Hong Kong--Days 1 and 2

Since we decided to live in Laos, we always knew we would go to Hong Kong for a visit. The Hong Kong Temple is the closest LDS temple to us, so we knew we would want to worship there two or three times while we live here over the next two years. And my dad lived in Hong Kong when he served his mission for our church in 1974, so I've always been curious about it. So, this is just our first visit. We looked up the must-do things in Hong Kong and tried to do as many as we could in 5 days. It was exhausting, but fun.

Day 1

Peak Tram

There is a very old tram that takes you to the top of the island so you can see the whole city. It drives into this little building--it's a little freaky to watch when you're waiting in line. Suddenly, there's a big train in front of you.

Sky Terrace

We went up about 13 escalators to get to the top of the building.

It was painfully sunny.

 Here's a picture of the track we took up the mountain.

 We found some shade to take a picture with our eyes a little more open.

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

We bought a combination ticket for the Peak Tram, Sky Terrace, and Madame Tussaud's because it saved us from waiting in a 90-minute line for the Tram. Whew! We were planning on going anyway, so it worked out perfectly for us. Matt was excited to see a lot of Asian movie stars that he has seen in martial arts movies. I, of course, was clueless.

Bruce Lee

Nicole Kidman

 Robert Pattinson--this is for you, Mom ;)

The King and Queen of England. There was other people taking this picture of my kids. I'm getting used to it.

Princess Di.

William Shakespeare

Albert Einstein

Johnny Depp

Audrey Hepburn--don't you love Scott's expression?

Tiger Woods

Donnie Yen

The Beatles

Michael Jackson

No idea--Scott just wanted to take a picture.

Michelle Yeoh

Ghandi

Alfred Hitchcock

Yao Ming

At the very end, they had a section of Marvel Heroes, so that's when the kids really perked up!
Spider-Man

Wolverine

Iron Man

Hulk

And then they had a bunch of Asian cartoons, most of which were not familiar to us, except:
Astro Boy

Taking kids to a place like this is both a good and bad idea. The kids tend to run away when you're trying to get pictures, but they also make the pictures a lot cuter just by being in them... so in the end I'm glad they were with us.

At this point we had been in Hong Kong for 7 hours and we had already taken over 200 photos... So that's why I'm going to do multiple posts.

Day 2

Star Ferry

Before I left the U.S., I asked my dad what his favorite thing was about Hong Kong. He told me it was the ferry. Well, I'm pretty sure this is the same ferry he took while he lived there--it was old. It was really great. Matt had the camera and he took a lot more pictures of me than I realized. I asked him about it and he said, "You were so happy!" It's true. Something about being on a ferry makes me very happy. Makes me think a cruise would be a good idea!

Avenue of Stars

I remember this part as mostly a long, hot walk in the blistering sun. But, at least we got some cute pictures. At this point, I really wished we brought the stroller because the kids wanted to be carried everywhere. But there were a lot of places where a stroller would have been a pain or impossible, so, I don't know what the answer is.

Bruce Lee

Jackie Chan

Chow Yun Fat

Jet Li

Michelle Yeoh

Bruce Lee

Kowloon Park

We read online that every Sunday afternoon, they have Kung Fu Corner, a demonstration of various martial arts. It was pretty cool. They also had a bunch of Chinese cartoon characters on display and Scott liked that. And then they had a great playground for kids.

I love the look on Scott's face as he looks at the unicyclist.

The park was huge. At one point, we happened upon a little pond full of turtles.

Scott playing with Megatron that he got at McDonald's.

Bobby was really tired. He slept through the drama of trying to find Kung Fu Corner in the massive park. And he slept through a diaper change... he is amazing once he's asleep.

I couldn't believe these women. The balance that they had was so impressive. I thought of most of the women I know that are their age--not usually spending much time on one foot. Makes me want to start doing Tai Chi.

Middle Road Playground

We decided we wanted to stay on the mainland for the rest of the day and then take a ferry back at night, so to kill time we found this park. It's amazing to me how my kids wanted to be carried everywhere because they were so tired, and then the moment we get to a park, they run away and play. I guess walking in a straight line is way more tiring than running in circles and climbing?

Star Ferry Harbour Tour

We heard and read about this amazing "laser show" that they do on the harbor, and all of the buildings on the water's edge participate. At the start, they announced on the ferry speaker that it was in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the longest running laser light show ever, or something. It was the biggest disappointment. It was just green lasers coming off the top of the buildings. No story, no pictures, no fireworks. It was like The Emporer's New Laser Show. Very weird. But, we were on a boat and got cool pictures of the skyline, so it was fine.

Before we got on the boat, I took a few pictures of the buildings. This is a crab statue in front of... I think the Museum of Art.

 I loved the reflection of the lights on the water.

 The moon looked so cool! It didn't look this red in real life, but it did look quite orange.

 See those green laser lights? That was the show!

So, that was the end of Day 2. And we were already so tired. Tune in next time for our trip to Ocean Park Hong Kong... ;)