Went to Lantau island to see the biggest sitting bronze Buddha in the world. ok... it's big... big deal. Not much to see, so afterward decided to take a bus to Tai O to check out the stilt houses... kind of cool actually.

The big buy himself:	Yes... he's pretty big:
From the gardens:	Looking up at him:

First view of silt houses in Tai O:	They're really like mobile homes on stilts:
Tai O is also known as Hong Kong's Venice:	Unfortunately... it's not as lovely:
Someone's dining room:	Someone's front porch:

Took a free pearl grading class. Pretty interesting, but afterward they just tried to sell you pearls :P whatever. Anyway, I met a nice lady from Colorado who's husband is a professor and we talked a little bit.

Afterward, I went shopping @, got lost in some market... Temple street market I think and came back late. showered, then went to Victoria Park for New Years. Halfway thru the MTR ride to Wan Chai, I realized I didn't have my ticket to get in. That should have been a clue to NOT GO... but I took the MTR all the way back, got my ticket, and went. After walking around for 10 minutes, I realized it was for kids and decided to go to Lan Kwai Fong.

They had weird life-size puppets to entertain the crowds.

Well, when I got off the MTR at Central, there were almost a thousand ppl trying to get on LKF and I ended up squeezed in a line of ppl about 10-15 ppl abreast. Getting clausterphobic, I elbowed my way to the outside and at 11:45pm decided to give up and leave. Sucks... ate a hotdog from 7-11 to console myself and went back to my guesthouse on the Kowloon side. There were still crowds of ppl milling about in KL, so I took a pictures, but mostly I was just pissed and wanted to take off my freaking boots. Next time, I'm wearing sensible shoes.

Anyway, that was my sorry New Years eve... I guess I should have learned my lesson from last year: start celebrating NY eve around 8pm!

Woke up late so I missed my Dolphin sighting tour... this trip is starting out really bad... but I'm going to try to stay positive. I still have 2.5 weeks left geez! So I took this as a sign to go to the Space Museum (I was going to skip it even tho it's next to the Art Museum) as well. Both are free on Wednesdays. I actually had fun in the Space Museum... got to ride a multiaxis chair... always wanted to do that... and did a "moonwalk" that was just ok. Wanted to play the virtual flyer, but there was a huge line of kids. There was also a long line for the jet pack simulator. After that, I took Uri's advice and went up Victoria peak to see the nightscape... and it was beautiful...!

Afterward... I went around and bought an alarm clock.

Today I took the Duk Ling ride. It's the last sailing junk and was restored in the 1980's. ... and I saw that lady again! Er... can't remember her name, but we had a nice conversation on the trip from Central to KL. I told her that if I saw her again, I would treat her to ice cream and she said she's treat me to something. I guess she's pretty rich. She bought some pearls that day we took the class and also spent $40US on some scarf...

nite- went to Lan Kwai Fong and had an apple martini. It was the best martini I've ever had (it also had honey in it)... very very yummy. The Australian manager kept flirting with me (while his HK gf was surfing the web behind me... what a pig!) and gave me a shot for free... I was feeling a little hungry, so I ordered some veg. spring rolls... and ended up only having to pay for those, so I guess it was a good night :D He was kind of cute... I was going to go back to take a picture of him, but just never did for some reason... oh well. :) Playboys have never been my type anyway...

Today was the Taichi/bird alley/dimsum/tea ceremony tour. I finally bought something for A-ma and a toy bird for Jeff.

On a whim, I decided to go to Wong Tai Sin temple. There happened to be some booths outside the temple that were selling food and other items. Finally figured out how to bargain. You really have to not want something. Oh well.

I bought a cheap skirt... I bought it for US$4, but I think I probably could have gotten it for less. Then I went to the World Carnival. It was just ok. Guess I'm getting too old for carnival rides. I did ride the kind that takes you up a height then drops you down. That was so scary... and I loved it! :D Then I broke down around sunset and bought some more tokens to ride the huge ferris wheel and got some lovely shots of the whole carnival...