We had a long but good flight to Hong Kong and were met by the delightful Anne and Gary, our ex boarder of many years ago. They both took a day off work so they could show us around and treat us to lunch, dinner and everything in between. They took us up a very tall building to have lunch at a special Korean bbq restaurant where our food was cooked at the table over a burner. The food just kept coming and when the scollops and lobster tails came out we thought we had died and gone to heaven. All this whilst overlooking the Hong Kong harbour, watching the boats and junks sail by.
After lunch we checked into the ship, got our boarding cards and dumped the luggage. We were suppose to go to a life boat drill onboard the ship but as we were with Anne and Gary we had to forgo the safety aspect of the trip. Just have to hope it doesn't do a titanic. After that they took us to the beach for a stroll and a coffee then went into a visual art centre where they had it set up with very clever murals and you could insert yourself in the picture to make it look like you were part of it. You used your own camera for the pictures and the staff there were only to happy to tell you were to stand then take the picture for you.
After this was almost dinner time so back to the wharf where the boat was docked to a nearby restaurant that specialised in Peking duck. This restaurant was packed with locals and the food was excellent. From our table we could see the harbour and had a good view of the laser light show they have every night at eight.
Where the ship was docked is an enormous shopping complex, I think it may be the biggest in HK which is saying something. I'm not sure how the shops survive as no one seemed to be buying anything but Gary said a lot of Chinese come over from the mainland and spend the whole day there shopping, going home loaded with bags. You could certainly spend the whole day there and never venture any further, in fact it would take a day to find your way out If you didn't know where you were going.
We finally got onto the boat around 10.30pm after waving a fond goodbye to our very gracious hosts and made our way to our cabin. When we opened the door we were greeted by a bucket of ice with two bottles of wine nestled in its depths, one sparking and one still. Sitting quietly beside them were two tall wine glasses just inviting us to come on in and settle down for the night. It was very tempting as we had been up for almost 48 hours but there was one more thing to do before retiring for the night and that was to go on deck to watch the sail away. With all the lights of HK on the tall skyscrapers and reflecting off the harbour it is a very beautiful sight to see and as the ships slips away into the night the twinkle of the lights slowly disappear to be swallowed up by the blackness of the night.
The next three days were spent at sea which may seem boring to the uninitiated but they are anything but boring. It does take a few days to get into the swing of things but once you find your rythem you're away. I don't think the QV has as good an itinerary in regards to activities as the other ships we have been on but non the less there is always something to do besides eat.
On the 4th day we docked at the port of Singapore. By now it had warm up to a very pleasant 32 deg and after 3 days at sea were very pleased to have terra firma under our feet again. We had decided to do the hop on hop off bus tour as we thought it would be the easiest thing to do. We hadn't really counted on the heat and tropical humidity so around lunchtime we had almost had it. Singapore had changed quite a bit since last time we were there like the new marina bay complex, gardens by the bay, new bridges and a floating stadium. There is still a lot of construction going on with highrises and road work but then again it seemed there was a lot of construction last time, I guess it never stops for them. By the time we had done the two lines right around the city there was not a lot of time left to do any shopping.
We did have a wander down Orchard road but the shops there are too high end for us although Samsung were having a promotion so we popped into this big marquee and had a play on their latest gadgets including the 3D experience where you put this headgear on with the phone clipped into the goggles part and you can experience a virtual reality with whatever is going on in the movie. They also had movie seats there that moved so you could have a 4d experience.
The other great shop/s we saw were the electronic shops in a big mall. It had any and everything a gadget freak could ever wish for and more. It wasn't any cheaper than what you can get it for anywhere else but it was all in one place and almost mind blowing.
The buses took us around Chinatown, little India, Arab town, the docks and the beautiful colonial houses on the outskirts worth literally millions of dollars. As we had been to Singapore before we didn't really make much of an effort to see more and as Jon was getting hot and grumpy we headed back for the ship.
The ship seems such a sanctuary from the heat and noise and chaos in the outside world. We can sit in peaceful surroundings with a cool drink and gaze out of the window contemplating what's for dinner and should we attend the show or not.
Sail away was meant to be at 12am and I particularly didn't want to miss it as sailing out of a big city at night is always spectacular. By 12.45am I couldn't stay awake any longer and was so annoyed we were late. It turned out we didn't leave until 1.45am due to some administrative issue, think it had something to do with customs.
Two more days at sea and we pulled into the port of Penang. Not wanting to waste our time like we did in Singapore we decided to sign up for a ships tour out to the Orang utang sanctuary. This is situated on an island about an hour and quarter from Penang.
Penang is also an island of approx 285 square meters with a population of 650,000. It is connected to the mainland by a 13km long bridge designed to last for 400 years and withstand earthquakes up to 7.5 on the richter scale. It is the third longest suspension bridge in the world.
At the sanctuary they have approx 21 Orang utangs that can roam freely around the island. There is no fear of them escaping as they can't swim. There can only be one alpha male at one time in the community and you can tell which one he is as he grows these big cheeks. The last alpha male died just recently from a heart attack, apparently they can get all the same diseases as humans and in fact are the closet primate related to us. They are also incredibly strong, can't remember the exact detail but think it's around 10-15 times stronger than humans so they could crush you quite easily. When they sit down, with all their shaggy fur it looks like they have melted into a puddle.
Anyway, to get to this sanctuary you take a boat from this theme park area that had a water park, fish spa and shops. Boat trip took about 10 mins across this very large, peaceful lake and landed you on a jetty area built up on long stilts. You then walked along a path way that had a cage built over it and looked thru at the Orang utangs looking back at you. There was also an electric fence between the cage and them so there would be no chance that either you or them could come into contact. Even the keepers did not go into their area and would feed them through these long tubes or throw them food. If it landed just outside the electric fence they knew not to put their arms through so would grab a stick to lift up the fence at the bottom and sneak their hand underneath, very clever. They were very cute, there were babies playing around and young males swinging high up in the trees. It's well worth doing if you are ever up that way.
After we got back we had a little wander around Georgetown which was not as pretty as I thought it would be. Georgetown is the historical centre of Penang and has been granted unesco world heritage status. Named in honour of King George 3rd it's situated on the eastern headland, sheltered from the oceans on the west by a mountain range. Although it does have some beautiful colonial buildings and interesting food places it seemed just like any other Asian city, uneven footpaths, chaotic, noisy and hot. Admittedly we didn't get to see some of the more historic and interesting buildings or go up the funicular to the top of the hill to see the view or temples but just walking around the streets was enough to figure that it's not really a place we would rush back to. It was also a very hazy day so the views were very limited anyway.
Once again the sail way was late, seems like a common thing with this boat. We were meant to leave at 5pm but didn't get underway until 7pm. Apparently there were technical difficulties then at 6 someone had a medical emergency so they were carted off. Just as well we hadn't left otherwise we would have had to turn around and come back, something that we had experienced before.
One more hot sea day, sailing on calm, very deep blue waters that are averaging around 32 deg, my kinda temperature just can't get down that far, before we arrived very early morning into Colombo Sri Lanka.
Colombo was again a bit of a surprise, this time a nice one. I thought it would be just another India, which I'm none too impressed with but it was much nicer. It has beautiful big green parks, still has the lovely colonial buildings, lots of evidence of the Bristish occupation and also the newer highrises and modern shopping centres. There was even a replica of the Whitehouse, sitting on a large lush green lawn. Colombo Has a nice long beach with golden sands and palm trees lining one end of the city where they were flying kites as a bright red sun sunk to the sea in the evening. Traffic however is horrendous, we spent many hours just sitting and waiting in the traffic jams around the city, very frustrating.
We did another ships tour of the highlights of the city which I have to admit are not a lot but it was a nice drive. We went to the Jami-Ul-Alfar mosque first off, a popular place to visit and can hold up to 8000 worshippers. Then a stop at independence square. Not sure of the significance of that is, our guide was a bit shortcoming on some facts and the ones he did come up with no one could understand what he did say. There were a few gypsies hanging around the square with their enormous constrictor snakes for the tourists to have their photo with or little monkeys on the end of a lead and there was even a snake charmer. As soon as he thought you were interested he whipped the lid of the basket off and up popped a Cobras head waving in time to the fluters tune. The next stop we did and hello, here they were again, the exact same guys! It must have seemed like pay day to them with 2000 extra tourists in town. We saw the national museum which was in a beautiful large colonial building but there only seemed to be about 4 or 5 rooms of antiquities, a throne that belonged to the King of Kandy and a few of his artefacts and that was about it. A half hour tour of it killed it dead.
After we were dropped off we decided to walk around on our own for the rest of the day. We wandered around a large market that I think was only on for the day and geared mostly for locals but they had lots of cheap shirts and saris. All the women were dressed in gorgeous colourful saris making the rest of us look very dull in compression. The people seemed very nice too but it's hard to get over our inheritant mistrust of people from these countries. One very nice chap came up to us and said we really should go to the exhibition that's on for today with over 60-70% off. For just $2 we could get a tuk tuk there. In fact he was so helpful he called a tuk tuk driver over and instructed him to take us to this place and only charge $2 there and $2 back. He told us only to catch the red tuk Turks as they were government owned and trustworthy and with that and a strange last word of only buying sapphires with a certificate he waved us goodbye. We thought we were going to another market type place with a big exhibition as we were rocketed down busy streets with trucks coming straight for us and narrowing missing cars by inches. Our driver chatted happily away and seemed a very nice chap, then he pulled into our destination. As soon as the door opened we knew we had made a big mistake. It was a jewellery shop and they welcome us in like spiders would a fly. No exhibition here, we were tricked. We walked out again almost as quick and said to our driver to take us to proper shops. No problem, another terrifying half hour journey and he delivered us to a government souvenir shop, no trickery here sir, all government owned. Well what a lot of shit was there, wooden elephants, fabrics and god knows what else. By now Jon had put a tone on his voice and said take us to normal shops. Well he eventually did then tried to charge us $40 for the privelage. After much arguing We ended up giving him half that which was still way over the top, he even asked for jons watch instead! Thieving bastard. The ride back was only $3, goes to show what a con the first guy was.
That night, for the very first time, we left port early. So early in fact that I missed it. It should have been at 9pm so we went on deck at 8.50pm in time to see the lights of Colombo fading into the distance. So that was our experience of Sri Lanka, not altogether unpleasant with a quick and silent getaway.
Whew that was worth waiting for. Would have loved to see the orangutans
ReplyDeleteWhew that was worth waiting for. Would have loved to see the orangutans
ReplyDelete👍😃
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