This is what we saw from our balcony.
There was a pollution haze over the city as we pulled into the port and docked in front of the Harbor Mall. Before you can even get out to the streets you must walk through this gigantic 4 story mall filled to the brim with every conceivable luxury store that comes to mind. We arrived on Friday morning at 9am so we had a chance to window shop as we walked out to the street. Imagine an area 2 times the size of Sawgrass Mall! There has to be at least 25 exclusive jewelry shops alone - their windows hold an amazing amount of beautiful items. Prices in HK are not inexpensive but you can bargain almost anywhere except the name brand stores.
The city is divided into 2 parts - the Hong Kong side and the Kowloon side. Our ship was docked on the Kowloon side which faces the cityscape of Hong Kong. The view is incredible and the architecture of some of the buildings are amazing. This building below is an office building with a W hotel at the top. It is about 100 stories high. They say that you can see China from the hotel rooms on a clear day. I think someone said the top floor suite costs $5,000 per day US. The rays you see at the top of the building is the sun glinting off the glass of the building with the haze capturing the rays.
By 10 am all the shops were open and we spent the first day wandering around Kowloon.
There are so many people on the streets its incredible. The money spent in 1 day in Hong Kong must be astounding. From 10 am in the morning they line up in front of stores like Cartier, Gucci, Channel,
just to get in the door to spend money. The majority of buyers are very young. Between 18 -40
We were told that most come in from mainland China. A longtime HK resident who now lives in Australia and was back home for a visit said most is corruption money and they spend it like water.
They go into the stores and say "I want one of these, one of these, two of those" and so on.
The Asian women are fixated on beauty products and we saw them with shopping bags filled to the top with products they take home. (They don't trust the stores in China to carry legitimate merchandise)
The carry many fakes. Most stores have large signs saying "No Fakes Here"
Look how crowded these store are on Friday a.m. and Saturday was far far more crowded.
Below is the lineup to shop! Half the salespersons in the stores for women's cosmetics and beauty products are young Asian men wearing tight clothes - eyeliner and lipstick!
The city is extremely clean and there are flowers including fresh cut roses and orchid plants all over the city in containers.
Len and I just walked for about 8 hours without stopping. Our mouths were hanging open with the pace this city keeps.
In the evenings at 8 pm there is a light show on the buildings in Hong Kong and it is beautiful from the Kowloon side. We were on the deck of our ship to watch it.
The pictures on the entire blog are low resolution. I can't upload anything big so they are not as nice as when you see them on the computer.
Of course the average person in Hong Kong does not live in a nice home but are crammed into apartment buildings that are overshadowed by the high rise office buildings. This is a group of apartment buildings. There must be thousands living in them.
Trapped between hi-rises
Of course there are those unlucky enough not to even have an apartment in HK.
We went into a health food store looking for Grapeseed Extract. Supposed to be good for the stomach
instead of Pepto. We also saw all these items but did not want to ask what they were.
The next day we wanted to see the Hong Kong side of the city and we took a ferry boat which was close by where our ship docked for a 10 minute ride across the harbor. It cost under $3 US for the ride.
We had fun.
Inside the ferry
When we got off the ferry we had to walk across a long footbridge to get into the city and as we stopped on the bridge we saw them constructing a huge building on reclaimed land right in front of the beautiful hotels and office buildings. It will certainly block their view but since it is a Chinese government building no one can say much. They tried to stop it's building, but it was impossible. They work at a frantic pace with construction taking place all over the city, 7 days a week with hundred and hundreds of workers just on this building alone.
We wandered HK for the day. It is a lovely city. We talked to one shop owner who told us he was not happy with China taking over - he said too many rules to follow.
The next day we took the ferry again to go to Stanley Market. We took a bus $8 US for a 40 minute ride to the other side of HK. The scenery was beautiful. This is one of the hotels with face Repulse Bay
The reason for the hole in the building is that that the dragon that lives in the hills can get to the sea
and they can't block his view. A Feng Shui thing.
This is Repulse Bay. In 1841, the bay was used as a base by pirates and caused concern to foreign merchant ships trading with China. The pirates were repulsed by the British; hence the name. Another theory holds that the bay was named after HMS Repulse which was stationed at the bay at one point. It has a fabulous beach and is halfway between central HK and the Market.
Stanley Market is famous. They sell everything from flowers to gems. A really interesting place to wander. Filled with alleyways packed full of tourists. It stays open in the evenings as well.
We were terrified to eat anything, especially after seeing this. We waited until we got back aboard.
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