April 4, 5, 6 Saturday, Easter Sunday, Monday, Hong Kong

April 4 we sailed the Hainan Straight, arriving in Hong Kong Easter Sunday morning.  Another sea day of bridge and trivia and dinner at the specialty Polo Grill again.  We have been getting in some time in the spa and thallasotherapy pool which is reserved for Concierge level guests and above.  Since we got an upgrade, we are enjoying this perk.  We also both had massages.

Entertainment was a hilarious ventriloquist, "Barber, and "Seville", Jim Barber.

April 5, Easter Sunday. 

 The dining rooms had displays of chocolate hand made bunnies and eggs.  

Because it was Easter, the streets were relatively clear for our tours. 

Arriving in Hong Kong harbor

 I went on the Highlights tour which was more than a bus ride.  This enigmatic city is extremely densely populated, but has a number of parks, transportation is good, and it seems very prosperous.  Most people are Chinese, but they may speak English, unlike what we will encounter when we go to China.

from Victoria Peak

First we went to the top of Victoria Peak.  There are sweeping views of the city from here.

We took the funicular car that holds a hundred people to the bottom of the hill.  If you took it going up, you would wait an hour to just get a ticket.  

Every few seconds going down you would come to a plaza and a street where I thought was the end of the line.  Then  we would go down about the heighth of one of the 40 to 50 story tall buildings, and there would be another flat area.  This is a very crowded mountain.  I would not ride a bike here, nor do the Chinese.

Repulse Bay area

Our coach stopped at the Repulse Bay with a beautiful beach and this interesting area with statues.  

This is where you rub money on the statue and you will get prosperity.  I rubbed a dollar bill and hope it works.

History of Repulse Bay if you can read it.

Another interesting statue at the bay

We next had a junk cruise among the yachts and fishing boat homes in the area.

fishing boat

Real fishing boats.  Remember it was Easter Sunday.  Most boats were moored today.

David's tour went to Lantau Island where he took a gondola ride for 25 minutes!  He saw some other fishing villages.

David's fishing village tour on Lantau Island

He also saw the Big Buddha temple

Big Buddha, biggest in China, but Taiwan just built one 3 times bigger.

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Our open top bus tour at night.  Our tour guide said it was "okay".  "This is Nathan Street, okay.  Okay we will meet by the Jockey Club, okay.  Okay now we walk in the market, okay.  Beware of pick pockets, okay.  Okay, the pickpockets may look like tourists, okay.  Okay they only take HK dollars, okay.

We had 100 HK dollars to spend.  I found something I couldn't live without - a yellow VW bug toy car.

Hong Kong at night from our deck

Another view at night

Shopping in Hong Kong.  The dock went right into a huge shopping mall called Oceans.  The bottom floor had all manner of designer shops like Dolce and Gabbana, Fendi, etc.  for CHILDREN!

David and I both needed shoes, and there were plenty to choose from.  There was a Sketchers store.  An Adidas store.  We both found shoes.  Luckily we needed casual shoes.  The expensive dress shoes must have been somewhere else.  This one store got to know our names.  Hong Kong is very friendly, easy, convenient and clean, at least near the cruise terminal.

April 6, 2015, Monday  

We left Hong Kong at noon.  David walked into town to get some things at a pharmacy.  The rest of the day was like a sea day.  David decided to try his hand at bridge and did very well ie. he did not feel intimidated and even smiled.