2 Days in Hong Kong & 2 Days at Sea

Hong Kong is a city straight out of a sci-fi movie. Everything is so clean and modern, giant windowed buildings, walking bridges that cover the city so that pedestrians do not have to fight the traffic in the streets, amazing stores, electronics everywhere, light shows at night, the subways are clean enough for you to eat off of the floor if you wanted to – the city just exudes modern beauty intermixed with a respect for nature, people, and the world itself.

When we got into Hong Kong, it was really overcast and difficult to see clearly into this amazing city – and pretty much for the whole first day that we were there, it was a little humid, overcast, and rainy – but even this did not destroy the beauty of this city. I hope that I can give at least a glimpse into this wonderful place! Our ship was docked on Kowloon, which is another island off the cost of Hong Kong (also an island). To get to Hong Kong, we could either take a ferry ride – the most efficient and clean ferry boat ride I have ever taken – it cost $1.70 Hong Kong Dollars, which is about $.25. ($1 = 7.8 HKD) – or we could take the subway (also incredibly cheap, so easy to navigate, and clean as can be – and really quite – the whole city is very quiet, there is no yelling, screaming, honking, or anything like that, instead the city is calm. At night, around 8pm the whole city puts on a light show with its buildings and it is so cool – I mean, what city in the US does a light show every night – I love it! Just shows how much pride and respect they have for one another and their city. Same thing with the trash, graffiti, etc. – there is none and I think its simply because the people have a profound respect for their environment. There weren’t signs directly telling people not to throw trash on the ground or eat in the subways or not to speak loudly – people just did it – now if only we could get people to do that in the US!

We spent the first day wondering around Kowloon and Hong Kong. We went to the electronics stores and saw all the new Ipods, cell phones, cameras, TV’s, etc. – everything was pretty cheap because they do not have sales tax, but still relatively expensive. I found an Ipod Nano 8G for $200 – I didn’t get it, but I really wish that I had! We also went to the Opal Mine and saw some beautiful opal stones, jewelry, pearls, etc. I spoiled myself and got an opal ring (heart shaped) in an 18 K white gold setting – I probably shouldn’t have spent that much money, but oh well, I think I deserve to treat myself every now and then ( I mean really – I am only traveling around the world!). We also spent some time in the Women’s Market, which was an outside market with jackets, clothes (that would never fit an American woman – I feel like a giant in most of these places), shoes (again – they laughed when I told them the size of my feet), hair stuff, funky stuff, dolls, etc. – just a ton of stuff for pretty cheap and of course you are supposed to bargain, which is always fun. We ate at a Thai restaurant and it was really good. We also got coffee at a Starbucks – sadly, we broke down (Michelle, you will understand I am sure). Later that night, we all went out with one of the guy’s from the ship’s cousin (who lives in Hong Kong) and we ate at an outdoor booth restaurant, underneath awnings, in the pouring rain, and it was fantastic.

The next day, Tom and I got up really early to try and get as much done as humanly possible in 1 day! We went to an orphanage in Hong Kong to donate money from SAS. Then we went on a tram ride up to Victoria’s Peak, which gives the most amazing view of the city and it was a perfectly clear day. The woman at the orphanage told us that a clear day only happens 20x a year, so we got really lucky on this one. We had coffee at the peak and then took the tram back down. We walked through the city gardens, saw pink flamingoes, a bird sanctuary, rose gardens, and lots of green foliage everywhere. Then we took the subway to Central Station and headed to another island off of Hong Kong, where we took a gondola ride up and across the island to this little village with a massive Buddha statue on the top of a hill. We walked up to the Buddha on a staircase with at least a hundred steps, took some great pictures, hung out with the giant Buddha for a bit, had some ice cream, did some shopping, probably the most comical thing about our trip to the Buddha was that he charged $20 HKD to visit! We then rode the gondola back down the mountain, got back on the subway, back to Kowloon and then we ate at the fanciest restaurant in Hong Kong – the Pizza Hut! I kid you not, Tom and I were underdressed for eating in this establishment! The menu was 20 pages long and most of it was not pizza, but different types of Chinese foods, Thai, Italian, it was pretty crazy. We ordered just a regular pizza and it pretty much tasted like Pizza Hut pizza, but I didn’t see anyone else actually eating pizza there. It was a fun experience and now I can say that I ate Pizza Hut in Hong Kong!

After our glorious meal at the Hut, we got back onto the ship and have now been sailing to Qingdao, China for the past 2 days. The ship is mostly empty, only about 80 people are on board because everyone else is traveling independently and meeting us in China. Its actually really nice being on the ship when its this quiet. I have gotten so much work done, slept in, the meals are better cause there are fewer people – its really fairly relaxing. The weather has completely changed course and now it feels like spring without any heat! I love it – finally, we are getting some cooler air. We arrive in China tomorrow morning at 8am and will be there until Sunday night. Then we are on the ship for 2 days and then we reach Japan, I cannot believe it – Japan – our last stop is almost here. But, I am not going to think about that, instead I am going to enjoy Quindao!