Waygooks Wandering

Tuck in people, it's time for another long one. This time it's about China. I'm going to write in three or four different installments so that it's easier for you to read and follow. This first one is going to be about the first leg of our 2-week long winter vacation trip to China, which was spent in Hong Kong. We spent 5 days there from January 17-22.

First, I want to mention that we went through a travel company, Soho Travel, based in Seoul for this trip. They looked all our flights and organized our visas through the Chinese consulate in Seoul. They were a really big help and made the process quite easy. Unfortunately, Chinese visas is more expensive for Americans than for people from any other country. We payed about $210 each for ours. That being said, there was a recent law passed that makes it mandatory for Americans to buy multiple entry visas that are valid for 10 years, and they don't cost much more than they used to. Basically, it makes it worth it to pay a little bit more because you can easily come back to China anytime within 10 years. This logistical info is just for anyone in Korea at the moment looking into taking a trip to China. Soho travel is way easier than doing it all by yourself, and they speak English well. One more thing: we, obviously, visited China during winter, meaning that it was off-peak season. During our trip, we waited in very short/non-existent lines for attractions, and, at times, paid less for entrance fees. It is cold (except in Hong Kong) and some attractions do close early because of the shorter days, but if you are traveling on a budget, it may make sense for you to come in the winter too. It wasn't all that much of a problem.

We had an early flight to Hong Kong from Seoul in the morning on the 17th, so we actually headed to Seoul on the 16th and stayed overnight at a place I found on AirBNB that is about 10 minutes from the airport. We used AirBNB the cover our accommodation for the entire trip. I had never used it before, but it turned out really well. Tylor and Soomi are a married Korean couple who we stayed with in Incheon. They were lovely people, and their extra bedroom was very comfortable. Tylor even drove us to the airport in the morning to catch our flight. The flight to Hong Kong was only about 4 hours. We had really comfortable seats that seemed like they were business class, but I don't think they actually were. I guess the travel company booked us the nice seats. I watched Boyhood on the way, and I know it's critically acclaimed and up for Best Picture this year, but it really didn't do it for me. The beginning was good, and there were definitely parts I liked. I thought the adult characters were well-acted. Obviously, it is an interesting concept to track one kid as he grows up for 12 years, but the when he is a teenager, it just kind of felt like an adult's idea of what a teenager is doing and thinking--some of it was accurate, but I just found myself thinking "who talks like this?" Maybe it's just that I wasn't like that nor did I have friends like that, but it was just weird at the end. Anyway, this isn't a review of Boyhood, it is a post about our vacation in China. Back to that.

A few notes about Hong Kong for travelers: I should mention that Hong Kong is a little different than the rest of China. "The Great Firewall," which blocks some websites (like gmail and facebook) in the rest of China, does not exist in Hong Kong. You also do not need a Chinese visa to visit Hong Kong. It's just a very different system that is very easy for foreigners and tourists, steaming from the fact that Hong Kong was owned by the British and only transferred back to China in 1997. I'm sure the British made some visa and trade agreements with China when that occurred, making Hong Kong's laws quite different from those in the rest of China. There are actually a lot of lingering British influences in Hong Kong. The actual city of Hong Kong is separated into different parts. The New Territories are on the main land but kind of far out, so we didn't actually go to that area. Then, there is Kowloon, which is where we were staying on the mainland. There are also several islands. Hong Kong Island is the biggest and most people also visit Lantau Island. I planned to spent 2 days seeing things in Kowloon and 1 day on each of the islands, and my plan went very smoothly when all was said and done. Hong Kong is super simple for tourists. There are signs on practically ever street corner pointing to the famous tourist attractions, and the level of English seemed higher than in the other cities we visited. Some people could speak English, and most places had English menus. I'm sure the increased focus on English is another bit of British influence. Also, they speak Cantonese not Mandarin Chinese, so learn a few words from each. We learned "hello" and "thank you."

the never-ending train

When we landed in Hong Kong, it was the afternoon. China is only one hour behind Seoul's time, so we didn't have any problems with that. We made our way to our accommodation for the 5 days there. It was quite easy to find because it was only a few minutes walk from a subway station. That being said, the subways and public transportation are hugely crowded in Hong Kong (and in all the cities in China). The subways are interesting because the trains are all open, so there's no break at the end of a car. You can look down the train and see all the way straight through. It pretty cool to see. There is also not a lot of seating on the trains. They are wider, and there are a lot of hand-holds, so people are kind of expected to stand. Anyway, we got to our subway stop and walked a few minutes to get to our place. Good thing I was looking for numbers on the buildings because our room was actually on the 24th floor of a building that was having some construction done in the "lobby" area. You might not think it was residential because there's no main door, just a large opening in the wall. The lobby area is basically just a room with a bank of elevators. Most buildings in Hong Kong have businesses on the ground floor and apartments above, which is way different than Korea. In Korea, you have the big apartment buildings or, at least, apartment buildings separated from business buildings. But not so in Hong Kong. Additionally, most things in Hong Kong happen at street level because that's where all the restaurants and shops are. You don't have to look up to find things like you do in Korea. Because of this, the

Just a few of the many neon signs

signs for businesses jut out into the road quite far. They compete for your attention at every turn, and they have definitely elevated neon signs to an art form. Some of these signs were beautiful and very colorful, even if we couldn't read them. I think Gianni had it right when he said that "Hong Kong is what Korea would be if the buildings in Korea had been built in the 1980's." The buildings are all older, and they have to get enough housing in to account for the high population density. Actually, we found out later that our room was smack dab in the middle of one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong seems to renovate from the inside. The buildings look really old from the outside, but it seems like they are slowly being updated on the inside. For example: the hallway outside the elevator on our floor of the apartment building looks like a scene from the movie Hostel, but once we got into the smaller hallway with our room and a few others, it was all updated and nice looking, as was our room itself. I guess you would have to renovate like that because there is no room for doing large construction projects outside. Anyway, it was very simple to check into our room. AirBNB is usually a website that lets you stay with local people in their apartments if they have an extra room, but in the case of Hong Kong, most of the room situations seemed to be more like guesthouses, which is what we stayed in. I was fine with that, and the guy who checked us in spoke great English and made some great recommendations. Because of how many people live in Hong Kong, the rooms/apartments are all really small. Our room had the tiniest bathroom ever. You had to sit on the toilet to shower. It basically only fit a bed and a little side table, which was just fine for us. It was cleaned everyday, and the guesthouse staff were friendly. They even gave us a SIM card to use in China for free. After we checked into the room, I took a few minutes to regroup and locate us on the airport tourist map. I had a list of things I wanted to see but no idea where anything was. I spent some time finding things and seeing what was near us, and we got a good recommendation from our guesthouse manager for a barbecue place. We were starving, and the food there was excellent. We found out that in China they serve hot/warm water with your meal instead of cold. We got used to it after a while. After that, we headed out to one of the

Ladies Market

very famous markets that was quite close to our room. The Ladies Market is a big market with tons of stalls. Vendors sell anything from clothing to electronics, including some Chinese souvenirs. I probably spent a bit too much money since most things can be bought elsewhere, but everything was so cheap. I went to China prepared to haggle, and I got everything for below asking price. I'm not a great haggler, but hooray for small victories anyway. The currency in Hong Kong is the Hong Kong Dollar, which is about 7.75 to 1 USD. The $10 HKD is actually made of plastic and not paper, and it is really colorful and crazy, so we ended up keeping one for ourselves since it isn't worth a lot anyway. After walking the market, Gianni and I were already tired from our travels, so we went back to the room for a quick nap. Well...Gianni napped while I planned our next few days in Hong Kong. Once we had the rest we needed, we decided to walk a little ways to the Temple Street Night Market. It had some of the same things as the Ladies Market, but it also includes food. Gianni and I stopped and grabbed some delicious street food for dinner. We had some dumplings and buns I believe. It's a really nice market, and people sit outside to eat at most of the tiny restaurants nearby. I should mention that the weather in Hong Kong was lovely--sweatshirt weather, but no big coats! After our little market trip, we headed back to the room for bed.

The wall of the Walled City

On the second day, I figured we would acquaint ourselves with our area and see some sights in Kowloon. First, we got breakfast. Hong Kong breakfasts are very British--they had eggs, sausages, toast, etc., and milk tea (black tea with milk) is very popular. I was a big fan of breakfast in Hong Kong. They also love sweetened, condensed milk, and they put it on a lot of things. Every morning for breakfast, my meal came with a bread roll with butter and condensed milk on it. It was interesting, and I didn't hate it at all--my sweet tooth! We then took a double-decker bus, driving on the wrong side of the road, (other bits of British influence) to Kowloon Walled City Park. I should mention

Kowloon Walled City Park

that people actually wait in LINES for buses! It's amazingly controlled and makes it so much easier for people. We need to instate this policy everywhere! The buses don't talk nearly as much as they do in Korea. Also, we only noticed the signs on the bus in English at a few stops, which made things a little confusing for us since we had no idea how to read Chinese and no idea where we were. That was the only minor difficult part about Hong Kong that we faced. Kowloon Walled City Park is a beautiful little park in the northern part of Kowloon. It has a long history and had several other functions before being made into a park in 1995. The Walled City was actually built as a Chinese military fort in attempts to stop the British from taking over the city during the Opium Wars (which I will talk more about later). I think the British later took over the fort. Later, it became an alms house. Post-World War II, the

a model of what the Kowloon Walled City used to look like

population of the area swelled, and Kowloon Walled City was built up to accommodate that. Massive illegal tenement buildings were built up. The Walled City is only about 6 acres, but more than 33,000 people lived there in the 1970's. The buildings were slums, and the apartments were tiny. There was an exhibit at the park featuring interviews with former residents of Kowloon Walled City. There was also a model of what the buildings looked like and how close they all were together. The area was almost completely unregulated by the government. Drugs and prostitution were very common there, and the Walled City was demolished in 1993. Walking around the beautiful park that replaced these slums, I couldn't even fathom fitting all those people into such a small area. It would have been a site to see, that's for sure. Gianni was also right to question what happened to all those people after their houses were torn down. They were, in no way, a good place to live, but where did all the people go afterwards?

Wong Tai Sin Temple

garden at Wong Tai Sin Temple

praying with incense

Our second stop for the day was Wong Tai Sin Temple. On our walk between the Walled City and the temple, we noticed a few terraced cemeteries. There are so many people in Hong Kong that the space for cemeteries would be insane if they did it the way we do at home. Instead, there were big, terraced hills completely covered in monuments. This is a little morbid, I realize, but it was something interesting we noticed. Back on track-- Wong Tai Sin Temple is actually not a Buddhist temple, but a Taoist one instead. I don't know a whole lot about Taoism, but it is a way of life that emphasizes simplicity and naturalness. They believe there is a tao (force/way) that flows through everything. It is a religion, but the principles of it can be applied to other aspects of life. It mostly speaks about how to live your individual, spiritual life. If you've heard of "ch'i" before, that is part of Taoism. Taoism has a long history in China. This particular temple is famous for answering prayers. The purpose of a Taoist's life is attaining immortality, and this temple is dedicated to one man who was able to do this, Wong Tai Sin (Great Immortal Wong). It was super crowded when we went. There's a massive gate out front, and before you get to the main build of the temple, there are the statues for the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac. It was our first temple in China, but we visited Buddhist ones later, and people of both religions prayed in a similar way. It is always really interesting for us to see the different ways Buddhism is practiced. It's all the same religion, but in Thailand, the temples were super ornate while in Korea they are very simple. In China they are not as ornate as Thailand but still more than Korea, and they pray using a lot of incense, which is not done in Korea. The incense were hard core at Wong Tai Sin temple. We couldn't hang around for a long time because of it. Behind the main temple buildings, there was a lovely little garden with a pond.

Nan Lian Garden

Chi Lin Nunnery

It was kind of a nice segue into our next stop: Nan Lian Gardens and Chi Lin Nunnery. The Garden is a classic, Chinese-style garden built in the style of Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). It had all kinds of beautiful plants, trees, and flowers as well as interesting buildings. The best part of a beautiful gold-painted pavilion in the center of a lake with a bright red bridge leading up to it. It was really cool to see the juxtaposition of a natural garden area with the big buildings of the city right behind it. We walked around the garden for a bit, and I bought a fan charm for my charm bracelet from the gift shop. Connected to the Garden is the Chi Lin Nunnery, which is a beautiful Buddhist temple complex built in 1934, again following building techniques of the Tang Dynasty. I wasn't aware that the term "nunnery" could be applied to Buddhist temples as well. I didn't see any monks, but I believe it is the same. Nunnery is the name given to a temple that is run by female monks. You learn something new everyday. We were both famished by that point, so we grabbed a quick lunch from a food court in one of Hong Kong's many malls. It was packed in there, and it took us forever to find a seat. Gianni and I got a pot of soup with dumplings and chicken to share. I also got a smoothie (very common in Hong Kong) and some egg bread (kind of like waffles, but with puffed out bits that look like small-eggs).

replica of a resting buddha from one of the caves

model statues and paint from one cave

After lunch, we headed to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum because I had heard it was the best museum in the city. It's built on a river, and there are paths along the river that people actually run on! People don't run on the streets in Korea, but they definitely do in China (Hong Kong at least). The Heritage Museum houses special exhibits as well as permanent ones about Hong Kong culture and history. Unfortunately, the permanent exhibit had been moved out because of a special Poster Art Competition, but at least that was interesting. There were posters from around the world in the competition. We even caught one advertising Taekwondo for Korea! There was an interesting special exhibit that took up the majority of space in the museum about the Dunhuang Caves. The term "caves" is a bit misleading. It's more like small family temples carved into the cliffs. Typically, you have to go to Dunhuang to see them, so it was great to be able to learn about them while in Hong Kong. We took an English tour of the exhibit, and the tour guide was really funny (unintentionally on her part). She kept saying "mhm yeah" after everything she said, as though she was affirming to herself that she was, in fact, using the appropriate words in English. Anyway, they had several artifacts and statues found within some of the caves, and they had recreated a few caves as well. The caves were built by wealthy families (donors) for monks to meditate and pray, and every wall of the caves are covered in Buddhist paintings as well as, sometimes, paintings of the donors themselves. They are really quite beautiful. The caves are estimated to have been built starting in 4th century AD. There was one cave, called the Library Cave, where important Chinese manuscripts were discovered. It had been sealed in the 11th century,

Bruce Lee Exhibit

perhaps to keep invaders away from them, and discovered in the early 1900s. Wouldn't it be amazing to be a modern person who could actually read documents from thousands of years ago because your language was actually that old!? I mean I know there would be some differences, but to be able to legitimately read most of the things in museums and know how old they are would be just wonderful. After spending quite a bit of time at that exhibit, Gianni and I went to see the Bruce Lee exhibit that was going on. Bruce Lee is a native of Hong Kong, as are a lot of the action stars that have become household names, like Jackie Chan. I guess Hong Kong is just like a mecca for martial arts masters for some reason. There were former costumes, letters, and film clips from his life and career, and it was all displayed in recreations of 1950's style buildings. Bruce Lee died suddenly at the age of 32 in 1973, and the cause of his death is still debated. Unfortunately, his son also died quite young due to an accidental shooting on the set of a movie. It was quite an interesting museum, and I think we got to see some pieces of Chinese history. I just wish it had taught us more about Hong Kong specifically--at least that's what I had anticipated.

Our last stop of the day was Sky 100, the tallest building in Hong Kong located right on the water. We went at night, so we got to see all the lights of the city. You can see across to Hong Kong Island, too. Hong Kong Island is kind of the business center of the city, so the waterfront on that side is covered in skyscrapers, each with a different company name all lit up. The tickets to go up Sky100 were a little pricey, and it's nice because the staff will actually warn you about visibility issues due to air pollution (which, btw, is no where near as bad as in Beijing or Shanghai, but is still a problem). When we went up, I believe we were at about 70% visibility, which was fine. We still got some nice pictures. Gianni and I had some tired feet after that day of walking, so it was time to head back to the hotel for some sleep. We got a taxi from Sky100 to take us back to our area. The taxis in Hong Kong are color coded depending on area so that people can be sure they are getting a real, legal taxi. Typical taxis that I am used to are usually pretty nice, new cars (at least in Korea), but in Hong Kong they were cars straight out of the 90's--very boxy and old on the outside, but not run-down. They were actually not too bad on the inside at all though. Also, the drivers have an automatic button that pops the door open for you when you're about to get inside, which is a nice touch.


Our third day in Hong Kong was our Hong Kong Island day. As I said before, Hong Kong Island is the business center of the city. It feels completely different from Kowloon in many ways. Kowloon feels like New York and London collided in China. Hong Kong Island feels more like San Francisco (there are trolleys and hills) and New York combined. There are massive sky scrapers everywhere. We took the ferry across, which was a nice ride. Getting to see the skyline of the Island from a different perspective. The ferry terminal was near Golden Bauhinia Sqaure (name for the golden statue that was built there) and the Expo Center. From there, you can get a nice view of the other side of the skyline on Kowloon. I asked someone to take a picture of Gianni and I, but it was a Chinese guy who didn't know how to work my complicated camera...or so I gathered. He said no, and then his wife roped me in to taking a picture with her instead! Did I ever mention how much I absolutely HATE taking pictures with strangers who don't even bother to TALK to me first!? I know I shouldn't be so sensitive about it because it happens in Korea too, but it's the weirdest thing, and I actually do hate it.

After that we headed towards Hollywood Road, which is a fancy road with all kinds of expensive antiques shops along it. There were some with actual carved elephant tusks, which I know is disgusting, but these were so intricately carved that I couldn't help but be impressed. Also on that street is a really old-looking temple called Man Mo Temple. Apparently, this temple is for the worship of the literature god, Man Tai, and the martial god, Mo Tai. These Gods are worshiped in Buddhism and Taoism, but they are popular with scholars and students. Man Mo temples always worship these 2 Gods. The temple was built in 1847. The altar is covered in offerings to the Gods, like fruits and snacks as well as incense. This temple was made of stone and looked a bit run down outside and in, with the exception of the altars, which were very well taken car of. There were some red lanterns as well as cone-shaped incense burners hanging on the ceiling. It was quaint and, again, interesting to watch people pray with their hands in prayer position and incense between their hands. They shake the incense and move their hands, still in prayer position, up to their heads as well. Every country in Asia has its own style of Buddhist worship.

Antiques Market

Victoria Peak harbor view

We stopped at a small, outdoor antiques market and got a few souvenirs before lunch. There are a ton of small, congested markets in the alleyways on the hills in that area of Hong Kong Island. Most were selling things for Chinese New Year as well as fresh produce. We stopped for lunch, and Gianni got one of his favorite Chinese dishes, mapu tofu. After lunch we tried to get a taxi to take us to the Victoria Peak tram that would take us up the mountain. Instead, we had a miscommunication, and he drove us ALL THE WAY up the mountain. It was alright in the end because we saw the line when we came down, and it was long. We might have done the right thing to pay more and get us faster. Victoria Peak is a mountain on Hong Kong Island. At the top is a large shopping mall (there were malls EVERYWHERE in China, which is strange because we don't get traditional shopping malls a lot here in Korea). The mall has several viewing platforms where you can look out over the harbor for free. You can see the back view of the buildings on Hong Kong Island as well as the Kowloon side and the blue water in between them. The air quality wasn't bad at all, and it was actually pretty windy up there. The view is stunning. You can also go up a bit higher in the special Victoria Peak building, but you have to pay for that, and we were satisfied with our view as it was. We were able to take the tram down the Peak, so at least we did it once. The tram is cool. You sit in a wooden seat, and it goes up and down on the tracks. The view is kind of obscured by trees and plants, but the incline is really steep, so it's fun to go down on.

Near the base of the peak tram is the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens. It is a beautiful park that has an impressive array of plants and flowers as well as animals. There were tons of children playing around a fountain in the park, and we noticed a fair number of white children playing with their nannies. It reminded me of what it must be like in NYC--all the kids being taken care of by their nannies while their parents are at work. Still, we don't see a lot of foreign children in Korea, especially not in Daegu, so it goes to show how many families of businessmen and women live in Hong Kong and on the Island. The greenhouse at the Gardens was pretty interesting architecturally. It seemed like a lot of the sun was actually blocked out by wooden slats, but there were large windows so you can look into it from a bridge on the second level without actually going in. The zoo was my favorite part. There were all kinds of exotic birds, but there were also some incredible monkeys and apes! I'd never seen some animals like this up close before. The orangutans were pretty cool. The male one was trying to get some plants from through the bars of the cage, using a stick. Pretty smart guy! It was nice to walk around the peaceful garden and see the animals.

We took the ferry back across the harbor and checked out the Tsmi Sha Tsui Promenade. There are a lot of museums and Hong Kong landmarks right along the Promenade. One important place is the Clock Tower. It was built in 1915 as art of the Kowloon-Canton Railway terminus. The station is gone, but the clock tower has remained. It is an interesting landmark as it is done in really European style. There are also palm trees lining the promenade, which makes it feel like you have been transported to LA. The promenade runs right along the Kowloon side of the harbor with nice views of Hong Kong Island. We walked along it for a while and took pictures at the Avenue of the Stars, a Hollywood-style stars walkway with autographs, stars, and hand prints for some major Hong Kong celebrities. It was getting late, and we needed to get some food, so we went back to Mongkok, the area we stayed in.



The fourth day of our trip in Hong Kong was, in both our opinions, our favorite. We took the train out to Lantau Island. There are actually subway stops on both Hong Kong Island and Lantau, so we wanted to try both. The subway stop on Lantau Island lets you off right near the entrance to the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car terminal. If you are planning a trip to Hong Kong, the cable cars are a MUST do experience to have. People will try to sell you packages along the way, but it's not really worth it. We did buy a package, but one that was directly from the cable car ticket office. We got the land, air, sea package ticket, which included a round trip cable car trip, a boat ride in the Tai O fishing village, and the bus to get to the village. It is fairly easy to get around, and I'm still debating about whether the price was worth buying the package ticket or not, but we had fun regardless. The ticket is a bit expensive for the cable car, but it is a 25 minute long ride through mountains. It's absolutely beautiful. You can see the airport, which is also on Lantau Island along with Disneyland. The cars are small, and they don't pack in tons of people, so it's very comfortable and easy to take pictures. I expect there would be huge lines in the summer during peak season, but off-peak, we waited about 10 minutes. It was a lovely ride. The cable car lets you off in Ngong Ping village, a tourist trap built to get people to buy souvenirs. Don't bother with the food or souvenirs there.

Tai O Fishing Village: houses on stilts

The ticket girl told us exactly how to take the bus to the Tai O fishing village from there. It was very simple. The people who actually live on Lantau Island must be so annoyed because they also use the same buses the tourists do to get around. Their island buses are constantly full of tourists. The buses though are big tour buses, so people don't get packed in and everyone gets a seat. The tour bus driver was going so fast down the windiest roads to get off the mountain. It was kind of insane. It dropped us off at the Tai O fishing village, a sight I was very excited to see. It's a traditional fishing village on the island, so you can take a look around and see the old ways of doing things. Obviously, some things are tourist traps nowadays, but it still felt pretty authentic.

Before walking around the village, we used our boat ride ticket. We got in a little speed boat that took us around to see the village's houses built on stilts. After checking those out for a few minutes, the boat went out into the open water. Chinese white dolphins are a pretty rare kind of dolphin, and there are a bunch that live off the coast of Lantau Island. We were lucky enough to get to see some on our ride! I was disappointed because I didn't have my zoom lens, but I tried as best I could to take some pictures of the dolphins.

best seafood ever!

puffer fish souvenir

After our little boat ride, Gianni and I wandered around the village and looked for a lunch spot. There are all kinds of twisted little alleyways and tiny shops. At one point we walked by someone who made egg bread using actual fire and a waffle iron instead of electric heat. We also walked by a funeral service being held right out in the street. One shop was selling beautiful, handmade paintings of flowers in the Chinese style as well. Eventually, we settled on a restaurant in the more heavily-touristy area because we knew they'd have English on the menu. This wasn't a big village, mind you, but the tourists tend to stay near the parking lot where they can get back on the bus. Gianni and I were both attracted to the smell of cheese stuffed seafood being grilled right out in front of the restaurant. Inside, the walls were covered in messages about how excellent the food was written by visitors from around the world. We ordered an assorted plate of stuffed seafood, and the notes were right: the best were the oysters and shrimp. It was probably the best seafood I have ever eaten. It was clearly fresh, being that we were in a fishing village, and they were cooked excellently. It was a bit pricey, but I was willing to pay for good food. I bought a few seashells from one of the stalls selling souvenirs. I'm hoping that they were actual seashells that someone found or fished out of the ocean. I think they are. There were other stalls selling dried puffer fishes that were all spiky, and I even saw a friend baby shark that was cut in half!

We took the bus back up to the main area near the cable cars. Just a short walk away was the Po Lin Monastery and Big Buddha (Tian Tan Buddha). The Po Lin Monastery is a Buddhist monastery that was founded in 1906 and the Big Buddha was finished in 1993. The monastery was nice, but not that large, so the main attraction was the Buddha. You have to walk up a really tall staircase to get to the base of it. It was a pretty impressive statue, but the view from up there was even more incredible. After catching our breath and enjoying the view, we took the lovely cable car back down to the base of the mountain and caught the subway back to our area.


We made three last stops before calling it a night. We caught the bird market, fish market, and flower market as they were closing up. There are a ton of random markets in Hong Kong, and so we had to check them out. The flower market smells wonderful. There are legitimate flower shops selling arrangements and loose flowers, but there are also people selling from trucks off the street. It's an interesting mix of vendors. They have any kind of flower you can imagine, and some that I had never seen before. After walking the streets there for a bit, we found the bird market. The bird market isn't just on a street. To get in you have to go up some stairs, and there's a partially covered area for the market. There were TONS of bird varieties all chirping in cages either stacked or hanging in the stalls. Vendors were also selling cages and food (lots and lots of boxes of crickets! yikes!) for the birds. The birds were really pretty. I guess birds are popular pets in China because people like to listen to them chirping. It would drive me nuts, but to each his own. The last market we stopped at was the goldfish market. The fish market is basically just a ton of fish stores in one area with outdoor displays of fishes in bags of water. I should mention, these are live fish of all different exotic varieties, so not for eating. There were tons of bags of fish as well as tanks full of then. The bigger, more beautiful fish were in big tanks inside the shops themselves.

For dinner, Gianni had found good reviews about a place called Dim Dim Sum. We found it, and it was actually really close to our room. There were tons of people inside, but we didn't have to wait for a table. The food was incredible! It was actually on the list of 200 restaurants in the world that you should eat at. We ordered all kinds of dumpling as well as a few things that were recommended by the magazine that ranked them in the top 200. We also got some "piggy buns" because who could resist that name! They were custard filled and really good. It was no an expensive meal at all--most of the food in China is pretty cheap.

figures at the history museum

space museum

art museum

Sorry for the lack of posts everyone, but it's been a crazy few weeks. Gianni and I decided not to go to taekwondo this month because of our two week long trip that begins on Saturday! We're so excited to be going to China. I still have some last minute planning and stuff today, but nothing major. We're going to Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai for two weeks.

We have one more semester to go in our contracts in Korea this year. Gianni and I finished the Fall semester just after Christmas. Following that, I was completely consumed planning last week's English camp. English camp is held for a week during each school vacation. This time, Rhys and I decided on a travel camp. We taught one class of kids between the two of us, so we split the days. I taught on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and he taught on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Monday, we did a funny introduction to the theme where we did an airport simulation. The kids made passports, and I gave them boarding passes and everything. We made them go through check in, security, and boarding. It was pretty cute. On Tuesday, I taught about North America, focusing on Canada, USA, and Mexico. The kids did information scavenger hunts where they read some posters I made and collected information about the different countries. I think they found it somewhat interesting. After each information hunt, we did a little activity. For Canada, we tasted maple syrup. For the USA, we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And for Mexico, we made pinatas that we hit as our last activity on Thursday. The rest of the day on Thursday, I talked about Africa, focusing on Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. A lot of the time it seems like the kids don't understand that Africa isn't just one kind of person or one country, so I thought it was important to discuss that. I gave a brief intro before the kids did their scavenger hunts. After talking about South Africa, we made beaded bracelets out of newspaper (an activity Sian gave me). I didn't have activities for Ghana or Kenya, but it was fine because we had to finish up the pinatas anyway. The kids went crazy for the pinatas, but most of them fell off their ribbon before the bottoms broke. Oh well! At least the kids had fun. On Friday after camp, the English teachers (along with two of the other teachers still at school during break) went out to lunch at a shabu, shabu buffet. Shabu Shabu is a Japanese style of food where you cook meat and veggies in a hot broth at your table with noodles. It is tasty, and the buffet was great too.

The past few weekends and weeknights, we've been playing games with Maria and Matthew (who left on their trip to New Zealand over the weekend), watching movies (we saw Predestination, which is billed as Time Vortex in Korea--really good movie), and preparing for our vacations.

We spent New Year's Eve at Maria and Matthew, eating chili and playing games with Marie and Ben. It was a nice, relaxing day. For the last year, Maria, Matthew, Gianni, and I have been tallying our wins for all the games that we play together, and Maria emerged victorious. We all had to buy her a pair of fun socks as her prize. We have started a new tally with a points system for this year so that the 1st-3rd place winners still get points. Hopefully, this makes it more fair and gives everyone a better shot at winning.

Gianni and I have been doing some nice date nights--getting dinner out and seeing movies. I've been doing a little bit of shopping too. I got a yoga mat and some little weights from someone on the facebook group called "Daegu Flea Market" where people buy and sell things to each other. It's a handy thing we have in Daegu since so many people are always coming and going. I also got a new pair of really cool sneakers that actually look like books. They are really cool sort of high tops with fur inside--super warm. I keep asking Gianni if the shoes are too cool for me!

This week is being spent planning last minute things for China, but also planning the MAJOR things for Japan! Unfortunately, Gage was unable to make it to Korea for our vacation in February as planned, so we had to make some other arrangements (we hope she can come at another time). We are taking a 10 day vacation in Japan just 2 weeks after we come back from China! It's going to be an insane few months! We just found this out, so now I'm in serious travel planning mode, and I just hope we can get it all together. Japan is a place both Gianni and I have really wanted to visit, so I need to do a good job with them. This doesn't feel like desk warming at all, but I guess that's a good thing. At least I'm not super bored. :)

It's strange to think that we have been in Korea for the entire year of 2014 and that this is now our second Christmas in Daegu. It becomes really taxing being in Korea around the holidays. Home sickness gets really hard because Koreans celebrate Christmas in a really different way than in Western countries. As I said last year, Christmas in Korea is a couples holiday. Some of the Christian people might go to church, but the restaurants and stores are all open and really busy on Christmas. It's the total opposite of what it is like at home, which makes it hard to be here for the holidays.

Gianni and I tried to make it as Christmas-y as possible though. We spent a bit less on each other than we did last year, since we want to make sure we have a nice time in China. But we still got presents for each other to put under the tree (small and plastic though it may be) and in each others' stockings (though they are small and not the ones Aunt Nancy made us). On Christmas Eve, Gianni worked really hard on dinner. He made some tasty chili and potato latkes (we got a little bit of Hanukkah in our Christmas). It was nice to have a good Christmas Eve dinner, according to my traditions, even if it wasn't ham and all the Christmas dishes I'm used to. Instead of opening Christmas PJ pants on Christmas Eve (my family's tradition), Gianni and I gave each other 2 pairs of Korean socks to open instead. I got two pairs with mustaches on them that are pretty amazing (I love mustache socks). I gave him a pair with a guy with a head of poop giving the thumbs up and another pair that have a thumbs down symbol and say "안좋아요," or "not good," on them. Thoroughly happy with all our sock presents I think. We watched Wolf of Wallstreet finally that night. What a LONG movie, and completely un-Christmas-y. It was still good though.

On Christmas morning, Gianni and I woke up a bit early to make sure we got to talk to our parents. We opened our presents first. I mostly gave Gianni Korean knock-off legos. He got a pirate set that he saw at a store and really wanted. I made him put it down because I had already gotten it for him. I also got him some amazing Simpsons legos. I got as many of the characters as I could find at the store. Each character comes with some other little object that you have to put together, like a desk or a mailbox or something. Gianni is already finished putting everything together. I'm very proud of my gift-giving ability. He also got some touch-screen gloves that fit nicely. Gianni gave me some nice things too--candies and cookies mostly. He gave me one Japanese candy kit that I'm really excited to try. Apparently, in Japan they have a lot of these kits where you can mix or make some sort of candy yourself. I really like the idea, and I've seen people do them before. They are really cool. I also got some nice notebooks, a Tutoro ring and pin, and Christmas pencils. After opening gifts, we started making Christmas morning breakfast. It was no where near the elaborate one my mom makes with wife-saver and a cinnamon bun Christmas tree, but it was the best I could do. Gianni made eggs and bacon while I made french toast for the first time ever. I think I did a decent job. We cooked while talking to our parents on skype. They were all at my house for Christmas Eve dinner at the time. I don't know what I would do without skype. It was also great to see the Bonica family: my lovely cousins, aunt, and uncle. After a nice long chat, we signed off to eat our breakfast and let them get back to their little party. We spent the day watching TV together before our lovely Christmas dinner with our friends.

We are so blessed to have the best friends in the world in Korea. Honestly, over this past year, they have truly become our second family. They make being away from our families over the holidays an actually bearable experience. Sian was wonderful and made a reservation for 20 people at Ariana Hotel's buffet restaurant for Christmas dinner. It was ten-fold better than last year's crazy trip to Busan. Ariana, like most restaurants in Korea on Christmas, was super busy when we arrived at 6pm. It got less busy as the night went on, and we didn't end up leaving the restaurant until like 10pm. Ariana is a buffet that makes its own beer too. It's a kind of expensive place, but you get free beer and wine included, so we definitely made the price worth it. We all ate a lot of food, drank a lot of beer and wine, and danced to the music when the band started playing later in the night. All the Korean kids out with their families were dancing adorably by the stage too. We even did a Yankee Swap with about 15 people. Gianni ended up with way better gifts this year than he did last year. He got an ax pen and a funny chicken button, and I got a kit for staying warm in the winter, which included a mug and hot coco, hot packs, and a dragon microwave hand warmer. It was a really fun evening spent with awesome friends as well as some cool new people. The food was delicious as was the wine. It was a really great Christmas, even though we didn't get to be home for it.

The week and weekend before Christmas were pretty low-key but fun. We took the week off from taekwondo because we needed it after practicing everyday for just over a week before our black  belt test. We did a couple of new things and hung out with our friends instead.

Last Tuesday night, we met up with Niall and Tara at a board game cafe we had never been to before. They are friends with the owner, so they go there all the time. Although it has board games, it is more of a cafe, so not the same selection of board games as we usually get. The food there looked amazing though, and I'd love to go back for dinner. I just got a chocolate muffin with ice cream on it. It was huge and delicious for only $4. Our board game cafe doesn't have food or alcohol, so I would definitely go back to this place too. I think it just depends on whether you are more interested in playing a ton of different games or whether you want some dinner and you are happy playing a limited selection of games. This cafe also had a few adorable cats walking around that would steal your seat if you got up to order. Too cute! Niall and Tara taught us to play a game we had never played before called Citadel. It was really fun, and I definitely want to play it again. It was really nice to spend a few hour with Niall and Tara because it has been so long since we'd seen them. It was a really fun night.

On Wednesday night, we did another thing we haven't done in a while: quiz night. Maria, Matthew, Gianni, and I called our team Mr. Plow (Simpsons reference). There was one Christmas round, but the other ones were sex and name the movie from the picture. As usual, it was really fun. Our team ended up tying for first place! To decide which team got first and which got second, Niall and the other quiz-makers decided to have us write down the names of all Santa's reindeer and the items that go along with all 12 days of Christmas in the song. Both teams managed to name all of them, so them we just had to rock, paper, scissor for it. Although we suggested simply splitting all the money in half for each team instead of going for first and second place, because the second place team gets significantly less than the first place one, the other team didn't want to take the offer. Maria is the best at rock, paper, scissors, so she won us first place! It was awesome. We won 133,000 won for the team! Not bad at all. Paid off our Christmas presents this year and our dinner for that night.

Thursday night was the end of year teacher dinner. We went to a really expensive buffet called Ashley at Daegu Tower. It's a Western style buffet where they serve little pieces of cheesecake for dessert that are amazing. The dinner was excellent. The school even did a raffle where some of the teachers could win money. My number was 44 though, so I had double bad luck. In Korea, the number 4, or "sa," is bad luck because "sa" also means "dead" in Chinese. I didn't win any money, but a few of my coteachers did. After dinner, my main coteacher, Sun Mi, wanted to go up to the base of the tower. Even though she's from Daegu, she had never been there before. It's so surprising what people don't do in their own cities. She didn't go up the tower, but even from the base, you can get a nice view of the city. We walked down the path back to the restaurant outside. They decorate it with all kinds of Christmas lights, so it's really pretty. Gianni and I were going to go to taekwondo that night, but the bus took longer than expected to get home with all the traffic. Oh well, too bad. (You can hear how disappointed I was *hahaha*)

Friday night, Gianni and I went with Sian, Thomas, Maria, and Matthew to see The Hobbit. I think the general consensus was that it was way better than the last movie. It still had tons of horrible CGI, but it was more fun. They could easily have put the first 20 minutes of this movie into the last one, and the ending of the last one would have been much better. Anyway, splitting a really short book into 3 movies was insane, but whatever. It's annoying that that's the new Hollywood trend.

The weekend before Christmas was spent baking. I baked both Saturday and Sunday all day, and I barely left the house. On Saturday, I made banana bread muffins, nutella cupcakes, and my mom's Christmas frogs (most people call them haystacks). It feels much more like Christmas for me having those frogs in the house. I divided it all up to give to our coteachers as their Christmas presents, so we didn't eat all of it ourselves. It would have been gross if we had. It was A LOT of baked goods. On Sunday, Maria and Matthew came over to bake with us. Matthew really like anise cookies, and I made them last year, so he wanted more. Matthew made buckeyes (peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate) in the kitchen while I made anise cookies. I made entirely too many anise cookies. I made one batch with a recipe that Auntie Teresa gave us before they came over to the house, but I decided that it wasn't enough, and I wanted to make a different recipe that I had a home to see what the difference in taste was. I can't really tell the difference in the end, and both are really good. But the second recipe I made had 7 cups of flour! That should have been the indicator that it was a huge recipe. It made too many cookies. It was also a lot stickier and harder to roll into balls. I think I'll stick with Auntie Teresa's recipe. Anyway, we sent Maria and Matthew home with lots of cookies, and I had enough to give one to each of my coteacher as well as a whole tray to bring to the taekwondo Christmast party we have tonight (day after Christmas). Gianni gave his coteacher 1 cupcake and 1 muffin each, and I gave mine 2 frogs, 1 anise cookie, and a bookmark I made each. I think they all appreciated the effort I made in baking them. A lot of things in Korea are labeled "handmade," and I think they really appreciate handmade things in Korea. Baking is way more fun than cooking, in my opinion.

The week of Christmas, I just watched The Santa Clause with my kids. They really liked it I think. They were laughing and getting really into it. After this week, there are just three days of class next week, and I really don't feel like actually teaching (and they don't feel like learning). They just informed me that my third grade classes are cancelled for the last 4 days of the semester, which is kind of sad because I like teaching 3rd grade, and the kids are graduating, so I don't get to see them anymore. At least it gives me time to continue planning my travel-themed camp and our vacation to China in January. I need a vacation!

Gianni and I were completely dedicated to taekwondo last week. We went every night to practice our forms for our black belt test. We felt really confident about them going into our black belt test on Saturday afternoon. Luckily, we didn't have to wake up as early as Serena did for her test, but we did have to wait for quite some time beforehand. We met at the gym at 12pm on Saturday, but we didn't end up actually doing our test until around 4:30pm. It was a long time to wait and watch, and I definitely started to get nervous as the children were finishing their tests.

Me doing the 8th form at the back, and Gianni doing the 3rd

The way the black belt test is structured is that everyone demonstrates 3 of the 8 forms and does a minute of sparring in groups of 6. The first form is the same for everyone: the 8th and most recently learned form. The second form is, again, the same for everyone, but for this one, the form is chosen at the start of the day. For our test, it was the 3rd form. The last form is completely random, and the judge changes it with each group of 6 testers, so you don't know what exactly it will be until you get in front of the judge. Gianni and I both were asked to do the 5th form. The last step is sparring, and it's pretty simple. You just have to remember to kick with both your legs, do high kicks, and do a variety of different kicks.

Gianni doing the 8th form

Me doing the 8th form

When it was finally time for our test, we were arranged in our groups. I was only in a group of 3 because I guess there weren't enough adults testing to make a full group. I was a little worried because I was supposed to have taken off all my jewelry beforehand, but I don't actually know how to take off my cartilage piercing. It cause a bit of a disturbance among the people checking us in, but Master Hwang got it sorted out. I was in a group with one guy from our gym and another girl who was from another gym. The forms went by really quickly  because I was totally nervous. Still, Gianni and I are both confident about our performances. I don't think I made any mistakes on the forms. My leg did start shaking at the end of the last one, but that was partially because it was really cold once you got to the stadium floor, away from all the heaters. So we moved on to the last part: sparring. I was paired with the girl who was in the forms group with me. Now, it is my understanding that this sparring is meant to be friendly because we both need to make sure we get some kicks in to pass the test. At practice, some of the girls at my gym and I were basically just taking turns doing some kicks, and that was fine. Well apparently this girl didn't get the memo. She started in on me really fast, kicking me really hard. Gianni and his partner in the group before me were actually told to stop kicking so hard by their judge, so I'm not sure why our judge didn't stop us. Anyway, the girl started kicking me hard and made me fall. Then, she proceeded to kick me in the face! After that, I completely forgot the rules of what I was supposed to be doing to pass the test, and I just wanted to go after her. I kicked her as hard as I could and made her fall once. I know I kicked with both my legs, but I'm not sure I did enough variety of kicks. Master Hwang said I did well though.

Gianni sparring (left)

Me sparring (right)

After the test, the girl was very apologetic about kicking me in the face because I don't think she meant to. Still, I now have a cut/bruise on my lip, and it hurts to open my jaw very wide. It's better than it felt on Saturday though, so nothing really damaged. I felt like a baby, but I definitely got teary-eyed afterwards because I was in some degree of pain. I tried not to cry because I was with the other gym members and Master Hwang, but they kept noticing me getting teary and pointing it out, which only made things worse. We all went out for dinner afterwards, but I kind of just wanted to go home and take some motrin. Oh well! Master Hwang called it my "injury of glory!"

Despite the knocks I took during it, I think I did really well on my black belt test overall. Gianni feels good too. I thought we would have to wait a few weeks to find out if we passed, but Master Hwang just called to let me know that Gianni and I both passed! We are officially black belts!!! yay! We do have to still wait for the actual belts with our names on them though, but that's ok. Now, we need a little break for this week.

This past weekend, Gianni and I practiced taekwondo with Max both days because it is just one week before our black belt test! It's really scary, but we are getting some good work in, and I think we should be ok...at least I hope so! I hate doing tests like this though. I always get really nervous and screw up in front of Master Hwang. The black belt test is at a big stadium place with judges scrutinizing us, so I just hope I do well. We plan to go almost everyday this week to make sure we have everything perfect.

Even though we did a lot of practicing, we also found some time to do some fun stuff too. One thing I

love about a city like Daegu is that there is always something new to do--something I haven't seen or a restaurant I haven't eaten at. On Friday night, Lily invited me to go out for her birthday girl's night. We started at a new restaurant called Bubba's where they have delicious salads and pizza. I got a ricotta cheese salad, and it was basically some lettuce with a big glob of ricotta on top with some nuts and dried fruit. It was alright, but probably too much cheese. Next time, I'll get the 4 cheese pizza! After that, we went probably the coolest place I've ever been: a wine and hookah bar that smelled of incense and was very dimly lit. There were Indian-style wall hanging all over the place, and we sat on a bunch of pillows on the landing on top of a staircase. It was like our own little alcove. The whole place was very relaxing and romantic. I'm definitely going back there. After spending a few hours chatting there and drinking our bottle of wine, we went to gogos and got cocktails in a bag to bring with us to the noraebang. We spent an hour or so singing some lovely songs before heading home. It was an awesome birthday party, and I had a great time. Happy Birthday Lily!

On Saturday after we finished practicing, we met Maria and Matthew downtown for a game night at the board game cafe. Beforehand, we went to dinner at a jjimdak place they had been to before. Jjimdak is chicken in a thin, brown marinade with thin rice noodles, potatoes, and other veggies. We also got it topped with cheese. It was really delicious. I was so full when we finished eating it. The restaurant is called Rose or something having to do with roses, so they give your table a rose made of soap when you go. They also had a spin the wheel at the front of the store, so I spun it before we left, and I won another soap flower. We also got 4,000 won off our meal because we each posted a photo of it on facebook. We played 6 games at the board game cafe, and I think it's safe to say that Maria has won our little contest to see who could win the most games this year. That means Maria is going to get a pair of socks from each of us.

Sunday we went back over to Max's for an hour-long practice session. Afterwards, he took us over to EMart Traders. EMart Traders is like a Korean Costco. They have stuff you can buy in bulk, but it is mostly Korean brands and foods. Still, they have some good stuff. We had some food at the delicious food court and did a little bit of shopping. Gianni and I are buying some gifts for two orphans for the charity called Daegu Time to Give. We have a preschool boy and a preschool girl. At EMart Traders, Gianni got the boy a truck filled with all kinds of toy cars, and I got the girl a Frozen drawing set and some extra markers. I hope the kids will like them!

This year, I am thankful for how easy it is to celebrate Thanksgiving in Korea. We did, roughly, the same thing as last year, so we got to celebrate the holiday twice with different groups of friends.

28 pound monster turkey!

On Friday night, we went to Max and Serena's house for their wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. They made a ham and a 28 pound turkey! It was massive, and they sent everyone home with leftovers. I made an apple crisp (with real Quaker oats that I brought back from home this summer) and two loaves of pumpkin bread. Serena bought me the pumpkin spice and canned pumpkin for the recipe on base, which was really nice of her. The recipe was huge, and this was the first time I had ever made it. I think it turned out really well. This year, Lily and Jonathan, two of our teacher friends who we don't see often, also came to Serena and Max's. Serena and Lily know each other from their running group. It was really nice to be able to see them as well. Everyone brought side dishes, and they were all really good, especially Deb's cornbread casserole!





On Sunday, our teacher friends ordered the turkey from the English magazine, The Daegu Compass, like last year. This time though, we had the dinner at Marie and Ben's new apartment since it's also a bigger place. Marie is a fantastic cook and baker. Everyone brought the side dishes to go along with the turkey. Again, our friends are amazing chefs. I brought some corn bread muffins and a pumpkin pie I bought from Costco. There were about 14 of us at their place, and it was really nice to catch up with people we don't always see.

I'd say Thanksgiving was successful again. Even though we don't get the day off from work, at least we can celebrate it with friends.


The Monday after Thanksgiving, a bunch of our friends (Marie, Ben, Thomas, Sian, Maria, Matthew, Gianni, and I) got together and went to one of the photo studios downtown. There are a ton in the main subway station, and I always see teenagers down there crowding around. Big groups of friends will go down there and get their photos taken together. We decided to celebrate December 1st by doing the same. We all got in our best Christmas outfits and took some Christmas pictures together. They take a bunch of pictures for like 10 minutes or so, and then you can pick which ones you want. $7 per person gets you one picture, but we chose 3, which ended up costing about $17 per person. They also edit the pictures for you to make you basically look flawless. I can say that I know why all the celebrities are talking about not wanting their pictures photo-shopped; it feels awful to have it done to you! I watched my legs and butt go from big to small as she edited, and it feels really judgey. That was the only bad part of the experience. I know they just wanted to make the pictures good, but the editor was pointing out all my flaws and correcting them. It felt weird. Some of you have probably seen the one I posted on facebook already, but there are two others I'm keeping secret for a Christmas card. They are really cute pictures, and I didn't have any pictures of the 8 of us together, so it's nice to have that now.