We Kowtow in Lantau (Days 10 and 11)

On Tuesday, July 8, fully intending to get caught up on our hotel-sink laundry effort, I signed the kids up for a two-hour Chinese Art class in the Kids At Art studio in our hotel. (That effort would be thwarted as I spent most of that time trying to contact Wells Fargo in an effort to allow us withdraw even more funds even more frequently.) However, with a promise to return with full payment, I left the kids to enjoy the full focus of the attentive staff. 

I asked the teachers to use Mandarin as much as possible as they guided Xander, Vaughn and Quinn through new techniques with ink and paint. The kids created several paintings each with the intent of presenting their favorites to Betsy for her upcoming birthday.

That afternoon I continued to shirk my laundry duties, opting instead to sit and write by the pool as the kids frolicked in the cool water. When Betsy joined us after work, I commented on how very friendly the pool service staff was as they brought us our sandwiches, lemonade and beer. When we got the bill for HK$1,457 (US$188), we realized why. Holy hot pot, there went our dinner plans!

Pictured: $57 worth of beverages

Still the pool was the most beautiful one we’ve seen so far; overlooking the harbor and with a waterfall at one end. Plus we were treated like kings so we decided it was worth it and retired to the hotel room for the evening and curled up with some ramen and Chinese television.

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July 9 was busy and memorable Wednesday as we left the hotel early for a day-long tour of Lantau Island before departing for Shanghai that night.

Lantau Island is twice the size of Hong Kong Island and the largest among the approximately 256 outlying islands within the territory. The tour began with a 40-minute ferry ride from Hong Kong to Lantau through the busy harbor filled with cargo ships heading off to or returning from long voyages. Luckily for us on a day where temperatures climbed over 100 degrees, we hopped from the air-conditioned boat to an air-conditioned bus that offered salvation after each broiling tour stop on the island. A sign posted at the front of the bus offered this sobering advice:

I've always been suspicious of my right thumb and now I'm on high alert.

Many of the 120,000 inhabitants of Lantau have jobs in Hong Kong (2 million total) and must make the daily ferry trip to work. They ride their bicycles from home and leave them parked together on the dock. 

But not a bike lock in sight.

Our guide says there is very little crime on Lantau because most people can trace their family lineage back for centuries and very few people migrate to the island so basically no one can get away with anything. There are, however, several prisons (apparently for criminals from elsewhere) including a juvenile detention center that offered a nice incentive for good behavior for the day.

The first stop on the tour was a refreshing visit to the pristine Cheung Sha beach. We were pleased to see a barrier ringing the shore after hearing about the six fatal shark attacks around the island over the last 15 years and happily waded into to the warm surf.

The bus then took us to the unique Tai O fishing village, a former haven for smugglers and pirates that is now a popular tourist destination. We enjoyed a short boat ride that gave us a close-up look at some the remarkable, yet dilapidated, pang uks; fisherman's homes that are built on stilts to better endure flooding. 

Fishing long provided the primary means of income in the village but overfishing has forced the inhabitants to rely on tourist spending. We passed stall after stall of very ripe, sun-dried, salted  examples of meager fish, shrimp and mollusks that neither we nor anyone else on our tour dared to bring back on the bus.

There's something fishy going on around here.

We visited a temple where we had our first experience burning incense as a symbolic offering. In Chinese Taoist and Buddhist temples, worshippers light and burn incense which they wave our raise above the head as they bow to the statues or plaques of a deity or ancestor. One makes says a prayer of hope or thanks and then places the stick or sticks in a receptacle in front of the idol.

Next, our bus climbed the winding road up the mountain to the Ngong Ping plateau for a visit to the majestic Tain Tian Buddha Statue and the nearby Po Lin Monastery, where we were served a delicious vegetarian meal.

The monastery was built in 1907 and plans for the Big Buddha were made over sixty years ago with the project finally coming to fruition in 1990. The 202 separate pieces of bronze were gradually shipped to the island and then trucked up the hill before they were assembled in 1993 to form the 112-foot, 250-ton statue. The serene and dignified Buddha rests on a bed of lotus flowers with his left hand in his lap, signifying the giving of the moral treasures known as dhana, and his right hand is raised, representing the removal of affliction.

The structure beneath houses three separate exhibition halls of worship and six smaller bronze statues surround the Buddha praising and making the various symbolic offerings required to enter into nirvana. 

Our tour of Lantau ended with a ride aboard the Ngong Ping Skyrail, a 25-minute cable car that offered stunning views as we descended from Hgong Ping plateau to Tung Chung New Town near the airport, from which we would depart a few hours later. 

We shared our ride with a South African/Australian expat and her daughters, aged 10 and 8, who gained our admiration as they described their earlier four-hour ascent by foot to the Big Buddha in the day's intense heat and humidity.

Our flight that evening from Hong Kong to Shanghai took just over two hours, transporting five sleepy travelers to the third stop on our journey for new round of adventures, cuisine, friends and hilarious mis-translations.

THE CLINK, TOWER OF LONDON & MUMMIES (DAY 28)

Monday, our third day in London, was the city's first in months without any upcoming Olympic celebrations or events on which to focus. It was interesting to walk around areas that had been filled with fans and vendors only a day before and see structures, booths and signs being unceremoniously torn down and removed. The Olympic rings still hung from the Tower Bridge, however, and we got to see them raise along with the bridge to allow a clipper with sails flying to pass underneath. Even hardened Londoners were stopping to snap photos of the sight.  

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In the morning, we visited the notorious Clink Prison on the south bank, where we were treated to all sorts of medieval torture devices and tales of captives' misery and woe. The Clink, a nickname for jails still used by English speakers today, was established in 1144 and got its name from the sound of the blacksmith's hammer closing the irons around the wrists or ankles of prisoners. 

Quinn was very apprehensive as we swung open the heavy, creaky wooden door to explore the dark halls of the museum. Posed figures and wall placards told tales of filth and terror endured by both upper and lower class malefactors. Once Quinn felt reassured that we would eventually be released, we all reveled in the surprisingly hands-on experience the various rooms offered. 

- EXPLICIT DETAILS BELOW - 

We were able to pick up and feel the effects of thumbscrews and a leg iron with a ball attached.

Here Quinn imagines the damage this swinging mace could do while the boys hold a pair of head restraints used to punish gossips. This "light" punishment for women forced the wearer to endure the heavy headgear complete with a spiked tongue depressor as they were paraded about town. 

Another humiliating punishment were the stocks which were used for unscrupulous traders in the stock market, butchers who sold raw meat, bakers who baked sawdust into their bread or little boys who peed all over the toilet and bathroom floor at the Holiday Inn Express. 

The stocks were better than the pillory since at least an offender's upper body was free to facilitate evasive maneuvers to more easily dodge the rotten vegetables, feces and dead animals that people threw at them.

We learned about the way a prisoner's flesh would fall of his body after a few days in the sewage-filled Hole. We saw how criminals' bodies were left to dangle from the gibbet for the ravens to pick at after they were hung and covered with pitch for preservation. We read about the way hangings progressed from a half hour of slow strangulation (friends could help things along by yanking on the condemned, giving us the phrase "pulling your leg") to the quicker method of dropping the victim from a height to break his neck.

Of course, that kind of consideration wasn't always shown if torture was undertaken in an effort to get a confession. Some prisoners were subjected to pressing; a thick door was laid over their spread-eagle body and huge weights were added until ribs were broken and the stubborn individual was near suffocation. Others endured water torture during which they were tied down and forced to drink large quantities of water, urine or bile until their stomach was filled to near bursting. Then they were beaten until they vomited and the whole process was begun anew. People were killed by being burned at the stake (green wood was undesirable as victims would pass out from the smoke and weren't conscious as the flames set in) or were tossed into a vat of boiling water. Others were hung, disemboweled, then cut into quarters - not necessarily in that order. Kneeling in front of an ax-weilding executioner with your neck on a block of wood was easily the quickest and most merciful way to pay the ultimate price.

All that being said, the museum was kid-friendly and the information was presented in a straightforward and educational manner. Such atrocities are a part of our history and it's important to learn how people were once treated before human rights finally began to take hold in most civilized places around the world 200 years ago. I have a bit of a morbid side so I was hoping to find such a place when we first planned our trip to London and it was everything I could've asked for. The kids got into it and were even rewarded with lollipops for accurately counting the rats throughout the galleries! 

In the end, I came through on my promise and we were released to head to the Tower to see jewels and armor and bear witness to more tales of captivity and torture.

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We spent three hours roaming the grounds of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London. 

Founded in 1066, the Tower has served as a royal residence and defensive fortification, an armory, a treasury, a menagerie housing exotic animals, the home of the Royal Mint, a public records office and home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Several of the towers housed prisoners in the site's thousand-year history, some in astonishing comfort and others less so. Many left their mark in often heart-wrenching graffiti carved into the walls. This intricate zodiacal chart and calendar was made by one Hew Draper in May of 1561. 

We learned about the various ways the fortress was defended and read about the only time it was overrun during the Peasant's Revolt of 1381.

Before entering the Jewel House to view the royal treasures, we enjoyed watching a ceremonial sentry run through his regimented paces. The guards are regular Army soldiers and enjoy these duties between deployments around the world.

Unfortunately, no photos are allowed throughout the Crown Jewel exhibition so I am unable to share that part of our tour but the shimmering symbols of monarchy which included 400 years of gilded and jewel-encrusted crowns, scepters, swords, orbs and anointing regalia were truly awe-inspiring. 

Next we made our way next into the central White Tower to view the tremendous collection of armor and weaponry. Among the many suits of armor is this jousting ensemble worn by King Henry VIII, complete with giant codpiece.

Anne Boleyn was beheaded in 1536 on or around this spot where a monument stands today. The center of the table holds a glass pillow like the one that would have been placed underneath the executioner's block. 

The Wakefield Tower houses the torture display and includes a full rack. In case you didn't get your fill in the section above, you'll be pleased to see an example of the device on which people were tied with their arms and legs stretched out. The wheels were gradually ratcheted to stretch victims and inflict terrible pain on the joints.

Some chroniclers have said the torture inflicted by the rack pales in comparison to the more portable scavenger's daughter which did had just the opposite effect by binding the victim in a compressed position.

In case children didn't get their fill of the graphic displays, the gift shop at the Tower offers these whimsical little folding paper models. Shoppers can choose between the beheading activity set and the rack action play kit. Click to see them in their full animatronic glory.

Needless to say, after such a gruesome morning, we were famished. We couldn't resist, so we set out for the second day in a row to enjoy another dim sum lunch in Chinatown. The kids were even bolder and Vaughn in particular enjoyed speaking to our server in Mandarin. But Chinatown is not all roasted ducks and squids hanging in the windows. One side street also features the KuKlub, which is licensed to 3 AM and has won some major awards. 

On our way to the Underground we passed by a bunch of commotion which turned out to be the red-carpet London premier of The Expendables 2. We were unable to see over the four-deep crowd but we could hear the shouts as Sly and the guys made their entrances.

Our last big stop of the day was the British Museum where admission is free unless you care to make a donation.

  Homer: And uh, what if I wish to pay ... zero?
  Clerk: That is up to you.
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  Homer: Well, anything you say! Good luck, lady, you're gonna need it!

Fortunately, enough people who haven't thrown their money away on sleazy museums of death are willing to make contributions to keep this higher institution of death accessible to all. Keeping in theme, we went straight for the Egyptian wing and were blown away by the vast collection of mummies and mummy-related items.

An excellent display on how mummies were preserved culminated in one of many examples of a mummified body; this one was 3,000 years old (!) and, like many others, still had hair, teeth and nails.

If mummification was a way to bring eternal life to the deceased, the process must be deemed a success in a way.

I was also thrilled to realize that the museum contains the Rosetta stone and the kids and I enjoyed the opportunity to see it in person and learn more about it. The stone contains a decree issued by King Ptolemy I in 196 BC written in triplicate in Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic script and ancient Greek. Before the discovery of the stone in 1799, hieroglyphics had been indecipherable. On display in the British Museum since 1802, the Rosetta Stone led to today's ability to read ancient Egyptian inscriptions and literature confidently.

As a final nod to the Olympic games, we were also pleased to fight through the crowd to get a great look at an example of a pair of gold medals from the 2012 Games.

Exhausted from our biggest day of sightseeing and already mentally composing what (I hope) will probably be the longest post of the entire blog, we hopped on yet another London icon and enjoyed the view from the upper level of a double-decker bus on the ride back to our hotel.