Exploring the City I Should Know Better

I have been feeling like I have not explored Hong Kong very much, despite the fact that I've been living here for months. As a result, I've tried to do more stuff on my own, without waiting to find someone else willing to go with me. I feel like I've been successful.

Over the past few weeks, I have gone to the Hong Kong Museum of History, Space Museum, and Heritage Museum. Some people hate museums, but I spend hours there, despite their lackluster quality. They are definitely inferior to the great American museums, like the Smithsonian. I continue to find tons of replicas. Nevertheless, I think they have allowed me to gain a much better sense of the overall culture and appreciate my surroundings. Leaving the space museum, I also wanted to be an astronaut again. (Actually, I don't think I have ever not wanted to be an astronaut...)

I went on a hike to Sharp Peak with a local friend, David. I met him the first day I was at CUHK, actually, because he was signing the exchange students in. He also took us on the Dragon's Back hike a while back. The hike was literally a metaphor for my life right now.

I hadn't eaten much for breakfast, maybe oatmeal and some fruit. On the busride over, he asked me if I had brought food. I brought a few granola bars, so I said yes, and also didn't think I needed much since Dragon's Back was a quick 2 hour hike. Bad life decision. After about two hours, we could go two different ways. I didn't know anything about the hikes, so I allowed him to pick the one that would give a better view: Sharp Peak. A bit later, I was starting to get hungry and hot from the Hong Kong humidity. I started to think I wasn't going to make it. I've never been a quitter but seeing Sharp Peak many more meters above sea level in the far distance, I was pretty discouraged. Just as I was about to start considering going back, I looked up and we were almost there. I seriously felt like my life was living out inspirational quotes. Making it to Sharp Peak was obviously awesome. It was one of those things that makes you feel so accomplished.

Fortunately for me, that was less than halfway through the hike. We continued all the way down the mountain, tripping several times on the way. Looking back:

At certain parts, all four limbs had to be touching some sort of ground to prevent death. I may be sounding like a baby, but for my FIRST hike with barely any food in me, I feel like I did pretty well with just minor blood loss.

When we got to the bottom, we had a bit of a break, enjoying the beautiful beaches below and noming on some bananas.

We were getting pretty tired, though. I feel bad because David didn't know exactly where we were, and he seemed pretty stressed out about making sure we returned home safely. I was pretty ignorant of our location, I just wanted to find some real food asap.

Again, fortunately for us, we learned that access to real civilization was still a few hours away. We had to hike beside the beach for a bit, then take the same trail that the Sharp Peak excursion originated from. Both of us frustrated, the start of the hike back was pretty rough. After a while, though, we both relaxed and I actually started giving him some English lessons. His language ability is interesting, because he is able to understand and communicate much more easily than the typical local Hong Konger. However, his pronunciation is terrible. I often cannot understand him, and as he explained, when he gets frustrated, he pronounces things even worse. While this language problem is bizarre, it also makes sense; since he can communicate in English better than most, people don't tell him when he mispronounces things.
Frustration was also curbed when we were able to see our hard work paid off when we reached Tai Long Tsui. Despite our exhaustion, it was nice to read that "very few people other people will ever share the sense of being there - a fearful joy."

The Sharp Peak sign was also encouraging:

I think it's pretty cool that I've been on the 'ultimate Hong Kong wilderness hike'.

Three buses later, I finally made it back to CUHK around 8 or 9. A 10 hour day excursion.

I have also explored a part of Hong Kong called Causeway Bay. My friend C (for Cecilia) and her friend, Michelle, took me there the other weekend. Due to the name, I was expecting someplace outdoorsy, though I don't know why since it's right next to parts of Hong Kong that I've been to which are very city-like. It was cool to explore the city in the day, since I usually only see it going out to bars at night. (I was amused because exchange students only ever go to Lan Kwai Fong to drink.)

Once again, I was reminded that Hong Kongers love to shop. There were malls EVERYWHERE. It's funny because I didn't really know where we were going, but I was looking at a random tour on a sign the other day, and many of the things I saw that day were on the list. We walked through Victoria Park (which apparently is a big deal), explored the Hong Kong library, saw a supposedly famous church, and visted Temple Street, a popular night market unbeknownst to me.

Michelle had to leave about halfway through the day, so she missed out on a lot of exploring. C and I went to a tiny Michelin-star wonton restaurant. They tasted like normal wontons to me, but C said the noodles had really good texture since they were homemade.

We also went to a Starbucks that she had been wanting to go to for a while because it was newly built and designed like a traditional chinese teashop.

As I said, we went to Temple Street, where C wanted to show me some traditional Hong Kong dinner.

I feel bad because I didn't like either of the things, but she enjoyed some fried oyster cakes and baked rice with beef.

I opted from some mediocre dim sum down the street. Afterward, I bought way too many useless things in the small market.

Michelle and C had some frozen yogurt during the day, so when C and I ended the night in Mong Kok (we truly went all over Hong Kong), I was motivated to get some myself. Delicious. :)

I've also gone to two of Hong Kong's amusement parks: HK Disneyland and Ocean Park.

I went to HK Disneyland with my friend, Justin. I'm pretty sure I walked the entire park multiple times; it was the tiniest park I'd ever seen. The rides were cute, but there were few options, mostly unexciting. A few shows were meant to entertain us, like the High School Musical float, but the quality of entertainers in HK is subpar to America. For example, the choreography is very basic. I feel like I could become famous with my dancing ability here!

The most exciting thing was getting pictures with Disney characters!

Mickey shaped pizza was yummy too!



It was also extremely odd, perhaps it was because we went on a Friday when lots of kids were in school, but a majority of the people were older couples. In fact, there were many more adults than kids. I was also shocked at how rude a lot of the people were there. In America, it's pretty much commonsense that you don't cut in line. Not in Hong Kong. Mainland Chinese people would cut half the line. And not just one. An entire family would meet up with one person. It was ridiculous, annoying, and extremely frustrating! Overall, the park was cute and while it can't compare to the actual Disneyland or Disneyworld, it was interesting to see Disney from an asian perspective.

I went to Ocean Park with my friend from engineering class, Becca. Perhaps it was because all the locals told me not to go to HK Disneyland and to go to Ocean Park, thus giving me high expectations, but I thought Ocean Park was underwhelming. In contrast to HK Disneyland, everything was extremely far apart. The views were AMAZING, however.

Like HK Disneyland, there weren't many rides. Unlike HK Disneyland, you had to walk an excessively long way. In fact, to get from one side of the park to the other you had to either take a train or cable cars. Thank goodness the landscape was stunning so we had something to look at during all of the transit time.

The rides were also not very exciting. One of them was the shortest rollercoaster in the world and the other was the most painful. On the second, I'm pretty sure I got whiplash 20 seconds in; going around the loops were the smoothest parts -- not normal. At least we enjoyed the merry-go-round and their interesting choice of animals:

We also thought it was amusing that the water rides had to ask patrons not to bring umbrellas.

Asian people are so bizarre. They cover themselves with umbrellas all the time to shade themselves from the sun. It wouldn't surprise me if I saw someone whip out an umbrella on a ride.

The shows unfortunately weren't very spectacular either. They didnt' try to cater as much to tourists. The bird show we went to spoke around 5 words in English; they could've at least labeled the show as in Cantonese so we wouldn't go! Or perhaps the amusement park worker shouldn't have suggested the show to the obviously English speaking patrons. Again, the choreography and dancing abilities were inferior to American standards. It's always amusing to see the performers pose when they notice you're taking a photograph of them, though.

Ocean Park was a mix between a rollercoaster park and a zoo, so there were a lot of animal exhibits as well. Suprisingly, in contrast to the rides, the animal exhibits were excellent. I saw some of the ugliest and most exotic-looking fish in my life.

It was also cool to see pandas since they are pretty rare in American zoos.

Some of the exhibits were ruined by the pushiness of the mainland tourists though. I will never get over why they need to be so obnoxiously rude and uncivil. Their culture continues to baffle me. A snapshot of their style:

Upon finding out Becca was also slacking on her Hong Kong exploring, I recruited her to go to the 10,000 Buddha's with me. It's pretty pathetic that, months into my Hong Kong experience, I just recently saw something that was just 2 MTR stops and a short walk away. The 10,000 Buddhas is essentially a very steep path with lots of golden Buddhas, that takes you to a temple with a lot more Buddhas. Then another path of stairs lined with even more Buddhas takes you to yet even more temples with even more Buddhas. I don't know if it's because I've seen a lot of Buddhist temples in Hong Kong, but I was rather unimpressed by this exhibit. The Buddha statues didn't seem to be that special; they weren't particularly beautiful or exciting. It just seemed to be an area with a lot of freaking golden Buddhas. Don't get me wrong, some of the large ones were spectacular, but this is also after I've seen the Big Buddha and eye-popping temples like Kek-lok-Si in Malaysia.

I read a lot of travel advisor hints before we went to the temple and a lot of the tourists said they accidentally ran into another touristy site first. I'm still not sure what it was exactly, but after we finished seeing the 10,000 Buddhas, I went exploring a little more. I have lots and lots of pictures of the 10,000 Buddhas and other mysterious tourist site, but I just got a brand new camera (finally!) to replace the one I got stolen...I have yet to figure out how to upload pictures.

It's unfortunate that I've noticed how much you can do in Hong Kong so late in the game. Going to the Heritage Museum has showed me so many things I have yet to and want to see, but probably won't be able to explore while I'm here. This is my first international experience, though, so I'm going to give myself a break. At first, I freaked out when I had to take public transportation or do anything solo. By contrast, today, I succesfully ate my way through Mong Kok by myself without any panic attacks. I feel like I have become much more independent and open to new experiences. I'm still a baby, don't get me wrong; I'm still extremely ignorant and anxious at times, but I think so far it has been a great learning experience.