For many, the modern Island of Hong Kong is synonymous with Hong Kong itself. During my week travelling, I only spent a few hours on the Island so I’m no authority – but here’s a sketch of what I did. Firstly a reminder of the layout of the north side of the Island, with “Central” in […]
A trip to Hong Kong (part 6 – Hong Kong Island) Read More »
Following on from my previous post, here are some further observations when out and about in Kowloon. Convenience stores are everywhere – Circle K, 7-11 and Wellcome are the main ones. Note the enticing “Azuki bakery” in the middle. Small plazas and arcades (same thing) run off the main roads and house a variety of
A trip to Hong Kong (part 5 – more sights from Kowloon) Read More »
Kowloon is the southern peninsula of the mainland, looking South onto Hong Kong Island. Kowloon has been described as “downtown Hong Kong”. But “downtown” denotes the busiest part of a city where the shops, restaurants, offices and financial centre are to be found. The financial district of Hong Kong is firmly located on the
A trip to Hong Kong (part 4 – walking around Kowloon) Read More »
This article is a summary of my findings from wandering around Hong Kong for a week. The cuisines on offer There is a wide variety of Asian cuisines on offer – Thai, Filipino, Vietnam, Sichuan, Tibetan etc. as well as the local food. And there are restaurants absolutely everywhere. I was expecting Hong
A trip to Hong Kong (part 3 – food) Read More »
Ugliness The first point we can make, without fear of contradiction, is that most of the cramped accomodation in Hong Kong is irredeemably ugly. With the high demand for housing, aesthetic concerns came secondary to practical ones. Lack of funds for good housekeeping, and the necessity of placing the hideous air conditioning units in plain
A trip to Hong Kong (part 2 -architecture) Read More »
I spent a week exploring Hong Kong at the end of October. I hadn’t put in much preparation for my trip. I had got hold of a guidebook to read up the basic stuff about currency, tipping etc and to fix a few ideas of areas I wanted to check out. And on the basis
A trip to Hong Kong (part 1 – introduction, impressions) Read More »
Provins is a medieval town designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It lies about 90km to the southeast of Paris in the Champagne region. One can get there from Paris either by car or by train from Gare de l’Est (and a minibus connects the station to the town). The town is composed of
A few miles northwest of Paris lies the charming town of Auvers sur Oise. The Oise is a river which starts its life in Belgium, crosses northern France before flowing into the Seine. The impressionists loved such riverside spots as Auvers sur Oise, Argenteuil, Croissy-sur Seine, Chatou and of course Giverny where Monet lived and
Auvers sur Oise – the crows of Van Gogh Read More »
