Hong Kong Senior Missionary Conference

Up early to get ready for the Senior Missionary Conference. We left at 7am, and everyone was in place and the set up went well. We began at 9am. Dew had to conduct and he did just fine, but he gets very nervous. The sisters sang, and miracle of miracles, we made it through without muffing it too badly. Now we are wondering what we will do with our time since we have nothing more to practice for.

The speakers were all very good, and things went smoothly. We had a group picture taken, and then had lunch. The Aki’s and Woolsey’s did a great job with lunch. Then we all quickly left to get on the bus to go to Kom Tong Hall. We left all the plants in the kitchen to be put away later.

We had a bus take us to Kom Tong Hall and Stanley Wan showed us around. He gets really excited showing it off, he grew up there. He explained how the church had used the rooms.
Then about half of us jumped on the bus again and went to the peak. We all walked out to where the date is carved in the rock from the day Matthew Cowley dedicated China. It was the first time some of the temple missionaries had been there, so we went up top with the Pierces. Then headed for Burger King. Most of us weren’t hungry, just thirsty and tired, so it was drinks and fries for most of us. We left to help the Pierces find their way back down to the MTR and a few couples stayed to watch the sun set from the peak.

We ran back to the office to double check things, and then home to die. We got home at 7pm, one long day.

One funny thing - when the Woolsey’s went back to the office to put the plants away, they found one of the branches there, with our plants on their tables as decorations. She had to nicely tell them "sorry, I have to put these away". And they probably thought we were so nice to leave them!

Hike - Victoria Peak to Central

Today is the first day of a three day holiday - Mid Autumn Festival. We decided to start it off by going to the Peak and walking down Old Peak Road. The Benchs and Newells went along as well, good sports that they are.

We rode the bus to the top and started down. It’s the original road to the peak and there is no car traffic on it. Its very narrow and quite steep, but shady and pretty. It dumps you down into Central at the end. We walked through the HK Botanical Garden and found a Orchid House that was very fun. Then on the way down we stopped at St. Johns Church. I have wanted to visit their gift shop ever since last Christmas. They have really cool carved nativity scenes and a really cool Noah’s Ark. We have to go back, because at least one of them is going to follow us home.

Then down into Central. The Bench’s peeled off to go meet the Smith’s to go to a movie, and the Newells and Jacksons went to Agave for lunch. We had our usual nachos, yum. But we discovered that three diet cokes cost as much as the nachos. It’s water from now on!

Then home to work on getting some of our pictures organized for the new book we are working on.

It’s so hazy it’s depressing. And tonight Freddy melted! And that means that Shirl is going to melt for the next few days as well. Can fall be far away?

Oh yes, and as we walked through the park a bird got me! No kidding - on the sleeve! Yuckkkkkkk.

Tai Tam Country Park

There are so many things to see in Hong Kong. One would think the island would be wall-to-wall people but it’s not. Within 5 minutes of the hustle bustle of the city you are in the most beautiful jungles and you can’t even hear a horn honk. They say that 15% of Hong Kong Island is inhabited. Today we had a wonderful outdoor experience, but I will let Shirl write about it.

Last night as we played games with the Newell’s and Bench’s we mentioned that we were planning on going to Tai Tam Reservoir this morning. The Newell’s jumped at the chance to go, but Sister Bench said she had commitments. So it was the Newell’s and Jackson’s today.

We left at 9am, it was supposed to be rainy. But someone forgot to tell the weather, it was hot and sunny. We caught the bus up the hill, and we didn’t have to worry where to get off, we just followed all the other people who were getting off the bus. In fact we just followed them for about a block, but they turned off another way and we wanted to find the Tai Tam Reservoir Road. It was uphill to Wong Nei Chung lake with paddle boats and wild turtles, then farther up hill to a condo complex called the Parkview. Right next to it was a gate across an old road, no cars, just strolling down the hill.


It was hot and sunny, but we got a breeze every once in a while that kept us going. T

he reason we wanted to see Tai Tam was that there are three pretty stone bridges and we found them. Along the way we enjoyed all the wonderful quiet and blue skies. It was a glorious day, just hot.


The bridges were at the bottom and were worth the walk. They are said to be the most photographed bridges in Hong Kong, and we could see why. Then just across the bridge and not much father was a bus stop. We could have actually walked up to them from the bottom in just a few minutes. But we had a great walk and a wonderful trip. Will have to do this again, just when it’s cooler. We are quickly adding to our places to visit when it’s cooler.

It was supposed to be a two hour walk, but with all the stopping to take pictures it took us about 3 ½ hours, but we were in no hurry.

Then we caught a green mini back to Chai Wan. Dew jumped in and swiped his card, and then found out there were not enough seats for all of us. So he went on ahead, and we took the next mini. Then the MTR back to Causeway and lunch at Triple O.

One of the things I will NOT miss about Hong Kong is that there is NEVER enough seating and everyone just hovers, waiting for you to finish your meal and move on.

Luckily we got a table back in a dark, quiet corner and had a whole table just to ourselves. I told them we should all pull out our books and just enjoy the seating, like everyone else does!