Stepping into a new continent a week in Hong Kong COMPLETED - Page 20 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
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We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Wow...what a great trip. I am all caught up now and am very impressed. Hong Kong was never really on my list of places to see but I have definitely changed my mind after seeing your pictures and descriptions. Thanks Cheryl for sharing with us.
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They caught us all smiling and looking at the camera!!!
Tuesday 19 February – part four: stepping back into Macau’s history
This time, we were taken to the most famous site in Macau, Sao Paulo, or should I say its remains. The church here was built in the early 1600’s, but it was destroyed by fire about 240 years later and, despite their best efforts, it didn’t prove possible to re-build it, so now just the façade remains, but from what is left, you can see that it must’ve been pretty impressive. There’s a lot of detail in there to admire.
Then we walked down the steps in front of the church to get some photos:
We carried on walking into the city centre itself. This was probably my favourite part of today’s tour. It was just like stepping back in time to our Mediterranean cruise. The centre is beautiful, with lovely old buildings and stunning pavements, all with Portuguese stone individually placed. It’s quite something and it was so nice to hear that they plan to do more of this by demolishing some of the poor quality buildings around here. How inspiring to hear that the heart of the city is being looked after. So many times that just doesn’t happen.
How revolting is this statue? Mario hated it – and I can see why! The street signs are all in Portuguese, as well as Cantonese
Next: you can’t sit down without buying something!
It is so interesting...when you see the remenants of the church and the buildings...you would never think that you are in Hong Kong or anywhere near it...
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World Its hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I've finally got all caught up with your trip. It looks like you are having an amazing time! Your pictures and descriptions make me feel like I'm along on the trip with you. Can't wait for more!
Tuesday 19 February – part five: you can’t sit down without buying something!
We carried on walking and for the final 40 minutes of the tour, we had a choice between either going to a casino or to a factory outlet. We went for the shopping for no other reason than to see what was there and because all we wanted to do at the casino was get some photos and I figured that we would have the time to do that when we all met back up there later. The shopping wasn’t us at all though and we were out of there in just a few minutes and walked down to the casino.
Now this was stunning, with real gold bars built into the floor of the lobby, but this was one very pompous casino. We went to sit down and were told that we had to buy something to sit down. Honestly, this place was just out to make money out of you at every turn. We also very much got the impression that they are only interested in the high rollers. Well, it certainly put our noses out of joint and a lot of other people in the group as well. Beautiful as it was, we were not impressed with their attitude and were relieved when the bus finally arrived to pick us up and we could get out of there. Outside the hotel
Then it was back to the ferry terminal, with a few final photos of Macau on the way:
When we got to the ferry terminal, we once again went through immigration (another stamp in the passport, which is always a bonus! ) and then it was through to the boarding gate. We only had a couple of minutes to wait before we boarded and then we were quickly off.
Unfortunately, this was a much rougher ride back to Hong Kong than we had had this morning, so again I slept most of the way back, as that’s my best defence from coping with rough weather when I’m at sea. Mark did the same and we both made it back just about in one piece. At least it was nowhere near as bad as our experience in the Mediterranean over the summer!
When we got off, it was back through immigration again and then we all boarded minibuses to take us back to our hotels. Again, we were with Thelma and Tim, who had really become our travelling companions throughout the day. Fortunately it didn’t take that long to get back to our hotel, as it seemed to have done this morning and we bid farewell. It had been a great day and we had really enjoyed their company.
By the time we arrived, it was about 7.30pm and we weren’t in the mood to go out for something to eat. Add to that, we were still fairly full from lunch, so we went into the nearby 7/11 shop and ended up getting a roll each – a tuna fish one for me and a meat one for Mark – and some prawn crackers and had those, along with some of the white sesame cakes that we had bought earlier back in the room and that was our dinner and the end of our day.
Today we walked 4.51 miles. The weather today was pretty warm and sunny with temperatures in the 60’s. The best thing today was the city centre of Macau and seeing Sao Paulo. The worst thing today was how rough the ferry ride back was. Today we tried a day trip to Macau And the result was it was a very enjoyable day and I’m glad we went. The most magical moment today was strolling through the historic city centre.
A little on the gaudy side there, methinks. Gold Bars in the floor? What does that prove? If they have to flaunt their wealth, they really aren't wealthy.
Glad you made it back in one piece despite the rough seas.
Wednesday 20 February – part one: a blooming beautiful sight
I guess we must’ve been tired from the last couple of days, because with a wake up call today, we didn’t even wake up until gone 8.00, which means we had 10 hours of sleep. Not bad going.
We finally got up and out and our first stop would be some of Hong Kong’s famous markets. But first we had an important detour to make to Sam’s Tailors in Kowloon to get a new suit for mark. We had been told about this place by a friend from work and knew that this was the place to come for a perfectly fitted suit at a good price.
This place is legendary and that’s shown by the photos of Sam literally hundreds of famous people, including British royalty and US Presidents. I was therefore expecting it to be a huge place, but it’s tiny and doesn’t look anything from outside, but once you get inside, you’ve got all these photos of famous people everywhere you look and they’re waiting to help you in any way they can.
I was just stunned by the place. It really is like stepping back in time to the days when customer service was all that mattered. Mark quickly picked a suit with the help of Sam himself, who was just a complete expert and immediately offered advice on every aspect of picking the suit. A few minutes after we entered, we were done and told to come back for a fitting at around 3.00pm this afternoon. I couldn’t believe how quickly they’d have something ready.
We then got back on the subway and headed first to the Flower Market, which was just breathtaking. The smell from here from the flowers was really over powering, in particular the carnations, freesias and hyacinths. There were all types of flowers here from spring bulbs to roses of all colours and plants like camellias. They appeared to come from all over the world with some from the Netherlands and some from Thailand that we saw. It’s the sort of place that I would probably be visiting all the time if I lived here, if nothing else, just to see the colours and smell the flowers.
We got to the end of the Flower Market and head a brief look in the Bird Garden Market, before walking back through the rest of the Flower Market and then heading back to the subway.
Two stops down, we jumped off and headed first to explore the Tin Hau Temple, as it was on our way to our next stop. It was so weird to see it right in the middle of a busy street with high rise buildings all around it.
Next we walked through the Jade Market. This wasn’t what I expected at all. I just had no idea whatsoever that it was undercover for starters.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World Its hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Sorry the casino wasn't any fun, I would have felt uncomfortable there too. Very that Mark got a suit from Sam Tailors! Your pictures of the Flower Market are just gorgeous, what a variety. The Jade Market looks interesting too, did you buy anything?
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Beautiful as it was, we were not impressed with their attitude and were relieved when the bus finally arrived to pick us up and we could get out of there. 
) and then it was through to the boarding gate. We only had a couple of minutes to wait before we boarded and then we were quickly off. 
Glad you had a great time in Macau 
that Mark got a suit from Sam Tailors! Your pictures of the Flower Market are just gorgeous, what a variety. The Jade Market looks interesting too, did you buy anything?
Can't wait to see Mark's suit 
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