Wednesday, April 30, 2008

photos

http://picasaweb.google.fr/elebelle/200804_HKAUS

Un peu sur le voyage en français (1)

Je n'ai rien écrit en français, pensant que Paul écrirait un peu. Faut plus compter sur ce miracle.

Hong Kong nous a beaucoup plu. On a beaucoup marché dans Kowloon, où était notre hôtel, et à Hong Kong même. Le musée de Hong Kong est excellent. Il commence avec la création géologique du site et continue jusqu'à nos jours. C'est très complet, très facile à suivre, et bien intéressant.

Il pleuvait fort le samedi de notre séjour. C'était un typhon qui passait. Une déluge, plutôt. Mais cela ne nous a pas empêché de faire notre visite.

Dimanche, nous avons fait la découverte de l'ile de Hong Kong, du quartier des grands immeubles, aux niveaux moyens des immeubles d'habitation au Victoria Gap où on a une belle vue de toute la ville.

Lundi, nous avons poursuivi avec une visite à pied du quartier des antiquaires et le musée d'art. J'ai terminé notre visite à Hong Kong avec un massage aux pieds et "corps". Le corps, en fait, c'est le dos – juste ce qu'il me fallait. Notre vol pour Melbourne était tard – presque minuit.

Si on avait su que le vol pour Melbourne s'arrêtait à Adélaïde d'abord, on aurait peut-être organisé notre voyage autrement. Pas grave On est arrivé à Melbourne dans l'après-midi de mardi, le temps de faire une petite lessive et promenade de découverte vers le centre ville avant de récupérer notre nuit de sommeil perdue. Le lendemain nous avons pris le bus gratuit pour les touristes, qui fait un tour de la ville, le jardin botanique et nous a déposé devant le musée de Melbourne. Encore un musée bien fait pour une introduction au pays. Il y a une partie sur le développement de Melbourne et l'état de Victoria – la ruée vers l'or de 1852 et le reste. Il y a une section sur les arts des îles pacifiques, car bon nombre de résidants de Melbourne y sont originaires et désirent faire connaître leurs cultures – les différents types de bateaux, les masques, etc. Et il y a une grande section dédiée aux Aborigènes – comment leur loi doit être reconnu au même valeur que le droit commun anglo-saxon. Les peintures, originairement de sable coloré, par exemple, sont des images, de la cartographie des cheminements ("dreamings"). Les tribus ont des territoires, mais les blancs n'ont rien compris et ils se sont dit que les Aborigènes ignorait le propriété ou la notion de limites territoriales. Par exemple, la pierre très appréciée pour les outils vient d'une carrière contrôlée par tel tribu. Il faut leur permission pour avoir la pierre. Même chose pour les dessins qui expliquent les dreamings. Il faut être du tribu pour l'expliquer ou avoir leur permission pour la raconter. Les Australiens essaient de concilier les communautés après des années et années d'abus.

Le centre ville de Melbourne est tout petit mais la communauté urbaine est très vaste et comprend 2 millions de personnes.

Jeudi, on a prit la voiture et parti à l'aventure vers les Alpes Victorienne. Il faisait très sec – la terre est grise, broutait jusqu'au bout. Il y a des moutons et des bœufs partout. La Hume Highway était un peu monotone jusqu'à ce qu'on l'ait quitté pour prendre le chemin des villages "historiques". Beechworth est l'endroit où l'or fut découvert en 1852. C'était le début de la ruée. Le village vit encore. Ce n'est pas comme les villes d'or américaines dans le sens où, ici, ils ont tout construit en dure – en brique et en basalte.

On est arrivé assez tôt à Inverness Park, qui se trouvait être une ferme avec chambre d'hôte. Patricia, la maitresse de maison, nous a montrer les lieux. Avant que la sécheresse ne deviennent trop sévère, ils élevaient des bœufs "Highland". En effet, son mari, Matt, est Ecossais ! Ils n'ont plus de bétail. Il leur reste un élevage de chèvres cachemires. La tonte a lieu juste après le jour le plus court, donc début juillet, ici, mais cette année, ils ne tondront pas car les chèvres sont trop stressés par les conditions de sécheresse. Patricia et Matt furent de parfaits hôtes et Patricia nous a préparé un très bon diner.

Nous sommes repartis après un somptueux petit-déjeuner vers la route des villes historiques et vers les Alpes Victorienne. Là, dans les montagnes, on a vu un phénomène désolant : les arbres sont tous morts. Ils ne semblent pas être victimes d'incendie – ça on a vu aussi, plus loin – mais c'est terribles de voir ces troncs et branches dénudées et toute blanche.

La route a pris fin près de la mer à l'est de Melbourne, à Bairnsdale. Cette ville, un peu plus grande que la moyenne, a une rue principale très large avec les boutiques de chaque côté et les voitures garées en épi. Elle fait deux grandes patés de maisons de long. Il y a une paté de maison d'épaisseur de chaque côté de la rue principale. Nous avons pris une chambre (parce que nous n'avons pas suivi notre itinéraire d'agence qui nous aurait fait conduire presque 700 km dans une journée.) dans l'hôtel du commerce (Commercial Hotel) où on a très bien mangé le soir et la chambre était rudimentaire. En se levant le lendemain nous voulions payer et partir prendre notre petit déjeuner à la boulangerie, mais tous les issus étaient fermés. Une fille a finit par sortir de sa chambre et nous a indiqué la sorti des employés. On a mangé et quand on est revenu à 8h30, il n'y avait toujours personne pour nous présenter la note. Je leur ai laissé un petit mot avec la clé de la chambre et assez d'argent pour couvrir le repas plus un peu pour la chambre que j'ai glissé sous la porte de l'hôtel.

Pause pour encore une nuit à Melbourne et on a pris la route pour Adélaïde. Geelong, ville industrielle (grande usine de Ford) à l'ouest de Melbourne, est le départ de la route : Great Ocean Road. Il y a un musée de la laine, mais, contrairement au guide Lonely Planet, il est fermé le dimanche matin. Dommage. Il y avait une course de hors bords en route Et une assemblée de voitures anciennes. Paul a bien remarqué une vieille Simca.

La route suit la côte des surfeurs jusqu'à Apollo Bay. Le ciel était éclatant. C'était un changement de la brume de fumée des brulis qui couvrait Melbourne et cachait la vue dans les montagnes. Il avait plu la veille à Melbourne, nettoyant le ciel. Les vues des plages étaient spectaculaire. Nous étions loger dans un Bed & Breakfast luxueux au sommet de la colline au dessus de Apollo Bay. Dans la ville de Apollo Bay, c'était le dernier jour d'un festival de musique – du monde et de la musique folk, jazz sur la rue principale. Je n'ai pas pu résister de filmer un groupe qui chanter du Bob Dylan sur un rythme de jazz.

La côte de Apollo Bay à Port Fairy était encore plus spectaculaire ! D'abord on traverse un parc national, Otway National Park. C'est très vaste et varié. Nous nous sommes arrêtés à Maits Rest pour faire un court promenade dans le forêt humide. Pas vraiment tropicale, mais très humide. C'était une journée pluvieuse et venteuse. Cela n'empêchait pas de faire de petits promenades pour voir les sites impeccablement aménages. Otway Lighthouse est la phare qui domine ce point le plus au sud de l'Australie. Il y a aussi la station de télégraphe, créée pour faire le lien avec la Tasmanie par le câble sousmarin. Ce câble n'a résisté que 2 ans avant de casser et la station fut converti en station de signales par drapeaux pour les bateaux. Les bateaux échangeaient de messages avec la station qui transmettait les informations à Melbourne par télégraphe. Ainsi, on attendait les bateaux avec impatience.

En partant de la phare, nous avons vu un koala dans un arbre au bord de la route ! Et j'ai pu filmer un peu pendant qu'il mangeait, se grattait, se déplaçait, et dormait. Géniale !

Ensuite la côte est accidenté. Ce sont des falaises érodés par les vagues et la pluie. Le résultât est un ensemble de "tours" séparés de la côte. Un groupe s'appelle les Douze Apôtres. Plus loin c'est le pont de Londres. Ce pont était, jusqu'à 1990, encore attaché à la côte ; c'était un pont à deux arches. Puis, l'arche le plus près de la côte s'est effondré. J'ai pris plein de photos, y compris les panneaux explicatifs si quelqu'un prépare un exposé sur l'érosion côtière.

Après une nuit à Port Fairy, nous sommes montés vers le nord, vers les montagnes Grampians. La nous avons vu la dévastation de l'incendie de janvier 2006. La tous les arbres sont noircis. Beaucoup sont morts, mais beaucoup d'eucalyptus ont survécu et se régénèrent bien. Il pleut ces jours-ci mais ce n'est pas encore la fin de la sécheresse qui dure depuis 8 ans. Nous avons quittés les montagnes pour gagner la région viticole de Coonamarra, où nous avons passé la nuit.

Aujourd'hui, nous avons fait la route de Coonamarra à Adélaïde d'un trait (5 heures) afin d'arriver suffisamment tôt pour voire un peu la ville. On a visité le centre culturel Aborigène où on a vu une exhibition d'artistes contemporains.

Demain, départ avant l'aube pour Kangaroo Island.

Back to Melbourne and on to Adelaide

27/04/08

The drive from Bairnsdale to Melbourne was pleasant. It reminded us of driving through Florida – lots of cattle grazing, very flat land, signs to good fishing on the left. It had rained a little, so the earth was not as parched as elsewhere.

The Commercial Hotel, however, was not all that Lonely Planet had led us to hope for. The room had a double bed – that's it. No bedside table or lamp No closet or anything to hang our clothes. The bathroom down the hall had a broken sink and was freezing. When I had first inquired if there were any rooms, the guy said he would make one up for us. First he told me it would be $33 , and then, when I said it was for two, he said $44 I originally thought that was for breakfast, but no, it was for the extra shower; there was no breakfast. We had dinner at the hotel, a very popular dining spot -- it was packed – and dinner was very good. When we got up and were ready to leave, we started out, but could not get downstairs; the door was locked. A girl finally came out of her room and showed us the way out on the staff's stairs and the alley gate. She said she'd be down to take our cash, so we went to a bakery for breakfast and it was already 8:30 by the time we got back to the hotel. It was still all locked up and dark. The girl was nowhere to be seen. I left a note with the keys and some cash – enough to cover the dinner and a little for the room, but not what he had quoted me the night before. It wasn't worth it.

We drove along the coast all the way back to Melbourne. I spent some time at a café and was able to post my blog entry. It then started to ain in Melbourne. They must have been happy, but it was just when we needed to go out looking for dinner.

This morning, we left Melbourne for Geelong and the Great Ocean Road. We got to Geelong just after 10 and wanted to go to th national wool museum. Lonely Planet said it was open every day from 10-5. Well, they are wrong. On Sunday, it doesn't open until 1:00. Fortunately, it is also where the tourist office it, so we loaded up on maps an advice for the rest of the trip. The Great Ocean Road has some spectacular views. It's great surfing country. You can see Sunday surfers out all along the road, but it doesn't seem crowded. There are plenty of lookouts and places to park to take in the view. As we approached Apollo Bay, we hit some showers – and gorgeous rainbows to go with them.

Our hotel is a"retreat" at the top of the hill overlooking Apollo Bay. It's only 6 km. from the turnoff, but it seems like the end of the world up here. The room is elegant and spacious. We'll go down to the town for dinner, but I imagine a restful night here. Now, I'll try to find Paul and get some pictures.

28/04/08

Tonight we are in Port Fairy, having traveled along the Great Ocean Road from Apollo Bay. It rained most of last night and we got caught in showers all through the day, today. Bill, from last night's retreat insisted that we take our time in spite of the rain and he was right. We put on all our layers of sweaters and a poncho and headed on our way. The first stop was a rain forest in the Otway National Park. The stop on the road is called Maits Rest. There is a short, 40-minute, walk among the giant ferns, myrtle trees and eucalyptus. We didn't see any snakes, carnivorous snails, or any other fauna that was indicated on the boards along the path. It was no longer raining, but it was a good thing we had our ponchos because a rain forest is always dripping.

Further along the highway, as it veered back towards the ocean, we turned off to visit the Otway Lighthouse. There's a whole set of buildings. First they built the lighthouse at the southernmost point of Australia; then they built the telegraph station to hook up the submarine cable to Tasmania in 1859. The cable broke in 1861, so they converted the telegraph station into a marine signaling station with a flagpole that could hold many flags to send messages to ships on their way to Melbourne or Sydney. The ships would send flag their messages to the shore and they would then be telegraphed on to Melbourne so everyone knew what was coming in just a few days before the ships docked. There was a whole little community, there: the lighthouse attendant and his assistants; the telegraph station master and his assistants, and all their families – maybe a total of 5 or six families in tiny quarters.

As we were driving out of the lighthouse area, on the way back to the main road, we saw a car stopped and some people looking up in a tree. There was a big ball of fur up there. Our first koala sighting! We got out and were able to watch the koala look at us, eat a bit, scratch a bit and go back to sleep, then walk on to another branch and start all over. Cute.

The next sights to see along the coast are the "Twelve Apostles". These are eroded sandstone outcroppings of the coastal cliffs. They are beautiful sights, but I think I appreciated the way the Australians have preserved their coastline. Parking areas are set aside and you have to walk a bit to get to the overlooks to see the sights. They have re-vegetated the area and people do tend to stay on the paths and respect the zone. There are plenty of overlooks. Towards the end of the cliff area, there is a formation called "London Bridge". Until 1990 it was a double-arched bridge still connected to the land, but then the connecting arch collapsed, probably due to the rain weakening the top of the arch rather than the waves working from below. I took plenty of pictures, including the explanatory panels, in case anyone is doing a school project on erosion :-)

As soon as the road leaves the coast, you're in the middle of farm land. Almost entirely grazing land for cattle and sheep. In Warrnambool, there's a gigantic dairy plant. I don't know what else there is there, but it seems to be a very prosperous major town, with its car dealerships, fast food restaurants and so on the road towards Port Fairy. What we've noticed most about Australian towns is that most of them are more like what American towns were like: a main street with shops on both sides, angled parking, one block long for the small towns, maybe two or three blocks for the bigger ones. The most common building material was brick – and basalt for the banks and other significant buildings, so they still look very much like they did when they were built in the mid to late 19th century. Lots of cars are parked in front of the shops and there is plenty of business. Only the really big towns,, like Warrnambool or Geelong, have a Kmart, Coles supermarket, or other big stores. Even small towns have a community hospital, post office, school and other public service. The roads are excellent.

We ended the day at Port Fairy, one of those one-block main street towns on the coast with a river port. There were lots of pleasure boats docked along the river. Our hotel is a boutique hotel with a dock out the back.

29/04/08

This morning we left the coast to see a bit of the Grampians What we saw was the remnants of a disastrous fire in January 2006. Almost all the trees show signs of being burnt, but they are so resilient that many survived and have fresh leaves all over. That was strange – since many of the branches burned completely, the leaves are coming straight from the trunk and the big branches that survived. But a lot of the trees did not survive. It's pretty bleak. We walked to an overlook to Broken Falls and there's not much water coming down.

Driving up to the Grampians and then back down to the road to Coonawarra took most of the day. We finally saw a live kangaroo late in the afternoon. Over the past few days we've seen quite a few road kill, so this sighting was exciting.

Now, we are in the wine country of Coonawarra. Since it's fall, the vines are all yellow and orange – very pretty. And, of course, the wine is excellent.

30/04/08

Today, from Coonamarra to Adélaïde in one go (5 hours) in order to get to Adelaide early enough to see a little of the town. We visited the Aboriginal Cultural Center, where we took in an exhibit of contemporary artists.

Tomorrow, we leave before dawn for Kangaroo Island.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

We're off!

23/04/08

Practical first, for emergencies – AUS international phone code is 61. So, if you need to call us, we've got a number: +61 450496485. The + is for whatever you need to dial to make an international call. When I get a chance, I'll have my Skype calls transferred to this number, so you'll be able to call the 412.... number from the States or the other number from France and it'll be free for you and not too expensive for me. (Check your e-mails from last September. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then I never sent you those numbers and you don't need them.)

One full day in Melbourne. Well, it's a small city, but still probably merits more than one day. It shows that even though I asked for more, the travel agent didn't really listen to me and I was too distracted by other things to pay attention at the end. On a circuit, she has us spending Two nights at the same hotel rather than continuing on to make the driving less tedious. Oh well, we'll manage. Also, if she had told us that the flight from Hong Kong stopped first in Adelaide, we might have organized ourselves differently and started from there instead of here.

So, we stopped en route in Adelaide and had to disembark so they could refuel and clean the plane for the trip back to Hong Kong. We didn't sleep at all during the flight because the toddler behind us screamed all night. Once we got here, I did a little laundry in the sink and we went out for a walk. The city center is very small and it looks like any late 19th – early 20th century town – except for the modern office towers that make it look like a big city at the same time. A strange mix. It's very clean. It's a little cool – after all, it is fall here.

Our hotel, Batman's Hill on Collins, is at the corner of Spencer and Collins Streets, just past the Southern Cross Station. The station is not just a train station; it is also where the airport shuttle dropped us off. There is also an outlet mall, just in case we needed to go shopping. And what looks like a full entertainment complex, with perhaps a sports stadium behind it. At 5 pm, you see the troops of office workers all heading to the station and at 9 am this morning, we watched them all file past on their way from the station to work. Our room is ideally situated for this parade.

We went straight up Collins and turned right to Federation Square, opposite the Flinder Street station, the terminus. This means we went almost halfway up the city grid and one-third over. If I hadn't stopped to get a phone card, this would have been a 20-minute walk!

Somewhere on the way, we smelled pizza and got hungry. After our stop at the tourist office, we hunted down a pizza joint and then called it a day.

This morning, up bright and early, we set off for the free tourist shuttle and had a pleasant ride up to the Melbourne museum. The first exhibit we saw was a student show of technical studies. There was cabinetry (Claire, you would have been very impressed!), fashion, photography and more. What impressed me the most were the specification books for each exhibit. The students had to define users or clients. For that, they created a persona, just as we do when we set out to write a technical document. Then, they had to show what had inspired them, what concepts they decided to work with (from their inspirations), and how they modified them to fit what they needed. They had to show they mock-up drawings and so on. They had to define the technical specifications. After that, you lifted your head and there it was – the finished product, a very professional piece.

Then, a bit of the history of Melbourne and Victoria, an exhibit on the Pacific island community that has settled in Melbourne and that is trying to keep their culture alive. Then, it was time to discover the Aboriginal exhibit – very interesting exposé on the two laws and how their culture should be respected. It's fine for museums to show their art as long as it is with the artist's (or family's) permission and that the museum does not show sacred items that are for the initiated only. That still leaves plenty to see.

We caught the free tram that dropped us almost at the hotel. After a short break, we went across the Yarra river and walked along the waterfront for a while before stopping at an excellent place for a seafood dinner.

25/04/08

I'm not connecting to the Internet as much as I'd like, so these entries are not so regular. Yesterday, we drove up from Melbourne to Albury, just over the state border in N.S.W.. We were set to stay at a bed and breakfast – only more, because it included dinner, too. It was lovely. We stayed with Patricia and Matt Stewart at their lovely farm, Inverness Park. Why Inverness Park? Well, Matt is from Inverness and Patricia, a fifth generation Australian, has ancestors from Inverness. Because of the drought they have had to give up their cattle. They had a herd of Highlanders and had prize-winning stud bulls. Now, they only have their cashmeres. Patricia took us around the place and explained everything to us. We got to pet Billy, their oldest goat and got a tour of the sheering shed, even though it's not sheering time. The goats grow their cashmere down from the longest day to the shortest and then, if they are not shorn, they shed it. So, sheering time is at the beginning of July. However, due to the drought and the stress it creates in the animals, they will probably not sheer this year.

The drought has gone on for eight years, now. We could see how dry things were on the ride up. The Stewarts have a pond, Little Loch Ness, which is almost dried up. And, like most Australians, they use collected rain water for their household use. They expect the rainy season to start any day now and hope it is enough to put an end to the drought.

They have a lovely home and farm. They were wonderful hosts. And Patricia made us an excellent dinner.

This morning, we explored the Victoria gold rush country. We had stopped in Beechfront yesterday – the place where it all started in 1852. So, it's contemporary to the California gold rush towns and looks like a town from a Western. There's a whole little circuit of these towns on the Historical trail and the Wine and Gold trail. Yes, this is also part of the wine country. From Yackandandah, we headed up into the mountains to get on to the Great Alpine Road. Unfortunately, there is this persistent haze from the burning off, so you can't really get a view.

The fall colors are beautiful – all that we missed last September in Canada. But, as we got up into the mountains, the forests are mostly eucalyptus and green. I was driving, so I didn't get a picture of it, but we were amazed at the amount of dead trees along the crest. It's not beautiful at all; it's eerie. A single dead eucalyptus is like a sculpture all white. A forest of them makes you think of a catastrophe, a sci-fi movie. From a distance, you could imagine what these mountains must be like with snow on them – they are already white from the trees.

We followed the Great Alpine Road down to Bairnsdale, where we are spending the night at the Commercial Hotel, which has not been refurbished in many, many years and needs to be. The town reminds us a bit of Okeechobee – a wide street with stores lining each side. The town seems to be a block thick on each side of the main street. Our post-dinner walk up and down each side of the street took no more than 20 minutes, including our window-shopping stops. That explains how I have the time to write this entry. Now I just need to find some Internet access. (A shame we discovered we could use the Stewarts', but it was already this morning and time to leave them.) I'll probably post this from Melbourne, tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

More Hong Kong

21/04/08

Well, we were lucky; it didn't rain yesterday or today. In fact, today was almost sunny. But muggy – very muggy. The temperature is about 28°C and there's 75% humidity. That's what I think I understood from the sign above the metro entrance earlier today. Add to that a typically Chinese smell that comes from I don't know what – maybe the different food odors since there is always food cooking in the street. But to our western noses, it stinks.

Yesterday we explored Hong Kong Island. Our first adventure was the metro where we got our day passes and figured out which direction we were going. Our hotel is next to the Jordan station in Kowloon and very convenient to the waterfront in Kowloon (just one stop away) and the island (next stop). Our walking tour started near the airport express line which connects to "our" line at th terminus: Central Station. The walk just to get out of the station complex was really long and even took us through a shopping center. We finally exited at IFC (International Finance Center) Mall at the base of IFC Two, which, it turns out is the tallest building in Hong Kong. Of course, from the base, you don't realize that.

As we keep going through shopping centers, I think of my father and how impressed I think he would have been. China is where they make almost everything, right? And on our trip two years ago, we learned that the counterfeit market is not really counterfeit; it's surplus. They make more of the original goods than was actually ordered and sell that. So, you can find really cheap "copies" of anything you can imagine. Yet these shopping centers are filled with luxury shops that sell the "original" European and American brands at are priced accordingly. And on the street, at every corner, someone is pulling you in to the tailor shop for a suit ($160 US) or "copy watch -copy bag". They are very honest; they always say it's a copy.

Coming out of the mall, we were at street level, which, it turns out, is not for pedestrians. It took us some time to figure out how to cross the street to get to the waterfront where we had a magnificent view of Kowloon. And the ferries.... - the opposite of the day before. We walked along the waterfront and found the construction site of the project we'd seen the plans for at the Heritage Discovery Center. They are at the beginning – the landfill stage. The channel between Kowloon and the island is getting narrower and narrower – no larger than the river at Shanghai.

As we admired the convention center (inspired by the Sydney opera?) an old fishing boat passed by. I hope the picture is ok. It was so dark and cloudy, I may just have a silhouette of it, but that might be nice, too.

We headed inwards, towards the Financial Exchange, home of the Hang Seng. It was Sunday, so there were no business people about, but the were groups of women – and I mean lots and lots of groups lined up on cardboard "stalls" that they made by marking boundaries with upright cardboard or umbrellas. They lined the walkway. They were playing cards, eating, giving each other manicures, or just gabbing. Hundreds. I guess, since it was Sunday, they were just getting together. I don't know if they were Chinese women or immigrants. Our route took us through the Central Market and the groups of women were there, too. Non-stop from the Financial Exchange.

From the Central Market, we took the Mid-levels Escalator. This escalator runs for blocks and blocks uphill past Robinson Road. Of course the street below is a pedestrian street with steps and one imagines how tedious it was to get between the mid-level streets and the business section below before 1993. As you go up, it gets more and more chic. This seems to be where most of the westerners live. They are out walking their dogs. The restaurants are almost any kind of cuisine except Chinese. The escalators take you past the Mosque and, I noticed on the map, a synagogue is just a few blocks away. The ride seemed endless, but it was not.

Instead of going back downhill to get back on our walking tour itinerary we decided to cut over to the Botanical Gardens and find our way to the tram station to get the tram up to Victoria Gap. The garden is like the Jardin des Plantes in Paris – zoo and botanical garden in one. It's small, but pleasant to walk through. When we came out the other side, we were told that the tram was suspended because of a fallen tree (from the storm the day before?), so we had to take a bus. Unfortunately, the bus was crowded and, standing up, it was hard to look out the windows to see the scenery on the way up. The hills are very steep, so there is not too much construction and it's like driving through the woods.

Victoria Gap is the stop on the way to Victoria Peak where they have created the tourist trap. Well, not too much of a trap, thank goodness. There is a building with restaurants and shops and a viewing terrace. You have to pay to get to the terrace, but the view is worth it. By the time we got up there, the fog had lifted, so we could see the city below us. It's impressive. The buildings, residential and office, are so tall that people living or working at the lower floors must never see the light of day and you wonder how they breathe. It's like being in a well! I wouldn't say the view is beautiful, but it is certainly impressive. We had a very American lunch at Bubba Gump's. It was that kind of tourist place. It was also a good lunch.

We rode the bus back almost to the terminus, getting off at the Central metro station. I needed some time to rest after which we set off to discover the area just north of the hotel We walked along Temple Street, which is a night market. They were just setting up their stalls as we walked up the street. This is for tourists and not really very interesting, although I'm sure it's colorful at night. Then we cut through a street that is a permanent food market. In addition to the fruits and vegetables we didn't recognize, the ones we think we know are disproportionately big. Enormous carrots, for example. This street lead us to the Jade market, which is another tourist thing. There's not even all that much jade. They sell all sorts of baubles. So we cut through there rather quickly and kept going up Saigon street until we reached the street that specializes in electronics. We checked a few shops to see if we could find the high-speed memory card for Paul's camera, but no one had one. It was past 6 pm and what was astounding was the crowd in the street. The street was packed. It's a pedestrian street and jam-packed with people, most of them Chinese, so even if this is on the map for tourists, it's not a touristy place. This is the heart of the Mong Kok neighborhood, which used to be the densest area and was known for its brothels. The authorities are trying to clean it up, so there's this magnificent hotel tower sitting in the middle of some pretty dirty older buildings.

Paul wanted to see the lit-up buildings along the waterfront so we got on the metro and headed down there again. It was still hazy and we didn't know when all the buildings put on their show unfortunately. But it is still a lovely scene. We decided to head back up to our hotel neighborhood for dinner and found ourselves in a very popular restaurant that was packed with Chinese. Turns out it was a vegetarian restaurant. Very good. But I don't see the point of having vegetarian pork shops (made from bean curd) or vegetarian seafood dumplings. Why try to imitate the taste and texture of what it's not?

This morning we headed out on a walking tour of the antique dealers along Hollywood Road. The first challenge was to find the bus from the Central metro station. The guide book said the bus stop was in front of the HSBC bank, but we ended up in the wrong direction and a man at the stop escorted us to the right stop, which we would have never found on our own. It was not really near his stop and very nice of him to escort us like that. From the end of Hollywood Road, it took us all morning to zig-zag back to the Central metro. The street of antique dealers, the street of dried fish, the street of traditional pharmaceuticals, the oldest Buddhist temple in Hong Kong. Before taking the metro, we had lunch at a restaurant on Stanley street, not far from the beginning of the mid-levels escalators. This was the best meal I think we had in Hong Kong. I had shrimp dumplings in chicken broth.

After lunch, during which we dried off from our long morning walk in the mugginess, we went to the art museum to spend the afternoon in air-conditioned comfort. They've got a special exhibit on the French taste for Chinese porcelain, fabrics and other art. Most of the items were on loan from the Guimet museum in Paris. There's also an exhibit of recent modern art – artists influenced by stories. Several of the paintings had paper and pencil supplies and an invitation to write your own story of the painting. Interesting. Not to forget the museum's own porcelain collection and the jade and gold.

All good things must come to an end and we had to go outside again. We still had a few hours to go before getting the bus to the airport, so I indulged myself in a foot and a back massage. A foot massage is painful, but you feel so good when it's done. I love it. Paul waited patiently for me and refused all attempts to get him to have a massage. Then, it was back to the hotel, where I had time to start writing this. :I'm finishing it as we are flying over Australia, heading for Melbourne.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

First Impressions: Hong Kong

17-18/04/08

It's a long flight and I'm just not tired. It's a red-eye. We left Paris an hour late – at 7:45 pm – and it was perfect timing to sleep after dinner was served. Except I can't sleep. I'm not sleepy. I should be. I was up early this morning to go to the hospital for the nth time. This time, Dr. Chartier wanted to remove the remaining unused balloon. He hoped that that was what was somehow blocking the passage. I was there before nine. He examined me and said that as soon as he got back from surgery he'd do the procedure; I waited until 1:30 He did it, but I still couldn't pee, so he stuck a catheter back in I took a cab from the hospital and picked up Paul at home. We loaded up our suitcases and took off. I had a late lunch at the airport.

Before taking out the computer to write, I was thinking. Thinking a lot about Dave and how much he had been looking forward to his trip to China before he died. How much he liked to travel and yet how little he did. But this trip to China, even in the poor condition he was in, was something he really wanted to do and he died before he could do it.

Anyway, our first stop on this trip is Hong Kong. It's a 12 hour flight – our midway point on the way to Australia. We had hoped that Pierre-Frederic, Nadine, and the kids would come down to Hong Kong from Wuhan for the weekend and spend some time with us. We were all looking forward to it, but at the last minute, Pierre-Frederic got stuck with a Monday appointment in Beijing and had to cancel the weekend with us. This means we're on our own. I have a hunch, we'll sleep a bit on arrival. We've got Friday afternoon, Saturday, Sunday and most of Monday there before heading to Melbourne on another red-eye, 11-hour flight.

I really should try to sleep!

19/04/08

Yesterday was our lost day. By the time we got to the hotel it was already 5 pm, so we decided not to rest, but to go out fairly early to get dinner. Our hotel, the Largos Hotel, is in Kowloon, the district facing Hong Kong Island. We are just around the corner from the Jordan metro station, so theoretically we could get a three-day pass and visit the city. We are a very short block from Nathan Road a major shopping street, which, as if it didn't have enough shops on the street and upstairs, has brand new luxurious shopping centers that seem to go up a few flights and then are just as deep. Our room is tiny. I'm jammed up against the wall and window and there's no room to hang anything that might need space to dry out (more about that, later). Kind of like a New York hotel room that the kids might remember from our trips with them to New York.

Both of us suffered from jetlag during the night; I thought I heard rain. There's a typhoon (Neoguri) passing not far to the west, so I supposed it was from that. When we left the hotel this morning, it was still raining, but not hard, so we decided to walk a bit instead of taking the metro.

The best place to go when it's raining is a museum and we are not far from the Hong Kong Museum of History. By the time we got there it was raining pretty hard, we thought, and we were happy to discover this museum at a snail's pace. It's a really well done museum that takes you through the geological formation of Hong Kong, the prehistoric period and the different Chinese groups that have come and gone from Hong Kong. There's more and more detail, of course, as you get closer to the present. There are paths that take you into shops, living quarters, a fishing boat, etc. If you try to listen to everything on the audio guide, you could spend more than a day there. The video sequences are excellent – easy to understand and not boring or too long. It was nearly 2 pm by the time we finished and had lunch. It was pouring.

There's no metro stop right near the museum, so we set out on foot and, once we got our bearings, continued towards the harbor, with the view of Hong Kong, opposite. I'm not posting the picture because you can barely make out the other side through the rain. We saw the clock tower, which is all that is left of the old railroad station. The Star Ferries leave from there to go over to the island and, further up, is the ocean terminal for cruise traffic. By this time, my raincoat was drenched and the umbrella was not doing much for Paul. We were both soaked through.

Kowloon Park is built on old military grounds (from the British period) and the Kowloon walled city that preceded the British taking over Kowloon. (Originally, the British had a concession for Hong Kong island only; then they added Kowloon, and in 1898, added the New Territories.) The Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Center is in Kowloon Park and we stopped there for a short break from the downpour. The staff welcomed us with paper to sponge ourselves off so we wouldn't drip too much on the floor :-)

The main exhibit of the HK Heritage Discover Center is closed. But there is a very interesting exhibit of the Urban Design Study for the New Central Harbourfront. That's a mouthful, but they are re-shaping the waterfront of Hong Kong Island facing Kowloon. It's a modern development that is creating diverse neighborhoods with housing, offices, shops, sports, culture, schools, and so on. The skyline is being dictated by the mountains just behind the city, so, even though the buildings are skyscrapers, they are not all the same height and will not mask the mountains. It's an interesting project. Paul got rally into it, of course.

From there, it was a matter of finding our way back to Nathan Road and the hotel. The rain was coming down in sheets by this time. We had walked through puddles so deep our shoes and socks were sopping wet and so were our clothes. The waterfall you see in the picture shows what I mean. We came down those stairs and took the picture from a bus shelter on Nathan Road.

The upside is that I have had the time to write this entry. We've got our clothes hung up wherever we found a spot. We're going to have to go out again to get dinner, but for the moment, we are just happy to relax and be dry. The forecast for tomorrow is more rain.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Last minute items

Hmm - I thought I could post our itinerary here - guess not.
I think I've got everything done:
passports, visas, travel docs, preliminary packing, appointment to take the cat to the vet tomorrow, last trip to see the surgeon on Thursday morning (cross fingers hoping he doesn't tell us to cancel last minute - plane leave Thursday evening!).....
Paul got himself a new camera; I got myself a mini-computer (book-size, less than 2 lbs.....)
I think I've got everything Emma has asked for - still need to find the USB adapter.
Nadine (Lebelle) called and they might just meet us for the weekend in Hong Kong. That would be wonderful!
So that's it. Keep posted for more on the trip. I'll try to write every few days.
-------------------
Dernières tracasseries - Je pensais pouvoir poster notre itinéraire ici, mais non.
Je pense avoir tout fait :
les passeports, visas, autres documents du voyage, les valises prèsque faites, le rendez_vous chez le véto demain pour le chat, dernière visite chez le chirurgien jeudi matin (croisons les doigts qu'il ne nous demande pas d'annuler à la dernière minute - l'envol est le jeudi soir !)
Paul a eu son appareil de photo; moi, je me suis achêté un mini-ordinateur (taille d'un livre, moins d'1 kg....)
J'ai tout ce que Emma a demandé - faut trouver encore l'adaptateur de clé USB.
Nadine nous a téléphoné et ils vont peut-être nous joindre pour le weekend à Hong Kong. Ce serait génial !
C'est tout ! Gardez un oeil sur le blog. J'essayerai d'écrire tous les quelques jours pendant le voyage. Publish Post

Saturday, April 5, 2008

PACS

Pour les français, c'est très court: Louis et Gwen se sont pacsés le 2 avril. Vous n'avez certainement pas besoin d'explication. Au cas où, il y a une définition sur Wikipedia.

For the rest of you, Louis and Gwen have signed a PACS. So, what's a PACS? Well, there's a Wikipedia explanation in English. But it's a bit long. The short version is that the French passed this law in 1999 that allows couples that are not allowed to get married to have a contract that gives them all the same benefits as married couples. It was designed for homosexual couples. Since then, heterosexual couples have adopted it, too. Instead of going to city hall for the civil ceremony, they go to court for this contract. And if they decide to split up, it's back to court. It's easier to terminate this contract than it is for a married couple to get a divorce and I think that couples today are not as optimistic as before and they are concerned about the end before they even get to the beginning. That's what makes it more popular.

For a parent, it's certainly less expensive than putting on a wedding. Like when a couple elopes, I guess.

Anyway, they did this now because they are about to buy an apartment together. Paul has visited the apartment but I haven't seen it, yet. From all reports, it's very pleasant and not far from where Louis lives, already. It's much closer to the metro station and shopping, still in the 14th arrondissement.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Plus ça change

More of the same. I now have an appointment on Monday which will be the moment of decision -- whether we can go to Australia or not and when to schedule more surgery.

Encore et encore. Rendez-vous lundi matin pour déterminer si le voyage en Australie aura lieu ou non et quand je passerai sur le billard -- encore !

But -- spring has arrived! It's warm out; the sun is out, more or less. We're on daylight savings time, so the days just got much longer.

Le printemps est arrivé ! Il fait doux ; le soleil brille, plus ou moins. On a changé pour l'heure d'été et les journées se sont bien rallongées.