HongKong - Blogabond

Day 12: Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

6th cruise day: Hong Kong, China

Wow! What a day in Hong Kong! Just as everyone predicted, Hong Kong is our favorite city so far on this trip. It is remarkable with its beautiful city skyline, picturesque green mountains and pretty beaches. Plus, the city is one big shopping mall after another – we thought Beijing and Shanghai had a lot of malls, but this was unbelievable. We seriously went into 5 giant shopping malls yesterday and didn't cover even a ¼ of all there is in Hong Kong. They are serious shoppers! Luckily the prices are so high – especially electronics – that we aren't buying anything here because we can get the same stuff much cheaper in the US. And the things that are really cheap – stuff they sell in the local markets – is of such poor quality that we're not even bothering to do any real shopping. It looks like we won't need to buy another suitcase after all as we didn't buy a lot in China thinking we would get stuff in Hong Kong, and then realized Hong Kong was too expensive!

Our day started early and we were off the ship by 8:30am after a quick continental breakfast from the buffet. Princess docked in Kowloon, at the Ocean Terminal, which is of course connected to a giant shopping center. We walked towards the Star Ferry terminal through one floor of the shopping center that was nothing but children's stores of all high end brands, like Burberry. We didn't even know that these designers make children's clothes! There was an information booth at the Star Ferry and we found out we could only buy a transportation “octupus card” from a metro station so we used cash to get a token for our first ferry ride over to Hong Kong Island. It was a very fast ferry ride and we were amazed to see so many boats in the small harbor...this made the water very chopping as all these ferries and fishing boats passed back and forth, but luckily Hunter didn't get sea sick because it was only a 10 min ride. The ferry dropped us off at Central and we made a detour into the nearby metro station to buy the octopus card so we could have a “fast pass” for paying for all the bus rides we were going to take. Each card cost $150 HKD with $100 in transportation and $50 as a deposit. If you return the card within 30 days for a refund, they assess a $7 HKD fee. We then walked to Exchange Square and passed IFC I and II, two giant glistening glass buildings, one of which used to be the world's tallest in the late 1990s. One of those buildings housed the Capital Group offices. Exchange Square is the main bus terminal and we easily found Express Bus 260 which took us to Stanley Market.

The bus ride to Stanley Market made it worth the trip just in and of itself. The bus system is amazing in Hong Kong. Most are double-deckers, with giant widows and comfortable seats, like the ones you would find on the coach buses in the US. But the buses are really narrow in width, which we found out is needed because the country roads are so narrow! These bus drivers give the NYC taxi drivers a run for their money in daring driving. Hunter and I sat in the front two seats on the top deck so we had great views of the trip, and we were holding our breaths as the bus would stop at a stoplight literally inches behind the bus in front of it! There were buses EVERYWHERE in the city and getting out of the Central district to the roads leading to the southern end of the island was a bit chaotic. But we got to see the Central district as the bus drove through the crowded streets of skyscrapers and shopping malls. Then, once out of the busy section, we got to enjoy the beautiful scenery. The bus route to Stanley Market took us up over the mountains, past Repulse Bay, where we got to enjoy incredible vistas of the crescent shaped beach with smooth sand and blue water. We couldn't believe such a fast-paced NYC-like city could also have the advantages of such nice beaches! The roads twisted and turned and the bus crisscrossed lanes whenever it felt like it, but made sure it got back to the left side of the road before the oncoming jaguars and bentleys and mercedes benz cars came zooming past us on the other side. The bus drivers actually have speed reader boxes handing from the ceilings so passengers can see how fast they are going – I guess it's to allow passengers to complain if they're going too fast?

We made the bus ride in one piece and got off at Stanley market. It was still early, around 10am and the market stalls were just setting up. There were a few toy stores in there and a lot of the same goods we've seen elsewhere – chinese scarves, shirts, ties, etc. Surprisingly we were never hassled to come in and look around – they left us alone as we walked up and down the stalls. We then ventured down to the promenade, then started to walk towards St. Stephen's beach until we could peer down from the top of the hill to see the view. We then walked through Stanley Plaza, another shopping center, where we visited the ATM and pharmacy. We ended up at the bus stop, but we didn't see signs for bus 73 which we wanted, so we asked a young British man if any of the buses went to Aberdeen. We found a few and then boarded a minibus (#52) that pulled up. The minibus ride was also fun – he sped along down the winding roads until someone ran the bell to stop and they got off.

The area around Stanley Market is home to some beautiful and very expensive apartments because the views of the water are so incredible. We passed some real estate stores and saw that even the rundown apartments of less than 1,000 sq ft were going for over $1 million USD. There were a lot of international people (mainly British) in the area, walking their dogs in the morning and eating in cafes, and all of the signs were in Cantonese and English so it was very easy to get around.

We got off the minibus at Aberdeen, which is also on the south end of the island and is where the local fishing people live in their boats. We walked along the riverfront promenade and found a sampan ride which took us for 30 min around the harbor area past all the boats. This was a unique experience. We picked a sampan operator that was run by a very old woman with tons of wrinkles and a funny pointed hat, like what you see in the old movies. She looked like something right out of a picture of Hong Kong 30 years ago. Her partner in crime was a one-eyed Chinese man who spoke almost no English and just yelled at passer-bys to hop in the boat. Or at least we think that is what he was yelling about! The sampan itself was cool – it was an old wooden motorboat that could probably hold a good 25 people sitting on the hard wooden benches around the side of the boat and on a strip up the middle. ¾ of the boat was covered in a canvas roof, offering shade protection. The keel was covered in side by side rubber tires. There were lots of tires everywhere, held together by thick rope so the boats could crash into things without damaging anything. The boat ride took us around the Jumbo, the famous floating restaurant, and we saw the beautiful red/green/black chinese decor-ed front, and then the decrepit, falling down, moldy section of the back! Talk about fake appearances! The boat then drove past hundreds of wooden boats, from large fishing boats, to smaller houseboats, to canoe-like boats with 3 people. Some of these boats are where people live full time. We could see lines of clothes and pots and pans hanging out to dry. Our favorite boat was a medium sized one that had two rows of dead fish drying out clipped to the clothes lines, and then a third clothes line of men's and women's clothes. Yum – how good those shirts must smell after they are dried out! One thing that really surprised us was that the water was actually pretty clear. We expected to be floating in dark, murky brown water, like you would see in the Atlantic, because of the pollution from all the motor boats, but surprisingly the water was a clear turquoise with very few pieces of garbage floating in it.

After the interesting boat ride, we took another boat that dropped us off at the Jumbo restaurant. We decided to splurge on an authentic chinese lunch of dim sum as the restaurant is very famous. The inside was exquisite. Everything was very fancy with hard wooden slabs that served as charter plate, and heavy carved chopsticks. The chairs were arranged in groups around the table. We had a table for 4 and two chairs were placed side by side on the pointed ends of the table. They moved two of them to the side so we could sit down facing the flat part of the table, but Hunter went to move another chair back to its side of the table and they promptly moved it back to the pointy end of the table. That was the first of probably several taboos we made in the restaurant. We figured out how to order dim sum and then just picked at it with our chopsticks, and only later realized they gave us a third set of chopsticks to use to remove the pieces from the platters onto our plates. The waiters hovered over us so as soon as the last morsel left the serving plate, they whisked it away and plopped down the next dim sum dish. The food was very, very, good, although it gave us our fill of dim sum for a while! We stuck to pork and shrimp dishes. The restaurant had very high end food on the dinner menu and we saw one dish of a very rare fish that was sold at $15,000 HKD, ~2,000 USD! That must be some tasty fish!

After the boat ride back from the restaurant to the promenade, we walked to the bus terminal and found one that took us to Causeway Bay, probably the largest shopping area on Hong Kong Island. This place was unbelievable! There were literally 10 giant shopping malls all in the same area. We walked through 4 or 5 of them, wide-eyed, counting all the different stores we saw. Many were the American brands, and we spotted several Starbucks cafes, crepe shops, gelato stands, and even Toys 'R Us. As we said before, the prices were much higher compared to the US, so we didn't buy anything, which saved us a lot of money!

It was well after 4pm by the time we finished up with the shopping malls and we took the metro to another district called Wan Chai, where we visited a “computer mall” which was nothing but tiny shops selling computers, camcorders, cameras, flash drives, etc. There was one really cool store selling spy gear with hidden video cameras! Luckily everything was too expensive so we didn't buy yet another computer! We then hopped on another bus which drove towards the Central District. The bus driver spoke English (as it seems everyone does in Hong Kong and their English is very, very good, too. We had forgotten it was under British authority before passing to China and you can definitely see the western influences the most in HK than in the other cities we've visited so far). We asked the driver to point out which stop was closest to the Victoria Peak tram, and he did, and it was only a short 5 min walk uphill to the tram. The tram is a very old cable-car transportation system that takes you up to the top of Victoria's Peak, the highest point on Hong Kong island. It was very crowded with people as it was getting to be around sunset and people were going up to the top for the nighttime views and for the eating in one of the many restaurants housed in the shopping complex at the top. One restaurant was Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company! We got there after 5pm and it took about 40 minutes of waiting in line and the tram ride included to get to the top. It was well worth the wait and the money to see those views! Unfortunately the nighttime fog was starting to set in, but it was still breathtaking to peer down on the tall skyscrapers twinkling with white and colored lights, and to watch all the boats in the harbor and the ferries making their crossings back and forth from the island. There is a lot of history on the peak tram and its role in WWII and we saw a display that had an actual newspaper from 1941 with articles about Hong Kong Island's surrender to the Japanese. We took a lot of photos and some video and then waited in line to take the tram back down.

Our timing was perfect and we caught the Express bus (15C) back to the Central ferry pier to take the Star Ferry back to Kowloon, where we walked to the riverfront promenade. It was 7:45pm at this point and the place was packed with throngs of people waiting to see the 8pm light show. Everyone had told us to be in Kowloon for the light show, as the lights on the buildings on HK Island are much nicer than the buildings on the Kowloon side. We found an opening near the front and were able to hear the narration and the music as the lights danced and flashed in synchronization to the music. What a fun light show! It was like seeing the 4th of July fireworks, but you can see this every night! It was only a 10-min show, but worth the trouble of seeing it from the promenade.

After the light show, we were STILL GOING (like little energizer bunnies) but decided we needed food to keep moving. We started walking down the famous Nathan Road in search of a restaurant. Most of the street was flanked by stores and yes, you guessed it, more shopping malls so it took us a while to find a restaurant (which we found in the i-Square shopping mall). It was a cafe that sold American and Chinese food. Hunter ordered a bacon cheeseburger and
I had spaghetti bolognese which came covered in melted cheese like a ziti.

Nathan Road area reminds us of Time Square and is what we pictured Tokyo would be like. There are huge neon flashing billboards that are suspended over the street or attached to the large shopping complexes. And there are crowds of people everywhere! It was like walking down the Strip in Las Vegas at 10pm and being amazed at how many people are still up and walking around. Even the side streets off Nathan Road were glowing with neon signs and filled with people. We wonder if it is always this crowded, or if it is especially so since it is one day before Christmas Eve. It is also Winterfest, a 5-week celebration in Hong Kong where the city is adorned with Christmas displays of brightly lit christmas trees and giant bells and snow flakes, etc., so we saw a lot of families and groups of teenagers taking pictures in front of the displays.

We managed to walk all the way to Temple Street without our legs giving way and started the long market walk. There were stalls upon stalls of the same stuff – mostly junk – so we didn't buy anything but thought it was fun to just watch all the people combing over the hair ties and bracelets and fake watches and leather belts and broken electronics. Surrounding the market stalls were two rows of local cooking stands. Temple Street Night Market is supposed to be a good place to try local delicacies, but after our dim sum lunch, we thought we had enough local flavor for the day! We then passed by streets of jade sellers, near where the jade market was, which was closed at night. We are glad we made it to the temple market because the busy activity was something to see.

At 11:05pm we flagged down a taxi, thinking our busy day was over and we were on our way safely home to the ship. But we had one more fun adventure. We told our taxi diver to take us to Ocean Terminal where the cruise ship was and showed him the spot on the map. He said, “oh, ok, Ocean Center” and we thought Center and Terminal could be interchangeable so we said ok. He then proceeded to drive us to the outskirts of the city, which didn't look right, and then stopped in a parking lot full of cars and teenagers sitting on the cars. He brought us to a drifting challenge! We immediately said, “no, no, this isn't right” and took out the map again. He took a more careful look and then laughed and said he knew where that was. Thank goodness! We didn't want to get abandoned at a drifting challenge! Luckily, we made no more detours and we got back on the ship in one piece, a little after 11:30pm. What a day! We crashed immediately and didn't wake up even once during the night.

Day 13: Thursday, December 24th, 2009

7th cruise day: Hong Kong, China (side trip to Macau, China)

We slept soundly for a good 7 hours and then got up to do it all again! We decided that because we did more than expected the first day, and that we weren't happy with the shopping in Hong Kong, that we didn't need to spend another day poking in computer centers and shopping malls, and that instead we would try to figure out a trip to Macau. We got a late start (9am off the ship) as we had breakfast in the buffet with Lynne and Tong from cruisecritic and heard about their adventure in Macau (a lost taxi driver who had their bags). We had a little detour when trying to figure out how to get the Macau ferry terminal, and first stopped at the information center at the Star ferry terminal to get information. They told us to buy the tickets at Hong Kong City Center which was north of the pier. We started walking up Canton Road and then didn't think we were making much ground so we hopped in a taxi at a nearby hotel and when we showed him on the map where he wanted to go, he pointed down the road and said “you walk”. It turned out we were only 1 block away from where we needed to go. And so started our adventurous day! At the terminal, we bought our roundtrip tickets to the island ($540 HKD?). We had gotten our passports last night from the purser's desk. It was a little after 9:30am and we had a 10am ferry, so we sat in Starbucks to check email. At 9:54am we went to the departing dock and saw the gates closed already! We didn't realize there would be a wait or a line! We got out tickets changed for the 10:30am ferry and then waited in line. They quickly opened the line and we had to pass through immigration. The guy didn't like me as I didn't have the right deportation card and had to fill one out, and then he saw we were on the Princess Cruise and called over another immigration official who told us we better make sure we would be back on the boat in time! We promised we would, and they let us through.

The ferry ride was pleasant and fast. We had comfortable airplane-like seats and the high speed ferry took only 1 hour to reach Macau. There was a long line to clear immigration, but it took only 15 minutes and we got another stamp in our passport. We then went upstairs to departures to double-check the ferry times and found out the ferries leave every 15 min and there was one at 1:45pm. We left the terminal and took the long walkway that dropped us off at Fisherman's Wharf which was a very cute Disneyesque playground area for kids with a fake volcano, Aladdin's Castle, bumper cards and a military war-game escapade. We took some pictures and then realized the casinos were too far to walk – Macau is so much larger than we thought – and took a taxi to the Wynn hotel. We got there in time to see the water and fire show out front and then walked through. The casino was very nice – we haven't been to the Wynn in Vegas so couldn't compare it. We walked to the back and exited, then crossed the street to the MGM Grand which was really nice! It was more upscale than the Wynn, but the card tables had lower limits. I gambled about $40 USD and didn't win anything but liked the slot machines as they played lots of music and had lots of flashing lights :) We only had about 1 hour 15 min total in Macau, but it was just enough to get a feel of the island. Hunter bought a $25 poker chip to add to his collection.

Around 1:10pm, we hopped in a taxi at the MGM and told the driver we wanted to go to the ferry terminal. He didn't speak any English and called a valet over from the hotel to translate. I explained to the guy that we wanted to take the ferry home to Hong Kong and he nodded and told the driver the destination then told us “Tapai ferry.” We couldn't understand what he was saying because his English wasn't clear due to the heavy accent, so we just agreed. The driver then started off. Within 5 min he pulled onto the very long white bridge that extends from Macau to a smaller island called Tapai. As soon as we got on the bridge we knew it was the totally wrong direction but couldn't communicate with the driver. We kept pointing backwards toward Macau, and he kept pointing off to the side and saying “Ferry”. There was no way to turn around on the bridge so we had to keep going. He then started rounding the island in a circle and got closer to a terminal which we knew was very wrong as we had to cross the bridge again. We tried different words “Sands hotel” “fisherman's wharf” but he kept shaking his head he didn't understand. We were starting to panic this time b/c we needed to make the 2pm ferry to ensure we were back at the ship by 4pm b/c the ship had to clear immigration too. Finally Hunter said, “Macau Ferry” and the guy said “OOOHH, Macau! Macau ferry!” and we nodded vigorously. He made a quick turnaround and crossed another bridge, close to the correct ferry terminal, and we were confident he finally knew where to go. He was very nice about it at the end and didn't accept the full fare for the ride.

Then, in the terminal, we went to pass through the first gate and were told our tickets needed to be exchanged. It took us a while to figure out what they meant and then saw we only had return coupons for the ferry back, not tickets. After 2 tries with speaking with the attendant as his English was also very limited, we found the place to get tickets and luckily got put on the 2pm ferry. It turned out there was no 1:45pm ferry, so we don't know what that attendant earlier was talking about! We got so used to everyone in Hong Kong speaking such good English that we forgot that we were back in mainland China where very few people speak English and so we really weren't prepared. If we had known we would be doing Macau, I would have had maps and time schedules with us to better communicate with the taxi drivers! Anyway, we finally got through the gate, cleared immigration on the Macau side and made it with plenty of time to spare to the ferry waiting room.

Without any further problems, we took the 2pm ferry and made it back a little after 3pm. There was no waiting line for the immigration on the Hong Kong side. We didn't have time to get a refund on our Octopus transportation card because Hunter wanted to be back on the ship by 4pm in case the immigration officials that needed to stamp our passports were waiting for us. We will keep the cards in case any friends or coworkers travel to Hong Kong and can use it!

Overall, we had a fantastic two days in Hong Kong. It really is our favorite city so far and are glad we had such mild weather to be able to experience everything outside, with all the walking and sight-seeing we did. Today was the first day we didn't need jackets! It is only going to get warmer from here as the next port of call, Chan May / the city of Hue, Vietnam, is running around 82 degrees. Pool day tomorrow! Macau was larger and not as flashy as we thought it would be – it is a much tamer version of Las Vegas in terms of the number and size of the casinos, but it probably has more vices (there were two huge signs in the taxi to call a hotline number to help stop human trafficking, which was sponsored by a women's association of Macau). There were many flashy cars and female hostesses dressed up in ridiculous costumes in one hotel.

Back on the ship, we crashed in the cabin and laid in bed watching the Hong Kong skyline through our window as we pulled out of the harbor. For the first time ever, as the Captain announced, he took his “beautiful white lady” out of Hong Kong through a channel which afforded spectacular views of the Hong Kong skyline. Hunter played on his netbook while I napped. Then it was time for the Christmas Carols at 7:30pm! Most of the choir were members of the crew and we were shocked to see front and center, Captain Stefano Ravera singing away! The crew were all dressed in their dress blues and had handed out booklets of the carols that would be sung. The carols took place on the grand staircase, just outside our room, which connected Decks 4 and 5. The banisters were all decorated with garland and holly and lights and the crew wore santa hats. The caroling definitely put us more in the holiday spirit as we didn't feel like Christmas was approaching. We then went to dinner, where there was another night of fancy foods, this time escargot and frog legs. We stuck to the veal scaloppini cordon blue and the angel hair lobster pasta in tomato sauce. Our dinner companions, Connie and Tony, showed up and were so thankful to see us. They told us last night in Hong Kong was open dinner seating, because most people were away from ship in the city, They got stuck with a “nearly dead” couple from Britain who told horror stories about past cruises, including the last time they sailed on the Ocean Princess and 9 people died and they ran out of room to preserve the bodies and had to take the ice cream out of the freezer to make room for the bodies! Tony said they kept looking for us saying, “man, where's Hunter when I need him!” We had such a fun time sharing stories with them at dinner and it was nice to hear that they enjoy our company as much as we do theirs, and that both couples are satisfied with the seating arrangements! Our waiter showed us the special Christmas breakfast ($32/couple) and dinner menu for tomorrow and suggested we pre-order wine because it gets so busy in the bar on Christmas that sometimes it can take 40 minutes to get a coke. We instead used mom's $20 wine coupon (which we later learned she never ordered or paid for) to order a bottle of chardonnay (Woodbridge - $22) and drank half of it and had the rest bottled up to be served the next night.

After dinner, we walked through the ship to check on the entertainment and saw the casinos were very busy. We stopped to chat at the Cabaret Lounge with Shane, said hi to Ruth and Chantal, and felt like we were regular members of the Ocean Princess! Hunter then went back to the room and I attended the last 35 min of the piano concert of a Philippino man who was very famous in the 1980s and 1990s but was still a young guy, probably no older than mid-40s. I got back a little after 11:10pm and then read for a while until it was time for us to go back to the Cabaret Lounge for midnight mass. Shane had told us it was the only Catholic service to be held for Christmas as the 9:30am service the next day was a nondenominational service conducted by the Captain. The mass was pretty well attended, including the Captain himself. We went back to our cabin after mass and didn't get to sleep until after 1:30am! It was a very good thing I had taken that late afternoon nap!

written by

mohicanfan on December 24, 2009 from Hong Kong, Hong Kong

from the travel blog: Beijing/Shanghai and a Princess Southeast Asia Cruise - Dec 2009

tagged HongKong, Asia, Cruise and Macau

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