Weekend trip to China

I went to Guangzhou in China from Saturday till Sunday to see Chang, a guy I know from Brisbane. Even though Guangzhou is only a two hour train trip away you can definitely notice a difference; it is more crowded, less high tech, has plenty of bicycles, things are cheaper, people speak no English and the pollution is even worse than in Hong Kong. We went to museums and temples, eat lots and spent some lovely hours in spa where one of the activities included sticking your feet into a pool of small fishes. The fish would then eat the dead skin of your feet. Yummy.

Dragon in a park - all the leaves are dead as China has had an unusually cold winter. The coldest winter in 50 years to be exact.

Hege posing Asian-style. The monster thing on the door is designed to keep the evil spirits out.

Hege and Chang in front of year of the rat decoration.

Guangzhou is all about eating. What about some deep fried shrimps with cake sprinkle on them?

Traditional Guangzhou breakfast. Tastes better than it looks=)

"Wanna try some snake heads? It's good for you" - the Chinese thinks almost everything is edible and have some sort of health benefit. The next photos are from a sea food market next to a restaurant we ate at.

These worms are probably healthy too.

Not quite sure what this is, but it is probably good for you.

You can pick the one you like and they'll cook it for you in the restaurant next door.

Turtles... Mmm...

Or what about some alligator?

Tian Tan Buddha

Lesley and I spent most of Sunday visiting the Tian Tan Buddha. It is the world's tallest outdoor seated bronze Buddha. Since it is located on the top of a mountain, quite far away from houses and people, I was expecting to find some sort of quiet, noncommercial religious place. Well, my image was wrong. When we got off at the end of the 30 minutes cable car ride we were met by the welcoming signs of Starbucks and Seven Eleven. I should have learnt by now that everything in Hong Kong is like a big circus. The whole area was filled with places to shop and dine.

The weather was unfortunately not the best when we were there. It was quite foggy, so the view was not as great as it could have been. However, the Buddha was still impressive and we managed to get at least a few decent photos.

On our way to the top in a cable car. The view was better than the impression the picture gives.

There's a Buddhist temple close to the Big Buddha. I didn't see any monks though. Maybe they were all in Starbucks.

If the Pulpit Rock (Prekestolen) or Kjerag was in Hong Kong it would have one of these.

Posing in front of the mighty Buddha.

Some people were praying, but most people seemed to be tourists like us.

Two videoes from Bangkok

Just click on the picture and then the play symbol to watch the videoes.

This is an artwork from a park in Bangkok. The stone, who weighs several hundred kilos, is moved by the water underneath it. Apparently the artwork was inspired by the way the glaciers formed the fjords. Fascinating or what?

People doing aerobics in the same park. Notice the woman at the end of the movie.

Five days in Bangkok

I spent my Chinese New Year's holidays in Bangkok. Met up with Kine, an old class mate from Sandnes Vgs, and three of her friends. When I arrived on Thursday night one of the girls was sick with food poisoning. When we woke up Friday morning yet another girl was sick, so Kine and I took her to the hospital. As the doctor was examining the girl, Kine also started to get sick. At the end of the day three out of the four girls I was supposed to play with were admitted to hospital. They had to stay there for two nights.

The girl that didn't get sick and I also camped out on the couches in their rooms. The hospital in itself was pretty decent, so it was not the worst place to be. I tried to phone two of my other friends that also were in Bangkok at the time to see I if I could join them instead, but it turned out they were in hospital as well as one of them had contracted - guess what - food poisoning! It also belongs to story that I was sick with food poisoning the week before I went to Bangkok. So, I have had enough of food poisoning for a while.

Annelin and Kine

The nurses wanted a picture when we left, so we also used the opportunity to get one=)

Luckily I also got to do a bit of sightseeing. The healthy girl and I went to a very popular, upmarket shopping district one of the days. Also visited a sports park where you could use all the equipment for free and they had aerobics classes. When the others were well again we went and found a place to stay close to the famous backpacker street. Did heaps of cheap shopping at the markets. Bought seven dresses, sun glasses, a bikini, comfy pants and some decorative stuff for 700 kr=)

Safe power lines in Bangkok - fire hazard? Nah...

People using one of the many pieces of sports equipment in the park, it might look like they are playing, but these people are really exercising. They stayed on there for ages.

On Monday three of us went on an organised tour. We did elephant riding, bamboo rafting and walking on a famous bridge that captured soldiers under World War 2 built, but the highlight of the day was definatly a visit to a tiger temple. The Buddhist monks who run the temple took in two wounded tiger cubs in 1998, and have kept on taking in tigers since then. Some of the tigers are eventually returned to the wild. To me the whole thing seemed a little bit cruel to the animals - there were too many people and too much noise and attention for it to be a “recreational place” - but I have admit it was fun petting tigers. All the tigers, except one, were free. They were not chained or restricted in anyway.

Happy Chinese New Year!

We are now in the year of the rat. The Lunar New Year celebration is very important in Hong Kong and there are several public holidays over the next couple of days. My university organized a traditional New Year Dinner for the exchange students on Monday. We also made couplets (little red notes to hang around the house for good luck) and went to the flower market. The dinner, which is usually partaken on New Year's Eve, was held in a restaurant and consisted of many small meals. When people in Hong Kong are celebrating or just having a family dinner they usually go to a restaurant. Most people simply do not have room in their on apartments for that kind of activities.

The flower market was an experience in itself. When one of the French exchange students said "so where is this flower market?" - while standing right in the middle of it - he pretty much summed it up. Circus is probably a more accurate description than flower market, even though there were flowers there too - in-between all the balloons, t-shirts, food stalls, sellers and thousands of people.

I am leaving for Bangkok today. Going to meet some friends from Sandnes that are backpacking. Will be back in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

Funky flowers

High Table Dinner

My Hall, Lady Ho Tung, had its monthly formal dinner last Tuesday. The first dinner of the year is called Reunion dinner as former "successful" LHT hall girls are invited. The guests were mainly rich people that had donated money to the hall, earlier wardens and tutors and a prominent Hong Kong politician. The night pretty much consisted of speeches, eating, socializing and a performance by the LHT choir. Since LHT hall is one of the older and more traditional halls the "outfit" for the high table dinners are green gowns, white shirts and black skirts. Most of the other halls only require their students to wear some sort of dress or suit.