Stepping into a new continent – a week in Hong Kong COMPLETED - Page 23 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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I was just reading in my parents' Eyes & Ears newsletter for CMs that they gave the first boy and girl babies born in Hong Kong on Feb 7 free lifetime passes to all Disney Theme Parks around the World. How cool is that!
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Holy cow, that restaurant is some kind of fancy! You're better than I am at saying no - I'm sure I'd have been cruising the harbor on that woman's boat in no time. I have no sales resistance.
The horseracing sounds interesting - glad you were able to get to track-side Looking forward to seeing Mark in his new TWO-armed suit! And the restaurant looks awesome!
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Sharon - Kitty and me
2013 Scrapbook pages count: 631 / 350
2014 Scrapbook pages count: 60 / 250
Thursday 21 February – part two: getting to grips with chopsticks!
We weren’t that hungry, but we went in, as I knew that you could get dim sum at lunchtime.
About the only thing I knew about dim sum was that it was light and you get meat, vegetarian ones and fish ones. Well, there was an extensive menu of dim sum options and you had to mark on how many you wanted. We genuinely thought that when we put down one, we would get one, but we got one portion, which was usually three or four pieces. We ended up getting pork for Mark, scallops and crab and vegetarian ones for both of us to share.
It was very nice, but very difficult to eat… with chopsticks! That was all that we got at our table and we felt obliged to give it a go. Let’s just say that Mark have the Chinese family at the table next to us a very good laugh with his attempts with the chopsticks. I think I did a bit better, but my goodness, I did struggle with the fact that I physically couldn’t fit the things in my mouth in one go. I needed about three or four bits and it was after the first bit that the stuff would fall off my chopsticks. Irritating, but very rewarding when we finally did get to eat it and I’m very proud of us both for a) trying dim sum and b) using chopsticks to do it. It said something that we were the only westerners in there and hopefully we didn’t disgrace ourselves too much.
When we finished eating, we went to catch the free ferry back to the harbour or that’s what we thought. We ended up catching the wrong ferry, as it took us over to what looked like the Yacht Club. We got off, thinking that we would just walk back, but it wasn’t going to be that easy, so we decided to go back to Jumbo and picked up the right ferry, which this time we managed to do.
Even at the restaurant, we were still being encouraged to try out the sampons, but we were happy with our choice of the ferry.
When we got back on dry land, we walked slowly back to the subway, taking more photos on the way. This is a truly beautiful place and I’m very glad that we came here. The harbour was such a lovely colour and the restaurants were just so sumptuous, more than I ever imagined. It was a very enjoyable half day out.
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I'm pretty much a newbie - but I definitely see why everyone seems to love your TR. I just read the entire thread this afternoon and I can't wait for more.
Thursday 21 February – part three: an oasis in amongst the tower blocks
We took the bus back to the terminal and then we had time to kill before our junk boat ride at 4.00, so we just walked and made some great discoveries as we did. We found some beautiful squares, perhaps the best of them was Chater Garden, which was full of all types of trees and water features and obviously a popular place for businessmen and women to head for during their lunch-hour. It was just such an oasis in amongst all the tower blocks.
I had read in one of my guidebooks that there was an observation deck at the Bank of China, so we decided to check that out next. As we walked in, it really didn’t look like there was. There was certainly nothing in the information at reception to suggest that there was, but we plucked up courage to ask and were told that there was one on the 43rd floor of the building. Cool. We were pointed in the direction of the lift and off we went.
It was a very surreal experience to be in there with men and women in suits and it did feel like we didn’t belong and half of me was thinking that we would be thrown out at any moment, but it didn’t happen. When we got to floor 43, we saw huge glass windows giving some amazing views over Hong Kong Island and towards Kowloon. It gave a very different perspective from the Peak and I’m sure that it was clearer than the other days so far here. It was certainly a lot sunnier today than on any other day so far. We stood there for ages, just taking it all in and making sure that we had all the photos that we could possibly want.
Finally, we emerged into the reception area and there, just like many other places in Hong Kong, you couldn’t miss the Olympic mascots. Here you can see each one – and their name – and if you take the first part of each name, it spells out Beijing Huan Ying Nini or welcome to Beijing!
We wandered through the Central area of Hong Kong, just browsing shops. Trust me, we were never going to buy anything, because all the names we saw were designer and well out of our league!
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Thursday 21 February – part four: I can’t buy chocolates here!
Eventually we made our way to the Star Ferry Pier, which worked out well, as I had said that I wanted to take this during the day and hadn’t had the chance yet, so that’s how we got over to Kowloon. It’s just as fun in the day as it is at night and such a bargain too at just HK$2.20 each way – only about 10 pence. Unbelievable.
Land reclamation underway Just like our roundabouts back home!
When we got off at Kowloon, we wandered into one of the big shopping centres nearby. It’s very rare that I find a shopping centre that I don’t like, but this was one of them. I just found the whole place very disorientating. We did visit a few electrical shops, but as we had already seen so far, the prices for cameras didn’t seem to be that much cheaper than they were at home.
We explored Marks and Spencer, just because we had to, as it’s such a big name at home. Again, the prices were very similar and so were the items on offer. I was looking for some chocolates for my work colleagues (it’s a tradition anytime anyone goes on holiday) and Mark suggested that I get it here, but there was no way I could really go back with Marks and Spence chocolates for them. Good grief, they’d never believe that we’d been away! As we left the shopping centre, we got some photos with the Hong Kong skyline behind us:
On the way over to the Kowloon Public Pier, we stopped at the Hong Kong Tourist Service booth to see if there was anywhere I could get a JingJing. As you’ve just seen from the photos at the Bank of China Tower, JingJing is the adorable panda and one of the five Olympic mascots. I had fallen in love with JingJing and decided that I just had to go home with a toy version of him. Fortunately, there was an Olympic shop in Kowloon, so we found out where it was, making a mental note to go later.
Then it was time to board our Duk Ling junk ride. It’s so neat that the tourist board put this on for visitors free of charge and it’s certainly popular. It only takes 30 people per trip, which is nice, as you don’t feel that it’s too full. It was a bit bouncy during our hour long trip on it and during that time, we got taken all the way past Hong Kong Island and Causeway Bay and even past where our hotel would be, had they not built so many apartments in front of it. It was very interesting to see the area from the perspective of the water and I’m very glad that we did this. It’s certainly a unique and traditional thing to do. It’s now the last remaining traditional junk in operation, which is a real shame. There are some others, but I think they’re all reproductions. It’s sad there aren’t any more out there to do.
These are the apartments in front of where our hotel was
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Looking forward to seeing Mark in his new TWO-armed suit! And the restaurant looks awesome!
Great pics!
As we left the shopping centre, we got some photos with the Hong Kong skyline behind us: 
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