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Published: January 24th 2007
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Thumbs up for Christmas holidays! I've been home from my jaunt through Southeast Asia for a while now. The lucky girl that I am, I came home to an awesome carepackage containing the full second season of Grey's Anatomy, thus explaining the procrastination in getting to my blog writing. The entire trip with my sister was great though! More than enough to fill a blog entry, but I will tell it in four parts - one entry for each country we visited. This way we get to see more than just one country change colour to red on that little map they have on my personal page... I'm a person who takes great pleasure in the little things.
So... Hong Kong.
After escaping working life in Japan like a stealth, I finally found myself on my much coveted plane ride to Hong Kong. I arrived to find my wonderful friend Paula with wide open arms. Seriously people, if ever you want to visit Hong Kong, look her up... she cooks, she cleans, she doesn't let you lift a finger! As my sister, Dore, wasn't arriving until after me, Paula and I had a great chance to sit and have
coffee and not stop talking for four hours. Then Paula got to talk too... ha ha!
Though the last hour after a year of longing to see my sister seemed the most difficult, Dore's flight finally came in and the three of us hopped the bus back to Paula's apartment. People, there could not have been a better view of the city than from her livingroom window. The elevator ride caused our ears to pop each time we headed up to the 57th floor of the high rise, but that view alone made it worth it!
For the first full day of our visit, we walked around Hong Kong, checking out live fish markets and the Nathan road area. We got to take a ride on the Star Ferry, which is a bit of a Hong Kong tourist icon as it has been running for well over a hundred years and was even on The Amazing Race. It boasted a beautiful view of the harbour. After a little shopping on Hong Kong Island, our next venture was to the temples. We saw one family memorial temple area where whole families were commemorated together. It was quite interesting. From
Hong Kong Schools
The hallways are outside! there we headed to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery where the number of Buddhas surprisingly far surpasses ten thousand! After climbing some 400 stairs lined with gold Buddhas, sometimes on both sides, we arrived at the main temple where the walls held some 12 800 little Buddha statues, each one with a different express purpose. Then, there were even more stairs and colourful Buddhas above that! It was a beautiful area and the sheer enormity of it all was really inspiring. Of course, then we had to climb down.
The next day was Christmas day so like all good Christians, we woke up and opened presents! K, maybe that was a bad joke. Anyway, we did open presents and we got a chance to chat with our Pilon family back in Melville as they crammed some forty or so people into Grandma and Grandpa's house, just like we used to in the olden days! We also got to talk to our mom and Mark in Chicago, as they had made the trip out that way to spend Christmas with the girls. I know it may just be an online chat to some, but this was Christmas with the family
for us, so it was pretty significant. From there, Paula took us to her friend Marina's house for supper. And, oh, did we supper it up good! I seriously could not have had another crumb, and it was all so delicious, and so not turkey! Before heading home, we went for a nice walk around a touristy little shop area and along the beach as the sun was setting. A pretty nice way to let dinner settle, I must say. Merry Christmas!
On our third day in the city, we hiked. Seems almost like an oxymoron: city and hike. But would you believe that the majority of Hong Kong land is actually undevelopped, natural territory? Pretty awesome! And so we hiked. Up a mountain where we got to sit and have lunch on the rocks among one of three waterfalls that we saw on our way up. Now I won't lie to you, the hiking was a little difficult in some parts for a horribly unbalanced, anything-but-sure-footed girl like me. But it was some great exercise among very impressive scenery.
Our last day in Hong Kong was spent sleeping in and playing crib in the morning as our
early-rising hostess had to work. In the afternoon, we got to see the school where Paula works, which I, as a teacher, was of course far too excited about. We then spent time just enjoying each other's company over a dim sum lunch and a little gallavanting around the harbour before heading to the airport to say goodbye to Paula and fly off into the sunset... also known as Bangkok, Thailand.
To be continued...
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