Hong Kong Day Two

We were up at about the regular time (Mel very early, me about 7:30) and had a leisurely breakfast in the Lido. It gave us the opportunity to say Good-Bye to all our friends. The Capt even came by and gave me a big hug. I've never seen him hug anyone before! Nice Captain. :) We gathered our numerous carry-ons and headed off the ship. It was sad to be leaving for the last time. We collected our suitcases without any problem, hopped in a cab (it fit our 4 suitcases + carry-ons and us!) and headed to the Disneyland Hotel.

 

After about a 30 minute ride, we arrived at the beautiful Disneyland Hotel on Lantau Island. I chose to stay there because I knew it would be beautiful, we wanted to go to the park anyway, and the airport is on Lantau Island. Convenient for many reasons. We were able to check in at 10:30 which was nice. We left our items then headed out again. This time we took the Disney Resort Shuttle to the MTR (underground). We headed to see the big Buddha on Lantau Island. We rode the MTR then took a 30 minute gondola ride over mountains to get to the Buddha. I had thought it was an old one, but it actually wasn't completed until the 90's. There is a monastery there as well as a "village" filled with souvenir shops. I think the monks are doing very well. The Buddha sits on top of a hill, very impressive. It was a nice visit. I bought a small plastic Buddha that looks like that one, as a memento.

 

From the Buddha we headed to a fishing village. The bus wasn't leaving for an hour so we took a taxi instead. The drive was very curvy and straight down, Having arrived via gondola, I hadn't realized how high up we were. We were dropped off at the village. I went to take a picture and discovered my camera was missing. I ran back to the taxi stand. Fortunately our taxi had gotten into the que and was still there. My camera had fallen out of my jacket pocket and was on the back seat. Whew, that was lucky!

 

The fishing village is built mostly on stilts. There was stall after stall selling dried seafood of every kind. It was hard to imagine how they could sell it all, but it seemed that there were many locals buying. We walked around looking at everything. We declined a 20 minute boat ride around the harbor. It was amazing to find a small village like this, totally removed from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, a short ride away.

 

Back on the MTR, we decided to continue into Kowloon (mainland side of Hong Kong -- Hong Kong itself is an island) rather than return to our hotel. We walked around a bit. We thought about going up on top of the parking structure next to the ship and waving at our dinner buddies like some people had done the day before but figured our time could be better spent. I did finally get to a small shop by the Star Ferry that sells hand smocked children's clothing. It had been closed when I tried the day before. We went in search of a gold dragon pendant, then had a delicious Shanghai style dinner. By this time I was getting very tired, so we headed back, arriving at the hotel at about 9. I decided to take a bath. It almost felt like we'd been roughing it for 2 months with the huge tub, wonderfully strong water pressure and large room. The ship was becoming a fond memory.