Before we left Guangzhou I was trying to get rid of some things that we really didn't need for our last few days of the trip. Before we left from Missouri I had packed a virtual pharmacy of medicine for the family because I didn't know what would be available for us in China, and it turns out that tons of medicine weighs quite a lot. I looked through our stash to see if there was anything I could leave behind and decided that I would leave our cold medicines since it was unlikely that we would need anything in the next five days. Well, I am regretting that decision terribly today. I have had a tickle in my throat from almost the beginning of our trip in Beijing. It wasn't horrible ever -- mostly annoying. But yesterday it became a bit more sinister, causing me to cough a bit here and there during the day. It is nothing that is in my lungs at all, only my throat. But last night as soon as I lay down my cough worsened. It was horrible. I couldn't stop hacking all night long. Herman, like always, was wonderful as he stayed up taking care of me and trying to help me feel better, but I felt horrible for keeping him awake all night. I did eventually fall asleep, but it was a restless sleep all night.
Because we had a crazy night we ended up sleeping later than normal. I still woke up and spent the morning organizing our stuff again, but today it took a lot less time. Hallelujah! Today our plan was to give a second try to finding the big buddha statue on Lantau Island. We decided to go a different route this time, so we took the subway lines which come directly to the giant cable car line that would carry us to the statue. As we walked to the subway station I finally saw what everyone was talking about when they talked about the crowds of people in Hong Kong. I had not really seen huge crowds during our days here, but obviously they all come out on the weekends because the sidewalks were packed. It made for some tricky walking, especially with a stroller. Walking in Hong Kong is so different than it is in China, and we have had to adjust our thinking as we have been here. In Hong Kong the people actually follow the traffic rules, so the pedestrians do as well. We actually have to stop and wait for the WALK light to turn on before we cross the street, and the cars actually wait for us when we have the right of way. A couple of times as we have walked we forgot this and stepped out to cross the street when no cars were coming, despite a DO NOT WALK sign, just as we would have done in China. Of course, in China sometimes all of the walkeers would be crossing the street even if cars were coming. There really is no explaining the pedestrian and traffic rules there. So anyway, it has been quite an adjustment relearning how to be a good pedestrian here. Despite the amazingly large crowds walking today we were able to push ourselves through and get to our station okay.
The subways have not been as crowded as I was led to believe that they would be, and I attribute that to where our hotel is located. It is not in the financial district or by any huge shopping draws for citizens and tourists so we avoid much of the rush that other areas of the subway have. We have had no problems entering and exiting cars this entire time in Hong Kong.
The subway arrived right at the base station of the Ngong Ping Cable Cars. It is a 3.5 km ride high above the mountains of Lantau Island that eventually arrives at the bottom of the complex which contains the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery. We debated when we arrived about whether we would get a regular cable car or one of the newer ones which has a glass bottom. It costs a bit more to go on the glass bottom car, and that would be a significant cost when it is added among nine people. Still, it is supposed to be a wonderful experience to use the glass bottomed cars as you head over the mountains, so we did give it some good debate. I could see that Herman was wanting to just use the regular car, and I was sort of on the fence about it, so Herman stopped several people on their way back, and an Australian guy said that you should take the regular car up because the line is way shorter here, but take the glass car back down because there is no line at the top. We decided to take his advice and take a regular car. The line was still pretty long, but it moved fast, so we were able to get in the air pretty quickly.
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Only after we had risen to the full height of the ride did I remember just how much I hate heights. I was petrified the entire trip. The rest of the family thought it was hilarious to watch me freaking out. I just had no confidence in the ability of these cars to keep us connected to the cables that supported us. Spencer thought it was so funny to pretend to rock the cabin so that I would have a fit. At one point we passed over a beautiful waterfall on our right, so every Blau onboard headed to the right side of the cabin to take a look. The whole car actually listed to the right, and I thought that I would completely come undone at that point. It was not the most enjoyable thing I have done on this trip. I am a complete wimp when it comes to anything involving heights, especially when my family is around.
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| Our view of the Big Buddha from our cable car. |
And we were up high. When I wasn't hyperventilating I was able to see just how gorgeous the ride was. We passed over several small mountains rising out of the sea to form the island. We crossed several large bodies of water as well as Hong Kong's airport. I don't think that I have ever seen such beautiful scenery anywhere I have ever been. This is not the developed kind of place that Hong Kong is. It is pretty isolated outside of the giant cable cars running overhead, and there were even what looked like goat paths that were running through the mountain areas.
After what I would describe as a harrowing journey, but what the rest of the family would describe as super fun, we arrived at the monastery complex. I am super glad that we didn't get the glass bottomed cable car, because I don't think my nerves could have handled seeing the distance between us and the ground underneath my feet. But now we were again on solid ground so I could relax. The Big Buddha is a giant seated statue of a buddha which is located at the top of one mountain where the Po Lin Monastery is located. The monastery has actually been around for about a hundred years. It was founded by buddhist monks who wanted the seclusion offered by this location on Lantau Island. Obviously they are not quite so concerned about seclusion these days because they have set up an almost theme park environment which draws hundreds and hundreds of visitors each day to visit this giant buddha and the surrounding attractions they have built around the monastery. The buddha looks really old but was actually built in the 1990s, so it certainly have the sort of appeal that some of the older Buddhist sites that are hundreds of years old have which we visited in China. This seems to have been designed as a tourist draw, and that lessened the awe I had for all of it.
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| Headed up the 10000 steps to the Big Buddha. |
In order to get to the buddha statue it is necessary to climb about three hundred stairs. I never thought that I would hate stairs as much as I have learned to hate them on this trip. It seems like so many of the attractions we have visited have required us to climb a crazy number of steps. While it has been great for our quads, it has been a bit tiring. But as I have done throughout the trip, I put away my whiny face and put on my happy one and began to make the climb. At the top we found that it really was just a big statue. They had some sort of stuff inside the statue that we could have paid to see, and supposedly there is a tooth belonging to the original buddha inside that the Tooth Fairy must have forgotten, but I have read that it is almost impossible to see, and it wasn't worth the price of admission to see what was offered. So we just walked around the statue and took some great pictures as we admired the view of the surrounding countryside.
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One of the many statues lining the path
to the Big Buddha. |
It was sort of neat to hear the music comng from the monastery, kind of like hearing the nuns singing in The Sound of Music. But I got the feeling that they were just piping in some pre-recorded CD rather than that there was an actual group of monks chanting in the distance. Maybe I was being a bit over-cynical, but it just seemed so commercial in some ways. However, despite my cynicism, there actually is a group of monks who live and practice their religion here. There was an opportunity to visit the monastery and eat lunch there, but I was pretty turned off by the whole touristy feel of the place, and I wasn't much interested in taking the tour. There was also a replica Chinese village set up that we could pay extra to visit, but having seen the real deal recently we weren't terribly interested in paying for that either. So we really didn't get the whole experience that people would have wanted us to have at this site, but it was nice enough. The best part, by far, were the amazing views offered on our trip here and from the top of the hill containing the buddha. There actually are several people who are buddhists who come here to worship, so it is more than a tourist spot to some people. It is just that the tourists were the dominant numbers here, so it was difficult to see the sacred importance the site held for others. I wished that it could have been a bit more reverent and quiet like the Lama Temple in Beijing had been.
We decided that instead of taking the cable car back down we would just grab a bus to drop us off at the subway station. As we drove we actually had to stop because of cows in the road. There were several cows all over the place which roam free in the area. There were even a few walking around the area in the Big Buddha complex. Our plan was to try to find a great beach to visit so that we could swim in the ocean for awhile. It seemed like several beaches would require us to make several transfers involving buses, subways, and ferries, but we headed out to find them anyway. Luckily, as we descended the mountain in our bus we came to a bus stop right outside a beach area. On a whim we decided to just get off the bus here and check the place out. It was amazing!
I could tell by the setup that was located there that this could be an extremely popular and busy beach, but in the middle of November it was pretty much empty. We changed into our suits and headed into the water. That is when I remembered just how much I hate swimming in water where I can't see the bottom. It freaks me out thinking of all the creepy crawlies that might be lurking below the surface of the water, ready to latch onto me. I'm also a complete basketcase when it comes to watching my kids swim in these types of waters. All of the older kids are pretty good swimmers, but the younger ones are still learning, and I was worried as I saw the waves come in and wash over them every once in a while. I found myself stopping every minute to do a quick "1,2,3,4,5,6,7" count to make sure everyone was accounted for, and that deters a bit from my enjoyment of the whole experience. Still, it was very nice to hear the waves wash against the shore regularly. Despite my fear of swimmng in the ocean I think I could get used to hearing that sound nearby always. There is something relaxing about the constancy of it. We were on a beautiful beach with the ocean spanning out before us and small tree lined islands dotting the horizon.
Even though I was nervous about the ocean, none of the rest of the Blau family was, other than Minsy. Minsy slept through the first part of our swim, but when she woke up I took her by the water, and she was not happy with it at all. The surf bothered her a lot, so I took her up to sit by JoJo in the sand. JoJo was working on some sort of fort, and I thought Minsy would enjoy just sitting and watching, but she wanted none of that, so I just sat with her on the edge and watched Herman and the kids play in the water. Herman is just like a big kid in the water, and he taught the kids how to ride the waves into shore, so they spent a ton of time trying to figure out how to do this. I'm glad that the kids have him to do water fun things or it would never happen because of my phobias. Herman and I took a "From Here to Eternity" photo but it will have to remain in the Blau family vault, never to be seen by the world at large. Nothing like a photo of a gal lying on the beach to show just how big my thighs are in real life. Never noticed that before.
After taking forever to try to get the sand off of us and our suits we headed back to the bus stop to catch a bus to the subway. When we arrived we stopped at a place nearby to eat. We have had great luck eating in local places where the local people eat. We have tried to avoid the places that seem to cater to tourists, and it seems like we have always been lucky enough to find places where the food is wonderful and the service is great as well. This one also was a great place to eat. We chose to not get the little hog that was served roasted, including the head and everything, and just went with traditional rice and noodle dishes. There were huge servings of food, and we left happy and full.
After taking the subway back to our neighborhood we walked a bit to find the Temple Street Night Market which was mentioned in several tourist books I read. We weren't really that interested in making many purchases. China had filled all of our curiosity about these types of markets, but we decided to check this one out anyway since Katie was dying to get a Chinese fan before we left the area, and this seemed to be the best place to get a deal on one. The night market is actually a really bizarre mix of booths that sell kitchy tourist junk as well as fortune telling and things like that. There were more fortune tellers than I have ever seen in one place before, and there were plenty of people sitting at their booths getting their fortunes told. What was weird about the whole things was that the people sitting at the booths just looked like ordinary Joes who just put up a table and sat around to see who would show up and be nutty enough to pay money to hear them spout nonsense. There was not really any attempt to create some sort of atmosphere that looked like a fortune teller would have. I'll bet that is a super cheap way to make money around here.
As we passed the fortune telling booths we began to hear this atrocious wailing coming from all directions. We came upon a group of stalls dedicated to karaoke, and it was definitely a sight to behold. I think that some of the singers were singing some traditional Chinese songs -- at least I hope so because it did not sound anything like modern music at all. I can best describe it as high pitched squeaking. Oh, how it hurt my ears to hear it! So, of course, after seeing this Herman turned to all of us and said, "We have GOT to do this!" The rest of us immediately stared at hm in horror. Noooooooooo! We absolutely loved doing karaoke in the little karaoke places found throughout China, but those places were set up with little private rooms where we could humiliate ourselves in private. This was totally out in the open in a big market in the middle of Hong Kong. Oh please, no. But I could see by the look in Herman's eye that he was not going to back down until we all agreed to do it. He ran over to one of the booths to see if they had any English music, and to our disappointment they did, so we headed over.
I am convinced that some of the people doing this were totally drunk, but there were some who were really into it and were giving it their all. One man who sang before us did a lovely rendition of "Unchained Melody" that would have put me into a fit of giggles if I had been watching it on television, but in the midst of that place we just clapped along and cheered for him as he finished. The nice thing was that there really wasn't an audience for the stalls at all. It was just the people who were walking by, and they rarely stopped. As others sang before us we looked through a selection of songs and chose to sing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" to feed Spencer's Beatlemania and "My Favorite Things" to satisfy Katie.
After a bit of waiting it was our turn to sing. The older girls were totally mortified, but they were good sports as we headed to the stage. For this karaoke stall we didn't have a background track of music to sing to. They had their very own piano player just like that guy on Glee who seems to know every song ever written and is readily available to play it whenever it pops up at a moment's notice. He played for us. Well, I know that several people who had sung before us had probably had a bit of alcohol to loosen up a bit before their singing, but Herman does not need a bit of alcohol to let loose. He grabbed the mike and immediately turned into our very own version of Frank Sinatra with a little intro spoken to the audience as our piano man started the song. This brought in the crowd. Although no one had stopped to watch anyone the entire time we had been waiting, all of the sudden the Blau Family Singers had drawn our very own mosh pit of fans. They were shouting and clapping and dancing along with us as we performed absolutely horrible reditions of these songs. It was impossible to hear the piano at all, so all of us were just going off of Herman's singing. He doesn't ever need a microphone to be heard when he sings because of his naturally loud voice, so you can only imagine what it sounded like when it was amplified a hundred times through their karaoke microphones. The words were written on the page kind of differently than we normally read music, so we were flubbing up the words and messing up like crazy, and yet the crowd continued to cheer. I was a bit worried that we were destroying a good Beatles hit when there were so many British people mulling about, but they seemed to forgive us. We even managed to flub up My Favorite Things, and we know that one perfectly. The experience was something between horribly mortifying and amazingly fun. The best part was the audience who had gathered to watch us. At one point an Asian man came up and said, "You have got to do Michael Jackson, We Are the World, please." I think we could have taken requests all night. But two songs were all of the embarrassment that we could legally allow our girls to endure for one night, so alas, we had to turn down the requests. Herman finished our set with a boisterous "Thank you Hong Kong!" and we were on our way. We didn't get any pictures of the night, but we do have some video. I'll have to look at it later when we get home to see if it is something that I could ever show to anyone else. He may have to be added to our family vault with the beach photo from earlier today. It was fun though.
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| Finishing our Hong Kong touring on foot. |
We did a quick turn through the booths selling junk to find Katie her fan. The prices were pretty high considering what we were used to paying in China. After shopping with Ann in Guangzhou I had an idea of how much these people were paying for their merchandise wholesale, so I wasn't interested in paying so much that they would be getting 1000% markup profits. A few places I tried to haggle, and the ladies would get angry that I wasn't willing to pay their prices. But they just lost our business as we headed to places where it was better priced, and Katie got her fan. We didn't spend much more time in the market. I think we are done shopping in Asia, thank goodness.
We grabbed a couple of taxis and headed back to the hotel for the night after an eventful day. Tomorrow we are going to find one of the churches in the area. Herman really wants to go to the branch that speaks Cantonese in the morning, but I think we'll hold out until the English speaking Kowloon branch in the afternoon. We might check out the Hong Kong Temple in the morning. Other than that we have really completed everything that we wanted to do while in Hong Kong. Katie really wanted to go to Disneyland Hong Kong, but every single person we talked to said that it was overpriced and very small. We'll have to maybe check it out in the US instead someday. It's hard to believe that we only have one more full day in Asia. On Monday morning we head back to the states and reality again.
