Wednesday June 8 through Saturday June 11-Hong Kong

Wednesday June 8

We woke up early again, and Jim went for a run along the ocean path. We had breakfast at the Suites lounge and spent a couple of hours at the pool relaxing. Everyone here calls us by name; even people we've never met before. That's service! Before we knew it, it was time to go. We got checked out in our suite this time, and had the same driver as yesterday. Sad to be leaving :( We got checked in at the Bali airport without any problems (security was much more lax; I didn't even remove my laptop from my backpack).

We were able to wait in the airport lounge, which wasn't the nicest we've ever been in, but it did have very cold beer!! Then we were back on the upper deck of our 747 for the flight to Hong Kong. The flight crew were amazing on this leg. Very personal service. We both got called by name all flight. Immigration and customs at Hong Kong airport was a breeze. It's a beautiful, modern airport. We took a taxi to the Conrad Hong Kong. A spectacular drive; since it was about 9:30 PM by the time we left the airport, Hong Kong at night is something else!

Our fabulous luck with rooms continued as we were upgraded to the executive floor with an amazing harbor view. Huge windows with a full-on view of Kowloon. This is a very elegant, luxurious hotel.

Thursday June 9

Well, we took Hong Kong by storm today! We woke up early and had breakfast in the lounge (which has a spectacular view of Kowloon). Then we walked down to the Star Ferry pier and rode the ferry over to Kowloon. It is very hot and humid here right now. We got signed up to ride the Duk Ling junk later today and got our tickets for the Big Bus tour. So we rode the ferry back to Hong Kong Island and got on the open top bus to ride their tour down to Aberdeen and Stanley.

Once we got out of the “city” part of Hong Kong Island, it's actually very green and beautiful. Our first stop was aberdeen, where we had a ride on a sampan around the harbor there. That was pretty neat, and longer than I thought it would be. A lot of people live permanently in the harbor on their fishing boats, and there were a LOT of boats packed in there.

After the sampan ride, we wasted something like 1 ½ hours trying to figure out how to get to the Jumbo Kingdom floating restaurant ferry dock. We went by the restaurant on the sampan tour and saw the dock, but we couldn't get to it. Finally after asking someone who spoke marginal English, we figured it out.

It's definitely a tourist trap, but very colorful and memorable. The service was rather aloof though. We had no idea how to order, and they weren't very helpful. We finally ended up ordering several dim sum dishes plus two others, and then that ended up being too much. Oh well. I thought the food was pretty good, but I liked it better than Jim did.

We made it back to the bus stop in time to catch the bus which continued on to Repulse Bay and then to Stanley. This is a really beautiful part of Hong Kong. Several very nice beaches, with lovely views of the outlying islands. Stanley Market is one of the most famous markets in Hong Kong, but we didn't have time to explore it because we wasted so much time trying to get to Jumbo Kingdom. In retrospect, we should have had lunch here instead. There were a bunch of seafood restaurants here with gorgeous views. Lessons learned. . . . .

We rode the bus straight back to Central and got off at a stop near the Conrad. We had some time to relax a little, shower and cool off. We were both drenched by the time we got back. We had to go back down to the ferry piers to catch the Duk Ling junk for a 5PM sail. This time we took the MTR (subway), thinking that would be more direct. It was easy to get to the correct station and find the right exit out of the MTR, but Hong Kong has huge numbers of elevated walkways to keep people off street level and we got on the wrong one and headed the wrong direction. We were able to figure it out though and made it in plenty of time.

The Duk Ling is a restored Chinese junk that does harbor sails twice a week. You have to be a tourist in order to ride on it (we had to show our passports when we signed up in Kowloon this morning). It's a lovely boat though. And the weather was beautiful. Sunny, and a little less humid on the water. The bad thing was that the camera battery died half way through the sail! I was not happy. The sail lasted an hour and let us off in Kowloon at 1800. We walked down the Avenue of Stars and saw the statue of Bruce Lee, then had cool drinks at Starbucks, before we cought the night tour. Wow, this was fantastic. Kowloon at night is something else. I was just crushed that I couldn't take pictures. Being on the open top of the bus made it even better, because you had such an unobstructed view. It got over at 8PM in time to watch the Symphony of Lights, which is a light and laser show choreographed to music. The lights and lasers on the buildings of both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon flash and change. It's pretty unique.

We then walked back up to the Star Ferry pier and had dinner at Peking Garden at Star House. This was a fun place. Very busy and very loud. Seemed a good mix of locals and tourists there. Service was similar to lunch, kind of cool and professional. We're wondering if it's a cultural thing. We ordered the beggar's chicken, which is a stuffed chicken wrapped in lotus leaves that is then encased inside clay and slow cooked over many hours. It was very good and extremely tender. We ordered a vegetable dish to go along with it, but they didn't bring it out until we were done with the chicken. Kind of weird.

Then we took the ferry back to Hong Kong Island and walked back to the Conrad. It's kind of a maze to walk anywhere here, because the walkways are elevated and you have to go through buildings and shopping malls to get anywhere. It's definitely an adventure! But we made it back just fine and fell into an exhausted sleep!

Friday June 10

Woke up this morning feeling tired and sluggish. Yesterday was pretty active :)

We walked over to The Peak Tram, a ticket was included in our bus tour package. We got there about 9AM, but the guy in the booth told us we had to get an actual Peak ticket from the Big Bus tour guide who wouldn't be there until 10. So we killed some time walking through the aviary at Hong Kong Park. Unfortunately, the guy from Big Bus didn't show up until almost 10:20 and I was pretty hot, tired, sweaty, and cranky by then. But we got our tickets, and the view from the top of The Peak was worth it.

The tram is a funincular railway that goes up on a VERY steep angle in places. When you actually get to the top of The Peak, you still have to go up about 10 escalators to get to the actual viewing platform (which costs extra). Our fabulous luck with the weather is still holding; today was very nice with amazing views. Hong Kong looks pretty great from up here. We got a picture of the two of us that looks like it came out pretty well.

We were both starving by 11AM (I wasn't very hungry at breakfast), so we had lunch at the Peak at Bubba Gumps. It really hit the spot. Then we rode the tram back down, and got on the bus to continue the Hong Kong Island tour. We never got off the bus again though, we just rode on the upper deck enjoying it. I think we were both pretty pooped by this time.

We got back to the Conrad mid-afternoon and had time for a little nap, before getting dressed up for dinner. We went up to the lounge for some wine at 5PM and to enjoy the views. Hong Kong at night is stunning from up there!

I had made reservations at Hutong for our final dinner. This is a Chinese restaurant in Kowloon with great harbor views. We took a taxi there, which was pretty funny. At first, the driver just talked on his cell phone for the first ¾ of the ride. Then he put the Beatles on his radio, and proceeded to sing along in broken English at the tops of his lungs. Good times. Hutong did not live up to my expectations though. Unfortunately, I think this was the most disappointing dinner we had the whole trip. The views were amazing, and we had a good time, but the food wasn't that great. We ordered their signature dish, crispy deboned lamb ribs, which was really greasy and tough to chew. I found it disgusting. The other dishes we ordered were better, but not nearly as good as I was expecting. We took the MTR back, which was VERY quick and easy. It figures, we get it all figured out right as we're leaving.