Visit to Singapore

We took our 9 day visit to Singapore and Malaysia to train two new couples who just arrived as humanitarian missionaries. They are Elder and Sister Richard Smith from Provo, Utah and Elder and Sister Davis from the Vancouver, Washington area. They both will be great. We stopped in Singapore for two days before moving to Kuala Lumpur, West Malaysia for three days and then to Bintulu, East Malaysia for another three days. We will prepare a blog for these two visits in a few days. The Service Center and Mission Headquarters for these countries is in Singapore, so we needed to stop in Singapore to do some training and meet some of the leaders here. Singapore is an interesting city-state. It is a separate island on the tip of the Malaysian peninsula, similiar to Hong Kong Island. It has been independent of Malaysia since 1965. It has one of the busiest ports in the world, with hundreds of thousands of large containers arriving each year. It is also a financial hub with many banks and businesses headquartered here. A definite competition exists with Hong Kong as to which is the economic leader in Southeast Asias. The city has many beautiful buildings. English is the major language spoken because of the long British rule. We were able to take a tour of some of the City highlights on one day and also a dragon boat ride in the harbor. We stayed in a lovely hotel in downtown Singapore. The following pictures highlighted some of the things we saw on these two tours.

The "mascot" or symbol of Singapore is the "Merlion" guarding the Singapore harbor. It is intended to mirror the mermaid of Denmark harbor fame. The lion head with the body of a fish comes from a mythical lion that guards the Singapore river that flows through the city. The name Singapore means "City of the lion". A great attraction is the world's largest ferris wheel. It moves slowly to allow riders to view the city from a great height. It takes over twenty minutes to make a loop. We didn't have time to take the ride. Maybe next time.


We stayed at the Royal Plaza on Scott in Singapore. The lobby had many candles burning to welcome us.

View from the 26th floor of our hotel. Many beautiful buildings on the skyline.

Flower ropes used by taxi drivers and others to bring good luck. They hang them from their rear views mirrors.

The bus we took on the City Tour. Anthony was our driver/guide. About 35 on the tour.

We stopped at Little India and visited an Indian mosque. This sect believes that God can take many forms. The statues on the roof are reprsentative of some of the forms he can appear in. All sides of the building had similar displays of statues.

One of our stops was the Singapore Botanical Gardens. Tens of acres. One of the

highlights is the orchid gardens. Our pictures cannot begin to depict the thousands of orchids in the gardens. They were beautiful.

.Our harbor cruise was on this dragon boat. It was sunny and hot. The hat is to protect my head, but the bill wasn't big enough to protect my nose. It was red the next day. Hundreds of ships come in each day loaded with containers that have goods from all over the world.

We stopped on one of the many small islands surrounding Singapore. It is called the Kusu Island, or turtle island. Many of the islands are artificial islands created to build apartments and skyscrapers on. There is even a complex of three large buildings being built for the gambling industry

.Kusu Island is a sanctuary for turtles and houses a religious shrine where people come once a year to celebrate their holy day.

They even have a marble monument dedicated to the turtles. We had a relaxing trip back to our hotel

Hong Kong Street Scenes

Walking the streets of Hong Kong is always an adventure, even at nights. The sidewalks are full of people hurrying to and fro. They walk fast, seldom smile, and are focussed on where they are going. The first four pictures below were taken on our way to the Area Administration Building from our Apartment on a typical morning. The busses unload scores of workers who then hurry down the street toward us as we approach them. Sister Smith and I must break our hand clasp and try not to be run down. It sometimes reminds me of the "running of the bulls" in Spain! I have tried smiling at them, but seldom get a return smile. The elders and sisters stand in front of our building and try to strike up conversations as they hold out their hands to greet them. They are usually just brushed off. But they keep smiling and trying. Great missionaries!!

There are not as many motorcycles in Hong Kong as we saw in Thailand and Indonesia, but there are still some. Here is an example of a motorcycle used as a delivery vehicle.


Occasionally we long for some American (Australian?) food. We found an Outback Steakhouse a few blocks from our apartment and love to take a break for lunch there.
Bottled water is big business in Hong Kong. The empty bottles are put out in the mornings and the full ones are left to take into the buildings during the day. We have these bottles in our apartment. They are delivered outside of our apartment door whenever we call for a refill. The water is supposed to be pretty good in our area, but for safety, we drink the bottled water.

We have been so impressed with the clean streets and alleys here. We see workers sweeping the sidewalks and curbs daily. The alleys are free of litter. Periodically, water trucks come by and clean all the sidewalks. Building owners usually clean in front of their buildings every morning. A great trait.

The transportation system in Hong Kong is unbelievable. Bus routes crisscross the entire country. Usually one has two or three choices to get to any place. A relic of 100 years ago are the electric trams, or, as they are affectionately called by Hong Kong residents, the "ding dings". They clang the bell as they approach intersections and pedestrians who get in their way. They only have tracks on a few streets. The street in front of our apartment is one of these. The tracks go down the middle of the street. The subway system is known as the MTR, and goes across the bay underground. It is very efficient and fast. The ferries go from island to island. The one that goes from Hong Kong to Kowloon to the North is free for seniors. It only takes about 10 minutes to cross the bay and be on ones way.

Two "ding dings" crossing in front of us.

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Another method of transportation that uses the sidewalks are carts that are used to gather garbage or deliver goods to businesses. They need a whistle so pedestrians can know they are behind them. Often it is women doing this work

Note the 7-11 store in the background. There are hundreds of them in Hong Kong, often two on the same block. They are not large, but carry papers, candies, alcohol, treats. You can even pay your utility bills in them and refill your "smart" octupus card.

We have been surprised with the number of "street" work projects going on. It seems that every block has part of the street and curb area broken up to get at sewer and water pipes. One area is finished and another started. Most of the digging and recovering is manual. Good employment opportunities. Sometimes tranversing the construction areas as a pedestrian is quite a challenge,

Hike to Discovery Bay

This blog follows the one labeled "Ferry Trip to Peng Chau". Go to that blog first, and then this one will make more sense. Some of the couples from the Asia Area Office took a ferry to Peng Chau, did some sight seeing and hiking, then took another ferry to the dock near the Trappist Monastery Jetty. We then did some hiking over the hillside and down the other side to Discovery Bay. Jay and I took a more leisurely route and took time for lots of pictures. It wasn't as flat as Elder Jackson made it sound, but was wonderful as we could take our time.

A beautiful view of Discovery Bay from the top. At this point you can't see the city, just the beach. It was peaceful and calm. As we descended we saw lots of temporary housing put up by many of the people working in the homes and businesses in Discovery Bay (mostly Philippinoes or Indonesians just like in Hong Kong and Kowloon). We saw some beautiful "greenery" which we miss in the area of Hong Kong that we live in where we see mostly tall, tall buildings and lots of sidewalk businesses, and many, many people hurrying by.

Jay was wearing his Indonesian cap and had his walking stick umbrella in case of rain, and his casual shirt that he bought at the Stanley Market. Discovery Bay is in the background. It was a nice day with no rain, but was overcast.

Along the overgrown path was this relic of the "war years".

The pathway was not just down!!! We did go up and down, sometimes a good path, sometimes stairs, sometimes through the back yards of homes. It was a about a 3 mile hike for us. I'm not sure how far for the others. Jenaie used the camera on this trip, so there are more pictures of Jay than usual.

In the middle of the foliage we found water pipes carrying water to the villagers. It reminded us of the water projects we have going on in several of our Asian countries that we are supervising and plan to visit. (We have already been to one in Indonesia.)

Banana plants!!! It reminded us of the ones we had in our back yard when we lived in Hawaii. Hard to believe that they only produce one crop. We enjoyed seeing quite a few of them as we hiked the Discovery Bay trail. We took several pictures, but this was the best showing bananas.

The sign indicates that these are "Fire Beaters". We assume that they are there for anyone to use in case of fire. We weren't sure how good a job they would do if we had to use them, but know that a fire engine would have had a hard time getting to that area.

This is a young Indoneasian woman who was working in the garden that was on the mountain side. She was very friendly and spoke "a little English". She was willing to let us take her picture if Jeanie would be in it too. She reminded us of the Sisters in our Island II Branch, so much love and gentleness. They are always willing to work hard to earn money to send back home to help support their families.

More pictures of the gardens. They were sure beautiful gardens with lots of different types of vegetables. According to the sign, they are all "Organic" vegetables. Not a weed in sight!!!

Grandpa's Organic Gardens

The End of the Walk!!!! Discovery Bay ahead!!!! Food (a Mexican Restaurant)

Then a Ferry back to Central Pier and a bus to the Apartments.

Ferry Boat to Peng Chau

The missionary couples in the Asia Area office go on Saturday excursions once or twice a month. One of the first ones we went on was a ferry ride to an island between Hong Kong Island where we live and Lantau Island where the airport is located. It is called Peng Chau. The only access to the island is by ferry. There are no cars on the island, just bicycles. Seven couples left our apartment building early on a Saturday in March. We took a bus to the ferry in Central, and then boarded a ferry that took us to the island. (About 20 minutes). We visited the market place and while the other couples hiked up a steep hill to view the surrounding islands, we enjoyed a stroll around the village with its houses on the hills, its little shrines, and the village atmosphere. After the visit to Peng Chau, we took another ferry to Lantau Island and went on a hike around part of the island to Discovery Bay, a town where many Hong Kong employed Caucasian families live. We ended with dinner at a Mexican Restaurant. This first blog is of Peng Chau. The next blog will include pictures of the Discovery Bay hike.

The ferry holds about 200 passengers. It moves at good speed. There are ferries going to different islands from Hong Kong including one to Kowloon where the Temple is located. Some days we go to the Temple by ferry and bus, but most of the time we go by bus through the harbor tunnel because it is faster. Fares are reasonable. For the ferries, seniors travel free!!

This is a picture of some of the office couples on the ferry. Elder and Sister Woolsey, E/S Gibbons, E/S Halverson, E/S Jackson, E/S Bench, and E/S Erickson were with us. We were in our casuals which made hiking much easier.

Peng Chau Ferry Pier

A map of the island of Peng Chau. It makes it look much bigger than it is.



A shop right next door to the "Shrine" on one of the few streets of Peng Chau. As we were just starting our day's adventure we didn't buy anything, but later did find some needles and black thread, and an "Umbrella Walking Stick". We also had a fruit drink to go along with the pastries we bought. It was great to get away from the HEAVY traffic we have in Hong Kong.

Imagine, only having bicycles to get around on. Some of them looked pretty old, and we felt safer just using our own legs and feet. It was a relaxing morning.

We saw lots of beautiful flowers as we walked around the small village, mostly around the homes. There were many apartment building also. We didn't get much information on how many people lived on the Island. We will have to find out and add that to our Blog.

Some of the houses and apartments had "Pot" gardens for flowers and vegetables. It was amazing to see what they were trying to grow. However, some really liked their privacy (note the big fences). We enjoyed our stroll through the village, while the younger couples enjoyed the strenuous hike to the top of Finger Hill. We knew we would slow them down, so didn't go with them.

One of the many neighborhood religious shrines. Every island and village has them.

Apartment houses are everywhere. But these on Pen Chau Island are not near as high as the ones we have in Hong Kong and Kowloon.

Hong Kong Island II Branch Social

We belong to the Island II branch in Hong Kong. This is a branch of mostly Philippine sisters who work as domestic servants in Hong Kong. The sisters in our branch have Sundays as their "off"day. Another branch holds meetings five days a week, Tuesday-Saturday, for those with days off other than Sunday. Because the sisters only have one day off, Sundays are busy with our block meetings, interviews, group home teaching, family home evening (5 groups), institute, and branch socials. Elder Smith serves as the 2nd Counselor and is at Church from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. each Sunday. We meet in the Asia Area Administration Building in the Wan Chai District of Hong Kong Island where we work during the week. The church groups meet on floors 1-7, with three separate chapels. There are 3 other Sunday branches of Philippine sisters, one of which also meets in our building. In addition, a Chinese branch and an ex pat branch meet in the building. Our office during the week is on the 8th floor.

Elder and Sister Jackson on their last Sunday before

returning home. Elder Jackson has served as the Asia

Area Executive Secretary and also as the Island II Branch

Executive Secretary and Financial Clerk. This was a

social to say goodbye to them.

The members in the Jackson Home Teaching Group performed

Hawaiian dancing and singing numbers honoring them. A lot

of tears as goodbyes were said. The program was followed by

a dinner. About 120 members were present.

Group picture of Island II members