Simon Hampel
Dictionary.com/actually
– In fact; in reality
– Used to express wonder, surprise, or incredulity
I counted the word “actually” seven times in what I wrote for my last blog enty on Hong Kong. I actually think I might have to think a bit more carefully about my choice of words when writing.
First full day in Hong Kong today. Got in just after 6pm last night and it was about 7:30pm by the time we got to the hotel after taking the Airport Express train and the free hotel shuttle bus – I’m really impressed with the convenience and speed of the airport transport services. Flight was pretty uneventful – the best kind really. They landed to the west, which meant an approach to the north of Hong Kong island, with some great views of the city. Nice !
The busride from the train station was interesting, since the area we are staying in (Causeway Bay) is one of the main shopping districts – all the (narrow) streets we drove down were filled with bright neon lights and advertising signs – exactly the stereo-typical vision of Hong Kong most people would have.
Woke up early this morning – 6am… not the way to start your holidays – but I guess that is 8am Sydney time, and it’s unusual for me to still be asleep by then.
We decided to do breakfast at the hotel this morning – try their buffet. Was pretty good, although they don’t seem to know how to cook bacon – was rather overdone. HKD$325 for the two of us – given our self imposed budget of AUD$60 each per day for food, that’s a pretty big hit (we calculate exchange rates roughly at HKD$5 = AUD$1, so starting off the day using $65 of our combined budget was a bit concerning – but we figured it was just to get us started. We’d try and find somewhere better/cheaper to eat nearby the hotel once we had familiarised ourselves with the area.
Actually we found a place almost immediately after walking out the front door of the hotel – a sandwich shop which does breakfast – including a hot breakfast considerably cheaper than the hotel. We will try them out tomorrow.
We started the day with a casual stroll around the local area familiarising ourselves with where we are. Lots and lots of small shops – with the occasional department store or shopping mall. One of my missions was to locate the IT mall that one of my friends took me to last time I was in Hong Kong (this time last year actually) so I could check out the prices of digital cameras. We found it right where I thought it would be – it’s just around the corner (a block or two) from our hotel actually.
After a brief respite back in the hotel room from the heat and humidity (will take us a while to get used to that), we decided to head for Admiralty on the MTR (subway) – I’m continually impressed with the speed and efficiency of the transport systems in countries like Hong Kong and Singapore – I wish that Sydney’s transport minister would come over here and learns a thing or two about how to make a public transport system that actually works.
At Admiralty we walked through to Pacific Place shopping mall – lots of shops selling overpriced handbags it seems. We were going to have lunch in one of the foodcourts here, but timed it completely wrong and hit the lunch rush. We gave up on that idea and tried out McDonalds “60 second challenge” – where they seem to try and get you away from their counter (with food) in under 60 seconds from the time you step up… was rather impressive actually – they even have a chart on the wall recording the fastest servers in the store. Considering the number of people waiting in lines, and the speed at which they were served, I can tell that this is one smoothly run machine – these people are like robots (with a smile !). Another HKD$32 off the budget – rather cheap actually.
Found a couple of camera stores which appear in the “Guide to Quality Mechants” booklet kindly provided by the Hong Kong tourism board. One of the stores actually had fairly competitive prices too, so it looks like I may have found where to buy my Canon S50.
After lunch we headed back to the MTR and on to Central, where we wondered down to the Star Ferry piers, where we started a walking tour we found in our lonely planet guide to Hong Kong – “Central Amble”. This walk took us from the piers, past Exchange Square (building), Jardine House (building), Statue Square, Bank of China (building – nice views from level 43 !!), Flagstaff House Museum, Hong Kong Park, St. Johns Cathedral, The Landmark (shopping center), and finally the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (building) – a nice tour of the area.
The highlight would be Hong Kong Park – a lovely oasis surrounded by skyscrapers, with waterfalls, grassed areas, trees and gardens (all man made naturally). The walk in aviary was nicely done, and the ponds filled with fish and terrapins were quite a pleasant place to sit and eat an iceblock and sip a chilled bottle of water from the nearby kiosk.
That took us most of the afternoon, after which we headed back to our hotel via the MTR again for a cool shower and a snooze.
So while Leanne sleeps, I decided to get online and check my email, see if I can set up a date with my friends living here in Hong Kong, and do some blogging. I’ll probably make a decision on the camera in the next day or so, and once I’ve got it I should be able to start uploading photos as we go.
The debate for tonight is where to eat. There’s plenty of restaurants around this area, so we’ll probably just wander until we find one that takes our fancy. I think we have about HKD$200 left in our food budget for today, so it won’t be an expensive dinner.
My mission for this trip to Hong Kong is to find a Canon S50 digital camera for significantly less than AUD$1000. The cheapest I can find the S50 in Australia is about $1170 inc GST.
If I can find it for well under $1000, then I think it is worth forgoing the security of a local warranty. In fact, my goal is to beat HKD$4000 (current exchange rate is about AUD$1 = HKD$5). Naturally I will also require a memory card and other accessories, and if I can get it all for no more than AUD$1000 then I will be happy. It’s all been included in the budget for the holiday too !
We’re going on a holiday.
I promised Leanne an overseas trip – and since work was pressuring me to take some of my accrued leave, I decided now would be a good time to escape the winter chill in Sydney and head north. Given the recent SARS scares in Hong Kong (now all clear according to the World Health Organisation), flights are still pretty cheap. Since I know Leanne would love to explore Hong Kong – we’re going to spend 8 days there.
When I tell people that we’re going to Hong Kong for more than a couple of days they ask “what are you going to do there – there’s not that much to do”. But then they said the same thing about Singapore and Canberra – where we had no trouble finding things to do and places to explore. I don’t think Leanne will let me get bored… tired yes, bored no.
Went and saw T3 tonight – great movie.
I have read reviews which panned the movie – but I really don’t know what they were expecting from it.
It was an action flick – it was always going to be – with the story coming second. If they expected anything different then they are simply fools.
Unlike The Hulk, which I saw last week and which suffered from too much action/too little story (or too much story/too little action, depending on your point of view), Terminator 3 was mostly action with a touch of story to continue on the Skynet saga.
Don’t go expecting to have huge parts of the story unravelled, this movie covers less than a day in time – and tells only a small part of the story. And while it fills in some of the gaps and answers some of the questions posed at the end of Terminator 2 – it still leaves quite a bit hanging and many people will be quite disappointed with the ending.
Personally, I thought the ending was quite appropriate – especially given the story they laid out in front of you during the film.
For an action flick, it was certainly that – full of action – quite suspenseful at times, and plenty of make-you-jump moments. Some quite innovative action sequences, with the car/crane/fire-engine chase sequence one of the best chases I’ve seen in a movie (although I couldn’t help feeling I’ve seen a similar chase before – the JC/T1000/T100 chase in T2).
Arnie was a bit bland in his role – with only a couple of moments showing the style he pulled off in T2. Seems like he was just going through the motions – and was already too busy counting the money he would make. Some nice comic twists in there – which some people really don’t like in an action flick, but I actually appreciated.
Nick Stahl wasn’t too bad as the shell-shocked and unstable John Conner – although he did get into things a bit better towards the end, but overall I think it was pretty lame. I still think Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton made the first two movies what they were – the desperation shown, the hard edge that just wasn’t in the other actors in any of the films.
I thought Claire Danes as Kate Brewster was pretty good – showing a wide range of emotions, annoyance, curiosity, fear, terror, frustration, anger, confusion, lots more terror, anguish, defiance, desperation, and finally grim determination, resolve and even tenderness and understanding.
But the movie was stolen by Kristanna Loken as the T-X/Terminatrix – she was just awesome ! Not only does she look absolutely awesome (never a hair out of place, even after all those fights !), but she carried off the cool and calculating role with a real style and a touch of humour at just the right times. She really made the movie – great casting choice there.
Overall I give it the following ratings:
6/10 for story – given that it was first and foremost an action flick, this is probably still high. I actually thought the story had a lot of potential, and taken in the context of part three of a series of movies, the story worked well – but on it’s own it really doesn’t work.
9/10 for wow factor – some awesome effects and fantastic action sequences. Not much more to say really.
7/10 for acting – Kristanna brings the score up above 5 all on her own. I did like Claire Danes and Arnie had the occasional moment as well, but ooooh Kristanna !
3/10 for avoiding Hollywoodisms – this was an interesting one. The John Conner story is an interesting one – quite bitter and seemingly hopeless (even though we supposedly know that John Conner leads the resistance to victory in the future). The ending was not exactly peaches and cream, in fact it was quite bitter – but it still was a little Hollywood. But at the end of the day, it was an action film which is what Holywood does best, and the story suffered as a result.