Hong Kong

Goodbye Seven Seas Explorer. We have travelled 1,804 nautical miles at sea on this spectacular ship, but it was time to leave.
We were up early at 6:00am, put a last load of laundry in the dryer, went up for breakfast at 7:00am. Back to pick up laundry from dryer and left the ship at 8:00am. We walked to the bus to take us on our excursion tour in Hong Kong.
Our guide today is Victor, and it turned out that he was very articulate and highly organized, which made for a very enjoyable but busy full day.
The first adventure this morning, began with the five minute ride on the Star Ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. We rode first class, which is to say, on the top deck. A bus picked us up on Hong Kong Island and drove us to the mountain where we took the Peak Tram to Victoria Peak. It is a funicular i.e. stays on tracks. The maximum angle is 26% but it feels more like 45%. At its steepest pitch it looked like the buildings, just a short distance away, we’re leaning on an angle. The Tram was built originally in 1888 for the particularly rich and politically important residents who lived at the top of Victoria Peak. Fortunately, the tram that we were on was the 6th generation of the original. On the way up, it was somewhat reassuring that the cable that drives the two trams is 2 inches thick.
Victor told us that the cost of housing on Victoria Peak is approximately $10,000 US per square foot compared to $2000 US in the city.
The population of Hong Kong, with a birth rate of only 0.9% is in decline despite incentives to have larger families.
It was an exhilarating ride up the tram, and we had a chance to take some good pictures. Instead of taking the tram back down, the bus met us at the top and took us to our lunch venue which was another excellent buffet. There was a very talented singer/guitar player who quietly entertained us during lunch singing relaxed songs, some of them, my favorites, by John Denver.
Following lunch we headed to the famous Stanley Market named after Lord Stanley, Britain's Prime minister and the longest-serving leader of the Conservative Party (1846–68). who was the head of the colony, but never actually went to Hong Kong. Before touring the market, we browsed through yet another shrine, this time with very colourful and interesting statues. There was one Buddha that you could rub, making wishes for certain things depending on what part of the body you touched. There was another one that you could rub with Hong Kong currency in the hopes it would make you wealthy. Of course you had to donate the money to make the "prayer" come true.
We then wandered around the Stanley Market, which Victor said had better merchandise than the night market, but it was very touristy, with mostly the same types of merchandise over and over again and we agreed that perhaps we’ve been to too many markets.
Most of the water for Hong Kong comes from China, but on the way back to our hotel we passed one of three man made water reservoirs that also serves Hong Kong by collecting rain water.
As we drove by the reservoir, Victor pointed to what he referred to as free housing. Then he laughed and said "that’s the prison".
Our last stop of the day was at Aberdeen, where we boarded in small groups, flat bottomed Sampans for a 15 minute tour around the harbour. The boats were powered by an outboard motor and steered by a long-handled tiller, in our case, by a very friendly Chinese lady. The tour took us by many old looking boats on which many people lived as well as through alleys of modern yachts.
Following that last stop today, we were delivered to our hotel, the Shangri-La in Kowloon. It is a five-star hotel, and we can’t imagine that anything could be much ritzier. They even change the carpets on the floor of the elevators to tell you what day of the week it is.
After unpacking for our three nights at the hotel, we decided to head out to the street and find something to eat rather than stay in the hotel. We got a recommendation from the concierge and headed towards that but came across a Taiwanese and Vietnamese food restaurant right on the street very close to the hotel and we decided to have dinner there. The menu was very extensive, thankfully, supported by excellent pictures and with the help of our server we ordered barbequed satay skewers of chicken, beef and pork for Don and Lee had grilled beef wrapped around lemongrass sticks. It was a great dinner, and super environment because our table was right on the sidewalk of a very busy pedestrian walkway. We felt a bit like mannequins in a store window as we were almost the only North American people there.
After dinner, we took the short walk to the boardwalk along the harbour and walked back towards the Star Ferry terminal, which was the prime viewing area for nightly light and music show. It was quite spectacular with the lights on the buildings on Hong Kong Island and music in the background. There were thousands of people watching on the boardwalk, apparently a nightly occurrence. We saw a cruise ship, leaving the harbour and we thought at first that it was our ship. It wasn’t but the people would have been treated to a glorious light show.
We got back to the room at approximately 9 o’clock and having had quite a long day, we packed it in.Läs mer