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Hong Kong get-away

October 5th, 2014 Tia Farley 1 comment

I have been to Hong Kong twice for a church conference, but wasn’t able to do a ton of sight-seeing. And since Matt had not been to Hong Kong yet, we decided to take a little “Baby-moon” to Hong Kong before I got too far along in my pregnancy and the airlines wouldn’t let me fly. We took advantage of the May 1st Labor Day holiday and spent a long weekend with just the two of us while Kalani and Mason stayed in the Philippines with Helen and Marilyn (our house help). As always, we booked a tour guide through Viator and found Frank Law. We felt like he showed us all of Hong Kong and gave us good information on the things and places that we were visiting. He was fun, enthusiastic, and tailored the tour to meet the needs of a very pregnant lady.

Day 1

We booked a room at the Intercontinental Hotel and had a spectacular view of the Victoria Harbor

This is our room at the Intercontinental Hotel, which had this spectacular view of Victoria Harbor

We took a tram up to Victoria Peak

BIG groups of Filipinos were gathered at parks since they all had the day off

BIG groups of Filipinos were gathered at parks playing games since they all had the day off

On our tour of Hong Kong Island we stopped at a local market

Over 1,000 people live in this apartment building. There are many of these apartment buildings all over Hong Kong

A nice quiet area on Hong Kong Island

Heading back to our hotel, we passed this “ship” that is really a department store inside

Day 2

We took the metro to head to Lantau Island. We were headed to the Big Buddha, but these girls were going to Hong Kong Disney

Heading up to the Big Buddha by cable car

Our tour guide arranged for us to have a glass bottom cable car going up to Big Buddha

From the cable car we could see construction of a bridge that will give another access to mainland China

Off the cable car and we see Buddha in the distance and a bunch of western type of shops for the tourists

Off the cable car and we see Buddha in the distance and western types of shops for the tourists

Buddha (34 meters high) is blessing us as we climbed the 268 steps to reach the statue

Across from the Big Buddha is the Po Lin Monastery. Here are statues of Buddha as Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

We hit up the “Ladies Market” to buy some cheap gifts for the kids

We also went to the Night Market to have a look, but they basically have the same things as the Ladies Market

Day 3

Our last day we started out visiting the beautiful Nan Lian Garden which is right in the middle of the city

Chi Lin Nunnery was just across the bridge of the Nan Lian Garden

Guardians of Buddha

People get fortune sticks at the temple and then go to these fortune tellers to find out their future. There are at least 2 dozen of these fortune tellers on site

We had a wonderful time spending time together as a couple and really enjoyed our tour guide and driver

It was wonerful to spend time together as a couple and we really enjoyed our tour guide and driver

We actually saw and did more than I showed in this post, but the rest of our photos can be found here.

Categories: Family, Travel Tags: hong kong, matt, tia, travel, vacation

Hong Kong Women’s Conference (second year)

March 30th, 2014 Tia Farley 1 comment

The A.S.I.A (Associated Sisters In Asia) Women’s Conference was held in Hong Kong again this year the second weekend in March. I was able to confirm with a friend early on that she would attend and we would fly over together, but she was going to meet up with her other friend who would be coming from Singapore. Luckily I got another friend to agree to join me and be my roommate for the 3 nights that we were there. We decided to fly to Hong Kong a day before the conference started so we could do some sight-seeing, since there wouldn’t be a lot of time during the conference. And the speakers for the conference were wonderful as usual. We were privileged to hear from members of the Asia Area Presidency: Garrett Gong & Randy Funk. And then we attended about 6 breakout classes of various topics. It was wonderful to get out of the Philippines, see Hong Kong, be spiritually uplifted, participate in a service project, see old friends and make new friends.

First outing in Hong Kong was to the LDS Temple...but the taxi driver said this was "not a temple, only Chinese temple, this is a church"

First outing in Hong Kong was to the LDS Temple…but the taxi driver said this was “not a temple, only Chinese have temple, this is a church”

Chi Lin Nunnery in Hong Kong was very peaceful, although we never saw any nuns while there

Did some souvenir shopping at the “Ladies Market”

The people in Hong Kong hang dry their clothes right outside their apartment window

My roommate and I at the 12 story church building where our conference was held

Streets of Hong Kong are busy

Cool Asian boat at the Hong Kong harbor

Old fashion double decker bus only costs about $.30 to ride, but it doesn't go very fast and makes many stops along the way and is crowded on a Saturday afternoon

Old fashion double decker tram only costs about $0.30 to ride, but it doesn’t go very fast and makes many stops along the way and is crowded on a Saturday afternoon

Hong Kong Park is right in the middle of the city, but you wouldn’t be able to tell once you were surrounded by the fountains and trees

Unique teapots on display at the Teapot Museum located at the Hong Kong Park

Aviary at the Hong Kong Park

My friend who was in our ward in Texas, flew the 10 hours or so from Saudi Arabia to attend conference

My 2 friends who I got to join me from the Philippines

More photos from Hong Kong women’s conference here.

Categories: Travel Tags: hong kong, tia, travel, vacation, womens conference

Women’s Conference

March 20th, 2013 Tia Farley No comments

When we first arrived in the Philippines I was told about a women’s conference that is held in Hong Kong for women in Asia that are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I knew right away that I wanted to go; any chance to travel to more parts of Asia is right up my alley. I looked into airfare and hotels and then asked for friends to join me! Lucky for me 2 other ladies here in Manila also wanted to go. So we all bought our tickets, sat by each other on the 2 hour plane flight to Hong Kong and shared hotel rooms. Both of my friends had attended the previous year, so I was relying on them on how to get around Hong Kong. We had a fabulous time exploring Hong Kong and listening to speakers at the conference.

This Associated Sister In Asia (A.S.I.A) conference was started about 6 years ago. A couple of ladies thought that it was good idea to have a gathering of Latter-Day Saint sisters in Asia meet together yearly like they do in the states for “Time Out For Women” or “Education Week.” The area authorities thought it was also a good idea, so A.S.I.A conference was formed. This year there were over 200 women in attendance. We had marvelous speakers: Elder Gerrit W. Gong (1st counselor Asia Area Presidency) his wife Susan, Elder Larry Y. Wilson (2nd counselor Asia Area Presidency), his wife Lynda, Lesa Stevenson (wife of the Presiding Bishop), and Julie B. Beck (Former General Relief Society President ). We also attended 5 different “breakout sessions/classes” with a total of 18 classes offered. And we tied over 85 fleece blankets to be given to the “Crossroads Foundation”. It was a fabulous “get-away” to recharge our spiritual batteries.

Hong Kong has blue, green and red taxis to choose from at the airport. Each color determines which part of Hong Kong you want to be driven to.

Drivers and cars are on the “opposite” side. And all of the taxis had some kind of tablet for the passengers to use.

After we checked into our hotel we had some time to walk around. Hong Kong is very clean and orderly…at least in comparison to Manila.

We needed to eat after we checked in and walked the streets near the hotel. We saw this street food, and didn't partake since I'm sure they were frying up some intestines.

We needed to eat after we checked in and walked the streets near the hotel. We saw this street food, and did NOT partake since I’m sure they were frying up some intestines.

The conference was held at this building. There are at least 2 chapels and cultural halls, a bunch of class rooms and maybe a mission office in this church building.

Tying fleece blankets for the Crossroads Foundation and making new friends.

Julie B. Beck and other visitors from the United States that spoke/helped out during the conference

Julie B. Beck (in the pink blazer) and other visitors from the United States that spoke/helped out during the conference.

Glutenous rice balls in a mango/coconut juice was like a meal within itself….sounds weird, but it is pretty good.

Both of my travel buddies had their birthday the weekend of the conference. So we celebrated by having “Baked Alaska.”

We had fun eating different types of food…this is a Vietnamese restaurant.

Walking along Avenue of Stars and trying to be like Bruce Lee.

Hong Kong harbor. The conference was held on “Hong Kong Island” so you either have to take a ferry, the underground, or a taxi over a bridge to cross the water to the other parts of Hong Kong.