Hong Kong pt V

The first day of the Chinese New Year (it spans a total of three) we decided to try and find the 10,000 Buddha Monastery. There's actually about 13,000 depictions of the Buddha and tons of other statues as well.

The view of the monastery from below.

As you head up the path to the monastery you pass by all of these statues of various devotees of the Buddha.

One of the pagodas at the top. Covered with various Buddhas.

This statue really intrigued me. That's a very long arm. Reminded me of Dhalsim.

Front view of the main temple. That's not a tiled wall.

Look closer.

Ah, a bunch of little Buddhas. That's a helluva lot of Buddhas. They're all in different poses too.

Let's get a little artsy. Not too much though.

The gilded corpse of the monastery's founder. Not sure how I feel about this.

More statues.

I wish there was someone there that could have explained who all these people are.

Guan Yu, the God of War. I forget what name the Hong Kongers call him. He's all over the temples.

More golden statues on the hillside.

Two of the statues that piqued my interests. I envision this guy saying something like, 'And then I stepped on a fish and it was THIS BIG.'

And I feel like this guy is thinking, 'Whoa crap, I'm riding a deer. Cool.'

And in true Hong Kong fashion, one only need turn their head to be reminded where the city is.

Big Buddha by a waterfall.

We were also able to catch a traditional lion dance. It was a lot of fun to watch. The guys that do these dances are in top shape. I have a video but I need to edit it a bit before I can upload it.

Hong Kong pt IV

It's been about a week and I had been without an internet connection so you all were left without an update. So, after some razzing from a certain WSM I am putting up a few things.

Just FYI, I'm back in India. Just got in this afternoon. I really wish I could have stayed in Hong Kong longer; there's still so much that I didn't get to see/do. There are a few things I really miss about it:

1) The people. I met a lot of really cool people while I was there and really learned so much. Granted, Woodstock IS an international school and I have learned a lot from the people here but I think I learned different things in Hong Kong. I'm not sure how to explain it.

2) Traffic laws. In Hong Kong people wait until the sign says to cross the street even if there is no traffic coming. They also drive inside the lines. Take a cab ride through Delhi and you'll understand.

3) Cleanliness. In Hong Kong it's illegal to spit; even in the rubbish bins; even in the toilet. In India, I step off the train and almost immediately immerse my left foot up to my ankle in a puddle of human excrement. Nothing says 'Welcome Home' quite like that.

I really shouldn't dwell on it like this. I'll just make myself depressed. And it's not that I don't like India, it's just that after an action packed month of doing and seeing I'm going back to the hills to the drudgery of work. Ho hum...

Ah well, such is life, no?

Here's some pics:

Aren't you jealous? Jackie Chan's star on the Hong Kong Harbour. Not quite Hollywood, but it IS where he's made a lot of movies.

And a statue paying tribute to Hong Kong's golden boy of cinema, Bruce Lee.

Romain(right) in Lan Kwai Fang after sword fighting the other dude. We went to the area to get a drink after dinner and ran into some of Camber's friends from juggling club who just happened to be making balloon things. In total we got a hat, dong, sword, mouse, and flower. At the end of the night, in an especially precious moment, Camber gave the flower to a little girl on the MTR (subway). Smiling ecstatically, the girl promptly shoved it in her daddy's face and hit her sister with it. A few day's later we ran into the sword wielding fellow again and lots of people wanted our pictures with him.

We attended a night market in celebration of the new year (year of the ox by the way). A better way to describe it would be a fully clothed orgy. You're literally packed in with absolutely no room to maneuver. What made things worse was all the guys with their arms around their girlfriends. In effect, they encapsulated them and really just made a giant, slow-moving mass that really got on my nerves.

We had to opportunity to see all sorts of weird people. This guy had an orange on his head.

This person (not sure if it was a guy or girl, Camber swears it was a guy) was in a mountain of giant, plush croissants. I didn't get it.

These kids were running a stall and started cheering. Therefore, I started cheering. They cheered more and so did I. A little kid cried. Seriously.

Mike, I thought of you. Not sure why though.

Lots of people tried to sell us stuff. This guy tried selling us empty milk cartons. I decided to have some fun and employed a little trick T taught me in Delhi. You see, you're supposed to haggle the prices. Well, whenever someone would give me a price I'd raise them. Most just laughed but a few gave me really dumbfounded looks.

This woman tried selling socks. Compared to the rest of the things there, this was entirely out of place and uncalled for.

Things like blow up eggballs (a waffle-like street treat) that even come in their own over sized brown paper sack.

And now for something completely different.

I've been slaving over a few Christmas presents and (as is always the case) I'm late getting them off. But I think the end result justifies the wait.

In true Indian fabrics we have an elephant for young Alice Ruth and a tiger for ms Kaylee Marie. For some reason, Kaylee's always end up being larger than I expect and increasingly frustrating. I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep this up next year with Baby Butt Bathje (or whatever its name is going to be) coming along too. Maybe I'll start earlier or go smaller. I'll figure something out

TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies	5
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?	10
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp	15
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?	20
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake

Hong Kong pt III

So I've been having some fun over the past few days. I met up with some people at Lan Kwai Fong, the local night scene, for a few drinks and had some fun. I was privy to witnessing a man fall over like a tree and smack his head on the pavement only to get up immediately and go back in for more drinks. I also had a riveting conversation with a woman. It went a little something like this:

On stage is a woman, laughing to her self. A man, noticeably drunk, stands near her swaying. A bar is in the background. From stage left enter James, W, and R. Swaying man falls like a tree. The three guys rush over. Woman doesn't even notice.

W: Are you alright man?

No response.

James: Dude, are you OK?

Man suddenly gets up and exits via the bar. The three men look at each other dumbfounded, then laugh. Woman turns and smiles.

Woman: Hi! Where are you all from?

W: Kansas City.

Woman: (sarcastically) Oh wow!

R: France.

Woman: France! Really? I love a french accent, they're just so sexy.

R blushes.

Woman: What about you?

James: Originally south of Chicago. Now, I live in India.

Woman: (again, sarcastically) South side of Chicago? Interesting! What is it you do?

W: I teach English in mainland China.

Woman: (to James; again, sarcastically) Teach English?! How interesting!

James: And what is it you do?

Woman: I teach violin... in Connecticut!

James and R look at each other and snicker. Three guys exit stage right. Woman realizes she is alone and falls to her knees, sobbing.

I swear it happened that way.

So, last night I had a very surreal dining experience. If you've ever seen the movie Demolition Man, you might be able to guess where I am going with this. Camber and I decided that some pizza would be nice so we headed down to the neighborhood Pizza Hut. There we were met by the hostess and led to a table. The restaurant was well lit and lacked any hint of arcade games. Glasses of lemon water were on the table and our waitress handed us the menus. The menu itself was about 16 pages long, only 2 of which had anything to do with pizza. The rest were filled up with pastas, breadsticks, desserts, and various other things. The pizzas came in three styles: 1) tomato sauce, 2) curry sauce, and 3) thousand island dressing. The 'American Adventure' had corn, beef and pepperoni on it. We went with the classic 'Meat Lovers.' It was a good pizza but the experience was something else.

Today was something entirely different. Food really wasn't involved for once. We headed to the island of Lantau for the day. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

We took the sky hook over to Lantau. It was about 20 minutes in the cable car. Camber and I made our first friend, Kristin, a man from Milan, during the ride.

First sighting of the Big Buddha from the cable cars.

At the base of the stairs to the Buddha. You can sort of begin to see how large it really is. And sorry Maggie, there was no belly rubbing. I could've faced deportation had I attempted.

Statues surrounding the Buddha.

The enlightened one himself.

Even Buddha can't outrun commercialism and 7-11.

Reminds me of Dutchland. Cindy, I'm still not forgiving you for that.

I'm not sure what it is exactly.

The Splendid Bronze Cauldron for the Return of Sovereignty.

You may remember that a few years ago the Japanese began selling cubic watermelons. Well, the Chinese Buddhists have them beat. They have oranges that grow with the package netting already on them. Take that Japan!

Gigantic incense sticks.

These trees were everywhere. I have no idea what they are but I really like them.

Camber and I then headed to the local monastery to see how the monks live their daily lives. I only saw one monk and a lot of tourists. We had lunch at a lackluster vegetarian place which Camber swore by. I'll forgive her this one time.

We then took a walk down the Wisdom Path. It led us to this neat little area. A series of pillars set up in a figure eight pattern to represent infinity.

On each pillar where inscriptions from the Buddhist Heart Sutra. I'm not really sure what it's about since I can't read Chinese but I'm told it's about emptiness.

Engrish.

Just as we got on our bus to take us to the fishing village of Tai O I noticed that Camber had a little Buddha sitting on her head. This is where we met our second friend, some Scottish man who was lost and whose wife wouldn't talk to him.

Tai O, being a fishing village has plenty of boats... fishing.


There's also lots of little shrines.

And there's lots of little shops selling all sorts of dried seafood items. I could identify some fish and rays and what I think where oysters. Camber thinks she saw some pig penis. I didn't test any out though.

We were lucky enough to see them making shrimp paste. It's basically shrimp ground up with spices and left out in the sun to ferment. I'm not sure how you eat it. The smell is enough to make you not want to find out.

Tai O is billed as the Venice of the east. The stilted houses and lots of boats can give the impression. However, I'm not sure if the atmosphere is quite the same. This is where we met our two other sets of friends. One was a local man and his baby who would not leave us alone until his kid said, "Hi" to us. It was cute. The other was an older couple we came to know as the Isle of Wight People (or as I preferred to call them: the I Love White People). We kept running into them all over the village. It was more than a little creepy actually.

More Engrish.

Me showing off my powers of divination to find water. Water found. Damn I'm good at what I do.

We took a ferry back to the main island and after riding the world's largest escalator (billed as a 'travelator') we got some dinner. My favourite part of the day, though, comes from dessert. We stopped at a place that serves traditional Chinese desserts and wanted to get some custard. The only thing was that the place was packed. Luckily a nice old man offered to share his table albeit reluctantly. Shortly after a large group left and when Camber said we were fine and didn't want to move the man abruptly got up and went to a new table. Camber and I finished out egg custard while giggling as two more large groups came in and the old man had to keep moving to new spots. For all the friends we made today, I think we made one enemy.