安 大 衛

Michael Palin's Himalaya

dave

12:35 AM

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One of the side-effects of reading a lot of political blogs and websites is thatyou tend to look for The Agenda whenever you come across some information or a presentation. For instance, the American Heritage Foundation regularly declares Hong Kong to be the "World's most Free Economy" when what they really mean is that it matches some aspects of their ideology and they disregard the rest.

Michael Palin has a new series: Himalaya, wherein he travels around the mountain range which borders on Pakistan, India, Tibet, China, etc.

Last week, the first in the series, he was in the small border town in India where the Dalai Lama lives, and he was granted a personal interview with the man himself.

Now, the Dalai Lama is a pretty important global figure. He represents the historical rulers of the nation of Tibet, which no longer exists., having been annexed by China in the 1950's. The Dalai Lama spends a lot of his time travelling the world, meeting heads of state and generally keeping the flame of an independent, free Tibet alive. He is the kind of figure who would have been lionized by the 'right on' guardian reading crowd in London in the '80s and '90s. Sort of like a non-imprisoned Nelson Mandela.

The interview — which may or may not have been heavily edited — portrayed the Dalai Lama as an inane simpleton, laughing wildly at his own silly remarks and talking about his bowels.

It made me wonder if Palin is trying to portray the Lama as an out of touch leader, the last real link Tibetans will have with their home country? Maybe he was of the school of thought which maintains that the Tibetans were under the yoke of a theocratic state and that maybe they need to lose the religious trimmings of their ancestral yearnings?

One of the points implicitly made in the show was that there is a great deal of money to be made selling Tibetan religious art and souvenirs to Tibetan expats and westerners and maybe, just maybe, the whole thing is some sort of scam. Michael made the point that most of the people calling themselves Tibetans were born outside the country, but was swiftly rebuffed by his guide.

Possibly Michael was just preparing for going into Tibet, China in future episodes, where he could honestly claim to have doubted the claims of the exiled Tibetans to their old country.

May 30, 2005

Lok Ma Chau Demolition

dave

10:47 PM

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The recent demolition of buildings at the Lok Ma Chau border crossing point was not all that successful...

Note how the buildings are not completely destroyed, but have mainly just fallen over. A competent demolition team will make the building fall vertically so that there is very little effect outside the footprint of the structure. As an example, may I direct you to the World Trade Centre, which fell as precisely as if it had been previously mined with directed charges designed to work along the lines of most stress, rather than being randomly struck by an airplane. Man, that Osama Bin Laden is a really good structural engineer!

August 17, 2004

Back

dave

04:54 PM

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Well, I'm back, and as you can see, I've sorted out the template files. I have a few entries I started doing while I was down in Australia to sort out, and I'll probably be making some changes to the site in the near future as well.

August 16, 2004

Flying

dave

06:00 PM

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TrackBack

Right now, I'm flying over the red centre of Australia. Looking out the window (pic), you can easily see just why they call it the red centre.

Stretching out below us to all horizons, the barren red landscape goes out as far as the eye can see. A flat layer of clouds scuds below us, casting dark shadows on the ochre wilderness. At the horizons, the curvature of the earth is apparent. Looking upwards from that, the sky darkens towards space, with a deep purity of hue which is very restful.

One thinks of the Chuck Yeagers and other assorted pioneers who would fly at this altitude and then head up. Up into the wild blue yonder.

It's a deeply strange landscape from this vantage point — it looks more like the surface of Mars than any terrestial landscape. All of this hot arid dryness is frightening to behold — it almost makes me want to have a drink!

Hang on while I summon a glass of wine from the very helpful cabin crew here on CX104. They've been serving a very nice Hope Estate Merlot, which is quite a pleasant introduction to the wines of Australia.

One of the great things about being in Melbourne is the quality of the local wines. There are great local wines available in most restaurants, and many of the bottlo's (bottle shops, or off-licences for those who don't speak Strine) will have a great selection of decent local wines.

August 15, 2004

Melbourne

dave

01:28 PM

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They say that if you really want to get to know a place, you should work there. That probably doesn't mean work 16 hours a day, seven days a week somewhere and you'll know it. I know the stretch of Collins Street between the Westin Hotel and the office very well now, and I've had a chance to look around the city centre a bit, but I certainly wouldn't claim to know much about the whole city of Melbourne or the State of Victoria.

In the summer time, the air is clear, the weather is warm, it's not too humid and there's plenty of extra daylight. Right now, in the depths of winter, it's very cold (at least for this tropical pundit!), it's damp, and windy. The prevailing winds howl down Collins and the other straight streets in the middle of the city, slashing their way straight through a light business suit.

The view from the office overlooks Federation Square and the Yarra River, as well as the Port Philip harbour. On a day like today, you can see for miles and the deep blue of the sea contrasts with the lighter hue of the sky. The sea looks boundless from here - next stop Antartica indeed. White flecks of sails spatter the harbour water, while long, lazy clouds drift overhead.

What have I been doing here? Well, first I signed an NDA and then, well, I [Did Stuff] to [Enhance Project Value]. And that's taken me away from my family for the last four weeks, and over two months in total.

But, any road up, as we say in Hong Kong, the long dark cliche of the project is drawing to a close and I'm booked on a flight back home to Hong Kong tomorrow. Now, the only remaining task outstanding on this project is to clear the fridge of beer. Wish me luck!

July 22, 2004

Melbourne Again

dave

04:59 PM

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I'm down in Melbourne again for a few weeks. It's Cold!

UPDATE: Well, for some odd reason, all of my Movable Type templates were de-linked, so nothing was getting updated. Luckily, I keep them all saved to disk as files, so I was able to re-link everything and (hopefully) get my website working sgain.

I'm still down in Melbourne, supping on very fine food and wine, most of the time.

And it's still bloody freezing!

March 25, 2004

China Visas

dave

07:14 PM

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It's looking like the hassle of getting a visa for Shenzen will soon be a thing of the past, as the heads of the municipality will soon be meeting with the Tung administration in Hong Kong.

The ever unlinkable SCMP (which has now dropped the story completely), reported the visa cost as $210 for a single entry and $850 for a six month monthly entry visa. Several local bloggers regurgitated the story and quoted those prices as correct.

The thing is, they're wrong. A single entry visa went up in price last summer from $100 to $150 at the border. Those of us lucky enough to not carry a British passport could get a single entry Shenzen visa at the border in a little room upstairs of the immigration booths on the China side of the bridge. I might be going up there tomorrow, but I'm sure as hell not going to take a picture in that office.

I got a six-month multi-entry visa last October when it looked like I might be going back and forth across the border quite a bit. It cost me $580, although that was via a travel agent friend, so it might be a special price. However, CTS, the China Travel Service office in Wan Chai offers a six-month multi-entry China Visa for about $650 (I think, I'll check tomorrow).

Check your facts guys. Don't, for God's sakes, rely on the SCMP to actually be accurate in its reporting.

I'm pretty suspicious of the story really, for one very simple reason. Border Control. There is almost no border control between Shenzen and the rest of China that I've ever seen. Sure, the PSB stop some buses and look for passports, but it's not rigorous. I've never been asked for a passport going between China and Shenzen SEZ, and tellingly, neither has my wife (who is Chinese), and who's done that journey more times than me.

Visa free access to Shenzen effectively means visa free access to China unless there is some serious building going on at the Shenzen/China boundary. and that means that all manner of undesirables like foreigners and Taiwanese can come and go in China at no cost to themselves. Colour me sceptical.

March 07, 2004

I'm Back

dave

01:40 PM

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Melbourne is a very nice city. I really liked it, although I didn't get a chance to see very much of it. I'm not sure if a return visit will be called for. There might be similar work in Sydney in the near future.

March 03, 2004

The View From The Office

dave

04:55 PM

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I should be back home soon, but in the meantime, you can see more or less the same view I see every day: http://www.101collins.com.au/rooftop.html will give you a live view of Melbourne.

02: Sports Precinct is more or less the view out of my office window. That's the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) and the Tennis Courts. Sometimes we can see the Footy from up here!

February 24, 2004

G'Day

dave

03:28 PM

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It now looks like I'm going to be in Melbourne for a little while longer. I might even get to see the Grand Prix, which is on the first weekend in March. I've been assured that I'll be able to hear it from most places within the city, even if I can't see it.

It's not cheap, Melbourne, although that may be because of the overall weakness of the HK Dollar against the AUD.

Haven't done many touristy things, as I'm not a good tourist and I haven't had much free time, but I have managed to get some souvenirs.

Melbourne's pretty nice, with a very European in feel in many ways. The architecture is nice and there's a great feeling of space even in the City Centre.

February 06, 2004

Melbourne

dave

06:16 PM

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It's hard bloody work being in Melbourne, mate! For a start, they haven't got any decent beer in the fridge, only light beer. This is not the country we were promised! After twelve hour days for the last week, they could at least have had some decent beer in the fridge. We may have to head out for more, as we've finished what few beers there were.

Update: We're still in the office, a 10:35pm. The lights have gone out in the cricket ground (India vs Australia), there's no beer left in the fridge, and the model appears to be slightly closer to convergence. I've removed all references to beer goggles etc from the various files that my colleague put in. I may take my tie off, if I can stand the excitement. We plan to hit the pubs some time soon. Honest. I fear my colleague has been woken up by the sugar in the beer. We may have to start on the wine in the fridge soon.

Further update: left the office at about 11:30pm, and had a few beers and a kebab in Chapel Street.

January 31, 2004

Travelling

dave

04:18 PM

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Right, I've already checked in, and the heavy baggage is heading for the airport. In the meantime, I've come home to relax for a while and pack the rest of my stuff. Gotta love that In-Town check-in.

Later on tonight, I'm off to Melbourne to do a spot of consulting work for a few weeks. If I can get to an internet connection, I should be contactable by email using the usual addresses, if anyone needs to get in touch with me. My mobile won't work — you'll end up talking with the wife or the helper, and the helper speaks no English. I might get a phone card in Melbourne so I could have an Aussie number for a while. Melbourne is three hours ahead of Hong Kong timewise.

I've actually done very little preparation in terms of tourist guidebooks, etc this time. My experience with those in Hong Kong was that they were not very useful. I also found http://melbourne.citysearch.com.au which seems to be a useful guide to the city. Apparently Mary Coughlan is playing somewhere at the end of Feb. Might try and get to see that - she's pretty good in concert. If anyone else knows any useful sites for Melbourne, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

A song by Mundy-Turner has been running through my head for a while, and I finally found the site where you can "buy a Bogart Akubra down on Lurline Street"! Unfortunately, they don't seem to have the Bogart Akubra. Maybe Jay was making that up?

November 11, 2003

How to drive like a Hong Kong minibus driver

dave

09:18 PM

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As any residents of Hong Kong know, the mentally ill are carefully incarcerated in little green minibuses so that they can work out their frustrations in public. Should you ever find yourself in a state of mental collapse and thus relegated to steering a minibus around, here are some tips, based on careful observation over the years.

• Your throttle is a binary control. It's either off or jammed to the floor. Passengers will thank you for the constant neck exercises they are required to do.
• Your brakes only work when they're screaming or the wheels are locked. You should also wait until the last possible minute before leaping on the brakes. Always try and outbrake motorbikes, Ferrari's, etc when stopping at traffic lights.
• You should steer like Mr. T from the A-Team. Large random left to right sweeps of the steering wheel even when proceeding down a straight road. This also keeps your tires warm so that you can scream around corners even when you can't see what's there. If you can't see it, it doesn't exist.

October 28, 2003

Just back from a few days in China

dave

12:14 AM

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We just got back from a few days in China, near Shantou. I made a lot of observations about the place, which I'll put up later, but for now I would just like to say that Shenzen is putrid festering sore of a city. The beggars and the rampant theft need to be cleaned up straight away. Also, any taxi driver who attempts to drop you off in a crowd of beggars should be shot on sight.

We had a taxi attempt to do this to us tonight. Instead of Lo Wu Station, the border crossing point, he wanted to put us out in a dark side street full of beggars trying to open the doors. We locked the doors and started screaming at the taxi driver to get us out of there. It was only when Sanley started mentioning his taxi number on the phone to someone (not the police, but he didn't know that) that he started moving. All the while beforehand, he'd been talking some northern dialect. Many of the beggars are also from the North and the West.

What I want to know is, if Shenzen is supposed to have controlled borders, why are there so many beggars there? Can they apply for a begging license? Why on earth does the Shenzen government think it's acceptable for a supposedly flagship city to be filled with deformed beggars? Why do they allow the lawlessness? I know it's endemic to China, but you'd think they could try and make a special case with a city bordering Hong Kong.

October 24, 2003

Concorde is gone

dave

09:49 PM

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I'm sad now. There is no chance I'll ever fly on the Concorde. It flew it's last flight today.

September 10, 2003

Shenzen

dave

02:23 AM

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We were up in Shenzen today. I'm in two minds about the place. One mind is that there are some good bargains to be found there, and there are things you can do which you can't in Hong Kong. Go-karting at Honey Lake, for example, is fun and cheap: $65 for about 10 minutes howling around a track in a kart.

The other mind says "this is China." This is a dirty place, full of people who stare at you, hassle you to buy stuff from them, drive like dribbling morons and who beg all the time. We queued for a taxi near Lo Wu and had a bizarre collection of disfigured beggars pleading for money. The 'Dog-boy', on all fours except that he has only on working leg (the other is folded in half and wasted away) and one hand is permanently touching you on the leg, was the most bizarre. I have heard rumours that these beggars are deliberately crippled to make more money for their controllers.

It is disgusting. I might have sympathy for one or two, but four or five maimed, crippled, disfigured beggars working a queue of twenty people just makes it a freak show. Also, you know, if you've spent any amount of time in Asia, that if you give money to one, all the others will demand money from you too. It's heart-breaking, but you have to just not see them.

Inside Lo Wu city, the touts were very aggressive today. "Sir! Buy DVD-9? Photos? Rolex?" The DVD-9 is just a dual-layer DVD copy. They are better copies than they used to make, but they try and demand HK$20 for each one. We bargained them down to about HK$12 per unit, although this was only attainable because we've bought stuff there before and we told him (in very loud voices) that his quality was crap, and my wife is a demon bargainer. (The first time we were there, they kept talking to their colleagues in their own dialect that they were taking some Kong Kongers for a ride. Unluckily (for them) their own dialect was that of the Chiu Chow Region, which is where my wife is from. Boy did they get an unwelcome surprise. "You just told your friend you bought these for ten dollars each. Sell them to us for 11 dollars and you make ten percent. Keep asking for twenty dollars and we walk away.")

May 26, 2003

Life of Mammals

dave

10:37 PM

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I've just been watching the Life of Mammals with my daughter Roxanne. She's fascinated by the animals. Me, I'm absolutely gobsmacked by the photography. The series is the latest work by Sir David Attenborough, and it's an incredible exploration into our mammalian history, from shrews to the Blue Whale and from the Loris to us. The imagery is nothing short of stunning, and there are many new techniques used to film, including fiber-optic cameras to film inside tiny burrows and infra-red to film at night.

The Blue Planet has just finished showing here also, although that's a rerun. That is also immensely fascinating.

The most obvious thing, though, is that Sir David Attenborough is still completely fascinated by the natural world after more than fifty years of making natural history programs. You can see his enthusiasm in his face when looking at things, or observing some new animal, be it a squirrel or a gibbon or even a Blue Whale. And he's up in the trees, scooting along on the water or saying "Boo!" to a sloth. Well, he's only 76 years old, I'm sure he's got plenty of excellent series in him yet. His hobby is natural history. His overriding passion is natural history, and it's also his job. I hereby nominate Sir David¹ for the award of having the best damn job on the planet.

1. I wouldn't normally bother with titles like that, but Sir David has made many, many wonderful documentaries showing the wonder that is the natural world and he's brought that into my (and your) living room. I remember watching Life on Earth when I was a young lad and staring open-mouthed at the wonders he was showing us. I'd certainly say that he's earned every title ever bestowed on him. Sir David's Autobiography.

January 07, 2002

Happy New Year!

dave

12:00 AM

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If you tried to find this site over the last week or so, it wasn't here. My Linksys router seems to have some problems holding the line up and it isn't very aggressive about logging in again. It seems to time out after three attempts. I may have to set up one of the spare linux boxes to keep the line active.

Anyway, we were in Ireland over Christmas and New Years. It was cold and wet with much sniffling going on. Still, we met all the relatives and they met Sanley and Roxanne. We also got to experience the purgatory which is long haul travel with a small child. Aer Lingus were completely unhelpful with stowing the push chair or getting food for a child. Cathay Pacific, by contrast, were much better, although the food on the return leg of the journey wasn't up to their usual standards. Aer Lingus' food was their usual crud.

November 13, 2001

Shenzen

dave

12:00 AM

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We went up to China last Weekend. Friday evening, we went to Shekou, which is to the west of Shenzen and has lots of little bars and stuff. Dinner was in Casablanca and was western style food. Very good. Afterwards, we played silly dice games in an outdoor bar out on the reclamation.

On Saturday, we went off to Honey Lake Theme park, which is very big and very run down. There's a go karting track there, and for RMB 65, we got about 10 minutes serious karting. Great fun. The track is quite long, so the little 80cc karts can get up a fair turn of speed.

On Saturday afternoon, we went playing snooker in Shenzen and just wandered around Lychee park there. There were a few roadside restaurants serving dog, but we didn't partake.

Later we went for dinner in Laurel Restaurant in Lo Wu City before heading back to Hong Kong. They do a rather good Peking Duck there. It's advisable to book beforehand though, especially if you want to have dinner at 8 o'clock as it gets very busy.