Showing posts with label Published Article. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Published Article. Show all posts

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Hongkong An Article (or two) for Portwatch Magazine History

Hongkong An Article (or two) for Portwatch Magazine History

For those interested, I penned a couple of short articles for a club magazine over the previous summer. Portwatch is the publication produced by the Aberdeen Marina Club in Sham Wan. I figured that with all the information I had on films made in and around the area it might make interesting reading. Sadly the word limit was a bit restrictive - the bilingual nature of the publication meant I only had half of what I would normally get. As a result the editor decided to split the article into two parts. I would have loved to go into more detail but there you have it.

There's no direct link available but you can go to the club's website (http://www.aberdeenmarinaclub.com/portwatch.php) and find the offending material on and either download it or view online:

Aberdeen on Screen Part 1: Jul/Aug 2016 issue pages 30-31
Aberdeen on Screen Part 2: Sep/Oct 2016 issue pages 28-29

Monday, May 12, 2014

Hongkong An Article for HK Time Out: Hong Kong�s Top Diving Spots History

The weather is warming up slightly (although you'd be hard pressed to believe it given the massive rainstorms we had last weekend) and this means the local scuba diving season is beginning to rev up. To be honest, the more hardy folks have been diving all winter (sadly, I'm not one of them) and enjoying cooler clearer water and empty (of people) dive sites. So it's time to roll out an article I penned a couple of years ago (for Hong Kong Time Out again) that formed part of a larger stay/vacation piece. Once again this was a printed article only (not available online) but I was given permission by then editor - Jake Hamilton - to put it online. So many thanks to Jake (wherever he may now be) for getting me to write it and then allowing me to stick it up here as well.

Sadly, it looks as though my diving for this year will have to be curtailed somewhat. I broke a bone in my foot a couple of weeks ago and am currently convalescing while everyone else goes and enjoys themselves. Theoretically there is nothing to stop me going, however, it's excruciatingly painful for me to put any sort of shoe on at the moment, so there is no way I will be able to don my Scubapro booties and stick some fins on my feet. Never mind, I did some very fun stuff last year, including some stupendously good diving at Ninepins in October, and hope to catch up with my usual buddies later in the summer.

Speaking of buddies, this article was helped immensely by some of my regular fellow divers. I try to get out as much as I can but there are some places I simply haven�t been to (or even dived) and had to rely on my very dependable friends to provide me with information and photographs. So, a big thank you is due to Shirley Pong and her husband Chi Ching for sending a whole heap of excellent snaps my way (none of which were used but more about that later), Apple Chui who provided some great info and snaps relating to Tung Ping Chau and also to local diving instructor, Ken Chan who, as always, was a wealth of info.

Anyway, here is the actual printed article � click on the image for a closer view.





Okay, I did submit a whole heap of photos for the article that weren�t included. It's a big shame, but in hindsight I guess there just wasn�t the space. However, I have all these nice snaps sent to me by the above mentioned peeps and nowhere to put them, so I�ve included a few below to give you a better idea of some of the sites covered in the article (all photos Copyright Shirley Pong).

Here are a few from Tsim Jau (one of the dive sites located in Tai Long Wan).


Another site located at the southern edge of Tai Long wan is Yin Tsz Ngam. These are the cement bags mentioned in the article. I have since found out that this place is actually the site of a ship wreck. The ship was in fact carrying the bags of cement in its hold and hit some stormy weather either on route to or out of Hong Kong waters. The crew lost control and it hit the cliffs at Yin Tsz Ngam and sank upright. The cement set solid in the bags and the wreck has since been salvaged and/or disintegrated to the point where just a rotting carcass remains. For some great pictures of the site (and yes, with great visibility and very blue looking water...) you can view the gallery over at Ocean Sky Diving.


Next up is Ung Kong Wan, a bay on the north east side of Bluff island. The first picture looks like some sort of painful orgy�


So there you have it, hopefully this will persuade anyone with nagging doubts about HK diving that they should at least give it a whirl. In the meantime you can read my handy quick guide to diving in HK by clicking on the following link: HK Scuba Diving - a quick guide. And, keeping up with the watery theme of this post, you may also be interest to read about the HK Shark Attacks in the 1990's.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Hongkong An Article for HK Time Out: Chasing Down The Dragon History

Back in March 2011, I had the good fortune to be asked to pen a short article for Time Out HK magazine. The topic, as you may have guessed already, was the various locations used in Enter The Dragon for which my blog had already established itself as a useful online source of info. Anyway, once again for those who missed it and because my stuff never seems to make the cut for the online version, I have attached a scanned version and with Time Out�s permission, you can view it here for yourself.

As usual the graphics guys at the magazine made me look as though I actually know what I�m talking about and they made good use of the photographs of the locations. What I couldn�t do in the article, but what I can do now, is to thank two people in particular for getting me out of a tight spot. I had most of the photos I needed but was lacking two specific location shots: Tai Tam Bay and Aberdeen Harbour. I was all geared up to go and grab them on the previous weekend when the heavens opened and my one free day got pissed on big time. A couple of quick emails later and I had the shots I needed � so a big thank you to Thomas Ngan (already a prolific help over on my film locations blog). The other thanks go to my Tai Po-based friend Eddy Lo. Both of their photographic contributions were included in the published piece - Thomas supplied the shot of Aberdeen and Eddy gave me the photo of the Tai Tam stone jetty.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Hongkong An Article for HK Time Out: The Avenue of Stars History

A while back I penned a small article for the local Time Out publication outlining, amongst other things, the general naffness of the Avenue of Stars - one of HK's supposedly "top" tourist draws.

The article was inspired by a series of posts I did on the old blog that looked more in depth at each of the "stars" who feature along the promenade. I'll be re-posting them here soon, but in the meantime, here is the original published article (click to zoom in). Sadly, there is no online link to the article, I don't think it made the cut for the website, but still, here it is preserved in digital format for your reading pleasure...or not.








The article ran back in April/Mat 2011 and I guess a few things have changed since then, such as Sir Run Run Shaw passing away this year in Jan 2014 - I guess he hadn't discovered the secret to eternal life after all? Another one who has sadly passed away is Lau Kar Leung (#78). He died last June (2013). More sad news was that Lau Gar Leung's adopted younger brother - Lau Kar Fai aka Gordon Liu see the bottom sidebar about who should be on there - suffered a catastrophic stroke in the summer of 2011 and has been slowly trying to recover, not helped by the fact that his former assistant has stolen all his money, amounting to millions of HK dollars. Get well soon Gordon.

On a happier note, Kara Hui (also in the bottom sidebar) has eventually made the dubious 'honour' of getting her own star on the Avenue :-)

...however, just a couple of weeks after this edition of Time Out was published, the SCMP ran a small story concerning the management of the Avenue denying that the reason Gong Li wasn't yet on there was a political decision but was due to her not having time to provide hand prints. Yeah right! On a side note, I did wander down to the Avenue again a few months ago (around Jan time) and noticed that even now, 3 years later, there is still no star or name for Gong Li, even though she is still listed as #100. Weird.