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