March 16th, 2024 Day 18 of 24 Hong Kong, China

It’s time for our overnight at Hong Kong. We arrived early this morning. The pilot actually boarded the ship around 5:30am, and took us into port. I hit the gym at 6:00am and got my workout done for the day. Boy, was today a day I could have skipped it. At the time of this writing, 9:24pm Hong Kong time, I’m at 25,526 steps for the day. I am exhausted, but I need to get this written out for you all because tomorrow is another excursion and my brain goes into overload if I have two port days to write at once. O.K., so I digress. After the gym I came home to get ready for the day. There were a few announcements made about delays in clearing the ship for immigration from the Chinese officials and those who had earlier excursions were delayed in their exiting of the ship. We did not meet until 9:15 am so that gave us time to go to deck three where we were treated to a Dragon and Lion Dance and Drum Show. The also served complimentary milk tea and sponge cake to those who wanted it. We met our group at the Main Stage and we were off for the day. Today we traveled to Lantau Island. It is the largest of the 261 islands in Hong Kong. Our guide said since only 20% of the land in Hong Kong is able to be developed due to its mountainous terrain, it makes the land here the most expensive in the world. I have not had time to fact check that one. Our first stop was at a vista point where we could hike up and see two suspension bridges leading out of Hong Kong. One went to Lantau and I am not sure where the other one went. The scenery was beautiful, despite the over cast cloud cover we had most of the day. On our way to Lantau we also passed a sign to turn to go to Dinsyeland….so close, yet so far!! We also passed a turn off to go to Macao. There is a bridge that is 35 miles long that takes you to Macao. It was stated to be the longest bridge over water in the world (no facts were checked as of the time of this post). We made our way through a mountain pass to the Tai O fishing village. Homes and structures are built on stilts beside the river. It was unique to see this village and how the people there live. Then we traveled by bus to the Po Lin (Precious Lotus) Monastery. It is home to the largest bronze Buddha statue in the world…now I think I had heard that before earlier in our travels at another Buddha. But they love their lore here and if it makes them happy to believe it, who am I to argue? We had a lovely vegetarian lunch at the monastery, because they are monks and they “don’t eat no meat”…hear the My Big Fat Greek Wedding accent in that line please. It was delicious and we are not 100% sure what we were eating, but sometime there is language barrier and the don’t ask don’t tell is a moot point. Megan and I finished our lunch first cause we were excited to hike to the top of the hill to get a closer look at the bronze Buddha. We had about an hour of free time so we hiked up the 279 steps to the top and felt quite accomplished. After we hiked back down we visited a shopping area and bought some souvenirs. It was well planned out as this area is a huge draw to tourists and there was much to see and do here. Then it was time to get back on the bus and head back to the ship. Today’s weather was much different than we had experienced up till today. It was overcast and warm and at times the humidity was suffocating. It changed throughout the day and we had to put our sweatshirts on and take them off numerous times throughout the day. After the bus arrived back to the port we decided to hop the free shuttle to the APM mall here in Hong Kong. We enjoyed walking around the 9 story shopping mall and walking through many shops. Some we were familiar with and several were new to us. We enjoyed some french fries at Five Guys and then we an opportunity to visit our first grocery store in Asia. We sampled Saki, bought some snacks and picked up some fresh sushi that we took back to the ship for dinner. It was a very long day. 12+ hours today. Many steps. So many wonderful memories made. A little damage done to my credit card. And I am pretty proud of Megan and I as when it was time to come back to the ship from the mall the shuttle service had ended for the day. So we navigated hiring a taxi and getting back to the ship without a hitch. I am feeling pretty accomplished. We also had the chance to pick up our custom ordered tailored items from Princeton Tailors. Megan’s dress is unfortunately not quite to size. So they are taking it back and they will meet us at the cruise terminal when we disembark in Singapore. My silk blouse and blazer came out beautifully and they are a wonderful treasure I will have for years to commemorate this trip. Enjoy my photos from today. They are an array of things of old and things of new from today. It is time for sleep. Tomorrow we will have a second excursion here in Hong Kong. But, you will have to wait to hear about that tomorrow.