Clary's Travel Digression

Walter, it was a bit of a set-up which Clary graciously indulged (or stepped into), so I could use the punchline "not if you go the other way around." Cheap humour, but in all honesty, this thread has been a great vicarious journey.

Very true!

Clary - get yourself, and your work, done and dusted - enjoy that pool, and shop when you can!

How much work is to be done before some more serious travel????

I have to write the next half of a guidebook to Hong Kong. I have to revise one book of primary English grammar practice and write two more. From where I'm sitting now, it seems like a hell of a lot, esp the guidebook which will need a bit of legwork. But it is a cultural and etiquette guide which at least doesn't entail slogging off to far flung factory outlets or rural restaurants (unless I want to that is!)
I will endeavour to keep sane with wordgames!
Cav, I understand your wish to come back with that oneliner, but I believe there is a cutoff point, i e the dateline, which precludes me referring to HK as the wild West or Ireland as the Orient... not sure about this, anyone know? The Asians call countries like Turkey West Asia, where we might think of them as the Middle East - not sure what they would call Israel.

Hey I got my wish of about a page back, it's cool and drizzly toady (18 degrees); not very nice really

Hmm...I'm not sure about any of the terms there, Clary, but to me, a visit to Turkey, Greece and Hungary spells Thanksgiving.

As long as you have China.

And Russia, as in "I've got to Russia to the toilet before all this rich food does me in."

Iran but didn't get there quick enough.

When our native Canadians lobbied for a land of their own, the government said: "Well, they can't have all of it, so we'll give them Nunavut."

And an English baron so disliked his apportioned manor that he called in Norton Malreward.

Clary, please tell us more about your adventures before this thread turns into a word game (my apologies for starting it).

Not only that, I am keen to read your every word about Hong Kong in print. I am so glad you ever showed up at awk, I mean a2k, you add so much here.

Ossobuco, I am overwhelmed by your words ...
Hong Kong is a concrete jungle, like most big cities, and has its share of Starbucks and McDs and swanky expensive stores. But it has more - one of the most beautiful settings for its cities (Hong Kong and Kowloon), and the most varied and interesting public transport I've seen anywhere, for starters. I am writing this guidebook so am made aware of its differences. Have just had a sortie to the supermarket, and expensive imported steak jostles with rice and instant noodles, expensive imported mushrooms and apples with local pak choy (I think it's called bok choy some places) and choy sum. Not so many convenience foods as in England, like 'cook-in' sauces and ready torn up salad leaves or stirfry. And the wonderful Octopus card, a smart card that gets you all over the place on any form of transport, and you can also get snacks and phone calls with it.
If you come across any good HK sites in your googling, please let me know!

I am very interested in transportation, if not academically, vicariously and somewhat as it relates to land use, re decline and new buildup, and the monies back and forth (not at all my expertise.)

Think LA redcars, the superliner trains of my youth across the US, the multiple trains I could catch in Milano.

I don't mean to put trains on the other side of the equation to suv's, things are much more complicated.... but to some extent, I can see that, trains vs suvs.

Trains are great, and here we have not only ordinary trains but the MTR and the LRT and the Peak Tram (a cable car really) and ordinary trams. I'm much in favour of boats, wherever they can be used they should be, you could free up a lot of Manhattan by ferrying people around the edges; Cambodia had to use its rivers because the roads were so bad, and they are splendid. The worst transport move Bangkok ever made was concreting over its canals and making a superb canal system into a poor road system. Imagine Venice with roads instead of canals!

Los Angeles concreted its river, moving now to unconcrete it, and figure out what to do with the water that the concreteing was about.

They need that water, don't they? I heard they were draining the northern part of the state dry!

My son (holidaying in Bali) just read this thread, and he said wow what a lovely community, no wonder you spent so much time with them over Christmas!

Haha ;-)