Return to Hong Kong

Leaving Ho Chi Minh City the Celebrity Millennium steamed north in South China Sea to our next destination, Hue, Vietnam. Unfortunately the weather was quickly deteriorating and the Captain made an announcement that it would be iffy if we could make port in Hue. 

This was a much nicer way to weather the storm than to have huge waves crashing over the decks of Flying Cloud.

As the day progressed the seas built to 20 - 25 ft. and winds topped 60 knots.  For Flying Cloud those conditions would be life threatening, but the huge 965-ft. Millennium powered through the storm with a minimum of disruption on the ship. While some passengers got seasick, and walking on the upper decks was a challenge, our cabin in the center of ship close to the waterline was fairly calm given the conditions. As we approached Hue the next morning the Captain announced the port had been closed by Vietnamese authorities and the city of Hoi An, one of the more popular tour destinations, was flooding in the torrential rains. Hue was the destination I most wanted to see so it was very frustrating to pass it by.

The Grand Dining Room Our table was on the upper floor to the right. 

We obviously didn't dress like this for dinner, but couldn't resist the chance to photograph the empty dining room early in the day.

We spent the next few days at sea doing our favorite shipboard activities: eating, working out, reading, and more eating. We needed to reach Hong Kong before we both turned into sumo wrestlers. On the evening of December 19th we slowly cruised through the phantasmagorica of brightly lit skyscrapers lining Hong Kong Harbor.  Ironically we were landing at the new Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, which was built on the site of the old Kai Tak Airport where Meryl and I first flew into Hong Kong in the 1970s. The approach for the airplanes then was to make a steep turn and then dive in between high rise buildings seeming just off the wingtips to facilitate a landing. If you want to reminisce, look up “Kai TaK landing” on YouTube so you can understand what a nail-biting experience it was for passengers (and pilots).

You can imagine this view at night when all of Hong Kong is brightly lit.

We had one day remaining on the ship in Hong Kong before departure, so Meryl and I decided to do the quintessential Hong Kong tourist activity:  Take the tram up to the top of Victoria Peak, the highest peak overlooking Hong Kong. While our daughter had warned us, we were shocked at the two-hour long line to ride the tram. We quickly hailed a roving taxi but he wanted $60 for the 10-minute ride to the top. After giving him the “what turnip truck do we look like we fell off of” look, we jumped out and got another cab that had his meter running. Fare was $6 to the top, which was actually cheaper than the tram ride. 

Crowding on the downhill ride of the Peak Tram.

A selfie on top of Victoria Peak.

We explored the shopping mall at the top and then took a long walk up Mount Austin Road enjoying the spectacular views along the way. There were old military (British? Japanese?) emplacements dug into the steep hillside on the way up. At the top was a incredible lookout with 360 degree views of the surrounding cityscape. Hong Kong is such an amazing city with a well storied history, and even though this was probably our 30th visit we always enjoy the city.

At the shopping complex atop The Peak we stopped to get some well deserved Hagen Daz ice cream, which turned out to be probably the most expensive in the world at $14 for two tiny single scoop cones. Hard to enjoy at those prices. 

The line for the ride down was much shorter so we enjoyed the tram ride down the steep hillside through the mid-levels area of Hong Kong. We climbing down the myriad of stairways down to Central, where we took the underground subway back to Kwun Tong where we boarded a shuttle bus to our cruise ship.  

As usual we were pretty tired after the long day touring the city but still enjoyed a final calorie loaded dinner before disembarking the next day to rejoin the whole gang for Christmas.