My Short Day in Hong Kong

Well. Finally here. My last day of the cruise. And a day in Hong Kong! One of my most favorite cities. It's gorgeous, full of amazing skyscrapers and the city gives off an amazing energy and vibe.

Sadly we had to dock way the hell and gone out at Kai Tek terminal which is the old airport and not close to anything. Pain in the Patootie Ville!!!

The terminal building is insanely long with turns and switchbacks for what seems like a mile. In actuality it's only about 1/4 mile according to my Fitbit. But I'm telling you it seems further.

It was a lousy morning. The weather was cold and quite rainy. While everyone knows how much I love the rain, it was not terribly conducive to be out in it on foot, which was a big part of my plan for the day. I had wanted to go out to Stanley Market and look for an oil painting of the night skyline of the city. Since I couldn't get to the night market in town, my next best place to find one was out at Stanley Market by Repulse Bay. Lots of little shopkeepers there but a lengthy bus ride out there and back. And in the rain not so fun.

The ship took freaking forever to clear immigration and so everyone got off to a very late start. By the time I reached the Market it was getting close to noon. I looked at a number of stalls offering the oil paintings but I never found one that floated my boat. I was a bit bummed.

Returning to the bus empty handed was a little depressing. But I consoled myself with a final noodle and beer lunch along the bay before returning to the city.

Once back in town I had wanted to go to the Sky Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world and the tallest in Hong Kong . It's about 1,300 feet high. I missed going last year so it was "high" on my priority list this year. "High", bahahahaha. I love making unintentional puns.

But by the time I got back into town it was too late for me to be able to get over to the tower, tour it, then get back to the shuttle and to the ship in time for my last dinner with Jack. That took top priority. Sigh. Well, I know I'll go again so will have another chance next time.

I had a lovely dinner with Jack and after listening to Adagio for a little but I bid goodnight and went to my cabin to finish my packing. I had to have my suitcases outside my door at a reasonable hour so they'd be waiting for me at the shuttle the next morning.

I didn't sleep well. Kept thinking about the long flight home the next day and being excited about seeing the kids and all that.

The morning arrived and after breakfast I said goodbye to Jack and disembarked the ship and headed to the airport.

My flight home was an uneventful 12 hours to San Francisco and then a quick hop to Sacramento. I was home by noon, just 4 hours after I'd left Hong Kong! Ha! What fun is that cute old International Date Line!

So I've been home now for a bit over a week. Life has returned to normal - marketing, cooking dinners, picking up Ori from school everyday, walking the dogs - all the mundane things of life.

I've had some issues with my phone - shortly after returning I got an upgraded phone and after a day, started having trouble with it. It was software related and it took several hours on the phone over two days with support techs to resolve it. All is well again!!

This is my last posting for a month or so. My next trip is in May. Adrienne and I are flying to Boston to embark on the Veendam for a two week trip that will see us visiting Bermuda, New England and Canada. We finish in Montreal.

In July she and I will meet up again in Seattle to take the 14-day Alaskan Explorer cruise that she missed in 2016 due to her breaking her leg three days before we were to leave. We're both looking forward to an incident-free trip this time around!

In September I will leave home again for a two month visit to Europe. Two cruises and sandwiched in between a land trip in Italy. That should be fun too. A number of repeat ports but a good amount of new ones as well.

Stay tuned - I'll be back in May!!!

Ciao y'all.