Me, Jamie | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 48 years living in Hong Kong - I know the culture
… and yes, I am a proud Yorkshireman
Cultural Tourism at it’s very best
January 12th 2020
It’s Sunday, I have no tour and it is one day before my birthday ( which I have cancelled this year ) and as usual I have been trying to figure out what I can write on today’s blog, I think I understand now why a lot of writers are alcoholics ( so I have heard ).
I have just spent 19 solid hours revising my website ( again ) which for most people would be as interesting as watching grass grow but I have to do this myself - I use Squarespace and yes, initially there is a learning curve but I am now quite competent, I understand why a small company such as my won would hire people to do a website butby doing it myself I can change info in a few seconds, I am not saying it is fun but I do enjoy the challenge of creating and keeping my website current and I have full and total control over the design and content.
I have over 110,000 images ( that I have taken in Hong Kong ) to choose from so I am guessing I will never run out of material … so after thinking about it for 30 minutes I have chosen my subject matter for today..
The Ultimate Hong Kong Tour Blog
The Rosewood Hotel
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
January 12th 2020
The best bathroom by far in any Hong Kong Hotel, The Rosewood Hotel
I thought I knew bathrooms having been in every nice Hotel in Hong Kong but I was totally blown away by the ones in the Rosewood Hotel Hong Kong at Lobby Level.
As a Private Tour Guide in Hong Kong I have to know where the great bathrooms are in every district and I do actually plan to stop for 2 bathroom breaks on every tour, one on Hong Kong Island and one in Kowloon
There is nothing worse than ending up in a dodgy public toilet with a wet floor, a smell that would make an elephant gag, no toilet paper and a hole in the floor that has not been flushed… to be fair, the Hong Kong Government has implemented a plan to upgrade all public facilities in the next few years but even then I would always recommend a fancy hotel or mall.
The two hotels I generally use are:
The Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon
The Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Hong Kong Island
Both get a 7 / 10 on my bathroom scale and actually visiting these hotels is generally what I do anyway, particularly the Peninsula Hotel….
So why 7 / 10 and not 10 /10 ?
I do not like attendants, they simply give me the creeps and they hover behind you with a hand towel and expectation of a tip!
even worse, a totally silent bathroom where every plop, belch, spit, fart, liquid stream, phone conversation and zip pull is magnified! why can’t they pipe in some jazz music or similar?
the posh hotels skimp on toilet paper, my favoured brand is Andrex, but posh hotels can be really tight fisted and a lot of them use really thin paper that simply falls apart…. yuck, this is one area they should not skimp on.
they also skimp on flushing water, I am from Yorkshire in England and naturally produce industrial strength waste material which refuses to budge with the equivalent of half a cup of water so you end up spending 20 minutes trying to flush, most of that is spent waving at the bloody magic flushing eye on the wall to no avail
hand motion activated taps and soap dispensers - aaaaaaaggggghhhhh
and the cubicles are very small, getting in and out through the door can be tough for a fat git such as myself
Perhaps I have the English bathroom phobia? I do think going to the bathroom is a very private thing and I have standards!
I digress, I need to get back on subject.
A few weeks ago I picked up a guest from the newly opened (ish) Rosewood Hotel, as usual I was early, I am already very familiar with the rooms and the facilities so I decided to use the bathroom off the lobby and by golly gosh was I impressed, the image does not do the bathroom justice, it was simply magnificent and not a soul in sight!, there was no music and thankfully no attendant but they score top marks on everything else so a solid 9 /10… I mean proper taps that you twist!
The downside, well us Private Tour Guides like convenience, the Rosewood requires a lot of effort to walk to and it is a bloody challenge just getting into the Hotel but I get the feeling that they do not like the idea of people walking into the Hotel to use the bathrooms, The Peninsula and Mandarin Oriental are very well established and are busy, so they have no issues and both hotels require the minimum of effort to get to.
Anyway, if Hotel Managers are reading this blog ( and pigs might fly! ) get yourself to the Rosewood, read my comments above and do something about it.
..oh and an honourable mention must go to the men’s bathrooms in the main upstairs lobby of the Sheraton hotel, lovely, just lovely but let down by awful toilet paper and claustrophobic cubicles
.. and whilst I remember, the bathrooms in the Ritz Carlton Hotel .. luxurious but you have to be a bloody contortionist to get into the cubicles….
The Ultimate Hong Kong Tour Blog
Hong Kong Taxi’s
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
January 12th 2020
Hong Kong Taxi’s - the new model Toyota
There simply is not enough time in the day to discuss the deplorable state of the taxi industry in Hong Kong, taxi’s are cheap however and I am generally in one once or twice a day when out on a private tour.
My biggest gripe has always been space in regards to the seating arrangement, basically the old style cabs ( a Toyota Crown ) as per the 2 other cabs in the image many of them have seating for 5 passengers but the reality is was the space is only suitable for 4 people, which is a problem as I do a lot of tours where it is me and 4 guests which most of the time means I am forced to arrange 2 cabs.
The new taxi is a rather odd design to say the least, it is now a 4 passenger taxi, with reduced passenger space and more space for luggage ( go figure! )
Is it any wonder that UBER which is illegal in Hong Kong and more expensive operates with impunity much to the collective rage of Taxi owners and drivers, a lot of UBER drivers have the Japanese 7 seaters which is great when there is 5 or 6 people in the group.
What Hong Kong needs is bigger cabs not smaller cabs and most people would not mind paying extra.
The Ultimate Hong Kong Tour Blog
My favourite image
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
January 12th 2020
My absolutely one iconic image that I have taken
I needed one image to put on the footer of my website pages and I always come back to this image I took in December 2016, the weather was glorious, the view from my spot at the Peak was staggering and my guests ( Mum, Dad and 4 kids ) spent ages on the whole selfie thing, a perfect Instagram moment…. it does not get any better than this.
The Ultimate Hong Kong Tour Blog
Street Trams
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
January 12th 2020
Iconic Hong Kong Double Decker Street Tram | Car | Trolley
These iconic trams have been going now for 116 years having arrived to much fanfare on the streets of Hong Kong in 1904.
Funny, I have never really fallen in love with these trams, most of them do not have air conditioners, they tend to be very crowded and very and it can be a real challenge just getting on and off as they are so narrow but they are very cheap and like a lot of Hong Kong people I use them to go just 2 or 3 stops when I simply cannot be bothered walking.
I have done the entire route from East to West 3 times (on my own), interesting but not something I would really consider doing on a regular basis.
If you are going a long distance on Hong Kong Island then I always take the MTR (Subway) as it is an awful lot quicker.
I am actually more interested in the advertising, they are the perfect mobile advertising platform and some of the designs are fabulous, like the one in the image and on a cool winters day outside of rush hour I have been known to sit on the top deck and just watch the world go by, slowly.
My one teeth gnashing moment with these iconic trams is when people call them the Ding Ding Trams ( to get people etc off the tracks, the driver rings a bell, that goes ding ding ) it just sends me nuts… it is a Hong Kong thing to cartoonise lots of things and says things in the manner of how a 5 year old would talk, it is a tram and that’s that and yes I am old curmudgeon… it is like the names they give to the 2 bronze inanimate lions outside of HSBC, I mean why?? and it is also like those fruit cakes on National Geographic, they are advertising a documentary at the moment about a Penguin called Steve! I mean why would you call a penguin Steve?? like I said an old curmudgeon. and don’t mind me.
The Ultimate Hong Kong Tour Blog
The CIA in Hong Kong (!)
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
January 12th 2020
The CIA hiding in plain sight in Hong Kong and they use Volkswagen’s!
I have seen this VW a few times and quite often on Garden Road about 500 yards away from the American Consulate ( ie the spot where I stand to take a lot of my car images )
I mean, look at the death stare I am getting from the driver who is clearly a CIA operative (and what about the operative in the back with the sung;asses!) and no doubt filming me so they can conduct another background check, I am quite sure I have a 2 inch file anyway, as whenever I cross over the road next to the consulate I wave at them and sometimes I give them a very special wave.
I imagine the CIA and the boys and girls at the American Consulate have an institutional sense of humour hence the number plate on the VW and no doubt at the toggle of a switch the number plate lifts up to reveal a modified silenced machine gun to do covert street assassinations….
Simply brilliant, this is what happens when you read too many Tom Clancy books.
This is NOT how I do tours! There are NO flags, whistles, stickers or large groups!
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