Hong Kong part 2
Yes, finally. I have other stuff, but since I'm sort of behind on my tales of the East, I'll do that first.

It's the second day of my trip to Hong Kong! The first full day, really. Getting up bright and early, jumping on a bus that's for a tour we have planned out, with a tour guide and everything! We got on the bus, and it was headed straight for downtown Hong Kong. We started in Kowloon, the south part of Hong Kong, but the real city's on the north side. Woo!


Hong Kong, here we come!

There were a lot of things to see when getting into the real city, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.


The buildings are kind of tall.


They have walkways across the streets.

So we got to where we were headed (the first place), which was to a train station. From there, it was uphill on the train, to get HIGH.


It goes UP.


We're happy to be on the train!


It did make for some nice shots, from the train.


Look! It's me! In Hong Kong!


It's ALL of us, here.

I did get a decent number of shots from the area we were, which was above the city. So here, let me share a nice one or two!


The massive picture. So lovely. Luscious, even.


Everyone's taking pictures!

Back on the road. But it didn't mean we still couldn't take great pictures! And really, there's too many to put here, but I'll put some good ones.


It's pretty. Pretty big.


Some people's houses are nicer than other.

It seriously was the cleanest city I've ever seen. But I guess there were reasons for that.


If only we had this HERE.

Jason and I went off wandering when we stopped again, and we managed to find a temple, which was quite cool.


Framed nicely.

Next on the trip was lunch. Lunch! At a large floating restaurant. Actually the Jumbo Floating Restaurant.


We had to take a boat there. A COOL boat.


The restaurant was, indeed, jumbo.


Random artsy shot.


There were friendly people there to greet us!


Our tour guide, telling us more about the restaurant.


They had a very nice throne thingy set up.


Being guys, we abused it.

Okay. Whew! That's enough for now. Looks like day two will have to be separated into two days. It's hard work getting all these pictures picked out and sorted, you know. And the second day WAS full of a stuff to look at. So more later!

Ah, the weekend is over. Sadly. I could use more of one. It was a busy weekend. Friday was fun, though. Interesting, indeed. I helped by playing guitar with the Newman choir for a Charismatic mass, which was a totally different experience. A lot more of people definitely getting into the vibe of things. Freaked out a few of the choir members, I think. Most of us had never experienced any of it. The whole speaking in tongues, just vocalizing what you feel sort of thing. But the priest was cool. He liked to sing. Which he did quite a bit of.

So I passed up on kung fu to go play guitar at mass. It's interesting when my choices are to either learn how to be violent in a more efficient manner or else to help people practice their faith in a very peaceful way. Was kind of like that all weekend. I was late to a TEC (a type of Catholic retreat) reunion, because I had to finish my full-contact training on Saturday. So it was lots of pain, followed by lots of fun. Just hanging out, doing a barbeque thing, some ultimate frisbee. Very good stuff. A good day!

And today's been about the same thing. Started with lion dance practice (for our tournament coming up), then went to church. Church was good, three guitarists with guitars that managed to stay in tune. But it's been a long night, and I think I need to get my 24 fix and get some sleep. Hopefully all of you had a lovely weekend. The weather was incredible this weekend - makes me glad it was on the weekend, when I could actually get outside and enjoy it.

Okay. Long blog, ending commencing now! Random link insertion here! This one's from Wired magazine. It's a story about some kids. Rather smart kids. Makes me think of opportunities, and how we should be grateful for the ones we have.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 12:23 AM | 0 comments