Thursday, July 28, 2005

A Nice City


We were at the Changi Airport with Limei and Deb on Friday. Our son had his weekly scouts meeting at school. It was good Limei was there as Deb was sad. Well this was our first time on ValuAir. We were pleased that the seats had ample legroom. This was also the first time we were seated next to the emergency exit. So the air stewardess briefed us how to open the emergency exit. Several members commented on my blog before we left that you would pray for our trip so the briefing was actually unnecessary but she was just doing her job.

This is my third visit and my wife's first visit to HK. We arrived at the very impressive modern HK airport. A member of the HK church met us. We travelled on the express train with two Brisbane friends. The airport express is very comfortable. Then we took a taxi to the hotel. We passed by the business district and the commercial buildings are impressive. The city buzzed with activity even late at night. The hotel room was small and compact. We had a quick bite as the sandwiches onboard wasn't a full meal. People smoked inside the restaurant.

Saturday breakfast was yummy tim sum. I love tim sum. Our conference started. Lunch was tim sum hosted by 2 Singaporean members of the HK church. I wanted to do mobile blogging but my wife insisted that I concentrate on the conference. We had fruits for dinner (lot of meat in the day) then more teaching. The first day was a long day.

We had Sunday breakfast with Jeff and Claud. The stranger seated next to me smoked. This was day 2 of the conference. Lunch was with 3 Singaporean members of the church and HK leaders. They are so eager to learn. The leader, Deborah asked us 8 questions. We had time off in the afternoon. My wife spent time with a friend. Connie who grew up in HK brought the rest of us Singaporeans to Causeway Point. You can get anything here and it's really crowded. I tried some famous dessert. Otherwise Sunday was another long day of conference.

Dinah and I had simple breakfast in our room on Monday. This was the last day of the conference. It was great having lunch with my old friend James. It was interesting to accompany him to a Traditional Chinese Medicine expert in HK. There were meetings in the afternoon. Then we had a special dinner on a boat. The view was simply spectacular. This ended another long but fruitful day.

On Tuesday we had tim sum breakfast with four of our youth leaders. Then it is off to more meetings. We lunched in. Hong Kongers sure eat large portions and quite a lot of meat. My wife was very relieved with dinner cause it was primarily veg. Then Dinah and I with 3 friends went to The Peak. The night time view was amazing. (Here is a photo taken by Gavin)

HK is probably more vibrant in terms of night-time buzz. The airport, skyline, the river boat cruise and Chinese cuisine seems nicer than in Singapore. HK is a nice city. But I still appreciate Singapore. Our city is cleaner, greener, more organised and feels safer. Homes here are larger and public places generally less claustrophobic and less smoky. We flew back on Wednesday and yes their airport looks even better in the day.

5 comments:

kyoko said...

Pastor, been checking your blog, not sure when will you be back. It is glad to read your blog for it always bring hope, for you always stay cheerful! It is really a good choice, pastor, for us to know you and your family more as a body of Christ : ) and i personally also learnt how to appreciate life more.

Welcome back! : )

denise* said...

hey pastor.

sounds like you ate a lot of dim sum in hongkong! hope you had a fruitful and enjoyable time there. ((:

Esta said...

Welcome back Pastor Ben n Dinah!

Really thank God for your life, being so open to do your sharings on the BLOG. Im so proud to be a Hoppie, to tell my other churchy friends, my pastor have a blog too! Look forward to reading more of your entries!! :)

Anonymous said...

Avenue of Stars is another magnificent night place that you won't want to miss out :)

ben kc lee said...

thanks kyoko for your words of encouragement.
indeed weiting my wife thinks I ate a lot of tim sum too.
thanks for your life too esta.
will take up wilz's suggestion the next time we're in HK.
yes siang I was at that conf. hope your canton will improve