Pontoon Boat

 

The pontoon boat this year was great, except it was really windy in the morning. Oh, and that we got the boat stuck everywhere we pulled over to fish. This meant we had to pretty much kill the rotor getting out of a few places and ended up being charged extra for that. Oh, and that NOBODY caught any fish. Jason hooked a pufferfish once but it wiggled off the hook before he pulled it into the boat. So we were officially fishless yesterday. There are some pretty funny pictures from today, like the one of Joshua wearing Amber's big sunglasses and me playing with Bella.

 

Joshua loves driving the boat but I think his little sister is a better driver :) All in all, a great day on the river. We've really enjoyed going out in the river every year but the price has risen quite a lot since last year and with the additional charge for the rotor we may just stay on land next year.

 

Make sure you check out the other pictures!

Vero Beach

Christmas in Vero is great and people just don't know what they're missing when they wish for a white Christmas. We absolutely love the warm weather, going to the beach, fishing, boating, seeing friends, and especially not having to wear jackets, gloves, scarves, boots, long underwear, wool socks, and hats (all at the same time). Christmas was great this year and we were also able to celebrate my grandmother's 86th birthday today (the 28th). In a couple of days we'll leave to go down to the keys and do our diver certification dives. We'll be diving at John Pennekamp Park in Key Largo which is the oldest protected coral reef and is supposed to be absolustely beautiful. Check out the pictures for some of my parents cat, Tucker, and the guys working on a project.

 

Bok Tower

 

Yesterday we had a fun morning visiting Bok Tower (the highest point in peninsular Florida) with Dawn (sister-in-law) and our nephew Jonathan. It was absolutely perfect Florida winter weather... high 60s in the morning, 70s in the afternoon... and we enjoyed a few hours there chatting and playing with Jonathan. Here's a picture of Jason with him on his shoulders (making a scary face) and of me making sure Jonathan didn't fall into the koi pond. Jonathan's middle name is Paul and when you ask him what his name is he says "Me Paul." So cute!

 

 

Lake Wales

See "Click here for pictures" on the right side of the page for pictures of Christmas in Lake Wales with Jason's family. Jonathan is now 2 years and 3 months old and WOW is he big! He's such a ham and will definitely be the class clown when he enters grade school. Wade (now 4 years, 9 months) is growing into a handsome little fellow and I even stole a kiss from him when we left tonight. Chelsey and Kelsey (help us all, now 14) apparently have belly button rings... Katie is turning 20 next month and still attending community college. Hopefully she'll register for spring semester soon :)

TV in English

We made it back safe and sound and totally exhausted. Our cats were so happy to see us and haven't stopped crawling all over us. I just woke up from an 8-hour nap from 11am - 7pm and Jason's still sleeping. Hopefully in another day or two we'll be fairly well adjusted. We didn't get home until about midnight last night and we had been up for over 28 hours at that point.

Our flight from Tokyo to Vancouver was full so they put us on a flight from Tokyo direct to Chicago, which worked out a lot better for us. We would have missed our connection in Chicago if we flew as planned because it took us 3+ hours to get through immigration, customs, recheck our bags, and back through security for domestic flights.

I have a handful more pictures to upload from our last day in Tokyo and I'll get to those soon. I broke my SD card converter so I need to get a new one.

Thanks for checking in on the blog and hearing about our adventures. Any bets on where we're going next?

… And we’re off!

Tokyo has been crazy and busy but today we took some time to get out
to see Mt. Fuji. Our plan almost worked – we got there successfully
ourselves (instead of paying more than double to go with a tour) but
it was so cloudy we couldn't see anything. We had to walk to the metro
station (about 15 minutes), take a special train called the Romance
Car to Hakone (about 1.5 hours), take a switchback train up a mountain
(about 45 minutes), take a cable car up a steep hill (about 20
minutes), and take the Ropeway to a lake (about an hour including
transfers). All to see a foggy lake! In theory, we were supposed to be
able to see Mt. Fuji on the second ropeway in between where we got on
and a turn, but we couldn't see anything. I'm sure it's there
somewhere in the background of the pictures though.

Doing that took from about 10am to 8pm so we got some dinner on the
walk back to the hotel. We have to check out at noon tomorrow and then
we'll drag our stuff down the street to the metro station. Since we
ate at a place tonight that didn't take cards (we didn't know that
until we went to pay) we'll have to walk instead of take a taxi. We
literally used all but about 200 of our Japanese Yen (about $2US). We
were going to eat lunch around here and then head to the airport at 3
or so but now we'll have to just go out there at noon and eat at the
airport using cards. Seems silly, I know, but it's not worth paying
ATM fees for a little spare change. Our Air Canada flight leaves at
7pm Tokyo time (5am to those in Kansas) and we arrive in Kansas City
at 10:30pm July 22, assuming all flights go well. The flight from
Tokyo to Vancouver is about 9 hours, the flight from Vancouver to
Chicago is about 4 hours, and Chicago to KC is about an hour. All in
all we'll be on the move for roughly 24 hours. So consider yourselves
forewarned if we seem grumpy.

I loved seeing how different Japanese culture was from other Asian
cultures, all the fun karaoke and game places, their fun spirit, AND
awesome school supplies! One of my new favorite stores is a place
called MUJI which has really fun pens, highlighters, pencil cases,
etc. I'm a big dork, I know. Tokyo was an expensive city though and
not so friendly to people who don't understand a lick of Japanese. I
can deal with it (Jason had a tougher time) and look forward to coming
back to Japan, perhaps with a pocket translator and a plan to get out
of Tokyo.

We're looking forward to catching up with everyone and being back on
solid Midwestern ground. See you in 39 hours!

I could walk for miles and miles...

Wow, is this city difficult to navigate! We've been able to do fine using the metro (which is surprising if you look at the map). But once you get to street level it all looks the same. It costs about $7US just to get in a cab and the cab drivers can't even find the places you want, so it's not worth using them. We have a small map of the neighborhood that shows the street names in Japanese and a big red dot for the hotel and they still can't find the hotel.



I don't feel bad about being lost though, because even the locals can't find the places you ask them about when you show them a map. I've seen several people take pictures of the small street maps with their cell phone cameras to help them navigate.

Each area of town is unique (fancy high-end shopping or geeky youth culture or manga and anime) but all in all, it's just a busy extremely crowded endless city. All of the metro stations have malls and walkways that go on for what feels like miles and miles.

Jason's looking into a half or full day trip to see Mt. Fuji tomorrow so we might end up doing that. Everything is very expensive (sometimes double) what it is in the US.

Not many new pictures today, just a few of the streets. Time for some sumo watching!

“It all looks like soy sauce to me”

May become the next infamous quote by Jason. We were walking around
last night looking for dinner when I asked Jason what he thought of
how different the Japanese culture was from Hong Kong and Thailand. He
said, "I don't know, it all looks like soy sauce to me" referring to,
of course, the aisle in the grocery store where you get soy sauce and
other Japanese goodies. Yes, I know, my husband is culturally
insensitive. But don't blame me.

Pretty much nothing is written in English (or in letters we recognize)
and we have to search for blue and pink signs to find the toilets.
Even though Hong Kong isn't our favorite city, it's a lot easier to
navigate and they are much more tolerant of Westerners. When we go
into stores people just keep talking to us like we have a clue what
they're talking about. Even when we give them blank stares, they just
keep speaking in Japanese! They're probably cursing at us under their
breaths, like Americans do to people who visit that don't understand
English.

Last night we walked around Shinjuku, the neighborhood where our hotel
is located. We searched out a department store called Isetan because
of their well-known food hall and by the time we found something
recognizable to eat, the store was closing. It was a madhouse when we
arrived just a few minutes before, but all of a sudden there was a
mass exodus and we were left searching out an exit.

The same thing happened to me tonight when I went to the 13-story
department store located above the metro station. It was a mad shuffle
to get onto the elevator at 9:10pm but by 9:15pm everybody was gone
and I was asked to leave. I'm not sure how people get out so fast or
where they go but they really want you gone and to stop shopping too.
Tonight a guard overrode the elevator and sent me straight down and
out.

This afternoon we rode all the way across town to an area called
Asakusa. We went to the Drum Museum, a music store, and found Kannon Temple and market-type shopping. Then we rode all the way back across town to try and find a shop that sells Honda items. We didn't realize how trendy it would be. The t-shirts cost about $50US but it was fun to look at. We walked around a trendy (I think everything in Tokyo is
considered trendy) area called Shibuya before/after dinner and then
headed home for the night.

Tomorrow the plan is not much. Jason's going to stay here and do
nothing and I'm going to search out a store known for its chopsticks.
So if you get chopsticks as a present, accept them with a smile. A
quest was undertaken to get them for you. It is not easy to navigate
this city… just check out the subway map for a small sample.

We leave Tuesday afternoon (7pm Japan time) so we're thinking of
taking a train out to see Mt. Fuji on Monday. There's a lot to see in
Japan so I think it'll make the list of places to go back to. We'd
bypass Tokyo, but it'd definitely be a country worth a couple of weeks
and a rail pass. We get back into Kansas City at 10:30pm central time,
so don't call us until late Wednesday or Thursday. We're glad we have
time in Tokyo but we're really looking forward to snuggling up with
our kitties :-)

Welcome to Tokyo

In the past week, we've flown from Hong Kong to Bangkok, Bangkok to
Phuket, Phuket to Bangkok, Bangkok to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Bangkok, and Bangkok to Tokyo. I say it's time for a rest. We arrived in Tokyo today and finally made it to the hotel/corporate apartment four hours after we landed. The immigration process was one of the most strict I've gone through so far (pictures and fingerprints in a scorchingly hot room) plus questioning by the customs agent.

After we got our things in the itty bitty studio apartment, we went out for lunch and a walk around the neighborhood. We're back now for a
rest and to avoid the rain outside. Hopefully tonight we'll have some
energy to go explore and try to figure out the most confusing mass
transit system in the universe.

We're going to look into taking a day trip to either Osaka or Kobe
tomorrow or the next day. They're pretty close to each other and it'd
probably be a 3 hour trip by bullet train each way. I'm not sure what
there is to see there so we'll have to ask somebody.

P.S. About the Ethiopian Air flight... we showed up in Bangkok to
check in for our flight back to Hong Kong and the sign had a city
listed that's on mainland China (Guangzhou)... we showed them our
e-ticket receipt and they said "oh, sorry... did you not call to check
on the flight ahead of time? it's been canceled." Yeah - THANKS. Guess
we just don't have the experience of flying low budget African
airlines enough to know to call ahead of time. Typically they'd notify
you, but oh well. They kindly booked us on a Thai Airways flight back
to HK that left about an hour later than scheduled so we were late,
but at least we got back.

Phi Phi Island

This is an old posting - I haven't been able to get on my computer in
a few days. I'll post more when we get to Tokyo (in 12+ hours) and
explain the whole "sorry, this flight has been canceled" fiasco on
Ethiopian Air.
-----
What's happened since we last blogged? Not much but it feels like a lot.

The Hilton here is one of those resorts where you have everything you
need to be comfortable and even though it's full of white people the
neighborhood more than makes up for that. Yesterday we walked around
town, went to the beach, swam in the pool, and walked around more.
There are a handful of local restaurants and a ton of tailors and
eyeglass places. Thai people don't generally like to negotiate but
we've been able to haggle some really good deals at legit shops. Jason
got a pair of Ray-Ban prescription eyeglasses and a pair of Ray-Ban
prescription sunglasses for about $350 US including the lenses and
exam. (The real kind of Ray-Ban this time.)

Today we had a full day of sightseeing and snorkeling. We started in
Chalong Bay and after an unbelievably rough hour ride over to Phi Phi
Island we swam in Maya Bay (where some of The Beach was filmed),
snorkeled in Loh Sama Bay, looked at Pileh Cove, took pictures at
Viking Cave, fed bananas to monkeys at Monkey Beach, ate lunch at Phi
Phi Don, and snorkeled at Khai Nok Island. You'll have to look at the
pictures to decode all this – Maya Bay has big cliffs… Pileh Cove is a
lagoon… Viking Cave has some bamboo structures built into the cliffs
where Scandinavians used to hide out during monsoon season (or
something like that)… you can figure out Monkey Beach… Phi Phi Don is
the largest of the Phi Phi Islands (pronounced Pee-Pee) and has a ton
of scuba shops… Khai Nok Island is a tourist set-up with bad
snorkeling and lots of rocks.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of guidance regarding snorkeling and
diving here. We were allowed to snorkel in low tide and a lot of the
coral has already been killed. And they obviously don't see it as an
issue because we were never told not to touch the coral. Also, the
boat crew throws pieces of bread into the water while the tourists are
snorkeling so the fish will come up to the top of the water, but the
fish have lost their fear of humans – same with the monkeys. One fish
kept nibbling on one of Jason's fins. The monkeys were climbing on the
boats and grabbing bananas from human hands. One more good reason we got vaccinations!

Tonight we went back for one more fitting for our custom tailored
suits and shirts, then over to an area of town where the locals shop.
The main store is called Big-C, which is like Kmart on steroids.
There's a food court, clothes, stationary stuff, home goods,
electronics, etc. but all at low quality. Then we walked down the
street to the real mall which was supposed to close at 10pm, but by a
little after 9:30pm the lights were shutting off, storefronts were
closing, and the salespeople were standing at the ready with their
purses.

The other day I came across an article about Thai prisons. It's pretty
interesting and describes the process for going to visit a Westerner.
I can't find it now or remember where I saw it but here's a good website about Thai prisons. Click HERE to read it. Somebody remind me to watch Bridget Jones 2, The Beach, the James Bond movie w/ Pierce Brosnan, and Brokedown Palace when we get back.

Check out the pictures from today by clicking HERE. The scenery was
absolutely beautiful and I'm not editing much so there are a lot of
pictures.

We're hoping to have time for Thai massages on the beach tomorrow
before we pick up everything at the tailor and pack for the trip back
to the airport. We fly back to Bangkok tomorrow, stay 1 night in
Bangkok, then fly back to Hong Kong for 1 night before going to Tokyo.
We'll be exhausted from all the plane rides coming up soon but we are
excited about Tokyo.

Phuket is probably our favorite beach vacation we've taken so far. We
loved Tobago and have wanted to go back for a while but it's not as
safe or cheap and the food isn't as good. We'd probably even stay at
this hotel again because it's really comfortable and reasonably
priced. We'd definitely recommend it. This has been a perfect addition
to our Asia trip, but as always, we wish we had more time here. A
couple more days would have bought us a safari trip, scuba lessons,
time in Patong Beach (touristy), time in Phuket Town (local), and a
lot more sunburned skin.

Adios Bangkok, Hello Phuket

1 - Our totally chic and GENUINE Ray-Bans
2 - Thai toilet... I'm not sure I used it the right way
3 - View from resort in Phuket
4 - Jason at the tailor shop

We have officially survived a whirlwind tour of Bangkok and are now
nicely settled into a plush beach resort on Phuket Island. We're at
Karon Beach, which was not hit quite as hard by the tsunami as the
beach just north of us, Patong Beach. We are trying to finagle a suite
out of them but for now we at least have access to the executive
lounge with free internet and a yummy breakfast. Jason is definitely
milking this "business travel" thing.

Yesterday morning we headed out early to JJ Market and a quick stop by
the fancy shopping mall. I think I already wrote about JJ Market in
the previous post, but it has 8,000 stalls and around 200,000 visitors
each day. We did a good job of keeping our bearings, picked up a few
unique Thai items we were looking for, and bolted out of there. A
really awesome discovery were these weaved bags made out of lots of
colorful plastic pieces. There's a picture of the one we bought on the
Picasa album for July 12.

After a few bouts of some really disgusting stomach issues for both of
us, we're going to play it safe with the food in Phuket. It's probably
a good thing we both got immunizations, let's just say that. The hotel
has several restaurants that are reasonably priced and there is a
strip of shops/stuff just outside the hotel property. We explored the
grounds of the hotel last night and found a tailor shop just across
the street - we go back today for our fitting of 5 shirts and 1 suit
each. The tailors here are cheaper than in Hong Kong and this was a
small shop without a lot of chaos going on. We went into a tailor in
Bangkok and they attack you and try and confuse you and don't let you
leave so you'll just agree to their prices to get them to stop bugging
you.

Today we're planning on not doing much at all, finally. The hotel
seems to have multiple pools (they might all be connected, it's hard
to tell) and the beach is just across the street. Perhaps a Thai
massage on the beach is in order.

Wats and wats of Wats

Today was an awesome day thanks in part to the late start we got. We
woke up relatively early but Jason got busy with his work stuff and I
got busy relaxing and reading by the pool. By the time 2pm rolled
around I figured I would look in the tour book and figure out
something to do, since our flight leaves tomorrow at 4:30pm and we
really only have 1.5 days in Bangkok. The Wats are the main thing to
see here and it is said that you can't go to Bangkok without seeing
the Royal Palace. So I looked up the Royal Palace and it closes at
3:30 during the week. The concierge suggested taking a direct boat
there but the porter suggested hiring a taxi for 500 baht (about
$16US) to take us exactly where we wanted to go.

We saw the Royal Palace and Wat Phra Keo (in the same compound), Wat Pho, Wat Benchamabophit (Marble Temple), Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), and probably some other Wats. Our driver was really excited to
practice his English and had a dictionary and a translator at the ready so he could tell us about the different government buildings and the King's residence. Wat Arun was closed by the time we got there so
we just snapped some quick shots of the outside and went back to the
hotel from there. Enough Wats for one day.

Hiring our driver, John, was a great idea and such a headache saver.
We had him for about four and a half hours and even though it cost a
lot more than the water taxis or tuk-tuks it was worth it for us to
have an air conditioned car waiting every time we were ready to move
to the next place. I'm going to have to look in the tour book to
figure out what pictures are of what from today. The Thais seem very
into ornate detailing and GOLD so after a while it seemed like I kept
taking pictures of the same things over and over again. In hindsight,
I probably should have taken more but most of the Wats were really
crowded and we didn't want to be outside sweltering all day. The
statues outside of the temples tend to have extremely ugly and angry
faces though. We decided it was to ward off the evil spirits, but
we're not sure why.

We really liked the day we had today and the vibe of the city
(excluding almost going into cardiac arrest several times due to the
driving techniques) and we're excited about seeing some different
parts tomorrow. The plan is to wake up early, enjoy the amazing
breakfast, and head to Chatuchak, or Jatujak (JJ), Weekend Market on
the Skytrain. JJ is a huge market visited by over 200,000 people each
day and has more than 8,000 vendors. I figure since we have such a
limited time in Bangkok we might as well get the full-blown nauseating
experience. On the way back we'll hopefully have time to stop at Siam,
which is an area of town with "name brand" shopping. Then we'll grab
our bags and make the long drive back out to the airport.

Something that's very noticeable is how loyal Thais are to their
country and king and queen. It might be because you can get put in
jail or probably killed for slandering them, or just real admiration.
Every time we asked our driver about the king or he told us a story
about the king he would put his hands together and bow. There are
pictures of the entire royal family everywhere in case Thais forget
what they look like. They are mostly of the king, then the queen, then
the prince, then the princess. The current king has been in office for
over 60 years I believe and the prince is next in line. People
apparently don't like the prince so much because he has multiple wives
(that's what our driver said). We drove by the Prime Minister's
residence and there were riot police getting their shields on and
readied for the regular riots.

I'm posting a bunch of pictures on Picasa so please make sure and
check them out.

Dragon and Mr. X

I was too scared to take more pictures... this doesn't do the scene justice.

Before we forget, this story has got to be written down. We had some
of the funniest events happen today on our journey to Thailand. First
off, we flew Ethiopian Air to Bangkok from Hong Kong. The name should
have tipped us off but Jason got a really great round-trip deal so we
figured what the heck. We luckily arrived at the airport in plenty of
time because Jason needed to pick up something he left on the United
flight over. As we rounded the corner to the United counter we noticed
hordes of African men with mountains of boxes taped and bound up. Each guy had at least 5 or 6 boxes. It was quite a sight and the picture
doesn't do the scene justice. I looked at Jason like a deer in
headlights and he reassured me that those couldn't possibly be going
on a passenger flight.

I asked a counter rep what they were transporting and he said it was
all counterfeit stuff (mostly electronics, cell phones, clothes) –
they fly into Hong Kong, drive to Gangzhou and load up on stuff, then
drive back to Hong Kong and fly back to Ethiopia from there. China
doesn't allow fake goods to fly out of the country but HK doesn't
check too closely I guess. All those goods were indeed on our flight
and we just crossed our fingers that they scan everything.

The flight was much better than we anticipated and we would have
traded our seats for the seats and flight we had on United any day. We
even got our own Ethiopian eye mask, socks, and toothbrush. When we
arrived in Bangkok we passed the customs inspection (if the old man
could pick up your bag you passed and didn't get pulled aside;
otherwise, your bag had to be scanned) and headed to the taxis. On
average a taxi ride into Bangkok from the airport is supposed to run
about 500 baht. Ours was less than 300 baht, which should tip you off
to the great – and death-defying – service we got. The speed limit for
most of the trip was 80kph and we were consistently being taxi'd at
over 120kph. This almost tops the taxi ride we got from Manhattan to
Newark one time but not quite. Not enough cars on the road this trip.
And it doesn't come close to the one we had in Chicago where we told
him to stop and we got out several blocks from our destination (ask
Jason about this one, he likes telling the story).

The hotel so far is FANTASTIC. It's the Millennium Hilton and we have
access to the executive lounge during our stay, which includes free
breakfast, drinks and snacks throughout the day, free internet, free
laundry, etc. Too bad Nicole will miss it ;)

The person that filled out the government paperwork at the hotel had a
nametag that said X. Jason asked how to pronounce his name and he said "X." And the porter that brought our baggage up is named Dragon.
Seriously Thai people, is this for real?

We're looking forward to seeing what Bangkok has to offer tomorrow.
After, of course, checking out the pool and the lounge and enjoying
the hotel a bit.

Mong Kok and Kowloon

Last night Jason and I went up to Mong Kok on the Kowloon side (AKA
the dark side). He wanted to take me to a food court he ate at one of
the times he was here solo - he got Curry In A Hurry and I got
something from Pepper Lunch. At this food court stall - seriously -
you order whatever cut of steak you want and it gets served to you in
a sizzling hot skillet on a plastic food court tray which you then
walk ever so gracefully to your seat among gazillions of other people
holding hot skillets. The malls, food courts, and generally everywhere
are so jam packed with people that it's impossible to get personal
space. We had to sit in between a couple of groups of people but at
least we got 2 seats by each other. There's a picture of my skillet on Picasa. Click here.

The trickiest part of being here in rainy season is trying to make
sure you don't get your eyeballs poked out by all the umbrellas
walking around. We are just tall enough to hover above all the Asian
heads but not quite tall enough to avoid being poked by the umbrellas.
My goal is to come back with two functioning eyes.

We literally didn't leave the hotel today until 6pm to go visit my
brother and his friend for a smoothie, then dinner. In between Jason
and I went over to the dark side to get a good view of HK island and
watch the laser and light show (finally I get my July 4th
celebration). We took the Star Ferry back to HK mostly because we
couldn't find the nearest MTR station - we kept following signs but
walking in circles. We ate at a middle eastern place and said goodbye
to my brother.

It's off to Thailand tomorrow!

You learn to hold your breath

1 - Fruit and vegetables at the market
2 - Meat dudes
3 - Electric trams

Sorry there's not much going on lately. The weather has been real
rainy and overcast. Yesterday Jason had some fruitful meetings with
companies in the New Territories. Today he's there too but we're
planning on meeting up and heading over to TST (the tip of Kowloon)
for some shopping, etc. tonight.

I ventured out to meet my brother for dim sum at Dragon-I today.
Dragon-I has lots of dim sum choices that don't include pork or
shellfish/shrimp at lunch during the week but at night it turns into a
really hip and trendy bar. One review of it said not to try and get in
on a Wednesday or the weekend unless you're Uma Thurman.

After lunch I walked around Sheung Wan, the west part of the island, to get a couple more chops made and get some pics of the market of the day. I don't know what this market was called, but it's primarily a food market without much tourist stuff. The closest thing to tourist stuff is the paper lanterns, paper money, incense, and other Buddhist prayer items. I got some pics of some of the plants, fruits, seafood, and meat, etc.

On the way back, I took the tram again. It's only $2HKD for as far as you want to ride and it follows the original HK island shoreline. It's interesting to see how much land has been reclaimed so far. At some
places, it's several big blocks away from the current shoreline.

If you see anything you want, make a comment or email one of us while
we are where we are so we can get it for you. We leave HK on Thursday
(it's Tuesday PM now) for a week in Thailand, but we'll be back for 1
day before heading to Tokyo.

Cheers!

(New) Cell # in Hong Kong

Country code 852
9674 0234

Church, Times Square, and Lamma Island

1 - Times Square Mall
2 - Dinner selection on Lamma Island
3 - IFC Building

*Click for more pictures*

Today was a fun but tiring day of going to church, lunch at a Japanese
place with Russell's friends from church, walking around Times Square
(16 story mall), and taking a ferry out to Lamma Island to eat dinner.
The mall has every store you'd ever want anything from and a few
American luxuries like Ben & Jerry's. So many of the buildings here
are crappy but many that are extremely clean and modern - I'm still
awed at how they build everything with bamboo for support.

Dinner was at one of those restaurants where you pick your fish out
fresh from a tank and *voila.* At least you don't have to watch it
become your dinner like at the grocery stores or markets. I am a wimpy
cultural eater so I tried some of it but wouldn't touch the fish that
came with its head and fins still on. We were approached by a group of
teachers from St. Louis that said they knew we were from the Midwest
because of our accents. Explain that one for me. We've lived there for
1 year, Russell has lived in London for 5 years and the east coast
before that, and his friend Renata is Brazilian/Mexican raised in LA,
lived in London for 7+ years, HK for 1.5 years. We pinned them for
being teachers within about 20 seconds of entering the boat – in a
group, obnoxious and loud, male to female ratio about 1:10. I really
shouldn't go on.

Jason got some shrimp poop squirted on him while trying to eat steamed
shrimp. There's a great picture of him checking out the damage.
(Another reason not to eat bottom-feeders.) Our waiter was very
friendly and interested in where we were from. He said mostly Germans
come to visit Lamma Island. I don't think there's much to do there
besides eat seafood but I guess there is a pretty big population of
ex-pats there. It's about a 30 minute ferry ride from HK central pier.

I got 1 quick shot of the IFC building on our way to the taxi from the
ferry terminal. I think it's a good shot. It was really rainy and
sticky today so I didn't get many pictures.

Jason has several meetings set up for tomorrow and Tuesday so I will
be chillin' chillin' by the poolside and hopefully getting caught up
on my planned leisure reading (and napping). Hope everyone had a great 4th and please leave comments! Let us know what you're up to these days.

Lantau Island, Big Buddha, and Victoria Peak

View of Lantau Island from the cable car

In the cable car with Jason's Austrian friends

Big Buddha!

One of the statues at the base of the lotus flower at Big Buddha

Night view from Victoria Peak

Saturday was a really fun day. Jason and I stopped by the convention
center in the morning to look at the last exhibit hall and get the
sponsorship stamp (he gets 3 free nights at the hotel for attending 3
days of the convention). Then we met up with Russell and took the
metro to catch the cable car to Big Buddha. The cable car structure
was there 2 years ago but it wasn't open yet – it's a bit Disneyfied
but it's clean and set up well. The cable car takes 25 minutes to get
to Ngong Ping 360, a fake village with tourist shops (including a
Starbucks). Just a short walk into the Po Lin Monastery grounds and we
were all set for our vegetarian feast! This was definitely our
favorite part of last time we were here since we didn't have a chance
to make the hike up 271 steps to see the Big Buddha up close. There
are larger Buddhas in the world, larger outdoor Buddhas, larger seated
Buddhas, and larger bronze Buddhas but none that are all combined – so
this one at Po Lin Monastery is technically the world's largest
outdoor seated bronze Buddha. It opened 15 years ago but the monastery has been there since 1924.

We hit the outlet mall on the way back to the MTR (metro system) where
there's a really fantastic grocery store in the bottom. Last time we
were there it had just opened and we got some amazing fresh squeezed
juice so we just had to go back for more. We cruised through the gross
section and I got some pics of hanging chicken and ducks, ugly fish
(which you just point to which one you want and *chop* it's yours),
TOADS, a breathing fish head (this is a short video so hopefully it
will load), and eels. Yummy!

For dinner we met back up with Russell after getting adequately lost
at the Peak. The dinner was fantastic but the area was so crowded with
people we got turned around and couldn't find it for a few minutes. I
got a few pics of the Peak at night which looked great on my camera
but looks shaky on the computer. So, just pretend they're clear and
pretty. The sky was cloudy but not nearly as mischievous as it looks
in the pictures.

***Click on the "click here for pictures" link on the right side of
the page to see more pics from the day.