Lobster-Like

So, I found out about 5 minutes after my previous post that I was going to be, well, SOL for lack of a better term (de beschaafde Nederlandse term: vette pech voor mij!). I had assumed that everybody in the world celebrates New Years the same way "we" do, even if it is on a different date: Eat a lot, light some fireworks, and party until the next morning. Sadly, I learned that the Lunar New Years celebrations are more than just one day. So, on my last full day in Hong Kong, I didn't get to see the fireworks I was hoping for. They would be the next day, while I would be flying towards Sydney. But, on the upside, I DID get to see the parade. OK, it started about 1.5 hours late (apparently there was a fire), and OK, it meant standing in a rather pushy crowd for about 5 hours, and OK, it wasn't really all that spectacular... but I saw the parade.

My last day in Hong Kong I spent in Kowloon, as planned. The (star) ferry over there gave me some spectacular views of both coast lines (Kowloon and Hong Kong Island), so I happily continued to snap my many pictures (many more have been posted at my picture site, http://picasaweb.google.com/rlanen), including the one above, left. Also on the Kowloon side was the Avenue of the Stars, sort of the Hong Kong equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame; many stars in the sidewalk of all the greats in Hong Kong cinema (and yes, many of our Kung Fu legends were present! Jet Li's hands [picture right] are tiny!!). I then walked up through the Golden mile to the Kowloon Park, which was quite pleasant, but extremely crowded. Somewhat to my surprise, Kowloon was packed with Indians (not the native American kind, the other one... people from India). Now, I realize India is probably not that far from Hong Kong, it still surprised me. But, I figured I'd take advantage and got some real nice Indian food.

The parade itself, as I mentioned, wasn't all that special. The coolest part about it, to me, was that many 'groups' from all over the world were represented; a South-African drum group performed alongside a New Zealand stilts-dancing troop, and Cheerleaders from Kentucky joined the many elementary school groups from China. I think the Michigan marching band should consider coming here next year for this, I think it could be huge! But, I was exhausted, and after about 2 hours I figured out how to get out of the area I was standing at (they had closed off the entire neighborhood... apparently I was standing inside the "loop" of the parade-route and they weren't letting anyone leave), I took the subway home. Sadly, because I had hoped to take the ferry home again, and snap a few last night-time pictures, but there just wasn't any way for me to get to the ferry.

I got up quite early on Monday morning, and my first flight got me to Thailand. It was funny to be back there some 6.5 years after I was last there, and I found myself listening intently to the people around me to see if I could still (insofar I ever did) understand any Thai (I didn't really, in case you were wondering... except for "thank you very much" in Thai). But, I did once again realize that written Thai is one of my favorite languages in the world, it just looks so esthetically beautiful and visually pleasing, only perhaps rivalled by Arabic (though I personally don't think so). The layover in Bangkok turned out to be a lot shorter than planned due to the long lines everywhere, but both flights were very uneventful, and sunrise in Australia (above right) was beautiful as seen from my exit-row seat ;-)

So, now I'm in Sydney, and it's hot. I got to the Youth Hostel around 8 am and I asked the girl at the desk if this kind of hot weather is typical for this time of year. She looked at me a bit blankly at first, and then pointed out, well, it's only 8 am, it'll get warmer! I thought it was quite hot already, but she was right... Even though I was tired, I decided not to give in to sleep, but rather start walking right away, so I dropped off my bags, and headed up in the Downtown area, towards the botanical gardens, and the world famous Sydney Opera house (left). Quite a sight, I most certainly need to see that again at night some time before I leave! The botanical gardens were also lovely (I especially enjoyed the signs that read: "Please do walk on the grass, and hug the trees"), and the walk overall was quite enjoyable.

Best part perhaps of my stroll today was that the sky was clear. I mean, not smoggy, not misty, not foggy, not even bad-smelling. It was simply clean! Sure, it was maybe 7 or 8 degrees (C) warmer than it had been in Hong Kong, but it felt about equally hot (less humid). The only negative side-effect of this is, you guessed it by the title of this post: I burned. Without the cloudiness, the sun has fair game on me, and now my face, neck, and forearms are as red as a cooked lobster (I heard a statistic that half of all Australians collect skin cancer at some point in their lives; I now understand why!). Oh well, now I've done that, and hopefully that's the last time I'll burn this trip (yea right...). In any case, the hostel I'm staying at is great so far, has a pool on the rooftop (9th floor), is right downtown (next to train station), and as I said a (rather long) walk from the botanical gardens and the Opera House, and my three roommates (including one Dutch guy, Sjoerd) are all quite nice. I did some laundry in the afternoon, soaked in the pool for a bit, and grabbed some pizza just now as I was absolutely starving. I think I'll spend a couple more nights here, I'm sure I can enjoy myself here for a bit. Yes, Australia is more expensive than Hong Kong, so far (especially things like food), but I'm enjoying myself here so far, so it's worth it; no worries, mate!