Category: Buildings and Places

Back to the Future

In the film Back to the Future Marty McFly is blasted back to 1955 running the risk that whatever he does will affect his future. And of course this being Hollywood all works out in the end. So much so that 2 more films were made in the series. Its one of the most enjoyable trilogies I’ve watched.

In the film you can see linkages between the future and the past but a definite change between the two. The future is definitely ahead of the past. Which to be honest isn’t the way I’ve found coming back to the UK. The country seems to have got stuck.

I should probably provide some support for my conjecture. Well firstly the transport system really hasn’t changed that much at all. The trains are overcrowded and still have no air-conditioning. And people don’t talk to each other (indeed go out of their way not to talk to anyone at all) so the whole process is one of the least enjoyable features of being back in the UK.

Now lets talk about 4G. The mobile phone network of choice for most countries around the world. In the UK the phone network is simply bad. And I have heard many different excuses. Apparently London has too many high buildings which is actually doesn’t. And in any event I give you Hong Kong. A country and a city that has nothing other than tall buildings and a 4G network that works – works so well in fact that almost everyone is watching video on their phone, continuously. It also has its own Tardis

So if it isn’t about the size of the buildings the second excuse is that the network is simply too busy. Which implies that the people who build the networks simply have no idea how many people want to use their phones. I can’t quite believe that as the people who run the networks seem perfectly able to produce adverts to sign up new users. Thus presumably slowing down their networks even further.

Well at least the UK now has a number of Polish builders so hiring a builder must have got better. Well I am sure it has got better if your landlord uses a Polish builder. If they don’t well believe me nothing has changed in the 7 years I’ve been out of the UK. Appointment times are randomly adhered to, work is fudged, covered over or simply not done. So nothing changes there.

And despite all the excuses I can only assume that the leaders of businesses big and small simply don’t care to much. And being British we don’t complain or do anything about it.Which is what being British is all about. Don’t take too much care, and don’t complain.

I always knew it would take time to settle in and I am pretty sure there are things that have moved forward. The internet for example, if you don’t want to use your phone too much, is quick and works well. The council services in Greenwich have been excellent, and I mean excellent, which I wouldn’t have thought possible and food is definitely a better proposition here than in the US and Hong Kong.

I’ll get past the angst about the UK at some point. Probably the sooner the better…

Tags Back to the Future, Builder, Business, Greenwich, People, Travel, UK

Buildings and Places

Bali

I write this coming to the end of my second visit to Bali – a part of Indonesia that never fails to impress me with its drive and development all wrapped up in a tenacious desire not to let go of the past. What has got the Balinese to this point they seem to be saying, is what will continue to drive us into the future.

It is not at all unusual to find offerings to the spirits or gods sitting on the pavement outside shops and offices in the towns nor to find staff in businesses lighting incense in the afternoon before returning to work. Its a practical link between the past and the future and is perhaps more prevalent here than in many places I have been around the Asia region. Or maybe being on vacation I have simply stopped and noticed.

Tags Bali, Experience, Travel

Buildings and Places Uncategorized

Hanoi. Growing up quickly

Post author By The Burble....
Post date February 17, 2016
No Comments on Hanoi. Growing up quickly

It’s loud it’s busy it’s a messy energetic city of hope. I love it. Like I love a large amount of South East Asia but Hanoi has a special place in my heart as this was the first city we travelled to outside the expat homeland of Hong Kong.

Only an hours flying time from the glitzy, shopping centre that Hong Kong has become the contrast couldn’t be much bigger. Hong Kong is brash, bright and, in its own mind wonderfully successful while Hanoi is the little brother that it desperately hopes won’t mess up the sandwiches. Which of courseHanoi sets out to do, and does, very effectively. To the extent that it even has its own sandwich.

But it is the energy of the place that astounded me when I first arrived. Hong Kong is brash and bright and everyone wants to make money – end of the discussion. But in hanoi everyone wants to do everything, live, learn, make money, eat, teach, and shout. And mostly while riding a moped. If anyone has seen the Top Gear special that they did in Vietnam and wondered if it was really as busy as the pictures showed (surely they cut it to look busy?) well I can assure you that it is a lot worse than you see on the film. I think it was James May that compared his scooter to a US tank with the line that the scooter has freed more people than the tank ever did and in Hanoi, as a microcosm of the cities in Vietnam he was exactly right.

Mopeds are everywhere, occasionally on the tight side of the road going in the right direction but mainly coming at you from in front behind and ay other direction possible. I have yet to see one fly but its only a matter of time. Some video will give you the idea.

Crossing the road in Hanoi is an experience. Locals helpfully give you the rather distracting advice just to ‘step out and keep going straight the bikes will swerve round you’ or that is what I think they are saying as my local language skills aren’t too strong. But the advice does seem to work (testament as I am writing this after two trips to Hanoi) and the bike riders do seem to realise that killing pedestrians isn’t a good idea; especially if you are riding with Grandma, your husband, your children and your dog all on the same moped.

Cars however are another thing. 3 years ago when I went to Hanoi there were a handful of cars on the road, mainly taxis, and they had adopted the riders ideas and tended to swerve round you. Which is no mean feat in Hanoi where many of the roads are only wide enough for a couple of bikes. But I have to report that Vietnam in its headlong rush to develop has seen a rapid rise in the number of cars and the new car drives, probably never having ridden a motorbike, have not worked out that you can go round pedestrians. And so they don’t. Which makes crossing the road a far less exciting experience than wading trough mopeds doing their best to avoid you.

Hanoi sites on the Red River about 85 miles in land from the South China Sea. Hanoi is the national capital although it lost this title to Hue after 1945 following a successful take over by Ho Chi Minh. It only regained the title in 1954 after the French, who used Hanoi as their regional center for Indochina, were defeated at Dien Bien Phu. At the end of the Vietnam war in 1976 Hanoi was once again declared the capital of the new Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Visiting any Asian city is always an experience and you long to write about the scents of perfumed streets, the quality restaurants and the calm of a city going about its business. And if you do you’ve never been to a developing Asian city. The noise is all mopeds and horns, the smells are two stroke fumes combined with outdoor cooking smells and the city is anything but calming. It’s noisy, smelly and exciting and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Tags Customers, Google, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Travel

Buildings and Places Communication Customers People

Come Fly with me…

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You know you have been flying too much when you know your way around airport without knowing which country you’re actually in; unless its Heathrow which is the exception that proves the rule.

You’ve been in the air too much when you begin to recognise aircrew and can actually tell before you take off whether they are going to look after you well. But the real indication is when you get an invite from your favourite airline to a weekend launch of something.

Tags Business, Communication, Experience, Hong Kong

Buildings Buildings and Places Uncategorized

The Peak – The Tardis in reverse

Post author By The Burble....
Post date April 5, 2015
1 Comment on The Peak – The Tardis in reverse

One of my favorite buildings in Hong Kong – The Peak Tower. According to the the tourist guide the tower sits at 396 meters above sea level and is one of the most stylish architectural icons in Hong Kong. And situated at the top is the Sky Terrace 428 the ‘highest 360 viewing platform’ sitting at ‘and you probably guesses this already 428 meters above seal level.

Its a spectacular building sitting like some upturned boat dominating the sky line. Or at least it used to dominate the skyline but this is Hong Kong and now at least 3 buildings have appeared between us and the Tower; in just 18 months.

But what I find so interesting about this building is that it performs a trick that only seems possible in the movies. Its bigger on the outside than the inside. A remarkable feat of building and engineering leaves us with a huge edifice sitting on the top of the Peak and a range of small scale shops and coffee houses more suited to the back streets of Wanchai.

It is one of my favorites from the outside. The inside has gone missing and I’d like it to come back.

Tags building, Cantonese, Hong Kong, places, The Peak, Travel