On Saturday, Anna, Sara, Tim, Yoyo, and I went to the Wetland Park, which is a park full of habitats designed for certain forms of wildlife, such as birds, crabs, and fish. There are multiple paths/boardwalks that allow you to get a little closer to the wetlands. In fact, one of the boardwalks was built right into the mud, so it moved a bit when walking on it - little dangerous, haha! The park has a lot of green plants and grasses, which was weird to see in Hong Kong as we're used to seeing pavement and skyscrapers everyone we turn. The park is also the home of Pui Pui, an alligator that someone was keeping as a pet in Hong Kong. When the alligator got too big, the owner let it loose, and it took multiple months to catch it, so now, it has it's own cage at the park on display for all to see!
*Bird habitat
*Pui Pui the alligator!
*Entrance to the park surrounded by poinsettas :)
Today, Anna & I went to the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas, which is exactly what it's called, a temple with 10,000 Buddhas inside of it. The temple is at the top of a mountain, so we had to hike up about 450 steps, but it wasn't as bad as it sounds as there were golden monk/Buddha statues lining the walk up & each one had a different pose/facial expression. To make the climb more entertaining, we took pictures mimicking some of the statues :) The temple was really neat as there were small Buddha's lining the walls of the building. It's hard to believe that there were 10,000 inside, but I wasn't going to count or anything to make sure, haha! Besides the temple, there was also a pagoda and multiple statues of I'm assuming popular figures in Buddhism religion. At the bottom of the mountain, there was a traditional Chinese cemetery, so we decided to check it out. Cemeteries here are quite different as there are no headstones. Instead, there are multiple buildings filled with little areas on the wall dedicated to the deceased person.
*Going on up!
*Buddhas inside temple - so many!!
*Do I look like him?? hehe :)
After the temple, Anna & I decided to check out Tai Po Market as she had heard about it in her Chinese history class. We had no idea what it was, but quickly found out that it was a wet market upon entering the building. In HK, a wet market is when vendors sell bunches of different seafood - shrimp, fish, clams, mussels, shark, you name it! All of the seafood is live & they just hack right into it when you pick out what you want - yeah, it's as disgusting as it sounds, haha! The floor is also soaking wet because they basically just bring all of the seafood in straight from the harbor & everything is in baskets & buckets filled with water until they are sold. I don't think I'd ever want to go back, but it was an interesting sight!
*Lots of fish & shrimp!!
*Inside the wet market
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