Hong Kong, a tourist’s delight

By Karishma Amatya

Is a five-day trip to a hot and humid far-eastern island worth a good chunk of money, plus being jet-lagged for four hours? The answer is a definite yes. Tourism is no longer limited to the elite and the rich. Be it a trip to Pokhara, our very own paradise or a week in Hawaii (very much out of a Nepali pocket), it has become a necessity.

If you are tired of the regular day-in and day-out stuff, why not go for a vacation. Why not buy yourself and your family the trip of your lifetime? I wasn’t exactly excited about this trip to Hong Kong when I first heard of it. Having travelled to the place before, I knew exactly what awaited me – the amazing array of tall, spectacular buildings, lots of double-decker buses, the air-conditioned interiors and the humid outdoors.

Can’t blame my memory of the place, I was just 14 then. This time around, however, the weather was fine and the temperature tolerable. You can sense the fusion of the eastern culture and the high-tech western modernisation as soon as you land on the Hong Kong soil. The Hong Kong International Airport, believe me or not, actually stands on the sea.

Here’s how to plan your five-day trip to the land of dreams:

Day one:-Take a walk across the park. It’s a cliché but worth it. After the long 4 hours flight, nothing can be better than afternoon stroll around the parks and not to forget the star ocean side. Even an airconditioner can give you more relief than an hour at two by the sea shore. Glimmering , never ending row of tall buildings, their reflections melting into the cool, serene seawater is enough to make you crave for more. My three hours by the beach passed in the blink of an eye.

Day two: -Given the weather favours you, your second day on the island should be spending on the Ocean Park. Two blocks walk from the central Kowloon and you can catch a ferry to the next stop, the new Hong Kong business centre. Then depending on your budget, you can either catch a bus or a cab to your destination. We preferred a double-decker. The admission price for an adult is HK$165 and HK$85 for a child (3to 11). The park remains open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The first stop at the park would be The Amazing Amazon Bird Theatre. The Amazing Amazon trial displays the natural habitat of the Amazon rain forest. Facts such as where aspirin comes from, or where those coffee beans come from are on display on the way to enrich visitor’s experience. The next stop definitely would be the Atoll Reef, probably Ocean Park’s most popular attraction. It’s a home to more than 2600 fishes of 200 species. Descend through the four-level glass panelled galleries to get an "under-water" view of this wondrous marine-themed Indo-Pacific coral lagoon.

Next, resembling Beijing’s Imperial Palace, the Gold fish Pagoda displays over 100 goldfish. Many are of the rarest species and cannot be found elsewhere. The Hong Kong Jockey Club Giant Pagoda Habitat is a must for any visitor. The theatre ocean is a place to enjoy the amazing intelligence and grace of dolphins and the antics of the sea lions. Being a water lover, the section that fascinated me the most was the shark aquarium and the Pacific pier with that a pool swarming with my favourite beings, the sea otter. It was a joy to see them feed on fish.

On top it all, I concluded one day with ride on raging water. I felt the adrenaline rush through my veins. Although whole park spreads over a wide area, don’t panic – we have been provided with cable cars and escalators at certain places.

Day three -: To complement the previous day, a trip to neighbouring Lantau island may be considered. I am stressing on may be because this trip depends on how much you can ‘invest’ for a day’s fun. Though I claim to be a water freak, I must admit that the hour-long ferry ride to the Lantau island and then on an air-conditioned bus wasn’t exactly what I had bargained for. By the time I reached the top of the island, I was totally deprived of whatever energy I had. The smell of the sea was like the ever spreading rays of the sun in a hot summer day. You can enjoy the warm morning sun but when it reaches its apex it becomes unbearable. I was kind of seasick. However once I reached the top of the island, I stood motionless, amazed by the majestic landscape and the huge statue of Buddha that overshadows everything else within our range of vision. It reminded me of Nepal, the birth place of lord Buddha and I questioned myself why anything remotely like the statue that stood before me existed there.

Day four:- Shopping is an immediate synonym to Hong Kong . If you happen to be a shopaholic like I am, then believe me, a day for shopping won’t be enough. Be it electronic appliances or clothes, Hong Kong is a paradise for any avid shopper. With top labels like Giordano, Crocodile, Bossini sold at a very "reasonable" price like hot cakes. In contrast, a stroll across the evening market too is worth your time. Unlike in the big store and department stores, bargaining is much at stake. As the football season was then at its peak , me and my brother picked up the miniatures of Owen and Beckham respectively. It now decorates my dressing table.

Day five:-On day five, I woke up with a feeling of vagueness. I wasn’t going to wake up with the sound of ac humming above my bed, nor be able to see those skyscrapers when I set aside those curtains . time to go home –back to the routine like monotonies of life. I slept all my way to Tribhuvan International Airport. Apart from the extra luggage, I brought home loads of memories to be cherished forever somewhere in the chambers of my memory.

Teej Festival of Women

Women in red constitute groups and set out for nearby Shiva temples singing and dancing all the way through. Although it is strictly a female festival, some women do not  hesitate asking  their male counterparts to help them play Madal, a traditional musical instrument, for their choral song. In Kathmandu, tens of thousands of women clad in red attires throng the Pashupatinath temple, the holiest of all Shiva temples, from dawn to late noon. A special arrangement is made for facilitating the devotees in offering prayers and enacting pujas to Lord  Shiva on this day.

By Ram Sharan Sedhai

Teej, a Hindu festival that is strictly observed only by womenfolk, occurs on the third day of bright fortnight of late August or early September. The festival, also known as Haritalika, takes place on 9th September this year.

This is an occasion for Hindu women to undergo severest of fasting and perform rituals primarily for purifying their bodies and souls and to pray for the longevity of their husbands and better conjugal life in case of married women and for obtaining most suitable matches in case of the unmarried.

It is also an occasion for family reunion for married women who otherwise cannot see their beloved mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters for a long time. And in a country like Nepal where transportation facility is very poor especially in the far-flung districts due to it’s rugged terrain, it is almost impossible to travel for a couple of months during the rainy season.

Religious scriptures say that Parvati, the daughter of Himalaya, got Lord Shiva as her husband after she observed rigid fasting and took the penance of enacting intricate worshipping, and lived a very happy conjugal life thereafter. Therefore, inspired by the deed of Parvati, all Hindu women, except for those taken ill or suffering from infirm, observe the festival without fail.

Before the festival begins, women clad in bright red sarees, barring the widows, are seen on roads and paths moving from their homes to the homes of their parents, as the parents or their brothers invite them days ahead of Teej as demanded by the tradition. Their movement heralds the arrival of Teej.

Male members, especially fathers and brothers in most cases visit the married daughters and sisters from far and wide and invite them to stay with them during the festival. Failure to invite daughters or sisters during Teej is considered as an extreme negligence. And the sisters too make to their parents’ or brothers’ places without a miss. And mothers send gift of red blouse, red saree, red glass bangles and other food items to their daughters who cannot go to their parent’s home for the festival.

On the second day of the bright fortnight, men prepare sumptuous meal that includes mutton, chicken, fish, and various types of seasonal vegetables and fruits. Cooking rice in ghee or serving it with purified butter is the speciality of the festival, as it is prevalent mostly in the rural areas and countryside among the high-caste Hindus.

On this day men do all the household chores and even the laziest of males prepare food for their mothers, sisters, daughters or wives unless it is the women who do the chores rest of the days of the year. They are also considered as a one-day-queen as men free them from the household duties for the period of Teej.

The consumption of the lavish food is known as Darkhane. And it marks the beginning of the colourful festival of the female. Dar, food items that are rich in protein and vitamins, is eaten during the night so that they can endure the severe fasting for the next 24 hours. The fasting is so rigid that women do not take even a morsel of food and single drop of water for 24 hours.

The next day, third day of the waxing moon and the day of Teej, before daybreak women take a compulsory bath and put on their red wedding sarees, red glass bangles on their wrists, red beads and bind their hair with red cotton cords that too preferably of wedding ceremony. They heavily make themselves up with red cosmetics and are bedecked in jewellery.

Women in red constitute groups and set out for nearby Shiva temples singing and dancing all the way through. Although it is strictly a female festival, some women do not hesitate asking their male counterparts to help them play Madal, a traditional musical instrument, for their choral song.

In Kathmandu, tens of thousands of women clad in red attires throng the Pashupatinath temple, the holiest of all Shiva temples, from dawn to late noon. A special arrangement is made for facilitating the devotees in offering prayers and enacting pujas to Lord Shiva on this day.

Women offer flowers and red vermilion to Shiva Linga, an image of the phallus of Mahadev, the great god, which is considered as the icon of reproduction. Therefore, barren women worship the big phallic image inside the premises of the Lord Pashupatinath temple even on other occasions.

Her Majesty the Queen also visits Lord Pashupatinath temple and performs puja and offers money and flowers to Shiva amid tight security and observes the songs and dances of womenfolk on the occasion.

Broadly speaking, women during the Teej festival croon particularly on melancholy themes that are mostly central to the inequality between sons and daughters and between daughters and daughters- or sisters-in-law and issues of domestic violence gets top most priority in their singing. Criticism of political leaders and heinous social crime are also related in the form of Teej songs.

Since a vast majority of women are still dominated by their husbands and mothers-in-law, women take this opportunity to vent their pent up feelings in the form of lyrics in which they mostly attack the misbehaviour of mothers-in-law and extra-marital affairs of their husbands.

Those who cannot go to their parents’ homes in Teej, pour out their sadness through songs during the festival, which saddens even the listeners. One of the common songs sung during the festival by the unlucky ones is: "Teejako belama sabai janchhan maita! Mai cheli abhagini chhaina saita!" This roughly translates into `All married women go to their parents’ home during Teej, but I am the unfortunate one who could not see the parents’.

On the fourth day women take rest. And it is not obligatory to go on fasting, hence some observe fast and others do not. However, they eat vegetarian food items only on this day.

The fifth day of the waxing moon known as Panchami marks the end of the three-day Teej festival. On Panchami, women throng preferably to the confluence of rivers for their annual holy bath. Traditionally, women brush their teeth with 365 stalks of Datiwan, a kind of medicinal herb, paste mud extracted either from the root of Datiwan plants or from the footprint of an elephant on their shoulder, chest, knee and private parts and wash them away for 365 times.

Legends have it that those women who perform the intricate washing and brushing for 365 times would be absolved of their sins they had committed throughout the year, as there are 365 days in a year, according to Nepalese calendar. It is believed that if women in their period touched other people or sacred places and gods, they commit a sin and such an intricate bath purifies the body and soul of women.

After completing the lengthy cleansing process, women return home singing and dancing all the way back and take lavish food as they are starved for many hours. Depending on their leisure, women begin returning their husbands’ home after the festival and the process lasts for more than a week.