Hong Kong, revisited
Hong Kong
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
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| One of many! |
As I write this we are currently at sea after a busy couple of days in Hong Kong. I was first here in the late 60s back in my Navy days. We came here several times during my two deployments aboard the USS Chicago for duty off the coast of North Viet Nam. This was my favorite port to visit for R&R (Rest and Relaxation). We would spend several days here while the ship refueled and replenished. The British obtained a 99-year lease over this area in 1898 and kept it until 1997 when it was given back to China. Consequently, there was a lot of English-speaking people here and there still is. I had other things on my mind as a young sailor in his early 20s, but I don’t recall it being anywhere near the population it is now!
Hong Kong has over 9,000 high-rise buildings, of which over
4,000 are considered skyscrapers (over 100 meters or 328 ft). There
are six that qualify as “Supertalls”, i.e. over 300 meters, two more than New
York City. Hong Kong has 7.4 million
residents with a density of 18,244 people per square mile! Think about that for a minute. Can you imagine living here?
Hong
Kong has more inhabitants living at the 15th floor or higher, than
any other city in the world! The reason
being that flat land is at a premium, so buildings go up instead of out.
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| More housing, Notice laundry hanging to dry |
We arrive on time and Sue and I are up and about as we
cruise slowly through Victoria Harbour into Victoria Bay and alongside the Kai
Tak Cruise Terminal on the Kowloon Peninsula.
The weather is considerably cooler than what we have been
experiencing. Today’s highs are only
going to be in the upper 60s and there is a possibility of rain but sunny later
on. This Terminal used to be the Kai
Tak International Airport serving the Hong Kong area, but it was moved to Chek
Lap Kok Island just off the western coast of Lantau Island in 1998. That airport is now the world’s busiest for cargo
traffic and the 8th busiest for passengers.
It employs 60,000 people. What
this amounts to for us, is a very long walk to even get out of this terminal to
get to shuttles or other ground transportation.
A 15–20-minute walk.
Our purchased excursion today included stops at four popular tourist areas on Hong Kong Island. After a short drive through Kowloon, we entered the Cross-Harbour Tunnel that would take us under the channel to Hong Kong Island.
Pandas are big here.
No surprise!
We did do an Adventure Lab that took us around the park, but we only had 40 minutes there, so we didn’t get to see as much as we wanted. They had nice aquatic areas with waterfalls and a Koi Pond which was well stocked. It also had an aviary which we discovered late in the visit so we didn’t get to see many birds. One we saw was the rare Great Pied Hornbill. The males average over 6 lbs. and are very colorful and were also very noisy until I tried to get it captured on a video. The park was beautifully landscaped, but the disadvantage was that it was built on a hill and had some fairly steep climbs.
The weather had
warmed up a little bit but the smog was still evident as we looked around. This gives you an idea of the density
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| Repulse Bay beach |
I remember coming here in the late 60s with my Chinese girlfriend, Lo Mi Ling. You can tell by the fact that I remember her name that she made quite an impression on a young sailor from Iowa. Truth be known; she was probably a Communist Spy! There was not many swimming today due to the cool weather. There was, however, quite a Temple complete with Buddhas, and I saw several Chinese people with incense sticks doing their praying rituals.
Our last stop was Stanley Market. An area where many bargains could be found. We had over an hour here. Sue and I spent half of it looking for a geocache that was at a post office entrance. We just about gave up when Sue finally found it. We signed and dated the log and earned our Hong Kong China
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| Shopping alley |
souvenir. Sue did some shopping and found some fabric to add to her collection.
We got back to the ship about 3:30 which gave us time to
have a light lunch before getting ready to attend the captain’s dinner on Hong
Kong Island exclusively for World Cruise members. We were to be at the shuttle area at
5:30. It was a Gala affair which meant
suit or tux for the men and gown equivalents for the ladies. We joined a long line of well-dressed passengers
making their way to the shuttles. It was
about a 45-minute ride to Hopewell Hotel that was hosting the event which I believe
was about halfway up the drive to Victoria Peak where we had been earlier in
the day. Enjoying wine and canapes before dinner
The bus dropped us off at the
lobby of the hotel, which oddly enough was on the 18th floor. We took the elevator to the 19th floor for
the reception and dinner. in the Grand Ballroom. Soft drinks or red and white wine were provided by the staff which seemed to number in
the hundreds. We were entertained by a four-piece
quartet with Chinese sounding music. The
crowd kept getting bigger and bigger and I wondered how many world club people
were in attendance. Our reservation said
we would be seated at table 99.
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| Entertainment |
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| Our table |
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| Personalized fan |
They had several stations doing this, but Sue was in her line for 45 minutes before finally getting our names inscribed just as the dinner chimes were sounding for everyone to take their seats. This was around 8PM, late for us.
We left shortly after dessert along with others, but there still were a lot of people remaining. With the bus ride back and the long walk, it was after 11PM by the time we got to our stateroom, tired, full of food and wine and ready for bed!
Wednesday, 19 March
Since we had no excursions planned for our 2nd
day in Hong Kong, our geocaching, well-travelled friends invited us to join
them on a journey to see the Tian Tan Buddha located on the Island of
Lantau. They had been there on a trip
six years previous but wanted, I think, to give us the experience as well. Which we much appreciated as Jan had
meticulously planned everything out which we would have had no clue how to do. He even purchased a travel pass for us that cost US$20 each for an
“Elder” pass which was good on buses, Ferrys and subway/trains. They called it an Octopus Card.
We met early for breakfast, and I was a bit hungover from
the previous night’s wine fest. We agreed to meet at the gangplank at 8AM to catch
the shuttle bus to downtown Kowloon, then walk to the ferry terminal to go to Hong
Kong Island, only to catch another ferry to take us to Lantau Island where the Tian
Tan Buddha was. After the ferry, we
needed to catch the Number 2 bus to take us to the Buddha. But we had about an hour before it was scheduled
to leave, so we found a restaurant to get refreshment. I had a coffee; Jan had his Coke, and the girls
got a fruit slurry of some kind that looked and tasted very good. While we were there, we asked to use the restroom,
and it turned out to be quite an experience. The restrooms were outside and down and
alleyway. The waitress gave us a key
with a medallion on it that was needed to open the door using a sensor pad. For the men, it provided access to several
urinals but the ladies, as reported by Sue, got you into a room, but she then had
to use the key to open the #7 stall which was assigned to this restaurant.
We left just in time to catch what turned out to be a local bus making multiple stops along the way to let people off and others to get on. We continued up the mountain, along the curvy road which took nearly an hour. It provided a look at the area with a more rural setting. The couple of small towns we went through had multi-family housing but not the huge skyscraper-type buildings associated with the flatlands. We even saw some water buffalo grazing alongside the road. On our way we noticed Big Buddha perched on a distant mountain.
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| Big Buddha from a distance |
We arrived and went through the welcoming gate onto a
courtyard adjacent to the stairway leading up to the Tian Tan Buddha. In the courtyard was the Twelve Devine
Generals, aka Twelve Heavenly Generals.
Each one represents a sign of the Zodiac. "My" Zodiac General
We googled what sign our birth year occurred,
mine was the Year of the Dog, Sue was the Year of the Rat and Jan and Dorothy
were both Year of the Rooster.
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| Sue's General |
We had fun finding “our General” and posed trying to imitate what the general was doing, including facial expressions.
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| Imposing climb! |
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| Resting part way up |
The statue symbolizes the harmonious relationship between man and nature, people and religion.
He is attended by six smaller bronze images known as “The Offering of the Six Devas” that are pose offering flowers, incense, lamp, ointment, fruit and music to the Buddha. These offerings represent the “Six Perfections” of generosity, morality, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom, necessary for the “Enlightenment of Life”. The Buddha’s right hand is raised, representing the removal of affliction, while the left rests open on his lap in a gesture of generosity.
The views were spectacular at this height, and we were
blessed with another beautiful day I took advantage of the opportunity to take
more photos.
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| View from cache |
The bonus was that there were two caches located here. A traditional cache and a Virtual. The Virtual required a picture be posted with the find to show you were actually here. The traditional cache was hidden alongside a path to one side of the Buddha.
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| Looking for cache |
All four of us looked for about ten minutes without success before Dorothy found it hidden behind a rock just off the path.
Back down stairway there was a plaza that contained a gift
shop of course and a restaurant and further along a temple where incense could
be burned along with your prayers.
The Tian Tan Buddha is an extension of the Po Lin Monastery,
which we walked to and was able to visit certain areas and take some pictures. Other areas were closed to us. I did not see a Monks while we were
there. I believe these are the Monks
that forged the 202 pieces of bronze to form the Big Buddha. The colors and architecture of the Main
Shrine Hall of Buddha, and Hall of Bodhisattva Skanda were very impressive. Hall of Bodhisattva Skanda
We were getting a little hungry, so we stopped at a vegetarian stand and Sue and I shared Fungus Fried Noodle dish which we assumed contained mushrooms, and Jan got something I had no idea what it was. (I don’t think he did either!) Dorothy declined anything.
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| Where's the fungus? |
We were provided chop sticks and a porcelain spoon. I need more practice with the sticks, but I managed to get my share even though there was not much fungus!
There is a Tram that we could have taken to get to this
summit, but it was down for maintenance.
This is why Jan opted for the local bus system. We are actually in the village of Ngong Ping
and we need to take the No. 23 bus to Tung Chung where we can get on the Mass
Transit Railway (MTR). Having fun while waiting for MTR
This would take
us down the Lantau Peninsula, underwater to a smaller island, transfer to
another train, underwater to Kowloon, transfer to another train to our destination
near where our shuttle bus would take us back to the Kai Tak Terminal. I think I got that right and thank you Jan
and Dorothy for planning this adventure.
I would not have attempted it on my own.
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| Aboard the MTR |
The MTR ride was an experience in itself. Nice clean trains with no graffiti present. Very crowded with people coming and going as
you would expect. Like in the U.S., most
everyone had there heads buried in their cell phones. Seats were at a premium and we were often
offered by someone younger to take their seat, which was appreciated.
After our last ride, we had no need for the Octopus travel
card and Jan said we could get a refund for whatever we did not use. So after some searching we found the customer
service kiosk and we actually got HK$170 back which was about US$20 for our two
cards which meant we did all this travelling for US$10 each!
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| All bamboo |
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| Under scaffolding |
I did notice a couple places where steel rods were used but those sitings were rare. It is amazing to me how this is accomplished. The tape wrap they use must be reinforced somehow and strategically tied in a way to safely secure everything together.
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| Securing wrap |
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| Bamboo stack |
We had some time before they pulled up the gangplank to find a couple caches that were hidden on the elevated decks of the terminal building. These areas contain a restaurant and other shops and were handsomely landscaped. It also gave us an excellent view our sister ship, the Queen Elizabeth which was docked just forward of us.
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| Queen Elizabeth with Hong Kong Island in the background |
She had just come from Vietnam and will stay here overnight, then head for Manila. It did take some searching, but Dorothy again came up with the find and we signed and dated the log. The other one was too far away, and we needed to get back aboard.
It was a great day traveling with our friends and we are
indeed indebted to them for taking us along.
But it was also very busy and we
are looking forward to a couple days at sea to rest up and recuperate for our
next adventure in Vietnam.
It was a pleasure to share this experience with both of you. Thank you for this excellent report!
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