Lantau Island - Big Buddha, Po Lin Monastery, Tai O - updated

Well, this blogging whilst travelling thing is a lot harder than anticipated... So these images are from almost a week ago. I'll try to get up-to-date as quickly as possible, but it's proving difficult; we're constantly on the move, seeing people, so I hardly have time to review images, let alone resize and write a recap.. am currently sitting here with hair colorant on and half-way through doing my nails, so I might need to bugger off suddenly and update this post later. has now been updated.

The image above is from the Big Buddha on Lantau Island - Gary, you would love this! It's the largest free-standing Buddha in the world.

On our first day in HK, Ton and I arrived very early. After dropping off our stuff at our hotel and a quick breakfast we caught the MRT (underground) to Lantau Island (one of the islands that makes up HK) to visit this incredible landmark.

There are 2 ways to get up to the Big Buddha, as shown below. You can either trek up there on a narrow walk, which would probably take all day, or catch the cable car up the hill. No points for guessing what we did.

The cable car took us to what was basically a whole development of tourist shops. The first time I was here (probably about 10 year ago) there was nothing like this up here. It's a shame that it's become so touristy, but I guess everyone needs to move with the times.

From this area, we had to climb stairs to get up the top, which was a nice bit of exercise – no need for a gym.

Once we had a look around we walked back down to have vego lunch at the Po Lin Monastery, which is about 200m from the base of the Buddha. On the way there I engaged in a spot of monk-stalking to get this shot of a female monk preparing some flowers for the Temple there.

Out the front of the temple the faithful were burning incense, including the fattest, biggest incense I have seen in my life.

After lunch we caught a cab to Tai O fishing village. Last time I was there it was a tiny little village with dirt roads. Now it's a pretty developed little township with a decent wharf. We didn't end up staying there very long.

Wow, finally finished the first day. Hope you enjoyed. More to come.
KK

Hong Kong I

Hi all,

sorry for the lack of updates. Turns out internet at the hotel is quite pricey, so we've just dropped into an internet cafe to check emails etc.
Will do an update with photos once we're in Munich.
Hong Kong's been amazing! We're having such a great, although my feet are killing me, we've been doing so much walking!

Enjoy your long weekend! Happy Anzac Day!

FINALLY!

We leave tonight for our trip. Luckily the volcano ash seems to be dispersing.
It's been a long time coming, I am excited like a little kid the night before Christmas.

I'll be incommunicado for at least a couple of days as I won't have a computer until mum and dad arrive.

KKx

Kitty!

I really do love these birthday deals a lot of retailers are doing for their VIP members. This time, I got a $20 voucher courtesy of Fiera.
I got this cute silver kitty ring holder thing for free. Neat!

How to train your dragon - in 3D

On the weekend we also saw "How to train your dragon"  in 3D. It's no "Incredibles" and it doesn't have the adult references that go over the kids' heads that "Shrek" had, but it's a very fun movie. Great animation, cute story, and lots of famous voices. 8/10

Movie Double-header: Date Night, Kick-ass

Last night we did something we haven't done in ages - 2 movies in a row!
Date Night with Tina Fey and Steve Carell was first up. I love Tina's work on 30 Rock (and Mean Girls!), and Steve from The Office, so I expected to like this movie. Throw in an inexplicably topless Mark Wahlberg and we have a winner. It was a fun romp, with some great dialogue; an easy-to-watch action rom-com. 7/10
Kick-ass was up next. If you like Tarantino, you will love this. Great one-liners, nicely shot (especially the strobe lighting sequence towards the end - magic!), great fights, an unapologetic violence with a little gore thrown in. Suspend your disbelief and enjoy! 8/10

Birthday Shoes

I'm a VIP member at Tony Bianco, and I highly recommend it to everyone. For your birthday they send you a special offer for 30%  (!!) off a purchase (however many shoes you want, just buy them all at once). What a deal! I was trying to choose between the cute peep-toe platform and the over-the-knee boot in suede and asked Ton for his input, but instead he decided to buy me both pairs for my up-coming birthday. He's the best!!
They arrived at work today, and are divine!

Thanks, honey!! xxx

Steampunk Hat

I bought this super-cute Steampunk Hat/Fascinator (it's about 15cm diameter and sits on a comb) at Supanova from some girls who hand-make them locally. Unfortunately there is nothing on their etsy at the moment, but maybe they'll put something up soon to check out. sporkpuppydesigns.etsy.com

KK

Nerd T-shirts

More from Supanova. Nerds love their geeky shirts, here are a few good ones I saw today.

Ok, so this isn't a shirt, but I thought these shorts were so cute and off-beat, so I included them.

KK

Supanova Brisbane 2010

Today we went to what I've been calling a "big nerd convention", but apparently it's actually a "Pop Culture Expo". Either way, went met BenF and Sarah at Supanova today. Lots of photos with this post, I went a bit nuts, but it was a bit of a photographer's wet dream, so many crazy-looking people there.
Waiting in line:

Stormtrooper, and a guy with a headwound in the background

 Crowd

Rorschach from Watchmen!!! (It was a girl inside the costume)

Luigi & Mario

This girl was in the line behind us, I can't remember what character she was supposed to be, but she looked so adorable!

Also no idea what character that is, presumably some kind of manga/anime.

The main reason I wanted to go was James Marsters who was there for a Q&A session, autographs etc, and I paid a king's ransom to get a photo taken with him, but it was all good fun. We were in row 5 for the Q&A, but the lighting was terrible and no flash photography allowed, so the photos are pretty crap.

Some more outfits:

Some packaging and knick-knacks. Hilariously the Edward doll is on sale for 20 bucks, but Jacob is still full-price at 39.94!

Hope you guys enjoy the photos and nerdiness!

KK

Easter 2010 at Moogerah

Friends of our family own a property on Moogerah Dam where their extended family and friends go camping every Easter. It's a bit of a luxury campsite, with a 2-room shed, an outhouse-type toilet, and a shower block with hot water! Ton and I just went out for a day visit, here are some impressions from the day.

KK

2 Week Countdown

Exactly 2 weeks to the dot (the flight leaves at an ungodly 11pm!) until we leave for our much-longer for overseas. 5 nights in Hong Kong, then Ton comes back home, and I continue to Germany with my family for our friend's wedding. I am really excited to see my friends and family again, and also very excited to go to Amsterdam for 3 days to visit a friend; my first time in Amsterdam!

I am going to try to be disciplined and use the blog as my travel diary, to write into every other day or so with some photos. Let's see how that goes...

14 days.

First Post

Inspired by my workmate Chantelle over at Little Things I have decided to give this blogging thing a go.

Whilst it feels somewhat narcissistic, she assures me that it's a great way to easily keep references on hand.

With this in mind, I did a bit of a clean-up of old 'hard-copy' references I had torn out of magazines over the years, and managed to throw a lot of stuff out. There are only a couple of things I still liked, so I will start by posting these.

Firstly, a random beauty shot from a random magazine, no idea where this is from or what is was for, but I like it. The chalky hair and make-up are beautiful, but haunting at the same time. Gorgeous, shadowy lighting.

Secondly. In my first semester at uni, in art theory, I really got into art nouveau, and eventually did a couple of projects inspired by art nouveau later in my course. In the research process I found some illustrated capitals in a random art book, so here are some badly photocopied and scanned examples of art nouveau typography.

 KK