Traveling Rockhopper

Hong Kong is kind of autonomous region, however it’s rather treated internationally like a small country with it’s own rules on many aspects;
almost having more common with the UK than with China; kind of…

I have to finally mention what’s the status of Hong Kong.
Is it a separate country? – No.
Is it part of China? – Kind of, it’s an autonomous territory.

It is officially called the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.

In the next days, I’ll tell you more, what it means.

Hong Kong has a humid subtropical climate.
It’s actually possible to distinguish 4 seasons in Hong Kong.
I visited Hong Kong in winter (February) and the weather was lovely!

Hong Kong, unfortunately, suffers a lot from pollution.
What’s interesting, the air pollution doesn’t come really from Hong Kong but mostly from mainland China…

Before I went to Hong Kong, I was reading a bit and watching some movies about Hong Kong.
I remember well the cover from the guidebook, it was a very similar picture to the one I’m showing you today. I thought, the picture was old, not so well done… But when I finally had this view in the front of my eyes, it was exactly like on this “old” picture.
Hong Kong is like that, kind of foggy, polluted; it’s like it is.
Now, I like this view a lot. 🙂

Welcome to Asia!
This month is going to all about one special place in Asia – Hong Kong.

Have you been to Hong Kong?

Brazil, is a country of football, samba, carnival, sandy beaches, colorful birds, Açaí, etc. The list is much longer.
The conclusions are simple – go to Brazil, stay safe, and enjoy your time. 🙂

p.s. Tomorrow, we’re moving to totally different place.
Stay tuned. 🙂

Brazil is definitely too big for the majority of single trips. I spent lovely time there (twice), but didn’t have enough time to explore as much as I’d like to.
I hope to have a chance to go to Brazil once more, then a few national parks are going to be on my list (e.g., Lençóis Maranhenses, Aparados da Serra, Serra da Bodoquena, Pantanal Matogrossense, Chapada dos Veadeiro, and Fernando de Noronha).

The Brazilian real (R$, BRL) is the official currency of Brazil.

Is it possible to describe climate in Brazil in 1 word?
-I would say it’s “warm”. However, it’s not completely true. Brazil is a huge country, you can find there variety of climate zones, i.e., tropics and desert, but also colder places.

Spanish is an official language in almost all countries in Latin and South America.
But not in Brazil.
Portuguese is the official language in Brazil.
While knowing Spanish, you can still manage a lot; and Spanish is rather more useful in Brazil than English.

Brazil has an extremely rich wildlife. It’s definitely a country for nature lovers!

Favela is kind of Brazilian slum; suburb of the big city, where poor citizens live.
The term may be not completely right, because there are poorer and reacher favelas; relatively safe of extremely dangerous, etc.
Anyway, a good advice – don’t go to favelas on your own, and probably taking a tour to favela is also controversial, at the end, favela is not a zoo!

Almost everywhere, you cannot feel 100% safe, because people are only people and something may always happen. Still, some places are considered to be more dangerous than the others.
While visiting big cities in Brazil you should stay very careful, e.g., even Brazilians warn foreigners about Rio de Janeiro. I don’t have any bad experience, but I know people who weren’t so lucky.

What’s more “Brazilian”: football or samba?
Well, the answer is a bit tricky, because bot hof them are definitely symbols of Brazil; however, bot of them not originate from Brazil.

What’s the most popular sport in Brazil?
-Of course, it’s football.
I should probably just write “there is no Brazil without football”. 😉
However, football came to Brazil only at the end of 19th century.

Another very well known beach in Rio de Janeiro (and in Brazil) is Ipanema Beach, located in the Ipanema district.

Which one, Copacabana or Ipanema, is better?
-Well, hard to say; I didn’t spend much time on any of them, however, Copacabana looked like “always crowded”, so Ipanema would be my choice.

Copacabana beach is located in Copacabana district of Rio de Janeiro.
I guess, Copacabana is the most famous beach in the world!
One can easily recognize the area by its characteristic promenade (partly seen in today’s picture). Isn’t it a nice pattern?

Some people claim, that the most beautiful beaches in the world are located in Brazil.
I’m not sure, is it true, but there are some very famous Brazilian beaches (not only the ones I’ll show you tomorrow and the day after).

The flag of Brazil (A Auriverde) is one of the better known flags. And there are in Brazil many souvenirs just with the image of the flag. Well, I think the flag is very nice; I’m saying it also as an astronomer. 😉