HONG KONG

Hong Kong arrival was Thursday, November 11th, at 0800.

Although Hong Kong was governed by Great Britain for decades, it has retained many traditional Chinese features.

We immediately went to the tailor to have the material we had bought in India to be made into a jacket for Grace.  It would be ready on the next day.

Then we rushed back to the ship to take our city orientation tour.  There were several trips into mainland China but we opted to stay in Hong Kong and stay on the ship to our next stop, which was Shanghai.  Since we had done a lot of the mainland in 2003 on our trip to China with many friends, we decided we would like to spend two days in Hong Kong.  The orientation tour was really a must for us as first time visitors.  We took a bus that made many stops.  The weather was beautiful.  A tram took us up to Victoria Peak where the view of the city skyline and Victoria Harbor, Kowloon and the surrounding islands was great. 

ARRIVAL PHOTOS BELOW

Breakfast with Craig Irving and Thomas Shelton on arrival

Grace, Ken with Don Kimmel and Jim Law

Betty Waldron, Sue Weitz, Grace, Hieu Dovan

Grace, Alexandra "Cookie" Echsner and Thomas Shelton

ON THE ORIENTATION TOUR


Inside St John's Cathedral

 

Lunch in a pocket park in the middle of the financial district

Colorful Ferry Boat

Salle Stemmons and Ken at Victoria Peak

View of Hong Kong from the tram

We walked to many historical buildings including St. John's Cathedral, the Court of Final Appeal (Old French Mission Building), the Legislative Council Building (Old Supreme Court) and the Museum of Tea Ware.  We took a ride on a sampan in the harbor by Aberdeen which is home to hundreds of people living on fishing junks.  Lastly we went to the Man Ho Temple and ended up in the market.  And, of course, we shopped - there is always shopping for tourists in every country.

View from Sampan

Junks from Sampan contrasting with modern high-rise buildings

That night Salle Stemmons took 20 people for dinner at the American Club. We were so lucky to have become friendly with Salle. We sat in the Presidents' dinning room. To get there we took the ferry across the harbor from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. Wow! What a dinner - place cards and all.

Salle's dinner group on the ferry to Hong Kong from Kowloon

Carlos and Salle with Obama's picture between in the President's room

Picture of Grace's end of the table

Picture of Ken's end of the table - note that Ken Kurica is wearing one of Grace's ties as he could not afford one of his own

The next day was our tour of the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Actually we had signed up for the Buddhist Monastery/Lantau Island tour but that tour ended up being cancelled. The Museum is managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. It was established in 1962 and was moved to the Hong Kong Cultural Center in 1991. The center is located a short walk from where we were docked. The Museum's collections now number over 15,000 art objects, including Chinese paintings and calligraphy works, antique Chinese treasures and paintings of historical significance - such as paintings about the Boer Wars. We saw a special exhibit of various art including beautiful accessories - purses, earrings, hair pieces, etc. Grace loved it and, of course, bought a book in the museum shop.

Antique Headdress

Grace in front of the Landscape Journey Exhibit

Then we went an picked up Grace's jacket, got back on the ship and went on to Shanghai.  We may have made a mistake staying in Hong Kong because we missed one of the trips which everyone who went said was spectacular - Guilin/Yangshuo for 4 days and 3 nights.  However, we loved Hong Kong and got Grace's new jacket and had 2 full days and nights on the ship with only 166 passengers.  Both nights were sit down dinners with excellent food as the chefs did not have to cook cafeteria style for 700 passengers.