End of Beijing...Hong Kong...New Years...New friends and stuf

Yea iv been a lazy hobbits for a while now...like a massive while now
Anyway lets go in chronological order now
so, Beijing, the last week was populated by some more obscure things like the Beijing planning museum, an epic place where they show long term plans for the infrastructure of the place as well as a HUGE scale model of the entire Beijing. So yea that was fairly epic, and very typical of the Chinese to plan out the entire city (albit it creates a super efficient transport system which makes me lament the failing public transport in Sydney). Anyway we also went out to the Beijing zoo where we walked around, saw some of the great cats in like prison cages...very depressing, like they were seriously in prison cells with nothing natural, just a huge concrete cube with double bars on the front...super sad way to treat creatures of any form, specialy these ones, naturally they weren't happy and so growled at anyone who passed. From there we went to visit some Pandas, not as Giant as i had come to expect, considering they are called the Giant Pandas but still awesome. They were very fat and funky and lazy, basicly all of the ones we saw were asleep cept one that was actually alive and eating some bamboo. Funniest one was that we saw a panda up in a tree, like...i dunno just in a tree...kinda funny. And to end the trip....i got sick. it wasn't fun at all -.-
Anyway
From here went and met the parents in Hong Kong. HK hasnt changed too much since i was last there, albit the weather was alot better, as was the food as my uncle gave us a whole heap of places to eat. Food was awsome there, found that roast goose is much better than roast duck, good sticky rice place in a random side ally and some really good siu lum bao round the corner as well as a good crispy chicken place (my uncles favourite place) which also has a killer yum cha that is in the area... Anyway
as for Hong Kong proper, basicly it was just shopping...shopping...and a whole heap more shopping, got a bit boring and repedative after a while (and with the dollar dropping like a rock thanks to the finacial crisis) it wasnt a complete stuff ourselves with clothing and other random things but there were plenty of kul things there, Highlights included this jewelry store where you could custom make neclaces and bracelets and stuff (like pick wat things were put on the neclaces) so that was fun creating things for friends and ourselves. Another kul place was the Antique market lane thing (though not as good as the one in Beijing) but there were some kul things there (more swords which i couldnt take home -.-) anyway found some funky belt watches from the old HK police force and a kul telescope thingame which was kinda funky =D.

Appart from shopping we also went to this theme park for a day called ocean park, been there before but there was some chrismas themed shows there that we went and saw. Ended up being quite a good outing as there was this ice skating show which was kinda like Cirque du Soleil on ice (kinda) which was very kul, went to see more pandas which were even fatter than the other ones but yea...that was ocean park,

For Chrismas we went to Macau for the day, chilled at the Venitian (some super massive casino hotel place) and just went around the place, kinda nice feel to it (outside of the hotel area) as it has like an old town feel, kul paved streets that remind me of europe (kinda) but yea. the highlight of the day was that we saw a real Cirque du Soleil show there called Zaia in a custom built theater which was awsome. The actual show was a little light on tricks and not quite up to some of their other shows standards, but the set and aerial stuff was very good (probobly because they could do many funky things with a custom built place) but still was an epic experience none the less.

Ummmmm and the only other thing of note about HK was that i actually met up with Jono there which was awsome as we've both been traveling (he's been in America) so yea that was awsome, while his hair still continues to grow, but yea lol kul to see him and hang in a completely random place... but yea fun fun

aaaaaaaand now we fast forward to new years eve/day. Didn't really do anything too special just went over to Matt's house and hung there, cought up on wat everyone has been doing and just chilling, and then leaving BEFORE midnight lol, still made it home before midnight and got to see the fireworks, kinda anticlimatic being by myself at home in the first seconds of the new year but still good fun night none the less.

Ummmm and now we are basicly at the last couple of days were chilling with Pris, Barny and a whole heap of Pris's girl friends (Felicity aka Flick (neva quite got that one but anyway), Lulu, J (im assuming short for a longer name), and.... Sarah (i think) who wasnt around for a whole heap of time but yea) kul people overall (well they dont hate me which is always a good start =P)
Anyway
so yesterday was a massive LOTR marathon (extended editions =DD) but yea that was lots of fun (albit there were multiple moments which were spoiled kinda by the group mentality) however it was refreshing considering iv watched them all way more times than is considered sane or healthy though the crowning moment goes to Lulu spoiling Elrond's image forever as she reconised Hugo Weaving (the actor who plays Elrond) as being from Priscilla queen of the desert playing a drag queen... yea basically blew his serious face and character from that point onwards but anyway... multiple other funny moments (some awesome puns from Jordan which melted others brains again =P)
Today was a more active day where we all met up again in the city to go play Lazer challange in the city (darling Harbor) but yea lots of fun, finally some new scenery from the five dock one, so that was good fun (came 6th overall twice in a row =D) then went and stuffed ourselves with icecream from a place called french riviera so that was good (well depends on ur definition of good) but yea then walked around for a bit and then that was about it...
wow
epic blog there
and then i went and died (special easter egg for those who bothered to survive till this point) =PPPP
anyway ill try update more (i hope) regularly so that i dont have to do these epic ones recounting like a months worth of stuff
=D
till next time =D