I don't even know what to say, except "sorry"? I was planning on posting when I got back from Hawaii, I was, and then life happened. Back to school, getting ready for midterms, writing midterms (blah!), and then midterm week. And then we left for Chinese New Year Break! Not a good enough excuse? I know, I'm sorry.
So let me fill you in a little (this could take a while, better get another cup of coffee!). Where I left you last was right before Christmas break, so let me elaborate on Hawaii a little...it is AWESOME! I have heard from many people that they love it and I knew it would be great, but I liked it a whole lot more than I was expecting to. It didn't hurt that I got to see my family (sans Melissa) either. All in all, it was a really great family vacation in a really great state. I loved it.
Near old scientific drilling holes in Volcanoes National Park. You can still feel warm steam!
Of course respecting this holy place of the native Hawaiians...
From there I flew all the way back to Taiwan by myself, which was a little sad after so much time with family, but was welcomed back with a New Year's Eve party when I returned. It was nice to see friends again and bring in the new year by watching fireworks off of our 10th floor balcony in Taichung. Like I mentioned before, midterms dominated my life for the next week or so and then when midterms week actually hit, it was nothing but play time for me! It was great! :)
It turns out that if you do not need to plan lessons for classes and grade at night, it leaves you a lot of free time. So while proctoring midterms during the day, I spent my nights seeing movies and going out to eat; it was really a nice break while still working. And then came our actual break!
So with the same group of girls as my last year's Chinese New Year trip to Thailand, we took off for Hong Kong. It was a nice trip filled with Western style food (and some Indian, Thai, and traditional Chinese thrown in there too) and good beer finally. Hong Kong isn't a "sight seeing" type of city, but we did see some cool gardens and temples. We caught the light show on the harbor (the world's largest and longest standing permanent light show at 8 p.m. every night) and saw fireworks for Chinese New Year over that same harbor. We stood outside to watch the Chinese New Year Parade and even saw the Rams cheerleaders who flew out to participate...it was odd to say the least! And we even took a day trip via ferry to Macau (Asia's gambling capital, very much like Vegas).
Old streets of Macau- a Portuguese colony hence it felt very oddly European.
Hong Kong skyline at night.Is that Bruce Lee?
I don't want to bore you with the details of everything we did, but I do want to tell you one story in particular. Above Hong Kong's soaring towers and crowded streets, there sits a very large statue of Buddha. All of our friends who have been to Hong Kong before told us it was pretty cool, so we planned on seeing it one day. Unfortunately, all of our friends saw it in summer or fall, not winter. Needless to say, we had some faulty advice on the site and we didn't think about it enough to foresee the problems we encountered. So let me tell you this little cautionary tale.
There is a cable car that leads up to the Buddha which is supposed to have spectacular views on the way up and down. So we waited in line to take the cable car for well over an hour; since it was Chinese New Year it was pretty packed. Once up the mountain, it was cold. Now I'm from Minnesota, I know what cold is, but this was brutal. I think I heard it was about three degrees celsius (or roughly 37 degrees Fahrenheit) and we didn't have any sort of winter jackets. We made the best of it though, we already made it up there so why not?
The only good view on the way up. Everything else was just white from fog.
Unfortunately, it also happened to be cold enough that day where the moisture in the air turned into a thick/freezing fog. We literally couldn't see the big Buddha even when standing right beneath it. Again, it was funny to us because, well, why not laugh at the situation? We had some fun posing with some statues, laughed a lot, and genuinely enjoyed the cold time we had up there.
Is that a Big Buddha there? I can't even tell! :)
Just as we were beginning to lose feeling in our fingers and toes, we headed back to the line to ride down. As we approached, there was an employee there saying that cable car service was "temporarily" suspended and they were getting buses to take people down. Fine, no problem, just get me somewhere warm were our thoughts. And that's when we rounded a corner to see probably a thousand people already in line. We laughed about it for about a half an hour....
...and then we just got too cold to laugh. And anger set in. Then despair, and finally ironic bitterness.
Up on top of a mountain, standing in near freezing winds and mist, with rain jackets and sweatshirts beneath only, we waited. We waited in line, outside mind you, for over two hours. Finally we were ushered onto a bus for a forty minute ride down the mountain to the sounds of a fellow passenger losing their lunch because of the windy road. We finally made it down and were reimbursed for our cable car ride to a Buddha we couldn't even see. Sigh. I guess there's always one terrible day of travel for each trip!
Hong Kong is great, but I just wouldn't suggest taking a trip to the Big Buddha in January :)
