A day in Macau - to renew my visa! Mission accomplished!

 We took a ferry over to Macau, a special administrative region of China (basically its own very small country). Arden got very sea sick and vomited all over me, Ernst and himself- so, with no change of clothes it was quite a start to the day. Macau was a Portuguese colony and this is reflected in a lot of the older architecture. With New Years next week, there is an abundance of kitsch deco everywhere you look.

 Typical street in Macau.

 Chief navigator, with a view of the ruins of St Paul's in the background.

 View from the top of the ruins of St Paul's, with mixture of Portuguese and Chinese architecture below.

Can you see the crowd gathering around something? They're gathered around Arden, to take pictures of him, and to my horror, they look it in turns to hold my vomit covered child to take pictures with him! Ernst and I soon realised that the trick to avoiding these sort of crowds, is just to keep moving and not make eye contact with anyone!

 And the ugly... this shows what most streets look like.

A garden in the middle of the town.

And another photo shoot- this time with a little Chinese girl, who's mother got her to kiss Arden, much to everyone's delight...

To survive to trip back with Arden, we bought anti nausea tablets and dosed him up- which worked a complete miracle- he was a different child, and actually seemed to enjoy the trip back! His cheeks got redder and redder and he acted like he had drunk a red bull- maybe we'll try half a tablet next time?

Fun with Pappa

Yes, this is a pic of Ernst and Arden playing in the cupboard. Arden adores Ernst and is loving all the time that they get to hang out these days. Together they have so much excited energy, they always make me laugh. Arden is the luckiest to have such a wonderful Pappa.  

A day at the zoo, the aviary and the parks

We haven't done much this last week- I wasn't well and it's been cold outside. But we did go to the zoo (made up of tortoises and monkeys), a giant outdoor/ walk through aviary, the tea museum and a park for the day. Arden can now impersonate a monkey very well and I know all the benefits of drinking green tea. The photo above captures something of Hong Kong- neat rows of plants, a 'keep of the grass' sign, industrious gardeners at work and the ever present buildings.

On the beach where we live

Arden and I went for a walk just before supper and sat on the beach for a while. I really feel so privileged to experience this...

A perfect day on Lamma Island

We took a ferry to Lamma Island for the day. Poor Arden, we've discovered, gets very seasick- unlike his mother who wishes she was a pirate or a sailor.

This was our first view of the Island, as we got off the boat (Arden still recovering). It's a small fishing community, with some restaurants, beaches and a huge power station.

We walked across the entire island- following the well maintained walking trails. The vegetation is very tropical- lots of banana trees and star fruit trees along the way.

We lay on this beautiful beach for a few hours, soaking up the sounds of the South China Sea. Arden had a ball playing with some other (very naked) American children while the Chinese tourists (dressed in jackets, hats and scarves) took photos of them- not sure whether it was the whiteness, the nakedness or the coldness that intrigued them...

The view was spectacular, as we kept climbing higher (we were on the beach- the white strip of sand, in the middle of this photo, a few minutes earlier).

I've given up dehydrating myself in order to avoid the public toilets in Hong Kong- if you can't beat them, join them... so it was on Lamma Island that I reluctantly succumbed... 

Lookout point. 

Pirate country... Hong Kong was originally a pirate hangout- with all the islands, it was a perfect place for pirate ships to hide. I love this origin- and the more I look at the people of Hong Kong, the more I think that they look like pirate descendent's... now I just need to find those cheap pearls the tourist books talk about.

The things in the water below are actually fish farms, where they cultivate fish and some people live in their boats around these fish farms.

More walking...

Sunset and the ferry trip back to Aberdeen.

Seasick munchkin...

And back on shore again.

Our little tourist attraction

I was so glad to get this photo of someone taking a photo of Arden (as we waited to board the ferry). It happens all the time, where ever we go-  usually just Arden, but yesterday on the beach, a photography student snapped us both... can't imagine how irritating being famous must be!

Out for supper

Ernst and I left Arden sleeping in our apartment and went to the restaurant downstairs, in our hotel, for supper (it's like leaving him asleep upstairs in a very big house!). We had dim sum (above), a chicken and cashew nut stir fry and a platter, which the menu described as a 'cold selection of things'- actually piping hot deep fried veg! Lost in translation... but all very delish. Had mango pudding too- which wasn't great- the Chinese don't specialise in pudding!

Immigration

This photo should be of me standing in front of the Immigration Tower... it's me who only has a valid visa till th end of this month. We spent the day applying for an extended visitor visa for Arden and myself. Otherwise the plan is to exit the country every 30 days... so we've got trips to Malaysia, Philippians, Macau, China and Thailand in the pipeline.

Sai Kung for the day

We took a bus to Sai Kung for the day. Photo above- most seafood restaurants display their seafood in tanks outside the restaurant, so that you can check it out and choose what you want to eat...

We saw a fisherman come into harbour with his catches of the day- including a ray, which he swiftly dissected. It wasn't nice watching the beautiful creature being hacked through alive, but he did it with skill- could see it wasn't his first time.

Not every day is spectacular... some days we go somewhere and the weather doesn't play along, or we can't decide what to do, or Arden is miserable... our day in Sai Kung was a little like this, but then, as we walked along the pier, completely out of the blue, Arden said, "I love youuuu", and it made the whole day more beautiful and precious.

Caught you!

Supper at home

We've discovered the Chinese alternative to sliced bread- steamed bread- man, it's good! You buy or make the buns and then steam them to cook them. As you can see we bought a steamer- a simple grid that fits into any pot.

I'm fascinated by food in other cultures- so you'll see lots of photos of food. This is our staple at the moment- noodles or rice, with stir fried veg and we've even been so adventurous as to add bean curd already- who knows what we'll be eating next week! 

Supper at the University Canteen

Dear Ernst risked his already fragile reputation by taking Arden and I to his University canteen for supper, to show us around (and because the food is so cheap)... Arden made full use of the opportunity and made a complete spectical of us- as if we weren't already- 2 white people with backpacks and a kid in a varsity canteen! The food- well... noodles in watery soupy water with sour cabbage, deep fried sardines, fried veg and pork dumplings- they were filled with a smelly yellow liquid- so not sure where the pork comes in? I'm really trying to be adventurous and try stuff... but only served to strengthen my resolve to stick to veg options...

After our delightful supper, Ernst stayed at Varsity for class and Arden and I hit the peak hour traffic home- the photo doesn't do justice... Arden had also made a major poo- so you can imagine what we smelt like- with him on my back... maybe meant we had slightly more space to ourselves?

Cakes

There are so many bakeries selling the most gorgeously decorated cakes... quite inspiring.

Bamboo scaffolding

 I always smile when I see Chinese tourists taking pictures of the arbest things- well someone gave me a quizzical look while I took this picture of scaffolding! But I had to, it's really interesting that all the constructions i've seen so far (and there have been some big/high ones), use bamboo scaffolding... just seems so flimsy, but obviously not?

Bird Market

I'm not an animal activist, but seeing all these poor birds in tiny cages was quite sad. The sound of all the birds singing was beautiful. I kept thinking bird flu... and was quite keen to leave, lest Arden decide to lick the floor... All the people selling birds, were also selling crickets- and many of them were busy chopping the wings and legs off the crickets, so that they would not escape from bird cages before they were eaten... nice.

Flower Market

And the Flower market!! What a treat. After all the fish smells, it revived me to see such beauty. God is so creative.

Chinese bamboo arrangement...