Last Days in Hong Kong

After Calvin's exams, we had one more day to do some sight-seeing in Hong Kong. We went to see the Hong Kong temple. It is so beautiful!

Across from the temple is a new church building that opened in June. There was an older building there that they tore down and replaced. We visited the mission offices that had been moved into the church building-they were previously inside the temple.

We also went to see the Hong Kong convention center.

We walked along the promenade in front of the convention center. Behind us you can see the tallest building on Hong Kong island, the IFC 2.

At the end of the day, we watched the light show that happens every night! It is almost 20 minutes long and is coordinated between many of the buildings on the island. It is so amazing! From the promenade across the harbor, music is played that goes along with the show.

Here is a short video of the show. It doesn't look as impressive as it really was because it is hard to see some of the lights on the video, but hopefully it will give you an idea of what it was like!

I hope you've enjoyed sharing this journey with us! Now on to some posts about what we're doing now!

Hong Kong Zoological & Botanical Gardens

So, Hong Kong may be old news by now, but I have just a few more posts to put up!

On one of our last few days in Hong Kong, Camden and I took a trip to the nearby Zoological and Botanical gardens. The minibus doesn't exactly stop there, but it goes right by there, so I stayed on and asked the driver to stop when he got close, even though it was on this really steep hill. He told me in Chinese (translated by a few nice people) that he couldn't stop where we were, but he would stop in a minute. We hopped off and it was only a short walk up the hill to the entrance.

The first thing we saw was the reptile house. Camden enjoyed pointing out the sleeping alligator.

There were a lot of different kinds of monkeys! We enjoyed watching them swing through their exhibits.
Camden wanted to climb up and sit with King George VI. This statue was built in 1941 to commemorate 100 years of British rule in Hong Kong.

There were also many different types of birds, our favorite were the flamingos.

This is what I saw most of the time, Camden running away from me.

We went into the greenhouse and saw all different kinds of carnivorous plants! Crazy!

These ones attract bugs with the bright red on the leaves, then trap them when they fall into the liquid in the center.

There were also all different kinds of orchids. They were so beautiful!

We then walked through a bamboo garden. Camden loved running along the winding paths and sitting on these little benches. Each bench had a different animal holding it up. Look closely in this picture and you'll see Camden disappearing behind the bamboo.

After we left the zoo to find the bus, we had a great view of the huge buildings in Central.

After we saw several #3 minibuses going past us up the hill (they did not stop on the steep hill on the way up), we decided to go into this grocery store to get a snack and regroup. As you can see below, grocery stores here aren't quite the same as in the US. This one had an escalator for your grocery cart because it was on two levels! You really have to look in the right places to find grocery stores, they're just tucked into the lower levels of all types of buildings.

So we got a few buns for a snack, went outside to a little park, ate, played on the playground, then asked a lady who spoke English about the buses. We went down to the road where other buses were coming, and luckily all the bus schedules/routes are in English as well. I found one that said it was going to Hong Kong University, so we got onto that one. Well, it got close to the University, then turned and started heading another direction. By the time we came to a bus stop, we were quite far away, so I just stayed on the bus, and it eventually headed down to Central. Camden was asleep by that time. Luckily, we came to the spot our minibus stopped when we would go down to Central, so I was able to get on that bus, and go back home. It was quite the adventure, but I was pretty happy I was able to figure it out!

Sai Kung

On Saturday, we left around 9:30 in the pouring rain and took the minibus down to Central. We then got on another bus that took us to Shun Lei Tsuen where we had dim sum. It was good (mostly)! Then we got on another minibus that took us to Sai Kung. In Sai Kung, Calvin haggled with one of the ladies offering boats, and got us our own little boat out to one of the islands. It was a little more expensive than some of the other boats, but we got to go out on our own instead of waiting for a boat to fill up and they came and got us when we were ready to go back.

We ate our ice cream cones on the way out, it was a hot day!

When we got out there, we walked out to this island on the land bridge that was exposed because it was low tide.

We also spotted this really funny typo/mis-translation on one of the signs giving information about the rocks in the area. It was showing the process of the salt water, weather, and erosion, making these rocks look like a popular bread here called a "pineapple bun." Look closely for the mistake.

This is a real pineapple bun. The name comes from the topping which looks like a pineapple, not because it has any pineapple flavor.

We had a really fun time exploring the tide pools along the land bridge out to the little island. We saw sea urchins, sea cucumbers, crabs, fish, and clams.

It was a beautiful day! The breeze on the ocean felt so good.

Calvin and I decided we wouldn't mind owning one of the many yachts drifting through the harbour.

We also found some coral!

We climbed some really cool rocks right there on the ocean!

Next time I want to go snorkeling here!

I was really relieved when our boat came back to get us :) Calvin assured me he had done this before and that they really do come back and get you.

They just pull their little "junk" boat right up to the pier for you to hop on!

When we got back over to Sai Kung, we took a bus ride out to another area nearby to see a place Calvin had served on his mission. We then met up with some friends we had met at church for pizza in Sai Kung. It was the best pizza! Here in Hong Kong, they have a different idea about what goes on a pizza, but this was a place owned by an Italian-American guy from New York, so it was really good.

On a side note, we saw this Hong-Kong sized fire truck pulling up to an apartment building-it was small!

We had a great day! On the way home, we stopped and bought a hot-plate burner, a pot, and some bowls and spoons so we can cook some more meals here in our room. We already have a refrigerator and a thing that boils water, but nothing else to really help us cook. We also stopped at a grocery store to get some food. It will be nice!

P.S. Leave us some comments and let us know who is reading the blog! I hope this lets you share in our adventure. We love and miss all our family and friends!

Stanley Market and Aberdeen

On Friday afternoon, we headed to the back side of the island to see Stanley and Aberdeen. We passed Repulse Bay, which was absolutely beautiful. I think it is my favorite part of Hong Kong so far. Stanley was such a nice, quiet place; it was great. We walked through the shops, which was a lot of fun, just looking at all the things they had. There were a lot of handbags, clothes, knick-knacks, etc. We got 6 ties for Calvin for $100 HKD, which is just less than $13 USD, pretty awesome! We also stopped and got ice cream cones, or "i ee done" (done sounds like cone) in Camden's words, at McDonalds, where a family from Taiwan took pictures with Camden because I guess they just thought he was so darn cute! Camden now recognizes McDonalds and asks for an "i ee done" any time we pass one.

We also walked along the ocean front promenade in Stanley. It was so quiet and really beautiful!

We then took a bus to Aberdeen, historically a fishing village, that has recently grown to include many apartment buildings. The harbour was full of fishing boats because in June and July there is a fishing moratorium (in case you don't know what that means, as I did not, it is a time where they don't fish, to build up the fish population again).

Along the walkway around the harbour, there were many chinese women offering boat rides for a tour of the harbour, a ride to the famous floating restaurants, etc. We decided not to go, as Camden had fallen asleep on the bus ride over. We just walked along the walkway and read these little plaques telling about the history of the area and identifying the different types of fishing boats and methods. It was really interesting!

I really enjoyed learning more about the area and seeing a different side of Hong Kong. It is amazing the difference from the busy life of Central to the slower pace of areas like Stanley and Aberdeen, only a 30 minute bus ride away!