Day 28 Hong Kong

I had an interesting day today. First of all it started out very exciting with our early morning arrival in Hong Kong, a great place to visit. My plan for the day was to take an excursion going to Macau for the first time. Macau like Hong Kong is a special administrative zone and operates differently that mainline China. Macau was turned back to the Chinese fro the Portuguese in 1999 two years after Hong Kong was returned by the British. Going there was a great idea but there couldn’t have been a worse time to go… it was a Chinese holiday and everyone was out. Many and I mean many of them were also going to Macau. The process of getting on the ferry and going through immigration both ways was very painful. I figure by the time we got there, aside from lunch we spent 25 minutes touring. Not good value for a 10 hour tour costing over $180. Lunch was nice (not $180 worth) and was on top of the Macau Tower, the 10th highest free standing tower in the world. Our visit to the ruins of St. Paul's was slightly marred by a photo op in from of it by the Orlando Magic basketball team…. Go figure! The rest of the tour was fairly unexciting and very rushed. We didn’t even go to the old town… Very disappointing. This was certainly not something Holland America could be proud. After I go back I decided to strike out and wander the streets of Hong Kong and go to the Night Market. Now that is exciting! This city is so alive and vibrant. I thought of my friends Allan and Sandra as I walked back to the ship. I walked by a little café on the water where we spent some quality time have a drink and relaxing while we were here on the World Voyage. I look forward to seeing them on January 4th when the next World Voyage begins. Perhaps we’ll have a drink on the water in Hong Kong again…. My wandering around Hong Kong provided a great ending to an otherwise uninspiring day…