Okay, I'm really going to try to be good about updating on this trip, especially during this month of traveling. So the last few days in hong kong were a lot of fun, I made a nice german friend and we did a lot of shopping together. well, she shopped and i watched, because i'm trying not to spend money. also we tried to go out dancing in the bar district, and after downing half a bottle of vodka (and discovering that my special coca cola shot glass is a fake), we made it all the way over to the expat drinking area and discovered that there was no dance club to be found. i think perhaps we went to the wrong bar area, this was mostly middle aged business people having a beer with their friends. not wild at all. or it could have been because it was a wednesday.
thursday we went to one of the nearby islands called Lamma during the day, which was nice and relaxed. except we happened to be there on some sort of a holiday where people dress up in dragon costumes and proceed through the streets, stopping at every restaurant, where the restaurant owners make an offering of lettuce and explode lots of fireworks. i'm not sure exactly what the significance was, but i guess its supposed to bring luck and success to the restaurants. they also had lots of roasted pig, and i had a delicious piece.
the last night i participated in the german girl's photo project, which was to take photographs of people in all the cities she traveled to, wearing white tshirts and sparkly masks. she invited lots of people from couchsurfers,and about five showed up. it was lots of fun, and i wished i'd met some locals earlier in the week, as it really brought the city to life. but oh well.
yesterday i flew to taiwan, to the southern city of kaohsiung.the hostel is really nice and chill, though everyone here seems to be long-term expats rather than backpackers. i guess i'm not surprised though, its kind of a random place to go if you're a backpacker, expensive to get to and doesn't really offer as wide of a range of experiences as mainland china. the expats are nice though, the kind of people who like to sit around chatting and drinking a beer all night, then sleep in the next day. this city has quite a relaxed feel, and i could see the days just kind of passing here. this is my second day, and i'm still just starting to get headed out to see the sights. i basically sat around all morning eating some cold noodles and watching the scooters drive by on the streets.
i'm also going to try to get serious about my chinese again, as i basically took the whole month of april off from studying. i met a really nice taiwanese girl last night who's friends with this canadian couple that just moved here to live permanently, and she said i could practice my chinese with her. so that's cool, and just being out in the streets ordering food etc gives me a chance to use my chinese. i'm rusty, but hopefully after a month i'll be better. okay, i should go explore now, off i go!