Who can build me the biggest Buddha?

The head's all that's left of this Buddha in Ayuthaya, Thailand. It's been here for a few centuries and nature has been trying to re-absorb

When you go to far East Asia, most places tend to have a lot of Buddha statues. The predominantly Catholic Philippines remains an exception, but 'communist' China is all about getting in on the Buddha bandwagon. And while, I suspect, Buddhism tends to generally discourage competition (especially when it comes to depicting Buddha himself), this hasn't really stopped everyone from trying to build bigger and bigger statues. Some time when I was in Burma (which really likes to build things on a grand scale), I started thinking about some of the biggest statues I've come across. And now that I'm back, and have access to my entire photo library again, let's share what I've come up with with the blogosphere. Note: the list is by no means scientific, and I don't even know the actual measurements of most of these statues, it's just the way I had remembered the Buddhas when I had first seen them... I also like how Lord Buddha looks significantly different as you move from country to country...

So, without further adieu, we'll start with:

#1: The cute and adorable, vaguely life-size Buddhas


From left to right: The Emerald Buddha at the Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand; The slightly spacy looking Buddha at the Pha That Luang in Vientiane, Laos; and a very happy rotund Buddha in Kunming, China.

#2: Let's see what we find in this cave

A reclining, napping stone Buddha in the Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra, India

#3: Bangkok chimes in with an imposing sitting statue

A golden seated Buddha at Wat Suthat in Bangkok, Thailand

#4: Mongolia is also re-discovering its Buddhist roots ever since the Soviet Union has withdrawn its influence

A white stone statue sitting just off the road in Darkhan, Mongolia

#5: reclining Buddhas are hard to judge, since they are not standing up, but they are nonetheless impressive, and giant

This may have been one of the biggest statues of any sort I had seen at the time - a huge reclining Golden Buddha at Wat Pho in Bangkok, Thailand

#6: I only spent one day in Sri Lanka, but that was plenty of time to come across a very serene and flexible Buddha
A statue in the park in the center of Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo

#7: Japan's not to be outdone!

The slightly weathered statue of Amida Buddha on the grounds of Kotoku-in Temple in Kamikura, Japan. This has so far been the only Buddha statue I've been able to walk inside of...

#8: The Burmese love a good competition, especially if the winner is determined by quantity, or sheer size

Things in Bagan, Burma, home of over 5,000 temples, really are on a whole different scale, so this massive Buddha statue, barely fitting inside of the Ma-nu-ha Temple is right at home

#9: Commence the heavy weight division!

Hong Kong didn't strike me as a particularly religious place, but the nearby island of Lantau is nonetheless crowned by a large statue of a sitting Buddha - the Tian Tan Buddha. Hong Kong being Hong Kong, of course, it's mostly just a tourist attraction

#10: Modern Technology to the Rescue!

This is the Naung Daw Gyi Mya Tha Lyaung in Bago, Burma. It was only built in the past twenty years, likely making it a lot easier to construct this giant relic. There was apparently a different reclining Buddha, a mere block away - that one was much older, and slightly bigger, but we didn't expect to keep looking for another huge reclining Buddha after finding this one!

#11: more from Japan
The Todai-ji Temple in Nara, Japan is the largest wooden building in the world, and today, it's only a third of the size it used to be at its peak a few centuries ago. Inside, there's a number of imposing (and sometimes angry) statues, headlined by the massive seated Virocana Buddha

#12: And the winner is...

The 45 meter tall Phra Puttamingmongkol Akenakkiri Buddha on the island of Phuket in Thailand rules over the surrounding islands and countryside. It is not yet quite finished, unfortunately, but it's just the details that remain - the huge structure itself is already in place.

If we were to be a little more scientific about it, things get very complicated very quickly as there are categories for standing Buddhas, and sitting Buddhas, and reclining Buddhas... and some have pedestals, while others do not, so it's hard to judge. The Taliban has also taken the liberty of destroying one of the biggest Buddha statues in the world in the mountains of Afghanistan - the Buddhas of Bamyan. The Leshan Giant Buddha, outside of Leshan City, China seems to be generally accepted as the biggest Buddha statue in the world at 71 meters in height - then again, it's unclear what the criteria are, as on this list it only comes in at number eleven. Everyone does seem to agree that the Maitreya Buddha in Uttar Pradesh, India will eventually become the biggest Buddha statue in the world (152 meters tall), but they are still working on it, and considering that it is India, I wouldn't hold out too much hope for a speedy completion.

In the mean time, if you'd like a Buddha of your own, to, say, decorate a backyard, the Thais have been perfecting their Buddha transportation techniques:

Buddha on a truck in Bangkok, Thailand - getting ready to hit the road!

As for the next flight...

I didn't particularly want to be leaving Taiwan, mind you - I had friends here who were showing me around to some excellent places to eat in Taipei, the weather was pleasant, and the people far, far nicer than in mainland China. In fact, Lin and two of her friends were about to take a week-long bike trip down the wild and scenic East Coast of Taiwan, and, from the little I got to see of the coast earlier, I think I'd have really enjoyed coming down with them... (more on my life and times in Taiwan in a soon-to-come post... I promise). But, I had a flight to catch out of Hong Kong a day later, so it was time to go.

The whole crew at Lin's apartment in Taipei, huddling around my backpack

Five of us biked up through the hills to the nearby hotsprings of Wulai the day before

My flight out of Taiwan was aboard Cebu Pacific Airlines, a Filipino-based carrier, whom I had grown to sort of like, back when I was in the Philippines in December. It's a budget airline, but they [generally] do budget well: the planes are new, seats are comfortable enough, and, hey, they are cheap! So, while I wasn't exactly expecting a reprise of Eva Air with three passengers on board, I figured I had reason to be optimistic. And the flight to Manila was optimistic enough, as I had a whole row of three seats all to myself. I probably even slept for an hour and a half.

Manila was where things started to get a little more interesting - I got off the plane and headed out to look for my next flight. Encouraged by lots of Transfer signs in the terminal, I skirted around the lines for immigration and ended up at the Transfer desk. Which was empty. Except for a security guard, who called for an agent. We waited for an agent... This was at about 4 in the morning, so my patience wasn't on its best behavior after some 10 minutes. After another 10 minutes and a bit more prompting from me, an agent materialized. And slowly sauntered down the hall. Finally(!), she made her way down to us (another plane had landed in the mean time, and the transfer desk was now home to three of us), and announced that we had to go and get our bags. I was not amused - why!? My luggage tag clearly indicates Hong Kong as the bag's destination. She babbled on about airport regulations. I felt she was full of shit and clueless, but followed.

Of course, between us and the baggage counter lay immigration. I, once again, pointedly noted that I wasn't actually staying in the Philippines, so I didn't need immigration. We went anyway, came around the line, and ended up with a Filipino entry stamp each. I thought about running out of space in my passport, we moved on anyway. Finally at baggage claim, a good 45 minutes after deplaning, I got my bag, and was told to take it over to another transfer desk, this one down on this level. Some more in-decipherable chatting followed, then my bag was taken away again, and my original luggage tag returned. We walked back towards the gates. I inquired as to the whole point of this process, since it seemed completely pointless - they didn't need me to come down to baggage claim, through immigration, just to carry my bags 50 feet. My Cebu agent prattled on about regulations and how new this terminal was. I paid just enough attention to start to gather a picture (in the mean time we passed back through immigration... and didn't stop this time. I knew I probably should have said something, but I didn't really want a Filipino exit stamp for my 3 hour stay at the Manila airport).

Anyway, the picture: the staff at the airport aren't allowed to handle passengers' bags. Security measure, I guess. But, how do you do transfers then? Well, some background - Cebu Pacific has an entire terminal in Manila. Apparently, this terminal was built some 7-8 years ago, then sat unused for about five years, while everybody fought and argued about what should be done with it. Somehow, the argument was never really resolved, and Cebu (which might not have even existed 7 years ago?) ended up with the terminal almost by the default. I suppose they are the 2nd biggest Filipino carrier, after Philippine Airlines. But whereas Philippine Airlines, being a somewhat established carrier, has automated transfer facilities in its terminal, Cebu is a budget carrier, specializing in point-to-point flights, so they do not. The rules still apply though, so if you do end up with an international transfer in Manila, at the Cebu terminal, you have to carry the luggage yourself, all the way to the transfer desk 50 feet away - the staff aren't allowed to touch it, and the machinery hasn't been installed. My sauntering agent-lady claimed it wasn't installed yet, as this terminal is so new, however as the terminal has actually been around (if not used) for a while, I suspect Cebu just hasn't bothered, since they don't get a lot of international transfers. And immigration, of course, expects you to be stamped into their country before you can go to baggage claim.

So, this took an hour and a half in the middle of the night, and I learned a little more than i had wanted about the Filipino Civil Aviation regulations. But, of course, I wasn't actually done with Cebu yet, I still had a flight to catch to Hong Kong. Mine wasn't scheduled to leave till 8, but another departed at 5:45. Agent lady claimed I'd have to rebook (and pay the fare difference in fare) to get on the earlier flight, but now I knew she was full of shit, so I went for the gate and asked about stand-by's. They explained the flight was already over-sold. I sulked a bit, and headed over to find some early breakfast - just as my salmon and cream cheese focaccia was arriving the gate agent came back looking for Mr Alex, and announced that they did have a seat available for me.

I prefer waiting in Hong Kong to waiting in Manila so I went off. My bag, unfortunately, didn't have quite as much free will to direct its own destiny, and, after 10 minutes on the walkie talkie, we decided it was still going to be on the 8 o'clock flight. I didn't really care, so things got interesting. I landed in Hong Kong and confirmed that my bag wasn't joining me, as expected. I didn't really want to hang around for two hours waiting for it though, so I went off searching for another Cebu agent to see if they could help with this situation. An agent was, once again, difficult to locate (I was getting annoyed with them by now... maybe because I had slept for about 3 hours total, all on airplanes), but I eventually found one upstairs by the check-in counters. She considered my situation - I proposed leaving the bag with Cebu till that evening when I would actually need it for my flight to London - and stated that they weren't really allowed to that. However, here's the number for Lost and Found, just go into town now and make sure to call them in a couple hours to verify that they got your bag, and come back to get it a couple hours early. And you didn't hear any of this from me! I considered the solution to be fairly ingenious, in spite of finding a few potential potholes in the execution, so I went with it and got on a bus for Hong Kong. A couple of hours later, a helpful gentleman at Lost and Found confirmed that they had, in fact, located my bag - I promised to come back for it around nine, and they assured me it would be waiting. Well, I actually showed up around 10 (I played frisbee in the afternoon, and felt I deserved an hour's worth of massage before spending a second consecutive night on an airplane; and that was time and money well spent!), but the bag was, in fact, waiting for me, after some 20 minutes of talking, checking and waiting.

Hong Kong wasn't quite this gray and sinister on this day (I did enjoy a few hours of playing frisbee on the beach shortly before taking this picture on the ferry back), but it was rather overcast.

So, finished with Cebu, I now headed over for Qatar Airways, my 5-Star airline destined for London. I continue to suspect that the 5-star rating is self assigned... First, of course, I had to re-pack my bag once again, as Cebu charges for checked luggage over 15kg, so, obviously, I just carried 5 extra kilos of carry-on luggage with me (what, you thought I'd be willing to pay, sauntering agent lady?).

The Qatar flight came in two legs: about 8 hours to Doha, Qatar. Then another 8/9 hours from there to London. My Doha layover could've just been a couple of hours, but I opted for a later flight, spending some six hours in the state of Qatar. I figured I might see something... Well, what I saw wasn't particularly interesting - the Persian Gulf countries are dominated by, well, sand. And flatness. On the horizon, I could see the gleaming towers of Doha. Nearby, I could see dusty two and three story buildings, that wouldn't have looked any different in any other part of the world.

And Doha has this weird water tower thing to greet you...

All the planes I saw on the ground were Qatar Airways. The only other one I saw was from Air Atlanta Icelandic, which seemed horribly out of place here, in the desert. I later learned that it belonged to an Icelandic company that simply leases planes around the world. This was likely one of the two they had out on lease to Saudi Arabia

And I had plenty of time to take all of this in, as we landed, deplaned, boarded a shuttle bus, then must have traveled some 20 minutes to reach the chaotic terminal building (dominated by the sprawling duty free store). Considering that the whole country is flat, sandy, and empty (as far as I can tell), I'm not sure why the runway couldn't have been closer to the terminal, but maybe they have a reason... The whole time, I kept expecting Dubai's newly constructed Burj Dubai to poke over the horizon - it's the new tallest building in the world, and at over 850 meters in height (that's almost a freaking kilometer!), it's over 350 meters taller than the 504 meter Taipei 101, now #2 in the world. Alas, it's apparently not quite tall enough to be visible from Qatar. Well, it is almost 400km away... Slightly ruining my pre-conceived notions of the place, was what I could not see around me - not a single mosque... There was one inside the airport, of course, but, I suppose, this isn't Saudi Arabia, so we are probably not quite as fanatically Muslim around here...

As for my 5-star flights? Well, they were nice, albeit not quite overwhelming. I slept most of my first flight, and kept myself busy watching TV and drinking French Syrah on the next one. 5-star or not, but they do provide as much complimentary wine/beer/spirits as you can handle - I landed with a bit of a headache... The food was pretty good, and the entertainment system, of course, absolutely blew anything on an American-based carrier away. But it also lived in a computer box under the seat, which limited my leg room, which I didn't appreciate. All in all, certainly one of the nicer flights I've been on, but Emirates was definitely better, and Thai Airways could probably give it a run for its money!

And four flights and three cities after leaving Taiwan, I finally arrived in London, which was cold, but at least not rainy!

Waiting... take 23. Happy New Year!

At around 4 in the afternoon on Friday, Tim and I were sitting at the bar in the uber-fancy Peninsula hotel having a drink. Four hours later, my flight was scheduled to depart Hong Kong for Thailand, so at about 4:30 we paid the bill and headed off to the other end of the spectrum of luxury in accomadations: the Chunking Mansions where I picked up my things and headed for the airport

At the Peninsula Hotel - dubbed the 'Finest Accomodation East of the Suez' when it was first opened in the 1920's. It's been upgraded since...

The Chunking Mansions may be the other end of the spectrum, but considering the price and [especially] the location in Hong Kong, it's probably a far better deal than the neighboring Peninsula

So, with my bags all packed up, it was time to head downstairs and catch the bus for the airport. Whose schedule I did not know, but figured it would show up soon enough. And the 8 o'clock flight meant there wasn't much of a rush, so...

Waiting...

But this is Hong Kong - things run predictably, efficiently, and on schedule. So, after 10 minutes, my double decker bus pulled up to the bus stop, Tim and I exchanged our good-bye's and I was off to the airport, chatting with a guy on a business trip from the Ivory Coast (that would be a country in West Africa). Sitting on a bus is all about waiting too, but that's fully expected - if I didn't want to wait for the bus, I could've paid two and a half times as much to take the super-fast and efficient subway and avoid all possibility of traffic delays, but I wasn't in any hurry, so I waited on the bus.

Upon arriving at the airport, I was initially taken aback by the discovery (or rather non-discovery?) that my 8:05 flight wasn't on the big Departures board, however, the AirAsia counter was happy to check me in (once I lightened my checked baggage to be reasonably close to 15kg, of course...). Eventually, I found the flight on the Big Board, rescheduled to 8:25... So, a bit more

Waiting...

But waiting at the Hong Kong ariport isn't all bad - you get free Wi-Fi, comfortable chairs, and a variety of over-priced food options (including the Zakuska restaurant serving caviar... Zakuska is the Russian word for snack)

Four hours later, we landed at the Phuket airport in the South of Thailand. I wanted to get to Koh Tao and meet up with friends there. I didn't have a particularly clear idea of how this was going to happen, but assumed I'd find a way. Step 1 seemed to be to get from the airport to Phuket Town, so I ventured out to be confronted by the swarming hordes of taxi drivers vying for the arriving tourists' attentions (and cash). After confirming that there was not going to be a bus this evening (in spite of some ten people waiting - for something - at the bus station), I ventured over to the taxi hordes.

- Where is this share taxi going? (Share taxi is a minivan, which you, obviously, share with others)
- Where do you need to go, sir?
- Where is your taxi going?
- Where do you want to go?
- Phuket City
- Oh no, need a private taxi for that, no van going to Phuket...
- Where are you going then?
- Where do you want to go?
- Are you going to Patong Beach? (I've been to Phuket before, I remember some of the geography)
- Yes, five minutes.
- Ok, I'll go to Patong Beach with you then figure out a way to get to Phuket

Waiting...
Waiting...

- Five minutes, sir...

Waiting... ...

Another flight arrives, filled with more backpackers coming from Vietnam. I listen to a group of them go through the same Q and A session with the taxi driver horde. They want to go to Phuket as well, are negotiating a price (I have a 150 Baht ticket for Patong at this point)

Waiting... ...

Eventually, the group from Vietnam are at some sort of an indecision point where they seem to have settled on a price, but don't really know if they are getting ripped off or not, so are hesitating, I confirm that they are in fact trying to get to Phuket, we start talking and eventually they decide to just take the share cab. By the time the four of them, and me, have gotten our tickets for Phuket (Thailand loves giving out tickets for useless things like 30 minute van rides), there's actually six more people needing to get to Phuket, so we are up to a full van. Apparently, the van is going to Phuket after all...

30 minutes later, Phuket, center of town. Nine of us have disembarked from the van and are now searching for the next step. The consensus seems to be that buses and vans for Surat Thani, where we all need to get in order to catch the ferries for the island, won't run till the morning, so we should probably find a place to sleep near the bus station.

Waiting... ...

A friendly Thai man materializes - I don't actually know where he came from, but seems to have been there ever since we got out of our taxi. He's anxious to help - Where do you need to go? You need a hotel? A guesthouse?

- Well, we actually need to go to Surat Thani, can you get us there?
- I need to check with my driver
- do you think it's possible to go tonight?
- sure [at this point I texted the following to twitter: "Just negotiated a middle of the night ride to the coast, i love that anything is possible in this country!" It's true, anything is possible, but...]
- how much is it goint to be?
- need to check with my driver

So he goes off to look for his driver with one of the guys from the group - a Fin coming from Hong Kong. We discuss how with now 9 of us looking to go (the other two had a hotel reserved in Phuket), anything in the 5,000 Baht range would be reasonable (1 USD ~= 35 THB)

Waiting...

Wonder what's taking so long, hope they're coming back!

Waiting... ...

Our man is back, with a van, and our Finnish friend - 450 Baht each, we can leave right now. Done! The van is actually surprisingly more comfortable than I expected, and I get some three hours of sleep before we arrive in Surat Thani.

Except this time, we are not in the center of town, we are at the offices of a ferry company that can get us to Koh Samui. But I need to go to Koh Tao? Catch another ferry from Samui... What about a direct ferry? (I'm fairly certain there is one). No direct ferry - need to go to Koh Samui.

Later, reading the guide books while already on the ferry, we learned that there's a couple of different ferry companies - we got taken to the one that does not have a direct route to Koh Tao (but probably does pay the van service to bring it customers). Being roughly 4 in the morning, I am in no mood to argue or even further investigate, so we get our tickets, for the bus (van), which will take us to the actual ferry, another hour away.

Waiting... ...

Don Suk ar sunrise, departing on the ferry for Koh Samui, after comfirming that the ferry port we just got taken to does not in fact have direct ferries to Koh Tao. Instead they have a 7AM ferry for Koh Samui, arriving there at 8:30AM. They also have ferries from Koh Samui to Koh Tao, departing daily at 3PM, or in the morning at ... wait for it ... 8AM! Convenient...

Leaving for the islands at sunrise. Getting here overnight does seem like an accomplishment already.

A longboat awaits on Koh Samui

It got less exciting from here. Koh Samui:

Waiting... ...

then a little more

Waiting... ...

then, an hour and a half later than promised, we left for Koh Phangan, and eventually on to Koh Tao from there, but with no waiting at Koh Phangan, so that's progress. By this time, I was starting to keep track of just how long it had been since I had left Hong Kong - after disembarking in Koh Tao, and catching a taxi with Dave and Diana, the last of our group of 11 from the airport, who were going to Koh Tao same as myself, I walked up to Asia Divers Resort right around 3 in the afternoon, on a hot and muggy day in Southern Thailand.

An extra passenger on the boat to Koh Tao

The ferry arrives in Koh Tao. Several hundred tourists, large backpacks at the ready, emerge

Factoring in the time difference, that gave me a total travel time of 23 hours, including a bus, an airport shuttle, an airplane, three different minibuses, three different ferry boats, and one ride in the back of a Toyota truck, masquerading as a taxi on the islands. And then...

Waiting... ...

Turns out Dave and Sandra, the friends I had originally met in Peru back in April and was looking to meet up with here, weren't actually at Asia Divers Resort (or their actual house five minutes away), as they had taken a boat trip that afternoon, and weren't due back for another couple of hours. Having Wi-Fi, Thai food, a Thai beer, and no concerns about having to go somewhere else, made the wait a lot easier though!

Life on Koh Tao:

First night on the beach - a fire show

at the Portabello Restaurant for dinner

The very chill Fizz Bar on the beach

Paul dazzling us with Russian dance moves. He's not actually Russian - I might be, but I'm sure as hell not about to try that!

Getting to Koh Tao was interesting alright, but that's not really what Koh Tao was all about - the neighboring island of Koh Phangan is the famous (infamous) home of Thailand's Full Moon Parties, and this year, a Full Moon coincided with New Year's Eve, so after making sure I made it to the islands on the 30th of December, we headed off for a night of, well, I wasn't really sure what, on Koh Phangan on the 31st. We had a group of ten of us - Dave, Sandra, myself, and a bunch of friends they'd made traveling around SE Asia the last few months. The boat got us there by about 4:30 in the afternoon, giving us time to get dinner, stock up on alcoholic beverages from a local 7-11 and find a relatively quiet beach to hang out on until hitting the party in earnest around 11.

At 11, we made it over to Hat Rin beach, the home of the Full Moon party, which was filled with music, people, fireworks, liquor, and general revelry taken to a number of whole different levels. I had assumed that if I brought my camera with me, I'd either lose it or destroy it (and after finally managing to replace my camera on my last day in Hong Kong, I was looking to avoid those outcomes), so I din't take any pictures - Karina, however, was a lot more brave, so some visuals of the Blue Moon Party 2009:





Amelia, Kelly, Sandra, and Karina

Sandra, Karina, Dave, and me

Gary and his favorite bucket

Sandra and Dave early in the night

Sandra, Kelly, and Karina after a few drinks...

I was on the strip in Las Vegas on New Year's Eve to ring in the new millenium, I've been on a cruise-ship over New Year's, I've been to New York's TIme Square - none of those come even remotely close. This was the most wild and crazy place I'd ever seen, and I was barely even awake past about 3 in the morning. In fact, I spend about an hour and half napping on the ground outside of the 7-11 (quite comfortably, by the way) before we all met up there in the morning to head back to the pier and catch our ferry back to Koh Tao, where I was most excited to find a couch to crash on for another few hours!

So, Happy New Year, everybody - hope 2010 is off to a good start for everyone!

Wide world of sports

It started with Thai boxing back in, well, Thailand. Then I tried rugby (the sevens variety, which is the better kind) in Fiji, and footy in Melbourne (that's Australian Rules Football for those not in the know... or not in Australia), and sumo in Japan

I love the man-mountain of sumo

South America added tennis in Buenos Aires and futbol (gooooaaaaaalll!) in Sucre, Bolivia. Coming into Hong Kong, I wasn't really expecting any big spectator sports, but I was wrong. There's horse racing over here, and apparently it's a really big deal. So, on a rather gloomy and overcast day I made my way up to the Sha Tin Racecourse up in the New Territories to explore the local sporting obsession

It's all very royal and British around horse racing here

Going into the racecourse

In spite of having lived in the State of Kentucky, which is only slightly less obsessed about horse racing than it is about UK basketball, and even knowing people (ok, a person) involved in the horse racing industry, I'd never actually been to a horse race, so I didn't really know what to expect, nor I can really compare Hong Kong racing against the American variety. So, basic impressions: I don't know anything about horse racing, so there are giant tableaus with all kinds of information, but I don't know what most of it means. As far as the locals seem concerned, there's really no sport here except for the betting - people barely pay attention to the race itself, but everybody bets and focuses on their stat and information sheets. I didn't care to bet. I just figured I'd take some pictures, and hopefully some wouldn't come out totally blurry:

Getting ready for the race

Around the turn they come!

Down the straightaway towards the finish line!

Now closer to the action, armed with my big lens, I got a few interesting shots

Pushing for position to the very end

After three races, I took off to find an ultimate frisbee game in Hong Kong - racing was interesting, but without betting, it doesn't look like you can really get into it. On a nicer day, you can probably just sit around and enjoy the day, but on a rainy day, I figured I'd rather be playing frisbee!

Next time you need something colonized

or Manila vs. Hong Kong: a study in contrasts

Manila is the capital of the Philippines, a nation that had been a Spanish colony for three centuries until gaining independence at the start of the 20th century. Hong Kong has been a colony of the United Kingdom since being ceded to the British crown by the Chinese emperor in the middle of the 19th century and until it was formerly handed back over in 1997. Both cities lie in South East Asia, straddling the two shores of South China Sea, and share an extensive history of European influence, so they should have some similarities based on their colonial pasts? Well...

This is Hong Kong

So is this - modernity with a slight nod to old Chinese culture

Season's Greetings, celebrating a Christian holiday, Hong Kong, however, remains almost strictly all business, as the tower in the background might suggest

This, on the other hand, is Manila. The St. Augustin Church in the old town section of Intramuros.

Fort Santiago protecting Manila

So, what does Hong Kong remind me of? Well, a little London, a little Shanghai, a little Singapore, a little New York - a mixture of East and West: a distinctly modern, developed, Western city with an unmistakably Eastern influence. What does Manila remind me of? Certainly nothing in Asia. It's certainly closest to Cartagena, and Cuzco, and Panama City - other Spanish colonial capitals. The church plays a big role in former Spanish colonies, just as long as it's the Roman Catholic church.

The Manila Cathedral - it may have been destroyed a few times (fire, earthquake, WWII), but it'll always be rebuilt!

Hong Kong has a cathedral too - St. John's, an Anglican Cathedral, so not quite acceptable to the Roman Catholics, but close enough for our purposes

Hong Kong is a little more diverse - including several Buddhist temples, such as Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin, pictured here, nestled in between the sky scrapers

Religious insignia inside the Manila Cathedral

And incense burning in Hong Kong

Want more religious symbols? How about a big Buddha on Lantau island

There are no Buddha's in the Philippines

Well, how about just going out on the streets of the two cities? Perhaps some monuments to inspire the local population?

Manila. I don't actually know whom this statue commemorates. I'm going to say she wasn't that good at kung fu though...

Hong Kong celebrates its own heroes - Bruce Lee could take the Spanish down all by himself if he wanted to!

Old and new juxtaposition in Hong Kong at the Kowloon Walled City Park

And something not entirely Spanish, or Catholic, in Manila - not Filipino either though: the Chinese cemetery.


A couple more sights from the streets of Hong Kong

At this point I was going to make a complicated point comparing the different colonial approaches Britain and Spain had taken (Spain: full totalitarian control, flatly imposing Catholicism vs. Britain's more freedom embracing approach, which allowed for the local religions to remain) and the results: the British colonies have, at times, achieved greater economic propsperity (Hong Kong, USA), but the Spanish ones have almost certainly ended up being more stable, easier to govern, and much more similar to the home country in the long run (South America may not seem particularly stable, but it's got nothing on formerly British India and the Middle East). However, I don't like making that point, and I don't really know what I'm talking about when it comes to geo-political issues, and it's not really a true apples-to-apples comparison - after all, The Incas and Aztecs in South America may have been the most advanced local cultures the Spanish had encountered (the Philippines didn't have much of a developed nation-state prior to the Spanish), whereas the British colonies got to deal with long-established cultures like India, China, and the tribal regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

So, instead, let's just say the two European powers took very different approaches to running their colonies, and the results may be most obvious in the Philippines. This is a country in SE Asia, but it may as well be in Latin America. The currency is the peso, the language has a strong Spanish influence to it (mas barato por favor! = cheaper please! both here and in Bolivia...), the names of streets, towns, and people are often Spanish based (Fort Santiago, Puerto Princessa, etc.), and not only is Christianity (Catholicism especially, even though other branches are popping up, probably due to the last 100 years of American colonial influence) the undisputed state religion, the thing I found to be truly surprising was the almost complete absence of Buddhism, in a region where Buddhism dominates all the neighboring states. Islam, by the way, is present down South, stemming from nearby Malaysia and Indonesia, where Islam is the primary religion (even though there's a lot more signs of Buddhism in both of those countries than there is in the Philippines). The opposing Muslims were apparently quite the annoying discovery to the invading Spanish a few centuries ago, as Spain had just finished fighting off the Muslim forces (the Moors) back in the Spanish homeland and in Northern Africa (this random historical footnote brought to you by Lonely Planet).

Well, that's probably enough geo-political musings and ramblings for the moment. Today is the last of my six here in Hong Kong - tonight I get on a plane bound for the beautiful beaches of Thailand to celebrate New Year's in style. Goals for today are to find a replacement camera (still! Hong Kong's been refusing to repair mine...) and meet up with Tim for more delicious local cusine - the food in Hong Kong is excellent as it is, but yesterday he and his parents took me out to a couple of really good local restaurants (that I would have never picked out myself), and the food gets to be even more amazing when you're with people who know what they are talking about, as opposed to me just randomly pointing at things on a menu!