Sea Princess to Brunei, Sabah, China, South Korea, Japan, Iwo Jima, Guam, New Guinea.

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Days 15, 16 at Sea.

Day 17 Hong Kong.

This was a shambles. The ship had to anchor well out because the water was not deep enough for it (yet the new wharf will be able to take even larger ships). At the start of the day there were few, if any, tenders alongside. The trip into the main wharf was very slow resulting in a late start for our, now hurried, tour.

Our walking tour, now 1 hour late, took us to the posh area where we had some lunch at a business tower's restaurant. Clean, efficient, convenient and not Mc Donald's. The longest escalator in the world is really a series of 1 block escalators. We only went up 2 blocks, but then had to walk down again on very irregular, non-slip, paving stones. We were taken to the old Man Mo (Man = Literature, Mo = war) Taoist temple that had been used for religion, a school and law court.

The tour bus took us through western of the 3 tunnels under the bay to a Restaurant for an 11 course evening meal that was somewhat westernised but enjoyable.

We the went to the sound and lights show. They have added bright green laser beams, but they swapped from building to building before we could focus on them.

Day 18 Hong Kong.

We took the bus to the Tai O village. The new high-rise buildings on the way to the village have a vacant floor about half way up to for a fire break. The Chinese people want to remain pale skin so they avoid the sun, while many of the people in the Sea Princess try to darken their skin by cancer provoking sun-baking.

On the way we stopped at the giant bronze Buddha, made in 202 pieces. Fortunately the bus took us up to it rather than making us climb the steps. We then had a pleasant lunch at the temple hall.

The Chinese place the country first, then the family, with the individual third.

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