Big Buddha and other things

I have to say that since shopping is religion it should come as no surprise that the big Buddha (the biggest Buddha in the world that sits atop a mountain that you have to reach by cable car and unknown to us the cable cars have fallen off the wire before into the bay....which is not deep a man was walking in the middle of it catching crabs) is a tourist trap filled with shopping and photo ops along the way (Asians love to take pictures of everything.....including white people--especially white people actually). The view from the cable car was beautiful, but once we got out at the mountain peak, it was all souvenir shops leading the way to the big Buddha--which has tourist shops inside of it. Apparently the big Buddha was only built 15-20 years ago, probably as a tourist attraction to raise money for the monastery there (the monastrary was a lot better than the Buddha...a bit less commercial, but it was still surronded by tourist shops). Should have known that's how it would be because shopping is the religion of hong kong.

After the Buddha we went into a section of town at TST known for Indian food. We walked into a building filled with dingy shops selling cell phones and strange Indian men eyeing the girls (one made eye contact with me, winked and then motioned at the guy walking behind me...strange people). Seven of us were sat in a tiny dingy room in the restaurant where we literally climbed over chairs b/c they couldn't be moved b/c the room was too small--nice way to get closer to each other. The food was absolutely worth the trip and pretty cheap for the amount we received.

Monday was an uneventful day that just involved a lot of shopping and the discovery of anti-pollution shampoo and the over-priced western grocery store I now love because I can buy imported products from western countries (at a premium price)---but I can now eat chicken without bones, cartilage, fat, and skin still attached...so excited! The anti-pollution shampoo is necessary because without it my hair does not get clean, it stays greasy no matter how many times I wash it, which sounds very gross, but that just tells you how polluted the air is here---it's ridiculous, doubt I could live here a long time, too much pollution.

Tuesday was meant to be a chill day, but instead after some camera shopping in Mongkok we went to a sushi restaurant that served half price sushi after 10pm. The sushi was amazing and I am now addicted to salmon and mango sushi (sounds weird, but so good...really anything with mango is good). The half price deal included our cocktails which was a really good deal. After dinner 4 of us girls decided to go out for a chill drink to hang out and talk. We almost went to central, but ended up in prince edward instead. We had no idea where we were the mtr (metro) had stopped running and we were in a very local area of town. We went into an "American bar"--name of the bar and shard a bucket of coronas (their special promotion) and talked for half an hour. After half an hour the owner of the bar a 50 year old hong kong man came over and began to talk to us, then he proceeded to play raffle games with us (kinda like yahtzee with dice, but different, its a hong kong drinking game). He then bought us two more buckets of beer and a plate of appetizers. Soon he was joined by another 50 yr old hong kong man and then a 35 yr old hong kong woman. Things began to get very interesting when the owner serenaded us karaoking and the woman began to dance with one of my friends and the other 50 yr old man tried to kiss one of the other girls. Next thing I know I have a 20 yr old hong kong guy asking to take a picture with me. It was completely insane. At the end of the night it was clear, the owner was hitting on my blonde friend, the lesbian hong kong woman was hitting on my curly haired friend, the other 50 yr old man was hitting on my brunette friend, and the weird picture0taking 20 yr old was hitting on me. The entire cab ride home we take videos talking about how we would lie about having marine boyfriends next time to avoid situations like that. It was a lot of fun, completely hilarious all night and we got a lot of free food and free drinks, since the owner bought us so much.

Wednesday night was the I house party (our dorm's party), wan chai Wednesday--ladies night, girls get free drinks all night, and Terry the Irish guy's last night in hong kong. The night began with Japanese drinking games, love shots, Limbo, and then led to wan chai and swindlers. My night ended pretty early when I left at 1:30 and took a cab home.

Thursday was my friend's birthday, so we celebrated in style. The girls went to get their hair done at the hairdressers since its so cheap and then we all put on dresses and went the the shangra-la hotel and ate outside at the tapas bar there. The food was good and just hanging out with the girls was a nice change of pace. Later we met up with the guys at Fevar in LKF where I was assaulted by the drunk bartender who bit my hand after initially kissing it. The music was great and there were poles to dance on everywhere and a ton of exchange students mixing with the local hong kong youth. A few people were thrown out of the bar for being too drunk and the korean took a nap on the sofas. A Moroccan guy told me that I should make out with him since he hadn't had sex for a month....not a good pickup line....he ended up having to search for some love in the mix of people after I refused. I lost my friend who's birthday it was during the night and searched the club for her...I later found out her need for a falafel was too great and she had wandered to the nearest kebab shop. When I left the club at 4:30am, I just wanted to hop in a cab, but the french boys were trying to drag me down the street to get some Mc-Donalds---they always have to have Mc-Donalds before going home. I broke away and escaped Giulium's grasp and made it back without Mc-Donalds.

Today I pulled myself away from my bed to go to class, unable to comprehend much, and almost got hit by a bus again and had a mini-freak out when I almost got hit by cars 4 times in the span of 20 min. It is very difficult to know where to look here when crossing the street b/c its ingrained in you to look left, but the car that hits you first here is coming from the right....so weird. Decided that I'm going to Thailand in April--Bangkok for a day and then south via night train and then ferry to koh samui for a beach/island trip for a few days. Haven't planned Australia yet, but thinking I'll be able to go at the beginning of May, which would be amazing, even though that would mean I would be travelling all of May (Australia, Tokyo, Beijing).

Life is good here, its been a lot warmer here and pretty humid lately. One little note, I'm wondering if my taste in guys changes in new places. In Copenhagen I wasn't very interested in Scandinavian guys, but since coming to Hong Kong I find the Scandinavian guys most attractive, does that mean I'll start favoring Hong Kong guys when I go back home?...hmmm...