37/365

Nothing says Adelaide like the Adelaide Central Markets. We made our first trip to the Markets since returning to Adelaide, and I was blown away. It is so much cheaper than Vancouver, and the produce is so amazingly fresh. We bought the most delicious peaches, and scored huge portobello mushrooms for $2.99 per kg.
We were worried that it was going to be too expensive to live the lifestyle that we did in Vancouver, but no, it will be cheaper :-)

36/365

35/365

Our first day back in Adelaide. My mind is still spinning from trying to organise everything that we need to get done, but that aside, it was such an enjoyable day. The whole family was at the airport waiting, the customs guard was super nice and we had no issues with baggage or massive line ups.
I am so stoked for travel to be over and done with for the time being.
The day was spent unpacking and catching up with family. It will be good when we finally find our own place so we can fully unpack, but for the moment it is so nice being back at home. The power was out at Kates parents from a massive wind storm the night before, and hence everything in the fridge needed eating. The last time we were in this back yard was for our wedding, so it was really nice to have dinner out on the patio.
The hills hoist is a classic Australian icon, and with the beautiful dappled pattern of the afternoon sun shining through the leaves, I felt it was a photo that very well summed up the essence of the evening.

34/365

Leaving Hong Kong, en route to the airport in our own private Limo - van. At this point I am stressing about the huge amount of luggage we have and hoping we have very small excess baggage fees, and pondering what the future holds for us back in Adelaide. Overall Kate and I are really excited to get home. In the end it cost what we expected, and we breezed through check in and customs.
A relatively long wait prevailed at the airport, however it did fly by, probably because we were so excited and I had an awesome book to read - "The Kite Runner".
Boarding the airplane back to Adelaide was an amazing experience, finally the last leg of our homeward journey is upon us, only 8.5 hours, a few movies and some delicious plane food down the track.

33/365

Today we ventured out into the Outer Territories. I wanted to head to Tai Po as the town sounded really interesting and the markets sounded like they would be fun to wander around. It was nice to be the only westerners around, this town did not feel anywhere near as touristy as downtown. The people were really nice and we received a few smiles our way.
The most memorable part of the day was visiting Man mo Yee Tai temple. The temples are busy places over the Lunar New Year with lots of worshipers making offerings to their gods. Kate and I just sat in the temple for a while, taking in the serene environment. It was so relaxing and peaceful, a great place to relax and reflect.
After Kate and I had been sitting for a while, the other worshipers in the temple realised we were not just there to snap a few photos and leave, so when we went to walk out, one very nice lady came up to me and in broken English, told me I should hit this big drum 3 times for good luck. The drum reverberated throughout the whole temple. It was a very wholesome moment and one of my favourite of the whole trip.

32/365

February the first. Today we headed out to Lantau Island to get away from the crowds. It was different. The island has a "quaint" / slummy little fishing village with some great food and cool stairwells and roads that run up the side of the hilly shoreline, somewhat reminding me of a ghetto version of Split, Croatia, in which they had decided to abandon all forms of hygiene and manners.
Anyways, the island was fun and it was good to avoid the crowds for the morning.
Afterwards we headed back to Kowloon so we could catch the Chinese New Year fireworks on Victoria Harbour. En route to our hotel I snapped this picture while waiting to cross Canton Road. I loved the vibrance of all the people in the shot. Everyone is posed differently, wearing different clothes, and I feel the photo really sums up the mixed bag of residents in Hong Kong and the attitude that they expel.

31/365

Today was the Lunar Chinese New Year. This meant that not much was open, but we still managed to find some fun stuff to do and some ok food to eat.
While walking around Kowloon Park, we saw a group of students playing drums and animating this large dragon puppet. It was super cool to see the dragon weave throughout the crowds of people.