What's behind the door...

Sometime what is behind a door is more interesting than the door itself. This notice was found recently posted behind every door in the ladies' room at HKU. Alice couldn't believe her eyes. She has been a regular on the HKU campus since 1999 and this was the first year such kind of notice was posted. When she shared this pic with another HKU graduate, she just sighed and said, 'That's the price we paid.' She said another friend also noticed this change, and blamed it on a specific group of students. Perhaps it will not be politically correct to elaborate more on this topic, but it is sad to see that even HKU has to deal with this kind of rather uncivilized issue.

What does this notice tell us about the changing face of Hong Kong?

McDonald's in Bangkok

Sawat dee khrap...this Ronald McDonald in Bangkok is complete with the Thai welcome hand gesture and a half bow. Alice found this Thai-acculturated Ronald McDonald near the Four-faced Buddha, Brahma, in the Erawan Shrine (next to the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel). He is standing right next to the entrance, and there is no missing of it.

Alice does found this show of glocalization very terrifying. He looks too strangely cheerful (as clowns do) and is simply not appropraite for the hand gesture (when it is supposed to be a smile). Is there a way to escape McDonald's?

IFC...or what's left of it...

Alice passed by IFC on Christmas Day and discovered that it has 'downsized'! Someone has taken down the big letters, which were bright red, and put the small gray words 'international financial centre' instead.

The ghost of its red days was left on the wall.

Shek Kip Mei Estate

We visited the Shek Kip Mei Estate last year, right after the whole place was boarded up. Alice found this photo a bit haunting, as one can only see the remains of the building. All the doors were torn down and it was possible to see inside the apartments. These apartments, too fancy a name, were all 100 square feet in size. The inside of each apartment was left empty, with the imprint of a previous existence.

Photographer Michael Wolf has done a great 100x100 collection of 100 residents before they evacuated from the estate. Some photos were unbelievably sad, but some were brimming with warmth and laughters. Wolf has an amazing eye for capturing the relationship between people and the architecture.

Pagoda in Pokfulam Village

This is an old photo on my computer. We visited a pagoda in Pokfulam Village several years ago. Pokfulam is one of the oldest surviving village on Hong Kong island. This pagoda is located right in the middle of the village. It is so small that only one person can go in at a time.

It is difficult to say what the village was like because there are so many new buildings and it is no longer possible to see the original face of the village. The village right now is located next to a busy road and the village itself is not the most exciting place to visit. It is more like new-style village houses arranged in a very disorganized manner.

Still, it is quite amazing to see that there is actually a small pagoda hidden away in the bright city. I like those little gems.

Old lift...

This must be one of the oldest lifts left in Hong Kong. It is the type that you have to open the door and push the iron grille before operating the lift. There are probably not many of them left, as most old buildings in Hong Kong either do not have lifts or were torn down. This one is in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Alice has very fond memory of this particular lift because she spent a lot of her childhood Sundays in this building.

Mister Softee

Mister Softee is an icon of Hong Kong. The door to the ice-cream vendor is a door to happiness. The red and blue paisley pattern is forever imprinted in every Hong Kong child's memory. No one really remembers the name of the ice-cream truck (富豪雪糕), but everyone remembers the paisley pattern and the music. Every summer, Alice waits for the Blue Danube at night, and she will race downstairs to get her softee ice cream.
Though ice cream is sold almost at every shop, Mister Softee ice cream tastes different - smoother, creamier and tastier. Mister Softee ice cream is also the happy memory of everyone running downstairs to wait patiently for their ice cream in the summer!

Plastic chairs outside the door...

I've blogged about this restaurant with Vasco, but this is one of the most interesting thing about Hong Kong.

This is one of my favorite restaurants, 清真牛肉館, a small diner selling Islamic food in Kowloon City. There is always a queue outside the diner and you have take a number when you arrived. The owner actually put a number of plastic chairs outside. of course, this is all illegal, but then it's a great convenience for the customers waiting. During peak dinner and lunch hours, the average waiting time is about 30 to 40 minutes.

Yes, it's worth the wait...the beef cake and curry egg dishes are amazing. And yes, the waiters are not very friendly.

Mid-Autumn lanterns on balcony doors

These were my favorite lanterns, hanging on my favorite balcony. We bought them from a small shop in Kennedy Town, Hong Kong. It was several years ago, we moved out of the apartment about two years ago. I wanted to include this photo of (balcony) door because it was an exit door. It was the last year that K was still excited about lanterns. It was also the year that he made his own lantern. Now he looked at them as something childish. He has stopped being the child. It's going to be Mid-Autumn next week, I still have the lanterns in my room...I'll find another balcony door to put my rabbit and parrot lanterns up!

Favourite diner in Bangkok

This is the most amazing diner in Bangkok. It serves great Muslim food. They serve the best samosa and curry. If you want a samosa, you have to come before 2 p.m., everything is gone after the rush hour.

We first visited it in 2003 and then this summer. Actually I am quite surprised that it is still there. I didn't check it out last September, mostly because I couldn't remember where it was...I can't remember why we decided to go to a Muslim restaurant in Bangkok, it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But then, you never know.

The blueness of the place is just unbelievable. The color just radiates a certain calmness and quietness. The doors and gate are also blue. I never found out why the whole place is in blue...even the fans are blue.

From Teng Xian, Guangxi

We visited Teng Xian, Guangxi, China, in August. It was a different experience when visiting different primary schools in remote villages. The buildings were simple (and some were built in the 60s), with one light bulb in each classroom. The schools that we visited only provided the most basic learning environment: desks, chairs and blackboard.

This was a primary school. It was not a pretty sight. The bricks in front of the building were savaged from a collapsed school wing. The primary school is currently not in use, and students will have to study in tents this school year. The principal was very worried that this part of the school building may also collapse in the near future.

It was sad to see that the classroom doors were shut, where will the children go? The red bits on the doors were actually blessing that the school put up before examinations and/or Chinese New Year. Cheering words, like 'Work Hard', 'You Can Do It', seem so remote now.

If you would like to help, you can contact China Care Fund for further information.

A very small door in a big church...

We found a very small door in a cathedral in Essen, Germany. It doesn't look like it in the picture, but the door is lower than 5 foot. It feels very small in the vast space of the cathedral. Where does it lead to? This door is located in a corner, next to the confession rooms.

The mysterious (and fascinating) thing about churches are the doors and gates. Why is that small door there? Perhaps if I look up the history of the cathedral, I may find the answer. Yet for some reasons, there is usually no label for a small (or unimpressive) door.

Alice found some doors...

I have always wanted to write something about doors. That fascination came a couple years ago. What is a door? When is a door a door? When were 'interior doors' invented? Why do we need them?
When do we start fussing about doors? What has this got to do with our conception of space?