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Published: July 27th 2010
I haven't had much time at all to even sit down and gather my thought, let alone write in my blog! So today I decided to rest for one night and catch up on email, journal, skyping, and picture uploading. For the past week I have been super busy soaking up the last couple weeks I have here in Hong Kong.
Last week at work was somewhat uneventful. Although on Thursday, we did have a black rainstorm warning. Around 5pm, the weather was super rainy and the sky was unusually dark. I waited until about 6:30 to leave work. Fortunately, when I left the rain wasn't too too bad so I didn't get very wet. And then lucky for us, the weather cleared up and it was beautiful all weekend!
Friday after work I met up with some of my close friends in the program, and we went to happy hour in the entertainment district of Lan Kwai Fong. Later in the night, we met up with more people and hung out there until about midnight. We are all becoming really close friends, and I am looking forward to staying in touch with them. Some of the best friends
I have made here even go to the University of Arizona so we have already made plans to hang out back in Tucson. We've also already talked about going to New York to visit our friend Erica. It's going to be extremely sad to say goodbye to all the people I've become so close with!
On Saturday, we woke up and went to see the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas. The temple is located on the top of a mountain in the New Territories. To get to the temple, we walked along a path where there were hundreds of gold-painted Buddhas in all sort of different poses. The pathway is 431 steps to the top of the mountain and is through a forested tree area. It was extremely humid and hot so we all worked up a good sweat. Once we got to the top, we walked through the temple which was extraordinary. Inside the temple are 12,800 miniature Buddhas, no two alike. The walls were lined with these small golden Buddhas. The temple was beautiful with red and gold design all around. Outside the temple was a nice area where there is a 9-story pagoda that we walked to
the top of. As we climbed the pagoda, the spiral staircase got skinnier and skinnier. At the top, we could look out a small window that overlooked the city. After walking 69 more steps up, we came to the Temple of Man Fat where there are the remains of Yuet Kai, the founder of the complex. After the this adventure, we walked back down the stairs and went to Ikea to have some cheap lunch and relax. After recuperating, we went to the Ladies Market in Mongkok and did some souvenir market shopping. After awhile the boys went off and us girls went to Central to do some clothes shopping. We came back around 5:30pm and even though we were exhausted, we had to shower and get ready for our farewell dinner.
For dinner, we wore dresses and heels and went to a nice 5-star restaurant called FINDS, standing for Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. So the food variety was food from those areas of the world. We had a really great time and ate some delicious food. (although the portions were rather small!) After dinner, we went to Lan Kwai Fong and had some drinks at the
bars there. It was one of our friend's birthdays, and to celebrate, he bought a table at one of the dance clubs in Hong Kong called Beijing Club. The club is 3 floors and is very exclusive so we very much enjoyed ourselves there.
On Sunday, we went on an adventure to Lamma Island which is located to the southwest of Hong Kong Island. The entire island is only 13.55 km. There are two villages on the island, Sok Kwu Wan and Yung Shue Wan. Because the island is so small, there are no automobiles. People either walk or bike every where to get around the island. Also, any building or house over 3-stories is prohibited. Getting away to Lamma was extremely relaxing and a huge change from what we are used to in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. To get to Lamma we took a ferry from HK Island which took about 30 minutes. We arrived in Yung Shue Wan where we walked through the village and came to a beach called Hung Shing Yeh. We hung out at the beach and swam for about 2 hours. We then ventured on a 4K hike up a steep paved
trail to the village of Sok Kwu Wan. By the time we got there, we were very hungry so we went to a restaurant called Rainbow that was recommended by some friends. We sat on the patio overlooking the water and it was so peaceful. Our table ordered a bunch of food and all shared. We got garlic lobster, prawns, spring rolls, sweet and sour pork, shrimp fried rice, vegetables and calamari. The food was all sooo amazing and this was the first time I've ever had calamari. Everyone says I ruined it for myself because I'm never going to have calamari as good as that! Around 5pm, we got on the ferry and came back to our dorm. I was tired beyond all belief so I showered and was in bed by 8pm.
Waking up for work on Monday was a challenge. It was an exciting day though because my friends who have been studying in Nanjing all summer were visiting Hong Kong before they went home. After work, I met up with them in Lan Kwai Fong. Four of my sorority sisters and three of my guys friends from Arizona were all there along with a lot
of other U of A students that I got to meet. People from my program also came to meet them and we all had a really great night. We went to this restaurant/bar called Azure that is on the 29th floor of Hotel LKF. The bar overlooks Hong Kong Island and the harbour. It is such beautiful scene! All night we caught up on our summers and compared experiences with each other! It was so much fun to see all of them! I stayed out a little later than I wanted to but being tired today, Tuesday, was definitely worth it!
Well, I only have 12 more days here in Hong Kong so I am living up every moment. I have work the rest of the week and then this weekend we are going to Macao!
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Grandma
non-member comment
Great entry and Pictures
Just loved those pictures. What fun you all were having! Grandma