Hong Kong Botanic Gardens & Zoo

Today we went to the Hong Kong Botanic Gardens. It was really hot and humid. The gardens, like most of the outdoor attractions in Hong Kong, are located on a steep hill, so if you aren't sweating after you step out of the taxi, you will be sweating 5 minutes later. Loads of stairs and uphill paths. I guess one should be able to steer around this problem if one was clever enough to know the name of the entrance at the top of the hill. Only problem is, the main entrance is at the bottom of the hill. So we climbed up and up, Mads walked most of the way and fell asleep in the cab on the way home.

The Botanic Gardens have quite a bit of green and a good collection of animals, but they are all in cages with thick, black metal bars, which makes it sort of hard to actual animals.

Both girls really enjoyed themselves. Chase drank half a bottle of water. And by the end we were all on the look-out for the nearest taxi (with AC). And funny enough, we heard Uncle Courtney's song in the car on the way home, and Chase was overjoyed, "it's Uncle Courtney, Uncle Courtney!"

And in other news, it appears Icky has returned. He is with us most days. He was with us on the subway, in the Gardens and in the taxi home.















At the gardens...














The entrance...



















One of the many paths up... up... up...













Some flora and fauna...














Lots of stairs... Mads walked up every one of them (as did Chase).














Birds...














Birds...














The skyline...














They had a lot of Lemurs. At least 5 kinds.



















Mads looking at monkeys...














No spitting (just in case you were tempted)...














Lovely flowers...

Chase's Classes

So the good news is that the Mandarin tutor told me Chase's Mandarin accent is better than most local Hong Kong children. Bad news - she's lost most of it. Also, she has been in an art class, which, from what I've seen is more a "paint this," kind of class. I came in early and the art teacher was actually painting part of her project for her (hmmmm). Good thing this art class is only a week long, and it gives me an idea of what not to look for -- but at least it gives Chase an opportunity to work on a project and get a little dirty while we dwell in this tiny apartment. You only have to sneeze and it's mess-town everywhere!