Day 47 (10th July) Hong Kong – David Jenny Travel

There were frequent thunder storms and it rained all day. The hotel room had a umbrella which we took although it didn’t stop us getting soaked as we walked to the Ferry Terminal in the hope of getting a ferry to Lantau Island. It lists as an interesting place to go on Tripadvisor. However the Ferry Terminal only deals with ferries to Macau and further down the Chinese coast and we were advised to go to “Central” where we can get a ferry to Lantau. A man we passed in the street said we should get the MTR (metro) from Tsim Sha Tsui station in Nathan Road, which is parallel to Canton Road where the Prince Hotel is located. We got the train for two stops to Central and then walked for half a mile following signs to Star Ferries, where there was a ferry to Lantau. We were surprised to hear that you can’t use a card to buy ferry tickets, only Hong Kong Yuan or Hong Kong Dollars. We had neither but the lady in the ticket office told us, in a conspiratorial tone, that a man in a nearby stall could change our Chinese yuan for Hong Kong Yuan. So we got some suitable money, bought our tickets and got on the ferry. Not a great success; there would have been excellent views of Hong Kong Island, topped by “The Peak”, with its seemingly impenetrable mass of skyscrapers, and numerous small uninhabited islands covered with dense forests had it not been for the rain which obscured everything. I should know better than trust Tripadvisor for advice on places to see; Luntau is a dump consisting of a shabby little village, Mui Wo, full of greasy spoon caffs and tourist tat shops. There was a rather nice looking beach with no-one on it. We drew the line at going to MacDonalds to get out of the rain, and went instead to the smartest-looking caff, a pizzeria where I had a reasonable pizza for an extortionate price. So wo got the ferry back to Kowloon and, after getting lost on the metro, got back to the hotel. The highlight of the day was a very nice buffet meal at the restaurant.