Hong Kong - An Experience
Wow.... I am really terrible at keeping this thing updated! I always make a vow to do it a bit more often, but that vow always goes by the wayside. Hopefully this time I can be a little more consistent, but I'm not making any promises!
The last time I checked in here I had just taken a new job at SoonChunHyang University and posted about my process moving to a new city. I guess I'm happy to report that I am still at SCH and have officially signed a new contract, so I'll be sticking around for at least one more year! Yay to that!
All is good on the work front. I am currently on summer vacation until September. Which should mean that I have time to blog a bit more, but we'll see what happens. Well, I say I am on summer vacation, but I have volunteered to take on a summer class for adults in Onyang. This class meets twice a week and is basically a discussion class. The students are pretty advanced with speaking English, so I usually struggle and stress myself out a bit trying to find activities and topics to fill our 2 hour time slot. I feel like this week was a productive one; we had some pretty good discussions and even were able to laugh at a few jokes that the students made. I think it's a tell tale sign of how well you have a grasp of a second language when you can express and understand jokes, and some of my current students can tell some pretty funny zingers!
Anyways, back to summer vacation. Despite having this night class two times a week, I took it upon myself to book a short vacation to Hong Kong during the first week of July. If you guys follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may have seen some of my pictures. If not, I plan to share a bit more here for you guys. Bare with me because I'm afraid this will turn into a long post, which is usually typical me, but I didn't want it to be that way. However, I know you guys will be hanging on every word.... or you better be!!
Let's see, the trip started pretty normally for me. I woke up on Wednesday morning and packed my bag. There's nothing like waiting until the last minute to pack for a week long excursion, right? To top that off, the night before I had gone to Cantina for Taco Tuesday and spilled some green sauce on my shorts, so I had to do laundry. So, there I am, the morning of my flight hanging my shorts out of the window of my apartment so they can catch enough sun to be dry enough for me to wear to the airport. Plus, I am trying to fill my bag with the essentials for my trip. If you know me, you know how I like to pack.... I have to have an outfit for every day with a pair of accompanying shoes. So, that usually makes what should be a light pack into a massive one! Every time I pack, I always think of my dad standing in the living room with Susie and I.... I usually have like 6 different piles of clothes strewn about the living room, 2 suitcases opened and about 50 space saver bags. P.S. It's never enough and Edward usually stands in the corner and shakes his head.
Anyways, I get to the airport in a relatively uneventful fashion, which usually isn't my style. I feel like for it to be a normal trip for me, I have to have at least 1-2 awkward or stressful moments. Not this time I guess. The travel gods were smiling down on me that day.
I get to the airport, check-in, and find my way to the terminal for departure, pretty easily. Once, I'm there I remember that I haven't eaten anything and that my flight won't be landing in Hong Kong until after midnight. I'm not sure why I always do this, but I always assume that the post-security side of the airport will have just as many food options as the pre-security side. That's so untrue. So, now I'm on a mission to find something of sustenance to hold me over on my flight. I find a food court, take the escalator all the way up, just to find that everything has been closed for reconstruction..... except for the hot dog stand. Man, nothing screams WELCOME TO ASIA more than a nice juicy ballpark frank! Needless to say, I wasn't in the mood for a 'chili dog,' so I decided to find something else. However, the only other place I could find remotely close to my terminal gate was Dunkin' Donuts. Normally, I would be ecstatic about such a find, but not when I'm looking for something a little more "dinner-y." But just as luck would have it, this happened to be a fancy DD and they were offering chicken wraps and salads. Salads aren't really my thing, so I decided on a spicy chicken wrap.... Upon opening the package and consuming the first bite, I think the thing should have been called a mayonnaise wrap, because that's all I could see and taste! Ugh! I hate mayonnaise!
You know, out of the traveling I've done, my favorite parts are always the people watching at the airport. Some really bizarre people pass through those terminal gates every day, heck every hour even. It makes you wander if the TSA are really doing their job. Don't get me wrong, I think I would often fall into the "does not fly" category if I'm being completely honest. Anyways, I think equally as humorous and disheartening to seeing crazy people at the airport, is overhearing crazy people at the airport. I swear you can't make some of this stuff up!!! Now, as I sit with my mayonnaise wrap and Smurf shaped cup in hand, making a significant dent in both, a man walks up and sits in the row of chairs behind me. At this point, both of us are about 1.5 to 2 hours early for our boarding time, so all we have to do is sit there and mind our own biscuits, but lucky for me, and you, that's completely impossible for me to do! So, he sits there a bit and then decides he wants to have a Skype conversation with a loved one. I'm all for keeping connected, but I was a little shocked to hear his topic of conversation. Keep in mind, I have no idea what is being said to the man from the other side, I only have what I heard and eventually saw to go off of. His conversation starts off pretty normally, but eventually takes a turn towards erotica. I try to ignore most of the stuff people say in private conversations, but there are keywords that make your ears perk up like a dog... and this guy mentioned at least 2 of those words within about 60 seconds of one other. When that happened, I was fully engaged in what was happening on his screen. Now, my memory fails me too much to be completely accurate as to what he said exactly, but I know he mentioned that the woman he was speaking with was going to miss him while he was gone.... AND that in order to cope with her "longing" for him she should pleasure herself...... with.... her..... "toy" for a lack of a better term. He also threw in a few "nipples" and "panties" into the conversation at some point. But at that point, those words has become irrelevant because I had already focused in on the previous "keyword." Now, I'm not one to usually have such types of conversations, in public places at least, but I feel that once someone around me has acknowledged what is going on, I would probably wrap it up (no pun intended). He didn't seem phased by the fact that I had made myself, and my look of shock and amazement, visible in his tiny screen several times. He kept up his conversation until a few more people started to sit down around us.... I hate to admit it, I was a bit sad to hear him say goodbye to the woman. It's funny how fast 2 hours passes when there is a live "romance novel" being played out in your ear.
The rest of my flight lacked a bit of excitement, which I guess looking back isn't so bad for a flight.... It seems the more exciting those get the scarier they seem to be. So, I guess I'm grateful that I made it to Hong Kong without a hiccup.
Once in Hong Kong, at 12:30 a.m., I had to find my way to my hostel that was located about 45 mins, by bus from the airport. Surprisingly, I made it to my hostel fairly easily. The only problem I really had, besides actually knowing where I was going on the bus, was not having correct change for the bus and losing about HK$10 because I had to pay with a 50. For some reason, I expected the bus to produce change for me, or at least the driver to do so, like they do here in Korea, but that wasn't the case. The driver just stared at me blankly and said "Causeway Bay? Ok! Thank you!"
Once I found my hostel and checked in, the lady escorted me to my room for the week. I never got the chance to take any pictures of the room; there were too many people in and out all day and I didn't want to seem creepy. Let's just say you guys aren't missing too much by not having pictures. I was placed in an 8-person dorm room for the week. Initially, the thought of this made me a bit uncomfortable, mostly because I snore, but after I thought about it, my snoring doesn't really ever keep me awake, so I went ahead and toughed it out. I know, I'm such a kind person! No, seriously I'm always self-conscious about sleeping around other people because I do snore, but I was on a budget and this place was cheap. In the end, the almighty dollar won!
Upon first glance, the room seems worth about what I paid for it (approximately $125 for 8 days). I feel it's always best to not set your expectations too high.... Well, once I reached the room it was about 2:30 in the morning. People, or my new dorm mates, were asleep, so I did my best not to disturb them. I quietly changed my clothes and climbed into my top bunk. I'll say I was asleep for maybe an hour and a half before I was woken by sounds of someone moving around the room. Being a bit uncertain as to why someone is making so much noise this early in the morning, I open my eyes to investigate the crime scene. What I find is that the man with whom I am sharing a bunk has awakened and is in hot pursuit of some food. He is currently in the kitchen rummaging through the refrigerator, making as much noise as absolutely possible. I think to myself that he is just getting something small, maybe some cheese, a cold drink of water, some fruit, and that he'll be back asleep, or at least in bed in a short time. Man, was I wrong!!! Rummaging through the fridge was just the beginning. After he has selected what he wanted from the miniature refrigerator, he proceeded to cook whatever the unknown item was. This involved him turning on the water to the kitchen sink FULL BLAST, banging a few dishes together, opening and slamming the microwave closed, pushing ALL the buttons to set the timer and then stumbling to the bathroom to wash his hands. This whole process, the hand washing, took about 12 minutes alone. You could hear him in the bathroom making splashing sounds in the sink as the water ran non-stop.... and occasionally he would let out some sort of tribal yell, in a language that I was not familiar with, that would make me practically jump out of my skin!! By the time he had finished cleansing himself and having a swim in the bathroom sink, he came back out to find that his food had gotten cold in the microwave, so of course he had to restart it by pushing all the buttons again! Once his food was to the temperature he desired, he took it over to the table. Oh yeah, the table is directly across from the bunkbed in which we are both supposed to be sleeping! At the table he officially sets up camp.... he puts his bowl of food down, takes out some bread and cracks open his laptop! The laptop didn't seem like such a problem at first, because I assumed he was just going to surf the web while he ate his food.... Again, I was wrong. For some strange reason, he felt it was necessary to call someone at 4:30 in the morning to catch up on all the latest gossip from his village. Again, I have no clue in which language this man was communicating.... I could only make out the English swear words he would so strategically sprinkle into his conversation. In addition, I don't think that he knows how to use a fork or spoon because between telling someone off in English and rattling off in his native tongue he would often pause to sop up some food from his bowl with a slice of bread, slurp up whatever liquid was in the bowl and chew as loud as humanly possible!! It didn't matter how many times me or the rest of the people trying to sleep huffed or puffed, he acted as if he didn't have a care in the world.... and then would swear in English! P.S. This same routine happened EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT!
Wow! What a rant that was! Can you tell I was a little bit annoyed by this guy!?
Anyways.... not only was this man up at all hours of the night, but the room I was staying in was not adequately air-conditioned. I'm not sure how many of you have been to Hong Kong, or even Southeast Asia, during the summertime, but it is one super humid place. The room we were in only had 2 small window units, maybe big enough to cool a bathroom stall, mounted on opposite sides of the room. The breeze from these things barely reached far enough to cool the knobs used to operate the machine. I kid you not, this room was so hot that the walls were sweating!! Yes, sweating!!! So, not only did we have a nocturnal crazy man with night hungers in our room, but we also had to sleep in what felt like a greenhouse testing facility in Death Valley.
I think that takes care of all the nonsense I had to deal with on the trip.... except for the cleaning lady who repeatedly yelled at me because I was sleeping on the couch instead of my bed. The couch was in front of the air-conditioner and it was slightly more cool than the surface of the sun, so it was a good place to set up camp whenever possible.
The rest of Hong Kong was pretty amazing. Thursday I devoted to walking around the Causeway Bay and Wan Chai areas, which is where my hostel was located. There were a few cool things to see in the area.
The last time I checked in here I had just taken a new job at SoonChunHyang University and posted about my process moving to a new city. I guess I'm happy to report that I am still at SCH and have officially signed a new contract, so I'll be sticking around for at least one more year! Yay to that!
All is good on the work front. I am currently on summer vacation until September. Which should mean that I have time to blog a bit more, but we'll see what happens. Well, I say I am on summer vacation, but I have volunteered to take on a summer class for adults in Onyang. This class meets twice a week and is basically a discussion class. The students are pretty advanced with speaking English, so I usually struggle and stress myself out a bit trying to find activities and topics to fill our 2 hour time slot. I feel like this week was a productive one; we had some pretty good discussions and even were able to laugh at a few jokes that the students made. I think it's a tell tale sign of how well you have a grasp of a second language when you can express and understand jokes, and some of my current students can tell some pretty funny zingers!
Anyways, back to summer vacation. Despite having this night class two times a week, I took it upon myself to book a short vacation to Hong Kong during the first week of July. If you guys follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may have seen some of my pictures. If not, I plan to share a bit more here for you guys. Bare with me because I'm afraid this will turn into a long post, which is usually typical me, but I didn't want it to be that way. However, I know you guys will be hanging on every word.... or you better be!!
Let's see, the trip started pretty normally for me. I woke up on Wednesday morning and packed my bag. There's nothing like waiting until the last minute to pack for a week long excursion, right? To top that off, the night before I had gone to Cantina for Taco Tuesday and spilled some green sauce on my shorts, so I had to do laundry. So, there I am, the morning of my flight hanging my shorts out of the window of my apartment so they can catch enough sun to be dry enough for me to wear to the airport. Plus, I am trying to fill my bag with the essentials for my trip. If you know me, you know how I like to pack.... I have to have an outfit for every day with a pair of accompanying shoes. So, that usually makes what should be a light pack into a massive one! Every time I pack, I always think of my dad standing in the living room with Susie and I.... I usually have like 6 different piles of clothes strewn about the living room, 2 suitcases opened and about 50 space saver bags. P.S. It's never enough and Edward usually stands in the corner and shakes his head.
Anyways, I get to the airport in a relatively uneventful fashion, which usually isn't my style. I feel like for it to be a normal trip for me, I have to have at least 1-2 awkward or stressful moments. Not this time I guess. The travel gods were smiling down on me that day.
I get to the airport, check-in, and find my way to the terminal for departure, pretty easily. Once, I'm there I remember that I haven't eaten anything and that my flight won't be landing in Hong Kong until after midnight. I'm not sure why I always do this, but I always assume that the post-security side of the airport will have just as many food options as the pre-security side. That's so untrue. So, now I'm on a mission to find something of sustenance to hold me over on my flight. I find a food court, take the escalator all the way up, just to find that everything has been closed for reconstruction..... except for the hot dog stand. Man, nothing screams WELCOME TO ASIA more than a nice juicy ballpark frank! Needless to say, I wasn't in the mood for a 'chili dog,' so I decided to find something else. However, the only other place I could find remotely close to my terminal gate was Dunkin' Donuts. Normally, I would be ecstatic about such a find, but not when I'm looking for something a little more "dinner-y." But just as luck would have it, this happened to be a fancy DD and they were offering chicken wraps and salads. Salads aren't really my thing, so I decided on a spicy chicken wrap.... Upon opening the package and consuming the first bite, I think the thing should have been called a mayonnaise wrap, because that's all I could see and taste! Ugh! I hate mayonnaise!
You know, out of the traveling I've done, my favorite parts are always the people watching at the airport. Some really bizarre people pass through those terminal gates every day, heck every hour even. It makes you wander if the TSA are really doing their job. Don't get me wrong, I think I would often fall into the "does not fly" category if I'm being completely honest. Anyways, I think equally as humorous and disheartening to seeing crazy people at the airport, is overhearing crazy people at the airport. I swear you can't make some of this stuff up!!! Now, as I sit with my mayonnaise wrap and Smurf shaped cup in hand, making a significant dent in both, a man walks up and sits in the row of chairs behind me. At this point, both of us are about 1.5 to 2 hours early for our boarding time, so all we have to do is sit there and mind our own biscuits, but lucky for me, and you, that's completely impossible for me to do! So, he sits there a bit and then decides he wants to have a Skype conversation with a loved one. I'm all for keeping connected, but I was a little shocked to hear his topic of conversation. Keep in mind, I have no idea what is being said to the man from the other side, I only have what I heard and eventually saw to go off of. His conversation starts off pretty normally, but eventually takes a turn towards erotica. I try to ignore most of the stuff people say in private conversations, but there are keywords that make your ears perk up like a dog... and this guy mentioned at least 2 of those words within about 60 seconds of one other. When that happened, I was fully engaged in what was happening on his screen. Now, my memory fails me too much to be completely accurate as to what he said exactly, but I know he mentioned that the woman he was speaking with was going to miss him while he was gone.... AND that in order to cope with her "longing" for him she should pleasure herself...... with.... her..... "toy" for a lack of a better term. He also threw in a few "nipples" and "panties" into the conversation at some point. But at that point, those words has become irrelevant because I had already focused in on the previous "keyword." Now, I'm not one to usually have such types of conversations, in public places at least, but I feel that once someone around me has acknowledged what is going on, I would probably wrap it up (no pun intended). He didn't seem phased by the fact that I had made myself, and my look of shock and amazement, visible in his tiny screen several times. He kept up his conversation until a few more people started to sit down around us.... I hate to admit it, I was a bit sad to hear him say goodbye to the woman. It's funny how fast 2 hours passes when there is a live "romance novel" being played out in your ear.
The rest of my flight lacked a bit of excitement, which I guess looking back isn't so bad for a flight.... It seems the more exciting those get the scarier they seem to be. So, I guess I'm grateful that I made it to Hong Kong without a hiccup.
Once in Hong Kong, at 12:30 a.m., I had to find my way to my hostel that was located about 45 mins, by bus from the airport. Surprisingly, I made it to my hostel fairly easily. The only problem I really had, besides actually knowing where I was going on the bus, was not having correct change for the bus and losing about HK$10 because I had to pay with a 50. For some reason, I expected the bus to produce change for me, or at least the driver to do so, like they do here in Korea, but that wasn't the case. The driver just stared at me blankly and said "Causeway Bay? Ok! Thank you!"
Once I found my hostel and checked in, the lady escorted me to my room for the week. I never got the chance to take any pictures of the room; there were too many people in and out all day and I didn't want to seem creepy. Let's just say you guys aren't missing too much by not having pictures. I was placed in an 8-person dorm room for the week. Initially, the thought of this made me a bit uncomfortable, mostly because I snore, but after I thought about it, my snoring doesn't really ever keep me awake, so I went ahead and toughed it out. I know, I'm such a kind person! No, seriously I'm always self-conscious about sleeping around other people because I do snore, but I was on a budget and this place was cheap. In the end, the almighty dollar won!
Upon first glance, the room seems worth about what I paid for it (approximately $125 for 8 days). I feel it's always best to not set your expectations too high.... Well, once I reached the room it was about 2:30 in the morning. People, or my new dorm mates, were asleep, so I did my best not to disturb them. I quietly changed my clothes and climbed into my top bunk. I'll say I was asleep for maybe an hour and a half before I was woken by sounds of someone moving around the room. Being a bit uncertain as to why someone is making so much noise this early in the morning, I open my eyes to investigate the crime scene. What I find is that the man with whom I am sharing a bunk has awakened and is in hot pursuit of some food. He is currently in the kitchen rummaging through the refrigerator, making as much noise as absolutely possible. I think to myself that he is just getting something small, maybe some cheese, a cold drink of water, some fruit, and that he'll be back asleep, or at least in bed in a short time. Man, was I wrong!!! Rummaging through the fridge was just the beginning. After he has selected what he wanted from the miniature refrigerator, he proceeded to cook whatever the unknown item was. This involved him turning on the water to the kitchen sink FULL BLAST, banging a few dishes together, opening and slamming the microwave closed, pushing ALL the buttons to set the timer and then stumbling to the bathroom to wash his hands. This whole process, the hand washing, took about 12 minutes alone. You could hear him in the bathroom making splashing sounds in the sink as the water ran non-stop.... and occasionally he would let out some sort of tribal yell, in a language that I was not familiar with, that would make me practically jump out of my skin!! By the time he had finished cleansing himself and having a swim in the bathroom sink, he came back out to find that his food had gotten cold in the microwave, so of course he had to restart it by pushing all the buttons again! Once his food was to the temperature he desired, he took it over to the table. Oh yeah, the table is directly across from the bunkbed in which we are both supposed to be sleeping! At the table he officially sets up camp.... he puts his bowl of food down, takes out some bread and cracks open his laptop! The laptop didn't seem like such a problem at first, because I assumed he was just going to surf the web while he ate his food.... Again, I was wrong. For some strange reason, he felt it was necessary to call someone at 4:30 in the morning to catch up on all the latest gossip from his village. Again, I have no clue in which language this man was communicating.... I could only make out the English swear words he would so strategically sprinkle into his conversation. In addition, I don't think that he knows how to use a fork or spoon because between telling someone off in English and rattling off in his native tongue he would often pause to sop up some food from his bowl with a slice of bread, slurp up whatever liquid was in the bowl and chew as loud as humanly possible!! It didn't matter how many times me or the rest of the people trying to sleep huffed or puffed, he acted as if he didn't have a care in the world.... and then would swear in English! P.S. This same routine happened EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT!
Wow! What a rant that was! Can you tell I was a little bit annoyed by this guy!?
Anyways.... not only was this man up at all hours of the night, but the room I was staying in was not adequately air-conditioned. I'm not sure how many of you have been to Hong Kong, or even Southeast Asia, during the summertime, but it is one super humid place. The room we were in only had 2 small window units, maybe big enough to cool a bathroom stall, mounted on opposite sides of the room. The breeze from these things barely reached far enough to cool the knobs used to operate the machine. I kid you not, this room was so hot that the walls were sweating!! Yes, sweating!!! So, not only did we have a nocturnal crazy man with night hungers in our room, but we also had to sleep in what felt like a greenhouse testing facility in Death Valley.
I think that takes care of all the nonsense I had to deal with on the trip.... except for the cleaning lady who repeatedly yelled at me because I was sleeping on the couch instead of my bed. The couch was in front of the air-conditioner and it was slightly more cool than the surface of the sun, so it was a good place to set up camp whenever possible.
The rest of Hong Kong was pretty amazing. Thursday I devoted to walking around the Causeway Bay and Wan Chai areas, which is where my hostel was located. There were a few cool things to see in the area.
This is a picture of Golden Bauhinia Square on Hong Kong Island. This statue commemorates the handing over of Hong Kong to China from Great Britain in July 1997. The Bauhinia flower is a symbol is Hong Kong and is present on their flag.
This is a shot of Victoria Harbour from the Hong Kong Island, just in front of the statue mentioned above. Hong Kong has an amazing skyline!
I also stumbled across a small outdoor market in the same area as my hostel. I think this one was actually in the Wan Chai area of Hong Kong. You can pretty much find anything you need at these markets. This particular market focused primarily on food.
Here is a fruit stand at the market in Wan Chai.
Butchers lined the streets trying to sell you their prime cuts of beef. Everything was open air, so you just walked up to the vender you wanted and they would slice the meet in front of you on the street. I think these guys were selling pork?
A open air fish stand. I love being able to walk around and see the locals being locals. The looked at me a bit crazy when I started snapping pictures, but it's alright!
On my second day in Hong Kong, I visited The Peak, or Victoria Peak. It's the highest point in Hong Kong. There is a cable trolley you can take to the top of the mountain and various shops and restaurants to enjoy once you are there.
This was the entrance to the tram that takes you up to the peak!
This is a model of what the tram looked like. It's been updated a bit since this one was in use, but it kind of gives you an idea of what I was on. The one in this picture was used as an office at the top of the peak now.
This is "The Peak". The tram takes you to this building. It has shops, restaurants and museums inside of it. You can also get access to the houses and what not that are at the top of the peak from here as well.
A view from the top of Victoria Peak looking down on Hong Kong Island. Across the harbor you can see Kowloon, another part of Hong Kong, as well.
I had to take a selfie once I reached the top of the peak. I had a mini-guided tour while I was there, that's why I'm wearing those headphones. Excuse the sweaty face and messed up hair, Hong Kong was humid, but windy!
My entire third day in Hong Kong was spent on the beach at Repulse Bay. It doesn't sound like the most pleasant place, but the beach was really nice and there wasn't a huge crowd for it being a Saturday. The water was really nice to swim in, especially compared to the cold waters here in Korea. I made friends with a local family here that were catching small fish on the beachfront. They kept saying to me "Little fish are so hard to catch today. Do you want to help us?" So I grabbed a net and tried to catch one or two, but didn't have much luck. The babies did better than I did.
Here is a shot of the beach at Repulse Bay. Again there were't too many people there, so it was a good day to lounge around on the beach.
On Sunday, I decided to venture over to Kowloon via the Star Ferry. It was a relatively cheap ride and it took you across the harbor in about 10 minutes or so. It was pretty cool! On the Kowloon side, things are a bit more traditionally Chinese. It's more of an "East meets West" experience there. There are also a lot of museums on the Kowloon side, including the Avenue of Stars, which is Hong Kong's version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Bruce Lee is probably one of the most famous Hong Kongers to have a star on the Avenue of Stars. Here is his star and a statue that is found along the avenue as well.
I took this picture sole for the purpose of striking fear into my brother, Cody. I wanted to remind him of all the times I went Bruce Lee and beat him up when we were younger! :-)
Day 4, Monday, had me on a mission to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha! In order to get to Big Buddha you had to ride a cable car 3.5 miles (5.7 km) to the top of a mountain. Once there, you could shop in small village shops, visit the Big Buddha or the monastery that was located there as well.
Here is a show of the Crystal Cabin, or glass cable car, that I got to ride in on the way up the mountain to the Big Buddha. It was a bit freaky being able to see underneath you while traveling over mountain terrain and big bodies of water, but it was totally worth it. The only thing I didn't like was being able to see exactly how far you had to fall! Sorry I didn't get any pics from inside the cable car; the windows were a bit too reflective and it was pretty overcast! :-(
These steps lead up to the Big Buddha. I'm not sure how many there were, but there were more than I wanted there to be. Humidity and stairs do not go hand in hand for me. The view from the top was definitely worth it though.
The Big Buddha, or Tian Tan Buddha, was waiting at the top of the stairs. This buddha represents the harmonious relationship between man and nature and people and faith. Surrounding this statue are six smaller statues known as "The Offering of Six Devas;" each one is posed offering flowers, incense, lamp, ointment, fruit and music to Buddha.
Tuesday, I took a short day trip to Macau. In order to get there I had to ride another ferry for about an hour. Once I was there, I was conned into hiring a driver for the day. She swore to me that I wouldn't be able to see all the attractions that day alone, so her services were necessary. I ended up having to pay her $100 for the day, but I think we were together for about 5 hours. She was a pretty nice lady and told me lots of interesting things about Macau.
Our first stop in Macau was at the Kun Iam Statue. It is a statue of the Goddess of Mercy and she faces into the city of Macau in order to protect them. My tour guide told me that this is probably the only statue of the Goddess of Mercy that doesn't face the sea. It also serves as a symbol of the friendship between Portugal and Macau.
After the statue, I was taken to Macau Tower. The tower stands 1,109 ft (338 m) tall. This is a shot of the city of Macau from the observation deck of the Tower.
This is just to show how far I am above the ground. There were a few windows on the floor of this observation deck, but looking through them made me queasy, so I tried to steer clear of them.
If you are brave enough, you can skydive or skywalk from the top of the tower. I don't think there is anyway I could be as brave as these people! P.S. America's Next Top Model made a visit to Macau a few cycles ago.... They took pics from the tower!
This view shows Mainland China. It's weird to think that I was that close, but couldn't go. Well, maybe I could have snuck across, but that would have caused an international incident! It seems that the mainland is a bit underdeveloped compared to Macau.....and Hong Kong.
This, Casino Lisboa, is Macau's first casino. This was built when Macau was still under the rule of Portugal and was the only casino in Macau. After Macau was handed back over to China, more than 40 casinos have sprung up in the City.
The City Center of Macau is still heavily influenced by Portuguese architecture. The buildings are very European looking and usually brightly colored.
Here is more of the Macau City Center. The roads in this area are still made of mosaics that the Portuguese put in place when they were in control.
Finally, this is the ruins of St. Paul's in Macau. This spot used to house a church and a university, I believe. Both were lost in a fire. The front of the church is all that remains standing after the fire. This church is significant because it's architecture married both Asian and Portuguese building styles together.
My last day in Macau was spent with a friend I throughout the week in Macau. We hit up a few museums on the Kowloon side and a took a ferry ride around the harbor. It was a really cool experience, but I don't have much pictures to show! If he zaps me a few that he took, maybe I'll add them to the blog! We'll see! I'm really glad I met him though; traveling with friends is always a bit easier! Hopefully we'll meet again! ;-)
That's all the pics and info I have for my trip to Hong Kong and Macau! Overall it was a really awesome experience! I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested or even contemplating. Hong Kong is such a global city. I don't think I was really expecting that. You were hard pressed to find someone in Hong Kong who didn't speak English, even on the Kowloon side, which is really refreshing and reassuring.... especially when traveling! I hope to make my way back to this area again sometime! Not completely when, but it's definitely a place I'd love to visit again.
Well, it's almost 5:00 in the morning here, so I guess I had better hit the hay...... otherwise I might start rummaging for food and swearing in Swahili while slurping some soup! I apologize for the length of this entry! Hopefully anything coming in the future will be a bit shorter and not so sporadic (Thanks Clueless for that word)! I hope you enjoyed reading and I hope to see you again.... sooner than later!
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