End of South America, starting Asia in Hong Kong and China

After Taganga, I had only a few days left in Colombia before leaving South America, it was kind of sad! I went to Cartegena, which is a beautiful spanish style city right on the ocean. I just hung out there, walked around, ate, walked around some more, you know, the usual stuff.

Town

Really nice buildings

Right outside of Cartegena is this mud volcano, where you climb in with a bunch of other people, get a massage from a local guy, and float around in the mud. It was hilarious. The mud was so thick that even though there was no bottom, you just float, it was awesome.

Me and the Irish covered in mud

So then it was adios South America and home for a few days. I went to Miami with Gary and we ripped it up. Miami is really pretty, I don't think I ever realized that. Saw my friend Rachael from BU which was really nice. She took us out on her big ass boat and got to catch up. After Miami, headed to Austin for some family time! Always nice to go home, but even better when it is SXSW. Carly took a day off to come hang out with me and we checked out the music scene. After Austin, headed to San Francisco where I saw Michelle and Courtney and Gary came out again. We explored SF, ripped it up some more. It was actually an amazing trip back in the states, it was so good to see everyone!

And then it was off to Hong Kong!! Apparently, hostels in HK are really sketchy and still expensive so I decided to couch surf. I stayed with Joy and Ben, both from Texas but out in HK teaching English. They were incredibly nice. I didn't hang out with them too much since they worked during the day, but I am very grateful for them letting me stay on their couch!! Hong Kong is awesome! It was rainy and cloudy when I was there, but still an amazing city. Its so lively and so big and really pretty. It was Rugby Sevens weekend so there were a lot of people in town, which I want to go to maybe in 2011... whose with me?

I spent my days in Hong Kong walking around. There are some cool sites to see, but its mostly shopping. I met up with an old co-worker for lunch, twice. We had some authentic local cuisine including dim sum, noodles soup and congee.

I also met up with a guy I knew from Boston (friend of a friend) and we went out on Thursday night and I almost missed my train to China cause I was having so much fun until like 6am! And I was the first to leave!

Temple

Busy city center

Inside the temple

My cloudy city view from the peak

View from apartment I stayed in

Near the airport, there is a giant buddha statue. I was excited because I thought it was going to be this ancient masterpiece, but when I got there, its a little touristy area with shops and the buddha was only built like 20 years ago! Hah. It was still pretty cool, but not as cool as I had thought it was going to be.

Buddha

So I left Hong Kong on Friday morning and took the train to go see Stella!! (my grandma). She had a whole gang with her when she met me at the train station. She looks so good and healthy and happy, it was so good to see her.

Granparents

First lunch with family

From the border, we took another train back into Guangzhou where she lives. We walked around the neighborhood and then ate again. Ugh, the food on this part of the trip was absolutely amazing. I could talk for hours about how much I loved the food, I definitely did not go hungry. After dinner we drove around the city to see it at night, its actually a pretty cool place. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it very much.

Guangzhou at night

We spent the next day walking around the city, seeing the sights. On Sunday we went to her vacation home a little outside of the city, hung out there, ate, drove around. It was nice. On Monday we walked around some more, saw where she used to live and where my mom grew up. Then we got massages and sang karaoke, which was hilarious. It was really cool. I really had a good time with her.

Buddhas

At the vacation home

Picking out lunch

Karaoke!

Last night dinner with the whole family!

And then it was off to Thailand!