Big Buddha!

I'm gonna try my best to make this one short and sweet. I'm friggin tired and have a huge day ahead of me!



Left the house around 9:30 and headed straight to the Post Office to mail my last box of stuff. The shipping was around $120 usd, but it was sent AirMail and should be in Oz in 2-4 days. Inside this package is my laptop, some shoes, couple of clothing items, and my watches. Ka Wai suggested that I don't put the real amount of value on the sheet, as it is much more likely to be stolen. Another bad point is that in order to put insurance on a package, you must show receipts of value...so keep your fingers crossed!



We got back in the car and headed to the other side of Hong Kong (near the airport and Disneyland) to go see Tian Tan. They have just build a gondola ride up to the top of the mountain to see the Buddha, so we decided to take that instead of the bus. Of course we had to go through yet another shopping mall in order to get to the ticket counter...these asians sure do have it all figured out, don't they?

The gondola ride was pretty cool. We had great weather, so you could see far out over the water, the airport, over mountains, etc. About halfway through, you were beginning to see some big bronze figurine over in the distance..kinda like a bronze Godzilla.

Nah, in all seriousness it was pretty neat. I mean, that sucker was HUGE! I took gobs of pictures, some of which turned out rather well (if I do say so myself.)

Went back into Mongkok (major market/shopping district of Kowloon) and got another 4G memory card for $8 bucks! Mind you, MOST of the electronics that you purchase here are either equally or MORE expensive than back home in the states! I'm glad that I didn't take dad's advice and "buy it while you're in China", or I would've been spending quite a bit more.

That's about it for the day...I'm too tired to get into much more detail.

Tomorrow is when the backpacking portion of our trip begins. We're taking another ferry into Macau (the new Vegas of the world...they even have a Venetian!) and from there flying into Bangkok. Hopefully we will get there in time to catch an overnight train into Ubon Ratchathani (northern Thailand) and then the following morning get into Laos once we purchase our visas at the border. Plan B is just to stay in Bangkok for the night and take things from there.

I highly doubt that I will be able to blog as much as I have been lately, but please keep on coming back every so often to check in with me! I really enjoy reading the comments that some of you have left and the e-mails that I have received. Keep them coming!

One other thing. I need some prayers and positive thoughts sent my way. Josh and I have only been together for a few days and things are already beginning to get a little tense. I don't know what exactly happened to him, but he's completely different from the way he was before he moved to Australia. I'm trying my best to have patience and such, but I'm already beginning to wear thin.

Just to give you an idea of how different we are:

Before coming on this trip, I spent COUNTLESS hours doing research on the areas, what to pack, the climate, what vaccinations to get, etc. I've had at least 5-6 different shots since June, have packed for just about any situation imagineable, and have a fairly good idea of our itenerary. Josh on the other hand, got ONE vaccination (only because he had to), didn't pack bug spray, a rain jacket (we are going in monsoon season), etc!

...things are about to get interesting here in a hurry.