bali:bukit

I managed to drive from ubud to bukit w/out getting too lost…I missed one turn toward the end of the drive, simply because it wasn’t labeled the way I thought it would be…fortunately, that was easy to fix…I’d looked at the map of bukit several times, paying special attention to the road to get to bingin, which is where my mate james was staying…james and I were in the same primary school classes in 4^th and 5^th grade, and I hadn’t seen him since…and w/out facebook, I wouldn’t have known he was in bali, nor would I have recognized him while walking past him…he’s a surfer at heart, so it makes sense that he feels totally at home on the bukit peninsula…there are a lot of surf spots off the southern peninsula of bali, and it’s easy to get around…

I found a place to stay, and headed down to the beach…at least, I thought it was down to the beach…as has been my habit so far, I missed a turn, and ended up taking the adventurous way to the beach…bingin is a very small village, and basically only exists because of surfers…everything is related to surfers…accommodation and food, surf shops, etc…getting down to that particular beach involves going down steep steps that wind through various accommodation options…the beach itself is pretty small, and the water crashes really close by…

After laying out for a while I started climbing back up to mama ketut’s to check email/surf the net…that’s when I realized I hadn’t eaten since breakfast…I nearly passed out a couple times on the way up, I had to take mini breaks and guzzle water…whoops…I hadn’t felt it while laying out, but the sun had apparently taken a lot out of me…after checking internet and meeting up with james I ate a full meal, I knew I’d feel better…and I did…after showering I met up with james again and we chatted the rest of the evening…it’s fun to catch up with people from my past, especially in random places like the bukit peninsula of bali…needless to say, a lot has happened since we’d seen each other…to make a long story short, james is an engineer in California; he quit his job to take a 12-18 month trip around the world…

 The next morning, after a ridiculously slow wakeup, I drove to ulu watu…it’s a temple on the south side of the peninsula…there is also a surf spot and beach called ulu watu…the temple wasn’t as impressive as I expected, but it’s perched on top of some beautiful cliffs, and I enjoyed seeing those…a whole bunch of monkeys live in the temple grounds, they like to take things from the people wandering around…I didn’t have any plastic bags, or any food with me, but they still wanted to look in my purse…I was okay with that, but I wasn’t so thrilled when one of the monkeys jumped on me and moved up to my head…apparently the monkey liked the look of my hair rubber band…it’s orange…but most definitely not edible…he scratched me a bit as I shook him off…his buddy watched the whole thing happen, but he didn’t get the hair band either…on my way back out, I asked about the dance show that happens every night at the temple…the guidebook said the price was 40,000rupiah, but I had a feeling that number would be higher now…and it was…70,000rupiah…having seen a couple shows in ubud I didn’t think it would be worth it to go again…

From the temple I drove back toward bingin, stopping at padang padang beach…angie had recommended it…it’s small compared to some of the other beaches I’ve seen in bali, but it’s still nice…I think there is even a lifeguard on duty! Who knows if the lifeguard is any good, but that’s beside the point…it was crowded as beaches go, or maybe I just got spoiled when I spent time in new Zealand and anything more than 5 people on a beach makes it seem crowded to me…the water felt good, and it was fun to watch people…after laying out for an hour and a half I went back to my hotel and chilled for the rest of the evening, chatting with james a bit more…I realized I could stay on that peninsula for a week, not doing much of anything, just soaking up sun and chatting with people…the people who owned my accommodation spoke really good English, and were great fun to talk to…james had stayed their previously, and they loved him…and the mango juice was awesomeJ

The next day I drove back to seminyak, w/ only one small detour…now I know how to get to the airport, hee hee…fortunately, it was easy enough to get to seminyak, despite taking the “alternate” route…

my first motorbike ride...and ubud...

the day after i arrived in bali, angie took me to rent a motorbike...it's only $60 for the entire month!!! it's been great to have...i have been tooling around seminyak, but earlier today i drove for a longer bit for the first time ever...i've driven motorbikes before, but never for this long...i only got lost once...well, twice...it rained, but not a lot, and not for long...thank goodness...for some reason, despite all my traveling, i've never owned a proper rainjacket...it’s on my list of things to get, eventually…

after getting to ubud, i found a place to stay, and started walking...ubud is the cultural center of bali tourism...the first time i came to ubud was 2005, then again in 2007...lets just say it's changed a lot since 2007...angie said it's gone crazy since eat pray love came out, and i completely understand her...she said the medicine man now takes credit cards...(if you've seen the movie or read the book you'll know what i mean)...i found the place i stayed in both 2005 and 2007, the price has tripled in the past four years!!! so i'm not staying there...there is a LOT of construction going on, and most of what I’ve seen is probably villas being built…apparently bali was never hit by the global recession in real estate…

I first stopped at the tourist information station…there are lots of little stands that call themselves tourist information, but those stands are all just trying to sell trips and transportation…this station is actually just for information…this one also sells tickets to the different traditional Balinese dance shows taking place all over the city each night…since ubud is the cultural part of what lonely planet calls the tourism “duopoly” it makes sense that there would be traditional dance shows each night…I’d seen a few before, and this time I was armed with a better camera…not surprisingly, prices have gone up for the shows as well…oh well…

My next stop was what is called monkey forest…so called because of the tribe of monkeys that lives there…the monkeys are almost totally dependent on tourists, and if you walk in there with any sort of food, they’ll find it and take it…these monkeys have no fear of people, which isn’t really a good thing…the signs at every entrance to monkey forest warn you not to bring plastic bags and food, but right next to those signs are people selling food specifically for you to give to the monkeys…bananas and such…it’s amusing to sit there and watch a monkey eat a banana, peeling it and everything…they’re smart enough to eat just about anything they get…I saw a couple new monkeys, still clinging to their moms…so new that they were still covered in birth gunk…both moms seemed sensitive to this, and did their best to protect the newborns…turning so that their backs were to all the cameras…there are a couple temples in the forest, and you need sashes and sarongs to go in each temple…fortunately, there are tables set up where you can borrow a sarong/sash…it’s easy to do, but not many people went in the temples…it would’ve been easy to wander around for quite a while in the forest, watching the monkeys and the people, enjoying the shade…ubud definitely doesn’t have the sea breeze of seminyak…

After wandering around the forest for a while, I walked back up monkey forest rd (I think there is a real name, but no one uses it) collecting handouts from all the spas along the way…ubud is also a place where you can spend a little or a lot at various spas, and come out feeling like a princess…some spas have packages set up, others are just a la carte…you can go for something as small as a manicure, or you can spend 5 hours being pampered…

Dinner was simple: rice, veg, tempe and a banana smoothie…

I bought a ticket for a show that was supposed to take place at the ubud palace…I’d been to a show at the palace before, and quite enjoyed it…howeva, they’ve temporarily moved it across the road, to a different pavilion, which disappointed me…oh well…it’s not as if its that much different, but somehow I was disappointed…I made sure to get there plenty early, as I wanted to be able to take photos without people’s heads or other cameras in the way…the gamelon orchestra started and then the show went…I quite liked the gamelon orchestra, their timing was quite good, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves…the dancing was impressive as always, as were the costumes…really bright, with a lot of colour, and nothing like anything you’ll ever see in the western world…the style of dance is also very different…flexed toes and fingers, using the eyes to act as well…I wonder how long it takes them to change in and out of those costumes? This particular show had 7 different dances I think…I’m pretty sure there is a story behind each of them, but I don’t remember…good show…

The next morning I got up and walked out to sit on my porch…hot water was already there, so I was able to prepare tea immediately…after a few minutes one of the family ladies came by and asked if I wanted breakfast, of course I did…(I don’t often turn down food)…a bowl of fruit (papaya, watermelon, pineapple and bananas) and a couple pieces of French toast…breakfast was included in what I was paying for my roomJ

Of course it took me longer to get going than I had planned, but that didn’t make much of a difference…I got on my motorbike and drove…the map in lonely planet made it look easy…but the actual driving wasn’t so easy…well, the driving was fine, but finding the specific roads wasn’t…I ended up turning around 3 times, and eventually reversing my plan of attack for the day…which was fine…

My first stop ended up being a place called goa gajah…translated I think it means elephant cave…the whole area is a temple, and a pretty neat one…you can borrow a sarong from the same place you buy tickets…to get to the temple you have to walk through a lot of souvenir stalls, all calling you to take a look at their stuff…annoying, but I guess they make money or they wouldn’t be there…this temple isn’t like any others…when you first enter the area, it seems quite wide open…there is a small pool of sorts in the middle of a plaza…on one side of the pool are six ladies carved out of the walls, and from them come spouts of water…you can walk down the steps of the pool and wash your face and hands…(the pool is nowhere near fully filled)…the cave itself is the most important part of the temple…normally, when I walk in a cave, it feels chilly and damp…this time, when I walked it, it felt warm and claustrophobic…there are a couple altars with offerings in the cave…if I had had a guide, I’m sure I would’ve been told what they were for, and why they are important…

Walking around the plaza area, I found a trail off the back end leading to who knows what…when I see a trail, I tend to follow it, just to see what I can see…so I walked…up and down irregular steps, tripping over roots, etc…at times the trail wasn’t always clear, but it’s still easy enough to follow…it goes through jungle and passes a couple small altars along the way…at one point, a guy came out and asked for donations to help restore the temple…I didn’t give, figuring my entry fee is supposed to take care of that…he had a book of names of people who’d donated, and how much they’d given, but I didn’t see a box in which to put money, and I’m always hesitant about handing someone cash when I don’t know what will happen to the money…I kept walking, and eventually could hear a river…the path got quite steep a few times, with the steps in bad need of repair…I still didn’t really know where I was going…eventually, I could see a small bridge crossing part of the river…it didn’t cross the whole river!! I had to cross what I could, then step off onto big rocks and cross the rest of the river that way…with my levels of coordination, not falling in the water was not a given…you, my two faithful readers, are laughing because you know exactly what I mean…there was nothing spectacular about the area after crossing the river, but I sat and enjoyed it for a few minutes…peaceful…rushing water, no one else around, in the middle of jungle…pretty awesome…by the time I got back up to the regular temple area I was dripping sweat…lovely…

I got back on the motorbike and drove a little down the road to a place called yeh pulu…it isn’t as big as goa gajah, so I don’t know why the entrance fee is the same…oh well…you walk about 300m down a path from the carpark, along the edge of a field of rice paddies…beautiful…and then you’re walking along yeh pulu, which is a carved cliff…there are a number of beautiful scenes carved into the rock…as I got torward the end, an older lady grabbed my head and led me toward a small altar…I was fine with it until she started demanding a donation…no thank you, I really don’t like demands…especially when I’ve already paid an entrance fee…I know it’s probably her way of making a small income, but I was uncomfortable with it…I know that the average Balinese makes very little money, but if I gave every time I was asked, I wouldn’t be here for more than a week…

From yeh pulu I drove to another temple…technically, everything I saw all day was a temple, and I needed a sarong for all of them…goa gajah and yeh pulu were different from other temples though, and didn’t have the same feeling to them…this temple was called pura samuan tiga…pura means temple I think…this temple didn’t have an entrance fee of any kind…nor any people around, from what I could see…but the gate was open…I had my sarong in my purse, so I put it on…the entrance gate is pretty fantastic, and the guidebook says it was created by a local guy…(long since dead…I think)…the temple is said to have held important meetings all the way back in the 11^th century…it was a large temple, and there were plenty of altars for me to see…I loved it, especially because I was the only person there…these sorts of experiences are always my favourite, being all alone in a place…

Driving up the road, my next temple was called pura kebo edan…which the book says is translated to crazy buffalo temple…this one didn’t have a specific entrance fee, but there were people sitting at a table, taking donations…when I declined, they said I couldn’t go in…which frustrated me…they said it was the same as an entrance ticket, but when I asked for the ticket, they said they didn’t have one…I don’t mind paying entrance fees (most of the time) but call it what it is…if I have to pay it, then it’s a fee…if I choose to give it, then it’s a donation…I found small change, and “donated”…they complimented my sarong…this temple was a LOT smaller than the one I’d just seen…far fewer altars, not much to see…the book said that the temple was famous for a statue about 3m high, thought to be 300 years old…from what I could see, it wasn’t very interesting at all…and far from the tallest thing in the place…it didn’t look like a buffalo, I’m not sure what it was supposed to be…again, I was the only person in there, I wonder how many people visit these temples…

The next temple was called pura pusering jagat…which translates to navel of the world temple…the gates to the temple are on a track off the main road…easy to find, as long as you know that…again, no one was around…there didn’t seem to be a parking area either, so I pulled the motorbike as far off the road as possible, put on my sarong, and went in…this one had a greener area in the middle of all the altars…allegedly this temple was the center of the old (really really really old) pejeng kingdom…(all these temples I’m mentioning right now are in the village of pejeng)…according to the book, young couples come here to pray to the yoni and the lingam…(hoping for fertility)…I did no such thing…

The next temple was further down the road…(not such a long road, there just happen to be a lot of temples on it…I’m fascinated by such things, most people think they’re boring)…pura penataran sasih…this one had an entrance fee, and I was happy to pay…and as with all but goa gajah and yeh pulu, I was again alone as I explored…except for the guy following me around who seemed determined to tell me all about the temple…these kinds of people make themselves into your tour guides whether you want it or not, then often demand a payment as you leave…I wasn’t keen on this, and did my best to ignore him…I liked this temple as well…there is a big drum way up on an altar toward the back,  it’s said to be the largest single piece cast drum in the world…(who figures this stuff?)…it’s pretty high up, so you can’t really see much detail…it’s called the moon of pejeng…this temple was the state temple of the kingdom I mentioned earlier…(what’s the difference between the state temple and the center of the kingdom temple?)…according to the guy following/leading me around, there were two older temples in the same complex…if I was walking by myself, I wouldn’t have recognized them as older, they looked the same to me…I loved this temple in general…

Then I started to make my way back to central ubud…along the way, I saw another temple…since I’d just seen four traditional temples, normally I would’ve driven right past it…but I could see that it was fabulously decorated, and I could see guys carrying pieces of a gamelon orchestra out of it…I pulled over, parked, and put on my sarong…the guys taking out the orchestra pieces smiled at me, complimented me on my sarong, and indicated I could go on in…it appeared the temple had been involved in a ceremony of some sort, the whole place had a lot of extra colour…awesome…as I walked around, I realized a bunch of guys were busy taking down all the extra colour, so I guess I just missed the ceremony, whateva it was…I have no idea what this temple was, but it seemed to be as big as what I’d seen earlier in the day…and I loved seeing all the locals around…

On the way back to ubud, I figured out where I’d gone wrong earlier that morning…I’d missed just one turn…argh…oh well…I dropped my sarong off in my room, had a cup of tea (there was another thermos with hot water waiting for meJ) and made my way to a spa…the night before, while waiting for the show to start, I read through all the brochures I’d collected, and figured out which spa had the package I wanted…I wanted a facial, a massage, and an intensive hair treatment…almost three hours later I came back out of the spa, feeling wonderful…the hair treatment included a head massage, LOVE IT!! And I almost fell asleep during the facial…I guess I was relaxed…

After dinner that night I went to another performance…this one was at a temple toward the edge of ubud…the kecak dance, and fire dance…there are no instruments in this one, only mens voices…they create an interesting combination of sounds, and I loved it…there was a single torch lit in the middle of the plaza area, the men sat in circles around that…most of the dancing took place in this area…because the torch was the only light, pictures didn’t turn out well…(if you’re in the shadows at night, even the best cameras can’t do much)…there was a storyline, but I didn’t pay much attention to that…I loved the dancing, the way the singers were also somewhat involved in the story, and the singers in general…after this part of the show was over, the torch was put out, and taken away…a wheelbarrow full of coconut skins was dumped in the middle, and lit on fire…after a little while, a man wearing a horse (look at the picture) came through and started his fire dance…wow…he’d kick the coconut skins, and dance through them…after a little while, my neighbor pointed out that his eyes were closed…WOW…he was doing the whole thing by feel…each time he kicked the skins, and danced through them, a couple of the singers pushed them back into a pile in the middle…a few times when he kicked them, they came really close to members of the audience…after he was done dancing, a holy man offered something, and then the night was over…awesome…

The next morning I drove to the bukit peninsula…

bali...again...

This is the fifth time I’ve been to bali…yup, five times…the first time I came here, I never dreamed I would return, let alone four more times…I was here first in 2005, three years after the first bali bombing…in 2007, two years after the second bali bombing…and twice in 2009, during my asia trip…and yet, I haven’t really seen much of the island…when I first booked this ticket out of Korea, my plan was to be here for a week, then go visit a friend in aussie…those plans changed but I still had the ticket to bali…fortunately, my friend angie is here…I played rugby with her in seoul in 2007…she’s half Indonesian, but was raised almost entirely in Montana…now she spends a good portion of each year here…I saw on her facebook page that she would be here, so we emailed, and she said she would pick me up at the airport when I arrived…the only condition was that I bring a bottle of whiskey…liquor is crazy expensive here…seeing a familiar face after coming through an airport isn’t something I get to experience very often, it was nice…especially because it was almost midnight, and my other option was to sleep at the airport…(trying to find a place at that hour and paying for an airport taxi is craziness)…she took me to her family house/compound and we caught up along the way…it’s always great to catch up with a friend…she put me in one of their rooms, and everyone slept for the night…

The next morning I was awake at 0615 or so, which wasn’t my idea of fun…I guess I’m just used to waking up early, whether I want to or not…ugh…fortunately, other people were up, so when I wandered downstairs, I got to meet her mom, dad, one brother, and grandma…porridge for breakfast, and tea…angie and her mom do most of the cooking in the house, they’re both awesome cooks…a combination of traditional Indonesian food and American/western food…around snacktime they served up noodles, I’ve forgotten what the dish is called…angie said it’s one of her mom’s specialties…she also said it involves a lot of chopping…lol…that ended up being morning snack and lunch…YUM…after lunch several of us went to get beads for bracelets…there are lots of stores that sell the beads wholesale, it was interesting to see what is available…sometime during the afternoon I got to help out making some of the bracelets the family sends to stores in the states…(sometimes the “handmade in……” labels are real!!)…angie’s mom has a couple factories, and exports clothing to a bunch of boutique stores in the states…all in all, it’s a pretty big business…

Somewhere around lunch ang took me to go hire a bike…renting a motorbike for a month is ridiculously cheap here, only $60USD…having one allowed me to come and go as I please, and not be on anyone’s schedule…why have I not rented a motorbike on my previous visits? Granted, traffic is a bit crazy much of the time, buuuut…

Later that afternoon I went swimming with mom and anna…it turns out that ang’s mom isn’t a great swimmer, but I was able to give a few pointers…who knew all those years of coaching and teaching would come back and help me out again? Hee hee…she doesn’t like to put her face in the water, which is a bit of a challenge, to say the least…but she wants to learn, and that’s more important than anything else…yes, there is a small pool in the middle of the family compound…

Dinner was good, and the whole family watched the most recent episode of American idol…I think there were 3 people left in the season at that point? They all sang three songs…since I haven’t watched American idol since the 2^nd season, it was interesting to see how it goes…I don’t think anything has changed since that second season…lol…

The next day was relaxing as well…working on the bracelets in the morning…it’s fun to be a bit creative every now and again…and it felt like I was a little productiveJ

I went with anna and willie to the beach in the afternoon…even though I knew where the beach was, and I recognized the roads on which we drove, I knew that when I went to the beach by myself, I’d end up getting lost…and I did, the very next day…not all the roads lead to the beach, so I ended up doing quite the tour of the area when I tried to go by myself…lol…I had on suncream, and we didn’t get to the beach until almost 1500, so I got no colour…I know it isn’t healthy, but I love being tan…

During the evening all of us walked across the street to watch the family housekeeper as she played in a gamelon orchestra…normally only men are in gamelon orchestras, so this was neat to see…plus, it’s the only time I’ve seen a performance where the audience is made up of locals, not tourists…ang has quite a lot of experience with these performances, and doesn’t generally like the sound of a gamelon orchestra from bali…I think she says they sound like a long, never ending train wreck…apparently the gamelon orchestras on java sound much better…a gamelon is a traditional Indonesian instrument, somewhat like a xylophone…individual instruments are tuned to the orchestra in which they play, not to a specific note…so you can’t switch instruments in between orchestras…it takes a lot of practice to get the whole group to sound good…and when they do, it’s really impressive…

For dinner, angie and I drove down the street to a café, she ordered…spicy bbq chicken and rice…she did the ordering, and we ate with our hands…yum…and very spicy…I love the little peppers!

The next day I read for a while, and went to the beach…(this is when I got somewhat lost)…I also spent time online, which I hadn’t done for a few days…there are a lot of cafes around here with free wifi…of course, you have to order something to eat or drink in order to access the wifi…depending on how long you want to spend online, its usually worth it…at one point in the afternoon angie sat me down with a map of bali and showed me a few places I should go…she said bali has too much to see and do to spend all my time at the beach…for a little island, it really does have a lot to see and do…and if I wanted to stay here for a while, it would be fairly easy to get a teaching job…I think…maybe…it’s a possibility…

That night angie and I went grocery shopping…there is a huge Carrefour not far away…it’s a bit crazy, but fun too…after only having seen Korean grocery stores for over a year, I had forgotten how many other food products are available…(there is plenty of foreign food available in Korean supermarkets, but never as much as I see in other countries)…

The next day, I drove to ubud…

the last few days in seoul with the fam

Our flight back into seoul landed around 2200…not the greatest of times to be landing, but oh well…after zipping through customs and immigration we got back on the trains…two hours later we got to my area of town…that is, the area in which I last lived…since hana had suggested switching hotels, we decided to find one in an area I knew…the first place we walked into seemed to have an automated system, and I don’t know enough Korean to figure out how that works…the next place was full up…the third place we tried had rooms, and at first we wanted to stay four nights there…but the desk clerk told us the price would more than double over the weekend, and we had no desire to do that…howeva, the price that night was fine, and it was too late to do anything else…so we slept in rooms that looked like the wallpaper had been thrown up out of an interior decorators trash…terrible…

So the next morning we decided to switch hotels…after looking around online, we found one that looked promising, and made the booking…it would be too early to check in, so we used the last hour or so of our time in our current motel to make a trip to coffee bean…(as long as I was in Korea, I wanted as much coffee bean as possible)…after my morning fix, we got back on the subway, and found the new hotel…fortunately, it wasn’t far…we’d booked two double rooms, but they only had one left when we showed up, so they upgraded one of the rooms for free!! Hana and I ended up with a small suite!! A lounge with a half bath, big tv and computer…and a bedroom with two beds, a full bath, and a big tv…woo hoo!! The view was straight into the side of another building, but you can’t have everything, at least not all the time…especially compared to places I usually stay when I’m traveling, this place was pure luxury…I loved it…when we checked in, mom’s room wasn’t ready yet, but that was okay…we left everything in our room, and took off again…

The first place we went was deoksugung…another palace…when we got there, there was a changing of the guard ceremony at the gates, but since we’d already seen one of those at gyeongbukgung we didn’t feel like watching it again…this is the palace of longevity and something else…mom and hana probably remember better than I do…it’s smaller than gyeongbukgung, and at the back of the area is a museum I’ve never visited…I’m sure it’s a great museum, but I’m not one for museums most of the time…we saw a statue of king sejong and it seemed like a good place to take a picture…as we walked up, some schoolgirls asked to take pictures with me and hana…we obliged, having fun with jumping photos…mom was a pretty good photographerJ…the ladies then took a photo for us, of the three of us, which was nice…of course, it didn’t get the king in the background, but oh well…

Wandering through the palace was nice…there is a pavilion with Russian/western influence, a few gates, the traditional throne room, etc..in one corner is what remains of the worlds largest water clock…it didn’t look like much to me, but I guess very little of it remains…I would’ve loved to have seen a picture of what it should’ve been, it would’ve given me an idea of what I was seeing…there was also a large bell on display, I’ve forgotten what that was from…as we walked out, we could see all the school classes having class photos taken in front of the throne room…

After deoksugung, we split up…mom went to namdaemun market, while hana and I went to insadong…insadong is an area that is touted as a traditional art area…that’s true, but it’s also completely touristy…again with gazillions of little shops selling kitchy souvenirs…but there are also great tea shops, and art galleries and yummy food…hana was looking for some souvenirs for friends back home, so I wandered with her, and helped her remember which shops were worth visiting again after we’d wandered all the way through the area…she got her ceramic stuff, as well as a stamp with her name on it…that was fun, and the guys in the little booth weren’t at all pushy…they even made her a couple bookmarks with her stamp…hana’s name is simple, and because of what it means in Korean, it’s all over the country…we weren’t giving the guy something strange to carve…(have I ever mentioned that the word “hana” is the Korean word for the number 1?)

After insadong, we went home…shopping is tiringJ

I’ll leave the DMZ tour, which we did the next day, for another post…it’s a full on experience to say the least…

Our last full day in seoul, hana wasn’t even awake at 10am…mom came to our room around 1015, and I didn’t think hana would be up anytime soon…and if she was, I knew we wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon…so we agreed to meet later in the day, for dinner and our last night…eventually hana did get up, and we both got ready…my idea was to get coffee bean, then go to Olympic park…I thought it was a 20 minute walk from the subway station where I’d lived for a year…I was wrong about the length of the walk, but at least it was a nice day…most of the time I could see part of Olympic park from the windows of my flat…hana and I walked through the park as well, trying to get a few photos, and just enjoy where we were…the flags of all the nations that participated in those Olympic games are still flying in the park…which is nifty, because not all of those nations exist anymore…(Czechoslovakia, USSR, etc)…we saw a few sculptures, walked along the remains of an old fortress wall, etc…on our way back to the hotel, I got us going the wrong way on one of the subway lines…argh…you’d think I’d know which way to go after living in seoul, but I still get confused from time to time…whoops…fortunately, the timing worked out, we saw mom in the hotel lobby…

From there we decided to get dinner…it was still pretty early, but none of us had really had a proper meal yet that day…we ate at kimbap town, though none of us had kimbap…

from there, we took the subway to the stop closest to namsan tower…namsan is a little mountain in the middle of seoul…there is a tower on top, much like the sky tower in Auckland, or the space needle in seattle…from the subway station to the bottom of the cable car, there is no direct walk…you have to walk up a bit, and turn a couple corners…fortunately, we found it relatively quickly…the cable car takes you to the base of the tower, and from there you have more choices…you can eat, visit the teddy bear museum, or take a really fast elevator ride to the observation platforms of the tower…we went with choice #3…despite living in seoul for more than three years total, I had never been to the top of the tower…(or even to the bottom of the tower, for that matter)…I don’t know why…while waiting for the elevator, we had our picture taken…the company takes the photo of every individual/group going up the tower against a green screen…at the top, you can choose to have your photo put against the backdrop of a daytime tower, or a nighttime tower…just because we liked the family photo idea, we decided to get the nighttime photo…fun stuff…mom and hana looked pretty good in the photo…

The elevator ride up is really fast…they play a video on the ceiling of the elevator, which makes you look up, which helps to equalize the pressure in your ears without anyone realizing it…the video is dumb, but you can’t expect a whole lot…something about blasting off into outer space…I found it amusing more than anything else…after we got to the top, we wandered around, looking out at the city…seoul doesn’t have a particularly memorable cityline…so while there were lots of lights, there weren’t any “ooh, aaah, look at that” sort of moments…it didn’t help that along the inner side of the room, lights were on and stuff was for sale…but I’m glad we went up…the line for the elevator to go down was fairly long, but it also moved consistently, so I had no complaints…the line to go down for the cable car was just as long, and moved in fits and starts…it was chilly, all three of us whinged a bit…all in all, it was a pretty good last night in the city…

The next day we didn’t do much, even though mom and hana’s flight wasn’t until 1850…I took them to the airport, said my goodbyes (not easy, and something I’ll never get used to doing, even though I end up doing it a lot)…then I went to lindsey’s flat for the next couple days…

DMZ with the fam

The next day was another long day…I’d signed us up for a DMZ tour…when we checked into the first hotel in seoul, there were brochures for various DMZ tours, many of which didn’t include the area most people know, the area with the blue buildings…and all those tours were expensive, especially those that did include the JSA area…I remembered that I’d done this tour with a high school classmate back in 2006, so I went looking for that information and eventually found it…the USO web page isn’t very helpful, I had to email them directly…fortunately, they were good about responding quickly…the USO facebook page also isn’t terribly helpful…the DMZ tour starts with checkin at the USO at 0700, and to get there on time I wanted us walking out of our hotel at 0600…the buses leave the USO at 0730…we thought we’d have a chance to grab coffee at a coffee shop nearby, but since it was Saturday, the coffee shop wasn’t open…argh…

As the bus was driving north, there wasn’t much traffic…(thank goodness)…Saturday morning is a time for sleep for most people…our guide was giving us various bits of information, some people were trying to sleep, etc…at one point, our guide was having a trivia quiz, finding out who knows what about north Korea…one of the questions: what is the most important holiday of the year in north Korea? I answered that one (the birthday of kim il sung, their eternal president, which is in april) and got myself a free XXL t-shirt…other questions included how long mandatory military service times for north Koreans, what you should NOT do when taking a picture with the famous kim il sung bronze statue in Pyongyang, etc…I like those kinds of questions…I’m a geek, I know…as we were driving north, our bus took us through a couple checkpoints, and we started to see barbed wire and the like…

Then the bus stopped…this was the outer boundary of the DMZ…the DMZ is 4km long, and runs the length of the entire peninsula…2km on the north side, 2km on the south side…despite the name, it’s actually the world’s most militarized area…there are soldiers along the entire length of both sides, there is constant tension, and shots are fired from time to time…to enter this area, you have to have a military escort…we had an army specialist, and I’ve forgotten the rank of the other guy…as we quickly learned, our guy could be pretty entertaining…some of the stuff he said was pretty funny, but it was even funnier because he said it all with a completely straight face…living in this area of the world has to be pretty stressful…one of the nifty effects of having an area hardly touched by humans has been the proliferation of wildlife…environmentalists hope that if north and south Korea do reunite, the DMZ will be kept as a national park, or some kind of protected area…quite a few species have shown up there that aren’t easily found in other areas of the world…our guide had some entertaining stories about which animals he’d seen, and how…our army guide told us the regulations of what was coming next, and what we’d be doing…

After driving through the gates/checkpoint, we had to get off our buses…because we were now in a military area, we had to switch buses, but we couldn’t take anything with us…only cameras, and some money we could put in a pocket…no camera bags, no purses, etc…it couldn’t appear at all that we were trying to take something with us to try to give to the north Koreans…if we had jackets, we needed to be wearing them, the jackets couldn’t be tied around our waists…before switching buses, all of us trooped into a small theatre area, where one of the army guys gave a briefing on the history of the area…the Korean peninsula hasn’t been united as one country for a good portion of it’s history…most recently, at the end of WWII, it was divided in two for the purposes of accepting the Japanese surrender…in the north, the Japanese surrendered to the Russians…in the south, they surrendered to the US and I’ve forgotten who else…the idea was that the two sides would then come together and hold democratic elections for the future…needless to say, that didn’t happen…the south held elections, the north didn’t…instead, a man by the name of kim il sung was supported by the Russians (and the Chinese) and put in charge of the north…both sides still talked about becoming one nation again, but kim was the leader who actually did something about it…on 25 june, 1950, the beginning of what the US calls the Korean war,  north Korean troops poured across the border in a sneak attack…they conquered nearly the entire peninsula, and were all the way down to the busan perimeter before the US (under the flag of the united nations – UN) stepped in…when US troops came, north Korea was stretched to it’s limits supplywise, and wasn’t able to fight back with much force…so US troops pushed back, and eventually recaptured most of the south…general macarthur planned and launched a surprise landing at incheon, helping to recapture seoul, and push the north Koreans far behind their original lines…and this is where macarthur was an idiot…with winter coming on (which ended up being one of the worst winters Korea has ever seen) macarthur wanted to keep pushing, and take over the entire Korean peninsula for the south…the yalu river is essentially the boundary on the north, between Korea and china…he pushed US troops farther and farther north, without doing proper checking into the situation…the Chinese didn’t much like the idea of a fully southern peninsula, so in secret they sent a bunch of “volunteers” from the Chinese army to help the north Koreans fight…some of these “volunteer” units had been fighting for a loooong time already (this was the end of the fighting between mao’s forces, and the forces of chiang kai shek, for control of china) so they knew how to fight…they ambushed the US in quite a few places, causing a lot of casualties…the weather didn’t help, as US forces didn’t have winter clothing…the Chinese/north Koreans pushed south again…anywho, the long and short of this is that there was a lot of fighting, especially over the middle third of the peninsula, which destroyed nearly everything…temples, villages, etc…in the end, a peace treaty was never signed, only a truce that stopped the actual fighting…so technically, the war is still going, 60 years later…the agreements were finally signed in a building on the north side of the DMZ in july of 1953…3 years of fighting that didn’t change much of anything, except a lot of people died, on both sides…

A number of incidents have taken place in the DMZ, including the most expensive tree cutting operation in world history…the south wanted to cut down a tree that was impeding it’s view from one of the checkpoints in the area, so they sent a number of soldiers to do the job…north Korean soldiers attacked, and in the fighting, at least two US soldiers were killed…not too long later, the US sent soldiers again, only this time with a whole lot of backup…fighter jets flying overhead, a warship on alert off the coast, and a whole bunch of guys waiting to rush in in case the north Koreans tried any more funny business…they didn’t…there is also the story of a Russian defector, running across to the south while on a tour of the north side of the DMZ…that resulted in a firefight…there are other stories I’m sure I’m forgetting…

We got on our new buses, and drove to what I think is called freedom hall…we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, though I don’t know what we would’ve wanted to take pictures of…anywho…this building was originally built in order to host family reunifications between families that were split as a result of the end of the war…but it’s never held any of those reunifications, as the north won’t let it’s people go across the line, not even a little bit…all reunifications have been held in the north…(most of them at a facility built by Hyundai, on the east coast)…walking out of the other side of the building leads you to the sight you most often see in photos…a big building across the way, with one north Korean soldier visible…in between that building and the one to your back are five smaller buildings…the two outside ones are silver in colour, and belong to the north…the three in the middle are run by the south, and are blue…the building in the very middle is where a lot of high level negotiations take place usually between ranking officials of each country’s military…(official government level talks are rare, and don’t take place here)…the border between the two countries actually runs in a straight line down the middle of these five buildings…so if you’re standing on one side of the blue building, you’re technically in north Korea…hana and mom are now in a photo of this…as we walked out of the freedom house, our group was separated into two…the other group went in the blue building, we waited outside, and our army guy told us a bit more of the history…then our group went in the blue building…the door on the north side of the building is blocked by a south Korean soldier when groups from the south visit, so it isn’t possible to open the door, run out and defect to the north…(and in return, when groups from the north visit, the south side door is blocked by a north Korean soldier, so you can’t defect to the south)…groups from the north and south don’t visit this area at the same time…ever…

We got back on the buses and continued the drive to one of the checkpoints…this particular checkpoint is surrounded on three sides by the north, so when you look out, you get to see a lot of north Korea…this is also the point where you can best see the village north Korea has built inside the DMZ…there is a village on the southside as well, and it’s real…people live there, and farm the land…the village on the north side, not so much…only a few people live there, and they all work in Kaesong, a town just a bit farther north…the flag on the north side is 160m, as opposed to the flag on the south side, which is only 100m…these are sizes where the flags will tear under their own weight when the weather is crappy…when you listen to the guides give these statistics, you can tell they are amused by the games played by each side…north Korea usually wants to be the “best” so their things are taller, louder, bigger, etc…

Then the bus drove to the end of the bridge of no return…we weren’t able to get off the bus at this point, so everyone crowded onto one side of the bus to see the bridge…it’s nothing exciting, just a bridge…at the end of the war, POWs on each side were given the choice as to where they wanted to live…it’s called the bridge of no return, because once they walked to either side, there was no return…they couldn’t go back…back then no one knew what the situation would be today…even if you were able to get off the bus and run to the bridge, you wouldn’t be able to cross it, as there is a big barrier in the middle…

For the first few decades after the war, the north was actually doing better…the people had a better quality of life, and a higher income…the south didn’t do as well until the 70s, I think…in the north there is the potential for much more industry…they have more mineral resources, more capability for heavy manufacturing…but in the south there is a lot more agriculture…and that makes a huge difference…if you can’t feed your people (and north Korea has needed food aid for years now) then it doesn’t matter what else you have…

The bus then took us back to the spot where we’d originally changed buses…we had the chance to check out the museum (which shows the history of the area in general, as well as war history) and the gift shop…hana took the chance to ask the guide about women stationed up there…he said normally there are no woman, but at that point, there were a couple air force ladies stationed up there…there is no chaplain position, one comes up from seoul every couple of weeks…

We switched back to our original buses, and drove to the 3^rd tunnel…north Korea has been caught digging at least four tunnels (a 5^th one has allegedly been found, but due to the timing of the find, it wasn’t officially announced, and still isn’t recognized) under the DMZ, into south Korea…the 3^rd tunnel was actually discovered by the south on my birthday…(the actual day I was born!)…it’s size would allow 10,000 north Korean soldiers per hour to get into south Korea…when the south found it, the north tried to say that it was the south who’d actually dug it…again with the blame game…there is a small museum and theatre set up, visitors can also descend into part of the tunnel…there are now three blockages, so no one can try to get into north Korea by going backwards…the descent into the tunnel is quite steep, and there is water dripping all over the place…the guys digging the tunnel back when must’ve been miserable…I wonder how long it took? The powers that be reckon north Korea is still digging, but is better at hiding it now; the south is constantly searching…the 4^th tunnel was discovered in the 1990s…as far as I know, the 3^rd tunnel is the only one open to the public…

After everyone had the chance to go into the tunnel, we all got back on the bus…our third and last stop before lunch was at the dora observatory…it’s on dora mountain, and from this building you can see a bit of north Korea…there are binoculars that allow you to see even farther, though I’ve never used them…you’re only allowed to take photos from behind a certain line, as otherwise you might be photographing a Korean military installation, and they’re not cool with that…the fat lady from Texas sitting in front of hana and me on the bus seemed completely oblivious to this GIANT YELLOW LINE, and was clicking away until a Korean soldier came up to her and pointed out the line…then he watched as she erased the photos she’d taken…how does anyone miss that line?

Then finally, lunch…by that point, I think all of us were starving…or at least it felt that way…the bus drove us to a cafeteria of sorts, where we had two choices…bulgogi or bibimbap…all three of us went for bibimbap…there were plenty of side dishes to go along with it, and as has become the norm lately, my eyes were bigger than my tummy…there were more side dishes (including tater tots!!) on the bulgogi side, but I was stuffed…even so, hana got me a couple tater tots because I said how much I wanted them…(sometimes you have to give into cravings, right?)

After an hour or so, the bus drove us to our final stop of the tour…dorasan station…there is a railroad that goes between north and south…it was built during the previous south Korean government, during the sunshine policy days…(the current south Korean president, lee myung bak, has taken a much harder line toward the north and is making it work harder)…the idea was that people could ride the trains in between the two countries, and that economic ties would help bind the economies…the line does run all the way to this station in the south, on a regular basis…the people who live in the DMZ on the south side take the train to this station, then catch a bus to their village…the train actually did run into the north for a brief while in 2007, but only cargo trains were allowed then…never any people…inside the station they have commemorative stamps, you can use them to stamp the waiver you signed when you went into the JSA area…(this is the waiver acknowledging that you might be shot, and that it’s your own stupid fault if that happens, not the fault of the US or south Korean governments)…you used to be able to stamp your passport, but not anymore…(my old passport has this stamp, from the last time I did this tour)…you can also buy tickets to the train…500won, a whopping 50cents each…that allows you out onto the train platform, where you can take photos and such…hana wasn’t keen on buying the tickets, but mom and I thought it could be fun…and at that price, even if it wasn’t fun, who cares?

And then, we drove back to seoul…I think most people fell asleep on the way back…it had been a long-ish day of driving around and seeing stuff…the only thing we didn’t see was the friendship bridge…the first tour of the DMZ I took saw this bridge, but this one didn’t…I don’t know why…after returning to the USO carpark, hana mom and I went straightaway to the coffee shop that hadn’t been open in the morning…more as a place to gather our thoughts and figure out what to do with the rest of the day than anything else…we ended up deciding to go to myeongdong, a shopping area of seoul…

And by shopping, I don’t mean kitchy souvenirs…I mean full on shopping…clothes, food, etc…it’s super crowded most of the time…by the time we got there, I was way out of it…hana and I looked through one of my favourite stores, but neither one of us could be bothered to try anything on…it was too much work…on the way out of the area, back to the subway station, hana and I stopped at a dunkin donuts…one of their first days in seoul, after we’d seen a palace and had donuts for dessert, we saw that DD currently has spinach, tomato/carrot and broccoli donuts…at the time we didn’t try any of them, but this day seemed like a good day to do so…hana and I split a spinach donut…it wasn’t very interesting…it was sweet and green, but didn’t taste anything like spinach…gutted!

macau and the last evening in hong kong

Not surprisingly, hana and I got out the door later than intended the last day we were in hong kong…it took us a while to figure out what we wanted to do, then took us longer to get going for the day…oh well…we decided to go to macau…like hong kong, macau is a SAR – special administrative region of china…like hong kong, macau hasn’t always been ruled by the Chinese…for over a century, macau was ruled by the Portuguese…it wasn’t until 1999 (two years after hong kong) that macau was given back to the Chinese…and like hong kong, macau has the same provision in the handover agreement: the government of the area is to stay the same for 50 years…I wonder what changes china will make in each region after the 50 years are over…

To get to macau from hong kong you have two options…fly, or ferry…we took the ferry, as it’s only an hour, and not very expensive…finding where to buy tickets was probably the most complicated part of the day…though hong kong is really good about signage just about everywhere else, once you’re in the subway station you know is the correct station, there isn’t much signage telling you where to go…we got turned around several times before finding where to get our tickets…oddly enough, when you buy tickets for the ferry, you aren’t assigned seats…you only get seat assignments a few minutes before you board…I don’t know why…going through emigration was easy…the worst part of the day for both of us was sitting on the boat and waiting for it to get going…it was rocking all over the place; I don’t know about hana, but I was quite concerned as to whether it would be like that for the rest of the journey as well…that would’ve been miserable…absolutely miserable…fortunately, the actual ferry trip wasn’t so bad…not great, but not bad…

Once we docked, we went through immigration again, another quick process…then out the door of the ferry terminal…we didn’t have the whole day to spend wandering, but we had a few hours, and decided to take local public transport to the center of town…bus fare was 3.20MOP…macau patacas…they’re tied to the hong kong dollar at the rate of 103MOP to 100HKD…the atm dispenses 100s…I was able to break it into 10s…but the bus doesn’t give change…argh…hana had to go buy another sprite and ask for small change…we were worried about figuring out where to get off the bus, but that ended up being okay…the official languages of macau are portugese and Chinese, though not many people speak Portuguese there anymore…English is more common…but even English isn’t that greatly used…the Chinese influence seems so much stronger on macau that on hong kong…(though they’re both very Chinese in nature)…fortunately, I had slight memories of my visit to macau in 2007, so it was easy enough to know when to get off the bus…

We alighted at largo senada…it’s a large public plaza…easily identifiable by the pink and yellow building, as well as the zebra striped sidewalk…there is a small market on one side street, and while we were there, a display of macau history in another area…while waiting for the ferry we’d looked at the map mom gave us, and figured out a couple places that sounded interesting…there is tourist signage for various sights, so it was easy enough to figure out which way to go…

Our first stop was the ruins of st pauls…probably one of the most famous sights of macau…though if you’ve never been to macau, it isn’t really known outside of the colony…originally built as a church, that’s what it was used for in different denominations for years…then, at one point it was turned into army barracks…how or why that happened I don’t know…then a fire burned it all down…what you see now is all that was left after the fire…in other words, all but the front façade was burned…still, the front façade, with the steps leading up to it is a pretty photo…we posed for pictures of our own and pictures for a random Chinese man in front of the church…(both of us have been in tons of photos for strangers over the years, we don’t much care anymore)…lol…under the ruins, at the back of the church is what used to be the crypt…we were the only ones in there at the time, which was a bit of a surprise, simply because the air con was going strong, and with the swampy feeling of the weather outside, I’m surprised people hadn’t found the aircon for a brief respite…there were displays of various bones up the walls on either side, I didn’t know whether to be creeped out or not…

After the ruins, we walked back down the steps, and I convinced hana to get one of the Portuguese egg tarts…everywhere the Portuguese colonized then left, they left behind these tasty egg tarts…a sweet egg custard tart…with buttery, flaky crust…yum…I could eat tons and tons of them…especially when they cost less than $1USD!...clearly, some people buy a lot of them, as all the places that sell them have boxes of different sizes to make it easy to carry a lot of them…the other food we noticed for sale all over the place is pork jerky…there are tons of different flavours, some more spicy, some more salty, some more sweet…I like it, but didn’t want to buy any…

Then we found what was just called the cathedral…I don’t remember the history behind this one…since the Portuguese colonized macau, and the Portuguese were catholic, macau was catholic too…that’s one legacy that is still there, all the churches…I liked this church, but wasn’t able to stay in there long, as there were no fans going, so the hot muggy air just sat on your shoulders…when hana first walked in she was just wearing her sundress, which has no shoulders…the nun motioned to me that hana needed to cover her shoulders…thankfully, she’d brought a sweater along that day for just that reason…after coming out of the church, she couldn’t get that sweater off fast enough…

From there we wandered down a lane on which was a typical mansion back in the day…I think it was two stories, though you’re only allowed to go in the first story…there were stained glass windows in the house, I thought they were gorgeous…not much about the rest of the house made me think it was very fantastic…anywho…we enjoyed the sidewalk in the lane outside…mosaic tiles made up designs in the sidewalk…lovely…

The next church to see was st dominics…this one is on a lot of postcards as well…a bright yellow on the outside…the church is nice, but the best part is the museum of “costumes” they have displayed on three floors…I don’t know the correct words for a lot of the stuff…chalices and communion serving sets, the robes the priests wear at various times of the year, especially those worn by higher ranking priests…a couple paintings…I liked walking around that area, though hana probably appreciated it more, knowing what all the stuff was…

By this point I was starting to get nervous about catching the bus back to the ferry terminal…we got some food to go at a popular eatery, and in a quick walk through the start of the market I mentioned earlier, hana got some fruit she’d enjoyed while living in the Philippines…lanzonas, I think she said? I have no idea if I’m spelling that right…then we got back on the bus (having prepared correct change ahead of time) and went back to the ferry terminal…I wanted to exchange the patacas I had left, but that proved to be more difficult than I thought was worth it…I guess cousin Kevin will be getting more patacas than I originally intended…

The boat ride back went just as smoothly as did immigration on both sides…and again, we had trouble getting out of the building, and down into the hong kong subway system…go figure…we made it back to the hotel in time for a brief rest, then went to mom’s room to go for our last outing in hong kong…

One of the most famous sights in hong kong is the city skyline…and the best place to see that is from Victoria peak…I reckon most visitors to hong kong go to the peak while they’re in the city…there are three ways to the peak…one, hike…two, bus…and three, the peak tram…we’d intended to take the tram both ways…it’s quite steep, to say the least…howeva, when we found a bus we thought would take us to the base of the peak tram, it turned out to take us to the peak itself…along a really windy road…which meant hana felt like crap again…I wasn’t feeling so well myself…mom wasn’t feeling great knowing that both her daughters were suffering and there wasn’t anything she could do to fix it…it seemed like the bus ride went on and on and on…finally, it ended…when you get off the tram or the bus, you’re directed into a plaza area, with two large malls on either side…going into one of them, you have the opportunity to buy tickets to get out on the viewing platform…I think they call it the sky terrace? Those tickets are $30HKD each…from previous experience, I thought it was worth it…you don’t get that view from anywhere else…there ended up being a lot of fog the night we went, but we all still enjoyed the view…that skyline, both at day and night, is on a lot of hong kong postcards…we took the tram back down, then the subway back to the hotel…

The next afternoon we flew back to seoul…

hong kong festivals

the next day, 10 may, was a big day…it was the only day we spent mostly together in hong kong…this year, 10 may was buddha’s birthday…when we first got to hong kong, I wasn’t sure whether it would be as big a holiday as it is in japan and Korea, but it is…it was also the day of the cheung chau bun festival, which takes place on one of the smaller islands of hong kong…I’d never heard of this festival, and wouldn’t have known about it if not for the brochure we were given at the airport…when we first got the brochure, this one the thing hana immediately knew she wanted to see...

we left the hotel just after 0800…as that was earlier than we’d gotten going previous days, I don’t remember hana and I being quite with it, but oh well…we headed to the ferry pier, and after figuring out which boat to take (the fast one or the slow one…we just wanted the next boat to leave, we didn’t care whether it was fast or slow…but there didn’t seem to be a list anywhere of when boats were scheduled to leave) we were good to go…an hour later, the ferry pulled into the dock at cheung chau…according to the guidebook, it’s a small, crescent shaped island…pretty quiet most of the time, this festival is the busiest day of the year on cheung chau…

everyone poured off the boat, and the three of us found each other and set up a meeting point and time…as many people as were already there, and as small as the lanes and alleys were, we knew there was a good chance we’d get separated…so off we walked…and we did get separated…hana and I walked past lots of little shops and stands, many of them selling bun festival souvenirs…you can buy just about anything…keychains, pillows, t-shirts, etc…we walked until we saw four bun towers…one in the middle of a basketball/soccer/rugby/play pitch, and three others right next to each other in front of a temple…I don’t know what the support is for the towers, but the outsides are covered in buns…you know, the white, fluffy ones you can eat all over china…usually the buns are stuffed with meat, veg, red bean paste, or just about anything…most of the buns for this festival are stuffed with red bean paste, or something else, I can’t remember what it is…

the highlight of the festival is the bun scramble…when the starting sound goes, contestants climb up the tower and collect as many buns as they can…the buns at the top of the tower are worth more…the person who collects the most buns, wins…there were supposed to be practice sessions, but we didn’t get to see those…hana wanted to try climbing, but that didn’t seem to be possible…the official bun scramble takes place at midnight, so we didn’t get to see that either…it would’ve been awesome, I’m sure…I don’t know how many people participate…

there was a temple close to the bun towers, and when we got there it was jam packed with incense and people…it wasn’t any different from any other temple I’ve seen, but the incense was pretty intense…huge sticks of it, small sticks of it, and every size in between…the inside of the area was cloudy from all the smoke…add that to the heat and humidity and I wasn’t feeling so steady…WHOA…as we were leaving the temple area, we were stopped when a couple dragons entered…and by dragons, I mean two people working together covered in a costume…a very colourful costume with a huge headpiece…there was some dancing around, and it probably meant something…and a whole lot of people trying to get the perfect picture…

from there we walked down another lane, which seemed to get smaller and smaller as we kept walking…or maybe it was just the increasing number of people who seemed to be around…or maybe it was the heat and humidity continuing to get to me…I don’t know…

as we walked down the lane, we ended up watching as two dragons “fought”…one of them ended up bowing down to the other…I’d love to know the story behind what happened…that probably happens all day long…further along we found a couple of the bakeries that make the buns…apparently this year not as many were made, because some law was passed requiring that the stamp on the outside of the bun be put on on the premises of the bakeries…in the past I guess they’ve done it elsewhere…having to do it at the bakery somehow meant that not so many buns would be made this year…I’m not exactly sure how it all works…anywho, from the time we got off the boat hana and I knew we wanted to buy one of the buns, just to see what all the fuss was about…we watched as they put the buns in the steaming ovens, and as they took them out…HOT HOT HOT…then one lady got to work stamping…it’s not difficult, but it must be hot as all get out…as soon as she stamped all the buns in a tray, it was moved over to a table, and the buns sold…for less than a dollar each…hana and I each got one, then moved out of the way…as we kept walking, we realized there was a long queue…did we jump the queue when we walked up to the bakery from the other side? We never did figure that out…apparently mom did jump queue, and was told to go back about 300m at some point while she was wandering around…

another purchase along that lane was some sort of juice for me…it was red…other than that, I know it came from a tree…I’m assuming there was a fruit on that tree, but the picture they showed me had no fruit…anywho, it was good, and liquid, which I very much needed…from there we found our way back to the path along the water, which was marginally less crowded…there is a parade with this festival, scheduled to start at 1230…so barriers were being set up for that…at one of the souvenir shops hana ended up buying a festival t-shirt, the same shirt many of the guys involved with the dragons were wearing…we figured that made it “official”…I’m pretty sure the shirt was big enough to hold three of hana, but that’s beside the point…mom bought a pillow with the festival logo on it…I bought a small tote bag…

we got back to the ferry with good timing, and ended up near the front of the line for the next boat…I ended up standing where a fan was blowing, which felt great…the ferry was an hour back, and pretty calm…I don’t mind those kinds of ferries…back at the ferry dock we were hungry/thirsty, and mom and hana wanted caffeine…of course we went to starbucks…just like in seoul, there are starbucks every two blocks in hong kong…(if only coffee beans were that common!)…

from there we went to the subway station, and started making our way to lantau chau…the biggest island of hong kong…it’s the island on which the airport is located, but not an island that is heavily visited by tourists…there are plenty of good hiking trails all over lantau, and a mate from high school tells me a good group of expats live there as well…the train seemed to take foreva to get there, but we did have to ride to the end of the line, and it definitely wasn’t express…oh well…from the subway station, we walked toward the cable car…at first, our plan was to take the cable car up to a temple, and then take the bus down…in the end we decided it would be easier just to take the cable car both ways, and bought round trip tickets…we bought tickets for the regular cable car, not feeling the need to spend an extra $50HKD per person for the crystal cabin…the only difference (that we could figure) was that a crystal cabin has glass on the bottom so you can look straight down …when I’m in cable cars I don’t spend any time looking down, and we were able to see everything anywho…hana amused everyone in our cabin by reading about the views we’d have from different places during the ride…one view was fantastic, another beautiful, etc…I think there were five specific views in all, and they all had adjectives to go with them…I guess you had to be there…is the view of high rise apartment buildings ever that exciting? Or an airport?

At the top of the cable car we got out of our cabin, and headed straight for the loo…I was keen to get to the temple to see a performance listed in the booklet we’d been given at the airport, but bodily functions have to be taken care of, eh? When you first get out of the cable car, you walk through a village that is entirely made up of souvenir shops and places to eat…there is nothing about real life there…I think there was a theatre of some kind, but it didn’t sound interesting to any of us so I doubt hana or mom remembers either…after walking through the village we finally got to a big plaza area…on one side was a set of steps leading up to a huge Buddha…on the other side was a path leading to a temple…I wanted to find the “hall of heros” to see the performance…when we got there, I was a bit disappointed to see a clown on stage…really? For buddha’s birthday you have a clown performing? I think there was some kung fu later, but it wasn’t as interesting as I had hoped…oh well…we walked through the temple (which was quite small, there were donation boxes everywhere – they are collecting money to pay for a big expansion to the temple) and bathed Buddha…there were several places where a bird bath type of fountain had water running, and you could take a little bucket and pour water over a little Buddha…I’m not sure what this is supposed to signify, but everyone was doing it so we did as well…some people seemed to think Buddha was really dirty, as they poured quite a bit of water over him…others stuck with only one or two scoops of water…

We met up with mom in between the temple and the big Buddha…right before meeting up with her hana noticed a cow wandering around, so she went to take photos…we also shopped a bit in one of the souvenir places…they were selling little bookmarks with people’s names written on them in Chinese…my name was easily found…hana’s and mom’s names, not so much…though we found dagmar and other not so common names…I had fun teasing hana about that…

it turned out that mom had already gone up the stairs to the Buddha, so she waited while hana and I did the same…the views from up there are great…it’s the largest outdoor seated bronze Buddha, or something like that…I don’t remember…what i do know is that there are a lot of big buddhas all over asia, and many of them claim to be the biggest in one way or another…

the line for the cable car on the way back down was pretty long…when we got our tickets to come up, the lady said that the last cable car going down would be at 1830…thankfully, because it was a holiday and there were so many more people than usual, they kept running the cable cars after the normal closing time…I guess normally they tell people that you have to walk down if you’re late, but not on this night…seeing the footwear some of the people in line had on, it would’ve been really amusing (for me, anywho) if they’d had to walk down…there is a path that basically runs under the cable car, and it would be beautiful, but not so much after dark, and it definitely wouldn’t have been a quick walk…for whateva reason, the guy in line who sticks out in my mind would’ve had an easy time walking down…he was simply head and shoulders above everyone else…I wonder how tall he was…he actually stuck out from the crowd, due to his height…I don’t know why I’ve mentioned him at all…anywho, after the 25 minute cable car ride, we got back on the subway and went back to our hotel…a long day, and I think all of us were exhausted…