I'm RICH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA......cough

Ok, so I'm not really that rich. I have a hundred Hong Kong dollars which [at the time of this post] is worth $15.64 Canadian dollars. But still there are a lot of things I could buy here with one hundred Hong Kong dollars. But first, you probably want to know what a one hundred dollar bill looks like in Hong Kong. There is more than one design for each type of bill, so they don't all look alike. Here are two types of one hundred dollar bills, the front side first, then the backside:

 There are lots of things I could buy with one hundred Hong Kong dollars. I will list some of those things here:

1: Fanta (like a Crush soda) 

Cost: $8

Amount I could buy for $100 HKD = 12.5 cans

2: Mini Lego set 

Cost: $35

Amount I could buy for $100 HKD = 2.8

3: Tic Tac

Cost: $6

Amount I could buy for $100 HKD = 16.6

4: Classy restaurant noodle dish

Cost: $88

Amount I could buy for $100 HKD = 1.1

5: Not so classy restaurant noodle dish

Cost: 15

Amount I could buy for $100 HKD = 6.6

6: Udon (fat noodles)

Cost: $11 for 4

Amount I could buy for $100 HKD = 36.3

7: Tram

Cost: $1 per ride

Amount of rides I could buy for $100 HKD = 100

8: Bus

Cost: $3 per ride

Amount  of rides I could buy for $100 HKD = 33.3

9: Tennis

Cost: $20 per session including equipment

Amount I could buy for $100 HKD = 5 sessions

10: Swimming 

Cost: $12 all day pass

Amount I could buy for $100 HKD = 8.3 day passes

11:RC cars

Cost: $40
Amount I could buy for $100 HKD = 2.5

This is a photo of a front-page of a newspaper. You can probably see the ad. The guy in the picture is the richest man in Asia. He lives in Hong Kong. Sorry about the photo being on its side. I try to do better next time.

                                     

This is an advertisement from a newspaper advertising all their sales and deals. 

 I hope you now have a sense of how much things cost in Hong Kong.

PS: I take donations in any currency. I will provide my own exchange rate.

Bye

=P

Adventure on the High Seas

Hong Kong is the third largest port of call in the world so, obviously I see a lot of ships. 34,000 ships pass through the ports in Hong Kong. Outside my bedroom window is one of the main shipping route for Hong Kong. We see around 50-70 container ships per day! We also see up to about 150 other ships per day as well. If you want proof of all these ships, take a look at these pictures of containers. Each container can hold around four cars. This is just a small section of all the containers in Hong Kong:

There are plenty of other ships in Hong Kong as well. Just outside our apartment is a marina filled with luxury ships, yachts, and sailboats. The boats that we see the most are fishing boats. Here are some pictures of them: 

Since Hong Kong is composed of many islands there are several ferries here as well. The Star Ferry below is the most famous ship in Hong Kong.

A couple days ago we saw some Pollution Control/Coast Guard boats outside our apartment.

I got a picture of them:

And finally, here is an unofficial coastal defense boat:

 

=0

Bye

Jonathan

Invasion of the Octopus

No, the octopus in the title is not living and, no, I did not kill it. In fact, it is like a credit card (payed for by my parents of course). Here is a picture of what they look like: 

The multi coloured card at the top is the adult version, and the pink one that I have to use is the child version. These cards can be used to pay for public transportation and can be used at any 7-Eleven. They can also be used at vending machines as you can probably see in the following picture where I am buying a Fanta (the same thing as a Crush soda):

(Sorry about the flipped photo). You have probably seen a 7-Eleven store before, but here is a picture of one in a subway station:

To use the octopus card to go on a subway, you should probably find a station first. Here is a picture of a sign to a subway station:  

Once inside the station you have to swipe your card over a sensor that automatically deducts money from your card. Here are some pictures of my mom and I swiping our cards:

 You will not believe how crowded it is in a subway train. Last night we had to wait for four trains to pass before we could get on! Once on you end up getting inside you will be totally squished by all the people. However the subway is twice as fast as the bus, so I guess I shouldn't complain. 

Bye for now.

=) 

Going Places

This week I've been on every type of public transportation. I have ridden on subways, minibuses, double decker buses, shuttle buses, trams, trains, light rail, private chartered buses, taxies, and of course my poor feet. I've been to many interesting, and not so interesting (sigh) places. 

 

The first interesting place I went to is a funeral/cremation. The funeral service wasn't too interesting because it was in Cantonese. But the cremation was kind of cool because I've never seen one before. They burned the body and the casket. 

One of the other interesting things I did was take a double decker tram to the main Hong Kong library. Here is a picture of a tram. You can see it in the background.

This is a picture of the inside of a tram:

 Here are some pictures from the tram:

The library is awesome! It is eight stories high. The main reason I like it is because it has an English section. There are lots of books there. Its so huge it has its own regular sized restaurant. I think it is the best library in the world! One funny thing is that I was the only kid there not in an uncomfortable school uniform.  The downside is that it takes an hour to get there and you can only rent five books per card.  

  Here is a picture of the front of the library: 

(did you spot the skateboards in some of these pictures?)

See you later.

=)

My Apartment in Hong Kong

This post is all about my apartment and the things around it. Near my apartment in a small mall and pool (you'll see the pool later).

Welcome to an exclusive tour of Jonathan's apartment. This is not available on any other site. 

The first stop on our tour is the entrance to our tower.

As you can see, we live in tower 18 out of 27 towers. We live on the sixteenth floor. Each floor has four apartments on it. We live in flat A. Here is the elevator lobby on our floor:

Next we will enter my flat. Here is the entrance:

You can see a bit of our table and our living room in this picture. We have cable and internet here. And there are some English channels. Now we will go into the kitchen:

It's a small kitchen but it is very nice. Now we will move on to my bedroom and washroom:

Next we'll go out on my balcony and see our pool:

Now we will see the torture chamber, aka my school room:

Finally, here is my parents' bathroom and bedroom:

And now our tour comes to an end.

bye

=)