Introduction (Always the 1st post) Check "Blog Archive" on left margin--the first location is where we are now

Audre + Dimitri biking at the iconic rock-Uluru or Ayers Rock, Australia

It all started in 1993 when Audre got a contract for a World Bank project in Indonesia - that was the beginning of our Odyssey or worldwide traveling or vagabond globetrotting... call it what you will. A year and half later, Dimitri planned a 9-month trip from Jakarta to Istanbul. It was supposed to be just an interlude between contracts. However, six months into that trip, while meditating on top on Mount Sinai, Audre saw the light! A couple of weeks earlier, Dimitri had calculated that we could most probably live on just the appreciation on our mutual funds (without touching the capital) and had proposed retirement to Audre's initial shock and dismay. So, on Mount Sinai, Audre got the message from above that it is perfectly okay to retire and go traveling throughout the world at 49 (Audre) and 54 (Dimitri). And the rest is history ...

This blog site was started in 2006 during our South American Explorations. Consequently the travelogues about our first 9-month trip, our nine months in Turkey (click here to see the map of our travels through Turkey), our six years in the rest of Europe, our three months in India, our nine months in Singapore, our three months in Phuket, our one year in Australia (although the picture above is of us at Uluru), our one year in New Zealand and our three months in Tahiti will be posted when Audre writes them.

While this blog is still in the process of being created, click here if you want to see all of our photos.

Slowly over the years since 1995, we have sold our real estate, our cars and all of our stuff (but not our two computers). Now when we travel we have everything we own with us (depending on the continent, sometimes we rent or buy a car, mountain bikes and skis and carry them with us too). So we are homeless, stuff-less and free.

If you want to check on our progress at our newest destination using the Blog Archive, all you have to do is just click on the first item with a 2009 in the title on the Blog Archive list (on the left margin). The numbers starting with 999 and the word December are meaningless.

If you are foodies, like we are, then have a look at the list of "Restaurant Reviewed by ALEDM Organized by Country and City" also on the left margin. If you click on a city, you will be linked to our blog posting of our restaurant reviews for that city. Enjoy (and send us an e-mail)!

On the left margin is a Blog Index with links to all of our postings. The list is in the chronological order of our travels, beginning in 1995, with "1995-6 Nine Months From Jakarta to Istanbul". The Blog Index is also more or less by continent. Links from the Blog Index take you to a page of postings. At the end of each page of postings, if you click on "Older Post" the posts will continue with our next destination chronologically. Theoretically, if you had the time and the inclination, you could follow our postings about our travels since 1995 by clicking on "Older Post" at the end of each page of postings. The most complete descriptions of our travels begin with our posts in South America in 2006 (when we started this blog). Before that you will notice most are still "to come".

And, if you want to do a search for a specific place, topic or a person, use the Search Blog feature in the upper left hand corner of the screen (from here click "Control - Home" on your keyboard to get to the top of your screen).

Click here if you read Spanish and want to read an article about us from the El Comercio newspaper in Perú. Even if you can't read Spanish, you might enjoy the photo.

2009 Hong Kong: Our Accommodations (April to July)

A few days after the ski lifts closed in Vail, we flew from Denver to Hong Kong. We brought 6 of our 11 suitcases with us to Hong Kong (and did not have to pay any excess luggage or overweight) with either United or Cathay Pacific. We had a smooth trip to SF (2.5 hours) followed by 14+ hours to HK. Cathay Pacific was a good carrier.

When we arrived we stayed at the Regal Riverside Hotel in the New Territories (Regal Riverside Hotel, 34-36 Tai Chung Kiu Road, Shatin, Hong Kong, Tel (852) 2640-7878, e-mail: ingo@regalhotel.com, web: http://www.regalhotel.com/) for 3 days (US$72 a day) and visited 4 serviced apartments that Dimitri had previously identified. We took busses and metros and were impressed with the speed, efficiency and cleanliness. Each day when we returned to our hotel, we used the sauna, steam and Jacuzzi to relax. Nice. We even had time to visit the HK Heritage Museum on Saturday before we left that area for Aberdeen.

One of the serviced apartments, abeo, stood out above the rest so we moved on Sunday (abeo (meaning "relax"), 100 Shek Pai Wan Road, Tin Wan, Aberdeen, Hong Kong, Tel. 852-36222-3000, http://www.home2home.hk, e-mail: info@home2home.com). We now are in a very new, very designy and very tiny one-bedroom apartment overlooking Aberdeen Bay. We have a fabulous view of the fishing boats, the bay, the islands and the ocean beyond. All of our stuff is put away, fitting into a 500 sq. ft. (space that is about the size of our bedroom in Vail). Our floor to ceiling windows do make the space seem larger, however.

The view of the Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter and harbor from our tiny apartment at abeo.

Better still, it costs around US$75 a day. Three times a week we go to the Le Méridien Hotel, where we have free (or included) gym and pool privileges, to work out. That is a real attraction of abeo. One of the endearing aspects of abeo was the small shrine to Ganesh, one of the Hindu deities, near the entrance of the building. Another was the nod to the unluckiness of the number 4. On the floor selection panel in the elevators there were no floor numbered 4, 14 or 24.

The people who work at abeo serviced apartments are lovely and we are delighted with our Tin Wan neighborhood area of Aberdeen.

2009 Our Tin Wan & Aberdeen Neighborhoods on Hong Kong Island

We didn't realize how perfect our little Tin Wan neighborhood would be for us when we decided to stay at abeo (click here to read about our Hong Kong accommodations). Tin Wan (traditional Chinese: 田灣) is a place at the south of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is at the west of Aberdeen and the east of Kellett Bay (Wah Fu Estate).

Within a few steps we have lots of buses taking us to Central, Quarry Bay, Kowloon, Stanley...just about everywhere. And we have little sanpan boats taking us to Ap Lei Chau across the bay. We have a number of eateries and even some restaurants. We have two of the supermarket chains: Park 'n Shop and Wellcome, as well as all kinds of shops. Better still there aren't lots of gweilo (foreigners) around.

We have our favorite fruit stands and vegetable stands and people (of course) recognize us. Our little town has a wet market with meat and fish as well as a part for clothes where we found a seamtress to do our mending jobs. Our little town has a temple called Tam Kung Yea Temple, and a pocket park. Our town also has a huge cemetary and a columbaria (buildings designed to house cremation urns) on the hill above the town.

The shops seem to be individually owned and the owners work 7 days a week from early morning until 8 or 9 p.m. each night. It looks like these are very hard-working people. We also have individuals who seem to specialize in collecting certain types of garbage, such as the ones with carts collecting cardboard.

In Tin Wan there is also the Fisheries Education Center, at 100A Shek Pai Wan Road. It has a great exhibit on the fishing industry in Hong Kong. There is also a Fisheries Officer who speaks English named MAK Yiu-ming (e-mail: ym_mak@afcd.gov.hk) who will answer quesstions. We were fascinated by the boats coming into the Aberdeen Fish Market that look like transport vessels rather than fishing boats. Indeed they are.

Invariably, when we walk on Tin Wan Street to the Kai Bo Supermarket we see a Rolls Royce being serviced in the tiny Tin Wan Auto Services shop next door. The first time we saw it, we couldn't believe our eyes. Our Tin Wan neighborhood is the opposite of flashy. It's a solid middle class area, and we even have an estate that's supposed to be affordable. We figure that the mechanic at Tin Wan Auto must be known far and wide. There is also a much larger Jaguar/Toyota/Mazda service center called Inchcape in Tin Wan.

The drawing card for us at Kai bo Supermarket is wine for HK$28. We love the varietal called Carmenere from Chile and we saw a La Fortuna Carmenere at Kai bo. It is excellent and for the price cannot be beat. For the same price La Fortuna Malbec and Chardonnay are sold which are also excellent. Amazing!

If we walk for 5 minutes we get to the much larger town of Aberdeen where the wholesale fish market is. The activity there is 7 days a week and it is really fun to look down from our apartment at the beehive of activity there. Walking through the market is not as much fun as we thought because it is really busy and really wet: there is constantly flowing water (which helps to keep the place clean).

There is everything in Aberdeen, including a piazza where people just hang.

Aberdeen center has a plaza where the locals gather

Also from Aberdeen we access our local hiking trail: the Hong Kong Trail from Peel Rise.

One of the things that I thought that I could do (affordably) in Hong Kong was to change the stem of my pearl earrings. In the past, I lost one of my pearl earrings when I took off a shirt (forgetting that I am wearing them) and the shirt caught the pearl and flung it away (never to be found). I wanted the stem of the earrings to be screw on and thus they would then be less likely to detatch from the "back" (called a clutch or ear nut). I checked with many jewelry shops around Hong Kong, after I determined that the jewelry shop where I had bought my screw on diamond stud earrings was no longer in business. Most had not seen a screw back for pierced earrings and were not willing to get involved. In Aberdeen I found Hung Fook Jewellery Co. (G/F, 171Q Kam Fung Building, Aberdeen Main Road, Aberdeen, H.K., tel. 2555-1138. It's actually on the street behind the Aberdeen Post Office at the corner of Tung Sing Rd. and Sai On Street). Joyce Tsai made a call and quoted a price of HK$500/US$64.93. That was within the range I was willing to spend. I don't know how much my pearl earrings cost originally but, even though I really like them, I stopped wearing them, fearing I'd lose one. Even replacing them wasn't an option because new ones didn't seem to have screw on stems anyway. So I had Hung Fook Jewellery do the job. When they first came back, the stem was too long and had to be re-done with a shorter stem that wouldn't stab me. Joyce Tsai at Hung Fook was patient and had the stems re-done. Even when they returned the final time, the person that Joyce called the Master (who came especially while I was at the shop), had to cut a little off of the stems to make them the length I wanted. I was thrilled with the result and began wearing the pearl earrings all of the time!

2009 Tin Wan & Aberdeen, Hong Kong Restaurant Review by ALEDM

Click here to see our restaurant reviews that we have posted on the website http://www.hungrygowhere.com/.

We loved eating in Hong Kong, and particularly in our small neighborhood restaurants. They were unpretentious, the food was delicious and the service almost always excellent. The restaurants were generally huge but impressively organized--like nowhere else on earth--with glitzy chandeliers. There were layers of staff: the ones who seat you, the ones who take orders, the ones who schlepp the food from the kitchen, the ones who serve the food that the schleppers schlepped and the clearers. Typically there was at least one person in each of our local restaurants who spoke English. Usually, your food comes in the sequence ordered or all at once, if you want. Sometimes you are served serially (which we don't like).

When you sit down, tea is brought, sometimes with peanuts or other nibbles (which we like to have when we're waiting). While these things show up on your bill (costing HK$10, typically, each), we would order them anyway and it is nice to have them come immediately. We learned that we could order the type of tea we liked--either pu er or pu-li (a Chinese red tea) or kok fa (a chrysanthemum tea)--instead of jasmine (which we think is tasteless).

Often the huge restaurant rooms are partitioned to accommodate the mahjongg players who click their way through the evenings. The decorations for weddings are displayed long after the events and make the rooms look more kitch.

Many restaurants serve red bean puddings for free after the meal. If not a pudding, then there is fruit that is served. Our favorite "offered" puddings were a water chestnut pudding and an almond pudding. Yum!

1 Our Favorite Aberdeen Restaurants:

1.1 Paramount Banquet Hall (Sui Shun Village Cuisine), Shop F, 1/F, Site 5, Aberdeen Center, Nam Ning Street, Aberdeen, Tel. 2884-9808, e-mail: siushunvc@biznetvigator.com, web: http://www.paramountbanquethall.com/. The restaurant opens at 6:30 a.m. for dim sum and stays open until 10:00 p.m. at night. We have eaten there for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food is delicious, the service is attentive and the restaurant (which is huge) is pleasant.

There are sometimes promotions and the staff will bring a delicous dish for free. We have been impressed with the dim sum choices. There are fish tanks for fresh fish. The crispy chicken is excellent. If you are an English speaker, ask for Emmy. She is a delight. Go and enjoy!

2. Our Tin Wan Favorites

2.1 Shining Star Restaurant, Tin Wan Shopping Center, Shop 301, Level 3, Tin Wan, Aberdeen, Tel. 2555-8800. They open early (at 7 a.m.) and close around 9 p.m. We have eaten at this restaurant many times and have had excellent experiences. There is an English speaker who is the manager and who is very helpful. The breakfast dim sum was not interesting for us or extensive. The lunches and dinners we've had there have been very good and the service is good too. The room is large and it is fine (nothing special).

2.2 Tai Kei Barbeque Restaurant, 5 Tin Wan St., Tin Wan, Aberdeen, Tel. 2555-6632. This is a favorite eatery of ours. They are very helpful and the place is typically packed. We have had their roast duck and pork, a couple of their set meals and have also bought seafood from our local market and had them cook it. Everything has been very good.

Our local eatery in Tin Wan called Tai Kei BBQ

When we brought our own fish and seafood, Tai Kei BBQ cooked it for us.

Tai Kei cooked our market-bought fish for us.