"hallo missa, hallo missy - copy watch?"

So I have next to no time for an update but I'm doing one anyway. Hopefully I can write more once in Tokyo, but this will definately be my only chance before leaving so here goes!...

I can't even begin to detail everything I've been doing - my days have been long and absolutely packed. I was planning on taking it easy tonight because a) I'm exausted and b) my flight is tomorrow morning, but I met an Australian named Jason in the elevator on my way to find dinner and we decided to go out in about...um 13 mins!! Luck also has it that Jason lives and teaches English in Nagoya - the only place in Japan where I had no place to stay - and has said I can crash at his place. Not only that, but he also has a car and is going to show me a bit of the countryside as well as probably climb Fuji with me! Very cool.

But anyway, lunch with Tony was faaaaaaaaantastic. He took me to this amazing fusion buffet in the Central district - basically the financial district. Little did I know, but he works for a superhuge HK company and he manages One Exchange Place here, a very important building. Good guy to know! He's also incredibly fun and fantastic - he insisted on me coming over to Macau with him to spend the night at his house. We took the jetfoil over and had a great night out on the town with his wife (both early 30's). They took me out for dinner, then to a bunch of casinos (Macau is China's Las vegas) then to a really cool bar for drinks. The next day was the granf Macau tour - very very cool. It's a 400 year old Portugese settlement so all the architecture is old Portugese style and all the signs are in Chinese and Portugese! Apart from the fact that it POUREDDDDDDDDDDD (I was completely miserable for a while) it was great.

The rest of Saturday was just spent doing this and that - after an insanely sketchy and nerve wracking incident with a taxi driver, that is. He took me in completely the wrong direction and then when I complained he forced me out of the cab in the middle of nowhere!! It was in this totally random and desolute industrail area under these overpasses and with no cars, let alone other taxis, in sight. It took me ages of walking through the area to find a cab and I'm surprised I got out alive - it was completely akin to a scene you'd see in a movie involving a part of HK where crazy shit goes down and people get killed. There were even stray dogs chasing me at one point. My umbrella also broke thanks to the heavy winds and rain, so I got absolutely DRENCHED! It was all very unpleasant, needless to say.

That night though I met up with a New Zealander named Emma and we went all over town, from the night markets to the harbour light show to the clubbing district where we had drinks with a guy from Paris who we befriended along the way! Got home at about 3:30am, and then got up at 9 today for another packed day! We did the peak, thought you couldn't see anything from the fog and rain, took the tram across the city, had an AMAZING dim sum (they spoke NO english whatsoever. i gave the hostess a canada pin at the end and she freaked out in joy and showed the whole staff!) and went to the ladies markey, where we picked up knock off designer stuff!

All in all, a great time in HK. Gotta run though - next update from Tokyo!!

(sorry if I can't reply to all comments. i'll try asap!)