Hong Kong March 11-13

Hong Kong March 11-13

It was very foggy and smoggy as we came into the harbor so it wasn't possible to see much. It seemed that pretty much as soon as we could make out some of the tall buildings we were pulling into our docking spot at the Ocean Terminal. We are in the best spot, but sadly our balcony faces the terminal/shopping area instead of the harbor so we have no view from there.

We started our stay with a 4 hour tour to the Big Buddha on Lantau – great tour! We had about a 45 minute bus ride and then rode the gondola up to the monastery and statue. It's a long ride up so we could see a lot of the area from on high. Our guide gave us a very quick briefing and then gave us a little over an hour before we needed to return. Then we rode the skyway back down and returned to the ship. Since it was a very foggy/smoggy morning I decided not to tote my big camera and we just took Jim's – I felt naked the whole time. He hasn't pulled the pics from his camera yet so I'll post the Buddah pics later.

After we returned to the ship, we had a quick lunch and then went into the Ocean Terminal to look at the shops... it's all Gucci, Armani, etc. While that's fun to look at for a little while, it's not my thing so we went up to the electronics floor... naturally I found a great camera shop AND decided to get a smaller camera – the Sony NEX7 with a nice zoom lens followed me home. A new toy to learn about. It's sure nice and light – the big one has just gotten a bit heavy to use as a 'walking-around' camera.

A little before 8:00 pm we went up to the top deck for the light show (I used my big camera since I already know how it works). It's a lot of fun to try to catch shots of all the laser lights – I got some shots that I like.

Day 2 – March 12

We headed off walking, just wanting to browse the area a bit. We walked along the harbor walk and then walked up Nathan Road window shopping all the way to Kowloon Park and then spent another hour in the park. It must be Flamingo mating season as they were putting on a great display. Jim's camera battery died about then and he said his feet had about had it so we made our way back to the ship weaving up and down a number of streets for a very late lunch – which means we won't be very hungry for dinner tonight.

I think I discovered the smallest McDonald's in the world... just had to post the pic.  It was in Kowloon Park.

I'll post more tomorrow afternoon.