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April 6th 2011

Published: April 8th 2011

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Kevin and Susan

CS Gifts

Silk Ties for men; Silk Bags for ladies

Passengers, Hank and Sandra have the master suite about the Voyager. They kindly invited us to have one of our Cruise Specialists parties in their beautiful cabin. So we arranged to have it on the evening we were sailing into Hong Kong. It was a perfect night and perfect venue for socializing and taking in the sights of lovely Victoria Harbor. Also it was the first somewhat balmy night in weeks so we were able to have dinner outside right during the laser light show. Welcome to Hong Kong!
Our paddle tennis buddy, Ted told us about a nice park and nunnery that was worth a visit. Since Nan Lian Garden is located out towards the New Territories, the best way to get there is by subway. The Hong Kong MRT is a modern, efficient and easy to use system. We didn’t see any other westerners using the subway, which was somewhat of a surprise. We had no problem finding our way to this classic Tang Dynasty garden. The park is a lovely oasis comprised of water ponds, timber buildings, stunning rock formations and lovely flora. The Chi Lin Nunnery is attached to the garden and houses some of the nicest

Davor & Gianmario

Food/Beverage; Captain

Buddhist temples we have seen. The whole nunnery is built of wood without the use of a single nail. The Buddhist nuns spend their days delivering offerings of food and rice to the individual shrines and taking care of the lotus ponds and bonsai. After several hours of peace and tranquility, we made our annual visit to the Jade Hawker Bazaar to pick up a few trinkets.
That evening Regent treated the world cruisers to a dinner and show at the hottest restaurant in Hong Kong, The Rising Dragon. We took the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor to reach the restaurant and were greeted by fortune tellers, fan painters, paper cutting artists and Dom Perignon Champagne and hors d’ouevres. This was followed by a sumptuous dinner and performing acrobats. My favorite act was the chopstick thrower. This man could pierce a 1/2'’ piece of plywood with a chopstick. He had a few cruisers give it a try and they couldn’t even make a dent in the wood.
We visited the Museum of Art the next morning—a good thing to do on a rainy day. One of our passengers invited us to lunch at the Peking Garden Restaurant. We met up

Temp Time

Hong Kong Health Requirement

with Steve, who used to live and work in Hong Kong. His friend and former colleague William joined us and ordered us some of the house specialties like Beggar’s Chicken. The whole chicken is wrapped in lotus leaves and packed in clay and cooked for hours and hours. World cruisers Laura and Patrick joined in the fun. They are recently retired and now call a motor coach their home, traveling around the USA and Canada when they are not on ships. We can relate to their peripatetic lifestyle.
We packed a lot into our short two day visit to Hong Kong and left wishing we had another week or two to explore this exciting corner of China. When the British had a 99 year lease on Hong Kong, it was called a ‘borrowed place on borrowed time.” Now since the handover to China, Hong Kong is a strong mix of East and West cultures stunning architecture and a thriving economy. We have been traveling to Hong Kong for over 40 years and it still has a mysterious and exotic allure for us.

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