Last Day in Hong Kong. So I Got My Palm Read.

Actually both palms. I normally don't hold much by fortune tellers, but this guy had a great opener.
"You have four brothers and sisters? You are one of five children?"

I'm still looking at my hand trying to see what he was looking at. Did I have the family tree hanging out of my back pocket? Creepy.

So my right hand says I'm going to be a rich, successful, mother of four. Two boys, two girls and two of those are supposed to be twins. I'm supposed to be starting a good relationship in October of this year, but my year of beauty is still four years away (after the birth of my first son).

My left hand says that I'm going to be lucky and should start working out when I'm 70 if I expect to live to 90. It also says that I will have more money than I need and that's the time to give some away. Interesting enough, it also says I need to be buying more property.

After leaving the stand I realized I was missing some key information:

Will this October man be the father of ALL of my children?
Will I even be getting married?
When will I meet this good man?
When does the money start rolling in?
How will I get this money?
Where should I be buying this land?

Yeah. Guess it wasn't so detailed after all.

The fortune telling was at the Wan Tai Sin temple- which was awesome and full of turtles. It had fountains and incense and dragon statues. The sun finally came out, so it was even better.

Before the temple and telling, though, we started the day in Aberdeen, the fishiest part of the city. It smelled. Not sure what the appeal should have been, but a half hour was more than enough.

After the future stuff, we hit up a tea house hoping to find some moon cakes, but couldn't seem to find any place that sold them. So we just relaxed and had a cup of tea. We're starting to wind down this vacation.

And as part of the winding down, we finished off the night with a boat cruise, the Aqualuna for "The Symphony of Lights." It takes you out onto the water to watch the city light up. The lights up the buildings are synced to the music they play on the boat. The effect is pretty nice.

And that's the end of my vacation right there. It's time to pack and get to bed. Our flight's an early one. Yuck.

"This is Your First Time in Macau? Macau Has Been Waiting 400 Years for You."

Just because we're in Hong Kong is no excuse to stay in Hong Kong. We decided to do a day trip to Macau and it was awesome.








Macau's So Close, Why Not?

Caught the ferry to Macau this morning and spent the day being driven around and seeing the sights. The ferry took about an hour and after we went through immigration, we were approached by a tour guide. We got a private tour around the city and our guide dropped us off at regular intervals for photo ops and even let us pause in the middle for a lunch break.

We saw a temple, a burnt out church and a whole slew of casinos. Macau is the place for gambling, to be sure. There was a bunch of other stuff, but these were definitely the best parts. Good pics, too.

After a most excellent day of foreign fun, we caught the ferry back home. Only one more day in Hong Kong and so much to do...

I Can't Claim It Was Our Smartest Idea.

But checking out the giant Buddha during a mega thunderstorm was pretty great. Sure, it's probably not super safe to be that high up with an umbrella and sure it may have been a bit dangerous to climb all those steps-turned-waterfall, but I got some really great pictures.

We rode the crystal car up the mountain to see the Buddha. This cable car has a glass bottom so that you can look down while going up. It's awesome for the first five minutes, but you quickly get bored with looking down. It took about 20 minutes to make the trip up and our cable car was bookin'.

The rain had let up by the time we got to the top so we stood to watch the tutorial on wushu before checking out the shops before the wushu performance. While in the shops, the rain had become a torrential downpour. Wushu cancelled. So we decided to head on up the Buddha. Yeah it was raining a lot, but there are only so many giant Buddhas. By the time we bought the ponchos, we were already mostly soaked. The ponchos still helped on the walk up the stairs.





























And by stairs I mean waterfall. I was reminded of last nights episode of Man v. Wild where Bear gets out of the river just before the river overflows due to a flash flood. These were definitely flash flood conditions. Where was all the drainage? How can mountains flood?

By the time I got to the top of the mountain, I was soaked from the waist down. Good times. We hung out in the Buddha for a while to dry off, but it didn't have much of an effect. Back on down we go. Halfway down, the stairs had really started shooting out water. I was swimming in my shoes.




The adventure wasn't over at the bottom, though. We still had to find the Tea House. There was a lake in front of us. Not a problem. We're already wet. We cross the lake and head on into the woods following this little trail. Halfway in there was a spot where the water ran over the walkway and we were basically fording a river. This water was knee deep. Not deep enough to turn back.

There was no tea house at the other end of the trail. It was just a restaurant. That was closed.
So back across the river, down the trail and through the lake. The lifts were shut down due to the heavy lightning so we had to bus it back down. There was no need for the air conditioner that the driver was blasting and by the end I'm pretty sure I was halfway to hypothermia. The ride down took an hour.

We went to get our refunds and were given complimentary tickets to ride the lift again any time before the end of the year and $100HK only good in the gift shop. So I got a free shirt. Guess who's getting that one, Dad.

We got in some more shopping before heading back home to dry out. It may not have been the best day for the Buddha, but rain or no, we were going to make sure to see it all.

Oh Man. So Much for Budgets.

We started with a jewelry appreciation class about pearls and diamonds and it didn't take long for me to realize how much I didn't know about these two things. I never imagined there were so many questions I should be asking before buying pearls and diamonds. I am resolved to never buy either of these items ever. For my whole life. Never.

I found out that the jade that you find out in the markets isn't real jade. I don't know what makes jade real or fake, so I bought a piece of real jade for myself at the respectable jewelers and bought fake jade for everyone else. No need for anyone to know it's not "real." Oops. Guess the secret's out.


Where does one find fake jade? At the markets of course.

We began our tour of the markets with the flower market and wrapped things up with the night market.


Flower Market:
There were tons of orchids and it was really beautiful. Everything (except the death flowers (lilies)) smelled wonderful and it was a shame we couldn't buy anything. No way it'd get through customs. We also saw some funky tube things I think I recognise from a venus fly trap book I used to read when I was younger.

Bird Market:
Some of the birds were really pretty, but the place smelled. A lot.

Street Market:
This was the coolest place ever. You could buy souvenirs in the form of clothes or knick knacks, silk or knock-offs. They had things that were unique to Hong Kong and things from around the world. And, of course, Fake Jade. I bought a purse here and the newest addition to the seahorse game. I'm pleased with all of my purchases.

Goldfish Market:
This was just a street of pet stores. Some fluffy, some fishy. Tons of awesome fish and tiny turtles. This is where you can buy a whole bag of fish for 1 dollar. So any time all the fish in the fish tank die, Justin can just come here and fill it back up again. Super cheap.

Ladies' Market:
More souvenirs. Starting to get tired.

Missed Jade Market and all the Fake Jade. It closes at 6pm. Lame. We'll try again another day. Bought Fake Jade at the other markets, anyway.

Night Market:
I'm tired. And I spent too much money. I tried dragon fruit juice. Not a fan.

Souvenir shopping almost done. Only person left now is Dad.

And me, of course. Never too many for me.

"Are There Girl Concierges? I Didn't See Those."

Some concierges are nicer and cuter and way more helpful than others. Jason was a good one. He helped us sign up for our tour and reserved us some spots for a jewelry appreciation class. Then he gave us directions and maps and offered to help us figure out how to take a boat tour later this week.

So we hopped on a tour bus this morning to head out and see Hong Kong. We got to sit on the top of the bus and view the whole city. We got off and hit up some stores for a bit of souvenir shopping. Got some good stuff. For serious.

Some Hong Konguins (Hong Kongians?) are beautiful, but not bright. Bus driver number two was neither. Our first bus driver was excellent, but we had to switch a few minutes into the trip. Not a fan of the second one. Two thumbs down, bus driver man, two thumbs dooown.

Then we entered this weird market place. It enticed me with smells of fruits both identifiable and not, but all mouth-watering. Then turn the corner and turn on the gag reflex. The fish smell was overpowering. Every where I looked there were fish sliced open with their guts spilling out. Their oozy air bladders were just placed next to them. The smell... yuck.
I had turkey today for the first time in 7 months. It was wonderful. We found a sandwich shop that did a soup and sandwich combo. I miss turkey.



After lunch we went to hang out on this basketball court to watch a soccer game. There were tons of attractive men running around on one side of the court, but for some reason we were on the not hot side. There were shirtless men on our side, but they were all pushing 70.

For dinner we hit up Soho and grabbed some Mexican food. Teresa saw a bug and we discovered that our unfriendly waiter was just shy. The place was crawling with waygook, and I am reminded how much I hate them. Their loud, dumb, glass breaking smelly heads. They need to go vacation somewhere else.

I've finished the first round of postcards and I already know where to find the post office. Anyone who said thank you can expect one from Hong Kong next.

Oh yeah, why the h are we on the top floor? We got moved this morning and this upgrade sucks. Our room makes weird noises and our ears pop on the elevator. It's smaller and the view's not so good, but we got q-tips and 1 robe. "Upgrade my a**" - Teresa quote. End quote.

I Was 20ft From 2PM's Jun Ho at the Dragon Boat Festival. I Think.

It's not really a harbor view on both sides. It's a nice view on one side, and a very convincing reflective surface on the other. At night we get the illusion of water on both sides. It's still nice.

We headed out this morning to hang out at the Dragon Boat Festival and on the way I bought a new wallet. $10 Hong Kong money is not even $2 US. I'm gonna go crazy here. All kinds of souvenirs. And all of them are for me. I brought the big suitcase with a suitcase inside. It's gonna be awesome.

But for now, I'm just window shopping. I don't want to get stuck with a whole bunch of expensive souvenirs when I discover during the course of the week that there are cheaper options out there. Gotta be smart about this.

We made it to the Dragon Boat thing with the help of a very friendly enthusiastic old man. He knew the way and we arrived with enough time to watch a couple races and load up on free stuff. We got temporary tattoos, free braid pieces, and a bunch of fans. I got a keychain later tonight, too. It was pretty awesome. They even sprayed us down with some complimentary sunscreen trials.
Then we headed over to the beer garden to watch the breakdancing and music shows and got a free Hong Kong pin for filling out the survey. I like it. It's my favorite free thing so far. Then onto Chinese food.

More real Chinese food. Crazy.

We walked through Kowloon Park and saw the aviary and the "maze." It's really hot here, but it doesn't feel as bad as in Korea. I don't get it. Maybe there's a breeze or something.

We got home and discovered that these tattoos are halfway to being permanent. They did not want to come off. They're so bizarre. They smudge like crazy so we thought it would be no problem to get them off. But they don't do much more than smudge. They're sticky and greasy at the same time so they just stay on your arm and become an unidentifiable mess. It took more than 15 minutes to slowly peel them off. Oops.

Lord Save Me from Dean's Mom.

This woman has been buggin me since I first opened this school. If she wasn't sitting in on my interviews telling me what to do then she was cornering me in the teacher's lounge trying to convince me in her super loud super fast Korean that I understand her.

MineGirl is back. I have interviewed this tiny child 3 times now and each time I have placed her in a beginner level. Her mother is not happy with that. I guess she figures if she comes in often enough and continues to invade my personal space that I'll finally see things her way and put her kid in an advanced class.

I won't.

I put my foot down today. I usually try to just lead her to Ruby's office and let the boss go ahead and be her bossy self, but today I just said "no." She kept pointing and finally reverted to slow Korean, but I just kept shaking the head and saying my "Ahn nee yoh" 's. Your kids not advanced. Accept it.

I'll see you next month when you bring your kid back and try again.