Hong Kong!

Hi folks! I've always been a really BIG fan of C.S. Lewis and I started on the Chronicles of Narnia at the age of eight, finishing all the books by myself within a month or so! From there, I moved on to the Space Trilogy and some of Lewis's other works... all are quite excellent. Well, the "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" came out several days ago in the USA. The release date in Hong Kong was the same, but Macao won't see the movie for some little while. So Saturday, I made the executive decision to head to Hong Kong after church on Sunday afternoon just to see the movie! Kind of a strange decision I guess, travel to Hong Kong just for a movie, but if you're living in Macao, that's a luxury that's open to you!

Hong Kong! A view from the Turbojet!

Downtown Hong Kong... where everything's at!

I selected a 3D version showing at the AMC Cinema in "Pacific Place", located near several government buildings in the heart of the "where to be" shopping section of Hong Kong. The night life areas are quite close as well. Needless to say, the shopping areas were gorgeous. The buildings are astonishingly advanced. The city is quite beyond anything found anywhere in the United States. The subway system is NICE! Clean, Wifi enabled, safe... acrylic doors and window glass separate the pedestrians from the train track. The doors open exactly when the train has arrived. The trains are FAST and clean.

On the way to the subway from the ferry terminal. No need to risk traveling 

under the open sky when you can travel beneath the ground!

Cute critters always seem to have wise advice...

Waiting for the train, which, incidentally, doesn't take more than ten minutes. Oh, this is unrelated, but did you know that if a Japanese train is more than a minute or two late, passengers are issued a refund as well as a note to their employers stating why they will be late for work? In the USA, if the train's more than 30 minutes late, perhaps it's considered late!

Pacific Place and Admiralty, the stop where I got off, are part of huge shopping complexes with large towers for living quarters and office space. The areas are really nice, and I mean really really really nice. Designer shops galore, sparkling jewelry stores, electronics stores, fashion shops, Gucci handbag shops, and more shops. And small restaurants and pastry shops. And this wasn't just at the Pacific Place. The ferry terminal itself is a huge mall with designer stores the likes of Lamborghini.

Lamborghini store inside the ferry terminal

Inside the main entrance of Pacific Place

My trip lasted about nine hours, starting at 1:30pm at my apartment and ending at 10:30pm when I wearily threw myself into my bed. I forgot to mention the movie theater! Leather seats - nice leather seats - that are big and comfortable... no rubbing elbows with your neighbor unless you want type chairs. Uniformed and very courteous attendants were all over the place. The entire cinema has a space-ship like feel and design to it, almost like a theater (a feeling that is enforced by the assigned seating at time of purchase). The sound was perfect and at a good volume.

 AMC Cinema inside "Pacific Place"

Oh yes, the movie. The opening was quite pleasing a very true to the book... it had a nice, fresh feel to it. Later on, I was disappointed with the turn of events. Walden Media really played around with the storyline, which ruined - or left out - some of the most pleasant experiences Lucy and the others have with Aslan and reduced the level of wildness and mystery that could have captured audiences. Overall, the movie was enjoyable as a one-timer, but I fear that in the annuls of cinematic history, it will remain a might-have-been. Too bad, considering the series could have been one of the most memorable children fantasy series ever and possibly even more profitable - for the studios - then the movie series made after Tolkien's books (who was a contemporary and great friend of C.S. Lewis).

The street vendor said "OK" when I pointed to my camera and his stand, 

and was kind enough to pose for the photo.

Tonight I stopped by a street vendor to sample his wares. He amicably tried his best to explain to me the different foodstuffs he was offering, and in the end I ordered three shish-kabobs of Yun Tun (Xiao Mie, sp!?). I rarely order from street vendors, but this guy seemed safe. He had a huge pot of broth boiling behind the counter. In this he cooked all the food that any of his customers purchased throughout the day. In the end, the broth was more like something one would find at the end of hot pot. He tossed my dumplings into the broth, let them cook, and then took them out and put them in a bowl. He then spooned some of the broth on top... absolutely delicious! Nothing ventured, nothing gained! Try something unusual! You may regret it later, but every once in a while you'll find a gem like this!