Day 47 – Hong Kong, Day 1

In this most iconic of cities we decided to remain independent and avoid the often frustrating, but sometimes necessary organised tours and go it alone. Needless to say the first thing that happened after disembarking the ship was that we were herded onto the wrong bus and wasted a frustrating hour driving around in a big circle before ending up back at the port! (We weren’t the only ones!) Once back at the port we ordered an Uber and set off for the Star Ferry, which only costs 50p, to take us across to Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong’s commercial and financial hub, as well as home to the world famous ‘Peak’. Luckily we had fast track tickets and in no time we reached the top. Unfortunately however it was so cloudy and overcast that we could see absolutely nothing of the famous city skyline below (think Guernsey airport in pea soup). We did stop for lunch at the top though which was very pleasant. After lunch we descended back to the city and walked around some of the financial district whilst staring upwards in amazement at the endless skyscrapers. Did you know that Hong Kong has more skyscrapers than any other city in the world? A skyscraper is generally accepted as being a single continuous building of at least 40 storeys, or a minimum 150m high, and Hong Kong currently has 570, over 200 more than New York!

We then went to stare in wonder at the ‘monster building’ or more accurately the Yick Cheong building located in Quarry Bay on the island. This complex of five 18 storey residential blocks was built in the 1960s and is home to 10,000 residents. It appeared in the film ‘Transformers: age of extinction’. After taking a few pictures we then set off for Central market and mooched around the Soho area and De Voeux Road. By now we were so worn out that we were forced to throw in the towel and head back to the ship for a sit down and to change for dinner.

In the evening we went down to the waterfront at Tsim Sha Tsui to watch the Hong Kong skyline light up as the sun went down. We then dined at Cruise restaurant which is on the 23rd floor of the Hyatt Centric Hotel on Hong Kong Island, where we ate our dinner overlooking the Kowloon skyline by night.

Today we walked to total of 8.9 miles and Bridge has blisters on both of her feet!🦶 😖