Loy Krathong and Hong Kong
Happy December everyone! It's a cool 65 at night and high of 90 during the day - so the only winter we are experiencing is at night and in the morning. Most of our students don't celebrate Christmas, so its been hard to get in the Christmas spirit! Besides the Christmas lights we put up in the apartment, we've had to go to Hong Kong to see our first Christmas tree! Before I get to Hong Kong, Ill back up a month to Loy Krathong.
Most tourists know Loy Krathong as the lantern festival. But, a Krathong is a boat made out of banana leaves and flowers where you cast your bad thoughts and fears into the river and Yi Ping festival is where you send your "well wishes" into the sky through a lantern. When news of the King's passing came forward, the entire country, including the city council of Chiang Mai, cancelled all celebrations during 30 day period of mourning. From the time of the announcement, Loy Krathong was exactly 31 days. There were friends of friends we knew coming specifically for this event, but the initial announcement was that Loy Krathong celebrations would be cancelled. Eventually, the event was "back on" but Thai officials requested that the Thai people send off no lanterns, just float Krathongs in memory of the King. This year the festival fell on a Monday and Tuesday and after school each day we went to town to see the toned down festivities. We had heard lanterns were going to be for sale, but they would be hard to find. The first night we searched high and low, but no luck. The next night we had friends buy them for us in advance during the day, and headed down to the river to let them off that night. At school, all of the kids had made Krathong's and we took extras down to the restaurant we ate at and set them in the river. Next we walked to a bridge area, where a large number of people were, to find a good spot to send up our wishes. I was with about 8 girls and we each had 2 lanterns to light (Ben decided to stay up on the hill that night). We watched other people light theirs and while you think it would be an easy task, there were still many that would fly into trees and power lines, burn, and come crashing down. Sure enough, BOTH of mine burned! The first one I "pushed" into the sky and didn't give the lantern enough time to float. The second one caught a wind gust and went into a tree to burn. I was so sad! So much for "well wishes". The next night, we had some extras in our apartment and bunch of us on campus hiked up to a clearing to let some lanterns off. It must of been Ben's magic touch because that time ours took off into the sky :)
The next weekend was Thanksgiving! A bunch of us from school went to a farm for a large 4 course feast! All 4 dishes were amazing and the location was beautiful! The following weekend we hosted a "pot luck" Thanksgiving in our apartment with our neighbors.
I have never thought about visiting any parts of China (besides to see The Great Wall) but when there is a cheap, direct flight that can be a weekend trip - I look into it. I didn't really know much about Hong Kong but when I started researching I was impressed by the amount of outdoor things to do there. Its a major city, with mountains and a beach and is small enough to see in a long weekend. We got in late Friday night and were welcomed with Christmas! It was the first time I saw live Christmas trees and lights. Our hotel was an 8 foot by 8 foot room...and this was bigger than a lot of other hotels I looked into. We got a real taste of what a tiny home would be! The next three days consisted of hiking, exploring temples, walking the streets, riding the Star Ferry in Victoria's Harbor, and attending a wine festival (where all the wine was mostly from Italy). Hong Kong was somewhat expensive and very clean. We really enjoyed it and were happy to have a change of pace where transportation was reliable and you couldn't see the messy power lines.
View outside of our hotel (above) Below are pictures from Dragon's Back Hike.
The rest of the day we walked around the different areas of Hong Kong and ended up at Victoria's Harbor for a Christmas Market and a ride on the Star Ferry! Victoria's Harbor was really pretty at night and there was this big build up for a light show they put on. Ben and I were expecting it to be like Disney, but it was underwhelming. Pretty and enjoyable none the less!
The next day we did a hike to Lion's Rock. It was so steep, I was amazed at some of the elderly people doing this. One of Ben's pet peeves is when hikers blare their music for everyone to hear and a lot of the older people did this! We managed to go around them quite quickly but the view was worth the hike! At the top their was a slack line and if you saw our Facebook or Instagram you saw the video I posted of the guy attempting. We were at the top for about an hour and didn't see anyone successfully complete it. I told Ben I would shimmy across but standing up would be too scary- Props to the guys and girls that do that!
After the hike, we went to a Nunnery. I would love to tell you more but we weren't there long since we were starving and out of water from the hike. You couldn't take pictures inside but it was very Zen and people were praying to the different shrines. (Kind of like praying to patron saints except most of them were praying for wealth).
Later than night we went out and walked around town. The next afternoon was our flight back to Chiang Mai and while we thought we would of had time to go to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddah, we didn't. So instead we went to a temple and took our time getting to the airport. (The airport is MASSIVE and actually not crowded but took us 3 hours to go through everything and climb all the levels and take all the trams to our gate. We would of hated to of see how long it would of taken if it was a busy day!) We went to a few markets and searched high and low for the "Goldfish Market" but couldn't find it. Lots of Christmas trees, flowers, and birds though!
Hong Kong was so much fun and beautiful! We unfortunately can't say we will be returning since its expensive, but a short weekend was affordable. We are off for the next three weeks for the Holiday Season and will post again next year of our travels over the break :)
Most tourists know Loy Krathong as the lantern festival. But, a Krathong is a boat made out of banana leaves and flowers where you cast your bad thoughts and fears into the river and Yi Ping festival is where you send your "well wishes" into the sky through a lantern. When news of the King's passing came forward, the entire country, including the city council of Chiang Mai, cancelled all celebrations during 30 day period of mourning. From the time of the announcement, Loy Krathong was exactly 31 days. There were friends of friends we knew coming specifically for this event, but the initial announcement was that Loy Krathong celebrations would be cancelled. Eventually, the event was "back on" but Thai officials requested that the Thai people send off no lanterns, just float Krathongs in memory of the King. This year the festival fell on a Monday and Tuesday and after school each day we went to town to see the toned down festivities. We had heard lanterns were going to be for sale, but they would be hard to find. The first night we searched high and low, but no luck. The next night we had friends buy them for us in advance during the day, and headed down to the river to let them off that night. At school, all of the kids had made Krathong's and we took extras down to the restaurant we ate at and set them in the river. Next we walked to a bridge area, where a large number of people were, to find a good spot to send up our wishes. I was with about 8 girls and we each had 2 lanterns to light (Ben decided to stay up on the hill that night). We watched other people light theirs and while you think it would be an easy task, there were still many that would fly into trees and power lines, burn, and come crashing down. Sure enough, BOTH of mine burned! The first one I "pushed" into the sky and didn't give the lantern enough time to float. The second one caught a wind gust and went into a tree to burn. I was so sad! So much for "well wishes". The next night, we had some extras in our apartment and bunch of us on campus hiked up to a clearing to let some lanterns off. It must of been Ben's magic touch because that time ours took off into the sky :)
The next weekend we headed to Chiang Rai for the "Singha Obstacle Run." If you are familiar with Tough Mudders, its the same concept. It was a 7K Obstacle course with 17 obstacles! Some of the obstacles I questioned the safety and cleanliness of water and "mud" we were trekking through. But none of us got sick or hurt so it was a success! It also happened to be the 1 rainy day in November, but it made the obstacles that much more fun with all of the mud :) All we have to show for it is our picture at the end and a few pictures of the park from the day before.
I have never thought about visiting any parts of China (besides to see The Great Wall) but when there is a cheap, direct flight that can be a weekend trip - I look into it. I didn't really know much about Hong Kong but when I started researching I was impressed by the amount of outdoor things to do there. Its a major city, with mountains and a beach and is small enough to see in a long weekend. We got in late Friday night and were welcomed with Christmas! It was the first time I saw live Christmas trees and lights. Our hotel was an 8 foot by 8 foot room...and this was bigger than a lot of other hotels I looked into. We got a real taste of what a tiny home would be! The next three days consisted of hiking, exploring temples, walking the streets, riding the Star Ferry in Victoria's Harbor, and attending a wine festival (where all the wine was mostly from Italy). Hong Kong was somewhat expensive and very clean. We really enjoyed it and were happy to have a change of pace where transportation was reliable and you couldn't see the messy power lines.
View outside of our hotel (above) Below are pictures from Dragon's Back Hike.
The rest of the day we walked around the different areas of Hong Kong and ended up at Victoria's Harbor for a Christmas Market and a ride on the Star Ferry! Victoria's Harbor was really pretty at night and there was this big build up for a light show they put on. Ben and I were expecting it to be like Disney, but it was underwhelming. Pretty and enjoyable none the less!
The next day we did a hike to Lion's Rock. It was so steep, I was amazed at some of the elderly people doing this. One of Ben's pet peeves is when hikers blare their music for everyone to hear and a lot of the older people did this! We managed to go around them quite quickly but the view was worth the hike! At the top their was a slack line and if you saw our Facebook or Instagram you saw the video I posted of the guy attempting. We were at the top for about an hour and didn't see anyone successfully complete it. I told Ben I would shimmy across but standing up would be too scary- Props to the guys and girls that do that!
After the hike, we went to a Nunnery. I would love to tell you more but we weren't there long since we were starving and out of water from the hike. You couldn't take pictures inside but it was very Zen and people were praying to the different shrines. (Kind of like praying to patron saints except most of them were praying for wealth).
Later than night we went out and walked around town. The next afternoon was our flight back to Chiang Mai and while we thought we would of had time to go to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddah, we didn't. So instead we went to a temple and took our time getting to the airport. (The airport is MASSIVE and actually not crowded but took us 3 hours to go through everything and climb all the levels and take all the trams to our gate. We would of hated to of see how long it would of taken if it was a busy day!) We went to a few markets and searched high and low for the "Goldfish Market" but couldn't find it. Lots of Christmas trees, flowers, and birds though!
Hong Kong was so much fun and beautiful! We unfortunately can't say we will be returning since its expensive, but a short weekend was affordable. We are off for the next three weeks for the Holiday Season and will post again next year of our travels over the break :)
