Hotels in Hong Kong - Peninsula

The Peninsula in Hong Kong attracts me most because it features in James Bond. I explained last time why I found the Intercontinental - Grand Stanford a better place to stay at, but I still wanted to visit the Peninsula, and the ideal moment for that was for afternoon tea. According to at least two sources it is the best place to have afternoon tea in Hong Kong, so I was very disappointed when I failed to get there in time the day we had to leave Hong Kong. Obviously afternoon tea is at 16:00, but the book I had stated they would serve until 19:00. They don't. In fact, if you arrive after 17:00 you'll be out of luck, as there is a queue that takes at least an hour. I discovered that the next time I was in Hong Kong.

Because one of the things you can do in the Peninsula is watch other people, the wait in the queue is reasonably enjoyable. You can prepare yourself for the event by watching the people that are drinking tea, and there is a chamber orchestra playing from the balcony. The songs are rather popular (Vivaldi, Queen) and not every note is clean, but this, together with free Internet, makes for a quick hour. Once seated I discovered the tea isn't actually that expensive (obviously it is expensive for tea, but there are places in London where you'd pay more for less) and comprehensive. You can just order the afternoon tea (I'm not sure why they even bother with a menu) which consists of your choice of tea (or coffee) and a three course set of finger foods.

The initial tea is served to perfection. They steep it just for the right amount of time, and their tea leaves have a magnificent quality (certainly better than what Lupicia, Teavana or Twinings offer). Later cups are, of course, slightly more bitter, but still very tasty. The first course are the scones, with cream and strawberry jam. This is the only place where strawberries taste good, and I enjoyed them. The second course are a variation of sandwiches (cucumber, mushrooms, cheese quiche) which were tasty enough. Finally there were the deserts, which included cheese cake, chocolate and various other tasty bites.

The experience was worth the hour long wait, and the two visits. The atmosphere is good, the food is great and the tea is excellent. It might all feel overly English, but I loved it.

Hotels in Hong Kong - Intercontinental Grand Stanford

For our trip to Hong Kong we had only limited time. We would be there two nights, and would arrive in the evening, so I wanted to make sure a good hotel was booked in advance. As a James Bond fan, I thought the Peninsula hotel would be the best, but after consulting Frommer's Hong Kong guide and looking at prices online I decided that the Intercontinental Grand Stanford was a better option, because it had a much better harbour view, was slightly farther away from the centre (allowing more steps on the beautiful Tsim Sha Tsui promenade), and promised to be luxurious.

Travel to the hotel was fast and simple, using the airport express and the K3 shuttle. Welcome was great, bags were handled properly and (free) bottles of water were waiting in the room. The bed was great, the view was even better than on the pictures (sleeping with the curtains eased the jetlag considerably) and the bathroom was grand. The bathtub was not ideal, but very few bathtubs are (I'm picky when it comes to tubs). I know some people might object to the fact that you have to pay for the Internet, but when you have only a few days in Hong Kong being on the Internet is not of prime importance, especially when the front desk staff of the hotel is so helpful (providing maps of the city and the subway).

Normally I avoid restaurants that are inside the hotel that I stay at, but ate at the Cafe on M three times. The staff there was very helpful (although eager to get you to fill out the survey). The buffet was especially delicious, with so many options that you certainly find more than enough to enjoy, but the menu items are also tasty.

I've not tried any of the other hotels, but this one was so good that I would probably stay there the next time as well. In fact, the whole Hong Kong experience was such that I'd gladly come back. There is a YMCA in a great location too, but I've never really been keen on Youth Hostels. For me the $260/night for the harbour view room was very good value for money.

Telnet gateway form

For those that still wish to use the telnet gateway, I made a form that links to the VPS in Europe. Hopefully it works for you, however, that server might go down without notice.

Mosha down for the holidays

Because I'll be rather busy for the holidays I'm not able to properly manage the Mosha server, it will therefore be down until the 8th of January. My apologies for the inconvenience. If you're using cliser, you might be able to still connect using the europe.mosha.net server running at ports 8080 and 8000, but I'm still setting that server up and it is quite unstable. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Daemon of Cormagan blog

I started another blog related to my novel. Together with my blog on my electronics project, this will mean this blog will become even more starved for content, but at least things are now properly separated.

Mosha down

As I wrote on the Facebook newsfeed, Mosha is currently down, as it can't be turned on in its current location. I can move the server, but for that I would need a wireless AP with ethernet connection (as there is no ethernet port in the new location) and the amount I received in donations is less than half. The old location will be available again on the 5th of May, so at that time Mosha will be turned back on.

Talker

In my novel, which I hope to publish this year, I have the concept of a talker. My illustrator asked me what such a device looks like, and I decided to try to make a raytrace of one, which you should be able to see. A talker is basically a steampunk version of a cellphone. It doesn't use electricity, instead it uses a combination of air pressure (stored in a tank, and increased using a manual pump, similar to that of a blood pressure meter) and phosphorus, which is charged in sunlight. The description in my technology document is as follows:

Transmitting: The talker has a light source (portable ones use a phosphor compound, which charges as long as it is exposed to light, wall mounted talkers usually use a friction light). When in use, the vibrations of the speaker cause a small mirror to vibrate, causing the light to change in amplitude. The crystal shape changes this light into a beam, which can be sent over a distance.

Receiving: When a beam hits a crystal anywhere, it is captured, and using the structure of the crystal aimed at a tiny metal valve that expands and contracts based on the amount of light (when there is no light, the valve is closed). The valve allows air to flow from a pressure chamber (manually inflated using a small pump in portable talkers, using a continuous pump for wall mounted versions) into a hose that ends in an ear piece, which allows the receiving party to hear the voice.

Signalling: Certain wavelengths will not be aimed at the valve by the crystal, but instead will cause the crystal to glow in a particular color, indicating in incoming call, or show other important information.

Switching: The large crystals mounted on top of mountains are connected to glass pipes, linking to exchanges, where operators receive the calls and redirect them to other talkers or to other exchanges using glass rods.

In the device on the picture you can see the green crystal (with the light green light of the phosphorus behind it), the mirror, the rubber ball used to pressurize the copper tank, the valve under the lens under the crystal, the blackish rubber tube leading to the ear piece, which can be attached to the side of the tank when carried. There is also a hook that allows you to hang the talker from your belt. The most important component of the talker is the crystal, which has four tasks.

1. It needs to convert incoming light into heat, using a lens that is attached below the crystal. The heat operates a miniature valve that responds rapidly to these heat changes, and allows minute amounts of air to escape from the reservoir depending on the amount of heat (or light). Diffuse is filtered by the crystal, and never reaches the valve.

2. It receives light from the phosphorus via a mirror. The mirror is mounted on top of the reservoir, aimed at the phosphorus and the crystal. Two springs hold the mirror at an angle at which it is at the verge of sending light to the crystal. When the mirror vibrates, the mirror will reflect the phosphorus on the crystal, which will turn it into a parallel beam emitted in a specific direction.

3. When parallel light of a certain wavelength is received, the crystal will light up. This allows the user to ensure correct alignment (the crystal is able to correct for certain variations, but aiming is important). For stationary talkers this ability is used to alert a user that there is an incoming call.

4. Diffuse light is gathered and aimed at the phosphorus, allowing it to charge when not in use.