I was in Hong Kong from Dec 1 to Dec 9. I was traveling with my nephew Justin and we were part of a group of 38 Hong Kong Veterans' Commemorative Association (HKVCA) members. We were there to take part in ceremonies to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the cessation of WWII hostilities in the Far East and the release of the Hong Kong Veterans, like my father (Paul-Emile Mondor), from Japanese POW camps.

While we were in Hong Kong we met up with the Veterans Affairs Canada Delegation (which included 6 Hong Kong veterans) and a group of over 200 high school students from the Port Perry Ontario area.

Going to Hong Kong is something I wanted to do for a few years now, but it really peaked my interested in the last year. Last fall (2004) when the History Channel showed the For King and Country series, including the Hour of Darkness: Canadians in Hong Kong 1941, my interest in traveling to Hong Kong really escalated as did my desire to learn more about my father (Paul-Emile Mondor) and what happened to him over in Hong Kong and Japan. Earlier this spring when I decided to leave my job to go do some traveling, Hong Kong was on my list of places to visit, however I never thought it would happen this soon and be such an amazing trip.

Being able to participate in the HKVCA trip to Hong Kong, spending time over there with the 6 Hong Kong veterans, and being able to bring my nephew Justin along was just great. That made the trip so much more than it would have been had I just gone on my own and it's something I could not have imagined back in the spring.

Mike Babin, our tour leader, did an excellent job arranging the whole thing and ensuring everything ran smoothly while we were in Hong Kong. Thanks Mike!

Also, when Justin and I signed up for the trip we weren't sure what we were getting into. At that time the only person I knew that was going was Mike and I had only met him breifly at the HKVCA convention in Ottawa this summer. So, to get to Hong Kong and find out we were there with 36 others just as passionate about the trip and just great to get along with was amazing. Thanks everyone!

I was hoping to keep my web journal up to date with pictures and all the details of our trip while were in Hong Kong, but we keep ourselves so busy that all I had time for was the following daily 'text only' posting:

The following pages where compiled since we returned from Hong Kong. They contain pictures and more information on sites we saw and the events we took part in. If you want to do a virtual tour of the places we visited go to my Google Earth page and follow the instruction there to download and play Hong_Kong_Trip_Places.kmz.