Mom's Visit

Trying to write blog entries nearly three weeks after events occurred is not a good idea, but I’ll try nonetheless. My mom and Don’s visit to Hong Kong was very enjoyable. My favorite part was just having some family in town. The first day we went and visited the Kowloon Peninsula, did some shopping, and visited some sights. Don was a sport putting up with my mom and me shopping, but both Don and I enjoyed cracking jokes every time we passed a store/market with baby clothes. Grandma mode kicked in and she couldn’t resist looking for a while, although she didn’t end up buying much.
The next day we made a big lap around Hong Kong Island. We started with the peak and got some photos up there mixed in with rain and wind. After a nice lunch we took a bus down to Wan Chai and hopped on the DingDing which we road east along the harbor front all the way until it ended in Shau Kei Wan. From Shau Kei Wan we took a bus to Sehk O (really nice residential/beach area), a taxi to Stanley (more shopping), and then a bus to Aberdeen to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant. This last visit was totally a tourist thing as it is in all the guidebooks and well-known. You take a boat out to the restaurant and have a beautiful view of Aberdeen Marian and its many multi-million dollar boats. The food was not good at all, which was a major disappointment considering the bill.
Our next day Don and Mom wanted to take it easy so we lounged around the hotel for a while and visited a few sights close-by. In the evening we went and visited the NightMarket on Temple Street (not the LDS Temple). It was interesting and fun as this was the first night market I had been to and was much more orderly and clean than most markets I had shopped at.
The last full day Don and Mom visited we caught a boat and visited Macau. Macau is a former Portuguese colony that was returned to China in 1999. It is administered separately from the rest of China, much like Hong Kong. About five years ago Macau decided to open up its gambling licenses to foreign companies and big corporations like MGMGrand, Wynn, Venetian, and others moved in. The change and development in the tiny little colony is rapidly increasing with all the gambling money that is flowing. Asians love to gamble and now they don’t have to fly to Las Vegas to do it anymore. I read somewhere that Macau passed Las Vegas in terms of gambling revenue last year and is increasing at something like a 30% annual basis. What makes it even more remarkable is that Macau is probably less than 15 square miles of land. Its tiny, and any growth they have no comes from reclaimed land created by filling the sea/ocean.
Photos Description 1) Hong Kong skyline during the nightly lights/music extravaganza. 2) A picture of some of the stalls in Lady’s Market. 3) My reaction to news that Mom has found another store with baby clothes, or maybe just taking a picture when I wasn’t paying attention. 4) Mom and Don on the road of tall buildings in Admiralty. 5) Mom and Don at the Peak. 6) Me in front of the curry restaurant I ate at almost every week when I lived in Shau Kei Wan as a missionary. Our apartment was upstairs 20+ floors. 7) Sehk O Golf Course. Sehk O is amazing. The houses are on acre-plus lots and there is lots of open space with no buildings over 2 stories. 8) Jumbo Floating Restaurant 9) Me on Nathan Road, just down the street from the Night Market. This picture is a good example of the craziness/energy of Hong Kong. 10) Me and St. Paul’s in Macau. Catholic Church ruins that date to 1500-something. 11-13) Various pictures of/in the Venetian. I took a nap in Starbucks when Mom and Don went off to gamble. They came back poorer while I left energized.