Day 182: Hong Kong Last Lap

I didn't have anything on the agenda today, so I just enjoyed my last day in Hong Kong hanging out in Kowloon checking out shops. I had quite a bit of money left over, and in addition to treating myself to a nice lunch I was considering buying some electronics (specifically an external harddrive) to use up the last of it. Ultimately I decided to wait, since I'll be returning to Hong Kong after the month in mainland China. I did buy a fancy new rubix cube (well, a knockoff rubix cube, but a kind that's actually better than the real ones) at one of the markets. I'm still working on my haggling skills, but I got them to knock the price from $280 HK down to $80 HK ($40 to $11). The starting price was ridiculous though, and I'm sure the guy has never actually sold one at that price. I also bought a cheap compass and a pedometer for a combined $22 HK, since both are things I've regretted not having at times.

Not really any pictures for today. I took a few random ones, but not of anything terribly interesting, and it's not worth uploading them right now just for the blog. I did go through and update picasa with all the Hong Kong/Macau pictures, so things there should be pretty much up to date now.

Day 171: Vis(t)as

After getting all my papers in order and pictures taken the day before I headed off bright and early to the office for Chinese visas. It was less busy than I had expected, and so lines weren't an issue at all. As I kind of assumed, no matter how much you try to prepare ahead there's always something you miss. In my I hadn't printed out details on my health insurance while in China, which was requested on the application form. The office had no wifi, but just wandering around outside I found a connection for long enough to get my details. The other troublesome question on the application was "List all other countries/territories you have visited in the last 12 months with dates and reasons for visit". Let's just say I ended up writing really tiny for that box. Once all that was done I dropped off my passport with the forms and went for a walk.

Because I had my bag with my computer and a few other things along, I wasn't looking for a serious hike. I coincidentally came upon a sign pointing to the Peak Tram, and decided to give Victoria Peak another go, this time by train. It was a very steep ride up, but a nice view. There were lots of shops and restaurants at the top, and little trails and roads to other points of interest around the peak. I decided to go for one of the main trails that does a small circuit of about 3km around the circumfrence of the peak. In addition to great views down at the city it was also very interesting vegetation as this the most jungle-like woods I've been in so far.

Since I actually had my tablet with me for once I messed around with it a bit for some artsy pictures.

After hanging out around the peak for a bit more I took the tram back down and slowly worked my way back to the hostel and hung around there for the evening.

Guards!

Random aside post.

Many countries, in addition to normal police and security have special formal guards to guard parliament/royalty/papacy/other important people and places. Anybody who has been to Ottawa has probably seen the stationary guards. As I've been travelling through Europe, I've been to a lot of capitals and castles, and come across a lot of guards. I've watched bits of at least 4 or 5 changing of the guard ceremonies, and I find all the different uniforms interesting. Personally, I'd hate this job. I don't even know if they provide any actual security or are mostly just there for show, and spending all day standing still without moving for show seems very dull indeed. Here is the collection of guards I've seen and remembered to take pictures of!

England

Vatican City

Greece

Turkey

Bulgaria

Hungary

Czech Republic

Denmark

Sweden

Norway

The Science of Cat Photography

Here's one for Jessica. She requested a take pictures of cats of the world on my travels. Up until now I've seen random cats here and there, and taken pictures of a few, but I was always held back by the "of the world" part. Cats are so universal that a picture of a cat sitting in some bushes or lying on the street seems too generic to me. For it to be a true "cat of the world" you need some geographic or cultural context in the picture in addition to the cat to give it a real place in the world.

For example:

See, no context here. The stones are a bit interesting, but these cats could be anywhere!

Ahh, context!

The problem now, of course, is how much do you zoom in on the cat and sacrifice the surroundings? The cuteness-to-context ratio, if you will. I experimented a bit, so here is my effort. I give you the cats of Rome!

I'll put the rest I took on picasa later. Loung is about to close, so I may have to do my full post tomorrow morning.

Louvre Pictures

Since it feels wrong to only include one picture of all the art in the Louvre, here's some more!

I'll put the rest of what I took on Picasa soonish. I'll warn you that it's like 75% sculpture though.

Notice: Pictures

If you check the right-hand of the blog you should now see a new link to a picasa site I uploaded pictures to. Other than deleting the obviously bad or duplicate pictures I haven't touched anything yet, so the quality on some won't be great. I'm heading out for a bit and leaving the uploading tool so hopefully everything should be in there in the next couple hours (it's a bit slow since there's a backlog to work through). Let me know if anybody has any problems.