The first stop was at Man Mo temple:
One of the first traditional-style temples built during the colonial era, Man Mo temple's magnificent external architecture reflects its historical roots. The temple is dedicated to the Taoist gods of Man (literature) and Mo (martial arts). There is also a statue of Pau Kung, the god of justice, and another of Shing Wong, the god of the city. The plaques near the entrance give an interesting perspective on the history of the temple and its gods. Inside, the air is thick with aromatic smoke from the coils and incense sticks that are said to carry prayers to the spirit world.
When we arrived at the temple, our tour guide encouraged us to "bang the drum and gong so the spirits would know we were there and listen to us". I politely declined, although all of the other tourists did so. The tour guide then handed out incense for us to place in fron to fthe "god" of our choice, to "make a wish". I declined again...How insulting would that be to the one true God? I did explain to the tour guide that I had no issue observing the temple, but would not participate because of my beliefs. I do believe this was the first time in my life I had ever observed real-time, Old Testament - like, idol worship--it is sad, really to see people coming in and placing fruit in front of these ugly statutes, paying money for long-lasting incense for the "gods" to remember them, and the choking dust of burning incense in that place--if you breathed it in long enough you would probably lose all rational reasoning ability.
Now, this is Hong Kong, and this small looking building is sandwiches between many other bigger buildings. The interior of the temple. The curly things are incense coils--the bigger the curls, the longer they burn, some up to 2-3 months. There is dust everywhere. After about 10 minutes in the building, your eyes burn something fierce.
The view from the top of Victoria Peak is the world famous "Hong Kong" vista. It was quite cold the day we were there, and extremely windy. Thank goodness for the Starbucks latte I copped in the shopping center.
We then drove around the coastline, on windy, hilly roads, to Aberdeen , which is where most of the fishing business still takes place. There are a large number of fishermen that live on their boats, and we saw the famous tourist trap Jumbo Restaurant , which I believe was featured in some Tom Cruise movie or other. We did not eat there, nor would I choose to do so, given my proclivities towards motion sickness--sea sickness in particular.
Continuing to drive around the coastline, we then drove through the Repulse Bay area, which is known as the "Hawaii of Hong Kong." Hunh. As it turns out, one of the guys I had dinner with the night before lives in the most famous building in Repulse Bay, this one with the big hole in it:
Supposedly that makes for some fantastic "feng shui", because the hills are behind it, the bay is in front, and the hole allows the nature forces to flow through and all around. In contrast, the "feng shui" of the "Standing Rib Roast" building in the right hand side of the photo below is supposed to be the worst in all of Hong Kong--the building has been completed for 7 years and remains completely vacant. Don't ask me. It is on prime real estate, but the fact that some witch doctor guy can declare it "bad feng shui" and everyone shuns it, is just a bit much.
We then drove on to Stanley, a lovely water-front community, where we had lunch, then wandered around looking at all the "stuff" for sale for a few hours before boarding the bus to go "home."
All in all a great relaxing day, where all details were taken care of for me. I even avoided spending money on "stuff".
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