Robyn and Ben in Hong Kong: December 2006

Big Buddha trip 2

Hey everyone, we will put the Christmas pictures up soon, in the meantime today we took a trip to the Big Buddha with the hope of helping Adam and Andy reach enlightenment if thats how you spell it)

It seems to be lucky to throw money into the hands of the Buddha servants as you can see below

And this is our mode of transport to get there

Over these mountains (you can just about see the cable car if you look close)

Ben x

400 dollars

Last night we ended up in Wan Chai, Andy has just walked into the flat and says he recalls that he purchased a drink for a 'very friendly' Asian girl for 400 dollars.

We just informed him that he probably befriended a lady of the night... Bless him

What do you get when...

What do you get when you mix a new camera, Christmas Eve drinks and a mirror? See below for our creative answers!

We really should not be allowed out unsupervised...

Hey there pretty Lamma

For the 3rd time in a month I took a trip to Lamma Island to show Adam and Andy that Hong Kong is not all about car horns and wailing fish market sellers. Here are some pictures.

I took the gang on the trek i discovered last week, it was very sunny and quite hard work at times but as you can see, the view makes it all worthwhile.

And here is the photographic proof that Adam has in fact arrived safely in Hong Kong

Andy was as happy as a pig in 'poo', once we arrived at the beach.

We had a well earnt lunch at the bookworm Cafe. It is so tasty it could turn me veggie! (just for a little while at least)

Robyn and Adam got into their books... they made great company :)

Then, with the sun setting, it was time to head home.

We had a great day and are all quite tired now, tonight we are going for some Christmas Eve drinks round a friends flat. Tomorrow it's present opening time! Missing you all lots!

Bx

Sights Adam and Andy have seen so far

1) We have taken them to see the skyline and the light show at night

2) We have shown them some of the Hong Kong architecture (Andy in particular was impressed by some of the skyskraper designs)

3) We travelled on the Star Ferry across the harbour (Below is the famous Star Ferry Clock Tower)

4) And they have seen some other Hong Kong landmarks such as the Peninsula Hotel

If you are wondering why all of a sudden the picture quality on the blog has taken a step up, it is because I have just purchased an amazing new 6 megapixel digital camera! It is my little treat for Christmas as my old one is a bit rubbish.

Bx

Landed safe and sound

Adam and Andy have landed in Hong Kong! They just managed to get out of Heathrow because of the fog, Andy did not seem too impressed with New Zealand Airlines but they both seemed to survive sitting next to each other the whole way here so that's good.

We picked them up at the airport and got the express train back to the island, then we hopped on the underground link back to our flat. It was dark by the time we arrived home, it was very funny seeing their reactions as they stepped out from the sterile and strip lighted underground system into our colourful, loud, neon lighted, traffic filled street of Wan Chai.

We showed them our tiny little flat (which now seems even smaller) and I think it finally hit home that we do live in what could easily be mistaken for a small box. I was starving by this point so they had a shower and we headed off to one of our most popular little Japanese restaraunts which is just up the road. Things got very amusing when it became apparent that both Adam and Andy struggle somewhat using chopsticks. Adam gave up and settled with using his soup spoon to wrestle with his pork and rice. Andy however had the added difficulty of ordering noodles in a bowl of soup, basically he ended the meal with a big pile of noodles still in the bowl but all the soup consumed via his spoon.

I have a half day at work today and so the gang are meeting me in Causeway Bay by my office for lunch. We are going to a very local Thai place which serves some fantastic food, and also supplies forks and knives if needed! Tonight we are going to a leaving dinner for a friend and dragging them along too. After that it will be time for them to experience all that Hong Kong nightlife has to offer!

bx

Robyn's Birthday Party

Here are some pictures from Robyns birthday party. We had a big meal at an Irish bar and then headed out for drinks at some of the watering holes of Wan Chai. Every Wednesday night is 'ladies night', which means that most of the bars offer unlimited free drinks for women! This as you can imagine has equated to Robyn having a little bit of a hard time getting to school this morning and myself feeling fine. She has just walked out of the door and seems upright and I know she does not have anything other than an assembly today so she should be fine.

Here we all are round the table at the Irish place, you can just see Robyns head sticking up on the left.

And now she is still trying to hide behind a mask

Donald, the guy in the blue shirt went straight to the airport after the meal and now is at home in England the lucky git!

The full effect of ladies night strts to become apparent...

Robyn tried to hide her shock when i said i was going home :)

Robyn did not really care for how long Ken could hold his breath for...

Anyway it was a good night, i'm running a bit late now so should jump in a shower. Adam and Andy are here at 4pm today and because of overtime and Robyn finishing school it both turns out that we only have a half day today which means we are free from lunchtime! We are both going to go and pick them up, not sure yet what we are going to feed them as their first meal, may take them to a very very local place :)

Bx

Birthday and Christmas weather

Whats the weather like in England?
Here is what we have forecast for Christmas

Wish you were here :)

Happy Birthday Robyn!!!!

22 today!!!!!!!!

Christmas school fun and island life

This morning I awoke at 6 AM. By 7.30 I was in a school, come 8.30 I was starting my first of nine 40 minute Christmas sessions. This involved introducing lots of new Christmas language to their vocab knowledge. (The fact that you actually kissed people under mistletoe horrified some of them when I told them.)

Here are some pictures from the day.

Here I am in my Santa garb having the customary V sign signalled wherever possible.

One of my partners in crime Ravneesh reading to the little monsters whilst I hand out Christmas bingo cards.

Dont worry I was not doing a Christmas full Monty, no students were present to witness my Christmas strip (It was really hot in the suit)

It was a really fun day but by the end of it my voice had gone and my feet felt like they were going to drop off, the kids were brilliant though, had fun and learnt quite a bit as well (such as Father Christmas is NOT called 'The Christmas Man'.) All in all the four of us doing the event came into contact with close to 600 students and they all at some stage were speaking English. Not bad going.

This is not a linear blog i'm afraid, the next few pictures I am posting are of my trip to Lamma island on Sunday. The temperature has dropped in the last week and its almost jumper wearing climate. But as you can see from the pictures the cold weather does not go hand in hand with rain and clouds, we still have sunshine and blue skies here!

Lamma island is starting to appeal to me as a potential place to live in the future. It's very small and everything that Hong Kong is not. It is a friendly, fresh and stunning place that strictly forbids cars, but that's fine because you can walk across it in about 2 hours. I went there with a friend and we walked from the 'seafood' area (which is the port in the picture above) right round to the next main village which is slightly more westernized. It has the most incredible atmosphere and some great beaches as well, the side that we ended our little trek had a kind of hippy commune type feel to it. It is without a doubt the place where lots of people choose to live to raise their children, as there are families everywhere... you can spot the locals because its such a small little place that everyone knows everyone else!

What slightly spoils the place is that there is also a sodding big powerstation on the island too, but you can't have everything i guess.

And I have realized that we have never shown you some typical Hong Kong jungle... So here you go!!

Right i'm off to bed now, not long till Christmas!!!!!

Bx

Funny Hong Kong Sign of the Month

Just a little inconvenience if you get eaten alive i suppose...

Chinese Kite Flying

Today we went on a bit of a trek all the way off Hong kong island and ventured into the New Territories. Grace (our boss) organized a Christmas day out with options such as fishing, hiking, boating and kite flying available for us to take part in. Partly due to the previous night out kite flying was deemed to be a pretty safe bet. I took quite a few of these pictures with my friends camera, the quality of which has made me realize that I need to buy a new one for Christmas.

The kites were quite funky, this one was a dragonfly, I had a similar one which was a goldfish but before a picture could be taken it quite aptly went crashing into the sea!

Its at this point that I started to get kind of 'arty', and tried to get Robyn, Kite and sunset into one shot...

Rob got quite into the kite flying malarkey as you can see, she was even running (a very rare sight) in an attempt to make it take off

Part of the problem was that with everyone flying kites near each other there were often some crossed wires... At one point if it was not for the fact I was wearing specs I think i would have lost an eye to a lowflying 'Hello Kitty' kite.

And here I am showing them how its done... or not

Some of the gang (and my very extendable right arm)

And the boating group returned without catching a thing.

It was a really great day out. It was even nicer to get off Hong Kong island for a little while. For all its merits and fun, HK island is really smoggy and jam packed with people, so many so that I have now given up apologizing to every single person i bump into just because it starts to hurt your voice repeating the same word so many times! The air was really fresh as well, you could take deep breaths and not inhale the exhaust of the bus thats just whizzed past.

At the end of the night we all had a BBQ with Christmas songs in the background. (Although there was some type of meat served that had an unknown origin). I have now learnt not to try to ask what it exactly is i'm eating and just accept the fact that more than likely I have consumed snake, dog and cat since i arrived here :)

Bx