Olympiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

The night of the opening ceremonies in Beijing, Sorina and I went out on the town. Actually, it was more like I followed her around while she picked up some jewelery she had made, and visited some stores she wanted to see. We were supposed to celebrate the last night in Hong Kong but ended up at a massage place at 9:45pm and we weren't out of there until 12:30. It was a tiny little place with faded reflexology posters on the wall and it felt like someone's living room. The guy had to call in a friend to be the other masseuse. I missed all of the awesome ceremony dances and so on, but did see a lot of the parade of countries. While this woman was pounding on my back with her elbows, I remember thinking "Hey that sounds like Sarah Brightman" and then nothing but agony. I did get to see that guy fly on cables and light the Olympic torch.
On Saturday those of us who didn't leave early went to Stanley market. This was my second trip to the market and tomorrow morning I have to go a third time because I'm having a dress altered. The bus ride up there is worth the trip alone. The double decker bus climbs over and around the mountains towards the south side of the island and you get some fantastic vistas and panoramic views.
And then everybody went their separate ways. Most stayed in or nearby to pack and get ready to leave the next morning. I was doing a practice pack because I was changing rooms and figured I might as well make sure that I had enough space in my luggage for all of my stuff. In the middle of that, Adam got in touch with me and we ended up meeting for a drink downtown. The next day I followed him and Jerry around in the afternoon while they tried to promote Beerlao to the some of the bars on Lantau island. Even though I've been to Lantau island a couple of times that was my first time taking the ferry. After about 40 minutes we arrived at Mui Wo village and I took pictures while they walked around giving away beer and speaking to bar owners. We took a taxi deeper into the island and enjoyed a very fine pizza and a very fine bitter ale at one of these places. It took us a while to get back to Mui Wo because we had to wait for the bus for a while and it was Sunday. There are wild cows around Hong Kong (I heard it was because farmers just let them go when they had to shut down their farms!) and I saw a couple of them putter across the road and almost get hit by a giant bus as it tore around the corner. And then a few minutes later I saw someone's dog have a similar near-death experience. I don't know how there are not more accidents on these roads. The Hong Kong drivers might be crazy, but the are really, really good.
Adam and I then met up with a friend of his who was in town and we watched the US vs. China men's basketball game on a big screen. The US won but it wasn't as easy as everybody thought it would be.
Today was seriously raining and I first went back to Sham Shui Po to return a cell phone that I bought that did not work. I don't want to talk about it. All of my experiences with phones on this trip has been highly frustrating and I know when I've been beaten. Anyway, that sort of set up the day because I thought it would be cool to check out the Hong Kong Heritage Museum because I heard it was fantastic. And it was, but it took me 2 hours of walking around in the rain to find. I don't know what I was expecting but I was thrilled when I realised that a big chunk of it actually dealt with the actual formation of the landscape and it started billions of years ago. They had artifacts of dinosaur eggs and other cool things. Not surprisingly, Hong Kong is in the centre of a bunch of now-defunct volcanoes and a lot of it is silt rock. But there was a lot more. Wetland, marshes - and at one point it was even a desert. And of course the most recent ice age carved some valleys too. The museum also dealt very well with all of the ecosystems of Hong Kong...different types of forest...freshwater...saltwater...all very interesting. Then there was a lot on the different people who have lived in Hong Kong. Different clans with different trades and lifestyles. There were whole floors of that museum that I didn't even see because I got tired. There was a small section dedicated to the sophisticated way people would crystallize salt from the sea and then use it to make shrimp paste.
I walked around for a while and walked down the Avenue of Stars and snapped a picture of Jet Li and Bruce Lee's stars. I couldn't help myself. I also shot a short video of two birds sharing a piece of bread or maybe a cookie. One of them keeps following the other and chirping to be fed. Watch the feathers!
Thoroughly wet and ready to go home by this point, I took a bus and sat in the top floor first seat through the rush hour traffic and tried not to doze too much as I went back to the hotel. Tonight I've just been watching the Olympics. China beat Poland in women's volleyball and it was a great match. It could have gone either way. I also watched a bit of synchronized men's 10 metre platform. Who could ask for more.
Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be nicer so I hope it's a good day for Stanley and the flower market.
Thanks for visiting.
Leslie