Day 21 – Smog City

Sarah back with your blogging reading.  Not much to report though.  Alan may not even have a comment to make.

We did very little this morning other than sit around the hotel before we checked out at 11.30am and made our way to the airport.  It took about 40 minutes and cost a whopping HK$240 (about A$30) which was a lot less than the 2 minute ride we had from the port terminal to the hotel. 

Check in was easy as there was no one there but, unfortunately, she still couldn’t put us seated together.

Lunch we went to the Spaghetti House inside the airport terminal which was really good.

The plane was late taking off due to it’s late arrival in.  When we got on there was someone sitting in my seat and someone sitting in Alan’s seat but as they all knew each other, we let them stay put and we were able to then sit together; Alan in the middle and me on the aisle.

We hadn’t appreciated that we would actually get fed on the flight.  It came in a cute little box with two tiny sandwiches, a packet of really spicy peanuts, a chicken salad, a small cake and a water. Plus we got another drink. Really really impressed with the food.

We arrived only 5 minutes late after leaving 30 minutes late which was great.  Everyone on the plane went to the toilets which meant we walked straight up to immigration and were through before the hoards arrived.  However, then they descended on the baggage claim, not caring who they ran into or whether they blocked the passage to leave. We thought they were bad on the plane, unable to obey any regulations like putting your seat up, turning off electrical equipment and remaining seated when the seatbelt sign was on.  In fact, as soon as it would go on, half a dozen people would get up.  We couldn’t count either, how many people kept walking past the curtain into business class, only to be turned around again.

Our tour guide we had booked for pick up, our tour tomorrow and dropping back to the airport tomorrow, was about 3 minutes late to pick us up but that was okay.

She walked us to the van and driver. Seems like they have never used this van before because no one could work out how to use the seatbelts in the back. There will be some changes of seats tomorrow to make sure we have working seatbelts, especially the way our driver drives and everyone else drives.  It is truly frightening. The drivers here are just as bad, or maybe worse, than in Vietnam. I’m sure there are road rules here, but absolutely nobody obeys them.

The pollution is bad, really brown and really thick.  You could even see it in the airport terminal.  Thankfully, we are here only one night and tomorrow we will see the glorious Terracotta Warriors; something I’ve wanted to see forever. The pollution really is unbelievable. I don’t know if maybe it was just extra bad today, we’ll see how it is tomorrow. I’ve been to San Pedro in California, reputedly the most polluted city in the world, and this place blows it out of the water.

The hotel is the Grand Mercure and is on Renmin Square which is bordered by two other hotels. Thank god for that, as no one wanted to leave the area on our own. Way too dangerous on the roads. We have no clue if we’re in a safe area of the city either, so a late night stroll probably wouldn’t be a wonderful idea. After so much lunch and plane food, we ended up with room service tonight. The hotel upgraded us to a King Room each so, for the first time since this trip, we have a room to ourselves.  As much as we love Dad, it is nice to have a bit of space. The bed is huge and I’m looking forward to stretching out after being in a single bed for the past 3 weeks. We’ve actually got 2 double beds put together to form one super duper king size bed. So much room!

Day 20 – Which Idiot Built an Amusement Park on the side of a mountain

Sarah was due to write the blog today, but she has retired early for the night due to a very sore eye. I’m sure people won’t be too upset that Alan is writing it instead. The things I have to fake to get away from writing the blog.

We awoke this morning to the heaviest fog since we’ve been here in Hong Kong. We could barely see anything from our hotel window. Since today was our last full day here, we had planned to travel to nearby Macau for the day.

Sarah’s dad decided that he needed a break from us today, so he stayed behind to spend the day by himself. By the time Sarah and I had got ourselves organised, it was already after 10 am. We set out for the China Ferry Terminal which is supposed to be a 9 minute walk from our hotel. We’re kind of slow, so it took us closer to 25 minutes, I’d say.

Once we arrived, we went in to buy ferry tickets. What we discovered was that most of the morning ferries had been delayed or cancelled. It was 10.30, and the first ferry we could buy tickets for was 11.30. We did so and found somewhere to sit down and hang around. Finding places to sit down in Hong Kong can be rather difficult, by the way. They don’t seem to like the idea of providing seating areas for some reason.

A short time later, we noticed on the departures board that another ferry had been cancelled and ours had been further delayed. Sarah was getting worried that once we made it to Macau we may not be able to get back today due to the heavy fog. This wouldn’t have been too much of a problem except that we fly out to China tomorrow and must not miss our flight.

So we made the decision to refund our tickets and give Macau a miss. I was disappointed since I had really wanted to visit there, but it might have been a blessing in disguise as there’s every chance I would have lost a bucketload of money in the casinos. Unlikely you would have seen the inside of a casino with the itinerary I had planned for us.

We were now onto our backup plan of going to Ocean Park for the day instead. It’s an amusement park which we had driven past while on the bus tour yesterday. We went back to our hotel room as we no longer needed to have our passports on us.

Sarah’s dad still wasn’t interested in coming with us, so we tried to figure out the best way to get there. Unfortunately there are no trains to that area, so it had to be either bus or taxi. We took the ferry across the harbour and then got in a taxi. Not long later we were at the park, for a very reasonable fare.

By now it was starting to heat up and our jackets were off soon after we arrived. The fog had dissipated on this side of the island and it was blue skies overhead. We thought we’d head straight over to where the rides were since it was already afternoon.

It’s a strange amusement park in that part of it is built at the foot of a mountain, while the other half of it is built way up on the side of the mountain, overlooking the sea below. Whichever bright spark came up with that idea must have a screw loose.

Anyway, we made our way onto the cable car which links the 2 areas of the park. It’s long and high, but you get spectacular views of the surrounding mountains, bays and beaches. Pretty scary actually so I had done my scary ride of the day.

Once we reached the other end, we checked our map to see what was what. The nearest ride was the Hair Raiser roller coaster. Sarah isn’t one for riding the scary rides, so she took the opportunity to sit in the shade while I queued for it. It was a fairly standard floorless coaster. Fun, but not particularly scary, given some of the monsters I’ve ridden in America.

Next to that was the River Rapids water ride thingy. Water rides are usually the only ones I can get Sarah on. We were both happy to get on there today since we were pretty hot. It was quite tame, but we got cooled off a little.

By now it was about 2 pm and we still hadn’t eaten yet today so we thought it might be a good idea to get something into us before we pass out from starvation. Straight after finishing our lunch I went on the Dragon roller coaster. Probably not the best idea with 2 burgers barely digested, but luckily I kept them down. That was a pretty rough ride and my shoulders are looking somewhat worse for wear tonight.

By this stage we were suffering badly from the heat. We definitely did not wear appropriate amusement park attire, but having been such a foggy morning, we didn’t think it would turn out so sunny and hot. It also didn’t help that the park is very hilly due to it’s location and there is not a lot of shade or places to sit and rest. Seems to be a different world there as when we got back to the ferry it was still foggy on this side.

We decided to walk down the steep hill to where a couple more rides were situated and then catch the shuttle bus back to the park entrance. I went on the Mine Train coaster and then both of us went on the Log Flume water ride.

 

Neither were anything more than average, but the redeeming part of this park were the magnificent views while sitting high above the cliff on a coaster.

So we went and got on the shuttle bus and after a very slow trip due to traffic and roadwork, we arrived back at the park entrance. By this time we were both very tired from the energy sapping heat and humidity, plus Sarah had a very sore eye and I had once again hurt my ankle while getting out of the log flume ride. So we decided to give the animal exhibits a miss and go back in only to buy a magnet for our collection. What a pair we are.

After that, we left the park and queued for a taxi. Eventually we got one and he took us back to the ferry terminal at Central. Sarah could barely see by now, or open her eyes, so I had to lead her. Not the best situation given I had a bad ankle, plus I’ve been known to sometimes be slightly clumsy. But we did manage to make it back to our hotel room unscathed.

Sarah’s eye is no good so she didn’t feel like going out to dinner anywhere. She ordered room service while her dad and I went downstairs to the hotel restaurant. It was the first time we’ve been there and we had the buffet. It was great! There was a huge selection of food to choose from. I think I might have had one bowl of banana cream pudding too many for dessert however, as I’m now not feeling particularly well. Oh well, I had to get our moneys worth, didn’t I?

Tomorrow we fly to Xian, providing the fog isn’t too thick for the planes to take off. And they let someone with an eye like mine get on the plane.  When we did the online check in we found that there were only four free seats and we aren’t anywhere near each other.  That will make the trip even less fun.

Day 19 – On the buses again

It’s 11.19 pm and Sarah has just informed me that I have to write the blog tonight. It would have been nice if she told me a bit earlier. You told me at about 8.30pm that you were planning to do it.  I said I’d call the blog Ilin (which is your new Chinese name apparently) but you said as you were writing it, you’d name it.  I should have realised that you would have forgotten.  You are forgetful like that.

The plan for today was to use our hop on hop off bus tickets for the second day. We left the hotel mid morning and walked the short distance to the ferry. Not long later, we were across the harbour and preparing to go on the green loop tour.

We sat up top in the open air once again, despite it being a cool, overcast day. As we got on the bus, 4 of our friends from our trivia team on the ship appeared out of nowhere and boarded as well. Soon we were on our way, listening to the commentary as we went. Our friends got off at the first or second stop as they were planning to take a public bus to the top of the peak. We waved goodbye and continued along our way.

We covered new territory from our journey yesterday and came upon Ocean Park, an amusement park which some bright spark has built on top of a mountain. In spite of my love of roller coasters and amusement parks, I had already decided not to go there as there isn’t that many rides there.

We continued on through narrow, winding mountain roads toward the small town of Stanley. We passed by a lot of pretty bays and beaches and some very expensive houses and apartment blocks. Apparently this area is very sought after and is some of the most expensive land in Hong Kong.

Eventually we came upon Stanley, where most of the people got off the bus. We stayed on to make the return loop back home again, because the only thing of interest in Stanley is a market. Not really our cup of tea.

Back along the winding roads again, although this time we had much better views of the scenery. It was cold. And windy. And the wind was cold. I think I was frozen solid.

   

We returned via the area known as Aberdeen. The journey was very slow because of a one lane road and very heavy traffic. The town is built on the side of a steep mountain and very tall apartment blocks surrounded us on all sides. After struggling through the traffic, we made it back to the ferry wharf.

We got the ferry back to Kowloon and had some lunch before returning to our hotel room to figure out our next plan. The bus tour of Kowloon was due to leave soon so we walked downstairs and one block over, which is where this tour leaves from. Nice and handy!

This bus ride was relatively short and took us through shopping districts and market areas. We were back within little more than an hour.

  

An afternoon nap was on the cards after that, and someone may have accidentally drooled all over his wife’s pillow while sleeping. It’s okay, I’ve swapped the pillow with yours.

After missing the night tour yesterday, we made sure we knew exactly where it started from and at what time today. We went to the start point (the same spot as this afternoon) and once again there were our American trivia friends. I think they’re stalking us.

Luckily it wasn’t too cold a night, so I didn’t turn into an icicle while sitting in the open top bus. I was prepared though, wearing 2 jumpers and a jacket. I also has my beanie in my pocket just in case my head started to freeze.

A lot of the night tour was through the same area as the tour of this afternoon, but it was great to see all the night lights and everything.

After the tour finished, we bid farewell to our friends. We don’t expect to see them again, although you never can be too sure.

We had spent quite some time earlier this afternoon researching where would be a good place to get a decent authentic Chinese meal within walking distance from our hotel. Just before we left, we had a recommendation from Heather, the assistant cruise director from the ship. We thought we’d give it a try.

We found the place without too much trouble (even though Heather’s directions were to go downstairs, Alan headed in another door to go up so yes, I found it without too much trouble) and went in only to find we had a 35 minute wait for a table. That’s ok, we didn’t really mind waiting. They seemed to be putting all the locals ahead of us, although they may have already made bookings for all we know.

It was worth the wait. We had some awesome food, especially the crispy skin duck which was just scrumptious. We decided to steer clear of the jelly fish and strange taste chicken.

I suppose I should get some sleep now. Tomorrow were planning on going to Macau for the day. Not really sure what we’ll be doing once we get there, but we’ll figure it out, I suppose.

Day 18 – On the Buses

After 3 days of mind-numbingly boring blog entries, the fans have gotten their way and Alan is doing it today. I don’t know about the fans but certainly, I got my way.

For the first time since we left home all those days ago, we were able to have a sleep in this morning. Wow, got up at 9am instead of 8.30 but, I guess, technically it is a sleep in. Ok, so technically we could have slept in on most days on the ship, but we wouldn’t want to have missed breakfast. With no such concerns here, we enjoyed the extra shut eye. Our hotel room here in Hong Kong is very nice and spacious. And the best part is that I’m sleeping on the sofa bed in a different room to Sarah and her dad, so I didn’t hear them snoring at all last night. Bonus!  That goes the same way for us, yay.

The plan for today was to do an open-top bus tour of the city, so we headed off toward the ferry terminal around mid morning. There are always ticket sellers on just about every corner, so we stopped and bought our 2 day bus tickets from one of them.

After walking to the pier, we saw that the Queen Elizabeth was docked where our ship had been yesterday. The only difference is that the Queen Elizabeth is about 400 times the size of our Seabourn Quest. We went around to the other side of the cruise line terminal and there was the Seabourn Pride, which had arrived early this morning. It’s half the size of the Quest. It was so cute.  We later ran into some people from the ship who said that others who had gotten off the Quest yesterday were getting on the Pride today. Strange considering it is going back to Singapore almost exactly the way we came.

We got on the ferry, using free tickets as part of the bus tour, and on the way across the harbour talked to a couple of English people who were here on the Queen Elizabeth. Apparently it holds 2000 guests, whereas our ship had 400 on board. No wonder it’s so massive.

Soon we were across the harbour and made the short walk to the bus stop. We had planned to do the green loop first, but since the red loop bus was already waiting there, we got on. We took our seats on the open air top deck and plugged in our headphones for the running commentary. Sarah couldn’t get hers to work properly. She had probably plugged it into the wrong hole or something like that. I’m not the technically challenged one in the family.

It was cool and breezy, but not overly unpleasant (he says that now but as soon as the bus started he was zipped up to the nose) as we made our way around the lower part of Hong Kong Island. The commentary was very helpful in pointing out all the places of interest and things we should take photos of. Below includes a photo of a building that looks like koalas hugging trees.

We decided to get out at stop 9, Lan Kwai Fong, which is a district with many restaurants, bars and nightclubs. It was lunch time and we were hungry having not eaten breakfast so we looked around for somewhere suitable. I knew that the Hard Rock Cafe was somewhere around here but not sure exactly where. After about half a dozen paces up the street, I just happened to look right and saw a Hard Rock sign. We walked down a few staircases and hey presto, there it was. How good was that! You started walking the other way and Dad and I turned you around.  It was us who led you in the right direction.

Lunch was awesome, as it always is whenever we eat at any Hard Rock. Sarah and I have been to plenty of them around the world, but this was her fathers first time there. I think he was suitably impressed. Who wouldn’t be.  Salads for us and soup for Dad to start, then salmon and pasta for Alan and ribs for Dad and me, plus unlimited soft drinks for us and a beer for Dad, all for A$50.

After lunch, we walked back up the stairs to the bus stop. Unfortunately, a bus was leaving as we got there, but we shouldn’t have to wait too long as they’re scheduled to come every 20 minutes.

About 45 minutes later, the next one finally arrived. The traffic must have been very heavy due to the narrow streets, construction and large amount of vehicles on the roads. We went to get on the bus, only for Sarah’s dad to decide that was the perfect moment to sit down in the gutter. Better to fall back than fall forward although it took three of us (a delivery guy, another woman and me) to get him right again. After finding his feet again we got on the bus, although he decided to stay downstairs this time.

It didn’t take us long to make it back to the ferry terminal, where we got off the bus. I hurt my ankle coming down the stairs from the top deck. Owie!!! It’s nothing new, it’s an old problem stemming from my broken ankle while playing soccer years and years ago. It just means I always need to take care on stairs, and why you’ll often see me with a slight limp when walking up stairs or a hill.

We had planned to get on the green line bus now, but since we had an unexpected 45 minute delay, we thought we should return to our hotel as Sarah’s dad had a pants fitting at a tailor at 5 pm which he didn’t want to miss. Plus we have a 2 day bus ticket, so we can do it tomorrow anyway.

The ferry ride back took no time as usual. Sarah and I thought a thickshake from McDonalds might be nice since we’ve had precious little milk on the trip. My bones must be getting brittle at the lack of calcium. Sarah’s dad went back to the hotel while I bought us 2 iced chocolates. They were delicious! When I came out of McDonalds, Sarah was talking to 2 Americans from our ship. Then, on the way back to our hotel, we ran into David and Graham. They’re Australians who we had spoken to many times on the ship.

Our bus tickets include a night tour of another area of the city. Sarah and I thought we’d go and do that, but her dad decided to stay in. We walked to the ferry pier once again. The sidewalks were packed with people now, as it was evening peak and a lot of people were going home from work.

We took the ferry across the harbour again and went to the bus stop. There was a bus there and we went to get on but the driver said no. We said we wanted to night tour but he laughed and said back over the harbour where we had just come from. We were confused as the map said this was the start point for the tour. We asked the driver several times, but he was rude and unhelpful.

After standing around a bit lost for a while, we got back on the ferry and returned to our hotel. Once back here, we figured out that the girl had actually written 6.15 on our tour map, so when we turned up at the bus stop at 7 pm, obviously we had already missed it. Oh well, tomorrow night. The details of the loops states that the night tour starts at 7pm which is obviously the same as 6.15pm here.  Weird.

There is a light and laser show in Hong Kong every night at 8 pm, so Sarah and I went up to the top floor of our hotel to watch it out the window. It was ok, and we took a few photos. Not bad photos actually, taken through a window and under my coat so as to block out the reflecting of the hallway lights in the window.

Even though we had all eaten a very big lunch, we thought we’d go out and sample some local cuisine for dinner. Sarah’s dad said he had seen some Chinese restaurants while walking to the tailor earlier, so he took us to where they were.

We went into one joint and sat at a booth. We had to move to a bigger booth because the chairs weren’t big enough for a bunch of fatties like us. In any case, the place was too difficult for simpletons like us to figure out, so we left and went to another place next door, a Macau food restaurant.

It was upstairs and we took an extremely old and dodgy lift up. I wasn’t sure it would make it. We went in and sat down. This place looked more promising and we found some pretty decent looking stuff on the menu. We ordered lots of food and it was pretty good. We stuffed ourselves silly but still didn’t finish it all. The view out the restaurant window was crap. For the entire meal I was looking at the Manchester United Bar and Restaurant across the street. Stupid sucky Manchester United!

 

 

Back to the hotel for the night. My ankle is hurting, but hopefully it will be better by tomorrow and we’ll tackle these tour buses once again. Maybe we’ll even be clever enough to get to the night tour in time, although that could be pushing things a bit far.

A bit of trivia … they use bamboo as scaffolding. Bloody scary!!

Day 17 – It’s a sad, sad day

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.

Day 16 – Riding the Waves to Hong Kong

This is our last cruise day as we get off tomorrow. Sarah is writing the blog as Alan is too emotional and can’t see the screen through the tears.  Hopefully they will clear up a bit to allow him to add a sad comment or two (and they are all usually sad).

We woke up to some pretty large waves this morning and they have increased throughout the day.  Thankfully, unlike our trip up the East China Sea, the wind is behind us (instead of buffering us from the side) and we are surfing up and down the waves.  Walking is still a challenge but at least I have felt well today. Walking in a straight line is a challenge for Sarah at the best of times.

Breakfast was had, as usual, in the Colonnade and we were joined by Paul and Cindy, two of our trivia teammates, from Florida.  They are well travelled and Paul has a hundred and one really interesting stories.  We will miss them.  However, they are taking a Seabourn cruise from Sydney in January so hopefully we might be able to catch up with them then.

We had our final team trivia challenge game and, overall, we came in 5th out of 8 teams which I think is pretty respectable. We weren’t the dumbest team there. Yay!

Lunch today was a galley market lunch in the restaurant.  There was a cold buffet in the main dining room and, for hot food, you had to go through the galley.  It was our first look at the kitchen and it was amazing.  Desserts were plentiful, just ask Alan, he had a few. Well they to all the trouble of making these great desserts, so the least we could do was eat them. At the end of the meal the kitchen staff were paraded through the restaurant followed by all the wait staff and the bar staff.  It was lovely to see them all get the recognition they deserved.  Seriously, the cruise wouldn’t have been half as much fun without the wonderful people who work here, many of which are now new Facebook friends.

After lunch we had the sad chore of returning to our cabin and packing.

We still had a shipboard credit of $240.01 so the three of us hit the shop.  Dad got himself a lovely Seabourn jumper and Alan a Seabourn shirt.  By the end of it we had a credit of $15.04.

Alan and I went to the pre dinner show with the magician we saw the night before doing more tricks. He was amazing.  Then we made our way to our final dinner with our wonderful Bell Captain, Moise.  He is the person we will miss the most.  What a wonderful person he is. Sarah has a massive crush on Moise. Personally, I’m going to miss Ola and Heather the most.

After dinner we hit the shop one more time and spent almost all the rest of our credit on chocolate. 84 cents left over from $875 wasn’t a bad effort. Can’t have Alan wasting away without having the option to eat 6-10 desserts a day.

Even though the show wasn’t of interest to us tonight, we went anyway, considering it was the last show for us. Thankfully it gave us the chance to say goodbye to a couple more of the staff, in particular Marina. She got a little upset saying goodbye.  It’s a pity she is not on Facebook.

We returned to our cabin, did the very last of the packing and put our bags out just in time as they came to take them away.

The wind has picked up and the ship is really moving now.  We might end up surfing right past Hong Kong at this rate.  If not, we expect to hit Hong Kong Harbour about 6.30am and disembark around 9.30.  Thank you Seabourn, we have thoroughly enjoyed the experience, minus the one really bad day that I barely got out of bed for.  Sarah was extremely hungover on that day, after drinking almost everything on the ship.

So, next is our big adventure of 4 days in Hong Kong.  It will be interesting having to think for ourselves and actually go out and find our own food.  We might starve. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.