Three months in, I had done most of the “you gotta go see/do this if you’re a tourist” things in Hong Kong. Dim sum at Maxim’s, Lan Kwai Fong at 1 a.m., the tram to Victoria Peak, the tunnel to Repulse Bay and Stanley, high tea at the Peninsula Hotel, the laser light show over […]

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It’s already Dec. 26 here in Asia. In Hong Kong, it is Boxing Day, a holiday the Hongkongers picked up from the British. Mostly, it’s just an excuse for a semi-serious public holiday and a chance to do more shopping, as if not enough of that goes on around here. But it is a real […]

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Perhaps the subtitle, or even the title, should be “What I did for Christmas, in Hong Kong …” The International Herald Tribune doesn’t publish on Christmas Day, which means that the whole newsroom was off on Christmas Eve. I always have preferred to be off on Christmas Eve. Working, in exchange, on Christmas Day for […]

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I almost didn’t go to the little party on Sunday night. I was caught up editing a story that came in late, a soccer column that required close attention and lots of fact-checking and the insertion of accent symbols in Spanish and French names and, well, by the time I was finished it was an […]

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I believe many Americans are puzzled as to why the National Football League isn’t embraced by the rest of the planet. That is,  when Americans consider the rest of the planet, which we don’t do as often as we should. Well, after three months of seeing lots of soccer and rugby … I can confirm […]

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Another hidden danger of Hong Kong! Tiny steps on stairways. Have I mentioned this? Back in one of those “random observations” thing? I’ve lasted three months, going up and down flights of stairs with steps about six inches deep. Will I survive another? This is a more pressing concept, again, now that I am back […]

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I’m something of a calendar wonk. In some previous life or civilization I might have tried to find a job as a priest or astronomical observer watching the sun and the moon and keeping track of their movements. Like the guys in Egypt who figured out the two days a year the sun would shine […]

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Every time I go over to Victoria Park to drag myself around the 600 meters of rubberized track, I see them. Off in the equipment areas, in the open area behind the snack stand, in the wider or less-traveled paths. Little old men and women … more women than men, actually … going through the […]

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I work in a newspaper office. I know the global economy has issues. Seemingly half the news stories in any edition of the International Herald Tribune are about the economy. Financial doom and gloom have been staples in the paper since I got here, nearly three months ago. But I don’t really see it. I […]

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Have I noted this already? Maybe I have. How it seems to be hard to become a victim, in this town. A victim of crime, or assault. It’s almost as if it’s something you really have to work at. For example, a little walk we took last night.

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