Listening to Mother

I had originally planned to get up and head out this morning, being as most of my coworkers are actually working. But I opened my window to a crazy chorus of raindrops on the awning outside. As dark skies and wet clothes don't really appeal to me, I thought maybe Mother Nature was trying to me (and the rest of Hong Kong) that today should be more of a still day. So here I am, sitting inside, watching kids run up and down the street outside my balcony, listening to Ani sing to me about Independence Day, and finally focusing on what I am going to do with the next few months of my life.

My roommates are traveling to Thailand when we are finished with this job, and they have been talking about it for the past couple weeks. Originally I thought I was going to jump on that bandwagon with them, but then I came to the conclusion that the Unvierse had other plans for me. I have been thinking about Cambodia since I got here -- being that my cousin just went there, and I used to have a roommate a long time ago who used to talk about it. In mentioning this to a teacher who was working with one of my groups, he began telling me about a place called Siem Reap, which he believed I would really enjoy. But because I am spending a bit more money than I thought I was gong to here, I have really sketched myself out about doing any traveling. However, I went to a boostore yesterday and sat down with a Lonely Planet book for about an hour. (Note: This is a TERRIBLE idea if what you want is to be pracitcal and listen to your empty wallet.) And as you can imagine, by the end of that hour.... well, I was more than hooked. So it looks like I will be snagging a round-trip ticket from Hong Kong to Bangkok for about 250 usd, and then a one way from bangkok to phnom penh for about 85 usd. I can travel overland from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, spend some time there and then cross the border into Thailand by slow train or bus. From there I hope to meet up with my housemate... but that will be hard without a phone or anything. Either way we will have the same plane back to hong kong, so at least I'll have bookends of friends. And seeing as how I'm not leaving Hong Kong for my job, this is the next best thing I have to look forward to! And it's looking awwwwfully sweet.

Beyond that I'm trying to get my act together to be able to do some trips here inside Hong Kong. As I mentioned, I wanted to get up and out this morning, to go and hike a little tiny mountain called Stenhouse, which is the tallest on the island that I live on. However, the rain kind of thwarted me there, and so I'll have to do that another time. THe other two hikes I want to do are on islands seperate from mine. One is part of the Lantau Trail, which would consist of two peaks and a big buddha at the end, which looks like this. It's probably the biggest religious statue I have ever seen. And that should be sweet.

And the other hike I want to do is called Sharp Peak... which is very aptly named. Some of the people I work with were telling me that i can hike that peak and then connect it with one of the trails out here called teh MacLehose trail. It's weird... but because of the landslides and rain out here, many of the "backcountry" trails are paved. I was told that this one is better than most, but that I will still probably be very surprised to find how much of it is concrete. So my task for today is to play around on the computer for a while and do some planning... which has been absent from my life for the last month or so.

And last but not least, I have to attend to Audrey and Guatemala. If I can wrangle the money to do it, I'd like to head out to SLC for Sundance, and then head from there to Guatemala for Spanish School for a couple of months before heading back to THE BAY AREA which is my most favorite spot so far in all of the great nation I was born in.

Oh and DON'T FORGET TO FREAKIN VOTE!!! I am SO SO bummed I will not be in the States for this party. I will be watching Michael Moore's SLACKER UPRISING tonight to prepare for tomorrow. You can download it here: http://slackeruprising.com/ and it's free to watch if you are from Canada or the U.S. Let's FINALLY kick some REPUBLICAN TRUNK!!

And for kicks, here's a picture of my most favorite thing so far in Hong Kong: