In the film the Tai Pak is in fact supposed to be a large floating massage parlour with Belmondo entering the place before the movie cuts top a very obvious studio set of a massage room and lots of baby powder flying around the place. However, we get some nice views of the exterior.
Above - the Sea Palace
The shape and decor of the Tai Pak has only changed twice in the whole time it's been in service (the original, as seen here, was moved to Castle Peak Bay in the early 1960's and was replaced by the version above. The Sea Palace is a bit more of an enigma though and I have seen various versions online and even throughout the films featured on this blog. I have no idea if it was the same basic structure that was modified or whether completely new ones were brought in as replacements. I suspect the former. It may be a good subject for a future blog post...
3 comments:
The Sea Palace is an interesting topic,too. I've devoted an album of my Flickr page to the Tai Pak, but studying the changes in the Sea Palace has me intrigued now.
it seems as though the Tai Pak and Jumbo get all the glory from the various floating restaurants. I can't even seem to pin down the date when the Sea palace was withdrawn and reports of it going to various places seem unsubstantiated. Like the Tai Pak, there seem to have been several versions over the years. There was also the smaller and less extravagant "Yue Lei Tai"(?) which can be seen in many photos but never gets a mention (I can't even remember if that was the name...). Phil
I have several slides and postcards of the Sea Palace coming soon-I'll put them on my page. Unlike the Tai Pak, where they built a whole new boat and replaced the old one, it looks like the owners of the Sea Palace had a new boat made, and attached it to the old one in Aberdeen, making it much, much larger.
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