I love old colonial hotels. While I've only stayed at two--the Eastern & Oriental (E&O) in Penang and the Peace Hotel in Shanghai--I've been fortunate to dine in several: the Raffles in Singapore, the Peninsula in Hong Kong, le Grand Hotel d'Angkor in Siem Reap, and the … [Read more...]
Postcard from Taiwan, 1965
Last year I came across this postcard from my grandparents to my great-grandma. They sent it from Taiwan in 1965. In the postcard, my grandma wrote to her mother-in-law:We are here at airport to leave free China. Just said goodbye to Judy [my mom]. She goes to Manila this … [Read more...]
New Adventures in Old Wan Chai
I checked e-mail first thing this morning, as I do every day, and was excited to see an alert from The New York Times, informing me of an article in today's paper about Hong Kong.So when I clicked on the link and saw the article was from the travel section, about Wan Chai, … [Read more...]
First day of spring!
In Chicago we celebrated the last official day of winter with temperatures in the high 60s, plenty of sunshine, and tulip leaves sprouting through thawed soil. But alas, as most Chicago springs go, a wintry mix of snow and wind is in the weekend forecast.When I first heard … [Read more...]
Hong Kong noir
I'm a sucker for a good film noir. Or one filmed in an exciting location.I stumbled across The Scavengers on Netflix a couple years ago and while the acting and cinematography are lackluster at best, I pushed that aside and immersed myself into late 1950s Hong Kong.Vince … [Read more...]