Aberdeen

October 8th--Our first stop of the day was back at Sam's Tailors for Mike to try on his pinned together fabric that would eventually become a suit. The fabric he picked out for this suit is absolutely beautiful. He'll look good for his interviews, that's for sure. The fitting didn't take long so afterwards we headed for the Star Ferry pier. We rode the ferry across Victoria Harbour, picked Subway sandwiches up for the kids, and then tried to locate bus #7 to take us to the other side of the island. We had a hard time finding the location, but once we did, we waited a good while for the bus to come. The bus was not coming so we decided to just hop into a taxi that took us to Aberdeen. He dropped us off at the Aberdeen Marina Club, but that was clearly not what we were looking for. After walking around and going the wrong way, we finally got directed in the right direction for the Jumbo Kingdom Restaurant. The Jumbo Kingdom Restaurant is a floating restaurant and was our spot for lunch. In order to get to the restaurant, we rode a shuttle boat. Mike and I enjoyed a lunch of dim sum and noodles. The kids stayed entertained by their activities that they brought along with them. We finished up our meal sipping on some wonderful Jasmine Tea. When we exited the doors of the restaurant and stepped onto the dock, there was a woman operating a sampan waiting there. Throughout lunch we had been trying to figure out how to get on a sampan and tour the harbour and see the boat people. We were lucky enough to "have one waiting for us", so we jumped right in. The woman driving the boat was so nice and friendly. She was great with the kids. She quickly let them both drive the boat. We took a 20 minute sampan ride around the harbor. We passed fishing boats, dingy boats and even house boats. We saw laundry hung out to dry because a lot of people do live on the water. There was a time when a boat person could be born, live, marry, and die onboard, hardly ever stepping foot on land. I can't even imagine. After our wonderful sampan ride, we rode the bus back to the Central station and got on the subway back toward the YMCA. We got back early enough to enjoy the indoor pool for about an hour before dinner. We headed to a restaurant that was recommended to us called New Star Seafood Restaurant. We were wanting to experience a hot pot restaurant, and I would have to say that we definitely did have the experience. First off, we had a language barrier. Everyone was very friendly and they finally found one waiter that spoke English. At least there was an English menu, but some of the items didn't sound any better in English. We did decide on some items to cook in our hot pot though. We ordered shrimp, fish dumplings, chicken slices, corn on the cob and carrots. The staff at the restaurant was very helpful when our food came by helping us to get started on cooking our food. We were laughing because at one point there were about 4 people around us, all speaking Chinese, helping us cook our food. They were really attentive to the kids though, so that was great. They stabbed the corn on the cobs with chopsticks for the kids to eat. I have to say the fish dumplings were not as good as we hoped, but all in all, we did enjoy the experience and the food. After dinner, we quickly walked to the harbor promenade where we enjoyed the 10 minute Symphony of Lights. This is where 40 buildings on both sides of the harbor put on a light and laser show. The show was neat, but I think the kids had a little higher expectations. About half way through the show, Abby asked when it was going to begin! After the show it was back to the YMCA for bed.