Friday, June 20, 2014

APAC Training Trip 2014 Day 28 - Hong Kong Day 10

We ended up with a late start partially because we were both very tired and also because morning was filled with some fairly strong thunderstorms. We originally intended to get out to Tsim Sha Tsui in the morning because Daniela wanted to attend a tai chi class but with the weather it was obvious the outdoor class would not happen.  So we got moving late and had breakfast just before they closed down for the day.

After breakfast Daniela had to do some work so I went down to the concierge and spoke to them about tours for the day and Saturday.  I brought the information up to Daniela and we talked for a little while then I went down and bought Hong Kong On Lights and Launtau 360. The former for that evening and the latter for Saturday.  The tour started at 4:30 with a pickup service at the hotel so we had a couple hours. We needed to get some socks (laundry just wasn't going to be done at this point) a suitcase for Daniela and to do some basic looking for other things we needed to buy so we decided to go to the Lady's Market just down the street. So when Daniela was finished work we got outside.

We started with lunch at a McDonalds so she could have 2 more of her Hello Kitty World Cup dolls. I had a quarter pounder with cheese and she had chicken wings.  After lunch we got into the market and started to search and bargain with the sellers. We bought me some shorts and after going through about 6 different stalls trying to find a suitcase she liked at a price they would sell that was reasonable we eventually got the suitcase she wanted enough to pay for it. I let her do all the bargaining. She set the prices too low at first and we found that no one would sell that low and worked out a price they would sell for by the end.  I think the process took an hour and a half. We also bought a bunch of socks at the end then headed back to the hotel where we had just enough time to shower from the heat and humidity before setting off for the tour.

The tour picked us up at 4:30 at the hotel. We were driven around to Tsim Sha Tsui where we picked up other passengers until the last stop where they loaded a bunch onto the bus we were on. The first stop was Temple Street which is the night market. We were expecting to go there on Saturday night so this was a good scouting trip but we didn't buy anything. We walked the whole length though, including both sides.  Then we were piled onto another bus but this one was an open top double-decker and we sat up top and were driven around Mong Kok for a while to see a lot of the different sites.  From there were were put on a dinner cruise ship to have a dinner buffet and sail for 2 hours. The start of the cruise is the same time as the Symphony of Lights over the harbor so everyone went outside and watched the show from the observation deck of the boat.

After the show we went inside and had our dinner buffet. I had some spicy chicken, rice, roasted pork and grilled fish.  I had fruit and ice cream for dessert. We both had a Kirin beer.  They had entertainment in the form of a trio of women singing international music during the dinner. It was funny to watch the Chinese people dancing. They had some odd ways to dance.  Some I think were really drunk too.  They sang in Chinese and English.  We stayed on the boat until 10pm where we got off and were taken back to the hotel.  We were the furthest from the harbor so were the last stop.  From there it was in for the night to sleep.

The pictures from Hong Kong day 10 are located here.

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