And so it begins. We arrived in Hong Kong Sunday night after a bit of a delay out of San Francisco. We were met by the AHI rep, Phillip—a very chatty English, Irishman. The group was taken to the Novotel where we spent the night, had breakfast in the morning and walked around the attached mall, shopping only in the grocery store. By the way, malls are the same world round, only thing that changes is the prices. At noon we hopped on our bus for a tour prior to boarding the ship. We went to a Daoist temple. There are many religions in Hong Kong and all seem to coexist quite happily. Even in one family there may be multiple religions practiced. As often as we have been in Hong Kong, the Temple visit and the following visit to the flower market and bird park/market were new and unique experiences. It was a nice glimpse into every day life for the locals. Flowers of every type in two city blocks with orchids in abundance. The birds are sold as pets for the small apartment dwellers, you name it, they had it, big macaws to tiny tiny song birds. Lots of noise and song. Next stop—Jade market. There is always shopping to be had on these trips. Sue found a cricket box she liked but no jade. Drove through downtown area and headed to our ship which was parked right in the harbor next to the Star Ferry dock. Settled in, obligatory safely drill, dinner and then a light show in the Harbor—it happens every night and is set to music. We departed shortly thereafter on the way to a sea day and then Manila.
Our sea day was quite relaxing, still adjusting to the time change so we were up early. Breakfast on the back deck of the buffet restaurant. This is our favorite place to eat, it reminds us of our Bangkok to Dubai trip where we met Richard and Linda and ate there many nights. The ship we are on is a the same model as the Dubai trip so it seems even more odd to us that they are not here. We are on an Alumni trip organized by AHI. Traveling with us is a professor from U Cal Berkeley who is a historian and expert in the area since he was born and raised in the Philippines. He gave his first of 8 lectures today and it was fascinating about General Douglas MacArthur. He is a good story teller and we appreciated his perspective. The General, as it turns out, was quite an egotist, brilliant, but self centered. For instance he designed all his uniforms, including his funky cap and corn cob pipe. He was creating a image. PS, he did not smoke.
Lunch, nap, walked laps, explored the ship, checked out the shops, and it was time for dinner and then a reception with the AHI group. Interesting people from Vanderbilt, Ohio State, Cal, Duke, University of Virginia, Penn State and perhaps others we are not remembering. We have one guest who was in the Clandestine Unit of the CIA, she is retired.
We took in the early show of the ship singers and dancers, they did a collection of songs from movies—we enjoyed the dancing most of all. Still adjusting to the time change so 9:30 is late and we were off to bed.
Much to our surprise this morning, by 8:10 we had walked a mile, eaten and exchanged money. We are taking it easy before our excursion in Manila this afternoon. We just passed Bataan peninsula on the island of Luzon where the the POWs were gathered and were part of work camps and death marches. We also passed Koregador island (spelling??) where the US set up a base to shoot Japanese boats, but they never came past the island so no shots were fired. It is 11, we arrive in Manila around noon and then have an excursion this afternoon and a party ashore this evening. More to follow…
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