Alan, suffering from ship withdrawal, is unable to write the blog tonight so it’s me, Sarah, again. As long as Alan hasn’t snuck out of the hotel and tried to get back onboard, he will surely make a few comments below. Contrary to what Sarah may have you believe, I have not been sitting outside the ship all day, pining away to see my new friends for one last time. However, he has mentioned doing it more than once.
We went to sleep riding the surf last night and the next thing I know, I was rudely awaken by Dad falling out of bed. He had mistaken a text messages coming through (which was a ‘welcome to Hong Kong’) as the alarm I had set on my phone. It was only 5.45am and the alarm was set for 6.20am but we got up anyway. We had been told we would enter Hong Kong Harbour at 6.30am but when we pulled the blind back just after 6am, we were well and truly in the harbour and the fog covered buildings on Hong Kong Island were in view. No they weren’t! The fog was covering them all.
We dressed and went up to the Observation Deck and watched the last approach to the terminal. Alan couldn’t stay out there too long, complaining about the cold (again)!!!
We had been on the internet and then, as usual, we had a problem with it so Alan tried to reconnect. When he did, he discovered that even though we had paid a huge amount for the internet to cover us the entire cruise, this morning they had started to charge us and we had already racked up a bill of over US$16 for 42 minutes. We will definitely be disputing that charge if it appears on the credit card especially as,officially, the cruise didn’t end until 8am.
We went down to breakfast about 7.10 and Alan and I returned to the room just before 8am to get our carry on bags. As we crossed the pool deck we could hear a marching band and were ever so surprised, and amazed, to see a Chinese Scottish Marching Band playing next to the ship. They were brilliant. Asians in kilts and playing bagpipes. Not something you see every day.
Unfortunately, they had gone and left before most people disembarked thanks to the massive confusion this morning.
We were told that there would be an announcement for when our passports were ready for collection.There was none. Alan and I went and discovered they were ready, we collected them and returned to Dad in the Colonnade. It was only by chance did I look at the Departure Card for Hong Kong in the passport and realised it had me down as a US citizen. I then returned to where I got it and as I stood in the queue, I noticed that the card also didn’t have the right passport number, the right place and date of issue and the right sex. The only thing they had right was my name. It was then that I noticed many others filling out new forms. After filling out my new form I was returning back to Alan and Dad and ran into Alan. His information was wrong too. They had my passport number on his card and listed his sex as female. I guess that can be debatable.
They continued to hand out passports and didn’t warn others that the cards could be wrong. Back down at the Colonnade, Dad was sitting with two Australians and we discovered both of their cards were wrong too. Only Dad’s card was correct. How bad is that?!
We finally disembarked just after 9am, farewell our lovely ship. Oh how we will miss you, your wonderful crew and many new friends made.
Even though the hotel was fairly close, Dad opted for us to get a taxi because of the luggage. What we didn’t opt for is the fact that we got totally screwed by the taxi. We went less than 1km, took no more than 5 minutes and he charged us HK$296, about A$35. Oh well, you live and learn. I guess they try it with everyone who gets off the ship, expecting you not to know the exchange rate and taking them by surprise. That’s what Alan would say happened to him. Well when you put me in charge of the money, anything can happen.
The hotel didn’t have our room yet available so we decided to take a trip on the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island. By this time the fog had gotten a little worse and the tops of buildings were now missing. We took a walk for a while and got no where, and decided to return to the hotel as the room would now be ready. The ferry is cheap and Dad gets to travel for free.
The hotel and the room furniture is a little dated but the room is huge with a lounge room with a pull out sofa bed for Alan, two single beds in a separate bedroom, a small computer room and a reasonable sized bathroom. As great as the cabin was on the ship, it is nice to have some room to move around.
Alan complaining of lack of sleep, took a late morning nap. Dad, who was never hungry on the ship, declared at 1pm that we had to feed him so Alan was awoken and we left the hotel, prowling the streets for food. So different when you have to fend for yourself. We found a very crowded place and decided crowd meant good food so we went in. Dad had what appeared to be a large chicken, Alan many different parts of a cow and me, prawns. There was a lot more than just cow on my plate. Pig, chicken, snake, hippopotamus… all sorts of meat. Good food and cheap. We then staggered through the shops and found ourselves another magnet for the collection and Dad bought a belt.
In the afternoon Dad allowed himself to be taken away by a tout and has ordered some trousers to be made.
Alan and I went looking for Bruce Lee. We know he’s around here somewhere but we failed to find him. We will tomorrow for sure.
We have discovered that the Peak Tram is closed this week and will reopen on Saturday. If the weather doesn’t improve it doesn’t really matter as there is no way we are going to see anything from up there. We will try to get there on Saturday morning before we leave is the weather does improve.
We have also learned that the cable car that travels the 25 minute trip to Lantau Island and the giant Buddha, is also closed and won’t reopen until April. That’s a little sad as we were more interested in the cable car trip than the Buddha so we probably won’t go there.
Plans for tomorrow is to get on the Hop On Hop Off bus and get a great overview of the city. We are more than likely going to be in fog for most of the day.
Tonight we went to Ned Kelly’s Last Stand and had a burger and Dad had fish. There is something to be said for having some non rich food for a change. I do miss my 4 or 5 desserts after every meal, though.
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