Paris and biking

We'll never get to Paris at this rate! The Washington Post just ran an article on Paris and then biking the countryside: Couple plans to tour Paris, then cycle through nearby parts of France. It includes some useful links but the tab for 10 days is $6,000.

Google Maps Paris

I've got a list of Paris market streets here that I'll have to enter on a google map of Paris.

Paris Bakeries

Oh, my! I haven't told anything about our trip to Hong Kong!! We had a wonderful time and I'm ready to go back. I'm going to have to get a baby laptop so I can post things while I'm away. Presently I'm only using the blog to prepare for the trip, not to tell about it.
So on to the next destination: Paris! Penny suggested that and also that I brush up on my French.
In preparation, here is my first list: ten bakeries to visit by Dan Lepard.

Sai Kung

I was checking out the Kowloon Motor Bus Company schedule for Route 92 that goes from Diamond Hill to Sai Kung. It leaves every 15 to 20 minutes and takes 41 minutes travel time. It makes 28 stops and since the website uses google maps you can click on each stop and see what it looks like and even go to a street view! Should I check out each stop before we go? NO! Juan will say. You need to leave something to see when you finally GET to Hong Kong.

Pedestrianisation

You didn't know there was such a word, I bet! You can read all about the Hong Kong Transportation Board's plans for Pedestrianisation to promote walking and to improve the overall pedestrian environment. They also show the streets blocked to vehicle traffic in the different neighborhoods which will give us a good idea which streets we want to walk down.

10,000 Buddha Monastery

We haven't told Papi about this one in Sha Tin. Do you think he would like to go?

Streets in Mong Kok

I have to remember which streets in Mong Kok I want to walk down. The Ladies market is on Tung Choi Street which is closed to traffic south of Argyle Street, a major thoroughfare that is hard to cross -- both for pedestrians and traffic.
Another interesting street is Canton Road near Shantung Street to the west of Nathan Road. At that intersection there is a Japan Home Centre. Canton Road goes north for a block or so and then seems to stop at Nelson Road which also looks like it is closed to traffic. This is right next the the Langham Place mall so maybe we can zip over and walk the area, along with Shanghai Street.
And it is definitely 239 Reclamation Street that has the store with lots of baskets, just north of Waterloo Road.
When we walk down to Ladies market or to Nathan Road, I think we should take Fa Yuen Street since it looks like it is closed to vehicle traffic and full of stands at the upper end where it meets Prince Edward Road. We can walk down Fa Yuen to Mong Kok and then cross over using the elevated pedestrian walkway. And then after Argyle Street take Tung Choi Street (if you can find a place to cross Argyle).

World's Greatest City

And as I continue browsing through CNNGo, there's an article on 50 Reasons Why Hong Kong is the World's Greatest City, and the number one reason is the public transportation.
Then some other interesting tidbits:
8. It has the best "soy sauce Western" food.
9. Hong Kong has the highest density of 7-Elevens in the world.
11. You don't need cash in Hong Kong, just an Octopus card that makes a "doot" sound when you run it through (just doot it).
15. Bird market, sneaker street, ladies market, goldfish market, flower market … all centered in the bustling Mongkok neighborhood within walking-distance of one another.
18. The tastiest embryos
Thick, fluffy and moist, with an even, lemon-yellow tone -- such are the seraphic scrambled eggs at Australian Dairy Company served between two slices of white bread with the option of toasting. Add a splash of chili sauce and we’re in comfort-food heaven. 47 Parkes Street, Jordan, Kowloon.

CNNGo: Dried Seafood Street

CNNGo has an article on shopping for dried seafood for Chinese New Year. "Dried Seafood Street" stretches along some 200 shops on Des Voeux Road West from Queen Street to Centre Street in Sheung Wan (Western) on Hong Kong Island. In this article there are instructions for preparing dried abalone, dried fish maw, dried oysters, black moss, dried scallops. And they even mention dried sausages, although not exactly seafood...

12 Hours Time Difference

It's unsettling to look at my weather widget for Hong Kong and realize that they are half a day ahead of us, so that it is 6 pm there tomorrow while I am writing this at 6 pm today. I don't know if I'm going to be able to stand 14 hours and 35 minutes on a plane without being able to lie down. I don't suppose they'd appreciate me stretching out in the aisle...

Kowloon City Market

Surfing through the Hong Kong Streets with Google Maps street view got me to the Kowloon City Market which is near the park that they turned the Kowloon Walled City into. I thought I wrote all this stuff down somewhere but I can't find it. Or maybe I was just surfing. In any case, one needs to cross Prince Edward Road early because it is very difficult to find a crossing further on. Sort of like crossing a freeway. Cars can't even do it. The Kowloon City Market Cooked Food Center is open from 6 am to 2 am every day.
At the base of the drive that goes from Prince Edward Road to the Royal Plaza Hotel there is a crosswalk that will take you to the other side of Prince Edward to the Flower Market.

Streets of Hong Kong

As I'm clicking along Hong Kong streets in Google Map's street view, I'm looking up things about them, for instance, Portland Street which runs parallel between Shanghai Street and Nathan Road. Because it has little shops, it looks interesting but Wikipedia says that it is also a famous red light district between Dundas and Argyle Streets. Good to know I suppose although it looks pretty innocuous in the Google street view early in the morning.
North of the swanky Langham Place mall, there are tile and building material stores. Perhaps we can go down Shanghai Street and then up Portland Street and then down Nathan Road. After all, Portland street is only 3/4 mile in length.
It might also be interesting to take a look at the "shop houses" or tong-lau on Shanghai Street. The wikipedia article led me to Hong Kong University's Hong Kong Heritage Stories. Fantastic! more for me to read!
Now I am at Yin Chong Street near Fa Yuen (Sneaker from Soy Street to Nelson Street) Street and going east it is full of fruit and vegetables stands. There is a waffle shop at 95 Fa Yuen just before Argyle Street, but then you can't cross Argyle street so I'll have to take a right. It is quite easy to navigate the street view if you make it full screen and then use the up and down arrows to move forward and back ward and the right and left arrows to change direction. After the right on Argyle you can take the next left on Sai Yee Street and at #121 there is a Lei Garden Restaurant. That is where CNNGo Top 40 article says to go for Chicken Feet. Then take a left on Fife Street and back to Fa Yuen. A right on Fa Yuen will take you another block or so but then you are foiled again by Mong Kok Road but that is near the Fa Yuen Street Complex with a wet market inside and a Mong Kok footbridge network overhead. Evidently the Mong Kok footbridge is the only way to cross Mong Kok Road, and it is also hard for cars to cross it. Tung Choi Street seems to be one of the few streets that goes through. Evidently the photos taken south of Bute Street were taken later in the day since all the store fronts are open. But north of Bute Street, Tung Choi is very deserted with store fronts closed up.
If you keep going north on Tung Choi you eventually run into Prince Edward and if you hang a right, you get to the Royal Plaza Hotel. If you keep going beyond the hotel, there is a right on Kadoorie Avenue which winds up into a residential area that is very pretty and quiet (and probably quite expensive) and would make a nice morning walk to get away from the hustle and bustle of the shops. This is a very wealthy and thinly populated area so I don't understand how they could say that Kowloon is the most densely populated area in the world. Kadoorie Avenue loops around the hills and then down to Argyle Street.

CNNGo: 40 Hong Kong foods we can't live without

I came across this article looking for tofu pudding. The subtitle is "Street-style comfort foods, reptiles, and a lot of pork -- here are our picks of the most delicious and iconic food items of this foodie's paradise". So there are 40 items we should try (or maybe not, I'll pass on the stinky tofu, chicken feet, snake soup and cow offal). Juan and Mandy, which do you recommend?? Maybe a wife or sweetheart cake?
And I notice that OpenRice.com has an iphone app but alas it is in Chinese.

BC Magazine

I still haven't found out what "BC" stands for (British colony?) but BC Magazine includes restaurant reviews. In this issues Urban Delights, they mention the neighborhood of Sai Ying Pun, sandwiched between Sheung Wan to the east and Shek Tong Tsui and Kennedy Town to the west on Hong Kong Island. The MTR doesn't go there so you'll have to go by tram or bus.
They mention the Ba Yi Restaurant: Flavours of the West, that sounds interesting: Specializes in cuisine of Xinjiang province of western China. Their specialties are the roasted lamb skewers ($30/5pc) and Xinjiang noodles ($23); camel, mutton or beef with pancake wrap, traditional Xinjiang salad, fresh cold yoghurt drink. I put it on my google map.
Another issue has an article on summer desserts, and they mention Honeymoon Desserts, which has a Thai Black Glutinous Rice and Mango in Coconut milk that sounds good. Some of the other ones I'd like to taste (Durian Glutinous Dumpling, Red Bean & Green Bean Soup, Sweet Ball & Sesame Soup & Walnut Soup, Mango Pomelo & Sago Grass Jelly with Sweet Soup). There's a branch in Langham Place.

GOOGLE MAP NOW HAS STREET VIEWS OF HONG KONG

Wow!!! It just happened!
Now we can drag the little guy for a street level view of Hong Kong
Check it out on my google map!
Is this in conjunction with the Google China move to Hong Kong?? Evidently it happened March 15th.

36 Hours in Hong Kong

On Sunday, The New York Times ran a 36 Hours in Hong Kong. Of course, most of it recommends night clubs and drinking holes we would never go to, upscale stores (T-Shirts for US$120) and chic restaurants we can't afford. One really has to look hard for information that we can use, like maybe the great views from the urinals in the Peninsula Hotel.
Although maybe we could afford the Dim Sum at City Hall Maxim's Palace and they do recommend getting off the Midlevel Escalators to visit Cat Street. However they link to sites for "serious antiguities" and "contemporary galleries" rather than simple chinese arts and crafts and odds and ends, but then those types of stores don't have websites. And the second day, they send you to Stanley, the tourist haven for souvenirs. No Temple Street Night Market or Mong Kok or Yau Ma Tei.

Maotai, Mooncakes & Monks

Currently I'm reading a book by expat Hong Konger Jessica Bellas about her experience living in Hong Kong, to which she moved in 2006. It was printed in Hong Kong and the only reason I can figure that the Green Tree Public Library had an autographed copy is that the author was born in Library, PA, in the South Hills. It is fairly interesting even though it is supposedly a compilation of emails she sent home, essentially a blog. One thing becomes clear: there is a large expatriate community in Hong Kong which appears to operate independently and quite separately from the Chinese majority. Bellas ostensibly moved to Hong Kong to get away from George W. Bush but the choice of Hong Kong, run by big business and government bureaucracy with little input from the people, seems like a weird alternative.

Arts and Crafts and Souvenirs

This is a collection of figures from Cat Street on Hong Kong Island taken by Laszlo Ilyes, an engineer from Cleveland. They remind me of the Ekeko god of abundance from Peru and the Caga Tío from Barcelona. I definitely need one of them to round out my collection.

City Between Worlds

So that I don't forget the name of this book on Hong Kong that I enjoyed because it was well written and informative, here are the details:
City Between Worlds: My Hong Kong
By Leo Ou-Fan Lee

Time Out Hong Kong

At last!! The layout of Time Out Hong Kong is normal and navigable!! Or maybe it is only normal in IE8. Whatever the case may be, I am having fun exploring it, especially the Big Smog Blog. Big Smog has "streetwise" feature articles that explore an individual street in Hong Kong. The tributaries of Jordan sound like something we might want to check out!
Oh, Oh, Juan. There's an Ikea in Sha Tin: "Pots and pans
If you can’t resist a little shopping, head up the street to Homesquare. This three-storey mall specialises in homeware, including an outlet of quirky Italian brand Alessi. For those whose budget is more student than tai-tai, the whole of the third level is taken up by a branch of the ever-popular Ikea."