Hong Kong Star

So we started our second day in Hong Kong with a walk on Hollywood Boulevard. Of Hong Kong.
It is called Avenue of Stars and it's on the bank of Victoria Harbour, on Hong Kong island. As in Hollywood Boulevard, movie stars left their hand marks on the pavement, but there is also a display of the history of Hong Kong cinema, a Bruce Lee statue, and other nice decorations along the way. The harbor is gorgeous, especially seeing the other side, but the pictures in Hong Kong generally don't turn out great because there's a lot of smog. Unlike Bangkok, however, you don't feel like you're breathing dirt.

Rony comparing his hands with Jackie Chan's

Talia lives in a movie :)

We the went to Landau Island to see the Po Lin Monastery and the giant Buddha statue on the top of the hill. The trip there is a bit long and we started to be a bit hungry, so we decided to stop for lunch at the local mall. And we found the best lunch deal in town: All you can eat sushi for 78 HK$, which is 10 US$! How could we resist that?! So we went there and after eating everything we ordered (there was a 10$ fee policy for each gram you left on the plate!) and a bunch of random sushi off the sushi train, we noticed that there is a weird fashion among the youth in Hong Kong: Apparently it's very fashionable to ware big fake glasses, some without lenses at all! One of the waitresses was wearing them and one of the cooks at the sushi place we well. It was really strange. Anyway, we took a picture and you can see it on the link below.

Now that we were full, we could go to the monastery and enjoy the sightseeing. We got there by bus, though all the tourists go by cable car, which we didn't do because we want to be able to afford food in Japan the bus is much cheaper and more authentic: Everybody was Chinese on our bus.  Once we got off the bus, we couldn't miss the huge Buddha statue that was looking at us. It's the biggest Buddha statue in open air in the world! And it's beautiful.

Buddha on top of the hill

After a long walk up a zillion (268) stairs, and after a few minutes of admiring the statue, Rony noticed a little English boy who got lost and was looking for his mom. So Talia went to look for his mom and Rony stayed with him and tried to calm him down while trying to get some information from the kid: "What's your mom's name?" "Mom!" "Ok, and what's your name?" "Hayden. My mom left me." "No she didn't. I'm sure she's looking for you right now. Let's go find her!" After 5 hugely stressful minutes - more for us than for the kid - we finally found his mom and they ran into each other's arms. Let's say it was due to the good karma of the place. The big Buddha shined on all of us and it all ended well.

After all those emotions, we needed to cool down and went to "The Path of Wisdom".

Path of Wisdom

It's a display of suttras written on wood in the shape of the lying-down 8 that stands for infinity. It was nice but was getting late and we had to go back to the hotel if we wanted to make it on time for the evening light show on Victoria Harbor.

We got back to the hotel, but we were too tired (again) to leave the hotel and we decided to go to sleep early.

The next day, our last full day in HK, we decided to take things easy so we could see the light show this time and because Talia has a cold too. We went to Hong Kong island to see one of the famous bakeries in town called Tai Cheong Bakery to try their famous egg tart.

We tried one.

We guess it was good, since we don't have anything to compare too. And one was enough. It's not really our thing. Sorry if we offended anyone. But the dough part was good...

Next we went to the botanical and zoological gardens. It was really nice: The gardens are well designed and the mammals we saw were some rare specimens: Orangutan, lemur and sloths.  It was hard to see those animals in cages, especially the Orangutan, who was gorgeous, but the gardens are participating in breeding those mostly-endangered species and re-releasing them into the wild.

Orangutan in Botanical Gardens

After that, we were ready to go see the highlight of our day, the light show on Victoria Harbor.
For that we decided to go to The Peak and watch it from the best possible view. So we took the tram together with the half a million people that were with us and had the same idea. We thought israelis were the champions of pushing in queues, but Chinese are pretty good too! In fact, they may have us beat - at least Israelis respect personal space!

At the top of the Peak, there is a Madame Tussuad museum which we didn't go to, and 2 or 3 malls where you can find shops, restaurants and good views of the light show. We decided to do it with style and go to a Japanese restaurant (again) to see the light show from, while eating a fancy dinner ($90 US for both of us, including dessert and alcohol. Not that we were drinking alcohol, of course, it was just there to be pretty.)

So at 8pm the show was supposed to start, but we saw nothing special: The lights on the HK buildings was the same as an hour before. Every now and then there was some laser that bounced around,We waited 15 more minutes, but nothing happened.

So Talia went to ask if the show was canceled tonight. But no, that was the show. Just some building showing their usual lights with some music in the background we couldn't hear because we were too far. But the dinner was very good and Talia tried her first sashimi of her life (salmon and tuna).

On our way back (with another half million people) we decided to use another transport back to Kowloon, where our hotel is, and got on the ferry and enjoyed a beautiful night view of both banks.

 

Hong Kong view from the ferry

We finally got back to the hotel for a good night's sleep before flying today to mainland China to spend a few days in Beijing and Shanghai. We probably won't be able to update the blog during our stay in mainland China, so we will write about it when we get to Japan, in 9 days.

All the pics from Hong Kong (including the ones from before):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=598379&id=906005363&l=c7ada97e68

Hong Kong - Also: Just kidding! We aren't blocked in Hong Kong, only mainland China :-)

We last left you at the airport when we thought we wouldn't be able to talk for 2 weeks. Being the quiet one, Talia was OK with silence for 2 weeks, but it was difficult for Rony, so imagine his delight when he discovered that we aren't blocked in Hong Kong!

We woke up at 4:30 am to catch our 5 am shuttle to the airport. For those of you who are not personally acquainted with 4:30 am, that would be the time that the roosters say, "Sh! We're sleeping!" Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted.

The flight was with Cathay Pacific, and the flight was really nice. The food was good (we had MENUS!) and you can lean back with your chair, except your chair doesn't move back, only the seat, so no one is leaning on your legs!

Plus the entertainment system had a bazillion movies - including new releases that are still in the theaters! Rony watched The Town, The Expendables, and The Social Network, and Talia watched Going the Distance (which was surprisingly funny) and The Social Network (at the prompting of Rony who insisted it was good - which it was). They also had full seasons of a bazillion TV shows, so we both watched a few episodes of the sitcom Community, which had some really funny moments. Talia also played a few games of Mah Jong Solitaire, Backgammon, and a few rounds of Centipede.

You're welcome, you know. We knew your day wouldn't be complete without a full rundown of our in-flight entertainment selections.

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Hong Kong, and lo and behold, we don't understand a word. It all sounds like Chinese to us.

Our first impression of the city was awesome: We took the complimentary bus shuttle from the Kowloon train station to our hotel, and since it doesn't stop at our hotel, we were going to take it to a certain Metro station that is right by our hotel. We were the only people on this particular bus (in Hong Kong = cool. In Harlem = not so cool), so the driver asked us what hotel we were going to, and after telling him Largos (you're welcome again), he told us that he thinks we should take a different station because it is closer - and he was right. It was sooo much closer! So thanks, Mr. Bus Driver.

Our room is about 2.5 cm by 4 cm (that's 1 inch by 2 inches in American), but it's very nice and clean and has a nice view and a western toilet and a sign on the door that says "please lock the door with latch" but we have no latch. But I digress.

After settling in and resting a bit, we went down to reception to ask them where we can get something good to eat. The doorman got so excited (even though we asked reception, not the doorman), that he pulled the map out of the person at reception's hand, said the other map was better, and started telling us where to go and what to do. So the first 3 minutes of the conversation, we were like, "Wow, this guy is so cool, this is awesome," and then for the next 20 minutes that he was talking we were like, "Wow, in her best days Talia couldn't talk as much as this guy."

So we crossed the road and walked towards Temple Street which is apparently a very famous night market that we were right next to and of course Talia totally knew this when she booked the hotel and it was on purpose.

The market was nice, and even though the doorman/travel agent/winner of China's Biggest Talker recomended a restaurant to us, we have no idea what restaurant it was because - get this - it was all in Chinese. But we did what you're supposed to do when you go to Chinese restaurant - walk into the one where all the Chinese are.

Which was everywhere.

So we just walked into a restaurant that looked nice and had a really really great meal. We are even 70% sure we know what we ate.

Kidding, 100% sure, it was written in English, too.

We got back to the hotel, watched a really interesting episode of 60 Minutes (again, you're welcome), and at around 9:50 Talia went to sleep and was asleep at 9:50 and 12 seconds. There's a 3 hour time difference between HK and Sydney, so 10 pm was like 1 am, plus we had gotten up at 4:30 am, which was like 1:30 local time, so I have no idea where I'm going with this, I just got tired by writing it, but I think the cosine of this equation is 0.23.

We decided to let ourselves wake up without an alarm clock and got up around 9:30 am (LONG sleep), and started our first day in HK. First thing, we went to Mang Kok to buy a Japan Rail pass. The train system in Japan is crazy expensive, but if have a foreign passport you can buy an all-you-can-use pass for the trains for an insanely expensive price that is insanely cheaper than purchasing individual tickets. Of course, we had no idea where to go, so in the morning we Googled it and found out that the smaller travel agencies actually offer discounts so we bought it with a 6% discount, which is a lot of money when the price of a 21-day pass is $680...

After the travel agency, we stayed in the neighborhood cause that's where all the markets are. We started at the Electronics market, saw a bunch of stuff we would have loved to buy, but didn't. We then went to the Ladies Market and saw a bunch of stuff we wouldn't ever buy, and didn't. We were looking for a coat for Talia for Japan, and we found one that looked nice, but wasn't really warm enough. We did, however, have the marvelous experience of being verbally hijacked by the saleswoman who kept calling Talia "My Friend" and saying that Rony was a hot guy.

We continued to the sports market where they have really nice brand name sports shoes for ridiculous prices, but we resisted the temptation to buy. Talia saw a bunch of coats that were more expensive than the ones at the market, but these were coats with down feathers, which is what she wanted, and she ended up finding a really awesome one for $63 US, and it's gorgeous, even though it's not purple.

Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple - Wish Garden

After grabbing some yummy lunch (same process as above), we set off to the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple. It was beautiful, of course, and the gardens there were gorgeous. What's funny about this market is that it's very serene and tranquil with the traditional Chinese music in the background, and then you pick up your head and there are dozens of skyrises reminding you that you're in the middle of the city.

We then went on to the Nan Lian Gardens and the Chi Lin Nunnery, both of which were gorgeous, excet we didnt' get to see the inside of the nunnery cause we got there 2 minutes late. In Talia's defense (she did the planning today), all the guides and websites said it closes at 5, but it closed before 4:30. It's OK, though, we had a great time, and we'll try to go back there another day if we can.

Nan Lian Gardens

And that was that. We headed back to Mong Kok to pick up our Japan Rail passes and headed back to the hotel.

So far, Hong Kong is great. We are enjoying it a lot, and especially the food (which is thankfully very cheap). And now we're going to sleep so we can have more fun tomorrow. Night!!

Pics from Hong Kong:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=598379&id=906005363&l=c7ada97e68

Our Asian journey begins!

We're at the airport! You've gotta love free wi-fi at Israeli airport Ben Gurion. :-)

We wanted to let you know about our schedule for the trip. Tonight we are departing for Thailand. Here's our schedule:

Nov 2-21 - Thailand. We are spending the first week at a wildlife rescue place, volunteering. I (Talia) will be with the elephants (I'll finally be short and thin!) and Rony is hoping to be with the bears again like he was last time.

Nov 22-24 - Sydney, Australia

Nov 24-Dec 7 - New Caledonia, an incredible island close to Fiji, the one where Rony's friend lives

Dec 7-Jan 6 - Australia! And New Year's Eve in Sydney, of course :-)

Jan 6-10 - Hong Kong

Jan 10-15 - Beijing, China

Jan 15-18 - Shanghai, China

Jan 19-Feb 19 - Japan!!!

We need to go board the plane, so we can't write much. We aren't sure if we'll be updating this week since the Wildlife place doesn't have Internet. I shall let you know how I survived 1 week without Internet.

On my new blog HowISurvivedAWeekWithoutInternet.com.

Not really.

They're calling our names. We'll talk to y'all later :-)

Preparing for the big trip to Asia

So this is our first post. From this here blog, we will update you about what we're doing and where we are.

Side note to thieves: We have friends staying at our apartment and we've taken out all of our valuables anyway, so nothing to see here, moving right along.

Back to the trip.

Rony and I will be leaving on Monday, November 1, 2010 for an almost-4-month long trip. We start in Thailand for 3 weeks, then 2 weeks in New Caledonia (a magical island by Fiji), a month in Australia,  a few days in Hong Kong, then Beijing and Shanghai, and finally an entire month in Japan.

It all started out with a trip to New Caledonia that Rony had been tentatively planning, to see a friend of his who lives there. The following is an exact replica of the conversation we had back in March (more or less):

Rony: Would you like to take a long trip? Like 2 or 3 months long?
Me: Yes
Rony: Really?

So we started out looking for a flight to New Caledonia. Of course, nobody in Israel has ever heard of New Caledonia. So we figured we need to take a flight to Australia and then go to New Caledonia, since New Caledonia is near Australia. We found this awesome deal to Sydney with Royal Jordanian, with a stop by Bangkok on the way to Sydney and a stop in Hong Kong on the way back.

And come on, we're not going to stop there just to visit the airports. We want to see those places, too! So now it started becoming a long trip, and we knew we'd need to leave our jobs to be able to take it. Or at least ask for a leave without pay for 2.5 months. Thankfully, both of us had jobs that wanted us back after the trip.

So then we thought, Hong Kong is so close to mainland China, won't we see it? Plus we both have a friend there who we used to work with. And it's all so close to Rony's dream destination Japan, why not add it, too?

So now it's a 4-month trip to 5 countries (6 if we count Hong Kong as a separate country from China), tropical weather as well as freezing winter, and so many different cultures. A once in a lifetime journey. And so much to prepare!

Mainly, deciding what to bring is a big issue, especially since it will be lodged on our backs for most of the trip. Over the past 2 weeks, we have been furiously preparing everything we (think we) will need for the trip. Here is what we are taking: A week or so of summer clothes, 3 pairs of pants, a toothbrush, soap (just enough for the first few days), my hair cream, thermal shirt and pants for me, and one warm jacket or sweater for the snowy winter...until we buy a heavy coat in China or Hong Kong. We really don't want to schlep a winter coat through summery Thailand and Australia.

Oh! And our passports and tickets of course!

Today we packed our bags, just to test what can fit in and that we don't pack too much.

And then we unpacked them - we're only leaving in 2 days!

But we did need to make room in the closets for our friends' stuff, and make sure our bags didn't weigh too much. I was positive I would fall backwards once that bag was on my back! (I didn't, or we would have taken a picture).

We are the epitome of nerves and excitement with respect to our upcoming trip. We assume that once we land in Bangkok, we will lose the nerve part and just have the excitement left. I am personally hoping not to talk Rony's ear off the whole way there :-)

To be precise, he's probably the one hoping I don't talk his ear off...

Fortunately, he knew me for years before we started dating, it's not like he can get mad about something he knew about before. I mean, hey - you can't get angry that the sky is blue! It can't help it!

The day we fly, we will post our basic itinerary, in case any of you decide to join us during the trip (looks like we have company for 1 week in Japan already!) and let you know what kind of money-saving opportunities we've decided to take advantage of, which lead to our ability to extend our vacation by an entire month.

Talk to y'all soon!