Hong Kong

Last week I was in Hong Kong for 4 days. I was there to attend Sibos2009 event.

Hong Kong has a terrible weather, humidity is too high, during my visit tempature was always above 30 and Humidity was %95 sometimes!

All buidings, event the smallest groceries shop have strong air conditioners which make interiors fairly cold but when you step outside a building a hot and thick weather just slaps on your face, it was terrible.

I also witnessed a typhoon, in fact I was inside so i did not witness anything literally.But there were typhoon alerts everywhere and also all TVs were mentioning about it. The day when typhoon occured when I got into my room I found a note from hotel management saying something like : There is a typhoon alert but there is not much to worry typhoons occur frequently in Hong Kong and they pass away just stay away from your window and keep your windows closed :)

I stayed at JW Mariott Hotel which I can mention with good impressions.The service quality was nice , staff was kind and helpful. It was near Admirality metro station which is the central place in Hong Kong island.


About the Hong Kong city...hmm...I did not like the city very much, there is not much to talk about, every where is full of skyscapers and they are build very close which makes them even boring. Even in very central districs there are ruined places and small dirty shops just a few steps from those tall buildings.


I should say that Hong Kong people are generally kind, willing to help and know to smile[none of these apply for Russians but I still like Russia better:)]

Also few words for Sibos organization...it was very well managed, Hong Kongers know how to do this stuff. There were people to assist the attending people everywhere, in many of central places. There were Sibos desks in many of the big events.Even there was a special passport check station at the HK International airport for people attending Sibos when entering the country.6 stars over 5!

Agoniya-Rasputin(1981)

I have downloaded this film from http://www.foriegnmoviesddl.com but unfortunately it was so boring that I could not advance to the second CD. IMDB point is surprisingly high as 6.9.

Kizil Babalar, Sovyetler'de Mafya (1991)

Although the book's title is Mafia in the Soviets it does not mention the Godfathers in the sense we understand. The author claims that Soviet mafia system is different than its western counterpart.Mafia is a civil organization bribing police and poiticians and stealing from people in western countries while in the Soviet Union mafia is characterized as a state organization. I mean higher ranking state officials steal from the state!.The author even claims that the system forces even honest people to the dark side, to steal from the state.

Another book on political corruption on the soviet union, special events on Brejnev era are worth reading.

Lilja 4-ever (2002)

I have downloaded this movie sometime ago,but was down on my list then I saw Stilyagi and leart that the pretty main actress was also the star of this movie, Lilja 4-Ever so I decided to bring it to an upper position on my list.

I am glad I did so it is a very nice movie with a sad theme.Here is the summary of IMDB "Lilja is 16 years old. Her only friend is the young boy Volodja. They live in a poor village in Estonia, fantasizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej. He is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life...."

Ben Bir Isik Ariyordum(1962)

Memoirs of a Kazan Turk born in today's Tataristan.The memoirs start during the Civil War era, just before the revolution, he went thought very troubling times... you might read this book as a thriller, an adventure book.

What is interesting is todays politically corrupted Russia, being able to solve all problems by offering money to the officials existed long before Soviet days...it is not a side effect/remains of Soviet system but Russian way of doing things:)

Details of the book can be seen here

Vozvrashcheniye - The Return (2003)

Another sample of boring movie with many awards. The movie has 28 wins and another 12 nominations,see IMBD for details, by the way IMDB point is 8.1 with 10 thousand votes, i don't know why.This film is simply boring, i did not get its message.

The Rise and Fall Of the Russian Oligarks

This two part nice documentary tells the story of Russian oligarks, how they became rich and powerful during Yeltsin era, with their own words most of the time.And how they lost part of their wealth and power during Putin period.Very nice material with some historical footage from 90s Russia.
It is also available on Google Video.

Kızıl Yıldızdan Hilale Haydar Aliyev'in Fırtınalı Hayatı

As the book title implies, the book is the life story of Haydar Aliev, second president of Azerbaycan Republic.The author mush have really tried hard to make this a book :) There is nearly no information in it,the book contains the longest preface i've ever seen in a book.

In fact the book has only one paragraph to say "Aliev raised to power with great help from Yuri Adropov and fall from power due to conflicts with Gorbachev" and Aliev is a good man.

That is all, you can not find any valuable info about his days in Politburo[he was a full member for a very long time] or his relationships with Turkey, power strugge with Elcibey, the Armenian wars...so little.

So they made a book out of a what otherwise would be a few pages booklet.Do not waste money on this.

This book made me wonder on Aliyev's life story.I will find a better book and read his life soon.

Pera'dan Beyoglu'na

This book is one of the unknown treasures.The book tells the story of buildings[houses,hotels,state buildings] including the history, achitectural properties, famous peoples lived there once....on the Tunel-Taksim path
The author is so succesfull that the book is very fun and fluent to read.

Same author also as another book,Son Istasyon Venedik where he tells his interrail memoirs but unfortunately I could not find it anywhere...

The Red Stuff - The True Story of the Russian Race for Space (2002)

Yet another unfamous but very nice documentary. The Red Stuff tells the story of Soviet Space Program. This is very unique and valuable since all documents on this subject deal with Sputnik,Soyuz and Gagarin. This documentary tells the story of other cosmonauts with nice soviet archieve footage and interviews with people who REALLY went to space.

See DVD info on amazon.com or on IMDB.
There is another documentary on Soviet Space Program named "Red Star in Orbit" which I mentioned here.