Buddha, Baking and Birds

In the Christmas break I'm going to Borneo, where I might (if the tour company confirm our booking)be climbing Mount Kinabalu! So when Scott suggested a little hike last Sunday I decided I ought to go along. We took an MTR to the end of the orange line on Lantau and then a minibus to a little village called Shek Mun Kip (I think) where the trail began. The start of the trail isn't very well signposted, but it gets better as you get higher up. The path is all concreted so it's strangely like walking on a pavement through the jungle, but the noises and the butterflies whirring past your nose help you to feel like your really out in the wild.

The expedition crew

Temple roof hiding in the jungle

The hike up the hill isn't too steep and there are lots of little distracting monasteries and temples to stop at on the way, as well as 'an audible stream' (that's how it's described in Scott's hiking guide) where we stopped to sit in the shade and I dipped my feet in the pool. After two hours moving uphill in the Hong Kong sunshine it was rather nice get to the top and walk along the flat plateau towards the Buddha. This time I paid bit extra and went for a meal in the vegetarian restaurant. The food no doubt tasted extra good because we'd put in such an effort to get to it!

The 'Audible Stream'

Reflected Buddha

The rest of my week has been quite un-touristy. On Wednesday I went for a few quiet drinks in my local (literally right next to my block of flats) bar. It's called Co Co Duck and is part of a chain. It feels a bit like an old men's pub in Britain (only with that traditional smoky atmosphere) and has tartan fabric on the seats. After our drinks we went for some food in Langham Place, which is the big shopping mall in Mong Kok and discovered that Christmas has officially hit Hong Kong.

Christmas in Langham Place

Yesterday I went back to Hong Kong Park, on the island, for a proper explore. The park is right in the busy part of Hong Kong Island so you have the surreal feeling that your in a giant tv set and either the lush vegetation or the shining sky scrapers has been superimposed on a blue screen. To add to the surreality, the park also contains a marriage registry so the main paths are full of just-married couples queing up to get their photos taken in the most picturesque spots! If you can wind your way along the paths without tripping over the trails and tripods, you can also visit the Museum of Tea Ware (exhibiting a variety of tea pots) and a huge aviary containing around 600 birds before taking in the conservatory (which I didn't have time for) and the waterfall!

Where did the skyscrapers go?

The Aviary

The Bank of China tower from behind the waterfall.

This morning I woke up to the sounds of bagpipes! It's not the Fair day... but there is some kind of celebration going on in the sports ground that my windows look over. I always thought that when I live abroad I would start to get nostalgic over the sound of bagpipes but sadly that effect hasn't kicked in yet. I don't think the pipers were particularly experience - they seemed a bit out of tune to me!

Bagpipers out my window!

I'm going on another hike this afternoon so need to go and get my suncream on, then it's off to school camp tomorrow which should be interesting.

Cheese

This evening I spent $100 making a cheese sandwich. It's not as bad as it sounds, HK$100 is around 8 pounds (Hong Kong laptops don't come with pound keys!) and I bought a whole baguette, plus a block of cheddar, a packet of chorizo and an entire lettuce, so I'll get at least 3 meals out of it. Plus, the sandwich was very tasty!

Jude and Fiona's visit went brilliantly, although it left me a bit exhausted! We spent Saturday on a 'junk boat' trip with everyone from Chatteris. Sadly, 'junk boat' is term applied to all sorts of boats out here, so we were on a modern speedboat rather than an ancient, red-sailed wooden one, but we did go off and moor (park, for the non-nautical) in a bay beside an uninhabited island and Jude and I went swimming in the south china sea.

Fiona and Jude on the boat

Chatteris overboard!

On Sunday I took Jude and Fiona to The Flying Pan in Central for breakfast. It's a 24-hour American style diner which does full fried breakfasts, pancakes, waffles and smoked salmon bagels. We needed a good breakfast to fuel up for our trip to the 10 000 Buddhas monastery in Sha Tin. The monastery is up on top of a hill, but the steep, winding path to get there is lined with statues of Buddha in various guises, so you have something to distract you from the climb, although the best statues are saved for when you get to the top. Eventually the path levels out and there's a beautiful big temple, the insides of which are encrusted with miniature models of Buddha, each one with it's own little spotlight. Buddhist temples are so rich and colourful compared to churches at home and this one looks quite decadent with all it's gold and red. We met up with Pollina, Rachel and Scott (more Chatteris people) at the monastery. They had come up by a different pathway (which wasn't lined with Buddhas) so we took it back down and managed to hear, and (eventually) spot two big monkeys on the way!

Jude takes the hike in her stride

The inside of the temple

(it's a bit blurry because there's no flash allowed)

Intrepid Buddha Spotters

On Monday, it was National Day, which meant a holiday from school for me... and MORE Buddha spotting with Jude and Fiona! We took the MTR to Lantau Island to meet up with Nicole (one of my fellow teachers) and go in search of the Big Buddha. The Big Buddha was built in the 1950s but is one of the biggest freestanding outdoor Buddhas in the world. It's a pretty impressive sight, and somehow a lot less ugly and Blackpool-illuminations-like than a lot of the Buddhas in Sha Tin. The Big Buddha is also on the top of a hill, so we were able to enjoy a bit of a breeze and appreciate the green countryside of Lantau, which is much less densely populated than Kowloon (where I live) and Hong Kong Island. Nicole also took us to visit the fishing village of Tai O where lots of people live in huts on stilts and the streets are crammed full of stalls selling dried fish. It's a little bit smelly but amazing to find yourself in an actual, traffic-less village only an hour away from the craziness of Mong Kok.

Big Buddha on the hill

Drying fish

Tai O stilt houses

Jude and Fiona left on Tuesday morning and it was back to school as usual for me. We're slowly getting more out-of-class activities going on in school, which is great.


I took a break from tourist activities last weekend, after being a bit buddha-d out, and spent it trying to pay rent, buying 2 new t-shirts and going for a swim in Kowloon Park instead. The outdoor pool closes in November so I only have this month to experience swimming in the warm, musky air of a Hong Kong evening surrounded by the city lights (and the Hong Kong Scout headquarters!).


Can't believe we're nearly a third of the way through this school term already! I really SHOULD start learning all the kids names...