This would be our final day in Hong Kong. There was so much more to see and do. However, we would have to contend with the same weather forecast as yesterday: hazy, hot and humid. We decided to stay close to our hotel by going to the Hong Kong Museum of History, which was within walking distance.
This experience reminded me of my days of teaching in New York City. There were many school buses in the parking lot, and many, many groups of school children departing from them. Cleverly, the children and teachers on each bus wore matching shirts, a safety measure we hadn’t considered. It was fascinating to observe that the teachers and students who comprised each group were descendants of people from almost every continent. The children had been asked to take notes and draw pictures of what they saw, just as we used to ask the children to do back in New York.
The museum is housed in a huge building. Its exhibits begin with shells that have been found in layers of rock, and move through the centuries to current time. Nick took many photos of the exhibits. I’m only going to mention one. I think one of the most famous episodes of I Love Lucy shows Lucy in a vat of grapes, crushing them with her feet in the wine making process. I saw a huge vat just like the one in I Love Lucy, and I wondered about its use. I was amazed to find that the vat had a similar use as Lucy’s! Instead of stomping on grapes, people in this part of the world used to stomp on shrimp to make shrimp paste. Who knew?
After seeing all the exhibits, our hunger alarms were sounding. We went back to the Hotel Icon for lunch. I ordered a salmon burger, one of my favorites. Nick ordered the “special,” pork pate, followed by beef over pureed white beans. This was really special! My burger came with a salad, which I gave to Nick. After lunch, we went upstairs for a nap.
I know it seems silly to spend so much time napping when we could have been exploring, but it really does take several days to adjust to such a big change in time zones. When we awoke, we had to pack for our early departure in the morning.
It was time for a light dinner. We discovered that because the restaurant was part of the culinary division of the School of Hotel Management, the menu had changed. I ordered a seafood pot pie made with puff pasty and Mornay sauce, while Nick ordered a club sandwich. The sandwich was good, but the pot pie was exquisite.
After dinner, there was time for a dip in the outdoor pool on the ninth floor. The water temperature and the air temperature were about the same, so there was no chill leaving the pool. As the sun began to set, the light show started on the buildings across the water. Not only did we see a huge variety of lights, but many of the buildings presented moving scenes. This reminded us of the light show we saw on the buildings in Chartres.
6,900 steps
All the food sounds delicious!