Woke up fairly early again, with our last full day of vacation packed with plans! We walked a half block down to McDonalds for breakfast (it was either that or noodles), then walked down to the Hop On bus station a couple of blocks away. We were almost there when we realized we had to cross a busy road, and had to go back a block to get up on the skywalk crossover, where there was some statuary of famous Chinese, like Bruce Lee. Managed to catch the very first bus out at 10:00, and since the walk had kind of winded Hubby, we decided to stay on that bus as it made it's way around Kowloon. We were amazed at how much construction was going on, and in particular how all the scaffolding, even on the tallest buildings, was made out of bamboo. Traffic moved pretty well, though, considering how much construction there was. After about 45 minutes, it reached the stop nearest the Star Ferry, and we hopped off and walked over, got the rest of our tour tickets from the Big Bus people, and walked straight onto the ferry as it was getting ready to leave. A short trip across the harbor, and we got on a red line bus for the downtown Hong Kong tour until we reached the famous Victoria peak tram, where we headed up with our priority Big Bus tickets, which got us through the line quickly, reached the top of the tram, wound our way through several layers of mall shopping until we reached the roof, where we were nearly blown off by the high wind. It was so cold, we didn't stay up there long, only enough to get some pictures. Then we headed down a level to a restaurant named after Forrest Gump, and had a cup of coffee and a nosh before heading down to hop back on the bus, this time a green line to get us down to Aberdeen where there would be a sampan ride, and where Hubby wanted to eat a meal at the famous floating restaurant, the Jumbo Kingdom. He had been there once before in the early 60's and wanted to do it again. Unfortunately, the way the ride was set up, you had to go all the way to the end of the loop at Stanley Market before they would come back and drop you off at Aberdeen. Then, just before the Repulse Bay stop, there was a traffic accident, on a very narrow road, and everything stopped moving for nearly half an hour. This was going to make it difficult for us to get all that we wanted to do done, as the last bus out of Aberdeen was 5:55 and it was already past 3:00. We finally arranged to be dropped off in Repulse Bay and picked up by another, returning bus so we could get to Aberdeen on time, and that worked out, we only had to stand at the stop for about 5 minutes. At Aberdeen, we were hustled onto a fleet of sampans and toured around the boat people village for a bit, which included some very nice, high-end yachts as well, before drawing near the Jumbo Kingdom. We thought there would be a stop there, but when it didn't look like we were going there as part of the tour, we asked if we could go, and the boat driver said yes, and dropped us off, with instructions to just wave down another sampan when we were ready to return, understanding the last bus left at 5:55. So we hopped off there, and wandered around until we found the door to the restaurant. Apparently there are two restaurants there now, but one was undergoing serious renovations, and about half the structure was closed off entirely. For a minute we weren't sure anything was open, but we finally found the entrance and wandered in. What used to be a fairly casual place had become a rather ritzy, high-end place, but due to the hour, almost no customers had come yet, though it appeared to be fully staffed. We were seated, ordered, ate, had our picture taken, and even got some advice as to how to say "Thank you" to a Hong Kong waiter when your mouth is full (tap twice on the table with two fingers), and had our timing perfect to get back to the bus on time, except.... We had trouble flagging down a sampan! All through the meal, Hubby had been watching all the sampans go by, but as soon as we got out there, they all disappeared! We finally did manage to get one, and he took us back to the dock, arriving at 5:48, just in time to catch the last bus. Except there was a bus standing there as we arrived, the sampan driver waved him down, and the driver returned the wave, then just drove off!! We were stunned! Now what? As we ran up the steps, the bus was too far away to hear us yelling by then, and the old lady on the dock from Big Bus just repeated, "Last bus, last bus" even though I showed her my watch, which now read 5:49, and railed about how the bus had left early. I suggested that because of the traffic jam slowing everything down, that another bus might be coming, but she insisted, "Last bus, last bus." As we contemplated our various options, I got on the phone and called Big Bus, and after several minutes, managed to confirm that, indeed, another bus WAS coming along, running late because of the traffic jam, so we sat down to wait. A few minutes later, the sampan driver that had brought us back to the dock tracked us down to tell us another bus was coming, too, a very nice gesture on his part to come find us. I must say, everyone here has been very nice to us, very helpful to the tourists. Before long, the REAL last bus showed up, took us to the Star Ferry, got us back to Kowloon where we grabbed another Uber and got back to the hotel around 7:00, very tired, but happy with our one full day in Hong Kong. It was enough!
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