Days 208-214: Rest Week

After a morning train to Shenzen we walked across the border to Hong Kong and took the metro train south to Kowloon. Our guide had only ever spent a day or two in Hong Kong at a time, usually doing the exact same things, so I was appointed the unofficial reference person since I'd done quite a bit in Hong Kong earlier. We visited the harbor for the light show, which is one of the things I missed my first visit, then I took some of the group around to the night market.

We all split up over the next few days as people drifted off and started heading home After leaving the tour hotel I switched to a really terrible hostel in Kowloon which I stayed in for a single night before switching to my old hostel on Hong Kong Island for the rest of my stay. A few of the people stayed in Hong Kong longer, so I took a few around to the electronics and goldfish market, and later revisited the Ten Thousand Buddha Monastery and did the Dragon's Back hike again with people from my group. Since it was mostly just doing things I'd already done once, I didn't really take any pictures through this stretch. Parallel to this I had also gotten quite sick - the sickest I've been my entire trip. Most of the time I wasn't feeling too horrible, but I was getting fairly frequent stomach cramps and had ongoing diarrhea which made going too far from my hostel a bit of a hassle. Mostly I just tried to rest and keep meals to fairly simple things in an effort to get better before India, which I figured would give me even more problems.

Towards the end of the week I went back to Lantau Island with a few of the people from my hostel dorm, this time taking the cable car up the mountain to the Giant Buddha. By the end of my break week I was feeling quite a bit better, although I still wasn't totally healthy yet. I had to get up early on my last morning to take the first airport shuttle bus at 5:30am in order to get to the airport in time for my 8:30 flight, but everything went smoothly and I flew out without incident.

Day 182: Hong Kong Last Lap

I didn't have anything on the agenda today, so I just enjoyed my last day in Hong Kong hanging out in Kowloon checking out shops. I had quite a bit of money left over, and in addition to treating myself to a nice lunch I was considering buying some electronics (specifically an external harddrive) to use up the last of it. Ultimately I decided to wait, since I'll be returning to Hong Kong after the month in mainland China. I did buy a fancy new rubix cube (well, a knockoff rubix cube, but a kind that's actually better than the real ones) at one of the markets. I'm still working on my haggling skills, but I got them to knock the price from $280 HK down to $80 HK ($40 to $11). The starting price was ridiculous though, and I'm sure the guy has never actually sold one at that price. I also bought a cheap compass and a pedometer for a combined $22 HK, since both are things I've regretted not having at times.

Not really any pictures for today. I took a few random ones, but not of anything terribly interesting, and it's not worth uploading them right now just for the blog. I did go through and update picasa with all the Hong Kong/Macau pictures, so things there should be pretty much up to date now.

Day 181: The Reverse Dragon's Back (not a sex position. probably)

I was really determined to get the hike I messed up done before leaving Hong Kong, and with only a couple days left, this was the day to do it. Unfortunately the weather was hot and incredibly humid, and the 600ish stairs I almost jogged up last time were hellish obstacle this time. The Hong Kong Island Trail is divided up into 100 sections, with a marker roughly every 500m marking the section. The navigational mistake I made last time was following the trail the proper way (from 92 to 100 or something), when I should have followed it backwards (the Dragon's Back section is like 82-87 or something).

The initial stages, to get to the trail I wanted to do, were a bit dull. The trail hugged along the hills, but the jungle was too thick to have much of a view. Eventually I got to the marker confirming that I was on the right path this time!

Why exactly is it called the Dragon's Back? Well...

The hills/mountains stretch out as a peninsula that makes up Shek O Country Park, and the Dragon's Back is the section of the trail that runs straight across the line of peaks, undulating up and down over their summits with views down at the water on both sides.

This was far from the end of my hike though. The trail does its best to keep away from civilization, and I ended up having to go quite awhile without water in less than ideal conditions. I hiked all the way back up the peninsula around the sides of the mountains (checking out a few beaches along the way - boat access only), then around the Tai Tam Tuk Reservoir to end up near Stanley.

I came upon a nice little rest station which had vending machines, so I got myself a much needed lemon green tea and relaxed for a bit before catching a bus from here back north to near the subway line. I'm not sure how far I went, since it's hard to map out with all the winding trails following the hill countours, but I started out around 10:30am and caught the bus around 5pm. Overall it was a good hike with some lovely views. The only person with a better view? This guy.

Day 180: Fade to Black

The main notable activity of my day was the exhibition I mentioned yesterday. In Europe, I got a bit museumed out, and in Asia there is an ever-present risk of being templed/shrined out, so I'm trying to throw in a few random interesting things to mix it up. The exhibition is called "Dialogue in the Dark", and it's a 90 minute exploration of the senses in complete darkness being led by a blind guide (quite literally the blind leading the blind!) You can see why getting a guide that can speak english is important, which is why I couldn't do it yesterday. Our group was a real mix, consisting of me, a german, an indian and an argentinian, plus our guide Henry. It was an interesting experience. We start off in utter darkness without having met our guide, and from the start he is just a voice. The tour takes you through different situations blind people face: getting on a boat, visiting the market, going to the cafe, etc, but set up to focus your senses on touch, smell and sound. After the initial disorientation I adapted quite well, although it's a lot easier to have confidence moving around when you know there's no real cars that can hit you. At the end of the tour they have a real cafe staffed by more blind people where you can buy things and enjoy them in the darkness. Overall, an interesting and fun experience, but obviously not one that can be documented with photos.

Tomorrow, barring bad weather, I'm planning to get up early and start the day hiking, and see where things lead from there.

Days 178-179: Chilling

The last few days have been pretty uneventful. Yesterday I went out to the eastern side of the island to try to do part of the Hong Kong Island Hiking Trail known as The Dragon's Back. Other than having a cool name it's highly recommended as one of the best trails in the area. Everything went well at first - getting to the starting point involves climbing 625 (I counted) steps up through a graveyard on the side of the hill. The problem came at the actual start of the trail, when I went the wrong way and hiked the section -after- the Dragon's Back instead. It led down to Big Wave Bay, and was still a nice trail, just not as impressive. After getting down to the bay and checking out the beach I just started taking random trails. The island is small enough that I figured with a few hours I could get back to civilization from anywhere I ended up, which is more or less what I ended up doing. I think I'll try again this weekend now that I know where I went wrong and which trail I should be taking.

This morning I tried to go see a special exhibition, but it requires a guide and the english ones are at specific times so I couldn't do it. I reserved a spot for tomorrow, so more on that later.

Mostly I spent the day hanging around Kowloon and checking out various markets and shopping centers. I visited the Lady's Market and Temple Street (Night) Market, which were very similar except that the Temple Street one had more sex toys. There are a few things I'm considering buying, so I'll probably revisit this area again before I leave. In the evening I met up with a former colleague who now lives in Hong Kong and we had some spicy Chinese noodles for dinner, and a few squid balls from a street vendor to round things out.

Day 177: Mission Accomplished

Despite going to bed late I woke up early to check the status of my visa application for India. All the checks had been approved, so I got up to go drop off my passport at 9am so that I could get in completed today. I came back to the hostel and had a brief nap before getting up again. Since I was going to have to return to the Kowloon/New Territories region to get my passport in the afternoon anyway, I decided to finally hunt down the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery and then hopefully pick up my passport on the way back afterwards.

The monastery isn't actually a monastery, since no monks live there, and apparently there are 13,000 buddhas, not 10,000. The place was created/funded by an old wealthy Buddhist who, after his death, was preserved in lacquer and gold leaf and enshrined as a statue in the main temple. The monastery itself was a bit challenging to find. I knew around where it was, but the path leading to it is behind some buildings and not advertised terribly well, so it's easy to miss. Once on the path, you immediately know you're in the right place though. Lifesize gold-painted statues line both sides of the path as it winds up the hillside. The quality of the statues wasn't all that great, but when you come to a place called the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery you're expecting quantity more than quality, and it delivers on quantity. While the majority of the thirteen thousand is made up of tiny figurines in the main temple, I estimate there are between 500 and 1000 of the full, life-size ones, each unique and individually interesting.

I know almost nothing about Buddhist folklore and stories, but I get the feeling it must be pretty elaborate. I don't know if all the statues are of specific characters, but a lot of them are just too random and unique to not have a story behind them. After exploring the temple, shrines and statue-lined paths I headed back down the mountain and continued on to go collect my passport.

Everything went smoothly, and I have my passport back with both visas I came to get. When I set time aside in Hong Kong I gave myself some extra days just in case, so I still have quite a bit of time here. I have a few small things I still want to check out, and a list of good hiking spots to visit, so I should be able to keep busy. It's just nice to finally have all the paperwork I need in order.

Day 174: Lantau Island

Yesterday I decided to tackle Lantau Island in the southwest part of Hong Kong, near the airport. The area has a few notable landmarks, but is also just known for mostly empty wooded mountains and good hiking. My priority was seeing the sights, since I can do hiking in lots of places in the area. I took the metro out in the morning to Tung Chung, which is the only really built up part of the island. From there I got a local bus to take me on the winding narrow roads through the mountains to the village of Tai O on the opposite side.

As soon as I got off the bus in Tai O I was offered a boat tour to see the purple dolphins of the area. I'm normally a bit reluctant about things I'm approached with right after getting off a bus, but it cost like $2.50 CDN, so I figured there was no harm in trying. The boat ride took us part of the way down the central canal in Tai O's stilted fishing village, then out into the harbor. We didn't actually see any dolphins, but the trip out cutting through surf surrounded by mountains in a barely seaworthy boat was easily worth the price.

Once back in the town I went for a pretty long walk through the entire town and looping around the outer edge. It's a very cool town, as the central part is all makeshift houses and shops on stilts in the water and mud, all connected together by bridges and walkways.

From there I took the bus to Ngong Ping which is probably the most famouse part of the island. It contains the giant Tian Tan bronze Buddha (I'm getting quite the collection of giant Buddha visits) and the Po Lin monastery. The main temple is under renovation, but there is a smaller one out front you can visit, and of course, the Buddha. There is a staircase up to the Buddha, and while I didn't find it very challenging many others seem to, and the ice cream/soda shop built into the base was doing steady business. There were two Buddhist monks at the top eating chocolate ice cream bars which would have made an awesome picture, but I felt it would be a bit rude!

There was a trail around to the side pointing to the "Wisdom Path". I decided to walk along that, and got a good look at the surrounding woods and mountains. The Wisdom Path itself was a circle of large boards stuck into the ground saying things I can't read! I left the main path to work my way up to the top of the hill for a better view and just sat for awhile on some rocks enjoying the landscape.

I decided to hike from there back down to Tung Chung, which was about 8km away. It was pretty late in the afternoon though, so I hurried a bit to make sure I got back by dark. I got a bit lost towards the end when I was at the end of the city, but eventually got myself oriented properly and found my way back. Before heading back to Hong Kong island I decided to check out Citygate Outlets in Tung Chung. It's a shopping mall, but made up entirely of chain outlets and considerably cheaper. I ended up buying a Puma jogging shirt since I wanted something light and breatheable for all the humidity here. After I got some dinner at the food court, which was made up of pavilions of different types (mostly asian) of cuisine. I ended up getting a nice meal of Thai red curry beef. There was also a theater in the mall, and since I haven't gone to a movie since Scotland I decided to go see the new Resident Evil movie. It was pretty terrible, but fun just to get out and see something.

After that it was the long subway ride back to the hostel.

Day 173: Exploring Blindly

I began my morning by heading back to just north of the Kowloon area by subway and getting off at the Diamond Hill stop to see the beautiful Nan Lian garden. The garden is carefully arranged with a path you follow through it so that they can control every angle you view things from.

At this point I realized that I had forgotten my map with all my notes on all the places I wanted to visit at the hostel. I considered going back to get it, but since I have plenty of time in Hong Kong I decided a day of undirected exploring might be fun. I started off heading in a random direction until I got to a new metro station, getting some more construction pictures along the way!

Once at the subway station I did what any reasonable traveller would do: closed my eyes and randomly picked stops off the metro map. First it was off to Tai Po Market! Tai Po is a smaller town/city further north, and it took a few transfers to get to. The market itself was a large building that had different floors for different products - mostly food. All the exotic (to me) fruit and vegetables were interesting to see, but I'm still not used to their form of meat preparation (namely their inclusion of heads).

The top floor was a big caffeteria of small restaurants, all without English. I managed a pretty simple and very cheap lunch of fried rice and what I think was chicken by pointing at pictures.

Next it was back to the subway for another mystery trip. I forget the name of the station I got off at, but it was near Lion's Head rock (although I never figured out exactly which hill that was). Other than the rock, the metro station didn't have much of interest listed nearby, so I just picked a random road towards the hill. Eventually the sidewalk come to an end, but right next to where it ended I saw this unresistable invitation.

The stairs led to a locked gate in front of a power transformer, but there was also a small path at the top, which I of course followed. It split up into other paths, which eventually led to pipes and cement terracing that I assume are for drainage and reinforcement to keep the hill from crumbling down onto the roads and houses below. Not every rabbit hole can lead to Wonderland! At least I got to see some funky trees and bamboo groves

Back at the bottom I continued on until I reached Che Kung Temple. Che Kung was a general 900 years ago who became deified for his achievements (mostly ending plagues and winning battles). The temple is apparently really popular on Chinese New Years, but it was fairly quiet today.

My last stop was to see some of the shops and vendors around Mong Kok. There was a lot of very cheap (probably knockoff) merchandise, and I thought about buying some clothes but decided to hold off for now.

The highlight of the area was the famous Goldfish market of Tung Choi street. It's basically a huge stretch of street filled with exotic fish, snakes, spiders and other animals. Fish were displayed in both tanks and in little clear bags of water, but the sheer number of shops and animals, as well as the diversity, were amazing.

Hopefully I'll be a bit more organized in the upcoming days!