AirAsia mystery

AirAsia's doing something different this time, "Something BIG is headed your way...", most likely a zero fare sale again? Well, lucky for me, we haven't booked any summer plane tickets yet...so it might be a last-minute summer sale ;P. From the ripped-off part, I guess I can make out FARE (bottom) and maybe the top is NO FARES? We'll just have to find out.

EDIT: Photo was replaced by AirAsia with the new ad. Sorry for the fact that I didn't upload it onto my own server =(


AirAsia.com, geez....I just love their advertising! Asian low-cost carriers rule!!~



From their Twitter feed,
"RT @AirAsiaBlog: We've been sniffing around for the big announcement at 1300 hours (GMT+8hrs). Its going to be big ;) watch out!~"
"U wanna be waiting for tmr, coz we’ve got something for YOU! :)"
"Some things will not be the same again tomorrow…watch this space."

UPDATE: It's actually nothing really special. "With NO ADMIN FEE and fares as low as ours, any lower & we'll have to start dropping our pants! www.airasia.com #no admin fee"

Experience at a Sushi Restaurant in Hong Kong

Please note that this is adapted from Tour Hong Kong. Copyright © Hong Kong (Blog) Group.

I went to Ming General Japanese Sushi Restaurant (明將迴轉壽司餐廳, míng jiāng huí zhuǎn shòu sī cān tīng) at Dragon Centre just a few days ago. This restaurant is a bit unique for Hong Kong, an all-you-can-eat 'buffet' for sushi. Unlike most sushi restaurants, you only have to pay HK$46.50 (approx. US$6) and a 10% service charge for everything you eat which is extremely cheap for Japanese food in Hong Kong. It offers exorbitant amounts that would leave you bloated for the next day and might even eliminate your appetite for sushi for months. Though it is very cheap, there is an large demand (mainly among teens) and could leave you waiting for up to 1 hour for a family of four, no reservations are allowed according to their rules.

The sushi restaurant is quite good in terms of hygiene and is of a self-serve basis. You help yourself with the 'assistance' of the sushi-go-round conveyor belt and a hot water tap is shared between every two people. Cups are overhead with tea bags and wasabi provided by the staff, ginger and soy sauce are in containers at every seat. However, the quality (especially the rice) is not so good but acceptable. Sushi in which they don't have on the belt can be placed on-demand at no extra charge.

Overall, I would rate this restaurant 3/5 for its excellent price, mediocre food quality, long lines, attentive staff and poor variety. They operate 2 stores in total on the same street but different malls. If you want high-class, high-price, look somewhere else (e.g. Genki Sushi, Itamae Sushi - there's one at Hong Kong International Airport)

Address:

Store 1 - 6/F Shop No. 612-613, 37 Yen Chow Street, Dragon Centre, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon
Store 2 - G/F & 1/F 58 Yen Chow Street, Milan Place, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon

Going to the Extremes on a Budget Airline

One low-cost carrier (LCC), Ryanair, in Europe is going to the extremes to cut costs by removing check-in desks and even charging for toilets. Personally, my experience with one Asian LCC, Cebu Pacific Air, was rather good (the best part was we paid $0 for the flight ~ promotion!!! excluding fuel surcharge, tax...blah blah blah which amounted to HK$2750 for 5 people). The flight was just 10 minutes late on both trips, brand new aircraft but no food and TVs, well that's another story.

Ryanair may be charging each passenger (credit card or coins), per use, £1 (US$1.43) but there's a few flaws. One of the flaws, what if a passenger leaves the door open for the next passenger to use? READER INTERACTION: Mention a possible flaw in the comments!

They'll also be removing check-in desks and forcing all passengers that fly with them to use online check-in while dropping their baggage (if any - requires extra charge) at a designated drop-off point. This would allow them to save on leasing costs of the airport check-in desk.

The future of Low-Cost Carriers

Woman goes mad after missing flight

Even the local newspapers reported about this. A woman went loony after missing her flight to San Francisco at Hong Kong International Airport. Staff try to calm her down, yet she slams on the floor like a little toddler having a tantrum. This has been an internet hit worldwide with nearly 4.7 million hits and 25 awards (at the time of this writing) since it was uploaded a few weeks ago. Well, enjoy the madness!

Earth Hour Hong Kong

Earth Hour「地球一小時」 (March 28, 2009) is a major and global awareness programme aimed at giving people a glimpse of what global warming is doing to the planet. This year, Hong Kong is finally participating in this event with landmarks across Victoria Harbour being dark for an hour. Even the famous tourist light-show "A Symphony of Lights" is going to be suspended for one night. Around 1 out of 7 people (which is around 1 million) people will take part in this activity to show awareness towards the problem. I hope you can! Earth Hour is global, not only in Hong Kong. The programme aims to reach 1 billion people, the more people you invite, we might be able to make it to 2 billion!

WWF's Earth Hour Sparks Hong Kong and Worldwide......
世界自然基金會「地球一小時」策動香港與世界......

It's as simple as a flick of a switch! Literally.

Wii!

Airline Mogul

Today, I'll briefly introduce Airline Mogul, an online game I've been playing for the last few months.

Introduction
Airline Mogul puts you in the position of an airline CEO and let's you decide where to fly and how much to charge for fares. The thing I like most about Airline Mogul is its clean interface compared to other free simulations such as Airline Empires. In addition, the forum lets you add information on your airline like a press centre capturing every moment of your progress. You can also add ads there. Here's some of mine (my airline's jetGreen).

                                                                                                                Anyway, good luck in running your airline.
However, I must warn you. This may take up a lot of your precious time, so play often, not everyday.

Poverty Around the Globe

Case 1: Poverty in the US
I remember when I was in Boston, my dad used to drive my family around the city. At almost every single red light, a homeless person would take a tin can and walk down the line of cars begging for money. It's just sad.......We wanted to help them, but how?? If we opened the window and gave them some money, they might rob us. We all felt insecure around them, sometimes they even tried to open people's car's doors.

Case 2: Poverty in China.
Recently, there was a news report regarding wrong use of the term 'AIDS'. Some people were pretending they had AIDS and threatened motorists with a needle dipped in blood. This is a horrible situation, would you pay money or would you rather wanna get pricked with blood from an AIDS patient? If you didn't pay, you might get AIDS (if the claim was true). People everywhere would call the police, but the police couldn't do anything. They couldn't verify if they really had AIDS, so they were off the hook every time.

Case 3: Poverty in Hong Kong
Hong Kong, a world class city. Are there any homeless people here? Yes, but fewer than most other cities. The government here uses a number of tactics to prevent homeless people from gathering on the streets. First up, they've replaced nearly ALL public benches with new ones designed to prevent a homeless person from sleeping there.

Second, it makes lots of laws and regulations which prohibit homeless people from staying in a few public places (e.g. inside on MTR Stations). Finally, it adds a lot of homeless shelters (though not enough) to handle the homeless.

Still, poverty is still quite serious with many people just taking free newspapers not for the purpose of reading, but for recycling. At the entrance of one MTR station near me, the elderly take english newspapers, though they don't know how to read them, purely for the purpose of recycling. Many people here (over 80% elderly) go through dumpsters and collect paper for one again, recycling. It's great for the environment (reducing waste), but also really depressing.

More about Hong Kong poverty here (Youtube):

Poverty in Hong Kong [Part 1]
Poverty in Hong Kong [Part 2]
Poverty in Hong Kong [Part 3]

For our participation in last year's blog action day, please refer to this post

Beijing 2008

Almost a week ago, the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony was held. For those of us that weren't there, we saw it on TV right? However, we later found out many parts of the Opening Ceremony was fake including the 'footprints [of fireworks]'. Even the part of the girl singing was fake, another girl was singing but she couldn't go on stage because she was deemed 'ugly'. It's outrageous.

Let's hope the 2010 Vancouver or even 2012 England one will be a LOT better

Cost of running a Car

Ok. We're back after a long break with a post.


Here in Hong Kong, the government encourages public transport as much as possible. Therefore, the cost of running a car here is extremely high even if you don't drive it much. For example, you have to pay HK$1000/month (US$128) just to park your car.
You guys over in the U.S. are complaining about high gas prices at US$4.1/gallon, we're paying US$8.4/gallon, double of that. Insurance here is also very high plus many hidden charges such as tunnel fees.

So remember, never, ever try to buy a car here.

Tour Hong Kong

We are excited to announce that we'll be launching a whole new blog, just for foreigners and tourists to learn about Hong Kong attractions and the ways of a HongKonger.

After a long period of analysis of the online blogging community, we found out that tourism is a huge topic. This new blog is a huge milestone for us, and may be successful compared with this one. If you have any suggestions or objections, feel free to contact us.

Running out of Numbers

In Hong Kong, whether you're 7 or 90, everybody has a cell phone. They come in all different models, from the black-and-white Nokias to the newest Sony Ericsson 5.0 megapixel camera phone. You must think that a lot of phones are needed for Hong Kong's 7 million population, and problems may occur, currently, HK is suffering a crisis with phone usage. The problem is not the phones itself, it's the phone numbers, Hong Kong is running out of phone numbers rapidly. All phone numbers in the region currently either 6XXXXXXX or 9XXXXXXX, but now, phone operators are running out of numbers and are pleading for a number starting with 5 or even extending the numerals to 9. In the future, I'll be able to get lots of money for my phone number :P.

Free HDTV airs tonight!

Ok. The dancing part of the commercial is just laaamee..

Most of the people living [Approx. 2 million] in the areas supported by TVB and aTV's broadcast signal will be switching to high-definition TV tonight at 7 PM. Almost all of Kowloon, part of the New Territories and Hong Kong Island will be able to enjoy the free HDTV channels. This launch has aiming for a advance in Hong Kong's technology as well as crystal-clear, with no "ghost” and “snow” effects [which most TVs suffer from] free viewing. Another purpose is to enhance popularity of next year's Beijing Olympics 2008 and Hong Kong's own equestrian events. The cons of HDTV are quite obvious; most of the TVs in Hong Kong are not yet HD-Ready/Full-HD so many people would be buying new ones and throwing their old TVs out instead of bothering to recycle them. Another negative side is that the decoders cost up to HK$2000 which is a bit pricy, though you can get a HDTV USB plug in a Computer Centre for around HK$600 which recieves low quality signals.

NP360 Cable Car Reopens

In less than 2 hours, Ngong Ping 360 will reopen officially since its plunge a few months ago in June. For the last few days, MTR Corporation (new operator of 360) has been giving out free tickets for staff and their family members to try the NP360 in a trial scheme to get stronger public confidence. During the trials, news reporters interviewed several children which said they bought Life Insurance just in case.

The original operator, Skyrail-ITM (Australia) has been charged by the HK Government for not properly maintaining it, therefore causing the crash. Since then, The cable car has been in debt as local shops are abandoned and expensive safety checks have been performed in addition to the free trials. Though public confidence has gone up, the number of tickets sold for today's grand opening has only amounted to 450 [advance tickets]. We [My Family] was hoping to buy tickets, but, eventually didn't due to the long lines we may face.

Ngong Ping 360 outside of Tung Chung MTR Station

Talk with Santa over MSN

Yesterday, in my inbox, I recieved an email from Windows Live (operator of Hotmail) and they said I could chat with Santa. I thought it was a joke, so I tried it out (northpole@live.com-USER DELETED AS OF 25 DECEMBER). Santa could really chat with me (with limitations) and he's online 24/7! It's really weird, and funny at the same time.

At the same time, Windows Live also tries to promote you to use their games (they get money somehow) by programming Santa to say "Ok (username), we could really use your help in the factory. We play a game up here called Factory Frenzy. Would you like to play? I wonder what they'll think of next.....

Google: Cheaper than Coal

As you know, Google isn't just a search engine, the company is also helping the world in our global warming crisis. On the 27th of November, Google unveiled a "hundreds of millions US Dollar" plan to develop energy cheaper than coal. The plan's name is currently named as an inequality (as in mathematics), (Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal). [Sorry, I can't use the greater than symbol, Blogger thinks it's a HTML error, so I used an image]

"Our Goal is to produce 1 Gigawatt [which is enough to power a city the size of San Fransisco] of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades," said Larry Page (co-founder of Google).

In order to succeed in the plan, the renewable energy must range from 1 to 3 US cents per kilowatt-hour to "beat" coal, the dirtiest, but cheapest energy source available.
Although they are working to improve electricity consumption, the web search leader would not disclose the energy consumed in powering its online services. Local energy experts claim it is one of Silicon Valley's [Google's HQ] biggest energy customers. Even though it's a con, 1 GW is more than enough to fuel Google and they're still ahead [in terms of friendliness to the environment] of Yahoo Green, in which they don't do anything, only news about climate change. It's action we need!!!

KMB lowers fares

Hong Kong's largest double-decker bus operator, KMB is now lowering fares. Back in September, KMB applied for a 9 percent fare hike to counter rising fuel costs and maintenance fees. The fare hike was rejected by the Transport Department because it was too high and unacceptable. Now, Hong Kong residents are amazed and overjoyed that there would be a decrease in fares a few months after the risk of the fare hike.

Operations Director Tim Ip has denied that KMB has been thinking of strategies to counter the fare reduction of the railway merger (refer to my post before). Tim Ip also claims that they have been studying the scheme for a long time and making preparations. Coincidentally, the day of the fare decrease would be on December 2, the same day as the railway merger.

Example of Fare Decreases (Comparision)

Ping Shan Heritage Trail

It's been so long since I've been to the Yuen Long area, well, I rarely go there anyway (3 times since I've gotten to Hong Kong). This time, I went with my class, when I heard the words "Ping Shan Heritage Trail (屏山文物徑)" a month ago, I thought we were going hiking.

The Trip

Finally, at 9:00 we left in a coach (with a tour guide hired by our school) and headed for Tin Shui Wai. We passed Ting Kau Bridge (汀九橋) via Tsing Yi Island and arrived at Ping Shan. The whole village was quiet and as we got off, the village was suddenly deafening. We did cause trouble, but we also helped (a lot), there was a little shop run by villagers and they just opened, after 3 minutes, sold out. They were amazed and thanked us. The village had a lot of temples and other historical buildings but it was still boring. As we were leaving, the tour guide told us about their water supply (see picture) which was very vulnerable to diseases (I wouldn't want to live there). Well, I have to admit, transportation there is state-of-the-art, buses to many places and two train stations.

BBQ

After that we went to a BBQ, but it was a disaster, nobody was full because we didn't have patience. One person from another class didn't know how to cook food over a grill, so he ate a chicken wing with blood (UGH!!!). I think I've written enough.....

Let's take the MTR

On December 2, Hong Kong will say goodbye to the century-old KCRC. The two railway companies in HK will merge and become 港鐵路公司 (literal translation: "Kong Railway Corporation"), but in english, the name will still stay the same, MTR. All passengers in Hong Kong will benefit from it, when assuming that a adult passenger takes the train around 20 km every day, they'll save up to HK$100 (US$13) in a year. Still, it's a shame to see KCR's history vanish in thin air, only to save a few dollars everyday. Mong Kok KCR Station will also have a name change, after 2 December, it will be Mong Kok East (旺角東). Below are also some "before and after" photos of KCR made by me and from BVEHK.net.

Don't play with your food MTR

KCR Light Rail renovation

Even the news channel logo (Newsline Express) needs to be changed

Youtube Hong Kong

Youtube has just unleashed a new country's site, guess which one.....of course Hong Kong. Over the past few months, Steve Chen, one of the founders of Youtube has been monitoring uploaders based in Hong Kong. He claims that Hong Kong citizens have a talent for music videos and other things. Several Hong Kong users have also complained to Google that they don't have a Youtube site in chinese so they always click the wrong buttons when uploading and watching. One of the ever so popular videos is the MTR Song as seen below.

A very famous song in Hong Kong about Mass Transit Railway based on the song "Do-Re-Mi, Sound of Music".