Sis Visit Part 2

Jen here. Here are several photos from Sarah's visit. Enjoy!

The Fremont troll! You can't see it, but the troll is holding a real VW Beetle in his left hand. (Those people are sitting on the troll's right hand!)

The view from the Space Needle is awesome--downtown Seattle, the Puget Sound, the Olympic mountain range, the Cascade mountain range and Bellevue (see the skyscrapers in the distance).

I introduced Sarah to Bubble Tea and a little shop I frequent to speak a little Cantonese to the owners and buy my beloved bubble tea. She got a fruit smoothie with mango jelly (similar to jello) in it...I got honey green tea with bubbles. Yum!

On the weekend, Dan, Sarah, Roy and I took a hike on Mountain Loop Highway--Heather Lake. The last 0.5 mile was snow covered and there was an "aggressive mist" for most of the hike, but it was a blast! As you can see in the photo, we looked like drowned rats, but God's creation is totally worth it. Roy and I had (hiking) sandals on so our feet thanked us as we left the snow area. :)

Roy, Sarah and I went hiking at Mount Rainier. This was in June, which some in Seattle call June-uary, and this year the snow melt is especially slow, so most hiking trails were super snow-covered (one particular area we wanted to go to was covered in 20 feet of snow!). We were able to hike a lower trail and enjoy the green and pines of the Pacific Northwest, and experience a little snow on the ground. Fun!

What a joy it was to have Sarah visit. Thank you!

Lei Yue Mun Seafood

Jen here. After our hike, we hopped in the car and drove to Lei Yue Mun, a fishing village in HK well-known for its fresh seafood. I've been told by multiple people to go there, but this is our first time. Roy's boss hadn't been here since she was a young child and back then it really was just a fishing village. Now it's surrounded by normal HK city-life. Even as we entered the area, we got to choose between paying to park in a normal parking lot or paying to park in a huge parking garage. The actual market that we walked into is to the left of what is pictured right here. This just seems to be a remnant of the old run-down fishing village, so I thought it would make a neat photo. I had a hard time getting photos; I only brought my ~85mm lens...which is not ideal for photos in small spaces or capturing a large environment. Sorry!

As you enter the market place, there are several restaurants and tanks of live, fresh seafood dying to be eaten (or rather, will be dead soon so you can eat them...). Some of the seafood stands have their own restaurants (or vice versa), and so did ours. We sat down at our table and then promptly went back into the market place to select what we wanted to eat that night. A man from the restaurant stood ready with bags and recommendations and we pointed and picked. Roy's boss led the charge, as Roy and I had little idea of cost and taste--we're not that experienced with seafood (although Roy is more experienced than I am). She pointed and picked and asked for our opinions and then we headed back into the restaurant and our guy took the bags of seafood into the kitchen.

Our meal began with 1000 year eggs. Yum. :) Yes, that's sarcasm; they do not look appetizing. They are eggs that have been "preserved" or "pickled" in some black stuff, which makes them black in color and slightly translucent (imagine black jello for the egg white). The eggs are quartered and you eat one quarter with a piece of pickled ginger (which is pink). I was a little nervous to try it--I think I may have tried it before but I don't remember it's taste. Roy tried one first and said it really wasn't bad, so I followed. It wasn't bad. It didn't have much flavor...and the pickled ginger really helped mask any of the undesirable flavor. One of G's daughter's loved them and kept eating them. :)

Next came freshly boiled shrimp, with everything still on--big bulgy black eyes, shell, tail and all. Hmm...this will be interesting, I thought. G had one of her daughters demonstrate how to peel the shrimp for eating. (And I am actually SO excited that I learned how to do this!!) First, you break the head off; I used my fingernail to help separate the head from the body. If you really want a treat, you can suck the brain/liquid out of the head. I passed on that part. Second, peel off the shell. Third, pinch the tail in order to remove it. (Step two and three are interchangeable) Then enjoy! The shrimp were pretty good.

Out came a plate stacked high with pieces of what G called the "Peeing Shrimp"(pictured at right before death). We've head them called Squill...who knows what the real name is. They were huge and had a tough shell that you had to cut and dig the meat out of. The meat was DELICIOUS. My favorite dish of the night. It was sweet and not fishy; it tasted like crab, but more sweet. Mmm...I could eat some right now. :) I could have eaten those for my whole meal. Yum.

I am beginning to forget the order so I'll just write as I remember. We had a whole fish; I have no idea the kind. It was very tender and came right off the bones. It was pretty good. My portion had a little fish skin on it...and I'm still not enjoying fish skin. Apparently it is custom to serve the honored guest the fish head--I am so glad G does not run by this custom. She knew none of these Americans would want the fish head. :) Thank you.

Conch. I had to get a photo of these guys--sorry it is poorly focused. There were enough conch so that each of us could have two. They were brought out in a ceramic pot filled with broth. I fished out one of them and waited for instructions. To get the conch out of the shell, stab the meal with a toothpick and pull it out. Then break off (or cut off) the end part of it, which contains the intestines or something... Then enjoy! Praise God for changing my tolerance for new food and giving me a clear mind to try new things. I ate my first one and enjoyed it. Roy wasn't sure whether he wanted a second one, but I knew I definitely wanted a second one. Mm... It was a little chewy, but not bad. I liked it. :)

This post is way too long. I will continue on another post. Enjoy! :)

Hike with Monkeys

Jen here. We had a fun adventure a few weekends ago. Roy's boss invited us, along with another friend, to go hiking at Kowloon Reservoir with her family. Though we enjoy hiking, we haven't made many attempts to check out the hiking options in Hong Kong (and there are many places). Delighted in an invitation to hike, we accepted and eagerly prepared. We met them at 2:30pm on a Sunday, so we attended the morning service at church--we usually attend the 5pm service--and then made our way to Central.

Grace and family picked us up and we were off. We don't ride in cars very often since we don't have one and because public transportation goes practically everywhere. There's something fun and relaxing about riding in a car with people you know all heading to the same destination. It's cozy. It's familiar. :)


When we pulled into the parking lot at the beginning of the trail, we saw a monkey! Wah! (The HK version of "wow") This monkey was only the first of many we saw during our hike. This photo was actually taken at the end of our hike; this time many more monkeys came to be fed by the people.

Grace was nervous the monkeys would be aggressive, especially if we had food. A little way into our hike, Roy asked for one of the oranges we packed. I discreetly passed it to him and he began to peel it. At this point, only one monkey was in sight, and it began to make funny noises and bear its teeth. It ran towards Roy and a few seconds later we saw other monkeys running our direction. Uh oh. :) By this time the rest of our group noticed Roy with the orange, and moved away from him...and the monkeys kept coming. Big ones, little ones, even a few tiny baby monkeys attached to their mothers' belly. Roy had an audience and they wanted food. Roy stood his ground, stared them down and ate the orange in a handful of bites. Haha, the monkeys did not succeed. Out of pity Roy tossed the monkeys the peels of the orange, and we moved on. Comical. They weren't physically violent, just as aggressive as the guys selling watches in TST (a prominent tourist area in HK).

All in all, the hike was great. Seeing monkeys roaming around the forest was exciting and new. They were kind of like the squirrels in Athens, Ohio. They are just there...living life...and pretty well-adjusted to people. We got to chat and see a bit of God's creation (as well as a man-made reservoir) and spend time with co-workers.

Great day! And wait until you hear where we went after the hike...more to come.

Mom at Lamma Island

Jen here. And the Mom-visit saga continues...There is a beautiful side to HK, believe it or not. A scenic side. Thus, we took Mom to Lamma Island. Yes, it's not most-scenic or most-beautiful, but it is close and scenic. :)

Lamma Island is a small island of HK south of Hong Kong Island (where we live). We took a mini-bus to Aberdeen (Chinese name means son of Hong Kong...) and caught a ferry to Lamma. While waiting for the ferry, a woman offered to take us to Lamma via a junk for a small price ($150HK). See photo of a junk at right: We turned her down and took the ferry for about $50 total.









Due to our late start, the small ferry schedule and plans made later that evening, we only had 1.5 hours to hike, so we booked it. Lamma Island is known for its hiking trails and seafood restaurants. You can easily ferry to one side of Lamma, hike across the island and ferry home from the other side of Lamma. The trail we hiked was paved but we got to stop and walk around in the sand at a beach along the way.















The views were nice and there weren't too many people. I almost forgot I was a ferry ride away from 7 million people packed into skyscrapers. :) The terrain was green and hilly. Being an island, we saw many a rock-lined coast. It was nice. Check out this photo...beautiful, eh? Little do you know that just to the left, there is a huge power plant, which I strategically did not include in the photo. Now you know.

At the ferry pier there are numerous seafood restaurants ready to feed hungry, hiking tourists a full assortment of seafood...and you can even choose the creatures you want them to kill and cook right there. The servers tried to lure us in, but we could not be swayed, for we had to get back to HK Island right away. We enjoyed the hike, but were a little sad we didn't have time for a seafood feast. Ciao!

Lantau Get-Away

Jen here. Welcome to Cheung Sha Beach, Lantau Island. It is located southwest of Pui O and South of Tung Chung. I think. :)

Roy and I spent a few days here for a wonderful holiday just after Easter. There were few people, practically no cars, few buses and NO skyscrapers to be seen. Praise our Creator! What a blessing it was to exit HK Island and chill on a little-name beach for two days. Ah...

We stayed at a place called Palm Beach, where the employees were very friendly and the neighbor kids came down to play everyday after school like they were family. Our night-time accommodation was a tipi--we had the larger one. Another couple had already reserved the 12 foot tipi, so we reserved the 16 foot tipi. We wanted an adventure and we got a small one. :)

On the first day we ate dinner at a African/Mediterranean Restaurant just down the beach. Roy had rainbow trout (which we had never eaten before) and I got fish and chips. He received the trout whole on his plate and got to eat the meat off the bones. Glad I didn't order it! :) My fish and chips were delicious. As we ate we marveled at how different Lantau Island is from Hong Kong Island. We only traveled 2 hours from home and there's already a different feel!

That night, the two guard dogs kept waking us up by their barking at rabbits, birds and the random water buffalo walking down the beach. (Yes, water buffalo) Roy knew they were barking at nothing, but my imagination had the dogs barking at packs of wolves or burglars or something. Oh fears. Go away.

The next day we decided to rent kayaks and go out on the water. There was virtually no wind, so the water was calm. We paddled out to a small island about 30 minutes away and looked for a way to pull in, but there were rocks around the whole island so we just chilled in the water and ate a snack. It was fun to kayak once again. The last time we kayaked was in Seattle at Lake Washington just before we moved to HK. Familiarity.

We spent much time chilling on lawn chairs and just enjoying the quiet. It was a really nice rest. We read, played Scrabble and talked with the employees a little. In talking with the other couple that stayed there, we found out they also lived in Kennedy Town on HK Island! How funny. :) They were in their 20s (I think) and from the UK, but were recently from Australia. It was fun chatting with them.

As our last adventure before heading back to HK Island, we decided to hike to the top of Lantau Peak. Being short on time, we took a bus to the pass and hiked to the top from there. Our one-way hiking distance was about 2.5 km and at least 2 km of that was steps. Lots of steps. I absolutely loved the hike. It was exhausting but exhilarating. We were so high up (compared to being at sea level) and the air was cool. It was foggy, cloudy, breezy and misty, which gave our trek an epic feel. At every turn or ridge I would pause and take a huge breath with my eyes closed, just trying to soak up the beauty of it all. Oh how amazing it was. How amazing our Gd is. Mm..

We made it to the top, took a few pictures (before the battery died) and headed back down. We had little time! Oh what a marvelous hike. I can't wait to hike again!

More later...