Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wow, over a year since I last posted
Has it really been that long? That's hard to believe. Fucking amazing. I guess I've been busy. But not really. Whatever. I'm sure no one cares.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Hong Kong Adventures - Diamond Hill Escapade
I went out with a friend out to Diamond Hill today. We met up at the Plaza Hollywood shopping center, where I bought a coffee at Starbucks on the second floor. The mall has a movie theater, a kids arcade on the ground floor (near the MTR entrance) and a huge adult arcade on the top floor.
Having just broke my headphones recently (I have/had a pair of Sony MDR-EX51LP Fontopia Headphones) while running at the California Fitness, I've been looking to replace them with the exact same model. Unfortunately all the shops I've been to so far don't have that particular model in stock. Perhaps they never did. I went to the Broadway in Causeway Bay as well as the one in Plaza Hollywood, in addition to the other random smaller electronics shops that are located nearby. I guess I'll have to decide whether I can live with the freebie white vanilla Apple iPod headphones.
Anyways, the arcade was pretty impressive for being in a random mall. There were a line of drummer games (which is very popular in HK and Japan) as well as one Guitar Hero type game. The cost was $4 HKD (about 60 cents) per game. It was amusing since most of the people playing were females in their early 20s. It was Thursday morning, so I guess they didn't have to be at school, or something... The way the games were lined up, it looked like a perverted rock concert, and the folks playing definitely looked the part - with their funky hair, pierced body parts, and metal studded leather apparel. Other games that were there included the electronic card games which I'm kind of fascinated with. These are the soccer and the 3 kingdoms games. I'll talk more about those games at a later time.
Well, after I met up with my friend, we went over to the garden (named Nam Lian Garden 南蓮園池 or South Lotus Garden Stream). My first impression was that it looked very Japanese in styling. In fact, the garden is a replica of a famous Tang Dynasty garden which the Japanese copied for many of the gardens you see in Japan today. The weather was cold (8 degrees centigrade), so there were virtually no people there other than the folks working, and a handful of tourists. This was a good thing since we wanted to take pictures, and wouldn't have to wait too long for people to move out of the way to capture an image.
As it was already lunchtime, so we decided to walk thru the garden towards the restaurant for lunch. There was a large coi pond with enormous goldfish - possibly the largest I've ever seen - in front of the vegetarian restaurant. The restaurant had a waterfall in front of it, and to add to the ambiance, the designers decided to put water spouts directly on all the windows - giving a kind of "inside a carwash" type feel. The food itself was pretty good. We both ordered the set 5-dish meals which included soup, rice, tea, and 5 vegetarian dishes. The most memorable of the dishes was a tofu soup with mushrooms that had the taste and consistency of melted cheese. Mmmm, delicious. The price was a reasonable $100 HKD each (about $14 US each).
After lunch, we went to the rock garden, bonzai garden, as well as the gift shop. Most of the rocks had a glaze which made them shiny and wet. The rocks were large, having lots of shapes, grooves, and colors, and most were in their own "Zen Gardens" with pebbles surrounding each, raked to look like ripples or waves flowing from the centerpiece. The bonzais each had their own boxes, but many actually looked out of place, and almost artificial due to the angles they had been pulled by the caretakers of the garden. Finally, the gift shop had the typical souvenir crap that you can in any good tourist trap, but interestingly had a large selection of vegetarian dried/boxed foods - including oatmeal - displayed as ornately as the $60,000 HKD rocks and hand-painted flower pots.
After the garden, we moved across the street to the monastery. This Buddhist monastery is actually a nunnery with an attached school and additional grounds. The temple itself was pretty deserted since it was so cold. The design was reminiscent of traditional chinese houses, with a open garden area in front, leading up to a main square area with rooms on all sides. There were three main buildings (excluding the main entrance building which also had a large buddha). Each of the buildings housed a particular Buddha, and there were prayer pillows for folks that wanted to say a few words. Interestingly in this temple the different things you would want to wish for are represented by different dieties. There was a god for security/strength, a god for love/romance, and a god for wealth.
After an hour or so of wandering around and taking some pictures, I was ready to go home. I am currently training for the Hong Kong Marathon and did a long run (34 KM) the day before, so I was a little tired still. I headed back to the MTR with my friend and we parted ways. An interesting trip, and some good food. I recommend heading to Diamond Hill if you're in the area and don't have anything better to do. Definitely have some vegetarian lunch!
Having just broke my headphones recently (I have/had a pair of Sony MDR-EX51LP Fontopia Headphones) while running at the California Fitness, I've been looking to replace them with the exact same model. Unfortunately all the shops I've been to so far don't have that particular model in stock. Perhaps they never did. I went to the Broadway in Causeway Bay as well as the one in Plaza Hollywood, in addition to the other random smaller electronics shops that are located nearby. I guess I'll have to decide whether I can live with the freebie white vanilla Apple iPod headphones.
Anyways, the arcade was pretty impressive for being in a random mall. There were a line of drummer games (which is very popular in HK and Japan) as well as one Guitar Hero type game. The cost was $4 HKD (about 60 cents) per game. It was amusing since most of the people playing were females in their early 20s. It was Thursday morning, so I guess they didn't have to be at school, or something... The way the games were lined up, it looked like a perverted rock concert, and the folks playing definitely looked the part - with their funky hair, pierced body parts, and metal studded leather apparel. Other games that were there included the electronic card games which I'm kind of fascinated with. These are the soccer and the 3 kingdoms games. I'll talk more about those games at a later time.
Well, after I met up with my friend, we went over to the garden (named Nam Lian Garden 南蓮園池 or South Lotus Garden Stream). My first impression was that it looked very Japanese in styling. In fact, the garden is a replica of a famous Tang Dynasty garden which the Japanese copied for many of the gardens you see in Japan today. The weather was cold (8 degrees centigrade), so there were virtually no people there other than the folks working, and a handful of tourists. This was a good thing since we wanted to take pictures, and wouldn't have to wait too long for people to move out of the way to capture an image.
As it was already lunchtime, so we decided to walk thru the garden towards the restaurant for lunch. There was a large coi pond with enormous goldfish - possibly the largest I've ever seen - in front of the vegetarian restaurant. The restaurant had a waterfall in front of it, and to add to the ambiance, the designers decided to put water spouts directly on all the windows - giving a kind of "inside a carwash" type feel. The food itself was pretty good. We both ordered the set 5-dish meals which included soup, rice, tea, and 5 vegetarian dishes. The most memorable of the dishes was a tofu soup with mushrooms that had the taste and consistency of melted cheese. Mmmm, delicious. The price was a reasonable $100 HKD each (about $14 US each).
After lunch, we went to the rock garden, bonzai garden, as well as the gift shop. Most of the rocks had a glaze which made them shiny and wet. The rocks were large, having lots of shapes, grooves, and colors, and most were in their own "Zen Gardens" with pebbles surrounding each, raked to look like ripples or waves flowing from the centerpiece. The bonzais each had their own boxes, but many actually looked out of place, and almost artificial due to the angles they had been pulled by the caretakers of the garden. Finally, the gift shop had the typical souvenir crap that you can in any good tourist trap, but interestingly had a large selection of vegetarian dried/boxed foods - including oatmeal - displayed as ornately as the $60,000 HKD rocks and hand-painted flower pots.
After the garden, we moved across the street to the monastery. This Buddhist monastery is actually a nunnery with an attached school and additional grounds. The temple itself was pretty deserted since it was so cold. The design was reminiscent of traditional chinese houses, with a open garden area in front, leading up to a main square area with rooms on all sides. There were three main buildings (excluding the main entrance building which also had a large buddha). Each of the buildings housed a particular Buddha, and there were prayer pillows for folks that wanted to say a few words. Interestingly in this temple the different things you would want to wish for are represented by different dieties. There was a god for security/strength, a god for love/romance, and a god for wealth.
After an hour or so of wandering around and taking some pictures, I was ready to go home. I am currently training for the Hong Kong Marathon and did a long run (34 KM) the day before, so I was a little tired still. I headed back to the MTR with my friend and we parted ways. An interesting trip, and some good food. I recommend heading to Diamond Hill if you're in the area and don't have anything better to do. Definitely have some vegetarian lunch!
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