Nothing like a typhoon to keep things interesting

Woke up early, went for a walk. Hot and humid already by 9am...but we kept at it, marching briskly for a full hour. Of course, it wasn't just a walk...there was adventure involved!

Halfway thru the walk, my three cups of coffee and double espresso began calling for a bathroom. So we ducked into a metro station and found a public toilet. The stall was skinny and tall, i had to step up two steps to...a lovely porcelain-surrounded hole. Suzanne's "never refuse a challenge" flashed in my head so i firmly planted my feet on either side, squatted and aimed in such a way as to prevent any splashback. I am happy to report that i succeeded...and that my two years of incorporating squats into my training really paid off. Boys, I have new respect (or maybe disgust) for you. (The aiming sans splashback thing.)

We continued on our adventure...Blah blah blah, finished walking, went home, showered, etc.

Day's plan: to go see the Big Buddha and monasteries with some friends who'd arrived. So we headed out to the metro, with a quick stop to the bank for some cash and to the pharmacy for a compression sleeve for my leg. The pharmacy was fun...i had no idea where to look for what i needed, so asked for help. The pharmacist led me to the right aisle, grabbed a box, looked at my leg, and said "hmmm...i better measure your leg." Really? Ok...whatever. She got her tape measure...measured the girth of my ankle, the length of my foot, the circumference of my calf. "No sorry, i don't have anything big enough for you." really? Am I THAT big? But she did have a tube thing she could sell me by the meter..which she did and cut in half and it was perfect for 1/8th of the price :)

Made our way to the metro, bought our tickets (that was an adventure in itself) and off we went. Oh the metro...a people watcher's heaven. Schoolkids in uniform, young adults, old women, tweens giggling between texts and sharing their mall finds. Kids are the same everywhere we discovered...no matter their clothes, culture, country. The route took us above ground past an amazing cemetery...i need to look that up and see if i can find it and go visit it. G thought that was creepy but i love cemeteries. I am as fascinated about rituals surrounding death as by those surrounding life.

We transferred trains successfully, but getting OUT of the metro station was another adventure. No matter what turnstile we tried..we couldn't get out. Felt like idiots. Seriously contemplated jumping the turnstile. Until we discovered we needed to find those where we could insert our tickets into the machine and presto..we were free. Phew. Ok...off to find a bathroom, some food and the cable car to Buddha.

Peed in the biggest outlet mall i've ever seen. But Couldn't agree on an eatery, so went to the cable car. "closed due to typhoon." well SHIT. But there was a bus, so we thought eh, why not. It wouldn't be the same effect, but hey, we'd still get to reach our goal destination right? Wrong. The sky darkened, the wind picked up, and the rains started hammering down. Of course, none of us had thought to bring an umbrella or jacket. Did i mention that we'd need to climb some 200 steps to the monastery? A few of us were ready to risk it, but others wanted to take a raincheck. So, given the view would be nil on top of crap weather, we decided to go try and exchange our tickets for another day.

Hahaha.....fat chance. The ticket agents were rude and nastily refused to consider or even acknowledge our concerns. So we headed back to the mall, found some eats at the food court, and took the metro back "home". The whole day was just ridiculous. Think Seinfeld does Hong Kong. In trying to accomplish something we ended up doing nothing. How ironic is it that we went halfway around the world to go to the mall and eat in the food court? Sheesh. We consoled ourselves with the thought that with 10 more days here, we'd surely have enough time to have another crack at it.

We wound our way back to the hotel thru the tight little streets, stopping for water and to peruse the exotic offerings of the bakeries and stores along the way. Then we went off to the upper level bar to check the web for updates on the weather and our teammates. And herein lies an adventure totally worthy of these two dragons...and one that may even merit becoming the opening scene of our movie. (oh yes, there will definitely be a movie.) but that's a tale for another day.