No One Would Ever Guess
In addition to all the zany things we were doing on this last morning in Hong Kong, we stopped a couple of times to see if we looked very conspicuous. Do these two look like tourists?
We hated having to say good-bye to Betty, but it was time.
I loved seeing these charitable donation containers in the airport — full of money from all over the world.
Finally we were off on our long flight back to Colorado, after which we would drive several hours to get home.
The one good thing about saying good-bye to foreign friends in other countries, is that you get to greet your own family members upon your return home. Jeremy was waiting at the Denver airport to pick us up, and this is what he saw:
Do we look like we’ve travelled to the other side of the world and back?
We certainly collected a lot of photos, memories and keepsakes. I had no idea when I started writing that it would last for a year, but I’m glad I covered it in detail. It was an amazing journey! I highly recommend travel to other countries to visit friends and sponsored children!
Where in the World
One other thing we decided to do before leaving Hong Kong was to film the following video, which is a take-off on Matt’s funny site here. You get a few strange looks when you’re doing something like this, but I suppose foreigners expect it of Americans. Hope it brings a giggle to your day.
Jump! Hong Kong
After a whole year of blogging about our trip to Asia last May, this is the final week! But I guarantee these last three posts will bring some giggles.
We couldn’t miss the opportunity to take some great photos of Sarah and Betty before we left the Hong Kong harbor. Who knows when (or if) we will see Betty again? We had such a great time together.
Sarah took a nice panoramic shot of the harbor (click to enlarge).
Then I managed to get this classic “jump” shot of the three. Don’t they look great?
A Good Harbor
Finally we came to the main viewing area of Hong Kong Harbor. It was a perfect day and the view was spectacular (although most of these were taken on the previous cloudy day).
This is the nearby Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower:
Two more pics that we took on the last morning:
Finally, I took a video of the harbor, although you really can’t get a feeling of the size of it without traveling around by bus and seeing this sight multiplied many times over, in various parts of the city. Immense!
They Ship Here
We had bought some breakfast pastries the last morning in Hong Kong so we would have some time to visit the harbor before going to the airport. This is what our breakfast looked like (and it was good):
We saw so many pretty areas of the city as we rode around on various buses.
One obvious fact about Hong Kong is that they do a lot of shipping in and out of this harbor, so I thought I would show you some of the thousands of containers we saw. It was on such a huge scale, like nothing I had ever seen before.
We saw these loading areas in many different areas, but we also saw some spectacular views of dozens of ships coming in at once:
I’m glad we got to see this beautiful city!
Dinner on Dry Ice
Our last night in Hong Kong we entered this beautiful door to find a delightful restaurant.
We sat on tiny round stools at a tiny round table and enjoyed a wonderful meal together.
Here are the plates that came to our table — sweet & sour chicken with pineapple, duck, noodles with pork and bar-b-q ribs with strawberries:
Everything was so good and we quickly shared it all around with each other.
But the best surprise was yet to come. The kids ordered some exquisite desserts, like we have never seen before.
Tapioca/Mango Ice Cream
Then this bizarre dessert was brought out and placed before Chris:
Strawberry Tofu on Dry Ice
Both were great and we managed to finish them off very quickly.
What a great day it had been with our friend, Betty! I’m so thankful we had this time with her, and we still had a little time together the next day.
Harbor Light Show
Now we really had to rush to get back to another part of the harbor for the evening light show. We jumped on the bus again and headed to the right area, and had to run to catch a ferry because we wanted to see the show across the water.
The timing was just perfect (after all that running) and we saw it in all its beauty!
Here are the normal lights of the city:
And here is the light show (as taken by another photographer):
We took a lot of photos of our own, and they turned out pretty good too.
The building on the far right with the arrows was constantly changing color.
Some of the boats had their own light shows going on.
It was a wonderful sight to see, and we were thankful not to have missed seeing it.
Dogs That Speak Chinese
One thing we saw often in Hong Kong was dogs, and I kept reminding my kids that these pets speak Chinese, not English.
We had seen this dog in the window of a shop on Cheung Chau Island.
Apparently, her job was to model the specialized clothing and furniture they sold for pets.
She was certainly doing a good job of gaining attention for the shop.
Notice the three dogs in this photo of a cafe.
It was common to see pets dining with their owners.
But do these dogs really look like they would speak Chinese?
Stanley Market
Betty took us on a bus ride across these hills past some beautiful estates. There were lots of gorgeous views to see.
We came down to an area known as the Stanley Market, which is known for the artists and shopkeepers that set up their wares near the waterfront.
First we walked along the waterfront and noticed the nice cafes and shops.
Then we got right down on the water and noticed that it was a very beautiful area of the city.
Finally, we wandered back into the artist district because they were about to close up for the night. I was fascinated with this lady’s artwork, and bought a bookmark for each of us with our names written in Chinese.
I was also interested in the dozens of stamps she had, although we didn’t buy any. I wish we’d had more time in this area, but there was much more to see and we had to get going. Still, we were glad to have at least seen the Stanley Market and experienced it a bit.
Sheep Fold