Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Hong Kong Photos

Da Big BuddhaThis is the big Buddha statue at the Po Lim Monastery. Each visitor walks up the many steps to the statue and is allowed to walk around it and within it. Guests may only enter into the inner hall if they have a meal ticket (I guess to show they have just ate a vegetarian meal?). Although the statue is impressive to look up at, the site you seen when looking back down from the statue is a little less inspiring, with construction continuing on commercial projects just outside the Po Lim Monastery. They are going to build a gondola to the peak soon, and they are under way on making an underground mass transit point at the site. All of this kinda detracts from what I would've guessed to be the idea about building a giant Buddha statue in the middle of nowhere on the top of a mountain. Oh well.

Daytime Hong KongI took this black and white photo from the top of a double decker bus. Buses are hella cheap in Hong Kong. It costs no more than US$1.25 to travel anywhere in Hong Kong. The old trolleys are even cheaper. They cost about 11 cents (US) to travel from one area to another, though they don't cover all of Hong Kong like the buses and mass transit rail do. The roads are mostly full with traffic from buses, taxis and commercial trucks. There are relatively few private cars in the main parts of the cities.

Night time on Jordon StreetMany parts of Hong Kong have a special type of beauty when the sun goes down. Here's a scene of Jordan Street near my hotel. Even though it's pretty late, these businesses are all still open and making their bids to attract attention. This is a heavily touristy area, so many of the businesses are notorious for being rip-offs. I have not first hand experience with this since Allie prevented me to doing any shopping in this area. lol There were a lot of inexpensive goods to be bought just a block away on one of the side streets in various Lady's Markets and shops.

View from a JunkThis is a shot of Hong Kong from the deck of a nearly authentic junk which cruises around the Hong Kong harbor on Thursdays and Saturdays. Apparently it's pretty hard to get the free tickets for this hour long cruise. Allie and I lucked out and got the last two tickets for this cruise earlier in the week. Many people try for weeks to get the cruise tickets of their choice. I recommend trying this tourist attraction, if not for anything else than the fact it is free.

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Location: Hong Kong

Monday, November 21, 2005

Hong Kong Vacation: The Return 11/18/05

The number 11 came up several times on this trip. I arrived on Nov 11th (11/11/05). I was in the eleventh room on the eleventh floor of my hotel. We visited Allie's uncle several times at his condo, which is on the eleventh floor of his building. One of Allie's cuzins told me this joke that we will be taking the 11 bus. 11 bus? Yeah, your legs form the number 11 (ya'no, like walking everywhere). Anyways.

11/18/05 is officially the longest day of my life, not because it dragged on, but because it was long by the number of hours. Our flight took off at around 5:30pm and arrived in San Francisco at around 2:40pm. It almost feels like time travel to see a sun set only to have it raise on the same day 14 hours later. Four inflight movies. The new Bad News Bears with Billy Bob Thornton (so-so), an imitation of Bad News Bears with Martin Lawrence but I forget its title (horrible), Batman Returns (great) and one other film I can't even remember right now but I had to watch to keep me awake in my effort to get back on California time ASAP. I was relieved to be back in California after such a long flight. Even with my nerves and sensibility, a flight as long as this does weigh on my spirit.

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Location: Hong Kong

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Hong Kong Vacation: On the Harbor and XL 11/17/05

Ya'no, I really don't enjoy eating Dim Sum. There's some items in Dim Sum that are ok, but for the most part, going for "Tea", as it's also called, is just not an enjoyable experience. The point of Dim Sum is supposed to be tea drinking, but it's really about all kinds of little round food items, like fried noodles, wrapped pork dumpling things, etc. Well, it's those little food items I don't like much, and the tea itself gives me indigestion. That said, Allie and I had Dim Sum with her family yet again today. Cantonese dinners I like, but the breakfasts leave me a little underwhelmed. Oh well. The chance to be with Allie's family makes the endeavor enjoyable even if the setting is something less than desirable. 

Allie and I have had a long week. We capped it off with an hour trip on a cruise around the Hong Kong harbor in a converted authentic junk. A junk is a traditional Asian ship with three sails that are supported with several ribs on their masts. I learned this in school, but apparently Allie did not. She thought I was joking about the name of that type of ship the whole week before we took the ride. Ironic that she is from Hong Kong. :) Anyways, the cruise was very relaxing. We both almost fell asleep. It was a nice day for time out on the water trolling along around the harbor.

That evening, Allie and I had dinner with her mom and other relatives on her mom's side of the family. It was more traditional Cantonese food, and it was very good. Her cuzin Conan was very interesting, and only one of two males near our age group that I've meet from her family the whole time I've been in Hong Kong. It almost seems as though most of her cousins are women. Anyways, it's was a lovely dinner.

Afterwards, we did a little shopping, but didn't buy anything. We tried to find a nice formal jacket for me, but it seems that the jackets in Hong Kong are made for people with slender shoulders. It felt good be too big for clothes cuz of my broad shoulders and all, but hey, they didn't have sizes bigger than XL.

We tried to get back in time to get enough sleep for the next day's flight back.

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Location: Hong Kong

Friday, November 18, 2005

Hong Kong Vacation: I'm a Repulsive Giant with Bird Flu 11/16/05

Yesterday represented the first truly sunny day for my visit to Hong Kong. Allie and I visited Repulse Bay. It is kind of a secluded little town in a little bay with tall mountains on three sides. It's funny that I call it a little town because several of the buildings were condo highrises, but that's just how Hong Kong is. It was the perfect day for strolling along the beach. We happened upon a Buddhist temple at one end where a group of tourists where rubbing this one little statue. I took a short video the interesting ceremony. Also, the water was warm and made me wish I had appropriately dressed for swimming in the ocean.

One a side note, I should mention that I feel like a giant in my hotel room. It's very small, especially the restroom. I have to sit at an angle to fit on the toilet next to the counter. I have to stand with my feet together when I take a shower because the tub is so narrow. With all these big buildings, one would think they'd provide more room for people to live within.

Oh, and the Bird Flu is closing in on Hong Kong, or so it would seem from the South China Morning Post with headlines like "Mainland's first bird flu death confirmed" and "HK to resume border temperature checks as authorities report three cases" I haven't seen more than a few tiny birds in the city areas of Hong Kong. I don't know if the birds naturally stay away or if all birds where killed off. Maybe I'm wrong on both counts, but it is very weird not to see any birds. Regardless, the Bird Flu still cannot spread from person to person yet, so I don't see what the fuss is about just yet. Plus, my company Cepheid already has a Bird Flu detention method that can give results in under 45 minutes. That means soon anyone that is suspected can get tested and know for sure hella quick so the appropriate action can be taken.

Well, I'm off for morning tea with Allie's family.

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Location: Repulse Bay, Hong Kong

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Hong Kong Vacation: The Experience 11/15/05

Man, I am really starting to get tired of taking Mass Transit everywhere. I told Allie that next time we visit Hong Kong I'll be renting a car. I mean, it's nice that everything is accessible from public transportation, but taking it everywhere all the time just starts wearing on me. Even she was complaining about it a little, even though she still claimed that she would disown me if I ever rented a car in Hong Kong. Humph.

Hong Kong isn't as crowded at I thought it'd be. I mean, there is people everywhere, but it's not so bad. San Francisco is about as crowded. Maybe I haven't see it at its worse yet, but given the fact that we've been everywhere, I'm not thinking I've missed much.

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Location: Hong Kong

Hong Kong Vacation: Mountain Tops 11/14/05

Allie and I took a ferry and bus to the mountain top Po Lim Monastery to see the big Buddha statue. It rests at the top of a peak over looking the Po Lim Monastery. The only way to the statue is a long set of stairs, which we walked. The Buddha statue is big and bold. Temple staff hawked Buddha idols at various locations in the statue and at the base of the peak, in the tradition of most temple based religions as far back as time records, although modern mass production has changed the experience a little bit with mass produced idols and such. After exploring the big statue about as much as we could, we headed back down the stairs and explored the monastery itself. It was beautiful. Many large idols of different gods are placed around for offerings of prayer, incense and food. I think there must be an understanding that even though the idols are just statues, their power comes from the act of worship and not from the idols themselves.

We arrived back in Hong Kong/Kowloon city area in the evening. We took a night ride on the Peak Tram to the top of The Peak, a mountain top overlooking Hong Kong. The ride was fun. At times the tram rose at about a 45 degree angle up the mountain side. I couldn't find any name for the top of the mountain other than just The Peak. The view of Hong Kong from the The Peak was both beautiful and impressive. Even at this height, we didn't stand much higher than the top of Hong Kong's tallest buildings. There was sumfin romantic about the view.

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Location: Ngong Ping, Hong Kong
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