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Raina’s blogging. Ovation HK to Syd Nov 2017


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Off on another adventure! Yay.

Ovation of the Seas – Hong Kong to Singapore, then Singapore to Sydney. Starting 14th November. Some of you know me, but a bit about me. Fairly frequent traveller. I often travel solo and sometimes with father. I’m travelling with my father again (who I refer to as Andy). Andy is 92 and loves to cruise – and after all, What’s not to love?

It’s the perfect holiday for him. Once he is on board and settled in, it is so relaxing with so much to do.

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I haven't been on Ovation before, but have been on Anthem. I have done this itinerary before and loved it.

 

A few caveats.There will be typos and spelling mistakes. Sorry in advance.

I don’t get involved in all of the activates on board but will try to seek out answers to questions.

There will be photos. Many photos.

Due the fact that photos disappear from Cruise Critic after a period of time, I will also be running this on my blog RainaTravels dot com where the photos will stay. There will be more photos there.

 

This will be a semi live report.

I’ll try to remember to put my parts in blue so if you are scanning through youcan skip the chat. I love the Royal product so tend to dwell more on the positives.

Feel free to ask questions – I’ll do my best.

 

Raina.

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Sat 11th November -

We flew Qantas – Business class (Canberra -Brisbane - Hong Kong) as Andy wouldn’t be able to travel economy. Yay again!!! And he travelled so well. Watched three movies and had a snooze.

 

We arrived in HK at 4.30 and took an hour to get out of the airport. HUGE. Into a taxi and off to our hotel in Mong Kok, near Kowloon. The drive was great. It’s a long way from the airport - took nearly an hour, but the prices are great. This was $350 HK ($45 US). The taxi’s are all a really old looking Toyota, but not old at all. Clean and comfortable. And most of them have the boot jammed full of suitcases with the lid tied down. The freeway looked very funny. The path took us down some amazing roads. Small shops and light industry. Car places – repairs, spray painting etc. All the walls were lined with boxes and gear and just enough room for one car and workman to get around.

Butchers out on the pavement cutting up chickens.

When we arrived we discovered that the taxis don’t take credit cards, so he hadto wait while I went in to the hotel and exchanged money for $HK.

 

Our hotel,the Dorsett Mong Kok was lovely. The foyer was very nice with so many helpfulstaff. Concierge, bell boys, check in people and so on. Then up to the 15thfloor.

The roomswere tiny. So much smaller than the smallest cruise room. You walked in pastthe bathroom. The double (not queen) bed was up against the bathroom wall (soone person would have to climb in). There was about 800mm between the foot ofthe bed and the wall. On the other side of the bed was about 800m to the deskand the window. But the window was recessed so there was a good shelf there andan open cupboard with some hanging space. The room was tiny….but so wellplanned. Very liveable, with lots of places to put things.

You know how small your room is when your dad says “I’m so looking forward togetting on the ship and having a huge bathroom”. Hahahah.

 

I choose this hotel for location and price, but mainly as it has a Lounge. Like a Concierge Lounge. Open all day with nice seating areas andcoffee, soft drink, bottled water and nibbles. Andy loved watching the washingbusiness, where they hang the washing out their widows. At 5 pm bottles of winecome out and people come down for a drink.

Was great for Andy when I was out adventuring.

 

Within minutes of arriving we met some lovely Aussies who were also joining on Ovation, so went and had a drink with them then into dinner.

 

They had a “HotPot” restaurant in the hotel. Since we were tied we decided to eat there. We selected a set meal with a meat hotpot, for one! These were a few different dishes – a salad, beans, and more. Then the hotpot. A bowl of soup/broth is putover a flame. Then you add vegies and meat. Wagu and pork. Then pick it out andeat it. It was great. Fun and social. The soup was amazing.

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Then glorious sleep. At the time of booking, a full day trip to Macau the next morning was a great idea! I wasn’t feeling the joy quiet as much as I was falling asleep. I was doing this trip on my own – would be far too much for dad.

Edited by AussieVisi2r
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12th November 2017. Macau.

 

A day to Macau. A looong day. I went downto breakfast at 6.30 and ate all kinds of thing – dragon fruit, sultanas, carrot sticks, corn. As I was about to go I saw around the corner that there was another bank of food – eggs, bacon, toast etc. Hahhaha.

 

Pickup was at 7 am. Back at 8 pm! But fun. Weather was miserable but Macau wasgreat.

I was the first person picked up then spent the next 90 minutes driving around collecting others. It was great seeing the city waking up, but I did think about another 90 minutes in bed had I of been in the last group.

 

We then got onto the ferry for the one hour trip to Macau. The ferry was very much like air travel. You sat in your seat and didn’t move around the boat. There was no outside, so no views.

We were then met by our local guide. After much talking we left the ferry terminal – which was very like a huge train station and got onto our bus.

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The seats in the bus had plastic covers. Nice. Hot and raining and plastic.

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The Portuguese influence was so strong. If you were spun around and drop there and told to identify the place... it would take all of 30 seconds. So Portuguese with the pastel buildings and the big balustrades, then you look the other way and it's so Chinese. High rise, with bamboo balconies and air conditions everywhere.

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Between the high rise and the Portugese builders there was a suprising amount of green space. Beautiful.

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12th November 2017. Macau.

Macau was former Portuguese colony and administered by Portugal from the mid-16th century until late 1999. It’s now gone from sleepy colonial city to Asia’s gambling capital.

 

We visited the World Heritage sites, The ruins of St Paul, a Jesuit church, believed to be the oldest Christian church with Chinese characters on it.

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This was one of St Francis Xavier places. And many of the Jesuits are buried here.

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12th November 2017. Macau.

 

A great Portuguese museum - Museum of Macua, including a section onfireworks.

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And the old fort - Fortaleza do Monte. It was the historical military centre of Macau. Monte Fort was built by the Jesuits between1617 and 1626. Walls enclosed quarters for soldiers and storehouses. Largecannons were set along the top battlements.

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People doing Tai Chi up there wasso beautiful.

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12th November 2017. Macau.

The A-Ma Temple is a temple tothe Chinese sea-goddess Mazu .

23561731_10155834732462829_4305524897949227113_n.jpg?oh=3bcff370facbe1f0679a17a152f87a3e&oe=5AA16744Built in 1488, the temple is one of the oldest in Macau and thought to be wherethe name came from. When the local told the name to the Portuguese, they got thepronunciation wrong, And thought they were saying the name of the place.

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The temple was beautiful, built into thesteep rocky cliff face, with the best incense ever.

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People would buy big bunches of normalsized incense, would light them up at a big fire and wander around praying.Lovely.

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Then the BIG ones. Amazing. Huge coils nearly one meter across.

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12th November 2017. Macau.

We did lot of walking around the streets.

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We visited a casino. Strangely not one of the big ones, nor did we drive up “the Strip”. The gambling was weird. All electronic. They all sit around consoles and press buttons. No croupier. No ball spinning around the wheel. Horrid. The best game was a big glass case with three big bright plushy dice. The floor vibrated and jiggled. then pop, and up they went. They landed and people screamed with joy or despair.

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The Macau GP is next week so lots of set up. A marathon was happening.

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We walked over 10ks but much of it up and down. It was then back on the ferry for the trip home. When we arrived I didn’t think I could stand another 90 minutes of all points visits to may hotels, so jumped into a taxi and back to the hotel.

 

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Then back for an amazing dinner. I normally have a rule whentravelling. I do not eat at the same place twice. Prefer to try differentthings each day. But this was so simplefor Andy.

This dinner was one of the best ever! Hot Pot. But a real HotPot. A stunning soup over a flame, then we added the things to cook. Greatvegetable and Wagu beef. Then the seafood came. Not much to say about thatexcept WOW.

 

Prawns, razor clams, pippies (clams) , abalone, scallops,squid, fish.

 

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Great food. When in Hng Kong - eat Hot Pot.

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Thanks for your lovely comments. Glad you are joining me.

And sorry that some word spacings are disappearing. Even after I check they just jump back in there as I press publish. Sorry,

 

On a few port days ATM, but I will get to the gym and sus out the weights for you.

 

Raina

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Looking forward to this as we are on Ovation in May, We are also staying at this hotel, was the lounge open to all or do you have to have a certain level of room?

 

Certain rooms have access. Executive rooms and above. When I booked (on bookings dot com) they were not a lot more then normal rooms.

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13th November 2017. Hong Kong

I started the day off with a visit to the Ladies Markets and electronics district. The ladies Markets were nothing special - unless you like normal markets, clothes, trinkets, backpacks etc.

The electronics area was better. Nothing cheap though. All name brands at normal retail prices.

Very busy and exciting though. Nothing opens til 10 am or even later, but they stay open until around 7pm.

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The bamboo scaffolding is quite amazing. 20 stories up, walking around the sides of buliding on bamboo and string. Fantastic craftmanship.

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Everything is available. Walk up shoe repairs. Heels replaced while you wait.

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It was then a taxi back to the hotel. Taxi's are priced on distance not time. Great with the traffic. 2 kilometres is about $6US.

Andy was having a lovely time in the lounge chatting to people and taking photos, with his iPad, of the washing going in and out with the rain.

We then headed off to Sky100.

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