Symphony of Lights

Family


We wanted to see some views of Hong Kong from a lookout point in Kowloon. A lot of photos of the old airport were shot from the Lung Cheung lookout point, off of Lung Cheung road. The famous pictures of aircraft flying over the building tops by just a few hundred feet, and the aircraft lining up with the runway from a steep bank, were all shot from this part of Hong Kong.

Old Kai Tak airport closed back in 1998, to the chagrin of many aviation enthusiasts and photographers alike. It was built into the harbor like a long pier, and planes had to fly right over the city to land on the runway. It was a challenge for pilots and really wasn’t the safest place to build an airport, as the traffic increased into the airport and as Hong Kong grew. Building heights had to stay below a certain minimum and with only one runway, there was no potential for growth.

In 1998, as Kai Tak closed, a new airport was opened about 20 miles away, Chek Lap Kok, and is one of the newest airports in the world, and one of the most amazing. It’s new Terminal One is breathtaking and there is food and shopping all over. The airport, as land is at a premium in Hong Kong, again like Kai Tak, was built by reclaiming land off Lantau Island. Even Cathay headquarters and the hotel we are in, is on land that was reclaimed and built up into the harbor. The new airport is away from the city, so there are no views of aircraft coming in to land just over the tops of the buildings. Too bad, but that is what progress does, I guess.

There is a video at the bottom of the post shows that I am not joking about it requiring some skill to land at old Kai Tak, especially when the crosswinds were high. Not all the pilots could do it, or at least smoothly and safely. All Nippon Airways, or ANA, is notorious for having pilots that struggled when landing there. Korean Air had one of the worst, though. This 747 was one of the worst captured on tape, in posterity, for all to see. The pilot landing in this picture dragged the far left engine (number one) and it had to be overhauled. Wild stuff, to say the least. I just wish I had an opportunity to try it.

Now, all that is gone. From our lookout point, we could see the old runway that is now a go-cart center, a drag strip, bowling alleys, and more. The view of the city was pretty amazing and we could see all the growth that exemplifies Hong Kong. The view wasn’t as wild as our view from Victoria Peak, but it was still pretty cool.

We then walked to the train station to catch a ride down to Victoria Harbor. Every night at 8 p.m. in Hong Kong, they do a light show with the buildings across the Harbor blinking and set to music. Some nights they set off fireworks, but every night there is a narration that introduces each building and as that is done, each building’s lights blink as it is introduced. The narration is done in several languages, one per night. This night wasn’t in English, but we still enjoyed the show. Laser light, strobes, and flashing lights on the buildings were pretty cool.

It was dark enough that I wasn’t able to get a lot of shots that weren’t blurry, so next time, I’ll have to buy and bring a tripod. Every visit to Hong Kong needs, at a minimum, to see the light show.

Click on the picture at the top of the blog entry to see more photos from our day and the views of Hong Kong. Click below for the landing movie.

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Home away from home

Family


This is just a quick view of my new home away from home. I try to spend as many hours a day as I can sitting here learning about the 747. It is a pretty amazing bird, but the voice that talks to me in my headphones doesn’t seem to care that his tone and inflection never change. It gets hard to listen to him for hours at a time.

Meanwhile, Laura is enjoying herself in the room, working sudoku and crossword puzzles and watching t.v. shows. Her favorite is on Discovery Channel, which we don’t have at home, called The New Detectives. Detectives solve real mysteries in the lab, catching criminals by finding their DNA and so forth. Also, today, she was able to hang out by the pool and only managed to burn herself just a little bit!

Off to get some sushi for dinner . . .

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Riding the bus

Family, Vacation


Not only do people eat octopus around here (including me), they also name their electronic debit cards after them. We purchased two Octopus cards today, and that allows us to go “cashless” here in Hong Kong, around town in stores like 7-11, for meals within Cathay City, and especially for riding the bus and MTR.

It saves us 10% over purchasing MTR tickets with cash at the ticket stands, and also saves us a bunch of time, as we can just flash our card over the card reader, and it automatically deducts our stored dollar value from it. They are pretty nice, especially since they can be used at places more than just the bus or train stops. I’m sure they have things like this in large U.S. cities, but I don’t know about them.

With our new Octopus cards, we headed out for the S64 bus line to take us back to Cathay City. It was fun to ride on the upper level and it was Laura’s first time in a double-decker. It was fun, but it was nothing in comparison to riding on the Lightrider!

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Royal Fireworks

Aviation

As we taxied from the gate in JFK, in our Cathay Pacific 777-300ER on our way to Hong Kong, back in June, I was struck by this music in the inflight entertainment headphones. It was simply magnificent. The music started playing automatically from the “Classical Moods” section of inflight music.

At first, I had no idea what it was. Was it some British anthem? Was it the some score written for Cathay Pacific? Was it some majestic melodious music meant for meditation? Whatever it was, I knew I was listening to greatness. It was so powerful, so majestic, so imperial.

The notes in harmony, along with the rumbling timpani drums was so much I almost shed a tear! A tear of pride. I was traveling on a plane operated by the company that I was going to work for — a highly esteemed company that flies all around the world in amazing airplanes and is considered the zenith of aviation aspirations (at least my own).

The music made me think of old British royalty, with their white wigs, long canes, and curled pipes, all marching into a throne room. To be in that room would have meant to be amongst greatness. And for me, sitting in that business seat, behind that Cathay cockpit crew, on that beautiful 777, headed for Hong Kong, I too, was seated amongst greatness. The music made it all the more real for me, as it painted a picture of pride in my mind. Proud to be apart of such a great team. Proud to have made it this far. And hopefully, humble enough to attain the greatness that exudes from an international flight crew like this one, skillfully navigating half way across the world with hundreds of lives in their hands.

I know this all sounds like my head has exploded, but really, it was just an overwhelming experience, riding on that plane and hearing such wonderful music. I felt a little like Salieri, when he first met Mozart, and realized his own insignificance because he was truly in the presence of greatness.

This is truly one of my favorite passages of classical music — so much so, I bought the album! Want to hear it yourself? I found out the title is Music for the Royal Fireworks, by Handel. Preview and buy it here: Handel: Water Music Suites & Music for the Royal Fireworks - English Baroque Soloists & John Eliot Gardiner

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Tsing Yi

Family, Vacation


Tsing Yi is an island in between several other islands that make up Hong Kong. It is also a stop on the MTR (subway) and there is a large suspension bridge that connects it with the other islands. We wanted to find both the bridge and the observation deck to see it.

We got off the train, but no where on maps or signs pointed us in an obvious direction. Our plans of just winging it had worked so well in the past, that I suppose we got a little cocky. Nevertheless, we forged ahead to see what else we could see. Click on the picture of the flowers at the top of the blog to see more photos of our day on Tsing Yi.

Never finding the bridge (we’ll find it another day) we found a park to walk around in with some nice views and plants. Also, on our way back to the MTR to head home, we saw a fresh food market. Now this market made the whole trip worth it. It reminded me of our friends back home, because I’m sure that the pictures of the market are what they assumed all of Hong Kong was like (“will you have to boil your water?”) Uh, no. But, we also don’t shop in these types of markets.

My mom did her shopping years ago in Indonesia in many markets like the one in our photos, but thankfully, Laura doesn’t have to prepare food from it’s rawest state. There were fish in tanks that were just waiting to be butchered and that is about as fresh as it gets.

In a way, I felt sorry for the poor fishies who wound up here, because this was definitely the end of the line and the train was not going to pull out of the station. But, I remembered my dinner the night before, and how tasty it was, and realized that this is just the way it is.

Some of the fish were split in half on tables of ice. I couldn’t identify all the “parts” inside, but the hearts were clearly noticeable. Mostly because they were still beating! Or at least twitching with leftover impulses. The place was so crowded, and the fish butchers were hollering out in Cantonese — something like “cold beer” shouts from ballpark vendors. Cuts of meat, slices of fish, veggies, and everything in between, was for sale, and throngs of people were buying it all up like crazy.

Overall, it was fun to see people in this type of fresh market because it isn’t something us Ohioans get to see everyday. Next time we’re in Tsing Yi, we’re taking a better map to the bridge!

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Lamma Island

Family, Vacation


We headed over to Lamma Island, Hong Kong’s third largest island, to see what we could see. We had read that it was a little slower paced, and much more poor part of Hong Kong.

We caught a ferry from Hong Kong to one end of the island, and planned on hiking a trail to the other side of the island, where there was another ferry stop, to take us back to the main island. The hike was about an hour, and took us past some nice beaches. There are several nice ones around here, but this one is supposedly one of the better ones.

The ride over on the ferry took about 20 minutes and then stepping off the boat was like stepping into a whole other world. There were a few hotels, but nothing I’d want to stay in. Some of the places to eat looked a little sketchy, so we moved on. We hiked the trail across the island, and it was a fun, good walk. At the midway point, we got to a look-out pagoda and got to catch our breaths and take in the scenery. It was getting dark, so we continued to the other side of Lamma, and found some more outdoor restaurants that sold fresh seafood. It was about 7:45 p.m. and the next ferry left at 9:00 p.m., so since we had time, we figured we’d eat some local seafood.

Stopping by the restrooms to wash up, we found out that not all bathrooms in Hong Kong are equal! These were glorified “squat pots” in stalls, with a porcelain hole in the floor. Wow, I certainly lost any urge to purge, if you know what I mean.

Dinner was absolutely awesome! We got to pick out “our dinner” by pointing to the fish, crab, scallion, lobster or whatever, and then a few minutes later, it arrived, freshly boiled, steaming hot on our plates in front of us. One of us loves seafood, and the other of us doesn’t care for it too much. Well, the hungry one of us who enjoys seafood found out that the one of us who doesn’t care much for seafood all of a sudden liked it, when it was fresh and hot. So much for my big meal, but it was fun to share! Laura kept saying, “Oh that’s good too!” The food was delicious, even if I did have to cut the heads off of my own shrimp.

Bonus: we found out that the ferry was free with a validation from the restaurant! The place ran their own private ferry, and we enjoyed a free ride back to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is quite the sight, when approaching it by night over the water. The views were spectacular and it was a nice cap off to a great time today. These types of experiences are once in a lifetime and I’m so glad we are able to enjoy it together. If or when you visit Hong Kong, make sure to see it by night and ride a ferry over Victoria harbor, it is simply amazing.

To see more photos of our travels to Lamma, click on our picture at the top of this blog for more.

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First week is finished

Aviation


There isn’t a lot to update on this week. The first week of training is over and honestly, it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. But having said that, it is a lot easier than the rest of training will be.

The first two weeks are orientation and then tests that I have to pass to convert my F.A.A. license into a Hong Kong license. Cathay really doesn’t care much about me at this point, because I’m just in the conversion process. I took two tests on Thursday and one today. I’ll take one more next week, and then I’ll have my Hong Kong licensing taken care of. The following week is when I’ll actually start training on the 747 and Cathay Pacific procedures.

Laura and I are looking forward to the weekend and will probably head downtown again. I’ve run into several of my friends here and it’s been fun to get caught up a little bit. I bought a sim card for my mobile phone, so that I can make local and international calls from my T-Mobile phone here in Hong Kong for reasonably cheap. I found on the internet a string of codes to enter into the phone so that it would accept a new sim card. Then I went to the local 7-11 and bought a sim card with prepaid minutes on it. I can refill the card with minutes at any local convenience store. So, I just popped out my T-mobile sim card and popped in my new card and, “presto,” I have a local phone now, with a local number and all. Now I just have to figure out how the voicemail setup tutorial works, because I can’t figure out how to hear it in English! Either way, local calls are just pennies a minute, and calls to the U.S. are the same. When I know for sure I’m going to stick with this card, I’ll give out its Hong Kong number so you can call my H.K. number!

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