Day 40 – Hong Kong Nights
Most places we stop on a cruise are “one day” ports – in by 7 am out by 5pm. An overnight stay, of which there are 5 on this world cruise, affords the opportunity for different kinds of activities – maybe a nice dinner out or a show. In this case, because of the New Year, Hong Kong is providing expanded entertainment, which is scheduled to start at 8:00pm.
Two of our tablemates, Chuck & Debbie, from Des Moines, joined us for the evening. Running the gauntlet of the mall on the pier, we caught a cab near the ferry terminal and asked him to take us to the “Night Market”. The night market, like Stanley Market, offers small shops, under tarps, offering all sorts of lower priced goods and “knock off” goods, like Polo shirts for $8, and purses, electronics, cameras, and all sorts of tourist goods. The market is on Temple Street, running for about 4 blocks, completely blocking the street to vehicles, with various restaurants and shops on the outside, and a double row of shops down the middle of the street. It opens at 4 pm, thus the name, and is always packed. You can tell it is a good place for bargains, since you will always spot the crew from the ship shopping there.
The entrance to the Temple Street Night Market
Chuck & Debbie
Yours truly.
We spent a couple of hours in the market, and then caught a cab back to the waterfront area for the light show. Hong Kong normally has a nightly light show in the harbor, but for the New Year celebration they have ramped it up, adding more lights, music and lasers.
They also added a “lantern” display on the waterfront esplanade – these lanterns are 15 to 20 feet high.
Despite the cold, wind & rain the show was really impressive and enjoyable.
At the end of the show, we took the short walk back to the pier and re-boarded for the night.