Advertisement
Published: April 4th 2014
QM2 in Hong Kong
Arriving in the fog and rainQueen Mary Day 19
Hong Kong welcomed us with stormy weather, but reasonably calm seas. Quite a few cruise ships including Star Cruises’ “Pisces” followed us into port. There were at least three Chinese cruise ships but they did not dock at a port but anchored in the Bay.
On the way into Hong Kong we passed several areas where poverty was obvious.
Several people had tours arranged and as usual the Cunard organisation let us all down. Yes, it was raining, yes there were 1600 people doing various tours and personal trips, but it could have been so much smoother.
Once we reached our coach we had a comedian, Patrick as a tour guide. He was both informative and humorous at the same time and had superb interaction with the passengers. One lady in the front seat was obviously concerned about some of the traffic and how Hong Kong drivers interpret the road rules. Patrick kept telling her to “focus” on what he was saying.
First stop was a temple and it was quite “aromatic”, if you like incense, but we would say smelly. Patrick
QM2 in Hong Kong
Passing some shanties - the bird noises from the trees were stunning told us lots of names for toilets and the nearest were in Ladder Street (see pics).
The highlight of the trip was to Victoria Peak via the “funicular”. Highlight for some, lowlight for us. Thought we were on a Japanese subway as we were literally herded into the “tram” and we had to stand in a sandwich pack. The tram was stop/start and very jerky because of track work. Then when we reached the peak all we could see was mist and then it rained quite heavily. Instead of going back in the tram we were met in a special bus stop after using an elevator or three. First casualty occurred as we lost a passenger for about ten minutes.
The next stop was Stanley Markets and what an eye opener. We looked for shelter as it was raining again and we found shelter but the roof had several leaks. A huge crowd was in attendance and not enough time to look properly.
Next stop was Aberdeen fishing village, but had passed several fancy houses and interesting views as we descended the peak. At the fishing village, the rain stopped
enough to enjoy a trip in a sampan through various waterways where rich met poor.
No trip is complete without a visit to a jewellery manufacturer and all 38 on our coach were tracked around the showroom and when we stopped it seemed to be the cue to the sales people. We decided to ask the price of one piece of jewellery and it was $9000 (AUD) and it is still in the cabinet as far as we know.
Back on board “The Queen” in time for another scone or two before the final evening meal and goodbyes to the various crew that had tended to our every need, at least in the food department. Sergiy, Jay, Michael and Catalin were superb.
A lightning and thunder show concluded the evening and no April fool’s jokes.
Goodnight 1 April 2014.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.272s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0559s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
