Best Bargain in Hong Kong

For $7 HKD, our family rode the Star Ferry from Central to Tsim Tsa Tsui, on the upper deck even (the more expensive class). That's a whopping $1 USD - what a bargain!


The ride takes about 7 minutes and is a wonderful way to see the city from the water. It used to be be my favorite way to cross the Harbour when I was a teen (and even on a teenager's budget, I would ride in the upper deck - I didn't care for the squawking chickens on the lower deck back then).

Wild Pink Dolphins

On our last day in Hong Kong, I booked us on a tour with HK DolphinWatch - an organization to raise awareness about the plight of endangered pink dolphins in the South China Sea near where the Pearl River delta meets the ocean.


There are only about 150 of these dolphins left and we spotted a handful - and they're really pink! Note that it's really hard to get a good photo of a wild dolphin when it's 30 feet away and you can't tell where it's going to surface next! The babies start out grey (we saw one of those swimming with the mother) and then turn pink when they hit their "teenage" years.

I also couldn't resist taking a photo of one of our fellow traveller's choice of footwear for a 3 hour outing on a small boat ;)

I've been spoiled...

We stayed at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong, one of the nicest hotels in the city - and it was just ho hum to me. I've been spoiled by our stay at the Venetian in Macau - the toilet here doesn't have a seat warmer!

Here's the view of Hong Kong Harbour from our window.

Olympic Fever

Since the Olympic Equestrian events are taking place in Hong Kong, there was a great deal of excitement when we were there. It started with a large Olympic countdown clock at the airport.

There was also a large Olympic display on the waterfront.
And lots of fuwas (the 5 mascots) everywhere.
Our favorites were the panda (Jing Jing) and the Flame (Huan Huan).

My Greatest Pleasure!

I have to admit that my favorite thing about our outrageous high roller suite was the toilet. It won my heart over the other over-the-top features like the bathtub TV, the rain shower with 6 different massage heads, the fancy espresso capsule machine, the complex automatic light/curtain controls in every room and the fact that you could bowl in the hallways and still have room to spare.

Oh yes, you may think you've experienced cool toilets in Germany or even those high-tech ones in Japan, but this one, in the Venetian Macau - 5 stars all the way!

It looks ordinary enough, but has a sensor so the seat cover raises when you walk into the room. The seat is heated so wonderfully that it's a joy to sit down.









And oh yes, this is the control panel.

Gosh, I miss that toilet!

The High Roller Life in Macau

We headed to Macau for two days to celebrate my father's birthday - Macau is a Special Administrative Region in China, like Hong Kong, and was a Portuguese colony for the better part of the 20th century. Although it has some lovely European colonial architecture and a unique cuisine, it's best known for being a gambling mecca. I still recall my visits there 25 years ago - well, it's changed a lot. It now takes in more gambling revenue on a daily basis than Las Vegas.

A family friend was a high roller (i.e. big gambler) at the Venetian and arranged for 3 complimentary rooms for our party using his apparently very large balance of casino credits. When we arrived (picked up by many bowing people in private vans at the ferry terminal) we were ushered up to an extremely large 3 bedroom high roller suite and asked if that "would be ok" instead of 3 regular rooms. We quickly agreed ;)







The suite was unbelievable - probably around 3,000 sq feet with 3 large bedrooms with enormous walk in closets and bathrooms, plus a workout room with sauna and steam room, a massage room with massage table, 2 (yes, TWO!) salon rooms with hairdressing chairs, a kitchen, a media room, a dining room and 3 other large sitting areas. And really nice bath products (Bulgari The Vert - mmmm, good).












We counted 12 TVs in the whole suite - including 2 bath tub TVs (the kids were in heaven!)

Hong Kong Disneyland

We flew up to HK for a few days and spent one night at the HK Disneyland Hotel, in our continued quest to visit all the Disney properties around the world. The hotel looks just like the Grand Floridian at Disney World.



This is the newest of the Disney parks and faced a barrage of criticism when it opened that there was not enough to do. While we completely enjoyed the park, it was probably about 3/4 the size of Disneyland in Anaheim and had about 50% of the attractions. There was a noticeable absence of "E ticket" rides - no Pirates, no Haunted Mansion, one single Mountain (Space).

Still, our expectations had been set by reading some of the reviews beforehand and we had a great time. The one downside was that it was searingly hot - probably around 38 celsius (~ 100 F), and that really sapped our energy (HK had a bit of a heat wave while we were there - lucky us!)

Highlights included a Small World ride with an expanded Asia section and the incorporation of various Disney characters, and the lines were all very short.





It was the first time I had the option of snacking on Korean squid in a Disney park - and I had a really good blackcurrant jelly ice cream bar.






And the Chinese restaurant in the Disneyland Hotel (Crystal Lotus) was just phenomenal - check out the dim sum (this is known as "woo guo" - or crispy taro balls - first time ever presented as swans!)

If you're in HK with kids and have a day to spare, this is a worthy stop. But I wouldn't make a special trip here. As we left, my daughter asked, "Are we going to Tokyo Disneyland next year then?" Yikes!