Hong Kong Victoria Peak

Hong Kong Tai O/Llama Island

Tai O is a little fishing village in the southwest corner of Lantau island. We took a bus there and walked around a little. It was a cold and windy day and the smell of old fish was pretty intense. The village is famous for shrimp paste, so we bought all our friends and family some for souvenirs. You should be able to smell it when it arrives in your local post office. There were some interestingly stuffed sea creatures, like the shark and sting ray. There was also many little puffer fish with plastic google eyes glued on to make them look even sillier. It was not a nice day and the wind was freezing so we caught the next bus out.
The pictures of Lamma island are from a different day, actually the same day we visited the buddha. We met our friend Alanna and took the ferry out to Lamma. The coasts are packed with yummy seafood restaurants and little shops, but the mountains in between coasts are all hiking trails. We arrived on one coast, hiked up and over the mountain to the other coast and ate at a seafood restaurant before taking the ferry back to Hong Kong island. From there John and I took another ferry back to our hotel on Lantau. Just to clarify things for everyone, There are two big islands which are Hong Kong and Lantau. There are also lots of little surrounding islands that are accessible by ferry. Kowloon, also part of Hong Kong is attached to mainland China.

Hong Kong- Big Buddha

This was our first full day in Hong Kong. We took a bus out to see the BIG BUDDHA. The buddha is visible from plane when flying into Hong Kong. It is the largest seated, outdoor, bronze buddha in the world. Like all bus rides in Hong Kong it was a skinny winding road up and down mountains. John felt sick and I fell asleep and missed all the views. We arrived before the monastery opened, before the crowds, and walked down a cobble stoned path lined with shops. We didn't see the buddha and thought about asking where it was, then turned around. We had about an hour before it opened so we walked up the wisdom trail. In the pictures it is the many large tree trunks split in half with the heart sutra written in Chinese on them. They are arranged in a figure eight, infinity symbol pattern. By the time we left the monastery was open and we wandered around there for a while before catching the next bus to Hong Kong island.

Bring on the Bling

Our annual Christmas party theme this year was "Bling it on" or Bring on the Bling" or something like that. Everyone went out to the night markets and bought all the cheap cheesy jewelry they could find. Luckily there is no shortage of it here. We bought a couple of things, didn't get to blingy, we were not trying to win the bling king or queen award. However, when the time came for the cat walk to choose the king and queen of bling, a bunch of us piled our extra bling onto John and he jumped up to strut down the aisle. He of course was wearing his new suit (he would wear it to check the mail if we had a mailbox) and he sidled down the aisle with all his flashing pins and rhinestone rings and won the bling king title! I was so proud! He was crowned with a shiny ring of cardboard and throned with a fuzzy pink toilet seat cover and given a really nice bottle of champagne. What a night!

Christmas Day

We woke up Christmas morning, ate pancakes and opened presents. In the afternoon we took a walk and now are getting ready to go out to eat. Overall it has been a great Christmas. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and we miss everyone. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Christmas Eve

We went to a party at Brian and Ani's on Christmas Eve. Before we went we walked around West Lake and drank hot chocolate. At the party they had two big turkeys along with stuffing, potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce. After the party we came home and watched Braveheart. Nothing like a good movie to put you in the Christmas spirit.

Merry Christmas

We are enjoying a quiet week here in Hangzhou. School ended for the year on Friday and we headed up to Shanghai for the weekend. We had a birthing class at our hospital all day Saturday, we spent the rest of the time eating and buying Christmas presents. Nina's pregnancy continues to go well. The first two weeks in December she spent in Shanghai taking a class towards her masters degree. The next class is not until May so that gives her some time to relax (ya right) for the next couple of months.
We head out to Hong Kong on Dec 28th; we'll spend New Years there before spending 6 days in Sanya (the Hawaii of China). Then back to the cold of Hangzhou. We really cannot complain too much about the weather this year. This is the first week were it is cold enough that you really need a warm jacket and the sky has actually been blue this year.
Hope all is well with everyone, as the birth draws nearer we will try to post more often.