HONG KONG

Hong Kong was SO. COOL. You just can't do Hong Kong in 2 days, so I'm sad we weren't able to stay longer. The first day was kind of a wild ride haha. So after we got to Hong Kong from Guangzhou by train, our professors took us out to lunch. One of my friends on the trip is allergic to peanuts and he's super careful about what he eats, making sure that none of it has peanuts or is made in the same pan because allergic reactions aren't fun. So we ate lunch and our professor told us that we could go off on our own as long we were in a group of 4 or more, so a group of friends and I went off to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery while everyone else stayed with the professors and explored around the city. As we were transferring subway stations, this friend stops us and says he's having an allergic reaction. Luckily at this transfer station there was one of the biggest hospitals in Hong Kong and it was only a quarter of a mile away. He took his epipen because it got pretty bad and we all walked him over there, making sure he was okay. We called our professors to tell them what happened and they came to the hospital to help with the insurance that the study abroad provides for us. We got him there in time and everything turned out alright. Luckily the hospital accepted the insurance and it covered the cost of the whole trip, so that's a blessing. Honestly for a group of college students, I think we handled the situation very well, we stayed calm and were able to find him a hospital fast. I'm proud.

While he was being nursed back to health, the rest of us went onto the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery. Fun fact: there are actually thirteen thousand buddhas; I don't know who named this monastery but maybe they're extremely humble because they downplayed what they have by three thousand buddhas hahaha. So while walking up this mountain, the path was lined with golden buddhas, it was honestly super cool to look ahead and see it go on forever. When you reached the end of this first path it led to a Buddhist temple where there were thousands of tiny buddhas lining the walls. And this wasn't a small room either. It looked super cool behind the big Buddha. Then when you explore around the monastery you can go up further to a place where there's a large white Buddha against the mountain and a bunch of golden buddhas all around the mountain side near a waterfall. Then right next to those was a super cool lookout of downtown Hong Kong. Honestly it was incredible to see so many buddhas in one day.

After we left the monastery we were trying to meet up with the rest of the group so we could go to a cool viewpoint up on Victoria Peak to see Hong Kong at sunset and at night. However, we got a little lost haha. We ended up taking a bus 7 stops past where we needed to be, so we had to take the subway back to the right place. Then when we got to Victoria peak, we went to a different viewpoint than the rest of the group because we didn't know where we were going. They saw the typical overview picture of Hong Kong, which is super cool, whereas we saw the backside of Hong Kong where it was more mountainous. Honestly though, I didn't mind. It was super cool to see the ocean and all of the islands at dusk. The only thing is we all started running to get to the viewpoint before sunset and if you know me, you know that I am NOT a runner. Especially in chacos and a backpack. I'm positive I looked like a complete dork, but what else is new?? After the viewpoint on Victoria Peak, we went back down the mountain and took a ferry from the island back to the side of Hong Kong that our hotel was on. The ferry ride was super cool because they have these boats called "junk boats" but they honestly look like pirate ships and I really wanted to see Jack Sparrow or something. It was super cool to have the city in the background and then to have pirate ships in front. Talk about aesthetic. Then a group of guys and I went to this super cool spot that had a perfect view of the city at night. We took some sick pics with each other and then headed back to the hotel, where the Ladies Market is. The Ladies Market is this street market where you can barter for things to get them super cheap. They had some cute knick knacks there but 1. I'm horrible at bartering and 2. I didn't think any of it was really worth my money, so I didn't get anything. I know. I'm lame. But I'm not broke so that's cool!!

Okay the next day was probably my favorite.

We got to go to the LDS Hong Kong temple!!! It was so nice to go do temple work again. It's always refreshing to do service in the Lord's temple. I had the opportunity to talk to a woman doing baptisms with me and she was from India. She said that the Hong Kong temple is the closest temple to her and she and her husband don't get to come very often so when they do, they pretty much do everything that you can at the temple. It was cool to hear about how they still make it a priority to come to the temple even though it is so far away from them. Truly inspirational to me. It made me so grateful to have temples so close to where I live. The temple was absolutely gorgeous inside and out. It had a beautiful simplicity to it that I just really loved. After the temple we went to the mission office so we could change into street clothes. When we were there we ran into some elders playing basketball and we got to talk to them for awhile, I think they were surprised to see so many white people in their office building haha. Just a little piece of home for them (they were from Idaho and Utah).

After the temple, a huge group of us went to Lamma Island, one of the many islands around Hong Kong. It's this little fisherman village island and it was SO COOL. We took a ferry to get there and there were all of these cute little boats docked on the harbor. We ate at this restaurant with a beautiful view of the ocean. Wow just writing about the ocean gets me excited!!! I'm smiling so much right now hahaha I'm so lame. We walked through this market to get to the beach and we waded around in the ocean. How have I not been to the ocean before?!?!?!! (I mean I've been landlocked my whole life so I guess that's how) but WOW it's so cool!!! I was so genuinely happy yesterday it was so good oh my lanta. Now I know why I got made fun of for not seeing the ocean. After I got over the fact that I was actually in the ocean, a group of us went exploring around these huge rocks on the side of beach. We went out on these rocks in the ocean, then we sort of rock climbed up to this super cool spot. I loved it because I was (sort of) rock climbing next to the ocean. It was way cooler than it sounds. I'm just horrible at describing things. Super neat though. We hung out and explored for awhile until it was time to leave. Then we walked back and looked through the shops and such. There were actually a lot of cool little artisan things but boy oh boy were they overpriced. Ya girl can't spend all of her money on a painted rock. But honestly, the island just had a super cool atmosphere and I would not be opposed to going back one day.

All in all, Hong Kong was amazing. Also a lot of people speak english there so that was a blessing, I was actually able to communicate with people around me!! 10/10 would live in Hong Kong.