Hong Kong Return
HONG KONG
Anna's entry:
Last time we visited Hong Kong was about eight years ago when we were finishing up our first major 9-month trip around South and South East Asia. This time around, I wanted to give Hong Kong more attention and explore it in more depth.
We chose to stay at the same crazy Chungking Mansions. The reason I call it crazy would be pretty evident for anyone choosing to stay there. It is a mess of blocks, floors, corridors and stairs consisting of hotels, kitchens, money exchange offices, jewelry shops and other questionable establishments. Naturally, the multi-story building set-up is a pure violation of all fire and construction codes, but no one (including local authorities) has seemed to care in years. The place almost became a mini-city in itself. People staying at Chungking Mansions come from all walks of life and seemingly all continents (with the exception of Antarctica I think). Local residents, foreign businessmen, migrant workers, travelers, exchange students, sex workers, restaurant workers, gold dealers, tailors, drivers, etc. - all co-exist in a surprisingly cohesive and manageable fashion.
We stayed in a tiny room on the fifteenth floor of the building. Our window was facing a "court yard" - we could afford opening the window only for a few minutes to get our room aired out - within minutes we would get blasted by a strong smell of spices and curries, coming from floors below us. The smell varied every night, depending what dish was being cooked. It actually, smelled pretty damn tasty, but inhaling it while trying to fall asleep was a different story. Our hotel neighbours were of various ethnic origins as well, and one of them seemed to perpetually be dealing with some personal drama - his voice and emotions would get more and more intense as time got closer to midnight hours, and every time we would step out trying to get him to quiet down, the person would mysteriously disappear... There were a lot of things of that nature happening - to be expected in the previously labeled "crazy" Chungking Mansions.
TEMPLES and MARKETS
I "dragged" us around various neighbourhoods - from Tsim Sha Tsui to Victoria Peak, from Hong Kong Botanical Gardens to Temple Street Red Light District, from Sik Sik Yuen Tai Sin Temple to Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Gardens, etc. etc. We rode subways, ferries, double-decker buses, and walked (a lot). We discovered flower markets, goldfish markets, bird markets, jade markets, fortune tellers markets, and anything you can imagine (or not) available-for-sale markets. Sometimes, markets would stretch out for dozens of blocks, the streets were absolutely packed with people, and the close body contact was a regular occurrence. During week-end hours, we would come across "ethnic corners" - an entire square or a park would be taken by people sitting on the ground and basically hanging around among the traffic. There would be Philippine maids' corner, Indonesian babysitters' corner, Indian tailors' corner, etc. One of my favourite places to people watch was a week-end bird-lovers’ corner. People would bring their birds to a park to hang around and occasionally show off. Among bird owners, I spotted a guy dressed in a biker's leather clothes (kind of looking like a soft version of Hell's Angels). He was holding a can of beer in one hand, and a parrot in the other. Both the guy and a parrot would take turns drinking from a can. The guy noticed I was observing him, and he made sure he would allow his parrot get his feel of beer - obviously something that he was very proud of sharing with his pet friend.
My favourite night activity was watching sunset and thousands of flickering lights from the top of Victoria Peak, and then taking a hair-pin curvy road on a double-decker bus back to Hong Kong Island. I also loved Hong Kong's incredible parks - with waterfalls, fountains, ponds, temples, coi, turtles, birds, etc. Walking around Hong Kong is an adventure in itself - the contrast of architecture, views, sounds, smells - the city just draws you in! By the end of the day, we felt pretty exhausted to say the least. One night, we decided to have a picnic on the harbourfront - we found a bench on a promenade with incredible skyline of the city and the iconic red-sail tall ships’ silhouettes. We had picked up a few food items from a local large grocery store - English was quite limited there, so we didn't know exactly what we were buying (except for the obvious looking spring rolls). Luckily, it turned our to be pretty tasty - some sort of gluten deep fried in various spices and sauces. No - Hong Kong residents can not care less about gluten-free-everything diets, they actually make pretty decent vegetarian dishes out of it. We did have to over-come a price sticker shock - after incredible food value in Malaysia (for example), Hong Kong's prices seemed like going to Scandinavia... So, we did supplement with spicy noodle soups that we cooked in our room, and we actually found a decent breakfast option at one of the Western chains; plus chocolates and wafer treats (from grocery stores) were also a nice junk-food escape for a few days. Speaking about escapes, one of them - 10,000 Buddhas Monastery - deserves a special separate entry following below…
TEMPLE of 10,000 BUDDHAS
This place to visit was recommended to me by a young lady I met on a plane from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong. She thought this would be a fun one to visit, and she was absolutely right. I know that “fun” is not really an appropriate description when it comes to monasteries and temples, but I really think this was one of the most entertaining experiences we had, and I do believe that even Buddha himself would not mind to see so many visitors (majority were definitely local) happy.
The long steep staircase, temple squares, observation and rest areas were packed in various Buddha (life-size) statues representing all possible body expressions. I would even add that whoever designed those statues was either a super liberal/progressive person, or had a great sense of humor, or both. We spent the entire afternoon wandering around, and taking photos of 10,000 Buddhas displayed throughout the temple complex would definitely be worth 10,000 photo shots. The views on top of the hill were also magnificent, and we enjoyed interactions with numerous local visitors who also seemed to have a good time visiting.
This temple complex also coincided with our last day of Hong Kong exploration and this particular Asia trip finale. So, it was nice to finish on such a positive note.
FINALE
I normally finish the journey blog with a synopsis of events, encounters and experiences. However, this time around, I decided to leave it on a humerous note - which actually does reflect some of our experiences traveling in this part of the world.
HOW ONE KNOWS HE/SHE SPENDS TOO MUCH TIME IN ASIA…
-- when one finds it totally normal to find a monkey swinging on his/her room window;
-- when one finds it totally normal to find a crab/lizard/spider/frog climbing his/her shower wall;
-- when one finds geckos an integral part of the room ambience, and gets distressed when none are present;
-- when one starts the morning with a spicy food;
-- when one choose during coffee over coffee latte;
-- when one starts morning with a durian icecream;
-- when one chooses salty plums over candies;
-- when one knows a word for “toilet” in all local languages;
-- when one chooses a “squat” toilet over a “Western” toilet option;
-- when one knows a variety of alternatives when no toilet paper is present;
-- when one is asked by locals for help crossing a street with crazy traffic;
-- when one teaches locals how to make masala tea or curry chicken;
-- when one explains the difference to locals between Chendol, Es Teller, Es Nona and Halo Halo;
-- when one puts chili-pepper-salt-sugar mix on pineapple slices;
-- when one accepts that cutlery is optional for food consumption;
-- when one knows that a green arrow on a hotel room’s ceiling points out to Mecca (and not the fire emergency exit);
-- when one gets recognized and greeted back to the country by local street bums;
-- when one finds it totally normal to have a goat on a roof of a bus;
-- when one finds it totally normal for stray cows wandering inside of a restaurant;
And, one more
-- when no matter how many times one visits, one is always ready to come back and repeat the journey all over again!
Anna's entry:
Last time we visited Hong Kong was about eight years ago when we were finishing up our first major 9-month trip around South and South East Asia. This time around, I wanted to give Hong Kong more attention and explore it in more depth.
We chose to stay at the same crazy Chungking Mansions. The reason I call it crazy would be pretty evident for anyone choosing to stay there. It is a mess of blocks, floors, corridors and stairs consisting of hotels, kitchens, money exchange offices, jewelry shops and other questionable establishments. Naturally, the multi-story building set-up is a pure violation of all fire and construction codes, but no one (including local authorities) has seemed to care in years. The place almost became a mini-city in itself. People staying at Chungking Mansions come from all walks of life and seemingly all continents (with the exception of Antarctica I think). Local residents, foreign businessmen, migrant workers, travelers, exchange students, sex workers, restaurant workers, gold dealers, tailors, drivers, etc. - all co-exist in a surprisingly cohesive and manageable fashion.
We stayed in a tiny room on the fifteenth floor of the building. Our window was facing a "court yard" - we could afford opening the window only for a few minutes to get our room aired out - within minutes we would get blasted by a strong smell of spices and curries, coming from floors below us. The smell varied every night, depending what dish was being cooked. It actually, smelled pretty damn tasty, but inhaling it while trying to fall asleep was a different story. Our hotel neighbours were of various ethnic origins as well, and one of them seemed to perpetually be dealing with some personal drama - his voice and emotions would get more and more intense as time got closer to midnight hours, and every time we would step out trying to get him to quiet down, the person would mysteriously disappear... There were a lot of things of that nature happening - to be expected in the previously labeled "crazy" Chungking Mansions.
TEMPLES and MARKETS
I "dragged" us around various neighbourhoods - from Tsim Sha Tsui to Victoria Peak, from Hong Kong Botanical Gardens to Temple Street Red Light District, from Sik Sik Yuen Tai Sin Temple to Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Gardens, etc. etc. We rode subways, ferries, double-decker buses, and walked (a lot). We discovered flower markets, goldfish markets, bird markets, jade markets, fortune tellers markets, and anything you can imagine (or not) available-for-sale markets. Sometimes, markets would stretch out for dozens of blocks, the streets were absolutely packed with people, and the close body contact was a regular occurrence. During week-end hours, we would come across "ethnic corners" - an entire square or a park would be taken by people sitting on the ground and basically hanging around among the traffic. There would be Philippine maids' corner, Indonesian babysitters' corner, Indian tailors' corner, etc. One of my favourite places to people watch was a week-end bird-lovers’ corner. People would bring their birds to a park to hang around and occasionally show off. Among bird owners, I spotted a guy dressed in a biker's leather clothes (kind of looking like a soft version of Hell's Angels). He was holding a can of beer in one hand, and a parrot in the other. Both the guy and a parrot would take turns drinking from a can. The guy noticed I was observing him, and he made sure he would allow his parrot get his feel of beer - obviously something that he was very proud of sharing with his pet friend.
My favourite night activity was watching sunset and thousands of flickering lights from the top of Victoria Peak, and then taking a hair-pin curvy road on a double-decker bus back to Hong Kong Island. I also loved Hong Kong's incredible parks - with waterfalls, fountains, ponds, temples, coi, turtles, birds, etc. Walking around Hong Kong is an adventure in itself - the contrast of architecture, views, sounds, smells - the city just draws you in! By the end of the day, we felt pretty exhausted to say the least. One night, we decided to have a picnic on the harbourfront - we found a bench on a promenade with incredible skyline of the city and the iconic red-sail tall ships’ silhouettes. We had picked up a few food items from a local large grocery store - English was quite limited there, so we didn't know exactly what we were buying (except for the obvious looking spring rolls). Luckily, it turned our to be pretty tasty - some sort of gluten deep fried in various spices and sauces. No - Hong Kong residents can not care less about gluten-free-everything diets, they actually make pretty decent vegetarian dishes out of it. We did have to over-come a price sticker shock - after incredible food value in Malaysia (for example), Hong Kong's prices seemed like going to Scandinavia... So, we did supplement with spicy noodle soups that we cooked in our room, and we actually found a decent breakfast option at one of the Western chains; plus chocolates and wafer treats (from grocery stores) were also a nice junk-food escape for a few days. Speaking about escapes, one of them - 10,000 Buddhas Monastery - deserves a special separate entry following below…
TEMPLE of 10,000 BUDDHAS
This place to visit was recommended to me by a young lady I met on a plane from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong. She thought this would be a fun one to visit, and she was absolutely right. I know that “fun” is not really an appropriate description when it comes to monasteries and temples, but I really think this was one of the most entertaining experiences we had, and I do believe that even Buddha himself would not mind to see so many visitors (majority were definitely local) happy.
The long steep staircase, temple squares, observation and rest areas were packed in various Buddha (life-size) statues representing all possible body expressions. I would even add that whoever designed those statues was either a super liberal/progressive person, or had a great sense of humor, or both. We spent the entire afternoon wandering around, and taking photos of 10,000 Buddhas displayed throughout the temple complex would definitely be worth 10,000 photo shots. The views on top of the hill were also magnificent, and we enjoyed interactions with numerous local visitors who also seemed to have a good time visiting.
This temple complex also coincided with our last day of Hong Kong exploration and this particular Asia trip finale. So, it was nice to finish on such a positive note.
FINALE
I normally finish the journey blog with a synopsis of events, encounters and experiences. However, this time around, I decided to leave it on a humerous note - which actually does reflect some of our experiences traveling in this part of the world.
HOW ONE KNOWS HE/SHE SPENDS TOO MUCH TIME IN ASIA…
-- when one finds it totally normal to find a monkey swinging on his/her room window;
-- when one finds it totally normal to find a crab/lizard/spider/frog climbing his/her shower wall;
-- when one finds geckos an integral part of the room ambience, and gets distressed when none are present;
-- when one starts the morning with a spicy food;
-- when one choose during coffee over coffee latte;
-- when one starts morning with a durian icecream;
-- when one chooses salty plums over candies;
-- when one knows a word for “toilet” in all local languages;
-- when one chooses a “squat” toilet over a “Western” toilet option;
-- when one knows a variety of alternatives when no toilet paper is present;
-- when one is asked by locals for help crossing a street with crazy traffic;
-- when one teaches locals how to make masala tea or curry chicken;
-- when one explains the difference to locals between Chendol, Es Teller, Es Nona and Halo Halo;
-- when one puts chili-pepper-salt-sugar mix on pineapple slices;
-- when one accepts that cutlery is optional for food consumption;
-- when one knows that a green arrow on a hotel room’s ceiling points out to Mecca (and not the fire emergency exit);
-- when one gets recognized and greeted back to the country by local street bums;
-- when one finds it totally normal to have a goat on a roof of a bus;
-- when one finds it totally normal for stray cows wandering inside of a restaurant;
And, one more
-- when no matter how many times one visits, one is always ready to come back and repeat the journey all over again!
posted by Rob and Anna @ 10:53 AM
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