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Published: April 13th 2014
Ok, it's definitely my turn to pull my weight and write a blog post; Kaylee has been doing all of the heavy lifting. I know she just finished the entry about Hohhot (which was back in January/February) but I'm going to do the one about Hong Kong now because it's already been a month and we need to catch up! So, here goes:
Background: Our trip to Hong Kong was only planned in January. Kaylee has told me for a while that she wanted to go but it just wasn't in our budget until our good friends the Powells told us we could stay with friends of theirs for a few days. See, March 13-15 was the Asia Area Women's conference and Jordan and Cindy Powell were going, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to go too. With lodging covered for a few days it became a possibility, especially when we made a deal with another contact to trade English lessons at a music school in return for round-trip plane tickets. Everything came together and we were ecstatic, especially for the chance to go to the temple. Our tickets left Wednesday afternoon and brought us back to Xi'an Tuesday
Repulse Bay
The view from our host's living room...morning.
Wednesday: We made it to the airport in one piece, ate an expensive lunch (airports are overpriced in China, too), and flew to Hong Kong. The highlight of the voyage for me was finding a French family and getting to talk to them. They informed me that in Stanley, a community on the south side of Hong Kong Island, there's actually a large population of French expatriates- over 20,000. They recommended a visit and even suggested a good, authentic French restaurant. Luckily for us, the friends we stayed with live in Repulse Bay, only a fifteen minute bus ride from Stanley. When we landed in Hong Kong there was thick fog- we couldn't even see the ground until our wheels touched down. Thank goodness for all the technical instruments! However, despite the amazing complexity and accuracy of the plane's navigational system, apparently such effort is less often applied to the machinery that takes care of baggage- ours didn't show up for over an hour, and that only after people started complaining loudly at the help desk. Guess you can't have it all... but between the two, I'd rather land safely anyways. By now it was dark outside and
getting late, so we were a little nervous when we got off the train from the airport to Central Station and couldn't locate the bus we needed to get to Repulse Bay. I have to say, it was disconcerting to be in a city where we couldn't communicate with anyone again. After all our months of working so hard to improve in Mandarin, hearing Cantonese everywhere was a little discouraging, haha. It's true that lots of people do speak English and Mandarin, but it seems that's professionally, not in general, so asking for directions on the street takes some luck. Well, we wandered way off course and finally just decided to take a taxi, which got us to Sandy's (the Powell's friend) house without any trouble, though quite a bit later than expected (after 10 pm). Only on arrival did we discover that Sandy's family is, well... let's just say that "well off" is a major under-exaggeration. We definitely felt out of place, but she was incredibly kind and we are so grateful for her hospitality. And, it must be said, after months of sleeping on two hard, springy, pushed-together mattresses, the bed in the guest bedroom was worth its
The Peak
I wish our camera were better at night photos... someday! weight in gold.
Thursday: We had a relaxed morning then left with Sandy for the 11 o'clock temple session. It was
so good to be back in the temple. There were some missionaries there that morning and I started making friends in the instruction room, so all the temple works mistook me for one too. They kept saying, "Elder, where's your companion?" Um, in the women's dressing room, I think... haha, it was a good feeling though! I am all too happy to have people think I'm a full-time missionary, as long as I get to keep Kaylee. The session was excellent and the temple beautiful, and we stayed to do sealings afterwards. Also a fantastic experience. The sealer was from the U.S. and I don't envy him for all the names he had to say! Besides the usual add-in of Hungarian and Slavic names, there were lots, and lots of Chinese ones. Really cool for us, quite the tongue twister for him. By the time we finished in the temple we were more than a little hungry, so we grabbed some lunch at a mall (there was a sandwich shop! With real sandwiches!), then headed south again to
go to the stake center (as a basic reference for Hong Kong geography, the temple is located in the district called Kowloon which is north, attached to the mainland, and the stake center is in Hong Kong, on Hong Kong Island, just south. The harbor is in between the two halves of the city. There are loads of other islands and towns, but Kowloon and Hong Kong make up the main 'downtown' area). Once there we met up with Jordan and Cindy, so the women stayed for the opening of the conference and Jordan and I left to walk around and explore the waterfront. A little while later we met back up and then headed up to Victoria Peak for an excellent view of the skyline and lights. So much fun! The tram to get up there was an adventure- in places it's going up at more than a 45 degree angle. Sooooo steep... Getting home was a little easier this time. We found the bus and got off at the right stop, but misread some signs and walked in the wrong direction for a ways. We ended up catching another taxi for a three minute ride, and determined that
Hiking, city... you can have it all in Hong Kong!by the end of the trip we would finally know how to get there.
Friday: The girls had conference all day, so you'll have to ask Kaylee for a full account, but Jordan and I went hiking for the day. I always thought of Hong Kong just as a big city, but it turns out that because so many of the islands are really mountainous, much of it is uninhabited and there's plenty of great hikes. There was still lots of mist (as you can see in the pictures) but it was green and gorgeous. We haven't seen that much green in months. The hike we did was called "Dragon's back" because it goes right along a ridge so you can see both sides of the island. It was an easy hike until Jordan was brave enough to follow my lead onto an unmaintained trail up to an old transmitting station and a bunker. It wasn't steep or dangerous but it was some pretty thick bush! Jordan was sharp-eyed enough to notice a stick bug that had wandered onto his leg- so cool! Never seen one of those in the wild. It was a really fun, beautiful day. When
Can you find it?
I promise it's there... we got off the mountain we were picked up by Sandy's driver (kind enough to take us around for the day), grabbed some lunch (Turkish kebabs!) and met back up with the girls. We started over to the temple but first stopped by the Ladies' Market, a huge, famous outdoor market. Didn't buy anything, but plenty of fun stuff to look at! Going to the temple that night was such a unique, awesome experience because of the mix of English, Mandarin, and Cantonese used in some of the ordinances. My heart was so touched to be part of a truly worldwide Church, and to see Chinese people participating in the gospel even when most mainlanders cannot.
Saturday: The girls had conference until noon, so I went back to the temple and did another session. Turned out to be a Cantonese session, so I got to be the foreigner with the headset. Also a fun experience. Going to the temple so often was just fantastic! We really, really miss it. I met up with Kaylee back at Sandy's apartment and then we headed to Stanley- I was determined to visit that French restaurant! We found it without any trouble and
it lived up to every expectation. Real cheese, real bread, cream... Kaylee had a rizotto and I had duck breast with potato au gratin. Words cannot describe... so, so good. Can't wait to get back to France! One thing at a time, I guess. The hostess was very kind and I loved speaking French again. It's a boost of confidence after all the difficulty of speaking Chinese. Once finished we sadly departed but happily spent the afternoon exploring the Stanley market. Again, tons of cool, interesting, useless, ridiculous, fun things... We walked along the waterline, explored the mall, had fish and chips for dinner, and made it home happy and well fed. If we ever have the money to live in Hong Kong, I want to live there.
Sunday: We went to Church in the morning with Sandy. It's so different to be in a large congregation! There's one English-speaking branch in Hong Kong, but there are 3 Cantonese stakes and 7 Filipino branches, along with some Mandarin groups, I think, so a little different from our little branch in Xi'an. Afterward Church we said farewell to Sandy and moved to a hotel in Kowloon (with the women's conference
High on a mountain top
A theme park is unfurled... over, we didn't want to impose, and we could afford a few days). That night we enjoyed a harbor cruise and seafood buffet that came with our plane tickets, which, as might be expected, was fun and beautiful. I keep using those two words, but they just fit best!
Monday: Our major play day. While we'd originally considered going to Disneyland, we eventually decided to go to Ocean Park instead- it's cheaper and it's unique to Hong Kong. Talk about a great day! We saw pandas, jellyfish, hammerhead sharks and giant stingrays, rode rollercoasters on the mountainsides, watched a dolphin show and Chinese acrobats... and there's a couple of exhibits we didn't even get to! We had a blast all day, but we still wanted to take advantage of every moment that evening too. We had dinner at a burger restaurant that only has stores in New York, Las Vegas, and Hong Kong... in other words, it was the real deal. So tasty... and I won't even mention the desserts. It might not seem like much to all y'all back in the States but let me tell you, a good milkshake is nearly impossible to find in China. Our
only actual shopping in Hong Kong occurred that night- I needed a new pair of jeans because mine split open for no apparent reason, and Hong Kong was our only hope. We made it into a Gap just before it closed and got a pair. Never a dull moment...
Tuesday: Not much to say besides an uneventful flight home to Xi'an!
In conclusion, if you ever have the chance to go to Hong Kong, take it! Think Hawaii mixed with New York. We were laughing because Kaylee said a lot of the ladies at conference who lived in Hong Kong talked about how different and foreign and strange it felt to them coming from the U.S. We felt the same way, but for the opposite reason! We couldn't believe how Western it felt and how many foreigners we saw, haha. Guess it's all a matter of perspective. But see, that's what makes Hong Kong such a cool city- it's in the middle. Both western and Chinese... hence the title. "Journey to the West" is actually the title of a really famous Chinese classical novel about adventurers who left Xi'an to go explore the west. But in our case,
to go west we actually needed to go south-east...
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