From the Great Wall to the Great Mall

We flew into Hong Kong from Beijing ( I get a kick out of typing that), arrived at the ship to find it parked,I mean docked, right next to a huge very upscale mall. Exactly 168 steps from our cabin into the entrance, with a Thai restaurant on the left and a coffee shop with great wireless service straight ahead. The mall was huge, went on for blocks, 3 stories, with all designer stores, even a floor for children's designer clothes.(Dolce &Gabanna, Gucci,etc.) It was a bit much, but when in Hong Kong....we went for Thai food first. Hong Kong has an even more densely packed population than I have previously seen. They can build very tall high rises because they are not in an earthquake zone, and build them they do. There are plenty of run down homes too, hope I put up pictures to show both sides.(In the first picture here each little square is one apartment, more like a closet.) By homes I don't mean individual houses, didn't see any of those here, just high rise apartments. The whole trip so far has been a contrast of old/new, run down/sparkling, dingy/shiny. Japan had by far the least number of run down buildings, small, but clean and habitable looking. Hong Kong felt like we were at ground zero for consumerism. Am not sure who's buying the expensive stuff, as most citizens travel back into China where prices are much lower.
We went on a tour bus to Lantau Island, part of HK. We walked around a quaint fishing village, where Dan was able to see some endangered dolphins. I saw some women scrubbing clothes at an outdoor faucet, chattering away. We then climbed back on the bus for the trip up the mountain to see the biggest outdoor Buddha in the world. He was big, and rewarded our climb up the 278 steps with a mocha ice cream bar sold in the gift shop underneath. We milled around for awile, trying to delay the inevitable chair lift down the mountain. We had the option of upgrading to a glass-bottomed car, can you imagine?! That night we enjoyed the bright lights across the harbor as the ship sailed out...cross your fingers that I can upload some pictures. Much love to everybody who is patiently reading this and posting comments, which we love.