While gambling on the third day after Chinese New Year is moerse auspicious to the locals, they couldn’t have chosen a worse day: the mercury dipped to an all-time low of 7 degrees celsius.

The anticipated cold weather didn’t deter the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) as they laid on the usual off-course entertainment including the usuals: the Fortune Market, various Variety Shows, Fortune Tips by Fung Shui masters, etc.

In stark contrast to last year’s huge crowds, this year’s sparse crowd as well as online and off-course betting still netted the HKJC a whopping HK$ 1,2 Billion! You read that right… I did say BILLION. The Hong Kong Government netted a neat $149 Million in betting duties.

Word to the HKJC though, for those of us who couldn’t get into the premium boxes with their restaurant food and waiting staff, you could do better than offering dumpling joints and sickening KFC fare. Just saying.

I stayed until Race 5 when the cold forced me to back to my warm apartment in Hung Hom.

This race’s winner (and the stand-out horse all-round) was aptly-named Kung Hei Fat Chong which means ‘Happy New Year‘ in English. I played that horse in my first-ever Hong Kong races bet (see video of Race 5 below) and yes… I won $74.50 !

Happy Year of the Dragon!

Kung Hei Fat Choi.

Thankfully I had my iPhone4S with me and snapped some footage:

Last night was unfortunately also our final Chinese New Year fireworks display from this vantage point because we’ll be moving to another apartment after 3 years in this building.

Maybe I’ve become jaded but last night’s show, while it was great, did little to eclipse last year’s spectacular.  Maybe the rain and bitter cold also had something to with it.

As usual, the hordes of pleasure craft started assembling about half an hour before 8pm and I could hear the merriment and jingling glasses from my lounge.  Clearly the party-makers down below had enough ‘fire water’ on board to fend off the sniping 9-degree cold. Here is a clip of all the boats departing immediately after the display:

This year, the fireworks were launched from 4 barges parked in Victoria Harbour, more or less in front of the Starbucks outlet on the Avenue of the Stars. (Last year the organizers employed only 3 barges.)  The fireworks display also coincided with the daily 8pm laser-light display, so in the clips below you will also see some of the multicolored lasers atop some of the Hong Kong Island skyscrapers ‘playing along.’

I put together a longer clip (filmed on my iPhone4S) of last night’s show:

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A stunning shot from last year’s fireworks display (Pic: Mike Jansen)

Those of you who understand some Mandarin Chinese will hear that the poor bride had just found out that her groom is gay when the lover turned up at the wedding to demand his lover back.

A ‘war-of-words’ and some attempted slapping ensues after which the suitor grabs his man and takes off.

Watch:

Like they say here in Hong Kong: “That was so fun!“

A former British colony (now called a Special Administrative Region or SAR of China), it seems that some of the oooold English used under British rule has remained.

At least in officialdom.

For example the word “shroff” of “shroff office” is still widely used in the SAR when referring to a kiosk where payment is to be made (like a parking garage).  The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines the word “shroff” as a banker or money changer in the Far East.

No Dogging

I just picked up on this picture from fellow Saffa expat in Hong Kong Monique Tenderini, after seeing it online some time ago:

Again, ‘dogging‘ seems to be a British slang meaning anything ‘related to voyeurism, exhibitionism or public displays of sexual behaviour’ according to WikiPedia.

In Cape Town we just called it ‘Parking!”

(We won’t ask Monique where she took this picture! Additional picture however was taken in Clearwater Bay by Hongkie Town )

Because of the unique nature of it’s government, protests have become commonplace in the street surrounding the government building in Central district.

I grew up to experience Apartheid and as a student at the University of the Western Cape, I participated and witnessed some violent (at the hands of the South African security police) anti-Apartheid protests.  I still sport a bump on my head sustained during a violent protest as a high-school student in 19(cough-cough!)

Be that as it may, Hong Kongers have a unique and interesting way of protesting that often include short plays and skits, complete with masks and costumes.  But more on that on another day.

While I am typing this, right outside my window there is another unique protest happening.

I live next to Victoria Harbour and currently the entire waterway is packed with hundreds of fishing vessels going up and down the strait between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon (my side).

Word is that the fishing industry is protesting against the Hong Kong government’s ‘request’ to restrict fishing in the territory’s waters in order to replenish the fishing stocks.

More on this issue when I get the information.

In the meantime I don’t think any cruise-liners will be docking in Tsim Sha Tsui today.

Victoria Harbour protests are nothing new. the Pic below was taken at an anti-reclamation protest in 2005:

The western church building is built in a mostly traditional Chinese style and even the pews sport Chinese and Christian characters.

I recently found an interesting programme on RTHK’s Hong Kong Stories series of television programmes, as a way of following up on my 2010 post. It deals with historical buildings around the Territory and includes the St Mary’s Church building as well as another beautiful building, the Catholic Cathedral in Cane Road, Central.

In addition to unpacking the relationship between Chinese religious architecture and western religion, the RTHK programme tells us more about the rich history of St Mary’s and how it came to being.

Click on the LINK to view it.  (The part about St Mary’s is about 3/4 into the insert.)

(Images from RTHK)

How’s this for a Mother’s Day story?!

Wild monkeys don’t seem to care that Hong Kong is a concrete jungle – they thrive so well on its fringes that the government has introduced birth control to curb a population boom.

Easy food handouts from some of the city’s seven million humans helped push macaque numbers to more than 2 000 in recent years – and a rise in nuisance complaints about monkeys that have lost a natural fear of people.

“I think we still have plenty of space for wildlife. But the countryside and the city are adjacent to each other and sometimes there is conflict,” said Chung-tong Shek of the government’s conservation department.

Reports of aggressive monkeys chasing hikers for food, grabbing bags and reaching for pockets surfaced in recent years as the macaque population grew.

Stray monkeys with an acquired taste for human food still occasionally run about the crowded shopping districts of the city.

In April, one found its way to central Kowloon, near a strip of camera shops, hotels and fashion boutiques known locally as the Golden Mile.

“There is plenty of food inside the city in the garbage. Some of them get lost in the city…from time to time,” Shek told AFP.

A decade-old feeding ban with the threat of a maximum HK$10 000 fine hardly dented the volumes of food on offer from well-wishers and tourists. So the government turned to birth control.

Early field tests were carried out in 2002, in the world’s first contraceptive programme targeting a citywide population of macaques, using methods including vasectomies on males and temporary injections on females.

Now the programme focuses on the sterilisation of females, which is done about twice a month, bringing the total of monkeys permanently or temporarily neutered to more than 1 500.

The first problem was catching the monkeys.

All the monkeys are on the Kowloon peninsula especially around Kam Shan and Lion Rock country parks, with some outlying groups on the northwestern side of the territory.

“It’s very hard for people to catch a monkey. We tried everything,” said Sally Kong, a spokesperson for the conservation department.

Net-guns, cage traps, live decoys, snares and dart guns were all used. But most methods could only be used a few times before the animals got wise to them.

Mind your manners

Before long, monkeys even learned to recognise individual conservation department staff members and their vehicles, and avoided them all together.

Now large, baited cages are left open for days at a time, supplied by human feeders known and trusted by the monkeys.

“That way when we trap them in there they don’t panic. They just keep on eating as they’ve been in there many times before,” said Paolo Martelli, chief veterinarian with the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation, which is contracted to carry out the sterilisations.

“What we do is remove the tubes. Between the uterus and the ovaries there are small tubes that we cut out in very precise keyhole surgery. We go in, remove two pieces of tube and come out. It takes a few minutes,” Martelli said.

“It’s beneficial to maintain their ovaries intact because of the very important hormonal role they play,” he explained.

Experts working on the project say the contraception plan is not about eliminating the macaques but is a conservation measure that makes it possible for the wild animals to continue existing on the city boundaries.

The programme has received backing from independent animal rights groups.

“Contraceptives are so much better than poisonings or other lethal methods that cause animals so much suffering,” said Ashley Fruno, spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in the Asia-Pacific region.

“This is another great example of non-lethal methods used to control wildlife populations.”

The monkeys seen today in Hong Kong are believed to be the descendants of a few rhesus macaques released early last century to eat poisonous plants around a newly built reservoir supplying drinking water for the city.

The Strychnos plants are poisonous to humans but a favourite food for macaques, the conservation department says.

There isn’t a specific target number for the city’s wild monkey population, Shek told AFP, but nuisance calls have dropped from a peak of 1 400 in 2006 to less than 200 in the last couple of years.

“It really depends on what people can tolerate. Sometimes sighting a monkey is the reason for a person to call. This would be recorded as a nuisance complaint even if the monkey hasn’t done anything,” said Karthi Martelli, project manager with the Ocean Park conservation group.

“I always tell people: mind your monkey manners. When you’re scared you do stupid things and people blame the monkeys. If you ignore the monkey and walk away they get bored too. They don’t plot to attack,” she said.

Source: AFP

Picture: Hong Kong Stories

One of our services extended to the aged, which means we had to collect old folks from around our service areas, transport them to a recreation centre and keep them busy for the day.  Some of the activities included skills such as embroidering, painting, etc.

After the day’s events, they’d be duly carted back to their homes.

Here’s in Hong Kong, however, I find that the aged are so much more active.

These are some of the activities I encounter on my way to work every day here in Hung Hom (the footage is from nearby Whampoa Garden):

Picture (unrelated) from Factsanddetails.com

We are happy to report that her album Don’t Explain is held is such high regard that it was recently nominated for a South African Music Award (SAMA) in the “Best Contemporary Jazz Album” category.

Said an ecstatic Brigitte: “I am thrilled and honoured to have been nominated in this prestigious event. Thank you All for your support.”

We’re thrilled at your achievement too Brigitte and wish you well.

Just in case you forgot, here’s Brigitte performing on RTHK:

As my apartment is located in Hung Hom on Hong Kong’s Kowloon (the “dark side”), I often give you my view of the busy, busy Victoria Harbour from that side.

I recently took the Star Ferry from the opposite side (Central Ferry Pier) and made a video clip on my Zoopy-branded Flip-Cam to show you just how busy the channel between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island really is.

In the clip you first notice the world-famous Star Ferry departing the Central Ferry Pier.

Then, as the Ferry disappears from view, you’ll notice 2 barges transporting sand, cement and other construction materials.

Also appearing in view is a harbour tour/catering junk (with faux-sails).

Then, lastly, you’ll notice an outlying-island ferry (orange and white) coming in to dock at the Central Ferry pier.

Just another 2 minutes in a busy, busy, busy Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong.