I have FINALLY converted an ancient Dreamweaver coded Travel Journal to WordPress!
It was good to clean up some of the code, and get “it” back to a base standard in html!
Part of the joys over jumping various web platforms over the years…
In re-linking the various jpeg image files, I realize that I do need to go back and re-scan some of the old slides!
So if you are interested, please take a look and let me know what you think!
13:45 P - UA Flt# 3806 - Hong Kong -> San Francisco (3E) 14:40 P - UA Flt# 394 - San Francisco -> Philadelphia (4C)
I waited with Dad for his plane to Manila.
Armed Soldiers walked the Airport, and when someone tried to video them, they placed their hands in the way of the lens, and told the people to stop.
Once again, I was in First Class.
There was more air turbulence on the way back.
I ended up drinking the booze that was on the serving table right next to me!
My flight out of SF was for 14:20pm!!
The flight was a little late leaving.
The movie on the flight was “The Mask”
We were joined today by a relatively new employee
Walk on the Water Front
Shopping in Shanghai
Uniquely shaped rocks with wonderful plant gardens.
I did not bring my camera, but if I had, I would have used B&W film.
Mr. Cheng had problems with the original waitress, and complained to the manager.
From what I understand, we were first told by the waitress to look in another area of the
restaurant, but when Mr. Cheng persisted, the waitress did not wait to work because she was tired.
I could understand her plight, but if this had not been a Communistic country, she would have been right on our party.
Bought the jade pendants for Amy & Debbie
Black Stretch Mercedes-Benz
The person at the front desk knew Dad visually as her approached the front desk, and she walked us up to our room.
Talk about Service!!
Dad and I had a wonderful conversation, while I was eye flirting with a blonde in a red dress.
There were definitely points in our conversation, that I wished Dad would disappeared and gone to bed!
After Dad left the bar, I meet Ian Crinters. He claimed that he was the retired Ex-president for CitiBank, Hong Kong.
Ian also introduced me to Dr. Wally.
Apparently, Dr. Wally is one of the leading Dentists in Hong Kong.
Dr. Wally and I ended up having a conversation about China and food. I mentioned that in the today’s paper, I had read about how to make snake soup, he offered to take me to a restaurant that served an excellent good snake soup.
The bill for Dad & I comprised of 6-7 beers for me, and 3 Scotches for Dad. I signed for the bill and it was for $766.00 plus tab!!!! Grant it, it was Hong Kong dollars, but it is still a shock!!
As the Group (Dad, Brain, Elaine, Lynna and myself) traveled north into China, I was struck by how many mountainous regions there were. Apartments with mountain backgrounds.
I have noticed that several of the hill are covered with cement faces, but as one looks closer, nature does seem to be reclaiming what is hers.
The country side is still very green. There also seems to be a real division between what is “man’s hand” and what is mother natures.
Even though man has cleared for his own use, mother nature will not wane.
While waiting for the train in front of us to move… I sit and watch a white crane hunting in an abandoned rice field.
There is no water in the fields, but the barriers are still there. The only water is in the aqueducts that once served the fields.
A second crane flies by, and the pair flies off together.
Small white flowers now grow in the rice fields.
At the train station, we were “attacked” by a poor Chinese family wanting to help with our bags. There was a mother with a young child attached to her, while a young brother and sister remained persistent in asking to help.
On the way to lunch, I noticed a large 8″-10 rat laying dead in the street.
A little further up the road, I noticed a neighborhood of homes that were nearly leveled to the ground.
The restaurant in the hotel had large plate-glass windows that looked out over the impoverished neighbor that we had just walked by minutes earlier.
Shenzhen seems to be surrounded by mountains on all sides.
The highway we were driving over was just recently opened.
As I looks about, there is construction EVERY WHERE!!
There is a large contrast between what has been done, and what needs to be done.
The On/Off ramps to the Highways are NON-EXISTENT! In some cases, one could travel on the roads that were a combination of dirt and asphalt. Many places on the “paved” highway had spot that were just being redone.
One would be driving along, and then would have to change lanes because they were redoing a road joint.
In the States, the section would have simply be closed off for the repair time. Here, they simply place two traffic cones. If the workers were working on/in the median, there would also be just two cones. No warning!!
Just there!!
There were other points on intermittent highways where one would not see lane lines or traffic lights. Just CHAOS. Cars, bikes, motor cycles, trucks seemed to do what ever they could get away with, and some how, they did without ANY accidents!!
If there were “formal” On/Off ramps, the driver still had to deal with dirt, bumps and lumps in the road as well as bricks, rocks, etc.
Once on the Main Highway, the roads were rather nice. The driver, Mr. Fong, on several occasions hit 90+ mph, even though the speed limited was 100 kph, but then again, two things: 1) Out of the blue traffic cones; 2) Humans on the road working.
It was very odd to be traveling along, and then see someone on the side of the road, sweeping the shoulder with a long reed broom.
There was a constant battle with what was on the highway. I saw men working in the middle of NO WHERE. Bikes, motor cycles, trucks, taxis’, cars, etc.
On numerous occasions, I saw vehicles broken down! It did not seem to matter where or what!
The only cars that really seemed to move on a regular basis were the BMWs, Mercedes, Lexus’, high-end Honda’s or Toyota’s.
There were many Toll Booths were under construction.
When traffic had to converge, it seemed to be that who ever had the biggest or most expensive vehicle got in first.
As we finally got into Guangzhou, the traffic was far more local, but there was an increased injection of bikes (2 & 3 wheel types), people walking, cars, trucks, etc.
I saw both cars and motor cycles pass into the opposite traffic lane with no fear to pass slower vehicles.
At one point, we saw that someone had been “pulled-over” for something, and I could only wonder why. I had seen SO MANY traffic violations that it seemed absurd.
At one point, Dad thought he saw a group of people standing around a dead man along the side of the road.
We got here approx. 17:00 (11/8)…
Brian, Dad and I sat in the hotel lounge while we waited for Elaine, Lynna and Robert.
They finally showed up some time around 18:30. The three of us were really beginning to worry, As it turned out, the “new” driver at “we” picked up @ the Shenzhen airport, did not know where he was going in Guangzhou.
Also, there was a crew flying in that got hung up in Chinese Customs because of some of the signs that they were bringing in.
At dinner, which was help in the France room of a nice restaurant around two very large round tables.
We has several dishes that were quite interesting.
We had snake, which does really taste like dark meat chicken, and the comment was made that snake was “Chinese ribs”.
There was a baby duck. When the bowl was first placed on the lazy Susan, and spun by me, the head was sticking out of the broth looking at me!
Rabbit was also served, but I decided because I am not a big fan.
At one point, Oli, saw that I was using the hot sauce, and he tried to warn me about how hot they were, but I said that it was mild, so he and several other gentleman ordered some small green peppers which were offered to me as a shot.
I took one chew on it as they requested, I went for my beer, and they insisted that I not drink, so I forcefully put down my beer in a gesture to show that I did not need it.
We drank beer, brandy and gallons of tea!!
20261001 – Update – Many years have passed since I wrote my nightly notes there in our motel room in Hong Kong. Years later, back in the States, I posted them here to this site.
I have added and updated content and technical aspects under the hood.
It’s also been a few years since I’ve updated this website, so please bare with me.
Note – All images are quick, low-res scans from slide film on a flatbed scanner. One of these days, I’ll re-scan at hi-res the better ones. As they say, ‘Content is King’, so…
This was my first real view of Hong Kong, and it was amazing. There were so many sights that were new to me, and processing them was difficult as I jumped from one thing to the next.
– Get my Visa into China
I was overwhelmed as I walked around.
We took a very steep cable car ride to the top of Mt. Victoria, where we walked around the top.
At one point, you can see the other side of Hong Kong.
We then took a taxi from the top, all the way down, and into Kowloon, where dad was getting new glasses.
At one point, I remember crossing a bridge, and seeing a big banner sign saying in English “Real Chinese Food”, and it struck me as very odd in such a location.
I had a “Fast Food” Chinese meal!
Dad and I walked along the water front.
Took the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong
On the way to dinner, I saw forests of apartment buildings!!
I have been to New York city numerous times, especially since my companies headquarters was located there, and my father was born and raised there too.
But the was something different about how the builds where built that reminded me more of a forest then a collection or group of building. I was also told, that area was one of the most densely populated places in the world.
These were the restaurants features in one of the James Bond 007 movies.
While waiting for our table, a Chinese man, very eager to try his English with me, started with several small words, and then a simple phrase, and then “I’m a SEX MACHINE!“
Trying not to laugh right in his face was one of the hardest things I things, I’ve ever done!