Hong Kong

Well the typhoon passed through Hong Kong within the first night that I was there. It became a signal 8 typhoon shortly after I arrived in my hotel, which is lucky because I later found out that during a signal 8 typhoon taxi drivers are supposed to drop you off at the nearest safe place for you to wait out the storm. If I hadn't arrived to my hotel by the time the signal was hoisted, I would have been stranded somewhere! The storm definitely picked up in intensity throughout the night but by the morning it had died down again to a signal 3, basically just some strong gusts of wind. Unfortunately the rain continued for most of the week. I was able to get out to my visits on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but because of the rain, I didn't really leave the hotel until Friday evening.

On Friday, after my visits, I did get a chance to visit Stanley Market, which is on the other side of the island, away from the central area of Hong Kong. This is one of the places that I have wanted to visit since the last time I was in Hong Kong. It was just like any other asian market in China or Bangkok, but its right on the bay so it is really nice to walk around. I was able to pick up a few things and spend some time relaxing after the long week.

On Saturday I had the whole day to myself before the Alumni dinner that I was attending in the evening. I decided to check out the last remaining "big" thing for me to see, big being the key word. I went out to Lantou Island to see the Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha or the "Giant" Buddha. This is the largest outdoor bronze Buddha in Asia so it is something you have to see! In order to get to the village where the monastery is located you can either take the MTR (subway) to a bus that takes an hour to get there or you can take the MTR to a gondola that takes you over the mountains. I took the gondola to get the scenic view of the island and Hong Kong. I have put up another slideshow with all the pictures. It was really cool to go up over the mountains and see the whole island by gondola, I definitely recommend it. The monastery and Buddha were a bit disappointing. I mean the buddha was great to see, because it was so massive, but that was all it was, there wasn't much there besides this buddha and its not even that old. The construction was finalized in 1989 and the formal ceremony was in 1993. It was still a good day's trip to get out of downtown Hong Kong, see some of the attractions and have a really good lunch. I had sweet and sour pork and spicy string beans with minced pork, it was good! Afterwards I saw a show called "Walking with Buddha" which basically in 15 minutes described how the "Buddha" became the buddha.

In the evening I went off to dinner with some coop students and alumni which was really cool. I heard about all the coop jobs that students are doing around Hong Kong and got to speak with some alumni that I knew. We had a 12 course meal (thats not a typo) which featured sharks fin soup, and abalone along with a ton of other really good native Hong Kong food. We ended up spending 6 hours together for dinner.

I have not said it enough, the subway systems in Asia are awesome. The MTR here in Hong Kong is so easy to use and so efficient! I used it for all the visits that I could. Hong Kong is definitely one of my favorite cities to visit. I'm hoping that next time I come it will be good weather for me to go up to The Peak (the mountain that the city is built on the edge of) and see the city at night. It is supposed to be amazing.

I have now just arrived in Singapore just in time for the Singapore Grand Prix season to begin. Tonight there will be the first ever night grand prix race in the city, so its packed (which now explains why my hotel cost so much). It should be an interesting evening and it should be fun to watch the event in the city.