Yep we opened a BnB for our friends, family and guest to stay in while visiting our glorious city of Hong Kong. So if you are looking for a great location this is it.

The apt is located in Nam Wai Village, where I live. Its a great village, very quite and the scenery is great. Hebe Haven is located on the Eastern Seaboard of Hong Kong, open to the South China Sea the water is crystal clear and devoid of the bacteria and other polutants you find in the water in the West ‘pearl river’ side of HK namely Lantau, Lamma, and Hong Kong Islands South Side, you really dont want to be swimming at these beaches. Sai Kung is different, Sai Kung water is clean. Fishing is good and lots of places for diving and snorkling. Hebe Haven is home to 1000′s of HK yachts and they all have to cruise right past our house to get out to sea.

Sai Kung – Nam Wai Village is a quaint old Chinese fishing village that is very quickly becoming one of the more trendy places to live in Sai Kung. I am very lucky to live here, my flat has an amazing 180′ sea view from the rooftop playpen and from the bedrooms and kitchen. The house sits on a hill at the south end Hebe Haven, overlooking the marinas and channel (Pak Sha Wan), it is truly tranquil and scenic, one could completely forget that they are in Hong Kong.

The village is well served by public busses and is only a 30-40min comute to HK central. My apt is located at the end of the village a 10min walk from the bus stop, or if you are coming by taxi from Choi Hung, it is a HK$60 taxi fare. On Arrival we recommend getting a taxi so you don’t get lost. Once you know where we are its easy, but getting here you think you are driving to the end of the world, but when you see the view you know why…Please be aware that the nearest shops are 15-20min walk away or a HK$20 taxi. Sai Kung Town is HK$40 taxi or $6 on the many and frequent Mini-busses.

The apt is 700′ 3 bedroom, two bathrooms and a 700′ rooftop which I am slowly turning into a rooftop garden. You will love sitting in the shade on the roof watching the many yachts sail out from the 2 yacht clubs in Hebe Haven. Feel like swimming, the beach is only 50m down the hill in front of the house. Its not the best best beach in HK, but its great for a quick swim in the morning. Also Trio Beach (Shum Shing- 3 Stars Beach) is just across the channel. If you like boats, Hebe Haven is home to over 1,000 yachts of all shapes and sizes, and they all cruise past the house to get out of the channel, the house sits on the hill overlooking Au Tsai Tsuen the channel that leads out to the South China Sea, this is also why the water here is so clean as it is flushed by the South China Sea with each tide.

The apt has TV with cable (BBC, CNBC, Nat Geo, Bloomberg and CCTV),(NOT TIL LATE FEB AS PCCW IS SLOW TO INSTALL) broadband via wifi (& the roof too), laundry, cleaning service every second day, full kitchen and roof BBQ.
Appliances: large Fridge Freezer, 2 Burner gas cooker, Microwave Oven, Toaster, Coffee Maker, Blender, Food Processor, & Rice Cooker. The beds all have brand new ‘hotel quality’ sheets and duvees, warm and so so soft. We also have hotel quality towels.

You will have the whole apt to yourself or possibly other BnB guests, with me just next door to answer any questions and if you are around on the weekends, to invite u hiking or boating with our group of friends who live in Sai Kung. Its the ‘Rivera’ of HK really. What I was doing living in the city for 10 years! Oh well Im here now.
So, come on out to the country seaside.

http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/313449

Kumi the drummer queen of Hong Kong has a new team of full time staff. Drum Jam goes corporate…
We recently shot some new material for them. Kumi is a great inspiring light, and her monthly free drum jams at the Fringe Club in Central are always very popular.

Kumi has been doing corporate team building sessions for a couple of years and they are very well received. Her client list reads a who’s who of HK companies. So next time you are thinking how to inspire and motivate your team to work as one… Think DRUM JAM…

Mechelle and Matthias’ wedding. Yesterday we were honoured with the task of photographing Mechelle and Matthias’ wedding. The ceremony was at Cotton Tree Drive Marriage Registry, and almost didn’t happen. Apparently in Hong Kong, you cannot be late for you wedding time slot as the Registry runs on a very tight schedule and if you are more than 10 minutes late you miss out. As it was the happy couple were rushed thru the whole process with barly time to catch their breath. Another thing, make sure your wittnesses bring their passport or ID card as they will be needed, as it turns out I the photographer ended up being one of the wittnesses and when the ceremony was starting the Magristrate said for me to sit at the table, someone had to sit in for me and then I had to sign the marriage license. All in all it was a fun light ceremony and the rush job did nothing to diminish the couples enjoyment of the event. They were one of these couples so clearly in love that nothing would have spoiled the day. And as luck would have it, once the ceremony was over and everyone went outside, the rain had all but stopped. So then on to pictures in the park by the waterfall…
After pictures in the park the 50-60 guests were all bussed up to the Peak Lookout Restaurant for a lovely sit down luncheon… Wow do they ever have the best Tira Misu in the world…

(f4.5 @250 ISO 200 Lens Canon 35-350 L)
On Saturday the 20th of May we photographed the Shek O Open Water Race. About 70 swimmers competed in the event which saw them swim from Big Wave Bay to Skek O back beach. The winning time for the 2.2km race was 26 minutes 6 seconds by Hong Kong’s top triathalete Daniel Lee Chi-wo… As open water swimming has just been added to the Beijing Olympics there was a fair bit of media coverage of the event.
After the race, athletes and specators enjoyed beach volley ball, beach dash running race and dance performance by the Hong Kong Youth Outreach Program. Thankfully the rain held off and the party continued into the eveing with DJ Antoine spinning on the decks… A very nice day out…
AQUAFEST – Hong Kong Open Water Swimming Race

Lighthouse Resources – Course schedule for the Spring term’s computer classes is finally out. Apologies for the delay.

These courses are run by Sleiman Mattar and are very well received, if you are interested it is advisable to sign up early as some of the courses fill up quickly… Happy Learning.

Course Titles and Dates for Spring Term 2006

Microsoft Powerpoint For Beginners

Introduction To Website Design With Frontpage

Introduction To Website Design With Dreamweaver

Introduction To Photoshop

Photoshop Workshop: Portraits

Spreadsheets With Microsoft Excel

Introduction to Microsoft Word

Improving Microsoft Word Skills

(f 5.6 @ 1/500 ISO 100 Lens Sigma 24-135)
After weeks and weeks of saying to each other we have to go fly the kite, we finally got over to Lamma island on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. First we headed to the Man Kee Restrauant in Yung Shue Wan, for some of those tasty fish and chips, yes they are still as good as… Then we hiked up the hill to the Lamma Winds Turbine Wind Turbine…

(f 5.6 @ 1/500 ISO 100 Lens Sigma 24-135)
The project is now finished and there is a little park and interpretation center at the bottom of the giant 71m wind turbine. It is so cool to be standing below the thing as it swishes around and around. It being quite a windy day the turbine was turning at quite a pace. We then headed south along the brush trail heading toward the south end of the island. On the next hill over from the Turbine, Ju says to me, “why can’t we fly here its quite windy”. And what a good idea it was, a good wind was blowing and we got to fly our kite on a hill overlooking the lamma channel. What a beautiful day…
(f 5.6 @ 1/500 ISO 100 Lens Sigma 24-135)

We just finished a job for Alshahzadi Persian Carpet Gallery. As part of the deal we are the proud new owners of a fine Afgani carpet… I think it is magic!!!

Alshahzadi has an amazing selection of the finest carpets. All are hand made some very old. If you are looking for an investment you can walk on, check them out. 265 Queen’s Road East. Tel: 2834 8396

To shoot these carpets we had to come up with a plan. In the end we worked out that if we laid a roll of white paper on the ground in the street and then shot down from the third floor balcony we would get the desired result. The problem is that we didn’t want to have any perspective distortion. So shooting down on them with a 300mm lens did the trick very nicely…

(f5.6 @ 125 ISO 100 Lens Canon 35-350L)
A couple of weeks ago we went down to the Kowloon Typhoon shelter on a photo safari, we commissioned a sampan to take us on a little cruise around the typhoon shelter. As we were sailing past all the container barges, cranes and other assorted vessels we spotted some herons or cranes, what ever this bird is I don’t know, but as it took off I tracked it with my camera and somehow managed to lock the focus on and get one shot off. This is an amazing shot if you look closely the tip of the wing is in perfect focus and you can see the detail in the feathers. Anyone in Hong Kong will instantly recognise the background as being a container barge…
One of my very favorite shots this year… so far…

(f 5.6 @ 1/60sec ISO100 – Lens Canon 35-350L)
Sai Yeung Toi Street, Mong Kok, Hong Kong. Also known as the goldfish market. Hundreds of fish in plastic bags waiting to go to someones tank. As is always the case in Hong Kong, thousands of people out shopping on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow the Flower market…

If you are looking for an image of Hong Kong, maybe a picture of Victoria Peak, or the IFC2 (Hong Kong’s Tallest Structure), or maybe Mickey Mouse at Hong Kong Disneyland. You can try the vast selection at Alamy Images. They are open 24 hours, well it is a completly automated web site so you can search from 4.9 million images by keyword and description. Once you have found your selection you can easily pay for it and then it downloads instantly. Alamy is great in that you will find images that are not available in the big commercial stock agencies. This is because Alamy does not edit the pictures for editorial content. They allow the photographers to contribute any image they want as long as it meets their very strict technical requirements. So next time you are looking for some Hong Kong Stock Photos click on over to Alamy…
You’ll be glad you did…