G & K: Day 11

I am jumping around a bit here, but below is another blog by Kelli on her and Grandma's trip back in Jan. 

Day 11 - Nan Lian Garden, Chi Lin Nunnery, and the horse races

To give Grandma a break from walking, Mo and I decided to go out an explore the Nan Lian Garden and Chi Lin Nunnery. We took the subway over to Diamond Hill and left the subway through another mall. The garden was a short walk down the street but when you went inside it was like going into another world. All the trees, rocks, buildings, and water features were meticulously organized according to specific rules. Despite the fact that the city buildings still loomed behind the walls it was very peaceful.

In the center was the 'Pavilion of Absolute Perfection', which is a pretty amusing name. It was gorgeous though.

After wandering around the garden paths and seeing all the trees, rocks, flowers, and buildings we crossed the overpass to the Chi Lin Nunnery. Of course I just assumed that means nuns lived there, but I really should have known better. In reality it's a Buddhist temple. It was built in a traditional Tang Dynasty style, which means that there were no nails used. All the wood parts are interlocking. It was filled with bonsai trees and ponds in the center.

All around the outside of the temple were halls with giant golden statues of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. The each had various fruits in front of them. In the main part of the temple is the largest statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha surrounded by disciples and bodhisattvas. It was massive and beautiful, and even though I wasn't supposed to take a picture I couldn't resist!

After Mo and I walked over to the mall that connects to the subway and had lunch at a food court inside. It had tons of different stalls with all different types of food. We ordered Thai food and tried to get lemon tea with it. Apparently they didn't understand us and gave us some sort of soup instead. Oh well! At least the soup was good. On our way out we passed a drink stall and realized we were supposed to go there if we wanted one.

We made our way back to the apartment so we could get Grandma and meet with Drew. We went to a place called View 62 which was circular and at the 62nd floor of a building. It gradually rotated in a circle (though I didn't actually believe it was happening at first) so you got a 360 degree view of the city. We had cocktails and appetizers. My personal favorite was a watermelon chili cocktail. Sounds awful, but actually delicious. It was spicy and sweet at the same time. Grandma enjoyed her fruit smoothie as well!

After admiring the view for a while we headed down to the race track so we could bet on some horses. I must be a horse expert because I won both bets I made, bringing my total up to 3 out of 4. I'm basically going to become a professional gambler.

It was a long but fun day!

Borneo Sunsets

In addition to seafood, one thing that Borneo did really well was sunsets. Every evening, we were treated with a glorious view of the sun sizzling into the South China Sea. 

Sunset Day 1: By the Fish Market

The second night we saw the sunset from our hotel. It was amazing the crowd that materialized to see it. It was the main attraction of the evening! Everyone actually clapped after the sun finished setting. To the left of the picture is the Sunset Bar, which we went to the last night of our stay. 

Drew suggested we take the picture below. My response was, "Wow! Someone is getting artsy!" His response was "No, I just copied the Asian couple next to us...." :)

It is a fact that Asian couples have picture posing down to a science. It really should be considered a cultural pastime. It is a bit sad though, because half of the time they don't really enjoy what they are taking a picture of. For instance, the shot below shows three different Asian ladies trying to get the perfect sunset shot. They spent so much time trying to get the shot, the ladies didn't actually get to see the sunset. Plus, the couple on the right had a little boy who just wanted to play and interact with his parents, but they just ignored him to take the pictures. To each their own, I suppose, but if my child wants to play with me, I will always put the camera down. And I don't understand what they are going to do with all of these pictures. One or two maybe, but these people were taking hundreds, literally. 

Sunset Day 3, from the hotel while we also watched the Asian lady models.

Sunset Day 4, from the Sunset Bar. The sunset was officially at 6:20. We had to get to this bar by 4:45pm to get a spot on one of the couches that directly faces the water and the view. For the first hour, it was so hot we could barely stand it, but after a cocktail or two, and after the sun began to drop, it was heaven.

I bet that guy had the best view of all!

Scuba Diving Mamutik Island

The second and third days of our Borneo trip were very similar, so I am going to combine them in this blog. Both days were spent scuba diving in the Marine Park in the waters just beyond our hotel. We went on three dives a day, each about 45 min long with an hour break in between. It made for long, but enjoyable days. Since it was "winter" the water visibility was less than perfect, with lots of plankton floating about. But, if you focused your gaze on more immediate things or went to shallower (and warmer!) water, the visibility was better. I think it's just like snowboarding. You have to have the windy, freeze your butt off days to really appreciate the bluebird powder days.....

We still saw some amazing things while diving. My personal favorite was seeing two cuttle fish, each about a foot long. Cuttle fish are the masters of disguise. They have millions of pigments in their skin, allowing them to change color instantaneously. The ones we saw were perfectly blended in with the coral they were hovering over, and as they moved around they would change to match whatever was underneath them. So clever. If the dive master hadn't of pointed them out, I'm not sure we would have even spotted them. 

We also saw a lion fish, not swimming around but resting on the side of a coral. That was probably lucky for us, as they are actually extremely poisonous if poked by one. Add the lion fish to conch shells, fish tornadoes, trumpet fish, and lots of star fish, sea slugs etc. and you get an idea of what we saw. 

During a quick snorkel break, we actually saw two small black tipped reef sharks. They were swimming in impressively shallow water, and they moved so quickly we could barely follow them. It was very exciting as we've never seen a shark while diving before. 

We also saw a small barracuda. They were tricky, as they swim right under the surface of the water. Since you mostly keep your gaze pointed downward while snorkeling, you wouldn't notice them until they were right in front of you. Then you'd get a small shock as they give you the stink eye. They just look like they're frowning, don't they? Mr. Grumpy Gills....

When we weren't diving, we were spending our time relaxing on this gorgeous beach. Looks like a postcard doesn't it? Talk about some blue water! I was trying desperately to not get a sun burn, so I would lay with a towel covering my torso and my wet suit covering my legs. Somehow, I forgot about my feet, so I got a lovely tan line right across my ankles. Yikes!

We also saw a giant monitor lizard patrolling the island we were diving off of. It was the biggest wild lizard I had ever seen! No pet bunnies allowed on this island!

After a day of diving, we would go back to our hotel, go to the gym, watch the sunset, grab some dinner, then hit the sack. The diving required early mornings, so we didn't get up to much on those nights. But below are some shots of the grounds of the hotel. It was just stunning! And only a 2.5 hour flight from Hong Kong! This was the view from our hotel room. 

The hotel had a small beach if you wanted a real sand experience. 

Or you could just hang by the gorgeous infinity pool. We took this picture with our iPhones! Imagine what a professional camera could do!

Borneo Fish Market

For our February trip, Drew and I booked a last minute deal with TravelZoo that got us flights, hotel, breakfast, and a high tea at the Shangri-La Tanjung Aru, one of the nicest resorts in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on the island of Borneo. When most people hear of Borneo, they think of this...

Thinking of Borneo as a mystical jungle isn't that far off. Just outside the city is Mt. Kota Kinabalu, the highest peak in SE Asia at a staggering 4,095 meters, or 13,435 feet. That's almost a 14ner! It's huge considering that the rest of the island is, well, an island and therefore at sea level. 

Borneo is also known for its conservation work with Orangutans and other jungle creatures. Since I'm not a huge fan of monkeys to begin with, and since we've seen our fair share of monkeys both in Kuala Lumpur and in Bali, we decided to skip the Orangutan sightings for the beach. 

We flew into KK on Wednesday afternoon, dropped our things at the hotel and went straight back out again for some linner. (Lunch/Dinner). We ended up at a collection of seafood restaurants in an area called Kampung Air. Essentially the restaurants ringed this large covered pavilion filled with family style tables. Since it was early afternoon, we had the place to ourselves. Each restaurant had tanks in front showing all of the live seafood it had to offer. Essentially you picked the exact seafood you want, then you picked a style of cooking: steamed, sautéed with butter, etc. It was, ultimately a tourist spot, as the prices were normal to us, but much higher than we would find at a mom and pop shop. But, the food was worth it. 

We chose a local fish in the sweet and sour style. It was actually one of the best whole fish I have ever eaten. The outside had this great caramelization of the sugar and the inside was the white delicious meat. I even got to dig around for the cheek meat. Delicious!

We also got prawns in dried butter. Not really sure how they accomplished the drying of the butter, but you see the end result and it was worth it. 

After our seafood linner, we went to the local market where the real stuff happened. First of all, I have never seen so much seafood in one place in my entire life. There was fish of every size, from eggs to the largest catches. There was squid of all sizes, eels, crabs, everything. And all of the sellers were yelling at the top of their lungs to attract customers. If you listened closely enough, it sounded like a strange song, as each seller had his distinct call that he issued with noticeable regularity. We just tried to stay out of the way and observe, but that was harder said than done as the place was packed. 

This market also had meat, fruit, veggie, dried goods, and cooked food sections. Drew, of course, kept muttering with whole-hearted dejectedness "why did we already eat.....why....why...." So, we came back to the cooked food section the last night of our trip, as we had to try it. The picture below shows a stand of grills where women cooked the seafood in billows of smoke. I'm not sure how they could stand both the smoke and the heat, but they knew their craft.

We ended up with tiger prawns, which are, arguably, one of the best delicacies in the seafood world. Drew and I would disagree though. They are expensive, and their size makes them actually quite tough. We'll stick with smaller prawns in the future. 

However, the piece-de-resistance was the grilled stingray we tried. The meat wasn't fishy nor mushy, and it was grilled to perfection. Add a bit of kaffir lime, and you have heaven. It was also very easy to eat, as the bones, seen below, support the meat in a grid pattern, which I assume helps the stingray move in its wavy, flowy fashion. So, you just scrap away the meat and don't get a single bone! 

After puttering around the market, we went into the city itself. Just outside the market were about 10 men sitting at sewing machines waiting for jobs. This was quite funny for me. Why are all of the seamstresses men? And they were using old fashioned, pedal operated sewing machines. Classic. 

 We also walked through a clothing market. It was like an outdoor department store! Except the clothes looked like they had been rained on a time or two :)

We also passed by a lotto store that was packed to the brim with men waiting to buy their chance for a different life. Kind of sad actually. 

Finally, we had to try the local desserts. We got bubble tea along with these kaya balls. Kaya is a coconut jam, so these were essentially waffle batter balls with coconut jam inside. We got 10 of them for a dollar. You can see more cooking on the right. 

Lion Dance

During Chinese New Year, almost every business in Hong Kong participates in a Lion Dance. The Lion is controlled by two martial artists, one that controls the head, and one that controls the body. This is different from the dragon dance, which requires numerous people, and the dragon's body is held up on poles.

Before the lion arrives, the businesses hang lettuce wrapped in a bow from the main doorway. It is reminiscent of mistletoe, with a different intention. The Mandarin word for leafy veggie is cai(4) meaning it has the 4th tone, while the word for wealth is cai(2). So, the lion's job is to pluck the leafy greens from the doorway, chew them up, then spit them out at the employees of the business. It is good luck if the employees catch a piece, and hopefully the business will get lots of wealth that year! I got to watch the dance at my Mandarin school, and a different lion visited Drew at his office as well.  Often times the Lion Dances are held on the day celebrating the god of wealth Cai Shen, but I think there are so many businesses in Hong Kong, they can't all be visited by the lions on the same day. So it gets spread out over the second week of Chinese New Years. Just another cool piece of the Chinese New Years fun!