Our Ship arrived in Hong Kong around 8:00am and docked near the Star Ferry Terminal on the island of Kowloon.

Hong Kong night driving.

I got up around 6:00am to see our ship coast into the harbor but was informed that I was an hour early, so I decided to go back to sleep for an hour…when I woke up again it was11:00am and everybody was ready to get off the ship. So I’d missed our arrival, but at least I was well rested.

I met up with Alex and Dave to go “out on the town”. First we decided to just walk around a bit and see what we could find. I dropped off 3 roles of film to be developed and then we decided to grab a bite to eat since we had all missed breakfast that morning. Alex had a special type of meal in mind so we all ended up on a mission to find just the right place to eat.

The USS Explorer at the dock.

In less than 10 minutes our task was over and we found a nice restaurant to eat at. It was called the “Flower Lounge” and we ordered around 12 different small little dished that filled us up nicely.

Once we were done we decided to take a short walk and then we decided to go visit this Taoist temple dedicated to the Monkey God that I’d read about. Soon after we were in a taxi headed across the island. When we finally reached the temple I think the taxi driver thought we were a bit crazy because it didn’t really look like the type of place that that most tourists visit. According to him he’d never taken a single person there ever.

A Hong Kong Highrise

At first glance the temple seemed locked up and deserted, but after a little knocking the temple keeper came and unlocked the door for us and let us in. The temple itself was interesting, but we were the only people there. We gave a small donation and were given fruits and incense sticks so that we could give offerings to the gods. I lighted all my sticks and laid my fruit down in front of the Buddhist goddess of Mercy. All was well.

I noticed some of the other items that people had brought as offerings and amongst them what stood out the most were two packs of Marlboro cigarettes. I thought that was pretty funny, but after a little contemplation it started to seem pretty rational. I mean, what god wouldn’t want a good smoke now and then?

After we had given our offerings the old man who kept up the temple invited us into his room for some Oolong Tea. He couldn’t speak a lick of English and so we said nothing. He kept handing us some framed papers covered in Chinese text, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Then he gave us the temple’s business cards and offered us all some smokes. So we all smoked cigarettes together with the temple keeper in this strange little Taoist temple that was perched on the side of a rock wall.

When we had finished our cigarettes we said our goodbyes and caught a cab back into town. Once there I picked up my pictures and then took the ferry over to Hong Kong island. For the next 5 hours we walked around Hong Kong stopping to shop and look at all the different stores and shops that we found. I bought a little Oolong Tea set and some Oolong Tea as well. Along the way we also stopped to eat and I filled up pretty good.

There was so much to see and do in so little time that I think it wore us out. At one point we just sat down and didn’t even talk because we were so tired. Before we went back to the ship we stopped in at the “Super Boat” and had some more dinner. I didn’t eat much at all, but what I did eat tasted good.

Me in the Subway