Ok, Hong Kong- Part 3. Last one, I swear!

Ok, so the almost 700 pictures became too much for just 2 blogs, so here we are, number 3, the last one on Hong Kong, I swear. We saw a lot of stuff, ok?? :)

Alright, we left off at the end of day 4 with the amazing firework display.
Day 5 was left a bit open for exploring the city and seeing some things we hadn't yet. So, we decided to hop on a tour bus and have a look around.

Thankfully, it was a gorgeous day and we were able to get on the open top of the tour bus. Unfortunately, Soph and Coop were not too thrilled with riding a bus around. While Ben and I were trying to listen to the tour, they were whining and being restless. At least we tried!

Here's Cooper not feeling it... :)

Some of the amazing views of downtown Hong Kong-

Our view from the top of the bus-

A few stops in, we got off to go check out a really old church and then ended up missing the bus bc we couldn't find a bathroom!! So, we had some ice cream and hung out for 30 minutes while awaiting the next bus. It wasn't all easy and sunshiny like I'm describing it, but we got through it.

Down many alleys you could see makeshift shops set up selling anything from food to clothes.

Soph and Momma soaking up some rays-

The last time I saw Hollywood, it was in the sunny streets of LA and the place was full of expensive everything. It's a bit different in Hong Kong, however... :)

This is Hollywood Road in Hong Kong. :)

After walking around a while, exploring the streets and buying some things (Christmas ornaments from a streetside vendor and a hair decoration that Soph uses as a magic wand), we were hungry and needed a rest. Everything looked very Chinesey and we knew the kids were going to melt soon. We came across this coffee shop we weren't familiar with, but thought we'd try it out. Hen Hao (very good)!! Paninis and smoothies and yogurts. Just what we needed. Thank you, Lord!

From there we hopped back on the bus and made our way home. A short swim later and we were back up in the room having some down time. I happened to look out the hotel window and looked down to see oe of the tour buses we had been on that day so I thought I'd get an arial view of it.

I can't remember what we did for dinner that night but afterwards we headed out to the pier for our nighttime ferry cruise. Our friends, the Lawlers, had suggested we try out the Aqua Luna to show us the Hong Kong skyline. It's an old boat that was refurbished- it looks like a pirate ship so Sophie was so excited to go on it!

Oh man, this picture isn't as good as I'd hoped. This was a picture of the boat we went on. They had the sails lit up with red lights to make it look even cooler. :)

This was on the top of the ship. They had these big couch-type areas where we could hang out and look at the skyline. They were playing this very relaxing music and it was warm outside. Just perfect

Cooper was not interested in the view at first (hence Dora) but Sophie loved exploring the boat.

Soph and I with the Hong Kong skyline-

Some views of the skyline-

 Man, these are darker than I'd hoped. Another skyline view-

One more. I actually think I like the Hong Kong skyline better than the Shanghai one....

Vander Ploeg family pic!

The boat dropped us off on the mainland, Kowloon, bc we wanted to see the light show set to music that we'd heard about. What an epic fail! We waited for 30 minutes (a lot with tiny kids), and then this super cheesy music came on and a few buildings lit up and that was it. Booo...

So, bc it was such a disappointment we hopped on a transport ferry and made our way back home. This is known as the Star Ferry and is the main mode of transportation from Hong Kong Island to the mainland for workers going from one place to the other. Very cheap and did the job!
We found out that night that the night before (the night of the fireworks) there had been a massive ferry crash on the south side of Hong Kong island. It was the worst ferry crash there in something like 40 years. Many people died, including some children. It was a very big story there and was really sad as the boat that sank had been rented out by a company and had it's workers and their families on it celebrating the festival.

Another late night and we were heading home the next day after seeing the Big Buddha. So busy!

So, the next morning we grabbed some coffeeshop breakfast and headed into downtown. We were able to get our luggage checked into our flight early there and then took a highspeed train to the airport. From there we took a taxi to the bottom of the big buddha mountain where we were going to take a tram to the top. But, the line was long and our time was short so we hopped on a bus that took us to the top. Yup, that's a train, taxi, and bus so far. And we're not done yet with today's travels, my friends...

Here's the big buddha from a distance-

At the bottom- 300 steps to the top, baby. Oy. Off we go...

Almost to the top- this thing was huge!

At the top- the view of the surrounding mountains. So pretty!

After walking around the statue and looking around, we were all really hot! Nothing ice cream can't fix...

On the way down we needed a rest so we thought we'd take a picture of our little man with his 'big buddha' belly. :)

This was taken from over by the monastery looking across the grounds.

So, we ended up having a bit of extra time so we thought we'd take the arial tram back down over the mountains. The kids (and us) loved it!

Part of the journey on the tram.

Once the tram ride was done, it was another taxi ride to the airport and then the flight home. Once we got home we took a quick ride around in the tuk tuk just so we could say that in 24 hours we rode a boat, a taxi, a train, a bus, an arial tram, a plane and a tuk tuk. Ha! The only thing missing was like a camel or something. :) Hee hee. We're dorks. :)

Whew! I am exhausted!!! So that was Hong Kong. 6 packed days and we loved all of it. It was so much further ahead than Shanghai in terms of the developing world. English was even a common language there and all the food was so great. If any of you get a chance, I would definitely visit there!