Monday Miscellany

I'm going to go with a small set of pictures from our Hong Kong trip. I was going to give Lee a crack at these first, but she's being slow. Plus, she has lots of great photos taken with her new camera, so she'll put my poor photos to shame anyway.




















Two views of shopping streets in Hong Kong, which really is shopping heaven or hell, depending on how you look at it.
















A traditional-looking Chinese "Junk" in the harbor, except that it is actually a dressed-up tourist boat. In the background is Kowloon, which is the other, lesser known half of the city. "Hong Kong" itself is is on Hong Kong Island to the south (which is where I was when I took the photo).

















The city from Victoria Peak. This truly is one of the great views of all the world. Lee's new camera is much better at capturing a night scene that will do it justice, so wait for those photos.





















Two views of Ocean Park, a homegrown Hong Kong amusement park. They are really sprucing it up right now to compete with the newer Hong Kong Disneyland. We thought about taking the kids to the Disney park, but we heard from friends that it is really underdeveloped so far, and doesn't really have any rides for older kids (one of the guidebooks said to expect a "mutiny" if you tried to take teenagers).

The cable car/tram is really spectacular, and certainly not for anyone who is afraid of heights. It links the two halves of the park on opposite sides of a mountain. The roller coaster is "The Dragon". Everything in China is a dragon. Half of the international schools here have dragons for mascots, including ours. Sports tournaments are the Dragons vs. the Dragons, winner gets to play the Dragons. There are some teachers at our school who have pushed to change our mascot to "The Hairy Crabs", which are a local Suzhou delicacy from a nearby lake. It hasn't caught on.

Below are some more views of the roller coaster. It really looks like you are going to fly off of the end of the world. Unfortunately, Allyne is the only kid who will go on roller coasters with me.
















The final photos are from a daytrip to Macau, which was once a Portuguese colony. Now it is part of China, but is semi-autonomous, much in the same way Hong Kong is. It is also the only place in China with legal casinos, hence the hideous monstrosity of a hotel that you see below. Also pictured is the facade of a 16th century church, and Allyne and John at the fort near the harbor.