HONG KONG and LUNAR NEW YEAR

Blown away at the top of Victoria Peak! Another bus, another day, another fun trip with our new friends, Paul and Sherrill. Our actual first stop was the Stanley Market where Michael and I always enjoy traveling to every time we came to Hong Kong. From our berth in Kowloon, the bus took a tunnel under the water to get to Hong Kong Island and Stanley is on the other side of this small island. After perusing the market, we went to Genki Sushi or the Aberdeen area and took a water taxi around a little harbor. We loved our captain’s head scarf!

Haru enjoyed the steep ride down the cable car from the top of Victoria Peak which was crowded due to the upcoming New Year and extremely windy. The clouds did make for a unique photo of Hong Kong…

The next day, Larkin and I visited the mall near the port. We shared another Shabu Shabu meal, this one being a little different from our meal in Japan. We arrived early in the lunch hour and when we left it was packed with locals. Like Xiamen, the Hong Kong folks love their buildings with creative lighting. As we sailed away the lights were surrounding us as we enjoyed them from the pool deck during our sail away!

Chinese New Year must start with Chinese New Year Eve. Luckily we were invited to share in a cooking demonstration in the Salt Lab that Lucy set up to have traditional dumplings on New Years Eve. Lucy taught us the right consistency for the dough as we did it right then and there and its yeast did its thing while we got the cabbage ready to mix with the sausage. It was the largest cabbage I’d ever seen! Lucy taught us how to get the cabbage cut in green and white segments, adding salt and letting it sit then squeezing it out! Ning was working on the dough, her hubby Weiwen made traditional whole fish, beef, and egg with tomato dishes as they are both from China.

Chris cooked the dumplings showing us how to cook them through by adding cold water three times as it comes back to a boil. That is the only way the pork gets cooked through! Lucy did the same dumplings as potstickers! The meal was stunning…dessert was a special sweet rice cake I believe called nian gao. Chris and Lucy bought some in China as they knew the best producer. It is sliced up and fried after dipped in egg or flour or just all on its own. I enjoyed the simple one with all the caramelized sugar! I forgot photos so took one off the internet.

It was a blessing to have a meal like this with friends on a special day that they’ve always celebrated! This is the year of the wood snake! For the actual New Years, we had sailed into Ha Long Bay and docked on their quietest day of the year. We actually took a bus to the down town area to walk around. The beautiful carsts and folks with their families taking photos while they stroll. As you can see by the empty streets it was the New Year! The Ford truck with a scene out of Africa and a native American in traditional head dress baffled me!

For our evening meal, we were able to join Weiwen and Ning for dinner and our Salt Kitchen Chef Drake dropped by to say hello!

When our dinner ended, Ning wanted to play a couple of traditional Chinese New Year’s songs. The one below is the shortest one! We had gone to the Dolce Vita or the main lounge and there were only about 10 of us in there as everyone else was in the Venetian Lounge, think small theater, for the local Vietnamese dancers. We were mesmerized! Ning tries to practice everyday and others have now enjoyed her beautiful way of making a piano sing! Ning has been a Steinway artist since 2021 because of the many contests she has won. She has also performed in many venues all over the world! We love to hear her play!

The sunset into a ball of orange off our ship that New Years Day, as the new moon of the Lunar New Year arose on the other side of the ship. JJ is content in Idaho!

More of Vietnam awaits!