Big Buddha

This morning's booth duty was mind numbing, but Nick will be pleased to know that I didn't give out *any* memory sticks. The crowd is thinning out and I was watching the clock and sending telepathic signals to my mate big buddha (more later) to grant me some karmha or whatever and make the seconds go a bit faster. Unfortunately they didn't and, out of sheer desperation, I had to go and beg a cup of tea from the Egypt booth to keep my caffine levels slightly above flatline.

On the plus side, I did have time to update my blog and check my fantasy football team. My team, FC Princess, did very badly this round, but I am still leading my league :) and am looking forward to the next round.

At 13:00, I rushed out of the expo as fast as my stupid, smart, conservative heels would allow me (which is not very fast, and makes me look rather like a Japanese lady with those little wooden shoe thingies)...I was rushing for I was to visit the big buddha. Big buddha, is, well, er, exactly what the name suggests: a big buddha. The largest sitting buddha in the world, apparently, and it's built way up high on top of a mountain where a monastery of monks also lives.

I'm not into buddhism or anything but I was feeling like I was suffering from a complete sensory overload: music/lights/people all day in the booth and music, lights, shoes and bags and people all night in the streets. So, I took myself off in the cable car to see big buddha and get some fresh air. 25 minutes up the mountain and there I am at the top, with spectacular views of HK (well, they would be if that damn smog wasn't there) and lovely fresh-ish air. It was really hot up there and I did catch the sun a little bit.

Big buddha is indeed, truly huge. Trouble is, they've built a sort of 'big buddha theme village' there. It's very small and low key but yes, there was a 7-11 there and a starbucks. The Disney Land HK resort is also not too far away and, I apologise to my lovely American friends, because I know you are not all like this, but I heard some whiney woman say "I'm bored now, shall we try to get to Disneyland". AARRRRRRGH.

Anyway, I watched all the people doing buddha-ery things (like waving incense around and making hand movements and stuff) whilst sitting under a nice tree and laughing at all the signs on the big fire pots saying 'CAREFUL HOT FIRE".

I decided to go to one of the vegetarian restaurants there - the monks are supposed to cook the food (when they are not praying I guess). I wanted to see the little monks scuttling around and pouring tea, but alas, I was disappointed. The food actually tasted ok for Chinese food, although I was so hungry, I probably could have swallowed one of the poor fishes-in-bags from yesterday, whole. However, a few hours later, that food was not getting along as smashingly with my stomach as a cheese toastie would have done.

After my re-balancing with nature and a few hours alone on top of a mountain, I decided my senses needed to be re-overloaded again and I went to the outlet mall that was conveniently located next door to the cable car stop back at the bottom of the mountain. Then I got on a bus that looked remarkably similar to a London double decker back to the hotel.

I am having a problem with the money over here: the bus journey costs HK$ 3.50 , which is around 35 EURO cents but I got mixed up and tried to shove $35 in notes into the little box. The driver is shouting at me, "What you doing?! IS THREE DOLLAR FIFTY MISSY". Yesterday, at the ladies market, I did the same thing. I asked the price of something and she said "four fifty" (meaning four dollars fifty) and, knowing you have to haggle, I said "200!" and her eyes nearly popped out of her head!

Tonight ARIN organised a dinner at dot cod and I ate a poor little 'moon fish' that came all the way from Hawaaii. Well, it wasn't little, it was bloody massive and tasted like a softer, creamier version of tuna.

As always, things got a little raucous, and resulted in Rendek stealing the xmas decoration from the wall and Nurani wearing it in her hair like some couture hat (actually, though, it looked pretty good!) Then he proceeded to make some underwear out of a napkin for the 'naked' statue on the wall behind him.

Interesting observations (general):

1. Locals go mad for Crabtree and Evelyn (posh soap) - every time I see a shop, the queue is out of the door.

2. It must be a cultural thing, or fashion, or something, because mole hair is in. I'm not the only one to have noticed this, but I have seen at least three men with small facial moles with MASSIVELY long hairs growing out of it. I'm not talking a cm. I'm not talking an inch. I am talking like long, black hairs, 10cm long, sprouting out (eeeeeeehk!)

And one final funny thing that I have forgotten to mention: on Tuesday, Filiz was so dazed and confused, she walked into a mirror in a shop and apologised...to herself. HAR HAR HAR!