Hong Kong days 5 thru 8

I did not take pictures these days. I am not sure why.
On Friday the 25th, we had breakfast at the hotel courtsey of BYU, as we did Saturday and Sunday.
It was a buffet with a mix of western breakfast and oriental foods. After breakfast we took in a temple session in the Hong Kong temple. After the session we went across the road to an LDS chapel and a member of the Area Presidency spoke to us. I collected the distribution order for the branch and distributed to the various members of the branch. We were told to break it up so that any one person was not carrying a lot of religious literature into China. Sometimes that causes problems.
After that we went back to the hotel. We went to the Scout Shop and I purchases a few patches and a tie. We stopped at the Choux Creme store in the subway station and purchased a chocolate covered cream puff. We then went to the pacific mall and walked around a bit waiting for dinner at Dan Ryan's Chicago grill. Provided by BYU. Luke joined us. I had ribs and Rosie and Luke had Salmon.
After I went back to the hotel because of the blisters on my feet.

Saturday the 26th we had a training conference where each of the teachers gave a 2 minute presentaton of an idea they used during the first semester. After the training Rosie, Luke and I found a Mexican resurant for lunch. Then Rosie and Luke went for a hike and I went back to the hotel because of the blisters on my feet. In the evening we to the Harbor Mall and ate at a Japanese resurant called Bologne.

Sunday the 27th we went back to the temple and in the chapel built in the temple for wards to meet in. They have since built the chapel across the road so no wards meet in the temple anymore. Elder Toronto of the Seventy conducted the conference. A couple of members of the shezen district presidency, some china teachers and Sister and Elder Toronto spoke. A very moving meeting.
After the meeting Mullins and Rosie and I went to Gilwell Campsite in the mountains of Hong Kong. We had to go on Sunday because the only staff member that speaks English was there that day.
Pictures below. After we got back Rosie and Luke walked thru Kowloon park and I rested my weary feet. Luke came got me after their walk and we had some smoked pork and chicken and bought another Chouc Creme. Back to the hotel, I rested my feet and Rosie and Luke went swimming.

Sunday we ate at the hotel cafe and had their buffet. After we walked thru the Harbor mall looking for a bookstore to spend the last of the Hong Kong Dollars we had. Rosie bought a book 'Balzac and the little chinese seamstress'. Back to the hotel packed up and left for home (Xi'an).

Pictures from Sunday:

 Hong Kong Temple

 The rest of these pictures are at the Gilwell Campsite.

Hong Kong day 4

Today we did the blue tour of the big bus tour company. It covered the west side of Hong Kong island and was not quite as long as the red line. We did ride the tram to Victoria Peak and took a few pictures. We ate at an vietnamese resturant called the Pho Yummee. It was still a little hazy so they didnot work out as good as I hoped. We rode a portion of an out door escalator that would take 20 minutes if you rode it the whole way. we walked thru a market that was mostly produce. I bought some huge bing cherries. They were great. We also walked to the Man Mo Temple of the Daoist religion where visitors buy some incense sticks an burn them for their ancestors.

Same picture as the first one yesterday, but without the clouds on the top.

One of the Hong Kong cable cars.

 One of the tram cars starting up the hill. it goes in some places at  45 degrees.

 Picture from the peak. still some haze making seeing Kowloon a little difficult.

 Part of the 20minute long esculator

 

 This is in the Man Mo Temple, we conjectureed the drawers were people ashes.

This is what they worship.

Hong Kong Day 3

On Wednesday, Jan 23, we when on the 'Green' tour of the Big Bus company. It tok is around the east part of the island. Tomorrow we will do the 'Red' tour that does the west part of the island. The green tour is longer that the red tour. We visited the small village of Stanley. I forgot to take pictures there. the market is one of the better ones in Hong Kong. I bought a hat and a shirt and Rosie bought a long shirt coveredwith horses. Below are pictures:

 Second tallest building, going up into the clouds.

 Interesting shaped building call the koala building. supposedly looks like a koala bear huging a branch.

 The area office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We had part of our conference here.

 A sanpanboat.

 We ate at this floating resturant. Very pricy and not worth the money.

Inside the sanpan boat.

 This is in the same bay as the floating resturant. The town around it is called Aberdeen. These next few pictures are peoples HOMES that live on boats. Most the boats never go anywhere, they use a little boat to get to shore.

 

The was on the night ride by the big bus tour company. it is called ladies market because most of the items for sale are womens clothes and accessories. Luke and the Lee's went to it the next night, but my legs were bothering me so I stayed back.

Hong Kong Trip Day 1 and 2

On monday, Jan 21 we took off for Hong Kong. Friday, Saturday and Sunday we have a BYU China Teachers conference. Our flight was over an hour late leaving. We checked into the YMCA Salisbury Hotel and wandered around a little. There is a 8:00 pm laser show over the harbor that lasts 13 minutes and is sponsored by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, it is free. I tried to upload a video I made of some of the light show, but could not get it to load. Go to youtube.comand search for 'Hong Kong Light Show'. There are a number of them on youtube.

On Tuesday, Jan 22 we wandered around the city for a while and then caught a ferry to the island of Cheng Chau. After the ferryride back, we waited for Janet and Rick Lee to show up and later in the evening Luke showed up. We had gotten a roll away bed for Luke to be in our room.


Here are pictures of the day:

 Lots of ferries traversing the harbor from Hing Kong Island to Kowlook Pennisula and back, 24 hours a day. There are also regular ferries to the various islands the are part of the Hong Kong Province.

 Here we are entering the harbour of Cheng Chou Island

 The temperature was around 70 F and the water felt great. We forgot shorts or we could have played in the water. Notice there is only about a dozen people on the beach.

 We looked for a geocach in this area and could not find it.

 Here is where we had lunch. The fellow with Rosie is a native of the island but he works in Hong Kong, so he ferries back and forth each day.

 This is the market street on Cheng Chau. They do not get a lot of tourists so the market is basically for the locals that livehere. The island is so small there are no cars or trucks on the island. Every thing is hauled around in the 3 wheeled bicycle trucks.

 Lots of elevated roads and walkways in Hong Kong. Many tour buses

 People stand in line to catch the bus, very orderly, no butting in!

We found a geocache at the end of this pier. In the background is the tallest building (currently) in Hong Kong. The 100th floor (not the top) is an observation deck. Cost over 100 hkd to go there.

Terra Cotta Warriors and Janet

Janet and Rick Lee with Brian decided to use our presence in China as an excuse to do a tour a China.
The went to Beijing and then showed up here in Xian on the 15th of January. We met them at their hotel. Unfortuneately their plane was delayed so they did not show up until almost 8:00 in the evening. We went to dinner with the tour group and had dumplings. They tasted better than they did in September, maybe I am getting used to the taste of China. On Wednesday, we joined the tour group again and went to the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum, a location where they are making full size replica, actually all sizes from knick knack size to full size, of the warriors, generals, horses, etc. We ate lunch at the Terra Cotta Museum resturant. After we went to the Little Wild Goose Pagoda and Museum. So it was a good day, Rosie got to visit all day with Janet and we got to go to historical sites we have not been to as of yet. After the tour Janet and company came to see our apartment and use the internet. We then went to the Muslim Market for dinner and to explore. Here are some pictures I took of the day:

 At the terra cotta warrior factory, they had this thing to take your picture with.Rosie is supposed to be an empress in that outfit.

One of the horses in the factory you can purchase if you are interested.

 This is pit 1, there are 3, it has the most statutes of the 3 pits and is the largest. It is completly covered, abut the size of a football field.

 This is in pit 3.

 There was supposed to be a geocache in this cubbyhole, but none to be found.

 The Little Wild Goose Pagoda

 The tour guide, Jason.

 Rosie and a big fturtle holding up artifact.

 Statutettes in the pagoda museum.

 
 Rosie found a horse to ride.

The big bell at the pagoda, there were some smaller ones also.

Guilin Day 4

Here it is Thursday January 10, 2013. Today we went to KFC for breakfast and wanted to order egg and sausage sandwiches, but they only had 1 piece of sausage so we got 1 and a bacon and egg sandwich. The pedestrian road was basically empty so I took a few pictures of it from the intersection. We met Gracy my student our guide at 9:30 and went to Reed Flute Cave. I forgot my DSLR camera and my little one did not do well in the cave so we bought a vcd disk, unfortunately the English option does not seem to work, so I down loaded a few pictures from the internet of what we saw. We had a picture taken of us in the cave and I will upload it after we get back to Xi'an and have a scanner available.

 The 4 directions on the pedistrian street in Guilin. during the day it is full of people and hard to see how long they are. there are hundreds of business here.

Reed Flute Cave

This evening we went for a walk along the lakes and connecting waterways in town. Below are pictures taken on that walk. We timed the walk so that walking away from the hotel it was light and the return trip was after they turned the lights on. After the walk we went to eat at the Riverview restaurant. Rosie and Marinara spaghetti which had seafood in it, shrimp and something she thinks was octopus. I had chicken and spaghetti in a tomato sauce. It had a chicken breast (with skin) cooked with the spaghetti. I had a drink of fresh orange juice and Rosie had a strawberry ice cream milk shake, both were very good.

 The glass bridge in the daylight. We could not walk across it, it was closed.

 Rosie on the back of a stone frog.

One of the many bridges we could cross. Most we just walked by.

 One of the boats like the one we road on monday.

 On an island.

 On the same island, most places were deserted because of winter. Few tourists.

 Mini Arch de Troumphe

 Mini Golden gate bridge

 Glass Bridge lit up at night

 Walk way under a major road.

Many panels like this one under the walk along the water.

 

 

Friday we got up and walked to McDonalds and had an egg muffin sandwich for breakfast. It was raining lightly. We then checked out of the Eva Inn, and flew home to Xi'an.