Up bright and early today to meet our guide for a 1/2 day tour of Hong Kong Island at 8.35am!
We were picked up on time today (phew) and jumped on to the air con bus and met a few other couples who were also on the same tour. It was a small group, around 10 only of mostly Austrailians, (we're getting quite used to meeting and talking to Aussie's here).

We started with a ride on a hill tram up to tje top of the Victoria peak. At 1811 feet (552m) high it's one of the highest mountains in Hong Kong. There is a road route to the top but a much nicer way to travel to the peak is to go on the tram. It's been used for many years and its so steep that if you drop something whilst in the forward seats, it'll roll down the floor and not come to rest until it reaches the back wall under the rear seats! The tram carriages reminded me of old wooden train carriages built on a steep slanting floor as though sat in a small back to front victorian theatre where the seats at the front are higher than the seats at the back to cater for the steepness of the mountain side.
At the top the views are stunning and well worth going for. Other than that there is a reasonable size 3 floor shopping mall with a Starbucks - where we were able to get a takeaway morning latte with a caramel shot.

After Victoria Peak the coach took us to The Aberdeen Harbour in the Southern District of Hong Kong. The harbour contains approximately 600 junks, which house an estimated 6,000 people.

Since the 1800's The Aberdeen Harbour has been one of the most important fishing ports in Hong Kong.
When we arrived, we were informed that there was an 'optional' sight seeing sampan trip around the dock. Whilst we didn't have to take the trip, hanging around the harbour wall for 30 minutes whilst we waited for those that did want to take the trip was looking a bit boring so we piled in to the boat to see what delights would be on offer. The boat driver was a real character and great fun as a helms man and even took pictures of his boat guests with their own cameras.

We had a great photo taken by him in front of the very famous Jumbo Floating restaurant. This building looks quite magnificent from the front, however, the boat went around the back of the floating restaurant which revealed a much different view as can be seen from the pictures,

He also pointed out to us the boats that the 'Tanka' people live on (these boat people first settled in the harbour between the 7th - 9th century) and apparently some choose not to come on to dry land at all if they can help it!

At the end of the tour, we had each had to pay him $HK50. Now we knew why he was so happy, With 10 tourists on board and each trip taking 30 minutes all in, with in an hour he is generating $HK1000.

Considering that the average monthly wage in HK is about 12,000$HK, as I'm sure you will have worked out, our boat driver had lots to smile about!

Next, we went to a Fok to see the amazing jewellery they make by hand. We nearly bought a very expensive 1.84 carat diamond ring (a solitaire of 1 carat complimented with princess cut side. It was nearly because we thought we might be able to buy the ring cheaper in Hong King and have a 40% mark up on it if we were to bring it home to sell.

Unfortunately, I found nothing on the Internet to suggest that the price was that good at a so in the end we decided to give up on that idea.

We finished our Hong Kong Island tour around lunch time and got the coach to drop us back near our Hotel so that we could have a good wander around Kowloon before we had to pack......