Category: Observation

Posted on

Canton Road Traffic Problems

Over the years, Canton Road in Tsim Sa Tsui has become one of the places with the most traffic violators in Hong Kong.

This past Sunday, while enjoying a cold one from the cool environment of Hard Rock Cafe, I observed numerous traffic violations just outside Hard Rock Cafe on Canton Road. These violators consist of Mini Buses, Taxis and private vehicles.

So, over the half hour period I had the following photo documentary of what transpired:

First the Green Mini Bus #77M, #78 and #6A

Green Mini Bus Violations

As you can see the Mini Bus freely let passengers on and off their buses without stopping at the curb and in most cases they simply stop in the middle (center) lane of Canton Road, even when there are traffic around them.

We cannot blame these Mini Bus drivers completely. As their bus stops had been blocked by taxi waiting for fares most of the time.

Speaking of Taxi traffic violators, take a look at the following photos:

Taxi Traffic Violators #1

Taxi Traffic Violators #2

You can see that not only do the Taxis on Canton Road selfishly block the bus stops for Green Mini Buses and the Double Decker Buses, they also freely let passengers off at crosswalk during red and green lights.

In one of the photo you will notice that a Taxi was trying to back itself into the line right in front of a driveway with another Taxi blocking the driveway waiting to get into line.

Private cars are not immune either. As you can see below, drivers freely leaves their car unattended on the side of the road with their hazards lights on.

Private Car Traffic Violators

Is this an example of the selfishness of Hong Kong drivers? Or is this just an example of the minority of drivers in Hong Hong, that I so happen to come across during the half hour of random observation on a holiday afternoon? You can be the judge. Can you imagine this scene on a Saturday or rush hour?

I hope that the Department of Traffic or the Hong Kong Police will act on this soon, before the congestion on Canton Road get any worst.

Posted on

Make Over

PlasticSurgery

I was sitting at Starbucks enjoying my English Breakfast tea. Next to me was two ladies speaking of plastic surgery as if they are choosing the latest pair of shoes.

Pouring over plastic surgery before and after photos as excited as little boys looking over the latest edition of a comic book.

Are these ladies exceptions in the our female populations? Are there just as many young women contemplating the same surgical procedures as these middle age ladies?

My opinion is that people should be satisfy with their looks as they are born with. There are various cosmetic surgery that are justified for recovery of accidents, but other reasons for cosmetic procedures should be considered very carefully.

Posted on

Make Over

PlasticSurgery

I was sitting at Starbucks enjoying my English Breakfast tea. Next to me was two ladies speaking of plastic surgery as if they are choosing the latest pair of shoes.

Pouring over plastic surgery before and after photos as excited as little boys looking over the latest edition of a comic book.

Are these ladies exceptions in the our female populations? Are there just as many young women contemplating the same surgical procedures as these middle age ladies?

My opinion is that people should be satisfy with their looks as they are born with. There are various cosmetic surgery that are justified for recovery of accidents, but other reasons for cosmetic procedures should be considered very carefully.

Posted on

Public Facilities

Broadwalk

Recently, with the help of The Community Chest and HSBC, they built a brand new wide broadwalk in Stanley to replace the crowded sidewalks and roadway that were occupied by the restaurants which lined the main street at Stanley.

Restaurant

I assume this facility is for the enjoyment of the general public. But upon closer inspection I realized not every member of the general public are allow to enjoy these facilities.

Signage

I found numerous copies of this sign posted every few feet along the broadwalk.

Has our society come to a point where we must live with so many explicit restrictions for the majority to be able to enjoy a public facility?

NoLaundry

By the way, only in Hong Kong will you see this sign.

Unfortunately, if this sign was not posted there would be people who will hang their laundry along the broadwalk. This occurrence in Hong Kong is something I really do not understand.

Are the people of Hong Kong that selfish? I still try to convince myself that is not the case.

Posted on

New Gestures

Do you live in one of the many countries around the world where the Nintendo DS-Lite had taken the populations by storm? Well I do and Hong Kong is one of those countries.

People playing games on these consoles have developed a set of very interesting gestures. I will attempt to describe them to you here:

  1. Blowing in the Wind

    The players would blow into the microphone of the device. When they do this the game would recognize their action and react accordingly. For example, there is a game where the player is the owner of a virtual pet, they can cause soap bubbles to scatter round the pet by blowing into the microphone, which will make the pet happy.

  2. Scribble Scribble

    The player would rapidly scribble on the screen of the NDS. The purpose of this action is normally when the player is playing the cooking game. They would need to toss the dishes they are cooking in the wok of cutting vegetables.

Unfortunately, I do not have photos of these gestures, but one can now see these gestures around Hong Kong, in MTR (subway), Starbucks and streets.

Another console that had introduced new gestures is the Wii, another console also from Nintendo.

These gestures are:

  1. Pump Pump Pump

    This is where the player holds the controls in both hands and rapidly moves them up and down in opposite positions. In one of the game that requires this gesture is in a game where the player has to control the on screen character’s arms while it run through the course of the game.

  2. Twist & Shake

    This is where the player takes the control to pick up a container in the game and shake it rapidly to shake the creatures out of the containers

The Internet and the services found there had brought us new words; fit for the Webster dictionary, like:

  • goo·gle – ‘gü-g&l, transitive verb
    to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web

Now it is changing the way behaviours.

Posted on

Pervasive Technologies

Real dog meeting a robot dog
While at Starbucks I over heard an elderly couple speaking to another elderly gentleman about staying in touch while living in Shenzhen using email, Flickr and blog.

Posted on

Mark of a Tourist

Have you walked along the streets of your city and notice from far the approach of tourist to your city?

Why are these tourists stand out like a sore thumb? I am not talking about those who are trying to manipulate a spread out map, around and around, trying to get their orientation. I am not talking about the Japanese tourist who are snapping photos like paparazzi. I am talking about those tourist who are minding their own business and walking along the streets of our cities admiring the sights. For some reason they are very easy to spot.

Am I being too nosy? Or am I just extra observant.

I currently live in Hong Kong, and it is particular easy to spot those mainland Chinese tourist. I think it has to be the way they dress.

I sure hope I do not stand out like them when I am a tourist in a foreign city.

Next time you’re walking down the street, take a look for yourself and see how many tourist you can spot.

Posted on

Are You Being Tagged

Ever seen those brand labels on the sleeves of suits? Normally this is found in a store before these suits are sold and are still hanging on the racks.

For some reason, many people from the African continent and mainland Chinese leave these “temporary” labels on the sleeves of the suits they purchase and wear them out. As if they are trying to let everyone know that their suits were purchased from “Hugo Boss”, “Armani”, etc. who ever the designer may be.

Guys, these are temporary labels and it is not intended to be worn in public, you are suppose to cut them off when you get the suit home.

I sometimes see the same thing with mainland Chinese women who walk around with the store labels still hanging on their handbags.

I am sure my readers are not ones who do this, but if you know of anyone who does this, please help them out and cut the label off for them.

Posted on

Unusual Behaviour

This afternoon I was sitting at a McDonald’s restaurant in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, having my Big Mac™. All of a sudden a young kid, about 6 years old, came to my table, without saying anything, he just took a french fried and begin eating it. To say the least I was very surprise.

I am even more surprise that it was a local Chinese boy who did this. As my readers may know, I had always had the impression that local Hong Kong people are shy and not talkative. The action of this young boy is totally out of character for the typical Hong Kong children.

Don’t get me wrong, I think this sort of openness is a good thing. Although, I thihnk the boy may not have simply took the french fried and started eating it. May be he should have asked.

On the other hand, I don’t think young children, for that matter adult, should be eating things given by strangers.

What this incident actually points out may be the lack of education and teachings Hong Kong parents have on their children now a days.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Posted on

Public Humiliation

Poster

A great image captured by Leo Laporte and posted on his Blog.

The moral of the story is, you do not want to get a woman upset. Notice the “PS” at the bottom of the billboard.