Exploring Hong Kong

Hi families! We are making the rounds through Hong Kong and are having a blast. One day we traveled to Stanley Market to see what was happening there. The drive over there is beautiful - we saw lots of green hillsides once we were out of the heart of the island, some beautiful beaches, and a lot of interesting shops. We poked around the market first, found some red silk bags to get shipped home in, and then went to have lunch at a restaurant next to the bay. It was warm, but the open air restaurant had fans going and it was quite comfortable.

We have walked around Kowloon and stopped in front of The Peninsula. We didn't eat there - high tea is served only on the weekends and we didn't want to go to the various restaurants in the hotel, but we poked around the lobby. Can you say nice? Wow! There is a lot of history in this hotel as well as some very trendy shops. We continued on toward the waterfront because we wanted to see the Doulos - which bills itself as the worlds largest floating book fair. From their website:

"Doulos visits port cities throughout the world, supplying vital literature resources, encouraging inter-cultural understanding, training young people for more effective life and service, promoting greater global awareness, providing practical aid and sharing a message of hope in God wherever there is opportunity."

So, it was a fascinating ship, but the weather was unbelievably hot and humid, so we cut that visit rather short. We had lunch at the nearby Quarterdeck restaurant, which was quite nice and then headed over to the Ladies Market.

You haven't been to Hong Kong if you haven't been to the Ladies Market. It is a neat series of outdoor stalls packed together in the alleyway that extends for three blocks. You can find all sorts of neat souvenirs, shirts, toys, chop sticks, silk items, etc., here. You get to bargain for the price, though, and unless you know what you should be paying you usually pay too much. Our friend wanted to purchase a wallet which was offered for HK$79. After negotiations, she paid a total of HK$60 for two of them. We poked around the shops and one nice shop worker let us take our picture with her. You might not want to post this one on the Internet as we didn't really look at the background. In addition to handbags, she had a lot of lingerie for sale.

Yesterday we ventured to the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens. The grounds are beautiful and it is hard to believe you are in the middle of Hong Kong while you are there - unless you look up and see the skyscrapers in the background. We just had to get our pictures taken with our animal friends. Although there is an aviary on the grounds, our little bird friends here weren't very talkative. In the center of the grounds is a beautiful fountain. We were in front of one part of it, and if you walked around to the other side, it looked quite different.

Tomorrow's adventure is Disneyland! We are so excited - we can't wait to get there!

Lots of love,

Funky Monkey and Kermit the Hermit Crab

Hong Kong Happenings

Last week we went to plant a letterbox at The Peak, and boy did we have fun! We took the train down to Kowloon and walked to the Star Ferry pier. On the way we stopped at the clock tower. Our photographer wanted to make sure he got the tower in - can you see us sitting there on the bench in front of it?

The Clock Tower is a landmark in Hong Kong located on the southern shore of Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon. It is the only remnant of the original site of the former Kowloon Station on the Kowloon-Canton Railway. It is built out of red bricks and granite, is 45 metres tall, and is topped by a 7-metre lightning rod.

We excitedly made our way to the Star Ferry - we timed it just right because the ferry was boarding. We took our seats and marvelled at the harbor and the buildings on either side. What a sight! We decided to take a bus to The Peak rather than the tram as it was Sunday and there is usually quite a wait for the tram, so onto the Bus 15 we went. What a ride! We got to pass through town and up and up and up the mountain. It was fascinating to see the apartment towers stuck on the sides of the mountain. At the top, we walked on the Circle walk and had a great time. We planted the letterbox and then continued on around the circle. There is this awesome India Rubber tree that we got to play in. Kermit wanted to play hide and seek, buy Funky Monkey convinced him that he would probably never be found, so that put an end to that game. We continued around and stopped for a picture at one of the overlooks. You can see pretty well, but there is still a little smog in the air clouding the view. After dinner at The Peak Lookout restaurant, we made our way back to Tai Po, tired for happy after a good day of touring.

Another day we went to the Museum of History in Sha Tin. There was a special exhibit of Chinese treasures from the Shu time period, and we especially enjoyed an exhibit on The Art of Henry Wo-Yue-Kee.

We took off the the "country side" one night and travelled to Tai Mei Tuk, a little fishing village not too far from Tai Po. We got to ride on the top level of the double-decker bus. There we ate at an ourdoor Thai restaurant which had just opened. They had neat tables with huge umbrellas over them and since it was so hot, they had some fans nearby to help keep you cool. The food was wonderful and it was very pretty when the sun went down.

We have been to Meghan and Caitlyn's school, which is quite different from the school in the US. The buildings for the Secondary (that is Year 7 through Year 13 or grades 6 through 12 in the US) are six stories tall! They have an indoor pool and tennis and soccer (they call it football) courts on the rooftops. How cool!

Next week we are going to Stanley Market, and will send more pictures then. Take care!

Love,
Funky Monkey and Kermit the Hermit Crab

Last Adventures in Hawaii

Well, we finally have a few more pictures of our Hawaiian adventures. We had such a good time there! We got to go snorkeling and went out to see the Captain Cook Monument. We just had a slight problem getting the mask to fit. It was just a little on the large side, so it was hard to get a tight seal so that the water would not leak in. The boat ride out the the bay was really nice. Someone said they saw a dolphin, but by the time we were on the right side of the boat it was gone. There were all kinds of beautiful fish in the bay, and some people saw eels, too. We weren't looking too hard for them, so we managed to miss that sight.
Sometimes we cooked out and so the two of us had to check out the grill. It got hot enough, let us tell you! Near-by there were all kinds of coconut husks, and we played with them a lot.
We went to a botanical garden and enjoyed all the different flowers. We also planted a letterbox and re-planted one for Norasta. We hope that one survived since it was kind of close to the surf and there was a hurricane approaching on the day we left.
The flight to Hong Kong was long, but uneventful, thank goodness. The pilot just liked to land the plane kind of hard - we sort of dropped like a stone. We were glad we were wearing our seat belts!
Well, we are going to sign off now and see if we can locate some really good pictures of Hong Kong for you!
Love,
Kermit and Funky Monkey