A busy start to the month

It's finally December, but the weather is now similar to Scottish summer. Yesterday I was out in a short dress and a wrap for the whole day and I was only really chilly in the evening. I haven't written for a while because my life out here has suddenly got hectic - I've started 8 weeks of volunteering on a Social Welfare programme on Wednesday evenings, I've joined a musical society and now have rehearsals on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays AND my parents have been in town so I've been tour guiding them around!

Last weekend I took them to Stanley for a leisurely lunch on the promenade and a wander round the market, and we went to visit the Chi Lin Nunnery and Wong Tai Sin temple. The nunnery buildings are really impressive, made out of dark wood and held together without a single nail, but the atmosphere there is very quiet and austere and, aside from the visitors kneeling to say a quick whispered prayer, you don't really see anyone actually worshipping the big buddha statues that they have there. I think the contemplative atmosphere was good for my jet lagged parents, but I much prefer the hustle and bustle of the temples I've visited here, so we popped in to Wong Tai Sin temple at the next MTR stop so they could experience that too. Wong Tai Sin is one of the busiest temples in Hong Kong and the day we visited the courtyard in front of the temple was packed with people laying out offerings (including a whole chicken and a huge chunk of ham) and burning incense and shaking tins of fortune telling sticks. After 10 minutes or so taking in the atmosphere we retreated to the left side of the main temple, where we discovered a lovely garden with pagodas and covered walkways and a HUGE waterfall feature and a pond full of technicoloured carp.

All that wood and not a single nail at Chi Lin nunnery

The hustle and bustle at Wong Tai Sin

Dad and Mum in the Wong Tai Sin gardens

I've also been taking advantage of the visiting parents to do some slightly classier activities. Rather than watch the nightly Symphony of Lights show from the Avenue of Stars with the masses (I've already done this about 3 times!) we hopped aboard the Aqualuna, a big wooden junk with red sails (although it relies on motor power) and colonial style furnishings, to take a tour of the harbour and enjoy the light show from the water. The rattan seats are surprisingly comfortable and it's all very elegant lying back with your 'complementary' drink, although the best bit of the experience might just be the jealous looks on other peoples' faces at the pontoon!

Me and Mum on board the Aqualuna

For our luxury highlight this weekend we decided to take in the Peninsula, a historic hotel where the Brits officially surrendered to the Japanese during WW2. It's so posh that the bathroom attendant actually hands you a cloth to dry your hands on and then produces a wicker basket for you to discard it in. Sadly, the Felix bar on the 28th floor doesn't open till 6pm so we couldn't take in the views, but we had drinks in an elegant lounge bar and admired the subtley shimmering Christmas decorations in the foyer.

The Peninsula foyer, decorated for Christmas

We spend the rest of Saturday wandering around Hong Kong Park, where I finally got to see inside the conservatory. The plants are pretty and the displays are nicely set out, but only in Hong Kong would you find fake plastic reindeer and Christmas decorations in a hothouse! Christmas make take longer than usual to arrive here, but once it's December people really seem to get into it. It'll be interesting to compare Hong Kong's efforts with whatever I find in Borneo over the holidays.

Christmas in the Conservatory at Hong Kong Park

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.

Beds and booking flights

My bed has (finally) arrived from Ikea! It's made my bedroom seem a little smaller, but at least now I can store stuff underneath it, and it feels a bit more like a home than a rented room now.

In other exciting news... I've booked flights to Borneo for Christmas! I'm going to Kota Kinabalu with Rachel and we might try to climb a mountain if we can get a permit. It'll be the rainy season when we're their, so we might not spend too much time sunning ourselves on the beautiful tropical beaches, but there seems to be plenty in the area to keep us occupied.

Other than that, I haven't been up to much since my last blog. At the weekend it was the Lan Kwai Fong carnival, which made the hectic expat area that is Lan Kwai fong even MORE busy than usual. It was nice to see such a mix of cultures there though, and especially nice to hear European voices that weren't British, for a change. The streets were all decorated with hanging, winged mannequins wearing sequinned, burlesque lingerie and street stalls with luridly coloured feather boas.

Getting into the carnival spirit

On Sunday afternoon I went out exploring to Kowloon Walled City Park. It's an area in the East of Kowloon that used to be a walled city, turned into a lawless ghetto and was eventually bulldozed to the ground and turned into a landscaped park. The park is all carefully designed (apparently in the Qing style) and is very relaxing and easy on the eye. You can almost feel the flow of the plants and pagodas improving your chi. I say almost, because, having appreciated the beauty of the part and explored all of its 8 different areas, I decided to sit in a secluded spot and read a book for ten minutes, and promptly got attacked by biting insects. The 12 bites on one leg (there are more on the other one) managed to shatter my tranquil state and sent me running back to my room in Mongkok with the aircon on full blast.

The Bonsai Garden

Peaceful Pagodas and Pools