Hong Kong Disney pictures

Here is our group icture in front of the castle. You can always tell that it is Hong Kong Disney because of the hill to the side of the castle. The p;icture to the left shows the employee standing there with his neck badge and the disney pins on it. I am off to bed - we have to be up at 4:00 for an early flight to Bangkok. Good night - see you in Bangkok!

Hong Kong Disney report

June 3rd - still our anniversary!

It rains continually here in Hong Kong - with just a few minutes of dry weather - and you hope that there is a breeze to dry your clothes off. It is only 68 degrees - but there is 100% humidity. My skin feels wonderful, but I look like the pits! We had our business visit with Disney today - and it was wonderful. It is a very small Disney - that is why it is cheap. Not many people there and when it rains - and, their rain is a down pour - the rides continue. Everyone is soaked there. I did find out that we need to buy all the kids one of those neck straps that companies put their name badges on (landlears?) - and buy them some disney pins and have them pin them on the neck strap. Because it is Disney policy that all of their employees wear them and when they are in the park - guests in the park can go up to them and ask them to trade their pins away. The guest gets to pick which pin they want from the employee - and then the guest gives them one of the pins on their necklace. The employees are required to do at least 2 trades a day. I was hoping that we would go by a store in disney and I was going to buy 7 and 14 pins - but we didn't have time. That business visit was the best and we could have stayed all day - it was so interesting. Noble Cocker is the one that did the tour and he is the 3rd man down at Hong Kong Disney. He is a BYU undergrad graduate and has been with Disney for 7 years and loves it! He reminded me a lot of Andy - the way that he talked and told stories - with enthusiasm. We are packing tonight for Bangkok. If you are ever in Hong Kong - you have to stay at the Renaissance in Kowloon Peninsula. It is wonderful! The breaksfasts at all of the hotels so far have been terrific. We won't have time for the breakfast buffet tomorrow morning - so they will box up breakfast for us. The last time we had that in Japan - it was really a lunch - because they eat lunch stuff for breakfast. Dad ate mine and his!

We took the subway to the Lady's market tonight. We are becoming really good at the subway. The subways here are beautiful! Nothing like DC or New York. All the way to the subway - they have shops. 7-11 stores, Starbucks and lots of clothing stores. You would never guess you are underground. Someone said that you can just go underground - and never surface until you go back to your apartment at night. And it is cool and dry underground! Hong Kong seems like a really nice place to live - if you can survive without a car - and with all of the people. Beautiful flowers and trees!

House boats in Hong Kong

We took a tour yesterday and saw some houseboats that people live in and have lived there all their lives. They could be parked right next to a million dollar house boat. The million dollar houseboat is how I always pictured myself living in - not the other. Here it is:

Here is the other picture of the laser show from behind us - the side of the island we are staying on. Someday - I hope to be better at this blog posting!

Laser show from the other side

June 3rd: Our 37th anniversary by the way! Last night in Hong Kong, we watched a laser show that they do every night at 8:00. It lasts for about 15 minutes. First the PA introduces each building that will be participating and that building lights up. The buildings are located on both sides of the coast (remember that these are all individual islands and you take ferrys to each of the 23 islands that are inhabited). So the laser show was across the water and behind us. Here is a picture of the laser show behind us:




And here is a picture of the laser show that we were watching across the water – it was amazing. Today we are going to visit the business Disney but we aren’t going to go in the park. It has been raining here – and dad has an appointment with the Church Office Building in Hong Kong which is on the other island where this picture is taken. We are staying in Kowloon peninsula. We will meet back at the hotel and go to the Temple – which is on this side (I think). We met up with Dick Smith at breakfast and he was headed to the Church Office Building – so dad is tagging along with them. Dad was going to take the ferry and it would take 2 hours. Dick said he is taking the subway and it only takes 40 minutes. So that made me feel better. Tomorrow we go to Bangkok. This place is way,way busy and very, very humid. Needless to say, I’ve had to give up on my hair.

Hong Kong

Finally - we have internet access in the room. We are in Hong Kong and it is absolutely beautiful. Very foggy and wet - apparently it has been raining for 2 days non-stop. It wasn't raining when we arrived - but very, very humid. This is actually the first day on the trip that it has been hot. We arrived yesterday - Sunday, June 1st. We got here about 4:00 Sunday afternoon - dropped luggage off at the hotel, and then walked to where we could catch the ferry, took a gondola ride up to Vitoria Peak. Then we could see the entire city. The peak has a huge mall at the top. We ate at a restaurant - we got a hamburger and it was $70.00 in US money. We will not eat at a restaurant again - it is too expensive!
We are staying at the New Work Rnaissance - which is owned by Marriott and it is gorgeous. While we were coming back last night on the ferry, we ran into 2 from the Marriott School - Dean Ned Hill and Jim Engebretsen. I think there are 1.3 Million people in the city - and we ran into those 2. Kelsey and I are on the hunt this morning for a laundromat. The hotel said there is one around the corner from the hotel. We've been washing clothes out in the sinks and tubs and hanging them in the shower. Then when they clean our room, they always leave the instructions for allowing the hotel to wash our clothes - but at the hotel, it is very expensive. They probably think - if they can afford to stay in this hotel, they should be able to pay someone to do their laundry (little do they know).

If you could take the good from each country - and put it into your "perfect" country - I would take the friendlyness, the reverence and respect from Japan, the beauty of the chinese culture from Beijing and the uniqueness of the people in Hong Kong. We have seen some amazing places on this trip - and we still can't believe that we are here. Today we are visiting 2 companies in the morning and then on to Stanley's market.

The students love the luggage tags of the grandkids - they comment on that all the time. It has been hard for those who have spouses - because they miss their kids. But those who didn't bring their spouses - now wish that they would have done so.

This is a wonderful group of students and it has been a very spiritual experience for me to be among them on this trip. Sacrament meeting in the hotel yesterday was incredible. It was fast and testimony meeting - from start to finish it was 35 minutes - and very spiritual and uplifting. I just kept thinking of all of the students that come fronm all over the world to attend BYU - some leaving their country for the very first time. I cried all the way to the airport leaving Beijing. Our tour guide Vivian has never left China - and here we are seeing 4 countries. How really blesses we are. Give all the kids a kiss. Love you, Mom