Hong Kong, A Revisit.

Saturday March 29th was spent sailing toward Hong Kong.  We arrived at the new Overseas Terminal at around 1pm.  The Overseas Terminal is the old Hong Kong airport.  This terminal is not as convenient as the Ocean Terminal.  The Ocean Terminal is right next to the Star Ferry and is connected to a wonderful mall.  At this terminal, you need to take a shuttle to one of three malls.  So Bob and I decided not to do that and we stayed on the ship the first day.

Dinner was in Compass Rose where we both had a pasta dish which we enjoyed.  In the morning we were able to watch the Friday night games of the NCAA tournament.  We are about 12 hours ahead of home.

Sunday March 30th still in Hong Kong.  Today we are taking a tour.  It is "Lantau Island Monastery".  We had an early breakfast.  Being Sunday, it is caviar and champagne.  But Bob only had caviar as we are doing a long tour and the champagne might put us to sleep.  I just enjoyed my Cheerios.

We gathered for the tour and were on bus 4.  In China, 4 is an unlucky number.  Oh well.

The first stop was at the Tsing Ma Bridge.  This bridge was built to provide direct access to the Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok.  it is the longest bridge span carrying both road and rail traffic.  It is a double deck design.

The view of the bridge lets you know what kind of day it was weather wise.  Overcast.

This is the view over to Lantau Island.  Only certain traffic can drive on the island.  Everything can go to the airport but from there on the traffic is limited.

This is the Kap Shui Mun Bridge and the Ma Wan Viaduct.  They connect Hong Kong to the airport also.  This is the world's second longest cable stayed bridge.  It also is double decked carrying road and rail traffic.

The cable system.  When we got over to the island, we had to change buses.  The bus in Hong Kong is not permitted to travel on the island.

Our next stop was at a local fishing village.  We walked around the village.  It also has a market that sells lots of dried fish, etc.  Bob did stop and buy a donut.  He said it was good.

The street of the village.

Most of the homes are on stilts over the water.

More homes of the locals.

In the center of the village is this Tao Temple.

The altar inside the temple.

Our next stop was at the Pi Lin Monastery.  We were to see the large bronze Buddha but the weather was so foggy we could only see part of him.

So this was our view of the Buddha.  Not so great.

We had lunch at the Monastery which was vegetarian.  No meat or alcohol is allowed.  The lunch was very good.  We sat with three other couples.  One was from San Diego, and the other two were from Florida.

After lunch we toured around the Monastery.  This is inside a building.

And finally we rode the cable car back down from the mountain.  It was so foggy that you could not tell how high up you really were.  Which I liked.

A view of the airport from the cable car.

The airport is built on reclaimed land.  

A flight taking off.

We returned to Hong Kong on bus number 3 of the day.

Dinner in Compass Rose after cocktails in the Observation Lounge.  It was so crowded up there we had to sit at the bar.

Back to the cabin to read and lights out.

Monday was another sea day like the rest.  Except I got my hair done and my toes done.  The ship board credit has come in.  And we had dinner at Signatures.