Guilin to Guangzhou to HK-Wednesday 18-SEP

We left the hotel early for our flight.  So early, in fact, they had not started serving breakfast.  OK, they had a “Continental” breakfast with breads and such, and coffee.  Not exactly a hearty start!!  But we were to fly from Guilin to Guangzhou (F to G on the map), which was another flight of roughly an hour. 

Catamaran from Guangzhou to Kowloon

From the airport, we headed for a port (Shun Di?) and boarded a large catamaran for Hong Kong.  It was a little over 2 hours in the boat down the Pearl River and into the South China Sea to the Kowloon Peninsula (Hong Kong).  They fed us a little bit on the plane, but not much.  On the boat, I got essentially ramen noodles, but they were good and spicy.

On the boat, we were told we could get up and move around once the boarding was finished.  Well, we didn’t move immediately, so all the window seats were taken by the time we did get ready.  So, I got up to go exploring.  I found the stairs, and headed up to the second floor.  A very nice and clean area was found, with soft cushy seats, and CLEAN windows!  Oooohh!!  Downstairs was 14 across (3-4-4-3) while upstairs was 8 across (2-4-2).  I sat quietly for a while and Mike took a seat behind me.  After no one came around, I discretely went back downstairs to get Theresa and Mary Anne to join us.  We had a nice spell, enjoying “First Class” until a crew member came around asking to see our tickets, and throwing us out!!  Well, it was great for the 15 minutes or so we had. 

Coach...where we spend much time!

First...where we spend very little time!

 

Not a pretty boat!

Dredging barges in South China Sea

Anyone looking for a Realtor?

Entering Hong Kong, there was an agent of some sort with a thermometer checking people coming in.  He started for Theresa, then saw the sunburned man behind her (rather red) and made a bee line to check his temperature and see if he was “sick”.  So, Hong Kong is supposedly “China” but you go through Customs and Immigration, and get a different stamp on your passport, etc.  So…not China!  New country!

Ahhhh...finally and nicer place!

We first went to our hotel to drop things.  The hotel room was pretty nice, and certainly a step up from everything since Beijing!  We grabbed a quick lunch -- at McDonald's with our friends and about 1/3 of our tour group!  Then we headed for an hour walking tour.  We walked along the water and had some nice views of Hong Kong (Island). 

The weather was a lot nicer than we expected, but that might be due to the typhoon bearing down on our area!

Hong Kong from Kowloon.

Why does everyone need to fish here?  I guess free food.

In the evening, we went to Outback Steak House, which seemed to make a lot of sense—North Americans going to an Australian (themed) restaurant in Asia (and I got a European beer!).  Then we headed over to the waterfront, as there was supposed to be a laser light show on the high rises on the island.  There is a nice promenade along the waterfront and people were out and about.  Along the way we found a walk of stars sort of like the Hollywood walk of stars, but local stars.  We saw Jet Li, Hong Yung Fat, and others that seemed vaguely familiar, and then found a tribute statue of Bruce Lee, and the star for Jackie Chan.

Conrad, where we intended to stay in two nights, with Swire HQ
(Swire owns Cathay Pacific) and the Shangrila

Crazy Pillars!!  (What will they do??)

Hong Kong at night.

Bruce Lee (well, his statue, actually)

The laser light show was underwhelming, and I thought we had heard it was really worth it.  But other people went to Victoria Peak, the highest point on the island, and waited a couple of hours to get a cab back to our hotel in Kowloon, so I think we made the right choice!

Looks like an alien invasion defense!

Pharmacy?