As I mentioned in my previous post, today's itinerary was flexible, and when a couple of Americans we met on the bus said that they'd really enjoyed Arashiyama earlier in the week, we decided to take a trip there. It was a really cool experience. After a short but steep 20 minute hike up the side of a mountain, we found ourselves literally surrounded by a troop of Japanese macaques. There's a sanctuary up on the mountain where the monkeys can run free - no fences for them of any kind that we could tell - and instead, the people are put in cages (it's where it's allowed to feed the monkeys, probably to keep them from surrounding the tourists a la the Nara deer). After finishing up with them, we strolled around Arashiyama - including over the famous Togetsukyo Bridge (originally built sometime between 800-1200 AD, rebuilt around 1900) and walked down another famous bamboo street; that's a street lined with bamboo, not made of it. All in all, a pleasant closing to a good day.
Our second day in Kyoto was much more focused as we only did three attractions: Ryoanji, a zen temple, first thing in the morning; a formal tea ceremony at a local cultural center in the late morning, and Fushimi Inari-taisha, a sprawling temple complex with an approximately 2.5 mile hike up the side of Mount Inari. We also had one more pit stop at a temple we thought we hadn't yet visited, but when we reached the top of the (long, crowded) hill where the temple sits, realized it was Kyomizu-Dera, which we'd added to our list yesterday - oops! All was not lost though, as we had a yummy beef bun for lunch. And that was only halfway through an extremely wonderful day. Ryoan-ji TempleRyoan-ji is a zen temple and very different from the others we've seen in Kyoto so far. Zen simplicity is known far and wide, and the temple was much more simple and unadorned. Its main public feature is a rock garden that is considered one of the best examples of the practice in the world. There was also some lovely calligraphy, and a walk around a lake filled with lilies and lotus. Cha-dō: The Way of TeaThere's not a whole lot to say about the tea ceremony; it's really one of those things that just needs to be experienced. I'll caption the photos with some of the ideas shared, but the whole ceremony is about being present and focusing intensely on the action unfolding and the ritual. It was really lovely and our hostess was gracious in explaining the meaning and guiding us through the ceremony. Brief Pit StopThe first photo was taken at almost the exact moment we realized, hey, we've been here before. But in order to keep the detour from being a complete debacle, we ate some tasty steamed beef buns (the ones on the right in the second photo). Yummy! Fushimi Inari-taisha ShrineFushimi Inari is an amazing complex filled with Torii gates - which are symbols in Shintoism of the demarcation between sacred and profane. One of the symbols of the complex is the fox, or kitsune, who is seen as a messenger. The Torii throughout the complex, brilliant vermillion (orange-red) in color, have been donated by various local and international businesses, and they line the trails up to the mountain peak. They are blank on one side (the ascent) and include the name or a message from the local business on the other (the descent) in Japanese and very rarely English characters. We sweated through our t-shirts, so the number of "selfies" and portraits dropped dramatically after the first half mile or so. After we made it to the peak, we decended back to the main viewpoint station, and had the most delicious ice cream cones there ever were EVER! Or so it seemed - we were pretty sweaty. Then as we were finishing the final leg of the descent a rainstorm came through , so the camera had to go in the bag.
Friday was another half-day for me, so after a quick lunch at a Greek restaurant in Soho that Tom has been wanting to try, we tied on our hiking shoes and headed over to Discovery Bay to do the hike I had done a few weeks ago over the mountain to Mui Wo. It was much better with a hiking buddy. I had forgotten what a great panorama of the city and islands is available at the top - can't think of a better way to spend my last Friday in Hong Kong!
After the hike, we ended in the village of Mui Wo. It was early, just barely 5 o'clock, but we managed to find a fresh seafood restaurant that was ready to serve and had some really great scallops, clams, and sweet and sour pork. All in all, a phenomenal Friday. And now, off to Macau for Saturday! Last weekend, since Tom hadn't yet arrived when I visited the Big Buddha, we took another trip out to Lantau Island to visit Ngong Ping. This time, in addition to the monastery and Buddha himself, we went on a short hike to the Wisdom Path, an art installation "containing verses from the centuries-old Heart Sutra; one of the world’s best-known prayers revered by Confucians, Buddhists and Taoists alike. These steles display the Chinese version of the prayer, based on the calligraphy of famous contemporary scholar Professor Jao Tsung-I, and are arranged in a ∞ pattern, which represents infinity." It was a short, 20 minute hike from the relative chaos of the Buddha, and really peaceful and beautiful
Sunday, we took a stroll back in time by visiting the Hong Kong History Museum down in Kowloon. I enjoyed it mostly because of all the pottery that was featured, most of which was thousands of years old. After that, we stumbled upon an art exhibit near a local MTR station, which featured hundreds of pandas in transformers-style suits of arms - The Iron Panda. One of my coworkers invited me and another coworker out to Discovery Bay for lunch. Discovery Bay is on Lantau island, and is more of a green community. There are very few cars or industry, and it helps keep the smog levels down. Much more of a resort feeling to it than the other parts of Hong Kong. It's only really accessible by ferry and bus. I took the ferry, since that's the easier option from where I'm living. It was pretty amazing how noticeable the difference in the smog levels immediately after getting off the ferry. The smog wasn't too bad in Central, but it was so clear at Discovery Bay, and looking across the channel toward Hong Kong island, the difference in air quality was really evident.
After wandering around taking photos for a few minutes, I met Macy and Cindy for lunch at a yummy Mexican restaurant. A little more sightseeing, and the girls were off to shop, while I went on a hike to one of the neighboring towns. The hike was pretty short, about 4.25 miles and 750 feet in elevation gain, but with 90+ degree temperatures and high humidity, I was a sweaty mess by the end of it. The hike goes through an indigenous village and a Trappist Monastery, which was famous for its milk production several years ago before that part was relocated to a more reachable area, and also passes by a small temple, which I opted to detour to. It may have been extremely hot, but the views were incredibly, especially since it was such a clear day and the pollution levels were knocked down a bit by all the rain we've had recently. Upon reaching Mui Wo, the village on the other side of the mountain, I arrived at the ferry hall just as the boat to Central was ready to leave. Rather than waiting for the next boat and getting some dinner, I made a quick decision to jump on the ferry again, and head back to Central. I think I made the right decision, as the clear sky made for some pretty spectacular photos of Hong Kong island, which wouldn't have been possible if I'd have waited, since the sun was already setting by the time we landed. |