Monday, April 13
We must have been tired because we didn't even feel our ship dock this morning at 7 am so it was a wonderful surprise to open our curtains and see the world famous Hong Kong Harbour and skyline before us. We have been blessed again with fairly smooth seas so half the time we can't even tell whether we are moving or not.
We must have been tired because we didn't even feel our ship dock this morning at 7 am so it was a wonderful surprise to open our curtains and see the world famous Hong Kong Harbour and skyline before us. We have been blessed again with fairly smooth seas so half the time we can't even tell whether we are moving or not.
The view from our cabin window
We know Hong Kong is such a vibrant, bustling city but from the vantage point of our cabin it looked so peaceful with little ferries crisscrossing the bay, a red-sailed junk slowly gliding past and no evidence of the crowds in the streets on both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon that we knew were certainly there.
Star ferries and red-sailed junks crisscross the Harbour
Once all passengers doing ship's excursions along with those disembarking altogether were off the ship, announcements were made advising that we transit passengers could go ashore. As we have visited Hong Kong several times before, we decided to amble along the waterfront and also through the Heritage area rather than shop.
Along the Avenue of Stars
The weather was perfect - 26C with a gentle breeze and very little humidity. There was a lot of work going on in reclaiming land and we were surprised to find the waterfront area has been completely transformed into the Avenue of Stars - a walk similar to that in Hollywood with star's names and handprints set into the paving. Unless you were an aficionado of Cantonese or Mandarin theatre, the names were fairly meaningless. We did recognize Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan though. Most amusing were the young Chinese girls posing for photos and selfies alongside their favorite star's star. They really know how to play up to the camera!
In the Heritage area
We spotted a coffee shop advertising wifi so headed for it. Sadly, we still could not get our blog with photos to post but did manage to update Facebook and Instagram. We left the shop and continued to walk away from Ocean Terminal and Harbour City where our ship was docked, along Canton Road past all the high end designer stores towards the Heritage area. We saw the old canons fired at noon every day by the British for ship's captains in the Harbour to reset their chronometers, the old police force stables, the marine headquarters, etc. Nowadays they are high end restaurants and hotels etc.
Our life boat crew calling the roster for Boat No 12 at the compulsory drill
Up on deck ready for the sail-away
The lovely weather made it a perfect day for strolling around and the well-dressed business people and shoppers in that area gave no clue to the hustle, bustle, smells, traffic and poverty that we know can be seen elsewhere in Hong Kong. Our ship was sailing at 5.30pm but we had the compulsory life-boat drill at 4.15 pm. We had several more attempts at posting our blog in the Ocean Terminal before re-boarding to attend the drill then watch the sail away from the top deck - what a wonderful sight!
Sailing out of Hong Kong Harbour - what a sight!
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