Selfie with style and Hong Kong's phone obsession

I am not suggesting I have any style, but....

this way you don't get the big nose effect you get with phone cams or have to carry around a selfie stick, pity about the line across our middles.

Walking around HK is dangerous, we have seen a lot of people trip over.  A few year's ago I read short Sci Fi story in which a time traveller to the future noticed a sign saying "please exit virtual reality before crossing the street", they need them around here.  We have seen people trip over, fall off kerbs and nearly knock people over.  It makes Blackberry users in the City look positively cautious.  They never get their heads out of their phones!

Yes there is a signal on the MTR.

Starbucks are all over the place, so are McDonalds but have kept my camera away from them.

The new versus the not so new

For the first time visitor like me it is difficult to find, in much of the city and Kowloon, much of the old Hong Kong either real or the romanticised view of the old movies.  There are some heritage sites and places like the Man Mo Temple are fascinating.  However there are signs that increasingly older buildings, and I mean 50's and 60's may be disappearing.  Many of the newer residential blocks look to be around forty storeys of flats.  This is not surprising given a rising population and the pressure on space.  I did see a report online that there places hidden away where poorer members of the population live in what are called coffin apartments (actual size, not a metaphor).

This building in Wan Chai is typical of the older style, with air con units attached to the windows etc.

Hong Kong is trying to become a modern city but the danger is that they may rip out the heart and become sterile like the undoubtedly architecturally interesting but modern corporate look of the Standard Chartered building in Central.

This of course is only an opinion and one formed in a very brief visit so should not be taken too seriously.  Also, I would stress, that it remains a bustling metropolis packed into small space but who knows what the Chinese Government's real vision is for its future.

Unusual Breakfast

HK Harbour and Chi Lin Nunnery

Junk in HK Harbour

The old against against the new. although the junk may turn out to to be newer than some of the buildings.

On the first night we ate at Dim Dim Sum just up the road from the hotel in Wan Chai.  The food was good particularly the Meatballs with sun-dried tangerine peel and the Pan-fried Eggplant (Aubergine) both of which we had never eaten before.

Thursday we were on our feet most of the day.  On the Kowloon side we visited the Chi Lin Nunnery which must have been relatively isolated until engulfed by HK spreading into Diamond Hill area.  As you can see the high rise of the city and suburbs has taken over.

Life from a Hotel Window

It's amazing  what you see from a hotel window, not usually something like this scene. 

Happy Valley race course on race night!

Travelling to Hong Kong

The first day of our big adventure, HK, New Zealand, Aus and Singapore in six weeks.  An eleven hour flight, even in premium economy, is not a romantic start for such an undertaking but it is more efficient than a sailing clipper.

Still taking off into a blue sky seen through the windows of Heathrow's Terminal 5 nearly does it.

Hong Kong Airport is vast and as chaotic as most international airports but the ceilings are quite interesting.

 Viewed from the bus HK in cloud and maybe a bit of smog looks foreboding almost like something out a Ridley Scott SF movie.