Genting Dream cruise - October 2021

It's still not easy to travel and I have a lot of annual leave to use, so I booked a 2 night cruise to nowhere on the Genting Dream. The ship sailed from Hong Kong on a Wednesday evening. I have a balcony cabin and am looking forward to a different experience.

The check-in process was okay - about an hour from arrival at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, to getting to my room. They had to check vaccination records and COVID test results of course. I even had to clear immigration.

My room was nice and it was great to have a balcony...

View from my balcony over the cruise terminal to Kowloon...

I had a few hours before we sailed, so I explored the ship. It is very big. Plenty of activities including a climbing wall, a zipline, mini-golf and waterslides.

The waterslides were fun - especially that blue one. I couldn't get to do the zipline. Although the ship is only 50% capacity as per government regulations, there are still a lot of people on board.

We sailed at 8pm. It didn't take too long to clear Victoria Harbour and reach the South China Sea. I elected not to pay for wifi so was offline for about 36 hours.

I had bought the drinks package so that night I sat outside as we left HK with a glass of wine. I then tried several other bars. I got excited when I saw there was live music at some of the bars, but it was all Mandarin or Canto-pop - not my thing. I sat in the karaoke bar but that was a bit boring too.

At sea...

Food in the inclusive restaurants was only average. I tried to get into the hot pot restaurant which reviewed well but it was booked out for both nights. I did go to the Japanese restaurant (at cost) which was okay but lacked a bit of atmosphere.

Spent Thursday by the pool. You had to book one hour slots, which were all taken, but they allowed stand-by...

The blue waterslide was particularly fun...

Sunset from one of the bars...

Thursday night was an Oktoberfest thing with beer and strudel etc...

I woke up Friday morning and the ship had already docked. I had a relaxing breakfast and got off the ship which was quicker than boarding! That's a photo of the cruise terminal.

Hong Kong - October 2021

1 October is National Day. The flags here looked great...

Headed to Wan Chai one day for a walk and a coffee at NOC. I like the coffee there...

Wan Chai street scene...

Time for a beach day and headed to South Bay, even thought it was overcast. Caught the bus to Repulse Bay and walked the last bit. It was a warm day and the water was lovely. 

Helicopter was hovering as someone had gone missing. He was later found dead.

Walking to work down the escalator...

Breakfast one day at Barista by Givres...

Now that Central Market has opened, I go there for lunch sometimes...

One night after work I caught the ferry to Hung Hom and walked back along the harbour.

 It was a beautiful night so I stopped for a beer along the way... 

Walked up The Peak one day and stopped for a lemon tea...

I have so many photos from up there, but I liked this one for the reflection of ICC...

On the way walking around Lugard Road...

I've only seen boar before at night. Seems that they are getting more confident. This one had some babies with her.

Coming to work on Dress in Pink Day - fundraiser for breast cancer...

Had breakfast at Halfway Coffee in Sheung Wan. I had recently been to the Mongkok branch so thought I'd try this one as it is close to home...

I've been meaning to try and make dumplings so one night I decided to give it a go. I went to the market and bought the 'skins' and then bought pork mince, Chinese chives and Chinese cabbage. It was quite time-consuming and took a while to get the process right. 

Success !! And they were super tasty.

One Sunday I met some friends for coffee in Tai Kwun, That turned into drinks...

Then on the spur of the moment, we caught a taxi for Wan Chai for a late lunch (Gui Zhou noodles) than an Uber to Stanley for more drinks and watched the sunset...

This is my guilty pleasure at Cafe de Coral which is an Asian fast food chain...

Went for Dim Sum one weekend at Dim Ding 1968 which is close to me on Wyndham Street...

I bought a new entertainment unit off a friend and re-arranged my apartment...

Lunch again in Central Market...

Sushi for dinner from Wellcome...

Birthday Staycation - Hong Kong - 2021

I decided to use some of my leave and do a one-night staycation for my birthday. I chose the Cordis Mongkok as I had stayed there back in 2011 when it was a Langham. The reason I chose it was that it has a lovely rooftop pool. There was a typhoon on Saturday, but it had cleared up my Monday which was my birthday.

This is the city view of Mongkok from my room.

That night I went to The Ale Project (TAP) which is a craft brew bar nearby. I had the CBG infused beer and some pickled shrimp...

After that, I came back to the hotel for some dinner and another beer...

The hotel gave me a cake!

I got 6pm checkout as I was a Langham 1865 member, so the next day I spent the day by the pool. Weather was perfect !

Went for a walk to a cafe I wanted to try. It's called Halfway Coffee.

Sculpture in the hotel near the pool...

Another cake! This one is earl grey flavoured...

That night, I went with a friend for a fancy dinner at Grissini at The Grand Hyatt in Wan Chai...

And I bought myself a sound bar as a birthday present...