Rodney & Sheryl's Travels: 3/11-13 - Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Three days in Hong Kong! We could spend three weeks here and never see everything we wanted to see! It is truly an amazing city.

Our ship was docked at Ocean Terminal. Connecting to the terminal is Harbour City, the largest shopping mall in Hong Kong with an area of 2 million square feet housing over 450 shops, more than 50 fashion & boutique outlets, three star hotels and 2 cinemas. It made Robinsons in Manila look like a mini-mall. We walked the mall for a couple hours over the three days we were there and never did see everything. It is filled with every name-brand boutique under the sun. They even have one entire floor dedicated to children's stores & boutiques—everything from Toys-R-Us to Armani Junior. I could have spent the entire three days right there at the mall. Fortunately for our pocket-book, there were too many other things to do!

This was our second time here on a cruise so we didn't do any ship tours, just did everything on our own. The first day we walked up Nathan Road through various markets and attractions. We had a wonderful Chinese buffet lunch on the 10th floor of the Shamrock Hotel. They just kept bringing out more and more various types of Chinese dishes and, of course, we had to try most of them. Everything was absolutely delicious!

The second day, we purchased a "Big Bus Tour" two-day pass and almost wore it out! The "Big Bus" is an "on & off" bus that runs various routes with stops where you can pop off and get back on one of the next buses. It included four trips on the Star Ferry, a Peak Tram ride, and a Sampan ride. We took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island and rode the tour bus to Stanley Market where we made a couple of small purchases and collected our sand from the beach.

Our next stop was The Peak Tram ride. We had actually done this before on a ship's tour, so it was fun to do on our own this time. At the top, we had a late afternoon snack and drinks overlooking the city at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Then we wandered around and took pictures of the city and the harbor. We finished up the afternoon with the Hong Kong Island tour and then waited for the Night tour. We got back to the ship a little after 8 p.m., at which point we were on sensory overload! Hong Kong is a beautiful, bustling city with more skyscrapers than any city in the world—a bit overwhelming for us beach bums!

We took the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong Island on our last day and again went to Stanley Market to get a couple more T-shirts that Rodney had purchased and really liked. We had to be back to the ship early, so we had an authentic Chinese lunch at a lovely little place called the Canton Deli in the Harbor City mall upon our return.

Now we need three days to rest up! Unfortunately, we only have one... cruising is a lot of work, but we're up to the challenge. :-)