DAY 83 - DAY 2 HONG KONG

Thoroughly Enjoyed Last Evening's Dinner Crystal Dining Room✔  A Very Enjoyable Day Touring Hong Kong ✔


This is a view of the 300 passenger capacity tender ferry that we took to and from the Star Ferry terminal yesterday.

Last evening we dined at the Crystal Dining Room.  These are the dinner menus.

Before dinner we spoke with Pianist John Mentis and also listened to him play several songs.

We began our meal with Salads.

Anne Marie had the Assorted Spring Salad with Chips and Keith had his Standing Order Salad.

We had pre-ordered our entree with Augusto the other evening.  Our entree was surf and turf as we had Beef Wellington with Jumbo Prawns and a Risotto Milanese.    Each of these items were yummy.  We also enjoyed a side order of Steamed Vegetables.

Augusto serving the Risotto Milanese.

Augusto slicing the Beef Wellington.

The Beef Wellington didn't look as rare as this shows.  It was cooked to perfection.

Keith had Strawberries for Dessert and Anne Marie had the Sugar-Free Apple Compote with Diet Ice Cream.

Our Sommelier, Raphael, is leaving to go home on contract so we wished him our very best.  We have thoroughly enjoyed having Raphael as our Sommelier over the last three segments as we have in previous years.  He along with his fiancee who works on the ship are going to begin their life on land after working with Crystal for fourteen and eight years respectively.

As we left the Crystal Dining Room we wished Headwaiters Tall Peter and Igor a very nice Holiday as they are going on a well deserved vacation.  We wished some guests who we know who are leaving to return home very safe travels including Andrea and David and Ilene.

Since the first night in the Crystal Dining Room for this new leg of the World Cruise has unassigned tables we made a reservation for Prego for this evening.

We slept very well last evening. Keith was up first and worked out at the Fitness Center.
Keith watched the Serenity dock as he was working out on the Elliptical Machine.  By around 4:30 AM, the Serenity was docked at Modern Terminal Limited (MTL) port which is located about thirty minutes from Ocean Terminal.  Docking will facilitate offloading those guests disembarking in Hong Kong as well as those guests joining the ship to begin their cruise in Hong Kong.  Unlike Ocean Terminal, MTL is an industrial port.

Keith's workout felt like it went by relatively quickly as about mid-way through his workout fellow guest Brian arrived so Keith and Brian chatted for the remainder of Keith's workout.

After his workout Keith stopped by the Lido Cafe for some coffee. He spoke with several of the Lido Cafe Stewards including Ray, Glenn, and Clark.  Breakfast was being served earlier since today is disembarkation day and some guests are leaving the ship very early.

These are just a few of the cold buffet items that were already set up at the Lido Cafe.

As is the case on turn-around day, there were final statements on each persons stateroom door including those staying on as we are and those leaving today.

Anne Marie got  up earlier than normal and was able to get in a one hour workout even though we had breakfast earlier than we normally due as we had to get ready for a full day tour.

This morning those guests who are departing the ship to go home left and those guests joining the ship for the next voyage boarded starting around Noon.  During this voyage we sailed from Singapore to Hong Kong and we sailed 2,651 nautical miles or the equivalent of 3,049 miles.

Today, we enjoyed a full day tour in Hong Kong with a private tour.  This was the fourth of five private tours that we are taking during the course of this World Cruise through our travel consortium.

As part of this tour we were met at the Cruise Ship Terminal by our tour guide, Victor, and driver, Gary.

We first drove over to the Island of Hong Kong and visited the Floating Village at Aberdeem.

We took a Sampan Taxi similar to this one except it was just the two of us, our tour guide and the person navigating the taxi.

This was our Sampan driver.

We passed by many Junks (these are fishing boats) during our ride.  The Junks belong to families and are passed down from generation to generation.  Typically, the boats are out in the evening and return back mid to late morning so that the fish is very fresh.  Chinese prefer live fish as they do other items such as purchasing meat right after the cattle are slaughtered or say chickens right before they are slaughtered.

The families live on these boats.

Our next stop was to Stanley Park.  We walked around for over an hour.  During our walk we were approached by some school children and their teachers asking if we would take a survey.  The point of the survey was for the students to work on their english language and to learn about what tourists like about Hong Kong.  The children were adorable and we were happy to take the time to answer all of their questions.

There are several beaches and this is one of them that we visited.

The original plan was for us to visit Victoria Peak but it was much to cloudy for that.  We instead stopped at an area to enjoy the views.

We then drove back into Kowloon and parked by the Ocean Terminal.  The newest of the three new Seabourn Ships was in port as part of their World Cruise.

We had lunch at Peking Garden which service Northern Chinese Cuisine.  The food was absolutely delicious and some of the best Chinese Food we have ever eaten.  Our tour guide ate with us and he ordered all of the dishes which we preferred.  The idea was to order a lot of items where we could get a nice tasting rather than say one or two large dishes such as Peking Duck.  This approach was perfect.

We began with Jasmine Tea.

We then tried the Tsing Tao Beer which is considered to be the most famous (at least according to our tour guide) of the Chinese Bears and it has been around since 1903.  It was started by Germans in a town that they had originally settled in China.

These are Vegetable Spring Rolls

These are Green Beans with Pork and Pickles

These are Stir Fried River Shrimp with Walnuts

Sorry this did not show up well.  This is a Round Pastry Cake and the inside was filled with Spring Onions.

We also had a Hot and Sour Soup as well as Pork and Pickle Cake with Baked Mince Pork and Sesame Seeds on top and this had a sweet taste.

Afterwards, we drove to another area where we walked and our tour guide took us to several stores for items that we had wanted to see.  We didn't purchase anything but wanted to see these places for future reference and we are glad that we did.

The tour guide was extremely informative and we learned much about Hong Kong from him.

Some key points include:

Hong Kong was the first area that was settled and came under British Rule in 1842.  It is eleven miles in length.

Hong Kong real estate is the highest in the world in terms of cost.  Now maybe one could argue this but if it is not the first it is quite high..

Hong Kong means Fragrant Harbor.  It gets several typhoons each Summer but has not had a severe one in about fifteen years.

About 60% of the tourists to Hong Kong come from Mainland China and about 10% come from North America.  They get about forty million tourists per year.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club is 140 years old and 15% of the proceeds go to the Government.  In turn all Government Out Patient Clinics are paid for by these proceeds and typically a patient pays around $8.00 (USA Dollars) for a single visit.

Nine Universities in Hong Kong are highly subsidized by the Jockey Club and the overall cost to those students is $6,000 (USA) annually.

There are now five tunnels between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island and the first one was build in 1972.  Before that the ferry was the way to get between these two locations.

We learned a great deal more but thought we would just share a little bit from today.

All in all we had a very enjoyable day.

This evening we will dine in Prego.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY....

“Whoever is happy will make others happy too.  He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery.” – Anne Frank

Keith and Anne Marie