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Post by Humph on Jul 12, 2016 11:31:32 GMT
Sitting in a bar in Kowloon right now. 7 hours ahead of UK time. Scenery stunning, humidity wearing. First time here. Evening awaits. May be back later! Too old to get into much bother.😉
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2016 14:06:02 GMT
Pity - incriminating photos would be good to see....
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jul 12, 2016 17:28:30 GMT
Lucky devil! It's a place I wish I'd managed to get to before I swapped my 'global' job for a (better paid) European one. Asia - from my limited experience - is exhausting but fascinating.
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Post by Hofmeister on Jul 12, 2016 17:34:26 GMT
Sitting in a bar in Kowloon right now. 7 hours ahead of UK time. Scenery stunning, humidity wearing. First time here. Evening awaits. May be back later! Too old to get into much bother.😉 Dont eat the sea slugs or the crows feet.
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Post by Humph on Jul 17, 2016 8:30:35 GMT
Amazing trip, got up into China in the middle of it by car. Didn't drive myself but was picked up by a private hire driver in some kind of Toyota people carrier. Border controls between HK and China were pretty tedious. About an hour each way to clear through but with no drama, just slow.
HK airport an incredible structure built mainly on reclaimed land. Heat was incredible, hovered between 32C and 34C most of the time but rained a lot too, sometimes with thunder and lightning punctuated by periods of intense sunshine.
I guess I didn't know what to expect, but far removed from men with ox carts and wide brimmed hats it was instead very modern and industrial in that area. But like Birmingham but hotter !
There were signs of different H&S standards though, like bamboo scaffolding up the side of massive tower blocks. Didn't look especially safe to me. Building work everywhere.
Huge service culture with seemingly three people for every job there would be only one for here. No idea what wages are like but I suppose they will be much lower than here.
English widely spoken in HK but much less so in China although even there the road signs were in both languages. Something I hadn't realised was that In HK they drive on the left but in China they drive on the right. Quite a lot of cars have two number plates permanently attached, one for HK use and the other for China.
Usual mix of car brands we would all recognise but interspersed by local Chinese vehicles which were in many cases new to me. Some of them look remarkably like clones of European and other Asian makes but when you get up close to them you can see subtle differences.
A car nerd thing which struck me was how small the wheels were on most cars with very little evidence of the western obsession with big alloys on everything.
Traffic in the cities was chaotic and while I'm not nervous of driving anywhere really, I was glad to be being driven in what seemed to be a virtual free for all system. It felt odd at first to witness helmetless moped riders weaving in and out of the traffic on the wrong side of the road in many cases, or indeed often on the pavements with the pedestrians, apparently moments from head on collisions at all times. But somehow it works.
Enjoyed it.
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Post by Hofmeister on Jul 17, 2016 20:13:32 GMT
Bambo scaffolding is used much throughout the mid and far east, seems to work fine as well as if not better than steel poles. As far as Chinese cars go have you seen the new Ssangyong Tivoli? www.ssangyonggb.co.uk/pages/new-ssangyong/tivolimakes the Dacia Duster look like an over priced skip.
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Post by Humph on Jul 17, 2016 20:15:30 GMT
Little wheels though eh?
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Post by Hofmeister on Jul 17, 2016 20:24:06 GMT
I like little wheels. The ones on the Lancer are prefect. 15 inch wheels with nice thick compliant tyres. None of this earthquake shuddering when you drive into a deep pothole, and there are many of those.
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Post by Hofmeister on Jul 17, 2016 20:26:30 GMT
It was 32c and very humid at the dog show today. The pooch was really suffering, but came through fantastically.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2016 20:32:52 GMT
I like Hong Kong a lot. I intensely dislike China. But what're you going to do? Needs must and all that.
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Post by Hofmeister on Jul 17, 2016 20:36:16 GMT
I like Hong Kong a lot. I intensely dislike China. But what're you going to do? Needs must and all that. And you'll need to turn to china much more now.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2016 21:27:38 GMT
Never been to China. Somehow I can't summon the enthusiasm. I think it's the food and the huge difference between the cultures. I know lots of people who go on business, frequently with the wives and have great times, but I think the wives simply shop.
I quite fancy western China, moving into Iran but I suspect Armageddon will have to occur before the Iranians will let me in.
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Post by Humph on Jul 17, 2016 21:37:27 GMT
I had one of the nicest pizzas I've ever had when I was in China. Which was quite disorienting.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2016 21:42:51 GMT
I had one of the nicest pizzas I've ever had when I was in China. Which was quite disorienting. Disoccidenting surely?
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Post by Humph on Jul 17, 2016 21:47:24 GMT
That too
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