Terry's Travel Tips
Accent Inn Vancouver Airport special rates. The Daily recently advised the special rate of ca$49.00 per night until April 30th and then ca$65.00 per night from May 1st until September 30th 2009. But the phone number the Daily quoted is incorrect and should be 1-800-663-0298 If traveling ZED fare and wonder what the space is, try www.seatcounter.com You may be lucky. Just a reminder for those golfers wishing to attend this years Pionairs National Golf Tournament in Victoria June 2/3. For registering go to our website www.pionairs.ca and click onto the golf ball in the right hand corner. You will then be guided through the registration form allowing you to pay by cheque or credit card. Trevor Baron District Director Here is the next segment of the "Round the world" trip by Sheila Moscoe we started in NetLetter nr 1064 Hi everyone! For those of you who haven't been to Hong Kong, let me tell you about what we did there. After checking in at the hotel on Nathan Road, Kowloon in the Tsim Sha Tsui area we began our foot patrol of the area. It's a one stop shopping experience that we'll never forget. Every few steps we were accosted by Indian tailors asking us if we wanted a dress made, suit made, clothes made, anything made that day. So from side to side we walked and stopped into many shops from electronics to shoes to clothing. Fortunately, our hotel was quite near the Temple Street night market which has many many seafood outdoor restaurants which featured spicy crab and other delicacies... and some nice cold beer, too. No jet lag yet. The night market is the same as any day market...purses, shoes, clothing, etc. etc. We were mindful of our money and purse so we came away unscathed, thank goodness. The next day, we did a walking tour with a guidebook, which included traveling on the MTR (underground rail system) which was easy and efficient to navigate. When we left the station we had to walk east along Prince Edward Road West....could we figure out which direction was east? Included visiting the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden where people bring their birds in the cages and show them off to other birders. Interesting food stuffs for these birds, including live crickets packaged with leaves in a mesh bag, and other bird stuff! We walked through the Flower Market, Ladies' Market (picked up a cheap purse), Goldfish Market, Shanghai Street (one of the oldest streets in Hong Kong), Jade Market (couldn't resist a few baubles!), visited the Tin Hau Temple dedicated to the Goddess of Seafarers, Tin Hau. And in between we had a fabulous Dim Sum lunch... thank goodness all we had to do was point to the food that we wanted. Deelish! Next day, we did more of a walking tour, and ended up at the Harbourfront promenade walking past the HK Museum of Art, the HK Space Museum, the HK Cultural Centre, and Clock Tower. We watched the 13 minute evening sound and light show at the waterfront. Laser lights were bouncing off the tall buildings, with floating restaurants in front. It was quite a sight to behold. Spectacular! Afterwards we walked along the Avenue of Stars, like a Walk of Fame with Bruce Lee as the major attraction. We also had our picture taken professionally which is certainly a nice souvenir to take home. One evening we met Vanessa for dinner at a famous eatery The Sweet Dynasty. Vanessa is a young lady now, who was a former student many years ago at my brother David's school in Toronto (where he was a principal). Have always kept in touch with Vanessa and it was so much fun to spend some time with her. She sure knew how to order our meal for us! The next day we checked out of our hotel and went to the Sheraton to spend the last night before boarding the ship. The Sheraton was redeemed with Aeroplan points and well worth it! Gorgeous hotel right near the harbour. They had 45 minutes free internet for each guest as many times a day as needed (the Novotel only had 20 minutes per room per day). So the morning we checked out of the room, we used the internet in the lobby and typed away to our hearts' content. However, some unscrupulous @#@##@ stole Shirley's bag (purse included) that was sitting on the chair right beside her. Of course, we didn't know this has happened until she was finished doing her e-mails. Panic struck...security came to our rescue. They checked their video surveillance, and sure enough they caught it all on tape. However, they were not privy to show it to us. They had an officer accompany us to the police station to file a report. How do you remember everything that was in the bag....besides passport, money, credit/bank cards, Princess Boarding Pass, address book, etc. etc. Managed to fill it out in time for us to take the MTR over to Hong Kong Island to the Canadian Consulate which was closing at 1330hr Friday afternoon. We got there with 20 minutes to spare.With forms to fill out, pictures to be taken, they worked on processing her a temporary passport past the closing time for the public. Phew! What an ordeal. The gal in the hotel security had taken some still photos from their video and we saw this professional in action. Incredible. He had tested Shirley a few times by moving her spare chair, and then he made the kill and scooped up her purse and put it in his zip black bag and he went down the escalator and out the door...face in full view. I was told that I was the first target, but my bag was too big for him to grab and I was looking around all the time. But, because he was sitting behind us, I didn't get a good look at him. Even if I did, who knew he would be the perpetrator? So, we finally got a taxi and made our way to the ship which was docked nearby. We boarded without any problem. You can imagine how the first few days were on board. Even today when Shirley is looking for something, she remembers that it was in her bag. We set sail in the evening passing the sound and light show once again. As I said it's farewell to Hong Kong. Next chapter on the ports of call. Love, Sheila (More next time - eds)
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