tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102735452024-03-07T22:13:58.173-08:00Above a chinese restaurantAlex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-30048854632355312642007-01-14T09:56:00.001-08:002007-01-14T09:58:53.351-08:00It's Sunday, 9am and I am back in San Francisco, IMG_2301.5.jpg Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. re-adjusting to civilian life. I've unpacked most of my stuff, done the world's largest load of laundry, started organizing photos and videos, caught up on my sleep and ventured a few times into the "real world," for groceries, a haircut and dinner at Scott and Joe's. I have tomorrow off, but go back to work on Tuesday. UuuughAlex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-79452930888544621672007-01-14T09:36:00.001-08:002007-01-14T09:36:01.963-08:00Today's Daily Evil Baboon shot IMG_2379.JPG Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. On our trip, we joked a lot about how michievious, naughty, wicked, goofy, funny, human-like the baboons were. But it sends a bit of a chill down your spine when you see one actually trying to break into a car using two inch long canine teeth. We read in the paper, while in Cape Town, a story about a five year old girl attacked Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-35580649549600238312007-01-14T09:27:00.001-08:002007-01-14T09:27:55.872-08:00At the ol' mud hole IMG_1729.JPG Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. In Chobe National Park in Botswana, the last wildlife stop on our safari, we encountered a giant heard of elephants (fifty? sixty?) playing in the mud. This shot shows a youngster getting cool in the ol' mud hole. We watched them for about thirty minutes, shooting pics and video, as some weren't just rolling around but a few Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-22602841514847778452007-01-13T17:12:00.001-08:002007-01-13T17:12:59.911-08:00The Hong Kong Monetary Authority building IMG_2541.JPG Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. Scott says that four of the top ten tallest buildings in the world are in Hong Kong. He has to be right. It was surreal walking around at night. Not only were they externally lit to the top in creative multicolor fashion, but they were also still very much occupied late into the night. Floors were bright with lights with people Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-77514808237186516462007-01-13T17:04:00.001-08:002007-01-13T17:04:43.921-08:00At our table at Aqua IMG_0060.JPG Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. The moody, evocative lighting, the sensory-stimulating, tactical design to the furniture, and view-from-every seat layout of this multi-tiered restaurant Aqua (thanks for the lead on this place, Mister Castanon!) was spectacular. It was perched on top floor of a towering shkyscraper with floor to ceiling windows at least three Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-78092706322728352502007-01-13T16:56:00.001-08:002007-01-13T16:56:09.416-08:00a view of the Hong Kong Skyline IMG_0063.JPG Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. From our table at the restaurant Aqua, we had a spectacular view. This is looking back across the harbour at Hong Kong from the restaurant which was in Kowloon. (Scott took me out for a fabulous dinner for my 37th birthday...)Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-39070701967287499752007-01-13T16:52:00.001-08:002007-01-13T16:52:20.451-08:00That's smog. Not precipitation. IMG_2597.JPG Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. This is the view from the funicular as we climbed the hillside to the peak. Rising higher and higher above the Hong Kong island's towering skyscrapers, we could see Kowloon on the otherside of the harbour. Our hotel, the Hotel Nikko is on the point opposite, a little over midway up the photo, and about halfway across the photo Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-66282331992267363522007-01-13T16:48:00.001-08:002007-01-13T16:48:12.400-08:00Onboard the Peak Tram IMG_2588.JPG Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. Taking the funicular to the top of the Peak on Hong Kong was a trippy experience. A rail car, pulled up a steep STEEP hill by cable, afforded a spectacular view. (When I say steep, imagine if the NYC subway, or BART for that matter climbed from station to station at a 45 degree incline. The whole way!) As we rose above the Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-36575063578058629572007-01-13T16:40:00.001-08:002007-01-13T16:40:38.554-08:00Beer. Noodles. And attentive service. IMG_2550.JPG Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. Not far from this little outdoor bar near our hotel, (which served fantastic noodles and fried rice, by the way,) late in the evening, I was approached by an attractive, well dressed older women leading a gang of comely young lasses who stealthily locked her arm into mine, and walked with me as I crossed the plaza. She kindly Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-19739424410212900482007-01-13T16:29:00.001-08:002007-01-13T16:29:36.720-08:00Isn't it time for our eleventh meal of the day? IMG_0084.JPG Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. Isn't this just what you expect to be hanging in a window in Hong Kong? But it's a lot cleaner than I expected. I'd actually eat here. (You know my issues: Food. Cleanliness. Coming together as one...) Everywhere we looked, there were a million places to eat. Do these people ever cook at home? I guess not. Like NYC, no one has Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-43906311682217436832007-01-13T16:20:00.001-08:002007-01-13T16:20:00.674-08:00Hong Kong: A stop along the way home from Africa IMG_0004.JPG Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. The busting streets of Kowloon (the part of Hong Kong attached to the mainland, where were staying,) typefied the Hong Kong experience we imagined from the movies. Streets teeming with millions of Chinese, packed with cars, taxis mostly (they're all the same, red with grey tops, Toyotas,) illuminated at night by an overwhelming Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-10219060668165691302007-01-13T15:57:00.001-08:002007-01-13T15:57:42.177-08:00Scott on Table Mountain, Robben Island in distance IMG_2578 Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-86062902795371466452007-01-13T15:56:00.001-08:002007-01-13T15:56:27.546-08:00Tram to Table Mountain IMG_2489 Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. We spent our last morning in Cape Town touring Table Mountain, the massive flat topped rock looming above the city of Cape Town. (There are, in addition, two other mountains, Signal Hill and Lion's Head as well as a series of smaller mountains, The Twelve Apostles, that make up the rocky landscape of the Cape.) They've been running Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-11676262025426070542007-01-13T15:43:00.001-08:002007-01-13T15:43:42.622-08:00Blinded by the light (of my pale white goose flesh...) IMG_0754 Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-37537586976888843802007-01-13T15:42:00.001-08:002007-01-13T15:42:18.270-08:00Clifton's beaches IMG_0826 Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. Clifton, a beautiful seaside neighborhood in Cape Town with million dollar homes and million dollar views, boast four great beaches. The first one is the largest one with vollyball courts, etc. The second one is supposedly where the wealthy model types hangout, the fourth one is massive, where families go and play paddle ball, thow Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-43761922616222950972007-01-13T15:32:00.001-08:002007-01-13T15:32:10.466-08:00On the deck of the Tigress catamaran IMG_2291.5 Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-38181132401214583752007-01-13T15:31:00.001-08:002007-01-13T15:31:16.191-08:00Sunset cruise in Cape Town IMG_2304 Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. We shot this from the deck of a catamaran in Table Bay as we headed out on our sunset cruise. Drinking champagne and snapping photos, our tour took us past Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years) and out to the chilly waters of the Atlantic. Looking back on the city of Cape Town, with its glittering city Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-50795710564066548762007-01-13T15:22:00.001-08:002007-01-13T15:22:03.384-08:00Mesmorized by majesty IMG_1899 Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. Victoria Falls was pretty spectacular. (The only thing of note in Zimbabwe...unless you include the astronomical and soaring inflation.) Here, the Zambezi river, after meandering through Zambia, spills over these falls into an enormous gorge that's split across the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. This natural wonder (one of the 7 of Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-16809877067652542702007-01-13T15:12:00.001-08:002007-01-13T15:12:15.906-08:00Sheeps heads. Roasted. And for sale in the township. IMG_2184 Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-33637634781121358992007-01-13T15:10:00.001-08:002007-01-13T15:10:51.709-08:00Typical tin shack in township IMG_2219 Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-59834126685928794772007-01-13T15:08:00.001-08:002007-01-13T15:08:13.365-08:00The sad legacy of apartheid manages a smile IMG_2267 Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. On our township tour, we met a lot of people with smiles on their face---pretty surprising as they lived in squalor. Most are unemployed. And stuck in horrific and cruel conditions. Set up by the ruling white minority government many decades ago. South Africa's post-apatheid challenge is massive: 35% unemployement, a 20% HIV Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-14189238824448456042007-01-13T13:57:00.001-08:002007-01-13T13:57:41.024-08:00Zebras of the Saint Lucia Wetlands. Beautiful. Docile. Hungry. IMG_2015 Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. When we were in Kwa Zulu Natal, over the New Year's weekend, we took a drive from St. Lucia where we were staying at the fab Amazulu Lodge, up to Cape Vidal, a beautiful beach on the Indian Ocean, we passed, along the way, these Zebra. They were part of a much larger herd but these two, a mom and baby I am guessing, were grazing not Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-1168723835860677862007-01-13T13:29:00.000-08:002007-01-13T13:30:35.953-08:00Jon Jacobs: My Cape Town "tour guide." IMG_2498.JPG Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. Here's Jon. A really sweet Brit who toured me around Cape Town. I met Jon on Scott's and my first night in Cape Town. After a driving tour past Signal Hill, Table Mountain, Camp's Bay and Clifton, Scott and I did a tour of Cape Town's "gay village" starting at Manhattan's, a popular restaurant/patio bar hangout. Unfortunately, Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-1168718857889399202007-01-13T12:06:00.000-08:002007-01-13T12:07:37.943-08:00A leopard in Moremi Game Reserve IMG_1491.JPG Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. We spotted this leopard (one of the big five) midway through our safari. On our morning game drive, our guide had gotten a tip from some other guides that a leopard was in the vicinity so off we were on a chase. (That's how a lot of our unique sightings worked. A tip passed on from someone else.) tearing down a pot-hole strewn Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10273545.post-1168315796338844022007-01-08T20:08:00.000-08:002007-01-08T20:09:56.343-08:00Scott and I at The Cape of Good Hope IMG_2416 Originally uploaded by alexanderdavidgrossman. Alex Grossmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10477893855212885996noreply@blogger.com0