Sik Sik Yuen Temple in Wong Tai Sin
On January 24th, two friends--Tor (from Norway) and Sally (from Virginia)--and I took a tourist visit to see the big Sik Sik Yuen Temple. This is a major temple that the Hong Kongers travel to seek good fortune before the Lunar New Year (which was on the 26th). The main religions housed there are Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucianist.
We had to curve through this elaborate maze of gates and crowds of people to get to the temple, each curve asking for a $2 donation. All the while we had to hold our breath because of the thick clouds of incense smoke EVERYWHERE. People would carry a clump of 50 incense sticks to bring up to the troughs to place them. They had workers constantly sweeping up all the ashes on the ground. You could definitely tell who was a tourist because there would be a random person in the line who was carrying one lonely stick of incense. We did NOT buy any. Maybe if they had been sparklers I would have been persuaded to join in.
Pictures weren't allowed inside the temple, but there was a large "display" of statues and tons of flowers and fruits. It was really noisy because the people knelt on cushions and vigorously shaking out chim from a can and the rattling sound echoed ridiculously loud through the hall. The chim are wooden sticks with fortunes on them, and whichever one drops out from the bottom slot is your fortune. BUT the catch is that you have to pay a fortune teller or "interpreters" to explain the fortune for you. All of them are apparently bad fortunes, so people have to try for hours. We didn't try.
Behind the temple is the Good Wish Garden, which we liked a lot better than the temple (Much clearer air). There was a koi pond and a waterfall. So pretty!
We had to curve through this elaborate maze of gates and crowds of people to get to the temple, each curve asking for a $2 donation. All the while we had to hold our breath because of the thick clouds of incense smoke EVERYWHERE. People would carry a clump of 50 incense sticks to bring up to the troughs to place them. They had workers constantly sweeping up all the ashes on the ground. You could definitely tell who was a tourist because there would be a random person in the line who was carrying one lonely stick of incense. We did NOT buy any. Maybe if they had been sparklers I would have been persuaded to join in.
Pictures weren't allowed inside the temple, but there was a large "display" of statues and tons of flowers and fruits. It was really noisy because the people knelt on cushions and vigorously shaking out chim from a can and the rattling sound echoed ridiculously loud through the hall. The chim are wooden sticks with fortunes on them, and whichever one drops out from the bottom slot is your fortune. BUT the catch is that you have to pay a fortune teller or "interpreters" to explain the fortune for you. All of them are apparently bad fortunes, so people have to try for hours. We didn't try.
Behind the temple is the Good Wish Garden, which we liked a lot better than the temple (Much clearer air). There was a koi pond and a waterfall. So pretty!
Avenue of the Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui
Our next touristy destination was the Avenue of the Stars in TST. So we had to take the MTR (train/subway) from Wong Tai Sin to TST. The Avenue was right near the Peninsula Hotel (super expensive, luxury area of TST)... there are Rolls-Royce taxis in front. The Ave was pretty fun, although we were pretty cold walking near the bay. There are tons of stars for local film stars. We found Jackie Chan's and Bruce Lee's handprints.. but didn't recognize any of the other names. (Except there were two Hui stars.. so I told Alyssa Hui I found her famous relatives!) There were also gift shops dedicated to both Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee.
Had to take the cheesy tourist photo!
Michael has been tagged on Facebook as the Bruce Lee statue.
An Indian guy approached Tor and read his mind for like 5 minutes. Sally and I stood uncomfortable watching this guy guess how many siblings Tor has and what he wrote on a piece of paper. Then when he was finished, he gave him a "lucky bead" and then asked for some "lucky money" for his wallet. When Tor said no, sorry, and we started walking away, the guy followed us and kept saying it was "Good money..It's good!" Tor continued saying no, sorry, no... and then suddenly the money became a charity for children.. and then for homeless children, and then for handicapped children. Yeah. We quickened our pace and he ran after us yelling to give him his lucky bead back!! It was awful!
After we escaped the crazy man, we met up with Alex and his friend and decided to go to an Irish Pub for dinner. Of all the strange, new things I could have had for a meal in Hong Kong, I ordered an appetizer of garlic cheese bread in an Irish Pub. It was pretty good and greasy cheese bread, and we were all having good conversations when suddenly I noticed my neck and face to be really itchy. After an abnormal amount of scratching my neck and face, I went to the bathroom to find I had broken out in huge, welty hives all over. I have NEVER had allergic reactions to food before (except apparently pineapple when I was 3)... so this was ridiculous! Maybe if I had eaten some exotic, authentic seafood dish with a million foreign animals and plants all thrown together, an allergic reaction would have been a little bit more understandable. But no, garlic cheese bread. I figured maybe it was time to go home.
Had to take the cheesy tourist photo!
Michael has been tagged on Facebook as the Bruce Lee statue.
An Indian guy approached Tor and read his mind for like 5 minutes. Sally and I stood uncomfortable watching this guy guess how many siblings Tor has and what he wrote on a piece of paper. Then when he was finished, he gave him a "lucky bead" and then asked for some "lucky money" for his wallet. When Tor said no, sorry, and we started walking away, the guy followed us and kept saying it was "Good money..It's good!" Tor continued saying no, sorry, no... and then suddenly the money became a charity for children.. and then for homeless children, and then for handicapped children. Yeah. We quickened our pace and he ran after us yelling to give him his lucky bead back!! It was awful!
After we escaped the crazy man, we met up with Alex and his friend and decided to go to an Irish Pub for dinner. Of all the strange, new things I could have had for a meal in Hong Kong, I ordered an appetizer of garlic cheese bread in an Irish Pub. It was pretty good and greasy cheese bread, and we were all having good conversations when suddenly I noticed my neck and face to be really itchy. After an abnormal amount of scratching my neck and face, I went to the bathroom to find I had broken out in huge, welty hives all over. I have NEVER had allergic reactions to food before (except apparently pineapple when I was 3)... so this was ridiculous! Maybe if I had eaten some exotic, authentic seafood dish with a million foreign animals and plants all thrown together, an allergic reaction would have been a little bit more understandable. But no, garlic cheese bread. I figured maybe it was time to go home.
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