Korea: More

The Peace Museum:


The Seoul Dano Folk Festival 2007 was fun. I enjoyed the singing:

So did this guy:

Most of all, I liked the drumming. Sounded good, looked good.

Traditional hair washing. Don't ask me.


Here, a time capsule is buried. I reached out for aliens.

Korea: Temples

Here's the main gate of the Changgyeonggung 창경궁 royal palace, one of the "Five Grand Palaces" of the Joseon Dynasty. When the Japanese occupied Korea during the world wars, they rather cheekily turned this whole royal palace and gardens into a zoo.

A view from the queen's quarters:


And from above (it's really pretty!):


Now, here's an astronomical observatorium. It is not quite clear to me how being elevated by about 2 meters contributes to clearer observation of the skies (smog?), but so be it.



This now is the Jongmyo Shrine 종묘, part of Korean's UNESCO world heritage.

The buildings are quite stern and elegant; lamentably one cannot enter.



Outside, people are playing some version of Draughts (Checkers) (the English version of which, incidentally, has recently been weakly solved).

When I have a question, I ask the bears.

I have arranged this charming set of figurines in my office cubicle (ok, it's not a cubicle, it's "the floor"). The scene is an allegory on War and Peace.

Anyway, when I have a question, I ask them. Often, by the time I've described the problem, it has vanished. Otherwise, I ask my excellent colleague Philip.

Next weekend I am in Korea.

Transport in Cambodia

So, over Easter I was in Cambodia. Beautiful country.

Now, there is a lot of traffic on the road. A lot. Trucks, cars, tuk-tuks, motor cycles ("motos"), bikes, pedestrians. Cairo and Paris are generally known to have the worst traffic in the world, but Phnom Penh competes valiantly.
The system used for collision avoidance is the same sophisticated and time-honed system applied in aviation under VFR (visual flight rules): See and avoid. So, traffic lights, lines on the road etc. are considered mere recommendations.

The safest way to cross a street is to close your eyes, step on the street and walk at a steady speed on a straight line to wherever you want to go. People will just anticipate that and drive around you. If you commit the beginner's mistake of stopping, looking, or even just hesitating, everyone else will get confused and run into you.

In most places, turning is a 5-step-process:

1. you look in the mirror,


2. you indicate with your turning signals,


3. you look over your shoulder,


4. you wait for a gap in the traffic,


5. you turn.

In California, the first three steps are generally skipped. In Cambodia, the fourth one is skipped, too. You just turn, traffic or no traffic. "See and avoid" takes care of the rest. In the picture below, we're turning left through the oncoming traffic. As you can see, the closest moto has already begun to swerve to his left as to avoid us.


Most people were wearing a baseball hat for crash protection, so did I.

Now, there are many modes of transport. For example, to transport a family of four, you take a moto:

To transport four mattresses, you take a moto:

To transport a monk, you take a moto:

To transport gas and other explosives, you take a moto:

To transport a moto though, you take a bus:

HK Arts Festival

When I see performing art, there are two indicators I like it:
I am engrossed and smile obliviously, or I am engrossed and sob obliviously.

Currently, the HK Arts festival is going on. Shows I've seen so far:

• Camut Band: Wonderful percussion-rhythm-dance show. In a similar vein to STOMP, but sufficiently different as to be original. Joyful and funny. I was smiling all the time.
  (For some reason, flamenco dancing just moves me deeply. This did, too. It was a display of pure skill, performed with emotion. Deeply human.)
  


• 1984: Directed by Tim Robbins. Very bleak. Set in the same dark scene throughout. Not quite as gripping.
  


• SF Jazz Collective: A band composed of composers. Some Thelonious Monk, many original compositions. Technically perfect, I am sure (cannot judge, really), but as some of the joy of listening to music comes from recognition, I found it not quite so engrossing. There might have been many allusions, but I didn't get them. In fact, quite a few people left during the show.
  


• Youssou n'Dour: Senegalese singer. Great concert. Extraordinarily stirring. People got of the seats and danced (among the first was the delightful elderly Irish lady next to me, who pointed to her knees and said "they need some stretching" before she got up and danced). The poor ushers were totally overwhelmed and tried in vain to keep the crowds within bounds. As he pointed out during the show, Africa is not only poverty, AIDS, and war.
  
  

Back in HK, Friends, Gocarts

Just been back in HK for two weeks, and already two old friends from Germany have visited (independently). Here's Jamil and me in front of my office:

Yesterday, Olaf and his wife called unexpectedly - they had just arrived in HK for two days. We went to Stanley market and the peak - the view was very good this time, then had a few drinks in the Four Seasons, and I went off to the Youssou N'dor concert. Afterwards, drinks in Fong's and the Kee club.

Today, Sebastian, Jörn and I went gocarting in Zhūhǎi 珠海 in China (close to Macau). It had rained, and there was a lot of skidding and sliding. For a short period in the last race, I was first - then I made a mistake and was overtaken, and then my gocart died. Heaps of fun nevertheless.

London, cooking

Arrived in London Sunday morning at 5. Very nice flight (new BA business class). Very nice hotel. Adjusted to time difference (=slept). Today Monday first day at work in the London office. Great colleagues. Concentrated, productive, collaborative work. Interaction with sales/structuring/trading. About thrice a day somebody volunteers to get coffee/mocha/hot chocolate for everyone. Team lunch/dinner/bowling/go-carting all coming up. (Can write in full sentences with declension, but no want. Chinese influence.)

In the evening, I went to the Reebock gym (conveniently located between work and hotel). Great - haven't been to a good gym in ages (the Goldman gym was nice (nickname: "NASDAQ 5000 memorial gym"), but the Stanford gym sucks utterly). Then cooked: Chicken breast fillet with mango, sun-dried tomato, onion & garlic (lots), and Gouda cheese. By way of enormous will power, I could resist adding Pesto (it wasn't self-made anyway, more walnuts than pinenuts); I did, however, throw in some Applewood smoked ham. The result was better than it sounds - try it (it might help if you're hungry, though). Added a nice South African Pinotage (pleonasm), and a Campari Orange for dessert and good measure. Good night!

Flat in HK

Looked at more flats with several agents. Can be any two of cheap, nice, big, centrally located.

This one I like best so far (it's nice and centrally located, hence small and expensive):

First week in Hong Kong 香港

I love this city. It is vibrant, varied, crammed, noisy, smelly, garish. In other words, wonderful. (Obviously, matters of taste enter the picture here.) Surprisingly, it also has very secluded and quiet places, great hiking and beaches (or so I am told).


An auspicious weekend
After my first week of work, on Friday I met Sebastian, whom I haven't seen in over 30 years - we grew up as neighbours in Buenos Aires. It was a fun night in the Armani bar, and later in some bar in Wan Chai with Jörn and a really quite entertaining band (from the Philippines, as many bands here). Saturday, after recovery, I visited some more flats, then went to a concert in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre: Debussy's Le Mar, Ravel's Piano Concerto in G-major, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and American in Paris. In my usual provident ways, I arrived about 15 minutes before the performance and stood in line at the box office, hoping I'd still get a ticket. The woman in front of me talked briefly to the clerk, then, apparently having received a negative answer, turned around and announced a free ticket - her husband couldn't make it. Now, I considered that a good omen (on the downside, it doesn't exactly help to overcome procrastination). Splendid seat, too - saw the pianist's hands fly over the keys. Beautiful concert.
After the concert, taking the Star Ferry from the Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui back at night, I was overcome by a bit of nostalgia, if not sorrow, when I realized that my father (who died in 1994) had surely often taken the same ferry, and maybe been in the very same seat, when on his first expatriate assignment with Lufthansa exactly 45 years ago.

Sunday I walked around the area of my hotel a bit, West Point (Sai Ying Pun, 西營盤, Xīyíngpán), up to HK university. Its museum had a wonderful calligraphy exhibition by Venerable Master Hsing Yun, a Buddhist monk. Edifying. Two pieces caught my eye: a very simple small one with only two characters: 放下 (fàngxià) - "Let go." And the one above, simply exhorting: "Give people confidence, give them hope, give them joy, give them comfort." Quite so.
Many recent graduates and married couples were taking pictures on the university grounds - the buildings snugly nestle up the wooded hills.

Next, I took the Peak Tram up to (guess - ) the Peak. Great views (modulo the smog). And who did I met up there? Gerstein, the Russian pianist of yesterday's concert. A friendly fellow, now American citizen, speaks German really quite well.

Later, I walked through Soho and checked out my new neighbourhood. Had dinner in a little neighbourhood restaurant: Argentinean steak with chimichurri. The guy at the open grill, a very friendly Canadian, turned out to be running this place and the French rotisserie next door. I think I can live here. On the way back to the hotel, I walked through a few narrow alleys, down the hill, past Western restaurants and lively food stalls, then took the tram west. At one street corner, an older man had a tiny stall. I don't know what he was selling, but he was dancing on the streets with considerable grace and poise, in a slow manner reminiscent of Tai Chi, all the while guiding pedestrians across the street.

All in all, I like it. Gershwin's American in Paris evokes a young man strolling through the streets of Paris with light-footedness and expectancy, and maybe a tinge of nostalgia and home-sickness. Certainly resonates with me.

Flat hunting
Expensive, small. Apparently, for some reason, as soon as there is enough space to have a reasonably sized room, the Hong Kong developer will turn it into two rooms. (One of the reasons is, of course, that these flats very often house families with children, not single expats.) I have seen some potentially very nice places that were marred by tiny rooms. I've considered having a bed custom made to fill the entire room, but tested and found that I could only lie diagonally. So, no.
Some flats are rather old and decrepit, some very new and nicely done - though I found too much ugly wood, brass and marble in quite a few places. All in all, though, the situation is by far not as bad as it is made out to be - you can find a reasonably sized reasonably priced flat in a very central location (where "reasonably sized" means "pretty small, but just enough" and "reasonably priced" means "for expats" - not on the average (10 000$ HK/month) or minimum (<4000) wage). Well, and forget a house or garden. Going further away from the centre will only save you some 10%-20%, unless you consider considerably further out.
I finally found a small, but pretty place in a fantastic location - Elgin Street in Soho ("South of Hollywood Rd"), maybe 10 minutes commute on the escalator to work. If all goes well, I will likely take it.

Public Transport
Hong Kong island is compact, and blessed with an excellent public transport system. So far, I've taken cabs, busses, minibusses ("Public light bus"), the tram, the Peak Tram, the Star Ferry, and last but not least the splendid escalator, and not yet exhausted the supply of public transport. In addition to being comprehensive, efficient, and convenient (the MTR (metro, subway, tube, underground) is airconditioned, unlike London's tube), it is incredibly cheap - a ride in the tram costs 2$ (HK), or about a quarter (US), the upper deck of the Star Ferry from Central (Hong Kong Island) to Tsim Sha Tsui (Kowloon) costs 2.20$ (HK) (a 5 cent fare increase in 1966 sparked riots). You can pay cashless with the Octopus card, similar to London's Oyster card. Most cab rides on Hong Kong island will cost about 2-3$ (US). I've only ever owned a car when living in California - definitely no need for it here, and good riddance.

Disadvantages (or not)
When researching different places in Asia, I encountered a few frequently mentioned drawbacks of Hong Kong: the air pollution, the "rudeness" of the people, the hot and humid summer, the crowds. I can happily report that I don't care. The air pollution is not too bad, one hardly notices when in the streets of the city. Sure, if you go up the peak, or up the elevator in a hotel, and try to look over to the other side, you will notice. But it hardly affects me. As for the rudeness of the people, I must say I have not experienced any yet. Granted, it is a crowded and hectic place, and people will bump into you on occasion - they won't necessarily stop or slow down only because you do. But it is still very civilized. People will hold the door open for you, cab drivers won't run over you (this is not a matter of course). People even stop at a red pedestrian light! As such, I found the concerns others seemed to have a bit overblown.
Summer weather - remains to be seen. I've been quite happy in the humid heat of Saudi Arabia or Namibia, so I am moderately optimistic. I am told that the typhoons can bring rather strong rain. In fact, when a "black rain" warning is raised, it is company policy to require employees to stay put where they are - at home, or, well, at work. Under certain circumstances, "black rain" turns exchange settlement days into bank holidays (another instance where the real world obtrudes uninvited upon the developer of financial software...). Anyhow.
Oh, and the crowds? I love them.

Random points of note

• The number keypad of ATMs (cash machines) is inverted (mirrored along the horizontal axis). Currency rule of thumb: 10 HKD = 1 EUR.


• Cats speak Chinese - they say māo (high, level tone), rather than miau in German or meow in English. Incidentally, 猫 (māo) is the Chinese word for cat. Lamentably, I don't know the Cantonese pronunciation, so I can't really tell whether they speak Cantonese or Mandarin.



• Sunday is the day off for amahs, maids, mostly from the Philippines or Indonesia. Several hundreds gather at the lower end of the (roofed) escalator walkways for a picnic, while many of the younger ones gather in the "New Makati" bar (named after a suburb of Manila) in Wan Chai to dance and frolic, starting in the early afternoon, as I read in The Economist.



• I've encountered a few people that don't speak English, but nearly all of them did speak some Mandarin (as far as I could determine - mostly, they seem to understand what I say, but I have barely a clue what they answer).

Arrived in HK 在香港到了

Very relaxing city. Arrived Friday afternoon.


The famous escalator - want to live close to here (can get to work in under 10 minutes walking then).

View from the hotel room (onto Kowloon, through smog):