Our room has electric-powered curtains that close and completely blocked out the lights from Hong Kong Island. Tim pushed a button this morning while we were still in bed and Hong Kong opened up in front of us. A beautiful city. We laid there in awe of its magnificence for a while.
Our tour group met this morning for an orientation meeting. So we went to the Executive Lounge for coffee and a full breakfast first. We then got to meet the other 12 people we will be traveling with for the next 19 days. David Cheng is the tour guide who will be with us for the entire trip and Jason is our local Hong Kong expert.
We had a brief orientation in the Executive Lounge conference room and introduced ourselves. There are 2 couples from Dallas, one from Lakeland, Florida, one from California, one from Honolulu, and one from Connecticut and Athens (as in Greece!). We have enjoyed everyone so far and they seem to be accepting of Tim and I (you never know).
After the orientation we got on a bus and headed through the Harbor Tunnel to Hong Kong Island. Our first stop was in Aberdeen at none other than "Jumbo Restaurant" - the floating restaurant where Tim and I had gone for dinner last night. I didn't realize that Jumbo had been in the James Bond movie "Goldfinger" and also in some of Jackie Chan's movies. But at this stop instead of taking the ferry to the restaurant, we had a sampan ride around where the fishermen and their families live on their boats. Our sampan also took us behind the Jumbo Restaurant to show us the 4 story boats tied up to the floating restaurants where all of the food is prepared. I'm glad we saw this AFTER we ate there and not before! But it was amazing how they did all of this.
After leaving Aberdeen we headed to the coast of the South China Sea to Repulse Bay where there is a huge beach (not many people there) and a Buddhist temple area with many different kinds of Buddhas. The Chinese people believe if you rub the Buddhas then whatever their "specialty" is will be bestowed on you. I rubbed the "Healthy Buddha", the "Happy Buddha", and the "Wealthy Buddha" (just in case!!!!). So now, I'll live a long time, be happy, and have lots of money - sounds like a good deal to me for just rubbing Buddha!!!! (:-))))
After this visit we drove through a very affluent area and saw where Jackie Chan (the movie star) lives. The coast of the South China Sea was beautiful with lots of high rise condos that I'm sure have magnificent views.
We then headed to the Central Business District on Hong Kong Island for lunch at the China Club - an exclusive private restaurant. We had multiple courses with much, too much, to eat and everything was good. The best part was the waiter who poured tea for us. He used a pot with a spout that was at least 4 feet long and he twirled it around before aiming it to pour the water into pots to brew the tea - he had all kinds of poses - neat and memorable.
We had a short bus ride back to the Intercontinental Hotel and a wonderful nap. Cocktails at the lounge and a group dinner at the hotel.
Hong Kong is a fascinating city - the high rise buildings are amazing and we get to sit in our room or in the lounge and watch a virtual "light show" on Hong Kong Island as the many buildings light up at sunset. Our hotel is perfectly situated looking out at the magnificience of Hong Kong Island. Love visiting here (but would hate to live here).
Oh, almost forgot. I was hoping to meet up with Nancy Testa who used to work at Ingersoll Rand but she had to go to Shanghai and won't return to Hong Kong until Wednesday. She is loving it here in Hong Kong working for Wachovia. She says she is working harder than ever but at least they appreciate what she is doing (as opposed to some other place we both previously worked). I was really sorry not to be able to see Nancy but we have exchanged several emails and I'm happy that she is happy here.
Larry
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