Hong Kong - Day Two

For our second day in Hong Kong, we got on the ferry tender and talked with folks from Alabama on our way over. From the ferry building, we went through the International Financial Center shopping mall to find an ATM machine and then went on to the elevated walkway to start our walking tour. But, Bill’s feet were starting to hurt him already so we decided to take the open-air Hop-On, Hop-Off bus and get off at locations nearest the sights on the walking tour and do the tour that way. Bill didn’t want to climb the stairs to the top and I can see how sitting up there on a hot, humid day would be very uncomfortable. But it was overcast and the temperature was in the mid-70s, so it was quite nice up there and had a much better view. We passed their skinny, little trolley cars that only seat two on one side and one on the other.
Almost all of the streets have either overcrossings or undercrossing, so that the street-level pedestrian crossings have very few people in them.



Narrow Trolley



Over Crossings

The HO,HO worked for a couple of stops and we were able to see St. John’s Cathedral (would hate a service there with only fans and open windows during the hot, humid seasons), the Court of Last Appeal (decisions regarding items in the gray areas of the turn-over in 1999), the Cenotaph (war memorial for 1st & 2nd WWs) and Chater Garden. But as we were going through the Garden, it became very dark and began to rain. We got back on the HO,HO bus just in time (on the inside this time) just as the heavens opened up and it poured.



St. John’s Cathedral




Chater Garden

With the weather as it was, our first plan of doing the walking tour and then Bill going back to the ship while I went on to the Jade Market got scraped. Instead, I wandered into a very upscale jade jewelry store near the ferry while we were waiting for the rain to let up a little. Since no one else was around, the clerk spent the time to give me a quickie education on what to look for in natural colored jade. She was so informative that I really wished I could have afforded some of her beautiful items.

After a dish of gelato, we took the tender back to the ship and got back at 2:30. I grabbed my chance while most of the passengers were still in town and got my laundry done. After dinner, we were supposed to leave at 6 PM, but the Captain extended our stay until 8 PM so that we could transit the Hong Kong Harbor in time to see the light show that had been canceled before. We all gave the Captain many extra points for doing that for us.