Grand Canyon!

In February, Ashley and I went to the Grand Canyon. This was very exciting for us, because we had wanted to go there very badly for about a year and a half now, and were thrilled to actually be seeing it for the first time. I also had an extra level of excitement, because my roommate (and wonderful friend) in Antarctica, Gracie, had been to the Grand Canyon many times and had told me how wonderful it was.

However, Ashley and I didn't know much about the Grand Canyon, and so thought some really stupid things about it. Like, that we could climb all the way down and back up in one day. However, they have lots of signs around warning you not to do that, so we didn't try. This was disappointing, but really for the best, as we probably wouldn't have made it back up.

However, we took a long hike and got a good way down into the canyon, so we got to see the different layers of rocks

We climbed about 3.5 miles round trip, and were very excited when we made it back to the top. It was certainly a work-out, and our legs felt like jelly for the rest of the day. However, it was totally worth it as we had waited so long to get to go, and we are excited to go back and make it to the very bottom the next time :)

Friends & the Four Corners

The four corners (the point where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet- the only place I know that allows you to be in four places at once) is a wonderful national sight I have had the pleasure of visiting twice, both in the company of very good friends. It is ALWAYS a fun place to visit; along with the four corners point there are gift and food stalls, and quite a bit of scenery to see on the way there.

Four Corners or Bust! (Originally the goal was the Grand Canyon, but for the sake of time and other things, compromises had to be made)

Unlike the Grand Canyon where you pay $25 to enter, at the Four Corners, you only pay a modest $3 entry fee

And apparently, the fee is waived on Thursdays

As someone who has (much to my own surprise) become a frequent visitor of the four corners site, I have seen the place be redesigned.

Originally the 4 corners point was up on a platform

Now its been lowered so the gift stalls are above it. This makes the space more accessible and open in order to deal better with crowds. (This picture is not good proof of this, as this was taken 3 minutes before they shut the place for the night, and consequently the only people there were us and the security guard waiting to escort us out)

Macau

After looking through some Hong Kong guidebooks when I got there, I realized I could take a day trip to an entirely different country (well, different special administrative region in China) called Macau. Like Hong Kong, it used to belong to a foreign power, (Portugal) and has only recently been given back to China. And like Hong Kong, it is a special administrative region, and has its own rules about certain things (like allowing US citizens to enter without visas). So, once I figured out it was legal to go, and it would be an entirely new stamp in the passport, I decided to make a day of it, and explore Macau. Its accessible by helicopter, or an hour-long ferry ride. I took the ferry there in the morning, spent the day, and made it back in the early evening, early enough to have drinks with my wonderful host, Michael (who is a gracious, very kind person who put up with me crashing on his futon for a week). It honestly took me longer to get back from Lantau (which is a part of Hong Kong) then it did to get to and from Macau, which is technically an entirely different country.

One of the main squares in Hong Kong. I thought the pavement was really cool.

Macau’s current claim to fame is that it is the Vegas of Asia. There are tons of casinos all around the peninsula. Other then that, it has the tallest tower in the world, which people can bungee jump off of.

A casino on the coast

There are historic temples which are similar to the ones around Hong Kong, and also historic churches because of the Christian influence that its had over the years.

One of the historic churches

I got a tour around the city to see the highlights- and got to go up the tower and see the city from a birds-eye view. Unfortunately it was rather smoggy, but it was still a really neat sight to see.

The two black towers across the water are the entrance to the Schenzen region (mainland China)

The Macau tower, the tallest in the world

Hong Kong: Lantau

One day when I was in Hong Kong, I went to the Outlying Island of Lantau, which is a very interesting place. On it they have Hong Kong Disneyland, the airport, and a shopping village with a monastery and a giant Buddha. You can take a cable car up to the village, and walk around, visit the monastery, and climb up to the Buddha.

This is a "tea tasting" I went to where I tried traditional chinese tea...it was cool flower tea where it "bloomed" under the hot water

This is the view of the Buddha from the cable car

I took the cable car to the village, walked around the small town and did some souvenir shopping. Then I went to the hill with the Tin Tan Buddha and climbed the 300 and something stairs to it. This was huge! And it was a beautiful statue, along with all of the other statues around it. Inside the base, you could walk around and see revelations and writings of the Buddha (this was all in Chinese so I am not really sure what I saw but that was the general feel I was getting). There were also these incredible tapestries that had illustrations of the Buddha’s story.

All of the stairs up to the Buddha. There are more then 300 stairs to climb!

I made it to the top!

While walking around the Buddha, I was lucky enough to see a religious ceremony take place. The priests who were walking around were very friendly, and stopped to say hi to all the foreigners and to ask where we came from. After climbing down from the Buddha I went and had dinner at the monastery. It was a really nice simple vegetarian meal and was delicious. It was a really fun day, and nice to get out of the city itself, go somewhere more rural, and see something truly spectacular like this Buddha.

The religious ceremony at the Buddha

Hong Kong: Temples

If I had to pick a favorite thing about my trip to Hong Kong, I would have to say the temples. I was able to visit several of these beautiful establishments throughout Hong Kong and Macau. They were incredibly beautiful, thought-provoking, and just truly fascinating to experience.

Man Mo Temple

The first temple I went to was the Man Mo Temple on Hong Kong Island. This is the oldest in Hong Kong, and is in between skyscrapers making it look somewhat out of place, but all the more eye-catching all the same. At the entrance I gave a donation of a few dollars for a hospital, and got some incense in return. After entering the temple, there were statues of the gods all around the room with incense, and flames to light the incense, all around them.

There were many incredible things about the experience but the ones that hit me the most was how authentic this place was, and how engaging the environment was. Most people there were there to give donation of incense and fruit and pray to the gods, so it was really cool to be there and see this place through their eyes (and several people were very kind and helped me light my incense properly). The environment was incredibly engaging. It was so different then western religion I grew up with because it was just so active; there was so much to do! Getting the offering (fruit or incense), giving the offering, lighting incense, praying- there was so many sights and smells and so much going on it took awhile to take it all in. I have never been to a religious environment that was so active and engaging for the participant before, so it was really cool to see and experience.

After exploring the main rooms of the Man Mo Temple, I went to the stands where you could buy curios, based on the zodiac, to bring you luck for the New Year. Apparently my sign, the dragon, has a difficult lunar year in store, so I bought a monkey charm, which will counteract the dragon’s bad luck. I also got to see some fortune-tellers. I got my palm read at two different temples to just see if they would say the same of different things- and the two said the same stuff! It was kind of creepy but kind of accurate. The most entertaining thing about the fortune-tellers at Man Mo Temple was waiting in the line. People were on their cell phones, and taking notes on their iphones. It seemed to be such a common thing, to be going to the fortune-teller; I found it all fascinating.

At another temple, I got to participate in the most common fortune-telling method, using the chim to divine the future. These are fortune-telling sticks in a container, each one with a number. You shake them, waiting for one to fall out, and when it does you take note of the number on it, get the corresponding prophecy, and have a soothsayer read it.

My cup of fortune-telling sticks, and the one that fell out

Everyone praying with the "chim" (fortune telling sticks)

It was so neat to get to participate in such a cultural moment. All in all, I think I got to experience the most of the culture I possibly could by visiting and participating in the temples. It truly was a collection of experiences I will never forget.

Hong Kong: Currency and Conversion

a.k.a. how do you say “can you break a 500?” in Cantonese?

One of the many things that makes Hong Kong different then any country I have visited (besides possibly Argentina, although I didn’t spend much time there) is the exchange rate. One US dollar is about 7 or 8 Hong Kong dollar. Although things that are western are expensive- a starbucks mint mocha is $35 HK dollar- most other things are not. For example, at a sushi restaurant, the “creativity rolls” all ranged from 20-30 HK dollar (3-4 US dollars). Long subway trips to outlying islands were 18 HK dollars, where as most of the ones around town were less then 10. It was a really easy place to spend money, because everything was so cheap. But it was very fun, and a little dangerous, to keep converting things to how cheap they really were.

Things that are western are very expensive, because westerners can typically afford to pay the difference, and if they want western items they will. However, since I was a tourist exploring the city and wanting the most authentic experience possible, I tried to avoid western things (besides the occasional mint mocha from Starbucks) and so spent very little money day to day. However, being western and having converted Australian money, I had a disturbingly large amount (for HK dollars anyway) on hand, and more then once found myself buying packs of gum or other small things in order to break large bills so I could pay for cab fares or subway tickets.

Hong Kong: East Meets West

The view of the city on Hong Kong Island from the top of the peak at night.

Hong Kong is a big, fun, exciting city/region. It is a special administrative region of China, and consists of several small islands and a small coastal part of the main land.

The view of Hong Kong Island (on a very hazy day) from the ferry

One of the best parts about it is that it is a real combination of western and eastern culture. Parts of the city feel very modern, and very much like New York City. Others are more remote, and feel rustic and beautifully foreign. One of the coolest things is how close these two parts can be together.

One of the street markets selling clothes, food, trinkets and everything in between.

Hong Kong's "Times Square", in one of the shopping districts of the city

For example a few blocks from the business district are narrow streets full of shops selling everything from curios to whole octopus to all sorts of different ingredients that I would have never thought useful for food. There is the oldest temple in Hong Kong in between skyscrapers and apartment buildings, a few blocks away from the neighborhood of ex-pat bars and clubs.

The Man Mo Temple, the oldest temple in Hong Kong, in between skyscrapers and shops.

The official language of Hong Kong is Cantonese, but most things have English translations- like street signs, and metro stops. I have only run into a few restaurants whose menu doesn’t have an English version, and a few cab drivers that don’t know English at all. Although the ex-pat community is large, it is still a minimal percent of the population, and now that Hong Kong is a part of China, it is getting tourists from the mainland, and now Mandarin language is becoming important for tourism.

Something interesting you couldn’t help but notice in the city was the emphasis on sanitation. Many people wear surgical masks over their nose and face. On the subway, there are “sanitation mats” which you can step on to sanitize your soles, and the escalator handrails have signs on them saying how often they are sanitized. There is also a big pollution problem in the city. I never really noticed it, but there is a pollution index you can check daily, it’s by percent, and also has a rating from low to high. Some of the days I was there it was at the high rating, but again, I never noticed a difference in the air.

While I was in Hong Kong I got to see all different parts of the city, as well as visit some of the outlying islands. It is a truly incredible place, and has only given me more of a travel bug to see more of Asia.