Hong Kong, August 2007 (Second Day)

My room mate (and my supervisor in the project) woke me up at around 8 am in that Saturday morning of August 25th 2007. We were supposed to go out looking for breakfast that morning, but I told him to just go ahead because he was all prepared and I was basically a lazy ass. I thought that I'd probably be eating at the hotel's breakfast buffet. About 5 minutes after he left I realized that I couldn't sleep anymore so decided to hit the shower real quick and see whether or not I could catch up with them.

Got to the hotel lobby and saw none of them around. Thought to myself that they'd probably be looking for a restaurant nearby so I started wandering around the vicinity of the hotel, testing my luck whether or not I'd bump into them, while at the same time looking around at the many shops around the Marco Polo Hotel. After about 15 minutes of no luck in finding them, I texted one of them who were supposed to be in the group. About 1 minute after I sent that message, I saw the supposed recipient of my message walking with the other 4 people. Lady luck loved me that morning. I went up behind her (the recipient) and surprised the bejeezus out of her (I am good at surprising people, they thought I came out of thin air I should have been a magician).

We later on met the others at the restaurant where we were supposed to have breakfast (there were actually 3 groups, the first group who went on ahead because the other one was taking too much time to shower, and yes that would include me as well, and the last one were those who were with families and had to take care of children/grannies so they opted to go for the buffet) and we had ourselves a nice noodle-and-meatballs breakfast. Have I mentioned that the food in Hong Kong is fantastic? At least I could say that the food is in average better than most Chinese food in Jakarta (AND Manila, for that matter). *Drool* ah, I miss Hong Kong already.

After we finished breakfast, we all teamed up (including those who didn't go out for breakfast and had it in the hotel which, by the way, sucked and they swore never to return for the buffet again) and went to go to the monastery where there was a really big Buddha statue. The monastery was located quite high on the mountains (don't ask me the name, because I didn't know and probably wouldn't be able to remember). We went there by the subway first and then by bus. The alternative to the bus was to use cable cars (which would have provided a better view of the mountains we were going to go to), but at the time they were not operational. Such a shame, but oh well, better than nothing.

The bus ride took about 45 minutes, and along the way we caught a glimpse of the coastline and the view was quite beautiful. About halfway through the journey I received a text message in my handphone welcoming me and notifying me that I was in China. Wow. Too bad there was no immigration. I'd dearly love to have a China immigration/visa stamp on one of the pages in my passport. Not a biggie, anyways. Another point of interest was a medium-sized man-made lake/dam, which I suspect was used to generate electricity for the surrounding area.

After we arrive, the first thing that most of us did (not including finding a toilet, that is) was to whip out our camera and started firing away. The big Buddha statue on top of the straight, long (and quite high) staircase just screamed "Hey, I'm here and I'm a very big Buddha statue so whip out your camera and start firing away." After we were happy snapping away at the base of the staircase, those of us who wanted to climb it to reach the top, and thus reach the statue as well, started climbing away while those who weren't up to it (you guessed it, the mothers and the children, and the grannies, and some who weren't interested in big statues screaming 'take pics of me!') went away elsewhere to relax, enjoy the weather (which was cloudy but nice), and probably have something to nibble.

The Big Buddha Statue

That's a really long climb...

I was sweating like a pig by the time I reach the top (the air was thin up there, believe me, it was not because I was out of shape. Really!) and to compensate I bought an ice cream in a cone. Welcome back, calories. The view was amazing from up there. I didn't realize how high the mountains were until the clouds parted and I saw a glimpse of them with sides sloping up almost to 70 degrees. We could see the coastline that we saw along the way, and also the lake/dam. The monastery itself had been converted into a tourist attraction, so the building under where the big statue was sitting on felt more like a souvenir shop (it really was) than a monastery. We took our time snapping away at the big guy and also the view around us, and when we were satisfied we then climbed down the stairs to join the others.

Views from the Top

There was a small collection of shops and restaurant near the base of the staircase, and that was where we meet up with the others. Had a taste of ice milk tea and ice pearl green tea, nibbled on some of my friends lunch left-overs (yeah, the food's good, but that doesn't mean that I should be going about like a pig ordering full meal portions, I was happy as long as I had a taste), and resting my feet before we leave the area. The fog came in, covering the big statue up there in a bit of a haze when we were about to leave the place. Bye, big guy. This place is a recommended spot for those who likes to travel to see the sceneries. Let you know the name of this place later. Still couldn't get it out of my memory.

We went back through the way we came. Got to the bus station and continued on (after another visit to the rest room) through the subway. Next order of the day was Mong Kok. This place was an electronic heaven. You can find a lot of things electronic there: TVs, digital cameras, camcorders, handphones, Nintendo Wii, you name it. And if you can haggle, you'll get bargain prices. One thing I really liked about this place was all the chinese signboards strewn about and a big mass of people walking around crowding you. I saw the true Hong Kong there. A chaotic mass of beauty. Some people might find the crowd a bit overwhelming (an understatement and plus, the weather's quite hot at this time of the year, making it more stifling), but this was Hong Kong. And I loved it.

First things first, though. This place is not suitable for people with families and small children, especially children who couldn't stand the heat and the crowd. So, the group with the family decided to go back to hotel early. Me and my supervisor/friend helped them find a couple of taxis, which was a difficult affair due to the large amount of people queueing up. But taxis were in abundant numbers, so it didn't take us long to finally send the families off back to the hotel. After that, we just walked around looking at the scenery (if you call crowded streets a scenery, which I actually think it was) until my eyes caught a glimpse of a toy store full of anime robots.

Mong Kok during the day and night

Yours Truly

I went straight for the toy store, and found myself a very happy boy in an adult body. I wanted to buy Bumblebee from the Transformers movie, but it was out of stock. We tried looking at other toy stores, but to no success. I finally went back to the first store and got myself a 1/200 scale of Freedom Gundam, one of the Gundam models that I really like. We went about for awhile and then meet up with the others. We went about other places for awhile (one place for dinner) before we finally went back to the hotel.

I rested for only awhile in the hotel, then a small group of my traveling buddies wanted to go to the Space Center near the ferry terminal and I decided to come along. My roommate was too tired so he decided to stay and lay back a bit. The ferry terminal was very near to our hotel, and it has a great view of the buildings of Hong Kong, across the waters. Too bad that it was rather foggy that night, else the pictures I took would've turned out better. While snapping away at the scenery, I noticed that the then latest picture in my digital camera looks clearer than the others and I realized that the fog had lifted. I didn't know that I was mistaken until I felt raindrops on my head and realized that the fog hadn't lifted, it just moved to our side. We ran for shelter, and found one. Good thing I brought an umbrella in my back pack (I had my backpack almost all the time in HK), and we used that an another borrowed umbrella to find a better shelter.

Before and After

Not long after that the rain subsided, and we went back to Mong Kok to have an evening dessert at one of the roadside stall. It was good, as to be expected. With that, my second day in Hong Kong concluded, and we went back to our hotel to get some rest and get ready for thei third day.