Hong Kong: Kowloon

For our last day in Hong Kong we went out to Kowloon to go to the temple.

It was amazing. The interior was very simple and elegant. It was the

perfect blend of the LDS church and Chinese feel. We did a session in Cantonese, 

so I had to wear the headphones, but that actually helped me learn a lot more.

It was a really neat experience!

If you look really hard you can see Moroni in the background! 

Lunch! 

That evening we took another lovely, winding bus ride up to Victoria Peak 

to look at the skyline. It was awesome and a great way to end our trip!

mmmm. . . fuzzy hair!

Hong Kong at night!

Macau

Saturday started out sunny, so we figured we should head out to Macau and take advantage

 of the nice day. Wellllll. . . at least it didn't get too rainy! We took a turbojet out of Kowloon

 to Macau. I got a little queasy on the ride (go motion sickness!), but it wasn't that long of

 a trip and by the time we passed through customs I felt much better & ready for a 

delicious, Macau-style, Portuguese lunch!

Turbojet

Excited to go to Macau! 

Pedicabs: ready for tourists!

motorcycles & scooters everywhere!

After lunch we were ready to head out with the rest of the tourists and see the sites!

Ruins of St Paul's Cathedral
(Ruinas de Sao Paolo)

cobblestone roads

chillin by the cannon at Fortaleza do Monte

tried Haagen-Daz for the first time while taking a break from the rain

 We headed back towards the casinos to figure out the buses and how to get to Hac Sa, the black sand beach, clear on the other side of Macau on the Ilha de Coloane. The islands have bridges between them, so we were able to bus it the whole way.

He was so excited to see the sand!

There were all these little pock marks in the sand. Crab holes?

The beaches have nets around them to make a swimming area.
It keeps the sharks and pollution out. 

It looks like the picture is blurry, but that's really
what the sand looked like as the water went back out!
It had a way different feel than any sand I've been in before.

Dinner!

Octopus Mustache!

Spent the last of our MOP (Macau Money) on treats!

Ready to ride the turbojet home!

We had a great day at Macau! I loved it! There were old Portuguese buildings all over & I just loved their architecture. Macau is so diverse. There are all the remnants of the Portuguese colony with China built right on top of it. It's awesome!

Hong Kong Island

Friday's rainy view!

We had dim sum for brunch. It was super crowded, possibly because of the heavy rain. It was delicious! And I ate everything -- with chopsticks!! 

King's Yellow Bun -- My favorite! 

That day we headed onto Hong Kong Island and did some shopping on Ladies Street. It was still raining but fun. I got some great stuff & Cass did a great job bartering!

A super tall LDS church building in HK. There's a ward that meets here 
which has sacrament services every day of the week in order to accommodate
the folks who all have different days of the week as their day off.  

Lunch! 

The Trolley

That evening we rode the World Famous Star Ferry! From the other side, we were able to see the awesome skyline. 

World Famous Star Ferry

On the Star Ferry!

The Clock Tower

formerly tallest building in the world

current tallest building - hidden by the clouds!

skyline

Hong Kong: New Territories

Thursday was New Territories day. We ate some new exciting fruit and Cass was able to show me Fanling, his first area on his mission. We also went out to look at the border from Hong Kong to Shenzen in mainland China. And the best part of Fanling? The super delicious street waffles!

Shenzen, across the mainland border

Delicious!

That afternoon we walked up to the to 1000 Buddhas. When we started up on the trail, this man dressed as a monk approached us. He rubbed a small circle on Cass's forehead three times and tapped it, put a bracelet on his wrist, and gave him like a little hug, again with the three pats. He repeated the process on me and then held out a wooden bowl with money in it. Cass pulled out 20HK (about $2 or $3) and started to say that that was all we had. Then the man was all, "No, 100" and then pointed at me, "100 for her." Cass handed him the money and we walked away. I was like, "What just happened??" Cass shook his head. "I don't even know." A few minutes up the grueling trail we saw a sign: "Real Monks will not ask you for food or money. Please report begging behavior."  Oops! Ripped off! 

After 1000 Buddhas, we headed over to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. They had a Picasso exhibit, but I guess something big was happening that night and we weren't allowed to see all of the museum.  We did get to see some really cool exhibits on Cantonese Opera and New Territories Heritage with some great stuff on Costal Defense, Fisherman's Life, Village Life, and British Rule. They also had an exhibit on Roman Tam, Hong Kong Cantonpop Singer who was inspired by the Beatles. Some of  his costumes were reminiscent of Michael Jackson or Elvis. We had a great day!

Hong Kong Heritage Museum

what I would look like as a Cantonese Opera Singer

just singin with Roman Tam