Hello Amazing Ones,
Love adios and peng on,
Dirk
Big Wave Bay
Not just another beach!
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Interesting Streets
Love adios and peng on,
Dirk
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Window of the World
Hello Great Ones,
I have had the week off due to semester break so that it is great. Going on a mission trip over the weekend into China was wonderful again, but I was pretty tired afterwards.
When I got back I headed with a friend for a little break to Shenzen, the massive city that borders Hong Kong and we checked out one of its numerous theme parks, "Window of the World." It was so bad, absurd, and over the top silly that afterwards I did not fret about the price of admission. @14 dollars Canadian. I was entertained by the absurdness of the park.
Two other real positives was that the sun was behind a smog/rain cloud so there was no sun beating on us and the temperature was a comfortable 25. Plus the vegetation in the park is great, lots of Banyan and palm trees.
Basically Window of the World has taken all the major landmarks around the world and made a model 1/3, 1/8, 1/59 th whatever, of its original size. All the continents are represented. So we started out with Asia and saw all the temples of Thailand and Cambodia, then moved on into Australia and saw Ayers Rock and the Sydney Opera House. From there it was Europe, windmills, Venice, castles, then to South America and a bizarre open pit mine from Venezuala, followed by Africa and its animals and grass huts. North America or rather the US was well represented by Niagara Falls, a model of Manhatten, with twin towers, statue of Liberty, and then there was South America again with Jesus on the hill overlooking Rio de Janerio. Indians were well represented too and for a few bucks you could shoot an arrow. There was also a log ride, where you rode along in small craft in water, like disneyland, but the overprotective Chinese made us wear rain ponchos and gave us a towel. I rebelled took the junk off and got wet like a man.
This park also had a bizarre statue park, where you could see "masterpieces," from around the world. There were also Chinese cowboys, an indoor ski hill with a tee bar lift, the Effiel Tower, and Chinese men doing Hawaiin folk dances in grass skirts. Riiiight! Then there was another European village. Of course there were vendors everywhere selling junk and coconuts.
It was all rather bizarre and with the Chinese embracing halloween it made it even more bizarre. For example there was a Mercedes Benz with a flat tire and a skeleton behind the wheel near the Egyptian exhibit, which of course had pyramids. Weird. All in all if I was really serious I would rank Window of the World a two out of ten for tacky displays that were run down and rather lame, but for entertainment value, because it is so bizarre and tacky I would give it a solid 10 out of 10.
So I wish you a great week and God bless you all.
Love adios and peng on,
Dirk
I have had the week off due to semester break so that it is great. Going on a mission trip over the weekend into China was wonderful again, but I was pretty tired afterwards.
Two other real positives was that the sun was behind a smog/rain cloud so there was no sun beating on us and the temperature was a comfortable 25. Plus the vegetation in the park is great, lots of Banyan and palm trees.
Basically Window of the World has taken all the major landmarks around the world and made a model 1/3, 1/8, 1/59 th whatever, of its original size. All the continents are represented. So we started out with Asia and saw all the temples of Thailand and Cambodia, then moved on into Australia and saw Ayers Rock and the Sydney Opera House. From there it was Europe, windmills, Venice, castles, then to South America and a bizarre open pit mine from Venezuala, followed by Africa and its animals and grass huts. North America or rather the US was well represented by Niagara Falls, a model of Manhatten, with twin towers, statue of Liberty, and then there was South America again with Jesus on the hill overlooking Rio de Janerio. Indians were well represented too and for a few bucks you could shoot an arrow. There was also a log ride, where you rode along in small craft in water, like disneyland, but the overprotective Chinese made us wear rain ponchos and gave us a towel. I rebelled took the junk off and got wet like a man.
This park also had a bizarre statue park, where you could see "masterpieces," from around the world. There were also Chinese cowboys, an indoor ski hill with a tee bar lift, the Effiel Tower, and Chinese men doing Hawaiin folk dances in grass skirts. Riiiight! Then there was another European village. Of course there were vendors everywhere selling junk and coconuts.
It was all rather bizarre and with the Chinese embracing halloween it made it even more bizarre. For example there was a Mercedes Benz with a flat tire and a skeleton behind the wheel near the Egyptian exhibit, which of course had pyramids. Weird. All in all if I was really serious I would rank Window of the World a two out of ten for tacky displays that were run down and rather lame, but for entertainment value, because it is so bizarre and tacky I would give it a solid 10 out of 10.
So I wish you a great week and God bless you all.
Love adios and peng on,
Dirk
Sunday, October 16, 2011
A Weekend in Hong Kong
Hello Awesome Ones,
It has been pretty bleak and rainy for the last three weeks, but today was a welcome respite, with the sun visiting Hong Kong again. Temperature went up to 29 today, it had been a frigid 25 for a while, yeah I know get out the violins, and so I headed out to a beach on Sunday aft. More about that later.
This week I am going to write a little on what I do on a "normal" weekend. Friday is a social night and I head out with friends to eat or do something interesting. This past Friday was the annual staff supper at a golf and country club. Before dinner I released some tension by driving a few golf balls towards mainland China. The course we were at is right at the border and you can see the high rises of Shensen. By the way a school board member put the dinner on for us, so that was great. So I devoured steak, steak, and potatoes, was a welcome changeup from fish, fish, and rice.
Saturdays is my skype day and I check up with Helga and Alf, plus the kids. I also become happy homemaker and take 15 minutes to clean up my humble abode. I also get some provisions for breakfast, I always eat out, when dinners are 5 to 10 dollars, why cook? I also haul my laundry to the local Chinese laundry business, wait they are all Chinese, and get my weekly accumalation of dirty clothes cleaned, and folded for a few bucks. Excellent.
Then, like this past Saturday I will do something like go out with a friend and watch English soccer at an English pub and cheer on Man U or Chelsea or Liverpool. Its jolly fun watching a game with the English especially if you are cheering for the wrong team.
Then Sunday is church day which I attend without about eight others from school. The church I go to is called the vine and it is a converted theatre. Metal vines cover the building. Only in Hong Kong, only in Hong Kong. Check the scripture, God is the vine and we are the branches. The church is a pretty rocking place, great music, great message, all in English, it is a taste of heaven in that every race and at least 50 countries are represented at the Vine. Great.
Then, now to rub it in a bit, after church I go out for lunch with my friends or head to a beach or jungle. Today was the beach. October 16 and I was splashing in the waves. Still wrapping my mind around that. Plus 29 lovely.
Have a great week ya all. And God bless you. Thanks for your interest in my life here in Hong Kong.
Love adios and peng on,
Dirk
It has been pretty bleak and rainy for the last three weeks, but today was a welcome respite, with the sun visiting Hong Kong again. Temperature went up to 29 today, it had been a frigid 25 for a while, yeah I know get out the violins, and so I headed out to a beach on Sunday aft. More about that later.
This week I am going to write a little on what I do on a "normal" weekend. Friday is a social night and I head out with friends to eat or do something interesting. This past Friday was the annual staff supper at a golf and country club. Before dinner I released some tension by driving a few golf balls towards mainland China. The course we were at is right at the border and you can see the high rises of Shensen. By the way a school board member put the dinner on for us, so that was great. So I devoured steak, steak, and potatoes, was a welcome changeup from fish, fish, and rice.
Saturdays is my skype day and I check up with Helga and Alf, plus the kids. I also become happy homemaker and take 15 minutes to clean up my humble abode. I also get some provisions for breakfast, I always eat out, when dinners are 5 to 10 dollars, why cook? I also haul my laundry to the local Chinese laundry business, wait they are all Chinese, and get my weekly accumalation of dirty clothes cleaned, and folded for a few bucks. Excellent.
Then, like this past Saturday I will do something like go out with a friend and watch English soccer at an English pub and cheer on Man U or Chelsea or Liverpool. Its jolly fun watching a game with the English especially if you are cheering for the wrong team.
Then Sunday is church day which I attend without about eight others from school. The church I go to is called the vine and it is a converted theatre. Metal vines cover the building. Only in Hong Kong, only in Hong Kong. Check the scripture, God is the vine and we are the branches. The church is a pretty rocking place, great music, great message, all in English, it is a taste of heaven in that every race and at least 50 countries are represented at the Vine. Great.
Then, now to rub it in a bit, after church I go out for lunch with my friends or head to a beach or jungle. Today was the beach. October 16 and I was splashing in the waves. Still wrapping my mind around that. Plus 29 lovely.
Have a great week ya all. And God bless you. Thanks for your interest in my life here in Hong Kong.
Love adios and peng on,
Dirk
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Stonecutter's Bridge
Hello Great Ones,
Hong Kong is a city of amazing man made structures. This is due to the challenges of a rugged landscape, islands, the sea, and having to pack eight million people in a very limited space. One of the great challenges facing Hong Kong is being able to transport 8 million people around the territory with some ease. One of the most amazing structures to help this process is the Stonecutter's Bridge which opened just in 2009.
It is the second largest cable stayed bridge (whatever that means) in the world. Due to the interesting challenge and extreme difficulty of building the bridge it was featured in two Discovery Channel Extreme Engineering series.
It won the 2010 Supreme Award at the Structural Awards in London. Never heard of that but it must be like winning a Grammy Award. Ha ha. The bridge is 1.6 km long, high enough that ships can go underneath and it cost 356 million US to make. Whoa.
On Wednesday I had a day off and went biking with a friend. To get to my friend's place I had to bike underneath and past the Stonecutter's Bridge. It was pretty amazing.
Well I hope you all had a pretty good week.
Love adios and peng on,
Dirk
Hong Kong is a city of amazing man made structures. This is due to the challenges of a rugged landscape, islands, the sea, and having to pack eight million people in a very limited space. One of the great challenges facing Hong Kong is being able to transport 8 million people around the territory with some ease. One of the most amazing structures to help this process is the Stonecutter's Bridge which opened just in 2009.
It is the second largest cable stayed bridge (whatever that means) in the world. Due to the interesting challenge and extreme difficulty of building the bridge it was featured in two Discovery Channel Extreme Engineering series.
It won the 2010 Supreme Award at the Structural Awards in London. Never heard of that but it must be like winning a Grammy Award. Ha ha. The bridge is 1.6 km long, high enough that ships can go underneath and it cost 356 million US to make. Whoa.
On Wednesday I had a day off and went biking with a friend. To get to my friend's place I had to bike underneath and past the Stonecutter's Bridge. It was pretty amazing.
Well I hope you all had a pretty good week.
Love adios and peng on,
Dirk
Saturday, October 1, 2011
1961, Typhoon, and Sause
Hello Great Ones,
Sorry no pictures this week. I should have taken a few, but I did not. I have no valid excuse for why not. Maybe I was not in tourist mode so I just forgot. Still I had few interesting experiences this week. On Tuesday night I went to a Mexican restaurant in Kowloon, they got everything here baby, and spent some time with five other men that I got to know through a mutual friend. It was interesting in that four of us were all born in 1961. The other two were born in 1949 and 1964. This was great since most people I know at the school were born in the 70's or yikes even the 80's. So what do old 50 year old guys do? Well, we had some good laughs talking about the 60's and 70's. Was good. Nice to hang with some guys my own age for a change.
On Thursday I had an unexpected day off. Typhoon Neset, I think that is right, was 300 km off the coast of Hong Kong and the typhoon warning system hit number 8. Kind of gives you an idea how big and dangerous typhoons are when one 300 km away is considered close and life threatening. Once you get up to warning 8 schools are shut down, and buses and subways stop as well. So it was a good chance for me to catch up on some sleep. The winds were pretty bad and there were a lot of branches and debris laying around later. The winds made the rain go sideways and it lashed my apartment pretty good. By the evening everything was calm again.
On Friday I went to a neighboring town called Sai kung with a friend and ate at a restaurant called Sauce. It was awesome. All you can eat Tapas, Spanish food served small. Very good. I think Hong Kong should promote its food. They have everything here. Some is crazy expensive, but for the most part you can have a great meal, like I had for less than 20 dollars Canadian. Great.
So that is it for this week. I will try to get some visuals for next week. Have a good one eh?
Love adios and peng on,
Dirk
Sorry no pictures this week. I should have taken a few, but I did not. I have no valid excuse for why not. Maybe I was not in tourist mode so I just forgot. Still I had few interesting experiences this week. On Tuesday night I went to a Mexican restaurant in Kowloon, they got everything here baby, and spent some time with five other men that I got to know through a mutual friend. It was interesting in that four of us were all born in 1961. The other two were born in 1949 and 1964. This was great since most people I know at the school were born in the 70's or yikes even the 80's. So what do old 50 year old guys do? Well, we had some good laughs talking about the 60's and 70's. Was good. Nice to hang with some guys my own age for a change.
On Thursday I had an unexpected day off. Typhoon Neset, I think that is right, was 300 km off the coast of Hong Kong and the typhoon warning system hit number 8. Kind of gives you an idea how big and dangerous typhoons are when one 300 km away is considered close and life threatening. Once you get up to warning 8 schools are shut down, and buses and subways stop as well. So it was a good chance for me to catch up on some sleep. The winds were pretty bad and there were a lot of branches and debris laying around later. The winds made the rain go sideways and it lashed my apartment pretty good. By the evening everything was calm again.
On Friday I went to a neighboring town called Sai kung with a friend and ate at a restaurant called Sauce. It was awesome. All you can eat Tapas, Spanish food served small. Very good. I think Hong Kong should promote its food. They have everything here. Some is crazy expensive, but for the most part you can have a great meal, like I had for less than 20 dollars Canadian. Great.
So that is it for this week. I will try to get some visuals for next week. Have a good one eh?
Love adios and peng on,
Dirk
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