Let's go on a hike!

Aaah! So cute!

            As I mentioned last week, I went on a hike in Coloane last Sunday. It started near the panda exhibit and would go all the way up to the A-Ma temple and statue. Yes, you read that right. Pandas. We spent a good amount of time gushing over them and, of course, taking plenty of pictures. Well, I probably did the most, since my group comprised of my two local friends, Natasha and Vanessa, who have been there a few times, and my fellow exchange student Margarida, who went to see them the week before. We saw some other animals after that (more pictures are in this album here.)

We wanted a picture with them, but you
can hardly see them. Had to point 😄

            Now that I had my fill of adorable animals, we were ready to begin our walk up to the temple. The hike wasn't very long and the weather was pretty nice, despite the smog. The only thing that made this hike difficult was how uphill it was! Even before we started the hike properly, we had to trike up the winding, steep road, and dodge the cars as they randomly appeared around the corners. All the while we were having conversations and I was beginning to gasp for air after 10 minutes. Now, I'm not exactly what you would call "athletic," so as I walked with Natasha, Vanessa, and Margarida, who are comparatively fit, you can imagine how often I trailed far behind them. I should go to the gym more often.

Here's the entrance.

No good luck for me!

            I'm so glad that Natasha and Vanessa came with us, otherwise, I don't know if I would have been able to navigate out of the parking lot. Seriously, the signs around the path were so freaking confusing with a lot of numbered areas and of course Chinese characters. At multiple points during our walk we could see the temple in the distance growing closer and closer and we eventually found ourselves in front of the entrance, which was under construction. There was a huge typhoon last year, and the temple is still being rebuilt, but luckily, it was only a section of it and it is still open to the public. It was all very cool, and I got a lot of pictures from it. There were turtles in this fountain surrounding the platform in the middle of the temple, and a lot of money thrown around in the water. In the front of the platform, there was a turtle statue with a small bowl on top, and the idea is to try throwing a coin into the bowl for luck. Three of us tried, and honestly, I probably tried a little too hard, though none of us could do it. I have a video of my failure if you're interested 😅.

A-ma statue

            The temple overall was very cool, the worship space had a load of statues and artwork. Outside was a table of fruit, and I will admit that I really did think for a second that they were sale for the visitors, but then I realized that it was for offerings. I felt a little stupid, and my friends were incredulous to why I thought that 😐. I wouldn't expect anything less, and neither should any of you. We made our way to the A-ma statue near the temple which gave us a cool view of Macau. The statue itself really reminded me of the Statue of Liberty, though it was comparatively very small and white. A-ma is actually the patron sea goddess and it is believed that the name Macau is derived from hers. So, we did what we came to do, but the day was far from over.
            We departed from the statue, and started to walk towards the beach area of Coloane. Well, we didn't go to the beach, but we saw it from a distance. This was the beach that had black sand- Hac Sa Beach I think it's called. The sand isn't completely black, I think it used to be, but erosion forces the government to refill it with normal sand. We took a picture overlooking the view, and it is now sitting proudly as my computer wallpaper.

Man I'm jealous of these kids.

            We made our way to this park with a hill that kids slide down on sleds. I wanted to do it so bad! But there was a height limit that was just a couple feet shorter than I am 😞. Apparently there's one I could go to in Taipa, looks like that's next on the list! Luckily the park had something else for us big kids to do, which was pedal boats! The water looked so nice that I wanted to swim in it, which unfortunately is not allowed, but the boats were still fun. We were so tired and hungry after that, but it would take us a little while to get back to Taipa. We had to wait a bit for the bus to come, which gave Margarida a little time to take a cat-nap. Once we got on the actual bus, the ride was long enough for everyone else to fall asleep as well. Eventually we got back to Taipa where we had lunch/dinner at this cute cafe that was a lot like a diner looking at their menu. Margarida and I got this pizza that was life itself, it was so good.
            The day was unbelieveably fun, I only wish that more of my friends decided to join us. Hopefully we can make another hiking day, though it should probably be within the next couple months since the hot and humid spring will probably kill us before we leave the pandas. I'll have a couple of awesome stories to share next week because I'm going to a couple of concerts! Tonight is Mayday, a very famous Taiwanese group that my friend Henry is in love with. He promised to take me to one of their shows last year, and now we're going. I only really know one or two of their songs, and I wont really be able to understand what they are saying, but I know it's going to be awesome. And Wednesday night is going to be HUGE. Not many of you would know this band since they are from Japan, but I'll just say that it probably be one of the greatest concerts of my life. I'm so excited to share it all with you next week, but until then 

再见！

TL;DR: We saw pandas and went on a hike, I'm not very fit, we got to see a temple and statue, but the fruit is not for eating, I'm too old to slide down a hill, but not too old for pedal boats, these girls fall asleep a lot, that pizza was so good, and next week is going to be AWESOME!!!