Mar 27-28, 2011 Today we woke up early and went to visit the big Buddha (Im not actually sure of the name ), this huge Buddha statue that is situated on a hill a couple of hours outside Hong Kong. Its one of the biggest in the world. We got ready and set out about 9 in the morning. It was a rainy morning but all of us were in such a good mood- the entire subway ride there we were all just cracking up and joking around. Jenna kept looking at me and just laughing, which made me hysterically giggle it was out of control. We got to the bottom of the mountain after about an hour on the subway and learned that we had another hour on a bus to get there, so obviously we decided to go to McDonalds. I know it sounds crazy, but McDonalds is the one place in Asia that we know has standards. After some weird food in ports we were all pumped to see the golden arches on every corner. That trip to McDonalds became one of three that day. After we got our food we got on the bus where Meredith and I preceded to sing every country song on my iPod, possibly to the dismay of the people around us. Since it was raining we obviously needed ponchos, which we bought. We climbed the last few stairs all swishing in blue ponchos that made us look like blueberries. The Buddha was really cool. It is enormous, and lots of people were praying to it. I know this sounds terrible, but Im just not sure it would have been worth the trek had we not been having so much fun on the way there. It was a lot of traveling and if I were with, say, a tour group, it would have been miserable. It was the people who made the trip, 100%. We took the cable car down, and on the 30-minute ride Meredith shot gunned a beer. It was a really funny moment. When we got back to the ship we had to pack our backpacks for Beijing and get ready to get off the ship for a few days. It was leaving that night for Shanghai, so we had to be off at 6 pm. We all met when were ready and set out to find a hostel, which was quite the experience. I was in a weird mood, I guess just worn out, and I was being a total brat- I admit it. We tried a Holiday Inn first and it would have been $400 a night, but after some of the hostels we tried I wouldve gladly paid it. At one point, Meredith and I went upstairs to check one out and I almost started crying. I mean, these rooms were the worst of the worst. It was so hard to get 8 girls to agree on one place, and I was relieved when Molly and Meredith finally took over and just picked one. It wouldnt have been my first choice, but all 8 of us could stay in one room on bunk beds and we had our own bathroom so it was 5 star compared to the other places. We dropped our stuff off and while we were all getting ready to go out some of us went and got some food and liquor. McDonalds trip number 2 right here. After we had gotten sufficiently warmed up we headed out to a bar street called LFK. There was some rugby tournament that had just ended so there were tons of English and Austrailian people partying there. There were tons of little bars and the customers spilled out onto the street. Tons of people were in costume and everyone was having a great time. About 2 am some of us decided it was time to head home, but rallying 8 girls to leave a place like that was a challenge. In the end we got the key and headed back to the hostel on our own. About 5 am we woke up to terrible news. The other girls were back on their own, with one girl nowhere in sight- Im not going to mention names for the sake of this blog. They were really scared because they couldnt find her anywhere. They had been searching since we left, and were eventually the only people left on the street. They were screaming for her and asking policemen if they had seen her, but no one could help. We knew that she didnt know the address of the hostel and she wasnt answering her cell phone. I dont think any of us slept that night. It was the most scared Ive ever been for a friend. One of the biggest issues is that we were leaving the next morning for the airport to catch an international flight. We had her wallet and her passport, and even though her flight was later that evening we had no way of getting things to her. Some of the girls went to the airport because they were on an earlier flight but one girl and I hung around for a couple more hours. Finally we had to leave so we left a message at the hostel, took her stuff and hoped that she would meet us at the airport. Right as we were getting on the subway she called us from a nice old mans phone- he had seen her upset and asked if she needed to borrow his phone. Turns out she had gotten lost in the bar district and hadnt been able to find anyone. She had met some nice English people who tried to help her get back to the hostel but because she didnt know the address they let her stay with them. Thank god for people like that, who take care of random people they dont know- angels in disguise. When we had her we got into a cab and got on a 3-hour flight to Beijing. The night was really uneventful- we had some food and went to sleep for an early morning. Just a funny detail- when we were getting off our bus at the hotel in Beijing I fell down the stairs trying to get my bag out. Haley and I were alone on our flight and hadnt made any friends and that really just cemented our loser status. It was such an intense night and day that we were really pleased to get into bed and get some rest.
