Cruising Around Hong Kong Island

July 15, 2017

Later Saturday morning, Yusen (the people Caleb and the other Dollar Tree/Family Dollar people were visiting with for work) booked a boat cruise around Hong Kong for the visiting Dollar Tree/Family Dollar workers and their families (which they mainly included because I was there). They are super nice people and it was very kind of them to include me in their plans! 

Caleb told me that usually Hong Kong is really polluted and you can't see very much of it, but it had rained a lot before I got there so the pollutions was not a problem and the views were gorgeous! It was the perfect time to visit! 

Views from the pier while we were waiting for our boat.

Our boat!! It was really nice!

Now I want a boat.

And an island to cruise around.

:)

The buildings in HK are incredibly tall. I've never been to a really big city in the states, so I can't compare it to anything. They are incredibly tall and there is an insane amount of them everywhere. Amazing engineering! 

On the boat and ready to cruise!

It was a gorgeous day.

Floating restaurant.

There were SO many ships/boats, whatever you want to call them. Some of them were SUPER cool and James Bond looking. At this point of the trip, I was pretty camera shy and didn't take as many pictures as I wanted too, like of the cool ships and other "real life" chinese things, but don't worry! By the end of our 2.5 weeks, I had no problem taking pictures of really anything haha! Even the squatty potties. We'll get to that a little later....

Back to the water!

China has some seriously cool rocks.

Kando San, Whitney, Puneet, Rose, Caleb

:)

I think this was called Turtle Cove, but we didn't see any turtles. We were supposed to go swimming here, but none of us really wanted too :)

I love him :)

I could get used to the boat life.

These are some of the ladies that work for Yusen. They are adorable and I love them so much! 

Kathryn, Daffie, Rose

I learned something new about Caleb on this trip.

He loves ships.

He was so excited when we saw this huge container ship on our cruise. He was like a little school boy haha! It was so cute. 

The driver even got insanely close to it.

He was pretty thrilled to say the least.

More of the gang from Yusen.

Caleb, Mark, Kathryn, Irene

For lunch, we stopped at Lamma Island--one of the fishing villages. We had lunch at a place called Rainbow Restaurant. A lot of the restaurants in China have VERY fresh fish. They have fish tanks and you pick what you want to eat out of those tanks. 

Lamma Island

Gigantic Clams!

Our restaurant! Daffy and the other native Chinese friends were making the selections for us.

They did a great job! We ate some yummy and some weird stuff. :)

Yusen, Dollar Tree/Family Dollar peeps

The whole gang :)

We had people from China, India, New Zealand, and USA.

Food pictures if you are interested!

I tried everything.

Loved almost everything.

Puneet (the guy in the picture from India) is Caleb's boss and kept saying how impressed he was with me and everything I would try haha And it was really funny because they kept joking how Caleb is pretty much a bottomless pit when it comes to eating. Very true! He'll eat about everything and almost all leftovers. 

The Abolone (pictured right above) is now one of my favorite foods. IT'S SOOOO GOOD!! While in Hong Kong, I ate it a few different ways--loved them all. It's basically, sort of, almost the same as a clam. 

Eating Abolone. 

The shell of the abolone. Don't mind my chipped nail polish. I sure didn't ;)

In China, it's a lot about the presentation when it comes to food. Meaning, they bring out the ENTIRE animal. There were so many eyeballs and legs and arms and tails. I ate the cheek of the fish pictured below. It was the best meat I have ever tasted!!! 

This was a sweet and sour type fish (if I remember correctly it was grouper). They cooked it an amazingly delicious way. A definite favorite and one I would eat again. 

More of the food selection. They ordered 10 different dishes! A lot of food, but oh, so yummy!!

Caleb eating the tail of the fish...

After lunch, we sailed to the other side of Lamma Island where they had some stores to shop and stuff like that. 

I wish I had taken more pictures at Lamma Island, but again, I was a little camera shy. Honestly I was a bit embarrassed to look like a major tourist on Caleb's business trip! haha! 

This island was my first introduction to chinese villages/towns. Everything looked very run down and dirty. A bit of shock to me because most of the traveling I have done has been in Europe--very different style than Asia. It was just a reminder of how blessed we are to live where we do. The fresh air of North Carolina and our huge yard and nice house is such a blessing that, sadly, I was taking for granted. When all you are surrounded by is a certain standard of living, you loose sight of what a high standard of living we have. One of the benefits and lessons I feel that comes from traveling is a feeling of humility and gratitude. Seeing how others live in different parts of the world, or even in a different city in America, can really set you back and help you see what you have been blessed with. 

I've said this so many times since I have been back and I will say it again:

God bless America!!!