Sunday

Our Lady of Carmel Church in Macau
captured in perfect lighting! :)

A little reminder to myself to go to church (or start going) more often. I hope you had a great weekend.

What happened to summer?

Nothing better on a hot day than getting wet!
Taken outside Taipei 101 back in March 2009 where the temperature was tropical.

A week ago, it was 30 degrees with 90% humidty. Yesterday it was chilly and windy. Has summer already left us? :(.

On Birds and Business (I seem to like aliteration lol)

Mong Kok's Bird Garden:
A place where old men bring their pet birds to hang out and show off.
Many types of interesting and exotic birds are on display as well.

It's so funny how businesses in Hong Kong all seem to congregate together. If you want to look for travel agencies they are all located on 1 (or 2 ) floors in the same building. There is a WHOLE mall of stores solely devoted to weddings and whole streets and neighbourhoods of furniture or home renovation or the like. And a cell phone mall and computer mall! Sure makes shopping convenient and maybe that is why Hong Kong is a mecca for shopping! Another example pictured above, is the Bird Garden in Mong Kok.

Instant Noodles

Having a quick (only 10 mins to devour this) instant noodle break during a weekend hike with the Uncle.
Look at the price! (40HKD ~ $6+ CAD). This is what happens when you eat in the middle of nowhere!

Instant noodles and I were meant to be today! Not only was I having a conversation with someone about how I have not had instant noodles in many months (except for when I ordered them in Hong Kong) and as a result had a craving for instant noodles. I also found this picture AND I found out that my family has finally stocked up on them. Yay. Now I can eat instant noodles for tomorrow!

[Edit:] I did end up eating instant noodles this afternoon! :)

Porkchop cont'd

Have you EVER seen a pig swimming? I haven't. Did you even know that pigs could swim? I haven't even seen many pigs in my lifetime.
It was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity to see! lol

Oops I seemed to have missed a day and therefore I owe 2 photos today!

It's unfortunate that Porkchop ended up in the water. His owner lured him with a piece of bread to the edge of the pier and kicked him off. I was playing with my something on my camera and the next thing I knew, there was a splash and some gasps and a pig swimming. Porkchop wasn't too happy with this arrangement though. He swam and hid under the pier for a while and my Uncle reports that he was crying. Poor porkchop! He was so upset that when his owner tried to call him to shore, he refused. It looks like he was having some trouble climbing up on those slippery wet rocks.

Meet Porkchop!

Meet porkchop, the pet pig of this Sai Kung resident.
His owner is trying to entice him with a piece of bread and very funny things happen afterwards.
To be continued...

Yesterday at the drive-in movie theatre, I met this super sweet and fluffy dog that was named Drumstick and totally reminded me an encounter with the above photo. The photo sucks but it is the first in a series of events that happened shortly after the photo was taken (which I will continue tomorrow).

Toronto, Tornados and Taiwan

Cape Eluanbi: on a portion of the hiking trail at Kenting National Park in Taiwan.
Overlooking Taiwan's South coast, I have pretty much fallen in love with this place!
It was as if I was in a dream when I saw it.

Yesterday was the storm of the year in Toronto. A tornado touched down in Vaughn, just north west of the city. It went dark, thunder and lightning crashing violently and then a downpour. Thunderstorms are usually fun to watch from the safety of my home. It was just too hard to accurately capture it on camera, however I did manage to get a shot of the sky afterward (refer to facebook photo). Not only was there a full rainbow but the sky was tinted yellow!

As exciting as it was, I bet it wasn't as bad the tornado that hit Southern Taiwan last week. Poor citizens and pigs (apparently many died from the Tornado)! My heart and prayers goes out to Tainan.

Speaking of Taiwan, there's a Taiwanfest in Toronto next week, which sounds really neat and I am so excited to go because I love Taiwan! :)

CNE opening tomorrow!

The Tram: a Hong Kong version of the Toronto Streetcar.
It is double deckered, open windows and affectionately known to the locals as "Ding Ding"

Don't forget that the CNE (in Toronto) opens tomorrow and in celebration of its 175th birthday, admission is only $1.75. YAY! And apparently the first 175 people get free birthday cupcakes from the cupcake tent.

Gluttony

Hiking is one of my Uncle's preferred past-times (I think..).
On a fun hiking trail from yellowstone pier in Sai Kung , Hong Kong

Today, I realized that I had 2 desserts (Chinese and Western) once before dinner and then after. Who could resist chocolate mousse cake? mmmm! Now I feel the need to burn off some of those calories. I suck at working out, I just get so bored. I think the only exercise I was able to sustain was going on hikes w/ my Uncle on the weekends. It's fun and challenging trying to keep up with him. He puts the 20 year olds to shame with his skills! His activities always give me quite the workout!

Hazy Day

Sai Kung, a unique spot in Hong Kong known for it's white sandy
(and sometimes deserted) beaches, clear blue water and layers upon layers of mountains.

It's a pretty hazy day today in Toronto, but still as hot and humid as ever. I don't ever remember Hong Kong's humidity being THIS bad. It was also a hot hazy day when I went to the place where the above photo was taken. Not the best day for pretty pictures but the white sandy beach and clear blue water (I know I know, we're not talking about the Caribbean kind of clear!) was beautiful.

A photo a day

On a trail on one of the many remote islands of Sai Kung, Hong Kong.
I miss being able to access the ocean, mountains, islands all within an hour!

Because I've lost all motivation to keep up with writing about my travels which I still owe you and because I realize I express myself better through pictures, I thought I'd upload a picture a day as a way to continue sharing my pictures with you. It would be selfish to keep them all to myself.