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| Photo by Baljit Gidwani |
Kelsey Stiles here. Married to Scott. We live in Hong Kong, although we dream of moving back to Oahu, Hawaii. We are blessed with our adorable boy, Maverick. He is probably the most photographed human in existence.
Kids in the Kong- by Scott
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(PS The name of this post is actually the name of my sister Sunnee's blog! How clever of her! And how much less creative of me to steal it for a post. But it was so good I had to- Kelsey)
2 weeks in Hong Kong has been a blast! We have had a great time. We are staying with Sunnee (Kelsey’s Sister) and David (Sunnee’s Husband) and their 3 kids. I have got to say, for 7 people in a >1000 sq. ft. apartment it has been shockingly comfortable. We have become very good friends. I spend close to 16 hours a day with David because we work together and live together. He is an awesome guy, I have had a blast and have learned a lot from him. Kelsey and Sunnee have become buddies and they often go adventuring through Hong Kong seeing different sights. The difficult person to get along with is Baby Lola. She is 18 months, super cute, super happy, but is adventurous and does not want you to hold her. Kels and I have been tricking her into liking us by reading books to her. We had to start out late at night when she was tired.
Contrary to previous thoughts, Kels and I are not sleeping on the couch, but instead we sleep in Kale’s bedroom, which he let us stay in for the month. Life in Hong Kong is completely different than anywhere I have ever lived. It's busy, but that also means public transportation has done a complete 180 in my mind. My only real encounters with public transportation involved riding through the ghettos in Covington Kentucky, trying to make sure the seat I sat in didn’t have any urine on it (in liquid form at least!).
Here, public transportation is the norm, and I have seen how efficient it can be. I have loved taking it! Every morning I take a bus to a ferry that takes me across the bay to Central. I then walk through hallways lined with super fancy shopping malls to our office. We work in an area that would be considered similar to Time Square. Its pretty neat actually! Our soap project is coming along nicely. I networked with the SIFE students for Hong Kong University and made a deal to have BYU-Hawaii help HKU SIFE with project management. It could be a neat contact. Kelsey has been exploring different places around town and studying for the GRE. It is fun. We have been pretty busy but we have taken some time to go on a couple adventures.
The middle building is where Sunnee and David's apartment is located.
This is a nighttime view of part of Hong Kong while we rode a trolley.
First, we went to Big Buddha, a massive statue that is placed at the very top of a mountain on Lantau Island. We took a bus there. It was a windy road that and my stomach did not like it. Lets just say we ate right before leaving and I had to eat again upon arrival! When we got there we saw that there was a Kung Fu show, so we went and watched. My expectations were fairly low, I kind of expected something similar to the “Cowboy Comedy” Routine we saw at Six Flags. Instead, it was AMAZING! They had little kids doing all kinds of tricks, flips, kicks, balancing etc. My favorite was the little kid (he was Asian so I will not dare say an age because I might say he is 8 only to find out he is 32 and has 3 kids at home) who was doing front hand springs… On his head! Like not using any hands. I thought it was pretty awesome.
After that we went and saw the Big Buddha. It was amazing. Very pretty up there. Hong Kong is interesting because it is incredibly dense population wise, but there is lots of preserve land and its quite pretty once you get out of town. We took an enclosed chairlift thing to return home (Kelsey: this is a cable car). It was really pretty up there, and I held on to all of my nutrients.
A view from the bus ride to the Big Buddha, on the more rural side on Lantau island.
This is the Big Buddha!!!
The Kung-fu show.
This is the little boy Scott mentioned.
And here he is in the middle of a front handspring off of his head!
Kale and Scott being Kung-fu masters.
Kale, Hazel, and Scott at the begining of the steps up to the Big Buddha.
Scott and Kelsey near the top- sooo many steps!
Here is a view of the cable cars we rode to get down from the Big Buddha.
A gorgeous view of the Big Buddha and some of the tiny islands off the coast, taken from the cable car. We were really lucky the sky was so clear when we went, we have heard horror stories of it being so smoggy sometimes that you can walk up the stairs to the Big Buddha and still not be able to see his head.
The next trip was to Victoria Peak. It’s an amazing building that is on the top of this mountain overlooking the city. It is cool and I am sure Kelsey will post some beautiful pictures. (Kelsey: Scott was pretty sick when we went up there so he had to sit, but from the top you can see the amazing skyline, which is waaay bigger than New York, and the light show they do every night. When I was about 12 me, mom, dad, and my brother Colby went to Thailand to pick Tait up from his mission and we stopped in Hong Kong for a day or two. I remember going up to the peak, but we went only to the lookout point at the top of the hill, but not at top of the building on top of the hill where you see the amazing sights we did this trip. At the time I didn't realize that you could go up any higher, actually I didn't realize you could go any higher until we went this past week. So me and Colby were still impressed, and mom and dad saved a bundle!)
A view of the skyline from Victoria Peak.
Kelsey on top of the building at Victoria Peak.
A few Fridays ago I took off work and Kelsey, Sunnee, Hazel and I went to see PINK DOLPHINS in Tai O. It was an old Chinese Fishing village that had the entire community up on stilts. We were there at low tide, but we took pictures. The boat tour cost a pricey HK$20, which is less than $2.50. We saw one pink dolphin but did not take a picture of it because it escaped too quickly. It was Bright Pink though. Very cool! We decided to take the tour again but saw nothing the second time to see if we could get a better look at the Dolphins to no avail. (Kelsey: I was the only one that didn't see the dolphins, and Scottie was a sweetheart and let us go on the second trip to see if I could see one then, but still no.)
Scott about to board the first boat that took us to see the Pink Dolphins.
A view of the fishing village at Tai-O, where the dolphins are located.
Kelsey and Sunnee on their way to see the dolphins!!!
Hazel and her friend Bents, going to see the dolphins!
Hazel and Bents comparing size with a dried Shark skin!
So, last Saturday we arranged an adventure to Macau. We took a Hydro Foil there. It was amazing to feel the difference between a hydrofoil and a normal boat. It was fast and smooth. I have wanted to ride in one since I was a little kid so that was kind of cool. Macau was a Portuguese Colony similar to how Hong Kong was a British Colony. Macau has now become the Vegas of Asia. We didn’t partake in the Vegas-Like culture as much but we went to see a bunch of sights and saw an old light house, fort, and had dinner in a fancy hotel. My Spanish came in handy as we walked a lot, and never even got lost! Now, I am sure Kelsey will show you pictures of the sights, but the most impressive thing to me was the Bathroom in the Hotel. I had to go back and snag pictures. It was every mothers dream!
Scott with the skyline of Macau, from the lighthouse.
Kelsey, touching her first lighthouse ever!!!
Scott with a cannon at the Fortress in Macau.
La Ruinas de Sao Paulo, the ruins of an old catholic church in Macau that burned down.
This is the Grand Lisboa, the hotel and casino with the crazy urinal!
This is not the hydrofoil boat that Scott was so excited about, but it is the boat we took back from Macau- not as smooth as of a trip.
Here is how it worked- The floor around the urinals was cut out so it formed an inch deep tub that surrounded the urinal. It had footprints that you step on that were slightly elevated above the level of the tub. You step on the footprints, do your business, and then step off. When you step off, the back of the tub dispenses water filling up the basin and cleaning any dribbles that may have occurred. I had to strategize with Kelsey how I would sneak back to snag a picture. I hope the pictures accurately display how awesome it was. New life goal… Own one of those urinals… never wipe the pee off a bathroom floor!
The urinal of Scott's dreams!
A close up of the urinal, where you can see the water running through it!
Sooo those are our adventures! We have had a lot of fun!
Wow! what a fab adventure! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteLove you guys!