A Weekend in Hong Kong

Yummy

For those who don't know, I really don't care for Chinese food. Overall, I find it too greasy and either bland or fishy. Eating only Chinese food for a whole day always leaves me craving a cheeseburger and chocolate cake. But, with local guides, Amber and I were committed to eating local cuisine. We started with dim sum (the second picture)- for breakfast. Dim Sum is the name for when you get small dishes of many different kinds of food (we do it in Taipei sometimes too). I tried it all, but couldn't believe I was eating it for breakfast! For dinner, we went to a gorgeous restaurant: I loved the aesthetic so much that I could get over the food! The bathroom was the most beautiful I've ever seen.

The Cheung Chau Festival

Cheung Chau is an outlying island of Hong Kong reached by a fast ferry. Denise and Carmen took us for a famous yearly festival unique to the island. Amber and I actually saw it on tv the night before (and I had heard of the bun climb) and were wondering where and when it was. And it happened to be the weekend we were in Hong Kong! To explain, first they build three bamboo towers and put dough buns all over. They leave them there (nice and moldly!) and Taoist priests pray and make offerings. The whole festival is meant to placate hungry wandering ghosts on the island. So, the bun towers are left there, and they actually make a special 20 meter one for climbing. There are 12 contestants who have to scramble up the tower and try to grab as many buns as possible from the top within three minutes. Buns at the top worth nine points, the middle three points and the bottom one point: you get the picture. The winner this year got over 700 points! Supposedly this tradition was only reinstated recently because in 1978 one of the towers collapsed injuring 100 people. And to clarify, we did not actually see the competition... it was at midnight and we had too much of Hong Kong left to see.

This is the temple on Cheung Chau. I was fascinated by the candle and the incense cones hanging from the ceiling (I guess with prayers written on the bottom).

The Bun Parade

The Parade was well worth an hour long wait! There were some traditional Chinese elements (dragon dances, drums, music and statues of deities being carried) and some unique to Cheung Chau. The parade features children dressed as living dolls floating above the heads of the crowds. If you look in one of these pictures, you see it is actually a clever combination of rods and wires. They looked beautiful but some seemed a little more put out than others to be standing in a heavy costume in the sunshine.

Parade Personalities

Just a clarification... this woman is not in costume- she's just trying to stay cool!

Watching the Show

In this parade, I found the spectators almost as fascinating as the performers. There was a sense of camaraderie standing in 35 degree heat waiting and dripping together. I loved watching the mother and baby in the window (he would pound his hands whenever the drums came by) and the boy across the way who showed (on his face) the misery that we were all experiencing.

Beat The Crowds

Okay, I have to explain the escalator pictures. One of the best channels we get in Taiwan is the travel channel and sometimes it is the only watchable program. So, for some reason I was watching a "World's Best" or "World's Only" type show and realized Hong Kong is famous for two escalators! One (above) is the longest escalator in the world. Actually it is a maze of connected escalators to transport commuters quickly up or down a rather steep hill from home to work. The one below is the only curved escalator in the world. I think Denise and Carmen were wondering about my fascination with escalators!

A Cat Cafe

Yes, in Hong Kong there is such a thing as a cat cafe. When the girls told me about it, I begged them to take us (Amber was voting for the dog cafe, but there was no way they would even get me in the door- fear of dogs). So the cafe was a cute little upstairs room serving coffee and providing cards and games for patrons to play. And... there were about 15 cats wandering around. By far some of the most contented cats I have ever seen. Some would sit on people's laps while they drank or, in the picture below, bother them while they tried to play cards. My kind of place!

City at Night

I can't decide which of these pictures I like better, so I put them both in. I love the way it looks like a black and white picture, but that was actually the color of the sky.
This is Amber with our tour guides for the day: Denise and Carmen. They were relatives of Amber's family friends in Wisconsin, and we were thankful for all their help. They took us on a great whirlwind tour of the real Hong Kong (10am till 11pm!) We could have never done these things on our own.

The view from Victoria's Peak of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon peninsula. Stunning.

A Magical Day

Hong Kong Disneyland was fabulous. Although I only had 2 1/2 days in HK, I decided it would be worth a day to visit one of the most magical places on earth. It was still Asian in a lot of ways (for example the food was a big disappointment), but it felt like home. There weren't as many attractions and some things seemed very small (like the castle in the background), but the park was nearly empty and I had time to do every ride and show.

Disney Fun

Hong Kong is a shoppers paradise: all this for a great value (even the Disney stuff!) I love my Eeyore and the Van Gogh copy at the top right is so amazing (hand painted oil painting).

The End.

And that was Hong Kong. Through our visit, we discovered yet again how Asia is so different. On the first night we were riding the subway into the city and something felt strange. When we finally put our fingers on it, we realized two things: first, everyone was wearing jeans and baggy tee shirts: no makeup and little jewellry. Second, no one was staring at us; no one even gave us a second glace! The exact opposite of a subway ride in Taipei. People in Hong Kong also seemed much more laid back and more polite. There seemed to be less of an "I'm the most important person, so I go first" kind of attitude. Hong Kong was much cheaper, but more crowded and so much hotter. Although I won't be moving there any time soon, I can't wait to go back and do some more shopping!