HONG KONG, CHINA

We arrived in Hong Kong early in the morning and opened up our stateroom balcony to huge buildings in the background. It was overcast and foggy the day we arrived.

Doug and I had been here many times before, so the first day we had decided to make a list of all the things we needed to buy. Our ship was docked at the Ocean Terminal which has 600 shops and connects to Harbour City which has as many shops all very high end. We were accosted by a Chinese fellow in Ocean Terminal who said he could help us find whatever we needed and he did. He took us to an eyeglass place where we both got prescription sunglasses at half the price it would cost in Edmonton. He also showed us another fellow who walked with us and showed us where a hair salon was, a money changer and where to buy phone cards. These fellows get a percentage of what you purchase and are very helpful. We then decided to walk to the Lady's Market via Nanthan Road. This is one of the main streets in Hong Kong and has thousands of shops. We were hungry and went off this main road and found a local restaurant and had the best Won Ton soup. No one spoke English here but we managed to communicate somehow. We walked for 5 hours and strolled through the Lady's Market which sold many fake watches and hand bags etc. When we finally were near the ship, I decided to come back and read my magazines that cost an astronomical amount and Doug proceeded to walk to the famous Peninsula Hotel and other high end hotels near our ship. In the evening, we went to the Chinese local show in the Galaxy Lounge. It was good and included a dragon, some Chinese girls with ribbons and a man who could change his facial masks so quickly by turning around. The show was great.

The next day, we wanted to go by a fast ferry by ourselves to Macau which we heard was similar to Vegas. There were long line ups at immigration for it was Saturday and all the locals were off for the day to gamble in Macau. Both Doug and I had been to the island years before when there was nothing to see so we were anxious to see how it had changed. The ferries were full and took one hour to reach Macau. We were met by shuttle buses from all the hotels like The Sands Hotel, Wynn Hotel etc and we decided to go to the Sands first. It is huge, simply huge and the locals were gambling everywhere - especially at the baccarat tables. We saw only 5 white people while we were at Macau, all the rest were tourists from China and Hong Kong. We walked around and had a quick bite to eat and then took another shuttle to Wynn's hotel which is really high end. Walked through it and proceeded back home using the ferry and lining up again in immigration. We came back to the ship and watched the laser show from all the tall buildings from the top deck of our ship. It occurs 3 times a week with music but the music was too far for us to hear. It was neat to see the lasers so high in the sky.

The third day, Doug planned a trip for Mary Anne and Harry and us to Ocean Park where we would see our panda bears. We took a taxi all across Kowloon, under a tunnel and then over to Hong Kong side. Ocean Park is a theme park for the locals and their children. The park has beautiful flowers and greenery everywhere. Again, we were one of the few white people there. It was great fun, with jugglers and acrobatics, and children everywhere. We went to see the pandas first. There are four of them and they were in great form. Two were sleeping but two were walking around and eating. We must have spent half an hour taking photos and watching them. We loved it and they were so close to the plexi glass windows. We then took a cable car way way up a mountain top and saw Hong Kong below us. At the mountain top we had lunch outside and then we went to see the jelly fish aquarium and the sea lion and dolphin show. I felt like a kid again watching all these neat shows and seeing all the children around us screaming with delight. We decided to take the 4 long escalators back down to the bottom. Took the taxi back home and at 10 went up to the top deck for the sailaway party from Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is a great city with a lot to do. We loved it here.