[Hong Kong after Tokoyo]
Monday, 7 March, 2005
Hi again
just to let you all know we are now back in Hong Kong
after a great time in Tokyo. It was cold but pretty
crazy! Snowed the first day as we wandered around a
temple, some famous shopping areas and the busiest
metro stations at rush hour. One station apparantly
has one million people pass through it every day! It
is something else to be there and see it - especially
being the only two tall blond people in the building
with thousands of japenese everywhere.
Japan was refreshing in so many ways. The people are
quiet, EXTREMELY polite, and the place is the cleanest
city I have ever seen. There are 7 story department
stores that just sell cameras. You can get every
model of any camera that ever existed.
Chris, there is now a tiny canon digital camera like
yours that is 7.1 mega pixels and 3 times zoom. Very
nice wee thing to use. There are lots of digital
canon SLR cameras out now and they are dropping in
price every day. You can get anything from a 5 mega
pixel to a 10 mega pixel.
I was surprised at their mobile phones though. All of
them were huge. Turns out that they all have cameras
on them that are 3 mega pixels and all can be tuned
into the TV so they can sit on the bus, or train while
they are commuting watching TV on their phones which
have flash bit screens on them. It really is the city
of electrical gadgets.
We used toilets with more buttons than my stereo
remote control - including Pauls one at home. You
also need a degree to use his bath at home which has a
panel of buttons all in japanese. Paul tryed to
figure it out one day and for a month the bath would
fill itself at 7pm every night. He had to get someone
in who would read japanese to fix it! You can run the
bath from the kitchen, you can heat up the toilet
seat, you can pretty much do anything you can imagine
when it involves showering and useing the toilet. I
just hate to think what happens to those things when
the electronics start playing up!
There was absolutely no words of english in Tokyo
which is a change from Hong Kong. So was interesting
trying to compare their little pictures with maps and
trying to work out where to go and how. still, all
metros are pretty much the same so we figured it out.
Tryed to communicate with a few people here and there
but 99% don't speak a word of english so its quite a
laugh. They are shy about trying to help too, so
usually just turn away mumbling japanese.
We have 6 days in Hong Kong now before flying back to
Auckland. Are glad to be coming home, but also sad.
It will be hard fitting back into 'society' and
getting a job etc. Good to be able to eventually have
a place of our own though and be able to unpack!
Today we are catching a tram up some hill here since
its such a lovely day.
take care
love nicola
[UAE to Hong Kong]
Wednesday, 2 March, 2005
Hi
We are in Hong Kong now.
The UAE was fantastic. We had a great time pottering
around Al Ain - this is the city where Liam is based.
Its about 1 1/5 hours from Dubai which is a mad sprawl
with horrendous traffic and humidity. Al Ain is
inland and doesn't have the humidity because it is
near the mountains. So barron. Al Ain is an oasis
mainly built around the date palm growers and camel
and goat hearders. Liam started as a landscape
architect there and is now doing town planning for
parks and public areas. Its a good place to work I
think...
The
UAE is a very rich country - lots of oil money. Some
of the things we did there was drive into the desert
mountains to a swimming hole, went to local markets, a
museum, a camel market, a mosque and we had a day
wandering around Dubai before we flew out. I would
definitely go back for more of a look if I was in the
area.
Had a good flight to Hong Kong - stopping in Bahrain
to refuel and pick up more people. Now we are at
Andrew's friends Martin and Alices house. Today we
will wander around town, and tomorrow we fly to Tokyo.
We have a week in Hong kong when we return from Tokyo
this sunday so will get out and about in the city
then. As for now, we are catching up on sleep.
Thats about it for now
love nicola
.... in the desert on a camel with no name....
Saturday, 26 February, 2005
Hi guys
Just a quick hello from Al Ain - 1 1/2 hours from
Dubai. Its perfect temperature here. About 25
degrees C. Have almost forgotten how cold it was in
the US, Canada and England!
We had a good flight down and were picked up at the
airport. No sooner had we arrived, and it was
raining. Quite a strange thing here it seems, as it
only rains about 3 or 4 days of the year total. It
rained almost all day yesterday too. So yes, we do
bring the weather with us wherever we go.
I had a close encounter with a camel yesterday as it
came up to kiss me (or slobber on me) in the middle of
no where. Got a great movie on the camera though as
he came up. Are hopefully going camel riding
tomorrow. Today is running around Al Ain and checking
out the local deal. Very weird seeing every second
local in traditional muslim attire... actually, all
are very nice and friendly. We stopped to ask
directions yesterday in some wee town in the middle of
nowhere and the police men were obviously bored,
because they leapt in their car and acted as our tour
guides escorting us to a fort. We then got a flat
tyre in the desert, and had to borrow a jack off some
other random guy that was also stopped. He was pretty
nice whicn was lucky as we didn't have any other
options. Spare tyre turned out to be flat too - but
luckily a slow enough leak to get us home (stopping at
every service station to inflate it again!).
Had a 'typical' emirate breakfast yesterday which was
essentially cheese pizza. Tasty...
We also drove around some local palm plantations where
they harvest dates, and went to a goat market. Very
cute goats. Not so nice seeing the locals buying them
and literally shoving them into the boot of their car
to take them home!
75% of all people here are expats so its pretty
different than I imagined. English is almost more
widely spoken than arabic - a sigh of relief for us!
Anyway, internet is not too accessible for us, so will
be in touch again when we reach Hong Kong in a few
days.
love
nic and andrew
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