Category: Life in Hong Kong
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Poundworld in the UK has closed down. The closest equivalent here is Japan Home Centre, which used to be the "10 dollar shop", but quietly dropped that concept (in 2001, apparently). When Poundworld tried to do something similar in 2016, it didn’t go well: Not so penny-wise: the last days of Poundworld “Each week we…
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More than 18 months ago I complained about The Gulu. They’re still at it, forcing you to upgrade the app when all you want to do is book a table. This time they excelled themselves by making the old version of the app disappear from the Home Screen. So first I have to find the…
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Whilst having Dim Sum today I watched the lady at the next table carefully cleaning all the cups, bowls and chopsticks (using the tea and hot water provided by the restaurant). The problem is that once you notice people doing this you can’t help but observe that most people who do this (and many restaurant…
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Rather confusingly, there are several red taxis driving around Hong Kong dressed up as green taxis. In Hong Kong we have red “urban taxis” that have higher fares and can operate everywhere except the south part of Lantau island. Green taxis can only operate in the more northerly parts of the New Territories (such as…
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A small follow up to my post on HKTVMall. Just to say that their customer service really isn’t great. I ordered something that was supposed to be available within 4-7 working days. Then just two days later I noticed that they had updated the order with a delivery date – the following day, at a…
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In Hong Kong your supermarket “choice” is largely between shops owned by Li Ka-shing (ParknShop, International, Fusion, Taste, and the Great Food Hall) and Jardines (Wellcome, Market Place by Jason, Threesixty and Olivers). It’s no surprise that this lack of competition leads to high prices and poor service, so alternative options are always welcome. HKTVmall…
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Many MTR stations have really confusing “English” names on the official maps. 尖沙咀 appears as “Tsim Sha Tsui" on signs. Good luck trying to pronounce that – and if your valiant effort is “Sim Sha Chewy” you won’t be understood by locals because it's actually more like "Jim Sa Joy". 紅磡 is shown as “Hung…
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On Thursday I was on the southbound KCR (sorry, that’s the MTR East Rail Line) when the train came to a halt in the Beacon Hill Tunnel just north of Kowloon Tong station. Cue the usual announcement about a train being in the platform at the next station, but it soon became apparent that this…
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Happy New Year and a quick follow-up to last month’s post on Tesco and other British supermarkets. There do seem to be some bargains amongst the Tesco own brand products in U購select (and Vanguard*), including their basic cheese range (as pointed out by Private Beach in the comments), olive oil, nuts, and salad dressings. They…
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About 20 years ago, Carrefour tried to expand into Hong Kong and were driven out (in part) because their prices were too low. Since then, no foreign supermarket chain has tried to challenge the ParknShop / Wellcome duopoly. But at least we have a bit more choice now, including products from UK supermarkets Tesco, Sainsbury’s…
Ordinary Gweilo 