Hong Kong, China to Laem Chabang, Thailand

March 13 – Since Diana is in mainland China at the Li River, I’m on my own for the day. She’s not due back until 11PM today. My plan is to buy a pass on the MTR, HK’s subway, and go from place to place looking at whatever there is to see. I call it “gopher touring”, ride to a station, go up to the surface and look around a little. If I like what I see, I look more. If I don’t it’s back on the subway to the next likely looking stop. I’d like to get a few more prices on my new camera farther from the ship and the tourist zone. Seems like they should be lower. I like to go low key so I’ll only carry my malfunctioning digital camera. I can slip that in my pocket and not have any more of the badges of a tourist than necessary.

One of the features of HK that I love is the Star Ferry ( above left). James Bond rides on it in one of the earlier movies. It runs from Kowloon to HK every few minutes from the pier next to ours. Kowloon’s famous clock tower is right by the Star Ferry terminal. It creates a great picture.

The MTR has 6 connecting lines. The one that stops near the ship is the Red line. It runs under HK Harbor and takes you from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island and downtown HK. There you can change to the Blue line that runs along the northern coast of HK Island. I took the Blue line to Wan Chai because I heard that they was a huge shopping area there for technology items. The information proved to be correct. In fact, the subway exit came up right in the building. It was six floors of techno goodies; Computers, PDAs, cameras of all sorts, computer parts and software. I looked at several stores and the prices were not as good as the shop near the ship. So it was back down to the subway and on to the nest stop. I left the ship at about 10AM, as the shops do not open on Sunday until 11. I did not return to the ship until about 5PM. This is a very long shopping day for me. To be honest I was looking around for pictures as well. To prove it I’m including the picture of the fried fish cake (above right) at a restaurant that specialized in soups with fish cake and a shot of the street signs that are everywhere in HK

I left the subway on Nathan Street, the ‘yuppie’ shopping street in Kowloon. At the waterfront on Nathan Street is the Peninsula Hotel, a very old, well-established extremely high-end hotel with strong British roots. They serve a wonderful and very expensive tea in the afternoon. The area near the hotel has the reputation of being very expensive. Nathan Street is lined with Rodeo Drive like stores, Gucci, DK, Tiffany, etc. As I was walking down Nathan Road return to the harbor I passed a small camera store and decided to stop in to see how high the price would be. As Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!” It was the lowest price I found by about $40 US. I bought a Nikon 5400. It’s smaller than my current camera and totally pocketable. The bonus is that my current camera’s batteries and media will fit the new one as well.

After dinner the ship had arranged for a local show to perform in the Queens Lounge. It was a local martial arts group. They drummed, performed the Lion Dance and demonstrated several types of martial arts including Tai Chi. They had a boy about 7 years old that did a kung fu demonstration that was very good. An older lady and two other performers did Tai Chi. I recognized about 80% of the movements from the two sets of tai chi that we have been learning in the mornings on sea days. The performance was very good

Diana arrived to the ship from her Li River trip about 10PM. She had a great time and said the food had been great!

March 14 – Diana wants to do some shopping today so we will be heading our by subway again after our morning tour to the New Territories, ‘new’ in 1898 that is, but still new in the minds of the Chinese.

The drive up to the New Territories took about an hour. Our first stop was at the Tin Hau (Heaven Queen) temple (left) that has Lam Tsuen Wishing Tree. It’s a Taoist temple from the 6th century. Each visitor to the temple gets a group of papers (below right) tied to one end of a string with an orange at the other end. The paper on the top is mainly red with yellow and white and has symbols and writing that identify the bundle of papers and a drawing of three men. The paper on the bottom is yellow and has red writing that asks the gods to grant you a wish. The Chinese believe that the color yellow repels evil spirits. You write your wish on the yellow paper. The papers in between are red with gold writing and are smaller in size. They contain prayers and supplications that will ward off evil spirits and prevent them from reading your wish and interfering with it. You write your wish on the yellow paper and then use the string that connects the bundle of papers to the orange to fasten the bundle to the wishing tree just outside the temple. I know that participating in this ritual is a little silly but my wish was that the Chinese would come to know the true God. I’m not exactly sure that this local god will be interested in granting that wish. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Inside the temple there’s an altar in front of the center shrine. This center area is flanked on both sides by separate areas each containing its own shrine. On the altar there are offerings to the Queen of Heaven, apples, oranges, tea and other food items. Hanging from the ceiling of the temple in the entrance were large, beehive shaped incense coils (left). The largest coil is about 2 feet in diameter. The incense is about 3/8 of an inch in diameter. There were 8 of them at different stages of consumption and one that was unlit. The guide said that each one will burn for 7 days and they light a new on every morning at prayer time.

After hanging our wished in the Wishing Tree (below right) we drove to the walled city of Lo Wai. It’s the first walled city built by the Tang clan of the area in the 14th century. They built four more walled cities and 6 villages. It has a very narrow entrance to facilitate defense of the city. Originally this entrance was placed on the north wall but was later moved to the east wall to improve the city’s fung shui. The entrance in the wall (below left) leads directly to a small room with two doors at right angles to the wall door. Inside the room is a small red shrine with offerings and a little oven underneath. In 1997 the city was declared a national monument in 1997 for preservation purposes.

The city is small, only about 60 yards square. The houses are arranged in orderly rows inside the city. It has a well just inside the entrance that was the only source of water and small areas for gardens inside the walls. The majority of their agriculture was done in the land surrounding the city.

Our guide lives in the city and has received permission from the national authority to restore it to its original condition. He invited us in to look around and take pictures. On the ground floor it has a living room, a kitchen (below right) and a small room he uses for an office. In the small room there’s a square opening in the ceiling that has a ladder placed through it much like the Pueblo Indians of the Southwestern states use to get up into the pueblo’s higher floors or down into their kivas. This leads up to a second floor and his bedroom area. The kitchen has a brick fireplace/oven built in just off center. He has added some modern conveniences like a microwave and toaster oven.

The guide has two dogs that must have heard his voice when he was talking to us in the village entry room. They came charging in and were obviously very happy to see him. He told us that only 18 people currently live in the village and that, except for him they are all related to each other. He said that one of his dogs had puppies with the village’s main dog and therefore he was now related as well.

From his home we went out of the city wall to the area’s meeting hall. It’s mainly a walled open area with a large covered area on the wall opposite the entrance. Here we saw a Lion dance by a local troop. Accompanied by symbols and drums, the two-man lion danced around the open area and then proceeded to jump up a tiered set of paired circular pads to a height of about 7 feet (right). The pads were about 12 inches in diameter and both men inside the lion costume have to land on them as they jump up the tiers and the across to a set of 6 pads all at the 7-foot level. On these six pads the lion character performed a dance that had them changing ends and turning around. Much more difficult for the rear end of the lion as often he had to jump around the front man to get to his pads all the while turning 180 degrees. It was pretty spectacular. Diana posed with the group after the performance (below right).

After the show we returned to HK and went through the under harbor tunnel to get to Kowloon and the ship.

After dropping off our tourism equipment we headed for the subway to do some local sightseeing and shopping. We rode the subway back under the harbor to HK and walked around downtown. We visited HK Park. It’s very pretty and has fountains, a waterfall and a lake. There was a bride and groom there taking wedding pictures. One of the plazas we passed through had a large display of the plans for future development in HK and Kowloon. Pretty impressive. They plan to upgrade the pier facilities at which we’re docked. They could use some because right now you have to walk a long way through a shopping mall to get to the street to go anywhere. It’s fine for Diana and I but the older people, and about 95% of the people on the ship are 15 to 25 years older than us, it’s a problem.

I have to tell you that at the end of three days walking around this area my dogs are barking big time. I’m sure they will appreciate the next four days at sea heading for Thailand.

March 15, 16, 17 & 18 – We have four days at sea to prepare for two days in Thailand. Again it’s Tai Chi every morning, some lectures (if they look interesting), general gabbing with other cruisers, movies and shows in the evenings and of course eating.

A couple of unique things happened during this at sea period.

First, I was eating my lunch outdoors on the lido deck. I like this one table because it’s in the middle of the open area at one end of the pool. There’s a little overhang there that keeps the sun off my head but it’s still in the open so you get a breeze. As we head north it’s getting hot and humid again. I heard this squeaking noise coming from the pool and looked over to see the captain’s 6-½ year old daughter jumping around and making the squeaking noise. It dawned on me that she was imitating a dolphin so I squeaked back. This got her attention and we had a short conversation in dolphin. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that the captain’s wife and daughter joined us in Sydney and will be here until Singapore.

When she got out of the pool she wrapped herself in a towel and came over to my table and sat down. She asked me where I had learned to speak dolphin and I said I had picked it up hanging around Flipper in Florida. This got a laugh and we introduced ourselves. Her name in Isabelle and she speaks Danish, English and Dolphin. She took great pains to explain to me that dolphin like to eat small fish. Her father is Danish and her mother is Australian. This has produced the most charming accent in Isabelle. I asked her what her favorite food was and she said pasta. I asked her if she liked fish and she said, “No, only the dolphin likes fish!” That got us laughing.

Diana came up to eat and I introduced them very formally. Isabelle is a very mature little lady. She said she knew ‘Itsy bitsy spider’ so we sang that and then she informed me that in Danish the story like is about the spider and a hat. Apparently the rhyme scheme in Danish works better that way.

On the 17th we were invited to have dinner in the Captain’s quarters. The meal was very formal and there was a large staff to wait on us. The captain and his wife hosted us. I sat on the captain’s wife’s left and Diana sat on her right. She’s significantly younger than the captain. I’d say at least 15-20 years. The dinner was great!! Seven very unique courses served with a couple of different wines. We arrived in his quarters at 6:30pm and left around 10pm.

There’s a group of ladies on the ship that are knitting and crocheting blankets and children’s clothing that will be donated to an orphanage on one of our African stops. They had a show today displaying all the projects finished so far. They have 87 blankets, dozens of caps and sweaters. The work is quite impressive.

The evening’s performance was unique, two men playing one piano in comedy style. They played very well and their humor was very British. Really cracked me up!

Tomorrow Thailand.

March 19 – Our first day in Thailand. We are docked in Laem Chabang, the port closest to Bangkok. Any further north in the Gulf of Thailand and the water gets to shallow for larger ships. It’s about 65 kilometers to Bangkok from here.

We are on tour this afternoon so we decided to take the ships shuttle to the closest large city, Pattaya. It’s much bigger than I thought it would be. Lots of shops and services available. Traffic is heavy because there is a music festival in Pattaya this weekend. From the signs on the roads I was able to determine that there are three different venues playing a the same time with multiple groups scheduled for each venue from early morning to late at night on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The traffic in and near town is pretty bad. The shuttle trip that was only expected to be about 20-30 minutes each way took almost two hours.

After grabbing a quick lunch we joined our tour of the Thai countryside. Our first stop was at a mortar and pestle factory. Factory may be too grand a label for the place. It was a corrugated tin room supported by wooden poles under which a man with a hammer and chisel was chipping away at a chunk of marble working on making the mortar bowl. He sat on the floor holding the rounded bowl with his foot, the chisel in one hand and the hammer in the other. Pretty efficient actually.

While we were there a man came by with one of those poles that support a load on each end over his shoulder. On one end he had a supply of eggs, some sesame oil and another unidentifiable bottle of liquid. On the other end was a wok filled with hot coals and a grate over the top. On this grate he was roasting eggs to sell. It was also very efficient as the eggs were cooking while he was carrying them. No one had the nerve to eat one but it made a good picture (right).

On the way to our next stop we were passing some very elaborate structures on the hillsides along the road. Some were small and low to the ground; some were larger and spread over quite a bit of area (left). It turns out that these are graves of wealthy Chinese people from the area.

From there we went to a local fish market. This market was not as elaborate as the markets in Hong Kong and did not have nearly the variety of fish, crabs, lobsters, shrimp, prawns or shellfish (right), but then Ang Sila is only a small town. From there we went to the Bangpra Country Club for some refreshments. The country club was a very nice facility and the course looked to be in great shape. They have an 18-hole, 7,187 yard, par 72 course and another 18 under construction. They were having a tournament this weekend and most of the players seemed to be foreigners. The caddies were dressed in pink from the neck down, pants and a very long sleeved jacket. They wore large white hats with a huge brim and long curtains down the back and sides. Considering that it was 97 degrees and 90% humidity I’m surprised they weren’t dropping like flies on the course. Oh I forgot to say that they were all women and very pretty ones at that (left).

Our next stop was the Khao Khaio Open Zoo. It’s organized much like the National or San Diego Zoos. As much as possible the animals are kept in open areas surrounded by walls on at the back and sides. The area is flat but slopes downward toward the front ending in a mote and then a wall at front from the moat up. They can’t jump the front wall because to approach it they are running downhill and have to clear both the moat and the wall. They had black and white rhinos, hippos, various antelopes and deer, monkeys and birds. The hit of the day were the Bengal tigers. They were very active, moving up and down the slope and playing in the water of the moat. After that it was back to the ship.

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(c) Rod Longenberger - 2005