Monday, October 21, 2013
Sabine Wagner, WU Vienna (Austria), Germany
8/9/2013 Sunday
On September 8th, I decided to start my Sunday with a short
but steep early morning hike on Hong Kong Island. And as pretty much everyone
who has ever set a foot in this city claims Victoria Peak is a must – so that
is where I decided to go. Of course, there are convenient options like the Peak
Tram and several bus lines. But I decided to take the small path starting on
Pok Fu Lam Road and climbed all the way up to High West before walking around
The Peak. It was quite exhausting, especially because it was a hot and humid
day in beginning of September, but I was rewarded with stunning views and took
some of my best panorama shots of Hong Kong.
16/9/2013 Monday
After a long day at university, there’s nothing like a good dinner with
friends. And for a good dinner, there is no place offering more choice than
Mong Kok. So we left from CityU campus, took the MTR, and mingled with the
numerous people that make Mong Kok one of the most vibrant parts of Hong Kong
in the evening. After a stroll down sneaker street, we settled for some street
food and tried different specialties of the Cantonese cuisine. We would spend
the rest of the evening on the Lady’s market and the surrounding streets with
their countless shops before going back home on the last MTR.
19/9/2013 Thursday
In September, I had
the chance to experience some of the festivities around the Mid-Autumn
Festival. Besides moon cakes, that contain around 1,500 calories each and are
served and sold pretty much everywhere during this time, there is the tradition
of fire dragon dances. I had the chance to experience the dance of several fire
dragons in Pok Fu Lam Village, a small community tucked away from the hustle
and bustle of Hong Kong Island at a hill south of Victoria Peak. Incense and
colourful paper lanterns were everywhere and a huge crowd was waiting for the
parade to begin. The whole event took several hours during which the dragons
were carried all around the village. Eventually, the dragon was carried
downhill to the ocean sore with countless people, both locals and foreign
visitors, following.
12/10/2013 Saturday
Weekends are perfect for
discovering some more of Hong Kong’s outdoor treasures. One of the most
beautiful sceneries I have seen is in Sai Kung, or, to be more exact, Tam Hin
Wan Beach. It is an amazingly beautiful place where you can unwind perfectly.
So we walked the MacLehose trail from Pak Tam Au to Ham Tin, rented tents
there, pitched them up right on the white sand and went for a long swim. We
watched the sunset from the water, then had a tasty dinner with a seaview, and
finally got some bottles of cold beer that we enjoyed watching the starry night
sky while sitting in the sand.
On the next morning, we had a hearty breakfast and hiked to Sai Wan, where there is just another beautiful beach as well as a natural sweet water pool where you can do cliff jumping. It took us some hours to get back to Sai Kung Town, and finally back to our homes, where we washed a lot of sand off our skin…
On the next morning, we had a hearty breakfast and hiked to Sai Wan, where there is just another beautiful beach as well as a natural sweet water pool where you can do cliff jumping. It took us some hours to get back to Sai Kung Town, and finally back to our homes, where we washed a lot of sand off our skin…
15/10/2013 Tuesday
Tuesday means no lectures in my case so I decided to use the free time
and go on a day trip to Macau. My cousin from Germany was visiting so that was
just perfect. Starting from TST, we took around an hour to get there by ferry.
At arrival, we were pleased to find that free shuttle buses take you to the
city center in regular intervals and we started our day with an extensive visit
to the Portuguese Old Town with its squares, countless bakeries, markets, and
ancient buildings. We could not resist and had a Portuguese egg tart which
tasted quite close to the original ones you can get in Lisboa back in Europe.
Our second stop was the beautiful A-Ma Temple in the south of the city. We
relaxed a bit afterwards in the shade of a tree on a quiet square before
hopping on a bus to Taipa’s famour Cotai Strip. Wandering around the artificial
town of Venice that has been reproduced inside the big casino-hotel “The
Venetian” was a stunning finish to a day full of impressions.
Labels: 2013/2014 Semester A
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