Hong Kong Day 8

Well, today was my last day in Hong Kong! We had a very fun day! We started the morning heading to a place called Monkey Mountain because apparently, there are a lot of monkeys. And since the girls got so excited seeing the monkeys on the hike the other day, naturally, a chance for more monkeys would not be met with any sort of opposition. We decided to bring along some bananas to give them, even though we heard that if you bring food, or what seems like food, in a baggy it can be dangerous because the monkeys will get a bit aggressive and attack people to get at it! We were okay though, no attacks.

Hong Kong Day 7

Today was temple day!! We woke up first thing and went to the temple! Getting off the subway we saw a guy we thought might be going, and sure enough, he ended up being in the session! It is a gorgeous temple! It's like the New York temple in that you go in and first thing go up an elevator! We ended up being the witness couple because we were too early and they asked me since no one else in the men's waiting room had a wife with them. The session was in English! Lucky for us! The celestial room was beautiful! They had so many very Chinese things there. Two glass Asian trees, two big Asian plates and then vases everywhere! It was beautiful! Afterward we took a bunch of pictures outside for all your enjoyment! (Side note: Amy forgot to pack church shoes, so we had to wear our tennis shoes to the temple 😂)

Hong Kong Day 5

Happy Sabbath from Hong Kong! Today we went to church out in Ngau Tau Kok and attended the ward that mom did as a missionary! The building has been renovate a little bit but it's the same one that mom went to each Sunday for 9 about months of her mission! It was so cool to be there! The missionaries translated Sacrament Meeting for us which was helpful because our collective cantonese ability doesn't extend beyond "hello" and counting to 10.

Hong Kong Day 4

Today was the day I had been waiting for all trip! Dragon's Back!! It had been described as a gorgeous hike with the best view and I was excited! We knew it was a long hike, and it was pretty far away, so we tried to get up early to get at it in good time! Of course, McDonald's again for breakfast, stupid McDonald's, if only there were another option, and we began the trek to Dragon's Back!

It took around an hour to get there! We took the subway to Hong Kong Island and then found the bus to take us there. There was a huge line for the bus, so we figured we were in the right place cuz everyone would be hiking the peak! Well we were right about the bus, but wrong about the people! When we got to our stop no one got off the bus, so we second guessed ourselves and didn't get off, but it definitely had been our stop.. So we ended up two stops past where we needed to be.... So we began the walk back to the beginning of the hike, Amy and I are walking in front and we see a taxi, we start to muse out loud, "Maybe we should just take a taxi?" And Corbin from the back says, "Don't worry guys, I already got him!" We look back and sure enough, she had her arm up and the taxi stopped for us! Haha we got to ride in one of those cool old-school looking taxis with the steering wheel on the opposite side! Good 'ole Corbin!

Hong Kong Day 3

Today we decided to hike Kowloon Peak! It's about a 7 mile round trip hike to a beautiful rock cliff that overlooks Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon side! We were so excited for this hike! The first 3-4 miles of the hike took FOREVER! It felt really long and it was sooo miserably hot! We were all dripping and soaked through to the skin! I always sweat and get a really red face (thanks mom) but Spencer and Corbin never do! So when they're both dripping sweat you know it's bad! It was like hiking in a sauna. No joke!

Hong Kong Day 2

Today was our first full day in Hong Kong and it couldn't have been better! We woke up to a little bit of rain, but were hopeful that it would clear up and that we would still get to do everything we had planned...and it did! I was so grateful! We headed over to Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island first! We took a bus all the way to the top of the peak and then did the Peak Circle Walk which is about a 2.5 mile walk around Victoria Peak! It gave us gorgeous views of Hong Kong, Victoria Harbor, and Hong Kong Island! It's also through a bunch of thick trees and we saw some pretty huge spiders hanging out on their webs. I'm talking the size of my hand huge! I tried really hard not to think about it but I kept seeing them and it grossed me out a bit. It was a hot and humid day! Much more humid than Seoul!

Hong Kong Day 1

We're in HONG KONG! Is this real life?! I'm so excited that we're finally here! We've been looking forward to this trip for SO LONG. Well, it's actually only been about a month but it feels like longer! We left Seoul at 5:30AM and landed in Hong Kong right around 8:00AM. We pulled some money out of the ATM at the airport and we were off! We took a bus to Central on Hong Kong Island. Spencer dropped his passport and visa renewal application off at the South Korean Embassy (the official reason we're in Hong Kong), and then we hopped on the subway and took it across the harbor to the Kowloon side and up to our Airbnb in Mong Kok!

The first thing we noticed was the really bad smelling street food on the corner of our apartment building. The second thing we noticed was the insane amount of people! We're on floor 9 of our apartment building but unfortunately no windows, so no good views! We left our luggage, but we were too early for check in so we had a couple of hours to kill before we could come back. We went to the Wong Tai Sin Temple first. It's a famous Taoist temple in Kowloon. As it turns out, mom went there during Chinese New Year on her mission! The temple itself was really pretty and despite being structurally similar to temples we've been to in Seoul, it was really different! There were statues of the Chinese Zodiac characters and they also had a really pretty "Good Wishes" garden. We couldn't see the inside of the temple itself because we couldn't get close enough, plus there was so much incense being burned by people worshiping outside the temple that the air was a little smokey!

Dragon Hill Resort & Spa

Not many pictures to show for today! We spent most of the day at Namdaemun market. We walked along part of the Seoul City Wall for a bit which was also really fun!

Bukchon, Dr. Fish, Temples, and Itaewon!

Today was the one day that Spencer didn't have to work during Corbin's trip so he got to spend the whole day with him! Per his request, we arranged to take Corbin to some places that neither of us had been! We started the day at Bukchon Hanok Village and then we went to Dr. Fish for some pedicures! In the afternoon we went to a couple of Buddhist temples! We ended the evening in Itaewon!

Bukchon Hanok Village was pretty cool! It's an area in Seoul that still has all the traditional houses! It's really cute! We had a really fun time! The pictures pretty much show everything there is to tell!

Seoul Mates 💘

Corbin landed in Seoul last night and we couldn't be more excited to have her here! Since I've already written about the places we are taking Corbin, I'm just going to post some pictures of her stay in Seoul!

On Day 1, we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace and the Blue House! Then we went to street food in the evening!

A Couple of Jobs

So I did a couple of fun sportswear jobs for Puma and Reebok where they had me jump around! I thought I'd share a few pics. Just for fun!