Religious Landmarks, Oh My!!!!

   
      The next day brought us many new adventures. After getting up in the morning and getting ready to set out for the day we took the subway and traversed the streets of Hong Kong until we made it to the Hong Kong temple. We spent some time outside of the temple taking pictures and enjoying its beauty. After we were done taking pictures we headed inside for our appointment and did some baptisms for the dead in the Hong Kong temple. We were able to enjoy the spirit that was invited in, the beauty, and to perform baptisms for some of the dead. It was interesting listening to all of the names as they were Chinese names for the most part that we couldn't easily pronounce. It was a great experience. After we were done we crossed the street and took the opportunity to change in the church that was across the street from the temple. We hoped to visit the distribution center, but it was closed so we would have to stop by another day. We left the church and took a few more pictures of the temple and headed out for the next adventure of the day.
       We headed back to the subway station and made our way next to a Buddhist landmark. After the subway we took a bus out to the location of the Big Buddha. We explored all around and experienced the Po Lin monastery. At the monastery we also were able to see many statues of different kinds of soldiers and photographed ourselves with the one we felt we related with the most. After we had made our way down the statute lined path and while the other girls in our group opted out of the experience and opted for something a little bit different, Lorilei and I decided to pay to experience a traditional vegetarian meal at the monastery. We enjoyed some tasty tofu and other vegetarian dishes, It was a great experience.

     Once we were done with our meal we began our journey up to the Buddha. We hiked up several flights of stairs to make our way up to the Buddha, which was placed atop a museum. We made it to the top and took many pictures and looked around the outside of the Buddha. Then, as our vegetarian meal ticket also included the cost to enter the museum we entered into the museum which the statue was placed atop. We looked around and were educated on much of the life of the Buddha as well as the Buddhist beliefs. As we were headed out of the museum we were also able to see several Buddhist monks, come to experience the monument to the Buddha and be enlightened. After we had spent a good deal of time at the Buddha we headed back down from the Buddha and looked around some of the shops that were around, some of us buying souvenirs. Once we were done we hopped on the bus and headed back toward Hong Kong-Kowloon to enjoy the rest of our evening and then to head back to our hostel to turn in for the night. Another  day and another adventure were at an end.

The Escalator and Victoria's Peak

    Once we were done eating at TGI fridays the first thing we did in Hong Kong was headed to the Escalator, this Escalator is one of the longest in the world and travels one day in the morning and another direction in the evening, several people take this Escalator everyday to travel to work. We headed up just for fun and traveled most of it before finding a street to head down rather than walking down several stairs back to the beginning.

   After the adventure of the escalator we traversed the streets of Hong Kong until we made our way to the starting point of the Victoria's Peak tram. We waited in line to head up to the peak to see the beauty and excitement that waited for us at the top. After a long wait we took a ride along a rather steep tram rail up to the top of Victoria's peak. Once we got to the top we looked around in some of the shops that were located on the peak and then traveled outside to see the view of Victoria's peak. We got some beautiful pictures of the top of the peak, while shivering a little bit as it was just a tad bit chill at that point. Once we were done taking pictures we headed inside and explored some of the shops that were located at the peak. After exploring we decided that we were a bit hungry so we found one of the restaurants on the peak and grabbed a bite to eat.
    Exhausted from our adventures of the day after we were done eating we headed towards the tram heading back down the peak and went down. At the bottom back at the tram entrance we made our way back to a subway station so we could head back to our hostel. At the other girls block we bid them goodnight and headed upstairs to get ready for bed, set our alarm, and get a good nights sleep before the next days exploration.

Welcome to Hong Kong

       After trekking a little ways through no man's land we made it to the Hong Kong customs. We each took our turn getting through customs and then headed into the subway station in Hong Kong. We got a type of card known as an Octopus card and used our card to purchase subway tickets and drug our suitcases onto the subway and made it down a couple of stops only to realize that the initial subway station was where we needed to be so we hopped back on the subway going the other direction and got off at the station we had started at. Once we got back we made our way to another train that transported us across the way to the proper location in Hong Kong where we would be staying.
       Once we were on the train we relaxed for a little bit after being so exhausted from the trek across the border. After awhile when our train journey was near its end we gathered our belongings and got ready to get off of the train. Once we got off the subway train we searched our way to the exit we needed. We were somewhat lost and eventually Lorilei found a kind lady who guided us in the right direction to the Chungking mansions to get to our hostels. Once we got up the steps we dropped Ashley, Katie, and Dayna off at their block to head up to their hostel while we continued on to our hostel which was on a different block. We got all checked in at our hostel and freshened up then headed back down to meet the other girls. We had to wait for awhile as they weren't ready yet. Once they got their they told us stories of their technicalities and we headed to dinner. As it had been a long day we headed to TGI fridays and grabbed a bite to eat, enjoying the food and the time we had together.

Planes, trains, and automobiles....

After adventures at their sleepy home things started to come to an end pretty quickly in the way of China. We enjoyed the last few days we had in China and made several trips to bus and train stations to get our tickets to Shanghai and then to Shenzhen. It took us a lot of time be we were eventually successful in getting our tickets. We woke up fairly early on the morning of Sunday the 18th to finish up our packing and haul all of our luggage down the stairs. We met a couple of cars at the gate who took us over to the bus station to catch our bus to Shanghai. We got on the bus and it seemed to be going smoothly until the bus stopped for what seemed like a very long time, eventually several other people came and got onto our bus and we were on our way again. A couple of hours later we made it to the bus station in Shanghai, which we had to haul all of our stuff through to an exit that was further away from the train station than where the bus had pulled in. We went around and after awhile wound up dragging all 100 pounds of our luggage through the train station until we could get to the waiting area for our platform. We had a couple of hours there when we could get something to eat and we could rest. Eventually we had to drag all of our stuff on the platform, find our car, and drag it in the train. It was quite the feat getting all of our luggage on the train, and then we played a giant game of Tetris in trying to get all of our luggage to fit.

I feel bad for the poor guy who had the one bed left in our compartment of the sleeper train. We had all of our stuff jammed in there pretty tight. We played some games and did various things to keep ourselves entertained for part of the train ride. Try as I might I just couldn't sleep through an entire 19 hour train ride. After a while it was late enough that we were able to get ready and get to bed for the night. I tried to keep my normal evening routine and eventually went to bed. Luckily, I slept fairly well on the train although I did wake up a few times and was pretty well wide awake around 6:30 in the morning. After waiting for a couple of stops to pass we got ready for the day and started getting everything to take of the train. Just so we could get everything off quickly we piled all of the luggage near the door so we could move quickly to get it off. Much to our chagrin we discovered very close to the train stopping that the side which we anticipated the platform being on was opposite the side it was actually on. We had to quickly move our luggage so the train attendant could get through and open the door. Once the train stopped we each grabbed one piece of luggage and headed off the train, then Lorilei the last one on the train stayed on and passed off all of the other luggage to us and we had all of our luggage of the train in what was easily 2 minutes flat. 

Once we had all of our luggage we started to haul all of it the direction of the exit to the platform. Once Katie got  onto the escalator it stopped moving and seemed like it had broken. So she got off and started to carry her luggage down the stairs. A nice Chinese man helped her to get it all down the stairs and we were all prepping to do the same with our luggage when the escalator decided to work again. We hopped on the escalator and headed down. Once we got to the bottom we scoped it out for a sign which would show us where the metro was so we could get where we needed to go. We drug all of our luggage through the Shenzhen train station until we found the metro. At which point we purchased tickets for the metro and accomplished the feat of getting ourselves and 2, 50 pound bags of luggage through the security gate. We got on and rode the metro for a couple of stops before Lorilei realized that one of the immigration checks was where we had initially gotten on the metro in the first place. So we got off of the metro, drug our luggage across, got back on and went back until we got back to where we initially were. We followed the signs for Hong Kong, there was much dragging of luggage and we finally made it into a beastly line to go through immigration where you had to be pretty aggressive and do a fair amount of pushing to stay in your place. Eventually we got sent down a tiny side corridor just for foreign passport holders that was very difficult to get our luggage down, once we were at the end of it we got an exit card and waited in line some more until finally we all made it through China customs and we ended up in No Man's Land.