So it seemed like in a span of 3 weeks, I ended up going to three concerts. The first was Coldplay, the second was Oasis and the third was John Legend.
My friend Cheek had an extra ticket so I ended up going to see Oasis live on April 7th. The venue again was at Asia World. The set up was a bit different in that the front section by the stage was standing room instead of seats like in Coldplay.
to name a few songs, they played "Don't look back in Anger", "Morning Glory", "Falling Down", and, of course, "Wonderwall". They also played a few of their newer songs which I wasn't as a big fan of...
I've added the video to facebook so you can check it out here.
It was an enjoyable concert but nothing quite like Coldplay. We were also sitting with industry folks and not too many people around us were standing us. Liam Gallagher seemed a little out of it, and not to give too much of a damn and his flasher outfit just kept throwing me off. Noel Gallagher was great and the rest of the band were all playing like a tight band. All in all though, it was a great experience and there's nothing like watching a performance live.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Coldplay Concert at AsiaWorld Arena
What an amazing concert!!! It was our first concert in Hong Kong and only my third large concert. First one was Roxette in Taiwan (yeah.. back in the 90's), and the second one was Cure in LA last year (birthday present from my friends Megan and Grant!).
Getting There and Getting Out
It was extremely convenient to get to the arena since the MTR drops you right inside the arena. I thought I would have had a chance to take pictures of the outside of the arena but we just got pictures of the entrance to the concert hall. The venue offers some food options. The only downside was that there was only one beer stand and the line got really long right before the concert started.
Leaving the venue was a major bottleneck and mad dash towards the MTR entrance. They did arrange for extra trains which helped get the thousands of people back to Hong Kong downtown. Even though getting there took us about 40 minutes, getting back home took an hour and a half. But little of that mattered since the concert was amazing!
The Concert
The Coldplay concert was definitely a great experience! We got two great seats which allowed us to get some great photos and videos. Every music performance had its own backdrop and visual treatment. Chris Martin made sure that every corner of the stadium was able to get a good experience of the band by offering performances on both sides of the extended stage. He entertained and talked to the crowd. He surprised everyone by walking to the back of the hall and playing with his band in the back of the arena for two songs. Needless to say, the music was great and the performance was awesome! We, along with the entire arena, were up on our feed for the entire performance.
Hope you enjoy the few snapshots we have!
Getting There and Getting Out
It was extremely convenient to get to the arena since the MTR drops you right inside the arena. I thought I would have had a chance to take pictures of the outside of the arena but we just got pictures of the entrance to the concert hall. The venue offers some food options. The only downside was that there was only one beer stand and the line got really long right before the concert started.
Leaving the venue was a major bottleneck and mad dash towards the MTR entrance. They did arrange for extra trains which helped get the thousands of people back to Hong Kong downtown. Even though getting there took us about 40 minutes, getting back home took an hour and a half. But little of that mattered since the concert was amazing!
The Concert
The Coldplay concert was definitely a great experience! We got two great seats which allowed us to get some great photos and videos. Every music performance had its own backdrop and visual treatment. Chris Martin made sure that every corner of the stadium was able to get a good experience of the band by offering performances on both sides of the extended stage. He entertained and talked to the crowd. He surprised everyone by walking to the back of the hall and playing with his band in the back of the arena for two songs. Needless to say, the music was great and the performance was awesome! We, along with the entire arena, were up on our feed for the entire performance.
Hope you enjoy the few snapshots we have!
Friday, March 20, 2009
So many places - so little time
There are just too many places to go and too little time for me to write my blog... In the past 5 weeks, I've been to Macau, Taiwan, Bangalore and Shenzhen, and each one can easily be its own blog entry. But I (and all of you) will have to settle with a condensed version.
Pictures are better than a thousand words so I'll share some of our moments in Macau through the gallery below.
I then also took the opportunity to make it back to Taiwan for my dad's 60th birthday. It was great to spend some family time with my parents. I unfortunately don't have any pictures since I lost the camera with those pics on my trip to Bangalore. We took the direct flight from Hong Kong to Taichung on Dragon Air. The Taichung airport is the smallest International airport I have ever landed in. The great thing about is that it's only 20 minutes away from my parents house. I spent the weekend there mainly enjoying some great meals with my mom cooking up a 10-course meal every day and enjoying a great spa Sunday with my parents.
I got back from Taichung on March 9th afternoon and then flew right back out to Bangalore that same evening.
I was there purely for business so I didn't get a chance to do any shopping or much sightseeing. However, I did ask the driver to take me on a 30 minute detour to check out the major sightseeing places in downtown by the Star TV office. A few things to note about Bangalore:
* People honk their horns just as a courtesy to let others know that they are coming from behind so there is constant honking coming from the streets
* If you ever thought driving in Taiwan is bad, Bangalore is much much worse
* Lanes don't mean anything and neither do street lights (when there are no cops)
* Crossing the street is like playing froggy
* Bomb checks with every car that goes into any nice hotel and metal detectors at the main entrance
Despite a few of the points above, I loved Bangalore. The city is beautiful with lots of trees, beautiful parks and beautiful architecture. I had Indian food in every meal and loved it! The people there are also all very friendly and welcoming. The one interesting cultural thing is that the people there will shake their head from side to side and it's really a sign of acknowledgment. It took me a little bit to get used to it because I felt like they were disagreing with me instead but they'd do it with a smile. :-)
Pictures are better than a thousand words so I'll share some of our moments in Macau through the gallery below.
I then also took the opportunity to make it back to Taiwan for my dad's 60th birthday. It was great to spend some family time with my parents. I unfortunately don't have any pictures since I lost the camera with those pics on my trip to Bangalore. We took the direct flight from Hong Kong to Taichung on Dragon Air. The Taichung airport is the smallest International airport I have ever landed in. The great thing about is that it's only 20 minutes away from my parents house. I spent the weekend there mainly enjoying some great meals with my mom cooking up a 10-course meal every day and enjoying a great spa Sunday with my parents.
I got back from Taichung on March 9th afternoon and then flew right back out to Bangalore that same evening.
I was there purely for business so I didn't get a chance to do any shopping or much sightseeing. However, I did ask the driver to take me on a 30 minute detour to check out the major sightseeing places in downtown by the Star TV office. A few things to note about Bangalore:
* People honk their horns just as a courtesy to let others know that they are coming from behind so there is constant honking coming from the streets
* If you ever thought driving in Taiwan is bad, Bangalore is much much worse
* Lanes don't mean anything and neither do street lights (when there are no cops)
* Crossing the street is like playing froggy
* Bomb checks with every car that goes into any nice hotel and metal detectors at the main entrance
Despite a few of the points above, I loved Bangalore. The city is beautiful with lots of trees, beautiful parks and beautiful architecture. I had Indian food in every meal and loved it! The people there are also all very friendly and welcoming. The one interesting cultural thing is that the people there will shake their head from side to side and it's really a sign of acknowledgment. It took me a little bit to get used to it because I felt like they were disagreing with me instead but they'd do it with a smile. :-)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Movie Theaters in Hong Kong
We finally got to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was a great movie! It's only the third movie we've watched since we got here.
We've gone to a different movie theater each time and these three are the best theaters on Hong Kong island. You pretty much need to pre-buy tickets in advance since all movie tickets have assigned seats. They're often sold out on the weekends if you try to get last minute tickets or you'll end up in the first row. However, it's really nice not to have to line up 30 minutes in advance to get a good seat. Actually, one of the theaters didn't even let you in to the theater area until 15 minutes before the movie.
The theaters we went to were pretty small but the seats are sofa-like, big and comfy. Since the theaters are small, even the seats on the sides have a pretty good view. Like theaters everywhere, the concession foods are expensive. Maybe because these theaters are pretty western, I haven't seen any foods that are out of the ordinary.
The other thing is that the American movies come out a lot later here and they rotate out after a few weeks. I think it's because there are just so many movies to fit in with American and Asian movies. So we have a small window to catch the movies and not everything comes out here. We haven't made it to an Asian film yet but I'm looking forward to watching some on the big screen while we're here.
We've gone to a different movie theater each time and these three are the best theaters on Hong Kong island. You pretty much need to pre-buy tickets in advance since all movie tickets have assigned seats. They're often sold out on the weekends if you try to get last minute tickets or you'll end up in the first row. However, it's really nice not to have to line up 30 minutes in advance to get a good seat. Actually, one of the theaters didn't even let you in to the theater area until 15 minutes before the movie.
The theaters we went to were pretty small but the seats are sofa-like, big and comfy. Since the theaters are small, even the seats on the sides have a pretty good view. Like theaters everywhere, the concession foods are expensive. Maybe because these theaters are pretty western, I haven't seen any foods that are out of the ordinary.
The other thing is that the American movies come out a lot later here and they rotate out after a few weeks. I think it's because there are just so many movies to fit in with American and Asian movies. So we have a small window to catch the movies and not everything comes out here. We haven't made it to an Asian film yet but I'm looking forward to watching some on the big screen while we're here.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Quick Note - 25 Random Things
It seems like the "25 Random Things..." note is going around Facebook. I'm trying to figure out if I should spend my time writting those 25 random things on Facebook or I should devote my time on writting another blog that's been long overdue...
I really wish there were more than 24 hours a day...
If you guys can't tell, I've been extremely busy at work and then on the weekends, I've been really busy unboxing stuff and shopping for furniture and organizing the new apartment. So that's how my new Chinese New Year has started.
Shin Ni Fai Lo! Gong Hei Fat Choy! (Cantonese)
Shing Nien Kwai Le! Gong Shi Fa Tsai! (Mandarin)
Happy New Year! Congratulations and Be Prosperous!
May the Year of the Ox bring you all lots of Happiness, Good Health and Fortune!
I really wish there were more than 24 hours a day...
If you guys can't tell, I've been extremely busy at work and then on the weekends, I've been really busy unboxing stuff and shopping for furniture and organizing the new apartment. So that's how my new Chinese New Year has started.
Shin Ni Fai Lo! Gong Hei Fat Choy! (Cantonese)
Shing Nien Kwai Le! Gong Shi Fa Tsai! (Mandarin)
Happy New Year! Congratulations and Be Prosperous!
May the Year of the Ox bring you all lots of Happiness, Good Health and Fortune!
Monday, January 12, 2009
I signed the lease for our new apartment (a.k.a. our new flat)!
It felt great to finally sign the lease to our "flat" as they like to call it here in Hong Kong. We spent the first 2 weekends here looking at apartments and the entire process was definitely very stressful especially since I had started work.
The way apartment hunting works in Hong Kong is that you need to work with an agent. Property owners can sign up with several property agents to list their property. There's no multiple listing service, so you can only see apartments that the agent's company has listings for. In order to find the right place for you, you need to work with as many agents as possible.
I thought I was ahead of the game back in LA by finding a few that I wanted to see on craigslist and lining up two agents to see places on our first weekend in Hong Kong. I was also trying to find direct owner listings to avoid paying the 1/2 month of agent fee but no such luck. We did end up seeing a dozen apartments on the first weekend and finding one we liked. However, by the time we decided to put a down payment to hold the place, it was rented out.
We stumbled on another agent on one of our walks and we met with him the following weekend. He showed us several places none of which fit our needs. However, after those visits, he got to understand what we liked and finally offered to show us a flat that belongs to a friend of his. It was listed for more than I had budgeted but it had everything we were looking for! A large master bedroom, good size open kitchen, decent size second bedroom and two bathrooms. On top of that, it actually has a full size refrigerator and a dishwasher (very rare in Hong Kong!) Given his relationship, he thought he could help us negotiate. Due to the economic downturn, rental prices have become very negotiable. We were able to get the apartment a little bit over our budget.
From there, we signed a preliminary agreement along with putting down a month's rent to hold the place. At this point, if we backed out, we'd loose the deposit and if the owner backed out, he's have to pay us twice the deposit. It's an interesting process... And today, I finally signed the contract, paid for 2 more months rent (deposit) and got the keys!
Here's a peak at our place:
We can't wait to fill it with furniture and our 24 boxes of stuff from LA!
The way apartment hunting works in Hong Kong is that you need to work with an agent. Property owners can sign up with several property agents to list their property. There's no multiple listing service, so you can only see apartments that the agent's company has listings for. In order to find the right place for you, you need to work with as many agents as possible.
I thought I was ahead of the game back in LA by finding a few that I wanted to see on craigslist and lining up two agents to see places on our first weekend in Hong Kong. I was also trying to find direct owner listings to avoid paying the 1/2 month of agent fee but no such luck. We did end up seeing a dozen apartments on the first weekend and finding one we liked. However, by the time we decided to put a down payment to hold the place, it was rented out.
We stumbled on another agent on one of our walks and we met with him the following weekend. He showed us several places none of which fit our needs. However, after those visits, he got to understand what we liked and finally offered to show us a flat that belongs to a friend of his. It was listed for more than I had budgeted but it had everything we were looking for! A large master bedroom, good size open kitchen, decent size second bedroom and two bathrooms. On top of that, it actually has a full size refrigerator and a dishwasher (very rare in Hong Kong!) Given his relationship, he thought he could help us negotiate. Due to the economic downturn, rental prices have become very negotiable. We were able to get the apartment a little bit over our budget.
From there, we signed a preliminary agreement along with putting down a month's rent to hold the place. At this point, if we backed out, we'd loose the deposit and if the owner backed out, he's have to pay us twice the deposit. It's an interesting process... And today, I finally signed the contract, paid for 2 more months rent (deposit) and got the keys!
Here's a peak at our place:
We can't wait to fill it with furniture and our 24 boxes of stuff from LA!
Monday, January 5, 2009
New Year's Eve in Hong Kong
So this is how small the world is and how soon we got to see a couple of friends from the US...
Over the New Year's break, we had Tina and James stop by for a couple of days to celebrate the New Year in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has only been celebrating New Year's with fireworks for the past two years. Previously, they largely celebrated Chinese New Year. Below is a little clip of the fireworks. I heard that the Chinese New Year one is 10 times more grand... which wouldn't be hard to do. It is pretty cool how they shot the fireworks sideways off of the IFC building though...
Over the New Year's break, we had Tina and James stop by for a couple of days to celebrate the New Year in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has only been celebrating New Year's with fireworks for the past two years. Previously, they largely celebrated Chinese New Year. Below is a little clip of the fireworks. I heard that the Chinese New Year one is 10 times more grand... which wouldn't be hard to do. It is pretty cool how they shot the fireworks sideways off of the IFC building though...
We got to enjoy the fireworks with several of us crambed into one of Tina's friend's hotel room at the Conrad Hotel (one of the top hotels in Hong Kong).
We hit up two popular party areas in the city - Wanchai and Lan Kwai Fong. Below is a picture of Lan Kwai Fong at 3AM. See how many people were still around hours later. I heard earlier that it was impossible to walk in that area right around midnight. This is what we call in Chinese "people mountain people sea" (aka. full of people for as far as the eye could see).
It was definitely an eye opening and fun NYE!
Happy 2009 Everyone!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)