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Back on board the ship, we enjoyed 2 relaxing days at sea. Our next stop was Hong Kong. Hong Kong is on the Kowloon peninsula, which is made up of 235 islands. Check out the number of apartments in the city! Imagine coming home late at night trying to find yours! Maybe this is the Chinese way of controlling the amount of alcohol you consume. Too drunk = no finding home!
We took the Star Ferry to the heart of the city, where we caught a double decker city bus, taking us to the busy Stanley Market. The bus ride was very scenic, following the coast line around Hong Kong island. After the market, we took another bus to Aberdeen Village. On the wharf here, we negotiated with a Chinese woman to take a “bum” boat ( no idea why it's called that) harbour tour. After much sign language, and showing of money, we agreed that for approximately $7.00(Cdn) , she would get us the tour. The money landed in her hands, and she immediately flagged down the next bumboat driving by and put us in it. No idea how the driver gets paid for his time, but we left that
up to her! We were amazed at the harbour as it is is crowded with fishing boats, and Chinese style house boats, that people live on.
Back to the ship, we spent another day at sea before anchoring at Halong Bay in Vietnam. Altho the ship offered a tour to the Dao Go Caves, we decided to arrange our own tour with the locals. As soon as we stepped onto the pier, we could see them all waiting at the pier entrance- rather like a gauntlet line we would have to run- ready to sell us a tour of wherever we wanted to go! We took a deep breath and decided to “dive in”. We managed to arrange a boat trip out to these caves for $25.each. The guy then put us into a taxi, that delivered us to the boat, where we found more cruise ship passengers waiting to start their self-arranged tour. Also on board was a young couple, she was Korean, he was Vietnamese and they lived in Australia. BONUS! He spoke English and Vietnamese, so was able to translate anything the boat driver was telling us.
WE motored out to the caves, which were quite
beautiful to walk thru. Later in the day, upon returning to the ship, we learned that the ship's tours were not able to access the caves due to some wet rocks??? GO figure! Those people sure were mad, having paid FAR more than our $25.00 to see them!
After the boat ride, we wandered thru a local tourist market, and then took a cab to another market- the
real deal- for the locals! We were the only white people around- and the place was packed! It was really interesting, and the locals all very friendly to us.
Two more days on board the ship and we arrived at Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia. This is on the island of Borneo, which is the 3rd largest island in the world. Bet you didn't know that eh? You can drop that little tidbit at your next social event....😊
Here we took a “ship tour” which we received au gratis- thank goodness! It was a pretty hokey tour, to a “head hunters” homestead, called Monsopad. The best part was the dance show they put on. It was well done, and fun to see. After it was over, after much drama, one of the
“half-dressed” warriors picked an audience member to shoot the poison dart thru a blow gun. Guess who????Me! At first , I was embarrassed,but then decided to play along- it was fun! I don't know who was more surprised when I managed to shoot the dart at a balloon on the wall, and hit it!!!!!! This girl has talent!
The cruise will continue in the next update!
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kathryn Webber
non-member comment
love cultural tour
Hi; your adventures sound wonderful, and the pictures are great! Trip of a life time for sure. Spring has sprung here, with new rain and hot weather - everything is lovely and green. I keep thinking about what type of garden we are going to build for you!! hurray up and get home or I will have to start without you! Imagine, if I got the wrong house, and planted a whole new garden, lol