Those who were able to travel to Hong Kong for this momentous celebration did and it was so great to see everyone! I haven't seen everybody together since 2005 - travelled from Australia, the UK and Scotland. Still missing a few members so let's celebrate Grandpa's 100 years celebration all together!
We had a simple dinner at Grandpa's favorite Chinese restaurant. I surprised everyone with cut out faces of Grandpa's face for a fun photo opportunity. It was the funniest thing ever - we distributed the cut outs under the table and counted to three and we all couldn't breathe while laughing and holding it up to our faces. I order the face cut outs from Shindigz and the quality is quite high for the price. Love!
In addition to Grandpa's 90th birthday, we celebrated my aunt's masters graduation from The Hong Kong University. Great milestones achieved!
As our present to Grandpa, we all collectively worked on putting together a video montage for the past few months. We presented it to him at the end of dinner and it was such an emotional moment. He loved it -- our work here is done! :)
I remember when I was little or even during the summer time when I came back to Hong Kong to visit my grandparents, I would wake up before the sun came up, bring a bucket and a shovel and get into the car with my grandpa for his daily morning swimming routine. His favorite spot was a more deserted area of Stanley Beach where he would meet his early morning swimming buddies and swim all the way out to the point where I can't even see him anymore. Same morning routine every morning at 5am for the past 50+ years. After his swim, he would take a quick shower and drive to the bakery to grab pineapple buns as breakfast for the people at home and the daily newspaper before heading home. Those were the days.
Stanley Beach will always have a place in my heart (mainly because there is only one winding road that looks like you're going through a forest and you have to go through this narrow bridge to get to the other side). To get to Stanley Beach via public transportation, we had to take the MTR to the very last stop on the Island Line-- Chai Wan and get on the 16X. This was the first time since I've been back to get on a mini bus and boyyyyy was it rough.
We made it! Without anyone falling off their seats.
Walking around Stanley Market is quite interesting. I don't recall walking around this part of Stanley, mainly because it's the tourist area. But this sign below caught my eye and when I read it.. well it basically says, enter this dark little alley for all this food. (╯°□°)╯
We also happened to stop by the Tin Hau Temple at Stanley. I took a picture of the history below: It's quite interesting.
After a ton of walking around, our bellies were begging for some milk tea and condense milk over toast. I actually OpenRice'd this place which happens to be one of the hidden gems of Stanley. They said this place had the best condense milk/toast and milk tea in the area as well as the Satay Beef sandwich. So of course, we had to try it. I'm glad I took a picture before we dug in because it was gone in no time. So good! The service was nonexistent.. but what do you expect!
Refueled and ready to go! Our next stop was Repulse Bay, which is where a lot of the movies are filmed in Hong Kong. We had no idea where we were going so we basically did it the old fashion way! Yep, asked strangers for directions. But we still ended up getting off at the wrong stop and had to walk our way (like 2-3 more stops) to Repulse Bay on a VERY NARROW sidewalk (not even) with cars whizzing by like it was nothing.
We made it! Alive! Again! It was such a pretty view.
The nearby road is currently under construction and apparently in (I'm guessing) late-2014, there will be shops opening around the area for tourists to visit and hang out. Like this picture below: Ben & Jason's and Duncan Donuts. Mmmm?
We actually stumbled into another? Tin Hau Temple in Repulse Bay, which is quite interesting as there is two temples around the same area. We actually entered through the back entrance and it was quite creepy since there was no one else around until a group of Korean tourists came along.
We ended up following the Korean tour guide, since he has to know where he is going! And he brought us to the real entrance of Tin Hau Temple. The Guan Yin statue is HUGE. The biggest statue of Guan Yin I have ever seen. So pretty and well kept.
We ended up following the Korean tour guide, since he has to know where he is going! And he brought us to the real entrance of Tin Hau Temple. The Guan Yin statue is HUGE. The biggest statue of Guan Yin I have ever seen. So pretty and well kept.
This little bridge is the Longevity Bridge. It is said that your life will be prolonged for three more days each time you cross it.
There are over 70 Tin Hau Temples all over Hong Kong. The reason why it is so popular because she is believed to be the Goddess of the Sea protecting the fishermen and sailors working on the ocean as well as residents in the coastal areas (which is basically all of Hong Kong).
So productive! We literally hit up all those spots and more in one day. Definitely doable but prepare for lots of walking (but that goes for going anywhere in Hong Kong).
Wong Tai Sin Temple has been on my list to visit for the longest time. It is easily accessible as it is literally right next to the MTR. I was so excited! Amar and I spontaneously started the day by picking an attraction randomly. We ended up having one of the most productive day. I really like this temple! It was so beautiful and after going through one semester of Religion and Spirituality in Asia, visiting the Big Buddha and the Temple makes so much sense and it definitely gave me a background on how the religion began and flourished.
This is a temple that houses three religions, Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The temple commemorates famous monk named Wong Tai Sin who became a deity. It is believed that if you make a prayer and offer the Gods your truest sincerity and incense, what you request is what you get (有求必應). A lot of the traffic the temple receives are from those visitors whose prayers were answered returning to thank the Gods. Visitors also come in search for a spiritual answer. They light incense sticks, kneel before the main altar, make a wish, and shake a bamboo cylinder with fortune sticks. When one falls out, you exchange it for a piece of paper and there will be a person to interpret the fortune on the paper. It's a lot like looking into what your future holds.
The famous yin yang symbol represents universal oneness with the two colors rotating in a circle. It symbolizes duality like life and death or summer and winter.
It's interesting to see an old temple in the middle of all the high rise apartment buildings.
They provide free incense for visitors to present to the Gods (you're limited to 9 per person) but a lot of the people, to show their sincerity, brought their own HUGE incense sticks.
Also located in the same area next to the temple is the Good Wish Garden, which is beautifully put together. It reminded me a lot of the dramas that were dated back in the old times.
After exploring Wong Tai Sin, we decided to head to Diamond Hill to visit the Nan Lian Garden. In between high-rise buildings and Hollywood Plaza Shopping Mall, is the tranquil Nan Lian Garden, a public park built in the style of the Tang dynasty. It was such a peaceful setting and everything was so beautiful.
I always happen to take pictures of cute little kids in my pictures, like that time at Niagara Falls.
It was so nice. I can't wait to go back! It's also very nice that it's free admissions but the only downside is that it's out of the way from where I am. Anyways after walking around the Garden, I promised Amar that we would watch The Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug since he has been waiting to watch it with me. I decided that we would head to the famous Tsim Sha Tsui (TST)'s iSquare mall to check movie times. The theater was so fancy and the shopping area was HUGE! We purchased our tickets and had time to grab something to eat before the movies and I decided to splurge for Budaoweng Hot Pot Cuisine. Mmmmm. It was probably the best dinner after a long day of exploring. It was pricey, but so worth it!
Not to mention, the view was beautiful.
I love how they have these condiments for you to make your own dipping sauce. My favorite part.
The movie was also very good! It didn't even feel like the movie was close to three hours long. Our last destination for the night was the Avenue of Stars, which is like the LA Walk of Fame but Hong Kong version. It pays tribute to the famous actors and actresses while giving visitors a panoramic view of the city's glorious skyline. Loooove Victoria Harbour.
We ended the night by taking the "Star" Ferry back to Central and then home. ｡◕ ‿ ◕｡
Amar was not the only one visiting these sights for the first time. It was my first time as well! Like I mentioned in my previous post, I only had a week to settle in before starting my full-time position in Hong Kong which leaves me with little to no time to explore what this small metropolitan city has to offer.
It was so exciting to be able to explore Hong Kong and share this experience with someone special. A lot of the days we spent relaxing and for him, absorbing into the culture. He can finally see for himself the major difference between China and Hong Kong.
The first few spots we visited was the Big Buddha, also known as the Tian Tan Buddha in Lantau Island, which is easily accessible via the trusty MTR to Tung Chung.
I think the tourism board in Hong Kong did a fantastic job in terms of directing tourists to the different attractions as it was really easy to follow the signs to where we need to go. Ngong Ping 360 is basically the gondola lift that connects Tung Chung (the area of the MTR station) to Lantau Island, home to the Big Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery. I don't remember what day of the week we went on but boy, was it busy! It was also a very nice day so everybody and their mommas were out. The lines extended all the way to the bottom of the escalators.
We were finally able to purchase our tickets after nearly an hour wait. There are other ways of getting to Lantau Island via bus or.. hiking through the mountains (you'll see the trail soon enough). But the idea of riding in a cable car was far better than a bus at the time and by the time we realized the line was super long, we were already half way to the ticket booth. I believe it was HKD$150 for a round trip ticket and 10 or 15% off for HK residents. There's the option to ride in a crystal floor cable car or a standard one and being the cheapos that I am, of course we went with standard. But I wouldn't feel safe riding in a crystal floor cable car anyways since I'm terrified of heights.
Very polluted but still a good view of Hong Kong! The ride was super long actually- around 25 minutes and we were able to spot the Hong Kong Airport.
The trail below like I mentioned earlier. You can walk....
We made it! Once we arrived, there is a modern village area with different franchises like Honeymoon Dessert and when we walk further, there were little mom and pop booths selling souvenirs and post cards.
Big Buddha spotted!
Tian Tan Buddha/Big Buddha is a large statue of Buddha Amoghasiddhi and it symbolizes the relationship between man and nature, people and religion. It's named Tian Tan Buddha because it's based on a statue at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. It is also one of the five largest Buddha statues in China. (Information brought to you by Wikipedia.) Tourists have to climb 268 steps in order to reach the Buddha and we saw a cute old lady literally kneeling and praying at every step.
The Buddha is surrounded by six smaller (but still big) bronze statues called "The Offerings of Six Devas" offering flowers, incense, lamp, ointment, fruit, and music to the Buddha and they symbolize charity, morality, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The essentials to reaching nirvana.
Although it was pretty humid the day we visited, we stayed for half an hour just admiring the sight and just looking at the Big Buddha is very calming. We headed back down the steps and to the bus terminal to continue our day in Tai O, a fishing village. The bus ride was really bumpy and crowded but we were able to find seats!
It was maybe a 15 minute ride to Tai O. It's quite interesting to see the fishing lifestyle as it's very different from the hustle and bustle of city life even though the fishing lifestyle is dying out. The village has a lot of huts and very old stilt houses.
The first street food stand when entering Tai O, with a gigantic squid and super huge fish balls!
A peak inside someone's home..
Dried shark?
As we were walking towards the end of the shops of the village, we noticed a line and to our surprise, the line was for eggettes! Of course, we followed the crowd and waited in line for it. It's different than the eggettes in SF or anywhere in the US for all I know.. because they actually use real fire and charcoal to cook the eggettes giving it that extra crispy crunch. Mmmmm.
When we were walking back to take the bus back to the Big Buddha, we noticed all the dried salty fish-- out for drying! With all the flies... So this is why my grandma washes them before cooking.
We could have taken the bus straight back to Tung Chung for the MTR, but since we purchased the round trip ticket, we thought we couldn't waste the return trip. So therefore, we took the bus back to the Big Buddha and then ran to the cable car entrance (lots of people because it was close to sun down, everybody wanted to leave) to wait in line to head home.
Super pretty sight, even though you can barely see anything in the middle of all that pollution. The end to a very productive day Ü
