Ngong Ping 360 + Tai O Day Trip (July 2012)

Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car has been in operations for many years and it is considered one of Hong Kong's key attractions to both local as well as foreign visitors. True that there were certain incidents over the past few years which affected their reputation but the way I see it, incidents happen in all sort of transportation including air flight or even cruise but it doesn't mean one would stop using them right? You are entitled to your own opinion but for me, I have been looking forward to such a cable car ride for what it is especially when the only other cable car ride in Hong Kong is the one at the Ocean Park. I have to admit, one of the reasons I was so looking forward to it was because I like to find out what sort of experience to expect from such huge investment in constructing this attractions just for the purpose of visiting the Ngong Ping Village, Giant Buddha and en route to Tai O Village?

Tour Eiffel - Paris (June 2012)

We often travel with the objectives to find the best restaurants, hunt for bargains or even to find the best location to photograph (with) iconic structures as an alternative to having a signboard saying "I was here." Hey, I am guilty as such at times but is that the best way to experience a city, to understand the culture and ... travel in general? It is an open-ended question for all of us to think about but my recent trip to London and Paris, I tried something different, I travel without my DSLR and only with my iPhone with me. Yes I mentioned about that in my previous post but in additional to illustrate smartphone photography as a valid category of photography, I wanted to travel through my own eyes and not through the viewfinder.

What is a meaningful job?

I am not certain if I posted the following personal entry on this blog before but I am doing so because ... I can. The entry was written almost 2 years ago but nothing seems to have changed in terms of my view towards the topic. We are all working towards some sort of an objective in life and to attain that we often have to take the path less travelled. Some are more fortunate to have the option to do while some require a bit more effort in doing so. The reality is, at this stage of age, it is almost impossible for everyone to start the race from same starting line. Accept this fact and work towards overcoming such disparity if you like to call it as such. There is no point in whining about it because it would not change anything just because you say so. What prompted me to say all these? Someone recently asked me for career advice and my reply was quite straight forward, "there is no such thing as a career nowadays, create your own career and build on it." Perhaps it was a bold statement for the kid about to enter university but I personally think if one cannot understand the changing definition of a career, he/she is in for quite a surprise down the road. The ability to anticipate change is very important and it takes more than piles of textbook to learn about it. I was then asked or more accurately been informed the ideal situation is to find a job that is meaningful. OKAY, there is no such thing as a meaningless job, it may be meaningless to you because you labelled it as such due to your dislike of it but it surely is meaningful to someone else you may or may not know. Guess what, someone may even envy your so-called meaningless job for many reasons. While the word meaningful is very subjective, do think of the following passage the next time you want to use the word to describe the job you picked.

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee - London (June 2012)

Like I said, the best camera is the one that's with you. I was quite serious when I said I will document (visually) my recent travels using just my iPhone instead of my DSLR. As promised, I carried just my iPhone in my jeans pocket during my recent visits to London & Paris. The results and overall experience turned out to be quite satisfying. Smartphone photography has its technically limitation but with enough practices, one can overcome them with different smartphone photography software as well as acquired skills. Let me share some of the images I took in London using my iPhone with post-processing applied using Snapseed, Instagram, Camera+ and TiltShiftGen.

Instagram ME @ Lifestyle Asia Hong Kong

No longer a 9-5 person, I live an interesting lifestyle which may or may not appeal to everyone. Do you wonder how a typical day of mine goes by? Lifestyle Asia Hong Kong recently asked me to participate in their Instagram Me feature, to document my day via Instagram. Check it out <here> or stalk me via Instagram at @jasonbonvivant.

The Danger of Generalization

Recently the "food blogging" community in Hong Kong has been under a degree of pressure or more frankly speaking direct criticism from media as well as the F&B industry in Hong Kong. Alright, criticism maybe a strong word, perhaps, for a lack of a better word, concerns for the rapid growth of the so-called "food blogging" industry in recent months. Criticism is a natural byproduct of increased popularity and unfortunately it is the case in question with regards to "food blogging." First of all, one must understand the difference between "food blogger" and "bloggers who blog about food," because there is a difference and I repeated, there is a difference between the two and it is wrong to put both under the same category as "food bloggers." Such generalization is very dangerous indeed. I am not trying to distinguish myself between the two and I really see no need to do so because it matters not ... really. Let me show you a few examples:

Travel - Singapore (April 2012) - Oasia Hotel

Situated just 2 MRT stations away from Orchard Station, Oasia Hotel @ Novena turned out to be much more convenient than I imagined. I stayed at the hotel over the Easter weekend in April and thanks for the generosity of the hotel, my accommodation was free of charge. While it was a big help to have free accommodation, the air tickets to Singapore seem to be climbing every quarter since a few years ago. There are over a dozen daily flights to Singapore operated by various airlines but never seems to be enough I suppose. Then again, Singapore, as mentioned previously, is an international financial center and is Hong Kong's closest yet most fierce competitor in terms of economic as well as policy development. I am bringing up this topic once again because the Oasia hotel is situated in the middle of the Novena district, a medical hub of Singapore serving not only the locals but as well as foreign visitors for various intentions. In other words, Singapore is investing as well as prompting the development of medical tourism. Hong Kong government once mentioned the idea of promoting medical tourism but like many other policies and initiatives, hardly anyone knows what happened to them. I will talk about this issue on a separate post, this one I will stick with the sharing of of my experience at the hotel.

Happy Birthday!! I am 3 already?!

Time flies! I just realized the blog has turned 3 sometime last week and I almost forgot about it. Yes, I have been blogging for 3 years and mostly on food obviously and lately general lifestyle. However, I think it is time to turn a new leaf once again and do something different! I am still going to blog about food of course but it will be photographically driven with just the right amount of words. Details of the the new approach will follow along with a new face lift for the blog as well. Stay tuned!

In the meanwhile, something of a preview perhaps + shameless promotion? Many of you know how I have a growing interest and passion into photography as well as smartphone photography in recent times, and I plan to further promote / share my experiences in my upcoming trip to part of Europe (TBC) on the go! Smartphone photography is more than just the ability to capture the moment using your phone almost immediately, it is the ability (or possibilities) to share images almost instantaneously through different social media channels such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Sina Weibo and of course Instagram. In other words, you are able to tell your story through your images almost real time!

If you are interested in my upcoming travel(s) on the go, please do stay in touch via one of the following channels. (Click to access)

Instagram / Twitter / Sina Weibo / Facebook / Foursquare 

An-tico Enoteca & Pizzeria (Hong Kong)

Stepping inside An-tico reminded me of NYC, the lofty atmosphere, the subway tiles, the high ceiling and the 1920’s style custom light fixtures made me feel right at home. It is rare for a Hong Kong restaurant to have such a huge space but all of WindyCity's restaurants especially the notable Dan Ryan's and Amaroni’s outlets in Hong Kong have huge space. An interesting observation is how all of Windy City's Hong Kong establishments are situated inside malls / venues that have a cinema. I wonder what was the logic or business decision behind that. Anyhow, thanks Barbra and her company for treating me to this meal and I do wish her to have a great trip to Guam in October!

The Art of Bullshit

I wrote this following post quite a while ago on my personal blog (which I no longer update because I plan to consolidate all my thoughts and express them here on this platform). What triggered to dig up this old post was the large amount of bullshit I have been hearing recently. I have no doubt that we all have our fair share of bullshit but when one is being bombarded by them in a short period of time, headaches!

So do you like to bullshit? Why do we bullshit? How do we distinguish a lie from a bullshit? I just finished reading a book titled On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt attempts to answer the above questions in a philological approach. The following introduction and excerpts I found to be rather interesting. What do you think?

One of the most salient feature of our culture is is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in it ... we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves ... 

What bullshit essentially misrepresents is neither the state of affairs to which it refers nor beliefs of the speaker concerning that state of affairs. Those are what lies misrepresent, by virtue of being false, since bullshit need not be false, it differs from lies in its nonrepresentational intent. The bullshitter may not deceive us, or even intend to do so, either about the facts or about what he takes the facts to be. What he does necessarily attempt to deceive us about his enterprise. His only indispensably distinctive characteristic is that in a certain way he misrepresents what he is up to. 

On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt (Princeton University Press, 2005.)

Beertopia! Hong Kong - 28 April 2012 [Event]

Attention Beer Lovers! A new beer fest Beertopia! is coming to town, this time with over 90 craft beers from around the world including Hong Kong's microbrewery, Typhoon Brewery. The festival will take place at the historical Western Market in Sheung Wan on the April 28, 2012. Tickets are limited and range from HKD250-300. Not a big fan of beer, no worries, attend and learn about them and enjoy the live music, beer lectures as well as play games such as beer pong and flip cup. Oh beer pong! I am definitely going to be there to try out some craft beers and support my friend who dedicated his time to organize this event because of his love for beer! Cheers to all! Stay tuned stay informed on Beertopia! Facebook Page! Almost forgot, check out the beer list <here>.

Travel - Seoul, Korea (Jan 2012)

I just realized that I did not really blog about my short trip to Seoul back in Jan 2012. Two reasons, one being I was there for a mere 24 hours so didn't many opportunities to explore around and the other reason being I didn't bring my DSLR with me on this trip. However, like I said at the Smartphone Photography talk during the Social Media Week Hong Kong 2012, the best camera is the one that is with you and in my case iPhone is more than qualified to be the best camera at that moment. Smartphone Photography is getting very popular and an increasing number of aspiring photographers (as well as professional photographers) are getting more involved with smartphone photography for its mobility as well as a treating it as a separate category on its own. No matter how one defines smartphone photography, to me it is a a form of photography and it is evolving as we speak.