The head of LHK (I guess… I don’t even know what to refer to him as anymore. I forget!), Anthony, picked us all up outside of the main YesInn building in a bus early in the morning to take us on a tour of Hong Kong cultural sites.

Our first stop was “The Peak” – the highest point in Hong Kong. We took a tram to get up there. The incline was extremely steep and I kind of hated it until the foilage broke and I could admire the panoramic views of HK.

We had lunch in a French cafe. That was nice. …I can’t remember what I ate, but I know I liked it!

Then I kind of got somewhat separated from everyone else, so I did my own thing, going up to a lookout area while most of the others went on a walk downwards into a wooded area. (I saw pictures later.) I did end up seeing Tumblr Girl’s roomies up there.

You can see “the duck” in these ones. More on him later…

There was a little stand where you could write a message to someone you love and hang it at the top of the mountain ~ so I did, of course.

From there, we headed to Wong Tai Sin Temple. I could have stayed all day there. It was a lovely Buddhist temple that had statues of the 12 zodiac animals. We had our fortunes told. (Some, like me, just got a straight translation of what it said. Others, like Girl Roomie, received full explanations and interpretations of what they meant, specifically in relation to them. There were different “readers”.)

P.S. The bus ride back down the mountain was… interesting. Kind of scary. But also really beautiful.

On the bus ride back down the mountain, Anthony pointed out this building as the “most expensive apartments in the world”.

my zodiac

Hubby’s zodiac

each one of these stalls was a “fortune teller” who would interpret the fortune you drew

After that, we went to Chi Lin Nunnery & Gardens. Another gorgeous place I could spend hours exploring. Everyone kind of went off on their own and I again got separated from everyone. It was pouring rain and the place was huge. I didn’t want to get lost so I kind of just stayed put. It was nice to soak up the atmosphere where I was, but I’m sad I missed out on the actual garden area. I saw the pictures afterwards and it’s stunning. Maybe one day, I’ll be able to get back there.

I think the juxtaposition of the temple in the foreground with the city so visible in the background is really cool.

Next was the Hong Kong Museum of History. Again, I went off on my own for most of it, just catching up with Girl Roomie at the end. (I must have been in a mood…) Since we had time constraints for all these places, I felt rushed and didn’t get to look around thoroughly at everything I would have wanted, but it’s a really cool place. Typical museum, like anywhere else, but detailing all the different time periods and unique cultures of HK. Stuff I studied in university and have always been fascinated by. It was like a 3D refresher of my East Asian Studies Civilizations class. And I loved that class.

Our last stop was dinner at The Cricket Club – basically a fancy country club dinner. It was with Anthony and all the principals from the LHK locations. Luckily for me, all of us diploma students were at one table and the teachers were at the other with Anthony and our supervising teacher. Sadly for them though, so were the degree students (the other 2 girls from the hostel – Rob fan and her roomie).

The food wasn’t bad at all, in my opinion. Some dishes were quite good. It was a typical multi-course Chinese dinner. I’m used to it, I guess. Even though some dishes weren’t my thing, I didn’t think anything was “bad”. Apparently, there were some other opinions…
I think it was more that we were all so exhausted from the day’s activities and still adjusting to the time change. Who knows? But by the end of the night, we were all …just done.

I think my camera had died or something, or I was just spent and gave up, because I have no pictures of my own after the temple. Here are a few I stole from the Girl Roomie after the fact.

at the museum

Rob Fan (right) and her roomie (left)

Tumblr Girl (far right) and her two roomies

Boy Roomie, Girl Roomie, me

This is the only picture I know of with Anthony in it. Supervising Teacher is giving a chopstick lesson to the gwai lo.

No one had the foresight to take a picture before we ate.