The cripps in Hong Kong Hong Kong, Repulse Bay, Cripps, Crippo, Mark Cripps, Joss Cripps

Zai Jian 再見 (Hope to see you again soon)

A diary about our expedition to Hong Kong

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Thursday, November 23, 2006

"Antiques"





Many stalls were selling "Antiques" -- obvious fakes. But make for good pictures. Sad to see in the temples, many statues were missing arms and legs and faces and heads etc -- people hack them off then sell them to collectors.

One (revered) statue -- the Leper King -- has been hacked so many times that is has been removed and placed in a museum. It has been replaced with a concrete version which - you guessed it - has been hacked about a bit too.

The golden buddah shot was actually taken on my trip to Bangkok a few weeks ago -- I wandered round a back street to find some guys making 'antiques' -- including rubbing dirt on the artefacts etc. Just about got the shot taken without getting duffed up! Reminds me -- I have 200+ Thailand pictures to post up!

M

Cambodia street meat!






I'm realising that I have a food complex -- most of the stuff I write about here is focussed on stuff to eat.

Here are some pictures of various food sellers in Siem Reap -- they seem to specialise in dried eel; squid and some type of sausage... laid out in the sun (by the side of the road typically) and then hung uncovered displayed on the stalls. Did not smell bad at all.

I love the shot of the sun coming through the eels drying.

M

USS Kitty Hawk in our back garden



Cor an HUGE aircraft carrier just went past .. dwarfing any merchant ships I've seen since I've been out here (and we've seen some massive container ships).

I noticed it had a number '63' painted on the side of it. (About the size of an eight storey building I'd say). A quick google search 'aircraft carrier 63' suggests it is the USS Kitty Hawk (based in Japan) coming in for re-store & a bit of R&R.

Think I'll avoid Wan Chai tonight (apparently it can get "interesting" down when the US Navy is 'in').

Don't know what that ship in the foreground is doing -- has been moored there all week -- looks like a dredger or a crane-ship ... but can't see it doing much.

M

Halfords -- Cambodia style



Randomly placed street stall selling shock absorbers.

Also saw many instances of people selling petrol out of old plastic squash bottles. The bottles were simply placed outside of stores on racks or on bike racks on the back of bikes.

In one instance, we saw police raid one of these shops and confiscate the petrol. For their own good if you ask me!

Another time, I saw two kids on a moped .... they were filling their moped up with petrol as they were travelling along the road ... petrol was going everywhere including all over the engine!

Bonkers.

Siem Reap old market scenes






Ponged a bit in there ... very hot ... and they were cutting up fish and poultry. Usual 'wet' market scenes of live fish; crabs; eels; toads etc in washing up bowls meeting their end on a concrete slab.

Fruit & veg quality was very good -- Cambodia is exceptionally fertile.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Pol Pot's loo seat




This tickled me ... we went to a bar --- framed and hanging on the wall was purpoted to be Pol Pot's loo seat!

Hotel de la Paix - Siem Reap






Here's a link to the hotel we stayed in click here -- a truly stunning hotel. An art deco island in the middle of dusty siem reap. v. coooool

The fruit shot is the breakfast bar -- I could not resist taking a shot of that. They cut the fruit into pyramids - place them spike upwards on slates and then put the slates on slabs of ice. Very snazzy.

Bedrooms feature a bath in the middle (we got upgraded -- ;-) ).

Great Khmer regional food.

They were holding an exhibition ... great fun:

BUILDING PEACE
The Arts Lounge at Hotel de la Paix, Siem Reap, presents “Building Peace”, an exhibition showcasing the works of Cambodian artists. Created using dismantled arms of the devastating Khmer Rouge period, the sculptures are powerful statements of Cambodia's transformation towards a culture of peace.


Will definitely stay there again!

Siem Reap street scenes (Cambodia)






Looking back at last weekend, I realise how much I enjoyed it. It's always fascinating seeing new places and comparing how people live.

Observations about Siem Reap - which is a major town (City?) in Cambodia well positioned as the gateway to the Angkor temples - is that it was chaotic; hot and buzzing with small motorbikes/mopeds. The local people were great - v. friendly and exceptionally relaxed. Bothered a bit by kids trying to sell you stuff but no where near as aggressive as I've seen elsewhere -- quite lighthearted actually.

Sad to see kids c. Billy's age foraging in road-side bins.

Check out how many people you can see on the bikes .. sometimes as many as 5 people on the same moped -- with kids <1 yr old.

I'll leave Joss to write about the history of the temples and to post temple shots up.

M

Sponsored walk @ Happy Valley






Saturday week ago we went on a sponsored 1.4KM walk round the inner circuit at Happy Valley. Does not sound like a long way, but considering until recently Archie would not walk more than 100ft without asking to be picked up or to go in his pushchair, getting him round it non-stop was quite an achievement. And it was 35 degrees (something like that).

We raised £50 or so for charity. So will be asking for money from you when we see you at Xmas.

Happy Valley race course is a great place -- *ahem* it's in a valley -- with (as you can see) massive residential tower blocks built all around the periphery --- you feel like you're in a bowl.

We were walking on the grass bare footed (got told off for walking on the hallowed turf) -- it felt v. luxurious - then I realised that I'd actually not walked bare foot on grass (or much grass at all in fact!) since leaving England in July.

Tonight is race night (Wednesdays) --- coming home in a taxi, I drove past it on a road about the height of the top of the skyscrapers. Looking down from above, the race course was lit up like a spaceship -- wish I'd had my camera with me. The floodlights must shine right into the living rooms of the apartments nearby -- bet they don't need to turn on their lights on Wednesday evenings.

Here's Wiki on the history of Happy Valley:

"In early 1840, the British Army had set a military camp in the area formerly known as Wong Nai Chung Valley. However, the camp was later closed due to the increasing number of soldiers succumbing to malaria. The cause of malaria was unknown at the time and the soldiers apparently suffered a then-unknown fever. Early settlers had suggested the area to be used as a business centre, but the suggestion was put off due to the valley's marshy environment, which was causing fatal diseases. The death rate in the area and Victoria City was high in the early colonial days, and thus the valley became a burial ground for the dead. As a result, the valley was renamed as Happy Valley, a common euphemism for cemeteries. In 1846, the British felt that the valleyed terrain was ideal for horse-racing, and thus cleared the paddy fields and developed the Happy Valley Racecourse."

M

Shots Billy took @ Happy Valley



Have been giving Billy 'access' to my digital camera lately. Here are two he took @ Happy Valley. I think he's got a bit of an eye for photography - @ least he manages to get all of our various appendages in the frame which is more than I can say for some of us. eh Joss? eh Mum?

Have had my hair cut since these shots were taken -- not had it cut for 8 weeks prior to that!

M

Monday, November 20, 2006

Angkor Wat -- the shot I was desperate to get!


I just HAD to come back with this classic shot.

I think it turned out ok!

two snaps of angkor temples - cambodia



Two of 400+ shots I took this weekend!

Will be sifting thru them in the next week to find a few worthy of broadcast.

Truly sublime place ... undiscovered (by Westerners) until just over a 100 years ago, some of these temples are 1000+ years old. A million people lived in these complexes.

AWEsome.

joss' birthday weekend in cambodia


just back from a stunning weekend in cambodia to celebrate joss' **th birthday

Friday, November 17, 2006

Forget SoHo -- they should start in Beijing

From Yahoo! today ..

Crack down on rare species medicine trade

LONDON (Reuters) - London police on Friday launched a crackdown on the illegal sale of endangered species used in the city's Chinese medicine shops, a practice which contributes to a decline among some of the world's rarest beasts.

While most of the capital's Chinese medicine retailers are reputable and do not sell illegal items, Scotland Yard fears there is a growing market in products made from tiger bone, rhino horn, bear bile and musk.

Illegal trade is thought to be largely responsible for a number of rare breeds being decimated. There are now estimated to be fewer than 5,000 tigers left in the wild compared with 100,000 in 1990.

Even more sobering is the fact that since 1970, about 98 percent of the world's black rhino have been wiped out because of demand for their horn -- largely driven by the Chinese medicine trade.

Roewe




Did you wonder what the Chinese might do with Rover after they bought the company?

Well, they re-branded it 'Roewe' and positioned it as some high-class Victorian era chariot!

These posters are all over Beijing airport.

Which reminds me -- I've been working on a draft blog of various aiports I've been to recently. Itching to post it, but after the grief I got (mainly from Joss) over the geeky tide tables entry a few weeks back, I dare not!

M

Thursday, November 16, 2006

I really should know better

In Beijing again - it's 07:00 and I'm not exactly feeling 100%.

Went out to a local restaurant last night -- I decided against trying the 'Fish Lip Soup' (honest) but did try the deep-fried pigs' intestines.

The waiter kept asking my chinese host if, indeed, I as a Westerner actually ate 'innards'. That should have been a signal.

They tasted EXACTLY the same as a pig farm smells. I ate the very essence of pig last night. And I can still taste it now (3 coffees and 1/2 a tube of toothpaste later).

Up most of the night with tummy cramps.

But a bonus: Amazing view out of the window ... to get all of the building work finished by the time the Olympics starts ... actually all building work has to stop several months before then ... they work 24 hours 7 days a week. So the nightsky is ablaze with arc welder flashes.

Took a death ride taxi here last night ... driving in Beijing is very random. No signalling. No seat belts. 100kph weaving in and out of the traffic (as are other people). Horn blaring all the way. And having to dodge the 100's of bikes; small motorbikes and pedestrians none of whom have any road sense.

Shanghai's worse I hear. Hope to get there soon. Not.

M

Friday, November 10, 2006

That's neat: That's neat: That's neat: That's neat: I really love your tiger feet



I joke about it in the headline because I'm so dismayed. Can't think what to say really.

V. sad.

The vendor offered to cut off one of the claws for me to make into a necklace. He was very angry when I walked away. He kept shouting @ me ... according to my colleague, he was saying "You're stupid walking away. You'll never have this chance to buy a tiger's foot again".

I hope he's right.

The stuff to the right of the tiger's limb is dried deer penis and antlers.

Forget bear's claws



I found this very depressing today ... I went for a walk to take a picture of guys selling pelts, bear's claws etc and found this bloke ..... table cloth on the roadside .... selling beads; necklaces and OH YES ... a real Tiger's foot/claws/shin/knee cap. I felt/feel really sick. Unreal. If I had a machete I'd have hacked his hands off. This trade has to stop. It's barbaric.

Found out about the caterpillars I saw yesterday. They're not medicine as I thought. They're actually a sweet condiment for a particular dish. The caterpillars are larvae that only eat wheat ... therefore they're considered clean and wholesome. You crack an egg ... add chopped onion .. whisk it up ... drop in your pupae ... steam the whole affair and hey presto .... egg bug surprise. Delia are you reading this?

Pig's head anyone?



This guy on the bike was really sweet. He saw me taking pictures of the brothels and was fascinated. I greeted him in a Universal male way -- gyrating body movements etc -- which he found hilarious and then followed me round for the next 20 mins chattering away in Mandarin. I treated him to the four Mandarin words I know: 'Hello'; 'Thank You' and 'Beer'. More hilarity. Then he insisted I take his photo. It was not until that point that I noticed he had a pig's head on his trailer -- sans face. insane.

The brothel parade



The Orange and Yellow fronted buildings are the 'beauty parlours'. Check out the big poster .. don't you just LOVE the copy:

'Hairdressing Massage Center. Quiet and Lofty Environment. Professing Foot Massage Boye Massage'.

Great.

The Lofty Environment was the one that sold me.

Can you see the 'whores' drawers' hanging on the clothes horses outside the shops?

You can't make this stuff up.

Various street scenes






These are pics of the streets near where I work when I'm in Bjg.

Loads of people hanging around playing chess; selling things etc ... just doing stuff.

It's really cold and dusty .... but blue skies.

The striped building is where I work.

Bike with a placard is one of the rag and bone men.