Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Walking in Asheville

We arrived at Asheville, North Carolina about mid-day yesterday.   Our Hertz GPS was totally baffled by the instruction to go to Woodfin Road and dropped us on a country mountain road.  Nope, no sign of our hotel there.  We re-synched and headed back to on HWY 541 until we got to Rt 25 (aka Biltmore).  We went about a mile to find the Athena cafe.  They had a variety of Greek items on the menu, plus things like pizza for the less adventurous.  Three of us ordered variations on the Gyro platter.  My version came with thin slices of cooked lamb on strips of gyro bread, bracketed by a healthy-sized Greek salad.  Yum.  My youngest ordered pizza, which he demolished with a little bit of help.  Hungers sated, we were ready to explore the town. 

It turned out our hotel was on the other Woodfin Road, not far from Biltmore, so we decided to park at the hotel and avoid any extra parking charges.  We settled in at the hotel and immediately felt comfortable.  The view from the 10th floor looked like this: 

The weather had turned cool and windy, so we dressed warmly for our walk around the downtown.  Our guidebook talked about the Urban Trail, so we decided to follow that. The man at the front desk at our hotel was very helpful, suggesting we go to the Art Museum to get a map of the trail.   Nice idea, but when we got to the monument in front of the museum, we discovered it was closed on Mondays.   We were told that the trail was marked on the sidewalks, but must have looked confused, since a group of college age kids came up and asked if they could help us.  One girl in particular was very helpful, giving us tips on which streets to follow and suggesting we find our way to Grove Plaza.  

We began walking from our start at Pack Square and soon found pink stones embedded in the sidewalk marking the walking trail.  We also discovered that the city's reputation for having very well preserved Art Deco architecture was quite accurate.  We also saw other unfamiliar sites, such as a Five and Dime store.  One building after another had stunning architecture, so we didn't mind the cold weather so much.   We turned a corner and then found a red and gold sign for F. W. Woolworth.  We stepped into the erstwhile department store and found an old style soda fountain, meticulously restored, adjacent to a series of booths housing work of local artists.  The art was phenomenal and much of it had clear connections to the remarkable cityscape and the surruounding mountains of Asheville.  My oldest son loves art, so he just reveled in the many different types of art available for viewing.   We also discovered that there had been a water main break downtown, so the soda fountain was closed, along with my of the nearby restaurants.   

We resumed our walk and found more of the pink stone markers, which led us to a pedestrian walkway known as Wall Street.  It looks like this:  

We were impressed by a very new building we saw at the end of that block, but our street markers had vanished, so we decided to start looping back.  Turning the corner, we encountered the recently refurbished Grove Plaza:  

   

This spectacular example of Art Deco at it best was built in 1927, but had languished for many years when the building had been taken over by the Federal government for its National Weather Center.   The current version of the building re-opened in 2002 and now houses a variety of intriguing shops.  We strolled into a combination high end grocery and wine store and couldn't resist buying some fruit snacks and other items for the rest of our trip.   Beyond that store, we walked through an inner atrium which simply amazed us with its intricacy of design, clean lines and remarkable use of light. 

We took advantage of the respite from the chills of the outdoors and a woman proprietor told us about the history of the building and how it nearly had been torn down, before being rescue re-furbished in its current form.  She was very friendly and gave tips on places we should consider visiting in light of our son's interest in art.  

We continued the tour outside and soon encountered an amazing Basilica, featuring what is reputed to be the largest domed roof of its kind in North America.   Nearby, we walked into the civic center, which has bronze statues of musicians in full stride in front.  We walked and walked, finding more trendy restaurants of many different cuisines (while making mental notes for later) and finally got to the part of the tour where the symbol was a red angel.   Yes, we were about to encounter the footsteps of a famous native son, Thomas Wolfe, whose novel Look Homeward, Angel, borrowed much about Asheville for that novel.  There were imprints of his footprints, proving that Wolfe was a large man, and not only for the amount of words that he could spew on a page.  We'd reached the end of the walking tour -- a yellow boarding house that had served as the backdrop for Wolfe's novel.  Since it was Monday, it too was closed.     

That night, we circled back to Walnut Street, walked up a steep hill and stepped into Zambra, a restaurant featuring Spanish cuisine, in the style of a Tapas bar.  With the help of our waitress, we ordered small plates:  a delightful salad of pears and local greens, a second grassier set of greens, curry flavored albondigas -- a kind of meatball -- and two larger dishes of Paella and trout.   The food challenged our palettes, but was well worth the effort.  So ended our night in Asheville.  

Laser Lights in Hong Kong

In many ways, my last full day in Hong Kong was the best.  I started out the day with a walk in Kowloon Park.   During our group excursion to The Peak the night before, one of my local colleagues told me how to find it.   The Royal Pacific hotel has a restaurant called Cafe on the Park; in fact, if you look closely, there is a side exit that takes you out of the hotel and provides access to a skywalk, several stories above the street level.   After two days in the concrete jungle, Kowloon Park was a relief.  I arrived about 6:45 and quickly noticed that that park buzzed with activity.  In cul-de-sacs off of the main path, people of all ages performed slow motion twists, bends and stretches, akin to my own morning regime but more influenced by Oriental disciplines such as Tai Chi.   

Unlike the grid pattern at street level, paths, walkways and twisting stairwells branched off in many directions.  My own route led past an evergreen maze, composed of emerald green shrubs, and then descended down a twisting series of steps, before I began to loop back under a canopy of local deciduous trees.   The greenery reminded me of Hawaii and the temperature hovered at about 65 degrees F (25 degrees C) during my walk.   I continued across and found an aviary at the next level, first passing a covey of white flamingos.   The bird sanctuary itself housed birds with bright green and yellow plumage, reminding me of parrots, but without the chatter.   I continued my walk, tracing loops within loops, before dropping down to the main park level and beginning my return.   

After a busy day of meetings and presentations, our group walked on foot about 6 blocks over to the edge of the harbor.   We took an escalator up about two stories and reached a restaurant which specialized in Northern Chinese cuisine.  Our food was served up one dish at a time.  The items were first placed on a circular platter for viewing by all and then divided up and served to each person.   The food was quite good, but the process went on a for long time.   

We sat in a corner of the restaurant, overlooking the harbor and we had fine views of the rest of Kowloon before us and Hong Kong city to our left.  The sunset was colorful, but the real show began at 8:00.  The peak of a skyscraper across the harbor squirted a pencil thin burst of laser light in the direction of a building across the harbor in Kowloon, then was joined by other bright colors emanating from one  building after another.  The bursts of fiery white, green and yellow, creating geometrically spewed ephemeral designs across the waters of the harbor, showed Hong Kong in its role of high tech celebrant, flexing its muscles with an optimistic light show for all to watch.  It felt like a statement to the world saying, yes, there is economic pain now, but don't forget to celebrate.   

Later that night, I watched a snippet from a local news program on my hotel television.  My favorite columnist, Tom Friedman of the New York Times, gave an interview to a lissome twenty-something newswoman in a setting that looked like a fast food restaurant.   Friedman talked about the many challenges faced by today's world.  When asked how he chose his projects, he said that he followed his gut instincts based on what caught his attention.  Shortly, the interview came to an end.  The woman smiled through her pasted red lipstick and made up ivory cheeks, signing off the interview, Live from Hong Kong.  

Friedman's presence symbolized to me that Hong Kong is one of the centers of change that will likely lead the way to a different world for those in the next generation.  It felt like a validation of the trip, one sign among the many that I experienced in my scant few days in this city.   

I'll leave with a couple glimpses of the laser show we saw, in low def, courtesy of my cell camera:  

Carolina Times and on to Virginia

Today my family and I flew to Raleigh, North Carolina.  We're down  here for a visit to see two colleges and see a museum that has a strong connection with my wife's family.  This is the second time in nine months that I've travelled en famille and it is so much different than the usual business trip.  For example, I know the airline security drill by rote, but I had to coach my family through the various details of how to get our stuff through onto the gate side of Logan Airport, so that we could get on our way. 

Logan does have one pleasant feature that betrays a New England flavor.  There are white rocking chairs situated in a spot which looks out onto the airfield and the far edges of East Boston beyond it; my family enjoyed a few minutes of rocking before we moved over into the regular gate area.  

After a short delay, we got onto our regional jet.  It's pretty tight for space, so we needed to check our biggest bags at the end of the jetway before getting on the the plane.   The flight was uneventful, but we didn't get to our rental car until about 2:15 in the afternoon.  We were all tired and ready for lunch by then, so we drove west on Route 40 in search of a diner that was recommended in our travel guide. 

We got off at the recommended exit and drove about a bit, but the directions were not too clear.  So we pulled into the next shopping plaza, drove up to a restaurant called Fuddruckers and declared victory.  It was the first time any of us had been there, but they served burgers and other food with a minimum of fuss and bother and we were all generally pleased with the quality of what we got and we now ready to continue our journey.  

The car came with the Hertz Never Lost GPS system, so it was time to check that out.  Without too much effort, I figured out how to punch in our destination in Roanoke Virginia and we were informed that we had 155 miles and about 3 hours on the trip ahead of us. 

I drove the first half hour and then my oldest son relieved me.  The traffic levels weren't too bad, but we found Greensboro to be fairly busy for a Saturday and it took us a while to make our way through this sprawling city cum exurb and head up Rt 220 to Roanoke. 

About 40 miles later, Rt 220 crossed over into Virginia and the terrain started to undulate.   In the distance, we got our first glimpse of the Blue Ridge mountains.  As we continued to drive North, the views got more spectacular and we particularly enjoyed the sunset, where banks of clouds rose up above the mountains, pink underlacing the gray puff above and the panorama near took our breath away.   Rt 220 winds all over the place and soon it was time for my wife to take the wheel.  She drove the rest of the way, but the hills got steeper and we had to be very careful coming down the backside of mountain roads as they twisted in turned in several directions.  

At last we found ourselves driving through Roanoke and got a preview of the town that we'd be seeing the next day.  I'd done a bit of research in our AAA guide and convinced the family we had to try our a place called the New Yorker Delicatessen and Restaurant.  It turned out we didn't even need to get back on the highway.  Our GPS took us to Williamson street, which is lined with both restaurants and the occasional bail bonds and check cashing places.  About a mile down the road, we got to an old style place that looked very much like the deli restaurants we knew from the New York area.  

The menu was old school in all respects.  The food was classic New York: Pastrami, Reubens, Nova, and all kinds of suitable side dishes.   We all placed our orders.   Soon, plates stacked with food arrived at the table.  I dug into my Reuben and was very pleased with the lean and very tasty pastrami.   Other food we ordered like a Bagel with Nova, fresh brown beans, a turkey sandwich and a concoction of Bratwurst and sauerkraut called the Germantown special, all proved to up to very high standards and priced at bargain levels we had not seen in many years.  The boys topped off the meal with desserts of cheesecake and strawberry ice cream and we all walked out full.  The trip is off to an auspicious start.  

Hong Kong City - To and From The Peak

On the second evening of my visit to Hong Kong, the group from my company all piled into a bus and took a ride through a tunnel, taking us over from Kowloon to the Hong Kong city side of the islands. 

I was chatting with a colleague who lived in the city and he dropped clues as to what was ahead for us.   A few minutes later, we queued up for a ride up to the top of Hong Kong, known locally as The Peak.  My friend told me the best experience would come from sitting in the back of the transport vehicle, which consisted of a circa 1890 cable car, complete with wooden benches, which would be hauled up to the top of The Peak.  

We were tilted at an angle of about 40 degrees when we began and continued ascending at a similar angle.   My ears popped several times just in the first couple of minutes and the city's buildings beside us looked liked they'd been punched into the soil at angles that threatened to let them topple at any moment.   Rather to my surprise, this cable car still serves as a general public mode of transport and we stopped about one quarter of the way up the mountain to pick up another passenger, before the creaky sounds of the car being pulled uphill by a chain began again.  Looking back, we could see the dense configuration of buildings that made up downtown Hong Kong and we were steadily rose until we were above all of them.    

During the ride, my friend entertained me with tales of the local history of the place.  Until 1999, this peak was where the Governor and various luminaries of the English staff had their luxurious mansions, looking down on all of the rest of Hong Kong in more ways than one.  Since the turnover of HK in 1999 to the Chinese, the Peak has been opened for more general use and we would see a variety of large single family residences, as well as condominiums, which offered superior views both looking down to the city and also gazing back toward the other, forested side of the island. 

The trolley drops everybody off at a landing which is adjacent to a highly commercialized set of shops and restaurants.   Our group went to a place which offered Asian fusion cuisine coupled with excellent views of the city below us.   The thick glass partially obstructed our views, but we could still see the skyscrapers of Hong Kong, lit up by light strands of white, blue, green, yellow and other colors.   Across the harbor, another cornucopia of light festooned the Kowloon side.  

Dinner was festive and we enjoyed copious portions of food and wine in the aftermath of a very busy day.   Later, I joined a colleague and we took an escalator up onto the observation deck to get a better view.   The skyscrapers huddled in the mists below us and a mosaic of light painted the peaks of the tallest buildings.    My cell camera could not do justice to the scenes, but here is an example of the tallest building in the city, as we looked across to it.  

I stayed on The Peak for about another hour, but these early views had been the essence of the experience for me.  We ascended yet another observation deck, this one affording views of both the front view I'd seen before and of the heavily forested hills on the other side of the island.   Another American who'd lived in Hong Kong for several years pointed out sights in both Hong Kong and Kowloon, adding to my understanding of this city.  

My main insight from this night is that Hong Kong is still the sum of its history.  The Brits are officially gone, but their influences are still felt, in subtle ways like escalators that lead in from the left and in the more laissez faire brand of capitalism which drives Hong Kong's remarkable economic engines.  Hong Kong, a blend of the old school British style and the latest high tech trends, all progressing at a rapid pace forward.  It truly struck me as a fine example of a 21st century city.  

Next Stop, Hong Kong

The day began early: 3:00 am.  One hour later, a black limousine came by in the early moments of a fluffy snowfall and we drove to Logan Airport in Boston.  For the first time ever, I witnessed Route 128 with virtually no traffic; the snow began to cover the roadway and no trucks emerged to plow it off.  

Our plane was supposed to leave at 6:00 am.  But two inches of snow already stuck to the wings of the regional jet.  The de-icing truck came by and promptly its spurt of green liquid sputtered and died.  We didn't get underway to JFK Airport until 7:30, consuming all of our buffer for the trip.  

Upon arrival at JFK, we needed to switch terminals, since Cathay Pacific operated the plane.  We had to trudge outside in the 20 degree weather, bags in tow, board a skytrain monorail, then reverse the process to enter the terminal.  Upon arrival, one of my colleagues discovered his seat on the flight was taken, leaving only two of us to board the 777 which would bring us to Hong Kong.   

May I say, sixteen hours is way too long for a plane flight.  I won't describe it; simply, one wants to get off the plane after about 10 hours or so.  We finally arrived.  My head was sore, my gums felt swollen  and my toes were numb.  Otherwise . . .  

We changed our money to Hong Kong dollars and the agent also sold us a high speed train ticket.   After a short delay, we boarded the train.   Whoosh -- the train easily exceeded 150 mph as we took a twenty minute ride to our destination of Kowloon.  Outside, we saw a high density of fifty story apartment buildings inland and dark green mountains rising up behind us.   

At Kowloon, we found our way up one story to a shuttle bus stop.   The free bus took us through a loop on the very busy streets of Kowloon, dropping us at the final stop, the Royal Pacific Hotel and Towers.  Twenty-two hours after departing home, I was grateful to have my feet on the ground again.  

A quick shower and shave washed away the worst of my aches and pains.  About an hour later, I walked with a colleague down Canton Road, through a shopping district that looked like a cross between Times Square and Picadilly Circus; one downtown mall after another vied for our attention and dollars.  

Per the concierge, our destination was the Peking Garden.  We rounded a corner and the expanse of Hong Kong harbor lay before us.  Twilight neared and a faint veil of low clouds overhung Hong Kong city, but we had a clear view of the skyline and my colleague told me how the last Batman movie had a scene set among those buildings.   The harbor skyline looks like this from our hotel.   The tall building is Two International Financial Centre, the tallest structure in Hong Kong City.  

  

The restaurant was on the fourth floor.  The service wasn't very fast, but the food was hot, diverse and filling.   I began with a fish soup, which was okay, but eyed the Hot and Sour soup served to my friend.  We expected dim sum next, but instead our main dishes of chicken with vegetables and scallops sauteed in a soya sauce came out.   The dishes didn't disappoint and helped to fill our stomachs with more substantial food after the various lighter meals from the plane.  We washed it all down with mugs of Tsingtao beer.   The promised dim sum, filled with bits of pork, finally emerged and struck the right ending note for the meal.  

Walking back, we were approached several times by men attempting to sell us goods like watches and leather goods.   It dawned on us that we were now the minority -- caucasians in a land where the average tint of flesh tones had more yellow than ours and where even our hair stood out.  Overhead, a neon banner wished us "Season's Greetings" -- the Chinese New Year was only a few days away.    

Thus ended our first night in Hong Kong.   Exhaustion overcame us and I began the foggy sleep of the jet-lagged traveler at 8:00 pm and weighed in with ten fitful hours.  I'll write more about the trip in another post.