Category: Travel

China, Hong Kong & Bali Trip – A Day Trip To Kintamani & Besakih, Bali, 7 December 1993

7th Dec – Day tour to Kintemani & Besakih – just we two. Fortunately Janie feels better today! Stopped off to see Barong & Kris dances on the way – also stopped Celuk village (Gold & Silver)…

Barong & Kris Musicians
Barong & Kris Evil Demon

Janie, feeling better, took an enormous number of photographs on this day. I took a good few myself. So this day’s write up will be mostly illustrated. We clearly looked at some other crafts at that juncture, not just silverware – e.g. the napkin holders (top photo) and wood carvings:

I do remember us both really enjoying this day and realising that we really liked to tour independently – i.e. with our own private guide when going to places where we needed a guide – or even without a guide if we didn’t really need one.

…then on to Kintemani (Mountain & view of Lake Basur) – lunch there…

…then on to Besakih temples…

Finally stopped in Sanur Market for some shopping and then home.

Janie had used up all of her film by the time we went shopping at the end of the day, so there are no photos from that market. But we did take pictures of us with our lovely sweet guide, Ayu, before leaving the temple compex:

All the photos we took on that day – by which I mean all 82 photos – can be seen in raw form in the Flickr album below:

CB_1993_I2_ (01)

China, Hong Kong & Bali Trip – A Day Trip To Ubud, Bali, 6 December 1993

Ubud Market

Went to Galeria for late breakfast & supplies – hired a car & driver for the day to go to Ubud. Went to Monkey Sanctuary & small market…

…then on to main market. Janie was quite ill…

Ubud Market

Janie recalls feeling so poorly in Ubud – probably a mixture of mild lurgy and the heat – she needed to lie down fro a while, aided by some kindly locals in the market.

…Went on to the Amandari Hotel for a snack and rest and then headed back to [our] hotel…

The Amandari is well posh…
…set in beautiful countryside just outside Ubud

…had a lite bite in coffee shop as Janie was poorly – pretty awful grub- early night.

Doesn’t sound as though I enjoyed that meal much.

All the photos we took on the first three days in Bali – by which I mean all 18 photos – including the Ubud ones, can be seen in raw form in the Flickr album below:

CB_1993_I1_ (32)

China, Hong Kong & Bali Trip – Two Restful Days in Nusa Dua, Bali, 4 & 5 December 1993

4th Dec – Easy day at Melia Bali Sol acclimatizing ourselves and orienting. Went to Galeria (posh local shop bit) for late breakfast & supplies. Sat out by pool (mainly in the shade) and swam. Lite lunch by pool and dinner in hotel’s seafood restaurant in evening (mixed seafood & seafood stew).

It seems the Melia Bali Sol is now simply known as the Melia Bali – still highly regarded though.

5th Dec – slept in – easy day by pool again. Avoided hottest part of day at Galeria and shopping centres (seaweed for Janie’s legs?) by looking into day trips for the next few days, Swam etc. Finally received some bumf from Kuoni & tried one of their recommended restaurants (Bonaventura) in evening – lobster crab.

China, Hong Kong & Bali Trip – Hong Kong To Bali, 3 December 1993

3rd Dec – Rose packed & worked out in gyn – had final breakfast at Kens followed by farewell to Debbie [Deborah Biber] & then off to airport for Bali Flight. Check in seemed endless. Arrived Bali late after severe turbulence Jakarta-Bali, It’s hot!

Not much to add about this day. There is one photo of monkeys from Janie’s roll which is manifestly between pictures of the Hong Kong Peak and of Bali which I cannot quite place. Actually this was a few days later in Bali, but anyway I thought best displayed as eye candy on the day we went from one place to t’other:

Monkeying Around Hong Kong Or Bali

China, Hong Kong & Bali Trip – Another Day In Hong Kong, 2 December 1993

2 Dec Hong Kong – Went to Eastern District & wandered round Hollywood Road and surrounding medicine and food shops & markets. Took MTR to Western District & met Debbie [Deborah Biber] for dim sum lunch. Went across to recommended shoe district and then up to Peak Tram again where we could see this time…

…tea up there…

…then returned to rest/jacuzzi then out to Sichuan Lau restaurant for dinner.

“Sze Chuen Lau” is still a highly regarded restaurant 25 years on, it seems – I suspect we were well advised, not least by Debbie (Deborah) Biber.

All the photos we took in Hong Kong during our four night stay – by which I mean all 34 photos – can be seen in raw form in the Flickr album below:

CB_1993_J3_ (18)

China, Hong Kong & Bali Trip – A Day In Hong Kong, 1 December 1993

At the time I thought this sign was very funny

1 Dec Hong Kong – Ros elate, had breakfast at Kens & said goodbye to Phillipa. Went round Central District (main roads and alleyways) and into Mandarin Oriental. Then took ferry to Kowloon to collect D&P and wander around some more.

Rested/jacuzzi a while & met Janie’s friend Debbie Biber for drinks/light supper – had an early night.

We spent a fair bit of time with Debbie (Deborah) Biber towards the end of our time in Hong Kong; she was very pleasant company and it was very helpful for us to receive some local knowledge.

All the photos we took in Hong Kong during our four night stay – by which I mean all 34 photos – can be seen in raw form in the Flickr album below:

CB_1993_J3_ (18)

China Trip – Clean Business Cuisine Book Thoughts, 30 November 1993

While in China, I did a great deal of thinking about the planned book which became Clean Business Cuisine. Here are the notes I made while on that trip. I shall not try to translate them.

China, Hong Kong & Bali Trip – A Day In Hong Kong, 30 November 1993

30th Nov Hong Kong – Half day orientation tour early (after Breakfast at Kens) – up (Peak tram to) Victoria Peak in the rain – saw nothing…

Move on – nothing to see here

…then on to Stanley Market followed by Aberdeen Fishing Village including a Sanpan ride…

On return went across to Kowloon to drop off D&P and then went home to rest in jacuzzi.  In evening walked round temple market and back along Nathan Road – got home quite late.

Perhaps I need to explain what D&P was, for any younger readers. Back in the day, photography was done on film – much of it on negative film. In order to see the photographs, you would take (or send) your completed rolls of film for developing and printing (D&P). Some people (like me in the late 1970s) even did their own at home – although I never got past doing that in black and white. My dad made his living by having a photographic shop, much of which was about  selling D&P equipment and/or being an agent for D&P services.

I remember loving the large rooftop jacuzzi at the New World Harbour View. The hotel seemed very modern and luxurious compared with anything we’d encountered in China. Currently (2018) I think that hotel is the Renaissance Harbour View. Still highly regarded.

Harbour View at night

China Trip – Guangzhou To Hong Kong, 29 November 1993

29 Nov. Guangzhou -> Hong Kong – Early start off to railway station for grueling journey – train surprisingly good once you finally get on it. Long wait to get through immigration at Hong Kong – rested in afternoon once we got to hotel. Then met up with Phillipa, Clive & Berni – had sandwich supper & then nipped across to Kowloon for a while – early night.

Janie and I both only have limited recall of this day. There was one older member of our tour who was really quite poorly by this stage – I remember the tour party needed to look after him on the journey and try to arrange for him to get medical attention on arrival. Word reached us that he was fine in the end.

We had been given a detailed briefing about our crossing from China to Hong Kong…

Hong Kong Briefing 26 November Ahead Of Transfer From Guangzhou To Hong Kong 29 November 1993

…so we shouldn’t have been surprised by the grueling and wait-strewn nature of the journey.

I’m trying to recall Phillipa, Clive and Berni. I am pretty sure the latter pair are the red-headed couple on the right hand side of this picture from Shanghai – I think Phillipa is the youngish woman wearing a dark pullover in the middle of this group:

I remember that Janie had a crazy craving for some western food and in particular a club sandwich – hence the sandwich supper. I’m guessing that the others had a similar craving so we agreed to go on a club sandwich hunt together on that first post-tour night.

Our hotel in Hong Kong was the New World Harbour View, which was very pleasant.

Not sure whether this picture of me enjoying the harbour view was taken that first afternoon or not – who cares?

All the photos we took in Hong Kong during our four night stay – by which I mean all 34 photos – can be seen in raw form in the Flickr album below:

CB_1993_J3_ (18)

Hong Kong Briefing 26 November Ahead Of Transfer From Guangzhou To Hong Kong 29 November 1993

Three blithering pages of notes on how to go about transferring from our tour ending in Guangzhou to the unguided part of our holiday, starting in Hong Kong.

Perhaps some need reminding/informing that Hong Kong was still a British protectorate in 1993 – the “one country, two systems” transfer to Chinese rule thing was still at the planning stage.

To be fair, only the first page-and-a-half was really about the tortuous transfer – the rest was about what we might do in Hong Kong once we got there.

I won’t decipher my hieroglyphics in this piece but might extract some elements of them in my reports of our transfer to and then our time in Hong Kong.