Last night in HK

There is apparently some exhibition in Hong Kong this weekend, so my hostel ended up being full tonight. Fortunately, they have a second building just up the road and there was a bed available there, so earlier in the evening I moved my things there for one last night in HK. The other place is not so much a hostel as an apartment with two spare bedrooms, each with a bunkbed in it. At the moment I'm the only one in my room, though apparently a guy from Australia may show up at some point. The room is pretty nice anyway, and the apartment quite clean. For some reason there is a really giant Buddhist shrine in the living room that takes up an entire wall.

I spent yesterday visiting the southern part of HK Island, specifically two separate towns called Stanley and Aberdeen. It was nice to get a look at some of the less urban areas of HK. I went with a guy from the hostel named Edwin who just got back from spending 2 years in Mongolia in the Peace Corps. He's from Indiana, and the first American I've run into so far. He's had some pretty amazing experiences, so it was nice to hang out with him a bit and hear about his time in Mongolia and his subsequent trip through China to get here. He left to go to the Phillipines, where his family is from, and he's thinking of relocating there for some time. I guess he's going to see how he feels once he arrives, keeping his plans loose. Apparently for his first 8 months in Mongolia he had no electricity, so to him everywhere he goes now is essentially luxurious. Pretty crazy stuff. Anyway, we took a few buses around these southern towns. There are trees and hills on the way there, some very expensive homes in the hills with amazing views of the skyline or over beaches and the ocean, as well as some more developed areas with shopping centers and restaurants. In Stanley we walked around some of the beaches, found our way to a temple for Tin Hau, a goddess of the sea, and walked around a touristy market with small winding streets, but by and large it was a very peaceful place to spend some time, especially after the hectic pace of most of HK. Aberdeen has a harbor in which we paid $60HKD for a boat tour where you can see houseboats and junks where people live, complete with drying laundry and in one case a few dogs. Both neighborhoods had their share of expats in isolated areas, though in Aberdeen we wandered into the town a bit and it was actually more Chinese, with fewer English on the signs than is common around HK and Kowloon. Later that night we went to go get some Indian food which was really great, and pretty much called it a night. We stayed up for a while talking, and this morning Edwin took off.

This morning Antony and I headed out relatively early. I went with him to an area called Mong Kok to pick up his ticket for Beijing, which was on the way to somewhere I wanted to visit in the New Territories, a huge area of HK filled with different towns and neighborhoods that are not as crazy and urban as HK Island and Kowloon. The first stop was a 2000 year old Han dynasty tomb that was discovered by a bunch of workers in 1955 when they were digging to build something else. You can't see a whole lot of the tomb but you can look into it through a piece of plexiglass and they have a bunch of excavated artifacts on display at a small museum. There's also a short video that explains the significance of the discovery. There were visible carvings on the bricks of Chinese characters and I kind of marvelled that the characters written 2000 years ago were basically legible and the same as the existing system still used here everyday. After that, we had our hands full figuring out what bus to take, since in this neighborhood the signs turn rapidly chinese. Luckily, the bus schedules still have English on them so we found our way to Sha Tin, another area of the New Territories. After a bit of walking around, we found our way to the 10000 Buddhas Monastery, where we walked up what must have been 1000 steps to get to the top. As you walk up the stairs, on both sides there are full-size golden Buddha figure the entire way, each in a different pose with a different expression. There are hundreds of them. Then when you get to the top, there is a temple with apparently over 13000 Buddhas inside of it, most of them small but completely lining the walls of the temple. It's fairly impressive if a bit out of control. Also at the top was a simple vegetarian restaurant, where we got some pretty decent food to help replenish all the energy lost walking up those steps. We then made our way back to Mong Kok, since the first time the Chinese travel agency Antony employed did not actually get his ticket. Finally getting it this time, I headed back to the hotel, packed my goods and moved to the new hostel room, went out again to get more food, then came back which is where I am now.

I have had a good time in HK, and I feel like a week was a good amount of time to stay here. There was certainly no possibility of boredom or lack of things to do, and in fact there are numerous things I could still do here if I wanted to stay. It is a bit on the expensive side compared to what I think I will spend once I enter China, so there is a practical side to moving on, but additionally as I said before it'll be nice to move into an area where I know everyone will speak Mandarin. I've learned a lot here, but it'll be totally different when I have numerous opportunities each day to speak the language, especially with people who don't speak English since most people I've encountered do, if only a little.

I have a bunch of things to write about HK in general and my overall feelings for the city having spent this week here, which I will save until next time when I can look back and reflect more clearly. Even though it is only about 10pm here now, I'm fairly tired from walking around all day. I think those stairs had something to do with that. I'm going to hit 7-11 and get a big bottle of water and then head back to my bed and read the Macau chapter of my book more closely. Tomorrow morning after I wake up I'll catch a ferry to Macau which takes about an hour, and I have two potential places to stay, both of which I called and have availability and sound clean and comfortable. According to my book, you get a bit more for your money there so I may have my own room at the same cost as a dorm room here which would be nice, although the dorms have actually turned out pretty well as a place to meet people. It makes a big difference to have some company and people with whom to hang out who are having similar experiences.

More tomorrow.