HONG KONG

Hong Kong from our ship Big major city

Ferry across the water to other side of the city

I don't know if you can see it, but there is a picture on the sign of "mouse ears" Sorry the best I could do from a moving bus

Duane trying out the cold water at the beach

The picture of the Buddha. For some reason it was very difficult to photograph the Buddha

Self-explanitory

Tai O homes

Fishing boats at Tai O

the light show before we left (with my new camera)

us

Mar 5th

We docked in what is the equivalent of the parking lot of a huge mall. When you leave the ship you enter the mall. Great marketing, huh.

We took a tour in Hong Kong. We went to the island of Lantau. As Hong Kong has grown, it has extended onto the neighboring island. it's airport is on Lantau. We viewed the 2 bridges that leave the city. Then we stopped at a lovely beach, that was deserted, since it was not warm enough to go in. Duane of course rolled up his pants and went in. The water was cold, too. Then we drove to the fishing village of Tai O. The people there still live in huts that jut out over the canals. Now, tho, they have electricity, water and internet, but no plumbing. We shopped there and got some pearls and junk and Arleen lost her eyeglasses. We did not know until too late.

Then we went to the Po Lin Monastery. We saw monks just walking around looking like monks. The monastery, tho, was very commercial. There was a temple that was nice, with 3 Buddhas, (past, present, and future), but around the temple were vegetarian restaurants and souvenir stores. On top of the hill above the monastery is the largest seatted outdoor Buddha in the world. We went inside to the museum and then walked down 268 steps to the temple.

Then we rode a gondola down across the water past the airport to the bus depot and back to our ship. On the way we saw a fire on a hill near a small pagoda. There were firefighters already on the scene.

After arriving back at the ship, we bought some pharmacuticals, since we could, and returned to the ship to see a folkloric show. We got to see about half the show. Then we returned to the shopping center, where we were able to get Arleen new glasses, since we luckily had our prescriptions with us. They made the glasses isn 1/2 hour. During that time we bought a new camera. Only when we get home will we know if we got a good deal or not.

Well you can let us know, we paid $141 for an Olympus F270 with a 1 gig memory card.

PS Did you notice the Disneyland traffic sign? (they have one on the island and they are expanding it to be the size of the one in California.