The Great Asian Race: Day 6

So Day 6 is another day of A LOT of pictures. We walked a lot, and I couldn't help taking all the pictures my little camera could handle. Today started out with changing hotels. We moved to a cheaper hotel because the other hotel we used Chris's Marriott points and we only had enough for a few days :) So yes we did stay at the YMCA Harbourview hotel. I had to take a picture since I worked at a YMCA for the last five years. The rooms were actually not so bad, but the bathrooms were tiny!!!

We still had a pretty sweet view of the Harbour even if it was a smaller not so nice hotel.





This is Times Square Hong Kong. They were busy setting up platforms, and other things for the big New Years extravaganza they were going to have, with canto pop stars and such. And of course there were shopping malls everywhere!!!






These next two pictures are us at a little hole in the wall noodle place we found. It was tiny but some how they found a table to squish all 9 of us around!!





I of course am still having trouble on the chopstick diet. For some reason I can't get those slippery noodles to stay where I can put them into my mouth!!






Next we have to get from one side of Hong Kong Island to another...I know!! How about the Ding Ding!!



The Ding Ding was my favorite mode of transportation that we took the whole trip! It is a trolley car that goes nine miles from end to end on Hong Kong Island and it literally cost 25 cents! We got on, walked to the top (it is double decker) and could see the city as we trolleyed along!! It was great!!




When we got to the other end of Hong Kong we walked a lot. We were seeing the sights that this Island had to offer, which was a lot. Here are a few pictures in Central.






Chris and Emily discussing which path we should take while trying to get out of the sprinkling rain. It was just a little drizzle...



This is the Hong Kong Government Building.

This was the fountain. I just thought it had such pretty colors!!!


More of the fountain in front of the government building.

Next we went on our way to walk around the streets and find our way to the next stop, another temple. The sites getting there were a lot of fun!

Looking up a the big skyscrapers....


I don't know if you can quite tell from this, but this tube looking thing is a sidewalk, and not just any sidewalk...a moving sidewalk. Think those flat moving escalators in airports so you don't have to walk. That is what this is. It is angled up and goes for quite a few blocks because the hills are so steep it would be hard to walk. Part of the day they go one direction and then the next half of the day they go the other direction. I think that is for the people that live up in the hills to go to and from work without having to walk those crazy hills. I loved it because it gave me a chance to get some good pictures on the move!!

Susan getting onto the moving sidewalks.

All of us on the sidewalk.
Street picture that I took while on the moving sidewalk.

Chris's Blue steel look. He would tell you how good he looks in this picture, but he thinks he looks good in all pictures. He is not low on the self esteem that one.


I took this one so everyone could see the scaffolding. It is all bamboo!! This is a smaller structure, but even all the High rise sky scrapers you see being built have bamboo scaffolding. I know it is supposedly strong, but I would feel so much safer on steel!!! I guess that is why I am not in construction in Asia.

I loved this little street as we went by, you can tell it is on an incline and it is so lively!


More architecture and street life as we move by...


An apartment building along the moving sidewalk....
More residential areas...
I loved this building because they had painted the whole side with that squiggly art. Very cool.






Alright, so we finally make it to the next temple. I can't remember what was special about this one, but for some reason we ventured out to see this one special. It was pretty cool.

These spiral things hanging from the ceiling are incense that people are burning for welath and prosperity. I thought they were very cool. They also have wishes hanging on them.
This is my mother in laws favorite picture. She loved this one. I am not sure why, but I guess it does kind of capture the essence of the room.
A picture from the higher ceiling...
Outside the temple, I love the statues they decorate with.

Once we were done with this temple we sat outside it for awhile. We were all pretty tired. You can tell from all of these pictures.

Chris is obsessed with maps, and this trip was his perfect opportunity to look at maps EVERY second!!!

Chris only brought one pair of shoes, that he knew did not fit very well, so that he could buy a new pair. By day 6 he still had not found a pair of new shoes he wanted to buy so his feet are killing him here! After this, I insisted we go to a mall where he tried on LOTS of shoes and finally bought a pair. He still complained a lot that his feet hurt....Damage done.

Yea, Okay. So my feet hurt too. But, to my credit I didn't complain....too much, and I had blisters.

This is Susan's mom. I just liked this picture.
Another picture I liked of Betty, Susan's Sister, and her dad.

Next on our list is to take the tram up to the top of Victoria Peak. This is a very steep point that overlook Hong Kong and Kowloon Bay. Pretty cool.

Waiting for the tram.
Here it comes!!!
It is here and that means everyone is going to push to get on. Apparently there is no such thing as waiting in line in Hong Kong. People have no qualms about cutting in front of you and pushing there way in. It is pretty interesting.

This is the tram coming up to the top. Not ours of course, but I thought it would be good to get a picture of the tram coming up.

All the next pictures are of Hong Kong from the peak.

All of these were taken during the day.

The rest are at night...

This is one of my favorite pictures!!!

Back on the ground.

Wow, it took me about a week to get this post together. That is pretty bad. I will try to be better.

Day 7 to be continued.....

The Great Asian Race: Day 5

Okay, so there are two reasons that I am only doing one day on this post. The first is that I am tired and I have not been able to conquer my jetlag even though I have been home for almost a week. The second is that the next two days both have a lot of pictures so this would be a VERY long post. Day 5 was a day that was centered on being on Kowloon Island of Hong Kong. It is one of the main areas other than Hong Kong Island that a lot of people congregate, so we had a lot to see.

Yep, still trying to get the hang of using chopsticks. Just so you know the outcome...I do get a bit better by the end of the trip, but it was a bit embarassing when everyone would wait for me to try to get my food first and then laugh when I dropped food everywhere. This was a pretty good restaurant that we got dim sum at.

These next two pictures are us on the subway. The subway systems in Asia are pretty cool. They are set up well, and everyone rides them because of that. It was really nice to be able to get on the train and arrive at our destination in a couple of minutes without worrying about getting stuck in traffic!

We of course had to start out the day by going to a Temple. That is how most days started anyway :) There was so much incense burning that it was hard to breath and my eyes were burning. But this is all very important to the people here. They also had a lot of food set out everywhere so that their relatives would not go hungry in the after life.

Finally out of the smoke of the main temple and entering the temple gardens.

The temple waterfalls and pagodas were peaceful in all of the chaos.

Then we got back on the Subway and one stop later we were at the LDS Temple! Okay we had to walk a block or two, but really we got there pretty fast!

This is the picture I took as I came around the corner. It is pretty amazing to see the Temple there in the middle of this busy bustling city!!

This is just the front of the temple. I thought it was pretty. We couldn't do a session in the Temple because it was closed the whole time we were there.

This is a Black and White I took as I stood on the street below.

There happened to be two missionaries walking around the outside even though the temple was closed so we chatted with them a bit. Turns out that one of the elders was once an almost neighbor. He is from Mendon, right there in good ole Cache Valley. I made him feel bad when I said I had just left Logan and it was blizzarding (is that a word?) there. I think I made him homesick since he only had 6 months left. Whoops.

As we walked away from the temple this is the sign I saw.....

So the background to this is that Love Hotels are hourly hotels, but they are mostly not seedy hotels. They are kind of a necessity for big Asian cities with lots of people in small spaces with paper thin walls. You get my drift.

Next stop....Mong Kok. It was a very busy area, with street markets, flourescent signs everywhere and neverending throngs of people.

This is just one of my favorite pictures from the trip (I have quite a few). You can see all the signs that are outside the buildings. It is definitely overwhelming.

This is a recurring sight. Chris is a bit obsessed with maps, which is sometimes a good thing since we usually didn't know where we were at.

Let me explain this picture a bit. At first you wonder what and why this picture is important. Well, this is what we call a "Booth Babe". In Asia everything is sold by a pretty girl, and most electronics are sold by a pretty girl in a cute little pleather outfit. We thought this was funny becuase not only did we get to document a picture of a "Booth babe", but as you can see, there are a bunch of guys going crazy taking her picture as if she was some sort of celebrity. the "Booth Babe" Paparazzi.

More of the amazing network of signs in Mong Kok. Amazing.

Last on our list for the day was a good ole laser light show. From Kowloon you can look across the bay at Hong Kong Island and enjoy what The Guiness Book of World Records calls the biggest laser light show around. It did have pretty lame music, but I was impressed that they orchestrated all of those buildings into a whole light show. It is like the water show at the Bellagio at Vegas, except the WHOLE city is in on the show. Pretty amazing. They do the laser light show every night at 8:00.

As you can see, even the boat that was crossing in front of my camera when I too the picture was in on the lights. I don't know if they are always decorated, or if the boats were all decorated for Christmas. Oh well.

There is the Batman building again...

You can also see from this picture that a lot of the buildings had also added some "extra" Christmas flair.

By this time we are all pretty tired, so we all rested a bit before we headed back to our hotels for the night. Paul and Susan's family was staying out on Lantau Island so they had to take the ferry, but like I said before, Chris and I had a short train ride back to our hotel.

Asia Amazing Race Day 6 to be continued....