City of Life - Hong Kong

With all that Buddha explanation about in my previous post, I decided to bring back those memories of Hong Kong myself!

This trip was totally unexpected. I was in school when mom called and said daddy is going to HK for a fair this summer. With something on my mind, I said i wanna go too! Then Sai was pulled into the plan and it was finalized! It was the three of us and mom was planning to walk it to Palani.

All excitement and happiness in school!! All things were packed and we reached Chennai by train and stayed the night over @ some random hotel. The flight was late that night and we were @ the airport! Sai and I were going abroad after a verrrry long time! The flight was to Singapore and a transit from there - 8 hours!

The Singapore airport is the most beautiful man made thing after the Taj Mahal I would say. The various shops, the colors, the people, the orchids and every damn thing was welcoming in that place! Starbuckssss - - Ooooh!! Dad got us black coffee and I enjoyed every bit of it!

The flight from Singapore to Hong Kong was tiring... my bones were paining and Sai was a little to heavy on my shoulders. The landing in Hong Kong is the best! The runway is withing the seas and it feels like the flight is plunging into the water!! I luuuvvveeddd the city!! From up there i tlooked like a board game with false buildings that were twisted and turned to look cool! But not joking, every damn building was different!

We checked into the hotel after a loooonnnggg "not-so-refreshing" drive. All way long, there were buildings, constructions, more buildings, more constructions, containers, more containers ..... oops... a tunnel, more tunnels... phew!!! Looked like the city was made of just blocks and blocks of brick and cement! I hardly saw any greenery and life!

The hotel people were sweet! They offered Foxs which Sai and I grabbed immediately. We were famished. We freshened up and left in search of food and found this Pakistani restaurant near the hotel. (I hate it that I dont remember its name!) We picked up water and some stuff from Watsons and had dinner! The Phuket fish and Curd was THE MOST AMAZING thing there! I was sooooo desperate to try clams but dad just would not allow it on the table! :( Sai and Dad had naan and some gravy everyday of our stay there and I experimented almost all i could.. except the clams! I had Squid soup!!!! (nuthin gr8!)

When I fell in love with Hyderabad, the moment I lost it!

That was the glimpse i got of the Buddha statue in Hussain Sagar lake. I always wondered why people went there - 1) the place stinks like 2 tons of bleaching powder has been mixed with 10 tons of rotten fruits 2) its just a statue 3) its not even worth 60 bucks to go by that boat - you get to see buddha's butt for like half and hour, and another half you're trying to figure out what is so special about his front that people actually get off these boats to take pictures right by his feet - WHATEVER!

Pranav and I started off with this boat ride on the first available boat. 60 damn bucks for the ticket per head. This particular boat has entertainment but did not give the privilege to get off the boast and take pics near HIM! we dint care - we just wanted to go!

I was holding my digi cam after a long long time and it was sunset time! I kept clicking and clicking and the memory card was full! The stench form the waters were killing me... the loud noise from the music that was played for the dancers on the boat was worse! some telugu song that goes "Aah antte amalapuram... aahh antte ...puram" EEEEuuuuwww!!! Pranav was sitting just for the sake of it and we could not even get offff!!

It took us half an hour to see Buddha's face and that's when i clicked this picture! The sunset behind HIM turned purple and it was beautiful to see the statue lit from the bottom! I tried getting my bored brother to pose but in vain! For a minute, all i could think of was the Buddha statue the 2 of us visit in Lantau Island, Hong Kong. The one in Hong Kong was on a hill top and I instantly fell in love with it! I remember complaining that my dad should have come too. The Super Chinese lunch that was served in the Po Lan monastery was immensely yummy, all i could identify was their Tofu soup and some leaves with pepper on them! Pranav dreaded the food and Dad thought it was a waste of 100 dollars on us - Food wasters! I remember clicking soooooo many pictures of this BIG Buddha, i was fascinated by this big guy made of bronze in between the greenest mountains!

Vroommm!!! I was in Hyd! It was stinking and I hated it! The telugu music was loud and the mood was horrible! I got off the boat and looked up to see the Birla Mandir lit up so beautifully again! I didn't go back to any temple in my thoughts, walked my brother to an auto and we left!

I almost fell in love with Hyderabad but thankfully I was woken up!