Squid... ugh...

Ate some raw squid last night that really isn't agreeing with me. Blugh. In Thailand I had some chicken liver that was not in its most fresh state, so on the good side of things, I don't feel as bad as that.

Anyway, it's been raining for 3 days here and it is supposed to keep going for another 3. Not pouring like a typhoon, but drizzling. It really has been nice since the rain has kept it pretty cool. It is about 18C here which is about 65F. People are running around in jackets, it's pretty funny.

Hong Kong Pictures

Put up some HK pictures. I took about 120, but I only put up about 40. I didn't like the rest.

http://picasaweb.google.com/schmitt.ericS

HK

Back from HK. It was pretty fun. I spent some time in Lantau, which is a small island that hasn't been overly developed like Kowloon and HK Island. Lantau was really cool. All the foreigners where getting onto this gondola thing to go up to the gigantic sitting Buddha which Lantau is known for, but the gondola looked pretty lame. I walked around a bit and found all the locals getting on a small bus, so I hopped on the bus and got a 2 hour bus ride around the island. I saw some pretty cool fishing village type places. The bus finally ended up at the temple with the Buddha, where I got off. It was a pretty cool statue.

I spent Halloween night at a huge party. The city closed down quite a few city blocks to traffic and had a shindig. It was awesome. I snagged some pictures, although they arn't very good. I'll get 'em up soon.

Alright, so I'm flying out to Hong Kong here soon. I'm really excited to go, the only drag is the trip to the airport. I don't mind flying, but it takes like 2 hours to get to the airport from Danshui. I gotta take the subway to the main train station (1 hour), then hop onto a bus to the airport (another hour), from there I gotta wait 2 hours for a 1.5 hour flight... ugh, seriously. Oh well. I'm going to be spending my first night in Kowloon, which is part of Hong Kong, but not the island. It is attached to the mainland. I don't know if I'll stay there, but I do know I am going to try to slip up into China for a day. I need to buy new shoes. I have worn a hole, literally through my shoes. You can see my socks... and not only a little bit of socks, but my whole heel. I hate buying new shoes (I know, they are a weird thing to get attached to), so you can imagine it is pretty bad.

I originally wanted to go to the Philippines this weekend, but the price of the HK trip was too good to pass up (about $200 US roundtrip). However, for next month I found a trip to Iloilo for about $1,500 NT. That is about $50US. I need to scrape the money together stat so I can get it before the prices jump up.

Pictures!

Thailand pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/schmitt.ericS/

Travel again

So, I am going on another trip in a couple weeks. I wanted to go visit a friend in Laos, but as I tried to find a means to get there, I realized that it is nearly impossible to do in under 2 days (each way), unless I wanted to pay about $1000US, which is too much over here. First, you need to fly into Hanoi. From there, you need to pick up a "bus" to Luang Prabang. These supposedly take anywhere from 26 to 40 hours, depending on your driver and how much they try to scam you. N-E-WAY, I am still thinking about where to go...

Thai and stuff

Alright, I've been back from Thailand from a bit, but I've been pretty busy. I promise, I'll get some pictures and funny stories up soon...

And my cell phone got jacked over there... funny huh?