's. It's situated in a former theatre - so the place is massive over about 5 or 6 levels. When we walked in just after 10 - the place was almost empty - quite a worrying sight. After a few drinks though - it did start to fill up. Kathleen was all apologetic, saying it was very shitty that night - but compared to the usual types of clubs in Brisbane we usually have - which are all variations of the one Fridays-type bar -it was pretty good. One band in particular that played - Original Cast - were particularly insane. They had the two singer thing going - and weren't that bad - or maybe that was just thing drink talking?

After that, waiting for a taxi to get home, we discovered that public transport is the same all over the world - never there when you want the bloody thing. My sister Margaret was waiting about an hour for a cab., when I wanted out - she was still there waiting. I only had to wait with her five minutes or so and one arrived. Guess I was luckily in that regard.

Day 13 - 13-12-06

Final day in Paris - packing up the apartment.

Been forced to watch BBC world for any kind of news - only English speaking tv. IF you believe it - it appears the entire world is about to end - the polar ice caps will be melted shortly, we're about to run out of water and the world is about to be cooked. This is, of course, assuming that the evil Americans don't get us all killed first with their evil plans to take over the world.

Once we boarded the plane - we then got to sit on the tarmac for 40-odd minutes while we had a baggage drama. According to the computers, we had one more bag in the cargo hold than we had passengers. Naturally this caused somewhat of a concern. They ended up unloading all the bags, counting them and then finding out that the computer was wrong. Yay. Naturally then meant that we missed our take-off slot from CdG, and as a consequence we then missed out landing spot at Heathrow. This meant we had to get into a series of negotiations to get new slots on both ends. More delays.

The 'meal' on the flight over was half a nacho chicken wrap. The crazy French woman sitting in front of us, who spoke perfect English when trying to beg people for loose change to use the vending machine at CdG all of a sudden decided she didn't like the food, didn't speak English and decided to put on a turn. A little amusing.

Our new apartment in near the Green Park tube. It's a rather posh section of town. One street over is St James' park, which lies directly across from Buckingham Palace. That gives you some idea of the type of place we're at. Lots of people wandering around off to dinner in dinner suits.

Seems to be very intermittent wi-fi in apartment. I will have to investigate my options if this keeps up.

Wandered into a Tesco Express to find that Dr Pepper is on sale. That makes me quite happy.

If you remember all the hassle a couple of weeks ago when an ex-Russian spy was poisoned with some radioactive material? I walked past the restaurant where that happened. They've even go a sign out the front to explain why they're closed. Quite funny in a macabre kind of way.

Took the family for a wander around in the tubes. Had the usual problems - "Are we going the right way?" "Yes Dad" and such mutterings. Had some amusing incidents while waiting for the right train to turn up. They've banned smoking in the underground - and they actually seem to police it. Had one guy light up while waiting, and less than a minute latter there was a voice-over demanding "Would the gentleman smoking please put his cigarette out. There is no smoking on the underground." Had one train fly past, screech to a stop and it was all in darkness - none of the doors opened up. An announcement then boomed over - "this train is defective" - well duh.

Day 14 - 14-12-06

Our first full day in London. Got up in the morning and was able to watch the final session of the third test on Sky Sports 1.

Going up to look at the big name stores this morning - Harrods, Harvey Nicholls, etc. Should be interesting.

Wandered around Harrods for a bit. Still a stupidly overpriced store which we have nothing like in Australia. Had a Krispy Kreme in Harrods - Christmas Mince Pie Doughnut - which was quite nice.

Ended up that night at the Christmas staff party for the Australian Embassy. Free drinks all nice was very nice. Apart from the Fosters (which no-one seemed to drink), I managed to have quite a few Boags and Crownies (which didn't seem to travel well).

It was rather surreal playing pool under the Strand while Eagle Rock was blaring out over the stereo. But it was quite fun.

Day 12 - 12-12-06

Today dawned as a clear day. Being our last full day in Paris, it's a case of Eiffel Tower or bust. So it's onwards with attempt two.

We got there early - only one lift was in operation so that's that's the queue we joined. Once we got to the top, it is one heck of a view. I can only think how crazy the beggars were who built it in the first place. One thing that is particularly clear (boom boom) is the brown smear of pollution that hangs over the city.

About 7/8ths of the way up there was a guy just hanging there doing some maintenance on the structure. Not exactly my idea of a fun job. Amusingly, you can still hear police sirens from the top of the tower.

Stopped by a store called Album = graphic novel heaven. All kinds of hardcover copies of books of both French & American origin. It's a pity can't read French - some of those books looked mighty tempting. There was an awesome digest size hardcover Tintin collection which I almost purchased - except it was in French. Maybe it'd inspire me to learn the language?

We then spent most of the rest of he afternoon wandering around shops - looking at this and that in Paris. Very exciting stuff.

Worst Album Covers ever.

This is definately worth a look...also it features my favourite worst album cover....I believe Devastain' Dave is still around...have a look at his online store.

Day 11 - 11-12-06

Today was grey and overcast - looking thoroughly miserable. Margaret and I decided to make use of the two tickets Kathleen had for Disneyland Paris - they expired today so we timed that well.

Taking the RER out to the site was a sardine situation. Everyone crammed into the trains almost cheek to cheek. Got stuck standing on the steps next to nutter of French bag who kept muttering under her breath and glaring at me because she seemed upset that I was invading her personal space. Unfortunately for her - I didn't exactly have a lot of choice for other places to go.

When we stopped at one station, a whole bunch of people got off the train. This nutter elbowed past me, stood on the platform as people left the train and proceeded to scream at me in a torrent of French. I think it was something about me not letting people get off the train - but considering she was able to get past me with ease - the on real contact was when she swung her elbows at me, I have no idea what she was going on about. Well I wasn't going to stand there and put up with her crap, so I decided to yell back at her. Her in French, myself and English - such hilarity. But do I give a stuff? Nope - I'm not going to be putting up with crap from some psycho French bag. Stuff her.

When we arrived at Disneyland, it naturally started raining. We didn't mess about and headed off to enjoy some of the various rides. First stop was Space Mountain - which is always a fun ride. This was 'Mission 2'. I have no idea how it differs form Mission 1 - - except that it was a whole bunch of fun. Nothing better than having the coaster doing 360 degree loops in the dark with only luminescent pain to let you see what's happening.

We next jumped onto Star Tours - and it's exactly the same as the other two I've been on - except this ones in French. Still - all the little kids just love it. I managed to restrain myself from purchasing any of the Star Wars merch on sale in the shop. It's amazing just how much crap they manufacture to sell these days.

Next stop was Indian Jones and the Temple du Terror. Unlike the other Indy rides I've been on, this was a roller-coaster type ride. Unlike the other two before - this one has large parts taking place outdoors. You have no idea how much a drop of rain bloody hurts when it hits you at high speed. Ouch!. But still a heap of fun.

We then hopped on Big Thunder Mountain - another outside coaster. Very different from the US versions. For one thing, you don't have the gigantic high point overlooking the park followed with a huge drop. Still fun even though it was another external rain-swept ride.

.The final ride we went on before calling it quits was the Pirates of the Caribbean. This was a weird ride - it had certain elements of a roller-coaster coupled with the traditional animatronics. Still sounds weird hearing the pirates go on in French. No sign of an update based on the movies though.

After this, we took a wander over to the Disney Studios part of the park. This is almost a carbon copy of the U.S. versions. Did the studio backlot tour - which was virtually identical to the U.S. one - Jeremy Irons was hamming in up on the video part - which was mildly entertaining. Best bits was when they set fire to things - got a bit of warmth radiating off the buildings. Nice. Dinotopia must be big in France as this was where they seem to have dumped all of the sets.

No crazy people on the train ride back.

Dinner tonight was at another little nearby restaurant. The waiter/restrauranteur was entertaining/insane. Very good food though.

Beers of the World - Part Quatre

Beers of the World - Part Quatre, originally uploaded by JamesA.

Further documenting my drinking through Paris.

Beers of the World - Part Trois

Beers of the World - Part Trois, originally uploaded by JamesA.

Drinking my way around the world...

Day 10 - 10-12-06.

Had a very slow wake from last night's feast. The unfortunate thing about garlic is that it tends to stay with you long after the meal is finished. Oh well - the mass of garlic potatoes was well worth it.

First stop today was one of the national monuments - the Arc de Triomphe. It is quite a massive collection of stone - with a heck of a lot of steps. We ended up climbing to the top - and the view was something special. You got a lovely panoramas of most of Paris - looking towards items such as the Eiffel Tower in one directions and the Basilique du Sacré Coeur in the other. One bonus is that you gets a birds eye view of the most insane roundabout in history (I think it's called Place Charles de Gaulle?). You know how on most roundabouts you give way to traffic on the roundabout. Not here baby - it's crazy French drivers everywhere - no lane markings - the cars just drift wherever they want - lots of fun.

We then took a wander down the Champs Élysées. Once again a heck of a lot of shops. Most of which were too expensive to shop in. But you can always look. A draw-back to it being one of the most well-known streets in France is that it also attracts the most beggars as well. Having strangers wander up to you, ask "Do you speak english?" and then thrust some card under your nose asking for money gets real tiring real quick.

Dad & Margaret saw Kate off back to London. The plane was an hour late boarding & taking off. Typical French efficiency.

Met up for a few beers with Andrew Busch, who is also travelling on the continent at the same time. Swapped a few stories about our travels. After that I took him down to what in the U.K. would be known as the high street to have a gander at the Moulin Rouge. Being lateish at night, every single den of ill repute was open. Walking along there during the day you don't realise just how bloody many there are. Answer = lots. Two unattached men walking down that street attracted all kinds of offers - in someways quite eye-opening. I ended up catching the Metro back to the closest station because I just couldn't be bothered running the gauntlet again.

Day 09 - 09-12-06

Have a blue sky today - after the last few days of grey, overcast, cloudy days it was quite amazing to see. Pity the sun is nowhere near as warm.

Heading off to Versaille today via the Metro - the trip takes about an hour via the Metro and RAR. The public transport in Paris, at least by rail, is quite good. That is once you work out how to navigate the spagetti-strand map that's there.

Many of the trains have buskers wandering on & off them. This can be quite quaint - but a saxophone can be BLOODY LOUD in a confined space. Not to mention the overabundance of damn piano accordions.

We got to Versaille - had to queue up for tickets, the queue up for entry. Essentially you've got to queue up for everything. Once you get in there to wander around, you realise quite how overwhelming the whole place is. Opulence is definitely the by-word for the whole building. The Grand Canal - at the rear of the building looks amazing. Doubly so when you realise it takes an hour to walk from the main palace to the top of the canal itself.

Had lunch at a Brettonian crepperie - again quite tasty. Had a red Brettonian beer - at 5.5% it was a nice drop. Amusing thing was the bagpipe music playing playing in the background.

Early evening we went down to look at Galeries Lafayette - it's what David Jones wants to be when it grows up. I've said this a lot of times but it is another over-the-top experience. Every designer you can think of who's any good on the French scene has their own little department in the building - a real department store. One of the major features of the main shopping centre is the gigantic glass dome that is in the centre of the building and lets you look up at the various layers - again quite a sight.

I don't know what was going on outside when we finished - put the general public wandering (or in this case standing still) on the footpaths was quite incredible. Thousands of people not budging - how the French don't have a world-class rugby pack with trying to get through these masses I don't know. Most annoying thing - the retards wielding gigantic prams as battering rams who then got upset when people go knocked over by these things and almost crushed their kids was really getting to me. If you've got kids - there are just some places you shouldn't take them - and crazy crowds like these are just one of them.

Had dinner at another localish restaurant - Le Dürer - and I think they were trying to kill us. Five courses for ?29 almost broke me. Had this delicious potted duck with garlic potatoes - the smell of the garlic arrived before the meal did - great stuff. Had a lovely citron sorbet - which I love the trend of dousing with chilled vodka - great finish to a meal - if you can fit it in.

Beers of the world - Part Deux

Beers of the world - Part Deux, originally uploaded by JamesA.

Black beer - consumed next to the River Seine.



Probably sideways but I'm limited at the moment.

Day 08 - 08-12-06

Surprise surprise - it was raining today - hooray. Should make sight-seeing something fun. But we'll see what we manage.

The first stop was to go see Hôtel des Invalides - essentially a military museum as well as the Église du Dôme - Napoleon's tomb. It was pretty cool to have a look as some of the military history of the French. Like pretty much every military historical sight I've visited, they play up their own efforts in any conflict they've been involved in. It's sort of amusing to compare this history of, say World War 2 with that of London's Churchill Museum verses Washington's Smithsonian. Just call be a cynic.

While inside the Hôtel, the wind blowing a gale - must have been overflow from the tornado's in London.

I think a major reason why so many people smoke, not just because they're French, but to keep warm.

We managed to make our way down through the wind to the Eiffel Tower - only to find out the bloody thing was closed due to high wind. The bastards! Trying to thwart my every move. Heading towards the Metro, we climbed up through the École Militare - which has a great view down towards the tower and the Seinne in the background. On top, I gave in and bought myself a crépe chocolát - which was magnifique. Eating it while overlooking the tower was just a very French moment. And if you were wondering - a crépe chocolát is a warm crepe smeared with nutella - still delicious but sounds much better in the french.

Heading out to Charles de Gaulle to pick up Kathleen. Her plane from London was delayed by an hour - bloody BA. The train to Charles de Gaulle terminal 2 was delayed by an hour - it stopped a terminal 1 instead. We then had to catch bus #5 to terminal 2 instead - thoroughly confusing.

While waiting at the airport, I managed to get a drunken phone call from Anthony Swann who was calling from the Normanby and just felt he had to fill me in on his antagonising of another cricket team we played in Winter. Just wonderful.

Went to dinner at a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet called Julien. The food was great - if a little confusing due to the menu's being in French (duh!). They did manage to provide us with english versions of the menus - which appeared to be quite different from what was in the French menu's. Oh well - we managed to survive and I avoided ordering pigs feet.

Day 07 - 07-12-06

Second day in Paris. Started the day with baguettes and croissants for breakfast. Very nice.

We were going to try and hit the top of the Eiffel tower today. But with the very overcast conditions, I don't think that's going to happen.

Went down to the Louvre today. Another one of those overimpressive buildings that all tourists have to mark off on their checklists. As you might expect, the building is overfilled with artwork - in some ways there's too much stuff to take in in one day. So much of it because a bit of a blur. Large ammounts of religious stuff as you might expect. Had a look at the Mona Lisa. There were the typical huge queue's in front of it so we went around the side. Margaret seemed to enjoy spending the day spotting midgets in the various paintings.

Took a walk along the Seine where we had lunch. Yet another river which still has traffic flowing along in yet they seem to be able to build plenty of bridges across it. Funny that.

Had a look at Notre-Dame. Now this is a big building. Once again the Catholic Church knows how to impress. Dad went and took confession - I guess whatever makes him happy.

Went and looked at some of the crypts and foundations that have been uncovered under the areas near Notre-Dame. Pretty cool when you look at the bits built by the Romans. The bits built before and then afterwards.

Day 06 12-06-06

The flight from Hong Kong to Paris was not exactly a fun time. 13+ hours of cramped cattle class does not equal my idea of fun. Managed to get through three hours of Lost, finish my first book for the trip and get to watch one in-flight movie - Grosse Point Blank - always a classic.

The flight was held up by Russian air traffic control for 25 minutes for some unknown reason - damn Ruskies making us late. Funniest part of the end of the flight - watching the stewardess walking down the aisle spraying all of us like literal cattle for some kind of disease.

Wandering through Charles de Gaulle airport was the usual over-abundance of security. Along with the security were quite a few soldiers. And these soldiers weren't just toting sub-machine guns. We talking fully blown assault rifles. Eye-opening stuff.

Naturally when we get to the correct terminal - and in Charles de Gaulle - there area heck of a lot of terminals to choose from - the guy who's there to pick us up is no-where to be seen. Eventually we do manage to connect up, and what follows was an adventure.

The driver appears to have been wanting to make up for lost time. Up until Paris traffic took effect, he was flying along the freeway at speeds of between 120 - 160km/h. And by flying I mean weaving to and fro between lanes like crazy. French drivers just seem to merge and cut across people at random When you're in the passenger seat, it can be quite scary stuff.

All through this time, my left ear has felt like it is asleep. As if the circulation has been cut off like when your foot goes to sleep. I think it was because I fell asleep on the plane leaning on it wearing my noise-isolating headphones (at least I hope that' what caused it). Hopefully it'll go away sometime soon.

On the way to the apartment we drove past Stade de France. It makes Lang Park look like the piss-heap it is. Stade de France is what real 'super-stadium' should look like.

The apartment we're staying in is going to take some adjusting to. Four (soon to be five) people sharing one bathroom & toilet again - will take some getting use to again.

Upon checking in, unpacking and having a shower, we decided to take a wander around the quarter we're staying in - Montmartre - in the north of the city. All the movies and stories crap on about it - but there is a certain special something about Paris - assuming you remember to sides-step all the dog crap that litters the pavement. That's something they never mention in the songs is it?

Funny sight was seeing a couple of loonies haring along the side of the road in segways. If you've ever seen what the Paris sidestreets are like - they're not a bad idea for transport. Road signage often seems to be just a rough guide for drivers. The streets are extremely narrow, often with cars parked on either side - which making navigating anything but a compact through the streets fraught with danger. Speaking of parking - they don't leave much of a gap between each car to get out. It appears that they must often use the car's bumpers to do just that - bump the vehicle ahead and behind in order to squeeze in.

One of the first things we did - after indulging in some evil french pastries, what climb to the top of of Butte de Montmartre - the highest point (land-wise) in Paris. From there it is quite the view. Even though it was a little hazy, you could still see for miles around Paris - an amazing view. Perched on top of Butte de Montmarte is Basilique du Sacré-Coeur. Now this is an amazing structure - both inside and out. The Catholic Church really knows how to build to inspire. And when you consider that this isn't even a cathedral, it makes it even that much more impressive. Sort of leaves St Stephens and St Johns in Brisbane looking quite the bit shabby.

One of the fun things about wandering about Paris is seeing the various street entertainers playing for the crowd - jugglers, buskers (playing a harp no less), all just add to the atmosphere. The downside are the con-merchants floating about. The Moroccans wanting tie bits of string to your finger and then plait it for money. In the space of three blocks I saw two separate games of three-card monte. Then there's the dodgy-looking Indians trying to flog off rolex's and designer leather goods. I thought we'd left their type behind in Hong Kong?

One of the funniest things you see when walking along the streets is that all the little cafe and bakeries that area selling pastries have ginormous jars of nutella to smear all over these delicacies. Very weird.

The food so far as been completely evil. Real cream and things like that make the food amazing. But you know you're going to pay for it somehow. Thank goodness for all the walking.

Day 05 - 05-12-06

Last day in Hong Kong. Going to try and fit as much as possible into the remaining hours here. Even though the plane flight doesn't leave until midnight tonight, our pick-up from the hotel leaves at about 7pm.

We're going to take the Star Harbour ferry across the harbour to Hong Kong island to have a bit more of a look around there. Should be fun.

Went over in Hong Kong island to the Times Square building - eight floors of shops. Had a whole heap of electronics shops, but despite the different colours and uniforms, they all sold exactly the same thing. The prices were identical, even down to the internal signage and stickers for prices. Rather disappointing.

Stopped by the Hong Kong cricket club for look. I'd love the play a game there - talk about small boundaries with a very quick outfield. Not sure if I was suppose to, but I took a wander out to the middle to have a look at the pitch. Rather flat and hard, but with a decent covering of grass.

We went back over to the Stanley Markets for lunch. We were walking along the waterfront when I spotted a restaurant with a giant tv that was showing the end of the second test. So guess where we ended up. It was run by some crazy Swiss man with a Roger Federer obsession, judging by all the posters of him all over the place. Was quite nice to have a dim sum basket for lunch, down a cold Becks and watch the Poms get rolled - good stuff.

Went through the craziness of weighting the bags in order to get them under the weight limit for he flight. Naturally however, this didn't prove to be a problem when we got to the terminal and were checked in through the first class section. No weighing there...

Decided that with a bunch of $HK burning a hole in my pocket, I might as well spend it rather than let it go to waste and have to bother trying to get it converted. So I took off up the street to by one of the new Liverpool jersey. In my whole time in Hong Kong, I didn't find a single store that was selling the new home strip - I don't know if that's a sign of the team's popularity or what? So I picked up the new Away strip - with a discount they threw in for no particular reason, it bought the price down to $HK405 - not to shabby a price.

For some reason Dad doesn't bother to adjust his watch to local time - preferring to keep in on Brisbane time and to do the mental arithmetic to adjust it in his head. This can lead to certain situations such as the one we had where he stuffed up the math, leading Mum to freak out, think we were going to miss the bus to the airport and charge off back to the hotel leaving no-one to know where she was for 20 minutes. What fun...

Once we checked at the airport, we ended up in the first class lounge. Had a little bit to eat for dinner, sank a Kirin beer and had to laugh at the stupidity of having to use a plastic knife when all the other cutlery is made of metal.

One thing I'm not going to miss about Hong Kong is the disgusting Asian habit of sucking all the snot in the back of their throat, hacking up a huge glob of phlegm and then spitting it out. It's is just disgusting at the number of people who do that. That and the awful smell of burnt steam that wafts off so much of the food.

So that's it for Hong Kong - certainly an experience. Next stop - Paris. It will be interesting to see just how many people can and will speak English.

Big Beer

Big Beer, originally uploaded by JamesA.

From dinner the other night in Hong Kong.

Day 04 - 04-12-06

Up early today for the big trip to Shenzhen - a Special Economic Zone in China. We have to pay for a visa as we're entering the Communist mainland. Heard some interesting stories about this place - so it should be an experience.

To get to Shenzhen, we took a train trip which lasted about an hour. In order to enter China, you have to buy visa - which sets you back around $HK150. While filling out the various bits of paper work required to enter the PRC, there was a huge crash and commotion from a nearby set of stairs. As near as I can tell, someone had taken a tumble from the top of the stairs and ended up somewhere near the bottom. You know you'll hear those cartoon tumbles when someone will plummet a dozen stairs to the ground - that was what it sounded like.

After Dad attempted to lead us wandering off towards some unknown local train station in the Chinese heartland, I thought it might be a good idea to travel in the opposite direction towards the giant five story building everyone else was heading to. Lo and behold - that building was the actual destination.

We got there around 10am and immediately picked up two local guides who seemed to want to dissuade us from going inside and to instead head off towards the stores of some of their friends? How persistent? One of them followed us up five levels continuing to ask if we wanted purses or DVD's no matter how many times we'd say no. Good to see Casino Royale is already available to purchase at a price fluctuating form $HK4 to $HK7.

"Missy missy want wallet purse dvd ipod usb?" was then the constant cry that echoed everywhere you went. The blighters sure are persistent. And when it's every single person saying it, it does get annoying quickly. And as you might guess, it was haggling all the way - so much my favourite thing.

My first bit of haggling was to pick up two 4GB SD cards for the cameras. Originally offered for $HK380 each, I managed to bargain my way down to $HK300 for the pair - around about $A25 each. I was pretty chuffed with this - considering that these cards normally go for around $A120 each on eBay - let alone what you'd find in the likes of Hardly Normal. I was later to find however, that you could get them even cheaper. A subsequent card, I managed to pick up for $HK100. Even though I didn't do as brilliantly as I possibly could have - that price for those cards was still pretty good work.

That's the thing about haggling. Unless you do it every single day and have complete awareness of the actual local costs of an item, these people are always going to have it over on you in the end. It's all a case of deciding what's the best outcome for yourself - how much re you saving to buy. You won't ever beat them - they're the pros and your the rube. On that basis I think I did pretty pretty well with some of the stuff I ended up getting. Besides that - after haggling for four plus hours - I was bloody exhausted.

The two best tactics which I learned about in Phuket still held true here. The first is - if you've got the money you're willing to pay in your hand and show it to them - the seller is likely to budge. The second is - if they won't move - you just walk away. The number of times I did that, only to have the seller come charging after me was pretty much every single time - bar one. Of course - it's kind of hard to walk away when one of the girls is clamped to your arm. I was thinking I might have to gnaw it off to get away.

After wandering the five floors of this commercial centre, it was readily apparent that there was only about 10 different stores that were endlessly repeated in various configurations. If you wanted knock-off handbags or watches, memory cards, golf clubs(???) or every permutation of ipob (not ipod) knock-offs - you were in luck. A surprising lack of sports shoes, leather goods other than shoes or purses and for a nation were literally every single person has a mobile phone nailed to their head - phones for sale.

Overall - it was a learning experience. Perhaps with the hard-sell more of a sight of what Hong Kong proper was 20 odd years ago. Mao would be rolling in his grave if he was to see what was happening to his Communist dream. The moral of the day - you can always haggle cheaper.

Wandering though, it's obvious that the Chinese love their shiny uniforms. The more braid and buttons - the better.

Funny aside - looking at the duty free stores at the border crossing, and on the Chinese side seeing bottles of Penfolds and Wolf Blass wine for sale.

And have I mentioned how sick I was of filling out forms? Today I had to fill out the following:
A form to leave Hong Kong.
A form to apply for a Visa for China.
A form to enter China.
A form to leave China.
A form to enter Hong Kong
The forms never end!

An aside for those who've used the underground in London. Instead of the Oyster card, they have the Octopus - "Just insert your Octopus" was the amusing advert in one of the posters.

Once again dinner was excellent. The waitress we had, in between doing the usual screaming into some kind of mobile phone headset, insisted four times we order he Peking duck. I'm sure it was nice, but we had it last night so we wanted to try something else. We ordered soup for four, but it seemed to be enough for about 4000. In a room opposite us, there seemed to be yet another wedding going on - must be the season for them. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for the arrival of guests - yet alone a dress code - suits to tracksuits seemed to be seemed to be the order of the day.

As well, dinner was another one of those speed deals. About 5-10 minutes after ordering, the first dish arrived. And within 5 minutes of that - the rest of the dishes had all arrived. Sure don't mess about.

Funny aside - the restaurant was selling a Jacobs Creek 2004 Merlot for $HK198 - about $A33 - it's a bottle which'll sell for around $A12-15 back home.

Finished the night with a cup of coffee in an excellent little coffee shop called Crema Coffee. The shop had it's own little roasting machine on displace - so the smell of fresh coffee was amazing.

Day 03 - 03-12-06

No real set plan today of destinations to visit. There are suppose to be a couple of shopping centres which are pretty good gadget-wise, so hopefully we'll get to stop by them and have a look.

We were granted the mercy of a sleep-in today. That means we weren't roused until 8:15am today. Luxury.

The weather in HK so far has been relatively mild. If anything, it has tended more towards cool. Although the temperature does tend to drop a bit at night. There hasn't been any rain so far (although now that I've mentioned it...). One of the funnier sights so far has been the presence of multiple fountains. I seem to remember having them at home at one stage....

Had breakfast this morning at the Charlie Brown Café. Not surprisingly, this is a café themed after the Peanuts characters. The food was rather ordinary - but it was cheap. The best big - the ginormous coffee cup I purchased - it seems about twice the size of a regular cup - caffeine goodness for me.

While I've mentioned before just how much I enjoy haggling - a surprisingly useful tool I've found is my PDA. I have a currency converter installed in it, and it seems that the minute I pull it out to start working out just how much something'll cost in $A, the price invariably gets another bump down. I'm thinking that one of the traders greatest weapons is that people are just lousy at doing the conversion back to their native currency.

It appears that, just like the Aliens of the self-titled movies, Indian tailors are spawning & multiplying all over the shop. It seemed today that I couldn't walk five metres without being offered a tailor-made shirt or suit. It almost made me want to scream. I'm guessing they just zero in on the white face in the crowd.

And speaking of crowds, while I can understand how frustrating it can be to have 'exactly' the same hair colour as millions of other people, what Asia people seem to do to their hair is just insane.

We spent a large part of of the day wandering through Harbour City. In some places, it almost felt as if they should have done a credit check just to admit you to the place. Every designer name you could think of - they have a store there.

That afternoon we ended up at a Aussie-themed pub called the 'Kangaroo Bar' Ended up paying $A7 for a VB. They had a deal going where you bought one beer, got one free - so we ended up paying $3.50 per beer - not so bad. The place also has free wi-fi for patrons - so, worse comes to worse, it ends up as a default place for me to communicate with the world for the price of a beer. Looking at the somewhat amusing menu and I found that the steak options were rather amusing. They ranged from blue all the way to 'ruined'. I take it that means cooked?

For dinner we decided to go to a northern Chinese restaurant. And I think that it was by far the best meal we've had so far. We ordered three beers to drink. We didn't know that we'd be served NT stubbies. So those three beers served us for the whole meal. And what a meal. I don't know if it's something peculiar about the Chinese - but the term 'speed eating' comes to mind. The various courses were served quicker than you can blink. If that's the approach to how they serve a meal . almost eery course piled up at once - then no wonder they're the most populous nations on earth (this post is currently written under the effects of multiple beers - so it hasn't exactly been checked for PC language). The highlight of the meal was the Peking Duck. Never mind that the meat arrived at the table with the duck's head still attached. I wasn't about to argue with the dude with the very sharp blade who proceeded to carve it for us. The dish was extremely succulent and tasty. You didn
't notice if the service was lousy purely due to the fact that they were over and done with so damn quickly.

Heading off tomorrow to Chen Tzen - supposedly the best knock-off place on the Chinese mainland. I'm heading into the heart of the communist dream. I hope I survive...

Strange cultural aside of the day - ashtrays in toilets. wtf?

What you say?!

The pig go. Go is to the fountain. The pig put foot. Grunt. Foot in what? ketchup. The dove fly. Fly is in sky. The dove drop something. The something on the pig. The pig disgusting. The pig rattle. Rattle with dove. The dove angry. The pig leave. The dove produce. Produce is chicken wing. With wing bark. No Quack.

Explanation here

Day 02 - 02-12-06

First morning in Hong Kong. Had a reasonable nights sleep. It's the usual hotel bed - not exactly soft, not exactly firm, almost but not quite comfortable. For some reason they've placed the exhaust fan in the bathroom as far away from the bathroom mirror as possible. It makes shaving a bit of a challenge in the constantly fogged up mirror.

Hotel located in Kowloon.

Went down the have the buffet breakfast - as you would expect replete with suspicious meat - baconish and sausage-type meats. So I just did the usual, closed my eyes and ate it. Going on a half-day tour of HK today - so that should be good to at least get a bit of a run-down on the sights of the place.

Just finished the half day tour of Hong Kong. It was pretty interesting - especially with the tour group being only the four of us.. The tour started off travelling to Honk Kong island - the financial district. As the tour guide was trying to give us a bit of an overview of the place, Dad kept having to jump in with his half-recollected pieces. It made me wonder, who was giving the tour?

One of the buses we passed had Monash Uni adverts plastered all over it. Quite funny. We travelled to Hong Kong island via one of the five tunnels that go under Hong Kong harbour - 'Can Do Campbell' would be quite impressed.

Travelled up to the top of Victoria peak via the tram. 450+ metres above sea level. The view of the rest of HK from there was quite spectacular. Before the construction the tram in the 1880's, people use to travel up there via carriages carried by a couple of coolies. That would have been the very definition of back-breaking work. When you get onto the tram, the floor is uneven - with a whole bunch of peaks and troughs. If you're not expecting it, it can trip you up. I was kind of wondering why it was like that, until the tram stopped halfway up and I realised it was to stop you sliding all the way to the back of the tram - duh!

Travelling down from Victoria Peak via Peak Road was another experience - quite steep and windy. I'm pretty sure you could do some excellent James Bond car chasing going down it - if they haven't already done so.

Prices on some stuff has been rather disappointing so far. $A70 for a 2GB SD card,which I can get off eBay for $A50 for example. Hopefully things'll pick up the further I look. And I've got to engage in my great love - haggling again - a real pain in the arse.

For all the Penn & Teller lovers out there, they'd have a great time with the seeming fact that every second building has either been designed or fiddled with in order to satisfy some fung shui rules. One example was a round 60 story white office building, owned by a Mr Wu (naturally) which had a ceremonial pool filled with fung shui stones built on top because the fung shui expert decided that it was a bad building. It was a bad building because it was cylindrical, white and looked like a cigarette. So he decided that, without this pool on top, the building would burn down. Who knows if it's true - but it sure is funny.

Went past Hong Kong cricket club - it field was full of kids playing some kind of skills game with looks of kanga cricket equipment. The ground looked great - pity I couldn't get the bus to stop :(.

Stopped at one of the markets - in many ways like the ones in Thailand - full of that cloying burnt water sickly smell. There was the usual haggling stuff going on. Unlike Thailand, lots and lots of sandshoe shops.

Also stopped at the Aberdeen section - the bay there seemed to be called 'old Hong Kong' - mostly a big bay/river with a whole wack of boats/junks there. Supposedly there's no-where near as many as there was during the 70's due to a fire there. A whole heap of people live on these boats - not my idea of fun. There's two gigantic floating restaurants there. The biggest- the Jumbo - seats about 2000 people at once = big boat. Looks like a typical fancy asian style building from the front. But when you go around the back - to what I presume is the kitchen section - it sorts of looses its romance quickly. Rusty, patchy green metal - a far cry from the front. Guess it's the kind of thing you don't want to know about when you're thinking about eating.

Had Dim Sum for lunch. Was fun looking for the restaurant. We walked past it twice. Would have helped if Dad told everyone else the name. Dim Sum is possibly the best and worst of Asian cooking - you're never really sure what you're going to get until you bite in. Best dish? The baked bbq pork buns. Think the sweetish macca's bread filled with tasty pork inside. The worst? The steamed rice flour rolls with bbq pork. You know that horrible slimy feel you get when you clear your nose and mucus slides down the back of your throat? That's what the pastry felt like. Rather unpleasant.

Everywhere you go, you're forced to listen to really, really, really bad piano musak. Most of which are Christmas carols. Horrible stuff.

This evening we went down to the waterfront to watch a lights show. There's a whole bunch of buildings across the harbour with lights on them that put on some kind of coordinated performance to the typical sickly-sweet J-pop style music that is so predominant. It was pretty cool - although I guess the big green lasers that shoot off one of the buildings would play havoc with passing planes?

They weren't out last night, but like some horrible fungus there seem to have spawned a whole horde of dodgy Indian tailors touting their wares. I thought I'd left the offer of 'big boss man' suits behind in Phuket.... Not to mention the offers of rolex's and designer handbags. Sure buddy...

Dinner tonight was at a Cantonese restaurant recommended by Lonely Plant. Being the only white people there obviously upset one or two of the staff. They were shockers. Rude doesn't adequately describe their behaviour. Despite that - the food was pretty nice. Although the menu did seem to have a particular obsession with trying to get us to eat either pigeon or birds nests...

End of night gelati was good - even if the girls in surgical masks couldn't understand my order, even when I pointed to the flavours I was after.

Day 01 - 01-12-06

Like last trip, I'm going to attempt to keep a little journal of what's been happening. I'm sure it'll make for riveting reading, but I really don't care - it's more for my benefit than anything else.

This part is written while waiting for the plane to load at Brisbane. The advantage of travelling with parents this time is that it gave me access to the Qantas Club. In 45 minutes or so, I managed to down a few premium beers - one bluetongue (a SA drop - quite nice actually), one Crown (with a twist-top no less - must have contributed to the lacklustre taste) and one heinekin (misspelled - but I can't bother checking it out). So that's set me in good stead for the plane trip to Hong Kong.

While waiting to check out baggage in - don't get me started on the 25kg limit per person - preposterous stuff - we were dragged aside by the attendant. My first thought was all kinds of bad things - especially in the ridiculously restricted modern day and age. But no - it was actually something good - with a catch. It appears that Economy class was overbooked (my cynical reading), which meant we qualified for an upgrade to Business Class - yay! The catch? There was only room to upgrade two of our group - not all four. Being magnanimous, I volunteered to stay to cattle class and allowed my Mother and sister to be upgraded. I'm such a gentleman...

Little did I know that our seats - myself and my father - were located in aisle 70 - right at the very back of the plane! So if Lost is correct, I'll end up on the other side of the island and won't be discovered until Season 02. Such a shame.

Rather than having to squint at a dodgy tv screen 20 metres away - each seat has a small monitor in the back of it. There is, however, a suspicious card swipe slot that makes my father think that we may have to pay to watch the entertainment. That would be disappointing to say the least. Hopefully the batteries will hold out on my own devices for the estimated arrival, Brisbane time of 11:44pm.

Now I wait for the plane to take off so I can get another drink.

Didn't have to pay for the movies - however I'm not sure that was a blessing. Had the choice of Miami Vice - with an increasingly choppy audiotrack that pretty much made it impossible, Pirates 2 (seen it) and My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Amongst the many crimes of this move - possibly the worst is allowing Uma Thurman to sing the song on the closing credits - I'm pretty sure it was her. One word - dreadful.

Having arrived in Hong Kong - the airport is freaking huge. But like pretty much all airports around the world - it still looks the same. Although I'm been to both London and New York, driving into Hong Kong proper itself is still an amazing sight. You just don't appreciate that, with so many people and so little land, the only way to build is up. Consequently you have masses of almost-identical apartment towers all looking as if they've been squeezed out of the same construction set. Looks pretty spectacular at night.

After checking into the hotel, had a brief wander up and down the streets. Adam would enjoy what appears to be the compulsory Asian habit that you must smoke - cigarettes are everywhere. It'll be fun to see how long my mother (a militant ex-smoker) manages to last without throwing a turn. They also seem to have picked up that lovely habit so common in Asian countries of wandering along the street, screaming into their mobile phones. Just because it's mobile, doesn't mean you have the share the conversation with the rest of the world...

No wi-fi in the room - which is a pity. So who knows when I'll get to post this. The airport had a free wi-fi service, so if worst comes to worst, these posts will come in a rush in five days time.

First proper day of Hong Kong starts tomorrow, so I'd better finish this and try to get a decent night's sleep.