Out and About

Here is a selection of shots taken while in traffic around town. In this first shot you can see the lower edge of the framing of the window in the sliding door of our car. Inches away is the first row of motor scooters. Scooters tend to fill in every square micron of space between the cars the minute the traffic stops moving.

 Notice the roof of a 7-11 mini-market in this next shot.

I just passed this lot again today and now there is a cement wall.

 Just regular traffic, lalu lintas...

This is one of the anchor stores in a mall we occasionally visit. There is a bookstore here that stocks the Burda magazine I try to pick up monthly. We also sometimes shop at Metro.

Since this is the rainy season, if my group of photographs  represented reality, there should be a lot more shots taken through rain-drop laden windows.

 A scooter "store" selling various items. I think I took this shot in the neighborhood of one of my friends.

A parade of Go-jek (Taxi scooter) drivers.

 There is a lot of construction going on all over. Here is one example.

This is the Anomali Coffee shop where we occasionally go. It's very near the apartment.

Canada Giving Thanks

On October 1, the Canadian Women's Association celebrated with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. A friend is now the co-leader of the group. They are pretty loose with membership requirements, so they even let American's join. I am still a member of the American Women's Association. Only kidding. Anyone can join.

Our table was mostly ladies from my sewing group and their spouses. One volunteer from each table was "sworn in" as turkey carver and presented with a chef's hat and apron. There was even an oath of turkey duty.

 Shortly after that ceremony, there was a turkey parade. One turkey was delivered to each table. Sorry this is blurry.

Our guy from the parade. Also in the photo a friend of mine from The Netherlands and her husband.

Here is our turkey carver. He did a pretty good job. ( Note: photo is in black and white—you are not seeing things.)

We had the usual sides and some approximations of traditional desserts: pumpkin pie, pecan pie and there was something else.  There were games of chance to raise funds for CWA charities and raffle tickets for prizes. We'd purchased raffle tickets when we got there but we didn't realize there were two sets of raffle tickets. One was for early birds only and then there was the real raffle tickets. Since we didn't buy any of the second set we didn't know about, we didn't win anything. Oh, well. One of the prizes was a bunch of vouchers for our favorite Indian restaurant in town. I would have liked to have those!

IHS Explorers Day

The new season for the Indonesian Heritage Society began at the end of September. One of the first events was an All Explorer morning at the Museum Nasional. If you remember, the Explorer group members take turns planning field trips to all sorts of events and venues.

First we were treated to 3 different traditional dances, two were Betawi (Java)) and the third was from Bali.

Some of you will be able to view these short videos of the dancers. Some small, hand-held devices won't support the video.

Next there was a discussion of the Wallace Line. I won't go into details here but if you are curious, do some research- see the link below. In the meantime, here's a hint:

We've been to Bali so now I am really curious to travel to Lombok. Unfortunately, there is a little volcano that's been erupting and causing travel disruptions to and from Bali and Lombok of late, so that particular trip will need to wait a bit. To help you in your research about the Wallace Line, Project Guttenberg has both volumes of The Malay Archipelago available for free online or to download I believe. Here's the direct link to Volume I:   http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2530/2530-h/2530-h.htm . At the end of the text is a link for the second volume. This is by no means a light read, but the subject is fascinating.

After this talk, the large group of Explorers was divided into small groups of 6-8 and took off with our tour leader. It seems strange to me, but they kept switching tour leaders every few minutes. One leader spoke for less than 5 minutes then we were traded to someone else. Perhaps this is due to the guides having a special focus on certain areas but for me it seemed a little chaotic. Also, while the children's tours I witnessed did seem to stay together and obey their guide, my group of adults kept wandering away. Like trying to herd cats.

I like this museum but I think I prefer roaming through it without a guide. You do pick up a few interesting tidbits from the guides but I like going at my own pace.  My favorite room is probably the room with mock-ups of the various traditional housing found throughout the archipelago.

There is also an enormous collection of porcelain and ceramics, mostly from China. All of it was imported to the islands and was part of an enormous collection (or maybe more than one) obtained by the museum. I learned why the Chinese began using blue and white themes. Apparently, it has nothing to do with a Chinese preference for blue and white. There is also a very small exhibit of local ceramics which were mostly hand molded without any glazing or added decoration.

Go Buckeyes

While in Hong Kong, we watched the Saturday football game between OSU and Oklahoma. There was a moment that will surely be replayed during highlight programs at the end of the year. Buckeye Noah Brown caught a touchdown behind a defender. OK, I am understating things. Noah was in the end zone with the OK defender in his face and by pure instinct, caught the ball on the back of the defender, gave him a bear hug, and landed with both feet in the end zone. If you want to watch video of the catch, just google OSU, Noah Brown and touchdown and you'll be sure to find it. The incident spawned a couple of T-shirts. Here's one:

 Go Buckeyes! Another victory yesterday.....

More Weekend in Hong Kong

As we checked into our hotel they explained there was an art show taking place at the hotel that weekend and as a result the elevators would be taking longer than usual. Hmmm.

It turns out that it was the Hong Kong 2016 Asia Contemporary Art Show which included 2500 artworks filling all of the hotel rooms on 4 floors. Artists (or their reps) even displayed art in the bathrooms. They were provided (?), or brought with them (?), boards to cover the tubs and sinks providing additional display areas. Some artists chose to just stand the art up in the tub and on the vanity side areas.There were long queue lines at times in the various lobby levels of the hotel but occasionally a staffer would "open" another elevator for guests to get to their rooms without such a long wait.

We were given VIP tickets to the event and on Sunday afternoon we took a stroll through part of the show. I think we did 2 and 1/2 floors of it. Some interesting pieces, some truly odd pieces and some beyond my personal understanding. After doing part of the show we adjourned for afternoon tea.

Note: I was amazed at the numbers of guests at the show snapping photos of all of the art. This is not usual practice in the US.

We found more art in the mall. There was a free show "Fierce and Fragile: Big Cats in the Art of Robert Dallet." Gorgeous! I kept the brochure even though it is in Chinese because of the pictures included in it. This traveling exhibit is produced by Hermes and the conservation charity Panthera and launches the Robert Dallet Initiative for Wild Cat Conservation. Hermes's 2016 Charity Scarf sales will benefit the Initiative. The artist died in 2006.

We traveled by the classic metro, MTR, in Hong Kong a few times as well. Here are a few shots from the various metro stations and trains. They were clean and being used by all sorts of folks.

 And Mrs. Fields in the MTR!

I mentioned an aviary in the HK Park. It is the Edward Youde Aviary. Approximately 3000 sq meters (32,300 square feet). This the large staircase we climbed up to reach the aviary entrance. The base is all the way down at the point of white at the bottom.

There aren't any supporting poles in the aviary. Instead there are 4 giant arches supporting the stainless steel mesh which covers the valley.

Birds present? Lots and lots of birds including my favorite, the Bali mynah. This Bali mynah came over to visit with me while I was standing there. I snapped a lot of pictures while he was checking me out. You can see the elevated boardwalk for guests visiting the aviary.

 We are pretty sure this is a Chinese hwamei.

This is Ficus variegata. This tree uses cauliflory. Cauliflory is the production of flowers (and later fruits) on the tree trunks instead of on branches. This may aid in pollination as the flowers on the trunks may be more visible to birds and bats. This is common in the tropics.

Lastly, here's a photo of Hong Kong Dollars and a few coins. Net worth: about $100 US. Some of the bills are plastic and have clear windows in them. Others are still paper.

Weekend in Hong Kong

Last month we spent a long weekend in Hong Kong (HK). We took the MTR (rapid transit) Airport Express from the airport to a station near our hotel and then got on the free shuttle to finish the trip to our hotel.  When heading back to the airport, we arranged for a car because the MTR doesn't run that early. Our hotel was in the Admiralty section.

The weather was nice, though it was hot. Almost across the street from the hotel was a beautiful green area—Hong Kong Park. I would love to have a park like this near where we live now. We ended up walking in the park several times.

There were a lot of turtles in the various water features.

Our first stroll through the park was on the way to the Peak Tram boarding area. At the Peak station we had a long queue to purchase our tickets.

After getting the tickets, we had another long queue to wait in to actually board the tram. The place was packed. It's less crowded on weekdays they told us, but we were there on a weekend. The tram cuts a narrow path up the hill between some buildings. You ride up the hill facing forward and that's OK. The tram simply reverses to return to the lower station so you ride backwards riding back down the hill. Literature says the Peak Tram is one of the world's oldest and most famous funicular railways and rises to about 1300 feet. The gradient is between 4 and 27 degrees. It first opened in 1888 and made it easier for the residents of the Peak area.

At the top is an architecturally interesting "tower" topped by a terrace. From the terrace you can see in all directions. Nice views. Inside the tower are tons of restaurants and shops for visitors. I found this photo on the Internet of the "tower"; the view photos are ours.

Nice looking houses!

 And a panoramic shot of one side:

If we visit again we will take in the nature walks said to be accessible from the Peak. Perhaps best done in slightly cooler weather.

Another mode of transport we used was a ferry to Kowloon Island, HK. The ferry provides great views of the harbor and skyline. The hotel concierge gave us a pre-printed card with some of the top sites in town listed in both English and Chinese. This made it pretty easy to handle the taxis if they didn't speak English. Nice!

It was a short taxi ride to the Star Ferry dock. The ferry fare is 2.80 HK dollars on weekends. It's cheaper weekdays we learned. After figuring out how to work the machine to get our tokens, we were immediately able to board a ferry. Our goal on Kowloon was a place known as the "Ladies Market." This is sort of permanent flea market with knock-off purses, watches, cheap women's clothing, cheap knick knacks, etc. I found Kowloon to be a very confusing place—very few signs of any type in English. My Chinese is non-existent. We managed to get some iced tea and some lunch in Kowloon and had a nice chat with a young woman about Indonesia. On our return ferry trip we had no wait either. We got our tokens and immediately boarded for the quick trip back.

The photo below is the ferry we took back to to the other side.

The history of Hong Kong is very complicated. We wanted to  visit the Heritage Museum to gain some understanding but we couldn't find it on foot. We did find the Space Museum but it was closed for renovations except for the Imax theater. So we had a couple of disappointments there. We had no trouble finding alternative things to do as we had a long list of possibles.

Another trip was to the "Western Market." I'd learned from a friend who just moved here from HK that on the upper floor of the "Western Market" there were some small fabric shops. At these shops you could get a piece of fabric cut, pay for it and take it with you. Apparently at many fabric shops in HK you select, pay and have the fabric delivered to you. The fabric isn't on site necessarily. (Photo from the Internet.)

This building is the oldest market building in HK and was at one time a meat and vegetable market. We did get some fabric including some wild and crazy fabric to create a new pair of sleep shorts for B. Suitcase space was extremely limited as we brought only a carry-on bag each.

My friend also let me know about a fabulous grocery store which happened to be located in the mall accessible from our hotel. We would not have discovered it without prior information due to the location and minimal signage. We spent a long time wondering the aisles —the familiar and the new—wishing we could bring items back with us. We did purchase dinner there one night and it was really tasty. The grocery was something like a combination of Whole Foods and Trader Joe's but on a huge scale. Much of the mall was just very high-end shops but there was an educational "toy store" where we discovered jigsaw puzzles for sale. We only purchased one due to the suitcase limitations. Wish it could have been more. They had quite a few choices.

It turns out my newly found jigsaw puzzle buddy is repatriating to the US so we won't be able to continue the puzzle exchange we'd started. Boo hoo.