http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/MG1666/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from MG1666 en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:30:43 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:30:43 +0000 This is our last day. This morning we headed off over to HK Island to use the mid level escalators which we are told climb a mile from the bottom at Central to maybe half way up the mountain. The escalator serves all the people living from those levels who live in the immediate densely populated areas. Otherwise the local streets are crosshatched all the way so access is Ok if you have transpo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/blog-449865.html After a short break we caught the subway to the local market at Sham Shui Po in the New Territories. On arriving we were right in the middle of a local market this time there were no Europeans no hawkers no ldquoyou want imitation watchrdquo and no ldquoyou want new suit sirrdquo and you could shop without even being pestered by the shop owners. We both found this market more relaxful http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-449801.html This morning we visited the HK Museum of Science. I imagine itrsquos similar to the Melb Science Museum that I havenrsquot yet visited. So here and maybe unusually we saw the dinosaur exhibit for specimens taken from Lufeng in Yunnan province. It contained a few skeletons and a film the most important aspect of this is that itrsquos supposed to be one of the biggest dinosaur finds in the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-449688.html We began today with a trip to Aberdeen over on the far side of Hong Kong Island. Aberdeen has a fishing port with lots of traditional Chinese boats including smaller sampans. In order to get there we used the subway from Kowloon to cross under the harbour and then caught a bus from Central to reach Aberdeen. The bus uses the crossisland tunnel thru the mountain to reach the other side. If you to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/blog-449685.html First thing today we headed to the Hong Kong Museum which was three minutes walk from where we stay. But before we got there we met up with two butterflies whilst strolling past under a Chinese Banyan Tree on the way. They were large black with blue flashes and landed on Maurs shoulder one made a great picture. The history museum has two main exhibitions one on the early history of Hong Kon http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-449681.html The morning began with a rush to catch the Star ferry over to Hong Kong Island so we could meet the 10.15am connection hop off bus to Stanley. We missed it by 2 minutes so we took another ride of yesterdays hop on hop off bus around Hong Kong Island on the Victoria harbour side this takes an hour before it linked back with the next Stanley bus. That worked fine and we were off to Stanley on the o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/blog-449679.html Today we bought a hop on hop off bus ticket and used it to travel through Kowloon where we are staying and over on Hong Kong Island. The best part bit of this was sitting up on open top of the double decker bus. We had English commentary via ear pieces. It was interesting noting close up how overhanging neon signs were steadied to buildings by very old cables the locals washing which was everywh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/blog-449669.html Maurs and I went for a walk thru Kowloon Park which is the local public park in the city. Itrsquos a bit up and down and not much grass is about but instead there are lots of native trees and walkways and people. There was the usual aviary of parrots including some Aust Palm Cockatoos and Galahs but the best part was the lagoon or pond. In there were small tortoises some were just lined up on l http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-449467.html We all got up early at 8.00am to go to the bow on the front deck to watch the boat entering Victoria harbour Hong Kong. Itrsquos pretty amazing the harbour is probably a smaller version of Sydney Harbour but here the surrounding mountains are closer and off course the high rise apartment buildings are as thick as anything on every side Irsquove never seen anything like it before. This day http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-449464.html Today was a normal shipboard day. We all went in a tennis serving competition and won some more ships dollars towards our redeemable T shirt whatever. In the afternoon we again teamed up with Joyce and Charlie in the ships trivia competition and we did a reasonable job but as usual there was always a better team. The final of the karaoke was on in the lounge in the aftrenoon and we went to see o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-449462.html Back in Japan today at their lowest island which is along way south of the main Japanese islands. This island formed an important sea trading port during the early days of both European sailing mid 1500s onwards and also for the local countries of the time. The population is over 300000 and it was flattened in WW11 when the allies drove upwards towards Japan. Apparently there are still US defence http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Okinawa/blog-449192.html During the morning Ross AB and I entered the ldquotennisrdquo competition. This involved playing side by side against someone else with a tennis ball attached to a long rubber band held to the ground by a sand bag. There was a trick to this especially if the returning ball rubber band is stretched harder when the rubber band winds itself around the bag. I was caught out twice by a rapidly d http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-449185.html It was a nice day today hazy to clear sky and about 20 degrees. We caught a taxi to the Shanghai Museum. Itrsquos a nice new building with lots of marble however itrsquos an arts museum. It had quite old statues old writings water paintings and the history of money. The most interesting thing I thought was the use of spade and arrow shaped coins a couple of thousand years ago and then the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-449182.html We woke to find the ship moored right in the town centre on the very wide Huangpu river. We were surrounded on both sides of the river by skyscrapers and a large TV observation tower. As usual the ship gave us a rudimentary map to get around with whilst onshore and a sheet of paper with the major attractions in Chinese words with corresponding English names. This last part is always helpful when http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-449065.html At last we are back at sea and now for two days travelling from Beijing to Shanghai around the coast and thru the Yellow Sea. The sea here is almost that colour in fact its the same colour as the Yarra even 200 miles out to sea. This is caused by the Yangtze river draining its silt into the sea for hundreds of years. Let me tell about two nice people we met for breakfast. Bob Barbara who now l http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-448941.html We had to get up at 4.30am for the early start for the 3 hr bus drive into Beijing. Unlike yesterday today was very sunny with blue skies and a nice 20 degrees. First stop was at Tiananmen Square. Itrsquos big wide and open about 800m x 500m that attracts about 1M visitors per day. The parliament faces the square on one side and handles some 10000 visitors and it sits once a month. Ex chairm http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Forbidden-City/blog-448931.html We woke this morning in the port suburb of Tianjin under murky skies fogsmog. After waiting for about 1 hrs for local customs clearance we started on the 3 hr bus trip to Beijing and the Great Wall. The traffic to Beijing was so bad we had lunch before we got to the wall. The Chinese banquet lunch was jummy About 3.00pm we reached the wall at Juyaugan which apparently is one of four places t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Great-Wall-of-China/blog-448763.html Before we begin here we were informed that all of China is on the one time zone which is unusual as the country appears to have at least 2 hours time span but in Beijing they do what they want. Now Dalian is BIG and I had never heard of it until I saw it on the list of ports of call. I suspect that pollution is a bit of an issue and the sky is hazy and only blue overhead. The city is enormous http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/blog-448760.html A different day today meeting people walking the deck resting eating and dancing and I snuck in a small sleep after lunch.After breakfast we did some deck walking to get up the steps. AB did a walk as well. We all went in the Boce competition and collected some more s vouchers Mum won two. The ship's gives out dollar rewards for enterng and winning various on board events the more you w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-448407.html We woke this morning in Pusan in South Korea. The city has 4Mil people and is spread right around the harbours they have couple of them. Itrsquos obviously a major seaport because the fish market was so vast. In the market freshly caught fish were displayed next to live fish in tanks all sorts the area was spread over quite a few acres. It was clean there but not so nice unless of course y http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Busan/blog-448404.html