Category: Travel

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Thursday/ Stellenbosch buildings

Thursday was overcast and cool which made for good picture-taking weather.  All the buildings are from the central area of Stellenbosch.

The ‘old main building’ of the University of Stellenbosch was completed in 1886 and recently renovated. It is built in a style that could be called Cape classical.
This is the Sasol Art Museum is on Ryneveld Street in a beautiful red Dutch Neo-Classical building dating back to 1907. The building was previously home to the Bloemhof school.
This is Crozier House in Victoria street.
This is Van der Stel liquor store on Andringa street, a simple building but I love the roof arches and the Victorian style trim.
This church is called the ‘Mother Church’ and this building and tower were consecrated in 1863. The style is neo-gothic, built from plans from Carl Otto Hager, a German master builder and architect from Dresden.

 

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Monday night/ arrival in Cape Town

My journey to Cape Town at the southwestern tip of Africa was complete on Monday evening.  Here are a few more pictures from the connecting airports.

The escalators up to the cavernous lounge at Doha’s premium connection terminal.
Porcelain souvenirs from the shop downstairs. (Hmm. The camel looks a lot friendlier than the oil sheik).
And here are some furry camels from a caravan depiction.
The flight tracker on the flight from Doha to Johannesburg shows us crossing the equator. The blue blob on the right is one of the great African lakes, Lake Victoria. By surface area only Lake Michigan-Huron and Lake Superior (in the USA) are larger than lake Victoria.
I love these African patterns .. in Johannesburg’s Oliver Tambo airport.
And this life-size African elephant is made from wire mesh with little beads. (Amarula is a cream liqueur manufactured in South Africa – made with sugar, cream and the fruit of the African marula tree).

 

 

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Monday/ at Doha airport

We arrived at 4.45 am local time with the sun just coming up from the east.  So one of two 8 hr flights done, and the next one is due south to Johannesburg.

The Qatar airbus with the oryx on the engine that brought us from Hong Kong. I am standing in the door of the bus that is taking us to the transfer terminal.
And here is my Google Places map. We are at the old airport. There is a new airport terminal under construction about 4 km away which will open in 2013.
It is summer in the desert, so these temperatures are in Celsius, of course! (90 F at night, goes up to 110 F by day).

 

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Sunday/ to Cape Town via Doha, Johannesburg

Here is how I will get to Cape Town from Hong Kong.  It’s on Qatar Airways with two 8 hour flights and then the ‘hop’ down to Cape Town on South African Airways from Johannesburg.  The stop in Doha shows where Qatar is : a kingdom on the small Qatar Peninsula on the much larger Arabian Peninsula.  Qatar is arguably the world’s richest country : it’s estimated 2011 GDP per capita was $102,943 according to the International Monetary Fund.

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Sunday/ Tsim Tsa Tsui

These pictures are from near the Tsim Tsa Tsui station in Kowloon, along Nathan Road.  It is warm and muggy outside!  Walking around makes you break out in a soaking sweat for that ‘swimming in it’ feeling.

The Prince jewelry store on Nathan Road is new.
A collection of piggies from 7-11, one is issued each month.
This is the underpass by Nathan Road and Salisbury Road.
This sign is at the Hong Kong Arts Centre. The Eight Immortals are a group of legendary xian (“immortals; transcendents; saints”) in Chinese mythology. Each Immortal’s power can be transferred to a power tool (法器) that can bestow life or destroy evil.

 

 

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Saturday/ Hong Kong is wet

My flight to South Africa is on Sunday.  It rained all Saturday which was fine with me : I could use it as an excuse to relax in the hotel and catch up on what’s happening in the world with the TV coverage of the elections in Greece and in Egypt this weekend.  I did catch the Marriott SkyCity’s shuttle bus to the Tung Chung station and shopping mall close by.

This is inside the Tung Chung station entrance : a map with directions for the aerial tramway to the Big Buddha hill on Lantau island.
This picture is displayed in a travel agency's window. The construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge is underway, slated for completion late 2016. The dotted line is a sea tunnel that will allow ships access to the Pearl River Delta.
My acquisition from the Puma outlet store at the shopping mall by Tung Chung station : three t-shirts. Count the pumas on the three t-shirts! How many? (Answer: 9, of course - for the nine loves the big jumping Cat has.)

 

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Friday/ to Hong Kong

Shenzhen at 91°C (33°C) on Friday at 5pm.
Our driver stopped for gas in Shenzhen, explaining that the ¥8.32/ liter (US$4.96/ gal) is a lot cheaper than the HKD18/ liter (that's US$8.37/ gal! yikes)across the border.
And here's the gas pump.
New construction to be seen as we were approaching the Shekou Shenzhen Port border crossing.
The main stadium of the 2011 Universiade in Longgang district has been around a year now, but still a highlight for me to check out as we drive by.
Here is the mainland side of the Shenzhen Bay Port crossing. The Hong Kong customs is behind this one.
.. and once the bridges to Lantau island come into view, you are almost there. It is a 2 1/2 hour drive from Shenzhen, border crossing wait time included.

It is time for a get-away from the slog at work. A colleague and I got the van to Hong Kong on Friday for our flights from the airport this weekend.  A little travel disaster struck me when I got out of the van at the hotel : inadvertently left my cell phone on the seat, with the driver disappearing from sight as I ran back out of the hotel.  We did have his phone number but as I was trying to figure out the dialing codes for mainland China to call him from my room, the front desk called.  Was I the person that left my phone in the van?  Yes, yes!  I said.  May we ‘inconvenience you, sir’ into coming down to the lobby to get it?  (You can inconvenience me all you want!).  And there he was, the driver with my phone.  Don’t worry so much! he said, as he handed me the phone.

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Saturday/ Shenzhen’s Mix-C Mall

I had to get out of the hotel room for a bit on Saturday, and off to the Mix-C Mall in Shenzhen I went late afternoon, a 20 minute taxi ride.  I would have walked around more but it was raining when I emerged from the mall, and I decided to come back instead of waiting to see if it would clear up.

The staggered rooftops on the left is the Grand Hyatt Shenzhen, and that's a Louis Vuitton store in front of it.
This is across from the Mix-C mall, at the base of the 384m (1260 ft) Shun Hing Square skyscraper. On the left is the top of the Kingkey 100 tower, the city's tallest skyscraper at 442 m (1,449 ft).
This is from the fancy grocery store in the mall : water with basil seeds. Soaked in water, the seeds become gelatinous, and are used in Asian drinks and desserts. The seeds have potent antioxidant and antibacterial properties. I just liked shaking the bottle and watching the seeds move around and then stop again, suspended in the water.
Here's a drink I can relate to much better : South African rooibos tea with the African elephant.
Cornflakes are 玉米片yù mǐ piàn in Chinese which seems to translate to 'little stones of husked rice splinters'. (Kellogg's rooster has gotten a really in-your-face look lately! That's NOT the rooster that was on MY cornflakes box when I was a kid !.
This is a display advertisement at the mall's Golden Harvest movie theater, inviting patrons to buy soda pop and pop corn. Movie tickets are ¥70 (US$11).
And here is my parting shot before stepping into the taxi. It wasn't raining very hard, but the shoppers were evidently not eager to get too wet !

 

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Thursday/ arrival in Dameisha, China

 

Our approach into Seoul was from the south this time.
Here is our Boeing 747 bulging bird waiting patiently at the gate in Seoul for us to board, to take us to Hong Kong.

We flew across Japan and approached Seoul from the south this time.  The connection time there was just right : stretched my legs, brushed my teeth and then boarded Asiana’s Boeing 747 that took us to Hong Kong.

It was only three hours to Hong Kong, and we arrived there at 10.30pm Thu night.  That made for my usual midnight border crossing into mainland China.

At the candy store in Seoul airport : Erik the Yellow Viking M&M.

 

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Wednesday/ at Sea-Tac airport

I made it to the airport with two hours to spare before the flight to Seoul departs. I usually try for three for an international flight.   I had e-mails to send off and I almost left my electric toothbrush in the bathroom – not a calamity to leave it behind, but still. And as always : don’t forget the charger.   Below is my flight from Flight Aware .. the usual trek across the Pacific to Seoul, and then down to Hong Kong for a late Thursday night arrival.

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Tuesday/ packing up

I am getting ready to go out on Wednesday for my next trip to China.  It’s a new project.  So last chance for anything that needs to go with to make the cut and jump into my suitcases. (If only it were possible to snap my fingers and the suitcases just assemble themselves! ).

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Friday/ so long, longhorn

This Texas Longhorn looked down at me as I was exiting the security clearance into the departure area at Bush Intercontinental Airport’s C Terminal to make the 4½ hr flight back to Seattle. These cattle are known for their diverse coloring and despite the fearsome and long pointed horns, generally have a gentle disposition and intelligence.  The longhorn is the official animal of Fort Worth, Texas, which is therefore nicknamed ‘Cowtown’.

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Thursday/ more Houston architecture

I finally had some time before the sun set on Thursday to walk around downtown Houston and snap some pictures.  At the courthouse a guard chided me, said I am not allowed to take pictures (because it’s a federal building).  What a sad state of affairs, I thought – if citizens cannot even take pictures of their own city’s or country’s courthouses and buildings.   But then one of my colleagues pointed me to a 2010 New York Times article http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/you-can-photograph-that-federal-building/ that says the guard was wrong.  As a general rule – a photographer can stand in a public place and take pictures of federal buildings.

Houston's starter light rail system runs from downtown to the the Fannin South station by Interstate 45.
This is the First United Methodist Church on Clay street in downtown Houston.
This is the elevated circular walkway at the base of the Chevron tower on 1400 Smith street.
The Allen Center is just a workhorse office block close by the Chevron tower but I like the glass-enclosed entrance with the escalators up to the entrance lobby.
This building was formerly the headquarters of Gulf Oil (whose gas stations have long since left the gulf coast but are still found in New England). It was built in 1929, and is a beautiful example of Art Deco architecture.
More art deco styling at 815 Walker Avenue in downtown.
More art deco from the JP Morgan Chase (formerly Gulf Oil) building.

 

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Tuesday/ more Houston

This is the Chevron tower on 1400 Smith which was built in 1982, formerly occupied by Enron.
The building with the stepped top is the Heritage Plaza, completed last major office building completed in downtown Houston in the midst of the collapse of the Texas real estate, banking, and oil industries in the 1980s.in 1987,
This is the view from the 29th floor in my firm's offices in downtown Houston where I do training instruction this week. The UFO sits atop the Hyatt Regency Hotel and houses the open-view elevator shafts.

 

It’s Thursday and I see I left this post in ‘Draft’ mode so it’s now late! but here it is.

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Monday/ arrival in Houston

I am staying downtown in Houston and still need to go out and take more pictures of the steel and glass architecture.

This is the view toward the east from my hotel room on the 19th floor in the Hyatt downtown with the setting sun's reflection.
Don't look down if you are afraid of heights! The windows from the inside elevators in the Hyatt's enormous 30 story tall inside lobby provides a spectacular view. I am on my way down to get a beer and a bite to eat right there in the lobby bar.
Arrival at Houston Intercontinental airport late Sunday afternoon.
Not all buildings downtown are perfectly square. I did not write down the names of these two office towers.

 

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Sunday/ to Houston

I’m on the way to Houston for the week for work.   What used to be a Continental flight is now United Airlines and there is no spare seat on the flight : that’s the way we fly these days, it seems.   (And no, I’m not sitting up front in the big seats, but I did get an exit row seat, so I have a little extra leg room).

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Saturday/ in Seattle

It’s still Saturday and I have arrived in a sunny and clear Seattle – same as Hong Kong was when we left it.  It was the usual 3 1/2 hrs to Seoul with a connection time of an hour before we did the 9 hour trek east to the West coast of the USA.  There was a diagram of the trajectory of the North Korean rocket in the Korean newspaper.

This is Gate 19 at Hong Kong airport with a long walkway out to the Asiana plane.
This picture from the Korea Joongang dialy newspaper shows the trajectory of the North Korean rocket launched on Friday.
Our flight path from Seoul to Seattle went over Tokyo.

 

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Saturday/ at Chek Lap Kok Airport, Hong Kong

My Google Latitude position on the way to Lantau island, bottom left. I have just crossed the mainland border by foot. It took a little time today since I was not the only 'Foreigner' in my line (meaning the 'Foreigner' lines that are usually wide open were open to mainlanders as well).
This is on the Shenzhen side of the Hong Kong-mainland border.

I am at Hong Kong International Airport, bags checked and all.  I am always a little stunned when I am done packing to see how much stuff can be squished into a suitcase.  (Many years ago when I used to pack the family car’s trunk for a road trip with everyone’s stuff and food, I had the same experience).   I am stopping over in Seoul, and then on to Seattle for an arrival in the middle of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

From Wikipedia : Bird's eye view of Chek Lap Kok Airport (local name for Hong Kong International airport). The old airport that was surrounded by high-rise buildings with one runway jutting into Victoria Harbor was Kai Tak Airport, and closed in July 1998.
Colorful mural made by local school kids, celebrating the new airport's 10th birthday in 2008.

 

 

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Friday/ all packed up and checked in

I have packed my two bags and checked in on-line with Asiana Airlines. (And hey, nice to know the airspace is now clear of North Korean rockets.  The rocket was launched this at 7.39am this morning but broke apart before leaving the atmosphere).  I don’t have a scale to weigh my bags but I think I’m under the 70 lb mark.

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Friday/ Cherry Blossoms

The official 2012 poster for the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC by artist Peter Max. (Is that Uncle Sam on his way to the Capitol?).

It’s the centennial of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC.  And the blossoms (called sakura) are out in Japan as well.  Cherry blossom forecasts are available on-line for both places so that visitors can time it just right.

Check out Google’s ‘Street View guide to Japan: Cherry Blossom Season Edition’ with 360° views at the most popular sites there.

Here is the link  http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/landing/japanview/#cherryblossoms