Thursday 1^st May 2014

Another early rise as we are booked on the Hong Kong Island tour leaving the Hotel at 8:25am. Weather report for today is much the same as yesterday, 24°, very foggy and a light rain shower earlier in the morning.

First stop on the tour was Victoria Peak. On a clear day the views would be awesome, however, the higher up the mountain we went the thicker the fog got. Took some photos but they mostly show how dense the fog was. Our tour Guide said the best time of the year for clear skies is autumn.

View from top of Victoria Peak

Aberdeen Fishing Village

Jumbo Floating Restaurant

 Our second stop today was Aberdeen fishing village. Not a traditional village as we know it. The village is comprised of fishing boats, sampans and houseboats. You guessed it, the village is a floating community with the famous and very large “Jumbo” floating restaurant.

We went for a 30-minute ride round the village on traditional sampan, although it did have a diesel engine.

Sampan Water Taxis

Next was a visit to the Dynasty Jewelry manufacturers’ factory. After a brief introduction to how the items are designed and manufactured we were able to view and purchase items if we wanted. As Lynne’s & my Chinese horoscope animal is a horse I put my negotiating skills to work and bought an 18 carat gold and diamond horse pendent which I got a good discount on.   

The last stop of the tour was the Stanley Markets and on the way we drove around Repulse Bay, named after a famous Royal Navy Ship of the line. Repulse Bay is also the location of some of the most prestigious and expensive residential housing on Hong Kong Island.

Majority of the housing in Hong Kong is high-rise and the apartments for the most part are very small with only 2 bedrooms, total size approx. 300 square feet. There are very few freestanding residences’ on the Island and they range in price from US$1.0M +.

Stanley market is like every other market we have been to. Lots of shops and stalls in a very confined space. We manage after a bit of bargaining to get an outfit for Mini Fitz. I would have haggled more but Lynne obviously felt sorry for the stall owner as she agreed a price early in the negotiations.

Arrived back at the hotel about 1:30pm and had lunch in the buffet. We managed to extend our checkout time to 6:00PM so we can have a shower, repack our bags and head to the airport after checking out. A much better way than putting bags in storage and wandering round for the day.

That’s all from Hong Kong. Our flight departs tonight at 11:15pm local time with  eta of 4:55am at Heathrow. So the next update will be from London. 

Stanley Markets