Hong Kong

Of all the places int he world to visit I never put much consideration
into seeing Hong Kong.  I like nature, clean air and and not a fan of
the banking (mainly the lines suck) and I like to see the open sky (unless it is blocked my huge mountians). So when I realized I was going to go to Hing Kong I had surprised myself.  But I have been known to do
weirder things in the past and will hopefully continue to do even weirder things int he future.
Here is the bag a lucky kid had on the plane!

And the sky!

 

The Hong Kong airport was very polite, just like the rest of the area!

A friend I had met in Thailand, Shani, had said I am welcome to visit
her in Hong Kong if ever I wanted, and the more I thought about it the
more it seemed like a good idea.  How often is one able to pop into
Hong Kong?  With out taking into consideration that going to HK on my
way to India was like someone going from Montreal to Toronto on their
way to New York, I was off!

And what a place..

Being in Hong Kong is like being inside an M.C. Escher painting
crossed with a melting pot of society.  Roads, building,s and
escalators criss and cross and zig together (I didnt notice any
zagging) You can drive up to a building, with the road on the ground,
and be at the tenth floor and the elevators go down.  When you go down
you emerge again on the ground.  There are certainly some laws of
physics being broken but as there is no physics police Hong Kong gets
away with it.  There is an 800 meter long escalator going up or
down...you can go down until 10am then up the rest of the day, and too
much more to describe.

As traffic can be deadly there are helpful hints all around!

The buildings area  whole other story that
will have to be described my pictures to save me thousands of words.(actually you just need to see it for yourself)

 

  

  

 

These are during the nightly light shows!  These lights are not fixed and move to the music!  Every night at 8pm...

The people are a whole other story.  I used to think Montreal was
multicultural...Now I know what multicultural means.  Hong Kong seems
to have a representative from every corner of our round world.  It is
fascinating.

What is similar to Montreal is a mountain in the city that you can go
up and presumably see the whole area from.  I did not get to do this
as it was very cloudy and we saw lots of water vapor.  Occasionally a
building would wipe the water from its face and we would be able to
glimpse the windows and a blurred shape.  Fortunately on the way down
we were seated on the top floor of a double decker bus and actually
had an amazing view.  Possibly to most exciting bus ride I have been
on. I saw round towers, and square ones, some that were a bit of both,
there was a building on stilts, and other unimaginable
constructions...

Every time we went out we happened to go by Hong Kong park... This is an interesting place in the center of town.  The is an aviary, with hundreds of cool and interesting birds,

its a giant screened in multi level area...you start in the canopy height and slowly wind down, also cool plants on the trees...

There are some interesting fountains and a super veggie Dim Sum/Tea house.  Everyone has to order a tea and then the waiter comes and does the proper tea ceremony for whatever you ordered!  It can get quite elaborate, and it was all served with a smile!

Shani is a chazan in a reform shul and I went for Shabbat service. It was great to see a non sexist (in my opinion...some people think putting women in the back because it is the man's job to pray and the woman's to raise kids as not sexist...if you think so tell me why!) services.  Also a woman chazan with a great voice!  You can barely get me into a synagogue in Canada but put me in Hong Kong and the Payis is already growing!
After too short a time I was off to India!

Ko Bulon

Greetings!
I have fallen behind and will now attempt to catch up some....

Leaving Surin I headed back to Kao Lak for a night in Pak Bara, and then in the morning headed off south to get to Ko Bulon, an island a German man had recommended.  This was to be my last venture in Thailand before taking off.  I spenf one night in Pak Bara, the port town and took the ferry the next morning.  3 tour operators wanted to sell me the boat ticket all at different prices and after buying the cheapest one I went to sleep.  In the morning I noticed there was also a ticket booth at the marina  selling the ticket for 50 baht cheaper...  Such is life!

Pak bara is a fishing town...

The speed boat headed to the island and met local boats to transfer us to shore.  You pay 50 Baht for this.  It must be a way to increase local profit.  I went to a place called Jungle hut which had a super friendly staff and said I could stay in a tent for 50 Baht a night.  They thought I wanted one of their tents and when they saw I had my own said I could stay for free!  Super kind people.  Of course for this reason I ate plenty at their restaurant so everyone won.
The island is divided in 2 parts with a giant hill in the middle and a 15 minute walk to the other side.  The other side is where the snorkeling was so it was good exercise.  Right at the top was a bar called the Bong hut or Bong bar and it had a couple Rasta Thais who were of course always smiling and happy to see you.  It made for a nice stop before going down the other side.  The place smelled like a concert and no one seemed to mind.

After 3 nights I moved my tent to the other side on the beach but had to walk 200 meters for a toilet.  It was well worth it to see the sun rise!













One f the coolest things about the island is the hornbills!  Giant birds with giant yellow horns!  I saw one in a tree and one on the ground that then took off.  I missed the exact moment of takeoff as something was scratching me inside my shirt which i shook out...then scratched my arm and pulled a very weird and scary looking caterpillar thing out of my sleeve.  By then the bird had just spread its wings and started up.  It was a great sight... It almost made me forget to shiver about the weird thing that was with me for who knows how long!
Some activities I engaged in at this island included lying in my hammock, sitting in my hammock, seeing if I can find knew ways to lie and sit in my hammock and sitting in my hammock while reading, listening to music, and finding knew ways to sit and read and listen to music in it.  After all this work and excitement I was lucky to have a hammock to relax in!  I also went swimming and snorkeling and walked up and down the ill a few times a day.  I also learned world history (audio books are great) and stood on my head.

The island is not to exciting to talk about but it is a great place for the above mentioned activities.  The reefs are not as beautifuil as the other places but it is much more quiet and relaxed.

On the last day I hopped the boat back to pak bara and then took a bus to Phuket, where IW as flying out of.

Phuket treated me well, but I did not have time to explore the beaches, I only saw the city proper.  It is now full of resorts and fance stuff, and I probably would not have gone to see it if I had the time.  I had one last foot massage and got on the airport shuttle.

The flight to Hong Kong had some beautiful clouds....