Hong Kong Entry #9

Ni Hao! Been a while!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get on here and write an entry, I just have been super busy and have not had enough to sit down and write a post.  Anyway last Friday was a cool day we had a group trip to the Wong Tai Sin Temple which was really beautiful.  It's right in the middle of the city, however when you are there you would not know it because it still has a way of being quiet and peaceful.  One of the things we did was take 9 in-scent sticks and light them, then you walk around the temple with them and when you finally get to the middle of the temple you place them by 3's into certain areas depending on what you want to pray for.  I will be honest I had no idea what I was praying for so I just took them and placed them in random ones.  There are four gods they pray to apparently, one is for health, wealth, love and something else I can't remember so you can also go to each one of their areas and put coins in their baskets to pray for them.

Another pretty neat thing a couple of us did while we were there was get this cup full of wooden sticks and in the middle of the temple area you get on your knees and think of one wish.  While you continually think of that wish you shake the cup until one stick falls out.  The sticks all have a number on them and the one that falls out is the number for you and take it to a fortune teller who if you pay will tell you, your fortune.  My number ended up being 15, and I was wishing for happiness with whatever job I end up doing.  ( I felt that was a good wish, since I am currently job hunting and so many people settle for jobs they hate)  So i went down to the fortune teller and found one of two that spoke English.

 I have her telling me on video however I could barely understand her in person, so I'm sure on video its nearly impossible.  (It will be posted here tho) Like I said I could not understand her that well but I do know she told me I would have some good luck, however I needed to look out for bad people who would try to pull me down, and that a "dog" could help me or something like that.  Then she roped me into over paying her for this little talisman type thing that had a dog on one side and some god on the other.  It supposed to help out I guess, idk it was a piece of junk but I figure what the hell I'm only going to do this once.  After getting our fortunes told Alex and myself decided to walk around without the group and explore.  We went to the garden area which was absolutely beautiful and peaceful.  I would totally be happy with going there once a week and walking around to just sit in some piece and quiet.
From the temple myself and a couple of the other guys decided to go to Mega Box which is a huge mall, its basically like their version of Mall of America.  Its 22 stories high and has tons of stuff inside it including an IKEA, IMax, ice skating rink and much more.  We had lunch in there at the California Pizza Kitchen which was great because I have not had pizza since I havehttp://www.lebua.com/en/tower-club/luxury-accommodation/lebua-suite-3-br/beenhttp://www.lebua.com/en/tower-club/luxury-accommodation/lebua-suite-3-br/http://www.lebua.com/en/tower-club/luxury-accommodation/lebua-suite-3-br/ aside from delivery Pizza Hut which was okay just it was tiny!  I ordered a personal pepperoni pizza and ate the entire thing.
After we all got done eating we walked around a little, we went to IKEA and I bought a wicked sweet towel that is super soft!  Then we went to this area where they sell just about anything you can think of including groceries for super cheap, from there I bought a pair of water shoes for my adventure coming up on Sunday.  From there we went back home and when we got there myself, Ignacio, Mike P., Mike Thai, Ross, Ali all bought plane tickets! I bet your wondering where.... to Thailand, Mike Thai's last name is really not Thai we just call him that b/c he is from Thailand haha.  So we planned a trip to Bangkok for the following weekend.  We all bought our plane tickets and then on top of that we booked an absolutely sweet hotel.  We will be staying at Lebua at State Tower which is the finest luxury hotel in Bangkok.  Many of you have actually probably seen it before, its featured in The Hangover 2, its that huge hotel where Mr. Chow gets arrested.  We even got the "Hangover package"  in one of the 3 Bedroom Sweets. This freaking room is huuuuuge it says its 266 m2 and has 4 balconies and a living room.  Not to mention because we did "Tower Club" which is 50th-59th Floor we get access to the Tower Club Lounge with complimentary drinks.  One other neat thing we asked us for the highest possible room and they gave us the 58th floor which is the second highest in the building!! It's going to be one heck of an experience! images
So we were all pumped about that which made our night go great because we were all in good moods.  Friday night was Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day or basically the day that Britain gave them back to China.  So it was a big celebration day for people from Hong Kong. It was really just another night for me.  We went to this pretty nice club in LKF which I forget the name of and ended up getting a table which was cool, we danced, sang had a good time, Mike Thai bought a bottle of Champagne.  Then after we went across the street to this gourmet burger place where I housed a delicious burger and some fries.  From there we just headed home.
Saturday I had to wake up fairly to do our Dream Career group trip which was to Lantau Island.  I barely got up, the only reason I did was because a bunch of my friends asked me to wake them up for it, so I felt responsible.  Of all the people I woke up, only one of them decided to ignore me and go back to sleep....Ross.  Ah well, he missed a pretty neat trip but hey his choice.  Lantau Island is the home of the tallest Bhudda in the world! On our way there in the bus we stopped at a couple neat areas.  One of them was this tiny little fishing town on the water.  The people who lived there actually built their houses on stilts above the water.  Now apparently they have done this for many, many years but I would be nervous when a tsunami came!  In the bay area there is a type of Dolphin that is white, and its actually endangered now, but from this town you could take a little boat tour to see the town from the water and then they take you looking for dolphins.  Well this girl from my group Josilyn wanted to do it and it was only $20 Honkie so I went on it as well, and I'm really glad I did!  We got to see the town from the water and then we actually saw dolphins!! I actually saw one of them jump out of the water which was really really cool.  Once the boat ended it was time to leave and head to Lantau.  When we got to Lantau the bus drove us up to the top where the bhudda sits.  Their is actually a museum inside the bhudda however no pics are aloud so if you want to see it you will just have to go.  In the museum their is beautiful art and an actual piece of the real Bhudda's tooth.  After looking and taking pics at the bhudda we had a vegetarian lunch, which was actually pretty good and I enjoyed it.  When we were done eating we could look around a little and do some shopping, which I took advantage of.  I was able to get two jade bracelets from the monastery store which was good b/c all proceeds went to the monastery.  
From there we walked to this connecting shopping and attraction area where monks who knew karate put on performances and you could buy gifts.  From this area I was able to get gifts for Lauren, my Mom and Tara, I sure hope they fit, they are beautiful though!  When it was time to leave instead of just riding on the bus we took this gondola and boy was that worth the entire trip.  It was the longest Gondola ride I have ever been on and it was such a beautiful site to see, absolutely unreal.  (For some reason this stupid blogger won't let me upload pics right now so I will just add them to another post with just pics and to my Facebook.)  Any way it was such a great day trip and something I definitely recommend doing if your ever in Hong Kong.  At night everyone was really tired from the past two day and all the walking and sight seeing so most of us took naps and then after, Ignacio, Mike P., Mike Thai, Ali and myself all went to see Transformers 3 which was awesome.  I don't know how many of you have seen it but it is an awesome movie probably my favorite out of all three.  It is a typical guys movie, hott girls and tons of action!  It was also very entertaining, there were some serious unexpected twists and the plot was much better than the second.  I would rate it a 4 out of 5 stars simply because of the length (which I still didn't mind)  Anyway it was a great couple of days and I had no idea the next day would out do it all. But I'm wicked tired so I will write about that tomorrow! Goodnight!