March 30th

Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong early this morning. I turned on the TV to watch the bridge cam channel so that I could hear announcements from the bridge about going ashore, and there parked right in front of us was Queen Mary 2. Now I love Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, and am quite happy to be on either ship, but for some inexplicable reason, I get so excited to see Mary. Go figure.

We had purchased the Hong Kong Hop on Hop off bus tickets online, so as soon as Brian was back from the gym, I was ready to go and do some serious sight seeing. This is my 5th time in Hong Kong, but I still get very excited to be here.

Last time I was here we were on Mary, and docked in the container port which was miles and miles from anywhere, except the containers. This time we are at the Kai Tak terminal, which is just miles from anywhere. However, it does have a cruise terminal, you are not just deposited onto the dock. Like in our previous ports, the cruise terminal looks just like an airport terminal. This is probably because it is actually built where the old airport used to be.

The terminal is bright, modern, and efficient. They have an ATM and currency exchange, as well as several restaurants and a large duty free shop, but we never went to check any of them out. There were also loads of taxis available.

There was a free shuttle bus into town which drops you off near the Shangri-La hotel, an easy walk to the subway or ferry terminal.

The bus ticket includes tickets to the ferry as well as the Peak Tram, and we planned to use both today. We took the ferry across to Hong Kong Island and hopped on to the bus, and hopped off at the Victoria Peak Tram station. The weather was almost perfect – hot and sunny with a light breeze. On our previous trip it was rainy and foggy the whole time, so there was no point going up to Victoria Peak, as you would see nothing from the top. The only problem today was that when we got to the tram, the rest of Hong Kong’s population seemed to be in the queue to go on it. Feeling discouraged I went to exchange our coupons for our tickets, and was told that we got to go to the front of the queue. It still took about half an hour before we got onto the tram, but it was fine as we were indoors and they had an interesting display on the history of the tram.

We finally got onto the tram and started the steep assent to the top. It only takes a few minutes, but the views going up are great. . When you get off of the tram you go straight to a souvenir shop. It is rather like being on a Disney ride. The last time I was here I remember going straight out onto a viewing deck when you alighted from the tram, but now there is this very fancy structure where you go up a never ending series of escalators to the sky deck. The building has loads of restaurants, cheap souvenir shops, and even a Madame Tussauds. We avoided all of these, except for a quick purchase of a cashmere scarf, and headed to the top.

Even though it was a hazy day (thank you China for spreading your pollution to Hong Kong), we still had a great view of Victoria Harbour, Kowloon, and the New Territories. We could even see our ships in the distance through the haze.

We spent a long time there just looking at the 360-degree view around us. There are thousands of impossibly narrow, tall apartment buildings in Hong Kong. They don’t look like they would survive a gentle breeze, let alone a strong typhoon, but there they all are, gradually creeping up the forested hillside of Victoria Peak.

Although we could jump the queue to ride the tram up to the top, we had to wait in the long winding queue to get down again, and then wait in a long queue for the next bus. However, the weather was good, I was in Hong Kong, so I didn’t mind at all.

We rode around Hong Kong Island in the bus for a while. The running commentary described the history and the buildings around us. This was great; I had walked around this area on several occasions, but had never really known much about my surroundings.

We hopped off the bus at the Taoist Man Mo Temple. There are many students who visit here to light incense and candles to Man the god of literature. The smell and the smoke from these was overwhelming, and although there are many bizarre looking statues I wanted to get a close look at there, I had to get out into the fresh air.

We rode around on the bus for a while longer, and then it was time to take the ferry and the shuttle bus back to the ship so we could get ready to go out to dinner.

We had planned to meet up with the brother of friend we shared a house with 40 years ago. We met at a local restaurant close to where he and his wife live, and had a really great meal, which included Peking duck, one of my favorites. It was so interesting to hear about what life was like in Hong Kong, including the ridiculous price of housing. I don’t know how anyone manages to make ends meet here.

After dinner we went for a long walk though the neighborhood, including a night market, for them to show us a great shop to buy tea. Although it was late at night, all of the shops (except the tea shop) were open, and there were loads of people of all ages out and about having a good time. It was just as crowded at night as it is during the day.

We ended up at an Irish pub, Delaney’s, and sat chatting, just enjoying their company, and thinking how cool it was to actually be in Hong Kong.

Tonight was the gala dinner in town for the passengers from QE and QM2 who are on the whole world cruise. When we got back to the ship after 11:00 they were also returning. I am sure that there were more people in wheel chairs coming back to the ship than there had been going to the gala. It must have been quite a party.

One unfortunate lady had got her long dress caught in an escalator, and was very insistent that the dress somehow be removed from the escalator without becoming damaged. Brian and I checked on her to make sure that she was all right, luckily she was, but I fear her dress had sustained permanent damage. I don’t know how they would be able to get her and the dress out of the escalator in one piece. Not a good way for her to end the evening. I was glad that I wasn’t wearing a long dress. It is just the sort of thing that would happen to me. However, I would gladly sacrifice the dress in order to be extricated from the escalator.

With those thoughts in my head we went back on board, and were more than ready for a good night’s sleep.