Hong Kong - May 2015 (Day 4)

Day 4 saw us dealing with abysmal weather. The Cathay flights we purchased came with a free half day tour to visit places like Stanley, Aberdeen, and the Peak, amongst other things. It was pouring, and it was really troublesome to get around. Sigh. The road to Stanley was winding and via a mountain/hill-side; and going up in a bus in bad weather wasn't a good idea. Definitely not something I would do again.

The first stop was a gem factory, and then we went to take a short boat tour in Aberdeen to see the floating village- which I thought was a real disappointment. It felt like we were just seeing boathouses in a big pond, surrounded by skyscrapers! Hmmm.

Next up was Stanley- where we did not even have the time to browse the markets. We had time for a mid-morning snack (because the kids were hungry.. *roll eyes*), and a toilet stop. That was it. I definitely was NOT a happy bunny, given how much effort it took to get there.

What about The Peak? Well, it looked like this. Suffice to say, it made no sense to go up the viewing platform. Visibility was probably close to zero. Anyway., we left the tour group early and decided to hang out at The Peak on our own for a while longer, hoping that the weather would clear up. Sadly, it never did. So we took the Peak Tram down and decided to try and get to the Hong Kong Science Museum.

We decided to take the Star Ferry across the harbour (Victoria Harbour), and boy-oh-boy, this was the experience that defined our trip to Hong Kong! The winds and waves were SO strong, and it was really pretty scary. We even had to hold out an umbrella INSIDE THE FERRY, to try and keep the water from splashing us! And when we got to the other side- there were virtually no taxis to be found. We finally found the taxi stand- which was inadequately built to protect from the elements, and had to stand in the torrential rain, for a long time. We were entirely drenched, right down to our shoes and socks! In the end, we decided to skip the museum (as we were way too wet and it was already too late), and head back to our hotel.

We capped the day with a yummy buffet dinner at the hotel (complimentary for kids)- so it wasn't all that bad in the end. Plus, we had great memories of our Hong Kong trip- although it was about getting stuck in the pouring rain!