No Whammies!

Greetings, blog followers!  This time, the information that we harvested from the city wasn't quite enough to make up the body of a blog post, so today I'll skip right to the bonus.

Bonus!

If you've been reading my blog since the first documented trip- our three-stop wander through Asia in 2012- then you might remember the shoe curses that I wrote about. People can write down the name of the person that they want to curse and give it to a professional curser, who will shout and vigorously beat the paper with a shoe, effectively putting a "whammy" on someone.

When we ventured into the city, we saw that in action! A lady was carrying out the whammy instructions perfectly (and energetically) for a client under a highway overpass. And of course, because this is the wildly varying Hong Kong, there was a perfectly polished Lambrogini store 100 paces away. Remember, as Dad says, "Hong Kong is the only place in the world where you can buy 'Tiffany's' earrings and then go next door and buy a goat head."

This type of cursing is also called "villain hitting".

Marketing.

Dad Sez!

Dad's profound insights on: downtown Hong Kong!

"Rules for getting around Hong Kong quickly as a pedestrian:

Rule 1: Give up. It's hopeless.

Rule 2: Are you still here? Did you read rule 1?"

                                         -Dad (with a few grammatical edits)

Next up: Disneyland, Take 2!

Tea Party at the Museum

Finally, after being inactive for a while, we went over to the city and picked up some blogging material in the form of the Hong Kong Science museum. We bought a year-long pass for the whole family for 25 U.S. dollars. I don't usually type smiley faces on my blog, but this post is unusually smiley, so I feel that this is appropriate: :)

This picture is from the subway station that we took to the museum.

Through the astonishing process of evolution, vending machines have adapted to the rainy conditions of Hong Kong. Yes, those cylinders are umbrellas.

The first station in the museum that we went to was themed around electricity. Unfortunately, we let Dad near it.

This museum is known for being very hands-on. At every station, you could test out what the signs were telling you, instead of simply taking their word.

At this station, there was a hand crank and four lights (three of them working). We could use the crank to power the lights, and observe how the resistance gradually increased as more lights were hooked up.

This picture is from the less interesting safety section, where the theme was safe practices in construction sites. Here I am explaining to Dad why it would be a bad idea to attempt to operate the crane. Dad here is playing an virtual mini game- he has a screen in front of him- that challenges you to operate a crane with about five different levers while obeying the hand signals of a virtual signaler. It was mind-blowingly complex, but luckily, we managed to extinguish Dad's head before anything else got burned.

The next station was the world of mirrors. The mirrors could reflect interesting things back at you. Here I am, for instance, having a nice tea party with me, me, myself, me, and me.

Welcome to the cloning laboratory. Here is (are?) our most successful experiment, poking their heads out of their tubes.

Those weren't all the tricks the mirrors had up their sleeves. Some of their best gimmicks are below:

-A mirror that reflected everyone besides the viewer normally, but made the viewer's torso and head disappear, along with any limbs too close to them.

-A mirror that reflected a shortened image, making anyone who was reflected seem stubby. As an added bonus, if one were to extend their arm, it would appear to grow longer and thinner, as if stretching.

-A maze that used mirrors to make itself look more complex than it actually was (one mirror was all it took to turn two branching paths into four).

-A mirror that reflected only half of one's body, but also displayed a mirrored image of the half right next to the original projection. In this way, it created the illusion that there was a full body reflected in the mirror. This allowed for a visitor to lift up the leg that was being reflected and thus make the mirrored image lift up both legs, and presto! A floating reflection.

I will try to include more pictures after the next time we visit, both of the mirrors and of some interesting pictures that the museum had on display- they were like optical illusions. They played with your eyes. For now, goodbye and thank you for reading.

Bonus!

This is our apartment building. Notice the gaping hole- there is actually an interesting explanation behind it. According to a guide book, the apartment was intentionally built this way so that the dragon who lives in the mountains behind the building can have easy passage through and be able to drink from the bay. It seems that it has been an unnecessary effort so far. Maybe our water tastes too much like sweat, and the dragon prefers water from a less humid place.

Hong Kong Oddities

Greetings! We have done very little worth blogging about in the past few days, but we have been saving up two weird pictures from the city. Apparently, Hong Kong doesn't function like America sometimes.

A basic Hong Kong scene: a busy road, people all around, entering and exiting buildings, and… A lady pulling a huge pile of tires. O…kay...

"Starbucks" here is just like it is in America, until it isn't. Muffin, anyone?

Another Hong Kong oddity: we live by a pond of turtles. It is home to at least 20-25 turtles, and what provoked me to finally blog about them is that some of them seem to have just had babies.

Three small turtles appeared in the pond this morning. The pictures aren't great- it's so humid here that the camera lens fogged up- but here they are.

The two smallest babies, if brought together, would easily fit side-by-side in my hand.

Above: about ten turtles attempting to crawl up out of the water at the same spot. This kind of event isn't uncommon- in the water, one turtle will occasionally try to climb on top of another, even if the second turtle is in motion.

And here I was thinking Dad was the only one who took artsy photos. Congratulations on this photo to A: Mom and B: humidity!

Here is a small baby turtle (sitting on the rock near the far left of the photo)  compared to some bigger turtles.

Now for the fourth and final Hong Kong oddity. Simply taking the stairs up from next to the pond of turtles will reveal a pond of frogs. Up to five frogs hang out there at a time and occasionally converse in  loud tones so akin to a dog barking that the two could be easily confused. One day at the pond, my mom made a discovery. If you look closely at the pond you can see tiny swimming creatures without arms or legs. We believe these to be tadpoles, as they live in the frogs' realm. Here are some pictures.

There is a tadpole at the very center of this picture, and one swimming out of the frame to the right. There are probably more, considering how many tadpoles inhabit the pond.

I'm not sure what this berry cluster-shaped object is. Each berry is about the same size as one of the individual, spherical berries from a blackberry cluster, perhaps slightly larger.

Thanks for reading and looking. Hopefully, that post didn't exhaust our supply of Hong Kong tidbits. See you next time!

Dad Sez!

Dad's profound insights on: travel!

Dad flew to Shanghai this week for work, and now he is attempting to come back. Unfortunately his flight was supposed to land at 10:30 am, and it is now 3:28 pm, and he is just now taking off. There has been a bit of a delay.

"Well, I am taking off at 2:35 of course- that's what the sign says at the gate that I am standing in line at, so it must be so. No matter that it is 2:37, our plane has been at the gate for 40 minutes, so I am sure we will be able to board everyone, taxi, and take off in negative 2 minutes."
                                                     
                                                                                    -Dad

As if matters weren't bad enough, the Chinese are known for not queueing. Instead of forming nice, tidy queues around check-in counters and such, they form blobs. Here's an eyewitness report.

"I have been observing and studying one particular old lady who I know is preparing her flanking maneuver. She just keeps wandering/circling…. looking for an opening…. then she will strike, like a ninja with a giant purse."
     
                                                                                   -Dad

Next up: Hong Kong Science Museum or Disneyland!

Kitten in Cambodia

Before I start, it's worth noting that on the Cambodia day that I am about to tell you about, it was so hot that I died. I reincarnated into a kitten, but unfortunately, I reincarnated back in Hong Kong. I had to stow away in somebody's bag so I could catch a plane back to Cambodia, and I was almost discovered when I couldn't stop myself from playing with some catnip inside. Anyway, here was our day.

First Stop: Banteay Srei

Build in the year 967, this temple is still mind-blowingly intricate.

This carving held up for over a thousand years.

Location Two: Banteay Samre

The entrance.

This temple had a significantly grassier feel than Banteay Srei.

Me napping on a windowsill at the entrance.

It looks like something fresh out of a movie.

A row of windows.

Final Destination: Phnom Bakheng

Phnom Bakheng is so high up- at the peak of a steep hill, no less- that you can see Angkor Wat from it.

Phnom Bakheng itself. We went to see a "sunset" here. It turns out that they close quite early, so we didn't get the sunset we had hoped for.

A monk using a smartphone. This was actually quite common in this temple.

When the army was stationed here, they practiced shooting by firing at this carving.

It is very fitting that our journey in Cambodia should start with a sunrise and end with a sunset.

So there you have it. That was our journey in Cambodia. I eventually became human again, because in my cat form, I hated the idea of getting on a plane so much that I changed back into a person. Now we're back in Hong Kong, recovering from the craziness. I hope you enjoyed reading about our insanity.

Bonus!

We don't have any pictures of it, but we noticed something on the way back from Banteay Srei- a marketeer trying to pitch an item to us. Now, that's actually quite normal for Cambodia, but it was the person and the item that really caught our attention. A policeman was trying to sell us his badge. Seems legit.

We were later informed by our guide that most policemen only make 50-60 U.S. dollars a month. This probably explains the… interesting behavior of our officer.

Dad Sez!

Cambodia is even more hot and humid than Hong Kong

It's time for Dad's profound insights on: sweat!

"You used a picture of me with big sweaty pits!"
               
                                       -Dad

Did anyone notice that in yesterday's picture?

Thanks for reading!

Next up: Back to Boring Old Hong Kong!

The Ocean of Milk

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while. Life can get pretty distracting in Cambodia.

That's right, Cambodia. We decided to take a quick vacation there over the weekend. We explored extensively while we were there, so I will be splitting up our experience into two posts, but if I had to summarize Cambodia, it would go something like this: temples, temples, and more temples. I'll let the pictures and captions explain it from here.

First Location: Angkor Wat

We arrived early on our first day to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat, meaning it was dark when we got there. The sunrise was pretty but anticlimactic because of its overly spectacular reputation.

An unusually intact statue of the serpent Nagaa.

It is thought that Angkor Wat was built around 1113- 1150.

Carvings such as these told the stories of the fighting monkey brothers,  the churning of the ocean of milk, and more. I'm not kidding about the stories. See the bottom of the page for my interpretation.

According to our tour guide, there were two prominent religions in ancient times: Buddhism (although I believe it is not technically a religion) and Hindu. At one point, a new king came into power and got rid of all the Buddhists carvings, making Hindu the favored religion. This is why you will often see Buddhist statues with their arms, legs, and head lopped off. Later, when the previous king died, a new king started his rule and did away with all the Hindu carvings, bringing back Buddhism and making it the primary religion. This is why you will often see Hindu statues with their arms, legs, and head lopped off.

The carvings were incredibly ornate. This one depicts the churning of the sea of milk, mentioned above. Here, demons are shown having a tug-of-war with gods, using a poor serpent as the rope.

Me sitting on some rubble that fell off of the building. Soooo not my fault. Sort of.

These are the steps up the palace that the king got to use...

… And these, at 70-75 degrees are what everyone else had to climb.

A vast lake? No, just the huge moat around the Wat. It was once filled with alligators, but they have since been eaten.

Back at the hotel, we had the best elevator ever, complete with fancy wire mesh on the thin double doors.

Even our water bottles got their own gentlemanly suits.

Stop Two: Angkor Thom Entrance

A row of godly statues (mirrored on the other side by demons) posted outside the city entrance. Like many carvings, this depicts the churning of the ocean of milk.

The city gate from inside the city.

Two interesting things about this picture: one, you can see an elephant in the background. At Angkor Thom, one can pay a fee to have an elephant carry them up a rather steep hill and skip walking. The second thing is that we are emblematically holding water bottles. We must have gone through at least ten or twelve water bottles while we were there. Due to the heat, we kept about half a bottle inside ourselves.

Nature is strong. Give it fifty years or so, and stone is not a problem. Perhaps for this very reason, trees were considered sacred, and chopping one down would get you in big trouble. This is why the city of Angkor Thom is covered in trees.

Angkor Thom Stop Two: The Bayon

This ancient place is part of Angkor Thom.

Towers had faces on all four sides, facing North, South, East, and West. This symbolized the city's god watching over it and protecting it.

These steps are… not flat. Some things don't change, even given thousands of years.

A tree growing on top of a pile of bricks. The bricks used to be part of the old town wall.

Location Three: Ta Prohm

Trees here in Ta Prohm are even wilder than in Angkor Thom.

Tell me that's not impressive.

This site may seem familiar to you. This area, that tree in particular, was featured in "Tomb Raider".

Cambodia Fun Facts!

Welcome to an adapted Hong Kong Fun Facts! Here's your fact of the day:

King Suryavarman built Angkor Wat, but every other place we visited was built by King Jayavarman. We call them "the lazy king" and "the productive king", respectively.

Dad Sez!

 Dad's profound insights on: millipedes!

"EEEEEEEWWWWWWW!"

                          -Dad

Also on Dad Sez…

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here is another one of Dad's famous artsy photos.

Bonus!

This bonus features my interpretation of some of the myths on the walls of the temples.

Story One

First of all, I noticed three rows on the wall that our guide said represented heaven, the "normal" world and the underworld. All but the underworld suddenly blinked out of existence. This probably got the gods fired up, explaining their aggression later on.

You see, the gods and demons had a lot of milk. The gods wanted to churn this ocean of milk, but the demons did not. They then settled whether or not they should churn the milk with a tug-of-war. Because the gods were still all fired up and adrenaline-filled, they made the rather hasty and cruel decision to use a poor serpent as the rope. The outcome of the war is still unclear.

Story Two

This one was also hard two understand, but this is how I heard it: two brothers (monkeys, of course) were angry at each other. One was the king and the other was not. The king monkey pretended to die, prompting the non-king monkey to seek advice as to what to do about the situation. The monkey oddly decides to visit a lunatic. Despite the non-king monkey's protests that his brother may still be alive, the lunatic was convinced that the king was dead, and killed him anyway just to be sure. The non-king monkey was then crowned king, thanks to the lunatic.


Thanks for reading!

Next up: Cambodia Kitten!