hong kong, china

whew, two whirlwind days in hong kong!

we arrived to the land of large (large buildings, large bill boards, large ships, large malls) hong kong is like new york except cleaner :)

my first day in hong kong was spent doing a city tour with lots of the folks i have become friends with while on this voyage :)

we boarded a bus, crossed the bridge to aberdeen and got on a sampan to observe the life of the people living on fishing junks. we witnessed the life of the fishing junks as we were surrounded by large buildings everywhere-there was no skyline in sight. we even got to see a floating restaurant!

after getting of the sampan we got back on the bus and headed for victoria peak-where we experienced a tram ride wile getting a bird's eye view of the city. after leaving the tram, we walked to see several historical building in hong kong- the final court of appeals, st johns cathedral and the old supreme court.

we then stopped to enjoy our box lunches from the ship. since i am a vegetarian my box is clearly labeled with my name and my food eating status. after reading the name on my box lunch, my shipmates spent the rest of the day harassing me with comments such as, we should have a wet tshirl contest, i'm cold does anyone have a sweatshirl i can borrow, i prefer a long sleeved tshirl to a short sleeve tshirl and the laughter went on and on. i must admit that i did find the tagless tshirl funny.


after lunch we made our way to cat street, which was once notorious for having brothels and hide outs for criminals. we also stopped by the man mo temple also located on cat street and hollywood road. we entered the temple and immediately saw coils upon coils of incense. having never seen coils of incense i was intrigued by their shape and the fact that the smaller coils burn for three months. we spent a few minutes walking the curio and antique shops on cat street.

we returned to the ship around five. we had dinner off the ship at a dim sum restaurant in the harbour ocean mall. after dinner we decided to check out the night market so we hopped into cab and ventured to the market. the market looked like an overstuffed turkey filled with jewelry, purses, tshirts (tshirls :) ) paintings, toys, videos, etc.

i didn't have any trips planned for the next day so i hung out with kate and andrea. we paid 180 hong kong dollars for a token to get on the star ferry which took us from kowloon island, where we were docked, to hong kong island. after making our way through the mall, we caught a cab to the edward yuode aviary in the hong kong park. it was wild to be in an aviary park where it was calm and serene but to be surrounded by skyscrapers. we spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the flagstaff house museum of tea, (i learned how oolong tea is made) the chater garden, statue square and the post office. while some folks went to get massages, i returned to the ship to write postcards in hopes of sending them before we set sail later that night.

i had dinner with a few folks from the ship, including one llc whose stepbrother lives in hong kong. after dinner we raced back to the ship to watch the nightly light show. i had hoped to get back off the ship after the light show to get a chai in the mall but on ship time was nine and the light show did not end until eight twenty :( once you are on the ship, you can not get off within one hour of on ship time) although i missed my chai for that evening i did get a chai while i was in hong kong.

we had a set sail party-we sat on the patio of a cabin on deck seven and drank adult beverages as we left the hong kong port at eleven.

we are now making our way to shanghai and should arrive there tomorrow morning!