written in 1959, Hong Kong

The below are from a note book printed in 1959.

1. Typhoon signals are more detailed.

2. The bus lines are only a few, unlike today we have more than a hundred.

5. a small island off Tokawan? Chai Wan a place for picnic? Wong Tai Sin as Sik Sic Yuen....

8. Wedding registration procedure as notes too?

9. Interest on clothes?

東薈城 Citygate Outlets, Tung Chung, Lantau Island

When the new HK airport was to be built in the early 90's, Tung Chung was undergoing a big change to be a satellite town to the airport. The mall above the Tung Chung MTR station Citygate has changed itself into a mall of outlets from a number of brands such as Puma, Addidas, Coach, Dunhill...etc. Outlet mall is not exclusively on a freeway stop anymore.

1. Novotel Citygate.

Tung Chung 東涌 and Coastal Skyline 藍天海岸, Le Bleu水藍天, La Rossa影岸-紅

Passed by all of these sky crappers on my way to and back from the airport many many times. Finally I got to walk around all these buildings. The names of all these buildings seem to be somewhere in the southern European coastline. However, during winter time, the wind from the north and the high mountain of Lantau block the polluted air from the mainland in Tung Chung. It is often quite smoggy from October to March.

1. When you stand in front of these giant buildings, you would find yourself so small. Note the short villas in the front row.

2. more to go...

3. good that at least they don't forget something for leisure.

26th Feb., well rested and sailing

Royal Jordanian Air business class, BKK-HKG

Not sure if it's after my complaint that the meal served on the business class on my return trip from BKK to HKG has been back to an original business class meal set. However, the flight was filled with many "religious" friends on group tour complaining on not sitting together. Don't they know group tour often can't fulfil for priority seating assignment? Or as per some abused excuses "god arranged it", they should be contented with a seat given, shouldn't they? I once heard of someone claiming "as a Christian, we had better not go to such buddhist-oriented countries as Thailand. That's why they got punished for tsunami hitting the country.". If their god is that discriminating on human races or religion, by the same token, they would be classified by their god too, wouldn't they? I would somehow suggest them hijack this Jordan Air jet from not stopping over Bangkok if they meant so much to be anti-Thailand. Then they should just pray to power the jet due to the limited tank of fuel.... Nothing be offensive here but I would just hope for a mutual respect to each religion or non-religion. Having a religion is not a symbol of priority or superiority. It's the faith in our heart, not a weapon to discriminate the others.

1. the whole set. Very nice presentation. 2. the thai shrimp salad. Quite hot but I like it.

3. hot roll and the stewardess kept on serving more. I got 2. 4. veggie is very fresh and crunchy.

5. choco mouse in raspberry sauce. A bit too sweet but the raspberry sauce is pretty nice to offset the sweet. 6. sweet and sour chicken.
7. Steak and pasta. A bit too well done but it's still ok to me.

Marriott Cafe, JW Marriott Hong Kong

Tonight by chance I called up JW Marriott HK and see if there would be any table of no-show. There I got a table and tried it and reminded me to compare it to the one I tried in Bangkok. Somehow the food variety is different and not fair to compare them. Besides, the prices are different.

1. I guess this is what made this cafe so popular and often on waiting-list for 2 weeks or a month. Lobster! At HK$400, you can get as many as you can take. However, my attention is rather at their sea prawn. It's unlike those shiny farm raised prawns. This one is better than those pinky/white strips shiny prawn. It has the sea sweet prawn flavour. The oyster is small but very fresh. So I would prefer fresh to big. 2. sashimi. Pretty good and fresh. Sushi is also quite nice.

3. ok, more oyster and one more lobster with veggie. 4. Quite impressed with their hot food quality, especially on the steamed fish and stir fried prawns.

5. A flaw I found. It's the unclean parts (blood vein mark) of the fish maw. At HK$400, I wouldn't complain they use some cheaper quality fish maw, but they need to clean them well. Otherwise, it would be smelly. 6. I am somewhat amazed the butter corn is the best among all these. Yes, very nice corn and the butter is not that heavy but nicely given the aroma with the corn.

7. lobster with noodle. Again, it's not the lobster surprising me. It's the squid ball! Very nice one. 8. ice cream by Hagen Daz. Cakes are quite nice.

9. low-calorie cheese cake in the front. Of course, low-cal. means less tasty. :) more ice cream to make it p. 10. iced coffee. Pretty good.

11. the cafe inside. 12. the buffet stations.
13. the entrance.

Marriott Cafe, JW Marriott Bangkok, Thailand

Tried this dinner buffet last Thursday 19th Feb. in Bangkok.

1. oyster is quite ok and fresh. Alaskan crab legs were served. Pretty good too. 2. The sashimi is average. The most attractive food is the freshly sliced parma ham and the honey dew is an imported one. Very nice to go with parma ham!

3. the hot food is average but the pan fried fish fillet is pretty good. Sometimes it's difficult to have the pan fried fish done nice. 4. Foie Gras with mango. The chef used too much corn starch to coat it and try to seal the juice by using high heat pan frying it. So it turned out it's much too burnt and the coating is too thick to fall off easily.

5. prime rib is quite nice. Veggie too. 6. various fruits and ice cream. The ice cream is already too melting.

7. cakes are average. 8. peppermint tea.