Trip to Hong Kong

March 29 - April 4, 2005

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CONTENTS:

(Most of the pictures are linked to larger versions)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Not Once Hassled For a Taxi Like in Beijing; Double-decker Buses; High Rises Everywhere; A Self-Contained High Rise Community; I Love Suspension Bridges; Dilapidated Buildings; Laundry Hanging Out Over Twenty Stories; Shop Signs With Brackets That Extend Right Over Road; Giant Overwhelming Signs - Cool!; How Do Chinese Kids Learn To Read Without Hiragana? It's Cloudy, Just Like The Guide Book Said It Would Be

TUESDAY, MARCH 29

Pizza and Street Opera


View From 10th Floor of
New King's Hotel
 I started in Fukuoka, Japan (always a fun airport to check luggage through because the airport code is FUK) and transferred through Taipei to Hong Kong. I was worried about having to change terminals at a foreign airport in a place like Taiwan, but it was far quicker and smoother than my last transfer through San Francisco. Taipei Airport has helpful employees and no shuttle buses, yay!

I got myself an Octopus Card (not the Airport one) like my guide book recommended for use on public transportation and I had no problem getting cash from an ATM with my U.S. card. Good, good.

The airport bus, like all Hong Kong buses, was double-decker and air-conditioned! It was identical to the buses I rode in Scotland (not surprising because of Mother England's influence but odd since I only rode one of these for the first time a few weeks previous.)

My hotel cost about US$64 a night and was a step above the cheap hotel I stayed at in Fukuoka the previous night for about $50, except for two things: the lack of any soap and that the tap water was, according to the hotel guide hidden under four phone books, undrinkable.

I wandered around "Mong Kok" and ate dinner at The Fanciest Pizza Hut Ever. Why eat Pizza when I'm in an exotic destination like Hong Kong? Hey, I've been living in Japan for over a year. I'm pizza deprived! I followed the example of the other patrons and ate with a fork.

Temple St. Night Market (one of the top recommended markets in both my guide books) turned out to be one block from my hotel, so I walked over. I briefly haggled a watch down to just over US$2 and tried to ignore both the Hello Kitty merchandise and the vibrators / sex toys for sale just a few stalls down. There were some performers there, perhaps rehearsing for opera (?) and as I lingered I got solicited for a donation, but when I donated I got a seat and some tea. It was very nice to sit and sip and relax and listen. Then I got surveyed by some schoolgirls (more accurately, the one who spoke the most English.)

I noticed there was a 7-11 a few doors down from my hotel. Very convenient.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30

Tai Chi, Chai Tea, and Lots of Buddhas


The Clock Tower
 According to The Top 10 of Hong Kong (my dependence on guide books is like a drug) there is a free Tai Chi class for tourists that meets at 8am at the Clock Tower, so I decided to go check it out. I got breakfast at 7-11 and subwayed over. The subways are very nice and easy to use. The announcements are in Cantonese, Mandarin and English so maybe by the end of the trip, I'll be able to say "Mind the gap" in all three languages. After completely getting lost underground while looking for the evasive "Exit G" and walking through a maze of museums, construction, and underpasses (which they translate as "subway" just to confuse things), I finally found the clock tower. I checked my watch against it. As I walked across the harbor-side promenade toward it, I came across a few individuals doing Tai Chi, but no instructor materialized anywhere near the clock tower. I enjoyed wandering along the waterfront despite the drizzly cold, and watching people board random boats, but I was somewhat disappointed.

I started walking back toward the main road and had just passed the art museum (I would have went inside if it had been open - brrrr) when I saw a class of Tai Chi under the overhang. I watched for a moment and realized they were completely inept and, upon closer inspection, not Chinese. This was the class! Yay! I was soon welcomed by both the instructor over his mouthpiece microphone and by an assistant who waved me over. I had to cross a barrier that said "No Unauthorized Entry" to get there, but I joined the class, even if it was already halfway over.

The second half hour was fun. We learned a Tai Chi pattern and practiced it, then added nifty music to perform the pattern to. The instructor's English was a little hard to understand sometimes, but he looked the part one hundred percent with his silky Chinese garb and unquestionable grace and knowledge. He also taught us that the fist-in-the-palm kung-fu gesture means the equivalent of "Aloha." After the class was over, I filled out a survey to give to his assistants.

It was chilly and not much was open so I figured I'd go to a coffee shop for two purposes, one: to get chai tea because, you know, I just did Tai Chi and wouldn't that make a funny title for a journal entry and two: so I could sit and look in my guide book somewhere warm.

I spent half an hour walking around the neighborhood looking for a coffee shop. A Tai Chi assistant gave me directions to one and the Lonely Planet map showed another one, but neither were where they were supposed to be. Not even a Starbucks appeared. Does Hong Kong not have Starbucks? Is it possible that there is a city it hasn't taken over yet? A guy on the street even offered to help and he pointed out "Delifrance" which wasn't so much a coffee shop as a pastry shop (maybe it resembled a French deli?) and it didn't have chai tea but I was tired of walking so I went down and had second breakfast.

Tai Chi Instructor


Pretty Park Next To Heritage Museum
 After debating with myself over my apple turnover, I finally decided to check out the "Heritage Museum" for three reasons, one: it was rainy, two: it was one of the Top 10 of Hong Kong and three: it would give me a chance to see some, um, new territory (to get my lame pun, keep reading.) I found, after much walking, the train line that would take me there but, once there, got lost trying to find where the shuttle bus was supposed to come. (Though I noticed cool pagodas nearby in the hills while I looked for signs, so decided to check those out after.) After some back-and-forth walking around the bus area, I finally found the shuttle area, only to find out it doesn't run on weekdays. So I walked and the road kept going in the wrong direction, but I found a pretty park along the way.

I wandered around the park, spent some time trying to explain to a duo of old Chinese guys how to properly use my digital camera so they could take a picture of me. They did, several tries later. I saw the Museum and headed on a path toward it... but the path avoided the museum completely and wrapped back around with no exits whatsoever. I backtracked and finally made it to the entrance to the museum...and it was PACKED.

My first order of business was to find a toilet. See, I'm a bit squeamish about public toilets, especially in foreign countries, so I had been waiting, figuring that a brand-new museum would have nice facilities. But, no. I guess they were clean enough but they were acting clogged and did not flush properly. (Later that day, I tried the 2nd floor toilets - an old trick of mine - and they were all completely and visibly clogged with toilet paper. Ick.)

A woman in a uniform appointed herself my guide and called back to me after she had directed me to the toilets, to show me everything on the museum map and to tell me which exhibits were closed.

I lucked out in that the sections I wanted to see (mainly the two on Cantonese Opera and the one about the history of the New Territories - get my pun, now?) were not too crowded. I especially liked the part that replicated what "backstage" was like for performers and another part that had excerpts and English explanations on an interactive screen. The other museum exhibitions, with Odd Art and Tiny Historical Relics were packed extremely tight with student groups.

The New Territories exhibit had way cool models and confirmed my theory that an "Ideal, Planned Community" in Hong Kong involves a group of high rise apartments in the center of a two-story public area with shopping, entertainment, and schools. It appears that most of the population of Hong Kong lives in high rise apartments, 25-35 stories high. I wonder if the elevators get clogged during rush hour.

The same tour guide found me (not that I'm hard to spot) as I was leaving and she had me fill out a survey. I gave her good marks, but noted the crappy crappers. I asked her why it was so crowded for a weekday and her guess was that because Wednesdays are free... but had to agree with me that the cost (not even US$1.50) couldn't have been that much of a deterrent.

I ate in a really cute, inexpensive Chinese restaurant at Sha Tin station shopping center. I almost ordered Pig Stomach but changed my mind at the last minute and had yummy pork noodles instead.

And now I decided to search for the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery (mentioned but not emphasized in either of my guide books) and the pagoda it had. I followed one sign, walking down the street and suddenly, right in front of me was an entrance to a temple with a pagoda. Wow, I have never found anything so quickly and easily before in Hong Kong. I started up, went up the hill using a fancy escalator and was presented with room after room of... plaques. Plaques, plaques, and more shiny plaques with old photos of people and offerings of fruit and flowers. No other tourists were around, just workers and people bringing offerings. I looked in nearly all the rooms. The only Buddha I found was inside the pagoda. (And, try as I might, I could not count 9 stories on it, like the book said... 6, 8, and 12, yes, but not 9.) I was confused. I walked down the stairs and finally decided to ask someone. I went to a worker selling refreshments and pointed to a picture of the Buddha temple in my guide book. She nodded and gave me odd directions (she had to walk outside to show me) that may or may not have led back to this same temple or down a street with empty vendor stalls that dead-ended.


... "Bo Fook Hill" is Pretty Enough, But it's Not the Pagoda I'm Looking For ...


I followed her directions without much confidence but when I saw a yellow sign for 10,000 Buddhas hanging on the side of the building on the corner, I realized her directions were exactly right. This sidewalk led past the end of the street and onto a forest path, then into a dodgy area with what looked like grown over slums then, finally...

BUDDHAS!


The Buddhas started soon after the stairwell began, first on one side then on both as the stairs wound their way up the hill. The Buddhas (I think, more accurately, Buddha's followers) that lined the path were shiny, gold, life-sized, and as far as I could tell, were all different. It was the coolest thing!


Path Leading Up To Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery


Three Buddha Statues I Like


At the top were... more buddha statues! Many had humorous elements (there was one lifting his robes to avoid a water wave below him) and it felt very whimsical. I loved the temple complex in general - it was red and gold and shiny and full of dragons! Inside the main temple building were mini-buddhas lining every wall surface from floor to ceiling! And the best part was the (unmistakably 9-story) pagoda! Not only was it cool, but I was able to go up inside it and climb to the top! I think that's a new record! Also, there was a random Giant Blue Dog. Haven't been able to figure that one yet...


Thousands of Mini Buddhas

Nine-Story Pagoda

Dragon on Temple Facade

View From Pagoda

Giant Blue Dog??

Reach, Buddha, Reach!


If you continued up the stairs, there were warrior statues that were more colorful and at the top, the women! The buildings in the complex were closed by the time I finally got to it, but I could still wander around and look at the statues. The construction guy didn't kick me out, despite that it was almost 6pm. I was being observant about the statues and noticed that the Female Statue Design repeated itself every 9 statues. One statue held an infant. The view from there was neat (it would have been neater but the weather refused to be clear the whole time I was there.)

I think I am in love with this monastery. This is what temples look like in my version of paradise. I think it just may have surpassed Kosanji Temple in Japan as my favorite temple ever... but the underground cave there is hard to beat. Anyway, I found another stairwell down the other side, this one also lined with Buddhas, but getting back to any main road involved a lot more walking through strange, slightly dodgy areas. How can this beautiful, beautiful monastery be so hard to find?

I tried to be clever and impose the least amount of walking on myself by choosing the KCR train line station closest to the subway MTR line but, as it goes, I got lost in those two blocks. On the way, I found this hotel... My fam will have to stay here next summer. I ended up eating in Mong Kok (which seems to be famous for aquarium pet shops) at a cheap Chinese chain called "Cafe de Coral." The Haagen Dazs I had for dessert cost more than my chicken dinner.

THURSDAY, MARCH 31

Gambling, Chinese Style


Hong Kong Island
(from the Star Ferry)
 I splurged for breakfast this morning at the Holiday Inn Breakfast Buffet mainly because it was one of the few restaurants OPEN before 8am. (Delifrance was still closed.) It was expensive, but, yum, fresh omelette and pancakes.

On my way to the ferry, I walked through the same neighborhood as I did yesterday after Tai Chi, but this time, I came upon a huge STARBUCKS. I couldn't believe it! Looking on the map, I realized I had somehow made a perimeter around the coffee shop when searching and inexplicably missed the giant signs for the corner branch. Sigh. As I passed the last line of stores before the ferry... there was ANOTHER STARBUCKS. Sigh again. Hong Kong is definitely not free from the corporation.

I took the Star Ferry for the first time this morning. It connects Kowloon (the southernmost part of mainland Hong Kong) and Hong Kong Island. Did you know Hong Kong Island is only a small part of Hong Kong? I didn't. Anyway, I could have also taken the subway, but I bowed to the advice of my guidebooks. The wooden-seated boat was cheap and easy to use (I love Octopus Cards, but I admit I already liked them because of the name.)
I saw an especially tall building among the shore skyscrapers. I found out later that it's the International Finance Center. That's not what I thought it looked like, though. I had my own name for it the whole trip but maybe on this tame, innocent page that my family will probably read, I'll settle for calling it the International Phinance Center...

The weather continued its cloudy, drizzly streak this morning and I have yet to make a visual of "The Peak" mountain overlook... I won't bother going until I see it. I hope I spot it this trip! Anyway, because the weather had not improved, I kept with my original plan of doing a day-trip to Macau. Given my luck finding anything yesterday, I did not walk very far toward the other ferry piers before giving up and taking a taxi. The taxi (and all taxis I've used here) was inexpensive and nicer than either Beijing's or Singapore's. I couldn't always account for language, so I usually had a map, picture, or Chinese characters handy, but I never had any problem.

Because Macau is only an hour ferry from Hong Kong, it is easy to forget that it is a different country and that you go through customs, get a stamp in your passport, the whole deal on the way. The ferry looked like a wide airplane on the inside (They assigned me a seat on the way in; it was full but not packed.) Victoria Harbor has very bumpy water, apparently.

Was the Architect Compensating
For Something Here?

The Ruins of Sao Paulo
and Me
 I had to walk under a sign that said "Hong Kong / Macau Residents Only" to even get to customs, but one thing I did not have to do when coming to Macau from Hong Kong is change money. Every place I encountered from restaurants to tourist shops took Hong Kong dollars and the casinos (more on them later) did not even accept the local Macau "Patacas" but there were money changers handy. Even the ATM in the ferry port gave me a choice of currency, but I, being geeky, wanted to have some local money so I could add it to my collection of Random Coins From Other Countries.

On a pre-emptive avoiding-tired-feet-later plan (knowing how much walking I intended to do this day) I took a taxi to Macau's most famous site: The Ruins of St. Paul. On reflection, I should not have taken the taxi. Not because the taxi ride was bad or because anything went wrong, but that the approach you make to the ruins while walking through tiny shops in European-style buildings through winding streets is infinitely more impressive and beautiful than approaching it from the back. My mundane first sight of the ruins was of the steel supports holding the back up.
After threading my way through every tourist in Macau to take some photos (and using a mostly tolerable public restroom) I went up to the nearby Fort, where I had a good view of the city. The crowded peninsula of Macau is a bit like Hong Kong with all the high-rise apartments, a bit like mainland China with some of the poorer areas by the river, a bit like Europe with its Portuguese architecture, and a bit like Atlantic City with its neon-lit casinos.

I wandered through the colonial-style streets, made it into the downtown high rise area, and turned off onto a coastal road that went around the southern tip of the peninsula. I debated going up to Macau Tower, which is a Seattle Space Needle-type structure built on reclaimed land. However, it was not the thought of walking on what used to be ocean that turned me away, it was the fact that I could barely see the tower through all the shifting fog.

The walk was LONG, but quiet and peaceful. After I rounded the bottom of the peninsula, with its long bridges connecting to the southern islands (wow, it is like Atlantic City), I consulted the Book to find the chapter and verse of tour guide scripture that stated which place I should visit next. I was practically upon it: the "A-Ma" Temple.

Quaint, Unspoiled Portuguese Architecture
(Yeah, Right. Look Closer.)

A-Ma Temple had even more tourists than the Ruins of St. Paul! (Or maybe they all hopped in their buses and rode over while I took the long way around. Indeed, I came upon the tour bus parking before I even saw the temple - I just naively hoped it was for something else.) Sheesh! This is one case where the amount of people really spoiled it for me. Every five seconds, I was in someone's way taking a picture and I had the same problem when I tried to take a photo. There were people EVERYWHERE taking photos of EVERYTHING and the Temple was not all that big. I think this old series of small buildings on a hillside would have otherwise been very interesting and peaceful.

The photo on the right I had to wait nearly ten minutes to take as I waited for no one to be walking in, no one to be walking out, and for the worker woman removing burnt incense sticks to not be in the way. Past the nifty circular doorway was more stairs that led up to more places to burn incense and give donations, but most importantly of all, a rock with two Chinese characters painted on it, which everyone needed a picture of. Can't you feel the excitement? Hmmm. I bet I was in dozens of tourists' photos as I tried to find a way out of the kanji rock area... but it was a trap and all the trails were dead ends. I tried to hide behind trees until it was clear, but I could have been there all day. I had to go back the way I came, blocking the rock, which I'm sure said something in-depth and more fascinating than "thick hook" which is what it appears to be, for even more photo-takers.

The strangest thing I saw in A-Ma was what I'll call Turtle Donations. People put coins or bills into a glass cage or a bucket with a turtle in it! Naturally, there was water for the turtle too so basically people's donations got soaked with water and turtle waste and therefore were not much practical good to anyone. I'm sure it is good luck or something? Maybe? I didn't make a donation.

At the base of the temple, I found a tourist stand that sold sets of Macau coins, which you could buy with Hong Kong dollars. I guess I'm not the only coin geek around. He probably thought it was silly that I was buying them with Macau patacas, but I had to break my bills to get change, right? I have a fair amount of pataca coins now.




A-Ma Temple
(The Least Crowded Part of It)

Donations to...
The Turtle Bucket?


For lunch, I tried a place called "A Lorcha" that both my tourist books recommended that was conveniently right by the Temple of Tourists. Feeling brave, I ordered "Rabbit Stew" but they were fresh out so I had steak instead. Unfortunately, their definition of "medium" was my definition of "very rare" so I couldn't eat it all, but the warm bread roll and soup were good.

The next couple hours involve me hailing a "light bus," traveling through really neat non-tourist shopping areas on it, going to a rather dull temple with an intolerable public toilet, walking through a hillside garden with a rather nice public toilet, and getting completely lost on the way to the casinos because the road on the map I was following forgot to specify that instead of sidewalks, there were high walls and parked cars, making it impossible to traverse without risk of limb. But look at these funky pink things I saw while I was walking around lost:


I'm Rooting for This Tree

Random Pink Tower


Now for the fun part of the day: the GAMBLING!

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