The first excursion booked here in Kowloon and it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. The itinerary sounded great:- Ride the peak tram to the sky terrace viewing platform on Hong Kong Island. Visit the old Hong Kong fishing village. Ride the longest escalator in the world. A trip to see the latest in designer clothing (not something we were interested in but was on the tour) Watch how fine jewellery was made at a factory. Star Ferry ride across the harbour to Kowloon. View the old clock tower and (to finish off the 9- hour excursion) a Victoria Harbour cruise with buffet dinner to watch the famous festival of lights on the harbour buildings from the upper deck. Unfortunately for us, and the other 8 people on the tour, it was only the tram to the sky viewing terrace, the fishing village and the Star ferry crossing (although that only lasted 10 minutes.) that was any good.
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| Peak Tram |
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| Cheap tat sold at the sky terrace. |
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| Fishing village |
As for fashion outlet....dreadful. In fact, we left our guide and headed for the nearest bar. Our guide found us 40 minutes later! The Jewellery factory was okay but hard selling after the demonstration was most off-putting. Ian did buy me a small Chinese zodiac necklace. My sign is the snake which means intelligent and flexible. Somehow I think they may have got that wrong! As for the longest escalator, he only took us halfway. Stretching for over 800-metres and rising 135-metres through the streets of a steep hillside linking some of the districts of Hong Kong Island, the series of 20 escalators and 3 inclined moving walkways has 14 entrances and exits and takes about 20 minutes to complete. Would have been worth it if we could have gone right to the top but no, it was halfway to go see that fashion outlet!
The ship was waiting for us on the Kowloon side of the harbour, Bauhinia, and we all only just boarded on time. No sooner had the last foot stepped off the gangway then it was hastily raised, ropes cast off and away we sailed. We literally had minutes to get to the top deck to view the lights. But if we had known how awful it was to be we should have stayed below. Apart from some of the lights on the buildings changing colour, shining a few green laser beams into the sky was not what I class as a light show!
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| This is what we saw and this...... |
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| The old clock tower |
Took some more night harbour photos. At least the building lights gave a decent show.
And an Egret at the fishing village.
2 comments:
Have you visited the Tiger Balm Gardens?
I dont think the gardens exist anymore. Came across this link when I googled it.
http://www.thaiworldview.com/hongkong/hkisland/causewaybay4.htm.
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