Guest Blogger: Day 4 in Macau

October 24, 2010

While gambling in Macau is indisputably the main scene, it is definitely NOT my scene, and while I was not so excited to go, Jeff, Zoe and I decided that we would not stick with the group for the afternoon in the casinos! As a former Portuguese colony, this island has an amazing culture. It lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta, bordering Guangdong province to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east and south.

Our first stop was the Museu de Macau…an amazing place that really sets the cultural stage. It aptly depicts the traditions, art, cross culture and religion of this tiny island of half million people. Macau is considered a “Special Administrative Region (SAR)” of the People's Republic of China since December 20, 1999 with its own constitution-like charter (the Basic Law).

 

As we exited the museum we headed to the featured attractions of the city: Ruins of St. Paul's, a former screen wall of St. Paul's Church and the Monte Fort, one of the best-preserved forts in Macau. The façade and intricate mosaic floor are all that remain of Macau’s grandest church, perched atop a steep flight of stone steps and propped up by viewing platform at the rear. In its heyday, the Jesuit-designed Cathedral was hailed as the greatest monument to Christianity in the East. This Catholic façade is the only one to have Chinese characters on its face. The church caught fire in 1835 during a massive typhoon and only extensive structural work in the early 1990s stopped the façade from crumbling to rubble!

After wandering in the downtown area for an hour, our stomachs started to rumble and it was lunchtime. Thunderbird alumni recommended Fernando’s and what a great recommendation it was! Despite the fact that we had to travel (by cab) to Coloane, which is the most southern island, it was soooo worth it! Coloane is considerably less developed than the other regions due to its mountainous terrain. It does have two beaches, several hiking trails and a resort. It is also the location of Macau's first golf course.

Fernando’s food was outstanding...we started with a pitcher of Sangria, cheese and bread as we waited for our table. Our lunch was a two-hour love affair with garlic prawns, a platter of roasted chicken and spiced greens.

After lunch/dinner we wandered down the Hac Sa Beach and collected shells and stones and ended up at the Macau Country Club where we purchased souvenir golf balls, shirts and hats. We made it back to the pier to catch the 5:00 PM ferry back to Hong Kong.

Guest Blogger: Day 3 in New Territories

October 23, 2010

Zoe didn’t think I had enough climbing the day before, so she suggested we go to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery—yes, 400 more steps up (and then, of course, I had to navigate down as well!!).

But, oh, my it was well worth the trip! There were actually well over 13,000 Buddhas, everywhere…big ones, small ones, in niches, along the path, but I get ahead of myself.

When we arrived on the subway, we could see the monastery up on the hill in the distance, so we headed in that direction. We made a wrong turn and ended up at a mausoleum with thousands of niches with remains. There was incense burning everywhere and it was a very hot day. We also witnessed a couple of burial ceremonies. It was very touching and an incredible cultural experience. No one seemed bothered by our presence. We ended up going back down the hill and finding the right path to the temple…

The Ten Thousands Buddhas Monastery is on the hillside sanctuary at Pai Tau Tsuen, Sha Tin. It was built just 60 years ago by Yuet Kai, a monk, poet, and lyre-player whose mummified remains now form the centerpiece of the monastic temple.

We began the long climb, but how entertaining as we encountered all these incredibly expressive life-sized statues! There were thin Buddhas, chubby Buddhas, bald Buddhas, hairy Buddhas, Buddhas with walking sticks, Buddhas with dogs and dragons and frogs and little children, macho Buddhas. The entire climb was a lesson in Buddha diversity. The only Buddha I didn't see, though, was a sweaty, exhausted Buddha, which is exactly how I felt like by the time I reached the top of the hill! Okay, I’ll admit, about half way up this hill, my knees starting aching! However, this dramatic sacred site in Hong Kong was so worth the long climb. Again, I was amazed to see people with canes and walkers taking this journey. The monastery itself contains a beautiful giant pagoda and a temple with many more small buddha statues lining the walls.

At the top is the nine-story pagoda for which the Monastery is famous. The pagoda earned recognition when it was printed on HK$100 bills.

We navigated yet another several steps but the prize at the end was absolutely spectacular! The white Buddha (see right) is beautiful and a testament to the incredible spirituality of the Buddhist religion.

The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery is definitely off the beaten path; but I'm really glad I took the time to visit. This was a really interesting glimpse into the recent history and religious life of the Cantonese.

Guest Blog: Day 2 in Hong Kong

October 22, 2010

Despite level 3 typhoon warnings, Zoe and I planned a trip to Lantau Island and the Po Lin Monastery via subway and, we were hoping, the tram. Upon arrival, however, the tram was closed because of strong winds…the typhoon was reportedly headed toward Hong Kong. That, however did not stop us and we opted to take the bus over the two-lane, twisty turny highway and it was well worth it!

The monastery was founded in 1906 by three monks visiting from Jiangsu and was initially known as "The Big Hut." It was renamed to its present name in 1924. The main temple houses 3 bronze statues of the Buddha representing his past, present and future lives as well as many Buddhist scriptures.

Tian Tan Buddha, a Giant Buddha statue completed in 1993, is an extension of the monastery and soars nearly 85 feet tall. We will come back to the Giant Buddha.

We initially wanted to get away from the crowds and wandered past the Giant Buddha toward the “Fun” Path. This place was amazing…peaceful and surreal. We ended at what appeared to be a prayer place for the Monks and probably people who were lucky to find their way to this area. But the best was yet to come! We backtracked from the “Fun” Path and followed the path toward the Wisdom Path and the “Heart Sutra” pillars.

The Wisdom Path is a wooden version of the famous 260-word prayer, “Heart Sutra.” It is made up of 38 wooden rectangular beams or obelisks varying in height from 26 to 33 feet in the shape of a figure eight to represent infinity. It is impossible to describe this place, but the photo to the right gives a sense of the enormity of each of the pillars. Each obelisk bears a portion of the prayer, which is written in the traditional Chinese characters.

This unique attraction is based on calligraphy by the renowned Chinese scholar, Professor Jao Tsung-I who first saw the Heart Sutra at Mount Taishan in Shandong in 1980. This inspired him to do a calligraphy of the prayer. Once this masterpiece was completed, Professor Jao presented it to the people of Hong Kong in 2002.

The Hong Kong government decided to reproduce this artwork in the form of a large-scale outdoor wooden display at the foot of the Lantau Peak near Ngong Ping on Lantau Island, the home of the Giant Buddha at the Po Lin Monastery.

But WAIT, there is more…always more with Zoe and me. We couldn’t resist at least walking toward the steep path that worked its way up towards Lantau Peak. Despite the clouds and a threat of rain (and maybe even the typhoon!), up we went, and up and up and up! It felt like we climbed to the top of the world but nothing like the Fourteeners! Lantau Peak is the second highest mountain in Hong Kong at a mere 3,064 feet above sea level! From our vantage point you could see the Giant Buddha off in the distance (see below). No one else was there…again the tranquility of this place was awesome. We could see the storm clouds and felt the mist and sensed the shear magnificence of this place.

We climbed up for about two hours and came to a bench…we thought we had reached the top, and with the impending storm (and what we thought could have been typhoon sirens), we decided to make the climb down to the bottom. We will never forget this part of our trip, and knew we had experienced something most people don’t even know about…how lucky are we!!

Lunch was an experience, and while we were turned away from the vegetarian meal because of my gluten restrictions, the deli ladies were more than happy to read (in Chinese) what I couldn’t eat and hand picked a variety of interesting dishes including a warm tofu with honey syrup (yum), a couple of bean cakes and nicely spiced rice noodles. This was more than enough to refuel, and off we went to complete our day of exploring.

Even though we had climbed about a million steps up Lantau Peak, we still decided to climb the walk to the top to experience the sheer size of Tian Tan Buddha. I was humbled by the elderly who made the trek up the 260 steps to the top.

The bus ride back to the main station on Lantau lulled us both into a serene state. It was, indeed an exhilarating and fulfilling day!

--Jan Mueller

Checking In

Hey y'all, this is going to be short and sweet: I'm in Hong Kong, couchsurfing with a girl named Mika in Kowloon. I'm doing fine although feeling very overwhelmed by Hong Kong in general. I have written three full length blog posts on my laptop, but don't have access to wireless so I can't post them yet (I'm currently typing from Mika's desktop). I think that tomorrow I will be able to post all the entries because I'm switching accommodations to a hotel downtown with Jeff's mom.

Today I had dim sum for breakfast, curry chicken for lunch and rice noodles with beef and Thai soup for dinner. Whew!

Until I get wi-fi access...

--Z

A Day in Hong Kong: Kowloon and Hong Kong City

Photos: Hong Kong: Arrival and Day 1

Written at 8pm on Oct 20, 2010

This morning I got woke up around 7:30am but didn’t get out of bed until 8am. First things first, I took a shower. Afterwards, I had a few minutes to look out the window and the flat before Mika got out of bed. The flat is quite small but very cozy and lived in. It’s on the fifteenth floor and out the window you can see about a dozen other apartment buildings, each reaching far into the sky and obviously housing hundreds, probably thousands, of families. The flat itself has a tiny kitchen, a bathroom with a shower and toilet, a living room that fits a small dining table, futon and tv on a shelf, and two small bedrooms that are off opposite ends of the living room, each holding a bunk bed. Mika’s mom sleeps in one bedroom and Mika in the other. Mika’s room also has a small desk with the desktop computer in it.

Mika’s mother doesn’t speak English, but we exchanged greetings this morning as best we could. I munched on some huge grapes while Mika showered and then, once we were both ready to head out, we went to a neighborhood dim sum restaurant. It was a huge restaurant, holding possibly a hundred or more tables in one cavernous dining room. We ordered, and breakfast consisted of shrimp dumplings, rice-wrap pumpkin and spice, rice- wrap beef, barbeque beef buns, chicken buns, dumpling soup, and something else that I can’t recall. Mika explained the custom of tapping your fingers on the table when someone pours you tea and told me the story behind it. Apparently, long ago, a Chinese king wanted to go out for dinner without being known as the king. Well, when the king poured a fellow diner, a servant, some tea, the servant had to thank him somehow and did so by tapping two bent fingers on the table, symbolizing bent knees and bows to the king.

When you eat dim sum, you are seated at a round table. If your party doesn’t take up the whole table, you are seated with others, and that was the case this morning. We sat with two older women. I attempted to say thank you (“mm goy”) and they laughed uproariously. Ah, well.

After breakfast, we walked back to the flat to drop off the breakfast leftovers, and then Mika showed me around a market that she and her mother like to shop at. She told me that the community around here doesn’t usually shop in a supermarket for their food, instead going to markets like this one to buy the freshest of ingredients. She wasn’t kidding! The crabs were waving their claws; a cage contained so many frogs that although they attempted to hop, all they accomplished was wiggling; cages with birds in them were stacked up at a butcher’s, who would kill and feather the one you selected, right there. Pig’s feet, chicken feet, intestines, hearts and other organs, fish and all types of critters, all sorts of interesting and morbidly fascinating foods were for sale. Fruits I’ve never seen before included one with a spiking rind the color of a cantaloupe rind, with the same texture. It was great!

Next we caught a bus, which forty-five minutes later dropped us at a Star Ferry pier. We  took a ferry over to Hong Kong City, crossing Victoria Harbor and enjoying the skyline of Hong Kong in general. Once we arrived at the opposite shore, we walked from the pier to the Bank of China building, which was designed by the same guy who designed the Louvre, according to Mika. It’s mirrored, knife-like shape looms over nearby, boring Bank of America. We showed our IDs inside and were allowed up to an observation area on the 43d floor, which afforded a really great view of the area around, including Victoria Harbor. Mika told me that the Victoria Harbor is getting narrower because the government keeps filling it in to have new land to erect buildings on. We could see some of that actually happening!

Behind the Bank of China is a wonderful park that includes a teaware museum, so that’s where we headed next. The park was quite relaxing, with a pool harboring turtles and carp, fountains and trees and winding walkways. The teaware museum was fun and free. It included an exhibit of a recent contest amongst local potters to create their own teaware sets.

After sitting in the park for awhile to rest, we headed to the botanical gardens and zoo,  about a twenty minute walk which included going up, down, over and under several hills. The day was humid and gray, so I was sweating an awful lot by the time we got there. We grabbed drinks – for me, cold water, for Mika, a coconut milk drink – and then walked around the greenhouse and grounds of the aviary. It was very pretty. We were a bit tired, though, so we headed down and back in the direction of the pier to find lunch (albeit a late lunch) and then head to Tsim Sha Tsui, the southern area of Kowloon. We had a couple ideas for lunch, which came to nothing when the restaurant Mika wanted to go to turned out to have closed and the sushi place we saw was too chilly inside. Finally we settled on a place and I had curry chicken with rice, which was nice, with a cold lemon tea. Mika had something like pho, with rice noodles and pork. I really liked her soup but she said the rice noodles were overcooked (I thought they were great!).

Before catching the ferry back to Kowloon, Mika took me around the block to take a look at a building called Times Square, after New York City’s area of the same name. Basically, it was a huge mall. Very silly. On our way back to the ferry, we passed a knot of vendors sitting on the ground, burning candles. Mika explained to me that these were people who would curse someone that customers really hated, via taking a paper on which the customer wrote the hated one’s birth date and name, and beating it vigorously with a shoe. I think they then burned the paper. Very strange!

Finally we caught the ferry. The water was quite a bit choppier and the skies threatened rain, even though we didn’t feel any drops. On the other side of the channel, we took a quick pit stop in a beautiful looking theater and then caught the bus back to Mika’s neighborhood, which took about an hour and during which we both fell asleep.

Now I’m sitting on the wooden futon again, catching up my blog entries. I’ve got three draft entries, now. Unfortunately, there’s no wi-fi available here so I’ll probably have to wait until tomorrow to post all of them.

Here are some of my impressions of Hong Kong:

• Overwhelming, in a word. Buses careening around every corner, people  everywhere, sky scraping buildings anywhere you look. Smells and noises and an odd presence of nature are constant everywhere. Because Kowloon seems to be built in a range of hills, there seem to be layers wherever you go: you can go up some stairs to another landing of buildings, or down the stairs to a lower landing of buildings. This makes it feel like the city is never ending, even though you can find parks, playgrounds and other urban oases around every other corner, because if you look up or down, there are more buildings.
• Foods are very carby and flavorful: steamed or baked rice, or noodles, or rice wraps, or bread, etc. I like the food, especially the dessert stuff and some of the drinks.
• The general population isn’t as friendly seeming, in my opinion. There are the occasional exceptions, like the bus driver who loaned me his cell phone, but in general, this is a city with city people in a city rush. I think the pace of things has thrown me as much as the change of country. On the other hand, I might also just be more frustrated because fewer people seem to speak English.
• It’s crowded. In the middle of the day today, the buses, trams and ferries were absolutely packed.  And with the way the drivers of the buses and trams operate their vehicles, that means getting pretty friendly with everyone around you.

 

Tomorrow I will go out for breakfast with Mika again, and then grab my bags and head to the hotel where Jeff and his mom are staying. Jeff’s mom, Jan, arrives in the morning, so I plan to meet them both for lunch around 1pm. I’ll be bunking for the rest of my time in Hong Kong with Jan if everything works out.

Of course, we also have to modify our plans as Typhoon Megi approaches. This typhoon is expected to be the strongest storm to hit Hong Kong in something like the last decade or so. Oy! I hope that our flight out to Bangkok on Monday doesn’t get delayed or disrupted, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

--Z

Hong Kong Crash Course

Written at about 12:30am on Oct 20, 2010

My arrival in Hong Kong started out well: an easy flight with an easy landing (no more super-sideways altitude drops, like they used to be at a different airport); made it right through customs and baggage claim (had to check my bigger pack, because it was too heavy for a carry on with Air India); found my way to the buses and even found the bus I was supposed to take. The only negative thing is that I left my nice neck pillow on the plane and didn’t realize it until too late. Ah, well… if I had to lose something, that was a good thing to lose, as I haven’t used it much yet.

A month or so ago, before I left the US, I contacted a girl in Hong Kong via the couchsurfing website. Her name is Mika and she is a 32-year-old clerk in Kowloon. She agreed to host me for a night or two when I first arrived in Hong Kong, meaning I could sleep at her apartment and she might be able to show me around a bit. I love couchsurfing!

Anyway, Mika (pronounced Mee-ka) had given me the directions to buy an Octopus card at the airport, find the E23 bus and ride that bus to the end of it’s route to Tsz Wan Shan South. An Octopus card is a metro fare card that loads up fare for buses, trains and MTRs (subways). I bought that at the transportation desk in the airport quite easily. After going to the wrong side of the bus pickup area, I managed to find the line for E23. People seemed nice, directing me the right way when I asked where that particular bus was. Then the bus arrived and it was a double-decker bus, so I clambered directly to the top.

The ride through Hong Kong and Kowloon was incredible! I could seen the mountains of Lantau Island, as well as the hills of Hong Kong. The sun was just setting so it added a romantic air to everything I saw, being a big orangey-gold color sinking down. I could see skyscraper type buildings everywhere, and the occasional fantastic bridge lit up. I had the euphoric feeling of arriving in a new country!

After awhile, I started to fret: was I on the right bus? I was taking up two seats with my packs and myself, so people would climb up the bus stairs, look around for a seat, frown, and go back downstairs. The bus was pretty full at a couple points. The bus would careen up to a bus stop, the name of which I couldn’t discern anywhere, and then the driver would stomp on the gas and away we’d go! I was reminded of that bus in the the Harry Potter books…

Anyway, I started to panic. Would I know when we reached the last stop, since I couldn’t tell what stops we were at? I’d grabbed some pamphlets and maps at the airport, but I couldn’t find Tsz Wan Shan South on any of them; nor could I find any bus route maps. So, I asked people around me and got fairly clipped, short answers. One younger girl even rolled her eyes at me and was kinda snotty when she answered! Very different from Korea. I eventually went down to the first floor of the bus and asked the driver at a long stop. His first response when I said “Tsz Wan Shan South?” was: “No airport! no airport!” I blinked, frowned, and repeated myself more slowly. He gesticulated and I think he said “Last station!”

So I stood behind the driver and waited, panicking a little more. I was worried because I’d thought the bus ride would take about 45 minutes or an hour, but it was going on an hour and a half at this point. I waited it out until a woman gestured for me to sit down. I blurted out that I didn’t know where I was going and she ended up having me get off the bus with her two stops early and pointed me towards the McDonald’s I was supposed to meet Mika at. Also, I was supposed to meet Jeff there. Jeff, for those that don’t know him, is a friend of mine from when I was stationed in Montana with the Air Force. Jeff is lucky enough to be attending a grad school for a business management degree, which has him do some classes in foreign countries! In fact, he is the reason Hong Kong got put on my list!

Anyway, I was late. I worried that Mika would have left already, or that Jeff would be wondering where I was. When I finally made it to the McDonald’s… it was crowded, but no Jeff and no one who seemed to be Mika. I did have MIka’s cell phone number, so I set out to change a bill into coins and find a pay phone.

That took half an hour, included many people scowling at me and waving me away when I asked for coins or for help, and ended with a bus driver on break loaning me his cell phone. I reached Mika and she said she’d be at McDonald’s in five minutes. I went back and three seconds after I arrived, Jeff showed up! He also had been wandering around, a little lost and confused, having found a different McDonald’s and realizing it wasn’t the right one somehow. Then Mika showed up and we all introduced ourselves and sat down. I had bought some fries and a coke… yes, I ate at a McDonald’s, forgive me!… so while I munched on those we got acquainted.

Once the fries were gone, we all headed for Mika’s flat, where I was able to put down my bags and take a quick, cool shower, which felt awesome. Then we were off to explore the area a bit. With Mika leading, the three of us hopped on a minibus and went to Sai Yeung Choi Street South, letting the foot traffic, bright lights and hustle bustle wash over our senses. Both Jeff and I needed to eat dinner, so Mika took us to a place known, apparently, for it’s pork chops. What I noticed most was the pirate theme, complete with plastic life sized figures swinging from rafters or climbing down the stair rails. Both Jeff and I had pork chops, although mine was in a white curry sauce and his was in a tomato sauce. Both tasted quite good. At Mika’s recommendation, I had a coconut milk and red bean drink, which was sweet and cold and totally strange – and delicious!

After dinner, we headed out to walk around for a bit. Once we passed a MTR station, Jeff departed, since he had a quiz online that he had to complete by 11pm and it was past 10pm. Mika and I went to the Ladies Market and were perusing the booths of glitter, silk and goodies when all of the sudden, my sandal disintegrated. To give some background, my mom had given me a pair of her sandals for my trip when I couldn’t seem to find any that I liked. Unfortunately, she’d apparently already given them a good run, because this was my first time wearing them on this trip and the sole of the left sandal started flapping in the wind.

We spent the next hour wandering around the markets and the malls looking for an emergency pair of flip flops. Amazingly enough, it actually took that hour: most of the stores have stopped selling summer shoes and moved to the autumn line, which does NOT include flip flops. Finally, we found a pair, for cheap, and away mom’s sandals went to the trash. My replacement flip flops will become my shower shoes, because they’re plastic and I can’t walk much in them without pain between my toes.

We wandered for a bit more, looking at markets both open air and indoors and me just gaping around me like a fish out of water. Eventually, we headed back to Mika’s flat, not getting there until after midnight. The wooden futon was unfolded in the living room of Mika’s flat, with a comforter style blanket for a mattress, a pillow, and a light blanket laid out for me. I got on the desktop internet for a few minutes, and then I had to crash.

--Z