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| Leaving the Diamond Princess on our HK Tender |
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| Big Bus HOHO |
Once at the dock we headed for the Big Bus Hop On Hop Off Tour on the double decker bus. Of course we didn't have a lot of time for hopping off, which is why we will be forced into going back to Hong Kong. We headed for the top of course. If anyone hasn't taken one of these tours, most of them have a pre recorded audio and free ear plugs so that you can hear about the sights and the bus driver can concentrate on driving. The Red Route was recommended, with stops at Victoria Peak Tramway, opened May of 1888 when the first funicular carried guests to the top. Today - 1.4 kilometers, 4 intermediate stations, millions of visitors a year. Maybe next year...
At a fairly young age I fantasized that I might be an ambassador to a foreign country. I practiced speaking foreign languages. But then I found out people had to actually understand what you were saying, and more importantly you actually had to learn the language so you knew what you were saying. Discouraged by hard work required, I remained fascinated with disparate cultures.
For instance, in Hong Kong, white symbolizes death, people go to great lengths to avoid conflict, it is considered rude to do any of the following: open a gift in front of the people who gave it to you, point at anything, or to touch statutes and monuments. Not knowing this stuff is what gets us our reputation as Ugly Americans. For the most part, it doesn't seem we really care about our reputations.
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| Hong Kong from the Top of our Double Decker HOHO |
June through September is typhoon season. All we had was a romantic day - clouds, sprinkles, mists. I inherited from my Uncle Vint a fondness for bus pictures, which tend to be blurry and with surprise subjects, but oh well. Since cameras have improved as well as our ability to edit pictures and for all intents and purposes, unlimited capacity to store photos, I guess it doesn't matter. I still remember when 24 or 36 pictures per roll was a lot and so were frequent stops at drug stores when we ran out of film. I am ancient.
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| Tom is famous here too |
We traveled past the Man Mo Temple, IFC Tower, Hong Kong Jockey Club, Happy Valley Race Course, Hong Kong Park, Ocean Park, University of Hong Kong, and the tram to Victoria Peak. Unfortunately we were already running out of time! A Police Training College originated in 1844 with the intent of stamping out piracy with 27,000 officers trained, 166 on patrol, ensuring Hong Kong has a low crime rate even in crowded areas. Electronic billboards everywhere including this one for Tom Cruise's new movie Oblivion.
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| Our Big Bus Sampan Ride to Jumbo |
BB took the Coast Road to Stanley Beach passing renowned Stanley Plaza, where the rich shop, on to Repulse Bay by the South China Sea, known as a hideaway for pirates in the 1840's, today a beautiful sandy beach area. Not being a busy market or beach kind of girl we stayed on the bus until we reached the Sampan Ride which was included with the cost of the BB Red Route and headed out to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant. I had heard Tom (Cruise) ate here as well as Queen Elizabeth. If it was good enough for them, it was definitely good enough for me. I think we later determined that they were in the VIP area, rather than where we commoners ended up. It was great anyway. Our Sampan dropped us off there although it wasn't a scheduled stop, courtesy of some other, more aggressive tourists - they may have Russians - they acted like some of the Russians on board.
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| The Famous Jumbo Floating Restaurant from our Sampan |
Being a Happy Tourist at Heart, I stumbled into the 2nd floor restaurant and enjoyed a sumptous repast, whatever that means, asked ridiculous questions and took copious pictures, including some of ourselves on the 'throne'. Having noticed a number of these in fancy restaurants, it would seem these are used especially for celebrations. We followed our Russian friends example and pretended we were important and honored.
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| Even Terry looked slightly worried as we headed in the wrong direction |
Leaving the restaurant, we lost track of the Russians and ended up on a free ferry headed for parts unknown. We really needed to get back to the Sampan landing and noticed that our more agressive compatriots had flagged down the Big Bus Sampan and were happily on their way back to where we needed to be.
After landing where we weren't suppose to be and attempting to find our way back on convoluted city streets, we decided we would probably get lost, so consulted the boat drivers via sign language who suggested via sign language that we get on another free ferry that would land closer to the BB Sampan dock. We pointed, exclaimed and sighed as we sailed past it, ending up a pretty good ways (at least for Americans) from our target destination.
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| Terrys New Friends |
While some of us were less enthusiastic than others about our adventure, we really had a lovely walk back along the water, past some amazing people-sculptures that Terry kept trying to talk to. At least we were more confident we could find the bus stop, even if we could not see it, since we could just follow the river.
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| Allen and the statuette she really does have a head |
Our night tour departed from Terminal 4 (or maybe it was 2) at 5:30 from the Cruise Port so we hopped on the BB and weren't able to hop off until the end.
Our night guide Allen lead us down the $40 million dollar Avenue of Stars by Victoria Harbor, much like the the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where famous Chinese stars left their hand prints in the cement. Since we were really on our way to dinner, there was only enough time for a quick walk and not much looking - we recognized a few names: Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat out of the 100 or so possibilities. We ended up at the 4.5 meter replica of the statuette that is given to the winners at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Some of us were better about following directions than others, so while we rushed to be on time, we ended up waiting on our dawdling comrades.
It was a quick walk to the Peking Garden for Peking Duck, where the cook cut the roasted duck into 126 pieces and a talented waiter who knew how to use chopsticks to assemble pieces of roasted duck, scallions and sauce on a wafer thin pancake and folded it into a burrito. Maybe I was really hungry, but this peking duck was really delicious.
After dinner we headed back to Victoria Harbor for the Symphony of Lights - approximately 15 minute light show presented by the city for the tourists, set to music of course, and very well attended by what looked like locals as well as tourists. There was the usual jockying for position, but there wasn't really a bad position. The lights were everywhere.
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| Temple Market |
It was a foggy night, so I'm sure the show was not as glorious as it could have been, but then I had nothing to compare it to, so I thought it was great.
Our last stop was a quick trip to Temple Market - open 6 p.m. to midnight, where there were WAY too many people for me. It went on for blocks with us bumping into people all the way down and back. Although it was not compulsory, I somehow felt compelled to do it all. How unusual. We finally figured out we could walk on the outside of the stalls and encounter far fewer bodies.
Everything was for sale - luggage, electronics toys, trinkets, souvenirs, jewelry, t -shirts, beer, food .... Would that I had just one bargaining bone in my body.
The last boat ride was the tender back to ship so we said a fond Chai Jin (See you again) to Hong Kong. The Chinese don't say good-bye. I guess that means we'll have to go back!
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| Hong Kong from the Tender on our way back to the Diamond Princess |
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