Vignettes of the World
Our Final Lunch in Uzbekistan at the Afsona Restaurant Afsona Restaurant is very popular in Tashkent and it is highly recommended on quite a few online platforms. We sat down for our final lunch in Uzbekistan and we were excited. But we made the wrong …
From the Minor Mosque I took the metro to arrive at the State Museum of History in Tashkent. The museum itself offers some insight into Uzbekistan’s past. If I had a choice, I might have visited this museum in Tashkent before heading off to the …
Bright and early at 6am we were back in Tashkent by train. This would be our very final day in Uzbekistan. We would be seeing some museums for this day, before we head out for our flight in the evening.
It was perhaps too early in the day, but Tashkent was already bustling with activities everywhere. We saw a lot of local life outside the train station. People were getting ready for work, and hawkers lined the street in eager display of their goods for the first business of the day.
We managed to check in our luggage at the train station, and then we made our way to a nice breakfast at a café. At 7:30am, the café was just about getting ready for the morning rush. We sat down and savored some really nice pastries, including an almond croissant, with a much-needed coffee at Boulangerie Bon! Café.
The Bon! Café is a chain and it has a prominent presence in Tashkent. We saw a couple of Bon! Cafés in this final day of touring in Tashkent.
I figured that visiting a mosque is the only thing to do in terms of sightseeing at 8am. The museums that my friend and I wanted to visit would not open until 10am.
The Minor Mosque is a new mosque in Tashkent. Construction completed in 2014 before the Eid al-Fitr holiday. It has the capacity of accommodating 2,500 prayers at once.
Known as the “White Mosque” in Tashkent, the Minor Mosque lived amply up to its name on the day of our visit. Its white marble exterior exuded an air of holiness. It stood pure, speckless and sparkly under the brilliance of the sun’s early rays. There are two minarets in the height of 38 meters. The structure consists also of two large portals, beautifully decorated with geometric patterns in blue and white, as well as Quran scripts.
An online source had this to say about the Minor Mosque, “The interior of the mosque is decorated in Naqsh style, with Quranic and other texts. Designed to hold more than 2,400 people, the mosque is divided into the open front of the terraces and a huge domed hall with a gilded mekhrob (niche indicating Mecca) decorated with Quranic texts.” (legacy.uz).
Although Uzbekistan is not considered fundamentalist, as an Islam country, the faith is well alive and practiced in Uzbekistan. The sinews of faith do bind the cultural fabric of the Muslim majority in Uzbekistan. This fact is seen when we witness the prayers at the mosques in the country.
The day was still young. There were but just a couple of prayers there at the White Mosque at 8am. We were thankful because nobody bothered with whether we could indeed enter the men’s prayer hall at that hour. We did know that women are off bounds in the men’s prayer hall, but we looked briefly inside, in the most respectful manner that we could.
The men’s prayer room lies beneath the stately dome, its grand, decorated interior commanded solemnity. I figured that it would be just as fine if I said my Christian prayers at this venue. Be it the same Christian God / Allah or not, the Minor Mosque presented a kind of serene environment that inspired a longing for spirituality.
A word must be given here about the name of the mosque. To English speakers one would associate the Minor Mosque with the size of the mosque, and naturally wonders if there is indeed a “grand mosque” or “major mosque” as its counterpart. The Minor Mosque’s name is actually a geographical reference, as this part of Central Asia was known as Asia Minor in the ancient days. The Minor Mosque is, in fact, one of the largest mosques and religious centers in Tashkent and Uzbekistan. When a religious structure has a name that refers to the name of the region, you know it is intended to be a place of significance, and by no means is it “minor” in the common understanding of the word.
Legacy.uz, The Minor Mosque.
The Tash Khauli Palace of Khiva would be the last sightseeing that we did in Khiva before we hopped on the afternoon train for Tashkent. Khiva blessed us with another gorgeous day with a bright blue sky, echoing the turquoise mosaics that would become the …
The day was blessed with generous sunshine and it was extremely hot. There was quite a bit of walk to the Tai O Heritage Hotel from the bus stop, via parts of the Tai O town. I took my time, my tour would take place …
I needed a getaway and decided to go local this time. I booked a hostel in Lantau Island for a two-day one-night stay.
With anticipation I embarked upon my journey. The first stop was Bathers at Lower Cheung Sha Beach for a beachside lunch.
I have written about the Lower Cheung Sha Beach before. It is a very large beach and exceedingly popular for Hong Kong swimmers. The water there is not too bad, but I heard that the Tong Fuk Beach is cleaner still. Therefore this time I only wanted to have lunch at Bathers. With a mocktail in my hand I sipped the cool goodness and savoured the views at the beach. The day was very hot indeed.
I then took a bus and headed over to Tong Fuk Tsuen Village. The Blue Sky Hostel is right at the entrance of the village, not far from the bus stop.
It was newly renovated not long ago. I got a room with sea view. It was quaint, clean and cute at the hostel. The amenities were basic and minimalist but it served all my purposes.
From the Blue Sky Hostel I walked just a little over five minutes to reach the Tong Fuk Beach.
All along this short way I noticed a small stream, and indeed it would meander itself into the sea through the sandy stretch of the beach.
Where the stream was crossing into the ocean, I dipped my feet there for a bit of a natural spa.
As it is reputed, the beach is clean, with fine black sand and beautiful water. The waves are mild and there was almost no one there in a hot summer afternoon.
On Google Map, I noticed that there is an indicator of a Tin Hau Temple not far away. I made my way out there to see the temple. The entrance is at the parking lot right by the bus stop. The Tin Hau Temple was not much to speak of, but the views there on a higher vantage point was very nice.
At that time I resolved to see the sunrise there the next morning, as it faces east. However, I never rose early enough to see the sunrise as I had hoped.
The Wikipedia has a short introduction of Tong Fuk Tsuen Village. “The original Tong Fuk Tsuen was composed of indigenous inhabitants of Chan and Tang clans who settled in the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty. The Chan coming from Sea Lo Wan in North Lantau, whilst the Tang originated from Tuen Mun. Most of the indigenous inhabitants were fishermen and farmers who worshipped Hung Shing.” And indeed, I would be visiting the Hung Shing Temple the next day. It was a whole lot more established as a place of worship than the little altar of Tin Hau set up by the beach.
Tong Fuk Tsuen Village is a small village and in terms of food options it is a little tricky. There is a proper, the only proper, restaurant called Tak Bo, serving local Chinese food (and its food is good). However, at 5pm I was told by the staff at Blue Sky Hostel that Tak Bo closes at 3pm every day. That means there would be no proper dinner in the vicinity. I opted for a bowl of quick spam and egg ramen at one of the small stores along the main road. That would have to do, as I simply could not be bothered to take a bus ride to Mui Wo for dinner. I had a long day travelling from the North District to Lantau Island. I would rather clock in some much-needed sleep.
Early the next morning I paid a visit to the Hung Shing Temple of Tong Fuk Tsuen Village. It lies a bit further southwest, right by an old pier.
Like Tin Hau, Pak Tai and Tam Kung, Hung Shing is the patron deity for the islander and fishermen communities of South China. This Hung Shing Temple of Tong Fuk Tsuen Village was built in the 7th year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing dynasty (1802). In other words, it has had more than two hundred years of history. The structure is well-kept as it stands.
As the place of worship this Hung Shing Temple was once the very lifeline for the people of the Tong Fuk Tsuen Village. It was in here that children had their education, fishermen boarded their fishing boats, and traders treaded the waters to do business. Therefore the fate of the pier, and the village, was closely tied with the very temple itself.
Finally, the water at the pier was clear under a beautiful, perfectly blue sky. Its serenity today must have been unimaginable to those hardworking villagers that frequented this part of the village for the sake of their livelihood.
For breakfast, I stopped by Tak Bo Restaurant, which is the only proper dining establishment in this village. The food was not bad at all.
The plan for the rest of the day was to visit the Tai O Heritage Hotel to see the beautiful heritage there, a former police station.
Sources
The Wikipedia on Tong Fuk.
Descriptions on site at Tong Fuk Tsuen.
isletforum.com, Tong Fuk Hung Shing Temple in Lantau Island (Chin).
On my way to the Museum of Coastal Defence, I passed by some heritage sites in Shau Kei Wan. Here are the gems that I found in this neighborhood. A Brief Word on Shau Kei Wan Even as early as the 18th century, Shau Kei …
On our last day in Dameisha, I took a walk in the Biling Hiking Trail, which is part of the Malian Mountain Country Park. I have done solo hiking in Xianggong Shan of Xingping, Guilin before. But this hiking experience is significant because I did …
There were those days. A few decades ago, my family took a vacation in Xiaomeisha in Shenzhen. That was when even the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant had not been built yet. In those times, a vacation in Shenzhen alone was a big deal for the people of Hong Kong. For one thing, the boundary crossing at Lo Wu was not yet air-conditioned.
In the dog days of the summer, it took a lot of willpower just to make a trip through the only boundary crossing point at that time, which was the Lo Wu pass. There was no air con, and there were a whole lot of people wanting to visit families in China during the summer. People were shoulder to shoulder at the bridge at the Lo Wu boundary crossing. It was quite a scene then. Not to mention the fact that a trip to Xiaomeisha in those days would necessitate a long, hot and bumpy bus ride after crossing the boundary.
I do remember quite distinctly that our trip to Xiaomeisha was good, despite the difficulty of transportation. The beach there was amazing, with pristine waters and fluffy white sand.
The Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant is relevant in the sense that I do not dare swimming in either the Dameisha Beach or the Xiaomeisha Beach anymore. They are simply too close to the nuclear power plant. Lying in the southern waters of the Dameisha Beach is the Mirs Bay, indeed, the waters of Hong Kong.
I visited Dameisha just to look, for mostly nostalgic reasons.
The first impression on this trip to Dameisha Beach was just how much China has shaped up its city infrastructure in the few decades since I last went to Xiaomeisha. Located on the eastern end of Shenzhen, Dameisha was just one metro stop away from Xiaomeisha, which lies at the very eastern end of the subway Line 2.
The subway station was new with clear instructions. Dameisha Beach lies right outside of the subway station and it was exceedingly convenient.
I saw the beach packed with an enormous crowd on a Friday afternoon. It was certainly a family occasion with many, many children.
In terms of amenities, there is a shower and toilet area. I had not checked whether they were clean, but certainly they were of heavy usage. It goes without saying that there are businesses there, chiefly many restaurants along the beachfront offering all kinds of food. There were also many shops there offering rentals, and you could easily get any beach gear you need there.
Finally, and perhaps more importantly, I found the natural endowment of the Dameisha Beach to be exceedingly clean, perhaps in spite of the huge crowd there. Needless to say, there was a bit of a mess in the dining area. But a cursory look at the shore shows clearly that the water was very clear and the sand was fine.
People were swimming and also doing some interesting water sports. I saw a paraglider being pulled by the speedboat in the open sea. All looked fun, but I was happy with my icy cold lemon drink by the beachside. I spent an hour there hearing the cacophonies of summer joy – genuine cheers to the beautiful environment that Dameisha offers to its wave chasers.
According to Nowshenzhen.com, the OCT East (East Overseas Chinese Town), covers “an area of 9 square kilometers at Da Mei Sha of Shenzhen, is the national ecological tourism demonstration district and the international tourism destination, at an investment of 3.5 billion Yuan by the OCT Group. It is a combination of two theme parks, three scenic towns, four resort hotels, two 18-hole golf courses, Hua Xing Temple and Tianlu mansion etc.”
The Interlaken OCT Hotel is a four-star hotel and this was our destination for this weekend getaway. Located up the mountain that hovers over the sandy stretches of Shenzhen’s coastline in Dameisha, the Interlaken OCT Hotel presents something of quite a different nature from that of the Dameisha Beach. As its name suggests, the hotel is part of a resort area that mimics the environ of Switzerland.
When I arrived at the hotel, I was truly impressed by the beautiful reception hall, with a ceiling a few floors high, and enormous decorative fixtures that did, in my view, create an impression that we were somewhere in a foreign land. It was worlds apart from the scene in Dameisha Beach, and I did appreciate that sense of relative serenity in the mountains.
There was a lake outside of the hotel and I sat down for coffee. I was sure though that this lake was manmade. From afar the structures really make it seem like a European landscape. But upon a closer look at the facilities, I noticed signs of visible decrepitude. Efforts of maintenance are seen throughout, but some of the fixtures could not help but to look tired – the carpets a bit worn, the exteriors showing dark water stains and all structures appeared to be worn and aged. It has certainly past its prime.
My review of the hotel experience is mixed. There are certainly some very good aspects at the hotel that we considered exceptional. I laud the hotel for giving rigorous training to its staff. The hospitality (in all respects, at all venues in the hotel) was flawless. For example, we insisted on being given a room that we were satisfied with. The staff showed not a trace of annoyance when we made repeated requests for another room. The staff at the restaurant noticed that we gave up a whole plate of meat on our hotpot meal set (included in the hotel package), and offered us a full plate of vegetables (that we would eat) instead.
When we returned to our room we found a huge cockroach on the wall. We called for immediate assistance, and when the staff came, it was both a hospitality staff and a cleaning staff. The cleaning staff found a way to remove the cockroach without spraying potentially toxic insecticide. The hospitality staff offered to upgrade our room. We decided to stay in the original room, however. To be honest, this type of service cannot be expected in China, and I make this comment not from prejudice but from experience. The exceptionality is in the fact that we felt taken care of everywhere in the hotel, not just at the front desk.
There are unexpected ways in which the hotel experience was not so positive. For example, the climate there is incredibly humid, and we make this comparison to Hong Kong, which itself is known for its humidity. We could even feel the humidity when we slept. The room did come with a dehumidifier, but we probably could not have stayed there for longer than a few days.
This aspect of the experience shows why something placed in China cannot truly emulate something that is actually in Europe, no matter how much money you pour into the development. Suffice to say, however, that the mountainous environment was itself therapeutic, and the resort was good enough as a weekend getaway. Please see the next entry on the Biling Hiking Trail for more authentic experiences in the nature in this resort area.
Also, the swimming pool was closed and I was disappointed. There is a sense that not enough business and users are at the hotel to sustain the running of certain facilities. The gym was open, however.
In the second day at the hotel I decided to stay all day in my hotel room. It was a nice and roomy accommodation, and all the in-room facilities worked well. Although the lake was likely manmade, the European-style structures afar and the lake view together are tranquil.
Because the hotel is reachable only by a meandering mountain path, we found it troublesome to have to go into town for food. We therefore fully utilized our packaged deal and dined in the hotel’s western cuisine dining room for all our meals. There was breakfast and dinner included in the package.
Dinner was one hotpot set, and we had to say that it was not enough food for two persons, even if we hadn’t turned down the plate of meat that we did not want. So we ordered something from the menu at a low cost. The food was of fair quality. We loved our veggies in the hotpot. Breakfast was scrumptious with many choices in a buffet style. We had late breakfast so that we did not have to order lunch.
I had no complaints apart from the humidity and the pool closure.
Nowshenzhen.com, OCT East (East Overseas Chinese Town).
This is my second time visiting the Museum of Coastal Defense. My last visit was more than ten years ago. Revisiting this incredibly interesting museum, I found the learning to be even more comprehensive than my last visit. It is my view that the Museum …