"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report #61 Guilin to Hong Kong March 1, 2017 Wednesday Overcast/smoggy with cool to mild temps 48 Pictures

We woke up to an overcast, smoggy, but cool weather morning. Certainly, we slept good, but nowhere near long enough. Reminded us of our very first 12 day cruise in the Mediterranean. Almost every day was a port, with the exception of two sea days. With two long flights involved, it was exhausting. We needed another vacation once we got home to re-cooperate. Not being retired back then, it was back to work a day or two after getting home. Then there was the jetlag……..

Anyway, on the positive side, we are getting good at this "living on the road", so to speak. Quick packing, keeping it simple has been fun. Would we want to do this for weeks or months? No, we still agree that traveling on a ship with a mix of relaxing sea days with ports in between is the best way to go for us. With so much to take in on land tours, it can be over-whelming….information overload. Once we are back on the ship, we can absorb what we have seen, and perhaps read more about this area of the world and understand it much better.

Our guide and driver met us at 8:30am sharp. That gave us plenty of time to enjoy the buffet breakfast at 6am. Funny thing happened last night when we got back from the Impression show. Running for the elevator, we ran smack into Henk, our host from our travel group. He was escorting a group that had left from Shanghai for four days and three nights to see the Terra Cotta Warriors and also Guilin and the Li River. They would be doing the river the next day, and going back to Hong Kong March 2^nd like us. We had a good visit with Henk about what we had missed at the Mariner party on the ship. After filling us in on what we had not really missed, we had to say goodbye, since our time was running out.

The ride back through Guilin was good, since we had missed a lot of the scenery on the way here two days ago. We passed more of the karst formations with caves along the way. Also, we got to see the new apartment towers being built to house even more people. On the outskirts of the city, we saw more of the industrial part of town, and the contributing factors of why there is so much smog that hangs over this entire country.

The ride only took 45 minutes, and we arrived with plenty of time to get to the check-in desk. Jeremy did all the talking, and procured our tickets for both flights. One to Shanghai, and the next to Hong Kong. Since day one, we inquired why we could not fly directly to Hong Kong from Guilin. We were advised repeatedly that there were no straight through flights this time of year. This info was not from our wonderful travel agent, but the agency that does overland adventures. We have been happy with their services on past cruises, when we went to South Africa twice, India, and Sri Lanka last year. However, a new person worked on this itinerary, and was misinformed. Jeremy checked with the airlines to find that on four days a week, they do fly directly to Hong Kong. The day we were leaving, Wednesday, they do not have a direct flight. In hind sight, we could have stayed here one more night, touring the caves or whatever, and fly directly to Honk Kong (an hour flight we understand), and going right back to the ship.

Instead, here we were flying for 2 hours to Shanghai, then transferring for another 3 hour flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong. We needed to spend one night in Hong Kong, since the ship would not arrive until March 2^nd. If our math is correct, that means we flew 4 hours more than we needed. We are definitely going to discuss this with the secondary travel company for not doing their homework this time. Could have saved us some money as well.

OK, enough venting. Our one checked bag was right on the nose at 20 kilos or 44 pounds. It would go through to Hong Kong…we would not need to pick it up and take it to the connecting flight. Good news. Something we may not have mentioned is the fact that with all of the Chinese flights we did, we did not have to pay for our checked luggage. We were each allowed one piece for free. And because of this, the overhead bins in all of the planes were not jammed solid. There was room for everyone's smaller hand luggage. What a much better idea.

Our flight left at 10:55am with a bumpy start due to turbulence. Thought the cabin would rattle apart. No one seemed to flinch, so we did not get too nervous. Once we gained a higher altitude, the bouncing disappeared. In minutes, we were served lunch, another nice thing they do complimentary. No charge at all. And it was also good with choices of chicken or fish and noodles. Once I heard noodles, that sold me on the chicken. It came with a roll, butter, a little salad, and four tiny kumquats. It was the first time we tasted them, and found them rather sweet and similar to oranges. The skin is thin, and you eat the entire thing, less the seeds. We noticed that the locals were tossing them in their mouths whole, and eating them seeds and all. Drinks offered were sodas, water, coffee, or tea.

The plane landed at about 1:30pm, where we figured we would have a 3 hour layover. Not so. Getting off this flight, we went down portable stairs to the tarmac. Thought our sweatshirts were going to blow away it was so windy. Makes one wonder why the smog does not blow away in this wind. Guess it has nowhere to go. We heard from friends later on that Shanghai was so smoggy, they had problems breathing during their two day stay.

Once down on the tarmac, we waited for the bus to take us to the terminal. This airport is huge, and we were a few miles from the terminal. Even though we were still in China, the flight to Hong Kong had to be boarded at the international terminal. So we followed some folks headed that way, and with some help from airport locals, we were led to the immigrations check point.

We had to fill out arrival forms, then proceed in a very long line through customs. We passed with no problems, getting the forms stuck back in our passports.

Then we got in the security line and the xray check. The official insisted that Bill had keys in his camera bag, which he did not. He was asked to dump all of the contents out, so they could see what was in there. Not saying a word, he did what they asked, then they were finally satisfied there were no keys. You never want to argue with these folks, especially in a foreign country.

This flight was boarding at 3:30pm, giving us a little time to work on emails. We spent more time walking up and down this terminal, looking for a regular cup of coffee, like McDonalds. We had seen one of those, but it was on the outside of security. We certainly did not want to go through that again.

Never found the coffee, but we did find a money exchange place, and got some more yuan. We ended up buying some cokes, a water, pretzels, and two ice cream cones. That took care of all of the change. No coins left either.

After finishing the ice cream cones, delicious, there was a little time left for working on photos. This time, we waited upstairs, then had to go down an escalator to the connecting walkway to the plane. Our tickets were checked before we went down the lower level. The plane eventually took off closer to 5pm, totally full. We were about the only foreigners on this flight.

Again, we were fed a dinner. This time we chose the breaded pork entrée with butterfly noodles. It came with the roll and butter, sliced and seasoned radish, carrot salad with slices of duck meat, and watermelon chunks…..the best part of the meal, we thought. We were handed a cup of water in a sealed plastic container, and also a glass of soda.

Then we noticed the stewardesses coming up the aisle with another cart full of ice cream cones. The same ones we had in the terminal. They tasted every bit as good as the first ones. Both of us had enough time to do report work and photo sorting. Thought we might catch a nap, but that never happened.

The plane landed at 7:40pm, where we had to go through immigrations again. Filling out the landing cards, our passports were stamped once again at this point. Then we were free to go to the baggage claim area, collect our bag, and look for our driver.

He was there in the main hall with our names on a board. He took us to the Shangri La Hotel in Kowloon, a 45 minute drive. He handed us a letter explaining that someone would pick us up tomorrow for the transfer to the ship by 12:30pm. Sounded good to us.

Signing in was easy at the front desk. This was another beautiful hotel, that faced the harbor and Hong Kong Island across the way. It is never a disappointing view of the many high rise towers that are lit up at night. We were on the 14^th floor, and briefly we considered staying an extra night for the convenience of staying near downtown and Nathan Road. However, the current price of the room we were in was over $500, so we declined and said one night would be fine.

By the time we entered the room, it was 9:30pm, and if we had considered going to dinner, we had just missed the casual dining restaurant. Since we had so much on the plane, a tiny bag of pretzels and an apple turned out to be our dinner. Our belongings arrived to the room within 10 minutes, followed by a butler who came with a welcome pot of tea. Quite civilized.

This room was lovely too, but since we are so, so tired, we can tell you all about it tomorrow.

Until then,

Bill & Mary Ann

Early morning tai chi at Shangri La, Guilin