Photos from Hong Kong July 29, 2008

I’ve now been back over a week and still haven’t managed to organize all of my photos.  I must have tried 3 or 4 different photo hosting sites before I found a decent one without space limitations or annoying banners and advertisements.  Now that I have found a place to store my photos I should be able to upload the rest of the photos from Macau, Taiwan, and Japan soon. 

Here’s my first set of photos taken in and around Hong Kong.   There were too many pictures to display in-line here, so I have grouped them into slide shows on the fotki web site.  Enjoy the photos!

Swimming in Hong Kong

This set of photos was taken in and around the Sai Kung district in Hong Kong.  The photos were taken over two days: a trip to the beach at Clear Water Bay and to the public swimming pool in Sai Kung.

Link to slideshow – Swimming in Hong Kong

Misc. Hong Kong Photos

Here’s a bunch of photos taken in and around Hong Kong.

Link to slideshow – Misc Hong Kong

Hong Kong Suburbs

One thing that amazes me about Hong Kong is how densely packed the population is.  The residential buildings are quite a site – very tall and so many buildings making up a single complex.  These photos taken were mostly in Po Lam, in the New Territories region of Hong Kong. 

Link to slideshow – Hong Kong Suburbs

BBQ at Bill’s

These photos were taken at a get together with Kammy’s grade school friends.  Cooking out isn’t much different in Hong Kong, just a few key differences: 1) Everyone cooks their own food - campfire style and 2) the variety of food is a bit different - squid and all kinds of good stuff.  Bill and Dorothy just built the house recently, it’s beautifully finished and has a fantastic view.

Link to slideshow – BBQ at Bills

Macau Trip – The Venetian Hotel July 5, 2008

We took a two day trip to Macau from Hong Kong.  Macau is becoming the “Vegas of Asia”, with many of the big casinos building there.  It’s one hour from Hong Kong by ferry, and is a very nice get away.  Like Vegas there is lots to do even if you don’t gamble, and also Macau itself is a very beautiful location with lots of history and good sightseeing there.

We stayed at the Venetian hotel which is based on the same hotel in Vegas.  To me it felt about three times the size of the Ventian in Vegas.  I did a search on the web to see how close I came and here’s what I found:  The 10.5 million-square-foot Venetian is twice the size of the Las Vegas original is the largest building in Asia and the second largest in the world. The largest building is a Boeing Co. plant in Washington state.

I do think that the shopping mall area is much bigger, probably by 3-4 times, we kept getting lost walking within the hotel.  Here’s some pictures of the hotel,  I’ll post more Macau pictures soon when I have some time.

The hotel is pretty amazing.  Only real drawback is that Macau is still a smoker friendly place.  The casino floor was very smokey, even the non-smoking tables seemed to have smokers standing around or sitting at the tables.  Other parts of the hotel were fine.  The restaurants seemed to have strong enough air conditioning that prevented the odd smoker from being too bothersome.

I remember seeing the Venetian in Vegas and being really impressed with all the details.  The hotel in Macau is also very impressive in it’s details.

Our room was very nice.

Reese and Evelyn walking through the shopping area.

 

Back to the hotel after lunch and shopping in Macau.

 

They have street performers in the hotel.  These dudes posed for a picture with Reese.

 

We thought it would be cute if Reese posed in front of this picutre of her namesake, Reese Witherspoon, in front of the Mont Blanc store.

Hong Kong July 5, 2008

 

Here’s the first post from Hong Kong with pictures from my first week. I am a little backlogged with lots of photos but not much time to sort through them and post yet. Look for more updates soon!

Before you wonder why there are so many pictures of Reese and none of Riley, I should explain that Riley left for Taiwan the day that I arrived in Hong Kong so he has not been here with us this past week.  He did take his camera with him and hopefully has plenty of pictures and stories to share as soon as we connect with him.  Oh and Kammy’s mom is still in Toronto, so no pictures of her either.  Kammy’s mom will be back in time to go with us to Japan.

Reese has been touring around with us which mostly involves shopping and eating.   Wherever we go there is always plenty of things to keep her interested.  As you see from the pictures here, she has been having plenty of fun.

Reese has spent some time with friends Natalie and Justin who live near Kammy’s Mom.  They made some very creative guns and knives out of paper.  Reese is writing a post for the blog about it and we have a video to post as well.

We passed by a pet store and Reese just had to go in to look at the cute puppy in the window.  The store owner’s cat was also cute too! 

The puppy really wanted to go home with us.  He barked and climbed the cage as we were about to leave.  Reese also wanted to take him him home.

Reese loves spending time with relatives that she does not get to see very often.  She is especially fond of Esther.

This is Esther’s family.  Uncle Tim is Kammy’s mom’s brother.  Missing from the photo is Esther’s brother Kevin who was at dinner with us but seated on the other side of table and unfortunately missed from the photo. 

 

Hong Kong is all about the food, and there are plenty of choices.  This seafood restaurant had a decent selection.
 

These big fish would make for a pretty big meal!
 

Reese was inspired by the tanks at the seafood restaurant to draw her own undersea world.
 
 

I always enjoy the wide variety of restaurants.  Not just the food but the wide variety of settings.  This restaurant had such a low ceiling with beams almost at shoulder height.
 
 

This Thai restaurant was my favorite on this trip so far.