National Holiday in Hong Kong

This past week was the Chinese National holiday and I got a whopping 5 days off from work. It coincided perfectly with James needing to leave the country in order to renew his visa so we headed to one of our favorite places, Hong Kong.

We love getting to go on the tarmac : )

Since flying directly in to Hong Kong can be so expensive, especially during holidays, we fly in to Shenzhen instead. Shenzhen is on the China/Hong Kong border and when you arrive its easy to take a bus or the metro in to Hong Kong.

The toilet above was at the airport in Shenzhen.Apparently sitting down while you go to the bathroom is only for the weak.The strong can squat like all good Chinese people do.There was actually a line for the bathroom but none of them wanted to use this stall so I went ahead and did. Seven months in China and I'm still weak.

After we arrived in Hong Kong and checked in to our hostel, we headed to the "Goldfish Market". It was really cool getting to see walls of fish. They had all kinds of different tropical fish, turtles, crabs, shrimp, jelly fish, etc. Surprisingly there were also a lot of people there buying the fish, not just tourists like us who were just there to look.

After walking around for awhile we had to stop and get a snack. These buns are a Hong Kong specialty and they are amazing. We actually have a place in Hangzhou that makes them too but the one pictured above was the best I've had. They are basically a warm,soft,sweet roll that is cut in half and stuffed with cold butter that melts as you eat it.So good!

This guy was not amused that I was trying to take his picture.He actually picked up the meat cleaver when I pointed the camera at him. That night we stayed at a hostel that we have stayed at every time we have come to Hong Kong. Since the prices had been raised though we decided to stay in the cheapest room which has 21 beds. It actually wasn't as bad as we thought it would be since they were bunk beds stacked 3 high. We were also both so tired after getting up at 5am and traveling that we fell right to sleep. The next morning we naturally headed to the Happiest Place in Hong Kong : )

Mickey Mouse made out of Pumpkins

They had done some decorating for Halloween which was nice to see since they don't really do anything for Halloween in China. It was definitely a little eerie to see this guy looming in front of the castle though. They had also put up tombstones and a few of them had pictures of kids on them which is something I don't think they would approve in Anaheim. 

Another thing you would never see in Anaheim is the preferred snack of Hong Kong Disney that is pictured above.Instead of churros they sell squid jerky,mmmmmm. You can actually watch them take pieces of fresh squid and send them through this machine that cooks and flattens them.I always feel bad for the cast members that get stuck with this job because it smells like you would expect squid to smell as its being cooked in to something that resembles a car tire.

This time we also got the chance to see the Lion King show which was really great. Before we had always just passed by it because we didn't think it would be that good but I was very pleasantly surprised. It was basically a shortened version of the story but included all the music as well fire dancing and an acrobatics piece that was beautiful.The show was in English but they had these guys dressed as monkey's who would translate key plot points in to Cantonese which was pretty funny.

We still haven't seen the parade either but this was pretty adorable.They went through the crowd to find little girls who were dressed as princesses and then let them sit in a special area with princess umbrellas. I haven't seen this in Anaheim before but maybe they should try it. Fortunately it wasn't crowded at all so we got to do everything we wanted to do by mid afternoon and decided to try and take a ferry to one of Hong Kong's surrounding islands.

The island that we went to was called Lamma Island and it only took about half an hour to get there on a ferry from the central pier. 

We had a lot of fun exploring and checking out the main street.They had lots of really cute shops and restaurants. It also seemed like there were quite a few Westerners that lived there,probably because its a lot cheaper than the main island. Since we got there late in the day we didn't have time to go to the beach and so decided we would come back on our last day.

The next day we went to see the Big Buddah (actually what they call it in English). The package they sell includes a cable car ride to the Buddah which is gorgeous since you go past lush green hills and the ocean. They also have a cable car that has a glass bottom but we are waiting to try that one when my Dad comes. 

 The weather was perfect which was awesome since last time we were here it was ridiculously hot.The sign below was outside of a monastery near the Buddah. We wondered what they would do if you walked in with a beer and a burger.Throw you off the Big Buddah?

The climb up to the Buddah was so much nicer this time without the extreme heat and I even made friends with this little guy. Every time I tried to touch him he would start batting at me with his little arms and take a defensive pose which was pretty cute. He was in the middle of the steps to the top but with a little nudging I got him to safety.

After the Buddah we took the bus to Tai O which is a nearby fishing village. On the way we came across several cows who were crossing the street. The road was really curvy and the bus driver was going really fast. He had to make some pretty sudden stops for the cows which made me wonder how often they don't stop in time. Once we got to the fishing village we got to take a boat tour which was fun.

 We were on the lookout for pink dolphins but didn't spot any this time. There were a lot of boats out on the water because of the holiday so the dolphins were probably hiding further out.

Tai O is famous for their dried fish so the whole town smells like it. You eventually get used to it though and its pretty interesting to see all of the different kinds hanging in all the stores.

We explored the village a lot more extensively than we did last time which was great because there was a lot to see and smell. We went on a really pretty hike along the coast of the island and found where they make another famously smelly product: Shrimp paste. That's right, shrimp ground up in to a bright pink paste. I could handle the smell of the dried out fish but the shrimp paste was in a whole different league of stench. 

I have video of them actually grinding it up which I will have to post on youtube. I thought the Disney cast members who make the squid jerky had a smelly job until I saw this poor lady. Can you imagine spreading shrimp paste on to bamboo disks all day so that it can bask in the sun and become even smellier than it already is?

 After a lovely but smelly time spent exploring Tai O I couldn't resist stopping by Disneyland one last time. The day before we had left early and I really wanted to see the lights at night.

Lucky for us there was nobody there. We stayed until nine when they closed and for the whole last hour we didn't have to wait for any of the rides.

This is us on one of the rides we like in Toy Story land. We were the only ones there so we had them take a picture for us. We also had a nice dinner at the Tahitian Terrace in Adventureland which has a great tropical atmosphere thanks to Hong Kong's natural landscape. We even got to see the fireworks which was really nice. And this guy looked extra creepy lit up at night : )

 The next day we had a late night flight so we had time to go back to Lamma island for the beach. I have really been missing the beach here and we got lucky again with perfect weather. I had looked up the weather a few days before we left and it said that it would be raining with thunderstorms the whole time but instead it was sunny and clear the whole time which was great.

The beach was really nice and not crowded at all. We brought our bathing suites and thought it was hillarious that most of the Chinese people were swimming in their clothes or just dipping their feet in. I felt like I was stepping on to a beach in the early 1900's wearing a bikini.

I didn't care though because the water was so warm and perfect. They also had a barrier in the water so that fish couldn't get in which made us feel safer knowing that Jaws wouldn't be bothering us. We were sad to leave but had a great time and cant wait to go back in February : )