Hong Kong and Taiwan, December 4 – 13, 2014.

12/4/2014 Thursday.  Parked car at EZ Way.  UA quite full (2 vacant seats in E+).  Wifi didn’t work most of the time, wondering if $16.99 is worth it.

12/5/2014 Friday.  Landed on time, but had to wait for checked luggage.  Had a quick meal at Maxim’s airport.  Taxi to TP an easy ride.

12/6/2014 Saturday.  Had an early morning meeting with Alfred at Festival Walk, breakfast at Café de Coral.  Met up with Anne in Shatin and had lunch.  Back to TP to get some rest but couldn’t.  At about 3:45 pm I left to meet up with David at Mongkok East Pacific Coffee.  At 6 pm Anne joined us and we had dinner at Japanese Curry Restaurant in MK East.  Concert at 8 pm at Cultural Center where HK Phil played Dvorak’s New World Symphony and two pieces of modern music.  One was written to commemorate Radio HK 4’s 40^th anniversary, the other was a percussion concerto performed by Li Biao.  It was quite late when we got home.

12/7/2014 Sunday.  Left house at around 9:30 am, with Wally driving, to get to ABC.  After short boat ride to Lamma Island, we walked the familiar 3-mile path from Sok Kwu Bay to Yung Shue Bay, which took about 1:15 hr.  Inexpensive Dim Sum lunch at Sampan Restaurant.  Then it was to Repulse Bay to take a look at the new high-end retail mall, built on a former flea-market site.  Build it, they will come?

Visited A’s mother, then to Wanchai by bus and saw a protest march by Fanlun Gong people which slowed traffic considerably.  We were initially concerned by the Occupy Central people, we ended up not affected by them at all.

We had a snack, I bought some clothes.  Anne’s sister called.  Long taxi wait but eventually made it to their house, and we headed out to Country Club together.  We caught up on things and then Anne’s other relatives (Jane and her husband, and Eric) showed up.  Spent a lot of time reminiscing as we weren’t done until way past 10 pm.  Another late night getting back to TP.

 On Tim's Sunseeker.

 Anne's sister and cousins, at Hong Kong Country Club after dinner.

 12/8/2014 Monday.  Lunch at Jockey Club with Larry.  Then rushed back to Taipo.  Tried but failed to take a short nap before evening event.  Pair of shoes I brought along had not been worn for a while and was starting to literally disintegrate.  Luckily it held up most of the evening, but couldn’t help but leave some black marks behind.

At the Peninsula Hotel.

12/9/2014 Tuesday.  Lunch at Fuk Yuen in Kowloon City with M/M Leung, arranged by Ruth.  Ling and Wally left for Taiwan for a conference and visit with Wally’s uncle.  Mr. Leung recovering from his spinal surgery from a year ago.  We thought we ate a lot but ended up being fewer than 20 dim sum dishes.  Afterwards, Anne and I whiled away our time in Shatin.  Met up with Yeungs at “One-Lock Roast Meat Restaurant” famous for its roast ducks in Tai Po Market.  Meal was good but not quite deserving it’s being named a Michelin 1-star restaurant.

 Lunch with Leungs at Fuk Yuen Restaurant in Kowloon City.

A tall Christmas tree in Festival Walk.  I can imagine Emmie saying "wooooowwww" when she sees this during her trip to Hong Kong later this year.

12/10/2014 Wednesday.  Mr. Tsang drove us to airport.  To our relief he stopped being the coordinator for drivers which meant more attention to the road.  He loves to chat though and told us all about his truck-driving escapades, including the many accidents he had.  Flight to Taipei on BR852 was uneventful.  Even they have only regular economy seats, they felt as roomy as the E+ ones on UA.

Taxi to hotel took 45 or so minutes.  Had to wait 30 minutes for our rooms to be ready – free coffee and pastry certainly helped ease the wait.  We walked around, went into a book store (Elite) to buy some books for Emmie, and had dinner at a local restaurant (Spring of Shanghai), which was quite good.

12/11/2014 Thursday.  During the taxi ride into town yesterday, we reserved a taxi for a day (at NT$500 per hour); the colleague of the driver picked us up at 9:30 am.  Today’s itinerary was: CJK Memorial, Ximen Ding, Presidential Building, CJS Official Residence in Shilin, Palace Museum, and drop off at Taipei 101.  Lunch at Ding Tai Fung; my first exposure to this chain of dumpling restaurants was in Hong Kong, followed by Sydney.  This is the “original” shop.  Workers’ attitude was great, food good but again not quite Michelin 1-star level.  Ate at Food Court of TP101, we didn’t want to go up to the higher floors because it was raining lightly.  While eating I browsed the web and found out that there was concert at the National Concert Hall.  It was about 6:30 pm.  A short subway ride took me there by 7:10 pm, plenty of time to buy a ticket before the start at 7:30 pm.

 Chiang Kai Shek Memorial.  His role in Taiwan has been downplayed recently, some of the references to him around the memorial have been removed.

 Inside Lungshan Temple.  This is the first Taiwan temple I ever visited, quite surprised that - as far as I could tell - all the offerings were vegetarian.

 Ding Tai Fung is a well-known chain of restaurants now found in many cities around the world.  We got to this original shop early enough to get a seat rather quickly.  By the time we were done, there was a long line of mostly tourists.

 Well-known or not, this is still a sorry-looking serving of their renowned steamed dumplings.

 The Martyrs' Shrine.  We caught the changing of the guards that happens every hour on the hour.

 Selfie in front of flowers in the CKS Official Residence.

 Upon closer inspection, these are single chrysanthemum plants that have been trained over the years into huge bouquets.  At the bottom of each arrangement is a single stalk.

 Stephen and Ruth in front of the Palace Museum.

 Taipei 101, as its name implies, is 101 stories high.  This is all we could see from the street level in this rainy and misty evening.

 This simple meal for NT$120 (about US$4) at the Food Court in Taipei 101.

The National Concert Hall is a huge auditorium.  An organ dominates the stage which accommodates over 100 musicians comfortably.

12/12/2014 Friday.  Leisurely breakfast at hotel.  Taxi driver waiting for us at 10 am for the 45 or so minute ride to Yeh Liu Park.  Raining along the way, down to a drizzle by the time we showed up.  Rugged coastline with wind-eroded rocks.  I remember visiting it many years ago, now it is much built up, with many tour buses in parking lot.  Still a nice place to visit.  Taxi driver recommended a place (Golden Emerald Restaurant in Wan Li District outside of Yeh Liu) for a seafood lunch, the price turned out to be quite steep and food was only moderately well prepared.  We were dropped off at the hotel at 2 pm.  Tried to doze off a few times without success.  Did some writing instead.  Wally and Ling showed up at around 6:30 pm.  We went back to the restaurant we went to a couple of evenings ago.  Afterwards we had soya milk.

Selfies taken at Yeh Liu Park.  When I visited this 30 or so years ago, there were few tourists.  The last picture is the iconic "Statue of a Queen."  The line waiting to get close was so long that we decided a far away picture was enough.

Even though the ingredients were fresh (we picked them out of a tank,) the food wasn't well-prepared.  Quite a pity, considering the possibilities a good kitchen could make of them.

12/13/2014 Saturday.  Didn’t sleep well last night, actually most nights on this trip.  No problem getting up before 6 to get ready for taxi ride to airport.  Terminal was very congested, but security was quite efficient and an advertised 35 minute wait turned out to be less than 20 minutes.  Grabbed something to eat at lounge.  Surprisingly short flight to NRT (2:30 hrs approx.).  On the other hand, there was a six-hour layover at the UA lunge (still 2 hours to go.)  UA lounge was empty when I showed up, now bustling with people looking for a seat.

UA78 was quite full, but there was an empty middle seat.  Anne, who had returned a few days area, picket me up.