Day 2: Dinner at Victoria peak

We celebrated our 1st yr anniversary with dinner on Victoria Peak, at a surprise resturant that Timon picked. We had had a conversation earlier that day about foods we wanted to sample during our holiday: comfort western food, adventurous street food, and Dim Sum. Somehow shrimp came up, and the shrimp specialty resturants, which I was quick to endorse. I'm still bewildered how it came up in the conversation so naturally. I love surprises and continually had been trying to guess where he was taking me... we watched fireworks from the waterfront, and hopped on a double decker bus up to the peak. It was a curvy narrow road, brushing against the tree branches, and leaning over the steep side of the mountain. Buses coming the opposite direction were full of passengers, cueing Timon to say "Oh no!" and me to say "Yess!" At the same time. Timon thought full buses meant there were tons of people still up there, whereas I thought the Peak would be cleared out by the time we arrived.

We arrived, and there's a huge line to leave by bus or taxi, but the restaurant was full with no line. We went up three flights of stairs; I kept asking where we were going... and ended up at Bubba Gump!! T had kept the secret well- even after asking me if I had been to Bubba Gump and I had chattered on about it.

View from our table.

Day 1: Ocean park

We grabbed a quick Mcd's breakfast and hopped on a mini bus to Ocean Park, by Aberdeen. I gazed out the window, taking in the greenery and snippets of ocean inbetween. Then I saw it- gondolas going up the side of a mountain, silhouetted against a bright blue sky, and lopping rollercoasters clinging to the side of the mountain much like homes in the Oakland hills. It was marvelous!

K: "Look Timon! That's where we're going!!!"
T: "Cool! Wait... why are we driving away from it? Did we miss our stop???"

Ocean park is a cheaper, funner, alternative to Hong Kong Disneyland. And even though we have been "studying" our Disney cartoons prior our trip- Ocean park's reviews and prices were much better. (250 HKD)

They boast an aquarium, dolphin shows (which were impossible with the crowds), rollercoasters, other scary gut wrenching rides, breath taking views, live animals, and a cool laser- waterfountains on fire- computer projection show. Because it was Chinese new year, they also had special performances around the park with visiting groups. We were fortunate to see a group from Xin jiang or Jiangsu do a  really impressive music + dance performance which combined poi, drumming, and about 20 people. I was holding my breath while 10 girls swing long pom-pom on strings things around hitting drums in every direction while dancing around.

Because the park was built on a mountain, it was a bit more difficult from attraction to attraction. There would be one path hewed into the mountain, instead of open space. For the Miner coaster (our fave) you had several flights of steep stairs and escalators to get there. It flew over the water and flaunted the beauty of the ocean- blindingly so. There were mostly families attending that day- so many of the adult-thrilling rides had 5-15min waits. Awesome!

-The water ride was lame.
-Pandas: awesome
-Food: so-so. Their cheapest option was McD's super long lines. We ate corn dogs and siu mai.

There was also a replica of pier 39- with sea lions, barges, and educational tidbits about how awesome northern California and the San Francisco bay area is. No joke.

There was also an entire exhibit featuring goldfish. Like the weird looking ones- lionhead, dangling eyeballs, and borderline freakish fish. Yikes.

Although it wasn't Disney-land it was hard not to compare. Ocean park didn't have the cheery theme music being pumped in everywhere- but they did put in a fair amount of detail into the train, and rides. The train taking us from one end to the other was pretty awesome- a bit of willy wonka steampunk madness. LCD monitor with shifting colors filled the "skylight" and dim rainbow evolving lights showed everyone's uncertain faces as we slid downhill.

Hong Kong holiday (a.k.a. vacation)

For Chinese New year (CNY) T and I headed to Hong Kong to thaw out and sightsee. T's been to HK roughly 30 times for business trips (He would go a few times a month for his previous job) but I thought it might be nice to really explore as a tourist instead of being so work-centric.

Our Seven day trip went like this:
1. Ocean Park Amusment park
2. Relax!
3. Hiking in New territories
4. Church, Chris, Macau
5. Zhuhai Ocean SPRINGS resort
6. Lantau island
7. Go home and clean up (the apt)

This was our first trip we planned and (sorta) executed together. There were things we both forgot : (
I bought the tickets, booked hotels, and looked up some attractions, Timon looked up transportation, maps and compiled all the details into a booklet thing. He also reserved ferry tickets and reservation stuff. I can get super obsessed with planning things- and wanting to do EVERYTHING.... even if its physically impossible. I blame my parents for this. When we went on "vacation" it was like a marathon. We'd have to wake up early to get all sorts of places. T and I needed to rest, so we only planned one thing per day, leaving plenty of time for sleeping, exploring, and getting lost.

Once the internet warms up I'll start uploading photos for everything we saw! Its too beautiful not to share! Our expectations were exceeded in ways we couldn't imagine- Hong Kong is one of the most expensive cities in the world, known for being tightly packed- yet we discovered joy and amazement in getting out to some natural beauties.

Hong Kong holiday: Sai Kung

Wuxi

T's company had a small up to Wuxi, about 1 hr outside Shanghai this weekend. I was fortunate enough to go with them.

We had a wonderful dinner then went for KTV, where we sung our share of english songs (Micheal Jackson, Bon Jovi, ABBA, BSB) The next day we went sightseeing at Ling Shan buddhist "Disneyland".

Map of Lingshan. See the statue of Buddha at the very top? Its not an icon. Its actually that big!

They didn't have rides, but they were sure selling a lot of stuff. As we entered the park from our car, a tour guide jumped on us and showed us around. (In Mandarin)

"..be in awe of its fathomless depth... combination of technology, architecture, culture, art, and science"

This is the outside of a buddhist building equivalent to a cathedral. (similar layout as well) There were paintings and cloisonne zodiac sculptures.

We sat in this huge circular theatre surrounded by a screen, which showed different scenary from around asia for a while. Then the circular screen lifted to reveal an elaborate setting of a palace and gardens. Statues rose up on a platform, all dressed in period attire (Something like a tropical asian looking clothes, and painted faces) and then music began and everyone began walking around. (I was really convinced they weren't real up until that point!) There was dancing and singing then the screen came down. In the center of the room, fog emerged to reveal a tree rising up and a statue sitting under it. Then people in robes came out with lanterns (below pic)

cool show we saw about history of Buddhism.

Then we hiked up to see the 100+ meter tall buddha. It was a bit weird sticking out among the mountains and trees. (Wuxi is known for its trees. They purposly planted lots and lots of them there- still young, but hoping to be an attraction I suppose)

over 100 meter tall buddha in Wuxi, China

Me and the big toe.

View from the toe.

detail of giant metal roller (people spin them as they walk by, for good luck)

I liked the corroded texture of it.

It was a fun trip getting to know T's work friends and learning more about Buddhism. Only 2 of them were practicing buddhists, burning candles and incense and praying at the various locations. One of them asked me what Christians do at church- just pray? So that was a interesting conversation to have about beliefs and what "church" is. I learned not to walk thru the center of the archways (of 5 openings, the center one is only for budda) and that they believe its good luck if you touch budda's hand and circle around it.

We also ate a vegetarian buffet there- with typical dishes with "veggie product" replacing the supposed meat things. Weirrdddd. It looked like beef... but it wasn't. Some of the pork pieces even look like they had fat on them.. squishy and gross like fat too! I didn't take any photos b/c it was just a bit weird for me... and the room was dark. I liked the taro balls the most.

I love snow!

wake up and smell the.... snow?!

I woke up this morning to be surprised by a white city- everything covered in snow, JUST like the flocked trees in the macy's displays! I was delighted and immediately grabbed my camera to snap some shots.

DO you see it on the thin trees? Every little bit got some snow on it. Fluffy, bright, snow. Ahhh! So magical. This is when I realized that "Walking in a winter wonderland" was not necessarily a Christmas song, so I was still allowed to sing it post-Christmas. yesss. snowman time!

Now something fun. I visit the commodities/trim market seasonally, sometimes for work, sometimes for fun. Ribbons, buttons, overstock, random logo patches, doodads- a plethora of materials to make something great out of. One of the more intriguing overstock items to me are washing labels.

Back in college I had made a stuffed animal sheep out of "100% WOOL" tags, where the tags were the tufts of fur, and had brown legs and face (of wool). So I picked up a mini roll of satin ribbon japanese washing labels as a design challenge for myself. And if you dare join me, I will ship you a few meters.

new year. two thousand eleven.

After helping someone with their grad school essays, I realized how much revising can improve one's writing. So my 2010 "reflections" post is still being cleaned up so to speak.

At the end of every year, I reread all my journal/blog entries to see how I've learned (or not learned) prayers were answered, or just to make sure time HAS passed. (which it has, unfortunately quickly) Once I got to April, I decided two things (1) My blog is really boring, especially when the most interesting post I reread was about Visa issues.(yikes) So I really need to spice it up. My goal for the blog to was share with family and friends back home how life is going out here, so (2) I need a better format besides the "What is did this weekend" post. So I'm thinking of a simple three part format: What I saw/experienced, what I felt, and what I learned. The "felt" and "learned" aspects should be more interesting on how they reflect me as a person as well as how living abroad has affected me.

So now I will practice my new format-prompt.

Hanging out with meat and clothes by the Chang Shou rd mall. (there's a Starbucks immediately behind what you see) I wonder if the clothes smell like fish? I think this is a creative use of space, and have mixed feelings about the dried fish and ducks. Drying food to preserving has been done for centuries, a process I'm curious to learn- although people are still using this method because they haven't a fridge. This makes me feel sad, but also blessed to be where I am. I also had no idea that poultry could be dried like that.

Festival of Red I headed to Yu garden to search for some parts for work, and the shops are jammed with Lunar New years gear. Plush strings of chili peppers, rabbits, good luck sayings, knots, and lanterns. These cheery overflowing shops can be seen blocks away like splashes of red paint amongst the grey buildings. It makes feel rather excited, like the whole country is having a countrywide party!