Ah…my first christmas in Hk. We decided to spend the Christmas Eve hanging out at Tsim Sha Tsui (TST). We started the journey from east TST. We decided to start from TST to Avenue of the Stars to Star Ferry to Nathan Road and end our journey at Mongkok.
This is around the fountain near the Regal Hotel. A lot of people was there to take pictures of lighting on the building.
As we are crossing the overheard bridge, there are ton of people up there taking picture. The entire bridge was jammed.
Mody Square…the partly open air restaurant.
These 3 foreigners was kind enough to let me take picture of them as they are enjoying the view and the people walking on the street.
We are heading toward the New World Hotel so we can walked along the Avenue of Stars.
At the New World Hotel, a mini expo selling dry foods. They blocked the entrance to the Avenue of Stars. They directed us toward the Hong Kong Cultural Center entrance.
Inside the Hong Kong Cultural center. What the heck? I stop-by to take a picture of myself.
At the Avenue of Stars, we took this picture with their permission. Nice hair-do…
At the Star Ferry, packed with people….
We are following the crowd heading straight toward the end of the road….Nathan road…This scene remind me of the movie ‘War of the World’. Everybody just walking…scary thought…
Finally, we were on Nathan Road…took a picture of police motorcycle.
As we were heading toward Mongkok, there are a lot of small group singing in celebration of Christmas.
Well…I had fun….My first christmas in HK and I am willing to walk such a long journey….it was a success. We did not stay until 12am because we were afraid the crowd might swell up. We saw the news and they estimated there were about 300,000 people at TST on that night. I was one of the stats…..
Will I do next year? Yes…a lot fun..walking in 18celcius temperature with a Starbuck coffee on your hand.
We went to check out the 42nd Hong Kong Brands & Products Expo because my wife used to goes out there when she was a kid. It’s kind of remisnience about her younger days. As for me, this expo reminds me of the one in K.L where every year before the Chinese New Year there is an expo on malaysian products.
The entry fee is $10hkd and free for seniors.
We arrived just a little of 7.30pm on one of the weekday. We don’t want to go there on weekend because we might encountered jam-packed crowd.
The crowd is not that bad.
The first thing we did was to hit the food stall. Tons of foods.
Hokkien mee in Hk. Wow…bought a bowl that cost $12 hkd. Does it taste anything like KL Hokkien mee? NO!!!….but I was hungry…
Vinegar from Taipei, every time when we are in Taiwan, we will pick couple bottle back. This time we did not buy any because the price seems a little high.
Aik Cheong teh-tarik. Aik Cheong has a booth selling the teh-tarik and white coffee.
So is Old Town Cafe. It seems these two company is quite aggressive in the hong kong/china region. In HK, you can see them on ParknShop supermarket.
Lam Soon with their cap pisau brand.
Well, its fun for me because I was there for the first time and I was for the food, too. It’s good to see a lot malaysian brands moving beyond malaysia.
I did not do any presentation but I did engage in some of the conversation about legality issue and pushing the boundary as an internet startup.
My first time putting my picture up.
With Rebecca Mackinnon. I look like a jailbird. Now..u know why I don’t put up my pix.
Met Leon Ho (voted top 25 Young Entrepreneur in BusinessWeek). He make me feel obsolete in the internet industry.
Henry Oh brought up an issue about legality issue about certain pornographic mobile contents might accessed by a minor and the content provider might be legally liable in certain countries even though the content might not be from his company.
I agreed we should be aware on the legality aspect of pornographic content but as an INTERNET start-up. One should pursue on launching the product and worry about the legality issue later. Internet technology or idea don’t last long in the internet space. You could claimed you are the first that create this technology but without money and marketing superiority. This so-called ‘First’ don’t meaning anything.
My point is to get the product on the market first. There ample example on companies that get the products out to the market first ( RIM – Blackberry – sued for infringement and later settled, Microsoft – should say more, Vonage – almost shutdown when the other side seek an injunction to stop them from acquiring new customer and YouTube.com – CBS launch a 50million suit.)
The next thing after attending [tag]Barcamp[/tag] was some Déjà vu language that I have heard in 2002 and 2003 in K.L. First, the language of ‘Globally Centric’. In the case of HK, ‘China Centric’. In KL, the saying at that time was, if your internet company does not catered to the world audience, the VC will not pump money into your company. Coming forward to 2007 HK, the saying is if your company does not cater to China audience, no VC will pump money into your company.
In 2002, I thought this is a valid argument but in 2007, it’s a fallacy. This is a bunch crap shit that I have ever heard. One of the case in point is AirAsia.com, a malaysian home grown budget airline. When they started in 2001, with only 2 planes and $2 million ringgit in working capital and a web-only ordering system, the odd were against them. At time, they operate on domestic route only and in 2001 the broadband penetration is about 5% or less and most users still using dial-up.
But the consumers bought tons of ticket via the internet. Why? The product. They offered the lowest price in town and the only way to get them is via the net. If the consumer/s don’t have internet connection, they will find one. And AirAsia.com is the success story today.
What does it has to to with the internet and population(or so called critical mass)? If you have a compelling product/s that the consumers wants and need. Your potential customers will find ways to buy it from you. So..the language of ‘China Centric’ and ‘World Centric’ is full of shit to me. Its a language created by VC to say ‘NO’.
Another similarity is VC money is scarce in HK, which is the same language that appeared in KL during year 2002. In 2007 HK, same story. The technology has advanced but the VC money is still the same story.
So..damn Déjà vu…man
Now…after all the HOO HAH about BarCamp, what is next? Barcamp is good to network and learn some insight on technical aspect of programming, on how to scale your web-server, printing technology and etc. I do sincerely take my hat off to the organizers of Barcamp (you know who u r, so I won’t name names…too lazy to write) and the sponsors ( I like my Barcamp T-shirt and the Pret-A-Manager sandwich). So much hard work has been put into it.
Finally, I don’t know if any media coverage for this BarCamp Hong Kong. I realized without coverage from mainstream media house, BarCamp will not expand itself and the next session will be attended by the same bunch of people. That is my thought….
We went to Megabox Hong Kong mall for the first time because we were having lunch with my bro-in-law and dad/mom-in-law. The building really attract people because of the stunning red color. Other than that, I don’t think there much from there.
To reach there by MTR is not that convenient, you need to take MTR to Kowloon Bay, exit on A, then you need to walk a long distance to find the shuttle bus. Next, u need to wait in line for the shuttle bus going there and coming back, too.
The christmas decoration outside Megabox Hong Kong.
The stunning red building. It always intimidating…
Christmas decoration hanging from the top. Quite match the color of the interior…
MegaBox mascot running around taking picture with kids.
After my UBS fixed, my bro-in-law invited to play at Tai Po driving range. It quite far from where we live. If you don’t have a car, chance of playing at the range is kinda impossible.
Over here, you rent the driving lane rather than buying X amount of ball. One lane cost $70HKD an hour with unlimited balls.
Its has been a long time since I play on the range. I was happy….its good to play in the Fall weather.
