More Hong Kong Wanderings
Oh gods, my feet!
So last weekend I went to Ngong Ping on Lantau Island, took the cable car up. Beautiful ride - if anyone is ever planning on being in Hong Kong, I highly recommend it. Wandered aroung the tourist trap village and headed up to the Tien Tan Buddha. Very cool, very beautiful.
For those who are interested, Lantau Island is a natural preserve area in Hong Kong that covers most of a reasonably sized island. Lantau Peak is the second highest mountain in the Hong Kong city-state. On the mountain is the Polin monastery and a giant bronze buddha called the Tien Tan. The buddha itself, if I had to hazard a guess, is about five(?) storeys tall, and it's situated up on top of a large dais with a giant staircase leading up.
It was very nice, but ultimately unsatisfying. It seems I was the only one there who felt that religious monuments deserve a certain amount of respect and quiet introspection. It was covered in swarms of screaming Asian families and children, all more interested in getting good photos than in paying their respects.
I didn't stay all that long.
The following day, I went shopping in Mong Kok and bought presents in the market in the pouring rain.
I've decided I like the rain. Not just because it cools you down; more because everyone else seems to hate it. I'm getting truly sick of the constant press of bodies on all sides and the shouting voices all around me. In the rain, everyone huddles in doorways, leaving me to revel in my personal space.
So anyway, that was last weekend.
Last night, I went out for "Catch and Eat Your Own Seabug Dinner" with the people from work. Oh god - soooo much food. We went to a place way out in the New Territories called Dragon City Seafood Restaurant. The deal is, you go to the fresh seafood market a couple blocks away first, and pick out your seafood. And by 'fresh', I mean you look in the tanks and pronounce death sentances upon your dinner. We ate all sorts of seabugs, most of which I couldn't name if I tried. There were oysters, abalone, crabs, something they said was lobster but looked like no lobster I've ever seen, things that may or may nor have been shrimp, giant sea snails, something they called razor clams, and a whole bunch of other stuff they couldn't translate into English. It was all delicious (except the sea snails - they were rather too chewy for my liking). In fact, the shrimp-esque things were the first shrimp I have ever eaten that I actually liked. I normally hate shrimp.
On the way home, we took a mini-bus (my first HK bus experience) that dropped myself and the BA guy off in Jordan. He walked me through the touristy Temple Street amongst the fortune-tellers on the way to the MTR which would take me back to my apartment in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Today, I headed out on my own to Victoria Peak - hopped the MTR to Central and then walked up to the Peak Tram terminus. The Peak Tram is a rail-esque thing that ferries you up the mountain to the Peak - the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island proper, and the third highest mountain in the city-state. On the way up, it seemed less like a train and more like a roller coaster - I swear the angle of the rail is about 60 degrees! Up at the Peak, I wandered about the overpriced stores, had lunch, and went up to the 360 degree open air viewing deck. Unfortunately, it was a bit hazy today even despite the heat, so the pictures are not that great. It was a great view of the city, however.
I hung out and people-watched with a cup of coffee for a bit, then headed back down the Tram. From the terminus in Central, I walked further up and wandered through the Hong Kong Botanical and Zoological Gardens, which was pretty cool. It's a free public gardens, with a primate exhibit in one area with a decent assortment of callitrichids and prosimians, plus a few macaques and a couple types of ape (orangs, siamangs, and gibbons, to be precise), plus a few other primate-esque mammals (sloths, raccoons, things people who didn't know the difference might mistake for primates), some tortoises, and a few agoutis. Very cool.
By then, my feet were killing me, so I headed home with a short stop for groceries on the way.
Tomorrow, my plan is to head to Prince Edward for shopping, maybe a stop in Mong Kok, and possibly head down to Causeway Bay if I feel like it.
So last weekend I went to Ngong Ping on Lantau Island, took the cable car up. Beautiful ride - if anyone is ever planning on being in Hong Kong, I highly recommend it. Wandered aroung the tourist trap village and headed up to the Tien Tan Buddha. Very cool, very beautiful.
For those who are interested, Lantau Island is a natural preserve area in Hong Kong that covers most of a reasonably sized island. Lantau Peak is the second highest mountain in the Hong Kong city-state. On the mountain is the Polin monastery and a giant bronze buddha called the Tien Tan. The buddha itself, if I had to hazard a guess, is about five(?) storeys tall, and it's situated up on top of a large dais with a giant staircase leading up.
It was very nice, but ultimately unsatisfying. It seems I was the only one there who felt that religious monuments deserve a certain amount of respect and quiet introspection. It was covered in swarms of screaming Asian families and children, all more interested in getting good photos than in paying their respects.
I didn't stay all that long.
The following day, I went shopping in Mong Kok and bought presents in the market in the pouring rain.
I've decided I like the rain. Not just because it cools you down; more because everyone else seems to hate it. I'm getting truly sick of the constant press of bodies on all sides and the shouting voices all around me. In the rain, everyone huddles in doorways, leaving me to revel in my personal space.
So anyway, that was last weekend.
Last night, I went out for "Catch and Eat Your Own Seabug Dinner" with the people from work. Oh god - soooo much food. We went to a place way out in the New Territories called Dragon City Seafood Restaurant. The deal is, you go to the fresh seafood market a couple blocks away first, and pick out your seafood. And by 'fresh', I mean you look in the tanks and pronounce death sentances upon your dinner. We ate all sorts of seabugs, most of which I couldn't name if I tried. There were oysters, abalone, crabs, something they said was lobster but looked like no lobster I've ever seen, things that may or may nor have been shrimp, giant sea snails, something they called razor clams, and a whole bunch of other stuff they couldn't translate into English. It was all delicious (except the sea snails - they were rather too chewy for my liking). In fact, the shrimp-esque things were the first shrimp I have ever eaten that I actually liked. I normally hate shrimp.
On the way home, we took a mini-bus (my first HK bus experience) that dropped myself and the BA guy off in Jordan. He walked me through the touristy Temple Street amongst the fortune-tellers on the way to the MTR which would take me back to my apartment in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Today, I headed out on my own to Victoria Peak - hopped the MTR to Central and then walked up to the Peak Tram terminus. The Peak Tram is a rail-esque thing that ferries you up the mountain to the Peak - the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island proper, and the third highest mountain in the city-state. On the way up, it seemed less like a train and more like a roller coaster - I swear the angle of the rail is about 60 degrees! Up at the Peak, I wandered about the overpriced stores, had lunch, and went up to the 360 degree open air viewing deck. Unfortunately, it was a bit hazy today even despite the heat, so the pictures are not that great. It was a great view of the city, however.
I hung out and people-watched with a cup of coffee for a bit, then headed back down the Tram. From the terminus in Central, I walked further up and wandered through the Hong Kong Botanical and Zoological Gardens, which was pretty cool. It's a free public gardens, with a primate exhibit in one area with a decent assortment of callitrichids and prosimians, plus a few macaques and a couple types of ape (orangs, siamangs, and gibbons, to be precise), plus a few other primate-esque mammals (sloths, raccoons, things people who didn't know the difference might mistake for primates), some tortoises, and a few agoutis. Very cool.
By then, my feet were killing me, so I headed home with a short stop for groceries on the way.
Tomorrow, my plan is to head to Prince Edward for shopping, maybe a stop in Mong Kok, and possibly head down to Causeway Bay if I feel like it.