Colours of Chandigarh

Being an experimental civil development project, Chandigarh does not have much to offer in terms of tourism except those places that I covered on my first day here: the Rock Garden, Rose Garden, Sukhna Lake, and the Leisure Valley. And since we came here earlier than expected, we had to head back out of town to keep from boredom.

Well relaxing was the most important thing on the agenda. Having woken up at the break of dawn every day so far to travel, we decided that we would sleep in a little and actually have a vacation. So at noon, we left the house and headed out of the state of Punjab to Haryana. Our first stop was Pinjore Garden, which were designed in the 17th century for Aurangzeb, one of India’s cruelest kings during the Mogul rule. It is also said that these terraced gardens were created on the spot where the Pandava brothers (from Hindu mythology) rested during their exile before, as a sign board reads outside the gardens, “disappearing into oblivion in the Himalayas.” I found that amusing.

The gardens were beautiful though. I know I overuse this word, but I mean it every time I say it. They were very well manicured and for something that was built in the 17th century, they still look as though they were created last year. We walked around there for a good long while mum told me about her childhood visits here and how she used to climb trees and sneakily pick fruits from there – and my god, were there fruit trees!? Hundreds of them! A bazillion species of mango, peach, lychee, guava as well as apricot, plum and many more! Of course most of these were out of season, but that didn’t stop us from picking a few and nibbling on clover-like leaves. All the while, I kept thinking how amazing it is to walk on grass (damn you Hong Kong!)

After the gardens, we went to the Mansa Devi temple (one of the lower-ranking goddesses that I mentioned yesterday) and then to the Patiala Mandir (another temple). Both temples were nearly empty and therefore less…uh…commercial. I actually enjoyed looking around and appreciating the culture there.

From there, it was an hour’s drive home and by then the sun had set. We don’t have anything planned for tomorrow. I’m probably just going to lounge around at home and waste my time this way or that. We’re leaving for Delhi on the 3rd, but I have nothing to do until then. Maybe a little shopping? At least the first two days of 2009 will be relaxing. We’ll see what the rest of the year brings!

Happy New Year!

Cherry Blosson at the Pinjore Garden


Main gate at the Pinjore Gardens


(left) Mansa Devi temple; (right) A truck's rear: trucks in India (and Pakistan) are so heavily decorated that the pretty designs on them almost excuse them for polluting the roads with their heavy diesel smog. Almost. What I find hilarious is the mantra written at the back of most of these trucks. A mantra that rules the India's traffic - Horn Please. Or a variation thereof.

Illness at Dharamshala

Today was a bit short of horrible for me. It all started off all fine and dandy, but over the course of the day, plans had to be changed because my health started deteriorating (thanks to h. anemia).

As always, I woke up with my ears screaming in pain from having slept on them with noise-canceling headphones shoved inside all night. I was curious to see what Dharamshala looked like since I didn’t get a chance last night, so I stepped out on to the balcony to be blinded by a bright white light coming from the base of the mountain where we were staying. Turns out that we weren’t actually staying in Dharamshala; we were half way up a mountain next to the valley where the city is. The view from my hotel room overlooked the city, but like I said, there was that blinding white light – sunlight hitting a huge cloud of fog that had settled over the entire city. It was mesmerizing and at the same time annoying because that would mean that it would be freezing beyond anything and I wouldn’t be able to take photos.

Still, we had to go, but before leaving, I had to sit and stare at a woman sitting a short distance from my hotel wearing a skimpy sari in the cold, making cow patties. Having been brought up with western social standards, this sounds absolutely disgusting, but these village folk have seen this since the day they’re born and it was interesting looking at the speed with which the woman worked and that too, without any repulsion. Almost made me want to go help. Almost.

But anyway, we finally got out of the hotel and I was told that we wouldn’t be going down into the foggy city, but higher up the mountain through the local canton area instead, along a very narrow and dangerous road that will take us up to the peak of the mountain. At Naddi, we got a full view of the Dholadhar Hills while walking on wet roads with melted snow from last night. Surprisingly it was quite warm in comparison at the peak because of the sunlight. They told us that there had not been a lot of snow fall this year – the mountains are usually stark white with feet over feet of snow, but many of them were barren. Global warming, I hate you.

From here, we went back down across Dall Lake (cute) which is surrounded by a dense pine forest (very cool), through Bhagsu Nag where we visited a temple sponsored by the Indian Military (with the nastiest toilet I have ever seen), and then up to Macloed Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama and his temple/shrine when he stays in India. Out of the whole day’s plan, this was the place I was looking forward to visiting the most because taking my previous experience, I was expecting a place of calm and peaceful worship. Instead, as soon as we entered the area of Macloed Ganj, we entered a Tibetan-refugee market busy with hawkers and very scared looking people (thanks China). At the temple, we walked along what should have been one of the most peaceful religious sanctuaries in the world, but instead, we were greeted by sad monks, posters of political prisoners and pictures of those dead in Tibet over the past few months. The whole atmosphere brought me back to reality. Buddhism has always been a religion I associated with peace and one that I always ran into when I felt troubled, but even that has been broken now. It made me think a lot, but I won’t go into that just yet because I am still confused where I stand religiously, if anywhere.

The temple was cute though – there was no fancy architecture or anything. Instead, it was a simple and modest building that to be reflected the lives of the people it served. I was disappointed with how commercial a part of the temple had become, but I can’t blame them. The money the temple makes goes into a charitable trust to keep the monastery up and this is one place, where I think corruption does not exist.

Anyway, as soon as we came back down to the hotel to collect our things, I started feeling extremely ill. I forgot to take my medication yesterday, which just threw me into major fatigue by noon. Because of that and another couple of issues, we decided that we would head straight back to Chandigarh instead of Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar as we had planned. This meant that we would have to cancel our trip to the temples of several goddesses along the way, but as the superstition goes, once you visit a higher-ranking goddess, she does not let you turn around and visit those of lower-rank...and we had visited one of the highest yesterday (Chamunda Devi).

The ride back was very long and I was on the brink of passing out from nausea because of my medication, but we finally reached Chandigarh, ate a huge amount of food and here I am in bed. Plans have yet to be made for the rest of the days I’m here.

Oh and while on our trip to Naddi, I was asked several times why I have not chosen to go into computer engineering or "a reputable career" and why I have not started coaxing my parents into finding a bride for me since I'm 23 already and "getting older very fast." I didn't know whether to laugh or throw those people over the cliff we were standing on.

View of the Dholadhar Hills from Naddi (and an oddly shaped tree!)


Traditional houses in Himachal are made of wood and slate. This is a closeup of a wall (no cement!)


Dalai Lama Centre at Macloed Ganj

Palampur et Dharmsala

I had zero energy to blog last night after getting back from the trip, so I am doing it now and backdating it. Yesterday was simply a day of travelling from one point to another. We left the snow-capped Rotangarh mountains to head down to our next hillstation Dharmsala (or Dharmshala). En route, we hit some of the most beautiful winter scenery with dried out apple orchards, yellowed leaves, long spans of green (farms) against yellow (leaves) against brown (soil) against white (snow). The journey took forever and rolled across some very very windy paths (which was a bit sickening to be honest), but the air was fresh for the most part and I enjoyed the trip. We even ran into a religious group from a tiny hamlet (there were many of those) along the way. Every so often, they hold this ceremony of carrying an idol of a goddess hoisted on a single pole between two men to different hamlets and villages nearby. The procession takes with it a bunch of men with really cool musical instruments and some who go empty handed. They believe that some form of "life" enters the idol of the goddess and as the two men carry it along, it becomes heavier and heavier and makes the whole procession go forward/backward, and what not... they claim that it gets to be so heavy that sometimes you need more than 10 people to hold up the light statuette! It was really cool to see this...

From there, we headed through a township called Palampur where we stopped by the Bhaijnath Temple, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. This ancient and small temple was so incredibly beautiful with its worn architecture that still stands along the Dholadhar Hills in full majesty. Amazing sight.

Our last stop along the way was at the Chamunda Devi temple. Today we'll cover the rest of the goddess' temples in the area, so I'll explain the concept in tonight's post. Very cool experience that involved entering a small cave!

That's it really, we came up to our hotel in Dharmsala fairly late, so it was really dark outside. It seems like a cute city, but more on that later. I'm going to visit the Dalai Lama's shrine on this side of the border today!

Here are some photos from yesterday. They're not of best quality, but I don't have time this morning to sift through all of them:

The apple orchard I mentioned


Snow-capped Dholadhar Hills (that surround Dharmsala and Palampur)


The temple where the procession started

Kullu Manali

There have been some arguments today about issues I hinted at in earlier posts, but I shall not go into those. Besides those, it's been a great day honestly. I got my first look at himalayan snow, had my first (and hopefully only) experience of nearly falling into a (shallow) river while peeing, and many more.

We started the day at the break of dawn when all you could see outside was white. Fog. Nothing else. I would post a photo of what the view from my room looked like last night and this morning, but frankly, the photo of the fog is on another SD card and I'm too cold to go and get it. Picture this... White. Then hold your arm out - that's about the visibility range we had this morning. But that was only until while we were in the valley at Bilaspur. From there, we drove up and down and all around until we reached the top of one of many mountains and then headed down into another valley that had fog roll around in it like a bowl of dry ice. It was really a beautiful sight and such a cool experience going from 100% visibility to 1% half way down the mountain. From there it was a long but beautiful drive along the rising river bed. We went through a couple towns (Sundarnagar, Mandi, Pindoh, and Bhuntar) until we reached the over populated busy city of Kullu. This city is famous for it's festival celebrations, but since there are no festivals and events happening, it's pretty much dead. There was not much to do here except for driving up to the top of the mountain and looking at the city below (pretty), looking at the grounds where the festivals are held (dull), and going to see the primary school that my grandfather used to go to (amazing). The school apparently has not changed one single bit since his time there when Kullu used to be a small village settlement. Even the furniture in the principal's office is the same as it used to be! I got a little emotional there..it was such an adorable structure too.

From Kullu, we then started a 40km ride against the flow of the river (uphill) to Manali - a tourist hot spot, but where I was hoping to see snow. Along the way, I must have taken about 18,00000 photos because again, the scenery was nothing short of gorgeous! Snow capped mountains against autumn trees, a slightly dried out river bed with giant boulders...oh it was amazing in my opinion. Oh and of course there were clear blue skies and air so fresh that southern Ireland seems polluted in comparison!

It had apparently snowed a couple days ago in Manali, but we didn't see it. Instead we saw the most polluted city in Himachal so far (imo). I did however, get to go to the hot springs there (dull) and a temple that's been around from the time of the Mahabharata (one of India's greatest legends)! The story goes that a daughter of a monster (rakhshasa), who was really quite kind, was married to one of the 5 sons of this brilliant king. They both had a son who was the only person who could destroy the monster because of his strength and so everyone lived happily ever after, etc. Oh and apparently the place where the daughter used to sleep is where the temple was built... and people still go there to see the platform. I unfortunately did not get to go inside because it was so crowded, but the architecture was really interesting, with a little influence from both India and China since it's close to the border.

After taking two really unstable bridges from Manali, we headed to Rotangarh, which is a snow laden area closed by the military in the winter. I don't know why they do this and I don't know how we got in, but we did and it was...well let's just say that a jaw dropping WOW would not be enough. By this time, the sun had started to set and everything was orange, pink, blue, white, pretty! 10 minutes later it was dark.

And we made our way back to Kullu, where we're staying tonight. Here are some photos from today.

The hotel we're staying at in Kullu.

My first peak at the snow-capped mountains in northern Himalayas!

I want to eat these mountains!

Sunset on our way back from Manali.

Entering Himachal Pradesh

And so we reached our first hill station (Bilaspur) in the foothills of the Himalayas today and what a beauty it is! The town is actually a whole bunch of village-settlements stuck together along a wide stretch of the valley. We started our trip early this morning and it took us just about five hours to get here. The views were spectacular, but again, because of the winter fog, parts of the valley and mountains weren't visible enough to take decent photos. We did have some luck in some of the sunnier areas, where I think I must have taken about 300 photos! It was all just too gorgeous!

I am having trouble logging in to my yahoo account at the moment (some security issue?), which means that I cannot upload these photos to Flickr just yet so I won't count them towards my 365 just yet...but I had to share these three. They are of course, unedited:

This was taken soon as we started heading up the mountains. There were so many of these monkeys there! Made me laugh!

Just before making our way back to the hotel(which is amazing), we walked around the river bed, where this photo was taken

This is the view right out of my hotel window! How pretty is that? :)

Post 53: Chandigarh

I think I have now officially been on the most boring flight ever. It was 6 hours to New Delhi, but my god it felt like it would never end, and seeing that it was on Christmas day, it felt even worse because I wanted to be on the ground eating turkey and what not. Instead, I ate a turkey sandwich drenched in soy sauce in the plane before landing in a pool of smog that made me cough the minute I set foot outside the airport.

Thankfully, we got in the car just minutes after and started making our 6 hour car ride up to Chandigarh. The ride would have been 4 hours or so, had it not been for the thick fog that settled in and reduced the visibility on the road to no more than a meter. It would have also helped if we had remembered the address of the house. But anyway, we stumbled "home" at 9.00pm local (11.30pm HK) after starting out at 7am (HK).

This morning, we decided to explore Chandigarh and my god it's so beautiful! Hence it's slogan - the city beautiful, I suppose haha. We started out the day with a visit to one of the most famous destinations in town...The Rock Garden, which was designed by this guy purely out of his passion and dedication to the arts. He started years ago by collecting broken tiles, porcelain utensils, glass bangles, etc that people threw out and used them to create these statuettes of animals and people in the woods. When the government started to clear the woods, they found his creations and threatened to demolish them, but clever Mr. Chand got public opinion on his work and the site became Chandigarh's most famous tourist destination, with several more expansions made over the past 10 years. I have to say that I was incredibly impressed by the amount and quality of work put into the gardens...and to think that he did it all by himself! There are not really many words I can use to describe it, so you're just going to have to wait until I upload the photos to Flickr. It was awesome stuff!

From there, we went to see the Rose Garden, which is possibly one of the largest city parks I have ever laid my eyes on. It was simply huge. Unfortunately, the evening fog had started to settle in by that time, so the view wasn't as great as I had hoped, but picture this - green and blossoming roses for what looked like miles in every direction you look. I was just glad that I could walk on the grass after looking at Hong Kong's "DO NOT WALK ON THE GRASS" signs for 12 years.

En route, we drove by my mum's schools and university and the house that she was brought up in. My eyes and jaws dropped and got lost somewhere soon as I saw the place because it was... enormous. Greek columns and all. I never associated my mother to anything like that, and it was just very strange to see that. Interestingly, my parent's Hindu wedding also took place there too.

All along the way, we've been eating extremely heavy Punjabi food that's laid with a ton of homemade ghee, served with a pan full of homemade butter, and topped with fresh cream that would probably be enough to feed an entire Indian wedding party (trust me, that's a huge number). It tastes amazing, though I think I'll be at least 7 sizes too big by the time I return to Hong Kong in a week.

Because of a slow internet connection, I'm having a little trouble uploading the photos, which is why the formatting of the post sucks today. All my photos from the trip are also going to be unedited because I don't really get much computer time.

(Top left) Recycled porcelain sculpture $at the Rock Garden; (top right) Rose Garden; (bottom) Ducks and geese at Sukhna Lake

Post 52: Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men

Christmas is finally here and so is the spirit of the season that I have been waiting for. As Chuck mentioned earlier today, perhaps it is because the day is finally here and we don't really have a choice to escape the spirit - it's almost as if it's forced upon us. Maybe so, but whatever the reason may be, I am glad that it's here. I feel giddy; I want to put up lights, decorate a tree finally, buy presents, write over-the-top messages in Christmas cards and what not! Only problem is that I am leaving town tomorrow morning to a country where...well Christmas isn't really on top of the list. Either way, I have my iPod packed full with about 6 CDs worth of Christmas carols and my bag is full of chocolate oranges which I bought earlier.

Plans for the actual trip are still changing. Now there is some strange concern about altitude sickness which was overlooked earlier? I'm getting a little frustrated by all these little things because I honestly don't want this to become another one of the family-oriented trips where I have to meet 8,000 people in a day simply because we happen to share some sort of blood-bond back from the age of the Neanderthals. I have nothing in common with these people, nor do I wish to explore any new common grounds.

But anyway! Should everything work out as it's supposed to, I think I'll have a good time there! As long as I can get some peace, I'm happy. Well, I'm off...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Post 51: Bananas in Ears

If you have not watched this and this, you have not lived. Sure, it's probably one of the most annoying things ever uploaded on Youtube, but at the same time, it's all one of the best things. Ever. That is, if you like being creeped out by annoying unicorns that take your kidneys! I can just feel that this is going to be the new trend after the Llama Song!

Charlie, when your life's a mess,

When you're feeling blue,

Oh you're in distress!

I know what can wash that sad away!

 

All you have to do is,

Put a banana in your ear!

Put a ripe banana right into your favourite ear

It's true! So true!

Once it's in,

Your gloom will disappear!

The bad in the world

Is hard to hear

When in your ear,

A banana cheers,

So go and put a banana in your ear!

Himalayan Heights

As I might have mentioned before (though I cannot be bothered to actually check it myself), I'll  be going to the north-western Himalayan range for Christmas. The plans were finalized and tickets were bought literally two days ago and still we're not sure if we may have to change plans en route because apparently the area is being surrounded by dense fog these days. We shall see! Anyway, here is the route map of the planned trip so far:

View Larger Map 

We'll start off in Chandigargh and head north to Pinjore and then up to Kalka where we will first stop to go up to the Timber Trail by cable car and then back down to take a train to Shimla. From there, we'll head to Kufri, where hopefully I can take some snow shots, and eventually make our way west to Bilaspur where there is a fort and several temples to be seen. And if we have time, we'll head up to Kulu and the Great Himalayan National Park.

Post 50: Curiosity

I was going to write a very witty post here about the idea of curiosity and why it is that we are curious, but as it happens, I've taken my antibiotics which are quite close to knocking me out at this point. And because of that, I've forgotten most of what I was going to write. So I'll leave the issue out for you to think about and discuss, if you so wish: does curiosity kill the cat or make kittens? We, like most living organisms are always looking for answers and solutions to some sort of problem...If there is no problem, we wonder what the problem may be so that we may ponder on its solution. Why? Maybe it's just for the sake of experimentation/knowledge, or for making life easier for us, or simply to get a thrill out of the experience. What is the point of acquiring knowledge about random things? For instance, why is it important for us to know if a grain of sand might weigh eh much on a Tuesday? What possible significance does it have in our life? Mitä järkeä? Quin és el punt?

I realise this entry is random and that is partially due to the fact that I am severely doped at the moment, so excuse me before I make a total fool out of myself...

Post 49: Indifference

Christmas is my favourite time of the year. The tacky decorations, over-the-top traditions, heart-attack-inducing food, presents that I don't necessarily want, writing cards to people I haven't spoken to in years, et cetera are just some of the things I love about the holiday. The nicest thing about the winter fest though is that people...somehow...through some bizarre force of nature, become...well... nice. Just for a day, but it's something.

Needless to say that with all the excitement of the things mentioned above, I always start becoming really bouncy around the start of December. And by the time the actual date comes around, I'm usually told (lovingly) that I need to be sent to a mental asylum. At least they can't say that I don't have the holiday spirit!

Well, they CAN say that this year, because I have none this time around. Christmas is next week and I haven't decorated my house, the weather is disgusting, I haven't written a single card or mailed any presents. I have not even thought about Christmas dinner, which is usually something I start thinking about on the 27th of December the previous year! So what's the deal?

For one, shit happened. Family arguments, lack of job when I needed it, etc resulted in all my plans for Christmas being changed, cancelled, changed again and so on. In fact, plans have been made and cancelled so many times now that I am just so indifferent towards it all and cannot wait till the holidays are over. On second thought, that would mean going back to work, so maybe I'll keep the holidays and just lock myself in my room. That sounds like a lot more fun...But I digress. In all fairness though, I really do appreciate my mum's effort to make me feel better after all the drama that's been going on. She's taking me down to the foothills of the Himalayas to see where she grew up! I've never been to that area and it's been so long since I've seen proper full on snowfall that it should be a lot of fun. I'm just hoping that the plans are sorted soon!

I could not resist posting this!

Change in 365

I think it's become pretty obvious from the past week or so that it is nearly impossible for me to take photos of things during the week, process them and upload them (with an entry) everyday. My schedule as I've mentioned before has been incredibly full: I wake up at 5.30am and come back home at 5:00pm after which I have 0-energy to spend on photo taking, etc. Mind you, I'm not even feeling that inspired just because I'm so tired and brain dead.

So, I think I need to make a little change in this blog and change it from a "one photo a day" blog to simply "365 photos." It's probably a more realistic goal. I'm glad that I was able to finish nearly 50 days without stopping for the most part though. I guess sometimes life gets in the way, hey?

Day 48: Tracks!

I think it has been quite obvious over the past couple of days that I have not been very good at updating my blog. But as I mentioned in my last post, it's simply because by the time I come home, I am so incredibly exhausted that anything that requires even a minuscule amount of brain power is boxed up for another day. I can proudly say though that I have at least been taking photos despite the fact that I hardly have the energy to lift my camera and that I have not really been inspired as that would require extra brain power.

But anyway, enough whinging. Let's talk about the photo of the day: I mentioned a few days ago in this post that even though I have been living in Hong Kong for over a decade, I had never known that the Light Rail (LRT) even existed. Mind you, I think it's a well known fact that I barely even cross the harbour, let alone go into the New Territories because...well why would I? I'm a typical islander as they call us...someone who considers Kowloon the Dark Side and the New Territories, China. But anyway, I've been really enjoying riding along the LRT mainly because it's over-ground unlike the MTR and there's a lot to see considering that I've never been up there! One of my favourite things about the LRT is that it runs on proper railroad tracks that cut across the middle of the roads! Sure, we have the tram tracks on HK island but they're just two steel I-beams embedded in the road...the LRT tracks are hardcore though! And wherever there is a railway crossing, there's a jumble of tracks criss-crossing each other which just looks wicked! Will have to try to take a photo of that one day. The tracks in the photo are at the Shan King (North) station.

I know it's pathetic to be all giddy by the sight of train tracks, but I absolutely love trains! So yeah!

Day 47: EMAAB

EMAAB: Early Mornings are a Bitch.

That's the thought I've woken up with everyday this past week because I've had to wake up at 5.30 am to make the trek to Narnia (i.e. where my schools are). And seeing as I don't get back from work till around 4pm, it's not surprising that the only thing I want to do when I get home is curl up in a dark corner and mumble golem-style.

But anyway, at the school that I taught at today, I was told that one of their criteria for hiring teachers is their religion. I found that a little offensive and 15th century-esque, but then there you have it. And so when they asked me about my religious background, I conveniently left out the fact that I quit the church many years back. Having a job is more important than proving my religion to people I don't speak with, I reckon!

Today's photo is of my dream catcher in the (extremely early) morning light!

Day 46: Test of English

There's not much to report about today, except that I went to sit the TOEFL exam in hopes of strengthening my university applications for next year and may I just say that it was one of the most tedious and boring exams I've ever had to take, though at least it wasn't as moronic as the GRE. Heck, I was honestly trying not to fall asleep after reading a fourth of six passages about worm innards. And that was just the beginning... the listening, speaking and writing sections were even more dull.

And I know that my English is not world-class, but the fact that I could point out some very basic grammatical errors in the question paper amused me beyond words.

Oh and the picture of the day has nothing to do with anything, but just for information's sake, that's the Wan Chai Market. It's one of the last architectures of its kind in the territory, and yet it's still set down for demolition soon. It's already been evacuated from what I could see... sigh...

Day 45: All's New When Nothing's New?

All's new when nothing's new? What does that mean? I personally don't know... it's just something that popped into my head whilst trying to think of a witty title for today's post. It obviously didn't work, but I'm sure it makes sense to a philosopher somewhere.

But honestly, I haven't done anything today except work and feel extremely exhausted. I realised though that teaching kids really takes a whole lot more out of you than teaching teenagers and adults mainly because when you're teaching adults, you're mostly just exhausting your mind, but with smaller children, you're doing that and exhausting yourself physically as well. Add on top of that, the fact that you're trying to communicate with kids who don't understand a single word you're saying and it can seriously make you want to hit your head on the wall and knock yourself out. Still, when they actually understand you or sing the song you've been trying to teach them, it is a whole lot more rewarding.

Have to say though that work was much better today than it was yesterday. I think I just need to settle into the mindset of being a teacher for younger children rather than the older ones I'm used to working with. We played a lot of games today and they were genuinely happy to see me when I entered their classroom. Some of them even gave me hugs after the class. One of them compared me to his class teacher and called me thin in comparison to her in front of her...First thing that came to mind was "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh that's a first", and though I told him it was not a nice thing to say, I secretly kept thinking "bless you! you're my favourite student already!" hahaha

Today's picture was taken at another park near the school where I ate my lunch. I don't know why I find the tiling so interesting, but I noticed that one of the kids dropped their little heart sticker that they'd gotten from an earlier class exactly where it is in the photo and thought it made for a cute shot.

Day 44: Mr. Justin

Today, I started actually teaching instead of just training-and-teaching. The difference being that I nearly wanted to pee in my pants because I never realised little children could be so intimidating. In fact, I wonder if I would much rather teach high-school students (who I hate with a passion on a good day) than 5 year old Tommy who threatens you with crying at the top of his lungs if you don't give him a sweet. But at the same time, they're just so cute that they can get away with it.

So what does this have to do with the picture for the day? Well one could interpret it as "oh god, please help me" but instead, it was just taken at a playground near the school. I thought the floor tiling made interesting patterns and this one in particular is reminiscent of the fact that I am teaching at Christian schools... or something (good to know, my bullshitting abilities are still kind of up to standard).

Oh and I love the fact that the kids call me Mr. Justin because they can't pronounce my last name to save their lives. Bless 'em!

Days 42-43: Out in the Wild

I have not been able to update this blog on time over the weekend because I was out camping in Sai Kung. I know, I know... hiking, camping and Justin? It doesn't really sound like an obvious mix, but truth be told, I love camping, but then again, relaxing out in nature is one of my favourite things. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the hiking because a day and a half later, I still can't move without groaning.

The hike, as it turned out, was supposed to be a fairly gentle walk as I had heard. It starts from Pak Tam Au in Sai Kung (route map)and surely, for the first hour or so, the trail seems to be innocent enough with its paved paths with minimum incline leading to Chek Keng (half-way). It is at Chek Keng though that the first stage of hell starts. The path is still paved, but the incline becomes very steep until you reach the top of the hill and then there is an equally steep downhill path that leads straight to an abandoned hamlet. Easy enough for most people, but with the thought of possibly dislocating your kneecap and memories of the pain that it causes pounding in your head, while you carry nearly fifteen pounds of weight on your back, things become a little difficult! But thankfully the path from the hamlet Tai Long to Ham Tin is fairly flat and eventually opens out in an enormous beach with a massive surf, stark blue waters and the finest sand amongst any of Hong Kong's beaches I have visited. It was truly an amazing site!

But this beach, despite its seclusion seems fairly commercial and so with an aching back and legs that felt like they should belong to somebody else, we started looking for the trail that went over a little hill that separates Ham Tin Wan (where we were) from Tai Wan (where we wanted to be). And as it would, with our luck, the trail was steeper than steep, reaching at least a gradient of 60 degrees at it's steepest points... and it was off road... through an overgrown path. But with determination, we managed to cross over and any pain we might have experienced while we made our way up there left immediately because the view was spectacular! I'm not even going to try to describe it. Here is an unedited photo of the beach:

After arriving at the beach and finding that we were unable to move much, we realised that there is an easier, more beaten down trail behind the hill we had just crossed, but like I said, the off-road path was worth it even though we might have broken every bone in our body if we'd fallen off the edge.

So at the beach, we set up our tents and got to making a fire, which was easy enough. From there, my memory's just full of barbecued food, wine, horrible songs and trying to name constellations as they rose over us. Yes, we saw stars... lots of them... in clear light. It was probably the first time in Hong Kong when I've appreciated the night sky! It was simply too beautiful.

And so after a good long rest and catching a very beautiful red sunrise at the beach, we trekked back (over the deadly hill again for some bizarre reason) and got back to Ham Tin Wan where we decided that it would be too boring just to go back the way we had come and so took the way towards Sai Wan, hearing that the path was shorter and easier from there. Oh how very wrong we were. The path (though thankfully paved) started with a billion stairs that crossed two hills, and then flattened out as we walked over some cliffs and finally rose and dropped again into a smaller, but equally beautiful Sai Wan beach. We thought that we had reached a bus stop by this point, but again, as our luck would have it, we found out that it was a long walk back to civilisation. And so we walked. And walked... over a mainly uphill path that never seemed to want to end until we reached a junction. Here the option was to either walk along the foot of the hill (fairly level walk with slight incline), or to take a steep off-road walk that makes a short cut from one side of the hill to the other. Now, any sensible person would have said "look, there's many people here at the junction, but no one is using that path; the foliage is so overgrown that it would hinder visibility and the fact that it looks so steep is probably just the least of our problems...plus, if there's anything you learn from watching films about people taking short-cuts, it's that you should never take them...so lets take the flatter road." As it turns out, we were not like these sensible people and decided to take that path anyway because...well because we could and if I would have had the energy to hold my 5000 pound camera at this point, I would have taken photos, but I was on my last energy bar and no water, so I left it in my bag. But I have to say that I am so glad we walked up that trail because the views from there were again...dare I use this word I overuse now, beautiful. The hike looked over the High Island Reservoir and the islands that rest within it. But with determination and an increasing need for water and clean clothes, we made it to the other side in no time from where we took a bus to Sai Kung Town for some fresh seafood and ended the day there.

All in all, the hike and camp was so much fun that I think I can officially say that it was one of my favourite weekends in Hong Kong, and that Tai Wan beach is one of the most amazing places I have seen here. I'd really like to do it again!

Oh and here's a photo of Sharp Peak that was behind the beach we stayed at.

Day 41: Embers

I originally wanted to write something about this day from the book that I am currently reading (Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door by Lynne Truss), but I can't seem to find the excerpt. Unfortunately, the verse had wrapped up my feelings about humanity as they stood on the day, but ah well! haha

Day 40: Nothing but the truth

“Quotes are nothing but inspiration for the uninspired.” - Richard Kemph

This is exactly the reason why I sometimes use quotes to back up my pathetic blog entries... because no matter how busy my day might have been, sometimes it is just hard for inspiration to come by. Take today for instance, I went to teach today - I had a whole range of emotions flowing through me before, during and after the lessons, but I just could not translate them into a photo. Heck even while I walked around a part of Hong Kong that I've never been to before (Yuen Long) and went on a transport system that I did not even know existed here (Light Rail), I still could not see anything that I wanted to take a photo of.

And so I came home and dug into my humongous book of quotes, poetry and information that I used to use during those uninspired days at university where we were required to spit out a new design concept at the click of a button and came across this quote by Richard Kemph which I thought was hilarious and so true. Then I went out to the harbour in hopes of taking a picture of total darkness at night with a bit of a reflection from the surrounding buildings and ended up with this quirky Rothko-esque image! It has not been photoshopped at all, but I think I shook the camera while I was shooting it. The ISO for sure was at 800-1200 (hence the grain) and the purplish/bluish lights are the reflections in the water from buildings across the harbour. It's not pretty, but I found it interesting!

Day 39: Starting School

Tomorrow, I will start work on my first full-time contract...ever. Sure, I've freelanced and had my fair share of part-time jobs, but there is a strange excitement about starting something new...even if it is just a different type of contract (right?). And though, I'm sure that this excitement will last me a total of one day before I get on my knees and pray to god that the end of semester come closer, I'm also hoping against hope sure that I will enjoy the experience.

Oh and while we're on the topic of god, I have to mention this: most people who have known me for a while, know that I quit the Christian church a good long while back. I am not an atheist; I just simply disagree with certain concepts the religion has to offer. But what schools should I get landed with? Well here are the names...lets see if you can guess:

Shan King Estate Baptist School

and worse...

The New Territories Assembly of God Church W.Y. School

In fact, this past summer, when I first started teaching, I was offered a full time contract with another school called the Christian Alliance SW Chan Memorial College that I turned down in hopes of securing a stable contract with Cirque du Soleil, which didn't happen because they started firing people instead of hiring them. So technically, I could have had a contract since the beginning of September...but anyway...the point is that either Hong Kong only has strangely named Christian schools or I am just destined to be stuck in this religious wormhole...Whatever the case may be, at least I have a job!

And I am truly thankful for that. So let's see how it goes tomorrow! Hope it'll be as much fun as my mother claims!

Day 38: Light and Dark

Today, I did nothing of consequence. Surprised? Well don't be because it is the second last day before I start working full time as opposed to the part time work that I have been doing so far. I took the afternoon and evening off especially to do nothing and by nothing, I mean nothing. I slept, when I shouldn't have and I'm almost sure that I will have trouble sleeping tonight, but the good thing is that I don't have to go to work until later in the afternoon tomorrow since I finished everything I needed to get done for the week today and e-mailed all the stuff to the boss.

So why the lamppost? No reason, really. I just thought it was pretty. The photo was taken at the docks in front of my apartment building. Speaking of lampposts, I remember reading this quote a long time ago and it still makes me laugh so I thought I'd share it: "Asking a working writer how he feels about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs" (John Osborne). And same is the case with art and design! So true, so very true!

Day 37: Polarity

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities