Sai Kung, Hong Kong, New Territories ( China)

I first visited Hong Kong when it was under British rule . What a wonderful experience and an assault to all the senses. The extrordinary new smells, the vision of millions of neon flashing adverts, the undulating tones of Cantonese and the tastes , nothing at all like the local chinese restaurant, not even similar to Sunday lunch at Soho's China town.

I returned recently for the wedding of G and J and stayed with J and M , friends who, only months earlier had relocated from Singapore.


In the 80's, the time of my first trip, I had not visited the New Territories. I was very excited to be seeing them at last

This is very unlike downtown HK










The day after the wedding my hosts collapsed and rested at home giving me a chance to wander the streets of Sai Kung, a great people watching day ensued.

The town itself is a bit grey but the harbour is very colourful

This is Sai Kung town in the New Territories, China










Shopping is lovely relaxing passtime in Sai Kung

.......and  this store cannot satisfy your needs then maybe the next one will

Then at the end of the day you can shut up shop, take it all away  and say bye bye

Travels in Dublin, Lille and Elsewhere

In 5 weeks I should have arrived in Dublin. This is one of the  few pictures  I have  taken within the campus of Trinity College


Dublin is a lovely city marred only by the lack of sunshine between October and the September ( of  the consecutive year)













The next photo was taken in December last year on what would be considered a lovely day - for that time of year - and even on that lovely day   the natural light at mid day was very low

An old friend once said that being met at stations and airports is one of the nicest things in life and I agree. I shall arrive direct from Singapore and will be collected. This is such a bonus after a long haul flight or any absence that lasts  over a month. There is so much to share and so much anticipation

Arriving without  an awaiting onward travel companion is not a problem and Dublin Airport is well served by coachs and local cheaper buses that will link you to Dublin City and beyond. You just exit the airport and look for a blue coach called the Aircoach, the driver will take your fare. Other destinations  are also catered for but some may be served by coaches located in a coach park a little further afield - ask at information desk inside the terminal

  

Theres are my lovely flowers they have been enhancing my living room all weeek. So each evening after work I have been welcomed by a wonderful aroma .

After a month in  Dublin a short trip to Cardiff, London, Lille and Amsterdam is organised

In July it will be Lille, a large city in Northern France . My main reason for this return visit is my infatuation with the Eurostar rail network . I love how you can sit in  a Brussels Bar for lunch and then on a whim decide to have dinner in London, only the very rich in their jets could do this before 1994 .

This lovely building above is in Brussels


 I became interested in the city of Lille in 1995 just following the opening of the channel tunnel, . Amazing that the first train between London and Paris  departed in   1994, in spite of the fact that  the idea for it and the ability to construct the tunnel   was available in 1800.

 This  Euorostar route  offers the  rail link between UK and main land Europe and  the line also accomodates motor vehicles.

 For my first trip Paris was the obvious destination  but along the way was Lille. Lille had traditionally  had bad press as an industrial sprawl, I had never entertained a visit. Nobody mentioned the three lovely squares, the opera house or the narrow cobbled streets -  a feast for the eyes. Plus Lille with its Flemish influence is more like Belgium with cafes and  bars serving moule frites and brown beer . You can even walk from Gare Lillle Europe ( the station for London or Paris) to the town centre.

From Lille you can take trains to all over France. One such place is Collioure in the South of France which features in my next picture

Malta and Gozo

This is Malta . When I first visited  in the 70's I seem to have totally missed the beauty of this gorgeous island. The disappointment lay in there being nothing Maltese. Malta had been ruled by Britain until 1964 and seemed to have lost its identity. Shops were full of UK products.  Maltese cusine was not to be found. There was steak and chips and tea like mom makes. It wasnt for me!




One area, at the time  looked interesting. Sighted from the obligatory boat trip of the harbour, our tour guide told us that this was the slums. The buildings were ancient, there was washing hanging from one top floor window and straddling narrow cobbled streets to another on the other side- no tourists go there he said

. I thought it looked great it was the  best of Malta back then. This is how it looks now.

In the early evening as the sun goes down the buildings on the bay are transformed and have a pink hue. Older women in bathing hats swim while the men fish . This is in the area of the '3 cities'  and this is where I stayed . With are no hotels  accomodation is very poor but you get to breath the air of  Senglea, Cospicua and Vittoriosa.

From the ramparts you see sights like this


I

I flew Emirates direct fron Singapore and needed some comfort on arrival so I  stayed at the lovely Juliani hotel in St Julians on my first night there , this was the view from my balcony

The Netherlands, Van Gough and Melody Gardot

I love the Netherlands and am so excited to be going to Amsterdam in July. If you stay near Vondel park you are close to all the great art centres, the Rijksmuseum with its wonderful paintings, the Van Gough and the Concertgebouw, where the jazz singer Melody Gardot will sing on July 3rd  - check her out on U Tube if you have not already heard her. I lived in near Amsterdam in my 20's and never wanted to leave. I also thought about moving back recently which allowed me the luxury of  three visit.

This picture is taken in Delft. Next time  I am back in Amsterdam again . My favorite passtime is walking the canals along with this there will be time for the galleries and viewing the wonderful paintings.

Years ago when I lived in Zanvoort a seaside town near Amsterdam I used to visit 2 small former fishing villages on the Zuderzee outlet called Volendam and Marken. These villages have critcism heaped on them by locals and tourist guides for their trippery nature and for being a tourist trap however the buildings are really worth seeing as is the trip itself involving a bus and ferry . I think take a bus to Volendam and then there is a ferry acress to Marken. This ferry trip alone would make it a wonderful day out. The bus to Volendam takes about 30 mins , the ferry  30 mins and the trip back to Amsterdam another 30. The bus leave s from central station but check i have not done in for decades.

Throughout the Netherlands there are many lovely canals

Some canals are tucked away in small towns and bicycles are a great feature everywhere . This final picture is of a small town that I wandered through near Dortrecht.

The Maldives

Theres not much you can do in the Maldives.

You can take a bath

Or look at the ocean

Or swim

Or take a night cap







I went there to dive 2007. J came with me because husband M thought it might be too boring  - did he regret it? I think so. Would you?

Nice, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Cannes, Antibes

Nice

I spent 3 northern hemisphere summers searching to buy a house in mainland Europe before I eventually decided in 2008 that my next move would be to an Island in northern Europe and that I would do the reverse of every other sane person in the cold north, (who buy in the hot South) and settle in Dublin. The search was lots of fun and gave me a chance to wander around Europe on my own without seeming like a sad friendless no mate-r and it made up for my long longed for lack of a gap year post university.  This is a picture of the first apartment that I viewed in Nice on the Cote D'Azur, its on the 3rd floor of the orange building across the water . 

The scope of this house search was the stunning coast of France from Nice to Montpellier. Here I introduce my third train journey, ( the other 2 being the tranz coastal in NZ and Dublin to Bray on the DART) the train journey along the Cote d'Azur is another in my top ten rail journeys . Its an easy trip so dont let not speaking French put you off.  

The highlight for me is a town called Villefranche -sur-Mer. This is a photo of Villefranche which overlooks Cap Ferrat 

Antibes suited me best to buy , its a smallish town with a train station and a lovely bay although not as lovely as many of the other Cote D'azur towns

Above is the small street in Antibes where I viewed a house for sale. I took the train from Canne where I was staying and where D, M and S joined me for a few days. We have a photo of all of us on the redcarpet.

The Trans Cote d'Azur www.trans-azur.com goes to St Tropez  which I highly recommend. S and L were staying nearby and came to have lunch with me , a great treat and special memory.

Then I broke my rule of only visiting towns with railway ststions and had a day off house hunting by taking the bus to the medieval hilltop town of St Paul de Vence . The village streets have 60 plus art galleries. Its a must see place, but I cannot find the photos!


 I was sure I would find a place in Montpellier in my next picture but I didn't

And Finally some of the lovely coast again

The Kingdom of Bhutan

In the 90's I read that Katmandu walking trails were littered with fast food wrappers and decided it would not be a destination for me. The Kingdom of Bhutan in  the East Himalayas has virtually been untouched by tourism and I decided to plan a trip there . Part of its isolation is due to the government tax on tourists of 200 US a day and also it is not very easy to get there . 

So in 2005 I took my trip and landed near Paro in November of that year. To get to Bhutan you  fly into Bangkok and take Druckair the Bhutanese national carrier and when I was travelling in 2005 I  stayed overnight at a Bangkok airport hotel as  flights leaves early in the morning, I learned that this is arranged as landings in Bhutan get more difficulty later in the day due to weather changes.

The excitement began as I checked out of my Thai hotel on noticing the Druckair flight attendants. These people were wearing the most exotic cabin crew attire I have ever seen

In the 1980's the King of Bhutan, having been challanged by an overseas economist because of a slow capital growth in Bhutan stated that 'gross national happiness was more important than GNP. Bhutan has as a result soetimes been known as 'The Kingdom of Happiness"

Bhutan was one of the last countries in the world to get television and in 2005 was reported to have only one set of traffic lights. 

A Buddist country, there are many famous festivals and my trip coincided with the Thimpu , Punaka and Tongsa festival

To get to the festivals I travelled on narrow roads through beautiful mountainscape, this is what I saw-

Singapore

This is Singapore where I live and this picture is of the Esplanade Theatre on the Bay. Its also known locally as The Durian after the very smelly fruit , some Singaporians dont  seem to like the name  I was once scolded by a taxi driver and promptly corrected - its the Esplanade he said

So last night when I went to see Sam Mendes version of The Tempest I asked to be dropped at  the Esplanade theatre.

A, had bought the tickets , there has been a lot of hype , somthing to do with Kevin Spacey too, whom I believe is in town. A and I agreed it was emperors new clothes and took the courage to leave half way through. For both of us its only our second time ever leaving a performance. I left Fidelio in Swansea in circa 1995.

This is another part of the Bay and this was taken on National Day last year. I was very privileged to have a friend C who had tickets for the ND events and we had a wonderful view including parachutists and fireworks-  though not at the same time

This is a view from the window in my apartment , located in a lovely leafy suburb. I love the varied architecture of Singapore, the modern, the colonial, the local.

A colonial building now the beautiful Capella Hotel where I had lunch with G and M last June ( thank you G and M for the lovely lunch!). Its on Sentosa island

Irish woman New Zealand holiday

This is St Patricks day celebration in Singapore. There was Irish dancing, Irish Bands and a Parade. This all happened in here where I live and soon I will write about  my Singapore in a future posting.

Watching a streak of green curling around Boat Quay was amazing ( I would say 'surreal' but along with 'awsome' its my most hated word, am not to keen about ' centred around' either but thats just based on logic

Approx 3 weeks earlier I was here in the Cook Straits crossing from Wellington to Picton with M. This was my fourth visit -  to a country I never wanted to see but then on my 1st visit in  1999 I realised that  its one of the most beautiful countries in the world that I have visited.

Take the tranz coastal rail its about 6 hours of stunning beauty and  another of my top 10 best train journeys ( I already mentioned Dublin to Greystones in my last posting) more photos later

This one next photo  is a seaside town near Wellington, another excellent commuter train journey to a small town with 2 little coffee shops on a warm Saturday afternoon in Feburary 2010 - a very special day.

A breezy little conurbation