Art, Antiques, A Night-Out & an Enormous Escalator

Over the last couple of weekends, having not had any trips organised, we have been able to stay on Hong Kong Kong explore more of what this amazing city has to offer.

On Sunday a couple of weeks ago, we had tickets to the Hong Kong Art Fair 2012 which is the city's biggest art fair and brings together pieces from different art galleries all around the world. This trip was definitely an example of quantity over quality, and despite there being a few interesting pieces of art, the majority was a bit too niche for my taste. I have tried to take a few pictures of the most interesting pieces, but to be honest, my photos make most of the pieces look more artistic than they were in the flesh.

HK Art 2012 Fair Entrance Hall at The Hong Kong Exhibition & Convention Centre (HKECC)

Is this really art?

Jurassic Park meets Full Metal Jacket

More people tripped over this piece than actually looked at it with any interest.

Not sure if this is a piece of art, or just some interesting dividers

Interesting piece, but not hard to put together really???

One way to use your old Super-Soakers!

The weekend after our trip to the art gallery, we decided again to stay on Hong Kong Island and this time, explore the area around the Mid-Levels and Soho.

On Friday night we were invited to the birthday celebrations of one of D's colleagues, and on leaving the flat at 22:00 headed to Fly Bar in Lan Kwai Fun or LFK as it is known to the Chuppies (Chinese Yuppies). LKF is the equivalent of the West End, but is probably one of the few places in the world that makes a night out in London look good value. 

Fly Bar (Lan Kwai Fung)

It was definitely not this quiet when we left.

However, Fly was a great place to start the evening and we were soon into the swing of things getting our groove on, on the quickly filling dance floor. All, was good until I spotted a few of the kids that I had spent the previous day teaching. As well as making me rather uncomfortable, it also made me feel VERY VERY old. However, we were enjoying ourself too much to let this ruin are night, and we swiftly headed to grab something to eat before making our way to Dragon-I nightclub. A good time was had by all and we were soon once again getting our groove on in somewhat more rowdy conditions than Fly.

The following day, having had a bit of a lie-in we headed back to the Soho and Central area to have a look around the winding streets of the mid-levels. The main tourist spot in this part of town is the Mid-Levels escalator which winds it way up the hill from the hustle and bustle of the business district into the more secluded and relaxed Mid-Levels. We decided to ride the escalator to the top and then make our way down via the winding streets ad alleys that style this part of HK.

The Central to Mid-Levels Escalator

What we discovered was one of the most beautiful and interesting areas of Hong Kong, filled with antique filled market streets and hidden temples that defy the growing metropolis all around. An example of this, was the Man Mo Temple, which is a small, incense filled monastery dedicated to two very different Chinese gods, Man Cheong the God of Literature and  Kwan Yu, the god of war or martial valour. It was a beautiful and serene place, and for a while we felt like we had left the city only to be brought back to earth upon looking through the open roof of the temple, through which you could see the vast sky-scraper tower blocks which make up the residential estates of the Mid-Levels.

Inside the incense filled Man Mo Temple

More incense....

Our restaurant of choice for a VERY tasty lunch!

A 20-day incense burner, this has got about 2 days left

After our visit to the temple, we spent the rest of our afternoon wondering and perusing the antique stalls around Ladder Street and Cat Street. I use antiques loosely, however, as a number OF stalls were also selling broken Casio watches and pre-Nokia 5110 mobile phones (Proper Gordon Gekko-style bricks). Having earmarked a few items for purchase before we head back to the UK, we headed back to Causeway Bay for a good nights sleep and another couple of episodes of The West Wing.

We also discovered Elgin Street in the mid-levels,a tiny street packed with a great selection of restaurants. We decided to give the lunch menu in Bouchon a try and we were not disappointed, with both of us having a starter, drinks and a prime piece of fillet steak each, for under 25GBP.

That's all for now folks!  Catch up again soon. J

Lantau Island and the Statue of Buddha

This weekend we decided to head to the biggest island in Hong Kong, Lantau Island. This large island, home to Hong Kong International Airport is also home to the Tian Tian Buddhist statue of the Buddha which sits atop a hill in a mountainous region of the island. The solid bronze statue of Buddha is one of the most impressive sights that I have seen since arriving in Hong Kong and the personable looking Deity dominates the skyline from a number of viewpoints in the region, as can be seen from the pictures from the cable car on our way up to the to top of the mountain.

A close-up of the Big Buddha

The statue is a famous sight of pilgrimage for many Buddhists all around the world, and you could tell that many of the people at the statue were deeply affected by being so close to the huge colossus. The features on the statute are supposed to represent the deity's personable nature and this is definitely obvious when you stand and take a close look at the bronze sculpture.

The Solid Bronze Statue of Buddha

 After heading back down from the statue were headed to the Po Lin Monestary which has grown massively since the building of the statue in 1993. This small buddhist enclave has swiftly become a major sight of pilgrimage, but I am pleased to say that it has still managed to withhold its bhuddist beliefs and core teachings. With our ticket to see the Buddha we we also given the chance to sample some authentic Buddhist vegetarian dim sum, and after trying to decide what to have, we both decided that the food alone was worth the price of the ticket let alone the chance to see the massive deity up close.

The 200 stairs to Buddha 

Inside Po Lin Monestary

Decorations around the Monestary

Buddha sitting atop the mountain

One of the 12 warrior kings that guard the Monestary with statue of Buddha in background

Buddha from the Cable Car

Cable Car Ride

Rather haunting image of our cable car trip up to see the statue

 Unfortunately, as with the growth of tourism around the monestary and statue, the people in power in HK have decided that it is necessary build a 'Disney Style' authentic Chinese village full of tourist and souvenir shops. This slightly patronising view of life in China was unfortunately the busiest spot of the day, so we headed straight through and back to the cable car to take us back down the mountain to the MTR station. (It was not until we researched our trip when we got home that we found out about the cable cars chequered past! See the article http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11&art_id=46616&sid=14019242&con_type=3 I think we may have taken the bus up to the statue if we had read this before we left, as we were both nervous enough in the cable car without this prior knowledge.

There is also a pogo display team at the top of the hill doing stunts, and this seemed the perfect excuse to post a picture I got of one of the guys doing a 'backflip' on a pogo stick, needless to say pogo sticks have got a bit more technicl since I was a kid.

Crazy pogo-ing man!

 We have started to plan our future trips outside of HK and I will keep you posted as to other trips and tours we take. We are looking to get go Vietnam, Japan and Beijing when we get the chance.

 Will catch up again soon! J

The Thai'm of our lives

On Saturday we packed our suitcase and headed to the airport for our first holiday since we arrived in Hong Kong. Having missed out on our Easter holidays we were both looking forward to getting away and relaxing for a bit. D had managed to find a great hotel for us in Phuket and booking the flights through Air Asia ensured that the cost wasn't too high. The airport train from HK was swift as usual and we soon arrived in on of the most impressive airport terminals/ shopping malls I have ever visited. Both terminals are full of yet more watch and jewellery shops, and even right at the departure gates there is a huge selection of shopping choices.

Unbelievably, even though the average height of most south-east Asian is about 4 inches shorter than Europeans, the seats on Air Asia still had more legroom than the likes of Whizz Air, Easyjet and Ryanair. We didn't arrive in Phuket until just before midnight so our journey to the hotel wasn't particularly thrilling, but it was when we woke up in our room on our first day that the true beauty and splendour of our resort became clear. After a hearty breakfast of a mixture of Asian, Continental, English and American breakfasts we headed down to the infinity pool for a spot of sunbathing and swimming. The pool lay right on the side of the Andaman Sea and we quickly found ourselves frying in the morning sun. (As we were to find out later on, frying a little bit too much).

Infinity Pool on Andaman Sea

Our room was a sea-view room which had wonderful views over the Andaman and when you looked out from the bed looked like the sort of view that you would find on the desktop of your computer. We made our way down to the restaurant to try out the hotel's Thai restaurant. The food throughout the week was brilliant and we made the most of breakfast each morning (especially me) in order to keep us going till dinner.

View from our room!!!!!

One of the best features of the hotel was its private island, Bon Island, which is situated a 15 minute boat ride away from the hotel's launch. We spent most of our time on the island and because we were there during the off-season, the beach was partially empty most of the day. The coral and fish were not as impressive as the Red Sea on our honeymoon, but the quiet, blue, tranquil waters were still a pleasure to swim in. There was also a bar and restaurant on the island so we were never to far away from a source of mojitos.

Bon Island

Bon Island again

Relaxing on Bon Island

During our week in Thailand we also booked ourselves onto a boat trip around Koh Phi Phi and some of the smaller islands. We boarded the boat in the Phuket Boat lagoon and we were soon bouncing across the waves of the Andaman at high speeds... well we were for about 15 minutes until one of the boats engines decided that it done enough work for the day. After a 10 minute wait on a small deserted island we were on our again and headed for 'Monkey Beach'. This was a small inlet on Phi Phi crammed with tourist boats, each queuing for their chance to feed the ravenous monkeys. I think its the monkeys who definitely have the upper hand in this battle of evolution. They just sit on the tree, waiting for the hoards of tourists to throw bananas at them, offering little in return. It is a very one sided relationship, but one we both enjoyed (just perhaps not as much as the monkeys).

Monkey from aforementioned beach

After a lunch break, at a busy, but pretty cove we headed for the headline attractions of our tour. Both film locations, for famous films, and both equally breathtaking. The first that we headed to was a lagoon on the coast of Phi Phi. The island and lagoon was used in the film Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World and is 10m and filled with the bluest water that I have ever seen. Unfortunately my photos don't really do it all justice. We were given the chance to swim in the lagoon, which was an experience we will never forget, to have such blue water in a lagoon so deep was both eerie and beautiful at the same time.

Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World Island

Nice location for a spot of lunch

Lagoon we swam in that was used in JP2

VERY VERY blue water from lagoon

After our swim we headed a bit further around the island to the beach used in the Leonardo Di Caprio film 'The Beach'. This again was full of tourists when we arrived, but having just finished reading Alex Garland's book on which the film is based I was really looking forward to exploring the beach and this side of the island. The bay and beach are both absolutely stunning and I am afraid again that my pictures really can't express what a truly beautiful place it really was. We were given the chance to have a wonder inland from the beach and they have even left some of the original set from the film just a bit back from the beach, where the film's protagonists camp was located. After an hour or so relaxing on the quietening beach, we headed back for the mainland on the boat and back to the peace of the hotel.

Approaching the beach from 'The Beach' in our boat

Camp left from the film set

Got to be one of the most beautiful places we had ever been

More of  'The Beach'

Relaxing on 'The Beach'

Below are a few pictures of in and around the hotel so you can see where we were staying, I hope they don't make you too jealous.... That is of course a lie, I hope that they make you very jealous.

Our room, with desktop screen-saver style view

Hotel Reception

Hotel Entrance Area

View from our breakfast table

That is plenty from me for now. Catch up again soon.

Back to School

After just over a week of getting my bearings in the city it was back to school and back to work. Through a colleague of D's I had managed to get in touch with the supply manager at The Canadian International School, which is in Aberdeen on the South-West of the island.

After a quick email and a couple of phone calls, it was decided that I would complete a day's cover in the lower school, within the PE department. I thought that this would be the best place to start, to help get a feel of what it would be like working in an HK school. The staff bus picked me up from just outside the apartment building at 6:40am, which meant that I got to school an hour before the start of period 1 at 8:05.

As with most buildings in HK, the school is an architectural marvel and has been built into the side of a granite hillside about 150m high. This means that you walk into the building on the 9th floor, with the middle and upper schools taking up the 9 floors below the entrance and the lower school accommodating the 5 floors above the main concourse.

The Canadian International School

Having established that I was covering the VERY lower school, it was time to head to the junior sportshall (1 of 3 sportshalls) to prepare for my first foray into teaching in HK. Having thought I may have to teach baseball or american football, I was pleased to hear it wasn't one of these, but even more frightened to find I would be teaching 3 hourse of 'scooter ball'. This turns out to be a mixture of handball and ice-hokey that is played with the kids sitting on small trolley like apparatus (as shown below) and pushing themselves around using their feet.

Trolley Ball Trolleys

After three lessons of trolley ball I had had quite enough and was pleased to find out that the afternoon session was a little bit more within my sphere of knowledge. A nice multi-skills session with 3 different prep classes. I am definitely built for secondary school teaching however, as after a day teaching the little ones, my back was in pieces. However, as the school day finished at 1430 and the bus home doesn't leave till 1620, I decided it was only right to try out the schools 140 piece fitness suite. The staff at the school were great to me all day and I look forward to a couple more days next week, when I'm going to be covering some other subjects which should be interesting, as long as it's not mandarin!

I have also heard from the American International School in Kowloon and the English Schools Foundation about some more supply work, so I will hopefully have enough to buy that iPad in the not too distant future. Keep those early morning call coming!

Catch up again soon!

Live long and prosper!

Kowloon, The Museum of Hong Kong and our new favourite shop

Taking advantage of another bank holiday on Easter Monday, we decided it was about time we went over to the mainland to explore Kowloon and the range of activities on offer. We set our sights on the Hong Kong Museum of History and decided that we would not take the ferry over, instead we would take the MTR over and the ferry back in the afternoon. It was another overcast day, with a few spells of sunshine, but the temperature was still pushing 30'c and humidity was at about 85%.

The museum is a short walk from central Kowloon and advertises itself as the definitive collection of natural history, social and cultural exhibitions tracing the history of Hong Kong throughout the many dynasties that have effected it, right up to the growth of modern day Hong Kong.

After a short MTR journey we arrived in Tsim Sha Tsui on the mainland, just across from Hong Kong Island. In case I haven't mentioned it so far somewhere, all MTR trains not only have a fully functioning, polar temperature, air conditioning system, but also manage to transmit reception for every phone network in China along the ENTIRE underground system. As well as providing free Wifi in every MTR station that you can use as much as you want. The place not only puts the London underground to shame, but makes it seem like the London system is stuck in the 19th century.

The Hong Kong Museum of History (as seen below) is a modern museum with exhibitions on the different phases of the cities past. It starts with a natural history exhibition looking at the geological development on HK. However, even with my geographical interest, there were only a certain number of rocks I could look at before tedium set in. After swiftly moving onto the exhibition concerning the growth of the population of HK I soon got lost within the many, many, many dynasties which have shaped China. 

The Hong Kong Museum of History

The museum also featured a section on the different tribes that first made up the general population of this tiny island and also some of the customs that they developed that still continue in modern day Hong Kong and China.

Tradition Celebration Lanterns (I don't know what they celebrate though... concentration was waning at this point)

More celebratory lanterns

Traditional Dragon Headmask

The next section of  the museum was a bit more uncomfortable for us colonial commoners as it examined the British takeover of HK and the opium trade wars that led up it. After a 10 minute video that went something like CHINA=GOOD, BRITAIN=EVIL we left the cinema room past some rather unhappy looking natives. Doing our best to pretend to be French we swiftly made our way out of the museum and headed for a spot of lunch.

Over lunch we decided that we were cultured out for the day, but instead of heading back over the bay, we decided to try and find a particular shop that we had been looking to visit. The offending store was an outlet of American Eagle Outfitters (Think Jack Wills meets Abercrombie & Fitch, but about 1/3 of the price), which we had been tracking down to visit for a few years now. Well the troubled started as soon as we walked through the door, and about two hours and two and a half thousand Hong Kong Dollars later, we were the best friends of all of the staff in the shop and weighed down with a few rather large shopping bags.

Our new favourite shop..... American Eagle Outfitters

At this point we thought it best to head home, and after counting the change in our pockets decided the cheapest way back would be the Star Ferry from Kowloonside to Wan Chai on Hong Kongside. These antiquated boats rather look like a cut and shut boat made from the front end of two very old and battered vessels. They did however deliver us safely to our destination and for the price of about 70p we couldn't really complain.

Hope you're all still awake. More from me very soon I am sure.