Tour Day in Hong Kong

At breakfast Cameron was drinking orange juice. He took a big sip and said "wow, that packs a big punch. It's like getting hit in the crotch with a giant orange". I have no idea where he comes up with the things he says. Needless to say Todd thought it was pretty funny.

Early morning watching some tv.

Checking up on Facebook information.

Early morning view of Hong Kong Island.

It started raining. So we went walking around the area by our hotel. It was all under covered walk ways. We saw some places that looked good to eat at. We ended up in a book store. The first book Cameron saw was the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Of course we had to buy it. We also bought some cool pop up books...one of China and one of Hong Kong.

So many books to choose from.

Back to the room. We relaxed and then grabbed some lunch at The Hop House. Really good food. Just what we needed to get us through our next activity...9.5 hour guided tour. Back to the room until 1:30 when we headed down to meet our bus and tour guide.

Prince Cameron taking a sip of hot chocolate.

The King and The Prince being very proper with
their pinkies sticking out.

Now that is a fork full of spaghetti.

Cameron reading behind the couch waiting to go.

It is time to get on the tour bus.

On the tour bus and over to the bus station to wait for more people. Our guide, Ronald, thought he was pretty funny. He like talking to us because he had a roommate once from Chicago so he thought we were cool. We now had a new best friend. The others finally arrived and we were off to Victoria Peak. On the way there he talked about the history of Hong Kong and he told us a story about a little boy who had to go to the bathroom. I wont bore you with the whole story but the moral was...if you say "I have to sing a song" it means you have to go to the bathroom. He will say this sentence a lot throughout the day as it turned out. We arrived. We took the world's steepest funicular railway to the peak. It was an 8 minute ride. At the top we got a brief lecture on some of the buildings we could see, took some pictures, then we were free to explore. We were told to 'sing a song' while there too. More photos.

On the bus listening to Ronald.

At the base of the Peak.

Here comes the tram.

The view from the top.

Ronald telling us about each of the buildings.

The Wallace Family on Victoria Peak.

There was a Burger King that served beer.
No, we did not go there.

At the Peak.

Cameron had to hold the building up.

The world's smallest toilet.  Todd thought about
sitting on it.

We all met again at 3:15. We loaded the bus and headed to Aberdeen Fishing Village. We were suppose to have an option to ride a sampan boat but it was more like they put us on and no one had the option. We were going to do it anyway so we didn't care but it cost extra so some were a little taken back. A guy drove us around in the boat. He use to be a fisherman but for some reason can't do that anymore so now he just drives this boat. It was pretty uneventful but at least we got to see a lot of different kinds of boats. Most of the people live on their sampan boats and have them 'decorated'. No way could I do it. There were huge, fancy boats in the harbor too which Cameron picked one out he would like to own someday.

One of the Sampan boats.

Our driver.

Cameron enjoyed the boat ride.

Jumbo Floating Restaurant. 

Floating dock helped this guy paint his boat.

We stopped at TSL jewelry factory. They always have to throw in a getcha thing on the tour. We had to listen to a 3 minute speech about how they make the jewelry then we were shown the showroom. We looked around but there was nothing I needed or wanted. Plus it was mostly expensive. We were told to 'sing a song' again while we were there so we all did. Off to the next stop...Stanley.

We arrived at Stanley Market. Ronald told us to go help the Hong Kong economy by buying something. We tried but it didn't work. It was suppose to be a shoppers paradise but we found it had the same things we can get in Beijing. It was still nice to walk around the area though. Met back up with the group and headed to the Star Ferry.

Stanley Street with Stanley Markets.

Who are these going to fit?

Taking a break from looking in the markets.

The Star Ferry is the oldest means of transportation in Hong Kong. It carries over 26 million passengers a year. We rode it yesterday but it was still fun. It never gets old to ride a ferry. It took us from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon. In Kowloon we were shown the clock tower and then told the light/laser show was at 8:15 so we were free to do what we wanted until then. Since we were there the day before we took off the other direction as everyone else. We found a mall with Toys R Us and a Harley shop. We decided we would go back tomorrow so we didn't miss the light show. We bought a couple drinks and ventured over to the light show area. Found a spot and got comfy to watch. We had time to people watch which is always fun. Todd took a ton of pictures of the Hong Kong skyline. It is so pretty at night.

The clock tower.

Picture with the Hong Kong Skyline.

 

A little touch of Christmas.

Todd shopping at 7-11.

This is an awesome picture.
Love the Pirate Ship.

Waiting for the show.

At 8:00, not 8:15, the show started. There was a big announcement that the show was going to be presented in English. Awesome. The Symphony of Lights has been awarded the world's largest permanent light and sound show by Guinness Book of World's Records. It mentioned this too at the beginning so we were excited. The show started and they announced all of the participating buildings. This would be the only talking so good thing it was in English. We laughed about that. Then music started and lights and lasers started. Thank goodness it was only 15 minutes long. It was less than spectacular. The lights on the buildings themselves not during the light show were better than the show. In Cameron's words "that was lame". We thought being in Hong Kong it would be a much bigger deal but it wasn't. Maybe because we had our standards set to high or maybe because we have seen better light shows.  It is was safe to say it wasn't spectacular. It was a nice night to be outside so that made up for the show.

Pretty.

At 8:15 we met up with our group. Todd grabbed a Mobile Softee, which was an ice cream cone. It tasted more like whipped cream though. We boarded the bus and went to The Round House Restaurant. We were shown our seats and all 9 of us sat together...without Ronald. He had to sit on the other side. The guides are to allowed to sit with the group.

The Mobile Softee mobile.

We started off with a salad, then pumpkin soup, main dish (we had 2 beef stews and a salmon), and ended with dessert. It was much better than we had expected. And for an added bonus we had a beer tasting. We were given 3 different samples of beer. Todd and I were the only ones who seemed to drink these. I picked the beer from the U.S. as my favorite. I couldn't even taste the peach beer. Ick! Cameron had a hard time swallowing tonight for some reason. Kind of was freaking us out. So he didn't have dinner. He said his throat didn't hurt he just couldn't swallow. Hmmm.

Our group...2 Indonesians, 3 Filipinos, 1 from Ohio, and the Wallace's.

Cameron's big drink.

After dinner the bus dropped everyone off at their hotel. On the bus Cameron said he felt like he was having a hard time breathing. Really freaking out now. He had tears rolling down his checks. I was trying not to let him see I was getting very nervous. He laid his head on my lap and fell asleep. He woke up and no problems. For the last couple weeks he has been taking deep breaths like he can't breathe quite right so we started his nebulizer but it hasn't been a big problem.  Too strange.

Overall, it was a good tour. We learned a lot about Hong Kong and got to see a lot of different things. Ronald started to get on my nerves a little. He was full of great Hong Kong information but he talked a little too loud, a little too much, and constantly said "am I right?" After everything he said. He also talked in the third person. Annoying.

Up to the room, shower, and bed. Cameron was breathing ok and seemed to be fine.