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!

Mom in Macau

Jen here. On April 12 we took Mom on a trip to Macau. Macau is another Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China...sort of like Hong Kong, except it was colonized by the Portuguese instead of the British. It has a unique feel of old world and new-world-casino-ness. Roy and I went to Macau once in the late summer, and we took a tour (an organized one, with a bus and all). This time around we wanted to plan our time in Macau. We got a map, rode the buses and went where we wanted to go (namely, the old part of town).

Macau is so interesting! It's my first exposure to Portuguese...which is close to spanish. Check out this street sign.

The Catholic influence is everywhere. From the Rua Da Ressurrecao (Street of Resurrection) to tons of churches, or used-to-be chs, such as these remains of a cathedral (who's that sharp man in the red?):

Chs right next to Chinese temples. It was disappointing how similar the Catholic ch buildings were to the Chinese temples. With statues arranged in little coves of the building, fitted with a kneeling place, candles, etc I wondered, what's the difference? Go to the Chinese temple, offer incense and pray to one god, then go to the catholic ch, pray and offer incense to another statue. Yay. (Sarcasm) I don't know what has been taught in Macau; I just see the buildings set up...

The sidewalks in the old-town were so cool. They were mosaic-like with black and white tiles, and had all sorts of designs. Along some sidewalks, there were waves and along most others, you would see all sorts of sea-creature shapes. See, a crab:

Macau was not without the Chinese feel of Hong Kong. Here's a little shop that sells dried fish. In taking a photo of the shop (ok, mainly the fish hanging on the fence), I accidentally snapped a photo of this guy. Is he giving me the stink eye?

Enjoy!

Visitor!

Jen here. We had a visitor in Hong Kong! Roy's mom stayed with us for about 11 days and we had such a great time! I'll detail her stay over multiple posts. Enjoy!

Mom arrived late Friday night (April 9). The next day we headed to Repulse Bay and Stanley Market for a small tourist experience. Stanley Market is a normal touristy market--lots of shops with nicknacks, chopsticks, Hong Kong souvenirs, shoes, clothing, scarves, etc. It is usually crowded, especially on a Saturday. We looked in many of the shops, but nothing jumped out at us. None of us are big spenders.

We stopped off at Repulse Bay Beach on our way home (Mom got to ride her first mini bus to the beach) and took photos, etc. I love seeing even just a little bit of nature. It's so rare to me...last year in Seattle, I saw the gorgeous mountains everyday on my way to work...and frequently watched the sun set on the ocean. Ahh... But this year, I have to put forth more effort to admire God's creation (the nature part). Repulse Bay is a little snapshot of that.

After our beach extravaganza, we crossed the street and visited our much-loved Marketplace at Jasons (a grocery store). The Marketplace is reasonably priced and has more western foods than our local Park N Shop. We showed Mom the different food options (including shelf milk, dried seafood soup packets, etc) and did a little shopping ourselves and then headed home.

It was so nice to have family visit. :)