Singapore

On Tuesday we flew to Singapore in the morning, arriving at noon. We ended up upgrading our room at the Fairmont Singapore Hotel so we could get into our room early.  However, it turned out to be a fantastic deal, as we got full breakfast, free internet, happy hour drinks & food and a spacious suite.  We then took a walk down to the Marina Bay area to get a feel for the city.  It is a spectacularly beautiful place. We plan to take a the hop-on, hop-off bus tomorrow to see more of the city.

Our spacious suite room with a view of Raffles Hotel

Raffles Hotel

And a mediation garden on the other balcony

Singapore has some spectacular architecture and very modern buildings

With lots of green vegetation

And lots of street art

The impressive Marina Bay Hotel and Casino with "the ship on top"

The financial district

The famous Singapore Lion spewing water from  its spout

On the waterfront at the Marina Bay

The pavillion where we had dinner at night

The old post office turned into a hotel

Hong Kong Day 2 - Cheung Chau Island

On our second day in Hong Kong, we decided to take a ferry ride to one of the outer islands, Cheung Chau. This island is an old fishing village and a popular spot for locals to visit.  It is an old town with authentic Chinese architecture and no high rise buildings. There are many restauants and local shops selling to the mainland tourists.  The harbour was full of fishing boats.

Coming into the harbour we saw lots of fishing boats tied up

They were very colourful fishing boats

There were lots of local merchants selling their wares

The local engineer has his shingle up

Some people came for the beach

The back streets were full of local culture

We visited the local Chinese shrine

The place was very busy with many mainland city dwellers visiting the island

Being a fishing village, there was lots of seafood for sale

Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong after a very long, but comfortable flight. We were able to get an early check-in at our hotel and then took the bullet train into Hong Kong to join in the Chinese New Years festivities. The city was packed with thousands of families celebrating. They set up picnic stations on pieces of cardboard and ate food and played cards.

We had lunch in Soho and then took the ferry across to Kowloon on our way home. We decided to have dinner at our hotel and ended up at happy hour in the hotel. Then off to an early night and an early bed time. Tomorrow we are heading back into the city and planning to take a ferry to Cheung Chau island.

The bullet train was super efficient, comfortable and inexpensive 

and got us right downtown from the airport in 25 minutes

Hong Kong is an impressive city but so very crowded

New Years celebrants having a picnic in the walkway.  There were thousands of them

Every city seems to be getting a giant ferris wheel

Hong Kong from the ferry across to Kowloon

Trip Itinerary

We fly to Hong Kong on Sat Jan 28th and will spend 2 days site seeing. We then fly to Singapore on Tues Jan 31st and will spend 3 days site seeing before embarking on our cruise ship the Diamond Princess on Fri Feb 3rd.  After our cruise, we will fly to Vancouver and spend 10 days visiting on the west coast.
Our trip itinerary is as follows



Saturday, Jan 28, 2017 - Fly to Hong Kong
Sunday, Jan 29, 2017 - Hong Kong
Monday, Jan 30, 2017 - Hong Kong
Tuesday, Jan 31, 2017 - Fly to Singapore
Wednesday, Feb 1, 2017 - Singapore
Thursday, Feb, 2, 2017 - Singapore
Friday, Feb 3, 2017 - Set sail from Singapore at 4:00PM
Saturday, Feb 4, 2017 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Sunday, Feb 5, 2017 - Penang, Malaysia
Monday, Feb 6, 2017 - Phuket, Thailand
Tuesday, Feb 7, 2017 - At Sea
Wednesday, Feb 8, 2017 - Singapore 
Thursday, Feb 9, 2017 - At Sea
Friday, Feb 10, 2017 - Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 
Saturday, Feb 11, 2017 - At Sea
Sunday, Feb 12, 2017 - Nha Trang, Vietnam 
Monday, Feb 13, 2017 - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 
Tuesday, Feb 14, 2017 - At Sea
Wednesday, Feb 15, 2017 - Sihanoukville, Cambodia 
Thursday, Feb 16, 2017 - Bangkok, Thailand 
Friday, Feb 17, 2017 - Ko Samui, Thailand 
Saturday, Feb 18, 2017 - At Sea
Sunday, Feb 19, 2017 - Disembark ship at Singapore and fly to Vancouver
Monday, Feb 20, 2017 - Seattle, WA
Tuesday, Feb 21, 2017 - Seattle, WA
Wednesday, Feb 22,2017 - Victoria, BC
Thursday, Feb 23, 2017 - Victoria, BC 
Friday, Feb 24, 2017 - Nanaimo, BC
Saturday, Feb 25, 2017 - Nanaimo, BC
Sunday, Feb 26, 2017 - Vancouver, BC 
Monday, Feb 27, 2017 - Vancouver, BC
Tuesday, Feb 28, 2017 - Vancouver, BC
Wednesday, Mar 1, 2017 - Fly from Vancouver to Toronto