Jonathan had a conference (TALE2012) at which to deliver a paper,
wanted to talk to Peter and colleagues at a company in Hong Kong,
and it was Edwin's turn to have an educational trip,
so he and Edwin set off on Saturday night. They hardly slept,
and arrived in Hong Kong early Sunday morning.
We had a lunch date with Peter. This is
Peter and Edwin walking to the restaurant.
After lunch Peter took us to a desert cafe. This is Edwin
looking at Jonathan's mango and bubbles (basil seeds?).
Normally Edwin is not very culinarily
adventurous. It is hoped that this
trip will go some way to curing that.
The advertisements in Hong Kong are relentless, and much about
status and beauty. As Peter told us, "people in Hong Kong
think about nothing but making money."
And spending it, of course.
This image is a beautiful summary of the situation with
wristwatches. It is quite the thing for women to have a
watch like a diamond-studded Tag Heuer, tough and feminine
at the same time. And expensive, of course.
Jonathan was calibrated with the price of certain cameras
and electronics, and the shops at the airport and
around the hotel were not competitive, certainly
not unless you haggle.
Edwin did enjoy the MTR and the Airport Express.
The carriages of the subway are joined to produce one
long space. The space writhes as the train corners and descends
so that it could be that you are inside a huge dragon.
The trains are almost always packed. This photo required us to ride to the terminus and get on a waiting return train. The trains run about every 3-5 minutes, all day and all night, and they are invariably so crowded that you have to be Jonathan-tall to see more than about 5 metres. It is a squeeze in the middle of the day.
We eventually got home, and slept for about 12 hours.
On the Monday we visited Victoria Peak.
Amid much complaining about the heat, we walked out
of Central and up the hill. We passed through
the zoo, and failing to connect with the bottom station,
Edwin and I found the second-bottom station.
This little way-station dates from when people commuted up and down
the mountain. We pressed the call button to request the tram stop.
The driver was most surprised, but sold us tickets.
In effect we jumped the huge queues that form at the
bottom tran station, and is worth bearing in mind
as a strategy.
The tram track is steep.
This photo shows how steep.
Actually, the photo is more accurately displayed like this:
We did make it, in the end. The peak is now more of a shopping mall than
a cultural experience.
The view is still grand.
Edwin claimed vertigo, and could not wait to return to
the hotel.
Hong Kong has grown.
I attended the TALE conference on Tuesday and Wednesday. Edwin and I scouted out the
campus on Monday afternoon. There was a huge perspective painting outside
the museum next door.
While I was at the conference on Tuesday, Susannah took Edwin to
Ocean Park, the top-rated attraction in HK.
Afterwards, we went out for a hot-pot dinner. Susannah knows
all the good places to eat, and in very-crowded HK booking is
required to avoid long queues.
Of interest here is the "hot plate" in the centre of the table. This is an induction-style hob, and it makes the hot-pot style of meal easy and fun. We went shopping as soon as we got back to Hamilton, but induction platters have yet to appear in NZ. We settled for a thermal one.
Edwin seems to have had a ball at Ocean Park.
Edwin was very grown up, well spoken, and a delight at the dinner table.
His wit grows, and it is clear he will be a deadly disputant in due course.
Of course he is a lot of fun too, and he has finally got the hang with chopsticks.
At the night markets, Edwin and I discovered a laser-seller or two.
They were selling small laser light-show projectors in red and green
(observe patterns on the ground),
and a variety of laser "pointers". The "pointers" is in quotes,
because you could buy them with a variety of powers including
100mW and 2000mW models, the latter supplied (understandably)
in a lockable box with safety glasses, since merely reflections from
a diffuse surface can deliver harm with 2W in a beam!
The engineer part of me wanted to buy a 2000mW one just to see if it was real, but the risk of that is too high in a house with kids who love light. They were cheap too, less than NZ$200.
We had wondered why, in
Firefly,
the weapons were predominantly like those of the old West.
One might speculate that it made the program exciting, like sound in
space battles in Star Wars, but one might rationalise that it is too
easy with a laser to hurt yourself with the ricochets!
There is a surprising number of offerings from these street stalls.
We skyped home from the conference.
On Wednesday Edwin came to the conference with me, and he used the internet
and I listened to the speakers.
One evening we went down to the Kowloon waterfront and saw the harbour light show.
Many of the buildings are coated with coloured lights, all computer controlled.
They can project patterns, beams, etc. One can make a rainbow slide down its side,
waterfall-like.
Altogether we had a good time, and I hope Edwin came back a more self-sufficient
person.
On the flight back home we did not sleep much. Then we woke up, it being about 9AM
when we landed on a bright sunny day.
We decided that instead of coming home and flaking, we would stop at the uni,
Edwin would use the internet and I would look in on my lab class.
We had a good sushi lunch too!
Not bad physical performance for a kid who is not yet 12 years old.