A Wonder from Tsim Sha Tsui to Tseun Wan

The 1st of July 1997 marked an important moment in Hong Kong's history, where the British transferred its sovereignty over Hong Kong back to China, ending British rule. Every year there is a great protest against the Handover and this year over 90,000 people marched the streets of Hong Kong Island. I took the opportunity to head off the Island and walk from TST to Tseun Wan, where the streets, buildings and transportation were almost desolate.

Lucky Guest House on Nathan Road.

An unmanned key copying kiosk off Nathan Road.

A dried fish stomach shop near Temple Street.

The most interesting alley in Hong Kong, located in Lai Chi Kok

Lai Chi Kok (cliche shot).

Grass is a rare site in Hong Kong, located in Kwai Chung.

A factory building in Tseun Wan.

The Nina Tower in Tseun Wan.

Little Treasures of Hong Kong

Over the past few months of my hiatus from this blog, I haven't gone on any adventures but I have found little, unique, and quite unexpected pieces of Hong Kong. Below are a series of images that one could never expect to see on a day to day basis elsewhere in the world besides this place. 

This thing.

A Chinese Schwinn Stingray copy.

A chrome red F4 MV Agusta.

A beautiful Jeep CJ.

A Lamborghini LM003.

Yes your eyes are correct. That is an early 1964-1966 mustang. She sure does make me miss working on my '66.

My brother Ben and I headed to a Billiards bar to play darts and of 2 helmets in the whole bar this one is coincidentally hanging over our table. If you are not aware, I consider myself to be from Kansas and therefor a Kansas City Chiefs football fan. This is an older Kansas City Chiefs football helmet.

Spotted this one from the light rail system in Tuen Mun. A purple tree, very unique and beautiful.

Thailand

First vacation not to the US: Bangkok + Phuket, Thailand

So here are a bunch of photos that slightly represent my trip through Bangkok and Phuket. What we did: 2 flights, 2 boat trips, a day of snorkeling, the Flying Hanuman (famous zip line course), an elephant ride, browsing markets, and eating wonderful food. 

Arrived at and departed from Suvarnabhumi Airport. Not only is it architecturally impressive but culturally as well. Visit it and see for yourself, you'll be impressed.

We took a "high-speed-low-drag" boat tour on the Chao Phraya River around Bangkok to feed over sized blue channel catfish, watch what seemed to be an endless amount of temples fly by our boat, and finally get dropped off at the Asiatique market. 

Our Cap'n throwin up the DEUCES Asian style. 

We spotted two large monitor lizards swimming in one of the many channels we zipped through.

A temple.

Another temple but up close.

After spending an hour or so browsing the vendors at Asiatique we tried the fish foot spa. It felt like a million miniature sticky hand yoyos (you know the ones that you'd slap onto someones paper in class back in the day when sticky hand yoyos were cool) were slapping and getting pulled off your feet for 15 minutes. It was unbearable for the first 10 minutes but the last 5 were just a minor tickle. 

We flew to Phuket where we took an hour long taxi ride to our hotel at the southern-most tip of the island. Every day it rained quite heavily but only for a few hours in the day, so anything we planned was done with limitations.  

We took a boat ride in hopes of seeing Mia Beach where the movie "The Beach" staring Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed. Unfortunately the weather got the best of our trip and the tour had to cancel entering Mia Bay because of high swells.

Practically the whole boat was from mainland Chiner. 

Phi Phi Island. Home to where the nests used for birds nest soup are plucked from caverns in particular Viking Cave. 

Pulling into Phi Phi Lagoon. The water was nice and clear but fish and coral were unfortunately eliminated from this area possibly due to tourist boat trips stirring up the water. 

One of our stops was Monkey Beach near Koh Phi Phi. These little guys were just as aggressive as the ones in Hong Kong so I didn't bother with getting off the boat. Mainlanders loved em though. 

 

One of the proudest moments I've had in maybe 7 years...spotting this tree that looks like a lama while riding an elephant, BOOM! 

The last evening of the trip I was informed that I could have rented a scooter/motorcycle without a license instead of paying for a taxi to get anywhere...

Just Another day at work

Today my colleague Colin and I were given the chance to create oblique aerial photograph stereopairs of multiple study areas around Hong Kong from a helicopter. We accompanied our boss who has had 137 or so previous missions. The flight took exactly an hour covering 7 study areas from Lamma Island to Sai Kung. The front and rear left doors were taken off so my boss and I were able to get great photos. 

What are  oblique aerial stereopair photographs? Basically its a pair of photographs that have been taken at a same altitude capturing a subject at slightly different angles by a change in lateral position. These different angles of the object in each photo is interpreted by your brain as having a depth of field, which allows for a 3D image of the subject to appear once viewed under a stereoscope or 3D-goggles. 

How does one create such an effect while in flight? The center of the camera lens is not to be fixed on a particular spot of the subject (in this case a hillslope) but continues with the flight path of the helicopter so that the subject appears at one side of the viewfinder and ends on the other. 

**Sorry but I did not include a stereopair in this post because I don't know how to correctly position them on this site and image sizes may vary depending on which device they are viewed.

 The helicopter. We started and ended our flight on the famous Peninsula Hotel in TST.

The Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

 The IFC Tower.

 Hong Kong looking east. Sheung Wan and Kennedy Town are on the right while the IFC Tower (on the right) and ICC Tower (on the left) are visible off in the distance.

 Happy Valley

 A view from the other side of Hong Kong looking west. I'd say we're currently over North Point.

My study area Fei Ngor Shan (Kowloon Peak). The linear feature that you see below the cliffs is scaffolding that leads to 3m deep trial pits that I have inspected and will continue to inspect throughout the study. I'm assessing the potential hazards that may arise from this hillside if it were to get hit by a 1 in 100/1000 year rainstorm. FUN STUFF!

Here is a quick video of my boss (back left) and I (front right) photographing this study area captured by 楊啟榮 (Yeung Kai Wing): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vuyb3Xcgpo&feature=youtu.be

 Sharp Island which I have posted twice about in previous posts.

 A tension crack representin'! M is for yours truly.

 Lion Rock.

 Lion Rock closeup. If you look closely you might spot tourists on the head of the lion.

 Colin covering the right side.

Kowloon Peak at a distance.

Un-Lucky Snack House

Today was one of those days that I couldn't be bothered going out and scavenging for western-style lunch so I decided to order in with a couple co-workers. I ordered the deep fried "chicken parts", hotdog and fries. My co-worker ordered fried rice with fermented bean curd tofu-like cubes on the side. The place we ordered from was called Lucky Snack House and now I understand the name.

                                         (cockroached)

Looks like I was the Lucky one!

Back from my Hiatus

Located in the northwest corner of Hong Kong is Lau Fau Shan. Its a small fishing community that borders Shenzhen. An interesting form of transportation on the mudflat is a wooden plank scooter.

Located in the southeast corner of Hong Kong is Chum Hom Kok beach. Its a 20 min walk from apartment located in Stanley.

My new neighborhood: Stanley. 

March

After purchasing a new lens, I figured I test it in an area of Hong Kong that I had not seen: Jordan.

The Scout Association of Hong Kong is located here, which not only hosts an impressive museum of Scouting history in Hong Kong, since Baden Powell founded it, but also is the Baden Powell International Hotel. 

 Quite an impressive lobby.

The Gold Lion award is the highest award a "Uniformed Adult Member" can receive, which may possibly be equivalent to the United States' Eagle Scout award. The Gold Dragon is the highest award a "Lay Member" can receive (the man whom I spoke with spoke little English so understanding the award system was difficult). 

Proof that Justin Bieber was actually a Boy Scout. 

An awesome rounded corner building. (3 merged images)

 

Flying Phoenix bicycles.

The butcher.

Bored pup. 

   Tired workers in Kowloon Park.

Spittin' image of my German grandfather "Opa" taking photos in a rose garden.

Nuff said...

 

Wan Chai Road.