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New Years Eve - it was interesting!

We started out the day by going to the Po Lin Buddah - its the largest outdoor Buddah in Asia...it was about an hour ferry ride to an island and then a 30 minute taxi ride through the mountains on the island to the Buddah. It was really big, and lots of steps to climb to the top... After the Buddah we took the cable car ride over the mountains down to another city, which is next to the airport, so we could eat lunch. After lunch we went to the airport to book our tickets for our flight to Hanoi.

After all this we got back to the hostel, sat around for a bit and then went out to get ready for new years. i have never seen so many people in my life! we made it to the harbor overlooking the city, and they had all the buildings lit up and christmas lights everywhere...but it was only like 830 and we didnt want to wait that long for the fireworks...so we went back and found other things to do...at about 1030 we decided we would try to get back but at that time the people were already backed up about a mile back and couldnt move....we moved around as much as we could and finally found a spot where we were able to see some of the fireworks from a few of the buildings...overall it was really cool, more of an experience. i think i would rather celebrate with friends at a bar or a party rather than with a million people. - - oh, and no one really drinks on new years...it was weird!

today we are getting ready to head over to the airport again and then fly to hanoi, vietnam. we are now going to spend 2 nights there rather than the original plan of only 1 night. so hopefuly there is a place near that hostel where i can update tomorrow!

happy new years!

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