April 11th: Water(falls), water(falls) everywhere!

This series of posts will chronicle, as faithfully as possible, our recent trip to Iceland and Andalusia. Comments and thoughts are most welcome! Photos from Iceland are courtesy Gireesh, Anchal and Janani and the ones from Andalusia courtesy Gireesh. :)

It was an early start from Hella today as we headed eastwards towards the glacial wonderland of Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest ice cap and one of the biggest in the world. By now, we had become quite accustomed to rain, sun and snow playing hide and seek with us, so rapid changes in conditions were no longer greeted with dismay or exhilaration. There is a saying in Islenska: ‘If you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes’. Our trip so far had more than validated it!

Along the way, we had a chance sighting of Seljalandfoss (foss = waterfall) – we mistook it for elder brother Skogafoss, but were soon corrected. The falls are majestic, enticing us from quite a distance on route 1, and the sun gods brightened it up for us just as we reached the base. I think the falls are fed from the Eyjafjallajökull  (Eyaf-yat-la-yo-ku-ttl, yeah the famous Mr. E who shut down air traffic over Europe last year) ice cap, so even more reason to cheer for them! :)

Seljalandfoss

Today’s drive showcased even more geological diversity than other days – we had tall buttes covered with brown grass on one end and black flatlands carpeted with bright green lichens rolling down to a choppy dull gray sea on the other. And closer to the road, there were low lying brown green rocks in weird shapes, as if thousands of Gollums were struggling to get out of earth – with each passing day,  the LOTR comparison was just getting more and more substantial!  

Green Gollums!

Our next pit stop was at Skogafoss – tall, powerful and very very beautiful, again sourced by Mr E. It started snowing really hard while we were there, adding a tinge of white to the desolation of the entire area. Gireesh and I tromped up to the top of the falls as it got windier and sleetier, hoping to get a good view of the mouth, but the trail didn’t really wind up all the way and it got really slippery, so we didn’t have much luck there. The views of the valley below through the blinding snow more than made up for it though! And soon, true to form, the sun came up nice and bright within a few minutes and all was well again with the world.

Skogafoss

It’s amazing how the land smiles when the sun shines down, the warmth and energy of the relationship is so tangible. Never was it more evident than in the drive from Skogafoss to Vik. We took a couple of detours towards Dyrhólaey to look down on to cliffs, sea arches and apostle like stacks standing bereft in the middle of the sea (Reynisdrangar as we found out later). It was super, super windy, almost as if the wind was rudely asking us to get off from its domain. But what an experience to be standing almost at the edge of the country, looking down at a very animated ocean pounding black volcanic cliffs with a gut-wrenching crash – we thought we were the only ones alive in the entire world! And the interplay of light and clouds on the entire scenery was surreal – if there ever existed a bridge from this world to the next, it would have to be here. None of us had ever experienced violence, anger and raw beauty like this before – I think I would never ever want to spend a night here alone!

Dyrhólaey 

The road led us on to cute little Vik – a tiny fishing village with black sand beaches and the first semblance of habitation after many many miles. And it has one of the most picturesque churches in Iceland (I think); the little red roofed building overlooking the town and the marine apostles is one of my favorite places so far.

Vik

The drive from Vik to the Vatnajökull area is also a big favorite (and I am glad we repeated it the next day on our way back). The buttes and Golums joined us again and almost every house we passed had its own private waterfall! We lost count of how many falls (or fosses rather) we crossed, and apparently so did the good folks at Iceland’s waterfall naming department. There were falls named Foss 1, Foss 2 etc (unless we read the blue board below wrong) – I think they had probably exhausted their imagination (and vocabulary) trying to name each one of them! All of us had our favorite fosses along the way(mine is shown below:)) but, by the end of it, we were so used to water falls (and rises) that we took them as a matter of fact and were no longer oohing and aahing away!

Foss 1, Foss 2 :)

My favorite foss

Another thing that we saw plenty of and could never get enough of was a plethora of rainbows! With the sun behind us and a light drizzle in front, we crossed many iridescent arches, some very bright and distinct, some more transient, but all of them lovely. They added a lot of color to the landscape which had become increasingly lava black as we drove next to various glacial tongues leaping out from Vatnajokull. We actually mistook the first glacier we saw as a huge snow field, it had crept up on us so casually and unannounced, right next to the road. We had seen glaciers in our trip to New Zealand last year, but it was always after a walk or a hike, never so accessible, and definitely not at this scale. They just lay there like sleeping giants, three or four them, if not more, watching the world go by.. or maybe just biding their time before doing something unprecedented. The entire area seemed like it was work in progress, as if nature was not done yet, it was just taking a short break before starting off again. And here we were, right in the middle of it all, four tiny human beings (and car) trying to make sense of it all. Wow!

One of the many tongues from Vatnajokull

The drive led us on to Joksularon, the biggest glacier lagoon in the world – our final stop before we headed to the hotel and a befitting end to an eventful day. By now, we had gotten used to letting our jaws drop, but they still dropped down hard when we first sighted this beautiful iceberg filled lake. It was bright blue everywhere, with the ice glistening and gleaming like little crystals. We had so much fun making up shapes off bergs, a swan here, a frog there, even an inappropriately raised finger somewhere :).

Jokulsarlon

Again, what amazing accessibility, route 1 just led us onto this place? From our experiences in other countries so far, the best places always require a little bit of effort –a 5km hike, a dodgy ferry ride or maybe a few side lanes off the main freeway – but here we were, exulting like kids over places that seemed to have been shown to us on a platter. I can’t even begin to imagine how many natural wonders lie in store for us if we go off the beaten track in Iceland. I think this was the first time I realized I will have to come back here again, put in that extra effort and check for myself if there is an upper limit to how amazed and awed a person can be.

April 10th: Two-thirds of a circle

This series of posts will chronicle, as faithfully as possible, our recent trip to Iceland and Andalusia. Comments and thoughts are most welcome! Photos from Iceland are courtesy Gireesh, Anchal and Janani and the ones from Andalusia courtesy Gireesh. :)


Our first full day at Iceland! After months of planning and deliberation, we were finally on the road! There was quite a bit of driving planned for the day, as we would be heading off to the Geysir basin and Gullfoss, two points on the Icelandic Golden Circle. The third major node, Þingvellir, would come later. The sky was still ominous as we left Grindavik, with the wind searing through a bit more than yesterday. And green/black got another color – white! – as we headed inland on the ring road. Suddenly, unannounced, there was snow on the sides of the road, in little depressions and crevices between rocks and on the silhouettes of the mountains far away (yes, the visibility was much better!) – my Middle Earth illusion was still very much in place. We tried to get off a few times to take photos – there were three cameras between the four of us, so you can understand we were a pretty trigger happy bunch! – but the wind and the cold would pack us off to the car within a few minutes.

Soon, the rocks lent way to even flatter plains, with brown grass covering every inch of it and little tarns and streams dotting the landscapes. We even saw a few crazy fishermen standing in freezing waters and angling away – that fish better be worth it! Every once in a while, we would cross a huge snow capped rock face right next to the fields, with the melting ice creating a number of impromptu waterfalls. There were some ‘water-rises’ too – the wind was so strong that water was drifting up instead of falling down. The wind was definitely picking up, and it was becoming a struggle to just open the car door and stand outside. As a minor setback, we were also informed that our dog sled tour booked for that afternoon was cancelled because of the weather conditions. Oh well!

'Water-rise'

We finally reached the Geysir basin to gawk at THE geyser which has lent its name to sprouting hot springs all around the world. The Geysir is one of the first of its kind to be written about and in its glory days, would have been spectacular enough to have generated an eponymous noun. Unfortunately, it doesn’t erupt very regularly now. However, there is another geyser, Strokkur, which does erupt every few minutes, starting off with a bright blue bulb of water before releasing steam in quick, short bursts. Unfortunately, strong winds had been joined by rains by the time we reached the basin and it was a literal battle against the elements as we positioned ourselves around Strokkur waiting for it to erupt again and again, tripods and cameras in tow. True, Strokkur doesn’t have the magnificence of the good Ol’ Faithful and the basin is not even close to the scale and variance of the ones in Yellowstone, but it was still very special watching the water churn, holding a breath in anticipation each time it ebbed slightly and letting out a whoop each time it zoomed skywards.

Strokkur just before an eruption

We were thoroughly soaked by the time we were done with the basin, as were two of the three cameras. So we were down to one for the rest of the trip. In hindsight, it was not such a bad thing after all – we still got some good photos and we were all able to look at the magnificent scenery unfolding in front of us through our eyes instead of focusing on them through lenses. But I am the only non-photographer in the group, so I am sure the others vehemently disagree! :)

We moved on from Geysir to Gullfoss, one of the most famous waterfalls in Iceland. The weather showed no signs of letting up, so we shuddered our way into the visitor center/café to warm ourselves up. But just as we were sipping on some tea and hot lamb soup (supposed to be an Icelandic delicacy, was a bit too salty for our taste), the weather suddenly cleared up and it was bright, sunny skies outside. We scampered out in a hurry, not believing our luck, to get a first look at the falls. Gullfoss is even more beautiful than the best literature I have read about it, so I am not even going to attempt to describe it here. But standing on head of the falls, looking at the spray from the water crashing down and catching all the rainbows it created will be one of the most enduring images of this trip. It was as if the gods were conspiring to pamper and tease us, drenching us completely earlier but more than making up for it here.

Gullfoss

We left Gullfoss only when the weather started to turn again, and as we were driving out, we got caught in a hail shower as well. So many seasons in one day – and we were only getting started! :) We were quite beat by the end of it, so we just drove down to our hotel for the night, Ranga, with a few windy pit stops here and there for pictures. As we realized later, there was actually a gale storm warning throughout the region and we had been driving right through it. Quite a welcome to Iceland, I must say.

The northern light hunt carried on, just that we seemed to be moving away from it. We checked into the hotel only to be told that they caught the lights last night, and there was a strong chance of sighting it from the Northern Lights Inn that night! So it was another night of uninterrupted sleep for us (how we would have loved to be woken up!). But it had been an awesome day nevertheless and we woke up itching to be on the road again. Our appetites had been whetted and we couldn’t wait to see what lay ahead for us – wind, rain, sun, hail, snow not withstanding! 

April 9th: Tulips and a glimpse of Middle Earth

This series of posts will chronicle, as faithfully as possible, our recent trip to Iceland and Andalusia. Comments and thoughts are most welcome! Photos from Iceland are courtesy Gireesh, Anchal and Janani and the ones from Andalusia courtesy Gireesh. :)

Our vacation started off with a 12 hour flight from Hong Kong to Amsterdam, where we were catching up with our friends from Singapore and heading on to Reykjavik. It was a surprisingly comfortable flight and since we slept through most of it, we landed in Amsterdam fresh and raring to go. We had a few hours to kill so we decided to visit Keukenhof, which was being heavily advertised as THE place to see the famous Dutch tulips. Being an Indian, the mention of Holland and tulips evokes memories of Bollywood songs choreographed amidst rows and rows of color, where a dapper ‘hero’ serenades his virginal yet saucy ‘heroine’. And that is exactly what we hoped to see in our detour to Keukenhof. Unfortunately, the garden turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax. It is lush and vibrant with an amazing collection of multi-hued flowers, beautiful landscapes with pretty little brooks and even a windmill to boot, but it did not have seas of tulips extending into the horizon contrary to our expectations. Having built up these images so much in our minds (and even imagining a few Amitabh Bachchan inspired photo shoots!), we were a bit disappointed. And I personally find landscaped gardens a tad too artificial, so I think I was a bit biased as well. The gardens seemed quite popular with tourists and locals alike, and a couple of things really stood out during our trip there – a forty-piece orchestra conducting a free performance below the windmill and a chance encounter for the boys with a classmate from India whom they hadn’t been in touch with for years (it is a small world and Indians are slowly conquering it! :D). It was a beautiful day with blue skies and just the right amount of nip in the air, and we were all glad to be outdoors rather than lounging around at the airport, so I don’t regret dropping by anyway. One suggestion, if you decide to visit Keukenhof in transit – there seemed to be a few tulip fields outside the gardens and you can rent bikes to go around. We were a bit short on time so couldn’t check it out, but it looked quite promising.

Keukenhof

After that, it was back to Schiphol and over to Iceland Air for our flight to Reykjavík. Speaking of Schiphol, there are two things to note – they don’t sell chewing gum at the airport and for beer drinkers, Heineken is really cheap! The flight was quite smooth and so excited were we that when we saw our first glimpse of green and brown contours, we mistook it for Iceland (we were flying over Ireland instead). But we were in for a shock as we were landing at Reykjavik. All of us were peering out of the windows to catch a glimpse of the city as the flight started its descent, but there was a heavy cloud cover – expected but not welcome at all – and by the time we broke through, we had already landed! The clouds were so low and the visibility so bad that it really broke our hearts. There was no turning back, of course, so we went ahead and picked up the car, enquiring quite optimistically about the weather en route  and being informed, quite ruefully, that it would be the same for the next few days.. *sigh*

Our first destination was the Northern Lights Inn in Grindavik where we were to drop off our bags and head to the Blue Lagoon spa to relax and recover from the long flight. Grindavik, the name, reminded me of Lord of the Rings – you could expect places like this to dot the map of Middle Earth. The drive from the airport to Grindavik was quite unearthly -- bright green moss clinging on to very low, black rocks, strewn all over vast, almost limitless plains. Every once in a while, we would pass a shallow plateau with these rocks arranged into totem poles, like sprightly scarecrows which had neither grains to defend nor birds to repel. There was a small debate over whether they were natural or man-made – we couldn’t arrive at a conclusion unfortunately. For as far as the eye could see, which wasn’t too far unfortunately, it was just a show of black and green. I have never seen anything like this, but this is how I would now imagine the entrance to Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

After a brief break in our rooms at the inn, we headed to the Blue Lagoon, which is one of the most famous public spas in Iceland. Apart from the usual spa sessions, it has a big milky blue pool where you can take a dip in silica gel infused warm waters to rejuvenate your skin and of course, yourself. It had started to rain by the time we reached, and the mood in the car was somber, to say the least. Then suddenly the road turned and there was a small pale milky blue stream running along the road. It made quite an amazing contrast against the black barren rock as it twined along the road. The stream led on to the spa, and as we figured out later, it was probably just a run-off from it, but the first glimpse did perk us up in anticipation of more things in store, so I guess it served its part. The spa itself was quite nice and worth a visit, though I must say, the short dash from the main building to the open-air lagoon in temperatures that were touching zero and searing winds that made it feel a few degrees lower has to be one of the toughest things I have ever done!

Little stream off the Blue Lagoon 

And then, just as we were heading out from the spa, as if to serve us a special treat for visiting her favorite land, nature had a surprise in store for us. The clouds had miraculously cleared off and the sun made a fiery appearance well above the horizon (at 8pm), lighting up the blue, black and green below in a way only he can, and we were completely awestruck. We could see some mountains far away in the distance, some perfect cones, some a bit more randomly constructed, but they were all aglow, basking and rolling in the sunlight. This definitely was the highlight of the day for me, and a precursor of the sun and rain show that would be unfolding for us over the next few days.

Evening sun

Since it cleared up so much in the evening, we were now hopeful we would be able to see  the Northern Lights too. We were on a quest in Iceland, and a sighting of the Aurora Borealis was one of the treasures we were seeking. :)  We requested the inn staff to wake us up if the show did happen and stayed up a few hours into the night in eager anticipation too, but no wake-up call came, the stars dimmed gradually and the next morning woke up cloudy again. But had we managed to catch the lights on the first night itself, I think it would have been a bit too much for us to handle! I wanted to be surprised by this land every day, with a hint of mischief here and a sprinkling of brilliance there, rather than receive a brimful on the first day itself, because as we all know, a little bit of an awesome thing goes a long long way!  

Vacation time!!

Ohh yeah! We are headed out of Hong Kong for the next couple of weeks on a vacation to Iceland and Spain. Quite a quirky combination, you say? I agree whole-heartedly! The germ of the idea developed towards the end of 2010 when discussing Easter break with a couple of friends of ours. The plan was to do something slightly off the usual tourist beat and we cast our net out wide, starting with the Stans, the Silk Route, Mongolia and finally deciding on Iceland (I think I was slightly biased towards Europe.. :) I have only been to Italy so far, and I have a huge checklist to go through!). Since Gireesh and I wanted to make it a longer break, we teamed it up with Andalusia because of the weather, some very sangria-tinted but warm memories from Gireesh' first trip there as a broke student, and the food.. it is sacrilege to ignore the stomach on a vacation and where best to pamper it other than the land of tapas and paellas.. :)


So we are visiting Andalusia, starting off at Seville and then driving around the area. I was very keen not to plan this leg of the trip too much, just let our impulses decide what we wanted to do while we are there. Of course, it sounded criminal to head down south and not see Seville, which is why we have allocated a few days just for the  much decorated home of flamenco. After that, we just leg it.. we have a couple of guide books, we will hopefully have a GPS, so we hit the road, letting our eyes, ears or even our stomachs decide when to stop and how long to stay. We have a lot of options, famous Cordoba and Granada, the rugged Mediterranean coast, hikes along Sierra Grazalema, the Pueblo Blancos (white towns hugging green brown hills), or even the relative hustle and bustle of Malaga (if we end up missing malls too much :)). I just don't want to know now what we will be doing in Spain.. this hint of the unknown has whetted my appetite even more for el viaje a Espanol!


Iceland in comparison is a very planned trip. It needs to be because we have such an amazing geographical diversity at our disposal that we have to do full justice to it. In fact, most of what we are doing would qualify as the usual tourist run in Iceland (so much for wanting to get away from it all!! :)), but the place seems so  unsullied and remote, almost like one of Earth's last frontiers, that I am sure it will be everything we are looking for. We are also hoping to catch a glimpse of the Northern lights while we are there, though April is a tad too late for the main show and apparently, its raining the entire time we are there (I would do anything to prove wunderground wrong!!). But, like most natural phenomena, you can only hope to be at the right place at the right time, and I am sure even a slight sighting will awe and humble us for years to come.  


I will be trying to blog each day, assuming we have access to the internet and assuming I find words to describe what we are about to see. Right now, I am in a state of suspended animation, or as Floyd would put it, 'comfortably numb', prepped and ready to take off and hoping, willing, praying that this turns out to be the trip of a lifetime!  

It's a beautiful day..

It's a beautiful day 

Sky falls, you feel like 

It's a beautiful day 

Don't let it get away 

What an absolutely lovely day it was on Friday.. And I couldn't get the titular U2 ditty out of my head! Hong Kong is very much a creature of the night. Come evening, and restaurants/bars/clubs get going with servings of neon to cater to all tastes, the much photographed skyline resumes it's daily affair with light and Victoria harbor proudly shows off it's iridescence. Hong Kong by day, on the other hand, is a bit like an ugly quarterback - sprightly, strong but probably not a pageant winner. However, every once in a while, a bright sunny day comes along when the sky is blue, the sea glints green, the humidity is really low and the infamous haze completely missing. And such a day, like last Friday, totally beats the lights out of the snazziest night shows Hong Kong can produce. Such a day in Hong Kong is meant to be celebrated.. Unfortunately, such days usually never fall on weekends!


After having spent most of the morning today just admiring the view from our balcony, I finally decided to budge outside, because it would be criminal to not do so! I walked down the new and very busy (with construction) Lung Wo road from IFC to Causeway Bay, looking for a cafe called 18 grams which I had googled earlier. There is quite a bit of construction happening on the road, so defInitely not a walk I would recommend - for now, at least. But it was still quite refreshing to not have to push my way through a gaggle of Louis Vuitton toting ladies or get pushed around by crate/box/trolley carrying angry men. And I did manage to get some good views of the harbor overlooking Kowloon. (Note to self -  always carry camera when walking, my phone hardly does justice to the day!)

Central Hong Kong

Kowloon side of Victoria Harbor

Harbor Road, Wan Chai

Soon however, I did have to merge on to Lockhart Road and enter shopping land, after which the walk ceased to be novel or very interesting. The cafe itself was decent, though a lot smaller than I had expected (I had read it was an Oz-run place.. But looked like it had  been customized to HK sizes!). It was quite comfortable though, and I sat there for an hour just reading and surfing (not sure if they have wifi though, i didn't try). It is a bit out of place right in the middle of  hardware shops and local restaurants in Causeway Bay,  but then, looking at it's decor, the clear plastic curtains and low head lights, maybe not! I doubt if I'll be back here - maybe if I am in the area, but then I doubt any errand would bring me to Cannon Street either. So another cafe down and my hunt till goes on.. But I still can't get over how lovely the day was!

Chi Lin Nunnery/Nan Lian Gardens

Last Friday, I got up with a very specific destination in mind. So far, my sabbatical has been completely devoid of plans and deadlines of any sort - I have been letting my impulses decide how I spend the next few minutes, hours, days. But when we caught up with a friend for dinner a few days ago, conversation veered towards the Chi Lin Nunnery and the Nan Lian Gardens in Diamond Hill. Our friend had recently taken a few visitors to the place and had good things to say about it, especially the veggie restaurant. That got my mouth watering, both literally and figuratively – here was a brand new experience waiting to be had, and the lure of a good lunch was just icing on cake. We had stayed in Hong Kong long enough to know that anything even remotely famous is almost always a tourist trap, and I didn’t expect the nunnery to be any different. But there is always an off-chance that something will surprise you in spite of all the crowd-pleasing artifice, so I was quite excited nevertheless. So destination Chi Lin it was on Friday!

I love walking, and if the place is new and the route unknown, that’s all the more reason to get there on foot. However, Chi Lin Nunnery was a bit too far no matter how many google map strategies I tried and since I was a bit hard pressed for time, I decided to walk to Yau Ma Tei and take the MTR to Diamond Hill. While tromping down busy Jordan Road, I came across this pretty pink blossom tree (not sure which blossoms though, didn't look a lot like Sakura but I could be wrong) -- the first harbinger of spring! 

Solitary Blossom on Jordan Road

I didn't know we had blossoms in Hong Kong, but Gireesh tells me a huge bunch flanks Garden Road every year. This one was pretty enough for me, specially because the tree and the shrine that housed it really stood out amidst the lego-blocked buildings that dot most of urban Kowloon. 

Moving on, I ran into one of the main streets that make the famous Night market. By day, the street looked so quiet and ordinary, I would not have recognized it but for the markers. What a transformation a few hours will bring, when stalls will be set up and boxes of souvenirs, apparel, purses, gadgets will be set up for the perusal of haggling, remorseless and mostly touristy crowds that will poke around narrow streets hours into the night.   Quite interesting, I must say!

Night Market street, by day!

The rest of the walk was quite nondescript with several similar blocks packed with a lot of honking cars and nudging people. But just before Yau Ma Tei station, I saw a pretty little shrine, dedicated to Tin Hau, the most popular goddess in Hong Kong.  The shrine had a biggish garden and a square where quite a few people were lounging around, reading the news paper or playing mahjong. The complex itself was compact but very colorful, with hundreds of coiled incense sticks building up an aromatic haze inside the main chambers and a few devotees offering their prayers to the main deity. Unfortunately, they didn't allow pictures inside the main shrine, but it looked similar to other Tin Hau temples that dot the region. However, it was so quiet and serene inside, I forgot all about the traffic half a block away and as W.H. Davies put it, took time to just stand and stare.  

Tin Hau temple, Yau Ma Tei

Just outside the temple complex, there was a small roadside shrine, and judging by the number of passers-by who bowed to it, seemed quite popular. 

Street side temple

After this brief stopover, I finally got to the MTR and an uneventful ride later, was at the entrance to the Nan Lian Gardens. The first thing that struck me about the entire area was how the usually ubiquitous sky scrapers were relegated to the distant background, giving an idea of how huge the entire complex was. The Nan Lian Gardens are attached to and maintained by the nunnery and entrance to both is free, which, along with the proximity to the MTR, makes them very accessible to the local public.  The introductory spiel about the garden pronounced it to be a modern-day oasis for the city weary population to relax and rejuvenate in - I was about to find out if the claim actually held true. 

Entrance to the Nan Lian Gardens

The gardens focus on the use of water, rocks, wood and green to create a visually simulating environment. There are a few wooden pagodas, prayer halls and auditoriums spread out between artificial lakes and water bodies, and you are only allowed to walk in one direction, completing the entire circuit before exiting out into the nunnery. The central pagoda is Hong Kong's diminutive answer to Kinkakuji and while it doesn't really deserve any comparisons with Kyoto's famous golden pavilion, it looked resplendent with a dash of orange and green thrown in. It was not a sunny day unfortunately, because it would have made a very pretty reflection on the lake surrounding it. 

Golden pagoda at Nan Lian Gardens

I enjoyed the leisurely walk around the garden. It was very quiet inside, which was surprising since it is surrounded by busy freeways and roads on all sides. I found my answer in the brochure later -- they have sound proof barriers all around the garden and monastery in order to preserve the atmosphere inside the complex. Quite commendable, I must say! Even though the gardens were constructed pretty recently, a lot of effort has gone into making them aesthetically pleasing and harmonious, which was a lot more than what I had expected. The buildings and gates stood out nicely next to the landscaped slopes and there were faint strains of traditional music chiming in from well concealed speakers.  However, after every couple of turns, an ugly building or two would rear its head in the distance, serving a stark reminder that I was still in the middle of one of the most heavily populated urban regions in the world.   
    

Brown, Green and Pink

I missed the entrance to the restaurant the first time around and I couldn't have found it soon enough. After all the walking around, I was really game for a good meal. The restaurant has a great location right behind a wooden water mill, overseeing a small brook. Unfortunately, the food here was the single biggest disappointment of the entire trip, even more so because it was so highly anticipated. The tofu didn't seem very fresh and the stir fry noodles were dripping in oil. The only redeeming feature was the free pickle in the beginning, but one swallow doesn't make a summer. I think my unhappiness was exacerbated by my hunger, but I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. 


I moved on to the nunnery after the meal, my initial enthusiasm tempered down a notch or two. The structure was beautiful, but not spectacular. The gently sloping roofs and engraved motifs were like most monasteries in Asia, but what the place lacked in grandeur, it made up for in serenity. Maybe because it was a weekday afternoon, but the crowds were thin, people were very respectful and there were no external deterrents to the atmosphere built by the golden spires and lotus ponds. I really hope it stays like all throughout the year -- the sobriquet of being an "oasis in the middle of Diamond Hill's urban desert" would be quite appropriate then. 

Rooftops of the nunnery

Lotus Garden

Overall, this was a productive day out. I got to see a new place, found a new restaurant to pan, had a good walk without having to breathe in anything carcinogenic and got a couple of half-decent pictures. Would I recommend it? If you are a tourist in Hong Kong on a tight timeline and a checklist, maybe not. You will find much prettier gardens/monasteries in other Asian countries. But if you are a resident, its worth spending an afternoon here instead of lazing on your couch or marching through super cold malls. It feels a bit artificial and antiseptic and probably has no historical importance, but for city-sore eyes like mine, anything beyond the usual glitter and grime is always a welcome break!
   

Hong Kong state of mind..

We have been living in Hong Kong for little over three years now, and our time here has been, in parts, fun and frustrating, exhilarating and exasperating, solitary and social. We lead very busy and full lives here, getting more and more attuned to the beat of this unique city with each passing day. How well we've fit into this life here comes as a bit of surprise to us because the decision to move here in December 2007 was a very difficult one. We had been living and working in Tokyo and were completely enamored by its charm, its people and its culture. We had also been traveling quite extensively in Japan and loving everything we saw. Hong Kong, on the other hand, had always come up short in comparison during the few brief visits we made here. The weather was always awful, dark clouds with pretty low visibility, road and lanes always crammed with shops, hawkers and shoppers alike, and apart from its fabulous skyline (it still takes my breath away sometimes!), very little spectacle to awe visitors. So with a very resentful heart and not without a few tantrums at work, we shifted base here, and for the longest time, just focused on the negatives. Apart from the aforementioned 'flaws' which continued to niggle at us, we would grumble about how rude the taxi drivers were, how people would rush into MTRs before passengers inside could get out, how there was no country associated with this tiny SAR and how in six months, we would be done with everything new and exciting Hong Kong has to offer.

Well, its been three years and counting, and I am happy to say we are still in Hong Kong and actually at peace with it. Sure, I can see dull, dark clouds out of my window as I type this now but I have seen sun-lit days too when the harbor goes aquamarine; shops, hawkers and shoppers still throng many narrow streets but I now know of quite a few streets where they don't; mainland China is the country associated with this SAR and contrary to my misjudged perceptions, it is an explorer's delight; I also know that taxi drivers are not really being rude, its just a matter of intonation! And what do I say of the presumption that we will be done with the place in six months - we are still exploring and still getting surprised, maybe not always pleasantly, but good outweighs the bad and there is always something else to look forward to after each experience that didn't end so well. And then there are positives we had never even thought about. Hong Kong is a major travel hub in Asia so its quite easy for us to travel out of the country and also to get back in touch with so many friends and relatives who keep dropping by either in transit, for work or just for fun. Hong Kong is not a major culture center but the performing arts scene is reasonably vibrant - we tend to attend more live concerts/musicals/plays in a year in Hong Kong than we did in all our time in Tokyo. Public transport is quite comprehensive and safe and has been a faithful accomplice whenever I've headed out to an unfamiliar part of town armed with just my phone and an Octopus card. I think I can go on and on about what I now appreciate about Hong Kong, but I am pretty sure you get the point already. 

Almost every place in the world has its set of pros and cons, and only when you appreciate the former and tolerate the latter do you fall in love with it. I have been in love twice, and I think I am well on my way to falling in love third time over. The transformation has been gradual - it wasn't love at first sight like it was with Seattle, nor a short and intense courtship like Tokyo, but more of an arranged marriage that with time has matured into a deeper commitment. I think I first got an inkling of this in fall of 2009 when, after a long trip to some of my favorite places in the US, our flight (Cathay of course, we need our miles!) landed at HKIA and both of us went, that was a great trip but feels so good to be back home! 

The Great Hong Kong Cafe Hunt!

Ok, so I am not a big coffee drinker, let alone a connoisseur. But I am totally in love with the idea of sitting for hours in a pretty little cafe reading a book while working slowly on a muffin/bagel/cake and sipping, well, tea or a juice. Unfortunately, after so many years in HK, I am yet to find that cozy place where one can spend hours doing nothing. To be fair, I haven't had the time to look really hard either. With super busy work weeks and action packed weekends, catching some down time in a cafe is typically not priority #1. However, with a much needed sabbatical on hand, I suddenly have a lot of free time on hand. So I thought, why not use some of it to try and find a cool, comfortable cafe where I would love to lounge my hours away. Hence starts the Great Hong Kong Cafe Hunt! The rules are pretty simple. The cafe I have in mind must:

• not be a one of the ubiquitous coffee conglomerates which have become synonymous with city life - sorry Starbucks, but I am looking for something beyond the mass produced
• not be a part of a mall - HK has too many of them around already and I don't want to spend any more money, words or time on them
• be comfortable, atmospheric and must have atleast a basic selection of coffees and snacks -- food is not the focus for sure, but something to munch on is absolutely required if I am spending more than two hours in the same place!.

It has to be a stand-alone cafe that doesn't frown on the lingerers and provide that sprinkling of chutzpah which makes them stand apart from the crowd.

It all started with a place called Java Java which we came across during one of our weekend ramblings on Hollywood road in Sheung Wan. The place looked quite chilled out with a few comfortable looking sofas lying around and what seemed like a half decent menu. Unfortunately, we couldn't go in because we were running late, but I decided to visit the place the next morning. They claimed to do breakfasts, so I landed up at 10 am for a bagel and a cuppa. I agree, a bit too late for a Tuesday morning breakfast but I am on a break too right! Unfortunately, the place was sold out of almost everything, including bagel and cream cheese. So my cafe hunt didn't really start on a very auspicious note. The place looked cozy enough, there were a lot of people, mostly expats, hanging around reading a book or surfing the net, only I am not sure what they were munching on! Anyway, since this hunt is not as much about the food as the ambiance and feel, I think I'll be back again to check it out. I just need to find the timing of their delivery truck!

With an aborted first attempt, I had to resort to google to fish out a list of other possible contenders in the area. There were surprisingly quite a few articles dedicated to cafes in Hong Kong, which bodes really well for continuing my hunt, and I was able to zero in on one called Barista Jam on Jervois Street, near the Sheung Wan market. It was supposed to be a speciality coffee place but the reason I picked it was the name -- precise and different. On way to Jervois Street, I came across a place called Graze on Bonham Strand which claimed to do coffees and cocktails.
Since I was quite grubby, there was an impromptu change of plans and I changed tracks. I did try a muffin and a coffee there and sat there long enough to finish my first blog. The place was nice enough, but seemed a bit too plastic to be memorable and there was construction going on next door which didn't help the cause either. However, there were quite a few people, both expat and local, lounging around and the coffee was decent (the muffin was strictly ok, one of the many frozen and toasted offerings you get all around HK). So will I be back? If I am in the area, most likely, but I don't see myself hoisting myself to Bonham Strand just for a few hours in Graze.

As for Barista Jam - they might do very good coffee (I didn't get to try it out because I was over-caffeinated with my morning tea and the pit stop at Graze already) but the seating was not comfortable at all. Just plain benches and desks, meant to be shared between customers, so definitely not the place that I was looking for.

All in all, an interesting day in Sheung Wan, but I am nowhere closer to finding THE cafe. I am not even sure if I am on a chimera hunt or it will have an end, but there is only one way of finding out! I still have a few more days to go, so the hunt continues.. :)

Take 3!

I have attempted to blog before and haven't been very successful. My first blog was all of 10 lines still languishing in my drafts and discussing it further will actually give it more credit than it deserves. My second attempt was much better, since i was inspired by a really wonderful and thought provoking trip to Beijing and THE wall. I resolved to start documenting all our vacations moving forward, capture little details which might go blurry in our minds as time passes, focus on how we felt in all these strange and wonderful lands we would visit. Both my husband, Gireesh, and I are avid travelers. Nothing pleases us more than getting lost in a brand new county, soak up the atmosphere, revel in it's beauty, relish it's food, empathize with it's culture, walk its roads not taken. We are, as I said, travelers, not tourists - so preserving our experiences are just as important to us as the experiences themselves. And being based in Hong Kong gives us pretty good access to places all around the world. The sky is, literally, the limit (though Gireesh did kind of breach it in New Zealand, but i digress.)!

So my second blogging attempt was supposed to be just that - a faithful document of our travels to serve as memento to us and a handy guide to anyone who likes our whacky travel ideas. However, before it could go really far (all of two posts I think), we discovered the power of images - photos almost always speak so much better than words when introducing a new place (ok, maybe the Dickensians will disagree, but I am talking about mere mortals here!) so our travelogue quickly became a photo-log, which we update quite meticulously and take a lot of pride in. Our travel photos show exactly who we are and what each of the places we've visited have meant to us. Unfortunately, we've only started doing this a couple of years ago and quite a few of our trips, most of them in the beautiful and vastly underrated innards of Japan, still need to be documented. But that's another project! We are still thinking of how we can preserve and share our photo-logs better - right now they are in the usual but often abused confines of Facebook and Picasa.

But with all this focus on showcasing our trips abroad, I think I've been quite negligent of this quirky little place which we call home. Hong Kong is such a study in contrasts - a little piece of land struggling to hold on to it's British antecedents while still desiring to be a part of the revolution that is China. A place where wizened old ladies still call me Missy (and I still love it when they do that!) but garrulous taxi drivers keep yelling on one of a dozen cell phones while negotiating the hairiest of bends, where real estate prices are shooting through the roof in one of the biggest concrete sprawl in the world but small ten-home agrarian villages still dot most of the exhilarating hiking trails around the region, where noise, light and air pollution spawn heated debates but 70% of the green and hilly land is preserved and out of bounds for any kind of construction. There is still so much I haven't seen about this little big place, so much that's exciting and explorable.

So here goes Take 3! This one will be dedicated to everything that surprises, interests, disturbs, upsets, pleases me about Hong Kong, little mundane things that no one would probably notice or care about, but which affect me in any way while I go about my business here. Hopefully this will expand on to include any other place we end up calling home. Because I honestly believe traveling is a state of mind - there are things to explore and learn everywhere and its no less worthwhile just because it's your own backyard!

We will rock you..

Another weekend over, and another week begins.. Weekends have become such a cherished possession these days, an oasis in the drab, mundane routine of life.. this one was really special because of Queen, arguable the greatest among all bands.. I had always been a big fan right from college days when Queen used to be one of the major accomplices to late night assignments.. but over the years, American Idol (and its Indian counterparts) took over and Queen was pushed into the background.. This Saturday we went to a performance of 'We will rock you', a West end musical based on the songs of Queen, which is currently touring Hong Kong.. The story was no great shakes, the acting ok-ok, but the songs more than made up for everything.. It brought back all the euphoria, energy, ecstasy that good music always evokes.. All time favorites like the eponymous 'We will rock you", "We are the champions", "Crazy little thing called love", "Its a kind of magic" and of course the "Bohemian Rhapsody" - the latter being a revelation to me.. I had always dismissed the song quite lightly earlier, but the musical sure made me appreciate the beauty of the melody that has entranced millions. And then there were some songs that I had only given a cursory hearing too earlier - "Somebody to love", "I want it all", "Only the good die young" and so many more.. We spent all of Saturday humming revisiting all of these songs.. and other college favorites like Pink Floyd (another revelation to me actually), Beatles and the like. .. these songs are still playing in my head, and actually made Monday quite tolerable! A great Saturday dedicated to rock and roll - the day the music came back alive for us!

Palace, Lake.. and a Great Wall!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog.. I have owned this site for a while now and unfortunately, have nothing much to show for it.. blame it on evening sitcoms, hectic weekends or just plain laziness.. But today, I am writing this with a brand new resolve.. my first blog, and hopefully the precursor of many more to come!

Last weekend, we had flown over to Beijing, just over three hours from our home base in Hong Kong.. the trip was supposed to be nothing more than a break from humdrum work-home-eat-sleep routine. We didn't have too many expectations from the city - this was our first tourist trip to a big city actually.. all our vacations so far had been focussed on getting as far away from cities as possible!! We had heard so much about the language problems we would face (after three years in Tokyo, that didn't fuss us too much), the pollution, the scamsters fishing around for guileless tourists.. but Beijing exceeded all our expectations.. and how!

On the exterior, it looked like any other city, its wide tree-lined roads and low rises a refreshing change from the voyeuristic sky scrapers of Tokyo and Hong Kong, but a modern, pulsating and seemingly drab city nevertheless.. but then suddenly, you notice pretty, multi-eaved, traditional roofs peeking out from in between the modern buildings.. wonderful smells of roadside food stalls waft by and directly invite your stomach.. strains of traditional music are heard in a distance and an old man practices water calligraphy in front of a centuries old temple.. and Beijing begins to absorb you into itself.


We spent the first day strolling around the magnificent Forbidden City and the cheerful Summer Palace, enormous palaces both of them but so very different in the emotions they evoke.. The Forbidden City is pure grandeur, with its rows of opulent halls and paintings and gardens. The Summer Palace on the other hand is playful, wearing its wealth and beauty very lightly.. you can actually imagine kings and queens of yore gambolling around the picturesque Kunming Lake. We lunched at the lively snack street in Wanfujing, and returned there again for hot pot in the evening. And then we discovered the night food market, which was far more superior to anything we've had in Hong Kong so far.. so on for a second dinner! (Needless to say, food forms an important part of our vacation!)

The next day was reserved for the greatest among all walls, the Great Wall of China.. and man, was it huge!! It felt like an honor just to be standing on the wall, overlooking the undulating hills and more of the wall.. Apparently, it took them 2000 years to build the entire wall, which stetches for some 6000km, and employed thousands of workers, many of whom lie buried beneath it.. Standing there on top, I felt so small, so insignificant - it was a humbling experience. Apparently, there is a saying in Chinese that if you haven't climbed to the top of the Great Wall, you are not a hero.. well, we wanted to be heroes, so we did climb all the way to the top of the wall (the one at Badaling at least), but unfortunately, way too many people had the same idea.. and the top most section of the wall looked more like a Sunday morning fish market in Kolkata rather than the hallowed portals of a celebrated wonder! Grandeur, beauty, immensity - all of these define the Great Wall of China.. but those looking for solitude, go find another wall! This place aint for the misanthropes!

We also saw and admired a marvellous acrobatics show, the communal Temple of Heaven, walked through a few hutongs, ignored quite a few touts offering pedicab rides around the place and made another trip to the yummy night market..


Our sojourn in Beijing was not without its irritants.. throughout the trip, we had to wade our way around hawkers hardselling their wares, "guides" promoting themselves, fraud students advertizing equally fraud art exhibitions.. and we actually got duped twice.. once by a rigged cabbie whom we ditched as soon as we realized his meter was running twice as fast and another time on the Great Wall when someone stole our tickets for taking the trolley down - they weren't selling tickets any more and our bus back to town was leaving shortly.. enough to drive me to hysterics!

But a few weeks days down the line, I doubt if we'll even remember these blots on an otherwise perfect trip.. After a few months, we'll probably forget exactly what the Forbidden City looks like, and a year later, maybe even the Great Wall. But what will always stay with us are the feelings - awe, wonder, curiosity, satisfaction - and the flashes of a city standing at the crossroads of existence.. welcoming the future with open hands but nurturing its past with a fierce pride. In Beijing this weekend, I saw where Delhi would be in a decade or so, where India as a country is heading towards in a few more - pleasantly schizophrenic.

XieXie, Beijing! Thanks for a great weekend!