Hong Kong Takes a Holiday Part 2

Museums were closed. So were all public buildings and a surprising number of shops. But Hong Kong was certainly not lacking in things to do. Best of all, most of them were free or very cheap.

We wandered through Hong Kong’s gorgeous park, an oasis of green plunked down in the midst of some of the world’s most expensive real estate. The towering buildings that surround it, including I. M. Pei’s Bank of China Building and Paul Rudolph’s Lippo Center, as well as the more anonymous but equally soaring high-rise apartment buildings, seem to eye the park covetously.
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Hong Kong Takes a Holiday


“I once went to Philadelphia and it was closed.” – W.C. Fields

How can you compare the Philadelphia of W.C. Field’s feverish imagination, a sleepy burg where nothing happened, to Hong Kong, that money-mad mecca of moguls and millionaires? And yet I was tempted.

The last time I had been in Hong Kong was just prior to “the handover” in 1997, when Britain ended 150 years of colonial rule by returning sovereignty to China – Red China. Of course Hong Kong isn’t quite a worker’s paradise just yet. Under the terms of the handover agreement, China agreed to treat Hong Kong differently for a period of 50 years, the so-called “one country, two systems” approach.
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Uzbekistan Update

Bukhara B&B

A reader recommends a homey spot in old Bukhara

I am writing to highly recommend the travel agency/small hotel “Farkhad & Maya” in a residential neighborhood in the old city of Bukhara, Uzbekistan. I stayed there two years ago and just now returned from two weeks there again.

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Tourism Contacts in Uzbekistan

This is a selective list of Uzbekistan tourism contacts. It makes no pretense to be complete. If you have any additions to this list, please e-mail them along with comments.

In Tashkent

Osiyo Intour Business
Louiza Ligay
Buyuk Ipuck Yuli, 115
Tashkent 700077
Tel: (3712) 686733, 686781, 686764
Fax: (3712) 686783
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FIRE Warning

The following notice is posted in all rooms at the Ziyorat Hotel in Fergana, Uzbekistan.

FIRE Warning

We ask you observe the ruls of fire saftey.

1) Don’t forqet turn off electrical apparatuses (tv set, condition, lamps and otses) when you leave the room.
2) Remember that it is veri strange to cover desk-lamps by material. (inflamail)
3) We hope, that you will not smoice in the bed and leave siqarettes it is strange.
4) Don’t throw iigarettes in the paper baskets.
5) Don’t bring and keep in the room inflamial materials.

Repaving The Great Silk Road

A Primer on Uzbekistan for Travel Agents

Uzbekistan, the most central of the Central Asian republics to gain independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union, sees future promise in its ancient trade routes. “President [Islam] Karimov has made tourism a major priority,” said Sadullo M. Muhammadkulov, Deputy Chairman of UzbekTourism, in a recent interview.

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In Lhasa, Everbody Goes To Dunya

dunya restaurant, lhasa tibet
The terrace at Dunya

The restaurant scene in Lhasa’s old town, such as it is, has taken a decided step upwards with the arrival of Dunya, a sprightly new eatery with an international menu and an international staff to match.

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Nepal Courts Nervous Tourists

An Overview for Travel Agents

Nepal tourism has suffered several body blows in the past year or so. First was the massacre of the royal family in June 2001 and September’s terrorist attacks on America. Then Nepal’s perennial Maoist insurgency spilled out of remote mountain valleys with attacks on major population centers. Tourism officials have been at pains ever since to reassure jittery travelers.

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Is Korea Ready for Prime Time Tourism?

Korea has been making a play for American tourism in recent years. The fiftieth anniversary of the Korean Armistice occasioned a push for nostalgia tours for those who get misty-eyed at the thought of the Chosun Reservoir and Pork Chop Hill. More recently, the Korea National Tourism Organization (KNTO) has been encouraging Americans to visit their relatives stationed with the armed forces in Korea.

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Takayama, The Town That Time Forgot

The town that time forgot
Takayama Sanmachi

Takayama is a small town of 60,000 souls nestled in the “Japan Alps” in northern Gifu prefecture. In olden days, Takayama was snowed in for most of the winter and that may be why the ruthless modernization that swept most of Japan had less of an effect here.

Whatever the reason, Takayama is held forth today as an example of “old Japan” and given its relative closeness to major tourist magnets like Tokyo and Kyoto, it has become something of a tourist mecca itself. In other words, don’t expect to have Takayama to yourself. Touristy? Sure, but no more so (perhaps less so) than, say, Italy’s San Gimignano. The place retains its small town charm and is well worth a visit.
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