Day One - go with the flow

January 5th

We lost a day along the way so the day after Sunday was Tuesday. I will adjust. I will adjust. I will adjust.

We had a great sleep and woke ready to go our first morning. For the first order of business, we spent hours in the L'Escalier buffet having breakfast. You can see the theme of my vacations!
What a wonderful start to the day.

Station one was for fruit and yoghurt. Not your usual bowl of fruit salad and Dairyland mini containers here. Choose from pineapple and lychee compote - was that a hint of honey and ginger? Cocktail glasses of yoghurt with toppings like pineapple and coconut with rum or forest berry.

Station two was stir fried broccoli, noodles, fish in soya sauce or a rolled noodle dish. Noodle soups cooked to your order with dumplings, meats and fish to choose from. A variety of steamed foods as well. Very different to us and very tasty.

Station three was the English grill and eggs section - omelettes to order.

Station four was a Scandanavian start to the day with a variety of smoked fish, meats and cheeses.

Station 5 was the bakery. Save the best for last! Even pancakes were special. They rolled out of a pancake machine one at a time, cooked to order when you pushed the button. But the best part was the variety of fruit compotes and sauces you could put on them They were really just a shelf for black current and vanilla custard! Croissants to die for, probably literally. No extra butter needed here! Danish pastries galore. You see why we had to stay until it closed.

Next, we planned to take the White Star ferry across the bay to Central and take the Peak Tram up to Victoria Peak. It looked like the best day to do it weather wise. But we were hijacked by a young man who said Dan was a big winner and all he had to do was go to the Gold Coast to pick up his prize. Well the weather was cloudy and we could not see the Peak so it stood to reason views from the peak would be limited too. We would take their free taxi ride to the New Territories and see that instead.

We saw a lot more of the harbour and the topography than we had done coming in by night. We did the obligatory tour of the new vacation development with a lovely young woman from Kent, England. We enjoyed exchanging travel ideas with her as we walked.The resort was very well done, the private yachts in the marina made a great backdrop, the beautifully maintained beach framed the view of Lantau Island opposite and we were able to see a 17th century sedan chair or palaquin up close in the lobby of the hotel. Just over the mountain behind us was mainland China.

Dan did win a prize. Not the Sony Computer or the thousand US dollars but a week at their new resort in Thailand for four. Sounded good but two need to be under 12. They did not say that up front! We'll see how it works. There are cheap flights from Manila... I got the T-shirt!

Back in Kowloon, we dumped our loot at the hotel and walked up Canton Road to Kowloon Park. It was getting to be dusk and the weather was closing in so the light was not ideal. It is a very interesting park and part of the original walled city so we will try to get there again in spare moments.

The rain started and I did not bring rain gear so we crossed the street to Harbour Mall - 700 stores and no squall jacket. It is winter here and parkas are in good supply. It is 16 degrees Celcius for heavens sake! I will wear my blazer and carry an umberella for the short time we are here.

We stumbled on a nice Thai restaurant by the cruise ship terminal. Once the ship moved away from the windows, we had a wonderful view of the Harbour just in time for the Symphony of Lights show. Serendipity and good roast breast of duck with pineapple and lychee in red curry sauce. What more could you ask for?

Back to the room and turned in for another good night.