On our way....

We begin our journey to Bora Bora in less than an hour and arrive in two days! Maybe I should have tried sleeping last night....
Hopefully I will be able to update this for you while we are away, but we might be busy....

Private picnic

I am scouring the internet for ideas and tips for our trip. Over and over again I am reading about this private picnic. It sounds SO fabulous!!! I am dying to do it!!! Here is a blurb from a forum on
http://www.tahiti-explorer.com/
posted by LindaL

Keishi Tours does private motu picnics. Perroit did our tour when we did it in Nov. but his son and also a cousin, I believe, joined the business as well.
Our tour with Perroit went something like this-Perriot picked my husband and me up at the Vaitape dock in the morning in his motorized outrigger canoe. He immediately offered us cold Hinanos and we took off across the lagoon to see the dolphins.
Afterward we headed out past the reef to feed the sharks. The three of us jumped into the bluest water I have ever seen. It was like swimming in blue ink but it was clear as a bell. I figured that we were in about 60 feet of water but we could see the bottom perfectly. Perroit had a big bucket of fish and it seemed like the sharks arrived immediately. There were at least a dozen or so and they were everywhere. They were all around us, circling us and swimming beneath us. It was the most unbelieveable experience. I never once felt in danger, the sharks could not have cared less that we were there. It was just so incredible to get to view them up close like that. We brought our disposable underwater camera and Perriot took several pictures of us with the sharks swimming in the background.

After the shark feeding we headed back to the lagoon. We anchored in about 3 1/2 feet of water and got out to pet and feed the sting rays. There were several swimming around and we got great pictures of that as well.

We then went around the other side of the island to the coral gardens located on the backside of the Sofitel Motu. We snorkeled around for about 30 or 40 minutes. Great snorkeling.

Then we circled the island more as Perroit pointed out hotels and other points of interest to us. Eventually he stopped the boat about 300-400 yards from the shore of a motu, gave us a supply of cold beer and told us to enjoy "his pool" while he prepare our lunch. He drove his boat closer to the shore of the motu and we were left by ourselves in 2 1/2 feet of warm light blue water. About 30 minutes later he called us to the shore for lunch.

The table was set up in the water with an unbrella, white tablecloth and fresh flowers everwhere. There was a chilled bottle of champagne and real glasses, silverware, and china. None of the plastic stuff at Keishi, no way. He gave us both flower leis and begain serving us lunch. I don't think I can remember all the food, we had so much, but I know we had salad, poission cru, steak, fish, lobster, shrimp, potatoes, and bread all grilled on the grill set up in the water next to our table (except the salad and poission cru, of course). The food was fabulous and we had the most incredible view of Bora Bora in front of us. Beneath us, tiny fish were circling our legs waiting for bread crumbs to fall in the water. This may have been the happiest moment of my entire life up 'till now. I really can't think of anything that tops that moment. I was in heaven.

After lunch we did almost another complete circle around the island before we were taken back to the dock. It was a wonderful experience and what makes it so great is how genuine Perroit is. He is a wonderful man with the most engaging smile I've seen. He really loves what he does and seems to genuinely enjoy meeting people and showing them his island. I think he really is what Polynesia is all about.

Honeymoon in Bora Bora

Hopefully this is where we will be March 23rd.
We have the tickets (stand-by of course) and have the bunglaow reserved. Lets just hope we get on the flights!!! Suds is having second thoughts now....he is worried about all the variables, but I remain optiistic! What bad can happen to us on our honeymoon?? Famous last words...

Don't get too excited for us, as always you just never know if you will get to your destination when you fly standby.

Here is the link ( in the LINK section, I couldn't get it to work in the post) so you can check out the resort and the rooms and everything. Or you can look it up yourselves www.sofitel.com We are staying at the Motu Bora Bora.


Now I have all the REALLY important stuff to do...a new bathing suit, misc waxing and polishing, flippers for snorkelling, and snax becuase we won't be able to afford food once on the island!

We will be back in Hong Kong April 2nd and back to real life.

more pictures

Suds and his parents leaving from Vancouver to come to Hong Kong. They came on his flight, which was neat, and helped to score them a seat in business class!

(Suds is embarassed to only have one bar on his sleeve)








Relaxing on the Top Deck of the Jumbo Floating Restaurant
We had a fabulous lunch here, but it was a tad windy and chilly










The Lipo Building.
Can you see the koala bears climbing up the building??

I never know what was up with this crazy building. I called it the Lego building. Then someone finally enlightened me, it Koalas!!!













On the KCR heading into Shenzhen.
It took us about an hour and a half from our door to the LoWu shopping complex in Shenzhen. That includes going thru Hong Kong customs and then Mainland China customs. Such a pain in the ass.







Peace out from the Triple O's in Hong Kong
Remember to ask for your burgers "well done"
they do not know the dangers of E-Coli and will serve your burger with a pink middle! Ahhh!











Great bargain shopping, but it was really busy on the weekend. The prices are no where near as good as Shenzhen, but it is a good place to pick up socks, scrapbooking punches, pashmina's, belt's, sunglasses, watches and wallets.









The night time view across the harbour from Kowloon to Hong Kong island.
Every night the buildings across the water have a light and laser show you can watch. Sadly I am yet to see it. But I hear it is good!










Our last dinner in Hong Kong.
We went to Olive, where I will probably bring many visiters. It is a Greek/Middle Eastern restaurant. Very yummy! And they have a 2 for 1 on Mondays!!!

Hong Kong pictures

Ron and Linda at Hong Kong Park

















Together at the Sutherland Street sign down the street from us











View of the IFC from the Peak walk
















The IFC building, the 6th tallest building in the world

Showing off our new city

Our first visters have arrived!! There has been a lot for them to get used to, but they have adapted well.

The first day we headed to the Man Po temple up the street, which is cloudy with insence smoke. Next we took the bus to Aberdeen to that fabulous floating restaurant for lunch. Yesterday we took the big trek to Shenzhen for a day of mainland China bargain shopping and ended the day with massages and mani's pedi's. Our take this time? Calloway golf clubs, golf shoes and shirt, Diesel jeans, and sox for Suds, an LV purse, 2 pairs of sunglasses, shoes, and tons of pearls for Linda, 2 more pairs of jeans for me (Rock and Republic and True Religon), and a couple of tank tops. So much fun!!!

Today we are headed to Times Square mall (over 10 floors of shopping) and hopefully to the Peak lookout if the smog clears up.



Oh and by the way, about the curtains....Afterwearing myself out searching for a curtain rod and screws, I come home exhausted. I am on the bed wondering about the intelligence of standing on a wobbly chair on top of the mattress so I can reach where I want the rod intalled when I realize that one of the walls is made of cement. I had not thought of checking what the walls were made of before I started this. I am clearly not a proffessional.
So I simply gave up. I threw all my supplies into the back of the closet and spent the rest of the night doing nothing and watching bad TV. Maybe when the next set of guests arrive I will have it done.

One more day

I only have one more day to get ready for Ryan's parents visit. How am I ever going to get everything done? I have deceided to add some extra stress to myself because I am a nutcase. I have designed a semi privacy curtain for the bed. I spent all day yesterday traipsing around looking for fabric. I finally deceided on a brown cordoroy. Now I need to find a curtain rod and instal it but I don't have a drill or screwdriver. I also don't have a needle, thread or proper scissors....how did I get myself into this? As well as the curtain, I have a hike and lunch with The Wives, laundry, grocery shopping, and a final clean. How did I ever manage to sqwish a full time job into my life?
As you can see, I also do not have a measuring tape. Being the resourceful gal that I am, I used one of my belts. The guy at the fabric store definetly looked at me oddly. However, I now know that that particular belt is almost exactly 1 meter long...or is it one yard?

Guests coming!

With our first guests arriving in a few days, Suds and I have been planning for things to see, places to eat at, and how to make the stay most comfortable.
With a little manuvering of the couch, we devised a way to make a queen sized bed at night to sleep on. It has a few flaws, as there tends to be....there is a split down the "bed" that threatens to swallow you in the night if you move too much and you have to sleep diagonally because even our short little bodies are too tall for the length of the "bed". Not to worry future guests!! We plan on being the ones sleeping here, since we are the most likely to fit!
None of that really matters though because I found such a cute sheet set that it makes it all worth while!!!






Where the couch is placed now (minus Christmas tree).

Happy to be home in Hong Kong

Suds and I are finally reunited back in good ol' China. I got in late last night and he got in early this morning. Lexi is SO happy to see us!! Her purr is going into overdrive!

This is Suds' Motivation House. There are no houses like this in Hong Kong. We wish that when we return to Vancouver, it will be to a house like this...if we win the lottery maybe our wish will come true!












This is Abbey. She is good at fake sneezing and wrapping her grandparents (and everyone else) around her tiny fingers!
















Here is a picture of Jacob and his "sister" Molly. Notice the bit of red lifesaver stuck in her fur! Jacob just turned three. I toured around Ikea with Jacob and Barbara...I wish I could jump from bed to bed on display while giggling hysterically like he did!











On my last night in Vancouver I had dinner at Shannon's mom Cathy's house. A tasty feast as always. Afterwards we watched the Dirty Cocks (DCX) play some high caliber hockey at Planet Ice. Too bad they lost. Afterwards we gorged on fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies a la Tiffany. The girls then watched Brokeback Mountain but the boys couldn't handle it...wimps!