OUR TRIP TO THE LITTLE VILLAGE OF STANLEY - 40 MIN OUT HONG KONG.



This morning was our day to visit Stanley Village, a 40 minute bus ride out of Hong Kong.  Wouldn't you know it was raining, looking out the bus window is the view we see.  But with our adventures spirits, we hoped the sun would eventually come out.




By the time we got there, it was still raining a little, but we had our umbrella's.   Rita's wasn't covering her shoulders, so the first
thing they did was buy Rita a new one, see the difference in the two pictures.   This is the little village of Stanley.  It once was a quiet fishing village, but this seaside town became popular for it's markets and beaches.  It is geared to tourists.  Use to tourist they  speak better English and stock many souvenirs and Chinese gifts.




It's markets are fairly small spreading along just two streets covered well keeping both rain and  sun at bay.




Rita and I had fun going through all the stores looking for bargains and gifts to bring home.  I found some beautiful lace handkerchief's and a table top runner.  I loved the red lanterns decorating the stores.  Derek sorta wandered through, I'm not sure if he bought any thing. 




Here is the cove and a beach, with hotels above.  It's a beautiful area, if you wanted to have a weekend here, or honeymoon.




More of the other part of town above, below I loved this  wall that had the saying about Stanley Village.




On the way back to Hong Kong our bus was coming back and we came up on this accident.  Our bus driver got out to go over and see what he could do.  He called the police and they were there in minutes.  Before we could leave the traffic backed up a mile away coming up the hill, we had no traffic going down.



June 15 - in Hong Kong continues.

Some the boats in the bay, above you see the Ferry boat it goes back and forth across the bay from the Island of Hong Kong to Kowloon main land.  It was because of Hong Kong's magnificent natural harbour that ships first anchored here in the 19th century and created a base for trade with China.  Sailors were on hand to
pull the Ferry boats ashore to unload passengers.



As rode the Big bus around that day these are some of the pictures
I took of the busy street and people shopping.




Our destination this afternoon was this tourist attraction The Ritz Carlton Hotel, it's the tallest building around with 100 storeys high.  At the top is an observation area.   We found we had to pay $20. to ride the elevator up, so the next pictures you see are about  what we saw from the top.




As we entered the top, we walked down this hall, and this is what we saw under the glass floor, images of the city buildings.




I and Rita stepped into this colored diagram of the city and had our picture taken, here we are on top of the world.




The first picture shows the Peak Tower, I discovered it in one of my other pictures, so crop it, so you could see it from a distance, it is on the Hong Kong side.  The next picture is looking over to the hotel we are staying, it's above that conference center turtle looking building.  The next picture show how low the other building look from the top of the Ritz.  The last one is looking
south, behind the mountains and beyond.  Today was Rita's birthday, so after a all day sight seeing trip around Hong Kong, she wanted to go to dinner at an "Out Back" restaurant, they found one.  The last really good Western meal we had for two weeks.



June 15 2011 VISIT PEAK TOWER IN HONG KONG

We are heading up to the Peak Tower on the Tram, it is located at Victoria Gap, the Tram runs between the Peak and the Terminus on Garden Road close by the Central MTR Station.



This what we see as we look out the window of
as we ride up the tram to the Peak.

 

We saw this wedding couple who were on their way to the top
for pictures.  Look at their friend holding the flowers.  We were about to get off the tram.

 

Rita and Derek pose for a picture over looking
Hong Kong Island.

 

Derek takes my picture with Rita, so show that
that we were there, it is magnificent view, at least
the scenery behind us.

 

I thought this made a interesting picture of Rita.

 

We walked down way and this Artist had his
paintings displayed.

 

I love the red boat picture, we kept seeing a boat like it in the bay, but the sails weren't that red.




We see this Lion, most hotels and places have them,
they are protectors and symbol of peace.

 

At the top we find a little shop that attracted our 
attention. Derek was looking for something he needed.





Inside the Peak Tower is array of restaurants, shops
and is set against the beautiful back drop of the city.
It stands 428 meters  above sea level.  Back in 1868 the
Governor Sir Richard McDonnell had his summer home up
on this peak to take advantage of the cooler, but humid air.
Soon other wealthy residents followed suit.  Many traversed up and down the steep peak by Sedan Chair, carried by their personal staff, only the well off was allowed to go up there, but that ended in 1947.  When the governor at that time had a tram built to go up there.  The Peak now attracts some 7 million visitors a year, its a top tourist destination. 

  

Rita stands in the model of one of the trams.

 

At the top they had this little fresh market of kinds 
vegetable and fruit.

 

Rita and I went in this store to look at their Kimono.
Really pretty aren't they.

 

As come down off the tram we see this cute little building
among all the high rise ones.



JUNE 13 - WE TAKE A TOUR OF KOWLOON, CHINA.

Below in the harbour we see this Cruise ship,  I thought it was the Ferry boat at first, there is one that goes back and forth between Kowloon, and the Island of Hong Kong.  They also have some tunnels now. We decided to go on a bus tour to see the city.  Derek talked to the hotel desk clerks to locate one, they referred us to a young lady over in a section of the hotel just for that purpose and she told us about "THE BIG BUS TOUR"  we bought tickets from her and she directed us where to get on the Ferry to go to Casway Bay to get the bus. 



Down by the ferry we saw this golden flower,
so we had to get our picture by it.





Here we are on the big bus, as you see Rita on
upper deck of the bus, so we have a good view.

 

We see this beautiful building, so Chinese.

 


Derek finds a news paper to put over his head, so he won't burn his head.  I loved seeing some trees or bushes with flowers on.

 

We are enjoying the breeze and seeing all the tall buildings.

 

We are in center of Kowloon now, that's why I took the picture.

 

As you can see I am busy taking pictures.  Well Rita and Derek are too.

 

Her I am taking more pictures, Rita takes my picture.

 


Here we are riding along the Casway bay

 

They are loaded with tall buildings, when Loren & I
were in here in 1990 Kowloon didn't have these tall
building, it has changed so much.



I love the saying on this building, hope you can read it.



This is a different kind of building.

 

We had ear phones to listen to the narration, they told
us about the area and what were in some of the big building.
It was a very interesting tour.  Our tickets were good for two days.

June 13, 2011 - Leaving with Rita & Derek for Hong Kong to pick up John from Mission

Here Rita and I sitting in the airport waiting for Derek
to park his car in the parking lot, we are excited for our
be adventure.



Me with my sweater on, it gets cold on the plane,
we got through the electronic search, didn't get patted
down.  A big group of missionaries were there going
to the Philippine's. 

 

Here Derek and Rita sit waiting to get on the Delta
Airline flight.  We were to board the plane about
one p.m  we didn't load until about 1:50.  the plane
didn't get far and they announced that a light come on
so we had to go back to the area of the gas pumps to
have it checked out, so that took an hour.  Rita had
her Ipad and played games on it.  Derek was nice and
let me sit by her.   We were in the first class section.
We finally got off around 3:30. 

 

Here Rita and sit, in the nice comfortable seats.

 

The first coarse of our meal, we were very hungry
but by the time we got to the dessert we were rather
full, they serve way to much food in first class.

 

We landed at 5: 50 p.m in the afternoon Japan time,
back in Orem it is it is 2:45 a.m.  We landed in a little
town called Narita, we could see a sculpture letter of
 the name in plants..  We talked to the girl who served us
breakfast, her name was Rika.  She had a friend named Rita.

 

This is the plane we got on in Japan, it is a 
first class plane too.  Never seen a plane with
seats like this, each has a cubicle, Derek is in
the seat on the next row.  Rita and I had fun
taking pictures of each other.   It was about
7 p.m here in Japan before we took off for
 Hong Kong.  They served us dinner, I wasn't
hungry, because they feed us breakfast on
the plane just before we landed.  The flight
was smooth and we slept a little.   

 

Rita completely relaxed and enjoying her meal



Here we are in Hong Kong, save and sound.
We had to go through Emigration, get our Passport
and Visa stamped.   The air port was about 25
 milesfrom down Town Hong Kong.  We were going
 to take the rail way express, but Derek thought it
would be easier for us all to just take a taxi,
after all we had been traveling for 24 hours.

 

Here is Derek and Rita looking pretty
chipper.  Not to tired from the trip.

 

That airport was a large place, we had alot luggage.

 

Here Derek is registering at the Marriott Hotel
there in Hong Kong.  It was along shore drive.

 

This is the view from our hotel window, what
you see below is a convention center, beyond
is Kowloon.  We are on the Island of Hong Kong.

 

We see the Victoria Harbour out our hotel 
this is the next morning.  It doesn't look like
it did, when Loren & I were here in 1990, so
many high rise buildings have been built.

 

This is looking the west side of Hong Kong,
the tall building you see is the Carlton Ritz,
a 100 stories, well tell you more about it, when
we went to the top and looked around.