Yet another reason we should recycle everything we can, and find new ways to recycle what, right now, we can’t.  Maybe donate your old computers to schools or libraries or your less-fortunate neighbor, or a homeless shelter, or whatever!  Just keep it out of the landfill – and China!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

Consume less, save more; bring your own bag; drive less; plant more trees – snowman will be happier! 

Words we can all live by…

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

As I mentioned before, I’ve been in Hong Kong since December 30th, and my internet access was limited, so I’ve been unable to post regularly.  Both directions of travel were dreadful – more than 24-hours of airports and flying each direction… horrible (and I’m an aviation enthusiast!).

We also got conned while at the Beijing airport – we were unable to get our full through tickets out of Hong Kong, just the Air China tickets from Hong Kong to Beijing.  This meant that we had to go through immigration in Beijing, then through the baggage claim and customs to the public area.  Here, we were trying to find where to go to get our Continental tickets back to the US and a Chinese woman wearing a hotel name badge offered to help us, so we followed her through the back halls of the airport (first mistake) to near the customs check for international departures.  She then asked for money (I told her we only had Hong Kong dollars, which she refused), then my mother gave her a U.S. $20.  She asked for $20 per person she “helped” (there were three of us).  My mother gave her another $20 before I said “forget it” and pulled our group away from the women (another woman – a pickpocket had shown up as we reached the final destination where the original woman asked for money). 

This was a good lesson that, fortunately, only cost us $40 US – the pickpocket got into my wife’s bag, but didn’t get anything.  For anyone reading this – next time, get full paper tickets all the way through to you destination so you don’t have to go to the public area of any foreign airport.  Also, only speak to people in full uniform – I didn’t notice that the woman who offered to help was NOT wearing a uniform – just a hotel name tag.  Most airline employees are honest – no matter the country – and customs agents and police officers are always going to be more trustworthy than just some person offering to help.  Lessons learned.  Thank you universe (it could have been worse).  On that note, I’ll probably never go back to Beijing airport.  Certainly not if I can help it.

 
This is how I will remember my Chinese con-artist – except my memory will be of a Chinese woman and her shill.

On the bright side, I did make it to the Hong Kong Manufacturers’ Expo, and was able to get some great pictures and such from the Organic Living Pavilion.  I also got to see first-hand how Hong Kong is attempting to make itself greener on a day-to-day basis.

Stay tuned for more information about Hong Kong’s environmental efforts and information!

Glad to be back in the US (for now)…

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

I’ll post as often as I can while I am there as well – about anything I can find that is remotely environmentally-related (which, come to think of it, is damn near everything).  Hopefully I’ll have lots of fodder to blog about upon my return as well…

If any of my readers are in Hong Kong, let me know by leaving a comment – I’d love to meet up with you!

 Below is a blurb from the article above that piqued my interest:

In recent years, people have become more conscious of “organic living”.  Riding on this new trend and with the staunch support of Hong Kong Organic Resource Centre, a thematic pavilion entitled “HKBPE Organic Lifestyle Home” is set up this year.  Through an array of activities including product displays, organic cooking and farming, and products demonstrations etc, visitors will gain a better understanding of the extensive “organic” applications in our daily lives and of healthy living and environmental protection.