An Adventure with a Touch of Home

The other day I was reading the South China Morning Post and saw that the US aircraft carrier USS Iwo Jima, 2 destroyers and a cruiser from her battle group would be porting in Hong Kong for five days. Other US ships have made port while we have been here, but usually it is not possible to get any photos of them. So on Saturday morning I happened to look out the window of our guest room and noticed a ship with a silhouette I did not recognize anchored off the western end of the island. I called Ken in for a consult and we also noticed a very flat deck peeking beyond the edge of one of the buildings. Long camera lenses and binoculars confirmed the location of the ships moorings.

Taking photos through the window of our apartment just didn't seem quite enough to satisfy our curiosity, so we created our own adventure. In looking at my map of Hong Kong Island I realized that the closest vantage point I could find was Kennedy Town. This is an area we had not explored yet so we set off just following our noses. 


The first part was easy. We hopped in a cab and told the driver to take us to Kennedy Town. Since we had no specific address, he just drove us to the middle of town and we were ready to search out a good vantage point. We had a few fits and starts. There are many ship yards along the waterfront so finding an open space looked to be a challenge. But after walking in the wrong direction for a bit, we reversed ourselves and finally found a decent spot for photography.


Closest to us was the cruiser.

As you can see, we were still quite a distance away. It is a very big harbor. A little farther out was one of the destroyers with the Iwo Jima rising behind it.

We walked as far as we could to get a better view. It was really difficult with all of the commercial property along the water. But we finally found our spot.

By then it was lunch time and we were hungry so we stopped into a local Chinese restaurant, The Harborside. We found ourselves in for a real treat. The highlights of our meal were the frozen honey lemonade, beef skewers and the most amazing ribs with strawberry sauce.

The strawberry ribs were so good that Ken and I were fighting over them. Dueling chopsticks is a new form of battle. And who knew whipped cream could taste so good on ribs? I am craving them just looking at the photo.


After lunch we were ready to head back to Central. The MTR (subway) does not yet extend to Kennedy Town. The line is under construction and should be up and running by 2014. In the meantime, one mode of public transport is the tram. The tram system is 101 years old and still retains much of its early charm - if you can call no air conditioning charm. We were lucky to get upper level seats by the front windows so our ride was not too bad.

We saw the new Ibis Hotel under construction in Shueng Wan. It is identifiable by all of the bright colors on the facade. We also got a different look at IFC, the International Finance Center.

When we finally arrived home we found the ships were changing position and for the first time we had an unobstructed view of the Iwo Jima.

Who would have guessed that I would get my best shot from the bedroom window?

And this morning they were gone.