Today We Visit King Kong’s Industrious Little Brother “Hong”

April 3
We have three sea days before Hong Kong. It’s over 1200 miles from Beijing to Hong Kong (a bit further than Seattle to Los Angeles) so it takes a while. And, we’re only traveling 20mph because the sea is very shallow here (only about 65 ft in some places) so it’s a bit dicey to get this big ship through the channel without running into something lurking below. The weather is warming up (we’re going pretty much straight south) which is a blessing since I’ve practically worn holes in my “cold clothes.”
Hong Kong was given back to the PRC (People’s Republic of China) in 1997 and it now functions as a SAR (Special Administrative Region) which essentially means it’s part of China but it’s not China. They have their own money (no pictures of Mao on this currency!) and they are just as capitalist as they ever were. Seems the only big change is they don’t bother singing “God Save the Queen” at sports events anymore. Really, I’m sure there have been huge—albeit unseen—changes here, but to the naked eye everything in HK goes along pretty much as it did under British rule.
We’re only in Hong Kong for a short day so our plan is to attempt to use public transportation and try to make it to at least one big market to scope out the goods. Rumor has it that with the steep decline in the American dollar, goods in HK aren’t the fantastic bargains they used to be. Oh well. I’m sure we’ll find something to weigh down our suitcases.

April 6
We pulled into Hong Kong Harbor this morning and excitedly slid the window curtains aside, and tah-dah…nothing. The city is shrouded in fog. And I mean FOG—like a Harry Potter movie set. Oh well, it’s a warm fog. We got ready to go, hoping that by mid-morning the fog will burn off and we’ll get to see the fantastic skyline of Hong Kong.
I’m re-reading the book, “Eat, Pray, Love” for the onboard book club and in the book Elizabeth Gilbert suggests that every major world city can be summed up in one word. Well, I recommend that Hong Kong’s word should be SERIOUS. It was a holiday today (a day for families to go to the cemetery and pay their respects) but it appeared that everyone had zoomed out to the cemetery, plopped down a fistful of flowers on grandma’s grave, mumbled a quick prayer and then hot-footed it out to go shopping. Everyone was shopping. Maybe they shop all the time, every day. I don’t know since we’re only in port for one day, but whew! these folks are some serious shoppers. And serious about everything else, too. We docked in Kowloon and took the Star Ferry (a no-nonsense from-here-to-there boat ride—no romantic gondola, that’s for sure) to Hong Kong. There we boarded a double-decker city bus in a terminal that was the very essence of subterranean bus barn. The bus driver must have been on some heavy meds because he lurched out of the station, tore along the rough roadway and sent passengers grabbing for handrails (even though we were sitting down!) as we galloped through town, screeching within inches of Masaratis and Lambriginis (forgive my spelling—I’m not an avid customer of these brands). Then we started up the tortuous hills above HK. Steep, steep, steep. I had no idea that HK was perched at the foot of a cliff, but it is. We careened up and around these incredibly narrow, twisty roads, hanging on for dear life as we headed south to Repulse Bay (a true misnomer—it’s not repulsive at all, but gob-smackingly beautiful) and on to Stanley, home of the popular Stanley market. Once in Stanley we were dropped right in the middle of the market—a noisy, elbow to elbow rabbit warren of little shops. It’s really amazing what you can buy there—souvenirs, clothing, toys, food, art, luggage, pretty much you-name-it. We bought some stuff, ever mindful that we can only bring 50 lbs. home in our suitcases. Then we caught the “express bus” back to the city. The express bus costs about ten cents more than the one dollar fare on the local bus, but it bypasses the dance-with-death over the mountain route and goes through a very long tunnel (the Aberdeen Tunnel). You get to the city about 15 minutes faster. Definitely worth the extra dime.
We went back across the Star Ferry to Kowloon, where our ship is docked. Nobody smiles on the ferry. Not the guys running it, and certainly not the people riding it. This is serious business, getting from one side of the harbor to the other.
We walked up Nathan Street, a busy shopping street on Kowloon and we were accosted by dozens of guys wanting to sell us “copy watches” (wow, you could save some big bucks on a Rolex here—they only want ten bucks or so) and tailors. Tom tried to reason with them, “No thanks, I’m retired” but they were relentless. I guess in a serious city like HK you still put on the suit and tie even if you have no place to go! We bought a newspaper (the South China Post, in English) because a) I haven’t read a newspaper in a month and I needed a fix, and b) the headline was that they had rescued 115 miners from a coal mine in China and I was pleased to read some good news. I really wanted to get as far as the bird market (I’d heard so much about it—the people here keeps song birds as pets, and they even take them for walks. The bird market has hundreds of songbirds for sale in tiny cages with lots of old men buying and selling birds.) Anyway, we didn’t have enough time to make it to the bird market and get back on the ship before the sailing time. Bummer.
Once we were back aboard, they had a big-deal sail away party with complimentary champagne (free booze is unheard of on this cruise) as we slipped out of the harbor. Unfortunately, it was a less-than-spectacular scene as we glided away. You see, the fog never lifted…