4/24 Hong Kong
The short version via pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpquinn/Asia2010
The narrative version:
4/7 – 4/8 Dallas to Singapore
4/9 – 4/10 Singapore
4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
4/11 – 4/12 At Sea
4/13 – 4/14 Laem Chabang
4/15-4/16 Ko Kood and at sea
4/17 – 4/19 Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)
4/20 Da Nang
4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
4/24 Hong Kong
4/25 Homebound
Service Specific Comments on the Asia trip
We booked a private tour and the tour guide, Michael, met us at the ship with Sunny our driver. This was our first private tour and it is really the way to go. The plan was to tour from 9:30 to 5pm. We moved pretty fast through what was planned and we were exhausted from not getting any sleep the night before due to the rough seas, so we wrapped up at 3pm and headed to the hotel.
From the ship we headed to the dry markets. The dry markets contained all kinds of dried goods, the main focus seemed to be on dried seafood. I like a lot of strange things but I don’t get dried seafood. Apparently the Chinese do because there are tons of stores dedicated to selling dried everything.
Next stop was a temple. I am burnt out on temples, but we got a good explanation of the bazillion gods that are worshiped, incense burning, prayer sticks, etc.
Moving on to the wet market. The wet market was not what I thought it was. I thought it was the seafood market, and it is, but the wet market is anything that isn’t dried. So there is fresh meat of all kinds, fruits and vegetables and tanks of fish. I didn’t have any Hong Kong dollars on me, or I probably would have tried durian finally. Oh well. Very interesting to see everyone shopping for dinner.
The weather was supposed to be stormy, but it turns out they were completely wrong and we had blue skies in the mid 70s, so up to Victoria Peak we went to look down on the city. Victoria Peak had a mall (or two) in addition to the normal look out type paths that you would expect. On the way back down, we pulled off the side of the road to see one of two horse racing tracks. Horse racing is very popular in Hong Kong because the Chinese love to gamble 
We head to Aberdeen for a sampan tour and we were supposed to eat lunch at Jumbo. We took our tour and took pictures in front of Jumbo, but decided to go somewhere else since the main part of Jumbo was closed for renovations. Instead we head over to Repluse Bay to have lunch at Spices. You might have guessed from the name, but we went all the way to Hong Kong and had Indian food. It was good, but the choice was made because it is so difficult for Brook to eat Chinese and they really have no idea about Celiacs in Hong Kong yet.
The beaches in the Repluse Bay area are very nice, but Michael pointed out that a lot of people in Hong Kong don’t know how to swim as parents have been telling kids that they are not old enough to swim until after they are 18!
Michael had recommended that we also stop by Stanley Market, even through it was not included on our itinerary, but Brook was about to fall asleep, so we called it quits and headed back to the hotel. From Repluse Bay to the InterContinential was a little less than an hour, so we really didn’t have that much more time that we were scheduled to tour anyway.
I am really glad we did this. It might not seem like we saw much, but most of the value in the tour was chatting with Michael about Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is visually stunning if you appreciate cityscapes, and the InterContinental sits right on Victoria Harbor in Kowloon looking out at down town Hong Kong. The view was worth every penny and the excellent service and great room were just bonuses. There is a laser light show every night at 8pm between Hong Kong and Kowloon that lasts about 12 minutes, so we wanted to stay up for that. For the most part, we spent the 4 hours just looking out the window. We did manage to go downstairs to check out the pool and we did manage to eat some food, but for the most part we just gazed at Hong Kong.
Before the trip, Brook wasn’t interested in Hong Kong all that much, which was one of the reasons we only stayed one day. It was both of our favorite city after spending the day there.