Tuesday, the Races, and a Temple
Tuesday I went to the horseraces with a bunch of international students. The racetrack is in Sha Tin in the New Territories and is **gorgeous**. Well you can see for yourself, a photo here, and some more in the photo album linked on the right.
So the story is that usually the racetrack is full of creepy old white men, but during New Years they have some sort of national championship and all of Hong Kong turns out. Which I believe because it was real crowded and no one spoke english. It was good fun, I've never been to a horse race before so the whole thing was pretty novel. We placed $10 bets (about $1.50US) and Hannah the Aussia and Anna the Austrian actually won a little. According to Hannah the races in Australia are much more fun because everyone drinks heavily and gets more dressed up. But it was still a good time.
Also in Sha Tin is the Che Kung temple, so we went there when we tired of the race track. It was sooooo crowded you could barely move and the incense made it so smokey you could barely breathe and everyone there had tears streaming down their faces. There were HK police there directing traffic with megaphones which sort of distracted from the religious experience of it all but if they hadn't been there no one would have been able to find their way in or out. We bought windmills there, cuz it was the thing to do. Che Kung has tons of them, and they are believed to turn your fortune when the wind catches them. We bought small ones, but some people were carrying around 3-ft tall structures with no less than 20 windmills on them. 'Twas madness.
After all the sightseeing of the day, my international girls and I went to Lan Kwai Fong for margaritas to finish out the night. Beth the Berkley girl, Ally of Missouri and Hannah came and later Will (also of Berkley) met up with us and it was a delightful evening.
And that was Tuesday.
_abby_
So the story is that usually the racetrack is full of creepy old white men, but during New Years they have some sort of national championship and all of Hong Kong turns out. Which I believe because it was real crowded and no one spoke english. It was good fun, I've never been to a horse race before so the whole thing was pretty novel. We placed $10 bets (about $1.50US) and Hannah the Aussia and Anna the Austrian actually won a little. According to Hannah the races in Australia are much more fun because everyone drinks heavily and gets more dressed up. But it was still a good time.
Also in Sha Tin is the Che Kung temple, so we went there when we tired of the race track. It was sooooo crowded you could barely move and the incense made it so smokey you could barely breathe and everyone there had tears streaming down their faces. There were HK police there directing traffic with megaphones which sort of distracted from the religious experience of it all but if they hadn't been there no one would have been able to find their way in or out. We bought windmills there, cuz it was the thing to do. Che Kung has tons of them, and they are believed to turn your fortune when the wind catches them. We bought small ones, but some people were carrying around 3-ft tall structures with no less than 20 windmills on them. 'Twas madness.
After all the sightseeing of the day, my international girls and I went to Lan Kwai Fong for margaritas to finish out the night. Beth the Berkley girl, Ally of Missouri and Hannah came and later Will (also of Berkley) met up with us and it was a delightful evening.
And that was Tuesday.
_abby_
posted by Abby-Wan Kenobi at 3:15 AM
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