Kadoorie Farm

Residing in the New Territories sometimes feels like living in the small town with one stoplight on the outskirts of the happening big city of Kowloon and the island.
 We commonly travel anywhere from 45 minutes up to 2 hours, just to sight see and eat western food. There is quite a bit to do and see way up here, close to the mainland. It is less crowded and we are told the air quality is better.  On the occasions, we get to do something touristy that is close by, it is a nice change.
Kadoorie Farm is one of those places that to us, feels like it is in our backyard.

Parc Versailles, which is our estate, is a stop along the 64K route, that begins at Tai Po Market station. Kadoorie also has it's own stop along the route and is 15 stops away from us.

I have made four visits to the Kadoorie Farm and Botnical Gardens and only once did I get to ride the free shuttle bus.  We decided to go on a late Saturday afternoon and once again the shuttle tickets were sold out.
The bus gives you a nice ride to the top, that overlooks Lam Tsuen.  When I did go that time,  I only had a video camera and let Elliot have it most of the time. It doesn't show too much but Elliot is a cute 5 year old in it.



Some new experiences on this last trip included:


The Fruit plant area.

"coffee" tree

Nathan and I discussed how we both recently just learned that a pineapple came from a plant on the ground. I am not sure how I had imagined them growing, maybe like a coconut? Living in a cold climate for 30 years, did not give me much opportunity to see a pineapple grow. I talked to my dad shortly after this visit. A man, who has farmed and grown vegetables his whole life in Michigan and he kind of chuckled when I told him about my ignorance of pineapples.

We were able to see the Hong Kong Paradise fish a new species discovered in 2002.

Kadoorie sells organic fruit and vegetables, we bought some sugar cane to munch on.

Some old favorites, the pigs, owls and bugs

Elliot thought it was amusing to sit on these sharp rocks

Here is a video from our first trip with the Krohn's way back in 2009.

Lunch with Friends

We were invited by Choi Lin (Engilsh name -Greenie) for a lunch. Eunice her daughter attends NIS with Elliot. They are in Phase 2 of Parc Versailles. We often take the same mini bus to get school.
Also in attendance were two other NIS moms and their daughters.
I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty everything was. I haven't enjoyed many Hong Kong style meals or dishes, and I wasn't sure what to expect.
On the menu; Choi sum, beef balls, dumplings, and wings. Every thing had a distinct flavor that was savory and not overpowering.
I liked the flavor the chestnuts gave the beef balls. Her neighbor makes a home made chili paste, which I was eager to put on my noodles and it was delicious.

4 Countries represented, Hong Kong, US, Spain and Guatemala
The Mom's- Choi Lin, Me, Noelia, Almarie


The kids
Marina,(Noelia) Mia,(Almarie) Eunice, Elliot
I think he was beginning to feel a little out of place, in the room full of girls.

Christmas Happenings

Christmas cookie decorating at Pings. My friend Noelia is spending her first Christmas in Hong Kong this year. She has a son and daughter. Marina is in the same school as Elliot. She was able to come to help make some cookies. She did a perfect job at kneading the dough. Ping had these great cookie cutters that made for some fun shapes.





A visit to Disney during the Holiday will help you get in the Christmas mood. Jane gets a kiss by Minnie and the band poses with the kids.



Our Christmas tree this year decorated by the kids. A new ornament thanks to our summer trip to Bronners. We walk through a village on the way to Jane's school one of the houses had decorated all the trees outside. Parc Versailles has lights on almost every plant and post this year it looks quite festive. A look at Elliot's red nose you get the feeling it might actually snow.

Late New Year Post

I might have posted this sooner had we did anything really exciting for CNY but I didn't feel like I could ignore posting something about the most important celebration in the Chinese Culture. So here it is.
Kung Hey Fat Choi- Xin Nin Kuai le - Canto and Mandarin greeting.


PV CNY from outypants on Vimeo.





Year of the Tiger


Chinese Lunar New Year officially began on February 14th this year.

That week it was 40's(F) with rain on and off. Our plans to see parades and visit places that were celebrating the New Year were changed by the weather.
We are Michiganders, used to temperatures in 20's and 30's and six months of winter.
However we are also used to warm cars and dry winters. This wet wintry weather with two small kids, who don't have much interest in sight seeing, changed our plans to venture out,
 We didn't even visit the Lam Tsuen festival which is in our part of Hong Kong.
 The kids did receive three Hongbao's. These are the red packets traditionally given out at New Year to children, people in service positions and we recently learned, single people. They are suppose to have two bills and the bills should not equal 40 ( 4 is an unlucky number) The number 4 sounds like the word that means death. One of our guards here at Parc Versailles who is always friendly to the kids and who possibly speaks the least amount of English, handed them packets.
There was  also a lady who was randomly handing them out on the subway, and the third packets came from Nathan's boss. They are referred to as Lai See here in Hong Kong.

 We did manage to visit a carnival here at our apartment complex that had the traditional dragon dance and there balloons and games.



The Lam Tsuen orignal wishing tree became too brittle to trust people to throw their wishes onto it. So here is preparations for the New Year festival. This includes a "fake" wishing tree that people can try to throw and catch on the branches.


OUTFITS
















DECORATIONS
and
THE HONGBAO


























Maybe next year we will visit the fireworks or parade. Brave the midnight flower market on the eve of the New Year and brave the traffic to the wishing tree festival. Then again with 40˚ weather maybe we will go to Singapore.

Parc Versailles with Commentary

What I love about our place is how bright it is. Huge windows letting natural light in. We didn't have curtains for a week so that natural light woke me up at 5 am for a few days. It was kind of nice thinking it was 8 am time to start the day. A good reminder of how some people used to live and how some still do by the sun not the clock. I would like to get a bird book from the area to see if I can name some of the variety I see in the tree tops outside our windows. This is the master bedroom that has a bathroom attached to it.

Parc Versailles Phase One complex. This is our community. We have a shuttle that will take us into town and to the train station. There is a clubhouse and a pool. The pool cost extra. Most things here are not included you get used to the idea that you will have to pay to use facilities. The shuttle is free and we use that to save money on our Octopus cards.


Lots of built in closet space and shelves- I want to take that home with me. This is our half bath of our two and half baths and the maid's closet.

You can see on the ceiling all the track lighting. Along with the natural light the artificial light is splendid. This is the view of our dining room and living room. We might get spoiled living here. We have A/C something we have not had for 7 years, a bath and half more than home, wood floors and lots of closet space. I do miss our yard, you can't really send the kids out to play when you are on the 4th floor. Having my washer in the kitchen where I would like an oven isn't all that great either. We will have to purchase a countertop oven if I want to bake anything soon. We have a nice trail behind our house that the kids will be able to take their bikes on.