Couple of things: First, Jet Lag is much less of an issue traveling east to west. Second, travel fatigue is still an issue. We arrived last night shortly after 9:30 and headed straight for bed. We didn’t get up until 7:00 this morning. But now we feel, not fine, but not rummy like we would had we traveled the other direction.

Our first event wasn’t until 9:30 so we headed downstairs for a leisurely breakfast. The (included) buffet at the hotel was vast and varied. I promise I won’t make it a habit of posting food photos but these were too good to pass up. There are pastries from four different cuisines there (some of them filled with fish or pork) along with grilled perch and satéd chicken. So of course you eat with chop sticks. The other noteworthy thing about breakfast was Rosie (actually there are several Rosie’s running around) whose job it was to carry full trays from the bus stations to the kitchen.

Following breakfast we retreated to our room for a bit of blogging/reading/etc. before heading to the lobby to join our tour group.

On the bus we met Alan our guide and took off to cross under the Victoria into Hong Kong Island proper.

Alan talked a bit about bamboo scaffolding. It’s great value is flexibility (in the wind) along with a ready supply. The downside is that it wears out, so the poles have to be cycled out after so many uses. Not necessarily a problem, except that the greatest danger in the process is to those who dis-assemble a structure when they encounter (fall thru) a section that has passed beyond it’s useful lifespan.

Our first stop was Golden Bauhinia Square – the place where, on July 1, 1997 the British handed Hong Kong back to the Chinese. This was at the conclusion of a 99 year lease – a lease granted to the British because of their victory over China in the Opium Wars. The actual lease only covered “New Hong Kong” – a 200 mile buffer zone inland from Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula. These Britain owned outright. But thru negotiations at the end of the lease it was agreed that Britain would cede all lands in the area to China.

While we were stopped for photos we noticed an event in the channel – A ship was slowly making its way to port with 2 helicopters overhead, several smaller vessels in a line, and fire boats shooting water cannon salutes. Alan explained that this ship (the arctic exploration vessel, MV Xue Long) was making its first entrance to Hong Kong harbor and was being received in formal fashion. It was headed for the same dock where our ship is tied up.

Following the photo stop our tour headed uptown to the oldest section of original British occupation. We walked along several streets noting a variety of street scenes – from open-air markets to an antique district frequented by Hong Kong film producers (to find authentic period pieces) and a few other interesting encounters.

Along the way we stopped at the Man Mo Temple, a Shinto temple built in the mid-19th century and dedicated to the gods of literature and martial arts. Students often come to the temple to pray before the start of a term and before exams. Mo (Kwan Yue), the martial god is also the god of police and many police stations have a Mo shrine to touch at the beginning of each shift.

Our next stop was the bottom of the world’s longest outdoor escalator. This escalator takes people part-way up Mt. Victoria (except during the morning commute when it is reversed to bring people down the mountain). We rode part way up (not too far since we had to walk back down), stopping occasionally to note famous landmarks (like King Street – the colonial-era demarkation line above which no Chinese could live). Returning to the base we rode up another (shorter) escalator to an elevated walkway that wended its way thru the oldest area of the city.

Our last stop on the morning tour was the colonial police station/court house/prison.

Returning to our hotel we dropped off our baggage (water bottles, umbrellas, and such) and headed back out to explore a bit and find some lunch.

We eventually ended up at the Dim Sum place across the street from the hotel. We were encouraged to be eating among locals rather than tourists. I was particularly impressed with the pork wrapped in rice noodle. The taste was amazing. The texture was a bit difficult to get past the back on the tongue. Cheryl saved a photo of the menu to show the number of dishes that feature chicken feet.

Following lunch we headed back to check out the Hong Kong Museum of Art – only to find that we were within 1 hour of closing. So we crossed the courtyard to the Space Museum. You can tell how interested I am in a place by the number of photos I don’t take. In this case I was WAY too interested to be bothered taking photos. So you’ll just have to be satisfied by a model of the James Web Telescope and the structure of the main exhibit hall – affectionately known as “the pineapple bun” (See the photo of my plate from this morning’s breakfast, the pastry at 8 o’clock is a pineapple bun.).

Dinner this evening was a light meal at the Thai restaurant next door. We won’t be seeing much Thai food for the next couple of weeks and the restaurant was right next door to the hotel so we took it as a sign.

After dinner we headed back out to the waterfront walk (for those keeping score, this was our third time to walk the route today (but hey, that’s how you rack up the miles and we both felt good). This time we headed down to a bend where we could see most of the opposite shore. There we waited for the evening light-show. Every evening at 8pm the buildings across the way put on a 15 minute laser-light show set to music broadcast from speakers in the waterfront park. We thought it was less spectacular than we had anticipated but still a pretty cool way to cap off the evening.

Along the way back Cheryl pointed out the building in the center – just walkin’ along.

Back at our hotel we noted that the faces of the building next door were covered in lights and presenting a series of interesting scenes. (This is one of them.) In between the scenes they displayed the name of the company that can do the same thing to your building – for a price – but look how cool it is.

Cheryl’s Factoids:

• Since Hong Kong was a British colony for so long it has Victoria Harbor, Victoria Park , and Victoria Peak. All vehicles drive on the left and you stand on the right on escalators so that people can pass you on the left. However, If you drive over the river into China, you need a separate drivers license and license plate and you immediately have to switch to driving on the right.
• There is a local Indian population that are descendants of the ones that came with the original British settlers.
• The bay is now narrower because for the last 30 years, Hong Kong has been pushing land into the water to expand the city.
• There are 3 tunnels between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. These tunnels are not buried. They lay on top of the bottom of the bay.

So that’s the first real day of this adventure. Tomorrow we board the ship, get settled in, enjoy some great Viking food, and see who on the crew we’ve sailed with before.

till then, R