When we arrive at Hong Kong we will have traveled 8500 miles. Hong Kong means Fragrant Harbor. Kowloon which is the area where we dock means 9 dragons taken from the shape of the hills.
Kowloon has 8000 skyscrapers and the population of Hong Kong is 7 million. The average person here earns 55,000 US dollars per person. They say there is virtually no unemployment. Here the Chinese banyan trees are numbered and tagged because of their age and cultural value.
There are no bikes here or motorcycles like other areas in fact it seems rare to see one. There is no gambling here except for certain islands that you have to ferry to. The average life span here is age 82. Street lights are often in the medians. 90% of travel is public transportation every day.
Twice on the hop on hop off bus that we were riding we had crashes in to another bus and a private car!!
Hong Kong has the highest life expectancy and the lowest infant mortalities. It is very safe here and little crime. There are pick pockets here so you are urged to be aware and on guard. There are crime triads active in drugs and prostitution. Before 1842 Hong Kong was a fishing community and a pirate center. Most ships came in empty but left with silk, tea and porcelain. The British decided to bring in opium to sell to them.
Hong Kong became British with the first opium war. Hong Kong is a refugee society. They came because of famine, war, and chaos in China. The population doubled overnight when the communist took over China. In 1941-45 the Japanese occupied Hong Kong.
After 1945 rapid economic growth occurred here. In 1997 the British gave Hong Kong back to China but Hong Kong retains its own currency and visa regulations. They are very different from China.
We dock at Kai Tek which previously was an airport. There is now a new airport but the terminal here is huge and much like an airport terminal. We took the hop on bus two day package that we purchased online before we left the states. The first day we did the Peak Tram and went to Hong Kong Island. We also did the Sampan Ride. We stopped at Burger King for lunch because of western toilets and knowing what we were eating!! We were frustrated with our last hop on point because our bus took 1 1/2 hours to get there!! We did make it back to the central station and got the last shuttle back to the ship by 6:30. There was to be a laser light show at 8 so we ate dinner and then went to a friends balcony cabin to watch it. The night was warm and the city skyline delightful but the light show was a bust. They had a male Welch choir performing at 9:30 but we didn’t make it. We heard it wasn’t all that great. The next morning we got up and had our usual routine in the cabin then off we went to finish the rest of our hop on routes. We got our by 9 and made it to the famous Star Ferry ride. It was a short ride and took us to the last route on the line. We did a little shopping around the Peninsula Hotel for postcards and some tums. My tummy is still sore so tomorrow I’m giving up the morning coffee and going to basic hot water!!
We got back to the ship by 4 in time for another mandatory lifeboat still. We heard 150 passengers boarded here. We are waiting to leave Hong Kong and head to Vietnam. We hear that there is another typhoon headed for Vietnam so we could be in for a lot of rain. We have two stops there and both days private tours. When we got back to our room today we had another “Grand” gift on our bed, two rolling suitcases!! I’m also including the cute towel animal that are steward made and put our Halloween masks on him :). We are meeting a new passenger tonight for dinner, Kate Ross, who is a speaker for the next leg of our trip. She offered to talk to Dan about getting on as a presenter. We have been in touch by email now for several months as she is taking our Komodo tour so that is how we connected.
Keep your fingers crossed that we don’t miss Vietnam due to the typhoon!!
Our cute towel animal for Halloween!
Top of Peak Tram.
View at top of the Tram with the chop sticks building in view
A sunny warm day
Cable cars take you up
More unusual architecture
A view of their beaches from hop on
Entrance to Sampan rides
Our lady driver
Her decorated ceiling of her Sampan
Inside the boat
Someone insisted on snapping our photo!
From the boat
Our ride took us around intesting old floating heaps!
The floating Jumbo restaurant
Laser show??? :(
From the balcony onboard
From the ship
2 comments:
I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the typhoon heading towards Vietnam is diverted elsewhere. Glad it’s been sunny for you guys in Hong Kong. It looks like you’re having an amazing adventure 😃
We don't care much about China but HK is one place we really want to visit.
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