Already in my head I feel like I have plenty of memories which will remain with me forever, and I know that going back through my photos and this blog when I return home there will be plenty which are illuminated in my head, and also which are returned from faded moments which took place at the beginning of my trip.
The end is coming ever closer, but as I've said a few times, I'm not ready to acknowledge it just yet, in the same way that every time time I have been scheduled to leave somewhere and go somewhere else, I've tried to stay in the moment as much as possible.
If I think back to my year in Korea there isn't one particular moment or story that stands out above the rest. I can think of places that I enjoyed going, and things that I enjoyed seeing, and even five years on I feel like those memories are still burning strongly inside of me, and that is part of what motivated me to return to Asia.
I don't know if I will ever come back to this continent after departing next week, originally the idea of this trip was to pretty much see everything that I'd ever wanted to see in this part of the world leaving me to focus on other parts of the world I had never seen. Starting with my year in Korea and continuing by coming back to Singapore a couple of years later I felt like I had only scratched the surface but now I feel like I have gone a lot further.
Obviously in visiting so many different places I now have a number of places that, if given the opportunity, I'd like to return to. In trying to see as much of Asia as possible I might well have caused myself problems in terms of decision making as now because I've seen so many incredible things I want to experience them again. I'd love to spend more time in countries like Thailand and Vietnam, visiting different cities, and although I spent a lot of time in Japan I really enjoyed it there and would definitely consider returning some day.
Part of what I have been attempting to do on this journey is create memories that will last a long time. This means that if I don't ever get the opportunity to come back I have plenty to remember each county and city by. I try to remind myself of this when I pull the camera out of my bag and can't make the decision whether to take a photo or not.
Some memories will undoubtedly stick with me longer than others although in totality I feel like this will always remain one of the most memorable things I'll ever have done in my life.
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Pretty much since I left Laos, there have been very few times where my hotel room hasn't had a window - off the top of my head I can only think of my room in Shanghai and then the two 'traditional' Japanese rooms I had in Tokyo and Kyoto. It's pretty confusing to wake up and not have that as a reference to know what time it is, or more importantly what the weather is doing outside.
Our room here in Hong Kong is pretty quirky as I mentioned previously, and I don't know if any kind of description will do it justice.
When we booked it, it was described as an 'anti-window' room which is a whole conversation in itself, and then when we arrived we had to go down to the basement floor in order to check in. We're staying on the fourth floor which means that every time you go to leave the hotel you don't actually have to go down to the reception, in fact, apart from the cleaner who we saw for the first time this morning we actually haven't had any other interactions with the hotel staff at all.
That's not a problem of course because I'm sure we can work out pretty much everything for ourselves, and if we did have a problem it's not an issue to go down an extra floor, but it's just pretty strange to be able to enter and exit the hotel without going past the reception.
In my initial hotel in Tokyo the same was true, but part of that was because the reception wasn't 24 hours and when I came back each evening there wasn't anyone there. In the morning I could leave through a side door which was actually closer to my room than going through reception. When I checked out of there on my final morning the hotel reception hadn't opened up as yet which meant that in five nights there I actually only saw one member of staff.
That's a strange contrast to when I was somewhere like Sarawak at the beginning of my journey where I stayed in a guest-house and you saw the owners all of the time, or in Luang Prabang when the owner of the hotel had his desk set up in front of my room so that pretty much every time I went into or came out of my room I had a conversation with him.
The positioning of the reception isn't the only thing which makes out hotel a little bit 'different' as there are some very interesting decorations all around including many British themed pictures and images as you enter. The room itself doesn't have very much furniture aside from the bed and a small shelf in the corner which Sarah has taken over. I think if you split the room up into thirds then the shower / wet room would take up one third so there's definitely not a lot of space to swing a cat - or any other animal which has a tail.
I'm not complaining though, as pretty much most important above everything else is that the place is safe and doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart around us.
In terms of final hotels that I am going to stay in, in Asia there could certainly have been worse.
After making a good start on our exploring yesterday we set about figuring out the best way to see a couple more of the things we'd put on our list. Before Sarah came to Hong Kong she was very kindly brought a Lonely Planet Hong Kong book for her birthday and spent a bit of time researching through it.
For a small place Hong Kong certainly does have a lot to see and do. I felt even before I came here that this was going to be somewhere that I'd be very busy, and as we work our way through the list I'm sure there'll be decisions that we have to make as I doubt we'll be able to do everything that we've planned.
First up today was making our way to the Zoological and Botanical Gardens which required us to get on the metro and head towards Central.
As we discovered yesterday when we were walking to Man Mo Temple the streets in Hong Kong can get fairly windey and narrow and going from Central to our destination was no different.
Built on some very hilly land, the terrain throughout the city can often get very steep and I'm not sure Sarah was too impressed by my plan to walk from the station when the best way to get there was to walk up a road with about a 60 degree angle which led straight to the Gardens.
We eventually found our way there and wandered around a little bit, but there was no escaping the hills even inside the park as there were several cages with birds inside them which required us to walk up a slope. At one point we had to take shelter because it started raining, but eventually after it had stopped we carried on and walked through to the zoo side of the park which had different types of monkeys and orang-utans in them:
Once we'd finished walking around the zoo we headed back down the hill and back to the city where we felt it a good idea to find ourselves some food. Just like in most places that I have been in Asia it takes a while before you start to realise where the easiest places to find food are, and it was quite funny to have Sarah with me to experience how difficult it can actually be in person.
It's another one of those things that is totally different first hand than it would be when you listen to me talk, or read about me describing.
After we'd grabbed some food it was time to get back on the metro once again and head towards the largest of Hong Kong's many islands.
One of the things which Sarah had written down that she wanted to see was Chi Lin Nunnery which is a large and impressive Buddhist complex which is a popular tourist attraction in the Diamond Hill area of the country.
Arriving there on the metro after taking a short toilet break in a shopping centre, Chi Lin couldn't have been much more different to the Man Mo Temples we'd seen if it had tried. Where as those two were compressed spaces with lots of incense atmospherically burning and smoke lurking in the air, Chi Lin was an outdoor open space with picturesque gardens which appeared to stretch as far as the eye could see.
Once again it was strange to have this placed against the backdrop of tall apartment complexes and some of Hong Kong's traditionally steep hills, but this made it more impressive if anything:
We walked around the nunnery gardens for a while, but unfortunately the main complex had closed earlier on in the day, although I'm not sure how much we were missing out on as where we were probably gave us a good sense of everything that was inside.
From the main entrance to the nunnery we walked back on ourselves and towards the Nan Lian Gardens which, even now, I've yet to decide whether or not they were actually connected to the nunnery in anyway or an entirely different entity. Regardless of their possession, the Nan Lian Gardens were a pretty spectacular showing of an Asian garden and reminded me of some of those I had visited in both China and Japan.
There was a large area in the middle which looked to be closed but there was a huge lake next to it which had lots of fish swimming around, and next to that there was a shrine of some kind which was inaccessible, but surrounded by lots of traditional looking plants and flowers:
The rest of the gardens were set out with lots of trees, and I imagine this kind of place would be extremely relaxing in the evening to sit and just spend time enjoying. After walking a complete lap of the gardens which were actually very quiet at that time of the day we decided to move on to a location that we'd likely be spending a lot of our evening in.
Heading back closer to the coast via the metro we spent some time walking along the streets of Kowloon before eventually arriving in Kowloon Park which is a huge area of open space in the middle of the city which comes as a massive surprise considering it is surrounded by so many tall buildings.
The park contains a swimming pool, a maze, an exhibition centre and plenty of spaces to sit and enjoy a relaxing afternoon in.
We walked through the park and carried in towards Victoria Harbour where we eventually came upon the area opposite where we'd been standing and taking pictures on our first day. There was a great view from the harbour itself.....
....as you could see all the way across the water and we'd intended to spend our evening here to watch something known as the Symphony of Lights.
The two of us walked along the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade before eventually find an area which was already beginning to become crowded with people, although luckly we found ourselves a seat where we spent time watching the sun disappear and the lights switch on across the water.
The Symphony of Lights began once everything across the bay was fully lit and music played as the buildings were illuminated rhythmically purely for the enjoyment of the crowd:
Continuing along the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade we carried on walking for a while until we found the Avenue of Stars which is a little bit like Hong Kong's version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Although I didn't know every name that was listed on the floor there were a few notable ones, probably more than you'd realise...
It was about a kilometre stretch out around Victoria Harbour and gave us a chance to take in the skyscrapers across the water from a different angle:
Eventually we came to the end of the Avenue of Stars and had to walk back on ourselves to find our last destination of the day which was the Temple Street Night market.
Just as crowded and crammed as the ones I'd seen in various different parts of the continent, it was absolutely crammed with shops and stalls selling a variety of things. There were portion at the start which was just restaurants before all of shops began, and then from there you had to walk a little bit further before you reached the second part of the night market which was selling clothes, shoes and pretty much every other wearable item you can imagine.
Although I didn't buy anything it was fascinating to walk down and it really gave me a feel of what I expected Hong Kong to be like before I arrived.
At the end of the night market, conveniently placed, probably not by accident was a metro stop which allowed us to get back to Causeway Bay in order to get some food and rest ahead of what is likely to be another busy day of sightseeing tomorrow.
All of the Lights
Kayne West and Rihanna (2010)
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