The Search For “Club Obi Wan” in Macau

Posted on August 11, 2017 by tokyofox

Things have rarely gone smoothly when it comes to hunting down filming locations from the Indiana Jones franchise. I ran out of time to go to Kairouan in Tunisia which was used to represent Cairo in ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark‘ (1981). As much as I tried to locate the “Sankara Stone Shrine” of “Mayapur Village” in Sri Lanka I just couldn’t find the exact spots. When I went to Royal Cultural Hall in Westminster (London) it was closed so I never got to see the interiors which doubled up as Berlin Airport in ‘Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade‘ (1989). The Treasury in Petra (Jordan) may have been easy to locate (it is a world heritage site after all!) but I failed to ascend the rocks in the right place and missed out on the view looking down on the Treasury which featured in the film. The Venice church where Indy finds an important clue was eventually found but it took a while as I lost my way many times among the maze of canals and alleyways in the city of water.

It will therefore come as no surprise that my time in Macau didn’t go as well as hoped  either. In ‘Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom‘ (1984) this Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China is the location for the “Shanghai” car chase following Indy (Harrison Ford) and Co’s escape from Club Obi Wan as their vehicle (driven by Short Round) is pursued by villain Lao Che (Roy Chiao) and his henchmen.

After leaving the Ruins Of The Church Of St. Paul, I headed towards the coast passing the Hong Kung Temple and thought I was easily on track to locate a couple of other Indy locales first. However Continue reading →

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Macau Filming Locations: Johnny English Reborn (2011)

Posted on August 8, 2017 by tokyofox

There have been a fair few spy spoofs over the years and whilst the likes of Austin Powers usually gets a lot of recognition, this comedy vehicle for Rowan Atkinson is not as fondly remembered. Not by me though as I have affectionate memories of watching the original one in a German cinema whilst I was living and working in Hamburg in 2003. Even though I enjoyed it, I was still very surprised to see it return for a sequel eight years later.

Like its predecessor, much of ‘Johnny English Reborn‘ is set in England but there’s a slightly Asian flavour to this one starting off in Tibet at a monastery (most likely a mock-up back in the studio) where he’s been honing his skills following a botched mission in Mozambique. However, he is summoned by MI7 when his agency superiors learn of an attempt against the Chinese premier’s life. Scenes in Macau and Hong Kong soon follow.

 

The Grand Lisboa Casino is seen in all its elaborative tackiness as Continue reading →

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The Best of the Rest of our time in Hong Kong

Posted on August 5, 2017 by tokyofox

The main reason for this latest trip of ours was to see Leicester play in the Premier League Asia Trophy but that made up only a fraction of our time in the Hong Kong. There was plenty of other time for other things and here are the details of what we ate and did that wasn’t in the previous four posts in the Hong Kong 2017 series. In order to get the tickets for that match we had arranged to meet up with Cat who was someone I had never actually met before but had communicated with a fair bit on Twitter. We didn’t just exchange tickets and money though as we’d agreed to have some dinner and drinks too at a couple of places in the Wan Chai area including an English bar called Trafalgar.

 

That was on our first evening in Hong Kong following our Continue reading →

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Getting Arty in Hong Kong

Posted on August 2, 2017 by tokyofox

On the face of it these stacked apartments are just part of yet another high-rise building in a densely populated region. However, there’s something fascinating, and indeed beautiful about their style and imperfection. Such sights are probably oblivious to many of the seven million people who live in Hong Kong but they have become very popular stops for tourists hoping to capture an arty picture for social media. I have no real photographic talent but tried my best to capture some interesting shots of this place which is known as Continue reading →

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A Daytrip by Ship to Macau from Hong Kong

Posted on July 29, 2017 by tokyofox

What does one do on a trip to Hong Kong having already visited twice before and done most of the important sights? Of course there’s plenty of places in the New Territories and Outlying Islands areas which I’ve never been to but I chose to leave Hong Kong and head 65 kilometres west to Macau.

 

To be honest, I’d never really had any interest in visiting Macau as I’m not Continue reading →

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Live from Hong Kong in the Early Hours on BBC Radio Leicester

Posted on July 26, 2017 by tokyofox

To my knowledge, Leicester had only played two games in Asia (both in Bangkok) ahead of the Premier League Asia Trophy in Hong Kong. No doubt a few others had been to both of them but the only person I know to have seen the matches against the Thailand national team (2010) and Everton (2014) is the BBC Radio Leicester commentator Ian Stringer. I was keen to know if he’d be heading to Asia again to work on this pre-season tournament so I asked him as soon as my boss had granted time off work to attend it.

 

He wasn’t too sure at that time but messaged me a few weeks later saying that he would Continue reading →

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Watching Leicester in the Premier League Asia Trophy in Hong Kong

Posted on July 23, 2017 by tokyofox

 

As soon as it was rumoured that Leicester would be taking part in the Premier League Asia Trophy in Hong Kong in July I set about making plans to take time off work and get tickets for the first set of matches in this tournament which runs every two years. Funnily enough I’d told a friend just a few days earlier that I wasn’t interested in watching a friendly match ever again as I’d seen enough of them to last a lifetime. Those words were undone in a matter of moments but this was different as it was the chance to see my boys in Asia. Continue reading →

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Dining Out: 10 Yen Sushi In Tokyo!

Posted on July 20, 2017 by tokyofox

When it comes to Japan’s most famous dish, I have to admit that I’m a man of simple pleasure and taste. I’m just as happy with the cheap family-style places (and all their bastardised sushi plates!) as I am with the more sophisticated places serving up the more traditional style. Sure, I can tell the difference between them but not enough to justify paying the vast difference in price.

The cheapest of the chain restaurants offer plates of sushi for ¥90 (2 pieces) on weekdays and there are standing sushi bars selling plates (1 piece) for ¥70, possibly even ¥50. However, a few months ago a friend sent me this video from YouTuber Charlyjapan who makes short two minute movies about daily life in Japan. He vlogged about a place where one can purchase sushi for as little as ¥10!

 

Keen to check this place out, Scottish Neil, Jack (a.k.a. Rambling Northerner) and I decided to pay it a visit after we had finished Continue reading →

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Sri Lanka Filming Locations: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Posted on July 17, 2017 by tokyofox

This Oscar-winning epic is part of movie folklore and widely considered to be one of the greatest films ever so I really wanted to see the area where director David Lean shot it way back in 1957. It was filmed in Kitulgala which is 60 kilometres south-west from Kandy and Colombo is nearly 100 kilometres west of there. It would be a long detour and a much more expensive one too when compared to simply taking a train between the two aforementioned cities. It was a now or never situation though so we went for it.

     

The Plantation Hotel in Kitulgala has a couple of framed pictures relating to the movie in the hotel (below). That was our starting point for this adventure and from there we had to walk about a kilometre up the road (in the direction of Adam’s Peak) to find Continue reading →

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Sri Lanka Pt V: Colombo

Posted on July 14, 2017 by tokyofox

The capital city of Colombo is one that many travellers to Sri Lanka often ignore or visit for nothing more than a night before moving on to far more interesting places. We did likewise when we arrived in the country and headed straight off for Kandy but my wife (for some reason!) was keen to visit Colombo and so we actually spent our last 48 hours in the country there following our detour via Kitulgala where I went to the main location in the filming of ‘The Bridge On The River Kwai‘ (1957).

 

Having been dropped off by our driver Rath in the evening we set out the next morning to the markets of Pettah by local bus. After walking around a bit we finally stumbled upon a place called Nawagiri Hotel which is definitely not an accommodation provider of any sort but Continue reading →

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