Day 44: Final Day in Hong Kong

 

This morning we went to Chinese Arts and Crafts, a store I'd briefly read about where I thought we could pick up some Chinese items for our home.  We experienced sticker shock as we realized the least expensive item in the store was 3,000 USD with some items costing over $5,000,000!  Our shopping excursion quickly turned into a museum, eyes only experience and we loved it.  Next stop was a Vietnamese restaurant called Nha Trang.  We showed up five minutes before they opened and there was already a line...a good sign!  We were not disappointed.  All six of the dishes we ordered were amazing, made with fresh vegetables and unique spices such as lemongrass.  The kids loved it too.  None of us had ever had Vietnamese food and we are hooked!  Our plan for the afternoon was to hit the goldfish market, the flower market and then see the Hong Kong LDS temple.  No one warned us that traffic and the crowds on Saturdays are pure insanity.  We only made it to a produce market, the goldfish market then threw in the towel and headed for the airport.  Walking the streets of Hong Kong with our luggage was one of the craziest things I've ever done.  Hong Kong streets make New York City seem like a ghost town!  We were bummed to miss the temple but happy to enter the relative calm of the airport. 

Day 43: Language Barriers, Parks, and Egg Rolls

A real playground!  We hadn't seen one of these for a long time.

Monkeys galore

We thought we might melt

"Reptile House."  I think.

Beautiful gardens in the middle of the city

--> Jacob had to work this morning so the kids and I ventured out without him.  We hailed a cab and told the driver we wanted to go to Hong Kong Park.  Unfortunately the driver only spoke five words of English; Hong, Kong, or park were not three of them.  He had me use his walkie-talkie and I tried my three words on the taxi operator.  We all wondered nervously where we'd actually end up.  He dropped us off at the Botanical Gardens and Zoological Park (hey, close enough!) and it was great.  Monkeys galore, a beautiful fountain that we wanted to swan dive into, and beautiful plants and flowers were the highlights.  We caught a cab back, but I realized as I tried to explain where "back" was that I didn't exactly know.  I knew the road and the cross streets but he needed a street number.  He was so friendly and was obviously relieved when we found the Starbucks where Jacob was working.

In the afternoon we got on the MTR which took us under the harbor to Nan Lian Garden, an incredibly serene and picturesque garden.  Connected to the garden was a stunning monastery.  It was closed to tourists but the exteriors and the koi ponds alone made us feel like we'd left behind the busy, western city and arrived in the heart of China for awhile.
We caught a cab to the Temple Street Market.  The boys picked out small golden Chinese dragons and Anna chose a jade elephant for their souvenirs of Hong Kong.  Lucy went with chopsticks.  I had read about a highly-recommended northern Chinese food restaurant and after searching long and hard we found the narrow staircase that led to it.  It opened up to a large dining room packed with only Chinese people.  I felt like all eyes were on us as we were shown to our table.  We had no idea what to order so I leaned back and ventured to ask the family with children next to us what they recommended for kids.  I got lucky because they spoke English and recommended some amazing items on the menu.  Egg rolls, orange chicken, pot stickers, fried apples, and a few unknown dishes were are delectable.  We rolled out of the restaurant and took another cab under the harbor and back to the M.A. (mini-apartment).

Day 42: Ocean Park

Happy, hot camper

Ocean Park is located on top of a mountain with incredible views on all sides

Beautiful reprieve in the middle of the amusement park

View from the Ferris Wheel.

We had too little time in Thailand;  we could have stayed for two weeks and loved every minute.  I didn't want to make the same mistake in Hong Kong so I booked us for four full days.  After day one we were wondering what we could possibly do for that long with kids.  The problem had nothing to do with a lack of things to do.  The problems were 1-the crazy-high cost of everything, 2-the intense summer heat and 3-we were all petering out on playing tourists, especially in a big city.  We shook it up by hitting Ocean Park, a huge amusement park just outside of the city.  It was actually reasonably priced (cheaper than Hong Kong Disney), and the kids loved it.  The heat and the lines made you want to cry (Jacob at one point in the day declared he would never go to an amusement park again) but the kids all claim it was one the highlights of the whole Asian experience!

Day 41: Hong Kong-Victoria Peak and Junk Boat

At night the kids go to bed, Jacob goes to work, and I play travel agent.  I found $75 round-trip tickets to Hong Kong and couldn't get them out of my head.    Only a two-hour flight away and China was calling our names.  We booked them for our last weekend in Asia.  It must have been really late at night when I booked the flights because I scheduled us to leave at 7:15 A.M. from Clark Airport, 1 1/2 hours away without traffic 9 and there is almost always traffic).  We woke up at 4 A.M. and got on our way.  As the plane descended we could see the famous Hong Kong skyline and it was amazing.  We took a very clean and efficient train to our AirBnB apartment I found online.  The apartment's hallway was a cultural experience in and of itself.  The ceilings were about 6 feet high and smells of Chinese food (good and bad) permeated the place.  The apartment had a tiny kitchen/living room area with two tiny bedrooms, and a toilet/sink/shower room where you stood next to the toilet, turned on the shower and everything got drenched.  A first for me!  At least the apartment was clean, fit all of us, and saved us a grundle of money in one of the world's most expensive city.


We dropped our luggage and walked next door to a noodle shop where we ate some very authentic Hong Kong food:  dumpling soup, fried veggies on noodles, and other unidentifiable foods.  It was all decent and our hungry kids gobbled it up (they've learned to eat what they get on this trip).  We had to get the spunky server in the picture!

 

We walked from there on cool elevated pedestrian walkways to the tram which took us up to Victoria Peak.  We were all tired of getting our pictures taken, evidenced by the quality of many of the photos for this trip! 

We decided to walk down instead of take the tram.  When we started getting attacked by mosquitoes and the heat overwhelmed us, we hailed a cab to the waterfront.

We took a ferry across the harbor which divides Hong Kong in two.  All websites recommended taking a Junk Boat ride so walked to the port, paid, and got on.  Men dressed in pirate attire helped us on board and we sailed out into the harbor, techno-Chinese music pumping from hidden speakers.  As the sun started to set, the sky scrapers lit up one by one.  Stunning!

We deboarded, found a McD's, I'm sorry to say, because we knew it was safe and cheap (did I mention Hong Kong is EXPENSIVE?).  We took our dinner back to the harbor and ate it while watching the famous laser light show on the sky scrapers.  A ferry and cab ride took us back to our mini-apartment and appreciated beds.

Day 37: Good-bye to the Beach and Chocolate Hills

Breakfast at the Anatasila

Anna and the Starfish

Quite the variety!

Jacob and Samuel, snorkeling buddies

Typical huts along the road in the jungle

The crew in the jungle

The thought of leaving our beach paradise to return to the city made us all want to cry.  We woke up early on Saturday, ate a quick breakfast, and headed to the beach for one last time.  Jacob, Anna, Samuel and William expertly put on their snorkel gear and swam out to sea.  They spotted jelly fish, a lion fish (most poisonous fish in the sea, oh my!), and starfish of all kinds!  Anna brought back a selection of her findings and had me snap a photo before putting them back in the water.  Lucy, who had had enough of snorkeling, and I built a sandcastle and decorated it with seashells.  It was promptly washed away.  After a couple of hours we dragged ourselves up to our room, showered, packed, and headed towards the Chocolate Hills that Bohol is famous for.  We had hired a tour guide, a man who had graduated from the island's naval academy in engineering but made more in the tourism industry (about 50 USD a day).  We dug the seat belts out of the crevices of the van and drove about an hour uphill through the jungle.  As we pulled into the parking lot what must have been a monsoon arrived.  This Utah desert girl had left our umbrellas back in Manila but we made a dash for the lookout spot anyway.  It was a view worth getting soaked for.  Then it was back to the van for a beautiful jungle drive to the airport.

Day 36: Snorkel Time

Friday morning we grabbed our snorkels and headed down to the beach to meet our captain, a Filipino version of Jack Sparrow.  The lovely white banca boat took us an hour away to Balicasag, a small island that's all about snorkeling and diving.  We got of the big banca boat and got on a much smaller one, driven by our snorkeling guide, Allan.  This man has been voted the Munns' Family Favorite Filipino.  He spoke about ten English words which he repeated over and over.  "RELAX!"  "BALANCE!" "One by One!"  "Swimming?"  "Careful baby the mask,"he admonished me repeatedly as I swam in the water, holding Lucy's rejected mask and snorkel.  He knew his stuff, taking us right to a gold mine of fish and handing us bread to feed them.  We saw parrot fish, a lion fish, rainbow fish, sea turtles, clown fish.  All the kids got into it, even Lucy who caught on quickly.  White sand, blue water, sunny skies.  Dreamy!

Days 35: Bohol's Beautiful Beach

So many people had told us that the Philippines are beautiful, but after a month in the city I just wasn't feeling it.  On Thursday we decided very last-minute (as in a half-hour before we left!) to go to Bohol, an island in the central part of the Philippines.  Best decision we've ever made! Okay, behind getting married and having our kids :).  Jacob booked us a place at Amarela, a lovely resort right on the white, sandy beach.  Upon arriving we dropped our bags, pulled out our swimsuits, and headed straight for the beach.  Look at what we found!  I can now honestly say that the Philippines are beautiful!

Chocolate Chip Starfish!

They were everywhere!

Beach Buddies.

It got dark way too early (around 6:30)!

This woman was cutting open sea urchins with a huge machete and draining the juices into a bottle. We couldn't figure out the purpose but thought it was cool anyway.

Days 28-33: Week of Service

Lucy and Will hand out bubbles and balls to a line of children at the LDS church 

Three boys blowing their bubbles as we drove away.

Jason taps heads in Duck, Duck, Goose.

Will and his new buddy, Jason.

Orphan children playing Name that Animal.

Sam and Rico (proudly showing his finger puppets) at the Mabuhay House.

Jenissa (who is receiving jaw surgery) and Rico (club foot surgery patient).

Anna, Samuel, and Nico.

Jacob and I had three goals for our family on this trip: 1-Grow closer as a family through a simplified life and lots (oh, lots!) of together time. 2-Teach children gratitude for their abundance of blessings and 3-Give meaningful service.  I felt like the first two goals were happening just by being here but that we hadn't done much to accomplish the third.  Upon returning from Thailand we all kind of hit the wall.  Being in a naturally beautiful place made it hard to return to the big, dirty, park-less city.  School started for all the kids here while we were gone so we were now on our own.  We decided it would be a good week to do service, and the need couldn't be greater with all the flooding.  We kicked off the week on Saturday going to the grocery store and buying toiletries for flood victims.  We dropped them off at the home of a ward member who was collecting them then headed to a poor part of town called Taguig.  After driving through winding, garbage-strewn, narrow streets and finally hiring a taxi to show us the way, we pulled into a small LDS church where 21 families were staying as there homes were under water.  Our kids handed out bubbles, bouncy balls and small gospel pictures to 30 eager children who had nothing but the clothes on their backs.  It was hard to see and we did so little for people who need so much.  They thanked us with their smiles and we were back on the road.

On Tuesday we caught a cab to an orphanage about 45 minutes away in the hills of suburban Manila.  We received warm welcomes from friend and orphanage teacher, Beth Potter (from Soccer Academy) and ten orphan children ranging from eight to twelve.  They were so excited to have us there and were absolutely darling.  The kids all decorated cupcakes and then devoured them.  Anna showed them how to play Duck, Duck, Goose and Ring-Around-the-Rosy.  We taught them "Give Said the Little Stream" and then they sang "I Will Always Love You" (Whitney Houston is huge here) for us.  A boy named Abeth who had been brought in off the streets a week earlier belted out an impressive version of ABBA's "Dancing Queen."  My kids were really sad to leave as they'd all become fast friends.  I'm hoping we can get back there one more time before we come home.

Thursday Anna, Samuel and I walked to a nearby church member, Pauline's home and caught a ride to the Mabuhay House, a home where people go before and after receiving free surgeries for cataracts, cleft lip and palettes, club feet and burn contractions.  The organization began in 1986 by a former mission president and they now do over 15,000 surgeries every year in 20 countries.  Simply remarkable.  Pauline told me it only costs $35 to perform the cleft palette surgery here but many could never afford that.  We decorated cookies with the children and colored finger puppets.  I remarked to Pauline about what meticulous artists the children were and she told me that Filipino public schools don't have the money for paper, crayons or other school supplies so to color anything is a special treat that they take seriously.  The children, once again, touched us with their broad smiles and cheerful attitudes.  Nico, a handsome 16 year-old colored meticulously from a wheelchair.  Pauline told me when he arrived his clubbed feet were so mangled that his legs wrapped behind his body.  After several months and as many surgeries he only had bandages around his feet.  The doctors are confident that he will be able to walk soon.  The most heart-breaking part of Nico's story is that because of his physical condition he has never been allowed to attend school.  16 and not a day of schooling in his life.  We sang songs with the children and distributed more bouncy balls.  Samuel told me he noticed they didn't know what to do with them at first.  He bounced one on the table and as we walked out you could hear the sound of constantly bouncing balls.  Anna and Samuel listened quietly as Pauline told us stories of the children who have come and gone, having their lives forever changed by these simple surgeries.