Everything's Better in Hong Kong

The buildings are higher, the buses are double decker and come more frequently, the roads have been designed better, the food is nicer, and even the toilet paper is designed for your pleasure. We must be in Hong Kong.

Fun times on the tram

This morning Jack and I headed into Hong Kong Central without the girls to pick up our visas for Kazakhstan. They came through without a hitch (yippee!) which means we're free to head on to the next leg of our journey on 4th January.
After we picked them up Jack asked whether we could go on a tram. We had seen them driving around the city last time we were in town and I promised Jack we'd go on one next time we were there. I figured they did a small circuit and it couldn't be too tricky. If we jumped on a tram we would surely be able to return to our boarding place after it had done one lap. I was wrong.
We jumped on the first tram we could find. It happened to be going north and the sign on the front was North Point (wherever that is!). It was FANTASTIC. Jack loves going on double deckers and always wants to go up top, so we walked up the steps and sat up the top. The windows on the trams open wide and we were able to sit there and just enjoy the sights (assuming that it was only a matter of time before we'd be back where we started). We travelled for about 20 minutes, past stacks of places that I have not seen and ended up going through a crowded street with markets on both sides. I made a mental note that I'd like to go and check the markets out some time. After we'd been through the street we stopped at the lights (well, so I assumed). After 5 minutes sitting up top with no other passengers and no movement it dawned on me that we must be at the depot. Whoops! Feeling brave I decided that it couldn't be too hard to get back to our initial point. Just in case my assumption was wrong I'd kept an eye on the destinations on the front of the trams going in the opposite direction to us.
Jack and I headed back toward the way we had come and walked through the markets. It was definitely an experience. One of the first places we walked past was a fish shop. Most of the fish were still alive. Some were in water and some were flipping around on a metal tray. There was a box of frogs or toads (which definitely resembled Cane Toads). There was a bowl of turtles which I assume were for eating and not keeping as pets, and a tank full of crabs. At this point Jack freaked out and would not walk any more. I guess it was really strange for him seeing live fish when he has only eaten stuff from the supermarket previously. I carried him for most of the rest of the journey back to the tram stop. Jack commented later about the fish flapping around and the man who was cutting them up. We saw meat hanging in the open air on hooks and some more fish stalls. I loved the experience.
Fortunately we were able to get a tram that headed back to our point of origin. I'm guessing this was more good luck than good management. It was such a good adventure for us and the return trip cost us $6 Hong Kong (less than $2 Aus). Hopefully we can take the girls there some time soon.

Al on the rip stick

Part of the fun of Christmas Day was having a chance to learn how to ride a rip stick.
They seem to be the latest craze for teenage boys, so we both decided to have a go.

Check out the footage of Al's first go. Not too bad for a beginner. She insists that the only reason she fell off is because there was a crack on the concrete that she was riding on.

Christmas Day

Jack and Sammy were up early as you would expect on Christmas Day. While Sam didn't really have a clue about what was happening, Jack knew all about it and was very excited. Last night we went to a Crossroads Christmas Party where we all had dinner together and sang some Christmas carols. At 9pm everybody exchanged gifts. Each person was asked to buy a gift worth $5 Hong Kong (about $1 Australian) for each member of the team (about 100 people). You could go in with others to combine your money and purchase a more expensive gift.
Both kids had lots of fun unwrapping all of their presents. Jack's favourite present was his digger truck set and Sammy is a big fan of a packet of cotton reels that somebody gave her. Dad's not such a fan! Al likes a pair of socks that she was given and I am keen to read a book I was given called 'The Purpose Driven Life'.

Jack and I are about to head into church while the girls have a sleep. After that we'll head in to Kowloon to find somewhere to have lunch. My usual Christmas highlight is heading off to Dural to have Christmas lunch with Allison's extended family. It has become a tradition that we really enjoy. I'm going to miss not being around family and fine food today.

Pasta for Dinner

You know our life is utterly boring and we've run out of things to say when dinner makes it onto our blog site. This picture is worth publishing though. Sammy insists on being a big girl and feeding herself. There is a reason that all she was allowed to wear at dinner time was her nappy.

Bamboo Scaffolding

Every time I see it I can't believe it. Bamboo scaffolding seems to be common place in Hong Kong. From small renovations to large scale buildings it seems like this is how they do it. Often you will see an apartment being renovated and hanging out of the 30th story window is a stack of bamboo tied together with some plastic ties and and a couple of tarpaulins to keep out the weather. This picture is of one I saw today in one of the main streets in Central Hong Kong.

Everybody's staring at Sammy

Everywhere we go people stop and point and talk to and about our little girl. I have no idea what they are saying (as it's in some Chinese dialect) but I'm hoping they are commenting on how cute she is. She is very different to the normal person on the street. She's so little and cute and has blonde hair. She loves sticking her legs out at the passers by as she travels in the pram, just in case she isn't drawing enough attention to herself already.

'My Forklift Driver'

Jack has made a new best friend. He calls him 'My Forklift Driver' and every time he drives past Jack has to run and say hello. One of the men who is volunteering with Crossroads drives the forklift and on our second day here Jack got to have a ride. I think he has had about 4 rides in the first week. He does pretty well and knows how to make it go forward and backward and how to raise and lower the fork.

Jack the School Boy

Jack is enjoying being in Hong Kong. He has made some new friends and finally has the chance to go to 'bigger boy school'. 3 days a week he goes with another 3 year old boy to play games and do some basic pre-school activities. He gets to wear his very first school uniform and he absolutely loves it. Every time he sees his teacher he goes to say hello to her and tells everybody 'That's My Teacher!' Jack will definitely miss this when we head off to Kazakhstan and hopefully we will be able to find some kind of pre-school for him to attend.

Our first adventure in Hong Kong Central

On our 2nd day in Hong Kong we were taken into Central (the city) by some of our new friends. It seemed like a good idea when they invited us but with jet lag and the fact that we were totally overawed by our new experience, it was a bit of a mind blowing experience.
Everything about Hong Kong is so different to life in Newcastle, Australia. Knowing what bus to catch, knowing how the transport system works, finding our way in a busy city and remembering where we were going and where we had been were huge challenges. People are in so much more of a rush than the simple folk of Sydney and Newcastle and knowing how it all works is a big advantage.

The first part of the journey was relatively easy as we had our friends with us. We caught a bus from outside Crossroads and it took us to Kowloon. From there it was a walk across the park and through some side streets. We spent the next hour or so at church and then caught the Star Ferry from Kowloon to Central (the whole time we had no idea where we were or where we were going and followed the foot steps of our friends). Once we arrived at Central our friends told us that they they had somewhere else to be and it was up to us to find our way home. OUR SECOND DAY IN HONG KONG AND WE WERE ON OUR OWN!!! They pointed us in the right direction and told us which bus we needed to board - all relatively easy things as long as you are not in a new part of the world and totally unfamiliar with EVERYTHING!
The idea of getting food from some unknown food outlet and the chance of losing our way caused us to settle for the McDonalds right next to our bus stop. Anyone who knows us well would not be surprised by this at all. In Hong Kong with such a variety of different foods and we go for the safe and boring option.
Getting on the bus was not as easy as I hoped and we missed one (as the driver shut the door in my face) before we caught one. Fortunately we got on the right bus and after a 40 minute ride through unknown parts we made it to the right stop and found our way home.

Living at Crossroads

While we are in Hong Kong we are living at the Crossroads site. We are here with a number of people who are also volunteering. My job is to teach the children of the full time volunteers. There are 9 kids in my class at the moment.
Our accommodation does not look overly impressive on the outside, but on the inside it is quite nice. We have a 3 bedroom apartment and everything we need. We are living across the road from a small shopping centre and we are able to get everything we need from there.

Madness before we even left

Jack and I went to the Gold Coast to visit my parents on Thursday 11th December. The plan was to fly in at around 8am and fly out again at 6pm. It was a flying visit, but the best we could manage with our busy schedule prior to leaving Newcastle and heading off to Hong Kong.

We had a great day with mum and dad, hanging out at their house and doing a little bit of shopping. We went to Red Rooster for lunch and Jack got to play on the play equipment there. It was really nice to spend some time with mum and dad and it was great for them to see Jack again after about 6 months.

Just before we were due to leave for the airport an electrical storm hit the Gold Coast. Upon our arrival at the airport we heard that some of the aircraft heading for the Gold Coast had been diverted to Brisbane due to low cloud cover and there was even a report of a plane being hit by lightning. I'm not sure how common or serious this is. Jack and I sat and ate and kept our eye on the departures/arrivals board. Our plane had been delayed by about 20 minutes but they expected the flight to go ahead. About an hour after we were supposed to leave they made an announcement that our flight had been cancelled. This was a huge pain as we were due to fly out from Sydney at 11.50am the following day, and we needed to check in our luggage 2 hours before this.
After playing the sympathy card we managed to secure a place on the first flight to Sydney the following day. There were no problems with this flight and Jack and I arrived at the International Terminal at about 9am, with only 50 minutes to spare. It was not the way I had hoped to spend our final day in Sydney before flying out and both Jack and I were utterly exhausted before we even got onto the International Flight.