You're on the Road, but You've Got No Destination

Even though I've taken nearly 10,000 photos whilst being in Asia, there are some images which I don't need printing out in order for them to remain with me forever.

When I think about places that I have been, or countries that I have visited, I have still images in my mind of certain things (probably which I do have photos of) but these are clearer than anything that the shutters of my camera captured. I'm not sure why these are so vivid above the others, but I hope that they remain sharp and clear long into the future.

Some of the pictures I have in my mind are probably related to photographs I have taken, but I feel like there have been some moments on this journey when only what my eyes have actually seen could do it justice.

It frequently warrants mentioning that I have seen a collection of some of the most spectacular sights in the world on this journey, all of which will remain with me forever. It might take a while before I can appreciate what I have seen, but even when I look back and think about places that I have visited and sights I have been fortunate enough to see, I realise how exceptionally lucky I am.

Everywhere that I have visited has lived up to expectations, and in totality I feel like spending four months on this continent will turn out to be one of the best and most life defining choices I have ever made. There are moments when things have been very difficult, and times when I thought that things seemed almost impossibly overwhelming, but I feel like looking back in a few months it will all seem totally worth it for the incredibly amazing things that I have done.

There is no question that these four months have been totally unique, and even if I were to go away again under the same conditions there'd be no chance that things would play out the same way. Even as time passes and I get closer to the end of my journey I feel like there are chances to enjoy unique experiences and I look forward to each and every one.

A bit like trying to think about the most spectacular or memorable thing I have seen whilst I have been on my journey is impossible, it's also going to be very difficult for me to just pick out one thing that I will miss about being in Asia when I return home.
Seeing incredible things and the potential to have new experiences every day is definitely close towards the top of the list, and I know that I am going to thoroughly enjoy any opportunity I get to relive some of it with other people.

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The beauty of staying in one city for so long is that if you don't quite manage to squeeze everything in when you initially intend to is there'll always be another day to come back and fit it in.

We started off today by taking advantage of that as last night we'd found the Jade Market but discovered that it was closed when we arrived. I think it's one of the many notable markets in Hong Kong, and because it sells jade, a popular stone synonymous with this part of the world, it's something pretty unique that I probably wouldn't be able to see quite as authentically as in Hong Kong.

It's quite funny the amount of markets and shops and that I've been to during my stay in Asia without actually buying anything. I've never really been a big shopper on my own continent, and it's very rare that I will see something walking through the market that I definitely thing I need to have, but one of the best things about being in Asia is walking through them, no matter what they sell, as I always find it a great experience. When I was in Vietnam I walked back through the market to the hotel pretty much every night and that's something I don't think I would have ever got bored of.

That was going to be where we started today, and on the way we were going to tick off another few boxes for things that we wanted to do whilst we were in the country.

We took the bus towards Yau Ma Tei and carefully navigated our way from there to where we had been last night. It was quite a difficult job as we were coming from the opposite direction, and I think we also got off the bus a stop too late which meant walking further than I'd anticipated.

Eventually though, after some careful navigation, and working out where we were from last night, we came upon the entrance to the Jade Market which was pretty much entirely undercover.
It was totally different to many of the markets I'd been to before in Asia, as it was like a small area of shops in an arcade. It lived up to its name though, as every little shop and stand they were sold jewellery and items which were connected with jade.

Sarah wanted to buy something from there so we did a couple of laps before she eventually found a stall where she brought a green jade ring from. It took some careful negotiations, but Sarah managed to get it for around £12 or so which was actually pretty good value.

From there we were headed back towards Victoria Harbour where we'd spent out second day walking along the pier and watching the Symphony of Lights. Once again, my navigational sense and ability to recall where we'd been before came in to its own as we walked down several of the streets we'd gone down in order to get to the night market from the harbour, and eventually we found ourselves back in the area of the city where we'd spent Thursday night.

It was bustling as busy as ever, and there were plenty of people walking around looking in the shopping centres and designer boutiques which lined the streets - I guess this is why Hong Kong is so popular with people who unlike me, do love shopping.

We carried on until we got to the harbour, and then we had to figured out the way we wanted to get across it.
The other night when we were watching the Symphony of Lights we'd seen plenty of boats crossing the harbour, presumably coming from Hong Kong Island. Boats are a pretty popular way to cross the harbour, but we hadn't taken that opportunity as yet as we'd made every journey in one direction or another using either the bus or the MTR.
To mix it up a little I thought it might be a good experience to use something called the Starferry which is perhaps the most common boat you see shuttling people backwards and forwards.

We found the Starferry terminal which is very close to where we'd walked past the other day. It's actually a bit like a MTR stop as you can use your travel card to board the boat and there are three different stops (including the Kowloon one we were at) which you can get off the boat at.
Heading in the direction of another of Hong Kong's major tourist attractions we were only riding to the first stop on the boat, and it didn't take long before we were heading in that direction as the boat arrived and let us board.

Although not quite as large, or serving the same purpose, it reminded me of when I was in Malaysia and caught the boat to Georgetown from Penang. It wasn't a long journey across the water in Hong Kong and after about five minutes or so we arrived at the harbour where we'd walked on our first day. It was an enjoyable journey across the water though and allowed me to take some pictures as we travelled along:

After getting our feet back on dry land we followed the path which leads from the harbour past the Hong Kong Observation Wheel and through Tamar Park. Although it is quite a small and quiet place just on the water, it was much busier today than when we walked through it the other day. There seemed to be lots of females of Filippino or Thai descent sitting with their friends, eating lunch and taking selfies as we walked through towards Hong Kong Park which is a much larger public park which opened in 1991 and set about giving people an open space to spend their time in a city that was increasingly being dominated by skyscrapers.

It actually took us quite a while to find the park as it has several entrances, and surprisingly there aren't too many signs pointing directly to any of them but eventually we made our way to the main entrance which led us through one of the most unique spaces there is in the city.

When I was in New York I was fascinated by Central Park and how it literlly seemed to spring from nowhere in the middle of the concrete jungle. Although not quite to the same extreme, Hong Kong Park does the same and it's amazing how even though surrounded by plenty of skyscrapers there is room for so much greenery and wild life.

The first thing that amazed us both was a fountain which sat at the entrance to the park, it was basically like a waterfall although there was a gap so that you could get into the middle of it so that the water went all the way around you:

With all the humidity that there has been in Hong Kong you wouldn't have had to ask me more than once to jump into the middle of the whole thing, but carefully we both made our way to the middle where you felt like you were standing behind a waterfall which came down in front of your eyes.

There were another couple of fountains which people were sitting around eating their lunch, but we continued on to a much larger open space where there was a pond which had some benches that we took a perch upon:

It not only allowed us to relax from what had a been a busy day of walking already, but also provided us with some excellent views of the things that were around us:

As much as I have been busy and on the go since arriving in Asia in February, I think one thing I have always done a very good job is making sure that I take time to appreciate my surroundings. I often do this by taking pictures rather than sitting and taking everything in as I've had the opportunity to do in Hong Kong with another person, but I think it would be very easy to rush around and see all these fantastic things without taking them in properly.
If you do that, then for me you are simply ticking boxes on a checklist rather than being capable of enjoying and appreciating the experience for what it is.

As well as the green spaces, there was plenty more to take in as we wandered around. I think I've been here long enough to get used to the many hills which Hong Kong has but in some ways it was odd being in a park which has such extreme gradients to it.
We walked up to the top of the path where there was a couple of waterfalls....

...and then from there we continued on to an exhibition which had lots of plants and flowers inside which are native to Hong Kong. It reminded me of the butterfly gardens that you can walk through, just without the butterflies:

From there we walked up a very steep hill which took is towards a Tai Chi Garden before we eventually arrived at an open air aviary. It was very similar to the one I'd walked through in Kuala Lumpur although there weren't quite as many birds in this one:

Still, it was impressive, especially considering it was free to walk through and I guess just being that close to nature in itself is a unique opportunity.

Now it was time to move on the major thing that we had planned today which, like yesterday, involved us using a unique method of transport in order to get up to a great height and look down upon everything below.

Another of Hong Kong's major tourist attractions is simply known as "The Peak". It is set upon Victoria Peak which is a on the western section of Hong Kong Island and is actually known as Mount Austin. With elevation about 500m it provides spectacular views down upon the rest of the city, and is a must for anyone visiting.

In order to get up to the top of "The Peak" you have to board the Peak Tram....

...... which has been in operation since 1888. It runs just over a kilometre in length and takes you to the top of the hill in style. A bit like how you could get to the top of the peak in Lantau on foot, you can walk up to the top of The Peak, but really this was part of what the tram is designed to do so we waited in line until it was our turn to board.

The tram may be running on more advanced technology than it was at the end of the nineteenth century, but it probably has the same capacity as it did then, and this authentic feel made for a unique ride to the summit:

On the way up there are gaps in the trees where you can see out, but the most spectacular view comes when you get to the top and you have the opportunity to see just how far you've come up the diagonal route:

It's not just views at the top of The Peak which are to be had as very quickly I realised that this was yet another shopping opportunity for people as you essentially end up on a miniature shopping mall filled with cafes and restaurants. We walked through some of the shops before heading to a similar complex opposite (which also had some great views......)

.... but eventually settled on getting a drink and a cake somewhere in the original place where we had arrived:

As part of our ticket we'd paid to go up to the top of the observation tower which sits at the top of The Peak....

....but if you hadn't wanted to do that then there were other opportunities where you could look out upon the city for free. We found a spot which was near a small pagoda where there were definitely plenty of good views:

As the sun started to set (and unfortunately the weather made a turn for the worse) we headed up to the observation tower where we handed over our ticket and made our way to the top where it seemed as though we were completely up on the clouds again:

Although I admit that these sights would certainly have been better on a sunny clear night, I feel like the fact that it looks as though there is a huge cloud hanging over us is also an interesting addition to the pictures:

Whilst we were up there, there were a couple of moments when it look as if we might have to scarper for cover, but eventually the rain decided to stop threatening us and the light eventually disappeared giving way to the now familiar LEDs of Victoria Harbour:

We were eventually shuffling our way closer and closer to the corner of the observation deck as people gradually moved out of the way and night completely fell:

You can see from the photos that the clouds had lowered so much that they were now actually obscuring the view and making things blurry. It was quite cool when at one point a tram came up to The Peak and then departed again, and it seemed strange to thing that we'd made the same journey so far below where we were currently standing:

After about an hour or so of standing and looking out over at the exceptional view, we decided to head back to the bottom of the observation tower and then take the tram down to street level. On the way down I experienced what is known as 'The Peak Tram Illusion' where by it seems as though you are travelling in a straight line and all the buildings are diagonal when in fact the opposite is true. It's hard to describe unless you witness it for yourself, but it's a bit like one of those magic eye pictures where if you blink or move too much then you lose that feel.

Once at the bottom we decided to add another method of transport to our travels during our stay as we decided to swap The Peak Tram for a Ding Ding Tram which flows through the streets of Hong Kong alongside buses, cars and taxis:

We caught a Ding Ding from close to where we'd in Hong Kong Park and sitting on the top of there we were treated to a delightful journey home through the well lit, still bustling streets of the city.

Once we arrived back at our hotel we had a bit of a rest before deciding to go out and get some dinner. We decided to go somewhere differently from the usual street where we ate, but this almost ended in disasterous results when we ended up trapped in an elevator with a woman who had someone managed to convince us to eat at a restaurant she was promoting.

We decided to look at the menu, but then on the way back down and out had to carefully avoid her gaze as we snuck onto another street and ate somewhere else!
With the views of The Peak in our head as we went to sleep we began to contemplate just what the last day of our stay might hold in store for us....

Beautiful Day
U2 (1993)

It's Better Than I Ever Even Knew

Like people, some countries have stronger and more defined personalities than others.

I can't claim to be totally knowledgeable about everywhere that I visit, and sometimes it's hard to get the sense of a place until you are there for a while.

Some things stand out quite obviously, and I guess it's only when you spend longer and have more chances to explore that you really start to learn things.

On this trip for example I have learned that the trend of impatience and 'me first' doesn't run through the entirety of Asia as I thought it did. I first learned about everything revolving around being first when I was teaching in Korea. Whenever I'd set my kids a task they would always speed through it and then celebrate when they'd be the first person to hand me their book or their answers. Part of this is just the nature of children wanting the status of being first, but being in Korea it is a real thing as I discovered personally whenever I was on the metro or waiting for a bus, but also from speaking to my co-teachers who explained that Korean interpretations of the teachings of Confucius have set their society up so that it comes across that people are unforgivingly impatient, when actually it's just something which has been passed down through generations.

Since spending time in Taiwan, Japan and even China, I discovered that the culture of 'self preservation' and 'me first' didn't exist pretty much at all.

Due to the amount of time I have spent in certain countries I probably haven't got a real sense of their culture, but I feel like pretty much everywhere I've gone I have got a sense of how things are, or what you'd have to get used to if you spent more time there.
I've picked most of this understanding up through my own personal experiences, but also feel like going to historical sights or reading things on the Internet has helped me to better understand my surroundings, and although I definitely wouldn't class myself as an expert, I feel like I'd be able to explain to people how the cultures of different places differs in the countries that I have been to.

History and religion play a huge role in culture, and I feel like the more you learn about that, the more knowledgeable you will be.

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After living the high-life, literally and metaphorically, last night at the Ritz-Carlton Ozone Bar, it was time to get back to reality again today as we decided to leave the 1% behind and join the masses by going to one of Hong Kong's most popular tourist attractions.

I mentioned when I first arrived that we were staying on Hong Kong Island which is one of the two major ones which make up the country. This specialist administrative region of China is made up of more than 259 islands which are split up into five main regions.
The New Territories and Outlying Islands are the main bulk of these, and very few are visited by tourists despite making a lot of the country.
Kowloon is where we spent yesterday evening and is across the water from Hong Kong Island which is where most of the hotels are located.

To the Western part of the country is Lantau which is an island visited by most people as it is the location of the airport. It is the single largest island in the country and is popular as it is the home to Disneyland, Hong Kong's beaches and also a number of country parks.

Although Discovery Bay, a resort-style district on Lantau, is the main reason that people visit, we'd decided to spend our day in a slightly different way which required us to take the MTR quite far out of the city. Travelling to Tung Chung MTR took about 45 minutes on the train but it was a nice break from travelling underground once we got out of the city as we were able to get a look at some of the scenery. We passed a huge lake on our way to our destination and also some small fishing villages. It was odd to see wide open spaces which contrast drastically to the high-rise filled people-cluttered city.

Pretty much straight in front of the MTR Station was Ngong Ping 360 which is one of Hong Kong's newest tourist attractions. Although I'm not a huge fan of heights, I was looking forward to the experience of taking a 6km trip up to the top towards a themed village using the cable car which provides you with fantastic views of everything below.

It didn't look as though it was that busy, but once we'd brought out tickets there was a bit of a queue as people waited to be piled into a cable car. I can't remember the last time I went on one, but cable cars are usually short journeys from point-to-point so it was quite strange to think that we were going to be travelling such a long distance using this method of transport. It was such a long journey in fact that it was difficult to see what the finishing point was as there were a couple of cable car stations in the middle, but these seemed to just provide more elevation or have the cars travel in a different direction.

Once we got to the front of the cable car and were on our way, we were treated to a ride of about twenty five minutes or so which provided some of the most spectacular views imaginable.
Almost immediately we started to ascend, and at one point I'm pretty sure we were in some of the low hanging cloud which had been an almost ever-present since we'd arrived in the country:

After initially going straight we made a turn to the left and then eventually continued on our way up. Below us it was possible to see the airport and a path which ran through the mountains. I can't think of a better way to get up to the top than to travel by cable car, but sure enough there were some people walking up the path who obviously thought differently. Considering it took us about 25-30 minutes to get up to the top, I can only imagine how long it would take you to walk up there.

Eventually we arrived at the top top an atmosphere which was very similar to the one you usually get when you enter a theme park. There are several notable reasons why people take the Ngong Ping 360 to the top where there is a cultural village (all of which I'll cover in a minute) but it did seem strange that all of a sudden it felt like we were in a themed part of an amusement park and not necessarily just in a foreign country:

We walked through a large town square which had many souvenir shops and restaurants in it before eventually reaching a clearing which rather strangely had cattle freely roaming around in it - the theory goes that the cows were there first. The most notable attraction at the top of the area where we were is the Tian Tan Buddha but we decided first to continue walking through the square and toward the Po Lin Monastery:

Founded in 1906 the front of the monastery looked very similar to what we'd seen at the Man Mo Temple as there was plenty of incense burning and many people adding to the smoke by lighting sticks of their own:

We walked up towards the monastery itself and towards the main temple which was an extremely impressive sight:

Very close to the temple itself as we walked back down the stairs was a gate that looked very familiar, and similar to one which I had seen in Taiwan although I believe there is no connection between the two:

As it had been in our view no matter where we'd walked, the pair of us decided to head towards the Tian Tin Buddha which even from a distance looked very impressive:

I read somewhere that it is the largest, seated, outdoor bronze Buddha statue in the world and already given plenty of elevation by the steps which you have to climb up to get there....

.... it  is nearly 40 metres in height which means that even walking up to the top and standing on the stairs you get an impressive view:

There were plenty of people walking up and down, and even from the base it was possible to get a good view of the Buddha statue itself:

We walked briefly inside a museum, but decided that the view from the outside was better:

From the back of the statue you could see out onto a different part of Lantau which appeared to contain a beach....

.....and walking up part of the stairs you could see other accessible parts of the peak which we were on.

I was pretty taken in by the view, and I think the clouds being so low played a part in that as it made us seem like we were a lot higher up (rather than just the clouds being lower than they usually are). After getting to the bottom of the Buddha we followed a path which led us along part of the Lantau Trail. The whole thing is 70kms, and that includes walking up to the park which I believe is the highest point of Hong Kong itself.

We instead followed the trail to something called the Wisdom Path which is near the Monastery:

From here you could see the peak....

....well part of it as the rest was covered in cloud!

We decided that our time was done here, and on our way back we picked up some postcards in the cultural village and joined the queue which would take us back to the bottom.

The journey on the way down to ground level was arguably better and more scenic than the one on the way up as we went through the clouds again and sat at the front of the cable car so that we got a different view to the one that we did on the way up:

Once we were at the bottom it was time to consider what to do next, and having visited the Goldfish Market yesterday, and the Night Market the day before we decided to see if we could head to the Jade Market which is pretty close to the centre of Kowloon.

Having ridden on a cable car and the MTR so far today we decided to get the bus back to our next destination and after a 30 minute or so journey we hopped off the bus and headed in the vague direction I had seen that the market was in.
Eventually we found some signs which confirmed my theory and walking along a few slightly suspect streets we arrived at the location of the market, only to realise that it was closed for the day.

By this point we were still in the mood to fill our evening with some kind of activity, but the first thing we needed to do was avoid getting drenched as we found ourselves out in the first proper downpour we'd actually experienced.

Although the weather hasn't exactly been fantastic whilst we've been here, it hasn't quite been as bad as we anticipated as we whenever we looked at the weather forecast all it seemed to predict was thunderstorms all day every day!

Once the rain subsided we nipped into a shop to get ourselves a quick sushi snack before continuing on towards a shopping centre where we'd read that there was an arcade.
Obviously I'd experienced my fair share in Japan, but I know that these are also quite big in Hong Kong too.

Although the shopping centre we found ourselves in was very impressive, the same can't be said of the 'arcade' which was nothing more than UFO machines wedged in a tiny corner on the ninth floor. It looked like something might be under construction, but we decided to find somewhere else to go which luckily wasn't too far away from where we were, and using our excellent navigation skills we managed to find where we needed to be and spent the next couple of ours wondering around and playing a few of the different games on offer.

The funniest moment was perhaps when a local decided to challenge the pair of us on a driving game which we duly accepted, neither of us having ever played it before!

From the arcade it was time to head back in the direction of home, and having had such a busy day we'd not really eaten properly so decided that a good meal was in order.
After catching the MTR back to Causeway Bay we decided to go to a restaurant that we'd seen in the last couple of days which was opposite the bus stop.
Having done a pretty rubbish job when I was in Korea of actually being able to eat Korean food, we'd spotted a BBQ restaurant which we decided to visit that night. The juxtoposition of eating Korean food in Hong Kong was a strange one, but the food itself was delicious and I'm glad we made that decision as it validated the information that I frequently share with people about how delicious Korean food is!

Video Games
Lana Del Rey (2012)