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First ride on China's historic Shanghai-Beijing high-speed train
Japanese turn sex doll into dental-training robot
Weirdest travel stories of the month
Qantas engineers vow to strike
十大城市，百大免費景點
Bettys Kitschen：出得廳堂，卻未入得廚房
Top 10 Hong Kong restaurant trends
Bajau Laut: Gypsies of the sea
How love survives in the world's least romantic city
15 sights that make Tokyo so fascinating

First ride on China's historic Shanghai-Beijing high-speed train

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 11:51 PM PDT

Thursday, June 30, 2011. This day is big. The Shanghai-Beijing high-speed rail line is about to begin official operations.

The event is so historic for China that, according to reports in the local media, most tickets for the first train out of Beijing South Railway Station were sold out within 10 minutes of going on sale.

Man, do I feel good about snatching two tickets -- one for the fiancé and one for me -- to became the first exapt ticket buyer in the high-speed rail line's history.

I had to get the tickets. I have been waiting for this journey for four years.

Japanese turn sex doll into dental-training robot

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 10:26 PM PDT

Tokyo frequently presents a story that's borderline fiction -- sex dolls for cavity-filling practice, puhlease -- but the pedigree of the new Hanako Showa 2 dental training robot tells us this is no product of a fevered imagination.

We previously saw big sister, plain Jane Hanako Showa, in early 2010, noting that the synthetic patient was being used in the Showa University dental school for more than simple caries-evacuation practice on her plumbed-in dentures.

Weirdest travel stories of the month

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 08:53 PM PDT

We all have a few wacky travel stories up our sleeves. But June was a particularly good month for tales of travel eccentricities.

1. Pilot vs. ugly flight attendants

A pilot from Southwest Airline accidentally broadcast a rant about gay people and older flight attendants over an air traffic control radio frequency in March this year.

The incident was reported last week by KPRC-TV in Houston.

The pilot was talking to another member of the crew and didn't realize the conversation was being broadcast until an air-traffic controller in Houston told him to check if his microphone was stuck open.

Qantas engineers vow to strike

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 06:13 PM PDT

Unless the airline unexpectedly meets demands to raise pay and make other concessions to its 1,600 engineers, Qantas flight schedules around the country will likely be disrupted next week when hundreds of those engineers walk off the job.

Qantas has vowed to minimize the effects of the threatened strike action by flying Boeing 767 planes (larger than it normally flies for many routes) and consolidating schedules of affected routes.

The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) cancelled a strike in May, but this time their resolve is clear: they will roll out two-hour strikes next week in Melbourne on July 4, Perth on July 5 and Brisbane on July 6.

十大城市，百大免費景點

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 05:09 PM PDT

有發現免費的享受總是更勝一籌嗎？賞遍世界精華不一定要花光身家的。

接下來跟大家分享全球十大最佳旅遊目的地之十大精彩景點，完全免費。

不妨逐一細閱，或點擊以下圖片直接「登陸」個別城市。

Bettys Kitschen：出得廳堂，卻未入得廚房

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 05:02 PM PDT

Bettys Kitschen 看來是丘德威全心投入餐飲事業的另一投資。

在香港出生，以倫敦為基地的餐館老板，擅長以西方口味包裝亞洲菜式，因而享負盛名。

他的米芝蓮星級食肆客家人和丘記茶苑膾炙英倫人口, 而日式連鎖麵店 Wagamama 更幾乎是日本拉麵的代名詞。

2006 年獲英女皇頒 OBE 勳銜以表揚他在餐飲業的成就後，他大可以安享其成。然而，他決定挑戰自己。

不再在西方城市開設他最擅長的亞洲餐館，而是反過來在港開設歐陸餐廳。從 Bettys Kitschen 這個項目中，隱約看出他還未發揮出其最大才能。

Bettys Kitschen 門口位置的多層高身木架上放滿羅勒香草和色彩繽紛的蔬果，感覺新鮮，清香滿店。

裝修跟一般咖啡茶座不同，別緻的餐桌上鋪著純白色的桌布，並以特色燈飾作照明。

Top 10 Hong Kong restaurant trends

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 03:00 PM PDT

Hong Kong has long billed itself as the culinary capital of Asia. It's a subjective boast that is rooted largely in the fact that in past generations, the Cantonese diaspora blanketed the globe so comprehensively and with such speed that Cantonese cuisine in some shape or form came to exist in every single far-flung corner of the globe.

Hong Kong, as the hub of this culinary wheel, capitalized on the newfound prominence of its cuisine and offered it in its purest form, from the thrill of the dai pai dong to the opulence of the cavernous dim sum hall.

Bajau Laut: Gypsies of the sea

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 03:00 PM PDT

I'm in the southeastern Borneo town of Semporna, the gateway to the paradise islands of Sipadan, Mabul and many others, all of which are great diving spots.

But I'm not here to swim in the crystal clear ocean.

I'm here to visit the Bajau Laut settlement built on stilts over the Celebes Sea.

Originally hailing from the southern Philippines, these seafaring gypsies have migrated south over the last few decades to the Malaysian state of Sabah and onto islands in Indonesia.

They make up around 13 percent of the total population in Sabah, and their numbers around the world are currently estimated at 400,000.

How love survives in the world's least romantic city

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 02:58 PM PDT

On the tip of leafy Malabar Hill, with a sweeping view of the Queen's Necklace and the sea, once sat Naaz Café. A rickety greasy spoon and a big draw for courting couples of 1960s Mumbai.

Romantic and picture-perfect as Naaz Café was, the rumor went that no affair conducted there ever fructified. The jinx was self-defeating. The café was erased and a water tank constructed in its place.

There are cities that seem made for lovers. Mumbai is not one of them.

Tar-lined highways, dusty taxis, seedy cafes and tacky beachfront hotels -- the Mumbai lover has made these his natural habitat and home.

Where else?

15 sights that make Tokyo so fascinating

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 02:55 PM PDT

Let us count the ways Japan's capital city engages, puzzles and bewitches

1. The salaryman

He was the ultimate symbol of the country's robust economy during the bubble era, but lately he's become something more of a weary corporate drone -- perhaps an apt representative of the state of the Japanese economy now.

Swarming through Tokyo's jam-packed rush-hour train stations in their anonymous black suits, it's the Japanese salarymen's (or salaried workers') characteristic diligence, loyalty, obedience to authority and strong emotional ties with fellow coworkers, that allowed corporate Japan to flourish in the best of times.