Tuesday, October 18 - Hong Kong

Tuesday, October 18, Hong Kong
Hong Kong is a HUGE city, but the good news is that the subways, buses and public transportation are very user friendly and well-marked for visitors, so we were able to go it alone. The entire day worked better than a real Rolex. We seemed to always be in the right place at the right time. We took a shuttle from the pier to Central Station where we caught a ferry over to Hong Kong Island. We then went to pier 6 and purchased an Octopus Pass. This works just like a debit card that offers half price fares for all the public transportation. My card was 150 Hong Kong Dollars (HKD) and Gary’s was a discounted senior citizen rate of 70 HKD 50 of which is the deposit which you get back at the end of the day. We then hopped on an open air double decker bus (15C) which took us directly to the Peak Tram. What made the day even more exciting was that we had managed to stay ahead of everyone else on the ship, so it was exciting to be the only ship passengers on the ferry, bus and tram. It was like being in first place for the “Amazing Race”. At the top of the tram we did encounter Princess Passengers who were on a ship tour, but we were completely enjoying the freedom of going on our own. We then returned to Central Station where we took Bus 260 to Stanley Market. This is a resort town outside of Hong Kong. The ride is about an hour and passes beautiful tropical beaches and 5 star resorts. At Stanley Market we purchased several bottles of bubbles to use when we visit the orphanage in Vietnam. It was now time to start working our way back to the Kowloon side so we were sure to not miss the last shuttle back to the ship. We had a 1 hour bus ride back to the heart of Hong Kong Island followed by a ferry ride across the harbor. Once back, we walked the “Avenue of Stars” where we saw Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan’s had prints in the walkway. We also saw several wedding parties having pictures taken. We took the subway to get the deposits back on our Octopus passes then walked over to Nathan Street and spent the remaining HKD before heading back to the ship for the best part of the day. After dinner as we sailed past Hong Kong the ship arranged to have the music of the Laser Light show broadcast on the ship as we watched the light spectacular. This light show is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest in the world. It is so fitting for the massive, tech based personality of Hong Kong.