Hong Kong, China (Day 2)
On March 9 we were scheduled to go on a HAL excursion to Lantau Island In the New Territories, a part of Hong Kong that is somewhat closer to mainland China. So, after the long trek through the cruise terminal, we boarded the bus & set out.
Our first stop was rather useless. It seems that about 10 years ago China completed the Tsing Ma Bridge, one of the longest suspension bridges in the world, between Hong Kong & Lantau. Before crossing the bridge we stopped at a sort of park that was built as a visitor’s center for the bridge. Why would you want to go to a viewing station for a bridge? That’s a good question, to which we never got a reasonable answer.
We saw some nice flowers in Hong Kong & many of them were in this park. So here is a selection.
So we crossed the bridge and entered Lantau Island. After the crowded skyscrapers of Hong Kong it is rather a surprise that Lantau has so much undeveloped green area. And to keep it that way they have instituted strict environmental regulations. Most notably for us, only vehicles certified as meeting Lantau’s environmental standards are permitted to drive there. This meant that shortly after entering the island we had to stop and change to a bus that satisfies the regulations. They have begun work on a tunnel under the bay between Kowloon & Lantau, which is expected to make travel there much easier. Lantau was pretty much a backwater until the new airport was built there in 1998 (the old one was where our ship docked this year). Today it also houses the Hong Kong Disneyland, in addition to the attractions we visited while there.
Our first stop was to visit Tai O village, one of the oldest fishing villages in Hong Kong. It was once the center of Lantau’s thriving salt trade with mainland China. Today it is a regular stop for visitors to Lantau but still engages in fishing and has several good seafood restaurants. It is situated on both sides of a channel between Lantau and a smaller island; once you had to cross on a boat but today there is a bridge.
After crossing the bridge onto the island side you come shortly to what our guide told us is the Kwan Ti temple. Built around 1500, it is dedicated to the god of war. Next to it is a tiny temple dedicated to the god of sailing that looks just as old.
The roof of the Kwan Ti temple is lined with what looks like colored ceramic figures of beasts, including a lion and a bird that may be a goose, along with a number of people who may represent former residents of the town. They are looking very good if they have been outside on the top of a building for 500 years of squalls and typhoons.
We spent some time walking up and down the streets of the village. There were a number of shops open to the street (lots of tourists come here), including several food shops, some with blowfish hanging from the awning & some with live fish that can be purchased and carried to a restaurant for preparation.
Leaving Tai O we drove to the Tian Tan Buddha, a massive structure known colloquially as the Big Buddha. It is cast in bronze and is well over 100 feet high and weighs about 250 tons. Until recently it was the largest seated bronze Buddha in the world but our guide told us that a bigger one was opened recently. We were expecting to be able to walk up the 268 steps to the Buddha, sitting on a bed of lotus petals, but apparently we were behind schedule since they drove us to the top instead. On the walkway below the Buddha are large bronze sculptures of three maidens making offerings to him.
The Buddha is on top of a mountain, so there are some great views from there, including one of the Lin Po Monastery below, where we had lunch.
We drove down in the bus (boo) & walked along a promenade lined with statues of old Chinese generals toward the Monastery. We did not get to tour it, but we did eat a very good vegetarian Chinese lunch at a restaurant in the Monastery.
After lunch we walked back up the promenade to a commercial area of restaurants (Starbucks) & souvenir shops called Ngong Ping Village. Its not really a village at all, but it is the terminus for the cable car to Tung Chung, the town near the airport. We climbed in the gondola, which is suspended from a cable very high in the air. It took about half an hour to go over the top of a mountain and down to Tung Chung. As we left we had a nice view of the Big Buddha sitting on top of its mountain and as we neared the end we had a gut-wrenching but beautiful view of the airport far beneath us. One woman in our gondola kept her eyes shut the whole time!
We transferred to the bus at Tung Chung and drove back to the cruise port. On the way we passed a tall building under construction covered in bamboo scaffolding, which is common here (take a closer look at the scaffolding in the first Tai O picture), as is wash hanging from the balconies of high rise residential buildings. Our guide told us that because electricity is quite expensive in Hong Kong people wash their clothes in machines but hang them outside to dry for free.
We sailed away at sunset and passed a stilted village on the other side of the harbor. After dinner we went to bed as the ship sailed south toward Vietnam.
Hong Kong, China (Day 1)
We woke up on March 8 in Hong Kong, on the Kowloon side of the harbor. Unfortunately we were docked at Kai Tak terminal, a converted airport half an hour’s drive from the center of town, instead of the ocean terminal right by the Star Ferry where we docked last time. You can see that three day visit here:
https://baderjournal.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/hong-kong-china-day-1/
https://baderjournal.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/hong-kong-china-day-2/
https://baderjournal.wordpress.com/2016/03/24/hong-kong-china-day-3/
Conditions were pretty poor for a visit to Hong Kong. It was cold, windy & drizzly. Kai Tak is a terrible cruise port; you have to walk about a mile (really!) from the ship to reach the bus terminal. Then once the shuttle bus finally leaves it is a half hour drive through nasty traffic to the drop off at the Peninsula Hotel, near where we docked last time & the Star Ferry Terminal. And once we arrived there our bus had to circle the block three times before finding a place by the curb where we could get off. So, after all that, you can start your visit to Hong Kong. We were told that the building on the left in the picture below is the tallest in Hong Kong, which is saying something because Hong Kong has more skyscrapers than any other city in the world.
We wanted to take the HOHO bus around Hong Kong island, which required us to take the Star Ferry across the bay. The Star Ferry is a venerable institution in Hong Kong, begun in 1898, & still costs well under a dollar for a ride. Well worth it, since its also fun. We crossed the harbor & boarded the two tier bus, taking seats with a view on the top.
The HOHO runs a circular route through the city, allowing you to see a great deal as you go & to get off at any stop you would like to explore on foot. We passed the tram station for going up to Victoria Peak (bad day for this because it was covered with clouds), the botanical garden, the mid level escalators that climb halfway up toward the peak, all of which we visited last time. It continued through Happy Valley which contains a famous race track & out past several bays and the Ocean Park amusement park.
We finally reached the first of two objectives for the day, a remote spot called Stanley. Today it is a high priced residential area, but in the 19jth century it was a fishing village and a base for pirates. Stanley has a large bay that was beautiful even on a dark & cloudy day.
Most people come here to visit the Stanley Market, a crowded maze of stalls selling every kind of Chinese souvenir you can imagine in a large range of prices.
We re-boarded the bus & headed for our second destinatiion, Aberdeen. On the way we passed Repulse Bay, once a pirate hangout that got its name when the British Navy drove them away. Its beach has been a popular since the 1920’s and on nice weekend days it may have tens of thousands of bathers (but certainly not today!). On the hill above is a large curvy blue residential building with a large hole in the middle that was dictated by Feng Shui, the Chinese system of architectural arrangement.
Aberdeen is a town built around a harbor that was once crowded with Chinese junks on which families lived and sold fish, flowers and other items. Today it has a lot of boats parked in rows but it doesn’t appear that many are actually living on board. We were told that most of the families who once lived on the boats here were moved into the residential skyscrapers lining the harbor, which house some 60,000 people.
We toured the harbor on a sampan that was decorated profusely with plastic flowers and lanterns.
We spent about 20 minutes sailing around the harbor, up and down the rows of boats. Are any of these house boats? We don’t know. It was raining so there was no activity on the boats. We don’t know what it would be like on a nice day. This is a very active fishing harbor, bringing in about a third of all the seafood in Hong Kong.
Two huge floating restaurants sit in Aberdeen harbor, one called Tai Pak and the other called Jumbo. We were told that these restaurants are an experience but that the food has gone downhill in recent years, although that on the top floor of the Jumbo is making a comeback. Our sampan sailed around these restaurants. They are brightly lit at night, but of course we weren’t there at night.
We re-boarded the bus to go back to the pier. It had become very cold, windy & drizzly while we were at Aberdeen, so we decided to sit inside rather than on top. Unfortunately the bus was quite late & by the time it got to us the inside was full, so we had to sit on top. The cold wind made for a very unpleasant ride, but we made it (without getting sick, surprisingly). We crossed back to Kowloon on the ferry & rode the shuttle bus back to the ship.
That evening there was a Chinese cultural show. It was pretty much the same one we saw here two years ago but it was still good & fun to watch. The highlights were the dragon dance & the fellow who changes faces (masks) so quickly you can’t see it happening. We were told this is a highly respected art in China and the one we saw is one of the best.
So that was all for day 1, dampened by weather and shortened by the remoteness of the cruise terminal (and a substantial delay in the port officials clearing the ship so passengers could disembark in the morning). Hong Kong puts on a great light show at night, with lasers and changing lights on buildings, but that is in the central part of town where we docked last year and we couldn’t see it from this year’s berth. But we went out on deck and this part of Hong Kong across the harbor was still pretty spectacular at night. As we headed for bed we were hoping for better weather for day 2 when we would be taking a HAL tour.
Manila, The Philippines (Day 2)
March 6 found us still in Manila. After exhausting ourselves walking in the humid heat on our first day we were somewhat relieved to be going on a bus excursion today. Unfortunately, the excursion turned out to be less interesting than we had hoped.
Leaving the port, we had a pleasant if uneventful ride through the countryside. We stopped at a fruit stand in the mountains and had an opportunity to taste some local fruits, including very sweet bananas about 4 inches long and small pineapples that were very sweet & juicy.
Our destination was the village of Tagaytay, a mountain resort area about an hour from Manila that attracts Manilans because it is a good bit cooler. The primary attraction here is the Taal volcano, the smallest volcano in the world. It sits in a lake formed by the caldera of a much larger ancient volcano, so it is a volcano inside of a lake inside of a volcano on an island in the ocean.
It is possible to visit the volcano: there is a hiking track up the hill to the caldera from a small village on the coast nearby. But all we were able to do was look at it from the hill behind the hotel where we ate lunch (a pretty good brunch with local food).
At the foot of the mountains on our side of the lake was a fishing village with a lot of fish traps offshore.
There were some nice flowers on the grounds of the hotel, where we strolled after lunch.
So that was it. We left Tagaytay & its tiny volcano & headed back to Manila, where we had a brief drive through Intramuros before returning to the ship. A relaxing day, if not too exciting.
While the day trip was a little disappointing, the sail away from Manila was anything but. The sun was beginning to drop in the sky as we left & part of the city was covered by a dramatic gray cloud. There were double outrigger fishing boats in the water nearby, apparently heading for home, as we sailed away from the dock.
As we sailed across the huge harbor the sun shone down from behind a cloud onto Bataan (once the location of a notorious Japanese prison camp).
We sailed out of the bay between Corregidor and Bataan. Unfortunately Corregidor is much smaller & lower, so we were unable to get a good picture of it before the sun went down.
We left the harbor after the sun set & sailed on to our next adventure.
Manila, The Philippines (Day 1)
When we woke up on May 5 Amsterdam was docked at the best located pier in Manila, right near the port gate. Manila is the capital of the Philippines, with a population of more than 12 million in its governing district. After periods of control by the Malays and the Sultan of Brunei, the Spanish ruled here for more than 300 years beginning in the middle of the 16th century. The Americans took over in 1898 after the Spanish American war, then the country became independent after World War II.
There is concern about piracy in the waters of this area, so Amsterdam had instituted anti-piracy procedures when we set sail for the Philippines. This had also been done in 2016 before entering the Red Sea but this time there was no razor wire strung around the lower promenade deck. Instead we just had the water hoses and long range ear shattering noise machines at the ready, and the lights were turned off at night while a beefed up security team kept watch across the water. We had a piracy drill (go to a protected area inside the ship) and we were told that we were being followed constantly by radar with warships not far away. So of course nothing happened. But better safe than sorry.
We also noticed in this area that there is a lot of trash floating in the water. This is a pretty disappointing sight & it would be nice if there were some international effort to do something about it.
Anyway, since we were docked so close to the old part of Manila we decided to walk around and explore it ourselves. As we left the ship we were greeted by a very lively xylophone band dancing as they played, and some local women welcomed us with necklaces (as had been done in Puerto Princesa as well).
A lot of construction was in progress at the port and it took some time to negotiate our way to the gate. In this area we also saw the first of many anti-drug signs; from what we have read in the Philippines these days a person suspected of dealing in drugs is as likely to die from summary police execution as from the effects of the drugs. Then there were a few blocks to walk out of the port to the main street. Along this street were countless fellows wanting to sell you rides and tours. We kept saying “no thank you,” but it was odd to see someone who has just watched you reject 10 people selling the same tour step out nonetheless to ask if you want to hire him. I guess it doesn’t hurt to ask, but how often can that be successful?
It was a much longer walk than expected to reach the Intramuros (“inside the walls”) area, the old town. That was because there was a very long fence with no gates along the side of the wall facing the main street near the dock. The old city is surrounded by walls, originally built by the Spanish in the 16th century. They also built a double moat, but the Americans found it unsanitary and filled it in, then built a golf course over it. Today the golf course runs all along the wall, so there is no entrance to Intramuros through it.
The traffic in Manila is horrendous & you take your life in your hands when you try to cross the street. This was another reason our walks took so long and difficult in the heat and humidity. A lot of local folks get around in what is called a “jeepny,” a sort of jitny made by welding a bus-like structure to the back of a jeep. These appeared after the war, made out of surplus US Army jeeps. They are very colorful and, we are told, inexpensive and fun to ride. We didn’t have an opportunity to try one.
The Manila Cathedral stands on what was the central square of old Manila, called Plaza Mayor. First completed around 1580, it was destroyed by a typhoon within 2 years and has been destroyed and rebuilt some 6 times. The current building was destroyed, along with almost everything else in Intramuros, by Japanese and American bombs and shelling during the Battle of Manila in 1945 when the Japanese forces made their last stand here. More than 100,000 Filipino civilians were killed in one month during that battle, many through indiscriminate massacres by Japanese solders occupying the area. The cathedral was rebuilt along the same lines as the previous one in the mid 1950’s.
Playa Mayor in front of the cathedral had several art installations. On the left, looking from the cathedral, was a large building labeled as the governor’s residence. We weren’t sure which governor this referred to (Spanish or American?) or whether this building represented what the governor’s residence looked like or just marked the spot where it stood.
Walking on we passed some interesting wall art & came to a very nice little park with a monument at the center erected in 1995. Called “Memorare Manila,” it memorializes those lost in the Battle of Manila. A woman in the center holds a dead baby and is surrounded by other dead people and a victim of rape.
It was not too long a walk to San Agustin Church, completed in 1607. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site and famed as the only building in Intramuros to survive the fighting in 1945, when only its roof was destroyed.
One enters through what was once a convent attached to the church but has now been rebuilt as a museum. The museum tells the story of Manila through text and artifacts. Manila was a trading outpost for the Spanish, who exchanged silver mined in their Mexican and South American colonies for Chinese silks, ivory and porcelain, along with spices and gems from other parts of Asia. The Spanish galleons carried on this trade on a route between Manila and Acapulco for 300 years.
The baroque interior of the church itself is quite beautiful. Of particular interest to us was the ceiling and walls, which are covered by extraordinarily effective trompe l’oeil paintings of what appear to the naked eye to be architectural details. It wasn’t until we got very close that we could see that it was painted rather than real.
In the balcony is an old pipe organ and a wooden music stand that is several centuries old and holds some 17th century sheet music. Around the balcony are 68 choir seats, carved and inlaid in the early 17th century.
We also happened upon the church library, nicely finished in polished wood with a globe.
Between the church and the museum is a courtyard containing a small park called the cloisters.
There was actually quite a bit more in this facility, including a lot of old paintings and artifacts, but this was the main stuff (and all that we have pictures of).
Leaving the church, we walked to Rizal Park. This is a huge park with a lot of features we didn’t have time to explore. It is dedicated to Jose Rizal, an important Filipino martyr during the war for independence from the Spanish in the 1890’s. Rizal was executed in this park for treason and his remains are now interred under the monument to him at the front of the park.
Most of the flowers we saw this day were in the park, so this is a good place to show some of them.
We managed to find the National Library, which was on one side of Rizal Park. It was large & you had to present your identification to a policeman at a podium outside the door to gain entrance. The library seemed to be in the midst of renovation, with lots of empty shelves and books piled up in empty rooms. We found one room that was in use as a library, but when I took a picture I was admonished that this is not allowed. Why would a library be a secret?
We walked back to the ship, a pretty long way on a very hot and humid day. We saw statues of Benigno and Corazon Aquino, leaders of the movement that overthrew the Marcos regime. We also saw homeless people sleeping in the park.
By the time we negotiated our way back to the ship we were dead tired. That much exercise out In the heat and humidity, fighting dreadful traffic, can really take it out of you. We didn’t see everything we had intended to see but we saw quite a lot that was very interesting and learned a lot about this huge city. And we still had another day to spend here. Manila was lit up in the night as we headed for bed.
Puerto Princesa, Philippines
Amsterdam docked in Puerto Princesa on the morning of March 3. So, welcome to . . .
Founded by the Spanish in 1872, Puerto Princesa today has a population of about a quarter of a million people. It is the capital of Palawan province and the westernmost city in the Philippines.
It was a hot and humid day as we left the ship to walk into town. The streets near the port were not very picturesque but there were many nice flowers we saw throughout the day.
Our first stop was to visit the Immaculate Conception Cathedral. Built in 1961 on the spot where the first mass was celebrated a few days after Puerta Princesa was founded, it was undergoing restoration when we were there. A white building with blue windows and two towers that can be seen from the port, it is one of the more distinctive buildings in town. In front of the church is a statue of Jose Rizal, an important Philippine hero & martyr, a leader in the campaign for independence from Spain at the end of the 19th century who was executed at the age of 35 for treason.
We walked on to the Palawan Museum further into the downtown area. The streets were pretty mundane, but we saw a lot of what they call “tricycles.” These operate like taxis, but consist of a metal enclosure for two or three people attached to a motorcycle. A lot of them stopped as we walked to offer us a ride; apparently it is difficult to believe that folks of our age can walk places in this kind of weather. But we politely declined them all and continued walking. The flags hanging over the streets were apparently in preparation for a holiday parade the day after our visit to commemorate the founding of the city.
The Palawan Museum reviews the history, cultures & ecology of the area. People have been living in this area for well over 10,000 years and there are a number of ancient artifacts here. They have items recovered from sunken Spanish galleons, including porcelain originating in China. We also saw models of a number of indigenous fauna. Housed in a building that used to be the city hall, this is not a big museum but it is very nice. Air conditioning would be a helpful addition!
Next door to the museum is the very small public library. Unfortunately it was closed the day we were there so we could not see the inside. The museum and library both border Mendoza Park where a dancing group was rehearsing, presumably for the imminent holiday.
We walked through a Chinese neighborhood with a large shopping mall. Its streets were decorated with Chinese red lanterns instead of flags. Like some other cities we have seen in Southeast Asia, Puerto Princesa’s streets were lined with many electrical wires meeting in massively tangled junctions.
We walked back toward the cathedral. Right across the street is a park called Plaza Cuartel. This was a Japanese garrison during World War II. On December 14, 1944 they detected a large American task force that they feared was headed their way. They herded their 150 American POW’s into an air raid shelter tunnel in the Plaza and set it on fire, burning the Americans alive. Eleven of them escaped with the aid of Philippine guerillas. There is a small sculpture in the park commemorating the victims, along with several large placards that tell their story in words and pictures. Today this is a very nice park, apart from the memorial to its grizzly history, with many colorful flowers and a nice view of the bay.
From the Plaza we headed back to the ship. We passed a school and some houses with interesting decorations made of old bicycle tires. We passed Amsterdam’s Hotel Manager, Henk, riding alone on his bicycle built for two, and also another copy of a notice we saw posted all around town seeking workers for South Korea. Near the port was some laundry hung out to dry on a barbed wire fence: no need for clothespins to keep these clothes from blowing away in the wind. And there was a giant municipal Christmas tree on a walk along the bay.
As the ship prepared to leave that evening the locals wished us “Bon Voyage” with dance & music.
Across the bay we could see from Amsterdam’s Lido deck a fishing village complete with boats & houses on stilts. We saw several double-outrigger fishing boats nearer the ship as well, probably heading for home.
As we pulled away from the pier the sun began to go down & the bay was alight with gray clouds and slate blue sea. It was dramatic enough to warrant more than one picture.
So that was all for Puerto Princesa as the ship headed out to sea and we headed to dinner.
BADER JOURNAL 