Hong Kong Day 4

Tuesday we moved from our Hotel in Kowloon, to the Disneyland Hollywood Hotel! We were so excited for Disneyland and I'm glad we saved it for the end of our trip. We took the subway to Sunshine Station where you get off the Hong Kong MTR and take Disney's own train to the resort. I LOVED the train. I thought the Mickey Mouse windows were an awesome touch!And the Mickey Mouse rings... Grace loved holding onto them.
And inside the train was totally plush with little statues of all the characters. It was impossible to keep Grace seated.
We made it off the train and started towards the park with all our luggage. We made it to the main entrance before we realized this was not where the hotels were and we had to backtrack to take the buses around. Grace was frustrated that she couldn't just go in. But we went and checked in and had some yummy lunch at a cafe in the hotel.
We decided that we wanted to go see the Worlds Biggest Buddah statue, and if we went to Disneyland first we would never make it. So we took this airtram ride for about 30 minutes and made it to the Big Buddah. This is a good picture of how green and hilly Hong Kong was.
It was an incredible view. We saw these stairs going up and down the hills all the way to the tiny village where the Buddah was. Beleive it or not there were a few man actually climbing them. Now that's dedication.
We made it to the village and decided to get a treat. Our favorite in Hong Kong was gelato. Mmmm!
There were a bunch of little touristy shops. I decided I needed a chinese hat to wear, but since none of the formed pointy straw hats would fit in our suitcases I opted for this beauty. It cost about a dollar and folds into fourths. Ben was right though, I haven't worn it since this day.
We visited the temple that the preists worship in. It was pretty, but under construction, I think they're making it bigger.

Grace mostly liked the cat. Don't worry I didn't let her touch it. All cats over there grossed me out. It was all that I could stand not to be grossed out about her lying on the floor.
I don't know exactly what I'm doing here, but all the buddist people were doing it. Pretty much you pour a cup full of water over the little buddah statue and say a little prayer I think.
Then up to the top to see the Buddah. Here Ben and Grace are at the very bottom.
Half way up! Can you beleive he carried her almost the whole way? What a man!
And finally at the top.

Together as a family. I'm really glad we did this. It was fun to see and now we can say we've visited the Biggest Buddah in the world. I think he's only been around since the early 90's and the place was very commercialized, so not a very spiritual experience, but fun nevertheless!
After the Buddah we headed back to Disneyland! I could hardly wait. Right as we walked into the park Grace saw Micky and Minnie and about freaked out. She LOVES Mickey! Ben didn't want to wait in the line so I convinced her we'd see them later and she was happy as soon as we went on her first ride. She was totally fearless and wanted to go again and again. We went to the Autobahn next and the employess totally freaked out and were insistent that I not ride because I was pregnant. They were afraid I was going to get bumped, but I assured them I would be fine. We went about 2 MPH around the track and didn't get bumped once thanks to Ben driving behind us!
On to Buzz Light Year. Ben got tops scores for shooting all the bad guys, but Grace had no idea what to do with her gun. I'll keep it that way as long as I can.
And we ended the night with It's a Small World. I actually really enjoyed this ride this time. Theirs is a newer version of the ride with all the Disney Cartoons incorporated into the different regions of the world.
Grace was pretty exhausted by this point, but we decided to have a little dinner and watch the fireworks. The park closes at eight, so after the fireworks we headed back to the hotel and crashed. It was a magical day!

Hong Kong Day 3

Monday....Shopping Day! We started the morning off with a trip to the Jade Market. We walked there and on every corner there was a Chinese Medicine store. Boy were they stinky but you could find all sorts of crazy things. Here's Ben thinking about dining on a lizard popsicle.

There were squid out drying all over the street.
Here's a wider view of the store. They all looked pretty much like this, and with my pregnant tummy I hurried right past each one so the smell wouldn't make me sick.
The Jade Market was really fun. We saw a lot of beautiful things and had a lot of people trying to rip us off. Ben was a pretty good negoitator though and I got a set of black pearls, earing and necklaces. We also bought Grace a few little bracelets which she has now lost of course. On the way back to the Hotel to drop our goods off we seriously saw a guy peeing in a garbage can. I didn't look all the way down, but Ben assured me that's what he was doing. It was a pretty dirty part of town, and I couldn't believe the difference when we went Downtown. It is beautiful in Downtown Hong Kong, and dirty pretty much everywhere else we went.

Here are Grace and Ben resting up for an afternoon of more shopping.

We caught lunch at McDonalds! (thanks goodness they're everywhere!) Then we headed to the south of Hong Kong Island to Stanley Market. That place was awesome! They had all this name brand clothing for kids that was a few US Dollars each. We spent a lot of Hong Kong mullah, but came out feeling like we got such a steal on all the cute clothes! Ben got a few shirts, and I just had fun buying for the kids since pregnancy and Asian sizes of clothing don't mix. This is a view out over Stanley Bay. It was a beautiful area.
Ben saw these tiny fruits at one of the stands and had to have a picture. They were pretty cute.

We took a bus there and back. Both Ben and I were surprised at all the hills! I guess we just expected Hong Kong to be one huge flat city, but it was beautiful and green and there were tons of Hills. We went up and down on these tiny roads in a big bus. I'm glad I wasn't driving! One of our favorite Briberies with Grace were Gummies. She loved them and while we were riding on the bus we asked her if she wanted some and she did this face and clenched her hands together out of pure excitement for a little gummy. It was hilarious.
After our trip to Stanley Market we were pretty exhausted, but I really wanted to go to the Star Boardwalk and see the Symphony of lights. The view of Hong Kong Harbour was incredible all lit up. This is the best picture I got of it, but there were lazer lights shooting from several of the rooftops and everything was lit up. With the breeze blowing it was a wonderful evening.
This picture is hard to see but there is a statue of Bruce Lee behind Ben and Grace. This was kind of like our Hollywood walk of fame. All these asian actors had a star and their handprints along here.
And this is the tribute to the Olympics. We just missed the torch relay by a few days, but I think Hong Kong is hosting the horse events for the Olympics. They have a pretty famous horse track that we didn't go to.
Anyway, it was a Very long day! But I was sick of roomservice so we found a little food court in a mall and had some pizza. Not quite American, but we weren't feeling very adventurous with our stomaches on this trip.

Hong Kong Day 2

Hong Kong Day 2 was Sunday May 10th. The day started out by us sleeping in a little bit thanks to our late night before. So we missed church, but we decided that since it was in Chinese it wouldn't have made much of a difference. We did make a trip to the Hong Kong Temple. We weren't sure how to get there so we ended up taking a very round about walk through a beautiful park, which ended up being a wonderful way to spend our Sunday morning. We knew we were on the right street when we could see the Angel Moroni sticking up between the builidngs. What a wonderful familiar sight!

The temple was beautiful. We were able to go into a part of it since there is a chapel on the 1st and 2nd floors. We caught the last 15 minutes of church.
Any idea what this says?
Think about it.... it was on right in front of the Temple.
After the Temple we discovered another fun park right across the street. I loved these elephants.
It was great to give Grace a chance to run around and play. She loves the park and I had a fun time watching these people practice their Thai Chi (sp?).
After that we took the subway to Downtown Hong Kong and rode the tram up to the top of Victoria's Peak. It had a beautiful view of Hong Kong Harbour.
And it was a fun place to walk around and explore.
The tram was seriously amazing. It was built over 100 years ago up this steep mountain. The trolley just pops into view here.
This is looking straight out the window. We were on a 45 Degree angle at least and had to ride back down sitting backwards otherwise you would fall right over.
We ended the day by going to the night market. We got there right as it was opening so all the booths weren't set up yet. It was fun to see all the totally cheap stuff you could buy, but we were exhausted and starving so we headed back to the hotel for some more room service and an early nights sleep.

Saying Goodbye to Singapore

We left Singapore on May 10th and headed out for our fun vacation to Hong Kong. It was slightly bittersweet to say goodbye to our "home" of 6 months. It was a great place and there are many things I miss about it. Mainly the swimming pool, and the cleaning services. It seems my house is so big and is always needing to be cleaned, compared to our little place that was cleaned by someone else 3 times a week.

This is Ben and Grace at the front Desk during check out. One of Grace's favorite past times was climbing up and coming back down these stairs that frame the desk.

This is our beatiful view out from the front desk. I'm standing right where the taxis would drop us off. Front door service was wonderful and there was always a security man to help you out of the car and get your stuff! We were living the life...
This is a view of our building from across the street. Great World City...Those are the two Apartment towers with the mall on ground level. It was so convenient to go grocery shopping downstairs! Our flight to Hong Kong was 4 hours and when we got there we were all pretty tired. We took the Subway or MTR Train from the airport into downtown and then a quick Taxi ride to the hotel. Thank goodness for Room Service! We were starving by the time we got there and it was pretty late. So dinner for us and then straight to bed. We found we didn't have any language barriers with anyone like I was afraid of. Everyone spoke decent English and it was so easy to get around using the MTR.

A Vote

I am trying to decide on a crib set for our little guy since we only have 3 months left! I originally was drawn to the brown and blue... like the rest of my house. When Ben saw this he said he didn't want another Brown and Blue room. So I started searching for other colors and found this cute Green and Brown Set, which I really like and have tons of ideas for. Well, Ben apparantly doesn't want a green room and really wants a Blue room, so he is accepting a little bit of brown if he has too. So here are my top two choices. Picture something like beadboard on the bottom of the wall and either Blue or Green to match the cribsets on top. Let me know what you think!

The Singapore Zoo....take 2

The Zoo in Singapore is just so cool we had to do it one more time before we left. So the day before our departure Grace and I headed out with our friends the Updegraffs. What a fun day! Of course a trip to the zoo is never complete without a ride on a giant Cow!

Grace had a fun time pointing out all the animals, but enjoyed eating the animal crackers even more. She was really excited to see the Giraffes. So much in fact that she ended up starting a high pitched screaming match with Gavin and Bailey. Grace, I think won with the set of pipes she has thanks to her Dad.
We decided to rent a wagon which was a brilliant idea. With as much in and out and walking we did this was by far the best way to travel.
The Updegraffs left at lunch time and Grace and I got some KFC. We decided to head to see the Elephants . On the way there we saw this.....
He was just on the side of the pathway. This is a smaller version of the one that swam in the pool and came out 2 feet away from my toes in Indonesia. He was still pretty large though.
When we got to the Elephant encounter we were walking on the boardwalk and this monkey decided to give us a private show. He saw us coming and climbed up and sat on top of the fence. Grace and I inched forward and then when he heard someone coming behind us he swung across and hid. Grace and I lingered after the people passed and he popped his head up again. My blasted camera wouldn't work fast enough so this is the best picture I got of him. He climbed up the fence again. I was about 6 feet away at this point and before I knew it he had jumped off the fence landing about 3 feet in front of me. I screamed and Grace ran. I thought he was going to attack, but he just climbed up the other side again and Grace and I took off for the Elephants.
They have like 11 Elephants in the zoo, but most were out for lunch. We did get to see a few of them, and Grace really wanted to ride on one. They did have elephants rides available, but it just wasn't the same as riding one through the jungle.
What a fun day at the Zoo! I loved seeing the Orangutans play over head and all animals so up close. We'll try to visit the Zoo soon but I have a feeling Hogle Zoo just won't be the same.

Our Favorite Treat!

Oreo's just happened to be the cheapest cookie you could buy while in Singapore. So we bought them frequently and I think we got Grace hooked. She loved dipping them in milk, but her favorite thing is to eat the middle out first. Mmmmm!

What a mess!