seems it's becoming some kind of tradition to go to some zoo
around the 26th of october every year. this year it was with
jake, andrea, and sonja, going to altenfelden.
as usual loads of cute animals like leopards, deers, zebras,
hermelins, and loads of totally cute racoons. so cute!
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hongkong, day 13
last full day for me in hong kong, tomorrow at about 13:00 i
will fly back home. did not really do much today, i was just
wandering around, window shopping, drinking coffee, watching
people, sitting in parks, etc. - so all those "doing nothing"
things, since i did not really have a plan for today. no sight,
no tour, just enjoying my environment. i spotted two cats today.
one i already saw on day 08[17], and another cat that was stay-
ing with humans in a pharmacy.
funny thing i didn't mention yet: people tried to avoid me all
the time during my stay here. whenever i sat in a cafe, restau-
rant or tram, bus, etc. people were trying to sit somewhere else
rather than next to me. and even if a seat next to me was the
only choice to sit down or eat at a restaurant, they either
waited until some other seat got free, or they left the locali-
ty. well, i'm sure they had their reason, i'm fine with that,
maybe it's also just a wrong impression i got. another thing is
that people always as- sumed i prefer fork and knife when eat-
ing. well, i did not, so i always had to explicitely ask for
chopsticks. oh, btw Monique and Derrick (which i met on day 04)
said that my way of using the chopsticks was way more better
than theirs (due to laziness on their side). that actually made
me laugh.
another thing i noticed is that people in hong kong are very
loud. they are way louder than in japan and they do telephon
calls on the metro, tram, or bus. some even burp quite loud and
for some the table manners are horrible. most of them look very
angry but once you talk to them, they turn out to be very
friendly (as actually all people i talked to were).
in hong kong there's also the tendency to tell people what to do
and what not to do on ads, signs, and tv screens (as in stations
or on trains). a lot of regulations everywhere - just as in
japan. and warnings about swine and bird flu everywhere. they
put up alcohol disinfectant dispensers in many putlic locations
(especially where a lot of birds are around). McDonald's has
them in every restaurant. and you can find them in all public
toilets.
and a pretty dangerous habit is absolutely common here: pedes-
trians have to give way. cars (especially public buses or taxis)
do not stop, even on the most crowded streets, even if there's a
zebra crossing. combined with the fact that they drive on the
left side of the street, and the fact that it is often hard to
tell if the street is a one-way street or not, it's getting
quite dangerous from time to time. at most crossings they
painted "look left" or "look right" on the ground. this makes it
a little easier, but again shows, that cars are taking a higher
precedence over pedestrians.
my things are packed, i'm ready for tomorrow. i will use the in-
town check-in which is located only three MTR stations away from
here. so way better to have my luggage transported there than
carrying it myself. additionally there's a "starbucks" cafe
right next to it. been there today to check it out.
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hongkong, day 12
today i decided to do a "nature" day. so i went to "HK wetland
park"[002-111], a huge conservation facility open to visitors.
it's a huge area full of plants and animals. you sometimes walk
on wooden ways[005,007,039-044,054,060,066] through swamps or to
special ornithology hides[076-077]. additionaly they added some
information[010] on various animals and plants nearby. very edu-
cative and fun. cute crayfish[029-034,038], dragonflies[022,045-
046,072], big butterflies[047] (though the one i took a picture
of was pretty small. the bigger ones were very cautious and one
couldn't get very close to them), and of course all kind of
birds[026-028,055-056]. in every hide there are telescopes (by
svarovski) and people from the park that setup the telescopes
for you, so you get a nice view on the birds very fast and
easily. they also give you all the facts about the bird you're
seeing (if you want to), and they are all enthusiastic bird
watchers it seemed to me. and of course i found some wedding
photography[043-044] going on again. seems they are everywhere.
then there's also a huge visitor centre with all kind of exhi-
bitions[081-108] and also some living animals[091-093,099-105].
although it was very hot again (around 35C again) this was a
total nice day in nature.
although to get there one has to pass by hundreds of skyscrap-
ers. and i really mean hundreds. well, maybe not that much, but
i think you get the idea. oh, and not to mention that i was the
only caucasian again there. seems tourists only stick to tour-
isty places? strange and sad, since they really miss a lot. ok,
not the skyscrapers, but the people, the lifestyle, and such.
on my way home i came by another lantern carnival[112-117] in-
stallation again. again loads of pandas. people seem to like
them here a lot. also cute red pandas were there. so cute!
back at the hotel again i wanted to check out some udon restau-
rant i found a few days before (see day 09, [124]). unfortuna-
tely the queue at the entrance was quite long, so i decided to
go somewhere else. then i found a small restaurant with a menu
card in chinese and english, and some pictures. here's a short
(and by far not complete) list of stuff they offered: fried
fish skin, beef/pork brisket/cheek/knuckle/reticulum/cartilage/
viscus/hastle, etc. i chose the safe side and ordered "baked
pork chop with rice". boring, but delicious.
today the chinese people celebrate "mid-autumn festival". seems
it's the most important holiday here. it takes place when the
moon is the fullest, thus they eat cake that is called "moon
cake". it consists mainly of sugar, but i haven't tried one yet.
maybe i get one. they have all kind of fruity flavours, but
there are also (exotic and non-traditional) ones with salty or
sour flavours. the festival also is for family reunions, so may-
be comparable to the european christmas celebration when the
whole family joins to be shiny happy and eat together.
oh, and i still did not give up thinking that one day all those
people on "jordan road" might stop asking me if i want a rolex,
suits, or hashish. but since it's the mostly always the same
guys the annoyance got less. i think they know me by now.
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hongkong, day 11
today i went to "tsuen wan", a district a little outside of the
core of hong kong. at the usual mall at the MTR station[001-002,
005-009] i found a pet shop that had cats[004,006-007] in the
shopping window. maunz, they did not seem very happy though, or
maybe they were just lazy. who knows.
first sight i found was the "sam tung uk"[011-024] museum, which
houses an exhibition of the daily life in this area from a few
hundred years ago until today. it describes the farmer's and
factory worker's life. additionally the museum building itself
is an relict from around 1786.
next thing i wanted see was the "chuk lam temple". while walking
there i saw three wild cats[025-026]. at least it seemed to me
they were wild ones, since they were very shy. the one in [025]
sits on the tree in the middle of the picture. good luck on
finding the little cuty on the picture.
unfortunately my book guide is a little inaccurate when it comes
to the map of this area, furthermore it lacks street names of
important streets to get to the temple, and thirdly it seems a
little outdated too, although my edition is from 2007. so i
ended up a little lost in some streets that did not ressemble
anything i found on the drawn map. so i asked some locals, a
group of three young guys. they said i could join them on part
of my way to the temple since their home is located along this
route. great! we had a nice little chat and then they almost
brought me right to the entrance of the temple and the included
monastery. the temple[027-059] was totally nice and it had loads
of cats[047-059] (in numbers: around ten cats, ranging from cute
little curious, but yet very cautious kitties, to old grumpy
cats giving me an angry look). they were all very very shy so
no petting, unfortunately. it was even hard to get pictures of
them. but i managed to take some (although, sadly, they're all
out of focus). "wee, you're a kitty!". the monks and employees
there gave me strange looks since i was so happy seeing so many
cats. again i almost got locked in, but this time an old lady
escorted me to the exit. she was only speaking chinese and she
said a lot of things to me (maybe that i'm a stupid tourist or
such?) but she was totally friendly and waved at the exit as i
left while she stayed. very kind and friendly.
ah, yeah, of course i was the only caucasian again since nearly
half of the MTR ride to "tsuen wan" station. this changed rapid-
ly when i got back to the centre to see two main "mid autumn"
festival highlights. first one was the "tai hang fire dragon
dance"[061-103]. it started with a parade of cute young girls
and kids having lanterns. some pipe bag dudes (no idea what they
represented though) and some drummers. and then came the fire
dragon. a 67 meter long dragon, made of hay and studded with
thousands of burning joss sticks. the dragon is hunting to big
spheres, again made up of incense sticks. the carriers turn and
wave the spheres and the guy holding the dragon's head also
spins and waves the dragon around. the guys holding the body and
head of the dragon often changed, so i guess this thing is quite
heavy. also the heat of the incense sticks makes this job even
more straining. very impressive spectacle actually.
next i headed on to the "lantern carnivals"[105-167], situated
in the huge park i've already crossed on day 04[027-028], this
time in the dark and lanterns all over the place. additionally
all kind of activities went on there, like some old fashioned
games[108,167], theatres[113-114,162-166] and live performances
like jugglers[116-120], or dancers[150-156], and winners of some
lantern creating contest[131-132,138-144,146-149] of course
loads of people there (including many caucasian tourists).
what a nice day and evening!
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hongkong, day 10
today i wanted to see some outer districts of hong kong. so i
got on the double-decker bus and started my journey[001-003] out
of the core of the city. first stop was "repulse bay". although
my pocket guide says there's only a nice beach for swimming and
sun bath- ing i wanted to have a look at it. so after a wild
ride on the bus over several steep hills and along the coast i
arrived at the bay[004-009]. to my suprise i found some strange
temple [010-032] like complex there right at the beach. i still
don't know what to think of that since it was so totally untypi-
cal from all the sacral things i've seen so far.
next i got on a mini bus[033] and drove on to "stanley". there's
a big street market[034-036], a wonderful beach[037-048], and a
military cemetary[049-072] with a nice (as i guess) lolita photo
shooting[059]. then i took a walk along the coast[074-075] back
to the center of "stalney", along the beach[076-086] again with
all kind of american-style bars and restaurants. sights there
are "blake pier"[087-088,098], the "murray house"[089-106] one
of the oldest surviving public buildings in hong kong from 1846,
and quite popular for couples[092,094-097,099-100,103-104,106,
114-115] to marry there as it seems. all in all i think i saw
about eight differente couples there having photo shootings with
hired professionals. of course a temple, namely "tin hau" [107-
113] is there too.
to get back to "tsim sha tsui" i took again a bus, but this time
the trip took over an hour due to the heavy traffic. still quite
nice to watch the traffic chaos. this was a nice day with a lot
of sunshine. although there were loads of rainy days predicted
only two days ago, the typhoon has vanished (or moved on). so
now it's hot again (35C), but at least i finally can now use my
sun tan creme.
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hongkong, day 09
this day i wanted to go for "the peak", the well known spot in
hong kong where you get the most beautiful view of the town, at
least according to the brochure that you get when you buy the
ticket). the ride with the peak tram[002,004,015,046] is very
nice. totally steep up the hill, it's really scary from time to
time, escpecially since i got no seat but was standing all the
time. once arrived at the station, i found the usual thing one
finds when they get off some transport thingie: a mall. a huge
shopping mall[029-031,035,049,053-061,071-072] up there with all
kind of different shops. from luxury good shops to furniture and
the usual souvenir shops. actually malls are everywhere it seems
to me. additionally one can find a "madame tussauds" wax museum
[006-007] up there. a huge observation deck is put right on top
of the mall. it's called "sky terrace"[012,019,027-028, 066-067,
098] and to get there extra entry has to be paid.
i really have a tendency to end up all alone here in hong kong.
and so i managed to do so today again. i wanted to walk further
up the hill to see "peak garden" and take the "governor's walk".
so while walking the "mt. austin road"[076-097] i came by a
small unnamed (at least i think so) garden[073-075] to finally
come to "peak garden"[083-084]. it was crowded with participants
of a baptists convention, who were dancing and singing, and 99%
female. after listening to some of their songs i went on to take
the "governor's walk"[087-092], a circle walking path.
so, after walking back to "the peak", taking the tram to get
back to the MTR station again, driving home, taking a shower
after this exhausting hiking day ("mt. austin road" and the
"governor's walk" were quite straining), just to get back on the
street again to witness the 60th anniversary celebration of the
people's republic of china. a huge firework was planned which of
course i wanted to see. while being in my room and changing i
was watching tv and they showed live streams from beijing. quite
imrepssive ceremony although it was a weapon show all the time.
quite impressive and quite disturbing at the same time. to get
to "victoria harbour" was not an easy task it turns out. the
streets were closed by the police, and so everyone was walking
on nathan road[110], a street that usually is full of cars and
busses. was strange to walk there where one would actually get
killed within a few seconds during normal operation. so i en
joyed walking with the crowd to end up in some unknown street
[111-112]. though i somehow knew where i was it was quite un-
clear to me where exactly the fireworks will take place. but i
was in the middle of a crowd so i thought that must be a good
viewing point[113-119]. well, it turned out all of us were
wrong. the view was not that good, but it was ok. the people
were really shouting "aaaw" a lot, especially when very bright
explosions took place. was really nice, as they did it until the
very end of the fireworks. people in austria would do that for
maybe a few minutes. they had nice rockets with all kind of
shapes like a heart and a smiley. also they had nice effects i
have not seen before. all in all a nice spectacle and a good
atmosphere in the crowd. i watched the fireworks later on tv
when i got back to my hotel room. i really missed some cool
stuff. hehe.
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